The importance of the mockery that Black and Zamasu did towards Future Trunks runs far deeper than people realise. They were essentially blaming him for everything that went wrong with Android and Cell arc and basically belittling him for taking a desperate course of action to save his world by using time travel instead of just letting Goku from the Heart Virus and effectively prevent anything about the Zamasu arc happening. They were basically making Future Trunks feel like the worst person in history because he wanted protect what was left of humanity in his timeline and in the process making it seem as though every person that had died in his timeline was all his fault because he being selfish. Future Trunks was being made to feel great guilt just for his existence. That's what drove Future Trunks to his breaking point. He'll be damned if he's gonna be made out the be the villain for trying to save his world and have all the mortals that Goku Black slaughtered in his timeline feel like it rest on his shoulders when there was nothing he could do about that.The Patrolman wrote:Because Goku and Gohan earn their moments. Goku losing Krillin and Gohan not being able to save 16 made them angry enough to reach the power that they needed. I'm sorry but what Trunks did doesn't resonate. Oh Black and Zamasu mocked him so thats how he became an SSR (the whole name is also dumb as hell and still makes no sense). Oh Bulma got hurt and that cause his PTSD and suddenly mastered the Mafuba where it took Goku a day to master. And the less I talk about his moment where he cut Zamasu in half the better
Goku earned his moments, even though SSJ3 is a huge asspull, but Gohan sure as hell didn't after getting his potential unlocked the first time on Namek. His SSJ2 moment was horribly contrived, horribly built up and horribly executed. Gohan sits out 95% percent of the Android/Cell arc, and when he does take an active role in it, he suddenly develops this pacifist nature to add more "drama" to the battle and lead a contrived moment. And may I remind you, this pacifist characteristic is never brought again after this arc. So Gohan just suddenly had a change of conviction with barely any build-up to it, that lead to a moment that had even less build up to it, for a payoff of a trait that was throw in a once or twice in every arc prior to Gohan's battle against Cell. I mean, what relationship does Gohan have with Cell that supposed to make the feeling of Cell being brought down a peg by him feel so cathartic or satisfying? That fact that Cell crushed 16 head? That moment means nothing because Gohan barely know who the fuck Android 16 was beyond the fact he was built to kill Goku. He of all people shouldn't be the trigger for Gohan's SSJ2 moment because there is no emotional connection between the two of them. If Toriyama spent more time developing #16's character and building a more believable relationship between Gohan and #16, the moment Gohan became a SSJ2 for the first time would have been perfect.
Remember Gohan's reaction after Piccolo died saving his life? That was emotional because Gohan at least got the chance to build a relationship with Piccolo to make the moment he died feel more relatable, genuine and powerful. Gohan was watching his family and friends he trained and grew up with getting beaten to death and it doesn't affect him other than making him grit his teeth harder. Yet a random Android that Gohan that doesn't know on any other level, other than he cares for all living beings on life, a viewpoint all of the Z-Fighters, excluding Vegeta, at that time also shared, dies in front of him and suddenly that makes Gohan snap and go over the edge? Nah. That's not good enough for me. I always feel that proper relationship needed to be built between the two characters to justify Gohan reacting the way he did when #16 was killed. It just helps the moment feel more raw and believable. Like when Goku became SSJ for the first time. You knew prior to that moment just how much Goku's friendship with Krillin meant to him because of how close they were depicted to be and how the reacted to each other death's the first time round. To me, it just felt like Toriyama needed an excuse for Gohan to become stronger and defeat Cell and he threw in that speech from #16 just so that the moment could happen. All we knew about #16 prior to moment is that kinda liked birds. That's it. Hell, didn't #16 state he would still kill Goku if they were successful in defeating Cell? So that whole "#16 cares about all living things" characteristic feel incredibly contrived.
And don't even me started on the shit that happened in the Majin Boo arc. Ultimate/Mystic/Super was just fucking lazy. The most blatant case of character getting a power to keep him relevant in the plot. Made even worse by the fact that Gohan never trained after the Cell arc. He just sits on his ass and he goes from getting one-shotted by Majin Boo to kicking Super Boo ass without even trying. Fuck that nonsense. Gohan just became a walking plot device by that stage. Super is just as bad with this, but people tend to forget how bad the original story was when it came to handing out power-up and new form for the convenience of the plot.
Let's try to keep it to just Trunks VS Goku in terms of feats coming out of now where.
