Episode 78 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on February 13, 1991 and titled Fighting Power: One Million?? in Funimation's dub, is where Frieza first shows what transforming really means. Before that, though, he indulges in a memory: the night he killed King Vegeta and wiped out the Saiyans' homeworld. The episode ties the Saiyans' past to the present on Namek and closes on the cruelest image the series has shown so far.
Summary
The transformation starts almost as a letdown. Frieza grows only slightly and his armor shatters, a shard nicking Vegeta's cheek. The prince scoffs: is that all? Frieza is in no hurry. First he offers Vegeta his old place in the army, and Vegeta refuses, saying he only ever obeyed while waiting for the right moment to kill him. Frieza compares him to his father and recalls how that turned out.
In the flashback, the Saiyans are conquering a planet on Frieza's behalf. King Vegeta is on edge: he has agreed to hand his son over to the tyrant, and every humiliation grates on him, especially when Frieza sits on his throne to remind him of the deal. Eventually the king leads his elite warriors in an assault on Frieza's ship. Face to face with the tyrant, his soldiers freeze in fear; King Vegeta attacks alone and dies from a single blow while Zarbon and Dodoria look on. Convinced the revolt is only the start of an uprising, Frieza destroys the entire planet with one ball of energy. Among the Saiyans who see the end coming is Bardock, Goku's father.
Back in the present, Frieza tells Vegeta that not even his father ever saw this form. Vegeta keeps needling him, mocking him for leaving the strongest Saiyan alive, with Goku in mind. Then the transformation completes: Frieza becomes a hulking giant with upturned horns and, by his own account, a power level over one million. Gohan all but says goodbye to Krillin, dinosaurs stampede and nearly trample Bulma, and Piccolo senses the jump from afar. Frieza stretches out his tail to strike at Gohan and Krillin, then charges and runs Krillin through with a horn.
Our take
The heart of the episode is the flashback, entirely added by the anime and built on imagery from the Bardock special that had aired a few months earlier. It is a valuable addition: the manga only has Frieza mention that he did not need to transform to kill King Vegeta, while here the scene comes alive and gives weight to the Saiyan genocide, the event that sets the whole story of Goku and Vegeta in motion.
The portrait of the king is worth noting. In the Japanese version he is no heroic father: he rebels because he is fed up with being belittled, and he tells his aide that his son's life means little to him. The English dub made him nobler, but the original fits the Saiyans' ruthless culture far better.
Frieza's second form is a change of register: the elegant tyrant becomes a brutal giant, and the image of Krillin impaled makes it clear the rules have changed. The anime adds the extending tail, an ability Frieza never shows in the manga, and Vegeta's cut cheek.
Trivia
- Written by Katsuyuki Sumisawa and directed by Yoshihiro Ueda, with Mitsuo Shindō as animation supervisor.
- It adapts the end of chapter 296, with a 23.3% ratings share.
- In the Japanese flashback, Frieza invites Zarbon and Dodoria to admire the "fireworks" of the planet's destruction.
- One of King Vegeta's aides is named Zorn only in the English dub.
Did you know? The flashback shows Frieza killing King Vegeta without transforming, just as the tyrant claims in the manga: the anime staged a single line of Toriyama's dialogue.