>>56404846as the android / cell saga progresses, and super saiyan immediately jobs hard to 17 and 18, the entire focus of the saga becomes about controlling the powerup. ultra super saiyan, ultra super saiyan 2, and full powered super saiyan are again forgotten powerups, but they're extremely thematically important. but first ill just put this at the stop.
the frieza saga was all about The Enemy Outside. it's worth remember up until this point, there had been no aliens in dragon ball, but suddenly the entire focus of the manga is on space travel, other planets, there are so many alien races casually introduced, and even piccolo as a namekian has an alien origin. the enemy outside is at first the saiyans, who are literal aliens who come to earth to destroy it. but the final enemy outside is frieza, who owns the universe, rules it like a tyrant, and also enslaves every race of alien himself.
so how can you top that? what is stronger than the tyrant of the universe?
yourself.
the entire cell saga is about how saiyan folly keeps fucking things up. it's why vegeta so compulsively tries to ruin things by letting cell absorb 18. i dont know why no one ever gives him shit for this. i genuinely do not know how the bad father shit hits goku but not vegeta here who literally has his son beside him who is about to get his shit kicked in.
Cell is The Enemy Within. He is of course a dna organism with everyone's DNA. that's why he has regeneration like piccolo. that's why he uses all the attacks of the protagonists. in fact the only attack he doesn't use is instant transmission.
because cell is defined by his dna, he is most defined by his saiyan blood. that's why instead of destroying the world when he has ample opportunity, he decides to run a tournament.
well anon, what other saiyan follies are there?
ultra super saiyan as a mistaken misguided evolution of super saiyan is demonstrative of folly. it shows how trunks and vegeta achieved super saiyan 'the wrong way.' by rage. i forget if canon again, but theres a scene of vegeta becoming super saiyan essentially how of envy and jealousy. trunks... you know he's motivated by future gohan's death which is pure. but as he tries to become stronger, he just follows his father.
but even vegeta is smart enough to know that ultra super saiyan 2 is a dumb idea. this is a demonstration of lack of internal mastery. trunks imagines himself superior to his father because he keeps adding in more and more power. but vegeta realized this was a dead end since he's a warrior with good instincts. both vegeta and trunks fail the next level of self mastery.
which brings us to full power super saiyan which, fyi, both goku and gohan achieve. people don't remember this but gohan even before going super saiyan 2 is the second strongest person at the cell games. goku has fundamentally taught him how to control the anger that comes with super saiyan, and how to achieve serenity even in that form. this is the difference between goku and vegeta at this point, owing to his experience as an earthling. goku understands that you cannot simply get powerful by increasing your anger and emotions. you have to perfectly control it. at ths point goku and gohan have mastered it so well they literally spend the remaining days till the cell games transformed.
ok i did not intend to write this much so last post will finally close shit out.
