Episode #0159 (11 January 2009)

[VegettoEX]

Lastly, I had a question, and it might be a stupid one. If you never ask, you'll never know, right? Right. Mike mentioned the Spanish DVD cover art and said it was of Vegeta in his "Final Bout" pose. I took this to mean the image from the game's opening, where he has on the blue sleeveless shirt, with arms crossed and hair blowing forward in the wind (a hair position we don't see too much from Vegeta). This image can be found on the animation stills gallery on this very site.

Not quite the image we were thinking of. We were actually talking about a specific image from the Final Bout instruction book. It's in both the original Japanese as well as American books, though this particular scan is from the Japanese:



For a quick comparison, here's that Spanish DVD cover art we were discussing in the episode:



There's a slight difference in the smirk on his face, but it's otherwise the exact same image, really. Hope that helps! And further proves our insanity for knowing this shit!

[The Tori-bot]

I can't believe nobody's mentioned that the image of Piccolo is also from the Final Bout manual.

Mike, you have no excuse, you even took a scan from the darn thing!

[VegettoEX]

I can't believe nobody's mentioned that the image of Piccolo is also from the Final Bout manual.

Mike, you have no excuse, you even took a scan from the darn thing!

I guess the Vegeta one is just more memorable...

[The Tori-bot]

I can't believe nobody's mentioned that the image of Piccolo is also from the Final Bout manual.

Mike, you have no excuse, you even took a scan from the darn thing!

I guess the Vegeta one is just more memorable...

Come on, you know it can never leave your subconsious...

The folded arms... the threatening glare... then one night you wake up screaming, sweat pouring from every gland in your body as the demonic eyes of Piccolo bore and burrow into the depths of your mind... he is there... now... watching...

Waiting...

*has to take his medicine now*

[VegettoEX]

If it makes you feel any better, I'm constantly saying in an imitated faux-Clint Eastwood voice, "Now... should I clean the trash of the universe...?"

[B]

"La Saga De Boo"

Awesome.

[jda95]

"La Saga De Boo"

Awesome.

Whenever I say it out loud, it sounds French.......

[nimerjm]

After I posted about Vegeta's Final Bout pose, it occured to me that it would either be the one I was think of, or the one you guys were referring to. Thanks for clearing that up.

And also, thanks for the replies on my Freeza-related missteps in the series. I don't know how, but I missed the Dodoria conversation. Luckily, I'm almost to that point in my annual re-watch of the series, so I'll be on the lookout for it.

[Joey Batz]

Mike, one dispute I have with your assertion in the otherwise great podcast that Vegeta's line about the "rumors being true" (referring to Guldo's ability to stop time) is sloppy writing. The way I see it, it makes sense.

What we have to remember about Frieza is that he's not just some bad guy with a bunch of henchmen (though that's the image we are often left with, especially thanks to the dub in my eyes). He and his followers constitute an actual interstellar government. And all governments, even open governments, classify certain information and documents as "top secret". The Ginyu Force seems to be something of a Special Forces/Navy SEALS-ish squad (note how much more powerful they are than even Frieza's closest advisers, Zarbon and Dodoria). It's not too far out to imagine, in this context, that Guldo's powers (along with the rest of the Ginyu Force's abilities (such as Captain Ginyu's ability to suppress his power level which seems to be unheard of throughout Frieza's empire, and his ability to body-switch which Vegeta seemed to be completely unaware of) would fall under that "top secret" category. Heck, I'd bet that few outside of Frieza, his advisors and government officials, and the elite warriors of his empire have even HEARD the conspiracy theories about this rumored special fighting squad named after dairy products.

I'd imagine you can probably throw Frieza and Zarbon's ability to transform and the true facts behind Planet Vegeta's destruction in the classified folder as well. But whatever the case, it doesn't seem like sloppy writing to me (or maybe it is. I doubt Toriyama thought it through this far). It really makes sense when you think about it. I guess the real question would be how Vegeta just up and knew that this super secret military squad was conquering Planet Yardrat (or maybe the real question is what other awesome techniques do the "weak" people of Yardrat have that allowed them to fend off the Ginyu Force).

[Herms]

What we have to remember about Freeza is that he's not just some bad guy with a bunch of henchmen (though that's the image we are often left with, especially thanks to the dub in my eyes). He and his followers constitute an actual interstellar government.

Not really; they're more a business. They sell the planets they target, rather than rule them. Freeza will keep a planet as his own if he personally likes it, but even then he doesn't rule over the inhabitents, as all the native inhabitents have been wiped out. Rather, he just uses it as a base for his men, like with Planet Freeza No.79.

[Joey Batz]

What we have to remember about Freeza is that he's not just some bad guy with a bunch of henchmen (though that's the image we are often left with, especially thanks to the dub in my eyes). He and his followers constitute an actual interstellar government.

Not really; they're more a business. They sell the planets they target, rather than rule them. Freeza will keep a planet as his own if he personally likes it, but even then he doesn't rule over the inhabitents, as all the native inhabitents have been wiped out. Rather, he just uses it as a base for his men, like with Planet Freeza No.79.

I like to think he does a little of both, and that his empire is a large government that also conducts major business transactions (not unlike the United States and other world governments, really). Otherwise, it's not really an "empire", is it? Of course, the word empire, I believe, was never used in the manga. Whatever the case, I don't think we could ever really know the concrete answer since, in the grand scheme of things, we really don't see much of Frieza and his men (we see them on Namek, yes, but we don't really see to much of him ruling/buying/selling/destroying planets outside of filler).

[Tanooki Kuribo]

And further proves our insanity for knowing this shit!

If it's any consolation, I thought that too. But also connected the Boo image to this:



(Yes, I thought of the Super Famicom game evern though, originally a still from an episode where he blows up a city or something)

[nimerjm]

And Raditz' claim that Planet Vegeta was destroyed by a meteor, rather than by Freeza.

It's pretty clear that Dodoria considers the fact that Freeza destroyed Planet Vegeta to be a big secret, so apparently the meteor thing was their cover-story.

Oop. And so, upon rewatching those episodes, I now understand. I'm not sure how I managed to miss/overlook/forget about this having been through the manga and anime at least five times a piece, but there it was - plain as day. I guess I'll have to quit watching the subtitled show why doing other stuff.

Thanks for the answer, tho!

[Tekkaman-James]

"When Photoshopped Clipart Goes Bad."

I love how Piccolo just disappears below Buu's elbow.

Also, nice work on spotting the lifted image of Buu, Tanooki Kuribo.