There Are Spoilers In Our Dragon Ball Super Episode 127 Review
So Dragon Ball Super episode 127 just aired and in this episode Goku and the other three remaining warriors from Universe 7 face off against Jiren, the strongest of all fighters and the only one still standing in the tournament to defeat. But will Universe 7 be able to overcome Jiren?
As an episode this one is mostly fighting based, although it does spend some time on Jiren’s backstory and motivations.
As for the fighting side of this episode, we saw all members of Universe 7 try everything that they could to defeat Jiren. In the beginning we see Goku, 17 and Vegeta team up and fight him all at once, but even that seems useless until 17 somehow manages to catch Jiren off guard with a ki blast in the back. The attack at close range wounds Jiren slightly and damages his uniform, with 17 also hit by his own blast.
The attack from 17 showed Goku and Vegeta a kind of weakness in Jiren and that he could at least be damaged. It’s not something at all that would beat him, but it was enough to get their morale up to fight Jiren again. Jiren on the other hand is not stupid and he’s an experienced fighter, although a scheme is hatched by our three fighters, it just doesn’t work and Jiren even says it won’t work a second time. All three end up on the ground and look beaten.
Out of nowhere Frieza gets in on the action and fights Jiren 1v1 in base form and then in his Golden form but is quickly beaten down. Interestingly I think in here we did get a comment from Frieza that he is done with the rules and wishes to just kill Jiren. He’s not successful here, but I wonder if he might try again in later episodes? It’s possible I think because if you remember the return of Frieza arc, he did have a plan for his friend to shoot Goku when his guard is down so he could win the fight and possibly kill him. I wonder if Frieza might chill for a while somewhere and try do the same to Jiren at some point? He might not, but it’s just a thought.
17 as a fighter is a major part of this episode, as someone with basically unlimited stamina he just won’t go down. The later fights in the episode see 17 try to hold black a ki blast from Jiren and save Goku and Vegeta from being knocked out as the two need rest so that they can continue. Strangely he self destructs doing this and is dead! I honestly was surprised about this, it would have been about the same story wise if he just ended up sitting in the spectator seats for the tournament, but the writers I think wanted something more impactful and this certainly was.
There was little dialogue in this episode, but what we did get did reveal quite a lot about Jiren, Strangely when 17 and Jiren were about to fight Belmond out of nowhere asked what 17 was fighting for. To which 17 replied he was fighting so that he could wish to go on a cruise. It’s a bit of a strange motivation considering the scheme of things and everything the is at stake. It’s also obvious here that 17 isn’t going to win the tournament because imagine the arc ends with all Universes wiped out and 17 on a cruise with his family!
The second part of the dialogue turned to what Jiren is fighting for. As with the last few episodes, we have been looking into character motivations a little more. We all know what Vegeta, Frieza and Goku are fighting for and even Toppo too. But what about Jiren?
The episode saw us go into Jiren’s character history where we learn that at a young age his family and his people were killed by a great evil. He was rescued by an old man who trained him to fight and together with other students they went and fought this evil person. But were all defeated and killed, including his master. Jiren from this point kept training and is now grouped up with the Pride troopers, but as we have seen, he’s not really a team player. In fact he doesn’t fully respect Toppo and even in this episode basically tells Belmond to shut up and doesn’t even say “Sama” in his speech, which is a major disrespect.
So why did the writers want us to know all this about Jiren? What is his character? From looking at it, I think Jiren is a character who has been hurt twice and lost people he was close to twice already. Although he now has a new group he has not allowed himself to get close to them and keeps people at a distance. This is to stop himself from getting hurt. But will this motivate Jiren to win? Also strangely we were never told what Jiren’s wish actually was, but from Belmond’s look, and the comment from 17, I think it must have something to do with Jiren’s past.
Another question to come out of this episode was who was this villain that Jiren couldn’t beat and is he still preparing for that?
One unaddressed consequence of 17 dying in this episode is what will happen to his family now that he is gone? Is it possible ever wish the character back I wonder?
Overall this was a good episode for the show that was mostly action based. It’s nice to know a little about Jiren as a character and what motivates him to fight the way that he does. I do wish they spent a little more time on Jiren’s back story though, it was a little rushed.
Next week it looks like Vegeta will face off against Jiren, if he gets knocked off next week that will leave just Frieza and Goku left on the arena to win the tournament and save their Universe! Can you believe that possibility? Frieza and Goku!
