Media DRAGON BALL SUPER

[Akashi]

ok dbs chapter 52 discussion time is now go

merus is cool

merus is cool but its really bad to introduce such strong characters like this after the tournament of power, it just makes plot holes and such
ur telling me this guy had ultra instinct all this time and couldnt contribute seems kinda weird to me. somehow whis and beerus dont know someone actually mastered ultra instinct and no one was strong in there universe. it pretty much contradicts the whole "quality of the universes" and how universe 7 is somehow one of the weakest universe out of everyone. but dbs is known for its inconsistencies and bad writing but yh merus is a cool character

 

[Yung Dramps]

merus is cool but its really bad to introduce such strong characters like this after the tournament of power, it just makes plot holes and such
ur telling me this guy had ultra instinct all this time and couldnt contribute seems kinda weird to me. somehow whis and beerus dont know someone actually mastered ultra instinct and no one was strong in there universe. it pretty much contradicts the whole "quality of the universes" and how universe 7 is somehow one of the weakest universe out of everyone. but dbs is known for its inconsistencies and bad writing but yh merus is a cool character

Eh, I don't think it's that big of a deal. From how he mentions that he can only use his full power in the Time Chamber + his unnatural knowledge of things like Ultra Instinct seems to imply that he's done something he wasn't supposed to do or is in some weird situation with the gods and doesn't want to attract unwanted attention. In general (even in looking into the future) it's not exactly super difficult to write off why certain foes didn't appear in the Tournament if they are so strong: There's lots of explanations you could use, maybe they were in hiding, or thought to be vanished or dead like Broly, it was considered too risky to have them join their respective Universe's team, maybe they just weren't aware or the rest of the team didn't wanna work with someone they weren't familiar with, etc.

 

[Akashi]

Eh, I don't think it's that big of a deal. From how he mentions that he can only use his full power in the Time Chamber + his unnatural knowledge of things like Ultra Instinct seems to imply that he's done something he wasn't supposed to do or is in some weird situation with the gods and doesn't want to attract unwanted attention. In general (even in looking into the future) it's not exactly super difficult to write off why certain foes didn't appear in the Tournament if they are so strong: There's lots of explanations you could use, maybe they were in hiding, or thought to be vanished or dead like Broly, it was considered too risky to have them join their respective Universe's team, maybe they just weren't aware or the rest of the team didn't wanna work with someone they weren't familiar with, etc.

merus can only use his full power in the time chamber because it would have blew up the ship like goku did when they first fought. he only said that because he wanted a place that they can go all out, its not because he has to be in the time chamber to use his full power. knowing about ultra instinct doesnt imply that he has done something or hes in a weird situation. master roshi knows what ultra instinct was and used it against jiren.
the entire second part of ur paragraph seems odd because frieza was on the team. goku literally went through all the trouble to go to another realm to get frieza and we know whis and beerus search the entire universe for fighters for the tournament and couldnt find anyone who was stronger than those on earth and seeing someone like merus show up out of nowhere who was literally stronger than both goku and vegeta at the start of the tournament of power but he didnt get drafted? that is weird.

if universe 7 had mortals with ultra instinct fully mastered etc, why is there quality so low compared to other universes, this is bad writing.
im not against new characters but every arc db super just proceeds to retcon/forget what happened in the tournament of power or in a previous arc

 

[Coronis]

As we’ve seen though, the gods in DBS aren’t exactly omniscient.

 

[Posho]

as the DB freak I am, I'll bump this thread.

I'm absolutely loving the Moro arc. It's just so refreshing to have old DB elements that were cast aside given the current power scaling. Moro's persona is a bit meh, but works as a villain because his powers aren't based on raw powerlevel, so Goku and Vegeta cannot fight him using brute force. They gave old forgotten characters some screen time. Hell even Yamcha did look badass. Ultimately, as always, Goku stole the spotlight; however, the entrance was pretty bad ass. It reminded me of the old Namek Saga Goku when he fought the Ginyu Force and Frieza.

Toyotarou has definitely stepped into the right direction with this arc. I don't feel there is so much wasted potential like in the Zamasu or Buu arcs.

I hope they present us with a good ending to this arc and for the love of god don't have Vegeta be pummeled by the main villain yet again. Stop doing him dirty!!!! :(

 

[Yung Dramps]

Oh hey this thread got resuscitated neato

I too have enjoyed this arc quite a bit, but I think it's dragged on at this point, it's almost been running for 2 years now at this stage so yeah, I think it's about time for stuff to wrap up soon. I also am extremely disappointed that the plot thread and role of Buu has seemingly been dropped when he was hyped up as fundamental in the early stages, I really was awaiting a proper "redemption arc" as I really like the guy, was pissed at his shaftings in the two tournaments and find the concept of this Buu/Grand Kai hybrid that adopts his memories almost in the vein of the Hulk a really fascinating and clever extension of his background.

On a similar note, this arc's biggest strength is easily the callbacks and expansions of pre-established concepts in new ways, none of which feel like cheap pandering like what the Tournament of Power sometimes devolved into. Even just little things like Pui-Pui's planet and people being seen again during a relatively brief invasion scene or a Universe 7 Metalman being a mook in Moro's gang make the established world and its rules (eg Universes 7 and 6's sister relationship) feel more cohesive and fleshed out. Then there's the more plot-relevant stuff like the return and expansion of Planet Yardrat where we learned so much more about their training regime, techniques and even a humorous compromise of the two wildly different Toei/Toriyama Yardrat designs to be variants of the same species. But my absolute favorite bit of writing in this arc and possibly one of my favorite twists in the entire series is the Cranberry bonus chapter where it is explained that the titular former Freeza soldier who would end up helping free Moro and guiding him to the Namekian Dragon Balls was actually on Namek and the goon who got beat up by Namekian villagers and got kicked by Zarbon into the lake, with him only surviving due to being revived by the wish to revive everyone killed by Freeza and his henchmen, barely escaping via Vegeta's pod and later being apprehended for stealing. I just love this so much, it dramatically recontextualizes a minor jobbing scene from way back in the Namek Saga to be the catalyst for an entire future arc that in-universe and IRL happens decades down the road. I'm not a One Piece fan by any stretch but from what I've gathered from discussions about that series this is exactly the kind of stuff Eichiro Oda pulls where seemingly unrelated events from hundreds of chapters prior come back to cause big changes to the world and its characters.

With the pros and cons considered, right now and likely to the end I'll give this arc a solid B+ for top-tier worldbuilding extensions, a unique albeit light on strong personality villain that forces our heroes to go about things a different way and more. If my dream scenario comes true and Buu ends up coming back to help Goku and Vegeta once more in the finale that'll go up to A-.

 

[Diophantine]

Been talking a lot about this series with an irl friend, so this'll be quite a big post and maybe we can get some interesting discussion going on. I am a massive fan of Dragonball, and have been since watching it on Toonami! My favourite arcs are the Piccolo Saga and the Androids Saga. If we're talking Super only, then it would have to be the Battle of Gods film. I don't really have a favourite character, but if I did it would probably be Future Trunks.

Overall writing issues:

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The writers have this strange combination of incredible ideas but horrible execution and pretty poor writing decisions. I would say that this is because of Super mainly being a cash grab, but problems of this date back to Z too. Toriyama initially made the Battle of Gods film as a redemption for the horrific live action film (of which we don't speak about!). Battle of Gods was incredible. It expanded the lore, had some great moments like Vegeta defying all reason and attacking Beerus out of his love for Bulma, the fight scenes were really well done (film, not the anime), and it looked like they were going to go places. Even the slice of life parts during the party was really nice to watch.

What followed, however, was a disaster. Resurrection of F (the film and the arc) is by far the worst piece of Dragonball I have ever seen. It became apparent here that the motivation behind the series was to milk as much cash as they could, and they prioritised that over writing decisions. Freiza coming back and inexplicably becoming a God level fighter in as little as 4 months from someone who'd probably lose to Goten or Trunks is the anime version of clickbait. Super Saiyan Blue, while it does look cool, just came out of nowhere and made Super Saiyan God, which we were all really hyped about from the last film, obsolete. Yes, I did say that it looks cool, but it's not creative at all - just a recolouring with a sick aura.

The whole power dynamic lost all meaning. I'm not really a fan of power-scaling, but I do want to watch a logically consistent show. If there are holes, it kind of instinctively distracts the viewer from what your scene is trying to say. Trunks' inexplicable power-up is probably the biggest offender here, right next to Android 17 and Frieza. Why can't Trunks be useful without being as strong as Goku or Vegeta? If you ask me, SSG should have been Goku's peak until mastering it, which Ultra Instinct should have been. Goku's progression throughout the series should have seen him not try to get more powerful, but try to master fighting fundamentals. He could learn from others, recall his old training days, etc. Instead, they just give him bigger numbers as the show progresses.

Super tried to be too safe. Understandable, given the part of the timeline that the writers decided to set the series in. They also didn't want to be seen as ruining a series that loads of people hold so much emotion towards. There are absolutely no consequences to anything, and the viewers know all this when watching it. This kills off so much tension. Each arc felt completely separate to the one before it, rather than a flowing story. Characters didn't grow and plot points never got carried over; I don't think Zamasu was even referenced to after his arc had finished.

Problems with characterisation:

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When you consider the change in motivation for the series, a lot more things start to make sense. My main gripe is when they ruin characters to make them more marketable. All characters have been (and I hate this term) "disrespected" to feed Toei's pockets. Goku, who has had a lifetime's worth of experience maturing him with every saga, has been reduced to an immature and down-right stupid man-child. Can you picture Cell Saga Goku forgetting Senzu Beans or the Mafuba Seal like he did in the Zamasu arc? Heck, I wouldn't even expect teen Goku to do such a thing. Goku has always been carefree, but he's also been pretty aware, and grew up into someone who thinks a lot before making decisions. I get it. Kids like watching a dumb guy on TV who has his badass moments, but this isn't the hero we grew up admiring.

Vegeta is another character that disappointed me in Super. By the end of Z, he's completed his character arc. He's no longer chasing Goku despite being completely outclassed by him and he's dropped his pride altogether. Super backtracks on this. GT Vegeta makes a lot more sense. He only cares about getting stronger to protect the people he loves and isn't afraid of asking others for help. I guess they made this decision because a lot of fans that feel indifferent about Goku really like Vegeta, so they wanted to emphasise what they think he stands for: pride and hard work. Yes, Vegeta puts his pride aside sometimes in Super, but it's really tiring watching him go all "I will surpass Kakarot!!" when at the end of the Buu Saga he declared that he was no longer chasing him.

This is kind of similar to Future Trunks, whose entire character arc in Z was learning what it takes to be a hero, and yes, while he obviously should go back and get help when faced with an impossible foe, they went back on his character. Look at all the interactions he has in Super. You never get the impression that he's a battle-hardened warrior fighting for survival, he feels more like a bullied school-boy. That would have been fine in his first arc, but here it doesn't really work.

I felt that Super focused too heavily on these two characters. As these two are "completed" characters, it meant that there wasn't really much room for personal growth for either of them, so the show became way too heavily focused on plot points rather than a display of characters. Think about it. Disregarding power, how much did Goku or Vegeta really change over the course of Super? The lesson Whis taught Goku when Freiza blew up the Earth is one he never had a problem with before. Many characters were completely forgotten about because they simply couldn't keep up. The writers even forgot how old Trunks and Goten were! Heck, Trunks is supposed to be the same age as his future counterpart in "History of Trunks", yet he looks half his age! Tien was brought to the Tournament of Power and did absolutely nothing. Android 17 got an inexplicable power-up probably because he has a "cool" character design, so the staff most likely wanted to capitalise on that and make him relevant again. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy watching him, it's just that he's the product of a profit-led decision.

Gohan is another character that got the short end of the stick. PlageOfGripes made a great video about Gohan and the poor writing decisions made around him during DBZ, and I agree with a lot of it.

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Surely completely failing to save everyone when Buu hatched should have spurred Gohan on to keep up with his training. Gohan at this point is the strongest character in the series. Yes, I get that Gohan doesn't enjoy fighting - how could he when all his experiences have been grossly negative? But I feel as though he should have made more of an impact in the series. He's supposed to be smart right? Use that! Have Gohan use his passion for academia to become the first ki scientist or something. Let him figure out new ways to use ki to help Goku/Vegeta, teach others how to use it, etc etc etc. Instead they just shove him in a corner because they've just decided to make him a boring nerd that no one wants to watch. They probably did this due to his age. Kids projected themselves onto the character when he was around their age, but they can't really do that with a late 20s scholar, and the writers realise they've fucked up so they just keep him away.

The new characters were also disappointing. The universe 6 Saiyans are pretty universally disliked. I was somewhat interested by them initially, as it gave Vegeta something to do, but ultimately the concept failed. They weren't expanded upon, and their characters quickly became really annoying. Kaulifla was the only one I actually liked. Kabe and Kale were so annoying to watch. I know Kale is supposed to "be Broly", but my word is that concept so tiring, stupid and flat-out bad. Kabe is supposed to be Vegeta's mentee, but we only see him twice in the series ever. There were so many ways all the new characters could have gone, yet they were all bland and boring.

I honestly think that Super would be better if they gave different characters their own arc where they display who they are, how they grow, how they interact with the rest of the cast, and how they add to the overall story.

Issues with obstacles:

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Super had no good antagonists. Beerus and Toppo were the only ones I was intrigued by, and I'm not even sure you could really call them antagonists, as Beerus was only one for a short arc, and Toppo wasn't even the "final boss". I was far more interested in Toppo, his backstory and even his powers than I was about Jiren. Toppo's monologue about justice would have made him a fitting final boss, but they decided to go with Jiren, who is perhaps the most boring anime antagonist since Kaguya from Naruto. I would have preferred it if Goku's Destructo Disk trick ring outed Jiren and Toppo in his GoD form was the final boss.

Zamasu had potential to be a good villain with an interesting premise, but the execution was so obscenely terrible that it was laughable at times. I was pretty excited about a Kaio-shin rebelling, and there could have been many angles that this could have gone, but they never once expanded on his motivations. He just reached a "mortals are inherently evil, so I will rid the universe of all of them". What does that leave the universe with? Just rocks floating around? What does anyone gain from that? Perhaps they could have gone down a Light Yagami route and make him want to purge the universe of evil-do'ers and people with the potential to be one.

I had hoped for some sort of plot concerning Goku changing how the gods system worked, but that might be asking too much of a Dragonball storyline.

Thoughts on Broly film and Moro arc:

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People seem to like these a lot. I personally didn't care for Broly other than being able to see the spectacle that is Gogeta. The film looked good, and that was about it. I wish Broly was expanded on a bit more. Why is he the way he is? I don't mean like the backstory we got. Yes, it was better than his original concept, but I didn't care much about it. The way all the characters were forced together to make the plot work seemed really, well, forced. Frieza wants to be taller? Bulma wants to be younger? Really? Again, it's another plot that has no consequences. Nothing changed at the end of the film, other than the main cast now knowing the existence of Broly. I guess Broly's a thing now, but our main cast didn't change at all. I watched it at the cinema with some friends, and walking out we all agreed "damn, we really just paid £8 for special effects".

As for the Moro arc, I really enjoyed the first part of it. It felt really fresh, and they were referencing a lot of untouched source material with the Grand Supreme Kai, and using Majin Buu to fight Moro. Then Moro made his wishes. They built up his wishes like he had some master plan when all he did was free some prisoners. It then transitioned into your typical "Z Fighters just waste time for Goku to show up" thing that we've seen over and over again. I'm honestly bored at this point. How many times are we going to see Goku show up and deflect a blast at the last minute before it hits Krillin? How many times will Piccolo and Gohan lose and hand it over to Goku? I know the arc hasn't finished yet, and Moro's probably going to get the better over Goku for now, but we all know that Moro's gonna be taken down and life will continue as usual without our characters growing at all. Yes, they'll get new powers, but I'm really bored of that by now.

Ranting over. Probably my longest ever Smogon post. Feel free to discuss with me, I love the franchise but that's why I criticise it so heavily.

 

[Posho]

I love Dragon Ball too, but being a hardcore fan means I have to recognize its flaws. I believe Toriyama has a knack for exploiting the characters' personality rather than having them growing on it, with the exceptions of Z Piccolo and Vegeta. The rest of the cast remain as genuine from the first episode to the last; they just become stronger and some others are left behind. I believe this all stems from Toriyama's original intentions for Dragon Ball, a comedy show packed with action, which is why now Goku looks so goofy in Super compared to end of Cell saga, for example.

Super wasted a lot of potential, and kind of deviated from its very roots. I often times try to imagine a re-write some of the arcs. I love Whis and Beerus, they're charming characters, but they can also eliminate any trace of tension within a few seconds. Sure, I get it, they're powerful as hell, but what do I care Mr. Angel is eating some sushi mid-fight with the whimsical cat who is trying to pulverize the planet. Or Beerus and Whis eating ice cream while Frieza and Goku were battling it out.

Here goes some fanmade story I tried to come up with to tie together The BoG, Resurrection F and Zamasu Arc and give characters some senseful development.

What if Black shows up pre-BoG arc?

After Majin Buu was defeated, Vegeta gave up on his quest to surpass Goku, but rather he tries to explore the depths of his powers. He travels to multiple planets polishing his technique. In one of his travels, he stumbles upon a man whose face he cannot see. This is supposed to be Goku Black, who already knows of all the future that awaits Goku and Vegeta (fuck the time ring not being able to travel back in time bs). The mysterious man informs Vegeta that a massively powerful enemy will appear in the near future, even much more powerful than Majin Buu (Beerus).

With this we have an actual foreshadowing and we expand on Vegeta's character, based on what DBZ had laid down.

Then we could have the whole Beerus wants to fight the Super Saiyan God yadda yadda. I think that was good.

Vegeta comes back and explains everything to Goku and the Z fighters. They all train like crazy. The dynamic is pretty similar to Androids Saga, which is probably my 2nd favorite.

The day arrives and Beerus is on earth trying to find Goku. He is disappointed because Goku can't reach SSG. Goku and Vegeta fight him but get trashed. The rest of the Z fighters try as well but obviously fail. Just as Beerus was on the verge of destroying Earth, Kibitoshin pops up and Beerus stops his attack. He knows his life would be over if he were to kill the Kai. Shin reveals this and Goku has a flashback on how he threatened him in the past pre-Majin Vegeta battle. Another way you can tie up Majin Buu arc and BoG.

Shin asks Beerus for time to Goku and Vegeta to train. He will stay on earth to shield it from Beerus' destruction. Obviously, Beerus can't reject that because his life would be on the line. Kibitoshin transports them to the supreme kai world and goes back to Earth.

There, Goku and Vegeta try to uncover the secrets of the Super Saiyan God. I'd rather have this than the ritual with the fetus lol. In order to unlock this power, they need to be exposed to something they'd never been before: God Ki. The old kai figures this would be the way for them to obtain that transformation as he is obviously familiarized with God Ki. Their mortal bodies would barely be able to withstand that sort of energy and thus they arduously train. This makes the SSG transformation feel like earned rather than a plot device.

Goku and Vegeta go back to fight Beerus, but after an intense fight, they are both defeated. Beerus responds to them that their power is massive, but there is a lot of potential untapped. So instead of destroying earth, he orders Whis to train them and make them worthy rivals for him in the future.

Now for Resurrection F saga, this might sound ridiculous, but I want to have Goku Black revive Frieza.

After that, it would be revealed that Frieza trained in hell for several years. This would make much more sense, instead of having him get a ridic powerboost out of nowhere.

The Resurrection F saga would be similar but a slight difference:

No ice cream shenanigans, so no Whis and Beerus spectating the fight.

Since Frieza knows Beerus, Goku would just mention that he and Vegeta fighted against the god of destruction, to which Frieza would be shocked.

Goku Black would be watching from afar and hidden. And this is how I plan to tie everything up:

Kid Trunks would be watching the fight. Frieza would notice and he would ask if that is the same Super Saiyan that sliced him to which he would respond that it's the same person, but the one who did that came from another dismal future. Goku Black was afraid to jump into action, because he has nothing on the GoD's, so he remained quiet for the time being, but learning there could be a future in which Beerus is dead is the perfect opportunity for him. The Majin Buu event occurs the same way, but since there was only Trunks to help, chances are the supreme kai is dead. Also, Vegeta kills Frieza here. No rewinding time bs for this one.

Universe 6 tournament saga would proceed the same way, but with the manga version, in which Vegeta misuses the power of SSB, being only able to use 1/10th of its power and ultimately losing to Hit. This arc isn't that isolated because Beerus mentions the existence of other universes in BoG.

Then here comes Zamasu arc. Goku Black wreaks havoc and pretty much the arc goes the same way. Trunks does not get a massive powerboost here. But he will be the one to get the final blow on Zamasu, and then both would ultimately die. This might be tragic, but it's basically the dynamic that Future Trunks has followed over time. Vegeta would be proud of him because he died like a true warrior and defended his world. In the end, we would learn that Trunks had left his legacy: Mai is pregnant with a child.


I hope you liked my re-writing of the story. It may seem a bit lazy at the end and a bit average, but I tried to lay some good foundations on the BoG saga and work from there. Maybe I'll try reworking all the arcs + ToP if I ever feel inspired :P

 

[Yung Dramps]

As it seems like the big finale is coming soon and there's all this hype about what will happen next, just remember: Vegeta won't win.

Also, 100% calling a Merus "sacrifice", taking the erasure to get in mortal damage on Moro.

 

[Posho]

If he does that, I will probably consider this arc the best one in Dragon Ball Super. Like all in all, it delivered a lot, even though it carried out with some of Super's major flaws.

I love Merus' character. The internal struggle he's going through due to being an angel, the mysterious aura surrounding him during the whole arc. His sacrificing for the universe's sake would be one of the best executed deus ex machina in the plot, but I want to bet that even that will not be enough and that it will be Goku who will get the final blow on the guy. I hope I'm wrong on the latter, though, and that we get a completely unexpected and original ending to the arc.

Vegeta utilizing Instant Transmission was one of the funniest things I've seen. He very well knows that the move is Goku's signature move, and despite the fact that yardrat guy could've teleported him to earth, he did it on his own. That's the kind of display I would've loved to see during the whole Super plot. I also love the fact that he did not flat out mimic yet another Goku transformation; they show him discovering a new path for power, much like Gohan did and that's just awesome and goes to show he's actually deviating from that obsession with pride of his.

The fight with Moro kind of reminds me of when Goku fought with Frieza: he went toe to toe with him in his UI omen state, but as the fight progressed he kept losing ground and desperately tried powering up to secure the win (same scenario as when Goku went kaioken x20 against Frieza). However, Moro himself is a bit of a question mark. He's not nearly as good as previous villains . He's way too arrogant and he's probably bound to fail because he's so sure of himself and his absurdly broken energy syphoning power. He is, contrary to what his design shows, not the GOAT.

and for the love of god. DO. NOT. USE. FUSION.

 

[wyc2333]

jiren was so strong

 

[Yung Dramps]

What level are you at?

 

[Revenge of Depressed Gay]

What level are you at?
View attachment 254572

I'm at the level where Yamcha is secretly the strongest character and doesn't want to reveal his true power so he just acts like a bumbling doofus, when in actuality he's stronger than Zeno.

 

[Diophantine]

I like this design for a villain, I hope Toyataro doesn't get tired of having to draw a slightly more complex design and give him a generic transformation

Hide

Oh...

 

[BP]

I like this design for a villain, I hope Toyataro doesn't get tired of having to draw a slightly more complex design and give him a generic transformation

Hide

Oh...
View attachment 260975

At least hes got fucking ears and not holes

 

[Yung Dramps]

Next manga chapter's still over a week off so fuck it time for Dramps' semi-comprehensive thoughts on every Super storyline, divided into multiple parts starting with the first 2 movies!

Battle of Gods

Movie Version: B
Anime Version: C-

The movie was the shot in the arm that this franchise was craving after our buddy ol pal Evolution came out. It was so great seeing all these characters for the first time in so long. Beerus and Whis are awesome dudes who functioned much like Raditz did for the beginning of Z as wake-up calls for our heroes that showed them a whole new tier of power awaits. Super Saiyan God is a lovely transformation and the "I will not let you destroy my world" sequence is on par with the best of DBS Broly. A pretty neat blast of a movie to kickstart a new era of Dragon Ball.

Now the anime version... Ewwwwww. Haha funnies about Episode 5 aside it's a great case study in what can happen when a story designed for a movie is stretched out for a TV series. Every moment from the original feels weaker and stretched thin, with IMO the most egregious instance of this being "That's my Bulma!". In the movie it was snappy and satisfying, Bulma gets slapped, Vegeta goes apeshit. In the anime the sequence of Bulma being slapped is drawn out to a downright comical extent with all these slow-mo shots with different camera angles and Vegeta's reaction feels neutered as well. I guess on its own it's not the worst thing ever but compared to the movie it's a downgrade in every aspect.

Resurrection 'F'

Movie Version: D
Anime Version: 'F'

The RoF movie is probably on par with the original Z movies in that it's a mildly entertaining distraction and nothing more except it's sandwiched between BoG and Broly, both exceptional in their own right. In contrast RoF has basically no impact in or out of universe, introduces the extremely lukewarm Super Saiyan Blue and even the big event feels kinda whatever with not many interesting bits of choreography or set pieces. I also hate how freaking static the battle is, it starts in this drab as hell cliff side and never goes anywhere else or changes this location from when Freeza unleashes his soldiers to when the final blow on the man himself is dealt. Oh yeah, also the ending is worse than Goku Black, at least that tried to do something interesting regardless of how flawed it was, meanwhile I genuinely do not get what the motivation behind stealing Vegeta's kill was with such a dumb and tension-sapping ability like literally rewinding time. All in all, there's a reason why this is by far the worst regarded of the recent Dragon Ball movie trilogy.

But honestly? Movie RoF might as well be fucking Your Name or Akira compared to the turgid, wretched joke that is the anime version. While saying anime RoF is bad is not a hot take in the slightest, what might be is my opinion that this arc is Dragon Ball's alltime low point as a franchise. Yes, I say that aware of Minus. Yes, I say that aware of all of GT. And yes, I say that aware of Evolution. At least that movie actually looked like it had production values, and all of the things I listed brought something worthwhile to the table, even Evolution which while a sort of pyrrhic victory did motivate Toriyama to get involved in BoG's production. I genuinely cannot think of a single good thing that anime RoF did, it took an already mediocre to bad movie and made it truly unbearable with ghastly animation that would've been labeled unsuitable for television if it didn't have the Dragon Ball brand name behind it, laughable content """additions""" including a blatant ratings trap Captain Ginyu cameo that went absolutely nowhere and an utterly pathetic Piccolo sacrifice that felt like a crude mockery of the legendary original scene it was trying to homage, none of the numerous flaws of the original movie being fixed in any capacity as well as suffering from the issues anime BoG did of stretching out a plot meant for a movie. The only thing this arc did was leave a gaping, gushing flesh wound on Super's reputation that it did not fully recover from until the second half of the ToP or DBS Broly and I am so glad those two arcs did such justice to Freeza because holy shit it would've been disgraceful for this arc to be the final note in the story of a villain as revered and beloved as him. Anime RoF has 0 merit and should be immediately discarded in favor of the movie in all situations other than drinking games and "how far we've come" introspections with no hesitation.

 

[BP]

So I've never actually seen Dragon Ball Super aside from the movies they've put out. I quite enjoyed Battle of Gods and Broly. I did not like Resurrection F due to power level discrepancies but I guess that can be boiled down to most of the Frieza force being weaker than Raditz after Frieza's death. I, however, recently stumbled about a youtube video made by a talented editor who's taken the arcs of Dragon Ball Super and edited them into a movie format. I've watched the Tournament of Power saga in this format and I must say it looks incredible. I am very pleased with the editing and the flow of the video. There are some errors here and there but otherwise, I'd argue its one of my favorite pieces of Dragon Ball to date. There are a handful of scenes that gave me chills due to the music that is placed in the background combined with the events taking place. If you have some time I would highly recommend sitting down and giving this a watch!

 

[Yung Dramps]

Part 2 since nobody has responded yet. Im going to get the remaining 4 arcs done in one post so I don't have to triple-post nvm bp posted in the nick of time so I don't have to do that. I agree that dude's "dbs arc movie" edits are pretty gnarly even though I haven't watched them the whole way through. Faulconer music over god-emperor Sumitomo is pretty cringe tho ngl

Universe 6 Tournament

B/B+

Mad slept on arc tbh, I actually prefer this over the Tournament of Power by virtue of the fact it is able to provide a much more consistent level of quality compared to that one, there aren't any decisions or moments that really made me wanna tear out my fingernails one by one to make the pain go away unlike some of the things the ToP did but I digress I'll get to that when I get to that. While it's lacking the sort of overarching development relating to the main antagonist that made stuff like the OG Tenkaichi Budokais such classics the other pillars of the DB tournament arc experience are all there with plenty of cool fights, memorable new characters and fun interactions. I'd say this beats out those 3 arcs for new cast tbh, the only real dud here is Botamo as everyone else on the Universe 6 team is cool in their own ways, Magetta's sick, Hit's sick, Zen-Oh's a funny little man, Cabba's dynamic with Vegeta is adorable and I even have a soft spot for Frost's unrepentant sliminess. On top of all this U6 Tournament gets street cred for being the first step of DBS' greater redemption arc after the unmitigated disaster [REDACTED] was. SSB Kaioken in particular was a big deal that really got people paying attention again. Now if only this arc had the space lesbians off the bat... ah well.

Goku Black

A

It's weird. Earlier I said that I valued consistency in quality which is why I have more issues with the Tournament of Power than some. And yet out of all the DB storylines I hold in high regard the Black arc is by far the one that is the most deeply flawed within that personal selection. Confusing time travel antics, a weird barely explained asspull form for Trunks, questionable portrayal of Goku and an even more questionable ending. And yet I just don't care all that much? Or maybe it's because the good stuff is so cool that I can look past those issues? Whatever it is I really like this arc. Villains are absolute lads for starters, like seriously I guarantee if you did a popularity poll consisting of the original 4 Z Villains and Goku Black he'd probably be able to beat out Majin Boo bare minimum, maybe even Cell or Vegeta, Zamasu's pretty cool guy too and I love how hammy yet dangerous they are it's so wonderful as well as highkey gay which gives them bonus points. Also hot take time, I prefer how Future Trunks is handled in this compared to the Android Saga. Whereas in that story it felt like he continued to fade in relevance and usefulness as the situation escalated here he's always an active part of things whether it be physically holding off Black and Zamasu several times or heartfelt interactions with present Trunks and Gohan, all of this culminating in his rad final stand against Fused Zamasu with that awesome Spirit Sword which I really don't get why people call it out for being an asspull when we've gotten all sorts of techniques with no build-up that people love like Hellzone Grenade and Gotenks' moves especially when that is easily one of the coolest, most thematically relevant finishing moves in the series but ok. Ending's not the worst thing in the world imo like I woulda preferred something more standard but it's at least interesting and makes Zamasu even better as it makes him one of the villains who got closest to completing their goal. All in all, regardless of any misteps I'd say this arc is pretty SUperb.

 

[Yung Dramps]

Final part let's go. No GPP arc evaluation as I've already explained my thoughts on that and it's not finished yet

Tournament of Power

C+
I wanna love this arc, I really, really do. In theory it has everything: Exceptional portrayal of 90% of the Universe 7 team? Check. Exploration of the other Universes including further development for 6? Check. The biggest transformation in the entire franchise since Goku's original ascension to Super Saiyan? Check. Space lesbians? Check. But man I swear for everything this arc does so freaking well there's an equal amount of terrible, sometimes utterly baffling choices that drag the overall experience way down from top-tier to just alright. For starters the pacing, no matter what version of the story you experience, is screwed just in different ways. In the anime it's way too drawn out and jarring considering the previous arcs were all relatively brief, in the manga it's way too truncated with Kale being used as a plot convenience to get rid of the fodder before they can do anything notable. Speaking of which, while I mentioned exploring the AUs as a pro the way they did some of them was just dirty. I'm looking at you, Universe 10, seriously this is the universe that produced the last arc's main villain and all they could bring to the table was one cool guy in Obuni who admittedly gave one of the best scenes in the arc? Universes 3 and 4 were also undesirably portrayed outside of 1 or 2 fighters (why did they hype up Nigrisshi only for him to get one-shotted by base form Cabba?) and really in the end Universes 6, 7 and 11 were the only ones who mattered, especially 7's insanely disproportionate selection of KOes (Jiren got less than Krillin iirc). Oh yeah, on that note, Jiren is one of the worst villains in the series. He's not as bad as Super 17 or DBE King Piccolo, but that's all I can really say to vouch for him. I won't waste anyone's time with an essay explaining why because honestly all the reasons have been discussed ad nauseum since the character's first appearances and at this point it's just beating a dead horse. I know Jiren has his fans, but I just don't get it. Finally, remember earlier when I said 90% of U7 received spot-on portrayals? Well I'm sure you've probably already figured out who compromises that remaining 10%. As someone who isn't even close to being as hardcore of a fan of the character as some people are, I can safely say I felt equally as enraged and insulted by the portrayal of Tien as his aforementioned biggest fans. Every other character got some kind of big moment, something to show they still had value, room for growth, a legacy within the series. Tien got to stand around for a while before getting a suicide kill. Tien got gut-punched in a sparring match. Tien got shafted in his own dedicated recruitment episode. Couple this with some other terrible recent outings and it's no wonder why people are floating around conspiracy theories suggesting the character's poor treatment is a result of racism against the Chinese. All of these faults + some other more minor nitpicks keep me from enjoying this arc to the fullest even with all it does so, so great.

Broly

S
I regularly think to myself about whether this or the Saiyan Saga is my favorite Dragon Ball storyline. To this day, I still cannot come up with a definitive answer. Ok, ok, lemme slow down for a sec; What do I not like about this movie? Well I mean uhh.. the whole Minus retelling segment, while heartfelt and well-presented didn't really mean much to the overall narrative when you really think about it. And uhhh yeah... That's it. Let's get the obvious out of the way: This movie is the best animation and art direction the franchise has ever seen, every frame is a god damn mosaic of brilliant colors and illustration forming into everything from amusing slivers of comedy to thrilling fight scenes. The soundtrack is god-emperor Sumitomo's best, Bardock Falls, Freeza's Evil Scheme, Kakarot VS Broly, Broly's Rage and Sorrow, oh my god it's all so well-composed and makes every scene pop out even more. The returning cast are all portrayed just as if not even better than they were in the Tournament of Power, Goku, Vegeta and Freeza in particular getting plenty of amazing in-character scenes and battles.

And then there's the title character, the new Broly. Oh my fucking god, Broly. He's not just my favorite character in this movie. He's not just my favorite antagonist in the series. He's my favorite character in the entire series, period. It's as if they looked at Jiren and said "Hey, what if we did the opposite of all the things that made that guy lame?" Instead of some rushjob exposition dump from a third party the movie opens right up with a moody prologue showing Broly's unfair condemnation to the terrifying world of Vampa and Paragus' utter ruthlessness in keeping his son alive. Instead of a nondescript block who never fucking emotes until the last batch of episodes how about a naive but kindhearted young man who has a wonderful dynamic with the endlessly charming Cheelai and Leemo, two new Freeza goons who are actual people instead of just being obstacles like Tagoma and Sorbet were. Jiren spending 90% of his screentime sitting around meditating? Broly spends all his time either talking with others or leaping into battles against the main Saiyan duo. It also fixes a lot of the issues of the original Broly as well; rather than a weird-looking restrained Super Saiyan this time Broly is fueled by a manifestation the raging might of the Oozaru, turning him into a raging colossus that serves as a far greater representation of the original Saiyan transformation than Super Saiyan 4 ever was. All of this culminates in easily the best Super Saiyan transformation since Future Trunks, a visual feast where the flaming background and the hellish chants of Broly's Rage and Sorrow bring forth an image of a demon rising, a peaceful soul corrupted and brought to his limits. Ack, I love everything about the new Broly so god damn much, every scene with him is a national treasure! I want to cuddle him, I want to be his boyfriend! TOEI, WHY MUST YOU TAUNT ME?! WHY MUST YOU CREATE THE ULTIMATE LIFEFORM WHOSE PECS I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO SLEEP ON?! WHYYYYYY

so yeah the movie's pretty cool i'd give it 4.8 stars

 

[Diophantine]

Since Yung Dramps is giving his thoughts on each arc, I thought I'd do the same. For the first two arcs, I'll be referring to the movies because I couldn't bring myself to watch the anime fully it was that bad. Let it be known, I don't like this series. Dragonball Z was good, but this... I follow it because 7 year old me would time travel to the future and bitch slap present day me if I ever dropped it.

Battle of Gods

Toriyama famously commented that he created this out of distaste for Dragonball Evolution, and I'm glad he did. The use of comedy during the early-middle part of the film with Vegeta desperately not trying to piss off Beerus contrasting playful slice of life scenes from Bulma's birthday works really well. We can tell how badly Vegeta tries to keep it all together, which is great considering how his character arc has evolved into someone who now disregards pride in favour of saving the people he loves. He's learned this through his relationship with Future Trunks in the Androids Saga and his ordeal in the Buu saga. This build up pays off, as when Beerus inevitably gets pissed off and attacks Bulma, Vegeta disregards all of his logic and let his feelings for Bulma take control in a beautiful scene. The "I will not let you destroy my world!" scene is also masterfully animated. I haven't seen a fight look that fluid in a long time.

Beerus opens up our scope to an entirely new level of power, but this new level has to be treated very carefully. Super Saiyan God's transformation did absolutely nothing for me because it wasn't earned. It was a freebie that elevated Goku to the necessary power level to take on Beerus. The problem with this is the potential direction Toriyama takes moving forwards. If Goku gains this new "God" form permanently, then it means that if Goku is the centrepiece for most of the plots, then these enemies should also have this "God" tier power, essentially devaluing it as the series progresses. It also means that Goku gets a power boost without earning it, which goes against everything the series has tried to convey prior to this. Goku even mentions this himself. They could have had Goku only achieve this form temporarily for this arc and have him work towards it throughout the series to get around this without having to compromise anything.

One thing I dislike in this is that they use numbers to describe how strong they are. When Goku says he's at 80%, or when Beerus says he was only fighting at 70%, it just kills a whole lot of tension because I end up doing logic/math gymnastics in my head as opposed to enjoying the experience for what it is. Following on from that Beerus mentioning he's only fighting at 70% means that there isn't much scope for Goku to really grow to surpass him, especially as he keeps this level of power, which is a mistake by Toriyama. He later realises it and retcons it by revealing later on that Beerus is lying. Again, this would have been fine if the God form was only temporary. Roshi commenting that Vegeta has surpassed Goku also didn't sit well with me. It was pretty obvious that Vegeta put up a better fight, so we didn't need anyone to comment on it. Furthermore, comparing them just leads further into the toxic power scaling debates that plague the fanbase.

What does it mean to be a God of Destruction? What do they do? Why do planets have to be destroyed? Is there a criteria? Unfortunately, Frieza's reason for destroying Planet Vegeta, paranoia of the Super Saiyan legend, gets retconned into Beerus saying "yo Frieza go destroy Vegeta real quick. Kthxbai". Beerus opens a lot of questions, which I hoped would get answered down the line, but ultimately don't.

Overall, this film was good. It's not perfect by any means, but it has enough pros to outweigh its cons. It was a great way to reintroduce the series, as it expanded lore and gave us a lot to look forward to. It's probably the best arc out of Super, but that in itself is unfortunate. 7/10.

 

[Yung Dramps]

So was it ever exactly confirmed why the DBS anime during its run had so little blood? There were lots of theories about the new, more kid-oriented timeslot having something to do with it, but were those ever substantiated?

Because if that is the case and they don't happen to change time slots if the show comes back...

Adapting GPP's gonna be rough.

 

[Yung Dramps]

So I've been working on a little something for the past day or so.

Jiren. Probably the most controversial character in all of Super, if not Dragon Ball as a whole. Some people love him, others despise him. The biggest point of contention from the day of its reveal has been his backstory, which out of all the new elements in Super I think is one to have seen some of the most discussion, fanmade rewrites and tweakings. I myself have made some of my own takes on a revamp on Jiren's backstory. So for funsies, I decided to do another one, because hey Posho posted their own little rewrite of Super as a whole a while back and nobody complained so why not? This time though, partially as a bit of a challenge, partially because I was inspired, this isn't a rewrite in the traditional sense. Throughout this endeavor I have tried to stick to the original skeleton of "boy experiences two tragic murders by a demon early in their life leading them to train and uncover immense power to beat their universe's GoD" and added way more meat to it both by elaborating on what was there and adding original bits of story without retconning or contradicting anything. In that sense this isn't so much a rewrite as an "enhanced retelling" of his backstory. With all that said and done, Yung Dramps presents...

The History Of Jiren
​

Not So Bright Beginnings

Age 74X
Jiren is an average boy living in the rural farmlands and mining community of Planet Cabine (pun on “Cabinet”, as in kitchen cabinet), the perfect home for many of the world’s Grays and himself. His life is pretty boring but that’s seemingly all about to change when the locally famous Gicchin Dojo announces that for the first time in 10 years it’ll be hosting auditions for new pupils. The boy wastes no time joining in and despite being the youngest and not exactly having the most training he does remarkably well in the trials and battles against other hopeful students and manages to be among the qualifying group. After being inaugurated by Master Gicchin himself he can’t contain his excitement and rushes back to his home to tell his parents the good news. He’ll never get this chance though; when he runs through the door he’s horrified to see both his parents dead, slain by some sort of unknown demon. He runs away screaming and crying for safety, the image of the thin, brownish-red-skinned figure with yellow curved horns and a long black robe etched into his mind. Thankfully the menace does not chase after him and shortly after Gicchin takes him in as his foster son and a new pupil at his dojo.

Age 75X
Years of training have passed with Jiren growing into a young adult under the tutelage of the Gicchin Dojo. In recent days though he’s noticed the aging master acting weirdly nervous. During a training session at the dojo he has to temporarily leave his students to their own devices for some supposed “urgent business”. Nearly 25 minutes go by without him returning when suddenly a scream is heard followed by a thin beam that breaks into the dojo walls and nearly hits Jiren as he spars with another pupil. The students rush outside to see their master dead on the ground albeit with surprisingly few wounds aside from a small hole through his heart, a devilish figure towering over him. From the back of the crowd of students Jiren recognizes this man as the demon who killed his parents and just one look at his face is enough for his resolve to give way and for him to flee back inside the dojo for safety, praying that he wasn’t seen. From within his hiding place he listens in on the sounds of battle which proceed to get fainter and fainter. For a while there is total silence, after which Jiren finally comes out to the sight of his slaughtered classmates. He screams to the heavens, cursing his weakness and inability to save those he loved. It’s also during this outburst that he decides that he can no longer linger in this town, the multiple tragedies having horribly tainted his perceptions of his lifelong home. Another foster parent won’t do, right now he wants nothing more than to be alone. He forages through the dojo for any food, water and money he can find and heads off, not even taking so much as one final look at the town before travelling to a nearby city, sneaking on board a shuttle and departing from the planet to begin his universe-roaming training regimen.

Mighty Ascent

Several Years’ Interval
In later years when his fame was established all over the universe eyewitnesses who saw the hero of Universe 11 during this phase of his life would come out about what he was like. His routine was simple: Go to a planet, train nonstop under its most grueling conditions, participate in the strongest tournament he could find to test his progress and then leave. His physique, once considered fairly unordinary on his homeworld, was now a distinct sight with entire crowds reporting feeling a subtle but incredible bubbling pressure at the Gray’s mere presence. Despite his steadily increasing power and reputation he barely ever spoke to anyone, not to passerby, not to those who were pit up against him. He was the epitome of a man that everyone was aware of but nobody truly knew. This didn’t stop him from becoming something of a local legend wherever he went with folk tales about his pursuits being circulated. For example, one famous story claimed that he deliberately got himself incarcerated at a high-security prison just to get a chance to practice against its inmates and security. While this story in particular has been proven to be nothing more than an urban legend it’s not too far off from some of the things young adult Jiren did in his training, whether it be spending months in the most savage wilderness or leaping into incredibly dangerous crime scenes. And within due time his big break came..

Age 762
Hopping off a shuttle, Jiren steps foot into yet another new world: Planet Plian, one of the metropolitan capitols of Universe 11. Even for all the places he’s gone over the past several years the sheer scope of the core city of this world alongside its clear view of the sparkling starry sky leaves him dazed. Nonetheless he stays resolute, sticking to his goal which is relayed on massive television screens appended to skyscrapers around the city. “Today is the day of the Justice Exhibition!” A slightly shorter, black-mustached Toppo announces with gusto. “Time’s running out to register, so get to the arena and into the fray! Do well and you could become the next Pride Trooper!”. With this promise firm in his head Jiren makes his way to the tournament grounds but is rejected at first upon failing to show any form of identification. Without acknowledging this at all the young man walks over to one of the punching machines and with a single strike launches it into the sky, disappearing as a blip in space. When he nonchalantly wades through the stunned crowd and back to the reception he is let through without further hassles. The tournament begins and sure enough Jiren barrels through most of his opponents with ease with things failing to get interesting for him until the final round where he is put up against someone even younger than him, a peppy purple rabbit named Dyspo. Jiren is actually left confounded for quite a bit, for while his foe is not in the same realm of power as him his speed is truly something to behold. Besides, he isn’t aiming for damage to begin with, but rather to overwhelm the Gray and obtain a ringout. Before long though Jiren sees through his predictable movements and at one point grabs his leg during a divekick and swings it around, smashing him into a wall and almost getting a ringout. It is at this stage the match is stopped by Toppo himself. He drops down into the ring and gives the two combatants a new offer: To tag team up and defeat him. If they do this, he says, they can both become Pride Troopers. Otherwise they’ll be left back to the one-and-one with only a single victor. Of course Dyspo is salivating at the offer thinking that victory is assured with Jiren on his side, meanwhile the other contender is far more hesitant and has to think it over. At the very last second before Toppo closes the window of opportunity Jiren decides to go for the two-on-two: Dyspo shows extreme, quasi-overbearing thanks but the Gray explains that this is mainly to see what Toppo can do. Regardless the two band up and charge at the Pride Troopers’ leader, showing a surprising amount of synergy even with Jiren’s skepticism of anything beyond pure power. The match culminates with Dyspo unlocking his hyperspeed mode for the very first time, distracting Toppo and landing enough blows on him to whither him down to the point of physical exhaustion before Jiren immediately follows up with an unblockable full power punch that sends Toppo careening off the arena, totally winded. As the eldest promised both warriors become the newest recruits of the Pride Troopers. As they are being guided to the HQ by Toppo, Jiren tells Dyspo that he’s won his respect for finding his own form of absolute power, that of absolute speed. Toppo also asks them both why they wanted to join the organization and while Dyspo gives a witty comment about “how cool they looked on TV” Jiren explains how he saw membership in the superhero team and even the tournament itself as a chance to gauge where he is, open avenues to greater power and maybe, just maybe find something that lies beyond strength through any missions they may have.

Battle of God And Man

Another Several Years’ Interval
With Jiren and Dyspo tucking away their Gicchin Dojo gi and loose-fitting t-shirt and baggy pants respectively in favor of the red and black Pride Trooper suit, the two officially begin their service with them quickly proving themselves to be amongst the teams’ most elite warriors. Dyspo is the man for rescue missions with his super speed allowing him to empty everything from burning buildings to ships and stations under assault by space pirates within seconds. Meanwhile Jiren asserts an incredible dominance on the battlefield; assuming evildoers dont just drop their weapons and give up at the mere sight of him their resistance often lasts only seconds before they are knocked out by the increasingly feared and admired warrior. As commander of the Pride Troopers, Toppo quickly realizes that a good chunk of their missions are simply busywork for Jiren that distracts him from the most critical affairs where his help could genuinely be needed so before long he’s just assigned to those missions. Whenever he isn’t on the job against the most loathed and dangerous scum of the universe Jiren spends his free time meditating and training, mostly against Toppo who essentially becomes the only man villains notwithstanding who can fight somewhat on his level after a point. Compared to some other Troopers his actual house is also a modest, isolated little hut not unlike his childhood home on Cabine with most of the money he makes being donated to orphanages and his voluntary seclusion from the public life preventing him from gaining any extra money from potential interviews or movie/book deals. As the years went by and Jiren’s boredom at the lack of new challengers to him increased, strange things began to happen to him during his meditation sessions. He could never quite articulate the feelings properly other than vaguely describing them as sensations of dread and unease, almost as if he was being watched. And rather than dissipating, as he would describe to Toppo and Dyspo specifically, they only seemed to intensify with the passage of time. Interestingly enough these also coincided with a new phenomenon among Plian’s populace where people reported seeing 2 cloaked figures standing together in various locations, these sightings being most common around the Pride Troopers’ HQ and other places where they would go off to.

Age 775
All these strange occurrences came to a head on this year. It began with a distress signal sent directly to Toppo himself from a city on the other side of Plian. Upon hearing the contents of the message the rest of the Troopers other than Jiren were immediately concerned upon hearing his next order, which was for all of them to wrap up their current operations and come along with him to the city the signal came from. This protocol was only reserved for the most dire, potentially planet-ending of situations and according to Kahseral, another veteran from the pre-Jiren days of the Pride Troopers, hadn’t been used since he was a new recruit with the ensuing mission being the one to have damaged him to the point of requiring his cybernetics for survival. As the band boards the ship Toppo breaks the news which chills everyone to the bone: Belmod, the God of Destruction of Universe 11, has arrived with his angel attendant and will destroy the planet unless Jiren becomes his successor. This finally gets him to pay attention, not with fear but with resolution, one that soothes the nerves of his comrades as much as is possible for the situation.

The ship arrives with Jiren and Toppo leading. Sure enough, Belmod and Marcarita are standing at the square of the city having patiently waited for them. Jiren then gestures the rest to stay back at the ship, telling them he’ll go it alone and not to intervene unless he is in grave danger. Belmod is right about to ask if Jiren accepts his offer, but before he can...

“No.”

“Oh? You’re not going to even let me finish?” The clown god replies.

“What point is there? Talk is worthless, I already know you what you were going to ask and I reject that offer. I fight for the preservation of life, not its destruction.”

“Such a shame,” Belmod continues, “for all your might it seems you did not comprehend the terms of my proposal. You don’t truly have a choice in the matter, for the alternative is you and your planet being incinerated.”

“Then I will do as I have done many times before and fight for our survival.”

By this point the rest of the Pride Troopers, Toppo in particular, are panicking. The eldest yells at Jiren to stand down and accept his offer or at the very least behave with more deference but Belmod actually stops him, he’s interested to see if the legendary mortal of Universe 11 can back up his bravado with this great power of his. Jiren feels similarly towards the God of Destruction but pauses him as he prepares a battle stance.

“I refuse to fight here,” Jiren says, “I wish to go somewhere where the civilians will not be harmed.”

Belmod seems to totally ignore this request, charging up an energy ball with his hand above his head. He then feels that arm get grabbed with incredible force.

“I SAID...”

Jiren takes a deep breath before launching into space with Belmod in his grasp. Within seconds he arrives to a nearby desert planet and just before the GoD can free himself Jiren smashes him into a rock formation.

“...I refuse to fight where civilians are.”

Belmod gets back up, showing relatively little damage aside from a few scratches. For the first time in his entire career as a god he removes his neck collar and tosses it to the ground. This battle’s gonna be fun...

While they can’t immediately see it due to the insane distance everyone on Plian’s surface can feel the shockwaves all the way from the desert planet, those created by the clashing fists of Jiren and Belmod. Marcarita can see the Pride Troopers are anxious to get more detail so with a clunk of her staff they get teleported to the battlefield in the blink of an eye. All they can do is sit and observe the ever-increasing power struggle between the deity and what should be his subject, the match failing to show a decisive advantage on either end for a long while. While Jiren stays stalwart Belmod’s frustration at the continued stalemate begins to show and at one point he decides he’s had enough. In his hands he charges another blast, but certainly no ordinary one, rather a ball of Destruction Energy which he launches directly at Jiren. Rather than trying to dodge, block or even tank it the mortal warrior stares at the ball head-on and closes his eyes. When they jolt open several blasts from the eyes push the ball backwards fast enough that Belmod has to belt out of the way in an ungraceful manner. With this opening Jiren is able to trap the GoD in an energy ball of his own like he would later do with Vegeta in the Tournament of Power. He tosses around this ball via punches, kicks and bounces to wear him down and when that’s done one final full power punch breaks through it to hurt Belmod and simultaneously explode the sphere of energy. When the smoke clears both combatants are panting and heavily wounded. Belmod raises his arm to conjure another destruction ball but when this happens a jolt of pain engulfs his whole body and he collapses. A check from Margarita confirms he has fallen totally unconscious before she heals both fighters up with her staff. Despite not being in a position to bargain Belmod is still frustrated at how this whole affair has yielded no candidates for a successor. This is when Toppo decides to volunteer himself. His partners are surprised, but he explains that he’s been feeling like he’s getting into his later years and his time with the Troopers is going to end sooner than they think. Besides, unlike Jiren he views this as a chance to bring further justice across Universe 11, eliminating unjust worlds who do not change their ways. He’s not going to be full-on leaving anytime soon, but he’s going to be balancing it with GoD training from now on. Belmod somewhat begrudgingly agrees: If he can’t have Jiren might as well get the next best thing, right?

With the defeat of Belmod firmly establishing him as one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse and the strongest of Universe 11 angels not-withstanding, the next couple of years are very reflective ones where he thinks back on how his ideology has taken him so many places and to such dizzying heights of power. Meanwhile amongst the divine community rumors of Belmod’s defeat at the hand of a mortal lacking any sort of training in God Ki begin to spread, but nobody aside from U11’s deities including their Supreme Kai know for certain. Finally, after a long period of contemplation, Jiren decides that there remains only one loose end to tie up.

Jiren's Judgment

Age 777
It’s a big year for Jiren, the reason for such being reminded to him when he walks through the door of the Pride Troopers’ HQ and is greeted by his coworkers including Toppo and Dyspo presenting him a huge red cake with black frosting. It is the 15th anniversary of him and the speedy rabbit joining the Troopers and his pals owe them a lot for all they’ve done for them in that time. Jiren tries to adhere to his typical cold and distant behavior but at this time even he can’t resist trying some of the cake and chatting it up with Toppo, Dyspo and co. Eventually he cuts things short as he announces his own plans to celebrate the occasion; he’s going to be taking a solo vacation back to his homeworld as a sort of symbol of how far he’s come. While the others would like to tag along by this point they’re used to Jiren’s introverted style of doing things and understand that something this personal and sentimental is probably best left to him anyway. An hour later Jiren, now in a dark blue suit with a fedora, waves his allies goodbye as he boards a private shuttle undercover as to avoid media detection. As the ship exits the atmosphere he pulls out his wallet and gives the captain a tip to exclusively refer to him as “Achete” from now on - he’s confused but they agree to it for the sum provided. The Gray walks back to his seat and silently pulls out another trinket from the wallet, a slightly tattered, dusty group photo of the students of the Gicchin Dojo, Jiren himself standing proudly in the middle. “I’ll make you all proud.” he mumbles. “I will... Avenge you all...”

A few days pass and eventually while Jiren is awake and looking outside his window he sees the ship getting closer to a dusty-looking, brown and white planet. Even with his faint memories he can’t forget the appearance of Cabine, its view becoming ever clearer as they touch down in the central port city which he hasn’t seen since he left so long ago. He gets outside in his disguise and despite the area looking much bigger than it once was before long he realizes the symbols, sights and smells have fundamentally changed very little since his childhood. This trend continues as he exits the city and makes his way even closer to his destination by walking down the winding, unpaved road that leads to the rural suburbs. Like the city there are more, bigger buildings, but that’s the only difference. The soil is still fertile, the sounds of mining equipment can be heard reverberating through the villages, the sky still maintains its partially clouded purple sheen, a color which, for a brief moment, makes Jiren feel an incredible nostalgia for his early home, freely losing himself in recollections of much simpler times. Of course this train of thought inevitably wanders back to the very series of tragedies that set him down this road, and with that he snaps out of it and continues on his quest. Before long he spots one hut where two children not too dissimilar in appearance from his young self complete with traditional robes are playing on the porch with their mother sitting back with snacks on her lap. Donning his “Achete” persona he asks them if they know of a man who fits the description of the killer complete with a physical description which he reinforces by borrowing one of the children’s coloring sets and sketching the evildoer who made his early years hell.

“Oh, you mean Rus?” one of the little Grays exclaims right away in an innocent, childish tone. “He runs the bar where daddy goes to! We’re not allowed to go there but we know directions!” the other says. The two children then put down the street, Jiren spotting a larger wooden building far off in the distance that he definitely does not remember from the last time he was there. He gives each of the little ones coins in thanks as well as reminding them all to “show their undying love for one another each and every day”, a proverb which warms their hearts. He then storms off to the bar, wondering what his tormentor could be up to. As he gets closer to the side of the bar he gets this strange feeling, like something is wrong. When he finally arrives to see the tavern sitting on top of a lushious green hill of unfamiliar flowers he finally realizes what it is, clenching his fists at what he perceives as the disfigurement of what can be none other than the very hill the Gicchin Dojo once stood on. Barely keeping his cool he muscles his way through the small crowd in front of the establishment and barges the doors open. The patrons are startled by his loud entrance, with the disturbance prompting someone to emerge from behind the counter.

“Why hello there, you seem to have given my guests quite the fright.” a white-robed, wrinkled red man with cut-off horns says to Jiren. “Let’s start off on a better foot. My name...” He extends a hand to him. “...is Rus. Welcome to my bar, would you like me to treat you? Or is there something in particular you’re looking for?” he says with a wink over to some of the scantily clad dancers sitting on one of the counters holding refreshments for the men. Jiren does return the handshake, but it is completely hollow. He introduces himself once more as Achete and quietly sulks over to one of the tables, asking for a pretty basic beer.

With a drink in hand, Jiren is unsure where to go from here. He knows for a fact that no matter what the signs of age or changed demeanor tell him, he’s found his target, he’s found the man who indirectly made him who he is today, for better or for worse. But what is the meaning of all this? He seems so mellowed out, so much less vicious than once upon a time. And yet this bar is just so skeevy, its mere existence desecrating Gicchin’s legacy. It’s also unlikely he’s atoned for his past crimes, or else he’d be in a prison cell right now. Jiren then eyes some men playing cards at a table with one of the dancers. Whatever game it is isn’t particularly relevant for either way it gives him in an idea. After taking another sip of his beverage he walks up to Rus and offers to play him at a game of his choice under the condition that they play privately so that nobody disturbs them. The demon seems pretty amused by this offer and escorts the suited Gray to a special backroom with a billiard table.

Rus sits down, opens a pack of cards and begins dealing them out. “I’m in the mood to play War today,” he exclaims, “such a simple game, yet so so enticing, particularly with how the game can turn so quickly with a bad stroke of luck.” Jiren lays down his card on the table, a 6 of diamonds compared to Rus’ opening 7 of spades. Rus wins the first round.

“So what exactly do you want from me, Achete?” Rus asks Jiren. “Nobody asks for a private game with me unless they either wanna get beat or they want a chance to converse with me. Where did you even come from anyway? I’ve never seen you around before.”

Jiren recites his faux backstory that he rehearsed for a situation like this. “I mainly work in the central city. I’ve been on break recently so I decided to come around here to see what rural life is like.”

Another round is played and Jiren wins this time. “Alright then,” Rus replies, “What about my first question?”

“What do you know about the Gicchin Dojo?”

This gets the demon to pause the game for a moment. “...Why are you asking me this? What do you care about that long-dead old coot’s little barracks?”

Jiren realizes he should’ve maybe bided his time to ask this but nonetheless he presses on trying not to break his cover. “My father was friends with Gicchin in his prime and was deeply affected by the slaying of him and his dojo. I want to get to the bottom of who would be so cold-hearted as to resort to such means and why, and seeing as you seem to have gotten your hands on the property perhaps you may have some leads.”

Rus sneers at the question, a move which deepens Jiren’s frown slightly. “Some friend your papa was. Anyone who knew Gicchin at all was fully aware of how bad his gambling addiction was. Nobody knows for absolute certain but it’s pretty likely he got himself into debt he couldn’t pay off with the house not being so accommodating in regards to collection.”

Jiren is aghast at this declaration and its matter-of-factness, but it seems the former evildoer is not done yet.

“In fact...” Rus says as he and the Gray lay their cards face down.

“...right before I bought this property, a little birdie told me that for his last bet he put his entire dojo and his students on the line.” The cards are turned face up shortly after this, giving Rus a victory for the round with an ace of spades. “It’s what inspired the theming and attractions for this bar, actually. I was kind of a fleabag myself back in my younger days, but eventually I did grow up and change for the better. If Gicchin proved anything though, it’s that I may have been luckier than you’d think. Age doesn’t necessarily seem to translate to wisdom...”

By this point, Jiren is barely restraining his seething rage. He can’t even bring himself to inquire as to what his parents may have done to incur Rus’ judgment. He ends up playing the rest of the game in silence, a putrid mix of shock and denial stewing in his head. Rus ends up being the victor of the War game with his foe not requesting a rematch. He merely finishes his drinks and walks out of the bar.

Later that night Rus switches managerial shifts with an employee as he heads back home. His walk takes him away from the main village into a nearby rock formation dotted with bushes and even a few scattered yellow-leaved trees. From high above Jiren spies on him as he goes deeper into the area and assumably closer to his home. He crouches down, ready to pounce. And then...

“Alright, come out and show yourself!” Rus shouts behind him. “I know you’re there, Jiren. Act your position and face me like a man.”

“How did you know my true identity?” he inquires as he touches down right behind the demon.

“Oh please, you seriously thought you were slick? I could see right through your ‘detective work’. I have television, y’know! I know what you look like!”

“None of those errors matter anymore, Rus.” Jiren replies. “You know full well what I am capable of and what I am about to do to you. This is the part where you beg for forgiveness. It’s either that or the serving of justice that’s been coming to you for decades.”

Despite indeed knowing the Gray is more than capable of backing up his threats, the former villain isn’t phased at all. Instead he once again gives off the same mocking smirk he did back at the bar.

“And why should I do that? Asking for your forgiveness would imply that I have any sort of respect for you, fear-driven or otherwise. After this stunt, I have nothing but a deficit of that. Look at yourself, Jiren! The strongest of the Pride Troopers who single-handedly defeated a God of Destruction, stalking a lone man in the middle of the night like some common-grade brigand. You’re powerful, very, very powerful, but that is all you have going for you.”

“I’ve waited far too long to play these games.” Jiren replies. “This is your last chance. Repent or perish.”

“If getting to live the rest of my life means sucking up to such a demented, obsessive husk of a man such as yourself then I welcome death with open arms.”

Jiren wastes no time showing he isn’t bluffing. One gut punch sends Rus flying through a tree and smashing into one of the cliffsides, blood already beginning to trail out of his body onto the ground. Rather than show any sounds of pain, however, he fumbles his way up and begins laughing. It’s a light chuckle at first but with every single additional strike that Jiren lands on him in an attempt to make him squeal the soft snicker only continues to grow into hearty, booming cackling. Even when the legendary warrior resorts to the desperate, torturous affair of breaking his arms and legs one by one Rus does not let up. And when his broken body is lifted up by his shirt collar with Jiren barking at him to stop, he yells right back:

“Gicchin’s training sure must’ve rubbed off on you because you’re exactly like him! Beneath all that muscle mass you haven’t truly grown one bit, you’re still a brooding young adult in a mad quest to prove your supposed strength instead of actually trying to enjoy life! Train as much as you’d like, Jiren! Surpass the Angels for all I care! So long as you keep this up, you’ll always be a weakl-”

Despite not quite finishing the words their meaning is engraved into the Gray’s head, leading him to snap Rus’ neck and haphazardly drop his dead body to the ground. As he pants and reels from the emotional turmoil this whole experience caused he notices something that dropped out of the demon’s pocket, a small piece of paper. He picks it up and opens it to see a picture of Rus standing in front of a quaint house with a blue woman leaning on his shoulder and a purple, shorter-horned child sitting on his shoulder. Upon realizing with horror what he’s done Jiren frantically tries to resuscitate him, but it’s no use. Just like the original murder of his parents all those decades prior, Rus leaves Jiren running away from him screaming and crying.

The captain of the shuttle that brought him to the planet is jostled awake by Jiren. As they get ready to leave the Gray gives him an even more generous payment under the promise that he won’t tell anyone he saw him in the state he’s in. On the voyage home he slowly but steadily calms himself down. Another few years pass with him becoming even more isolated to a point that weirds out even the Pride Troopers although Toppo is too busy with GoD training to speak to him and the others dont have the gumption to call him out on this. His actual power growth stagnates as he mainly does meditation to try to conceal the storm of emotions that night made him feel. The seeds of doubt concerning his philosophy have been planted, and even though he tries to remain firmer than ever in his ideal of absolute power the biggest cracks have yet to come...

It's Over

Age 780
One day Jiren is summoned by his fellow Pride Troopers to partake in the Tournament of Power against several other Universes, the penalty for failure being erasure of their own. What he initially thinks will be a simple affair with the Super Dragon Balls as his prize turns into a life-changing experience with the Universe 7 team, Goku in particular challenging his life-long mantra with his team’s own power, that of trust, a power which he, Android 17 and Freeza use to send Jiren off the tournament stage and claim victory for themselves. Jiren’s erasure is extremely brief as he almost immediately wakes back up on Plian thanks to 17’s selfless wish to revive all the erased Universes. He and Toppo reflect on this incredible experience with Jiren himself pledging to someday see Goku again.

As the initial thrill begins to fade and his head becomes more clear, however, things begin to go awry once more. With his new perspective Jiren is now haunted by the slaying of Rus more than ever before. He considers returning to the intensive meditation he adopted right after that fateful night, but he quickly realizes he can no longer try to hide it away in his mind after all he’s gone through and learned from Universe 7. A few days after the tournament Jiren calls a special meeting of the Pride Troopers and confesses the true intentions and happenings of his “vacation” to all of them. He profusely apologizes for what he did and welcomes them to bring him to justice, even if it means he must turn himself in. While the others ruminate over the gravity of this revelation Toppo brings up the fact that since the assassination was conducted on Cabine it would be up to Rus’ family to press charges against him via that planet’s justice system. The very next day Jiren gets on another shuttle to the planet, this time with all of the other Pride Troopers in tow. The reaction amongst his allies varies while they travel there; some keep their distance, others try to console him, others still try to keep him content, such as Kunshi entertaining him via some “magic acts” with his strings. When they arrive they all put on disguises like what Jiren wore on his first return trip and head off to what was formerly Rus’ bar. Inside they find that the scenes and general mood Jiren described of the bar 3 years ago is largely intact, except now instead of Rus walking around it’s a purple humanoid with horns, a spitting image of the child Jiren saw in that photo back in the day just taller. The Pride Troopers introduce themselves to the young adult known as Xidi and after taking him to the backrooms Jiren prepares to confess before he’s stopped by the half-demon.

“Eh, don’t waste your time. We already know everything you did to dad.”

The Pride Troopers, Jiren in particular are stunned.

“Oh yeah, right, you ran off before we could tell ya, and the rest of you weren’t even with him. Why don’t you guys follow me?”

Xidi escorts the gang through the rocky mountain road to his house, all of them being ever so slightly on edge expecting some kind of trap at any moment, but nonetheless proceeding at Jiren’s command. They eventually reach his two-floored, wooden house. Jiren, Toppo and Dyspo walk inside while the others stay out to guard from any outside threats and head downstairs to a basement area with a single door with a “KEEP OUT” sign appended to it. Despite this Xidi knocks, saying simply “He came back.” The door is opened and the Troopers are stunned to see a room with occult imagery pasted around the walls and candles scattered on the floor with a table at the center where a bunch of demons, some living, others dead with halos above their heads, are sitting around playing cards. All of them turn to face the Troopers with the one standing up being none other than Rus, himself undead. He takes a good, long look at Jiren before smiling.

“Guess you aren’t such a weakling anymore, are you?”

For a period of time Jiren distracts the congregation of demons from their game and entrances them in the story of the Pride Troopers’ ToP run and how it enlightened him. While they’re all taking in the inspiring and intriguing tale one of the otherworldly players with pink skin, baggy blue clothes and a white cape uses the distraction to re-arrange some of the decks in his favor. Upon Jiren recounting the Universe 7 team’s performance, though, he stops for a bit and quietly chuckles to himself. “Never change, warriors of Earth...”

yeah... apologies in advance for the length

 

[Diophantine]

Thoughts on Chapter 63. Spoilers obviously.

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I enjoyed Merus as a character but every time I hear the "I just like fighting people" line from Goku it makes me cringe, especially if you're going to use it as Merus' motivation to have faith in Goku. It feels like Toyataro isn't aware that Goku is a bit more complex than this. Super has been pushing this narrative a little too much, and it's made Goku a one-dimensional character. I can't help but feel that a lot of growth that's happened over the years of Z has been forgotten. Yes, Goku likes fighting, but he also loves life and the lives of people he loves. He's not a hero in the sense that Superman is, but he doesn't seem to ever mention his family and friends in Super when asked about things that are important to him.

Really hoping we get some good motivation for Moro. We should have had it by now, and I'm getting worried that we won't. In any case, I've been thinking that the final villains of the series will be the Grand Priest and Zeno. It's been building up since Goku and Hit's fight, Zeno's introduction in the Universe 6 arc, Zamasu raising some questions and challenging them in his arc (poorly done but still), Zeno threatening most of his universes with erasure for fun in the Tournament of Power, and now the morality of remaining neutral, together with Merus' sacrifice.

 

[Yung Dramps]

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I know this is not an original observation in the slightest but I can't help but find it really interesting how Merus is basically a direct parallel to Zamasu. Someway, somehow, the actions of mortals influenced them to aspire to their own definitions of justice, the former defending and learning from them to fight for what's right while the latter sought to destroy them for perceived injustice. In the end, their actions culminated in total erasure for the both of them. I have no idea if Toyotaro kept this in mind while writing Merus or if it's just a happy coincidence but either way it's a cool detail.

As for not so nice things I'm with the jury in that at this stage, Moro has probably become the weakest link of the arc by a sizable margin, and it's a damn shame. Everything else aside from him ranges from good to great to excellent (there's stuff like Buu's portrayal that doesn't sit right with me actually but that can still be sensibly turned around so I'll reserve judgment till the arc ends), which makes his decline an even bigger tragedy. I've seen people call him Cell V2 and I agree but not in the traditional sense. Moro's first appearances, like Imperfect Cell's, were badass and captivating: Reducing a beautiful planet and its life to a barren husk with the outstretch of his hand, feeling Goku's presence as he sensed him from lightyears away, straight-up shutting off the main Saiyan duo's transformations. All this promised us an incredibly unique, almost cosmic horror-like threat that would force our heroes to learn new techniques and strategies to take him out. And yet as the arc waged on the character became stronger and in the process what he was set up to be was lost in translation, opting for something demonstrably more cookie-cutter and generic with his strongest form, much like how the aforementioned Gero creation shed the unique presence he once had to become another arrogant dickface like Freeza, barely even using the tools that initially defined him like his access to the techniques of 5 different warriors.

While it's definitely a tick against the arc I'm personally content to consider initial Moro and 7-3 Moro separate entities like I do Imperfect Cell and Perfect Cell. Either way, still better than Jiren.

 

[Yung Dramps]

Oh boy it's another one of these pointless statistics posts classic dramps

So, a common complaint about Dragon Ball since pretty much Day 1 has been the centralization of Goku, even for the main protagonist of the series. But how prominent is he, really, across the 4 major series? How many victories does he claim across all the different story arcs of the franchise? And between these examples...

Which DB Series Was Truly "The Goku Show"?

Calculation Criteria

Full Victory: Even if other characters helped against the antagonist and/or their forces, in the end Goku was the one to do the most damage at the climax and truly take them out. +1 point
Stalemate: Goku did most of the heavy lifting but either lost or drawed with the main antagonist in the final confrontation. +0.5 points
Team Victory: Goku won but needed major assistance right down to the end. Points given proportional to how many helped him
Abstention: Goku may have contributed but in the end someone else dealt the finishing blow. No points

Dragon Ball

Pilaf: While the others were helpless to escape Pilaf’s castle, Goku attained the Oozaru form, destroying the castle and displacing the Pilaf Gang. Full Victory
21st Tenkaichi Budokai: Goku reached the finals against Jackie Chun but lost. Stalemate
Red Ribbon Army: Goku single-handedly stormed the Army’s base and defeated Commander Black. Full Victory
Fortuneteller Baba: Goku defeated Grandpa Gohan in a 1-on-1. Full Victory
22nd Tenkaichi Budokai: Goku reached the finals against Tenshinhan but lost. Stalemate
King Piccolo: Goku defeated Piccolo on his own after a long struggle. Full Victory
23rd Tenkaichi Budokai: Goku reached the finals and won against Piccolo Jr. Full Victory

Final Score: 6/7 (85.71%)

Dragon Ball Z

Saiyans: Goku made the Spirit Bomb that majorly weakened Vegeta, but Krillin had to throw it. Gohan and Yajirobe also were key players in his defeat. Team Victory, 0.25 (1/4) points
Namek: Goku attained Super Saiyan and single-handedly defeated Freeza at full power. Full Victory
Androids: Despite needing encouragement by Goku to draw out his full might, Gohan was the one to defeat Cell with some help by Vegeta. Abstention
Buu: Goku may have landed the final blow on Kid Buu with the Spirit Bomb but Mr. Satan was essential in actually gathering the energy for it and Vegeta helped stall out Buu. Team Victory, 0.33 points

Final Score: 1.58/4 (39.5%)

Dragon Ball GT

Black Star Dragon Balls: Kinda tricky to determine what the finale is seeing as the Rilldo portion splits off into both the end of this arc and the start of the Baby arc according to official categorizations for the two storylines. As such the final battle of BSDB will be considered to be the one against Luud, and seeing as Luud’s defeat required Goku and Pan to fire a blast at the same time this’ll be counted as a Team Victory, 0.5 points
Baby: Goku’s SSJ4 form was the one major hitter against Baby Vegeta at his full power. After being separated from his host and trying to escape on a spaceship Baby and the vessel are eviscerated by Goku’s 10x Kamehameha. Full Victory
Super 17: Goku lands the final blow on Super 17 but 18 helped by giving him an opening to do so. Team Victory, 0.5 Points
Shadow Dragons: With everyone else massively weakened, Goku rose to defeat Omega Shenron with a final Spirit Bomb. Full Victory

Final Score: 3/4 (75%)

Dragon Ball Super

Battle of Gods: Goku obtained Super Saiyan God and posed a challenge to Beerus but ultimately drawed even when the deity was not at full power. Stalemate
Resurrection ‘F’: Vegeta should’ve gotten the win, but alas Goku stole it from him with Time Rewind BS. Full Victory
Universe 6 Tournament: Goku made huge progress against Hit but ultimately forfeited. Stalemate
Goku Black: Future Trunks felled Fused Zamasu with Zen-Oh acting as clean-up duty. Abstention
Tournament of Power: Goku only finally defeated Jiren with the help of Freeza and 17. Team Victory, 0.33 Points
Broly: Goku and Vegeta needed to fuse into Gogeta to finally take down the raging Super Saiyan Broly. Team Victory, 0.5 Points

Final Score: 2.83/6 (47.2%), at least so far

Potential Points of Contention

-Gohan technically landed the last shot on Vegeta in his Oozaru form, possibly making the finale of the Saiyan Saga an Abstention
-The aforementioned issues with figuring out the final confrontation of Black Star Dragon Balls
-Whis could be considered an assister against Freeza in Resurrection ‘F’ thanks to undoing his destruction with his Time Rewind, making it a 0.5 point Team Victory
-Monaka technically was the one to beat Hit, as ridiculous as that sounds
-Depending on how you judge the mechanics of Fusion, Gogeta’s victory against Broly could be considered an Abstention since technically he’s a being separate from Goku despite being partially composed by him. If you stick with the Team Victory classification you could also consider Leemo and/or Cheelai parts of it since they saved Broly from death at the last minute, further reducing the fraction of a point Goku gets