Recap / Dragon Ball Z Abridged E 33

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA—"

—Future Trunks, internally after Bulma flirted with him

Original Airdate: March 23, 2013

It only took half an episode for Trunks to slay Freeza and his dad. He probably wishes it had taken about three minutes longer.

Freeza's revenge is halted by a mysterious stranger—who can turn Super Saiyan! After routing the invading aliens, the stranger invites the Z-fighters to meet up with Goku. Who is this hero, and does he have enough Hetap?

We're here to kill tropes!

• Bad Boss: As usual, Freeza doesn't care about his minions. When they are terrified of Trunks, he motivates them by saying, "Either die to him, or die to me!" When Trunks kills all of them except one, Freeza kills the last one.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Trunks says that he can guess the Z-Fighters are wondering why he brought them to the location Goku's going to arrive at. Krillin guesses "snacks," Yamcha guesses "to kill us," and Vegeta guesses "to kill snacks."
• Call-Back:
  • Trunks, much like King Cold did with "Earth" in the previous episode, mispronounces a word in a name that someone corrects. In Cold's case, he pronounces Earth as "Ee-arth," while Trunks pronounces the silent "i," basing it off of Freeza's westernized name from the Funimation dub, making it sound like "Fry-za".
  • When Freeza flashes back to Super Saiyan Goku, the flash includes Goku whispering, "Pizza..."
  • When Freeza thinks he's killed Trunks, his glitch causes him to refer to Trunks as "cadaveriffic," the same term the reporters made up for Yamcha after he got killed back in Season 1.
  • When Trunks slices Freeza up and blasts him, Krillin says "and there, and there" just like he did when Chiaotzu blew himself up during the Saiyan Saga.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Freeza and King Cold don't end up providing much of a challenge for Trunks.
• Delicious Distraction: Vegeta is pulled out from his musing on who the newcomer is by the realization that they've run out of Hetap.
• Doomed Defeatist: After the chuckle produced by the Ear Ache moment, Krillin snaps back to (what they all perceived to be) reality.
  Krillin: (sigh) We're gonna f*cking die.
• Dull Surprise: Freeza describes his mecha form as "the ultimate culmination of science and nature." Trunks, having spent most of his life fighting the future versions of Androids 17 and 18^note (actually humans converted into Cyborgs), isn't impressed.
• Ear Ache: Done, and Discussed. Bulma grabs Yamcha by the ear when he says she shouldn't be there with Freeza having arrived.
  Bulma: Anyone want to explain to Yamcha here what ten pounds of torque does to a human ear?
  Gohan: Rips it off?
  Bulma: Very good, Gohan.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: This is Freeza's fate once more, right before getting chopped into little bits and vaporized.
• Lady Drunk: Bulma. Upon being told there's beer along with Hetaps:
  Bulma: Hey, it was 5 o'clock 20 hours ago! (knocks back a beer)
• Mook Depletion: King Cold tells Freeza that they are out of mooks, leaving no one to fly them off planet. He forbids him from driving because that is exactly what the mooks are assigned to.
• Relative Error: Bulma briefly flirts with Future Trunks, completely unaware that he's really her son from the future. This greatly alarms Future Trunks, though he does his best to contain his horror.
• Screaming at Squick: Trunks does this internally to Bulma flirting with him.
• Shout-Out:
  • Right before tossing his Death Ball at Trunks, Freeza, in full-blown Villainous Breakdown mode, yells "KILL! MURDER! DESTROY! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" To complete the reference, the Daleks' Leitmotif plays as this goes on.
  • Trunks blocks the aforementioned Death Ball and brings it back up to the surface to the opening score from The Lion King (1994).
  • Krillin invokes Curly when Vegeta says that he's going to kill whoever drank the last Hetap. This is also a Call-Back to Episode 11.
• Shiny New Australia: When begging for his life, King Cold offers Trunks two planets... then three... then two and a half.
  Trunks: You just went down.
  King Cold: I'm a haggler?
• Viewer Name Confusion: An in-universe example, where Trunks mispronounces Freeza's name, using the westernized form of his name "Frieza" from the Funimation dub as a guide, which comes off sounding more like "Fry-za". Freeza corrects him.
  Freeza: Actually, it's Lord "Free-za".
  Trunks: Really? Then why is there an "i" in it?
  Freeza: There isn't.
  Trunks: Huh. Gonna have to fix that one when I get back, then.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Yamcha doesn't think Bulma should be involved with the rest of the Z-Warriors to confront Freeza, since "a battlefield is no place for a lady". Granted, it's only a downplayed example as he's simply concerned for her safety despite their bad breakup. That said, not only is Bulma having none of it (see Ear Ache), but Vegeta insults him by saying he's still going.
• Take That!: When Mecha Freeza reads the opening disclaimer, he suddenly malfunctions when saying "Dragon Ball GT," prompting King Cold to finish the disclaimer, after which, Freeza, keeping to his Abridged self's mecha form, recovers with "-Absalon"
• Trauma Button: Freeza completely loses it when he sees Trunks transform into a Super Saiyan, reminding him of Goku.
• Tranquil Fury: King Cold seems utterly furious after witnessing his son annihilated by the mysterious Super Saiyan, but calms down.
  Kind Cold: You murdered my princess! (inhales sharply) Oh, well. You win some, you lose some.
  Trunks: ...Children?
  King Cold: Yeah.
  Trunks: Okay... Sorta thought you'd be a little more pissed.
  King Cold: (genially) Oh, blindingly so!
• The Un-Smile: Trunks polite smile while talking to Bulma turns rather strained while he's screaming internally.
• Villainous BSoD: Turned into a Literal Metaphor. After Future Trunks cuts him in half, it cuts to Freeza's view just as in the anime, which flips to an actual Windows blue screen. That then is what splits into two halves sliding askew.

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"GUYS WE DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME FREEZER'S HERE AND—"
(sees everyone cheering him, and no sign of Freeza)
"Yaaaay... heheheh... Wha?"