Discussion, generally of an in-universe nature, regarding any aspect of the franchise (including movies, spin-offs, etc.) such as: techniques, character relationships, internal back-history, its universe, and more.
Its a question I've asked myself from time to time, I figured someone here would know for sure.
Gohan's entire character is built upon the notion that he loves to study and wants to be a great scholar. Yet to my memory Gohan has never done anything that seemed all that smart. We've seen Bulma do smart things and make inventions, and Mr.Briefs as well. I remember him helping Bulma make the space ship in GT but...thats GT. Having Gohan read a book that has a difficult/hard to understand title/subject doesn't make him seem smart. I was more impressed with Gohan's intelligence in early Z than where he is now. since he was like 4 doing crazy math, English, and stuff. Its true Dragon ball series is about fighting some evil critter that crawls out of some hole to fight Goku and Friends and there isn't a whole lot of "peace" time on screen with all the time skips.
It seems, to me, that a lot of Gohan's intelligence is implied and not shown which is sad. If anyone knows anything that I'm probably overlooking please do share.
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Here's a cute gohan picture for your time
Spoiler:
Jaco the Super Elite with The Great Saiyaman fighting crime for a spin-off series. Make it happen Toriyama
Based on his intellect at the age of 4, you can tell he's above average and highly disciplined thanks to Chi Chi. Bulma is a genius. Gohan is not; he's just incredibly knowledgeable based on years of absorbing information. I believe it's stated in the Great Saiyaman saga that he aced his entrance exams. I assume he continues to excel in academics with perfect grades in all fields he studies. Otherwise, he wouldn't even be a scholar.
There's a difference between smart and knowledgeable. Bulma barely has to study at all, and understands things at a super human rate. Gohan, on the other hand, is an incredibly hard worker (training aside...).
"Dragon Ball once became a thing of the past to me, but after that, I got angry about the live action movie, re-wrote an entire movie script, and now I'm complaining about the quality of the new TV anime. It seems Dragon Ball has grown on me so much that I can't leave it alone." - Akira Toriyama on Dragon Ball Super
Smarter than the average joe but not as smart as me.
fadeddreams5 wrote:
DBZGTKOSDH wrote:... Haven't we already gotten these in GT? Goku dies, the DBs go away, and the Namekian DBs most likely won't be used again because of the Evil Dragons.
Goku didn't die in GT. The show sucked him off so much, it was impossible to keep him in the world of the living, so he ascended beyond mortality.
jjgp1112 wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2020 6:31 am
I'm just about done with the concept of reboots and making shows that were products of their time and impactful "new and sexy" and in line with modern tastes and sensibilities. Let stuff stay in their era and give today's kids their own shit to watch.
I always side eye the people who say "Now my kids/today's kids can experience what I did as a child!" Nigga, who gives a fuck about your childhood? You're an adult now and it was at least 15 years ago. Let the kids have their own experience instead of picking at a corpse.
His smartness is just a contrast against Goku. He's brighter than anyone else his age, but he's not going to be chatting with Bulma about theoretical physics when he's 8.
Strictly speaking from an academic standpoint, he seems to possess all the right attributes that more or less qualifies him as a stellar student. On the contrary, he really hasn't demonstrated anything that strongly supports his intelligence in areas other than school. On the battlefield he's clearly short of possessing the same level of battle prowess as his father, and even his mentor Piccolo.
Gohan's pretty smart as far as modern world standards go. But he's far from Bulma-level intelligence.
Spoiler:
Akira Toriyama wrote:My policy is to try and forget things once they’re over. Since if I don’t discard the old and focus on what’s new, I’ll overload my brain capacity. I still haven’t lived down going, “Who the heck is Tao Pai-pai?” that one time I was talking with Ei’ichiro Oda-kun. But the fact that there are still people reading the series after all this time… All I can say is; “thank you.” Really, that’s all.
Akira Toriyama wrote:Drawing Dragon Ball again reminded me of two things--how much I love it, and how much I never want to do it again.
Kunzait_83 wrote:And if you're upset because all this new material completely invalidates the tabletop RPG rulebook-sized statistical system and flowchart for the characters' "canonical Power Levels" that you'd been working on painstakingly for the last bunch of years now... well I don't think there's a kind, non-blunt way of saying this, but that's 100% entirely your own misguided fault for buying so deeply into all this nonsensical garbage in the first place. And that you also have IMMENSELY skewed and comically backwards priorities in what you think is most important and needed to make a good Dragon Ball story.
Zephyr wrote:Goodness, they wrote idiotic drivel in a children's cartoon meant to advertise toys!? Again!? For the ninetieth episode in a row!? Somebody stop the presses! We have to voice our concern over these Super important issues!
Kamiccolo9 wrote:Fair enough, I concede. Sean Schemmel probably has some kind of hidden talent. Maybe he is an expert at Minesweeper. You're right; calling him "talentless" wasn't fair.
Michsi wrote: Mon Jul 04, 2022 11:29 amIn Super Piccolo got yelled off the stage by Vegeta in the U6 Tournament arc and lost to Jiminy Cricket in the ToP , he deserved 15 new transformations with his theme song played by Metallica in the background.
I would say he's above-average, but not a genius like Blooma or Dr. Brief.
Cipher wrote:Dragon Ball is the story of a kind-hearted, excitable child who uses the power of friendship to improve those around him as he grows into a dangerous obsessive who sometimes accidentally saves the world.
Didn't he become a famous scientist or something in the DBO timeline? Of course the canonicity of that is pretty questionable.
He wrote a book explaining how ki works and the methods of using it, if I'm remembering right. Apparently by DBO's time period tons of random humans know how to use at least some basic ki-related skills as a result of that. Maybe not quite as big of a thing as inventing capsules, but making basic ki training accessible to any random guy off the street is still pretty big.
I'd say he's smart but below the level of a genius. Part of the upper level of intelligence that's not quite genius tier.
His common sense though is pretty shit as recently seen.
Why Dragon Ball Consistency in something such as power levels matter!
Spoiler:
Doctor. wrote:I've explained before, I'll just paraphrase myself.
Power levels establish tension and drama. People who care about them (well, people who care about them in a narrative) don't care about the big numbers or the fancy explosions. If you have character A who's so much above character B, who's the main character, you're gonna be left wondering how in the hell character B, the character we're supposed to care and root for, is going to escape the situation or overcome the odds. It makes us emotionally invested.
If character B doesn't escape the situation in a believable way that's consistent with previous events, then that emotional investment is gone. It was pointless tension, pointless drama made just to suck in the viewer. It has no critical value whatsoever. The audience is left believing that the author can just create whatever scenarios he wants and what happens to the characters is decided by whatever the author wants to happen, regardless of the events that happened in the story. Which, in fairness, is what happens, but the audience wants to be fooled. The audience wants to know that the world they're following has rules. That the world they're invested in isn't going to bend to external factors that are irrelevant to them.
An author can do whatever he wants with the characters, that's not false. But the author should also have the responsibility to make sure it fits in cohesively with the other events in the narrative he has created.
I think his intelligence is supposed to be more in the realm of something like history or philosophy. Not so much sciences like engineering, physics, etc. Remember intelligence isn't exclusive to going around inventing technology.
Yeah I assumed Gohan isn't Bulma smart but I kinda figured he was smarter than what people are saying in this thread. "Just above average" I always thought he was a different kind of genius.
supercat wrote:On the battlefield he's clearly short of possessing the same level of battle prowess as his father, and even his mentor Piccolo.
I really wish Gohan would show some battle prowess, He's an idiot on the battle field, especially considering what he's been through. He should have some good combat experience. I cringe/face palm very hard every time I see Super Buu fight with the whole Earring "catching".
If Gohan ever fought someone that was at equal strength to him, he'd lose just due to his lack of technique/skill. I hope Super gets him some battle smarts, you'd think with his studying he'd learn from his mistakes.
Jaco the Super Elite with The Great Saiyaman fighting crime for a spin-off series. Make it happen Toriyama
I asume that Gohan's IQ level is high average but nowhere near Bulma's IQ level. I even think that Piccolo might be smarter than Gohan atleast in the battlefield.
PolatGuy92 wrote:I even think that Piccolo might be smarter than Gohan atleast in the battlefield.
Probably.
Cipher wrote:Dragon Ball is the story of a kind-hearted, excitable child who uses the power of friendship to improve those around him as he grows into a dangerous obsessive who sometimes accidentally saves the world.
