So far, you have only seen a few Saiyans as Super Saiyan 3 in the anime Dragon Ball Z, including the main character Son Goku. But the image from a game shows you what his son Son Gohan looks like in this powerful form.
What is Super Saiyan 3? In the Dragon Ball Z anime, Saiyans like Goku or Gohan can transform into different stages, changing their appearance while also increasing their strength.
Since Super Saiyan 3 requires an incredible amount of Ki, it is rarely used. In the anime, you have only seen a few characters, like protagonist Goku, in this form. But one image shows you what Gohan would look like as Super Saiyan 3.
What the Z actually stands for in Dragon Ball, you can find out in this video:
Gohan in an alternate reality
What kind of image is this? The image comes from Super Dragon Ball Heroes World Mission, a tactical card game where you work towards becoming the Super Dragon Ball Heroes world champion.
Here you can see the super-strong Gohan for yourself:
While this is an official image since it comes from the franchise (the anime Super Dragon Ball Heroes is a spin-off of the game), creator Akira Toriyama was not involved in the development of the game.
Therefore, you should not consider the card as canon in the official story. Because besides Son Gohan as Super Saiyan 3, you can find all kinds of “what if?” scenarios in the card game that you probably will never see in the anime.
What could Gohan have become? As Screenrant reported, the creator of Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama, had actually planned to establish Gohan as the new protagonist of the series.
However, he dismissed the idea because he did not see the character as a fitting main character:
“I intended to give Gohan the main role… but that didn’t work out. I felt that in comparison to Goku, he ultimately wasn’t suitable for the role.”
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