Can DB Ever Move Past Goku?

[ABED]

It's less the case that the stories without Goku or the ones that limit his involvement prove DB can function without him, and more that a few one offs here and there work without him, and his lack of involvement on Namek also don't prove DB works without him. Just because his limited involvement works great in that instance doesn't mean that DB should have even less of him. It's like a recipe, having the right ingredients in the right amounts is what makes food tasty. I like salt on a pretzel, but it doesn't follow that I should dump a whole salt shaker on my pretzel.

[wushi05]

Then Gohan suffers from being written into his own hole by the author himself despite wasted some chapters having him train just to lose. It's not about him being unfit for the role in the way people are saying here.

Exactly this. Gohan could have made a compelling main character to replace Goku and be a true hero unlike Goku. But that all depends on how Toriyama chooses to write the character. He decided for himself that Gohan is the kind of person that does x but not y and z. If he had tweaked that line just a bit I think we could have landed with a great "reluctant hero who realizes how much the world needs him and his moral upbringing prevents him from sitting idly by so he rises to the occasion" sort of story. It ain't boring. It's basically Superman. And whereas Goku happened to do good deeds and save the world in the course of finding strong people to fight and protecting his friends, the difference between him and Gohan is Gohan is shown to actually care about life itself (it was the trigger for his SSJ2 transformation for crying out loud), a key trait for one who would be the defender of Earth, so much that he dresses himself up as a superhero to fight crime in his city.

Everything up to the Cell saga was bringing out Gohan's potential and preparing him for the role of Earth's defender. The Buu saga could have and should have been his first test of fulfilling that role. He loses to Buu, realizes that he's failed to live up to his promise to his father and commits to training for the final confrontation to save Earth and the entire universe. The arc was practically made for Gohan to be the hero. Of course it still requires the Buu saga to be tweaked that way to make that payoff work because he wasn't shown to actually feel that way or train for his power up, it was handed to him in a stupid gag, and he wasn't really hyped up throughout the arc the way Goku was during previous conflicts on account of everyone thinking he was dead. But the usual plot structure of "savior comes at the last second to save the day with his shiny new powerup" is entirely focused around Gohan up until that point, where previously it would be Goku in that position.

Toriyama chose to write Gohan losing that fight instead of growing, realizing his role, and owning it. He chose to write Gohan as someone who chooses his studies over saving the world rather than writing him as someone who juggles both. It's not that Gohan is unfit to be the main character, it's that Toriyama is ill-suited to write that kind of story. It takes some forethought and we all know Toriyama doesn't do that.

In fact, Toriyama contradicts his own writing and undoes Gohan's character development from the end of the Cell saga. Android 16 tells Gohan he is gentle and loves life but that it's okay to unleash his power if it means protecting the world, so he does so. By making him solely focused on academia, what happened to his kindness and desire to protect the world? It just makes him selfish which is unlike Gohan.

Story-wise, I don't think Gohan is a good protagonist. He's way too passive for the protagonist.

What are you talking about? Goku isn't any more active than Gohan. He only followed Bulma to begin with because he wanted his Dragon Ball back when she was done with it, not knowing that he would have lost it after she makes her wish. She manipulated him into following her. You have two tournaments where he just wants to fight strong people. And he incidentally destroys the Red Ribbon Army while looking for his Dragon Ball because they just happened to be in the way. Every arc of Dragon Ball after that is just Goku responding to a new threat, from King Piccolo all the way to Buu. He doesn't really have any motivations that actively drive the story forward besides "I like fighting people" and "gotta stop this guy from destroying the world". Gohan isn't any less active than that. If written properly, he could very well have chosen the path of a hero and protector. We've seen, when the chips are down, Gohan is ready and willing to step into the fray to fight for his friends and for what's right. Prior to Cell, he was too weak to stand a chance but he still tried anyway. He's plenty active as a character (as of the start of the Buu saga).

But if by "passive" you mean "timid", that still doesn't make a bad protagonist. Just look at Deku in My Hero Academia. Being timid and gentle adds an interesting dimension to someone who possesses awesome powers. It's a popular anime archetype on its own. Gohan doesn't need to be less timid to be interesting but if it's that important to you, any decent writer can write an arc where he grows to be more assertive or decisive, and the Buu saga was the perfect set up for that as well. At least Gohan has room for personal growth besides raising his power level, as his one episode in DBS about his arrogance pays lip service to. But again, that kind of story is not what Toriyama is able to do.

Leaving out Goku doesn't just remove him, you remove all those relationships that are so important to the series.

Which is why Gohan is the perfect successor. He has a lot of those same relationships but more. He is Piccolo's student. Krillin is like an uncle to him. He's friends with Bulma and Trunks and has the begrudging respect of Vegeta. Unlike Goku, Gohan actually has a relationship with Goten. And then he has Videl and later Pan. Yamcha and Tien are irrelevant. DBZ built him up to be the successor in more ways than just Goku saying so at the end of the Cell saga.

And I'd say Goku's relationships have never been that important to the series. Prior to DBZ, it was really just the adventures of Goku with his friends making appearances sometimes. DBZ is the part that really developed those relationships but a lot of them revolved around Gohan more than Goku because Goku was off somewhere else most of the time. He barely has a relationship with anyone in DBZ besides Gohan and Vegeta, in fact. So really, Gohan was perfect to pick up the mantle of main protagonist. It just required a writer capable of pulling it off and following through on the set up for the Buu saga. That was not Toriyama.

[ABED]

No Gohan doesn't have those relationships. He has diiferent relationships with those characters. Gohan doesn't have the same history and chemistry with Bulma or Vegeta or Kuririn. I'd say you are DAMN wrong about how important Goku's relationships are to the series. You are thinking about it the wrong way. Forget about the plot. It's the characters, their relationships, their interactions. They are why we care. It's the way they interact that makes it fun to watch. It's the fun interplay between Goku and Bulma that makes the first arc so much fun. It's the sweet relationships between Goku, Kuririn, and Muten Roshi that makes it so heart breaking when Kuririn and Roshi's death so heartbreaking and ultimately Goku's revenge so cathartic. We care about those characters and what they mean to him.

Nothing you wrote refutes my point about Goku being active. He chooses his path. The RRA may have been in the way but he encountered them along the way in pursuit of his goal to find his grandpa's DB. It was a goal he set out for himself. He chose the path to become the best marital artist he could and is constantly pushing himself. That's what makes him active. The Piccolo Daimao arc is driven by Goku pursuing his revenge. The entire Cell arc happens because he makes the choice to fight them instead of pre-emptively stopping them.

He doesn't really have any motivations that actively drive the story forward besides "I like fighting people"

It's a story about people fighting people so that motivation is pretty damn important.

The times when Gohan is most active is when he's the most interesting, like when he is the one who chooses to go back to help his father fight Vegeta or when he makes the choice to go to Namek. He is at his least interesting when he's just doing what he's told like the entirety of the Cell arc. He does what he's told.

I wasn't talking about timid characters and I have no intention of ever watching My Hero Academia. By active, I mean he chooses his path in the story.

[UltraInstinctRorikon]

If he had tweaked that line just a bit I think we could have landed with a great "reluctant hero who realizes how much the world needs him and his moral upbringing prevents him from sitting idly by so he rises to the occasion" sort of story. It ain't boring. It's basically Superman. And whereas Goku happened to do good deeds and save the world in the course of finding strong people to fight and protecting his friends, the difference between him and Gohan is Gohan is shown to actually care about life itself (it was the trigger for his SSJ2 transformation for crying out loud)

I quite like this and agree. I always felt more connected with Gohan's personality type than Goku's.

[goku the krump dancer]

You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who's as aloofly single-minded as Goku, maybe your top athletes are the closest youd get, so relating to his emotions isnt as important as having a blast watching him do his thing.

Gohan fights because he HAS to, Goku fights because he WANTS too and the drive Goku has to constantly improve is what pulls everyone to him be it by accident or on purpose and it moves the story forward.

If Gohan were to take his place, it'll be about him finding his identity between being a Saiyan and a human, which could be fun for a brief period but not something that could sustain multiple arcs at a time for what Dragon Ball is about.

I have to wonder though, do other fandoms have these discussions about their central character? Like do people say "Gee, I wish Shikamaru became the lead character for Naruto, because he's so cool".

Hell Superman has been treated like a mantle and not a character several times in the comics, yet ultimately it still always comes back to Clark Kent/Kal-El. When people think of Superman they think of him, like with Dragon Ball, people think of Goku.

[ABED]

And if you want to watch Superman, then watch superman or some other superhero story. Db isn't a superhero story and shouldn't become one.

[MyVisionity]

The audience isn't suddenly gonna bail on the show just because Goku leaves. They may have been invested because of Goku and his relationships but that doesn't mean that they wouldn't stay for Gohan and his relationships. Longtime viewers will stick with Gohan because he's Goku's son and chosen successor, and because of the previously established characters remaining. Newer viewers will see Gohan as the main hero from the start and want to follow along with him on his journey, while also getting to know the new characters and relationships.

[ABED]

It feels like they'd stay out of habit, and the idea of Goku having a successor misses the point. The show is not about saving the world. And audience's don't care that much for those sorts of stakes. They care about the protagonists and them trying to achieve their goals. How often do you watch this show or some superhero movie that's about stopping the end of the world and you're just bored by it?

[Desassina]

I think that some people are projecting and that ABED is right. Gohan does not have the iconicity of Goku in Dragon Ball, but he is most children's self insert character from the time that it used to air in the US, because there are other countries whose fans were fortunate to avoid message boards and to witness DB on television and/or movie theatre without bias. DBS was made to be Goku's story with its cast at their most iconic and/or crowded stage. Granted that, while it was still rooted on tradition with Battle of Gods and Resurrection of F, by the time of the Tournament of Power and Dragon Ball Super: Broly, the franchise returned to its iconic status, although it was put on a hiatus. It had much to recover from.

[wushi05]

Gohan fights because he HAS to, Goku fights because he WANTS too and the drive Goku has to constantly improve is what pulls everyone to him be it by accident or on purpose and it moves the story forward.

If Gohan were to take his place, it'll be about him finding his identity between being a Saiyan and a human, which could be fun for a brief period but not something that could sustain multiple arcs at a time for what Dragon Ball is about.

I have to wonder though, do other fandoms have these discussions about their central character? Like do people say "Gee, I wish Shikamaru became the lead character for Naruto, because he's so cool".

I have to wonder how much anime you've seen if you think characters who only fight when they have to never drive stories forward and aren't incredibly common and among the most popular characters out there. Goku's drive to improve and fight people doesn't really drive the story because it's incredibly broad and doesn't inform any actual plot decisions or actions the way stopping someone from blowing up the planet or finding Dragon Balls does. Outside of tournaments, his drive to improve isn't the impetus behind any arc. It was always stopping the next threat.

It's not like Naruto wanting to become Hokage, or Gon wanting to find his father, or Luffy wanting to find One Piece, or Light wanting to become god of a new world. These are actual goals that drive a story. Wanting to fight people isn't a story driver, it's a character trait. He doesn't have to strive to fight people or improve because it's already a natural part of story progression. And most of the time Goku doesn't go looking for fights, fights come to him. Wanting to train Gohan up to pass the torch, that drives the story forward, and it did in the Cell saga.

The only thing you can do with a main character as simple as Goku is present a stronger enemy to fight. It gets stale, and GT and Super demonstrated that. Gohan on the other hand has tons of story potential beyond finding his identity because he as a person is more complex than Goku. Confronting his arrogance. Testing his resolve to be Earth's defender. Facing an opponent who matches his intellect. Characters like Gohan are protagonists all the time for stories that go on for ages. But if you don't like complex stuff and want Dragon Ball to be basic, he can still just protect Earth from the next threat the same way Goku always has, the way Goku left it at the end of the Cell saga. Not that any of that really matters because my main point is not about Gohan replacing Goku for future Dragon Ball stories but rather just for the final arc of the original story, as it was set up to be.

"What Dragon Ball is about" has changed over time. What was originally a simple adventure comedy story about a boy who likes fighting turned into a more plot heavy action epic that focused on building Gohan up to take Goku's place but when it came time to pay it off, Toriyama reversed course. It's nothing like asking for Shikamaru to replace Naruto because Gohan is Goku's son, not his friend, his successor and heir that Goku expressly stated he wanted to replace him. If anything it's more like Boruto but unlike Boruto, Gohan was an integral part of the original story and the last half of the entire original run was devoted to keeping Goku, our "main character", away from the action as much as possible while Gohan and the others take the spotlight. Gohan was groomed to be the new protagonist and was stated to be so post time skip.

And if you want to watch Superman, then watch superman or some other superhero story. Db isn't a superhero story and shouldn't become one.

Actually I'd say DBZ is already pretty close to being a superhero story. Goku's retconned origin is essentially Superman's origin. His powers include flight, super speed, super strength, teleportation, and shooting energy beams. He fights evil and has an archenemy who wants to take over the whole galaxy. The only thing he lacks is a secret identity but not all superheroes have those.

But no, I don't want to watch Superman. I want to watch Dragon Ball. I want to watch a version of it that delivers what was promised, where Gohan gets to be all that he was promised to be. I want that gun that's been on the wall the entire play to go off by the end, not fall apart impotently at no provocation and be promptly forgotten (Chekhov's Gun if you don't get the reference). I'm not saying I want Dragon Ball to become a superhero story. It's already one step shy of being one. I was only making the comparison to Superman to highlight that Gohan isn't any less protagonist material than Goku (in fact I think he's more), and that you can have a story with these large scale battles and larger than life characters while having a protagonist with more depth than Goku and it would still be a great story and it would still be Dragon Ball, because that's exactly what DBZ was before it had an identity crisis and changed its mind at the last second. DBZ is simultaneously the story of a guy whose friends keep relying on him to save the world by powering up, but also the story of a boy who grows up in his father's shadow amidst these threats and eventually surpasses his father and takes his place as the guy everyone turns to to save the world. I don't know about you but that second part sounds way more interesting than the first part and keeping Gohan as the main character would have been a natural continuation of where the story was already going up until that point.

[wushi05]

It feels like they'd stay out of habit, and the idea of Goku having a successor misses the point. The show is not about saving the world. And audience's don't care that much for those sorts of stakes. They care about the protagonists and them trying to achieve their goals. How often do you watch this show or some superhero movie that's about stopping the end of the world and you're just bored by it?

Something that many people have pointed out is that Toriyama's writing style and plot structure are so simple that you can jump in at any point and get swept up in the story. Throughout DBZ, what are the characters' goals? It's never been about fighting for its own sake. It's never been about self improvement. How often are those even mentioned in the course of an arc? It's always about beating the next guy because they're trying to do something bad. You say people don't care about the stakes but that's entirely what people care about moment to moment because that's how simple Toriyama makes his stories and he conveys it so effectively.

Besides, your point makes my point for me. If all that matters is making people care about the protagonists and the goals they're trying to achieve, then it's not about Goku and his relationships. It's about the characters (Goku and Gohan and the others) and what they're trying to do (save the world, beat that guy, win the tournament). There's no reason Gohan can't take that place when he's already so similar to Goku, has been built up for so long, featured prominently throughout while Goku was featured less and less, and finally given the role by Goku himself.

[ABED]

It feels like they'd stay out of habit, and the idea of Goku having a successor misses the point. The show is not about saving the world. And audience's don't care that much for those sorts of stakes. They care about the protagonists and them trying to achieve their goals. How often do you watch this show or some superhero movie that's about stopping the end of the world and you're just bored by it?

Something that many people have pointed out is that Toriyama's writing style and plot structure are so simple that you can jump in at any point and get swept up in the story. Throughout DBZ, what are the characters' goals? It's never been about fighting for its own sake. It's never been about self improvement. How often are those even mentioned in the course of an arc? It's always about beating the next guy because they're trying to do something bad. You say people don't care about the stakes but that's entirely what people care about moment to moment because that's how simple Toriyama makes his stories and he conveys it so effectively.

Besides, your point makes my point for me. If all that matters is making people care about the protagonists and the goals they're trying to achieve, then it's not about Goku and his relationships. It's about the characters (Goku and Gohan and the others) and what they're trying to do (save the world, beat that guy, win the tournament). There's no reason Gohan can't take that place when he's already so similar to Goku, has been built up for so long, featured prominently throughout while Goku was featured less and less, and finally given the role by Goku himself.

Yes, self improvement which in this case is improving as martial artists. It is absolutely fighting for its own sake. It's talked about again and again that Goku's goal is to be as strong as he can be for no greater reason than to see how far he can go. You're confusing this with plot. The plot gives the story a concrete goal like revenge but it's at its core about these characters' drive to become stronger. And that does drive the plots. Goku and co. don't stop the cyborgs pre-emptively because they want to fight the strongest opponents imaginable.

Gohan is not that similar to Goku. He does what he does out of necessity. Goku does what he does because he wants to. He happens to do some good along the way but it's not his fundamental drive. He doesn't go looking for it. Goku's role is not the world's savior and if it were, he's not great at it since he puts the world in danger almost as much as he saves it. When he fights against Piccolo at the tournament, Goku prioritizes winning the championship he's been after for 6 years over saving the world. When Kuririn has Vegeta dead to rights, Goku convinces him to let Vegeta go so he can have a rematch. He knows full well what he's asking is wrong but he wants a chance to prove he's capable of besting Vegeta now that he knows how strong he is.

And no, people don't care about world ending stakes in and of themselves. Stakes are best when they are personal.

I want that gun that's been on the wall the entire play to go off by the end, not fall apart impotently at no provocation and be promptly forgotten (Chekhov's Gun if you don't get the reference).

Tell me again about one of the most well known concepts in fiction. I get set up and payoff but Gohan's arc was already paid off in the first arc. Gohan gained full control of his power and the confidence to use it when he was needed. It was a coming of age story. His arc was not to become the strongest. Goku wasn't kept away from the story to move Gohan to the foreground. He was taken out of action so he could make a dramatic entrance before saving the day. Toriyama used this trope as a way to increase tension. Goku is the big gun and how do you increase tension? You take away the most powerful hero. Sadly, by that time, Toriyama had fallen into formula and used that trope as a crutch.

Actually I'd say DBZ is already pretty close to being a superhero story. Goku's retconned origin is essentially Superman's origin. His powers include flight, super speed, super strength, teleportation, and shooting energy beams. He fights evil and has an archenemy who wants to take over the whole galaxy.

This is a mischaracterization of the story. He wasn't sent to Earth to save it, he was sent to conquer and destroy. Goku doesn't have superpowers. He is able to use ki which everyone in the story possesses. And Goku didn't have an archenemy until Super. Until then, his villains were usually one and done.

[jjgp1112]

I'm as big of a Gohan fan as you'll find here, but let's be real: Gohan's role as the hero in the Cell saga was tacked on and had no actual narrative build up. Gohan was persona non grata for most of that arc, and his character development even before that was a subplot rather than the whole story, and as ABED said, resolved in the Saiyan saga. Dragon Ball's entire story still functions on what Goku does...and it's rather telling that Goku's death and subsequent motivation through the afterlife play a big role in the conclusion of the Cell Games. Even when someone else is saving the day, it's still an extension of Goku.

A story that revolves around Gohan would become a story with a different purpose, and one that Toriyama had no interest in telling once it became time to have an actual villain and not just dick around doing high school stuff. And he already had to alter Gohan's character just to do the high school stories.

Like I keep saying, just because Dragon Ball isn't called "Goku's Adventures" doesn't mean that isn't exactly what it is. All of the things that exist in Dragon Ball are a means to tell Goku's story. This whole "Goku's absences proves the story could work without him!" point that keeps getting tossed around in this thread at every turn is just absurdly disingenuous, because his absence WAS the story and source of tension.

What was the prevailing message during the battle with Nappa? "Where the hell is Goku?!" and then "Just wait till Goku gets here!" and "Let's stall until Kakarot arrives."

How about Namek? "Vegeta's here but Goku isn't. We're fucked." to "Hey, Goku's coming back! We're saved!" to "Gohan, Krillin, and Vegeta are hopeless against the Ginyu Force but Goku's coming!" to "Everyone has to fight Frieza while Goku is recovering!"

In the Android saga, Trunks was beating the "WE CAN'T DO ANYTHING UNTIL GOKU RECOVERS" drum so much Vegeta got fed up and punched him.

And the Trunks and Bardock specials, the evidence that Dragon Ball can be great without Goku, treat Goku as the light at the end of the tunnel and are set pieces to an arc. The Bardock special is about his father whose actions are at least partially influenced by him, and the Trunks special is a bleak depiction of a future without him, the aftermath of the "If only Goku were here" plot device ending in doom and becoming "If only Goku had been here."

Do y'all listen to Dragon Ball or do y'all just skim through it?

[Majin Buu]

I have to wonder though, do other fandoms have these discussions about their central character? Like do people say "Gee, I wish Shikamaru became the lead character for Naruto, because he's so cool".

As an ex-Naruto fan, it was kinda the opposite for the original series. One of the big complaints I repeatedly saw was that Sasuke seemed more like the main character than Naruto himself. Granted Sasuke is a secondary protagonist, but at its zenith, people were saying the series should be called "Sasuke" because of all the focus his story got over Naruto's.

There was a general sense of disappointment that so many characters from the other teams got so little focus after Part 1 (Part 2 was basically the Naruto and Sasuke show after a certain point with emphasis on Sasuke). Though I'm not sure if that extends to the anime and its countless filler where those characters got more screen time (I stuck to the manga).

[precita]

Gohan should have starred in at least one Super arc.

[UltraInstinctRorikon]

Other series don't have a bait and switch. People like Gohan because the author wrote him to be the main character and built him up as the replacement for Goku through his entire progression from the start of Z. Toriyama undoing that at the very last second is what has lead to this. Another thing is that a lot of people after the plethora of spinoffs are tired of Goku leading. He's also had his story concluded as well, whereas Gohan was about to start his. Then Goku got his story concluded again at the end of Buu.

And until the show is called "Son Goku" like Superman is called Superman, it's just not really the same. I mean we have Batman having his own series despite taking part of the DC universe. DC Universe / Dragon Ball universe is how you should compare these at this point. I mean we're at a point where we even have several different Goku's with Dragon Ball Heroes. It really wouldn't kill them or the series to make a separate Dragon Ball universe show staring someone else.

[Majin Buu]

Other series don't have a bait and switch. People like Gohan because the author wrote him to be the main character and built him up as the replacement for Goku through his entire progression from the start of Z. Toriyama undoing that at the very last second is what has lead to this. Another thing is that a lot of people after the plethora of spinoffs are tired of Goku leading. He's also had his story concluded as well, whereas Gohan was about to start his. Then Goku got his story concluded again at the end of Buu.

Gohan's arc was concluded in the Saiyan arc, then again in the Cell arc.

I swear, sometimes Gohan fans make me want to hate him out of spite with the way they act like he alone is the only thing good about this story.

[jjgp1112]

Other series don't have a bait and switch. People like Gohan because the author wrote him to be the main character and built him up as the replacement for Goku through his entire progression from the start of Z. Toriyama undoing that at the very last second is what has lead to this. Another thing is that a lot of people after the plethora of spinoffs are tired of Goku leading. He's also had his story concluded as well, whereas Gohan was about to start his. Then Goku got his story concluded again at the end of Buu.

And until the show is called "Son Goku" like Superman is called Superman, it's just not really the same. I mean we have Batman having his own series despite taking part of the DC universe. DC Universe / Dragon Ball universe is how you should compare these at this point. I mean we're at a point where we even have several different Goku's with Dragon Ball Heroes. It really wouldn't kill them or the series to make a separate Dragon Ball universe show staring someone else.

"Dragon Ball universe?"

Dragon ball has exactly one spin-off...a middling card game advertisement that exists in the form of monthly 5 minute episodes. There's no actual Marvel/DC Dragon Ball "universe." It's one story that revolves around Goku and then a bunch of video games and merchandise that spawned from its popularity. Just because the series isn't called "Goku Time" doesn't mean that isn't exactly what it is. It's not an ensemble show.

Shit, the fact that Super Dragon Ball Heroes has 8 million versions of Goku only strengthens my argument

[DBZAOTA482]

Other series don't have a bait and switch. People like Gohan because the author wrote him to be the main character and built him up as the replacement for Goku through his entire progression from the start of Z. Toriyama undoing that at the very last second is what has lead to this. Another thing is that a lot of people after the plethora of spinoffs are tired of Goku leading. He's also had his story concluded as well, whereas Gohan was about to start his. Then Goku got his story concluded again at the end of Buu.

Gohan's arc was concluded in the Saiyan arc, then again in the Cell arc.

I swear, sometimes Gohan fans make me want to hate him out of spite with the way they act like he alone is the only thing good about this story.

Not really. Gohan still hadn't lived up to his potential and was overcoming his reluctance during the Namek arc. His arc still isn't complete. In fact, it's in a weird state of stagnation.

Goku is cool and all but I think it's silly to think only he can carry the franchise. Like mentioned before his character arc is long done and giving him powerups is the only way to keep him interesting nowadays.

[UltraInstinctRorikon]

I swear, sometimes Gohan fans make me want to hate him out of spite with the way they act like he alone is the only thing good about this story.

The feeling is mutual.