Geekdom101 Breaks Down Why Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta in Dragon Ball Daima Episode 12 Doesn't Contradict Super

Dragon Ball Daima episode 12, titled True Strength, gave us the true power of Tamagami 2, the true power of Tamagami 1, the true power of Majin Duu, and finally the true strength of Vegeta as he tapped into Super Saiyan 3 for the first time ever shown on screen. I want to walk through the entire episode, because there is a lot going on here beyond just the transformation.

Vegeta Survives the Kraken and Turns the Tables on Tamagami 2

We thought at the end of the previous episode that Vegeta had been eaten by the Kraken, but he is alive and fine, and he even tells Goku he is still not a hundred percent accustomed to having this body, which becomes interesting given what happens later. Tamagami 2 lunges at Vegeta almost immediately, and Vegeta finds himself caught between the Kraken and Tamagami 2 at the same time.

Vegeta gets knocked back again by Tamagami 2, but this time he goes Super Saiyan to get out of trouble. As a Super Saiyan he is much faster on top of being more powerful, which lets him evade the Kraken's attacks while Tamagami 2 fires projectile energy at him. Unlike the fight with Goku, this is far from a one on one battle because the Kraken is involved the entire time, and at one point it is about to eat Vegeta outright.

A Star Wars Homage Hides Inside the Kraken's Mouth

The shot of Vegeta inside the Kraken's mouth as the teeth close is borrowed directly from The Empire Strikes Back, from the scene where the Millennium Falcon tries to escape the space monster. It is a very similar, if not identical, reference to that film, which is more Star Wars showing up in Daima.

While trapped inside the mouth, we see lots of blue lightning, which signals that Vegeta upgrades his form and goes into Super Saiyan 2. Super Saiyan 2 Vegeta blasts out of the Kraken's mouth in a beautifully animated sequence, and then the Kraken just gets bored and leaves, never to be seen again in the episode.

Super Saiyan 2 Vegeta Delivers One of Daima's Best Fights Against Tamagami 2

Tamagami 2 continues blasting Vegeta with energy, which is ironic since firing lots of projectiles is Vegeta's own specialty. Tamagami 2 lunges again with his trident, but Vegeta sees it coming, fires a ki blast to force him to move, then closes the distance and lands a headbutt dead center in Tamagami 2's forehead, denting it, though it is not enough to end the fight. This entire sequence is excellently animated, and I would call this the best fight in Daima so far.

Elder Neva, described as the magician and master of magic, then unlocks a new ability using the power of a Dragon Ball, boosting Tamagami 2's strength so he glows blue with a purple aura. I believe this look is referencing Ultraman, the famous Japanese tokusatsu hero, since Toriyama has talked in the past about being a fan of Ultraman and has referenced the franchise in both Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump. Tamagami 2 powered up then takes the fight underwater, firing a ki blast while creating an underwater whirlwind that catches Vegeta.

Majin Duu Discovers Chocolate Is His Power Source Against Tamagami 1

Majin Duu's body stretches and moves much like Majin Buu's, which makes him hard to pin down against Tamagami 1. At one point Duu literally sits on Tamagami 1's face, which is likely a reference to the scene in Dragon Ball Z where a fat Majin Buu sits on Supreme Kai and leaves paint on his face. Tamagami 1 kicks him away, but Duu keeps coming back and eventually reveals that what he really wants is chocolate.

Where Majin Buu was known for eating candy and turning people into food, chocolate specifically seems to be Duu's power source. He starts acting like a spoiled child crying for it, which makes a strange kind of sense given he has only been alive for a few minutes. Dr. Arinsu goes to fetch chocolate for him while Tamagami 1 keeps trying to land hits, not understanding or caring about any of this because he has a job to do.

Once Duu gets a taste of chocolate, he starts to steam just like Majin Buu used to, then fires a massive ki blast that puts Tamagami 1 in real trouble. He follows up with the volleyball technique he used the previous week, inspired by Super Buu, then does something I had never seen before: he wraps his neck around Tamagami 1's saw blade to dodge an attack before delivering a headbutt. Tamagami 1 submits and proclaims Majin Duu the winner.

King Gomah Learns Dr. Arinsu Has Been Hiding the Plot to Steal a Dragon Ball

Episode 12 confirms for the first time that Duu was not in on Dr. Arinsu's plan, even though they are siblings and both Glens, meaning he had no idea what she was plotting behind his back and behind King Gomah's back. The final challenge for the one star Dragon Ball is a complicated math problem, similar to the cup and balls trick Tamagami 3 used earlier, requiring Duu to add up all the numbers appearing on the globe. It reminded me of the film Matilda, where the lead character solves large math problems in her head, though here it is actually Dr. Arinsu who solves it and saves the day.

Majin Duu is awarded the one star ball, but Dr. Arinsu does not get credit for being the one who fetched the chocolate that powered him up. King Gomah has a meltdown realizing Dr. Arinsu is collecting Dragon Balls without telling him and does not think she is being generous. That tension sets up the collision course still ahead as the story heads into its final stretch.

Vegeta Rises Out of the Ocean and Officially Achieves Super Saiyan 3

Back with Vegeta, King Gomah and company check in on the fight and are stunned to see he still has not been beaten. Tamagami 2 tries to impale him with the trident underwater, then gets his hands on Vegeta and sends him to the depths of the ocean of Demon World. Once Vegeta wakes up, he decides it is time to take the fight seriously, and rather than stopping at Super Saiyan 2, he rises out of the water having figured out the secret of Super Saiyan 3, just like Goku did.

This is the first time Toriyama has officially shown Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta. In the original manga Vegeta never achieved it, and in Dragon Ball GT he skipped straight from Super Saiyan 2 to Super Saiyan 4 thanks to a machine Bulma built using blutz waves. I never liked that. I am not a GT hater, but the idea of Vegeta getting Super Saiyan 4 from a machine never felt right to me, so seeing him earn Super Saiyan 3 properly here felt like one of my favorite Vegeta moments.

Why Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta Does Not Contradict His Behavior in Dragon Ball Super

Some fans have pointed to the moment Beerus slaps Bulma and Vegeta snaps in Super as evidence that giving Vegeta Super Saiyan 3 in Daima is a contradiction, since he does not use it there. But Super Saiyan 3 has a well established flaw from the original manga and anime: it drains energy very fast, and Vegeta's fighting style relies on constant energy projection and ki blasts, so it is not an ideal transformation for him. By the time Super takes place, roughly three years after Daima, Vegeta had likely concluded it was not worth using despite its uses.

Unlike Super Saiyan 1 and 2, Super Saiyan 3 is not triggered by rage. It requires concentration and heavy training, which is why Goku only figured it out in the afterlife. Daima takes place about a year after the Majin Buu Saga, giving Vegeta plenty of time to train hard and finally match Goku, at least among the traditional Saiyan forms, before both of them moved on to the god forms in Super.

As for the rage argument, I pointed out that when Cell killed Trunks, Vegeta snapped and fired a barrage of ki blasts without going beyond Super Saiyan, even though some fans debate whether that was Super Saiyan full power. That shows rage alone does not automatically push him into his strongest available form, especially one as stamina draining as Super Saiyan 3. The plain meta truth is that Toriyama likely did not decide to give Vegeta Super Saiyan 3 until Daima was already in production, which is a bit of a retcon, but I do not think it contradicts Super, since once Vegeta learns God Ki he mostly sticks with the god forms anyway, whereas Goku still uses Super Saiyan 3 occasionally, usually for demonstration.

I discussed this months before it happened, saying Vegeta would get Super Saiyan 3 in Daima but that it would not look like Goku's version, with the hair sticking back rather than flowing down, closer to how Gohan's Beast form hair sticks back, just not as extreme. While editing this breakdown it hit me that this design likely traces back to Toriyama's own rejected early sketches for Super Saiyan 3 during the Buu Saga guidebooks, where Goku's hair spikes up but back rather than down, which is exactly what Vegeta's version most resembles.

The Knockout Punch, the Riddle, and the Snake Lore From Planet Vegeta

Tamagami 2 tries to end things but misses, and Vegeta gives him the stare before knocking him into the water. When Tamagami 2 tries to stab Vegeta in the face with the trident, Vegeta blocks it with one finger, an homage to Goku blocking Trunks's sword with a finger the first time they met, one of my favorite scenes from the original show. Vegeta then breaks the trident entirely and splits the ocean with a karate chop just to show off his power.

Vegeta goes on the offensive, knocking Tamagami 2 around before firing the Galick Gun, his signature move, which Tamagami 2 manages to deflect just as Tamagami 3 did back in episode 8. That leaves him open for a devastating left hook that ends the fight, and Vegeta catches him afterward to signal it is over. Tamagami 2 reassembles his trident with magic, but there is still a riddle to solve within ten seconds for the Dragon Ball, and Vegeta, not being good at these kinds of problems, answers zero, correctly realizing it was a trick question. He is awarded the two star ball, meaning Goku and Vegeta now hold two Dragon Balls between them while Dr. Arinsu has secured one.

Tamagami 2 apologizes to Neva for failing, but Neva tells him this is how it should be, since he lost a fair fight and must give up the Dragon Ball, thanking him for it. It was a genuinely great moment about the spirit of martial arts rather than killing. Vegeta then reveals he solved the riddle because there were snakes on Planet Vegeta too, which is one of the only bits of lore we got this episode, and Beerus reiterates that Vegeta is not just strong but smart, smart enough to know Super Saiyan 3's drawback was not worth using here, similar to how Trunks recognized in the Room of Spirit and Time that his own bulky, slow Super Saiyan grade three form had a similar tradeoff.

Goku offers Vegeta one of the revive bugs that work like Senzu Beans, but Vegeta refuses to eat bugs, which made me wonder if it is foreshadowing something like a fusion later on. Goku notes Vegeta used to be fine eating critters, a deep cut reference to Vegeta's very first manga appearance eating the remains of a bug creature. There is also a small scene where Glorio struggles with the ship's engine before Pansy quickly fixes it, and I am not sure if that is meant to hint Glorio was stalling on purpose to give Dr. Arinsu time to finish her own part of the plan, but it felt suspicious tacked on right before the cliffhanger of King Gomah looking irritated but apparently already plotting his next move. Episode 13 aired on January 10, continuing the story from there.

Do you think Vegeta will ever explain on screen why he prefers Super Saiyan 2 over Super Saiyan 3?