With the help of the Dragon Balls, death in the eponymous anime is no longer a big deal. Once Son-Goku, Vegeta, and the other Z-Warriors die in battle, they are resurrected by Shenlong or another powerful dragon. However, there is an MMO that deals with the final death of the two.
What kind of game is this? The spiritual predecessor to Dragon Ball Xenoverse was Dragon Ball Online. The game launched as a free-to-play MMORPG in 2010. But three years later, the servers were shut down and the developer was dissolved. In the meantime, there is a fan project with private servers that has revived the title as Dragon Ball Online Global.
- Dragon Ball Online took place in the year 1000, approximately 216 years after the victory over Majin Boo.
- The player takes on the role of a character who is sucked into the current timeline through a time rift. In the MMORPG, several characters from the Dragon Ball anime and manga appear.
- Mira and Towa, two characters designed specifically for the game, want to conquer the Earth. They receive help from Frieza and the Red Ribbon Army.
- Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, was responsible for the character designs.
As in other MMORPGs, we ran through the game world with our character. The tasks included searching for the Dragon Balls, training, and interacting with NPCs and other players.
Players followed a story that does not belong to the official canon of Dragon Ball. However, players could learn what actually happened to Son-Goku and Vegeta when they finally died and could no longer be resurrected.
The anime almost found an end as well:
Son-Goku and Vegeta killed each other
How did they die? In the year 801, Son-Goku and Vegeta left the Earth. Goku realized that he had little time left to live. Therefore, he challenged Vegeta to a final duel in which the Saiyans could give it their all.
Their battle was so intense that they killed each other in an explosion. Their death, which was likely caused by numerous energy attacks, could still be seen on Earth as a supernova several years later.
Does that fit the anime? The MMORPG dealt with an alternative timeline that has nothing to do with the official manga and anime. In the manga, Son-Goku is far from dead. Although Dragon Ball GT is also not part of the official story, Son-Goku was still alive in the year 889.
However, many fans in the Reddit forum believe that the death would perfectly fit Son-Goku and Vegeta. User Windstorm72 particularly loves all the lore that was told in Dragon Ball Online. User oddyholi thinks that the story should end exactly that way.
There are also some dissenting voices: Commentator sdwoodchuck, for example, is not a big fan of the rivalry between Goku and Vegeta. He would have preferred a different death.
If you want to explore the story for yourself, you can settle for the unofficial fan project Dragon Ball Online Global.
Unlike Son-Goku, Vegeta has never succeeded in becoming a Super Saiyan of the third level. There are several reasons for this: Vegeta is never seen as a Super Saiyan 3 in Dragon Ball Z – There is an official reason
