How Dragon Ball Failed Gohan

Summary

• Gohan’s immense potential was often sidelined in Dragon Ball, leading to a lack of character growth.
• While Gohan’s character arc suffered, recent developments in Dragon Ball Super are rectifying this issue.
• Gohan’s new Beast transformation showcases a stronger, more significant role for the character in the series.

Character growth is something that many characters in Dragon Ball are known for, particularly the ones who started as villains and eventually became integral members of the Z-Fighters, such as Vegeta and Piccolo. While many deride the series as being too simple in terms of its storytelling and basic in terms of plot, the characters are exceptional and are quite often seen as some of the most iconic in the entire industry.

One such character is Gohan, who started off his journey as the youngest Z-Fighter with near-limitless potential. Although he was a very promising character for much of his early run in Dragon Ball Z, as the series went on, many felt that his character arc was a failed one until very recently. So, let’s take a look at Gohan’s wasted potential and see how this is an aspect of the story that is being rectified going forward.

How Does Gohan Have Wasted Potential?

How Dragon Ball Failed Gohan For A Long Time

In his first appearance in the Saiyan Saga, Gohan was already shown to hold an incredible amount of power despite being only 4 years of age at the time. Although he was far weaker than Raditz and even Goku at the time, his insane potential was first hinted at, such as when he broke out of the Saiyan pod where he was kept prisoner and struck Raditz, dealing a lot of damage in the process. Moreover, he proved to be quite the combatant for the rest of the Saiyan and Namek Sagas, where he fought very well despite his young age.

However, it wasn’t until the Android Saga that Gohan began to shine as a character. In the main timeline, Gohan was now a teenager who had been getting stronger over the years, which all came to a head in the battle against Perfect Cell. After witnessing the death of Android 16 as well as all the pain Cell had caused, Gohan became the first character to unlock the Super Saiyan 2 form, providing a great payoff to his story arc that the series had been building since he was introduced.

Moreover, the Android Saga also showed Future Gohan for the first time, who many consider to be the best version of the character. In his bleak timeline, Future Gohan was the sole survivor of the Z-Fighters since the Androids had killed the rest of them, so he was Earth’s remaining protector and the one who served the mentorship role to Future Trunks. However, despite his best efforts, he was killed in a final stand against Androids 17 and 18.

While these are all great examples of how great of a character Gohan is, it’s what followed that makes many think the series failed him. After Goku’s passing and Cell’s defeat, Gohan finally became the greatest hope of the Earth and, by the end of the Cell Saga, he was aware of this fact. However, in the Buu Saga, it was shown that as the years went on, he had forgotten about this role.

Pathetic. Barely a fraction of the strength he used to take on Cell. Just goes to show you what peace and quiet does to the undisciplined.

Although he was still monstrously powerful, him ignoring his role as the Earth’s protector meant that he barely ever trained, leading to him becoming even weaker than his teen self who fought Cell. Because of this, his battle with a relatively minor threat like Dabura was far closer than it should have been, as was even confirmed by Vegeta and Goku. Although he would get even stronger than Super Saiyan 3 Goku with his Ultimate state later on in the arc, he failed to do anything substantial.

This here exemplifies the problem that Gohan has had in the series. In the pursuit of usually keeping Goku as the main character who tends to defeat the final villain, for much of the series, many of the other characters tend to be pushed to the side. Though this isn’t unique to Gohan, it’s just felt more in his case due to the role he serves in the story as well as the incredible importance he has had in the past.

For most of Dragon Ball Super, Gohan was largely forgotten about and served as a relatively minor character who didn’t serve much of a role. In the first 2 arcs of the new series, he’s kept on the sidelines to defeat some of the henchman characters only to get defeated by anyone even remotely stronger. Even in the later arcs, he is barely used at all, opting to focus on his studies instead of fighting to save the planet.

A Change Of Roles In The Future

How Gohan’s Role Is Changing

While most fans of the series have been rightfully frustrated by Gohan’s lack of importance in the series as of the latest arcs, there has been a change in the narrative. The Tournament of Power arc saw Gohan finally fighting for his universe again, now being stronger than he had ever been before, close in power to Super Saiyan Blue. Although he didn’t defeat the strongest characters in the tournament, his intellect and strategic mind played a crucial role against many enemies of Universe 7.

Most impressively, however, has been his Gohan Beast transformation that was first shown in the Super Hero film. In it, he sees Piccolo seemingly die at the hands of Cell Max, awakening rage within him akin to his first transformation into Super Saiyan 2. This unlocks a new form he calls ‘Beast’, which is in the same realm of power as Goku in his Ultra Instinct state, showing the world that he is no longer an afterthought and is back at the forefront of the protectors of Universe 7.

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