Episode 17,"Son Goku: Retarded? One Bump Too Many!" ... er, I mean, "The Fierce Dawn... Star of Hope Is Piccolo's Birthplace"
*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: Just as Kuririn is about to finish Vegeta off with Yajirobe's sword, Goku pleads for him to let the Saiyan prince go, out of desire to fight him again someday. Hesitantly, Kuririn complies, and Vegeta blasts off in his pod ship. Master Roshi, Bulma, Chi-Chi, and Karin arrive, and pick up Goku and the others. They also put the bodies of Yamcha, Tenshinhan, and Piccolo in storage. Kuririn comes up with the idea of going to the planet Namek, where Kami originated, and using their Dragon Balls to ressurect their dead friends. Kaio gives them the coordinates, but Bulma says it's too far using even the fastest spaceship available. Kuririn suggests they use Nappa's pod, since he's dead, and pulls out a controller to one that he picked up. Bulma approves of this idea and the group is determined to go to Namek. 
Comments:
After a week off, new episodes resume, and we had an interesting cliffhanger with Kuririn about to finish Vegeta off once and for all. But, of course, he doesn't, because Goku gets him to spare the Saiyan prince's life. Not because he can sense good in Vegeta, mind you, or because killing is wrong. No, Goku just wants Vegeta to survive because he'd like to get the chance to fight him later on.
Yeah.
Well, I guess he has the right to. I mean, Vegeta technically didn't kill a single person while on Earth. Nappa only ever killed one named character, and a host of nobodies in East City. One Saibaman killed Yamcha. Tenshinhan and Chaozu killed themselves, really. Vegeta shouldn't really be at fault for any of those deaths. Sure, he facilitated them in a way, but he was just crushed under a gigantic monkey and utterly humiliated. I guess that makes it easier, as a viewer, to accept sparing him. Still, Vegeta is extremely dangerous, and basically vowed to come back and kill them all, so perhaps Goku's naivate is at fault here.
Who am I kidding? It's a completely boneheaded move, courtesy, as usual, by Goku. We're talking about a guy who gave Piccolo a senzu after the 23rd Tenkaichi Budoukai. Who later gives Cell a senzu before he fights his son in the Cell Games. This guy has a sense of fair play that boggles the mind.
At least Vegeta ends up being pretty useful later on.
On another front, I know Goku is carefree and happy-go-lucky, and I'm not advocating spousal abuse, but... uh, giving Chi-Chi a shove down a couple flights of stairs would help out that marriage. Really, I can understand her intense mothering, especially considering her five year old kid just spent a year training with a demon (er, alien) to fight two killer aliens, and is now suffering from injuries from said fight. But shit, she knew this was the life she was signing up for after Goku beat Piccolo. It's her fault for bringing a kid into that sort of situation. What did she expect was going to happen? Living a nice, peaceful life in the mountains, happily ever after? Not when your husband took out an entire army as a twelve year old. To be so ungrateful to him is the unkindest punch of all.
In other words, stop being such a bitch. Goku may not be a banner husband or father, but he's sure a good... uh... where was I going with this again?
Damn is he stupid for letting Vegeta go. What an idiot.
Hey, there was an insert song! Some kind of new Dragon Ball Z insert song in this episode! It played when the bodies were being collected. It was a scene they didn't show in the Ocean dub, because, I guess when people die, they don't leave behind bodies, to Saban. The song itself isn't anything special, I'm just somewhat pleased to hear a new one.
Anyway, next week officially starts the Namek arc, with the search for a ship that can take them there. Mr. Popo gets to shine! I keep thinking to myself, what will those scenes be like when DBZ Abridged does them?
Pecking order!
Overall Score:
3 out of 5
