The Super Re-Read

Discussion specifically regarding the "Dragon Ball Super" TV series premiering July 2015 in Japan, including individual threads for each episode.

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Magnificent Ponta
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Re: The Super Re-Read

Post by Magnificent Ponta » Sun Mar 07, 2021 8:24 am

The Super Re-Read: Chapters 61 - 64
Part 1 (Chapters 61 and 62)

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(That can't be true, can it? It may or may not be true. Moro's a scumbag, you can't trust him. Admittedly this instalment is out a bit early, but what's a day between fellow re-readers?). Anyhow, welcome back to The Super Re-Read, one and all! We're closing in on the climax of the Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc, as we move on into Volume 14 of the Dragon Ball Super Manga - Vegeta steps into the fight, and reveals the technique he's learned to take on Moro - but the Big Bad's not done yet, and reveals what he's kept in reserve to help him turn the tables...

As ever, credit belongs to Kanzenshuu's contributors, with thanks, for the wealth of information kept on the site: The Super Re-Read uses its info pretty liberally, so I encourage everyone Re-reading along to check it out.

Righty-ho, then - time for another Re-Read...

Chapter 61 - Vegeta Reborn/Vegeta Reborn
19 June 2020
Chapter Notes
  • At the outset, I guess it's most notable that this Chapter bears strong and obvious similarities to 超 #45, particularly in the way that power is secretly stolen from the stronger party - only this time, of course, it works in favour of the heroes, as Vegeta turns the theme of Stealing against the Thief. But there are also strong currents of Earning at play - in the immediate fruits of Vegeta's training, the expression of his personal outlook ("one's own inherent power", as he calls it), and his broader character arc of earning redemption for his past sins: this latter is achieved by Giving life back to the Galaxy (albeit in a limited way) by making restitution for what Moro has stolen. In terms of structure, Moro will realise too late that his energy is being stolen from him, and will fight a losing battle that strips him of his youth all over again - however, in another beat from 超 #45, he will reveal another turning of the tables at the end of the Chapter, as he regains the advantage overall - this time, by having used OG73-I's method of stealing to restore himself. Adding to this main thematic thrust, there are sub-structural beats at play of the sort that I have argued are running throughout the Final Act generally, which I'll get to later.
  • Favourite Art: Toyotarou pairs some pretty art together between the end of the previous Chapter and the beginning of this one, as the dynamism of Vegeta's charge is paired with him laying a big ol' punch on Moro, which is full of really nice impact. Other pieces that are contenders here include Moro's "I still have my magic" beat, which (for me, anyway) showcases the craggy menace of Old Moro one last time in a really effectively depicted moment; the genuinely freaky panels of Moro literally eating OG73-I, and finally the full reveal of the sleek new MoroOG73-I at the end of the Chapter. All nice work.
  • Given how quickly things progress here, it's easy to forget that Moro right now is so strong that SSjBe Vegeta isn't really able to actually hurt him, even after his training has massively increased his power projection capabilities to a point that seems to surpass Ultra Instinct Omen in applied strength. It's hard to overestimate how massive that difference is (and therefore will be again, once Moro gains even more power in eating OG73-I).
  • Piccolo's comment that "Vegeta's never been one to misread an opponent's strength" has been widely derided by the wider fanbase as something that is obviously absurd, given Vegeta's pronounced tendency to arrogance throughout Dragon Ball. But despite the accepted wisdom behind the scorn, I think it is worth considering whether the statement might, in fact, be broadly true:
    • Firstly, I think a caveat on the context for this statement is very important - Vegeta is in the middle of a battle, and is pressing an attack despite being clearly outmatched. Jaco suggests a berserk reaction thanks to denial, but Piccolo denies this specifically - on the grounds mentioned above. So it is important to bear in mind that the claim in question is really that in fights, Vegeta generally appraises the strength of his opponents accurately, rather than underestimating them. This rules things like faulty assumptions about how strong his opponents will be, or not accounting for characteristics of his opponents that he cannot reasonably be expected to know about, Out of Court. So, we have to dispense with things like whether Cell will be stronger than Vegeta in his Perfect Form, or the fact that Zarbon has a transformation up his sleeve - they're not relevant to the statement as made. We need to look for underestimating an opponent's strength during a fight, where Vegeta ought to know better.
    • When we first see Vegeta, he only steps in to fight Goku - and he's pretty confident that Goku can't match him, on his current performance, which is perfectly true: Vegeta remains well ahead both against Goku's full power or in Kaio-Ken (DB #228-229), which is all he's seen. But when Goku pulls out Kaio-Ken x3, although Vegeta is amazed and does indeed go berserk, he nevertheless says "H-he surpassed my power..!!" (DB #230), so he clearly does read Goku's strength correctly in this fight. Again, in DB #232, he rages at being beaten by Goku, but it's clear he hasn't misread Goku's strength in his raging (despite his denial driven by elitism), because he calms down and determines he needs to transform to win; and win he does (DB #231-235). So, although he rages at his treasured self-image being challenged here, and he's surprised by Goku's hidden abilities, he doesn't misread Goku's strength at any point when fighting him.
    • On Namek, he gets in a few fights which he wins quite easily until Zarbon transforms and stops him for the first time (DB #265-266). Of course, he laughs at the idea that Zarbon has hidden power, but this belongs in the realm of a faulty assumption rather than a misreading of Zarbon's strength - Vegeta has no reason to expect that Zarbon is hiding a transformation, and doesn't believe him, but he's under no illusions once they're in that fight. Conversely, on the rematch, Vegeta sees things with clarity, and gains the upper hand against Zarbon - but it is Zarbon who misjudges Vegeta's strength after experiencing it mid-fight, saying "Don't make me laugh!! I'm still more powerful than you!!!" (DB #268), which Vegeta quickly disproves.
    • Against the Ginyu Force, Vegeta is never under any illusions at all, whether before or during the fight: he knows he's going to lose. He makes a fight of it, and though he's surprised that he's "treated like a plaything" in the fight, he clearly hasn't misjudged Recoome's strength, or how this will go (DB #275-276).
    • Against Freeza, Vegeta tells him to transform, on the (incorrect) assumption that he won't change that much (DB #296) - he is probably making comparisons on the basis of his experience with Zarbon, and in any case, as he notes, there is little point in making headway against Freeza when he isn't giving his all - it's also a faulty assumption of the number of transformations Freeza has in store as well; but Vegeta has just come off of demonstrating a reasonable judgement of where the group stands in their chances against Freeza (DB #295): with trends continuing as they have, and on the assumption that Freeza only has one transformation with a moderate increase in power, even Vegeta's faulty assumptions aren't unreasonable ones (they are wrong, of course, but again that's not in view here). But of course, when Freeza actually reveals his power, Vegeta's quite clear on how outmatched he is, and aside from an attempt at a sneak attack in DB #298, he barely participates until his near-death power-up, and generally asserts Freeza's basic invincibility, which is vindicated several times over.
    • But upon the encounter with Freeza's final form (DB #305-306), this is probably the first time we get what might be considered an out-and out misreading of his opponent's strength, leading to the sort of berserk denial that Jaco postulates (however briefly). Arguably, this is really attributable to a delusion about himself and his own power as a "Super Saiyan", and it vanishes with an appropriate demonstration, but if we're looking for something that seems like the terms described at the outset, this instance certainly qualifies.
    • Next, we have Vegeta's fight with Android #18 (DB #352-354) - we have the caveats that he can't judge strength by sensing #18's power while they're fighting, and she has the advantage of infinite stamina, which gives her an added edge (though Vegeta knows about this one, thanks to Trunks: DB #348). The only other thing to say is that the pair are seen to be basically comparable for much of the fight. Since he cannot know whether #18 is holding back or not, and she is stronger even than Trunks expects, one would have to be actively predisposed to read this as a real case of Vegeta underestimating her strength to uphold this. I guess you could, though.
    • With respect to Cell, Vegeta obviously makes an infamously boneheaded move in letting him go so that he can obtain his Perfect Form, and again his assumption that he'll win anyway even once Cell is Perfect is...faulty. However, even after a brief "warm-up" exchange, Vegeta can tell that Cell isn't taking the fight seriously, and of course he has no illusions when his kick is ineffectual (DB #383). He has a trick up his sleeve in the Final Flash, but when that achieves nothing, it's clear there's no denial (DB #385); Vegeta's not misreading their respective strengths in this fight.
    • Finally, in the Buu arc, Vegeta goes into the fight with Majin Buu expecting to die (DB #464), and the only thing that really surprises him is the extent of Buu's regenerative ability. While, again, he assumed wrongly in thinking Buu would be weaker than he is, when it comes to the fight, he misjudges nothing about Buu's power. When he returns to Earth, he goes into it expecting to achieve nothing again (DB #500, 503), and when the time comes to fight Kid Buu, he already knows he can't stand up against him (DB #510), so again, misreads nothing in the fight.
    All of which goes towards the point that Vegeta really doesn't make a habit of misreading his opponent's strength, once he's in the fight - the only time he's refused to see when he's outmatched, and thereby misjudged his opponent's strength, is in the fight with Freeza (and arguably also with Android #18, though again, he has no reasonable way of determining otherwise). So, within the parameters set by the conversation, Piccolo's comment seems to be basically accurate. Vegeta is arrogant to a fault, obviously, and this leads him to make some seriously inaccurate assumptions about his opponent's power (and terrible decisions, to boot), but very rarely does he misread them in a fight like this (and his encounters with the antagonists of Dragon Ball Super aren't much different). All of which is a long way of saying that Piccolo recognises there must be something more than meets the eye in Vegeta's continuing to fight even when clearly outmatched - he's not simply continuing to fight because he's underestimated Moro and can't accept he's losing right now.
  • I like seeing the visual 'beats' of the unfolding revelation of what Vegeta's doing here. It's reminiscent of 超 #45, not only in terms of basic structural resemblance (as mentioned above), but also simply as a 'beat': when Moro grabs Vegeta and dumps him into the ground, he breathes heavily like Vegeta did in 超 #45, and looks at his hands in the same way Goku did when starting to understand there was something wrong with the situation, and then the revelation of ki being stolen. The likeness to the initial encounter helps to sell the ensuing theme-work.
  • Artistically, I feel like the next stage in Toyotarou's development will come once he puts enough confidence in himself (and his audience) to be able to miss a few things out here and there. While over-panelling and inserting panels depicting movements between actions has been a fairly regular criticism of Toyotarou's work (I think the former has been mostly rectified and the latter is a little bit overstated as an issue - it was also a feature of the original work, and is sometimes necessary to articulate the different actions), the thing that has occasioned this comment is the awkward long-range panel shot from behind the observing trio - it takes up about a sixth of the page, and does nothing but tell us that Vegeta zips back to fight Moro again. It makes logical sense that he must, but it doesn't need depiction: while I appreciate Toyotarou's logical approach to his work generally, the audience can figure this sort of thing out without being shown it. There was the same kind of thing going on in 超 #52, when he bothered to show Piccolo take off after the crashing Macareni ship once he’d shot it down. When Toyotarou starts omitting more and leaves us to infer logically necessary but dramatically superfluous content, it'll be a step forward.
  • The liberated ki collects in a fashion similar to the Genki Dama. While the revelation of the gathered energy here is vaguely reminiscent of the Genki Dama on Namek, this will get a more decisive payoff in 超 #66 when Vegeta gathers gifted energy to power Goku with at the climax of the arc, so structurally, this is really more of a foreshadowing of that victorious resolution. Vegeta likewise describes his action as a liberation of what Moro has stolen, and will mention that his counter-theft from Moro now is "the same principle" as gathering a willing gift of ki (which is something else that characterises the Genki Dama), so the visual and conceptual resonances combine not only on the thematic 'Stealing/Giving' level (as already mentioned), but also on a sub-structural level (Level 3, if you've been keeping up with my personal pet interpretation) as Vegeta's use of the technique will mirror Goku's use of the Genki Dama from the Buu arc, which will bring the arc to its culmination as its substructures fold into the superstructure and Moro is defeated.
  • This issue broadly 'resolves' Vegeta's character arc, in the way he gets the better of Moro and begins to answer the challenge of his own past, to emerge as a fully-fledged hero of the series who is developing beyond a powerful but stunted character (but still has not abandoned the characteristics that identify him, and who still has further to go, as 超 #69 demonstrates). The aspects of this character arc unite across a couple of main trajectories at this point:
    • We get the first key aspect to the resolution of Vegeta' character arc coming out to play in this scene, where he mentions fighting in a way that reflects one's "own inherent power". This stands of a piece with his outburst in 超 #50 that "We Saiyans pride ourselves on our physical might, and nothing more. A warrior race has no need for fancy parlor tricks!!" Thematically, this stands with Earning, as Vegeta has trained to obtain this greater power (and the means of depriving Moro of his own means of Stealing), as Vegeta taunts Moro to "stop relying on strength stolen from others and simply fight with your own power" - Vegeta prides himself on the strength he's earned, and in his own view, he is simply restoring the playing field so that the things he prizes stand supreme, and he comes out as the strongest along this theme; this fulfils the vow he made to himself in 超 #51, where he swore he would earn victory over Moro and Goku, and he can't resist the dig where he declares that victory (including the reversal of where he regards true 'talent' lying: compare with DB #459). This is the high point of Earning as an opposing theme to Stealing, and Vegeta embodies it in the most obvious way: his success is totally bound up in earning the power that is the due reward of his hard work (as Pybara noted in the last Chapter).
    • Despite the bombast, Piccolo picks up on the second, more important key aspect to the resolution of Vegeta's character arc - which is his own personal growth in facing the past, which was raised even earlier, in 超 #44. Vegeta took the fight to Moro on Namek with the intention of protecting the people he had once harmed, and the attempt was thwarted. By employing the hard work of the first key aspect of his character arc just mentioned, Vegeta manages finally to come full circle now and achieve the success in saving the Namekians that eluded him earlier in the arc. His heroic determination has allied with his unstinting effort to pull this off now, as a remnant of the Namekians are revived by his liberation of their life force from Moro. This is with another goal of earning - that is, earning redemption - but it is only really by uniting Earning with Giving that Vegeta is seen to have begun achieving what he has previously simply lacked.
    • Vegeta's union of these two main trajectories might be summarised as Facing the Past, Forging the Future - This isn't solely Vegeta's trajectory in this arc; rather, it serves more broadly as a functioning description of what I have called the 'substructure' of the arc's climax, only expressed thematically (as opposed to 'mechanically'). Vegeta has sought to atone for his past sins to progress from the sort of character we saw in the Buu arc towards a doer of good deeds that will "wipe the slate clean" and allow a fresh start. For his part, Goku's past fashions the general direction of the climactic Act, as I have argued several times previously, in a way that allows him to surpass the Gods once again and forge a future where...he's still got a long way to go to reach his goals (in true Dragon Ball style), only with this Divine Power. Even Merus (the other key hero of the arc) faces his own past in his birth as an Angel and the way his intrinsic Neutrality has clashed with his learned sense of justice - he faces the dilemma this represents and chooses a future for the things he loves, and ultimately finds he has a place in it doing the things he has learned to love in his past.
    In short, the character arc moment for Vegeta in this Chapter begins the 'turning of the wheel' in Dragon Ball Super, where the past is faced by the heroes in order to forge a future that is characterised by the 'best', most 'meaningful' things about that past (to the heroes in question, that is). The sense of Final Culmination in 超 #67, and the sense of New Beginnings in 超 #68, is to me very strong, and I believe the manoeuvre starts in earnest here, as Vegeta settles his character arc in these ways. But for Vegeta himself, this isn’t the end – he’ll return in 超 #66 to help Goku, but on the lines of his character arc, it’ll be clear that he still has work to do in coming to terms with the past he is trying to atone for here: 超 #69 will have Beerus declare that “doubt weighs down your soul” as Vegeta feels “guilty for the sins of all Saiyans”, not just his own deeds as here, which (in Beerus’s opinion) inhibits him. While that continues Dragon Ball Super’s motif of Vegeta being the main thing standing in his own way (which has also been in evidence in this arc, in 超 #55: Vegeta is the one “off-balance”, which inhibits his power), here is where we get the completion of Vegeta’s ‘first step’ to facing this.
  • Piccolo credits Goku with changing Vegeta, which is a fairly straightforward observation - Vegeta himself says things along these lines in DB #510, in supposing that Goku almost knew he would grow to have a soul. But Piccolo also pairs this with the observation that Goku never changes at all, because the way he is "works for you". This touches off a series of motifs that play with the ideas of change and the unchanging; I mentioned in a previous instalment, for instance, that Goku and Moro's basic interactions don't change across the arc from Goku's initial demand that Moro return to prison (and Moro ignores him) in 超 #44 - this is because the pair never change in and of themselves (compare with the dialogue that points up people changing 'beyond recognition' in some way, and the more general discussion around this broad point in the few posts that came before this instalment). Visibly, Moro passes through a number of changes in this Chapter alone, and in the arc more broadly, but as a character, he never deviates from his original depiction. Goku, for his part, doesn't change either, and while Piccolo says it "works" for him, he nevertheless dissembles when Goku asks if he's saying that's a good thing - Goku goes about justifying both sides of that ambiguous response, as the positive facets of his influence in changing formerly incorrigible villains is shown here, and his easy connections with others and tireless work to improve himself yield their due in 超 #64 when he achieves True Ultra Instinct, but also the limits of his influence are on display in 超 #65 when he again insists on Moro's return to prison, hoping for some small sign that he might one day change and justify Goku's interest in his potential, just like has happened thanks to the same approach at various points in his past - only for Moro to be as unchanging as Goku, resolving to continue his thefts and eventually ratcheting up the crisis to its final point.
  • Deviating from character stuff for a moment, the Namekians are revived by the restoration of their energy. Pybara mentions that this would only have happened for "tribes with potent life force" - on a power-scaling level, I guess this might imply that the average Namekian is stronger than the average denizen of Zoon (though this doesn't necessarily imply anything about Pui Pui's strength under Babidi's charm). In addition, we get an esoteric effect of the Dragon Balls wedged into Esca's exposition that the Namekians have been revived: the Dragon Balls have apparently preserved the condition of the dead. This obviously doesn’t happen with Earth’s Dragon Balls (see, e.g., DB #165, or DB #242), so whatever is being done here is unique to the Namekian Dragon Balls – this may or may not be related to the fact that they are effectively direct scrapings taken from the Super Dragon Balls (超 #6), unlike Earth’s Dragon Balls which were created anew.
  • Returning to character matters, we get the other ‘controversial’ piece of dialogue in this Chapter: namely, Vegeta saying that he expects to go to Hell, just like Moro, and specifically the line, “At the end of the day, I’m a villain. I’ve been prepared for the consequences for quite some time”. Despite fan annoyance at this line, I tend to look at it as the surest proof that Vegeta has actually managed to truly begin to outgrow his past (that ‘first step’ I mentioned above) and become more the hero that such objectors esteem him to be – his own condemnatory (yet matter-of-fact) self-judgement that his sins are too great to have been fully atoned for (despite making the attempt) testifies to the development of his own moral sense to one more consonant with that of a ‘good guy’, unlike his nostalgia for his “evil” aggression in DB #459. It is true that Porunga revived Vegeta in DB #514, thereby not defining him by the terms of the wish as “very evil”, but on the other hand, Vegeta had been fished out of Hell (where Piccolo told him he would end up, in DB #467) that very same day to go fight Buu (DB #500), and a few days prior had been excluded from revival by Shenron, who therefore defined him by the terms of the wish as a “bad guy” (DB #469). So, even though he has apparently developed in the few days between those events, it’s hardly an open-and-shut case that should make his sentiments here particularly objectionable. Moreover, despite the eventual conclusion that he qualified as “righteous” in Battle of Gods, there still needed to be some hemming and hawing over it. But as I’ve said, despite the substance of the claim here, it really sets the seal on Vegeta’s personal trajectory, which will continue to be investigated in the Granolah arc as he bears guilt for the actions of all Saiyans (超 #69) – I think it’s an important indication of his change of heart, and it is equally important that this is revealed in conversation with Moro, who will never experience such a change.
  • Moro pulls another switcheroo by escaping with his magic. I do like the ‘beat’ this moment conveys, as he returns to misdirection in service of a bigger aim again, in which his magic plays a key role (just like in 超 #45). We also get the return of his ‘wicked’ flight aura after having had a few ‘full-power aura’ Chapters, so like much about Moro’s elderly design, I find this a welcome change. The menace is almost immediately back in his depiction – from the moment he starts chuckling, at any rate – and his looming above Saganbo’s ship, summary dispatch of Shimorekka (good) and extremely creepy (and pretty graphic) eating of OG73-I all plays to this sense really effectively.
  • Looking at the progress of the arc from a structural standpoint, the three putative storytelling ‘levels’ unite again in a single plot beat, with the transformation of Moro following his consumption of OG73-I. On Level 1 (immediate structure), this is Moro’s characteristic caution coming out to help him turn the tables on the heroes once again, and he does it in a characteristic way: by literally eating a target, predating on his ally. As OG73-I has been the other key practical bearer of the arc theme of Stealing (as a copycat thief of other people’s abilities), Moro doing unto him as he did unto others is singularly fitting, and exposes the lengths that Moro will go to in his thefts in order to maintain his position (though he isn’t done yet). Standing under this surface reading on Level 2 (intermediate structure), Moro experiences a rebirth on the edge of final defeat thanks to the use of a shade of himself, and becomes more powerful than ever: these are features of the Piccolo Daimao-23rd Budokai cycle, as the Daimao spat out a shade of himself to ensure his own rebirth in a more powerful form (Moro here ingests the shade instead) – the ultimate demonic challenge to Son Goku, who had himself surpassed the Gods, and whose character arc here will result in the surpassing of the Gods once again, so Moro’s retention of this character connection works here not only to advance the plot with a twist, but also to build the emerging culmination of Goku’s own arc in this Act: in 超 #62 he will take the alignment with Piccolo Jr. further by piercing Goku in the same place Piccolo did at the 23rd Budokai – he retains a scar in exactly the same place this time around – and in 超 #65, Goku will give him a Senzu Bean in the hope of eliciting a small sign of willingness to change, along with getting a rival he might continue to test himself against, as he did with Piccolo also. Under this, on Level 3 (ultimate structure), we move through Dragon Ball across a wide sweep of the Cell arc, with Vegeta at the centre of the action, but with the main villain absorbing an artificial life-form in order to transform into a being of terrifying power, who will bring the heroes close to a final defeat, until the main protagonist is finally able to access the power they trained to use in the Room of Spirit and Time, and turns the tables once more. This is one of those times when I think the union of the three structural levels of this arc’s final Act come together very well, to form a solid new ‘beat’ that draws on them all to perform this new function for the arc.
Chapter 62 - Edge of Defeat/Edge of Defeat
21 July 2020
Chapter Notes
  • While 超 #61 used 超 #45’s good beats and a whole lot of well-employed theme and character work to give us what had a decent claim to be the most important Chapter of the arc so far, 超 #62 is rather more…functional, all told: since 超 #61 pulled a last-minute switcheroo in giving Moro the advantage again, 超 #62 is really just the logical (and occasionally very pretty) follow-through. The heightening of the doom is almost monotonous, but it’s necessary to get us to the next beats, essentially, so that’s where it goes. Slowly.
  • Moro’s design has, of course, changed, as we saw at the end of the last Chapter. Despite the fact that I’ve posited a Cell arc substructural beat here (as have many others), I don’t think Moro’s design is as evocative of Perfect Cell as a number of fans have suggested. Apart from the flashes on the cheeks of what is otherwise quite a generic face, there really isn’t anything that I can see to commend this point of view, when we’re talking about a svelte goat-man against Cell’s very square-ish bug-man aesthetic. Really, Moro’s transformation is just a direct accommodation to OG73-I’s design, and otherwise a rearrangement of features that are unique to him. OG73-I is probably based on a rejected design for Shiirasu, a Toyotarou-designed antagonist for Super Dragon Ball Heroes. Moro’s design accommodates to OG73-I most prominently by his more humanoid appearance, but also by the incorporation of his copy jewels – one remains on the head, but the others transfer to his hands. His goat horns previously gave Toyotarou some grief, so these are straighter and simpler (and perhaps modified by OG73-I’s simpler cranial spikes). We’ve also already mentioned the cheek flashes, which were in evidence for both of them already, but it stands out now as a solid dark colour instead of their skin colours. Otherwise, the rump pelt moves up and within the neckline to drape over his back, and the shoulder fur moves down to the lower legs to mostly replace the cloth bindings Moro originally had. His arm bindings have also become much thinner, more like typical wristbands (and more like OG73-I’s armoured bands). There’s quite a pleasing layering of the tone, black, and white portions of Moro’s design, from head to toe (usually regularised in that order), and I, for one, like this fusion of features overall. While this was doubtless designed for colour (like much in Dragon Ball Super), I think the design comes off very well in Black-and-White as a result (arguably better). I think it’s well balanced overall, and changes enough while keeping enough familiar in order to convey both the sense of a powerful, sleek new threat and the sense that this is still the same Moro (importantly, he’s kept the serpentine eyes).
  • Moro is, as we saw at the end of 超 #61, stronger than he was even at his previous peak, to the sum of one elderly version of himself with “barely a scrap of power” and a being who is…arguably about the same level as pre-training Piccolo. So, not much different (which is probably why Goku had to stop and correct himself after quickly thinking Moro was back to normal), so the difference in performance by Vegeta now, as he can’t even touch Moro no matter how hard he tries, underscores the fact that he only made so much headway in the first place because Moro let him before he realised what he was doing – the difference in conventional power is simply massive here, and Moro has no trouble leveraging it this time around. In addition, he progressively reveals a series of notable adjustments to OG73-I’s powers when used by him, which aren’t really explained (the specifics of OG73-I’s powers were examined in a previous instalment). If one had to speculate, the permanent integration of his erstwhile ally is what gives the resulting merger its additional features – the powers that OG73-I copied (Piccolo’s, Gohan’s, and Moro’s) were part of him when he was absorbed, so any facet of his being – including this – is permanently integrated too. As an extension of Moro receiving the “complete back-up” of himself permanently, this would make a kind of sense. It could’ve used an explicit explanation, though.
  • Moro copies Vegeta’s powers, showing that he also has OG73-I’s copy ability. It isn’t stated that anything MoroOG73-I copies is permanent – only the powers OG73-I had already copied. So this would fit with the foregoing – the powers Moro has inherited are permanent because they’re not simply copied any more, but intrinsic to his very being. The powers he copies from now on are, however, subject to the same 30-minute rule as OG73-I. In copying Vegeta’s powers, it’s made transparent that the main upshot of this is that Fusion won’t be used by the heroes this time (which was something of a relief on the first read through, and remains something I can get behind on the re-read; Fusion needs basically to be retired as a major plot point for the main heroes at this stage, though if it isn’t addressed, there will always be questions around why it wasn’t used…).
  • Question: I get that Moro can use the Big Bang Attack, but how does he know it’s called that? Maybe an OG73-I data collection dealie (see 超 #67, 超 #69)? Actually, scratch that: Moro has demonstrated the ability to read minds and memories before in the arc (e.g., 超 #49). I find his trash-talk afterwards quite funny. He’s not wrong that, name aside, the attack is basically just a ki blast (though Daizenshuu #7 points out that “his ki is condensed down into one big lump and can deal heavy damage inside one specific range”, so it has amplified destructive power within those specific bounds when compared with other attacks), but one can’t avoid the feeling that this is rather like stealing from a store and then complaining about the quality of the product. It’s also more than a little rich, as Moro himself is a petty thing in a grandiose package.
  • In keeping with the Cell arc (‘Level 3’) sub-structural beats of this part of the Act, the focus shifts briefly to Dende and his status as God of Earth. Dende was first employed in his Godly position in DB #393-394 (shortly after Perfect Cell had newly established his supremacy, like Moro does here), and now he resolves to get involved again, precisely because he is the God of Earth. There’s a nice symmetry there, and it plays well with the broader motifs of Divine intervention in this arc with Beerus, Whis, and Merus, and also it compares productively with a ‘Level 2’ reading, given that Kami-Sama had said it wouldn’t do for God to step in and fix things: Dende feels differently, that as a God the onus is upon him to be actively responsible for his world.
  • Favourite Art: There’s a lot of strong work done in the fight between Moro and Piccolo, Gohan, and Goku. Even at the outset, I like the composition of Gohan and Piccolo’s charge, with the sort of ‘Yin-Yang’ compositional symmetry in that panel. Moro’s moves are also sharp and well-executed; the moves seem to suit his sleeker appearance somehow. Of course, for me the winner here is the piercing of Goku and its aftermath, but actually it has to be said that for all the stretching of the action that this Chapter is guilty of when performing its overall bridging function, it at least makes it quite pretty. A lot of that is to do with Moro’s depiction, I think, but it’s a definite plus all the same.
  • The ‘combo moves’ as such continue to try to oppose the singular bad guy, as Piccolo and Gohan both use moves to hold Moro in place so Goku can land a more substantial attack. I enjoyed seeing Gohan employ a Galactica Doughnut to this end, not only because it makes sense he’d remember it since it was used on him in DB #499, but there’s also a nice little play on using other people’s moves in this Chapter – Moro has obviously started using the copied moves of the heroes (he uses the Big Bang Attack, Piccolo’s regeneration, and the Makankosappo in this Chapter alone); for Gohan to respond in kind with the Galactica Doughnut (particularly with Super Buu’s question, “How does it feel to be hurt by your friends’ techniques?” hovering in the background), is particularly fitting.
  • This is all prelude to another Cell arc (Level 3) beat, as Goku pulls out a Shunkan Idou Kamehameha for the first time since that fight (DB #401). Like Cell, Moro just comes right back from it thanks to Piccolo’s regenerative abilities (which were first displayed in the 23rd Budokai in DB #189, after his left arm was disabled by a blast: ta-daaa). That Moro combines this regeneration with piercing Goku in the same place as Piccolo did back then (DB #191-192) also plays as a strong ‘Level 2’ beat, uniting all of this in a single, shocking exchange now. Goku’s resilience to this kind of ill-use now is less impressive than back then, I think chiefly because in terms of Goku’s character arc right now, and the way it is governed by these sub-structural levels, he has much farther to go - a ‘push’ needs to be given to complete his Divine power before the road to victory can open up, whereas back then, he already had the power and this was the final dramatic prelude to victory in a scenario where Goku was in control and held all the cards, all appearances to the contrary. To underscore the sense that Divine power and the completion of this cycle will be the only way out of all this, we get treated to a trademark Gohan rage boost (which we might have expected for a Cell arc substructure alone, I guess), which Moro no-sells utterly. The ‘push’ that is needed now is a different one, dynamically modified to the immediate themes and needs of this arc.
  • From this point, the Chapter does seem to over-relish the ‘doominess’ of the whole scenario, lingering over it as the heroes dutifully line up to get merked: Gohan gets a brutal, nose-and-tooth-breaking backfist, Dende and Kuririn get walled off from the beaten and dying in the group, the Androids get a blast each to the face, and Piccolo gets a torso-piercing of his own. I guess its intent is to make the tension go further, but to me the whole depiction seems a little lavish generally, when all it does is underscore the simple point that the night is darkest before the dawn.
  • Dende gets let through Moro’s barrier by an Angel. Even at the time, there was speculation over whether this might, in fact, be Whis given Beerus’s demand to go get some tasty food (which would naturally lead the pair to Earth), but it is certainly Merus talking to Dende: firstly, his tabard is unadorned with sigils (as shown of Angelic Merus in 超 #55), whereas Whis’s tabard bears the same Universe 7 diamonds as Beerus; and secondly, we see the him wearing some relatively standard-looking boots, whereas Whis wears loafers (see, e.g., 超 #27). Of course, we will see that Whis is also involved here, but this specific intervention belongs to Merus, before he does a quick-change into his Galactic Patrol guise.
  • Which, while entirely expected, telegraphed as it has been over the last few Chapters, is no less satisfying for that when it actually comes. I guess it’s not wrong to say that stretching the problem over the Chapter winds it tighter so that the emergence of Merus can be more satisfying, but I don’t think that’s incongruous with saying that it nevertheless goes on a bit too long – this is an instance of the Chapter format working against the telling of a relatively straightforward story beat. On the one hand, it makes sense to wind this tension over a Chapter, taken purely as a storytelling increment; if we’d been looking at a 20-page Chapter format like the early Dragon Ball Super Chapters, I’d think nothing of a whole Chapter being given over to the purpose. But I think the 45-page format decompresses the whole thing to the extent that I get the feeling that it’s just being dwelt on too much, to the extent that the lavishness of the depiction almost seems to veer into some sort of rote ‘doom porn’; there isn't a great deal at play here to make it seem like a dynamic encounter, but rather one focused on the functionally 'negative' aim of systematically shutting down potential avenues of resistance for the heroes and telling us 'it won't be fusion, it won't be teamwork, it won't be a rage-boost', etc. But not stretching the beat across the Chapter would rob the beat of the sense of ‘release’ that Merus’s revelation undoubtedly gives, and we’re not in a stretch of the arc where it would make a great deal of sense to intersperse what we see with any sort of ‘B Plot’ to leaven the whole thing, even had one been cultivated for the purpose. As long as the format stays like this, I feel that bridging Chapters like 超 #62 will always be something of a problem.
Right then, that's Part 1 of this Re-Read all wrapped up - Part 2's coming soon, so stay tuned, and let us know what you got out of your Re-Read...

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Re: The Super Re-Read

Post by Cipher » Sun Mar 07, 2021 10:58 am

Now that we've broken the seal on these chapters (sooner after my above comment than I expected), I suppose I can piggy-back off of the Chapter 62 commentary to get at the other issue I encountered upon reread.

I'm not actually opposed to taking the bulk of a long monthly chapter for the kind of doom-and-gloom work 62 does--especially since Moro has been lacking in other on-page villainous displays to really drive up our dislike for him (which may be another issue; of course intellectually we know that what he's been doing is bad). Though certainly it might be a bit more engaging were characters still actively strategizing with some real (for the reader) sense of hope before being shut down, which is how the gloom of the pre-Goku Freeza fight manages to maintain its sense of engagement over so many chapters without making Freeza seem less deadly than he was built up to be.

Instead, what gets me a bit, and where I think the long, monthly chapters work a bit against the series when it goes for these kinds of "traditional" DB plots in the format, is that this type of tension never lasts across a two-chapter span. From the moment Moro comes to Earth, we're treated to monthly ups and downs. When Goku is on the ropes, Vegeta arrives. When Vegeta is on the ropes, the next chapter Merus has shown up by the end and hope springs anew. So it is that even this very chapter, which is meant to let us wallow in in the heroes' hopelessness and wonder how they could possibly make it out of their current predicament, to build up the eventual satisfaction of hope finally arriving, has provided that hint of hope within its same monthly issue. Merus shows up before the chapter comes to a close.

Split the same 40 pages of Moro working his way through the team up over a few shorter chapters, and suddenly the dread, and subsequent release, would all, I think, hit home much more. We're more conscious of chapter breaks than page count--three 15-page chapters of building hopelessness will ultimately feel more hopeless than a single 45-page one, even if the raw numbers are the same. We respond to what's structured as an individual episode. That's the same reason the monthly series can't wallow in one situation for too long--twelve issues a year comes with an obligation of further progress being made in each one, but it somewhat undercuts Moro's bid to usher in traditionally hopeless-feeling climactic peril. This is less glaring read month to month, where the situation has time to linger, but it's a bit distracting in collected format. By the time Goku starts bringing Moro down to size in UI, I'm left feeling, "Well, when was Moro ever really such a sustained obstacle?"

Earlier arcs of Super avoided this simply by being structured very differently (more compact in focus) than arcs in the original DB, in a way that suited the monthly format. I don't think that a traditional, sprawling supervillain arc like this one will always necessarily be host to the same pitfalls, but I hope avoiding them and finding some way to allow sitting in one consistent situation or tone for more than a chapter break or two is something Toyotaro has an eye toward.

On a completely different note: Gohan's face injury is really nasty. That one's stuck with me since the chapter first came out.

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Re: The Super Re-Read

Post by Magnificent Ponta » Sun Mar 07, 2021 7:00 pm

Cipher wrote: Sun Mar 07, 2021 10:58 amInstead, what gets me a bit, and where I think the long, monthly chapters work a bit against the series when it goes for these kinds of "traditional" DB plots in the format, is that this type of tension never lasts across a two-chapter span. From the moment Moro comes to Earth, we're treated to monthly ups and downs. When Goku is on the ropes, Vegeta arrives. When Vegeta is on the ropes, the next chapter Merus has shown up by the end and hope springs anew. So it is that even this very chapter, which is meant to let us wallow in in the heroes' hopelessness and wonder how they could possibly make it out of their current predicament, to build up the eventual satisfaction of hope finally arriving, has provided that hint of hope within its same monthly issue. Merus shows up before the chapter comes to a close.

Split the same 40 pages of Moro working his way through the team up over a few shorter chapters, and suddenly the dread, and subsequent release, would all, I think, hit home much more. We're more conscious of chapter breaks than page count--three 15-page chapters of building hopelessness will ultimately feel more hopeless than a single 45-page one, even if the raw numbers are the same. We respond to what's structured as an individual episode. That's the same reason the monthly series can't wallow in one situation for too long--twelve issues a year comes with an obligation of further progress being made in each one, but it somewhat undercuts Moro's bid to usher in traditionally hopeless-feeling climactic peril. This is less glaring read month to month, where the situation has time to linger, but it's a bit distracting in collected format. By the time Goku starts bringing Moro down to size in UI, I'm left feeling, "Well, when was Moro ever really such a sustained obstacle?"
Thanks for your post! I can see what you mean; it's certainly a fair observation.

I feel like the climax playing out in the manner you describe is due to the combination of a couple of things (apart from the need to move things forward on a monthly basis): firstly, the fact that the Moro arc already played the 'sustained obstacle' hand for its main villain very early, in 超 #44-47 (and arguably across the whole span to 超 #50, as the Majin Buu reversal doesn't really 'take', and emerges more as apparent than actual within that span), as the heroes have already found themselves at a complete loss to engage Moro with meaningful counter-strategies, and effectively this is what the rest of the arc becomes 'about', on one level (so doing it again for the climax might be less effective). I feel like it doubles down on this by investing the heroic countermeasures with heightened thematic significance and the added heft of their character arcs, which is other thing that 'locks in' the need for these strategies to be seen to do something important for the progress of the arc, even though Moro's significance and threat can't be decisively undermined until the final point in the arc. I think that what you've commented on is partly due to the arc carrying this extra 'baggage'.

Comparing the Moro arc's pattern of defeat-retreat-preparation-reengagement with, say, the Future Trunks arc's pattern of doing the same basic things seems instructive to me in making this character-countermeasure investment clear: in the Future Trunks arc, we have Vegeta figure a 'clever-enough' countermeasure to Goku Black (but which gets simply lost in the escalation of the reengagement), whereas Goku's countermeasure to Zamas gets burned for a gag because it turns out he has something else in his back pocket (not even counting Fusion, which cuts in on this logically enough for both sides, or the Zeno Button), so there's no particular attachment to any of these heroic actions on the part of the story (and because it's not particularly attached to them, it's maybe freer to lay them athwart the course of each Chapter, and the arc's general progression, wherever convenient - without getting too hung up on any of them). Conversely, the Moro arc has spent quite a lot of time investing Vegeta's countermeasures with thematic and personal significance by hitching it to his pitch for earning redemption, and Goku's by hitching it to his surpassing the Gods by attaining Ultra Instinct, so neither of them can really be let drop for something else even when Moro's inherent threat reasserts itself somehow, so all of these things get a 'fuller turn' at depiction. Hence we get this rather 'see-saw' dynamic you've identified in how the heroic fortunes progress in the climax.

Just some thoughts.

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Re: The Super Re-Read

Post by Cipher » Tue Mar 09, 2021 10:16 pm

Magnificent Ponta wrote: Sun Mar 07, 2021 7:00 pmI feel like the climax playing out in the manner you describe is due to the combination of a couple of things (apart from the need to move things forward on a monthly basis): firstly, the fact that the Moro arc already played the 'sustained obstacle' hand for its main villain very early, in 超 #44-47 ...

Comparing the Moro arc's pattern of defeat-retreat-preparation-reengagement with, say, the Future Trunks arc's pattern of doing the same basic things seems instructive to me in making this character-countermeasure investment clear: in the Future Trunks arc, we have Vegeta figure a 'clever-enough' countermeasure to Goku Black (but which gets simply lost in the escalation of the reengagement), whereas Goku's countermeasure to Zamas gets burned for a gag because it turns out he has something else in his back pocket (not even counting Fusion, which cuts in on this logically enough for both sides, or the Zeno Button), so there's no particular attachment to any of these heroic actions on the part of the story (and because it's not particularly attached to them, it's maybe freer to lay them athwart the course of each Chapter, and the arc's general progression, wherever convenient - without getting too hung up on any of them). Conversely, the Moro arc has spent quite a lot of time investing Vegeta's countermeasures with thematic and personal significance by hitching it to his pitch for earning redemption, and Goku's by hitching it to his surpassing the Gods by attaining Ultra Instinct, so neither of them can really be let drop for something else even when Moro's inherent threat reasserts itself somehow, so all of these things get a 'fuller turn' at depiction. Hence we get this rather 'see-saw' dynamic you've identified in how the heroic fortunes progress in the climax.

Just some thoughts.
I think, to clarify, while certainly the arc establishes the threat and obstacle Moro poses in its first act, my issue as a reader in the climax is limited to the climax itself. Additionally, while Goku and Vegeta's roles in the arc certainly mandate their respective roles and turns in the climax, my issue is focused more on how and when it ends its chapters, which I'd argue is one of the craft elements readers are most attuned to, even in collected format, whether they know it or not.

As an experiment, I went through the climax of Super's previous supervillain-centric arc (the Future Trunks arc) to see how it ended its chapters.

Chapter 22: The final fight with Black and Zamasu begins; Vegeta and Goku get the upper hand against their respective opponents, but the chapter ends on the fusion. (Ends with the heroes on the backfoot and out of options.) -

Chapter 23: Contains the initial fused Zamasu beatdown, the entirety of the Vegetto fight, and ends with Goku and vegeta defusing and taking the Katchin barrage. (Ends with the heroes on the backfoot and out of options.) -

Chapter 24: Has Trunks healing Goku and the first part of Goku (Perfected Blue) vs. Zamasu; ends with Vegeta noting that Goku's body is giving out and Goku lamenting Zamasu's immortality as he recovers from all the damage. (Ends with heroes on the backfoot; looking up from previous chapters, but the final beat is still that they're running out of ways to fight back; Goku's counterattack is dragging its way toward a seemingly fruitless conclusion, rather than just getting started.) -

Chapter 25: End of the Goku vs. Zamasu fight; Goku's use of Destruction; Zamasu defuses; Zamasu revives and starts spawning an army of clones. (Ends with the heroes on the backfoot and out of options.) -

Then of course 26 sees the end of the arc.

Compare that to the Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc, where, starting the climax at Goku vs. Moro, we get the following pattern to chapter endings:

Chapter 59: The first chapter of UI Sign vs. Moro. Ends with Goku on the backfoot, but not having gone through all his tricks yet. Similar to 24 in the Future Trunks arc, but with less doubling down on Goku running out of options and time against his opponent. (Ends with heroes on the backfoot, but just barely.) -

Chapter 60: Goku loses; the androids step in for a bit, and then Vegeta arrives. (Ends with new hope in Vegeta arriving.) +

Chapter 61: Vegeta vs. Moro; Spirit Fission; ends with Seven-Three-Moro. (Ends with heroes on the backfoot and out of options.) -

Chapter 62: Moro tears his way through the team; Merus and Dende arrive. (Ends with new hope in Merus arriving.) +

Chapter 63: Merus vs. Moro; ends with Goku on the brink of full-fledged UI, as promised by Merus. (Ends with new hope in beginning of Goku's transformation/completion of UI.) +

Chapter 64: UI Goku vs. Moro; ends with Goku having the absolute upper hand, but gets tension out of his declaration that he will "fight as an Earthling" rather than finish Moro off. (Ends with heroes having the clear upper hand.) +

Chapter 65: UI vs. UI; ends with Earth-Moro. (Ends with heroes on the backfoot and out of options.) -

Chapter 66: Goku vs. Earth-Moro. Ends with victory.

If you focus on the ending point of each chapter, there's never a stretch across any two of them where the heroes are down and out once Moro shows up to Earth, and if anything there's a tendency to play the series' hand as to the heroes' potential next hope before the chapters concludes. It makes for decent cliffhangers and forward momentum read month to month, but the lack of sustained tension across chapter endings (something I think we feel more as markers of time and pacing in collected format than raw page count) becomes a bit more glaring read straight through. The Future Trunks and Galactic Patrol Prisoner arcs are ultimately quite different beasts, despite their supervillain focuses, with the former being more more in line with the compact scope and nature of the other two Toriyama-planned TV-series-analogue arcs, but I think that something in the mode of the GPP arc might have taken a few cues from it simply in terms of chapter cut-off when it came time to build up the presence of its villain in its climactic portions. Both arcs have and require their ups and downs to events within their climaxes, as does original DB, but the choice of where to cut things off in the Trunks arc I think helps the seesawing avoid getting in the way of rising tension.

As a totally separate aside, I was kind of blown away going back through by just how much happens in each chapter of the Zamasu fight. It certainly feels like earlier on in the series, there was a tendency to treat the post-page-count-increase chapters as functioning like three smaller ones, as opposed to the more singular focuses they have in the GPP arc. Likely behind-the-scenes needs to either cater to or not cater to the pacing of a multimedia initiative played some role, but I think there might be something to be said for the earlier approach in a series like DB(S).

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Re: The Super Re-Read

Post by Magnificent Ponta » Fri Mar 12, 2021 4:00 pm

The Super Re-Read: Chapters 61 - 64
Part 2 (Chapters 63 and 64)

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Welcome back, y'all, to the second part of this, the penultimate instalment of The Super Re-Read! As we come through to the last 2 Chapters of Volume 14 in the Dragon Ball Super manga, Moro's turning of the tables has felled the Dragon Team, and only Merus stands between him and the annihilation of Earth - and Goku returns to the battle, trying to break through to the True Ultra Instinct that Merus has tried to teach him, before he loses his friend and the Earth to Moro's insatiable appetite... and we get to see the confrontation between the two move into a new phase. It's a doozy.

As ever, thanks and credit goes to Kanzenshuu and its contributors for having painstakingly built up the resources that The Super Re-Read draws on. Go check 'em out!

Okay, it's one of the Big Ones, so won't you join me in another Re-Read?:

Chapter 63 - Merusu’s Resolve/Merus’s Resolve
21 August 2020
Chapter Notes
  • Ahhh, it’s good to see Merus again. Have I mentioned how good it is to see Merus again? There’s always some satisfaction to be had with him on a general level, as a person who is more than equal to the scenario as such (in the same way, it was good to see this kind of thing from Goku at the 23rd Budokai) – even considering the constraints that will kill him in this Chapter; he’s prepared for them and he’s in control, ready to follow through. I think that sits behind some of the success that this Chapter (and his character) is: there’s no bumbling or reversals, just a clean, clear sense of purpose on the heroic side. It's certainly refreshing to see in this arc, where heroic ‘cut-through’ has only really been fleeting.
  • As Merus launches himself into the fight to buy some time for Goku and co to get healed, we return to some more of the nice, sharp quarterstaff action of the kind that we saw in 超 #52, complete with the twirling, the meaty ‘whacks’, and the sharp jabs – and all framed nicely; it’s good stuff. The lengthening of the staff to smack Moro upside the chops is a nice little surprise beat, too. Dragon Ball’s most famous lengthening staff is, of course, Goku’s Nyoi-Bo, which was last used in combat in – you guessed it – the fight with Piccolo Daimao (DB #158); Karin later explains the divine origin of the Nyoi-Bo in DB #162, so the allusions here, with a lengthening staff wielded by a Divine creature against the Demonic bad guy, seem quite satisfying to me (even though a very minor point). Moro will later ask Merus why he’s relying on tools like this, which seems to pair with his incredulity that Merus would attack him with a stun gun (“a toy”), in 超 #49; the answer is, of course, that Merus doesn’t generally intend to use his powers – that is, except for Ultra Instinct, which isn’t a specifically Angelic power (but which, as we know from 超 #68, Angels are constantly using and is their own speciality). Moro once again successfully infers the presence of divinity, but confirms that he too cannot sense Godly ki – the idea that divine beings like Angels could camouflage themselves as Mortals with a false ki signature of some sort is pretty neat, and for Merus it corresponds with a more obvious visual camouflaging, as his skin and hair in Mortal guise are coloured differently to his true, Angelic self (recently confirmed by the digital colour manga).
  • As Merus is standing in as a surrogate for the heroes with his own built-in limiter, he isn’t destined to make much headway on his own. But on the sub-structural levels of the arc, there’s a fair amount going on with Merus: he simultaneously occupies positions on the one hand as a Deity who is Goku’s master and stands under the threat of death in this fight (‘Level 2’ – and, much like Kami at the 23rd Budokai, he intends to die as needed), and on the other hand as a quiet, unassuming figure who is in the midst of revealing how much more surprisingly powerful he is than Son Goku (‘Level 3’, with Son Gohan: the Cell arc allusion comes through clearly again, as the beat of Moro getting struck unexpectedly and being surprised - and intrigued - to see blood drawn is taken pretty directly from DB #405). Functionally, Merus will have to hand all this over to Goku as the main hero of the story, which itself does a bit more of this allusive work, but (more importantly) is in keeping with his character, as he maintains the unwavering faith in Goku that he expressed in 超 #48 and 超 #55 – as befits a kindred spirit.
  • We get the much-teased reveal of Beerus and Whis. This was set in motion in 超 #60 when Beerus demanded they go get tasty food, just as Goku was getting decked by Moro, but a fair amount has happened since then. Presumably Whis piloted the three of them from Beerus’s planet to Earth – in 超 #7, it took the Cube Spaceship 35 minutes to cross that distance, so the period from Goku’s defeat at Moro’s hands through to the appearance of Merus is probably around that length of time, which accounts for the dramatically convenient delay. I’ve already mentioned Whis’s unconvincingly ostentatious wielding of his own Neutrality in previous instalments, but I think it’s worth mentioning his sly little smile as Beerus follows through on his narrow selfishness – as though he’s considering how much he’s going to enjoy discomfiting his predictably irresponsible charge this time around…
  • Whis has picked up and transported everyone except Jaco so that Dende can heal them. I like that Gohan specifically asks to be healed last, after Goku, Piccolo, and Vegeta (presumably in that order, which seems to match the severity of their conditions): it’s a nice, characteristic little touch, especially since his own wounding seems more grievous than Vegeta's.
  • As I’ve mentioned several times previously, Goku is healed with a circular scar on his chest – the placement is basically the same as the one he received from Piccolo the last time he proved he’d surpassed the Gods, at the 23rd Budokai. A good pair of comparison shots for the scars can be found in 超 #64 and DB #194 respectively. Actually, since I've mentioned this about eleventy-million times, have an example shot - my treat:

    Image

    Fittingly, given the themes and substructures we’re playing with (surpassing the Gods, the Piccolo-cycle inspired beats and character concept play, the sub-structural Cell arc elements being run at this point in the climax, in which arc Dende became a God in the first place), it’s noteworthy that Goku finally gives Dende the respect of his proper address for the first time: “Kami-Sama”. Mr. Popo has told him off for not doing this, in 超 #31.
  • Back at the fight, Moro uses eyebeams on Merus as a feint that gives him an opening to land a hit. OG73-I had eyebeams of his own (超 #51), so this may be pulling a different ability from the repertoire, but the appearance looks more like Piccolo’s eyebeams from DB #183 – in which case, we’d have another example of other people being more enthusiastic about Piccolo’s abilities than Piccolo himself is.
  • Favourite Art: Goku’s more muscular build in 超 #64 has attracted comment, but personally I find him to be a pretty chonky boy in this Chapter, too, as he returns to the fight. I really like the unexpected flip of the momentum in this scene, as Goku rushes Moro head-on, only to lance out with a kick from behind him: I think both that panel, and the one after it (with its weird twisty dynamic), are really effective. In fairness, most of the action with Merus is really nice, but the final couple of pages when he speeds to land the final sealing blow on Moro really sell the sense of power and speed that even a trainee Angel has when fighting for real, and I think that combines well with the emotional send-off before and after that specific moment, lengthening the ‘beat’ helps the whole thing land with a satisfying gravity.
  • Merus mentions “one last push” is needed for Goku’s training to pay off and his power to come forth; this brings us to the point of Merus’s presence, as he announced he was only here to “finish up some training”. This also brings back to the forefront the emotional focus of Ultra Instinct, which Merus explained in 超 #52 as requiring “control in the face of a jarring shock to your emotions”. These two factors unite in the remainder of the Chapter, as it becomes clear that Merus isn’t only trying to buy time, but has always intended to press the issue and sacrifice himself as a trigger for Goku to achieve the completion of Ultra Instinct. The whole thing runs as a directly ‘anti-‘ beat when tied in with its plotting substructure (Level 3: the Cell arc turned on pushing Gohan to lose control and let the power of his rage emerge to defeat Cell, but here Merus is trying to push Goku to overcome that natural reaction and achieve something greater; Merus ending up as a disembodied head begging Goku to protect the things he has come to love is an extremely on-the-nose pursuit of the moment between Android #16 and Son Gohan from DB #407), but it also works on its own terms within the themes of Earning and Giving: Goku has worked to Earn the Divine Power of Ultra Instinct, and thinks he has failed, but Merus, as the ceaseless Giver of the arc, sees that Earning has done what it can (and what it needed to do: it “worked”), and a Gift is required to complete the heroic effort, so that the Thief can be defeated.
  • We get Moro managing to plant his hand on Merus’s neck while he’s distracted, which will get its pay-off in 超 #65, but right now, I enjoy seeing the emergence of Merus’s overt use of Angelic Power by use of…a different staff. It jives well with the nature of Merus, whose power is always there, and the difference between its Mortal and Divine applications is basically encountered by the reader as a mere cosmetic change (in this case, swapping one staff for another mid-Chapter). This also jives well with the motifs of change that the arc plays with: Moro and Goku change visibly, but not actually (that is, their character and sentiments do not change), Vegeta changes actually, but not visibly, and Merus changes visibly between his Mortal and Angelic guises, which is in turn a reflection of his more important actual, sentimental change as he increasingly sympathises with the Mortals he meets and works alongside, and which is followed by a change to the fundamental nature of his existence, which will allow him to act upon his sentiments as a true Mortal in the future.
  • Merus lays out his feelings, beliefs, and ‘will’ in this scene: namely, that his time in the Galactic Patrol has resulted in him outgrowing Angelic Neutrality in favour of a more thoroughgoing sense of Justice and Peace, and he shows that he’s willing to lay down his life in service of those ideals. I’ve mentioned that this makes him a lawbreaker by his own lights, which ironically makes him a perfect fit for the incompetent (if well-meaning) Lawmen of the Galactic Patrol – Merus summarises the noble aspirations that stand behind their more apparent goofy incapability, as we get a cutaway to his colleagues resolving to come back and help (again nobly, but in a way they couldn’t possibly make good on). I like the way the story holds the throughline past the end of this Chapter and into 超 #64, where Jaco awkwardly expresses the heartfelt sentiment that “I wanted to help preserve peace in the Galaxy”, just like Merus says here (“I came to realise…that peace in the Galaxy is worth hanging on to”) – but Merus also has motivations less befitting a ‘paragon’, just like Jaco does…and just like Goku does. Jaco may simply love the uniform, but Goku and Merus love the excitement: as I mentioned before, Merus is ultimately a thrill-seeking troublemaker, and he has consequently seen in Goku a kindred spirit. I feel like this is part of the point of the flashback Merus has, where Goku explains that he’s motivated by the excitement of opposing the Bad Guys time and again, because Merus will echo that he feels the same way about it all, as he vanishes. To the extent that their personal bond is in view here, Merus puts his faith in Goku because he knows they both feel the same way, and that’s why he’s willing to stake it all now.
  • But by the same token, I don’t think the scene is trying to ‘sell’ the bond between Merus and Goku to the reader, as some have averred. While I agree that I’d’ve enjoyed seeing more of Merus and Goku interacting across the arc just for its own sake, I think it’s wide of the mark to call the connection ‘unearned’, given Goku’s proclivities with regard to making such connections. And I rather think this scene assumes what some think it is trying to prove; Dragon Ball hardly ever needs to work very hard to tell us that Goku makes easy connections, and he and Merus have been a generally sympathetic pairing across the arc (just as he and Vegeta form an ambivalent but familiar pairing, or Moro and Saganbo formed an unsympathetic pairing). Rather, I think the scene is trying to simply ‘sell’ us the emotional goodbye for a character we have ample reason to like, in a way that meshes well with the themes of the arc. And if we have reason to like Merus and miss him, it seems we should have no trouble thinking of Goku as feeling the same way. Maybe it doesn’t work for everybody, but I think having this character lay out with heartfelt sincerity (in word and thought) the reasons why he’s willing to stake his own existence now works for me: he gives, in good faith, until there isn’t anything else to give, and I for one was very happy to see him gain the gift of new life in 超 #67. He deserved it.
  • The flashback itself not only gives another piece of character linkage as to how Merus feels about everything, but it also gives us quite a bald exposition of Goku’s motivations generally. I don’t think Goku has ever quite said before that he spares people and gives them fresh chances in hope of them deciding to “join the good side”, but it certainly aligns well with the kind of thing he’s said before, e.g., his pleasure at Tenshinhan deciding to become “a good guy” in DB #132; his conviction that Piccolo wasn’t “as bad of a bad guy as you used to be”, related by Gohan in DB #211 and admitted by Piccolo in DB #223 – crediting Goku for his change of heart, no less; his expressed hope that Freeza might “learn the value of life” by having been spared in DB #327; and Vegeta’s own reflection that Goku first spared him in the hope that he would “learn to have a soul”, and as a reason why he typically chooses to spare his enemies (in DB #510). But also, as he says, it’s more exciting to tread this long road to possible redemption for these villains, rather than just end their tale abruptly. Goku has done this before, of course, but insofar as he prizes the opportunity to push himself to get stronger against these foes (also in evidence: most relevantly in DB #194, where he spares Piccolo in hopes of continuing to get a challenge from him as a rival, and in DB #241, where he does the same for Vegeta, despite Kuririn’s objections that Vegeta won’t reform himself because of this), it’s fair to say Goku favours this approach overall, for this reason above all. This also lays the groundwork for his exchange with Moro in 超 #65, where he lays all of this out in the hopes that he may again be able to (begin to) achieve something along these lines now – but this comes to grief, unusually, on Moro’s personal incorrigibility - and there will be plenty more to say about that when we get to it, to be sure.
  • Merus quietly smiles in satisfaction as he sees himself begin to disappear: perhaps this is the ultimate confirmation that he has acted in service of Justice, as if he had been less whole-souled and more Neutral he might have survived. But this, we will learn, is actually the action of The Grand Priest rather than a natural response by his own Being (though this was happening too, it seems). And, the aforementioned Cell arc beat aside, Merus’s death here reminds one of 超 #40, insofar as a triggering ‘death’ lands with a similarly unemotional ‘beat’ among the siblings of the deceased: Android #18 seemed fairly unconcerned at #17’s ‘self-destruction’, and indeed he was not dead. Similarly, all Whis can find to say is that Merus was “an awkward little brother”, so while Merus is in fact gone, we already have reason to intuit that this perhaps is not the end of his story. But it’s enough for Goku, whose posture in reaction is identical to this occasion from 超 #40 (and 超 #39 before it, for that matter), which is a clear signal that he will achieve the control necessary to attain Ultra Instinct like those previous occasions, rather than explode in rage like his SSj transformation in DB #317, to which (some fan assumptions to the contrary) the final panel of this Chapter bears hardly any resemblance: either in character posture, or more general artistry.
Chapter 64 - Son Goku the Galactic Patrolman/Son Goku, Galactic Patrol Officer
19 September 2020
Chapter Notes
  • Goku starts the Chapter talking about a lesson that he learned from Merus: that he isn’t fighting alone. It’s difficult to know what exactly to make of this as a practical, applicable lesson on Goku’s part – he knows he owes a duty to others, who in turn care about something greater than themselves (Vegeta, making amends; Dende, saving his World; Merus, protecting the Universe; even Jaco feels the same way, at heart) – and he’s determined to bear this and defeat Moro to save the Earth. But he was disposed to do this already. I guess it’s something a little like the kinds of things Goku was saying in the anime Tournament of Power: that he was determined to win because others were trusting in him (Episodes 130-131 bore this throughline in particular), and that his power was also in some way the power of that trust. I think that general sense aligns well enough with the theme of Giving in this arc: people like Merus gave Goku their help, their trust, and even their lives, and he’s responsible for seeing to it that he uses those gifts in a way that meets its purpose and so honours the givers. It might be thought that he undoes all of that resolve by sparing Moro in 超 #65, but it is worth considering that the one whose “will” he bears here – Merus – would have approved of the idea of seeking reform of villains (as we just saw in 超 #63, in Merus’s own flashback on the subject), and so would have endorsed the attempt.
  • It’s nice to see an instance of heartfelt earnestness from Jaco in amongst all this, as we’ve regularly seen his goofiness, shallowness, and obsession with titles (“Super Elite”) and the outward trappings of being a Galactic Patrolman; while all that is to be expected in a Toriyama-conceived character, it is nice to see there’s also a kernel of good faith intent at the core of it all, even though it embarrasses him to come out and say it.
  • ”Curse you!! You and your inscrutable techniques!!”, says Moro, of…*checks notes*…getting punched in the face. :lol: (Note: I am aware that it is explained to be a sealing technique, which is underscored by the fact that a Senzu Bean doesn’t ‘heal’ it in 超 #65, but cannot for the life of me think of a time where such an esoteric ability was deployed simply by decking your target).
  • The emergence of True Ultra Instinct itself combines the same kind of contrast of tone that attended its emergence in 超 #41 – only, where then there was a contrast of two different approaches (the increasingly frenzied, heated, spiking ki of Jiren against the deepening tranquility of Goku’s own approach), the contrasting tones are now both bound into Ultra Instinct, as a huge spout of power erupts from Goku, the ground rumbles, and there are “storms”, but Goku himself becomes ever more tranquil at the heart of it all (in the way, I suppose, that the eye of a storm is tranquil while the storm itself has devastating power), and when he achieves True Ultra Instinct, the tranquility wins out and the profundity of the hush is remarked upon in particular – and, just as in 超 #41, Goku doesn’t even manifest an aura in this form. It’s all broadly consistent with what we’ve seen before, but the dramatic content is heightened to give us a foreshadowing of what we’re about to see: a storm of power in tranquility.
  • I enjoy Moro’s instinctive fear as Goku approaches, such that he has to catch himself when he realises he’s unconsciously taken a step back. The whole beat makes for a strong connection with the Cell arc again (‘Level 3’) with the explosion of the main hero’s true power (forged in the Room of Spirit and Time, fittingly), the villain’s fear, and the slow, resolute and relentless advance of the main hero as he reveals just how far ahead of the villain he now is (DB #406-410; the uppercut and Moro’s reaction to that also fit in with this). The little ‘snap’-shot panel on Moro is particularly effective at conveying the instinctive but indefinable terror racing up his spine: he feels it keenly, but he doesn’t even know why, yet. This is entirely fitting, as Moro himself has made others shudder involuntarily at his own sinister vibes (超 #44, 48, and 57) – and now it’s come back on him, with a vengeance.
  • Goku’s response to Moro’s assault is really depicted quite differently to how he fought Jiren in 超 #41. While that Chapter was full of the weird, twisty, dodge-into-counterattack choreography that made their fight very interesting and helped sell the ‘instinctual’, bodily-improvised aspect of Ultra Instinct, here Goku’s choreography is cool, and clean, but entirely straightforward. His dodging doesn’t make for counterattacks, he’s more disposed to directly oppose Moro’s power by blocking – or, even when dodging, he’s more inclined to stand his ground than move around very much – and the art seems to rely more on the fact that Goku doesn’t have to look at Moro to fend off his attacks to sell the idea of instinctual movement. I don’t think this choice is quite so obviously effective as 超 #41 (or even the still slightly weird, frantic movement of 超 #59) on the whole, though I can definitely see the rationale for this change: although Goku clearly gained the advantage over Jiren in the wielding of his power in 超 #41, Jiren still dictated the terms of that fight overall: every move of Goku’s was a counter to something Jiren decided to do, and his body was forced into this strict weirdness of movement to answer the ferocity of the assault, until Jiren eventually managed to push the offensive hard enough to make this movement into a liability for the untrained Goku, and came out the winner. Here, Goku is totally in control, and the fight works according to what his body wants to do, instead of what it has to do. 超 #65 makes clear that if the fight were simply a case of avoiding damage, Goku wouldn’t even need to move – he’s controlling the whole fight from top to bottom, no matter what Moro tries to do - and his increasing precision of movement is remarked upon by Beerus; I understand that one of the end-goals of Martial Arts more generally is tending towards complete stillness and minimisation of movement, which this certainly shows us. And to that end, I can appreciate the depiction of Goku’s movement here, even if it’s a bit more generic-seeming when compared with 超 #41 - precision and stability has come more to the fore, beyond simply instinctual movement.
  • There’s a nice ‘anti-moment’ where Goku stops Moro’s full-power assault short so that it ends before it begins; he paralyses Moro in place with a move that looks quite like that which he uses on Broly in Dragon Ball Super: Broly (albeit a little less flashy), which is a nice touch. The beats of this moment that slow the whole thing down until Goku unleashes his own assault plays nicely into the idea that this whole thing unfolds at Goku’s pace, as mentioned above.
  • You saw what was coming for the Favourite Art: while I liked the early work in this Chapter around conveying Moro’s fear, the nomination has to go to the uppercut splash page, and the following artistic representations of the sharpness of the impact: the zoom-out with the huge sound effect akin to the strike on Jiren in 超 #41; the reverb and the multi-ringed shockwaves that affect all the observers and go round and round the Earth; and Moro being sent skywards with a couple of sonic booms – all do a really good job of selling a shattering impact. So satisfying.
  • Sub-structural transitions are hard to pin down, but from the moment Goku tells Moro he knows he can’t win, it’s possible we’re getting a shift towards the progression of the Buu arc, as the features of the plot here evoke the final phases of that arc, from where Vegetto concludes Buu can’t win no matter what he does (Fusion was of course the Big Thing in that arc, but Ultra Instinct is the New Hotness here) – Buu, and Moro, make various attempts at underhanded magical trickery that get them nowhere (while the Godly bystanders repeatedly tell the hero to end things), until under the threat of death, they recall a piece of themselves left behind, and use it to try to win – it eventually backfires on them, prompting a chain of events that ends up in a regression to a mindless creature that threatens the fate of the Galaxy, pushes Goku to the limit, and is ultimately defeated with a gift of power that links up with the end of the story as a whole. It might not begin at this exact point – as I say, it’s tricky to pinpoint – but this is where the allusions seem to be taking us, dynamically reinterpreted by the other structural levels of the story as they are.
  • We get the beginning of Goku’s attempt to engage Moro in order to change his basic character trajectory, which gets short shrift now and will come to grief in 超 #65 when he pushes it further. At first, Moro deflects Goku’s appeal to his helplessness as an opening to a broader empathy, as Moro replies with an assertion of supremacy as a life-form, and hits a nerve of his own by supposing that Goku must think himself a God to lecture him thusly. This intersects with Goku’s arc of surpassing the Gods here, but also reminds us of his aversion to occupying a position like this – in DB #194, he turned Kami down flat when offered the position, on the basis that it would bore him too much (a ‘Level 2’ connection, if you like, but otherwise simply a facet of Goku's character). This links up well with his expressed motivation in Merus’s flashback in 超 #63, and will also link up with his change of approach in 超 #65, as he fights “as an Earthling” and approaches Moro in a way that has an eye on his excitement, trying to get him to see a better way in Earning his power rather than Stealing it, which will have the twin ‘end-point’ of changing Moro’s trajectory towards more virtuous conduct, while securing Goku a plausible new rival whose power isn’t wasted in death: compare with DB #188-189, where Goku is credited with having earned the right to fight as he wishes against Piccolo, having saved the World before – but also that his concern is not so much for the Earth, but for “fighting an opponent worthy of him”, and feeding the beaten foe a Senzu Bean in DB #194 (hi, 超 #65!) with the hope that said foe will come back stronger. Goku may have surpassed the Gods, but ultimately he is still very much himself, as we will note further when we come to 超 #65 itself.
  • Moro, for his part, continues to use his playbook of misdirection and underhand moves – only this time around, none of them work, but rather start coming back on him to do him increasingly grievous harm, until his most audacious piece of trickery ends up ruining and killing him (a throughline from 超 #55, where Yuzun pressed the issue with Vegeta and accidentally killed himself in so doing, by way of Saganbo doing something similar in 超 #58 against Goku). Moro starts with a fairly simple misdirect with his Planetary Energy Attack in order to get the drop on Goku, but gets kicked into his own lava/ki stream for his trouble and loses a hand. He then threatens to consume the whole world just to spite Goku (instead of fighting him, which he knows he can’t do) and ends up pathetically begging for his life under a boulder for his trouble. In 超 #65, he’ll follow up by lying about surrender so he can be healed and try to use the opening to kill Goku, but he just breaks his hand in the attempt; then he’ll steal Merus’s powers and end up wrecking his body by wielding power he can’t handle; finally he’ll steal the Earth by merging with it in an attempt to contain the power of Ultra Instinct, but he’s just driven mad and ends up dying. Sin plucks on sin, but the playbook’s played out.
  • Goku quits the Galactic Patrol to “fight as an Earthling” – Goku has occasionally self-consciously inhabited the ‘role’ of a Patrolman in this arc (超 #43, 超 #44, 超 #64), and has stayed with his colleagues in the Patrol basically throughout (as has Vegeta, in his way), but his position hasn’t obviously affected his actions in this arc. Ultimately, this instance Goku simply continues to act as he is already inclined to do (subject to the considerations mentioned above). But as for Beerus’s “bad feeling about this”, he can get in the bin: he had the chance to stop all this back in 超 #46, but couldn’t be bothered, so he gets to live with his unease of ceding the decision-making process to Goku (and the consequences that follow) – that the story gives us to feel this way is reinforced by 超 #67, where Beerus gets a punishment while Goku gets to party with the guy Beerus is being punished over.
  • So, basically this stretch of the arc continues the good work of 超 #58-60, and my overall feeling is that 超 #61-64 is generally one of the real high points of the arc – it manages to blend the strongest and deepest character work of the arc (in a way that meaningfully advances the material that has come before) with some decent plotting that likewise blends the sub-structural beats capably with the themes that the arc has been using since the beginning (with some others coming to the fore) – the usage has become strong and slick, proving that, just as in the previous arc, Toyotarou’s storytelling strengths are still in theme-work and allying this to the core of the characters he’s using. We get the basic initial resolution of the three main hero character arcs, as Vegeta restores life to the Namekians, Merus follows through on his own good-faith heroism by giving his life, so Goku can complete his own character arc – that of surpassing the Gods by finally achieving True Ultra Instinct. Thematically, Stealing from the Thief doesn’t work, and simply Earning on its own isn’t enough to pull out the win – an act of Giving is required to complete the work of the heroes, and Merus’s action is part of a genuinely affecting sign-off.
    The plotting continues in the same vein I’ve been arguing: the theme of ’Facing the Past, Forging the Future’ (summarised above in the treatment of Vegeta’s character arc) serves as a decent encapsulation of much of what’s going on in the Moro arc, particularly in this climactic phase: while Vegeta faces his past sins to begin atoning for them, Merus faces the facts of his own existence and chooses to give it all up to preserve the peace of the Galaxy, and Goku moves through a scenario structured by his past – the Story of Dragon Ball – to surpass the Gods in a new way, which evokes the last time he did it. Here, I think, we’ve moved pretty much through the Cell arc (and maybe into the Buu arc already), while there are also plenty of Piccolo-based allusions that maintain the connection to Goku’s arc as a result – this all comes good in 超 #64, as Goku steps out as the hero who will ultimately defeat Moro. I think the thematic, character, and sub-structural work done here is strong, clever, and convincing; it doesn’t come out of nowhere, but stands of a piece with the same feature in the Tournament of Power arc – there, the vital focus on the Characters belonging to Goku’s Story were central in resolving the arc, and now, that Story itself is what moves the resolution of the arc. It works for me.
    But it has a downside. Mostly, this is expressed in the pacing of this stint; though this has been among the central shortcomings of the Moro arc overall anyway, exacerbating this flaw is hardly welcome. 超 #62 in particular lingers over its limited plot to enhance the ‘doom’ overall, and 超 #64 also (more excusably) lingers over Ultra Instinct’s total dominance, so most of the arc’s actual progress in this stint is left to 超 #61 (which does a lot) and 超 #63 (and 超 #65, just coming up) - see in particular Cipher's excellent and meticulous exposition of the side-effect of the longer Chapters inhibiting the sense of sustained menace conveyed by Moro, as the Chapters are only 'spiked' with a twist at the end that undercuts it, as compared with Zamas in the Future Trunks arc (and, if you like, you can also read my comparatively half-assed speculation as to why Toyotarou might have elected to play it that way :lol: ). But really, once you start seeing previous Dragon Ball as one of the main interpretive keys to this arc’s climax, you’re left waiting for the next beat that moves things along according to this basic schema, which adds to the dawdling sense the arc already conveys: we have to wait for all the right features to be in place before moving on. But at least in the encounter with the material, I’m seeing plenty of things to like while I wait.
Welp, that was the penultimate instalment of The Super Re-Read finished up; I'll be back with the final instalment of the Moro arc according to the usual schedule (which is indeed the final instalment for the foreseeable future, to answer Koitsukai's question; I might also write something about what the whole thing so far adds up to in my opinion, if there's any interest expressed in seeing that). So why not let us know what you think - what did you get from your Re-Read?

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TobyS
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Re: The Super Re-Read

Post by TobyS » Sat Mar 13, 2021 12:52 am

I agree with everything you said, I just wanna say it's 4:52AM and "Beerus can get in the bin" really really made me laugh, I didn't realise americans had that phrase too haha.

As usual you've elabourated on and explained the themes and callbacks better than I could, this re-read series really adds to the enjoyment of the manga.
Yamcha almost certainly did not cheat on Bulma:
He was afraid of Women, Bulma was the flirty one.
Yamcha wanted to get married (it was his gonna be his wish)
He suggested they settle down in the Trunks saga.
Alternate future Trunks is not a reliable source.
Toriyama wanted new SSJ Kids and not make new characters.

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Re: The Super Re-Read

Post by Cipher » Mon Mar 15, 2021 10:10 am

Magnificent Ponta wrote: Fri Mar 12, 2021 4:00 pm
I just wanted to offer how nicely observed this all is.

Looking forward to being able to talk about the presentation and paneling of the UI vs. UI fight in Chapter 65 as well, which I revisited the other day.

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Mr Baggins
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Re: The Super Re-Read

Post by Mr Baggins » Wed Mar 17, 2021 5:18 am

Review scores for the DBS manga (and movies):

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Rebel Instinct
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Re: The Super Re-Read

Post by Rebel Instinct » Wed Mar 17, 2021 3:33 pm

Mr Baggins wrote: Wed Mar 17, 2021 5:18 am
Hey, someone remembers me! Jokes aside, it is a shame that you won't be contributing anymore. I did thoroughly appreciate your perspective on things. Yours was among the handful of users whose input I felt genuinely added something fruitful to the ongoing discussions in a way that was more than the usual slanted/disrespectful/hateful noise that makes up so much of the "conversation" these days. Know that your insights and opinions were both acknowledged and appreciated! Good luck out there! :thumbup:

On a semi-related note, since I was mentioned here as an apparently respected "contributor" (I contest this idea. I'm debatably contrarian, at best! :P ) - though I don't engage with the community much at all these days, I'm still regularly lurking around in the background here and observing all the goings on from afar like some total creepazoid watching from the bushes. If anyone here has enjoyed my commentary in the past (for some unfathomable reason) and ever wants to pick my brain about anything, just mention me or something and I'll try to get back to you if I can.

That said, I do want to say that some of you guys like batistabus, Cipher and Magnificent Ponta are the ones keeping me sane these days. Your contributions are always a joy to see and bring back the sense of respect, nuance and measured thoughtfulness the Dragon Ball fandom desperately lacks. This Super Re-Read thread especially has been my favorite ongoing thread in a very long time. Though I regretfully have yet to truly contribute to the thread in any capacity, just know that I read it regularly and love the in-depth discussions and appreciation for the material that goes into keeping it alive. Maybe someday I'll muster up the energy to jump back into things and add my two cents every once in awhile. In the meantime, keep up the good work Ponta! You've been at the top of my personal "favorite contributor" list for a long time now. You frequently put words to the thoughts I hesitate to share and almost always find a way to respond to things in ways that mirror my own thoughts. It's cathartic to see another user that thinks largely the same way I do still fighting the good fight! :clap:

Anywho, that's all from me for now. Take care, y'all! I'll be hanging around, same as always. Peace out! :wave:
The post-Super fandom has ruined my love for Dragon Ball.

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Re: The Super Re-Read

Post by Koitsukai » Wed Mar 17, 2021 4:46 pm

I think we all agree that seeing more of Merus and Goku would've been great, but I never understood why people thought there was no relationship built at all for Goku to feel the loss. Like you pointed out, Goku bonds in a different way than the rest of us do, even for DB characters. Some people bond through sports, others through art, hell, people even bond by literally doing nothing. Just by hanging out. Goku bonds with people through fighting.
And he has fought alongside Merus on Namek and in space, he has fought him on the Galactic Patrol ship, and then he spent months with him doing what he loves most: fighting. Merus was also behaving as a mentor and teaching him the most powerful technique there is(was?), He was giving something to Goku, and putting his own ass on the line, because, like we know, he wasn't suppose to do that.
Then this little fella jumps in to save him from Moro, he comes from bloody hakaishin land to save his and his friends' ass, and sacrifices himself in order to give him the final push to achieve UI. Why would Goku not suffer after going through all of this? he's been with like 5 guys since the arc begun some months ago, and when the one that was the most generous with him dies trying to save him, if he were to feel nothing, I think it would've been weird.
I think it also works great because perhaps if Gohan, his son, were to be the one to die, he might not've the nerves of steel to bite down the loss. Or maybe he would, don't know.
I mean, if Piccolo and Gohan could bond as hard, considering their personalities and context, why not Goku and Merus? One of Goku's most distinctive features is how easy he can bond with someone, he makes friends at the drop of the hat.

Sorry for the rant, I just remember how much hate the scene got. Can't wait for the final re-read release.


Also, too bad for The Undying Marlowe, at least we got some closure I guess :P , we're already missing his input on the forum, I'd like for him to join again, but I guess one can take one too many hits until one decides not to play on a certain playground anymore.

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LoganForkHands73
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Re: The Super Re-Read

Post by LoganForkHands73 » Wed Mar 17, 2021 5:19 pm

Mr Baggins wrote: Wed Mar 17, 2021 5:18 am
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Same to you, comrade, it was a pleasure having you around. You're definitely one of the good ones. Hopefully you can one day resolve whatever happened with the mods and properly return one day.

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Koitsukai
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Re: The Super Re-Read

Post by Koitsukai » Thu Mar 18, 2021 4:23 pm

I'm thinking about how most of the chapters by the end of the arc had one scene that angered the fan base. I can think of Ch. 62 had Piccolo's comment regarding Vegeta, Ch 63 must've had something that got people riled up, ch. 64 had Goku and Merus' relationship in question, ch. 65 had the senzu bean...

And most of those scenes weren't as bad as the fandom made them out to be, or even bad at all.

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Magnificent Ponta
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Re: The Super Re-Read

Post by Magnificent Ponta » Sat Mar 20, 2021 7:26 am

The Super Re-Read: Chapters 65 - 67
Part 1 (Chapters 65 and 66)

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Welcome back to The Super Re-Read! We're into the home stretch now, and I wanted to say A Big 'Thank You' to everyone who gave such kind words about the Re-Read since the last instalment, and to all who have been contributing with their own observations, or anyone who has just been viewing the topic in order to read along and think about the manga some more - it really is appreciated!

We're moving into Volume 15 of the Dragon Ball Super manga and move through the last twists in the battle with Moro, and up to the end of the whole arc - these first two Chapters are packed, so let's just get right on into it!

As ever, thanks and credit to Kanzenshuu and its contributors for all the resources used in The Super Re-Read. Check 'em out!

Okay, y'all, let's get Re-reading!:

Chapter 65 - Son Goku the Earthling/Son Goku, Earthling
21 October 2020
Chapter Notes
  • Goku starts out the Chapter by turning the boulder on top of Moro to dust. There’s a certain ambiguity to how Goku does this, which has led many fans to surmise that this is a latter-day appearance of the Hakai. Goku last pulled out this technique in 超 #25, as a last-ditch attempt to put Zamas down, but Beerus also used it in 超 #19 to destroy Zamas. The principal reason to think so is the target turning into a splashy pile of dust: the effects on display here are identical to those in Zamas being turned into a pile of dust in 超 #19. Whereas using Hakai against Zamas used up all of Goku’s SSjB power in 超 #25, here it seems easy enough to do. Against the idea that this is Hakai is 超 #69, where Goku indicates that he has only tried copying it once, as he “kinda messed up” when he did so (which obviously refers back to 超 #25, not here), and the more we learn about Hakai (e.g., from Beerus in 超 #70), the less likely this seems (though there is now a lot of speculation about whether Granolah is using Hakai, now, which seems suggestive, particularly in his fight with Oil where he does the same thing to a piece of flooring as Goku does to this boulder, but I guess we'll need to wait on that for something more definite) – this may just be the same basic type of disintegrating kiai technique as, for instance, we see Vegetto perform on Buu’s antenna in DB #504.
  • Goku’s decision to give Moro a Senzu Bean on the condition he surrenders himself to the Galactic Patrol and returns to Prison proved…immediately controversial (and by “immediately”, I mean “a week prior to the publication of the Chapter”). Complaints on this subject take three main lines (or some combination of these):
    • Moro is a multi-planet-murdering scumbag, so Goku shouldn’t be offering him any more chances by this point as he doesn’t deserve them, and should hardly be expected to take them in any case given his character (the moral argument);
    • Offering Moro another chance would have a high risk of backfiring; Goku cannot know what Moro might do and so leaving him alive at this point practically invites yet another reverse of fortunes (the prudence argument);
    • Offering Moro another chance is contrived – its only purpose is to stretch the plot and cram a twist in edgeways, rather than any obvious character-led purpose; this would require a high level of Plot-induced Stupidity that stretches credulity, even where Goku is concerned (the artificiality argument).
    Combinations of these arguments tend toward the idea that since sparing Moro is undeserved and dangerous, Goku has no sensible reason to do it, and so the depiction in some way violates his character simply to push a new plot point against the run of events. Other arguments concede that it may in some way be characteristic of Goku, but it indicates either inconsistency (Cell and Zamas come up here) or unwillingness to progress the character in a way that makes clear he can learn from his mistakes (Revival of F comes up here). My thoughts on the whole question are as follows:
    • I think that first of all, it’s important to emphasise that sparing scumbags who don’t deserve it has kinda been an obvious pattern of conduct for Goku across adulthood: the key comparisons here are with Piccolo from DB #194, Vegeta from DB #241, and Freeza from DB #326. Piccolo is (unsurprisingly, given the regularly-mentioned influence of that cycle in this arc – ‘Level 2’, if you’re keeping track) the most directly relevant comparison – feeding a Senzu to a beaten enemy in the hope of getting a better fight from them later, with added attempts to start to shift their personal trajectory a little – but the others are relevant too. Basically, on its face, there’s nothing odd about Goku repeating a pattern of behaviour that is well-established. That this behaviour was directly referenced in 超 #63 – Goku says he chooses not to end the lives of villains because all he has to do is get stronger, beat them again, and eventually they may change their ways (while also being a more exciting way of going about it) – underscores the point that this is the way Goku typically chooses to act.
    • It’s also important to be clear on exactly what Goku is doing here, and why. He’s not bargaining with Moro, blindly trusting him, or even (unlike the three examples above) letting him go in the hope of a change. He says, quite directly, that Moro will return to prison (the first thing he told him in the arc, in 超 #44), and “You will never enjoy freedom again”. The only ‘choices’ on offer are incarceration (under implicit threat of death if he tries anything again), or death: Moro isn’t being dealt a free hand, here. Additionally, when Jaco tells Goku not to expect some “magical change of heart” from Moro, and just to kill him, Goku simply says, “I know. I will. But let me talk to him a little longer.” He’s not imagining that what he does now will change Moro on the spot, and he’s prepared to kill him, but he’s interested in driving home a point, and perhaps inducing action that may one day bear fruit. The first part of driving home that point, despite Jaco’s protestation that “You didn’t have to heal the scumbag!”, is simply to demonstrate that even when Moro is given the opening, there’s nothing he can do to Goku, and that his personal inclinations are only harming him now. Moro tries to be sneaky, and he only ends up breaking his own hand as a result. Goku then tells him that his approach is at fault, since he’d’ve been stronger if he’d trodden the straight-and-narrow and put in the effort to Earn his power instead of Stealing it. And this is just the first, small way in which Goku is quite right: Moro will ignore him and keep trying sneaky thefts to get the upper hand, but these will just drive him mad and kill him. So the point at this stage is demonstrative.
    • To answer the moral argument that Moro doesn’t deserve the chance at life: it’s true enough, on its face. But one would be hard-pressed to make the argument that Piccolo, or Vegeta, or Freeza deserved it either. They didn’t. I’ve seen arguments that Piccolo didn’t kill anybody, but this is the reincarnation of the Daimao who terrorised the world (nuking Central City), was responsible for killing Goku’s friends, and tried his damnedest to rack up the body count at the Budokai, with 2 shots attempting to obliterate the crowd, nuking the whole island, and stating his very clear intention to kill Goku and then everyone else. The actual body count he ends up leaving is kind of immaterial, especially given his boasts about "the beauty of being evil" giving him a freer hand than the virtuous Goku. Naturally, Moro has the biggest body count yet, as that’s the nature of the power/threat level escalation dynamic at play in Dragon Ball more generally, but the basic characteristics, morally, are pretty much the same. This is likewise the case for Vegeta in DB #241, where Kuririn protests that he won’t turn over a new leaf like Piccolo and it’s unreasonable for Goku to suppose he might – Vegeta was, as this very arc (and the next one) presupposes, responsible for the destruction of many worlds, would happily have added Earth to the list, and (as it happens) immediately thought of returning to Earth to kill everyone as a ‘thank you’ for having been allowed to live this time around (DB #246); one would be hard-pressed to say that there’s a real moral difference between the two that makes Goku’s insistence on sparing Vegeta justifiable and this go around with Moro not justifiable on the same terms.
    • And, as Goku makes clear, part of the reason in all of these ‘sparings’ is Goku’s feeling that destroying great power is a “waste”: with Piccolo, he notes he doesn’t want to lose a rival just yet, and hopes to himself that Piccolo will get stronger, as a spur to his own continued self-improvement; he explicitly says that he knows letting Vegeta go isn’t smart (Kuririn: “He doesn’t have a speck of decency in him! He’s a killing machine! He’s a --” Goku: “I know…and I know how dangerous he is…”), but he resolves to beat him next time; with Freeza, he suggests he goes away and trains if he wants to come back and settle things (DB #326), and considers Freeza “stupid” for not doing this (DB #325, 327). The hope for another encounter often converges with the hope that continued encounters will change these foes’ personal trajectory as well, even if not immediately, as Goku says in 超 #63 to Merus, and there’s no obvious reason to consider that the situation with Moro is particularly different on this score: Piccolo flew off with the vow that he’d make Goku regret his naivete in DB #194, but by DB #207, he had changed enough that Kami remarked upon it, and the proof of it was that Raditz’s soul made it to Enma Daiou; but Gohan recalled that, even before this, “Daddy used to say…you’re not as bad of a guy as you used to be, before you died and came back” (DB #211); while Piccolo bridles at this, he accepts it at the time of his death, and credits his personal encounters with Goku and Gohan for this change (DB #223). Vegeta resolves to immediately come back and kill Goku, and spends a long time hating him (e.g. DB #351), but also famously, he has a crisis over the idea that Goku’s “influence was making me softer…less aggressive” (DB #459), and Goku himself identifies that even in trying to be “evil again”, Vegeta’s move is partly a pose, precisely because he isn’t how he used to be; on the other side of the crisis, Vegeta links Goku’s kindness, his drive for self-improvement and his sparing of enemies as all part of the same character feature, “as if you knew all along I would learn to have a soul…” (DB #510). Freeza, for his part, is still evil, and happily so (超 #42), but the Tournament of Power exposed changes to his own focus as well that seem to directly reflect his encounters with Goku: I mentioned a few times that he evinces some kind of alignment with Goku that he didn’t have before (such as earning his power, to use a phrase from the themes of this arc). All of which is a long way of saying that Moro being undeserving and unlikely to change doesn’t make him qualitatively different from the kinds of encounter Goku has run before in Dragon Ball: Moro will only prove himself different by his incorrigibility, but the narrative will make clear that this is a problem for him (as it kills him), not Goku.
    • As I mentioned, in the moment this is also Goku going out of his way to make a point about Moro’s approach: yes, Moro is stronger than all the people Goku has fought before (no equivocations on the meaning of “tough”, please), and Goku wants to see that power preserved for his own excitement, but also that it is earned and used rightly. And 超 #65 will go about underscoring this point. I mentioned last time that Goku’s approach, having been rebuffed on trying to kindle Moro’s (non-existent) empathy, comes down to his level to refute the idea that Moro is the “supreme life-form” because he can’t beat Goku now no matter what he tries, and that this shortcoming has its roots in his own character (Where the Spirit Leads, the Body Follows). Moro is a “sneaky coward” who got his power by “stealing lives”, but even that power is nothing to what Goku has now earned for himself – if Moro tried to earn his power legitimately, he would’ve come further, and he still can: Goku embodies the gulf between these opposed approaches, and his hope that Moro may yet be a rival for him presupposes that the excitement he seeks is the proper, final outcome of rightly-directed effort, which is what he’s trying to get Moro to understand is the thing he fundamentally lacks (and which will become clearer when Moro tries to steal Ultra Instinct: his approach is faulty, as proven by the fact he can’t handle it), and thus to induce a slight shift in his trajectory by agreeing to go back to Prison. This combines what Goku wants as an “Earthling” with what his time here has taught him (see, e.g., DB #228), presented in a way that is entirely characteristic of him (which also answers the artificiality argument, to some extent, but also see the following point as that position also draws on presuppositions of prudence). So yes, Moro doesn’t ‘deserve’ this extra chance, but no-one else has, yet; Moro isn’t different enough for this approach to be obviously less reasonable than for these others, and it’s not a failing on Goku’s part to combine his characteristic approach with a pointed object lesson.
    • To answer the argument from prudence: yes, Moro is dangerous. He will go about proving it again in the next couple of Chapters. Again, though, which of the people Goku spared weren’t dangerous to spare? It has been argued that Goku only has spared his foes when they have been helpless, whereas there are many things Moro might still do by this point. This distinction is overdrawn. Firstly, 超 #64 and 超 #65 have laid out explicitly that Goku’s body will respond to any genuine threat Moro might pose, whether frontal assaults at full power, attacks through misdirection, attempting to absorb the Planet’s energy, or lethal sneak attacks, in a way that makes Moro come off worse than he was before: there is nothing Moro can do to overcome Goku. Even when he does a couple of new things, they continue the pattern of harming Moro first and foremost, and only cause difficulty insofar as they endanger the Planet as a whole (thus putting Goku in a quandary). But even ignoring the fact that Moro is about as helpless as any of the previous scum that Goku has spared (whatever the extent of his agency), it’s also worth considering how dangerous Goku’s approach was in those previous instances relative to now. In DB #194, Goku simply gives Piccolo a Senzu Bean and waves him off. This is the same(ish) Piccolo who blew up Central City (DB #150) and televised an intention to kill everyone within the next 43 years and ruin the World as “a glorious world of terror and hate!!” (DB #152-153); in his current incarnation, he also nuked Papaya Island at the Budokai, and had literally gored Goku with a sneak attack only minutes prior to being spared. And the bystanders berated Goku for the move (e.g., “You idiot!!! What were you thinking?!!”, “Why didn’t you seal him in that jug?! Moron!!”) – Piccolo was unquestionably dangerous, and could’ve just flown off and ruined half the world, or shown up to kill an unprepared Goku someday. Why is this more prudent than what Goku does with Moro? Similarly, Goku spares Vegeta despite the fact that “I know how dangerous he is”, and he even acknowledges that “It’s not smart, I know…but next time…I swear I’m gonna surpass him…gonna beat him…!! I know it’s wrong, but please…!” (DB #241) Goku makes a habit of doing this stuff even when he knows it’s wrong and highly dangerous (and in the teeth of Kuririn’s objections), in the hopes of getting the outcomes he seeks (as mentioned above), and he’s very lucky here, too: Vegeta immediately resolves to go back to Earth and kill everyone while Goku is still recuperating, and is only stopped when he happens to learn of Freeza’s actions from Kiwi (DB #247). How prudent would Goku’s decision have looked if Vegeta had come right back and destroyed the Earth? But it just happens not to turn out that way. Goku ended that fight at a disadvantage (he didn’t even beat Vegeta, unlike Piccolo), so rolling the dice like that was a huge gamble; even Kaio-Sama says it was a mistake to let him go because of the havoc he’d caused across the Galaxy; if anything, this was even less prudent than what Goku is doing with Moro now. As for Freeza, Goku barely turns his back after sparing him to find that Freeza variously tries to slice-and-dice him (DB #325) or else tries to kill him somehow to salve his pride (DB #327). While Freeza is basically powerless on both counts, one can’t ignore that it’s clear that he’ll do whatever he can to make Goku regret the choice – but Goku thinks Freeza’s the “stupid” one for doing so (which feeds back in to the argument above respecting Goku’s moral outlook). In the end, Goku’s lucky that Freeza thinks it “wouldn’t be satisfying” to blow up Earth from Space in DB #329, else he’d be coming home to nothing – that could easily have happened. So were any of these instances of sparing the foe particularly ‘prudent’? No, not the way that any Human Being would understand the word. But other than these cases happening to break well for Goku, and Moro breaking badly, is there a qualitatively different kind of risk at play? I really don’t think so. So I don’t see how this is out of keeping with what we’ve seen from Goku before.
    • So, given that the moral and prudential considerations aren’t obviously different to previous instances where Goku has spared an evil foe, combined with Goku trying to teach a specific lesson and hoping to secure a specific outcome, I think the idea that Goku is acting artificially here out of ‘Plot-induced Stupidity’ (or any other extrinsic consideration) lacks weight. So we’re really just left with the charges that Goku is either inconsistent here, or hasn’t learned from past mistakes. For the first, Cell is brought up a lot, where Goku tells Gohan to kill him (DB #411): why should Moro get an opportunity not afforded to Cell? In response, it’s important to point out that being spared or not is immaterial to the Cell discussion – there’s no question of Gohan sparing Cell; he’s intending to kill Cell by the cruellest and most drawn-out means he can contrive in order to satisfy his own rage (“It deserves to suffer more”) following an attempt by Cell to blow up the World (DB #410); Goku’s rationale is that Gohan’s approach will only make Cell “desperate” and induce further such attempts (which it does); not only is Goku not doing this with Moro by giving him a clear opening to live, but when Whis later tells Goku not to back Moro into a corner but kill him now, Goku simply says (wait for it) “Okay”. Which seems pretty consistent. The other example proffered is that of Zamas (Goku Black) in 超 #19, where Goku tells Vegeta to end it and skip his turn. It’s worth noting that Goku does not do this on his own initiative, but rather this is at Trunks’s behest (in keeping with his own MO of killing his opponents abruptly, even before a proper fight can break out, as in DB #331-332 and DB #419-420). When Goku has a free hand (even when the situation is very much worse), he returns to type and insists on taking a turn (超 #23). So, these examples aren’t particularly relevant to Goku choosing to spare a villain or not.
    • As for ‘learning from his mistakes’, by this point it’s questionable as to whether Goku might have been made to feel like he’s made any mistakes in sparing foes by this point. While he could have been made to regret it a number of times, as mentioned above, it never turned out that way. So, enter Revival of F, where Goku gets a ‘do-over’ to take out Freeza after he blows up the World, and duly takes it. Some reason that Goku ought to have learned the lesson of being more ruthless with his foes, but I’m not sure this is exactly the lesson Goku was supposed to learn for the future: his “leniency” leaves him open more generally, which is something that enemies end up taking advantage of (Whis tonks him early on to illustrate the point, Sorbet snipes him, and Freeza gets the opening to destroy Earth), but this doesn’t come out as the ‘moral’ of the story: rather, the idea that Goku and Vegeta ought to work together to overcome their enemies is the lesson that resonates (Whis mentions that the pair could challenge Beerus together; Whis and Beerus later comment that they’d have no trouble with Freeza if they worked together, but their foolish pride prevents them; and Goku says to Vegeta that maybe they wouldn’t have a problem together and should think about giving it a try, though they both reject the lesson, for now), and which gets a payoff in 超 #41 (and again in 超 #66 – though some lessons aren’t easy to learn, clearly). It’s unclear that the events of Revival of F should have made Goku particularly wary of sparing Moro and offering him the choice of going back to prison after showing him the error of his approach.
    So, fundamentally, while I agree that the decision to spare Moro would indeed be imprudent if done by an ordinary person, and is as susceptible of a moral challenge as all the other times Goku has done it, I really don’t think we see anything here that is out of character for Goku based on the pattern established in Dragon Ball so far. In fact, for Goku, there seems to be plenty about this encounter that seems pretty reasonable, and while this will necessarily be coloured by the fact that this time, things don’t go quite so well for Goku as they have in the past when he’s chosen to do this (he’ll admit in 超 #66 that this is ultimately his fault), it’s difficult to see how it’s significantly more morally questionable, less prudent, or unnatural enough to sustain the charge that it is uncharacteristic or inconsistent. Fundamentally, I have to agree with Koitsukai that this was one of those elements of the Moro arc that simply didn't justify the fan uproar it somehow managed to provoke.
  • Since we’re still on the subject, the exchange actually stands at the onset of the thematic crux of the arc: Goku Gives Moro a chance to change, showing him the superiority of Earning over Stealing as an approach on the path to power, but Moro resolves to continue Stealing ever more audacious targets, as he thinks it’s the way out of his problem instead of what Goku advocates – but proves Goku’s point, as the stolen power of Ultra Instinct starts to destroy Moro, who hasn’t put the work in to wield it properly. But despite the clear difference between the pair, Moro refuses to change, and Goku fails in his attempt to get him to begin to change, or even to think about it in light of this demonstration. The two are as far apart, and still have as little to say to each other (no matter how Goku tries to say it), as they did the moment they met in 超 #44.
  • As a piece of work, Moro breaking his hand on Goku’s chest is a nice flipping of expectations, depicted in a suitably brutal way. Really, there are a number of candidates for Favourite Art, of which this is only one: the sequence for Moro attaining and starting to use Ultra Instinct is really good, too (capped by the double-page spread of Moro and Goku), as is the sequence for his grotesque distortion (which has become something of an artistic habit in Super’s representations of out-and-out villainy: see, for instance, Zamas in 超 #25, or Saganbo in 超 #58 - again, 'Where the Spirit Leads, the Body Follows'), and the sequence of gigantic Moro emerging from the ground is an enjoyably weird artistic beat along these lines. Overall, this Chapter’s a pretty strong offering, I think.
  • Goku’s body just deciding to “automatically grow sturdier as necessary” makes for an effective little surprise in the scene, but I don’t love it as a concept – while it certainly goes toward the idea that the body itself will make the right decisions to answer any threat, just like Whis promised, it seems a little contrary to the hitherto entirely movement-based ethos of Ultra Instinct just to stand still and flatly rebuff an attack like this. That said, it’s also an extension of the difference of approach that we saw in 超 #64, where Goku just stood up to Moro’s initial assault (though even that was characterised in terms of “honing his movements more and more”), but I’m not particularly taken with this decision, once we’re out of the moment.
  • To have the Divine observer demand, with increasing impatience, that the utterly dominant hero who exemplifies the power du jour should stop messing around and kill the increasingly desperate villain who has the threat of death hanging over them, just as it’s dawning on said villain that a piece of them left behind might be the way out of their current predicament, is strongly evocative of DB #505, and the way it backfires on the villain to make them degenerate into an insane creature who is directly threatening the Galaxy (see DB #510 - otherwise an unusual reduction of scope, given the previous announcement that the battle would decide the fate of the Universe in 超 #59), demonstrates the Final Act is now running firmly along Buu arc lines in its ‘Level 3’ substructure. This will continue into the gathering of ki to defeat the villain in 超 #66 (directly referencing the use of the Genki Dama to defeat Kid Buu in DB #514-516), and the end of the arc beyond it, but the gathering culmination also takes in the defeat of Piccolo Daimao (“Everything’s riding on this fist of mine” and the decisive blow attending a visible display of power, DB #160-161) and the attainment of Divine Power by Goku himself (I’m almost done with all the ‘substructure’ stuff, promise. But only because there’s not much of the arc left :lol: ).
  • Moro ties in the other main foreshadowed power to boost himself again – this time the copied powers of Merus, taken in 超 #63, to access Ultra Instinct for himself. Apart from being the next escalation in a terminal pattern of thefts, by taking a power that will allow his body to move on instinct, Moro also links himself into a pattern that Dragon Ball Super’s main manga-based antagonists have all demonstrated, which is that of different facets of enhanced or perfected movement. Hit started this off with his Time-Skipping in 超 #12, where he was noted to be “too fast”, in the sense that “He vanishes in the middle of his movements. He literally disappears”; Zamas celebrates his own fusion with the phrase, “My body moves just as I want it to. As expected from the fusion of two of me!” (超 #23); Jiren tells Vegeta that he lays his life on the line in every battle, “so not even one percent of my movement is wasted, no matter how weak my opponent may be” (超 #40) – finally, we get Moro stealing Ultra Instinct, the ultimate technique of perfectible movement, for himself now, rejoicing how "fascinating" and "incredible" it is, "how my body now moves!!".
  • Moro’s design changes to demonstrate that he now is using Ultra Instinct, as his fur turns silver, and so does his (previously black) facial flashes. While that’s certainly a sensible set of design changes, I feel like they throw off the sleek, layered tone balance of the initial MoroOG73-I design slightly. Interestingly, unlike Goku, Moro’s eyes don’t appear to display a silver iris now in the black-and-white manga – while I don’t think this indicates that Moro is using Ultra Instinct to a lesser degree than Goku (Moro says their abilities are evenly-matched, and there’s no obvious reason to doubt that), it may play with the idea that Moro’s use of Ultra Instinct is illegitimate – that and, of course, the fact that he is evil: I like that no matter how Moro changes outwardly throughout the arc, his serpentine eyes always stay the same. It’s a nice little piece of character detailing.
  • The juxtaposition of proper and improper use of Ultra Instinct, and thus the foreshadowing that all will not end well for Moro, comes in the difference of temperament shown while using the technique – Goku takes his quiet moment and maintains his emotional control, whereas Moro’s expressions of triumph and delight, and his exhilarated laughter, intensify the sense of improper, unearned use of the technique – which is what will start to kill him, as he clutches on to his stolen power ever more tightly.
  • We get a few visible cues that close an overall cycle in Dragon Ball Super by framing this clash as a Battle of Gods redux, as they all appear in some fashion already in SSjG Goku’s fight with Beerus from 超 #4: first of all, there’s the destructive fist-to-fist clash between the pair (fittingly, when Goku and Beerus do it, the Elder Kaioshin frets that their battle risks destroying the entire Universe, which is the kind of level we’re operating on again here); then, Goku elects to fly off elsewhere, and Moro follows, which ends in Goku blocking a fierce kick, Moro makes a forearm block, and the pair engage in a flurry of attacks (broadly tracking with the movement of the Goku-Beerus fight into the nearby West City in 超 #4); finally, Moro surprises Goku by attacking from a perpendicular angle, and Goku lands after ploughing straight through a mountain (which tracks with Beerus attacking him from that angle round the building in the city, and which ends that part of the exchange in 超 #4). The scope of the clash is appropriately broader than 超 #4, though: what took place in a city now takes place across the Globe. And while it isn’t a feature of the manga, perhaps there’s also a resonance in Battle of Gods where Goku isn’t satisfied with his SSjG power because he couldn’t reach that level by himself, but needed help – here, Goku has achieved the power (Earned it), albeit with help, but Moro has just Stolen it.
  • While we’re on the Battle of Gods, another implicit contrast between the pair: one may recall Goku saying to Beerus in 超 #4 that the power of the Super Saiyan God was telling him that he could get stronger still – this battle serves as a culmination of this, as his power now leads his movement entirely, in a completion of the Divine Power he started to awaken to back then - whereas Moro’s power only communicates the screams of the dying, as in 超 #43 and 超 #57.
  • Moro’s body starts to swell because he can’t handle the wielding of Ultra Instinct – as noted, this sets the cap on the competing themes of Earning and Stealing in this arc, showing clearly which is superior (full credit goes to JackBz for making the observation on the first read through, which set me thinking about the prevalence of the theme for the whole arc). But Moro’s distended body is also another emergence of the Yardratian motif of Where the Spirit Leads, the Body Follows: Moro’s stolen power is ruining him, and his body shows it clearly; yet his inclination is merely to keep stealing until his power is manageable: to that end, his body is merged with the Earth itself, but continues to swell and degrade as he continues to steal more ki, and his body is literally only held together by the things he has stolen, in 超 #66. While Moro making the step from being a Planet-Eater to a Planet sounds extremely goofy (and looks it, hence the comedic edge to Goku’s reaction), but on the level of themes and connections, I think it works unexpectedly well, and this helps balance its apparent goofiness with the more serious, arc-climaxing aspects wrapped up in it (other than the insistence that Moro exploding will Destroy Everything You Care About, which is obligatory but less impactful or interesting, to me).
Chapter 66 - Moro the Planet-Eater/Moro, Consumer of Worlds
21 November 2020
Chapter Notes
  • Moro’s characteristic Insatiability is front and centre in this Chapter, after his Incorrigibility got its final outing in 超 #65. Despite being pushed beyond his limit by Merus’s Angelic powers, Moro’s immediate action after merging his body with Earth is to draw yet more energy from the whole World, which only swells his ki, and his body, and deepens the predicament everyone is in (including Moro, as it turns out). In fact, as we’ll learn, Moro is constantly draining energy throughout the whole Chapter, at a rate that even Vegeta can’t match when using Forced Spirit Fission, so he continues to feed his own inevitable detonation. Yet all he can think is to jubilantly cry “The Earth’s energy is mine! All mine!!” Other than one more statement where he gloats at Goku for having no means of escape now, it’s the last thing he says – those two sentiments (theft and predation) basically seem to sum Moro up, at the end.
  • I enjoy Moro sprouting extra hands to attack with – it’s a nice little addition to the instances of weirding/body horror we’ve been getting since 超 #65, which will continue as Moro degenerates further.
  • Beerus, after an arc of indolence, finally steps forward (way too late, unsurprisingly) to do something to help end Moro. This sparked off a lot of discussion about whether Beerus’s power is a ‘moving goalpost’ across Dragon Ball Super, since he can apparently do something against this, the “toughest” foe Goku has yet encountered (particularly given Goku’s statement in Dragon Ball Super: Broly that Broly at his fullest power was “probably stronger than Beerus”). Looking at the statement from the vantage point of the Granolah arc (超 #68-70), Beerus indicates that what he does could be seen as a destructive analogue of Ultra Instinct (in 超 #69, Beerus states that “My mind’s on Destruction and nothing else. That’s why there’s no limit to my power”) – just as users of Ultra Instinct think of nothing and maintain tranquility, and their bodies respond by moving for them in a way that perfectly projects their power, Beerus thinks only of destruction, and his body responds with limitless destructive power. Beerus may well intend to use Hakai here (超 #70 explains that Hakai itself, by erasing a target body, releases a tremendous amount of energy, and the technique itself is more than just blowing stuff up with a lot of ki), and we can't discount the possibility that Beerus is a ‘moving goalpost’ – but if he is that, then the series may be starting to actually put a mechanism behind this, as Beerus’s destructive capacity can possibly far outstrip even his massive conventional power.
  • But at the dramatically suitable moment, The Grand Priest summons Beerus and Whis, and we get another presentation of the thematic idea that some of the characters are unchanging: Goku has, as Vegeta puts it, “managed to screw up again” in a characteristic fashion; Moro is still fixated on stealing all the energy he can, at the expense of the broader situation; and now Beerus shows that he still doesn’t care about doing the job of a God of Destruction (he’s more concerned with saving his own skin: this contrast likewise popped up in 超 #18 and 超 #21, for instance), and won’t be stepping in to help after all, just like he didn’t back in 超 #46 – but, characteristically, he tells Goku to at least save some of Earth’s food (“the only reason I ever save those idiots” - 超 #63). Beerus will never learn to be different, just like Goku never will; they’re both “troublemakers” to the core (超 #28).
  • Whis takes a moment to tell Goku the Win Condition (and looks super cool doing it, to boot, with the finger-block on Moro’s punch): we learn that shattering the crystal on Moro’s head is the answer; the first time in ages that a Dragon Ball villain has had a nice, convenient, easily-exploitable weakness (Raditz is, I think, the last one, in DB #202). 超 #67 will reveal that all the OG soldiers have this weakness, as Granolah expertly snipes a squad of them in this way; this plays into the broader motif of the villain’s vices setting up their own destruction: Moro got a short-term advantage in getting his strength back and stealing OG73-I’s power by predating on his ally, but it’s also the beginning of the end, as he gains this fatal weakness along with the problems that abuse of this power has brought. In the delivery, as a plain instruction on how to win, it’s a little ‘pat’, but I like the way this focuses the whole thing down to a single ‘do-or-die’ plotline, as the whole Chapter just builds momentum from here, and all the thematic and structural work done so far in the arc just tumbles out for all to see, playing off each other to provide a really satisfying and multifaceted conclusion.
  • Whis tells Goku to “Have faith in your own strength”, which reminds us that Merus had expressed a similar faith way back at the end of 超 #48: “I have faith you can do this. Goku, Vegeta…Great Lord of Lords.” It’s taken a looooong time, but Merus’s original expression of faith is about to be rewarded now, in that order and only when all three figures manage to act: Goku will summon his Divine strength to land the blow on Moro; Vegeta will gather the energy to help him do it, and Dai Kaioshin (roused by the Galactic Patrol’s efforts, as he was before in 超 #47) will summon the power from Uub (which is his own power) to give Goku the power he needs to finally land the decisive blow. Given this connection, one can only say Vegeta steps in right on cue, which gives us another instance of Super’s relentless broader series theme: Teamwork. Goku and Vegeta need each other in order to pull off the win; they have both tried to do it independently, but have only ended up providing components of a greater whole that comes together in this Chapter.
  • We also get, at the outset of this final crisis, a predictable ‘Level 2’ element in its plotting signalled here, which I’ve mentioned many times before: Goku says “Everything’s riding on this fist of mine”, which is a direct reference to when he said it at the resolution of the Piccolo Daimao arc (DB #160). Then, as now, the crux is a decisive blow to defeat this Demonic evil, and then, as now, the villain attempts to use his outstretched hands to block this blow – and this time, the hero fails because firstly, Moro has Ultra Instinct and so can move in a way that serves to impede Goku, and secondly, he has so many hands to throw up and actually slow Goku’s forward momentum juuuust enough. I really like the twist here, both artistically and in plotting, as it draws in more of the arc’s specific themes and the very last bits of the broader sweep of Dragon Ball in order to resolve the conflict.
  • To that end, we get the detail that Vegeta’s Forced Spirit Fission isn’t working as quickly as Moro’s magical theft of power, which isn’t surprising: Moro is a Thief at heart, and Vegeta’s third attempt at using his power to Steal from the Thief is no more successful than the second (超 #62); it’s only when Piccolo steps in and gets Vegeta to reverse his thinking and use the technique, not for Stealing from Moro, but for Giving to Goku – that the way to victory starts to open up.
  • In the midst of this, Goku expresses frustration that he can’t do what Merus did because “I still don’t have enough God Power!”, which is an interesting note. While Moro with Merus’s abilities claimed equality with Goku (indicating, as does 超 #68, that Merus and Goku had an equivalent level of refinement to their Ultra Instinct), Merus still seems to simply have had more Godly power, in the conventional sense. Goku will get way more power than he needs off of Uub – enough to activate Ultra Instinct again, of course, but principally enough to give us a wildly over-the-top use of Godly Power that holds Moro in place. Bulma underscores that the type of ki is more important than simply the amount: the problem with the gift of ki from all the heroes isn’t that it’s too small, as it seems to power Goku up well beyond his typical SSjB power; it’s that enough of it isn’t Divine Power (if Vegeta counts, he’s depleted already – “at my limit”, as he puts it; and Dende’s Divine Power isn’t “developed enough”, whatever this precisely means). This Chapter remains extremely ambiguous as to whether there’s any material difference between ‘God ki’ and ‘Divine Power’…
  • Conversely, I get the feeling that the conversation between the heroes simply exists to explicitly show that other ideas readers might come up with won’t work this time – for instance, Yamcha’s suggestion of leaving Earth and going to get the Super Dragon Balls – though the answer isn’t entirely convincing (for instance, how do they know any of them are specifically in this Galaxy, since they’re scattered between 2 whole Universes?), and I’m not sure we needed it when faced with an imminent countdown to destruction. I guess this is as good a place as any to mention the wavering over the Galactic/Universal scale of the issue (just like the arc remains ambiguous over whether there’s a material difference between “God ki” and “Divine power”, I guess) – even the scope of the Galactic Patrol is pretty ambiguous, in this sense, as the name indicates they oversee the Galaxy (and as we’ve seen, not even all of it: see Yardrat, 超 #55), but their actions are often referred to as having Universal scope (e.g., 超 #64, where Goku mentions that Merus gave up his life “for the sake of the Universe”, whereas Moro’s own intent is to be “Ruling over the Galaxy”, in 超 #61). Dragon Ball’s Universe 7 has, according to Daizenshuu #7, 4 “Galaxies”, reckoned as Divine Administrative Units, which may or may not correspond to “Galaxies” in the astronomical sense. However, if the word were meant in this more expansive sense, and a quarter of the Universe were about to go up simply from Moro blowing up, I guess that might resolve any difficulty with this discussion, as one might logically assume that at least one Super Dragon Ball is likely to be found there, and the scale of a quarter of a Universe is, ipso facto, on a Universal scale (just like nuking a quarter of the Earth would be action on a Global scale). That said, Dragon Ball Super has also given us to understand the more restricted sense: Jaco notes in 超 #6 how absurd it would be to get to the centre of the Universe, saying, “A single Galaxy is inexplicably huge. Do you even know how many Galaxies there are in the Universe?!”, which implies that he thinks the true answer is that they are innumerable (though it would be funny – and entirely in keeping – if the answer were just “Four”).
  • I do like the other little asides: the resolution to rescue Goku from Moro’s grip, even if they can’t do anything else, is a nice touch that reaffirms their fundamental friendship and connection – and Yamcha’s comment that he’s going to die a bachelor is a cute little nod – usually that kind of fretting has been left to Kuririn (see, e.g., DB #198), but now he’s a family man, it’s natural for that torch to pass to someone who’ll never be lucky in love
  • And now, the resolution – a gift of Divine Power from Uub! The reveal satisfied many fans, obviously because it links up Dragon Ball Super with the End of Dragon Ball that it looks towards, and manages to re-establish why Goku should have such an interest in Uub, come DB #517-519, when such a radical power escalation beyond the Buu arc level has taken place – so, it’s neat and tidy, and it’s surely nice to see Uub. But I think that part of the reason so many fans found this element of the resolution so satisfying has its roots in the deeper structure of the Moro arc’s Third Act – the ‘Level 3 substructure’, as I’ve been calling it, which has taken in the sweep of all of Dragon Ball to help structure and resolve the plot here, as we’ve now reached that juncture where the substructure dovetails with the visible story on the page, and it fairly leaps out at you: the heroes gather as much energy as possible for a Genki Dama that can destroy Kid Buu: but what they get from the attempt initially isn’t equal to the need, and the crisis deepens, until an unexpected intervention gives a new, massive effusion of gifted power in the Genki Dama that allows the heroes to finally destroy the villain – these basic plot elements (from DB #514-516) are visibly present in 超 #66, complete with obvious visual nods (even down to the way the gifted energy is thrown by Vegeta, for instance: it directly mirrors Goku throwing the Genki Dama; while we’re at it, let’s not forget the victory thumbs-up at the end), and dovetail with the main themes of the arc in a final act of Giving (as a cute inversion that deepens the connection further, the gift in the Buu arc was at the behest of Mr. Satan and used against Kid Buu; now, it’s thanks to Kid Buu’s reincarnation, and at the behest of Universe 7’s highest God). What’s more, it reveals that the resolution to the conflict resides in Goku’s own story, when Jaco says, “Evil Buu’s reincarnation was born on Earth..? What a lucky break!!” Of course, there’s nothing “lucky” about it - it’s turned out this way specifically because of Goku’s desire to fight Buu’s reincarnation one day; in the same way, the drift of the Final Act of the arc has led up to this moment by following the patterns of the story of Dragon Ball. I find that deeply satisfying, and I’m sure a lot of other fans did too, almost instinctively.
  • The structural dovetails keep on tumbling out in the momentum of this Chapter, as the Gift of Divine Power re-energises Goku “for another round of Ultra Instinct”, and a huge manifestation of Divine Power attends Goku now. It caused widespread bafflement in fans to see a gigantic ki figure of Goku bearing down on Moro, but this is actually the final Piccolo Daimao-cycle (‘Level 2’) moment of the battle, as this is really an updated version of the manifestation of Goku’s power from that battle: in DB #160-161, Goku’s final, decisive blow was attended by the huge image of an Oozaru, representing his latent power (and for some reason, Piccolo Daimao could see it; perhaps it was a psychic impression or something, like it was for Karin in DB #151?); this allowed Goku to break through Piccolo’s guard and land the final, decisive hit, which made the Demon King explode. This manifestation of Goku’s own Divine Power literally holds down Moro so he can’t use his hands to guard any more, allowing Goku to land this decisive blow on his forehead jewel, with the same explosive outcome.
  • And it would be churlish of me not to give the Favourite Art tip to the double-page spread of the strike itself – a fantastic spread of impact, with the bright, clean image of Goku’s face shoved into the ruined, drab and dying face of Moro, with the real Goku at the centre in an impact that is otherwise almost totally conveyed by use of screentone at the epicentre of the strike, and a massive, hollow sound effect – an interesting and effective depiction that makes the whole thing look like it’s ‘ringing’, somehow. It certainly should be mentioned that this spread comes straight off a series of really nicely-drawn, measured visual beats from the point Goku re-attains Ultra Instinct onwards. It’s clear Toyotarou pulled out all the stops for the Big Finish.
  • And finally, a word for Moro: he erupts in a geyser of lava – much like the technique he would’ve used to escape from the Galactic Prison in the first place. It’s come full circle for him.
That's it for Part 1 - thanks again to everyone for their posts, and join me for The Grand Finale in Part 2 in a few days!

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Jack Bz
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Re: The Super Re-Read

Post by Jack Bz » Sat Mar 20, 2021 10:30 pm

Totally agree with everything you said about Goku and the senzu. I think a lot of people couldn't really identify what was actually irking them about it; I believe the real issue was the fatigue with the concept of Moro being on the edge of defeat but underhandedly reversing the situation to his favour (which is a thing I have taken issue with, but this last one I liked because it made the most logical sense and basically ended up backfiring in a way that fit thematically). The fact that during the drafts this was seemingly about to happen again due to Goku's "stupidity" felt like contrived writing to some I suppose. But out of character for Goku to do?? How??

The thing is that the senzu was really inconsequential to Moro turning the tables in the end. Goku had complete control of the situation and, if anything, the actual mistake he makes is chatting too much to Jaco and spilling the beans about Merus being his master.

I'm definitely on team hakai re: Goku and the rock. Whether it was a "true" hakai as has been elaborated on in subsequent chapters or just Goku's same incomplete hakai he used on Zamasu is another thing, but the similarities of the gesture and the graphical effect of the rock crumbling to sand are way too similar to all of its past uses for it to just be a random technique in my eyes.

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TheSaiyanGod
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Re: The Super Re-Read

Post by TheSaiyanGod » Sun Mar 21, 2021 7:42 pm

Jack Bz wrote: Sat Mar 20, 2021 10:30 pm Totally agree with everything you said about Goku and the senzu. I think a lot of people couldn't really identify what was actually irking them about it; I believe the real issue was the fatigue with the concept of Moro being on the edge of defeat but underhandedly reversing the situation to his favour (which is a thing I have taken issue with, but this last one I liked because it made the most logical sense and basically ended up backfiring in a way that fit thematically). The fact that during the drafts this was seemingly about to happen again due to Goku's "stupidity" felt like contrived writing to some I suppose. But out of character for Goku to do?? How??
I think a lot of this is due to the fandom's tendency to use pre-made arguments and out-of-context scenes to make memes / criticisms. It is very easy to mock and complain about these scenes that way. For example, many look at the scene in isolation (Goku giving thr senzu to Moro) and automatically claim that it is just a repeat of the fight against Cell, that Goku is being naive and that he has learned nothing from his "mistakes" while totally ignoring the situation and what makes it different from the others (and at the same time, in what is done like other situations, such as Goku's tendency to spare enemies, especially those who are already completely defeated). I would say the same thing for the infamous line about Vegeta um chapter 61 (which was also adressed by Ponta).

But if I have something to complain about then I would say that I really didn't feel it was necessary for Goku to give Moro the senzu, because as we saw, he didn't need it to realize that part of his body containing Merus' powers was still there. This indeed reinforces the notion that Goku was in complete control of the situation (unlike other times when he spared enemies, which serves as a point in favor of this moment), but I feel that everything could have played the same way (Goku wanting to take Moro to prison) without this scene. I don’t think it was out of character or a mere repetition of the other situations in which it occurred, but at least it would avoid the big headache generated by it lol

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Re: The Super Re-Read

Post by Magnificent Ponta » Thu Mar 25, 2021 5:53 pm

The Super Re-Read: Chapters 65 - 67
Part 2 (Chapter 67)

Image

Well, this is it - the last Part of the final Instalment. So, once more, with feeling: Welcome back to The Super Re-Read, everybody! This part finishes off the Moro arc, and gives my thoughts on the arc overall. Thanks to everyone who has stuck with The Super Re-Read and contributed, and to everyone who read along, even if you didn't feel you could contribute. I hope you enjoyed the read (and the Re-Read)!

Now, as ever, thanks and credit are due to Kanzenshuu and its contributors - particularly the Translations Archive, the Guides (I linked to the manga guide there, but it's all worth your attention), and the Guides written by Herms on this forum. The Super Re-Read used all of them throughout, and I'm grateful to have had access to such resources when writing up my Chapter notes. Check 'em out!

There's nothing more to say - except for all the things that are left to say. So one last time, let's get Re-reading!:

Chapter 67 - The Grand Finale, And Then…/Happy Endings…And Then…
21 December 2020
Chapter Notes
  • Lastonelastone, I promise – the ‘Ultimate Substructure’ finishes off in this Chapter, as we get the final celebration and the look forward to the original end of Dragon Ball, as Goku says “we’ll all find out in due time” who the “amazing” other person is on Earth. Naturally, he knows who it is, despite his dissembling, as Dende told him to remember Uub in 超 #31 – the victory here is also a kind of pay-off for that moment, as Dende hinted it would be very important that Uub should survive, but really this looks forward to the end, as even the title of the Chapter points up: this is the same Chapter Title as in DB #517, where the heroes celebrate the defeat of Buu and the story skips forward thereafter (in which gap all of Dragon Ball Super takes place, of course), where we will duly meet Uub. With that, the sub-structural tie-ins for the arc are pretty much done, and all that’s left to do is tidy up the remains of the arc, enjoy it, and set up the next one.
  • Dai Kaioshin once more relinquishes control of Buu. This reminds me that in DB #517, there was a brief argument about destroying Buu so that he could never return, but Goku chose to spare him because the heroes wouldn’t have won without him and Mr. Satan. This proves now to have been the right decision, as the victory here could only have been earned with both Dai Kaioshin’s Divine Power (in Uub) and his personality and memories (in Buu): without one or the other, the Earth would have been doomed. This goes further towards my earlier point under 超 #66, that nothing about Goku’s story has really been a happy chance, when it comes to the resolution of this arc – it has all been nothing other than the beats of the march to victory.
  • Mr. Satan invites all the gang over for a celebratory feast. The last time he did this was in Yo! Son Goku and Friends Return! (set 2 years after the fight with Majin Buu), as thanks to the heroes for their help. Given how expansive the cast involvement has been in this arc, it’s unsurprising that the guest lists have a very considerable overlap (unique invites in bold – based on manga depictions, obviously):
    • Guests in Yo! Son Goku and Friends Return!: Mr. Satan, Mr. Buu, Videl, Son Goku, Chi-Chi, Son Goten, Son Gohan, Vegeta, Bulma, Trunks, Elder Kaioshin, ‘Kibitoshin’, Kame-Sen’nin, Umigame, Tenshinhan, Chaozu, Lunch, Kuririn, Android #18, Marron, Yamcha, Pu’ar, Oolong, Piccolo, Bubbles, Gregory, Kaio-Sama, Tarble*, Gure*, Avo*, Cado* (Total: 31).
      (* Tarble, Gure, Avo and Cado are obviously not original invitees, but are gatecrashers. They stick around at the end, though, and the two villains are seen partaking in the meal.)
    • Guests in 超 #67: Mr. Satan, Mr. Buu, Son Goku, Chi-Chi, Son Gohan, Son Goten, Videl, Pan, Kuririn, Android #18, Marron, Gyuu Mao*, Vegeta, Bulma, Bra, Trunks, Oolong, Tenshinhan, Yamcha, Chaozu, Pu’ar, Kame-Sen’nin, Umigame, Pilaf, Mai*, Shu, Piccolo, Dende, Mr. Popo, Esca, Android #17* (Total: 31).
      (* Mai, Gyuu Mao and Android #17 are among the invitees, but are not clearly shown as guests in the actual dinner scene.)
    4 waiting staff are shown working in the scene in 超 #67, but none are in Yo! (though we see one person halfway through whom we might infer is part of the Hotel staff). Mr. Satan mentions his Chef, of course – we’ve known about the Chef since DB #428, where Videl mentions that they’re hired to cook for the family. One might question how it is that Umigame the Turtle has been seen to have done enough to justify an invite to both parties while Dende somehow hasn’t, but there it is. Take it up with the Champ.
  • Goku takes Esca back to New Namek, where it seems Porunga is summoned almost instantly (perhaps not while Goku is still there, but certainly within days of Esca’s return). DB #329 established that the Namekian Dragon Balls reenergise after 130 days (a little over 4 months, in Earth terms), but Porunga granted Moro 3 wishes approximately 70 days before this scene (a week between New Namek’s destruction and Vegeta’s arrival on Yardrat, 2 months of training time prior to the battle with Moro, and probably a few days making up some small gaps here and there). So while Gohan’s comment in 超 #59 that Earth’s Dragon Balls are ready at Earth’s Sanctuary juuust about sneaks under the radar on the basis that only one wish was used in Dragon Ball Super: Broly (Buu wakes up a week into the Moro arc, having fallen asleep a day prior to the Tournament, so one can infer 2 months has passed there, plus the aforementioned week, 2 months, and change – we just about get the 4 months Dende said was necessary in DB #469, if the Broly fight happened within a week or so of the Tournament), there’s a contradiction here. Of course, the Dragon Balls have been activated early once before, despite recently being used for a wish…in DB #165, at the end of the Piccolo Daimao arc (Really? You don’t say), by Kami-Sama: “Normally, they would be ordinary rocks for the next year, but this time I’ll make an exception and grant your wish immediately”. So it’s possible that whoever is master of the Dragon Balls may use their power to reenergise them early, if need be. (With that, my ‘Level 2’ plot connections strut out the door with a jaunty smile.) And Muri is now alive again with the rest of the Namekians, so his faith that “It is thanks to the protection of the Gods that we may live in peace” (超 #44) is rewarded – thanks to the Godly power of Dai Kaioshin, Son Goku, and Vegeta, everything is eventually set right, and peace returns.
  • Rounding the main plot off, we get another fun, goofy Galactic Patrol ceremony (after 45 years of service, Jaco gets his first medal and gets a claim to being truly “Elite”, and he even kind of deserves it for his clutch summoning of Dai Kaioshin at the crucial moment). There’s plenty to raise a smile, like the goofy Galactic Patrol ceremonial band, or Goku’s latest enthusiastic grabbing of the Galactic King’s dong (see also: 超 #13-14 interstitial; 超 #43), Majin Buu chewing on his medal (a reference to his chewing on money, from DB #478), and even the nice little reference to Jaco’s extremely long surname (Teirimentenpibosshi: sundried sardine) from his own series. And, to round it off, the Officer from the Galactic Prison (超 #50) takes the celebratory photo: he’s also the same guy taking the mugshots of the Saganbo Bandit Brigade in Volume 12 and 13’s interstitials.
  • But to cap it all off, we get a really sweet reunion between the gang and Merus (Now Merus Ikanoichiyabosshi: salted, dried squid; a play on his original ‘Merusu/surume’ name-pun, but indicating also his new Mortal status and identifying him even more closely with the Galactic Patrol, who all have seafood-based names). Some fans have expressed dissatisfaction that Merus should return to life after having ceased to be, on the basis that it cheapens his death to have it undone so readily now, and in a series where a vanishingly small number of characters are even able to die, given the fact that we know DB #518-519 remain in our future, this passes up an opportunity to have a little gravity. I don’t really agree, though – there’s a time and a place for the ‘something has been irretrievably lost, not all the hurts can be undone, and that’s how you know the whole thing mattered’ kind of perspective, but I don’t think Dragon Ball is really a fitting home for it, and I’m sceptical of the idea that making the story cling to a loss like that for the sake of ‘consequences’, in defiance of the fact that for Dragon Ball, undoing losses is very much a stock-in-trade, would do anything other than simply take from the story. Merus acted throughout the whole of this arc as a perennial ‘Giver’, but one constrained by the truth of his existence; the facts of his past. Yet with faith in his allies (old and new), and believing staunchly in the things he had come to love in that past – justice, and maintaining peace in the Galaxy – he continued to give until there was literally nothing left of him, and found his faith rewarded in the salvation of the Galaxy. But his own personal virtue, bound up in his Giving, deserves better than to be left at that – and so, his Giving elicits a Gift in turn, as he receives a new life that can be enriched with the satisfaction of continuing to do the things he has learned to love. Acting virtuously throughout the arc has earned Merus his Happy Ending. For me, that’s infinitely more satisfying than the artificial poignancy of leaving Merus gone, and the Chapter indulges that feeling to the full in the reunion between Merus and Goku (and the final image of the reunion montage is my nomination for Favourite Art – in the ‘Moro arc’ bit of this Chapter; the 'Granolah arc' bit is another matter).
  • And of course, we get the great scene up at the Kingdom Palace, which goes into the mechanics behind Merus’s Happy Ending, and also dispels the 'threat' hanging over Beerus (foreshadowed since 超 #55) with an excellent comic turn. Quite a few things to note, here:
    • The narration says this was only “a few days” earlier than the ceremony, which is in turn dated “several days” later than the Moro fight. As Whis mentions in 超 #17, it takes him 2 days to fly from Earth to the Kingdom Palace; so, this encounter may take place after the summoning of Porunga to undo the damage Moro has done.
    • Shin finally appears, to explain why The Grand Priest was influenced to give Merus a new life as a Mortal – and we get the final rollout of the theme of Giving in the arc, as it’s revealed Shin offered to give his own life to redeem Merus’s. Shin made this offer once before to return Goku to life, in DB #500, saying “I want to be useful, too…!!”, and here he says that this was “all I could do”. The Future Trunks arc made a big song-and-dance about how it isn’t in the purview of the Kaioshin to fight against and destroy evil (that’s the God of Destruction’s job), but to observe and maintain the peace of the Universe – so it’s nice to see Shin managing nevertheless to do something impactful while keeping in his proper sphere; it also points up the contrast with Beerus again – Shin can’t do much, but he does what he can, and secures a good outcome by offering a noble Gift; whereas Beerus doesn’t do anything when he can and should, and gets nothing but an extremely unpleasant (to him) punishment…
    • We get the excellent comic beat of Zeno’s attendants getting time off at some cosmic spa, while Shin and Beerus play horsey for the Zenos (another candidate for Favourite Art, now I think about it). While it’s not a very pleasant outcome for Shin (though it beats being dead, I guess), it’s practically torture for the lazy Beerus – forced to put in extreme effort to try to amuse a childlike supreme God who terrifies him utterly, and generally failing to satisfy. Goku suggested Beerus become Zeno’s playmate back in 超 #18, and Beerus refused vehemently, so it’s unsurprising that his personal misery now is bound up in Zeno’s childlike dissatisfaction, as He urges him to higher effort - this goes back to an observation I made in the Future Trunks arc, where I mentioned that Zeno seems to just want playmates He can enjoy being around, but the terror with which He is viewed by others dissatisfies Him and makes Him more likely, in turn, to justify the terror. Since possible threat of erasure had been coyly teased for Beerus, the tension-dispelling gag causing him equal discomfiture is, I think, a very effective and enjoyable twist.
    • And of course, it suits Whis’s Neutrality (and The Grand Priest’s favouritism) for his “penalty” to be merely to stand on the sidelines and wield the stopwatch. There’s another Divine increment of time on display – the Jik. We already saw the introduction of Taks and Tiks in 超 #28 – 100 Taks, we learned, is 48 minutes, while 1 Tik is 8 hours, and thus there are 1000 Taks in a Tik (meaning Divine Time is Decimal, rather than Sexagesimal). As the Jik is measured in hundreds here without intersecting with any other increment of time, and 1 Tak is only 28.8 seconds, it’s doubtful there is another time increment between the Jik and the Tak. If we were to assume, then, that there are 1000 Jiks to a Tak, then Beerus completes his run in 3.49 seconds, and Shin takes 3.86 seconds.
    • The Grand Priest’s vindictive little smile is a delight that puts a cap on the whole gag. That is all.
  • I enjoy that Jaco hasn’t taken the opportunity to turn over a new leaf with his medal, but is still the same as he was: a goofy, incapable shirker (who occasionally comes good, in a pinch) – he’s pretending that he’s diligently performing his duties here, but as we’ll see, he’s really just trying to get some affordable cheese and milk (as Jaco #1 shows, it’s the closest thing to what Jaco’s people eat anyway, but he develops a special fondness for the Earth foodstuffs), and he’ll follow that up by revealing he didn’t really bother to check that OG73-I was fully destroyed, thus allowing us to kick off the next arc.
  • We head back to the Galactic Prison for a fond farewell to the immediately forgettable remnants of the Saganbo Bandit Brigade – one thing I do enjoy is the flipping of the themes of Stealing, Earning and Giving one last time in this conversation. Zauyogi mentions that OG73-I was just a thing they stole, but argues that he was empty, and all the worth he had was what the Bandit Brigade gave him, and thus that he was ultimately the product of their hard work. It’s an interesting argument to think on as he gets rescued by his ‘rightful owner’, Goichi (also a scumbag), who seeks to capitalise on his unearned windfall before he becomes the victim of theft again: this time courtesy of Granolah. The Heeters will, of course, seek to capitalise on the Bandit Brigade’s hard work by determining the location of Lord Zuno the Wise from OG73-I’s data (achieved in 超 #69).
  • Aaand that’s all, Folks – the final scene, “a few months later”, belongs more properly to the Granolah arc, so I guess I’ll just try to remember to pick things back up here when the time comes.
    So, time to talk about the Moro arc overall: what is it like, and unto what shall we compare it? To say it in terms Moro might appreciate, it is like a three-course meal, consisting of an appetising bowl of Minestrone Soup for the Starter, a Plain Omelette for the Main Course (confusingly elevated from a Side Dish to a Main Course; it has sides of its own - fries and a salad - which are nice, but not enough to offset the fact that this is just an omelette, and not the Steak that was on the menu), and a rich, deeply satisfying Layered Trifle for the Dessert Course. Make of that analogy what you will. But substantively, what can one say? Well, there’s the obvious, which is that it does overstay its welcome: the First Act (超 #42-50) is generally well-done (some missteps aside), and so is the Final Act (超 #59-67) – particularly well-done, in my opinion (apart from the pacing issues, which are pervasive) – but the Second Act (超 #51-58) is long on length and short on substance; it’s mostly big ole puffs o’ nothing. Around 200 pages could’ve been shaved off the arc with very little (if any) impact on the actual plot, the themes of the arc, or the important character arcs. There’s a lot of not much – as I say, that’s particularly true of the Second Act (超 #51-58), but it has clear instances elsewhere (超 #47 and 49 are probably overstretched in the First Act, as are 超 #62 and 超 #64 in the Third Act). Sometimes, as with 超 #62, I feel the extended format itself works against telling a tight story, as it stretches what’s there across what it needs to fill even though the structuring of the story increments make sense that way in theory, but other times there’s the filler beats of repetition (most notoriously 超 #54 and 超 #56) and elliptical plotting that does ‘stuff’ but contrives to bring things back to where they were, by way of some sort of (occasionally quite perfunctory or anodyne) action. And there’s no lack of that, either: I believe V-Jump calculated that there are 41 distinct fights in the arc. Faced with such a figure, one might wonder how it is that the Moro arc seems to lack a certain ‘energy’ across much of its span. Then again, one might see an answer in that very figure: did we really need all of that stuff to tell this story well? The arc could have done with a more judicious approach to its plotting, and to the presentation of action and some of the other features therein. More isn’t always more.
    Speaking of which - bound up with this sense of ‘padding’ is the other main flaw of the arc: the Saganbo Bandit Brigade. I don’t have a problem with more characters being introduced to ‘flip’ expectations across 超 #49-50, but they needed to be utilised more effectively than they were after this point, to justify their presentation as noteworthy. Their schtick of running with Moro is established in 超 #51, and after that, the goons have the run of the story, but they’re self-evidently a sideshow act, and they mostly don’t bring anything to the table to hold the reader’s interest. They don’t even manage to elicit interesting, characterful conversations with (or actions from) Moro until 超 #58, and while a few of them manage to inject themselves into the action in a relatively enjoyable fashion (the OG73-I stuff in 超 #53-54 is okay, though he himself has nothing to commend him as a character – I assume that’s deliberate; Yuzun gets an enjoyable turn in 超 #55; and Saganbo’s connivance at being taken hostage to try to prove himself to Moro in 超 #58 is the best thing we get out of them), others don’t even get named until it’s time for them to be swept off the stage, let alone get something really interesting or worthwhile to do (Hi, Zauyogi!). Saturating the narrative with 10 characters who are supposed to be noteworthy, and then doing nothing much with them except woodenly fill pages (the scenes noted above notwithstanding) is a blunder. For this lot, more is unfortunately less, as we get a diminishing sense of their importance or centrality to the key progression of the narrative every time we see them, and we see them quite a lot. A squad of just 4 of them around Moro might have given each of them a little more definition, and given them the opportunity to be more memorable: say, Saganbo, OG73-I (he is necessary to the plot, after all), Yuzun, and Shimorekka (or some new, less consistently aggravating creation – though I have to admit that the runt, obnoxious though he is, gets more characterisation than most of his colleagues). That would’ve been plenty. Or, they could have continued to run with Cranberry and the Macarenis; though I can understand why they didn’t do that, I can hardly see the justification for showing the Macarenis again alongside these other bit-part chumps, other than to give the bit-part heroes something to do – was that really needed to tell the story well? I surprised myself when re-reading this arc, as I found myself actually relieved to see Moro re-enter the action in 超 #57.
    So, what about Moro, then? I think I’ve come around to him as a character. Like many, I was prepared to see him as simply a doom-bringing pastiche, but I actually think he has enough definition in himself to carry the scenes he runs, and to be a strong presence from the moment he’s introduced to the moment he dies: the predatory, insatiable sense of the character is strong (particularly in his reductive conception of everything he approaches as a meal of some sort), and his incorrigibility works to drive the plot on even when things turn against him. This marries up well with his cunning, and feeds into his superiority complex. A bunch of it is stuff we’ve seen before (hence the sense of the pastiche, I guess), but the specific way these attributes are combined and intersect with the arc themes of Stealing, Earning, and Giving is actually pretty strong, and I was surprised to see how he managed to keep me entertained when he was at the centre of the action. The main issue, for me, is that having established this quality, he retreats from the centre of the action to be replaced by his much blander squad of identikit mooks for about one-third of the arc. This might’ve played differently if his presence behind the scenes had built up to a reveal, but jumping into the confrontation, seeing all the kinds of stuff he can do, and then taking him back out of the mix (I know he’s apparently having his way with the Galaxy and becoming ever more formidable, but that isn’t where the action is) seems to let the tautness of the whole arc go slack, without anything much being put in its place. I don’t think Dragon Ball has ever tried that kind of construction before – even Cell, to whom it is sorta similar, isn’t the self-evident main threat when he goes into hiding, but simply a potential one among a set, and his off-screen growth allows him to realise that potential later when he returns. Moro, by contrast, is unquestionably always the key threat, and…stays that way, but isn’t the key occupant of our attention. To me, that can only serve to hammer home the feeling that we just mark time in much of this arc. But when he’s back in focus, he’s very effective: Toyotarou went for a feeling of ‘we have to beat this guy no matter what!’, and he nailed that. I still think some other quirk might have given Moro some added dimensions, but as he is, he certainly has ‘cut-through’. I can appreciate that. And while I once thought his dependency on Piccolo Daimao for his depiction was a little limiting, I now think it works very well for the broader story being told here, particularly in relation to Goku’s own character arc – both in terms of how neither of them fundamentally change from beginning to end (despite both doing so on the outside), and in terms of Moro being a fitting sort of adversary in an arc where Goku surpasses the Gods (as he did in the Piccolo Daimao-23rd Budokai cycle in original Dragon Ball).
    And Moro runs the themes of the arc strongly and relentlessly. Toyotarou has shown an aptitude for theme-work throughout much of Dragon Ball Super, using them in earnest from the Future Trunks arc onwards (though arguably you can see some of the more pervasive series themes before then, and on reflection, there are themes running even in the Universe 6 Tournament arc), and his theme-work in the Tournament of Power, and the way it intersected with a character-driven plot, was very strong, and highly enjoyable. In this arc, the approach continues, stronger than ever: the arc relentlessly pushes combinations of Stealing, Earning, and Giving in its plot points and character interactions, and to good effect: Moro is strongly characterised by his function as a Thief, and his smallness as just a Thief shines through his grandiose self-presentation; whereas Merus (one of the best things about the arc) is a relentless Giver, which is why it’s so easy to side with the character and like the things he does (along with him being a super-competent guy who does lots of cool stuff) – and in the middle, you have Goku and Vegeta striving to Earn their way through to victory, but each finding that Earning isn’t enough on its own and needs an act of Giving to truly fulfil the promise of Earning and so gain the victory. Even between themselves, Goku and Vegeta bifurcate and overlap simultaneously on these themes, as Vegeta initially Earns his power to Steal from the Thief (Stealing-Earning), whereas Goku Earns his power by way of a Gift, and seeks to Give in turn, even to the villain of the piece (Earning-Giving), manifesting the tension between this pair even when they align. It also obviously sets them off against Moro, as they both manage to prove (Goku in an extremely in-your-face way, in 超 #65) that the virtuous path of Earning is a superior approach to the malign path of Stealing, which Moro (literally) embodies.
    Also relevant on these lines is the theme of Facing the Past, Forging the Future, which pervades the arc, particularly where Vegeta is concerned, but gains special extra dimensions in the middle, where we learn more about Merus, and in the Final Act, where the seeds sown for Vegeta and Merus bear fruit, and the whole structure of the confrontation centres around the original Story of Dragon Ball, thus revealing Goku’s place in the arc. The theme, as such, is pretty much always with us in Dragon Ball Super in one way or another, given its status as an interquel for a famous and beloved series (and it is sometimes used in fluffy and gratuitous ways), here it is deployed in substantial ways that add real depth to the arc: we see a nurturing of Vegeta’s own moral sense, as he takes the first step to making amends for his past sins – here, the sins of DB #259, where he “did untold harm” to the Namekians, but as a cipher for his broader sins – and progressing towards a more heroic sensibility that may culminate in the character of DB #518-519 who is arguably more at ease with himself and his surroundings (the Granolah arc plays further on this inner journey, as 超 #69 establishes that Vegeta bears a burden of guilt for all the things the Saiyans have done, not just his own sins). Merus confronts the nature of his own existence by internalising the things he has come to know and believe from his time in the Galactic Patrol, as this drives him more towards Goku’s point of view and away from his own sympathetic neutrality, as he goes ‘all-in’ on saving the future of the Galaxy at his own expense and puts faith in his allies to bring it all home – and as a result, he gains a future (by way of a Gift) that he might not have anticipated, but which fulfils the desires that have bloomed within him (being able to use his own future to fight whole-heartedly for Justice and to maintain the Peace of the Galaxy). And then there’s Goku – I’ve banged on about it (and again, apologies if any have found it tendentious or trying their patience), but why stop now? – whose arc across Dragon Ball Super culminates in a way that is fundamentally directed by his own story from the Piccolo Daimao arc onwards, through all of Dragon Ball up to the end. Just as the Tournament of Power arc took the characters who belonged to that story and made them key to the workings of the arc, the Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc takes the Story itself and uses it to drive through the resolution of the arc, in a way that I find effective and deeply satisfying, as links up with the future that we know is coming in its final beats, as the sub-structural underpinnings naturally coast through Dragon Ball’s arcs until we get the revelation of Uub and his power, which is deeply connected to Goku’s own past and future, and plays strongly into the present by way of the broader work it’s doing with Goku surpassing the Gods in his achievement of Ultra Instinct. It’s like these two most recent arcs of Super serve as a kind of Goku-centric ‘diptych’, deploying both of the elements of his story in ways that make the arcs what they are. While appropriating the backstory to make the story we see now, it’s obviously more plot-driven (or should that be theme-driven?) than the Tournament of Power, which used the characters as such and was therefore more character-driven as a matter of course, but I still think it’s very clever and one of the real strong points of this arc.
    It also works in the here and now, as the characters interact with each other and we see this theme and the ‘mechanics’ of the arc interact satisfyingly with motifs of Change and the Unchanging. Fans puzzled over why Goku emerges to become the natural opponent of Moro when on a surface reading, Vegeta seems to be the more productive engagement, as he clearly and obviously pins his personal development and character arc on being able to thwart Moro, whereas Goku doesn’t, beyond simply having to attain power in order to beat the Bad Guy for its own sake; thus, some fans thought this was an artificial privileging of Goku’s position as Main Character against the general drift of where the story ‘ought’ to go. But really, bearing the foregoing in mind, the story goes exactly where it ought to because of the substructural elements that all point to Goku’s centrality – both the ‘Level 2’ reading, where the character arc follows Goku’s path to surpassing the Gods, which naturally plays him off against Moro, who is a villain who takes so much in his conception and activity from the last character who served as a foil for this in Goku’s story (Piccolo), and the ‘Level 3’ reading, which presumes upon the patterns and progression of Goku’s own story to work out the resolution to this arc, and shows up Goku’s core changelessness in so doing (which is highlighted by Piccolo in 超 #61). And this plays him off directly and naturally against Moro again, because Moro too is changeless at heart, and we get a dynamic of an unstoppable force meeting an immoveable object, which is the most fundamentally natural confrontation that I can think runs in this arc: Goku doesn’t change inwardly, only outwardly, Moro doesn’t change inwardly, only outwardly, and so the way they interact has to go to the same bitter end that Goku’s opposition to Piccolo Daimao went, despite Goku’s own (unchanging) attempt to begin to divert Moro to the alternative Piccolo path of redemption, by sparing him in 超 #65 and showing him the deficiency of his character and approach. I find this, too, effective, and all the more so when you bring the other two main characters – Vegeta and Merus – back into the picture, as they are the two characters who exemplify Change, both within and without (Vegeta the former, Merus the latter by way of the former), as these two play off against this clash by demonstrating the ways in which Goku’s changelessness induces change in others, but that this change also gives Goku something he can’t achieve on his own. That, too, is a pervasive pattern of his own story.
    The motifs of Change and Changelessness, governed as they are by the themes of Stealing, Earning and Giving and the wider structural drift of Facing the Past, Forging the Future also intersect with the motif introduced by Vegeta’s interaction with the Yardratians – another strong point of the arc, even in the pervasive slowness of the Second Act – in the principle that Where the Spirit Leads, the Body Follows. The arc hammers on this motif again and again with every outside change, particularly in Moro and the relentless drive of his own incorrigible Spirit to steal ever more ‘Spirit’ (ki), which forms and re-forms his exterior, until the sheer corrupting, insatiable influence of his Spirit drives him beyond the point where it is tenable anymore, and his body manifests this grotesquely until he quite literally destroys himself: his eyes being bigger than his stomach, he Steals ever less digestible prizes, and his inability to Change ruins him: which is why there is no Future for him. Contrast this with Merus in particular, whose Spirit aligns with the lodestar that is Goku’s Changelessness, such that when he uses his own Divine Spirit (ki) it leads him to erasure, but the virtuous nature of his Spirit, and his Change, portends another Change that opens the way to a Future of fulfilment for Merus. While Vegeta doesn’t change outwardly, he is brought further into balance between his Body and Spirit (ki), as shown in 超 #55, which is one manifestation of a broader push by Vegeta to balance his Spirit, and which shows that the main thing that has being holding Vegeta back is…Vegeta. The Granolah arc will build further on the good work done here. And, of course, all of these themes and motifs fuse into a single, satisfying unit in resolving the arc.
    So I think all of the theme-work and structural work used to tell the story in the Moro arc, particularly the Final Act, is actually stellar – cleverer and more pervasive even than the Tournament of Power, though one gets the sense that the themes and motifs lead the characters at times, rather than the characters leading the themes, which is what the Tournament of Power arc still has over its bigger, unwieldier ‘partner’. But once those pieces are in place, and are actually being used in the momentum of the arc’s climactic Act, all of the good work tumbles out richly and dynamically for all to see, and I genuinely think that that stuff specifically may well be the best stuff Toyotarou has done yet. So while the flaws of the Moro arc are too glaring and pervasive to let me conclude that as a whole it is anything like Dragon Ball Super’s best, its good features are the best features of the series up to this point. Perhaps that’s why the arc is so divisive among the fandom: there’s plenty that isn’t up to scratch, and this less-good stuff has an outsized position in the arc that makes it impossible to ignore (hence the negative judgement given by so many), but there’s also a clean cut-through that uses a very clever and satisfying set of patterns and interactions that is ultimately both a ‘Love Letter’ to the original series and yet something of its own which is presented, at its heights, more strongly than the previous arcs, as it unites with the key features of the conflict at hand – and so I see the contrasting judgement by fans that it’s the best arc yet. I guess it depends on what features come out strongest for each reader.
    The presumption of the fandom (and the implication by Toyotarou himself, arguably) is that Toyotarou took a bigger role in fashioning this arc than he did in previous arcs. If so, I think this demonstrates the work of a generally talented storyteller, who nevertheless needs more guidance to refine his sensibilities and present a more polished and even product. In that vein, I should make a comment on the art: Toyotarou has by this point drawn around 170 ‘old-money’ Chapters-worth of manga for this series now, and I’m really surprised to look at the difference between his output now and back, say, in the ordinary scenes of the Future Trunks arc – it has come a long way. We don’t have quite as much information on how Toriyama reviews and corrects his art anymore (we see a couple of panels of Son Goku from early in 超 #64, but that’s all), but I get the impression that Toyotarou’s work continues to be more refined and confident than it was. There are some things he still could do to progress further, such as cutting out shots that are logical but not necessary to our comprehension (as mentioned of 超 #61), but the wealth of strong design work where it matters (i.e, not the Bandit Brigade or the other mooks), such as Moro’s original and OG73-I conceptions, or Merus’s slightly bishy, slightly out-of-place retro-futurist look, and the strong and creative work in most of the Chapters, show how he’s developed as an artist; much the same view could be taken of his development as a storyteller – strong groundwork, excellent features, and a pervasive genuineness in its presentation, but requiring more development to polish, tighten, and excise where necessary. I hope Toyotarou still has more room to grow as one of the principal storytellers of Dragon Ball.
Well, I hope y'all enjoyed Re-reading along with me. Obviously, this is where it ends, for the foreseeable future, as the Granolah arc is still ongoing. Figure I'll try to pull together some overall observations on the series to date at some point (maybe?) - but that's all the Re-reading that'll be done for a good long time. By me, at any rate. Maybe I'll work on something else, or drift freely for a bit.

But really, the beauty of Re-reads is that they never end - you can always go back to the material and find something new. So if y'all want to repeat the process and do a Re-Read for Dragon Ball Super yourselves, the thread is at your disposal. So, over to you, then - What did you get out of your Re-Read..?

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Koitsukai
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Re: The Super Re-Read

Post by Koitsukai » Fri Mar 26, 2021 5:26 pm

Forgot to drop my two cents on part 1 of the grand finale. Better do that before reading part 2.

I never had a problem with the senzu bean scene. It served to showcase how far Goku has gone and that everything was covered, he was so much stronger than the strongest ever, that he tried to "understand" him, it felt like he was trying to reform him, and he knew he could put him in his place if he had to. I feel that he knew he was so out of Moro's league that just killing him, even though he knew the kind of bastard he was, that he needed one more confirmation to really squash that bug. Sort of like "are you really going to force me to kill you?".
No matter how dumb it might have been, the whole scene worked fine. It was a red herring, I guess, from a leaked-page POV, it had nothing to do with Moro getting back in the game. So, I wonder why people still complain about it.

What I did not like was Moro getting served breaks one after the other. I think it was a little weak how he got ahold of the truth behind Merus. The blatant exposition from Goku seemed too spoonfed to me, when Moro could've just connected the dots, "this guy moves just as Merus before him, could it be...? what if the hand I lost... ?". I'm not a fan of unnecessary exposition, like Granolah telling the Elec gang that he's running out of time because so and so.

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Koitsukai
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Re: The Super Re-Read

Post by Koitsukai » Fri Mar 26, 2021 5:44 pm

I really liked Merus coming back to life. He's not getting a free pass or anything like that, he now has ningen obligations, he now has to eat and sleep daily to survive, he is now vulnerable -assuming he no longer possesses any degree of UI- he was demoted from angel to human, like Lucifer. Hardly a consequence-less event.

Beerus playing with Zeno made laugh so hard. Zeno really hits it home for me.

I do think it was a missed chance the whole Daikaioshin coming back and Shin being left out of everything for like 20 chapters, just to be there to "save" Merus. His magic or psychic abilities might be a better word, could've been also useful in the beginning of the arc when it was his magic that made Moro so dangerous. I mean, if he was willing to give his life and Beerus', then joining the fight wouldn't be that crazy. Besides, I love when Beerus chastises him, and he'd definitely do it if Shin went to fight Moro. That would be another way to make Beerus get off his lazy ass, have Shin be on the frontline... let's see if Beerus keeps on fishing calmly when Shin is putting their lives at risk.
But he didn't HAVE to fight to chime in, just by paying close attention to the situation, when Goku needed divine ki, Shin would've been more than useful as well.
But anyway, I really wanted some panel of the two kaioshin meeting once again, even if only for a goodbye.

EDIT: I'll definitely miss this thread. It's great work and a pleasure to read.

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Aim
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Re: The Super Re-Read, #1 (Chs. 1-4 & Bonus Ch. 1)

Post by Aim » Sat Mar 27, 2021 9:25 am

Matches Malone wrote: Sun Aug 16, 2020 8:20 am I think going with a shorter version was the right call, as the movie remains the superior version, so trying to retell the whole story would be pointless. It's a shame the anime didn't take this road as well. The downside to this though is that it doesn't function as a full story, but rather a recap to get people ready for what's to come. I am happy they skipped the following 2 movies though.
What happened to matches malone?

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LoganForkHands73
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Re: The Super Re-Read, #1 (Chs. 1-4 & Bonus Ch. 1)

Post by LoganForkHands73 » Sat Mar 27, 2021 9:58 am

Aim wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 9:25 am
Matches Malone wrote: Sun Aug 16, 2020 8:20 am I think going with a shorter version was the right call, as the movie remains the superior version, so trying to retell the whole story would be pointless. It's a shame the anime didn't take this road as well. The downside to this though is that it doesn't function as a full story, but rather a recap to get people ready for what's to come. I am happy they skipped the following 2 movies though.
What happened to matches malone?
He was acting salty in another thread and eventually degenerated into transphobia. I would say I'll miss his incessant "BOG is the only good piece of modern Dragon Ball" spiel... but I won't.

Anywho, wow... can't believe this thread's over. It doesn't seem that long ago that we were on the Hakaishin Beerus arc, now we're already done with the Moro arc. It's been a hell of a ride. Ponta, as always, fantastic work mate, looking forward to seeing what's in store for the future. I have to admit though, the analysis on the Moro arc has been so thorough and holistic it's become a little overwhelming for me to contribute much to the conversation (I've forgotten where the whole 'Level 1-3 structural reference' thing began, but that's on my lack of paid attention :lol: ), but I have been staying tuned the whole time, trust.

In any case, to keep it brief, the last few chapters of the Moro arc, in isolation, represent Toyotaro's absolute peak in my opinion. I say "in isolation", because I'm never going to deny that the rest of the arc was waffy at best. I know many consider his zenith to have came around the Tournament of Power arc, but the art and overall direction just went to the next level.

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