‘Dragon Ball Super’ Makes Surprising Reveal About Belmod

Dragon Ball Super‘s manga recently brought an end to its version of the Tournament of Power, and it revealed a bit more about Universe 11’s Belmod and Jiren. It turns out they have a deeper connection than initially lead on.

In the latest chapter of the series, it’s surprisingly revealed that Belmod was friends with Jiren’s former master Gicchin. It’s why he knows so many intimate details about Jiren’s character.

Although it was revealed that Jiren wanted to win the Tournament of Power in order to revive his master Gicchin, who was killed by Demons, Belmod says that isn’t what Gicchin would have wanted. He then explains that Gicchin wanted Jiren to learn the value of teamwork all along, and that the fight for justice and order that was instilled in Jiren by his master has isolated him in turn.

Belmod says this isn’t what he thinks, that he’s just “parroting Gicchin,” but he reveals that he was friends with Gicchin “a long time ago.” But although Gicchin wanted Jiren to learn this lesson on his own, Belmod believes it was unnecessary and that Jiren would be able to win the Tournament of Power on his own. When Jiren loses at the end, Belmod then tries to apologize to Jiren for the fact that Gicchin wouldn’t be revived.

But then he tells Jiren to stop blaming himself for his master’s death, and it’s not like he’d want to be revived anyway. This is a much deeper connection than the two were able to display in the anime series. Though Belmod does explain Jiren’s origin story, it’s passed over pretty quickly in the anime. Resolved within a single episode, Jiren’s master isn’t even named fully. There was a hint that Belmod understood more about Jiren than he let on, but it never really got the time it needed to develop.

But the manga’s version of the two characters does a bit to connect their pasts, and it’s why Belmod can rely on Jiren so much in the end. Rather than be a God of Destruction who wants his Universe 11 to win for the sake of it, it seems like he wanted Jiren to overcome his inner weakness in the process as well. Hopefully these two will return in some form to the series some day, so fans can learn more about this surprise connection.

Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block Saturday evenings at 11:00 p.m. It 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, VRV, and Crunchyroll. The manga has chapters that can currently be read for free thanks to Viz Media.