Wastes
Okay, I’m gonna go in a little bit because this continues to annoy me. In what way has Gohan become a waste? I feel the fandom’s treatment of Gohan is so horrid it drives me to the point of insanity. I feel that he ends up revealing how hypocritical a ton of DB fans are in the end.
Everyone agrees that his pinnacle was claiming SSJ2 and defeating Cell and then everyone “agrees” afterwards that he was ruined as a character. Again, why? Because he doesn’t fight or win enough? You can’t even say he was power creeped out of existence because any gaps in power are primarily due to his own choices. When at full power, even at the end of the Buu Saga he’s the strongest of the Z Fighters. Even stronger than SSJ3 Goku (especially by virtue of not burning himself out). Even in Super when he fully trains once more it’s shown that he’s basically on the same level of a base Super Saiyan Blue form and that’s with a minimum amount of training to get back up to speed.
It feels like everyone resents Gohan for not being Goku. For not training constantly and stepping out into the front lines at the first given opportunity. But absolutely everything he does fits his character. Of course he prioritizes his new family and of course he prioritizes getting a new job in his field of choice. Fighting was never his first love and while he certainly doesn’t hate fighting, he’s never enjoyed it like the rest of the cast. He never was big on doing it for sport and even only entered the WMAT in the Buu Saga thanks to Videl essentially blackmailing him into doing so (and Chi-Chi being told about the prize money). He only fought when absolutely necessary.
His two biggest character flaws are his insistence that having a higher reason for fighting is what drives him forward and gives him the moral high ground to victory. The second, is that he gets absurdly cocky and lackidasical whenever he has a clear upper hand in a fight and both get him into trouble often. Both character flaws are pointed out by Piccolo himself (we’ll get to him after Gohan). He gets over the first by being told off by Piccolo. He won’t always have the Moral High Ground or be the only one fighting for loved ones and even if he is, it doesn’t mean shit in winning a fight in the end. It’s good motivation but without the proper effort it means nothing. He has to dedicate himself to some training time even with his obligations if he truly wants to protect his loved ones.
The second he hasn’t gotten over but that’s instinctual. He cannot possibly get over that deep-seeded of an emotional response that quickly. It’s likely a response to his upbringing and the shit he went through in adolescence from the Raditz Arc all the way through into the Cell Saga which lead to him developing an extreme passive aggressive nature and a sadistic streak whenever he gains the upper hand against a reviled opponent. It’s something even Goku has admonished him for. If anything Gohan outright needs therapy to help correct that. But ultimately everything in the series is in character for him.
As for Piccolo while he doesn’t have a main spot in the cast anymore he still has purpose. He’s nowhere near as strong as his compatriots anymore but he gets by on sheer craftiness, something that is a rarity in the series. So much so that his allies still consider him an asset in battle even if they outstrip him by several miles in power. He’s a great tether to what Dragon Ball was. Still though, his main role is definitely being that extra parental figure in Gohan’s life. Yes we all make the jokes about Piccolo being Gohan’s “real dad” but really Piccolo is the only person in the entire series that knows Gohan intimately enough but is intelligent and empathic enough to call out Gohan on his shit and get him to change. Chi-Chi doesn’t bother as she doesn’t really watch him engaging in fights so she can’t, and Goku doesn’t have the emotional maturity to be able to help Gohan with these issues. Piccolo has the blessing of covering the blind spots both Chi-Chi and Goku missed. He’s watched Gohan grow up from a toddler to a man, and has seen him both constantly in battle and in peaceful life so he knows Gohan in a way that his parents realistically can’t. That’s generally enough to keep him around in the series. The two need each other and both characters make each other better as a result.
