Episode 116 of Dragon Ball, first broadcast in Japan on June 22, 1988 after a week off the air and known in the English dub as A Taste of Destiny, wraps up the ice labyrinth trial. The original title asks whether Master Roshi was alive all along: he was not, and Darkness plays on exactly that hope to test Goku. Once he sees through the trick, Goku drinks the Ultra Divine Water, while up on the surface King Piccolo hands the world over to chaos.
Summary
Inside the labyrinth, Goku and Yajirobe split up. Goku comes face to face with Master Roshi, alive and cheerful, who leads him to a Kame House nestled in the heart of the cavern. Waiting inside are Yamcha, Bulma, Puar, Oolong, Launch and Turtle, all smiles and kindness. His friends beg him to forget about the water and King Piccolo and to stay with them, where it is safe.
Goku will have none of it. That kind of resignation is nothing like his friends, and he realizes he is looking at an illusion. As he turns to leave, the fake Roshi attacks him. The fight goes badly from the start: the old master keeps the upper hand even when Goku gets serious. Meanwhile Yajirobe, who was chasing a lizard to eat, tumbles into a ravine and lands right on top of Goku. The two end up dangling over the edge of a cliff.
The fake Roshi rains blows on Goku and hits him with electric shocks, but the boy refuses to let go. Then the cave shakes and every illusion fades. In its place appears Darkness, master of the labyrinth, who has seen enough: recognizing Goku's strength and resolve, he hands over the Ultra Divine Water. First, though, comes a warning. It is a deadly poison: fourteen warriors drank it before him and none survived. The water awakens hidden power, but only in those who truly have it.
Goku knows there is no other way to beat Piccolo and drinks without hesitation. A moment later he clutches his throat and collapses in agony. At that very moment, on television, King Piccolo celebrates his rise to power: he abolishes the police and every law, and invites criminals all over the world to do as they please.
Our take
Darkness's trial is crueler than any monster, because it strikes at what Goku has just lost. Master Roshi died only a few episodes ago, and the labyrinth hands him back smiling, along with a house full of friends offering the simplest thing of all: stop fighting. Goku's refusal is the real test he passes. He does not recognize these friends because he knows the real ones too well, and none of them would ever ask him to give up.
The episode also works as a bridge back to the manga. The whole illusion sequence is original, but the second half follows the heart of the chapter, the warning about the poison and the choice to drink, which in the anime comes after a real struggle and gains weight as a result.
The ending weaves two falls together: Goku on the ground, poisoned, and a world surrendered to crime. It is a simple, effective cliffhanger.
Trivia
- According to Kanzenshuu, the episode adapts pages 1-8 and 12 through the end of chapter 151 of Akira Toriyama's manga. It drew a 16.7% ratings share in Japan.
- In the Japanese version, Darkness says fourteen people drank the water before Goku, making him the fifteenth; the Funimation dub lowers the number to thirteen.
- In the original Japanese broadcast, the closing preview gave only fifteen seconds to the next episode: the other fifteen went to a ticket lottery for the film Mystical Adventure, released in theaters on July 9, 1988. The Dragon Box release swaps that preview for the rerun version.
- The script is by Michiru Shimada; Daisuke Nishio directed and storyboarded the episode, and Tomekichi Takeuchi supervised the animation.
Characters
- Goku
- Yajirobe
- Darkness
- Master Roshi (illusion)
- Yamcha, Bulma, Puar, Oolong, Launch, Turtle (illusions)
- King Piccolo