Jman.Blog

Son Gohan, in his younger years he’d be considered a hero by any account

He defended the earth countless times and has been giving his all to keep the peace since the age of 5. A man who was raised in a time of near constant war, and is solely responsible for years upon years of peace, and despite this, I’m going to try and convince you that he is in fact not a hero. I believe that after the Buu saga, Gohan would be considered a disappointment when looked at through the lens of the Spider-Man character Uncle Ben’s beliefs, that with great power comes great responsibility. It might seem utterly unrelated but I promise, I’ll get there.

Power & Responsibility

First in order to establish that Gohan doesn’t live up to the expectation of how “with great power comes great responsibility,” first we must establish what exactly that phrase encapsulates by showing the result of living by it, and for that we should look no further than the origin of the quote himself, Spider-Man.

Spider-Man is a character who has been adapted countless times in dozens of forms of media, but in every one, the story of his early days as a hero revolve around him not understanding the responsibility that comes with his powers, he’s reckless, rude, and selfish, and at least in the movies, he acts with such childish impunity once he receives his powers that it leads to the death of his father figure, Uncle Ben.

Going forward I’ll be using the Spider-Man movies with Tobey McGuire as a specific example, but the general themes and ideas are the same throughout most Spider-Man stories. Before Peter Parker had any powers he is portrayed as a loser, the girl he’s in love with has no interest in him, his family is dirt poor, and he’s relentlessly bullied every day at school, Peter’s life is shown to be utterly depressing, and in every sense the word he’s powerless. But while on a school trip, before he can swat it off, he was bitten by a radioactive spider, granting him superhuman abilities including super strength, sight, reflexes, instant abs, the ability to shoot webs from his wrists, and climb on walls. After testing out these powers around his room, what’s the first thing Peter does with them? Stunt on the school bully and fight people for money. He has no sense of the burden that these powers should place on him and acts selfishly, understandably, as anyone in his situation would. By this point Peter had already heard his Uncle Ben speak the words “with great power comes great responsibility,” but the concept hadn’t truly taken root for him. And it’s there, during the underground wrestling match where he lets something happen that will go on to haunt him for the rest of his life, he refuses to take action.

The promoter for the event stiffed Peter on his payment, thinking he could take advantage of the young boy, incidentally he was robbed within minutes of doing so and the robber ran right past Peter, who due to his spider-sense, must have had plenty of time to decide whether or not to stop him, but the important part is that he chose not to. He had the power to act, but decided to be selfish and get back at the promoter by letting the criminal get away, and whether due to karma or some cruel twist of fate, Uncle Ben had been trying to find peter and just so happened to be in the criminal’s way, he tried to steal Ben’s car to escape from the robbery, Ben refused and during the inciting struggle, was he shot and killed. Peter, having just left the building, held Ben in his final moments, realizing that it was his fault the criminal had the chance to kill him.

Peter, full of rage and searching revenge, followed closely after the man who’d killed his uncle. He caught up to him, and whether intentional or not, he caused the man to fall to his death.

This incident shaped Peter Parker, and truly made him into Spider-Man. From this moment forward he realized that if you have the power to act, you must. He began to fully embody that famous quote said by his Uncle Ben.

This is not to say that his life is without struggle, far from it in fact, having his Spider powers directly caused his life becoming more and more difficult day in and day out, his absence strained his relationship with Mary Jane, his performance in college suffered greatly, and he couldn’t hold a job. This is where we find Peter in Spider-Man 2, the responsibility of being Spider-Man has destroyed his personal life.

This is the burden that one with great power must bear, responsibility refers not only to the responsibility to act, but how you must prioritize your duty over your personal life, despite the fact that not only is there no reward, but the city utterly hates him, Peter perseveres.

Later on in the movie, due to a mental block cropped up by this declining quality of life, he sees a way out. Peter had undergone so much stress due to the toll that being Spider-Man took on him, that he lost his powers, to him this was a godsend, he no longer had to prop New York up on his shoulders, and he finally had the chance to be a regular functioning adult.

But Peter Parker is better than that, and upon coming across a burning building, and still without his powers, he thoughtlessly ran inside to save a child that was trapped. He could act, so he did, he had to. That’s just who Peter Parker is. Though because he’d given up his powers, he wasn’t able to save the second child that was trapped in the building. 

This moment awoke something in Peter that may have been obvious to those around, he can’t be the type of person to stand by and watch, he has to help, he has a responsibility to help. Soon after this revelation he regained his powers, and because Peter Parker is at his core, a hero, he takes up the mantle of Spider-Man once again. This time knowing fully what he would have to sacrifice, and choosing to anyway.

That’s what it means to live by this mantra, to truly be a hero. If you are able to help save the world, save a group of people, save even one person, you have a responsibility, a moral obligation to go out of your way, no matter the personal sacrifice, to help. That’s who Peter Parker is, and that’s what a hero is, and by that definition, Son Gohan in his adult years is no hero.

Gohan, Early Years

Gohan has always been a character defined by power, the first time we see him at 4 years old, he is a timid and shy kid, barely able to face his father’s old friends for the first time. Soon after he was kidnapped by his alien uncle, after having just found out he had an alien uncle that showed up and nearly killed his father, he was held ransom and had to watch as Raditz ruthlessly beat up his father and the other strongest fighter in the world at the time, upon seeing this, in a fit of unbridled rage, Gohan was able to deal a decisive blow to Raditz, who Goku could barely lay a scratch on.

From this moment on Gohan became known for his potential, when his anger reached a boiling point he could pull off insane feats of strength, one of the most unbelievable moments being when he damaged the second form of the Emperor of the Universe, at the age of five. His potential put him in a prime spot to one day surpass his father as the strongest fighter in the world, though at this young age one of his biggest struggles was with the fact that he just didn’t want to fight, he wasn’t passionate about it at all, to Gohan fighting was a means to an end, and this of course all came to a head during his fight with Cell.

Cell Saga

By the time the Cell Games came around, Gohan had trained alongside his father, ascending to the level of a Super Saiyan. While up to this point Gohan was capable of holding his own in a fight, he had been clearly portrayed as a lower tier character on the Z Fighters in terms of power, this was the first time he had been able to consistently draw out strength on the level of the top tier fighters in an arc. Heading into the fight, and even during the tournament Gohan still believed that his father was stronger than him, when Goku and Cell fought each other, they were both going at full strength, and yet despite this Gohan thought they were heavily suppressed, and upon realizing that they WERE at full power, after his father conceded and set him up to be the next to fight Cell, Gohan realized that he might be able to win.

During this fight Gohan STILL doesn’t want to act violently, despite what Cell has done to the innocent citizens of earth, his friends, and even though defeating Cell means protecting what’s dear to him, Gohan doesn’t let himself give into that uncontrollable anger that’s been his crutch so far in the series. Cell continued beating down on Gohan before he would eventually awaken and become a Super Saiyan 2, importantly, it’s Android 16’s speech to him that finally makes Gohan realize that if it’s for the right cause, it’s okay to give into his anger, he realizes in this moment the immense power and responsibility that he’s been blessed with, making it his responsibility to protect earth, like it or not, he’s the only person in the universe capable of defeating Cell and saving the world. 

Here, Gohan has completed the character arc that was laid out for him at the beginning of the story. He’s become a capable fighter who is willing to do what he must to protect what’s right, but the fight isn’t over yet, and Gohan still has one flaw to work through, having become strong enough to toy with Cell, Gohan is put in a position he’s never been in before, being given the power he needs, Gohan makes the same mistake that Peter Parker made when HE first gained his powers, he refused to act when he had the chance. 

Gohan having such an overpowering advantage over Cell, allowed his hubris gets the better of him, and in a moment of overconfidence, thinking back to all the pain that Cell has caused to the people of earth, he refused to let his death be quick, instead he decided that Cell must suffer for all the pain he’s caused to both him and humanity as a whole. 

This hesitation gave Cell the chance to initiate a self destruct, after having thrown up Android 18, and reverting back to his Semi-Perfect form, he blows up like a balloon, making it clear that if he’s allowed to go through with this, the world will be destroyed. The Z fighters are put in an impossible situation, and Goku, the hero that he is, made a split decision that ended up saving everybody. Because Gohan didn’t kill Cell when he had the chance, Goku was made to sacrifice himself and upon his return, Cell killed Future Trunks. Goku appeared to Gohan from the afterlife, encouraging him to bring out all the latent power he had left and counter Cell’s Kamehameha which he explicitly stated would be strong enough to erase the solar system

Ultimately Gohan is able to defeat Cell once and for all, but not without the group sustaining heavy casualties, in this moment he learns that indecisiveness is just as bad as deciding not to fight in the first place, and he makes a promise to himself that he will never hesitate again.

The original intention of this fight’s resolution is that Gohan has finally realized his full potential that there had been so many references to throughout the series to this point, and while that aspect of the scene would go on to be retconned pretty quickly in the next arc and repeatedly throughout Super, the more important piece of growth that Gohan is offered in this scene for the purposes of this post is that he overcomes his apprehension about fighting for the sake of what is good, and now has the experience to know that he must act decisively, now Gohan has everything he needs to become the primary protector of earth, he has the power to act, the willingness to do so, and will not hesitate to do what must be done. With the end of the Cell saga Gohan has everything he needs to be a true hero, and live up to the expectations of power and responsibility.

Buu Saga

Now I wouldn’t say Gohan is mishandled in the Buu Saga, but it is strange to me that after an arc where the entire conclusion revolved around Gohan’s completion as a character, his role in the next one is that of failure and pointing out further flaws that he still has to work through. It’s not a bad direction to take his character, since if he just became the protector of the world and succeeded without any resistance or growing pains it would have been really unsatisfying. But instead of letting Gohan work through his issues and come out a better character like he’d done in the previous arc, Goku ended up coming back to retake his spot as the main character and fix Gohan’s mistakes himself. An odd direction for sure but not exactly what I mean when I say that Gohan can’t be called a hero.

After the Cell saga, Gohan had created an era of peace, during which he got complacent. The flaw of Gohan’s that crops up during this arc is that while he has all the tools to B8E a hero, he doesn’t have any experience in being the sole protector. Gohan had no reason to believe that a power stronger than what he wielded against Cell would ever be needed, he didn’t have that level of experience and foresight that Goku had to know that he must always be training and getting stronger. And because of that, he had fallen to such a level where he wasn’t able to stop Buu from being revived.

The way this saga started it seems to be that it was intended to be a passing of the torch from the previous generation, Goku and Vegeta, to the future generation, Gohan, Goten, and Trunks. But if you look at it through this lens, you come away with the implication that the future generation messed up so badly that the old generation had to come right back to fix their mistakes the second a serious threat appeared. This gets even worse in Super where Gohan was heavily sidelined, which we’ll talk about later, and Goten and Trunks are barely side characters in that show.

After Gohan fails to prevent Buu’s revival, he reflects on how his complacency had been an issue, it wasn’t out of any malice or overconfidence, he simply didn’t know that he needed to keep improving, a flaw similar to that of Peter Parker in Spider-Man 2 when he lost his powers, he simply assumed that the world would be okay without his input, that nothing would happen that he couldn’t handle, but as with the child that Peter couldn’t save from the burning building, Buu’s revival is a wakeup call that Gohan HAD to continue improving, and he couldn’t get comfortable with his life. Gohan’s lack of drive for improvement directly led to the destruction of the world, and nearly the whole galaxy, after this he understands that he has to always strive to be better, and now he’s made a promise to do so. He acknowledges that his power might not always be enough for him TO act, and because of that, he will always have to strive to be as strong as possible so that he’s able to handle what comes next. So of course, logically, where should we next see his progression as a character?

Resurrection of F

The next piece of major development for Gohan, after having promised himself that he would never stop training and working towards achieving the pinnacle of his power the last time we saw him, what has Gohan been doing in the time since? He gave up fighting and training in the pursuit of study, in a gross rejection of personal accountability and responsibility, Gohan does exactly what he disavowed the last time he showed up in the story, spitting in the face of the concept of responsibility and character growth, he actively chose his personal success and satisfaction over what is now consistently the fate of the universe.

During Frieza’s attack on Earth, Gohan’s refusal to keep up with training directly leads to the near death of Piccolo and if not for Goku and Vegeta ONCE AGAIN showing up last minute to fix his mistakes, the fate of the earth was at stake. Gohan was responsible for making sure he could defeat whatever enemy might come next, and he didn’t. This is the moment where from here on out he cannot be called a hero by the definition we’ve laid out. He is responsible for keeping himself strong, he acknowledged as much himself at the end of the Buu saga, but he doesn’t live up to it, he chooses his personal life and happiness over being a protector, this version of Gohan is an incredibly selfish character and antithetical to the concept of a hero.

This is the core of Gohan’s characterization in Super, he’s constantly slacking on his training, repeating the same tired storyline that he went through in the Buu saga, where he decides not to train, finds out that he shouldn’t have done that, is barely saved by Goku and Vegeta, then promises to train again only to give up again soon after.

Gohan at this point has acknowledged the responsibility that his potential implies, and has learned every lesson he SHOULD need in order to be an effective hero, but he somehow makes the conscious choice to revert back to a decision that’s shown twice at this point in the story and once more later to put his friends and family’s lives at risk. He continues to choose to not to live up to the responsibility that he’s been tasked with, in effect, this is the equivalent of Spider-Man 3 opening with Peter Parker having chosen to give up his powers again. It makes no sense with the way that he’s been characterized up to this point and insults the idea of a hero by calling him one.

Tournament of Power

Following Gohan’s embarrassing performance during Resurrection of F, and complete inconsequentiality during the Universe 6 Tournament and Goku Black Arc, Gohan finally decides to do what he said he was going to do six years prior at the end of the Buu Arc, and he starts to train again, in practicing for the tournament he was even able to regain his ultimate form and hold his own in a sparring match against Goku, who decided that he should be the team leader for the incoming Tournament of Power.

Later on, during the tournament, Gohan was a consistent player, holding his own against many of the powerful foes that he had to face and in the manga he even defeated one of the top tiers in the tournament, Kefla!

While it took a while to get here, in reality this is what Gohan should have done after the Buu saga, hopefully this development is a sign that his characterization in early super was just an accidental blip, and not the way he will be handled going forward. Gohan finally began to act like a hero, understanding what’s at stake with each enemy that shows up and how effectively he can help with dispatching them. He seems to finally understand his responsibility, and is finally taking it seriously, so let’s see what comes next for Gohan now that he understands the implications of not training.

Gohan, Super Hero

And once again, as if it hadn’t been proven over and over that Gohan’s power is needed, as if he’s learned nothing from his failures, he ONCE AGAIN makes the active decision to stop training, and this time the result is, in my opinion, way worse than before. 

When Piccolo visits Gohan’s house in disguise, he suggests that Gohan can’t even sense his energy, something he was able to do back when he fought Nappa, which to be clear, he was 5 years old then. Piccolo also suggests that the weighted clothing was too heavy for him, saying specifically that it was light on him as a kid, implying again that he’s somehow gotten weaker than he was during the Saiyan invasion, this double confirmation means that it’s the intended reading of the situation, that despite countless times where Gohan not training directly put the fate of the world, including his family at stake, Gohan STILL refuses to keep up with his training, and the worst part of it all? When Piccolo asks Gohan what he would do if another strong enemy shows up, he asks if Piccolo seriously thinks that would ever happen, as if it hasn’t happened twenty-six times already in his life? As if his father didn’t decide to stay dead for 7 years specifically because this DOES happen a lot. Oh you think twenty-six is too many times that someone strong enough to threaten the Z-Fighters has shown up in dragon ball during Gohan’s lifetime? Raditz, Nappa and Vegeta, Zarbon and Dodoria, the Ginyu Force, Frieza, Frieza a second time now with King Cold, Androids 19 and 20, Androids 17 and 18, Android 16, Cell, Babidy and Dabura, Buu, Beerus, Frieza A THIRD TIME, Champa and Universe 6, Goku Black and Zamasu, LITERALLY 70 OTHER FIGHTERS IN THE TOURNAMENT OF POWER but mainly Jiren, Anilaza, Toppo, and Kefla, Broly, Merus, Moro, Granola, Gas, and FRIEZA A FOURTH TIME WHICH HAPPENS JUST MONTHS BEFORE THIS, AND BY THE WAY HE’S STILL OUT THERE. So not only is Gohan ignoring his responsibilities because it might not happen again, but it is actively in the process of happening, there is currently a threat that Goku and Vegeta can’t defeat out there. My point is, Gohan acting like Piccolo is the weird one for being ready in case another massive threat shows up is not only incredibly out of character, but also a decidedly stupid thing to say given how life works in Dragon ball. And the fact that I didn’t even count every character that’s threatened the Z-fighters lives, just the amount of times a strong villain has shown up during Gohan’s lifetime, it’s crazy that it’s already more people than years Gohan has been alive at this point, given that he’s 27-28 by the end of Z, and this is a year earlier, making him 26-27.

But of course, despite this, literally by the end of the day Gohan is able to go from weaker than he was as a five-year-old, around planetary in strength, to arguably stronger than Goku and Vegeta who are massively above the baseline for multiversal by this point (or however they’re power scaled but that’s a pretty common level for people to put them).

Dragon Ball Z is supposed to represent the idea that hard work will always outweigh pure talent, that’s why Vegeta couldn’t defeat Goku during their fight in the Saiyan saga, that’s the entire reason Vegeta was categorized as an antagonist in a literary sense, because Vegeta thought his status as an elite warrior would automatically place him above Goku, but if that’s the case, if hard work will always outweigh talent, how come in the manga, Gohan is now implied to be stronger than Goku despite no effort on his end to improve, and in fact a repeated pattern of giving up and prioritizing studying ants over saving the universe. Gohan in dragon ball super is no hero, he doesn’t live up to the responsibility that his potential burdens with him, showing to be an opposite to Peter Parker as he chooses his personal life over his responsibility all the time, and the way he’s been written spits in the face of the entire messaging behind the story, mainly reflected in Vegeta’s story throughout Z.

Why Trash Gohan?

The common argument against this criticism seems to be “oh but he’s happy” or the common meme of dragon ball fans getting mad at Gohan for living a happy life with his family, and you know what, yeah, Gohan living a peaceful life with his family does bother me, what a lot of people ignore is the fact that fighting is not a hobby for Gohan, but he is consistently one of the very few people who are capable of stopping the planet from blowing up, and making sure that there are as many of those people as possible, and that they’re as strong as possible, is a lot more important than a research paper on ants, and frankly I don’t know why more dragon ball fans don’t get that. Protecting your family should be of the utmost priority to everybody, and clearly modern dragon ball’s interpretation of Gohan would rather study and research his hyper fixations than keep his family safe, and I just can’t get behind that.

I want to be completely clear, I love Dragon Ball Z and Gohan’s development UP TO the Cell saga is incredibly satisfying, but of all the characters who have been mishandled in modern dragon ball, including Daima which is still coming out at the moment , Gohan’s has been the most disappointing to me. One day I’ll make a post on how Vegeta has been handled post Buu Saga because trust me he comes in at a close second.