The popular Dragon Ball franchise has been around for nearly four decades - since Akira Toriyama blessed viewers with the Shonen Anime in 1986. The main protagonist is Goku, an extra-terrestrial hero with the powers of a Saiyan. The only one of his kind on Planet Earth, Goku meets other Saiyans for the first time many years later and is greatly disturbed by the sinister history of his native race. With Vegeta egging him on with a biased history lesson, Goku is left to consider that Saiyans could be inherently evil.

Much like the Amazonian worriers, the Saiyans are an alien race raised with the sole purpose of becoming skilled fighters. As Goku's brother Raditz put it, the Saiyans are "planet brokers" who travel across the Universe, conquering entire worlds at a time and killing all inhabitants, before bartering what remains on the galactic market. And who says war isn't profitable? Stemming from the Planet Sadala (aka Planet Planet), these mercenaries of destruction are trained within a gravity field 10x stronger than Earth's, granting Saiyans much higher endurance, strength, and speed than any human may possess. Saiyans with pure bloodlines also brandish monkey tales, linking them to their Great Ape ancestry and granting them the power to transform into colossal beasts.

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The Saiyan Culture

Saiyans Dragon Ball Franchise

For Saiyans, training pretty much begins from birth, as each child's energy level is assessed and monitored to determine their future ranking. Those with an elevated level will be prepared for combat in the Saiyan Army, while the weaker children are destined to become engineers or are dispatched to enemy planets.

Known as 'infiltration babies,' these infants are sent off, alone, to the worlds that the Saiyans wish to one day conquer. Only if the extra-terrestrial child survives the journey and proves themselves an adequate worrier are they welcomed back into the ranks of Saiyans. Ironically, Goku was sent to Earth as a young child, suggesting that he was an infiltration baby with a low energy level - but it seems the trip did him good!

The Saiyan-Tuffle war

Saiyans vs Tuffles Dragon Ball

As with all stories, there are three versions - 'yours, mine, and the truth', and the same can be said about Saiyan history. Saiyans did not originate from Planet Sadala according to King Kai - they landed there in Age 550 after their own world was obliterated. Planet Planet was already inhabited by the Truffles, who were living the life of luxury thanks to their superior technological skills. Some claim that the Truffles and Saiyans cohabited peacefully, whereas other tales suggest that the tiny intellectuals manipulated the barbaric foreigners into servitude.

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The Age 720 marked the beginning of the Saiyan-Tuffle war, although whether the uprising was unprovoked or not is up for debate. The battle continued for a decade, with brains and brawn stuck in a stalemate, until a full moon appeared (which only occurs every eight years). The Saiyans accessed their ancient powers and transformed into Great Apes, finally defeating the Tuffles and taking ownership of the Planet.

The Genocide of the Saiyans

Raise DBZ: Kakarot Level Cap

Planet Sadala was renamed Planet Vegeta after its king but was later destroyed by Frieza under the orders of Beerus, the God of Destruction. As the story goes, when Beerus visited the savage Planet, he requested the softest pillow on which to sleep, but King Vegeta was unwilling to relinquish his most comfortable bedding.

His ego bruised, the God of Destruction instructed the eagerly-awaiting Frieza (who had his own motives for eliminating his biggest competition) to destroy Planet Vegeta. The entire Saiyan race was almost wiped out, with only a few escaping with their lives.

The Super Saiyan God Form

Super Saiyan God Goku

If all Saiyans were inherently evil, there would be no such thing as The Super Saiyan God form, because it takes the combined power of six virtuous Saiyans to achieve this transformation. As legend has it, a century before the Frieza Saga, a group of virtuous Saiyans, led by Yamoshi, took it upon themselves to stop their evil brethren. Sadly, good did not prevail, and the spirit of the Legendary Super Saiyan spent his afterlife searching for more well-intentioned Saiyans capable of reaching the God form. Granted, the average Saiyan moral scale weighs heavily toward the sinful side, however, it is evident that small factions of ethical Saiyans are entirely possible.

Some Dragon Ball fans point out that, if Yamoshi and his crew were defeated, only evil Saiyans would remain to continue the bloodline, resulting in exclusively malevolent descendants. The argument pertaining to the moral compass of a Saiyan all boils down to Nature vs Nurture, as Yamoshi, Goku, and several others prove so well. If a child is raised in an aggressive environment and taught only about death, destruction, and how to cause it, well, that is all they will know.

A select few such as the Legendary Super Saiyan defied all odds and found the goodness within themselves, whereas Goku had the help of Grandpa Gohan and Master Roshi. In turn, the next generation of Saiyans raised on Earth had zero issues with their moral compasses, with a rigid knowledge of the difference between right and wrong. Even as a grown man and ruthless warrior, Vegeta was able to change his tune thanks to the good influence of Goku, Bulma, and the rest of the gang - proving once and for all that not all Saiyans in the Dragon Ball franchise are inherently evil.

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