Trunks should've been the hero of the Cell arc

[DanielSSJ]

Think about it, the story is already more so about Trunks than any one else. He incites the plot by going to the past to seek out Goku's help, and in doing so, inadvertently puts the Earth in far greater danger than it otherwise would've been. The Androids end up being far more powerful than they're supposed to be, his attempt to cure Goku backfires when the timing of the disease changes, and worst of all, he ends up attracting a far worse threat than even Androids. Cell is here BECAUSE of Trunks, and he killed a Trunks to get here. If Cell is anyone's nemesis, he's Trunks'.

Even the fact that Goku, the hero that Trunks hedged all his bets on ends up not being strong enough to save the day feels like it's all in service of having Trunks realize needs to learn to have faith in himself and take charge of his own fate. If nothing else, I think it would've made for a more cohesive story than Gohan taking over in the final hour after hardly being in the story.

[The Dark Knight]

The story was about the next generation of warriors (Gohan and Trunks) saving the world, which resulted in one saving the past (Gohan), and the other saving the future (Trunks). Gohan in particular had been set up since his introduction to do great things as a result of his hidden powers, powers that never materialized in the future due to Goku's death. That was altered thanks to Trunks, so Gohan was able to finally utilize his full potential.

[DanielSSJ]

I don't think it's executed particularly well if that's the intention. Yes, Gohan's potential has been built up since his introduction, but I don't think the Cell arc was a great place to pay it off. It's by far the smallest role Gohan's played in an arc since his introduction. He's consistently kept out of the action, so he doesn't grow to develop any especially personal stakes in the conflict or dynamics with the antagonists. Case in point, when Goku's trying to make Gohan a Super Saiyan and tells him to imagine Cell killing him, Gohan can't because he's never seen him and has to imagine Freeza instead.

[The Dark Knight]

I don't think it's executed particularly well if that's the intention. Yes, Gohan's potential has been built up since his introduction, but I don't think the Cell arc was a great place to pay it off. It's by far the smallest role Gohan's played in an arc since his introduction. He's consistently kept out of the action, so he doesn't grow to develop any especially personal stakes in the conflict or dynamics with the antagonists.

I do agree with you here to a point; I think what Gohan had was good, and Toei did a good job with him in the Trunks special and giving him additional filler scene/episodes throughout the arc, but he definitely needed at least one more major plot point in the story to really push home that he was taking over from Goku.

[Kid Buu]

I wouldn't have minded Gohan saving the day but there wasn't much build up to it. What puzzles me is that Gohan was Trunks best friend in that timeline but he barely acknowledged present Gohan. That's one thing I appreciate that Super did.

[Kenji]

The whole Trunks/Vegeta/Bulma family drama should've been given more development, really.
Vegeta suddenly getting sad his baby boy died after a whole-ass arc of abusing him and his mother felt forced.
Heck, Bulma and Vegeta felt forced.

But you know Toriyama, his editors told him to develop that more and he said, "No."
On the topic of Gohan, yes. His presence during the whole arc felt negligible up until the final moments when Toriyama suddenly up and decided he'd replace Goku next arc (a plot that got aborted and went nowhere), his "relationship" with #16 came out of nowhere, yet he was the one most affected by his death.

A lot of things in the Cell and Boo arcs are Toriyama getting an idea, getting bored of that idea, then rushing to a new idea regardless of the impact that will have on the story he's telling.

[SupremeKai25]

I think Trunks might have been intended to be the original hero when the main villains were 17 and 18, but after Toriyama introduced Cell, he decided to change the main hero to Gohan, but also keep Trunks killing 17 and 18 in his original timeline. This way, Toriyama gives Gohan the win in the main timeline and Trunks in the original timeline.

If Cell didn't exist though, and the true villains were indeed 17 and 18, then I do think Toriyama would've just made Trunks the hero.

The Cell saga really is a mess from a narrative perspective. It's just one plot twist after another.

"Freeza is back! Oh wait no he just got killed by this random guy from the future. This guy says that two terrible androids will appear in this city and start destroying the world! Well we went there and it turns out they're not the REAL androids Trunks saw. Well we went to the secret lab and here's the Androids Trunks saw in his future, and there's also a third, unknown android who dresses in green. Oh wait they're not the real threat, it's actually an insectoid monster in an even more secret underground lab."

I found it a very confusing arc. Too many changing villains, too many plot twists and reveals, overall I find it the most boring and complicated arc to rewatch. Too many plot reveals are bad. I don't enjoy it at all.

Hot take: I think the Majin Buu saga is easily superior to Cell and I rank it as the overall best and most enjoyable saga in the Z section.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I think Trunks might have been intended to be the original hero when the main villains were 17 and 18, but after Toriyama introduced Cell, he decided to change the main hero to Gohan, but also keep Trunks killing 17 and 18 in his original timeline. This way, Toriyama gives Gohan the win in the main timeline and Trunks in the original timeline.

If Cell didn't exist though, and the true villains were indeed 17 and 18, then I do think Toriyama would've just made Trunks the hero.

The Cell saga really is a mess from a narrative perspective. It's just one plot twist after another.

"Freeza is back! Oh wait no he just got killed by this random guy from the future. This guy says that two terrible androids will appear in this city and start destroying the world! Well we went there and it turns out they're not the REAL androids Trunks saw. Well we went to the secret lab and here's the Androids Trunks saw in his future, and there's also a third, unknown android who dresses in green. Oh wait they're not the real threat, it's actually an insectoid monster in an even more secret underground lab."

I found it a very confusing arc. Too many changing villains, too many plot twists and reveals, overall I find it the most boring and complicated arc to rewatch. Too many plot reveals are bad. I don't enjoy it at all.

Hot take: I think the Majin Buu saga is easily superior to Cell and I rank it as the overall best and most enjoyable saga in the Z section.

I agree about the Majin Buu saga. Toriyama was clearly flying by the seat of his pants for the Android and Cell sagas but the Majin Buu saga executed the plot twists much better, and it all came together in a way that felt genuinely surprising.

[Kid Buu]

Hot take: I think the Majin Buu saga is easily superior to Cell and I rank it as the overall best and most enjoyable saga in the Z section.

I do too, Buu feels more creative than Cell with his magical abilities. I like how the arc scales to the highest of Gods too, while the Cell Saga entirely is Earth-centric.

[SupremeKai25]

Hot take: I think the Majin Buu saga is easily superior to Cell and I rank it as the overall best and most enjoyable saga in the Z section.

I do too, Buu feels more creative than Cell with his magical abilities. I like how the arc scales to the highest of Gods too, while the Cell Saga entirely is Earth-centric.

The main reason I love the Buu saga is the 7 years timeskip. I enjoyed the introduction of Goten and Present Trunks, other new characters like Videl and Mr. Satan (who was basically a joke in the Cell saga, Majin Buu turned him into an actual character and so I liked that), and I just really enjoyed the grown-up Gohan. I thought it was cool that this kid from the past arcs grew up to be a high school student.

Mind you, I'm not a Gohan fanboy. I don't care that Gohan failed to save the day. I just enjoyed the concept of a big timeskip and aging up the protagonist.

But yes, I also thought the villain was more entertaining and I liked that they fleshed out the cosmology of the world with the Kaioshin and the world of the Kais.

Consider this: The cosmology of Super is a natural expansion of the Majin Buu saga. Beerus and Whis exist only because Nahare exists. They're linked to him, they're meant to flesh out the cosmology by giving us new gods of destruction and angels, but this "Cosmic" world-building begins with Nahare in the Buu saga. Nahare is the character who introduced us to the gods outside of Earth, the gods of creation, and eventually the gods of destruction and the angels. He's always been one of my favorite characters from the Z section because of how exotic he looked and how much world-building he introduced,

[Kid Buu]

Hot take: I think the Majin Buu saga is easily superior to Cell and I rank it as the overall best and most enjoyable saga in the Z section.

I do too, Buu feels more creative than Cell with his magical abilities. I like how the arc scales to the highest of Gods too, while the Cell Saga entirely is Earth-centric.

The main reason I love the Buu saga is the 7 years timeskip. I enjoyed the introduction of Goten and Present Trunks, other new characters like Videl and Mr. Satan (who was basically a joke in the Cell saga, Majin Buu turned him into an actual character and so I liked that), and I just really enjoyed the grown-up Gohan. I thought it was cool that this kid from the past arcs grew up to be a high school student.

Mind you, I'm not a Gohan fanboy. I don't care that Gohan failed to save the day. I just enjoyed the concept of a big timeskip and aging up the protagonist.

But yes, I also thought the villain was more entertaining and I liked that they fleshed out the cosmology of the world with the Kaioshin and the world of the Kais.

Consider this: The cosmology of Super is a natural expansion of the Majin Buu saga. Beerus and Whis exist only because Nahare exists. They're linked to him, they're meant to flesh out the cosmology by giving us new gods of destruction and angels, but this "Cosmic" world-building begins with Nahare in the Buu saga. Nahare is the character who introduced us to the gods outside of Earth, the gods of creation, and eventually the gods of destruction and the angels. He's always been one of my favorite characters from the Z section because of how exotic he looked and how much world-building he introduced,

Funny thing is, when I was a kid, Gohan was one of my favourite and I hated Mr. Satan for stealing credit of killing Cell and Kaioshin for allowing Gohan's energy to get drained.

Yet as the arc went on my opinion changed. Mystic Gohan I found insanely boring, both in his free power up and the shy-awkward teenager personality being gone. I loved the plot twist that Super Buu won the fight because it'd have felt really anti-climatic if Gohan had won.

Meanwhile Mr. Satan came into his own and him actually saving the day was absolutely brilliant. Kaioshin I learned to appreciate too. As a kid found him annoying but now I see he is reasonable while the Saiyans just kept the game as a sport.

Speaking of, I know I spoke about this recently, but I love Kid Buu's debut because it flips everything that the Cell arc (and at times the Buu arc) did. In the Cell arc, the heroes or the villains have plenty of chances to win but don't because they treat the whole thing as a game. Then Kid Buu shows up, and gets straight down to business by blowing up the Earth.

[Zephyr]

He incites the plot, but he does so as an outsider. He often exits the story, where we do not see his perspective, and then he returns. We do get a flashback bonus chapter showing his backstory, but that's created long after his debut. Finally, he does still kinda bookend the arc, with its closing chapters showing his perspective. I think he makes for a very strong major supporting character.

I see the Cell arc ultimately as a rivalry between schools on how to transcend the Super Saiyan, with each school really being a different father-son duo. The masters of these schools, the fathers, are the true rivals, with their sons acting as star pupils, and in turn as proxies. It is not a direct rivalry, where they fight each other; instead they are seeing who can defeat this third school, represented by Dr. Gero's star pupil, Cell. That Gohan is the hero of the Cell arc, in that he is the one to defeat Cell, demonstrates the superiority of Goku's kung-fu over Vegeta's. I believe that this is very important.

Beyond that, I believe that Trunks (the future timeline's Bulma acting through him) is simply there to give our characters the nudge they needed for history to be different. Among the many reasons stated for why Bulma built a time machine and sent her son back with it in the first place, was to save Goku from the heart virus. If he was around, shit wouldn't have gone down like that. And she was right! With Goku around, Gohan got stronger. And although Goku does still die in the end anyway, he stuck around long enough that Gohan could replace him this time, preventing anyone else from dying. I think it's good that the characters from our timeline are the ones to really set things right themselves, rather than just relying on this cool strong dude who fell out of the sky. Sure, it's a very cool entrance to see him do that for them with Freeza, but to have that also be the ending? I'm not sure. It's just another form of having to be saved by someone who isn't even gonna be around anymore, rather than mustering the skills to be able to do it yourself.

At the same time though, this Cell is Trunks' fault. And just because the story doesn't open as his story, doesn't mean that it can't become about him. I kinda have to be fine with that if I'm gonna defend Gohan doing the same thing up there lol. Cell is his mess, so him putting the monster away would work, for the same reason I like Goku and Vegeta being the ones to put Boo away. And, not for nothing, we see the arc end on Trunks back in the future, getting literal revenge on the twins and cosmic revenge on Cell. So seeing Trunks win the Cell Games would have been a much more impactful and evocative way to depict that cosmic revenge.

Personally like the way that Gohan being the champion feeds into the school rivalry angle, more than I like the potential of a stronger payoff for Trunks. Though I do think the latter would have been a very strong narrative direction as well.

---

Whichever one of them you go with, though, I think that it would have been structurally-beneficial to have drawn a flashback chapter while Trunks is explaining everything to Goku during his initial visit. Have that chapter be a visual depiction of the explanation. That way you can retain Trunks' very cool entrance, while very clearly seeding either his or Gohan's character arc. For Gohan that establishes his failure as a way to set up his triumph in the new timeline. For Trunks, it fully strips him of his status as an outsider to the story early on, justifying making him a more central character to the narrative.

But that's with hindsight. Gohan becoming the champion and Goku dying are, I think, the result of a mid-arc shift in priorities for the narrative, that weren't present during the arc's opening chapters. I think this early on, the story was still intended to end with Goku alive and as the champion (or with that at least understood as enough of a given), so naturally the thought wouldn't occur to plant the seeds of a big Gohan or Trunks arc. Toriyama kept changing the story's antagonists, and I think he just hit a wall and decided it was simply time to conclude Goku's character arc. So, when Goku wakes up, I think we see the earliest possible evidence for this shift having occurred in Toriyama's mind: Goku has a talk with Chichi about letting him train Gohan, and then he promises to get a job. This feels different from the more comical talk they have earlier in the arc where he tells her she's crazy and launches her through the house and a tree. This is also where he starts talking about "giving up" a lot, which is definitely a change in direction for Goku, and I think that direction is to the finish line. By the time Cell becomes Perfect in the very same chapter that Gohan becomes a Super Saiyan, it's clear that the final showdown is set up to be between these two.

Crunching some numbers for fun now. The Cell arc runs from chapter 330 to 420, which is 92 chapters long (including Trunks the Story). Goku wakes up, starts talking about giving up, and speaks solemnly about training Gohan in chapter 365, the 36th of the arc. 35 is 38% of 92. Meaning that this narrative shift occurs around a third of the way through the story. Honestly that's much earlier than I'd ever realized. Always thought it was a relatively late shift in the story's run. So about a third of the time was spent experimenting, before a concrete direction was finally settled on. If my analysis of Dragon Ball on a larger scale is correct, that everything prior to the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai was a period of experimentation in pursuit of a concrete direction, then Dragon Ball as a whole, like the Cell arc within it, spends roughly the first third of its existence experimenting (though in this case that rough third is about 32%), and the final two thirds following the direction determined by said experimentation. I think the degree of proportional similarity there is neat.

[Metalwario64]

It would have been incredibly underwhelming if, after all the time with Goku as the protagonist, and the building up of Gohan as the next generation, for it to just pivot to a new guy from the future as the main character coming back and saving the day and being the main focus of the series. I love Trunks and his story, but I wouldn't have liked him taking the entire arc's spotlight.

[DanielSSJ]

It would have been incredibly underwhelming if, after all the time with Goku as the protagonist, and the building up of Gohan as the next generation, for it to just pivot to a new guy from the future as the main character coming back and saving the day and being the main focus of the series. I love Trunks and his story, but I wouldn't have liked him taking the entire arc's spotlight.

I didn't mention it in the original post since I don't really have a strong idea what it would look like, but my thinking was if Trunks took the W against Cell, Gohan would've had his shot in the Boo arc instead. Honestly, I'd rather that build up be paid off in the final arc anyways rather than what actually happened.

But I wouldn't be opposed to a version of the Cell arc that made better use of Gohan as the ultimate main character, either. It'd jut require a lot of rewriting. I just think the structure of the arc as-is is better suited to Trunks.

[The Dark Knight]

My thinking was if Trunks took the W against Cell, Gohan would've had his shot in the Boo arc instead. Honestly, I'd rather that build up be paid off in the final arc anyways rather than what actually happened.

The final battle against Kid Buu was one of the best in the series, and it couldn't have been written that way without Goku and Vegeta taking center stage again. How do you keep that ending as is, or write one better, with Gohan and Gotenks in the lead roles instead of Goku and Vegeta ? Sure, you could have fights that were just as good, but what about the emotional pay off that we saw with Goku and Vegeta ? how do you top Vegeta's #1 speech and the stress and relief of charging the Genkidama and it actually working ? In a passing of the torch story like the Buu arc, the previous generation must first be offered closure before they can step aside in a satisfying way; Goku and Vegeta dying in vain against Cell and Buu would not have been a satisfying exit for them.

[JulieYBM]

My thinking was if Trunks took the W against Cell, Gohan would've had his shot in the Boo arc instead. Honestly, I'd rather that build up be paid off in the final arc anyways rather than what actually happened.

The final battle against Kid Buu was one of the best in the series, and it couldn't have been written that way without Goku and Vegeta taking center stage again. How do you keep that ending as is, or write one better, with Gohan and Gotenks in the lead roles instead of Goku and Vegeta ? Sure, you could have fights that were just as good, but what about the emotional pay off that we saw with Goku and Vegeta ? how do you top Vegeta's #1 speech and the stress and relief of charging the Genkidama and it actually working ? In a passing of the torch story like the Buu arc, the previous generation must first be offered closure before they can step aside in a satisfying way; Goku and Vegeta dying in vain against Cell and Buu would not have been a satisfying exit for them.

You just build the arc around Gohan, Goten and Trunks' feelings and go from there. Toriyama had already experienced the passage of time at that point: he was in his thirties and was married with kids and a career. Toss a little bit of those feelings into the series by focusing on Gohan, Goten and Trunks' losing their dads and the overwhelming feeling of now having the protect the Earth themselves. Think about all the times you're overwhelmed and put that into the story in an indirect way. Let those young characters learn the lessons that you wish you had had somebody to help you learn.

Tie that together with Majin Buu: maybe he doesn't have a good parental figure to draw wisdom from? Maybe the series ends with Gohan offering Majin Buu the kind of advice that Goku gave Gohan once, thus tapping into that sort of legacy element that was being applied to Gohan, Goten and Trunks, and then to Uub in the comic that we got.

[The Dark Knight]

You just build the arc around Gohan, Goten and Trunks' feelings and go from there.

I know it can be done; I'm just not a fan of losing the closure/final hurrah Goku and Vegeta got against Kid Buu; having their last battles be wasted sacrifices would just come off as anti-climactic for their stories. The Buu arc set the next generation up as surpassing the previous one when it came to strength, as both Ultimate Gohan and Ssj3 Gotenks possessed power far greater than their dads and friends by the end of the arc. However, as a result of their young ages, they still lacked the mental discipline to get things done, which is why Goku and Vegeta had to step back into the ring at the end.

This is where the follow up arc, GT's Black Star arc, should have come in. It had been 15 years since the fight with Buu, so everyone should have grown mentally enough to be responsible to retrieve the dragon balls from space without the need of the old guard tagging along to babysit them. 7 dragon balls, so Gohan, Goten, Trunks, Uub, Pan, Bulla, and for comedic purposes, Mr. Satan and Buu get mixed up with them and end up on the trip by accident. That should've been the team sent to space, as that would've picked up on the thread of slowly developing the next generation to be capable of taking care of things when need be.

Gohan ends up being the one who goes to planet M-2, takes down Rildo and his men, but Baby escapes to earth similarly to what happened in GT, but only enacts his plans once everyone and the dragon balls are back on earth. From there, the arc plays out more or less the same as it did in GT, with the exception being Piccolo's role being increased to add more weight to his sacrifice later. We know in GT Baby wasn't able to take him over, so in this rewrite, he would be sneaking around with Pan, Satan, and Buu, then lending a hand against Baby alongside Goku once he reaches Ssj4. The Super #17 arc would be handled exclusively by the next generation, further establishing them as earth's new protectors. They would also play a bigger role against the shadow dragons, with that arc's ending fully passing the torch down to them following the departure of Goku and maybe even the death of Vegeta.

[JulieYBM]

You just build the arc around Gohan, Goten and Trunks' feelings and go from there.

I know it can be done; I'm just not a fan of losing the closure/final hurrah Goku and Vegeta got against Kid Buu; having their last battles be wasted sacrifices would just come off as anti-climactic for their stories. The Buu arc set the next generation up as surpassing the previous one when it came to strength, as both Ultimate Gohan and Ssj3 Gotenks possessed power far greater than their dads and friends by the end of the arc. However, as a result of their young ages, they still lacked the mental discipline to get things done, which is why Goku and Vegeta had to step back into the ring at the end.

This is where the follow up arc, GT's Black Star arc, should have come in. It had been 15 years since the fight with Buu, so everyone should have grown mentally enough to be responsible to retrieve the dragon balls from space without the need of the old guard tagging along to babysit them. 7 dragon balls, so Gohan, Goten, Trunks, Uub, Pan, Bulla, and for comedic purposes, Mr. Satan and Buu get mixed up with them and end up on the trip by accident. That should've been the team sent to space, as that would've picked up on the thread of slowly developing the next generation to be capable of taking care of things when need be.

Gohan ends up being the one who goes to planet M-2, takes down Rildo and his men, but Baby escapes to earth similarly to what happened in GT, but only enacts his plans once everyone and the dragon balls are back on earth. From there, the arc plays out more or less the same as it did in GT, with the exception being Piccolo's role being increased to add more weight to his sacrifice later. We know in GT Baby wasn't able to take him over, so in this rewrite, he would be sneaking around with Pan, Satan, and Buu, then lending a hand against Baby alongside Goku once he reaches Ssj4. The Super #17 arc would be handled exclusively by the next generation, further establishing them as earth's new protectors. They would also play a bigger role against the shadow dragons, with that arc's ending fully passing the torch down to them following the departure of Goku and maybe even the death of Vegeta.

I don't see how their final battles are really 'wasted'. Adults dying and leaving things and lessons behind to their kids is pretty standard fare. Like, Gohan and the others don't need to be written the same way that they're written in the comic at all. The story can be written anyway one likes. Toriyama didn't have to have Gohan and Gotenks not accomplish anything, it's something that he chose and decided to write. His lack of discipline as a writer is his own fault.

[Kenji]

Inb4 "That's way too melodramatic and not Toriyama-esque at all, please don't criticize my favorite writer for his blatant skill issues."

[VegettoEX]

Inb4 "That's way too melodramatic and not Toriyama-esque at all, please don't criticize my favorite writer for his blatant skill issues."

This kind of response is not an actual response -- it's dismissive and unwelcome.

If you want to have a real conversation, please do! If you don't have anything to say, you don't have anything to say.