Ultra Ego Vegeta vs God of Destruction Toppo: Why Their Hakai Powers Are Not the Same

Toppo and Vegeta both achieved God of Destruction powers in Dragon Ball Super, but neither one was a true God of Destruction, and their powers are not the same. I have seen some confusion among Dragon Ball fans about this, because we have two mortals who reached this power and yet they look different, behave differently, and took very different roads to hakai.

Here I want to explain those differences, go into both Toppo's and Vegeta's philosophies and their methods for becoming Gods of Destruction, and compare the two paths. Later in this piece I will also get into why I think Toppo may have known Ultra Ego all along.

Toppo was a genuine candidate for Universe 11's God of Destruction

To understand this we have to rewind a bit. When Toppo was first introduced in Dragon Ball Super, we found out that he was a possible candidate to become the God of Destruction of Universe 11 at some point in the future. We did not know how far along he was toward that rank, but he was a candidate. Unlike Vegeta, Toppo is actually interested in getting the job and the actual ranking among the gods, whereas Vegeta just wants to become stronger.

In Dragon Ball Super episode 125 we actually saw Toppo transform into his God of Destruction form. It gave him an incredible power boost and he was able to run over a lot of people in the Tournament of Power. Coincidentally enough, the fighter who eliminated him happened to be Vegeta, somebody who would later tap into this power himself. This was primarily focused on in the anime, not the manga, and although both tell the Dragon Ball Super story with a lot of similarities, they are different continuities with some very unique differences. Either way, we know Toppo was training under Belmod to become a God of Destruction.

Toppo's hakai was a controlled ball of destruction energy

We saw Toppo use a variation of the hakai technique, but unlike the one Beerus used on Zamasu in the previous arc, it did not just automatically wipe somebody away. His hakai was more like a ball of energy made up of destruction energy, which is a bit different from god ki. It is a variation of god ki but not quite god ki, and it is meant to disintegrate.

He did not use it at its max power, because he knew the rules of the Tournament of Power prevented killing. You could make the argument that if he knew how to use hakai in such a controlled way, he probably already knew how to use the full power hakai by then, but had to tone it down because he did not want to be disqualified. Whether you call it a transformation or a mutation, it is the same thing, and "this dude was just a complete menace when he had that."

Different biology explains why Vegeta's form looks nothing like Toppo's

Compare that to Vegeta, whose transformation looked very different. He had the purple hair, the hakai energy and the missing eyebrows. Toppo had none of that. One could very easily chalk that up to the fact that Toppo and Vegeta have very different biology, and that is the aesthetic side of things.

Biologically, Vegeta is a Saiyan, so he is used to having multiple transformations: the Super Saiyan forms, the god forms, Ultra Ego, which is pretty much a god form but a much higher level of one, and of course the Great Ape. Toppo is not a Saiyan. Whatever race he is from in Universe 11, it is humanoid, but we really do not know. So they are going to look different. But there is a lot more to this than meets the eye.

Toppo gave up his sense of justice while Vegeta gave up his guilt

When you go back to episode 125 and compare it to Vegeta using Ultra Ego, there is a major philosophical difference. The way I perceive it, "there are two different roads to becoming a god of destruction", and the road Vegeta took is not just different from Toppo's. It is actually the opposite.

Toppo revealed in Dragon Ball Super that he gave up his sense of justice, gave up who he was as a person, to become a God of Destruction. Naturally Toppo is a superhero. He is not a villain or a sadistic maniac; he fights against sociopaths in Universe 11 with the Pride Troopers. He had to give that up. Vegeta, on the contrary, to tap into hakai power and do what Beerus told him to do, had to give up his sense of empathy and his sense of guilt and unleash the power of a destroyer god. I have gone into this in more detail elsewhere, with evidence from the manga and other Dragon Ball sources.

Vegeta's Ultra Ego grows stronger from damage, but guilt over Granolah held him back

Vegeta went through that and came out the other side with hakai power and all kinds of interesting abilities. For example, he says he gets stronger when he fights and gets beaten up. Toppo never showed that. It could be a kind of mutation: because he is a Saiyan using Ultra Ego, he may be able to combine what you might call his zenkai power with a god power, which makes him a really scary fighter. That makes the most sense to me.

Both of them had to make sacrifices to their personality: Toppo sacrificed his sense of justice and Vegeta sacrificed his guilt. Ultimately, though, during the fight with Granolah, Vegeta just could not do it. He could not really pull the trigger on the full power of Ultra Ego, because he still felt guilt over his people wiping out Granolah's people. Toppo never really committed an act like that, at least not from what we have gathered. He has always been a purveyor of justice, you could say.

Every God of Destruction may have had to sacrifice something

Either way, it is almost like they both had to sacrifice something to tap into hakai power. That suggests that to properly use hakai, you have to give something up no matter which road you take. That raises the question of what Beerus gave up when he first learned this many years ago, what Belmod had to give up, and what all the Gods of Destruction had to give up, if they even had to. I assume they did, based on what Toppo and Vegeta had to do.

There are differences because the two are polar opposites, but the similarities are there too. Both Vegeta and Toppo tapped into a power they would never have had access to as regular mortals training on their own. It required special training from a God of Destruction; they would never have known how to tap into it otherwise.

Toppo may have known Ultra Ego all along

One thing I have always found interesting is that Toppo seems to have actually been becoming a fully fledged God of Destruction; it was stated that way. So it is almost like he was further along than Vegeta in his knowledge of being a God of Destruction and of hakai. With Vegeta, it is almost like Ultra Ego is the technique the Gods of Destruction use, and it just happened to work the way it did for him. I almost feel like Toppo might know Ultra Ego but might not have the same properties, because Vegeta is a prodigy and a Saiyan. Those molecular differences can make forms look different, which means Vegeta might be able to do things even Beerus cannot with the proper training.

They are both Gods of Destruction, or at least both tapping into that power, but it feels like Ultra Ego is the name of the technique, or the state of being, when a God of Destruction is in combat, and Toppo may have been using a version of it without us knowing. Ultra Ego was invented by Toyotaro for the Granolah arc, but when I made these points in May 2022, "I would not be surprised if later on in Dragon Ball Super they retcon it to where Toppo knew Ultra Ego the entire time." He may have shown properties of it, or chosen not to use it in the Tournament of Power.

Remember, Toppo is a God of Destruction candidate, probably next in line for the job. Vegeta is just using those powers. He has no interest in taking Beerus's job; he just wants to get stronger and fight tough opponents rather than blow up worlds and wipe out civilizations because it is his job. That is the whole reason he could not reach max power: he still had that guilt.

Do you think Toppo was secretly using a version of Ultra Ego in the Tournament of Power?