English Dub Review: Dragon Ball Super “He Who Is of Saiyan Blood: Trunks’ Resolve”

Let’s resolve this.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The episode begins with Future Trunks subjecting himself in a state of meditation which leaves him to ponder solutions on how he can fight Black Goku again yet feels that his tactics all have some flaw he keeps overlooking. At the same time this is going on, Bulma proceeds to repair the finishing touches of the Spare Time Machine. As Beerus, Whis and Goku return from Universe 10, they basically talk about what we the audience possibly know about Zamasu at this point, but can’t back up the validity of their theories, but after learning about how on-par Goku is against the Gods, it motivates Future Trunks to become stronger which gets Vegeta’s attention while Beerus & Whis leave for the time being.

We then cut back to Universe 10, It turns out that Zamasu & Gowasu are looking at some random alien planet called “Barbari” inhabited by savage dinosaur-looking cavemen and of course, leaves Zamasu to further ponder about the violent war-like nature of mortals. This becomes the impetus for Zamasu to keep bringing up his previous argument about the worth of mortals which motivates Gowasu to bring out the Time Rings and decides for them to travel “1000 years” in the future to see if this particular species will ever improve as a civilization. Out of principle, Gowasu explains that time rings aren’t supposed to be used to travel into the past, but they can only use them to see the future. This scene is important as Gowasu also explains that each Emerald Time Ring in that box takes you to a specific point in time, and whenever the flow of time is altered in some way, a new ring is created. When Gowasu proceeds to give Zamasu his green potara earring to improve the Time Ring’s compatibility, it kinda raised some red flags when I realized that Goku Black just so happens to also have one on his left ear and says that as long as they both wear a Potara earring in the same ear, they won’t fuse into another being (An excellent call-back to the Buu Saga). After they both travel to the future of planet Babari, Let’s just say, a glimpse into Barbari’s future doesn’t exactly help Gowasu’s argument…

When we cut back to Earth, Future Trunks begins training with Vegeta who teaches him the fundamentals of Super Saiyan transformations when Vegeta reveals his SS-Blue form while explaining to Trunks that both he and Goku Goku are on a power-level that rivals the Gods. When Future Trunks transforms into his own SS form, a little game is played when Vegeta says if Future Trunks can land a hit on him, he will be rewarded. Of course, it’s exactly like Vegeta to not make this easy for him as his under-handed tactics get the better of Future Trunks, but instead of groveling in defeat, Trunks finds this reassuring. Knowing how powerful Vegeta and Goku have become. But this only disappoints Vegeta as he believes that Saiyans should strive to grow stronger with or without threats presenting themselves and while distracted by Goku & Bulma randomly showing up, Future Trunks manages to land a head-butt on Vegeta but the experience itself helps Future Trunks restore his motivation to not only surpass Black but Vegeta as well. The episode ends on quite a cliffhanger when Beerus’s Boss Grand Zen-Oh contacts both him & Whis with the expressed interest in arranging a meeting with Goku, which hilariously shocks both of them to their core.

Our Take

This was a downplayed filler episode, but I feel like stuff is moving forward plot-wise, we even get another excellent call-back to the Cell Saga in the form of flashbacks Future Trunks had when training with Vegeta back in the days. His reaction to SS Blue was also pretty damn funny. I love how Vegeta tries to motivate Trunks to get stronger in his own violent & dysfunctional way.

While we’re still left with speculation about Zamasu’s connection with Goku Black, I think Gowasu should’ve picked a different civilization to educate Zamasu with. His argument about the worth of mortals is the closest thing to a philosophical debate Dragonball has ever had about the flawed nature of life. And while Zamasu is clearly in the wrong about mortals and by-extension humanity being incapable of curbing its own violent & war-like nature, This scenario arguably justified Zamasu’s one-sided and irrationally twisted convictions.

I’m even more Curious at what Grand Zen-Oh possibly wants from Goku and I look forward to finding out!