Dragon Ball Z Abridged

Huh.

If you think about it, did Recoome do the most damage to Recoome?

...Depends if you think what Vegeta did in the opening of the fight is more damage than Recoome accidentally blasting his own teeth out.

No matter what, we can safely say one of them is #2 on the who did the most damage to Recoome? question.

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Huh.

Looking back on it... yeah. I never really thought about how my kid self was really invested in the Recoome fight, hoping they would pull something out of the stops, got nervous when character after character got crushed.

I missed the episode where Goku fought Jeice and Burter pretty much entirely up until I got back in with Ginyu swapping with Goku (TFS was my first time seeing those two fight, ironically), so it sticks out as my Ginyu force memory.

If we go by the standards of “DB has lots of curbstomps, and as a variety of battle this is the best of them” I could see the logic there. Vegeta vs 18 is better, but then you could argue it’s a different kind of stomp (whereas Recoome is an example of characters being boned from the get go and things getting more and more hopeless, 18 vs Vegeta was a glorious example of a character going in overconfident and high off being presented as strong, then slowly realizing they are horribly outmatched). If you go by the Hopeless Boss Fight trope yeah, I suppose I kinda get it.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Dec 15th 2018 at 8:47:07 AM

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

I'm expecting Goku vs Beerus.

Edited by Moth13 on Dec 16th 2018 at 11:11:14 AM

The Recoome fight was back when stomps were desperate affairs against an insurmountable foe. The audience is meant to be on the edge of their seat, rooting for their protagonists to pull out anything and everything they have to try and take down this impossibly powerful behemoth. The protagonists unload weapon after weapon from Chekhov's Armory, playing the numbers to find something, anything that might actually win the day.

Nappa and Frieza are other examples of this type of fight. Vegeta himself, to a lesser extent, may also qualify.

These types of dire battles fell by the wayside in the Android arc, where group fights stopped being a thing altogether. By the time Vegeta v. Android 18 comes along, the series had redefined stomp battles as one person fighting another person and just getting anticlimactically crushed.

Incidentally, they also only really started being a thing with Raditz's arrival. Before the Saiyans arrived, group fights didn't really happen either. There's a span of time between the introduction of super aliens and the last super alien's defeat where the Earthlings were weak enough to band together and try to fight as a team but not so weak as to be completely without any purpose on the battlefield whatsoever.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 16th 2018 at 10:19:17 AM

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There was the Semi-perfect Cell vs 16, 18, Krillin and Trunks fight were it had a really weird dynamic.

With the first three it was a stomp but when Trunks steps in it's a stomp against Cell until Vegeta enters and then he gets BTFO by Trunks.

Uni cat

Oh, you're right. I'd forgotten that one. Piccolo and Tenshinhan also participated in that.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 16th 2018 at 10:20:47 AM

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The initial battle against Majin Buu (that is to say, when he first spawns) is sort of like that, though instead of them all fighting against him together all of them fight against him one at a time gauntlet style and get crushed.

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

I'd count the last battle against Buu too. Goku, Vegeta, Mr. Satan, and even Mr. Buu all get in on the dogpile.

Never mind, I was wrong; they never really went anywhere.

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There is also the final fight vs Buu where everyone stalls Buu so Goku can charge up the spirit bomb.

That was also the last time an actual group fight happened

Uni cat

That was mostly Vegeta and Fat Buu, wasnt it?

Also the android fight wasnt really a solo fight at the end. And it wasnt really a full curbstomp so much as Vegeta just being slightly weaker and going up against someone with infinite stamina. As soon as he tired out, the armbreaking stuff happened. I liked it, though I liked the anime fight of Picollo against 17 more.

I'll actually be surprised if Piccolo v. 17 makes it onto this list. It's a popular match and features my favorite attack of all time, but the Abridging of that episode didn't sound like TFS liked the fight very much.

"This is so dumb. This could not possibly get any dumber."

"I was wrong! This got so much dumber."

Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 16th 2018 at 10:46:27 AM

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I hope they don't leave out Piccolo vs 17.

It was a good fight between two totally equal foes, with the tension of whether Piccolo can actually pull off the victory before Cell arrives (he doesn't, but not for lack of trying).

I don't know if they dislike it or not: maybe it's one of those things where you can viciously make fun of something you still enjoy, or maybe it's just that editing it was a chore or something. Who knows.

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They have spoken quite highly about the 17 vs Piccolo fight so it's definitely on the list.

I'd wager top 3

Uni cat

I know it's not what was intended, but I'm amused by how this implies Raditz wasn't actually a Saiyan.

TFS LOVES Piccolo vs 17, they've openly praised it as one of the best fights in the series. I think that "this is so dumb" was specifically in reference to the part where Piccolo and 17 are just alternating punching each other in the gut hard enough to bulge out their shirt on their backs, which is a pretty absurd part of the fight, but one that is delightfully absurd.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Dec 16th 2018 at 11:09:09 AM

That's my favourite part of the fight.

I'll fight everyone who says differently.

Yes everyone. You all know how crazy I am.

....Note that I won't do this with my bare hands. I'd lose, but I'm more than willing to engage in intellectual battles.

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Honestly, it seemed more like a character moment for 18 to me.

Like, I can buy 17 punching Piccolo in the gut hard enough to bulge out his shirt on the other side, because Piccolo is huge and his body seems very flexible and malleable. Also, 17 has small arms.

Not so much the other way around.

Piccolo's arms are almost as thick as 17's entire torso is, which makes him punching 17 in the stomach through his body look completely ridiculous.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Dec 16th 2018 at 11:14:47 AM

One is a slug alien, the other is a cyborg.

Who knows, the cyborgs might have flubber in their bellies for all we know

Uni cat

Not surprised this was here, though I personally would've placed it higher. Like, Top 5, maybe Top 3.

Heh.

Of all of Goku's human rivals, Tien is the only one who can say he actually stood a chance...at first.

I don't count Roshi, as I see him more as more of a master (even though he's the only one to beat Goku fair and square).

Yamcha and Krillin were never treated as being able to take Goku on his worst day (well, Yamcha might have if he'd finished his last attack in their first fight), but Tien...if not for Goku drinking the Sacred Water, he might still be up there.

This is definitely a good fight. I wonder what else they got for us?

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Tenshinhan's also the first time the Serial Escalation got kinda weird.

He's a Crane School student who aspires to one day be a great assassin like his hero Taopaipai, but he comes later in the series and is consequentially significantly more formidable than Taopaipai.

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Yeah, the dialogue is also funky around that time. Ten makes several comments about Goku like 'there's no way he could beat Tao Pai Pai' even though three years ago Goku effortlessly crushed him and other characters could tell Goku was stronger since then.