#i find those so much more endearing than the extreme realism of todays movies

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

My #1 All-Time Favorite Character

Today, I got notified by Tumblr that today, my blog – Imagination is Everything, turned one-year-old. It honestly doesn’t feel like it was a year ago when I first decided to start blogging on Tumblr. It feels like only a couple of months ago but no, it’s been an entire year. And wow! What an incredible year it’s been. I’ve had some good memories and some not so good memories. I’ve met some great people who have some really great opinions on my discussions and also met some downright horrible people who have unleashed a mountain of hate on me in an attempt to get me to shut up and not broadcast my opinions. It happens mostly with Shadowhunters posts. No surprise there. And I don’t feel the least bit bad about calling out Shadowhunters on this. The fandom deserves to be shamed. But either way, my time with this blog has allowed me to continue to learn more about myself and the kind of blogger I wish to be. It feels insane that over a year ago, I was talking about all of these things on my facebook page. Maintaining an actual blog is so much more satisfying. In honor of this first milestone of Tumblr blogging, I am going to reveal to you my #1 All Time Favorite Character. I’m fairly certain none of you are going to be able to guess who this wonderful character is.

This is a character that I have loved since I was thirteen-years-old. I have loved this character for well over a decade. Time has not been able to break my complete 100% adoration for this character. This person has survived in my heart through the various entertainment outlets I subscribe to. This means that out of every movie, tv series, book and book series I have been exposed to (and trust me, there has been A LOT), this is my favorite character EVER and I doubt I will ever come across a character I care about more than this one. This person is a pacifist but has the potential to be this total bad-ass if they were so inclined (but they’re not so inclined which is part of why I like this character). They don’t like to fight but they choose to fight because they feel they have to. This person has a heart of gold. They’re completely selfless, pure-hearted, brave, loyal, a fantastic friend, but with all of those things in mind, this person is also an ultra-nerd and a little bit of a dork. Don’t get me wrong. I know I painted this person as a near perfect being but this person also has plenty of flaws, as well. Their most notable flaw being their complete lack of self-confidence. This character does not believe they have the power to be truly great. That they could actually be the most powerful person in that story universe even though everyone else around this character believes it. It may be a character flaw but it also endears me to the character even more. This character is just so adorable and lovable and complex and I will forever only want the best for this person. That character is…

Son Gohan from Dragon Ball Z.

You guys are totally surprised, right? You thought I was going to say Alec Lightwood from The Mortal Instruments/Shadowhunters, didn’t you? Don’t get me wrong. Alec is HIGH on my list of all time favorite characters but even he can’t hold a candle to how much I care about Gohan. I just love his story in Dragon Ball Z so freaking much. He is so beautifully developed and I just can’t understand how there are people that don’t like him as a character. 

I bet you’re really surprised that my favorite character actually comes from a manga/anime. It may come as a shock to some of you as I haven’t really broadcasted it that much in this blog, but I am a huge anime/manga lover. Now, when I say that Gohan is my favorite character, I am not saying that Dragon Ball is my favorite anime/manga series of all time. I find great enjoyment in the series but I’m well aware of its imperfections. The material has a lot of plot and character inconsistencies. Akira Toriyama has done things with the series that I do question from a story-telling perspective. I will be the first to admit that Dragonball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragonball GT are not perfect. I’m not even going to lump Dragonball Super in there. I haven’t seen any of it yet but I’ve heard plenty about it and it kind of makes me not want to watch it. I don’t want Super to taint what I know and love from Dragon Ball Z and from what I understand, Super is throwing Dragonball Z canon straight out the window. I just wanted to say that so everyone can understand that whereas Gohan is my favorite character of all time, it does not mean that the Dragonball series is my favorite anime/manga of all time. There are bits and pieces of the Dragonball series that I love – but the series, as a whole, I do have issues with, things that irritate and bother me. Gohan’s story is one of those bits and pieces of the series that I love. The way Gohan’s character and story developed is what I loved the absolute most from Dragonball Z. Out of everything I have ever been exposed to, Gohan’s story is what tugs on my hearstrings the most. I’m not going to say his character and story development was flawless. It very nearly was but there was one moment towards the end of Z in the Buu saga that I did not like and I was very disappointed in how Akira Toriyama chose to write Gohan.

I first started watching this series when I was thirteen-years-old and I immediately clung onto Gohan as a character. As a pre-teen, I loved how that this small, little kid could just rise up and beat the crap out of these villains whenever he got angry enough. And that this power just comes out of nowhere is just epic and awesome. The power disappears almost as quickly as it surfaces, much like Gohan’s own rage. He’s not a particularly angry person but when that anger does come out, you don’t want to be on the receiving side of it. This is probably also part of the reason why Gohan was such a popular character in the beginning of Dragon Ball Z. If you’re writing a show to appeal to a child audience, that kid needs to save the day at least once. Kids like seeing kids saving the day. And honestly, as far as shonen anime goes, Gohan is a prime example on how you absolutely should write child characters. He’s important to the story to affect the overall plot but not so important that he overshadows the protagonist. It also helps that Gohan is a surprisingly realistic character for a show like this. In this show where the characters are pitted against all of these life or death challenges on a daily basis, a show with super-powered kung fu, Gohan responds in a very realistic way that you would expect a child (or even an ordinary person) to respond. He’s extremely relatable throughout most of the series in a way that child Goku from Dragonball never really was. He learns how to fight but ultimately runs away when he’s put into his first battle situation. I would expect any five-year-old to behave like that and most ordinary people for that matter. And as he continues being put into these situations, he learns more and more about himself and the person he wants to be. I absolutely adored Gohan throughout his arc in Dragonball Z as a pre-teen watching him and I still enjoy watching his story arc now that I’m an adult. Although, I enjoy him now more as a well-rounded, complex character rather than a child I was projecting my power fantasies onto.

Here are some of my basic reasons for why I love Gohan so much.

1) Gohan is a character in a show about fighting and he’s a total pacifist. Think about it. A pacifist in a show about kick-ass fighting who despite his very pacifistic nature still manages to be a complete and total bad-ass.

2) He’s a total nerd, socially awkward, and can be a total dork at times – I can relate A LOT.

3) The way Gohan starts out in Dragonball Z is some of the strangest but yet most realistic writing I’ve seen come out of a shonen series about super-powered fighting. He starts off as this 4-year-old kid and acts like it. He’s completely inept at taking care of himself and when he eventually learns to fight, he runs away from his first battle (he’s 5 at the time—don’t be too hard on the kid). Really, Gohan is exactly what would happen if you threw a child or even an ordinary person into a battle. They wouldn’t be ready to go all in right from the get-go. They would be afraid. And as a result of this moment of cowardice, Gohan witnesses terrible things that ultimately spurs him to throw his fears to the side and realize why he needs to fight. Gohan’s character arc, particularly in the beginning of Dragonball Z, is just such a refreshing breath of realism and I love it so much.

4) Gohan’s hidden power – this is really more of wish fulfillment/power fantasy kind of thing and I’m not ashamed to admit that part of the reason why I love him are his power-ups. I just love that this sweet, pacifistic person has all of this hidden power inside his body but by the nature of his personality, he can never unleash it to any sort of consistent degree. Even though it’s debatable within the Dragonball fandom, but Gohan could very possibly be the strongest person within that universe if he could just learn to believe in his own power, believe that he is good enough, and just “let go” -- as 16 once told Gohan.

5) Besides, who doesn’t love it when the villain is thrown off guard by the little kid who they perceived as a non-threat. Kids love seeing kids kick ass. Who in the Dragonball fandom doesn’t like the moments when Gohan headbuts Raditz in the chest and cracks his armor, or in the Dead Zone movie when Gohan pretty much saves everyone and pushes Garlic Jr into the black hole, or when Gohan decides to take Frieza on. Then, of course, there was the whole Cell thing. Anger is not a normal state for Gohan but if you do unleash his anger: BEWARE. 

6) It is a personality flaw but his self-confidence issues. When you couple it with his pacifistic nature, when Gohan does decide to fight, he takes it very hard when he does fail. Like the moment after he got injured saving Vegeta’s life. He wasn’t able to defeat Cell when he had the chance, his dad is dead, Trunks is dead and with one of his arms injured (and possibly half of his power gone), he’s staring at Cell and realizes that after everything he accomplished, he’s still a failure and seriously considers just giving up. Again, relatable for me, as well. I don’t do failure well, either. Throughout his character arc, he does have these moments of inadequacy. Because the people he’s fighting with are adults, he forces himself to hold himself to those standards and takes it very hard when in his eyes, he can’t be as good as them. Even though when these adults were Gohan’s age, they couldn’t fathom being as strong as he is. He thinks that something is actually wrong with him and that it’s his fault when things go bad. Gohan’s really harsh with himself and I do enjoy this aspect of his personality as weird as they might seem. It just adds to his realism.

7) I just love that throughout everything, despite the all of the trauma he goes through, he still manages to hold on to his innocence. He never really loses it, even as an adult. He still just as pure-hearted as he was on the day we first met him when he was crying in the forest. When you think about everything he went through as a child, you realize just how emotionally strong he is. I couldn’t even imagine being even somewhat okay after witnessing the things he has. And even better, it always feels very organic to his character.

All in all, Gohan lacks self-confidence, can’t always control his abilities, is a complete pacifist but still has the potential to be the strongest person in the Dragonball universe. How can you not be engaged with a character like that?

What’s really great about Dragonball Z is that it’s not just a continuation of Goku’s story arc with fighting for truth and justice and saving the world and all that jazz; it’s also a coming-of-age story for Gohan, as well, which I really enjoy. We really get to see Gohan grow up and mature over the course of the entire series. With each arc he’s involved in, he learns more and more about himself. I started off a little older than Gohan when I started watching the series but I still feel like I kind of grew up right along with him. 

What I also really like about Gohan is that yes, he was primarily created to be a replacement for kid Goku but he is also nothing like Goku which was really interesting. Akira Toriyama created Gohan to be the new eye level for the child audience and it would have been so easy to make him a carbon copy of Goku. But he didn’t. He tossed that particular anime trope out on its ass. I have seen so many animes and read so many mangas where when a main hero/protagonist character has a son, that son is pretty much exactly like their father. But Akira Toriyama spends a surprising amount of time in the beginning of the manga and in the beginning of the show establishing that Gohan is Goku’s complete opposite. He is absolutely nothing like his father which I found so fresh and so interesting. Goku is part of an alien race known as the Saiyans who are basically warriors for hire. And as a result of this bloodline, Goku thrives on battle. He needs the fight and the challenge that comes with fighting to live a fulfilled life. Fighting excites him. Gohan is half-saiyan and so has the talent for fighting and the power but he doesn’t necessarily crave battle. Gohan is very gentle and kind-hearted and ultimately doesn’t want to be a fighter. Gohan wants to be a scholar. He wants to learn things. That’s where his real passion lies. While Gohan is gentle and kind-hearted, he’s also extremely loyal and responsible. He’s willing to fight if it becomes necessary but ultimately the thrill of battle and competition is not what drives him to fight. He fights to protect those he loves and he feels a sense of responsibility to do it but being the strongest and fighting for the challenge is not what he wants. Gohan, to a certain extent, is aware of his destructive capabilities and he’s aware of the damage he could cause. He doesn’t like to cause pain unnecessarily. Throughout the series, we get all of these hints that Gohan has this immense, limitless power bottled up in him but he can never really reach his true potential because he doesn’t have an innate desire to fight which I really like. Because he doesn’t have that true desire to fight, he can only tap into that hidden power when he’s in a fit of true rage. Gohan ultimately will never choose to fight just because he can. For him, to fight is based off of a responsibility that he feels. It���s quite the conundrum and really interesting that Akira Toriyama chose to give the hidden power to Gohan. Of all the characters he could’ve given the hidden power to, he gave it to the one character who won’t really use it to its full potential because he doesn’t have the heart for it and I really like that idea. The idea that Gohan has all of this power but that the nature of his personality actively works against it. It would’ve been so easy to go the Bleach route and give the hidden power to someone who is a fighter and just have constant power-ups but I think Akira Toriyama realized that by doing that, he could’ve made the character rather static and I’m happy that he went the way he did. As much as I do like Ichigo as a hero character, I also can’t deny that he gets boring over time with his constant power-ups and he was starting to become a very static protagonist. I actually dropped Bleach a few years ago because it felt like the series was just stagnating. I don’t know. Maybe it’s gotten better since. I might pick it back up later. I think it’s really noble that Gohan chooses to fight not because he feels a desire for battle and competition but because he feels a responsibility to do it.

Don’t get me wrong. Goku is also incredibly noble and I love him as a main character. So Goku lovers, don’t hate me. It’s just interesting for me to see a character like Gohan out there. Even though he is Goku’s son, his reasons for fighting are completely different than his father’s. And let’s be real here. Goku does some seriously selfish, dumb shit because of his love for battle and competition. It’s hard for me to get 100% behind a character when I have to ask, “Why?” I just relate more to Gohan than I do to Goku. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with the way Goku behaves and how his personality is, I just relate more to Gohan. 

People who don’t necessarily know about Gohan’s abilities immediately discount him as a fighter because they can’t believe that someone who appears as gentle as him could be any significant threat which is a character trait I adore. Gohan, himself, sometimes even discounts himself. He’s very gentle but is also capable of great destruction and to a certain extent, I think he’s a little afraid of that part of him. He’s even warned opponents before that if they push him too far and force him to tap into that hidden ability, he’s not going to be able to control what happens. He also doesn’t necessarily believe in his abilities either. He does suffer from a lot of self-esteem issues and when your father is Goku, can you really blame him? Goku is this crazy strong, world-hero. Of course Gohan is going to compare himself and believe that he’s not good enough. Right up until the Cell saga, Gohan can’t even remember what he did after his rage boost kicks in. If he can’t really remember what happened and certainly can’t control it, how is he supposed to believe in that ability?

Another aspect I really found myself enjoying about Gohan is his nerdiness and dorkiness. We see this a lot through the Great Saiyaman arc which is just an awesome time in Gohan’s story. I know I’m in the minority on that one. A lot of people think Gohan was at his best in the Cell Games and that the Great Saiyaman was out of character. I vehemently disagree. Even as a child, Gohan was a huge, socially awkward nerd and always had these aspirations to find a way to use his abilities to help everyone and that’s where the Great Saiyaman comes from. I honestly can’t even fathom how there are Gohan fans that dislike the Great Saiyaman arc. Gohan is just so exuberant and happy about what he’s doing. You will never see Gohan this happy in the series as he is in this particular story arc. It is so contagious. I love it so much. For the first time in Gohan’s life, he’s actively making a decision to do something not just because he feels a responsibility or someone’s telling him to do it but because he genuinely wants to do it. No one is influencing him in any way to do it. He’s just doing it on his own and he’s loving it. Although, to be fair, I think what a lot of fans don’t like about the Great Saiyaman arc is that it’s revealed that Gohan isn’t training anymore. I’m personally not bothered by that because it makes sense. Gohan doesn’t want to be a fighter. It’s never what he’s wanted for himself. If there isn’t an enemy out there that he needs to fight to his full potential, why on earth would he train? Why would he worry about a threat that may not even exist? He’s not a fighter. He doesn’t have this compulsion to surpass his own limits or be the strongest like Vegeta and Goku do. He just wants to live a happy life, fulfill his dreams to become a scholar, and help as many people as he can along the way. If anything, as a child, he was more a victim of circumstance. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time which spurred him into having to learn how to fight and keep on fighting as more bad situations kept on arising. Gohan has had a very traumatizing childhood when you really look at it despite being so well-adjusted. After all the loss he has experienced, he just wants a sense of normalcy. The “fighting” lifestyle had caused him so much torment that I can understand why he would turn his back on it for a while and not really actively train. He just wants to live a life where he doesn’t have to watch the people he cares about die. It’s perfectly understandable. Besides, when you look at the previous arcs, Gohan never trained just for the fun of it. He always trained because there was some villain out there he knew he might have to fight. After Gohan defeats Cell, there are no more villains for him to fight. He can finally just do what he wants now. He can finally start to be a kid. Why would you fault him for finally being a kid? As I’ve said before, I love this character so much and I will defend him until the very end.

The Dragonball fandom is very weird with Gohan as a character. There’s always this big huge debate on which version of Gohan is your favorite. Do you like Kid Gohan (Saiyan/Frieza Sagas)? Do you like Teen Gohan -- who isn’t really a teen -- (Cell Games)? Do you like Adult Gohan -- who’s actually a teen -- (Buu Saga)? Do you like Actual Adult Gohan (Super/GT)? For whatever reason, fans want to try and compartmentalize Gohan in his development as if he were four or five separate people. Except he’s not four or five separate people. He’s the same person just at different stages of his development. You can’t have one part without the other and I couldn’t even imagine Gohan without any of the others. For the most part, I think his personality is pretty consistent throughout all of those stages of development. And that’s saying something considering Dragonball Z is kind of notorious for its inconsistencies. The creator just kind of made stuff up as he went when writing the story and retroactively implemented ideas that weren’t always there. From what I can gather, the majority of Gohan fans are only fans of Gohan during the tail-end of the Cell Games when Gohan is just unleashing hell on Cell in his SSJ2 form. And whereas I’ll admit Gohan has never been cooler, that’s not the only reason I like him. I like him at all stages of his development because it all aids him into becoming this wonderful, well-rounded, complex character, excluding that one moment in the Buu saga that I don’t like and I’m going to have a completely separate post talking about that. Suffice to say, a lot of people like Ultimate/Mystic Gohan but I personally don’t and I’ll talk about those reasons in that post. 

Now, I’m going to address the big elephant in the room whenever people start talking about Gohan as a character within the Dragonball fandom. What is Gohan really supposed to be? Does he like to fight? Does he prefer being a scholar? Well, here’s my take on it. Why can’t he be both to a certain extent? Gohan’s desire to fight and to study always has fans at odds with him and it could be so easily avoided if you just understand this term – it’s complicated. Does Gohan like to fight 100% or does he like to study 100%? Neither. It’s not that simple. Part of why I enjoy Gohan is that there are complexities to his character. As with most real life people, Gohan is complicated. So stop trying to simplify him, Dragonball Fandom, because you’re never going to be able to come to an agreeable consensus. He’s just not a simple character. 

I get it. There are a lot of moments within the series that kind of lean towards Gohan appearing to be a fighter and then saying, “no, he’s not a fighter” and then there’s moments where Gohan is enjoying studying and then saying, “I don’t want to study.” But think about it this way. I’ve been a total book worm since the day I learned to read. I loved school as a child. But there were times when, as much as I loved school, I didn’t necessarily want to study all of the time or go to school. Does that suddenly mean I’m no longer a nerd and that I should go all in as a fighter? No, absolutely not. I still like to learn and to read and to study. Just because Gohan doesn’t want to study 24/7 doesn’t necessarily mean that Gohan isn’t a scholar deep down. He’s just being a kid who wants to do kid things. I shirked on some of my study time just because I wanted to go out and play and I was never labeled as a slacker in my education for it. Why is Gohan behaving like a typical kid being seen as this big character inconsistency? It isn’t…or at least it isn’t in my book. Maybe there are nerds who, as children, did want to study 24/7? If there are, I haven’t met any but I guess that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. With Gohan being a fighter or not being a fighter – again, it’s not that simple. To a certain extent, I do believe Gohan enjoys fighting. He treasures the life lessons Piccolo taught him when he was being trained as a small child. And again, Gohan likes to learn. That follows through in fighting. I don’t think it’s that big of a stretch to interpret Gohan as enjoying learning how to fight. Just because he has enjoyed fighting to a certain extent, doesn’t necessarily make him a true fighter, though. Gohan likes to fight but what he does not enjoy is using his abilities to hurt someone if the situation can be avoided. Gohan doesn’t want to fight pointless fights. Gohan didn’t have a problem with fighting the Ginyu Force or fighting Frieza because he knew their motivations. There was no way for the fight to be avoided. In Gohan’s eyes, there was no reason for the Cell Games to even be happening which is why he tried to talk down Cell. He didn’t understand why this tournament needed to take place. Gohan doesn’t really understand things like, “knowing your own power”, “overcoming your own limits, or “being stronger than everyone else” – which is what the Cell Games was for Cell, Goku, and Vegeta. For Gohan, he doesn’t care about those things. He just wants to go back to his life. He saw the fight with Cell as a big, fat waste of time. Earth’s continued survival was being threatened for no reason in his eyes. Cell had already reached his “perfect” form. There really was no particular reasoning for destroying Earth other than some programming he had. And we’ve seen before that the androids could ignore their programming. It stands to reason that Gohan felt that he could talk Cell out of the fight. I got a little off-track but as far as Gohan being labeled a fighter, I’ve always felt it was very clear that whereas he might enjoy fighting, he doesn’t possess a fighter’s heart. He doesn’t want to be an active fighter. He is a pacifist to a certain extent. He wants something different out of his life. He just wants peace. I enjoy watching crime-procedural shows. Does that mean I want to go out and become a detective? No, not really. Gohan enjoys fighting, he enjoys adventure, he enjoys heroics but he also enjoys learning and wants to continue on learning. What he doesn’t enjoy is the destruction that comes with his abilities. He doesn’t understand the desire to surpass his own fighting limits like Goku does. He doesn’t understand fighting for pride and being the strongest like Vegeta does. In that respect, you can’t really call Gohan a fighter because the only time he’s an actual fighter is when he feels a responsibility to become one. Ultimately, when it comes right down to it, Gohan fights because 1) he always feels a responsibility to do it and 2) learning is part of who he is. It doesn’t matter if he’s hitting the books or sparring with his dad or Piccolo, he just wants to learn. I believe that’s all he really gets out of it. The fandom needs to stop trying to push Gohan all the way right or all the way left because that’s not how his character is. He’s somewhere in the middle. Like us real life people, he’s complex which only adds to his relatability and makes me care about him that much more. And another interesting thing about Gohan’s complexities and it’s not really touched upon a whole lot in the series is that to a certain extent, I think that just as the fandom is constantly at war with who they think Gohan is supposed to be, I think Gohan, himself, is also at war with who he’s supposed to be. It’s most likely due to the clash of his two bloodlines. His human blood is making him be something of a pacifist but his saiyan blood is also influencing him to fight as well. That power of his wants to be unleashed. We’re having problems identifying who Gohan really is while he’s also having problems identifying with who he really is. He can’t really find that balance. It’s an interesting notion and I kind of hope Dragonball Super touches on it a little. It’s really more of my own head-canon at the moment as far as I know.

Well, there you have it. Gohan is my #1 favorite character of all time. Gohan is a line-up of contradictions which makes him feel the most human and relatable of pretty much all of the characters in Dragonball. He’s a nerd but also fights if he needs to. He has great hidden power but he doesn’t want to unleash it out of fear of what may happen. He’s responsible, brave, loyal, a nerd, powerful but doesn’t believe he is. What’s not to love about him? He’s a wonderful, complex, well-rounded character and is very deserving of my #1 All-Time Favorite Character spot. I’m also planning on going through his character development arc-by-arc in later posts simply because I just enjoy talking about Gohan and I’ll take any excuse to do it. Clearly, I love talking about him because this post is 7 pages long. I didn’t want to go arc-by-arc here because this post would’ve turned out to be 30 pages long. So I’d love to hear if there are any other Gohan fans out there. Do you agree with what I said about him? Do you disagree? Remember, this is how I interpret him. If you interpret him differently, I’d love to hear it. Just, as always, be respectful. I will not respond to anyone who is rude and is trying to belittle mine or anyone else’s opinions. 

#gohan #son gohan #dragonball z #dbz