Episode 83 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on March 20, 1991 and titled Another Transformation? in Funimation's dub, brings the battle on Namek to the edge of the abyss. Gohan frightens Frieza enough to make him play his last card, Vegeta carries out the craziest plan of his life, and Dende must decide whether to save the man who wiped out a village of his people.
Summary
Gohan flies at Frieza to save Piccolo. His kick misses, but the boy keeps going and unleashes an energy wave so powerful that the tyrant struggles to push it back; for a few seconds it looks as if Gohan might drive him into the ground. Then his strength gives out and Frieza sends the blast back at him. Piccolo, with the last of his energy, takes the hit and saves his pupil's life.
Frieza is rattled. The boy's power is growing far too quickly, and a suspicion takes shape: he might be a Saiyan. Frieza remembers sparing only Vegeta, Nappa and Raditz, and wonders whether Gohan could be Raditz's son. The thought of the Super Saiyan legend convinces him not to take chances, and he begins transforming into his final form.
Meanwhile Vegeta lays out his plan to Krillin: if Krillin brings him to the brink of death and Dende heals him, he will become much stronger, enough to beat Frieza or at least hold out until Goku arrives. After some hesitation, Krillin blasts a hole straight through him as Gohan and Piccolo look on in shock. Vegeta drags himself over to Dende, but the young Namekian refuses: he has not forgotten the village the prince slaughtered. He leaves him there and rushes to heal Piccolo instead.
Once healed, Piccolo persuades Dende to save Vegeta as well: with Goku still out of action, it is their only chance of holding off the tyrant. To overcome Dende's reluctance, he promises that once Frieza is beaten, he will kill Vegeta himself to avenge their people. Frieza, however, has seen everything and realizes how Krillin and Gohan kept getting back up. Dende heals Vegeta, who shoves him aside for stalling. Frieza's transformation completes, and far away, in the Medical Machine, Goku feels his power explode.
Our take
This is an episode of moral choices more than punches. Vegeta's plan is cruel and brilliant at once: he turns Saiyan physiology, which grows stronger after a brush with death, into a weapon and forces the others to become accomplices. The moment Krillin shoots him is one of the most disturbing in the saga, precisely because a friend pulls the trigger.
Dende's refusal is even more interesting. For the first time a character says openly that Vegeta does not deserve to be saved, and the show does not argue. Piccolo's compromise, the promise to kill him later, makes the alliance even shakier and more tense.
Frieza's guess about Raditz is a delightful detail: the tyrant has never met Goku and is trying to make the pieces fit with the information he has.
The anime adds a panicking Bulma as the landscape around her warps from the tyrant's power, and makes the transformation more graphic, with the third form cracking until it crumbles away.
Trivia
- Written by Katsuyuki Sumisawa and directed by Yoshihiro Ueda, with Masayuki Uchiyama as animation supervisor.
- It adapts chapter 303 and most of chapter 304, with a 23.6% ratings share.
- In Funimation's dub, Frieza has no idea who Gohan's father might be, and Piccolo persuades Dende using Nail's voice rather than promising to kill Vegeta. The Kai dub restored the Raditz detail.
Did you know? In the Japanese version, Frieza justifies his final form as caution: Gohan and Vegeta are improving too fast and the Super Saiyan legend worries him. The original English dub dropped that motivation.