The (Greek) Tragedy of the Saiyans (Dragonball)
The Greek mythological and tragic elements in the Dragonball Saiyan saga are unmistakeable, which I have argued before. The first OVA in which we see the origins of the Saiyans, Freeza’s suspicion and extermination of them, and Bardock’s futile resistance all have a very Greek tragic feel to it, as seen particularly in the Saiyans’ hubris that makes them morally reprehensible, the Oedipal birth and life of Son Goku (Kakarotto), and the role of Bardock, Son Goku’s father, as a tragic character. A closer examination of Bardock’s life does indeed reveal some more elements that are reminiscent of Greek epic/tragedy. I have mentioned that the downfall of the Saiyans is based largely (though not exclusively) on their own hubris in being aggressive mercenaries in the universe, and this is foretold at the beginning of the episode, and ominously so by one of the victims of their most recent pillage. The last survivor of the last planet just conquered and destroyed by the Saiyans (who are hence hubristic) confronts the Saiyans and assaults Bardock and in the process passes on some psychic power to him that allows him to foresee the future without being able to change or do anything about it. When Bardock realises Freeza’s conspiracy and imminent attack on Planet Vegeta (the ancestral planet home of the Saiyans named after the eponymous royal family ‘Vegeta’, which is derived from ‘vegetable’) after finding his companions ambushed in Planet Meat (another word play), he immediately fights back, and even though he (barely) survives and returns to Planet Vegeta covered in blood and wounds inflicted on him by Freeza’s henchmen (namely Dodoria, who plays a role in the Namek Saga where he reveals the real cause, namely Freeza’s role, of the destruction of Planet Vegeta to Vegeta), his repeated and desperate warnings to his fellow countrymen of Freeza’s imminent attack are met with laughter and ridicule, as no one would believe a man covered in blood who seems to be out of his mind and speaking nonsense. This is understandable, since no one in the Saiyan community would believe that the master to whom they have been so loyal and dedicated in lending their body service would ever betray them. As Bardock has no choice but to fight on his own and make a last-ditch desperate attempt at resisting Freeza, he dies while being burnt alive in Freeza’s giant energy ball, which penetrates Planet Vegeta and annihilates the Saiyan race in a huge explosion (one of the best known images in the Dragonball canon).
While Freeza’s deep resentment, suspicion and hatred towards the Saiyans underlie their extermination, it is without doubt that on a moral dimension the Saiyans get what they deserve in the end, namely total annihilation, which is what they have been inflicting on others as seen at the beginning of the episode. There should hence be little to no sympathy for their demise, even if one may feel sorry for them as we see them get pulverised by Freeza’s energy ball. The level of sympathy is also evident in the events surrounding Bardock, the main character who obtains prophetic powers as a form of retribution from one of the victims of his most recent conquest, when he gets told of the doom and destruction that await his people and even gets to see it in his visions of the future but is totally unable to avert disaster or change the predetermined course of history, which is deeply tragic. The use of divine prophecy to foretell tragic outcomes is common in the genre of Greek tragedy, and the process of double determination is such that while the course of events is set from the outset, the human characters who may or may not be aware of the future course of events and their entangled fates continue to act as usual, and their natural disposition and flawed attributes are what determines their fate and takes them to their destined tragic end. This is at once paradoxical and logical, since even though everything is predetermined from the beginning, the human characters’ free will and the cause and effect of their actions are plain for all to see and their inevitable demise from which they seem totally unable to escape indicates the fragility of human existence.
Such haunting use of premonition where the characters and audience are warned of what is to come (by human agency and fate conforming to the Classical/Greek idea of double determination) but can do nothing to alter the outcome is common and paramount in Greek tragedy, and even though numerous Greek tragic heroes learn of their fateful doom at an early stage, they ultimately become drawn into it through a series of actions and decisions that fully conform to their imperfect human characteristics e.g. Achilles in Homer’s Iliad, Oedipus in Sophocles, Hippolytus and Phaedra in Eurypides, all of whom learn from divine prophecies the outcome of their own fates but they continue to act in their own idiosyncratic ways that effectively seal their doom. Bardock’s premonition and futile resistance to a future disaster that he already knows about are especially reminiscent of Cassandra, one of Priam’s daughter in the Trojan epic cycle who possesses prophetic powers and knows about the ruinous future that awaits her city (Troy) and goes around desperately warning others of imminent danger, but as her attempts go in vain, the Wooden Horse carrying all the Greeks is taken into Troy which leads to the fatal attack and its total destruction. ‘Cassandra complex’ has become a set idiom in contemporary English, which describes the role and frustration of security officials who warn of imminent danger but whose warnings fall on deaf ears leading to the very outcome that the officials are trying to avoid, which is an apt description of Bardock in this OVA episode.
Toriyama’s depiction of the original Saiyans, Son Goku and Vegeta’s ancestors, and Bardock’s tragic life is full of Greek tragic elements, which is all the more striking as we see this tragedy unfold in the pages of a comic book and in the scenes of a cartoon. This is truly a masterpiece. I was deeply saddeneed to hear of his passing earlier this year. As I wrote on Twitter, 鳥山明様 僕が小さからあなたのドラゴヌぼる が大好きです。孫悟空 が言った：「ようにみんな死んだの時またね！」安らかにお休みください。 ‘Mr Akira Toriyama, I have loved your Dragonball since I was a child. As Son Goku says: “See you when we are all dead!” Rest in peace.’ May his amazing and creative soul rest in peace. His work and art have illuminated the minds and lives of people around the world and will no doubt entertain many more generations to come.
I am a professional linguist and I do research in theoretical linguistics, mainly formal syntax and historical/comparative linguistics. I am also a simultaneous translator/interpreter and a language teacher, and my language specialisations include Indo-European, Latin, Greek, Romance (especially Spanish) and East Asian, namely Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese). I am also interested in history and politics, especially the development of western political philosophy, which is the result of my education in the humanities (literature, history, philosophy, philology) at the University of Oxford (Balliol College). My favourite sport is football (soccer) and I am a long-term die-hard supporter of ACFiorentina in Italy: Batistuta, Baggio, Rui Costa, Toldo from the 1990s/2000s will always be in my heart, as they were my childhood heroes. For more information about me, please visit my website: https://www.keithtselinguist.com. 組合與位置，構造和意思 Numbers and words. #keithtselinguist #humanlinguist 檢視「keithtselinguist」的全部文章
Originally published at http://keithtselinguist.wordpress.com on September 11, 2024.
