The Storm That is Approaching, The Legendary Dark Slayer: Vergil!

 

Perhaps you were expecting something a bit more horror-themed for a Halloween post, but it is said that on this night nothing is more feared than the Devil. According to myth, All Hallows Eve is when the human and spirit world are the closest, a night where the worlds of the living and the dead are merged. And tonight, I will introduce you to the Devil who has brought Hell itself to the world of the living.

 

Let us now Bury the Light, as I show you this Devil’s power.

 

Power.

 

Power cannot be declared as absolute if there are none to challenge it. To truly prove your might, it must be tested. Every hero, every villain in the vastness of fiction and beyond must be challenged, lest they never improve and remain stagnant. There is always a devil that must drive you, a demon that is your reason. 

 

Thus: The rival. And it is arguable that none other than Vergil better suits the trope of the rival character, and Devil May Cry fans everywhere can attest to that statement. 

 

 

I realize that this is a bold claim, but I wouldn’t say it if I weren’t able to back it up. It is well put in the video above, but essentially Dante and Vergil are the modern personification of the Red Oni/Blue Oni dichotomy in Japanese culture. One is more passionate, emotional and extraverted, where the other is logical, cold, and introverted. Neither is inherently good or evil as the Red Oni or Blue Oni can be personified in essentially any set of characters, and is as simple or as complex as it needs to be throughout fiction, yet this concept is explored and delved deep into throughout the entire DMC series, and is perhaps the best example we have in modern media.

 

Vergil IS motivation.

 

Background

 

 

Two millennia before the events of DMC1, the Dark Lord Mundus ruled over the human realm. He ruled unopposed until he released the Qliphoth, the great Hell Tree, whose roots fed on the humans as its trunk and branches spread downward into Hell, and allowing demons from the darkest depths to overrun humanity. One of Mundus’ own knights, Sparda, found this abhorrent even by a demon’s standards and opposed him, defeating him and sealing off every gate to Hell, allowing the humans to thrive in peace for many generations and the demons to fight freely amongst themselves.

 

Later, he fell in love with a human woman named Eva. Little is known about their life with one another, other than the fact they sired offspring.

 

 

Kid Dante and Vergil are so cute, oml

Sparda entrusted his first-born son with the weapon Yamato, the key to the demon world that separates it from the living. But unbeknownst to them, Eva was having twins, two beings who were originally one. Sparda gave his second son Rebellion, a broadsword that could counter the Yamato just in case one stepped out of line to keep the two in check, in addition to carrying its own secret power that would not be fully realized until many years later. He also hid away the Force Edge, and gave his two sons one half of a matching amulet with their mother’s portrait inside, which when combined with the Force Edge will transform into the Devil Sword Sparda, a manifestation of his power either brother could call upon should the need arise.

 

Although being born on the same day, the two boys were named Vergil and Dante respectively, after the figures from the Divine Comedy, as Vergil being the elder of the brothers would be Dante’s guide through life. Where Dante was more athletic, outspoken and active, Vergil mostly stayed reserved and calm, practicing the arts and delving into literature, particularly taking a liking to poetry and classical music. He stayed mostly secluded to himself, taking the responsibility of keeping the human and demonic and human worlds separate very seriously, always studying and perfecting his arts and musical ability. Dante would often take his things and play with him, goading him into fighting back for them, with Dante too naive to understand how important it was for him and just wanted his brother to play with and spend time with him.

This rivalry never extended beyond childish innocence, until tragedy struck when the boys turned eight years old. While Vergil was playing outside, Mundus launched an attack on Sparda’s family in an act of revenge. Eva hid Dante away and frantically went looking for Vergil, but unfortunately perished when she was cornered by the demons. With Sparda mysteriously gone and nowhere to be seen, Vergil could only watch helplessly as his house burned down and presumably his entire family were killed.

 

This experience traumatized Vergil tremendously on both a psychological and emotional level. He blamed himself for the death of his family, knowing that if he were as strong as his father, he could have protected them. This would be the catalyst that drove Vergil’s insatiable lust for power, as he never wanted to feel weak and helpless ever again, and would never stop gaining more power at any cost. He was of course relieved to later find his brother alive, but what immediately stricken with heartbreak at the fact that Eva protected Dante instead, his stubbornness and inferiority complex leading him to believe she left him behind because he wasn’t good enough or as loved as Dante.

 

Dante on the other hand resented their father because he wasn’t there to protect them or their mother, thus rejecting his demonic heritage, a fact that Vergil finds abhorrent. In his own dark way not quite what his parents or name intended, he would guide Dante by attempting to force his ideology onto him and through battle drawing out the power within him, as it is the only way he knows how to communicate his feelings and bond with him.

 

Prior to the events of DMC3, Vergil traveled to Fortuna City, a religious commune that worshipped Sparda. He originally arrived seeking a form of power from the town’s Hellgates, but found a woman who was fascinated with him due to being Sparda’s son. Infatuation and idolization blossomed into love, and the two spent a period of time with one another. She was able to calm his zeal and lust for power, and Vergil saw himself becoming more peaceful and contained as he fought the demons there. He could not allow himself to be held back, so he bid her farewell and left the city, unknowingly leaving her pregnant with his child.

 

 

In his travels, he met a man named Arkham, who shared the same ambitions as Vergil, and had a plan to achieve it. He lead Vergil to the Temin-Ni-Gru, a tower that tunneled into Hell itself. It was there that one could undo the seal Sparda placed, step into Hell, and obtain the Force Edge as well as Sparda’s power. It was not a question of if Arkham would betray Vergil, but when, that much was obvious. But in his pride he believed he would get there first, and that Arkham was incapable of doing anything to harm him.

 

But Vergil didn’t account for Arkham’s craftiness. He lead Dante to the Temin-Ni-Gru, who at first stood no chance against Vergil. But as Vergil made his way to the chamber to perform the ritual to unseal the portal, Arkham disguised himself as Jester and lead Dante through the tower, allowing him to gain new weapons, abilities and powers as well as master his newly acquired Devil Trigger form. He left behind proverbial breadcrumbs that guided Dante to the chamber with Vergil. Arkham told Vergil that Sparda’s blood would be enough to undo the seal, leaving out a key detail so that Vergil would attempt to use more of Dante’s to break the seal, allowing them both to wear each other down and spill enough of each other’s blood so they’d be too weak to interfere with his next action. He also lead his daughter Lady into the chamber and used her virgin blood as the final missing piece, then taking the Force Edge for himself and unleashing Hell upon the world.

 

 

But being a human, Arkham couldn’t handle the power contained in his body and transformed into a hideous mass of flesh. Dante and Vergil teamed up and defeated him together, leaving behind the Force Edge and the two amulets. Vergil attempted to grab all three but Dante grabbed his half of the amulet. Vergil needed the other half of the amulet in addition to the Force Edge to obtain their father’s power, but Dante wasn’t going to give it over willingly. The two fought for the fate of humanity, as well as their own.

 

 

With Dante emerging the clear winner, Vergil allowed Dante to keep his half of the amulet and told him that the portal to the human world was closing soon if he wanted to leave, but he was staying because it was their father’s home.

 

In Hell, Vergil encountered the Demon Emperor Mundus himself and attempted to kill him. Vergil failed spectacularly, and Yamato was broken in half. As if the humiliating defeat at the hands of his own family’s killer wasn’t suffering enough, the demon lord possessed Vergil, making him his own dark knight and servant, Nelo Angelo, meaning literally “Black Angel” in Italian. Mundus then created Trish, a demon in the image of Dante’s mother, to lure him to Mallet Island, where Sparda sealed Mundus. Dante was then forced to kill Vergil (rather, he thought he was dead, at the time) and then used the two amulets to awaken Force Edge as the Devil Sword Sparda, then defeated Mundus.

 

Over a decade and a half later, Fortuna City grew and changed under its new religious leader, Sanctus. Under his mandate, harmless studies of demonology and theology turned into outright obsession and lust for power. He rose knights in his service, he subjected themselves to demonic energies becoming demons disguised as angels. He called them the Order of the Sword. The Order collected demonic artifacts, such as fragments from Nelo Angelo’s armor and body, forming the Bianco and Alto Angelos, possessed armor powered by fragments of Vergil’s essence. They also recovered the halves of Yamato, later found and restored by the youngest of their members, Nero. It appeared that he had his own latent demonic power without undergoing their “Ascension” ceremonies. 

 

Nero later met up with Dante, and the two took down the Order together, defeating demons and destroying the Hellgates along the way. Dante let Nero keep Yamato after he knew he could trust him with it and knew it was in good hands. Dante then returned to his demon-hunting business and all was peaceful for a while. 

 

Unbeknownst to everyone including the Order and Dante, Vergil was still alive. After being defeated over a decade ago as Nelo Angelo and recovering from his corruption, in addition to all the damage he took in the past, his regenerative abilities finally began reaching its limit, though Vergil held on through sheer force of will, as he was focused on a singular mission. He had one option left to stay alive, but he needed the Yamato to do it. Some time after DMC4, Vergil could sense that Yamato had been taken. He tracked its energy to the source and encountered Nero, taking his arm as it housed Yamato, reclaiming it as his own. He then used Yamato’s innate ability to separate in order to remove the humanity from his body, soul, and mind. He rejected all of his former trauma and memories and placed them into the new human being, no longer held back by anything, he was power absolute.

 

Vergil’s inner conflict was now unleashed externally for the rest of the world to share his suffering. Technically, the two new beings born from the split had no name, since even though they were born from Vergil, they were separate. His human side called himself V, and with the trace amounts of demonic blood left in his veins coupled with the demonic familiars spawned by Vergil’s mind, he delayed the demon’s invasion of the human realm for a few months before he sought out the help of the others. The new human took Vergil’s book, the Complete Works of William Blake, because it was the only thing Vergil left behind in their old home, and called himself V after the initial that was engraved on the front cover. 

 

V had fully realized the gravity of what Vergil had done when this demon released the Qliphoth, the same tree their own parents’ killer released millennia ago. He named the demon Urizen when he explained to Dante “this demon is your reason”, which is also a muti-layered reference to William Blake’s poems. One might scoff at the notion that these silly character action games can actually have such depth to them, but the DMC series has always been full of references to classic literature and poetry, particularly epic poetry. In Blake’s Works, “The name Urizen comes from the English poet William Blake's mythology. Urizen is a godlike being and the embodiment of conventional reason and law. Urizen never actually uses the name himself: rather, it is assigned to him by V, reflecting the latter's fondness for Blake's poetry, with the demonic half of Vergil embodying the literal Urizen as a being of godlike strength and supreme logic, divorced entirely from human consciousness and compassion, who believes in power over all else. Urizen's name is derived from the words "Your reason", which is used by V himself to describe the demon to Dante in the flashback shown in Mission 9. It is also based on the Greek word meaning "to limit", which ironically reflects Urizen, who was the result of Vergil's attempt to grow stronger through becoming a full demon, but had his potential limited without his humanity alongside it.” The Poison Tree, another poem by William Blake, is also referenced and mirrors the Qliphoth, it tells a cautionary story of how anger, if left to fester and grow, can cause misery to oneself and others.

 

The Qliphoth grew as its roots fed on the blood of humanity, as Urizen connected himself to the roots feeding it directly into himself. V, Dante, Nero, Lady and Trish all went to the Qliphoth to face off against Urizen but failed miserably. Dante was knocked out and Lady and Trish were captured and drained to power Urizen. V and Nero held off what they could of the invasion as the roots spread for a month. It wasn’t until Dante’s unconscious body was located and he unlocked the true power of the Rebellion that Urizen could be challenged. Urizen retreated after detaching from the roots, traveling to the Qliphoth’s peak to wait for the remaining blood to form a richly dense fruit. Dante tracked him down and Urizen ate the fruit, with Dante yet again defeating him. V approached his weakened body and merged with him, recreating a newly formed Vergil, with all the memories and shared experiences of both of his counterparts. He moved to the upper roots of the Qliphoth, waiting for Dante to rest and recuperate before challenging him again for one last battle, which depending on the outcome would decide his atonement. Dante revealed that Vergil was his father, and that Dante didn’t want him involved because killing was a burden he didn’t want him to bear. The two nearly killed each other, until Nero, who was raised in a foster home and believed that family was the most important thing, refused either of them to die and prevented their final attack by awakening his Devil Trigger. Nero defeated Vergil and convinced him to help him stop the demons. Nero being the victor, Vergil agreed to his request. He went to Hell to sever the Qliphoth from the human world, but he would be trapped in Hell. Dante elected to go with him, not only to make sure he doesn’t try anything, but also so he wouldn’t suffer alone again like the first time he left him in Hell. The two now fight forever in Hell as Nero protects the human world.

Arsenal

 

Yamato

 

A legendary sword so powerful it can rend the fabric of space and time between dimensions. It can be used to cut open portals between the human and demon worlds. Its wielder can also 'store' the kinetic energy created by its slashes within enemies or virtually anywhere in space, then release it at any given time. Usually this is done by sheathing the blade after attacks are performed, though this is mostly done for visual flair as Vergil can choose for his opponents to be affected by his attacks at any time.

 

Beowulf

 

A pair of combat boots and gauntlets obtained after Vergil killed the demon of the same name. The weapons emit an angelic light that is especially effective against demons and dark-based enemies.

 

Force Edge 

 

A weapon that I believe shouldn't be included in Vergil's arsenal in vs matches, as he hasn't used it in 20+ years and it since has turned into the Devil Sword Sparda and combined with Rebellion to form the Dante sword. However, he does have it in the Marvel vs Capcom games and Project X Zone as his weapons he is portrayed with outside the series, so it's here just for completion's sake. 

Force Edge can create long distance slashes and sword beams similar to Rebellion and Yamato, and Vergil can mimic all of Dante's moves with it, in addition to dual-wielding it with Yamato. When combined with Dante and Vergil's amulets, it becomes the Devil Sword Sparda, which allows the user to manifest Sparda’s power. Though given both Dante and Vergil have long since surpassed him, it's pretty much tertiary at this point. 

 

Mirage Edge

 

It seems not even bloggers are safe from the Death Battle curse, as in the recently released DMC5 DLC gameplay trailers for Vergil, he can now use a large Summoned Sword (see abilities), essentially a psychic projection of the lost Force Edge that he can use to replicate the moveset he had with it in DMC3. He can also use it to create frozen cuts in the space around him that damage enemies as they pass through them.

Abilities 

 

 

Superhuman Physicality and Survivability 

Dante and Vergil can stay in peak physical condition regardless of diet or other health choices, and are unaffected by extreme temperatures. Dante in DMC5 survived isolated in a comatose state with no form of sustenance for over 3 months, and likely had to survive longer in Hell between DMC2 and 4.

 

Superhuman Senses

The Sons of Sparda have heightened sight, hearing, and olfactory senses, in addition to being able to sense energy metaphysically, including energy specific to certain beings to tell who they are and how close they are to them.

 

Energy Projection/Tactile Telekinesis 

The brothers can use their demonic energy to alter the physical properties of objects they touch or pass their energy through. Dante prior to DMC3 was unintentionally breaking all his guns by projecting his energy through them without realizing until he had Ebony and Ivory custom made to withstand it. He can also alter probability, the durability of objects, and their trajectory to an extent, evident as he can flip a pool table, shoot the cue ball, and cause all the other balls to ricochet off one another to kill enemies in the room. Likewise, Vergil can also control objects in a similar fashion, mainly through the weapons he wields. Most notably, with a move called Round Trip, he can telekinetically control his weapons to float through the air and attack enemies. Vergil himself can also cut bullets from the air as if they were sushi, and fling the pieces back at the same speed and energy they were fired.

 

Regeneration 

Vergil has super-regenerative abilities thanks to his demonic heritage. He can shrug off being impaled, and he can heal fast enough to regen as Dante’s swords pass through his body. He regenerated from his body exploding in DMC1, though that seems to be the limit of his regen as he was left in a weakened state.

 

Teleportation 

Sort of self-explanatory. Vergil has the ability to teleport.

 

Summoned Swords 

 

Psychic projections of Vergil's energy that function as his primary projectile attack. Can be summoned effectively anywhere, and can be used to give an extra layer of defenses around himself or surround his enemy with them.

 

Dimension Cut

 

Vergil seemingly dematerializes and the battlefield is filled with countless rapid slashes.

 

Judgment Cut

 

Vergil releases pockets of energy containing stored cuts created from Yamato. Anyone touched by these is damaged with all the cuts within the sphere.

 

Judgment Cut End

 

Vergil creates a field of distorted time-space around him with the energy of Yamato. Anyone caught within this field is effectively frozen in time. Vergil performs an untraceable rapid flurry of cuts, and the victims caught within are inflicted by all cuts at once when time resumes.

 

Devil Trigger 

 

Vergil embraces his demonic heritage and releases his pure demon form. In DT, Vergil has increased speed, strength, durability, gains modifications and amplification to all his weapons and attacks, and his healing is accelerated. DMC5 showcases that DT can spontaneously regrow lost limbs. 

 

Sin Devil Trigger

 

The fully realized potential of both brother's respective power, far surpassing their own father in strength. In Sin Devil Trigger, they gain unparalleled destructive attack power as well as new abilities in addition to enhanced energy projection and time-space manipulation, able to freeze and slow time and open portals in enemies. He also gains wings and the ability to fly.

 

Doppelganger 

 

An ability Vergil gained by taking Nero's demonic arm. Vergil can create psionically-projected copies of himself equal to his own power.

 

Psychic Projections 

 

Vergil can use Yamato to split into V and Urizen, the former of which can summon and control demonic familiars that are manifestations of Vergil's grief and trauma. They are made of a viscous substance and can be manipulated and formed into any shape. Vergil can then willingly merge them back into himself.

Vergil can also use the same viscous material to create constructs in his base form.

 

Hax Resistance 

Both brothers have showcased resistance against life drain and soul hax, in addition to possession and mind control. Vergil was once mind controlled by Mundus, although this was when he was much weaker in terms of continuity and Mundus was unable to do the same against DMC1 Dante, suggesting that currently Vergil wouldn't be as affected by it, if at all.

 

Willpower

Held himself together despite his body literally falling apart through the time between DMC1 and 5 through sheer force of will and perseverance. 

 

Feats and Scaling

 

 

https://youtu.be/BB6XPMdzzpY?t=222

(3:42)

Vergil effortlessly cuts bullets out of the air. Must exceed supersonic speeds as most bullets travel around Mach 2.

 

 

https://youtu.be/0oE0xINtcfM?t=35

(0:38)

Vergil can deflect missiles that are fired at him at close range. Missiles irl travel anywhere between Mach 3-15. 

 

https://youtu.be/UEkmsMLJ2dc

Vergil one-shots the demon Beowulf and proceeds to kick his corpse several feet into the air and kick him in half.

 

https://youtu.be/k-9Pq09NrOg

Although perhaps unquantifiable, Vergil life drains countless people and allows the Qliphoth to grow up into the upper troposphere from their blood and life energy.

 

https://youtu.be/ZSi5_pxauG0?t=204

After Dante defeats Mundus, Mallet Island is destroyed. Vergil survives this despite being blown up previously.

 

https://shadesblogs.blogspot.com/2019/03/devil-may-cry-verse-analysis.html

Vergil and Dante sever the Qliphoth, a feat capping out at about 16 Megatons. (Follow link for full calc)

 

https://devilmaycry.fandom.com/wiki/Urizen

According to background in-game text, Urizen after eating the Qliphoth Fruit was strong enough to “shake the foundations of the world”.

 

Scaling

It stands to reason that because Dante and Vergil are twins and have most of the same abilities, they should be able to perform the same or similar feats. That being said, I should plainly lay down the terminology I’m going to be using here.

DMC3 is a prequel. In the beginning of DMC3, Dante has obvious superhuman showings, yet Vergil is clearly far stronger. In the first fight, Dante loses. In the second fight, it’s a stalemate. And finally, the third fight Dante wins. If I say something like “Post-DMC3” or “Pre-DMC3”, this is what I’m referring to. DMC1 takes place after this, where Vergil becomes Nelo Angelo and stalemates Dante until being defeated by him. He then returns years later in DMC5 as Urizen and one-shots Dante until he returns with Sin Devil Trigger and beats him back. Urizen then eats the Qliphoth fruit and gains a tremendous power boost but is still defeated. Then V arrives and he reforms into Vergil, at this point he is equal to Dante. The terms I will use are “Pre-Qliphoth” and “Post-Qliphoth Fruit Vergil”.

Essentially, the scaling goes like this:

Pre-DMC3 Dante<Pre-DMC3 Vergil<DMC3 Vergil<Post-DMC3 Dante<DMC1 Vergil (Nelo Angelo)<DMC1 Dante<DMC2 Dante<DMC4 Dante< Pre-Qliphoth Vergil (Urizen)<Post-Qliphoth Urizen<Sin Devil Trigger Dante=DMC5 Devil Trigger Nero=Post-Qliphoth Vergil/Sin Devil Trigger Vergil

 

Hopefully that’s not too complicated to follow. That said…

 

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bOC-hsRjip0/hqdefault.jpg

 Morrison remarks how easily lower tier characters like Lady can dodge bullets.

 

https://youtu.be/izHK3dAjf8o

 Dante considers Lady and Trish the "most badass women in the world" and he only knows one other guy that can defeat them (in this context, that guy being Vergil).

 

https://youtu.be/led2jJyATHg

There are multiple showings of DMC characters reacting to lightning, including DMC4 Dante reacting to the demon Blitz who can manifest and travel as natural cloud-to-ground lightning, which can exceed speeds of Mach 300,000. Vergil can also block Dante’s lightning-based attacks in DMC1.

 

https://youtu.be/Si0JnSlG-7s

DMC4 Nero matches physical strength with gigantic MCB-town level demons and tosses them around.

 

https://www.outskirtsbattledomewiki.com/index.php/14-fiction-profiles/909-devil-may-cry

DMC4 demons such as Echidna and Baal can manipulate the weather of forests and Fortuna Castle, which the OBD Wiki considers about Town level.

 

https://youtu.be/mkmzCLvRaSc

With that in mind, Vergil tosses Nero, ripping off his arm in the process, despite his body degrading and being in a weakened state.

 

Abigail in the DMC anime causes continental could dispersal and illumination. Post-DMC1 Dante defeats him by going Devil Trigger.

 

Urizen and Post-Qliphoth Vergil are portrayed as leaps and bounds ahead of this feat, though by an unspecified amount.

 

The Luce, one of Sin Devil Trigger Dante's moves are stated to be able to "raze the Earth".

 

Overview

 

+Continental DC and Dura, possibly higher

+High end Massively Hypersonic, near sub-relativistic

+Teleportation

+Regen

+Can open portals

+Space-time hax

+Doppelganger, psychic projections, and splitting himself can essentially make it a 6 on 1 fight against his opponent

+Can TK his weapons

+Beowulf super effective against dark types

+Plenty of long range and melee options

+Has amazing theme music in every game he appears in

 

-It is possible for his opponent to kill V and his familiars if he splits

-Vergil can be tricked, but only with enough prep, and it’s unlikely he’d fall for the same tactics Arkham employed

-Has been possessed/mind controlled before, but has likely built up his resistance to it

-His healing can be overtaxed if fighting an opponent who can compete with him in a war of attrition

-Still is only playable in Special Edition rereleases 

-The hot garbage that was his characterization in the reboot

 

Suggested Opponents

 

Sesshomaru

Sesh also embodies the Blue Oni archetype, perhaps more literally than Vergil. Prior to DMC5, this was my most wanted match for Vergil and was pretty even. Now, I’m not so sure since apparently his best feat is a small mountain bust and that has no business measuring up to a continental, potentially multi-continental opponent.

 

Doomguy

 

I just can’t stop putting this guy in fight suggestions, can I? He’s also a continental Dark Slayer in his own right, with plenty of ranged options and and melee weapons that can deal with Vergil’s. Doomguy’s ability to absorb demon blood is an interesting factor to look into, and he can definitely make Vergil bleed.

 

Sasuke Uchiha

 

Honestly not my preferred pick. Embodies the Blue Oni archetype in his series and the fight is relatively even, with Saucy having a small DC/Dura advantage with Vergil having plenty of hax to deal with him. It is also suggested that another opponent for Vergil could be his brother, Itachi.

 

Darth Vader

 

Probably the best opponent for Vergil. Thematically, They are both powerful entities warped into Black Knights by the main antagonist, only to be later defeated and redeemed by their sons. In terms of the matchup, it honestly depends whether you consider planet level scaling from KotoR and the EU Clone Wars comics as legit (as well as how literally you take the "Raze the Earth" in-game text from the DMC5 menu). Without it, it’s even in terms of stats and there’s plenty of hax at play for the two to deal with one another. With it, Vader stomps.

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Well, that just about does it for this one. If this Halloween Special wasn’t spooky enough for you, perhaps the next VS blog will suit your tastes…

 

 VS

 

In the meantime, I am Hero’s Shade and I’ll see you all next time!

Shade's Thoughts on Dragonball Super

 

I’m back again! It’s been tough keeping up with college lately, but I finally have a day off! With this opportunity, I’ve decided to write something I’ve been deliberating on for a while now. You’ve probably seen me express my disdain for Dragonball Super before, but it’s not too often that I actually get to discuss the high points, because there are actually a lot of redeeming factors, it’s what you would call a mixed bag. A pretty bizarre one at that, the lows are so frustrating they make you want to pull your hair out, and the highs are tremendously high, an emotional roller coaster keeping you at the edge of your seat in excitement. There’s no in-between. It’s like going to a buffet with dry, day old food innefectually kept warm with heat lamps and could potentially give you food poisoning, and delicious, freshly cooked food with no indication of which is which until you give it a try (A metaphor that I’m sure Goku would appreciate). It’s worst is worse than GT’s worst, yet its best completely blows anything that GT has to offer out of the water by a longshot.

 

Apparently, this is due to TOIE staff having different writers and animators handle their own batches of episodes, for better or for worse. And when a glaringly obvious few of them had absurd budget and time restraints, well… hindsight is 2020.

 

Most reviews go over each individual arc in order and discuss what parts they liked and didn’t like, but here I’m just going to bring up the points that stuck out the most for me. This isn’t a full review, just a general overview of my thoughts and opinions regarding the show and what stuck out for me the most.

 

The First Few Episodes

 

A lot of people seem to have a problem with the show’s filler episodes, but it’s my personal opinion that these are when the show shines through the most. Dragonball has always taken advantage of its filler to further develop its characters and have genuinely fun and charming moments with them (Let’s just forget the whole Ginyu Bulma frog thing happened). The action-packed fight scenes are what made Dragonball popular, but it’s these character interactions that show you what they are protecting when they defend their planet or universe. It shows you what’s at stake, and creates additional tension in these fights beyond just the presentation and visual flair.

In the first couple episodes, Vegeta follows up on his promise to Trunks in the Buu Saga and takes him and Bulma on a family vacation. You can tell that the only person who isn’t enjoying himself is Vegeta, but he puts up with it so his family can have a good time. Bulma catches on and gives him permission to leave and do what he wants, and Trunks thanks him for spending as much time with them as he did.

Meanwhile, Goku is spending some quality time with Goten teaching him how to farm, while sneaking some sparring in with him in a cute “Don’t tell mom” moment. Hercule then appears, with a large sum of money he received as a reward for defeating both Cell and Buu, but decides to give it to Goku instead because he still feels guilty for taking credit for beating them. Goku gives Hercule some credit saying it was still brave of him to even be there and do what he did, but Hercule just can’t keep the money in good conscience, saying it belongs to him and his family because it was Gohan and Goku who beat them respectively. In a hilarious moment Goten abrubtly says “Dad, just take the money.” Goku reluctantly takes the money home to an overjoyed Chi Chi who uses half of it to pay for Gohan’s continued education and house for him and Videl and saves up the rest. Both Goku and Vegeta getting a reprieve from their wives to do whatever they want, naturally they train, setting up where they begin for the Battle of Gods movie, which is a nice way of bridging the gap between the Buu arc and Battle of Gods.

There’s also a filler episode where Goten and Trunks look for a present to buy Videl which a lot of fans think takes away from the action and I get it, but I’m all for sweet and cute moments like this.

 

Battle of Gods

 

Battle of Gods aka Kami to Kami is technically the first canon Dragonball Z movie (not including the Bardock and Trunks TV Specials), and the first new official Dragonball story in over 15 years. It is also the last Dragonball Z piece of media, signifying and ushering in a new era of Dragonball.

Let me just get to the point. Beerus is an incredible inclusion to Dragonball lore. Whenever a new antagonist is introduced in Z, there are two big elephants in the room: The power escalation needed to maintain tension as a tired formula, and if it’s a threat that existed this whole time it’s difficult to work it into the plot in a way that doesn’t devalue the tension in previous arcs. Luckily, the concept of Beerus rectifies both of these issues in a pretty intelligent way. We have encountered many deities in Dragonball from Kami to the Kais, but Beerus is a god who is tied to the existence of the universe itself, a being who slumbers for thousands of years and awakens to destroy. Not due to evil or some vengeful backstory, but because it is in his very nature to destroy in order to preserve balance.

It is also hinted that the Elder Kai was sealed in the Z-Sword by a powerful entity that turns out to be Beerus in BoG, and you can retroactively connect Beerus to a lot of plot points like that, so you don’t have to suspend your disbelief all that much.

Whenever Beerus is around, it’s like a ticking time bomb. You never know what’s going to set him off, as he will destroy anyone who annoys him indiscriminately. It’s a dangerous game for both heroes and villains. This a double-edged sword which I’ll address later.

There’s also an incredible moment where Bulma runs up and slaps Beerus, and Beerus slaps her back. Vegeta then goes absolutely insane on Beerus, actually able to land some solid hits on him in just Super Saiyan 2.

And then there’s Super Saiyan God. I have mixed feelings about this form. On one hand, it really doesn’t live up to the hype in terms of appearance. It’s essentially just base form with red hair. It’s like the color gold was already taken for the initial Super Saiyan so they used another color. I remember seeing the trailers for it, where it showed Goku turning into a Great Ape and Beerus looking shocked, so fans were speculating that it would be some canon variation of Super Saiyan 4, or at least some sort of homage to it, so upon just seeing this in the movie I was honestly pretty disappointed. On the other hand, the way it is presented and animated in the fight soon after made me immediately forgive that.

While this is technically a Z movie and not Super, there are arcs that retell the events of these movies. While I do appreciate this as fans maybe didn’t have the time to see the movies can catch up on all relavent plot points, they’re essentially poorly animated and drawn out versions of the films. You can skip over them and just watch the movies, you won’t miss anything important unless you’re doing research and need to see all the feats and moves.

 

Resurrection F

 

Resurrection F was the first red flag for what the rest of Super was going to be like. There are a lot of moments where you really have to just turn your brain off and just enjoy what’s being played out on screen. And Super asks a LOT from its audience to do that. Luckily, it doesn’t get much worse than Resurrection F’s dumbest plot point… emphasis on much.

Sigh… upon being resurrected, Freeza obtains a new level of power along with a new transformation that rivals a Super Saiyan God. By training for six months.

 

But Shade it actually makes sense because Freeza is a prodigy and never trained bef-

Yeah, no. I call BS on that. Freeza got the absolute fight of his life on Namek. He was forced to utilize every tactic, every technique, every trick up his sleeve just to stay on top and survive against the Z-Fighters, transforming and pulling out all the stops by going 100%. Also being familiar with each of his forms and describing the advantages and power levels of each implies that he was forced to utilize these forms before. He even outright mentions training with his father, saying Goku is the first person to give him a decent fight since sparring with him. This is in both the anime and the manga.

If you really needed to bring a classic Dragonball villain back, just make it Resurrection Cell. The whole “I trained to get stronger” thing would make way more sense due to his Saiyan DNA and ability to get Zenkai boosts. Imagine him training this whole time in Hell to actually be a formidable threat again. Sure, you’d need to come up with a reason for him getting out of Hell, like say Dr Gero had a backup lab or something and he remotely controlled androids to bring him back with the Dragonballs in place of the remnants of Freeza’s army, but it’d still be way more forgivable than the mess we have here.

I feel like the only reason Freeza is back is because Toriyama enjoys writing him. And I can respect that, but I just feel like it’s unnecessary.

That being said, this is still a fun movie. I really appreciate how each of the non-Saiyan characters each get their own time to shine fighting against Freeza’s forces. A lot of time is also spent on focusing on Vegeta, which, as a Vegeta fan, I can always appreciate.

 

And then… Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan. Good lord, what a name. Thankfully it was shortened to just Super Saiyan Blue. It’s essentially just Goku and Vegeta going Super Saiyan with godly ki rather than their own natural ki. An interesting concept, but I have the same problems with it as I do SSG. There are plenty of jokes among fans where they refer to these as “Raspberry and Blueberry Goku” because its just like different ice cream flavors of forms we’ve seen before. That aside, I was hoping that in the anime adaptation we’d get more about this transformation and how Goku and Vegeta achieved it. More on that later…

The most redeeming quality of this movie is Beerus, who just happens to have taken a break from his nap to get some snacks on Earth. As I mentioned before, having Beerus around when he’s not the main antagonist is a double-edged sword. It adds tension, but at the same time taking away tension from the current situation and placing it on him instead. This is also a trend that occurs throughout Super. Whenever a powerful character shows up, someone says something along the lines of “This guy might be even stronger than Beerus!” only to really rectify that later by making him retroactively stronger than that character so that he remains significant. This is more the fault of TOEI’s writers having no idea how strong these characters are and having no idea how scaling works, but its consistently an issue with Beerus. I feel like this is unnecessary as it makes his fight against Super Saiyan God Goku less significant if Beerus was that much stronger the whole time. Like if Beerus was really using 70% power in BoG Goku would have far surpassed him when going Kaioken X20 in Super Saiyan Blue, but that’s not the case. And he still would be a terrifying threat with his energy nullification and Hakai alone so it’s not really needed to keep buffing him up like that, but I’m getting off topic here.

There’s not much to gain from the anime adaptation of this movie other than Ginyu returning, finally allowing Vegeta to have killed every member of the Ginyu Force, if you really wanted closure on that.

 

But it’s really not worth it cconsidering the bad animation and egregious treatment of Gohan, who struggles to turn into a Super Saiyan and then passes out. This is further absurd considering this isn’t that far from BoG where Gohan was in his Ultimate form. Like, apparently training for six months makes you a god but if you’re not constantly training you become more useless than Yamcha?

Crap like this is the reason gags like these exist in One Punch Man:

 

Whis Training Mini-arc

A mini-arc that bridges the gaps between BoG and RoF. I don’t have many things to say about this arc other than it’s fairly balanced with both comedic and serious moments.

Vegeta post-BoG wants to learn how to tap into Godly ki and attain new levels of power, so he asks for Whis to instruct him with the same training regimen he gave Beerus. Whis agrees, but only on the condition that Vegeta will become the next God of Destruction if something happens to Beerus. (I’ll admit the idea of God of Destruction Vegeta made me squee when I first heard it). Finally! We get to see the training necessary to achieve Super Saiyan Blue aaannnnd…. It’s all offscreen. Seriously? This is something that was hinted at in Resurrection F that we never got to see until now and it’s all offscreen?

Ok, technically they do show the God training. When Goku arrives on Beerus’s world, he can tell that Vegeta is stronger than him and has a new form. And listen, I’m absolutely ecstatic that Vegeta FINALLY gets the new form before Goku does (I don’t think Super Vegeta counts), but you could have at least shown a flashback of him achieving it for the first time. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

Also, Goku is only there because he childishly hitched a ride on Whis’s staff as he was going back and despite Goku never promising anything like Vegeta did it’s more like “Well, you’re already here so might as well train you too or you’ll never shut up about it.”

Overall though, it’s still a pretty enjoyable mini-arc and like I said before, I appreciate the character interactions.

 

Universe 6/Hit Mini-arc

Again, not much to say about this one.

I don’t care for Champa, the God of Destruction of Universe 6 who’s just Beerus’s fat twin brother. Out of the other Gods of Destruction, much like the Shadow Dragons in GT, only a handful of them are really cool and interesting, but we don’t really get to see them until later.

Anyway, Beerus and Champa host a tournament to decide which of their universes has the strongest fighters. I feel most tournament arcs are hit or miss so I wasn’t too excited about this one. There are some good moments here and there, mainly this one:

Goku encounters Hit in the tournament, a professional hitman, hence the name. He’s used to sniping his targets with compressed air blasts from his fists, not a one-on-one tourney where he is restricted from killing, so he is clearly out of his element but quickly adapts to Goku’s fighting techniques. Goku can tell he’s not at his best though so after the tournament, he uses a portion of Mr. Satan’s prize money to put a bounty on his own head, and Whis and his sister Vados allow Hit to enter Universe 7 to collect.

 

This time Hit has the advantage. The fight is nice and all but… I’m just gonna let TFS handle this one:

 

Goku Black/Zamasu Arc

 

I will not mince words here. I would rather watch the worst episodes of GT and Bio-Broly back to back than sit through this ungodly horrendous slog of an arc again. The less said about it the better because while there are some annoying things sprinkled throughout the rest of the arcs, this is the worst offender and talking about it actively upsets me.

Just to set the mood, you remember Future Trunks right? His backstory was already very depressing and bleak to begin with, but it worked with the overall tone and storytelling Toriyama was going for in the Cyborg/Cell arc. An arc that was brought to a close in a nice little satisfying package. But this time we return to the Future Trunks timeline, where he and his new girlfriend Mai are scrounging around for food struggling to survive and haven’t had a meal in so long that they are delighted to find a can of dog food. This… is unnecessarily depressing and is a stark contrast to the lighthearted and fun tones the series is known for (Not to mention it really doesn’t make sense timeline-wise and Mai shouldn’t be an adult because she wished for eternal youth in Battle of Gods, and she shouldn’t even be in the same timeline as Future Trunks anyway…. There is SO MUCH to unpack here). And as if Trunks hadn’t gone through enough turmoil in that timeline already, Bulma is killed by an evil version of Goku. I wish I was making this up. And look, I am not unopposed to Dragonball being dark and emotional, hell I just praised the Cell Saga for being dark and just wait until later to see what else I really liked, but it really doesn’t feel earned here. It’s just draining and almost too bleak to take seriously.

Now, it turns out that it isn’t actually Goku, it’s just an evil Kai named Zamasu from another universe who saw Goku fight in the Universe 6 Tournament and decided to take his body to use his power to kill all mortals because reasons. Now, we do get a flashback where he taught by his elder Gawasu about the duties of a Kai and shows him a primitive world where tribal beings are violent towards one another. And that’s about all we get. He sees a bunch of cavemen beat each other up and decides all mortals must die. Everyone talks about how disappointing Jiren’s backstory is, but I’d go as far as saying this is worse. They try and present it in a way that’s like Galaxia from Sailor Moon, where he sees himself as grande and above the sins of lesser mortal creatures, but all they really accomplish is making him seem like an edgy teen who just found out about nihilism on the internet. Goku Black/Zamasu’s biggest defenders have pointed to how he has a cool design and like how he acts high and mighty, but honestly, with all due respect I really don’t see it. He’s just a grimacing Goku with a Dark Jedi robe when he’s Goku Black and a green weirdo edgy teen when he’s Zamasu. Now, I can understand liking villains who present themselves well, but I really don’t see that in Zamasu. Freeza and Cell are entertaining and give captivating speeches and deliver insults that cut deep due to their relations with the other characters, but whenever Zamasu gives one of his speeches I just find him insufferable and can’t wait for him to shut up already.

Totally Not Mark actually brings up really good points when comparing GT to Super, and brings up that Baby from GT is actually a far better villain that fits the trope surprisingly well and has a much more compelling motivational backstory that fits the overall themes of the show far better.

I wish I could say the action is what saves this arc, but it’s honestly just one asspull after another with some poorly handled fanservices in between. It’s almost saved with the reintroduction of the Mafuba, a sealing technique that was used to seal away Piccolo way back in OG Dragonball. It was refreshing to see it come back, but it’s botched because whoopsie-doodles, Goku is an idiot and forgot to put the lid on. Way to go, champ.

A lot of really stupid moments like this happen and it’s already old the first time. Vegito also shows up along with a retcon of how the Potaro worked originally (making the Fusion Dance entirely pointless considering they basically have no setback, and completely ruins the consequence of having to fuse permanently), which is pointless since the original explanation of Buu’s magic in his innards overriding the magic of the earrings worked perfectly fine, and they could have just used the Dragonballs to unfuze afterwards like Kibito and Surpreme Kai did.

And apparently SSB Vegito wasn’t enough but Trunks with a Spirit Bomb (because he can do that now?) from like six people is… but then Zamasu becomes the sky or something?

But it’s all okay! Because Goku had a literal win button in his pocket the entire time, he can summon Zenoh the Ominiking to erase the universe, making this entire horrible arc pointless.

 

This arc hurts me and I’d really like to stop talking about it now.

 

The Tournament of Power

 

Now we’re talking. This is where the overall production quality and energy of the show ramps up. The Opening theme of the anime also changes to encapsulate how much better things are going to get. The ending of the previous opening theme promised “something coming not so far away” and now we get a new energetic theme that’s pumped full of excitement.

The Tournament of Power is an adrenaline-packed spectacle where fighters from all 12 universes gather their strongest warriors to compete in a free-for-all, with the survival of each universe at stake (Let’s just sweep under the rug how they got to that point for now…).

Each universe has fighters all with varying degrees of power, meaning each one can have a fair fight with each of the characters, with each member of the Z-Fighters getting their own dedicated fights against the various competitors of the tournament. I really enjoyed seeing Piccolo, Tien, Krillin and 17 and 18 fighting opponents of their caliber, giving proper respect and moments to shine for each one. Even Master Roshi gets to go ham and it’s incredible.

But what makes this arc even better is that Super redeems its past transgressions with Gohan by giving him his Ultimate form back, even more powered up now that he’s sparred with his dad (and Goku too). Even better, they make Gohan the team captain of Universe 7. At first Gohan suggests that Piccolo lead, but Gohan has grown far from the little boy who depended on others and is his own man now, so everyone agrees on Gohan being the captain, which was a legitimately great moment for the characters.

Now, the ToP is far from the perfect arc. It definitely has its ups and downs, most namely r63 Broly and Jiren’s lackluster backstory. But I feel like the upsides far outweigh the downsides.

 

Which brings me to…

 

 

Ultra Instinct

Something like Ultra Instinct is precisely what I wanted when I heard about Super Saiyan God. I use the word “perfect” sparingly, but I truly believe that Ultra Instinct is the perfect transformation (the funny thing is it’s technically not a transformation, but rather a state of mind and body) in the entirety of Dragonball.

It doesn’t come out of nowhere like the God transformations. The best way to present a new form or technique is with proper foreshadowing and buildup. It’s something that Whis has been hinting at since Resurrection F, where he says that if Goku or Vegeta would stop thinking and focus solely on the movement of one’s body, they could eliminate the delay between each of their attacks and could become virtually unstoppable, and can arguably even be traced further back to Battle of Gods where Goku moves his body instinctively in response to Beerus’s movements after his God form wears off. They clearly took notes from Goku’s initial Super Saiyan transformation and the buildup in the Freeza saga, he even gets his outfit damaged in the exact same way which I thought was a nice touch.

In martial arts this state of mind is referred to as Yomi, the act of using pure muscle memory to react accordingly to an opponent’s movements. In the Japanese version, Ultra Instinct is referred to as Makatte no Gokui, or Mastery of Self-Movement. Every time Goku activates Ultra Instinct it’s an absolute spectacle. There are only so many ways that anime can express speed, and somehow these episodes manage to keep it fresh.

One of my favorite moments is when Jiren is delivering a barrage of punches and Goku is seemingly just standing there tanking it. But then the camera zooms in on Goku’s arms vibrating, then suddenly the characters realize there are points of collision in Jiren’s shockwaves, meaning that Goku is actually countering each individual attack with one of his own, and not even the audience can see him move.

There are also several moments where it seems like Goku completely dissolves into pure energy, followed by Jiren getting hit by an invisible force and Goku reappearing in different places. It’s a unique and stunning effect that goes beyond the average Afterimage and a really creative way of showing the speed of Ultra Instinct.

What I also like about it is it’s unique to Goku’s base form and, also unlike the SSG forms, isn’t a Saiyan exclusive ability, meaning potentially even the human characters have a chance of competing with god-level threats if they discover how to tap into their own Ultra Instinct. We all know it’s not gonna happen, but it’s still an interesting thought.

It’s probably for the best though, since no one knows how to activate Ultra Instinct willingly as it can only be obtained, well, instinctively.

Oh yeah, there’s also this:

No words. Just wow.

Chills, man. Every time.

Dragonball Super: Broly

 

Oh man, I have been ITCHING to talk about this movie. It came out at about the right time I needed it too, just when I was really getting sick of Dragonball and no longer considered myself a fan of it.

When I heard there was going to be a new Dragonball movie with hand-drawn animation and I saw it for myself in the initial trailer, with it’s snappy and dynamic style that invoked classic Dragonball while still injecting something new into the franchise, I was excited.

Then… I found out it was a Broly movie. Hoo man my disappointment and aggravation was IMMENSE.

Broly as a character has always been a mouthpiece for the worst part of the Dragonball fanbase, the type who only come for the punching and screaming and little else, and style and no substance. Again, the divisiveness of the character and how he is handled is summed up well by Team Four Star:

 

But that was before I actually gave this movie a chance and was absolutely blown away. This character is not the same Broly from the original movies, this is Toriyama’s take on the character. I gave Toriyama a lot of crap but he can really pull through with great storytelling when pushed to do so.

If my words aren’t enough to convince you, then this will:

Broly in this movie is a far cry from what he was, for one thing his backstory and motivation actually has a lot of thought and emotion behind it, and actually makes sense. I am captivated by his character, and his story about Bah brings me to the verge of tears every time. It’s not often that Dragonball can tug at my heartstrings like that.

I have a lot of good things to say about this movie, and there are a TON of hype popoff moments, but my main takeaway was my favorite scene in the movie.

SPOILER WARNING if you still haven’t seen it yet.

 

So the basic plot of the movie is that after Freeza’s humiliating defeat at the hands of the Saiyans yet again, he stumbles across the remaining Saiyans Paragus and Broly, who were exiled to a remote planet by King Vegeta when he discovered that Broly’s power level as an infant exceeded his own son (which makes much more sense than the original movie where he attempted to kill Broly and Paragus because…reasons.). Broly is a tragic character that has always been feared or coveted due to his abnormally high power, was banished to survive in the wild by King Vegeta, was abused by his father because of it, and now is being pushed around by Freeza to do his bidding. In some ways, even Goku and Vegeta are somewhat guilty for pushing Broly because the former two want a worthy opponent to face, but Broly is only fighting because he is being forced to and just wants to be left alone. In this scene, Freeza has a moment of realization in the form of a flashback of what happened on Namek, and Kills Paragus to trigger Broly’s Super Saiyan transformation. This is truly a heartbreaking scene because it shows how much Broly loved his father despite their toxic relationship. This is also coupled with a feeling of relief for finally being free of his father, immediately followed by guilt and despair that he is unable to control the power bursting from within him as he being torn apart both emotionally and physically. This is complimented by the animation, stellar voice acting, and the incredible orchestral score Rage and Sorrow that captures Broly’s emotional turmoil during his Super Saiyan transformation perfectly, all while giving the original Super Saiyan form the grandiose and reverence it deserves. It also signifies the current dread and direness of the situation as Broly is losing control. It honestly reminds me of Worldbreaker/World War Hulk where the titular character is absolutely justified in his rampage, but must be stopped due to the innocent lives he is putting at risk.

All in all, it is a fantastic movie that is an absolute love letter to all aspects of the Dragonball franchise, even paying homage and tribute to the Latin American fanbase and the Funimation DBZ English dub in the soundtrack, as well as references and callbacks to other Dragonball movies and even GT. All of the cool, with none of the dumb. Here is a full review. I say this as someone with firsthand experience, If you haven’t seen this film because of your bitter feelings toward Super, you are SERIOUSLY missing out on something incredible. It’s an amazing ride from beginning to end and you only really need a surface level understanding of Dragonball since it goes over the main relevant plot points from the history of the Saiyans to now, you arguably only really need to see BoG prior to this to understand the God forms and who Beerus and Whis are, though it’s pretty easy to catch on with what we are told and shown. I only really have a couple big gripes in this film and they mostly have to do with the retcons, though the movie itself holds up on its own.

 

 

My reaction when someone kills DBS Broly in my Dragonball FighterZ team.

 

Welp, I am Hero’s Shade and hopefully that was a satisfactory overview on my general thoughts on the series as a whole. Catch you all later!