'Dragon Ball Super': Goku Black and Zamasu's Connection Explained

What We Know Now

Let's start with what we currently know about both Goku Black and Zamasu:

Goku Black is a malevolent evil-doer from the future timeline (no. 2) that Future Trunks comes from. He showed up at some point in Future Trunks' past (our future), looking just like Goku and wiping out everyone in Future Trunks' world. Black first got Beerus and Whis' attention when they sensed his unique energy when he appeared in the past - and more importantly, when the villain revealed himself to be in possession of a Time Ring, the mystical artifact that Supreme Kais use to monitor the time stream and its events. Goku Black also seemed to already know Goku, raising more questions about how the two are connected.

Meanwhile, we only got the introductory strokes of who Zamasu is, but that introduction was also very telling. Zamasu looks like a Supreme Kai, but he seems to show a lot more emotional instability than the usually Zen demeanours of the Kais. In particular, Zamasu is clearly impatient with (or even intolerant of) mortals, continuously referring to them with scorn and contempt. During his sparring session with Goku, it's revealed that Zamasu is quite an effective fighter. After Goku departs, it's clear that the sparring match had major ramifications: In Zamasu's view, the revelation of Goku's power was a game-changer. He now thinks mortals are more dangerous than he ever imagined, and vows to never forget about the power that is Goku.

So, what's the connection between Goku, Goku Black, and Zamasu? Well...

Well-Rounded Individual

Warning: Spoilers for the next few Dragon Ball Super Dub eps Follow!

If you're tired of grasping at the various straws of this mystery, allow us to pull them together for you: Goku Black isn't just connected to both Goku and Zamasu - Goku Black is both Goku and Zamasu!

Admittedly, it's a storyline that would make Back to the Future fans' heads spin (more on that next). The long-short of it, is that Goku Black was born from a version of Zamasu from one of Dragon Ball's many timelines (No. 6), in which the time stream was never affected by the arrival of Future Trunks (from timeline 2) or Cell (from timeline 3).

In that "unaltered timeline," Zamasu's hatred of mortals eventually leads him to betray Gowasu, killing his master and stealing his Potara earrings to become a true Superme Kai, who is able to activate the Time Ring. Remembering the power of Goku, Zamasu gathers the Super Dragon Balls together and uses his wish to switch bodies with Goku, immediately killing his old body with Goku trapped in it. For good measure, he also kills Goten and Chi-Chi, before using the Time Ring to travel to Future Trunks' timeline (no. 2) to begin the campaign of destruction we've seen in Dragon Ball Super's "Future Trunks" saga. This is how he has a Time Ring, even though Gowasu proved to Beerus and Whis that he is in possession of all his rings: in the "main timeline" of the Dragon Ball series, the rings are all accounted for, but the what Beerus, Goku and Whis don't yet know is that the "unaltered timeline" also exists.

However, this explanation doesn't solve all of the mystery surrounding Goku Black. In order to break down the mystery, we have to get into even more confusing time travel mechanics...

Let's Do The Time Warp Again

Warning: DEEPER SPOILERS for the Dragon Ball Super Dub Series follow!

Terms like "casual loop" are better suited for class than anime watching, but it's also the only kind of term that can properly explain Goku Black's existence.

For reasons that are revealed during the "Future Trunks Saga," Goku Black exists as a time anomaly: He once was a single entity that was split into two timelines, due to a paradox that saw him at once created by time travel events (Future Trunks arrival in the past and Zamasu's first sparring session with Goku), and destroyed by time travel events (erased by a version of Beerus who traveled into the past to kill Zamasu before he became Goku Black).

While Beerus succeeded in destroying one version of present Beerus, the other from the unaltered timeline survives as Goku Black, due to the power of the Time Ring, which protects him from alterations to the time stream. In order to secure his own existence and increase his already massive power, Zamasu / Goku Black will soon enact an even deeper scheme...

All Zamasu Everything

Warning: Major Future Spoilers for Dragon Ball Super English Dub follow!!!!

As Dragon Ball Super Sub fans already know, upcoming episodes of Dragon Ball Super's Dub series will reveal yet another villain helping Goku Black: Future Zamasu!

We learn that a version of Zamasu exists in Future Trunks' timeline, and that same timeline is one where Goku is already dead heart disease (during the future events of "The Android / Cell Saga"). Because of that key difference, Zamasu is never inspired to carry out his extermination of mortals after his fight with Goku. Future Zamasu is more fully trained as a

Supreme Kai and fighter, but his evil urgings have not yet spilled over into action.

Goku Black's arrival in Timeline 2 changes everything. In order to eliminate the mortals of that timeline, Black also kills the Supreme Kais protecting them; due to structure of the divine order, killing the Kais also destroys their counterpart, the God of Destruction (Beerus). With no Goku or Beerus left in Timeline 2, Zamasu is never erased; Goku Black arrives and murders Timeline 2's Gowasu, seducing his Future self into admitting that they have the same mission of destruction in mind. Future Zamasu has mapped out all the various universes of his timeline and knows how to conquer them all.

In order to ensure their survival, Future Zamasu and Goku Black gather the Super Dragon Balls of that timeline and make a crucial wish: for Future Zamasu to be immortal. They then destroy the Super Dragon Balls to prevent any further wishes, and set their evil plan in motion.

If all that wasn't enough, Future Trunks, Goku and Co. soon learn that Goku Black and Future Zamasu have even more powerful weapons and schemes waiting in the wings... But we'll talk more about that when the time approaches.

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Does this explanation make things any easier to understand? Or just harder?

You can catch Dragon Ball Super's English Dub series Saturdays @ 10:30 / 9:30c on Toonami.