Videl enters in the last saga of Dragon Ball Z and stays in the cast of GT and Super. This page follows her arc by arc; the full portrait is in Videl's profile. It is the story of a girl who hunts down her city's criminals, learns to fly, nearly dies at the World Martial Arts Tournament and becomes Gohan's wife and Pan's mother.
Dragon Ball Z
Majin Buu Saga (episodes 200-291)
In episode 200 Gohan starts high school and finds himself in class with Videl, Mr. Satan's daughter, who helps the police stop criminals. Early in the Majin Buu Saga she takes down a bus hijacking and a gang boss, while the mysterious Great Saiyaman steals her thunder. Suspicious, she tails him until, in episode 204, she finds out Gohan is under the costume. She uses the secret to make him teach her to fly: she starts from scratch, not even knowing what ki is, but learns faster than expected and flies freely before the tournament. At Gohan's innocent suggestion that long hair gets in the way in a fight, she cuts off her pigtails.
At the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament she faces Spopovich, boosted by magic. In episode 217 he beats her mercilessly and throws her out of the ring; Gohan's anger sets off the chain of events that leads to Majin Buu's revival. Healed with a senzu bean, she joins Bulma and the others in the Dragon Ball hunt, then shelters on Kami's Lookout, devastated by the news that Gohan is supposedly dead. When Buu reaches the refuge she is killed too, and comes back thanks to the Namekian Dragon Balls. Six months later she patrols with Gohan as Great Saiyaman 2 and, in episode 289, ten years on, she is his wife and Pan's mother.
Dragon Ball GT
Baby Saga (episodes 17-40)
In GT Videl has a minor role, often alongside her mother-in-law Chi-Chi. In the Baby Saga the parasite takes control of her and Gohan, and the two turn on their daughter: episode 32 shows Uub having just rescued Pan from her possessed parents. Later she is freed, like everyone on Earth.
Super 17 and Shadow Dragon Sagas (episodes 41-64)
In the Super 17 Saga, in episode 47, she puts the masked-heroine outfit back on and flies a terrified Chi-Chi to the battlefield, ready to fight once Goku has already won. At the end of the Shadow Dragon Saga, in episode 64, she watches Goku leave with Shenron and heads home with Gohan and Chi-Chi.
Dragon Ball Super
Battle of Gods Saga (episodes 1-18)
Super opens with Videl and Gohan as newlyweds. In the Battle of Gods Saga, with Beerus about to destroy the Earth, in episode 9 Videl reveals she is pregnant and joins the ritual on behalf of the baby she is carrying, the sixth Saiyan needed to turn Goku into a Super Saiyan God; for a moment her hair glows gold. In episode 17 Pan is born.
Future Trunks Saga (episodes 47-76)
Late in the Future Trunks Saga comes a story just for her and Gohan. In episode 73 star actor Barry Kahn, lead of a Great Saiyaman movie, hits on her and gets turned down in front of the whole crew. In episode 74 Barry tries to convince her that Gohan is cheating, but Videl sees through it; when he, possessed by an alien parasite, kidnaps Pan, she is the one who gets the baby back while Gohan fights.
Movies
In Battle of Gods Videl's pregnancy comes to light after Mai's pistol accidentally wounds her, while in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero she asks Piccolo to pick Pan up from school.
Our take
Seen saga by saga, Videl has one of the tightest arcs in the series. In the Majin Buu Saga she is almost a co-lead: she enters as a crime-fighter, not a damsel in distress, and her beating at Spopovich's hands is the spark that lights the whole Buu storyline. Her path also has real progression: from an ordinary fighter she learns to use ki and to fly.
Afterwards her space shrinks: in GT and Super she is mostly a wife and mother, and some critics have faulted exactly this shift from heroine to homemaker. Her best moments come when she teams up with Gohan again, as Great Saiyaman 2 or against Barry Kahn: there you can still see the headstrong girl from the start.
Did you know? In a 2004 Japanese popularity poll, Videl ranked twentieth among all Dragon Ball characters.
For her husband, see Gohan's profile, and for her father, Mr. Satan's; for her mother-in-law, Chi-Chi saga by saga.