'Dragon Ball Super': New Villain Moro's Powers Contain a Terrifying Cell Saga Easter Egg

Dragon Ball Super's new "Galactic Patrol Prisoner" arc has introduced the ancient and powerful sorcerer Planet-Eater Moro to the Dragon Ball mythos, and endowed him with a fearsome set of powers. In addition to having a powerful fighting form, and a level of dark magic that threatens the gods, Moro lives up to his name by being able to siphon the life forces of entire planets and their inhabitants, to strengthen himself.

One scene of the latest Dragon Ball Super manga deals with the aftermath of Goku reaching out to locate Moro's power signature - only to discover that Moro has the unique ability to block his efforts. When that happens, Vegeta steps up to use his own sensory abilities to locate Moro, and is promptly stopped by Goku. Vegeta asks Goku what it was like to make contact with Moro's chi, and Goku offers the following description:

"He could sense that I was searching for him!... It's like nothing I've felt before... He chi itself wasn't that huge, but it was terrifying. I've never felt anything like it. It was as if a whole lot of people were screaming in pain."

That description of Moro's soul actually being a sort of prison for all the poor souls he's absorbed is pretty horrifying. It's also a pretty big parallel to how Dragon Ball Z presented Imperfect Cell. As you can see in the video below, when the Z-Fighters of Earth battled Imperfect Cell, the villain revealed an aura that was depicted a a nightmarish cloud of tortured souls:

This new "Galactic Patrol Prisoner" arc is dipping back into Dragon Ball Z history to fashion some pretty big ties to the "Namek Saga" story of Freeza's hunt for the Namekian Dragon Balls. Even though Dragon Ball Super is now drawing upon that past, though, it does not at all mean that there is any connection between Moro and Cell. After all, the former has been locked up in a Galactic Patrol prison for the last 10 million years, while the latter is from a future alternate timeline - they could literally not be further apart.

What is interesting is how Dragon Ball Super's manga architect Toyotaro is drawing upon and referencing his mentor Akira Toriyama's visual theme about what the soul of a being who feeds on other looks/sounds like. It's a wonderful distinction, as Goku and Vegeta battling Moro is now a battle to liberate souls that are horribly suffering - a much more noble mission than just beating another evil villain.

While Moro is now getting his time to shine, a lot of fans want to see "Super Cell" also make his Dragon Ball Super debut, sooner before later. How about you?

Dragon Ball Super: Broly is out now. Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release is available to stream on FunimationNOW, VRV, and Crunchyroll.

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