Synopsis: Piccolo takes Gohan to an abandoned wasteland, and when the child doesn't wake up, he drops him in a small pond of water. Starting to drown, Gohan pops up out of the water and sputters, and upon spotting Piccolo, starts to cry and look around for his father. Piccolo grabs the child and takes him back to dry land, and when the boy won't stop crying, he threatens to kill him to stop his sobbing. Piccolo tells Gohan that his father died to save him from the man who kidnapped him, causing Gohan to start to cry again, so Piccolo threatens him once more. Piccolo explains that Goku will be brought back to life in short order with the Dragon Balls, and their bigger problem are the two more powerful warriors on their way to Earth as they speak. Piccolo tells Gohan that even he and Goku won't stand a chance against these Saiyans alone, so they're going to need Gohan to learn to use his power to stand alongside them. Gohan says that he can't fight, but Piccolo assures him that he has greater power than he knows and that he'll train him to bring it out. Gohan objects, saying that he doesn't have any sort of power like that, and Piccolo decides to give him some proof. Picking Gohan up by his head, Piccolo throws the four-year old towards a mountain, thinking that his power should awaken in time to save him from injury. Piccolo's guess is soon proven right as Gohan's anger flares up and he blasts the mountain away, leaving a large crevice where it once stood. Gohan's innate power surprises even Piccolo, who wonders what he's getting into training someone who might prove to be an even bigger obstacle to his plans than Goku ever was. A surprised Gohan asks if he was really the one who destroyed the mountain, and Piccolo tells him that the nature of his power is becoming clear – when Gohan is put into danger and his emotions run wild, his power bursts free for only an instant. Piccolo thinks that this won't prove very useful, so he says he'll teach Gohan how to use those powers all the time, making him the greatest fighter ever to live. Gohan says he doesn't want to be a fighter and instead wants to be a great scholar, and Piccolo tells him he can do that after they defeat the Saiyans, because if they don't? There won't be an Earth left to be a scholar on. Gohan still says that he's scared, and Piccolo angrily tells him to stop whining or he'll kill him right now. Piccolo orders Gohan to take off his tunic, and a scared Gohan says he'd much rather train with his father once he comes back to life. Piccolo concedes that Goku is powerful, but says he's not up to the challenge of training someone, as made evident by Gohan's current state. Still running along Serpent Road, Goku sneezes, wondering if someone is talking about him. Review: While the previous chapter focused on two different aspects of the story moving forward, both what's going to be happening with Gohan and what's going to be happening with Goku, this chapter focuses solely on Gohan. Almost an entirety of it's page count is basically spent on getting the boy caught up to date with what's been happening as well, and as such, there's not really a whole lot for me to comment on for this one. I'm mostly holding off on talking too much about Gohan's character until we get further along with him, but so that I have SOMETHING to talk about, let's dive a little bit into him, at least insofar as we know him now. Gohan is basically the complete opposite of Goku in every way – he's polite and well-mannered, he's a scaredy-cat (though to be fair, he's four), and he doesn't want to fight in the first place. We never knew Goku at the age we're meeting Gohan here, but it's a pretty safe bet that Goku was none of these things as an infant, 'sweetest thing you've ever seen after hitting his head' or not. Despite this however, Gohan is gifted with an incredible power. While him blowing up a mountain might not seem that out there given the feats we've seen from other characters before, keep in mind that those characters were treated as the strongest characters in the world and had spent many years training to get to that point – Gohan is already on par with their level of power, at least in terms of potential, at four years old, and he's never trained a day in his life. This makes Gohan both able to potentially stand up among the rest of the characters without having to trail behind them for years before getting strong enough for the front lines, while also making you wonder just what kind of future this boy has ahead of him. As Piccolo points out though, he's going to have to fight whether he likes it or not, or his dream of being a scholar just isn't going to happen. This also puts him in an interesting place in regards to Piccolo, something that Piccolo himself points out – if Gohan gets stronger than him, then there's a good chance the boy is going to stop any of Piccolo's plans from ever coming to fruition. If nothing else, he's certainly going to be another roadblock just like his father. Unfortunately for the would-be Demon King, getting Gohan up to par is the only chance he has of there even being an Earth left to conquer either, so he's quite literally caught between a rock and a hard place, which is exactly where he wants to place Gohan to bring the most out of him. It's not really fair of Piccolo to assume that Gohan's softness is due to Goku taking it too easy on him perhaps, but hey – he doesn't know that it was Chi Chi who didn't want Gohan train. Also, he hates Goku. A lot. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: A Change in Piccolo
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About the AuthorAspiring author and big anime/manga fan, just trying to do my best in the world. For more details, go to About Me. Archives
September 2022
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