#when gohan literally gave goku NO reason to think he dislike fighting

[hi-there-buddies]

I honestly think people give Goku too much crap for not “understanding Gohan” in the cell saga. Like ya, it was kinda his fault to an extent, but look at it from Goku’s pov:

In the saiyan saga, Gohan came back to help fight even after Goku said to stay away

Gohan begged to go to Namek to get his friends back, even yelling at his own mother to do so

Gohan refused to leave at first when Goku went super saiyan, saying he wanted to help Goku fight Frieza

Gohan trained with him and piccolo for three straight years and was happy with it

Gohan trained with Goku in the time chamber and trained so hard that he unlocked a form even Goku hadn’t

Gohan *yelled* at Goku because he thought Goku was going easy on him during training. I think this one is a BIG thing people miss

I think some people forget that we’re viewing these characters from an outside lens. Goku doesn’t know what Gohan went through when training with Piccolo (cause he DIED protecting him). The FIRST time someone tells Goku Gohan actually doesn’t like fighting, is in the Cell saga when Gohan is literally in the middle of the fight with Cell (correct me if I’m wrong but I think this is right). There’s a reason he looks so genuinely surprised when Piccolo says this. And when this happens, Goku immediately steps up and tries to stop the fight.

I’m just saying, if I was in Goku’s shoes, I don’t think it would have crossed my mind that Gohan doesn’t like fighting either.

Also, a decade after Goku found this out, he still takes it into account whenever he asks Gohan about something related to fighting. I’d say now in the story, he knows Gohan fairly well

#dragon ball #dragon ball z #dragon ball super #db #dbz #dbs #hot take? #and don’t say ‘chichi knew he didn’t like fighting’ #no she didn’t #she just didn’t WANT him to fight #she knew he liked studying #not that he didn’t like fighting #posting this because I saw someone bash Goku for waiting 11 years to actually understand his son #when gohan literally gave goku NO reason to think he dislike fighting #only piccolo knew because he was there #son gohan #gohan #Goku #son goku #piccolo #can’t wait for the replies to this one lmao

[mozillavulpix]

shouldnt trunks be the ultimate protege i mean he is vegeta son and vegeta was born stronger then goku. sometimes i think toriyama had gohan be the ultimate protege because hes the son of the main character

Well, first of all, Dragon Ball doesn’t follow some kind of hard genetic rule over how strong children are supposed to be. And Goten and Kid Trunks were theoretically stronger than Gohan was at that age.

But I think the actual reason as to why Gohan has the most potential is because he’s the only Saiyan who actively dislikes fighting. He wants to be a scholar. That’s pretty much the opposite of what you’d expect of a Saiyan, and that’s kind of the point.

I rationalise it by thinking of it this way: If one character in the cast was going to be given an immense amount of potential, who would you give it to?

Not Goku or Vegeta. They inherently want to train and get stronger, so if you gave them the largest potential, they could basically break the plot. They’d pretty much have no limits at all.

Not really any other supporting cast member, because if they’re all martial artists and then also have more potential than Goku, there’s no real reason as to why we aren’t following them around, and not Goku.

Maybe you could have given it to Trunks, but if you did, you’d also have to explain why he was the character introduced as running for help from the past. If he’s potentially stronger than all of them, wouldn’t he also be self-sufficient?

To make it the most interesting and the most narratively satisfying, you give it to the last person you’d expect to have it: a literal child who also doesn’t want to fight. Then, it explains why he can’t just use his potential all the time - he doesn’t actually like fighting, so he doesn’t train as much, so he can’t just use his power whenever he wants to.

Plus, there’s that whole ‘Beware the Nice Ones’ trope and the kind of psychological ideas behind having a pacifist also having an immense amount of suppressed power. It could almost be that his power is hidden because it’s being inherently suppressed because he doesn’t want to hurt anyone with it in the first place. And that explains why he’s not as powerful as you’d expect besides those moments when that hidden power explodes out of him.

...and that’s why it works. In my opinion.