In Team Four Star's second Christmas Special for Dragon Ball Z Abridged, Santa Claus comes to Earth, all of which has been placed on his naughty list, to dole out his lumps of coal. Meanwhile, Goku and friends learn the true True Meaning of Christmas.
Come forth, tropes of Freeza Day past!
- Actually Pretty Funny: Goku states that this newest attack on Christmas is leaving him "Chris-miffed". Gohan admits that it's a solid pun, while Goku admits that he had been waiting for someone to try to ruin Christmas again just to have the chance to use it.
- Adapted Out: Due to Dr. Lychee and Hatchiyack having become Santa Claus, there is no mention of the Tuffles in this version.
- Adaptation Name Change:
- Dr. Lychee, the Tuffle scientist hellbent on eradicating the Super Saiyans, has been replaced by none other than Father Christmas himself.
- Lychee's base of operations on the Dark Planet has likewise been renamed to Santa's Workshop located on the Star of Deathlehem.
- Adaptational Intelligence: In the original OVA, Hatchiyack was a super computer that was only capable of making short sentences. As the Super Mode of Father Christmas, however, he is capable of full sentences.
- Adaptational Jerkass / Face–Heel Turn: Santa Claus, from his appearance in Christmas Tree of Might. Of course, that's assuming that the latter was actually the real Santa, and not a figment of Goku's imagination.
- Answers to the Name of God: Piccolo celebrates Christmas because, in a way, he's the son of God. Upon hearing this, Kami mutters "Oh, Jesus Christ!" to which Piccolo says "Kinda." Nail then chimes in if that means he counts as the Holy Spirit. Both Piccolo and Kami verbally agree.
- An Asskicking Christmas: Goku and the gang not only get into a huge fight on Christmas, but they get into a fight with Santa Claus himself.
- Art Shift: Santa informs Trunks that he's on the naughty list for destabilizing the space-time continuum due to his time traveling. As soon as Trunks begins to state that the continuum is fine, the scene shifts to footage from the original Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans.
- Back from the Dead: Freeza, Cooler, Lord Slug, and Turles all return as the Villains of Christmas Past. Santa also refers to them as his "Dark Ornaments".
- Bad Santa: The Big Bad of the film is a Santa who has decided that humankind is too naughty and thus decides to exterminate everyone on Earth.
- Badass Santa: …who is also able to keep up with the 5 major Z Fighters with his Christmas Eve-olution.
- Bilingual Bonus: After Gohan receives a copy of the French translation of Moby-Dick from Santa, he thanks Santa, saying, "Merci beaucoup, Père Noël!"
- Brick Joke: One that started back in the end of Christmas Tree Of Might, where Santa mentions how he keeps getting attacked by the inhabitants of Planet Vegeta whenever he visits. He returns here more disgruntled than ever for a long list of reasons, but acknowledges that the Saiyan Prince actually accomplished in hitting his sleigh one Christmas/Freeza Day.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Santa is taken aback by the long list of atrocities Vegeta committed over the years, he believes there's just "not enough time in the day" to talk about them all. He only mentions that the prince left a hole in his sleigh at one point.
- By "No", I Mean "Yes": Inverted with Freeza and Gohan's exchange.Gohan: Freeza!
Freeza: That's right, monkeys! We have returned for our revenge!
Gohan: Is that, like, the royal "we" or...
Freeza: Yes! Also, no. [summons Cooler, Lord Slug, and Turles to materialize next to him] - Call-Back:
- Goku mentions that this is indeed the second time they've saved Christmas.
- Both Turles and Slug previously starred in Christmas-themed episodes, though Goku merely mistook Slug for wanting to ruin Christmas.Lord Slug: Okay, so I, like, showed up in July. Uh, I'm just here for revenge.
- When Cooler snaps back at Freeza with an Ironic Echo after they fail to kill Bulma, Freeza tells him to "stop being a prick", a reference to the Running Gag of calling him a prick in Bardock: The Father of Goku.
- Vegeta appears casually aware of who Turles is (as well as his possession of the Tree of Might), mirroring his reaction to the talk about him in the Broly movie.
- Gohan receives a copy of Moby Dick as a Christmas present again, though this time it's in French.Gohan: Merci beaucoup, Papa Noël!
- Vegeta reveals he was the Saiyan who kept trying to shoot down Santa's sleigh, which resulted in Planet Vegeta not having Christmas and Turles' Start of Darkness.
- The Santa in The Christmas Tree of Might mentions that his past attempt to visit Planet Vegeta resulted in him being shot at. Here, he points this out to the prince. Vegeta, naturally, is gleeful that he managed to hit him once.
- Just like with Paragus in the last movie, Santa uses Vegeta's "You're not dealing with the average Saiyan warrior" speech that he kept on sprouting against Freeza in Season 2 as an Ironic Echo, and Goku instantly realizes what that means.
- Call-Forward:
- Tarble (Vegeta's brother) is confirmed to exist (or at least had existed) in the DBZA universe.
- Santa accuses Goku's Blood Knight tendencies of being a threat to the entire universe. When Goku doesn't believe it, an ad for Dragon Ball Super shows up.
- During Santa's "The Reason You Suck" Speech, he blames Trunks for destabilizing the space-time continuum due to his time traveling. This is actually a plot point in Xenoverse and Dragon Ball Super.
- The Cameo:
- Krillin and Chichi appear at the very end of the movie as silhouettes.
- Goku contacts King Kai briefly to get a sense of whether or not something is attacking Earth.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: King Kai is very blunt about the threat attacking the Earth, but is uncharacteristically unconcerned about the effects of it and even says he didn't plan on telling Goku until the next day because he was busy celebrating Christmas.King Kai: Anyway, that thing is overflowing with naughty energy, so whatever you do, be careful. [beat] Or don't. Whatever. I'm, like, 5 eggnogs in.
- Christmas Episode: The second movie to be given a Christmas theme in the series. (Third, if you count Goku's misunderstanding in Lord Slug Abridged.)
- Composite Character: Dr. Lychee and his creation Hatchiyack are combined into Santa Claus, with Hachiyack acting as his One-Winged Angel.
- Dude, Not Funny!: When Freeza begins taunting the heroes, he makes sure to refer to the Saiyans as "monkeys", as per usual. Turles, who is fighting on Freeza's team and is himself a Saiyan, responds with an affronted, "Dude!"
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The Santa in The Christmas Tree of Might is a lot more benevolent than the one here.
- Exact Words: When Goku declares that he and his allies will "deck [the villains'] halls, Vegeta says that "he refuses to fight to that". He actually doesn't get involved until after Bulma arrives to help turn the tables, allowing him to finish off one of the villains.
- Humans Are Bastards: Santa has come to this conclusion, and has placed humanity itself on his naughty list, starting the events of the movie.Santa: War. Greed. Pollution. Destruction. The world has been overcome by naughtiness. It cannot be saved. It can only be coaled. Christmas... is Ho Ho Ho-ver.
- Hurricane of Puns: Goku and Santa Claus unleash a torrent of Christmas themed puns throughout.
Stated by
KaiserNeko to be the most amount of puns they've put into an episode. - In Name Only: Unlike The Christmas Tree of Might, which did both abridge the plot of the movie while combining it with a Christmas parody, this special has very little to do with the original story of Plan to Eradicate the (Super) Saiyans about the Tuffles revenge on the Saiyans, instead turning the main antagonists into Santa Claus.
- Inferred Holocaust: In-Universe, Piccolo realizes at the end of the film that all of the smoke that Santa unleashed on the Earth probably killed a lot of people. Goku says that they can wish them all back tomorrow.
- Insistent Terminology: Freeza insists on calling it "Freeza Day", even when he and the other villains had agreed to call it Christmas.
- Irony: Turles started his vendetta on Christmas to get back at Santa, now has wound up being Not-So-Jolly Old Saint Nick's minion.
- Made of Evil: Santa's plan to eradicate humanity involves machines spewing smoke that consists of coal and concentrated Naughtiness, which Bulma counteracts by synthesizing pure goodness from her baby Trunks' blood.
- Made of Good: To counteract the Naughtiness-powered coal dust that is slowly killing the planet and powering the Villains of Christmas Past, Bulma extracts some of Baby Trunks' blood and synthesizes enough pure Niceness from it to completely neutralize it.Goku: Magic baby blood. Cool.
- Medium Awareness: When Trunks compares the dangers of the smoke engulfing the planet to Miner's Lung Disease, a horrified Goku points to Gohan. Gohan himself is surprised that his dad may have some knowledge until it's clarified as "Minor Character's Lung Disease" when he mentions Gohan, Piccolo, Bulma and Vegeta.Vegeta: The f*ck I am!
- Mythology Gag: Santa criticizes Trunks for messing with the timeline. The part were he denies it is from the original 1993 Plan To Eradicate The Saiyans OVA.
- Never Found the Body: Vegeta says this of his brother Tarble, who he accidentally shot down while trying to kill Santa. While the commentary establishes that Tarble did survive, Vegeta believes he killed him.
- Non-Serial Movie: This is one of the relatively few Abridged movies that can't be fit into the timeline in anyway, for the simple reason that it takes place in December while Trunks had left the timeline by May.
- Noodle Incident: Bulma helps the Z Fighters destroy the coal dust machines with Pure Niceness before deciding to "visit some African warlords", though we never know why. The Creator Commentary fully clarifies that she planned to use it to cure them of their evil.
- One-Winged Angel: Santa Claus undergoes a transformation into the form of Hatchiyack (his Christmas Eve-olution)Santa: You see Saiyans, you're not dealing with the average Father Christmas anymore.
Goku: Oh my god, he's gone Super Santa!
Santa: And I'm a right grumpy old elf. - Out of Focus: Of the four returning villains, Lord Slug doesn't have that much focus compared with Turles or the Cold family Sibling Rivalry.
- Pet the Dog: All the Z Fighters are on Santa's naughty list, except Gohan, who actually gets a present (a copy of the French translation of Moby-Dick).
- Politically Incorrect Hero/Politically Incorrect Villain: Gohan calls out Vegeta's politics (elitism) when the prince says "the lower class (Turles) shouldn't have nice things" (Like the [Christmas] Tree of Might, which was destroyed). He then calls out Freeza's racism after he once more calls the Saiyans "monkeys" (including an offended Turles).
- Precision F-Strike:
- Vegeta's exasperated "MOTHERFUCKER!" after failing to kill Santa is the third instance of an uncensored "Fuck" in the series. Word of God reveals this was enforced as it was an iconic line not meant to be censored.
- As part of their Sibling Rivalry, Cooler dishes out one of these towards Freeza:Goku: Killing them isn't working!
Gohan: It's something in the air, Dad!
Cooler: That's right, fools! Let's just say you're getting a little more than coal for Christmas.
Freeza: Freeza Day!
Cooler: F**K! OFF!!
- Vegeta's exasperated "MOTHERFUCKER!" after failing to kill Santa is the third instance of an uncensored "Fuck" in the series.
- Saving Christmas: The plot of the movie. Strangely, and much to Goku's dismay, the Z Fighters are saving Christmas from Santa Claus.Goku: But that would make him… evil!
Santa: I'm the one with the list here, I decide good and evil. And you're all at the top of my naughty list! - Shout-Out:
- When Bulma asks if Goku and Gohan have been watching the news at all, Gohan says that Goku has just been playing the Rankin/Bass Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer movie on a loop throughout the day.
- The newscaster is named "May McStand", to parody April O'Neil.
- Goku plans to take out the Grinch who made all of the machines pumping the noxious smoke into the Earth.
- At one point when Vegeta's attacking Santa, Goku shouts out "Vegeta, NO!" to which Vegeta replies "Vegeta, YES!", referencing a famous scene from Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series.
- Vegeta attempts to blast Santa's evolved form, and then tries a Bond One-Liner straight out of Die Hard.Vegeta: Yippie ki-yay [notices Santa is still alive and unharmed] mother FUCKER!
- Transiberian Orchestra's "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" plays as Goku, Piccolo, Trunks, Gohan, and Vegeta launch their final attacks at Santa.
- An instrumental version of "Weird Al" Yankovic's "The Night Santa Went Crazy" plays during the final scene as our heroes tell Chi-Chi and Krillin where they've been.
- Sibling Rivalry: This version of the special allows Freeza and Cooler's entire screen-time to invoke this. To wit:Freeza: We're here to make this your last Freeza Day on Earth!
Cooler: Seriously, it's always got to be about you, doesn't it?
Freeza: Well, that is what father said.
Cooler: He also said he loved us both equally.
Freeza: Well, you know how fond father was of jokes!
Cooler: And that's why he had you second, punchline! - Sins of Our Fathers: Piccolo calls Santa out for this when the latter places him on the naughty list because of the actions of King Piccolo.
- Squee: Goku is ecstatic when he realizes he's face-to-face with Santa Claus.
- Star of Bethlehem: An evil version of this is called Star of Deathlehem. This is Santa's main ship, where Santa keeps his workshop, and the setting for the battle against him.
- Sympathy for the Devil: When Vegeta fires a Final Flash on the evil Santa, Goku starts crying over his death because he's... well... still Santa. Which is why he's elated when it turns out he's not dead yet.
- True Meaning of Christmas: Goku feels conflicted about fighting Santa, even considering Christmas ruined when Vegeta appears to have killed him, despite Santa trying to kill all humans, but finally turns the fight around against Santa when he realizes that Christmas isn't about the presents, or the figgy pudding, or the pretty lights, or annoyingly catchy holiday tunes, and not even Santa Claus himself.Piccolo: Goku's right! It's about the bonds that bring us together!
Trunks: It's about friends!
Gohan: And family!
Vegeta: And killing Santa!
Goku: And that's the True Meaning of Christmas! - Villain Has a Point: Santa gives each of the z-fighters, except for Gohan an explaination as to why they are on his naughty list. He blames Piccolo for the past actions of King Piccolo, he points out Trunks for destabilizing the space-time continuum due to his time traveling, he calls out Vegeta for shooting a hole in Santa's sleigh, but mostly just for being a prick. However, he saves his best rant for last when it comes to Goku. He mentions how his inexhaustible thirst for fights would endanger not only his family but the earth and, eventually, the entire universe, which is actually the event of the Universe Survival Arc of Dragon Ball Super.Santa: I'm the one with the lists here. I decide good and evil. And you're all at the top of my naughty list! Piccolo, you tried to subjugate the entire planet!
Piccolo: Pft. Sins of the father, much?
Santa: Trunks, you've completely destabilized the space-time continuum, with your reckless time-travel!
Trunks: That's absurd! [cuts to the 1993 version of the special, with Trunks speaking in a classic TV sound]
1993 Trunks: I have no idea what you're talking about. The space-time continuum is fine! [cut back to reality]
Santa: And you, Vegeta! Jesus Christ! I-I mean just... Wow! There's not enough time in the day. But how about we start with the hole you put in my sleigh?
Vegeta: HA! I did hit him!
Santa: [looks at Goku] And yoooouuu!
Goku: Um...
Santa: Your ceaseless lust for battle has endangered not only your family... but your entire planet! Time, and time again! You are a danger to the entire universe! - Whole-Plot Reference: The story bears some resemblance to the Futurama episode "Xmas Story" in which an overly judgmental robotic Santa tries to kill all humans at Christmas.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: After Bulma flies by, drops the antidote to destroy the machines powering the villains, and then immediately flies away, Freeza, Cooler, Lord Slug, and Turles just hang in the air, staring dumbfounded at Bulma's departing ship.Freeza: Did... did nobody shoot her?
Lord Slug: Why didn't you?
Freeza: Because I have you fools! - Would Hurt a Child: Gohan might have been on Santa's nice list, but that doesn't save him from old Kris Kringle's onslaught.Santa: What child is this, who, laid to rest on Santa's lap, is bleeding?!
- You Mean "Xmas": Freeza insists on calling Christmas, "Freeza Day". It's implied he succeeded on getting it officially changed on the planet Vegeta.
