Dragon Ball Super: Did Goku Slack on his Instant Transmission Training?

Dragon Ball Super is currently making its way through the Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc, and with [...]

Dragon Ball Super is currently making its way through the Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc, and with the newer kind of threat of Planet Eater Moro, Goku and Vegeta are needing to find new ways in order to fight this different kind of foe. This has led Vegeta to train on the Planet Yardrat, and it's here that it sparks a very interesting question. As it's revealed that Instant Transmission is only one of the techniques the Yardrats can use, it's a wonder why Goku stopped at learning just this technique alone.

The latest arc presented the idea of "Spirit Control," a technique used by the Yardrat race that allows them to use techniques like Instant Transmission, cloning, and gigantifying...so why didn't Goku learn those techniques too? Why did he stop? Did he, in fact, slack on his Instant Transmission training?

The first obvious answer is no. Given how this seems more like a retcon to the techniques the Yardrat can accomplish, it's simply a matter of the series giving Goku a move and then deciding to expand on it years later with new ideas. But it's a little more complicated than that as the official canon can't use "it's a retcon" as an excuse. So how will the series get around the fact that Goku should have learned this Spirit Control (and its various moves) years ago along with Instant Transmission?

What if, Goku instead slacked on his training. Given how dedicated he is to training, it's not as easy as just having him not follow through with every single technique, but one could argue that he was on a timeline. Although he asked the other Z Fighters to give him a little more time following his fight with Freeza, he was still aware that he couldn't stay in space to train forever.

This cutting of his training short has had unintended consequences as Goku's Instant Transmission has malfunctioned in the past. It was certainly surprising, but it also might be reflective of the fact that Goku's Spirit Control is incomplete in nature. That's why now that Vegeta is learning these Yardrat techniques, his training seems to be more more intense.

But whether or not Goku did slack on his training, the series is going to have to explain why Goku would only stop at learning the Instant Transmission when all of these other ninja like techniques were on the table as well. This will certainly spark the rivalry between Goku and Vegeta even further if Vegeta learns more of Spirit Control than Goku, but it'd be just as surprising if Goku reveals he knew all of that stuff all along.

Dragon Ball Super's got a lot of explaining to do about these new additions, but hopefully future chapters will elaborate on all of this further! But what do you think? How will the series explain Goku's lack of Spirit Control?

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.

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