Why Was Gohan Handled So Poorly In The Cell Arc?

[RandomGuy96]

What was wrong with Gohan in the Cell Games?

Everything

[Cipher]

I don't think Gohan's characterizations in the Cell Games are nearly as out of whack as other people make them out to be.

For one: Gohan is okay with fighting. We know this. He enjoys doing it with his dad and Piccolo, after a time. He voluntarily enters the 25th Tenkaichi Budokai. He later becomes a superhero who regularly lays the smackdown on small-time villains.

But that's all for fun. It's exercise. Moreover, he likes helping people, hence the motivation to be Saiyaman. He does not enjoy fighting to the death.

This is a kid who balked at the first moment he was really supposed to hurt someone, failing to shoot a ki blast at Nappa. This is a kid who only stood up to the plate in the Vegeta fight when Piccolo had been killed or when his father absolutely depended on it. Ditto against Freeza.

With Cell, he's being sent in under completely different circumstances. One, it's organized. His father is sending him in with no immediate (though definitely plenty of non-immediate) threat, asking that, under no uncertain circumstances, he kills this guy. He's also just realized how powerful he is in comparison to Goku, and has genuine right to be afraid of what he might become were his rage to explode. Think about giving up your personality to something else. That's terrifying.

And then, as stated earlier in this thread, when push comes to shove, he doesn't know how to just make himself angry.

It's not that Gohan is against fighting. It's that he's not hugely in favor of killing, and in that moment there are a ton of new circumstances that would realistically make him less willing to fight.

[Kid Buu]

He voluntarily enters the 25th Tenkaichi Budokai.

I thought Videl blackmailed him into it?

[Cipher]

I thought Videl blackmailed him into it?

Ah, right. I guess I was just thinking about the fact that he became genuinely excited for it.

Well, there you go. Fighting is much farther back in his mind than helping people. Actually hurting or killing someone, even less so.

[Kid Buu]

He does, however, show interest in battling Dabura in the Spaceship.

I think his excitement early Buu arc was probably due to the fact that his father had returned for a day.

[Cipher]

He does, however, show interest in battling Dabura in the Spaceship.

I think his excitement early Buu arc was probably due to the fact that his father had returned for a day.

I think it's all about "time to please Daddy" around that point in the arc.

He wants to impress Goku, but when the time calls for it, he can barely muster his anger there too.

[Kid Buu]

One thing I would have liked to see about Gohan in the Cell arc was more interaction with Future Trunks, especially since Future Gohan was Future Trunks closest friend.