The newest advertisement for the upcoming movie, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero finally shows us a teen-aged Goten & Trunks, hopefully indicating that they will have some significant meaning to the overall plot.
Super Saiyan 3 level potential
So, bit of a controversial take in the Dragon Ball fandom, but the Buu Saga is probably my favorite arc in the series. I felt like it was the arc to truly push the series hero's to their fullest limits. So many iconic scenes happened in this arc like the Super Saiyan 3 transformation, the Goku Vs. Vegeta rematch, Gohan unlocking his hidden potential, and one of my favorite aspects: the time skip and development of Goten and Trunks as characters.
What initially made Gohan such an compelling character in the narrative was that at the core he was a scared, unconfident child that enormous potential as a fighter and defender of Earth. We spent a lot of time in Dragon Ball Z seeing Gohan's growth as a character and him surpassing his father in strength in an insanely short amount of time. Gohan becoming the defacto defender of Earth during the Cell Saga is one of the highlights of Shonen media period. As we transitioned into the Buu saga, it was apparent that the new mantle would be passed down to the youngest, Goten and Trunks.
A common narrative issue with Dragon Ball's storyline is the over reliance on the main character, Goku. Typically there is some plot element that takes Goku out of the picture physically and forces the rest of the cast to step up temporarily until Goku's inevitable return. This was no different in the Buu Saga, which Goku already being dead at the start of the arc but coming back conveniently right when the villians show up. While the Goku & Vegeta fight was stellar and the Super Saiyan 3 Transformation was etched in every Dragon Ball fan's childhood minds, it was all under the guise that Goku's presence was temporary, and that eventually it would be left to the other cast to pick up the slack, and that were our two child heroes come into play.
Almost immediately Goten and Trunks had insane amount of potential. It took Goku and Vegeta well into adulthood before they were able to unlock the power and ability to transfer to Super Saiyans. It took Gohan and Future Trunk their teenage year to achieve the same feat, but Goten and Trunks achieve the same feat before they even reached the age of 10...and even surpassed them even further from there. The plot twist of Goten & Trunks being able to transform into Super Saiyans at extremely young ages shows the latent ability that these two kids posses. They are instantly as strong as, or stronger than any DBZ villian up to that point. With the introduction of fusion technique, they were able to augment their powers even further and were able to harness the power of Super Saiyan 3, a new form that was literally introduced in that arc, already surpassing Goku at his strongest. So where did it all go wrong?
A Super lack of character development
While Goten and Trunks very much held their own against Super Buu, they were effectively side-lined for Dragon Ball Super...but why?
Power-scaling is a narrative issue that Dragon Ball has always faced, but that problem was execrated in Dragon Ball Super. The Battle of Gods arc in Super essentially happens shortly after the events of the Buu Saga, which each character being at around the same power-level from the end of the Buu fight. Goku and Beerus' first encounter left Goku completely outclassed, even as a Super Saiyan 3. After some plot foolishness regarding pure-hearted Saiyans and the power of Gods, Goku was able to harness the power of Super Saiyan God. This obviously completely changes the power-dynamic of the cast with Goku gaining massive power difference between him and the rest of the cast. But even with this fact, in the ranking of heroes, Goten and Trunks is STILL within the top 5 fighters in the DB cast.
The rest of the plot of Dragon Ball Super seems to only serve the purpose of strengthening Goku & Vegeta and no one else. While Goku & Vegeta reached ridiculous heights of power, Gohan, Piccolo, Buu, Goten & Trunks were all left behind and relegated as side characters, only being involved with the story sparingly. However, when it comes to the Tournament of Power Arc, a full cast of Dragon Ball Heroes jumped off the sidelines to participate including Krillian, Tien, Gohan Piccolo, Android 17 & 18 and hell, even Master Roshi! But you know who conveniently was left out of this line-up...Goten, Trunks and Yamcha. Are you seriously telling me that Goten and Trunks are on the same level of importance as Yamcha???
Dragon Ball Super's narrative writes them off as "hey, they are kids, we don't want them participating in this super serious competition" and leaves them behind to protect Android 17's island from poachers. But this makes no narrative sense, at one point in the story these kids were Earth's ONLY hopes of survival. Even with the ridiculous power-scaling created in Super, in terms of raw power they were still more powerful than Android 17, 18, Krillan, Master Roshi, Piccolo, and arguably Gohan as well at this point, and yet they still wasn't considered to be a part of the tournament. We know their potential, so why are they not being utilized?
Will Goten & Trunks ever be considered as serious fighters again?
In almost every instance of Dragon Ball Super, Goten and Trunks have been used for the sake of comic relief. And in a way, I kind of get why. Outside of the Buu arc, Goten and Trunks didn't HAVE to go through traumatic events like the other DBZ cast had to in their youth. Goku's entire childhood placed him as a defender for Earth, literally going against entire army's and larger than life enemies. Vegeta spent his childhood conquering and devastating planet after planet. Gohan had his father murdered at the age of 4, kidnapped, was force to train with a literal alien, and space travel to another planet, fight for his life on multiple times all eventually become the savior of the earth...all before he was the age of 15.
So it kind of makes sense that Goku, Vegeta, Chi-Chi and Bulma to want better for Goten and Trunks. They've seen first-hand all of the insane things that they had to deal with in their childhoods and how that effected them. There was no-one else to do the jobs they did, they HAD to do them for the sake of the Earth. Which is why, when in it came down to no one else being able to defend the Earth, Goten and Trunks HAD to step-up and live up to their Saiyan heritage as warriors. So when the plot moves back to the point where these two youngin's can have peace and not be involved with adult affairs, why not? They've seen more peace in their lives longer than ANY of the cast of Dragon Ball, so unless it's absolutely necessary for them to be involved, they don't need to be.
Still, as a fan, this is still highly disappointing not seeing them get utilized at all in the narrative. This is made worse that seemingly in all of Super up to this latest key art for the upcoming movie, Goten and Trunks have seemingly NOT aged at all. This almost fully cements them as background characters as they didn't even receive the curtesy of being aged up appropriately. I guess you can use the excuse that Goku as a child had a massive growth spurt, so the same could be true of Goten and Trunks but it seems more as an oversight that they are just NOW getting a visual age change where as Gohan we saw him in every step of his physically growth through the years.
Even in the Manga Goten & Trunks missed out on key fights after the Tournament of Power arc and were completely out of any fighting roles in Dragon Ball Super Broly, it's so refreshing to at least see them a parts of the main cast for the Upcoming Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. For years we were teased with the idea of a teenage Gotenks thanks to spin-off media Dragon Ball Heroes, maybe we can finally see Gotenks return to his former glory and be a key part of the Dragon Ball franchise going forward. Or Goku could just get another arbitrary power-up and we never see them again.