Characters / Dragon Ball Son Goku Tropes A To H

Dragon Ball Main Character Index
Major Characters
Son Goku (A-H, I-Z) | Bulma | Krillin/Kuririn | Piccolo | Son Gohan | Vegeta (A-L, M-Z) | Future Trunks | Allies (Dragon Team/Z Fighters) | Families (Androids 17 and 18 | Trunks and Son Goten) | Friends | Fusions

Back to Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, or Dragon Ball Super.

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A

• Accidental Hero: Goku tends to make dumb decisions that work out splendidly later on, among them being:
  • In Dragon Ball, he lets Piccolo live when he has him dead to rights. In Dragon Ball Z, he lets Vegeta live when he has him dead to rights. They both become two of his greatest allies.
  • Goku recognizes Gohan's potential and very stealthily guides him to be the one to defeat Cell. At the moment, it's monumentally stupid to send a child out to fight the Big Bad and expect them to finish the job, regardless of whether or not you know they physically can. This leads to him having to conduct a Heroic Sacrifice to save everyone, which doesn't even really work because Cell comes back even stronger than before and kills Trunks — only to spur Vegeta into an unexpected rage that gives Gohan the chance to win the fight for real.
  • When Kid Buu destroys the Earth, instead of saving his sons, Present Trunks, or Piccolo, Goku saves Hercule, Dende, and the dog Bee. And saving Hercule is, in multiple ways, the absolute key to allowing him to use a Spirit Bomb to defeat Buu.
  • When Beerus comes back to Earth, Goku just waits and watches him fight everyone else — but this allows Beerus to Dope Slap Bulma, triggering another unexpected fury from Vegeta that becomes his first encroachment into God-tier power.
  • In Dragon Ball Super, King of All Cosmos Zen-Oh had previously expressed a desire to hold a martial arts tournament between all 12 universes but never got around to it. Goku reminds him of it several story arcs later, thinking it would be fun. Only Zen-Oh's plan is to destroy the eleven losing universes, and their inhabitants immediately laid into Goku for being so heartless. Vados points out that if Goku had not intervened, Zen-Oh would have just destroyed every universe, no questions asked, and Android 17 ends up wishing for the erased universes to come back and thus saving the entire multiverse as well as boosting Universe 7's mortal level.
• Accidental Murder: He kills Grandpa Gohan one night when he becomes a Great Ape. He doesn't find this out until years later when he's fighting Vegeta during the Saiyan arc.
• Accidental Pervert: As a kid, he was completely unable to differentiate between males and females by sight, leading to several of these moments where he pats them by their privates. He once removed Bulma's panties, and is (comically) horrified that she doesn't have male parts. He also softly kicks Chi-Chi in the same area only for her to (understandably) push him off his Nimbus.
• The Ace: He learns techniques just by watching them once or twice, and becomes immune to them since he knows how to counter them. Goku eventually becomes the strongest man in the world, and surpasses all his masters. He's also able to defeat members of his race and kill seemingly invincible aliens and monsters.
• Achilles' Heel:
  • His tail is so sensitive to touch that grabbing it saps him of all his strength. He eventually manages to train himself out of that weakness, though. Eventually, he loses it forever, unless you count the events of GT.
  • He also doesn't have a good history as far as paralysis-inducing techniques (more specifically, the telekinetic kind) are concerned, allowing people like General Blue, Tien, and Frieza to nearly defeat him.
• Action Dad: Even after Goku becomes a father, threats still come to Earth (in fact, more of them), so he has to keep training to make sure he was powerful enough to stop it. Though, considering his Blood Knight tendencies, he'd have done so even if that wasn't the case.
• Adaptation Personality Change:
  • He suffers a mild case of this. Toei tends to portrayal Goku as more heroic than his manga counterpart. Goku is still a good person in all media, but Toriyama's version of the character is more recklessly fight-happy, self-centered, and prone to overconfidence. His level of childishness also varies. The English dub tends to downplay his immaturity and make him fun-loving while being somewhat dense and clueless, while Toei sometimes play up his childishness and naivety for comedy. The manga version of Goku can be childish and very laid-back, but is mostly serious. Super cut the difference by making him closer to Toriyama's version of the character by upping his selfishness and immaturity compared to Z. The English dub of Super tones down the immaturity, but makes him more self-centered.
  • The manga adaptation of Super has him solely dependent on fighting strong rather than smart. Manga!Goku has him solely reliant on raw power and new transformations to simply power through his opponent, most notably when he battles Jiren, rather than focus on different strategies and tactics like his anime counterpart did. Ironically, this brings him closer to Vegeta's Cell-Era personality.
  • Goku is less merciful towards his enemies in GT and the non-serial movies. Unlike his adult canon portrayal, Goku kills almost every villain he faces. This can be justified since Toei emphasizes Goku's heroic traits more, thus making him take his battles more seriously.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • In the original manga and anime, his first attempt at the Kamehameha Wave only results in a small energy beam that's only strong enough to destroy Bulma's car. In The Path to Power, however, he attempts a Wave-Motion Gun that obliterates a good chunk of the Red Ribbon Army's armada.
  • Goku in general tends to be even more badass in the movies than he was in the original manga and anime. His Idiot Hero qualities are also downplayed quite a bit in the films. He's more of a serious fighter who will not go easy on the villains.
  • The movies give a lot of love to Super Saiyan 3 Goku with him soundly overpowering big Janemba in Fusion Reborn and saving the day with Dragon Fist in Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon. Sadly Dragon Fist despite being awesome has yet to be made canon.
  • The Super Saiyan God form gets this treatment in Dragon Ball Super. It's a weaker and slower but less stamina-consuming alternative for Super Saiyan Blue. The form never really pushes Beerus anywhere close to his full power, whereas in the movie, by comparison, Beerus used 70% of his power.
• Adaptational Dumbass: Zigzagged. Super ramps up his naivety and cluelessness, especially during fights. Even in the original manga, Goku displays his Awesomeness by Analysis and intelligence during fights when things get too serious. While he does show that once he focuses on something, Goku can tell how his opponents' techniques work, and knows how to counter them accordingly, such as Hit's Time Stands Still abilities.
  • When he arrives on Namek, Goku lectures Recoome and Jeice on the fact that they let their guard down at very inopportune moments. However, in Resurrection F, he goes down to a simple blaster shot after doing the exact same mistake.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Aside from his pride as a Saiyan and his desire to fight strong opponents, Goku has none of the negative traits associated with Sun Wukong (the original Son Goku) from Journey to the West. Sun Wukong was an absolute merciless Jerkass whereas Goku does try to spare his enemies rather than kill them as an adult than when he was a kid (with the exceptions of the Androids, Cell, and Majin Buu). The original Sun Wukong came to the banquet of the gods uninvited and repeatedly pissed them off unprovoked, whereas Goku only gained the ire of the Gods of Destruction and Creation (Supreme Kais) simply because he wanted to have a fighting tournament to face every opponent in each of the 12 universes and was perhaps a bit too chummy with Grand Zeno for their comfort.
  • Toriyama is on the record as saying that he feels the anime adaptation is this; originally, in the manga, he intended for Goku's Blood Knight tendencies to make him seem like a darker figure, describing him as someone who only incidentally did good things while seeking fights.
  • The early dubs of DBZ take this trait even further, changing Goku's dialogue to make him seem even more selfless than he really is. It's only until the release of Kai where his character more closely aligns with his manga counterpart.
• Adaptational Intelligence: Some interpretations make him smarter than the Book Dumb fight magnet he usually is, like how he properly uses the word resilient in GT when reasoning why his child body couldn't properly handle Super Saiyan 3.
• Adaptational Jerkass: To a massive extent in Super.
  • Goku in the anime is much more selfish and inconsiderate of other people's feelings. He hired Hit to kill him without for a second thinking about how this might affect his loved ones if the assassin succeeded, and never even thinks to apologize to his sons for the event. Not to mention the massive Lack of Empathy he shows towards the other universes in the Tournament Of Power Saga. The list honestly goes on and on...
  • Goku's treatment of his son is noticeably harsher in the Super manga if not borderline emotionally abusive. When Gohan is unable to partake in the Universe 6 Tournament, Goku outright calls him a "little shit". While in the anime, he was actually accepting of Gohan's decision.
  • A minor case in how he defeats Frieza the first time: In the manga, after Frieza backstabs him, and tried to kill him with the energy Goku gave him, he is visibly shaken and frowns to having to finish him. In the anime, he stares in contempt after the fact, and isn't as broken up.
  • In Battle of Gods, Goku arrogantly boasts about the power of his Super Saiyan 3 form to Beerus before getting thoroughly humiliated by the god of Destruction, which is very different to previous occasions showing him to be more respectful of his enemies and humble about his power. It's even more damning when a very similar scene happened when Goku was 14, where Mr. Popo and Kami showed him how dwarfed by their power he was after his defeat of King Piccolo got to his head, and the rest of the series showed him being humbled by this experience.
• Adaptational Species Change: Sun Wukong was a monkey born from a stone with various powers (which included his hair). Son Goku is an alien whose homeworld was destroyed by Frieza.
• Adaptational Superpower Change:
  • Sun Wukong had various powers, such as the ability to shape-shift into 72 different forms, and his hair can change into anything. Goku, while being a Human Alien, could adapt to his opponents' abilities, and a Genius Bruiser that analyzes how his opponents fight. While his hair doesn't have any magical properties, he has the ability to transform into different forms, the first being his Oozaru form that required the use of his tail, and the second being various Super Saiyan forms.
  • The Super manga and anime handle Goku's abilities differently, in particular the Super Saiyan God and Blue transformations.
    • In the anime, they introduced Super Saiyan Blue Kaioken, which adds the multiplicative power of the Kaioken with its usual dangers, and the Super Saiyan God form doesn't appear after the Battle of Gods arc, with the implication that Goku either can't use it anymore, or chooses not to. Subverted however, when Goku breaks out Super Saiyan God several times in the Tournament of Power as his fastest form, even throwing in the God-to-Blue switch tactic against Dyspo, if only that one time.
    • In the manga, however, Goku more regularly uses the God form. Instead of using the Kaioken, Goku/Vegeta uses "Completed Super Saiyan Blue", which lets him use the form in full power, though with similar drawbacks to SSB Kaioken. Additionally, Goku uses a weaker version of Beerus' Hakai technique while he has yet to do so in the anime.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • Goku doesn't have any magical abilities associated with Sun Wukong, nor does his hair. This is sidestepped with him being a powerful alien warrior with various transformations and ki-based attacks.
  • Not Goku, but his Ultra Instinct "Omen" transformation when battling Jiren for the first time. In the anime, he was able to momentarily hold his own against Jiren, managing to counter Jiren's hits for several minutes and even land a good hit on him before it gave out. In the manga, he could only dodge one punch from Jiren before it gave out.
• Adaptive Ability:
  • He is shown to gain immunity if a technique is used on him more than once since he knows how to counter them thanks to his supreme observation. This can best be seen in his battle against Cell where all of Cell's copied techniques have no effect on Goku since he'd seen them all before. In Super, when he has his rematch with Hit, he outright tells Hit that his Time-Skip won't work anymore. He later learns to counter Hit's invisible shockwaves after experiencing how they work.
  • Throughout his fight with Beerus, Goku's body adapts and evolves, going beyond godhood, to the point that he kept his god powers even after turning back to a normal Super Saiyan.
• Adorably Precocious Child: As a kid. By the age of 12, he was living by himself in the wilderness and traveling the world.
• Advertised Extra:
  • Bojack Unbound and Broly – Second Coming are pretty guilty with this. Goku is shown prominently on promotional posters for both movies but because he's dead, he has very minimal involvement. Bojack has Goku briefly teleport out of Other World to save Gohan from being killed by Bojack and give him encouragement to beat him. In Second Coming, he descends down and assists Gohan and Goten to defeat Broly. Even then, it's debatable if he actually was there or not.
  • In Wrath of the Dragon, Goku is front and center on the promotional poster while most of his screentime is only during the final fight. The movie focuses more on Gohan and Videl in the first half and Tapion and Trunks in the second half. While Goku does eventually kill Hildegarn, that makes him a Non-Protagonist Resolver. This is even more noticeable in the movie's Japanese name, "Dragon Ball Z: Dragon Fist Explosion!! If Gokū Can't Do It, Who Will?", clearly putting focus on Goku over anyone else.
  • In Super Hero he's on the cover alongside everyone else, and he was even among the first revealed characters, but he plays no role in the movie at all.
• Aesop Amnesia: If Resurrection 'F' is any indication, Goku still hasn't learned his lesson in the following:
  • Not giving murderous villains like Frieza a Last-Second Chance just so he can get a rematch and a better challenge. In Super, he spares Frieza again because he sees him as too pathetic to kill.
  • Giving super powerful villains a Senzu Bean for the sake of having a good fight. It's especially bad when you'd think he'd learn after literally dying from Cell's self-destruction only to give Moro (a villain even worse than Cell in terms of atrocities) the same kind of mercy he gave to the bio-android.
• Afraid of Needles: He can face certain death any day of the week, fight all manner of world-destroying supervillains, and laugh it off... and yet, when it comes to getting shots, he's a chicken.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: As a child, Goku got patted on the head by Master Roshi and his grandfather. He gives these affectionate gestures to Gohan, and later Goten and Pan. This seems to be his version of a hug since Goku rarely embraces his sons and granddaughter (with the exception of carrying them as children), but gives these quite openly and warmly.
• All-Loving Hero: Forgives enemies? Most story arcs involve this. He does not hold grudges period. Turns enemies into friends? This is how he makes friends. Once the fight is over, anyone, even last season's enemies, are affectionately embraced as friends if they can stop trying to kill him and his crew or take over the world long enough. Purehearted? He has a flying cloud to prove it.
  • Goku himself explains this even further to Merus, saying that the reason he spares villains is because he values their lives and that should they rise up again, he'd fight them as many times as he'd have to and expresses hope that during those repeated battles, they would finally have a change of heart and redeem themselves.
  • This aspect of his personality is heightened in the early English dubs, particularly in the scene where he lets Vegeta go.
  • One of the biggest (if not the biggest) misconceptions about Goku's character actually comes from the sub purists: the claim that this part of Goku's character was made up for the dub and was never there in the manga (which is absolutely not true in reality. Goku was already this trope even without the dub add-ons, making any Adaptational Heroism a very Downplayed Trope.)
• All Your Powers Combined: His signature technique, the Spirit Bomb, is an energy attack that combines the life energy of every living creature on a planet and even beyond into one big ball. In GT, he gathers energy from across the universe. He also becomes a Super Saiyan God by absorbing the energy of his sons, unborn grandchild, his rival, and his rival's son.
• Almighty Janitor: He'd merely be a lowly soldier if he was raised a Saiyan. That said, he becomes one of the most powerful beings in the universe (even becoming a Physical God as of Battle of Gods). For the people of Earth, he is this as well. Outside of the martial arts community and other circles, the general public doesn't know who he is. In Super, when Mr. Satan attempts to get Goku to fight an alien in front of bunch of regular people, everyone, including the aliens, are dismissive towards him because he looks like a country bumpkin. It didn't help that Goku was wearing his farmer's outfit at the time, making him an Almighty Farmer.
• Alternate Identity Amnesia: Goku has no memory of his time as a Great Ape. It's not until he sees Vegeta transform that he realizes that he's the monster who killed his grandfather.
• Always Late: Goku has a bad habit of only being able to reach the battlefield in time to save his friends from being utterly annihilated.
• Always Second Best: Mr. Popo spells this out to Goku during their first meeting, calling Goku out for thinking he's the greatest in the world after defeating King Piccolo. As he puts it, no matter how strong Goku becomes, there will always be someone stronger than him. Beings like Perfect Cell, Beerus, Whis, Jiren, and Broly would go on to prove Popo right.
• Always Someone Better: Goku has this dynamic with all of his friends. During his childhood and teen years, he serves as the 'someone better' to Yamcha, Krillin, Tien, and even Piccolo. As an adult, this gets reversed on Goku where he is the underdog compared to the other Saiyans, especially Vegeta, since they lived on planets with higher gravity and believed Goku would never catch up no matter how hard he tried on Earth. Once he reaches Namek, he becomes the 'always someone better' to Vegeta for the rest of the series.
• Amazon Chaser: Despite Chi-Chi being harsh and sometimes overbearing on him, Goku likes her this way. Vegeta lampshades that weak women are not suited for a Saiyan.
• Ambiguously Human: Before Goku was revealed to be a Saiyan, no one was sure if he was human or not. He looked like a normal human, except he had a tail, and had superhuman strength and the ability to turn into a giant ape. He himself lampshades this during his fight with King Piccolo, who's in shock that a human is dominating him in a fight:
  Goku: I have a tail, y'know. Maybe I'm not human after all.
• Ambiguous Situation: Goku tells Piccolo he could have most likely defeated Buu in his Super Saiyan 3 form, but whether this was true causes some serious doubt for a few reasons. Mainly, his first bout against Buu is largely Buu simply playing around and taking the fight much less seriously than Goku, and yet the two seemed to be about even. Secondly, the stamina drain of Super Saiyan 3 affects him greatly in a fight much more than he anticipated and seeing how a full powered fight between them both would have prolonged things— it causes major doubt on whether or not Goku would win.
• American Kirby Is Hardcore: In Japanese, Goku (no matter his age) is portrayed as a highly goofy, Book Dumb hero voiced by Masako Nozawa speaking in a young boy's voice and affecting a Simpleton Voice accent, with his Dragon Ball incarnation forming the basis of his character. In English dubs, Goku's adult DBZ incarnation is the basis of his character, and adult Goku is always voiced by adult men speaking with a standard American accent. Earlier dubs portrayed Goku as more of a serious superhero, but he retained his male voice actors even as later dubs would skew more faithful to the Japanese and play up the silly side of his personality.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: From all the adventures the main characters had in the first series, everyone thought that our main hero Goku was just a human with ridiculous strength, a monkey tail, and the ability to turn into a giant ape. Just a coincidence, right? Wrong! In Z, Goku's long-lost brother, Raditz, shows up from outer space to reveal that he isn't human, but instead an alien from a ruthless warrior race sent to destroy every life on Earth. Raditz tries to convince him of this by kidnapping his only son and demanding Goku pile up 100 dead Earthling, but it doesn't fly because Goku got his amnesia as an infant and thus doesn't remember his prior wilder side in the first place. He ended up despising his own race so much that, during the final battle on Namek when Frieza calls him a hypocrite for being mad about him murdering Krillin when the Saiyans were an entire race of murderers. Goku's only response was:
  Goku: They paid for their mistakes.
• Amnesiac Villain Joins the Heroes: Before the series began, according to Roshi, Goku was an Enfant Terrible hellbent on destroying all life until he hit his head on a rock and lost many of his Saiyan traits (Blood Knight tendencies notwithstanding).
• Anchored Teleportation: Goku's Instant Transmission technique works by focusing on another individual's ki signature and teleporting to their location.
• Angrish:
  • After Frieza murders Krillin before his eyes, Goku becomes so stricken with anger and grief that he can barely form a sentence.
  • In Super, when he's told by Goku Black and Future Zamasu that Black murdered an alternate version of Goten and Chi-Chi after taking his body and killing him with it in front of his family, Goku is so angry that he can barely talk and can only say how pissed off he is before beating the shit out of both of them.
• Anti-Education Mama: Downplayed with Goku. He doesn't oppose Gohan getting an education but would rather pull him out of school to train with him. In contrast Chi-chi is a hardcore Education Mama, wanting Gohan to turn out nothing like his idiotic dad.
• And This Is for...: When he fights Nappa, he does this for all of his friends whom Nappa killed.
• Angst? What Angst?: In-Universe
  • Bulma asks Goku how he can be so happy when he tells her that he was abandoned in the woods, his grandfather died, and he was left alone for several years.
  • While everyone else is worried about the Cell Games and the possible end of the world, Goku is very chilled and chooses to spend his time hanging out with his family instead of training. This, naturally, has everyone worried.
  • Beerus continuously lays into Goku for his willy-nilly attitude towards the universe's possibility of being erased if they lose the Tournament of Power. He orders Goku to panic or emote something other than excitement.
• Animal Battle Aura: His aura sometimes takes the form of a Great Ape, like the punch he uses to kill King Piccolo. The canon questionable Dragon Fist takes the shape of a giant golden dragon.
• Animal Motifs: Although all Saiyans have the monkey motif, Goku embodies it the best. As a child, he would sometimes mimic a monkey's movements like running on all fours, swinging from trees, and grabbing objects with his feet. He also has the monkey's playful and mischievous nature, but can become quite violent when enraged.
• Animal-Themed Fighting Style: In Jackie Chun and Goku's 21st World Martial Arts Tournament match, Jackie uses Drunken Boxing to surprise and confuse Goku. Goku responds with his "Mad Dog" and "Crazy Monkey" techniques which have him imitate a wild dog and monkey respectively to catch him off guard.
• Anime Hair: A big mane of spiky black hair that even manages to maintain its shape underwater. In the Piccolo Jr. Saga, he even used his hair as a Distinguishing Mark to his friends.
  Goku: Now do you recognize me? Who else but me has hair like this?
  • Typically in video game media, characters familiar with Goku who encounter one of the Saiyans with the same hairstyle (Bardock, Goten or Turles) will comment on it, indicating that the hairstyle indeed is how they identify him.
• Anti-Hero: Goku in the early series was originally supposed to be a selfish hero who only grew stronger to fight strong people rather than to protect others. Some of his more heroic qualities were heightened in the Dragon Ball Z anime adaptation and he slowly became more of an Ideal Hero as the manga went on. It's only his Blood Knight tendencies that can override his common sense and make him even remotely close to being an anti-hero.
• Anti-Anti-Christ: As revealed in the Saiyan Saga of Z (before Dragon Ball Minus revisioned it), he was sent to Earth as a baby to prepare it for the Saiyans' invasion. One instance of blunt-force trauma later, and he becomes the good natured, if somewhat dim-witted, Blood Knight that we know.
• Arch-Enemy: While Goku is the poster boy for pulling Defeat Means Friendship on his former foes, there have been several villains who have earned him overwhelming hatred.
  • King Piccolo. His act of murdering Krillin drove Goku into an unstoppable rage that the boy had never ever felt in his life before. This was one of the few times Goku was driven to stop a villain by any means necessary, and never took any thrill from his fight against the Demon King. While King Piccolo's son, Piccolo Jr. initially inherited the title, his begrudging respect that he and Goku held towards one another and the fact that he was far less evil than his father, made it so that this dynamic dropped and switched to being The Rival and later friend.
  • Frieza would be the No. 1 contender for this title, where Goku would never end up hating anyone as much before or since. Much like King Piccolo, Frieza murdered Krillin in cold blood (along with attempting to kill Piccolo and Gohan, while also killing Vegeta), which once again drove Goku into an unstoppable rage that pushed him into turning into a Super Saiyan for the first time. The feeling would be very mutual on Frieza's side, coming to resent the Saiyan for daring to defeat him. Their hatred for one another would last for years, with even death not being able to keep each other apart. Frieza would return again and again to take another opportunity to take revenge on Goku.
  • Zamasu/Goku Black. The one person able to draw out a level of hatred from Goku to the same level as Frieza. What cemented Goku's hatred was Goku Black revealing that after stealing Goku's body, Black proceeded to kill Goku followed by Goku's family Chi-Chi and Goten. Zamasu/Goku Black become one enemy who Goku could never ever forgive and his fight with the Mad God dropped all thrill seeking and became deadly serious.
• Artistic License – Sports: Him training with weighted clothing is based off a real life concept called Hypergravity Training, which involves doing basic Calisthenics while wearing extra weight. That said, real life weighted clothing can't be anywhere near as compact as his shirt, wristbands, and boots, and you can't wear them as commonly as sneakers (it's best to just wear them during actual training, instead of like street clothes, else your center of gravity will be altered).
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: At the end of GT, he fuses with the dragon Shenron and the seven Dragon Balls to leave Earth, though he makes a visit 100 years later.
• Asleep for Days: During the Cell Saga. Even with the medicine Trunks gave him for the heart virus, Goku is nonetheless asleep for ten days.
• Assassin Outclassin':
  • The Red Ribbon Army hires Mercenary Tao to take him out and steal his Dragon Balls. Goku survives the first fight, and later beats Tao in a rematch.
  • He did this again in Super when Hit is hired to kill him; he is temporarily put down, but manages to restart his own heart with a well-timed ki blast and return to beat Hit up. It's eventually revealed that the crazy bastard hired Hit himself so he can fight him at his absolute strongest, making this an Invoked Trope.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Beerus names Goku captain of the U7 team for the Tournament of Power purely based on Goku being the strongest mortal fighter in his universe. Vegeta is not happy about that. However, Goku relents this title to Gohan, although Goku is still stronger than him.
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • As a kid, the Kamehameha fell into this. It greatly drained Goku's stamina and became progressively weaker every time he used it within a short time span. As a kid, he often uses it as his ace in the hole or as a desperate attack. It is not until he becomes a teenager that he can use it without any ill effect.
  • The Spirit Bomb. It takes a long time to power up and can cause serious damage if not used correctly. Goku once refused to use it because he thought it couldn't even kill his opponent, Kid Buu.
  • The reason why Goku never uses his Ultra Super Saiyan form. After demonstrating it to Gohan, he quickly sees the Fatal Flaw in the form. It's too slow and power is pointless if you can't even hit your opponent.
  • The Super Saiyan 3 form, while giving him immense amounts of power unmatched by any other forms, gives him a very strict time limit on how long he can stretch out a fight before he's drained of all his strength. The strain the form has on his body is so heavy it's not even really meant to be used outside of the afterlife.
  • The Super Kaioken is the fusion of Super Saiyan Blue and the old Kaio-ken. Since it is an incomplete technique, the power jump only lasts a few minutes and can kill Goku if performed incorrectly. However, as of the Universal Survival Saga, Goku has shown greater mastery of the technique.
  • The manga version of Super Saiyan Blue is more powerful than its anime counterpart but comes at the cost of being a major energy drain. You lose 90% of your power if you transform too many times and its full power can only be maintained for a short time. Goku fortunately finds workarounds for these in time for his final fight with Fused Zamasu in the form of Completed Super Saiyan Blue.
  • Ultra Instinct. It allows the body to react on its own without wasting time for neural impulses to travel from the brain to the muscles. However, it also drains Goku’s energy and the mastered version causes severe damage to his body and he's completely incapable of accessing it of his own free will until he finds the needed trigger for it when fighting Moro, which turns out to be opposite to what causes a Super Saiyan transformation to come out^{What this means}Goku is told by Merus he needs to remain calm in face of a jarring shock to his emotions. From then on, Mastered Ultra Instinct is stated to require Goku to be perfectly calm when using the transformation..
• Awesomeness by Analysis:
  • Learns the Kamehameha by watching it used once along with the After Image Technique (he manages to improve upon it after seeing it used a second time with a double), Solar Flare, and King Chapa's Hasshu-ken (Eight-Arm Fist). Somewhere along the way, he also copies Krillin's Destructo Disc. In Super, he learns how to counter Hit's Time-Leaping ability by learning Hit's movements for the next 0.1 seconds.
  • On the flip side, Goku is also an expert at analyzing the battle strategies of his opponents and figuring out logical weaknesses and openings. This is most visible in his fights with Frieza, who's about equal to him in terms of power but never bothered to develop the same understanding of combat that Goku has.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite Goku being clueless about love and affection in general, he does have feelings towards his wife. He even tells Vegeta that he likes Chi-Chi for being headstrong. In the anime version of Z, after getting over his illness, he happily swings Chi-Chi around to show that he's well and hugs her after coming back to life at the end of the Buu Saga. In Super, when he's sick with Delayed Onset Ki Syndrome, he didn't want to tell Chi-Chi about his illness because he didn't want her to worry. And when Goku Black brags about murdering his family, he loses it and attacks both Black and Future Zamasu.

B

• The Baby of the Bunch: Of the original core group, Goku is the youngest and least mature. He's babied to the extent that Bulma worries about him the most. He's still the strongest and most competent of the bunch in terms of fighting.
• Backup from Otherworld:
  • After giving his life to stop Cell from blowing up the Earth, Gohan and the others lose hope after Cell returns stronger than ever, kills Trunks, mortally wounds Vegeta, and breaks Gohan's arm. None of them put up any resistance when Cell declares that he's going to blow up the solar system. Then, Goku uses King Kai to speak to Gohan from the Otherworld to encourage, comfort, and restores his son's faith in himself. He spends the entire Beam-O-War with Gohan, mentally guiding him to victory to the point that his spirit appears alongside Gohan during his final showdown with Cell.
  • In Bojack Unbound, Goku teleports himself out of the Otherworld for an instant and kicks Bojack in the head to save Gohan and give him words of encouragement before leaving again.
• Back to Base Form: Despite the many transformations he gains, some of them fail to defeat his opponent, but somehow Goku was able to fight without them or with just his regular Super Saiyan transformation with special mention going to Super Saiyan 3 and Ultra Instinct who both failed at defeating the Final Boss of the arcs they were introduced in due to being too taxing on his stamina.
• Badass Adorable: Throughout his childhood. Even after growing into an adult, he remains an endearingly innocent and kind-hearted boy in the body of a grandfather by the end of it. This is reinforced in the anime where he perpetually keeps the voice and mannerisms of his child self (in the Japanese original), and isn't completely lost in dubbed versions where adult Goku is voiced by a man.
• Badass Boast:
  • In response to Jeice and Burter claiming to be Goku's worst nightmare, his simple but blunt reply is, "I'm not scared of dreams".
  • In Super, after learning that in another timeline, Goku Black murdered his family in cold blood after stealing his body with the Super Dragon Balls, Goku loses it and pounds on Goku Black. When Future Zamasu tries to intervene, Goku beats him up too while screaming this at him:
    HERE'S WHAT I THINK OF YOUR IMMORTALITY!!!
• Badass in Distress:
  • Subverted near the end of the Red Ribbon Army Saga. Goku's friends thought he was in distress since he was attacking the Red Ribbon Army's base head on and rushed to help him. By the time they arrived, Goku already took care of the entire army without taking any real injuries.
  • When Goku comes down with his heart virus, he is helpless against Android 19 who beats the mess out of him and begins to drain his energy. Goku's friends rush to save him, but are blocked by Android 20. He is eventually rescued by Vegeta, who scolds him for fighting when he was sick. Until he's well, his friends have to protect him from the androids.
• Balloon Belly: Occasionally after eating a big meal such as when he ate a massive dinner bought from Master Roshi's prize money from the tournament.
• Barbarian Longhair: As a Super Saiyan 3, his hair becomes longer than his brother's.
• Bash Brothers:
  • During the Tournament of Power, he and Vegeta, after breaking their limits and getting power-ups, finally decide to do this rather than take turns and double-team Jiren; Whis notes that their coordination isn't perfect, but this actually works to their advantage by confusing Jiren and throwing him off.
  • They are also this in the Non-Serial Movie, The Return of Cooler, fighting off against a whole army of Meta-Coolers!
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Though it was claimed way back during the Namek Saga that Goku couldn't breathe in space, in Battle of Gods, he fights Beerus in orbit above the Earth with no protection without any problems, most likely because of his newfound godhood.
• Batman Gambit: Goku, of all characters, manages to pull one off against Cell in the climax of the Android Saga. When he finds out that his son is indeed stronger than him, and still had extra reserves of power, he sets up a situation so Gohan will unleash that power against Cell. He volunteers to fight Cell first and gives it everything he has before he gives up, and then lets Gohan fight against him after he manages to study both Goku and Cell's fighting styles. Goku expects Cell to push Gohan to his limits so he'll unleashed his hidden power, which is exactly what Cell does and Gohan becomes the first ever Super Saiyan 2 in the series and proceeds to hand Cell his own ass on a platter. The only thing Goku didn't expect was that Gohan would get cocky and not finish Cell off immediately, or that Cell would blow himself up when he knew he was going to lose.
• Bearer of Bad News: Is the one to inform everyone that Gohan and Vegeta were killed by Buu.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: He wanted a multiverse tournament with all twelve universes despite Beerus and Whis warning him that reminding Zeno of the tournament wasn't a good idea given how unpredictable Zeno is. He gets his wish and the entire multiverse is threatened with destruction, including his own universe if they lose the tournament.
• Being Good Sucks:
  • While Goku is usually the paragon for Good Feels Good, he does have a moment like this after Frieza is defeated. He really, really, wants to leave Frieza to die after he's cut to pieces on his own energy disc, but Goku's morality won't allow him to ignore a call for help, even from an evil monster like Frieza. He eventually gives in to his conscience and gives Frieza enough energy to escape the exploding planet. For several minutes afterwards, Goku is noticeably glum, as if asking himself why he saved Frieza, while Frieza spends that time mocking him for his mercy before trying to stab him in the back.
  • He has another moment near the end of the Buu Saga. After Kid Buu unleashed an energy ball powerful enough to destroy the Earth several times over, Goku and Vegeta rushes to Gohan, Goten, Trunks, and Piccolo, who are still unconscious after being absorbed by Buu, to teleport them off the planet. On his way, Goku sees Mr. Satan and Dende. On instinct, he grabs them and wasted too much time to save his sons and have to be saved by the Supreme Kai. Vegeta chews him out for saving them instead of their children, and Goku has nothing to say for himself.
• Berserk Button:
  • It didn't happen often, but when he was a child, calling Goku weak caused him to lose his cool. This is seen when King Piccolo disregards his power, which made Goku charge him and knocked Piccolo on his butt. Another example is when Mr. Popo mockingly calls Goku weak and wonders if he actually beat Piccolo just to rile him up. He becomes noticeably careless and reckless when this button is pressed, but thankfully gets over it after training with Kami.
  • Utterly one-sided "fights" that devolve into Cold-Blooded Torture really push his buttons, both as a hero and as an honorable warrior. This is a big reason why he's such a black sheep among his species and has such a distaste of them in the Saiyan arc: he sees them as murderers and thugs who target and slaughter weaker people who cannot possibly defend themselves, rather than warriors who fight for honorable sport or a true challenge and test of their skills as fighters. He even objects to Freeza killing a wounded Vegeta, despite 100% agreeing he deserves death, simply because Vegeta was harmless at that point.
    Goku: Hey! Vegeta could barely even move, let alone defend himself! There was no need to kill him!^note Viz manga translation
• The Berserker:
  • After rampaging as a Golden Great Ape, Goku transforms into a Super Saiyan 4 and his attitude when fighting has completely changed-he is more ferocious and fights in an animalistic style, as shown by the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown he inflicts on Baby.
  • Also in Dragon Ball Heroes, Goku reached a form called Super Saiyan Berserk where he is corrupted by the dark energy of Cumber/Kanba.
• Best Friends-in-Law: He and Mr. Satan become good friends following the Buu saga, and are in-laws after their children get married.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Goku is a very easy-going and kind person who tries to be polite and friendly to everyone, but you do not want to piss him off. Frieza found that out the hard way.
  • When he was a kid, Goku was far less forgiving towards his enemies. He kills almost anyone who harms his friends and chased foes who were retreating.
  • This is best seen against Frieza where Goku not only physically beats the tyrant within an inch of his life, but breaks him mentally by shattering his pride and then sparing him so he can suffer with the knowledge of losing to a lower being. The psychological damage he inflicted on Frieza left him permanently scarred to the point that he has waking nightmares about Goku, even as he suffers in Hell.
  • His fit of rage against Goku Black and Zamasu in the future is another moment where this side of him can be seen at its fullest. Goku goes utterly mental after they both rub in his face that they slaughtered his family for kicks, and are briefly forced back as Goku proceeds to beat them savagely.
  • Similarly, when Jiren -disgusted with the notion of The Power of Friendship- attempts to attack and kill Team Universe 7's members and spectators in the stands, Goku goes ballistic with rage and brutally and quickly beats Jiren into the ground so badly the Pride Trooper momentarily concedes and readies himself for defeat.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Because of how naive and childish he was, he had no problem playing hide-and-seek with his enemies, choosing to eat over fight, or just act like a goofball in the middle of a battle. Despite this, he still kicked his opponent's butts and let's not get started on what happens when he is serious. This is Downplayed when he is an adult since most of his silly moments happens outside the battlefield. When he fights, he usually drops all the silliness.
• Beyond the Impossible:
  • It was originally believed to be impossible to combine Super Saiyan and with the Kaio-Ken since the Kaio-Ken puts a lot of stress on the body and a regular Super Saiyan is stressful enough.^note For the record, this was only depicted once in Dragon Ball Z—during a filler tournament in which Goku had the advantage of his body already being dead. Goku not only makes the combination work^note in what can be safely be considered canon, he did it with Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan since the form requires a peaceful mind and near perfect energy control to use. Said form is so powerful and fast it goes beyond the impossible again by allowing Goku to outpace Hit while Hit has time frozen.
  • Goku does it again when he acquires Ultra Instinct, a legendary state only spoken about among the Gods. When he masters the form, all of the Gods stand up in respect at the state. Moreover, in the next episode, Goku competes with and soundly defeats Jiren, a being so powerful and skilled he defeated his universe's God of Destruction Belmod. That said, this is downplayed as Goku only mastered the state in the sense of using it once in it, he literally can't do it at will and it's a Defense Mechanism Superpower.
• Big Damn Heroes: Is an absolute pro at this. Whenever things look like they’re at its most grim, Goku will usually appear out of nowhere and save the day (or least give the heroes a fighting chance). He saves Krillin seconds before Blue would have crushed his head in with a rock and he stops Drum from killing Tien after he arrives to fight King Piccolo. In Z, he arrives just in time to save Gohan from Nappa, arrives on Namek minutes before everyone is killed by the Ginyu Force, and recovers a little before Frieza can give Vegeta the killing blow (although Vegeta gets killed anyway since he mouths off to Frieza). In the Cell Saga, he rescues Tien and Piccolo after they are both get mortally wounded by Cell and in the Buu Saga, he teleports within seconds of Kid Buu blowing up the Earth. It got to the point that Goku's friends lampshade this tendency of his.
• Big Eater: A Running Gag with him. Most infamously, after coming in second during the first World Martial Arts Tournament, Master Roshi (the winner), decided to cheer him up by treating everyone to a big dinner. Goku's bill wound up costing Roshi all the prize money, and he would've eaten more if the restaurant hadn't run out of food! As it turns out, all Saiyans are like this. Vegeta and Gohan can eat just as much to the awe of the humans, Namekians, and gods they hang out with. In Super, we see him with a pile of plates and bowls large enough to feed at least ten people, and Chi-Chi is worried because this is less than half of what he usually eats.
• Big Good:
  • Takes this role in the Cell Saga and parts of the Buu Saga. He tells the others about the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, trains Gohan to surpass him, chooses a new Guardian of the Earth to revive the Dragon Balls, and spiritually guides Gohan after he is killed. After being revived for a day, he chooses to teach Goten and Trunks the Fusion Dance instead of killing Majin Buu himself, saying that it isn't his place to interfere with the living. He is also the one to finally kill Buu after collecting energy from everyone on Earth.
  • After being absent from this role in Super, Goku become the Big Good for the Universal Survival Saga. Although it was Goku's selfish desires that prompted Zeno to create the Tournament of Power that ends with the losing universe being destroyed, he indirectly saves at least one universe since Zeno was planning to destroy the eight lowest ranking universes and winning the tournament means that an originally doomed universe would be spared. He's also the captain of the U7 team, before he gives that honor to Gohan, and personally picks the team members and recruits them. He's so efficient at it that U7 is one of the few universes to have a complete team with time spare, at least until Buu falls asleep again.
• The Big Guy: When he's not in a leadership or main character role, he becomes this since he is one of the most powerful beings in the universe and is considered the 'heavy hitter' alongside Vegeta among his group of friends.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Goku is a Saiyan who are Human Aliens who are insanely aggressive and love to fight, have tails, can transform into giant apes in the light of the full moon if they still have their tails, and can transform into Super Saiyans that changes their hair and eye colors while also greatly increasing their strength and speed. If they are pushed close to death and recover, they increase their strength. Despite this, they can interbreed with humans, creating even more powerful hybrids. In Goku's case specifically, he has an enhance sense of smell, hearing, and sight.
• Bleed 'Em and Weep: Downplayed. After Freeza backstabs him, he counters by blasting him with a powerful energy. After it seems he killed Freeza, Goku's hand is visibly shaking, and we get a close-up of his conflicted and almost sorrowful expression.
• Blood Knight: The extremely rare unambiguously heroic version. He lives for the thrill of the fight and is always looking for stronger opponents to battle. During Goku and Chi-Chi's first "date", when Chi-Chi explains that "the boy is supposed to think of the most pleasurable thing to do and then try to coax the girl into doing it with him", naturally Goku's response was to start fighting with her. Even when he's on the brink of death, he's always having fun, and seemingly insurmountable odds only EXCITE HIM MORE. He also only fights opponents who are willing (most of the villains), and only kills as a last resort. This was also his primary motive in sparing Vegeta's life at the end of the Saiyan Saga in the manga, original anime, and Kai dub, which he even admits was selfish. He also expresses a wish (later granted by Yemma) to see Majin Buu reincarnated as a good guy just so he can fight him again. In Super, he went so far as to put a hit on himself so Hit, the legendary assassin of U6, will come to use his full power to fight him since he wasn't allowed to use his killing techniques at the tournament.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality:
  • As a Saiyan, it's in his blood to love fighting and combat, which has caused him to make poor decisions. Sparing Vegeta's life after their battle so he can fight him again, sending his son to fight Cell, and even giving a Senzu Bean to Cell so that Gohan gets a fair match against him. In Battle Of Gods, when Goku's morality is questioned because of his love of fighting, Master Roshi calls Goku kind-hearted but questions his righteousness. At the same time, he doesn't go looking for these kinds of situations, and is content to live a quiet life in the countryside, albeit one involving a lot of physical training. He seems to be aware that these situations find him, though.
  • In fact, it actually goes both ways. Most Saiyans native to Universe 7 are Chaotic Evil Blood Knights that can be incredibly cruel in their desires for combat. Compared to that, he's practically a saint (since, no matter how much of a Blood Knight he can be, he still harbors compassion for those close to him).
• Blue Is Heroic: Although he's usually represented by the color red or orange, his signature techniques, the Kamehameha and Spirit Bomb, are blue, and his wristbands, belt, and undershirt are colored blue as well. There is also his Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan that turns his aura, hair, and eyes blue.
• Boisterous Bruiser: He loves to fight more than anything, is somewhat rude without meaning to, is not the brightest person in the world because he lacks a formal education, and grows up to have a bodybuilder's build. He is also one of the most fun-loving, friendly, and happiest people in the series. As a child, he was even more this trope since he had no problem beating up people weaker than him with a huge grin on his face. He only mellowed after training with Kami.
• Book Dumb: He grew up without a formal education, aside from learning basic reading and math while training with Master Roshi for a year. Before that, he thought 14, not 12, came after 11, and afterwards it's revealed during his fight with Ninja Murasaki that he still can't count past 25. Even as an adult, he still comes off as an idiot, even before factoring in the English dub making him sound reasonably smarter (it doesn't help that in the original dub, he speaks like a Japanese hick). As an adult, though he still can be naive and a little too willing to trust others, what keeps him from being an Idiot Hero is that he can show surprising wisdom, and it's clear that his intelligence is focused on combat. When it comes to fighting, he's a genius, able to point to pick up on the strengths and the flaws of various techniques, outthink his opponents with good strategies, and he can learn and invent new techniques with relative ease.
• Book Ends: As far as non-ape transformations he gains before becoming a Physical God, his last (Super Saiyan God) most closely resembles Kaio-Ken (his first). If you put the ape into account, this also works for GT Goku, as Super Saiyan 4 is more ape-like than other Super Saiyan forms (and requires control of a golden ape before it can be attained).
• Boring, but Practical: In one of Toriyama's interviews, he says that after Goku's battle against Beerus, he reached the conclusion that it is overall better to just train his base and Super Saiyan forms to become stronger instead of relying on transformations since Super Saiyan 2 and 3 are little more than extensions to the normal Super Saiyan form that ultimately drains more energy in the long run. In Super, the transformations Goku uses regularly are his Super Saiyan form and his Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan form, which is just Super Saiyan merged with godly energy. He does use Super Saiyan 2 and even goes Super Saiyan 3 to showoff to Future Trunks, but Super Saiyan 2 is treated as an in-between transformation that Goku uses when he wants to test opponents who surpass him as a regular Super Saiyan.
• Born Winner:
  • He can learn and become immune to techniques after seeing them a few times, and is born with almost unlimited fighting potential that allows him to surpass even the Saiyan Prince, who is said to be the greatest Saiyan ever born - the key word there being potential. By Super, he is the strongest mortal in Universe 7 and is equal to Hit, the strongest mortal in Universe 6.
  • According to Toriyama, a Saiyan's ease of going Super (as well as their natural fighting prowess in general) is because of how many of the Saiyan-exclusive S-Cells comprise of their genetic makeup. Goku just so happened to gain a pretty good amount of S-Cells from Bardock and Gine, and that's part of why he's the first Super Saiyan in millennia.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Most of his arguments with Chi-Chi regarding Gohan's education and training. While Chi-Chi is right that Gohan should have a life outside of fighting, Goku is also right that someone needs to watch over the world in case something happens to Goku.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: In the anime, Goku lived for some amount of time with a colony of monkeys. The reason for this was because they used their tails for almost everything they do, and Goku's tail was his biggest weakness. By the time he returned to his friends, he was just as strong with his tail as with the rest of his body.
• Break Them by Talking: His battle against Frieza after he becomes a Super Saiyan is half Roaring Rampage of Revenge and half this, surprisingly enough. He trash-talks Frieza during the whole battle, mocking his strength all the time, something that is definitely not usual for him at all. And the final blow which he intended to end the battle with is a deliberate, armor-piercing "The Reason You Suck" Speech to utterly obliterate Frieza's pride. Even when compared to all the physical punishment he receives during the fight, for Frieza, that speech is probably the absolute worst part of the Humiliation Conga. And that's exactly what Goku is going for, since he understands that destroying Frieza's ego is a more fitting punishment than just killing him.
  Goku: The fact is, I don't see the point in fighting you any more. Your pride is already shot, and in the end I guess that's good enough for me. You were so sure of your own power that you never imagined anyone in the universe could bring you down...especially a Saiyan. Heh. Now you know what failure feels like. See, I don't need to keep fighting you because I've already won. So go crawl off someplace and hide; I don't really care.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: If it doesn't relate to fighting or getting stronger, Goku has no interest in it. A lot of arguments with Chi-Chi, if it's not about Gohan studying or fighting, is about him not getting a job and supporting his family, despite having the skill sets to do many jobs even with his lack of formal education. After coming back to life the second time, Chi-Chi finally manages to get him to work as a farmer. Even then, Goten asks why he doesn't do what Mr. Satan does and gets paid for fighting. Goku dismisses the idea, saying he likes the farmer job since he can ditch it at any time to train.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu:
  • With Piccolo's help, he manages to defeat his brother and save Gohan. It cost Goku his life and he learns that two more powerful Saiyans are coming to Earth to search for the Dragon Balls.
• Brought Down to Badass:
  • For the interim between the Champa Saga and the next arc, Goku is afflicted with Latent Ki Disorder as a result of using Kaioken x10 with Super Saiyan Blue, severely bottlenecking his power.
  • A similar situation occurs in GT; having been reverted to a child by the Black Star Dragon Balls, several of Goku's abilities are affected by his less developed form; he can't maintain Super Saiyan 3 for very long, and unless he goes Super Saiyan 4, he can't even use Instant Transmission properly. Nevertheless, he's still a powerful fighter and able to hold his own against the worst villains the universe has to offer, best shown in the Super 17 Saga, where he's able to effortlessly overpower both Frieza and Cell at once without even going Super Saiyan.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: One of his defining characteristics. His friends often comment on how he can be so powerful, yet also so gentle. This also sticks out since he is an unapologetic Blood Knight.
• Brutal Honesty: Goku is subtle about nothing. If anyone asks his opinion on something, he'll bluntly tell them what he thinks. He tells Piccolo that he stands no chance against Perfect Cell after he trained in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for a year and he does it again when Piccolo asks if he stood a chance against Frost during the Universal Tournament. When cornered by Goku Black and Future Zamasu, Goku basically tells Future Trunks that they have no real chance of winning and the best they can hope for is to live long enough to come up with a plan. He's worse as a kid since he spoke his mind even when he wasn't asked, like repeatedly telling Bulma that she's weak and not a good person.
• Bully Hunter: One of the types of people Goku dislikes the most are those who intentionally abuse their power. When Krillin is put down by his former temple classmates for being a weakling, Goku tells Krillin to go all out when he fights them, when before, he tells Krillin to hold back to keep from hurting people. He also despise the Saiyans for being Space Pirates who commit genocide and wants nothing to do with his own race. Although Goku doesn't grow stronger necessarily to protect others, he does believe that being powerful gives you certain responsibilities, like not terrorizing those weaker than you (both Son Gohan and Roshi emphasized this lesson to him). Note that he extends this courtesy even to very evil people; he has no problem killing threats, but he absolutely cannot stand beating on opponents who can't defend themselves, seeing it as both cruel and pointless. When Frieza kills Vegeta, Goku agrees that he and the rest of the Saiyans deserved to die, but still yells at Frieza for torturing and impaling a then-harmless opponent. And even at his absolute angriest, against Frieza on Namek, he stops the beating when Frieza ceases to be able to put up a fight and even tries to spare him before Frieza forces his hand (contrast Gohan vs Cell).
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • After Goku brings down Muscle Tower, the Red Ribbon Army knows precisely how powerful he is. It didn't stop them from sending troops and their generals to kill him. It all comes to a head after they hire Mercenary Tao to kill him. Tao killed one of Goku's friends. In turn, Goku went after all the Dragon Balls and takes out the Red Ribbon while he's at it.
  • Despite knowing that he is no longer a match against Goku, Frieza still attacks him. First with an energy disc that's inspired by the person he brutally murdered, which sent Goku into his Unstoppable Rage to begin with. Then, Frieza tries to shoot Goku in the back after he gives him some of his energy to escape the exploding Namek. Goku loses his temper and fries him. Even with all of that, Frieza is ready for another round after being rebuild into a cyborg. He ends up dying after bullying another dragon.
  • In Resurrection 'F', Frieza's men see Frieza taking on the Super Saiyan again as this. Tagoma tells Frieza point-blank to leave Goku alone. He didn't live very long after speaking up. In the Super storyline based on the movie, Tagoma manages to survive, but is tortured to insanity by Frieza for four months.
• Burning with Anger: When he's forced onto a platform floating below the Tournament of Power's arena, and Jiren bombards him with burning ki punches, Goku holds off the assault with his own punches and gradually switches to offense until one of his own land. After this, he lets out a massive roar and releases all of his ki at once - this forms a galaxy of ki as large as the arena itself, which releases steam due to its own intense heat.
• But Now I Must Go: He pulls this more than a few times. In his childhood, he leaves his friends several times to either train, to look for the Four-Star Dragon Ball, or go after someone. He also leaves behind the people he saves like Suno and Upa, some of whom never see him again. At the end of the Cell Saga, Goku chooses to stay dead since most of the villains in Z came to Earth because of him. GT ends with Goku disappearing for one-hundred years.
• Butt-Monkey: Goku himself has had his fair share of pluckiness over the course of the entire series, often occurring when neither Krillin or Yamcha are present. In fact, one of his first mishaps involved falling off a cliff as a toddler and nearly dying from the impact to his head. A scene later in the DBZ series involved Goku having his hand trampled on by a herd of elephants, and the GT series amps up Goku's abuse. Fortunately, Goku's brick-tough nature usually lets him shrug it all off.
  • There was an entire week's worth of filler devoted to making Goku the Butt-Monkey. He got hit by lightning, beaten by a doll dummy, and constantly owned by Popo. It was a good thing none of his friends were around to show how bad he was at predicting movements.
  • Because Goku is the only character not Demoted to Extra in GT, he gets hit with the butt monkey status. Such misery he suffers include being boiled, tickled, steamed, and frozen into a block of ice just to name a few. He also gets no respect from his granddaughter who constantly yells at him for his immaturity. And let's not forget that the entire series is kickstarted with Goku being turned into a kid and no one in the galaxy takes him seriously.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: Although scenes of Goku even showing a basic understanding of sexuality are scant to none, his bargaining with Old Kai indicates that Goku believes this to be the case. He agrees to let the ancient Shinjin kiss Bulma, and when questioned by an enraged Vegeta as to why he didn't offer up his own wife, Goku reasons that Chi-Chi has a flatter chest compared to the more well-endowed Bulma.

C

• Cain and Abel: The Abel to Raditz's Cain. Raditz comes to Earth to force Goku into becoming a Space Pirate and goes as far as to kidnap his own nephew to do it. When Goku still refuses to join, he tries to kill him. After Goku grabs his tail and is poised to have Piccolo kill him, he pleas for his life, using Goku's own good nature against him. As soon as Goku let go of his tail, he kicks him and brutally crushes his ribs.
• Call to Agriculture: As seen in Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! and the first episode of Dragon Ball Super, Chi-Chi makes Goku take a job as a farmer so they can earn money for the household. While he doesn't enjoy it and he would rather train more, he still manages to be competent, although lazy at it.
• Came Back Strong: As a racial trait of being a Saiyan, Goku can become stronger from coming back from near death. In the times he is killed, he goes up several noticeable levels. The first time, he went from being overpowered by Raditz to wiping the floor with Nappa and fighting almost equally with Vegeta. When he is semi-revived in the Buu Saga, he goes from being weaker than Cell to fighting toe-to-toe with Majin Buu.
• Came from the Sky: Arrived on Earth in a space pod. Grandpa Gohan even names him after the sky since the Ku in his name can be read as sky.
• Can't Catch Up: In the Buu Saga especially, he shows frustration on how his friends and family depend on him to save the day because they simply can't keep up with the ever growing power of new threats. Those who can like Gohan, Goten, and Trunks are too lazy to keep training, adding to his annoyance.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Despite the insistence of his comrades, Goku refuses to kill Piccolo at the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament for several reasons; Kami and Piccolo can't live without each other, killing his opponent would disqualify him from the tournament, and he saw Piccolo as a Worthy Opponent who could keep him on his toes.
• Cast from Calories: Part of the reason he's such a Big Eater. In early stories, Goku would often be weakened by hunger to the point of uselessness. As he grew, his stamina increased and this became less of a problem.
• Catchphrase:
  • Has several in the Japanese version. He frequently stops what he's doing to announce "I'm hungry", especially in early arcs where he does it about Once an Episode. When someone does him a favor, he says "Thank you!" in Gratuitous English. He also has a Signature Laugh.
  • There is also how he introduces himself. In the English dub, it's along the lines; "Hi! I'm Goku. I'm a Saiyan from Earth" or he will just say "Hi!" in a high pitch voice. His English dub also has a Signature Laugh that is noticeably a higher pitch than his normal speaking voice.
  • Whenever he's truly pissed off at a villain, he tends to say some variation of "I won't let you get away with this!"
• Category Traitor: Raditz outright declares him a traitor and disgrace to the Saiyan race for refusing to join the Saiyans' violent conquest of Earth. Nappa and Vegeta are also itching to kill Goku for this reason.
• Cavalier Competitor: He is this unless it's clear his opponent's evil is greater than their desire for a good fight.
• Cerebus Retcon: Goku was eventually revealed to be part of a race of alien warriors who conquer planets. The only reason he didn't wipe out humanity was because he suffered a head injury that made him friendly. It's later inverted in Dragon Ball Minus, which shows Goku's parents were actually quite loving and only sent him to Earth so that he would be safe from Frieza. He was still a rambunctious Saiyan child before he hurt his head, but he always had the capacity for goodness and was never assigned to depopulate Earth.
• Challenge Seeker: Goku loves to be challenged when he fights someone, rather they are friend or foe. Unlike other Blood Knights in the series, he wants to battle people who have a reasonable chance of defeating him since winning isn't his primary goal, but self-improvement. This can be a Fatal Flaw, since his pride on being self-reliant keeps him from asking for help, like him battling Piccolo during the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, refusing to be fused with Vegeta to kill Kid Buu, and fighting Frieza by himself when he returns stronger than ever. This last one leads to the Earth being destroyed. This comes up as a major flaw again in the Universal Survival Saga where he reminds Zeno of the promised multiverse tournament, despite Beerus and Whis telling him he should forget about it since Zeno is dangerous. This leads to the Tournament of Power where the losing universe gets their universe destroyed.
• The Champion: Goku serves as this the most frequently for his team. For the majority of the Sagas in Z, the pattern is Goku will be out of commission for some reason (dead, injured, ill), and the rest of the Z-fighters will have to hold off the Elite Mook to buy enough time for Goku to arrive/recover. Occasionally, other Z-fighters will take up the role, like Vegeta, Future Trunks, or Piccolo, but Goku is the most consistent Team Champion and always the hero's trump card.
• Character Development:
  • As a kid, Goku had no qualms about killing his enemies. As time progressed and he got older, he started to mellow out more. And even if he's made up his mind that his opponent needs to be killed, he will show some degree of mercy and regret to the villains.
  • He also gets Older and Wiser as the series progresses, especially during Z. He's still very much a Blood Knight but he mellows out considerably and tries to avoid taking a life if he can, and uses a lot more strategy in combat and training. He also gains a better understanding of the world and people around him, while still being goofy and kind of naive.
  • Goku used to hate that he had to rely on his friends and family to become stronger. By the end of Super, he's accepted that this was a stupid way to think and that it was only a miracle that Jiren was able to become as strong as he was by himself. Goku knew the whole time that he never would have even made it past childhood if he had no one to compete against and push him to succeed along the way, and he's fine with that.
• Chaste Hero: His friends are taken aback when they realized that Goku has successfully become a father. He didn't even know what marriage meant and thought it was something to eat just a few years ago^note the phrase Chi-Chi used was「嫁にもらいにきでくれな」, 'yome ni morai ni kidekurena'/'will you accept (me as your) bride?', with the parenthetical not being required in Japanese since it's already obvious to anyone who knows what a bride is.
  • Despite never seeming to understand anything sexual, he does appear to understand what masochism is for some unexplained reason, and gets grossed out by it any time he fights someone who enjoys getting hurt, such as when encounters Goku Black the first time and Broly in the first of his movies.
• Cheated Angle: Goku's hair always maintains that same shape no matter which angle you view him from.
• Cheerful Child: As a child, he is a relentlessly happy person despite most of the stuff that happens to him like the death of his grandfather at an early age and living alone in the mountains for a number of years.
• Chewing the Scenery: He has his moments. For example, after he mortally wounds King Piccolo:
  Goku: I won. (laughs) I DID IIIIIIIT!!
• Chick Magnet: Even as a young child, many girls found him sweet and lovable. Chi-Chi had a crush on him the moment she saw him and other girls like Suno also had feelings for him. In Z, Princess Snake showed interest in him and even Bulma admitted that she would have liked him to be her boyfriend. In Super, Helles, the Goddess of Destruction of Universe 2, called him beautiful.
• Childhood Brain Damage: It's stated that the reason why Goku doesn't share the violent nature of Saiyans is that he received a blow to the head while he was a baby. Although, it is hinted in Dragon Ball Minus that Goku inherited his good heart from his mother who was not fit for fighting because of her softness. (The difference apparently being an innate desire to massacre, and being more rambunctious than usual.)
• Childhood Marriage Promise: Goku promised Chi-Chi to marry her when they were kids, thinking marriage was a kind of food. When they meet again at the Tenkaichi Budokai and he finally learns what marriage is, Goku keeps his promise anyway and marries her.
• Child of Two Worlds: Literally! But even if his loyalty to Earth began as a product of a random head injury, Goku will still fight tooth and nail to defend it, even if he has to go against his fellow Saiyans. He comes to terms with his roots (and to some extent, with his fellow Saiyan Vegeta), in the Namek saga, becoming the legendary Super Saiyan in the process.
• Child Prodigy: Played With. When Goku was a kid, he was often hailed as a prodigy for not only his natural strength and talent for fighting, but his ability to learn advanced techniques after only seeing them once and being able to adapt quickly while fighting. Then, it's Subverted when he learns that he's a Saiyan and that he's actually a low-class warrior by his race's standards. However, this trope is Played Straight again when Goku's quick adaptability and natural talent far surpasses any in his race, even the Saiyan prince Vegeta who really is a child prodigy, to the point that his low power level compared to other Saiyans at the start of the series could easily be chalked up to him being raised on Earth and not fighting strong opponents like the other Saiyans.
• Child Soldiers: Although he wasn't sent to Earth to destroy it like originally believed, it isn't unusual for Frontier Babies to be sent out when they're no more than three. And despite his age, Raditz fully expected all life on Earth to be wiped out.
• The Chosen One: Played With. Vegeta firmly believes that one needs to be the Chosen One to become a Super Saiyan, something that should be achieved by him since he is the Saiyan Prince. After being beaten to near death by Frieza, he concludes that Goku is the real Chosen One destined to ascend and defeat Frieza. In Bardock's final vision in the TV Special, he foresees Goku challenging Frieza, and Goku is the first one to ascend to Super Saiyan in a thousand years and does defeat Frieza. Then Super Saiyan gets hit with Uniqueness Decay and any Saiyan can become one with the right amount of anger and power, and Goten and Trunks achieve Super Saiyan without even trying. Then the Chosen One idea is brought back in Battle of Gods where Goku becomes a Super Saiyan God and the soundtrack for the ascension is even called "The Chosen One", although any Saiyan can technically become a Super Saiyan God if their hearts are righteous and if they're six of them to perform the ritual. However, unique to Goku, he keeps the power of godhood even after the time limit runs out, something Beerus specifically notes, calling Goku a prodigy.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: He cannot bring himself to pass by someone in need. This is best seen when he gives some of his energy to Frieza after the tyrant pleas for his life despite not really wanting to help him and almost immediately regrets it. This is a trait he passes down to his eldest son.
• Clipped-Wing Angel:
  • After returning to life, Super Saiyan 3 becomes this. Because Goku has been dead for so long, he is no longer used to the limits of a living body, which isn't as durable and doesn't have the unlimited energy of his dead body. So when he is fighting Kid Buu, he rapidly loses energy and his endurance is terrible, which is an ill fit against the unlimited energy and regeneration of Buu. From the little seen of Super Saiyan 3 after the Buu Arc, Goku seems to have better control of this form, averting this trope.
  • Played With. As a Super Saiyan God, Goku can finally fight Beerus without going down in two hits. However, the transformation is extremely short-lived, burning out after only a few minutes. But, Goku absorbs the powers of godhood into his body and can still fight Beerus as a basic Super Saiyan. He still loses and Beerus was using only 70% of his power.
• Cloudcuckoolander: As a child, although he meant well, Goku's overwhelming naivety and unusual priorities could be very off-putting to other characters and make his choices difficult to understand, like him being unable to tell a female from a male without patting them and his inability to do simple math. At times, he seemed to lack common sense. He does gets better as an adult, but he still has his moments because of his fight obsessed personality. Beerus thinks he's nuts for challenging him to a fight despite knowing that he's the God of Destruction, Hit dismisses him as a young and naive fighter because he tells him his game plan before they fight, and Zamasu finds Goku downright annoying because he keeps begging him to spar. Possibly the craziest thing he has ever done is put a hit on himself so Hit would come and assassinate him, all so he can fight Hit at his best. However, his foes and even his friends are often surprised to find out that Goku isn't as empty-headed as he seems.
• Combat Compliment: Goku will always compliment his foes if they proved to be powerful. When fighting against Frieza during the first part of their battle, he tells Frieza how great he is, which Frieza surprisingly returns. After bowing out of the Cell Games, he spends several minutes telling Cell how awesome he is and how he never really stood a chance. He also praises Fat Buu for being so strong and tells Kid Buu that he fought well, even when he's about to kill him. When Beerus forced Goku's surrender in Battle of Gods, Goku tells Beerus that he's truly worthy of the title, strongest in the universe, and that he was no match for him even as a Super Saiyan God. In Resurrection 'F', Goku is impressed by Frieza's increased strength, saying how awesome Frieza was for catching up with him in such a short amount of time. When sparring with Future Trunks in the present timeline, he complimented his substantial increase in strength in the years that have passed.
• Combat Pragmatist: Despite his Honor Before Reason tendencies and preference for a fair fight, when the situation calls for it, Goku will put them aside and do whatever it takes to win. Highlights include poking someone in the eyes while performing his Rock-Paper-Scissors attack, punching King Piccolo while he was powering up, weakening Raditz by grabbing his tail, shooting Great Ape Vegeta in the eye, and one-shotting Recoome while he was in the midst of powering up his ultimate attack. Also, he's perfectly willing to bite an opponent to escape a hold.
  Goku: I saw an opening that screamed "attack"... so I did.
• Comically Invincible Hero: Early on, his absurd invulnerability is Played for Laughs most of the time. Not so much with Z, although it does show up at times like the Ginyu Fight.
• Combined Energy Attack: The Spirit Bomb / Genki-dama, which takes a little energy from all life on a planet and even from the sun. It later turns out that he can request a noticeably larger amount of energy - enough to exhaust the giver to a post-marathon degree - and this is what it takes to beat Kid Buu.
• Combo Platter Powers: In part thanks to Power Copying. There's Super-Strength and speed, flight, telepathy, telekinesis, energy blasts, force fields, Flashy Teleportation, Super-Senses, various transformations, creating flashes of light...
• Confusion Fu: As a kid, he was less predictable in his fighting style. He would randomly leave himself open, confusing his opponents, and sometimes danced around for no reason. This is mostly because Goku wasn't fully trained and tended to get overly excited when fighting. Though some of the time he did purposely mixed-up his fighting style, like his Crazy Monkey style (basically, fighting more like a monkey) and calling the wrong attack names, like saying paper and attacking with rock when using his Rock-Paper-Scissors technique.
• Conscience Makes You Go Back: After Frieza is sliced into quarters by his own energy disc, Goku had every intention of leaving him to die with the planet he destroyed. Then Frieza starts pleading for his life. For several seconds, Goku is frozen in place, conflicted about what he should do, and yells at Frieza for asking for mercy when he never gave it to anyone. After several more seconds, Goku gives into his conscience and gives Frieza enough energy to leave the planet. Unlike most examples, Goku immediately regrets it, given that Frieza is an Ungrateful Bastard who mocks him for his mercy and then tries to shoot him in the back.
• Contagious Heroism: After being forced into Enemy Mine situations with Goku; Yamcha, Tien, Piccolo, and Vegeta become more heroic and selfless characters, although it takes Vegeta a long time to reach this point. He's also able to spread this to Beerus of all people.
• Convenient Coma: He is left comatose for days as he recovers from his heart virus. During the time he's unconscious, Androids 16, 17, and 18 are loose, are more powerful than all the heroes outside of Piccolo, and they are completely undetectable. Cell also comes into the picture and is slowly eating cities to become stronger and absorb the androids, and can run and hide from the other Earth's warriors since he can suppress his energy. Krillin lampshades that if Goku was around, he could have teleported the moment they felt Cell's energy and have Piccolo kill him. Goku also had knowledge of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber that would have made the heroes stronger instead of leaving everything to Piccolo for several days.
• Costume Evolution: The original orange Gi uniform he receives from Master Roshi didn't have the blue short-sleeved undershirt or boots he later wears as an adult.
• Create Your Own Villain: In Super. Future Trunks' timeline shows that Zamasu would have continued to serve Gowasu despite his grudge against mortals for many years. Goku's meeting with Zamasu and beating him in a sparring match triggered the Supreme Kai's Start of Darkness, eventually leading him to start planning mass genocide of all mortals, starting with using the Super Dragon Balls to steal Goku's body, thus becoming Goku Black. However, considering the fact that Future Zamasu almost immediately jumped at the chance to join Goku Black in his plans, something similar would have happened eventually.
• Crotch-Grab Sex Check: When he was young, Goku had difficulty with the concept of males and females, so upon meeting someone, he'd check a person's groin, then triumphantly exclaim, "You're a boy/girl!". Luckily, he grows out of this by the time he's an adult.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: It is very easy to forget, given his laid back and childish demeanor, that he is one of the strongest beings in the universe and is currently the strongest mortal fighter in Universe 7. When he was a child, and to a lesser extent as an adult, fighting was more of a game than anything serious. He even referred to fighting as playing. However, when things go to hell, and his friends and family are on the line, he becomes one of the most dangerous and competent people in the series, even outside of fighting. This shows in his English VA, as the tone of his voice changes to show that he's dead serious, and his friends and foes note when his demeanor is different. Woe to the foe who pushes him to his Rage Breaking Point. This is Deconstructed later by Whis: Goku is too laid back for his own good.
  Whis: Relaxing too much is also a problem, as is your overconfidence with yourself. No matter how powerful you are, when you are empty on Ki, your body is still an incredibly fragile thing. You are too often complacent, caught unprepared and off-guard.
• Cruel Mercy:
  • He gives this as the reason why Vegeta shouldn't kill Ginyu after tricking him into body-jumping into a frog, pointing out that being trapped as a frog is punishment enough. Vegeta agrees.
  • He planned to do this to Frieza during their fight on Namek, beating the tyrant senseless and driving him to a Villainous Breakdown before deciding that, with Frieza's ego in shambles over having been defeated by a Saiyan of all beings, he's Not Worth Killing, outright telling him as such and ordering Frieza to "go crawl off someplace and hide" and continue to live with the shame of his defeat. Later, after Frieza lost his arm and entire lower body, he tries it again before flying away. It backfires both times: the entire reason Frieza lost his limbs in the first place is because he got hit with his own energy disc, and when Goku gives him some energy to at least survive, Frieza turns around and tries to kill him with it; by this point, Goku is done giving Frieza chances and blows him away, outright calling him a fool for not just walking away when he had the chance. Also, unlike in Resurrection 'F', where Goku spares Frieza because he sees him as a Worthy Opponent and wants to give him the chance to master his new Golden Super Mode so they can fight again, in Super, Goku only spares Frieza because, as far as he's concerned, Frieza is so pathetic that he's not worth the effort to kill. That time cost him a blast to the heart that nearly killed him and the destruction of Earth by Frieza being a Sore Loser. Only Whis rewinding time fixed things, and Goku wastes no time finally finishing Frieza off once he does.
• Crutch Character: And he's fully aware that he is one and even Toriyama seems to regard him as such to the point of finding more contrived ways to keep him from ending the saga sooner. He knows that, eventually, he will die permanently, and if the other characters haven't become strong enough to cope in his absence, there will be a huge problem. To that end, he starts trying to train others up to his level, which is why he didn't kill Majin Buu when he had the chance, choosing to teach Goten and Trunks the Fusion Dance, because he didn't want the new generation to think that they can rely on him to save the day, especially since he's dead in the Buu Saga until Old Kai revives him. However, the new villains inevitably are so overbearingly powerful that only Goku has the strength to beat them in the end. Doesn't help that his successors tend to be lazy about keeping up with their training, although he sees promise in Pan and Uub. There's even an alternate timeline, which Future Trunks comes from, that provides quite a frightening insight to what would happen if his friends depended on him too much. Androids 17 and 18 kill every protagonist with great ease and bring humanity to the verge of extinction. Pretty grim, isn’t it?^note In that case, it seemed that while the Androids may have been too powerful for even Goku to handle, Future Bulma seems to think that he'd still be able to do something about it, which is about the same thing. The main timeline itself proves this theory since despite being weaker than the Androids, Goku put systems in place so they didn't destroy the world, like telling everyone about the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, personally training Gohan to surpass him, choosing a new guardian to restore the Dragon Balls once Kami is gone, and rescuing falling friends by teleporting them to safety.
• Curb-Stomp Cushion: During his battle on Namek as a Super Saiyan against 100% full power Frieza in the anime; though Frieza manages to land several good blows and puts up a decent fight, he burns through his stamina too quickly to be a serious threat to Goku for long.
• Cute Bruiser: Was very much this when he was a kid. He looked like an eight years old and able to destroy armies with nothing but a magic stick.

D

• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You:
  • When Gohan was four, he sacrificed himself to save his son's life from his evil brother and doesn't get revived until almost a year later. Later in the Cell Saga, he sacrifices himself again to save the world from Cell's self-destruct button and chooses not to be revived so that enemies would stop being attracted to Earth because of his mere presence. He does end up being able to stay for good after the Buu Saga.
  • Goku himself is a victim of this. Shown in the manga, Dragon Ball Minus, which reveals Goku's mother, and the destruction of Planet Vegeta as told by Toriyama, Goku's parents, Bardock and Gine, sent him away to Earth to keep him safe from the impending destruction of Planet Vegeta.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique:
  • Goku first learned the Kaio-Ken from King Kai, a technique that amplifies all of the user's abilities far beyond their natural limits. It can be stacked, applied multiple times to further multiply its effects up to 20 times. The downside is that it places severe strain on the body, risking severe injury or even death. Attempting to use it while a Super Saiyan only makes it worse, which is why Goku never performed a Super Kaioken while he was alive.
  • Goku learns the Evil Containment Wave, the technique used to seal away King Piccolo. It is a very powerful technique that can defeat enemies many times stronger than the user. The setback, it's an extremely draining technique that has a high chance of killing the user. In the manga, the only person who has ever survived using it was Kami.
  • Goku has learned how to entrap the aura of Super Saiyan Blue within himself. However, using this ability puts him in danger of tearing his body apart as he hasn’t mastered it.
  • Ultra Instinct turns out to be this as of episode 130. It’s powerful but also puts a massive strain on Goku’s body, and leaves him all but helpless when it's finished. The effects only last a short amount of time, and are devastatingly taxing on his body.
• Dead Alternate Counterpart: In Future Trunks's timeline, Goku died from a heart virus that he contracted on Planet Yardrat following the battle with Frieza; since he died from natural causes, the Dragon Balls couldn't bring him back. Goku contracts the virus in the regular timeline as well, but is saved from his future counterpart's fate by the cure that was provided to him by Future Trunks, which was developed by Future Bulma after Future Goku's death.
• Deadly Dodging: He loves pulling these. He causes Piccolo of all people to get hit by his own energy seeker attack after he ran right up to Piccolo's face to distract him and then dodged at the last second, shattering Piccolo's arm. He tries this again against Frieza who is controlling energy discs that can cut through anything. Frieza is smart enough not to get hit by his own attack….until he forgets about them after Goku literally slaps him around and slams him into the ground.
• Deadpan Snarker: Occasionally, specifically in the English dub. It's usually to show that he's not as dumb as people think. He particularly loves to snark at Vegeta when he's being particularly annoying.
  [When Whis asks him why he wants to get stronger]
  Whis: Do you want to become a destroyer God?
  Goku: Of course not! Why would I want to just sit around all day?
  Beerus: [shocked, then mildly annoyed] Okay, that was uncalled for.
  • Or when Hit is hiding in a thick forest while Goku is looking for him.
    Goku: Until I met you, I didn't know assassins were so shy!
• Death by Irony: At the beginning of Z, he was killed by the son of the last villain he killed in Dragon Ball, Demon King Piccolo, in a similar way—an attack to the stomach that hit so hard it came out the other side. It was the only chance they had to kill Raditz, but still.
• Death Glare: If Goku is shooting one of these at anyone, someone is about to get their butts kicked. Especially notable when he is in his Super Saiyan states, with special noteworthy mention to SSJ; Toriyama has said on record that the fight with Frieza was pretty much over the moment SSJ Goku shot him that look◊. But the crowner has to be a pissed-off Mastered Ultra Instinct Goku punching Jiren in the face for trying to attack his friends. For that brief moment, Goku looks murderous.◊
• Death of Personality: He was allegedly just as savage as the average Saiyan until he fell on his head.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: He has nothing but fond, happy memories of his grandpa Gohan. In his childhood, he often quotes his grandfather's lessons or copies his techniques. He even names his firstborn child after his grandfather.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype:
  • As Goku grows older and gains strength, he gradually deconstructs the Kindhearted Simpleton attributes that made him so charming in his youth. While he's certainly the most qualified to defeat any given villain from a martial arts perspective, he can have a rather flippant attitude towards his friends and family and frequently annoys, angers or upsets them as he makes decisions and actions that benefit only himself and his goals, such as intentionally letting Dr. Gero develop the Androids so that he can get a good fight, resulting in thousands of innocent lives being lost. This detachment bites him hard by the Cell Games because he doesn't understand the way Gohan's inner power actually works: it takes Piccolo, who knows his son on a far more personal level, to explain how wrong he is, and Goku is eventually forced to sacrifice his own life to save the day.
  • Goku is one for The Ace and the Hope Bringer. Because he is so powerful, his friends and family tend to depend on him too much. As a result, he tries to have the next generation step up and do so, but must come back to life himself when they fail.
  • The end of the Kid Buu fight deconstructs Humble Hero. Because Goku always saves the world from the shadows, no one, outside of a few, knows of his deeds. It takes Mr. Satan, not Goku, to get the people of Earth to cooperate.
  • The Future Trunks Saga of Dragon Ball Super deconstructs the idea of Goku being Inexplicably Awesome and a Deity of Human Origin. After meeting and fighting Goku, it sparks Zamasu's Start of Darkness. He begins to see Goku as a Satanic Archetype since he gained power that surpasses the gods.
  • During the Universe Survival Saga, Goku ends up deconstructing his nature as a Challenge Seeker and Blood Knight. His eagerness for a good fight so utterly blinds him to the consequences of Zeno's tournament and by the end of it Most of the Gods still hate him for his uncaring nature and relationship with Zeno.
• Decoy Protagonist:
  • Inverted with the Namek Saga - instead of being removed as the main character after the first act, he only becomes the main character in the last act. He spends two fifths of the story arc either recuperating from his injuries in the Saiyan arc or travelling to Namek, and once he arrives and defeats the Ginyu Force, he's critically injured and spends about half of the battle with Frieza in a healing tank. By the time he's fully healed and ready to fight, the final battle against Frieza has been ongoing for quite some time. Frieza doesn't even know who he is until 80% into the story.
  • In the Android/Cell Sagas, he's set up as the centre of everything (since the Androids were developed to kill him, and Cell eagerly anticipates their battle), but starts succumbing to the heart virus during his opening fight with #19, never meets #18 or #17, and only serves as a warm-up to the true final battle between Cell and Gohan. While he's still an important figure, him being bedridden with illness and eventually his death causes him to end up serving as a supporting character as Gohan takes the center stage.
• Defeating the Undefeatable:
  • He is the one who killed King Piccolo, the Demon King who kills a third of the cast and Shenron in the original Dragon Ball. In Z, he defeats Frieza and kills Majin Buu, both who were considered the strongest beings in the universe and were feared by the gods. This gets reversed on him with Dr. Gero, who created a series of powerful androids, including Cell, for the sole purpose of killing him. Cell eventually succeeded both being more powerful than Goku at the time and killing him after Goku sacrificed himself to keep Cell from blowing up the Earth. This is Inverted on him again with Beerus, the God of Destruction, with the latter defeating him.
  • Zigzagged with Hit, who is the undefeated assassin from Universe 6. Although Goku gives a brilliant fight, he forfeits the match after Hit wasn't allowed to use his killing techniques because of the no-kill rule and Beerus' refusal to change the rules. Hit then goes on to lose to Monaka, because he throws the match as a favor to Goku. In their rematch, Hit successfully kills Goku, but he revives himself by using an energy blast he fired just before dying to restart his heart. After a tough battle, Goku battles him to a stalemate.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Most of Goku's friends started out as anti-heroes or villains who wanted to kill him. After Goku meets them in battle and defeats them, they eventually become his friends. This is Inverted with Beerus, who befriends Goku after he beats him, twice.
• Defeat Means Respect: Often go hand in hand with Defeat Means Friendship. The most notable example is Piccolo after he was reborn. He went from seeing Goku as another bug to be stomped on, to a major threat that needed to be destroyed so he could take over the world. In a reversal, after Beerus beat Goku for the second time, Goku is much more respectful, even calling him Lord instead of just saying his first name.
• Defence Mechanism Superpower: In the Grand Finale of Super, Goku muses this is how Ultra Instinct - Mastered seems to works. When Vegeta calls Goku out on not using it in their sparring match, Goku notes how he can't seem to activate it at will; it's only when he's in a life or death situation, such as his universe being erased if he didn't win the tournament of power, does he seem to be able to activate it.
• Defiant to the End:
  • Faced with certain death at the hands of Oozaru Vegeta, Goku uses his last bit of strength to blast the invader in the eye. He cockily smirks and says "just something to remember me by". Vegeta stomps him in a rage.
  • In the Super manga, while staring down an army of Zamasus◊, an exhausted and injured Goku simply smirks alongside Vegeta and vows to go down fighting.
• Defusing the Tyke-Bomb: Goku used to be a wild, uncontrollable toddler sent to Earth to wipe the entire population. It is only through a head injury and Grandpa Gohan's kindness that he became the docile person that he is. Minus then revealed that Goku was actually sent to Earth to protect him from Frieza, not to attack it. However, Goku was still very violent since he attacked Gohan, his adoptive grandfather, upon meeting him and probably would've killed him if he wasn't a powerful martial artist.
• Deliberately Cute Child: According to Jaco, the entire Saiyan race is this trope. Saiyans have long childhoods to stay cute and young to throw off their enemies, thinking they're harmless, before quickly growing into their adult size. Which was why Goku looked so young when he was a child.
• Demoted to Extra: In three of the Non Serial Movies, Bojack Unbound, Broly: Second Coming, and Bio-Broly, all of which take place while he's dead after the Cell Saga. While he shows up during the climax of the former two movies to help defeat the villains, he only has a brief cameo at the very end of Bio-Broly and has no role in the film's overall plot.
• Depending on the Artist: As of The New '10s, Goku is ofter drawn with highlights in his hair. However, some artists chose not to draw them, giving Goku his traditional solid black hair.
• Despair Event Horizon: In Resurrection 'F, Goku is overcome with despair after Frieza destroys the Earth, killing everyone except those who were close to Whis. He can only hang his head in shame, lamenting that it's all his fault because he showed Frieza mercy, again.
• Determinator: Going up against impossible odds is all part of the fun for this guy. He will keep fighting even with broken bones, torn muscles, and holes in his body.
• Deity of Human Origin: Or rather, Saiyan origin. While Goku still denies being a god in the traditional sense, he spends his time after Dragonball Z Battle Of Gods training under Whis to better control the Super Saiyan God's power and eventually masters it. He is now considered a "Saiyan Beyond God". Although, Goku Black claims that Super Saiyan Blue only cloaks a Saiyan in god ki, not that they actually become gods.
• Deus Exit Machina: Goku is so often the victim of these that it is a common occurrence for him to be late or dead when a new threat comes, forcing everyone else to try to survive without him. Krillin lampshades this tendency of Goku more than once and Master Roshi is initially optimistic about the androids since Goku is there from the start, before he becomes sick and is bedridden for several days. There's even an entire timeline where Goku gets written out permanently.
• Did Not See That Coming:
  • For Goku, he's caught completely flat-footed when Vegeta turns into a Great Ape. He also miscalculated the distance he needed to safely form and throw the Spirit Bomb.
  • He had no idea that Ginyu could steal bodies. To be fair, neither did anyone else outside of Frieza and the other Ginyu members.
  • Goku's entire plan to defeat Cell hinged on exploiting Gohan's Psychoactive Powers. Once Gohan is pushed to his Rage-Breaking Point and ascends to Super Saiyan 2, however, he chooses to prolong his beatdown of Cell rather than simply finish him off.
  • Goku's plan to have Gotenks fight Buu and save the world would have worked almost perfectly, if Buu didn't suddenly split in two and become the more powerful and ruthless Super Buu.
  • Like everyone else, he didn't think Kid Buu would be so crazy that he would destroy the Earth instead of fighting them first.
  • In Resurrection 'F' he is caught off-guard by Sorbet who shoots him in the heart after he has Frieza at his mercy. He is also shocked, although he really shouldn't be, that Frieza destroyed the Earth instead of being killed by Vegeta.
  • Goku has his fight against Frost in the bag until he suddenly gets sleepy and gets kicked out of the ring. Everyone is shocked.
  • Goku gets a nasty surprise when he finds out that Hit manages to improve his time stopping ability in the middle of their fight.
  • One of the primary reasons why Goku, Vegeta, and Future Trunks lost their rematch with Goku Black. They were only expecting him to be as strong as Super Saiyan 3 Goku, not to power up to the point where he could challenge a Super Saiyan Blue, and this is before he transforms into Super Saiyan Rose. Things went further downhill once Future Zamasu arrived, which shocked everyone since they thought Goku Black and Zamasu were the same person, and he was able to challenge Goku at full power. To add to their trouble, Future Zamasu is an immortal.
  • Goku was caught flatfooted when all his attacks phase through Hit like a ghost. He also didn't expect Hit's punch to land since he was a good distance from him. This cost him his life, although temporarily, since the punch created a shockwave that stopped his heart.
• Didn't Think This Through: Dips into this a bit with his plan to pit Gohan against Cell. While Gohan is indeed the strongest of them all, Goku failed to consider the facts that Gohan is only half-Saiyan, doesn't share his father's Blood Knight attitude, and, above all else, is Just a Kid. It's only when Piccolo points this out to him in a What the Hell, Hero? speech, and when he sees firsthand the danger he's put Gohan in, that Goku realizes how badly he may have screwed up.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?:
  • After being told by Bergamo that all the gods from the other universes will be after him and Universe 7, Goku turns towards the other gods and tells them to bring their best fighters and he will beat them all up. Needless to say, the gods weren't happy with the blatant disrespect.
  • A subtle one, but when Beerus tries to blame everything on Goku, including U7's low mortal ranking, Goku calls him out for his random destruction, basically pointing out that Beerus isn't standing on the moral high ground. This really ticked Beerus off and Goku still gets in Beerus' face despite knowing that the God of Destruction could have vaporized him on a whim.
• Did You Just Have Tea With Cthulhu: Goku is surprisingly close with most of the Powers That Be of his universe.
  • He befriends Kami, the Guardian of the Earth, along with his other half Piccolo, early on.
  • After dying to Raditz and traversing the Snake Way, he gets trained by King Kai/North Kai, and builds a close mentor/student relationship with him.
  • Goku meets the Supreme Kai during the Buu Saga, and becomes the second mortal to set foot on the Supreme World of the Kais (Gohan being the first). Later on, in Super, Universe 6's Kai Fuwa is surprised by how close and informal Goku's being.
  • When Beerus and Whis come to Earth, Goku manages to battle-befriend Beerus, to the point of Wowing Cthulhu. Beerus then becomes a regular cast member, watching over Whis training Goku and stopping by Earth for the cuisine.
  • It's deconstructed with Zamasu in Super, as Goku's casual attitude towards Zamasu (and beating him in a friendly spar) help push the guy off the deep end.
  • Goku outdoes himself when he manages to befriend Zeno, the Top God of the multiverse. Of course, he's also the only one to approach Zeno as a friend instead of obsequious respect and formality, which Zeno is clearly tired of.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: On a regular basis. And it's really casual sometimes, too.
  • When he was still a child, he kills the Demon King Piccolo and then defeats his more powerful son three years later. As an adult, he fought the prince of his own race and beat a galactic tyrant who was supposed to be the strongest being in the universe. He is also the one who gives the killing blow against Majin Buu. Years later, he beats and kills a newly revived and stronger than ever Golden Frieza.
  • This gets reversed on him given all the time, resources, and dedication Dr. Gero put into making the androids, especially Cell. They were all made specifically to kill him with Cell succeeding.
  • This gets reversed again since Beerus defeats him even after he ascends to a Super Saiyan God.
  • In Super, Goku is the first one to do any real damage to Merged Zamasu by using a super powered Kamehameha that melts half of his face. From there, Goku goes on the attack, with both of his arms disabled since he used so much power on the Kamehameha, and viciously beats him, before Merged Zamasu grabs his leg and breaks it. How does Goku respond? He fires up his Super Saiyan Blue/Kaioken combo and kicks Merged Zamasu with his good leg, breaking his halo.
• Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: Goku of all people pulls this on Beerus, who was contemplating on Hakaing Goku to keep him from seeing Zeno, manages to get away by pretending he threw the Zeno button into the air like a coin flip. While Beerus and Whis are distracted, he pushes the button and is teleported to Zeno's palace. Even Whis is impressed by the trick.
• Disappeared Dad:
  • His father Bardock dies shortly after sending him off to Earth.
  • By teleporting an exploding Cell to King Kai's planet and subsequently requesting not to be revived by his friends, Goku becomes this trope to both Gohan and Goten for the next 7 years until he returns near the start of the Buu arc.
• Divine Intervention: Since Goku has mastered Super Saiyan God, him coming to save his friends from danger can be considered this. In Resurrection 'F', Frieza lampshades this by noting that the Z-Fighters raising their energy is a distress signal to their savior.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": He (initially) didn't like anyone calling him by his birth name, Kakarot, since he feels intense shame for belonging to a race of genocidal pirates, and vehemently refuses to identify himself as a Saiyan until he comes to feel pride for his heritage as a warrior. He also doesn't mind Vegeta calling him by his Saiyan name, but that's probably because it would be futile to get him to stop.
  • Dragon Ball Super: Broly marks the first time ever in the franchise Goku introduces himself as also Kakarot, Goku introduces himself to Broly once they start to form a friendship at the very end of the movie, this is such a big deal that there's even a theme tune to put emphasis on Goku fully accepting his Saiyan name, as such name now carries the good legacy of his good Saiyan parents Bardock and Gine, not of a bloodthirsty race anymore.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: At times. One notable example is when he unintentionally sends Chi-Chi flying through the wall of their house, a tree, and into a boulder by just giving her a friendly pat on the back. In Super, he sends Krillin flying across the countryside and breaks his leg just by giving him a light punch to the face.
• Doesn't Know Their Own Child: Goku doesn't realize until it is too late that his son Gohan is a reluctant fighter who doesn't enjoy fighting like he does. Since then, Goku never expects him to be a fighter anymore, especially when he grows up to be a scholar like Chi-Chi intended him to be.
• Doing In the Wizard: When Z comes around, Goku's previously inexplicable talents (and his tail) were revealed as the product of his alien biology. His tendency to transform into a giant monster under the full moon was given a delightfully preposterous "explanation" in terms of electromagnetic waves and hormones.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: He repeatedly warns the Ginyu Force that they don't stand a chance against him and should just scram. They end up being trounced by him (and finished off by Vegeta) and Ginyu is forced to live in a frog's body for the rest of his life (or at least until Super where he steals Tagoma's body and is immediately killed by Vegeta). He tries something similar when he first goes Super Saiyan in his fight with Frieza, though Cruel Mercy was also a factor.
• Don't Think, Feel: During the Universe Survival Saga, Goku achieves a state called "Ultra Instinct" where the user acts entirely on instinct and reflexes with no conscious thought whatsoever, something that's said to be extremely difficult for even Gods to achieve. However, at first, he can only use an incomplete version that has a major logical flaw: while his defense is nigh-on impregnable, his attacks are far weaker because that actually does require conscious thought (where to hit, how hard, etc). In the final minutes of the tournament, Goku achieves full mastery of Ultra Instinct, which has powerful enough offense that it's the first thing to do real damage to Jiren.
• Doom Magnet: After his death during the Cell Games, he chooses to simply remain dead for the safety of the Earth since so many of the villains they have fought so far were mostly after him in the first place. Which is ironic since we learn much later that Frieza's remaining empire stood away from Earth because they were terrified of him.
• Doting Grandparent: Goku's a doting grandfather to his granddaughter Pan when she's in his care, and he is seen indulging in her whims. He teaches her how to say 'gramps' and plays airplane with her when she's a baby. In Super, during the Post-Moro battle victory party, Goku is paying more attention to Videl and her father feeding baby Pan than his own food. Eventually, he goes on to personally train her in martial arts, becoming his second student.
• Doting Parent: He tries his best. When he's actually around/alive, that is. While criticism to his absentee father tendencies are valid, Goku is an encouraging dad who truly loves his kids, and clearly enjoys spending time with them. Piccolo even at one point felt that Goku spoiled Gohan too much, given how pampered Gohan was when they first met.
• The Dreaded:
  • He was very much this to the Red Ribbon Army. The pure terror he gave them inspired Dr. Gero to create a series of killer androids and the bio-weapon Cell just to kill him.
  • As shown in a filler episode of the Cell Saga, Mercenary Tao is terrified of Goku to the extent that he beats it the minute he discovers Gohan is his son.
  • From Resurrection 'F' onwards, he becomes this to Frieza's entire empire to the point that one of Frieza's men outright tells him to leave the Super Saiyan alone and go back to running his empire. They were also so scared to go to Earth that they searched for years for New Namek to use their Dragon Balls instead of going to Earth and risking being noticed by Goku. And, although Frieza tries to hide it, he is also terrified of Goku. He says that Goku's mere existence keeps him up at night and even with his new found power after training, he still comes up with a backup plan just in case Goku turns out to be more powerful than him.
  • On a somewhat lighter note, Goku is the dreaded to Pilaf's gang, more specifically his Great Ape form. Even decades later, they're still terrified of him or anyone that looks like him.
• The Drifter: He becomes this after he's told to Walk the Earth by Master Roshi. In the filler in-between the end of the Red Ribbon Army Saga and the next tournament, Goku is shown going to town to town, helping people along the way and then leaving as soon as his task is completed. He was also like this during the previous saga when he was looking for his grandfather's Dragon Ball.
• Drunk with Power: After attaining godly ki and battling several powerful enemies in Super, he ends up encouraging the Zenos into carrying out the Tournament of Power, hoping to fight even stronger opponents. He doesn't realize the consequences of piquing their interest until it's too late.
• Dual Age Modes: In GT, going Super Saiyan 4 undoes the magical de-aging the Black Star Dragon Balls did to him as long as it's active. When he powers down, he goes back to being a child.
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole: In the dubs, it's stated that the Instant Transmission moves Goku at the Speed of Light. That same dub has Piccolo remarking that Raditz moved FTL. So going by the dub: Raditz > Instant Tranmission. This later seems to be clarified that the Instant Transmission is actually instantaneous, since Whis (who clearly moves faster than light) gets to a location later than Goku does through Instant Transmission. While it's a bit implied that statement about Raditz was figurative, it's still quite an oddity.
• Dub Personality Change: The earlier English dubs of Z tends to increase Goku's more noble aspects while downplaying his more selfish side present in the Japanese version, such as valuing fighting a stronger opponent over the safety and wellbeing of others. Furthermore, Akira Toriyama himself has stated that even the Japanese version of the anime severely downplayed Goku's selfish aspects, which may or may not be why those aspects are notably more emphasized in Super (made a few years after Toriyama's comments on Goku's characterization).^note This, however, is a Downplayed example since Goku is seen as an Ideal Hero even in the original manga by his friends and family (and by most fans), and experiences a subtle Messiah Creep. This can be off-putting to fans who grew up with the English dub and has led some (who are unaware of Toriyama's comments) to accuse Super of making Goku an Adaptational Jerkass and Adaptational Dumbass.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Goku is seen as the Hope Bringer among his family and friends. Outside that circle, however, no one knows or cares about him. This is mostly because Goku purposely keeps himself under the radar, preferring to live a peaceful and calm life when fighting is not involved. However, Goku has helped a number of people and he was actually known as the person who beat King Piccolo and his son, saving the world. He is also a winner of the World Martial Arts Tournament and runner-up two years in a row with matches that are consider legendary. Also, thanks to Babidi's magic, the entire world saw him fight Buu at Super Saiyan 3 and cheered him on. Yet, when Goku asked for help to form the Spirit Bomb to kill Buu, only a few people cared. Only the people who knew Goku throughout his life or met him personally offered anything. Super averts this, however, with Mr. Satan giving him the reward money he got as the world savior as his way of thanking him as well as keeping him quiet about things. The finale of the questionably-canon GT finally does away with this and has the world acknowledge Goku as a hero, with there being a statue of him still standing at the site of the World Tournament 100 years after he was last seen.
• Due to the Dead: When Vegeta dies on Namek begging him to defeat Frieza was and avenge their race, Goku takes the time to give him a proper burial before facing off with Frieza.
• Dull Surprise: As an adult, this tends to be his default reaction to many surprising or horrifying events. While everyone fall into despair and shock when they realized how powerful Frieza is, Goku seemed more annoyed. With Future Trunks, he's more surprised that Vegeta has a son and his mother is Bulma than he is that Trunks is from the future and everyone dies to the androids. He doesn't even blink when he hears that Trunks is a Super Saiyan, only congratulating him for reaching it in such a young age. Upon emerging from the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, he takes the news that Cell is still alive and now perfect in stride. When Cell regenerates from having his entire upper body blown off by his Warp Kamehameha, his basic reaction was, 'figures'. Even Super Buu absorbing Gohan and becoming stronger than ever only provokes annoyance from him. Not even Frieza coming back stronger than ever and with a new form really surprises him outside of the initial shock. In Super, when Black transforms into Super Saiyan Rose, Future Trunks has a suitable horrified expression, while Goku and Vegeta look almost bored. Similarly, when Trunks learns that Future Zamasu is an immortal, he's shocked and horrified. When Goku finds out about Zamasu's immortality, he's annoyed and calls foul. It's not until something really bad or unexpected happens that Goku shows more reaction to something.
• Dumb Muscle: As an adult and particularly in Super, given that he's a typical shonen Idiot Hero regardless of his age. While Goku is a fantastic fighter and can be pretty strategic and cunning in battle, that's where his expertise ends; he has a childish mindset, is very naive, and often has trouble with basic social situations and arithmetic. The Japanese version emphasizes this by making him sound like a child and giving him a Simpleton Voice accent on top of that, essentially painting him as an immature country bumpkin kid in an adult's body; the English dub gives him an adult's voice and more articulate diction, making him come across as more of a typical dumb (if still childish) musclehead.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Implied to have had one offscreen. According to Dragon Ball Online, Goku and Vegeta, intent on settling their rivalry and knowing they would die soon of natural causes, left Earth for one final battle. Years later, a supernova was detected that is assumed to be from Goku and Vegeta's final battle. Goku's final battle was so awesome it was equivalent to an exploding star.

E-F

• Easily Impressed: Goku as a child lived most of his life alone in the mountains for a untold number of years and by the time Bulma found him, he knows nothing of the outside world. A house coming out of a capsule shocks him (it's a common thing in this world) and he is bewildered by the lights and the television. Heck, even as an adult, it isn't that hard to capture his imagination.
• Eating Optional: Even when dead and thus not subject to the limitations of a living body, Goku loves to eat. Both King Kai and Krillin have lampshaded it.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: Gaining the Super Saiyan God transformation in Battle of Gods. And before that, becoming a Super Saiyan during the battle against Freeza. Vegeta and Krillin were dead, Piccolo was critically injured, and the Spirit Bomb that was supposed to have killed Freeza had failed. If Goku hadn't turned Super, the fight would've been over.
• Empowered Badass Normal: When we are first introduced to Goku, he had super human strength, speed, and durability. Some of this is because he's a Saiyan who are naturally stronger than humans, but most of it came from his years of training and living in the wilderness. Then he learns the Kamehameha and other ki base techniques during his travels.
• Enfant Terrible: True to his Saiyan heritage, he was this as a baby until a cranial injury changed things.
• Enhanced Punch: Dragon Punch/Dragon Fist, one of Goku's moves that doesn't see much use in the main series but happens in the Non-Serial Movies and GT from time to time, is a full out lethal punch that, at Super Saiyan 3 or higher, makes a mini golden Shenron (presumably out of ki) that explodes. The Dragon Fist is also based on the technique that Goku uses to kill King Piccolo. The punch has no official name, but it has been called the Monkey Fist and the manga chapter it is use is titled the Fist of Son Goku. This particular punch takes the shape of a Great Ape and is embedded with all of Goku's remaining energy since it's his last gambit to beat King Piccolo.
• Every Year They Fizzle Out: In spite of genuinely being one of the strongest competitors in every Budokai he entered, he has only won it once (the 23rd). All other times, he has lost due to either being just slightly weaker than the winner or circumstance.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Goku is the kind of guy who can forgive and befriend even cruel former villains like Piccolo and Vegeta who came close to destroying the Earth. But when the genocidal Frieza's constant cruelty culminates in him killing Krillin in a gruesome manner and threatening to do the same to Gohan, Goku's subsequent fight as a Super Saiyan sees him not just beat up but physically and verbally humiliate his foe; even 18 years later, after Goku has faced numerous and stronger enemies compared to him, he proclaims that he still utterly despises Frieza the most. He also later develops a murderous hatred for Goku Black and Future Zamasu after Goku Black sadistically reveals how he stole his body before murdering him, Chi-Chi and Goten, causing Goku to become completely enraged and become hellbent on killing them.
• Everyone Has Standards: Goku is a major Big Eater who'll happily stuff his face with anything on hand, but during the King Piccolo Saga, even he is disgusted when Yajirobe cooks and eats the corpse of Cymbal, a fully sentient being, after defeating him, and makes it clear he wouldn't eat any of his meat even if Yajirobe did share it. In a filler scene in the original Dragon Ball anime, he's also furious when Annin tries to offer him food while the Ox King's castle is burning.
  • Goku may spare even the worst of villains and even refuses taking an easy-way out to stop a world-ending threat if it means that he cannot fight an opponent with using only his own strength rather than someone else's. When it came to Super Buu, even he had no qualms of using any tactic out there to get rid of him as soon as possible, even begging Vegeta to fuse with him if it means defeating Super Buu. Goku loves a challenge against the most evil and dangerous of foes such as Frieza, Cell and even Kid Buu, but Super Buu was someone Goku wanted gone rather than fought.
• Explaining Your Power to the Enemy:
  • He gives Babidi and Buu a showcase of all his Super Saiyan forms before showing Super Saiyan 3 to everyone. In this situation, Goku is buying time and is purposely being long-winded.
  • When Goku reveals Super Saiyan Blue to Frieza, he takes the time to explain the form to him and how it's different from a normal Super Saiyan.
  • Once Goku activates his Kaioken while using Super Saiyan Blue, he spends several minutes explaining to Hit how the Kaioken works and how he can use it with Super Saiyan Blue when it was impossible before with the normal Super Saiyan forms. In this case, Goku sees his fight with Hit as a friendly match and since the Kaioken is a power up technique, there is no real danger in telling Hit what was happening.
• Expecting Someone Taller: In Battle of Gods, he's genuinely surprised to discover that Beerus, the infamous God of Destruction, is "a big, hairless house cat." The first time this has happened was in Dragon Ball where he did not expect Korin to be a cat.
• Expy:
  • Of Sun Wukong, The Monkey King from Journey to the West, mixed with Superman. It's even down to having the former's EXACT SAME name in a Japanese reading, though in the original Wukong/Goku's case, Dragon Ball-Wukong/Goku has started to pay less homages to him day by day ever since his fame in the US.
  • In his early days, he was basically a Spear Counterpart to Arale, the main character of Toriyama's previous work.
• Face of a Thug: When he becomes Super Saiyan, he is given a very intense facial expression, while coming off as villainous. Akira Toriyama wondered if it was okay to design his face like that once he does transform:
  Akira Toriyama: I was feeling that there were limits on mere strength, so I was generally always struggling to come up with something. I actually hadn’t planned Goku's Super Saiyan transformation at all. Then, when I came up with the idea of the Super Saiyan, in order to show that Goku had gained a massive power-up all at once, I thought "there’s no choice but to change his form, too". But in terms of design, the facial expressions and such would become like the design for a villain. I felt, "I wonder if it’s really OK for him to be like this." Granted, since his transformation is accompanied by rage, I also thought, "I suppose that part’s fine."
• Famed In-Story: He became a famous celebrity after he defeated King Piccolo, to the extent that during the Saiyan Saga, Yajirobe claimed to be Goku's personal trainer in order to obtain free food. Of course, thanks to Mr. Satan, his fame is largely forgotten after the Cell Saga. However, in the Distant Finale of GT, there's a statue of him at the World Tournament stadium.
• Family Theme Naming: Son Goku's name came from his adoptive father, the first Son Gohan, and then his sons—Gohan and Goten. Further, the kanji for "ku" in Goku's name (空) means "sky" and the "ten" in Goten's name (天) means "heaven."
• The Farmer and the Viper:
  • When Raditz pleads for mercy after Goku grabs his tail and gets it, Raditz proceeds to elbow him in the gut, pin him down, and break his ribs while rubbing in Goku's face how stupid he was to fall for it. After being saved by Gohan, Goku physically restrains Raditz, and Raditz tries the same trick again; this time, Goku doesn't listen.
  • After Frieza is sliced into pieces by his own energy disc and begs to be saved, Goku gives in and donates a portion of his energy to him to at least allow him to escape Namek's explosion; instead, Frieza just can't accept his defeat and uses that energy for one last ditch attack. By this point, Goku has lost all patience with Frieza and easily deflects the attack before blowing him away, outright calling Frieza a fool for not just accepting defeat and walking away when he had the chance.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • His merciful tendencies have come back to bite him in the ass. Sparing Vegeta and Piccolo Jr ended up gaining him powerful allies in the end, but refusing to just kill the obviously, unrepentantly, evil Frieza has gotten TWO planets blown up and most of his friends killed before a time "rewind" undid it.
  • When angry, he becomes deaf and blind to everything around him, and often makes irrational decisions. He nearly died fighting Tambourine since he was still hurt from fighting Tien at the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament. After becoming a Super Saiyan, he chooses beating and tormenting Frieza over escaping an exploding planet.
  • According to Whis in Resurrection 'F', Goku is too laid back for his own good, allowing his opponents to exploit holes in his guard. This is proven true when he lets his guard down during the fight with Frieza, nearly leading to his death. This also happened when he thought he won against Piccolo in the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, where he thought he defeated Piccolo only for Piccolo to suddenly use a blast attack through his chest. He was caught off-guard against Freeza in Namek when he wanted to leave the fight, and while he avoided the attack, it narrowly missed. And after his fight against Vegeta in Buu saga, he let his guard down once Vegeta said they should team up against Buu, but then Vegeta hits him when his back is turned. In all of those cases he let his guard down when he thought the battle was over.
  • Beerus and Whis also note that Goku's Saiyan pride is a major flaw. He hates and often refuses help from others, preferring to fight and win on his own strength. Beerus gets on Goku for not being happy that he has friends that can help him achieve Super Saiyan God and Whis points out that Frieza wouldn't have been a threat at all if Goku and Vegeta had just worked together instead of taking turns.
  • Goku's love of fighting means that he never goes full throttle from the start even when his opponent is a major threat to Earth. He even calls himself a slow starter when facing Frost.
• Fearless Fool: As a kid, Goku was known for being fearless to the point of arrogance, such as taking on the entire Red Ribbon Army by himself with no plan or backup and charging Muscle Tower without a coat in freezing weather. What made Goku stand out from most who falls under this trope was that he could get away with it since only a few people in the world could hurt him. His fearless fool tendencies finally caught up with him in the King Piccolo Saga when he blindly went after Tambourine and was promptly defeated because he was weak from fighting Tien. He also tried to take on Piccolo without any knowledge of who he was and got beaten to the point that his heart stopped. He loses most this trait after training with Kami and learned not to underestimate his opponent. However, it does reappear when he has the desire to fight strong people, even when advised against it by everyone. He asked to fight Beerus, despite all the warnings from King Kai, and he went and asked Zeno about the tournament he promised, despite Beerus and Whis telling him that's a horrible idea. Beerus even threatened to vaporize him to keep him from seeing Zeno, to which Goku gives the God of Destruction a defiant glare. In the first case, he gets a bruised ego after Beerus two-shotted him. In the second example, he indirectly endangered the entire multiverse. Frieza outright calls him one in Resurrection 'F', stating that his power makes him overconfident and he is too lenient on his enemies.
• The Fettered: After training with Kami, Goku gains a strict no-kill policy. Most of this is so he can fight people again someday like Piccolo and Vegeta, but others were cases of real mercy like Raditz, Nappa, and the Ginyu Force, although he does loosen his no-kill stance after the Frieza Saga. He also can't turn away from a cry for help, even from monsters like Frieza who begs him for mercy after being cut by his own energy disc.
• Fight Magnet: To the point he didn't want to be resurrected by the Dragon Balls to keep the world safe.
• Fighting Spirit: The climactic battle of the Galactic Patrol Prisoner Saga has Moro growing to giant size due to merging with the planet. Thanks to a power boost from Grand Supreme Kai and Uub, Goku is able to manifest a giant blue avatar of himself which he uses to pin down Moro and shatter the crystal on Moro's head that empowered the evil wizard.
• Fights Like a Normal: Mostly shown in the original series, where he mostly fought hand-to-hand; whenever he used the Kamehameha Wave, he usually did so as an ace in the hole or a Desperation Attack.
• Finger Poke of Doom: During Oolong's introductory arc, Oolong sets up a stack of bricks for Goku to break with one hand after hearing he knows kung fu. Goku breaks them with one finger.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Done with most of Goku's friends, most noticeably with Yamcha, Tien, Piccolo, and Vegeta, all who tried to kill him at one point. Through trial and hardship, they all eventually become True Companions. With Krillin, though Goku's side of it is more of a subversion. He generally got along just fine when they first met - it was Krillin that was initially hostile. Krillin eventually warmed up to Goku after several months of training under Master Roshi's harsh regimen.
• Fish out of Water: In the early parts of the series, Goku was raised in near isolation in the middle of the mountains and knows nothing of the outside world when Bulma finds him. Him growing up partly revolves around him getting to know the world through the mishaps that follow because of his ignorance.
• Flanderization:
  • In the anime of Dragon Ball Z, Goku's heroic traits were exaggerated by Toei. As Toriyama stated in an interview, Goku is meant to be a somewhat questionable hero who grows stronger for the sake of fighting strong people, not necessarily for the sake of others. This was largely ignored in Z and especially in GT and the Non Serial Movies, which up his good traits to the point that he boarders on being the messiah. The original English dub of Z was even worse in this regard.
  • Super, which has more direct input from Toriyama, undoes this and portrays Goku closer to his original manga counterpart, namely being more recklessly fight-happy. While still largely liked, there are some fans who believe they might have overdone it and/or not struck a good balance between the two potrayals.
  • His idiocy and childishness have also been played up. The Super manga reveals that Goku didn't even know when Gohan was born. Moreover, he has difficulty telling a pregnant woman from a fat woman, since his first assumption is always that they eat too much. And despite all the obvious signs, he never realizes that the "Monaka" he fought was Beerus in disguise. In the Super anime his idiocy even makes situations harder than they should, such as forgetting to bring Senzu to the future in Future Trunks' arc. And his Blood Knight tendencies were so exaggerated that he kept harassing Zamasu for a fight even when Zamasu clearly didn't want him to fight.
  • This happened even in the original manga with his Blood Knight tendencies. When he believed that he killed Tao Pai Pai he didn't care, but then in the 23rd tournament he says he doesn't want Piccolo to die, both because it'd kill Kami and he doesn't want to lose his arch-enemy, and he mentions the second one as an aside comment, showing his Blood Knight side but not as his main motivation for sparing Piccolo. Then comes Saiyan saga and he begs Krillin to spare Vegeta because Vegeta was stronger than he expected, and fighting someone so powerful made him happy, and this is after Vegeta killed his friends, just tried to kill him and his own son. While Goku himself remorsefully admits this is a bad decision, it's still quite a notable attitude change when he never considered sparing villains before because of a good fight. By focusing more on All-Loving Hero and The Redeemer sides of Goku's personality and having him make a If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him! speech, the early English dubs actually made Goku more consistently written on this regard as most of Goku's villain sparings before and after have been done out of genuine mercy and willingness to redeem rather than Blood Knight tendencies (The scene where he tries to spares Raditz sticks out in particular, thanks to being from the same Saga), making the original version of letting Vegeta go a major outlier.
• Flashy Teleportation: When Goku uses his Instant Transmission/Shunkan Idou technique, the effect creates Speed Lines and looks like his body is being ripped to shreds.
• Flaw Exploitation: His plan to beat Cell during the Cell Games hinged solely on exploiting Cell's pride and Blood Knight tendencies when he discovered Gohan's true power when he got angry. It hit a hitch in that Goku didn't foresee that he couldn't rely on Gohan being enthusiastic about the fight, and it almost cost Goku and the Z fighters their lives; but once Gohan lost his temper, the plan works like a charm. To make it even sweeter, Goku uses the exact same trick that Cell himself used to manipulate Vegeta into letting him absorb Android 18.
• Flying on a Cloud: The Flying Nimbus. From the Saiyan arc on, he's faster than it is and flies on his own.
• Foil: One aspect of Goku's character that has to be summed up to avoid filling up its own page is the way that his humble beginnings, hard work ethic and willpower being his road to godlike strength, and general zest for life and willingness to step up and protect innocent people makes him stand out from his peers, fierce rivals, and especially his hated enemies. His come-up from simple roots (both as a Saiyan and on Earth) due to his own ceaseless efforts combined with a little help from his friends makes for a mighty contrast with the likes of Vegeta and Frieza, both royals within the same callous empire who believed great power was their destiny but would not begin to truly tap their potential until well after Goku approached and tested their levels, as well as cultivated beings like Cell and Buu who were imbued with great power by their summoning/creation and subsequently grew said power exponentially through absorption abilities. His remarkable innocence sometimes bordering on stupidity but still fully cognizant of right and wrong makes him a different sort of manchild when paired next to Beerus' mercurial temper combined with his literal job of destruction, Z Broly and Kid Buu's insatiable thirst for wanton destruction, Fat Buu's complete obliviousness to good and evil actions until Goku and Mr. Satan counteracted Babidi's influence with the simplest of words, and S Broly's stunted development and extreme gaps in impulse control thanks to his father raising him as a weapon, all of which made them rightfully feared by most of those who knew them. His ability to bring out the best in other people and make friends of everyone but the most callous or chaotic of beings contrasts him with foes such as Cell, Turles, Frieza, and early stage Vegeta, who revel in causing terror and crushing people's dreams, and antagonists Jiren and Zamasu, who see justice through one myopic lens or another which precludes any type of camaraderie or trust (indeed, he ends up being a key part of what wins Jiren over from this mindset). Even his routine excitement in rare cases when he's beaten or outclassed by an opponent due to having a strong foe whose level he can now aspire to sets him apart from how many of those he's defeated or surpassed have either been motivated by a bitter grudge since then (Vegeta and Frieza again) or, in the case of his Earthling Z-Fighter friends, lost confidence in their abilities (hell, Mercenary Tao's reappearance in anime filler is an example of both at the same time). And of course, much to the consternation of every evil Saiyan he and his friends have fought, Kakarot being sent to Earth, raised to be a good person, and rejecting the ways of the Saiyan Army when they came to collect, led to him (as well as the fourth Prince who converted to his side) living a lifestyle more conducive to his growth into an exemplar of his people's power and fighting spirit to than every other Saiyan who faithfully served under the Vegeta and Cold families combined many times over.
• Follow in My Footsteps: The entire reason he threw Gohan into the ring with Perfect Cell. Goku, having seen his son in action a few times, made the (flawed) assumption that Gohan must enjoy combat as much as he did, and chose this moment to put Gohan into his old role as Earth's hero, even going so far as to heal Cell first to make the fight more interesting. Unfortunately, it turned out that fighting was not something Gohan enjoyed, just something he happened to be skilled at and occasionally needed to do to protect his friends. Only after receiving a What the Hell, Hero? from Piccolo does Goku realize his mistake.
• Forced to Watch: After surviving the Spirit Bomb, Frieza goes out of his way to torture Goku, first by shooting Piccolo (in the anime, Frieza tried to shoot Goku, but Piccolo pushed him out of the way) and then blowing up Krillin from the inside out. He then threatened to kill Gohan next. Unfortunately for Frieza, him doing so pushed Goku over the edge and triggered his first Super Saiyan transformation.
• Forgetful Jones: Come Super, he's developed a bad habit of forgetting key items. This bites him in the ass big-time during the Future Trunks Saga; their plan to stop the immortal Future Zamasu by sealing him way with the Evil Containment Wave would have worked... had Goku not forgotten to grab the Paper Talisman needed to actually complete said seal (anime) or brought the wrong talisman (manga).
• Fountain of Youth: In GT, thanks to Pilaf accidentally wishing for it from Ultimate Shenron, Goku is turned back into a child. He spends the rest of the series in that state, only being restored to adulthood when he's in the immensely powerful Super Saiyan 4 form. By the Distant Finale, he's returned to his original age.
• Freak Out: Goku rarely if ever loses his cool, which is a standout trait of his, but he had two major ones under similar conditions:
  • When Ginyu traded bodies with him, Goku is stunned, confused, and is close to panicking. He quickly gets himself together when he realizes that Ginyu and Jeice are heading for Gohan and Krillin.
  • An alternate version of main timeline Goku gets a major one after his body suddenly changes while he's farming. He spends several seconds trying to convince Chi-Chi that he's Goku, only for Zamasu to come, who took his body using the Super Dragon Balls, and murders him while he's confused and helpless.
  • Another one happened when Super Buu (after Gotenks was absorbed) attacked him, as Goku was completely outclassed by that point. Worth noting that any other time before or after this, Goku is excited to fight a stronger opponent, or is very well aware how much more powerful than him the opponent is but isn't scared, but Super Buu was such an overwhelming threat that Goku didn't want to fight him, which doesn't happen with the other Buus or any other villain, and overall he tries to be as pragmatic as possible against Super Buu to the point fusion is his first option, when generally it's his last.
• Friend to All Children: Goku adores children. If training isn't consuming his attention, it's shown he really enjoys playing with his sons and granddaughter, and he's also a beloved uncle to Krillin's daughter Marron. When Goku finally meets Android 17 in Super, Goku even seems pretty excited to learn that 17 now has three kids.
• Friend to All Living Things: Even as an adult, he loves playing with animals like a big kid, and regards them as friends as if they are also human.
• Friendly Rivalry: After having very heated rivalries with almost all of his friends, their relationships eventually evolves into this. Vegeta is the most standout example since it takes his entire character arc for him to finally settle his beef with Goku and accept that he is Always Second Best. Goku on the other hand seemed to regard Vegeta this way from the start, enjoying their fight so much he begged for Vegeta's life to be spared just so they could keep the rivalry going.
• From Nobody to Nightmare:
  • In the original Dragon Ball, Goku goes from being dismissed as a mere child to a threat that requires a top-notch assassin to deal with. When he comes knocking at their door, he's a full-blown nightmare.
  • It bears noting that Goku's power level as a baby was rather weak by Saiyan standards. Which makes him becoming the World's Best Warrior all the more impressive.
• Fun Personified: At the beginning of the series, Goku was very much this trope. Since most of the early villains couldn't even harm him, the fights weren't serious and mostly slapstick with Goku goofing off the majority of the time. It also helps that Goku for all his power and cleverness was still a child, and one who'd been raised in the woods and never known anyone else but his grandpa until he first met Bulma, causing traits of The Fool to come through as well in social situations. This gets Downplayed as the series goes on since the villains become more dangerous and powerful. By Z, Goku is more serious, although he still has his silly moments like his entire fight with the Ginyu Force. His goofiness is also played up more in filler or when he's around Vegeta.

G-H

• Game-Breaking Injury: He's suffered a few:
  • King Piccolo damages his legs and left arm during their fight. He only lost because Goku could still use his right arm.
  • Piccolo Jr. blasts a big hole clean through his right shoulder during their fight at the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament. This slows Goku down quite a bit, and Piccolo naturally makes sure to aggravate the wound by stomping on it and ramming his elbow into it. This is before he breaks both of Goku's legs and takes out his remaining arm.
  • Vegeta takes it even farther than both Piccolos by breaking just about every bone in Goku's body, leaving him unable to move at all.
  • In Resurrection 'F', Goku is taken out of the fight after Sorbet shoots him in the heart.
• Genius Bruiser: Downplayed, since he has never had any formal education and often lacks common sense. However, he is an excellent combatant and a tactical genius, able to pick up new skills and techniques with ease. Furthermore, once he gets a basic understanding of something, he learns very quickly. Probably one of the best examples of Goku's genius is his match with Hit during the Champa Saga. Hit utterly destroys Vegeta with his Time-Skipping technique even as Vegeta fought as a Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan. Goku battles Hit in his base form so he can learn how Hit fights and eventually learns to predict Hit's movements for the next 0.1 seconds, canceling out his time skipping power. In their rematch, he is able to counter all of Hit's new techniques using pure observation.
• Genius Ditz: Especially as a child, is very Book Dumb and naive thanks to being raised in the wild for several years by himself, but he mastered and created an improved version of the Kamehameha simply by watching his master use it. Furthermore, his combat prowess is second-to-none. He can be quite intelligent and skillful outside of fighting, but he only desires to fight and to grow stronger.
• Genocide Survivor: He's only of the few Saiyans left in the universe after Frieza destroyed their home planet.
• Genre Blindness: In Resurrection 'F', he gives Frieza the chance to walk away and master his new Golden Super Mode because he was impressed at how strong Frieza had gotten. Obviously, Goku had forgotten what happened the last time he offered Frieza mercy.
• The Gift: He is a strong, natural, brilliant fighter despite being born a low class warrior among his race. Vegeta outright says that he has a gift, something he refused to even acknowledge for a long time. Beerus himself notes that Goku is a prodigy upon seeing that he kept his god-like power even after losing his Super Saiyan God form. Given how weak Goku was compared to the other Saiyans at the start of the series, his strength come from natural talent enhance by a lot of hard work. This actually becomes a plot point in the Future Trunks Saga where Zamasu sees Goku's outstanding fighting talent as an insult and failure of the gods since he gained power that surpasses them. It reaches the point where Zamasu takes Goku's body using the Super Dragon Balls so he can used Goku's abilities for his own ends and carry the 'sins' of mortals and the gods. He has such a talent for fighting that by the tournament of power he briefly and unintentionally masters a technique that even gods of destruction find difficult to learn.
• Glass Cannon: When Goku uses certain power-ups such as his Kaioken, Super Saiyan 3, or Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan combined with the Kaioken, it allows him to fight opponents who are much stronger than him. However, it comes at the cost of his stamina and once that runs out, he's heavily weakened or disabled.
• A God I Am Not:
  • During his time as a Super Saiyan God, Goku admits to Beerus that he is dissatisfied with godhood. However, this may be more his disappointment at being unable to reach godhood by himself rather than disliking the prospect it.
  • In Resurrection 'F', Beerus asks Goku if he wants to become the new God of Destruction since he bribed Whis to train him. Goku says that he just wants to become stronger.
• God Job:
  • After defeating Piccolo, Kami offers him the job of Guardian of the Earth (God in Japan). He turned it down and runs for the hills.
  • Goku refused yet again when Whis offered him the job of a God of Destruction after Beerus perishes, then confirmed this refusal when Beerus asked if he wants his job since he got Whis to train him. He really does not like being a deity.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • Goku teaming up with Piccolo to fight Raditz is this since Piccolo was Goku's Arch-Enemy at the time, and the son of the demon who murdered his friends. Goku also considered using the Dragon Balls to defeat Raditz and only changed his mind since it would take too long to find them.
  • In the Frieza Saga, using the Kaio-Ken X20 because Goku only mastered the Kaioken up to X10, and using all that power could have caused his body to explode. Goku also considers forming the Spirit Bomb to be this since he can accidentally destroy the planet.
  • Goku putting Gohan against Cell. Before that moment, Goku always side-lined Gohan if he's around. He really had no choice but to depend on Gohan to handle things since he was the only one who could beat Cell.
  • In the Buu Saga, after Super Buu absorbs Gohan, Goku becomes desperate to fuse with another fighter in order to beat him even though it could be permanent.
  • After Super Buu absorbs Gotenks and Piccolo, the Old Kai pulls off a Heroic Sacrifice, transferring his life force into Goku in order to bring him back. Up until that point, a Kai has never given his life to a mortal.
  • On a personal level for Goku, becoming a Super Saiyan God. Since reaching godhood requires the light of five righteous Saiyans pouring their hearts into one, the power-up Goku receives isn't his own strength. For Goku, who prides himself on being a self-made fighter, this is a huge blow to his ego. He still go through with it since it is the only way to beat Beerus.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: His original power multiplier, the Kaioken, made him turn red and could only be multiplied at 20x his base power without potentially killing him. When that wasn't enough to beat Frieza, he gained the golden-haired Super Saiyan form, which multiplies his base power by 50x without the drawbacks of the Kaioken.
• Golden Super Mode: Every Super Saiyan transformation that was introduced in the original manga and Z anime.
• Gone Horribly Right: His entire plan to beat Cell hinged on Gohan getting pissed off at the former enough to unlock his hidden powers. The plan works a little too well: Gohan goes Super Saiyan 2 and beats Cell to a pulp, but Goku never anticipated that Gohan, in a state of Revenge Before Reason, would deliberately prolong the fight just to humiliate Cell further, leading to Cell suffering a Villainous Breakdown and trying to blow up the Earth.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Goku frequently underestimates just how evil some people can be, and is all too willing to give them a Last-Second Chance when he has them at his mercy. For example, he falls for Raditz's pleas for mercy and grants it to him, only for Raditz to knock him down and mercilessly break his ribs; all the while, Goku is absolutely shocked that Raditz lied. He also spared Frieza's life twice out of a misguided act of mercy, and both times, Frieza used it to his advantage and tried to stab him in the back. He does get better over time, realizing that Cell and Majin Buu were beyond redemption and actively trying to kill them. He hits it again in Super: Broly, believing that since Frieza helped them out in the Tournament of Power and inadvertently saved their universe and the others by doing so, this means Frieza's no longer evil and is now their friend; Vegeta even lampshades how stupid that line of thinking is and openly calls Goku an idiot.
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: The Tareme Eyes of happy-go-lucky Goku vs. the Tsurime Eyes of serious in-a-fight Goku.
• Good Feels Good: A defining characteristic, and a main reason why Goku is such a Nice Guy. He does almost all his good deeds because he enjoys being a good person and really can't understand why anyone likes being a scumbag.
• Good Is Not Dumb: While Book Dumb and naive, Goku is by no means stupid. Many enemies have fallen before him because they underestimated his intelligence and craftiness in battle. His battle instincts and ability to learn quickly often catch even his friends off-guard. He also often gives life advice and words of wisdom to his friends and sons.
• Good Is Not Soft: Goku when he was a kid/teen. This is especially evident when he mercilessly kills King Piccolo and his children for murdering his friends. He also destroys the Red Ribbon Army with his own hands and kills his foes even when they're fleeing for their lives. And when properly enraged, he will beat his enemies to a bloody pulp.
• Graceful Loser: On the rare occasions he meets an enemy he truly can't beat, he admits it without any ego involved (bowing out of the Cell Games and surrendering to Beerus.) By contrast, most of his enemies are such Sore Losers that they would rather blow up the planet they're standing on than accept defeat.
• Grand Theft Me: Is the victim of this twice. The first time by Captain Ginyu in the Frieza Saga and again by an alternative version of Present Zamasu in the Future Trunks Saga.
• Greater Need Than Mine: After the fight with Kid Buu, he has Dende heal Vegeta first, since Vegeta took the worst of Kid Buu's wrath during the battle.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: Almost all of Goku's adventures and world saving isn't known by the general public. Only a few people know that he's the one who killed King Piccolo and beat his son three years later at the 23rd Martial Arts Tournament. No one knows who destroyed the Red Ribbon Army, who stopped the Saiyan Invasion, the entire mess with Frieza happened on another planet and he was killed before he could terrorize the Earth, and Mr. Satan takes the credit for destroying Cell and Majin Buu, and for defeating Beerus.
• Grin of Audacity: Goku is prone to give these when he's prepared to face a strong opponent, something his friends lampshade at least once, much to the irritation of his wife.
• Growing Muscles Sequence: Right before he dismissed the Ultra Super Saiyan as powerful but slow.
• Guile Hero: While he spent the majority of his childhood and teenage years as an Idiot Hero, as he becomes Older and Wiser, he uses his head more and doesn't just rely on brute strength to get ahead without also incorporating some strategy.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Goku's Super Saiyan transformation gives him shining golden hair, and during his first transformation, he states outright that someone as pure-hearted as himself was able to become a Super Saiyan. However, this is subverted during his fight with Frieza, whom he nearly kills to get revenge for Krillin's death.
• Hairstyle Inertia: Goku's hair is so static that on the few occasions he suffered some minor hair damage, it immediately returned to its regular state one panel later. It even retains its shape when wet. This turns out to be a racial trait of the Saiyans. Their hair never changes from birth.
• Handy Feet: Most often seen prior to the arrival of Raditz. He has uncommonly prehensile feet, frequently using them to grip things and, on one notable occasion, to fire a Kamehameha out of. Makes sense considering he started as an Expy of the Monkey King from Journey to the West.
• Happily Adopted: By the elderly master Son Gohan. Though unfortunately, Goku transformed into an Oozaru and crushed Gohan to death some time before the first chapter.
• Happily Married: To Chi-Chi, despite her fierceness. In Super, he says that he likes Chi-Chi because she's so feisty.
• Hard Head: He once took an axe blade to the head; the axe shattered on contact.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Played with. While Goku is indeed a talented prodigy, he was born at the absolute bottom of the Saiyan pecking order and had to constantly train to get where he is now; he even calls Vegeta out for thinking that one's birth status determines their power, declaring that even a low-class warrior like him can beat a Saiyan Elite if he works hard enough. On the other hand, he learned how to perform the Kamehameha Wave, which took Master Roshi, the creator of the technique, 50 years to master, after seeing it only once, and a big part of Vegeta's angst throughout the series is that, even after putting himself through Training from Hell again and again, he's still Always Second Best to Goku.
• Has a Type: Hilariously, Saiyans naturally go for feisty, strong-willed women. In the same scene where this comes out, he very happily admits that he likes Chi-Chi's fierceness.
• The Heart: Shares this role with his son, Gohan. Their positive outlook on life and their gentle, but powerful natures helped change almost everyone in their group into better people. It's to the point where everyone generally becomes happier and more positive when he's around.
• Heavyworlder: He was born on Planet Vegeta which had ten times the gravity of Earth and spent the first three years of his life there in an incubator. However, because he spent most of his life on Earth, his body had forgotten how to handle high gravity and he could barely stand on King Kai's planet, which had the same gravity as Planet Vegeta. He eventually relearns and has no problem functioning in gravity hundreds times the Earth's.
• Heel:
  • Bergamo makes Goku, and by extension Universe 7, this for starting the tournament that ends with the losing universe being erased. Goku doesn't mind being called or seen as the villain as long as he gets to fight strong opponents.
  • Before that (or chronologically afterwards), Goku did the same when trying to provoke Uub out of his stagefright. He even seems to enjoy intentionally playing himself up as a "mean bastard" for once. Of course, he also saw Vegeta do the exact same thing to Cabba even before the Bergamo incident, so that might have been a factor in his strategy with Uub...
• Heel–Face Turn: Before the series began, technically, but he began as an Enfant Terrible bent on destroying all life on earth as a newborn, until he lost his memory.
• He Is All Grown Up: Bulma had this reaction to Goku after a Time Skip in the final saga of Dragon Ball. Previously she had only known him as a short kid, but now has grown to be attracted to how tall and handsome he's become.
• Henpecked Husband: To the point where Master Roshi outright says that Chi-Chi is the most powerful person in the universe, NOT Goku. However, this is only true insofar as he won't get mean back with her under any circumstances. When it comes to having his son help him fight or train, or spending as much time training as he can, he will always do it behind her back, wait for her to come screaming when she finds out, explain some reasoning for why it's important, and then look for an escape to keep doing it anyway. In fact, due to his Saiyan drive, he's attracted to her feistiness, and he knows she understands him better than anyone. During the Granolah the Survivor saga Zuno, an all-knowing entity, flat out assesses Goku's primary weakness to be that he can't say no to his wife- which the Heeters promptly exploit to get him to fight Granolah.
• Helping Would Be Killstealing: He tries to pass the torch to Gohan during the Cell Games and refused to help even when Gohan was getting the life crushed out of him. He wanted Gohan to be the hero on top of wanting a fair fight. It took a serious tongue-lashing from Piccolo before he was ready to intervene. Also, the primary reason why Goku refuses to kill Majin Buu when he had the chance. He wanted the younger generation to handle it since he was dead and his friends couldn't depend on him anymore to protect them. It didn't work out so well with the Earth being destroyed along with everyone being killed except Dende, Mr. Satan, and Bee. Although, Goku somewhat got his wish since Buu was finally killed with the help of everyone on Earth giving him energy for a giant Spirit Bomb. And hilariously enough, he actually does help via killstealing after the temporal do-over in Resurrection ‘F’ and the Golden Freeza saga, which Vegeta calls him on afterwards.
• Hereditary Hairstyle: Apparently it's a trait of Saiyan purebreds. In Goku's family specifically, his hair style seemed to be past on from the second child.
• Hero Antagonist: During the finale of the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai, where his match with Roshi is told from the latter's perspective.
• Hero Protagonist: The main protagonist of the franchise, a chronic Hope Bringer and Friend to All Living Things, The Dreaded to any villain unfortunate enough to cross him, oftentimes the World's Strongest Man in a series already chock full of badasses, and when he isn't the latter, he tends to be the Big Good. There's a reason he ranks among anime's greatest heroes and badasses. Seriously, take into account everything he's done since age 11 and dare contend otherwise. It would crowd up the wiki if we were to go through all of it.
• Hero with Bad Publicity:
  • He briefly gets this treatment in Super upon arriving in the Bad Future that Future Trunks hails from; as he looks exactly like Goku Black, the Earth's greatest enemy who's driven the human race to near-extinction, the vestiges of humanity automatically assume he is Black and attack him.
  • He gets it again during the Universe Survival Saga, where everyone blames Goku for putting their universes in danger since he reminded Zeno of the tournament he promised back in the Champa Saga. Even with the reveal that Zeno was going to wipe the universes with the lowest mortal level and the tournament gives at least one universe the chance to save itself, they still blame Goku for everything with Toppo outright calling Goku evil. This is somewhat justified in that none of the gods can blame Zeno since he can wipe them out instantly. So Goku is a handy scapegoat. Goku also doesn't help himself by not caring about being called a villain and tells the gods to their faces to bring their best fighters so he can beat them up.
• Heroes' Frontier Step: While Goku has always been a heroic person, most of his exploits as a kid were done for more personal reasons than for the greater good; like destroying the Red Ribbon Army because they indirectly murdered his friend Bora and him killing King Piccolo and all of his children save Piccolo Jr. because they murdered Krillin and Master Roshi. The first truly selfless act Goku performs is when he gives his life to stop Raditz. Although his primary reason for stopping Raditz is to save his son, he also never even considers taking his brother's offer to kill one-hundred humans to get his son back, consistently calls Raditz out on how evil he is (even before Gohan gets kidnapped) and tries to at one point resolve the conflict peacefully, give Raditz a chance to redeem himself and leave the planet out of the sheer goodness of his heart. He also puts aside his pride to fight Raditz dirty: grabbing his tail and working with Piccolo in a 2 on 1 fight. Later, he gives his life, again, to keep Cell from blowing up the Earth, spiritually guides Gohan from the grave to restore his hope, and chooses to stay dead for everyone's protection since all the bad things that happened to Earth recently were directly or indirectly connected to him.
• Hero on Hiatus: Particularly in Z. The fights with Nappa, the Ginyu Force and Frieza consisted of the good guys struggling just to stay alive until he got there / finished healing. He was also out of action for the fights with 17 and 18, but couldn't have helped much anyway.
• Heroic Build: He has a rather stocky build as a child. In the Piccolo Jr. and Saiyan sagas, he's noticeably toned but not that bulky. Starting with Namek, he's consistenly drawn with huge muscles. His build increases when he goes to a new form of Super Saiyan, especially Super Saiyan 3, and when Toriyama changed his art style later in the manga.
• Heroic Lineage: Is the founder with his sons, Gohan and Goten, and his granddaughter, Pan.
• Heroic RRoD:
  • What happens when he overuses his Kaio-ken. His body begins to shut down and puts him in a lot of pain. If he gets careless and raises his power too rapidly, his body can explode.
  • Also happened during his fight against Kid Buu, in a slightly different sense. Goku is no longer used to the limits of a living body, being dead for seven years, which burns through energy at an alarming rate when he is a Super Saiyan 3. After only a short time fighting Kid Buu, he completely loses his Super Saiyan 3 state and downgrades to his severely weakened normal form.
  • An unfortunate and extremely painful result of Mastered Ultra Instinct. After using the form for barely a minute and soundly defeating Jiren and preparing to eliminate him, he loses it. Erupting in a stylistic spray of blood and dark energy, Goku’s body completely shuts down from the intense demand and power to the point he couldn’t even move and was borderline unconscious as he dealt with the pain. Even as the episode ends, he’s lying among rubble shivering in agony. It makes the backlash of Kaioken look harmless.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Seems to be the only way to kill Goku:
  • His first death happens after he holds Raditz and allows Piccolo to shot through both of them.
  • His second death occurs after Cell decides to self-destruct and take the Earth with him. Goku teleports Cell to King Kai's planet where he blows up, killing Goku along with King Kai. Unlike Raditz, this sacrifice is only half successful since Cell returned to life stronger than ever and stole Goku's teleportation technique and used it to return to Earth.
  • Narrowly averted twice in GT. Goku is ready to self-destruct first on Super 17, then later on Omega Shenron, since they proved to be stronger than him and at least one threatened the entire universe. The super android put up a barrier to stop it from working, though Goku still spent up enough energy to lose his Super Saiyan 4 state, while against the evil dragon, it's Vegeta that stops him, by pointing out his own failure to stop Majin Buu this way.
  • Happens in Episode 131 with Frieza of all people, finally defeating Jiren and winning the Tournament of Power for Universe Seven.
• Heroic Second Wind: Several times, but two examples stand out:
  • During the battle against Frieza, he's being held underwater and begins to lose consciousness, but then receives visions of what will happen to his friends and family if he loses; cue ass-whooping.
  • In Episode 61 of Super, after being stabbed through the chest by Goku Black's Laser Blade, Black proceeds to gloat about how the first thing he did after stealing the body of Goku's Alternate Self was to kill his family; despite having a gaping hole clean through his chest, Goku is so pissed by that revelation that he finds the strength to keep fighting and briefly manages to pummel Black into the dirt.
• Heroic Spirit: All the main heroes demonstrates this trait, but Goku embodies it the best. He refuses to surrender to hopelessness or despair, will keep fighting even as his body breaks down, and will willingly tear his own body apart and give his life if it means even a remote chance of winning. He will only surrender if he knows that there is absolutely no chance of victory or he's physically unable to move anymore.
• Heroism Won't Pay the Bills: Chi-Chi regularly points out that Goku's martial arts skills and constant saving the world have failed to get him any kind of actual job, and he hasn't earned an actual cent in all the years they've been married. He eventually gets a job as a farmer in Super.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners:
  • With Krillin. Goku sees him as his best friend and can be quite protective of him. He went into a blind, murderous rage twice when he is killed, three if you count GT. Also from GT, Krillin is one of the few people Goku sees before going off with the dragon. In Super, Frieza tries to take advantage of this by trying to have Krillin killed, knowing the pain it will cause Goku, and attacks him personally during his battle with Goku.
  • He also has this with Piccolo. The two lived and trained together for three years (which is far more time than Goku had ever spent with Krillin up to that point), and Piccolo is a Parental Substitute to Goku's son. The anime plays this up a lot more than the manga.
• Hidden Depths: He has no real interest outside of fighting and training, yet he's very good at farming. He grows a huge harvest, despite being away a lot, and if Beerus is anything to go by, he grew a tasty crop. His crops are in fact so popular that he has a regular buyer. In the original Dragon Ball, Krillin is surprised that Goku can read and do it quite well since Goku is Book Dumb in everything else.
• Hollywood Heart Attack: Employed subtly when Goku starts suffering from his heart virus. It goes under the radar as simple a shortness of breath at first. As he fights Android 19, however, the shortness of breath and subsequent exhaustion becomes steadily worse, and he starts to clutch his chest in agony.
• Honor Before Reason: He often prioritizes a fair, honorable fight over preventing the deaths of all of his loved ones and the destruction of his home planet.
  • He gives Piccolo a free attack on him because Kami hit the latter with a cheap shot during the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, despite Piccolo planning to destroy humanity.
  • He rejects Bulma's suggestion to hunt down and kill Dr. Gero before he activates the Androids, partly for Blood Knight reasons, and partly because he's not comfortable with killing him yet because Gero hasn't actually done anything bad; of course, he's forgetting that Gero was one of the head scientists of the Red Ribbon Army, and most likely built most of their weapons and technology.
  • He gives Cell a Senzu Bean right before Gohan, his own son, is about to fight him to the death.
  • The whole scene near the end of the Buu arc where Goku is refusing to throw the Spirit Bomb because Vegeta's in the way must qualify for this. He's holding back an attack with enough power to destroy the final Big Bad because it would kill Vegeta too. Forget that not throwing the attack would doom the entire universe, including that one person he's trying to spare.
  • In the Universal Survival arc, when Shin suggests they gang up on their opponents, Goku and Vegeta refuse because that would be unfair.
  • Later on in the same arc, he browbeats Android 17 into allowing the Kamikaze Fireballs to power up so he can fight them at their strongest.
• Hope Bringer: Inspires hope in all who knows him even when he is not currently the strongest fighter. There are more than a few times when his friends and family will burst into tears when they hear he's coming to the battlefield. Bulma puts more faith in Goku to save everyone then her own husband, who's often Goku's equal. This, just like his ace status, gets Deconstructed from the Frieza Saga onward. Because he is the bright hope of his group, everyone becomes deflated and pessimistic when he isn't around or out of action. His friends and family are also not quick to put their hopes in anyone else, but him. When Goku tries to make Gohan into his successor, no one really believes him, and the cast is skeptical when Goku ensures them that Goten and Trunks can beat Buu with the Fusion Dance.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Goku is usually good at reading people's intentions, especially as an adult. However, he has badly misjudged a few people:
  • The first is Raditz. After he has Raditz at his mercy by grabbing his tail and Piccolo is ready to fire the Special Beam Cannon, Raditz pleas for his life, telling Goku that he will leave Earth peacefully. Despite Piccolo yelling at him that Raditz is obviously lying, Goku lets go of his brother's tail, which promptly gets him kicked in the stomach and his ribs crushed.
  • The second one is Zamasu. He completely misreads him, seeing him as a good Kai and not believing he has anything to do with Black. This is despite Zamasu showing open hostilities towards him during their visit and even tries to attack Goku after losing a sparring match. It is not until Goku sees Future Zamasu helping Black that he realizes what a scumbag Zamasu will become.
  • In Super: Broly, he's naïve enough to think that since Frieza helped them out in the Tournament of Power and inadvertently saved their universe and the others by doing so, he's not their enemy anymore and must be a good guy; Vegeta flat-out calls him an idiot for thinking that way. Indeed, Frieza is up to his old tricks, recruiting Broly to fight and kill Goku for him.
• Horrifying the Horror: Comes with the territory when you're regularly punching Cthulhu. The most memorable examples being King Piccolo, Piccolo Jr, and Frieza. King Piccolo is left trembling before Goku after he survives a blast that destroys a city. His son, Piccolo, is left speechless and paralyzed after Goku tanks an energy blast that nukes an entire island, and Frieza is left permanently traumatized after his battle with Goku.
• Human Alien: Saiyans look perfectly human other than their tails and can produce offspring with humans, though they do have extraordinary abilities (most notably, they can turn into a giant ape). Saiyans also age slower than humans. They have long childhoods, staying small and cute looking so they will be underestimated before quickly growing to their full adult height, and they stay in their prime until at least eighty.
• Human Pack Mule: Usually takes this role in the Filler episodes whenever Chi-Chi goes shopping.
• Humanity Is Infectious: Becomes tame and respectful towards life after being raised by Gohan Sr. Hitting his head also helped, although his goodness could have been inherited from his mother.
• Humble Hero: Despite saving the world more times than he can count, he takes no credit for any of it and doesn't flaunt his achievements. When people do know of his deeds, he's quick to point out if he needed any help. This is mostly because Goku wants to live peacefully without all the noise fame tends to bring.
• Hunk: Very much this as an adult. He goes from a small cute kid, to a muscular handsome adult that a lot of ladies fall for. Bulma begins to pine for him even as she's courting Vegeta and Helles, a God of Destruction, calls him beautiful. In the dub, he has a deep voice that becomes deeper when he's mad or when he goes Super Saiyan 3 and 4.
• Hypocrite:
  • He and Vegeta state that they will not fuse to fight Kid Buu (an extremely dangerous opponent who has already blown up one planet) because they want to fight one-on-one like true Saiyans. The number of times Goku has beaten the final villain of a story arc fair and square with no outside help can be counted on one hand (Adjutant Black & Piccolo Jr), since his friends always step in and save his life when it looks like he's about to be killed.
  • Goku often asks his opponents to use their full power against him, something he never does in return. In Super, he holds back some of his power at first to gauge his opponent's strength. This may be justified in some cases so he does not accidentally kill his opponent, the battle against Majin Vegeta best addresses this trope as he goes Super Saiyan 2 at best when he had access to Super Saiyan 3 to end the fight whenever he wanted.
• Hypocrite Has a Point: Goku is horrified when Gohan deliberately drags out his fight with Cell purely because he wanted him to suffer as much as possible, and literally screams at Gohan to finish him off to no avail. While Goku himself had previously done the exact same thing to Frieza for the exact same reason, considering the fact that he barely escaped Namek's explosion as a result of his anger and need for vengeance, Goku makes a valid point and has clearly learned from his mistake. He's proven right when Gohan's actions lead Cell to Freak Out and try to self-destruct, taking the Earth with him; Goku is forced to pull off a Heroic Sacrifice to save the world from the blast, and Gohan knows it's very much his fault for not listening to Goku's warnings.

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