Summary
Dragon Ballintroduced Super Saiyan during the height of the Freeza Saga with Goku, and the power that came with it always meant that there’d be som emotional resonance between the audience and the characters. However, once Vegeta, Future Trunks, and eventually Gohan achieved Super Saiyan; the story needed a story reason for Gohan to become stronger and defeat Cell. This resulted in the story taking a swerve towards Gohan, pushing his emotional limits and breaking them with Android 16’s death, and eventually pushing the transformation into Super Saiyan 2,Dragon Ball’smost famous transformation back then.
However, what exactly allowed the Super Saiyan 2 transformation to become possible, and what comes with the strength of a Super Saiyan 2? At the same time, why is this transformation important, and what did it mean at the time of its introduction in the story ofDragon Ball?
Why It Worked
The importance of Super Saiyan 2 can be understood not just as a stronger evolution of the Super Saiyan transformation, but also as the milestone for new strength that Gohan had achieved, and eventually Goku and Vegeta. The transformation required the same concept, but a greater magnitude of loss, anger, and emotion to burst outward a second timein order to reach new heights of strength and speed. In fact, the major impact of the transformation is that this marked the climax of the Cell Saga, especially considering the first one to transform into Super Saiyan 2 was Gohan at the time. Why exactly does this work though? This usually gets forgotten by the wayside thanks to all the new transformations using God Ki, but Super Saiyan 2 always had a narrative connection with the character of Gohan.
This majorly works, partially because the entire transformation was foreshadowed by Goku when he was in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. The Saiyan realized that Gohan had hidden potential that could surpass Goku at the time, which led to the plan of having Gohan defeat Cell by becoming Super Saiyan 2. The concept behind the plan is that Gohan would be pushed to the breaking point in combat. While he did get pushed to the breaking point via different means, the meaning behind the transformation also signified a turning point and the peak of Gohan’s character arc. After all, the greatest strength achieved at the time was thanks to Gohan, and even against Super Perfect Cell did the young Half-Saiyan defeat the bio-android. In the end, Super Saiyan 2 is a peak of strength that breaks through the previous ceiling that was thought to only be achieved bySuper Saiyan Grade 2 and 3, despite their ineffectiveness.
Why It’s Still Iconic
Outlived, But Not Forgotten
Even to this very day, the transformation is consistently referred to as a go-to when a regular Super Saiyan doesn’t do the job. Of course, the term ‘Super Saiayn 2’ wasn’t called as such until Goku gave it a proper name, but even the audience referred to the transformation first done by Gohan as the next stage. While the transformation isn’t used all that much any more other than Caulifla and Cabba, and by Goku. However, there is a reason this transformation remains particularly loved by the fan base even after all these years. The transformation’s thematic symbol was alwaysattributed to a fan-favorite character’s growthand character arc, as well as the huge turn in the story ofDragon Ballat the time. The power of transformations in the story was attributed to only one form, but with Super Saiyan 2 now it became clear that future transformations would get stronger and become a thing.
However, even so, there are a lot of reasons to believe that Super Saiyan 2 might not be repeated in Super Saiyan Blue. Even if the concept behind Super Saiyan Blue is simple, it just isn’t possible to maintain Super Saiyan 2 in Super Saiyan God without risking anything else. Or rather, the story ofDragon Ballhas a lot offocus currently on making different transformationsthat are less conventional and more breaking points for the current characters' outlooks on themselves. Ultra Instinct, Ultra Ego, and Beast are important factors to this. However, Super Saiyan 2 remains in its place as one of the most foreshadowed and loved transformations inDragon Ball.
Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball is a franchise by Akira Toriyama which follows the adventures of Goku, a powerful warrior who protects the earth with his group of friends. A recent title from the series is Dragon Ball: The Breakers, an action style game where 7 players have to survive being hunted by the Raider.
