Fans of Dragon Ball Super should have realized by now that, despite being the franchise's most iconic look, the Super Saiyan is being retired in all its variations. All the most powerful Saiyan in the series, Goku, Vegeta, and even Gohan (in the events of the movie Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero) are moving past that stage to achieve new transformations that are completely different from Super Saiyan. More than a desire for novelty and originality, there is a very good in-universe explanation for this, that dates back to Dragon Ball Z.

The Dragon Ball franchise changed forever after the Super Saiyan form made its debut during the Frieza saga on Planet Namek. After that, transformations and power-ups become the most easily recognizable trait of the series. When more powerful enemies showed up, Goku and the other Saiyans had to reach new levels of strength to defeat them, which led to the debut of Super Saiyan 2 during the Cell saga, and then Super Saiyan 3 during the Majin Buu saga. All these transformations essentially increase the power output of its users at the cost of greater energy and stamina expenditure. However, once Dragon Ball Super started, the whole concept of Super Saiyan quickly proved to be obsolete.

Related: Goku's Strongest Transformation Is Based on a Forgotten Super Saiyan Form

Super Saiyan 3 was immediately useless when facing the absurd power of the God of Destruction, Beerus. After that, Goku and Vegeta unlocked the "Super Saiyan God", which makes use of the "God Ki", the energy of the superior beings in the universe. However, this form has nothing to do with the previous Super Saiyan, but it's a completely different state. Super Saiyan Blue, on the other hand, applies the principle of Super Saiyan to the God form to reach a new level of power, but even that quickly became obsolete in the series. Goku and Vegeta have now reached what seem to be their ultimate forms, Ultra Ego and Ultra Instinct, which both operate on a completely different level. They are based on the techniques used by Angels and Gods of Destruction and use emotions to trigger specific uses of the God Ki.

dragon-ball-super-goku-vegeta-ultra-instinct-ultra-ego

Compared to Super Saiyan Blue (the most advanced form of Super Saiyan shown in the series), the Ultra transformations, once mastered, do not require a constant massive expenditure of energy and stamina, thus being way more useful in battle. This concept of the limits of Super Saiyan, however, has been present in the series long before Dragon Ball Super. When Goku and Gohan were training to beat Cell, they focused on perfecting the base Super Saiyan form to minimize its drawbacks. Later in the series, what should have been the most powerful form, Super Saiyan 3, proves to be actually totally useless because it burns out too much energy too quickly.

In Dragon Ball Z, Gohan's Potential Unleashed form is supposed to be the strongest in the series, and he does not use Super Saiyan. Akira Toriyama himself stated in a 2014 interview that if Goku mastered his normal state and Super Saiyan would raise his level more and sap less strength than Super Saiyan 2 and Super Saiyan 3. The truth is that these further stages of Super Saiyan are not actually new transformations, but just power-ups of the first, which however also increase its drawbacks.

With Gohan also receiving a new powerful form in Super Hero that has nothing to do with Super Saiyan, it's safe to say that Dragon Ball's most iconic transformation has been phased out. However, it's important to remember that this is not done just to renew the series and its characters, but it is due to the inherent weakness of Super Saiyan that has been exposed since its debut. This proves that Dragon Ball Super is really evolving the story of the franchise in a coherent way, even if that means getting rid of the iconic Super Saiyan forever.

Next: Dragon Ball Super's Anime Removed Super Saiyan Blue's Biggest Weakness