Jules’ Hot Take of The Week:
I genuinely hate the way some fans treat Gohan and how they refuse to accept that he wasn’t a fighter. Everytime I see those damn jokes about how much of a dork Gohan and how Future Gohan was better bc he was a badass and was a fighter.
First of all...have y’all met Goku, you know...the dorkiest saiyan himbo and father to Gohan...of course Gohan was a dork! This how I know some of them haven’t watch DB and just DBZ/DBS.
Second of all, Future Gohan lived in apocalyptic future where he was the last Son/saiyan on Earth, losing all his parental figures and friends to murderous androids...of course he was a fighter, he had no CHOICE!
That’s the main difference between these two versions of Gohan...the ability to choose who they became. Our Gohan had a choice to become a fighter, Future Gohan had to become one to survive.
They are not the same.
Also...there’s this weird trend of certain fans (mostly cishet men) of seeing these boys/men’s trauma as some stepping stone to being cool/masculine and it’s so...concerning??
I say that bc they did the same thing to child Gohan when he transformed into SSJ 2 and a lot of them were moaning about how this was where Gohan stopped being so cool.
Hello??
Nevermind the fact that Gohan had to watch yet ANOTHER person he cared about die, which was the whole reason he even SSJ 2 in the first place.
Nevermind the burden of defeating Cell rested on his shoulders and that if he didn’t, everything he loved would be turned to dust.
Nevermind that this boy since the age of fucking FIVE has lost too many people to count, watching every parental figure he cared about die in front of him (Goku, Piccolo and then Krillin) and then having to train back to back for years on end, never truly getting to enjoy their presence before another threat came up.
No, all that mattered was that he stopped being ‘cool’ to some people. Even as a kid that kind of made me feel so weird.
Gohan has seen things no child should have to see and even when he went to a level higher than a SS, he still lost his father. Not even the most powerful form could prevent THAT. And after all that Cell shit...I think he did enough.
Gohan is not a fighter by choice and that’s okay! Let him be happy with his family, let him have what he could never enjoy as a child.
Gohan deserves a lot of things for being a brave boy and doing impossible things ...let him rest and enjoy the choices HE gets to make instead of what you think is best for a character you clearly don’t understand.