Summary
Dragon Ballas a show didn’t have the continuation we have now, and it especially didn’t have the iconic Super Saiyan 4 that many fans ofDragon Ball GTlooked up to. A majority of people would say that the Super Saiyan 4 transformation represented a new peak, and a return to the Saiyan basics of brutality, as well as embracing a part of your heritage that was more wild. After all, Goku turned into a Super Saiyan 4 to fight against Baby, and this transformation remains popular especially in other spin-offs and games ofDragon Ball.
However, Super Saiyan 4 isn’t inDragon Ball Super,and it’s unlikely that the transformation will ever come back. However, why is that the case, and what possible reasons would there be to deny the transformation that was so beloved in GT and deny it altogether in Super?
No Discovery, And A Different Focus.
Why The Transformation Hasn’t Been Found
While the transformation is an excellent demonstration of strength, and an especially powerful one, the transformation wasn’t discovered until after the events of the end of Z. Which is to say, this transformation had very specific requirements that required a Saiyan to transform into a Golden Great Ape, manage to regain their sense in the transformation and push themselves back into condensing the power into the Super Saiyan 4. However, this required a full moon, or at the very least, Blutz Waves that would allow forGoku or Vegeta to transforminto their Golden Great Ape forms. Because of this necessity, the transformation could theoretically still be achieved if Bulma put enough effort into it.
However,Dragon Ball Superfirst and foremost has always been increasing its scope on a multiversal level, and the ascension to Super Saiyan God, and eventually, Ultra Instinct always provided the fact that Goku and Vegeta would be achieving truly god-like abilities. These abilities don’t necessarily dwarf the strength of Super Saiyan 4, but at the same time, it would be a mess to try and include ‘non-canon’ material intoDragon Ball Super, as some might say. After all, the transformation works differently from the God Ki, Super Saiyan God, and Ultra Instinct transformations; Super Saiyan 4 doesn’t have the same sort offamiliarity to the charactersin the story as opposed to how they were portrayed in GT. Goku and Vegeta don’t have clues, or even any hints as to Super Saiyan 4 existing, so they don’t have any reason to discover the ability. However, there are other reasons why this transformation isn’t inDragon Ball Super.
Cluttering Transformations
And Why It Could Be A Problem
The fact of the matter is, that there are already a good bunch of transformations in the world ofDragon Ballwithout including Super Saiyan 4. At the same time, the God Ki that Goku and Vegeta have used is too valuable to be replaced or substituted for Super Saiyan 4. Considering it’s a different evolutionary tree of transformations for Saiyans, Goku and Vegeta don’t have the means to discover that for now, and they have no reason to go looking for clues about it, since they are currently focusing on training with Beerus and Whisto perfect their respective forms. Transformations vary in power and usefulness, and while Super Saiyan 4 might be very useful in the manga or the anime, it’s also too taxing to keep up the entire time, along with Goku and Vegeta needing to train with it for them to become much more useful.
Ultimately, the transformation of Super Saiyan 4 might not appear inDragon Ball Superfor the various reasons above, but also because it belongs to its own canon, and is usually difficult to fit into the story as it is right now. The transformation is, unfortunately, not going to be able to see the light of day for quite a while; Super Saiyan 4 for now isgoing to be kept in spin-offsas well as video games to introduce the transformation as a bonus for fans. At the end of the day,Dragon Ballhas provided a wonderful transformation, but said transformation just doesn’t currently fit into the story without being contrived.
