Current Events > You know what's really stupid about the Namek arc? Travel time on the planet.

(+) Yeah! (+)

The arc goes out of its way to show us that higher power level means faster flight. We see it with Dodoria chasing the boys, we see it again with Vegeta realizing one of his Dragonballs was stolen, and a third time when the Ginyu force arrives up on planet and arrives almost instantly.

But Frieza? He's moving comparatively slow as hell in his hover car. First on his way to Guru for the information that would literally fulfill his wish of immortality, and again when he realizes that Vegeta/Krillin/Gohan/Dende are in the act of digging up and wishing on the Dragonballs. Frieza is strong as fuck, and there's no way he's ever far enough away to travel to wherever he's going pretty much instantly at his strength. So either

1. The hovercar gimps his speed super hard and he's truly just unwilling to walk because the ground is beneath him(Figuratively and literally)
2. It's just really dumb.

DBZ superfans, which is it?

I figured it was the first one. He was just cruising around, enjoying the chaos. He doesn't care if those interlopers kill all his dudes, not really.

Then the sky goes dark and he sees the dragon and he's there like five seconds later but it's too late

Power level being relevant to speed stops mattering pretty fast after Namek

Its 1. You have to remember that for 90% of the arc, every single person on Namek was a dustmite compared to Frieza. He's not in a hurry because he doesn't really need to be.

IceCreamOnStero posted...

Its 1. You have to remember that for 90% of the arc, every single person on Namek was a dustmite compared to Frieza. He's not in a hurry because he doesn't really need to be.

Yeah, but in those two scenarios the literal reason he's on the planet is about to be taken away from him.

It's just sorta wild, because from that point forward it's all about establishing how many orders of magnitude stronger he is than anyone else who is present.

Frieza is the emperor of the universe. He does not exert himself. That's kind of an intentionally written flaw of his character. If he went to take care of Vegeta and the others by himself, he'd have mopped them all effortlessly, including Goku.

But he sent his minions, because that kind of work is beneath him. He doesn't fly himself, doesn't fight on his own, etc.

Why will the boss do any work, when the lackeys can.

Frieza uses his hovercar when he doesn't feel the need to be in a rush. On the way to Guru's, he was in possession of all seven Dragon Balls and believed that the Ginyus were capable of killing Team Three Star, removing them as a threat entirely -- he didn't know about Goku and didn't know how to sense energy to know that he had arrived on the planet.

And after "fighting" Nail and rushing back to the Dragon Balls, he wasn't in his hovercar, he was flying under his own power because now he had a reason to hurry up.

You're putting more thought into it than Akira Toriyama ever did

Raikuro posted...

You're putting more thought into it than Akira Toriyama ever did

Yes and no. He was a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants kind of writer when it comes to plot, but his character writing is usually pretty strong and consistent. Especially in the Z days.

Frieza's nonchalance is absolutely intentional. He's never been pushed like this before. He's used to showing up and having his soldiers roll over everything because they're the hand-picked strongest fighters in the universe--a universe which he rules over.

When Vegeta worked for Frieza, he was the strongest Saiyan by far, and he was barely on the level of low-tier frieza force soldiers like Cui. Why should Frieza be worried about him? Recoome alone was like 6x stronger than Vegeta used to be.

If Vegeta didn't have that cockroach-tier survivability, he would have died fighting Zarbon. Recoome would have effortlessly dispatched Gohan and Krillin...and then Goku would have gotten his body taken by Ginyu, and Ginyu would have been left with nobody strong enough to properly oppose him.

So, if not for some unforeseen circumstances, Frieza's soldiers had it under control.

Aren't a lot of villains the "fuck around until shit gets real" type in Dragonball? It's not even just the ones Toriyama thought up for the manga, all the filler movie villains are like that especially the most famous one, Broly, Everything in Dragonball is purely for the spectical rather than the logical and that's where GT failed, Super Saiyan 4 was coolio so cool that form alone managed to give birth to an entire toei run franchise exclusive just for Japan in Heroes

tremain07 posted...

Aren't a lot of villains the "fuck around until shit gets real" type in Dragonball?

I think the only one who wasn't like that was Cell (before becoming perfect)

Every action he took was cleverly designed to let him gain enough power to take 17 and 18, thus becoming perfect. That's when he started fucking around, because there's a little bit too much Vegeta in his DNA.

Then there's Kid Buu, but he barely had a personality at all, so he barely counts.

Frieza is just one of those villains that is overconfident. Multiple times he could have won and got immortality but he chooses to be cocky instead.

Freiza was a lazy bastard. He canonically never trained his entire life up to that point and very clearly relied on overwhelming power as a first and only resort.

And as he was infinitely stronger than anyone except his dad (and Beerus) as far as he was aware, he didn't care that others knew he was coming. He was an incoming terrifying presence ready to fuck up everything.

Freiza's scary as hell when you think about it, look at Goku and Vegeta now
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/8/9/AAPa_qAADlXh.jpg
They got this power through God ki and training with an Angel and a God of Destruction but Freiza, no such thing, he got Golden training by himself, he got Black training by himself, no god ki or angel or god of destructions needed yet he fodderized both of these two in an instant. The only 2 characters who have the potential to get that strong without the same benefits that Goku and Vegeta got are Broly and Gohan

tremain07 posted...

Aren't a lot of villains the "fuck around until shit gets real" type in Dragonball?

Eh, not really

First order of business for Raditz was tracking down the highest power level he could find and then he kidnapped a kid

Vegeta and Nappa also made a point of going after the highest power level before looking for any Dragon Balls, because they knew that person killed Raditz and was their biggest threat

Frieza was a spoiled brat who was used to everything going his way just because he's Frieza

Garlic Jr. who gives a fuck let's move on

Gero immediately flushed out Goku to try and kill him

16, 17, and 18 also immediately start hunting Goku down

Cell doesn't waste any time in absorbing people to get stronger while hunting down 17 and 18, and it isn't until he achieves his perfect form and is the strongest thing on the planet that he figures he can fuck around with a tournament

Babidi didn't fuck around at all before taking energy from strong fighters to wake Buu up

Buu's entire thing is fucking around because he's a manbaby who knows he's absurdly powerful, pretty sure he never even understood the concept of somebody/thing else being a threat until the Saiyans started fusing together

K181 posted...

He canonically never trained his entire life up to that point and very clearly relied on overwhelming power as a first and only resort.

Eh the Saiyans are similar, they never really really trained prior to Goku and Vegeta. They get sent to a planet and take it over by the skin of their teeth and get a zenkai boost.

Irony posted...

Power level being relevant to speed stops mattering pretty fast after Namek

Not true at all, rewatch Cell vs Goku, the entire time Goku is using IT just to keep up because Cell is that much stronger and therefore that much faster. Then SSJ2 Gohan moves too fast for Cell to track.

Irony posted...

Eh the Saiyans are similar, they never really really trained prior to Goku and Vegeta. They get sent to a planet and take it over by the skin of their teeth and get a zenkai boost.

Nobody in the multiverse even fucking lifts except Earth.

DrizztLink posted...

Nobody in the multiverse even fucking lifts except Earth.

Jiren's entire personality and backstory is that he lifts

Irony posted...

Jiren's entire personality and backstory is that he lifts

The grey buttplug is irrelevant.

it amazes me how much you guys still know and care about a retro cartoon

GuerrillaSoldier posted...

it amazes me how much you guys still know and care about a retro cartoon

I know right it's almost like we grew up with it and it was a very popular thing during our formative years

the frieza arc is the only time insane power gains worked in dragon ball

as it was all lading up to the fight with frieza which proved

they where meaningless

the entire arc the story goes on and on about how unbeatable frieza is

we have heard this before thoe

even when against "invincible" foes in the past our heroes could do damage find a chink in the armor

but frieza once he truly did seem invincible

in any other fight goku going KKX20 would have been that moment we see some damage done

but all it did is annoy frieza

it does not matter how much you train what strategy you use how high you pump up your power level

frieza is beyond you

only a legendary mythical power was able to match him soemthing beyond power levels

TMOG posted...

16, 17, and 18 also immediately start hunting Goku down

Those three are the opposite. True they immediately set out to kill Goku, but they were in no hurry to do so. Upon starting their mission they decided to hijack a car and drive there because it would be more fun than just actually flying to his house and killing him.

Irony posted...

Eh the Saiyans are similar, they never really really trained prior to Goku and Vegeta. They get sent to a planet and take it over by the skin of their teeth and get a zenkai boost.

Sure, but were comparing molehills to mountains. A strong Saiyan broke 10,000, Freizas 2nd form was a hundred times stronger.

A_Good_Boy posted...

Those three are the opposite. True they immediately set out to kill Goku, but they were in no hurry to do so. Upon starting their mission they decided to hijack a car and drive there because it would be more fun than just actually flying to his house and killing him.

Yeah but considering they were two teenagers and a robot with only half his programming it's impressive that they were able to focus that much on a singular goal

TMOG posted...

Yeah but considering they were two teenagers and a robot with only half his programming it's impressive that they were able to focus that much on a singular goal

Yeah, but 17 and 18 are the actual definition of "fucking around" lol.