Episode 49 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on May 23, 1990 and titled The Prince Fights Back in Funimation's uncut 2005 dub (Secrets Revealed in the Ocean/Saban version), ends Dodoria's career in the most ironic way possible. The butcher of the Namekians, caught alone, falls into Vegeta's hands and tries to buy his life with a secret: the Saiyan homeworld was not destroyed by a meteor, but by Frieza. It does him no good.
Summary
Dodoria cannot find Krillin, Gohan and Dende hiding among the rocks, and loses his patience: one massive blast levels the whole area, and he leaves convinced they are dead. The three got clear at the last second. Krillin asks Dende whether he can fly, and the young Namekian says he can.
Back in the cave, Bulma is in the bath when her father calls on the radio. She tells him the aliens already have four Dragon Balls and the ship is wrecked, and Dr. Brief reassures her: Goku is on his way and will reach Namek in six days. Out in space, Goku trains at twenty times Earth's gravity and then raids the fridge.
On his way back, Dodoria grumbles that finding villages without scouters will take forever and wonders if they should just blow up the planet. That is when he is blindsided and knocked into the water. It is Vegeta, who has been waiting to catch him away from Frieza and Zarbon. Dodoria demands his scouter, so Vegeta drops it and crushes it under his boot. He can sense power levels on his own now and no longer needs one.
Dodoria remembers Zarbon's warning about Saiyans growing stronger after every near-death experience. Panicking, he unleashes a barrage of blasts, but Vegeta reappears behind him and pins his arms. To save himself, Dodoria offers a secret: Planet Vegeta was not destroyed by a meteor. Frieza blew it up. The Saiyans were useful while they turned into Great Apes and conquered planets for him, but they kept getting stronger, and the tyrant feared a rebellion. So he wiped out the race, the planet and its king, Vegeta's father.
Vegeta lets go and says he does not care about his planet, his father or his people. What he cannot stand is having been bossed around for years by Frieza, Zarbon and Dodoria. Dodoria tries to flee into the sky calling for his master, and Vegeta obliterates him with a single energy wave.
Our take
The revelation about Planet Vegeta is one of those pieces of mythology that give the whole series depth. In two minutes we learn that the Saiyans were Frieza's soldiers, that he exterminated them out of fear, and that Vegeta grew up serving the man who murdered his family. It is a story the franchise will keep revisiting for decades.
The most interesting part, though, is Vegeta's reaction. He claims not to care about the Saiyans' fate, and maybe he means it: what burns him is the humiliation, not grief. His pride is entirely personal. But the fury with which he annihilates Dodoria betrays something more, and anyone who knows how the saga goes knows that wound will resurface at the least expected moment.
Dodoria, for his part, exits the way he lived: strong with the weak, servile with the strong.
Trivia
- Written by Katsuyuki Sumisawa and directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi. It adapts chapter 256 from page eight and chapter 257, with a 20.7% ratings share.
- In the Japanese version, this is the first time Vegeta's title of prince of the Saiyans is spelled out, by Dodoria explaining why Frieza spared him. The English dubs had used it much earlier, in the Saiyan Saga.
- It was the last episode dubbed by Creative Products Corporation in the Philippines.
Did you know? An anime-only flashback in episode 104 shows that, years earlier, Nappa had already told Vegeta that Frieza was behind the destruction of their planet, and that the prince did not care at the time.