What Could 'Dragon Ball Super's 'Unprecedented Super Showdown' Be?

As Dragon Ball Super approaches its final episode, the usual episode synopses and spoiler leaks are having even bigger impact, as they hint at what the outcome of the Tournament of Power will be, as well as how the series could end. An episode leak for Dragon Ball Super's penultimate episode (130) has been particularly buzzworthy, as it may indicate a big twist:

Provisional title for DBS ep.130, airing March 18th: "An Unprecedented Super Showdown!!" pic.twitter.com/hDjnfdKpWS

— Todd Blankenship (@Herms98) February 23, 2018

That provisional title, "An Unprecedented Super Showdown!" has fans now buzzing like crazy about what it means. There are several distinct possibilities for what an "unprecedented super showdown" will be, at this point - here are the most likely theories:

Final Fight Game-Changer

We've been discussing for weeks now about how the Dragon Ball franchise has effectively created a big new challenge for itself, thanks to the events of the Tournament of Power, and all the new power-ups and transformations that have come as a result. Namely, that the new power levels demand entire new fight mechanics and animation aesthetics, in order to be properly realized onscreen.

As you van view above, this indeed seems to be the case in the first footage of a fully-powered Jiren taking on Goku in his mastered Ultra Instinct state. It's truly like nothing we've ever seen before, and it could therefore be argued that the "unprecedented showdown" reference could be a description of Goku and Jiren entering the max power stage of their duel - which, according to Dragon Ball trends, would definitely occur around episode 130. However, it's not the only option, given where things stand:

The Most Unlikely Tag-Team

The first big conspiracy that fans have about episode 130's title is that it has been crafted specifically to preserve a big twist that's in the works: Freeza's big return in the tournament!

When last we saw the evil emperor, he tried to bounce back from a smackdown and come at Jiren full-force in golden form, frothing with rage at how the Universe 11 fighter embarrassed him. Jiren easily countered the attack, and beat Freeza down hard. We haven't seen him since then, as Freeza's position was lost when Jiren's attack splintered the arena into fragments. For months now, fans have speculated that Freeza could ultimately win the tournament and get to make the Super Dragon Ball wish. While that's still viable, there's one way it could happen that many never figured on: Goku and Freeza fighting together!

Seeing Goku and Freeza fighting as a tag-team is one of the more unlikely things to come to (outside of Dragon Ball Fighterz, where you can now do it everyday...). It would definitely qualify for both the "Unprecedented" and "Super" parts of that provisional title, and could ultimately go one of two ways: Either Freeza makes a very uncharacteristic sacrifice to help Goku win (in exchange for Goku's wish to include a Freeza resurrection wish); or Freeza helps Goku win, but like with Gohan, Freeza stays in the ring while Goku sacrifices himself to beat Jiren.

Divine War

One of the longest theories in this story arc of Dragon Ball Super is that the "Universal Survival" arc is a stage-setter for a sequel arc involving some kind of divine war. The presence of gods, angels, the Zenos and Grand Priest all in one place, and power-ups that directly challenge the power of the Gods (Ultra Instinct, Jiren, Toppo), it has seemed highly likely that Dragon Ball Super's next arc was taking things up to a divine level of warfare.

If that is the case, then something that happens in episode 129 could throw the Tournament of Power off the rails entirely, resulting in the various divine figures and/or former combtants all throwing down in a massive melee! Again, this would definitely qualify for the term "Unprecedented," and depending on how it played out, the aftermath could be a cosmic "reset" that explains the end of Dragon Ball Super, and sets up what comes next.

What are your best theories on what Dragon Ball Super episode 130's title means? Let us know in the comments!

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Dragon Ball Super airs on Crunchyroll Saturday evenings at 7:15 p.m. CST. Adult Swim airs the English dub during its Toonami block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m, and is now available to stream on FunimationNOW and Amazon Video.