At that point though, there were established points where Vegeta and Nappa were seen in space outside their pods. After their little side stop on Arlia, Vegeta blows up the planet from outside his pod. However, that’s also ginger Vegita with green and orange armor…
They certainly didn’t stay out for long. Maybe we can charitably assume he held his breath for 60 seconds. Guybrush Threepwood can make it to ten minutes!
Or maybe the pods have a local life support field when their doors are open, or something. Who knows. (Or like most writers, Akira Toriyama doesn’t quite understand space.)
Yes, given how quickly people are able to flit about the galaxy in spaceships but not even a single hand wave regarding faster than light travel seems to be made, I think it’s mostly a case of Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale, as usual. The amount of time it takes to get from one planet to another seems to be wholly dependent on how dramatic and tension building it’ll be for the most powerful dude (inevitably Goku) not to arrive in time. I assume Toriyama got so sick of it or, more precisely, sick of the nerds in his fanbase complaining at him about it that he simply decided after Namek, “Fuck it, Goku can just teleport now.”
At that point though, there were established points where Vegeta and Nappa were seen in space outside their pods. After their little side stop on Arlia, Vegeta blows up the planet from outside his pod. However, that’s also ginger Vegita with green and orange armor…
They certainly didn’t stay out for long. Maybe we can charitably assume he held his breath for 60 seconds. Guybrush Threepwood can make it to ten minutes!
Or maybe the pods have a local life support field when their doors are open, or something. Who knows. (Or like most writers, Akira Toriyama doesn’t quite understand space.)
The destruction of planet Arlia is anime only (non canon to the manga), so this error was actually on the show’s writers/producers not Toriyama.
But like others say, Vegeta was full of rage and frustration so the only thing in his head was “fuck everything, better dead than defeated by Goku”.
I’ve seen a bunch of arguments…
They can hold their breath really long.
Their ki protects them.
They’re not in space, just the outer atmosphere.
But I think you’re right and the easiest explanation is that Toriyama just didn’t get space. Plot armor also helps.
Yes, given how quickly people are able to flit about the galaxy in spaceships but not even a single hand wave regarding faster than light travel seems to be made, I think it’s mostly a case of Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale, as usual. The amount of time it takes to get from one planet to another seems to be wholly dependent on how dramatic and tension building it’ll be for the most powerful dude (inevitably Goku) not to arrive in time. I assume Toriyama got so sick of it or, more precisely, sick of the nerds in his fanbase complaining at him about it that he simply decided after Namek, “Fuck it, Goku can just teleport now.”