There’s no denying that Son Goku is a hero at the end of the day, but Dragon Ball is not a story that centers itself around heroism. In spite of what Funimation’s English dub might push, Dragon Ball is about the pure pursuit of martial arts, with any heroics the main cast committing more a natural circumstance of their world than any real desire to do good (not that Goku doesn’t want to fight for the planet he cares about.)
Dragon Ball isn’t a world populated by superheroes, but by martial artists – and selfish ones at that. Goku is a good guy who will do what’s best for the Earth when push comes to shove, but he doesn’t always do the right thing. Sometimes intentionally. Goku cares about the consequences of his actions, but not more if it gets in the way of a good fight – a fact he’s made clear time and time again.
10 Fighting Majunior Alone
The logical thing to do in the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai would have been for everyone to gang up on Piccolo Junior and defeat him without the framing of a tournament – but that doesn’t make for compelling storytelling. Goku doesn’t want to do the right thing here: he wants to win the Tenkaichi Budokai.
After losing the 21st and 22nd in their final matches, Goku isn’t about to let Piccolo’s quest for world domination prevent what may be his last chance at victory. Goku turns down Tenshinhan’s help, lets Majunior get a free hit in when God interrupts their fight, and actually makes sure never to leave the arena – even after Piccolo’s obliterated it.
9 Letting Vegeta Go
Make no mistake, Goku does not let Vegeta go out of the kindness of his heart. Goku even makes it clear during the Namek arc that he outright hates Vegeta. But he does love fighting and Vegeta gave him the single best fight of his life. When Krillin is about to kill Vegeta with Yajirobe’s sword, Goku uses telepathy to beg his best friend to reconsider.
Hungry to fight Vegeta again and surpass him, Goku convinces Krillin to spare the Saiyan. While this is a completely selfish move on Goku’s part, Vegeta misreads the act and goes on living his life believing that Goku saw good in him. This ends up playing an important role in Vegeta’s development later on.
8 Sparing The Ginyu Force
After discovering he’s a Saiyan, Goku goes to some lengths to make himself seem more like an Earthling. Notably, he stops killing his opponents. While this was a mercy he learned after training with God, it only becomes more pronounced during the Saiyan arc – notably in the presence of Vegeta.
Goku’s inability to kill in Vegeta’s presence results in him sparing the Ginyu Force, mercenaries who were about to murder his son if he hadn’t intervened. Goku’s relationship with killing changes gradually over the course of Dragon Ball, but his sparing of the Ginyu Force feels undeserved given the context.
7 Trying To Let Frieza Go
There is absolutely zero reason Goku should have tried sparing Frieza after everything he did. Frieza committed literal genocide, tried blowing up a planet, and killed Goku’s best friend right in front of him. It’s certainly powerful that Goku wants to exert his cruelty and spare Frieza so he lives with the humiliation for the rest of his life, but it’s not the right thing to do by any means. Goku should have murdered Frieza the first chance he got.
6 Letting Dr. Gero Build The Androids
Future Trunks comes back in time to warn Goku of the Androids that have ruined his timeline. In three years, two Artificial Humans will begin laying waste to the Earth – and Goku won’t be there to fight back. Instead of heeding Bulma’s very wise advice to use the Dragon Balls to divine Gero’s location and hunt him down before he can become a threat, Goku champions the idea of training.
For what it’s worth, Krillin brings up the very good point that having a common enemy in the Androids keeps Vegeta from turning his sights on Earth yet again, but the Androids end up doing considerable damage when they do arrive. By the time Goku’s dead, Android 16’s crushed, and several islands worth of people have been killed, it’s hard not to feel like Goku didn’t make a mistake.
5 Refusing To Tell Gohan His Plan
When Goku brings Gohan into the Room of Spirit and Time during the Cell arc, he tells his son that he plans on making Gohan much stronger than himself. This starts the build up to Gohan becoming the main character during the Cell Games, but he doesn’t quite understand what Goku is doing here.
Goku isn’t just training Gohan, he’s deliberately crafting Gohan into the key to defeating Cell. Unfortunately, Goku never explains this to Gohan. His son just sees their training session as father/son bonding (albeit with his struggles), never piecing together that Goku isn’t planning on beating Cell until it’s too late.
4 Giving Cell A Senzu Bean
On the same token, Goku giving Cell a Senzu Bean only rings as poorly as it does because of his lack of explanation. Gohan has no clue what’s going on. He just watched his father go all out fighting Cell only to forfeit, and now Goku’s tossing Cell a Senzu just as Gohan’s about to fight.
In Goku’s mind, he’s making sure Cell understands that Gohan is the real deal – a strategy that ensures Cell doesn’t just slaughter Gohan off-guard to get back to fighting Goku. In Gohan’s mind, his father has fed him to the wolves for no conceivable reason and he understandably doesn’t want to fight back.
3 Fighting Majin Vegeta
Vegeta shouldn’t have let his ego turn him Majin, but Goku also should have handled the consequences with more grace. Threatening Kaioshin with his life is a dramatic move, but what is Goku gaining out of his fight with Vegeta? He’s not in it to beat him since he doesn’t turn Super Saiyan 3, and it even seems like he’s enjoying himself at multiple points.
Taking into account that this fight is directly feeding Majin Buu’s revival – a fact both Goku and Vegeta understand – it’s obvious why both Saiyans feel so responsible for everything that happens at the arc’s end. They both made a mistake in fighting each other, but Goku should have tried talking Vegeta down earlier.
2 Cutting His Fight With Fat Buu Short
Virtually every single character in the cast dies by the end of the Majin Buu arc. Between Fat Buu’s rampaging through cities, Evil Buu’s genocide attack, and Pure Buu quite literally obliterating the Earth, there are very few characters left alive by the time the final battle starts. And it’s kind of Goku’s fault.
Beyond Goku being responsible for Majin Buu’s revival, he claims that he could have actually defeated Fat Buu the first time he fought. Judging by his conversation with Piccolo, Goku wasn’t even trying – and going off his fight with Pure Buu later on, Goku would have actually won without the stamina drain of a living body.
1 Abandoning His Family Without Two Weeks Notice
Goku flying off with Uub is an often criticized story beat, but it’s the perfect note to end Goku’s martial arts journey: Dragon Ball ends with its main character returning to the Tenkaichi Budokai and taking on a student, in turn finally becoming a genuine martial arts master. It’s still a pretty rude move on Goku’s part, though.
Just like with the Cell Games, this is another example of Goku doing something (narratively) reasonable that becomes unreasonable due to his lack of complete explanation. Goku brings all his friends and family out to the 28th Tenkaichi Budokai only to suddenly abandon them all to train Uub – something he must have known he was going to do for months now.
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