#putine

Last time, “Dr. W” lured Xeno Goku and Xeno Vegeta to Hell, where he fought them both to a standstill, then sent all the data he collected to Janemba, who is now somehow back and ready to kick some ass.  I don’t understand why this was even necessary, since Dr. W was doing just fine on his own.

I feel like a pair of Super Saiyan 4′s ought to have an easier time against Janemba than this, but his color scheme is different, and he does have all of that data to warn him about things like “Goku punches a lot” and “watch out for Vegeta’s rapid fire attack that never works.”

Then all the other good guys teleport in, and I guess this was Fu’s plan?  He used Bojack and Turles to keep them busy while he birdnapped Tokitoki, then he sent them all to Hell, where Janemba would be ready to finish them off.

Oh, and Xeno Trunks can do Super Saiyan 3.  You know, they could let Xeno Pan do all sorts of crazy transformations, just like everyone else in this show, but they don’t, because Toei’s a bunch of assholes.

Then these two show up.  Their names are Putine (left) and Salsa (right).  it is impossible for me to take Salsa seriously, because his dour expression is a little too dour, to the point of self-parody.  Also, his edgy hood has cute ears on top, like he took some Pikachu merchandise and dyed it black to complete his aesthetic. 

Putine and Salsa are demons who fought against the Time Patrol some time ago, but this time they offer a way to destroy the Universe Tree that’s currently threatening the multiverse, so they all join forces to defeat Janemba.  But Janemba won’t go down so easily, even in a six-on-one affair.

Then Salsa suggests that Xeno Goku use the same trick he used to defeat “the dark dragon”, and I finally realized he was referring to the Shadow Dragons from GT.  Which trick, though?  Fusion?  The bullshit spirit bomb?  Swallowing a Dragon Ball?  A lot of those things only worked because of GT Logic, but this isn’t GT, so we have to be careful.  Eating a Dragon Ball might actually kill a person here.

Turns out they were referring to the dumb bit where everyone lends their energy to Goku to charge up his Super Saiyan 4 form.  This is one of the stupidest bits from GT and the only consolation I have is that Vegeta Blue hates this crap even more than I do.  Xeno Vegeta seems to have no strong feelings about it, as he just stands beside Xeno Goku and accepts the same power-up. 

I guess I should talk about the worlds these characters come from.  Obviously, the concept here is that we have a set of Time Patrol characters who look like they’re from Dragon Ball GT, and a set of “main” characters who look like they’re from Dragon Ball Super.   But it doesn’t quite line up that way.  Xeno Goku remembers fighting the Shadow Dragons, but he clearly never vanished for 100 years with Shenron like Goku did in the finale of GT.  This partnership with Xeno Vegeta doesn’t work in the GT continuity, because they were only both SSJ4 for a handful of episodes.  After that, Vegeta powered down, and then Goku didn’t return to Earth until long after Vegeta’s death. 

On the Super side of things, the Goku and Vegeta in SDBH have different clothes on than what they wore in Super.  They remember the Tournament of Power, but they also remember the movie villains like Cooler, Bojack, and Turles.  Curiously, none of these characters seems to remember Janemba, so I don’t know what to make of this.

Anyway, the charge-up works, and Xeno Goku and Xeno Vegeta work over Janemba, then finish him off with a double Super Dragon Fist.  Does Xeno Vegeta have no pride at all? 

Wh-what if we intertwined our ki dragons together in the same villain?  Ha ha, just kidding... 

...Unless...

So with that nonsense out of the way, Putine teleports everyone to the Universe Tree.  No one questions how she knows where to go or what to do.  Then again, I guess this is the only lead they have.

Meanwhile, in a different part of Hell, we see a prisoner...

And it’s Hearts.  And he’s pretty happy, apparently.  Sheesh, does anything bother this guy?

At the Universe Tree, Vegeta tries to blow it up with a ki blast, but the tree just soaks it up like everything else.  Then Fu shows up and mocks their attempts to stop it.

Towa is also here, and she arranges for most of the good guys, and Putine and Salsa, to be teleported away.  She leaves Goku and Vegeta to fight Fu by themselves, although Fu doesn’t understand the purpose of this.

Fu seems to be more than a match for them, in part because he’s infused himself with Cumber’s dark ki, which corrupts the minds of those who come into contact with it.  You know, except for all the times fighters would hit Cumber and that didn’t happen. 

We see Cumber trussed up in a machine that presumably siphons off his power and sends it to Fu, or the tree, or whatever.  I’m starting to see why people ship Cumber and Fu.  All they ever do is get into these kinky situations.

So Fu uses Cumber’s power to make Goku and Vegeta go feral, but instead of turning on one another, they both go after Fu anyay.  Fu hits them with a big attack and that snaps them out of it, so what’s even the point?

So Goku convinces Vegeta to fuse with him, since Vegito can protect himself from the Cumber effect.  Apparently Salsa left them a pair of Potara Earrings to use.   Uh-huh....

Meanwhile, Towa explains her plan to the other good guys, whom she has trapped in a field of Cumbers’ energy.  Is Cumber that powerful?  Cooler defeated him, after all.

She informs them that she “created” Fu.  I’m pretty sure she just had a baby with Mira, but she created Mira as well, so you can never be too sure with Towa.  Fu represents the data Towa has collected from a multitude of powerful figthers.  Mira had a similar deal, so I’m pretty sure she just means Fu inherited the same chimera DNA Mira had. 

Towa then pulls some sort of dark energy out of her captives and explains that this is the “Dark Factor”, a power that once inhabited Mechikabura before his death at the hands of Trunks.  When he was defeated, Mechikabura released the Dark Factor and it went into the Time Patrollers who were there at the time.  Towa apparently arranged this so she could retrieve the Dark Factor when the time was right.  Her aim is to put the Dark Factor into Fu, which will allow him to become the new Dark Emperor, Mechikabura’s successor. 

Well, now it makes more sense why they did the special in Episode 20.  They were doing more than reintroducing Fu and the Time Patrol after all.

Xeno Goku briefly escapes from his bonds, but then Mira shows up and cuts him off.  He also brings Xeno Goten and Xeno Gohan to this place, since they had to pull the Dark Factor out of their bodies as well. 

Then they all get sucked into a time hole or something.

Back at the Universe Tree, Vegito and Fu continue to fight.  Fu is impressed with Vegito’s power, but Vegito says that Fu never knew how strong Vegito was, because all he ever did was observe him from the shadows.   Fighting Vegito directly is a whole other story.

Then Fu says the Universe Tree is finally ready, but when he goes to check on it, he’s horrified to discover that it’s withered and dead.  What could have happened?