SMASH NOTES // DBSubpar: Into the Goku-Verse

MOVIE RECAP: INDEED, THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES: Ida's bomb delivery to the Subpar-Verse in MHAbridged Episode 22 is recapped, particularly honi

MOVIE RECAP:

• INDEED, THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES: Ida's bomb delivery to the Subpar-Verse in MHAbridged Episode 22 is recapped, particularly honing in on King Kai's resigned remark that there are no "real consequences in this universe."

• THE FUTURE IS 2020: Future Trunks' world appears to be a nuclear wasteland following the Ida incident, but it's soon implied to be Blacku's doing as part of a "cleansing."

  • The incident forced Goku to "grow up" and his crusade against the world's greatest threats has become a lethal error of overcorrection.

  • Blacku kills Bulma and Mai. Rather than face Blacku himself, Trunks goes back in time to recruit the Z Fighters' aide.

• BACK TO THE PAST: Pre-incident, Goku is no less a terror on his friends' lives in this timeline, robbing them for fun and firing guns at Vegeta.

  • Future Trunks demands everybody to stand up to him, but is scolded for upsetting their dynamic and the multiverse at large.

  • Whis, in particular, bemoans engaging with tired multiverse tropes and "grounds" everybody. Blacku agrees, and temporarily phases into their timeline to destroy Trunks' time machine, not realizing Whis has already accomplished this off-screen.

    • Problem solved, right? ...Too bad Blacku calls himself a "Gosh" in front of Beerus & Whis, who must now accept their own culpability in "grooming" Goku's god complex.

    • Even worse, Goku gets a taste of Blacku's fighting spirit (or lack thereof) and demands a rematch in the future. Nobody can tell Goku no.

• THE Z-PLOT: Bulma pulls out Trunks' time machine from the Cell Saga, and Goku demands it be repaired or else he will willingly become Blacku.

  • In the meantime, Trunks decides to meet with Gohan and recruit him to the cause, despite the other Z-Fighters' warnings to not bother him.

    • Trunks is dismayed to find Gohan has become a professional YouTuber. Gohan barks back that despite what others may think of his lifestyle, he's at least taken accountability for himself and his family; something the other Z-Fighters refuse to do.

  • Zamasu, a Junior Deputy Gosh-in-Training, proposes to his Teacher the idea of wiping out mortals because they're always such a bummer.

    • Goku, Beerus & Whis arrive and commit a "Gosh-on-Gosh Crime" by snuffing him out before he becomes a problem in their timeline, at least. However, this is yet another authoritarian abuse to inspire Goku's transformation into Blacku.

• BACK TO THE FUTURE: Beerus & Whis get bored and allow Goku & friends to check on the future. Big surprise, NOTHING has changed.

  • However, they do return to the point just BEFORE Mai is killed, so that's something.

  • Vegeta is disturbed by the future's pathetic state and demands a "debate" with Blacku over new leadership.

    • Blacku reveals that the future is barely his fault, and it has been slowly dying on it's own from lack of anybody's proactive action; namely Trunks'. Everybody gets super bummed and returns to the past.

• BACK TO BASICS: Realizing they cannot stop Blacku or save the future, Goku & friends return to the past and receive guidance from the only man who ever knew how to reign him in... Master Roshi.

  • Meanwhile, Beerus & Whis are contacted by Xeno, gosh-of-all-goshes, and given a strike for creating a ̶p̶a̶r̶o̶d̶y̶ paradox.

  • Elsewhere (in the future), it is revealed Zamasu has been Blacku's mentor this whole time. And go figure, who else took the time to deal with him?

  • Kid Trunks scolds Future Trunks for being a hyper-dependent bitch, then beats Ochako to her own speech on communal responsibility.

• BACK TO THE FUTURE II: Goku & Friends (Bulma now included) return to settle the Blacku/Zamasu problem once and for all, despite the very nihilistic idea that it can never be solved due to the infinite nature of the multiverse.

  • Blacku and Zamasu fuse to become Blanco. The Kais arrive and suggest Goku & Vegeta commit Frieza's original sin of 'cultural appropriation' by fusing via Potara Earrings. Goku vehemently refuses, because compromising is the final step in becoming Blacku.

    • Vegeta delivers a stirring speech, admitting that Goku could never change in his eyes and that he owes so much of his own personal growth to Goku's stubbornness. Goku finally agrees to fuse and allows Vegeta to be the primary personality behind Vegito; remarking that this isn't a compromise, so much as it is refusing to fight himself, because that's pathetic.

  • Before Vegito finishes off Blanco, Goku decides to unfuse and forgive him. An action that Zamasu's teacher deems "divine." Vegeta agrees to it because it's ultimately more demoralizing than dying.

    • Trunks does not forgive, however, accepting his responsibility to finish the job. The destruction of Blanco's mortal body creates Blanco Infinito and this world is doomed.

  • The Xeno of this world arrives and deems everything too cringe to leave alive. Goku & friends (with Future Trunks, Mai AND Xeno in tow) just barely escape to euthanize it.

• ANOTHER HAPPY ENDING??: The Z Fighters agree to stop F--KING with the multiverse, but not without finding Future Trunks and Mai a new home. If there are infinite Blancos, surely there is a near identical universe missing their Trunks and Mai.

  • Goku solves the Xeno problem by offering the dark future's Xeno to their own as a new friend an apology present for messing with the multiverse.

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE MULTIVERSE:

• The Subpar-Verse knows who Ida is and they HATE him. You'd hate someone too if they just callously dropped a nuke on your world.

  • Additionally, Kid Trunks' meeting with Detective Pikachu (referred to as "The Yellow Detective") in Broly Abridged post-credits is acknowledged. Meaning he was possibly warned of Ida's arrival and his involvement in Blanco Infinito, but did NOTHING (very in character).

• Due to the infinite nature of the multiverse, there are infinite Blackus, Zamasus, and Blancos all vying for control of it. However, in the post-credits scene for My Villain Abridged, it is revealed Jiren has eliminated them all (bigger bad, indeed).

• Morning Ramen's Naruto makes their first appearance in the J.A.M. and begins his trend of hitching rides like an invasive species.

• Vegeta's rivalry with President Scott, and a possible election between the two, is teased here before it was again in MHA: New Order.

• Future Trunks' tampering with multiple timelines is ultimately how the Subpar-Verse caught Jiren's attention, and why he cut off Trunks' head and displayed it to Goku in Jump Force ABRIDGED.

THEMES & SUCH:

• Everybody's an armchair revolutionist, but nobody wants to actually fight the revolution.

  • It's not Future Trunks' fault the grimmdark future exists, but it only gets worse as he unfolds time and space begging others to fix it in his stead.

  • Goku is a HUGE problem even BEFORE he becomes Blacku. Even with concrete evidence of the future problems he will create, nobody can be inconvenienced to engage with him (save for other terrible entities such as Zamasu, which leads to the ultimate terror of Blanco).

  • Blacku even reveals that he barely touched the future. It's been slowly dying on it's own accord from lack of proactive action on anybody's part.

  • This parody posits that that there are indeed very bad people vying for control over our world, but they only win if a collective populace decides to spectate, rather than properly inform themselves and support each other.

• " I don't understand the necessity of [morality/mortality]"

  • Morality is not sourced from the divine. On the contrary, gods and divine entities NEED mortals to teach them the value of life as only mortals lead finite, consequential existences.

    • The former is nothing without the latter, and Zamasu's teacher understands this. Zamasu on the other hand, has zero interest in engaging empathetically with humanity. His existence is horrifically empty, purposeless and is thusly denied godhood, only until he meets with Goku.

      • It is divine irony that Zamasu cannot achieve godhood until he fuses with another mortal, Blacku, and becomes Blanco.

  • This theme continues in Master Roshi's lessons with Goku and Vegeta.

    • Master Roshi is the only person who seems to be able to 'control' Goku, but never commands him.

      • Master Roshi guides by taking the time to understand Goku's desires and uses them to motivate more productive behavior (and when all else fails, a couple bonks on the skull will finish the job). Call it manipulative, but Roshi engages with Goku more than anybody else does, and doesn't achieve this level of wisdom without having a relationship with his student to start.

    • Vegeta has always seen himself as Goku's greater and leash handler, but much of his history compared to Goku's is wrought with stagnation.

      • Only after Vegeta acknowledges that he has learned so much from Goku, does he unlock a new level of power and becomes the primary personality behind Vegito.

TRIVIA:

• Due to harassment from the Dragon Ball fanbase and ceaseless striking from copyright claimants, Dragon Ball Subpar was cancelled as a series halfway through production and it's original ending changed.

  • After Goku & Friends attempted to escape from Xeno's destruction, they would have all crash landed in another dimension and met by Yomama as a teaser to Spy x Family ABRIDGED.

  • Instead, AFO's "fan fiction" was added to leave this installment's place in the chronology open-ended and lead into Jump Force ABRIDGED.