The Principles Behind Goku's Ultra Instinct Go All the Way Back to Master Roshi

Ultra Instinct is, without a doubt in my mind, my favorite thing Dragon Ball Super added to the lore. The principles and symbolism behind it are rooted in Dragon Ball going all the way back to the beginning of the series, taught to Goku by his various masters as he grew into a man, became his own master, and eventually met Whis.

Who could forget the build up for months, then the mystery, and then finally, when Dragon Ball Super episode 110 aired, we all freaked out. It was so much fun, and since then the form has evolved and become really synonymous with Goku. Now, I'm not saying Toriyama had all of this planned out since 1984, because that would not be true. But there were tons of clues and breadcrumbs throughout the series, and they tie into Buddhist and Taoist beliefs. We all know Toriyama was a huge fan of Bruce Lee, and Ultra Instinct is patterned after Jeet Kune Do.

Goku has been trained by divine beings almost his whole life

Goku being trained by gods is really nothing new. Some would think King Kai training him in Dragon Ball Z was the first time he got training from a divine being, but that's not true. Kami, which literally translates to god, trained Goku. Before Kami there was Korin, who has a connection to the gods and is also a divine being. And even before that there was Master Roshi, who is very often referred to as the god of martial arts. Granted, he's not literally a god.

We found out in the Dragon Ball Super manga that Roshi has some type of knowledge of an alternate version of Ultra Instinct. To me, that validates that although Roshi is not actually a god, he definitely has deep knowledge that may be traced back to the gods. Roshi's own master, Mutaito, is a very mysterious character who knows techniques such as the Mafuba, which is meant to trap a demon. Perhaps his teacher was some kind of divine being. And Roshi was the first person to climb Korin Tower before Goku, so he also received training from a demigod or god like being.

So to me, there have got to be some weird mysteries in the past about where this martial art was handed down. A lot of Dragon Ball was inspired by Journey to the West and Eastern philosophy, and in Eastern philosophy a lot of martial arts is divine, almost like a mystical magic art given by the gods. There's tons of Taoist and Buddhist material in Dragon Ball that so many Western fans overlook, but it's there.

Master Roshi taught Goku that martial arts is about conquering yourself

Although Goku received some training from his grandpa Gohan, Master Roshi was the first to give him real martial arts training that put him on the path to success. Roshi's regimen was a holistic approach: strengthening your muscles, legs, arms, back and fists, and also your mind. He taught Goku that martial arts is not about winning fights but conquering yourself and your weakness. Even in the Dragon Ball Super anime, Goku went back to Roshi for more training because he knew there was still something there. Roshi always wanted Goku to break past his limits, and he did it multiple times, not just in Super. Even his first transformation against Frieza broke his limits.

What I find interesting is that in the Super manga, Roshi was able to use Ultra Instinct, or at least a version of what appears similar to it. He let his body move on its own without thinking, and that's exactly what Ultra Instinct is, even if it's definitely not the same version the angels use. So why did he not teach Goku this as a kid? Did he think Goku wasn't ready? Did he maybe not even know it at that time? Perhaps he trained off screen at some point and learned it. We may never know, but it shows the old Turtle Hermit had divine knowledge, which may have been taught to him by Master Korin.

Korin's training was a prelude to the principles of Ultra Instinct

Goku climbed Korin Tower seeking the holy water to defeat Tao Pai Pai, but actually got some very interesting training. Here we really see the principles that would later be established as the core of Ultra Instinct. Although Goku struggled a bit, this is where he first learned how to react to an opponent's movements without thinking. Goku wastes energy by making too many unnecessary extra movements, and that's what Ultra Instinct kind of fixes in a fighter.

Korin also took a more well rounded approach, making Goku run up and down the tower to improve his lung capacity so he could breathe better and last longer in fights. It's not really Ultra Instinct, but it makes him a more holistic fighter. Afterward, Goku beat Tao Pai Pai in the rematch, not just because of the later retcon of the zenkai but because he legitimately learned something new. Many years later he returned to the tower and aimed higher, using the Nyoibo to reach what many in the West call Kami's Lookout, where he met Mr. Popo and Kami.

Mr. Popo's teachings were probably the most profound until Whis

Goku initially went to meet Kami to recreate the Dragon Balls, since Kami created them, before the Namekian backstory came in. I know people want to make Team Four Star jokes about Mr. Popo secretly being the strongest ever, but he was a pretty tough and very knowledgeable figure at this point. His role was to test whether Goku was fit to train with Kami, and he revealed that even though Goku was physically powerful, he was weak in spirit and skill. Popo taught him there's always someone stronger, which Goku would be reminded of with Vegeta, Frieza, Majin Buu, Jiren and more. He has to overcome these people by overcoming himself.

Popo's teachings were the most profound up to that point in the series, and I would even argue they're probably the most profound until Goku meets Whis. The anime version of this arc has tons of filler that adds to the lore and philosophy behind the training, and this is one place where the anime beats the manga. Some folks don't like that filler, but to me the adventures Goku goes on to discover himself are some of the most fascinating in the entire series. Popo taught him deeper aspects of ki control, including the connection between mind, body and spirit, and without training with Popo and Kami, Goku would not have been ready for the Kaioken whatsoever.

Popo taught Goku that by reducing your thoughts until your mind is empty, your heart remains calm, and guess who brings it up again later? Whis. Does that mean Goku is relearning things? Maybe, but I think it's more a divine teaching that needs to be mastered to truly tap into Ultra Instinct. Popo calms his heart until Goku can barely sense his ki while standing right in front of him. In Super manga chapter 64, when Goku taps into perfected silver Ultra Instinct against Moro, the wind and tides pick up, then everything goes quiet, and Piccolo and Gohan feel exactly what Goku felt with Popo: they can see him, but it's almost like nothing is there.

Popo also taught Goku to be as fast as lightning, and while it's not exactly the same, with Ultra Instinct Goku dodges attacks much faster than lightning; even Beerus, using it in the manga, shows how fast he is against the other gods. In Dragon Ball episode 127, Popo tells Goku to empty his mind of thoughts. "You must be like a stone," he says, almost devoid of emotions and thoughts, which is exactly how Whis trained Goku in Super. No, Goku isn't using Ultra Instinct here, but the principles are rooted in Jeet Kune Do. Bruce Lee talked about how water put in a cup becomes the cup: fluidity, motion, not thinking. Toriyama put these principles into Dragon Ball decades before Ultra Instinct.

King Kai became Goku's first cosmic god and his most advanced master before Whis

We barely see Kami's training on screen, but we know it fortified Goku's mind and matured him as a fighter. He was an absolute beast at the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai against Ma Junior. Then, after dying in the battle with Raditz, Goku trained with King Kai and learned to push his body to limits he'd never dreamed of. In Japanese, Kami was literally the god of Earth, not the guardian as the dub told you, but he still wasn't a cosmic deity like the Kais. So King Kai, at the end of Snake Way, was the first such god Goku trained under. The anime teased training with the Grand Kai, but that never really materialized.

That led to Goku's first technique of the gods before Ultra Instinct, the Kaioken. The Spirit Bomb is also a technique of the gods. Both use mind, body and spirit combined, the same thing Popo was teaching, and the Spirit Bomb has a spiritual connection to Goku's surroundings and requires a calm heart. Directly tying this training to Ultra Instinct, there's not much here, except maybe the importance of gravity training, which became a staple of Dragon Ball Z and let Goku withstand opponents under extreme pressure.

On Namek, Goku became his own master

Early in the Namek and Frieza saga, Goku trains by himself on his ship to master his own body. When he lands on Namek to face the Ginyu Force, the symbol on his gi is his own symbol, representing himself. This gets very lost in translation, but it means Goku has attained mastery of self and is now a master of the martial arts.

For the rest of Dragon Ball Z, up until the end of the manga, Goku takes on no more masters. He trains himself, trains Gohan in the Room of Spirit and Time, and teaches Goten and Trunks the fusion pose. It's not until Super, when he meets gods higher than King Kai, that he learns from a deity again, and that's Whis. So Whis had to be a pretty special guy. Ultra Instinct is something the angels have naturally inside of them, and Goku was taught about it before he even knew what it was.

Whis was preparing Goku for Ultra Instinct before anyone knew it

With Whis and Beerus arriving in Battle of Gods, Goku learned divine ki, or god ki, opening forms he could never reach as a mere mortal. Training with Whis alongside Vegeta was a game changer. The principles of Ultra Instinct were hinted as far back as Resurrection F, where Whis criticizes Goku and tries to teach him a better way. He teaches them ki containment: keeping your heart and mind calm at all times while increasing your strength and containing your energy inside you, which led to the god forms.

Whis trained the duo with a clear goal, though not one we knew about at the time. It was hinted that he's looking for someone to replace Beerus, and some would say Goku or Vegeta, but he seemed to lean more toward Vegeta, especially in the chapters out when I wrote this. Either way, he knew if anybody could reach godhood it would be these two. Whis even admits in episode 110 that he hoped this would happen. Did Toriyama plan this? I don't know, but what a way to connect everything.

Ultra Instinct Sign took two different roads in the anime and manga

Goku's first use was Ultra Instinct Omen, or Sign, in episode 110, and the manga went a different way, so there are two continuities here. Back in 2017 I explained in explicit detail how Goku shattered his limits by protecting himself from dying to the Spirit Bomb. So many people got this wrong: it wasn't that he took energy from it. It was his will to live in combination with that energy and everything he had learned. In the manga, Roshi's version of Ultra Instinct inspires Goku instead, and in my opinion the anime version is 10 times better, because Roshi having this trick and never showing Goku is kind of weird to me. The anime also had more dramatic tension and a more epic reveal.

Before Ultra Instinct, Goku had no chance against Jiren. With completed Ultra Instinct he landed real damage in both versions. In the anime it was almost as if he would win, but his body gave out because it wasn't ready for that power; in the manga it just wasn't strong enough. In anime episode 131, the last episode, Goku tells Vegeta he doesn't even know how he tapped into it. That wasn't in the manga, but you could assume it was the same, because Goku still couldn't use it at will until he met Merus.

Merus was Goku's final teacher before he mastered his version of the form

In the Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc, or Moro arc, Merus, the angel posing as a Galactic Patrolman and Whis's brother, took Goku into a mysterious space resembling the Room of Spirit and Time while Vegeta went to Yardrat. At first Goku couldn't land a single blow despite using all his forms, and he struggled to control his emotions. In chapter 52, Merus taught him that the source of emotions is the heart, so clearing your heart of emotions and your head of unnecessary thoughts, just as Popo and Whis had taught, was the key to self balance and self awareness, something taught in Buddhism quite a bit. Goku is based on Sun Wukong, who goes through his own enlightenment and was a character of a clear mind.

When Merus sacrificed himself, breaking the angelic code, and disappeared because of Moro, Goku faced a choice like the one on Namek when Frieza killed his best friend. He could have unleashed his rage, but this was an older, wiser, better trained Goku. He calmed down, reflected on what Merus said, and transformed into silver haired perfected Ultra Instinct. Merus gave him a situation where he had no choice, because outside of Merus, another angel or maybe even Beerus, Goku was the only one who could beat Moro.

Whis's true Ultra Instinct may point toward Goku's fight with Uub

The road didn't end there. For the Granolah arc Goku went back to Whis, because Toriyama and Toyotaro wanted to set up an alternate road for Vegeta with Beerus, with the two mirroring each other. Here we learn about the angelic version, which I'm calling true Ultra Instinct. Whis reveals that real mastery means tapping into its properties within your body at all times, with Ultra Instinct as Goku's base and the silver haired form as a trump card. It somewhat reminds me of full power Super Saiyan from Dragon Ball Z, but on a godly level. Against Granolah, Goku used those properties as a technique in his God and Blue forms, increasing his speed and dexterity by an unquantifiable amount.

At the time I wrote this, it seemed to me this was teasing something to be paid off later. It's pretty clear the goal is for Goku's whole body to be in that state at all times, and I think the direction was, in a roundabout way, to retcon the end of the manga so that when Goku confronts Uub at the Tenkaichi Budokai, he has already mastered this in base form. With Super revealing that Uub, the reincarnation of Majin Buu, has god ki and possibly a lot of it, the fight doesn't change much, but the way we perceive it does, because both are much more powerful than we thought before the Dragon Ball renaissance.

Which of Goku's masters do you think did the most to prepare him for Ultra Instinct?