Speculating on the Future of Dragon Ball Super

At the end of my last post on Dragon Ball Super, I talked a bit about what I’m expecting in the future of the franchise. To summarize, I see Uub and Pan likely taking big roles, as noted by their prominent roles in the flash forward, and that Goten and Trunks will join them. I’d like to see comebacks for other characters, but aside from Piccolo and maybe Gohan, I don’t really expect them to come up. I also suspect that the kids will be learning Ultra Instinct and Ego, possibly but not probably in lieu of their Super Saiyan forms, since they have Goku and Vegeta as teachers and those techniques now outmatch any Super Saiyan form. Beyond that, though, I feel like the sky’s the limit. So, it would be fun to look at what outlying concepts and storylines we have left, and what we could see.

First off, I think it’s important to look at the power scales. It’s a battle manga, and I think Goku and Vegeta have crossed an important threshold already. Jiren was said to be stronger than a God of Destruction, and Goku overpowered him briefly with his untrained Ultra Instinct. We don’t know if the Destroyers are all the same strength (which seems unlikely) or who is the strongest among them. But the Granolah arc definitely puts both Saiyans above Jiren, conclusively. Moro would have had to be at least as strong as Jiren, and then got stronger when he copied Merus’s Ultra Instinct. First Granolah and then Gas with their wishes and power up forms, and we have two opponents well over that level. And Goku briefly overpowered Gas. So, Goku for sure is stronger than what we’ve seen from Beerus, and Vegeta probably is, as well, since he kept up with Granolah. This is important because the entire reason that Goku met Beerus is because Beerus wanted a rival, a person who could match and even beat him. That rivalry needs settling, and that’s not going to be a simple fistfight between friends, even without including the likely interlopers who want to intervene.

The next biggest thread(s) I see from Super is Zeno and the Grand Priest. While Zeno “saved” them from Zamas, his involvement amounts to a failure of divine power and station, and an example of how and why Zeno is essentially a standing threat to all of reality that gods are tasked with appeasing. For as much as Jiren was the obstacle placed in front of Goku in the Tournament of Power, Zeno was the antagonist, destroying universes left and right on a whim, torturing everyone with an elimination game for survival. It literally all happened because he was bored, fully disinterested in the lives he is in charge of. And the whole time, the Grand Priest just stood by emotionless, helping Zeno make decisions and facilitating this slaughter. Or, depending on the moment and how you read it, the Grand Priest guided Zeno’s decisions. If Goku is stronger than a Destroyer, then we should expect to see some form of battle with an angel next, just as a matter of course; the Grand Priest is our best bet, outside of Whis. And while Zeno isn’t a fighter, it seems likely we’ll see a reckoning between Goku’s enlightened mortal power and Zeno’s omnipotent destruction (which kinda has interesting parallels, with Goku’s Buddhist influences and how Zeno is one way you could view the Christian God). I have no idea what form that story could take, or what it would result in, but I do expect to see something to that end. Dragon Ball has a history with introducing gods, showing their limits, and ultimately have the heroes rely on their own powers; seems like the “basically a supervillain” deity who tells everyone what to do is going to lead to a direct conflict.

Of course, there’s the next fight with Frieza coming up. That’s pretty explicit and set in stone, so I’m not sure it counts as speculation. What does is how that story will look, because I’m not convinced they’ll kill Frieza again in the next fight. Aside from the Red Ribbon Army popping up a couple times, the series hasn’t really had much in the way of recurring villains (you know, since Zeno wasn’t referred to as the villain in the Tournament of Power). It looks to me like they’ve been setting Frieza up to be their first big recurring villain. I was unhappy when Resurrection ‘F’ brought Frieza back. That movie was a pretty empty spectacle of transformation porn that existed to show off blue hair, because Frieza was the bad guy the last time Goku first used Super Saiyan. I was happy those events were breezed past in the manga. That said, Frieza’s role in the Tournament of Power was interesting and worthwhile, and his continued role in the series moving forward looks rewarding. Like any good recurring villain, Frieza is being used to challenge a basic concept in the series, namely that since Goku first transformed, it’s been all about getting more swole at the expense of his martial arts mastery and tutelage (“Plain old fightin’ power? Who taught you that? Vegeta? Frieza?”). While the battle with Frieza could be delayed until after Goku has achieved sufficient mastery over his technique and passed down his knowledge to his student(s) Uub (and Pan, I hope, since it was never explicit that Goku was training her), the more likely answer, from where I sit, is that Frieza will remain in play for more than one storyline in the future. And despite a start in the Super era I’d call eye-rolling, I’m actually looking forward to that.

Since Broly was shown to exist in the manga, it’s a good bet we’ll see an actual story with him there later. Based on the brief page, it appears that whatever happened in the manga matches up with the movies well enough; at least, we know Frieza was involved with getting Goku and Vegeta to battle Broly, though the implication is that the movie can be viewed as text. Now, I haven’t seen the Broly movie yet, though I’ve read up on it. I’m happy to know that Broly has a personality now, since his previous movies were vapid spectacles for transformation. I don’t think we really needed him to come back, since we have Kale, but if he’s going to be a fixture in the fandom with such unearned popularity, it’s good that there’s something other than muscles to like about him, that he has actual character and narrative potential beyond being real strong. And in the hands of Toyotaro, with more than 90 minutes to do a story with him, there’s a chance he could do some cool stuff.

And there’s the new stuff from Super Hero. Full disclosure, I haven’t seen it yet, either, but I have read a plot summary and all the info I can about the new forms. The plot sounds like another Resurrection ‘F’ style rehash to show off transformations, and I am not into the potential unleashed based mechanics of the new forms. Like, it’s thematically regressive and mechanically confusing. But outside of my opinion, the manga has included at least the idea of all the other Super era movies so far, so there’s a good chance of seeing some version of Beast, Orange, and the Gammas in a future story in the manga. But the form that takes is a lot less clear to me. I don’t expect Goku and Vegeta to come back from Cereal asking Gohan why his hair is janky; unlike Broly and Resurrection ‘F’, these events are more than “a strong person showed up and has a fight.” In the anime, Future Trunks got a definitely for reals new transformation that is almost certainly just a Quake of Fury with a blue bit of aura, while in the manga he never approached that level of power and instead had a cool SS2 alt. So, will we see some reference to Beast without Gohan actually transforming, or will we see the form introduced with a new and much better mechanic? The same question could be asked of Orange Piccolo, though since Piccolo doesn’t yet have his potential unlocked in the manga, the door is much wider for Orange being reinvented, and hopefully without altering his jawline. If the Gammas appear in the manga, it’ll likely be with a completely new backstory, so as to develop Hedo and any RRA remnants more effectively, and I don’t have an idea of their fate long term. I do say all this partly because of my preference that Beast and Orange be done differently. On the other hand, unlike Broly and Resurrection ‘F’, there was no “this is a tale for another time” insert about it. That could be related to when the movie premiered, or to page count and we’ll see that next chapter. It’s just notable at the moment that we didn’t get that kind of page, and both the Moro and Granolah arcs were made by Toyotaro with even greater freedom in storytelling than before. So I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s going to assert more authority and not simply include those events as is if he has other plans for them, or simply doesn’t want to have them in the manga.

There’s not really anything else in Super that I see a specific story growing out of. It’s been a fairly tight narrative with a narrow focus. Some other things we could expect include more multiverse stuff. I’m actually surprised we haven’t plain traveled to another universe yet, or even sought out the Super Dragon Balls. Not actually going after them is arguably a good narrative point about how they’re largely plot coupons or McGuffins, and that our heroes are past seeking out miracles. But on the other hand, no they aren’t, and it would be rad as hell to go tromp around Frost’s neck of the woods; maybe we’ll see Golden (but probably not Black) Frost! We also know Goku and Hit would like a rematch, and it would be pretty cool to see Ultra Instinct v Time Skip. Oh, and there’s the part where NAMEKIANS ARE FROM ANOTHER UNIVERSE! Seems like an extremely huge deal to me, and I’m just dying to hear more about that. Since Namekians make Dragon Balls, the central thing about and namesake of this franchise, we should really be drilling into that. I mean, not to belabor the point too much, but the Super Dragon Balls undid what Zeno wanted and demonstrated a power equal to his, which is a pretty important and bold thematic statement. Should we take that to mean there’s going to be greater antagonism between the terroristic authority of Zeno (who has never been said to have created anything) and the noble, miracle granting Namekians; and could that further reveal some other secret, like Namekians being from one of the first six universes Zeno destroyed, or an alternate/preexisting multiverse? I know those are big wish list items, so I’m not holding my breath. I just really want to know more and that’s what I imagine. And like, what happens when Cabbe and Caulifla learn how to make Super Saiyan Gods? They have a whole planet of qualified Saiyans, and they can perform the ritual on anyone at any time. Plus, Cabbe, Caulifla, and Kale in particular have way higher base power than Goku, it looks like; Goku would have to go God (or “Beyond God” *eyeroll*) to fight base Frieza in the Tournament of Power, just like in Resurrection ‘F’, but the U6 Saiyans did it as Super Saiyans, and were winning. I mean, I know if that point came up, Goku and Vegeta would probably be shown as stronger, but that’s not what it looks like; unless U6 Saiyans simply get way stronger with just Super Saiyan, or manga base Frieza isn’t as strong as movie base Frieza (by far the less likely option).

So yeah, that’s what I see on the horizon. To conclude, I’d like to talk about a bigger picture piece of speculation. My hope is that, after Toriyama sadly passes, Toyotaro will be able to continue the manga. There are a lot of stories left, and as the series nears the time when Goku finally passes the baton to a younger generation, it would be fitting if the same happened with the manga. As I mentioned, my understanding is that Toyotaro had more freedom with creating the Moro and Granolah stories than when he was making stuff simultaneously with the anime. I’d like to think that continues, and that maybe this hiatus is for him to develop the next story more independently. Maybe he’ll come up with it and get approval from Toriyama, rather than using Toriyama’s ideas. I keep thinking back to the quote from Toriyama that he doesn’t have to correct much with Toyotaro’s art. I know it has to end some day, but since a revival happened, I’d also love to see a master hand down the story to an apprentice. But who knows? Maybe I’m just being wishful, and the story will end with its original creator. Either way, we’re living in really exciting times to be a Dragon Ball fan, aren’t we? Let’s enjoy it.