Vegeta's Final Flash explained: why his slowest charge can hurt stronger foes

The Final Flash is probably Vegeta's most famous move. Its long charge lets him pour in every particle of ki in his body, which is why it can damage opponents who are stronger than he is. In earlier entries of my technique guide I covered Vegeta's first two big techniques, the Galick Gun and the Big Bang Attack. This one is about the move behind one of the most infamous scenes in all of Dragon Ball Z. There are some interesting tidbits about it you may not have known, including a possible early version on Planet Namek and an upgraded form that had only appeared in the manga at the time I wrote this.

The Final Flash trades charge time for more power than the Big Bang Attack or Galick Gun

Compare the Final Flash with the Big Bang Attack and the Galick Gun and something interesting stands out. All three moves are based in pure energy annihilation, but they vary in speed and power. The Big Bang Attack is the quick option. Vegeta can muster up energy very fast, fire the ball, have it explode and inflict major damage.

The Galick Gun takes a bit more time to charge, but arguably it has a bit more power behind it. The Final Flash takes a much, much longer time to charge because of the power Vegeta puts behind it. This move is meant to annihilate even the strongest foes, even those who may appear to be stronger than Vegeta. That's right: the Final Flash can inflict damage on opponents who are stronger than the one using the technique.

Vegeta pours every particle of his own ki into the Final Flash

How is that possible? Like other energy gathering techniques, such as the Genki Dama, the amount of time it takes to charge makes a huge difference, and that's the key factor. Vegeta takes as much energy as he can possibly muster from within his own body. The Genki Dama uses energy from other sources. This energy is purely Vegeta's, and he gathers every single particle of ki in his body to form the technique properly.

That's why, after Vegeta does the move, he's left not necessarily powerless, but definitely a lot weaker than he was before, because of how much strain it puts on his body.

I've talked about this in the past, but it helps to understand how energy works in Dragon Ball. In combat, a fighter uses ki not just to fire ki blasts but also to put power behind his blows, and for defense too. If someone fires a ki blast at you and you raise your energy to create a barrier or protect your body, you'll lessen the damage or maybe even block it all out. With the Final Flash, Vegeta uses everything but his own life energy, putting so much into it to make sure it inflicts the most damage possible.

The Perfect Cell scene is the one everyone remembers

When people think of the Final Flash, they think of the infamous scene in Dragon Ball Z. Vegeta, at this point Super Vegeta, in what's referred to as Super Saiyan Grade 2, fires it at Perfect Cell and destroys pretty much half of Cell's body. Cell did regenerate, so he didn't die. Still, one could make the argument that if Cell didn't have Piccolo's cells he would have been history. That argument has gone on for many years because of how much power Vegeta puts into this thing.

I prefer Dragon Ball in its original Japanese version, because the English dub is loaded with really bad script changes that, quite frankly, ruin the show for me. However, it doesn't matter which version you see, whether it's Kai, Z, dub or sub. The Final Flash scene is one of the most epic Vegeta moments in Dragon Ball Z, and what an epic Vegeta scream.

Look at what he does there. Vegeta opens his arms very wide, fingers also wide, gathering as much energy as possible. Then he puts his arms together and discharges a humongous golden beam of energy meant to annihilate whoever it touches.

Vegeta and Future Trunks used the Final Flash again, and Dragon Ball GT mixed up its name

The fight against Perfect Cell wasn't the last time Vegeta used this move. He used it again in the anime version of the fight between Goku and Majin Vegeta, and briefly in the fight with Kid Buu. In Dragon Ball Super, Vegeta used it in his battle with Magetta in the Universe 6 and Universe 7 tournament. We also saw Future Trunks use the move in the Goku Black arc, and then Vegeta did it again in the Tournament of Power.

Dragon Ball GT has a bit of an error, which I touched on in my Big Bang Attack entry. When Baby Vegeta prepares a Final Flash, he yells Big Bang Attack. That's in the Japanese version, so it isn't a dub change, but the move actually was the Final Flash. For some reason, other video games followed suit. Even in Dragon Ball Heroes he does the Final Flash, but it's called the Big Bang Attack. As far as I'm concerned, "it's gotta be like a joke."

Daizenshuu 2 says Vegeta created it in the Room of Spirit and Time, but he may have started on Namek

What's the origin of the technique? Dragon Ball guidebook Daizenshuu 2 states that Vegeta developed it while training in the Room of Spirit and Time with Trunks. That makes sense, because we didn't see Vegeta use the move until he left the Room of Spirit and Time.

But was that actually the first time he used it? Maybe not. Go back earlier in Dragon Ball Z to Planet Namek, when Vegeta was fighting Recoome in a knockdown, drag out fight to the death. Vegeta does a technique that looks remarkably like the Final Flash in his hand position and the way it charges up energy. Is it the Final Flash? The color of the energy is different, and it isn't performed exactly the same way. But the hand positioning, the way Vegeta uses the energy and the charge time are remarkably similar.

So one could make the argument that Vegeta was already developing the Final Flash back then but didn't have time to master it until the Room of Spirit and Time. When you're in a time chamber for a year, you'd think that would be more than enough time to master a technique, and he does master it. He comes really close to killing Cell, had it not been for Cell's regeneration. That said, because of how powerful Cell was at the time, had he prepared properly by putting up a barrier, he probably would have survived it. That's up for debate, and a debate for another day.

One side note about the Recoome fight: some have listed that technique as the Final Crash, a precursor to the Final Flash. I don't recall that being stated in any official source, so please take it with a grain of salt.

Ranked by speed and power, the Final Flash comes last to charge

To me, if you take these three moves and organize them by speed and power, the more powerful they are, the more time they take to charge. So it would go Big Bang Attack at the beginning, Galick Gun in the middle and Final Flash at the end. That's debatable, though, because of the Big Bang Attack's blast radius. They're similar moves, but they're different. Either way, the Final Flash is Vegeta's signature technique and probably his most famous move.

The Gamma Burst Flash is a much more powerful Final Flash from the Dragon Ball Super manga

There's an upgraded version of the Final Flash that we really didn't know much about when I wrote this. It's called the Gamma Burst Flash, and up to then Vegeta had only used it in the Dragon Ball Super manga. Some have called it the double Galick Gun, because the way Vegeta's hands are positioned almost makes it feel like a combination of a Galick Gun and a Final Flash.

To keep it really simple, the Gamma Burst Flash is a much, much more powerful version of the Final Flash that Vegeta developed in case of an emergency, so that he wouldn't have to use the Final Explosion. It appeared in the manga in the battle with Zamasu in the Trunks arc, and when Vegeta attempted to eliminate Jiren in the Tournament of Power alongside Goku.

It has an incredible level of power, but unfortunately, like the Final Flash, it leaves the user very, very exhausted because of how much energy he puts into it. At the very least, the charge time is a lot shorter, or at least we perceive it that way based on the manga. At the time, the technique hadn't been seen in the anime, and I wasn't sure it ever would be. The Gamma Burst Flash is really the same as the Final Flash, except that it's a much more advanced technique Vegeta had to develop later in life because he was becoming a better fighter.

The next entry in my technique guide turns to one of the most emotional Vegeta moments and the technique it leads to, the Final Explosion, which he used against Majin Buu and later Toppo.

Which of Vegeta's beam attacks do you rank highest: the Big Bang Attack, the Galick Gun, the Final Flash or the Gamma Burst Flash?