Yamcha Stole His Most Infamous Dragon Ball Scene from Goku

It’s bad enough that Yamcha’s greatest claim to fame is dying in a hilariously pathetic manner, but now it seems that sorry excuse for being memorable wasn’t even original as Yamcha apparently stole his most infamous Dragon Ball scene from Goku.

In the early days of Dragon Ball Z when Vegeta was still a villain and Saiyans were a feared race of cosmic conquerors, Yamcha and the other Z Fighters (minus Goku since he happened to be dead at the time) sought to defend the Earth from a Saiyan invasion involving Vegeta and his powerful associate, Nappa. While the likes of Krillin, Tien, Piccolo, and Yamcha were formidable fighters on Earth, it was quickly clear that they didn’t stand a chance against the Saiyans and their minions–goblin-like creatures known as Saibamen. Apparently, the Saiyans barely considered the Z Fighters worthy of their time, so they let the Saibamen do the initial fighting for them, resulting in a now-iconic fatality. One of the Saibamen latched itself to Yamcha and detonated, killing both itself and Yamcha in the process while also creating the pathetic image of Yamcha laying lifeless in a crater that will live forever in infamy.

In Dragon Ball chapter 183 by Akira Toriyama, Goku is fighting in the World Martial Arts Tournament against the reincarnation of Piccolo who only entered the tournament for the chance to kill Goku publicly before trying to once again take over the world. While Piccolo thinks that he will be able to make quick work of the Saiyan fighter, Goku spent the last three years training with Kami and Mr. Popo–god-like entities of Earth–meaning Goku was way more powerful than Piccolo initially gave him credit for. However, that isn’t to say Goku was going to win this battle easily as Piccolo himself was also immensely powerful and even nearly killed Goku in this very chapter. At one point in the fight, Piccolo flew high up into the air and Goku jumped up to meet him, only to be berated with a number of devastating blasts that sent Goku hurtling towards the arena and crashing into its center. Goku’s impact creates a massive crater, and when the dust settled, Goku was shown laying there seemingly lifeless.

The visual of Goku laying in that crater is incredibly reminiscent of Yamcha’s hilarious death scene, though infinitely less pathetic. Unlike Yamcha who was killed by what was basically a Saiyan-controlled plant monster, Goku actually survived his encounter with Piccolo who is much stronger than a Saibaman. Moments after plummeting to the ground, Goku is back on his feet ready to battle it out some more with the immensely powerful bad guy–which is way more than Yamcha can say.

While Goku’s devastating ‘crater-experience’ wasn’t nearly as popular as Yamcha’s due to the fact that Goku lived through it, Goku’s version of events did happen first which means that Yamcha seemingly stole his most infamous Dragon Ball scene from Goku–which basically means that even in death, Yamcha is still the worst.