(please read this part before reading the concluding paragraph – in the original draft, this came in between Chapter IV and Chapter VI so as to demonstrate with primary source data how my thesis is supported in so many episodes, referencing back to my earlier arguments advanced in the previous chapters, Chapters I-IV)
A Quest for Dragon Balls and Frieza as the Totalitarian Movement
“In this world, power is everything; the strongest stands above and subdues everyone. I know the insurmountable power of Frieza, and I cannot possibly defeat him. But wait and see, Frieza, in us Saiyans flows the blood of the warrior tribe. That’s why the more we fight, the stronger we become. I will become much stronger, and someday, I will reign over this vast universe instead of Frieza. I know I have it in me.” – Vegeta[1]
Having laid down the necessary background information on understanding fully the dynamics of the Vegeta and Frieza sagas, we can finally delve into the episode analysis and how all that has been said is intricately intertwined to illustrate the international power politics. In this chapter, I will go through the key points and scenes that make sense why these characters have acted in the way they did, and demonstrate how inevitable, although not determined, the outcome of the whole sequence was, considering each person’s characteristic qualities.[2] As I have argued, Vegeta saga is seen as a prelude to what is to come; the movement of terror symbolized by Frieza. Vegeta saga has been treated already in the previous chapters adequately, therefore I would like to focus on the Frieza saga here primarily in this chapter. But since the Frieza saga is extremely complex, I will divide it into five segments so that it will be arranged chronologically and easier to see the connections with what has been said above. Here is how I divided the Frieza saga.
i: The Aftermath
Earlier in the section, I compared Vegeta as the embodiment of the philosophy of terror upheld by Hitler, i.e. totalitarianism. But the analogy of this abstract ideology of terror attributed to Vegeta ends here. For Vegeta was, after all, a prelude to what was to come; the war to end all wars, in which Frieza takes from here in the form of the totalitarian movement in the real sense of the word.
After the bitter defeat against Goku, Vegeta barely made it alive to Planet Frieza, and he was immediately treated in the medical machine. He wondered whether or not to destroy Earth first or go to Planet Namek to get the dragon balls first, but on hearing from the self-claimed nemesis of Vegeta, Kiwi,[3] that Frieza had left for Planet Namek to get the dragon balls, his priority rapidly shifted to go to Planet Namek and get the dragon balls before Frieza gets them. For if Frieza gets the dragon balls first, he will get the ultimate power and become the absolute sovereign of the universe, and Vegeta would forever be enslaved by Frieza. In the meantime, on Earth, Kurillin, Gohan and Bulma also leaving for Planet Namek to get the dragon balls so they can resurrect Piccolo, which entails the resurrection of kami and the dragon balls on Earth. As Kurillin, Gohan and Bulma get to Planet Namek, Vegeta also arrives. Following Vegeta, Kiwi comes to Planet Namek to fight against Vegeta. Further, Goku is recovered by a senzu bean and is on his way to Planet Namek as well. The plot has already thickened, involving various characters with different motifs. For already, the spaceship Kurillin, Gohan and Bulma have used to come to Planet Namek has been spotted by the scouters of Frieza’s men, and was destroyed, hence they are stuck on Planet Namek. Even though Kurillin and Gohan defeated the enemies, they had to find the place where they could hide since there are Vegeta, Kiwi, and many others whose qi energy emits evil aura, just like the ones who had just destroyed the spaceship. In hiding, Kurillin and Gohan have noticed a group of men flying at an incredible speed with four dragon balls, but in the center of the group was Frieza, whose aura of impenetrable mystery, corresponding to intangible preponderance, to which both Kurillin and Gohan were transfixed with the overwhelming terror. Frieza in his own floating device here is depicted none other than how a totalitarian principle was described by Arendt earlier, that is, “[I]n the center of the movement, as the motor swings it into motion, sits the leader.”[4]
As Frieza and his henchmen have arrived at a new village to get the dragon balls, Vegeta and Kiwi’s qi energy were detected by the scouters. Vegeta, having gained the power from recovery, shows how strong he has become to Kiwi. Having shown the difference of the power, Kiwi tried to make a deal with Vegeta that he should work with Kiwi to defeat Frieza, basically begging for life with deception and disloyalty to Frieza all of the sudden when he has found out his enemy has much stronger combat power. Vegeta soon killed Kiwi. It is at this point when Frieza, who had already been on Planet Namek and had collected four dragon balls, begins to doubt the loyalty of Vegeta and suspects that Vegeta is there to betray Frieza by collecting the dragon balls for himself, thus Vegeta is deemed by Frieza as a real enemy; a traitor. However, Vegeta is fully aware that his power is still too weak to defeat Frieza, yet hearing Frieza saying he has four dragon balls and only three more to collect through the scouter, he has learned that one needs seven dragon balls to make a wish come true. Given the situations, Vegeta surmises he cannot move freely due to the scouters Frieza and his men have, but he could take out Dodoria and Zarbon if fought only one of them at a time and that if he keeps one dragon ball and hides it somewhere, Frieza would not be able to find the last dragon ball to make a wish. In other words, Vegeta plans to steal the dragon balls Frieza has collected after defeating Dodoria and Zarbon and then make a wish to become immortal before Frieza so he could never lose against Frieza.
As for Frieza, it is important to keep in mind that Frieza at this point had already established his own reign and had subdued his subordinates with terror. Even before the Vegeta saga, Frieza had already accomplished the ascension to power (the first phase of a totalitarian regime, known as the propaganda stage) and had defeated his military opposition, King Vegeta, and destroyed Planet Vegeta, leaving only few Saiyans for his service so he could keep an eye on them (the second and the third phase of a totalitarian regime, known as the ‘secret police stage’, liquidating the real enemy who could become a threat in the future, and consequently known as the ‘total dominion of objective enemies stage’, keeping only what is useful to him alive and subdue them).[5] The reason why Vegeta along with the few other Saiyans were spared was only because Frieza thought them as useful to him, but now that Frieza begins to doubt Vegeta, for the reason explained in the second segment, he has become the real enemy to be killed but not yet an objective enemy, who would not be merely a threat to his reign in reality, but a threat to the purity of Frieza’s sovereignty ideologically.[6] Frieza at this point is more concerned about the dragon balls than a mere Saiyan whom he could kill at instance. As he thinks Vegeta alone would be liquidated at instance, thus he sits comfortably with the overwhelming confidence and countenance. He already has four dragon balls and is about to get the fifth one.
While Frieza’s team is about to get the fifth dragon balls, a catalyst happens. Gohan and Kurillin had followed the Frieza’s movement towards the village, for Bulma’s Dragon Rader showed that the four dragon balls with Frieza was directly flying towards another dragon ball. Gohan and Kurillin needed to know and understand what is happening on the planet, and who those men with evil aura are and what chances they may have to get the dragon balls from them. As Gohan and Kurillin have arrived in the nearby hill so they could have a full view of what is happening, the scouter of Dodoria picks up their qi energy, which soon disappears and he concludes that it must have been some sort of animals.[7] Frieza introduces himself to the elder of the village and his objective to get the dragon balls, but the elder would not give it away, so he decides to kill a few Namekians. Upon murdering the two Namekians, leaving only the elder and two kids, the scouter has picked up three Namekians coming to rescue the elder, who are all experts at combats. Yet, realizing how weak they are when Dodoria uses his scouter to ascertain their strength, he bursts into laughter though he soon finds out the Namekians could control their qi energy by looking at how they increased combat power during the battle. Seeing all this battle scene, the elder realizes that the scouter is the reason why Frieza and his henchmen could find the exact locations of the villages on this vast planet. In other words, without the scouters, they would not be able to find anything. The elder subsequently decides to break all the remaining scouters risking his life, and he has succeeded. This also helped Gohan and Kurillin realize that Frieza and his men cannot detect qi energy but able to find the locations where there are people with qi energy only though the scouters. Infuriated with the elder’s action, Dodoria decides to kill them all. After taking care of the three Namekian fighters. The elder saw no choice but to give the dragon ball to Frieza on condition that Frieza would not harm the kids. Yet, Frieza reasons that he demands the elder tell the other two locations of the villages since the elder has destroyed all the scouters, or else the kids would be killed. The elder would not betray his comrades and it resulted in Dodoria killing one of the two children, Cargo,[8] and the elder as well. When the last of the remaining child, Dende, has failed to escape and is about to get killed, Gohan, who had been watching at how Frieza’s men treated the Namekians, could not stand and attacks Dodoria to save Dende.[9]
This is one of the interesting turning points seen throughout the series, i.e. if no characters try to get involved, the story ends there and no further movement is expected, yet this is the manifestation of soft-determinism I discussed earlier – that the seed had already been planted. In other words, the predicate is included in the subject. In this case, the Gohan’s personality, i.e. the subject, does not allow the innocent being killed mercilessly, i.e. the predicate. Watching the innocent people getting killed and not doing anything is contradictory to Gohan’s character that had been embedded from the beginning, so the circumstances compelled him to act in accordance with his will, exercising his freewill while at the same time being ‘determined’ by the personality of the character. If there was only Kurillin, he would have reasoned well and not to get involved in the battle that he knows would have no chance of winning, but Gohan acts on emotion and his sense of justice, even if that may get him killed. Further, Kurillin’s character is manifest here that once his friends are involved, he cannot abandon them. So it was natural that Kurillin, upon reasoning that there is absolutely no chance of defeating Frieza and his men, had to go and save Gohan, who saved the Namekian child, Dende. Here, the first encounter and the partnership or the treaty began between the Namekians and the Earthlings. Yet Kurillin knows well that even the combination of the power of Gohan and of Kurillin could not defeat Dodoria, so as soon as he picks Dende up, he tells Gohan to flee quickly. This would result in Dodoria pursuing the three, thus him being separated from Frieza and Zarbon.
ii: The Real Enemy and the Quest for Dragon Balls
This segment is about the core story plot of the Frieza Saga and also about making it clearer what parties are with whom, thus identifying who is fighting against whom, and for what reason. For the moment, there are four forces fighting for their own purposes: Earthlings (Gohan and Kurillin), Namekians (Dende, Nail and the Eldest), a Saiyan (Vegeta) and Frieza and his men. Coalitions among these parties are made and betrayed through deceptions and cunningness, as it will be made clear shortly. This segment is where you can see how real political actors would act in the real world for his own gain, and this segment shows also that the realistic nature of selfish actors amongst the international stage. The only one thing matters: self-preservation, in the desolated planet which is likened to nature depicted by Thomas Hobbes. As has been mentioned earlier, Planet Namek is depicted as a planet under recovery, viz. the state of nature rather than a society or a civilization.[10] Thus, according to the political realist philosophy, it is in the state of war “of every man against every man, [and that] this also is consequent: that nothing can be unjust. The notion of right and wrong, justice and injustice, have there no space. Where there is no common power, there is no law; where there is no law, no injustice.”[11] Indeed, on Planet Namek, there is no common law but only a loyalty amongst themselves. It is more similar to a village or a tribe than a society bound by a law. The power struggle on the desolated planet is like the power struggle during the Second World War when the global earth itself was more like in the state of nature, viz. “without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war, and such a war is of every man against every man.”[12]
Thus Kurillin escapes from the Dodoria’s pursuit with his own device, or rather a technique, using Taiyō-ken, a skill that blinds the enemy with the flash of sunlight for a short period of time. Further, thanks to the elder who had destroyed the scouters, Gohan, Kurillin and Dende were not detected once in the hiding. Henceforward they have formed a friendship and gained trust with one another. In the meantime, Vegeta detects Dodoria’s being alone, and seeing it as an opportunity, Vegeta immediately strikes down Dodoria into the water. As Dodoria comes out of the water, he mentions the two earthlings he had just been in pursuit of, thinking that they must have been Vegeta’s allies. However, Dodoria had previously seen Vegeta’s combat power through the scouters when Vegeta killed Kiwi, and he knows that Dodoria alone cannot defeat Vegeta. So he recounts the story of the truth about Planet Vegeta in exchange for letting him go. Yet this further aggravates him for he had just learnt that Planet Vegeta was destroyed by Frieza contrary to the rumour that a comet hit the planet and the planet exploded. But this is not what has made Vegeta angry, for he cares nothing about his race or comrades, but he was infuriated with himself for working for Frieza without knowing Frieza was just using him like a disposable slave. Frieza killed all other Saiyans for fear that they might collaborate against Frieza and Saiyans have a tendency to become stronger and stronger as they fight, so if outnumbered, it may become a threat for Frieza. So the destruction of the Saiyans as a race was indeed the liquidation of his objective enemy, i.e. whoever stands in the way of Frieza’s ideology. Yet Frieza wanted to use some Saiyans for his objective to become the universal reign, so he chose to destroy the planet when a few elite Saiyans that could be disposed of anytime he wishes were away on a mission from Planet Vegeta. This fact that he had been enslaved without knowing Frieza had intended from the beginning to eliminate all Saiyans in the future enraged him. Vegeta then finishes him off in mere one attack and is feeling thrilled at himself with the power he has gained and by the fact that Frieza fears Saiyans.
There is another important development in this scene with Dodoria. That is, at first, Dodoria asks Vegeta for his scouter; Vegeta realizes that Frieza and his men have lost the scouters or have them destroyed. The only reason why Vegeta needed the scouter was to listen to Frieza’s movement, because he had acquired a new skill to read qi energy in the battle on Earth, like the earthlings as well as Goku, the Saiyan. Knowing that there is no need for a scouter for him, he destroys it in front of Dodoria, telling him, “[I]t’s easy to learn to read qi energy, though guys like you and Frieza who only focus on the power would never be able to acquire this skill,” and then he adds, “although I used to be like one of you.”[13] This is a significant admission by Vegeta, for this means that he now understands that looking at the superficiality of the power is not enough to acquire a true strength. This means that being strong requires to be able to read minds, so to speak, and be discernible to the subtleties in movements and surroundings. In short, one needs to be mindful and focus on one’s own energy rather than on others’ and learn about oneself first and foremost. This is essentially different and deviates from what I earlier called Primitive Saiyan Philosophy, which focuses on destruction by power and subduing the weaker by force. In Primitive Saiyan Philosophy, physical strength is everything that matters. There is nothing else but a physical strength and everything else either survives or is destroyed. It is a reign of a single-minded, selfish and barbaric action without recognizing others as autonomous beings. But once you pay attention to yourself and recognize your own self from others who are also self-motivated actors like yourself, you start to sense what others are feeling. This is the beginning of empathy, and therein resides ethics. But at this point, we are too far away from ethics yet, which is about thinking about the others, and this can be achieved only when you have confidence in yourself and you have rooms for concerns for others in addition to caring about yourself. Frieza Saga still is about the selfish actors who move on their own benefit and it is the stage where every man is against every man.
Now, going back to the plot, having escaped from Dodoria, Gohan and Kurillin with Dende are on their way to Bulma’s hiding, when they notice a strong qi energy is coming straightly towards them. Kurillin tells Gohan and Dende to hide by the cliff on the nearby small island. There they see Vegeta, looking for something without a scouter on. Kurillin immediately realizes that Vegeta must have acquired the skill to read qi energy, in which case even though Frieza’s men’s scouters had been destroyed, Kurillin and Gohan cannot move freely, not to mention Dende and Bulma would also be in danger. Fortunately, Vegeta had not yet mastered the skill of reading qi energy and instantly regrets having destroyed the scouter. Destroying the scouter for a show in the fight against Dodoria also tells something pertinent about Vegeta’s character. Even though the seed of empathy has begun to grow by learning how to control qi energy within, he still was embodied with the philosophy of a Saiyan race whose main objective is to destroy everything that seems needless at the moment. Mistaking the small qi energy from Dende with the sea creature abruptly appearing from the water, Vegeta left to find a village to at least keep one dragon ball to himself to hide it so Frieza cannot get all of them. As Kurillin, Gohan and Dende arrive at Bulma’s hiding, they learn that Goku is on his way to Planet Namek and will arrive in six days while withstanding a severe training in the spaceship. Vegeta finds a village and kills all of the villagers and gets the dragon ball. He hides it underwater so no one else would know but him. Frieza has five dragon balls and Vegeta has one. The last dragon ball is yet to be found. Kurillin and Gohan have sensed that Vegeta had destroyed one whole village, and at this point, they do not know whether Vegeta is teamed up with Frieza or not, but either way, if one or the other gets his wish granted, it would be all over. Bulma suggests that they should use a dragon radar and find the last one to keep, so neither Frieza nor Vegeta could get the last dragon ball, to which Gohan responds that if they did that, Frieza and Vegeta would keep killing everyone on this planet until they find it. It is then when Dende asks why Kurillin, Gohan and Bulma are in search for the dragon balls and how come they know about them. Having learned that the earthlings’ wish is not a bad one and that they are not evil people, Dende asks for help to save the Namekians, and tells them about the Eldest who created the dragon balls and who was the source of all life on Planet Namek. Dende asks them to come with him to the Eldest so they could prevent the bad guys from getting their wish granted. Further, Kurillin realizes that Vegeta has acquired the skill to read qi energy, so sooner or later, the Eldest would be found and the last dragon ball he has would be taken. While Dende takes Kurillin to the Eldest, leaving Gohan and Bulma behind so as to avoid detection by moving about in a large group, Vegeta appears to fly directly to Kurillin and Dende’s. They soon hide nearby rocks, when Vegeta suddenly changes his direction and flies away to where there is another larger qi energy. Vegeta has found Zarbon alone and thought it an opportunity to take care of him, leaving Frieza all by himself. Confronting with Zarbon, the latter asks, “Vegeta, why do you resist Frieza-sama?”[14] to which Vegeta responds, “The answer is obvious, I have long detested that Frieza guy. I have been succumbed to obey him by force until now, but I have discovered that I could possess immortality.” The conversation between Vegeta and Zarbon shows a pivotal role in highlighting the power struggles in the world of politics, for it is here you can see the core of the conflicts among the selfish actors fending for themselves, thereby depicting what the state of nature looks like, where there is “no common power to keep them all in awe,” and what Hobbes elegantly spoke of, viz, “they are in that condition which is called war, and such a war as is of every man against every man.”[15] Thus visualized, Zarbon proceeds to ask, “You mean, the dragon balls?” Vegeta confirms by responding, “Why would I let Frieza have them? If I get the immortality, there will be necessarily a chance when I can defeat him in the future,” to which Zarbon replies, “How foolish, do you really believe you can defeat Frieza-sama by being immortal? You do not understand that the power of Frieza-sama transcends what we can comprehend by our imagination.” Vegeta then tells Zarbon, “Dodoria told me that Frieza fears the hidden power of the Saiyans, and I shall show you that very power that is feared.” Zarbon then dismisses the account, “How self-conceited; what Frieza-sama fears is the aggregates of Saiyans who team up against Him. A mere Saiyan alone cannot do anything to struggle against Him.”[16] This entire exchange of dialogues carries a heavy weight, not only because it shows the two strong individuals with different values are displayed but also it explains why Frieza specifically kept some elite Saiyans who could be of use rather than of a threat. Indeed, as has been said, in Frieza’s mind, the objective enemy had long been destroyed when he exploded Planet Vegeta, and the few elite Saiyans were spared to serve him, thus they were spared not exactly as objective enemies that can threaten the purity of Frieza’s reign, but rather as servants who execute tasks faithfully as ordered. These servants, however, can become the real enemy when they openly betray Frieza, as King Vegeta did, and as Vegeta is now doing, and in extreme cases, if it comes to threaten the ideological ground of the purity of the Frieza’s reign, they can turn into the objective enemy, as was discussed in the preceding segment.[17] But Frieza is not yet worried about a single Saiyan betraying him, since Vegeta could be killed instantaneously without ever posing a threat on the ideological ground. That this is how Frieza sees the situation is made obvious when you see what Zarbon said at the end of the dialogue. Neither Frieza nor Zarbon sees Vegeta as an ideological threat when a Saiyan acting by himself, but merely as a real enemy, i.e. a physical threat, to be defeated who openly betrayed and showed resistance to the world Frieza tries to create.
Vegeta corners Zarbon and shows an impressive strength against Zarbon, however, Zarbon reveals his hidden ability to be able to transform himself into a monstrous self, multiplying his previous combat power. This transformation belongs to the first type of transformation discussed in the section two, i.e. transformation by phases. It is a transformation that happens when it is within one’s own power, and when necessary, the individual breaks the current form and transform into something stronger. Again, it is in accordance with the conservation of energy principle – transformations normally implode power within, thus it takes extra energy and transformers do not tend to want to expend unnecessary energy when it is possible, just like a nation would not attack a single citizen with the full might of its military strength but spends the least amount of power to take care of the individual. However, when the time is ripe or calls for necessity of phasing up the power, one is compelled to do so, or else he faces death, which must be avoided at any cost since the political realism describes self-preservation as an inalienable right.
With the overwhelming increase in power, Zarbon defeats Vegeta into the sea, and presumes him dead. This turns out to be Zarbon’s mistake, for he fought to protect that inalienable right to preserve oneself, he acted completely obliviously, or rather selfishly, without much thought. Since Frieza suspects that Vegeta might have hidden a dragon ball already, if Vegeta died, the dragon balls would never be gathered. Zarbon’s impulsive act would anger Frieza when he gets back to the Frieza’s spaceship, and he will later end up returning to find Vegeta, hoping that he is still alive, or else Frieza would kill Zarbon. At around the same time, one of the Frieza’s men who had earlier separated from Frieza and had been tasked to find a village with Zarbon, spotted a village ravaged by Vegeta. There was a surviving Namekian in the village but he killed him before returning to the Frieza’s spaceship to report that Vegeta had already attacked the village and taken the dragon ball. At hearing these news, Frieza gets irritated for his subordinate having acted so carelessly by killing the one survivor who might know where Vegeta had hidden the dragon ball, and instantly kills him, warning Zarbon that he will be killed if Zarbon could not find Vegeta alive. This is when Frieza decides to summon Special Force Ginyū, and this is when the very existence of the race of Saiyans became the objective enemy for Frieza, for he has presentiment on Saiyans becoming a threat to the ideological reign of Frieza.
In the meantime, Kurillin arrives at the Eldest and gets the last dragon ball. The Eldest also gives him two pieces of information. One is that the Eldest is close to the end of his life expectancy, which means that the dragon balls would also disappear just like the ones on Earth since they cease to exist when the creator ceases to exist. The other is that he hints at the legend of a super Saiyan, though he does not talk much about it. This is the first mentioning of the legendary warrior of super Saiyans, and this story will unfold as the plot moves forward. The Eldest surrounds himself in the veil of mystery and appears to be wise with his countenance. The Eldest has the ability to tease out the dormant power of individuals, and Kurillin gets powered up to his surprise. Kurillin asks if he could bring Gohan back so Gohan could power up as well, and leaves for Gohan with the dragon ball. Gohan and Bulma on the other hand, detects a dragon ball signal on Bulma’s Dragon Radar[18] just nearby. Bulma surmises that Vegeta attacked the village but could not find the dragon ball and must have left in search for another village. Gohan soon decides to go get the dragon ball. But of course, we know that Vegeta did find it but hid it underwater so no one could find it, not knowing about Dragon Radar. But at this point, Vegeta had been brought back to the Frieza’s spaceship for cure by Zarbon and still remains unconscious. Frieza has five dragon balls, Vegeta has one hidden and Kurillin has the last one.
Vegeta, however, soon recovers, and kills Apūru who was giving him the treatment. He immediately destroys the wall so as to make Zarbon and Frieza believe that Vegeta has escaped from the spaceship. Angered by this event, Frieza orders Zarbon to go after Vegeta before he has fled too far away, but Vegeta hides in the corner of the room and sees them agitated. He then rushes into the Frieza’s room, where he finds five dragon balls by the window. Delighted, he declares war against Frieza, speaking to himself,
“Dear Leader Frieza,
Your era has ended at this very moment,
Your truly,
Vegeta.”[19]
He then ousts an energy ball for distraction inside the spaceship, shouting, “Hey, you got fooled! I am still inside the spaceship!!”[20] The spaceship is filled with smoke and fire, while Frieza and Zarbon are caught by surprise at Vegeta’s voice. Vegeta then breaks the window and throws the five dragon balls further away into the horizon, and then he himself flies out of the window.
By the time Frieza and Zarbon get to the room, neither Vegeta nor the dragon balls are there, and Zarbon, driven by fury, searches after Vegeta. Vegeta, knowing that if he flew to flee, Frieza would soon catch him, slowly submerges under water and swim to get the dragon balls he had just thrown away.
What is significant here is the move made by Vegeta that is a game changer – Frieza possessed five dragon balls until a moment before, but Vegeta’s sudden and unexpected betrayal overturned the power relations, for as has been stated earlier, the dragon balls are what measure the power relations among the actors. This sudden and unexpected betrayal has a striking similarity to Germany’s betrayal against then Soviet Union during the second world war. Stalin had thought he had Hitler under control and though he knew Hitler would betray him at some point, when the situation of Germany was dire, attacked by England and France, Stalin could not imagine how Germany could betray the only strong ally it had. Similarly, Frieza would have never expected Vegeta would not only get away but also take all the dragon balls, leaving him feel stabbed in the back. Now there is no going back, though there has never been any way back, as it were. But in retrospect, it always happens that history looks back and says, “it could have been otherwise, if that action was not taken back then.” This is a false reasoning, since all actions are inclined to occur based on the contemporary surroundings and influences. These environments determine one to set into motion, and although not contradictory to do the otherwise than what one has done, he is nevertheless inclined without being necessitated to take the action one has decided to take at the moment if he has exercised his own freewill.
Vegeta now has six dragon balls and Kurillin has one. Frieza has suddenly dropped out of this arms race, with Vegeta’s betrayal. In the meantime, Gohan is still flying to the signal that is detected by the dragon radar. Vegeta has emerged out of the water and collects all the dragon balls he had thrown away. Just as he puts all of them into one place, he detects a strong qi energy flying through. He suspects that it may be Zarbon but as he gazes into the direction of the source of the energy, he realizes that it is Kurillin, flying at an incredible speed with a dragon ball in his hands. Kurillin was so head over heels of his newly acquired power that he has forgotten there may be Vegeta roaming around. Now, Vegeta sees it as a chance to get the last dragon ball including the one he has hidden (and the one that Gohan is collecting), and chases after Kurillin. Gohan has now found the dragon ball in the water that Vegeta has hidden, and Zarbon also has found Vegeta chasing after Kurillin who has a dragon ball.[21] [insert a picture here] Now, Vegeta thinks he has collected all seven of them, since defeating Kurillin is not a difficult task for Vegeta. Zarbon thinks he can take Vegeta out and get the dragon balls. Kurillin thinks he has the last dragon ball that has not been collected by the bad guys, and Gohan has just retrieved the dragon ball Vegeta had earlier hidden. The intricacy of the dynamics displayed here is outstanding. Four individuals are acting on their own reasoning – Vegeta acting on his selfish motif, Zarbon acting on fear, Kurillin acting on relief and Gohan acting on goodwill. Each actor is conflicted and has a reason to collect the dragon balls just as much as the others. This is a truly brilliant demonstration and visualization of power politics. It is the clash of ideologies in the ever-changing state of power relations.
Vegeta arrives at Kurillin and Bulma’s, where he tells them he has to take care of Zarbon before he gets Kurillin’s dragon ball. This is where all three forces that are in opposition to one another meet for the first time. The image it creates here when they are all lined up is as if to represent the three nations during the second world war; Kurillin’s force is the weakest and at the verge of defeat, just as the French/British troops were fleeing at the battle of Dunkirk, whereas Zarbon stands angrily against the enemy who has just openly betrayed him, just as the Soviet Union felt when Germany betrayed it, and Vegeta faces the greater enemy in between the two ideologically hostile nations now that he has subdued the defeated forces into fleeing. Vegeta stands confidently against Zarbon, for he is not an idiot who betrays someone without a certainty to victory. Zarbon transforms again to fight Vegeta, but Vegeta is pressing him. Zarbon tells Vegeta that he has a higher combat power as was proven in the previous battle, to which Vegeta answers, “You should know very well about the Saiyans,” reminding him of the treatment he gave to cure, “we Saiyans can heighten the combat power every time we revive from the verge of death.”[22] Zarbon then responds rather unsurely that even if that is the case, Vegeta cannot have overwhelmed the power of transformed Zarbon. Yet, Vegeta responds, “Saiyans are a warrior race, never underestimate us!” and easily corners Zarbon at the verge of death.[23] Zarbon then tells Vegeta, “I was just following orders from Frieza-sama, so please spare my life,” adding that “I have an idea, why don’t we form a coalition against Frieza, and we could definitely defeat Frieza.” But this only buys anger of Vegeta, “You guys have been enslaving me until now, and how dare you could say such a thing!” and he finishes him off.[24] This act of betrayal by Zarbon to Frieza demonstrates well that both Dodoria and Zarbon show qualities nothing but those of mercenary forces as discussed in the previous section. For it is the definition of mercenary arms that they are quick to turn their back away from the prince whenever their lives are in danger, for they are “disunited, ambitious, without discipline unfaithful; bold among friends, among enemies cowardly”[25] – hence there is no loyalty in the true sense of the word. But Vegeta is too clever to be fooled by them, when they plea for life in exchange for helping him, for he knows what mercenary arms are. They are, as has been discussed, “useless and dangerous; and if one keeps his state founded on mercenary arms, one will never be firm or secure; for they are disunited, ambitious, without discipline, unfaithful; bold among friends, among enemies cowardly… [and] ruin is postponed only as long as attack is postponed.”[26]
After defeating Zarbon easily, Vegeta goes to Kurillin and gives him an option to hand him the dragon ball or fight to protect it. Knowing there is no way Kurillin can defeat Vegeta, he makes a proposition that, in exchange of handing him the dragon ball, Vegeta let Kurillin and Bulma go unharmed. Vegeta, being overjoyed with the belief that he has collected all seven of them, quickly agrees since there is no point in fighting the weaklings when he can make his wish come true faster by leaving them alone. Vegeta, after receiving the dragon ball from Kurillin, leaves immediately to the dragon balls where he had left them. However, Vegeta does not know at this point that Gohan has taken one of Vegeta’s dragon balls, which Vegeta had hidden underwater. Just so long as Gohan does not get caught by Vegeta, Vegeta cannot make his wish come true yet.
On his way back to his dragon balls, Vegeta senses a strong qi energy ahead, but it soon disappears. Being curious, he looks around but cannot find anyone. He then shouts out that whoever it is that is hiding, if he does not come out, he will blow up the entire area. It was Gohan, who had sensed Vegeta coming towards straight to him, and he hid by the rocks for fear of getting caught. If he comes out, Vegeta will kill him, but if he does not, Vegeta will destroy the entire area along with Gohan. So Gohan hides the dragon ball behind and climbs up the rock to show himself with the scouter on his hand. Vegeta then sees Gohan and smiles as if he had anticipated it to be him. He mentions to Gohan that he has received the dragon ball from Kurillin and surmised that another earthling might be on the planet as well, to which Gohan suspects with anger that Vegeta must have killed Kurillin. However, Vegeta tells Gohan, “If you want me to kill him, I can go back to do that,” adding, “Be grateful. As a celebratory occasion of having collected all seven dragon balls, I let them go.”[27] Gohan is confused, for one dragon ball is certainly behind Gohan under the rock. Vegeta then comes towards Gohan and asks what it is that he has in his hand. Gohan quickly lies that it is a clock, for if Vegeta finds out that it is a radar to find the dragon balls, he would suspect Gohan has stolen the one Vegeta had earlier hidden. Vegeta then ridicules him that he cannot believe the civilization that is only capable of making a huge clock such as what Gohan is holding could come to a planet like Planet Namek, and tells him that Gohan, Vegeta and Goku are the last three remaining Saiyans and that he let Goku know that he will come back to Earth to defeat him in the near future. Vegeta kicks Gohan in the stomach and leaves while laughing.
Vegeta then arrives at the village where he had hidden the dragon ball, while Gohan arrives at Kurillin’s with the dragon ball he had collected from underwater. Kurillin decides that he needs to change the location to stay, since Vegeta would come back with fury once he has found out that there is no dragon ball underwater. As expected, Vegeta soon finds out that he cannot find the dragon ball he had hidden underwater, and suspects that Gohan must have stolen it since Vegeta found him at the mid-point on the straight line from the village and where Kurillin was. Not being able to comprehend how it is that Gohan could find out where the dragon ball was, he immediately remembers about the ‘clock’ Gohan was holding and soon understands that it was not a clock but a radar to find the dragon ball. Lost himself in anger, he flies back to where Kurillin was at an incredible speed, but there were no Kurillin or Gohan in the place where they were. Vegeta, thinking calmly, reasons that the earthlings must also come to get his six dragon balls at some point. He thus decides to hide until they will come to Vegeta and then he will have collected all seven dragon balls.
While Vegeta quietly waits with his six dragon balls, Frieza is becoming irritated and ousting energy balls all over the planet to destroy. Kurillin and Gohan decide to fly at full speed to the Eldest since it has taken them too long and they have not yet arrived at the Eldest. Kurillin thinks Vegeta would not notice them if the distance is so great between them and him. But it was a wishful thinking. Vegeta meditated with such focus so as not to miss any movement of qi energy, and he accurately senses Kurillin and Gohan’s qi. To his surprise, Kurillin and Gohan appear to be far away, for he was betting on the idea that they would be coming to get the dragon balls Vegeta has. Being cautious as he is, he decides to take one dragon ball with him in chasing after Kurillin and Gohan, so that even if Bulma finds the dragon balls Vegeta has with the radar, the earthlings cannot have collected all seven of them. Vegeta soon catches up with Gohan and Kurillin, and Kurillin let Gohan go to the Eldest while he awaits Vegeta’s arrival to prevent him from going to the Eldest by buying time. Vegeta, fully charged up, is about to fight Kurillin, when he senses the tower-like hill in the direction where Gohan fled. Vegeta, suspecting that it is on that hill that Kurillin has hidden the dragon ball, and flies towards it. There, Nail comes out to tell Vegeta to return, when Vegeta senses a strong qi energy inside the house on the hill. Suspecting that it is Goku, he calls for him, but he who has come out of the house is not Goku but his son, Gohan. Vegeta is surprised to see the sudden increase of qi energy, but soon reasons that he is still way stronger than powered up Gohan. Nail tries to fight Vegeta but the Eldest senses strong powers coming towards the planet. Dende goes out to tell them about this, and Kurillin thinks it must be Goku, but Gohan senses more than one qi energy, to which Vegeta responds with fear that there are five of them and it must be Ginyū Special Force. Vegeta then rushes to Gohan and asks for the dragon ball in exchange that he promises he would not kill Gohan or Kurillin. For he knows Ginyū Special Force is consisted of five individuals, each of them possessing higher combat powers than current Vegeta. His solution therefore is to make him immortal so he can fight against Ginyū Special Force and Frieza. Kurillin suggests that they make Gohan immortal, which is immediately shut down by Vegeta’s sound reasoning that Gohan may surely have power but he is inexperienced in battles and techniques. Kurillin, not knowing what to do, is at a loss, since if he makes Vegeta immortal, he may be able to defeat the bad guys but there is no guarantee that he would not try to kill Kurillin, Gohan and Goku as well as the earthlings. Further, Kurillin came to Planet Namek in order to revive those who were killed by the very person he is now talking to about the possibility of making him immortal. Here, Nail speaks up and tells them that there are three wishes that can be granted with the dragon balls, which came as a surprise since the dragon balls on Earth only grants one wish. Kurillin makes a judgement call and decides to take Vegeta to where Bulma is to get the dragon ball. As soon as he arrives, he takes the dragon ball and then follows Vegeta for the rest of the dragon balls. In the meantime, Ginyū Special Force has arrived on Planet Namek. Now, the two forces that were hostile to each other have teamed up, and Kurillin, Gohan and Vegeta have all seven dragon balls and the only enemy to be defeated is Frieza and his subordinates.
This co-operation of two previously hostile forces illustrates the dynamics and intricacies often seen among the real international actors at the verge of crisis. Vegeta had previously intended to kill all earthlings, yet now he begs them to help him, even promising them he would not harm them. As we know, Vegeta does not care about what may happen to the earthlings, but he correctly reasons that he needs their help in order to survive, and that his priority is no longer to kill all that interfere with him but to rely on the chance that he could defeat Frieza. His reasoning is appealing to Kurillin, since both Kurillin and Gohan realize thy are no match for Frieza, let alone Ginyū Special Force. Hence, this rather surprising offer from Vegeta to have truce and cooperate also benefits them, at least for the moment. Vegeta is willing to cooperate with the earthlings to become immortal not to kill the earthlings or Goku but to save himself from getting killed, and similarly, Kurillin and Gohan agree to offer their dragon ball in order that their purpose of having come to Planet Namek would not be in vain. It appears in a long term a disadvantage for Kurillin and Gohan, for if Vegeta could defeat the enemies, there is no guarantee that he would not harm them as promised, but the imminent danger is so great that in a short term their security is secure, or at least Vegeta becoming immortal appears to be the only hope for survival and the least evil of all other options.
Now, what is significant is the fact that if it were Frieza in Vegeta’s shoe, he would never settle with a truce even if it means he cannot become his wish granted. That this would be the case is adumbrated in the previous episodes as well, for Frieza killed the elder of a village for a dragon ball even though killing him would eventually end up him not being able to find the dragon ball before Vegeta or Kurillin does. Co-operation is a first step for establishing peace. Indeed, this sort of co-operation is only possible through some sort of mutual trust, and Frieza lacks in that. This is why Kant also begins with his essay on perpetual peace saying that “[N]o treaty of peace that tacitly reserves issues for a future war shall be held valid,” and that “some level of trust in the enemy’s way of thinking must be preserved even in the midst of war, for otherwise no peace can be concluded and the hostilities would become a war of extermination,” as has been mentioned earlier.[28] For if there is no trust at all in either of the parties, the war of extermination is prolonged only so long as the threat is immanent. Yet, this truce offered by Vegeta still remains very much dubious for Kurillin and Gohan, for he has no reason or a set of laws binding him not to violate such promise in the future. Just as Stalin had anticipated the betrayal of Hitler at some time in the near future, Kurillin and Gohan had reservations in making Vegeta immortal for fear of betrayal. Yet, still important to recognize here is that it was Vegeta who begged to co-operate. His thinking is utterly selfish, for he would let them live only because he wants to utilize even the weaker forces as a decoy so that Vegeta could wait for a chance to defeat the enemy. Yet unless there is a democratic tendency within him, i.e. some sort of trust in the enemy to follow the rules of engagement, such a truce would not have been made possible. Here, once again, we see Vegeta grow ethically, for his calculation now clearly involves liberal tendency to co-operate with the enemy when need to, and not only the singular authority he had shown previously when he killed Nappa.
iii: Ginyū’s Arrival and the Machiavellian Deceptions
This uncertainty in the truce between Vegeta and Kurillin is immediately seen when they arrive where Vegeta kept his dragon balls. Both Kurillin and Gohan have a second thought and hesitate to give Vegeta the dragon ball. This hesitation is a natural occurrence since the truce itself is flawed with dubiety. This hesitation, in turn, wasted what a little time they had to come to a resolution that it soon becomes too late as Ginyū Special Force arrives. Vegeta decides to throw away the dragon ball he has in his hand in order that Ginyū Special Force would not be able to get the dragon ball, yet Burter speedily chases after the dragon ball in the air and catches it. With this, Ginyū Special Force now has six dragon balls with the dragon balls Vegeta had kept right behind them. Vegeta, then, reasons quickly and shouts at Kurillin to destroy the dragon ball. This action by Vegeta demonstrates well the ability of Vegeta to read the situations calmly without losing himself, and it also reveals Vegeta’s adjustability to the circumstances. This series of events happened in a short period of time, yet here we see that Vegeta had been reasoning consistently and had his priorities straight in his mind. First, Vegeta chased after Kurillin and Gohan so he could get the dragon balls himself and become immortal. Second, he senses the arrival of Ginyū Special Force, and he then weighs his options and reaches a conclusion that hastening the granting of his wish is the best way to survive through this dire situation. Third, being found by Ginyū Special Force, yet not wanting to give up his chance of becoming immortal and defeat Frieza, he decides to lose the dragon ball and throws it away into faraway. He reasons that this would be the best way to maneuver the situation, for even if Vegeta gets killed, he has reasoned, Frieza would not attain immortality. Fourth, having failed at his action that has risked his own life for the sake of not making Frieza immortal, he immediately shifts his priority from him granting his wish to not letting Frieza get his wish granted. This is why he was able to command Kurillin to destroy the dragon ball – the only way for him to become immortal that would give him a chance to defeat Frieza. From what has gone on in his mind, it is obvious that Vegeta does not just move by selfish desires and impulses, but he calculates the risks and benefits involved in his actions and tries to make the decision that best suits his survival and minimizes his opponents’ survival or happiness. Furthermore, Vegeta is willing to just do the latter, even when he has no chance of attaining the former. Herein lies the strength of Vegeta, and this quick-wittedness for the conservation of interests is what differentiates him from the other characters in the dragon ball series. Indeed, even though Vegeta is essentially self-motivated, at the core of his self-motivation is the desire for conservation of his own interests that could extend beyond his death. In this way, his philosophy is markedly different from that of Frieza’s and other enemies whose primary driving force is a conservation of oneself, which is tightly connected to his own physical survival. The latter is often the characteristics of the countries that promote political realist philosophy, such as imperialism and totalitarianism. In other words, Vegeta at least here after the battle against Goku on Earth no longer embodies the primitive Saiyan philosophy, nor does he represent the typical totalitarian regime whose propensity for survival is only sustained so long as the commander in chief is charismatic. Rather, he is now able to see farther into the future, indeed, even after his own death, in order to prevent his enemies from attaining their wish.
However, Vegeta’s foresight fell short before Ginyū Special Force, for Guldo controlled the time and stole the last dragon ball in Kurillin’s hand before Kurillin could destroy it. Now, Frieza’s team has all seven dragon balls. Captain Ginyū himself decides to take the dragon balls to Frieza’s spaceship and he orders the others to take care of Vegeta, Kurillin and Gohan. The rest of the Ginyū Special Force shows overwhelming confidence and decides who could fight by rock-paper-scissors. As Ginyū flies away with the dragon balls, Gohan tries to oust an energy ball against Ginyū to stop him, yet Vegeta corrects Gohan and tells him not to use energy in vain, and rather to focus on defeating the enemies in front of them. Here again, Vegeta’s accurate and onto-the-point instructions help Kurillin and Gohan learn about the calculative reasoning that is required in combats. Vegeta always weighs pros and cons in battle tactics and chooses the best possible course of action in order to prolong his own life. This is why when Kurillin suggested whether or not they should flee, Vegeta shoots down the idea, telling him that there is no point in trying to flee as the enemies will catch up to them in a matter of seconds. Indeed, Vegeta reasons that trying to fight has more chances of them living longer than fleeing. It is for this reason that Vegeta ambushed Guldo, thereby releasing Kurillin and Gohan from his supernatural technique, Temporary Paralysis. As Vegeta aptly implies, it is not because he wanted to save Kurillin and Gohan but he surmised their power, however little, would help shield him from getting killed even a little longer. As Guldo falls, he complains to Vegeta with what a little strength he has left, “Vegeta, you scumbag, this was supposed to be the battle between the little guys and me,” to which Vegeta responds nonchalantly, “That’s something you guys decided on your own, there is no rule in times of war.”[29] It is true what Vegeta says. There is no rule that one must keep when the battle is about life and death. Whoever lives wins, and whoever dies loses. This is a battlefield, a war, in a Hobbesian sense of the term. Every man indeed is against every man. This ideology consistently defines Vegeta as cunning, calculative and rational ‘virtuous’ actor in the dragon ball politics. For according to Machiavelli, to be virtuous is simply to have the power to do wrong and get away with it for his own benefit. Vegeta consistently attempts to attain just that so much so that it could be said that the political virtue in a Machiavellian sense is the guiding principle of all of Vegeta’s actions. This is further evidenced by the fact that when Recoom tried to finish Vegeta off with his ultimate attack, Eraser Gun, Vegeta scolds Gohan for saving him from the attack telling him “If you had the time to save me, why didn’t you attack Recoom instead?”[30] This notion is understandable only when you look at him in the light of his ideology. For Vegeta acts not for his own physical survival but for his ideology that the race of Saiyans is the superior race to any other in the universe, and that whoever gets in the way of the Saiyan dream is to be destroyed no matter what. This is why Vegeta was able to kill Nappa on Earth. For killing his ally, however detrimental Nappa was, seems counter-intuitive to his own survival, for eliminating the only ally he had would necessarily diminish the total battle power of his team. Yet, he had an overwhelming confidence in what he believes in, i.e. the supremacy of the pure Saiyan race. He was guided not by the preservation of his physical self, but rather by the preservation of interests and the prospect of the attainment of his ideology. This is why his actions are reckless and straightforward. He does not hesitate, unlike Goku, but strikes his enemy at the earliest possible opportunity. Furthermore, this is also why he reprimanded Gohan for having saved him life, for Vegeta would rather choose to die if it means to decrease the chance of his enemies getting their way. He would choose the preservation of his ideology over the prolongation of his physical body. This is why I have likened Vegeta to the commander in chief of Germany during the war, for the German leader too believed in the supremacy of his own race and chose to die in accordance with his own ideology that whoever is weak has no place in this world. But the analogy ends there, for Vegeta is capable of a change, while the said leader of the country was not. Therefore, the legacy of governing with fear and of the total domination of the subjects is found elsewhere from now on, i.e., in the form of Frieza.
Frieza has now all seven dragon balls thanks to Captain Ginyū, yet he realizes he does not know how to use the dragon balls. He had simply assumed, as others did rightfully, that once the dragon balls are collected, it would be obvious to the eyes that the wish is granted. Seeing nothing appears to have occurred, Frieza recollects what one Namekian said to him earlier when Frieza forced a certain elder to hand over the dragon ball – “Take it away, you guys cannot grant wishes anyway.”[31] At the time, Frieza thought it to be just sour grapes coming out of a loser, but the phrase can be taken to mean that ‘the likes of you, who are not Namekians, would not be able to figure out how to make use of the dragon balls.’ Frieza immediately locates with his newly acquired scouter the whereabouts of the remaining Namekians to get them to tell him how to grant wishes using the dragon balls. He then tasks Captain Ginyū with keeping an eye on the dragon balls, as he leaves for the remaining Namekians.
In the meantime, Goku had just arrived on Planet Namek shortly before, as Vegeta, Kurillin and Gohan were beaten up by Recoom. Goku, on arriving at the battlefield, ignores Recoom and goes straight to Kurillin and Gohan to give them the senzu beans. Having recovered fully from injuries, Kurillin and Gohan tell Goku how hopeless the situation is. Goku has somehow acquired a mind-reading skill, which is not explained where or when he got it, since even Goku himself seemed unaware of the skill as he was using it on Kurillin. With this new skill, Goku would only have to touch Kurillin on the head to read through the experiences on Planet Namek through the eyes of Kurillin. Now, just because this mind-reading skill is not explained in the anime, it does not mean it is without significance. Although the skill itself appears to be nothing but an ad hoc explanation to make Goku seem out of the ordinary, there is another plot lying under this seemingly innocent skill. Being able to read someone else’s mind is not just an extraordinary skill, but rather it is an important substratum in explaining the underlining theme throughout the Dragon Ball series. For it has been noted that Vegeta grew much stronger both in power and in mind after the battle against Goku, and that this newly found strength owes its source to his ability to be able to sense qi energy, i.e. being able to qualify and look through the essence of the enemy, rather than solely relying on the scouter that quantifies and tells you the battle power of the enemy. It requires awareness and discernibility of the situations and the people involved, that is to say, a quick-witted judgment that properly analyzes emotive actions of each character in given circumstances. In short, it requires empathy. The first step towards empathy is to understand what and how the others are feeling or would feel, given a certain interaction. The second step is to use that understanding to feel ahead, as it were, so you would do what those others would want you to do insofar as it does not take away choices from the individuals affected. The result would be a mutual understanding that is in consort with the most desired outcome – a synthesis that is both compromising and symbiotic. It offers a dialectic interaction with conflicting emotions insofar as there are differences in perspectives. It is the ethics and moral behaviors that drive the story forward. In this scene where Goku not only reads Kurillin’s mind but also feels what he has experienced, Goku internalizes the experiences and feelings of the others and understands the situation comprehensively. Therein we see a glimpse of the source of the strength in Goku.
After seeing that his friends have recovered, Goku entertains Recoom and mocks him for priding himself of his confidence. Goku easily defeats Recoom and warns Jeice and Burter. The power of Goku clearly transcends that of Vegeta’s, or of the enemies at hand. However, Goku boosts up his power exponentially only at the precise moment he attacks, thus economizing and saving his energy. Due to this way of fighting, it appears to the others that Goku has not moved or done anything since his movements are too fast for the eyes to catch. In addition, the blind trust in the combat power of Goku displayed on the scouters convinced them that Goku cannot be stronger than them. Burter, as a result, is subsequently defeated and Jeice flees away to get the captain to help him.
One might ask why the enemies would often not fight with their full power from the beginning, for if all five members of the special force had attacked from the start, their victory would have been assured. However, this is not difficult to answer, for that is exactly how in reality the states behave among themselves as well. For they prefer to use less resources as long as they can, which is why no states would send in all the military force to fight against a small group of bandits. It is always better, both in terms of public perception and of strategic calculation, to send in smaller forces than going in with a full counter. In public perception, it is better because it makes the state look merciful as well as composed. In strategy, because the state can economize the cost of sending in a large number of troops as well as being able to defend itself from attacks other than the one it is currently engaged with. So it is with the Dragon Ball series – neither the enemies nor the protagonists show their true power from the beginning, for that would rob them of the assessment and choices they make during the battles, the process through which the characters cultivate their ability to judge, affording them the room for a personal growth.
Jeice has left to report of the matter to Captain Ginyū, who would in turn fight Goku to prevent him from getting in the way of Frieza’s plan. Vegeta is irritated that Goku let Jeice flee, for Vegeta is fully aware that letting an enemy escape could come back at them later to haunt them. This is a leitmotif in the Dragon Ball series, for the danger in not finishing off the enemy is seen throughout the series. This is, however, not without meaning, for it is based on the core belief of Goku that he does not kill unless the enemy is both absolute evil and there is a necessity to kill in order to save the people he cares about. Both conditions must be met for Goku to kill an enemy. This is why Vegeta escapes from this category, as Goku sees in him a room for rationality in accordance with a strong humane emotion that is pride. It appears that all enemies encountered in the series are over-confident in their power, and that may be easily confused with a sense of pride. However, having a pride differs from being overly confident; for the latter desires more than what is due to him, and hence can be described as arrogant, whereas the former is primarily concerned with what is due to him and is noble, i.e. honour. For the one who is arrogant and thinks overly of himself does not act in accordance with a principle but acts selfishly and takes anything that there is for his taking. In contrast with an arrogant man, a proud man desires what is in accordance with his merits, hence being worthy of great things in the highest degree, he deserves the most honourable of the deeds. Indeed, greatness in every excellence is the characteristic of a proud man.[32] Having a pride, then, is not necessarily a negative quality, for it simply means that a person recognizes that he is duly worthy of great many things. On the contrary, those who think themselves worthy of more than they really are worthy of themselves are vainglorious. Thus, Frieza and the others who pride themselves in thinking that they are worthy of great many things, when they act solely for their own sake, are said to be in vain. For they neither recognize what is due to them nor admit that they fall short on the merits they seek to obtain. It is also true, however, to say that to have a pride in oneself is to not acknowledge others for his equal by nature, and such trait is a sign of arrogance.[33] Hence arises a confusion, and it is generally conceived that having a pride is synonymous with being arrogant. The difference, then, between pride and arrogance appears to be circumstantial, though not coincidental. For Vegeta is said to have a pride since he desires what is due to him as a hereditary prince of a nation, whereas Frieza is said to be arrogant for he desires what is not due to him, i.e. destruction of other species. To understand that someone is proud is to understand that he has such and such social standing and that honour must be bestowed upon him, i.e. that he is worthy of honour. On the contrary, to conceive of someone as arrogant is to judge that he desires more than his share and what is due to him. Hence whether someone is proud or arrogant differs from person to person according to his or her circumstantial conditions. What is important to note here is that it seemed obvious to Goku that Vegeta had a pride, but not arrogance back on Earth when he let Vegeta go. Whatever the reasons that had prompted Goku to discern a pride in Vegeta may be, it was his conscious choice that made the series of unfolding events in the time to come. In retrospect, we may perhaps reasonably believe that it is this sense of pride that dissuaded Vegeta from killing Kurillin and Gohan when he had the chance to, and it is also the same pride that made him infuriated when Gohan saved him from Recoom’s attack. For it is unbecoming for a proud man to fly from danger and be protected by others or wrong another in caprice.[34]
When Captain Ginyū arrives, fully recuperated, Goku commands Kurillin and Gohan to go find the dragon balls taken by the special force, while asking Vegeta to fight alongside him. Everything seemed to be in equilibrium. All the parties are fully recovered from whatever previous injuries they may have incurred. The time for a new start is about to begin, when Vegeta betrays Goku’s expectation and leaves him with the enemies, while he himself tries to get the dragon balls. Having talked with Goku about the dragon balls and learned that there are rules to follow in order to grant a wish, he surmises that if he follows Kurillin and Gohan and wait for them to unveil the dragon balls’ whereabouts, he could steal the dragon balls from them easily and grant his own wish. This is such a bold action taken by Vegeta, for we the audience have been led to believe that Vegeta shares the common interests with Kurillin and Gohan. It seems surprisingly cunning for Vegeta to abandon the scene and gets back to his old self and uses Goku and his parties for his own personal gain, for by leaving Goku, Vegeta can evade using energy while Goku and Ginyū wear themselves out, and by using Kurillin and Gohan as a guide to the dragon balls, he does not have to work laboriously to look for the now hidden dragon balls. In fact, we may think that Vegeta betrayed Goku and everyone else, but Vegeta has been consistent throughout in that he has always been acting to maximize his chance of survival. It is because he deemed it better than fighting by himself that Vegeta teamed up with Kurillin and Gohan, for the greatest of all powers is that which is compounded of the powers of many that has the use of all their powers depending on his will. It is in this sense that friends or allies can be conceived of as merely power additional, for they are strengths united.[35] Similarly, it was not Vegeta who asked for help when he was at the verge of dying, but it was Goku who made a single-handed decision to recover him. Objectively speaking, Vegeta has neither a duty nor obligation to fight alongside with Goku. In fact, from his perspective, there is no reason at all to have anything to do with them. So, it was a rational choice, and a virtuous one at that in the most political sense, to leave Goku with the enemies.
Goku fights against Ginyū, but it becomes soon apparent that Goku far exceeds his enemy’s strength, and it is here Ginyū suspects that Goku might be a Super Saiyan. The term Super Saiyan has been mentioned by Vegeta, Frieza, the Eldest and now by Captain Ginyū. All the hegemonic powers fear that Goku might actually be a legendary Super Saiyan, yet soon the suspicion gets discard when Goku speaks softly on his enemies. A Super Saiyan is said to be a fearsome warrior who only feeds on blood and battles, they say. Goku cannot be one, because he has the empathy towards his enemies. In a world of realist politics, a liberal mind is only preyed upon. The will of the strongest wins, it is argued. And that will, they equate with the brutality of the physical power. Little do they know that we can see the seed of the legend in the yellow sparking of the aura he adorns dispersed in the predominantly red energy that is a characteristic of Kaiō-ken.[36]
Captain Ginyū is trembling with fear, but that fear soon turns into an opportunity for him to get more power. Ginyū shows his ultimate attack, Body Change, which we have mentioned before in the chapter dealt with personal identity. He damages himself fatally before exchanging their bodies. Thus exchanged, Ginyū-in-Goku leaves Goku-in-Ginyū wounded so he would not be able to follow Ginyū and Jeice.
In the meantime, Vegeta arrives at Frieza’s spaceship – yet, the dragon balls are nowhere to be seen. He reasons that the dragon balls must be somewhere inside the spaceship as Captain Ginyū remained when Frieza left to get the password to activate the dragon balls. Vegeta decides to wait for Gohan and Kurillin to come so they will find the dragon balls while he does nothing. Just as he suspects, Gohan and Kurillin find the dragon balls with the dragon radar as soon as they get to the spaceship. To Vegeta’s surprise, the dragon balls were not inside the spaceship but were buried under the earth nearby the spaceship. Gohan and Kurillin commands Shenlong to come out, yet nothing happens. Vegeta, counting on their ability to set the scene for making a wish, gets irritated watching them in hiding, when he detects that someone is approaching towards the spaceship. Now, it becomes obvious to all three of them that it is Ginyū and his ally who are coming towards them. Once again, the main actors gather around the dragon balls – the unmoved mover that stirs up the desires in actors involved and attracts them for no other reason but for one common goal to get any wish granted.
When Kurillin and Gohan see who have arrived at the spaceship, they see Goku and Jeice instead of Ginyū. Kurillin let his guard off and begins to talk to Ginyū-in-Goku, when Ginyū starts attacking him. Soon after, Goku-in-Ginyū arrives at the scene, evidencing that Goku and Ginyū indeed have exchanged their bodies. Goku-in-Ginyū tells the captain of the special force that Kurillin and Gohan should be able to defeat the enemy quite easily, to which Ginyū-in-Goku responds by out bursting in laughter. Ginyū is confident that he could not lose with this new body he has acquired, since it is the body that demonstrated the battle power of 180,000, which far exceeds that of Ginyū’s 120,000. Goku then tells where the secret of his power lies, which he says it is in the complete unison of mind and body. Neither mind alone nor body alone can induce the tremendous energy that is acquired through training. Here, Goku touches upon something important. For it is here for the first time that the source of power in Dragon Ball series is concisely summarized. It has been mentioned many times that qi energy within the body must be concentrated and controlled in order to manifest its explosive power. And for this, it is necessary that the mind and the body both need to be synchronized in tandem. However, we have not really seen how such an argument develops in concrete examples. It has been taken for granted that things must be that way to demonstrate power, and the process of acquisition of power has only been willy-nilly stated, i.e. in martial arts, as well as in meditation, the mind needs to be tranquil and be sensitive to the surroundings both physically and mentally, etc… Yet, how this is supposed to work was never revealed so clearly until now. Yes, we have seen Goku getting stronger as he trains, and yes, we have seen Goku grow in character, but this scene confronting Ginyū-in-Goku actually argues for wherethe source of power comes from. It is an unfolding of an argument that has been built up to this point, rather than just an instance of a disjunct battle scene. We have seen that Vegeta increased his power after the battle against Goku on Earth due to the cultivation of the ability to read qi in others. This is a manifestation of a narrative and a theme, a principle that is hidden and implicit in the story that is wanting to be actualized and become the reality. This is where Vegeta made a move away from acting with mere intuition, i.e. Primitive Saiyan Philosophy, to having a more refined conception of the self and the others, i.e. reflective thought. Similarly, Goku arrived on Planet Namek with an explosive power that goes beyond that of Vegeta’s. Here, we see Goku not only accurately sensing qi energy but also reading Kurillin’s mind, further reinforcing the idea that Goku had mastered to control not only his physical power but also his mind. Indeed, what appeared to be an ad hoc explanation to heroicize Goku a moment ago suddenly gains a purposive meaning when seen in the light of argumentation. Thus, the battle with Captain Ginyū can be interpreted as the explication of the source of power. For if it had not been for Ginyū’s Body Change, we would have had to accept the unsatisfying premise that Goku is stronger than anybody else without qualification, i.e. by virtue of simply being a main protagonist. As Goku himself realizes when he is in Ginyū’s body, in order not only to express power fully but also even to control power as the integral part of himself, both the mind and the body must coincide so as to synchronize with one another, sharing the same history of the past in a single consciousness. The story of Dragon Ball Z is, in other words, a visual argument that contains its substantial existence from the beginning as a seminal principle in an undeveloped form with a certain direction in its aim. Events occur contemporaneously with the narrative of the overarching theme only to facilitate the actors to reach the object and goal that can only be reached at in its resultant, i.e. full reality.[37] The abstract final aim of the story is not yet known to any of us, and while the actors are still unaware of the argument they are making, the conclusion is implicit in them and it is realizing itself through them.[38] In this way, each plot interwoven in the series shows an unfolding of a definite aim, i.e. a conclusion, and as such an argument develops dialectically in gradation. This series of increasingly adequate expressions or the crash between manifestations of inclination of opinions held by each player is itself somewhat determined – determined because the various plots unfolding argue for a definite conclusion; somewhat because such determination does not dictate and limit each player’s passions for actions in accordance with their will.[39] Once again, it is soft-deterministic in the sense that it would not have caused a logical contradiction had Goku avoided the Ginyū’s Body Change and defeated him at that moment, but he simply did not avoid his enemy’s attack, even though such a scenario could have very well happened.
Ginyū-in-Goku submerged in overconfidence tells Jeice to announce Ginyū-in-Goku’s combat power to prove Goku-in-Ginyū wrong. However, Goku was right, for when Ginyū-in-Goku tried to power up to intimidate the others around him for the sheer strength of the newly acquired body, Jeice only detected the combat power of 23,000 – a far smaller number of what Captain Ginyū himself originally had. Goku then explains to Ginyū who is in utter confusion that it is because the power belongs to each individual as if customized and arises from the body-in-mind synergy, both of which have experienced and suffered through the same history. In other words, more philosophically put, the matter (viz. body) and the form (viz. mind or soul) must be compatible with one another and must share enough experiences of the world around them to fully become a composite of matter-in-form, i.e., a necessary substratum from which any shape or force can begin to manifest itself in its own conformation.
Thus Kurillin and Gohan push Ginyū-in-Goku, when the latter asks for help from Jeice. Vegeta, who had been hiding up until now, comes out and decides to take on Jeice, who asks him in confusion how it was possible for Vegeta to escape the detection from the scouter. Vegeta answers matter-of-factly that Jeice should already understand how not to rely solely on the machine if he has seen how the earthlings fight. Vegeta here has completely made the ability to control of his qi his own. Jeice sees with his scouter how much Vegeta has powered up after recovering from the damages that almost put him to death. Indeed, Vegeta, once again, tells more concretely here that Saiyans undergo a tremendous increase in power every time he recovers from the life-threatening damages. Indeed, the Saiyans has layers upon layers of shell, as it were, which gets dishevelled each time they suffer a significant damage. And the range of the increase in power is proportionate to the amount of damages suffered. The nature of Saiyans indeed is dialectical in terms of power struggles, and just as a certain German phenomenologist explained the philosophy of human history as an evolving spirit gradually gaining conscious understanding about the world with which we interact, we may say that the nature of Saiyans too “assumes successive forms which it successively transcends; and by the very process of transcending its earlier stages, gains affirmative and, is in fact, a richer and more concrete shape.”[40]
Vegeta easily finishes off Jeice, and now he is on to defeating Ginyū-in-Goku. He knocks down the latter in a matter of seconds and precipitates himself down onto the now injured and immovable enemy’s body on the ground. Ginyū-in-Goku, however, smirks and activates his ultimate attack, Body Change, again to get Vegeta’s body. Goku-in-Ginyū quickly catches the intention of the enemy, and quickly seizes the opportunity and brings himself before the beam coming out from Ginyū’s mouth, thus Goku getting his own body back and Ginyū back in his old self. Goku is rendered immovable, however, due to the previous attacks his body suffered from Vegeta, and Ginyū too is severely injured but he can still move. In this scene lies a very complex entanglement of vested interests by each party, for Goku is utterly incapable and Gohan and Kurillin are no match for Vegeta nor for Ginyū even when he suffers a fatal wound. Ginyū still tries to get Vegeta’s body to get rid of them all, while Vegeta thinks he can finish off both of his nemesis at the same time. Not knowing how the body change happened, Vegeta is ignorantly dangerous as Goku think Vegeta is vulnerable to Ginyū’s attack. Vegeta keeps attacking Ginyū who does not fight back, clearly betting on the chance to exchange his body with Vegeta’s after severely damaging his body. Goku immediately grabs and throws whatever he happens to get his hands on at the time into the ray of Ginyū’s attack. That something happened to be a Namekian frog, and Ginyū ends up exchanging his body with the body of the frog, infusing his soul into the frog and the mentality of frog into the body of Ginyū.
This whole series of interactions renders Ginyū completely impotent since Ginyū himself is now in the body of a frog, and as such, he is not able to utter a human word that seems to trigger his ultimate attack.[41] Further, the frog is also harmless since it has no cognitive thought to participate in the battle which is being unfolded before its eyes. Vegeta sees Ginyū’s body fleeing with both his arms and legs on the ground, as if he is a quadruped. Vegeta demands an explanation for Goku as to what has happened, to which the latter responds that the Ginyū is a frog and the frog beside them is now Ginyū. Vegeta tries to squash it with his foot, as with expected from Vegeta. Goku, however, tells Vegeta to leave him alone for Ginyū as a frog cannot do harm now, which is also expected of Goku. Vegeta normally does not care, but this time he decides to leave Ginyū as a frog alone only because it amuses Vegeta to think how degrading it would be for Ginyū to continue to live in a body of a frog than getting killed right there. Little do they know that this innocuous and a rather natural act of ‘forgiving’ the enemy would come back to cause troubles later on.
Vegeta can easily defeat Goku and his allies at this moment, but he would not do that as he is fully aware that Frieza would sooner or later come to kill him. Vegeta knows that Goku is in the same ship, and Frieza would try to eliminate them all. In order to fight against Frieza, Vegeta reasons that he needs Goku’s full power on his side, and he knows that Goku would not betray his expectation even though Vegeta might. This shift of focus Vegeta is able to command shows yet another remarkable aspect of who Vegeta is. He is able to reason with maximal efficiency in order to achieve what he wants to achieve – and for that, he can get himself detached from the personal sentiment and put on hold the desire to kill the Earthlings. Goku also understands this and explains to incredible Gohan and Kurillin that Vegeta would not attack them now, for they now have the common enemy to fight against, at least for the moment. Here, Vegeta went from being a rogue to teaming up with Gohan and Kurillin, and from deceiving them for his own gain to steal the dragon balls to healing and helping them.
Vegeta takes Goku into Medical Machine in order to heal Goku for the battle against Frieza, and he also prepares Gohan and Kurillin the battle suits so it would increase their defense. Here, something inexplicable happens as Vegeta suddenly has a headache. It is explained in the anime that it is due to not having had enough sleep, which is nonsensical since everyone else is on the same schedule.[42] Indeed, this sudden excuse for Vegeta to fall asleep is nothing but a poorly construed juncture between one stage to another in the show. This inconsistency with the otherwise perfectly consistent scenario did not go unnoticed by the author himself, for the author of Dragon Ball Z makes Gohan pout, “How could Vegeta possibly take a nap when Frieza might come attack us at any moment” as Vegeta goes inside the spaceship.[43] It is a gimmick, even by the author’s standard, to move the story along. For had Vegeta not fallen asleep, Gohan and Kurillin would not have been able to grant the wish to bring Piccolo back in the subsequent episodes. And that would have clogged the story from going forward. I do not believe that there is a good explanation for this that makes sense anecdotally, unlike the other seemingly ad-hoc explanations seen throughout the series, which actually do play an instrumental part in carrying the story forward.
Kurillin then leaves for the Eldest to get the password for activating the dragon balls. Vegeta, in the meantime, decides to nap for half an hour, believing that the dragon balls would not be used until Kurillin comes back from the Eldest, for Kurillin had said he would be back in two hours. Vegeta sets an alarm in half an hour and goes to sleep. This rationale makes perfect sense, to wake up before anything happens. While the reason for falling asleep now and not some other time is still unclear, the time management becomes the key in unfolding the successive events.
In the meanwhile, Frieza had met with the Eldest and believes what Nail, the servant and the guardian of the Eldest, has told him; that if the Eldest dies, the dragon balls also cease to be, as they are created by the Eldest. Frieza is thorough at executing actions, but there is one fatal weakness that is made apparent in Frieza, time and time again. When flying to the Eldest, he saw Dende fly into the opposite direction, but did not do anything and let him go perhaps because he thought the child would not know the password or he deemed him as some harmless vermin, just as when he thought years back when he saw a Saiyan capsule spaceship pass by as he was on his way to destroy Planet Vegeta.[44] Just as that time when he destroyed the Planet Vegeta, he let go of a small fry unharmed. This, as we know, turns out to influence the fate of Frieza in the end. For the first time he let go of the Saiyan spaceship, Goku was inside it and was headed to Earth. The growth of Goku would necessarily mean the destruction of Frieza’s empire – again, the seed had already been planted before even the story began with Raditz. At that very moment when Frieza let go of Goku in the capsule spaceship, because he thought it was nothing but some vermin destined to achieve nothing, Frieza would have to face with what becomes his greatest enemy on Planet Namek. Similarly, his letting go of Dende decides the fate of Frieza, for it was Dende who brought the password for the dragon balls to Kurillin and Gohan, which would not have made any positive difference if Vegeta had not gone to asleep. As it can be seen, there is a variety of plotlines intertwining so intricately that even one small change in the story would have made things go completely a different way. Hence, that Frieza would have acted in the way he acted is supported by his previous action in the similar situation. It was a pattern one can see in Frieza’s overconfident arrogance since the time immemorial. It would have been rather contradictory to Frieza’s character had he stopped and killed Dende, and just as it was predestined that Frieza would let Dende go in pursuing his main object, so it was predestined that Frieza would allow the eventual rise of Goku against Frieza when he let go of the son of Burdock.
Frieza entertains Nail by lynching him, being careful not to kill him. This is because there are only three Namekians left on the planet who may know the password to activate the dragon balls: The Eldest, Nail and Dende. He thinks Dende as a non-being and sees the Eldest to be emaciated almost to the verge of dying, which would endanger the whole enterprise of collecting the dragon balls. Naturally, then, Frieza cannot kill Nail, and Nail knows it. This is why Nail keeps getting beaten in order to buy time so that Dende would arrive at where the Earthlings are and tell them how to use the dragon balls. Finding out that Nail had been playing him, Frieza becomes infuriated and frantically returns to his spaceship, shouting “The one who makes his wish come true is I, Frieza-sama, and not some lower-class vermin!”[45]
iv: Frieza as Totalitarianism in Power
As Kurillin hurries towards the Eldest, he finds Dende approaching to tell him the way to use the dragon balls. According to Dende, the password must be spoken in Namekian language. This further limits the access to the dragon balls exclusively to the Namekians or those who speak the language. Without a single Namekian left, then, the dragon balls cannot be used at all. Kurillin and Dende arrive at the spaceship, where they meet Gohan. They decide to bring the dragon balls further away from the spaceship while Vegeta is asleep so that even if Vegeta wakes up, noticing Shenlong, they could buy some time. Realizing, however, that Frieza is on his way at an incredible speed, they hurry and summon the dragon out of the dragon balls. What has come out of the dragon balls is a far larger, grandiose dragon, different in shape from the one on Earth. Dende tells them that it is called Porunga, meaning, ‘the god of dreams’, in Namekian. Porunga tells them that he can grant any three wishes within the realm of possibility. This is different from Shenlong on Earth, for Shenlong only grants one wish and there is no qualification as to what wish can be granted. Further, although Porunga can grant three wishes, unlike Shenlong, Porunga can revive only one person at a time. This forces Kurillin and Gohan to change their wish from the initial wish to revive all that were killed by the Saiyans on Earth. In consultation with Piccolo, who spoke to them in mind through Kaiō-sama, they decide to resurrect Piccolo for the obvious reason that once Piccolo is resurrected, the god on Earth will get resurrected as well as the dragon balls on Earth. Since there is no limitation on how many can get resurrected by the dragon balls on Earth, all can be resurrected by using Earth’s dragon balls. Piccolo makes a further demand that they transport him to Planet Namek so he too could fight alongside the Namekians against Frieza. This is an understandable sentiment since Planet Namek is his home planet and everyone has been eliminated by Frieza. However, if Piccolo dies again, the dragon balls on Earth too will disappear.
In the meantime, Frieza is approaching at an incredible speed, which is detected by Vegeta who wakes up with the presentiment since Goku is not yet fully recovered and Frieza is already nearby. Vegeta hurries to check the outside, when he notices that the sky is dark on the planet where there is no night. He immediately senses that he has been played, and the Earthlings have used the dragon balls instead of him. Infuriated with being deceived, Vegeta frantically flies towards Porunga. As soon as he arrives at the dragon balls, he loses himself in anger for ruining the only chance to defeat Frieza, i.e. to make Vegeta immortal. Gohan tells him that there is one more wish that can be granted, which calmed down Vegeta. Now Dende is torn between making the villain, Vegeta, immortal or get killed by Frieza. Kurillin asks Dende to grant Vegeta’s wish, as it is the only chance to get through this predicament. This seems natural as it happens, since wishes that can be granted do not include eliminating an enemy that far exceeds the power of Porunga or Shenlong himself, as is explained in later episodes. However, one can easily think of another way to get through this situation when given time, for reinstating Goku to the full power would make a good wish as well.
Just as Dende speaks to Porunga, the dragon loses its light and gets dissolved into sand, turning the seven dragon balls into mere stones. The Eldest has died. What is worse, Frieza has just arrived at the scene, utterly enraged at seeing the chance of his becoming immortal is prevented. Frieza increases his power with rage, to which Vegeta responds with anxious countenance. Kurillin and Gohan are completely despaired, expressing how helpless they feel in front of Frieza. Frieza then smiles and says, “Did you think mere three ants could ever defeat a dinosaur?”[46] Demonstrating total terror and sheer magnitude of his power, Frieza makes himself seem invincible. Vegeta, however, judges the situation differently and believes that he has a chance of winning if Kurillin and Gohan also fight alongside with Vegeta against Frieza. Vegeta provokes Frieza by telling him to transform, being confident that Vegeta can vie with Frieza. Frieza accepts the proposition and transforms himself to dominate Vegeta with absolute terror.
In this episode, two major transformations occur[47] – one is with Piccolo merging with Nail on his way to fight against Frieza, and the other is, as we have seen, Frieza phasing up to the form he says that has not been manifested for a long time since once he transforms, imploding his power, he cannot control his overflowing power. His normal form, in other words, serves as an armour that regulates his explosive power. This transformation is akin to the third phase of totalitarian regime, if you recall, as when it identifies the enemies as that which needs to be eliminated because their existence is contrary to the movement, i.e. objective enemy. The ‘movement’ here refers to Frieza’s universal reign, whereas the objective enemy is whoever is ideologically opposed to such subjugation.
Thus transformed, Frieza shows overwhelming power against the ‘resistance’. Kurillin fails to escape the attack, while sacrificing himself to save Dende, and is speared through by Frieza’s horn. Gohan, enraged, counters Frieza with his inexplicable power, but to no avail. Goku, in the medical machine, senses that Gohan is about to die and tries to abandon the treatment to save Gohan, when he senses Kurillin is back fully recovered. After getting thrown into the water, Dende rescued him and used his power to reinstate his health. This ability of Dende’s to cure the wounded had never been revealed until at this moment, which is why Goku is still being treated with the medical machine instead of getting treated by Dende. The recovery of Kurillin and Gohan give hope to Vegeta that it may be possible to fight Frieza if three of them fought together. Yet, the absolute terror remains invincible, and no amount of attack gives him a damage. As Vegeta and the others recognize they are no match for Frieza, Piccolo who merged with Nail arrives. Piccolo’s power has increased significantly after the merge, and it appears that the power balance has again shifted and Frieza is now on the defense. Vegeta, in the meantime, reasons that even the revived Piccolo could not win over Frieza, and it would be foolish to just wait and watch to get killed. He searches for a way to flip the situation in his favour and he makes a run for it, leaving the others behind. Here we catch a glimpse of the true nature of Vegeta, for his interest has never been to cooperate in order to defeat Frieza but only to preserve his chance of survival. His apparent cooperation was only an outward façade, and he feels no sense of remorse about leaving the others behind. Frieza, however, soon catches Vegeta and the Saiyan is utterly helpless to do anything. Piccolo pushes Frieza, but the latter is not flinching from the attacks either. Frieza tells Piccolo that he can transform two more times, increasing his power at each transformation. Wanting to give them the sense of despair, Frieza phases up to his second form. The balance of power once again shifts in favour of Frieza, and Piccolo is rendered helpless at Frieza’s merciless attacks. Gohan tries to save Piccolo, and ousts an energy ball against Frieza, only to be reflected by him. Vegeta, in the meantime, reasons that using the nature of the Saiyans to power up exponentially each time they recover from the verge of death, he could obtain a power that could render him a Super Saiyan. As inflicting injuries upon himself does not cause the power-up on recovery, he asks Kurillin to attack him so as to almost kill him.
Seeing how powerful Gohan has become since his sudden recovery, Frieza, even though he is still outpowering the others, mumbles what underlies the totalitarian principle. “The blood of Saiyans must be completely obliterated,” he continues, “although I do not believe in the legendary Super Saiyan, seeing Vegeta and Gohan growing stronger, it does not make me feel comfortable.”[48] This is because no matter how insignificant and small in numbers the Saiyans are to Frieza, Frieza at this moment deems Saiyans as an objective enemy. Indeed, Frieza is convinced that the Saiyans are not just embued with a distant possibility of becoming harmful, but they are the carriers of tendencies whose actions are spontaneous and difficult to manage. Their existence is objectively a hindrance to the universal reign under the master race – whose definition is purposefully left ambiguous and mysterious because having such a race as duly defined would lead to the sacrifice of the racial idea as such in favour of a mere nationality principle, constituting an impediment to the extermination of undesirable members among the same race.[49] This is why the race of Frieza is not explicitly mentioned or identified and Frieza is depicted rather as an irregularity in the Dragon Ball universe that demonstrates the power that is ostensibly unparalleled in history.
Frieza thus decided and proceeds to the final transformation. We may argue that this transformation is rather needless and renders his second transformation meaningless. While this may be true, we may arrange the segments into the four phrases of ascension of totalitarianism as a movement. First, we have Frieza in his normal, pre-transformation, state as the charismatic leader rising in power. At this point, we still do not know how powerful Frieza is but are certain that he possesses an unparalleled malignity and someone to be feared. At this stage, Frieza is seen as executing anyone whom he dislikes or who does not obey his command. Anyone who refuses to admit Frieza as the sovereign is eliminated and whoever resists him are obliterated without mercy. While he takes care of open enemies and those who are weak and unfit to serve him, he is convinced of his own dormant power and his leadership skill that no enemy appears too great a threat to him. However, this changes as Vegeta and others have completely outsmarted him and destroyed the opportunity for him to attain the immortality. This marks as the second phase of Frieza’s regime. He makes the first transformation and deems anyone around him as his objective enemy to be eliminated. He spares no one, for contrary to his pre-transformation self, he does no longer discriminate enemies from non-enemies. While it was possible for Frieza to let go of Dende, for instance, as a non-threat and categorize him as a flea that does not pose any ideological threat, once he has transformed, everyone around him is a potential ideological threat, i.e. objective enemy. He begins to eliminate those who around him, but the power manifested turns out to be not enough to carry out the liquidation of his objective enemies. He then makes a second transformation, which is akin to the phrase three of totalitarian regime. Here, he completely overwhelms everyone around him and his victory is made certain. So why the need for the final transformation? Just as Arendt argued that the one of Hitler’s reasons for provoking a war was that “it enabled him to accelerate the development in a manner that would have been unthinkable in peacetime,” the same can be said of Frieza, and the radicalization of the reign of terror needed to take place in order to facilitate and plant the sense of absolute fear and despair before executing the enemies. [50] The final transformation, for Frieza, then serves as an instrument of implementing fear in all around him so as to claim the total and complete domination.
While the transformation is taking place, Vegeta contrives a trickery against himself and gets Kurillin to almost kill him. This is done in hopes that Vegeta can get cured by Dende, thus as a rule, a Saiyan who is recovered from the verge of death gets his power multiplied. However, such an intention and hope were not shared unilaterally among the characters, and Dende refuses to cure Vegeta for the ethical reason that Vegeta is no different from Frieza for Dende as both of them have killed so many of the Namekians. This rather realistic choice taken by Dende defines the backbone of Dragon Ball Z series. Each character has his or her own worldview and acts in accordance with that perspective. Dende here strikes as a rather sensible and moral agent, and we as audience cannot blame him for not wanting to cure Vegeta. The emotional complexities involved in interactions among the characters become further enriched as the series continues on, as the theme of ethics plays a significant role in the overarching theme, a leitmotif, in Dragon Ball Z. However, we need not be concerned with the ethics displayed in the series at the moment, for we will have a time to discuss about this matter amply in another occasion. For the moment, it is important to recognize that each individual makes a judgment about the situations differently in accordance with their own interests. Thus, for Dende, while he felt indebted to help Piccolo, he did not feel remorse towards leaving Vegeta to die. After curing Piccolo, Dende is convinced to heal Vegeta by Piccolo and the others. It was made clear even to Dende that there was no way Frieza could be defeated without Vegeta’s help.
As soon as Vegeta is healed, Frieza completes the final transformation. His first act is to kill Dende. For he has seen Dende heal Piccolo and Vegeta, by killing Dende, Frieza secures a solid chance of defeating his enemies, leaving them without a means to recover. Furthermore, another reason for why Frieza has killed Dende so quickly, while not doing the same for the others (for he could have at any point at this stage to kill all of them at once) is laid out by Frieza himself: “Didn’t I promise you that I will make you suffer more than you could in hell?” With a voice so countenanced, Frieza continues, “but it is such a pity that I could not offer such suffering to that Namekian kid over there.”[51] Indeed, Frieza’s argument is that no one gets off the hook unless he has suffered more than humanly possible so that he would wish he were dead. This being the reason, it becomes the purpose and the aim to be achieved in this battle against the ‘weaklings’ he needs to take care of. That is to say, to cause as much suffering and terror as possible so that not even a stitch of hope may be seen. Because this has become the raison d’étre for Frieza, two things are made clear about the execution that is about to occur. First, Frieza will never kill any of them unless he has rendered them helpless and devoid of any hope first. This is exactly what the Jews were rendered in the concentration camps – they were stripped away of their trust amongst themselves and made utterly lonely so that no one would even think of saying anything to the others. When men are pressed against each other in such an extremely hostile environment that is totalitarian, they are governed by total fear and such terror destroys the space between them. This is why when we are terrified at something, we cannot move but freeze. Hannah Arendt describes it well when she says that the total terror “destroys the one essential prerequisite of all freedom which is simply the capacity to motion which cannot exist without space.”[52] For when one is terrorized, he suffocates with the inability to move. Second, in order to maximize the sense of desperation, he will kill his enemies one by one so the terror may be tasted better. Indeed, this seems to be a leitmotif in the philosophy of villains. For such a manner of conduct seems to always render them an eventual defeat, perhaps unbeknownst to whom is a universally shared belief among politicians that injuries and offences must be done all together at a stroke so they may be tasted less and they offend less, while benefits should be done little by little so that they may be tasted better.[53] However, the fact that Frieza does not finish them all at once, despite having the power to do so, is made consistent when looked at in the way described. It is often criticized that it is unrealistic that Frieza in anger would not eliminate them at once when acquiring the overwhelming power to defeat them all, especially when he would often do just that in all other previous situations. Among the most remarkable instances of which is when Frieza singlehandedly destroyed an entire planet in a battle against the Saiyans. If that was done so effortlessly, why not destroy the entire planet again, as he would later try to do, because Frieza alone can survive in the outer space? He most likely would have, had he been uninterested or indifferent towards the enemies he was facing with. However, as the weaklings have become the objective enemy for Frieza to eliminate, to cause them much suffer has also become the primary objective for him, which he could not execute if he killed them all at once. Instead, the greed to get both objectives satisfied controls the villain; both objectives, that is, to inflict as much pain as possible on the enemy and kill them, thereby enabling him to execute them at the most helpless state. This is why Frieza does not finish them off immediately but rather chooses to entertain their struggle against him because seeing the helpless making futile attempts amuses him.
In the meantime, Vegeta observes that he has acquired a power that is immeasurable having been cured by Dende. He discerns Frieza’s movement from afar and predicts his movement. Believing that he now possesses the power comparable to that of the legendary Super Saiyan, he confronts Frieza to demonstrate his full power. However, the hidden power of Frieza turns out to be insurmountable and Vegeta is soon lost in despair.[54] This is where the totalitarian aspect of Frieza is elucidated, for it is said that terror can rule absolutely over only those who are isolated against each other since isolation renders them impotent and isolated men are powerless by definition.[55] Frieza hence has first isolated his opponents against himself so that he would make them believe that no individual power could threaten his reign. This is depicted in the first battle scene after Frieza has reached his final form when no matter Piccolo, Gohan and Kurillin makes a move against him, not even a single attack is hit on Frieza. Even when the powered-up Vegeta confronts Frieza, he is soon rendered helpless and realizes that he too is no match for him. This realization not only debilitated Vegeta’s own will to fight but also shattered all hope into pieces for the remaining actors. In this way, Frieza has successfully created an impasse into which they are driven and where all inclinations to act together in the pursuit of a common objective is destroyed.[56] While the others may have felt isolated, compelling them to be deprived of motion, Vegeta alone has tasted an even more bitter and humiliating defeat. All his life, he was treated as an elite whose combat power was incommensurable to the likes of him. He was raised as a prince and had an absolute conviction and faith in his own potentiality as a supreme ruler. Yet, he is treated like vermin by Frieza and, for the first time in his life, he felt utterly uprooted and superfluous, i.e. lonely. For loneliness differs from isolation in that the latter puts a spatial or qualitative division among the actors, further demonstrating in this case a difference in power, while the former happens when there is a loss of faith in oneself. Loneliness is also different from solitude, for solitude requires one to be alone “whereas loneliness shows itself most sharply in company with others.”[57] The most distinctive feature of a lonely man is the lack of duality, or differently put, loneliness is having the quality of non-duality. Solitary man can find himself to talk with, which is how all thinking is conducted. I am talking with myself and having a dialectical conversation with myself to find a next move. In solitude, indeed, “I am ‘by myself,’ together with my self, and therefore two-in-one, whereas in loneliness I am actually one, deserted by all others.”[58] This duality in oneself distinguishes solitude from loneliness and this is why in solitude there is still room for change, i.e. movement. This is why Piccolo and the others are able to maintain their sanity even when seeing Vegeta brutally beaten; for however desperate and hopeless they may feel, they are always looking for a way to come up with a solution as long as they believe in their ability to act, i.e. move. A lonely man indeed thinks everything to the worst, and he therefore loses trust in himself as the partner of his own thoughts and whatever potentiality there was in him is utterly severed from its source.[59]
v: Frieza’s Liquidation of the Objective Enemies
and the Transcendent Super Saiyan
What is probably one of the most revealing and arresting moments in Dragon Ball Z series happens at the episode 87, where Vegeta dies as Goku arrives at the scene, facing against Frieza. This scene demands some close analysis, for it is central to the overarching narrative Dragon Ball Z is trying to articulate. Goku arrives just as Frieza is trying to finish off Vegeta, when Frieza recognizes some semblance in Goku with someone he has seen before. Hearing Vegeta call Goku by his Saiyan name, Kakarrotto, Frieza immediately recollects an old memory from when he destroyed Planet Vegeta, executing all Saiyans sparing a few elite ones as his servants. Goku seemed identical to the one who had resisted against Frieza until the very end. In the flashback to follow, in combination with the previously given information, we learn that Goku is the son of that very Saiyan who had resisted against Frieza to the end.[60] At this very moment, the intricately intertwined history among the three becomes apparent to the audience. The three completely different lives, or perspectives of the world, that were mutually exclusive up to this point coincided. Indeed, the seed had been already planted a long ago before any of them had any connections with one another and that seminal principle had been unfolding to bring about this moment pregnant with packed history that could only be described as a destiny that is pre-established. They are the stories of Frieza who had long been manipulating the Saiyan race for his own benefit and who, as soon as they became nuisance to him, eliminated the king as well as the most of the Saiyan race, making the Saiyan race the objective enemy to be obliterated; of Vegeta who has been enslaved even after Frieza had murdered his father, King Vegeta, and whose pride could not forgive him for being made obedient to Frieza by power, and swore to himself that he would someday defeat Frieza by his own Saiyan hands; of Goku whose father had once stood up for the pride of the Saiyans and resisted the army of Frieza knowing fully well that there was no chance against Frieza, but sacrificed everything for the sake of Saiyanhood. Frieza has a personal grudge against the Saiyans, whose race must be eliminated from the universe because they disgraced him by disobeying him. Vegeta’s pride as the prince does not let Frieza go without paying for the price of treating the proud Saiyans as vermin. Goku’s sense of justice cannot forgive Vegeta for his wrongdoings of the past but it also recognizes that Frieza is a threat to all beings and cannot allow him to continue killing the innocent lives any longer than he already has. All these stakes are presented to the audience with the context in which they stand, that is to say, Frieza stands at the top of the hierarchy, while Vegeta is at the verge of death and all he could do is entrust his pride to Goku so Goku the Saiyan could make Frieza pay for what he has done. Goku, on the other hand, remains somewhat indifferent to the past conflicts and whatever political intricacies he may be unwittingly involved in, yet he stands firmly with his own principle that he cannot let the defenseless get killed right before his eyes. This is all expressed well when Goku speaks to now deceased Vegeta, “I can now understand that it is not that Frieza killed all the other Saiyans that upset you,” Goku carries Vegeta’s corpse, “but it is rather the fact that you had been used and treated like garbage by that guy that was truly humiliating.” Goku then buries Vegeta gently, still speaking to him, “Although I hated you for what you have done to the innocent people, you never forgot the principle-like pride as a Saiyan. I will inherit some of your pride as a Saiyan.” Goku then slowly stands up, facing Frieza, and speaks to him resolutely, “I am the Earthbound Saiyan; and for the sake of those Saiyans who were slaughtered by you, and for the sake of those Namekians who lived on this planet, I will abolish you.”[61] In this way, the historic battle begins.
Not surprisingly, Goku and Frieza seem to be on the par with each other at the first glance. But immediately, Goku notices that Frieza cannot read qi when he sees Frieza ousting energy balls at random. As we have discussed earlier, this is a significant downside for Frieza, for the ability of be able to read qi is tantamount to the ability to be able to attend to one’s own surroundings so as to make a better judgment of the situation. We have seen time and time again where detecting or sensing qi has played a significant role in determining one’s place in the large scale of things. This was the case with Vegeta, when he acquired this ability, and again this was the case with Kurillin and Gohan when they were able to escape detections from their enemies. For to read qi energy is to read another’s mind; you can predict or discern with accuracy what the other person is thinking, thereby enabling you to think ahead of their actions. Even with this advantage, Goku finds himself on a defense when Frieza uses the natural environment to his advantage. While Goku is aiming specifically at Frieza and targeting the focal point of damage on the enemy himself, what Frieza seems be doing is simple destruction. Frieza entertains Goku by erupting the volcanic magma underneath the ground and observes how Goku deals with it. Goku manages to put down the magma, rather than paying attention to his opponent. The Saiyan tells Frieza not to go rampage on destruction on someone else’s planet because ‘it might break.’[62] Here in this episode, what you see is not a long and tedious battle scene where nothing happens, as often Dragon Ball episodes are allegedly criticized. Instead, this entire episode illustrates by means of how they fight what each of them cares about the most. At the same time, it shows both the strength and the weakness of Goku, just as Frieza revealed his inability to use his mind’s eye to track his opponent’s movement. On the superficial sighting, we see that Goku is not at all at his full power and that he is still enjoying the battle. This, however, can be easily said of Frieza who has not been out of his breath. Superficially seen, this episode has shown the back and forth of attacks from each side, neither of them inflicting any meaningful damage to one another. However, what has been here revealed is significant. For, as has been mentioned, the fact that Frieza cannot read qi (and he will never learn how to) is consistent with his destructive behaviors and attests how self-concerned he is. Reading qi requires one to discern the salient features about one’s own surroundings, as if to harmonize and sympathize with the environment, creating a room for morality. Frieza has shown himself to be the destroyer who cares nothing but himself. What about Goku? Was he just playing along to help Frieza make his argument that he is invincible and pure evil? We will see that such is not the case, and that Goku has also shown himself to possess the complete opposite qualities of Frieza. The moral advantage of Goku over Frieza goes without saying, as it is the premise of the series. It is not important that Goku is a moral agent but what is important is how he is a moral agent. Just as Frieza caused the volcanic eruption underground, the first action Goku took was not to chase after Frieza, but to put down the eruption so as not to enlarge the damage to the planet and the surrounding nature. Immediately afterwards, Goku raises a concern to Frieza that the latter might be inflicting an unnecessary damage to the planet. This is what differentiates Goku from Vegeta, for instance, since Vegeta would have focused rather on striking Frieza than wasting energy on suppressing a volcanic eruption. What truly draws a sharp distinction between Goku and Vegeta, or Goku and Frieza, for that matter, is that Goku shows a genuine concern for the others and those that surround him, may they be people or nature. This quality in Goku, however, is detrimental, according to Vegeta, for him to acquire the power necessary to defeat Frieza. Indeed, to become the legendary Super Saiyan, it is said, one must have the absolute cravings for power and cruelty. This is why Vegeta could not help but be in disbelief when Goku told off Frieza that there was no reason for Frieza to have shot Vegeta in the chest who had already been rendered helpless. “Are you not a Super Saiyan?” Vegeta asks as he takes his last breath away “You fool! Be cruel and discard any concerns for others, and you would have been able to become a Super Saiyan.”[63] Even though Goku swore to the Saiyan pride and seems determined to defeat Frieza, Goku has no intention of quitting who he is for a legend he has no interests in taking part in. This episode which shows the battle between Goku and Frieza not only reveals the thesis and the sacrifices Goku needs to make if he were to transcend himself, but also the weakness of Goku that we know it has been there all along. It is both the weakness and the strength we all have loved in Goku yet at the same time it is what Goku needs to lose in order to grow stronger as a Saiyan.
The following few episodes are similarly structured theatrical device, as it were, to keep us in suspense. Both Frieza and Goku try to figure out the weaknesses of each other and begin testing each other current limit. I say ‘current’ limit, as they both are working under the restricted power so as not to consume much energy without necessity. This is a framework of consistently displayed both in the show and in real politics, as has been argued before. For no state would and should expend all its energy from the very beginning to eliminate its enemy due to the strategic calculation that one should always conserve one’s energy just in case an unexpected coup d’état should occur. Defeating the enemies with its minimal strength necessary has an added benefit of making the state look merciful and rational as well as resourceful in power, acting as a deterrent for unprovoked attacks from other states. It is only when the proper assessment of the enemy has been completed that one decides how much energy to expend for this or that specific opponent. This being the case, Frieza declares to Goku that even considering the power in Goku yet to be unleashed, only half his maximum power is needed to obliterate Goku. Frieza’s power indeed far surpassed anyone’s imagination, and Goku is accordingly toyed with by Frieza.
Now, this concept of quantifying one’s power is not new in Dragon Ball Z, with Scouter, having already been introduced, whose function is to measure up one’s combat power in quantifiable number. However, it is somewhat strange to know and be able to tell exactly how much percentage of one’s maximum power is being used at any given moment.[64] There is no other reason for why Frieza keeps mentioning his power increases incrementally but as a theatrical device of keeping us in suspense. Thus told, we as the audience are also convinced that Goku is no match for Frieza and is left without an option. Frieza can easily eliminate Goku, but he would not do so for the reason already explained above, or in the words of Frieza himself, so Goku can “experience the fear that is incomparable to that in the hell.”[65] Indeed, after showing Goku how easy it is for Frieza to finish him off in just one shot, he tells Goku in despair, “Don’t you worry, I will not finish you off instantaneously, because that would not dissipate the humiliation I had to suffer.”[66] Then Frieza wonders how best to make him suffer and experience a slow and painful death. Goku keeps getting beaten helplessly and sinks into the water, when he sees the possible future in which Goku is lost and everyone he knows is exterminated by Frieza on Earth. The thought of losing everyone else, rather than of him losing the battle against Frieza, revives Goku’s strength. This is where the strength of Goku springs from, as it has always been. The primary and crucial difference between Goku and the others he has fought against is that the former fights for the people he cares about, thus getting sympathetic force from them, as it were, while the latter simply fights for themselves. Hence, it is fitting that Goku’s realization that he cannot win the battle against Frieza leads him to the use of Genki-dama, the only possible option to defeat evil, that is to say, by means of pleading others for sharing their power with him.
Now, the very source of power in Genki-dama comes from outside the agent who uses it. This means that the amount of energy being gathered upon is variable and thus creating a chance of overturning the situation. Since Frieza lacks in the ability to sense qi energy, the time it takes to collecting the energy does not threaten the chance of attacking him with it unbeknownst to him. With his hands over his head, Goku is trying to gather as much energy as possible from the neighbouring planets and all forms of life available, but Frieza becomes increasingly irritated at seeing Goku planning to do something but does not actually amount to any predictable action. To Frieza, Goku’s act of attracting the energy seems nothing but an incomprehensible act of spontaneity. This is why Frieza mutters with a look of disdain, “It has always been that there is no knowing what Saiyans are thinking, which annoys me.”[67] Frieza has consistently been uneased by those whose intent or actions he cannot comprehend. This makes sense when seen in light of the foregoing argument that Frieza embodies the principle displayed by a totalitarian regime, for as Arendt has amply discussed, to have spontaneity is to have an individuality. One cannot be spontaneous without having the capacity of motion, which in turn is impossible without space in which such motion takes place. It is by destroying this very space between men that total power can be safeguarded, for man’s power and potentiality lie in nothing but the ability “to begin something new out of his own resources, something that cannot be explained on the basis of reactions to environment and events.”[68] Indeed, from the totalitarian point of view, “the fact that men are born and die can be only regarded as an annoying interference with higher forces,” precisely because the freedom, i.e. to be spontaneous and exercise one’s will autonomously, “is identical with the fact that men are being born and that therefore each of them is a new beginning, begins, in a sense, the world anew.”[69] After all, it is this spontaneity that prompted Piccolo to risk his own life to make time until Genki-dama is completed, and it is the same display of spontaneity that Kurillin and Gohan ambushed Frieza just as he was about to finish Piccolo off. And thanks to their effort and the combinations of ‘spontaneous’ actions, each of which by itself could not have deterred Frieza from carrying out his plan to eliminate them, Goku was finally able to complete his ultimate attack, Genki-dama.
Frieza is subsequently gulped by the huge energy ball that is Genki-dama and disappeared into abyss. For a moment, the battle seemed to have ended with the four of them barely alive. It was when they were about to collect Bruma and leave the planet for Earth that Frieza lurked out of the lake, severely damaged and infuriated. One by one, Frieza slowly but surely eliminated the ones still alive. Piccolo sacrificed himself to save already defenseless Goku, and Kurillin was blown up in front of Goku, his best friend. It is these series of events that has taken place in a matter of moment that triggered Goku’s inner power to explode, turning him finally into Super Saiyan. The mechanics of this transformation is simple yet intricate. As has been stated in the second chapter of this paper, Goku transcended his own limit by being forced to realize his own powerlessness to protect those whom he cares about. It was the anger that existed only in potentiality until that moment that was awaken and actualized its potency. That the power lay hidden as potentiality is evident, since even the transformation by means of transcendence cannot involve a logical contradiction. Although the power achieved after the transformation could not have been conceived of possible before the change occurred, it is not a contradiction to say that such power never could have existed. This is demonstrated amply in history when a monarch reigned supreme before a revolution, yet the citizen body achieves to overthrow that absolute power in a display of anger. It makes a perfect sense, then, that anger plays a pivotal role in awakening the inner ability that is potential. However, surely Vegeta must have been angered when he was defeated by Goku in the beginning of the series. Gohan must have been angered by seeing Frieza kill the Namekians. Yet, they did not become Super Saiyan by simply incited to be angry. There must, then, be some other components to the secret of becoming Super Saiyan other than just being angered. What could they be? We can get a glimpse of the integral ‘parts’ of what made this transformation possible in the very moment when this transformation happened. Indeed, those who were left until the end did not happen to be alive until the very end. They also served a purpose, a telos. When we look at the whole sequence of the events from Frieza’s final transformation till the transformation of Goku, it becomes apparent that all the deaths of the main characters happen when this sequence began. Although Frieza had been infuriated from the very moment he found out that the dragon balls turned into stones, no one actually suffered death until Dende was killed when Frieza completed his final transformation. Dende’s death created the sense of despair as it showed that no one could be healed anymore and that Frieza had dramatically powered up to the point that no one even saw clearly what had happened when Dende was killed. Then Vegeta fell, who had amply demonstrated the true nature of the Saiyan race through his actions and the genealogical significance of being a Saiyan. However tragic their deaths may have been, neither of them had an intrinsic presence in Goku or who he is as a complex human being with a history. This was not the case with the rest of the people still left. Kurillin is so intertwined with what made Goku who he is today that his existence is inseparable with the personal history of Goku himself. Piccolo, similarly, signifies the reason why Goku sought after power, which made him who he is today that Piccolo’s absence would make Goku without a telos, an end in sight. When Goku sees them perish, whose lives have been integral and essential to Goku as a person, it is not difficult to imagine how devastating and how powerless Goku must feel. The worst part is that Goku was not without something to lose yet, even after the loss of his two best friends. Gohan was still alive, his own son, who may be killed mercilessly in front of his eyes as well. With this sense of despair and powerlessness he feels in not being able to protect the ones he cares about most, along with the realization that he might lose what is literally a part of himself, Gohan, the factors strong enough for a transcendental transformation are laid out.
Thus transformed Saiyan showed an overwhelming power incommensurable to that displayed by Frieza. Frustrated and fearful, Frieza asks Goku what he is, to which he responds, “Like you don’t already know,” he smirks, “I am the one who came from Earth to defeat you, a legendary warrior with a gentle heart, who was awaken by rage, I am Son Goku the Super Saiyan.”[70] Here, finally, Goku recognizes the reason for which he came all the way from Earth, confirming the destiny, a thesis, that was pre-established via soft-determinism, that is to say, a conclusion that was a natural sequence of the manifold of unfolding events that are inclined without being necessitated. It has become apparent even to Frieza that he does not have the power to defeat Goku. The choice Frieza took takes Goku by surprise, for he has decided to destroy the planet instead of fighting against a giant he cannot win. However, fearing that he himself may not survive the explosion of the planet, his energy ball ousted downwards to the core of the planet fell short of power to destroy the planet at that immediate second. This did not mean that the planet would survive the damage, however. Frieza tells Goku that in a matter of five minutes or so, the planet would implode to turn to dust in the universe, in which only Frieza could subsist without suffering corruption of his self.[71]
The final battle ensues for the next several episodes, eventually exhibiting the invincibility of the transformed Saiyan. Frieza is cornered and puts all hope in his flying disks that could cut anything into pieces. The choice of the attack already shows that the battle is over – for such an attack requires no show of force, as it displays independency from the one who created it. This is why Kurillin used the same tactic against the Frieza who had just completed his first transformation earlier in the episodes. These flying energy disks can lacerate anything regardless with the power dynamics. At the same time, some continued attention is required to be in control of the disks, which regulates the local mobility, rendering the user defenseless against the close combat. In other words, this type of technique is only suitable for an ambush but is disadvantageous when the enemy is fully cognizant of your whereabouts. That is exactly what happens in the next sequence, for Frieza is forced to engage in a close combat, losing control of his energy disks, which results in getting himself lacerated by his own attacks.
Ripped into pieces, Frieza lay on the ground, helpless. Just as Goku is about to leave the scene, Frieza implores Goku to save him. Goku, in his conflicted mind, decides to share his energy with Frieza so the latter could at least have a choice as to what to do with the life given to him. Goku’s action is admirable and worthy of analysis since what he did is to give someone who has used up his freewill for evil a second chance to reflect on what he has done and offer him a fresh start with which he could make a different choice. Indeed, all what has occurred in the preceding episodes have been inclined to occur by the choices one has made and the effects they have suffered. In this way, it could be said that the eventual defeat of Frieza is a logical sequence of the kind of life Frieza has led so far. Goku, however, by sharing his power with Frieza, wonders if Frieza would make the same choice given that he now knows how those people whom he had oppressed must have felt. Goku was hopeful that Frieza would choose a different path, knowing that the one he has taken inevitably leads him to the miserable death. However, it is a theme and a leitmotif in the Dragon Ball Z series that the evil stays evil and one could not have acted in any other than he actually did.[72] So it is with Frieza that, upon regaining the energy, he makes the exact same choice that he had made in the life he had led up to his defeat. Frieza ousts his final attack against Goku, but as was presaged, Goku strikes him back and defeats Frieza completely.
[1] EP103, translation mine.
[2] Again, see my initial thesis that the seed had already been planted at the very beginning of Dragon Ball Z. See my footnote 2 and 4 for soft-determinism.
[3] There will be names of the characters derived from fruits as Frieza’s subordinates are often named after fruits (see my short analysis of the meanings of the naming in Dragon Ball Z at https://isseicreekphilosophy.wordpress.com/2017/07/07/appendix-i-categories-of-races-and-the-meanings-of-the-names-in-dragon-ball-z/ ) and logically, they are the descendants of Tsufurians that once the Saiyans destroyed. However, there are many conflicting information with regard to Tsufurians and Dragon Ball Z never explained fully what their history and roots are. Tsufurians are mentioned once in EP20 when Kaiō-sama explained Goku what the Saiyans are, but even his explanation on Planet Vegeta is later contradicted by every character, and even Dragon Ball Z as a series has completely disregarded Kaiō’s version of description consistently. Tsufurians more often appear on games derived from the anime, but their roots are never revealed. So to make sense of the story more consistently, I will refer Frieza’s underlings whose names are derived from fruits as Tsufurians, though with some reservations.
[4] Arendt, p.373
[5] Special episode Dragon Ball Z: Bardock the Father of Goku.
[6] See my footnote 22.
[7] EP46
[8] See for my another article on the meaning and significance of the names in Dragon Ball Z at https://isseicreekphilosophy.wordpress.com/2017/07/07/appendix-i-categories-of-races-and-the-meanings-of-the-names-in-dragon-ball-z/
[9] EP48.
[10] See my footnote 23.
[11] Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, Part 1 Ch.13, p78
[12] Ibid., p76.
[13] EP49
[14]“sama” is a suffix used in Japanese to pay utmost respect and dedication to the person whose name comes before the suffix. It may be adequately translated as Dear Leader, or Our Beloved Sovereign, in English. Translation mine. See EP52.
[15] Hobbes, Leviathan, p.76. italics mine.
[16] EP52.
[17] See my footnotes, 22 and 74.
[18] Dragon Radar is an invention of Bulma’s on Earth specifically to locate the dragon ball’s whereabouts. This is how Bulma met Goku in the beginning and it has played a pivotal role in finding the dragon balls throughout the seasons. It detects the faint electromagnetic pulse that the dragon balls emit. See the very first episode of Dragon Ball or the first volume of the comic book, p25.
[19] EP55, translation mine.
[20] EP56, translation mine.
[21] Ibid.
[22] EP57, translation mine.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Ibid.
[25] Machiavelli, The Prince, p.48.
[26] Machiavelli, The Prince, 48.
[27] EP58, translation mine.
[28] Kant, Perpetual Peace, p.107, 110. See also my footnotes 54 and 55.
[29] EP63. Note that Vegeta actually uses the word ‘war’ in his dialogue. Translation mine.
[30] EP64, translation mine.
[31] EP65, translation mine.
[32] Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Bk. IV, 3, 1123b28-31.
[33] Hobbes, Leviathan, I, xv, 21-22. 96-97.
[34] Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Bk. IV, 3, 1123b31-32.
[35] Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, Part I. X, 3.
[37] See G.W. F. Hegel, The Philosophy of History, p.57, for instance, to see how the history, i.e. story, is unfolded rather teleologically while maintaining its indeterminacy and freedom.
[38] Ibid., 25-26.
[39] Ibid., 63.
[40] Ibid.
[41] On a first glance, this too seems utterly illogical that an attack cannot be activated unless the word designating such an attack has been vocalized. However, in the history of philosophy, this issue finds its close example in the Christian doctrine of transubstantiation. For transubstantiation of the body and blood of Christ into the bread and wine, too, is said to be officiated only through a spoken word, for (Aquinas on how the priest needs to finish his word to make the act effective). See, Aquinas.
[42] See Episodes 73-74.
[43] See Episode 74.
[44] See the special episode, Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – the Father of Goku.
[45] See EP74.
[46] EP76. Translation mine.
[47] EP78.
[48] EP83, translation mine.
[49] See Arendt, 412, where she explains “[t]he Nazis did not think that Germans were a master race, to whom the world belonged, but that they should be led by a master race, as should all other nations, and that this race was only on the point of being born.” Further, she cites the prohibition of the term ‘German race’ decreed by Hitler himself on August 9th, 1941 for the reason stated, i.e. having such a concept would deter him from actively selecting and exterminating who is fit to lead, etc…
[50] Arendt, 410.
[51] EP84. Translation mine.
[52] Arendt, 466
[53] Machiavelli, 38.
[54] EP85.
[55] Arendt, 474.
[56] Ibid.
[57] Arendt, 476.
[58] Ibid.
[59] Ibid, 477.
[60] The name of the Saiyan who fought against Frieza and who is the de facto father of Goku is Bardock (for the significance of the name, see my article https://isseicreekphilosophy.wordpress.com/2017/07/07/appendix-i-categories-of-races-and-the-meanings-of-the-names-in-dragon-ball-z/). The story of Bardock the father of Goku is told in a special episode called Dragon Ball Z: A Lonesome, Final Battle – The Father of Z Warrior Son Goku, who challenged Frieza, originally aired on October 17th, 1990, in between the episodes 63 and 64, where Goku had not yet arrived in Planet Namek.
[61] Goku quoted in episode 86, translation mine. The language used in Japanese here by Goku is quite strong relative to Goku’s character. Even though here Goku does not use the words like ‘kill’ or ‘obliterate’ but only ‘punch you down’ (buttaósuぶっ倒す), the implication here is quite obvious that he means to kill, for Goku rarely uses a violent language in all seriousness.
[62] EP87.
[63] EP87, translation mine.
[64] Frieza not only roughly introduces the percentage of how much power he is using, but also later on he is quite specific about what his uppermost power limit is. See, for instance, in the comics chapter 321, where Frieza narrates how much percentage of his entire power is being unleashed. Further, in EP97, Frieza tells Goku that he was using only 70% of his overall power, and starts counting the increase in his power by one percent unit.
[65] EP84, etc. translation mine. Frieza repeats the similar statements several times often at the junction of each transformation. See Frieza for instance in EP77, “I will never forgive you for ruining my plan, I will slowly lynch you all to death!” when he has arrived at the scene where the dragon balls have become stones; in EP82, “I shall have you taste the utter and absolute despair,” telling Piccolo before the second transformation; in EP83, “You can suffer the fear incomparable to that in the hell” before making his third and the final transformation; in EP84, “Didn’t I promise you to make you suffer more than you could in the hell?” after the completion of his final transformation.
[66] EP91. Translation mine.
[67] EP92, translation mine.
[68] Arendt, 455, 457.
[69] Ibid., 466.
[70] EP95.
[71] EP102. The reason for this is not made clear, and we must rely on Frieza’s own admission that he could exist in the outer space as well as Kaiō-sama’s words that support Frieza’s claim. This is, however, consistent with how Frieza has been depicted in the series, as when Frieza destroyed Planet Vegeta, we see him go out of his spaceship and throws his energy ball towards the planet from outside the spaceship. This however does not explain why Bardock, Goku’s father, and the other Saiyans who seemingly were also in the outer space to fight against Frieza, could also maintain their lives. The best explanation that could be offered for this may be that although it does seem to us like everyone one was in the outer space (because we were seeing the whole situation from the perspective of Frieza’s), the Saiyans were in fact still at the outer limit of the atmospheric sphere and were not in fact in the outer space.
[72] This dictum remains largely true throughout the entire series, with a minor exception in the Boo Saga at the end of the series, which deals primarily with ethics and the concepts of good and evil. There, one can see that the definition of goodness and evilness is far more elusive and complex than it has heretofore been expressed.
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