“Rule-breaking and killing is allowed. Welcome to my area of expertise.”
Dragon Ball Super has been on a bit of a hot streak lately. Last week saw the series deliver a top tier installment with Piccolo at the helm. This week, the episode banks off that energy as it allows Vegeta to run wild and do what he does best. It’s another episode that prioritizes strategy and fighting knowledge over brute strength as Vegeta gets to knock down Universe 6 a few notches this week. And boy is it a lot of fun to watch Vegeta not hold back here.
Frost lets it be known that he’s playing with some serious fire. The new needle-like projectile he shows off makes the stuff that incapacitated Goku look like Gatorade. Vegeta chooses to take on Frost under these clearly one-sided conditions, which appears to be a poor idea, but Vegeta’s pride sees him insist upon accepting these unfair arrangements. He even goes as far as threatening the referee if he dares to interfere in their death match.
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Vegeta decides to power through, as if purely to prove to everyone just how badass he is. Vegeta throws caution to the wind and the typical rules that have been binding this tournament are abandoned as these two get ready to take their fighting to unprecedented levels. In a lot of ways it also feels like this battle is Vegeta’s way of working out his demons for ultimately dropping the ball back when he was fighting Golden Frieza. Now it’s time for Vegeta to channel all of that aggression and take out Frieza’s mirror opposite while not making the same mistakes as before.
After all of this preamble and showboating that Frost puts on, it’s incredibly satisfying to see Vegeta eliminate the guy in one punch. Frost doesn’t even register as kind of a threat. Just like that Vegeta proves that he operates on another level, knocks this heavy danger into the dust, and snidely welcomes his next victim to come forward. As much as Dragon Ball may be tempted to drag its feet through battles, bringing Vegeta in is always a guaranteed way to speed things along.
As a result of Goku being disqualified at the hand of Frost’s illegal weaponry, Beerus argues that he should be rightfully reinstated in the tournament. Goku is added back into the tournament rotation, but he pleads to be placed at the end of the team’s sparring order. Goku’s reason is that he’s still eager to see the all-powerful Monaka show off his skills and hopefully pick up a few pointers in the meantime. Beerus, however, is quite insistent that Monaka remain at the end of their roster as he’s their trump card and their necessary safety net.
Of course, at this point many people have probably clued into the fact that Monaka’s bark is clearly worse than his bite. Whis lets it slip that Monaka’s role in the tournament is just to be a motivator that pushes Goku to work harder. Don’t expect this guy to be saving Universe 7 at the end of the day. Regardless, Monaka’s secret makes for nice banter between Beerus and Whis, especially as Whis gets increasingly tired with this charade.
Goku’s re-admittance is a bit of a double-edged sword. It’s certainly nice to see Frost’s act of cheating getting reversed and justice being served, but as pointed out before, the one thing this series isn’t lacking is battles with Goku. At least his previous time in the tournament was fairly limited so when he inevitably returns to the fray there won’t be too much Goku material in this saga. Vegeta and Piccolo have still gotten plenty of time to show off here.
Speaking of which, after Vegeta gets creative regarding the tournament’s barrier, a new rule is added to the tournament. A new perimeter is set up around the ring and any contact with said barrier will also count as a disqualification. In spite of Beerus’ protests regarding Champa’s spur of the moment rule revision, this doesn’t yet feel like a drastic change. Surely this new wrinkle in the competition will lead to some unsuspecting fighter’s disqualification soon enough.
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As all of this new legislation is being hammered out, Frost takes advantage of this distraction and sets out to prove just how diabolical he is. It’s one thing to get disqualified, but he then decides to turn his bad sportsmanship into grand theft. Frost attempts to cut his losses by stealing Universe 6’s tournament winnings and then making a break for it in Champa’s transportation cube (the only way for Gods to travel through the universe). However, Frost’s getaway plan is interrupted by Universe 6’s legendary hitman, Hit.
Hit’s been shrouded in mystery so far, but he definitely looks like one of the more formidable fighters from Universe 6. The way in which he disposes of Frost is incredibly awesome and his actions here only make the stoic character more fascinating. He seems to be a complex fighter who’s more concerned with doing the right thing than whether his Universe blindly wins in this pissing match. It makes the anticipation of Hit’s eventual entrance into the battlefield all the more exciting.
When Dragon Ball Super returns to the confines of the arena, Vegeta continues onward to face the mechanical fighter, Magetta. Some welcome banter is had over whether Magetta should even be allowed to fight here since he’s a robot and capable of spitting out lava, which certainly feels like a weapon. Magetta’s participation is ultimately granted since his lava attack is considered to essentially just be his saliva. So just for those keeping track at home, Dabura and his poisonous spit would also be eligible to fight in this thing, based on this logic. Food for thought.
The beginning of Vegeta’s fight with Magetta is really thrilling stuff. The two pull off some incredible acrobatics as Magetta exudes raw power and Vegeta eloquently dodges his blows while looking all too bored at the same time. It might be the fact that Magetta isn’t human, but his behavior becomes increasingly erratic with Vegeta unable to predict what the fighter is up to next. Furthermore, Vegeta becomes preoccupied with Magetta’s unusual fighting technique, which results in him becoming less focused on the new boundary lines placed around the top of the arena. Vegeta still appears to be holding his own, but a growing amount of factors keep arising that seem to be edging the Saiyan out of his comfort zone. Even still, when Magetta begins filling the closed quarters with smoke and other distractions, Vegeta is ready to power up and dispel of the clutter, eager for the next challenge.
Vegeta and Magetta’s fight doesn’t get too far along, but it already appears to be an interesting match of skills here. Due to the new barrier that’s been put in place the extreme heat that Magetta is generating causes Vegeta to sweat heavily and inhale the arena’s atmosphere much harder than he normally would.
It certainly looks like Magetta has a tried and true strategy that he’s ready to put into play here to take out his opponent. But if one thing’s for sure, it’s that Vegeta should never be underestimated and that he’s likely got more than a few tricks up his battle armor, too. His spit might not be lava, but his brain and rage are nearly unstoppable.
