"Namek's Defense" (意表をついた攻撃！！長老の狙いはスカウター Ihyō o Tsuita Kōgeki!! Chōrō no Nerai wa Sukautā, lit. "Surprise Attack!! The Elder's Target was the Scouter") is the twelfth episode of the Namek Saga and the forty-seventh overall episode in the uncut Dragon Ball Z series. This episode first aired in Japan on May 9, 1990. Its original American airdate was September 1, 2005.
Summary[]
As Gohan and Krillin watch from a cliff overlooking the village, Frieza's soldiers force three Namekian elders and two children, Dende and Cargo, out of a house. Krillin dislikes one of the men hitting the older child, Dende. Once again, he and Gohan remark on how Frieza and his men are dressed the same as Saiyans, but are not Saiyans, prompting Krillin to remember what Raditz said before, about how the Saiyans conquer planets and then sell them. Krillin therefore reasons they are members of the "planet trade".
Down below, Frieza introduces himself to the captives, and says that their scouters picked up more than just the five Namekians currently rounded up and wants to know where the others are. When the Namekians refuse to answer, he threatens them with a ki ball on his fingertip, before quipping that he overlooked his manners and forgot to add "please" to the threat.
Zarbon and Dodoria watch as Frieza explains his desire to acquire the Dragon Balls to Moori.
After a cutaway showing Goku en route to Namek and training by doing sit-ups, we return to Namek to find Frieza still threatening his prisoners. Finally, the chief elder, Moori, speaks, but does on in the Namekian Language, confusing Frieza's soldiers. Frieza is unimpressed. He says he knows that they can speak the "common tongue," prompting Moori to reply that the elders stay with the children while the young men go to work in the fields and demands to know if this is sufficient. Frieza then gets right to the point: he wants the village's Dragon Ball. Moori pretends not to know what he means.
Frieza asks Dodoria if he remembers the last Namekian who said that. At the first village they visited, the elder pretended at first not to know what a Dragon Ball was, and so Frieza had to kill a villager as an example. After this, Frieza says, the elder told him all about the Dragon Balls, how they were created by the eldest Namek, and how, in order to obtain one, he that seeks it must pass several tests first. When the elder refused to give him the Dragon Ball even after Frieza agreed to take the tests, Frieza simply killed him and took it.
Zarbon makes an example of some of the captured Namekians.
Listening in on his scouter somewhere else on the outskirts of Namek, a confident Vegeta comments to himself that once he beats Frieza to the next Dragon Ball, Frieza will not find him so easy an opponent to deal with.
Back at the village, one of the other elders says that no Namekian would ever give a Dragon Ball to someone like Frieza. Lamenting that they underestimate his powers of persuasion, Frieza commands Zarbon to kill one of them as an example. Zarbon leaps over and elegantly kicks the third elder in the neck, sending him sprawling to his death.
Dodoria, Frieza, and Zarbon continue to interrogate the Namekian villagers
The second elder, enraged, moves to attack Zarbon, despite Moori's attempt to stop him. Zarbon tosses up one of the Dragon Balls he is holding and dodges the elder's Energy Cannon, which hits and kills one of Frieza's other soldiers instead. Zarbon then kills the elder with a huge energy blast of his own. Zarbon gracefully returns to Frieza's side and brilliantly catches the Dragon Ball he threw into the sky. Looking on, Gohan is becoming angry, and Krillin tells him they have to keep their power levels down or else the villains will notice them. He says there is nothing either of them can do to help the Namekians. But Krillin himself is frustrated and angrily yanks out handfuls of grass.
Keeping his cool, Moori demands to know why Frieza even wants the Dragon Balls, prompting the tyrant to reveal he seeks immortality, the same as Vegeta. Krillin realizes Vegeta is not cooperating with Frieza, then. Moori tells Frieza to do as he wishes, but he will never give him the Dragon Ball. Frieza asks if he would change his mind if the lives of his children were at stake. Moori begs Frieza not to and shields the children even as Frieza begins lifting a finger, his soldiers moving to get out of the way.
Dodoria's scouter is activated by Gohan's power
Gohan's growing anger causes Dodoria's scouter to activate again, and he comments that he thinks they are being watched. Zarbon is in the middle of suggesting they go up and have a look when the scouter picks up a second set of power levels, coming from the distance. A trio of young Warrior-type Namekians arrives, the ones who had been working in the fields. Moori is visibly relieved, while Frieza looks unconcerned. Gohan asks Krillin if these three can help, but Krillin does not answer.
Zarbon watches as the Namekian warriors collide with Frieza's soldiers
Frieza commends the young warriors on their entrance but chides them for their tardiness. Moori could have used their help earlier, he says, indicating the bodies of the slain elders. The warriors are infuriated, and, despite Moori's warnings, challenge Frieza's soldiers to a fight. Dodoria scans each of them with his scouter, and he and the other soldiers all have a good laugh at the apparent puny reading of only 1,000. Moori, observing Dodoria's use of the scouter, realizes this is how Frieza is able to locate them and their villages. He silently vows to destroy them.
Back in space, Goku takes a break from his exercises and daydreams about food. Crawling to a porthole, he looks out into the blackness of space and says Vegeta is waiting for him out there somewhere.
Moori prepares to eliminate his targets: the remaining scouters
Back once more on Namek, all of Frieza's men except Zarbon and Dodoria are moving in on the three young Namekians. One of them, Napple, taunts them by saying they would be better off fighting old grannies. Still watching from the cliff, Krillin says the Namekians are concealing their true power, and Frieza's men do not realize it. Gohan adds that Vegeta and Nappa did not get this at first, either. They are well aware that Frieza's men cannot sense power levels and need the assistance of the scouters to indicate the power of their opponents. Suddenly, Frieza's men begin to run at the Namekians together, Napple leading the charge.
Dodoria's scouter is destroyed by a blast from Moori
Zarbon watches the scuffle cautiously as the wind slides past him. The Namekians visibly power up and the Namekian in a purple tunic kicks the Napple in the face, sending him flying past where Frieza, Zarbon and Dodoria are. He crashes through a tree and becomes embedded in a cliff. The other soldiers stop in their tracks in shock, and the Namekians take to the air. The soldiers armed with forearm-mounted laser guns fire at them in a panic and seem to destroy them. But then the Namekians emerge from the smoke and engage their opponents in hand-to-hand combat.
Gohan and Krillin watch in awe as Frieza and his henchmen face off against the Namekians
The soldiers with laser guns fire on the purple-tunic Namek, who deflects their blasts into another soldier. A Namek in an orange vest then fires at Cranberry. One of them is the man who had earlier hit Dende. An explosion sends Cranberry flying towards Zarbon, who kicks him aside and into a lake. As the Namekians continue killing the soldiers, Zarbon turns and asks Dodoria to reread their power levels. Dodoria does so and is astonished to find that their reading is now 3,000. Frieza laughs and says he is impressed, while Dodoria complains that the Namekians tricked them.
The fight continues. Gohan and Krillin cheer the Namekians on unnoticed, as do Dende and Cargo. By now all but one of Frieza's minor soldiers are dead, and Moori notices only three scouters remain intact: one lying on the ground, one being worn by a dead soldier, and Dodoria's. He tells the children to get away from him, while Frieza instructs Dodoria to step in and kill the other three Namekians. As he moves to do so, Moori fires a ki blast from his fingertip and blows Dodoria's scouter off his face.
Frieza, Zarbon, and Dodoria's profiles are shown in a statuesque manner
Dodoria misinterprets this as a failed attempt to attack him. Moori then takes to the air, prompting the Namekian wearing a cape, currently grappling with the last remaining soldiers, to wonder what Moori is doing. Moori then destroys the other two remaining scouters. Zarbon realizes this was Moori's target all along, and Dodoria becomes enraged as a result. Krillin commends the old Namekian for his craftiness, because without their scouters Frieza and his men cannot locate any more Namekian villages.
Dodoria, at this point, is boiling with anger. He is so enraged that a caption of his sharp, deadly nail is shown piercing into his finger, dripping blood. Screaming that he will butcher the Namekians and show no mercy, he flies up at Moori. The caped Namekian punches aside the soldier he was fighting and yells for the elder to watch out as Gohan and Krillin stare in complete awe.
Major Events[]
- Frieza interrogates Moori for information on the Namekian Dragon Balls.
- The Namekian Warriors show up to battle Frieza's forces.
Battles[]
- Zarbon vs. Namekians
- Namekian warriors vs. Frieza's soldiers
Appearances[]
Characters[] |
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Locations[]
Objects[]
Differences from the manga[]
- Dodoria and the Namekians are portrayed with four fingers in the manga and with five in the anime.
- Frieza charging up a Fingertip Ball to intimidate Moori and the other Namekians (as well as his sarcastically realizing he neglected his manners) is exclusive to the anime.
- Goku doing push ups on the Capsule Corporation Spaceship was exclusive to the anime.
- There's a bit where Dodoria, Cranberry, and another bear-like soldier are snickering at Moori’s helplessness. This was not in the manga.
- Appule and Frog-Face laughing at the Namekian Warriors' supposedly weak power levels of 1,000 each is not in the manga.
- The fight between the Namekian Warriors and the Frieza Force soldiers is expanded in the anime with some alterations:
- After Napple is kicked into the cliffside in the manga by the purple-robed warrior, it is the red-skinned member from Blueberry's race that is assaulted next by the white-caped warrior while Appule charges in to assist. The anime instead has the aforementioned soldier alongside Cranberry and another member of Appule's kind unsuccessfully shoot at the warriors with their arm cannons.
- Once the dust settles, another member of Napple's race, Krumbo, is the one to take the red-skinned soldier's place from the manga whilst a different light purple-skinned member of Appule's kind attempts to help only to be lariated by the orange-vested warrior, replacing the white-caped warrior in the manga, and Krumbo is subsequently tossed away. The anime depicts the red-skinned soldier being assailed after the white-caped warrior maneuvers behind and hits him once as opposed to the three hits from the frontal attack in the manga.
- The scene of the Frog-Faced soldier being fried to death by the stray laser blasts from Cranberry and the goblinesque soldier, deflected by the purple-robed warrior, only exists in the anime. In the manga, the purple-robed warrior directly kills the Frog-Faced minion with an elbow strike to the face. This occurs in the same panel where the white-caped warrior smashes the bear soldier.
- In the anime, in relation to the above-mentioned change, the shot of the white-caped warrior smashing the bear soldier is shown individually whereas the purple-robed and orange-vested warriors still brawling against various other Frieza Force grunts. The manga only shows the orange-vested namekian firing a ki blast at an off-panel enemy. An anime-only shot of Gubrei being sent flying by a ki blast may be referencing said blast.
Trivia[]
- This episode marks the 200th overall episode of the Dragon Ball anime.
- Appule either seems to have disappeared or changed from purple to light blue between this episode and the last one. This can be partially blamed on the animators getting him confused with Nabana and at least two other members of his kind within the raid party.
- The bio-armor on Frieza's left arm is colored white in two shots as opposed to the usual brown.
- As the Frieza Force witnesses the arrival of the Warrior-Type Namekians, Dodoria's back-guard is colored blue like his plates as opposed to the normal brown. Frieza's left arm is also colored darker-purple instead of the usual dark pink.
- The color schemes of the various Frieza Force Soldiers are all over the place in the anime, in particular Napple, Appule, and Cranberry's.
- Krillin knows that Vegeta wants eternal life from the dragon balls despite neither he nor Nappa ever voicing that in front of him during the battle on Earth.
- This is the first episode to use music from The World's Strongest.
- The scene where Frieza (albeit sarcastically) realizes he forgot his manners while threatening the Namekians is one of the few times in the original and remastered Funimation dubs to have him retain his polite characterization from the original manga, as the pre-Kai dubs tended to heavily downplay this trait in favor of making his more brutal disposition more apparent.
Gallery[]
 Krillin remembers what Raditz told them about the Planet Trade Organization  Dodoria, Frieza, Zarbon  Dodoria  Moori    Frieza threatens the Namekians      Zarbon executes an elder Namekian     Elder Namekian attacking  The Elder Namekian fires an Energy Cannon  The Namekian shoots a soldier when trying to hit Zarbon  Appule's race soldier hit  Elder Namekian's Energy Cannon   Zarbon charges the Shooting Star Arrow  Zarbon fires the attack  Shooting Star Arrow apporaches a Namekian  Zarbon's Shooting Star Arrow hits the Elder Namekian  The Elder Namekian is annhilated by the attack    Zarbon watches as the Namekians are executed      Frieza raises his hand to prepare a Death Beam  Dende and Cargo hold on to Elder Mori  An Appule's race soldier  A soldier who looks like Nappa  Dodoria suspects someone might be watching  Three Namekians come to help the village                         Zarbon watches as the Namekian warriors collide with Frieza's soldiers                                 A Namekian warrior fires an Energy Wave     Zarbon knocks away a low-class soldier with a single kick                Moori fires a Finger Beam  Moori's Finger Beam hits Dodoria's scouter      Moori charging finger beams  Moori destroying Frieza's last three scouters       Zarbon is well aware of the Nameks attempting to eliminate their scouters    Dodoria pierces his own hand out of rage      |
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