The Unified Theory of Ki Supplemental 1: Saiyans, Their Potential, and Their Forms
Disclaimer: As a quick reminder before anyone comes in with a snarky "Toriyama didn't think about it this much..."
Obviously. The point of this isn't to explain how Toriyama/Toyotaro/The Dragon Room think of Ki or mechanics they implemented into their story. It's to take a look at ideas that have been explored in the series and then work backwards to create a series of mechanics that effectively and satisfactorily covers the work. It is fanfiction in the form of technical writing, not to be taken as fact, but as a interesting at least, and a different way to look at the series for fun at best. Or as a way to spec out game mechanics if that's something anyone's looking to do.
Disclaimer 2: I am firmly on the side of Toriyama, Z, and Super that the Saiyan tail is a crutch that a Saiyan must overcome to reach their full potential, not the Saiyan's actual power. SSJ4 isn't in here because, like much of GT, it's a contradiction and fitting it into the rest of the framework is difficult. I might take a stab at it some other time, though.
Ultra Instinct and Ultra Ego are also absent from this because not only are they not exclusively Saiyan forms (which applies to Kaioken and Ultimate, both of which I've included), but I don't think there's interesting interplay with what I'm proposing in terms of Saiyans' relationship with Ki. They're their own set of abilities that don't really care about the others.
With all of that out of the way
The Unified Theory of Ki - Supplemental 1: Potential, Saiyans, and Forms
Section 1: Let's Talk Potential
While this supplemental is meant to cover Saiyan biology as it pertains to ki more than anything, there's something we have to get out of the way first. Let's talk potential, as it's something that comes up frequently in the series. It's a difficult thing to understand, given how haphazardly "latent potential" is thrown around and the various things it can mean. I think we can discard out of hand the idea of it meaning "the most powerful can ever be." That interpretation never really made sense without separating the two rituals to unlock potential that we saw on screen into two different things. And while the different lengths of time those two rituals took could allow for that to be the case, later evidence from Super would contradict this. Besides that, I think that the difference would be better explained as efficacy. Guru and Old Supreme Kai both did the same thing, but Old Supreme Kai's delved deeper.
I would argue that what "potential" means in this case is tapping into power you would normally have to exert one's self to use temporarily and making it a part of your normal reservoir. Characters' power levels have been shown to fluctuate based on emotional state and exertion, though not to the extremes Gohan's rage is generally capable of producing. I would then argue that what both Guru and Old Kai are doing is making that exerted power a more natural state for the subject. This is why Gohan's boost is so wildly different from Krillin's, as it's making his rage boosted stats a part of his natural power, and why he doesn't get another proper rage boost until reaching SSJ2. Meanwhile Krillin is simply receiving the full power of what he can do when exerting himself. I would also posit that Guru's power up was permanent for the both of them, which is why even when his training lapsed, Krillin remained stronger than Tenshinhan. Still, it does not transcend Saiyan transformations for a very specific reason.
Section 2: Saiyan "Potential"
Alright, let's just get this out of the way. We all know that Saiyans are special, but in what way. Most of them are relatively powerful to start, if they hadn't had their potential (common use of the phrase) stunted by their tails and the use of the Oozaru form then they'd have been as insanely powerful as their U6 counterparts. How does this fit into the framework I'm creating?
My notion is this: Saiyans are naturally gifted, well beyond what the average Saiyan would lead you to believe. Their actual power functions a lot like cockroaches: what you see is only a fraction of the whole. They are natural born ki turbines meant to generate power well beyond what most species in the galaxy are capable of, including embers of god ki. The problem is that Saiyans, in their natural state, are inherently terrible at accessing and utilizing any of this power. And the culture of U7 only served to encourage this natural flaw. Everyone of the Saiyans' various forms and evolutionary elements is an expression of their bodies trying to reach their true power. But that power can only really be accessed through physical and emotional growth. Not shortcuts.
This differs from the potential referred to in the previous section, which is simply the maximum amount of power you can output at your current strength. It is not unlocked by potential unlocking rituals because it's a different thing entirely. Without the right training or the right forms, Saiyans are completely walled off from this power, unlike the power of "potential" that comes from simple exertion.
Section 3: Saiyan States, Power Ups, and Forms
Disclaimer 3: Refer to Disclaimer 1. The same applies here. If it's something that isn't shown in the manga or show and I don't say that it's based on a statement from Toriyama, assume that it is speculation in line with the overall goal of this project: making a unified working ruleset based on the content of the series for entertainment purposes. I will often, but not always, denote these parts with speculative phrasing.
Base Saiyan with Tail - Base
The default state of all full-blood, and some hybrid, Saiyans and the weakest a Saiyan can be. The tail grants the Saiyan both a boosted power level in their natural state and access to the Oozaru transformation. The drawbacks are that, when grabbed, the insufficiently trained Saiyan will lose all strength and when removed the Saiyan will suffer a massive power loss. With sufficient growth, the Saiyan no longer needs the tail to have the same power it once provided.
Within this framework I would argue that the Saiyan tail is a taproot into their underlying power. A quick, cheap boost that all Saiyans are born with in compensation for how poor they are on the whole at accessing their walled off power reserves.
Oozaru - Psuedo-Super Saiyan
Oozaru is the Saiyan body's effort to access the Super Saiyan transformation. It's a 10x increase in power level, but I would argue it's an incredibly inefficient spread. Referencing my previous musings on how ki works and judging by the fight with Vegeta, I would argue that most of the Ki output of the Oozaru form is going towards compensating for the massive loss in speed and agility, leaving the Oozaru user roughly as fast as they were before, but only minimally stronger mostly coming from the increase baseline physical strength as opposed to more ki being pumped into increasing strength (though I would say not none). From this state a sufficiently powerful Saiyan could potentially reach true Super Saiyan 1 and may have been how the original Legendary Super Saiyan did so.
Base Saiyan without Tail - Evolved Base
The natural state of U6 Saiyans and U7 Saiyans after either training to integrate the power their tail granted (Goku with Kami in Dragon Ball) or reaching a certain plateau of power where the tail no longer provides a boost (Vegeta, possibly the half-Saiyans). According to Toriyama the bodies of Saiyans eventually determine that the tail is unnecessary so it stops growing back, or in the case of U6 Saiyans, growing at all. This is the state necessary for a Saiyan to properly begin harnessing their potential.
Kaio-Ken - Borrowed Power
This is not an evolution of Saiyan power, but I'm including it for the sake of differentiating it from the way the other boosts in power here work. The Kaio-Ken is a technique that increases power while putting a massive strain on the body. I would argue that, unlike what unlocking potential or Super Saiyan forms do, the Kaio-Ken is not drawing from latent or wasted power. It's forcing the user's body to create power it does not actually have. This is why it not only causes strain during use, but also outright damages the body.
Wrathful - Perfected Oozaru, Still Flawed
The Dragon Ball Super version of Broly used this form. Having achieved the tailless base state a Saiyan needs to reach their full potential, Broly was able to tap into the power of the Oozaru transformation without massively augmenting his body. He gained some amount of size, but not too much, and I would speculate that this made the impact much more potent. There was no massive loss of speed caused by increase of mass, allowing his power to be distributed more evenly. In conjunction with his already massive base power and his ability to grow stronger the longer a battle rages, this is the peak of what Oozaru can grant a Saiyan. The down side is that the form causes Broly immense pain while he also loses most of his faculties.
Super Saiyan - Reaching the Potential
Through duress (Goku, Cabba) or observation and training (Goten, Trunks, Future Trunks <Manga>, Vegeta <Manga>, Caulifla) this is a Saiyan finally forcefully prying open the doors of their full Saiyan potential. This is just a taste of what they can achieve, as it's the unmastered, raw version of the real thing. It causes both physical and mental stress to maintain the state, making the user more vicious than they might otherwise be and making it difficult to remain in the state when injured or exhausted.
Super Saiyan Grade 2/Ultra Super Saiyan - A Little Further Beyond
This is pushing the form just a little further than it had been, holding the doors to the Saiyan reservoir of power a little wider. Compensates for an increased strain on the body by expanding muscle mass, but not so extremely as to noticeably affect speed. May actually be superior to raw Super Saiyan 1
Super Saiyan Grade 3/Ultra Super Saiyan 2 - Oozaru 3.0
Don't get me wrong, it's not using the power of the Oozaru transformation, but it's making the same kinds of mistakes that Oozaru does without the same increase in power to compensate. Grade 3 nudges the door just a little wider than Grade 2, but the increase in power requires an even greater increase in muscle mass so as not to rip the user apart. It's possible that, like Oozaru, a good amount of that increase is being used to maintain speed at similar levels to Grade 2, but it may also be distributing power evenly, and with the boost in power being so small, speed drops off even more sharply than strength grows.
Full Power Super Saiyan - The True Saiyan Form, Evolved Base 2
Full Power Super Saiyan achieves what every form before it has been trying to. It throws wide the doors to the Saiyan's secret reserve of power and incorporates it into their natural state. This is the actual base form of a Saiyan that they've been held back from. Unfortunately, this state can be lost, though simply reverting to base is not an indication of losing access to this form.
Super Saiyan 2 - Super Saiyan, but moreso.
Yes, I'm putting Super Saiyan 2 in the Super Saiyan section and not the Super Saiyan 2 section, but I'm doing it for a reason. As I see it, SSJ2 is not a different form from FPSSJ. Nor is it a "Grade 2" type evolution of the form. What SSJ2 is is the exerted state of SSJ1. A form that cannot be obtained without either mastering SSJ1 or witnessing someone who has. This brings back both the subject of there being a difference between "Potential" and "Saiyan Potential" and the idea of Guru's unlocking of potential not being able to cross beyond transformations. Once Gohan had achieved FPSSJ he once more had a wellspring of unused potential both from the boost everyone can get from exertion and his own massive rage boost. Likewise, Goku and Vegeta learned from this how to exert Super Saiyan into this state. Caulifla then learned it from Goku while Cabba experienced it the way Gohan did.
Before getting into SSJ2's variants, let's take a detour to Legendary Super Saiyan for a moment. Now this is even messier than the rest of this subject because its canon versions, and all the offshoots that come from it, were obviously first and foremost meant to be references and nods to the original Broly more than they were given any thought with regards to how they fit into the universe overall. So while all of this is just fanwank for fun, I do try to ground it in elements seen or said in the media or by the creator in interviews. This part, however? This is gonna be almost entirely post-hoc overthought bullshit. But, like I said, this is about making these concepts fit into a functional framework. Also, the names for Broly, Broly, and Kale's forms are all over the place all the time, but since all three of them are referred to as Legendary Super Saiyan at one point or another I'm just going with that
Legendary Super Saiyan - Ignoring the Flaws of Super Saiyan Grade 2
Broly and Kale really are built different. From the blank eyes to the green aura, this is undeniably not the same as Super Saiyan. At least, not exactly the same. I would argue that, unlike most Saiyans, these two possess a secondary well of power. Or, rather, a different primary one. It's not inherently more powerful than the regular Super Saiyan power. In fact, for both of them, they become more powerful once they learn to use the golden glow instead of the green one, but what it is is bottomless. This, more than anything, is what differentiates it from other Super Saiyan forms. Because of this, they have enough energy to make all of the mistakes of Super Saiyan Grade 2 but with none of the drawbacks as the bottomless ki can compensate. And in Broly's case, he continues to grow stronger the longer he fights, making the drawback even more irrelevant. The drawback they do suffer, however, is a total loss of control.
Legendary Super Saiyans' Super Saiyan - Super Saiyan Buff
Unique in canon to Kale but also used by Movie Broly, this is Super Saiyan 1 for a Legendary Super Saiyan. It differs from regular Super Saiyan in that it noticeably increases the size and muscle mass of the user, but to a less extreme degree. The user has greater control over themselves than in the Legendary Super Saiyan and Kale, at least, appeared to become stronger by using this form than she had been in Legendary Super Saiyan. I speculate this form mainlines the Super Saiyan reservoir of power while keeping the Legendary Super Saiyan boundless ki stream open just a crack.
Full Power Legendary Super Saiyan - A Different Flavor of Full Power
Where FPSSJ is throwing wide the doors of Super Saiyan and making that power a natural part of your own, FPLSSJ seems to be a case of the power flowing from the LSSJ pool overflowing their containment. Power grows and the body massively increases in size even more, likely to reduce the strain of holding onto that much power.
True Legendary Super Saiyan - Mastering the Flow
Kale in the anime Tournament of Power and Broly in the Super manga both achieve this state of their Legendary forms. Their eyes return to normal, their bulk reduces (though both remain bigger than their other forms) and their hair and aura remain green. This would, in my estimate, be the inverse of Kale's Super Saiyan form, mostly using the power from LSSJ while incorporating the power of SSJ into it.
Like I said before, while Super Saiyan 2 has a section, Super Saiyan 2 is not in it. you'll understand why soon.
Super Saiyan 3 - Failed Evolution
It is my belief that Super Saiyan 3 isn't meant to be a form in-and-of itself. More importantly, I don't like the idea that Goku attempted to make a Super Saiyan 2 Grade 2 either. Instead, I posit that Super Saiyan 3 was Goku's effort to master Super Saiyan 2 the same way he did Super Saiyan 1. In other words, it was an attempt at Full Power Super Saiyan 2 that failed. Goku, however, didn't quite grasp that is didn't work, as his being dead prevented him from feeling energy draining strain that the form put on his body. Because of the nature of Super Saiyan 2, that being an exerted version of SSJ1, I suspect there's no natural means of reaching a Full Power equivalent. Gotenks, being a child and a show off, didn't even bother to understand anything about the form, merely copying what Goten and Trunks had witnessed Goku doing.
Super Saiyan Rage - Grade 2 Perfected
Super Saiyan Rage's design and the transformation sequence provide an opportunity for an interesting interpretation. I see it as a work around for Super Saiyan Grade 2's drawbacks while maintaining its benefits applied to Super Saiyan 2. Instead of massively increasing his body size, Trunks externalizes the physical changes into an aura kept tight around himself, effectively still being used as a part of his offense, but no longer weighing him down. A very specific example of ki control vastly increasing power, even though he's not fully controlling all of the ki leaking from him.
Ultimate - A Fortunate Workaround
Gohan's Ultimate form is, in effect, Guru's unlock applied to SSJ2 resulting in that Full power Super Saiyan 2 that Goku was trying for with Super Saiyan 3. Elder Kai's ritual having the additional bonus that Guru's didn't (and didn't need since Gohan was already in peak fighting condition) of polishing off all of Gohan's rust before giving him access to all of his potential power with none of the strain or stress on his body. Of course, once the rust came back he lost the ability to maintain that state effortlessly, but it's still there.
Super Saiyan God - A Touch of the Divine
Earlier I had mentioned that Saiyans also likely generate a bit of God Ki. This is why I think so. Goku's exposure to the ki of a group of other Super Saiyans allowed him to reach this state, a state wherein he begins to use God Ki instead of just normal Ki. Vegeta also reaches this state after Goku achieved it. I suspect the ritual is only necessary insofar as getting the feel for it without having used it. Vegeta was able to gauge how it was done due to his experience as a fighter and his history with Goku.
Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan/Super Saiyan Blue - Starting Back at 1
This one isn't too complicated. Now that the Saiyan in question can perceive and wield God Ki, they suddenly have access to a wellspring of that as well. Super Saiyan Blue is opening the door to that in the same way SSJ1 did for their potential as a Saiyan.
Super Saiyan Royal Blue/Blue Evolved/Bluer - Full Power Upgrade
This form shares similarities with both Grade 2 and Full Power Super Saiyan, though clearly more like Grade 2 in appearance. However, I'd argue, given the size of the power increase, it's actually more along the lines of Full Power in terms of results. There seems to be little strain, though the muscle mass does have a noticeable increase (not to Grade 2's extreme, however). The hair changes shades, similar to Full Power, while the aura is different depending on whether it's the manga or anime. Still, given his history, I'd like to think Vegeta learned from his mistakes and chose to develop his new form more along the lines he was shown before.
Previous Work referenced in this -
Bear with me here, I’m about to put more thought into the way Ki and Power Levels work in DBZ and DBS than anyone who works on them probably
