A lot of fans are so caught up in Dragon Ball Super: Broly‘s epic fights and gorgeous animation that they might not realize the full scope of the monumental shifts to the franchise lore that occur in the film. DBS:B does a major retcon of the history of the Saiyan race, but also manages deftly and subtly set the stage for future.
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One of the more subtle foreshadows peppered into Dragon Ball Super: Broly comes from none other than Whis, who has some very pointed questions for Goku, early on in the film:
“Tell me Goku: why do you seek even greater strength than you have already? Wait, wait, don’t tell me: do you want to become a Destroyer God?”
That little line gets an immediate reaction from Lord Beerus, who states that he won’t take such a challenge lying down (which he literally is at the time). However Goku quickly demurs, stating that he doesn’t want to get stronger to take Beerus’ job as a GoD because, “Why would I just want to sit around all day?” According to Goku, it’s the Tournament of Power that inspired him so much: seeing all the powerful fighters from across the multiverse now has him ready for new challenges.
Whis’ gets a strange spotlight once more during the film, when Goku and Vegeta merge into Gogeta and battle Broly within a volcano in the Arctic region of Earth. Whis is clearly fascinated by the level of power that Gogeta displays – the only question is, why?
For Dragon Ball Super fans who paid close attention throughout the Tournament of Power arcs in both the anime and manga, Whis has been a subtle source of what could be some major foreshadowing. The manga’s version of the ToP finale saw Goku and Vegeta have to tag-team fight Jiren, and during that epic battle, Whis revealed that he had secretly been training the two Saiyans in tag-team combat all along. The anime suggested that Whis was also responsible for helping push Goku to the new limit break of his Ultra Instinct power. After the “Battle of Gods” arc, Whis has had a very specific focus on the Universe 7 Saiyans and their training, and in the minds of a lot of fans, it all has to be leading somewhere.
Dragon Ball Super‘s core distinction has been the revelation of a much larger Divine Order to the multiverse. After “Battle of Gods” and two big tournaments held by Grand Zeno, it seems as though the power of mortals is being tested – but again, to what end? The manga’s newest arc has introduced a villain who is a direct threat to the gods, while the Dragon Ball Heroes promo anime has actually debuted an entire team of villains who want kill Grand Zeno and have somehow neutralized the Gods of Destruction. That seems to be a lot of different stories converging on one idea: there’s a big divine shift coming to Dragon Ball Super.
Maybe Whis doesn’t want a new God of Destruction to replace Beerus; maybe he knows that he’s going to need one soon. Goku wouldn’t be the best pick, though, as we can all probably agree that being a GoD sounds much more like a Vegeta job!
Dragon Ball Super: Broly is out now. Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release is available to stream on FunimationNOW, VRV, and Crunchyroll.
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