Super Saiyan

**Super Saiyan** (サイヤ *Sūpā Saiya-jin*) is an advanced transformation utilized by members and hybrids of the Saiyan race that have sufficient amounts of S-Cells in the *Dragon Ball* series.

## Legend

The ability to become a Super Saiyan was once considered to be nothing but a legend, as it had not been performed for over one thousand years. Until it had been brought into the present day and the myth was proven as fact, it was believed that a Super Saiyan has achieved a level of power so overwhelming that it could only be maintained in a transformed state. Despite only being told through legend, Frieza, who had Saiyans in his army, became paranoid over the possibility of truth behind the legend due to the constantly growing power of the Saiyan race. After receiving informal permission from the God of Destruction Beerus, Frieza finally decided to annihilate the Saiyan race by destroying Planet Vegeta, thus apparently sparking the end of the Super Saiyan legend. However, twenty-five years later, the Super Saiyan legend was proven true when Son Goku accomplished the feat during his titanic battle with Frieza.

## Transformation

It was originally believed that the Super Saiyan transformation comes in response to a need, not a desire. Any Saiyan can become a Super Saiyan, however, they require a large amount of S-Cells in order to take on the form, Saiyans can obtain more S-Cells either by obtaining a gentle spirit, or by increases their battle power, but relying purely on a growth in strength takes longer to generate a higher S-Cell count. Once the Saiyan has enough S-Cells, a feeling such as strong anger or sadness can transform a Saiyan into a Super Saiyan. Once a Saiyan has achieved the form they can transform into it any time by focusing their energy into their back to make it tingle. A Saiyan who has a very large battle power can turn Super Saiyan without needing a trigger, due to their tremendous number of S-Cells. Saiyan offspring will inherit S-Cells from their parents.

## Overview

While believed to be a less rare ability during the Saiyans' prehistoric eras on Planet Sadala, at some point the knowledge of the form was lost to their race, resulting in it being viewed by most Saiyans as little more than a legend until it was rediscovered in Age 762 during Son Goku's battle with Frieza. The Namekian Book of Legends passed down between Namekian Grand Elders indicates that some awareness born from an encounter from the Namekian Elder who had encounters with the Original Super Saiyan God.

Akira Toriyama stated in the Saikyō Jump's June 2014 interview that Goku realized mastering his normal state and Super Saiyan would raise his level more and sap less strength than Super Saiyan 2 and Super Saiyan 3, eventually invalidating the need for the higher stage variants as their user could train enough to gradually apply the greater power boosts of the higher evolutions into their base Super Saiyan form. This was eventually displayed in the story through the God-like Saiyan and Super Saiyan Blue states.

### Concept & Creation

The primary reason why Akira Toriyama created the Super Saiyan state with blond hair was so that his assistant would no longer have to spend so much time coloring Goku's hair black - thus saving time. Due to also having the effect of making Goku appear stronger, it killed two birds with one stone.

Goku's Super Saiyan form was heavily influenced by the martial artist Bruce Lee. According to Toriyama, Goku's piercing eyes were based on Lee's paralyzing glare. *Dragon Ball Z* anime character designer Tadayoshi Yamamuro also used Lee as a reference for Goku's Super Saiyan form, stating that, when he "first becomes a Super Saiyan, his slanting pose with that scowling look in his eyes is all Bruce Lee."

## The Super Saiyan Form

The first Super Saiyan transformation occurs when a Saiyan who has reached a very high level of power loses themselves in a fit of extreme and in some cases traumatizing emotional distress, most typically rage. It can be achieved by any Saiyan who has a high battle power above the standard level. It is often described as coming in response to an intense and great emotional need, and not a desire. However this is frequently disproven when the offspring of Saiyans capable of transforming into Super Saiyans can themselves attain the transformation easily due to how a child will inherit the parent's S-Cell count.

The transformation has a common and noticeable effect on the Saiyan's personality. Any Saiyan that had previously demonstrated a calm, collected, laid back, kind and even peaceful demeanor becomes ruthless, overcome with rage, impulsive, even becoming noticeably vengeful and unusually violent towards anyone around them in their rage, even their own allies; any Saiyan that had demonstrated those traits previously will only have them amplified to a greater degree.

Over time, and often with focused training, the users of the form have developed methods of getting around the emotional upheaval of the transformation. There are even cases of particularly powerful Saiyans achieving the transformation purely by focusing all their *Ki* into a single focal point in their body, resulting in them drawing out the transformation without any sign of rising anger, reinforcing the transformation's changes being purely physical and the psychological changes being dependent on the method of transforming.

The most noticeable physical change is that the Saiyan's hair becomes golden blond in color and seems to stand on end, giving it a rising, flame-like appearance. This applies to all of the Saiyan's hair. Natural eye color changes to a greenish-blue, muscle tone becomes more defined, and the skin tone (and clothing) becomes lighter mainly due to the energy and light output of the golden aura. As the natural floodgates of the body are opened with the transformation, excess energy is radiated from the body in the form of a pulsing, flame-like aura. On occasion, an extremely potent Super Saiyan form may give off bio-electric sparks like its successor Super Saiyan 2.

### Super Saiyan Evolutions

Commonly perceived as higher stages of transformation, the forms known as Super Saiyan 2 and Super Saiyan 3 are in fact not actually higher forms but in fact supplementary variations of the Super Saiyan transformation to enhance power at the cost of using more of the user's stamina and energy while straining the body in the case of Super Saiyan 3.

With each increase to this stage, a Saiyan will experience more of the same changes to their personality, growing more ruthless, violent, and barbaric, often resulting in even Saiyans who refer to themselves as pacifists being particularly vengeful and brutal against their opponents or even going as far as lacking concern for collateral damage towards surrounding individuals.

## Usage & Power

While physical change is not too drastic apart from a slight increase in muscle mass, the power output increase is colossal; it was stated by Akira Toriyama that when he was writing the manga the form was meant to be 10x what Goku had previously accomplished, and one non-English guide also acknowledged it as being a 10x boost. In *Daizenshuu 7* the form is said to multiply the Saiyan's power level by 50x its normal amount, which Toriyama considers to be an exaggeration. Despite conflicting information regarding just how much the transformation increases a Saiyan's power, it is no exaggeration that it dramatically increases a Saiyan's combat abilties.

Requiring a high S-Cell value to be present within a Saiyan's body to be able to achieve the transformation properly, a number of methods can be utilized to achieve the transformation, though the most common is a heightened state of emotional duress in combination with a high battle power level.

The transformation has multiple evolutionary enhancements meant to draw on even more power within the Saiyan's blood, channeling a Saiyan's very life force and vitality into greater power at the cost of being more taxing on the body, resulting in rapid loss of stamina and energy among other drawbacks. But it has been stated in numerous interviews with series creator Akira Toriyama that the base Super Saiyan transformation can continue growing stronger if the user trains it efficiently to exceed the higher stages of evolution without the need for taxing one's body.

## Super Saiyan Transformation Line

### Evolutionary Stages

The Super Saiyan form is possessed of a number of variants and evolutionary stages that allow its user to draw upon greater levels of power than they would normally otherwise possess.

* **Super Saiyan:** The standard Super Saiyan transformation. It is achieved when a powerful Saiyan reaches varying levels of anger, though some half-Saiyan hybrids have been shown to attain the form without any stressful circumstances.
	+ Psuedo Super Saiyan: A movie-only transformation, wherein the Saiyan's hair will stay black but their body will generate an orange-yellowish surge of aura. Presumably a transitionary form when a Saiyan is nearing the ability to achieve the true Super Saiyan transformation but has yet to either achieve the necessary S-Cell count, or as of yet lacking the necessary emotional trigger should their S-Cell count be sufficient. It was originally conceived as being the Super Saiyan form but was later re-labeled as "Pseudo Super Saiyan" when the true Super Saiyan form was shown in the manga after this form's debut in the movie *Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug.*
	+ Powerhouse: The results of a forced power output increase in the initial Super Saiyan form.
		- Super Saiyan Grade 2: An advancement in the power of the original Super Saiyan state. The user experiences a gain in muscle mass by forcibly inflating the nerves with *Ki* to increase speed and power. However, doing this burns energy at a rapid rate, making it inefficient for long term use.
		- Super Saiyan Grade 3: An even stronger advancement of Grade 2, the user's muscle mass dramatically increases to increase strength by astronomical leaps. However, this form causes the user's muscles to grow so bulky that they lose nearly all speed and agility, making it a trade off for the rise in melee striking power. In addition, this form increases the rate at which the user's energy burns.
	+ Super Saiyan Grade 4: See Mastered Super Saiyan Below
* Super Saiyan 2 / Grade 5: An enhanced variant of the Super Saiyan form that draws on deeper reserves of power within a Saiyan's blood, allowing the Saiyan to achieve even greater levels of power than previously. The form presumably has Powerhouse variants (5.2 and 5.3) but none have ever been demonstrated by a user. This form drains energy from the user at a higher rate than the standard Super Saiyan form but in exchange for a power output that could dwarf their previous levels.
* Super Saiyan 3 / Grade 6: An extremely powerful enhancement to the Super Saiyan form achieved by drawing from and extracting all the power within every last drop of blood within a Saiyan's body. By causing a powerful surge to the utilization of *Ki*, users of this form experience titanic gains to striking power, speed, and energy output at the cost of draining the user's stamina at alarming rates. Use of this form can quickly lead to exhaustion and fatigue even long after entering a rest period, and can even risk obliterating their own body both during the transformation process and while maintaining the form itself, though this can be counter-balanced if a Saiyan still has their tail (It is currently unknown if this holds true for Universe 6 Saiyans who evolved to no longer need their tail to utilize their full power). But in exchange for this, a Saiyan utilizing this form can blitz an opponent with such destructive force that an enemy will quickly be overwhelmed before they can even understand how dire their situation is.

* Mastered Super Saiyan: Only ever referred to as "Super Saiyan," this form is visually no different from a user's base Super Saiyan stage. After attaining total mastery over a Super Saiyan grade, that grade's power increases can be acclimated to be part of the base stage of Super Saiyan without relying on higher evolutionary stages that drain more energy and stamina than normal and will not risk harming the body to sustain a transformation. In this mastered state, a Saiyan no longer experiences the heightened aggression and lack of control over their emotions and allows them to exist in a "natural state" that does not drain their energy at the same rate as before, theoretically allowing a Saiyan to exist in this state for several days without the requiring to return to their untransformed state.

### Hybrid Forms

* Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan - A hybrid Super Saiyan form which is the result of a Saiyan combining the power of Super Saiyan God with the standard Super Saiyan form. The color of the resulting form differs depending on whether the user is mortal who was granted *God Ki* through training or a ritual, or is an actual deity from rank and status when obtaining the form.
	+ Super Saiyan Blue - The result of a mortal Saiyan mastering the power of Super Saiyan God and then transforming further into a Super Saiyan, resulting in a new transformation combining these two forms. The form possesses incredible raw power, but without training and long-time experience in the form, the transformation has severe stamina drain, especially with repeated use without resting intervals.
		- Perfected Super Saiyan Blue - An enhanced variant form in which the user seals the overflowing power of the Super Saiyan Blue form inside themselves, allowing them to constantly utilize the form's full power. Doing so not only increases raw power but also minimizes the stamina drain of the form to near nonexistent points. Its only drawback in this stage is the extremely high focus and concentration it takes to maintain this perfect control of ones' energy.
	+ Super Saiyan Rosé - A Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan form that can only possibly be obtained by Saiyans who are actual deities before and not mortals who obtained *God Ki.* The transformations alternate coloration in contrast to Super Saiyan Blue is due to its user being an actual god with natural Godly *Ki* when they obtained the form. This form possesses superior advantages to its mortal counterpart, passively having a naturally greater degree of *Ki* control that enables its user to perform without the severe and impairing stamina drain. Because of this, Super Saiyan Rosé can evolve in ways that Super Saiyan Blue cannot
		- Super Saiyan Rosé 2 - An enhanced form of Super Saiyan Rosé at Super Saiyan 2 state.
		- Super Saiyan Rosé 3 - An enhanced form of Super Saiyan Rosé at Super Saiyan 3 state.
		- Super Saiyan Rosé Full Power - An enhanced form of Super Saiyan Rosé beyond the Super Saiyan Rosé 3 state.
* Golden O̅zaru - A Saiyan Great Ape transformed into a Super Saiyan.
	+ Super Saiyan 4 - The fourth Super Saiyan transformation despite not being traditional Super Saiyan transformation which occurs when a Saiyan is able to regain control while in the Golden O̅zaru form. Arguably the highest form of power a Saiyan can achieve without outside assistance from an external factor. It draws the user's power to the utmost limits of the physical self. An extremely potent and powerful form turns its user into a proverbial juggernaut and transforms them into a highly aggressive and fearsome warrior.
		- Full Power Super Saiyan 4 - A relatively unexplained state of Super Saiyan 4 achieved by gathering incredible amounts of energy to push the user's body beyond its normal limits and makes the user even more powerful. While in this state, the body does not undergo any physical changes but gains a passive red aura that is faintly visible. Typically achieved either by repeated pushing of the user's body past the point of exhaustion in a single battle or by receiving donations of energy from allies.
			* Limit Breaker Super Saiyan 4 - An even more extreme state of Full Power Super Saiyan 4 where the user's body is pushed so far beyond its limits and has gathered so much energy that the red aura begins to grow even brighter and causes the red fur of Super Saiyan 4 to glow with a magenta hue and the user's dark hair turns a shade of crimson.