Since you asked....zDBZ wrote: Iwould be genuinely curious to know what angle you would've preferred Toriyama take with Gohan after the Cell Games.
Honestly, I think the way Gohan is presented in Movie 9 is one of my favorites. He’s shown still having an interest in martial arts; ChiChi is accepting of it and mentions it as good exercise that gets him out of the house and his books. He’s obviously been training enough to still be at the top of his game. You can tell that if it’s outside of a battle and in spar or tournament form that he genuinely enjoys it. He’s got confidence in himself. There’s still some reluctance to enter into his “true” power, likely due to the tragedy that happened last time, but he’ll do it with some encouragement. He takes steps to protect people which I think really falls in place with his development in the Cell Saga where his trigger for even becoming Super Saiyan was not being able to protect people he cared about and hating himself for it. For him to feel so passionate about that to trigger Super Saiyan, I don’t see him suddenly dropping working at being a protector, especially since he has seen first hand what can happen.
Buu Saga Gohan disappointed me because he seemed to disregard ALL his Saiyan traits. One thing I’ve never really liked is how the Half Saiyans are written later on in the story. They’re either all Saiyan or all Earthling (and that’s not really done well either as there are earthlings who strive to improve as well) when I think a mix is a lot more interesting. For Gohan, I like the fact that he’s intelligent, likes to learn and would like to try and figure out a way around a conflict without violence. However, I also like the fact that if he’s pushed to it, he’s going to make you regret it. I like the idea he still has a Saiyan drive just not triggered by or to the same extent as his father’s. Gohan isn’t going to fight enemies because he wants a good fight but he will to protect people. They reference this quite a few times. Heck, Super even has Gohan reference his Saiyan blood is excited by a battle and that’s really what I wanted to see: a Gohan that is more a balanced mix of Saiyan and Earthling traits instead of just one or the other. Up until the Android saga, they’d been balancing those traits pretty well but after the 7 year skip, it felt like it was tossed aside. I’d love to see Gohan striving for peace and yet still feeling that call to a battle that he has to figure out how to placate.