Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods brought Dragon Ball out of a long slumber and expanded the series' scope more than ever. Suddenly, Dragon Ball had an entire multiverse, Super Saiyan transformations were replaced by God forms, and the franchise's power-scaling rose to incredible new heights with the introduction of Super Saiyan God, Beerus, and Whis.

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As much as Battle of Gods did to revive the franchise, it's a movie that played things safe. The movie that really changed Dragon Ball forever is none other than Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. Starring Piccolo and Gohan as the main characters closer to the End of Z than ever, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero finally moved Dragon Ball into the future after years of narrative stagnation.

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero Made Gohan & Piccolo Main Characters Again

Dragon Ball Super was basically the Goku and Vegeta show for its entire run. At most, each arc will have a side character who gets extra focus, like Future Trunks in the Goku Black Saga, Merus in the Moro arc, and Granolah in his eponymous saga. The Z-Fighters mainly existed for fan service fights more than anything, rarely if ever actually moving the plot forward – something that could be felt rather painfully all throughout the Tournament of Power.

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero did the unthinkable for modern Dragon Ball and sidelined Goku and Vegeta firmly into the background, allowing Piccolo and Gohan to not only get the most character development they've gotten since Dragon Ball Z, but actually move the plot forward. Piccolo serves as the main focal point character for most of the movie, investigating the Red Ribbon Army himself while trying to spur Gohan back into action.

Gohan doesn't really join the fray until he finds out Pan has been kidnapped, at which point he dominates the action as the movie's main fighter. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero doubles down on the best things about Piccolo and Gohan as characters: their unbreakable bond, Piccolo's commitment to being a mentor to both Gohan & Pan, and Gohan's ability to push himself past his limits even when he's out of practice. By end of Super Hero, Gohan and Piccolo are once again on equal footing with Goku and Vegeta – not just narratively, but in terms of Power Level, too.

The Z-Fighters are Stronger Than Ever Thanks to Gohan Beast & Orange Piccolo

Following in Ultra Instinct's footsteps, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is making it clear that Super Saiyan forms are a thing of the past. Both Piccolo and Gohan unlock new transformations that make them stronger than ever. After making a wish on the Dragon Balls to unlock his full potential, Shenron makes Piccolo even stronger by granting him access to the unique Orange Piccolo transformation. Orange Piccolo is strong enough to rival Goku and Vegeta, according to Akira Toriyama, and is now one of the strongest Z-Fighters.

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At the end of the movie, Piccolo's fakeout death triggers Gohan's rage, unleashing all his potential into a non-Super Saiyan form called Gohan Beast. It's heavily implied that Gohan Beast is connected to Ultimate Gohan from the end of Dragon Ball Z – a state that brings out all of Gohan's latent power, and then some. Gohan Beast is so powerful, he kills Cell Max himself and then later defeats Mastered Ultra Instinct Goku in the Dragon Ball Super manga. Even better, Gohan Beast is currently the strongest Z-Fighter in the series, and second strongest mortal after Black Frieza.

Vegeta Finally Beat Goku in a Fair & Square Fight

Vegeta's beaten Goku before, but never in a fair and square fight. In the Saiyan Saga, Vegeta loses to the Earthlings and considers his one-on-one fight with Goku a total defeat because Goku won their beam struggle and was able to raise his Power Level higher than Vegeta by pushing Kaioken to x4. In the Majin Buu Saga, Vegeta knocks out Goku with a cheap shot, and feels deeply insulted when he learns Goku could have turned Super Saiyan 3 at any time and ended the fight instantly.

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero dedicates an entire subplot to Goku and Vegeta fighting in their base forms without any transformations. After a very close fight, Vegeta just barely beats Goku, proving himself the stronger warrior between the two. For the first time in Dragon Ball history, Akira Toriyama allowed Vegeta to be better than his rival and net a genuine, undisputed win. That alone is a sign that Dragon Ball Super is ready to move in a new direction, one that isn't as celebratory of Goku and ready to give Vegeta the credit he deserves for working so hard to improve himself.

Dragon Ball Has Never Been Closer to the End of Z

More important than anything else, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero finally moved the series' timeline forward. Dragon Ball Super was stuck in a weird in-between point where it refused to let the characters age even as the timeline inched closer to the Peaceful World Saga. It's a huge problem that the characters in the Granolah the Survivor Saga looked exactly how they did in Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero marked the series' first real time skip in decades.

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Goten and Trunks are teenagers now, Gohan has a new design, Pan is no longer a baby but an actual child who can talk and is training under Piccolo. For the first time in a very long time, it feels like time has meaning in Dragon Ball. As of Super Hero, the story is only one year away from the 28th Tenkaichi Budokai where Goku will meet Uub and start training his strongest disciple. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero has finally set Dragon Ball up to move beyond the end of Akira Toriyama's original ending, and tell stories we can't possibly know the conclusions to.