Dragon Ball Super’s Strongest Form Can’t Compare to Super Saiyan 4
While Dragon Ball Super has introduced fans to the most powerful forms of Goku and Vegeta to date, they can’t compare to Dragon Ball GT’s Super Saiyan 4. Dragon Ball GT was the original sequel series to Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z until it was erased from continuity by Dragon Ball Super. While most fans would agree that Super is vastly superior to GT, the biggest downside to the change in canon is that Super Saiyan 4 no longer exists as it was replaced by seemingly more powerful forms like Super Saiyan Blue, Ultra Instinct, and Ultra Ego. However, while the energy levels those forms offer are those of the gods, they can’t hold a candle to the power of Super Saiyan 4 for one specific reason.
Dragon Ball Super by Akira Toriyama and Toyotarou has sent Goku and Vegeta on their own paths of power. Goku is currently working towards mastering Ultra Instinct, an angelic power that separates one's mind from their body, allowing their body to fight and react to dangers instantaneously without thinking. Vegeta, on the other hand, is learning the ways of a God of Destruction by taking on the form known as Ultra Ego, a power that allows him to tap into a source of infinite energy known only as Destruction.
Goku and Vegeta have clearly crossed a threshold of power in Dragon Ball Super unlike anything they’ve experienced before as they are on their way to becoming literal gods themselves. However, no matter how powerful they become, there is still one power source in the Dragon Ball universe that reigns supreme, a power source that Super Saiyan 4 was able to easily break through. The Dragon Balls still dwarf the godlike powers Goku and Vegeta are wielding in the current canon, proven true by one recently-introduced character: Granolah. This Dragon Ball newcomer wished upon the Dragon Balls to become the strongest fighter in the universe, and with the power he obtained just through the Dragon Balls’ magic alone, he was able to defeat both Goku’s Ultra Instinct and Vegeta’s Ultra Ego, and with energy to spare. The power of the Dragon Balls proved to be an unchallenged force, even in the face of gods–but not, however, to Super Saiyan 4.
In the first episode of Dragon Ball GT, Goku’s old enemy, Pilaf, is about to use the Dragon Balls to make himself the ruler of Earth. Unfortunately for the would-be-emperor, Pilaf accidentally wishes for Goku to be transformed into a child, and for the rest of the series, that is how Goku remained. However, when Goku unlocked the power of Super Saiyan 4, he would become an adult every time he took that form, and in doing so broke through the Dragon Balls’ magic without even breaking a sweat.
Even though Super Saiyan 4 proved to be a form so strong it altered the magic of the Dragon Balls, it is unlikely that Super Saiyan 4’s power level would be enough to compete with Ultra Instinct or Ultra Ego. However, the fact that the Dragon Balls’ magic can turn a relatively powerless fighter into a being stronger than godlike forces, and Super Saiyan 4 can undermine that same magic in an instant, proves that even Dragon Ball Super’s strongest forms can’t compare to Dragon Ball GT's Super Saiyan 4.