The Goku and Vegeta Formula in Super

[BWri]

When Super was first announced in April of 2015, I was led astray that it will be giving the Non-Saiyans some time to shine as opposed to DBZ's biggest flaw. I was surely wrong.

Spoiler:

I want to drop out of the franchise because of this "Goku and Vegeta show" format. It's boring af.

That's the crazy thing, they tease Piccolo so much. That's what kept me glued early on. Look at all of Super's promo material and you see that Piccolo is always featured prominently just behind Goku and Vegeta.

Spoiler:

He's been one of the earliest character reveals for both the Broly movie and DBS: Super Hero. And yet he barely got scraps of anything until the Moro arc and the ToP in the anime. Pure lunacy!

[Nistarkail]

I've always kind of had a problem with Super, particularly with the two most recent arcs, but I've never been able to articulate why. Then while I was l was listening to the Team Four Star review of the Super manga arcs, and it hit me: Most of the Super arcs kinda feel the same in their usage of Goku and Vegeta, to me at least.

The basic formula is: Goku fights the main antagonist but loses. Vegeta fights and looks dominant (sometimes with a new power) but ultimately doesn't win. Somewhere in there other characters fight but don't even come close to beating the main antagonist. Goku comes back to try again (usually with some kind of new power), and usually doesn't get a definitive win but the Earth ends up safe.

You can say I am oversimplifying the stories of Super, but I think that sums up the vast majority of fights in Super, both manga and anime. Sometimes events are in a different order, but those 4 elements are in pretty much every arc. And it all began with Battle of Gods.

Battle of Gods: Goku loses to Beerus>The other fighters in the Dragon Team try but get beaten up by Beerus>Vegeta gets his enraged power up and looks strong for a minute but still loses to Beerus>Goku gets the Super Saiyan God transformation but still can't beat Beerus, but the Earth ends up being safe.

Resurrection F: Gohan gets beaten up by Freeza>Goku shows up with the new Super Saiyan Blue transformation but still gets hurt during the fight with Freeza>Vegeta shows off his new transformation and looks dominant but doesn't win because Freeza blows up the planet>Goku returns to the fight to kill Freeza.

Universe 6: Goku fights the Universe 6 team but loses because of the poison>Piccolo fights Frost but doesn't win>Vegeta looks dominant against Universe 6 but doesn't win against Hit>Goku returns to the fight (and in the anime uses a new transformation) but still doesn't win against Hit, but the Earth ends up being safe.

Future Trunks and Universal Survival: I'll be honest there are so many different fights in these arcs across the anime and manga, I can't really keep track of them. If anyone knows if they follow the formula, please let me know.

Broly: Vegeta fights and looks dominant against Broly, but still loses>Goku fights Broly but doesn't win>Freeza is forced to fight and gets beaten up hard by Broly>Goku and Vegeta return to the fight as Gogeta and win but they don't manage the kill Broly.

Galactic Patrol Prisoner: This one sticks out because so many of the above elements are repeated. Vegeta looks dominant against Moro but still loses>Goku tries to fight but loses>The Grand Supreme Kai tries to fight but loses>The heroes escape.
Goku fights Moro with his Ultra Instinct Sign ability but can't win>Vegeta looks dominant with his fission ability but still loses>Merus tries but disappears before he can bear Moro>Goku finally masters Ultra Instinct, but still can't win so he needs the help of the others to save the day.

Granolah the Survivor: Admittedly, this arc is still going but it definitely has a couple of the elements. Goku fights Granolah but loses>Vegeta looks dominant with his new Ultra Ego, but still loses>Gas fights Granolah.

Dragon Ball Z definitely had a problematic formula with Goku (For some reason can't fight>Fights>repeat), but with Super it sticks out so much more, because at the very least other characters are around to do something. Super is usually just Goku and Vegeta, with an occasional guest star party member. I'm not pointing this out to dissuade someone from liking Super, I'm just pointing out that it seems to have developed a formula for how the arcs play out.

In my honest opinion, I think you're quite right. Goku and Vegeta were so strong and prone to acquire new powers because they are gifted Saiyans, but both of them are not so tactic even if experienced.

But summarizing all the events of DBZ, it seems that characters like Frieza Piccolo, Roshi, Tien and Krillin were technically more surprising than the main characters. They invented alone a lot of techniques or pattern attacks, while Goku and Vegeta time by time got only few techniques like Instant transmission, Genkidama or Ki absorbition.

It was not random that the same Moro mocked Vegeta when puts him K.O. with the Big Bang Attack, which basically it's just a concentrated ki-blast attack.



I wonder if Toyotaro sometimes has the intention to go beyond his mentor or no. At least, in this two chapters we are assisting to a fight between cheaters, but even them are more interesting than Goku and Vegeta.

[omaro34]

i've been saying this for years now. it's my biggest complaint of Super. You have such a large cast, and they're rarely ever used. It's tiring seeing Goku and Vegeta fight a baddie, get new transformations, rinse and repeat.

My other complaint about Super is being stuck in this 10 year time era before the 28th tournament, but the Goku/Vegeta pairing worn out its welcome for me years ago. It's why I'm not closely following the manga (i still read it), but not at the level I used to.