Why did Vegeta turn to stone?

[Silver Sinspawn]

I think this may be an over-asked question, and it was mentioned in the latest podcast, but, why did Vegeta turn to stone after blowing himself up to try defeat Buu?

I can't find any logical reason besides the vague, Dabura is in possesion of a time machine, and went forward in time to spit on Vegeta. Yeah, that's literally the best I've got.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

I think he turned into semi-compacted ash or something instead of actual stone, because once he hits the ground, everything blows away way too quickly IMO. As for why he turns to ash? I assume because he literally burned up all the ki/life force in his body to fuel the explosion, so all that was left was the ashy remains of the Saiyan prince.

Perhaps Toriyama was inspired by Pompeii or something, I dunno. lol

[SuperForteX]

I think he turned into semi-compacted ash or something instead of actual stone

This is my opinion as well. In the manga, anyway. In the anime it's harder to argue this, because he actually shakes the ground and makes a deep crashing sound when he impacts (like the stone Dragon Balls did in the Freeza confrontation.)

I'm guessing that Toei just misinterpreted what Akira Toriyama was going for in that scene. Going by the manga, I'd say he was just burned up into ashes. Sometimes if you don't ash the end of your cigar for a long while, it stays in the same shape as the cigar, and looks like it has some substance to it, but then you ash it, and it crumbles away into fine soot.

[Michsi]

I always assumed it was just a consequence of Babidi's magic.

Whatever ther case I felt it had a stronger emotional impact than if he had left a body behind or he head simply evaporated duting the blast.

[sanorin]

I agree, is not stone, but ash. I remember seeing this clearly in the manga, and later I saw it in the anime and thought they had done it wrong, with that stone look.

[kaialone]

is remains are easily blown away afterwards its gotta be ashes.while he did made a *thump* sound when he landed,that was anime-only

[Bussani]

This always kind of reminded me of people suddenly turning into salt. Very biblical.

But yeah, I always saw this as more of a "release all of your ki/life force in one go" attack than what we'd normally think of a self-destructing attack, and for some reason, I always thought him turning to ash was a result of that, rather than the attack itself nuking him or whatever.

[TonyTheTiger]

The first thing I thought of when seeing that scene was near the end of Super Metroid when you see all the metroid's victims crumble into dust. So I agree with above posters that dust/ash is really what it's supposed to be.

[SylentEcho]

Made this same topic earlier:

http://daizex.fanboyreview.net/viewtopi ... ne#p334886

I think these threads should be merged.

[dragondyle]

My theory has always been that he unleashed all of his energy and life force that pretty much left him dry.

[Deity]

In my opinion, I guess it can't be anything else other than visual effect, because there would be no reason for his clothes to do the same thing as his body. So I prefer to think that in-universe that couldn't happen but to get the feeling of what happened (he used up all of his energy/life force, all of it until there was nothing left) they drew him like that. That's what I prefer to believe, even as an in-universe explanation. But only because I can't find a reason for his clothes to turn to stone too lol.

[TonyTheTiger]

In my opinion, I guess it can't be anything else other than visual effect, because there would be no reason for his clothes to do the same thing as his body.

Unless it was the energy itself that burned him up that way.

[Pantalones]

If Goku can get ki for the Genki Dama from stars/planets, inanimate objects, and plants, then why couldn't Vegeta's clothes have been pushed to release whatever ki was in them when he used that attack?

I mean, clothes are generally made of either inanimate objects, plants, or parts of dead animals. I doubt anything on Vegeta's combat suit at this point in the series (made of that blue/black skin-tight spandexy-looking stuff) came from a dead animal, so that just leaves the two options that have already been shown to have at least some amount of ki in them despite not being able to move or do much of anything on their own. And if Vegeta using up all of his ki at once made him ashify, his clothes doing the same thing should probably have the same result.

...or it could be that all the energy coming out of Vegeta's body just fried the clothes into ash in the process. That works too.

[Silver Sinspawn]

Then why does it happen to Vegeta, and not someone else who was to do the same?
I know it may be different, but Saibamen don't turn to ash, they just kind of disappear.

[Herms]

Then why does it happen to Vegeta, and not someone else who was to do the same?
I know it may be different, but Saibamen don't turn to ash, they just kind of disappear.

After that Saibaiman self-destructs to kill Yamcha, you can see part of its arm by Yamcha's body, so the attack blew its body to pieces. I suppose blowing yourself to bits may be different than releasing all of your ki the way Vegeta does. Perhaps Vegeta's just so good that he's worked out the most efficient and powerful way to self-destruct, or something.

[Kaboom]

Perhaps Vegeta's just so good that he's worked out the most efficient and powerful way to self-destruct, or something.

Must have taken a lot of practice.

[sanorin]

Perhaps Vegeta's just so good that he's worked out the most efficient and powerful way to self-destruct, or something.

Must have taken a lot of practice.

LOL

Vegeta, teaching this technique to Trunks:

-Now, pay attention, I will only do it once.

[Deity]

If Goku can get ki for the Genki Dama from stars/planets, inanimate objects, and plants, then why couldn't Vegeta's clothes have been pushed to release whatever ki was in them when he used that attack?

I mean, clothes are generally made of either inanimate objects, plants, or parts of dead animals. I doubt anything on Vegeta's combat suit at this point in the series (made of that blue/black skin-tight spandexy-looking stuff) came from a dead animal, so that just leaves the two options that have already been shown to have at least some amount of ki in them despite not being able to move or do much of anything on their own. And if Vegeta using up all of his ki at once made him ashify, his clothes doing the same thing should probably have the same result.

...or it could be that all the energy coming out of Vegeta's body just fried the clothes into ash in the process. That works too.

I can see Ki being gathered from plants trees sun, even the seas rivers animals, but in my opinion a shirt doesn't have Ki, same as a computer, or a wall, etc, for me they don't have Ki.

[kaialone]

-Now, pay attention, I will only do it once.

*snicker*

[rereboy]

If Goku can get ki for the Genki Dama from stars/planets, inanimate objects, and plants, then why couldn't Vegeta's clothes have been pushed to release whatever ki was in them when he used that attack?

I mean, clothes are generally made of either inanimate objects, plants, or parts of dead animals. I doubt anything on Vegeta's combat suit at this point in the series (made of that blue/black skin-tight spandexy-looking stuff) came from a dead animal, so that just leaves the two options that have already been shown to have at least some amount of ki in them despite not being able to move or do much of anything on their own. And if Vegeta using up all of his ki at once made him ashify, his clothes doing the same thing should probably have the same result.

...or it could be that all the energy coming out of Vegeta's body just fried the clothes into ash in the process. That works too.

I can see Ki being gathered from plants trees sun, even the seas rivers animals, but in my opinion a shirt doesn't have Ki, same as a computer, or a wall, etc, for me they don't have Ki.

Kaio states that Goku can collect energy from inanimate objects, so they have some sort of energy, even if its not living energy.