I know the Super Manga established Toppo as a candidate for the Destroyer position but did the Anime ever establish that? I don't remember.
It was most likely in the preliminary U6 v U7 tournament before this one, which episodewise feels like forever ago. I'd guess it was during the part where Toppo declared Goku as "Evil" and Goku was just like "Evil, huh? IDC man, I just want a good fight."
Ooooh Freeza got owned, I guess he can handle a Destruction Ball but not a mustached man covered in destructive energy huh?
One big detail about it was that he could handle a Destruction Ball, yes, but that ball was delivered in a sneak-attack via a minion that was given a bit of the power from God of Destruction Sidra, and split that power into three parts to catch Frieza off guard. That was only a
small portion that admittedly, Frieza handled and only pretended to be hurt by, while Goku couldn't get himself out of (in Base Form) and Beerus casually blew it away later.
A small portion that Sidra (and his minions) thought could take out an opponent that they vastly underestimated, is
way different from a greater, Spirit-Bomb sized portion of destruction power that's actively being charged up by an opponent that's right there with a more accurate gauge of Frieza's durability. Some of the audience
and Frieza were counting on the two situations being exactly the same and relying on his prior experience with a little bit of destruction power to mean the situations would play out the exact same way, and that's not what happened.
But yeah like
@Dark Drakan said, it was funny seeing Frieza get beat after so long being smug. It felt good to watch, but also it felt bad to watch, if that makes sense. He's grown on me.
So folks think that Goku and the gang upon winning (if they indeed do) will wish back Universe 6 and/or all of them. But! Both Omni Kings were intent on getting rid of Universes so if anyone brings a universe back they will be defying the Omni Kings and thus incurring their wrath. So here are two ways around this, the Super Dragon Balls may be able to remove the kings from resistance and/or Son Goku does something that pacifes the pair and thus they let the Universes wished back remain. Thoughts, comments?
You're forgetting one thing.
Zen-Oh is a child and decides on the spot what's acceptable and what isn't, based solely on how entertained he is. Both Zen-Ohs
were intent on getting rid of the universes because it would be less work to manage what was left, but they've been excited by this tournament so far, with all the transformations and tricks the contestants have pulled. They even voted for Master Roshi's Mafuba being "Safe" because "it looked cool" despite it [being/not being] against clearly established rules. So it could be that they like the whole "Goku is going bwaah!! Bwaah!!" and got enough "Wakuwaku!" "Dokidoki!" from 48 minutes of fighting that they're willing to have all the universes be wished back. That means another opportunity for the contestants to get even stronger, and more "Bwaah!" to happen the next time.
Or the universes get wished back into existence
inside Universe 7, so Planet Sadal takes the place of where Planet Vegeta used to be, the Namekians of U6 and U7 can mingle (and
not fuse), all the other planets coexist in some part of the galaxy, and Universe 7's Mortal Level (we still have no idea what exactly that is) gets raised up enough to compete with the exempt universes that were left out of this ToP, and we get more diverse contestants to represent U7 instead of "Everyone is from Earth except Frieza who came from Hell".
OR, the universes get wished back to existence inside U7, and all this is is an excuse to reinvent Dragonball GT by having Goku travel space into some actually decent planets with strong people in it.
Unsure at the moment how it will end but got to be more to the universe erasure than has been said so far and got to be a more sinister undercurrent. Though Jiren is currently the 'enemy', quite a lot of fans have liked his character and seems as if it was intended that he come across this way and although fans are willing Goku & Vegeta to defeat him they want to see him continue in the series. I would like to know more about his character and his backstory but with him being almost too powerful I don't know how they could keep him involved after this arc. Finding a proper villain that is stronger than him etc to give us a reason to see him again seems ludicrous unless there is a significant time jump when this arc ends to it returning in 2019 (rumoured).
Well, from what characterization Jiren got in the manga, he refused to participate in the tournament because he didn't want to be responsible for erasing other people's universes as a consequence. He didn't even care about his own universe being erased, he simply refused, and only got in when he was told about the wish-granting. That explains his lack of participation thus far; too much blood on his hands if he went around knocking everyone out. He also believes in "purity" or "righteousness". He's like a Superman-figure.
Common consensus is that he's way stronger than Toppo, but since Toppo is a GoD candidate and not Jiren, Jiren must have refused. Add to that the remark about the "path that [Toppo] chose to take", means Jiren wants something that GoD status can't give him or could possibly corrupt. Who Jiren is and what GoD is are mutually exclusive
and incompatible. He most likely is one that holds to his principles, unlike Toppo who clearly said that "Justice was worthless" and that decision opened him up to using his GoD power.
So basically: Jiren doesn't like destroying innocent people. We still don't know what his wish is, but it was enough to make him do the bare minimum-- participate in the tournament, even though his elimination count is just Hit, halfway through the tournament (24 mins into it). I can't remember who else he eliminated.
He's also extremely powerful, so I don't consider it likely that U7 will actually win against U11 in terms of power but numbers of opponents left in the match, unless Goku's improvement with Ultra Instinct is so vast in the last four or five minutes that he, uh... yeah, I don't see it. At best he might actually tie with Jiren without overcoming him, but I feel like expecting Goku to pull a win with UI would be missing a significant side-effect of UI, which is more something I mentioned up top:
it'll impress Zen-Oh. It's flashy, it's powerful, it requires Goku to be active to use its full extent. Jiren can just glare stuff away, which is also powerful, but it's also pretty boring for a spectator when it means Jiren will just go back to meditating. Zen-Oh prioritizes activity: they didn't mimic Jiren sitting with his legs crossed, one of them mimicked him when he defeated Vegeta and went "Warrior. Sleep." because it involved him actually doing/saying something badass.
So if U7
does win, that's good, but even if they don't, Zen-Oh would probably think twice about erasing U7 on the sole fact that Goku's been a big source of his entertainment. Goku
and Jiren being alive means more fun and more chances for Jiren to do/say something cool after acknowledging a worthy opponent.
I'd personally prefer Goku and Vegeta not overcoming Jiren on brute strength. It would give them something to work toward, as Jiren's "glare a Final Flash away" powers are ridiculous. And even then I don't consider them individually to have gotten on Beerus's 100% level, much less on Whis's level, much less on the Grand Priest's level, much less on Zen-Oh's level. They have a really long way to go in order to become "the strongest".
