‘Dragon Ball Super’ Dub Reveals Goku’s Tournament of Power Weakness

Dragon Ball Super‘s English Dub series is just getting into the series’ final arc, which sees Goku and the Z-Fighters of Universe 7 gearing up for Grand Zeno’s Tournament of Power. The tournament has the high stakes risk of eliminating whatever universes don’t win from the face of existence – which means that Goku, Gohan, Lord Beerus and Whis are taking extra special care to cover all angles, as they plan a strategy.

In a recent episode, the rules of the Tournament of Power were clearly established for fans, and they include the following:

• The ToP is a battle royal-style free-for-all.
• 10 Universes are competing; they each have a team of ten fighters.
• Eliminations are made by a fighter either being knocked out of the ring, knocked out of consciousness, or forced to surrender.
• There can be no special tools or weapons used in the ring.
• There is no killing of the other fighters, under threat of disqualification.
• The tournament is roughly 45 mins long.

As a way of testing and recruiting both Krillin and Android 18 to the Universe 7 team, both Goku and Gohan hold quick sparring matches with Krillin. Gohan gets outmaneuvered by Krillin’s new fight techniques and sharp strategy – but when it’s Goku’s turn, the Saiyan hero thinks his only real task is powering up to Super Saiyan Blue, and overpowering his old friend; however, Goku gets a surprise when Android 18 jumps in an surprise attacks him. After Goku and Krillin finish the sparring session with a Kamehameha shootout, Goku calls the fight.

At first, Krillin is perplexed and even upset that he didn’t get to fully demonstrate his potential – but that’s when Goku acknowledges that Krillin and No. 18 have taught him a valuable lesson: Goku has one major weakness that could undo him in the Top.

That weakness becomes obvious once you hear it stated: Goku has always been a fighter who achieves victory by breaking his limits in one-on-one battles with more powerful foes. However, as Android 18 is quick to point out, the ToP is a battle royal. The change in circumstance means that Goku’s usual obsession with identifying the strongest fighter on the battlefield and challenging him/her one-on-one could get him quickly eliminated, if other universes use teamwork to ambush and overwhelm Goku.

Thanks to the “Zeno’s Expo” battles that served as a preview for the ToP, Goku has been “outed” as the reason that the tournament is being held, and ergo the reason why so many other universes are now facing extermination. The Universe 7 team knows this, and realize that their captain and strongest fighter will be the biggest target on the battlefield. It means that (for once) Goku will have to rely on the other warriors from his universe, in order to keep his chances at winning the ToP alive. Should be interesting.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly will hit Japanese theaters in December, and is expected to arrive in the U.S. on January 16, 2019. Dragon Ball Super is currently airing its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. ET. 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 Funimation, VRV and Crunchyroll.