Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero introduced a brand new villain to the Dragon Ball universe, Gohan Black.
One of the unique offerings from the latest title in the Budokai Tenkaichi series is the special side missions that appear, to imagine how the Dragon Ball story could have played out, if things had gone differently in some arcs. And some of those differences will lead to big changes.
Like the butterfly effect, the proposed What If stories in Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero can range from small changes to changes that have a huge impact. The biggest of which comes from Gohan's role in all of these changes.
In fact, throughout most of Dragon Ball Super, Gohan gave up training after the events of the Majin Buu arc. Now, Sparking! Zero imagines what it would be like if Gohan fulfilled his original role, being Goku's true successor as Earth's champion and becoming the strongest being in the universe.
Gohan becomes the strongest warrior in the Dragon Ball universe?
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero allows fans to change the events of Dragon Ball Super by putting Gohan in the main role. In the Resurrection F arc, instead of being completely defeated by Frieza, Gohan is actually able to regain his full power in battle. Even reaching his Ultimate Gohan state, he has enough power to not only repel Frieza, but defeat his Golden Frieza transformation himself. This is a significant change from the events of the original series, where Goku and Vegeta could only confront the villain in their Super Saiyan Blue forms.
This starts a massive chain of events, which causes Gohan to be inspired to train with Piccolo as he is able to defeat Golden Frieza. Later, as Gohan trains more, he becomes the strongest warrior in Universe 7, surpassing his father and Vegeta. In the interuniverse tournament that followed, Gohan became the leader throughout the war and even faced off against Hit. It was such a remarkable performance that the fight between the two received attention from across the multiverse.
As the events of Future Trunks take place shortly after, Gohan remains the strongest warrior. Future Trunks arrives and suddenly attacks Gohan. Just like when Future Trunks suspected Goku was someone else in the main series, he mistook Gohan for someone else. Then, as Future Trunks tries to explain himself, a wormhole opens and a familiar but unfamiliar villain appears. It's Gohan, but instead it's the evil version of Gohan from Trunks' timeline. Like Goku Black before him, this villain is Gohan Black and carries the same divine power as Goku Black in the main series.
Who is Gohan Black?
In the events altered by Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, Gohan also heads to Future Trunks' timeline to fight Gohan Black alongside Goku and Vegeta. This villain is as strong as Goku Black, and even works with Zamasu in the same way. They have the same Zero Mortals Plan, but the main difference is that Gohan Black's stronger form is a pink version of Ultimate Gohan's aura. It is not a full Super Saiyan transformation, but is arguably stronger in this version of events, as Gohan has had his power awakened by Elder Kai twice at this point.
The fight against Gohan Black also plays out differently. Gohan Black's origin is the same as in the original series, he is actually a Zamasu from the past. In this version, Gohan fought Zamasu and made the god realize how powerful mortals can be. The god used his wish with the Super Dragon Balls to become Gohan Black, then finished off Videl and Pan. This angered Gohan, but Goku was there to keep his son calm and focused on the fight at hand. Afterwards, the fight continues and Gohan Black merges with Zamasu.
Fused Zamasu is essentially the same as in the original series, but has a hairstyle more reminiscent of Gohan than Goku in this version. But the fight against this version of the god also takes place differently because of Gohan's participation. Future Trunks and Gohan have a much stronger connection and together they can overwhelm Zamasu. Gohan learned the Evil Containment Wave technique from Piccolo, and this time it was used.
In the final clash with Zamasu, Trunks and Gohan fuse their Masenkos together and take down the god. With Gohan using the Evil Containment Wave, they were able to completely defeat the god, seal him away, and save Future Trunks' timeline. Afterwards, Gohan was free to return home, cherishing his family and the life he had thanks to the way he protected Earth all this time.