For weeks, Tatsu repeated the same frantic, moon-induced ritual, exhausting himself night after night in a futile, instinct-driven rage against the daytime full moon. The comedic display of an immensely powerful Saiyan child repeatedly failing to "eat the moon" became a strange but regular part of life on Mt. Paozu.But repetition is a form of learning, even for the most primal of instincts. Tatsu's Saiyan biology, designed for adaptation, finally began to override its own initial sensory trigger. The energy-wasting, fruitless aggression toward the celestial anomaly was no longer a productive response.
The day Tatsu gives up
One afternoon, just as the mischievous full moon appears in the sky, Goku lets out a wail, having forgotten his toy again. Gohan watches, but Tatsu's reaction is different this time.Instead of the familiar, enraged blitz, Tatsu stops dead in his tracks. He stares at the moon, his brow furrowed in concentration. The primal part of his brain screams for him to attack, to destroy the glowing object that feels so wrong and yet is so powerful. But the other part, the part that has learned through weeks of failure, is tired.He huffs, a large, frustrated sigh. He gives the moon a long, withering glare, a stare so intense it could crack a lesser opponent. But nothing happens. He turns away with a sound of disgust, a low growl that signals his surrender to the inevitable. He curls up in his usual sleeping spot, refusing to even acknowledge the moon's presence anymore, even in his primal, great ape-like state.
Gohan's silent insight
Gohan, observing from a distance, understands what has transpired.
(Tatsu has not suddenly become human. He has merely become habituated to a non-threatening, but initially provocative, stimulus.
This is not a victory for Gohan's lessons in compassion, but rather a victory of Saiyan practicality).
•Tatsu's instinct-driven aggression has been redirected from an irrelevant, repetitive stimulus toward more productive, or at least less absurd, ends.
•The "stink-eye" he gives the moon is a sign of a deeper, more profound form of Saiyan learning. He's not ignoring it because it's irrelevant, but because it's a nuisance he's learned to tolerate.
Gohan understands that this habituation is temporary.
•A new or stronger celestial stimulus could trigger the instinctual aggression again. But for now, peace reigns on Mt. Paozu, and Gohan smiles, knowing that even the most stubborn of warriors can be taught to bend their will, one bizarre and exhausting lesson at a time.