Doctor. wrote:That was awful. One of the weakest episodes in the series. So many bad decisions I can't even count.
Why is Toppo spamming Hakai spheres even though it supposedly takes a while to charge them? And why is he using them to blow up some rubble when his normal attacks should do that just fine? Why did #17 think that trapping Toppo under some rubble was an effective strategy when even the weakest fighters in the tournament could blow up the arena? I appreciate them trying to make #17 out to be some kind of tactician but that was a dumb strategy. And yet again with the rocks, if base Freeza (somehow) managed to trap Toppo, why did he waste his time throwing rocks and blasting him instead of just throwing him out of the arena like he did on Namek with Goku? Why is Jiren calling Goku and Vegeta "impudent bastards"? I want to say it feels out-of-character, after the way he keeps praising them both, but Jiren is just such a piece of boring cardboard that I can't even make that assertion. They claim that splitting up Goku and Vegeta is bad because then U11 would have the upperhand... how, exactly? If they split up Goku and Vegeta, then #17 and Freeza will fight Jiren alongside with Goku. U7 has the numerical advantage, how would splitting the fighters up be to THEIR detriment and not to U11's?
Hakai was just wasted completely. I won't dwell on the fact that any character touching Toppo should be destroyed (due to his Hakai aura), because Toppo obviously doesn't want to be DQ'd so he probably "turns it off" when attacking physically or when he's being attacked, but the fact that the Hakai balls can be destroyed by punches and Ki attacks is just stupid. Why bother going through the trouble of introducing this different kind of energy if it's no different from everything else? This problem already applied to last episode with Freeza surviving the Hakai sphere but it just gets amped up to absurdity in this one. "I'll give you an attack too powerful to destroy" is up there with "I'm too fast for your Time-Skip now" and "My power surpasses my own understanding." I shouldn't have to explain why Vegeta getting a power boost thinking of his family and friends is a bad thing. It was bad when he first transformed, it's bad now. Dragon Ball doesn't do power-ups like that and, when it does, they come from rage and/or amount to nothing.
The decision to use his self-destruction move was stupid. He did it against Boo because he was losing and, even if he was stronger, he'd have to blow him up so he wouldn't be able to regenerate. Here, he was winning and all he had to do was throw Toppo out of the arena. Why sacrifice your Ki and health over a fight that you had the upper-hand in? And the scene itself was terrible. You don't defeat a major antagonist with a rehash of a previous moment. That's not memorable, that's not new, that's not exciting. That's stupidly trying to piggyback on the old series' name and status without actually having the balls to go through and kill the character off like Z did. Let's throw a bit of character regression by switching Goku's name in his speech to Cabba's. Furthermore, the excuse they used was just incredibly stupid. He survived because he's stronger now than he was back in the Boo arc? Uh... his fucking attack is stronger now, too! Or are they trying to imply that Vegeta just eliminated Toppo with an attack that couldn't even kill Majin Boo? And, of course, Toppo amounted to nothing after his display last episode. You thought he was going to be defeated by some strategy after they stressed how he must have a weakness in his perfect defense and he needs to charge his attacks. But nope, he just gets overpowered.
The stamina thing is getting out of hand. If Goku wasn't enough, Freeza is back up this episode after getting absolutely destroyed in the last one (and his presence didn't serve any purpose, either. He's out of sight after his attack and isn't even present in the NEP). Vegeta, too, used all of his power, only to get back to full power next episode. I also think this needs to be stated, the episode was filled with an excessive amount of padding. 2 minutes at the start showing us the end of the previous episode plus 2 minutes of a flashback of Majin Vegeta's sacrifice. What's the point?
There were some things I appreciated, but they were plagued with problems also. I liked #17 being treated as a tactician as I said, but I've already highlighted the problems in his strategy. I like Jiren belittling Toppo, because I feel that one who holds justice at such a high level would have no respect for someone like Toppo who chose to cast it aside, but without the knowledge we have on his character from the manga, it feels contradictory with the way he's been portrayed so far and even out-of-character (as well as his little smirk at the end). I did like him one-shotting Goku though, since that's what he should be capable of doing and what he should have done all along. Thematically, I like the idea of Vegeta, who takes a more selfless pride on who he is and who he's surrounded by, defeating someone who chose to cast away his ideals for the sake of power, but, again, the way it was executed was awful.
I don't usually rant like this, but this was beyond terrible, it even surpasses episode 12. I didn't think the ToP could be this bad before, but it just keeps proving me wrong. I fear for the finale.
Whoa, you went in. This wasn't the worst episode ever to me, but I agree with everything you said pretty much. I appreciated the idea of Vegeta as well with his selfless pride, but wow was the execution in this episode bad. The first half when Vegeta wasn't fighting Toppo was just a total waste of time, while Vegeta fighting Toppo was decent, but still, it could have been much more.
