Why Goku Keeps Switching Between Red, Blue and Yellow Super Saiyan Forms in Dragon Ball Super

It does not matter whether you are following the Battle of Gods movie, the manga done by Toyotaro, or the anime, the idea of Goku achieving Super Saiyan God is pretty much the same across the board. He used the ritual and tapped into a power he himself said he never knew he could reach on his own. It was a new thing for Goku, the first time he ever tapped into or felt what is referred to as God ki, or divine energy.

Vegeta Learned Super Saiyan God Without the Ritual, and Together They Built Super Saiyan Blue

Later on we find out that Vegeta was able to learn this without the ritual, just by training with Whis. Goku would join him, and they would train together and learn what became Super Saiyan Blue. As Goku describes it in Resurrection F, he got a taste of something called Super Saiyan God, and the blue haired form is what happens when a Saiyan with the power of a Super Saiyan God, or with God ki, transforms into a Super Saiyan.

Why Goku Reverted to Gold Against Beerus, and What Beerus Kept

Going back to the fight with Goku versus Beerus in Battle of Gods, there is a part where Goku loses his Super Saiyan God form and reverts to the golden haired Super Saiyan, presumably because that was the transformation Goku was most comfortable with by that point, the one he had used more than any other. His body sort of regressed back into what it found familiar. That is the way I have always perceived it, and it is the way that makes the most sense to me.

But Beerus himself says that he retained some of the Super Saiyan God power, which again would be referred to as God ki.

Blue Is Confirmed More Powerful Than God, and Then Episode 104 Brought Red Back

It has already been explained several different times, in the series and the manga both, that Super Saiyan Blue, or Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan, either name works, is without question more powerful than Super Saiyan God. As I put it, "If you think otherwise, then it's just willful ignorance, and I don't really care. That's your problem, not mine."

With Dragon Ball Super episode 104, there was a little bit of confusion because Goku went back to using the red haired form. I want to say clearly that it was never explicitly stated Goku could not use the red haired form again. That was never said.

The Manga's Trunks Arc Already Showed Goku and Vegeta Using Red

In the Dragon Ball Super manga written by Toyotaro, we see Goku and Vegeta use the red haired form in the Trunks arc. Goku actually used it a few times even earlier in the series, but only in the manga. It appears the anime staff adopted the Toyotaro approach to what Super Saiyan God is, though it could also be a note from Toriyama himself. As of right now, there are no details on the behind the scenes of that decision.

Here is how it goes as I understand it. Goku can use gold, the yellow haired form, plus SS2 and SS3. My perception is that he does not use SS2 and SS3 because they are obsolete transformations, and also because Super Saiyan God and Blue are simply better. With episode 104, God made a comeback, and Goku switched between God and Blue several times in that episode, just like he and Vegeta did in the manga.

Why Super Saiyan Blue Comes at a Cost

I covered this in more detail in two other videos, one with Herms called Super Saiyan God Returns, and another called Super Saiyan God Vegeta Explained. The short version is that Super Saiyan Blue offers a tremendous amount of power and key control, plus the most speed, and you can always stack Kaioken on top to multiply that further. But it also tends to wear out the body if you fight for a prolonged period of time.

Super Saiyan God initially did flare out on Goku, and Blue certainly seemed more stable at the time. I think what happened, mostly off screen, is that Goku, through constant training and learning more about his own body from Whis, figured out that he lost the God form against Beerus because his body at the time was not used to God ki at all. Deeper into the series, Goku has much more control over his body, which is why he can now tap into the red haired Super Saiyan God form.

Goku says in episode 104 that he is saving Super Saiyan Blue because it is implied that Blue can decrease your stamina if you fight for a prolonged period of time. My own question when I watched the episode was why we did not see Goku use the red haired form previously. Perhaps he had not figured out he could before that, though that does not entirely make sense to me.

My Theory, and Gaming Claw's, on Why Goku Is Saving Blue for the Tournament of Power

One theory I think is the most logical, and honestly the one I believe is the truth, came from Gaming Claw on Twitter. He believes the reason Goku is not using Blue is that the Tournament of Power is different from previous fights with Goku Black and Frieza. Going into this tournament, Goku knows he is not only facing off against seventy other potential opponents from seven other universes, he knows there are tough opponents who will challenge him, and he is choosing not to use the blue haired form because it uses up a lot of stamina, as Whis and Goku himself have said repeatedly in the anime and manga.

Goku's Fight With Dyspo Shows His Mastery of Switching Forms

In his battle with Dyspo, Goku knew from watching Dyspo fight Hit that Dyspo's biggest advantage was his speed. Rather than going to the blue haired form, which is just as fast as red, Goku realized that staying in Blue against Dyspo would be detrimental to his stamina, and by the time he faced Toppo or Jiren he would be very tired. Red is not faster than blue, but red is faster than yellow, the old school golden Super Saiyan.

So instead he switched between red and blue, just as it was done in the Toyotaro manga. Red gives him a speed advantage over regular gold Super Saiyan without draining his stamina like Blue does, and without punishing his body the way Blue stacked with Kaioken does, since Kaioken still takes a toll even though it multiplies speed, senses and strength. Thinking intelligently about the future of his body and the tournament, Goku's approach is essentially to use Blue only when necessary.

During the Dyspo fight Goku even brings up timing, trying to explain that he has developed a much higher knowledge of how these transformations work and how they affect his body. He can go between red, blue and yellow almost at will because of how much training he has done, which is why, even with some of his past mistakes, he is always considered a fighting genius. It is similar to how in Dragon Ball Z he figured out that the bulky transformation Vegeta and Trunks used was not effective against Cell because Cell was too fast.

The Power Order, and the One Question I Still Have

As far as power goes, the order is yellow, then SS2 and SS3 presumably, then red, then blue, but blue drains your stamina, which is why Goku chose red in episode 104. Given that he knew this was going to be a long tournament, there was no reason to exhaust himself early when he would be fighting for much longer than he did against Goku Black, Frieza or the others.

The only real unanswered question I have coming out of this is whether Vegeta, in the anime, knows how to use the red haired form the way he does in the manga. We have not seen him use it at all in the anime, though we know for certain he did in the manga. Time will tell on that one. I wish this had been explained prior to this arc, but it could simply be that Goku did not figure it out himself until he trained for this tournament.

Do you think Vegeta will end up using the red haired Super Saiyan God form in the anime the way he did in the manga?