Dragon Ball Super's Granolah Arc on a Reread: Granolah as the Goku Who Never Lost His Memories

Going back into the Granolah arc in Dragon Ball Super Volume 16, Jordan put it this way: Granolah is essentially what Goku would have been had he never lost his memories. Jordan and I worked through the volume page by page.

I Hated One Granolah Chapter, but I Am Open to Changing My Mind

When this arc first came out, there was a chapter in this volume that I hated, and I have not read it since it first dropped. The same was true of the Moro arc, but rereading Moro this time around, I enjoyed it more. It is probably my favorite Dragon Ball Super arc overall. Reading it back, you see more of the foreshadowing and connections that were not there before. I was told the Granolah arc is also better read start to finish, knowing what is going to happen, because everything ties together better.

Jordan and I also had a big disagreement, not a fight, over how Bardock is integrated into this arc. I am not saying I am going to like the arc more this time, but I am open minded enough to see if I do. Jordan, for his part, has reread it a lot. He finds it fascinating because it covers reality manipulation and the implications of using the Dragon Balls in a way the other arcs did not, and he sees Toriyama behind the major bullet points.

Granolah Parallels Goku, Vegeta, Broly and Baby

This arc connects Goku to Bardock in a way we have never seen before. Bardock in the original special did not really care all that much about his son right away, and Goku has no idea who Bardock is, so there was never an emotional connection. This arc creates one. Jordan thinks people exaggerate how emotional it is, but at least for fans who want that father and son bond, it gives them something.

Jordan argued Granolah mirrors Goku: he lost his people exactly like Goku did, but without hitting his head and taking on his grandfather's nature, so he still struggles with the past and vows revenge, much as Vegeta did. He framed it as an old school kung fu trope, where characters embody philosophies and the winner of the fight holds the correct ideology. I added that Granolah echoes the original Broly, left for dead and back for revenge, and Baby, the sole survivor who blames the Saiyans.

Beerus Tells Vegeta His Guilt Is Self Centered

The scene where Vegeta accepts Beerus as his martial arts instructor is ripped right out of kung fu movies. Beerus asks how many planets Vegeta has destroyed to prove a point: Beerus destroys too, but for a different reason. It reminds me of Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back, using parables like "That is why you fail." When Vegeta admits the Saiyans were racking up sin after sin, that is a huge deal, because it shows the Vegeta of Super is not the Vegeta of Dragon Ball Z. If anybody claims Vegeta regressed in Super, they do not know what they are talking about.

Jordan's reading is that the god techniques are a form of reality manipulation: in Dragon Ball, acting with pure intentions bypasses karma. Vegeta does good out of guilt, which makes his motives selfish. Beerus is telling him destruction has a cosmological role, and guilt over his ancestors will hold him back. The line "As long as doubt weighs down your soul, this power will never be yours" is foreshadowing that Vegeta is going to lose. It is a life lesson we can all learn: let go of the past.

Beerus Shows Precise Control of Hakai

Beerus also reveals he was the one who suggested Frieza eliminate the Saiyans. I have never liked that. When Vegeta goes Super Saiyan Blue and attacks, Beerus does not even try, keeping his hands behind his back. Then he asks why Vegeta keeps calling himself the prince of the Saiyans when they do not even exist anymore. I already like this arc more than the first time because of this, since it is Beerus, and Toriyama, addressing Vegeta's behavior in Z.

When Beerus erases only Vegeta's armor, he is not using regular energy, which would have caused an explosion and possibly killed him. It is a tiny bit of Hakai, telling Vegeta he could end him whenever he wants. So far, this might be my favorite arc involving Beerus. Jordan noted the "no limit" idea of instinct gives Beerus a power level separate from his base, which he called undoubtedly a retcon.

Destroying Yourself to Be Reborn

Jordan tied Vegeta's rebirth to the six eared macaque in Journey to the West, the evil twin Sun Wukong had to destroy to recreate himself, and said six eared macaques are scattered throughout this arc. I compared it to Final Fantasy IV, where the Dark Knight must defeat his dark self in a mirror to become a Paladin. Jordan linked it to shadow work in psychology: neglect your darker traits and they surface in maladaptive ways.

Monaito Is Granolah's Grandpa Gohan

The Heeters, Jordan pointed out, have heat themed names that play as the opposite of Frieza's puns, with Gas and Elec each carrying parts of Namek era Frieza's personality. They learn about the Dragon Balls and the Namekians who lived on planet Cereal. I do not believe the Namekians were necessarily born on Cereal; my thinking is that when they left the demon realm, some went to Namek and some to Cereal. Jordan added that the Moro arc mentions them settling in different worlds throughout the universe.

Jordan believes Monaito was designed as Granolah's Grandpa Gohan, combined with Kami, raising Granolah but failing because Granolah still has the memories of the past corrupting him. Jordan also noted that the room where Monaito and Granolah eat together, with a Dragon Ball off to the side, is set up the way Goku and Grandpa Gohan's house was. The way I see it, Goku, Vegeta and Granolah share the same problem, fighting their own anger, and each has a mentor: Grandpa Gohan and others for Goku, Beerus for Vegeta, Monaito for Granolah.

Is Beerus confronting Vegeta enough to win you over on this arc, or does the Frieza retcon still bother you?

Piccolo's Orange Form Is Exactly What The Dragon Balls Were Made For

This volume gives us our first look at the Cerelian Dragon Balls, and they are tiny, way smaller than the Earth set. Granolah decides he has to get stronger and wants the Dragon Balls to do it, but Monaito warns him that "the Dragon Balls began as part of a ritual to celebrate brave Namekian warriors" and are not meant for any old selfish desire. That matters, because people have used the Dragon Balls for very selfish reasons going back to Oolong. Even bringing someone back from the dead can be considered selfish, although in Dragon Ball it is not, because we love the characters.

When people say they dislike Piccolo getting new forms in Super Hero just by wishing, it shows me a fundamental misunderstanding of the Dragon Balls, Shenron and the Namekians. Piccolo is a brave Namekian warrior, and getting stronger that way is literally what the balls were created for. Without it, there is a possibility Gamma 1, Gamma 2 and Cell Max may have ruined everything. In my opinion Piccolo is the only character whose Dragon Ball power up fits: Granolah does it for vengeance, Piccolo does it to protect the Earth.

Jordan added that the Namekian tree appearing on Piccolo's back shows he was rewarded because he became one of those noble warriors the Namekians would normally reward with a wish. He also argued that Piccolo does train, just mostly mentally, pointing to him meditating on stray thoughts at the start of Super Hero. To Jordan, Orange Piccolo is a reward for character development, not necessarily just martial arts training.

New Lore Links The Namekians To The Demon Realm

Toriyama is expanding the lore of the Dragon Balls themselves. Sets vary in size and number depending on who created them: three big ones in the Demon Realm, two on Cereal, seven on Earth, seven on Namek and seven between Universes 6 and 7. The panel saying the Namekians moved here from another realm is why I think people claiming Daima's cosmology will not carry into Super are wrong, though it would have been interesting if it had actually said the Demon Realm.

Jordan pointed out that Piccolo's father was sent off Namek during a catastrophe, and that it is implied the catastrophe came from abuse of the Dragon Balls, which is part of why rules against selfish wishes exist. He traced the inspiration to the Cintamani stone, a Buddhist jewel: a martial monk and a religious monk would travel from village to village, the pure hearted martial monk using it to bless each village, and seeing that selfless act made the villagers act selflessly too.

In Jordan's reading, a selfish or malicious wish sets off a chain reaction of cause and effect that destroys the user. Garlic Jr wishing for immortality and ending up trapped in the Dead Zone was raised as one example. In the scene on planet Namek, the Namekian elder says the wishes were originally rewards for bold warriors in times of great suffering, which is why I do not see Goku wishing people back as necessarily a bad thing: it is his reward for defeating the villain, and it goes back to karma and dharma. Jordan added that Goku is pure of heart and wants a peaceful world full of strong fighters, while Granolah wants a war.

I Still Think The Convenient Second Ball Is Lazy Writing

On the very day Granolah returns, they conveniently find another Dragon Ball that had been missing for a long time. I criticised this heavily and I still feel that way. I think it is lazy writing; they should have had him at least search, or have someone build a dragon radar. It seemed they just wanted to get the wish over with. All they had to do, in my opinion, was have him land on Cereal and find the ball six days later. Someone also suggested there should have been more balls, and maybe that is one solution.

Jordan called it a legitimate criticism but does not mind it: in a story with reality manipulation, fate and karma, it is the stars aligning, much like Jaco missing Goku's landing. He stressed he does have problems with Super's writing, such as the convoluted manga rules for becoming a Kaioshin, but tries not to be loud about it because so many people online only talk about the problems.

Granolah Trades His Lifespan For Power

Granolah asks to become the strongest, and the dragon says he will be strongest besides the gods, so not above Whis or Beerus, though I think he does surpass the Kais. It also cannot raise him beyond his latent potential. The cost is his lifespan, condensing 150 remaining years into now and leaving him three. "I'm not saying this for certain because we don't have an interview that confirms this, but it almost feels like Super Saiyan 3." I love the idea that you have to make a sacrifice to get what you want.

Jordan framed it as internal versus external cultivation. Goku and Vegeta put in the time to cultivate their ki; Granolah takes a shortcut, and since you cannot have ki out of nowhere, burning his lifespan makes perfect sense to him.

Who Is The Oracle Fish's Strongest Warrior?

The Oracle Fish says the strongest warrior in the universe will soon rise, and while it seems to mean Granolah, Whis suggests at the end of the arc it may be someone else. I see three candidates: Gohan after Super Hero, Frieza after Black Frieza, or a new character. Jordan thinks it is Frieza, because the fish also talks about the balance of the universe shifting. On Gohan being stronger, I would ask why Frieza could one shot Ultra Instinct Goku when Gohan, fighting Goku in chapter 103, could not. Jordan believes Frieza has such a reserve of energy that we have not seen close to his full power, and I agree, because it was too easy.

Goku's Ultra Instinct And Vegeta's Guilt

Whis reveals the angels are always in Ultra Instinct, while Goku must transform, which is why I have said it is a transformation when Goku uses it. The transformation carries a stamina drain, so Whis tells him to keep it as a last resort. Vegeta's log training does not bother Jordan, but I would have liked it to escalate to a continent and then an asteroid.

On Cereal, Granolah snipes at vital points, and he does not even name his technique, so if I ever do a technique guide on this I would not know what to call it. Goku stacks Ultra Instinct on a Super Saiyan form, which I think is a little better but not life changing. Seeing Vegeta in the Great Ape footprint hyped me up. Beerus told him he cannot feel guilt to use Hakai, and the first thing thrown at him is a victim of his people, which is why we see this fight as the best Ultra Ego training he could get. We have not had a real new chapter in four years, and I really hope we learn the end result of Ultra Ego and Ultra Instinct when it returns.

Who do you think the Oracle Fish meant: Frieza, Gohan, or someone we have not met yet?