Warning! Spoilers ahead for Dragon Ball Super chapter 80!
Mangaka Akira Toriyama finally began trying to innovate his now-stagnant formula involving his Saiyans in Dragon Ball Super, and although his first attempt fell through, his latest effort is still playing out, just not as effectively as it could be.
Saiyans—especially Goku—have always been the true heroes in Toriyama’s world ever since Dragon Ball Z made aliens the franchise’s major antagonists, and any character who’s not a non-Saiyan has never come even remotely close to saving the day as a result. But Toriyama eventually introduced a change in his formula during the Galactic Patrol Prisoner Saga when the key to defeating the world-devouring enemy named Moro fell on Majin Buu. When he was a villain in DBZ, Buu had devoured the Lord of Lords, who was the only being capable of wielding the sealing ability that had originally imprisoned Moro for 10 million years. It was believed that Majin Buu now possessed that power, which was exciting. But apparently the sealing technique actually passed on to Evil Buu instead, making Majin Buu irrelevant again in mere chapters like every other non-Saiyan.
Luckily, Toriyama later reintroduced this unexpected trope again in the next and current saga of Dragon Ball Super. Now, Goku and Vegeta are watching from the sidelines as their former-enemy-recently turned ally Granolah the Cerealian battles against an awakened Gas as of chapter 80. Toriyama also decided to bring back another dynamic from the Saiyans’ first fight against Moro. When Goku and Vegeta learned Majin Buu might be the key to defeating Moro, they were forced to fight against Moro (and lose) because Buu was sleeping, and they had no way of waking him up. Their only option was to try and stay alive while Moro beat them to a pulp. In the present day, Gas recently went into a berserker state and attacked a defenseless Vegeta. Goku tries valiantly to fend Gas off, but in the end, the only thing that staves off Gas’ assault is a memory of Bardock that shocks the villain.
Although Granolah is an incredibly compelling character, the effect where he’s saving the day isn’t as strong as when Majin Buu held that role. The only reason why Granolah is the hero now is because Vegeta let him. A few chapters earlier, a wounded Vegeta had the chance to use his Senzu Bean to help him fully recover so he could fight Gas, but instead of taking it for himself, the Saiyan gave the bean to Granolah so the Cerealian could enact revenge on Gas. This was a powerful moment but only because it both dug deep into Vegeta’s pride as a Saiyan and, once again, got in the way of Vegeta possibly defeating a villain instead of Goku (another annoying formula that Toriyama won’t break). The fact that Dragon Ball Super made Granolah a major hero there isn’t the main focus. Additionally, nowhere has the manga even remotely suggested that Granolah is the answer to beating Gas. Vegeta is just letting Granolah have a chance to seek vengeance. In the Galactic Patrol Prisoner Saga, Dragon Ball Super explicitly stated that Majin Buu was the answer to defeating Moro. The problem is that the manga was making a false impression.
In the end, Dragon Ball Super introduced the possibility that Majin Buu could be the ultimate hero too early during the Galactic Patrol Prisoner Saga, so there was no way he could have been the key if Toriyama didn’t want Moro to be defeated in just a few chapters. The only way it could have worked is if the characters realized that Majin Buu could save them at the very end. Meanwhile, not only did Vegeta allow Granolah to be the hero in the present day, but Granolah still feels like a villain even though he just turned, diminishing his role as a non-Saiyan hero.
