Nevertheless, Jiren does acknowledge Vegeta as a warrior and tells him to sleep now. According to the universe 11 gods, this is actually a great show of respect and that Jiren is commending the saiyan prince for giving it his all in the fight. It sounded sincere from the way the lines were delivered, but the universe 7 spectators still view it as arrogant. Interestingly, I did find it to be very similar to what Vegeta said to Roshi right before he took himself out of the tournament. Maybe that just proves the point? I don't know.
In any event, this leaves Goku to fight the pride trooper by himself. Not surprisingly, Jiren continues to have the upper hand. You have to hand it to Goku, though, he used some pretty clever tricks to try and keep things level. The ki landmines were a unique tactic that we hadn't seen before. Sure, they don't really do any damage, but even Goku knew that the idea was to try and throw Jiren a curve in order to obtain even a slight opening.
Goku also takes a page from Krillin's playbook and uses a barrage of destructo discs, only to later reveal that he used them to cut the ground out from under his opponent. For those who didn't notice the callback, Krillin spells it out. Still, that moment of pride in seeing his own tactic in action was a nice boon for him.
Said tactic very nearly eliminates Jiren from the ring, but he is able to jump from one piece of debris to another enough for him to make it back into the ring.
This is the first of two close calls that universe 7 sees in the fight. Gohan and 17 come very close to eliminating Toppo, only for the pride trooper to avert the tactic at the last possible second. On the plus side, the failure means that 17 is still in the fight. He was planning to take Toppo out with him. It could have worked in universe 7's favor, but maybe they'll be able to come up with something more effective later.
It was interesting to see 17 point out that attempting to coordinate attacks was what was tripping them up. He rightly notes that they haven't fought together before, and as such can't coordinate as effectively, but I'm not sure what else Gohan was supposed to do. A similar idea comes up in the Jiren fight, but we'll get to that later.
As that goes on, it looks like Dyspo still has Frieza on the ropes. The rabbit-like pride trooper continues to zip around and slam the former tyrant into rocks with gusto and glee. Just when the universe 11 fighter asks if Frieza has had enough, the latter reveals that despite appearances, he hasn't really taken any damage. In fact, he wonders why Dyspo thought that such an attack would be enough to take him down.
It was a nice turn around moment, even the universe 11 spectators are caught off guard by the reveal. The fact that Frieza relishes the moment as much as he does makes it fun to watch.
Still, it's made clear that this is hardly going to be an easy win for Frieza. Sure, Dyspo's tactic didn't work, but Frieza still can't seem to hit the guy. It did somewhat undercut Frieza's boast, but it does keep things interesting.
The main attraction for the episode, however is the confrontation with Jiren. Even though Goku acknowledges how insanely strong Jiren is, he won't back down. Whether this is due to Goku's nature, his desire to protect his universe, or a little of both isn't made clear.
This is also where Vegeta re-enters the fray with a similar declaration. You'd think that the motivation would be a bit more clear cut with him, but we see that he's largely motivated by the desire to fulfill the promise he made to Cabba. It was a rather heartwarming moment.
This is followed by an awesome moment as Goku brings out the blue/kaio ken combo form. Vegeta, in turn, follows through on his vow to break his own limits in his own way with a power up of his own. It's not ultra instinct, but it does amaze viewers both in and out of universe. It looks like a mix of Gohan's ultimate mystic power and Blue. Much like Trunks' power up against Goku Black, we don't get an official name just yet. You could call it "ascended blue" or "super saiyan blue 2". It could also go the way of "Rage" (the aforementioned Trunks form) or "Berserk" (Kale's "legendary" form) and just have a descriptor for a title. We'll see.
Where the two saiyan's previous effort to fight Jiren proved futile, here it looks like they're actually able to put him on the ropes. I thought they were working well together before, but they do so much more effectively here. Even Krillin is amazed that the two are actually attacking Jiren at the same time.
I said before that coordination was said to be a detriment and that it would come up again. Sure enough, Whis points out that, despite appearances, Goku and Vegeta aren't really working together. In fact, this is what's tripping Jiren up. The fact that the two aren't in sync is making it hard to defend.
Considering how Jiren was still able to best Goku's blue/kaio-ken form, it's a little weird to see him unable to do so now. If Goku had gone back into ultra instinct, it might have made more sense. As it is, it seems like Jiren is slowly being nerfed as the tournament progresses. Vegeta does note that Jiren isn't fighting with all of his power yet, but it does seem like the fight is pushing him to that point.
Speaking of ultra instinct, there was a nice fake out where it looked like Goku was knocked unconscious and about to do it again, but he wakes up as himself. We do get another use of "ultimate battle". It's been long enough, I think that it didn't feel forced and it did augment the awesome sight of seeing the two uber-powered saiyans go on the offensive.
Where the last episode ended on a grim down note, this one ends significantly more triumphantly as it seems like the scales are tipping in universe 7's favor. Of course, there's still seven minutes left, so a lot can happen before fight's end. We'll just have to see how it plays out.
Overall, this was a very entertaining episode. While it would have been nice to see more of the other two fights, the Goku/Vegeta vs Jiren skirmish provided plenty of spectacle and excitement. We got several great highlight moments and a great power up sequence. What we saw of the other two fights was good and it looks like the next episode will give them more focus.
Click here to join our Patreon campaign
No comments:
Post a Comment