Jiren

, also known as , is the most powerful member of the Pride Troopers. An extraordinary powerful being, Jiren is considered to be one of the strongest mortals in all of the multiverse, outclassing even his Universe's God of Destruction. He is a quiet and honorable fighter, who believes in strength and justice. He previously did not trust anyone and never considered teamwork at all during battle, opting to fight enemies alone, and single-handedly almost always winning.
Jiren served as the main fighting antagonist in the Universe Survival Saga and as a major contestant in the Tournament of Power.
==Concept and creation==
Jiren's name appears to come from the word renji, which is the Japanese word for stove.
Jiren was meant to have a more outspoken personality, according to Toei Animation. However, this idea was rejected by Akira Toriyama, who stated Jiren was a quiet individual with a tragic backstory. Jiren's planned personality was given to Top. Though this original personality is later used for Jiren in Xenoverse 2.
Jiren was originally set to debut in episode 78 and appeared in the initial preview. However, he was replaced by fellow Pride Trooper Top in the final version. He was also meant to fight Goku in episode 82, and the statement of him fighting Goku was accidentally kept in the episode synopsis.
==Appearance==
Jiren is a tall humanoid with an extremely muscular and well-defined build. He has a large, sleek head similar in shape similar to the folkloric aliens known as the . His legs are rather short compared to his upper body, which is probably a race trait. He has gray skin, big round black eyes with enlarged pupils and dark grey sclera, flat round ears, and a barely visible flat nose. Jiren wears the uniform of the Pride Troopers, consisting of a red, spandex suit with black sections around the collar and legs, white gloves, and white boots.
==Personality==
Jiren is a man who devotes everything to justice and never acts for selfish reasons; he lives to protect Universe 11, even stating that he would leave the tournament while it was happening in order to return there if any problem arose in the 48 minutes of the tournament. When Top tells Jiren to participate in the Tournament of Power, he initially refuses to enter - as while it is his duty to protect Universe 11, he will not cause the destruction of other universes to save his own. He will never kill any villains he defeats and instead captures them. Even more, he shows disgust towards those who actively kill and do not follow justice. This is seen when Jiren mocks Hit's "honor" as an assassin, deeming it as rubbish. However, Jiren has a wish that he wants to fulfill, to the point that he will go against his very own principles to get that wish - and as such he enters the tournament to obtain the Super Dragon Balls, although he still states that if any trouble should occur for Universe 11, he would immediately leave to help.
Jiren is very stoic and serious about most matters, as shown when he did not perform a pose like the rest of his teammates. He is a quiet person who rarely speaks more than is necessary. He is a very brave, disciplined, focused and observant man, constantly watching and studying his environment to better prepare for any new threat. At the same time, he usually only acts when he feels it is necessary, as he remained stationary at the start of the tournament until seeing Kale go berserk and deciding to end her rampage. However, he is not beyond getting startled. When foes managed to catch him off guard or prove able to compete against him, he can become visibly rattled by it, as seen when Hit captured him in his Time Prison or Vegeta avoiding his high-speed punches and hit him solidly.
While Jiren acknowledges his role as a soldier and follows a chain of command, listening to and following orders from his superiors, his attitude towards them can be blunt and even disrespectful, even if not intentional, as he sternly told Top to step aside so that he could handle Maji-Kayo, replying to Belmod in a somewhat disrespectful manner during their telepathic conversation, and later blatantly addressing him without an honorific. On the other hand, when foes manage to exceed his expectations, as seen with Vegeta and Goku, he will openly applaud their performance to voice his respect towards them for reaching such heights without losing their identity. Alternatively, Jiren will openly ridicule those who do not live up to his expectation and would lose all respect for them, even his superiors, as he was disgusted by Top sacrificing all of his former beliefs in exchange for power and completely lost any respect for his leader and even went as far as to coldly mock him by calling him pathetic.
Jiren is very proud of his strength. He even refuses to accept the help of his comrades even in moments that he is pressured by the opponent. Like Goku, Jiren feels uncomfortable knowing that an opponent is not using their full power against him and will not use any more strength than necessary. Jiren's usual approach to fighting is to let his opponent come to him. When fighting, Jiren deliberately allows his opponents to attack him with their ultimate abilities, only to counter them in order to display his superiority. As such, Jiren shows a great excess of confidence border-lining on arrogance; after beating Goku and eliminating Hit, he withdrew from the tournament to meditate, openly declaring that his help to secure the victory of Universe 11 was no longer necessary. He shows this confidence even after his new set of values emerged. After he had discovered a newfound power after Top's words of encouragement, he was so confident that as he saw Goku fending off his massive burst of energy alongside Android 17 and Frieza, he told Goku that as he had risen again, again he will fall. When Frieza and Android 17 kept Goku from being eliminated, Jiren claims that if he has to beat Goku again, then so be it. The irony being that Jiren received a massive beating from Perfected Ultra Instinct Goku and would have lost if not for the strain of such transformation on his body.
Jiren's selfless sense of duty and arrogant demeanor stems from the traumatizing losses from his childhood, both the murder of his loved ones and essential betrayal of those he trusted in the past. Desiring so strongly to bring absolute justice to Universe 11, Jiren's single drive has evolved to the point where he crudely believes that absolute strength is the only way towards justice and as such is compelled to prove himself the mightiest of all. His goal also has made him something of a perfectionist as he was greatly angered by Android 17 catching him off guard to land a damaging blow on him, regardless of how minor. Even more, once he was the remaining fighter of his universe, he became rather condescending, openly calling his remaining foes insects.
As Android 17 deduced, Jiren's stoic-demeanor is but a glimpse of his solitary nature. Android 17 notes that Jiren is haunted by his past losses, desperately trying to undo it all by forging his own path of justice. While fighting for justice, he has no loyalty to anyone beyond himself, believing that trusting in others will ultimately backfire. As such, he has no qualms about his allies falling in battle, seeing it as them doing their job and them at least providing him with more information on how to handle the battle.
Jiren is not without some personal joy. Should a foe prove able to truly draw him out, he expresses enjoyment, as he smiled at Goku's growing power to where he was able to land a decisive blow on him forcing him to fight seriously. At the same time, regardless of his confidence in his strength, stemming from the emotional scars of his past, Jiren in reality is terrified at the idea of losing to the point where he is not above fearing his opponent, evident in when after seeing Goku dominate him in all aspects with Ultra Instinct. Believing so strongly that power is the only means of justice, once truly pressured in battle, Jiren will lose his composure, becoming extremely savage in battle, caring about nothing else but victory as he feels losing in any form means losing all he has worked for. Once reaching this hostile state, he becomes essentially unreachable with words.
Essentially, Jiren's views are the exact opposite to Goku's, who values allies and assistance, viewing them as the key to true growth. Once Goku's personal drive allowed him to evolve his power enough to truly challenge Jiren, the Pride Trooper became very erratic. As Goku continued to challenge all of Jiren's views, Jiren even momentarily abandoned his own values as he willingly tried to kill Goku's friends to prove that bonds with others can easily be erased. However, when Goku's drive ultimately proved greater than Jiren's and technically defeated him, Jiren's honorable side was shown by his acceptance of defeat, although he still expressed frustration when Goku pointed out in the end Jiren did realize his beliefs were better, and more impressively, after Goku suffered the side-effects of overusing Perfected Ultra Instinct (due to not being used the form), Jiren refused to knock down Goku as he did not want to win in such an underhanded manner and only reluctantly decided to do so when Belmod reminded him that he will obtain the Super Dragon Balls if he wins. He also told Goku that even if he and Universe 7 would be erased, Goku would live on forever in his memories, showing that Jiren truly recognized Goku as an equal.
After Jiren's defeat at the hands of Frieza and Goku, Jiren smiles in respect at Goku's demand to see each other again. This act changes Jiren, who realizes after the resurrection of Universe 11 and at Top's harsh comments that in the tournament's final moments he learned to let go of his past and has begun to build connections, a prospect he smiles at as he prepares to grow stronger for the next time, he faces Goku and after a talk with Top, agrees that they will become better friends so they can win next time. Even before this, as Top noted, from his spirit being restored to try to live up to the Pride Troopers expectations, this shows that he had subconsciously built a bond with his allies, and he just couldn't realize it until then.
All negative traits put aside, Jiren is shown to be capable of changing his mind when he sees he is wrong and soon willing believed in trust again when Goku showed him what it was to fight for those you care about deeply, which kindled his respect for his fellow Pride Troopers.
In the manga, Jiren's personality is drastically different and demonstrates more heroic traits than his anime counterpart. He is stated devotes everything to justice and never acts for selfish reasons; he lives to protect Universe 11, even stating that he would leave the tournament while it was happening in order to return there if any problem arose in the 48 minutes of the tournament. When Top tells Jiren to participate in the Tournament of Power, he initially refuses to enter - as while it is his duty to protect Universe 11, he will not cause the destruction of other universes to save his own. He will never kill any villains he defeats and instead captures them. He also does not like having his enemies killing themselves, as shown by how he clearly was not happy that Android 17 sacrificed himself but showed respect of his selflessness. However, Jiren has a wish that he wants to fulfill, to the point that he will go against his own principles to get that wish - and as such he enters the tournament to obtain the Super Dragon Balls, although he still states that if any trouble should occur for Universe 11, he would immediately leave to help. This wish was later revealed to be the resurrection of Gicchin, his old master who died against the one who killed his parents, although interestingly, this wish doesn't seem to stem so much from the pain of losing his teacher, but in that he never officially graduated under his teachings. At the same time, like his anime counterpart, Jiren is fully independent, focusing more on his mission than the well-being of his allies, as he viewed winning the tournament as more important than saving Top and Dyspo from elimination (albeit it was on the grounds that they would simply be sent to the stands unharmed and he did save them from being tortured by Frieza, implying he does care to an extent for the other Pride Troopers). He also displays unusual views not seen in his anime counterpart, as shown by how he berated Goku for recklessly powering up to the point of harming himself in an attempt to defeat him, saying that power that harms the body cannot be wielded properly, and later on after trouncing Super Saiyan God SS Evolved Vegeta, Jiren noted that he does not arrogantly toy with his opponents and actually fights each battle by putting his life on the line, showing respect for his old master by saying he was taught that way, ultimately showing that his greatest drive is living up to the expectations of his fallen teacher. At same time, for all his commitment to Gicchin, Jiren remained oblivious to core nature of Gicchin's teachings, teamwork. This stemmed from his highly independent nature, feeling that he can accomplish anything he desires on his own.
In the manga version of Super Dragon Ball Heroes, Jiren is shown to have become friendlier and more trusting of others as he thanked Top for having been able to last this long against the Core Area Warriors after Top was knocked out by Ultimate Kamioren and to let Dyspo take care of Kamin and Oren. He's also willing to team-up with Hit despite his initial disdain of the assassin and helped Goku and Vegeta as gratitude for the help they brought to the other universes.
In Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, Jiren acts more like a classical superhero who bombastically preaches about justice and is far more outspoken than both his anime and manga counterpart, making him act more like Top than anything else. Ironically, this personality greatly resembles what he was originally supposed to be like before Toriyama rewrote him into a "stoic character with a tragic backstory". It is also important to note that Jiren's personality in the game is a side-effect of his self-learning after the Tournament of Power when he threw away the arrogance and the lonely behavior, starting to be more sociable and even friendly to others. It should be noted that as part of the Legendary Pack 2 DLC, Jiren (Full Power)'s personality is more in line with his depiction in the manga and anime.
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