Whis (Again)

[DragonBoxZTheMovies]

Over the last year or so, you've probably seen me obsessing over this character; not so much in a "fanboy-love way", but in a more speculative way, if that makes sense. You're probably all sick of hearing me babbling on and on about him, so I promise this is the last time...If you want to blame anyone, blame Hujio and VegettoEX, because I totally bought into their theories.

"THERE WAS A FREAKIN' TREE, FOR FUCKSAKE! AND WHEN YOU SEE A TREE AND GODS TOGETHER IN THE SAME MOVIE, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT US TO THINK?"

Erm, anyway, what I made this thread for was to ask you guys on what you think we'll see of Whis in future. When you think about it, him being the strongest in the universe is a major thing to leave out there in the last few minutes of the film and we got a sample of what he could do when he knocked out Birus with one hit.

From the start, I thought there was gonna be something significant with him- not saying being the strongest in the universe isn't significant, but I was thinking more along the lines of actually doing something in the movie. In the lead-up to the film, I felt like I was the only one obsessing over his placement in the poster because it seemed to be indicating something so important in how the movie would play out. Then we got the first trailer where there are two shots of him; one where he's leaning forward in darkness and the other where he's asking if Beerus will, "destroy the Earth." When you look at a screenshot of the first one, there is a real mysterious, almost sinister vibe coming from it, but that was pretty much non-existent in the final film with the way he acts.


I know it took me a while to get to the point, but here are my questions:
- Are you satisfied with Whis simply being Beerus's martial arts master?
- Do you think there's anything more to Whis's character?
- Do you think he's linked to the Makaioshin, Planet World Core, etc.
- Will he be expanded upon in the next movie?
- Will he be evil? (From the way he acts in BOG, you wouldn't think so)
- What would you, personally, like Whis to be?

Until the next movie, this is the last you'll hear from me about Whis...promise.

[Herms]

I have to admit, I'm actually glad he didn't end up being linked to the Makaioshin, if only because that probably would have limited him to a fairly standard bad guy role. Even if he doesn't do much in the movie, I just love the idea that the laid-back lackey character is secretly the strongest being in the (seventh) universe...but cares more about eating sushi than fighting. Really, the joke works precisely because Whis stays in the background the whole movie.

As for what Whis is...well, until anything official says otherwise, I'm going with the idea that he's a mutant golden fruit Shinjin, born with fighting talent much higher than is normal for his race, like with the Ginyu Force or Goku (and Broli, for that matter). I mean, I think it's safe to say that East Kaioshin was never exactly gifted at the martial arts, yet even he could take down Freeza easily, so the baseline raw power for golden fruit Shinjin must be pretty high. Get one of those guys who happens to be born with a natural talent for battle, and it shouldn't be too surprising that they'd be the strongest around.

Anyway, I still would like some follow-up on the Shinjin/World Tree stuff. I mean, it's a tree that grows gods! I want to see that! If not in a full-fledged story, at least in a cool diagram or series of illustrations by Toriyama.

[DragonBoxZTheMovies]

Even if he doesn't do much in the movie, I just love the idea that the laid-back lackey character is secretly the strongest being in the (seventh) universe...but cares more about eating sushi than fighting. Really, the joke works precisely because Whis stays in the background the whole movie.

Wow, I never thought of Whis's character as a gag...I have to wonder if he was even present in Yusuke Watanabe's original script.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

- Are you satisfied with Whis simply being Beerus's martial arts master?

I'm fine with that.

- Do you think there's anything more to Whis's character?

We didin't see much from him, so I guess there is more about him.

- Do you think he's linked to the Makaioshin, Planet World Core, etc.

I believe that he is a Shinian, probably a mutant (as Herms said) that trained a lot in the past.

- Will he be expanded upon in the next movie?

If he is in with a bigger role.

- Will he be evil? (From the way he acts in BOG, you wouldn't think so)

I have the feeling that maybe he will train the Z-Senshi in the next whatever we get....

- What would you, personally, like Whis to be?

Well, I don't have anything particular in my mind. He is cool so far, so... not get any less cooler?

Wow, I never thought of Whis's character as a gag...I have to wonder if he was even present in Yusuke Watanabe's original script.

I recall that he wasn't, and he was Toriyama's creation.

[Blade]

I like Whis, because he's kind of what I would expect from a Godly figure linked solely to destruction outside of the usual black and white depictions of evil and good. I think it would have been kind of corny for Gods of destruction to be outright evil, or bloodthirsty - why would they be? They're Gods - they don't have small minded motives such as domination, they're instead tied to the duty of destruction on a universal scale. Destruction is simply an order of business for them - a responsibility to maintain order and balance with creation.

Why should Whis be a fearful, domineering character simply because he's immensely powerful?

[Karrit]

Bills and Whis remind me of Sailor Saturn and dieties from some cultures. They are gods or destruction, but also gods of rebirth.

[Marco Polo]

He is disturbing to us because he is a complete reversal of the shonen fighter: he just doesn't care about fighting, at all.

[Gyt Kaliba]

You're not alone man, I too completely agreed with some of those early theories tossed out in the podcast. I mean, they just fit so perfectly! In a way though, because we were all predicting so much stuff in that regard, I'm kind of glad the movie was completely different, because that left us with a movie we couldn't predict at all, which was certainly awesome.

- Are you satisfied with Whis simply being Beerus's martial arts master?

I'm pretty satisfied with it, yeah. I'd like to see what he's capable of when he really gets down and dirty of course, but I am fine with him being Beers' master. I do wonder whether it's specifically for Beers though, or if he always serves as a teacher and attendant to whoever the God of Destruction is?

- Do you think there's anything more to Whis's character?

I'd like to think there's something more, but it may not be something super substantial - just something else to his personality that we haven't seen yet.

- Do you think he's linked to the Makaioshin, Planet World Core, etc.

Just going off of his looks, I assume he's of the same race and level of gods as the Kaio-shin, so he's probably connected to that tree and all - but I no longer think he's connected to the Makaioshin at all.

- Will he be expanded upon in the next movie?

Possibly. I know a lot of people want to see him start training Goku and Vegeta, which would be kind of cool to see...but it seems a little too 'expected' now. Like I said before, one of the main things I enjoy about this movie is how unpredictable it all was in a way, so to see the next film go in any kind of expected direction would be a little disappointing for me.

- Will he be evil? (From the way he acts in BOG, you wouldn't think so)

I'm thinking not. He could be, but I don't see the throwing this curve ball at us after they made us think that for this film, with the early footage and such.

- What would you, personally, like Whis to be?

I want him to be exactly what he was, albeit with more story material to work with. Actually, going back to the Makaioshin thing, maybe he would be 'connected' to them in a way; he'd probably be an excellent source of exposition on them.

[MCDaveG]

I wanna see some God tournament with Whis attending with Goku and Vegeta as his champions. Or some adventure going on again.

[superfunk]

The movie makes me think that each of the gods have some sort of trainer to better equip them to do their job. All the other gods probably have a whis like character that is stronger than them, or at least more knowledgeable in some regards.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

I knew that anything anyone on the podcast would speculate would end up being wrong, so I was going to let the movie do what it wanted to do. I'm fine with Whis being what he is, since unlike Kaioshin he doesn't have any moral responsibility to use his power that would make his existence more pertinent, and the highest god in the universe being a relaxed, silly dude has a lot of precedent in Dragon Ball, namely with Kaio and Grand Kai. You can't really take issue with if you don't take issue with the overseer of the Northern quarter of the universe being a blue catfish man with a bad sense of humor.

[KentalSSJ6]

I remember my first theory when the poster with him came out.

*Bills was the Guardian of Earth before the one that preceded Kami. I supported this theory with the fact that in Dragonball, DBZ, and DBGT the only planet that has any Egyptian themes was Earth.

*Whis was a Makaioshin (then again who didnt initially think this) and would somehow be connected with Bills.

Had to say it got me hyped a lot back then. I still enjoyed BoG for what it was despite my issues with it.

[CODii]

I'll admit that I haven't given Whis nearly as much thought as some of you have but I was very pleased with what I saw of him in Battle of Gods. I was very surprised that he wasn't revealed to be be a Makaioshin in the film, but that doesn't mean I was necessarily disappointed either. I do have a feeling though that we will be seeing more of both Beerus and Whis in some form in the future and I can definitely say I'm excited for that!

[Dolciano]

- Are you satisfied with Whis simply being Beerus's martial arts master?

I am quite satisfied since I enjoyed their interaction. I also got a feeling that they're also kind-of like friends.

- Do you think there's anything more to Whis's character?

There could be. For example: what would happen if he lost his cool? Would he lose control of his powers and accidentally destroy several galaxies? Is a mentor to all the Gods of Destructions, or only for Lord Bills?

- Do you think he's linked to the Makaioshin, Planet World Core, etc.

He doesn't seem to be one.

- Will he be expanded upon in the next movie?

If he returns, I sure hope so.

- Will he be evil? (From the way he acts in BOG, you wouldn't think so)

He seems to be someone that is neutral. I also doubt anyone could mind-control him either.

- What would you, personally, like Whis to be?

I like as he acted in BoG, but maybe with a bit of foreshadowing about how powerful he is: perhaps flicking a stray attack that almost hit Bulma and the others while they watched SSG Goku and Lord Bills fighting, with such ease.

[Polyphase Avatron]

I think Whis was the first Daikaioshin and retired.

I don't get the feeling that he doesn't care about fighting, after all he is Bills' martial arts trainer. It's more like he knew that everyone on Earth was too weak for him to bother with. Even someone like Goku who loves fighting would be bored if the only people around were too weak to give him any challenge.

[Unicorn_Bazooka]

The movie didn't really leave me a feeling that there's more to Whis' character. I don't know if that was intended or not, but if it was, it at least worked for me.

Sure him being much stronger than Bills is surprising, but i don't think there's really anything else about it, he just is.