The Presence of Ultra Instinct is a short fanfic story by TrueUtopian, published in October of 2018. Is a Perspective Flip of the Universal Survival saga of Dragon Ball Super, which offers an alternate interpretation of what Ultra Instinct and the higher deities of the series are.
The story is told in First-Person Perspective through the eyes of Ultra Instinct itself, which is presented as an otherworldly unseen entity that gives life to creation, and chooses its users depending on how much they are willing to sacrifice their free will to him.
The story was published in English in FanFiction.Net (no longer available) and in Spanish in
Wattpad.
This short story provides the following tropes:
- Blood Knight: Shown with Goku. While the Presence took control of his body due to his training with Whis and is testing him, the fact Goku doesn't sacrifice his free will for them to fully control him just infuriates them. When Goku is fighting Jiren and is close to healing him to keep fighting with the power granted by them, they were disgusted.Narrator: Our presence was being used without our control. Was this man able to control us? Why? The power of his allies? No, that's stupid. The man just refuses to be controlled entirely, as he was feeling something, something we can't understand. He was feeling admiration and envy over the warrior, who despite only being a mortal managed to reach a level higher than he could ever do.
- Character Narrator: Ultra Instinct is revealed to be speaking with the Grand Priest at the end of the story.
- First-Person Perspective: The story is told in First-Person-Perspective, but by the end, it changes to a third-person-perspective.
- Fix Fic: Quite downplayed but still present. The fic erases Goku's Power of Friendship motivation for the more selfish Blood Knight wish to fight Jiren, at least deep down.
- Nameless Narrative: The story doesn't call anyone by name. Goku is referred to as "the man", Jiren as "the warrior with the selfish wish", Kefla as "the youths", Zamasu as an "evil entity" and the rest of Universe 7 as "allies". Ultra Instinct does, however, refer to the Omni-King and Grand Priest by their title, and mentions Zarama by name. It shows how little The Presence cares about the mortals.
- No Name Given: Technically, the narrator is never given a name. Ultra Instinct is the name with what Goku knows it as a technique of the gods, and the Grand Priest calls him "Great Presence".
- Powers That Be: Ultra Instinct is imagined as a mysterious life force that gives life to the entire plane of creation, with the Omni-King being born out of it. However, it doesn't have a physical form, and is shown to be highly possessive of people, being disgusted the moment Goku chooses their power to to fight for himself than allowing Ultra Instinct to move on their own. Goku is never aware someone is controlling him in the first place.
- Shout-Out: The author notes confirm the story was inspired in what he heard of Venom (2018) with Tom Hardy.
- Royal "We": The presence always refers to itself as "we", even when possessing Goku's body.
