Characters / Infinity Train: Seeker of Crocus: Goh Fujihachi

Infinity Train: Seeker of Crocus Main Character Page
Windchasers (Professor Sycamore) | Infinity Train (Denizens, Red Lotus Uprising [Chloe Cerise], White Gestalt (Specter), Elipzo) | Pokémon World (Goh Fujihachi, Professor Cerise, Sara Diktaylis) | Den City | The Multiverse

Goh Fujihachi

"D-did you [Chloe] think killing yourself was all you needed to get my attention? To get anyone’s attention? Do you think I'm that oblivious to not seeing how much pain you're in? Do you think I’m that horrible of a person to not care? That’s not true! None of that is true! I truly care for you and I’m sorry that I can’t do anything more! I’m sorry I didn’t explain myself what I wanted to see in you that night. I’m sorry I was ungrateful for what you’ve done for me! And I'm sorry I left you alone all this time!"

Appears in: Seeker of Crocus (First appearance: The Model Diorama Car) | Oak Lore (Mentioned) | The Firefly Funhouse Car

A boy from Vermillion City with a Goal in Life to find Mew. He works as a research fellow for Professor Cerise, father of Chloe Cerise, who he has been friends with since they were young. However, their friendship seems to have splintered off in the present, due to some unfortunate circumstances...

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A - G

• Achilles' Heel: His lack of social and listening skills and situational awareness are his biggest ones. Goh is brilliant in many subjects, but communicating (both speaking and listening to others) or reading the room are not his forte. His inability to talk to others about what he wants make it hard for others to understand what's bugging him or makes him easy to manipulate behind the scenes. And his inability to read people's emotions or dangerous situations that don't align to his interests means he ends up hurting himself or others since he doesn't know when to pause and listen to warnings. It also makes him come off as heavily insensitive, which is the cause of many of his problems with the Cerise family.
• Adaptation Expansion: The anime and Blossoming Trail barely gave Goh characterization for things non-Pokémon related, while Crocus makes it part of his character.
  • Unlike in the canon anime series, there are little to no signs of Goh and Chloe actually interacting as friends when it's not Pokémon related/involving the Cerise Lab. Harvest Moon Car expands on this with Goh and Chloe going on a camping trip and mentioning how Chloe was pretty much the only person who ever went to his birthdays.
  • The story gives Goh more time to work out his emotions towards Chloe and why they're friends despite how distant they've become. Harvest Moon Car has him admit the reason they're friends is that Chloe always stayed by his side when no one else would.
  • The anime shows no issues with Chloe being his homework delivery girl or how he's constantly ditching school for his research. Crocus reveals that Chloe is the only person at the school who does this for him, and his long-term absence is now hinting he's falling behind in school because he hasn't bothered to go pick up his homework himself and his classmates decided it wasn't worth their time. "The Firefly Funhouse Car" prequel also adds how Chloe insists Goh to come back to the Institute on time to complete an assignment, even adding that no one in their class wants to work for him cause of him being a constant no-show. His "personal promise" excuse in the anime is also explained in him having a signed form that permits his limited appearances at school.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • A weird one. In Voyage of Wisteria, Goh's relationship with Grace — when she was reincarnated as Warbler — was a close one because Warbler ended up being the only being who would actively listen to Goh's grievances. Even when Goh meets with the inner Grace in Warbler's mind, he doesn't get mad over the fact that Grace's backwards thinking and pride indirectly led to Chloe's death. But in Crocus, because Goh never gets on the Train and actually sees Grace sooner, then he has nothing but vitriol for her since she traumatized Tokio and is ready to take Chloe down for the count.
  • Goh's friendship with Chloe gets an overhaul by having him recognize how he mistreated her by being an insensitive jerk who wouldn't express what he was feeling even if you gave him a million dollars and even having him vow to return to her before she killed herself, whereas the anime barely touches their friendship and the original trilogy was more focused on bashing him for seemingly not being a friend.
• Adaptational Angst Downgrade: Thanks to Victor and Gloria by his side, Goh doesn't go down the downward spiral that affected him in the original trilogy. He's much more stable, more aware of his mistakes, and more willing to stand up to Chloe and call her out on her bad attitude, along with firmly telling his parents to actually be his parents for once.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: His feelings towards Tokio "abandoning" him were briefly touched in the anime, but "The Firefly Funhouse Car" reveals he hated the thought of remembering him that when Chloe asked what was wrong, he snapped and demanded that she never ask him again.
• Adaptational Context Change:
  • Goh goes to school in both versions, but Crocus Goh has another reason outside trying to escape his traumas; he wants to go there to pick up all of Chloe's homework as a thank you for how she always did it for him.
  • His talk with Chloe and what convinces her to change her opinion of him is different than in Voyage of Wisteria. In Wisteria, he asks her if he was really that bad of a person who deserved to be broken. Here, he asks if she really believed he wouldn't care if she decided to end her life.
• Adaptational Explanation: Why did Goh not tell Chloe about Tokio in the first place when he had three years to do so? "Firefly Funhouse Car" reveals he demanded that Chloe promise to never ask him about Ilex Forest ever again in his anger and he seemingly forgot about the promise until he reunited with Tokio and learned the truth.
• Adaptational Intelligence: Whereas he had trouble figuring out what he did wrong in the original Blossomverse, to the point that a doppelganger of himself just had to apologize for his jerkish behavior to Chloe compared to the hundreds of times Goh couldn't even get that right, here, Goh gradually learns to make very accurate remarks about his and Chloe's friendship and is quick to recognize when people around him aren't fixing the problem, particularly his parents and Chloe herself.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: He doesn't go down the rabbit hole of spiraling insanity like his Blossomverse iteration did, and learns to be more empathetic to others instead of blaming everyone for his problems. He also starts gathering information before jumping to conclusions or blindly snapping at people in anger instead of confessing his problems, acknowledging the parts he played for his and Chloe's friendship splitting apart, and vowing to save Chloe before she ended her life.
• Ad Hominem: While berating his Pokemon over wanting to hurt Chloe, Goh singles out Raboot, condemning him over not being any better than her because Raboot beat him up when they had an argument over Raboot wanting to learn Ember. This is ignoring how Raboot, as a Pokémon, cannot properly voice his thoughts compared to Chloe deliberately keeping quiet and expecting Goh to read her mind, and that despite this Raboot stayed by Goh's side, while Chloe basically gave up on Goh when she didn't get what she wanted one too many times. Goh later admits he's just freaking out over everything when he and Raboot have time to themselves.
• Aesop Amnesia: Twice in the beginning of the Lunar Arc.
  • At the start of the arc, he flip-flops between agreeing to let his Pokemon draw lots beat up Chloe when she returns, calling them out over it moments later, and then going back to allowing it.
  • The entirety of his arc in Act 1 is realizing how he misjudged Chloe and realizing she wasn't a helpless damsel who needed his help, and that she was a strong girl who could take care of herself. Come The Harvest Moon Car, Goh once again paints Chloe as a fragile, delicate flower who'd crumble if his Pokemon went through with beating her up to avenge their trainer.
• All for Nothing:
  • Goh only wanted to be supportive of his friend, recording her battle against Ash and telling her she needed to follow a dream instead of staying around in the Cerise Institute doing nothing but sulk all day. But instead, Chloe misinterpreted his actions as him putting her down simply for not having a dream like he does and led to her being whisked away by a magical therapy train.
  • When they were younger, Goh tried to catch a Vivillon for Chloe. He ends up getting sick with a fever, and Chloe instead showed more interest in a shiny Pumpkaboo instead.
• All of the Other Reindeer: It takes a little longer for Goh to realize this, but it turns out his classmates never liked him because of how he seemingly gets lots of privileges like going on adventures instead of being stuck in a classroom all day and only has to come by for testing. When confronted about this, the classmates assumed Goh wouldn't care about what happened to Chloe since he seemingly doesn't care what happens to her, and Act 2 reveals that no one in his class bothered to deliver his homework after Chloe boarded the Infinity Train. "Firefly Funhouse Car" also has Chloe remark that no one wants to work with him for assignments due to him constantly being a no-show.
• All Take and No Give: Downplayed. Goh states in Harvest Moon Car that one of the things he regrets is how he wasn't thankful for Chloe being his homework delivery girl after he learns how no one else has been doing it for him for the past two months. The downplayed part comes from while he acknowledges how much Chloe takes delivering homework seriously, he doesn't seem to get the hint that she only does so because he doesn't go pick them up himself.
• All There in the Manual: According to author notes for Oak Lore, he's chasing after a mischievous Impidimp while Ash is helping Gary on his Project Mew mission, something that was not implied or referenced in the story itself. Notably the story and the note were written by different writers.
• Always Late: Though not intentionally. Goh always shows up late to the institute because Chloe otherwise refuses to just straight-up tell him to stop.
• Always Need What You Gave Up: Goh never paid any mind to the fact someone was willing to be his homework delivery girl because, as he puts it, "It's not like I need them anyway" and even questions why he should ever thank Chloe because "it's just homework". By Act 2, Goh realizes how lucky he was that someone at school cared for his education because with Chloe stuck on the Train struggling with suicidal thoughts, the mass expulsion of his class and his teacher given a pink slip, he's now in a new class with students who know nothing about him and a teacher who demands that he stops being lazy and finally get the sheets himself, and his parents never cared about his education to read the emails alerting them about Goh's failing grades.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Platonic version. Goh's vow to save Chloe, see his character quote, before she killed herself is laced with his feelings for her. That for everything he did, whether it's his insensitivity or his lack of a filter, he always cared for her and never wanted her to suffer.
• The Anti-Nihilist: Goh slowly grows into this throughout Harvest Moon Car upon learning how everyone is bickering against one another, Chloe is ready to kill herself, and his school knows next to nothing about him. He could easily fall into despair, but he decides to move on with his life.
• At Least I Admit It: This is one of the things Goh calls Chloe out on in his rant against her in the Harvest Moon Car, specifically pointing out that he at least is mature enough to acknowledge and accept his faults as his own instead of blaming others.
• Awesome by Analysis: In his two major talks with Chloe in the Ninjala and Harvest Moon Cars, he accurately pin-points how Chloe is at fault for many of her problems and tells it to her straight that she needs to change. Take note that in both of these calls, he's not on face-cam.
• Awful Truth:
  • Early Act 1 has him learn that Chloe's problem isn't just "not being into Pokemon anymore" and how he's be too ignorant for his own good over what his friend goes through at school.
  • Harvest Moon Car has him learn the full truth about his and Chloe's friendship, how his parents deliberately separated them, the fact that no one is willing to give him his homework at school because they despise him just as much as he despises being stuck at school, and that his friend is ready to kill herself because he's never around when she needs him. However, instead of breaking down, he decides he's going to change all of it by doing all he can to "be kind" like Juran suggests.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite what Chloe claims, it's been shown plenty of times Goh truly did care about her and appreciate everything she did, but a constant lack of support from both his family and peers after the incident with Tokio caused him to be unable to express his feelings to her properly. An easy-to-miss moment of this is during the Cyan Desert Car. As Chloe is about to be killed by Sara, being strangled to death by her own father, Goh immediately rushes to be the one bludgeoned to death, showing he truly doesn't want her to suffer anymore. Overall, Goh's actions are perceived as wrong, but his heart was always in the right place. He wanted to catch a Vivillon for Chloe because she liked Vivillon. He was always bringing her out for explorations as a way to truly bond with her. And the recording that started this mess? It was to cheer her up and help her start truly finding a way to love Pokémon again.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Goh demanded that Chloe stopped moping around and pursue a dream. Cue her doing just that...on the Infinity Train, struggling for her life as she partakes in her dream to destroy a cult.
• Belated Love Epiphany: Platonic. Goh is determined to catch Mew that hanging out with Chloe wasn't exactly one of his top priorities. By the time the story starts, with Gloria and Victor asking him some very important questions about his friendship with Chloe, and Parker quickly pointing out his hypocrisy on obsessing over Tokio than Chloe, he slowly comes to realize that he always liked Chloe as his friend and was happy that someone stayed by his side when no one else would or could. The problem was that was just so caught up in his own problems that Chloe thought she could sum up his life in one sentence; "If it's not about Mew, then it's not his problem". It's not until Goh lays into Chloe with some harsh truths about her bad attitude and openly admitted how he would stop her from taking her life that she realizes he does care about her.
• Berserk Button: The Ilex Forest was a sore spot for him when he was younger, as "The Firefly Funhouse Car" reveals that he made Chloe shut her face up when she asked what happened. Of course, this also means he never got to move on from this anger, stunting his emotional growth.
• Better with Non-Human Company: While many trainers develop deep bonds with their Pokémon, Goh's unique in that his bond with his Pokémon are exacerbated thanks to a "traumatic incident" in the past where Tokio, his friend at the time, failed to show up. This, coupled with the not-insignificant number of malicious people in Vermillion City, has only caused Goh to double down in looking to only Pokémon for companionship, and it takes him a long time before he even considers opening up to having human relationships once again. As Chloe puts it, "If it's not about Mew, it's not his problem". Hell Sara herself mocks him at how his inner circle is filled with nothing but Pokémon. But just like his Blossoming Trail counterpart, this is deconstructed because Goh chose to shut himself out from others, and refused to even reach out to Tokio, when it could have been beneficial for him to move forward. This completely botched his social skills and relationship with Chloe when he's unable to figure out what went wrong after Chloe runs off to the Train. Not to mention that by Act 2, the amount of students at his school who even remember he exists can be counted on two fingers because he refused to actually make new friends or interact with others due to his "Once a month" test promise.
• Body Motifs: His mouth. Simply put, Goh has a tendency speak in a way or say things that hurt others without meaning to or shut up about things that are bothering him that end up causing more harm than good.
• Break the Believer: As part of Goh learning to get out of his Ignorance Is Bliss mindset, he slowly comes to realize how the outside world doesn't fit his worldviews.
  • He only saw Chloe as the "perfect" daughter of Professor Cerise who "just stopped liking Pokémon one day", not someone who suppressed so many of her emotions and was bullied and neglected by her peers and parents. Chapter 7's B-Plot is mostly about him watching just how much his classmates broke her because she she had no one around afloat, or the fact that he never said thanks or listened to her when she needed his help. He quickly realizes he hasn't actually done enough to prove he is a friend outside lipservice.
  • He truly loved his parents and understood that they were hard working...then he learns how much they hated Chloe...
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Knowledgeable about Pokémon, skilled with tech, can get good grades without even trying and can catch most Pokemon with just a single Pokeball...but sees little importance about doing homework, let alone getting it for himself, and only attends class for tests as a "personal promise" to his teacher. "Firefly Funhouse Car" reveals that he can finish his schoolwork easily and innocently berates his classmates with how long it takes for them to understand the questions. This ends up backfiring in in Act 2; with Miss April fired for the poor handling of her class bullying Chloe, most of his classmates expelled for the bullying, and Chloe on the Train herself, Goh's been transferred to a new classroom with a teacher who actually wants him to arrive to do his work, along with him learning that no one in his class, except Chloe, ever bothered to deliver his homework out of sheer annoyance of having to deal with "No-Show" Goh. And since he never bothered to make friends with anyone at school, that means his new classmates know next to nothing about him, leaving him with little to no friends at school who even know he exists.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl:
  • The Brooding Boy to Gloria's Gentle Girl, as he just entered his Heroic BSoD state from Chloe's goodbye message when the story begins. This gets gender-flipped after the Ninjala Car where he is a gentle boy to Gloria's brooding girl.
  • Harvest Moon Car reveals that he was the Brooding Boy to Chloe's Gentle Girl when they were younger. While he is stuck whining about Tokio, she's the one doing all she can to get him to safety and motivate him to keep searching to find Mew. "Firefly Funhouse Car" reveals that she was trying to support him after the Ilex Forest incident, to which he snapped and told her to shut the Furfur up.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Upon learning what his parents did to make sure he and Chloe stopped seeing each other in Act 2, he at first seems calm about it. He doesn't really chew them out until after he learns what really happened during the camping trip, an accident stemming from him stumbling into the river to catch a Vivillon, before he tells his parents that he's just as responsible for what happened as Chloe, since he constantly brushed off her warnings. While he doesn't condemn them to the Infinity Train like his grandma did, he states he no longer has any reason to stay at home and promises to not return until he turns 18.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Like Chloe, he initially has a hard time explaining his actions to others due to being so wrapped up in his own personal issues. Case in point, when Chloe tried to ask him about Ilex Forest when they were younger, he demands for her to shut up, never ask him about the dreaded trip and Tokio ever again, then stay by his side without explaining why. Of course, this also means Chloe would never understand what caused her friend to be closed up and worsen their relationship until Goh learns the truth a few years later.
• Can't Catch Up: Make no mistake that Goh is talented in research and catching Pokémon, but he's quickly outclassed by those who have had more time and experience being Pokémon Trainers and physical fighters.
• Captain Oblivious: Deconstructed. Goh is so used to being by himself, focusing on his dreams, and internally angsting about his problems that he turns a blind eye to practically everything else around him. However, he isn't solely to blame for this: his parents deliberately sheltered him, his classmates acted nice to him to make Chloe suffer, and Chloe refused to explain what's going on with her. When Goh hears of her suicide attempt, he asks if she really thinks he wouldn't care if she seriously got hurt.
• Cassandra Truth: In hindsight, he was telling the truth over how he knew that Chloe just wasn't into Pokémon anymore. She did like Pokémon (Ghost-types), but no one was willing to believe him at the time.
• Character Development: Since he has more people willing to support him than in Blossoming Trail, Goh grows into a much more emotionally mature person and is eventually able to prove that he is a good friend to Chloe and always has been. Specifically, having Victor and Gloria around to vent his problems to gives Goh the courage to confront Chloe and chew her out for her bitchy attitude. He also learns to finally talk about his problems instead of hiding away from them or being ignorant to problems he could easily solve if he paid more attention.
• Classical Anti-Hero: On one hand, Goh is so obsessed with his goals that he blocks out everything that's not Mew, Pokemon, Tokio, or Ash, brushes off Chloe's support for him over the years, is incapable of keeping a promise that doesn't relate to tests at school, and his attempts at being "helpful" just make things worse for himself. On the other hand, he can show gratitude, learns to become a shoulder to cry on, calls out others for their hypocrisy, and starts waking up from the bitterness and spite that's part of his family's collective pool of bad habits.
• Commonality Connection:
  • He got along with Tokio because they were both searching for a Mythical Pokémon (Mew for Goh, Celebi for Tokio). Unfortunately, when Tokio was unable to keep his promise due to an unexpected cold, this created a lot of angst for Goh. He lost a friend so similar to him that he was devastated when he "ditched" him, which led him to refusing to make friends with anyone else, and subsequently shoved Chloe to the side because she (at least in her mind) "wasn't Tokio". Chloe herself even admits that all she wanted was to be just like Tokio if it meant Goh finally hung out with her more.
  • In their phone call in the Ninjala Car, Chloe jokes that the only reason that she and Goh are friends is because they just can't talk about their problems.
  • On a more positive note, the fact that he immediately connected to Ash meant that there was someone willing to help him open up and understand what it means to have friends and people who won't abandon him out of the blue. Chloe admits that Ash was the best person to help him get out of his shell.
• Composite Character:
  • Chloe internally compares him as a combination of Twilight Sparkle and Moondancer. For Twilight, he's all about studying until he meets up with Ash and understands what friendship is and even is an apprentice to Princess Celestia who gets a new home in Ponyville like how he's a research fellow for her father stationed in Vermillion City and rests up at the Cerise Institute. For Moondancer, he was the shut-in who was "traumatized" when a friend of his (Tokio for Goh and Twilight for Moondancer) didn't show up (Tokio was sick, Twilight was focused on her studies and the return of Nightmare Moon and headed off to Ponyville on the same day Moondancer decided to have a party) and has to both learn to open himself up to those who care about him and not let a simple misunderstanding ruin his future.
  • He ends of having traits of Amelie from Silent Hill: The Short Message, being the friend of Chloe who ends up being the center of attention to a new person (Maya for Amelie, Ash for Goh) that causes the Childhood Friend in this scenario (Anita for Amelie and Chloe for Goh) to become jealous at this budding friendship. Amelie talks to Anita through a cellphone like Goh has been mostly communicating to Chloe through text/calls, and both of them ultimately end up being the presence that saves Anita/Chloe from jumping off a building to kill themselves.
• Dare to Be Badass: He was trying to do this to Chloe by answering her question of where he was when she needed him. But the way he said it was interpreted as "I don't care about your problems because you don't have a dream!" Ironically, this actually forced Chloe to toughen up because of the trials she had to go through on the Train to survive it.
• Declaration of Protection: In the Harvest Moon Car, Chloe details how she wanted to kill herself if the Train didn't pick her up on the night she was dared to fight Ash, and how she brings up that the Goh in her head would never give a Raticate's ass about her problems since he's "so busy" with his goals to ever acknowledge her. Before she can finish, Goh snaps and declares how much he would've saved her by demanding Ash fly them back to Vermillion City/he catches an Abra to teleport him back, and apologizes from the bottom of his heart on unintentionally neglecting her for so long. This is enough for her to finally see that Goh always cared and realize that she misjudged him.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype:
  • Of someone who's Innocently Insensitive. Goh truly means well, but people focus more on the latter than the former part because both his lack of social skills and guidance means he doesn't know right from wrong. To them, it doesn't matter how "innocent" you are. Insensitive is still insensitive, and his disregard for everything that's "not Mew" and inability to recognize such only aggravates the problems around him and causes people to instead project their anger and hatred onto him over what should be just small, insignificant remarks. It also deconstructs how it feels for the one who is Innocently Insensitive as Goh starts blaming himself for his inability to properly talk to others.
  • Of an Apathetic Student. While Goh is able to function like this via a combination of the difference between a Western and a Japanese school in a fictional setting with different rules and help, when this help vanishes and this system stops working, Goh ends up being transferred to a different class and has to adjust to a new situation. "Firefly Funhouse Car" also shows that this approach affects other students as well, as those who get paired with him for projects have to work around a very different schedule that can inconvenience even Chloe, who is best suited to handling it, let alone anyone else. He's also shown to have little connection to his classmates, meaning barely anyone knows or cares about his well-being since he didn't show the same to them, and the times he has arrived show that he's completely insufferable as he completes his homework without problem and then says that with his help, they'll have more time to do what they want. And despite not going to school, he's still part of it and his no-showing has long lasting repercussions to his grades with it hinting that he's either being expelled or held back of year. Last, because his parents never pushed him to go to school more often, and apparently have been ignoring emails addressing that Goh has been moved to a new classroom, he has no one to give him a reason to go back, just aggravating his apathy. And all of this is disregarding how Goh is said to be neurodivergent.^note Before you ask why Ash doesn't do it, anime-wise he didn't know about Goh even going to school until Episode 49; Crocus takes place in a period after Episode 29.
• Decon-Recon Switch: Act 1 plays with his Cannot Spit It Out tendencies by stating how damaging it was to not be able to express anything to Chloe, whether it was how he feels about her to Tokio betraying him, resulting in Chloe assuming that he hates her since his poor social skills tend to make things worse. Act 2 reconstructs this by saying that just because he doesn't speak about it, it doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't care. He always loved Chloe and never meant to hurt her.
• Demoted to Extra: Downplayed; in the original Blossomverse trilogy, he was the Deuteragonist because Blossoming Trail and Voyage of Wisteria were focused on repairing his and Chloe's friendship. While he still does have significance, rebuilding his friendship with Chloe isn't the main goal on his side. Rather, he has to work on making amends with those he hurt and gain more self-awareness of his actions.
• Depending on the Writer: The section of the story where Goh mentions that his team doesn't like Chloe was written by Cross, who very notably wrote Goh as a lot more critical of Chloe and Trip than Green and Spinnerite write him as. Notably a following chapter, without Cross, had Goh shame his team for having any animosity towards Chloe for her actions against him, while in the previous chapter he was aware of their dislike and would look the other way to let them express the dislike. Green and Spinner also mistook Golurk's giving up a punch spot to Gengar to give him two for Golurk having two punch slots. Ultimately, he ends up being a combination of the two: he is upset about the drawing lots stuff because he's afraid of Chloe being broken after getting off the Train, but says that he'll let his Pokémon get a hit on Chloe just as long as he keeps an eye on them so they don't cross the line.
• Devastating Remark:
  • Chloe's trip onboard the Infinity Train started because his answer to "Where are you when I'm alone at school?" is to boast "I'm off chasing my dreams, something you lack!" This culminates in Chloe believing Goh never cared about her like he does Pokemon and running off into the Train's clutches. It's later revealed that Goh was simply trying to force her to find a dream, and he would've been supportive of her just like she wanted.
  • In their talk in the Harvest Moon Car, Goh goes on a tangent likening Chloe to Sara, capping it off by calling her "annoying"! Ultimately subverted because Chloe understands what Goh is trying to tell her this time around.
• Didn't Think This Through: Goh can be so focused on what he wants that he never stops to consider that his actions might have consequences until it's far too late.
  • Goh thought that the best way to support Chloe was to record her battle against Ash as a means of celebrating her taking a step towards finding a dream. The fact that he did this without her consent and cheered for Ash completely destroying her in the battle didn't endear this to Chloe one bit.
  • One that's Played for Laughs is when he and Ash chased after Gengar in the Cerise Institute. Gloria asks why Goh didn't use his other Pokémon to even the odds, seeing as he caught both a Misdreavus and a Stantler, both of which are strong against Gengar being a Poison/Ghost-type. All he can do is stammer how it never crossed his mind while Raboot, who only knew Quick Attack and Double Kick at the time and would be unable to do anything against Golurk, can only facepalm.
  • Young Goh didn't consider that his idea of catching a Vivillon meant jumping across a running river, even when Chloe kept warning him to stay back. He snaps at her being a whiny coward, ends up slipping on the rock, and falls into the river, nearly drowning if Chloe didn't pull him out in time. And worse, because he had his cellphone in his pants pocket, it (allegedly) got ruined so she couldn't call for help.
  • Tomie and Chloe point out that Goh's decision to jump onto the back of a flying Lugia for his video footage could've led to him severely injuring himself, or worse, if he missed or Lugia refused to let him hop on.
  • In Harvest Moon Car, Goh didn't realize that without Chloe in his life, no one has been picking up his homework for the past two months because no one knows anything about Goh as a person to actually deliver them. And the fact that with all of his other classmates expelled and Miss April fired, his promise to go for testing no longer holds any water with the new teacher he's assigned to.
  • In "Firefly Funhouse Car", Goh internally admits he was really stupid in not getting a Kanto starter sooner — he rejected all of them because he wanted Mew as his starter before settling with Scorbunny — as having a Bulbsaur would've prevented him from wasting all those Poke balls on that Dewgong during the trip to Dragonite Island.
• Did You Think I Can't Feel?: The page quote is Goh asking Chloe if she honestly thought he was a big, insensitive, unsympathetic asshole who wouldn't care if she threw her life away, breaking down at how he does care for her and apologizes for how he mistreated her for so long.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: Upon learning how Chloe has been forced to be his delivery girl for homework since no one else bothers to step up for her, Goh says outloud to Sara that he never bothered to thank Chloe because it's just homework. Take note that he's saying this after he hears himself half-heartedly thanking Chloe about getting his homework after his life-changing Lugia ride. And then he whines that it's Chloe's fault for never telling him that this was a problem, but "Firefly Funhouse Car" reveals that she has told him before. Raboot can't help but facepalm at his trainer's remark.
• Does Not Know How to Say "Thanks": Chloe did a lot of things for him over the years, but Goh's lack of social skills or discipline meant he didn't know how to properly thank her for them. Even he confessed to UnCerise that he never bothered to thank Chloe for being his delivery girl because it was "just homework". Naturally, Chloe took this to the extreme as him never caring about her, and it's another facet of Goh's guilt when he realizes how much abuse she goes through on a daily basis. He finally properly thanks her in their talk in the Harvest Moon Car once he understands how much he's lost without her.
• Drama Queen: His reaction to Tokio not showing up to hunt for Celebi was to shout to the heavens, "LIAR!!!" and be so "traumatized" by this betrayal that he not only keeps this a secret from his parents but quickly decides he'll never make friends again. He even went so far, as "Firefly Funhouse Car" proves, to make Chloe never ask him about it again and forced her to promise not to abandon him. But despite Chloe always staying by his side, he eventually started to unconsciously snub her, constantly breaking his promises to meet up on time, ultimately convincing her that she and Goh weren't friends anymore and she is second to Pokémon and fanatics like him/Ash. Upon learning of the story and why Tokio stood him up three years later (not out of personal malice, but because he fell ill and felt so bad about it that he ended up on the Infinity Train), Chloe admits that both of them had a bad habit of making mountains out of molehills.

  Tomie: (to Raboot) We now know that it [The Tokio incident] was all an accident, nothing more and nothing less. But to a boy like Goh, who takes things seriously, Tokio's betrayal was like the earth swallowed him whole.

• Dramatically Missing the Point: If Goh doesn't have proper context, or lets his emotions take control, then he will always take things the wrong way, much like Chloe.
  • When Chloe gifted him a homemade Mew magnet on his 8th birthday, instead of thanking her for the present and how she's the only person who came to his party, his bitterness over Tokio not showing up led to him initially rejecting it for the flimsiest of excuses (or as he put it, "I hate it because it's not perfect!"). It takes Chloe telling him to use the magnet as a symbol of his dream for it to not get tossed into the trash.
  • When he finds that out his Pokémon are planning to assault Chloe when she returns, even drawing lots to decide who gets to do it, the idea that this is done to make Chloe pay for indirectly hurting him is completely lost on him, instead seeing it as his Pokémon not appreciating Chloe enough, and being deserving of a harsh tearing down over allegedly wanting to beat up someone who's already going through a lot. He eventually confides with Raboot that said decision was a rushed one, and he'll let them do it, so long as he's there to ensure they don't go too far.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Zig-Zagged. While Goh himself is by no means stupid and is Locked Out of the Loop most of the time, he does make some very accurate points when it comes to his relationship with Chloe.
  • Goh sounded insensitive when he says that Chloe giving him his homework every day is no big deal — he said that he never thanks her because it's "just homework" — but he's not entirely wrong. Handing out sheets of paper isn't something to make a fuss over compared to handing back someone a thousand dollars in debt.
  • He also had a solid reason for leaving Chloe's birthday present on her doorstep: given that he wasn't even invited (regardless of her claims that she did want him there), and assuming the party was already underway, suddenly showing up with her gift would have made the atmosphere even more awkward than it already was, regardless if Chloe had anybody else at the party or not.
  • His whole "I don't need friends" spiel and how Pokemon are better because "they don't abandon you" is supposed to be wrong. However, considering he lives in a city with people like Sara, who manipulated an entire classroom to turn one girl's life into a living hell; Chloe, who kept her problems to herself and then emotionally hurt him when he failed to pick up on them; his previous experience was with Tokio, who never even bothered to contact him to let him know he was okay and just left a letter for him to find; and that his next best interaction is with Ash and Pikachu, whose bond is the stuff of legends, it's hard to fault him for believing this to be true.
  • Goh rationalizes that Chloe should have at least tried to capture the shiny Pumpkaboo she came across simply because she's a professor's daughter. Regardless of how tactless his statement was, Shiny Pokémon are super rare, and having one can give a person a lot of clout. And since it was also a Pokemon that Chloe actually liked, her not even attempting to catch it is yet another example of her ignoring something that could've helped her become more popular.
• Early Personality Signs: Outside of him quickly proclaiming Tokio as a no-good backstabbing liar despite only knowing the boy for a day at most, two flashbacks reflect his lack of situational awareness, social skills, and his little appreciation for Chloe.
  • "Firefly Funhouse Car" has Goh refuse to talk to Chloe about what happened in Ilex Forest even when she's trying to be supportive. Instead, he demands that she never asks him about it again and to always stay with him while hiding his insecurities. The same can be said with her trying to give him a Mew magnet on his birthday, to which he again doesn't talk about Tokio, and instead projects his feelings towards Chloe not being Tokio by criticizing how her gift isn't perfect before running away from her, along with stating how blowing candles on a cake is for "babies".
  • The camping trip had Goh drag Chloe to chase a certain Vivillon even when she's asking him to slow down. And instead of stepping back when Chloe repeatedly reminds him not to jump into a river, he tells her to shut her little mouth up by saying she's a coward before taking the leap.
• Easily Condemned: All it takes is a few words from a very biased Chloe for everybody to point fingers at him and call him a "useless friend" to her. However, once Goh manages to stand up for himself and Chloe apologizes for how mean she was, he begins receiving genuine support from his peers, most notably Ash.
• Easily Forgiven: Subverted initially. Goh's FaceDex post has him insist he shouldn't be forgiven instantly for everything he did over the years to Chloe since it'll seem like he's not properly atoning for it. However in Act 2, Chloe flat out tells Goh that she forgives him and makes it clear she could never bring herself to hate him. She's just more frustrated with everything both of them did to one another and they had no one to help them through it.
• Elemental Motifs: If Chloe is the Fire, Goh is the Water. All scenes associated with his friends are based on water: "abandoned" by Tokio in the rain, jumped into a river to catch a Vivillon on a camping trip with Chloe, and then flew on a Lugia over the sea with Ash. And element wise, water always puts out fire, which represents how Goh has indirectly hurt Chloe by not noticing her over the years.
• Elemental Personalities: See above. Goh's element is water, which reflects his changing dispositions. Originally energetic when he first found Mew and Tokio, became frigid and ice cold around Chloe thanks to the assumption of Tokio "betraying" him while hiding a loud excitable tempest when he is focused on Mew and Pokémon. Ash helps him thaw out most of the ice around his heart, but it's only through connecting with Victor, Gloria, and especially Chloe does he become more fluid in what he's feeling.
• Emotionally Tongue-Tied: Being "abandoned" by Tokio due to a complete misunderstanding makes him incapable of saying "Thank you" to the only other friend in his life, Chloe, or how he's afraid of opening up to her (especially if it's about Tokio) because he's afraid she'll abandon him. He finally gets to thank her when he learns how Chloe was going to end her life if the Train never picked her up — and unknowingly to Goh, she's a few minutes away from a demonic dragon chopping her head clean off — screaming at how he would've gone back to save her.
• Empty Promise: His constant text messages to Chloe apologizing for being late, and then vowing it won't happen again, play out like this. He initially thinks it's no big deal because Chloe never gave him any indication it was that big of a problem until Gloria's blunt words cause him to rethink things.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Mere moments after they had helped him, Goh gets doubled-crossed by Victor and Gloria once they see the video feed of the paint can incident, ganging up on him over how things would've been better if he went to school more or at least actively did more to socialize with Chloe before everything went to hell. Fortunately, they realize their mistake soon after and apologize.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Goh wanted Chloe to just stop being moody and clarify what's going on with her, but he also states he didn't want her to completely conform in order to please him and was horrified at learning what his classmates did to her while he's off trying to work on his dreams.
    Atticus: Maybe he said something wrong and he deserves to be called out for his slip of the tongue, but he never laughs at you, he never physically hurts you, and he never would want to see you in this state.
  • While he had problems actually being there for Chloe, he was simply unaware of her issues. He is completely shell-shocked to learn and hear how much his parents hated her to the point this his father even proclaimed she should've drowned in the river and not him. Speaking of his parents, for all that they did, and their reasoning for them, he follows Chloe's advice to not condemn them onto the Infinity Train and requests they and and his grandmother finally support him instead of pointing fingers and asking who's more at fault.
  • In their talk in the Harvest Moon Car, Goh rightfully criticizes Chloe for caring more about her Pumpkaboo friend over the fact that he had a fever, as even he knows that helping a sick or injured person is top priority.
  • Despite his many faults with Chloe, he never wanted her dead like she has with him, going as far as to vow to return to her before she ended up killing herself. At worst, he's given his Pokemon flak for wanting to beat Chloe up over making his life hell despite initially decided allowing it. Case in point, he refused to beat up a Chloe Mii Gloria made for him in the "The Model Diorama Car".
• Exact Words:
  • The only promise Goh is capable of actually fulfilling is to arrive for tests at school. In Twisted Lab Car, Parker shoves a book of his sister's writings into his hands so that the kindergartener can test Goh. After all, he can certainly keep a promise to do that, right?
  • In "Firefly Funhouse Car", Goh explains that he goes to testing as a "personal promise". As in...it's a promise he personally made to the school in writing.
• Failed a Spot Check: Goh is always so focused on his goals that he tends to never read the room when it comes to other non-Pokemon related things until it's too late. Lampshaded by Gloria, who states Goh can't tell if it's night or day even if you shoved a telescope in his face.
  • Goh tells Parker he was a good friend to Chloe by gifting her a book she wanted for her birthday. However, he dropped it off at her doorstep and left under the reasonable assumption that Chloe was busy celebrating with friends instead of handing it to her personally and wishing her a Happy Birthday. Parker quickly bursts his optimistic bubble by stating no one in their class actually bothered to show up, which he would've easily noticed if he looked through the window to see her celebrating with her family or knocked on the door to see for himself.
  • He never realized until after his classmates mocked Chloe's battle skills through his video, a few weeks after she ran onto the Train, that he never said anything to Chloe, or even noticed how she looked completely panicked at what was to come. Instead, he looks at how he was happily praising Ash and Gengar for winning the battle "just like he [Ash] always does". This is especially ironic because his recording was actually meant to encourage Chloe to do better. "Firefly Funhouse Car" also had him oblivious to how his classmates would "conveniently" want to talk to him whenever Chloe tried to approach him at school.
  • A quick glimpse of the Fujihachi apartment has photos of Goh and each one has Chloe in them, which really makes you wonder how blind Goh has been all these years.
  • Played for Laughs in the Horrorland Car. Tokio questions how his friend was that oblivious to Chloe's love of horror and nightmares.
• Fair-Weather Friend: Goh claims he's a friend, but when it comes to his friends not named Ash, they beg to differ.
  • While Goh had problems with keeping his promises with Chloe, often has trouble getting his priorities straight even when prompted, and wouldn't bring up Tokio no matter how much she asked, he always saw Chloe as his friend and truly appreciated everything that she did for him. Problem? He couldn't properly express any of this to her due to his complete lack of social skills, which wasn't helped by Chloe deliberately keeping quiet and expecting him to always know what she wanted. Once he realizes how much Chloe was suffering at school, and also telling her that she's also at fault for her own misery, he becomes a much more reliable person to count on.
  • In regards to Tokio, at no point did it ever occur to him to look up what happened or try to ask himself if Tokio did abandon him. Tokio lived in his guilt for three years over this mistake yet Goh immediately called him a lying, backstabbing jerk and decided to make sure no one ever learned about what happened in Ilex Forest. It's only after losing Chloe and finding Tokio's letter telling the truth does he realizes what an asshole he became.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • His poor communication skills is his biggest flaw as his other flaws, particularly his insensitivity, lack of situational awareness, and inability to listen to warnings, all stem from this. Because he doesn't know how to talk to others about things that are painful to him, and no one is there to properly guide him outside of Ash, it creates a Vicious Cycle because others don't understand what he's trying to communicate, making him snap back and say something that makes things even worse.
  • Refusal to listen. When something enters Goh's mind, he refuses to listen to others — unless their name is Ash Ketchum — or think things through. Whether it's small things like not using the Pokemon he has on hand to fight Gengar, big things like almost drowning in a river because he decided jumping onto a Vivillon was more important than his life, or even just taking five seconds to let a little boy explain why someone named Alex Shepherd shouldn't be trusted whole-heartedly, Goh is near incapable of slowing down once he's locked eyes with something.
• Fearless Fool: When it comes to Pokémon, Goh is known to chase them down with everything he's got so he can grab the future in the palm of his hands. In contrast to Chloe overthinking and considering how dangerous the situation can be, Goh jumps first and asks questions never. However, this is actually a detriment to him. Because he's always caught up in his goals, he pays little attention to his surroundings or the dangers surrounding them, nor does he stop to think about the consequences of his actions. Catching a Vivillon is fine, but not when the Pokémon is over a running river and he constantly ignored his friend telling him to turn back. Seeing Lugia up close is okay, but Goh took it a step further and tried jumping onto its back in mid-flight and had no Pokemon at the time.
• Felony Misdemeanor: Goh is constantly harassed ad nauseum simply for texting Chloe that he's going to be a "little bit late" to meet up with her, having horrible social skills, or that he's incapable of properly being a good friend despite claiming otherwise. Thankfully, this lessens as the story continues and the two finally have a talk about what's going on.
• Flanderization: Played for Drama. Chloe's interpretation of Goh is an "Apathetic Pokemon obsessed fanatic who loves Ash more than he does me", to the point that she believes that trying to call him one last time before she kills herself will end with him hanging up, terrifies Goh. For all that he is, he does care for Chloe and he's rather offended that his Childhood Friend sees him in that manner.
• Foil:
  • To Chloe. Both are socially awkward, socially isolated young children whose hobbies are major parts of their lives. They also have a lot of history that makes them that way. However, while Chloe is extroverted about her interests and tries to drag others into them with constant chatter, Goh keeps to himself and focused on his interest in Mew all on his own until he met Ash. When Goh met Ash, he started to change his approach and improved himself, opening himself up to new people and experiences despite the risk of being hurt again, while Chloe refused Ash's friendship and attempts do things with him simply because they were not things that she wanted to do.
  • To Sara. Both of them live in lofty apartments and have distant parents. However, Sara is spoiled, demanding everything without working for it while Goh honestly works hard to achieve his goals. Sara hated Chloe for petty reasons, while any critiques Goh gave of Chloe were legitimate complaints. Sara can easily charm her classmates whereas Goh has poor social skills and only had at most one friend by his side when the story starts. Sara refuses to admit that she's at fault for her hell, whereas Goh slowly comes to realize his part to play with his loneliness. After Chloe vanishes, Sara loses all of the "friends" she made whereas Goh gains allies in Victor and Gloria, still has Ash, and later rebuilds his friendships with Chloe and Tokio. Lastly, Sara won her classmates over with promises she never intended to keep, while Goh kept breaking his promises with Chloe unintentionally because he genuinely didn't realize how important they were to her or why they were important.
  • To his classmates. Goh hates school but manages to find a way to still go to class and balance it with his Pokemon job, while his classmates despise school yet never do anything to change their situation. Goh works hard to make his dreams come true, his classmates would rather destroy someone's life then go to the Cerise Institute. Goh barely knew anything about his friend outside "doesn't like Pokemon anymore", the classmates know a lot about her non-Pokemon hobbies. Goh's remarks to Chloe are accurate despite the delivery not up to par, the classmates throw insults and nastiness that are mostly to destroy Chloe's self-esteem. The two groups both hurt Chloe with their actions, but the classmates' insults and physical retaliation was exposed for entire world to see, whereas Goh's slew of Devastating Remarks to her were mostly isolated incidents and never exposed to the public. Goh is willing to admit his (and Chloe's) responsibilities for their problems while their classmates are far more reticent to do so, especially before Sara's full descent into villainy.
• Freudian Excuse: He doesn't like making friends with humans because he was stood up by Tokio years ago (not realizing it was due to Tokio being sick until much later), which culminated in him being flaky with promises, pushing Chloe away from him, and obsessed with Pokémon under the belief they will never abandon you like human friends will. However...
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: While many people are understanding of Goh's pain of being "abandoned" by Tokio, Parker initially refuses to feel sorry for Goh once he learns the truth. To him, Tokio's "abandonment" does NOT give Goh the high ground for never caring for when Chloe asked him to keep a promise, habitually making half-hearted apologies but never actually working on them, unintentionally leaving Chloe to fend for herself by his apathetic class despite refusing to tell him to arrive, or just keeping Tokio's existence such an oh so dark secret from everyone in the first place!
• Friendless Background: Before meeting Ash and his Pokémon and after Tokio "betrayed" him, Goh only had Chloe as a friend, and the story goes to great length to show that the two of them were not good for each other. He also never made friends with anyone at school which ends up biting him in the ass in Act 2 when he realizes that no friends means no one gives him homework and no one to connect with when he's now transferred to another classroom.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Initially, outside of Ash, nobody seems to like Goh. Renji and Chryssa barely pay attention to him, his classmates make fun of him behind his back and can't be bothered to give him his homework, Professor Cerise only sees him as an employee, Parker despises him for his so-called "hypocrisy" over friendship, and the less we talk about Chloe, the better. As the story continues, Goh has Gloria and Victor by his side, he's making amends with Tokio, Parker apologizes for his behavior, and Chloe vows on her end to repair their friendship.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: Variation. When Chloe admits that in her suicideal thoughts that Goh would always favor adventure, Pokémon, and Ash, than a broken girl associated with homework who is ready to throw herself off the school's rooftop, Goh immediately answers that he would demand for Ash to take them back immediately and stay with Chloe until she fully recovered, breaking down in tears over this twisted interpretation of himself and how he's blatantly ignored Chloe for so long.
• The Friends Who Never Hang: Like in the original trilogy, Goh claims to be Chloe's friend but the actual times they talk or hang out that don't revolve around Goh's goal to find Mew are slim to none, and he likes to point out he doesn't want to make friends in the first place. However, his loud proclamations for wanting Mew in the palm of his hands and shrugging off the idea of making friends unknowingly hurts Chloe's feelings because she thinks their friendship is worthless. After all, he barely notices or even cares about her unless it's about Mew or if she's getting into Pokémon, and he has a poor track record of either keeping his promises or listening to her. Thankfully, Gloria and Victor help Goh to start making amends to his mistake and he and Chloe decide to make a promise to move forward once they see eye to eye. More specifically, Harvest Moon Car says that he doesn't want friends, he only wants Chloe.
• Goal in Life: To see Mew once more and capture all the Pokémon he can along the way. But, as this is a Blossomverse story, it points out how he's got a one-track mind over it to the point he's disregarded social interactions with people not named Ash Ketchum and has become oblivious to the problems his other friend is currently going through since they don't connect to those goals. Thankfully, once Chloe and he make amends, he's decided to continue his hunt so he can care for himself while Chloe is on the Train.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: His attempt to make Chloe finally find a dream — as in, she should tell him what she wants to do and he'll be supportive of her — ended up with her running away from home hopping onboard a therapy train, struggle to survive in an alternate dimension where nearly everyone wants to kill her while she's off to destroy a cult and entering Silent Hill to confront her problems, dealing with childhood depression and suicidal thoughts, and him learning the hard way he's part of the problem as to why Chloe is such a broken mess. Thankfully, a phone call and some advice from Victor and Gloria helps him tell Chloe she's also at fault, and the two forgive each other for their mistakes.
• Good Counterpart: Of Yeardley, surprisingly enough. Both boys only care about their "nows" and whatever amuses them, but while Goh works hard to chase his dream, Yeardley stays in school and brushes off his future with a half-hearted "My life is a work in progress". Yeardley is a He-Man Woman Hater through and through (despite actively working with two female bullies to ruin Chloe's life) whereas Goh doesn't hate Chloe, but rather has problems actively acknowledging his friendship with her. Yeardley is a bully who's willing to physically hurt Chloe, whereas Goh is a Non-Action Guy who learns to use his emotions to be kind to others and was mostly Innocently Insensitive to the girl, unintentionally hurting her emotionally. Yeardley was aware of what he was doing to Chloe but didn't care about consequences, Goh was Locked Out of the Loop but is quick to prove he's not that self-absorbed in himself. Goh is Brilliant, but Lazy, as he's good at his academics but finds no meaning in doing his homework, while Yeardley is Book Dumb and doesn't put any effort to studying more.
• Grew a Spine: Downplayed as he's still essentially a punching bag by the narrative, but he actually manages to put Chloe in her place twice when she still tries to blame him for their strained friendship, something he never really did in the original trilogy. As Act 2 goes along, he becomes more willing to speak his mind and call out others if need be.
• Guile Hero: Acts as one during the Cyan Desert Arc in order to ensure Sara doesn't get suspicious of outside help while she has control of the Unown.

H - O

• Hanlon's Razor: Ultimately, the majority of Goh's problems comes from him just being an immature kid who was never properly taught how to deal with frustrations in his life. Gloria has to spell it out to Parker that Goh honestly didn't know what was going on with Chloe because she just simply refused to tell him otherwise.
• Hated by All: Downplayed, but the number of people who actually like Goh at the start of the story can be counted on one hand; his classmates don't respect him and constantly insult him behind his back, Parker detests him because he allegedly doesn't pay attention to his sister, said sister also loathes his guts because he doesn't dedicate all his time and effort to her, and the Cerise Institute only tolerate him because he works there. He does get better as the story goes along, with his friendship with Ash still strong, Parker apologizing for seeing him as a monster, Gloria and Victor stay by his side after Ash goes to the Alola region to stop Rainbow Rocket, he begins rebuilding his friendship with Tokio, two secondary students from his school are sympathetic to his struggles, and Chloe apologizes for how badly she treated him.
• Hates Being Alone: While he doesn't initially show it, it turns out he hated Tokio not showing up in Ilex Forest like promised and whined and complained how his 8th birthday would suck solely on the basis Tokio didn't show, to the point he ignored Chloe's attempts to get closer to him. While he seemed okay with his hunt for Mew, Pokémon and Ash, as times goes on, he realizes he doesn't want this loneliness and begs his family to give him the support he sorely needs. In Act 2 he realizes he never had to be alone if he understood he still had people who cared about him and if he actually showed gratitude towards the small things he has in the present or opened up about his problems.
• Hates Their Parent: Subverted; he doesn't downright hate them as Chloe hated her parents for being so focused on their jobs to ever notice she hates her life, as he understands their jobs are important. However Act 2 has his faith in them shaken when he learns they were the instigators as to why he and Chloe started drifting apart and didn't feel sorry about wishing she drowned in a river instead of their son. At the end of the Harvest Moon Car, Chloe tells him to not spite them no matter how much he feels about the situation, and Goh tells them he loves them, but he won't be forgiving them any time soon and vows to stay away from them until he turns 18.
• Heartfelt Apology: Goh has a bad case of not being able to properly apologize for his actions nor recognize when he should simply apologize and not make these mistakes again. So it's a powerful moment when he gives one of these in the Harvest Moon Car to Chloe (who is moments away from killing herself and is currently talking about her suicide attempt) for how he unintentionally mistreated her over the years. He later apologizes to his parents for all the insensitive things he might've said or did to them in the past.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: While he is lambasted for his social skills, he has the benefit of not going on and on into spiraling spiels and just says things as it is. This means that he can cut through a lot of crap people talk about and get them to the mindset to get things done. Whether this is done to telling Ash to go to Alola, confronting his parents for how hands-off they were, and even telling Chloe how she's been acting like Sara, Goh's lack of tact is actually his best weapon.
• Heroic BSoD: Is in one of these at the start of the story since he has learned about the Infinity Train from his old friend Tokio and Chloe has cut him out of her life for good^note Blossoming Trail wise, this would've been at the end of the Canals of Fondue Car and seen for himself just how much Chloe has been suffering.
• He-Man Woman Hater: Averted. Goh clearly doesn't favor either gender, yet he is labeled as a sexist purely because his one friend by this point is a boy (Ash). Parker is among those people who view him as such, especially when he learned about his reaction to Tokio, a boy so similar to Goh in his hunt for Celebi, "abandoning" him. Chloe having initially endorsed this view of him certainly didn't help, either.
• History Repeats:
  • He told Raboot he shouldn't try to learn Ember that led to Raboot running away to vent — because Scorbunny's fire was lacking — and said he's "perfect" not because he was being insulting, but because he was trying to tell his partner to not exhaust himself. This same tactic of saying something wrong when he was trying to be reassuring happens again with Chloe running away onto the Infinity Train, which he admits.
  • When they were younger, Goh snapped at Chloe at how she's a coward who can't take the future in her hands when she tries warning him not to jump into a river to capture a Vivillon. Three years later, he snaps at how he has a dream and she doesn't when she's asking him where he is when she needs him before she ends her life. Both of these moments lead to significant changes in Chloe's life, things that probably wouldn't have happened (or at least not had such big impacts) if Goh realized how insensitive his words were and apologized for them, or actually thought before he opened his big mouth. Moreover, what caused their friendship to fray in both of these scenarios? Him not listening to Chloe's words, and never realizing how hurtful he was until it's almost too late to do anything about it.
• Honor Thy Abuser: Chloe slammed a bowl of curry in his face, cut him out of her life when he didn't act like her personal mind-reader, left him in the dust while he made himself sick looking for her, and when they finally get a chance to talk, the first thing she does is pin the blame on him again. Goh still puts Chloe on a pedestal, generally pinning the blame on himself and ignoring Chloe's own wrongdoings if it means stopping her from going on another tangent again. On Chloe's side, she becomes completely ashamed of her actions and admits she could've confessed what was wrong without the anger and violence before the two decide to work on their issues together and move forward.
• Hope Crusher: Downplayed. Goh isn't intentionally causing Chloe to give up on hope, but Gloria has to point out that every single time he "apologizes" for not arriving on time and says he won't do it again, it makes Chloe feel like she was never important to him. Even Chloe's vision of how she kills herself has him as this trope, where he doesn't bother to hear Chloe's desperate cries of help before he hangs up on her and she ends up falling to her death on the school's rooftop. Goh immediately screams he would never act like that in Chloe's broken mind and vowing to return to her, before breaking down in apologies for always leading her on and neglecting her feelings.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Goh will always take first impressions over anything else, and he rarely pauses to consider if there are other things under the surface.
  • Like in the canon show and in the fanfic trilogy, his first thought of Tokio not arriving to see him that fateful day in the rain is to think "human friendships are meaningless" and that Tokio betrayed his trust while playing him for an absolute fool. He realizes how wrong he was only a few years later when he returns to Ilex Forest and reads Tokio's letter to learn this was all accidental, which is when he feels like a piece of garbage for holding this grudge for so long.
  • Since he only goes to school only for testing, it's one day in a few weeks where he can just assume his (and Chloe's) classmates are nice. And then Victor highlights he's been duped to believe his friend has no problems and what they really think of him and Chloe.
  • He also assumed everything was fine with Chloe because her only problem was "She's just not into Pokémon anymore". Cue a video of her covered in red paint by their heartless classmates and her assaulting Sara in rage, screaming how she'll kill her classmates "All kinds of dead". He quickly realizes she has way more problems than he thought or cared to notice.
  • Of course, he is also on the receiving end of this trope; whenever people hear about his strained relationship with Chloe, they always jump to the same conclusion Goh is entirely at fault, with his Innocently Insensitive tendencies not helping him in the slightest. It's quite telling people only start changing their minds once Chloe begins changing hers.
• Hourglass Plot:
  • When they were younger, Goh was the more closed off one while Chloe tried to connect with him by asking him what was wrong or wanting to go on ghost hunts. When the story starts, Goh is the one constantly asking Chloe to go explore with him and she refuses.
  • Chloe was always the one willingly giving Goh his homework whereas he mutters how he doesn't ''need'' them, though more because he's just not interested in his school work. In Harvest Moon Car, Goh declares he'll give Chloe her sheets, while Chloe is so far on the verge of suicide to even care about something so minor as schoolwork.
  • Chloe and Goh's friendship deteriorated when Goh recklessly jumped into a river to catch a Vivillon, completely ignoring Chloe warning him to stay away, with Chloe risking her life to drag him out. Their friendship truly starts mending when Chloe claims she'd end her life by jumping off the school's rooftop (while Goh is too far away to be there for her and her stating Goh would hang up on her than come back) and the real Goh vows to save her after he takes the time to listen to her.
  • If taking "Firefly Funhouse Car" into account, Chloe chewed Goh out for never caring about her concerns when he reckless jumped onto Lugia's back (even after Goh promised he wouldn't do something crazy), which he refused to apologize for and said his new friend will take care of him from now on. "Harvest Moon Car" has Goh chew Chloe out for how she'd rather kill herself than confront her problems, and this time Chloe apologizes for her behavior. He also goes from selfishly demanding Chloe to never abandon without thinking about her feelings to selflessly vowing to save her from dying upon understanding what's going on.
  • When the story starts, Chloe hates her parents and wishes to never see them again because she hated how their work was always more important than her problems while Goh loves his parents and understands that they're busy, never bringing up what was bugging him. By the end of Harvest Moon Car, Chloe wants to go home and start again once she realizes how poorly she treated them while Goh has become so jaded to his parents' actions to keep him and Chloe permanently separated (and stated Chloe should drown for all they care) that he hopes to not see them again for a few years, also realizing how they had all the tools to help him but didn't and how he could've moved on if he was more open but wouldn't.
• Humble Pie: All of Harvest Moon Car is this for Goh since this is when he finally learns how much of an ignorant dolt he was to everything "not Mew" in his life. But there are two moments when Goh really is forced to eat an entire pie stuffed with humility. The first is the moment when Daiki and Hannah telling Goh that he's now going to a new class with a less lenient teacher, making Goh finally realize he was such an ungrateful jerk towards Chloe giving him those dreaded worksheets when he learns how barely anyone recalls that he exists (he mentioned in Cyan Desert Car that he never thanked Chloe because "it's just homework"). The second is the moment when Goh hears Chloe admit she wants to kill herself because he never showed any concern for her and he breaks down in apologies for never telling how much he cared for her.
• Hypocrisy Nod:
  • In his Ninjala Car tirade, he admits how he's bad at expressing himself, since he mentions how it takes more than one conversation to finally get the hint over how his words and actions go completely wrong, and that's on him.
  • In his tirade towards Chloe in the Harvest Moon Car, he calls her a coward who runs away when things get too difficult, telling her he knows because that's what exactly what he is.
  • He also admits that while Chloe can be annoying, that same label equally applies to him for his inability to keep promises with her and his obsession with Mew.
  • When he confronts his parents for how they see Chloe as annoying, he brings up the motion that every single thing about her is everything he is as well. That he's nothing more than a stubborn, insensitive brat who talks too much, doesn't care to listen to anyone no matter how loud they shout at him, and is the architect of his own misery by never talking to others regarding Tokio.
• Hypocrite: For all of the times Chloe is hypocritical, Goh has shown that what he preaches is not what he practices.
  • Parker calls him one when it comes to his extremely poor record of keeping promises with his sister after he learns why Goh was always flaky with them. He took the assumption Tokio, whom he knew for a maximum of one day, "abandoning him" so badly that he closed himself off from making human friends to avoid feeling betrayed. Yet he never realizes he abandoned Chloe, his friend for more than three years, when he repeatedly breaks promises to her and says that he'll be better "next time". Gloria has to explain to Parker it's not really hypocrisy as it was Goh being a kid who took Tokio's "betrayal" too seriously and things would've been better if he had been given proper guidance in helping him with his problems. Plus, Chloe herself wasn't helping by never ensuring that Goh did keep those promises for once.
  • Goh browbeats Chloe for wasting time getting flowers from a Gourgeist...despite having earlier refused to listen to Chloe three times when she repeatedly warned him not to jump after a Vivillon that led him to almost drown and necessitate those very same flowers in the first place.
  • When he finally learns about how his parents kept the camping trip accident quiet from him out of spite for Chloe, he is pissed off at how they would do such a thing since this means he lacked the knowledge he could've used to reach out to Chloe. Um Goh, what about you keeping quiet about Tokio from Chloe for three years, who could've used that knowledge to finally reach out to you?
  • "Firefly Funhouse Car" has Goh frustrated that Chloe never opened up about her problems towards him while completely forgetting how he demanded for his friend to shut her face up when she tried asking him about Ilex Forest three years prior. He also doesn't understand why she gets so annoyed when he can't keep promises with her when he asked her to make a promise to never leave him.
  • He tells Parker in Act 1 that he promises to be more open to others...then in the Ninjala Car, he immediately tells the boy to shut his mouth up when Parker was trying to warn everyone about why Alex Shepherd shouldn't be trusted.
• Hypocrite Has a Point: And yet for all Goh has problems being aware of his flaws, he does make accurate points.
  • Goh does have a habit of never paying attention to Chloe, but in his defense, Chloe herself didn't even bother letting him know what was wrong with her, simply expecting him to read her mind and then renouncing him when he couldn't do that. And for all intents and purposes, Chloe was even more neglectful about maintaining their friendship than Goh was.
  • He's a bit hypocritical when he accuses Chloe of running away from her problems when he's refused to confront Tokio's betrayal for far longer, but he's right to point out that he didn't retreat into his fantasies; he did in fact go on to live his dreams despite the pain he felt and in turn made new connections in Ash, his Pokemon, and those he met as a research fellow. Tokio "abandoning" him didn't make him give up on the world, while Chloe was so lost in her fantasies that she couldn't connect to the world beyond herself at all.
  • For all his melodrama when he lost his first battle to Hodge, unlike Chloe whose reaction to being embarrassed in front of a crowd included assaulting Goh with curry and running away, Goh simply wanted to avoid battles going forward and only stick to capturing Pokemon without harassing anyone, and ultimately changed his mind after seeing Ash beat Hodge in part with Mimey to make a point. Goh was in a very similar situation to Chloe, but his reactions didn't harm or inconvenience others; at worst, he just worried Ash for a moment in a way that he was ultimately able to fix in the span of an afternoon, whereas Chloe's reactions to a loss went on for months and have actually caused legitimate harm to people.
• Ignorance Is Bliss:
  • He was oblivious to everything Chloe went through primarily through combinations of no one explaining this to him, his fears of being abandoned again, and being too focused on Mew, Ash, and research to ever take a second glance. When he realizes how deep her problems are, and how he's played a part of them by never being more attentive or even grateful for her presence, his veil of ignorance is lifted. This also ends up being detrimental to him in Act 2. He's so ignorant of his situation at school since he doesn't care about it that he's on the verge of being either expelled or held back because he hasn't paid attention to how he's in another class whose teacher asks him to pick up his sheets for once.
  • This trope can best describe him throughout "Firefly Funhouse Car" as he is constantly oblivious to what was really going on in school and was unaware of the mass expulsion of his classmates and his homeroom teacher subsequently fired since they're on the bottom of his "Things I care about" list.
• Informed Flaw:
  • The main problem with Goh that gives him flak to no end are his, as often eloquently put, "piss-poor social skills". However, while his social skills do need a bit of work, most of the examples regarding social skills aren't even directly connected to them; instead, they're the result of him being Locked Out of the Loop (He didn't know about Chloe's problems so he didn't even know she needed help), him being Innocently Insensitive and then having said moment blown out of proportion (Him saying his damning words to Chloe, which eventually led to the girl demonizing him and cutting him out of her life), or even outright slander meant to make him look worse (again, most of what Chloe says about him in her initial train trip, and also what Class 5-E prefer to do during their free time.)
  • Another flaw that gets called out is that Goh tends to take things for granted because everything gets handed to him on a silver platter. However, the same things said to be given to him (a job as a research assistant, not having to go to school except for tests) were either because of his qualifications (the job) or because of external sources who were worried for his safety (the staying at home part), with every other interaction he has with people not even showing them giving him the time of day.
  • As Chloe herself puts it, "if it's not about Mew, it's not his problem". This implies a level of tunnel vision that means he doesn't bother with anything unless Pokémon are involved, but the story shows otherwise: not only is Goh able to become aware of other problems that don't relate to Mew, the Pokémon itself rarely ever crosses his mind.
• Innocently Insensitive: Goh means well, but his lack of guidance or awareness on how to be social means everything he says ends up wrong and he either doesn't get it or it takes him a long time to understand what he said.
  • His recording Chloe's loss to Ash was actually meant to be a stepping stone on her path to try something new and for her to hang out with him and Ash. He doesn't realize it was actually this trope until he showed the video to his classmates...and they laughed at how pathetic Chloe was in how she didn't know Tackle is useless against a Ghost. To nail it home how insensitive it was, he hears himself praising Ash for "always winning", completely ignoring Chloe's look of shock and defeat and never bothering to even console her.
  • He admits to Raboot he was being very insensitive back when Raboot wanted to learn Ember. Goh was simply trying to tell him "Don't work yourself too hard", but Scorbunny heard it as "Don't learn a Fire-move", which made Raboot give him the cold shoulder for quite some time.
  • In "Firefly Funhouse Car", Goh texts Chloe not to worry about him because his new friend (Ash) would do that from now on. He most likely meant it to calm her fears — as this text was taken after his jump onto Lugia and Chloe is rightfully worried because he went behind her back (again) — but Chloe instead saw it as him just not caring about her anymore. Another scene has him state that with him helping his classmates with their work, they had more time to do what they wanted...completely unaware how damning it is to hear "No-Show" Goh taunt how he gets all the privileges to get out of school and otherwise insulting their intelligence.
  • When he sees how Chloe is bullied for being his delivery girl, he says that he never thanked Chloe for all the hard work she did because it's "just homework". As in, it's something comparitively minor and not to take seriously.
• In-Series Nickname: "No-Show" Goh by his classmates for how he only pops up for tests at school because he's too busy with his dreams to care for his classwork or Chloe.
• Insistent Terminology: Tokio "abandoned" Goh, "betrayed" Goh in the rain. In reality, Tokio was sick and honestly had no avenue to tell Goh any of this except a message in Celebi's shrine.
• Insufferable Genius: "Firefly Funhouse Car" has a scene of him berating how the classwork is so easy to his fellow students and that they have plenty of free time to do whatever they want once he explains what to do. This is presumably one of the reasons they hate Goh so much, rubbing it in their faces at how smart he is and how much freedom he gets.

He doesn't understand why his study partners didn't seem to comprehend Miss April's lessons. Sometimes he struggled, but Renji was a great teacher and it takes him a few rounds of flashcards before he memorizes the terms needed to ace these tests. If they just put some effort into it, then they wouldn't have to be so annoyed all the time.

• In-Universe Catharsis: His status as this to everyone in the Blossomverse trilogy is thankfully halted, and is instead given his own form of this trope when Gloria invites him on a game of Super Smash Bros. He also gets to chew out Chloe for how she's part of the problem in the Ninjala Car. Thankfully, Chloe understands how horrible she was and the two resolve to be better about their friendship.
• Ironic Echo: Upon seeing the image of Chloe picking up his homework on the same day he went Lugia hopping (which shows how she's the only person who ever cared about his sheets in the first place), Past Goh brushed them off by muttering that they're "unimportant" to him. Cut to Act 2 when he learns from upperclassmen that his classmates never bothered to continue Chloe's act of kindness for the past two to three months, because everyone thought delivering his sheets were "unimportant" to them.
• Irony:
  • He hated Tokio for being a no-show and decided that friendship with other humans is worthless. He doesn't realize until Gloria tells it to his face years later how he himself is a complete no-show in Chloe's life because he constantly failed to see how he's not acting like the "friend" he says he is, nor did he expressed any of his problems to her because he demanded that she shut up when she tried asking, not to mention that he broke from Tokio unable to fulfill one promise but constantly shoves Chloe's promises to the wayside. In essence, all of their problems could have been avoided if both he AND Chloe put more effort into their friendship.
  • Is constantly mentioned to be really bad at socializing with others, as his entries in No Social Skills, No Listening Skills and Poor Communication Kills will tell you. And yet, not only is he not a passenger on the Train, but he actually has better a handling of social situations than previous Train passengers.
  • What spurred Chloe to run onto the Train and become the legendary Chloe of the Vermillion was Goh trying to motivate her to move forward and be badass. Speaking of which, the entire mess started because Goh actually wanted to be involved in Chloe's life for once.
  • Goh hated going to his school, but as of Act 2 he's the only student left of Miss April's old class because of his constant no-showing. He's also forced to attend a class whose teacher is less lenient than Miss April in regards to getting his homework. In Cyan Desert Car, he finds himself stating that he didn't care about Chloe being his delivery girl because it's "just homework". But in Harvest Moon Car, he all but begs for Chloe to come back just to get his homework.
  • Goh started the entire mess of getting his friend on the Train by being completely blunt and oblivious over how he cares more about his dreams than the fact that she's contemplating suicide. He ultimately saves her from committing suicide by being completely blunt and aware about how she's being annoying.
  • In "Firefly Funhouse Car", Goh demanded Chloe to stay by his side, implied because of fear she'd stop being his friend (like Tokio) and leave him even though she stayed by his side for three years without fail. In Ninjala Car, Chloe reveals that her biggest fear is Goh abandoning her for his dreams and Ash when she needs him the most...something that he had been doing without a care (albeit unintentionally).
  • Goh angsted more on Tokio than he cared about Chloe, pissed at the boy who abandoned him yet made sure to keep Chloe in the dark And yet despite having a three year head start, he never bothered to investigate why Tokio betrayed him but immediately put focus on searching for Chloe's whereabouts.
• It Runs in the Family: In Part 4 of Harvest Moon Car, he admits he inherited many of his family's bad traits: obsessed with their work to the point they're oblivious to the world around them, having poor social skills and unaware how their words/actions have consequences, not revealing crucial information until after the damage is done, incapable of listening to others, being very obstinate and unwilling to let go of their prejudices towards people and their faults, and having their hypocrisy levels hit the roof.
• It's All My Fault:
  • Once he realizes how much he's missed out due to his tunnel vision, he starts blaming himself and his obsession with Mew as the reason Chloe ran away from home because he constantly shoved a foot deep into his mouth with his insensitivity, never cared for Chloe outside "she stopped liking Pokémon", and learns his ignorance let two of his friends onto the Train during the first half of Act 1, since he immediately judged them the wrong way and never bothered to open up about his problems. Thanks to Gloria, he moves on from his self-blame and can tell Chloe she's also part of the problem.
  • At the end of Harvest Moon Car, Goh tells his parents that what happened over him, Tokio and Chloe have them all at fault in some way. Tokio has his own problems not properly explaining what went down until long after the incident (and in a way that the chances of Goh ever finding out the truth were slim to none), Chloe did mess up by failing to show concern for Goh when he got sick and caring more about her new Pumpkaboo pal, but Goh himself wasn't able to accept he still had a friend even after Tokio abandoned him, and it's still his insensitive remark and inability to confess how much he cared for her which got Chloe on the Infinity Train and close to committing suicide.
• It Was with You All Along: After Tokio "abandoned" him (read: couldn't make it due to a fever and only communicated things by leaving a letter at Celebi's shrine one year later; a letter Goh wouldn't find for another two years), Goh isolated himself and found no reason to make (human) friends again and refused to even talk about this pain when Chloe asked. When Ash came along, it seemed as if he was getting better but at the cost of Chloe running away from him. It's not until the Harvest Moon Car does he realize he's been insensitive jerk for the longest of times. He could have moved on sooner from Tokio and had a better social life if he only noticed all the times Chloe motivated him to not give up on his dream or at least told someone about how hurt he was about Tokio and got proper help for it. But by then, Chloe is close to killing herself because it's been ingrained in her mind that no one will care if she took her life. Not even him.
• I Will Wait for You: Goh's goal in Act 2 is to wait for Chloe's return so they can really become friends again, even going as far as to gather her homework at school as a thank you for all the times she did it for him.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Played With in that Goh isn't a jerk but his critiques of Chloe are perfectly valid. Whether it be his harsh words that got her on the Train in the first place, or him calling her a coward when she tried to stop him from chasing a Vivillon, Goh is correct that Chloe never makes any effort to pursue a dream, nor open up about herself even when Goh and Ash at least tried multiple times to get her to be open about what's going on, and refuses to leave her comfort zone unless forced to. Chloe later sums it up in the Palimpsest Car:
  Chloe: Were they mean words? Yes, and I had every right to be mad at him at the time. But were they wrong? In some ways, no. I kept refusing to do things with Goh, and thus I refused to do anything that could help me find a dream.
• Jerkass Realization: Goh isn't a total jerk, but he gradually realizes that he acted like one in regards to his friendship with Chloe and Tokio.
  • Goh immediately despised Tokio just because the boy "abandoned" him in the rain and never bothered to move on from it. He doesn't realize it was all an accident until a few years later when he reads Tokio's letter explaining the truth, and he realizes he misjudged the white haired boy for nothing.
  • Early Act 1 is all about Goh realizing he's been an insensitive jerk towards Chloe, always ignoring her promises and never considering to keep them on time despite taking his promise with Tokio seriously, paying no attention to her when she's asking for him to stay by his side no matter how many texts she sent him, and saying something so damning it makes him seem like he never cared for her. The Harvest Moon Car has him finally getting the epiphany on how he's really been blind to Chloe's efforts to reach out to him in as much as she can, even feeling horrified that the reason why Chloe acted so apathetic on wanting another ghost expedition is because she was trying to copy him. After all, Goh keeps rushing head-first into danger, dragging Chloe for the ride no matter how hard she tells him to stop, and brushes off her warnings by calling her a sniveling little coward without ever apologizing or realizing how much his words hurt her. However, Goh himself isn't a jerk in the vein of Sara or Yeardley, rather a mixture of a Innocently Insensitive and Locked Out of the Loop with a large heaping of No Social Skills and No Listening Skills.
  • Goh is dismissive of Chloe's efforts to get his homework for him, not out of hatred but because he's not interested in his school work ("It's just homework" he admits to Sara in Act 1), until he actually sees it for himself she's the only person in their class, if not the entire school, who willingly volunteered to be his delivery girl. In Act 2, he learns no one else desired to pick up Chloe's slack for more than two months, and now that he's moved into a new classroom, no one knows enough about what Goh is like a person — due to him only arriving for tests and he never cared to make friends with others — to make the deliveries or even remind him of his new seating arrangements, and his new teacher demands that he gets his damn homework sheets himself for once. This makes Goh finally understand he's brushed off Chloe's attempts to keep an eye on him for the longest and he glumly wishes Chloe was back to show concern for him.
  • Finally, Goh breaks down in tears when he hears how Chloe was ready to kill herself should the world see his recording of her losing battle with Ash and her last act before she died was to futilely call him to get some hope that he'll come back for her...only to be ignored as usual. Because he's so "busy" with his life to be concerned for her. He tearfully asks Chloe if that's how she truly thinks of him before apologizing for how he mistreated her.
• Jerkass to One: Goh was fairly neutral to everyone not named Ash but he despised Tokio from the bottom of his gut and hated any mention of Ilex Forest and a small spat between him and Ash just brought up bad memories of Tokio's betrayal. It takes Goh finding Tokio's letter to move on. Unfortunately, his inability to move on from Tokio took a toll on his relationships to his parents and Chloe that takes most of Crocus to patch up.
• Just the Way You Are: As Chloe admits to Goh that she acted so horribly, along with being more distracted with a shiny Pumpkaboo than getting Goh back to the camp after he almost drowned, because she only wanted to be like him if it would finally make her be the perfect friend in his eyes (since Goh called her a coward before he took the leap while she was trying to warn him not to do something reckless). Goh finally realizes that what he wanted in Chloe, aside from her finally telling him what was wrong, was that he liked her as the girl who showed concern for him and still stayed by his side even though he (unintentionally) treated her like dirt.
• Karmic Nod: Admits to Raboot that he totally deserved to get his ass kicked for being a total jerk to Scorbunny and not allowing them to learn a Fire-move (when in reality, he was trying to make Scorbunny not exhaust themselves when their inner firepower was lacking).
• Lack of Empathy:
  • Upon learning how much Chloe is pelted with insults and made a fool by the rest of the class for being the only student to deliver his homework every single time, Goh decides to not consider how much she suffers by stating, "Why should I [ever thank her]? It's just homework." in front of Sara. Thankfully, he quickly changes his tune.
  • In general, Goh does have some level of empathy towards others but when it comes to Chloe, she believes he doesn't care for anything she does due to it not being what he wants. Even when she tells him how she plans to kill herself, the version of Goh in her mind would hang up on her as she's pleading for him to stay all while the real Goh immediately vows to come back to save her. For everything Goh has said or done over the years, he does care. His problem is that he didn't know how to be empathetic because no one bothered to teach him.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Goh didn't feel any need to appreciate Chloe delivering his homework while they were students of Miss April since he never really bothered to care about his homework. Come Act 2 and with him being the only student left that was transferred into a new classroom, not to mention Miss April fired, he now has to actively go pick up his homework since his new teacher has her own regulations and his new classmates barely know anything about him due to his constant no-showing and his disinterest in making other friends. And he actually begs for Chloe to come back to be his delivery girl.
• Late to the Realization:
  • Goh struggles to figure out why he and Chloe are friends due to their communication problems, his constant focus on Mew and Ash, the two barely having anything in common, and a lack of him actually understanding others' emotional struggles due to his own lacking social skills and her inability to talk to him. It's not until Chloe says she's going to kill herself in Act 2, even detailing the elaborate dream in her head that involved him ignoring her desperate call to just listen to her for once in his life before she ends hers, that he states how he'd go back for her and apologizes for never showing any gratitude towards her, cementing he truly cares for Chloe and how he should have said that sooner.
  • It takes him more than two months to realize that no one has been delivering his homework ever since Chloe left. He doesn't learn this until some upperclassmen bring up his new seating arrangements at school at how he's basically been forgotten as a whole and his parents were ignoring the emails. This is when he finally starts thinking at how his homework is important to him and how he was a douche for always ignoring Chloe's deliveries.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Goh is known to be impulsive and do whatever he feels like without thinking so long as it pertains to his interests. Like jumping onto the back of a Lugia without considering the consequences of whether or not he'd reach Lugia or survive the fall. This almost killed him in a camping trip when he refused to listen to Chloe telling him three times not to jump after a Vivillon flying over a river because Professor Cerise warned them not to do so. This attitude is also what drives his parents to keep him safe in his room, because they feared he might actually die for real if he's not thinking before he acts or someone else drags him onto a dangerous situation.
• Life-Saving Encouragement: In the Harvest Moon Car, Goh has to talk down a suicidal Chloe by forcing her to confront her issues, and one of the things he tells her is how he didn't want lots of friends because all he wanted was her (Chloe mistook the phrase as him wanting Mew). The other thing he says is his vow to fly back to Chloe before she killed herself, apologizing for how he never told her how much he was grateful for her before then.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Goh was Chloe's anchor prior to the Train as all she wanted most of all was to see her as his friend. But Goh never realized any of this since Chloe was never someone he thought about all the time and he cared more for Ash/Tokio and Pokemon than her. He comes to realize how important he is to her just when she's about to die.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • For all he can be insensitive, it's mostly due to the fact that practically no one tells him stuff, whether because they're too busy with their own stuff, they're deliberately doing it to keep him completely in the dark, or they have their own personal problems, preventing him from being aware of his mistakes and actually doing stuff about them. Goh even notes that Chloe had hundreds of chances explain herself instead of glaring and scowling at him all the time.
  • Goh wasn't aware of the situational at school due to him not really caring for his academics, his parents have been ignoring all the emails alerting them to it, and his classmates were equally as apathetic as he was about his homework (not to mention them being expelled). It takes two upperclassmen who coincidentally pass by to tell him that he's now in a new classroom and with a teacher who is ramping down on him appearing at school more often..
  • In "The Firefly Funhouse Car", Goh is completely unaware of the mass expulsion event of his school since he was out of town when it happened. Patricia doesn't mention anything about it to him, although it's probably because she's too ashamed to admit how stupid it was to destroy her life by bullying another.
• Mirror Character:
  • Of Simon Laurent. When they were younger, they were abandoned by a white-colored friend of theirs who initially never came back to apologize (Samantha for Simon, Tokio for Horace) and they ended up having a fear of abandonment. They also had a crutch in a black haired person (Grace for Simon, Ash for Goh) but while Simon took the wrong lessons and refused to admit to see he was in the wrong, Goh starts opening his eyes to his flaws and starts being more aware of his actions. They also have an obsession with something, with Simon being a Control Freak who likes photographing dioramas and painting toy soldiers while Goh is more into research, Pokemon capturing, and Mew. Simon was known to hate anything that wasn't human, while Goh was shown to not be comfortable around humans. Simon continued to go down the path of destruction even after hearing The Cat's excuse as to why she ditched him while Goh chased his dreams after learning the truth from Tokio's letter.
  • Of Sean from Blossoming Trail. Both were impulsive boys who tried to catch a Pokémon — Goh to capture it, Sean to kill it — and end up drowning for their impulsive actions and how they were incapable of thinking things through. The main difference is while Paul was too little, too late to save Sean from dying because he assumed the boy was pulling his leg, Chloe was able to get Goh out of the water in the nick of time (although she didn't take Goh back to camp immediately). Also, Sean was alone at the time and had no one trying to stop him, while Goh did have Chloe to warn him yet he did what he wanted, Chloe's warnings be damned.
  • He ends up as a mirror to Mallow. Both are dark skinned characters who have gone through heartbreak in their lives (Mallow's mom died, Goh's trust was broken by Tokio) with different family dynamics as well: Mallow has a good relationship with her father and brother at their restaurant, Goh has parents who work in a software company but the two are workaholics so Goh doesn't have time to hang out with them. Mallow utilizes Grass-types, Goh's first Pokémon is a Fire-type in Scorbunny. Mallow was so broken that she got on the Train, Goh ended up shutting himself in his room. While both had communication problems about what happened to them, Mallow's came from how her case was so bizarre that she believed no one would earnestly believe she got on a therapy train, while Goh would tell his parents but would never tell Chloe. They also are incapable of seeing things no matter how many times you tell them. Goh constantly fails to read the deeper meaning of Chloe's text messages because he's too focused on himself, while Mallow is incapable of reading that there are trains in Alola due to something Elipzo did to her mind that prevents her from seeing it.
  • Relationship to Chloe-wise, Goh is a mirror to the black haired and dark skinned Tony Clark. Tony crushes on Chloe for being a legendary fighter to the point that they even had an action-filled date. However, he only knows Chloe on a surface-level as her badass Chloe of the Vermillion persona and is shocked to learn of all of the mental problems she has. Goh, meanwhile, saw Chloe as a friend (even if it takes him a very long time to recognize this), but he knows Chloe well enough to tell her to confront her issues but also tell her that she is amazing in her own way. Tony is a Book Dumb child spy (in fact his reason for getting on the Train is because of his grades), Goh is a Brilliant, but Lazy researcher who aces his homework but finds little to no reason in going to school. Tony gets along well with his siblings, while Goh has become distant with his parents and is an only child. They also have oblivious parents who have no idea what their children get into, but Goh's parents are neglectful of Goh's problems due to a combination of their work and not giving a damn about him, whlie Tony's parents are either deceived by their children's lies or WOOHP swoops in with memory rewriting tech to keep them in the dark.
  • Goh is a mirror to Grace, another black haired and dark skinned person who runs their mouth more than they keep it shut and their initial Only Friend is a pale-skinned writer. Grace is a charming, manipulating Know-Nothing Know-It-All teenager who can convince children to follow her every word (even if it is skewed by her own bias). Goh is an Innocently Insensitive boy with little to no social skills and few friends who struggles in communicating with others but he truly is grateful for having them in his life. Grace refuses to work on herself because she believes her high number makes her strong when she's really ruining the lives of others for her pleasure and ultimately wishes to be loved, while Goh initially doesn't see himself as needing development but eventually resolves to better himself after accepting that he wants people in his life and improves for himself, not just for others' sake. Grace sees denizes as "Nulls" and loves to kick them to the wheels and would rather be around human company, Goh sees Pokemon as living creatures even if his words sometimes miss the mark and shuns being social.
  • Goh is a contrast to Paul London, a black haired male who ends up having an important role shaping the actions of their white associated partner (Chloe for Goh, Specter for London). Goh has to give Chloe the Tough Love treatment multiple times before she finally starts making progress, while London calmly convinces Specter to faces his problems by being patient with him. Both of them also have to take drastic actions to prove to Chloe/Specter that they do care for their well-being: Goh vows to fly back to Vermillion City before Chloe ended up killing herself and London was ready to risk being killed by Pyramid Head if it meant Specter could leave the Fog Car (for kicking his own denizen partner out a window). Goh wears grey, while London wears black and white. Goh is a Non-Action Guy, London is an experienced fighter due to being a wrestler. Last, they are constantly reminded for their actions but while Goh learns to stand up for himself and make his naysayers back down, London is forever nagged by the people he killed by his actions.
  • Goh is a reflection of Jesse Cosay, a dark skinned and black haired teen who has different personalities and hobbies. Goh is an introverted boy who is brilliant at school but doesn't have any friends (nor chooses to make friends, let alone maintain them) there, while Jesse is a star athlete on his school's swim team and a Nice Guy who is friends with almost everyone. Goh was completely ignorant that his classmates hate him while Jesse had jerkwad friends who indirectly got his little brother injured but initially didn't have the nerve to stand up for himself. They also differ in how they vowed to save their brooding, surly feminine partner: Goh uses words by vowing to return to Chloe's side before she killed herself whereas Jesse deliberately pulled himself back onto the Infinity Train to bring Lake to Arizona.
  • If his mother is a mirror to Grace, Goh is her Hazel. A dark skinned child who is wiser than they appear, blissfully ignorant to the dangers around her and the lies and manipulations that the mother figure is giving them, teaching him to listen to her words as if it's Holy Writ until circumstances have their control crumble. Hazel was an obedient girl who listened to Tuba whereas Goh could never listen to Chloe's warnings no matter how many times she tried to talk to him. Hazel broke upon learning of the death of Tuba, Goh broke when he learned how his parents didn't care if Chloe died.
• Mirthless Laughter: Goh laughs like this when he recalls to Raboot how smart it was to let his Pokemon beat the utter shit out of Chloe when she returned from the Train, now realizing that he'll just condemn her to go back or to kill herself.
• Morality Chain: Initially seen as the sole person who caused Chloe so much misery by making her get on the train, constantly being oblivious to her struggles, and ruining his chances to explain himself through his bad social skills, Act 2's Harvest Moon Car ultimately has him be the person who saves Chloe from ending her life. She finally opens up to him after he shows that he's willing to not only listen to her and reassure that he always saw her as as his friend, but also be firm to tell her some truths she needed to hear about how she acts too much like Sara.
• More Insulting than Intended: Goh has a tendency to never consider how his actions are more insensitive than he realized unless someone calls him out for it.
  • Alongside Gloria, he dismisses Parker's warnings about Alex Shepherd due to them weirded out by Parker's knowledge of a Psychological Horror game series (despite promising Parker that he promised to listen to what the boy had to say from now on). After Parker shouts that the two decided to tell Sycamore to trust the guy who turns into Pyramid Head — no one knew at the time Pyramid Head made appearances outside of Silent Hill 2 and Chloe learns later — it only reminded Parker how no one cares about the opinions of a baby like him, even if they have reasons to doubt them.
  • As a whole, telling Chloe "I don't need friends, I only care for Mew" was not the best thing to say to the only person who actually gave a damn about him after Tokio's abandonment. He later clarifies what he actually said was, "I don't need lots of friends because I only wanted you, Chloe."
• Motifs: Jumping, physically or him going to (incorrect) conclusions about people. His friendship with Ash started by him jumping onto the back of a Lugia, and what caused his friendship with Chloe to splinter is him recklessly jumping to catch a Vivillion while ignoring her warnings not to and nearly drowning in the process. He also has a bad habit of immediately jumping to the wrong conclusions towards others, with Tokio being the biggest example. And what motivates Goh to finally confess he always liked Chloe as a friend is her confessing of her suicide via jumping off the school's rooftop while he's off with his research to not even care. While jumping into danger is shown as him being headstrong and fearless, it also shows he's very reckless and never looks before he leaps, nor does he show little concern towards people who would rightfully be worried for his safety.
• Must Make Amends: Deconstructed. Goh spent a good deal of his childhood being Innocently Insensitive and Oblivious to Hints with Chloe, with the girl herself taking it in the worst possible manner. By the time he learns about everything and tries to fix things, however, Chloe herself is completely unwilling to even humor the idea of forgiving him since it doesn't magically erase everything she felt over him leaving her behind or how he treated her to begin with, until she both realizes the situation isn't as black and white as she thought it was, and that she has as much to blame for their failing friendship as Goh does. In Act 2, he's willing to be punished in different ways — whether it's have his Pokemon beat the snot out of him because he's equally responsible for what happened, go back to the school he despises just so he can pick up Chloe's homework while he deals with how no one knows who he is, or demand his parents punish him for his impulsiveness — just so he can consider himself "even" with everything Chloe has suffered while he enjoyed himself.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • When it finally hits Goh about Chloe's problems have gone under his radar for so long, he breaks down at how he was a complete idiot to ignore his friend, despite claiming he "is" a friend but has little to no evidence that showed him interacting with her outside asking her to join on Pokemon expeditions. Thankfully, Gloria and Victor are quick to tell him he can make amends by doing something that will prove he's sorry. He gets another realization when he sees how Chloe suffered just to deliver his Arceus-damn homework — just after he said that he never thanked her because "it's just homework — and how he never showed any gratitude for it.
  • In the Harvest Moon Car, he's utterly broken when Chloe admits how she wanted to kill herself after her loss to Ash and how he's paid so little attention to her over the years because he's too stubborn to only think of his goals and his inability to open up to her over the years, with his damning words that she's nothing but a coward causing her to be a Ghost-fanatic to prove herself worthy as his true friend in his eyes. He asks Chloe if she honestly thought he was some stupid, ignorant "obsessed with Pokemon and Mew" fool this entire time before telling her that's not what he wanted in his friend.
• My God, You Are Serious!: While Goh gradually begins to understand how much Chloe's actions meant to her and what his snubbing and ungratefulness did, it's not until he hears her confirm that yes, she was going to kill herself if word got out that she lost to Ash that he pours his heart out and apologizes for all that he did to her over the years.
• My Greatest Failure: He hates how much he was an apathetic jerk to Chloe because of how he only wanted to make his friend finally pursue a dream, but instead never saw that she only wants her friend to just be there for her when she's on the verge of suicide. After all, it was his damning words how he was "better than her because he had a dream" which got her on the Infinity Train where she refuses to leave so long as she's stuck with a father who favor Pokémon lovers over her, her mother is so obsessed with a smiling drawing, and she can't rely on her friend if she doesn't have a dream like he does/isn't his exact partner.
• My Greatest Second Chance: However, Act 2 helps him start making amends by acknowledging how his actions hurt Chloe and he decides to become more empathetic, kinder, and willing to not jump the gun when it comes to people's actions. He also catches a new Pokémon for Chloe as a present, to which she finds adorable. More meaningfully, Goh and Chloe's friendship started to decay when he refused to listen to her, but he redeems himself by actively listening to Chloe telling how she would kill herself before vowing to come back to save her.
• Nerds Are Naïve: He knows a lot about Pokémon, academics and tech. But if you ask him to act like a proper friend to Chloe, he's insensitive at best or completely tone-deaf at worst. This also extends to his social skills. His parents told him Chloe's calls are nothing, his classmates treat him kindly while they push Chloe to kill herself behind his back and he believes it all with a straight face like nothing could ever go wrong.
• Never Be Hurt Again: Not being able to see Tokio again made Goh proclaim to no longer make human friends so he doesn't get hurt from being abandoned by them, even going as far as to make Chloe promise him to never abandon him. Unfortunately, he gradually starts neglecting her and focused more on his needs and when Chloe leaves after having to deal with his bullshit for so long, everything he tried to avoid comes back and he comes to realize how selfish and blind he's been.
• Never My Fault: A minor one. When UnCerise asks if Goh would ever be a homework delivery boy for Chloe after showing how much Chloe suffered without him, and Goh said outloud that he never thanked her because it's "just homework", he tries to divert the blame of him being blind and ungrateful by stating that Chloe never brought it up....except "The Firefly Funhouse Car" reveals she did bring it up multiple times.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: While Chloe has her own problems opening up, Goh is equally at fault for making things worse with his inability to listen to others and to properly communicate what he actually wants.
  • Chloe had a horrible day at school with it seemingly looking like her entire school hated her for being herself, and then having been push to fight Ash Ketchum, but it's Goh's recording of her humiliating fight (with extra emphasis on him cheering Ash for his victory while never supporting his friend/noticing she's about to lose it) and his equally insensitive remark how she lacks a dream while boasting he was the superior one between them because he has one (when he was actually trying to motivate her to find one) when she's really asking him to be with her before she kills herself is what ultimately got her to disappear onto the Infinity Train for two months without any signs of returning and put into dangerous situations that will end her life if she's not careful.
  • He almost does this when he and Gloria ignore Parker's warnings to not trust Alex Shepherd by making him shut up while "the big kids talked" and offhandedly said they'd buy him ice cream if they turn out wrong. Thankfully, after Parker has his outburst on how they willingly ingored their expert on Silent Hill by kindly reminding him how adults and older kids would like for the baby to shut up and not bother them when it comes to important business, Goh does a quick Internet search to see, yes, Alex Shepherd can turn into Pyramid Head and he foolishly gave Augustine the a-ok to trust him.
  • If Goh stopped to listen to Chloe and not jumped into a river to chase after a Vivillon, and if he didn't snap at Chloe by stating she was nothing more than a coward who can't find a dream like him, the fall-out between the two and the Fujihachi parents' extreme measures wouldn't have happened. Because Goh put the cellphone in his pants, it became unusable after he was pulled out of the river, meaning neither of them could've called for help. They were lost in the forest for hours, and Chloe took a challenge to go find a flower from a Gourgeist instead of simply asking the Gourgeist to get it for her, wasting precious time that could've saved Goh from the fever he got from the river, and her Lack of Empathy for how she suddenly wanted to become a Ghost-type hunter in vein of Goh's search for Mew had the parents shut her out of his life, which would've led her to chatter about her hobbies to her classmates that would culminate in bullying, frustration, and a mindset that would've led her to kill herself.
• No Guy Wants an Amazon: A platonic subversion. Despite what Chloe claims about her "Chloe of the Vermillion" being done to appease to Goh's want of a badass friend and Goh wanting his friend to finally start chasing a dream, he doesn't really want a cool and kickass girl who can snap necks and behead people with words alone (as proven when he was terrified at the damage Chloe could do with a paint can alone). He simply wants the kind girl Chloe was before she decided to be a bitch, and focusing more on appeasing herself than working on herself.
• No Listening Skills: In Chloe's eyes, if it's not about Mew or Pokemon, he can't be bothered to care to pay attention to minor things. This leads to many disastrous results in the process because he refuses to listen to what people are trying to tell him, unless they're Ash Ketchum, and only picks up what piques his interests. A lot of problems Goh has with others could easily be solved if he simply talked less and listened more.
  • Barring Chloe actively refusing to open up to him, Goh constantly had a hard time listening to what she wants from him since he's so laser-focused on other things like her "no longer being interested in Pokemon anymore". What got Chloe on the Train was her asking him where he was when she needs him, hoping he'd get the hint to just stay with her for once. But he dismissed her concerns by boasting that he wasn't at school because he was off to chase his childhood dream, something she lacked (translation: "Find a dream and I'll support you your endeavors"). It's only through Gloria destroying his rose-tinted glasses does he realize the truth. He's the one who never gave a damn about his friend until she vanished from his life.
  • He refused to let Parker bring up his thoughts about Augustine fully trusting Alex Shepherd, partly because of Parker revealing the twist to Silent Hill 2, so he and Gloria told him to shut up and let them do all the talking, despite Parker desperately trying to warn them of the dangers ahead. The next chapter makes him realized he royally messed up when Parker tears him and Gloria apart for being no better than Chloe's classmates in not considering his feelings and only see him as nothing more than a dumb baby who can't do anything right after they told him that he should talk to people and they'll listen to everything he says a few chapters prior. And they told Augustine (who had no idea of the game series as a whole and Yuri only knew the basis of 2 due to his utter fear of the franchise) to put his full trust in the guy who can potentially turn into Pyramid Head without actually looking it up online first!
  • It turns out this trait nearly caused him to die when he was younger. He was so excited to capture a Vivillon for Chloe, he refused to listen to her when she reminds him not to go into the river three times, instead snapping back at his friend and accusing her of being too scared to find a dream like him. He proceeds to jump, slips on the rock, nearly drowns, gets a fever, and it's only thanks to Chloe dragging him to safety that he didn't die of his foolishness.
  • This trope is Chloe's biggest fear that would ultimately push her to suicide. As she tells Goh in the Harvest Moon Car, she already sees herself trying to call him one more time to have him listen to how she scared she is of throwing her life away because she'll never outrun her reputation as the girl who stupidly tackled a Gengar and to just tell her she'll be okay and he would promise to be there for her like a good friend would. But instead of feeling concerned for her, she's already foreseen him not giving a damn about Chloe ready to kill herself nd would interrupt her to focus on his expedition and Ash, "promising" to call later before hanging up. She would ultimately jump off the school's rooftop because she realized no one would be there for in such a crisis; especially not her "friend". The real Goh immediately screams he would never be that apathetic jerk and vows to find a way back before Chloe took her life, breaking down in tears over learning that Chloe always saw him as an insensitive, self-centered jerk.
• No Social Skills: He does not do well with people at all due to his obsessions with Mew, unable to listen to what others are telling him, subconsciously not wanting to make human friends after one boy couldn't make it due to falling ill at the most inopportune moment, and lack of mentors who give him the time of day to teach him to be social. Thankfully, he learns to get out of this due to Victor and Gloria's support.
  • The result of him being "abandoned" by Tokio, having workaholic parents who don't do anything to get their son a social life, never bothering to confess what was bothering with him — to the point of telling the only person who was by his side to shut up — and not caring about making friends at school means Goh is unable to properly express his problems and his blunt way of speaking constantly gets misinterpreted.
  • He is unable to read the room or actually see Chloe is having trouble despite seeing her every single day. Victor and Gloria are in disbelief that it never crossed his mind to actually talk to her and ask how she's doing, at least have her do something then be stuck in the Institute, or suggest something not related to Pokemon no matter how many times she said "No" to him. And the only thing Goh "knew" about his friend at that point is "she's just not into Pokémon anymore", making it sound like that's all he cared about. He also was gullible to the Bitch in Sheep's Clothing act his classmates put on him for months until he saw Chloe lose it during the paint-can incident and them boasting about how much they had fun hurting her.
  • He doesn't understand when you give someone a birthday gift, you don't leave it at the front door and walk away without even saying a quick hello or wishing the recipient a gift a Happy birthday, with Parker noting Goh didn't even bother to look in the window or knock on the door to check on Chloe herself to see that she was all alone with her family. Though in Goh's defense, he wasn't even invited to the party at all and was under the reasonable assumption Chloe was celebrating with friends, and would've gladly stayed over had she just told him otherwise. Chloe admits that she did want to invite him, but refused since she assumed that his hunt for Mew was more important than hanging out with her.
  • When he proclaims he doesn't want friends to her when Chloe's the only person who actually goes to his birthday, as his parents were too busy to celebrate once again, what he really said was "I don't want lots of friends; I'm fine if you're my friend, Chloe."
• No Sympathy For Grudge Holders: Downplayed. He hated Tokio for the longest of times just because Tokio didn't show up one time like he promised, and convinced himself that friendship with other people was absolutely pointless. However, Victor and Gloria are sympathetic to him, and when Chloe finds out, she doesn't hold him against him (despite Tokio being the source of Goh's frosty attitude towards her for the past three years, and to the point Goh told her to shut up about asking him what happened). The only one who hates him for this excuse is Parker, since this revelation three years later and after his sister has shut off all communication at the time makes Goh look like a complete hypocrite for how he whined about a boy he knew for a single afternoon but constantly chose to ignore his sister since she's "not Tokio", but he's quick to come to his senses and realize Goh was just a kid who didn't know better.
• Non-Action Guy: In comparison to Ash being a Pokémon Champion with the power of aura, Chloe knocking baddies out with a pipe, and even Tokio gaining special training when he gets back on the Train, Goh is behind both as a Pokémon battler and even as a physical one. What he does have is the moral support: he tells Ash to head off to Alola to fight Rainbow Rocket, he gives Tokio the courage to get back on the Train and reunite with White Gestalt and it's his Tough Love treatment that gets Chloe to wake up from her selfish attitude and start working on herself. Take note that in the climax of the Cyan Desert Car, he does nothing to get involved in the action: Ash punched Sara in the face when she implied that his mom is on the chopping block, Talia uses Yamper to stop UnCerise and even kicks him in the face, Parker tried to stop Sara from using the Unown, Victor and Gloria use their Pokémon in the battle, his classmates pull UnCerise off of Talia because she didn't deserve to die for their stupidity, even Asher and Specter fight off the wannabee queen. As for Goh? He just...stands there and presumably gets his Pokemon to aid Chloe.
• The Not-Love Interest: Goh and Chloe are close friends, but Goh never got the hint to be thankful for Chloe's companionship for years, especially when "Firefly Funhouse Car" had him demand Chloe to never abandon him (translation: don't be like Tokio "betraying" me). Chloe eventually grew upset and angry how she's not his "perfect partner" like Mew or Tokio, always delivering homework and gifts that he never fully appreciates either due to him not being interested in them or projecting his hatred over another person she has no clue about. The reason why she insisted on going on another ghost adventure was because that's how he acts towards her. He always drags her along for the ride, and does whatever he thinks is fun while dismissing other people's concerns. After learning of Chloe ready to kill herself, Goh has to finally tell her this thinking was wrong and how he was such an idiot to not confess this sooner. He liked her as the kind and gentle girl she always was, and only wanted her to move forward and find a goal in life. As he words it, he didn't wants lot of friends. He only wanted her.
• The Oath-Breaker: Deconstruction. Goh not being able to keep a promise with Chloe is essentially the only thing most people know about him that doesn't come from Chloe's mouth, and even then, no matter what he does, people will always bring up his inability to keep a promise even when the context doesn't call for it. This is due to Chloe never expressing why it's a problem for her.
• Oblivious to Hatred: Due to his constant no-showing at school and focus with Ash/Pokémon, it takes him a long time for him to realize a lot of people hate him — especially his Childhood Friend. By the time Chloe runs off, he starts learning how much Chloe resented him for never being there when she's all alone and in desperate need of someone to listen to her before she kills herself, and how his classmates could give a Raticate's ass about his existence and dreams. "Firefly Funhouse Car" has Goh completely unaware at how Chloe is rightfully pissed off that Goh broke his promise to stay safe to get his Lugia footage and decided to jump onto their back, regardless of how dangerous that stunt could've gone. Instead, he dismissed her rage with him saying to not worry because he's safe now and his "new friend" (Ash) will do the worrying for him. Though ultimately subverted for good when Chloe and Goh finally talk things out in the Harvest Moon Car, and she tells Goh in spite of everything that happened between them, she never truly hated him.
• Oblivious to Hints:
  • Unless you tell it to him straight, Goh won't comprehend what's going on outside his own personal bubble. And even if you do tell him, he still might not get the hint or respond in a way that makes things even worse. Goh admits in the Ninjala Car that it takes multiple tries for him to finally understand what's going on, and that's completely on him.
  • Chloe is insistent that Goh comes back to get his homework or at least work on assignments with her. It takes until someone tells Goh that he's close to dropping out at school and Chloe ready to kill herself in Act 2 for him to realize that it's her way of saying, "Please spend more time with me".
• Oblivious to His Own Description: Hates Tokio from the bottom of his gut for being such a "no-show" just because Tokio didn't arrive one afternoon. He himself has no idea that he's called a "No-Show" by his classmates for only arriving for tests, and he's technically a no-show in Chloe's life, due to him constantly breaking promises to meet up with her on time or never properly thanking her for being by his side.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten:
  • Goh's big boasting how he has a dream and Chloe doesn't is one of the things Chloe chooses to remember most about him, as it made her believe he just doesn't care about her to see she'd rather not have everyone know she failed in giving Ash a tough battle or his dreams are of more importance than the fact she has no one to talk to or she's on the verge of ending her life.
  • The Lugia stunt. Neither Tomie nor Chloe see it in a positive light. Rather they saw it as Goh being completely reckless and showing little to no concern about how much danger he would've been in if it all went wrong.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • A memory/nightmare in "Firefly Funhouse Car" reveals that a younger Goh demanded that Chloe never asks him about Ilex Forest. So something must've happened when the following chapter has Goh texting that he went back to Ilex Forest and wants to talk to her about it.
  • Goh, at least in Chloe's eyes, doesn't care about her enough to keep a promise or actively listen to her problems unless it involved a Pokémon or her being interested in them. So the fact he personally asked what happened in the camping trip when they were younger is a complete shock to her. He also breaks down in screams and horror about how Chloe detailed her suicide, and his vow to actually stop her instead of focusing more on his research and dream of Mew, to the point he would demand that Ash fly him back to Vermillion City shakes Chloe to her core, because she was always told by her classmates that she was never important to Goh's life like Pokémon are, Goh always loves spending more time with Ash then with her, and "Firefly Funhouse Car" reveals how he would rather watch a Coronation battle and capture Pokémon than go back to do homework with Chloe so she can finally go home and eat dinner.
  • Goh doesn't like going to school except for tests and barely cares about Chloe being his homework delivery person (or as he words it, "Thanks, not that I need these or anything"), even confessing to Sara that he never thanked her because "it's just homework". The fact he vows to go back to pick up all of Chloe's assignments, and actually wants his homework assignments for once, is a big shock for Chloe.
  • Finally, Goh has a bad habit of never being able to give a proper apology, mostly apologizing through half-hearted texts with promises he isn't able to keep and never understanding why Chloe gets so pissed at him even though he also forced Chloe to stay by his side without explaining why. When he learns of Chloe's suicide stems because he can never promise to come back to her before she takes her life, he deeply apologizes for how he never supported his friend and vows to come back for her, putting Chloe over his dream .
• Opinion Flip Flop: When he first hears about his Pokémon drawing lots to punch Chloe when she comes back, he actually understands what they're trying to do and allows it, if only because Chloe will have to face some sort of karma for all the crap she pulled when she gets home. One chapter later, he suddenly decides this is not only a terrible thing to do, but his Pokémon deserve to be read the riot act for wanting to hit Chloe when she comes back, even going so far as to claim this could retraumatize her despite Chloe having been through far worse stuff on the Train by then. He ultimately decides to allow them to beat her up if they wish, but on the condition he supervises them in case things get out of hand (with Chloe accepting this as part of her atonement).
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Goh is skilled in many areas, but his friends end up being more badass than he. Ash is a better trainer, being the Alola Champion and all. Victor and Gloria's Pokémon are fully evolved and also have been research fellows for much longer, with Victor implied to be a better catcher than Goh is. Meanwhile, Chloe and Tokio have gone through intense training across the Train to kick ass, with Chloe soloing Sara with nothing but fire and a donut holer while Goh can only stand there doing nothing except ask his Pokémon for support.

P - Y

• Parental Neglect: His parents are so busy with their work they don't have time to teach Goh how to be more social and don't even know what his favorite food is. It's later revealed they intentionally shut him in his room both for his safety and also because they don't want him and Chloe to be friends after a previous camping trip caused him to almost drown. While Goh initially doesn't see anything wrong with this, he starts realizing he's been too oblivious for his own good and tells his parents to start working on themselves.
• Pet the Dog: Downpplayed in that Goh isn't evil as he is more oblivious to anything not Pokemon, but despite him not understanding what was wrong with Chloe and his insensitivity, he did buy her a book she wanted for her birthday and spent three whole days searching for her when she initially disappeared.
• Platonic Declaration of Love: In the Harvest Moon Car, Goh finally confesses he loves Chloe...or rather, he loved the kind and gentle side of her who was always doing her best to be by his side when he had no one else. He spends most of Part 4 tearfully stating he would've come back to save Chloe before she killed herself and apologizes for how he never took the time to understand her pains and keeping himself closed off from her for years.
• Poor Communication Kills: Goh's biggest flaw stems from how he doesn't properly express what he wants nor does he recognize how his words can hurt others.
  • Goh admits he should've been better about what he said to Chloe and taken her needs into consideration; when he said Chloe lacked a dream that fateful night, he was trying to say "Let's go search for a dream together and I'll support you." Instead, Chloe took it to mean they couldn't be friends if she didn't have an actual goal to aspire to, and blew up as she usually does. Moreover, she took his words of thinking she can never be anything if she was herself; quiet, aloof, a loner, says "No" to everything, but rather a badass warrior who can take on anything without running away...when all this time, Goh always loved her kind and gentle self who supported him.
  • Zigzagged in regards to what happened on that infamous day in the rain. His fallout with Tokio was based on him not only assuming the worst in the Cianwood City boy, but also because he never told his parents what happened and kept it bottled up because no one would ever understand he was betrayed, which led to his fallout with Chloe and disregarding her promises as nothing. Harvest Moon Car later explains he did tell his parents of being left in the rain...but they took it the wrong way and forced him to be sheltered to "protect" him. Moreover, he never told Chloe about Tokio until the Train picked her up (as in three years later), so it only made her feel like she was never a good enough friend to him no matter what she did. For example, when Chloe tried to give him a homemade Mew magnet for his eighth birthday, he snapped at her saying it wasn't the real Mew/"perfect", when he was really hurt over Tokio not coming to celebrate.
  • Despite actively trying to text Chloe for two months, it never seemed to cross his mind to tell this to either Talia (Chloe's mother) or Professor Cerise (his boss and Chloe's father) to do the same thing. To be fair, he had no idea if it would work at that point (as the other passengers at the time had left before Infinet was created and Chloe was deleting his texts just to be a jerk). It also takes until the story starts for him to talk to her little brother, instead of going to the boy when he's in need of someone to help him work through his emotions of his sister running away from home.
  • Before Parker can fully explain why Sycamore shouldn't put his faith in Alex Shepherd (because Sycamore didn't get the hint of London warning him to not trust the soldier and Yuri's knowledge is only limited to Silent Hill 2, thus he didn't know Pyramid Head was a Recurring Extra. Chloe learns of the conversation later.), Goh and Gloria quickly tell him to be quiet and tell Sycamore to trust the guy, jokingly offering Parker some ice cream if they happen to be wrong. One chapter later, Parker snaps at everyone by saying Alex could potentially turn into Pyramid Head, with an internet search later confirming it. Guess who owes Parker ice cream?
  • On the last birthday they celebrated together, Chloe asks why he didn't invite anyone else (it was only her and Parker celebrating, and his parents were busy with work again). He just replies with "I don't want friends", which Chloe mistook as "I only want Mew." When Goh hears this statement in the Harvest Moon Car, he finally clarifies what he actually said was, "I don't want lots of friends because I only want you, Chloe."
  • In the Harvest Moon Car, Chloe tells Goh that if he doesn't need his homework every single time, he should just tell her so she can save her sanity from how she's always bullied for being his chore girl and she could just tell their homeroom teacher to send the assignments online. Goh clarifies that he never understood how important his homework was until he finally learned that Chloe was the only person who ever gave a damn about his education.
• Privileged Rival:
  • Subverted; Goh isn't any more "privileged" than the average research fellow, as being allowed to go out and help Professor Cerise research certain Pokémon outside of Vermillion City is one of his job requirements. But in the eyes of Chloe and Parker, it looks like he's getting away with a lot and being handed things on a silver platter, as he never goes to school except for testing, and his job lets him get closer to his dreams of catching Mew. Chloe and Parker later understand that they misinterpreted this and apologize.
  • Zigzagged with his homework situation, given that Miss April had a flawed system of asking someone to deliver his homework instead of asking if it would be better to just email the assignments to him. This ends up mentally draining Chloe for being reduced to his delivery girl and having little to no help since the other classmates could give a Rattata's ass about him.
• The Promise: Like in the anime, he makes it a promise to come to school for his tests. However this is only when he's a student of Miss April which became null and void the minute she got fired. He doesn't have this promise to his new homeroom teacher, who actually wants Goh to attend classes more often and get his own homework sheets rather than burdening someone else to do his job after being away from school for two months.
• Properly Paranoid:
  • One of the main reasons why Goh decided not to make human friends anymore was because he became convinced they would ultimately ditch and abandon him, while his Pokémon would at least stay by his side. The story gives no shortage of people doing exactly that, whether directly or indirectly, in the form of Gloria and Victor, Trip, Parker, Chloe, and so on, Yet through all of this, Goh's Pokémon have stood by him no matter what. Even their most "heinous" action, getting in line to assault Chloe when she comes home, was done to avenge their trainer and how he's been essentially denied the chance to get back at the girl who turned his life into a living hell just because he wasn't being her personal manservant.
  • One of the reasons Goh tells his Pokémon off for wanting to attack Chloe is that it might result in her ending up back on the Train or killing herself. True to form, the latter is what is about to happen in the end of the Harvest Moon Car, and Chloe sarcastically remarks how she'll clean her neck, which is a Japanese euphemism which means 'to 'prepare for execution'', when she hears this.
• Psychological Projection: Something that's never addressed in the story is how Goh's actions toward Chloe — like making her promise to never abandon him — could easily be read as him projecting his feeling of being "betrayed" by Tokio onto her, out of a fear she would eventually get tired of him and abandon him as well. An example of this is the time a younger Chloe tried giving Goh a handmade Mew magnet for his birthday. Instead of being thankful, Goh whines that it's not perfect and he hates it...because he was upset that Tokio wouldn't come to his birthday party.
• Rage Breaking Point: After he gets told by Victor and Gloria on how his inactions made everything worse for Chloe and he finally gets a phone call from her, who is about to call him bad friend and claim that everything was his fault, Goh flips out and tells her she's also at fault for the communication problems because she never bothered to say anything that could've mitigated her issues, and he and Ash did try to reach out to her multiple times and she refused every single time while never bringing her own suggestions that they would've been willing to accept. Thankfully, Chloe is aware she messed up and apologizes for her mistakes.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: While going back to Kanto with Ash, Goh makes the statement that if Chloe can't figure out how to apologize, she's never coming back and is going to be stuck on the Infinity Train forever. While he is correct in the fact Chloe's never leaving the Infinity Train if she doesn't change, her inability to apologize isn't what needs to change, but her constant refusal to accept any responsibility for her actions and using her bad home life as an excuse to hurt others.
• Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Like in the anime, he is really good at Pokemon research, but it's counter-balanced by him having equally bad social skills, a lot of them contributing to the problems he and Chloe had throughout the story.
• Screen Name: He goes by Lets_Goh in chats.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Comes dangerously close to outright quitting being a research assistant when the situation at the Cerise Institute just keeps getting worse without any sign it'll get better anytime soon. It takes Gloria calling everybody stupid idiots for him to reconsider.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: As Psychological Projection explains, he pushes Chloe away because he's afraid of being hurt by a friend like what Tokio "did" to him, and thinks Chloe will eventually get sick and tired of him, too. Guess what three years later...
• The Shut-In: Enforced by his parents. After he was betrayed by Tokio and gotten a cold from it, and a near-drowning incident in Kalos had his other friend care more about having an adventure instead of whether or not he was okay, Kurune and Ikuo decided to keep him in his room (unless it's for testing days, which Goh goes to school on a personal promise) to keep him safe. Unfortunately, this heavily stunted his emotional skills even after he met with Ash, to the point his ill-thought out "motivational" statement to help Chloe find a dream to chase caused her to get on the Infinity Train.
• Single-Issue Psychology: As Parker bluntly points out, all of Goh's problems with not making human friends, his isolation, and obsessing over Mew stem from a boy he only knew for a couple of hours not able to come out to play with him. Goh always blamed Tokio for why he holes up in his room, barely goes to school, and never saw how Chloe (who he's known for years) was suffering even when the evidence is right in front of him, and went as far as to make her shut her mouth and never abandon him out of a fear she'll leave him as well. Gloria tells Parker that of course the boy wasn't going to know all of this was going to happen because of Tokio since he's just a kid who didn't have the emotional intelligence or guidance to understand the connections and never bothered to open up about his issues in the first place.
• Smarter Than You Look: Socially, as few would argue Goh doesn't know fields that he usually focuses on. At first glance, it's easy to see Goh as a boy without any social skills as a result of choice, circumstance, and chance of birth, but he often has a better read on things than the vast array of other characters in story who tend to be tangled up in their own issues and biases (such as his parents, other train survivors, and Chloe herself.)
• Sore Loser: Goh's reaction to losing to Hodge in his first ever Pokémon battle was to whine how he hates battling and he'll stick to capturing Pokemon from now on, running away from Ash out of spite. It took watching Ash fighting with Mr. Mime against Hodge to change his mind.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Because Parker doesn't wield the Unown and Sara has no reason to single him out as a torture victim, he never gets hit with the nightmare therapy from BT and thus won't enter the Train.
• Stopped Caring: By the time Act 2 has started, Goh has gotten so sick and tired of trying and utterly failing to convince people to give him a chance and not write him off as a helpless asshole that he doesn't bother trying to defend himself; when reading his Pokémon the riot act over allegedly wanting to punch Chloe in the face, he asks them to punch him since he's also a hypocrite when it came to their concerns before walking off, completely tired of this mess.
• Strong Girl, Smart Guy: The Smart Guy to Chloe's Strong Girl. Goh is a Brilliant, but Lazy boy when it comes to his classwork, capable of only going to school for testing once ever few weeks and smart enough to teach his classmates how to correctly do their assignments, while also being genuinely enthusiastic about Pokemon research and good with tech.
• Super Gullible: A combination of his focus on Mew and his parents' decision to shelter him in his room means he'll believe anything and everything that doesn't revolve around his interests and think nothing else of it. He naturally assumed everything was pecha keen with Chloe because she never told him about her problems in the first place. "Firefly Funhouse Car" shows he was fooled to believing his class liked him by "conveniently" asking for his help whenever Chloe tried to talk to him.
• Supporting Protagonist: For Chloe's arc, as his actions and bond to her is a key part in Chloe's own growth and affects his own as well.
• Survivor's Guilt: A variation. He confesses to Juran in Harvest Moon Car that he feels bad that he's safe but Tokio and Chloe got pulled onto the Train, since he's at fault for their problems — he completely brushed off Tokio as a traitor without showing concern at how guilty Tokio felt for not keeping a promise, and it's his damning words and inability to listen to Chloe that got her on the Train in the first place — and he had little to no guidance or ability to even express his problems.
• Take a Third Option: In the Harvest Moon Car, he can either ignore how his Pokémon wanting to beat the snot out of Chloe when she leaves the Train, or demand they stop their bullshit before she misinterprets it as hazing and has a massive Freak Out that will either get her back on the Train or end her life. He ultimately decides while they do get to beat Chloe, he's also supervising it to make sure it doesn't get out of hand.
• Take Me Instead: At the climax of the Cyan Desert Car, he asks Sara to be the one who is about to have their head caved in with a spiky baseball bat so Chloe doesn't get killed in front of his eyes. Thankfully, Asher's interference prevents him from offering his life.
• Talking Down the Suicidal: Does this with Chloe at the end of the Harvest Moon Car. While he initially chews her out for trying to kill herself for the sake of attention and over her mistreatment of him, he spends most of the chapter calming her down and assuring her how he always cared about her, fully appreciated the little things she did for him, and apologizes for never realizing this until she's about to end her life.
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine:
  • As it's eventually revealed in a flashback, Goh was an impulsive kid who rushed headfirst to get what he wanted while dragging his "friend" along as she tells him to stop, without stopping to think about potential consequences, constantly ignored people's warnings, and said whatever he wanted which ended up coming across as insensitive at best, never apologizing or ever realizing what a brat he's been. Chloe would later adopt a similar attitude to younger Goh, though instead of it being the result of childish naivety, she did this out of utter resentment for the boy, wanting him to know what it's like to deal with someone like him all the time.
  • Goh was never interested in his homework sheets when Chloe was around, whether it was Chloe delivering them or her asking to come back early to finish them with her (as he asks Sara, "Why should I [thank her]? It's just homework!"). In Act 2, he gets the harsh dose of reality that his classmates equally don't care for his homework sheets and no one has bothered to give them to him since she's been on the Train, with his new teacher demanding he picks them up for himself from now on and he begs Chloe to come back just to deliver his homework.
  • Goh paid little attention to the world around him even when it was obvious, oblivious to how Chloe felt frustrated when he never got the hint. He learns how it feels to have no one paying attention to him when his parents failed to notice his distress when his kidnapper makes a major slip-up on the phone.
• Tempting Fate:
  • When he hears Chloe going to fight the Apex, Goh says that she can't do it because she's "weak" without a Pokemon. Cut to the Cyan Desert Car when he sees up close how she's weak with her donut holer and literal firepower.
  • Played for Laughs. He catches a Snom during the Palimpsest Car arc and thinks Chloe wouldn't like it because it doesn't suit her tastes. Come the next car and Chloe is nothing but ecstatic at how cute it looks and how she can relate with how the little ice grub is alone and struggling to find themselves.
  • When he and Chloe were younger, Goh wanted to catch a Vivillon over a river. But no matter how many times Chloe warns him he'll get wet if he tries to catch it, Goh shoots her down by calling her a coward. Not only does he end up nearly drowning, with Chloe being the one having to fish him out, but she finds herself enamored by Ghost-types.
  • He and Gloria dismissed Parker's advice on not trusting Alex Shepherd and assumed he was talking nonsense, to the point they'd buy him ice cream on the off-chance that they were wrong. Cut to them eating their words the following chapter when Parker screams at them and reveals the connections of Alex Shepherd and Pyramid Head...
  Gloria: (sheepishly after Goh finally did the research) Would a mint choco ice cream make it up to you?
  • "Firefly Funhouse Car" has him dismiss Professor Cerise's worries that something is wrong with Chloe. He is so, so, SO wrong...
  • He gets questioned as to why he should ever thank Chloe for being his delivery girl because it's "just homework". Cut to him downright begging Chloe to deliver his homework...
• That Came Out Wrong: Goh means well sometimes, but his limited speaking skills make him unable to realize what he's saying until it's too late.
  • The entirety of Chloe getting onto the Train, barring how she threw his phone into a place of curry and slammed another one in his face, stemmed from Goh's innocent gestures of wanting to support his friend going wrong but not elaborating why he recorded her battle with Ash, not helping how he cheered for Ash always winning instead of comforting her, and his words that of her lacking a dream were meant to be more of a wake-up call for her to go find a dream, not saying she was inferior because she didn't have one to pursue or was never as energetic or go-getting as Goh.
  • He was trying to tell Raboot the day he was trying to learn Ember was all because he wanted to reassure Scorbunny he was okay as he was and he didn't need to overexert himself (because Scorbunny's flame was lacking), but they got into an argument because Raboot thought Goh said, "You don't need to learn a Fire move, because you're perfect as you are". And even after Goh quickly changed his mind and did figure out a way for Scorbunny to learn Ember, Raboot not only gave him the cold shoulder but also acted no better than Chloe: Aloof, withdrawn, physically punished Goh for his social issues and wouldn't even forgive him even when he tried to extend an olive branch. Goh himself admits he messed up on that one.
• There Are No Therapists: Just like in Blossoming Trail, therapy was never an option regarding his heartbreak over "losing" Tokio, to help him redirect his priorities to having a balanced social life, or to just learn how to communicate with others.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Unlike his Blossomverse counterpart, this Goh has more support and a lot less pressure on his shoulders.
  • "Firefly Funhouse Car" has Goh given a text message from Chloe stating she's doing okay, something he never gets in Blossoming Trail.
  • Gloria and Victor's presence gives him a chance to vent out some frustrations over everything that happened since Chloe left, and also allows him to grow a spine and chew out Chloe for her nasty attitude.
  • Parker eventually apologizes for how he was mean to Goh and vows to not end up like Sara.
  • The Harvest Moon Car throws a few more his way. He gets support from two students from his school who are empathetic to his troubles and Chloe even tells him at long last that she was proud of him for moving forward with his life.
• Took a Level in Badass: He's much more assertive, aware of his flaws, and can stand up for himself as he tears down Chloe's accusations on how it's (again) his fault for their friendship deteriorating.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In Act 2, Goh empathizes with Ash's problems and tells his friend if he wants to go to Alola to stop Rainbow Rocket, then do so. Harvest Moon Car is him learning how to "be kind" in the face of the unknown, be more self-aware of his bad habits, and how he finally starts admitting how he should've been a better friend to Chloe before she ends up killing herself.
• Tough Love: This is how Goh likes to express his concerns for Chloe in wanting her to start looking for a dream, although it takes time for Chloe to separate the "tough" from the "love" since Goh's communication problems means his point misses the mark.
  • His remark to Chloe about not having a dream is revealed to be this, as he was trying to give her a wake-up call to stop sitting around on her butt all day sulking and start looking for a dream. Unfortunately, Chloe misinterpreted it every way possible...
  • In their conversation in the Ninjala Car, Goh tells it to her straight that Chloe wasn't doing anyone any favors by just not talking about what was going on and it's not fair for him to get the blame for their friendship failing when she was unwilling to say anything as well.
  • Their talk in the Harvest Moon Car has Goh pointing out for all the good Chloe has done, she still slips into bad habits and acts exactly like Sara, culminating in him calling her "annoying" (which is her Trauma Button). Thankfully, Chloe ends up understanding the point and accepts the comparison.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Goh tends to cause more tragedies by not thinking before he acts.
  • How did Goh decide to stop being friends with others? Immediately believing Tokio deliberately abandoned him after they promised to meet up at a certain spot and refused to move on from it.
  • How did Chloe and Goh's friendship hit a snag? By Goh recklessly trying to catch a Vivillon and nearly drowning in the river, constantly ignoring Chloe's warnings.
• The Unapologetic: Subverted. Goh is capable of saying he's sorry, but he doesn't know how to actually make a sincere apology or make the effort to be a better friend who would actually care for Chloe, the biggest example of this being his bad habit of showing up late and then apologizing afterwards no matter how many times Chloe has to tell him to get his act together. This ultimately made Chloe believe he can never be trusted if he can give away apologies so freely but never make the changes to finally stop his bad habits. He's shown in his talks with her in the main story that he is sorry for how he's treated his friend and how his inability to recognize his mistakes has nearly destroyed their friendship and nearly led to Chloe's death. When Goh hears the details of Chloe's suicide plot, he breaks down and finally gives a genuine apology over how he's dragged her along and never considered her feelings for the longest time, and it's only then that Chloe realizes Goh is being sincere this time around. And Goh also vows to work on himself from now on, to ensure the apologies stick this time around.
• Underestimating Badassery: When he heard of Chloe going up against the Apex, he said she was insane and weak but mostly because she wasn't using a Pokemon to do so. Cut to the Cyan Desert Car as she beats the living shit out of her bully with a donut holer and some firepower all while screaming, "GET ALL NICE AND SALTY FOR ME!!!" at the top of her lungs.
• Ungrateful Bastard:
  • Subverted BIG TIME. While his past and present actions and Chloe's words would certainly make one think this was the case, Goh was always truly appreciative of Chloe and everything she did for him. However, because he didn't have anyone to help him get over losing Tokio (and Chloe herself refusing to help him out as well), he never understood how important these gestures were until Chloe vanished, and couldn't properly express his feelings to her until it was almost too late. In contrast to his parents stating Chloe and her freakishly garish red hair should drown, he's thankful for how Chloe went as far as to save him from drowning, though he does call her out for caring more about the Shiny Pumpkaboo she met than his wellbeing.
  • Played straight with his homework, however. Even after he sees Chloe being bullied just because she's the only person in his Arceus-damned school to ever pick up his sheets, he says outloud to Sara that he never bothered to thank his friend because, and we're not joking here, it's just homework.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • Goh chasing after a Vivillion when he and Chloe were younger was one of the catalysts that would cause their friendship to fracture, as he didn't listen to Chloe's warnings to not jump into a river and nearly drowned because of this.
  • If Goh didn't tell Chloe to shut up about Ilex Forest, he would've been able to move forward instead of becoming more distant from her, because Chloe would never understand why her friend became so closed off and eventually stopped seeing her.
• Useless Protagonist: While Chloe and Sara duke it out in the climax of the Cyan Desert Car, Goh is unable to help his friend and can only watch in horror. Asher and Specter are playing dumb as part of their plan before Specter gets to kick ass with Easter and Asher traps Sara in a nightmare based on her twisted desires, Talia is recovering from nearly suffocating (although she did sic Yamper on UnCerise and would even kick them in the face for good measure after Class 5-E pin him down, Victor and Gloria used their Pokémon in their own battles, Parker is strapped to a wheelchair but confronting his own shadow, and Ash has already done his best by punching Sara prior and having Pikachu electrocute UnCerise, but Goh does either asks his Pokémon to aid Chloe or try to pull UnCerise off of Talia. Even his parents got some action of their own trying to infiltrate the Cerise Institute!
• Virtuous Character Copy: If Chloe is one to Lila Rossi, Goh is one to Adrien Agreste. While they're both lonely kids who have distant parents and unwittingly allowed the bullying on their (female) friend to escalate, Goh was completely ignorant of what was going on since he never cares about going to school unless it's on his schedule, while Adrien was fully aware of what Lila was doing to Marinette but told Marinette to just "take the high road" until Season 5 has him realize how much he screwed the pooch on that one. They're both ignorant of their parents' actions, but Goh is quick to call his parents out and realize he's also responsible for what went down with him and Chloe by never opening up to her about Tokio or appreciating her kindness.
• Wants Versus Needs:
  • After Tokio "betrayed him", Goh wanted Mew to fill the void of what it means to have a friend because "Pokémon won't abandon you like humans do". But once Chloe, his Childhood Friend, runs onto the Infinity Train and his blissful ignorance is all but completely pulverized, he learns while it's okay to search for Mew and capture Pokemon, what he needs is to realize he can still be happy in the present with the people who are still supporting him, to show gratitude for the small things in life, and to not bottle up what's bugging him.
  • Harvest Moon Car has him understand that what he ultimately wanted from Chloe is different in what he needed in her. He wanted a friend who was brave and fearless/into Pokémon like Ash or Tokio and didn't give a damn for the normal things in his life, like homework. But what he needed was someone who supported him at his lowest moments and unconditionally gave him kindness even when he never understood it. And also someone to give him his homework.
• Was It All a Lie?:
  • Goh believed 100% that his classmates are nice, friendly and all around good people. Two videos later depict them pulling a Carrie on his friend (and smacking Parker's face with a paint can) and them gloating about their wickedness over how they loved destroying Chloe's life while he wasn't around, and he's absolutely crushed.
  Goh: I talked to those kids, they're from my class, too. They were...(dawning realization of horror) They lied to me...they lied to everyone...
  • He's not happy to learn his parents lied to his face about Chloe wanting to visit him to prevent them from hanging out, even if they did have a justified reason for doing so. He's also angry that they hid vital information about Chloe for two months, which he could've used to talk to Chloe much sooner.
• What Does She See in Him?: By the time Goh gets to speak with Chloe properly, he's had his face struck by a plate of curry, was left in the dark and allowed to look for her for three days straight until he got sick, and even when they do talk, she still blames him for how their relationship went down the drain. Even Goh's Pokémon don't understand just why Goh and Chloe are even friends in the first place, especially given the way she treated Goh prior to her Train trip.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: A skill, technically, but the principle applies nonetheless; Goh has an uncanny ability of being able to catch seemingly any Pokémon simply by throwing a Poke Ball at them, even if they haven't engaged in battle or noticed at all. However, not only does this ability see zero application anywhere in the story across Act 1, but whenever the ability is remembered as being present, it's typically used in the context as a negative for Goh, being yet another example of how his obsession with Pokémon has essentially destroyed his life and made him blind to what he really needed to pay attention to: Chloe. "Firefly Funhouse Car" implies that there is such a use for this — he could've become Class 5-E's Pokemon catcher if they simply asked him because his way of capturing means less casualties and he would've been too oblivious to not understand the deeper meaning of it.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Once he and Chloe finally get to talk properly and the first thing she does is try to pin the blame on him for their strained friendship again, Goh finally snaps and tears Chloe apart, calling her out over not only defaulting to blaming him for everything wrong with her life, but essentially acting like a spoiled brat because he didn't devote his entire life to catering to her whims, without ever telling him she had any issues in the first place. Chloe herself realizes Goh had every right to chew her out and apologizes for how mean she was.
    • He later gives two more in the Harvest Moon Car; one for thinking so lowly of him and and trying to kill herself just for attention, and then another, harsher one calling her out for her overall bitchy attitude and comparing her to her bully, Sarah.
  • He tells his Pokémon he is not happy over how they are planning to form a line to beat the daylights out of Chloe when she returns on the Train because it will retraumatize her and confirm she doesn't deserve to belong in the world of Pokémon, because Goh has 1) already forgiven her and 2) Chloe nearly died to save them from Sara potentially "giving" them away to their classmates and was strangled by her father before Sara decided to crush her skull with a baseball bat. He later tells Raboot he's more terrified and unsure what to do after seeing his friend nearly die in front of his eyes while he was unable to do anything. Ultimately, he takes it back and decides to let them beat Chloe up if they want, but only under his watchful eye.
  • On the receiving end, Parker chews Goh for going back on his promise to actually listen to Parker by making the boy shut up before he could warn Augustine about Alex Shepherd's connection to Pyramid Head.
• What Were You Thinking?: Chloe asks him this when they were younger, when he tried to "catch" a Vivillion by the river despite her repeatedly warning him not to, resulting in him nearly drowning.
• What You Are in the Dark: During his call with Chloe in the Harvest Moon Car, he has absolutely every reason to cut her loose for how she mistreated him. And yet, he spends the entire phone call comforting and calming down the girl, and even when he does snap at her, it's explicitly to help her instead of putting her down, going as far as to tearfully apologize for his behavior for the past three years and vowing to save her before she ended her life, a harsh cry from the boy who proclaimed that his dream was always more important than her well-being and said out loud that he never thought of thanking her for delivering his homework. It's at this point Chloe finally realizes how nasty she's been acting, and how she misjudged Goh as a person.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Just like Chloe, his parents are such workaholics they're almost never home. Unlike Chloe, this is typically used as a point against him, with people pondering why he couldn't see how Chloe was suffering when he was going through the same thing as well. While Goh initially was okay with his parents not having time for him, Harvest Moon Car has the pedestal shatter after he learns how far they would've gone to keep him ignorant from the world and Chloe.
• White Sheep: He's the only good egg in his family, as his parents resented Chloe after one misstep and Tomie is furious at how Kurune and Ikuo could care less if Chloe died. For all of his many, many flaws, Goh is a good person deep down and was more oblivious due to his own goals or because no one told him how to properly behave, and he learns to be better, be kind, even when everything falls apart.
• Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Played straight but then ultimately subverted. At first, it seemed as if Chloe hated Goh simply for not being more appreciative of what she did for him, but she later admits she was always truly proud of him for having a dream and always thinking for himself, but struggled to convey that to him.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
  • He gives Ash some advice in this form, saying how just because the whole thing with Chloe went down the drain, doesn't mean he's completely useless and unable to do anything to save the day. This ends up working, as Ash decides to teleport to Alola in order to turn the tide of battle against Team Rainbow Rocket.
  • Chloe tells him he was better than she ever was in the Harvest Moon Car, actually trying something new while she was afraid to open up again.
• You're Insane!: Says this to Gloria when she makes a Mii Fighter based on Chloe for Goh to vent his frustrations on and later says Chloe is the insane one for wanting to stop a cult (albeit he did it under the pretense that she's doing it without a Pokémon, unaware how big of a reputation she's made for herself at that point).
• Your Favorite: He loves his grandmother's cream stew with star-shaped carrots. The fact that Sara states she hates those carrots while imitating Goh is what tips Tomie off. In contrast, Kurune, his own mother thought nothing of it, even when Molly tried warning him that he was in trouble.

---

"Yeah. I think it's...I think it's time to be kind."