Dammit Gohan, DODGE! (Everything Wrong With Gohan's Character)

[Beerus]

I thought this could be a fun discussion.

At the beginning of DBZ, Gohan is viewed as a scared child not really knowing what finger to pick his nose with.

We quickly see he has his father's power when his rage comes out. He sees Raditz beating up Goku and loses it. He busts out from the Saiyan pod and rams his head directly into Raditz stomach, cracking his armor. Raditz notes that his power level reaches 1,000 and keeps going up. Both Goku and Piccolo are beside themselves as to what just happened.

His rage comes out again when we see Frieza stabbing his horn through Krillin. (Don't mind the dub-step music)



And again when Android 16 is killed by Cell.



We also see this rage in a few different earlier movies as well.

The constant struggle between being gentle and lit with rage is what made Gohan, well, Gohan. He was a gentle loving boy who was brought to his true power through empathy and feeling other people's suffering. This is where I think everything went wrong with Gohan as he got older. He lost this rage inside him. He was no longer able to tap into it like he once was. The development of Gohan basically stopped. While he was able to get stronger, he became more careless and in my opinion a worse fighter for it. He wasn't careless in the same sense Goku has always been either. He just didn't have that "fight" in him anymore. He went from being the most developed character to a cheap knockoff of his former self.

So let's discuss Gohan and everything wrong with his character.

Jump in at any time in the story to point out the flaws. I think most of them happen starting with the loss of rage in the Buu Saga and continue from there.

 

[scoutterSSJ]

Well, between the 7 ages since Cell's death and the Bu saga beginnings there was no conflict.
In the begginning of the Bu saga Gohan has a rage boost when Spopovich beats Videl, and the whole mystic ritual was to unlock that potential Gohan had when enraged coupled with his potential as a SSJ in his base state, so his character from that point onwards couldn't rely on rage boosts any more.

I think that Gohan is too pacific to be the protagonist of a shounen, but that's not a flaw as I see it, DB is more interesting precisely because of the different range of personalities that his cast has.

Regards!

 

[Blockinlick]

You know I don't disagree with how Gohan was done in the Buu saga by now, as I've said it before.

End of Z Gohan was definitely the strongest character in the show. I don't understand why people aren't satisfied with that. He's been treated way better than Vegeta, who Toriyama just tortures on purpose.

I'm watching Super through a second time with my wife this time. (It's also dubbed instead of subs like the first time I watched it). One thing that's pissing me off (Now that I'm noticing it) is how blatantly a shitty deal Vegeta gets every time. He doesn't ever get a break or to shine ever.
He goes into the U6 vs U7 tourney and gets embarrassingly destroyed by Hit. Then Goku goes in and, of course, fights him toe-to-toe. Even before the awesome Kaioken SSJ thing, he made Vegeta look like a little bitch. Then they go up against Goku Black and he gets slaughtered... and then, of course, Goku goes toe-to-toe with him. Vegeta is the one getting shit on, not Gohan.

 

[Beerus]

I don't understand why people aren't satisfied with that.

They got me invested in Gohan watching him grow from a child. I watched him overcome his fears and struggles. He became a diehard hero by the end of the Cell saga. Then everything changed. I get that he pulled away from training. He met a girl. He focused on his study... But he just changed too much. Like I said in the OP, he lost his fight.

 

[scoutterSSJ]

You know I don't disagree with how Gohan was done in the Buu saga by now, as I've said it before.

End of Z Gohan was definitely the strongest character in the show. I don't understand why people aren't satisfied with that. He's been treated way better than Vegeta, who Toriyama just tortures on purpose.

I'm watching Super through a second time with my wife this time. (It's also dubbed instead of subs like the first time I watched it). One thing that's pissing me off (Now that I'm noticing it) is how blatantly a shitty deal Vegeta gets every time. He doesn't ever get a break or to shine ever.
He goes into the U6 vs U7 tourney and gets embarrassingly destroyed by Hit. Then Goku goes in and, of course, fights him toe-to-toe. Even before the awesome Kaioken SSJ thing, he made Vegeta look like a little bitch. Then they go up against Goku Black and he gets slaughtered... and then, of course, Goku goes toe-to-toe with him. Vegeta is the one getting shit on, not Gohan.

Anime DB Super is the worst XD
Yeah, Vegeta is mistreated a lot. It's not like in the manga he is the protagonist, but at least there he dominated his first and third rounds against black, and in the ToP he achieved a superior form that Goku (until after this training with Merus) wasn't able to achive (which put him above in the beginning of the Moro saga and allowed him to have more protagonism).

The first round against Black in the anime was abolustely bullshit. Not only he gets KOed easily and then Goku does much better, even TRUNKS in his SSJ2 did much better -heck, he did even better than SSJB Goku in that fight-. It was a total insult.

They got be invested in Gohan watching him grow from a child. I watched him overcome his fears and struggles. He became a diehard hero by the end of the Cell saga. Then everything changed. I get that he pulled away from training. He met a girl. He focused on his study... But he just changed too much. Like I said in the OP, he lost his fight.

Well, that's the price that has to be payed if you want to be coherent with the character. I completely understand your stance though, I LOVED Gohan's rage boosts because you always knew they were coming and Toriyama never made them feel cheap.
When Gohan surpassed Cell with his rage-boost, we all knew this could happen thanks to Goku's confidence in him.

But he was a pacifist, and unles a fatal cataclysm like the androids in the future TL would happen, his personality is too pacific to turn him into a Goku.

Regards!

 

[Beerus]

I feel Vegeta has the most character development in all of Super (the anime anyway). He became more "human" and learned to put others before his pride. He finally considered Goku a friend as well. He has come a long way.

But this is about Gohan. Gohan from the point of the Buu saga to the end of Super wasn't anything like I remembered watching prior to it. Remember in Dragon Ball when Goku was a kid and then returned to the tournament grown up? You can still tell it was Goku. Even with a voice change and a clear appearance change. He was still Goku. Gohan just didn't feel the same to me.

 

[scoutterSSJ]

But this is about Gohan. Gohan from the point of the Buu saga to the end of Super wasn't anything like I remembered watching prior to it. Remember in Dragon Ball when Goku was a kid and then returned to the tournament grown up? You can still tell it was Goku. Even with a voice change and a clear appearance change. He was still Goku. Gohan just didn't feel the same to me.

Gohan in the end of the Bu saga is at his peak of seriousness after the ritual of the Kaiohshin and the crisis with Bu and was more comparable to the Gohan in the end of the Cell saga.
On the other hand, the Gohan from beginning of Super is like the Gohan of beginning of the Bu saga, a Gohan that after a long period of peace has turned more of a pacifist.

Regards!

 

[Beerus]

Gohan in the end of the Bu saga is at his peak of seriousness after the ritual of the Kaiohshin and the crisis with Bu and was more comparable to the Gohan in the end of the Cell saga.
On the other hand, the Gohan from beginning of Super is like the Gohan of beginning of the Bu saga, a Gohan that after a long period of peace has turned more of a pacifist.

Regards!

I guess I can see that. He did change near the end of the Buu saga but I guess at that point, I already became so uninvested in him as a character, I didn't even notice. From the start of Z, I was drawn to Piccolo and Vegeta the most but Gohan took over and was my favorite character for a while. That tanked through the Buu saga and once again Vegeta took top tier for me, closely followed by Piccolo.

 

[scoutterSSJ]

From the start of Z, I was drawn to Piccolo and Vegeta the most but Gohan took over and was my favorite character for a while. That tanked through the Buu saga and once again Vegeta took top tier for me, closely followed by Piccolo.

That may be because Vegeta's character arc didn't end until the end of the Bu saga, and Piccolo always had that "badass" side on him that made him cool even when he was in his most "calmed" personality (though I don't like Bu saga Piccolo as much as the Cell saga one, I think Super did a good job making him "regress" to his more warrior-self).
Vegeta is also cool and badass so they're more likeable characters, once Gohan struggles with himself ended, we were left with a pacifist.

I agree with everything you say in fact, I also think that Gohan (and Piccolo as well to a lesser degree) lost a bit of what made them interesting in the Bu saga. It was easier for Piccolo to correct, since he tecnically never left to be a warrior, Gohan on the other hand... you have to give him excuses to force himself to become what he once was. In Super they're doing it (mostly in the manga, though I think the anime treated Gohan pretty well in general and it's one of the characters that is destroyed the less in comparison wiht the rest of the main cast).

Regards!

 

[chongjasmine]

I feel Gohan has a lot of potential as a fighter. He could even be the strongest if he wanted to. Sadly, this is not going to happen since he did not like to fight.