Dragon Ball is no stranger to powerful foes. Frieza, Cell and Majin Buu have come and gone, but since Dragon Ball Super, we've been treated to a variety more. Characters such as Hit, Goku Black and the mysterious Jiren. Debuting in the "Tournament of Power" arc in both the anime and manga,
Jiren is both fascinating and a mystery since we don't know much about him. That's because the "Tournament of Power" is the characters only canonical appearance and this leads to aspects about him that just don't make a lot of sense. Here are the 10 things that don't make sense about Jiren.
10 Jiren's power
How did Jiren get so strong? During the "Tournament of Power" arc, we learn about Jiren's past, how his master, peers and family got killed by a mysterious evildoer. Since then, Jiren is driven with the ideology that only strength matters and not your friends.
Beliefs aside, that still doesn't explain how he got so powerful. Did he train with another master, did the pride troopers have something to do with his development, or did he hone his skills through years of being in the Pride Troopers? Assuming it even is years.
9 His relationship with the Pride Troopers
The Pride Troopers are a group of characters that are like space cops. However, just like Jiren, we don't know a lot about them outside of what they represent and some interactions between Toppo and Jiren. How exactly did Jiren get recruited? Why is Jiren fairly uncaring towards them despite their respect towards him?
If Jiren valued strength over friendship, he would not be a part of the Pride Troopers. These are character interactions that could've flavoured up much of Jiren's backstory and character instead of being left out entirely.
8 Who is the villain that shaped Jiren
Not much is told about the mysterious evildoer, only that it helped kickstart Jiren's thirst for strength and made him become the strongest of Universe 11. But what happened to the evildoer? Did Jiren defeat it or is he still searching for it?
If it is the former, wouldn't he finally accept friendship earlier then before he met Goku? If it is the latter, why even call him the strongest of his universe. It's possible that the villain will be presented later, But until then, this is a plot point that wasn't developed well enough to make that much sense.
7 Jiren's Power Up
During the climax of the "Tournament of Power," Jiren starts losing against Ultra Instinct Goku. Forcing Jiren to break his limits and gain an upgrade. Powerful enough to contend with Ultra Instinct, a power that even the gods of destruction didn't get. Judging from the aura, it's possible that the power is similar to Ultra Instinct, but it's still unknown outside of that.
There wasn't any prior information of Jiren obtaining something similar to Ultra Instinct unless meditation is considered evidence. Also, the power-up was presented to imply that Jiren had a form of zenkai boost. Something that would only be available to the Saiyans, unless Jiren happened to be one.
6 Attacking Goku's friends
During his fight against Ultra Instinct Goku, Jiren attacked Goku's friends in an act of rage when Goku explained how his friends are his reason to keep fighting. This resulted in Goku cutting loose and promptly destroying Jiren.
This was poor judgement on his part to assume that Goku would not go all out after the attempt against his friends. This lack of consideration ultimately knocked down the dominos that eventually led to his elimination and nearly wiped out his own universe if it wasn't for Android 17 resurrecting all the erased universes.
5 He can transcend time
During the "Tournament of Power," Hit attempted to fight Jiren by himself. However, it only proved to audiences that Hit wasn't worth Jiren's time. Despite Hit's time manipulation abilities, Jiren was just too much for him. This is nothing new, as Goku during the Universe 6 tournament was able to outclass Hit by using his Super Saiyan Blue Kaioken x10 briefly.
What doesn't make sense is Jiren's ability to transcend time itself when he was suspended in Hit's time prison. If you are suspended in time, how're you able to break it through sheer power alone. Goku had to break through the time skip by using Kaioken, but Jiren breaks through actual time suspension through his eyes?
4 Jiren levitates despite the rule of no flight
One of the rules established in the tournament is that contestants aren't able to fly around the area. This is evident by Goku's attempt to fly only to plummet straight down back to the arena. This forced the characters to win the tournament through strategy. Yet Jiren levitated and meditated in mid-air at the Tournaments beginning.
While it's true that flight and levitation are fairly different, it's important to keep in mind that both terms have a character suspended in the air. Goku and his friends were only able to jump extremely high, but Jiren just levitates in place and breaks the rule?
3 He wasn't able to break through Heart's Cube
Super Dragon Ball Heroes is a Japan-only spin-off show containing short episodes of pure fan service. This focus leads to power scaling being off. One moment, in particular, made fans angry as the all-powerful Jiren wasn't able to break out of Hearts cube prison. Hearts is the spin-off main antagonist whose goal is to destroy Zeno.
The problem is that Hearts shouldn't be powerful enough to hold Jiren in place, especially when characters such as Fused Zamasu failed to beat him. What's more, it's shown in episode 13 that a transformed Hearts was fighting Super Saiyan Blue Goku almost evenly. It doesn't make sense that Heart's able to hold Jiren back in a much weaker form.
2 Consistently underestimating the Saiyans
This is one of the biggest flaws that Jiren shares with other villains in the Dragon Ball universe. Constantly underestimating the Saiyans. However, judging from the "Tournament of Power," Jiren might be the one to underestimate the Saiyans the most outside of Frieza.
His arrogance on letting the Tournament drag on is a direct result of him flat out underestimating the Saiyans. This wasn't a new development either, as everyone in the tournament slowly got stronger as time went on. He even felt it first hand every time he fought Goku. This arrogance led to his downfall which could've been avoided entirely.
1 His strategy during the Tournament of Power
Jiren is the strongest fighter of Universe 11, but that doesn't mean he is the most humble. For the majority of the "Tournament of Power", Jiren played passively. Preferring to either meditate or attack when provoked. Preferring a far more detached defensive style. That being said, it begs the question of why he would do this.
After all his universe was at risk of deletion by Zeno, you'd think he would be more active on cleaning up the world of void given how powerful he is. It's because of this clear flaw in judgement, that he risked his entire universe and lost at the end.