WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers from the Granolah arc of the Dragon Ball Super Manga. Read ahead at your own discretion!

In the critically praised film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, Gohan Beast made his debut, and he did so in spectacular manner, radiating a bluish-white radiance mixed with reddish-magenta inner aura covered by magenta lightning, and wearing light grey hair and stern-looking white eye brows.

Being one of the most beloved characters in the franchise, the half-Saiyan nerd ball screamed his way into the higher realms of the pecking order by instinctively tapping into his subconscious, drawing out as much power he could muster at that time.

Gohan Beast is the true embodiment of a wild beast awakened while watching his mentor almost knocking on death’s door. His enemies’ greatest fear is his unpredictable rise in power. You never know when he’d stop holding back & go berserk, tearing you apart like the Cell Jrs.

Some fans loved it as it brought Gohan back into relevance while others think it’s an asspull. Whichever side you are in, there’s no denying that Gohan is one of the strongest beings in the Universe by unleashing his Beast Form.

But how strong is the young Saiyan? Could Gohan Beast take on the likes of Ultra Instinct Goku, Ultra Ego Vegeta, Broly or even Black Frieza? Where does he stand amongst the galaxy busters? And how did he reach these heights with comparatively lesser amount of training than them?

Many have wondered where Gohan Beast stands in comparison to his contemporaries; in this post, I hope to address those issues with reasonable arguments and supporting evidence that will leave the reader with little or no room for doubt. Get some Gohan (aka cooked rice) in your hands, because I’m taking you to a Dragon Ball journey.

Let’s begin with examining Gohan Beast’s place within Universe 7’s list of warriors.

How strong is Gohan Beast Form?

If you’re looking at only power levels and nothing else, Gohan Beast (as of the Super Hero movie arc) could take on Broly, Jiren & probably even Manga-only characters like Moro, Black Frieza, Ultra Instinct Goku & Ultra Ego Vegeta.

Of course, this sounds insane, but bear with me since there is substantial logic behind these statements.

There are 3 different statements from promotional material and Toriyama himself that suggests Gohan Beast being the strongest so far.

The 1st one comes from the character descriptions on the “Dragon Ball Man Choco Super” Wafer Illustrations where it straight up says Gohan becomes the strongest warrior after achieving his new form.

The context for the word “strongest” here means power levels and not from an overall sense due to the word “powerful” mentioned beforehand. And obviously, Gohan Beast Form is his strongest form so far.

The second piece of evidence comes from Toriyama himself, who reiterates the “rumour” that Gohan is stronger than everyone else. But he doesn’t specify which medium he’s referring about, Manga or Anime.

The final piece comes from another material, which claims that the battle against Cell Max was packed with so much heat that it is “the strongest battle in history”.

Some would argue that it could be an exaggeration just to hype up the movie and I’d agree to it to some extent. Krillin’s Destructo Disc at least made Cell Max growl angrily and Fat Gotenks managed to crack the monster’s head, paving the way of victory. So how is that the strongest ever?

Cell Max gets more and more conscious of his actions after Gohan Beast mode is unleashed. The Ki blast he hurdles towards him is the strongest one so far.

“Strongest” here again refers to only power levels as Gohan Beast vs Cell Max didn’t involve much of any techniques apart from the Special Beam Canon, which is another power based attack.

The fight was pretty short, climaxing at Cell Max’s huge Ki Ball hurdling towards Gohan beast. So basically it was a contest of “how much Ki I can generate and condense to hit harder than you”, aka Power Level differences.

Otherwise, Gogeta vs Broly would be still the strongest fight (Movie continuity wise) in terms of techniques, speed and abilities.

So where does Gohan Beast stand amongst others in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero the movie? Let’s look at some of the statements made by characters in the movie & series creator Akira Toriyama.

We know that Orange Piccolo lost to Incomplete Cell Max but Gohan wiped floors. The Kaiju Monster’s punch couldn’t even get past Gohan Beast’s aura, what to speak of inflicting any damage.

Interestingly, Toriyama states that Broly too is stronger than Incomplete Cell Max but weaker than the completed version.

Is Gohan Beast stronger than the completed Cell Max though?

Power level (PL) wise, yes. Consider the following logic:

The jump in power from incomplete to completed Cell max may be compared to the difference between Semi-Perfect Cell to Perfect Cell. Super Saiyan Grade 2 Vegeta & Grade 3 Future Trunks were stomping the living daylights outta Semi-Perfect Cell (SP Cell). But they couldn’t even leave a dent on Perfect Cell.

The gap between Incomplete Cell Max and Gohan Beast is more than the one between SSJ Grade 2 Vegeta and SP Cell. Because the Kaiju Monster couldn’t even go past Gohan beast’s aura, whereas SP Cell at least caused Vegeta’s mouth to bleed.

With the same logic, the aforementioned gap is even greater than Gogeta and Janemba in the Fusion Reborn Movie. Janemba’s punch managed to get past Gogeta’s aura, atleast. So Gohan Beast’s potential is so high, that it could surpass even a Fusion.

Consider this for a moment. Gohan beast is only now beginning to realise his form’s full capabilities. He has yet to use it freely and without repercussion. In addition, the amount of times his power level multiplies when he faces stronger opponents is comparable to, if not greater than, Broly’s.

If Broly can develop from Broly Film Base Vegeta to Super Saiyan Blue Goku within 2 hours, even surpassing that and reaching the level of SSJ Gogeta, then Gohan Beast can swiftly catch up to Completed Cell Max’s power, if he hasn’t already past him.

Gohan Beast, at the end of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, says Goku and Vegeta might not have been able to defeat Incomplete Cell Max. This is not considering Ultra Instinct & Ultra Ego since Gohan has no idea of their growth in the Granolah arc.

From the Movie & Anime continuity, the last time Gohan saw them was in the Tournament of Power. So this includes T.O.P UI Goku, Jiren & T.O.P SSBE Vegeta.

Let’s address the rest of the movie characters.

Both Super Saiyan Gohan & Piccolo Potential Unleashed were struggling against Gamma 1 & 2. However, the two Androids were no match for Ultimate Gohan & Orange Piccolo.

To compare them with Goku and Vegeta, Piccolo states in the film that the Gammas potentially have power on par with the Saiyan duo. This is as vague as Goku’s “Broly’s probably even stronger than Beerus” statement in the Broly film.

The Saiyan duo at what form & time frame?

Since the film’s production began in 2017 (a year before DBS Broly was released) and is written purely as as a sequel to Broly (as stated by Executive Director Akio Iyoku), we can assume that Piccolo’s referring to Goku and Vegeta at the end of the Broly movie, i.e., Perfected Super Saiyan Blue Goku and Vegeta vs Broly cause’ according to that continuity, the last time Piccolo saw the Saiyans was in the Broly movie.

However, Toriyama, while commenting on Orange Piccolo, says the Namekian in the Super Hero arc rivals has become strong enough to rival Goku and the others…

To reconcile the 2 statements, I’m assuming the Gammas could atleast survive hits from PSSB Goku & Vegeta and Orange Piccolo is on par with them.

Judging by all of these, my personal ranking of the movie characters are as follows:

Gohan Beast > Completed Cell Max > Broly > Incomplete Cell Max > Orange Piccolo ~ Broly Film PSSB Goku & Vegeta > Ultimate Gohan > Gamma 1 & 2 > Piccolo Potential Unleashed > SSJ Gohan.

Keep in mind that this ranking only pertains to power levels. Things could change when analyzing from an overall perspective (you know, including factors like speed, psyche, stamina, knowledge, Ki control, etc.).

What about the Manga-only characters like UI Goku, UE Vegeta and Black Frieza?

Honestly, I can’t say for sure until Toyotaro confirms in the upcoming Super Hero arc in the Manga. Part of the problem is, the events of the film chronologically takes place after the Moro and Granolah arcs but its story was conceived and drafted in 2019 (around the time of the Moro arc).

What’s more, Iyoku said this movie is purely seen as a sequel to DBS Broly. This is also evident by the fact that Vegeta, in the Super Hero movie, still thinks Jiren as his greatest rival in terms of mortals and not Black Frieza. So Toriyama probably had that movie in mind while power scaling Orange Piccolo, Cell Max, Goku, Vegeta, Broly, etc.

Now, here’s the main concern. How will Toyotaro reconcile all of these statements made around the time of Broly movie apply to events after the Granolah arc? Goku and Vegeta have grown so much during the last two Manga arcs that literally renders PSSB Goku & Vegeta in the Broly movie as fodder.

We’ve yet to find out. Until then, let’s talk about the Manga characters and speculate on where Gohan Beast stands amongst them. The following 2 subheadings can be made into a separate article in itself but I’ll just briefly give my thoughts on each of them.

Is Gohan Beast stronger than Ultra Instinct Goku & Ultra Ego Vegeta?

The trio of Goku, Vegeta and Granolah were once the strongest in the Universe in the Granolah arc… until Gas and Black Frieza decided to steal the show.

However, Goku managed to surpass Gas by a small margin during their battle by experimenting with Ultra Instinct Sign. Vegeta too scared the shit out of the Heeter by voluntarily taking hits to fuel his Ultra Ego and feeling good about it.

With all the Zenkai boosts they received with the help of Monaito, the Saiyan duo are probably the 2nd & 3rd strongest warriors in the Universe at the end of the Granolah arc.

Did Gohan Beast really pump out energy stronger than theirs?

As insane as it sounds, the possibility exists. I personally think that might end up being the case, given the logic (and the unreasonable amount of strong genes) of Gohan’s character. In the Manga, Gohan grew from Buu Saga Potential Unleashed to a level somewhere between T.O.P SSG & PSSB Goku with the help of Piccolo & Kefla in a matter of days.

Yes, days. You heard it right. Does it sounds crazy? Not when you don’t know Gohan’s insane growth potential right from the beginning of Dragon Ball Z.

The young Saiyan pushed himself higher than ever before, I’ll explain further how this power creep isn’t crazy as you might think in the next main section of this article.

However, one possible little counter to this is, if Gohan Beast’s power level is the highest ever so far, then Goku and Vegeta should have sensed it even on Beerus’ planet. Goku was able to pick on Gohan’s much weaker Super Saiyan Ki signature and the others while being on that planet in Resurrection “F”.

Sure you can argue that he & Whis were too busy to pay attention on the happenings of the mortal realm, but if the officials are on point of the grand scale of this event (the strongest fight in history), then Whis or the Oracle Fish have atleast felt a tingling or a glow from the staff. But they were too preoccupied to even notice Bulma’s call.

Weird…

Is Gohan Beast stronger than Black Frieza?

Frieza’s sudden appearance in DBS Chapter 87 in the midst of Goku and Vegeta facing off against the Zombie-like Gas was one of the most shocking & brutal scenes in the entire franchise, period.

Sure it was foreshadowed right from the beginning of the Granolah arc (Chapter 68) but the way he just came out of nowhere and reduce the menacing Gas to ashes made me jump out of my seat.

A classic script of “He came, he saw, he conquered and left”.

But what was more impressive is the fact that Frieza became Black Frieza after 10 years of training in a room of spirit and time (aka Hyperbolic Time chamber). That’s right! The prodigal mutant got his ass to hit the gym for the 2nd time but not just to surpass Goku, Vegeta or the Saiyans but Beerus, Whis, the Grand Priest and to ultimately overthrow the Omni King someday.

He went from Super Saiyan Goku (Namek Saga) to Pre-U6 Tournament Super Saiyan Blue Goku in 4 months. So imagine the power jump after 10 freakin’ years!

We don’t know when he acquired the Black shade but, the fact that he was there while the wish was being made shows he was still working hard (even at the 11th hour) to perfect his new form. He may not be just ready to overthrow the Gods but he sure did give Goku & Vegeta a run for their money.

A summary article on the Dragon Ball official site describes Black Frieza’s frightening power in greater detail and how he surpassed Goku & Vegeta by a wide margin.

Since he technically did not exist in the universe when Granolah and Elec’s wishes were made, he was able to achieve a level of power far beyond what the Cerealian Dragon Balls had bestowed.
Frieza unveiled the fruits of his training: a new form he dubbed “Black Frieza”! Both Ultra Instinct Goku and Ultra Ego Vegeta were helpless against the galactic tyrant’s new transformation…

Thus, this story that began with the emergence of the strongest warrior in the universe, ended with the real strongest warrior in the universe, Frieza, emerging victorious.

Frieza is Universe’s 7 strongest warrior at the end of the Granolah arc. But Whis was not sure if the Oracle Fish’s premonition at the beginning of the arc was referring to him, hinting at the prospects that it could be someone else entirely…

Is he referring to Gohan Beast?

Since the Super Hero arc in the Manga & Gohan Beast immediately follows the Granolah arc, chances are it could be true. However, the fact that Whis didn’t even bother to check on Earth or Gohan Beast’s power could render the theory being untrue.

My sense is, Whis’ statement is basically to push Goku and Vegeta to grow further, hence continuing the “there’s always someone stronger than you” motif once uttered by Roshi and Frieza is actually the strongest warrior in the Universe foretold by the Oracle Fish.

Granolah’s & Gas’ wishes ain’t just limited to pure power, but includes even techniques & skill required to use those techniques, hence becoming the “mightiest” in the Universe.

If Gohan Beast vs Cell Max is indeed the strongest battle in history (including the Manga continuity as well), then the half Saiyan is stronger than Black Frieza. Is it too crazy? Not really.

As mentioned earlier, these comparisons are only limited to power levels (just like how Toppo compared Jiren & Belmod, with the former being higher only in terms of battle power) so I’m assuming that the above mentioned Manga characters are still stronger than Gohan Beast in an overall sense.

Brute strength/battle power isn’t everything you know, as told by Vegeta in page 26 of DBS Chapter 38.

To me, Black Frieza’s might does surpass Gohan Beast’s in an overall sense due to the former spending 10 years training. The only doubt is, how much effective that 10 years worth of training was…

Having said that, let’s address the real elephant in the room.

How is Gohan Beast so strong?

Despite Gohan’s return into the spotlight once again, a lot of fans questioned the amount of power he gained over “nothing”.

Gohan even forgot how to sense power level in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero and suddenly he’s gained power rivalling Ultra Instinct Goku & Ultra Ego Vegeta? Nonsense! There’s no way he could have gotten this strong without any logical means. Asspull power creep!

Under this heading, I’ll demonstrate how Gohan’s sudden increase in power has been consistent ever since his introduction in Dragon Ball Z and the power jump from his Beast Form follows the same principle that defines his core characteristics.

For starters, let’s rewind the clock and return to the time when Gohan rocked Raditz’s world with a clean headbutt. Toriyama states he based Gohan’s new from on the awakening image from his childhood so that’s why it’s important to take a closer look on that.

Emphasizing the impact of Gohan’s power shifts in detail

It’s Age 761. A 4 year old Gohan and his father pays a visit to folks at Kame House. A wholesome reunion of the gang after a 5 year time skip since the Earth-shattering confrontation against Piccolo in the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament.

Goku is confident that he’s the strongest in the world but that title soon was put under the carpet as his brother Raditz decided to give him information that triggered Goku’s identity crisis.

Raditz kidnaps Gohan and Piccolo agrees to team up with Goku (cause’ he can’t stand another guy on top of the food chain).

As they fly towards Raditz’s location, Gohan’s power level (PL), to the shock of his uncle, soared to a massive 710!

Now, keep in mind that PL of this margin is completely unheard of during the original Dragon Ball series. What’s more, there’s about 300+ difference between his & Goku’s and Piccolo’s base power level (even after removing heavy clothing).

It might seem small in current times but fans sometimes forget how insanely broken this is.

Goku and Piccolo have trained for more than 10+ years whereas Gohan hasn’t even trained even once but managed to surpass them. Let me brief upon Goku’s training period in the original Dragon Ball to show a sense of weight.

Goku went through life and death situations over and over again right from the Pilaf arc to almost dying at the hands of King Piccolo & Piccolo Jr. The kid has been training non stop since the time Grandpa Gohan found him in the woods.

Its intensity grew several fold when he met Bulma for the first time on Sept 1, Age 749. At that time, his power level was 10. Keep in mind that even Pilaf, Mai & Shuu were more powerful than him.

It continued to grow, albeit slowly, until he and Krillin became Master Roshi’s pupils 10-14 days later.

For 8 months, they’ve been training non-stop by waking up at 4:30 am every day and:

• Carrying milk bottles and delivering them by hopping for 3-4 kilometers, climbing mountains, crossing deadly tranches with wild crocodiles, running as fast as they can from sinking into the sands of a desert & from a land dinosaur
• Plowing huge farm fields by using only bare hands
• Construction work
• Swimming 10 laps while having a shark tailing after them
• Repeating the above mentioned training regimens with a 20-40 kilo turtle shell tied on their backs

This is where the two boys broke the wall of human capabilities, according to Roshi.

During the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament, Goku managed to defeat Giran & Namu, who had a power level of 100 each. That means Goku raised his at least 10 fold during that intensive 8 month training! But it was less than 139 as Roshi defeated him (in the guise of Jackie Chun) in the finals.

Then he confronts the Red Ribbon Army for the first time. He almost lost his life at the hands of Tao Pai Pai, climbed Korin’s tower (which nobody other than Roshi could do at that time) and first encountered the lesson of “not wasting too many movements and conserving energy” from Korin. He did what Roshi took 3 years to achieve in 3 days – catch the old cat Demi-God.

He finally took down Tao Pai Pai and the entire Red Ribbon Army (which is, like, the BIGGEST ARMY in the world) all by himself! A full-on solo raid of their headquaters, solo-ing everyone that showed up. Some of them even ran away while seeing his fierce rampage (including Dr. Gero).

Apart from sparring with Fortuneteller Baba’s fighters, he spends the next 3 years preparing for the 22nd Budokai Tenkaichi where he meets Ten Shinhan / Tien in the finals. This is when Roshi (PL: 139) retires and leaves everything to the next generation cause’ both Goku and Tien have surpassed him (PL: 180 each). That means Goku grew from around 100 to 180 (0.8 times) in the RRA arc & the 3 year training period.

Then Demon King Piccolo appears. Goku almost lost his life fighting him for the 1st time & also while drinking the Ultra Divine Water. The battle between Goku and Piccolo Daimao was legendary as the little tyke (PL: 260) created a hole in the latter’s stomach (PL: 260), who spewed out an egg containing a reincarnated version of himself.

In order to wish his friends back to life, Goku climbs up deep into the sky to see Kami but is stopped by his attendant Mr. Popo, who basically sheds light on the importance of controlling one’s thoughts & movements (which later becomes the foundation of Ultra Instinct).

The young Saiyan trains with God for 3 years before returning to the grand World Martial Arts Tournament stage once again! During this time, he learns a bunch of new skills and techniques, which led him to beat Ten Shinhan and put up with Piccolo Jr. in an Earth shattering battle.

Both of them have enough power to literally destroy the Earth and then some (even Roshi can reduce the Moon to ashes and he was at a PL of 139).

You may be wondering why am I recollecting Goku’s adventures as a kid? Well, it’s because to emphasize how much he’s strained to reach a PL of 334/416 in the Saiyan Saga at the age of 23-24. Piccolo (despite being very young) is more powerful than his predecessor. Both he and Kami went through hell after landing on Earth to try honing their skills before separating into two beings.

And a 4 year old Gohan surpassed all of them in power. Even if it was for a couple of seconds, that’s still wild.

Without ANY TRAINING WHATSOEVER.

Yes. Not even a shred of combat-related training. This is confirmed in both the Manga (DBZ Chapter 2) and DBZ: Kakarot.

He not only grew to 710 but to a whooping 1,307 to critically damage Raditz. 1,307 is 3 times more than Goku and Piccolo individually and approximately 1.5 times their combined PL after removing their weighted clothing.

Keep in mind that this is a Goku after training hard and facing near-death situations in over 12 years! Not only that, Gohan charged a damaged a being who could almost one-shot his father and blow up a dozen planets!

If this was modern day Dragon Ball, fans would raid on Twitter, screaming asspulls and phrases like “Gohan doesn’t really deserve it” or “Goku’s training in the entire portion of OG Dragon Ball rendered useless as his crybaby child surpassed him momentarily and saved his ass”

People give Tournament of Power arc Roshi a hard time for dodging a few of Jiren’s punches in the Manga. And here a child who hasn’t trained AT ALL, not only survives but injures his foe.

After that resounding burst of emotions, Gohan’s PL dropped to a mere 1. That means, his “SNAP” has the potential to multiply his PL by at least 1,307 times. And if you add his training to the equation, that power might multiply by over 9000 times (just a ballpark).

And this is merely the beginning of the prodigal boy of the Son family.

Gohan’s training with Piccolo increased his power from a 1-10 to 981, which is also close to Piccolo’s base power of 1,220. Through this and DBS, one can see his ability to swiftly regain his battling spirit and push his might to make up for lost time, almost like a cheat code.

Toriyama is referring to Gohan Beast’s ability to “SNAP” since childhood when he uses the awakening picture. This abnormal rate of growth is in his dna. So, to those who believe that Gohan’s power spike from Beast form is excessive, I strongly disagree.

In fact, the boost he received on Namek isn’t replicable anymore. He grew from 14,000 while battling Recoom to a whooping 200,000 while confronting Frieza. And that goes even higher when he gets further mad (like that time he landed several blows on 2nd form Frieza following up with a series of Ki blasts).

Gohan recalls all of these moments to Cell in the Anime and realizes what the “SNAP” can achieve if let loose.

But how does Gohan get these boosts? What is unique about this half Saiyan that makes him stick out in the gene pool?

Reasons for Gohan’s power jumps

Gohan is a hybrid of Saiyan and human blood

Vegeta explains in page 11 of DBZ Chapter 10 that a mix of human & Saiyan blood can result in a much powerful hybrid. So much so that the child could even surpass him at that age. This is noted by Vegeta’s fear on what would become of him if he allows more of them to sprout on Earth. So he decided to wipe out the planet to prevent such a thing from happening.

And all of these ideas sprung about after Gohan showing an unreasonable amount of power spike to damage Raditz.

This is the same mentality Frieza had in regards to the Super Saiyan legend. He feared the unreasonable growth in power of the monkey race, which might lead one of them in becoming a Super Saiyan, a creature capable of surpassing the emperor. So eliminating all of them would prevent such a thing from happening.

Every living entity (even Saiyans and humans) has this thing called emotion, and it manifests itself in many ways depending on the situation. Rage, grief, and joy are some of these manifestations, and they can translate to incredible power (as stated by Merus in DBS Chapter 52).

However, Saiyans are not that emotionally surcharged because they’re a warrior race. According to Toriyama, most Saiyans are cold-hearted and of simple thoughts. They are individualists with cold hearts (thereby not able to generate that many S-Cells). That means that using emotional triggers to develop massive amounts of power, such as a Super Saiyan, is extremely rare (as confirmed by Toriyama again).

Humans, on the other hand, are emotionally charged beings capable of deep love and attachment. When they lose something important to them, their fury and anguish erupt like a volcano, releasing massive reserves of power deep within.

That’s why the “SNAP” is important. The way Gohan transforms into his beast form isn’t just a repetition of the past. It’s a fundamental principle within Gohan’s DNA that acts at the time of need. And when it happens, the huge inflow of S-Cells take over Gohan’s brain, making him more Saiyan like.

This is confirmed in the Shueisha Mirai Bunko version of the film’s Light Novel while describing Gohan’s smile while Cell Max was charging his Ki Ball.

Translation of the above is as follows:

He realized that Cell Max was starting to conjure a ball of massive energy in his right hand.

That dark ball, expanding before his eyes, became so massive that it started to cover the very surface of the Earth.

Generating a gigantic vortex, the debris in the vicinity were being rapidly sucked up by the gravity pull of Cell Max’s ball of ki.

“…”

But Gohan was not fazed.

Quite the contrary, he even started to show a grin on his face.

Was this perhaps caused by his instincts as a Saiyan, who were so famously fond of battle? In the blink of an eye, Cell Max compressed the energy of his massive ball of Ki.

It was just big enough that he could lift it in his right hand, but the ball had such gravitational pull that it could be equated to an all-engulfing black hole, and it was absorbing energy from its surroundings, raising its power ever higher.

In short, Gohan is a hybrid who get stronger extremely quickly by mixing the Saiyans’ thirst for combat with a gentle yet emotionally charged human heart.

Gohan’s instinctual behavior fuels his anger, which cannot be ignored

Goku confirms this in Episode 78 by saying that his son has “great instincts and incredible power locked up in him”.

What are these great instincts that Goku spoke of?

• The urge to protect/save someone in trouble
• The joy of battle and killing (once he snapped)
• To focus on something while completely ignoring everything else

The first two are inherited from his human and Saiyan blood. The last one is clearly his father’s genes. Gohan literally left Piccolo to pick up Pan from school while he’s engrossed in his research.

The instinct to protect someone is the strongest of these. It functions as a catalyst for him to become enraged enough to fight, as well as the motivation to practice and maximize his potential. The second point is reliant on the first.

Broly’s “SNAP” is different from Gohan, in the sense that his Saiyan instincts leads the rush of fury. He’s a mutant with a high amount of anomalies present within his body. The S-Cells generated within are much higher than any normal Saiyan out there.

If that’s the case, Broly’s brain could really be messed up. Toriyama said that anger can explosively increase the amount of S-Cells. If this happens, the sheer amount of S-Cells could be too much for Broly to handle. The brainpower to process so many S-Cells would be too much, causing a brain overload. As a result, he loses control of his power and thereby goes berserk.

Gohan’s dormant battle sense surfaces to protect loved ones

Out of his instincts, the urge to protect loved ones is the strongest. We’ve seen this multiple times when:

• He sees Goku getting pummeled by Raditz
• Watching his friends hopelessly losing against the Cell Juniors
• Helplessly witnessing Videl get destroyed by Spopovitch and so on

In the context of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, Gohan got pissed when he heard Pan was kidnapped. The trigger and motivation is saving her but he regained his sense of battle when duking against Gamma 1, as pointed out by Piccolo.

Gohan’s potential increases after every training session

he reserve of untapped power expands when he actively trains. Since he’s soft-natured and doesn’t go all out all the time, a specific trigger is required to push out his latent power.

For instance, Gohan’s power rose from 1 to 710 and 1,307 during the encounter with Raditz. Note that Gohan hadn’t trained at all until Piccolo picked him up (as confirmed in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot). His power rose to 981, thanks to his 1st round of training. After Piccolo died, Gohan’s emotions broke free, rising his power to over 2,800 while charging the Masenko (more than twice the power he mustered to headbutt Raditz).

Grand Elder Guru’s awakening ritual raised his power to a whooping 10,000. A full on power charge to unleash the Masenko doubled his power to 20,000. Then a fight to the death battle with the Ginyu Force (along with a Zenkai boost) took him to a level of 200,000.

The 2nd awakening happened in the form of SSJ2 after a year of training in the Room of Spirit and Time. The 3rd one took place after training for a World Tournament and giving the Z-Sword a couple of swings.

See the pattern?

The power would have had more time to lie dormant than usual during the gap in training, making the awakening even more powerful.

Additionally, the Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot video game suggests that only portions of Gohan’s hidden power were unlocked during the Namek & Buu Sagas.

As he grows and polishes his fighting skills, his potential or power increases. But a lot of it is dormant due to the resistance.

The resistance, as stated by Gohan to Cell, is his dislike to fight like his father. Due to that, he doesn’t normally go all out, even after artificially pushing his untapped power to the surface.

The “SNAP” occurs when his eye expressions change (either to white or some other color other than black).

Until that happens, a large portion of his power remains dormant. So yeah, there’s a lot more hidden oomph within that Crouching Tiger.

For more elaborate explanation, check out my in-depth conceptual analysis of Gohan Beast here!

So what do you think of Gohan Beast’s power? Is he really stronger than Ultra Instinct Goku, Ultra Ego Vegeta and Black Frieza? Let me know in the comments below!