#tuffle lore

So this is Episode 20 of Dragon Ball Z.  It’s a filler episode, so I don’t know if any of this footage made it into Kai, but if you’re not familiar with this one, I’ll give you a quick recap.  Goku is training in the afterlife to prepare for the Saiyan invasion.  He’s just passed King Kai’s challenge to catch Bubbles, so now King Kai gives him a harder test, which is to hit Gregory on the head with a mallet. Meanwhile, Piccolo trains Gohan, whose right eye is swollen shut for the whole episode.  Also, Master Roshi asks Baba to predict the outcome of the coming battle, and Baba can’t see anything in her crystal ball.  The fate of the Earth is too uncertain to predict.  Also, the rest of the Z-Fighters complete their training on Kami’s Lookout, and Yajirobe bites Krillin on the ass. 

However, the real meat-and-potatoes of this episode is when Goku takes a break for dinner, and King Kai offers to tell him more about the Saiyans.  At this point in the story, Goku only recently learned that he was a Saiyan sent to Earth as a baby, and all he knows about his people is what little he heard from his evil brother, Raditz.  Much of King Kai’s tale would be contradicted over time, but this episode still stands out as a tantalizing peek into the history of the Saiyans before they were under Frieza’s rule.  And this is one of the few sources for information on the Tuffles, the Saiyans’ mysterious enemies. 

What I decided to do here was to just screenshot this part of the episode and transcribe all the subtitles.  The dub version of King Kai’s story is pretty good too, but some of the details are changed, and since this is a filler episode, the Japanese script is about as close to a primary source as possible. 

Incidentally, “Tuffle” is a localized name for the “Tsufuru-jin”, just as “Saiyan” is a localization of “Saiya-jin”.  The Funimation subtitles refers to the Tuffles as “Tsufruians.”

“Once upon a time... There were two races of people who lived on a world named Planet Vegeta.  The Saiyans, who are your forebears, and the Tsufruians.”

“Planet Vegeta, like my own planet here, had an extremely strong gravity.   As a result, the Tsufruians, who controlled the larger half of Planet Vegeta, were a race whose bodies were only about half the size of the Saiyans.  However, they had a remarkable, comparatively advanced level of civilization.” 

“On the other hand, the Saiyans were a race that was very few in numbers, but their bodies were bigger, not to mention stronger, and they were an aggressive, primitive race.  The tails the Saiyans had were their greatest distinguishing characteristic.  They were all warrior-like people, as it were.”

“At one point, these warriors bared their fangs, and started to overrun the Tsufruians.  The Tsufruians greeted them with advanced weaponry of their own making.  The Saiyans, who should have been utterly outnumbered, were incredibly strong, and gradually, they brought the Tsufruians under their control.”

“The decisive factor was the full moon, which appeared on Planet Vegeta once every eight years.  That's because when Saiyans see the full moon, they transform into monsters.  For the Tsufruians, this was their greatest threat, and they suffered the most damage this way.   And so, little by little, as the Tsufruians civilization pulled back, the Saiyans quickly increased their numbers.  In time, they completely took over Planet Vegeta.”

“Then the Saiyans took off into space, seeking to fight even more.   However, since the Tsufruians had been exterminated, further development of their civilization was slow to occur.  They realized that even though they wanted to fight, they could not go out any farther into space.  So the Saiyans joined forces with rich, advanced alien civilizations, and in exchange for furnishing planets to these aliens for use in developing vacation estates, they were able to obtain technology and money.  For the battle-hungry Saiyans, this was killing two birds with one stone.”

“The Saiyans' activities escalated swiftly, and they even started sending babies to many other worlds, as was your case.  They had come up with long-term plans, whereby once the baby grew up, it would exterminate the planet's population.”

“But Planet Vegeta had its own Kami.  He could not bear the Saiyans' evil deeds, and using his own powers, he pulled close some giant meteors, which then collided with Planet Vegeta, causing it to explode.” 

“Including yourself, there were only four Saiyans that survived.”

And, there we have it. Tell you what, I’ll just make a list of the details that later turned out to be continuity gaffes.

1) It would later be established that the planet was named “Plant” before the Saiyans conquered it and renamed it “Vegeta”.

2) This episode seems to be the only instance of the Tuffles being half the size of the Saiyans.  In other appearances, the Tuffles are shown to be normal-sized humanoids.

3) 1993′s Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans introduced the idea of the Saiyans arriving on the Tuffles’ planet and being accepted as refugees.  However, a flashback in Dragon Ball GT suggests that the Saiyans invaded the planet from the start. In Dragon Ball Super, Vegeta states that the Saiyans had lived on another planet called Sadala before emigrating to Planet Vegeta.  Any way you slice it, it looks like the Saiyans were not native to Planet Vegeta, as DBZ #20 suggests.

4) Furthermore, 2011′s Episode of Bardock introduces the Plantians, who inhabited Planet Plant/Vegeta in the distant past.  No Tuffles are seen in that special, suggesting that the Tuffles were not native to the planet either.

5) DBZ #20 shows Tuffle soldiers using scouters, the implication being that they were a Tuffle invention that the Saiyans later adopted for their own use.  In 2018′s Dragon Ball Super: Broly, it’s Frieza who issues the scouters to the Saiyans for the first time, well after the Tuffles have already been wiped out.

6) King Kai probably shouldn’t have told Goku about the Saiyans transforming during a full moon, since that sort of borks up the big reveal in Episode 31 and 32, when Vegeta transforms and Goku realizes that he must have been the one who killed Grandpa Gohan.  Then again, it took Goku a while to figure it out, even when Vegeta was transforming right in front of him, so maybe he wasn’t paying attention to this part of King Kai’s story.  Let’s face it, Goku isn’t the sharpest knife in the crayon box.

7) The biggest plot hole is the part where King Kai authoritatively states that it was the Kami of Planet Vegeta who summoned the world-ending meteor shower that Raditz spoke of.  In truth, it was Frieza who destroyed Planet Vegeta and spread the meteor shower story to cover up the truth.  While we can forgive King Kai for not being aware of what really happened, it’s weird how he offers context to a version of events that never took place.  Then again, Planet Vegeta would have had its own Kami, who must have been displeased with the Saiyans, so maybe that Kami planned to destroy the planet, and King Kai was aware of these plans, but he never knew that Frieza beat the Kami to the punch.   For that matter, maybe Frieza stopped Vegeta’s Kami from summoning the meteor shower, because he wanted to wait until the whole population was on the planet before pulling the trigger.

8) Uh sure, King Kai, only four surviving Saiyans.

All that being said, a lot of elements in this story still hold up today, probably  because of Toriyama’s input on this episode, including the Tuffle concept.  For example:

1) The Saiyan population is quite low in King Kai’s story, which would be echoed in Dragon Ball Minus, which states that there are roughly 10,000 Saiyans around the time Planet Vegeta was destroyed.

2) While the Kami of Planet Vegeta has been retconned to hell, the basic concept of a god condemning the Saiyans to extinction resembles the way Beerus authorized Planet Vegeta’s destruction, as revealed in Battle of Gods.

3) The Saiyans’ primitive buildings in this episode look a lot like the lumpy, misshapen houses seen in Dragon Ball Minus and DBS: Broly.  And yet the larger, more advanced buildings, like King Vegeta’s palace and the elite nursery, are comparable to the Tuffle cities. So the idea of Planet Vegeta being this world of contrasts has carried on across 30+ years.

Anyway, that’s all I have.......... for now.

Oh, right, can’t talk about this episode without mentioning Knife Lady. 💗🗡️

Okay, so we open with Dr. Raichi, or Dr. Lychee, depending on how you want to spell it.  He rants and raves about revenge, then summons a bunch of demonic creatures and releases them from his spooky castle to carry out his dark bidding.  Then we cut to Earth, where Gohan’s been gathering firewood for his family.  Seems that all the trees are getting sick and dying, which is great for firewood collecting, but kind of terrible for everything else. As Goku wonders what to do about it, Mr. Popo shows up and tells them exactly what’s causing this.  The new Kami, Dende, has learned that the Earth’s atmosphere is being polluted by a toxic substance called “Destron Gas”.  Trees have already been affected, and even powerful life forms like Goku and Gohan will die in a matter of weeks unless something is done. 

Gohan suggests that they consult with Bulma over at Capsule Corp., but there doesn’t seem to be much she can do about it.  She has no data on Destron Gas, which... I mean, okay, but Dende already knows what it is.  He knew its name and how long it would take to kill everyone.  Why are we not asking him? 

Oh, let’s be honest, they just included this scene because Bulma looks hot in that chair.  Dende may be a good Kami, but he just doesn’t have the gams to pull off a shot like this one. 

Dr. Brief is here too, with his signature black cat. But he’s just sort of zoning out for no reason.  There’s a lot of vacant stares in this video, but this one is the best.

Okay, so they finally ask Mr. Popo what to do, and he explains that there are four generators pumping Destron gas into the atmosphere.  You have to destroy them all and you’ll solve the problem.  One is in “The Grand Apron”, southwest of East City.  The second is near the pyramid in the desert west of North City.  The third is on Poco Poco Island, home of an active volcano that’s been erupting for over a century.  That’s in the Southern Sea.  Finally, the fourth generator is in the Land of Ice in the far north.

Piccolo shows up and offers to join Goku and Gohan on their quest, but then a couple of monsters show up and attack them.  Goku tries to defeat them quickly with a Kamehameha, but it fizzles out in his hands.  The same thing happens when Piccolo tries the Special Beam Cannon, and when Gohan tries the Masenko.  Popo explains that the effects of the Destron Gas are interfering with their ability to concentrate their ki energy, so the gang has to fight it out the old fashioned way. 

Okay, so here’s my beef with the Destron Gas: It doesn’t make any fucking sense.  It’s already killed some life forms, like the trees Gohan found.  But it hasn’t killed every tree, so how does that work?  Also, it seems to interfere with the Z-Fighters’ powers, but only enough to be mildly inconvenient.  Also, why hasn’t the gas affected anyone else?  Bulma seems to be just fine, at least for now.  Shouldn’t she be coughing or something? 

I guess it did take a toll on Dr. Brief, though.  I just assumed his was high, but maybe the Destron Gas has left him catatonic.

So the gang split up, and Goku finds the first generator in the Great Apron. It’s surrounded by rock, which seems dumb, because how can it spew poison gas into the atmosphere when it’s completely sealed off?  Anyway, Goku punches a hole in the wall, and beats up the one (1) monster assigned to guard the thing.  He destroys the generator without any trouble at all.  Shouldn’t he get weaker from standing so close to this thing?  I mean, the Destron levels ought to be much higher here than back in West City?

In the desert, Gohan makes short work of the second generator, thanks in part to Goku having destroyed the first one.  Now, Gohan can use ki blasts again, and this guy guarding the second generator is no match for him.  So that’s two down.

Before we check in on Piccolo, I should point out that each of these scenes is prefaced with an 8-bit overworld map, showing each character traveling to their assignment.  It’s corny and dumb, but I guess they had to include this so players would be able to figure out where to go in the game?  I don’t know, it doesn’t seem that complicated to me.  Then again, I’m watching the walkthrough, so this is like reading an answer key instead of taking the test. 

The point I want to make here is that stuff like this makes it very apparent that this was never supposed to be a movie.  It’s about an hour long, but a lot of the action is repetitive, and the minion characters are just the same two character models with different color schemes, and the plot is nonsensical, even by the standard of old Dragon Ball films.  Why didn’t Dende say anything before these stupid Destron generators were installed?

So the third generator is on Poco Poco Island, and the monster guarding this one actually planned ahead. He planted land mines all over the island, so Piccolo can’t get anywhere near it. 

And that... is really dumb, because Piccolo can fly.  The monster tries to fly after him, except... the monster can’t fly?  Which would be fine, except, why did he not know that?  Like, he jumps after Piccolo, and then he’s shocked to find that he’s slowing down, and then falling back down. 

And he lands right back down on his own land mines, setting them all off.  Wotta maroon.

This shot of the goof has always stuck with me, because he looks so pitiful here, caught in his own trap.  I guess he’s trying to fire an energy blast?  All I know for sure is that it ends up hitting the generator instead, so Piccolo wins this battle without even touching the island.

Astonished, Piccolo compares this guy’s stupidity to that of Mr. Satan, which is kind of weird, because this OAV is set in that weird period with Movies 6, 7, and 8, where Dende is the new Kami, but the Cell Games probably haven’t happened yet.  So should Piccolo even know who Mister Satan is at this point?  Oh well.

So the three of them meet up at the Land of Ice to take out the fourth generator, and this time there’s a bunch of monsters there guarding it.  It’s enough to keep the good guys busy until Trunks and Vegeta show up to help.

Trunks cuts a bunch of them up with what looks like a sword, but it’s actually just a big icicle he must have found on the way here.  The continuity on this thing is all screwy anyway, so I don’t see why they couldn’t just let him have his sword for this spot.  Yeah, 18 broke it during the Androids Saga, but so what?  Just have him get another sword from Menards or something. 

So the fourth generator actually gets destroyed during the fight, so things turn out better than expected.  Vegeta grumbles that he probably didn’t even need to show up for this one.   See, earlier, Trunks tell the others that the monsters attacked Capsule Corp., presumably to stop Bulma from discovering an antidote to the Destron Gas.  So Vegeta and Trunks saved her and that’s how they found out about all this.  But now it’s over.................

.... or it would be, except Dende calls them to inform them about a fifth Destron generator that he must have missed somehow.  This one is back in West City, mounted on Tongari Tower.  Vegeta was right, he should have stayed home and he could have taken care of the next generator while the others headed back.

But, as it turns out, this fifth generator is protected by a force field.  Well, why this one and none of the others?  When they try to break through it, Frieza shows up and tells them it’s no use.  Wait, Frieza?

Here’s a pretty cool shot of Trunks killing Frieza, courtesy of Trunks recalling this moment as he reacts to Frieza appearing before them. 

So yeah, this OVA is yet another entry in the “what if we brought back LOWARD FUHREEZA SAMA?” stories.  At least this one has Future Trunks in it, and I like how Frieza goes after him instead of Goku or Vegeta, since this was the guy who actually killed him.  Also, I like how incredulous Trunks is, since he literally chopped this guy into pieces.   How could Frieza possibly return?  But he didn’t come along, because Frieza has a posse of movie villains. 

For instance, Lord Slug is here, and he echoes Frieza’s call for the eradication of all Saiyans.  He offers to spare Piccolo if he withdraws, but if Piccolo sides with them, then Slug will show no mercy. 

Turles is kind of an odd-duck in this anti-Saiyan squad, but he points out that he was killed by a Saiyan, so his hatred of Saiyans is that much more profound.  Uh, sure, I guess.

And Cooler is here too.  He also hates the Saiyans, because he’s just a retread of Frieza, who hates the Saiyans. 

So they all fight, except for Vegeta, who doesn’t have a dance partner for this.  You’d think they would have brought in Garlic Junior or Super 13 to make it five on five, but oh well.  Back in his evil lair, Dr. Raichi is pleased with how things are going.  The good guys can overpower their foes, but....

Everytime they land a killing blow, their opponents just turn into foam and reform, good as new.  This really starts to frustrate the Z-Fighters until Goku gets a call from King Kai.

All he really says is that they’re “Ghost Warriors”, and that they aren’t truly real, and this seems to be all Goku needs to know.  He shouts this out to the others, like “Guys, I know what they are!   They’re Ghost Warriors”, and Frieza’s team all get scared like “Oh shit, he figured it out!” Then the good guys just fight them exactly the same way they did before, only this time it actually works.  It is incredibly stupid.

I will give some credit to this spot where Piccolo locks up with Slug, then extends his arms, allowing Gohan to slip in and whistle right in Slug’s face, softening him up for a ki blast from Piccolo to finish him off.  That’s a cool double-team, but I’m not sure it was necessary.   Piccolo was handling Slug just fine before.  Apparently he only needed to hear that Slug was a ghost warrior to finish the job. 

Seriously, a lot of this movie is just characters knowing things for no reason, and then telling the heroes whenever it happens to be convenient for the plot.  And you can get away with that in a video game, where the player is mostly just happy to get more game to play, but when you do it in a movie it looks like you’re just padding out your runtime.  And this isn’t a movie, but when I watch it thirty years later, it’s hard for me to think of it as anything else.

And really, this is probably why Funimation hasn’t dubbed this thing yet, and probably never will.  It’s just not very good.  I mean, it’s not offensively terrible or anything, but it’s a very weak production that was never meant to be anything more than an hour-long commercial for a thirty-year-old video game.  If it weren’t for the “lost movie” mystique, this thing would be dismissed like all the Dragon Ball Heroes trailers, or the cutscenes in the Xenoverse games.  If Toei thinks about this OVA at all, they probably don’t want to license it, and I don’t think Funimation is champing at the bit to localize it.  It just sort of dilutes the brand.

Okay, so the ghost warriors are gone, but they still can’t destroy the fifth generator.   Piccolo suggests that Goku just ask King Kai what they should do, and King Kai lays it all out for them.  Again, why didn’t King Kai contact Goku from the start? He must have been following all of this action, so why did he wait around while Dende told Goku to destroy generators when that wouldn’t actually solve anything.

So this is where King Kai reveals the true mastermind behind the Destron Gas, a Tuffle named Dr. Raichi.  I’m just going to go through his entire spiel, since this is key Tuffle Lore. 

“A long time ago, Planet Vegeta was called Planet Plant and it was inhabited by highly scientifically advanced Tsufuru-jins.  One day Saiya-jins arrived on the planet in a wrecked space ship and asked for help from the Tsufuru-jins.  The Tsufuru-jins allowed the Saiya-jins to come down and settle on their planet, and the two races started to live together on the same planet.

“The Saiya-jin warrior race increased its number over the years, and one day, a man was born with an extraordinary brain which was as good as a Tsufuru-jin.   The man, who was later called King Vegeta, led the Saiya-jins to rebel against the Tsufuru-jins.  Ever since then, the planet was renamed Planet Vegeta, and Saiya-jins had become the rulers.”

Now, this part of the video is really the only interesting part, because it delves into the lore of the Tuffle-Saiyan War, which was introduced way back in Episode 20 of Dragon Ball Z.  This time, some details have changed. The planet was originally called Plant before the Saiyans conquered it and named it after their king, and it’s firmly established that the Tuffles were there first, and they allowed Saiyan refugees to settle there. 

One cool detail in all of this is how the flashback is mostly presented in a couple of still images that pan across the screen.  In this one, we start with the Saiyan ship on the planet, and then a group of Tuffles and Saiyans shaking hands and being friendly, but as we go further down, the Saiyans become more numerous, and less friendly-looking, and the Tuffles look pretty queasy about the whole thing.

Then there’s a second one showing Tuffle soldiers looking frightened, and then Saiyans in oozaru mode, which I guess is meant to illustrate the turning point of their war.

One detail that’s clearly been jettisoned is the notion of Tuffles being only half the size of Saiyans.  In this scene, we can see them side by side, of roughly the same height. 

When King Kai finishes his tale, Goku acts like he’s never heard about any of this before, which is weird, because this is all based on the last time King Kai told him this same story.  Vegeta, on the other hand, is unapologetic about the Saiyan conquest of Plant, and he insists that it was the Saiyans’ destiny to reach Plant and wipe out its inhabitants.  

Trunks and Piccolo have nothing to say, but Gohan points out the real issue with all of this.  Okay, so Dr. Raichi might have a legitimate greivance with the Saiyans, but the people of Earth have nothing to do with it, so why is he attacking them with his Destron Gas?

Goku agrees, and resolves to take the fight to Dr. Raichi.  King Kai informs them that he’s supposed to be at the Dark Planet “at the end of the universe”. 

And so the Z-Warriors plan a trip to the Dark Planet, but Raichi already knows they’re coming, and he’s anticipating their arrival.   Ultimately, it seems that the Destron Gas was just a tactic to draw his enemies to him.