A Therapist Explains Gohan & Invincible: The Trauma of Inherited Violence

[00:00:00]Gohan and Mark from Invincible carry so many parallels, right? They're both sons that are carrying these very violent inheritances from uh their fathers, man.

[00:00:09]Uh it's a just makes them both such interesting characters. Gohan has same blood and biology tied to the battle, rage, pride, and this overwhelming power. With Mark, his Viltrumite blood, this legacy tied to conquest, domination of other species, this worry about the possibility of becoming >> [music] >> his father. You know, both of them have these bodies, this physical strength capable of catastrophic violence. Both of them have these hearts though that keep reaching [music] for something much softer than that, man. And their stories keep circling this one really um painful question, right? Can you Can power belong to you without becoming your whole identity? I think that that's where the real conflict between these characters lives. Um Gohan doesn't move naturally through the world like Goku does, especially when it comes to combat, [music] right? Goku loves combat. For him, fighting is challenge, discovery, connection, and growth. You know, get punched through a mountain and hit you with a "Man, pretty good Tuesday." Like one of those kind of deals, right? We know the character of Goku. But uh Gohan's relationship with fighting is uh very, very different, you know, something I've talked about with this character a lot in the past. The way he was introduced to violence so early and how visceral it was. Tiny child with rabbits, [music] you know, his father dies directly in front of him as a result of war and combat. Piccolo takes him into [music] the wilderness, trains him for the upcoming battle with the Saiyans, right? Then the Saiyans arrive and it's catastrophic.

[00:01:40]>> [music] >> Namek happens, it's catastrophic, you know, Frieza happens.

[00:01:45]And then [music] you get to the the Android and Cell saga, you know, where so much culminates for Gohan. And by the time Gohan stands across from Cell, he's already seen so much death and fear and destruction. It's uh his brain has solidified what combat and conflict [music] means. So, with Gohan, right?

[00:02:04]Like that old take of him being soft, man, that's in that [music] it's missing the point. Not at all, right? He understands fighting and fighting his brain has processed [music] it in a different way than Goku and other people's has. It's where people disappear, you know? It's where his father dies, where his other father dies, like Piccolo, man. Where friends get broken and you lose yourself, you know? It's that place where planets become graves, you know? And so, to me, like of course he doesn't romanticize it, you know? And we get more in that if you're interested, man, in that Gohan vid, right? But [music] I guess kind of relating it to this, you know? People keep seeing the potential in Gohan, of course, right? And I think that that's what makes his power so complicated is that he knows like [music] the rage, right? Um that rage that's inside of him comes out when people are harmed. that there's this level of violence inside of him that he can't access calmly. [music] And the world rewards that part of him, you know? So, every time Gohan snaps, everyone looks at him like we're we're so proud of you, you know? Like they found the real weapon inside of this kid. And imagine [music] what that does to you, right? Like the part of you that scares you the most becomes the part of you that everybody wants and needs from you. And Mark's version of this wound is similar but different and it hits the same emotional nerve, right? Where Mark grows up wanting powers and to be like Nolan, you know? At first, his strength it feels like a dream. Finally, man, I get to be like my pops. I get to save people.

[00:03:37]I want to matter, you know? And then time goes on and Nolan reveals the truth of that power, right? That Mark >> [music] >> his powers become a lot more complicated. It stopped feeling simple.

[00:03:49]>> [music] >> Man, his body is like a reminder of something darker. It connects him to his Viltrumite heritage.

[00:03:56]It connects him to conquest and all of these other earth-shattering threats, man. It connects him directly to the man who nearly [music] beat him to death while explaining that his mom is a pet and the entirety of the world around him is beneath them. You know, it changed the meaning of his strength. So, before like Nolan's betrayal, you know, Mark can imagine that power within him as heroism. You know, but after Nolan, every time he throws a hand, right?

[00:04:23]Every time he throws a punch, like he has to ask himself a question, is this mine? You know, or is this him in me?

[00:04:30]That's uh inherited violence piece of all this.

[00:04:34]That fear that your blood has already written this predetermined story that your heart, you know, the thing you are doesn't want to be a part of. Gohan has to figure out whether Saiyan power means to means that he has to now live for battle. And Mark has to figure out whether Viltrumite power [music] means that he is destined for conquest and domination, you know, and both characters are gentle by their nature.

[00:04:59]Their first instinct is to push that violent part away.

[00:05:03]And that's where you have the psychological repression that you see in both of these characters. And it makes a ton of sense, right? For like both of these characters to be dealing with that battle. If you have a part of yourself that scares you, burying it feels like a defense mechanism. It's survival. Gohan doesn't want to be consumed by rage.

[00:05:21]Mark does not want to embrace that violent Nolan-esque part of him. So, they build these identities around everything except violence, man. [music] Gohan becomes a scholar. Like Mark does his best to embrace this role as a hero.

[00:05:36]Although, I'm not saying that it's a lie, right? That it's solely built out of defense. Gohan loves learning, [music] family, and he loves um times of peace.

[00:05:45]And Mark genuinely wants to protect people. He's a good kid at his core. But the problem, right, is that just because you bury aggression doesn't mean that it vanishes, you know, it doesn't just go away. It doesn't disappear. It's still there and it waits, [music] you know, and then when enough pressure hits, it can come out in this raw, uncontrolled, [music] furious type of place.

[00:06:07]And I think that's what happens with um [music] with Gohan against ourself, for example, right? Where Gohan tells Cell he does not want to fight, you know, he warns him that when my anger breaks loose and he gives him that whole rundown of like, you take me there, I'm not going to be able to control it.

[00:06:22]Cell's like, don't threaten me with a good time. And he decides to push all of the buttons like the generational menace that he is, man. And he sell sends the Cell Juniors out, you know, then the rest is history and everything, man.

[00:06:34]Gohan sees the people that he loves in danger.

[00:06:38]Forces Gohan to watch the suffering. And then Android 16 like bites the big one, man, dies in front of him. And then Gohan transforms, right? More than a power-up, call him back to the vid, man.

[00:06:49]This psychological rupture, Super Saiyan 2. Gohan is like iconic, man. This beautiful sort of transformation, but terrifying and deeply sad all at once.

[00:07:00]Because you still have that gentle kid in there, but now a part of himself um that he feared is driving his behaviors.

[00:07:08]In the driver's seat now. And we see it immediately through how that fight goes down, right? Gohan doesn't simply defeat Cell. Something else takes him over.

[00:07:16]He's possessed. [music] He tries to humiliate him. He delays the anguish, man. He wants to Cell he wants Cell to feel as helpless as he did watching his friends get hurt.

[00:07:27]And Cell earned every bit of that fate, right? Like Like what far be it from me to be the one to start the prayer circle for Perfect Cell. But Gohan's reaction still matters, right? The the rage works, man. Like that power that he taps into gets him through the situation, but then it creates this other wound inside of him, man.

[00:07:48]Cell gets desperate desperate, and then Goku now has to sacrifice himself because of the part that Gohan tapped into that hadn't been trained, you know?

[00:07:57]And Gohan is left with the idea that his loss of control created the conditions for his father's death. Like this really >> [music] >> intense moral injury happens. And like moral injury, right, is like when you have this wound that forms when somebody feels like their actions or inactions or just their inability to prevent harm violated like the deepest part of your identity, who you are. [music] And for Gohan, that hit him hard, man.

[00:08:21]He doesn't want to be cruel, you know?

[00:08:23]He does He does everything to not enjoy hurting people. He does not want his power [music] to be the thing that cost the people that he loves, you know? So, the Cell Games trapped, [music] man. It put him in a possible emotional bind, you know?

[00:08:40]Refusing violence leaves people suffering, you know? But surrendering to that violence risks making him unrecognizable to himself, you know? And then [music] so we go to Mark.

[00:08:51]Mark hits on his own version of that with the Angstrom Levy [music] situation, man, where Mark wants to be good so bad, man. He doesn't want to get pushed to that place. It is one of the most beautiful and deeply human things about that character, you know? Kid's messy, he makes mistakes, he's mad young, he gets overwhelmed, but he does his best to be fundamentally good. And then Angstrom comes, man, threatens his family, Ollie and and Debbie, pushes him past the edge, man. Mark is so scared in that moment, but he's also furious. There's this desperation within his powerlessness that comes over him. And then when the violence comes out, it does [music] not feel like a clean heroic victory whatsoever, man. It feels like Mark seeing um part of himself that he was terrified of really might exist, [music] that he has more Nolan in him than he's comfortable with. He doesn't just stop Angstrom, man. He brutalizes [music] that dude. You know, and afterwards, the horror isn't just limited to uh what he did to Angstrom though, right? Like the the horror that he sits with, man, it's like now Mark knows [music] something new about himself that he's seen what can happen [music] when he breaks psychologically or what his body can do when rage takes over.

[00:10:06]And for somebody already terrified of becoming their father, it's this visceral nightmare, man. And I think that that's what makes both of these characters so extremely compelling, man.

[00:10:17]Like their greatest power often shows up through like emotional urgency, you know, we see the the the best of them come out, so to speak. Where Gohan doesn't reach his deepest strength through joy, you know, his power rises up when somebody's hurt or is dying or [music] threatened or maybe even already gone, you know? And Mark's worst violent violence emerges from the same place of like desperation, right? When his family is threatened or loved ones are being endangered in some way where that fear that he has turns into [music] this uncontrollable rage, and then that protection or that protective instinct in him becomes his brutality, >> [music] >> you know? And it creates this brutal psychological pattern. Uh Goku, right, gets stronger through challenge. Vegeta gets stronger through like pride and that rivalry that um he has built into him with Goku. [music] Nolan's violence is tied to conquest and imperialism and uh superiority and like his the genetics of the Viltrumite conditioning. And Gohan and Mark keep learning that their deepest power appears when the world is being destroyed around them, you know?

[00:11:20]What makes their That makes their strength feel contaminated by trauma.

[00:11:26]And power doesn't feel clean, you know?

[00:11:28]It feels like this this miraculous thing that arrives under the worst possible circumstances when something terrible has already happened. So, like it may of course they're going to repress and pull away from that. Of course, man, that they try to build their lives outside of violence if that's what means to them.

[00:11:46]So, for Gohan that looks like school, family, work, [music] in some sense of normalcy. For Mark, man, trying to become a hero whose strength protects rather than um dominates. He tried living a normal life for a [music] while, but he saw how difficult it is, you know? Both of them trying to build a relationship with power that doesn't simply copy their fathers. You know, Gohan >> [music] >> can't become Goku because Goku's doing combat, it just does not match with um Gohan's emotional reality and his experience of the world. [music] Mark cannot become Nolan because Nolan's world view violates everything about Mark, his essence and his beliefs about humanity and the in being a person. So, both sons have this difficult ass assignment where they have to make their power their own, you know? And I think about the parentification in both characters, you know, where taking a look at Gohan where again and again the adults discover his potential and then having to find that potential and it becoming this impossible weight that he has to carry, you know, where he can be a child up until the planet needs a weapon. And now we need something else, right? And what a terrible ass weight to grow up, man, this utility, you know? And Mark gets a different version of that where once his powers arrive his um [music] mistakes now have these adult consequences. And then Nolan's betrayal adds this other layer of um of the the reputation and the expectations and others of Mark. Mark has to protect people, survive his own trauma, and prove that his bloodline [music] doesn't define him. You know, and like that that's just too much for any [music] any young person to hold cleanly, older person even, you know, so like the big question for both these characters is what they do with that violent part of themselves. If they deny it completely, then it comes out uncontrolled, right?

[00:13:37]But if they surrender to it completely, then they become a monster, man. Like this demonic force, the very thing that they fear. You know, so for both of them it's this battle with like Union integration. You know, where Gohan and Mark do not need to erase the violent part of themselves. They need to bring it into alignment with their identity, with who they actually want to be.

[00:13:58][music] You know, aggression is not automatically evil. You know, neither is anger, man. [music] Anger can be so protective. It is not this evil force.

[00:14:08]But in their worlds, in both of their worlds, man, violence is absolutely necessary at times.

[00:14:14]Aggression can [music] look like boundaries being enforced. It can look like protection.

[00:14:19]That ability to say no [music] when something threatens the things that matters to you. That's a noble thing, right? But the [music] danger comes when aggression is denied for so long that it only comes out as this explosion, you know? And integration means that violent [music] the violent part of you does not drive alone. You know, it doesn't stay locked away, either, compartmentalized in this box until the world is already on fire. You have to find a way to acknowledge that and train it. You know, make it a part of you. Have it be understood rather than shunned. Placed in the service of what your values are.

[00:14:54]The thing that you want to live by, man.

[00:14:57]For Gohan, integration means his strength can serve that gentleness. His power doesn't have to make him like Goku, man. He doesn't have to become a fight hobo. It doesn't have to make him Vegeta. It It belongs to him. His own version of strength, man. Gohan [music] approved. For Mark, integration means his Viltromite strength doesn't have to require Viltromite values, thankfully [laughter] for everyone on Earth. You know, he can inherit the body and the physicality without inheriting the values and the ideology.

[00:15:27]He can be Nolan's son and still choose a different life, man. I think that that's the key that both of these characters are um are dealing with. That inherited violence doesn't have to become inherited identity. You know, that's why um Gohan and Mark [music] work so well to me, man. What makes them so interesting to kind of see them um compare and contrast one another.

[00:15:46]Stories about young men trying to remain kind while carrying the capacity for this catastrophic harm in both [music] of them, man. And it's such a human conflict. Um more so than it looks at like first glance. Most people know what it feels like to have a a part of themselves that you try to censor, hold back, or that you don't like, filter, >> [music] >> you know, whether that be anger, whether it be jealousy, whether it [music] be cruelty, vindictiveness, pettiness, fear, that urge to lash out against others, that urge to control, you know, or to maybe run away and avoid.

[00:16:23]Uh but most of us don't have the ability to punch through somebody through a building, man. Like thankfully because I don't I don't want some of y'all to have it, man. I'm glad [laughter] that we're we're not exact parallels with some of this stuff. But the emotional problem is recognizable, you know. I and I guess what do you do with that part of you that scares you?

[00:16:44]That part of yourself that scares you?

[00:16:45]Do you deny it?

[00:16:47]Um do you let it run the show? Or is there a third path, right? Do you learn how to face that thing without becoming it? Can you integrate, man? And that's the work that both Gohan and Mark are doing, you know. The victory isn't about becoming like this harmless powder puff, you know. [laughter] The victory is like looking at becoming responsible for um the harm that both of them are capable of. And I think that that's like a very different battle, [music] you know. And I think a harder one, man. I think that that's a lot more complex than denial and compartmentalization.

[00:17:20]You know, power not becoming safe just because you have good intentions maybe, you know, [music] power becoming safer when the person holding it knows himself. Man, and they know themselves well enough to understand what can possibly go wrong. You know, denial [music] is a dangerous thing, man, because just cuz you disown your shadow doesn't mean it disappears. It doesn't mean it goes away. It can It grows [music] in the dark, man. And then when enough pressure hits like I described earlier, right? It comes out looking to get in the driver's seat. So, the point being, [music] right? To not destroy that violent part of you. The part of it the battle I think all of us are facing is to like bring it under the authority of the part of us that still loves people. Man, like having and maybe a self where strength and gentleness are able to both live within the same body cohesively, man. Where my alien blood doesn't get the final word, you know, where like my venom, my symbiote isn't the thing that's running the show when it comes to this, man. A future where like power is isn't destiny, you know, it's a choice that you make. So, I'll end it there, man.

[00:18:28]>> [music] >> Thank you all so much for listening to me yap about Mark and Gohan. I love both of these characters, man, more and more as time goes on. So, leave y'all channel memberships five bucks five bucks five bucks a month, man. Early access to videos, member exclusive content, and can help keep me alive here in the streets of YouTube. [music] But as always, man, I appreciate each and every one of you. Thanks for hanging out with me. I'll catch you again in the next video.

[00:18:59]>> [music]