I really liked this episode. Some actual displays of teamwork, the Pride Trooper Red Shirt Squad weren't just jobbers and actually did some damage, 17 being a badass, 18 being hilarious and also a badass, and the Saiyan women proving that when you put Super Saiyans and the Power of Friendship together you're pretty much unstoppable.
If anyone had a weak performance this episode, it was, strangely enough, Goku. He didn't really do anything.
I like how Grand Priest notes that the weaklings have been cleared out and the real fight starts now. And with Kale wrecking the ring in her rampage we have a little bit more of an environment than just a flat plane.
I really liked this episode. Felt Kale's "I hate... who I am!" was very powerful, and 17 and 18 were pretty cool. Only minor complaint is that Caulifla and Goku didn't go Super Saiyan immediately, making the Pride Troopers look weaker than I would've liked.
I don't know why, but Freeza slapping Murichim out of the ring with his tail felt especially well-done.
Honestly, I don't remember hearing anything about Nigrisshi being U3's strongest fighter, just that he was in charge of most of the team's mechanical enhancements, so I wouldn't count U3 out yet, just because Cabba one-shot one of their fighters in base.
So far, U6 and U2 are doing the best, with both teams still having all of their fighters. On the other hand, U11 and U10 are in the most trouble, with only 4 and 5 fighters remaining, respectively.
Can't wait for U2's Magical Girls to have the spotlight next episode. Maybe my WMG about the trio being comparable to Jiren and Toppo at max power will pay off in some way.
So question; now that the form is being officially called Super Saiyan Blue by everything except for Xenoverse, would the name "Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan" be better used with the Super Saiyan state Goku used against Beerus when he absorbed Super Saiyan God's crimson radiance, or is there another name that could be used?
Let's see if you can get past my Beelzemon. Mephiles, WARP SHINKA!Man, Goku is jobbing once again. Seriously, how many times has he "dropped his guard down" at this point?
The Pride Troopers strike me as bit of a dicks, really.
Pfft, I do like how Jiren and Toppo being too cool to fight themselves came to bite them in the ass here.
Kale can control herself now, because friendship is magi I guess.
Caulifa is the best character introduced in this arc. She had some really good lines here.
Next episode - magical girls.
It seems that Toriyama's been setting up something for the past 3 sagas...
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What is Goku planning?
edited 30th Jul '17 2:01:07 AM by Rinsankajugin
If Goku's planning something, it involves Hit and Freeza, two of the strongest fighters in the multiverse. Logically, this would be something that would require both of their strength to pull off. The obvious answer is "overthrow the gods with the help of the strongest mortals", but Toriyama's never been one for the obvious answer. It's also possible that the three scenes have no connection with each other, but I kind of like the idea of Goku pulling a long con.
I've been doing quite a bit of thinking, and as weird as it sounds, I can't think of any way to change this episode to have Goku and Caulifla as Super Saiyan throughout it without making it worse.
The fights go: Kahseral vs 17 and 18, 18 leaves to help Goku while 17 fights Kahseral until he leaves when 18 eliminates Tupper.
Goku vs Tupper and Zoiray, Goku is on the ropes until 18 comes to save him by eliminating Tupper.
Caulifla vs Kettol and Kale vs Cocotte, after Tupper is out, the remaining Pride Troopers gang up on Caulifla and Kale.
There's a very clear cause-and-effect chain of events here, and having Goku and/or Caulifla fight in Super Saiyan breaks them or hurts the episode's emotional structure, by either having 18 save someone way stronger than her by eliminating someone who was holding the first person down, or by having Caulifla in Super Saiyan while Goku isn't, which breaks the parallels between them and raises questions as to why Kettol is so much stronger than his teammates at the same rank, not to mention how Zoiray is the one told to knock her out.
It's either have Goku and Caulifla in Super Saiyan, have the Pride Trooper team be much stronger, and write 18 completely out of the episode and give her role to someone else, which takes away from her fun interactions with 17 here, or do what they did in the episode proper. Toei decided to pick Power Level consistency and natural character team-ups and interactions over using Super Saiyan and making all of the Pride Troopers super strong. Honestly, I think they made the right call.
Really though, we should've seen ahead of time that the Pride Troopers were not going to be bunch of Toppos back when we saw Cocotte fighting 18 evenly right when the tournament started.
edited 30th Jul '17 3:49:15 AM by PushoverMediaCritic
Perhaps being unable to break out of holds is a family trait.
We all know Raditz's true weakness was the Full Nelson after all.
Which is a switch from having Goku easily stomp someone everyone else couldn't even dent in order to make him look good, but is still a poor move.
One Strip! One Strip!I see two possibilities:
1. Goku is conserving his strength and stamina because in this fight you can't afford to go all out from the start. Goku may be an Idiot Hero but when it comes to fighting he's usually pretty smart about stuff. So far he's only gone Blue in situations where he would have actually been taken out if he hadn't.
2. Goku enjoys fighting for its own sake and likes to hold back and draw out a fight when he could easily finish it in a few seconds at his real power. This is a trait we know for a fact Goku has; he's done this uncountable times throughout the series.
Personally I think it's a bit of both of the above. So Goku jobbing a bit really fits his character quite well.
edited 30th Jul '17 11:32:29 AM by DarkHunter
The two times he's gone Blue was once when he was literally a split-second from being ringed-out, and when Kale went berserk and was targetting him personally. And in the latter case, seeing as SSB's level of power wasn't immediately roflstomping Kale, it's pretty clear any lower level of power wouldn't have worked.
Both those times make sense to me as to why he'd go into his full power, even if he was trying to conserve it as much as possible.
edited 30th Jul '17 11:38:04 AM by DarkHunter

Maybe Goku is doing it on purpose? He just enjoys getting manhandled is all.