Goten is one of the last major characters introduced in the Dragon Ball Z manga and anime by Akira Toriyama. He definitely surprised me when he first appeared, especially since his father, Goku, was technically dead before Goten was even born or before Goku even knew he had been conceived.

We all thought that Gohan was the spitting image of Goku, but Goten arguably resembles him even more. This is also because Goten was raised entirely by Chi-Chi instead of Piccolo, so he never wore Namekian style clothing or trained under Piccolo’s influence.

Just like his best friend Trunks, Goten manages to achieve the Super Saiyan transformation while both boys are still elementary school aged. It always seemed like everyone else needed a major emotional trigger to become a Super Saiyan, such as Goku witnessing Krillin’s death or Future Trunks seeing Future Gohan murdered. Meanwhile, these two kids reached the legendary transformation without even trying or experiencing that kind of trauma, which (for good reason) visibly frustrates Vegeta.

However, Goten’s ultimate purpose in the story appears to be becoming one half of the fused warrior Gotenks. That fusion was heavily hyped by Goku as the ultimate solution to defeating Majin Buu.

That ultimately turns out not to be true, since Ultimate Gohan becomes the current real answer to stopping Majin Buu who was now Super Buu. After that, nearly everyone gets absorbed, later rescued, and then shockingly killed when Kid Buu blows up the Earth purely for fun and spite. Then they’re wished back via Porunga on New Namek.

After the time skip, Goten’s teenage form feels less like Goku and even less like Gohan. He comes across as a fairly normal teenager without the same standout charm as his father or brother. Still, it was cool to see that he and Trunks remained best friends even as almost-adults.