Summary
- The Granolah arc introduces the powerful and skilled villain who surpasses Goku's Ultra Instinct technique.
- Vegeta unveils his own powerful technique, Ultra Ego, which is a Divine Technique used by the Gods of Destruction.
- Ultra Ego has the unique ability to become stronger with every hit Vegeta takes, but he needs further training and refinement to reach its full potential.
The titular villain of Dragon Ball Super's Granolah arc proved himself to be incredibly powerful and highly skilled, bringing a very nuanced and unique move set to the franchise that allowed him to best even Goku's Ultra Instinct technique. After battling against the Saiyan by using a fraction of his overall strength, Granolah then proceeded to engage Vegeta in a fight, though the Prince had something hidden up his sleeve.
The fight began with a chase, but eventually led to the combatants facing each other, where Vegeta unveiled his extremely powerful Ultra Ego technique. This form was so strong that it surpassed both Granolah and Goku at the time and was only bested due to Vegeta's lack of experience with it. So, this raises an interesting question. Is the Granolah arc's version of Ultra Ego as far as it goes, or is there more to see from it?
How Does Ultra Ego Work?
Much like its Angelic counterpart, Ultra Instinct, Ultra Ego isn't a form in the traditional sense of Dragon Ball power-ups. This is because the main power behind it is a Divine Technique used by the Gods of Destruction, working exactly the way Ultra Instinct does for Goku since it, too, is a technique. Upon the beginning of Vegeta's training, Beerus explained this form to be the default state that the Gods are perpetually in.
Ultra Ego is merely a form or power-up that Vegeta goes through to be strong enough to wield the Power of Destruction, and this is reflected by its distinguishing characteristic that makes it unique. Unlike Ultra Instinct, which prioritizes precision in its movements by making the body essentially think on its own to dodge incoming attacks, Ultra Ego fully immerses its user into the battle and incentivizes taking damage.
This is because of the main ability of this form. Instead of dodging attacks like its Angelic counterpart, it invites damage, because every hit that Vegeta takes in this form ends up making him even stronger. Whenever a hit from an enemy connects, Vegeta's next move will be twice as powerful as it would have been before, making Ultra Ego the perfect offensive tactic and really complimenting Vegeta's fighting style as a brawler who aims for sheer offensive output.
Ultra Ego allows Vegeta to store and utilize the Power of Destruction, firing off waves and blasts of Ki that are infused with the ability, and also lets him maximize the destructive output of anything that he destroys with this power. Since this is a form meant to emulate a God of Destruction, Vegeta's hair also turns purple and his eyebrows disappear, giving him a primal and dangerous look befitting a Destroyer, as he can also use Hakai in this form.
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Will it be Enough For The Future?
Despite its seemingly overpowered nature and abilities, Ultra Ego does suffer a few drawbacks. This is mostly because the form has only ever been used once in the Granolah arc, which was also the very first time that Vegeta underwent the transformation. Due to this, his experience of using the form was virtually non-existent, which is why he ended up getting tired and overwhelmed at the end of his fight with the Cerealian. The key for Vegeta going into the future is the same as it is for Goku; refinement.
Dragon Ball has become sort of a meme over the years due to its many transformations that change the length, color or shape of the hair. However, this does not seem to be the direction that the series is going in right now. Ever since getting his first taste of Ultra Instinct during the Tournament of Power, Goku has undergone many iterations of the same form, eventually landing on a version that has been refined to best suit him.
This implies that this is what Vegeta may be doing as well. His Ultra Ego is an immensely strong transformation with the power to erase entire concepts out of existence, however, until he has sufficiently trained with it, he cannot realize its full potential, regardless of how strong it may be. By undergoing further training with Beerus and just simply using the form more, Vegeta can refine the technique to be far better for him in a battle.
This is a much better choice narratively as well. Many fans of the series have become quite bored with a new transformation in each subsequent arc because it makes the story very predictable and also greatly lessens the value of the previous transformations, as was seen with Super Saiyan God. With Divine beings like Angels and Gods being the axiom of power in the franchise and Goku and Vegeta's current forms being Divine Techniques, it would not make sense for them to keep unlocking new transformations that surpass such techniques.
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This is why the refinement of Ultra Ego is such an important next step for Vegeta, as it would allow him to use the full capabilities of the power of a Destroyer. Such refinement can come in a number of ways. One such way is that Vegeta can use the damage multiplying ability of Ultra Ego much more sparingly, in that instead of taking all the damage to make himself stronger as he did against Granolah, he can avoid it for the most part and only take damage occasionally.
Another way is by perfecting the defensive capabilities of the form so that the damage that he does concede barely does anything to him. When Goku used his Mastered Ultra Instinct against Moro, his body also took the main benefits of the technique and made itself much more resilient as a result, fortifying its strength in case there were a few attacks that slipped through his dodges. This way, he wouldn't feel the attacks as much.
Since his body was hardened to not take damage and even broke Moro's hand on impact, something similar would be an essential asset to Vegeta. If he trains his Ultra Ego to make his body just as strong, he could even let most of his opponent's hits land on him. This would not only make him more powerful as the fight went on, but it would also boost his defenses by not making him take as much damage.
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