Boomstick: Oh come on! It's the ultimate Dragon Ball question: which fusion of Goku and Vegeta is stronger? Gogeta, the combo greater than legends, or Vegito, the mix who surpassed gods?
Death Battle's ninth season is about to end, and what better way to cap the year off in style by examining one of the biggest dream matches in Dragon Ball history, given how many of Akira Toriyama's own creations have been such a part of the show's many incredible episodes? For years, fans have seen sworn rivals Goku and Vegeta combine their forces into two godly entities that very few have managed to defeat - one through the Fusion Dance invented by the Metamorans and the other through the Potara earrings favored by the Kai, and in turn, this has led to many debates on which fusion method maximized their combined strengths the best. Considering that both Gogeta and Vegito have only had 3 shared appearances within mainline canon, Wiz and Boomstick - with the aid of Earth's Dragon Balls - decide to evaluate all of Dragon Ball media and more to compare and contrast both fusions and see which one of them can finally lay claim to being the superior one in a death battle!
To start our fusion fight to the finish, we first go back to the year 1995, when the movie Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn aired in theatres, and during the final leg of the film, it happens: after struggling to defeat the monster Janemba, Goku and Vegeta were forced to utilize one final option, and fused to become a warrior strong enough to defeat the incarnation of evil, Gogeta.
As the result of the power of the Saiyan Prince and the low class hero combined, Gogeta is far more powerful than the sum of his parts and is the result of the signature technique of the seldom seen Metamorans, the Fusion Dance. The Dance is a literal personification of the phrase "only as strong as it's weakest link" with the fusees having to match power in order for the Dance to be successful, usually by the stronger fusee lowering his power to match his partner and even then, if performed incorrectly by either fusee, can create fighters even weaker than the fusees themselves.
While Gogeta's battle with Janemba is considered non-canon, Gogeta would make his canon debut twenty years later in Dragon Ball Super: Broly, when Goku and Vegeta were forced to fuse again in order to take down the berserk Legendary Super Saiyan, Broly. While capable of using Goku and Vegeta's techniques, Gogeta also has access to techniques entirely unique to him, such as Big Bang Kamehameha, Stardust Fall, Meteor Explosion and his ultimate move, Stardust Breaker, a rainbow colored ki blast capable of purging evil from its opponent, such as when Janemba was hit with it, his body broke apart due to being Made of Evil.
Over the years, Gogeta has attained access to many forms, including Super Saiyan, the divine Super Saiyan Blue and in the Dragon Ball GT continuity, delved into his Saiyan heritage to access Super Saiyan 4 to fight the shadow dragon, Omega Shenron. While GT Goku states that Super Saiyan 4 makes its user more aggressive, it doesn't show with Gogeta, who ends up being playful and prone to messing with his opponent.
While Gogeta is powerful, he's not permanent. Like most Metamoran fusions such as Gotenks, Gogeta can only be around for half an hour before he defuses back into Goku and Vegeta and the fusion's time limit can be shortened if he expends energy too quickly, such as when he defused in his fight with Omega Shenron in ten minutes, though against Broly, Gogeta maintained the fusion's full time limit even when striking the Legendary Super Saiyan hard enough to shatter reality, and he was simply in base Super Saiyan at the time; he wasted little time in defeating him once he turned Super Saiyan Blue, and Whis even implied that Gogeta could take on the God of Destruction, Beerus.
In the Heroes continuity, Gogeta was able to defeat Goku Black and Hearts, and two Gogetas could take on Fu, the latter of which had DNA from Saiyans, Earthlings, Namekians, Majins and Demons, and was believed by Hearts to be capable of being comparable to the Omni-King Zeno, who could erase entire multiverses with a wave of his hands. And one Gogeta would gain access to Super Saiyan Blue Evolved, the same form Vegeta gained access to in the Tournament of Power, and the other would attain the form of Super Full Power Saiyan 4 Limit Breaker, which due to both fighting side by side, implies that both forms are comparable to each other.
In the 1995 Weekly Jump Issue 28, it was stated that, as long as he didn't take longer than thirty minutes, Gogeta would beat Vegito, and in Dragon Ball: Raging Blast, a "What If?" scenario of Gogeta and Vegito fighting ended with the Metamoran fusion victorious, though he was nearly about to defuse afterwards. Truly, Gogeta has proven his place among Dragon Ball's upper echelons of heavy hitters.
With our first fusion covered, we now focus on the second fusion of Goku and Vegeta; in the spring of 1995, the dreaded monster known as Majin Buu threatened the safety of Earth, forcing Goku and Vegeta to resort to fusion. However, this time, Goku didn't have time to teach his rival a dance routine that the prince would end up despising, leading them to utilise a different method: a pair of earrings worn by the divine Supreme Kais known as the Potara which, when the Saiyans wore each on opposite ears, caused the duo to combine to become Vegito.
Much like his Dance counterpart, Vegito has many techniques that are entirely his own, such as the Final Kamehameha, which is charged like the Final Flash but fired like the Kamehameha, a ki blade called the Spirit Sword, a barrier known as the Saiyan Shield, and a barrage of five ki blasts known as the Banshee Blast. With these and the combined power of Goku and Vegeta, Vegito was able to handily keep up with Buu even after the latter absorbed Gohan, and, in his Super Saiyan form, could keep fighting even when turned into a piece of candy by the Majin's Transfiguration Beam, which is comparable to how his fusee Vegeta broke free from the wizard Babidi's mind control beforehand or when Goku would later break through the Time Skip of the assassin from Universe 6, Hit, with Kaio-Ken, as when a person has a higher power level than another, that person can override the other's abilities.
Later, Vegito would gain access to divine ki and the Super Saiyan Blue form, which helped in his fight with the similarly fused deity, Merged Zamasu, though like Gogeta, he ended up cutting his time short to forty minutes in the manga and ten minutes in the anime. Originally, Potara fusion was considered permanent, but would later be retconned to only being permanent when involving a Supreme Kai, with the fusion otherwise lasting for an hour at most and have their own set of rules, such as if the fusees are transformed when they fuse, the fusion can't power down, which can run the risk of wasting energy and time and the fusion being sustained by the earrings themselves rather than the fusion's body.
In the Heroes continuity, Vegito would end up gaining access to Super Saiyan 4 much like his Dance counterpart, and has also fought similar opponents, such as the ancient Saiyan Cumber and the Dark King Mechikabura. Daizenshuus 4 and 7, two Dragon Ball Encyclopedias, have both stated that Potara fusion is superior to the Fusion Dance and Elder Kai has also stated this, though this may have been under the belief that Potara fusion was permanent, so there would be no reason to hold back to avoid running out a time limit. But despite this limit, Vegito is certainly just as much a force to be reckoned with as his Dance counterpart.
After an advertisement for the episode's sponsor of Better Help, both fusions of Goku and Vegeta have now been fully analyzed, and the dream match of fused fighters is about to begin. For the last time in Season 9, it's time for a death battle!
At the top of Kami's Lookout, two pairs of Goku and Vegeta are summoned by Shenron and appear before each other. One of the Gokus remarks on the height difference between him and his rival, earning him an incensed retort from both Vegetas. While one duo performs the Fusion Dance, the other dons the Potara earrings, and both pairs fuse into Gogeta and Vegito, respectively. Promptly, the two warriors then dash forward, clashing with each other.
FIGHT!
With a connecting punch, the fusions go at it, landing hits on each other until a headbutt causes the two to go Super Saiyan. Vegito tosses his Metamoran counterpart into the air, in witch he tries to finish him off with several slashes with the Spirit Sword, witch Gogeta plows through with a Kamehameha. Vegito tries to get another hit in, only for Gogeta to teleport away, resulting in a short chase around Shenrons neck and with Gogeta firing two orbs at his Potaran counterpart, who swats away one and clashes with the other. Not deterred, Gogeta calls back the discarded orb to further wound Vegito, sending them both off into the distance, but it only activates the Potaran fusions trump card: Super Saiyan Blue. As his aura nearly overpowers Gogeta's, Vegito asks if his counterpart would like to kick things into high gear. Gogeta agrees, but decides to keep things fresh by tapping into Super Saiyan 4, letting his aura grow to match Vegito's. With a chuckle, the fusions partake in another blinding clash, ending with the two using their respective empowered Kamehamehas. With the clash of the Big Bang Kamehameha and the Final Kamehameha, the lookout shatters into Snake Way. After a couple more hits, Vegito grabs his opponent by the tail and throws him into the distance...only succeeding in causing Gogeta to finally go into Super Saiyan Blue himself and rain Stardust Fall upon the Potaran fusion, who retaliates with a Savage Strike, sending them to the ocean, where Kame House overlooks the battle. As Gogeta seems to be preparing a big instant-transmission Kamehameha, Vegito tries to raise his defenses...only for Gogeta to pull the party cracker Kamehameha instead. After the slight prank, Gogeta uses the Meteor Explosion on his counterpart, sending the fusions of heir to the throne and the boy left alone into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Gogeta knows the end of the fight is near, so he decides to cut the crap and prepare his ultimate attack: the evil-purging Stardust Breaker, as Vegito prepares one last Final Kamehameha. As the rainbow orb is thrown, the Final Kamehameha is activated, yet the blue beam of ki cannot slow down the Stardust Breaker, landing a hit on Vegito...but he turns out to be none the worse for wear aside from a brief flinch that doesn't slow down his assault. Now faced with no other options, Gogeta tries to end the fight by brute forcing his way through the beam with Dragon Fist. As he nears towards Vegito, Vegito activates Kaioken at the last moment, as yet another transition happens. Back on Kami's lookout, blood drips to the floor as Vegito takes moments to breathe, looking up at what happened to his counterpart; Gogeta, now entirely stone, but with a smile plastered on his face and a stretched out fist symbolizing his absolute love for the battle. Vegito is all too pleased to return the favor, fist-bumping Gogeta's fist as his body crumbles away, and as Shenron's eyes glimmer in the distance.
KO!
With the dust finally settled (quite literally, in fact), Wiz and Boomstick launch into their final analysis of the season to see why the Potara fusion triumphed over his Metamoran counterpart. The hosts hammer down how this truly was a close match-up, considering that Gogeta and Vegito are comprised of the same two individuals and thus practically the same person, so any differences in power and abilities - however minor they may be - would help one fusion clinch victory over the other, and those were all mainly in the latter's ballpark. Both fusions had time limits which could be accelerated by exerting more energy to the point where Goku and Vegeta had been forced to defuse multiple times within 10 minutes at worst, but even factoring that in, Vegito still boasted a time limit that was twice as long as his opponent's: an hour to Gogeta's 30 minutes.note This afforded more breathing room for Vegito to control the fight on his terms, especially since both he and Gogeta have a shared common weakness in that Goku and Vegeta are often left too tired to attempt a second fusion in the event they defuse.
This also tied into Vegito being the slightly stronger of the two, due to how each fusion mechanic works. The Fusion Dance required both halves to match their power levels exactly, which meant that whoever was stronger between Goku and Vegeta needed to lower their power level to match the other half. Regardless of whichever half would have been strongernote , it still meant that Gogeta's fusion technique was already inherently weaker than Vegito's Potara earrings, which do not require said energy matching. Even if the power boost from this was minuscule, this still meant that Vegito would've already been in a position to maximize Goku and Vegeta's combined power more than Gogeta, and also meant that he could whittle down Gogeta's already shorter fusion time limit to greater effect as well.
Gogeta in theory could have simply destroyed the earrings to immediately end Vegito's fusion, but it would only have worked if he had been strong enough to overpower Vegito in the first place, much like how Goku could have only defused fellow Potara fusion Kefla by going into Ultra Instinct and overwhelming her. It is more than likely that the Potara earrings themselves are protected by the fusion character's ki reserves, and they have only been broken in instances where the fusion is straight-up overpowered by their opponent like how most esoteric powers in Dragon Ball like Hit's time powers can be; had the earrings been destroyed by any random attack lucky enough to clip them, things would have been a lot more different.
Lastly, Gogeta and Vegito are ruled to be near equals as far as their personalities go. While there is some debate about who is more outwardly serious and who is likely to take the fight as a joke, there have been instances of both fused characters treating battles casually and seriously (Vegito appeared brash against Super Buu but was deathly serious against Fused Zamasu, whereas Gogeta was straight-faced in fighting Janemba but appeared very casual against Broly and Omega Shenron), meaning personality traits would not have played a role in the fight.note
Ultimately, while both mighty warriors truly embodied the ideal of beings greater than the sum of their parts, and the nature of this match-up meant that this was a very close battle, Vegito boasted the few yet significant advantages needed to surpass Gogeta and finally put an end to this age-old debate.
Wiz: Wait, shut up... Earth's Dragon Balls give two wishes, right?
Boomstick: Ooh, yeah! Hey Shenron, I wish for you to fuse me and Wiz!
[The pair fuse amid Wiz's protests and Boomstick's laughter]
Both: The winner is Vegito!
Next time in Death Battle Season 10, we have two Champion-decided matchups, but first...
"Gogeta VS Vegito" contains examples of:
- Bait-and-Switch: The fight's climax sees Gogeta flying though Vegito's Final Kamehameha to deliver a Dragon Fist. The scene fades to white, and when it fades back in, we see blood dripping onto the ground... and then the camera pans up, revealing that Vegito is still alive and Gogeta has been Taken for Granite, before crumbling into dust.
- Big "SHUT UP!": One of the Gokus gets it from both Vegetas when he notices the difference in height between his other self and his Vegeta.Both Vegetas: STUFF IT, KAKAROT!!!
- Bloodless Carnage: This episode has no blood...until the final blow. Ironically, the winning Vegito bleeds while the losing Gogeta doesn't.
- Call-Back:
- When Boomstick hears Fu's full title and genetic makeup thanks to Wiz, he asks "Is this fanfiction?". In Trunks VS Silver, he compared Dragon Ball Heroes to fanfiction.
- Gogeta's final attack before losing to Vegito is Dragon Fist, the exact same attempted finisher Goku tried in his first fight with Superman, and just like before, it fails against Vegito. Hilariously enough, Vegito's final attack is firing off a Kamehameha in an attack clash before using the Kaioken to finish the job, much like Goku did in the climax of the aforementioned battle, which proves much more successful here.
- On a similar note there are a couple of call backs to the DBX the fusions had prior; The first reality break was due to a Beam-O-War between Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta's Big Bang Kamehameha and Vegito Blue's Final Kamehameha and Gogeta messes with Vegito once again using Bluff Kamehameha.
- The Battle Theme Music "Dragon Dance" - described as a tribute to Goku and Vegeta's characters, appropriately enough - features references to both Vegeta's Super Saiyan theme and "Cha-La Head Cha-La", in addition to previous Death Battle tracks "Alive" (from Goku VS Superman 2 in Season 2) and "Princes of Pride" (from Thor VS Vegeta in Season 9).
- In a more humorous note, back in Steven Universe VS Star Butterfly, Boomstick wondered what a fusion between him and Wiz would be like. Thanks to Shenron, he gets to find out.
- Color Contrast: During the fight, Gogeta assumes his Super Saiyan 4 form, giving him red hair and a matching aura to contrast the blue hair and aura of Vegito's Super Saiyan Blue for the sake of variety as he puts it. However, Gogeta eventually goes Super Saiyan Blue, as well.
- Composite Character: Applied to both. Because Gogeta and Vegito only have a shared 3 appearances between them in the main canon that encompasses their showings in Z and Super, the hosts take a look at all their appearances throughout Dragon Ball, including GT, the anime movies, video games, data books, Heroes and Xenoverse. Gogeta in particular gets to use both his Super Saiyan Blue and Super Saiyan 4 transformations during the fight animation; his analysis argues that due to two separate incarnations of him fighting alongside each other while using these forms, both SSB and SS4 are ruled to likely be equal in power.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: In a very brief moment, Vegito can be seen using Kaio-ken during the Final Kamehameha in the climax right before Gogeta's Dragon Fist collides with him. Acts as Five-Second Foreshadowing, since said Kamehameha is the blow that takes down Gogeta for good.
- Go Out with a Smile: Even as a petrified statue, Gogeta can be seen wearing a satisfied smile on his face.
- Mirror Match: Both of them being a fusion of Goku and Vegeta essentially means they are the same person, resulting in a balanced fight where the end result ultimately comes down to the fusion with better perks rather than the power of the combatants.
- Mythology Gag:
- The two fusions' first dash forward and clash upon the match's beginning is a direct reference to the way combatants clash upon a character replacing a fallen teammate in Dragon Ball Fighter Z. Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta's initial dash at Vegito is also lifted directly from his version of this in FighterZ.
- Gogeta pranks Vegito mid-fight by pulling the party cracker trick he subjected Omega Shenron to in Dragon Ball GT.
- No-Sell: At the fight's climax, Gogeta uses the Stardust Breaker on Vegito... who at worst just flinches from the hit given of his components, Goku is considered pure of heart while Vegeta has long since pulled a Heel–Face Turn and become The Atoner.
- Taken for Granite: Gogeta gets turned into a statue upon being killed by Vegito's Final Kamehameha, and is reduced to dust when Vegito fist-bumps him.
- Take Over the World: Wiz wants to take over the world, but his wish is overridden by Boomstick wanting Gogeta and Vegito to fight each other. Once the fight is over, he says he could wait another year before remembering the Earth's Dragon Balls can grant two wishes. Upon saying that, Boomstick wishes for the two of them to fuse.
- The Unreveal: We don't get to see what the fusion between Wiz and Boomstick looks like at the end, as it cuts to the winner screen instead. However, we do hear the fusion's voice (Wiz's and Boomstick's simultaneously) announcing the winner.
- Victory by Endurance: What the battle ultimately boils down to in the end. While Gogeta and Vegito's powers are almost evenly matched with Vegito having the slight power edge, Vegito's fusion is based on the Potara earrings which can't be broken until he's overwhelmed (and due to his power edge likely wouldn't happen) while Gogeta's fusion is based on the Fusion Dance and is dependent on his body being able to roll with the hits (and the slightly stronger Vegito could wear it out in the long run). With Vegito having optimally twice the time limit to work with, and the much weaker Goku and Vegeta left vulnerable once the time limit for their fusions run out, Vegito could reasonably outlast Gogeta even if they both go all-out and shorten their times limits.
- Worthy Opponent: Just before Gogeta's body turned to ash and blew away, Vegito fist-bumped with the fist he had thrown out as as sign of respect for giving him a good fight.
