Episode 27 of Dragon Ball GT, first broadcast in Japan on November 6, 1996 and titled The Attack on Vegeta in Funimation's dub, is the turning point of the saga. Baby finally reaches his real target, Vegeta, and before claiming his body he tells him where he comes from: he is the heir of the Tuffles, the race the Saiyans wiped out. In the same episode Goku finds the last Black Star Dragon Ball and can at last head home.
Summary
At Capsule Corp., Goten is sick in bed, looked after by Chi-Chi and Videl. Gohan, with Baby inside him, senses Vegeta's energy and takes off. The prince is driving Bulla home after a shopping spree. When two guys in another car start hitting on his daughter, Vegeta rips off their steering wheel and sends them flying into the ocean.
Farther down the road, Gohan plants himself in front of the car and destroys most of Bulla's new clothes. Vegeta sends her home alone and stays behind to face him. Baby introduces himself: he is a parasite the Tuffles created before the Saiyans annihilated them, and his mission is to revive his race by taking over other bodies, starting with Earth and then spreading across the universe. The extermination was led by King Vegeta, which makes his son the first target of Baby's revenge.
Vegeta turns Super Saiyan and takes control of the fight, so Baby calls for backup. At Capsule Corp., Goten wakes up, remembers his date but nothing after it, drinks a glass of water and is seized by violent pains: the parasite still controls him. He reaches the battlefield and offers to help, which Vegeta refuses with his usual pride; the moment the prince turns his back, Goten fires and cuts his cheek.
Realizing both brothers are in the enemy's hands, Vegeta unleashes his full power to knock them out. That is exactly what Baby wanted: he leaves Gohan and slips into Vegeta's wounds. The parasite explains that he can spread through his hosts' bloodstream and keep controlling them even after leaving, as Gohan and Goten prove. Vegeta holds out longer than the others, but in the end he gives in, and his body begins to change. Meanwhile, on the icy planet Polaris, Goku falls into a hole and comes out holding the Two-Star Ball: the crew has all seven and sets off back to Earth.
Our take
This is the episode that gives the whole arc its meaning; fittingly, Toei names the arc after "Baby the avenger." The Tuffle reveal turns a lab-grown monster into something more interesting: a survivor who wants to pay the Saiyans back for the genocide of his people. And the fact that Vegeta is the one who pays, for his father's crime, adds a weight the prince had never had to carry before.
Baby wins by exploiting his opponent's most recognizable traits. Vegeta turns down Goten's help out of pride and then, to wrap things up quickly, goes to full power. After his stint as Majin Vegeta in Dragon Ball Z, the prince once again becomes the face of the villain.
There is also some stock to take. Toei's first plan envisioned about twenty-six episodes of planet-hopping; here, at episode 27, the quest ends with a fall into a hole, almost a shrug. From now on GT stops being a space adventure and becomes a war fought at home.
Trivia
- Written by Daisuke Yajima and directed by Yoshihiro Ueda, with Kazuya Hisada as animation director.
- Funimation's dub premiered in the United States on January 23, 2004. In the Japanese version Baby vows to kill Goku for standing in his way; Funimation's script points his revenge at Vegeta instead.
- Starting with this episode, the ending theme becomes ZARD's Don't You See!.
Did you know? From episode 27 the opening animation was also revised: scenes with Baby were added and the final group shot was replaced by Super Saiyan 4 Goku, eight episodes before the form debuts in episode 35.