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Gohan sucks.

Owari

Member
From day one Chi Chi, who was a great warrior herself before Gohan, was adamant in forcing Gohan to study instead of embracing Goku’s fighting culture. Eventually she would give up and then Gohan became a great warrior.
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At the end of the Cell Games, Gohan had surpassed everyone and was poised to replace Goku as the main character in Dragonball Z.
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This was deemed unacceptable by the fans and so the editors made Toriyama change Gohan during the production of the Buu saga, and thus Gohan became this.
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A total laughingstock, influenced by the Ginyu force and Mr Satan, he pretends to be a superhero instead of training. But most of all, he becomes a simp.
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Gohan marries into wealth, taking the easy way out, purposefully ignorant to the future threats to Earth. He has plenty of time to train but stops for close to a decade and let his dad and his buddies handle future threats.
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As the years go on Gohan becomes less and less worthy of the title of Saiyan and doubles down on not being there to defend his planet and his family from threats to be a stay at home dad instead of train.
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During the tournament of power Gohan continues to completely fail to defend his Universe as he refuses to even turn SSJ.
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TLDR, if someone is born with gifts like Saiyan strength and there are world ending bad guys every other month that person has a social responsibility to train and be the best that they can be. Making Gohan a terrible character and a terrible father.
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“Kakarot, Gohan should be a proud Saiyan warrior and stronger than both of us combined but he ain’t nothing but a simp ass little bitch”
 
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JBat

Member
I was enjoying super but I can't get by some great saiyaman filler episodes. I just can't do it and I've got a pretty high tolerance for stupid anime bull shit
 

Owari

Member
Gohan and his story up until the end of the cell saga was dope. The creators caved like little bitches if you speak the truth about fan backlash of him becoming the main character.
Chapter 421 opened with a message from Kame Sen'nin:
“Dragon Ball will continue for just a tad longer! From now on, taking the place of the late Goku as the main character will be his serious-minded son, Son Gohan!”
Then the fans got pissed and Gohan was axed. Damn shame. There’s always Future Gohan, who I have always hope they’d bring back using the Dragon Balls.
 
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oagboghi2

Member
I was actually fine with how Gohan turned out. Him dedicating his life to fighting like his father doesn't really make sense to me. He trained to keep up with the others, but rarely to surpass his father.

He was always driven by a desire to protect his family and friends, not to be the greatest saiyan or the love of combat.

He never seemed to have that same level of passion, and I think it says a lot that for so many years, between Cell and Buu, earth was largely safe and quiet. Goku's sacrifices paid off, and doesn't every parent want their kids to live a better life than they did?

We did see a reality where Gohan continued to fight after his father died and in the canon of the show it was awful.
 

Geki-D

Banned
Say what you want about the Buu saga, at least Gohan remained the most powerful character in it (bar fusions & Buu absorbs). Till that point, Gohan was the main character of Z and the idea was pretty clear that his strength came from the fact he was half-human, half-Saiyan. His duality was his power and it clashed directly with Vegeta's guff about "pure Saiyans". That was the whole twist of the Cell saga, it's when Vegeta shows up as one of the main cast and bangs on the most about "Saiyan pride" but then it turns out their savior is the hybrid kid.

Even in the Buu saga, it makes sense Gohan would become a superhero because he actually cares about people. One thing we sort of overlook in the 'west' is that Goku is an asshole. The English (and most other) dubs actually rewrote his lines to make him heroic but as we now know through Super that even in the dub kept to the original character, Goku would set fire to a maternity ward if it meant he could get a good fight out of it. Like, the guy doesn't care about anything but his next fight and getting stronger. It's also pretty cool how he's ultimately defeated; in a totally un-Dragon Ball move, in a series normally about he who hits the hardest wins (this would also be the case all throughout Super) Buu actually outsmarts the main cast, and only through that becomes powerful enough to beat Gohan.

And then Super happened and Dragon Ball became a parody of Dragon Ball... Fuck Super.
 
Yeah, it's disappointing how they treated him. It was initially a fun gag that he became a student who pretty much dropped martial arts, how going from the most badass of Z warriors to a wet sponge in the matter of a couple episodes, then remaining that for the rest of the series' run was a bad idea. I know readers at the time kept voting Goku as the best character, but they didn't need to cripple his son to make him look better.
 

Ornlu

Banned
OP, I'm not sure what you mean?!

Everyone knows that when Gohan defeated Cell, that was the end of Dragonball. Nothing was ever made after that.

EVER
 
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I completely disagree, and the things you hate about DBZ are things that actually make it an all time classic.

Not everyone is a robot that just trains at peak performance for their entire lives to just hit new power levels over and over and turn out exactly like their parents. In fact, almost no one does that. People go through phases, like puberty and being an awkward teenager, careerism, getting old, etc. Characters change in DBZ. Vegeta holds onto his anger and trains all the time, but it actually ends up mostly destroying his relationship with his family. Krillin gets old. Piccolo gets old.

The only one who has the mindset to train at that level is Goku, and it honestly fits perfectly with the story. He was like that ever since he was a kid. He was raised like an animal in the forest without formal education, without being taught limits, without ever growing up. Goku had that same child like wonder and lack of limits even in death. That's why the Buu saga is so awesome. Even Vegeta, being as angry and devoted to training as he was, couldn't hit SS3 because he was still bound to training in a physical body. Goku trained with aliens in Valhalla basically, without a physical body, for 7 years to surpass what Gohan did.

For as cartoonish as the show is, it's treatment of general character arcs is actually amazing. It's not just - oh new season, everyone is instantly stronger. That's not how it works for most people in reality either.
 
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Calcium

Banned
In a world where Goku and Vegeta are constantly outpacing each other what's the point of Gohan dedicating his life to training? I never heard the thing about the fans rejecting Gohan as a replacement of Goku, I just assumed the point of Gohan was to show that he valued family more than fighting. He's there for his wife and kid like Goku never was.
 
Gohan's development peaked during the Cell arc, and then continued in the Buu arc with Goku and Vegeta noting that he's weaker than he was against Cell, which was a really nice bit of characterization imo. It's like Toriyama figured out a new inner conflict unique to Gohan and that kept him interesting. Then we got mystic Gohan who is badass af but storytelling requires that the final boss of the story must be defeated by the main character, so Toriyama pulled Gohan out of the battle pretty quick.

I don't mind Gohan being a pacifist who is not interested in becoming stronger, but after all the struggles he went through, he should've realized that he must catch up to his father and Vegeta in case a new threat shows up and they can't handle it, like every arc in Super lol. Super's writing goes out of its way to make Gohan look like a worthless wimp, and now he looks like he belongs with Krilin and Tenshinhan for fuck's sake. Whoever handles the writing should at least give Gohan weaker opponents so he can shine, and to be fair the Tournament of Power did just that which was really nice. But then you read the manga and Gohan is back to being useless against Mollo/Moro.

Seriously, other shonen series figured this out a long time ago. When you have several good guys, you pit them against several bad guys so each good guy can be useful and actually win his fights without having to go and lose pathetically against the big bad guy.
 

Outlier

Member
Hmmm. I'm not a DBZ fan anymore and haven't even watched the show, since the 90s, but I HAVE heard and seen minor things about it, over the years.

When it comes to Gohan I don't think he was ever meant to surpass or even match Goku, due to Goku's iconic presence. It's hard to live up to a living legend (That shouldn't be around anymore), so they relegate him to humanizing him.

It technically makes sense, in a realistic manner. Sons usually don't live up to what their father's built for them to inherit.


Maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about, in regards to DB.
 

thefool

Member
A lot of dbz sucks in comparison with db and gohan is a part of the problem. Luckily Toriyama also understood that after a while.
 

A.Romero

Member
I disagree. Goku is the one that sucks. He is powerful and always in the vanguard but he is basically a one trick pony. He never grew up. He is an idiot who put several universes at risk just so he could have stronger opponents. He even goes and resurrects Freeza (sp?) knowing he is pretty much the most traitorous and evil bastard in his universe just to solve a problem he pretty much created out of nothing. I understand that dynamic is DB at it's core but still. Decades go by and still the group tries to take on a threat, fail, and pretty much get beaten up until Goku shows up, gets angry and beats the opponent. Later, he retires and trains with some kind of new deity that nobody knew about before and the cycle continues.

Vegeta is an asshole by design but at least he has some depth in the form of a never ending crush on Goku. The day he gets fucked by Goku (literally) is the day Vegeta will retire and be a full time dick to Bulma and his family.

Gohan is an educated and thoughtful guy. I wish he was the MC but obviously it doesn't fit in the DB universe. I think an interesting mechanic for him would be to leverage his knowledge in say physics to increase his effectiveness in combat.

At this rate Goten will be Goku's replacement and he will behave pretty much the same as his father.
 

Woffls

Member
Great up to end of Cell saga, at which point he should have become another rival for Goku and occasionally been the most powerful for the odd ‘hidden power’ spike here and there to keep things interesting. I liked the Gohan in High School stuff for a bit of downtime, but he should have stopped being a lil bitch after that.
 

Kenpachii

Member
I like how his mom finds studing more important when every single month indeed the world is about to explode because of enemy's only he and his dad can counter. It's laughable logic.
 
He was the Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime of DBZ.

Built to become the new lead yet even at his peak he's still responsible for the lead character's death. Then when he becomes the lead of the series, he's an offputting wimp who is still stuck in some "growing into the lead role" mode and before he truly gets there, they have to bring the original main character back from the dead to replace his sorry ass. =P

I didn't finish Super but from the 80-ish eps I stuck through, he became even worse.
 

Fbh

Member
Maybe fans wouldn't have been as opposed to him taking over if Toriyama had made him more likable and less of a little bitch.
 
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