This arc does something genuinely brave. It takes the kid who hates fighting and makes him the only one who can finish it. Gohan’s whole thing is having more power than anyone in the room and wanting absolutely nothing to do with it. And Cell knows that and uses it on purpose. Then Android 16 says one thing and gets crushed and that’s it. Gohan stops holding back not because he wants to win but because he finally runs out of reasons not to. I’ll call out my own bias here because this might be my favourite arc in anything ever. But it’s earned. Every single episode of buildup is earned by that one moment.

Frieza Saga set up everything that made the Cell Saga possible.