Animeranku

Anime. Manga News & Features

Dragon Ball: What’s Next For Trunks and Goten?

Highlights

  • Goten and Trunks have been background characters in Dragon Ball Super, but recent manga chapters hint at them playing a larger role.
  • The young Saiyans, despite not training much, have shown potential and teamwork, hinting at new transformations and power-ups.
  • Mastery of Fusion Dance and potential introduction of God Ki could make Goten and Trunks relevant and powerful fighters in the series.



Ever since Dragon Ball Z, Trunks and Goten have become a staple part of the Z-Fighters. Though technically introduced in the Android Saga, Trunks has grown into a young and powerful teenage Saiyan who has taken up fighting crime alongside his best friend Goten, who himself was introduced as Goku’s son in the Buu Saga. Since then, they have had some memorable moments and experiences within the world.

However, with the start of Dragon Ball Super, many fans believed that these two young Saiyans had been shifted into the background far too much, as they have very rarely been a part of many significant moments. However, Chapter 103 of the official manga seemed to hint that Goten and Trunks are being brought back into the limelight to fight alongside their fathers and teammates, so let’s see what the future holds for them.



Goten And Trunks In The Current Story

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Ever since Dragon Ball Super started, both young Saiyans have had a very small role to play in the overall narrative. Such a choice was always met with a lot of criticism from fans as they have wanted to see them brought into the fold of things for some time now, which is even stranger because they weren’t aged up like they should have been. This could have also been a big reason as to why they weren’t added to any major conflict.

Despite being prodigies who had achieved their Super Saiyan forms very early on in their lives, Trunks and Goten grew up in a relatively peaceful time, which is why they never really had much of a reason to train and get stronger or unlock new transformations. Since they never broke past the limits of Super Saiyan, they were left far weaker than all other Saiyans, which is why they were rarely utilized against villains who kept getting stronger.


Now that mom’s not here… is it okay if I be like you? You know, a Super Saiyan?

However, the Super Hero arc in the manga took the first step toward changing this. It showed that the young Saiyans had finally begun to take an interest in combat, as they worked as vigilantes going by the aliases of Saiyaman X-1 and Saiyaman X-2, where they dressed up in clichéd superhero costumes and defeated petty criminals, inspired by a fictional superhero named Cleangod. This eventually led to their confrontation with the Red Ribbon Army and Cell Max.



Upon finding Gohan and Piccolo at the end of their fight with the Gamma Androids, Trunks and Goten eventually joined in the battle upon the awakening of Cell Max, where the two of them showed great teamwork and mastery over their Super Saiyan form, though their Fusion Dance could use more practice. After this, Chapter 103 shows them abandoning their superhero gimmick to spar against Gohan, Goku, Vegeta, and Broly as Saiyans, alluding to the fact that they are about to become far more important to the story going forward.

What Does The Future Hold For Them?

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There is a specific trend going around concerning how the series seems to be handling new transformations, in that every character is getting a new and unique form as their ultimate rather than just a new shade of Super Saiyan. With Goku’s Ultra Instinct, Vegeta’s Ultra Ego, Broly’s Legendary Super Saiyan, Gohan’s Beast Form, and Piccolo’s Orange form, it is not out of the question to assume that Goten and Trunks would have unique forms.


Though it is purely speculation at this point, Chapter 103 showed them finally realizing the value of their Saiyan powers as they sparred with their allies. Despite being far weaker individually, Goten and Trunks can certainly hold their own against powerful characters when they team up, which may give some sort of an indication about where their power-up may be going.

Yo, Cat-man! Let’s do this! An uninvited birthday guest with manners so bad he starts a fight over a pudding cup deserves to get Gotenks’ fist rammed down his throat!

Fusion

While not particularly powerful on their own, Goten and Trunks have the perfect synergy with each other to make their fusion a very viable option in battle. Their last couple of attempts at the Fusion Dance resulted in failure, forming Fat-Gotenks instead of the proper one, so through their mastery of the dance and the tutelage of Whis or Beerus, Gotenks may return stronger than ever.


Gotenks was always a very powerful character who achieved the Super Saiyan 3 transformation quite easily, but the ineffectiveness of the form caused too much excess energy to leak out, so the fusion could only last for 5 minutes. By unlocking a much more stable form for the fusion, Gotenks could get even stronger and stay in the fusion for more time, similar to how Gogeta performed against Broly.

Despite being far stronger than anyone up until, and since, then, Gogeta’s fusion lasted for the full 30 minutes due to how stable Super Saiyan Blue was as a form. By introducing God Ki to Goten and Trunks and having them fuse, or doing it to Gotenks directly, the young Saiyans would once again be made far more relevant to the story and would be at the forefront of the fight against evil, as fans have been wanting to see for ages!


Dragon Ball can be streamed on Crunchyroll.

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