Dragon Ball Super: Ep 126 Review

Dragon Ball Super Ep 126 poster

When I was I ten years old, I was exposed to DragonBall through its sequel Dragonball Z. The first episode I watched the fight between Majin Vegeta and Goku. I was hooked! I loved the fighting cinematography as a whole. I loved the way everything was so dark and gritty. But most importantly I loved Vegeta's speeches about his pride and his feelings of intense jealousy to Goku surpassing with each new transformation and technique.

The key themes, in the past episodes focused on Vegeta, in Super has always been centered around Vegeta's pride. When we see Vegeta in the Sayian Saga, the Namak Saga, and the Cell Saga we see Vegeta's pride focus in on his strength and title as a Saiyan Prince. Vegeta's ego allows him to overcome the struggle of being one of few survivors of his Saiyan Race. Vegeta's pride as a prince allows to not allow his enslavement to Frieza consume his identity. We see Vegeta use his pride as a vehicle to overcome the hurdles of becoming Super Saiyan in the Cell Saga as well confronting his defeat by Android 18 in his speech to himself to overcome his doubts and fears to becoming ascending Super Saiyan. Vegeta's pride as a Saiyan Prince allows him to overcome the pain and suffering of losing his Saiyan race. However, we see Vegeta's pride first begin to change into his family when Future Trunks was killed by Super Perfect Cell. 

This is the first turning point of Vegeta as a whole. Vegeta's pride begins to encompasses into his family. We see this when Vegeta is proud of Trunk's victory over Goten in the World Tournament. We see Vegeta question the focus of his pride, when confronted by Goku on his son and his wife Bulma. And finally we see Vegeta's pride begins to encompass, not just his Saiyan heritage but also the family he has created as a whole through his sacrifice against Majin Buu as a whole.

As a fan, I felt that the chemistry between Goku and Vegeta has felt off in Super anime compared to their relationship and the Super manga. However, I felt the past few episodes of Super really helped showcase Vegeta's pride such his fight between Cabba in Universe 8 arc, Goku Black, Jiren, and Toppo. I feel especially that Vegeta's pride in his fight between Cabba becomes expanding over his inner joy of the survival of his Sayain race in Universe 6. That's why Cabba becomes important to Vegeta. Cabba represents the Saiyan race that Vegeta once lost and Cabba's "gentle attitude"is parallel to his respect speech to Goku in the Buu Saga.

Vegeta's new form is similar to his ascended Saiyan form in the Cell Saga, which focuses on the parallel of his defeat by Android 18 and the manifestation of his pride through the Ascended Super Saiyan Form. Despite my hestination over the color design of the his new form, the return of his physical design as a Ascended Saiyan really showcased emotion of his pride to Cabba, as a fellow Saiyan, his family, and his friends. I felt both chessy and chills at the revelation of Vegeta's new form and the symbol it represents to his pride.

In this ep, I felt chills when Vegeta's refusal to throw away his pride and the rage he feels at Toppo for abandoning his "justice" despite the cheese. Vegeta's pride is the everything that Vegeta values to overcome the fear and troubles to overcome. I wished the fight between Toppo and Vegeta lasted for one more episode. I didn't like that Toppo was eliminated too quickly. I didn't like that android 17 wasn't eliminated right away, despite the smart calculated choices in the tournament. I wished Toppo beat Vegeta more savagely in this episode, then insulting his pride to showcase the importance of Vegeta's identity as a weapon to confront new challenges. However, I did like flashback to Vegeta's sacrifice. I liked how Vegeta tore Toppo's ass like paper, despite my earlier complaint. And I liked his final sacrifice against Toppo though I felt that Vegeta dying again to get Toppo out would give Super the edge that Dragonball Z had in the past.

I'm just really happy that Vegeta finally beat somebody that was pretty high-level as a God of Destruction. But I also feel empty. Years of rooting for Vegeta to get the win over his powerful opponents has left me...sad. But happy that the cultivation of Vegeta's pride in his life has finally given Vegeta, the strength to defeat a really powerful opponent.

Click Here to download Dragon Ball Super Episode 126 !