Episode 54 of Dragon Ball Super, first broadcast in Japan on August 7, 2016 and titled He Who Is of Saiyan Blood: Trunks' Resolve in Funimation's dub, is the calm before the storm. The time machine is almost ready, but the real repair job is inside Future Trunks' head: faced with Goku and Vegeta's strength, he starts to feel he is no longer needed. His father sets him straight.
Summary
On the lake near Capsule Corporation, Trunks trains by picturing a fight with Goku Black, and in every version he loses. In the lab, Dr. Brief announces there is finally enough fuel for a round trip, and Pilaf, tinkering with the emergency restart program, ends up improving it while Bulma watches in disbelief. Young Mai tries image training herself, but her imagination wanders off and she ends up daydreaming about kissing Trunks.
Whis crash-lands with Beerus and Goku, back from Universe 10. Zamasu's energy is too close to Black's to be a coincidence, yet the apprentice Supreme Kai did not know Goku and his aura was not evil. Goku, who sparred with him, still insists Zamasu is not a bad guy. Hearing that Goku has fought even a God of Destruction, Trunks decides Goku alone should be enough to stop Black.
In Universe 10, Gowasu finds Zamasu's tea a little off and wants to prove that mortals can improve. A violent, primitive race has appeared on Planet Babari: Zamasu suggests wiping it out now, while his master would rather see what it becomes in a thousand years. Time Rings, he explains, only travel to the future, and the differently colored ones were born whenever someone changed history; one appeared only a few years ago. Only a Supreme Kai may use them, so Gowasu promotes his pupil on the spot and lends him one of his Potara earrings. A millennium later the Babarians are still savage, and Zamasu concludes there will be no peace as long as mortals exist.
Meanwhile, Vegeta asks his son for a sparring session. He goes Super Saiyan Blue and offers a handicap: Trunks wins if he lands a single blow. The young man flashes the bulky form he used against Cell as a feint and switches to a faster one, earning "thirty points," but the feeling of being useless lingers. Vegeta reads him instantly: anyone with Saiyan blood should not settle for beating one enemy but aim to be the strongest in the universe. Catching his father distracted, Trunks lands his punch and vows to surpass both him and Black. That evening Beerus answers a call on Whis's staff and goes pale: it is Zeno, and he wants to see Goku.
Our take
It is a bridge episode, but a well-built one. The talk between Vegeta and Trunks is the highlight: in a few lines the show reminds us that the Saiyan prince, now a caring father in the present, never got to be one for this son, and that his way of showing love still runs through a punch and a lesson in pride.
The Babari subplot is subtler than it looks. Gowasu treats Zamasu as a brilliant student to be guided patiently, and that is exactly why he hands him the tools of his own downfall: a Time Ring and a Potara earring. Anyone who knows the rest of the saga will recognize every detail, including the "new" ring born from a recent trip through time.
Trivia
- Written by King Ryū and directed by Masanori Satō; it drew a 5.8% rating in Japan.
- The name of Planet Babari comes from the English word "barbarian."
- In the flashback to the Cell era, Vegeta appears in his Super Saiyan Second Grade form, chronologically the first time it is shown.
- The ending theme is still "Yoka Yoka Dance" by Batten Showjo Tai.
- Funimation's dub rewrites Beerus's awkward greeting to Zeno as a joke: halfway through, the God of Destruction realizes he sounds like Goku.