Ultra Instinct has a LOT going for it to be honest; it fits Toriyama's design philosophy, is exclusive to Goku only, had tons of build up, and never gets diminished in all subsequent uses.
The only mark against it is that its too recent compared to SSJ1 and even then, its slowly gaining more status in the public consciousness.
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.....Z is not really an ensemble story. Even when Goku's not there, the story is still about him: where he is, what he's doing, when he'll show up, whether anyone can hold out until he shows up, how he'll save the day. Dragonball, in whatever form it takes, will always be the story of Goku. Not even Goku and his friends, but Goku. Even when the plot tried to put in someone else as the hero, Toriyama himself shifted things back to Goku because he was so used to writing him that he had no interest in changing how he wrote to accomadate a new main character and went back to Goku instead.
One Strip! One Strip!Ultra Instinct also has the bonus of being more than just a power-up. It's an entirely different fighting style, it has advantages and disadvantages that are very well fleshed out and explored, it's not just "this character, but stronger", it essentially turns Goku into a whole new person.
When you're playing Ultra Instinct Goku in Fighterz, you're not playing as Goku, you're playing as his muscles moving his body, Goku's just along for the ride.
Doesnt SSJ 1 have the exact same problem SSJ 2 has? The very next saga introduces 3 new users, and 2 powered up forms (1.5 and SSJ). Even the latest movie, Broly, Has Frieza being like "wait, your son cant even go super saiyan? kinda sucks, man." SSJ 1 Has the one BIG moment and then becomes the bar for entry for anyone to even raise an eyebrow at you.
Meanwhile, Ultra Instinct had been built up for the entirity of Super, with the line from beerus, takes over 100 episodes to finally pull off, and even then, its not even at full power. You want to talk about earning a transformation, Ultra Instinct mastered doesnt even appear until like the final 3 episodes of the show, after learning how to use his new powers through omen during multiple fights in a literal fight overtheir universe's survival...in the course of under an hour. anime time aside, Goku mastered AUI faster than he fused with Goegta in the Broly movie. I think it more than deserves the number 1 spot over SSJ 1
Edited by CountofBleck on Dec 22nd 2020 at 12:52:06 PM
The thing is, it zig-zags: every SS transformation until Buu is still treated with a certain amount of gravitas whenever it's busted out for the first time, every time a character unlocks it is still a big deal, even if not as big as the very first time, and one might argue some of these transformations have more narrative weight to them, at least as it pertains to the characters.
When Cabba transforms, it's a big showing of Vegeta's development that he's training someone with the intent of surpassing him, when such a think would be unthinkable for him at the start; when Trunks transforms it's still on of the most emotional moments in the whole franchise; and when Neo-Broly transforms, awesome as it is, there's also a tragedy to it not unlike when Gohan went SSJ 2: seeing a gentle man and, in this case, abuse victim snapping completely.
Edited by HailMuffins on Dec 22nd 2020 at 2:58:26 PM
Worth noting that while Super Saiyan 2 doesn't do much for anyone but Gohan, "Anyone but Gohan" consists of Goku and Vegeta. Gotenks skips the form entirely, having Super Saiyan and Super Saiyan 3.
This isn't really a defense of the form, but rather pointing out the weirdness of its dynamic. Goku and Vegeta gain Super Saiyan 2 as a matter of course, but the only thing they use it for is to fight each other. Shit, in the manga, that fight even happens offscreen!
I think Super Saiyan 2 would have been less contentious if it was simply never given the title of Super Saiyan 2 at all, and had just remained Gohan's own dynamic power-up. The merger of his Super Saiyan strength with his Hidden Power, unique to Gohan.
Seriously. Nothing would really be lost if Goku's fight with Majin Vegeta was a Super Saiyan v. Super Saiyan (Majin-boosted) clash. It would literally be the exact same fight, but without the blue lightning flashes signifying that Gohan isn't special anymore.
Turning the Super Saiyan forms into sequential numbers to hype Super Saiyan 3, a form that isn't even very good, was a mistake. Hell, the numbers don't even work right, since they ignore Vegeta's Super Saiyan 1.5 and Trunks's Super Saiyan 1.Shit.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 22nd 2020 at 10:01:42 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Super Saiyan has grandfather clause and the other forms building on it; you can always tell when somebody is going Super.
Super Saiyan 2 has the issue of going from Gohan's culmination, to something Goku and Vegeta just do (and something Goku has surpassed before we even see him using). And also the major issue of not being visually distinct, outside of oft-forgotten spiky hair, and the lightning.
I mean, Gotenks outright skips it.
If anything not having Goku acquire SSJ 2 and still becoming stronger than Gohan would've highlighted even more how much Gohan was slacking off: SS is ultimately a power boost, and if even with that power boost his father surpasses him, well, need I say more?
Goku's Super Saiyan 1 surpassing Gohan's Super Saiyan 2 literally just requires Goku to be twice as strong as Gohan in base form. Which with Goku spending seven years in the afterlife training and Gohan slacking and letting his power decline, would be entirely plausible.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Would that technically also count as one of the Top 12 Bulma Outfits? The title just says "Bulma Outfits"; wearing Bulma as an outfit technically fits that description.
Filler Captain Ginyu can also claim this one.
EDIT: In any case, I do believe that giving Super Saiyan 2 to Goku and Vegeta (and, in fact, even naming it Super Saiyan 2 rather than giving it its own character-specific name like Super Vegeta, Super Trunks, and Ultimate Gohan have) ultimately served to cheapen the form. I think Toriyama was trying to make Super Saiyan 2 into the new status quo the way Super Saiyan 1 became after its introduction, but if that was the intent, he failed miserably.
The naming of Super Saiyan 2, as Goku rattled them off to Majin Buu, is the moment when Super Saiyan transformations coalesced into a strict tier list. Each character in the Cell arc has their own version of what an ascended Super Saiyan looks like.
- Vegeta enhances the strength and ki output of the form while balancing it for speed and agility. (He teaches this to Trunks too)
- Trunks enhances just the strength of the form, dump-statting speed and agility for maximum power output. (Goku can do this too)
- Goku enhances the stamina of the form, retaining its base stats but eliminating its ki drain in order to sustain it indefinitely. (He teaches this to Gohan too)
- Gohan merges the form with his Hidden Power, resulting in a massive swell to all stats at the emotional and mental cost of blind, malevolent fury.
While Gohan's form is the only one that's exclusive to him, the divergent evolutions of Super Saiyan are still distinct to the specific character that primarily utilizes that particular version of Ascended Super Saiyan. It distinguishes the characters from one another.
Under a better writer's pen, these distinctions could go very far in making the characters stand out as unique fighters. Trunks being a Mighty Glacier, Vegeta having high stats but low stamina, Goku being able to just keep on going all day even if he's not as powerful as Vegeta and Trunks, and Gohan having the complete package but losing his ability to make rational decisions when he accesses it? Those are very different kinds of fighters and could create for distinct and inventive fights.
The Buu Arc did not do that. It punted Super Vegeta and Super Trunks out of the picture entirely, never brought up Full Power Super Saiyan again, unwrote the blind rage from Gohan's form, and made Gohan's form the official second stage of Super Saiyan which is just a stepping stone to the third stage.
In the process turning Gohan's culminating moment as a character in his battle against Cell into "Well, he made it to the second stage of his racial boost so that's pretty neat. I mean, it's not exactly Super Saiyan 3, but it's something. A solid B-."
And then Super Saiyan 3 wasn't even any good and could just as easily have been a new, fifth version of Ascended Super Saiyan with pros and cons that Goku created.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 22nd 2020 at 10:26:26 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.As mentioned before, the second best use of Super Saiyan 2 is Cabba, and it's not clear that his achievement of Super Saiyan 2 is a better moment than him getting Super Saiyan 1.
Super Saiyan 1 has too many narrative moments to be anything but number 1. It's the only transformation in the series where you could make a top five list of times a character revealed the ability to use that transformation and have people actually care about that list.
Super Saiyan 1 also has the benefit of being the new baseline for all Saiyan characters.
- Goku has Super Saiyan 1, GII, GIII, 2, 3, 4, God, Blue, and Ultra Instinct.
- Vegeta has Super Saiyan 1, GII, 2, 4, God, Blue, and his own super version of Blue.
- Gohan has Super Saiyan 1 and 2.
- Future Trunks has Super Saiyan 1, GII, and GIII.
- Goten has Super Saiyan 1
- Trunks has Super Saiyan 1
- Gotenks has Super Saiyan 1 and 3.
- Vegetto has Super Saiyan 1 and Blue.
- Gogeta has Super Saiyan 1, 4, and Blue.
- Cabba has Super Saiyan 1 and 2.
- Caulifla has Super Saiyan 1, GIII, and 2.
- Kale has Super Saiyan 1, 2, and Legendary.
- Kefla has Super Saiyan 1 and 2.
- Bardock has Super Saiyan 1.
- Broly (Original) has Super Saiyan 1 and Legendary.
- Broly (Super) has Super Saiyan Legendary.
Look at that list and tell me: what is the one form of Super Saiyan that you see appear most frequently throughout it? What is the one form that literally every single character except Super Broly has, at some point or another, rocked in their character history through this series?
It's the old classic. Most characters may diverge in favor of one of the evolved versions of the form, but everyone spends some time at Super Saiyan 1, and they usually get to kill it like a boss while they do. It wouldn't be until Super Broly that we finally got a combo breaker.
Super Saiyan 1 is the baseline of all Saiyans. Even Bardock was retroactively given the form! And he got literally an entire movie dedicated just to making him a Super Saiyan! Super Saiyan 1 is that big of a deal, even to this day. While other forms may be flashier or stronger, Super Saiyan 1 is the gateway transformation for all Saiyan characters, and is typically treated as a huge fucking deal for those characters even as far out in the series as Super.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 22nd 2020 at 10:46:43 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Vegeta enhances the strength and ki output of the form while balancing it for speed and agility. (He teaches this to Trunks too) Trunks enhances just the strength of the form, dump-statting speed and agility for maximum power output. (Goku can do this too) Goku enhances the stamina of the form, retaining its base stats but eliminating its ki drain in order to sustain it indefinitely. (He teaches this to Gohan too) Gohan merges the form with his Hidden Power, resulting in a massive swell to all stats at the emotional and mental cost of blind, malevolent fury. While Gohan's form is the only one that's exclusive to him, the divergent evolutions of Super Saiyan are still distinct to the specific character that primarily utilizes that particular version of Ascended Super Saiyan. It distinguishes the characters from one another.
Under a better writer's pen, these distinctions could go very far in making the characters stand out as unique fighters. Trunks being a Mighty Glacier, Vegeta having high stats but low stamina, Goku being able to just keep on going all day even if he's not as powerful as Vegeta and Trunks, and Gohan having the complete package but losing his ability to make rational decisions when he accesses it? Those are very different kinds of fighters and could create for distinct and inventive fights.
I’m always going to wonder if this decision came from Toriyama being too lazy to want bother with such distinctions, or just not realizing the potential at the time.
Either explanation is viable. It’s a shame too, since Vegeta and Goku’s respective handling of the forms really reflects their viewpoints: Vegeta as a soldier valuing power, and Goku as a martial artist valuing technique.
One Strip! One Strip!Definitely the latter. It's Toriyama's writing style. He doesn't really value divergent character evolution; things that make the stats go up are better, period.
Super Vegeta is better than Super Saiyan because its stats are better. Super Trunks was a mistake because it emphasizes strength at a cost to other stats, and specialization is bad. Full Power Super Saiyan is better than Super Vegeta because it canonically actually has even better stats alongside the stamina thing I mentioned. And then Super Saiyan 2 has the best stats, so all those other forms are shit by comparison.
Then Goku created Super Saiyan 3, which had even more better stats than Super Saiyan 2, but with a drawback. And then God had better stats, and then Blue had even better stats than that. Ultra Instinct, despite being sold as basically the Ultimate Eye from Fullmetal Alchemist, also has a dedicated transformation when Goku does it that gives him, you guessed it, even more better stats.
This is how just how Toriyama writes. Being a fighter is a single-minded pursuit of better stats.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 22nd 2020 at 11:23:25 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.I think SS 2 got changed to have stamina issues by Super or was straight up forgotten since it's the most common issue for any trasnformation.

Well they did say Gohan's writing was controversial, so its not like they're not aware of the problems surrounding his usage. They just value the moment too much to rate it lower and I can't disagree.
But oh man, imagine if Ultra Instinct is #1
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.