Story Arcs: 1: Saiyan Arc | 2: Namek Arc | 3: Garlic Jr. Arc | 4: Android/Cell Arc | 5: Majin Buu Arc
The Saiyan Arc is the seventh arc in the Dragon Ball manga and the first arc in the Dragon Ball Z TV adaptation.
Short Summary
Set a few years after the end of the original Dragon Ball story (That is to say, it's the Dragon Ball anime that ended. The Original/Z split never existed in the manga). Goku comes to visit his friends at Kame 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 adversary 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.Main Summary (events from filler are in italics)
Piccolo, on the other hand, has been training in the mountains, only to quickly encounter the alien. Piccolo shows off his power, but the alien doesn't even feel it. But before the alien can attack, he finds someone else.
Meanwhile, there's a party on Master (Muten) Roshi's island, and Bulma, Krillin, the turtle, and Roshi himself are there. Launch and Tien Shinhan (Tenshinhan) are nowhere to be found, and Bulma outright refuses 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, 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 anything odd happen to him at night. Like when he sees the full moon. They go to bed early, so it's no issue.
And Goku's family tree becomes a lot more complicated when the alien arrives on the island, calls Goku Kakarot, and reveals himself to be his older brother Raditz.
But Goku doesn't remember any of it. After all, he suffered head trauma as a child, which Roshi explains gave the formerly wild baby Goku amnesia. Raditz is all too quick to explain. Raditz and Goku are part of a race of ruthless killers called the Saiyans. They make a business out of selling planets. In particular, they're in the business of cleaning off the planet of life. Don't expect to have to deal with any more of them, though, since a meteor wiped out their home planet, leaving only four survivors.
Goku, however, doesn't live up to Raditz's expectations. He doesn't have the propensity for bloodlust, has cut off his tail, and is disinterested in continuing the family traditions. But then Raditz notices that kid there with a Saiyan tail. If Goku won't join them, perhaps he will...
Goku resists, but it doesn't go well. Raditz steals Gohan and offers an ultimatum: prove his loyalty by killing 100 humans or his son dies. He then leaves Goku to think about it. Naturally, Goku is ready to face Raditz and get Gohan back. It's a tough day for the other humans. After all, both have died against the original Demon King Piccolo and can't be brought back with the Dragon Balls. Nonetheless, they elect to help him for his sake. But before any action can be taken, Piccolo shows up and proposes that he and Goku should team up.
Raditz imprisons Gohan in his pod for making too much noise but finds out that there's a high power level coming from it. He thinks that the thing on his eye (a Scouter, for those who are keeping score) is broken. Except it doesn't seem to be, since Goku and Piccolo show up, and their power levels are just fine. With the two being that strong and the readings being accurate, could the kid's power level be just as high as it says it is? To prepare for the battle properly, Piccolo and Goku take off their weighted training gear, increasing their power levels. But still, Raditz is more than enough for them, with just one energy blast tearing off Piccolo's arm.
Goku has nothing 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. The 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 Special Beam Cannon misses, but Goku gets the upper hand when he grabs Raditz's tail, remembering how it caused him pain earlier.
Raditz, faced with the pain, begs Goku to let him go, saying he's purified, and Goku agrees. 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 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 Heroic Sacrifice just to stop him. This time, the Special Beam Cannon is successful, leaving the two Impaled with Extreme Prejudice by the beam. 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. And to top it off, those two Saiyans that Raditz was talking about? They're stronger than he is! Nappa indeed wants to bring Raditz back to life, but Vegeta decides to wish for him and Nappa to be immortal instead. Along the way, they remark on the fact that Half Saiyan Hybrids possess incredible power. Oh, and Piccolo can just regenerate his arm because he's a Namekian.
So let's recap, shall we? Our Chaste Hero has a son. Our strange-tailed human is an alien. And now he's dead. And we've only just begun. Are you on the edge of your seat? (If you were raised on Z first, your answer is probably "no.")
In the afterlife, Goku is met with King Enma, who determines he should go to heaven, and with a little help from Kami, sends him to train under King Kai 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 Tien (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... 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 ("Great Ape" in the English translation). Piccolo quickly puts two and two together from Raditz mentioning the power of the tail, and takes out the moon... again. And since this isn't a universe with Magic Pants, 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 King Kai's (Kaio's) planet. After mistaking his monkey Bubbles for him, Goku meets the actual King Kai. The problem is, the gravity on the planet is extremely high, ten times that of Earth. It's perfect for training, though. Kai has an odd training regimen, consisting of telling jokes, catching Bubbles, and smashing a lightning-fast cricket named Gregory with a hammer before learning two powerful techniques: the Kaioken and Genki Dama/Spirit Bomb.
But even when Goku's revived, he can't come back in time for the arrival of the Saiyans, Vegeta and Nappa. They demonstrate their power by "saying hello," that is, wiping out an entire city with just two fingers. Vegeta scolds Nappa for it, though, because what'd happen if one of the Dragon Balls was in that city?
At a secluded area, Gohan, Piccolo, Krillin, Tien, 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: Planting the Saibamen. They're cultivated lifeforms who all have Raditz's power level. Tien is the first to go and succeeds before Vegeta blows up the Saibaman 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 Saibaman 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 Tien as his first victim. And Tien takes a lot of hits, to the point of 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, Tien uses the last of his energy to fire a one-handed Tri-Beam at Nappa. But even THAT doesn't faze him, and Tien dies. Even a three-hour delay isn't enough for Goku to show up, and when Gohan becomes Nappa's next target, Piccolo decides to sacrifice himself for Gohan, and takes the blast head-on, killing him, and by extension, killing Kami too, since they share the same life, meaning the Dragon Balls vanish. It's the Darkest Hour 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.
And that's when Goku shows up at last. And he is not happy about the whole thing.
After finding out that Goku's power level is somewhere between over 8000 and over 9000, Goku 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 Krillin, Goku uses the first of the techniques he learned from King Kai, the Kaioken, which multiplies all his capabilities, enough to break Nappa's back and paralyze him. Vegeta decides he's had enough of Nappa's failures, and kills him outright, calling him dead weight.
Taking the fight to a mountain range, Vegeta taunts Goku by saying that he's utter 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 Kaioken to times three, putting a strain on his body. Vegeta gets hit so hard, that he outright decides to blow up the planet with his Galick Gun. But Goku has a Kaioken-boosted Kamehameha waiting for him, leading to an epic Beam-O-War, Goku being the victor, but severely drained.
Vegeta only has one more course of action: to go Oozaru and finish off Goku. But the moon isn't around! That's okay, Vegeta has a method that 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 gigantic apes 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 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 Spirit Bomb, 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 Krillin and Gohan's interference isn't helping at all... but then Yajirobe cuts off Vegeta's tail, reverting him to normal. He's still a colossal threat, but a little teamwork and a Spirit Bomb with Krillin substituting the firing does the job.
...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 afterward; Oozarus 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.
Krillin won't have it, though, and is about to use Yajirobe's katana to kill him. Goku, however, has other plans. He wants to fight him again! Such a good opportunity can't be wasted, right?
Now what happens? The cast we've followed for years is either dead, useless, or hospitalized. And the monster who caused it all is still alive. Is there any way to bring our fallen comrades back from the dead?
The Saiyan Arc has the following tropes:
- Achievement In Ignorance: Vegeta ends up coming dangerously close to defeating Goku. The only reason he doesn't is because he badly overestimates Goku because he hasn't yet learned how to read his opponent's Power Level without a scouter. The result: he ends up wasting time and Gohan and Krillin pull a Big Damn Heroes.
- Actually, That's My Assistant: Played for laughs when Goku starts training with whom he believes to be King Kai. When the real King Kai shows up, he is rather amused at the stranger imitating his pet monkey.
- Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: 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.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Nappa's evil, yes, but he seems to care for his own, as opposed to Vegeta's indifference.
- Alien Invasion: Three aliens, known as the Saiyans (Saiya-jin in Japanese) have invaded Earth.
- All Deaths Final:
- Chiaotzu's Senseless Sacrifice against Nappa is established here because he was previously killed by King Piccolo back in the original Dragon Ball. As per the rules of summoning Shenron, he was allowed to be brought back to life once.
- Piccolo's death leads to Kami's, the latter meaning that Shenron's power is inert and no one can be revived at this point.
- An Arm and a Leg: Tien's attempt at fighting Nappa concludes with the latter punching off the former's forearm.
- And This Is for...: When he starts pounding Nappa, Goku dedicates a blow to each of his fallen friends.
- Arc Villain: Vegeta.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: 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.
- The Bad Guys Win: 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 an Oozaru via the Power Ball. It's only thanks to the combined efforts of Gohan, Krillin, and Yajirobe that Vegeta was ultimately put down.
- Big Damn Heroes: Yajirobe, of all people, gets two in succession. He practically comes out of nowhere to cut off Vegeta's tail, saving Goku from getting crushed to death and surprising everyone (most of all himself). Later when Vegeta is attempting to pull off Gohan's tail, Yajirobe strikes him in the back. He doesn't get away unscathed this time, but his actions (and Vegeta smacking him around) buy Goku time to get Gohan to look at the Power Ball.
- Bittersweet Ending: 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 planet's 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 blood, unable to move under their power, having just survived the onslaught.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Tien and Piccolo lose arms, Goku and Raditz get big holes in their chests, a Saibaman explodes graphically, and blood is everywhere. Not to mention all the killing going on in this arc.
- Break the Haughty: Past mid-way through the arc, the revived Goku thoroughly overwhelms Vegeta, and shoots him into the stratosphere. Vegeta is furious that a "low-class warrior" could even so much as challenge him, and pulls out the Power Ball technique (which uses quite a bit of his power) to transform into an Oozaru just to defeat Goku (he intended to use the transformation to quickly eradicate life on Earth). Throughout the battle, such as Krillin and Gohan returning, his tail getting cut off and returning him to normal, and narrowly surviving death by the Spirit Bomb and Gohan transforming into an Oozaru, Vegeta leaves Earth broken and humiliated and is mindful of that experience that he swears revenge on Earth, and Goku in particular - holding his grudge on the latter for the years to come.
- Came Back Strong: Goku, who was killed during the battle with Raditz, is revived nearly a year later - able to easily defeat Nappa, and challenge Vegeta. This is thanks to King Kai's training.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Nappa and Vegeta regard Piccolo as this, regarding the 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 about letting him live when they learn of Goku's revival and decide to go to Namek for another set of them.
- Cerebus Syndrome: While the King Piccolo arc was already pretty dark, this is the arc that truly cemented Dragon Ball's Tone Shift.
- Chekhov's Gag: Roshi and Bulma's nervousness over both Gohan having a tail and Goku asking why they're so concerned about the kid seeing the full moon is played purely for laughs, but the scene sets up Gohan's later transformations and Goku's Internal Reveal about who really killed his grandfather.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Yajirobe. He outright avoids most of the fighting against the Saiyans but is there to chop off Oozaru Vegeta's tail, and saves Gohan's life by slashing Vegeta in the back.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: Vegeta as an Oozaru. He crushes Goku almost to death, 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 any way. But since he still couldn't sense ki yet, he didn't know that.note
- Coming of Age Story: In a sense, the arc is one for Gohan. Within a year, he turns from a crybaby to a Kid Hero.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Nappa proves unstoppable until Goku shows up. Suicidal attacks by Chiaotzu and Tien fail to do any real damage, and that is when Z-Fighters can hit him at all.
- When Goku shows up, Nappa is on the receiving end. Vegeta realizes that Nappa can't win and orders him to pull out.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Ironically, Goku's clash with Vegeta ended up being 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 overwhelmed Vegeta by boosting his Kaioken technique to x3 and x4, 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, which is why he pleads with him to spare Vegeta's life so that he can get another shot at him.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Multiple in this arc:
- Tien's Kikoho is an extremely powerful energy wave, but overuse can - and does - kill him.
- Goku's Kaioken that King Kai teaches him. It increases his abilities, but it can easily go wrong. Overuse damages his body, as does going above the power multiplier his body is used to, and improperly controlling his energy output can kill him.
- Darker and Edgier: The lightheartedness that the first series is known for was already beginning to end in the King Piccolo Saga, but this is basically the confirmation that the series is about to get much more serious than ever before, pushing the show out of being comedy driven.
- Darkest Hour: Two occasions.
- The first is when Piccolo dies, and so does Kami, rendering the Dragon Balls inert and making it impossible to revive any of the perished Z-Fighters. Goku is still far away and Nappa turns his attention to Gohan.
- Secondly after Vegeta is defeated. In addition to most of the Z-Fighters being killed in the battle with the Saiyans, the survivors are absolutely thrashed and barely able to move. Even though Goku is back, the situation is dismal and if anything else were to attack the Earth at this moment, they would be finished. Luckily we're told of the Namekian Dragon Balls not too long after.
- Desperation Attack: Vegeta's explosive shockwave was a last-ditch attempt to kill the remaining Z-Fighters. It blows them away but ultimately fails. It's largely because, at this point, he's running on fumes, and it was impressive enough he was himself even still alive after everything he took at this point.
- Did Not Think This Through: On the day before the Saiyans arrive on Earth, King Kai realizes that he forgot to take into account how long it would take Goku to travel back on the Snake Way to the spirit check-in station. With Goku's improved speed, it'll take him two days, meaning the other Z-Fighters are forced to fight without him.
- Doing In the Wizard: Goku isn't a monkey boy with a tail, he's an alien. Goku didn't turn into an Oozaru when looking at the moon because he's weird, it's Saiyan biology. Averted with Piccolo though; while he is an alien, his father was also still a demon (as he's Made of Evil and people he killed didn't pass on to the afterlife). Just not one from Earth.
- Techno Babble: What Vegeta's explanation of the Blutz Waves amounts to.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: Though Goku is revived, it would take him a while to rush back to Earth, leaving the rest of the Z-Fighters to fend off against Nappa and the Saibamen. Then the fight turns into a struggle for survival when Piccolo is killed, disabling the Dragon Balls' power and making revivals impossible.
- Dub-Induced Plot Hole:
- In the Saban/Ocean dub, Tien explicitly states that his arm can grow back after Nappa punches it off. While this doesn't cause any problems later on in the story, it implies that Tien isn't exactly human, considering that the only races in the manga who could regenerate lost body parts were Saiyans (with their tails) and Namekians (with their arms). This conflicts with his human status from the rest of the story, all because Ocean needed to bowdlerize his injury to maintain a family-friendly rating.
- Also in the Ocean dub, Vegeta mentions that the fake moon was created by Goku's father, who was a brilliant scientist. Turns out, they picked the wrong character to assign the role to, given how Bardock turned out to be. Now no longer an issue as of Funimation's redub and the Kai dub.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: 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 appears to be more rigid and jagged. Additionally, very early appearances of Vegeta in the anime give him yellow armor, red hair, and orange gloves, shoes, and shoulder pads. This was because Toei didn't have proper color references at the time since Toriyama had not drawn Vegeta in color yet. His correct colors were finalized once he and Nappa landed on Earth, and Kai would go back and fix the original color scheme as well.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: 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 Frieza 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.
- Vegeta is presented as being naturally gifted with strength, and he is dismissive of Goku's ability to overcome the class difference through hard training. This is a reversal of their dynamic later in the series, where Goku is more naturally gifted and Vegeta is the one trying to catch up to him with gruelling work.
- The End of the World as We Know It: This is the very first Dragon Ball arc where the extinction of all life on Earth is certain if the bad guys win instead of likely (as in when King Piccolo was revived). Piccolo himself berates Krillin for thinking that they could escape and live to fight another day against opponents who regularly commit planetary genocide.
- Enemy Mine: Goku teams up with Piccolo to battle Raditz. Piccolo later teams with Goku's allies as well, when the Saiyans turn out to be a much bigger threat than he is.
- Establishing Character Moment: We are introduced to Raditz when he 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.
- Evil Only Has to Win Once: Feeling desperate once the three-hour break for Goku's arrival is nearing its end, Krillin suggests that they take the opportunity 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 Alien Invasion, the Saiyans don't intend to conquer the planet but to exterminate all life on it, so hiding is pointless.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Piccolo lampshades this trope when Vegeta decides to give the three-hour break. He notes that even if he, Gohan, and Krillin can defeat Nappa, they are likely doomed anyway since judging by how Nappa is so afraid of Vegeta, he must be even stronger. He's proven right as not even Goku can defeat Vegeta.
- Fake Ultimate Mook: Raditz. Despite boasting of being an elite warrior, the reality is that he is almost as weak as a Saibaman, who is used as cannon fodder. Raditz also taunts that if both Goku and Piccolo had such a hard time to barely defeat him, then they're royally screwed since Vegeta and Nappa are even stronger than himself.
- Flashback: In the anime, when Goku starts to have his Internal Reveal, he flashes back to Grandpa Gohan warning him to beware of the full moon, Kami talking about removing his tail, and the Great Ape wreaking havoc on Pilaf's original headquarters and the tournament stadium.
- Foreshadowing: Averted. While it's commonly thought that Nappa's reference to a "Super Saiyan" foreshadowed the transformation that would become ubiquitous later, the term he used is different than the one used to refer to the transformation (the Japanese word chou instead of the Gratuitous English Supa) and was only meant in the context of powerful hybrid children. It's just a coincidence, as Toriyama hadn't thought up the concept yet.
- And then there's this exchange that led to a rivalry encompassing the entire Z series:Piccolo (To Vegeta): You seem pretty confident. But I wonder how long you will keep that stupid grin on your face once Son Goku arrives.Vegeta: What's that? "Son Goku"? And who'd that be? Your ace-in-the-hole?Piccolo (chuckling): You can look forward to it.
- Gohan's Oozaru transformation early on in the arc serves as a helpful reminder of the form and the mechanics behind it, which come into big play in the final battle.
- On two occasions, the extent of Vegeta's true power, and role as the Big Bad is hinted at:
- First, was his effortless destruction of a Saibaman, who just evenly clashed with Tiennote , with merely a gesture. Nappa is shocked, but Vegeta reminds him that he does not tolerate failure.
- Next, when Nappa cowers before Vegeta the latter senses insubordination from him. Piccolo himself is alarmed, given that the guy who spent most of the fight steamrolling them is the weaker of the two.
- Piccolo's allegiance changing to good. He muses about the prospect of corrupting Gohan under him, but Kami has already noted that Raditz and Goku were able to pass on to the afterlife after he killed them, which wouldn't happen if he were still evil. Gohan himself notes that Piccolo is nicer than what his parents said about him, despite the Training from Hell he went through, which annoys him. He also steps to protect Gohan from a Saibaman and acts all Tsundere to Gohan after he kills it. It all builds up to his Heroes' Frontier Step.
- When it appears Vegeta has been killed, Kaio (King Kai) looks into the sky and ominously notes that the root of evil remains.
- And then there's this exchange that led to a rivalry encompassing the entire Z series:
- Glad He's On Our Side: Tien is impressed when he sees Piccolo kill the last of the Saibamen with relative ease, whilst he struggles slightly while overcoming one. He thinks to himself, "I shudder to think about [him] becoming our enemy again".
- Half-Human Hybrid: Gohan. Half-Saiyan Hybrids are exceptionally strong.
- Harmful to Minors: Look above for the Bloodier and Gorier trope. Now think about five-year-old Gohan's reaction when he sees most of that in one afternoon and is expected to attack the Saiyan behemoth, Nappa. He (understandably) hides behind a rock.
- Heel–Face Turn: For Piccolo, his training Gohan ultimately softens him to the point he gives his life to the boy.
- Height Angst: Goku had told Gohan that Krillin trains a lot because he is short. Krillin is understandably annoyed.Krillin: Wait, Goku's been telling you what now?
- Heroic RRoD: Tien suffers a fatal one after attempting one last attack on Nappa.
- Goku goes through one after boosting the Kaioken to x3 and later x4 against Vegeta. Unfortunately for him, Vegeta still has the strength to spare (more so after he transforms into a Great Ape) - and needs the help of Gohan, Krillin, and Yajirobe to back him up during the rest of the fight.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Goku does this at the beginning of the arc by holding Raditz long enough for Piccolo to shoot them both. Chiaotzu attempts one against Nappa but it doesn't work, and Piccolo shields Gohan from a fatal attack from Nappa.
- Hero Killer: Aside from all the Innocent Bystanders, the villains take out Goku (who gets revived a year later), Piccolo, Tien, Yamcha, Chiaotzu, Kami, and Shenron. Ironically, the Big Bad (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
- He's Back!: Goku returns from the afterlife just in time to save Gohan and Krillin from Nappa.
- Honor Before Reason: In the Blue Water dub of Dragon Ball 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.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: A frustrated Vegeta resorts to putting a large amount of his power into creating an artificial moon to use his Oozaru form to defeat Goku. Unfortunately for him, his tail gets cut off and the fake moon is still in play when Gohan's tail grows back.
- Hope Spot: It was at this point that Toriyama fell in love with cruelly giving readers false hope, a trope he would reuse throughout the whole Z era.
- 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 Chiaotzu. 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 drained, Tien dies on the spot.
- In a moment of arrogant bravado, Nappa very nearly allows himself to tank Krillin's Kienzan/Destructo Disc, an attack that would have surely killed him, but Vegeta tells Nappa to get out of the way at the last second.
- 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 bask in their victory, Vegeta crashlands back into the battle. Krillin assumes that he's dead, and comments that although he was a fiend, he at least deserves a burial. Vegeta quickly revives and responds that they'll be the ones needing graves, and attacks Krillin.
- Goku races to the battlefield, but he doesn't get there before Piccolo is forced to perform a Heroic Sacrifice, which causes him and Kami to die. Worse, the Dragon Balls will now no longer work, which means not being able to undo any of this.
- If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: In the Ocean dub and the original Funimation dub only, this is the reason Goku gives for asking Krillin to spare Vegeta.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Piccolo does this to Goku and Raditz with his Special Beam Cannon. Neither Goku nor Raditz survives long afterward.
- Insult Backfire: When Gohan declares that Nappa's mother has a belly button that sticks out, a baffled Nappa demands to know how Gohan knows about his mother's weird navel.
- Internal Reveal: Seeing Vegeta's Great Ape form and learning of the Saiyans' transformations, Goku realizes that he's the monster that killed Grandpa Gohan. While crushed, he can't dwell on it as Vegeta's about to kill him!
- Irony: Piccolo reflects on the irony of sacrificing himself to save the son of his most hated enemy.
- Kick the Dog: In addition to pummeling the heroes senseless, Nappa gleefully mocks those who die as being beneath him. His trashing Chiaotzu's death to Tien's face and later mocking Goku for being too late to save his friends are notable examples.
- Killed Off for Real: Unlike a lot of the DBZ villains, Raditz never comes back. You'd think being Goku's brother he'd play a bigger role.
- Large and in Charge: Inverted, Vegeta, the leader of the three Saiyans, is the shortest compared to his massive subordinates.
- Little "No":
- After seeing that his final, most powerful technique did nothing to Nappa, it's all Tien can mutter before he dies.
- Gohan after Piccolo shields him from Nappa's blast falls over.
- Made of Iron: Both Nappa and Vegeta are highly durable. The heroes are aghast at the punishment the latter takes and still find the strength to escape. Even Raditz can speak full (strained) sentences when he tells Piccolo about his partners.
- Meaningless Villain Victory: Vegeta defeats Goku after becoming a Great Ape, but is nonetheless defeated by Krillin, Gohan, and Yajirobe.
- Mid-Battle Tea Break: A rare dramatic example. After having his curiosity roused by the Z-Warriors' constant talk of Goku, Vegeta calls Nappa off while he's mid-attack. Nappa somewhat comically comes to a complete handbrake stop as soon as Vegeta issues the order, demonstrating the hierarchy of power between them. Vegeta allows the Z-Warriors a whole three hours to recuperate and wait for Goku, but alas, Goku still can't quite make it in time before Nappa resumes his attack and murders Piccolo.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- When Goku witnesses Vegeta transform into an Oozaru, he is horrified to realize that the monster that killed Grandpa Gohan years ago was himself. He barely has time to grieve as Vegeta is on the offensive.
- Played for laughs when Yajirobe cuts off Vegeta's tail. Krillin is impressed, but Yajirobe is kicking himself for picking now of all times to be brave.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Unintentional, but Piccolo telling Raditz about the Dragon Balls informs Vegeta and Nappa who quickly make their way to Earth.
- The remaining heroes say they can sense Goku's impending arrival and his much larger power level. Nappa thinks it's a bluff, but Vegeta uses his scouter to determine they're telling the truth. Worried about what's coming, Vegeta orders Nappa to kill the other heroes immediately so that they can't help Goku in the fight. Piccolo dies soon afterward, defending Gohan from an assault.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
- The Power Ball Vegeta creates to simulate a full moon and transform into a Great Ape lasts for a few hours. However, it comes back to bite him when Gohan's tail grows back and he becomes a Great Ape himself. Bonus points in that it was Vegeta's explanation of how Saiyans transformed that gave Goku the idea of using that gambit.
- Though he had been handling Nappa quite well, Goku was worried about the fight going on too long and how he'd have risk draining energy he'd still need to fight Vegeta. The fight actually ends at this moment because Vegeta, sick of Nappa's humiliating failures, orders him to stand down so that he can take over.
- No Honor Among Thieves: Vegeta and Nappa both have a low opinion of Raditz. Nappa considers going to Earth to avenge him but clearly doesn't care that much, and quickly throws away the idea of reviving Raditz when Vegeta proposes using the Dragon Balls to live forever. Vegeta is even worse, he doesn't care about reviving or avenging Raditz and kills Nappa after he's wounded by Goku's Kaioken.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Raditz's introduction and the revelation about Goku's interstellar heritage brings an end to the Journey to the West-style aesthetic, leading to many intergalactic battles and dangers going forward.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Piccolo's reaction when Raditz dodges his Makankosappo/Special Beam Cannon.
- The Z-Fighters' reaction when Vegeta and Nappa easily survive Krillin's attack - which took out three Saibamen - completely unharmed.
- The Z-Fighters again (in what has become a Dwindling Party) after Chaozu performs a Taking You with Me with Nappa, the latter laughs it off without a scratch on him. Piccolo wonders aloud if Nappa is immortal.
- Piccolo when Nappa stops fighting him and Krillin. No, really. Once Vegeta asserts his authority, demanding Nappa stand down, Piccolo realizes that the short Saiyan partner is stronger than the huge Saiyan who spent the afternoon clobbering them.
- Gohan and Krillin when Piccolo's plan to immobilize Nappa by grabbing his tail turns out to not be an Achilles' Heel, and Nappa downs Piccolo in a single hit.
- Nappa when he hears from Vegeta's mouth that Goku is coming, and with a power level of 5,000 (read:higher than Nappa's) which is just his lowest reading. An amused Piccolo notes how rare it is to see Nappa scared for once.
- Nappa again when Goku reaches the battlefield and powers up inspiring the Readings Are Off the Scale trope. Subverted in that in mere seconds, Nappa's ego wins over his fear and challenges Goku...only leading to a very painful matchup for him.
- Goku when Vegeta powers up, and utterly outclasses him, even with Kaio-ken.
- Vegeta when Goku uses Kaio-ken x3 and starts to gain the upper hand.
- Physical God:
- 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 (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 Yemma, who judges the dead. Despite his enormously important role, in raw physical power, he's only between Kaio/King Kai 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/King Kai freely admits that he's stronger than him. He claims to be able to destroy a planetnote . He also shakes the entire Earth just by powering up, causing storms to break out and mountains to crumble around him.
- Pinned to the Ground: After tricking Goku to let go of his tail, Raditz beats him to the ground and pins him down with his foot on his chest intending to crush it.
- Pragmatic Villainy:
- After Nappa blows up a large section of a city. Vegeta scolds him, though not for killing hundreds of innocent people. Rather, since they have no way of knowing where the Dragon Balls could be. Nappa could have destroyed one by complete accident. To his credit, Nappa admits Vegeta made a fair point.
- Piccolo made it quite clear that he was only helping Goku fight Raditz because a super-strong alien wreaking havoc on Earth would get in the way of his own plans.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: After Goku's death, the fate of the Earth is left in the hands of a bald midget, a 5-year-old human-Saiyan hybrid, a green demon-alien with dreams of world domination, a three-eyed martial artist, a floating jiangshi with psychic powers, a desert bandit-turned-baseball star, and an obese samurai vagabond.
- Readings Are Off the Scale: The saga features the inspiration for the trope when Goku confronts Nappa. Happens again when Goku faces off against Vegeta - Bulma from the Kame House uses the scouter to get an idea of how strong both of them are, but the scouter ends up blowing up.
- The Reveal:
- Goku is… an ALIEN!
- After seeing Vegeta's Great Ape transformation, Goku realizes that his Grandpa Gohan was killed by Goku himself when he transformed under a full moon. Whoops!
- Piccolo and by extenstion Kami are not demons as they believed themselves to be, but are aliens from Planet Namek.
- Secret-Keeper: In the face of Raditz revealing Goku's origins, no one can believe it, except Master Roshi. Grandpa Gohan had confided in him that he found baby Goku in a crashed spaceship and struggled with violent aggression until a sudden head injury gave the kid an attitude adjustment.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: For Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu. 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. Chiaotzu blows himself up in a Senseless Sacrifice against Nappa and Tien winds up killing himself using his ultimate attack against Nappa that doesn't do anything.
- Shorter Means Smarter: The calculating Vegeta; compared to the aggressive, brutish Nappa. He's also stronger than Nappa, as Piccolo discovered to his horror.
- Small Role, Big Impact: 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 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 Frieza's thumb — Frieza himself would also never have been killed, allowing his family to continue terrorizing the universe. Also, the chain of events that led to Vegeta's redemption and thus Trunks' birth wouldn't have happened, and the Z Fighters would've been killed by them; furthermore, without Trunks to destroy the androids, Cell would've absorbed them without difficulty and been able to begin a rampage across the universe, although he would've been slightly weaker due to the lack of Vegeta and Frieza's cells obtained by their visits to earth (and even Goku's cells would've been weaker without King Kai's training). Despite being the Starter Villain of the series, Raditz coming to Earth is what allowed the Z series to be what it became.
- Space Pirates: What the Saiyans amounted to, and what Krillin calls them.
- Sparing the Aces: 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 wishes to fight him again.
- Strong, but Unskilled: Gohan is shown to be much stronger than Piccolo and Goku during the fight with Raditz, but he has no experience fighting or his father's talent for martial arts so all he can think of is ramming Raditz with his head. He's gotten stronger by the time the Saiyans arrive, but a year of training isn't enough to close the gap between them.
- Summon Bigger Fish: Goku telepathically contacts Gohan and gets him to look at the artificial moon Vegeta created when the latter grew his tail back. Gohan then travels into a Great Ape, and Goku has him direct his rampage to Vegeta.
- Taking the Bullet: Piccolo saves Gohan's life by standing in the path of a powerful ki blast from Nappa.
- The Hero Dies: Shockingly, Goku dies at the beginning of the story 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.
- Time Skip: Continuing from the original series which now sees Goku as an adult with his child.
- Training from Hell: Piccolo is a firm advocate of the Spartan Method.
- Turn the Other Cheek: In one version of the dubbed anime, Goku argues that Vegeta's life should be spared so that he can learn the value of mercy and that so they can have a proper fight later.
- Undignified Death: Tragically, there are almost too many to count on the Z-Warriors' side.
- Yamcha gets taken out by a single Saibaman before he can even lay a finger on the Saiyans.
- Chiaotzu kamikazes Nappa in vain.
- Tien 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 the infant son of your nemesis, isn't something the original Demon King would approve of.
- Villain Respect:
- Piccolo (then still evil) commends Goku for laying down his life so that Raditz can be killed when the former uses his Makankosappo.
- Raditz, in the manga, finally shows respect for his younger brother for his act - saying that it was worthy of a Saiyan...while cursing out his killer, Piccolo.
- After seeing how much power Gohan can put out despite his young age, Nappa acknowledges he can fight like a true Saiyan before attempting to kill him.
- Wham Episode: If you've seen the original Dragon Ball, this arc is that. The first part alone has Goku having a son, Goku being an alien, and Goku, the main protagonist, ''dying' and, later on, most of the supporting cast from the original dies too.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- When Master Roshi and the others summon Shenron, Oolong initially had the idea of having the dragon eliminate the Sayians so the heroes wouldn't have to fight them. This makes Bulma mad as it would mean leaving Goku in the afterlife, but Oolong quickly says they could always revive him in another year. It doesn't matter anyway, as Shenron explains that destroying the Sayians was beyond his power.
- Krillin also calls Goku out for letting Vegeta escape after he's facilitated the deaths of their friends and beaten the living hell out of them. Goku just smiles and says he wants to fight Vegeta again. Granted, Vegeta turns into a valuable ally and Krillin pulls a similar trick two arcs later on his future wife, Android 18.
- The Worf Effect:
- Raditz makes himself known by 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 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.
- The Z-Warriors all end up serving this to demonstrate how strong Nappa is, which in turn is used to show how strong Goku has become.
- Worthy Opponent: This is Goku's reason for having Krillin spare Vegeta. He finds Vegeta to be an incredible opponent and wants to fight him again in the future.
- Would You Like to Hear How They Died?: Goku sees the bodies of his other friends, but he notices Chiaotzu isn't among them. Nappa takes the opportunity to mock Chiaotzu's Senseless Sacrifice and note how he "went out with a bang." This ends up instigating the Readings Are Off the Scale example.
- You Have Failed Me:
- Nappa is killed by Vegeta for a truly humiliating loss against Goku.note For added harshness, it's later revealed that Sayians become more powerful when they recover from injuries, so Nappa was far from useless to him.
- Earlier, Vegeta did this to a Saibaman who lost its fight against Tien.
- Your Days Are Numbered: Kami realizes he and Piccolo will die during the battle with the Saiyans, although he does not know if it will be his life either giving out from old age or Piccolo falling in a battle that does them both in. The latter ends up being the case.
- Your Size May Vary: Vegeta's height greatly fluctuates throughout the arc. Whenever Nappa's next to him, he looks as tall as Krillin. However, whenever he's in front of Gohan, he's as tall as Goku.
