Early planet killers

[Dorexx]

Do you think Toriyama intended characters like Vegeta and Freeza, in his first form, to be capable of destroying entire planets so easily, since neither the Arlia visit and Planet Vegeta's destruction appear in manga?

Or in other words, is the manga's Vegeta capable of blowing up a planet, when he's introduced?
Is the manga's Freeza capable of blowing up a planet in his first form?

[Kingdom Heartless]

Do you think Toriyama intended characters like Vegeta and Freeza, in his first form, to be capable of destroying entire planets so easily, since neither the Arlia visit and Planet Vegeta's destruction appear in manga?

Or in other words, is the manga's Vegeta capable of blowing up a planet, when he's introduced?
Is the manga's Freeza capable of blowing up a planet in his first form?

Vegeta seemed pretty sure that he would be able to blow up the planet... although he would have been likely screwed if he had succeeded.

As for Freeza, this may have been just filler, but didn't he state at one point that he didn't need to transform to blow up Planet Vegeta?

[beast mode]

I thought Freeza could blow up Namek in any form he wanted, but didn't want to do it while he's on it since the explosion could fuck him up (or the Dragon Balls.)

[Super Saiyan Turlast x4]

As for Freeza, this may have been just filler, but didn't he state at one point that he didn't need to transform to blow up Planet Vegeta?

I think the part you're referring to is when Freeza was boasting about winning his battle with King Vegeta without the need of transforming.

[Herms]

We actually do see first-form Freeza "destroying Planet Vegeta" (in his own words) during the manga's brief allusion to Bardock.

[Kaboom]

Vegeta could supposedly have destroyed the Earth with his Gallic Gun, but we never got to see that particular attack come to fruition. So strictly speaking, first-form Freeza is the "weakest" character who's actually successfully displayed the ability to blow up an entire planet.

[Piccolo Daimao]

As for Freeza, this may have been just filler, but didn't he state at one point that he didn't need to transform to blow up Planet Vegeta?

I think the part you're referring to is when Freeza was boasting about winning his battle with King Vegeta without the need of transforming.

He mentioned both attacking the planet and fighting the King without the need to transform.

[Senzu_Bean]

I have a hard time imagine Vegeta could have destroyed the Earth cause that implies he would kill himself in the process, which I doubt Vegeta had the balls to do back then.

[Piccolo Daimao]

I have a hard time imagine Vegeta could have destroyed the Earth cause that implies he would kill himself in the process, which I doubt Vegeta had the balls to do back then.

I think Vegeta could've easily destroyed the planet with his Galick Gun. He looked pretty pissed off and threatened to destroy Goku along with the planet. Obviously, it's not a smart decision, but insanity clouded his judgement. He did the same thing when he fired that blast at Freeza, where Piccolo yelled, "Are you going to destroy the whole planet with him?!" Both times he was out of his mind.

[Bussani]

It may depend on what you mean by "destroy a planet"--or rather, when you consider it destroyed. It takes a lot less energy to crack a planet open and turn it inside out than it does to blow it to smithereens like a Death Star. If Roshi could blow up the moon, I have no trouble believing Vegeta could at least do the former.

Just to add another thought, when Vegeta recovers thanks to Dende and faces Freeza once again, he ends it by firing a blast that Piccolo implies could destroy the planet. I don't know how strong Vegeta was at that point (stronger than Piccolo but weaker than Goku?), but it was obviously far below Freeza. But that's not much different to him implying he could destroy the Earth, I guess.

[rereboy]

I have a hard time imagine Vegeta could have destroyed the Earth cause that implies he would kill himself in the process, which I doubt Vegeta had the balls to do back then.

If his attack destroyed Earth "à la Freeza" he would have a few minutes to leave. And the attack would have killed Son Goku.

[roidrage]

I've always seen it as Vegeta would destroy the core of the planet (like Freeza did with Namek) and have a few minutes to get in his ship and leave before Earth actually blows up. There are probably a number of reasons why it wouldn't work in reality, but that's beside the point.

As for Freeza, you can see in the special that the energy ball moves quite slowly, like it was going to slowly burrow into Planet Vegeta's center and destroy it from the inside. But that wasn't in the manga; either way, I think Freeza could blow up a planet in his first form, but it would take away a lot of his power. He might have to wait a bit before he tried it again.

[Pantalones]

I always thought that Vegeta (at 18,000) wouldn't really be able to completely blow up a planet, even with such a strong blast. Of course, there's more than one way to "destroy" something besides just plain blowing it all up.

Basically what would happen is the blast would do some pretty serious damage to the planet, probably blowing a giant chunk out of it, maybe even damaging the core. This would screw up the planet's atmosphere, causing all kinds of crazy weather patterns that would destroy cities and such. The sudden blowing-up of a huge chunk of the planet would cause ridiculous earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that would also destroy cities and such. Vegeta's blast would probably wipe out all life on Earth, at least within a few days, though the planet itself would still be (mostly) intact.

So basically, Vegeta's "destroying a planet" would be just like what the Saiyans had been doing for years, except much faster and more destructive to the planet's landscape (since he was thinking "gotta kill Kakkarot" rather than "gotta get this planet cleared so Freeza can sell it" at the time.)

First-form Freeza, on the other hand, could probably blow up Earth with a strong enough blast. I kind of get the impression that Planet Vegeta would have been bigger than Earth (higher gravity usually comes along with bigger planets), though, so it's possible that Planet Vegeta would have been destroyed in a more "wipe out all life with a big blast and leave the planet uninhabitable" way rather than just blowing the whole thing up all at once. Which would fit together better with the idea that King Vegeta actually tried to fight back before the planet was destroyed, and with the "big meteor hit the planet" story that Radditz and company were told.

[Dabooyaka]

Maybe he meant he could destroy the planet and make it like a nuclear bomb hit it, i mean it would be a place that humans could not inhabit....or destroy the core

[Hellspawn28]

Vegeta might have destroy the Earth with his attack but I don't think he really wanted too since if he blew up the Earth then his ship would have been destroyed which means that he has no way to travel back. He could have died in space, I can see why people view his attack as a hyperbole.

[Bussani]

(higher gravity usually comes along with bigger planets)

Not exactly true. A planet half the size of Earth with the same mass as Earth would have four times the gravity of it, while a planet double the size of Earth with the same mass would have four times less. But your general thinking is right: even though we can only guess about Planet Vegeta's attributes, it would have to be harder to destroy than Earth. Gravity's what holds a planet together, after all.

Your way of thinking is pretty similar to mine all around. Even if you can't overcome the planet's gravitational binding energy, you could maybe still shatter it and watch the pieces fall back together in a rearranged mess. I'd say calling that "not destroyed" would just be picky.

[Kaboom]

Hey, I don't know if I'll be opening up a can of worms here or not but... is it possible that the gravity on Dragon Ball's Earth is less than that on our Earth?

I mean, we've got flying cars zipping around everywhere with very little visible in ways of propulsion, we've got a moon which is potentially much closer to the planet (assuming that would matter), and we've got "normal" human martial artists jumping 50+ feet into the air via nothing but their own physical strength, just to name a few hints.

[Herms]

I mean, we've got flying cars zipping around everywhere with very little visible in ways of propulsion

DB's flying cars are powered by anti-gravity devices, according to Toriyama in Daizenshuu 4's vehicle section.

[Kaboom]

Ah, that's right. Either way, I'm sure it'd require a lot less effort on the machinery's part if there was somewhat less gravity to overcome in the first place, no?

[Herms]

Ah, that's right. Either way, I'm sure it'd require a lot less effort on the machinery's part if there was somewhat less gravity to overcome in the first place, no?

I suppose, but you could just say that about anything. Does Goku and co's ability to fly hint that DB Earth has weaker gravity? Sure it's supposed to be ki that allows them to, but either way it'd probably require a lot less effort on their part if gravity were weaker.

I don't see what problems claiming DB Earth has weaker gravity would solve that can't be solved easier and more realistically by noting that DB was never intended to be very scientifically accurate.