Who exceeded your expectations in the Tournament of Power?

[DestructoDisc]

Anime version only. To me, the only ones who exceeded my expectations were Roshi, Vegeta and the 2 androids/cyborgs. I never thought they will do as good as they did.

[Zen Yabuki]

I ended up liking Jiren more than I thought I would. DIdn't expect to last until the end and get as much as he did. Great to see Roshi get as much as he did. Dyspo ending up needing to be taken 2v1 surprised me. Jiren, 17, Roshi, and Dyspo.

[JulieYBM]

I'm very happy that the Muten Roushi got a lot of cool moments. It was a real curve ball, even after his role in the Golden Freeza arc. I wish Tenshinhan would go away so that there would be some actual anticipation for him to get cool moments. Toriyama and the series directors don't seem to know what to do with Tenshinhan, anyway.

I'm also liking Jiren in his final two episodes. I just wish Nakamura had had the time to plant those ideas earlier on in the series with more oversight.

[Marlowe89]

Freeza, Frieza, Freezer and Furiza. Seriously. I don't think there was ever a point in the anime that I didn't enjoy him immensely on-screen, except for maybe those parts near the climax where he kept getting knocked unconscious for no discernable reason. Generally he went above and beyond my wildest hopes for him, starting from his recruitment.

Everyone else either met my expectations (Goku, 17, Roshi) or failed to do so (Jiren, Nigrisshi, Ribrianne). The mighty galactic emperor himself was the only one to actually exceed them though, and I'm glad he did.

[CJStriker_CBR]

I Honestly did not expect to get as much character development out of Ribrianne/Brianne cause of how the ToP Arc of structured. With such a Huge Roster of Fighters I thought that would be save for later. Her Development and Sens of both caring, duty to her universe and humility in the face of lose exceeded what I expect and made her character immortalized in my eyes, espically after the events of Episode 118!

Moments that Rozie got where also both sweet and energetic, never expect to like Rozie so much as I did!

Rabanra, Zirloin and Zarbuto of U2 went Beyond what I or anyone expect them to be in this Arc and gave us a Nice Underdog story that showed anyone when they have the will and support can be a Hero of their people when needed.

Android 17 goes without saying, mostly I like his personal character development with how much he has matured over the young man in the Cell Arc only out to cause chaos for fun. Also him not needing ANY encouragement given to him to Resurrect the Erased Universes shows a great deal of Depth to him and appreciation of life and the other Universe.

Gohan impressed me by taking the Bull by the Horns and going to that extra level of determination to both not only get back to where he use to be and go beyond to do all he could to save his family and universe.

Toppo with not only his leadership of the Pride Troopers but willing to give up ALL that he was to activate his trained Haiki Power to Save his Universe was unlike how Toei tried to make it seem, was a Very Noble and Self-Sacrificing act that shows one is willing to give up everything in order to save all they care for.

EDIT~~~~~ Kale had Some Great Development from such an overly Shy Girl to one so Confident in her Place and Role by her Sis that her Enthusiasm by the end of her Arc was Contagious!

[Asura]

Freeza and 17 are the obvious ones. Roshi did quite well for himself. Kefla was a surprising threat, and I didn't think Dyspo would really make it as far as he did.

I guess sort of Jiren? He exceeded my expectations in the final two episodes where he finally became an actual fucking character instead of a brick wall that murmurs a few words sometimes. His VA was fantastic and his dilemma was interesting, although we only had like two episodes to explore it which was the issue. It's really quite a shame, maybe if Jiren ever comes back in the future they'll do him more justice, because by far and large he is probably the worst antagonist in the series due to how painfully dull he is (or I guess technically was? He's pretty interesting in 130 and 131), but if we actually saw some of those personality traits and some of that emotion we saw in 130 and 131 he truly could have been an incredible character. People are going to remember Jiren because of Ultra Instinct Goku, not for anything else. The two are pretty much tied together since that's who Goku faced off against, but otherwise Jiren doesn't stand out on his own to warrant remembering aside from his immense strength and his final two episodes.

I guess what's also interesting about Jiren is the fact that he's stronger than UI Omen and only slightly weaker than MUI. Goku can't even access the form anymore, at least for now, so Jiren is still probably the most powerful mortal in existence.

[Zen Yabuki]

Freeza and 17 are the obvious ones. Roshi did quite well for himself. Kefla was a surprising threat, and I didn't think Dyspo would really make it as far as he did.

I guess sort of Jiren? He exceeded my expectations in the final two episodes where he finally became an actual fucking character instead of a brick wall that murmurs a few words sometimes. His VA was fantastic and his dilemma was interesting, although we only had like two episodes to explore it which was the issue. It's really quite a shame, maybe if Jiren ever comes back in the future they'll do him more justice, because by far and large he is probably the worst antagonist in the series due to how painfully dull he is (or I guess technically was? He's pretty interesting in 130 and 131), but if we actually saw some of those personality traits and some of that emotion we saw in 130 and 131 he truly could have been an incredible character. People are going to remember Jiren because of Ultra Instinct Goku, not for anything else. The two are pretty much tied together since that's who Goku faced off against, but otherwise Jiren doesn't stand out on his own to warrant remembering aside from his immense strength and his final two episodes.

I guess what's also interesting about Jiren is the fact that he's stronger than UI Omen and only slightly weaker than MUI. Goku can't even access the form anymore, at least for now, so Jiren is still probably the most powerful mortal in existence.

His character was pretty bad before like 129 but I don't see how he didn't have a character before 129. Not sure how he didn't have a character before then. He's had a character as early as like episode 109.

[Kataphrut]

I'm gonna say the Universe 2 Beautiful Boys and Universe 3 in general. I figured just from looking at them that they'd be jobbers, but they put on a good show and performed extremely well.

17, Roshi and Freeza are the ones everybody talks about from Universe 7, but I reckon 18 also had a really strong showing. Plenty of eliminations, good teamwork with various characters and a nice sacrificial defeat. The Androids were handled exceptionally, showing how their unlimited energy and take-no-shit personalities would be incredibly useful in a tournament like this.

[MKCSTEALTH]

Roshi, Android 18, Kale and Caulifla (namely them fusing into Kefla), the U3 Robots merging in to Aniraza, and Vegeta

[DragonBallFoodie]

Master Roshi, the Androids, and Frieza.

[Torturephile]

Master Roshi, Freeza, and 17 as for U7. U3 on their last stand (Anilaza), and Obuni since his entire universe was a failure.

[sintzu]

17 is by far the biggest surprise as he went from not doing anything since his fight with Piccolo to winning the tournament.

Vegeta's second as he got no marketing but ended up being one of the most important characters alongside getting a new form. I think some marketing said Freeza was stronger than him so you can imagine my surprise when he wiped the floor with Toppo who had just done the same to both Freeza and 17.

Roshi's next as he was the last one I expected to get the amount of well written moments he got. At first I thought he'd be a throw away character (Tien) but that couldn't be further form the truth.

Freeza teaming up with Goku was something no one wanted to see yet someway, somehow not only did they make it work but it was among the best moments of the arc.

[TheDipDap1234]

I'm surprised a lot of people aren't mentioning 18 here. I don't think anyone expected her to make it to the final 13, get 6 eliminations and outlast characters like Kale, Caulifla, Hit and Piccolo.

She and Roshi are the only ones who truly did better than I ever thought they would.

[Lord Beerus]

Freeza, #17, Roshi, #18, Kale, Caulifla, Jiren, Vegeta, Universe 3 and Universe 2

[BlueBasilisk]

Zirloin, Zarbuto, and Rabanra. I sure as hell did not expect their characters to go where they did and it was amazing.

[Ki Breaker]

Pretty sure there are a lot of them but the only one that stuck with me after all this time is Gohan's performance, that come back was nice and I am open to more of that..
Honorable mention will be Ribrianne, how long she lasted was pretty impressive..

[Zamasu55]

U3. Never expected them to last this long. Aniraza was good as well.

Then 17, 18 and Vegeta.

[OLKv3]

18, they made her a damsel for a bit but she came back strong

[Puaru]

Well not Gohan, that's for sure.

[PFM18]

the way that 17 and Freeza were characterized definitely exceeded expectations. They became even more likable characters.

I like what they did with Vegeta too. Being a mentor to Cabba, saving him, using him as motivation, and just being angry when he was killed/erased. Then his mentality changed from being about surpassing Goku to being about protecting his family and those that he loves. Pretty awesome the transition that was made there. You could see it from the contrast from Vegeta being mad about Goku getting Ultra Instinct, and asking about how he achieved it, then when he gets UI again Vegeta vouches for Goku saying he can win and then he is happy when Goku achieves UI. I believe that in 129/130 it was the only time in the series where Vegeta was not angry when Goku surpassed him.

The character development of Kale I thought was done really well.

The performance of 17 and Roshi was surprising.

Universe 3 coming out of nowhere and being a formidable force exceeded my expectations for sure.