It blows my mind how irrelevant Trunks/Goten were for all 131 Super episodes

[jplaya2023]

they didn't even age those kids, they're made wack by bringing krilian tien and roshi to the TOP

[Lionel]

It's easy to say that the kids had no use when the notion of "importance" is rigidly determined by how much of a dent you make in the enemy. Goten and Trunks were faced with an opponent that was the most inconvenient kind they could have encountered since he shrugged off whatever damage they inflicted using the technique specifically devised to increase the power of two beings for a short period of time.

Unfortunately, Dragon Ball Super has upended the path DBZ started to take mid-way through where now it's all about the bygone seniors bearing the responsibility of everything as we follow their defibrillated tale. It's one thing to claim that Goku and Vegeta are faces of DB, but it's another to allow only them to have any substantive focus as they progress throughout the arcs. Whatever amount of time given to some of the others like during the RoF, Champa, and ToP arcs is nice to look at but ultimately superfluous. Goten and Trunks just happen to be part of the unfortunate class who have little to no purpose in what defines DB now.

[Lord Beerus]

Toriyama isn't interested in providing context for stories for characters he feels he won't get the most personal entertainment out of. Plus, given how Goten and Trunks become disinterested in fighting and training by the end of Dragon Ball, it doesn't really bother me that much. All Super would be doing in setting up characters to train and wanting to become stronger, would have only ended up feeling cumbersome to their characterizations once the overall story had concluded.

[Kanious]

They should have been more relevant, especially Trunks, as he could inspire himself in his future's counterpart.

Now that we have the Pilaf's gang, that are super funny, and serve the purpose of comic relief, i don't see why they made Trunks and Goten less important than they were in Buu's arc.

[Nero<>Akira]

I liked the Space arc with them in it despite it ending with a brawl between Goku and a copy vegeta. It was refreshing and it gave more screentime to the both and Jaco who hasn't appeared for a while. Hell, it would have been cool having him in the TOP. The most I want from Goten and Trunks is to have their own arc or OVA on a galactic adventure with Jaco because they just wanna have fun and annoy Jaco a little while on that journey. It's just up my alley and I don't see how AT wouldn't have fun doing it when he's inserted Jaco heavily in the canon since his own story.

[Bullza]

Yeah I'm really glad about it.

When the show was starting up I was concerned they were going to have a large part. Then the first episode came out and thought that was the route they were going in but thankfully they haven't been in it much at all.

[Gligarman]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Goku Black should have been Goten! It would have made that arc a lot more interesting.

[Vegeta_Sama]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Goku Black should have been Goten! It would have made that arc a lot more interesting.

Yeah, and Gohan should have turned Super Saiyan Blanco

[ekrolo2]

Goten doesn't bother me so much but Trunks kind of does since Toei made it an effort to have him seemingly learn from his future self about fighting for your home but it is of course nothing but classic Toei fluff to give them "development" that ultimately doesn't matter.


If you know shit isn't gonna matter, why is it even there? It doesn't even develop anyone in any meaningful way since it'll be ignored outright or regurgitated later like Gohan's training was in all pre-ToP material.

[Ilikepictures-meh]

I'm still hoping they show a quick scene of Goten, Trunks, and Marron wreaking the pouchers in episode 130/131 before Super calls it quits.

[GamerSkull]

It sucks. I would have liked them to get more filler/slice-of-life episodes at least.

My problem is that despite having the opportunity to do more with the side characters but doesn't do enough.

You can still have Goku being prominent while still doing cool things with all the characters that might have been left in the dust in the original manga. They just feel like wasted opportunities to me. I know a lot of people are against a next generation series that focuses on Goten, Trunks, Pan, etc... but they can still do something like that while still having Goku be the main character and most prominent.

[KingKaash]

This is what happens when you introduce God level characters. The weaker characters get left behind. It almost even happened to the likes of Gohan and Piccolo had the ToP not come around and they needed 10 fighters

It's more than just the power gap. The Tournament of Power brought back character way weaker than Goten and Trunks and made them relevant, either by powering them up to god level or emphasizing their other qualities. Krillin, Roshi, even 17 and 18 who were below Gotenks in the original series but wound up as MVPs. The problem is that those two characters specifically don't have anything going for them outside of childish comic relief. That's the role they're stuck in, and have been stuck in ever since Gotenks first appeared.

Fair point. I guess I should've said power gap and lack of previous history hold back Trunks and Goten. Krilin, Roshi, Tien and even Yamacha have DB history that allows them to get storylines even now. Goten and Trunks don't really have a storyline from DB and the writers weren't interested in giving them some now. So they fall far behind

[GreatSaiyaJeff]

When Super started, I figured Goten would get more of a role with how prominent he was in the first OP. Boy was I mis lead.

[thegamer23]

They need to grow up, to become interesting.

[Timetraveller]

Considering how they amounted to nothing in the Buu arc I'm not to surprised that they didn't do much here. Never watched GT but from what I've heard they didn't do much there either. It's pretty clear to me at least that Toriyama doesn't really care to use them thus why they haven't done much. And if I might be as so bold to do so I will guess that they probably won't do much in the next series either. I mean at least they were main characters in Dragon Ball fusions so that's something I guess.

Compared to Super Trunks and Goten were much more relevant in GT. Trunks even spent an entire arc as one of the main characters. Goten actually aged

[TheOtherDude]

This is what happens when you introduce God level characters. The weaker characters get left behind. It almost even happened to the likes of Gohan and Piccolo had the ToP not come around and they needed 10 fighters

This is exactly what happens. Just by virtue of having unfathomably powerful characters the ones with no way of catching up are left behind. The only way they would get spotlight in super is if they snuck in the ToP roster.

Going with what has been shown thus far....Goku is at bare minimum hundreds of times stronger in his base foem than he was as a SSJ3 in the buu saga. For that reason Goten and trunks were reduced from a combat role to a comedic role

Gotten and Trunks are the offspring of Goku and Vegeta. They are thousands of times stronger than Goku and Vegeta ever were their age. It will not take nearly as long for them to reach the level their dads are at if they got serious with training.

There’s no evidence that after Super there’ll be a new series, but there’s a strong chance that they’re saving Goten and Trunks to be with Uub and all the other younger kids. Right now they don’t really have a place. It seems like they wanted to get one last hoorah out of guys like Roshi and Krillin etc.

[precita]

In EOZ, Trunks is in his popular adult design again. It's the same reason Toei said they made him a main character in the first half of GT, because they know how popular his adult design is. He and Goten will most likely be featured when they're adults, along with Uub. Since Toei loves Pan too I can't see them leaving her out.

[Akyon]

For me, I'm kind of glad...

Goten and Trunks were in a lot of specials and movies as lead characters post Buu saga, but I've always felt(and I suspect many others have also felt) that their entire schtick is a singular gag: What if little kids were super powerful? A gag which honestly was done better before with both Kid Goku and Krillin in Dragonball, and played straighter and more serious with Gohan in earlier Z.
Sure being more major characters would have thrust them into hopefully being developed more, but if we're honest they'd most likely keep milking the same tired 'super powered kids' gag and little else.

Goten is at best a satallite character; his sole purpose seems to be to give Trunks a fusion partner and a friend, and on very rare occasions give someone for Gohan, Goku or ChiChi to play off of.
Sadly he doesn't feel like his own character as he looks like Goku, he acts like Gohan(passive, under his parents whims, and bookish in Super) and he seems to solely exist for a power up for Trunks. I'd honestly say Gotenks' personality is just Kid Trunks' amplified too, so there's even less traces of Goten in the series than you'd initially think.

Trunks comparitively has his own unique-ish bratty personality, an interesting dynamic with the Pilaf gang as well as Gohan, and got some character focus and devlopment with his Future self.

I do feel like Super tried a little bit to give Goten something such as the filler episodes where he proved himself to be more mature than Goku and indeed Gohan, but also with that vengeful streak after Hit killed Goku, he swore vengence...such a shame that's about the end of Super's development into him as a character. Such a blank slate he could have gone in any direction.

[Whatever]

Not a surprise they were irrelevant in dbz as well.

Correct me if I'm wrong, as I have yet to get that far in the manga, but weren't they originally played more for gag and comedic stuff rather actually being taken seriously? That's definitely how they come across in Super. I think it's honestly because Toriyama just doesn't know what to do with them, much like Tien and Piccolo

Goten and Trunks's whole purpose in the buu arc was to form Gotenks and Gotenk's was pretty much a joke character,no reason to exist than to fill out some chapters with unfunny jokes and gags.
Gotenks did nothing of importance outside of powering up Super Buu,then again you could skip Super Buu absorbing them and absorb Gohan right away and nothing would change.

This is what happens when you introduce God level characters. The weaker characters get left behind. It almost even happened to the likes of Gohan and Piccolo had the ToP not come around and they needed 10 fighters

It was has nothing to do with their strength,they served no purpose in the buu outside of being a long overdrawn joke........
Oh and they were usefull for making the main villain strong enough to give Gohan his biggest L i guess,thats how as far their usefullness go.

[SSJ YUSUKE]

I dont mind. They are the main reason I dislike the Buu arc, they took focus away from characters like Piccolo.
But to be fair at the end of Z they were shown the have slacked off since the Buu saga so it makes sense that they wouldn't play too much of a role in Super.
To be honest, I think they will have a much bigger role in the sequel series so I wouldn't feel too bad about them yet.