Recap / Dragon Ball Super Galactic Patrol Prisoner Arc

Previous Arc: Broly Arc

Next Arc: Granolah the Survivor Arc

The Galactic Patrol Prisoner Arc is the seventh major story arc in the Dragon Ball Super series, set after the events of Dragon Ball Super: Broly.

The story arc debuted in chapter 42 of the manga, in the same chapter where the Universal Survival Arc ended.

Editor's note: Please remember that as of now, this arc is manga exclusive. The continuity is only applicable to Toyotaro's manga, not Toei's anime events.

Short Summary

Long Summary

---

Tropes:

• 11th-Hour Superpower: Like in the Tournament of Power, the climax sees Goku unleash the awesome power of Perfected Ultra Instinct. Unlike last time where he could barely maintain it for more than a few minutes and outright lost to Jiren, this time he exerts full control over the form and demolishes Moro without even having to dodge his blows.
  • When Moro unexpectedly turns the tables by merging with the Earth, Goku gets another massive boost from the energy shared by the other Z-Warriors and Uub. With this power-up, he generates a huge Susanoo-like avatar to crush Moro.
• The Ace: Merus is one for the Galactic Patrol, though it helps that he's secretly an Angel disguised as a mortal. On the other side of the law, Saganbo and OG73-I are Moro's two deadliest enforcers.
• A Day in the Limelight: The other members of the Dragon Team, mainly Piccolo, Gohan and Krillin get some major spotlight for the first time in the Super manga (compared to the anime, none of them got much development in the Tournament of Power) when the escaped convicts reach Earth. Majin Buu and Jaco also plays major roles at the start of the arc. Muten Roshi, Tenshinhan, Yamcha, Chaozu, Android #17 and Android #18 all join in the fun later.
• Alien Invasion: When he finally reaches Earth, Moro sends his criminals on a global invasion, forcing the Z-Fighters and Galactic Patrol to spread out and fight them all over the world.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Esca was a nameless Namekian kid who first appeared in the Majin Buu saga (ch.514, Dragon Ball) in the background alongside the elder Moori. After the other Namekians are wiped out by Moro, he becomes the next Grand Elder by default.
  • Cranberry is the one humanoid goon that was defeated by a Namekian warrior and then kicked off to the ocean by Zarbon (ch. 253, Dragon Ball), making his return an impressive surprise.
• The Atoner: Vegeta reveals he feels remorseful of the slaughter he infliected on the Namekians back in the Namek Saga and wishes to stop Moro from repeating history. After recovering from his first battle with Moro, Vegeta asks the elder Moori how does he feel about him given his past record. Moori tells him the Namekians do not forget things so easily, and Vegeta asks if they hold a grudge against him. Moori tells him Namekians don't indulge in grudges and only wish for peace on Namek. Vegeta then tells Goku to restore Namek their top priority once the conflict is over.
  Moori: Grudges and hatred can only bring further conflict. The Namekian people are not so foolish as to indulge in such things.
• Attack Its Weak Point: What the final clash amounts to, Moro, having merged with the planet, has all his power collected in the gem on his forehead. So Goku must aim for that to finally finish him.
• Back for the Dead: Planet Namek return to the spotlight - only for all of the inhabitants sans Esca, who became the new grand elder, to be killed off by Moro.
• Bloodier and Gorier: A stark contrast between this arc and the previous Super storylines is the amount of graphic violence on display, more reminiscent of Toriyama's original manga. One of Moro's signature moves is impaling his exhausted opponents with his entire arm, which he at one point does to Goku. If the gaping chest wound wasn't healed shortly after, Goku would've died in a bloody heap then and there.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Even though Moro is an irredeemable maniac with probably the highest individual body count since Zamasu, Goku still hesitates to finish him off when he has the warlock at his mercies. Primarily, Goku hates to see such an amazingly powerful warrior go to waste, but he also feels bad about putting down an already-defeated opponent. He foolishly gives Moro a Senzu bean which, while initially a harmless gesture as Moro still cannot damage Goku at all, does give the cunning warlock time to wriggle his way out of the situation and quickly turn the tides back in his own favour.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Moro doesn't bother to kill Goku and Vegeta after draining their energy because he believes they'll die soon anyway and are no longer of concern to him. Sure enough, they awake weakened three days later but can't still catch a breath against him.
• Break Them by Talking: Chiaotzu gets a clear win with this trope. He and Tien fight the Metalman Quoitur, who's Nigh-Invulnerable due to literally being Made of Iron. They can't do any damage until Chiaotzu remembers that Metalmen are very vulnerable to verbal insults. Tien's insults aren't very good, but when Chiaotzu comes up with something much worse Quoitur suffers a Heroic BSoD.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • The Namekians from the Namek Saga of Dragon Ball Z make a return after their last appearance in the Majin Buu Saga.
  • After being absent from the Universal Survival Arc and Dragon Ball Super: Broly, Jaco returns in a major way in this arc. The Galactic King likewise returns after his last appearance in the Universe 6 arc.
  • The Grand Supreme Kai return after the Galactic Patrol help Buu recover his memories.
  • After being sidelined for a long while, Yamcha and Chiaotzu are among the few recruited to defend Earth from Moro's invasion.
• Call-Back:
  • Ch. 43: Goku recalls to Merus how the last opponent they face was another Saiyan. In the tankōbon edition, this is updated to include a flashback of Broly, King Vegeta, King Cold, Bardock and Gine.
    • Goku still can't figure out which tentacle to handshake with the Galactic King.
    • Goku is stuck on the front mirror of a ship again.
  • Ch. 44: Moro lowers the spaceship he came from just like Freeza and Broly did.
  • Ch. 46: Moro locates each Namekian settlement and attacks them one by one just like Freeza and his people in the Namek saga. He does it by reading ki instead of a scouter.
  • Ch. 49: During the fight against Moro, the warlock takes a glimpse at the Grand Supreme Kai memories to see Goku obliterating Kid Buu with the Spirit Bomb.
  • Ch. 51: Jaco asks Goku if he really thought if he was wearing a uniform, just like he did to Tights in chapter 11 of Jaco the Galactic Patrolman.
  • Ch. 53: Yunba breaks the temple the same way Super Buu did in chapter 495 from the Majin Buu saga.
    • Piccolo asks Jaco if he could fly, just for him to reply that only for short moments like it happened in chapter 9 of Jaco the Galactic Patrolman.
  • Ch. 57: Tien and Chiaotzu manage to use Auta Magetta's weakness of insults against Quoitur, even if Tien was bad at insulting.
• The Cameo: Pui Pui's homeworld Planet Zoon appears... only for the denizens to be slaughtered by Moro's army.
  • In an extra page in one of the collected editions, none other than Monster Carrot makes a cameo on the Moon while Merus flies past. He and his goons are still busy making cheese after all these years (though lord knows how they survived the Moon getting destroyed, not once but twice).
• Canon Immigrant:
  • The Galactic Police Force, predecessor to the Galactic Patrol, was first referenced in Dragon Ball – Episode of Bardock, although only named as the "space police".
  • The second Yardrat species that until now had only been present in Dragon Ball Online makes its debut in the official canon.
• Character Shilling: In chapter 61, the fight scene between Moro and Vegeta is interrupted for a conversation between Piccolo and Goku, with Piccolo speaking wonders of Vegeta and how much he changed since he arrived on Earth, fighting to atone for his sins. He then comments that by comparison, Goku hasn't changed one bit. During the shilling, Piccolo also comments Vegeta "was never one to misread an opponent's strength", except he has constantly. Parodied here.
• Chekhov's Gag: In ch. 11 of Super, the Supreme Kai of Universe 6 boasts on how the Metalmen like Magetta should exist in Universe 7 to Old Kai. True enough, a Metalman appears as one of the Galactic Prisoners.
• Chekhov's Armory: Every plot thread mentioned to attempt to kill Moro with (minus the Namekian Savior) is ultimately used to do so:
  • Vegeta's Forced Spirit Fission, while unable to stop Moro the first time, is ultimately vital to defeating him by weakening him enough to leave him vulnerable. Vegeta also uses it to combine the power of all the assembled Z-Fighters and send to Goku in order for him to defeat him, making the Z-Fighters having all assembled to defend Earth one of these as well.
  • The Daikaioshin might not have his godly powers, as they went to Kid Buu, but he's still able to make the game winning play by finding Uub while everyone else is focused on Moro.
  • Kid Buu having the Daikaioshin's godly power turns out to be a vital plot point when Uub now having it is exploited by the Daikaioshin directing him to contribute Ki to Vegeta's effort to power up Goku, finally tipping the scales in the heroes favor.
• Continuity Snarl:
  • In chapter 50, when Goku's energy is absorbed by Moro, he goes from Super Saiyan God to Super Saiyan 3 as a form regression. By the internal logic of the series, this doesn't make sense, as God and Blue are separate from the other three Super Saiyan transformations.
  • In chapter 59, Gohan and Piccolo tell Goku that, anything should happen to the Earth, they will use the Dragon Balls. Except neither set are allowed to be used, as Shenron was summoned three days before the start of the arc, and Porunga was used during the second half. By all means, the Dragon Balls are completely useless if Moro defeats Goku.

• Demoted to Extra: Beerus and Whis return to their home planet, and as of ch. 46, Beerus doesn't mind Moro at all as he "barely has to lift a finger in Universe 7, since every so often some planet-buster come along and do the job for me."
  • After his major role during the New Namek portion of the arc, Buu/Grand Kaioshin remains tuckered out until the very end of the arc, by which time he awakens and helps Uub provide godly energy to Goku in his hour of need.
  • Goten and Trunks are pretty much the only Z-Warriors left out of the action entirely, as Android #17 once again asks them to look after his island while he goes to take care of Seven-Three.
• Easily Forgiven: Per Dragon Ball tradition (and just like with the Cell and Piccolo incidents too, no less), no one holds much of a grudge against Goku for giving Moro, an unrepentant planet-eater, a Senzu bean. This arrogant mistake almost results in the destruction of the entire galaxy. As always, Goku relinquishes the blame by saving the day, but only by the skin of his teeth.
  • At the very least, Beerus doesn't seem to have forgiven Goku so easily since he still seems pissed off at Goku at the beginning of the Granolah arc (though getting humiliated by Zeno while Goku was celebrating his victory also contributed to his bad mood).
• Establishing Character Moment: For the two major new characters:
  • Merus introduces himself as a cool and efficient Galactic Patrolman, in contrast to the bumbling Jaco, by immediately neutralising Goku and Vegeta with an anaesthesia gun and taking them back to base without any fuss.
  • In a flashback to the distant past, Moro is introduced as a terrifying force of nature who casually eats the life force of an entire planet. Both Grand Kaioshin and South Kaioshin are fighting for their lives against him.
• Everyone Has Standards: A special bonus chapter in Volume 12 explains what Frieza is doing while Moro's army are rampaging around the cosmos. Wanting neither to fight or join forces with this rabble, Frieza says he sees no benefit in dealing with criminals, so he decides to remain neutral. Despite being a sadistic, genocidal, planet-bartering tyrant, Frieza still views himself as a respectable businessman, whereas Moro's men kill and loot indiscriminately.
• Fingore: After gladly consuming a Senzu bean and healing to full strength, Moro predictably decides to punch Goku... and promptly breaks his entire hand on Goku's titanium abs.
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: Grand Elder Moori makes it clear that while they don't hold a grudge, the Namekian people have definitely not forgotten Vegeta's wanton massacre of an entire village back in the original Namek arc (that village was also the only one not to be brought back by the Dragon Balls, since Vegeta was not operating as one of Frieza's men when he killed them).
• Forgot About His Powers: A couple of instances.
  • At no point the Mafuba/Evil Containment Wave is brought up to deal with Moro. The only justification is that Goku "knew he wasn't cut for that kind of technique anyway" and that it uses a lot of energy.
  • The Hakai Goku used against Zamasu is not brought up to deal with Moro, who is an irredeemable villain, meaning this wouldn't break Goku's moral code. Instead, Goku tries to use Ultra Instinct to deal with the warlock.
    • Averted, as Goku uses Hakai during the fight with Moro, but not to kill him, only to destroy a rock that was crushing him. His reasoning for not killing him is given, as he hopes Moro can be redeemed like other villains and will go back to prison peacefully.
  • In chapter 53, Bulma calls the rest of the Dragon Team to the lookout after capturing the Macareni gang. Only Krillin arrives since Tien doesn't have a phone and Gohan is at a college lecture but will arrive later. Why do they need to call Tien through phone, if Piccolo can just use telepathy to contact everyone?
• Generic Doomsday Villain: Invoked with Moro. Unlike previous antagonists in Super who have tended to have sympathetic qualities or motivations, Moro was deliberately designed to be an uncomplicated pure evil villain after the likes of Demon King Piccolo, Frieza and Cell. His unique design and abilities make him stand out, while his simple personality allows other characters to bounce off him easily.
• Godzilla Threshold: To show how massive of a threat Moro has become, Beerus is about to step in and personally destroy him before being called away by the Grand Priest.
• Gondor Calls for Aid:
  • When Moro finally arrives on Earth, not only are all of the Z-Fighters summoned after training to prepare, so are 17 and 18, as well as the entire Galactic Patrol.
  • In the finale, after Moro merges with the planet, Goku targets the gem on his head to end the fight. Moro grabs him however and forces him out of Ultra Instinct. Vegeta rallies the others to collect energy to get Goku powered up again so he can finish the fight, with the major saving grace coming from, of all people, Jaco who tracks down Uub and had the Grand Kai direct him into giving out energy as, since Uub is a reincarnation of Buu, he has more than enough energy to spare since it's considered divine power.
• Logical Weakness: Moro realizes one in Ultra Instinct Sign: it lets Goku move extremely fast and his body to react on its own, but Moro telekinetically binds his limbs. While Goku can escape, he is taken off guard.
• Mana Drain: Moro's trump card is a passive energy-draining ability that saps from all of the surrounding area, including the planet he is standing on. It's so potent that it cuts off Goku and Vegeta's ability to turn Super Saiyan, leaving them completely at his mercy. When copying Moro, Seven-Three also demonstrates the ability to turn the tides against Gohan and Piccolo. The best way to avoid this move is to play "the Floor is Lava" and not touch the surface of the planet at all. Goku's Ultra Instinct Sign was also unaffected due to being too fast.
• Mooks: All the convicts that Moro frees from the Galactic Patrol's jails become the "Moro Corps", his personal army. The Galactic Bandit Brigade are their most powerful members.
• Mook Horror Show: Moro inflicts this on the entire Dragon Team after his absorption of OG73-I by locking them all in an impenetrable ki barrier and going to town on them. Merus and Dende thankfully intervene in time to stop it from becoming a total slaughterhouse.
• Mysterious Past: For most of the arc, Merus is an enigma to the reader. He obviously hides an enormous amount of power, far more than a regular Galactic Patrolman should logically have, while his ki is noted to be unreadable. He possesses arcane knowledge of Ultra Instinct, as well as his own passageway to the Room of Spirit and Time. As it turns out, he's a rebellious trainee Angel who wanted to help mortals and stop evildoers, which is against the Angels' code of neutrality.
  • Moro is also surrounded by question marks. We know the basic fact that he's an ancient wizard who absorbs planets, but questions of what exactly he is beyond that, where he came from, how he obtained his magical powers, etc. are all left unanswered.
• Near-Villain Victory: Moro comes dangerously close to winning several times, culminating in his gambit of absorbing the Earth which almost results in the annihilation the entire galaxy. With the help of his friends and Uub, Goku barely scrapes a win and ends the monster's reign of terror once and for all.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Coming off the heels of Jiren, the strongest mortal in the multiverse, and Broly, the most powerful Saiyan alive, this old goat wizard dude doesn't seem like such a threat. Indeed, Vegeta seems quite capable of taking him as a Super Saiyan God. Then Moro reveals his trump card, his power-draining ability. Towards the end of the arc, Moro becomes so powerful that Beerus considers stepping in to stop him.
• Out of Continues: Moro threatens to hit the Z-Fighters with this in the final battle: after merging with Earth, the explosion of his death will destroy the entire galaxy, including Earth, Namek, and explicitly, potentially even some of the Super Dragon Balls, meaning if he's not stopped, there'd be no way to resurrect anyone. This finally inspires Beerus to step in and perform a Dangerous Forbidden Technique, though he is unexpectedly called off by the Grand Priest before he can show it.
• Outside-Context Problem: Moro manages to be such a gigantic threat because unlike previous villains, he doesn't rely on being stronger to maintain his edge and best the heroes, but intelligence and cunning planning. Goku and Vegeta keep trying to fight him with brute force, but he outsmarts them every time and Moro ends the New Namek section of the arc decisively victorious as a result. The two finally realize this and go searching for unconventional tactics to counter Moro's.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Inverted. Moro's army isn't all that strong compared to Goku and Vegeta... but they're the two most powerful mortals in all of Universe 7. Those that can pose a mild challenge to the two in base-form are utter monsters to the rest of the universe, and entire planets don't stand a chance against someone of that power.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Jaco acts as this throughout the arc, though he does help to save the day several times.
• Power Copying: OG73-I has the ability to mimic the abilities and techniques of other powerful fighters by touching the back of their necks. He is capable of storing the abilities of three people at a time. It's bad enough when he steals Piccolo's abilities, but it gets worse when he reveals he's also stored Moro's powers as a back-up. Once Moro absorbs Seven-Three, he retains all of Seven-Three's copied abilities with no cooldown and can mimic others on top of that.
• Quirky Mini Boss Squad: The vanguards of Moro's army of escaped convicts are the Galactic Bandit Brigade, led by Saganbo. Before Moro finally makes landfall, they act as the primary threat for the Earth-based Dragon Team (newly recruited by the Galactic Patrol) to defeat.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Without the former, of course, the escaped convicts go on a massive rampage across the galaxy in which they attack planets, steal everything of value, then slaughter the entire populations.
• Revision:
  • Similar to the Battle of Gods and the Future Trunks sagas, the Galactic Prisoner adds another piece of backstory to the lore of the Majin Buu saga. The reason the Grand Supreme Kai was so weak to face off against Majin Buu's rampage was that he used all of his power to seal Moro away.
  • Chapter 46 establishes that despite Fat Buu taking the appearance of the Grand Supreme Kai, his evil side (Super Buu/Kid Buu) is the one who took the god's strength, meaning that when Kid Buu was killed, Uub inherited god power in him. It doesn't contradict the manga.
  • Chapter 52 introduces Elder Pybara, the man who taught Goku the Instant Transmission way back when he was on planet Yardrat, and also introduces the concept of "Spirit Control" that allows them their countless techniques. By the Yardrats' own admission, Spirit is not different from Ki, meaning neither of these revelations contradicts the series continuity.
• Revisiting the Roots: Structurally, this arc plays out much more like a standard high-stakes Dragon Ball arc.
• Shout-Out:
  • There are some references to Star Wars.
    • The train scene of chapter 43 is based on a similar scene from Solo.
    • In chapter 44, Goku describes Moro's energy "as if a lot of people were screaming in pain", which is similar to Obi Wan's classic line of "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced."
    • The moment Goku sees Moro's ship land on Namek, all he can say is that "I have a bad feeling about this", a recurring quote in the Star Wars franchise.
  • The Galactic Patrol prison seen in Chapter 50 is roughly modeled after the Kyln.
  • Three chapters later, the galactic prisoners raid a planet of hedgehog-like people with powers for creating portals. There is speculation this is a nod to Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), which became infamous in early 2019 for Sonic's questionable design.
• The Starscream: Cranberry foolishly attempts to betray Moro by stealing one of the Namekian Dragon Ball wishes for himself. He dies (again) for his insolence.
• Stupid Good: Goku naively believes that Moro can be convinced to surrender and return to prison peacefully once he is defeated. Compared to Piccolo, Vegeta and Frieza who were simply given the option to walk away after their defeats, Goku goes a step further this time and lets Moro attack him just to show that Resistance Is Futile. What Goku fails to understand until it's too late is that Moro is a genuinely irredeemable mass-murderer, he has no desire to be Goku's little sparring buddy, and he certainly won't allow himself to be sealed away again under any circumstance. This ultimately costs Goku what could have been a straightforward victory.
• Superpower Meltdown: Moro stealing Merus's power results in one due to his body being incapable of controlling it. He merges with the Earth in an attempt to remedy this, but even then his energy grows more and more unstable and threatens to explode and take the galaxy with him. When Goku finally shatters Moro's crystal, it results in a more contained one: Moro shattering and his physical form exploding like a volcano, finally killing him.
• Took a Level in Badass: Both Goku and Vegeta get massive power-ups partway through the saga.
  • Goku's training with Merus paid off in the end when he arrives on Earth—now he can access Ultra Instinct -Sign-, a technique that could be only accessed subconsciously in times of desperation, at will. And by the end of the arc itself, Goku can now use he full version of Ultra Instinct all the time as well.
  • Meanwhile, Vegeta's body and spirit became so balanced from his training of Yardrat that a single Galick Beam became leagues powerful than before.
• Underestimating Badassery: Yamcha, of all people, benefits from this. Three of the escaped convicts attack him, and he kicks their asses without breaking a sweat. The convicts are shocked, saying they expected him to be a pushover. Yamcha just smirks and tells them that he's one of the three strongest Earthlings.
• Unexpectedly Dark Episode: Up until now, the Galactic Patrol has largely been treated comically, and early parts of the arc still contain that humor... then Moro appears in earnest and the result is one of the darkest stories that Dragon Ball has done, with gruesome violence unseen in the series since early Z.
• Voodoo Shark: Grand Supreme Kai is revealed as being able to awaken inside Buu multiple times, and helps the heroes a few times and provides exposition on Moro and adds some world building. The problem is, Buu's absorption technique doesn't work like this, and if it did, that brings up the question as to why he couldn't do so earlier? As well as why couldn't the South Supreme Kai do the same? They were both protectors and good friends of Shin, so why does Moro awaken one kai but neither awaken when seeing the menace who similarly threatened their universe? And what exactly stops the Grand Supreme Kai from existing constantly? And so on and so forth.
• Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: Despite Moro causing complete havoc in Universe 7, there is no mention of either Frieza and his empire's whereabouts, nor is the reader informed if Broly, Cheelai, and Lemo were affected. This later became averted with Frieza, as a special chapter revealed he is aware of the situation but decided not to intervene.