Why the Super Saiyan Grades Matter

So we all know there are multiple grades of Super Saiyan, but I'd like to delve deeper into these somewhat obscure and forgotten forms to highlight the fact that... they're pretty cool.

Grade 2 is the first distinct evolution of the Super Saiyan form. Also known as Ascended Super Saiyan by fans, it was pioneered by Vegeta who was the first Saiyan to go beyond the first Super form. Grade 2 can be achieved through increased time of training and developing the Super Saiyan form, which makes it superior in every way from power to speed to aesthetics. Its signature look is that of a regular Super Saiyan, but with much more lean muscle mass and occasional sparks of electricity. The easiest way to look at it is Super Saiyan with a pump.

Grade 3 is a form pioneered by Trunks. Its alternate fan name is Ultra Super Saiyan, which much like Ascended for Grade 2 isn't really canon, though it is awesome. This form can be achieved through channelling all of Super Saiyan's capabilities into raw power. It's like playing an rpg and deciding to invest all your points into strength and nothing else. Technically, you're physically strong, but specialising in one aspect to such a great extend leaves the other stats suboptimal and makes the build extremely unbalanced. Aesthetically, this is one of my favourite forms ever. If Grade 2 was Super Saiyan with a pump, Grade 3 is Super Saiyan on roids. The amount of muscle pass we see on display is beyond impressive. Not only that, we get more lightning flashes than ever before and Trunks' eyes even turn fully white (unsurprisingly, this form was the direct inspiration to Broly's Legendary Super Saiyan transformation).

The interesting thing is that the form was also achieved by Goku, Cell and presumably Vegeta (though we don't see it on screen). The reason why Goku and Vegeta never used the form is because they had enough combat experience to realise the trade-off between power and speed was so vast, it worked against it and made it impractical. This explains why Vegeta didn't use it against Perfect Cell. He couldn't catch Cell in his Grade 2 form, meaning if Cell wasn't willing to trade blow for blow punches, there was no point trying to catch him in Grade 3. Another note is Goku and Cell's eyes not turning white while transforming, which could indicate Trunk's version of Grade 3 was more based on rage.

Grade 4 is the final form of the first Super Saiyan transformation, which is achieved through completed mastery of the form. It was pioneered by Goku and Gohan and is sometimes shown to have a slightly lighter blonde colour that the other grades. The idea here is to treat Super Saiyan as a natural state of being much like breathing. Goku knew it took a considerable amount of anger to transform in the first place, which wasted a lot of stamina before the battle even started. This drawback can also be observed in the previous grades. When Vegeta ascends he's panting and is somewhat out of breath by the end of transforming. Similarly, it took Trunks an extraordinary amount of effort, anger and time to keep bulking up and going into Grade 3. If Cell wasn't kind enough to humour them by letting them transform and just decided to blast em midway through... yeah it's not hard to see why those methods of transformation are impractical.

Goku realised this and changed his approach from one that would revolve around rage to one of tranquillity, which is a pattern we see continued even today. Deciding to completely master Super Saiyan by remaining in the form 24/7 ensured he's constantly exposed to its stamina draining drawback, thus giving his body ample time to adjust until that's no longer an issue. The zenkai boost Saiyans have also ensures they get stronger even after sparring matches so the more Goku and Gohan practiced while in the form, the less prominent it's negative side effects, until they were virtually eliminated. This is Grade 4. Mastered Super Saiyan that is as natural as simply existing. The final and most combat optimised ascension.

One thing I should mention are the sparks of electricity are how they're usually seen in both Grade 2 and 3, but not really in 4. My interpretation of this is that they serve as a visual device to convey the clear power up from regular Super Saiyan, but also represent the fact that they're incomplete. We know Grade 4 is the final form of regular Super Saiyan achieved through full mastery of the transformation. Hence, it's overall superior to both Grades 2 and 3, which could explain why we don't see a bunch of lightning around it like it's about to overload.

So now that we've gone through them, here's why they matter. I believe the timing of their appearance is a large portion of the reason they exist in the first place. I consider the Android/Cell saga to be the peak of DBZ partially because that's when every character was one upping each other in power. It felt like we got a different "strongest" character every episode, which is something I adore.

First it was Androids 19 and 20, then SSJ Vegeta, Androids 17 and 18, Super Namekian Piccolo fused with Kami, Imperfect Cell, Android 16, Semi Perfect Cell, SSJ Vegeta Grade 2, Perfect Cell, SSJ Trunks Grade 3 (in raw power only), SSJ Goku Grade 4 (in mastery of martial arts only), SSJ 2 Gohan, Super Perfect Cell and SSJ 2 Gohan no hesitation.

The grades served as a somewhat intangible way to illustrate progression, without having to alter the official transformation numbers too much. If they were all incredibly distinct, Super Saiyan 3 would have been 6 instead. Their names are not even directly mentioned in the anime or manga. Only the guidebooks officially distinguish them as their own separate forms and give them the grade separation.

As previously mentioned, their timing in the story is crucial. During a period where a character was surpassing the previously strongest character every 2 episodes, regular Super Saiyan got left in the dust. The legendary transformation of the fiercest warrior race in the galaxy was beaten by a couple of humans with gears in em and a Namekian who isn't optimised for battle. It needed an upgrade... or several.

This is what led every Saiyan shown so far to follow their own battle ideology and create separate improvements to the form. Vegeta's rage and sigma male grindset resulted in Grade 2, which improved in every single way through repeated torture. Trunks' combat inexperience made him believe he can go even further than his father, only to realise balance is a crucial factor he neglected when he chose to blindly increase his raw strength. Goku chose the path of complete martial arts mastery, where he worked smarter than Vegeta and Trunks, not harder and ultimately perfected the form.

The purpose of the grades was to illustrate the ideology and mentality of every fighter that was used as the foundation of their growth. When extrapolated to real life, we can learn that there are multiple ways to become stronger and improve, some more optimal than others, but most generally valid. If you're working out and using hatred and anger to motivate you, progress will follow similarly to if you're having fun and enjoying the process. The progress you see from using these alternate approaches may differ, but you've ultimately made some gains either way. The theme I see illustrated by the grades is one of enjoying yourself rather than tormenting yourself. This is perfectly reflected in my favourite quote from the Baki manga - "Someone who works hard can never beat someone who enjoys himself"

Ever heard career advisers (or anyone in general) say the phrase "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life" when job hunting? It's the same concept. The more passionate you are about a certain aspect in life, the more likely you'll find it enjoyable, the more likely you'll put effort into it that comes from within yourself. That's why so many people try to turn their hobbies into their full time jobs. If you're genuinely passionate about it, specialising in it and doing it because you want to, not because you have to is the key to mastery. These attitudes are seen in the dichotomy of the Saiyans. Vegeta ascended by tormenting himself, while Goku ascended by enjoying himself and although both methods yielded results, Toriyama chose improvement through positivity to prevail.

In conclusion, I like the grades a lot. They're pretty interesting methods of powering up and when reading into them, we can gather some deeper insights that relate to our own lives. It seems for now, they're mostly forgotten with Blue Evolution's relation to Grade 2 being somewhat questionable, but their spirit lives on with every incremental improvement we see in not only the characters, but ourselves.

Follow me to get notified whenever I post.

NoSchoolSaturday

Search This Blog

Why the Super Saiyan Grades Matter

Comments

Post a Comment