Welcome to part four of my look back at Dragon Ball GT. While I've managed to get the other sagas out earlier in the previous months, other things kept me from getting around to it this time around. But here we are with the Shadow Dragon Saga, the final episodes of GT and what could be considered the end of long running Dragon Ball series. Let's jump right in.
Picking up where the Super Android 17 saga left off, Goku and the others are left perplexed by the dark version of Shenron that has appeared. The Dark Shenron's first act: light up a cigar and blow smoke at everyone...as dragons apparently do. Following that, the Dark Shenron sucks up the Dragon Balls, splits himself into seven dragons and shoot out across the planet, each taking a ball with them. In a way, it's kind of like the horcruxes from Harry Potter. Following this, Goku and the others are contacted by King Kai, Old Kai, and Kibito Kai. Previously in the Buu saga, Old Kai had disapproved of the use and overreliance of the Dragon Balls on Earth. Well now he gets his big "I told you so" moment. He says that the creatures who spread out were all strong enough to destroy the universe. In a big exposition dump, we learn that the Dragon Balls were used too much, and that while they were mostly wishes for the greater good, negative energy can still arise from them and the balls could only hold so much before cracking as they have now. Usually the negative energy would dissipate after 100 years, meaning they were only meant to be used after that amount of time. Old Kai says Bulma's to blame for this because she invented the Dragon Radar, making it easier to find the balls in very little time. But Bulma tries to shift the blame to Goku, saying that she wouldn't have found the Dragon Balls if she hadn't met him and had his help. Now to me, this is kind of a bitch move on Bulma's part. You could say it's both of their faults, but Bulma still invented the radar in the first place; if she hadn't done that, she would have never met Goku and he most likely would have lived peacefully alone in the forest until Raditz came to find him.
But Goku, not really having the wherewithal to debate, accepts the blame and plans to make things right, but says he has to do it alone, despite Gohan and the others wanting to help. This is really dumb on Goku's part, which probably isn't saying much. I mean, this is pretty much an all hands on deck situation. Goku may be the strongest of them, but it doesn't hurt to have help. Plus, this would have been a good chance for other characters to shine. He could have taken Goten, Gohan, Trunks, and Majuub with him (not Vegeta though since he has a part to play later).
As Goku heads out, we get glimpses of the dragons landing across the planet and each taking on new forms. Pan and Giru eventually catch up to Goku to offer help, particularly Giru since he still has the Dragon Radar integrated into him. They come across a village seeped in sludge and come face to face with Haze Shenron, the two-star dragon, who has pollution powers. And for the first dragon to come across, he's not exactly impressive, as he keeps getting beat up by Pan. Eventually though, Haze begins to match Pan move for move, as well as Goku. He then reveals that the pollution he's caused in the area has weakened Pan and Goku, who can't even go Super Saiyan. Haze throws them both in the polluted lake, but Giru is able to pull them into an unpolluted area resulting from an underground spring. Goku and Pan blast the spring to fill the lake with fresh water, giving them enough strength to pop back up and destroy Haze with a double blast. Afterwards, they collect the repaired two-star Dragon Ball, figuring that defeating each Shadow Dragon will heal both the Dragon Balls and the Earth. Again, for the first big bad of the saga, Haze wasn't that impressive. I know he's still first, but if you compare him to Raditz, at least he had some major power instead of using underhanded tactics to weaken his opponent.
Giru detects the next ball in an seemingly abandoned city where they encounter Rage Shenron, the five-star dragon, who can produce slime that absorbs electricity. Rage is actually pretty small at first, but he can call forth his slime to not only attack Goku and Pan, but also form on him to make him grow, not to mention he can produce electricity based attacks. Goku then goes Super Saiyan 4, which evens the playing field and helps him withstand Rage's powerful Thunder Clap. Goku fires a Kamehameha at Rage, but it turns out Rage can hold and bounce back energy attacks; after sending the blast back to Goku, he's reverted back to his kid form. Rage then produces tendrils to steal energy from everywhere he can in the city, making him grow more and more. He eventually grabs on to Goku and Pan and begins shocking them, upping up the voltage each time. As luck would have it though, a rain storm comes through the area and starts affecting Rage, not only melting the electric slime he had gathered off of him, but essentially causes him to short circuit with explosions occurring all over his body, eventually shrinking back down to his original size, allowing Goku to destroy him with a Kamehameha and collect the five-star ball.
The next ball is detected in a fishing town, where it strangely begins to rain fish and other sea creatures. The townspeople come out and grab what they can, giving thanks to a "Princess Oto". Goku and Pan learn from a boy named Colm that because of these occurrences, the fishing business has disappeared, forcing kids to get jobs, the adults to become lazy, and seagulls to be injured in the fish rains. As you might have guessed, Princess Oto is one of the Shadow Dragons, specifically Oceanus Shenron, the six-star dragon, who has water and air powers. She begins fighting Goku, and after studying her moves, Goku begins to copy her spinning power, which looks kind of weird on him, almost like a genie. Oceanus gets the upper hand and has Goku on the ropes. One of the seagulls Colm healed tries to attack Oceanus, able to peck her on the forehead before being blown away. This attack helps Pan figure out her weakness. Like the eye of a hurricane, Oceanus has no way to protect herself from above, allowing Pan to blast her with a Kamehameha. Oceanus weakens, freeing Goku from her attack, who performs a Kamehameha of his own to defeat Oceanus once and for all, collecting the six-star ball.
Now would be a good time to talk about the Shadow Dragons' powers as well as the wishes that they were created from and how they connect.
Haze Shenron came from the wish that brought Upa's father back to life back in the original Dragon Ball series. While it was a simple wish to revive someone, making him the least powerful Shadow Dragon, Haze's power of pollution can spread from just poisoning the water, which affects the air, trees, and eventually people.
Rage Shenron came from the wish to bring Goku back to life so he could help battle Nappa and Vegeta after receiving his training from King Kai. Essentially, this wish was about acquiring the power necessary to defeat the Saiyans. As we saw with Rage, he had his own need to acquire as much power as he could.
Oceanus Shenron came from the very first wish of the franchise: Oolong wishing for the world's most comfortable pair of underwear, which he made to keep Emperor Pilaf from acquiring world domination. Considering the pair he received was women's panties, this explains her appearance as Princess Oto. However, I don't really understand how her powers of wind and water really connect. Besides that, what exactly was her plan? She made it rain fish and it helped feed a town. Sure, it was making the adults lazy, but was that her ultimate goal? It just wasn't as destructive as Haze's and Rage's. Considering Oolong's wish was pretty insignificant, maybe that transferred to Oceanus, as she mostly makes no sense.Back to the story, Giru detects the next ball in a desert below ground and that it's tunneling towards them. Popping out of the ground, we meet Naturon Shenron, the seven-star Dragon. He doesn't seem that bright though, not knowing who Goku is or wanting to fight, only wanting to make earthquakes. He tunnels away again and Goku and Pan give chase. They notice Naturon is heading toward a city, putting the people in danger. As Naturon tunnels through, Pan and Goku go through and help all the people and keeping the city from falling apart; Goku even goes Super Saiyan 4 for the extra strength. When Naturon pops back out and sees the city still standing, he gets mad and now wants a fight with Goku. Naturon can direct blasts into the ground and have them pop back out, allowing Goku and Pan to trick him into blasting himself. He falls down and disappears, leaving the seven-star ball for Pan to collect. However, it starts to glow and sucks Pan in, resulting in Naturon reappearing in a more fighter ready body, trapping Pan inside. As it turned out, Naturon had tricked both Goku and Pan, with his slow act luring them into a false confidence, and that he had been possessing a mole beforehand. Goku is worried about fighting Naturon for Pan's safety, so Naturon goads Goku into fighting him by causing destruction and killing people around to the city.
It's worth mentioning at this point that the wish that created Naturon Shenron was the one that revived the people killed by Vegeta at the World Martial Arts Tournament while he was placed under Babidi's control. Everything about this situation speaks bounds to what resulted in Naturon Shenron. First off, taking control of another when not having the physical strength was Babidi's whole shtick. And the need for destruction and wanting Goku to fight him is just what Vegeta did.
Goku gives in and fights to stop Naturon from killing any more people, making it seem like Naturon bit off more than he could chew. However, Naturon still believes Goku won't kill him because he'll also lose Pan and wants him to hit him with a Kamehameha; he's basically using her as a human shield. Goku reluctantly does so, which surprises Naturon. As the dust clears, Naturon is scuffed up but still alive, and he thinks Goku was still holding back. Naturon goes on the offensive and just as he's on the cusp of victory, he allows Goku to see Pan one more time before he kills him. But this just gives the opportunity to pull Pan from Naturon's being to freedom. Naturon then reverts to his true form, and he's just as small as Rage was. This is definitely a "pride cometh before the fall" moment, but I have to wonder if Goku knew Naturon would show him Pan; if so, it was a pretty big gamble. Goku then gives Naturon a rightfully deserved pounding and finishes him off with a Kamehameha, collecting the seven-star ball afterwards. All in all, Naturon is the most interesting dragon yet, and it helps that it took more than one episode to defeat him.
We then begin the final stretch of the series as Goku, Pan, and Giru detect the next ball in an abandoned and ravaged city covered in sand with the heat blaring down on them. They are then confronted by Nova Shenron, the four-star dragon, who has fire powers. Nova quickly knocks out Pan, saying he's been waiting for Goku. Their battle begins, but Nova's intense body heat makes it hard for Goku to touch him. This forces Goku to strategize in a game of cat and mouse; while Goku tries to hide, it doesn't help that he keeps talking aloud to himself getting caught. Goku is able to get some shots in, but Nova keeps getting the upper hand. Nova then corners Goku and channels the sun's heat to attack him with his Nova Death Ray. Goku counters with a Solar Flare, which knocks Nova back. Goku tells Nova to stop playing games, since that move shouldn't have done that kind of damage. Nova then transforms into metallic gold form while Goku powers up to Super Saiyan 4.
Before we witness their battle resume and escalate, we have a bit of an interlude episode focusing on Vegeta. As he senses the battle between Goku and Nova, we learn that Vegeta still feels inadequate in power compared to Goku. He then starts thinking about how his relationship with Goku has changed over the years as well as how it's affected him as a person. Essentially, it's a clip show featuring their battles from the Saiyan and Buu sagas. Yes, this is pretty much a filler episode, but unlike the other filler we've had in GT, I saw this as a welcome addition. It shows where Vegeta's mindset is at this point and time, something that really hadn't been explored since the Buu saga. Besides that, it was kind of nice to relive some of Vegeta's big moments from Dragon Ball Z.
Vegeta then meets with Bulma, who has been working on recreating the Blutz Wave Generator to help Vegeta reach Super Saiyan 4. She then shows him clips from the Baby Saga of Goku's transformations into both a Golden Great Ape and Super Saiyan 4 on the Tuffle Planet, as well as Baby's own transformation into a Great Ape while he was possessing Vegeta's body. Say, how was Bulma able to get this footage?
Oh, okay.
Anyway, while the Blutz Wave Generator was able to transform Baby/Vegeta into a Great Ape, it didn't result in a Super Saiyan 4. The best theory is that Baby's infection of Vegeta's body kept that transformation from occurring. With Vegeta's body pure, he should have a better chance of reaching Super Saiyan 4.
We then get back to the battle between Goku and Nova. It's a pretty even fight and they seem to be actually enjoying themselves. There's also a cool moment where Nova's able to counter an Instant Transmission/Kamehameha combo from Goku. Goku has a chance to finish off Nova, but spares him, saying that he owes him for sparing Pan's life. Nova admits that he has a policy against killing innocents.
It's a good time to talk about what makes Nova Shenron unique among the Shadow Dragons. He was created from the wish King Piccolo made to restore his youth. Out of all the wishes that created the Shadow Dragons, this is the only wish made from a villain with selfish intentions. Considering the positive wishes had some negative effects, it only makes sense for the opposite to be true, and it shows in Nova's personality. A nice touch is that he came from the four-star ball, which was the ball Goku's adoptive grandpa Gohan had given him when he was a kid. As for where his fire powers came from, King Piccolo was believed to be a demon at the time. Demons come from Hell, Hell has fire. That's the best sense I can make of it.
The two are then interrupted by Ice Shenron, the three-star dragon, who Nova refers to as his brother. Technically speaking, aren't all the Shadow Dragons siblings? That said though, Ice is literally Nova's polar opposite. Not only does he have ice powers, but his personality is ice cold as well. Unlike the previous five Shadow Dragons, we don't get a clear explanation of what wish created him, but the best theory is that he came from the wish to erase people's memories of Majin Buu so the good fat Buu could be among the people without them freaking out. So I don't understand why when Nova and Ice are so opposite that Ice's wish would involve Buu instead of Piccolo? If anything, he should have came from the wish after King Piccolo's defeat to revive Krillin, Chiaotzu, and Master Roshi.
Anyway, Ice attacks Goku and freezes his entire body. Ice then gives Nova the chance to kill the frozen Goku, but Nova only uses his power to free him, making it clear that he disapproves of Ice's tactics and that he has his own code of honor. Nova allows Goku to fight Ice so they can finish their own battle afterward. Ice continues his dirty tactics by using Pan as a human shield to keep Goku from using his Kamehameha, followed by throwing Pan at Goku for a distraction to attack Goku again. He ends up freezing Goku again, but Goku's able to free himself this time. An infuriated Goku gets the upper hand on Ice to the point where he wants to surrender, but it's a trick to give him the chance to blind Goku. Despite this though, Goku still has the opportunity to destroy Ice with a Super Dragon Fist.
Still blind though, Goku is given an antidote by Nova, but before he can use it, a single blast that destroys the antidote, as well as kill Nova. The culprit: Sin Shenron, the one-star dragon. Like Ice, Sin doesn't reveal what wish created him, but it's believed to be the one that revived everyone killed by Frieza and his men on Namek. Considering this wish was part of King Kai's plan to save everyone from Namek's destruction and the battle between Goku and Frieza at this time would have determined the fate of the universe, there was a lot riding on the line with that wish, which in turn makes Sin the most powerful of the Shadow Dragons. He doesn't really have a gimmick like the others, only that he's pure evil. His name is Sin after all. He very much reminds me of Frieza, which makes sense considering the wish, as well as Cell. That said though, he doesn't really have a motivation other than to destroy everything and is pretty much evil for evil's sake.
Sin begins his beatdown on Goku, and while he's blind, he still tries his best and is able to get a few sneak attacks in, but it doesn't do much good. A spectating Pan wishes Gohan, Goten, and Trunks were there to help. Gee, it's almost like they should have came along with them. Coincidentally though, those three do arrive along with Majuub, and Gohan's even wearing his fighting gi. Mr. Satan, Chi-Chi, and Videl came along too, pretty much for emotional support, plus it makes it so they're all together for the end of all this. But it turns out Gohan, Goten, and Trunks are also only there for support, giving Goku all the energy they can to take on Sin. Majuub holds off Sin as they charge Goku up. They're successful and Goku starts to give Sin trouble, all while still blind. Needing a boost himself, Sin takes the other six Dragon Balls and eats them, absorbing their power and transforming into Omega Shenron, a slightly different looking version of Sin. Appearances aside, he's able to use the powers of the other Shadow Dragons, such as raising his body temperature like Nova, freezing eye beams like Ice, wind attacks like Oceanus, and Rage's Thunder Clap. Goku is obviously no match, but on the plus side, his eye sight finally returns and he's able to surprise Omega with a Kamehameha/Super Dragon Fist combo, punching right through him and apparently destroying his body. Unfortunately, Omega was able to turn himself into Rage's electric slime beforehand and soon reconstitutes himself.
Feeling there's no other choice, Goku plans to blow himself up along with Omega. Vegeta stops him though, and speaking from experience, tells him it wouldn't work anyway. Bulma arrives as well and fires the Blutz Wave Generator at Vegeta, who transforms into a Great Ape. He loses control at first but is able to collect himself, turns into a Golden Great Ape, and finally channels that energy to become a Super Saiyan 4.
Vegeta still believes that even with his and Goku's combined Super Saiyan 4 power, their only chance to defeat Omega is to fuse. Trunks, Gohan, and Goten run interference on Omega to give Goku and Vegeta time to peform the fusion dance. Even Bulma tries to help by firing the Blutz Wave Generator at Omega, who ends up destroying it. Of course, the fusion dance is successful and the two become Gogeta.
Despite his size reduction, Goku won't give up. And as he says this, the four-star Dragon Ball protrudes from his forehead, eventually floating out and reforming into Nova Shenron. While Omega believes that he was able to corrupt Nova by absorbing his Dragon Ball, he's proven wrong when Nova teams up with Goku to attack him. Nova then grabs Omega and traps them both in his Nova Sphere, which eventually explodes. In the aftermath, Nova reappears unharmed. Unfortunately, his skin begins to crack and Omega Shenron shatters out of Nova's body, once again with all seven Dragon Balls. It turns out that within the sphere, Omega forcibly sent the other six balls into Nova before the sphere exploded. And if things weren't bad enough, Vegeta loses his Super Saiyan 4 power as well, and as mentioned before, the Blutz Wave Generator was destroyed. It's worth noting that even back in his normal state, Vegeta doesn't keep his tail. I don't really get that though. I can buy that his power got low like Goku's, but if the Blutz Wave Generator could regrow his tail, why can't he keep it?
Done playing with them, Omega throws a Negative Karma Ball at Goku and Vegeta. Goku pushes Vegeta aside and takes the full force of the attack, forcing Goku deep into the Earth's crush and leaving a huge crater afterward, most likely killing Goku. Omega then unleashes a wave of negative energy across the Earth, causing natural disasters across the globe, destroying cities and killing millions. Basically, it's the end of the world as we know, and nobody feels fine about it. Vegeta then leads Gohan, Trunks, and Goten into one last attack on Omega, and it goes about as well as you'd expect. With everyone down, Omega's victory is certain. That is until Goku rises out of the crater with a Spirit Bomb forming, growing large enough to dissipate the negative energy across the world. Goku then contacts King Kai telepathically, asking to him to create a link across the entire universe with the other Kais so he can gather enough energy for the Spirit Bomb to destroy Omega. From Namek and the other planets they visited during the Black Star Dragon Ball Saga, energy comes flowing from all across the universe to fuel the biggest Spirit Bomb in the franchise's history. Goku throws the Spirit Bomb, destroying Omega Shenron, who had absolutely no chance to withstand it. And with that, not counting movies, the Spirit Bomb now has a 50% success rate.
With the Shadow Dragons gone, the Dragon Balls are fully repaired and soon enough, the one true big green Shenron appears before Goku, Vegeta, and their families. What's different about this occurrence is that the sky doesn't turn black like it usually does when Shenron appears. Shenron says that because of the overuse of the Dragon Balls and all that happened because of it, he must leave and take the Dragon Balls with him. Goku asks him to grant one last wish though: while mostly reviving everyone that had been killed during both this and the previous saga, he essentially wishes for world peace. Afterwards, Shenron invites Goku to come along with him, and he accepts. Vegeta assumes he's going with Shenron to train, with Goku replying that it's up to Vegeta to protect everyone now. Oh yeah, trust the guy who's gotten whooped by every major villain since Frieza to keep the planet safe. Too bad his tail's gone and he can't go Super Saiyan 4 without a machine to help. All I can say is that it's a good thing Goku basically asked for world peace. Anyway, Goku bids farewell to everyone as he flies off with Shenron, but not before making a few stops. The first is Kame House, where he says goodbye to Master Roshi and the revived Krillin. I know I should nitpick that Shenron shouldn't have revived Krillin since he already did it once, but I'll just chalk it up to Shenron giving him a freebie. After that, Goku pays a visit to Hell to see Piccolo, who is working with the ogre guards to handle troublemakers. The two bid farewell to each other, with Goku telling Piccolo he believes he'll get out of Hell one day. As Shenron flies through the sky, Goku lays down on his back and closes his eyes as he and the Dragon Balls disappear into Shenron.
We then jump to the far future where an elderly Pan is watching her grandson Goku Jr. compete in the World Martial Arts Tournament Junior Division Finals against Vegeta Jr. The battle between these two is pretty much what you'd expect considering their lineage. They can both even go Super Saiyan, which they just refer to as becoming blonde. As Pan watches, she spots a grown up Goku in the audience and tries to make her way down to him. When she can't find him, she chalks it up to her imagination. Outside the stadium though, Goku is seen walking through the crowd, as we get a series of flashbacks from Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT, focusing on the friends Goku's made throughout the franchise (even Launch), the major enemies defeated, and the family he created. The narrator begins to close things out saying that should the Earth ever need him, Goku will return. He then jumps into the air, catches a ride on the Flying Nimbus, and we hear him say "'Til we meet again, guys" followed by a "THE END" title card.
After the Baby Saga, the Shadow Dragon Saga is the second best to come out of GT. I always thought the idea of the Dragon Balls turning on our heroes after being a tool mostly used for good throughout the franchise was a great idea for a closing story arc. The execution could have been better though, like giving some equal attention to the Shadow Dragons and more characterization to those that needed it. I think the ending was absolutely perfect though. We see in the future that everything's all right, and we get a good montage of most of the important characters of the franchise, with Goku even including the audience in his goodbyes. While GT isn't technically canon in some ways, it has a better sense of finality compared to how DBZ ended. Both endings can be seen as Goku "abandoning his family", but I think it makes more sense for him to go off with Shenron and the Dragon Balls considering all three had been the focus of the franchise, as opposed to going off to train with a 10 year old kid (Uub) he just met.
So what do I think of Dragon Ball GT overall? Well, it's okay. Just okay. Of course it wouldn't stand up to the quality of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, but it's very rare for a long running series to do that. Whatever problems GT had, some of them didn't really bother me as they did others, but I can understand where they're coming from. You could say I'm a GT apologist. Despite all that though, even with little involvement from series creator Akira Toriyama, I still think the people working on GT did care for what they were putting out, even if they did falter at times. Hell, this last season can be seen as a love letter to the franchise. And while the biggest problem can probably be seen as too much focus on Goku, I don't really blame them for making it that way. In the Buu saga, there seemed to be a lot of back and forth about who was going to beat Buu before the focus went back to Goku. I think it was this moment that solidified people's belief that Goku always had to be the one to end the bad guys, and it transferred over to GT.
So yeah, for me, Dragon Ball GT is still as much a part of the story as the previous two series and does a good job at closing things out.
And that concludes my look back at Dragon Ball GT. Hopefully you enjoyed some of my insights, and if you agree or disagree, share your own thoughts on GT in the comments.
