Dragon Ball Super Ep. 66 Thoughts

The official title of this episode is "The Climactic Battle! The Miraculous Power Of A Relentless Warrior!". With the preview we saw last week, pretty much everyone was convinced that the title refers to Vegito being the one that would ultimately defeat the Merged Zamasu. NOBODY could've foreseen that the episode title doesn't actually refer to Vegito himself.

It was Trunks.

Shocking at it is, it's what we saw in the episode. In spite of the grand power Vegito has as a Super Saiyan Blue, it was not enough to defeat Zamasu. Instead, it was Trunks who was given the spotlight to finish him off.

Before we get to that, some context of the whole episode to fully understand how it lead us to this.

First off, the concept of Battle Power itself (Power Levels), and the scaling of it, throw it away. I mean it. This episode without a doubt has ditched away power scaling completely. Truth be told, throwing away the power scaling was already evident last week or so, but this one was very much visible.

 

The discarding of power scaling in Dragon Ball Super was evident at the start of the episode when Goku's Kamehameha defeated Zamasu's Holy Wrath and causing actual physical damage on Zamasu (or so it seems, more on that later). This is in spite that

a) Vegeta trained in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and ended up so powerful he destroyed the place.

and b), during Vegeta's period of training, Goku didn't really do anything other than to learn the Mafuba. Even via the Zenkai Boost, Goku should not have given such a huge output of power in that short period of time without training, and against Zamasu of all things, which took the combined effort of Trunks and Vegeta's Galick Gun to overthrow the Holy Wrath.....at a smaller scale. Zamasu used a much larger and stronger Holy Wrath against Goku and the latter pierced it with a full power Kamehameha.

I've asked those who are more deep into the Dragon Ball lore regarding if Vegito's power as a Super Saiyan Blue would surpass Beerus. As in-universe the claim goes that Beerus can destroy all of Universe 7 if he were to unleash his full power. Should Vegito indeed be stronger than Beerus, then Vegito, at his highest level as a Super Saiyan Blue, would be evident of that in his fight against Zamasu.

Goku is supposed to be "capable of creating shockwaves that shatter parts of the cosmos", right? As Vegito, he could've done that and more. But the scenery doesn't lie. The way he beats up Zamasu doesn't cause any kind of severe collateral damage on Earth, let alone the cosmos.

On the subject of Vegito, the concept of Potara Fusion is given a retcon just so the fusion can end at a certain point. According to Gowasu, non-deities who use the Potara Fusion can only sustain it for one hour (double the time compared to using the Fusion Dance), and adding further that using a Power-Up such as the Super Saiyan Blue form would decrease the fusion's time limit at a much faster rate.

And in spite of taking all the punches, kicks, Final Kamehamehas, and even stabbed by a Ki Blade, Zamasu is still alive and kicking and showing no signs of being weakened, even with a deformed body. Given Zamasu as a Kai, he should've noticed the enormous power Vegito gives out as a Super Saiyan Blue, but is left unconcerned with it. One can say part of that is because Zamasu is immortal, thus the huge power surge from Vegito doesn't intimidate him. In fact Zamasu can go toe-to-toe with Vegito.

Let's go back to Zamasu's deformed half, which came about after Zamasu took damage from Goku's Kamehameha. Apparently, that wasn't the cause. As Gowasu explains, Zamasu's deformity was but a physical representation of Zamasu's emotions - his rage and confusion towards the behavior of mortals. This huge surge of emotion has consumed Zamasu as a person, leading to the character we see now. Not because Zamasu got hit by the Kamehameha, or that Goku Black is mortal and thus Zamasu's Potara Fusion was unstable. Now remember Gowasu's explanation of Zamasu's emotions because it is a huge factor that ultimately leads to Zamasu's downfall.

And we go with the man of the hour - Trunks. His unwavering determination to bring hope to the people of Earth and to defeat Zamasu allowed him to fight Zamasu, Goku Black, and the Merged Zamasu - all three being stronger and more skilled at fighting than he is. That determination blossomed when Trunks turned his broken sword into his own Ki Blade, and everyone, including Goku and Vegeta, gave their energy to Trunks, in effect creating Trunks's own version of the Genkidama (Spirit Bomb), but infused into the Ki Blade. For the sake of this review, I will refer to this as the "Spirit Blade".

Remember Zamasu's emotions from earlier? What defeated him was not just a combined collection of Ki from everyone on Earth, who we can say aren't anywhere near Zamasu's level. Instead, it was the hope of every survivor that overpower Zamasu's rage. That emotion, "Hope", is what ultimately led to Zamasu's defeat. Light defeats the Darkness.

If it sounds familiar to you, it's the same reason how Kid Buu was defeated via Goku's Genkidama back in Dragon Ball Z. The Genkidama contained the positive energies of everyone collected, which counteracts the negative energies that Buu possessed. As Toriyama explained in an interview from 2014, Buu continuously absorbed the evil elements of mankind before he was summoned by Bibbidi. Goku's Genkidama cleansed Buu of all the negative energy, allowing him to be reborn as Uub with a pure heart.

The same can be said with regards to Omega Shenron in Dragon Ball GT, as he is the embodiment of all the negative energy that powers the Dark Dragon Balls. By creating a Genkidama that came from everyone throughout the universe, it wasn't just the most powerful version of the Spirit Bomb, like the fight against Buu, it also contained the positive energy that counteracts the negative powers of Omega Shenron, leading to his demise. This also allowed the Dragon Balls to return to its original state. 

Some would cry Deus Ex Machina here, as Trunks never learned anything similar to the Spirit Bomb, so there was no way he could come up with the Spirit Blade in such a short time. But as we see throughout this arc, Future Trunks is a totally different person from Kid Trunks of the Prime Timeline. Kid Trunks didn't suffer from the tragedies the Future Trunks experienced in the latter's history. This affects Future Trunks's philosophy, which in turn, affects his strength in his timeline compared to the Prime one. It's also important to know that Future Trunks is well-known as a hero of Earth in his timeline, whereas the Z Fighters in the Prime Timeline remain complete unknowns and that timeline's Earth still sees Mr. Satan (Hercule) as their savior. Trunks's fame as a hero of his Earth and a beacon of hope play a factor in the latter forming the Spirit Blade.

Deus Ex Machina or not, the battle with Zamasu ended not in the way most Dragon Ball fans anticipated. Personally, I wouldn't have it any other way, and Trunks truly deserves it, given all his remarkable efforts in this arc, in spite of the odds stacked against him. This is also the first time in Dragon Ball Super, and the second time throughout the history of the Dragon Ball TV anime, where Goku steps aside and lets another person be the protagonist. And for those still not happy about Trunks taking the spotlight, consider this - it is now possible that in a future arc, Goku will once again step aside and let Vegeta be the protagonist, for once.

I forgot to mention as well that there is virtually NO animation errors in this episode, and the majority of the fight scenes are done with incredible animation. Toei really blew the budget to make this climactic battle as good as it gets. Definitely far better than Goku vs Hit, or against Golden Frieza.

I will miss Future Trunks (or shall we call him "Miracle" Trunks now?) at the end of this arc. But given that Shueisha plans to keep the franchise going even after Dragon Ball Super ends, it's possible Trunks can return, possibly in a spin-off series all his own.