Highlights
- Jiren’s backstory reveals that he has a tragic past and a resolve to rely solely on his own strength, shaping his character and motivations.
- Jiren’s incredible strength and efficient energy control made him a formidable opponent in the Tournament of Power, even second only to the Mastered Ultra Instinct form.
- Due to his mental fortitude and already mastered energy output, Jiren has the potential to master Ultra Instinct, making him an even more powerful addition to the Dragon Ball Super universe.
Despite being one of the most powerful and mysterious enemies that the Z-Fighters had ever faced in the history of Dragon Ball, we haven’t seen much of Jiren within the canon story of the franchise. Dragon Ball Super’s Tournament of Power introduced this character as the ultimate powerhouse for whom Goku had to unlock a divine technique to defeat and was considered to be a one-man army for Universe 11. However, despite his overwhelming power, Jiren was defeated by Universe 7 and hasn’t been seen since the end of the tournament.
Fast-forward to now, where in the manga, new characters have sprung up that are vastly stronger than any of those who have come before. These new characters have truly tested the limits of the Z-Fighters, allowing for Goku and Vegeta to refine and perfect their ultimate divine techniques. The story has other characters like Gohan, Piccolo, and Frieza who have unlocked new forms that are just as powerful as Goku and Vegeta’s so, let’s go over who Jiren is, and his abilities and see whether he would need a new transformation to compete with our heroes in the future.
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Backstory
Much like most other characters from the Tournament of Power, we simply did not get much of a detailed backstory for Jiren. All we knew was that during his childhood, Jiren lost both of his parents to a mysterious villain and after this traumatic event, he was taken in by a man who eventually became his teacher and mentor. This person then trained Jiren mentally and physically, allowing him to adopt incredible focus and techniques that he still uses.
However, he would lose his mentor as well to the very same villain who killed his parents. Even though Jiren was now older and significantly more powerful than before, he and the rest of his companions still met defeat at the hands of the villain. Later, as Jiren tried to rally every other survivor against this monster, they all refused. This was the event that shaped Jiren’s resolve as someone who would not need to rely on anyone else for the rest of his life, purely going by the merits of his own strength.
Jiren’s Strength
In the Tournament of Power, we saw Jiren as an immovable mountain of a man, so strong that no one on the entire stage could even touch him. When the tournament started, Jiren barely even participated as no one could even get close to him due to his stare often being enough to defeat the weaker opponents. As the arc went on and Goku eventually got stronger, however, Jiren gradually started to take more of an interest in the fights ahead.
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Eventually, Goku unlocked his Ultra Instinct Omen which went up against Jiren on fairly equal footing for the first time since the tournament started. Finally, towards the end of the tournament, Goku unlocked the Mastered Ultra Instinct and forced Jiren to use his Ultimate Burning Warrior transformation, which still wasn’t strong enough to defeat UI. Ultimately, Jiren’s lack of reliance on others turned out to be his greatest weakness as he was defeated by Universe 7. Still, though, his sheer strength and offensive output for the whole tournament was second only to the Mastered Ultra Instinct form.
What Could His New Form Be?
There was a line that Vegeta said in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero where he talked about the source of Jiren’s power. He said that in terms of sheer might and output, Jiren’s strength wasn’t too far off from what he and Goku had to offer in their Super Saiyan Blue forms. The true reason Jiren was able to completely outclass them was in the efficiency of his output, something that even Whis complimented Vegeta on understanding.
What this means is that Jiren had such efficient control of his energy output that not a single one of his attacks or movements had any wasted energy behind them. This efficiency allowed Jiren to put all of his energy to use, fully maximizing its usage and allowing him to seem extremely powerful to those who didn’t know what they were doing. This combination of physical and mental acuity is what Goku and Vegeta needed to make full use of their own Ultimate Techniques.
So, this is where the topic of Jiren’s new form comes in. Due to Jiren’s mental mastery over his emotions and powers during the battle, many in the community tend to think that Jiren could master Ultra Instinct the same way Goku already has. This is because Whis has described Ultra Instinct as a technique that discards every emotion and thought away for efficiency in battle situations, allowing all the user’s thoughts to be completely immersed in the fight.
This technique is something that already perfectly fits Jiren’s character. As shown in the Tournament of Power, Jiren had already mastered his output of energy and makes it so that not even a drop of it goes to waste. He is very mentally focused and since he values strength above all else, he is someone who is willing to do everything he can to achieve greater levels of power. Jiren mixing his massive power output with his already incredible mental fortitude makes Ultra Instinct the perfect next step for him. Having a form of Ultra Instinct would even make sense for his character another way because he saw Goku use it to defeat him, knowing about its strengths as well as its limitations firsthand.
Jiren being introduced again into the story is something that fans of Dragon Ball Super have been waiting for since the end of the Tournament of Power. And, since Dragon Ball is known for increasing the stakes and the powers of the characters after each subsequent arc, Ultra Instinct Jiren would be a perfect addition to the already incredibly powerful cast of characters that the series is setting up.
If there is a second Tournament of Power, then Ultra Instinct Jiren would be a perfect representative of his universe against the Z-Fighters, who have now reached levels that have left the rest of the universes in the dust. Despite already giving everyone in Universe 7 a run for their money, Jiren has the potential to grow even stronger. This allows him to be either the perfect antagonist for another tournament arc, or a perfect ally if Dragon Ball Super introduces a threat to the entire multiverse!
Dragon Ball Super can be streamed on Prime Video.
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