Pan may not be one of the first characters one thinks of when hearing mention of Dragon Ball, but Super has made her a very relevant character in recent chapters, which, of course, draws inevitable comparisons to the character as seen in GT. Compared to the potential she was said to possess, Pan in GT is rather disappointing, but Super has the opportunity to change all of that.

Pan is the daughter of Gohan and Videl, only just born during the course of Dragon Ball Super‘s story. She’s a major character in Dragon Ball GT, often accompanying the de-aged Goku on his adventures. However, the version of Pan seen in GT isn’t quite what one might expect from Goku’s granddaughter. While she does enjoy martial arts to some extent, she puts very little of her effort into training, and, as a result, is quite weak. Pan also has a bit of a bad attitude at times, sassy and negative in a way that brings down the group. That’s not to say Pan is entirely useless, but compared to the potential she’s said to have possessed, it’s extremely disappointing.

Pan’s Characterization in GT Doesn’t Match with Her Dragon Ball Z Introduction

Pan is first seen in the epilogue of Dragon Ball Z, where she’s roughly 5 years old and already shown to be a decently powerful martial artist, defeating Goten in a friendly bout despite the significant age gap between them. Despite being only a quarter-Saiyan, Pan is the first female Saiyan with a major role in the series, and as such has some great expectations upon her. Pan is said to have inherited Gohan’s incredible potential, suggesting that she should be among the most powerful of the Saiyan characters in the series.

Her characterization in Dragon Ball GT seems to have ignored this aspect entirely, in favor of putting Goku back in the spotlight by de-aging him back into a child. While Pan often accompanies him on adventures, she’s not the most helpful person to have around most of the time, and is often displeased with Goku over what’s happening, even when it isn’t really his fault. It even gets to the point where Goku and Trunks discuss sending Pan home and finishing their mission by themselves, which only serves to upset Pan and cause her to run off and get into trouble.

No matter how one looks at it, the Pan seen in GT is a wild departure from how she was shown to be in Z, almost making her a different character entirely. The series simply didn’t respect Pan’s initial characterization, opting to create a new personality for her, putting her in more of a Bulma-type role rather than allowing her to be one of the Saiyans. Given that Super is set before GT, the question for Super was, which characterization should she be given?

Dragon Ball Super Does Pan Justice

Dragon Ball Super, showing Pan growing from a baby to a surprisingly capable toddler, puts her much more in line with how she appeared to be at the end of Z. In one episode of the Super anime, Pan is shown to be able to fly already, even as an infant, and even carries the Pilaf gang to safety. By Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (and the accompanying manga arc), Pan is a three-year-old child who’s already begun her martial arts training with Piccolo and has a real knack for it. Despite struggling with ki blasts, Pan is already making more progress than even Gohan did as a child.

Once Cell Max appears, Pan figures out how to control her ability to fly, and is able to retrieve a lost Senzu bean for her father, despite all the scary things happening around her. Pan is also shown to be capable of knocking out adult humans during battle, showing that her strength is already leagues ahead of where an ordinary human child would be. Pan’s potential can already be seen here, even though she’s done very little in the way of fighting.

In Dragon Ball Z, Vegeta does make mention that a hybrid Saiyan/Earthling would have tremendous potential, and it seems even two generations in that that’s still true. Though still young, Pan is in a position by this point in Super to take on a role similar to the one once held by her father when he was a child. Some supplementary GT material suggests that Pan is not capable of going Super Saiyan, but there’s really no reason to believe that’s the case. GT‘s Pan hasn’t trained enough to be eligible to use Super Saiyan, so of course she can’t do it; she’s never properly tried.

Dragon Ball Super Can Make Pan the Greatest Saiyan

Gohan’s tremendous latent potential has finally been actualized in Super Hero, resulting in his unique Beast transformation. There’s no reason that Pan, who supposedly has the same kind of potential, couldn’t do the same thing with adequate skill and training. The Super manga has made it clear that Gohan’s Beast form is on par with Goku’s Ultra Instinct, giving Gohan a good claim to being the strongest Saiyan at the present moment.

As it continues into its next arc, whatever that may be, Dragon Ball Super has the opportunity to do Pan’s character more justice than GT ever did. It’s not hard to imagine a scene where young Pan is able to go Super Saiyan just like her father did as a child, impressing Gohan and Goku with her rapid growth. Of course, something like that happening would mean finally writing GT out of continuity entirely, which the powers that be seem reluctant to do.

Still, Dragon Ball Super should seize upon this opportunity to give Pan the characterization and development that she deserves, and make the first major female Saiyan character in Dragon Ball into a warrior who can proudly stand alongside her father and grandfather as a defender of Earth.