Saiyans
The Saiyans are a species that feature in Dragon Ball Z.
Contents |
History
The Saiyans (Japanese: サイヤ人じん, Hepburn: Saiya-jin, lit. "People of the Saiya") were a humanoid race of extraterrestrial beings that were native to the Planet Sadala (サダラ Sadara) who had the natural ability to harness ki energy. In time, they developed into a race of warriors that had formidable combat skills and an innate proficiency in channelling their ki for battle. In time, a civil war erupted among the Saiyans that led to the destruction of their homeworld but their kind managed to flee the planet. They later travelled to a world known as Planet Plant that was home to a species known as the Tuffles. Once their, they conquered the world by exterminating its native people and then renamed as Planet Vegeta. Afterwards, they established themselves as interstellar mercenaries who were sent to worlds to conquer them whereupon they sold the planet to others for a profit. This was the case for many years until King Cold conquered the Saiyans and forced them to submit to him. He incorporated them into his empire as part of the Cold Force where they resented their status as minions but continued to serve by conquering planets to sell for profit for their new master. Such was the state for many years until King Cold declared his retirement and passing control of the Saiyans over to his son Frieza. On that day, Frieza provided the new scouters technology to the Saiyans who were to become part of his Frieza Force. As part of their alliance with Frieza, the Saiyans used the advanced technology given to them as part of their galactic conquest initiatives. This involved sending their weaker children to other worlds to serve as advance forces that would conquer it whereupon the planet would be sold to clients.
For many years, the Saiyans continued their galactic conquests until one day when Frieza came to believe that their growing strength would be a challenge to him one day. To prevent this future threat, he decided to eliminate the entire species and arranged for events that brought most of their kind to Planet Vegeta. He then proceeded to destroy the planet using his Death Ball technique to obliterate it entirely thus killing the likes of King Vegeta and Bardock. Afterwards, it was claimed that a freak accident was responsible for destroying Planet Vegeta and killing their species. Despite that, there were survivors of the race such as Prince Vegeta, Nappa and Raditz who were all away on missions at the time. Another survivor was Broly and his father Paragus who had gone into hiding to escape execution from the hands of King Vegeta. In addition, a low born warrior named Kakarot survived on Earth where a head injury made him forget his origins and he became a skilled fighter named Goku who protected his adoptive planet.
Overview
In appearance, the Saiyans were a race of bipedal humanoids that greatly resembled the humans of Earth with the one exception being that they possessed tails.
Saiyans display a wide array of special abilities, possessing incredible natural strength, ki energy manipulation, superhuman agility and reflexes, heightened sensitivity to smell, hearing, and vision, and all are naturally born to fight.
Additionally, Saiyans come out of every battle stronger, especially after healing from grievous wounds. They also possess monkey-like tails, which enable them to transform into the mighty Oozaru beneath the rays of a full moon.
Within their bodies they contained S-Cells that were microscopic cells found in most of their kind. It was claimed that those with more gentle spirits had greater amount of these cells. However, those of their kind that increased in battle power faced a similar increase of S-Cells in their body. It was shown that the presence of S-Cells were a factor for the individual to become a Super Saiyan.
A Saiyans tail allowed them the ability to transform into a giant ape form that was known as the Great Ape (大おお猿ざる Ōzaru, lit. "Great Monkey"). Underneath a moon, they transformed into a giant ape that increased their size and power. In reality, it was not the moon itself that triggered the transformation but rather the emission of Blutz Waves (ブルーツ波 Burūtsu-ha, lit. "Bruits Waves"). The Saiyans came to realise that certain worlds lacked a moon that deprived them of the ability to transform into the Great Ape form and they learnt to create an energy ball that emitted the waves. Once transformed, he gained incredible levels of strength and power in his giant form where he stated that this was strong enough to destroy an entire world.
Under his own intense training, some of their kind were being to transform into a more powerful form called a Super Saiyan (超スーパーサイヤ人じん; Sūpā Saiya-jin).
Saiyans are typically aggressive and stubborn with an explosive short temper. They display an enjoyment for fighting and challenging opponents during battle, often letting their emotions get the better of them when aroused in stimulating situations, leading to rash decisions on their part. Saiyans and even hybrid Saiyans have large appetites eating much more than the average person, sometimes eating more than their body weight. They also lack sympathetic emotions towards each other or their offspring (with the exception of Goku, due to the head injury he received during infancy that erased his Saiyan aggression, not to mention Bardock, Goku's father showed little interest in seeing his son when asked about it after he was born), though they appear to be close to team members, since most have grown up and fought together. Vegeta and Nappa display a care-free attitude following Raditz's death, finding it amusing, referring to him as a "weakling". Likewise, Raditz did not hesistate in his attempt to kill his own brother and nephew, nor Vegeta when he killed Nappa.
The children of low-class warriors were often dispatched in pods after their birth and sent to other planets to conquer them. A Saiyan elite class were known to exist with these consisting of their strongest warriors and their royalty.
On their homeworld, newborn Saiyans were kept within nursery capsules whilst their bodies went through development. These were pod chambers filled with fluids and life support given over to the child to ensure their growth.
Members
- King Vegeta : a male Saiyan who was the ruler of Planet Vegeta and was the father of Prince Vegeta. He ruled his people until their planet's destruction at the hands of Frieza where he was killed by the warlord.
- Paragus : a high ranking male warrior who was the father of Broly who went rogue after King Vegeta ordered the death of his son due to his incredible power causing the pair to flee into exile where they hid on a remote world allowing them to escape the destruction of Planet Vegeta. He was recruited into the Frieza Force later but then killed in an effort to cause Broly to fall into a mindless berserker rage.
- Bardock : a low ranking male warrior who was the father of Raditz and Kakarot where he came to learn of Frieza's intentions to destroy their world and opposed the warlord only to be killed along with the other Saiyans on Planet Vegeta.
- Nappa : a male bald-headed high ranking warrior who accompanied Prince Vegeta where he was among the survivors of the destruction of Planet Vegeta.
- Vegeta : dark haired male son of King Vegeta where he was regarded as one of the Saiyan elite who was away from Planet Vegeta when it was destroyed allowing him to survive its destruction.
- Raditz : a low ranking male warrior who was the son of Bardock and older brother of Kakarot where he was away from Planet Vegeta at the time it was destroyed allowing him to survive its destruction.
- Goku : a low ranking male warrior who was the son of Bardock and younger brother of Raditz. He was sent from Planet Vegeta to Earth to conquer the planet as an infant but upon landing a head injury caused him to forget his mission where he was adopted by a human named Gohan who adopted him where he named him Goku.
- Broly : a male warrior who was the son of Paragus where he was born with incredible power that made him the Legendary Super Saiyan with this leading to King Vegeta ordering his execution. However, his father Paragus saved him and the two fled into exile where they hid on a remote world allowing them to escape the destruction of Planet Vegeta.
Notes
- The Saiyans were created by Akira Toriyama and featured in the setting of Dragon Ball Z.
- As an in-joke, Toriyama based all the Saiyans' names on various vegetables, and the species name comes from an anagram of "yasai," Japanese for vegetable.
Alternate Versions
- In Universe 6, it was shown that the alternate universe that Planet Sadala was never destroyed and that whilst a warrior race the Saiyans were not a conquering race. Instead, they hired themselves out in order to fight injustice and were more peaceful by comparison.
In other media
Television
- In Dragon Ball Z, the Saiyans appeared in the setting of the anime television series.
Films
Video games
- In Dragon Ball Xenoverse, Saiyans appeared as a playable race with the player making a custom character for the story mode.
Appearances
- Dragon Ball Z:
