You Don't Understand Goku... 

Allow me to relay here again that these of course are my opinions. If you dont like him, thats fine, but try and give him a chance! The purpose of this video is to help some people see Super Goku from a new perspective and is not meant to single out anyone

It's worth mentioning Super has A LOT more Slice of Life. With more downtime, you get to see him be goofy more often.

I feel bad for Z Goku, honestly He was always the laidback child like you said in the video In Z, he was under constant stress that earth is under threat and that his whole family is going to die, Him finding out that he is an alien, his brother is evil, there are other people like him that want to destroy earth, his best friend dying, and more In Super he finally got some ''peaceful'' arcs for once (Beerus seeming like not a bad guy, and even then we saw Goku RAGED ''I will not let you destroy my WORLD'' because of the threat) Let my guy chill for once

Honestly on the topic of Gokus IQ, he's obviously never been a Bulma in that regard, but still, Goku in Super just FEELS Like He's Acting Like almost a Novice a fair bit of the time

8:02 to be fair on that bit, trunks did tell goku to only take the heart medicine once the symptoms appeared, not before they did. Now why he didn’t keep the medicine with him at all times is a far stupider thing on goku’s end

After rewatching Dragon Ball, I have to agree. This is who Goku has always been. Not a righteous hearted hero who fights to save people. But a kind and honest martial artist who fights in order to push himself and others to always improve. Which is why I'll always admire him for being a different kind of "hero" (in the west, at least).

These character analysis tickle my autism on an unparalleled level. Thank you for the effort you put into these. Heres to hoping this channel grows to the heights you want.

19:07 another thing id like to add which is something I never see anyone talk about, Freiza from the beginning never trusted the saiyans because of the super saiyan legend, so he destroyed their planet to attempt to wipe out their race. In the tournament of power, him working with goku and the other people in the universe who he would kill any other day of the week taught him (as well as jiren) the value of trust. IN THE VERY NEXT ARC, he puts his nearly FULL trust in Broly to do his dirty work, a SAIYAN. not only that, but he was actually disappointed that Broly WASNT able to turn into a super saiyan, a complete 180 from his attitude in Z. That’s honestly one of my favorite arcs of db and no one seems to notice 😢

Should mention the "Not knowing what a kiss is" scene was a misunderstood joke. As the joke is that Trunks was giving a kiss but mouth to mouth to feed a senzu bean to Mai. Which isn't exactly a kiss. The joke is that its a misunderstanding.

DB fans using a joke moment where Goku didn’t know what kissing was while Vegeta also stating how ridiculous it is to prove he’s a canonical dumbass in ONLY super will always be hilarious to me

Its important to note that how you watch the series is going to affect your perspective on the characters. In the english OG Funimation dub for example goku is characterized more as a superhero in his dialouge which skews his actual character portrayal from the japanese sub.

Im not going to lie, i was always a detractor when it came to how goku was characterised in super. It was always my biggest problem with the show, not the ludicrous power scaling at times, not the questionable writing at some times, not even the terrible production it had early on resulting in terrible animation (even if those issues still bugged me), it was always the way goku acted. That being said, this video actually made me reconsider a bit and appreciate gokus character in super and his progression a lot more than i used to. Even if i still don't particularly like how goku acts at times, (like him not knowing what medication is in super hero)i think that may just be my own personal preferences and biases at that point. Thank you for making this video, it genuinely saved super a little bit for me

You are starting to become my favorite Dragon Ball RU-vidr for real. These character analysis videos on the Difference between Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Kai for me, and Dragon Ball Super are a breath of fresh air. I've always known that Goku fundamentally has always been the same character. Getting started with Kai and not Z helped me to see the real Goku, because in Kai Goku's pretty much the same as in Super. Most people who think Goku's a ruined character have only watched the Funimation english dub of DBZ. To truly understand Goku, watch him from the beginning of the series non dubbed and then watch Z subbed or Kai's english dub. Then when you get to Super, you'll see how Goku's fundamentally the same. I've definitely noticed that he's more goofy in Super, but everyone has been more goofy. We all saw Vegeta couldn't crack an egg in those filler episodes between B.o.G retelling and the R.o.F retelling 🤣🤣 oh funny stuff. Point of my comment is Dragon Ball Super did not ruin Goku, most of the fandom has a distorted image of Goku through the Funimation english dub of Z.

Amazing video. Definitely the best video I've seen explaining Goku's character, you truly understand his character more than 80% of "fans" out there. You sir have earned a well deserved like and a subscription.

I have to say, I went into this video very skeptical, but I sat through the entirety because I wanted to hear a different opinion…and boy am I glad I did. Your arguments made a lot of sense and resonated in a way many other arguments haven’t been able to. I can only hope more people are open enough to try to understand a different side of the argument and watch your video through the entirety like I did. In short, thank you for helping me see our favorite Hero in a different light!

Great video. I was a bit of a Super hater for the last couple years. But I just reread and I gotta say that my opinions were warped by the monthly waits. Goku feels like Goku in Super. I think it’s just easy for social media to form negative opinions that are not really present in the source material.

Great video. I appreciate how often you work to challenge popular narratives amongst the fandom. I do think that Toriyama isn't the greatest at executing a momentary regression for meaningful progression. I do believe more solid writing would make this process much more seamless and less jarring.

Damn, AWESOME analysis of Goku! It teaches a lot and kinda feels like you understand the character better than 90% of the "Dragon Ball Z Fans" on the internet XD

i agree with a lot of this already, i just wanted to say that the ending of this video being the broly movie ending into the end card was so great

You don't mention this, but Goku sparing Moro wasn't a stupid choice either. He knew that his current power far surpassed Moro at full strength, so he was giving the villain the choice of either going back to prision or dying.

Not a single person understands Goku on a personal level because not a single human being alive can relate to him. Vegeta, on the other hand. We can ALL relate to. He's as real as real gets.

Goku is a universal character development catalyst. It's in his nature to not only strive to be better than he was yesterday but inspire others to get stronger as well even if a bit of that is because he just likes to fight but he is a Saiyan sooooo😁😁😁

I absolutely love these character analysis videos. It really takes my understanding of them to another level, making me empathize more and even makes me emotional some times. Keep up the awesome work, and much success to you my friend!

This is a WONDERFUL video. It really reminded me about Goku and at the same time verify what I already knew about him. If you wanted to you could've also brought up GT Goku. Guys, I think we need to send this to non-Dragon Ball fans who only thinks this show is ONLY about hair colour changes.

People always assume a stronger character will one-shot the villain. That's not how characters work. They have egos and drives that go beyond the normal blank slate. It's more interesting to watch and easier to empathize with.

Holy moly this guy just continues to pump out bangers, i completely agree with your opinions man

Super goku is the goku he needs to be. But if you want to do this right realize that if you follow the character arch and watch from ages. 1-14 (age) Goku is carefree and only becomes tough when needed 15-20s Goku is going threw it, a new dad and coming to the age where learning is hard, mistakes are made and things are learned again, the hard way 30s+ Learning how to merge your inner child and being the idol your kids need you to be People don’t want to see this because life is hard and realizing that growing old can mean being a child again is hard for people to grasp.

Easy explanation as to why he’s so different nowadays from the toonami days. My fellow toonami fans know him as a simple minded, well meaning, dedicated fighter who wants to protect those around him as well as improve. While those characteristics remain in the Super era, back in the Z Toonami days Funimation made drastic changes to his dialogue to make him sound less stupid and selfish, basically making him a Superman character of sorts. This was done to not alienate viewers and make him a better role model and it worked, arguably a little too well. Nowadays, there’s no need to “change his dialogue or character to make less stupid and selfish” because DB already has a big fan base and there’s no more worry of alienating the viewers or declining viewership. So the way in Super is the way he’s supposed to have always been, the way we hate him. The Goku we remember and like a lot was never really real, he was a fabrication to appease us hero worshipers. I miss the old Goku and would so prefer to follow him more, but I understand that’s not the real one.

GREAT vid and it unintentionally points out a major issue in online-Dragon Ball discourse... People leave to watch the flavor-of-the-month-animes and come back to Dragon Ball with flavor-of-the-month-expectaions. But Dragon Ball is Dragon Ball. Stop expecting Goku to be the modern-Shonen Protagonist. He's always been Son Wukong, and most people enjoy that.

I both agree and disagree with you. I think most of the problems with characterization in my opinion from the Super era (minus Battle of Gods to be honest) come from the anime and forced comedy. I'm glad the manga has been able to really shine recently and I greatly thank it.

8:11 This is probably the only point I disagree with. Considering the vast majority of antagonists in Z almost all had something to do with either Goku's actions or just him living there. Piccolo Jr. wanted revenge. Raditz shows up cause of Goku being on earth which led to Vegeta and Nappa. The whole andriod saga was caused by kid Goku's actions.

I am so glad this video exists. It really helps explain who goku really is. He’s not Superman, he’s his own person and really at his core wants to push his limits. However, it’s in conjunction with his kind heart that he often found himself on the good side of battles. But he is still a Saiyan no matter what. There are some things that’ll never change about him

I always felt like Goku showed a type of wisdom that we shouldn't overlook. He's not book smart, but through his pure and good-hearted nature, he understands things that a lot of other characters or villains seem to miss. A wisdom of age. He lectures his villains and, in those moments, teaches the audience what it means to be a man with power and mercy. I don't think Super has those moments, and I'd argue it feels like much of modern media doesn't teach us hard lessons anymore. There are no lines in Super that hit harder than this, "You know, I've never understood how people can delight in hurting others. You see, you live in fear because you know someday your life will be taken as well. We all have to reap what we sow." Goku in Super seems more like his younger self, innocent without wisdom. It wouldn't be so jarring if DBZ didn't exist and we just went from the OG dragon ball straight to Super.

Great video, you definitely explained it perfectly, i was hesitant but you made great points🗿🤝🗿

Underrated videos man good work!

you make solid points honestly never thought about super goku this way. Nice vid, keep it up :)

Love your content friend!

Love this analysis, recently got interested in Dragon Ball and I love it!!!

Damn, dude, what a very level-headed and well thought out video. Well done.

Wow, you nailed every point. 100% Agreed. Very nice analysis!

I haven’t really liked Super the anime, but you gave me new perspective on Goku’s character in it’s regard

8:28 that bonk noise caught me off guard 💀

A very...good video. That aside, do list the soundtracks you use in the description, the last soundtrack is good and I don't know where to look lol

Another Great video by you planet level

Your videos are good shit. Most anime content creators are cringe but you're a chill guy. Good shit🤙🏾

YOOOOOOOOOOOO! New video! Thanks, boiiiii!

Great video, thanks for talking about this topic alot of critics do not understand goku especially super Goku especially Saiyan scholar and others no offence to him .congratulations 🎉you have gotten a new subscriber

Totally badass awesome excellent video analysis. You get the character much more better than some "fans of the internet"

My issue is when he forgets things that his character would NEVER forget like in the dbs manga when he acts like he didnt know what meditation is That being said i love the breakdown and i love how much he influenced frieza. Frieza didnt kill the saiyans, simply one shotted them and let them train to try to beat him. Thats goes back to RoF when goku told him hed be such a great rival if he only trained instead of focusing on killing/revenge

One thing I will give super is theyre exploring his character via accepting his heritage namely the Broly movie, I don't want to kill a series off when it shows genuin promise. That is really facinating, its something we couldve dusregarded as sayan heritage, but Gass's statement of not falling to a person who doesn't even know who he is really struck gold. Martial arts naturally leads to that in most tellings and theres a big chunk of denial Goku follows suite from that you could arguabley even say he at one point ran away from, not to blame him. It really didn't add anything he'd consider of value. But meeting figures like Broly taught him, he could just be as dismissive as the sayans were towards him if he holds on to prejudices and caution like that about his own people. Which would go against his upbringing and world view. A second chance is owed to everyone, bc he had that in Gohan. GT explored the consequemces of the sins of the sayans through Baby and the Tuffles.

I feel like most people's view of goku comes from the OG funi dub where he was made out to be a bit more superman like

Nice vid 🎉 What’s the song at 6:35 ?

Honestly Goku isn’t as dumb as people think. Don’t get me wrong, he’s pretty dumb on most things. But he is an absolute genius when it comes to martial arts. It’s on full display in the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai arc where he is constantly outsmarting Piccolo. There’s more than one kind of intelligence, after all

babe wake up, planet level posted

Great video

8:03 Raditz came to earth for him, and then vegeta and nappa came to earth for the dragon balls, which they learned about through Raditz. i guess you can say freeza wasn't anything to do with him, but he's still the reason mecha freeza came to earth, threatening his friends again. and the androids were made by gero in order to kill goku. any time a threat came to, or appeared on earth was becauise of him in z, until Buu.

I think that Goku has actually gotten dumber in Super. He wasn't as over the top in Z. Ultimately, his stupidity and naivety are over the top for marketing reasons. Kids like silly characters and children's cartoons get softer and sillier with time, both in the East and West. I also don't like Goku having to relearn old lessons, but I understand it's for the target audience and I can see why you like it.

0:26 That is so untrue. People just cant stand that Goku is a bit of a doodoo besides batteling. Fact is he always has been and he always will be and thats why i love the character.

Growing up with the Latin spanish dub of Og Dragon ball, I never understood my some people think that Goku is some sort of "superman" type hero

At the end of the Dragonball Z manga, Goku was no longer wearing the turtle hermit gi. That visual alone gave Goku the look of a man who had mastered martial arts, he was no longer a student. He became Uub's master, turning the universe's most feared creature into a humble pupil and imparting his knowledge, his way of life. Then Battle of Gods and Resurrection F came along and tossed a wrench into everything, demoting Goku to a student. Super doesn't belong in the timeline, considering that in the manga, 10 years passed without the mention of any key event taking place. Trying to fit Super in with Z is like trying to fit a circular peg in a triangular hole.

i think goku wanting to stay in the after life made sense actually, the entire saiyan thing happened because raditz wanted goku, the frieza thing happened because of the saiyans, the entire android and cell thing happened because they wanted goku, then the buu thing happened because they wanted the energy of the fighters, which him being dead wuldnt have prevented, but at that point he just wanted to be safe since most other things were caused because of people wanting him dead

i still remember being extra mad because they made him of all the characters call meditation "useless" while he did it all the time in DB/DBZ

Can we at least agree Goku thinking meditation being dumb was just a blantent disregard for his character? He was doing meditation during the Buu Saga. He knows the importance of meditation

Beautiful video.

At the end of the day goku is still the same pure hearted saiyan who cares for his friends and loves fighting.

i can't stop laughing whenever someoen claims this goku is not the goku they grew up with. Either they're fools or liar. period.

To be fair he didnt take his heart medicine in z because he got sick years later than trunks said he would.

It really doesn’t matter everything works out in the end for goku because he is pure of heart

well in gokus defense he was dead for 7 years without issue. he came back for one day and buu was released. so he kinda had a point.

This channel is unfathomly based, only the greatest manga of all time would get this level of quality, please make a video all about Granolah

He also forgot his tractor!

I think the one thing that really made me not like Goku's character in DBS was the scene with Vegeta meditating in DBS:SH and him talking about not getting stronger with that. It goes against the principles of what EVERY master has taught him (Whis included) and it confused me a lot. This video did improve my thinking of Goku though (not including DBS:SH), nice work!

Need a mr. Popo vs. Omniking matchup

This Is the epitome of semantics. No, Goku got dumbed down HARD in super, they needed to reset him so he could grow again. Cheap.

I think my biggest complaints with Goku in Super is probably that they don’t show off Goku realizing he messed up like he does in Z, but at the same time it makes sense why scenes like those arent in Super. I guess my problems stem more of Super's anime feeling more like a rough draft of the series than anything

7:25 imma just say this, idk if this is canon to the manga but he did kiss chichi before he left to train Gohan for Cell

While I do disagree with some of what you said, I will say that it was a good video 😊.

Bro to clarify Goku has always had this personality that is supposedly new in Super. Does anyone remember the Cell Senzu Bean bs? And what about his moments away from the battle? He has always been kind of an idiot but in a funny way. Fight me.

An Amazing Video

I think you missed that chichi didn't want him to fight.

I don't have any issue about him relearning the lessons he already learned in early DB. My main issue is that he's portrayed to be a complete idiot who forgets about literally everything important in his life. Gokū isn't forgetful. He's not smart, but he doesn't have dementia. Let's not forget that he came up with a year long plan to deal with Cell. I'm fine with him being an idiot, but Super portraying him to be a dementia patient is too much. This is why I prefer the Super manga. It still shows some of Gokū's absolute genius in terms of martial arts and his stupidity we saw in DB and Z, but it doesn't make him forgetful. He remembers the Senzu in the Black arc and he mistook Kame Sennin's comically large coupon for the seal. The latter is still a stupid moment, but it doesn't rely on the same gag of "oh, Son Gokū has no short term memory whatsoever."

Hey man I love you videos, I watched the gohan video which lead me to others. But I have to say I feel like you should go with a different title theme cause it made me not want to watch h them for the longest. They’re really good videos and more people should watch them but the “you don’t understand” is off putting. But what do I know

I just want to say, my problem with Super's Goku is that they basically reverse him to what he always was, just leaving aside all the stuff he did before, especially during Cell's and Frieza's saga, especially at martial art's levels. I think his personality in Super is more than fitting, but a guy who goes from being able to dominate Super Saiyan, to someone who doesn't even know what meditation is, is pretty jarring. One thing is being oblivious about things you don't care about, and another forgetting fundamental things about the only damn thing he always do.

It's true that Goku has always been non serious but if you read the dbs manga this is literally gokus face the whole time O○O

There is also an important aspect of story-writing in general that people miss with Goku (and Shonen manga/anime in general). Either your protagonist is changed by his world and other characters, or your protagonist stays the same and changes the world around him. Goku (along with most Shonen protagonists since) doesn't change. He changes the world. All of Goku's opponents have either changed to conform to him, or become irrelevant. Mercenary Tao falls away while Tien becomes the next big thing. He also is a Buddhistic martial artist focused on bettering himself, not destroying others (much like his namesake, Sun Wukong). He intentionally tries NOT to kill and only does so when the alternative is devastation. He changes others to be more like him, not the other way around.

I don't think this defends much of anything of what's wrong with Super Goku. Yes, Goku didn't know how to distinguish boys from girls when he was a kid, since he had never seen a person of the opposite sex at that point and he did say he thought that "marriage" in the Japanese and "bride" in the English version was some kind of food, but again he was referring to the promise he made with Chi-Chi when they were young and why he made it back then. They did get married immediately after the battle with Piccolo and he had lived together with her and their son for around 5 years since then, before the beginning of Z and by then he had in fact learned how to distinguish boys from girls, so I guess he should have learned the other stuff as well. Goku wasn't THAT stupid, he was just severely uneducated because of the life he had led till that point. You can't tell me that Goku in the black arc who is 40 something years old (yes I didn't go out of my way to check, but considering Gohan should be in his 20s, so I guess he should be in his late 40s at that point) who is married for well over two decades and his friends are married with families as well, hasn't kissed his wife ever once or has not seen anyone else do it. Also you bring the point of Goku having to re learn all he learned as a kid about martial arts, because he was so focused on building up his power level till now, but just because it is not explicitly stated, doesn't mean Goku isn't using what he has learned before in all his fights after. Goku was always shown to be genius when it comes to fighting and with his martial arts upbringing ever since he trained with his grandpa, till his training with Kami, he was focusing on mastering his mind as well as training his body and then in "Super Hero" Vegeta has to explain to Goku of all people what meditation is? Even if he just stopped using his brain and was like "Oooh power level goes brrrr" trough the whole story of Z like you say, he still wouldn't forget the concept he trained and learned trough his whole childhood till early adulthood. In conclusion, I don't think people dislike Super Goku for his carefree character, but because they obviously degrade him by robbing him of the few things he should have already learned, to recycle the whole progression, or just for stupid one time gags like the one with the kissing, which just don't work with the adult Goku anymore. He isn't the little monkey boy with caveman intelligence that just came out from the woods anymore, he is adult person with a family that had lived few decades in society and more importantly, has his whole life as a martial arts experience and to rob him of that over and over is nothing but a character assassination.

Honestly in terms of the heart medication I think just plain forgot about it because he was busy training with Gohan and Picolo for the androids

Man, I gotta agree with all of this, but the not sensing basic energy like Sorbets ray and when Kale & Caulifla were doing a dual attack on him was a bit stupid, and something he should’ve known.

Solid vid. My gripes with Super have ALWAYS been on its production quality and its handling on a corporate level. Only on the internet do people get mad that Goku doesn't know what a kiss is. Everyone I know thought that shit was funny AF. 'So many jokes about how Chichi just wanted the D 😂 People just seem to hate that Super goes much further back to its roots and adds heavy doses of comedy and Goku having to learn new shit. The Goku from Journey To The West NEVER stopped learning and often seemed silly and dumb, too. But everything he did worked out in the end and it turned out his viewpoints and behavior seemed silly because he was silently on another level.

I love dragon ball super,l and I love the direction they are taking dragon ball. I cannot wait to see what sagas come in the future.

11:16 wow, he’s SO pissed that he’s using Vegeta’s technique-and it’s WORKING

I really do need to reread super and reevalute my thoughts. I will probably alway love Goku he's one of my favorite characters in all of fiction. His appearances always succeed in getting me invested and hyped for what he's about to do. My favorite current Goku moment was his UI transformation against Moro, how calm he was like he was fully in control. I was hoping thats what UI would represent a fully in tune martial arts master. They seem to be taking it down the Super Saiyan route which im not super fond of but thats just the way things are so im just going to roll with it.

Gohan is my favorite db character and you showed everyone why

Goku be playing dumb like Luffy he knows what's going on he just doesn't give a FUughhk

common planet level W

I say goku is the same way as he is

most people who think hes changed, haven't seen the real goku, or haven't watched the original dragon ball imo. He was always this way, he's always been a lovable dimwitted goof who just loves a good brawl. DBZ forced him to be more serious than before, and made him think about the future with opponents coming onto their doorsteps one by one. he still never dropped that innocence though, sparing everyone he possibly could until the very end with Uub.

You nearly lost me but by the end you got me, and honestly I don’t dislike goku as much in super

People that complain that he isnt always angry and serious are that kind of people that think that men only are only allowed to be angry and serious and strong... There is no doubt that DB has "a few"fans that fall under toxic masculine.. sadly. I like Goku as he is, a bit thick in the skull, kindhearted, strong and a bit goofy. Great Video!

You said Goku's desire to fight has never gone to an extent to cause death and destruction, but what about him being the one who kickstarts the Tournament of Power that potentially would erase entire universes. Yes, later it was revealed that there were other motives to create the tournaments and erase universes, but at first and during most of the tournament, no one else, especially Goku, know about this. He just sees fighters lose and universes get erased without a minimum care while he keeps enjoying the fight.