Mythology Gag / Dragon Ball Super

From Evil Knockoff to Evil Doppelgänger

Given that Dragon Ball Super has a lot of Mythology Gags to almost every piece of Dragon Ball media, it needs its own page to contain them all.

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Dragon Ball GT nods

• Just as his Super Saiyan Blue Kaioken X10 combination is about to give out, Goku uses a Kamehameha against Hit, who proceeds to try and avoid it. Not letting him, Goku travels through his Kamehameha while it's still firing to strike him directly, forcing Hit to improve his Time-Skip again just to dodge. A variation of the move Goku used against Omega Shenron: firing his Kamehameha, then traveling through it and striking with a Dragon Fist.
• Pan wanting to touch the stars, and Goku promising to fly her there when he's well can been seen as a tilt of the hat to Dragon Ball GT, where part of the first story arc was exploring the galaxy looking for Black Star Dragon Balls. His promise that Pan will someday become a Super Saiyan could also be a Take That! to the same series, where Pan inexplicably never did become one. Additionally, the whole pacifier incident (even if it's actually a seal) with Vegeta could be an indirect nod to Baby, the Tuffle who possessed him in GT.
• With the revelation that Zamasu stole Goku's body using the Super Dragon Balls, this will make it the second time in the franchise that Goku got screwed over by a powerful set of Dragon Balls. The first time being the Black Star Dragon Balls from Dragon Ball GT, where Goku is wished back to childhood.
• Goku Black has an black aura, just like Hell Fighter 17 from the Super 17 saga. Apropiate, given that both are evil versions of their counterparts (An Evil Knockoff of Android 17, and an Evil Doppelgänger of Goku via body theft in another timeline).
• Like Android 17 in Dragon Ball GT, Zamasu fuses with himself. However, where the one of the 17s was a reverse-clone created to telepathically brainwash the other and control the fusion, the two Zamasus are legitimately the same being from separate timelines, both safe from being killed by the other due to the weaker one being immortal, and both acting of their own free will.
• Episode 66: In the middle of his clash with Merged Zamasu, Vegito's fusion breaks early because he consumed too much energy as a Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan. The exact same thing happened in GT when Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta's fusion broke early before he could finish Omega Shenron. It also doubles as a Continuity Nod since the same thing happened to Super Saiyan 3 Gotenks. He defused seconds before he could kill Super Buu.
• In episode 74, Watagash posseses Barry Kahn, slowly mutating his body and becoming a giant monster, similar to the final battle with the previous parasite villain in the Dragon Ball franchise, Baby, who mutated his final host Vegeta into a buffer form before becoming a Golden Great Ape (a Saiyan that went through both the Super Saiyan and Great Ape transformations).
• Mosco, the God of Destruction of Univese 3, is design-wise based on Luud, a character from Dragon Ball GT who was called itself a "God of Destruction".
• To go with the above Mosco's nod in design to Luud, Universe 3's fighter Koitsukai has an appearance similar to Giru, who is also from GT.
  • Also in a nod to robots and/or cyborgs from GT, Koitsukai combines with Bollarator and Panchia into a single machine, Koichiarator, similar to what some of the members of the Sigma Force (aside from the destroyed Natt) combining into the Super Mega Cannon Sigma. A further nod is that Koichiarator could merge with its superior, Dr. Paparoni, similar to how General Rilldo merged the remains of the destroyed Sigma Force into himself.
• Bergamo's ability to take his opponent's attacks and turn them into his own power was the same idea used by Super 17 in Dragon Ball GT. Speaking of that…
• Goku and 17 meet and fight each other for the first time, with them both several orders of magnitude stronger than when they were first made aware of one another and Goku taking on a Super Saiyan form that wasn't even a thought back then. The fight even starts in the sunset. Super, or GT? ^note Also worth noting, everything else about the fight and its circumstances is virtually the opposite. 17 is a good guy protecting an island on Earth here but a brainwashed tool for potential galactic conquest in GT. This version of events is a friendly spar to test 17's power while the GT version is a fight to the death to stop 17's rampage. Goku and 17 are both at their standard adult looks established back during Z, while in GT Goku's body is back to how it was when he was a kid and 17 is twice his own size and looks about ten years older. 17 trained to become stronger in this version while in GT he was fused with an Evil Knockoff and gained Android 19-style Energy Absorption inlets to get his power. Goku became a Physical God with the help of his friends here and then trained even beyond that, where in GT he was wished back into a kid, had the last vestiges of his tail pulled out, and became the "Ultimate Saiyan" AKA Super Saiyan 4 after being turned into a Great Ape. 17 is concerned about the island he's protecting to the point of making sure their fight doesn't touch it, whereas he shows no such concern for any part of the planet in GT and indeed that fight starts in a city that 17 himself already ruined. Here 17 recognizes the irony of meeting Goku as an ally and friend despite being "built" to kill him and Goku recounts how many friends he's made that way, while in GT 17 resumes trying to kill Goku without a care both with and without doctors' orders and a would-be perfect opportunity to add him him to the enemies-turned-friends list is casually disregarded by everyone involved. Also, 17 outright calls Krillin his brother, having long accepted him as 18's husband, whereas in GT he killed Krillin himself and chastised 18 for her human attachments, though he was brainwashed at the time.
• Another Call-Back to that same fight in the Tournament of Power. Nink attempts to eliminate Goku by grappling him from behind and jumping out of the ring, sacrificing himself to take Goku out with him. Goku tried to do the same thing against Super 17, but by actually blowing himself up. In both cases, a last-minute escape with power causes it to fail.
• Toppo combines two Destruction spheres together, making a giant, more powerful version of the usual move to use against Vegeta. A move he's ironically copying from SS4 Goku, who combined two Kamehameha spheres to make his initial version of the 10X Kamehameha against Baby.
• In more of an opposite nod to Goku's attempted Kamikaze against Super 17 which both of them survived thanks to 17's barrier technique as confidently asserted by the super android, 17 actually detonates his own barrier to protect Goku and Vegeta from Jiren's onslaught during the final stretches of the tournament — and later emerges still alive, surprising even himself.

Dragon Ball movies nods

• During their battle, Frost flies through Goku's Kamehameha, just like Cooler did in his debut movie.
• In Episode 47 where Goku Black makes his appearance, Goku has successfully grown lettuces on his farm. Turles, Goku's original Evil Twin, has a name that is a pun on lettuce since his named is spelled as Tullece in Japan. This also works as a double gag since the 2008 Dragon Ball Special had Goku grow radishes, an obviously sight gag to Goku's brother, Raditz.
• After being thanked by Mai for letting them stay at Capsule Corp., a slightly flustered Trunks says they have to move on and leads Mai forward by the hand. She's too shocked to say anything, while Pilaf and Shu state 'he's so bold!' - a reference to Battle of Gods, where Trunks had to ask Mai to be his pretend girlfriend, and she found holding hands to be too forward, as she's older than she looks.
• Trunks' new Super Saiyan form makes him look somewhat similar to Broly's Legendary Super Saiyan form with his blue and yellow aura and spikier hair. His eyes also became blank like Broly and he bulked up when he first accessed it. Some fans actually refer to it as the return of Broly. The fight between Vegito and Merged Zamasu also caused the latter to bulk up significantly enough to make him look like Broly. For bonus points, half his body was melting into purple goo at the time, just like Bio-Broly.
• In Episode 63, during a period where Trunks is resting, Future Mai takes it upon herself to snipe Goku Black with a special bullet. Her Present counterpart did a similar thing in the Battle of Gods movie, which failed miserably since most characters in the franchise are Immune to Bullets. It wouldn't have worked any better on Goku Black even if she hadn't narrowly missed, but Future Mai at least knew it was a long shot at best, quite prepared for if/when it failed.
• Episode 66 in particular has a few of theses:
  • Trunks takes on the combined energy of everything present, be they people or otherwise, and then uses that power to deal a game-ending blow on Merged Zamasu, an opponent who was for the most part unstoppable. Goku did the exact same thing to defeat Legendary Super Saiyan Broly the first time, yet again bringing things full-circle to Trunks' newest power, which takes after the latter. And at the same time, Trunks taking power into himself/his sword is also a nod to Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13!, where Goku took in a Spirit Bomb as a SS for a major boost.
  • During a battle in a ruined city, a beaten-down Vegeta is the last to join a group in turning over his energy to The Hero in order to destroy the enemy, much like in movie 8 against Broly.
• In the crossover with Arale episode, thanks in part to Chi-Chi, Goku has a part-time job as a security guard... with his hair gel-ed up to look more normal(-ish). It slicks back to his normal hairstyle within mere seconds, a gag ripped straight from the live-action Evolution movie.
• In Episode 74, Barry, who is infused with the parasite Watagash, slams Gohan into a tower. It is the same tower from Movie 13 Wrath of the Dragon.
• During Episode 76, Krillin is suddenly faced with an army's worth of Frieza, with other villains cycling through this. Frieza's Non-Serial Movie brother appeared before Goku and Vegeta virtually the same way, as an army of Meta-Coolers.
• In Episode 79, Basil is thrown a piece of fruit so he could gain a massive power boost, much like the fruit from the Tree of Might
• The character of Kale, a Saiyan from Universe 6, seems to be one massive nod to Broly. Her initial appearance in episode 89 shows her facial expression in the same eyes half closed stare as Broly's base form, and her Super Saiyan form from the opening resembles LSS Broly to uncanny levels.
  • Related to the above, Kale even literally recites Broly's well-known "My power is rising, overflowing... line.
  • In episode 100, Kale even No Sells a Kamehameha from Goku in the same manner Broly did in Movie 8 and eventually devolves into only being able to say Goku's name in the same vein as Broly in his second appearance.
• In episodes 109-110, for all intents and purposes Goku absorbs the energy of the Spirit Bomb into himself to gain even greater power, which also happened (albeit in a quite different way) in Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13!.
• As further detailed on the Universe 3 character page, Aniraza is a big, walking mythology gag that takes cues from several Non-Serial Movie villains such as Hatchiyak, Hirudegarn, and Janemba.
• In episode 129, when Goku masters Ultra Instinct, he phases through Jiren and lands a flurry of hits on him, exactly like Gogeta during his fight with Janemba in Fusion Reborn.

Other Dragon Ball Stories

• Videl temporarily going Super Saiyan could possibly be a nod to Dragonball Online, considering human characters can go Super Saiyan in that game (though, granted, because of a combination between traces of Saiyan genetics and a wish on Shenron).
• Vegeta's closing line in Episode 69, the Doctor Slump crossover, is almost exactly what he says at the end of his Neko Majin Z cameo.
• The Yardratians seen in the Dragon Ball Super manga contain both the Yardratians seen in anime filler, as well as the Yardratians seen in Dragon Ball Online.

Dub-specific nods

• The Funimation dub:
  • In Episode 69, Dr. Mashirito mentions climbing out of the Home for Infinite Losers, which was the Saban dub's censorship of "Hell"
  • Brian Drummond, the voice of Vegeta in the Ocean Group dub, plays Copy-Vegeta, using exactly the same voice he had used for his rendition of the character.
  • Hit says "Time to make the donuts!" in Episode 71, which was an infamous quote from him in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2.
  • For Episode 90, during his fight with Goku, Gohan states "I know you have another form! Fight me with everything you've got! Everything!" The tone and intensity are nearly the exact same as when his grandfather Bardock yells that last word in the video games, such as Dragon Ball Fighter Z.
  • In Episode 112, Vegeta and Toppo both insult each other as Always Second Best, which Vegeta responds with a pissed-off "Oh shut up, moustache!", said with the exact same pronunciation and emphasis as Vegeta used for his own mustache in GT.
• The European Spanish dub:
  • In the first episode, Mr. Satan describes Majin Buu as a "Space Warrior" ("Guerrero del Espacio"), which is how the Saiyans were called during the near entirety of Z.
  • In Episode 21, Master Roshi refers to himself by the name he went during the first 26 episodes of Dragon Ball, "Tortuga Duende" (Turtle Elf).
  • Zamasu quotes one of the better-known lines of the first opening of Z ("Luz, Fuego, Destrucción" - "Light, Fire, Destruction") in Episode 65.
  • During the Tournament of Power, Vados describes Kefla's final attack against Goku as some sort of Infinite Light ("Luz Infinita"), which is how Goku's Instant Kamehameha against Perfect Cell was so infamously named.

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