DBS: Superhero Is Fixing The Goten & Trunks Problem (But Will It Matter?)

Goten and Trunks have been aged up for Dragon Ball Super: Superhero, but will that actually amount to anything, and is it to late a change?

The recent reveal of posters for the upcoming Dragon Ball Super: Superhero seems to suggest that the film will be correcting one of the biggest grievances regarding Goten and Trunks in the series. The poster shows off a slightly different and refreshing take on the rambunctious Half-Saiyans. Yet it also has, on full display, the exact reason this new angle on the characters could come back to bite them. The change could be a step in the right direction – or it could not matter at all.

Goten and Trunks are fan-favorite characters, being introduced during the Android Saga and the former during the Great Saiyaman Saga of Dragon Ball Z, respectively. They charmed Dragon Ball viewers with their antics during the World Tournament Saga and were billed as the next generation of Earth’s protectors. That was further teased during the Majin Buu Saga, but they failed to make a truly meaningful contribution despite their fusion form, Gotenks, quickly gaining popularity within the fandom. Since then, audiences have bemoaned the lack of progress for the rambunctious Half-Saiyans throughout the events of Dragon Ball Super.

One of the largest grievances regarding Goten and Trunks is how little they’re given to do throughout the course of the follow-up series. They’re never shown to grow at all. Not even physically, being stuck looking exactly the same as when the Majin Buu Saga ended, despite years passing since then. The result is stagnation – not only of them as fighters, but as characters. They’re never afforded the opportunity to grow in the way that Goku did, and certainly not in the way that Gohan did, just before them. So while the new powers certainly didn’t light the world on fire, many fans are elated with the fact that the two of them are at least shown to be slightly older. The problem is that it may not matter.

Why DBS: Superhero’s Goten and Trunks Fix May Not Matter

Front and center on their poster is Dragon Ball’s Fat Gotenks – a reminder of the biggest blunder of the characters and a grim indication that despite physically aging, they may not have grown at all. This wouldn’t be especially surprising, however. Goten and Trunks have participated in exactly zero of the major arcs since God of Destruction Beerus. This absence from the main story robs them of any real chance at growth. Chances that Gohan got in spades, dealing with the Saiyans, the Ginyu Force, Frieza, and of course, Cell. Being arbitrarily aged up without the chance to go through any arcs to facilitate their actual growth only serves to lessen the impact of that decision.

It also helps nothing that the canonicity of DBS: Superhero is in question. Dragon Ball Super: Broly shocked audiences when it became officially inducted into Dragon Ball Super canon. However, that film had some things going for it to help that. The film picks up almost immediately where the Tournament of Power left off. It also came out close enough to the end of the Tournament of Power that the resolution of it was still fresh in people’s minds. This film doesn’t have a TV anime companion yet and it takes place years later. The Dragon Ball Super manga, at this time, hasn’t shown even the slightest indication of such a time leap and it’s currently two whole arcs past the Tournament of Power and, consequently, Broly.

Whether or not Dragon Ball Super: Superhero will actually seek to take Goten and Trunks in the right direction is an unknown. If nothing else, the two boys have historically been given quite a lot to do in most of the movies since their introduction. This could return to that trend. Hopefully, they’ll finally be allowed to graduate from plucky mascot/gag characters to the next generation of Earth’s defenders that they were built up as from the start.