Nail's Warning

[Ajay]

It never struck me until quite recently that much of the tragedy in the mid-Freeza arc is down to Nail's final words prior to being left for dead by Freeza.

He informs Freeza that he was essentially distracting him whilst Dende made his way to Gohan and co. to give them the password for the Dragon Balls. Following this reveal, Freeza then zooms off at full speed and well...we know what happens next.

I'm not too sure how I really feel about this. Obviously there has to be a catalyst for the proceeding events, but for Nail to prematurely reveal his intentions, it seems somewhat out of character.

You could chalk it up to wanting to see Freeza's face as he realises his plans are slipping away from him - and I'm fairly sure that is objectively the reason but it doesn't sit quite right with me.

Toriyama isn't a perfect writer so it's to be expected but I'm curious, what do you guys think?

[Monkey D Goku]

He probably did want to see the look on Frieza's face but maybe he also thought that the Earthlings had already been granted their wish.

[TheGmGoken]

Maybe the Earthlings had ogt thier wish is what Nail was thinking.. Also Nail just wanted to see Freeza's reaction. To bad it makes Freeza piss.

[Ajay]

I guess my question is more 'How do we feel about Nail's arguable stupidity here?'

Would it have made much difference had he kept the act up?

[TheGmGoken]

I guess my question is more 'How do we feel about Nail's arguable stupidity here?'

Would it have made much difference had he kept the act up?

Vegeta would had killed Krillin and Gohan would either shit himself in fear or get a rage boost. So either Vegeta vs Freeza would happen or Gohan, Piccolo, and Goku vs Freeza

[TheMightyOzaru]

I feel Nail's intention was to see Freeza's face. I'm pretty sure he knew the Earthlings had the dragon balls too, otherwise he wouldn't have said anything.

[rereboy]

Even without Nail's warning, Freeza would still know something was wrong when the sky turned black, so he would still would head for them. Freeza would arrive a little later but he would still find them, especially since Krillin and Gohan couldn't just abandon Goku. Therefore, Nail's warning didn't hurt them at all.

As for why he did it, he did it to mock Freeza. He knew that he was dying and he also knew that the Great Elder was dying and that the Earthlings were very close to get their wishes. And he also probably guessed that once the Dragon appeared and the sky turned black Freeza would know he had been deceived. So he judged safe to reveal that information to Freeza at that moment just to make him angry and mock him. And he judged correctly since Freeza was unable to prevent the wishes from being asked despite his warning. The earthlings didn't get the third wish because the great elder died, not because Freeza stopped them.

[Saiga]

Porunga died before Freeza arrived anyway, so it wouldn't have made a difference if he had said anything or not. However, it was pretty stupid of him to do so. He should have known the Dragon hadn't been summoned yet because the sky didn't turn dark, unless he didn't know about that. Would be somewhat surprising if he didn't know that much about the Dragon Balls though.

[mAcChaos]

Freeza was the one who killed his people and tortured him. He just wanted to stick it to him before he croaked.

[SuicidalZerg]

I feel like they would have gotten their third wish. Wasn't it Freeza's Ki speeding towards them that woke Vegeta up in the first place?

[Godo]

If he didn't, he wouldn't be alive long enough to be able to fuse with Piccolo.
Although he didn't know Piccolo was going to be there...maybe he had a feeling,
Either way, I too believe that it was to mock Freeza, and that it was already too late for Freeza to do anything,

[mAcChaos]

The way this stuff in DBZ works though compared to other series is that if you take away one tiny setback, they become screwed later on in the show.

[TheOverlyMadHatter]

That did always bother me... But he might've been able to sense Dende's Ki next to Gohan's and Kuririn's, so it would only be a matter of a few minutes before they summoned Porunga. Or he simply calculated how long it would take for him to reach them.

And hey, if Freeza had seen that he'd been crossed, he might've taken the time to kill Nail, therefore preventing any Piccolo-Nail fusion... Not that I think he was planning on that.

[ThePrinceOfSaiyans]

I think it was Nail's way of saying "You have beaten me, but you have not won. You have lost."

I don't think Nail would of meant any harm to Dende or Gohan and Krillin.

[Dark Red Z]

I thought it was easy enough to interpret as

"Too bad, you wasted so much time with me that they're far enough to make their wish by now. You're too late to stop it. YOLO"

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Even without Nail's warning, Freeza would still know something was wrong when the sky turned black, so he would still would head for them. Freeza would arrive a little later but he would still find them, especially since Krillin and Gohan couldn't just abandon Goku. Therefore, Nail's warning didn't hurt them at all.

This. Really the question isn't on Nail, it's whether or not Dende would have actually made Vegeta immortal. If we do keep it on Nail, I think he wanted to be selfish for once in his life and see Freeza feel like he's not in control for the first time since he landed on Namek, particularly given how Freeza beat him.