TheGreatSaiyaman wrote:Kinda long but....
The crux of the anti-Gohan argument is that he's boring, bland, only shines when he's dominating so why not give him a chance against Toppo, an overwhelmingly strong threat? His personality is one of a goofy guy who enjoys fighting like his father, but isn't as willing to put in the effort to reach new heights despite having such great 'potential'. He doesn't enjoy killing or unnecessary violence but he fights for what's right in his eyes. But now the story's changed - Gohan realises the peril in the T.of.P, despite disapproving of what his father did to set up the tournament, before eventually changing his mind and going onboard team U7, starting with the Zen Exhibition match, where despite the draw, he used SS1 as an active radar, an actual unseen strategy in order to fight. He realises that he should be at a way stronger level if he's to compete against the multiverse's strongest so he seeks out Piccolo, who much to my surprise, bodies the f*** out of him in the first spar to show him his errors. These constant reminders along with some inspiration from Big Green lead to the grand return of the Ultimate form, which was awesome because Gohan's transformations have sucked in comparison to everyone else in Super(they still do, I mean Frieza gets a whole twirl and metamorphosis, Goku and Vegeta get the cracking egg type thing, you get my point
)
After training a little bit more with his teacher, he knows he has to face the strongest to test himself, which leads to episode 90, one of the greatest Gohan battles of all-time against his father, aka the guy, Goku. Yeah he loses, but he put up a hell of a fight and he could only be knocked out by a blow from an SSB KK x whatever level Goku is feeling like, with the narrative now showing that
Gohan can fight with the strongest in U7. Fast-forward to the tournament, and Gohan has had barely any great showings against opponents who truthfully should have been blitzed by him, to give him a good start and show him off as a strong, viable challenge. He's been protected all tournament, which was criticised by a lot of people for a while, so when Piccolo got eliminated, Gohan found himself with a new challenge - independently fighting against U3. Did he look strong there? Yes and no. On the one hand, he fought against all three robots and the fusion, but on the other hand a.) they didn't get erased b.) needed help from Goku and Vegeta c.)just played a side role in the beam struggle.
And now we're here, at the last 9 minutes of the Tournament. The big battle: Universe 7 vs Universe 11. The place where Gohan can really reach those new heights, and ascend beyond his previous limits to prove himself against opponents who we know from the storyline are incredibly strong. No-one's really said much about our boy beating Jiren because most fans realise it's non-sensical / plain bad writing if he does after having just came back and trained for so little against a potential God of Destruction level opponent, however what I see fit and what some seem open to him playing a support role against Dyspo whilst Frieza fights him and then a main fight against Toppo, who no doubt is incredibly strong at Full Power (imo SSB KK (x) level
). This gives him a valuable role in the climax, and helps to further his arc of 'ascending to new heights unlike his father'. What better way would there be than to see Gohan getting battered by Toppo but finding the solution within himself to withstand the punishment, rise above it, and eliminate Toppo. Hell, I would be open to see the return of his sort-of-but not really Izuna (s/o my FGC people) against Toppo, like he did against Lavender or a completely new unique attack. And if after he's exhausted all his options (Masenko, Kamehameha, the other rapid beam fire thing he does, maybe an SBC - ok i'm pushing it here), he loses, we'll know he wasn't ready, which allows for more layers to his character, dealing with a loss/draw (double elimination) and its aftermath.
[spoiler]Tl:DR: Gohan should fight Toppo as it helps his character development and he's only been fighting weaker opponents until now. Forgot to add, I think 17 should join this fight and lose but not get eliminated, so the final fight is 17, G.Frieza, UI Goku, SSB Vegeta and perhaps Gohan (depending on the result) vs FP Jiren / El Hermano
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