So after 14 episodes, the Universe 6 Arc in Dragon Ball Super has finally ended. Now if you happen to be a diehard Dragon Ball fan, you'd say you have a blast with it. The story, the characters, the fights, most especially the fights. Personally, not so much.
Yes, the fight between Goku and Hit is one of the best in the series and in this arc, as it featured another character that can outclass Goku. No doubt what Goku can do at this point adds to his layer of arsenals in the never ending debate between him and Superman. Be that as it may, the fight between Goku and Hit is the ONLY thing good about this entire tournament between Team Beerus and Team Champa!
This whole tournament and how it plays out displays the very fundanmental problem of Dragon Ball in general because of its endless cycle of using the Power-Up Trope - to defeat a strong enemy, the protagonist must become stronger; for the protagonist to be challenged, the next enemy must be even more stronger; rinse and repeat. It'll eventually reach a point where the protagonist is just way too powerful that he or she becomes a very dull character.
How can you make a good story of a character that is virtually unbeatable? There's just no tension, no struggle, no interest, no fun. How would you feel if you played a game like Dark Souls 3 for the very first time, but with a cheat code that takes you directly to the final boss with infinite health and kills the boss with one hit? It's extreme, but you get the idea.
It was the same problem Superman was having during the Golden Age era of comics, as he was just too powerful that it was hard to make any interesting stories of him. That is until Kryptonite was introduced in the late 1940's. You get a more interesting story with all the tension and struggle when an overpowered character has an Achilles' heel.
Goku and Vegeta, unfortunately, don't have such an Achilles's heel. So in the case of the tournament for control of Earth and the Super Dragon Balls, the rules are made so that Team Champa has a fighting chance to win. I hate to use metaphors in this, but watching the entire tournament up until Hit enters the ring is like watching WWE's Triple H putting the World Championship belt against a jobber as the main event match in Wrestlemania.
Indeed, Botamo, Frost, Magetta, and Cabe are simply too weak against Goku and Vegeta in terms of raw power. While the narrative gives these characters something that would compensate for their lack of power, in an attempt to make the fights more interesting, it was poorly executed and still gives off as totally one-sided in favor of Goku and Vegeta. They even tried to make Piccolo have his moment, but he really didn't do much. Another disappointment as Super never bothered giving the other characters any time to develop and just focused mainly on Goku and Vegeta.
The arc also had a very lame excuse for not getting Gohan involved, despite the fact that Videl and Pan were among the spectators, leaving Gohan all his lonesome back on Earth. I would find it more interesting for Gohan to be part of the tournament as his nerfed form means he really has to push it against anyone from Team Champa.
And then there's the subject of Zen'o, or the Omni-King or the King of Everything. According to Beerus, he is capable of destroying all the 12 universes in a blink of an eye. Though we can suspect Beerus is exaggerating that claim, given his character, how he explains things regarding Monaka, and how he behaves when he made his wish with the Super Dragon Balls. Still, some fans have come to claim the Omni-King as the most powerful in all of anime fiction capable of destroying any universe with a whim.
I would disagree on that. Besides the suspicion that Beerus may have exaggerated the claim, if the Omni-King is really that powerful, why the need for guards to protect him then? Furthermore the context of Beerus's statement only said he can destroy the 12 universes, but at no point does it imply the Omni-King's power extends beyond those 12. In other words, the King of Everything cannot destroy every multiverse in fictional history as its beyond the scope of its own fiction that is Dragon Ball. The Omni-King cannot, for example destroy the world of Harry Potter, as it's simply not possible and I don't think J.K. Rowling is gonna be happy about that, either.
Aside from the Hit fight, there are some other good bits. Beerus really isn't that bad of a guy. Ok, he's still the God of Destruction and is very indiscriminate of which he blows up, but he does have a soft side. Cabe looks up to Vegeta the same way Genos does to Saitama in One Punch Man. And I like the idea of a future tournament that involves all the 12 universes. So there is still hope that at least one of the other 10 universes is where Dragon Ball GT happened. Or in my personal taste, an alternate version of Goku and Bulma as a married couple.
The next few episodes of Dragon Ball Super will have Goku and the gang live their everyday lives on Earth before the start of the next major arc, whatever that may be.
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