Final Showdown

is the twenty-first episode of the King Piccolo Saga and the one hundred twenty-second episode in the Dragon Ball series. This episode first aired in Japan on August 10, 1988. Its original American airdate was October 6, 2003.
==Summary==
Sensing he is fighting a losing battle, King Piccolo resorts to cowardice, threatening to kill an exhausted Tien Shinhan if Goku even dares to move a muscle. Yamcha reaches the battlefield in his plane, accompanied by Bulma and Launch, and they set out to find Goku. Yajirobe has also arrived to watch Goku fight, hesitating on whether he should help him or not. Upon discovering that King Piccolo has murdered Shenron, Goku resigns himself to endure repetitive pains for Tien's sake, getting his limbs crippled one-by-one, save for his right arm, which Piccolo conveniently forgets to attack.
With Goku incapacitated, King Piccolo prepares to finish him off, but Goku gathers his remaining strength in his right fist, using a one-handed Reverse Kamehameha to propel himself at King Piccolo with great speed and punches a hole clean through King Piccolo's torso. However, King Piccolo uses the last of his power to create his final son, telling him to avenge his death before his body explodes in a massive fireball. Yajirobe saves Goku from falling to his death and retrieves Tien. Tien is motivated to train better than ever and is deeply impressed by Goku's incredible skill and courage.
==Major Events==
*Goku kills King Piccolo.
*Piccolo Jr. is born.
==Battles==
*Goku vs. King Piccolo
==Appearances==
===Characters===
*Goku
*Tien Shinhan
*Bulma
*Yamcha
*Launch
*Yajirobe
*Suno
*King Piccolo
*Piccolo Jr. 
===Locations===
*Central City
**King Castle
===Objects===
*Power Pole
*Airplane
*Hovercar
*Flying Nimbus
==Animation Staff==
*Key Animators - Yoko Iizuka
==Differences from the Manga==
*The scene of Yamcha, Bulma and Launch commenting on the large crater where Central City once was and their decision to get closer to the battlefield on foot is exclusive to the anime.
*The following scene of Yajirobe seeing the same destruction and repeatedly leaving and returning to the area is also exclusive to the anime.
*Suno's appearance at the hospital and her reaction to the explosion she feels given off by King Piccolo's death is exclusive to the anime as she never appeared in this saga in the manga.
==Trivia==
*When King Piccolo holds up his hands, he is seen with red blood.
*In the scene where Yajirobe thinks about what Goku said about giving him a free meal, his speedometer reads the speed of 88 mph. This could be a reference to the 1985 movie .
*In the scene where Yamcha tells Bulma that it is too dangerous and he will proceed alone, Launch is behind them holding a rocket launcher backwards and accidentally fires it. This could be a reference to the 1985 film , where actress Rae Dawn Chong does almost the same thing.
*This is the last episode until "Next Up, Goku" where Goku kills someone, although he did assist Piccolo Jr in killing Raditz.
*Upon seeing Goku alive after his second energy wave, Piccolo states that he's fought all over the universe, yet Goku is the first person strong enough to face him directly. This is shown in Dragon Ball Z to be false as Piccolo was never shown to have returned to the spaceship that the Nameless Namekian took to Earth before he split into Kami and Piccolo. In addition, Piccolo's power level of 260 would make him a weakling by the standards of the Frieza Force, and even by Namekian standards. This is only in the English version. In the Japanese version, he only expresses shock that Goku, a mere human, could stand up to his power.
*It is later revealed in the series that King Piccolo, his son Piccolo, and Kami are Namekians, and that Namekians can regenerate as long as their heads are intact. So when Goku used his Penetrate! attack on King Piccolo by blowing a big hole through his torso, then he should’ve been able to regenerate. A possible reason as to why he didn’t is because he wasn’t revealed to be a Namekian until later in the series, or it could’ve been that he lost the ability to do so because he was trapped in an Electric Rice Cooker for hundreds of years, and was overconfident in his abilities that he saw no reason to learn how to regenerate.
==Gallery==
==Site Navigation==
es:Episodio 122 (Dragon Ball)
ca:Episodi 122 (BD)
pt-br:O último esforço
fr:Dragon Ball épisode 122
Category:Episodes
Category:Dragon Ball episodes
Category:King Piccolo Saga