Characters / Dragon Ball Z Abridged - Son Goku

Dragon Ball Z Abridged Character Index
Main Characters (Son Goku | Vegeta) | Supporting Characters | Villains (Galactic Freeza Army, Cell) | Minor Characters | Movies and Specials

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Voiced by: Lawrence "MasakoX" Simpson

"I am a Super Sandwich!!"

A monkey-tailed boy who spent his childhood on various hunts for the Dragon Balls, seven mystical orbs that summon a wish-granting dragon when gathered together, and participating in the Tenkaichi Budokai tournament. Now a grown man with a wife and child, Goku's world was turned upside-down when his brother Raditz appeared and revealed that the two of them are part of a critically endangered alien race known as the Saiyans, kickstarting Goku's next set of adventures. Unfortunately, despite meaning well, Goku isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, and this combined with his instinctive love of fighting only end up making things worse for him and his peers.

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A-D

• Accidental Hero: Unlike the original character being a paragon of virtue, he tends to do good almost by accident. Ironically, this is actually closer to what Akira Toriyama originally wanted for the character than most official depictions of him.
• Achievements in Ignorance: Nobody knows the origins of the muffin button.
  Dr. Briefs: You're incredibly lucky I already set the coordinates for Namek, but you... you... where did you get that muffin?
  Goku: Muffin button.
  Dr. Briefs: But, I... never installed a muffin button.
  Goku: Then where did I get this muffin...?
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Goku and Gohan's relationship in Z was, for the most part, pretty happy, healthy and supportive. In fact, whenever Goku's around, he'll put the most faith in Gohan, and congratulate him on a job well done, as well as be defensive of his well being. Here, Goku's not only far less vocal about Gohan's ability (which is not without reason), he's outright neglectful most of the time. Further more, Gohan's view of Goku has changed from looking up to his father to resenting his dad for his idiocy and exasperation for his antics.
• Adaptational Badass: At points appears stronger than his canon counterpart. He defeats Nappa in seconds without even resorting to the Kaio-ken, and was implied to have broken his spine. In his fight with Vegeta, Goku isn't made out to be suffering from the Heroic RRoD like he was in canon. When he first turns Super Saiyan and grips Freeza by the hand, Freeza isn't able to break free like in canon, he only gets free because Goku let go and smacked him. Not to mention that when he shot Cooler into the sun, he blew up the sun by accident. His ki sensing to make use of teleportation is also better, since in the manga he tried to find New Namek, failed to do so, then had to ask King Kai for New Namek's general direction to be able to find it. In TFS he casually found it without any help.
• Adaptational Dumbass: He is even more of an Idiot Hero than he was in canon, except for rare instances where he gets a flash of brilliance.
  • Further proof is when he transforms into Ultra Super Saiyan he is completely coherent and speaks in a way that would make Sheldon Cooper proud.
  • Unlike canon Goku, who decides not to take the medicine Trunks gave him until after he shows symptoms, Goku here just outright refuses to take it because it is grape-flavored. The foolishness of this choice is somewhat mitigated when it’s revealed that his Bizarre Alien Biology gives him a severely painful allergic reaction to grapes, to the point that he coughs up blood and sweats purple when he takes the medicine.
  • It's also not clear how much of his stupidity is genuine and how much of it is him acting stupid to distract and anger his opponents or just to mess with his friends. Popo implies that his seeming inability to pronounce "Hyberbolic Time Chamber" is deliberate, and Goku doesn't deny it. Later on he reveals that he orchestrated the entire Cell Games by manipulating Vegeta and Cell.
  • Word of God is that Goku genuinely is stupid, but he's also a battle savant, so when he's being an idiot with a non-combat-related activity, he's genuinely being an idiot, but when he's being an idiot in something related to combat, it's most likely a deliberate effort to throw off his opponents or manipulate others.
• Adaptational Intelligence:
  • He has some levels of Chessmaster, as revealed in Episode 60. He set up Vegeta allowing Cell to become perfect and Cell setting up the Cell Games so that Gohan could take up his mantle and the world wouldn't have to depend on him so much. The issue there is that Gohan doesn't want to fight anyone and Goku didn't think of that, which leads him to nipping the problem in the bud entirely and staying dead after the battle with Cell so that people wouldn't threaten Earth. He also has at least enough self awareness to know that setting everything up so Gohan could deal with everything was wrong.
  • After Kid Buu destroys the Earth, he tells Vegeta that he grabbed Dende to make use of the Dragon Balls later. Contrast this with the canonical Goku, who never actually justifies the rescue with any sort of logic or plan, implying he saved Dende (and Satan) because he saw they were in trouble. But this also crosses over with Adaptational Jerkass: in that moment, he outright admits that he sees Dende more as a Reset Button than a person.
• Adaptational Jerkass: No, really:
  • In general, Goku is very self-centered, as he openly makes comments and performs actions without concern for how other people feel on the situation, largely lacks the Friend to All Living Things aspect his original self had, definitely is not someone mentally equipped to be a parent and isn't terribly concerned about the status of his friend group.
  • Kai 3.5 has him dropping F-bombs, telling Mr. Satan to shut up for no reason and pretty much telling Gohan that he'll be responsible for his Heroic Sacrifice.
  • He personally made sure the Cell Games would be a thing by manipulating Cell and Vegeta out of a selfish desire, while he did no such thing in the source material.
  • In a deleted scene that is implied to still have happened in the Broly movie, Goku has an uncharacteristic hatred towards Pilaf exclusively due to him being his first villain ever. This is actually so vehement that even years after Pilaf has fallen off the radar, Goku actively harasses and bullies him to the point of being riddled with severe PTSD and needing medication to cope with Goku's continued existence... something Goku actively enjoys, which is a level of sadism never shown to anyone, even Freeza when Goku first turned Super Saiyan in canon.
  • He generally doesn't care that much about Gohan and it's at its most noticeable in Broly's movie, where Broly threatens to kill Gohan, Goku only shows mild annoyance at it, and only because gathering the dragon balls takes up an entire day, and then he realized it'd mean Gohan could meet King Kai and gladly tells Gohan he'll meet King Kai. In the original version of the movie, Goku is very caring of Gohan, with a few scenes showing him shielding Gohan from Broly's attacks, and telling Gohan to escape when the battle against Broly starts to look too hopeless.
• Amazon Chaser: His wife Chi-Chi is one of the strongest women on the planet. She also has more stamina than him in bed which he takes as a challenge in Episode 56. He didn't understand it was in order to have a baby.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Acknowledged In-universe, due to Goku having sporadic cases of Hyper-Awareness, characters have a hard time telling when he's being an air head and when he's being The Gadfly.
• Ambiguously Bi: He does clearly love and enjoy sex with Chi-Chi, but after Cell shows up, he repeatedly comments on Cell's handsomeness, exchanges sexual innuendos constantly, and even says when he first sees him "I mean, I'd never cheat on Chi-Chi, but..."
• Angrish: Inverted. When Goku becomes enraged and turns into a Super Saiyan, he actually becomes much more coherent, to Gohan's surprise.
• Answers to the Name of God: When Goku teleports to Perfect Cell, surprising him.
  Perfect Cell: JESUS!
  Goku: No, actually. It's Goku.
• Arch-Enemy: Rarely, since he barely has any contempt for his enemies, unless your name is Freeza (who killed Krillin), and that monster Pilaf.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: He is easily bored by long conversations. He usually cuts the speaker off before doing something else.
  Goku: Bored now.
• Ass Pull: In-universe. He admits during his fight with Broly that while outclassed he'll probably make it work.
  Goku: I'll probably pull something out of my butt.
• The Atoner: It's shown that this is the reason why he sacrificed himself to save the world from Cell. To make amends with his friends for pretty much kick-starting the Cell Games, and to make amends with his son, Gohan, for not understanding that he doesn't like fighting. It helps that once Cell was set to explode, Goku was dead no matter what he did from there.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: His flaws aside, as Gohan assures Chi-Chi, after his death in season 3, he has no doubt that Goku loved his family very much, as his final thoughts were of both his wife and his child, and his unborn son.
  Gohan: Mom, Dad may be... well is one of the dumbest, most selfish, most irresponsible people we know... But before he died he mentioned us... All of us!
• Badass Boast:
  • From Season 2, TFS's rendition of Goku famous "I am" speech:
    Super Saiyan Goku: I am the hope of the omniverse. I am the light bulb in the darkness. I am the bacon in the fridge for all living things that cry out in hunger. I am the alpha, and the Amiga. I am the terror, that FLAPS IN THE NIGHT! I, AM SON GOKU, AND I AM A SUPER- [Freeza blasts Goku, before he instantly recovers] ...Saiyan.
  • And from season 3:
    Goku: Okay, I'm about done here. See ya tomorrow! Oh, and by the way, Cell... You're gonna die. [teleports out]
• Bash Brothers: Thinks he's this with Vegeta. Vegeta disagrees.
• Batman Gambit: Why, yes, Goku of all people actually manages to pull one off. By acting as the champion of Earth against various threats, like King Piccolo, Raditz, Vegeta, and Freeza, Goku came to realize that if he didn't die in battle, old age would eventually claim him, which would leave Earth unprotected against the elements of the galaxy. This lead him to decide that the whole Cell situation could work as a way to coax Gohan into becoming his successor as the new protector of Earth, to make sure his adoptive home would remain safe after his death. To make sure Gohan would be strong enough to carry this burden, he needed Cell to pose a serious threat for his son to overcome and prove himself, so he arranged for Vegeta and Trunks to fight Cell first, knowing that Vegeta (or Krillin) would probably screw it up somehow, which would allow Cell the opportunity to achieve his perfect form. He also made Cell postpone his plan to kill everyone after defeating Vegeta, by issuing a challenge of his own to him prior. Goku knew that he himself wouldn't pass up on such a challenge, and neither would Cell, since Cell had a part of his personality embedded in him. All that said, he did make one glaring miscalculation though; he had assumed Gohan would be happy for the chance to take up the mantle as Earth's protector, believing that his son enjoyed fighting just as much as himself. Gohan didn't, and he had completely overlooked that unlike pretty much everybody else.
• Berserk Button:
  • Despite the insults he levies towards Krillin, killing or hurting him is still the fastest way to piss Goku off.
  • In Christmas Tree of Might.
    Goku: YOU NEVER WASTE FIGGY PUDDING!
  • In Lord Slug Abridged.
    Goku: Nobody rakes Christmas!
  • In Episode 30, part 2 he doesn't react well to Freeza's Destructo Disc.
    Goku: That wasn't a pizza... THAT WASN'T A PIZZA AT ALL!
  • DON'T imply that you can have too much bacon. He'll go Super Saiyan if you do.
  • In general, you should never threaten to ruin Christmas in front of Goku as Turles, Slug and Santa Claus himself found out the hard way.
  • Do not bring potato salad to a barbeque. He will consider you a lost cause.
• Best Served Cold: Goku asks Piccolo to stall Freeza for five minutes while he charges a Spirit Bomb using the exact same words Piccolo used on Goku when they fought Raditz. This pays Piccolo back for the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Goku suffered at the hands of Raditz while Piccolo charged his attack for five minutes, and for Piccolo straight up killing Goku afterwards. Goku even sings the same song to himself in his head that Piccolo did at the time.
  Piccolo: D- did you just hold a grudge?
• Beware the Silly Ones: He may be dumber than the canon version of Goku, but you don't want to anger him.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Nappa, Freeza, and Piccolo learned the hard way that Goku's stupidity and innocence does not mean he won't mercilessly kick your ass or hold grudges against you. He especially has it out for Pilaf despite the latter wanting nothing to do with him, and just want to get on with his life.
• Big Eater: No, scratch that— HUGE Eater. In fact, when he fights Freeza, he reverts to his basic instincts and takes a bite out of Freeza. It even saved his life when he used the Muffin Button to escape the exploding Namek. It also killed him in Future Trunks' timeline when he had a heart attack from eating too much bacon.
  Krillin: Goku, what's your favorite food?!
  Goku: Favorite?
  Krillin: He's HIM again!!
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Aside from the usual quirks of Saiyan biology - his Ozaru and Super Saiyan forms, the Zenkai Boosts, and unchanging hair - Goku also sweats purple when he eats grapes... or anything grape-flavored for that matter.
• Blood Knight:
  • Ironically, he's not that far removed from the canon version of Goku or either version of Vegeta when you get right down to it. For example, he didn't care what Freeza was capable of, he just wanted to beat him up. Later on, Goku blatantly looks forward to fighting the Androids, as he feels he hasn't gotten a good fight since Freeza.
  • In Buu Bits, Shin ends up piquing his interest in fighting Majin Buu, but Gohan tells him not to provoke Goku, as not only Goku is pissed at Vegeta, fighting him could increase the chance of Buu waking up. Shin had to cut his losses right then and there.
• Bond One-Liner: Does this whenever he kills someone. Always in the form of a lame Pun.
  Goku: Looks like he had a bad case of... Freezer burn!
• Break the Cutie: Spends Episodes 38 and 39 screaming in pain from his heart problems.
• Brick Joke: The muffin button is introduced early in the Namek Saga. Surprisingly enough, it saved his life much later on.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: His idiocy is exaggerated beyond belief. He's still The Ace for the Z-Fighters, and a constant big damn hero.
  • His training with Gohan shows that Goku is surprisingly a much better instructor than Piccolo was, managing to get Gohan to turn Super Saiyan and coming up with a training method to maintaining it. As a result his training makes Gohan becomes stronger than Piccolo.
• Cannot Keep a Secret:
  • Tells Future Trunks this. Though he swears on Krillin's, but changed to Bulma's, life to keep Trunks' secret.
  • Almost averted with telling Chi-Chi about Gohan helping to fight the androids. He keeps her out of the loop for three years, but lets it slip at the last possible second.
    Gohan: Three years, dad. Three years. You almost had it.
  • And, if it wasn't for Piccolo to stop him in time, he would have spilled the beans about there being more innocent people on the island to the androids.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Episode 60 reveals that Goku could have easily killed Semi-Perfect Cell if he and Gohan had used the Hyperbolic Time Chamber before Vegeta and Trunks, preventing Cell from absorbing 18 and reaching his Perfect Form. He didn't do so, however, because he needed Cell to reach his Perfect Form (and was counting on either Vegeta or Krillin to allow him to do so) to mold Gohan into his successor as protector of the Earth. This does NOT sit well with the other Z-Warriors.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • Goku doesn't like sticking around through long conversations.
    Goku: Bored now.
  • Gohan has a tendency to mentally hear him say "Bye son!" when he's not around. Even in the prologue for History of Trunks where this was Played for Laughs. But played a lot more seriously when he chooses to sacrifice himself to save everyone from Cell's planetary bomb.
    Goku: I'm proud of you, Gohan. Bye son.
• Cannibalism Superpower: While on Yardrat, the Yardies fed him their sick, giving him the power to get their Stealthy Teleportation.
• Challenge Seeker: Half the reason he goes along with Chi-Chi's marathon sex sessions. The other half is that it feels really good.
• Character Exaggeration: Made out to be much dumber than his original character.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • In season one, he wasn't as fight-happy as he would in later seasons where he even tells Vegeta they don't even need to fight. The later seasons makes him a Idiot Hero Blood Knight who's thrilled to get into a fight, and his entire intelligence is completely focused on fighting and nothing else but food.
  • At the start of the series he's more of a Cloud Cuckoolander with a more natural demeanor until after Episode 11 he starts to become increasingly child-like to the point of becoming a Kindhearted Simpleton.
  • His relationship with Gohan evolves over time. Before Episode 27, he was a somewhat attentive father to Gohan. As of Episode 27, he makes conversation with Krillin, Piccolo, and Vegeta while he responds to Gohan's "Hey, Dad!" with a disinterested "Hey". They later bond during their year long training session in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
  • In The Revenge of Cooler, he completely forgets about Gohan's existence, talking about how, if he had a son, he would be sure to treat him better than Freeza and Cooler were. Though, he still jumps in front of the death ray to save him in the same special. It's probably just a matter of whatever's funniest at the time.
  • He was snarkier and generally smarter in the original abridged versions of the first two movies (made before Team Four Star was officially established), as opposed to the clueless ditz he is in the series proper.
• The Chessmaster: In Episode 60, he reveals to Piccolo that he basically engineered the entire Cell Saga single-handedly^note He let Vegeta and Trunks use the Time Chamber first because if he and Gohan had gone first, they could have killed Cell easily before he absorbed the androids; he knew either Vegeta or Krillin would screw it up. He also told Cell "You're gonna die" as bait, knowing that it would keep him from simply destroying the Earth because his desire for a fight with Goku would be too strong. Why? Because Goku fully realizes that he's not going to be around forever, and someone else is going to have to protect the Earth after he dies for good — and that someone is Gohan, thanks to his latent potential. Of course, the one thing he completely missed in all of this is that Gohan has never liked fighting and doesn't want to do that.
• Childhood Brain Damage: Goku fell on a rock head-first when he was still a child. And he's noticeably more ditzy and absent-minded than his canon self.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander:
  • Wonders if Piccolo's a Yoshi, thinks that sarcasm is food, and asks if the moon is made of cheese.
  • Half the time when he's fighting, he doesn't even understand that he's in a fight. He just... does things. Which badly hurt his opponents.
  • In Episode 27, he unknowingly delivers a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Freeza.
  • In Episode 34, when Goku finds out that Bulma is Trunks' mother, his first reaction is to be amazed at how old he's gotten in the year and a half since Goku assumes he must have been born. The impossibility of Trunks' existence never crosses his mind.
• The Cloud Cuckoolander Was Right: His extremely dangerous training that he puts Gohan through succeeds in turning him Super Saiyan and all round proves more effective than Piccolo's. And he planned to have Gohan defeat Cell, which works in spite of everyone else's objections.
  Vegeta: Alright, would anyone care to explain THE F**K?!
  Piccolo: I'm kind of afraid to, because I'm pretty sure that would involve giving Goku credit for this.
• Comically Missing the Point: There are times when Goku just doesn't get it.
  Piccolo: It's called SARCASM!
  Goku: What's that taste like?
• Confusion Fu: Not that he does it on purpose^note probably, but his idiocy often becomes a major asset with how it gets under the bad guys' skin. Until Cell.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Defeats Nappa much faster and more easily than in canon, not resorting to any Ki Manipulation or using the Kaio-ken. He just simply beats Nappa so badly that even Krillin and Gohan were shocked by it.
  • His fights with the Ginyu Force are similarly one-sided. Recoome is knocked out with a single blow like in canon, but Goku was only hitting him telling him to wait and he would fight him later, knocking him out was an accident. Jeice and Burter last even less time than in canon as Goku averts Talking Is a Free Action and knocks out Burter when he and Jeice are having an emotional scene.
  • After turning Super Saiyan, he dishes out one against Freeza until the tyrant powers up to full strength.
• Create Your Own Villain: Turns out Dr. Gero's hatred of him was a lot more personal than in the original.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Goku may be a bigger idiot in this version, but he's an idiot that can kick your ass.
• Death by Adaptation: Downplayed since Goku did die in the original version of the Cell Arc as well but with the cancelation of the Buu Saga its possible that this version of Goku may actually stay dead for good this time instead of coming back to life. With the release of the Buu Bits this ends up getting subverted as it shows Goku alive and well again after going through the events of not just the Buu saga but every arc in the Abridged version of Dragon Ball Super.
• Death by Irony: In Trunks' timeline, Goku's death is caused via high cholesterol-induced heart failure from eating too much bacon.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Certainly thinks this way about Vegeta, who outright defies it. Granted, he may just be intentionally provoking Vegeta to manipulate him.
  Goku: Hey Vegeta we’re friends now right?
  Vegeta: F*ck off.
  Goku: The best!
• Delusions of Eloquence: Has a tendency to use words and phrases which he doesn't really understand. When Freeza called him on this, Goku just replied Freeza was being "transcendent".
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the original anime and manga, Goku dies of an unspecified heart virus in the future. In the series, his death is instead caused by a heart attack due to high cholesterol due to too much bacon.
• Didn't Think This Through: His Batman Gambit fails to account for one tiny detail: Gohan, unlike him, doesn't like fighting.
  Piccolo: Have you ever, in your life, actually asked your son what he likes?
  Goku: Umm... but he went in that Chamber with me for that whole year.
  Piccolo: Because he wanted to spend time with you — his father — the man who spends half his time training, and the other half dead! SOMETIMES BOTH!
  Goku: I mean, does anyone else—? (affirmations from Trunks, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, and Cell) I've made a terrible mistake.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: Knocks Recoome out with a single blow. Unlike in canon, Goku wasn’t trying to knock him out; Recoome kept butting in wanting to fight Goku while the latter was talking to Gohan and Krillin, and Goku hit him to make him stop saying he would fight him after he was done. Actually knocking Recoome out was an accident.
• Does Not Like Spam:
  • He hates anything grape flavored. So much in fact that he refused to take the medicine Trunks gave him which nearly caused his death as a result. According to Roshi, Goku can't handle grapes; given that he was "sweating purple", Goku seems to have a strange allergic reaction to grapes or anything grape-related.
  • In an alternate scene of Episode 30, instead of a muffin, Freeza's ship instead spawns him a cookie, causing him to let out a Big "NO!".
  • In Buu Bits, Gohan mentions Vegeta went to Krillin's barbeque, and he states he brought potato salad. Goku's response "he's lost to us all" seems to indicate he hates potato salad.
• Does Not Understand Sarcasm: "What does that taste like?" It actually drives both Vegeta and Freeza into the throes of a Villainous Breakdown.
• The Dreaded: In Dead Zone Abridged, when Garlic Jr. meets Gohan and realizes he's Goku's son, Garlic Jr. freaks out and yells at his minions to get the Dragon Balls quicker. He is also dreaded by Freeza after being beaten on Namek, and sends Mercenary Tao into a screaming panic by just appearing in front of him.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Much like in canon. Despite Goku having made to the final round of the World Martial Arts Tournament three times, winning the last one against Piccolo, his accomplishments have been forgotten by almost everyone outside his circle of friends. When Kochin is looking for a strong body to put Wheelo's brain in, Kochin has no idea who Goku is. When the Cell Games roll around, it turns out that almost the entire world has no idea who he is.
• Dumbass Has a Point:
  • Goku has a good grasp of the concept of the interconnected nature of Kami, Piccolo, and the Dragon Balls. When Vegeta gloats about using them to wish for immortality, Goku's the one to point out they won't work with Piccolo dead. In Dead Zone Abridged, he responds to the minion's shock that Piccolo's alive by pointing out that Kami's alive and they just used the Dragon Balls.
  • After Piccolo's supposed death by Cell in Episode 47, Gohan tries to fly to rescue him, only for Goku to restrain him. When Gohan claims Piccolo would have let him go, Goku says Piccolo wouldn't, and he's smarter than Goku. This stops Gohan in his tracks.
  • Goku's intelligence seems to increase a few notches while he's a Super Saiyan, mostly in the form of his acting considerably less childish. He still mangles metaphors and uses words incorrectly, but he's generally focused on solving problems in the heat of the moment rather than losing his train of thought.
  • Gohan asks Goku why he kept the Hyperbolic Time Chamber a secret when it could have been used to trained for the Saiyans or even the Androids. Goku, however, knew for a fact that none of them probably could have handled it, with Mr. Popo clarifying that case for him, stating that Goku as a kid nearly died in there, so what hope would the other's have?
  • In Episode 53 he explains in great detail why Trunks' muscled form is not enough to defeat Cell from an almost scientific perspective. When Gohan expresses confusion, he reverts back to his idiot personality, and when Gohan asks what just happened, Goku's response seems to indicate he only cares about fighting and every ounce of intelligence in his brain is dedicated to it. This is supported by his Batman Gambit, which he claims he did by "treating the whole thing like a fight."
    • Rather amusingly (or horrifyingly, depending on your interpretation), his logical deconstruction of the Super Saiyan Grade 3 form makes him sound a lot like Gohan, giving the implication that it's actually Goku that Gohan gets his brains from.
  • In Episode 59, for all that him sending Gohan out against Cell is a terrible idea, he does bring up the valid point that Piccolo kidnapped Gohan to begin with and kind of established a creepy relationship with him ever since.
  • When punching Jeice in the face over and over, Goku points out that Jeice could actually trying dodging his punches.
  • In response to Freeza's infamous "five minutes" statement, Goku questions if he even knows what a minute is given how long their fight lasted.
  • Him refusing to take his heart medicine just because it tastes like grapes seems like an idiotic thing to do, until you find out he's got severe grape allergies, and that anything even grape flavored causes him to 'sweat purple' at the very least.
• Dumb Blonde: Played With
  • Goku is usually quite the idiot, but when he goes Super Saiyan and as such blond, he becomes much smarter compared to his normal intelligence. The twist is that while he's indeed smarter and uses the correct words, he mispronounces them very often.
    Freeza: That's not the problem, you idiot! I can breathe in space!
    Goku: But space is a vacumm!
  • Slips back into playing it straight when he sees Trunks become a Super Saiyan.
    Goku: What happened to your hair? It's yellow!!
    Trunks: So is yours...
    Goku: It is!?
  • However the really impressive example is when Goku turns Ultra Super Saiyan in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. He gives a speech full of technical percentages on why the former is impotent in battle, which leaves Gohan stunned.

E-H

• Early-Installment Weirdness: In the two abridged DBZ movies that Lanipator, Vegeta3986, and MasakoX made before Team Four Star came together, Goku was a lot smarter and a major Jerkass, especially towards Krillin.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Some time after his recovery from his heart virus, he knows he won't live forever. It's one of the main reasons why he wants Gohan to surpass him.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Played for Laughs. Every villain is Easily Forgiven by Goku (heck, half of them he doesn't even realize they're villains), except he refers for harmless Starter Villain Pilaf as "that monster Pilaf" with his face momentarily flashing to rage.
  • The Creator Commentary for the Broly movie shows an animatic of a cut scene where Goku confronts Pilaf and he's uncharacteristically vicious towards him. The reason? Pilaf's the first villain Goku ever faced, and as far as he knows never truly redeemed himself. For some reason he never extends this line of logic to Mercenary Tao, but both Tao and Pilaf are scared shitless of Goku regardless.
• Expy: According to Takahata101, this version of Goku is a Composite Character between canon Goku and Homer Simpson, with his relationship to Gohan being specifically compared to that of Homer and Lisa.
• Extreme Omnisexual: Ironic, being Goku, but he might go for Perfect Cell if he wasn't already married to Chi-Chi.
• Face Death with Dignity: Upon realizing he'll have to sacrifice himself to get rid of Cell before he can self-destruct, Goku simply smiles as he says he better go clean up his mess and tells everyone to "take it easy".
• Fatal Flaw:
  • His Blood Knight tendencies rears its ugly head to the point that Piccolo had to point this out. He may enjoy fighting, but it's not what Gohan wanted to do spending an entire year with him.
  • His love for bacon. He was outright told he died of a heart attack because of too much bacon in the future. While it's understandable that he refused to take his medicine Future Trunks gave him (it's grape-flavored, and he's allergic to grapes), he nearly dies as a result, and had to be hidden from the Androids for a few days.
• Friendly Enemy: To almost everyone, except Freeza after he killed Krillin.
• "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome: Going Super Saiyan seems to temporarily increase his intelligence and cognition. He's still prone to doing and saying dumb things, just not to the extreme that "normal" Goku seems to.
• Forgot About His Powers:
  • After recovering from his injuries and calling his nimbus, he jumps out the window and falls to the ground, having forgotten he could fly.
  • In Episode 47, it takes him a very long time to remember he can teleport. When Gohan asks, Mr. Popo affirms that Goku's an idiot.
• Fun Personified: No matter how dark the situation, Goku's arrival will lighten the tone up. This is particularly evident in the Darker and Edgier Cell Saga. Cue to Goku still in his coma having a dream about being Pirate Goku and Ninja Goku.
• The Gadfly:
  • By the third season, it becomes a Running Gag of the other characters calling out some of Goku's display of stupidity as this.
    Goku: We have to wait for Vegeta and Trunks to come out of the Hypertonic Lion Tamer.
    Mr. Popo: That one was on purpose.
    Goku: Could've been.
  • In "TEKKEN 7 | Two Saiyans Play", not only does he constantly press Vegeta's buttons, he's openly aware that Vegeta hates him.
    Goku: Looks like I'm the King of all Saiyans!
    Vegeta: GH — NO! NO! NO! YOU DO NOT BRING THAT INTO THIS!!
• Genius Ditz: Area of expertise: Fighting. He's an Idiot Hero otherwise.
  Gohan: But why [can't you defeat Perfect Cell in the bulked up Super Saiyan form]? It's so strong!
  Goku: Oh, yeah. In raw power, it can't be beat. But the amount of concentrated energy causes an extreme expansion in mass. The body can't compensate! And while you'll see a fifty percent power increase, you'll see a seventy-five percent decrease in speed and mobility! You'd never hit your opponent!
  Gohan: D- Did you...? What just...?
  Goku: Whoop! Sorry, was thinkin' about fightin'!
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: In keeping with his childlike characterization, Goku primarily uses G-rated curse words, only using harder language in limited circumstances, and often for the sake of a joke or a reference. For example:
  Goku: I'm Son Goku, who the hell are you?
  • If it's not for the sake of a joke or reference, you know things have gotten bad.
• Groin Attack: On the receiving end in Super Android 13. He gets hit so hard that Goten gets Ret-Gone'd. It takes him multiple Senzu beans to heal the damage.
• The Hero Dies: Meets his end at the hands of Cell's Rage Quit.
• Hero with an F in Good: When it comes right down to it, Goku does love his friends and family, and cares about their well-being and the people of the Earth in general. Unfortunately, he's also a Challenge Seeker and Blood Knight who more often than not lets these traits overshadow his better qualities, in addition to being a borderline-psychopathic Manchild who's just Genre Savvy enough to (admittedly, correctly) at some level know he's The Hero, that The Good Guys Always Win, and that Death Is Cheap, and so tends to have a somewhat... ok, very skewed view of events and their stakes, and how his actions impact the people around him.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: As seen in Episode 58 when the viewers booed at him, due to Jimmy Firecracker misconstruing Goku's words to make him sound like a abusive husband. It also doesn't help that Goku himself only adds more fuel to the fire by adding that after he beat her, they married, he put a kid in her, and she stays in the kitchen, which makes him come off as rather sexist.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Just like in canon, Goku willing gives up his own life to stop Cell from killing everyone. He apologizes to Gohan for not seeing that Gohan didn't like fighting, and tells him he enjoyed spending a year witth him.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Seems to be acutely aware of Gohan's potential and his timid personality despite being an Idiot Hero. When Gohan expresses wonder that Goku believes in his ability to become a Super Saiyan, Goku all-but-says that Cell will win if Gohan doesn't ascend. He verbally backpedals immediately afterwards to keep Gohan's spirit up.
  • Goku is completely aware that at some point, his death will stick, thus his reasons for wanting Gohan to surpass him and take up his sword.
• Holding Out for a Hero: Deconstructed, as per the original series. Whenever Goku is out of commission, is not around, or incapacitated, his friends usually take his place to take on the villain until he arrives to finish the job. This has led to several of them dying over and over again. Plus villains gleefully take advantage of his absence to destroy or take whatever they want. Goku occasionally lets out how little faith he has in the others saving the day.
• Horrible Judge of Character: In Return of Cooler, he says Vegeta is a really nice guy after you get to know him while he's clearly... not.
• Hypocritical Humor: Goku tries to call Cell out on stealing other people's techniques, despite virtually all of Goku's own techniques being taken from others. The Z-Fighters pitch in to name who really invented each of the techniques that Goku lists off. Goku then asks King Kai if he learned the Kaio-ken on his own, to which King Kai points out his name is in it.

I-L

• Idiot Hero: As noted, Goku's not the brightest individual.
• Idiot Savant: Goku is a bit dull in almost every way, except when it comes to fighting. Not only is he a genius when it comes to fighting, he's even far more intelligent with his vocabulary and mannerisms when he talks about fighting.
  • When he fights Freeza he perceptively notices that Freeza needs his eyes to follow Goku as Freeza is unable to sense energy. He then uses controlled energy blasts to catch Freeza off guard then deliver a devastating kick just like his original counter-part in the manga.
  • When Freeza throws two destructo-discs at Goku, Goku leads them back to Freeza. Freeza at first laughs at the idea that Goku would attempt such an old trick, but Goku then fires a blasts directly in front of Freeza to temporarily blind him.
    Freeza: Clever dick!
  • In Episode 53, he manages to analyze and explain the ins and outs of why the buffed-out Super Saiyan transformation is a bad trade-off, because he's "thinking about fighting."
  • He planned out the entire Batman Gambit to set up the Cell Games by approaching it like it was a fight and manipulating Cell into doing what he wanted.
• I'm a Humanitarian:
  • His explanation for how he learned instant transmission - the Yardrats fed him their sick.
  • He says he'd ask a bisected Freeza if he could take one of his legs with him. Then he decides against it because Freeza was probably hungry too.
• Informed Flaw: Goku's told he steals a lot of techniques, but he's never actually ''seen' doing this. In fact, he learned the Kaioken and Spirit Bomb from King Kai, who jumps on the train of claiming he steals techniques.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • Even more so than the original series. At times, Goku can be more demeaning to his friends than Vegeta, but he never does it in a mean spirited way.
    Piccolo: I'll admit, that was pretty ballsy, but all you did was stall him! Now he's alone to hunt down Android 18, and we don't have anyone with the strength to stop him!
    Mr. Popo: YOUR WORTHLESS MAGGOT FRIENDS ARE COMING OUT!
    Gohan: Or DO we?!
    Goku: No, Gohan. We haven't gone in yet!
    Piccolo: Wow. Really, Goku?
    • It turns out this one probably wasn't innocent. He later admits part of his plan to defeat Cell and prepare Gohan as his successor included letting Vegeta and Trunks go first because he knew Vegeta would fail.
  • At the Cell Games, his poor choice of words made it sound like he beats his wife and abandoned his son, which led the whole world watching this on television to turn against Goku.
  • While talking to King Kai in the afterlife after the Cell Games, he points out that he's fine spending some time away from his family being dead, because he figures he'll be seeing them again someday, either when they resurrect him or when they die themselves. The fact that maybe they would want him back, and that he just sort of accidentally wished them to die, never seems to have crossed his mind.
• I Taste Delicious: Enjoys the smell of his own flesh burning when his body catches fire.
• It's All About Me: He kind of takes it for granted that he's most powerful fighter on Earth (though he's not exactly wrong). He even thinks winning the World Martial Arts Tournament in his fight against Piccolo negates the time Tien beat him in the same tournament when they were younger.

  Piccolo: ...You know, I was stronger than you yesterday.

  Goku: Yeah, but that was a year ago! We've all grown!

  • Gohan even refers to him as "one of the dumbest, most selfish, most irresponsible people" he knows.
  • In World's Strongest, he straight up participates in the plot purely to clear up what he thinks is a misconception about who the world's strongest fighter is. It's a rather boastful thing that he treats as rather matter-of-fact.
• It's Not You, It's My Enemies: The reason he decides to stay dead. He realizes that the Saiyans, Freeza and the Androids were all a product of him, one way or another. He decides the best thing to do is to stay dead to protect his family.
• Just Toying with Them: Believes that he is supposed to start off a fight without using his full strength, and when fighting Jeice and Burter he's really shown to have just been messing with them.
• Killed Off for Real: Well, he still functionally exists in Other World, but he'd rather stay dead for everyone else's benefit. And being that the narrative finishes at Cell's defeat, this is likely how things will stay.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: He's incredibly dimwitted and childish and is often oblivious to other people's annoyance with him, but at his heart he's a Nice Guy who tries to see the best in everyone.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: In Goku's Gonna Show You HunieCam Studio, he makes multiple comments about how he's smart and even claims to know everything. This is SO not true.
• Lack of Empathy: Rare heroic example. Goku's not a bad person, but he has an extremely self-centered view of the world, and has severe issues picking up on the mental states of others, including the strain his behavior puts on his wife and child. Perhaps best shown with his relationship with Gohan, where he's so focused on training and raising his son as his successor that he can't see that said son is desperate for his attention and absolutely detests fighting.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In Episode 60 Part 3, he states that it'll be a while before he comes back after his death. This reflects Team Four Star's own insistence that it will be quite some time before DBZ Abridged Season 4 can happen, and deliberately played off of initial rumors that the series would end without adapting the Buu Saga.
• Literal-Minded: So much that it drove Vegeta and Freeza insane.
  • Look how Goku got Freeza tripped up when they first met:
    Freeza: Unfortunately, Vegeta and I were having a disagreement. He wanted himself to live and, well... I didn't.
    Goku: Why do you wanna die?
  • And again while Super Saiyan.
    Freeza: Will you just piss off already!?
    Goku: I don't have to use the bathroom!
• The Loins Sleep Tonight: Episode 56 states that, although he has a higher stamina for sex than normal (he's able to go nine times in his last/first of the several couplings across the day he's been having with Chi-Chi since he came out of the Time Chamber), by the seventh day he admits that he's literally run dry. Luckily, Chi-Chi had just become pregnant, which was the reason for the marathon.

M-P

• Major Injury Underreaction: Often.
  • In Lord Slug Abridged, for instance, his only reaction to being smashed face-first through a wall in a shower of his own blood was to note that the shop inside was pretty nice and he should take Chi-Chi there some time.
  • When his hair catches fire, he doesn't even notice, instead scolding Gohan about wasting food.
• Malaproper:
  • While he's smarter as a Super Saiyan he trips over words a lot more than usual. And even before he goes super he says some odd things like this little gem from when he introduces himself to Freeza.
    Goku: I'm Goku! I'm insane! From Earth!
    Vegeta: ...He means "Saiyan."
  • It should be noted that most of Goku's mistakes are the kind that a child would make.
    Goku: I can't sense their energy. And that's my especialty!
  • Now that the Freeza saga is over, a couple of examples suggest Goku may or may not have started to do this on purpose, such as his repeated misnaming of the Big Gete Star (which Cooler refuses to dignify) and the Hyperbolic Time Chamber (which causes Mr. Popo to throw him off the lookout).
  • "Get back on the horse over failure" is a metaphor about not giving up. Goku attempts to use a similar phrase "Eat that horse" to refer to the same concept.
  • Goku's explanation for why he's going to stay dead after sacrificing himself against Cell:
    Goku: I gave it some thought, and well... Raditz and Vegeta came to Earth because of me, right? Then Freezer came to Earth because of me. And the androids were made because of me. Just feels like every time the Earth's in danger. I'm the common dominator. And frankly, I'm tired of dominating. It's your turn to dominate, Gohan.
    Gohan: Everything you just said was technically correct.
• A Man Is Always Eager: Subverted, he doesn't say no because he sees it as a challenge, which he refuses to back down from as usual (also it feels good). He ends up throwing the towel at the end of Episode 56.
• Manchild:
  • To the point that, at the very start of the series, his friends are shocked to see that he has actually managed to reproduce!
    Ginyu: How's that wound treating you?
    Goku: This is easily the second-worst hole I've ever had in my chest. It's gonna take, like, a million Mommy-kisses to make it better.
  • Brutally lampshaded by Gohan in Episode 49.
    Gohan: I need an adult...
    Goku: I am an adu-.
    Gohan: No. No, you are not.
• Meaningful Echo: Throughout the series, Goku's primary way of greeting Gohan is a nonchalant "Hey son", indicating that he doesn't really understand fatherhood. In Episode 60, he says it with more emotion as he prepares to sacrifice himself to save the Earth from Cell's self-destruction.
• Meta Guy: Despite his low intelligence, poor people skills, and other issues, he's painfully aware of his place in the Dragonball universe. He knows that other characters such as Vegeta are there to buy time for him, he knows he's the world's strongest, and he knows that the average villain in the series will overrun his friends. Perhaps the funniest example of this is the World's Strongest movie, where his participation in the plot is seemingly motivated by confusion at how nobody has included him in the plot yet.
• Monkey King Lite: Same as in the source material, but here it's directly alluded to via Accidental Misnaming.
  Future Trunks: So you're Sun Wukong, right? [internally] Damnit!
  Goku: I'm Son Goku, yes.
  Future Trunks: [internally] Roll with it.
• Motivational Lie:
  • Uses one on a transformed Gohan in season 1 to get Gohan to concentrate on Vegeta.
    Goku: Gohan! Remember Icarus? ...[Vegeta] did it.
  • He's also had them used on him a few times, notably when King Kai tells Goku he has to save Christmas during Lord Slug Abridged. In this case, it was easier for King Kai to feed into Goku's misconception that Christmas was in danger than to try to explain Lord Slug's actual plan.
  • He also openly utilizes Gohan's Pavlovian trigger-word "Dodge" by using it to keep him in place for a "Super Saiyan" blast.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • It took him very long to sink in and realize his son really hates fighting, and Piccolo has to spell out how much of a terrible father he's been.
  • Just like in canon, he regrets sending Gohan to fight Cell after Piccolo gives him a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
    Goku: I've made a terrible mistake.
  • After Cell kills 16, Gohan loses it and becomes Super Saiyan 2, which leaves everyone (including Goku) in Stunned Silence. It gets worse when they find out that the transformation basically burst the dam holding back all of Gohan's pent-up anger and frustration.
• Narrator All Along: Episode of Bardock Abridged was a story he was telling Gohan. Except it was All Just a Dream, since Goku hadn't come back to Earth yet.
• Nice Guy: Though a particularly daft one.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Killing Dr. Gero's son as a child led to the future timeline becoming plagued by androids and the present to be attacked by Cell.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Delivers a brutal one to Nappa, with an extended pummeling and bent something back the way it wasn't supposed to bend. By the end Nappa couldn't even stand.
• No-Sell:
  • When Freeza tries to interrupt Goku's Badass Boast by shooting in the face, Goku is barely fazed and then finishes it.
  • Much to Freeza's irritation, he also is mostly immune to any form of Hannibal Lecture, "Reason You Suck" Speech or Implied Death Threat, for the simple reason he is too stupid to even understand them correctly.
• Oblivious to Love:
  • Sorta. He thinks Chi-Chi is just a lady who lives in his house — he might not understand what a wife is. This might be a Shout-Out to the fact that when Goku originally proposed to Chi-Chi he thought marriage was a food. And was confused over what a "bride" was in the original series when she came back to cash in on the Childhood Marriage Promise.
  • That said, Gohan exists and there are several implications throughout the series that (whenever he's around) he and Chi-Chi have a normal sex life. Episode 56 expands on this, claiming he views sex as a challenge not unlike fighting and that it feels neat.
• Obfuscating Stupidity:
  • Despite being much stupider than the canon version of Goku, Abridged Goku can and will use his stupidity to get under people's skin for fun.
    Mr. Popo: [After hearing Goku call the Hyperbolic Time Chamber the Hypertonic Lion Tamer] That one was on purpose.
    Goku: Could've been.
  • The ambiguity drops come episode 60, where it's revealed that he engineered the Cell arc so that Gohan could take his place if he died — which he does. While some of his more foolish mannerisms are still present, he's a lot smarter than he acts.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Generally acts smarter than usual during his desperate Spirit Bomb plan and is also smarter than usual when he becomes a Super Saiyan.
  • Also slightly noticeable in a few of the movies/specials, since they're non-canon and all.
  • In Episode 48 as he was about to leave after picking up Piccolo and Tien:
    Goku: Oh and uh, by the way, Cell? You're gonna die.
  • When him and Gohan accidentally trash the time chamber, he is horrified, because breaking Mr. Popo's stuff is against the rules.
• Papa Wolf:
  • Despite frequently neglecting his son, whenever Gohan's in danger, about to be killed or on the verge of death, Goku gets serious. Like when Freeza is trying to kill him and Piccolo when he says he loves a moving target. Goku's response? Break him like a Kit-Kat bar.
  • In Episode 50, it's implied that Freeza threatening Gohan was a trigger into him going Super Saiyan. He's telling the story to Gohan, whom he didn't remember was there, despite referencing him directly.
• Parental Neglect:
  • The series plays up the fact that Goku is a terrible father, to the point that Gohan's attempt to envision what Goku would do is merely a short flashback of Goku saying "Bye, son!". He also left Gohan, who was lying in the snow, to go driving with Piccolo.
  • There's this little gem from Episode 28:
    Goku: Wow. [Gohan] sounds like he's had a hard time. Piccolo should really have a talk with him.
  • To his credit, when they're locked in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber together, he does never lose faith that Gohan has the potential to be a Super Saiyan inside him. As with the original series, it's more a lack of nesting instinct than anything else.
• Parents as People: Surprisingly, given how this series treats his Parental Neglect as a long running gag. Episode 60 shows that his desire to push Gohan into being a better fighter is because that's what he likes, and he wants to share that with his son. The problem is well, he's Goku, and thus never even considered Gohan may not be like him.
• Passing the Torch: So what's the ultimate goal of Goku goading Cell into setting up a tournament with the fate of the world hanging in the balance, even after he taunted semi-perfect Cell with the thought of him getting killed and knowing Vegeta (or Krillin) would goad Cell into setting up the Cell Games in the first place? He suspects that he'll have his true death sometime soon, and he wants Gohan to follow in his footsteps.
• Pet the Dog:
  • For as many, many, many faults as he has in this series, one of the redeeming aspects of his character is the fact that he's the one person in the cast (outside of possibly Cell) who consistently tries to be nice to both Krillin and Yamcha. Sure, he only started to doing it because he learned of what happened to Yamcha in the Bad Future, but the fact that only time he ever insults Yamcha is by accident, it means a lot as evidenced by the fact that Yamcha is still around by the time the Androids finally do show up and Yamcha is actually concerned when Goku is suffering from his heart problems.
    Goku: Wait, Yamcha?
    Yamcha: Yeah?
    Goku: You're my friend.
    Yamcha: Oh, uh... thank you, man.
  • Similarly, he's often referred to Krillin as his best friend.
  • After being the brunt of jokes for his Parental Neglect towards Gohan, Goku gives his utmost attention towards helping his son turn into a Super Saiyan while training in the hyperbolic time chamber. While he's upfront about how they need all the help they can get against Cell, he shows nothing but genuine enthusiasm and faith for his son throughout their time in the chamber, to the point where he sings about how he wants to see Gohan turn into a Super Saiyan while watching him sleep.
    • Unlike in the anime, Goku doesn't punch Gohan to prevent him from trying to save Piccolo after Imperfect Cell nearly kills him. (Although Goku doesn't punch Gohan in them manga either because the scene of Gohan attempting to go never happened.)
  • Once it's hammered into his head that Gohan does not like fighting, he's appropriately horrified as he realizes just what his Take Up My Sword plan to train Gohan into the next defender of Earth has done to his son's psyche.
• Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: Inverted. Goku is generally polite to the villains, his Innocently Insensitive moments not withstanding, but they typically don't return the favor.
  • Goku is friendly towards Vegeta. Vegeta on the other hand can't stand Goku's stupidity and hates Goku for being stronger than him.
  • Goku isn't ready to fight Recoome when he sets foot on Namek, focusing on Gohan and Krillin. Recoome gets mad at Goku for ignoring him.
  • Jeice complains about Goku punching his face over and over, and Goku simply points out he could dodge. Jeice later calls Goku out for killing Burter, but Goku had just knocked him out and would have let Jeice carry him off, but then Vegeta kills Burter.
  • While Goku has a few moments where he comments about how evil Freeza is, during the fight he's mostly friendly with him. Freeza however suffers from a Villainous Breakdown thanks to Goku's stupidity. Much like in canon, Goku drops this after Freeza kills Krillin, going into an Badass Boast that he is a Super Saiyan with the apparent intent of getting under Freeza's skin. When Freeza accidentally cuts himself in half, Goku rubs salt in the wound and makes a bunch of terrible cutting puns at his expense.
  • Goku is mostly friendly with Cooler, until Cooler transforms beats him. After Goku turns Super Saiyan, he becomes much more aggressive in in turn and bluntly tells Cooler to Get off my planet!
  • Cell is the one exception, he and Goku are on friendly terms. A little too friendly.
• The Pollyanna: Maybe even more so than his canon counterpart, even in the most dire circumstances, he remains the eternal optimist, best summarized from his uncharacteristically wise thoughts after his death in season 3.
  King Kai: You're sure about this, Goku?
  Goku: 'Bout as sure as I can be.
  King Kai: Most men would die all over again just to get what you had. A loving wife, two sons, unearthly powers...
  Goku: Yeah, but those aren't going anywhere. And if they do, they'll probably just go back to me. It's a win-win.
  King Kai: You're a strange creature, Goku.
  Goku: I'm just not afraid of change, I guess. I've never been. When it comes down to it, I know they're gonna be all right. Because if I've learned anything since landing on Earth-
  King Kai: Big "if" there...
  Goku: -it's that everyone is stronger than they think the are. I left behind the best people in the world, and I'm happy about that. Things changed, and they're gonna keep changing. There's no stopping that. The most important part? Now they can live their own lives, and make their own futures. An' I can't wait to see the kinds of futures they make!
• Power Makes Your Voice Deep: Goku's voice becomes deeper when he turns Super Saiyan, even though it's still much higher than his canon counterpart.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner:
  • During Goku's fight with Freeza.
    Goku: I'm going to break you... like a Kit-Kat bar.
  • This later gets a Call-Back during his first fight with Cooler.
    Goku: Not going anywhere for a while? Grab a Snickers.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  • Parodied. After Vegeta literally disarms Cooler in Cooler 2, Goku tries one.
    Goku: Time to put you on ice!
    Cooler: ...Really? [sighs]
  • He gets an absolutely amazing one in Broly, which may also be the single most unironically badass thing this version of Goku has ever said.
    Goku: Hey, Broly! Say My Name!

R-S

• Real Men Eat Meat: Besides his Bacon, one of the Super shorts has him ordering three separate pizzas - pepperoni, sausage and ham. When Whis suggests he just get a meat lover's, Goku explains that he wants to savor each individual animal.
  Whis: Wait, but they all have pig -
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: His reason for letting Vegeta live? Really, really dumb. But, Goku ironically made the right call since Vegeta did go onto save Krillin and Bulma from Zarbon, and pull off multiple Villainous Rescues, and because of him Trunks was born, and without him both present and future timelines would have been wiped out by the Androids.
  • Dismisses the possibility of Vegeta and Trunks stopping Cell when they come out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. As it happens both of them are easily strong enough to kill Cell, but they are going to fail to stop him because Vegeta's arrogance will allow Cell to reach his Perfect form. And then it turns out that Goku was expecting that to happen.
• Self-Induced Allergic Reaction: Goku appears to be allergic to grapes; consuming anything made with them makes him sweat purple. This is why he didn't want to take the grape flavored medicine.
• Simpleton Voice: In an Accent Adaptation of sorts, Goku's speech patterns here have slightly childlike intonation and inflection (kinda like Homestar Runner without the lisp) to emphasize his lack of intelligence, as a "translation" of the "hick" accent that Masako Nozawa uses for him that's absent in most official English adaptations.
• Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness:
  • Very noticeable when he becomes a Super Saiyan. Right after this conversation, he slams right back to silliness after he tells Freeza he's going to break him "like a Kit-Kat bar."
    Goku: Gohan, take Piccolo, find Bulma, and get back to the ship.
    Gohan: But what about you?
    Goku: If Piccolo dies, then all of this was pointless! Take him, get to the ship, and get out of here!
    Gohan: This is surprisingly well thought-out for you.
    Goku: [getting increasingly angry] Gohan!? Where should you be right now!?
    Gohan: The ship?
    Goku: THE SHIP!!
• Smart Ball: That's right. He has his moments. Of course, Goku is so dumb that, even in his smarter moments, he's still a moron.
  • The first is in Episode 2, where Raditz called Piccolo a Namekian, and Goku told him that Piccolo's race has not been explained yet.
  • In the same episode, Goku explains eating a Senzu bean will not work because he has a hole in his esophagus after getting a hole blasted in his chest in his Heroic Sacrifice to kill Raditz.
  • He had the foresight to ask Mr. Popo about using his carpet to get to the invading Saiyans faster. When Popo refuses, initially Goku seems foolish for not begging further to use it, but then it should be remembered that questioning Popo is a bad idea.
  • Fooling Goz and Mez into telling him where Hell's exit is without having to take them up on their challenges.
  • Another is when he managed to fool King Kai into thinking he hung up on his psychic link by saying "click beeeeeeeeeeee *GASP* eeee-"
  • He gets a few moments of brilliance in Episode 28, which he thanks his brain for.
  • Remembers the whole "five minutes" thing with the Special Beam Cannon when Piccolo stalls Freeza while he charges the Spirit Bomb.
  • He gets a noticeable increase in intelligence when he goes Super Saiyan. He tells Gohan to take Piccolo and Bulma back to Earth to bring back everyone else, and allows Freeza to reach his maximum power so when he beats him in under five minutes, he'll be too "demormalized" to threaten anyone else. That and Freeza offered him pizza, which was the real reason he was allowed to reach his maximum power.
  • In the Dead Zone remake, even he can spot the flaw in trying to kill Piccolo when you're after the Dragon Balls.
  • Episode 47 has him forbid Gohan from getting involved in Piccolo's fight with Cell. When Gohan objects... Well, let's just say that Goku is actually aware of his own level of intelligence. He then points out that the moment Gohan were to leave, the door to the Hyberbolic Time Chamber would inevitably open. Mr. Popo agrees with him.
    Gohan: Mr. Piccolo would let me go!
    Goku: No, he wouldn't! And he's smarter than me!
    Gohan: I... wow. O-okay. That's actually a good point.
    Goku: And besides, the moment you leave, that door is going to open.
    Mr. Popo: He's right, you know.
    Goku: Every time.
  • Episode 53 sees Goku give the exact reason why the muscle-boosted Super Saiyan is so impractical, complete with mathematical percentages. As Gohan struggles to process what just happened, Goku goes back to normal and apologizes for getting lost in thoughts of fighting.
  • Gets a pretty epic moment in the first part of Episode 60. It turns out that Goku not only had an actual plan, orchestrating events to guarantee that Gohan would be forced into fighting Perfect Cell, but one that was logically sound (for a given measure of logic) and surprisingly long-term. Oh, don't worry, it was still an awful, awful plan, putting his desire to fight strong guys and make Gohan his Superior Successor above not only his son's wishes, but the entire fate of the world, but it was multi-step, reliant on a number of moving parts, and went off exactly as intended.
• Smarter Than You Look: Contrary to public belief, Goku does know how to read despite his general lack of common sense when it comes to everything else.
• So Proud of You: The moment Gohan finally becomes a Super Saiyan, his first reaction is to Squee.
  • Goku's farewell in Episode 60 includes saying this word-for-word.
• Spoonerism: Occasionally mispronounces words in a similar manner to how a child might. This increases dramatically when he's a Super Saiyan.
  Goku: Geromino!
• Stealthy Teleportation: He learns how to use Instant Transmission, which causes him to vanish and instantly appear with an audible pop! Goku almost never bothers to announce his arrival or intention to teleport away, often doing so mid-conversation.
• Stupid Good: An innocently nice guy, and just as stupid to boot.
• Surrounded by Idiots: More Can't Catch Up than idiots but he does occasionally let slip that he doesn't trust his friends to save the day. Especially in the World's Strongest Abridged.
  Goku: [sighs as Gohan and Krillin are defeated] Kaioken.

T-Y

• The Talk: He finally puts together how babies are made in Episode 56... just after fathering his second child.
• Token Wholesome: Most of the cast are rather casual with cursing, but Goku's language remains clean for the entire run of the series. At least until the fight against Kid Buu, when his Spirit Bomb tripling in size from Mr. Popo donating a mere fraction of his power causes him to exclaim "Holy shit!"
• Too Dumb to Live: He stopped taking his medicine and had a heart attack just because he didn't like the flavor. On the one hand, he is very allergic to grapes, and being forced to take the medicine causes him to sweat purple... but on the other hand, it doesn't kill him, which he knows failing to take the medicine will.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Justified due to his brain damage with his fight with Vegeta (must explain why everything smells like copper). Perhaps he did hit his head harder than he thought. However, he's shown more smarts (at least of the street variety) since becoming a Super Saiyan.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Downplayed since he's still overall a good guy, but he gained a noticeable Lack of Empathy for his friends and family as time went on, and doesn't even really care if his friends suffer or die anymore. He's probably used to it by now.
• Took a Level in Kindness: The Android Saga onwards plays up the fact Goku genuinely cares for Gohan and Chi-Chi.
• Trademark Favorite Food:
  • Bacon. Instead of being killed by a heart virus in Trunks' timeline, he is instead killed by a heart attack caused by high cholesterol from eating too much bacon. When Trunks tells him the the medicine he gave him is bacon flavored, Goku is overjoyed.
  • Averted when he's asked what his favorite food is (to make sure he's back in his own body after the "Freaky Friday" Flip) his answer is just "favorite?"
  • To a lesser extent, blueberry muffins. Unlike bacon, these end up saving his life.
  • One of the Dragon Ball Super shorts shows that he's fond of pineapple. Not only does he profess his love for Hawaiian-styled pizza, he asks for grilled pineapple on a burger.
  • Inverted with cookies. Word of MasakoX (in Goku's character) says he hates cookies because they impersonate muffins.
• Tranquil Fury: Goku rarely gets angry at anyone. But when he's sufficiently pissed enough, he doesn't hold back.
  • One of best examples of this is after rescuing Piccolo and Tien, Goku coldly tells Cell he's gonna die.
  • In Buu Bits, once Vegeta becomes a Majin, both he and Gohan tries to calm him down and tell him he's a good guy. Vegeta viciously denies it, and manages to get under Goku's skin when he says he brought potato salad to Krillin's barbeque. Shin tries to calm him down by telling him fighting Vegeta would wake up Majin Buu and that he is stronger than them. Goku coldly raises his hand and releases a blue ki before Gohan telling him to stop as Goku is both angry and interested at the same time.
• Truer to the Text: The original anime often portrays Goku as a paragon of virtue, which according to Akira Toriyama, is a contrary to his portrayal in the manga. Before Dragon Ball Super, Goku here is portrayed as Akira Toriyama intended: A Nice Guy Blood Knight who loves to eat, and lets his excitement of battle get the better of him, and has no proper concept of family. But he does love Gohan as a father, and will try to save him when able.
• Unwanted Revival: Discussed. He feels the reason the Earth is in constant danger is because he the most common "dominator", such as the Saiyans, Freeza, and the Androids. As such, he feels he needs to stay dead and not be revived.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Goku thinks he has this with Vegeta; Vegeta genuinely hates him. Or maybe Vegeta "hating" Goku is just a saiyan way to show love, considering in one of the Dragon Ball Super Abridged shorts, he treats Goku hiring an assassin to kill him (him being Goku), Vegeta treats it as a lover who had caught their partner cheating on them with a prostitute.
  Vegeta: The "issue"? The "issue" is that I spend every day training with (Whis) to be a better fighter for (Goku), and what does he do? He goes out and pays for it!
  • Buu Bits completes the circle when Vegeta admits he missed him, and before he makes his Heroic Sacrifice, his literal final thoughs was calling Goku "Best Buddy".^note  Nope, still hate it.
• Vocal Dissonance: The series continues the tradition of Dragon Ball Z adaptations portraying Goku as a muscular warrior with a curiously high-pitched voice; in this case, MasakoX's Goku sounds like a more child-like version of Peter Kelamis's Goku from the Ocean Group dubs, or an Anglicized version of Masako Nozawa's original Japanese performance.
• Vocal Evolution: MasakoX's voice for Goku eventually becomes more high-pitched.
• Voice of the Legion: As the Champion of Christmas.
• Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Even more than his canon self, as a counterpart to Gohan's Serious Child.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Episode 42 establishes that he's severely allergic to grapes. To wit, after hearing that Goku's sweating purple, Master Roshi asks if Goku had any grapes, and he stopped taking his heart medicine because it was grape flavored.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Piccolo gives a rather scathing on towards him, telling Goku all Gohan wanted was to spend time with him as father and son, not sparring partners. No one else, not even Krillin, comes to his defense about this ever since Piccolo found out about his supposed Batman Gambit.
• Would Hurt a Child: Granted, he does want Gohan to becoming a Super Saiyan, and that is the purpose of training.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Tells Gohan that he's better than he think he is, Cell and himself, and to help motivate him with a Rousing Speech.