Fans tend to pile up yamcha for his utterly pathetic achievement in seven dragon pearlswith his famous death serves as the ultimate symbol of how weak he really is. But a fight later in the same battle proves that Yamcha’s death really wasn’t as shameful as fans thought.
The irony is that, just before his death, Yamcha apparently celebrated his ostensibly victory over his appointed Saibaman a bit prematurely. After having the creature explode into a giant crater, Saibaman jumps on Yamcha, who is in the midst of a giant mockery and self-destruction in Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball Z chapter 21. The resulting explosion kills both Yamcha and Saibaman, creating the famous image of Yamcha crouching in a fetal position in her own crater.
Nappa fell victim to the same trick that Yamcha did
The circumstances of Yamcha’s death weren’t really that tragic based on the events of chapter 23. After Yamcha’s death, Nappa quickly attacked and targeted Tien, easily punching off the human’s arm before throw him to the ground with an ax. But Nappa’s onslaught is cut short when Chiaotzu clings to his back the same way Saibaman did to Yamcha a few chapters earlier and then self-destructs in the same way.
Of course, the end result is very different. Yamcha did not survive as Saibaman self-destructed while Nappa left unharmed after Chiaotzu’s sacrifice. But it’s worth noting that both humans and Saiyans fall victim to the same type of attack. Some might use this as an excuse to tease Nappa since he’s not the brightest fighter, but he’s actually quite a formidable foe. What makes him so terrifying is that he obviously didn’t fight seriously against Piccolo, Krillin, Gohan and Tien but still dominated them. Combined with this fact that Vegeta is clearly a lot stronger than Nappa, making it even less likely to win against him because if Earth’s heroes struggled that much against a weaker fighter, How can they survive his superiors?
Nappa may be dense, but he’s still a capable fighter. Thus, having a fearsome warrior like Nappa fall victim to the same attack as Yamcha greatly reduced the shame factor that led to Yamcha’s death. Is it because it was Saibaman who killed Yamcha? That shouldn’t be a factor since Saibamen possess the same level of power as Raditz. Remember, Goku and Piccolo can’t even defeat Raditz if Goku doesn’t sacrifice himself. yamcha was almost defeated and basically killed by a creature with the same power level as the enemy that Goku couldn’t defeat in seven dragon pearls. That’s pretty awesome, really
seven dragon pearls can be read on Viz.com.