While Vegeta is often looked down upon for playing second fiddle to Goku, recent chapters of Dragon Ball: Super suggest that the Saiyan prince may have finally surpassed his rival. Though Vegeta has never formally lost a fight to Goku alone, he has been eclipsed in power on multiple occasions and thus earned the reputation of always being “second best” in the Z Fighters. While this trend may be commonplace for the majority of Dragon Ball, both Goku and Vegeta’s fights with the rogue sniper Granolah paint a different picture.
In chapter 73 of Dragon Ball Super, Goku steps up to fight Granolah, but quickly realizes he is outclassed and enters Mastered Ultra Instinct in an attempt to overwhelm his foe. At first, it seems like Granolah is being pushed against the ropes by Ultra Instinct, but it’s soon revealed that Goku has been chasing a weaker clone the entire time. Once the real Granolah arrives on the scene, Goku is taken out in a single move, both depowering him and knocking him unconscious. This leaves only Vegeta to battle Granolah, and things play out very differently from there.
Vegeta’s Ultra Ego Proves Vegeta’s Power is Greater
Even without the power of Ultra Instinct, Vegeta is able to tank multiple hits from Granolah in his Super Saiyan Blue Evolved form. While Granolah is supposed to be the strongest fighter in the universe at this point, Vegeta’s skill and experience allow him to continue fighting back, even at a disadvantage. As the fight draws on, Vegeta makes the point that the titles of “strongest” and “second strongest” only reflect moments in time and that a battle isn’t simply decided by one’s ranking. This line both references Vegeta’s time as the perceived second strongest and acts as foreshadowing for his eventual surpassing of Goku.
With his back against the wall, Vegeta unleashes a new power that draws on his self-indulgence and thirst for battle: Ultra Ego. Almost immediately, Vegeta begins to overwhelm Granolah with this new technique. Additionally, it’s revealed that tanking Granolah’s attacks makes Ultra Ego Vegeta even stronger as time goes on, directly in opposition to Goku’s Ultra Instinct which wanes in power over time. Vegeta is also struck with the same move that knocked out Ultra Instinct Goku, and while it stuns him for a moment, the Saiyan prince is more than capable of powering up again and continuing the fight. Through being able to directly clash with Granolah, Vegeta is clearly strong enough to put up a much longer and more brutal fight than Goku managed to.
Ultra Ego is Stronger than True Ultra Instinct
Ultra Ego is an ability based purely around power, designed to grow stronger the longer a fight goes on. That’s quite different from Goku’s latest form, the True Ultra Instinct, which allows him to harness the reflexive attack and defensive capabilities of Ultra Instinct without completely shutting himself off from his emotions. Ultra Instinct proved difficult for Goku to use because of his emotions, and fortunately, he was able to find a way around that, but Ultra Instinct ultimately isn’t about power; much of its utility lies in the “autonomous” defense that it provides, helping to keep Goku from taking too much damage too quickly.
That’s a stark difference from Ultra Ego, which wants its user to get hurt and take damage in order to access ever-greater levels of power. In that sense, there’s no contest as to which form is stronger: Ultra Ego is power, plain and simple, while Ultra Instinct is a more complex ability that has utility other than just attacking. Of course, Ultra Ego was shown to have a major downside, as Vegeta’s capacity to take hits isn’t automatically increased by Ultra Ego; when he took too much damage, Vegeta collapsed, even in spite of the power which still flowed through him. As a destroyer god’s technique, it expects its wielder to also have a god’s durability, and Vegeta just doesn’t.
For the most part, Goku and Vegeta have remained relative to one another, at times surpassing the other and pushing each other to greater heights. Vegeta temporarily exceeding Goku’s strength is not new territory for Dragon Ball, as he was not only stronger than Goku when they first met but also the strongest Z-Fighter on two separate occasions in the Cell Saga. While it can’t be said Vegeta will remain the better of the two for good throughout Dragon Ball: Super, it’s clear that he absolutely performed better than Goku in the battles against Granolah.
