Summary
Dragon Ballis a franchise that is famous in the anime community for its forms and power-ups. While this has become a running joke and a meme over the years, no one can deny the sheer impact that theseDragon Balltransformations have had on the shonen anime genre. The first of these was the Kaioken technique that Goku used against Vegeta in the Saiyan saga, though that was considered more of a basic power multiplier than an actual form. But when the Frieza saga came around, the entire world bore witness to the most iconic transformation of all time; the Super Saiyan.
This was decades ago and since then we have had many transformations within this franchise alone.Super Saiyan was upgraded multiple timesand, as perDragon Ball Super, we now have unique forms made from God Ki, the chief of which is Ultra Instinct. This was a form that came very close to the original Super Saiyan form in terms of hype and icon status, being teased very subtly all the way back in the very first episode ofSuper. After this, Whis made a few comments here and there about it throughout the series, but it wouldn’t be until the fight against Jiren in the Tournament of Power that we would see it in all its glory. Goku showed the power it held by almosteffortlessly defeating Jiren with itand has used it multiple times in the following manga arcs, tailoring it to perfectly suit his fighting style.
How Does Ultra Instinct work?
Contrary to popular belief, Ultra Instinct is actually characterized by Whis as being a technique or state of being rather than a form like the other transformations, being hailed as the pinnacle of martial arts by all those who know of its existence. With Ultra Instinct, the user’s entire body is completely focused, allowing for it to move independently without any premeditated thought behind these movements. This allows them to avoid wasting time thinking about defending themselves in a fight as their body will do that for them automatically, while also strengthening itself to be way more durable and resilient. This essentially makes the user fight on autopilot with utmost precision and even elevates the power of their attacks substantially. This technique is thought to be so difficult that even mostGods of Destructionhave trouble executing it perfectly as only Angels, the strongest beings in the multiverse, are said to be masters of Ultra Instinct.
The way that this is done is through the user being absolutely focused and clear of mind, negating all emotions and stray thoughts to be able to fight and move purely using instinct. Though unexplained, the popular theory as to why Goku’s hair changes color despite him only using a technique is because through adapting his body to Ultra Instinct, he gets closer and closer to the state of being that the Angels are in all the time.
Will it be Enough For the Future?
Ever since the Tournament of Power ended, we saw Ultra Instinct being used by Goku in the subsequent manga arcs against opponents who were far more powerful than even Jiren. Though the form completely outclassed Moro, we still saw Goku being on the brink of death against him, especially when Moro got his massive power up by becoming one with the Earth. This was when Goku had to dig deep for thepower of his Spirit Avatar attackafter being given far more energy by Vegeta’s Forced Spirit Fission in order to finally put down Moro for good.
The narrative after this took place in the Granolah arc, which saw Goku and Vegeta initially going up against the titular Granolah, who was easily able to take out Goku’s Mastered Ultra Instinct in just one surprise hit. After Gas was revealed to be the big bad of this story, Goku found that although Ultra Instinct is an unfathomably powerful technique, fighting purely on intuition without thinking about his actions was something that could never suit him as a Saiyan, which meant that he could never make the most of the offensive output of Ultra Instinct. This led to Goku eventually tailoring the technique to his own strengths and emotions, leading to a completelyunique form that fans call ‘True Ultra Instinct’.
However, this is where the future of the forms as well as the series itself comes in. If there was a new form or power-up coming in every single arc, it would make the previous one insignificant which would greatly lessen the impact that each form would have. Plus, Angels have always been touted as the zenith of power within this universe with their Ultra Instinct, so it would not make much sense for mortal characters to find their own forms that supersede those of divine beings.
The new aspect of power-ups in the series comes from refinement. Since Goku is a mortal Saiyan whose entire power is based off of raw emotion and is not the same race as the Angels, him not achieving newer forms would serve the overall story very well as it would require him to continue to train and refine his own version of Ultra Instinct to fit his own fighting style. Thematically, this is the far better choice as Vegeta is going through a similar character arc in terms of his transformations. In the Granolah arc, we saw Vegeta claim the power of a God of Destruction and use it to unlock hisnew Ultra Ego technique, eclipsing both Granolah and Goku in power at that stage of the story. However, he too was defeated by a fully powered Granolah as he had not even begun to refine his technique and was not trained in it.
This is where the character arcs of the two main heroes ofDragon Ball Superconverge, as Saiyan warriors that are both being primed withthe powers of Angelsand Gods of Destruction respectively. While Goku and Vegeta won’t be receiving any new forms, we will be seeing them undergoing training and understanding their ultimate techniques, eventually allowing them to refine these techniques to use them to their fullest extent!
