Dragon Ball Super’s latest manga chapter continues to build toward the climax of the new “Galactic Patrol Prisoner” arc, in classic Dragon Ball Z fashion: a ticking clock countdown to a villain’s arrival, and the race for Goku and/or Vegeta to power-up before that final battle unfolds. This time, the threat is Moro, an ancient sorcerer that consumes the life force of entire planets, and in order to defeat him, Goku needs to master the divine technique known as Ultra Instinct. Goku is getting guidance from the Galactic Patrol’s top agent Merus, and Dragon Ball Super Chapter 54 drops another major hint that Merus is in fact part of the angel race.
Videos by ComicBook.com
A final scene of the latest manga sees Whis meet in secret at Grand Zeno’s palace. Whis is observing Goku and Merus sparring, and he comes to Grand Priest wanting to confirm something, “concerning our angel laws.” The Grand Priest seems to know exactly what Whis is referencing, because he coyly responds, “The matter of Merus I suppose.” Naturally, that epilogue scene now has Dragon Ball fans buzzing about one major question:
What are Dragon Ball Super‘s Angel Laws?
Obviously there’s no concrete way to answer that yet, not until Akira Toriyama and his mangaka Toyotaro unveil more of Merus’ backstory – but there is quite a bit we can already infer. We already know that the Angel Laws govern what role the angels play in the cosmic order, and what actions they may take in affecting the universe they preside over. The conversation between Whis and Grand Priest basically confirms as much, with this exchange about Moro’s rampage in Universe 7:
Grand Priest: “I don’t suppose you intend to ask for your universe to be saved?”
Whis: “I would never. We Angels must maintain neutrality, siding with neither good nor evil.”
Grand Priest: “Just so.”
That’s hint is about as much as we need (for the moment), in order to get a real sense of how Merus relates to these Angel Laws: It seems all but certain that the dialogue between Whis and Grand Priest about Angel neutrality is foundation for the forthcoming story about how Merus broke that neutrality law, and was somehow “demoted” from official Angel status.
That brings us to the next big question in all this: What did Merus do? Merus now serves in the Galactic Patrol, so clearly punishing evil and furthering the cause of justice are meaningful to him. Given what we’ve seen during the “Galactic Patrol Prisoner” arc, it seems almost certain that Merus once made the decision to intervene in some universal conflict, on behalf of good, rather than staying neutral as an Angel must.
Of course, other details about the Angel Laws could still play a key role in the storyline. Do all Angels get paired with Destroyer Gods or Kais? If so, what happened to the god that Merus was paired with? What kind of universal conflict would push an angel to break the Angel Laws? These are now the questions we need answered!
The Japanese-language and English dub releases of Dragon Ball Super are now complete and available to stream with FunimationNOW and Crunchyroll. Viz Media is releasing new chapters of the manga at a monthly rate that can be read entirely for free through the Shonen Jump digital library, and Dragon Ball Super‘s big movie, Dragon Ball Super: Broly, is now available on Blu-ray and DVD. Fans in Japan are also able to enjoy fresh non-canon adventures from the franchises with new episodes of Super Dragon Ball Heroes‘ promotional anime series.
