Dragon Ball Super Hints at Merus’ Big Secret

Dragon Ball Super‘s Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc introduced fans to one of the most skilled members of the Galactic Patrol, Merus. He got attention from fans pretty early on for surprisingly getting the upper hand on Goku and Vegeta with his strange tactics and evasive maneuvers. There have been several debates among fans as to the nature of his power, and whether or not introducing someone with this much skill was another example of the series boosting new characters in order to compete with Goku and Vegeta. But the latest chapter of the series might be bringing this all full circle.

Chapter 52 of the series sees Goku and Merus go fully into their training in order for Goku to better tap into Ultra Instinct, and the end of the chapter teases that Merus has been hiding a huge secret from everyone as he teases that he has yet to unleash his full power and even needed to be sealed away in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber to do so.

Chapter 52 of the series has the two of them enter the chamber, and Merus says that this will be a helpful space because not only will it buy the two more time for training but he’ll be able to use his full power “without anyone finding out.” Naturally this excites Goku as Merus will now teach everything he knows, but this is certainly eyebrow raising for fans.

Compounding on this is the fact that Merus is able to counter every one of Goku’s moves in this training without even breaking a sweat. He somehow knows all about the Ultra Instinct technique, and even reveals the key to better mastering it. While Merus’ battle skills might have seemed like a plot convenience at first, it seems that he is hiding a major secret that it could turn everything around.

Now it all depends on just what this secret actually is. If Merus turns out to just be secretly strong, this might disappoint fans if there is not a worthwhile explanation behind it. But there are various levels to this too. If Merus somehow knows about the Ultra Instinct form, then how did he learn of it in the first place? And why is he hiding his power from everyone? Why is keeping it a secret so important to his place in the Galactic Patrol. There are a lot of questions that hopefully future chapters of the series will explore further.

Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block on Saturday evenings, and is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese-language release of the series is complete, and available to stream on FunimationNOW and Crunchyroll. The manga has chapters that can currently be read for free thanks to Viz Media, and Dragon Ball Super’s big movie, Dragon Ball Super: Broly, is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.