Well, I have to agree with the general consensus that this is the best Chapter of the arc in some months (probably since Chapter 76, which on re-read is totally electrifying, to me). Of all the elliptical plot moves Super has made, this one is certainly the best, and the tone of the Chapter is a very welcome change, with its combination of levity and intensity - I'd like to see more of it in Dragon Ball Super, honestly. But also, the levity helped communicate something serious and thematically relevant, rather than simply being there for its own sake.
I'd like to return to a couple of suggestions I made about some of the thematic elements of the arc - firstly, in the
main manga thread, I'd made a (slightly abstruse) suggestion that one's '
Innate Nature' is important to understanding some things about the arc (particularly with respect to Vegeta and
Wagamama no Goku'i, and Goku and
Migatte no Goku'i), and secondly, in the
Chapter 78 discussion thread, I'd suggested '
Intel(ligence) vs. Instinct' was thematically important - 'intelligence' both in the sense of useful information that can be appropriately exploited ('intel'), and in the more general sense of a rational, controlling intellect that can make use of such information (particularly with respect to Elec's own role in the context of the Heeters). I'd drop the strictly oppositional aspect ("vs.") of the second part now, but I think this Chapter has solidified how important the idea of innate nature, and the interplay between the elements of Intel(ligence) and Instinct (with Instinct as a straightforward outgrowth of one's Nature), are for the arc. Also, I think it's particularly worth noting the role of
memory as a carrier of intel(ligence), which in turn has an impact on one's own nature - this is all over this chapter, and, in retrospect, appears through the arc.
Gas, for instance, is partly characterised in this Chapter by the things that other people remember about him (the Bandit Brigade remember him as a scared little boy totally dependent on his big brother), and the things he remembers about himself (i.e., that he used to be the
weakest of the Heeters, before Elec worked his will upon him) - this seems, in turn, to tell us that occupying the role of 'muscle' for the Heeters is not something that comes naturally to Gas, but is rather something that Elec chose for him a long time ago, just like he's been making similar choices for Gas all across the arc, fundamentally making Gas into something he isn't, because it suits Elec's plans (as Gas says, "Elec's will is absolute"). It seems likely that this Chapter foreshadows the eventuality that Gas had less capacity to become the strongest than even Granolah did, and will run out of time here, as Elec has impressed a sense of urgency a few times on Gas now, and seems to be showing the pressure as Goku continues to make Gas waste time. Elec's controlling intelligence has caused a problem by going against the innate, natural capacities and inclinations of his little brother. I'd also suggest that this also does something to explain why Gas is the way he is (i.e., a taciturn, scowling, apparently completely flat character): it's a pose that he thinks is appropriate to the role chosen for him (in the way of all brooding, uncommunicative Toriyama antagonists). But as this Chapter hints to us, this isn't actually his true nature. Being treated like he's a specific bodily appendage of the 'brain' that is Elec has tension with the fact of his own existence as an individual, with his own innate nature. If nothing else, this is likely to enforce his limits.
And, of course, the big development of the arc is founded on the memory of Bardock, as Monaito reveals a critical source of intel (Bardock's own Scouter), which reveals the memory of Bardock's fateful battle with Gas (more than what Monaito is able to tell us by his own personal memories, which have already been crucial to the development of the arc), and provokes further memory of Bardock in Goku (with the critical injunction to survive, and an unspecified amount of memory of Goku's own past). We also get the foreshadowing from Whis that this is going to reveal something to Goku about who he truly, innately is, and that this is going to fundamentally affect the way he approaches Ultra Instinct in the arc climax. I think this serves as a counterpoint to what Goku and Vegeta have been doing so far - Vegeta notes that "power derived solely from Instinct...is unbounded", but both Goku and Vegeta have also been engaging in a conscious, rational (i.e., intelligent) approach to how they wield these powers - namely, by
imitation, rather than by true Instinct. Vegeta consciously imitates Beerus in his approach (for instance, a lot of people saw the similarity between Beerus's taunting Vegeta in Chapter 70 and Vegeta's taunting Granolah in Chapter 73), and he perceives his failure in Chapter 76 to be that he can't use the power like Beerus can, because he can't be like he used to be - he's trying to imitate Beerus (and also his former self) directly, rather than use the power in a way that suits his own true nature, even though, as he notes in Chapter 75, the power
is innately within him. Similarly, in the last arc, Merus was Goku's direct exemplar, and Goku fell short at a critical juncture (he makes the comparison between himself and Merus at that time, supposing his shortcoming to be that "I need more God Power"), and in this arc, Whis told him "Copying me won't get you far. You must develop your own style" (Chapter 69) and compared the difference between Angels and Goku (Chapter 71), which has developed further and more specifically in this Chapter, as Whis has re-impressed the idea that they are fundamentally different beings, so Goku can't strive to be more like an Angel - he has to be
more like himself.
Whatever that ends up being. The 'intel' he gets in the next Chapter will doubtless be critical to the development of his (Ultra) Instinct, which will benefit from being better-aligned with his own Innate Nature. I don't
think there's much need for real concern on the part of the fanbase as to what that might be - as noted in this topic, the finding of tranquility in the midst of a jarring shock to the emotions is already established as crucial to Ultra Instinct, and is pretty likely to be relevant now - or the implication that it maybe makes Bardock 'too special' relative to Goku, because the arc has already done the work of telling us that the only reason Bardock was acting the way he did on that day, and therefore the way he did when he saved Goku also, was
because of the Instinct that the infant
Goku provoked in him - Goku did all this to Bardock, which is now rebounding on Goku himself in the present. One way or another, Goku's a 'self-made man' coming out of this, like he always was. And as we know from the end of Dragon Ball, he'll still be very much the same man - he'll simply be more in touch with himself. Again, how that exactly manifests itself remains to be seen.
There's more to say (I know,
shocking, right) about all this when you bring in Granolah and the question of his own memory and the intel within it, flawed as it is, manipulated as it has been by misinformation from the Heeters/Monaito (but against which his own Instinct rebels, for instance, as he continues in the early part of the arc to have dreams about a day he thought was a closed issue that he 'knew' all about), and his own innate gifts as a Cerealian being brought forth in unexpected ways, even as he acts increasingly in a way that runs contrary to his true nature as he pursues his plan of vengeance (which is brought home to him in Chapter 76 in particular, as he becomes a destructive force that looks to the Suga-jin just like the Saiyans look to Granolah). Or the manipulation and acquisition of information (intel) by the Heeters in engineering the fight, stacking the deck in their favour by the intel (again, strictly
memories) gleaned from OG73-I, and how this rubs up against, say, Gas's innate nature (both as covered above, and as seen in Chapter 80, where it's revealed that all the Heeters have an unthinking, savage True Nature when not brought under control), etc., etc. And you could probably discuss how Beerus's statement that "Before Creation comes Destruction" might relate to the general journey of this arc, too. But that'll do for now, I think.
So, when considering questions such as the following:
kemuri07 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 18, 2022 11:39 amI mean, can anyone tell me what this arc has even been about.
I would suggest, at this point, that the arc pivots on two main questions.
The first, given the foregoing, is
"What makes us who we really are?" The answer is big and varied, with
innate nature (e.g. Goku and Ultra Instinct, the Heeters),
'family' and/or personal connections and their influence (e.g., The Heeters as a family, Goku and Bardock, Granolah with Monaito as his surrogate father and Oatmeel as his companion, Goku and Vegeta),
our pasts generally (which obviously encompasses the arc as a whole as the characters bear their pasts in different ways), including
things we've lost (e.g. Granolah, Monaito, Vegeta and Goku, who have lost their people/family),
things we (think we) know (e.g. Granolah and the destruction of the Cerealians, Gas and his 'knowing who he is' as a member of a family),
or remember (e.g. Monaito remembering the work of the Heeters and their threats),
or learn (e.g., Goku and Vegeta's training, or the things revealed to Granolah and Goku as the arc progresses), and
choices we make/goals we set ourselves (e.g. Granolah's decision to make his rash wish to be #1, and the general pursuit of that position in the arc), all coming to the forefront in the arc for various characters, at various times, and all of which feeds into the stuff covered about Innate Nature, Intel(ligence) and Instinct, which are the specific thematic ways in which this question is explored in the arc.
The second, given that this is Dragon Ball and fighting is always at the centre of everything, is
"Why do we fight?" Again, various answers present themselves depending on the characters involved and the shifts in the plotting, which include (but are not limited to)
to do business (e.g., Granolah, to earn money as a bounty hunter; the Heeters, to enrich themselves and gain pre-eminence in the wider Universe),
to survive attack (e.g., Granolah, against Soshiru, the Cerealians, against the Saiyans),
to validate ourselves (e.g. Vegeta, to prove himself the strongest, Gas, to show what he's really made of),
to avenge wrongs (e.g. Granolah, throughout),
for the sheer joy of it (e.g. Goku and Vegeta, most obviously and covered in depth in Chapter 74, but also all the Saiyans as a matter of course and in a more negative way),
to improve ourselves (e.g. Goku, as a personal character lodestar), and
to protect others (e.g., Bardock in the past, and Goku now).
And the various ways in which these two questions intersect and find concrete events to answer them, is one of the things about this arc that is keeping me thinking right now, and which I think I'm really going to enjoy on re-read.
)
