Did Super nerf Goku?

[nickzambuto]

The big feat that Super gave us is the universal shockwaves.

But there was already evidence for universal or infinite power in the manga, and a ton of evidence in the DBZ anime.

The next factor is that Dragon Ball Super is all about reaching the gods, the show has a bunch of moments that are supposed to be like "omg Goku is a god now this is crazy..." when the entire joke in the Boo arc was that these guys became TOO strong and surpassed the gods without even realizing it.

So if you judge it by feats, or if you judge it by lore/in-universe, Dragon Ball Super is literally weaker than Dragon Ball Z.

[Kaboom]

My pet theory for the "universe-threatening shockwaves" nonsense is that it wasn't just the amount of power at work, or Goku's temporary lack of control over it, but also the type of power being used. I like to think that god-ki is tied to the fabric of space in some way that normal mortal ki isn't, so if you "use it wrong" then you can accidently cause a chain reaction effect. Which makes sense given how the shockwaves were getting more destructive as they spread farther out, which... y'know, isn't how shockwaves normally work.

Or even more than that, maybe it's just a side-effect of the "Destruction Energy" that Beerus and his comrades use, since to my memory the only time the whole "stop fighting or you might destroy the universe" thing was ever brought up again was when Beerus and Champa were squaring off.

Anyway, that aside... from a more narrative angle yeah, it's like Super over-extended itself with this stuff at the very beginning, quickly realized it left itself basically no room for visually portraying additional power growth, and so decided to just sweep it under the rug and not use the universe shockwaves again. Which in a broader sense actually does unintentionally make it seem like Goku and everyone he fought actually got weaker after that first god-level fight with Beerus.

[SupremeKai25]

No, obviously not.

The reason why they are not destroying the Universe by fighting is because the power evolution in Super is not just about pure power, but also control, discipline, and technique. We know that several high-tier Super characters could easily destroy the Universe; Kefla said as such, that she feels the power to destroy the entire Universe with one blast from her hand. This obviously puts Super character ahead of DBZ characters in terms of sheer power, but also in terms of technique and discipline, as they always manipulate and control their ki in such a way as to not destroy the Universe.

It is not a coincidence that every single villain/antagonist in Super is not interested in destroying the Universe. Beerus' job is to keep a balance in the universe, Frieza gets money by conquering and selling planets, Hit and Jiren are tournament contestants who have to follow certain rules, Zamasu and Moro want to rule over the Universe, and the Heeters want to make money and you can't make money if the universe's destroyed. All the villains in Super are intentionally written in a way that they do not want to just destroy everything like Kid Buu did, so this is an additional justification for fighters not destroying everything when fighting.

As for your last point, why is it that DBZ is allowed to asspull these Kaioshin who were never mentioned once before, but Super is not allowed to introduce a new set of Gods? Yes, Goku in DBZ surpassed the Kaioshin, but Super revealed that Kaioshin is only one part of a duo, and the Destroyer, Kaioshin's ally, is much more powerful than Goku.

[theherodjl]

You know, even normal Ki itself might have some kind of connection to the fabric of their universe's space-time continuum, given that they somehow are able to pinpoint damage from celestial-destroying attacks to targets much, much smaller. The amount of Ki that should ordinarily be enough to vaporize any planet that they're on gets instantly reduced & dissipated, or perhaps 'absorbed' into the universe by the user's control.
I mean, where else does it go? Even in DB, there seems to be a enough of a conservation of matter & energy that it such power does come back to them after resting enough.
It's also worth noting that Jiren, Broly, and Moro(and Gas?) had normal Ki, yet they remained far ahead of the level that Goku & Beerus fought at in BOG.

Ki might be the very thing that powers every universe, and as they get stronger, their universes expand in response. It could at least be an explanation as to why the four-galaxy-cosmological-model was retconned to have many more galaxies than that.

[Piramid]

I do think there is a nerf, but in a different way. It's noticeable because too much importance is given to Frieza from the beginning of Super. This is because Super was intended not only to attract new young viewers but also to re-engage those who knew the series vaguely.

That’s why a character like Beerus suddenly considers Frieza’s power so much and the SSJ transformation is referenced as if Goku had practically the same power in SSJ on Namek as in the Buu saga.

Beerus should have mentioned the absurd difference in power between SSJ Goku and Frieza, but it seems like Goku just surpassed him, as if they were in the same tier, more or less.

[Yuji]

Not really, the anime includes a lot of bullshit one-off abilities and feats like Goku and Jiren breaking time itself, shaking Infinity, Zamasu fusing with multiversal timelines, random fodder in the ToP shooting out black holes, Goku and Freeza surviving Hakai which erases the soul. You have some feats like Boo and Gotenks' hole in the RoSaT being improved on, like Broly and Gogeta smashing holes in reality by punching each other casually, or Vegeta breaking the entire RoSaT itself by powering up. Even in the manga which is generally a lot more down-to-Earth, you have stuff like Granolah being faster than Instant Transmission, however that works.

So Super definitely did bring in a lot of new feats to the series, if that sort of stuff is what you care about. On the other hand, it also brings in a lot of nerfs like Kuririn bleeding from a gunshot, or Goku being tagged by a bullet.