The following contains spoilers for Dragon Ball Super through Chapter 95 by 706z87″ title=”akira”>Akira Toriyama, Toyotarou, Brandon Bovia and Caleb Cook, now available in English from Viz Media.
706z87″ title=”akira”>Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball franchise has long been known for occasional plot developments where fans are basically asked to suspend their disbelief and go with the flow. In Dragon Ball Z, for example, Frieza’s titanic clash with Goku was supposed to end around five minutes after the villain directly attacked planet Namek. It ultimately lasted far longer on screen due to the anime coming dangerously close to catching the manga.
Another common theme in this series is when the heroes ignore an obvious solution to defeating the villain early on in order to drag the story out. However, Dragon Ball Super‘s “Granolah the Survivor” arc actually reversed this concept with its primary villain Gas, who could have defeated Vegeta, Goku and Granolah rather easily with a technique he revealed while battling the Saiyan Prince.
Dragon Ball Super‘s Gas Could Materialize Objects – And Teleport People
Although Gas showed little personality throughout his time in Super, his distinctive fighting techniques and supernatural abilities represented a nice change of pace from many past villains. He could materialize objects of any size and shape seemingly out of nothing, then make them move in any direction according to his wishes. It made for some compelling fight scenes; in one instance, Gas materializes a giant pitchfork and impales Granolah with it. A bit later, he creates two giant blocks covered in spikes and very nearly succeeds in crushing Goku between them.
Chapter 85 of Dragon Ball Super has Gas fighting Vegeta, the latter in his powerful Ultra Ego form. To avoid taking any further damage, the villain suddenly teleports Vegeta further away on multiple occasions. It surprises both him and Goku, who were unaware Gas could use Instant Transmission on living beings as well as inanimate objects. This revelation also opened a huge plot hole, as Gas should’ve defeated the Saiyan duo easily – even in their strongest forms.
Gas Could’ve Teleported Vegeta and Goku Directly Into Outer Space
Dragon Ball Z established that Saiyans require oxygen to breathe and thus cannot survive in outer space. For example, Goku wore a spacesuit while repairing the outside of his spaceship during his first journey to Namek. Frieza also stated outright that he would be able to survive in space while Goku could not. Regardless of how powerful they become or any new forms they attain, Goku and Vegeta still need oxygen like any regular Earthling. Gas surely knew this as well, since the Heeters’ general shtick was prioritizing information over strength.
Therefore, all Gas really needed to do was teleport the Saiyans into outer space, where they would’ve quickly suffocated to death. Even if he couldn’t teleport living beings particularly far away – which was left unclear – he could’ve flown to the edge of Planet Cereal’s atmosphere and taunted Vegeta and Goku into following him, then sent them the distance necessary to kill them. Vegeta in particular would likely have fallen for this simple trick.
Maybe Gas was too proud of a fighter and wanted to defeat the Saiyans and Granolah with his own physical strength. Perhaps it was arrogance, a character trait that dooms many villains in shonen anime and beyond. Or maybe Dragon Ball Super left this open plot hole and fans will simply have to roll with the classic “hero plot armor” explanation.
Leave a Reply