The Best Moment of Dragon Ball Super

There are few more powerful character development moments in Dragon Ball Super than Vegeta beating Toppo.

Allow me to set the stage.  The Tournament of Power was started by Dragon Ball Super's newly introduced "Zen-Oh", a being that created all of existence.  Believing there are too many universes, Zen-Oh decides to have a tournament between all the universes that are weaker than a certain level.   Eight of the twelve universes in existence participate to decide which one of them will be allowed to remain in existence.

By the end of a forty-eight minute battle royale, only two universes are left: Universe 7, filled with the Z Fighters, and Universe 11, featuring the ultimate opponent Jiren and his Pride Troopers. The Pride Troopers are down to only two warriors by the end: Toppo, and Jiren.  Toppo turns out to be present for a reason, as he is a candidate to become a god of destruction, a being with incredible powers that decides whether or not planets live or die.

 

The thing about the Pride Troopers is the primary characteristic for them is how much they talked about Justice. They're a pastiche of every classic superhero, constantly talking about what's right, and how they should win because they're fighting for their universe and their justice. Toppo specifically directs much of his anger at Goku for being the reason the tournament was started, saying he was the enemy of Justice.

But when Jiren and Toppo find themselves the only ones remaining in the tournament, Toppo finally decides he's had enough. True to form with superhero parodies in shonen anime, he tosses his justice aside and decides that survival means more than everything he's claimed to believe in until now. As a god of destruction candidate, he has access to a special ki that can erase anything that comes in contact with it--including other people's energy beams. This is a power he clearly didn't want to use, but was forced into thanks to the power of the Z Fighters.

He pushes Vegeta to his absolute limit, but then makes a fatal error: mocking Vegeta's pride.  Earlier in the arc, Vegeta had promised Cabba, a fellow Saiyan from a different universe, that he would bring his universe back by winning the tournament, which granted the winner any wish they wanted.  Toppo laughs at Vegeta's desire to keep such a simple promise, claiming that someone bearing unnecessary burdens like that couldn't win against him.

But this is actually the biggest shift in Vegeta's character we've seen.  So much of his DBZ screentime is devoted to him never being honest with how he feels.  He can't show the respect and love to his son Trunks in the Cell Saga, even though when Cell attacks him he goes off. He even turns evil in the Buu Saga, purely because he couldn't stand the idea of becoming a husband and father...even though the last action he does is admitting he loves his son before he fights Buu. 

In Dragon Ball Super, this changes gradually.  Meeting Cabba from Universe 6, he immediately takes on a mentor role with him, helping the young man to become a Super Saiyan.  It's tough love, as he immediately knocks Cabba out afterwards, but he still wanted to see a fellow Saiyan grow.  Then when Bulma is pregnant, he refuses to run off and train with Goku until the child is born, even though Goku doesn't think it even matters that he be there.

And it's with his fight with Toppo that he finally accepts everything that he is as a husband, father, and mentor.  And unlike so many years before with Majin Buu, he realizes these aren't things holding him back.  These are the things that makes him who he is--they make him stronger.  It sounds heroic, but at the same time, there's one more thing he won't give up: his Saiyan pride.  Toppo's entire point is that this desperate situation means he has to surrender something, but Vegeta refuses.  His pride as a Saiyan won't allow him to do anything else.