Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super featured Future Trunks, who quickly stood out from its vast array of characters, as he was given a few emotional moments with his father, Vegeta. His story is different from others, where he is shown how his world was eradicated by the Androids in DBZ, and again by Goku Black and Zamasu in DBS. Despite having a tragic background, there’s no denying that Future Trunks fights for a greater cause like he did in the Cell Saga and the Goku Black Saga.
However, what stood out was how there was one particular aspect of his development that made him stand out which was quite baseless to be used. Toriyama-Sensei featured our Saiyan with two SSJ forms, which was quite useless; to explain how useless it was, Kakarot and The Prince of All Saiyans would never use it, ever.
Akira Toriyama Featured Trunks in Two Meaningless SSJ Forms
Akira Toriyama featured Super Saiyan for the first time during the Namek Saga in Dragon Ball Z in episode 95 titled Transformed at Last. From there the story has come a long way, where the Z Fighters have broken past their limits, several times, and come up with an iconic transformation when all hope seemed to be lost.
SSJ transformations are meant to multiply their power levels and enhance their combat ability while undergoing physical changes like their hair going from black to blond. However, Toriyama-Sensei gave two meaningless SSJ forms to Future Trunks, those forms were none other than SSJ Third Grade and SSJ Rage.
SSJ Third Grade is much like a wild card, which is known as the Ultra Super Saiyan, that first made its appearance in episode 162 of Dragon Ball Z episode titled Trunks Ascends, the transformation is between SSJ 1 and SSJ 2. The Saiyan’s power levels increase with a bizarre increase in muscle mass, and the hair grows even bigger and the hair shoots out in all directions.
While the power level increases significantly, the increased muscle mass reduces the speed drastically and the downside was immediately noticed by the other Saiyans. Surprisingly, it took Trunks a while to understand the form’s downside. But what followed SSJ Third Grade was SSJ Rage, which was an abomination of a transformation.
Although this transformation gives our character the extra power that he needs, it is not useful and it makes the transformation more confusing. The form multiplies SSJ 2’s power, where the hair grows slightly longer and the Saiyan would gain a blue tinge within their golden aura.
This form indeed played a great role in defeating Zamasu, disguised as Goku Black. However, much like the aforementioned form, SSJ Rage is immensely useless because if the battle had continued a little longer, even his SSJ Rage form would have struggled to defeat Zamasu in his SSJ Rosé form.
Why Was Super Saiyan Rage The Biggest Mistake in The Goku Black Arc?
There’s no denying that Future Trunks stands out as a character in the Dragon Ball series, and his return in the Dragon Ball Super series was met with excitement. However, fans’ excitement seemed to be lost during the end of the Goku Black Saga, because Akira Toriyama featured Trunks in the SSJ Rage form, which helped him in his final battle against Zamasu and Goku Black.
As per Game Rant, Future Trunks was fighting Zamasu in the SSJ Rage felt like plot armor because SSJ Rosé form is a divine form of SSJ Blue, and neither Kakarot nor The Prince of All Saiyans can achieve it. As a result, it implies that this form is much stronger than SSJ 2 or SSJ 3. Since SSJ Rage is based on SSJ 2, the plot looks quite flawed.
Furthermore, the Rosé form can be maintained for a much longer period, and had Zamasu managed to sustain a little longer, he would have stood tall and had the last laugh over them. Nevertheless, both forms look immensely useless, and neither of the two protagonists would be caught using them ever.
Dragon Ball Super can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
