The Battle Resilience theory: Who is the toughest Saiyan?

The Dragon Ball Super Broly movie introduced us to a new saiyan, a potential new, strong ally for Goku and the Universe 7 warriors. But, in today's post we'll be looking at an underrated topic from the Dragon Ball Super movie: who's the toughest remaining saiyan.

When I posted this on the Dragon Ball fandom, I was ignored by most and shut down quickly by those few who cared to comment. However, I think Toriyama-sensei has subtlely double-down on toughness: the resilience of a saiyan who has spent his strength in battle.

At first, I came up with a big word "Battle Damage Endurance" for this ability of a warrior to keep fighting or even to just stand after spending so much energy, so much strength in a fight, or even after taking damage from a stronger opponent. But i admit, the BDE is an unnecessary term because it boils down to resilience: how tough a warrior is.

Resilience vs Stamina

Resilience is quite different than stamina. Stamina is having the energy to keep going, even for the long haul, and saiyans with finite, albeit tremendous energy/strength might have stamina, depending on the opponent(s) they're battling. Androids are the kings of stamina, because they have infinite stamina.

However, resilience is an attribute we've seen Goku and Vegeta display often, although looking back it's been downplayed by the fandom.

After I watched DBS Broly movie

Dragon Ball Super Broly movie showed us how each saiyan ranks in terms of resilience. In the beginning of the movie, in a room full of infant saiyans in nursing capsules, Vegeta's latent battle power was said to be the highest of all time, but he was actually second to baby Broly in some instances.

The Saiyans were measuring the latent battle power to decide each saiyan's rank from low class to elite. However, Vegeta found out after fighting Goku in the Saiyan saga that Battle power isn't set in stone and doesn't depend on rank, meaning that a low class saiyan can grow to be as strong as an elite, and that every saiyan can grow infinitely stronger.

Latent Battle Power & Resilience

So, we know that saiyan babies start out with random battle power, but they can all grow stronger. This leaves us with one question, then what one thing can't be improved over a saiyan's life?

The answer is resilience.

Vegeta's resilience: Super Pride

As we have seen over and over, Vegeta has more resilience than Goku. When Vegeta has spent his energy/strength, he's still able to keep fighting although lacking much or any power (Vegeta vs Jiren, Dragon Ball Super anime); however, Goku can't keep fighting with his stength spent (Goku was still down while Vegeta fought Jiren alone, he couldn't move an inch). In fact, when Vegeta defeated Toppo with his all-out sacrifice explosion, Lord Beerus said he'd used all his energy and was barely on his feet; yet the Saiyan prince went Super Saiyan Blue evolved, launched multiple attacks and even used his powerful Final Flash alongside Android 17 and Super Saiyan Blue plus Kaioken times 20 Goku. He didn't hold anything back, and even Jiren praised Vegeta for not just the mental fortitude to stick with his decisions but also for using powerful attacks to defeat Toppo.

Goku's resilience: Ain't no slouch

Goku spent all his energy when he fought Jiren in his first Utra Instinct attempt and couldn't move until Freeza gave him more energy. The second time Goku tapped into Ultra Instinct was against Caulifla but he was able to fight might better, although he was mostly tapped out. In fact, he fought capably against the Universe 2 warriors and was even able to go all the way to Super Saiyan Blue and launched a powerful Kamehameha to knock all three out while being under their heavy gravity attack. Goku showed just how resilient he was. But then after being overpowered by Jiren's power-up, Goku couldn't go on and was down until Vegeta shared the last of his energy with him.

Goku also powered up all the way to complete his Ultra Instinct and was able to defeat Jiren, however when he attempted to finish Jiren, the form gave out and the backlash on his body was intense. Yet, Goku managed to plow through, and helped Android 17 and Freeza take down Jiren, so the 7th would be saved. In essence, Goku showed remarkable resilience two times. He was tough.

& Broly's resilience: Unthinkable formidability

Then, we have Broly who was so tough his base form was almost stronger than a Super Saiyan. He leveled up to ten times his base strength in his Human-reat ape form and managed to defeat a Super Saiyan God. Then he went Super Saiyan and ona complete berserker rampage, but was to be taken down after a long battle with a fusion god ki Gogeta. Broly was really tough.

In conclusion

In the beginning, as children their battle power ranked them from weakest to strongest: Goku, Vegeta and Broly. In the end, their resilience ranked them from least to highest: Goku, Vegeta and Broly.