History Recap / DragonBallZSaiyanArc

* WorthyOpponent: This is Goku's real reason for having Krillin spare Vegeta, despite what the early English dubs claim. He finds Vegeta to be an incredible opponent and wants to fight him again in the future.

* ALighterShadeOfBlack: Nappa's evil, yes, but he seems to care for his own, as opposed to Vegeta's indifference. In fact, he's the one who suggested bringing Raditz back to life.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Goku breaks down once he realizes that he was the one responsible for Grandpa Gohan's death.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Unintentional, but Piccolo telling Raditz about the Dragon Balls informs Vegeta and Nappa who quickly make their way to Earth.

Meanwhile, there's a party on Muten Roshi's island, and Bulma, Krillin, the turtle, and Roshi himself are there. Launch and Tien Shinhan are nowhere to be found, and Bulma outright refused to let Yamcha come along, the first signs that their relationship is starting to fail. And soon, the man of the hour shows up, Son Goku himself! And he's brought a kid along with him, which everyone (including the audience, [[FirstEpisodeSpoiler unless you started with Z]]) is shocked to find out is his son! The boy even has a tail and the Four Star Dragon Ball on his hat. Naturally, the former makes everyone wonder if the kid, named Son Gohan after his grandfather, has [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting anything odd]] happen to him at night. [[{{Lunacy}} Like when he sees the full moon.]] They go to bed early, so it's no issue.

* LittleNo: After seeing that his final, most powerful technique did nothing to Nappa, it's all Tien can mutter before he dies.

* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: Piccolo flashes back to Raditz telling Goku about the significance of the tail when figuring out what caused Gohan to turn Oozaru. In the Manga, there is a panel with Piccolo listening in on their conversation. The anime doesn't have this.
* ALighterShadeOfBlack: Nappa's evil, yes, but he seems to care for his own. In fact, he's the one who suggested bringing Raditz back to life.

* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever: First shown when Gohan turns into an Oozaru and goes berserk. Vegeta later weaponizes this by turning into an Oozaru himself but due to being more experienced, he keeps his sense of self. Ultimately it's Gohan's form that defeats him.

* BloodierAndGorier: Tenshinhan and Piccolo lose arms, Goku and Raditz get a big hole in their chests, a Saibaman explodes graphically, and blood is everywhere. Not to mention all the killing going on in this arc.
* BittersweetEnding: Raditz, Nappa, and the Saibamen are dead, Vegeta is defeated, and the Earth is saved. However, half of the cast is dead (including Kami, which means no more dragon balls), and the planets worth of people already killed by the Saiyans will never be revived, nor will the inhabitants of that continent that Nappa scorched. Not to mention, Vegeta himself is still at large. It's telling that rather than ending in triumph, the last shot of the arc is the four remaining heroes lying on the floor in a pool of their own blood, unable to move under their own power, having just ''survived'' the onslaught.

* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: Nappa and Vegeta regard Piccolo as this, regarding information on the Dragon Balls. That said, they're not aware of exactly how Piccolo is tied to the Dragon balls, and they later change their minds on letting him live when they learn of Goku's revival, and decide to just go to Namek for another set of them.

* ClippedWingAngel: Vegeta as an Oozaru. He crushes Goku alright,, but he ends up exposing his tail, which Yajirobe slices off. The irony is, had he not transformed, he likely would've eventually done Goku in anyway. [[AchievementsInIgnorance But since he still couldn't sense ki yet, he didn't know that]].[[note]]Goku's overuse of the Kaioken left him running on fumes, and appered to damage himself as much as - or even more - than Vegeta. He still had the Spirit Bomb, but it's highly unlikely it would've hit Vegeta with his speed.[[/note]]

* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference: Besides the shoulder pads which he ditches midway through the next arc, Vegeta is drawn noticeably shorter and punier than he would later be (though his Napoleon complex remains an integral part of his character), making the initial reveal that he is the strongest Saiyan all the more shocking. His hair is also more fluid and wavy, whereas in later arcs his hair is appears more rigid and jagged.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The Saiyans are presented as an independent threat from the very beginning, which makes this arc very hard to reconcile with the RetCon of the next arc that Freeza was in command the whole time. This is especially apparent when Vegeta's internal monologue (as well as the out-of-universe text on the volume's opening page) calls him the strongest in the universe.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: We are introduced to Raditz when emerges out of his space-pod to a confused farmer with a shotgun, and he catches the bullet fired at him, flicking it back to the farmer.
* EvilOnlyHasToWinOnce: Feeling desperate once the three-hour break for Goku's arrival is nearing it's end, Krillin suggests that they take the opportunity [[KnowWhenToFoldEm to cut their losses and run/hide from the Saiyans]], presumably to train more to fight them again another time. Piccolo outright calls him an idiot for thinking that, since while it's an AlienInvasion, the Saiyans don't intend to conquer the planet, but to ''[[OmnicidalManiac exterminate all life on it]]'', so hiding is pointless.

*** First, was his effortless destruction of a Saibaman, who just evenly clashed with Tenshinhan[[note]]and is equal in power to Raditz, who could easily handle both Piccolo and Goku the year prior[[/note]], with [[FingerpokeOfDoom merely a gesture]]. Nappa is shocked, but Vegeta reminds him that [[YouHaveFailedMe he does not tolerate failure]].

* HalfHumanHybrid: Gohan. Apparently Half-Saiyan Hybrids are exceptionally strong.
* HarmfulToMinors: Look above for the BloodierAndGorier trope. Now think about five-year-old Gohan's reaction when he sees most of that in one afternoon, and is expected to attack Saiyan behemoth Nappa. He (understandably) hides behind a rock.
* HeroKiller: Aside from all the InnocentBystanders, the villains take out Goku (who gets revived a year later), Piccolo, Tenshinhan, Yamcha, Chiaotzu, Kami, and Shenron. Ironically, the BigBad (Vegeta) is the only villain who killed ''no one'' except for fellow villains (blowing up a Saibaman, exterminating Nappa, and preventing Raditz from being brought back), despite putting up by far the longest and hardest fight.[[note]]Though technically, the only hero any of the villains intentionally killed was Yamcha, killed by a Saibaman. Goku, Tensinhan, and Chiaotzu die in the process of performing a [[HeroicSacrifice heroic sacrifices]] against Raditz and Nappa respectively, Piccolo dies because he jumps in front of a blast meant for Gohan, Kami dies because his life is linked to Piccolo's, and Shenron dies because his life is linked to Kami's.[[/note]]

** Goku goes through one after boosting the Kaioken to x3 and later x4 against Vegeta. [[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu Unfortunately for him, Vegeta still has strength to spare (more so after he transforms into a Great Ape)]] - and needs the help of Gohan, Kuririn and Yajirobe to back him up during the rest of the fight.
* HeroicSacrifice: Goku does this at the beginning of the arc by holding Raditz long enough for Piccolo to shoot them both. Chaozu attempts against Nappa but it doesn't work, and Piccolo [[TakingTheBullet shields Gohan]] from a fatal attack from Nappa.

** Tien's Kikoho/Tri-Beam had repeatedly been established as one of the most powerful but dangerous techniques in the series. After getting his arm punched off, Tien decides to finally bust out one last attack to avenge Chaozu. For a split second, there's some hope that Nappa must have been at least critically damaged by it, but as the smoke clears, Nappa emerges unharmed, much to the Z-Warriors' complete bewilderment. With his life energy totally drained, Tien dies on the spot.

** Goku gives the ki he collected for the Spirit Bomb to Krillin, and with Gohan's help, it hits Vegeta, sending him into the stratosphere. As the three baske in their victory, Vegeta crashlands back into the battle. Krillin assumes that he's dead, and comments that although he was fiend, he at least deserves a burial. Vegeta quickly revives and responds that ''they'll'' be the ones needing graves, and attacks Krillin.

** SmallRoleBigImpact: Believe it or not, Raditz is essentially the catalyst for the entire second half of the Dragon Ball manga. Had Raditz not remembered his little brother and come to Earth, the entire series would have been turned on its head: Piccolo and Goku would never have teamed up and thus Piccolo wouldn't have joined the Z-Fighters. He may have even remained evil, and continued on with a plan to terrorize planet Earth, had he and Goku not joined forces. Goku wouldn't have trained with King Kai, but merely at his own pace, and would have been far too weak to combat the androids by the time they arrived, assuming he hadn't already died from the heart virus he was to contract. Gohan would never been trained by Piccolo, and thus would never have become a fighter at all. Vegeta and Nappa would never have received the transmission involving the Dragon Balls, and thus would never have visited the Earth, thus remaining under Freeza's thumb — Freeza himself would also never have been killed, allowing the Cold family to continue terrorizing the universe. Despite being the weakest villain at the start of the series, Raditz coming to Earth is what allowed the Z series to be what it became.

** Kaio/King Kai, the god of the galaxy and Goku's martial arts master for the arc. Until the Buu arc, we didn't know of any gods above him. On top of his magical abilities and duties, he's very strong himself ([[AllThereInTheManual Weekly Jump]] gave him a power level of 3,500, higher than any of the heroes except Goku; and he should be able to use Kaio-Ken x2 to boost that to 7,000). There's also King Yama, who judges the dead. Despite his enormously important role, in raw physical power he's only between Kaio and Raditz. Kami, Korin, and Popo also make appearances.
** Vegeta is described as the strongest being in the universe, the strongest warrior of the strongest warrior race, and Kaio freely admits that he's stronger than him. He claims to be able to destroy a planet ,[[note]]Not counting filler, the weakest character that destroys a planet on-screen is Frieza.[[/note]] as well as shrugging off Goku's Kamehameha which overpowered one of his own planet-destroying blasts. He also shakes the entire Earth just by powering up, causing storms to break out and mountains to crumble around him. It takes Goku surpassing the highest PhysicalGod known in base and the heroes hitting him with ''numerous'' overpowered divine techniques to have the slightest chance at beating him.

** Kaio, the god of the galaxy and Goku's martial arts master for the arc. Until the Buu arc, we didn't know of any gods above him. On top of his magical abilities and duties he's very strong himself ([[AllThereInTheManual Weekly Jump]] gave him a power level of 3,500, higher than any of the heroes except Goku; and he should be able to use Kaio-Ken x2 to boost that to 7,000). There's also King Yama, who judges the dead. Despite his enormously important role, in raw physical power he's only between Kaio and Raditz. Kami, Korin, and Popo also make appearances.

* ShaggyDogStory: For Yamcha, Tien and Chaozu. They train hard to help combat the Saiyans but Yamcha winds up dying before even facing Nappa or Vegeta to a surprise attack from cannon fodder. Chaozu blows himself up in a SenselessSacrifice against Nappa and Tien winds up killing himself using his ultimate attack against Nappa that doesn't do anything.

* SpacePirates: What the Saiyans amounted to, and what Kuririn calls them.
* SparingTheAces: This happens at the end of the arc, when Vegeta at Krillin's mercy is spared when Goku asks Krillin to do it, because he enjoyed their battle, and he wishes to fight him again.

* TheHeroDies: Shockingly Goku dies at the beginning of the story in order to kill Raditz. Of course with the Dragon Balls, that's pretty much a moot problem and he uses the time in the afterlife to go train.

** Chaozu kamikazes Nappa in vain.
** Tenshinhan gets his arm punched clean off by Nappa and wastes all of his life energy on a final one-handed Kikoho/Tri-Beam to avenge Chaozu, which turns out to be equally in vain. Unlike his Earthling comrades, he doesn't even get to die in a dramatic explosion. He just... expires, face-down on the ground.
** Piccolo's death turns out to be the most heroic as he sacrifices himself to shield Gohan, but he ironically doesn't see it that way. Self-sacrifice, especially for your the infant son of your nemesis, isn't something the original Demon King would approve of.

* WhamEpisode: If you've only seen the original Dragon Ball, this arc is that. The first part alone has Goku having a son, Goku being an alien, and Goku dying, and later on, most of the supporting cast from the original dies, too.

* TheWorfEffect: Raditz makes himself known by [[NoSell No-Selling]] one of Piccolo's strongest attacks, then proceeds to take Goku out with one kick during their first encounter. The actual battle with him has both fighters heavily on the defense and giving everything they have to stop him, with Goku ultimately dying in order to bring him down. And then it sets in just how screwed the Z Warriors are when Raditz uses his dying breath to reveal that he's the ''weakest'' of the three Saiyans.

* YouHaveFailedMe: Nappa is killed by Vegeta for a truly humiliating loss against Goku.[[note]]The English dub adds a dash of ShootTheDog by saying Nappa's back is broken, but even then it's still primarily this trope.[[/note]]
** Earlier, Vegeta did this to a Saibaman who lost its fight against Tenshinhan.
* YourDaysAreNumbered: Kami realizes he and Piccolo will die during the battle with the Saiyans, although he does not know if it will be his life giving out from old age or Piccolo falling in battle that does them both end. The latter ends up being the case.

* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference: Besides the shoulder pads which he ditches midway through the next arc, Vegeta is drawn noticeably shorter and punier than he would later be (though his Napoleon complex remains an integral part of his character), making the initial reveal that he is the strongest Saiyan all the more shocking. His hair is much fluid and wavy, whereas in later arcs his hair is drawn more rigid and jagged.

* EarlyInstallmentDesignDifference: Besides the shoulder pads, which he ditches midway through the next arc, Vegeta is drawn noticeably shorter and punier than he would later be (though his Napoleon complex remains an integral part of his character), making the initial reveal that he is the strongest Saiyan all the more shocking. His hair is much fluid and wavy, whereas in later arcs his hair is drawn more rigid and jagged.

** Piccolo's death turns out to be the most heroic as he sacrifices himself to shield Gohan, but he ironically doesn't see it that way. Sacrificing yourself for your nemesis's infant son isn't something the original Demon King would approve of.

** Tien's Kikoho/Tri-Beam had repeatedly been established as one of the most powerful but dangerous techniques in the series. After getting his arm punched off, Tien decides to finally bust out one last attack to avenge Chaozu. For a split second, it seems that Nappa was at the very least critically damaged, but as the smoke clears, Nappa appears unharmed, much to everyone's complete shock. With his life energy totally drained, Tien dies on the spot.

** Tien's Kikoho/Tri-Beam had repeatedly been established as one of the most powerful but dangerous techniques in the series. After getting his arm punched off, Tien decides to finally bust out on last one to avenge Chaozu. He fires and for a split second, it seems that Nappa was at the very least critically damaged, but as the smoke clears, Nappa appears unharmed, much to everyone's complete shock. With his life energy totally drained, Tien dies on the spot.

** Tien's Kikoho is a powerful energy wave, but overuse can, and does, kill him.

* HopeSpot: Goku gives the ki he collected for the Spirit Bomb to Krillin, and with Gohan's help, it hits Vegeta, sending him into the stratosphere. As the three baske in their victory, Vegeta crashlands back into the battle. Krillin assumes that he's dead, and comments that although he was fiend, he at least deserves a burial. Vegeta quickly revives and responds that ''they'll'' be the ones needing graves, and attacks Krillin.

* ClippedWingAngel: Vegeta as an Oozaru. He crushes Goku alright,, but he ends up exposing his tail, which Yajirobe slices off. The irony is, had he not transformed, he likely would've eventually done Goku in anyway. [[AchievementsInIgnorance But since he still couldn't sense ki, he didn't know that]].[[note]]Goku's overuse of the Kaioken left him running on fumes, and appered to damage himself as much as - or even more - than Vegeta. He still had the Spirit Bomb, but it's highly unlikely it would've hit Vegeta with his speed.[[/note]]

* CumbStompCushion: Ironically, Goku's clash with Vegeta ended up as this...in Vegeta's favor. Vegeta effectively controlled the majority of the fight, and pushed Goku beyond what his limits would allow. Even when Goku eventually overwhemled Vegeta by boosting his Kaioken technique to x3 and x4, [[HeroicRROD he ended up doing as much damage to himself as his opponent]]. Vegeta ends up transforming into a Great Ape, and pulverizing Goku - with the latter needing Krillin, Gohan and Yajirobe to back him up/save his life. Goku tells Krillin as much, [[SparingTheAces which is why he plead him to spare Vegeta's life]] so that he can get another shot at him.

Set a few years after the end of the original Dragon Ball story. Goku comes to visit his friends at Kami House and introduces his son, Gohan. The happiness of his reunion is short lived however when an alien who calls himself Raditz arrives and reveals Goku's true origins. After Raditz kidnaps Gohan to use as a bargaining chip against him. Goku is forced to team up with his old adversay Piccolo to fight Raditz. They succeed but at a high cost and it turns out Raditz was just the precursor to a much bigger threat on the way.

Four years have passed since the battle with the revived Demon King Piccolo. In that time earth has enjoyed a period of peace. Peace which would quickly be shattered when a meteor-like pod crash-lands on earth. Inside it is a man with long hair, heavy body armor and a device on his eye that can tell how strong someone is. This man makes short work of a farmer, then begins his search for a man named Kakarot.

** Goku goes through one after boosting the Kaioken to x3 and later x4 against Vegeta. [[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu Unfortunately for him, Vegeta still has strength to spare]] - and needs the help of Gohan, Kuririn and Yajirobe to back him up during the rest of the fight.

Radtiz, faced with the pain, begs Goku to let him go, saying he's purified, and Goku agrees. [[ISurrenderSuckers He's rewarded with an elbow in the eye, and a set of broken ribs.]] But before the violence can continue further, Gohan bursts out of his pod, displaying an incredible power, headbutting Raditz for massive damage! But that power goes away, and Raditz decides he's too dangerous to be left alive. But before Raditz can murder Gohan, Goku pulls a Full Nelson on him, ready to perform a HeroicSacrifice just to stop him. This time, the Special Beam Cannon is successful, leaving the two ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice by the beam. [[DeathIsCheap Goku will be fine, though; the Dragon Balls can bring him back to life.]] But Raditz hears this fact from Piccolo and reveals his Scouter is also a radio, leading to his comrades, Vegeta and Nappa. Nappa indeed wants to bring Raditz back to life, but Vegeta decides to wish for their own immortality instead. Along the way, they remark on the fact that [[HalfHumanHybrid Half Saiyan Hybrids]] possess incredible power.

* HonorBeforeReason: In the Blue Water dub of ''GT'''s clip show episode, this is Goku's reason for having Krillin spare Vegeta. He inexplicably says that Saiyans live by a code of honor and that killing a bloodied and feeble Vegeta would dishonor him and leave his spirit restless. To prevent this, he wants to defeat Vegeta properly when he's eventually strong enough.

* TheBadGuysWin: Subverted. Goku never actually defeats Vegeta by himself. Once he blew away Vegeta with a Kaioken x4 Kamehameha, his body was so battered from using it that he had no chance against Vegeta's trump card, turning into a Oozaru via the Power Ball. It's only thanks to the combined efforts of Gohan, Krillin, and Yajirobe that Vegeta was ultimately put down.

* YouHaveFailedMe: Nappa is killed by Vegeta for a truly humiliating loss against Goku.

* HonorBeforeReason: In the Blue Water dub of ''GT'''s clip show episode, this is Goku's reason for having Krillin spare Vegeta. He inexplicably says that Saiyans live by a code of honor and that killing a bloodied and feeble Vegeta would dishonor his legacy.

** Vegeta is described as the strongest being in the universe, the strongest warrior of the strongest warrior race, and Kaio freely admits that he's stronger than him. He demonstrates this by being the first character in Dragon Ball with the ability to destroy a planet,[[note]] In both the manga and anime, he states that his Galick Gun could turn Earth into space dust, though Goku stops him before he can do so.[[/note]] as well as shrugging off Goku's Kamehameha which overpowered one of his own planet-destroying blasts. He also shakes the entire Earth just by powering up, causing storms to break out and mountains to crumble around him. It takes Goku surpassing the highest PhysicalGod known in base and the heroes hitting him with ''numerous'' overpowered divine techniques to have the slightest chance at beating him.

Meanwhile, there's a party on Muten Roshi's island, and Bulma, Krillin, the turtle, and Roshi himself are there. Launch and Tenshinhan are nowhere to be found, and Bulma outright refused to let Yamcha come along, the first signs that their relationship is starting to fail. And soon, the man of the hour shows up, Son Goku himself! And he's brought a kid along with him, which everyone (including the audience, [[FirstEpisodeSpoiler unless you started with Z]]) is shocked to find out is his son! The boy even has a tail and the Four Star Dragon Ball on his hat. Naturally, the former makes everyone wonder if the kid, named Son Gohan after his grandfather, has [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting anything odd]] happen to him at night. [[{{Lunacy}} Like when he sees the full moon.]] They go to bed early, so it's no issue.

Goku doesn't have anything up his sleeve, but Piccolo's been saving an attack that he can do with one hand. The problem is it has to be charged, but Goku managed to at least fight Raditz to a standstill. Use of both the Kamehameha and Piccolo's attack, the Makankosappo/Special Beam Cannon, increases their power levels, making Raditz realize the Scouter's useless. Despite this, the first Makankosappo misses, but Goku is able to get the upper hand when he grabs Raditz' tail, [[CallBack remembering how it caused him pain earlier.]]

Radtiz, faced with the pain, begs Goku to let him go, saying he's purified, and Goku agrees. [[ISurrenderSuckers He's rewarded with an elbow in the eye, and a set of broken ribs.]] But before the violence can continue further, Gohan bursts out of his pod, displaying an incredible power, headbutting Raditz for massive damage! But that power goes away, and Raditz decides he's too dangerous to be left alive. But before Raditz can murder Gohan, Goku pulls a Full Nelson on him, ready to perform a HeroicSacrifice just to stop him. This time, the Makankosappo is successful, leaving the two ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice by the beam. [[DeathIsCheap Goku will be fine, though; the Dragon Balls can bring him back to life.]] But Raditz hears this fact from Piccolo and reveals his Scouter is also a radio, leading to his comrades, Vegeta and Nappa. Nappa indeed wants to bring Raditz back to life, but Vegeta decides to wish for their own immortality instead. Along the way, they remark on the fact that [[HalfHumanHybrid Half Saiyan Hybrids]] possessing incredible power.

In the afterlife, Goku is met with King Enma, who determines he should go to heaven, and with a little help from Kami-sama, sends him to train under Kaio-sama to defeat the other two Saiyans, who will be on earth in one year. To do this, he must travel the million-mile road of Snake Way. It's a bit of a hard task'', even without taking into account Goku getting lost twice, once on a trip to hell, the other in a palace that gives him enough food to fatten him up to be eaten by a giant snake''.

Bulma takes the scouter to try and reverse-engineer it. As she's testing it out on Krillin, Roshi ''and the turtle'', Yajirobe shows up to tell Krillin to bring Tenshinhan ''(who's out in the wilderness having to deal with Launch)'', Chiaotzu ''(who's with Tien)'' and Yamcha ''(who's now a professional baseball player)'' for some training. Piccolo, meanwhile, takes Gohan to train him how to use his power. His... [[TrainingFromHell training, if you can even call it that,]] mostly consists of forcing Gohan to survive in the wilderness. It goes about as well as you'd expect; Gohan gets stuck on a mountain after nearly being eaten by a dinosaur, and Piccolo has to bail him out twice. Once when he gives Gohan some rotten apples, the other when Gohan sees his first full moon... and goes Oozaru. Piccolo quickly puts two and two together from Raditz mentioning the power of the tail, and [[DetonationMoon takes out the moon... again.]] And since this isn't a universe with MagicPants, Piccolo gives Gohan some new clothes, and a sword for good measure.

''What follows is a long period of training, both for Gohan and for the others. Gohan goes on adventures in the wilderness before starting his training for real, and the Z Warriors go into the Pendulum Room to take on some illusion Saiyans, losing horribly.'' Goku eventually makes it to the end of Snake Way, where he encounters Kaio's planet. After mistaking his monkey Bubbles for him, Goku meets the actual Kaio-sama. Problem is, the gravity on the planet is extremely high, ten times that of earth. It's perfect for training, though. Kaio has an odd training regimen, consisting of telling jokes, catching Bubbles, '' and smashing a lightning fast cricket Gregory with a hammer'' before learning two powerful techniques: the Kaio-Ken and Genki Dama/Spirit Bomb.

At a secluded area, Gohan, Piccolo, Krillin, Tenshinhan, Chiaotzu, and Yamcha face off against the Saiyans. Nappa reads their power levels, but Vegeta reminds him they mean nothing since they can be hidden. Besides, there's a much better way to test their power compared to Raditz: Saibaimen, cultivated lifeforms with Raditz' power level. Tenshinhan is the first to go, and succeeds, before Vegeta blows up the Saibaiman he was fighting. Krillin offers to go next, but Yamcha decides to take one for the team, since Krillin can't be brought back. And take one for the team he does, getting blown up by a Saibaiman in a Double KO. Krillin decides to not take any chances, and blows up the rest of the Saibamen, except for one that Piccolo kills.

Nappa decides it's time to begin his assault, picking Tenshinhan as his first victim. And Tenshinhan takes a lot of hits, to the point of [[AnArmAndALeg losing an arm.]] Chiaotzu, in an attempt to stop him, blows himself up, and since he's already been brought back once, he's dead for good. Krillin and Piccolo try their hands at taking him on, but that doesn't work, either. Angered at Chiaotzu's death, and seeking to avenge him and keep him company in the afterlife, Tenshinhan fires a Kikoho at Nappa, draining the last of his energy. Even a three hour delay isn't enough for Goku to show up, and when Gohan becomes Nappa's next target, Piccolo takes the blast head on, which means Kami-sama dies, which means the Dragon Balls vanish. It's the DarkestHour for the earth: Our beloved cast from Dragon Ball is either dead or dying, they can't be brought back to life, and nothing our heroes are doing is doing any kind of lasting damage to Nappa.

After finding out that Goku's power level is [[GoodBadTranslation somewhere between over 8000 and over 9000,]] Goku totally dominates the fight with Nappa, to the point where Vegeta outright orders Nappa to give up. But when he tries to finish off his work on Gohan and Kuririn, Goku uses the first of the techniques he learned from Kaio-sama, the Kaio-Ken, which multiplies all his capabilities, enough to break Nappa's back. Vegeta decides he's had enough of Nappa's failures, [[YouHaveFailedMe and kills him outright, calling him dead weight.]]

Taking the fight to a mountain range, Vegeta taunts Goku by saying that he's basically gutter trash. Goku throws it back at him, saying that even the lowest can surpass the elite with enough hard work. The climactic fight involves a lot of power being thrown about, with Vegeta every step of the way. This forces Goku to push his Kaio-Ken to level three, [[HeroicRROD putting a strain on his body.]] Vegeta gets hit so hard, he outright decides to blow up the planet with his Gyalic Cannon. But Goku has a Kaio-Ken Kamehameha waiting for him, leading to an epic BeamOWar, Goku being the victor, but severely drained.

Vegeta only has one resort: to go Oozaru and finish off Goku. But the moon isn't around! That's okay, Vegeta has a method which he can use to simulate one, which leads to the tables being turned very quickly. Upon seeing the transformed Vegeta, Goku remembers how his grandfather was fatally stepped on by a large nocturnal gorilla, and assumes that Vegeta was this monster. A confused Vegeta then explains that all Saiyans can transform into a gigantic ape upon seeing the full moon, so long as they have a tail. Remembering how his grandfather warned him to never look at the full moon, and how Kami made Goku permanently remove his tail in exchange for restoring the moon, our hero [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone realizes]] that ''he'' was the giant monster that killed Grandpa Gohan and destroyed the Tenkaichi Budokai stadium! Tearing up, Goku promises to apologize to Grandpa Gohan when he meets him again in heaven, knowing that this is a fight he can't win. Goku eventually tries the Genki Dama, by gathering energy from all around the planet, but that doesn't work, mostly because he needs to stand still to use it, which Vegeta refuses to let him do. Even Kuririn and Gohan II's interference isn't helping at all... but then Yajirobe cuts off Vegeta's tail, reverting him back to normal. He's still a colossal threat, but a little teamwork and a Genki Dama with Kuririn substituting the firing does the job.

...[[MadeOfIron or so we think. Vegeta survived that, too!]] Thankfully, Gohan's tail regrew, and that power ball's still there, so Gohan can transform and crush Vegeta (he gets his tail cut off again shortly afterwards; Oozaru's don't tend to stay transformed long in this series.). And he's still alive! But he's decided to cut his losses while he's at it, and summons his space pod to leave earth.

Kuririn won't have it, though, and is about to use Yajirobe's katana to kill him. Goku, however, has other plans. [[BloodKnight He wants to fight him again!]] Such a good opportunity can't be wasted, right?

* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: In the Ocean dub and the original Funimation dub''only'', this is the reason Goku gives for asking Krillin to spare Vegeta.