Dragon Ball Super Beerus Trailer Sparks Retcon Fears, But Saiyan Beyond God Isn't Going Anywhere

The final trailer for Dragon Ball Super Beerus, the upcoming version of Dragon Ball Super that combines the first three arcs into one linear story, shows Goku transforming into Super Saiyan God while wearing his Whis gi. That single clip has kicked off a debate among fans about what is happening to Super Saiyan God, Super Saiyan Blue, and a lesser known concept called Saiyan Beyond God.

The Whis gi is the outfit Goku wore for two arcs, the Resurrection F story and the tournament in the Champa arc. It wasn't until the Trunks arc that Goku and Vegeta went back to their traditional armored looks. I actually like those clothes a lot. I thought they looked pretty cool, and they kind of represented the new era of Dragon Ball, so seeing Super Saiyan God in that gear is a beautiful thing to me. But it has also led to some confusion about the forms themselves.

Is Saiyan Beyond God Being Retconned?

Some fans are pointing to that trailer clip, Goku going from Super Saiyan straight to God, and concluding that Saiyan Beyond God no longer exists. Saiyan Beyond God was first described in the Resurrection F movie pamphlet, written by Akira Toriyama. It's the idea that Goku and Vegeta's base forms in that movie actually contain a God form inside their bodies, even though they look like ordinary base forms. In my opinion, what Toriyama creates holds more weight than whatever Toei does on its own, since he was the original creator of this entire universe and of the Resurrection F script specifically.

Saiyan Beyond God is definitely a thing, and I don't think it's being written over. The in-between episodes of the original Dragon Ball Super run, episodes 13 through 16, gave a partial look at Goku and Vegeta attaining and controlling God ki, though they didn't show everything. Whis often talked in both the anime and the manga about how Goku and Vegeta needed to contain that energy inside their bodies and not let any of it drip out, which was part of their training. That confirms Saiyan Beyond God is more a state of being and control of ki than a separate transformation, even though I do include it in my own transformation guide.

Two Ways to Read That Trailer Clip

There's a possibility the Super Saiyan to God transformation in the trailer is just Goku demonstrating the form, the same way he later demonstrates transformations to Majin Buu and to Gohan in Daima. That would be a very Goku thing to do and wouldn't mean Saiyan Beyond God is gone. It could also just be trailer trickery.

Another possibility is that this happens during the Universe 6 arc. In Toyotaro's manga version of that arc, Goku actually does use Super Saiyan God. If Dragon Ball Super Beerus is going to follow the manga more closely than the original anime did, especially with the upcoming Moro arc, that's a logical place for this clip to come from. I'd love to see Super Saiyan God used more in general. I do feel like the story moved from God to Blue a little too fast, likely because merchandising is a big factor, and Toriyama may have felt God alone wasn't enough. Even seeing it for a split second would be cool.

Will We Actually See Goku and Vegeta Discover Super Saiyan Blue?

I'm leaning toward no, we won't see that discovery on screen, even though Super Saiyan Blue is controversial for exactly that reason. Fans never got to see Goku and Vegeta unlock Blue, they trained with Whis and then simply had it during Resurrection F, aside from that one famous scene where their fists collide and produce a blue aura, which plays as foreshadowing.

This isn't the only time Dragon Ball has skipped a discovery. Goku learned Super Saiyan 3 off screen during the seven year time skip between the Cell Saga and the Majin Buu Saga, and we only see him use it, already fairly comfortable with it, against Majin Buu. Vegeta's jump to Super Saiyan 2 also happened off screen. The Trunks Rage form from the anime is one I've still called into question myself, since it isn't in the manga, but that one needed some kind of explanation even without showing the training, and it never got one.

Some fans have told me they think Goku learning Super Saiyan Blue off screen was one of Dragon Ball Super's biggest mistakes. I disagree. Dragon Ball Super had plenty of issues, and that one is low on my list. I've already covered the form in detail elsewhere, including my transformation guide, and to me it isn't hard to understand. That said, it would be cool to see a flashback when Goku first debuts Blue against Frieza, similar to how Dragon Ball Z gave Vegeta a flashback showing his Super Saiyan training when he debuted the form against Android 19. That would preserve the drama of the moment while still giving newer fans, who often come into the franchise out of order, some context for a form that is now eleven years old to longtime viewers.

How Dragon Ball Super Beerus Is Actually Structured

Expect a few surprises in Dragon Ball Super Beerus, but not a complete narrative overhaul. If you're hoping Vegeta finally kills Frieza in this version of the Resurrection of Frieza story, temper your expectations, because that kind of major change is unlikely. I don't know all the details either, so there could be surprises even for me.

The bigger structural point is that Battle of Gods, Revival of Frieza, and the Champa arc, which ran 14, 13 and 19 episodes in the original series and are set to run six, six and seven episodes in the new one, are being merged into one big arc rather than kept as three separate ones. From what I understand, the editing approach is different from the original Dragon Ball Super run. Even though this project was reportedly referred to internally at Toei by a different working name, it looks like it's turning into more than a simple remaster.

Dragon Ball Super Beerus will probably appeal to younger fans who weren't around for the original run, similar to how some believe Dragon Ball Daima was made partly to draw in new viewers. I don't think it's necessary to show Goku and Vegeta discovering Super Saiyan Blue chronologically for the story to work, even if a flashback would be a nice touch.