There aren’t many characters the use weapons in theDragon Ballseries,with Future Trunk’s swordbeing a major exception. Still, this didn’t stop Akira Toriyama from creating what would be the equivalent of a legendary weapon for the franchise — the Z Sword.
While it turns out the extremely heavy blade is useful for little more than training as it is incredibly brittle, there is a surprise waiting inside once Gohan accidentally breaks it. From there, it’s revealed that Old Kai was sealed inside the sword many years ago. The sword and Old Kai also have an extremely different ending in the future timeline as well that few fans know of. So how many mysteries does the Z Sword Contain?
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What Is The Z Sword?
The legend that surrounds the Z Sword is that anyone who was strong enough to pull it from the stone it was placed in would gain legendary strength! However, outside of this, it doesn’t appear to be a very special sword of any kind unless its massive weight is included.
It’s not particularly strong as it breaks in both the main timeline and the future timeline. It’s merely a convenient vessel at the time for Old Kai to be sealed inside.
How Did Old Kai Get Sealed Inside The Z Sword?
Old Kai never names him directly when discussing the subject back inDragon Ball Z, but we later get to learn that it wasGod of Destruction Lord Beerusthat forced the Kai into the sword. With Old Kai being a bit lecherous and thoughtless at times as he is, it’s not a surprise that he may have gotten into an argument with Beerus at one of the meetings all Supreme Kais and Gods of Destruction go to each one-thousand years.
It may even be possible that this argument was about sending a meteorite to kill the dinosaurs on Earth, something that Beerus later claims to have done inDragon Ball Superbut is demonstratively wrong about as they are seen often during the series. This may be due to events that happened during one ofAkira Toriyama’s other seriescalledDr. Slumpduring a time-traveling incident.
Old Kai was fortunate to not be completely eliminated on the spot as it would have been considered too terrible to destroy the Sacred World that the Kais lived on. So instead, he sealed him within the sword. Since this happened back in what is called 75 Million Before Age in theDragon Balltimeline, this was so long ago that even with the long lives of the Kais it’s reasonable for the legend surrounding the sword to form as, despite their best attempts, no Kais at the time were able to free Old Kai from its prison.
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Escaping The Z Sword - Main Timeline
In the main timeline, Old Kai is lucky enough to escape the Z Sword when Gohan decides to test out just how strong the supposed legendary blade is by having Shin throw boulders at it. When those are sliced through easily, Shin summons the densest substance in the universe — Katchin — only to have the sword shatter upon impact.
This is what finally frees Old Kai from his imprisonment. He ends up scolding Shin and Kibito for not somehow being able to break the seal prior to this but thankfully the “legend” surrounding the sword being able to provide legendary power wasn’t necessarily true. Thanks to Old Kai accidentally fusing with a witch many years ago, he now has the power to bring out the latent abilities in fighters, likeGrand Elder Guru did during the Frieza saga, but even more so.
While it takes an entire day for him to perform the ritual, Gohan’s power is boosted massively thanks to his help.
Future Timeline - The Death Of Old Kai
Unfortunately, things didn’t go so well for Old Kai in the timeline where Future Trunks comes from. It makes plenty of sense that Future Trunks would want to try and wield a legendary blade, since he is used to using a sword already, and since Buu still exists in that timeline they would still need to prepare for his potential arrival.
The weight was able to train Future Trunks just as it did Gohan in the main timeline. Just as what had happened with Gohan, Shin was about to throw the Katchin at Future Trunks, but they end up sensing Babadi arriving before he has a chance to try and cut the dense material. Because of this, Future Trunks tries to use the blade against Future Dabura only to end up with his turning it to stone with his spit, causing it to eventually break.
While there’s no confirmation on why exactly this did not allow Old Kai to escape, it can be assumed that having his stone body “break” caused him to actually die. While he is still technically freed from the sword, it doesn’t mean much seeing as how he is no longer alive to enjoy it.
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