Previously on Dragon Ball Super, Goku hinted that he could find a way to figure out what a “Super Saiyan God” was by summoning Shenron. And by looking at the title of the episode, they figure it out. But what is a Super Saiyan God?
Battle of Gods arc – Episode 9/14
As they are waiting Beerus and Whis discuss the Dragon Balls, which they call “wish orbs”, except they are a smaller version than what they are used to. The larger balls they are thinking of are the Namekian Dragon Balls, which we have seen way back in the Freeza Saga of DBZ.
The group gathers the dragon balls together to call Shenron.
Shenron, the Eternal Dragon, has always been one of my favorite dragon designs in Dragon Ball. The series has introduced a few other dragons but nothing quite as awe inspiring as Shenron. His voice is also just spot on. Love it!
Goku gets right to the point of asking about a Super Saiyan God, of which Shenron is fully aware of. Goku then mentions Beerus, which is when Shenron starts to freak out. Nobody has ever seen Shenron this scared before.
When asked to bring the Super Saiyan God there, Shenron explains that there is a God in Saiyan mythology with that name, but no such deity actually exists. Shenron then goes on to explain how to create a Super Saiyan God: five Saiyans of righteous hearts join hands and input their energy into another Saiyan, which will then be transformed into a Super Saiyan God. Shenron then quickly leaves after dishing out that information and the Dragon Balls scatter.
So the Saiyans try to link up and input their energy into Goku; Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks, and Goten. Goku is input with their energy, producing a lot of wind and lightning, and Goku’s energy is increased more than it’s ever been…
But … it’s not right. As Whis explains, they need 5 Saiyans plus 1 to put their energy into, so a total of 6. But there are only 5 Saiyans in existence, if you include the half breeds. This is what we call a plot contrivance, where we conveniently use the need for an extra Saiyan to introduce a big surprise (one that was hinted at many episodes ago when Dende healed Videl).
VIDEL IS PREGNANT!!!!!
Gohan and Videl’s baby is actually a big part of Dragon Ball GT, and I believe she is even seen at the jump section of Dragon Ball Z (that takes place after Super) so it’s not a terrible surprise if you are familiar with the series. This also gives credence that they are still trying to work that stuff into the canon.
They link up hands again, this time with Videl in the mix trying to produce the Super Saiyan God. After one attempt, nothing is happening.
But after a second attempt, there is indeed a change.
At this point, Beerus starts to feel the divine energy, which normal mortals cannot feel. A bunch of weird weather happens, people glow, Saiyans vibrate, and Goku transforms into … a GOD! A Super Saiyan God to be exact.
After several minutes of an introduction we finally see what a Super Saiyan God looks like, and it looks like Goku, except with red/pink hair. But our never ending wait has been satisfied … and the episode ends.
Battle of Gods Movie Link
Battle of Gods to Super Time Correlation: ~1 hour 6 minutes to ~1 hour 17 minutes
In an episode where the entire plot can be explained in one sentence (Goku calls Shenron, finds out how to create Super Saiyan God, and they create him) I can’t imagine the differences between the series and the movie would be that great.
But a big difference is that the movie actually goes into a lot more back story for the Super Saiyan God, nothing of which was mentioned in the episode. Apparently, a long time ago a group of good hearted Saiyans grew tired of the Saiyan race’s destructive attitude so they grouped together to form the Super Saiyan God as mentioned above. After the evil Saiyans were defeated the God went away, not able to hold on to the power for long, and the legend transformed into myth over time.
The conversation over whether Vegeta has a righteous heart also takes a lot longer than in the series. I’d say this is the first time in the series where the movie actually takes longer to get things moving than the series does. But I like the extra bits in the movie. I wish they had kept them in the episode and not trimmed that stuff down. The transformation in the series though was much more dramatic. Likely to draw it out longer than it really needed to be.
One other little nugget of info from the movie is that we find out that Vegeta has a younger brother somewhere, which I don’t even recall them mentioning ever before in anything. I’d be interested if this ever comes back.
Episode Thoughts and Feelings
Overall not a terribly bad episode. Not much happened, granted, but we did see the culmination of a nine episode search for the elusive “Super Saiyan God”. We saw Shenron, which is a personal thrill of mine. Anytime Shenron is in an episode, I boost that episode up. Sorry. I love him.
I’m not overly impressed with the design of the Super Saiyan God though. I don’t know what I was hoping for, but Goku, a little younger looking and with red/pink hair isn’t my idea of a phenomenal transformation. But we will see where they go with this.
Personally I love the back story that they often add into this show and I’m a bit disappointed that a lot of the backstory that was in the movie was cut for the series. I can’t even imagine a reason for cutting it because it wouldn’t really effect anything. But regardless, not a bad episode. And we are definitely building up to the big boss battle at the end of the saga.
So next time… BATTLE (at least we hope so).
Did you like Episode 9 of Dragon Ball Super? Share your thoughts below!
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