Goku Black’s Divine Identity and Connection to the Supreme Kai Explained in Dragon Ball Super

Goku Black is one of the most unusual villains in Dragon Ball Super because his connection to Goku is not based on Saiyan lineage, cloning, or another version of Goku becoming evil. Instead, the character is actually a divine being who stole Goku’s body and used it to carry out a plan to eliminate every mortal. The revelation becomes one of the central mysteries of the Future Trunks Saga, with Goku Black’s identity eventually connected to Zamasu, a Supreme Kai apprentice from Universe 10.

What makes the twist particularly complicated is that there are two versions of Zamasu involved. One becomes Goku Black after stealing Goku’s body, while another remains in Future Trunks’ timeline and gains immortality. Their partnership creates the foundation for the Zero Mortal Plan and explains why Goku Black possesses both divine knowledge and Saiyan abilities. Understanding that connection also explains his unusual transformation, his hatred of mortals, and his eventual fusion with Zamasu.

How Zamasu Became Goku Black and Joined Forces With His Future Self

Zamasu was originally an apprentice under Gowasu, the Supreme Kai of Universe 10. Although he was being trained to become a Kaioshin, Zamasu developed an extreme hatred of mortal beings and became convinced that their existence was responsible for conflict and suffering throughout the universe. His encounter with Goku made that resentment even stronger because he could not accept the idea that a mortal could reach extraordinary levels of power.

Zamasu eventually discovered that the Super Dragon Balls could grant him the ability to switch bodies with another individual. He used them to exchange bodies with Goku, turning himself into the character known as Goku Black. Because he now possessed Goku’s Saiyan body, Black could access its extraordinary potential while retaining Zamasu’s divine nature, knowledge, and hatred of mortals.

The transformation also explains why Goku Black looks identical to Goku but behaves completely differently. He is not an evil Goku from the main timeline but Zamasu occupying Goku’s body from another timeline. After obtaining the body, Black killed the Goku, Chi-Chi, and Goten of that timeline before using a Time Ring to travel into Future Trunks’ world.

This is where the second Zamasu becomes important. Future Trunks’ timeline had its own Zamasu, who followed a similar path of rejecting mortals and eventually became an ally of Goku Black. Black and Future Zamasu then used the Super Dragon Balls to make Future Zamasu immortal, giving them a seemingly unbeatable combination of Goku’s stolen Saiyan body and an immortal divine body.

Their shared ideology became the Zero Mortal Plan, which sought to eradicate mortal life completely. Goku Black’s transformation into Super Saiyan Rosé further represented the unusual combination of Saiyan power and divine energy, giving him a pink-haired form that paralleled Goku’s Super Saiyan Blue while emphasizing that Black’s power came from a god inhabiting a mortal body.

The connection between Goku Black and the Supreme Kai therefore runs much deeper than a simple resemblance to Goku. Black is effectively a rogue divine being using one of the strongest mortal bodies in existence, while his partner is another version of the same deity who has achieved immortality. Their Potara Fusion creates Fused Zamasu, bringing both versions of the plan together into a single overwhelmingly powerful enemy.

Ultimately, the heroes cannot permanently defeat the fused Zamasu through conventional combat. After Zamasu’s existence spreads beyond his physical body, Goku summons Future Zeno, who erases the corrupted future timeline entirely. The ending therefore reinforces the central irony of Goku Black’s identity: a god who believed mortals were unworthy of existence ultimately becomes so dangerous that his own universe must be erased to stop him.