It's an interesting inversion, having the opponents acting more nobly than the protagonist. It works really well and the crowd even starts to resent Goku's attitude. Beerus and the Supreme Kai try to paint this as some underhanded tactic on Bergamo's part, but he's not wrong.
Where Goku was talked out of trying to convince the dual omni-kings to phase out that particular caveat regarding the tournament, Bergamo humbly asks that the duo remove the erasure rule. He does put in one qualifier, though: he has to beat Goku. I have to think that's what sold them on the deal, to which they surprisingly agree. Giving the fight some stakes makes it more exciting, yes? That seems to be what they're looking for first and foremost, so props to Bergamo for presenting it to them in that fashion. The fact that he said please and asked while down on one knee also showed no intent of impudence on his part.
Just to make sure there's no funny business, the high priest does go on to say that should Goku hold back or try to throw the match as a way to save lives, all of the universes will be erased.
Knowing Goku, he wouldn't hold back or allow himself to lose anyway (he even says as much,) but it does throw Goku fans a bone as you could argue that he's trying to prevent total annihilation as opposed to nigh-annihilation. Granted, it's clear that he's just looking to fight and doesn't seem to care about stakes or how others view his attitude, but it's another way of looking at it.
Speaking of fighting, the fight does eventually start with Bergamo and base form Goku holding at about an even keel. But things take an interesting turn when Bergamo pauses, extends his arms outward and tells Goku to stop trying to hit him and hit him as hard as the saiyan can.
It turns out that Bergamo can absorb hits and blasts to become bigger and stronger, hence his nickname "the crusher".
This makes for a somewhat difficult fight for Goku. Granted, we know that Goku's going to win as there's no way that the universal elimination would be phased out of the tournament before it even started, but at least it's somewhat compelling. Does it pale compared to the last two? A bit, but again, I thought it was adequately done.
Going super saiyan doesn't seem to do much good, but Goku goes blue and even throws the kaio-ken on top of that for good measure in order to create a kamehameha wave strong enough to...I guess overload Bergamo and knock him out.
It was nice to see the blue transformation get treated as a big deal again. That epic chanting music is brought back and we see the look of astonishment from the other gods as they see what mortal saiyans from one of the lesser universes are capable of doing. It brought back some of the majesty to godly ascension.
I'm surprised that Goku threw the kaio-ken on top of blue again. For one, I'm not sure how necessary it was. Bergamo wasn't quite Hit levels of difficult and it's also a risk, given how it messed with Goku the last time he did it. Maybe there's going to be some hiatus that would allow Goku time to recover..or maybe his training has allowed him to do that more easily; I don't know.
While Bergamo is defeated, he does get something of the last laugh as he swears that every fighter from every universe is going to be gunning for Goku now. Again, this is something of an inversion of standard formula. This isn't a villain swearing he'll come back again to defeat the hero or get vengeance, but a more noble character swearing that the (at least perceived) bad guy will eventually get his.
For Goku's part, his response is to essentially tell all of the universes to bring it. It's somewhat childish and face palm inducing, but at the same time, the way the scene was executed, it was an awesome moment for Goku. Even Gohan has a proud smile on his face while all of this is going on.
Just like the last episode did, this one has the high priest come in and lay down some more rules for the official tournament. Unlike the preliminaries, being knocked out of the ring will result in elimination. In fact, it's the only means of elimination. It's explicitly said that if someone is knocked out, another fighter has to toss them out of the ring in some fashion in order for the unconscious fighter to be removed from play.
On top of that, weapons outside of abilities aren't allowed, nor is killing....or flying for that matter. It seems like an odd decision, but Gohan does note that it adds an element of strategy. From a meta-perspective, it could be a way to hearken back to the Dragon Ball tournaments of old, before characters could zip around in the air. Then again, it does seem to negate earlier efforts to portray this tournament as something unlike anything we've seen before, so it's a bit of a double edged sword.
There's also a time limit that amounts to 48 minutes.
Oh, and rather than rounds, it's going to be one big battle royale. Yeah, 80 fighters going at it at once. Which ever team has the most fighters still standing at the end wins; or if there's only one fighter left, that universe wins. This means that teamwork is going to be essential. Characters talk as if Goku is incapable of working in a cooperative capacity, but he seemed to do pretty well working with both Vegeta and Future Trunks against Zamasu and Black. Maybe they're just underestimating him?
Either way, the fact that everyone is gunning for Goku will also become a bona fide problem, whether he wants to admit it or not. Remember, universes 7 and 9 were said to be two of the weaker ones out of the bunch.
I am starting to feel like the writers bit off more than they could chew with this story line. Were this "Z" with story arcs that went on for 40 to 50 episodes, they could have probably pulled it off to its fullest potential, but with Super's story arcs only going 20 episodes at most, it seems like they're having to undercut the premise as a way to fit within the allotted time frame.
I mean, first they eliminate four of the universes from the proceedings right off the bat, and now they're streamlining it into one big fight.
Now, this could work. There are a lot of elements that make this set up more interesting than the standard tournament bracket format we're used to, but at the same time, it also runs the risk of getting overcrowded. Maybe the chaos works to the tournament's advantage, but we'll have to see.
Rather than end the episode with the teams returning to their respective universes to train and further prepare for the tournament proper, Toppo, a being from universe 11 who has spent all of his screen time shrouded in a cloak, jumps down to the ring and challenges Goku. After removing said cloak, he announces himself as a champion for justice and wishes to see if Goku is evil or not. If so, Toppo intends to vanquish said evil. Goku is oddly not phased at the idea of being viewed as evil, but he's totally down for another fight, considering Bergamo wasn't up to the task. This makes for the episode cliffhanger as this unscheduled throw down is about to begin.
After two episodes centered on fighting, this one took a side step and decided to put the emphasis on character. The fight was OK, but we knew Goku was going to win. Even if it wasn't clear before, Bergamo's offer to the two Zeno's more or less sealed his fate. It wasn't a bad fight, but the die was cast right from the get go. It is a little strange that this, the last fight of the preliminaries between the two groups' strongest fighters ended up being the weakest of the three fights, but to be fair, those other two did set rather high bars.
The real meat of the episode comes from how Goku is portrayed and viewed from other characters. It's an interesting perspective, though fans of the character will likely feel ambivalent. Even taking Goku's selfishness into account, this heel turn can be seen as a bit of a stretch. It's going to be interesting to see how Funimation handles this given their more noble take on the character or even how this arc and show handle Goku from here on out.
If you check out the Midnight Screenings episode for "Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods", "Angry Jake" goes on a lengthy rant detailing how Goku is Superman's moral superior, given the fact that the latter has often been corrupted and twisted to become more malevolent. He argues, conversely, that Goku never has and never will suffer that fate. To be fair, he's basing his stance on the Funimation take which, oddly enough, was essentially Superman. You could say that, based on Toriyama's intended take on Goku's personality, he was just wrong, but I have to think that it falls under "hilarious in hindsight" at this point given that Goku has more or less become the villain of the story and endangered lives on a scale that could only be rivaled by the likes of the anti-monitor.
Maybe this will be a growing moment for Goku. He could see that the "fighting comes first" mentality doesn't work and start working to fight for things other than his own need for a challenge. I'm just spit balling, but it's an option.
This episode's fight was lackluster compared to what came before it, but this episode made up for it with some great character dynamics. They're really playing up Goku as the bad guy here. That was interesting on its own, but it also allowed Bergamo to shine as a character. While he wasn't formidable enough to take on the likes of Son Goku in a fight, he made for a fascinating character in his own right.
Alas, it's going to be two weeks before we see the Toppo vs. Goku showdown, but it has been a while since there was an off week. The animators could use the break. Either that or the next episode's fight is going to be one of the more kinetic ones. I guess we'll have to wait to see and find out.
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