There Are Spoilers In Our Dragon Ball Super Episode 131 Review – Episode Discussion
So the final episode of Dragon Ball Super just aired and this one wasn’t just a finale for the arc, it was the finale for the entire series (at least for now). In this episode we see things pick up immediately after they ended in the episode last week. Goku having pushed himself to his limits is now out of the fight and on the ground with only Frieza and 17 still standing and having the burden of defeating Jiren between them. But will they be able to do it?
The first half of the episode is devoted to the final parts of the action and the second part of the episode is devoted to wrapping up the series, things happen quite quickly but still are somehow done well enough that it doesn’t seem rushed at all.
Frieza and 17 try their best against Jiren and at first it looks like they have him beaten. Jiren while strong, is quite drained from his fight with Goku as he himself was already beaten last week. But, somehow he’s managed to get back up to fight the two remaining warriors. It isn’t long though before 17 and Frieza have Jiren down again and Frieza moves towards Jiren so that he can defeat him.
It’s just before Jiren’s defeat that they do just a little more with the character. Jiren in the series as we’ve discussed has always been a little of a loner and has not trusted anyone for a long time and this contrast has been getting stronger and stronger when compared to a character like Goku who has the full trust of his friends and this was shown in last week’s episode too. This is something that’s been lost with Jiren and the character for a long time but in episode 131 we see that restored in Jiren. Toppo stands up and starts yelling at Jiren that he believes in him and his strength “You may not believe in your own strength but I do, until the end Jiren!” he says. It was this speech that got Jiren back up and I feel that from this that Jiren’s character has in a way been saved and has become stronger due to his participation in the tournament. Towards the second half of the episode when all is won, we see both Goku and later Toppo comment on the moment and it’s really a nice thing Jiren and the character to end in this way.
Jiren’s newfound strength quickly overwhelms both Frieza and 17 who are struggling to hold him back. That is until Goku joins them with his last bit of strength. This is another big part of the episode because although the theme has been trust for some time now and Goku is the character most strongly related to that in the show. We’ve not seen this between Goku and Frieza at all, the two don’t trust each other. It’s been mentioned that over time Goku has been able to turn old enemies into friends but it isn’t something that’s been possible with Frieza. Goku and Freiza have a little chat about keeping each other’s promises to each other and a small bond is formed at a time when they are so close to losing everything, this causes the two old enemies to come together. 17 comments “Are you two done making up” and then from there on out Frieza and Goku for the first time ever start to truly work together, with the full trust of each other and what represents the true strength of Universe 7 (trust).
To defeat Jiren, both Goku and Frieza are taken out of the match as they both took Jiren down together by grabbing hold of him and flying out of the arena. That leaves just 17 as the final winner. Who would have picked it?
The wish part is something I’ve mentioned a few times in other reviews and have been hoping for a long while that the wish is to bring back all the erased universes. As much as it could have been something else, I just couldn’t see them erasing such a rich and diverse character set that had been created in the series so far. To have them all gone in the show forever after this seemed insane to me. Thankfully I was a little right in that 17 wished them all back, however I had thought it would be Goku that would be the one to do this. I guess it did fit in well for 17 to be the one to do this as he’s a park ranger and all, I mean it’s hard to go back and try to save the animals and go on a cruise when you could have saved a whole bunch of universes.
The second half of the episode saw things coming to a close and we were informed by the Grand Priest that if anything else had been wished other than what was wished then everyone would have been erased. Which is insane in itself. Did they want the universes gone or didn’t they? We also see everyone quite happy, and Frieza pouting a little but is made happy when Whis gives him a present from Beerus which restores him to life. There’s some jokes about him returning to his old ways, but Goku is there to stop him if he does. It’s an interesting end to Frieza’s character, when the show does return in the future I would be very curious as to how they portray him. It’s not like I think that Frieza and Goku are going to be best buddies, but I don’t think their hatred of each other is the same as it was in the past. What they will do with the two characters in the future has a lot of potential.
During the final moments of the episode we see a lot of happy family bits from everyone back home on earth and get shown some positive imagery from the various universes as they were restored, it’s all very nice to see. At the very end we see Goku and Vegeta sparring with each other and Vegeta asks Goku where his Ultra Instinct form is and Goku says he can’t do it anymore. Which I guess means in the future when the show will return, there might still be a long way for Goku and Vegeta to go. Although Ultra Instinct is super powerful, it’s hard for me to imagine a warrior just appearing when the show returns or when the movie airs that could match Goku in that form. But i’m very curious as to where they take the characters from here, considering how strong they’ve all gotten I’m curious about who could really challenge them.
Overall this was a very nice episode of the show. I felt things wrapped up quite nicely and it was good to see Jiren’s character have his issues resolved, Frieza and Goku work together and also 17 wishing back all the universes. Although much was resolved in this final episode of Dragon Ball Super, I feel there’s so much potential and a rich pool of content for them to use in the future for these characters. Although I hope it’s not long until we see the upcoming film or a future TV series, I’m certainly going to re-watch Dragon Ball Super from the beginning now as I really loved everything about it. Looking back on the show, it was all quite well done and especially towards the final few episodes the animation really was impressive and the show had a bunch of great themes and character moments.
Thanks to all involved in the making of the show for the great experience 🙂
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