Characters / Dragon Ball: Goku Black

Dragon Ball Main Character Index
Antagonists
Original Series Villains (Red Ribbon Army [Cell]) | DBZ Villains (Frieza's Empire [Freeza/Frieza [A to H, I to Y], Cooler/Coola], Majin Buu) | DBZ Movie Villains (Broly) | GT Villains | DBS Villains (Goku Black, Zamasu/Zamas [Fused Zamasu/Zamas])

Note: Unmarked spoilers ahead. If you're starting the anime, do not read this page!

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Goku Black (ゴクウブラック, Gokū Burakku)

^{Click here to see his Super Saiyan Rosé form}

Voiced by (Japanese): Masako Nozawa (after hijacking Goku's body), Shin-ichiro Miki (originally)
Voiced by (English): Sean Schemmel (after hijacking Goku's body), James Marsters (originally)
Voiced by (Latin American Spanish): Mario Castañeda

"I look down on existence from a much higher perspective than you do. I witness this world, this universe and the truth of all things. That yields deeper understanding. Wisdom. The realization that all mortals should be destroyed. The one and only mistake among all divine creations. That is what mortals are. And this mistake is egregious. To shape existence into the beautiful utopia it was always meant to be, the mistake must be corrected. I will purge all mortals from existence. In place of the gods WHO REFUSE TO ADMIT FAILURE!!!"

An evil Saiyan, or entity, who calls himself Son Goku, but is known by his enemies as "Goku Black" or simply "Black", to distinguish him from the original. He looks and sounds a lot like Goku, except that he's thinner, has slightly darker skin, wears a gray gi along with a long-sleeved black undershirt, wears a single green Potara earring, and is extremely evil. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but he is in some way connected to Zamasu, the apprentice Supreme Kai of Universe 10.

Black seemingly appeared from out of nowhere in Future Trunks' timeline, and began wreaking havoc across the planet, leading humanity on the brink of extinction. This leads to Future Trunks once again going to the past to seek help, leading to a battle that transcends time and space, requiring involvement from even the gods.

Click here for Spoilers on his true identity

Goku Black's true identity is the original incarnation of the present timeline version of Zamasu, and the true mastermind behind the events of this arc. Originally the same being as Present Zamasu, this version diverged when he used the Time Ring to create a paradox where he was able to continue existing despite Beerus killing the main timeline Zamasu, whereby the Time Ring protected him from erasure. This Zamasu was therefore able to pull off the scheme that the main timeline version was foiled in: murdering his mentor Gowasu when his guard was down (killing the God of Destruction Rumshii in the process), gathering the Super Dragon Balls, using them to steal Son Goku's body. With the first phase of his scheme being completed, Zamasu, now using the name "Son Goku", embarked on the next steps of "Project Zero Mortals" by searching for a timeline where Beerus was also dead. That timeline was Future Trunks', where he began to slaughter every mortal in existence.

For the version of him that appears in Dragon Ball Heroes, see the Crimson-Masked Saiyan on this page.

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A-D

• Achievements in Ignorance: When he figures that Vegeta used anger to power up, he tries the same thing. He turns his energy beam into a scythe capable of launching a Sword Beam that can rend a slash in spacetime which he could use to summon clones. An incredulous Vegeta asks him what he just did, and Black responds with, "Good question," and muses on the level of power he just achieved is now beyond even his comprehension.
  Goku Black: To be honest, I'm not sure myself. Have I slashed a hole to another universe? Or to the distant past or future? Maybe it's a physical manifestation of the anger stewing in my own divine consciousness. All I know now is that my strength surpasses my own understanding. Its summit is higher than man or god has yet explored! Hahahahahahaha!
• Adaptational Curves: In the Super manga, Black is drawn with the same bulk as Goku. In the anime, Black is drawn more slender and less muscled compared to Goku.
• Adaptational Dumbass: Generally speaking, Goku Black in the manga is a lot less mindful and pragmatic about his enemies, and didn't have a particular reason as to why he didn't seek out immortality, something his counterpart lambasts him for.
• Adaptational Karma: Happens to him twice.
  • In the anime, Black is an Invincible Villain who never lost a fight and a Karma Houdini who fused with Future Zamasu so he never paid for his crimes as an individual. Manga Black isn't so lucky. He gets beaten and humiliated by Vegeta twice and driven into a Villainous Breakdown.
  • In the Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 adaptation of the saga, the rift in time he created with his scythe became his undoing as Trunks managed to gather energy from the different timelines through it, killing Fused Zamasu on the spot.
• Adaptation Personality Change: There are a lot of differences between Goku Black in the anime vs. the manga to the point that they can be classified as different people:
  • In the anime, Black is a Smug Super that always stays calm and never loses his composure, even when he started to lose against Vegeta. On the contrary, in the manga, he is more prone to lose his composure the moment things don't go his way, such as Goku and Vegeta appearing in the future, and he goes into a Villainous Breakdown when Vegeta gains the upper hand. He is also more prone to holding the Idiot Ball, like him sparing Future Trunks for the sake of fighting him and to gain better control of Goku's body. Basically, Black in the manga acts more like his true self, Zamasu with Goku's battle lust, while Black in the anime behaves more like a mixture of Goku and Zamasu's personalities. Namely, Black has Goku's calmness.
  • His demeanor is also different between the two versions. In the anime, Black wears a Mask of Sanity and acts polite to those he slaughters and demeans. He will also compliment his opponent if they manage to impress him, although this is usually only reserved for Goku. Manga Black doesn't bother to hide how Ax-Crazy he is, openly relishes in his sadism, and doesn't think highly of anyone except himself. Manga Black also tends to shout and is a bit of ham, while Anime Black is a Soft-Spoken Sadist who almost never raises his voice, and when he does it's on the Cold Ham side. Another big different between the two is how they react to pain. Anime Black is a straight Combat Sadomasochist who giggles and smiles when hurt since getting injured makes him stronger. Manga Black gets stronger from being hurt too, but he doesn't like it.
  • This is also reflected in his fighting style. Manga Black fights more like a brute, is more aggressive, and his eyes as a Super Saiyan Rosé have a dark outline like Majin Vegeta. He also prefers to beat his opponent down with pure force instead of using a specific style. In comparison, Black in the anime fights with an air of elegance and indifference which is reflective in his Super Saiyan Rosé form that is drawn more refined and ethereal even compared to Super Saiyan Blue. He is also more flamboyant, talking about how beautiful his Super Saiyan Rosé is, and he tends to go for quick critical hits instead of just beating his opponents into submission.
  • It is hinted in the manga by Goku that he's a Manipulative Bastard who is just using Future Zamasu and has no real kinship towards him. Given Future Zamasu's freak out and how Black called him useless, it probably has a grain of truth. In the anime, Future Zamasu and Black are a straight up team who has undying trust and care in one another.
  • Similar to Fused Zamasu, he sees killing the old gods as a plan to bring "peace" to the multiverse since the gods would never understand his ideals. When he tells Goku what he has done, he only takes pride in how powerful his body is to do such a task. When he tries to kill Gowasu for the third time it's done in a matter-of-fact manner and in a way that would cause instant death since he still seems to have some level of respect for his old master. In the manga, Black uses killing the gods as a Badass Boast and declares himself as justice. He also gleefully impales Gowasu with a huge grin on his face after he seemingly accepted Gowasu's peace offering to make amends. To add further salt to the wound, he brags to Gowasu while he's dying about all the times he killed him.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • His dynamic with Future Zamasu. In the anime, Black is the calm one while Future Zamasu tends to be more emotional with all his Motive Rants. He is also the one who has a Villainous Breakdown when Future Trunks nearly seals him using the Evil Containment Wave, while Black remained in control even when Vegeta temporarily overwhelmed him. In the manga, Black is the one who is more emotional while Future Zamasu is the calm one and seems to be the leader of the pair instead of the kindred spirits relationship from the anime. They even had infighting when Goku and Vegeta overwhelmed them with Future Zamasu blaming Black for everything and Black calling Future Zamasu useless when they never once fought in the anime. Even Black turning down becoming an immortal was treated as a friendly disagreement that Future Zamasu eventually accepted. They also never worked together, preferring to fight on their own in the manga, while Black and Future Zamasu are very much a team in the anime to the point that Vegeta cites this as one of the major reasons they're so hard to battle against in a straight fight.
  • His relationship with Goku is very different between the mediums. In the manga, Black never got to personally know Goku. Instead, Zamasu decides to steal his body after indirectly hearing about him from Shin and seeing Goku fight on GodTube. So when he does meet Goku, he's more annoyed and has no real personal connection towards him. They don't even fight in the manga. In the anime, however, Black very much has a love/hate relationship with Goku. He deeply admires Goku to the point of trying to copy his mannerisms, fighting style, and sees him as the only true Worthy Opponent. At the same time, he hates Goku for being a powerful mortal who can challenge the gods and for beating him in a sparring match. He despises Goku so much that he killed him and his entire family upon stealing his body out of spite.
  • His relationship with Vegeta. In the manga, Black finds Vegeta annoying and arrogant after he manages to beat him twice and he takes great pleasure using his Super Saiyan Rosé to clobber him up. In comparison, Black in the anime never takes Vegeta seriously even when he overwhelms him. To him, Vegeta is a warm-up or as he puts it 'an appetizer'.
• Adaptational Superpower Change:
  • In the anime Goku Black used his scythe to tear a hole in reality, allowing him to create constructs of himself from the energy. In Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, Goku Black actually caused a rift in time, causing other timelines and their opponents to seep out including: Turles, Lord Slug, Cooler, Broly, and Janemba who end up joining the battle.
  • In the anime, Super Saiyan Rosé is stated to be the natural result of a god with a Saiyan body transforming into a Super Saiyan, indicating that it is his answer to the standard Super Saiyan form and as such, we never see him with the iconic colors. In the manga, Super Saiyan Rosé is his equivalent of Super Saiyan Blue, and until he gets stronger, Black uses the regular, golden Super Saiyan form.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • The manga actually makes him worse. His motivation for stealing Goku's body is even more petty: he never met Goku at all, only seeing him on GodTube fighting with Hit. Manga Black was also all too happy to kill Gowasu for a third time and brag about it to his dying master, while Anime Black was professional to the point of being impersonal. On top of that, Manga Black actively tries to kill Gowasu and Shin, while Anime Black loses interest in them.
  • In the anime, however, Black not only killed Goku upon taking his body, but he also murdered Goten and Chi-Chi out of spite. In the manga version, he only kills Goku, though this could easily be a case of Pragmatic Villainy.
• Adaptational Wimp: Manga Black is far less impressive than his anime counterpart. His higher form was initially only Super Saiyan and he gets his shit kicked in by Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta. Even worse, Super Saiyan 2 Vegeta can beat back his Super Saiyan form. He would have died if Future Zamasu hadn't intervened and healed him. Keep in mind, in the anime, Black in base was able to take hits from Vegeta at full power and not take any noticeable damage. Chapter 20 mitigates this, having Black curb-stomp Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta and Goku in a similar fashion to his anime counterpart - by using his Adaptive Ability to increase in power and surpass them. He also gains Super Saiyan Rosé, although he does take a downturn in his last fight where he doesn't grow stronger after Vegeta beats him to a barely living pulp, instead choosing to whine about it to Future Zamasu.
• Adaptive Ability: He's able to evolve as he fights, engraving "battle memories" into himself. When first introduced, he's able to fight Super Saiyan 2 Goku evenly; in their next fight, not only is he able to shrug off blows from Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta in his base form, but he's also developed his own Super Saiyan form, which he dubs Super Saiyan Rosé. He even praises the Saiyan body for its ability to grow stronger from fighting.
• Alternate Self: He is this to both Future Zamasu and Present Zamasu of the altered timeline; in the original timeline, the latter character used the Super Dragon Balls to take Goku's body and power as his own. He then teams up with Future Zamasu.
• Always Chaotic Evil: How he views mortals. He sees them as failures of the gods that must be destroyed in the name of justice and nothing will stop him from that goal, not even the gods themselves, who he coldly murders. Ironically, he ended up being chaotically evil, becoming the same as he despises.
• Ambiguous Situation: For a long time, it was unclear just what his relationship to Zamasu was. They have the similar Ki, but appear to be separate entities. The heroes theorize that Zamasu created him with the Super Dragon Balls to be his servant, but Future Zamasu and Black state they're merely kindred spirits sharing a common goal. It's eventually revealed that Goku Black is an alternate version of Present Zamasu who took Goku's body and he teamed up with Future Zamasu, a native of Future Trunks' timeline.
• Ambiguously Human: Despite being a Saiyan in appearance and powers, his comments indicate this isn't his natural form and that he probably isn't a mortal. It's revealed that Black is Present Zamasu who used the Super Dragon Balls to switch bodies with Goku. So it is Goku's body, but with Zamasu's mind.
• And Your Little Dog, Too!: After pulling a Grand Theft Me on Goku and using his own body to butcher him, he decides to rub salt in the wound by killing his family. He takes great delight in telling Goku all this while he's pinned to a wall.
• The Antichrist: Zamasu was already a fallen Kai as soon that his hatred of mortals pushed him to a dark path. Then, he steals Goku's body, a Saiyan with a pure of heart, to start a rampage on a cosmic scale. His Super Saiyan Rosé, being his version of Super Saiyan Blue, which is imbued with divine ki, which further enforce him and (Future) Zamasu as the equivalents to the Christian devil.
• Anti-Climax:
  • When he's about to kill Future Trunks, he says that this is a pitiful end to a proud warrior race.
  • His first bout with Goku. Before either one of them could use their full power, Black is forced back into the time portal.
• Appropriated Appellation: Although he identifies himself as Son Goku, he never tries to correct the heroes when they call him "Goku Black." The techniques he copied from Goku are often preceded with "Black" (i.e. "Black Kamehameha"). In Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, he refers to his newest and most powerful form as Super Saiyan Rosé Goku Black.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • Future Trunks bitterly hates him for destroying the world in his timeline, while Black has a vendetta against Trunks for resisting him. He goes to great lengths to hunt Trunks down and is satisfied with trapping Trunks in the past. Black also hates Trunks for breaking the taboo of time travel that is limited only to the gods, going as far as to call Trunks a sinner and attacking the future timeline specifically because of the time travelling.
  • Initially, Black seemed to treat Goku like a Worthy Opponent, while Goku viewed him with curiosity rather than hatred. However it's later revealed that he was Present Zamasu all along, whose hatred of Goku and obsession with his power led him to use the Super Dragon Balls to steal his body in the first place. Once he had acquired Goku's body he murdered the Goku in Zamasu's body along with his family for nothing other than spite. Learning the last part pushes Goku into a flying rage and he starts viewing Black as an archenemy thereon.
    • In the manga, Black has no personal connection with Goku due to the fact that he chose to take Goku's body only after seeing him on Godtube and hearing that he killed Majin Buu, thus he is shown to be rather apathetic towards him. Goku never even fights him in this medium; that title goes to Vegeta instead who stomped Black in their first fight before Black returned the favor using Super Saiyan Rosé.
  • Also to Vegeta. While Black doesn’t really see Vegeta as one, considering him an appetiser to the main course, Vegeta grew to bitterly hate Black for what he did to his future family including killing Future Bulma and wounding Future Trunks.
• Arc Villain: He serves as the biggest threat of the Future Trunks Saga, having destroyed the world in the future. It's later revealed that he shares this role with Future Zamasu, but he is the one that started the plot by stealing Goku's body.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: He's extremely well-trained, and uses fast and effective attacks to take down Future Trunks. He is also quite smug about his power, humoring how Trunks intends to fight despite knowing that he has no chance of winning. He also dismisses Vegeta as a mere warm-up after impaling him. Even after being overwhelmed by Vegeta who spent six months in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, he calmly concludes that Vegeta's newfound strength comes from anger, and uses his own anger at the mortals and losing to Goku during their sparring match to make himself stronger.
• Artifact Alias: Even after Goku Black is revealed to be an alternate version of Zamasu in Goku's body, the heroes continue to call him Black. Eerily, even Black gets a little of this, seeing as how he simply refers to Future Zamasu as "Zamasu."
• Artificial Human: Whis theorized that Black is a dark copy of Goku created by Zamasu's wish on the Super Dragon Balls so he can have a powerful servant to help him in his crusade against the mortals, though this fails to explain why the two have similar ki. Whis was partially right. He was made with the Super Dragon Balls, but it's actually Present Zamasu from another timeline with Goku's body. They switched bodies and minds.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Despite Vegeta beating the crud out of him, he's quickly able to figure out that the source of Vegeta's newfound power came from anger. He uses this revelation to tap into his own anger and make himself more powerful.
• Ax-Crazy: It's quite clear Black is a deranged, twisted maniac who has a penchant for death and destruction. He laughs when Future Trunks punches him in the stomach before pummeling him and gives an Evil Laugh after trapping Trunks in the past, leaving him free to kill every mortal. He seems to honestly believe that a personal genocide against mortal races is a mission of godly justice, and the narrow-eyed grin of madness he takes on when espousing that belief shows that he did not come of it through sound mind.
• Bait-and-Switch Boss: The entire arc is build around defeating him and saving Future Trunks' world. In the end, the Final Boss ended up being Fused Zamasu, the fusing of Future Zamasu and Black.
• Badass Boast: He gives one upon acquiring his Super Saiyan Rosé form:
  Goku Black: What do you think of it? Quite the color, huh? In keeping with how you like to label your power levels, the name of this one is Rosé. That's right, I've now reached Super Saiyan Rosé! At last, I have not only mastered Goku's powers, I have made them my own!
• Battle Aura: He has a pure black aura with a purple glow around his body. In his Super Saiyan Rosé form, the black aura becomes purple with reddish flames and pink sparkles.
• Berserk Button: It's subtle, but Black only loses his temper when Future Trunks calls him a murderer and a thief who is misusing Goku's body. This sends Black into a Motive Rant about why Trunks is the real sinner since he abused time-travel.
• Beware the Superman: He's essentially a chilling psychopath with all of Goku's power at his disposal.
• Beyond Redemption: Even after discovering all the atrocities Goku Black has committed in the future and seeing the results with his own eyes, Gowasu still tries to reach out to him, pleading with him to use the Super Dragon Balls to fix the damage he's done. In response, Black smugly reveals that he destroyed the Super Dragon Balls to prevent anyone from using them against him and tries to kill Gowasu on the spot; it's this that finally forces Gowasu to acknowledge that Black is beyond reason and has to be stopped.
• Big Bad: While Goku Black was always the main threat of the "Future Trunks" Saga, it wasn't made clear if he was the mastermind behind the evil or just a puppet to the real villain. However The Reveal verifies that Black is actually present Zamasu, and that he was the brains behind "Project Zero Mortals" all along, while Future Zamasu was recruited by him as an ally.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: For most of the arc, Goku Black forms an Evil Duo with Future Zamasu and they cause havoc in the future together.
• Bilingual Bonus: Despite his name's first portion being solely in katakana, going off of the pinyin-on'yomi name rules, Goku Black can easily be said as "Wukong Black" if one reads the name via Chinese pinyin.
• Birds of a Feather: Due to his goals and ideals being very similar, he gets along with Zamasu extremely well in the Anime, even so much that they seem to read each other's minds and synchronize their movements at will.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Each version of his Violent Fierce God Slicer technique, sans the scythe, consists of an energy blade protruding from his hand.
• Blood Knight:
  • Much like his Good Counterpart, he loves combat. He cackles while taking a punch from Future Trunks and is excited about fighting Goku, the strongest of the Saiyans. When Goku tells him to fight all out, he says he's in no hurry and he will take his time. When Future Zamasu suggests that he should have used the Super Dragon Balls to gain immortality, he waves it off, saying that he will grow rusty and that they need his 'infinite' growth for 'Project Zero Mortals'.
  • In the manga, he analyzes the situation in Future Trunks' timeline where all the Supreme Kais, and therefore Gods of Destruction, are dead and Trunks has fled to the past - wondering if there is anyone left to oppose him. He refuses to accept the situation, as it would make things boring.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: In the manga, he falls for many of the same failings as Perfect Cell. He keeps Future Trunks alive for the sake of growing stronger and because he enjoys fighting, while anime Black tries to kill Trunks whenever he gets the chance, although he doesn't hunt Trunks as much as he should.
• Boomerang Bigot: Judging from his derogatory comments towards the Saiyans, he seems to despise them. Ironically, he is a full-blooded Saiyan. Even after it's revealed that he's Zamasu in Goku's body, he still takes part in Project Zero Mortals while being a Saiyan and a mortal himself, something Future Zamasu lampshades.
• Breakout Villain: Goku Black has easily become one of the most popular villains from Dragon Ball Super with virtually every video game after his debut featuring him, even when other Super villains aren't. As soon as the arc was over he was available as a pre-order DLC character in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2. Soon enough, he would appear in Dragon Ball: Fusions as a DLC character and he would join the base roster of Dragon Ball Fighter Z. Particularly his Super Saiyan Rosé form is highly advertised.
• Bright Is Not Good: His Super Saiyan Rosé transformation gives him bright pink hair and coats his body with a magenta aura. It extends to his attacks as well; his ki blasts often have a yellow tinge, his Black Kamehameha is light purple, and the various energy blades he uses are colored pink.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Zamasu was already a prodigy who had the potential to become stronger than Beerus but rather than actually try to better himself, he takes the easy way and steals Goku's already powerful body for himself instead. Vegeta even calls him out on this when giving Black a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
• The Bully:
  • Manga Black comes off as this since he flees from his original timeline due to being a weakling who couldn't properly use Goku's body. To get stronger, he bullied Future Trunks for over a year. When he finally meets someone who can beat him up, he whines and cries about it and only becomes smug again when he has the advantage.
  • Anime Black is also one to a lesser extent. It seems that his favorite hobby is tormenting Future Trunks as much as he can. The big difference is that Anime Black actually prefers if his opponents can fight back and overpower him, as it gives him the chance to grow stronger as well.
• Cast as a Mask: In the Japanese episodes and in the various dubs, he shares voice actors with Goku. His old self, Zamasu, had his voice work done by the actors portraying his alternate counterparts.
• Catchphrase: In the Japanese version, he tends to say subarashii, which means magnificent.
• Challenge Seeker:
  • While he hides it better than most Blood Knights on the show, he loves to be challenged and will show boredom or disappointment if he isn't pushed. He's all but giddy to fight Goku since he sees him as his only Worthy Opponent, while everyone else are side-dishes. Part of the reason why he doesn't want immortality is because being unable to die take the challenge out of battles. Surprisingly for the villainous versions of this in Dragon Ball, he actually likes it when he's on the losing end, since it gives him the opportunity to push his limits and boost his powers even further than he would otherwise.
  • Manga Black is also this, but he's closer to Cell and Super Buu in this regard. He only likes fighting people he knows he can beat. Once he's overpowered, he starts to whine.
• Character Name Alias: He introduces himself as Son Goku.
• Cessation of Existence: His very soul was erased along with Future Zamasu’s after Future Zeno erased Infinite Zamasu from existence.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Much like Frieza, it's his fighting style causing physical pain to his opponents. Among his most prominent techniques include traversing or cutting his opponents with his hand.
• Cold Ham: Most of the time, his speech and voice are quite calm and soft, while at the same time carrying a lot of weight, like his entire monologue after transforming into Super Saiyan Rosé is all about how beautiful he has become and how he's in a realm that no mortal can reach, all without him so much as raising his voice. He also declares to Future Zamasu that he will kill Goku, all with only a slight vocal change. Earlier, when he tells Future Trunks why he's killing humans, he did it with a huge slasher grin and wide-eyed with madness, and his voice didn't raise in volume.
• Color Character: He's mostly known as Goku Black.
• Color Motif: Heavily associated with the color black, even having it in his Battle Aura. It's easy to see where Future Bulma got the idea for what to call him.
• Combat Compliment: While he looks down on all mortals, he has real respect towards Goku. During their first bout, he calls Goku the strongest of the proud warrior race and compliments Goku on his strength. When he sees Vegeta turns into Super Saiyan Blue, he claps, saying how magnificent it is to see the warrior race clad in godly garbs.
• Combat Pragmatist:
  • He has no problem teaming up with Future Zamasu to take down Goku in a two-on-one fight, disabling Future Trunks' sword while he's fighting Zamasu, and shooting a Kamehameha while Zamasu have Goku and Future Trunks pinned down. When Trunks grabs Future Zamasu and is ready to blow himself up with him, figuring there must be a limit to Zamasu's immortality and that if he blows him up on a molecular level there would be nothing for Zamasu to regenerate from. Rather than letting Trunks make a potentially pointless Heroic Sacrifice, Goku Black stabs him in the back of the chest and knocks him out. Finally, although he had his fight with Goku and Vegeta well under control, he takes Future Zamasu's advice and fuses with him since they were done playing.
  • Black, despite being this trope, does subvert this in one key way, namely he doesn't want to be an immortal despite the combination of his power and having the inability to die would make him invincible. Since he loves to fight and to be challenged, he sees immortality as a hindrance since he would eventually get rusty like Future Zamasu. This later returns as a Fatal Flaw in Fused Zamasu since Black not being an immortal gimped Fused Zamasu's immortality, taking him from an immortal to simply Nigh-Invulnerable.
• Combat Sadomasochist: He takes delight in his own pain, typically letting his enemies give him a beating before he fights back. He laughs and smiles when Super Saiyan Future Trunks punches him in the stomach, and quite enjoys when Goku hits him as a Super Saiyan 2, saying how it powers him up. Goku is quite creeped out by this, calling him gross.
• Combination Attack: He and Zamasu have an excellent teamwork dynamic, so they pull this pretty frequently.
• Combined Energy Attack: He can merge his energy attacks with Future Zamasu to create an even more powerful energy blast with ease since they are the same person. Their "signature" combo attack is launching red and purple energy blasts (from Black and Zamasu respectively) that oscillate before merging into a giant fiery ball.
• The Comically Serious: Exactly one known example since he's the Knight of Cerebus for the rest of his appearance. When he, as Zamasu, summoned Super Sheron, he said the incantation "peas and carrots" with a flawlessly serious tone.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Black doesn't follow the typical formula for Dragon Ball antagonists. Unlike most villains who have quickly discerned backgrounds and simple motives like wanting to rule the world/universe or grow stronger, no one knows anything about him or where he comes from, until The Reveal. What was known was that he hates mortals and thinks getting rid of them will create a paradise. This makes him a narcissistic Knight Templar, which no other Arc Villain has been before.
• Create Your Own Villain: Because of the nature of his origins, he only exists because Future Trunks time traveled, first by saving Goku from the heart virus and then by returning to the past to get help. This lead to events where Zamasu meets and fights Goku, becomes obsessed with him, and eventually uses the Super Dragon Balls to take his body.
• Creepy Monotone: He speaks in a flat, creepily monotone voice.
• Creepy High-Pitched Voice: He is a sadistic, mass-murderer voiced by Masako Nozawa, Goku's Japanese voice actress, who gives him a soft, effeminate voice compared to Goku's high-pitched and brash voice. He also lacks Goku's hick accent and uses formal Japanese.
• Dark Is Evil: He is closely associated with the color black, and is one of the most evil beings ever shown in existence.
• Dark Messiah: Has streaks of this, as his appearance heralds the coming of an apocalypse, takes the bastardised form of a Messianic Archetype, and although he preaches good intentions behind his evil, he’s ultimately doing this to satiate his own selfish ends and lust for destruction.
• The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: Originally, Zamasu just wanted the gods to be more involved with mortal affairs so they would stop misusing the knowledge given to them by the gods. At worst, he wanted the gods to stop protecting mortals since they're not worth it. After he meets and fights Goku, however, he goes off the deep end and decides that mortals are foolish and dangerous and need to be destroyed for the peace of the universe along with the "useless" gods for allowing mortals to live. To that end, he kills his own master, take his Time Ring, uses the Super Dragon Balls to take Goku's body, and murders him and his family out of spite. By the time Zamasu (now Goku Black) reaches Earth, he's wiped out all the gods in the future timeline, is clearly insane, and sees himself as the one true god of the multiverse along with Future Zamasu. Whatever nobility he may have had in his goals is long gone.
• Deadpan Snarker: Black displays signs of this on occasion. When Future Zamasu explains he doesn't mind if Goku and Vegeta aren't listening, as he just likes hearing himself talk, Black remarks how this was "truly god-like".
• Deader than Dead: As he was part of Fused Zamasu, when Future Zeno erases him from existence, Black was also erased.
• Dead Person Impersonation: He performed a Kill and Replace on his timeline's version of Son Goku, via a Grand Theft Me wish on the Super Dragon Balls, then poses as Goku as he invades the Earth of Future Trunks' timeline.
• Defector from Decadence: He was once an upcoming Supreme Kai from Universe 10 named Zamasu. However, after losing to Goku in a sparring match and witnessing the endless cycle of flourishing and war among the mortals, he decides to abandon his godly body and used the Super Dragon Balls to take Goku's body as his own. He then teams up with his future counterpart and processes to kill all the gods in the multiverse before beginning his mass genocide against the mortals. He firmly believes that he's doing the work of the gods since they won't admit their mistake.
• Depending on the Artist: Toyotarō draws Black with the same body figure as Goku and gives him dark outlines around the edge of his eyes. He is also almost always seen smiling. The anime gives Black a slimmer build, which better matches Toriyama's currently art style, darkened his skin tone, and often draws him stoic, only breaking into smiles when he's doing or thinking of something particularly evil.
• Despotism Justifies the Means: Played With. Although he fully believes that he's doing the right thing by destroying the cities to kill all the mortals on Earth, he isn't happy about all the destruction and mourns how bad the Earth looks as he observes the ruined West City.
• Destructive Savior: He thinks he's this. He has to destroy parts of the Earth in order to eliminate the pests known as mortals, but it's all for the greater good in his mind. Still, he limits his destruction to the cities, keeping the surrounding greenery intact.
• Determinator: Very determined to hunt down every last person on Earth. When Future Trunks went back in time, he vowed that he would find him.
• Did You Actually Believe...?: He pulls this off in the manga after rejecting Gowasu's offer of redemption and stabbing him; Black outright calls Gowasu an idiot for thinking he could actually persuade him to change his ways, especially since he's already killed two different incarnations of Gowasu for the sake of his plans.
  Black: Do you really think I would hesitate to kill you a third time?
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • He didn't know about Future Trunks' Time Machine, which is why he's shocked when Trunks suddenly disappears on him when he had him dead to rights. Oddly enough, we learned later that he did know about Trunks' time traveling and it was part of the reason why he chose Future Trunks' time to attack. Although, he mostly likely never considered that Trunks would retreat to the past to get help, nor did he know what Trunks' Time Machine looked like.
  • In the Super manga, he's utterly shocked when he sees Goku and Vegeta, saying how they must've come from a different timeline since they're long dead in this world. He is also surprised by how strong Vegeta is, demanding to know what era did he come from.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • In the manga after Present Zamasu takes Goku's body using the Super Dragon Balls, he thought he could used all Goku's abilities right away. He's shocked to find out that wasn't case and he couldn't even go Super Saiyan, which is why he flees to a timeline without Beerus, Buu, or the Z-Fighters.
  • Similar to his manga counterpart, Black didn't consider the full repercussions of taking Goku's body. While he slowly gains all of Goku's power and abilities, he also inherited Goku's Blood Knight tendencies and becomes a Challenge Seeker to the point of not wanting immortality like his future counterpart. This ends up compromising Fused Zamasu's immortality, making him only half immortal.
  • His end goal to fuse with Future Zamasu once he reached the peak of his power have specks of this. While creating Fused Zamasu would undoubtedly make an extremely powerful god, he never accounted for the fact that him being a mortal would gimp Fused Zamasu's immortality.
• Dimensional Cutter: Goku Black channels The Power of Hate to gain a power up, which turns his ki Laser Blade into a ki Sinister Scythe. He then uses said scythe to slice a hole in the fabric of reality, releasing an energy that creates clones of himself. When Vegeta asks how he did that, Black admits even he has no idea.
• Dirty Coward: Manga Black comes off as this since he brags about how he murdered the gods while fighting Vegeta and how his word is now law. Goku points out that Black technically cheated since he didn't fight the Gods of Destruction and just killed the weaker Supreme Kais since their lives are linked. Black shoots back that the method doesn't matter. While Black in the anime did the same thing, he comes off less cowardly and more pragmatic since no one calls him out for 'cheating' and he didn't use the death of the gods as a Badass Boast. Also in the manga, Black chose Future Trunks' timeline because Beerus died thanks to Future Dabura killing all the Supreme Kais, Trunks killing Dabura and preventing Buu's resurrection, and Goku and the others are long dead, leaving no one powerful enough to stop him. Which makes Black look like a bully since he torments Trunks to get stronger, after he purposely avoided anyone who could have challenged him. Black having a Villainous Breakdown as Vegeta beats him up highlights this trait. Also, when Gowasu and Shin saves Future Trunks and Mai, he becomes scared that they may tell Zeno what happened, so Future Zamasu and he are ready to flee into another timeline. In the anime, Black never mentions Zeno, although it's unclear if he simply didn't fear Zeno or he didn't think he would interfere.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Part of the reason why he takes Goku's body was not only to gain immense power, but to also get back at Goku for beating him in a sparring match. If that isn't bad enough, he goes as far as to murder Goku along with his wife and son for no good reason other than spite.
• Dissonant Serenity: Made more frightening by his sadistic, psychopathic behavior. Because of his dispassionate demeanor, almost nothing fazes him. He can murder people by the hundreds and only have a Slasher Smile on his face.
• The Dragon: It was originally believed that Goku Black was a fake Goku that Zamasu created using a wish from the Super Dragon Balls, to act as his loyal servant in his plans to destroy mortals. However, this is subverted with the revelation that Black is a version of Present Zamasu who stole Goku's body, and that this Zamasu was the mastermind behind "Project Zero Mortals", while Future Zamasu was recruited to aid him.
• The Dreaded: He all but destroyed Future Trunks' world and personally hunts Trunks down. All Trunks can do is run and hide from him, even as he successfully murders Future Bulma. When Trunks does stand and fight, he gets his butt kicked, even as a Super Saiyan.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: After achieving his Super Saiyan Rosé transformation, he spends several minutes relishing in his new power and thanking Goku for helping him achieve this form of beauty. He even toys with the thought of killing Goku afterwards, believing that he can't get any more powerful until Future Zamasu dissuades him.
• Dull Surprise: This appears to be his default reaction to things that surprise him. When he goes into the past following Future Trunks' time machine, he's only a little confused and baffled when he sees Vegeta and Beerus. Even when being sucked into the time portal, he gives a mild reaction. When he sees Goku, Vegeta, and Trunks in the future, he calmly notes that he thought he destroyed the time machine and shows no other reaction besides bemusement. Even seeing Trunks' rage transformation provokes little response from him. Heck, even Vegeta beating him up and giving him "The Reason You Suck" Speech only annoys him. One of the only times he looked truly shocked is when Trunks disappeared in the time machine.

E-K

• Edible Theme Naming: Invoked by him. He chose the name of Rosé^{Etymology note} ロゼ (Roze) is the Japanese word for the French wine, not the color as the name of his transformation, Super Saiyan Rosé. Rosé is not only about the color of his hair, it's also the name of a French wine, fitting with the Gods of Destruction Theme Naming, whose job is destroying planets and evil for the sake of cosmic balance, and Black is proclaiming he is doing the justice of the Gods. In other words, he is calling himself a God with the authority to destroy all evil in his eyes. It also shows both A) How arrogant Zamasu is, considering he was a Supreme Kai apprentice, a title which is about creation and guidance, not destruction; a B) How hollow his claims of being the "true" Son Goku are as, even though he claims to give it that name "in keeping with how [they] like to label [their] power levels", naming Saiyan transformations after their color motifs, he breaks off the tradition of naming Saiyan transformations after English names for colors by instead giving it a French one.
• Epiphany Comeback: He of all people gets one. After Vegeta beats the crap out of him thanks to his six months of training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, he comes to realize what the true source of the Saiyans' power are: Anger. He surmises that Vegeta got so strong so quickly because he was angry at what he did to his son and his world. He then decides to use his own anger at the mortals, at the gods and at himself for losing his sparring match against Goku to increase his power, allowing him to create a scythe that can rip a hole between dimensions and create endless clones of himself.
• Establishing Character Moment: He makes his appearance known by killing Future Bulma without saying a word and later seemingly kills Future Mai in the same episode. When we finally see Black's face, he proclaims that he's going to kill Trunks with a huge smile on his face. For the people on Earth, when he appeared, he proclaimed that he would destroy humanity "for the sake of justice".
• Emotional Powers: After getting utterly trounced by Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta, Black reasons that Vegeta managed to turn his anger into power, so Black decides to do the same. This allows him to mold his Battle Aura into a large scythe that can cleave rifts in the fabric of space, letting him summon clones of himself that are as strong as he is and can respawn endlessly as long as Goku Black stays near the rift. Even he didn't know he could do that.
• Evil Brit: In the English Dub, he speaks with a spiffy British accent as a Super Saiyan Rosé.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He is fully convinced that mortals cannot learn from their mistakes and do not even want to learn. He is also convinced the gods are just as bad since they refuse to interfere with mortal affairs. It's for these reasons he believes himself to be better than everyone else and deserves to be the Multiverse's sole inhabitant.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • To Son Goku, currently providing the page image. He looks identical to Goku in appearance, shares Goku's love for combat, being challenged, are the strongest in their respective universes, and they both have the Kamehameha, only Black's Kamehameha is black and purple in color. Much like Turles before him, Black in demeanor, species and outlook is Goku's Evil Counterpart, a dark mirror of his talents, powers and beliefs. Goku grew to be a humble, pure-hearted hero who enjoys improving his skill, befriended nearly everyone he encountered, and ended up saving the universe several times over. Black on the other hand was once a young Kai who was considered to be very promising and in training to oversee the universe. However, unlike Goku, concepts such as modesty, humility, love, friendship and compassion are totally non-existent for him. Eventually, he grew to be a purely evil narcissist serving an empty justice and the biggest threat in history.
  • He is the exact antithesis of Future Trunks. Future Trunks is from a Bad Future and went back in time in an attempt to save his timeline. Black is from the present and traveled to the future with the intention of 'saving' the multiverse by further destroying an already ruined timeline. Both have also 'sinned' by time traveling, which is a taboo of the gods, but did so in the belief it is for a better cause. However, Trunks and Black's idea of this better cause are polar opposites. Trunks is willing to do anything to let the human race survive, while Black views humanity as a mistake and is hell-bent on wiping them out.
  • To Vegeta. Black's actions parallel the Saiyan prince's in his younger days, such as committing genocide and reveling in his ability to get stronger with each recovery. He also claims to take great pride in his race, but in practice disregards his kin. While Vegeta never got a chance to use the Dragon Balls, Black succeeded and became a greater threat than Majin Buu. The fact that his first victim happened to be Future Bulma really hammers the point across.
• Evil Doppelgänger: Turns out he isn't just an Identical Stranger who happens to look like Goku, he literally is Goku (or at least Goku's body) from an alternate timeline.
• Evil Duo: Goku Black and Future Zamasu are the primary villains of the Future Trunks Saga, working together to destroy all the mortals in the multiverse. Black is more the muscle and brute of the duo, who wants to gain power to the point of passing up immortality so he doesn't get rusty. Future Zamasu is the thinker and planner, wanting Black to take his time fighting Goku to maximize his growth instead of outright killing him. Despite this, they are both Ax-Crazy. This is made even stranger when Black confirms that he's actually an alternate version of Present Zamasu, meaning they're basically fighting two Zamasus.
• Evil Gloating: The guy just won't shut up about how mortals and his fellow gods are inferior compared to him.
  • Coldheartedly mocks Future Trunks after he seemingly kills Future Mai, telling Trunks he would soon join her. Also, when he tells Goku about his identity, that he stole a version of Goku's body using the Super Dragon Balls, he brags about how he killed that Goku with his own hands, and when Future Zamasu and Goku Black catches Goku in a corner, they add that Black killed Chi-Chi and Goten of that respective timeline after killing Goku.
  • He gives two epic ones to Vegeta after he transforms into Super Saiyan Rosé.
  Black: Oh, you don't understand, Saiyan. Your time is already at an end.
  Black: (after he impales Vegeta through the chest) Calling you the opening act is a weak metaphor. It's much more like...You're just the appetizer! That's right, a light introduction before I commence with the main course!
  • When Trunks obtains his Super Trunks form, he declares that he will save the world and beats down Black. To his surprise, Black gets back up and attacks him from behind, before mockingly asking, "Aw, what's wrong? I thought you were going to save your precious little home."
  • In the manga, when he rejects Gowasu's offer of redemption and stabs him, before rubbing in his face how stupid he was to believe he could try and reason with Black and work things out.
• Evil Is Cool: Invoked by Goku. When Future Trunks describes Black as looking like Goku except he wears dark clothing, Goku is dismayed that Black sounds much cooler than him.
• Evil Is Hammy: Although he is normally quite calm and subdued, he dips into this once he unlocks his Super Saiyan Rosé form, at least on the Cold Ham side. He spends several minutes talking about how beautiful he has become, how he has mastered all of Goku's power, and how he has transcended past the realm of mortals.
• Evil Is Petty: Before he was Goku Black, he was Zamasu, the Apprentice Supreme Kai of U10. After losing a sparring match with Goku and learning that he had access to god energy through his Super Saiyan Blue form, he goes off the deep end and begins a plan to wipe out all the mortals in the multiverse. After using the Super Dragon Balls to take Goku's body, he teleports to Earth and personally kills Goku who's trapped in his old body and then butchered his family. Since he goes to Future Trunks' timeline after this, there was no good reason for him to murder Goku or his family. He did it purely out of spite. And, he's even worse in the manga. He takes Goku body's and kills him with it, despite never even meeting him. He hated Goku just for being a powerful mortal.
• Evil Knockoff: Whis and the heroes theorize that Future Zamasu wished for him with the Super Dragon Balls, to not only have a powerful partner, but mock Goku with a twisted clone of himself. However, it turns out that Goku Black isn't really a clone of Goku. He is truly Goku in body, but Zamasu in mind. Zamasu used the Super Dragon Balls to switch bodies with Goku.
• Evil Laugh: He laughs gleefully after being sucked back into the future since Future Trunks is trapped in the past since he destroyed his time machine leaving no one to stop him from eliminating the humans.
• Evil Sounds Deep: While Masako Nozawa's version sounds soft-spoken and effeminate, albeit with the voice in a lower register than what she normally uses for Goku. Sean Schemmel's version is deeper in his base form in Xenoverse. Once he reaches his Super Saiyan Rosé form, he speaks with a more natural british voice, to fit Zamasu's tone in the dub. The actual anime has his voice far less deep and gravelly, but still subtly deeper than normal Goku.
• Evil Twin: An Evil Doppelgänger of Goku whose morality is absolutely contrary.
• Evil Wears Black: Like his nickname, Battle Aura, and Color Motif suggests, he wears dark colors. Although, he also wears a set of white boots.
• Eviler than Thou: In Super Dragon Ball Heroes, he easily turns Frieza and Cooler into his pawns via the Dark Dragon Balls, forcing them to attack Goku and Hearts as they were contemplating teaming up with them. When the two brothers return for revenge against him during his fight with Goku and Vegeta, he easily dominates them first by summoning Syn Shenron to take care of them before overpowering them himself.
• Expy: He is basically the canon version of Turles, Goku's original Evil Counterpart and the main antagonist of The Tree of Might. Interestingly, Goku Black's debut episode featured lettuce frequently, which was most likely a reference to Turles, who, like Black, closely resembled Goku in appearance, and even having a similar status of being pure evil. Both have similar personalities, since both are vicious sociopaths with a veneer of friendliness... although Black is more evil and deranged than Turles.
• Fallen Angel: Is a fallen Supreme Kai possessing an alternate Goku's body.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • He doesn't like Saiyans, humans, or any mortal being, calling them mistakes of the gods that need to be eliminated. He looks down at mortals like they're lower than dirt and calls death a blessing for humans. He constantly mocks Future Trunks for being a Saiyan, calling him pathetic since he's part of a 'warrior race' and is about to die so miserably.
  • Both Future Zamasu and Goku Black despise Earthlings, calling them the worst type of mortal, since they broke the time taboo. They specifically chose Future Trunks' timeline to punish the Earthlings and even says that Trunks' transgressions has awoken the justice in their hearts. How much of that is actually true is debatable since Future Zamasu and Goku Black were already on the deep end before they knew of Trunks' 'sins'.
• The Farmer and the Viper: Black pulled this on Gowasu in the manga. After Gowasu begs him to make amends for his crimes, Black seems to accept his offer and takes his hand. Not even a second later, he rams his energy sword into Gowasu's gut, calling him an idiot for thinking he would be swayed after he had already killed him two times before.
• Faux Affably Evil: Unlike Goku, he speaks in a soft, somewhat polite tone when addressing Future Trunks. His speaking pattern is actually quite formal. He also looks down on Saiyans, humans, or any mortal like they're filth, and sees death as a blessing for them. At the same time, he shows a great deal of respect towards Goku, who he calls the strongest of the proud warrior race. However, this sorta falls into faux too since he killed Goku once he took his body in another timeline.
• Fearful Symmetry:
  • When he fights Goku, this naturally happens. Most notable is when they have a Cross Counter, with each having a manic grin about the whole situation. This becomes a little unnerving since Black is Zamasu who is trying to mimic Goku to become more powerful.
  • Since Goku Black and Future Zamasu are basically the same person, they fight perfectly in-sync with each other and can read the other's movements. Vegeta names this as one of the reasons why they can't beat them in a straight fight.
• Feed It with Fire: Like normal Saiyans, he grows stronger when he takes damage. After getting injured in his fight against Goku, he celebrates that he's become more powerful than ever. By his next appearance, he's gone from being on par with Super Saiyan 2 Goku to being stronger than Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta in his normal form. He then reveals that he has his own Super Saiyan form, Super Saiyan Rosé.
• The Fighting Narcissist: Upon revealing Super Saiyan Rosé, he goes on a speech thanking Goku for helping him unlock the full potential of his body and reach the height of beauty. He also approves of Future Zamasu, who is an alternate version of him, admitting to only making A God Am I speeches to hear himself talk, calling it a 'benefit' of godhood.
  Goku Black: Go on, Goku! Rejoice! Only through me will you finally reach the pinnacle of beauty you have sought for so very long!
  Goku: I dunno what you're rambling on about, but just get on with the fight!
  Goku Black: Of course you don't, your mind is too small! Your kind is incapable of understanding the grandeur of my success and the glory of my cause! It's like staring into the sun, you cannot see! The vast beauty of my being overwhelms you! For I am a breed apart, a divine!
• Final Solution: He thinks killing all the mortals will create a utopia since they're the one failure of the gods that they won't correct. He also believes killing every single god in existence is required as well since they do nothing about mortals and would try to stop his plan.
• Foil:
  • To Frieza. While both are racists who enjoy killing and torturing, Frieza was raised to be a tyrant and his motives are purely dictatorial or for business purposes. Contrasting this, Black is an Omnicidal Maniac who was born in the light and his goal is to exterminate all mortals, causing misery, destruction, chaos and despair wherever he goes.
  • To Cell. Much like the bio-android he is a villain who traversed time to cause havoc in another period. Both have caused trouble for Future Trunks, and in both cases Trunks played a part in the villains rising to power in the first place. Both acquired the powers of Goku through some means and serve as an antithesis to the Saiyan. Both think of themselves as being superior to all other life forms, with Cell designed to be the Ultimate Life Form, while Goku Black comes to think of himself as the Top God above all other gods and mortals, especially after fusing with his future self. However the differences are, Cell is from the future and went to cause havoc in the past, while Black is from the past and creates trouble in the future.
• For the Evulz: Black takes this trope to disturbing levels. Remember when Frieza killed Namekians for fun? Black is exactly that, but worse. Sure, taking Goku's body is one thing, but using it to cut off and kill his wife and youngest son out of simple spite is another. Furthermore, with all his divine power at his disposal, he could be more methodical and erase the mortals quickly. Instead, he commits carnage slowly and kills billions of men, women and children with sadistic glee, revealing that in the end, Black is a depraved, twisted monster.
• Forgot About His Powers:
  • Played With. After managing to beat down Goku, Vegeta, and Future Trunks, the human survivors manage to rescue them using smoke canisters. Black manages to lose sight of his opponents, even though he can sense Ki. One possibility is the canisters contained tear gas which disoriented him.
  • In the manga, he only uses his Laser Blade technique twice. One when he fought against Vegeta for the first time, the second is when he impales Gowasu. He never uses this technique in any other battles.
• Fusion Dance: In Episode 64, Future Zamasu and he uses the Potara earrings to fuse.
• Genius Bruiser: He masterminds the entire 'Project Zero Mortals' first by stealing Goku's body using the Super Dragon Balls, recruiting his future self and giving him immortality before destroying the Super Dragon Balls, and killing all the gods in the future timeline. His end goal was to eventually fuse with Future Zamasu to create the powerful, immortal god Fused Zamasu to rule as the supreme god of the multiverse. His plan would've succeeded too, if Future Trunks didn't return to the past to get help. He also shows his battle smarts when he reprimands Future Trunks for fighting on blind emotion and figures out quickly how to used his rage towards the mortals to become stronger.
• Genocide from the Inside: Killed all of the gods in Future Trunks' timeline except for Future Zamasu.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: His colors heavily contrast that of Goku, his Good Counterpart. He wears black and has black ki with hints of purple, while Goku is associated with brighter colors like the orange of his gi, and the yellow of his Super Saiyan aura and ki, or the blue of his Kamehameha or Super Saiyan Blue aura. Black's Super Saiyan Rosé form is an odd example, but still qualifies considering its color is an inverse to Super Saiyan Blue.
• Golden Super Mode: According to Toriyama's notes, he has a normal gold Super Saiyan form. The anime never used it, thought the Super manga did give him Super Saiyan.
• A God Am I: When Future Trunks demands to know who he is and why he's killing everyone, he boasts that he's a higher being who has judged humanity to be unworthy. At the same time, Black also makes a point to say that he's working on behalf of the gods, not that he's one himself. However, once his identity as Zamasu is revealed, he goes into full god mode, calling himself the supreme god next to Future Zamasu.
• Grand Theft Me: Goku Black is actually Present Zamasu from another timeline who used the Super Dragon Balls to switch his mind and body with a version of Goku. And unlike Ginyu, he kills the original Goku once the switch is made.
• Hannibal Lecture: He does this in a style of a Motive Rant. After Future Trunks calls him a murderer he cruelly points out that Trunks is responsible for everything since he saved Goku's life by giving him the heart medicine. If Trunks had allowed Goku to die as history dictated, then he as Zamasu would have never taken an interest in Goku's body. He also states that he chose Trunks' timeline solely to punished Trunks for breaking the time taboo, saying that he's the one responsible for killing all the Earthlings. Trunks does not take this well.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Manga Black loses his temper very easily. He goes into rage just because Super Saiyan God Vegeta is smirking at him, saying how he hates that arrogant look. When Vegeta keeps easily dodging and hitting him, he starts screaming for him to stop smiling.
• Hated by All: Everyone hates him, and for a very good reason. The only one who doesn't hate him is his alternate timeline counterpart, Future Zamasu.
• Hates Everyone Equally: He hates mortals for being a source of evil and he hates gods for doing nothing about mortals. Basically, the only creature he doesn't hate is just himself.
• Hate Sink: The manga adaptation of Black retains the pettiness and sadism that the anime version has, but with none of the mystique and cool factor that could make him an interesting or cool villain as well as lessening or outright removing his badass credentials. Adding to the fact that he's a big brat and a bigger bully, Black in the manga comes off as a more pathetic and contemptible figure.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: He tries to invoke this by letting his Laser Blade evolve into a sword and, in the English dub, comparing his own body to a sword he wields in his mission. That he's actually a complete maniac is lost on him.
• Hidden Villain: His true identity was the Arc's Driving Question until Episode 60.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In Xenoverse 2, his rage-fuelled gash in space-time which allowed him to summon villains from other points in history is used to screw his Zero Mortals Plan over in the Final Battle, where Future Trunks uses it to call for and receive energy from different timelines to power up his Sword Of Light and strike the killing blow on Fused Zamasu's physical form.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Although originally out on a crusade to eradicate the universe of the mortals he believed were barbaric monsters, he ended up becoming the very monster he despised. He gives up his godly body to take Goku's, taking on mortal form. He then kills Goku and his family in cold blood, before killing all his fellow gods in Future Trunks' timeline, sparing only Future Zamasu who he teams up with, for the sake of destroying all the mortals. And to hammer this in even further, he deliberately goes out of his way to slowly kill off humanity just to satisfy his own psychopathic lust for suffering and death.
• Hero Killer: Among his long body count, he has killed Future Bulma, the person who built the time machine that saved the world from the androids, and severely wounds Future Mai in his debut episode. He tries to kill Future Trunks, even chasing him across time itself. He also killed both Past AND Future Gowasu, Goku (in Zamasu's body), Chi-Chi, and Goten on screen. Not to mention he also kills all the gods in every universe, except U7 since Dabura did the job for him (at least in the manga). He's also made sure that the deaths he caused are permanent, by destroying all Dragon Balls that are usually used to revive the dead. Particular noteworthy, he is one of two villains to successfully kill Goku (along with Cell), and the only one to kill Goku where the latter didn't willingly sacrifice himself.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: He gets along well with Future Zamasu despite the latter saying they're not comrades, but more kindred spirits. They live in a house together and have tea. This all makes sense once we learn that they're both Zamasu, so the only person Black likes is literally himself.
• Holier Than Thou: He believes that he knows better than the gods since he's willing to fix their mistake by killing all the mortals in the multiverse since they're too prideful to admit their failure.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Even though Zamasu was quite powerful after stealing Goku's body, he had little idea how to properly use all of Goku's abilities. Even later, as his power continues to grow, he rips a hole in reality. When Vegeta asks him what exactly he just did, Black shrugs and says he has no idea: his power has grown beyond his own understanding of it.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: He expresses this sentiment when he's ready to kill Future Trunks, calling him the last of the proud Saiyan race, and how pitiful his death is.
• Humans Are Flawed: The core of his beliefs. He views humanity as the gods' sole failure amidst all of their creations, and he must wipe them out to create a "beautiful utopia".
• Humanoid Abomination: Despite looking like Goku with a Potara earring and having a Super Saiyan transformation, his detached disdain of Future Trunks' Saiyan ancestry and unnatural powers tell a different story. He also looks down at humans, calling death a blessing for them. It later turns out that he has hatred for all mortals. We find out that Goku Black is actually Zamasu using Goku's body. He eventually goes even further with this as after weaponising his Tranquil Fury as a result of getting overpowered by Vegeta, he quickly goes from conjuring energy blades to a full-on Reality Warper.
• Hypocrite: Quite possibly the most hypocritical villain in the franchise. Where do we start?
  • He truly believes that he's doing right for the universe, by wiping out all the mortals, since they're the one mistake of the gods, and yet does not admit that he's a depraved sadist who enjoys killing people. He's just a racist serving an empty justice and proves to not only be a Knight Templar, but simply deciding to hurt people because he likes to do so.
  • Black considers Future Trunks a sinner due to his history of time travel which is forbidden by the gods. He declares that since Trunks' actions made his existence possible to begin with, he was essentially responsible for killing all the people on Earth. This is, of course, coming from someone who murdered all the other gods in the future multiverse, which is also likely forbidden, and even murdered his own master to advance his goals. He also killed mortals, something that only the Gods of Destruction are allowed to do, while he is a Supreme Kai. On top of it all, his very first act upon stealing Goku's body was to go straight to Earth and personally slaughter Goku and his entire family just to be a spiteful dick.
  • He looks down on mortals and thinks they all deserve to be destroyed, yet he steals Goku's body in order to attain a perfect form. The irony seems to be lost on him at least until Future Zamasu openly mentions it while talking outside their little house. He also murders all the Supreme Kais in the different universes, which killed all the Gods of Destruction. So while he's preaching about how the gods are righteous and mortals are their only mistake among all their creations, he has no problem killing even them to further his goals. Even more, in the manga, he let mortals like Future Dabura and Babidi kill Shin. Then, after Future Trunks flees the timeline and with all the gods in his timeline dead, he becomes bored without anyone to oppose him — just like how he and Zamasu believe mortals can't go on without war and destruction.
  • Manga Black hates Vegeta because he finds him an arrogant prick. This is coming from Black who bullied Future Trunks for over a year and rubbed his face in about him being weak. He also declares himself to be beyond any mortal after he obtained his Super Saiyan Rosé form.
• Hypocrisy Nod: Black is aware that he's a god in his hated enemy's mortal shell working with a version of himself who is still a god, but considers it necessary. And when he and Future Zamasu fuse, Fused Zamasu lets it known that by taking Goku's body for his own, he will never forget the mistakes of mortals and gods.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Does this a couple of times in the anime, which makes him undeniably smug. Partly justified as he gets more powerful the more he gets injured due to being a Saiyan.
• I Can Rule Alone: In addition to killing all the mortals in Future Trunks' timeline, he and Zamasu also kill that timeline's gods, declaring, "One god is all the cosmos needs."
• I Can't Sense Their Presence: He expresses complete surprise when he realizes that he can't sense Future Trunks anymore after he disappears in the time machine. As he puts it, Trunks has completely left this world.
• Icy Gray Eyes: In his Super Saiyan Rosé form, he has grey eyes. It's a hint that he's Zamasu, a coldhearted Supreme Kai.
• I Did What I Had to Do: How he justifies killing all the gods in the future timeline. Since they wouldn't understand his ideals, he had no choice but to kill them so they wouldn't stop him.
• Idiot Hair: Bizarrely unlike the Goku we know, Black's Super Saiyan Rosé form has a small but distinguishable wisp of hair standing out from it. Of course, he has a completely uncharacteristic personality for the trait.
• Idiot Ball:
  • Unfortunately for him, the manga gives him one. In the manga, he was watching Future Trunks fight Future Dabura, making sure Shin died in the battle, assuring that Beerus will also die because the Supreme Kais and the Gods of Destruction are linked. The idiot part comes in that he leaves after Trunks kills Dabura, instead of taking out a weakened and hurt Trunks, assuring that he would have one less powerful enemy to deal with in the future. Given how highly pragmatic and no-nonsense Goku Black has shown himself to be, especially in the anime, his inaction against Trunks is rather out of character for him. The manga draws further contrast to the anime by Black telling Trunks to his face that he's keeping him alive to get stronger and even spares Trunks when he has the chance to kill him.
  • The manga gives him another one in the way that it doesn't explain why Black never wanted immortality. In the anime, Black doesn't want to be an immortal since he just wants power and losing the ability to die would eventually make him rusty and battles no fun. While shortsighted, the reason why Black feels this way while none of his other counterparts share this view is because Goku's body influenced him and he's taken on several of Goku's character traits. In the manga, Black acts more like his true self Zamasu. Outside of having Goku's battle lust, he is still basically Zamasu in personality so he should want immortality like Future Zamasu. The manga not explaining or discussing Black's mindset on this matter makes him look like an idiot to the point that even Future Zamasu indirectly throw spades at Black for abandoning his godly body for power.
• I've Come Too Far: In the manga, Black says this word by word to Gowasu when he begs him to come back to his senses and make amends for what he has done.
• It's All About Me: This is essentially his mindset. He claims he is better than everyone; god and mortal. In fact, the only reason he gets along well with Future Zamasu is because they are literally the same person. And when he declares that he and Zamasu are making a multiverse "made by gods for gods", he really means "made by Zamasu for Zamasu" since they are the only gods left in the Future Trunks timeline.
• Immortality Seeker: Defied; when Future Zamasu suggests that Goku Black should've used the Super Dragon Balls become immortal just as he did, Black disagrees, as he's satisfied with the power he has. This is strange considering that this is actually a Zamasu who refused to become immortal, unlike his Future comrade who's immortal and enjoys every minute of it. This refusal of becoming immortal later comes to bite him in the ass later when they fuse because since Black wasn't immortal, Fused Zamasu's immortality is not complete and he becomes a Body Horror.
• Immune to Bullets: Best shown when Future Mai tries to assassinate him with a sniper rifle. She uses a special, super-powerful bullet given to her by Future Bulma, but while it manages to knock Black down, he's completely unhurt.
• Immune to Fate: His Time Ring renders him immune to any alterations to the past, up to and including a god murdering his past self, which should normally bypass the timeline splitting like it normally would (according to Beerus).
• Implacable Man: He will stop at nothing to hunt Trunks down, even through time.
• In-Series Nickname: His actual name is Son Goku, at least Black claims. However, his true, original name is Zamasu. The name Goku Black comes from Future Bulma, who named him such because he wears a black outfit and she didn't want to relate Black to her dear friend. He is almost exclusively called Black by the heroes, rather than Goku Black.
• Invincible Villain: Outside of his first match with Goku which was a case of Worf Had the Flu and ended before either one could get serious, Goku Black has never actually lost a battle. Even his final battle with Vegeta where he was being flatted by him, ends with Black having the advantage with his endless clones and toying with Vegeta and Goku. He is joined only by Super Buu, Beerus, and Future Zamasu in this category. And since he has now fused with Future Zamusu he's never going to get a chance to be defeated either. In the manga, however, Goku Black loses badly to Vegeta and needed Future Zamasu to save him.
• In Their Own Image: What his plan boils down to: by wiping out mortals, he'll create his own vision of paradise. He even states this if he's chosen by the player in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2:
  Goku Black: The world shall be remade in my vision!
• It's All About Me: For all his grandiose speeches about justice, it becomes clear at the end of the day that all he cares about is his vision of paradise and doesn't give a damn about anyone who's not him. The only reason he gets along with Future Zamasu so well is they're literally the same person.
• Jerkass: In his debut, he murders Future Bulma and Mai in front of Future Trunks, and gloats about how he's going to kill Trunks as he mourns the unconscious Mai. He also goes as far as calling death a blessing for foolish humans, which really sets Trunks off. Also, when he reveals himself as Zamasu who took Goku's body using the Super Dragon Balls, he says he killed the original Goku with his own body. He then brags about killing Goku's family, which really ticks Goku off.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Black's rationale for going on planet-wide killing sprees come off as a misguided, yet well-intentioned effort to do good despite his ruthless actions, and goes so far as to feel a pang of regret over his destruction of the Earth. However, after his more unsavory actions as Zamasu come to light, like murdering Goku and his family over a friendly sparring match, his grandiose declaration alongside his future counterpart as now one of the supreme gods and his beyond unhealthy habit of sadistically torturing his adversaries for little more than sick kicks shows that his good intentions are only skin deep, and ultimately shows him as a depraved psychopath who's doing this only to satiate his megalomaniacal delusions as well as a twisted, petty desire to one-up Goku.
• Jerkass Gods: It's revealed that he is Present Zamasu who wasn't killed by Beerus. When he takes Goku's body, he's officially a Supreme Kai since he murdered Gowasu. His first act after acquiring Goku's body is to murder him and his entire family in cold blood. From there, he recruits Future Zamasu and kills all the gods in the multiverse before beginning his campaign to wipe out mortals.
• Just Toying with Them:
  • He has a really bad habit of playing with his food since he wants to drag out fights to make himself stronger. Unlike most villains in the series, he tends to get away with this because of his rapid growth and he knows when to stop messing around when the situation calls for it.
  • From Black's point-of-view, he was screwing around by not fusing with Future Zamasu. His plan was to become as strong as possible before creating Fused Zamasu to act as the ultimate supreme god. When Future Zamasu says it's time to get serious, Black declares 'no more games or half-measures' and that 'we will reveal to them the ultimate power of the gods'.
• Karma Houdini: Only due to a technicality. Since a fusion character is considered a new being upon their birth (like Gotenks and Vegito), Fused Zamasu isn't Goku Black. Therefore, Black as an individual will never be made to answer for his crimes since the Potara fusion is permanent for him.
• Kick the Dog:
  • He tells Goku that after he took his body he killed him. After that, he went on to murder his family in cold blood.
  • Being aware that anger makes mortals stronger he attempts to push Goku and Vegeta to the breaking point by having Future Zamasu kill Bulma, Future Mai, and Future Trunks.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Pretty much any future Jerkass Gods that Black murdered, direct or indirectly fully deserved what's coming to them, this includes Roh of Universe 9, Quitela of Universe 4, Rumsshi for Universe 10 including his present self initially and even Beerus from Universe 7 in the anime given that he didn't really Took a Level in Kindness in that timeline and probably remained asleep indefinitely.
• Kick Them While They Are Down:
  • He belittles Future Trunks as he cries over Mai's alleged death, saying how death is a blessing for foolish humans. This sends Trunks into a berserk rage.
  • After running Vegeta through with his energy sword, he dismisses Vegeta as just a warm up before allowing him to fall to the ground.
  • When Zamasu steals Goku's body to become Goku Black, he teleports to confront a very confused Goku who is trapped in his old body and is having a major Freak Out. Goku is trying to convince Chi-Chi that he is Goku, then Zamasu steps in and says, 'he's only Goku in heart', before killing Goku before he can even defend himself. Before he dies, Black makes it clear that he stole Goku's identity and that he is now 'Son Goku'.
  • The manga version of Black did this when he stabs Gowasu after seemingly accepts his offer to repent for his crimes. He then rubs it in the dying Gowasu's face that he has already killed him two times before.
• Kill All Humans: His primary goal. He wants to wipe out all the mortals in the universe to create a paradise and Earth is only his latest target.^note Despite the use of "human" in Japanese, in the Dragon Ball world "human" is a broad phase that usually means any humanoid species, since god characters have been calling Saiyans humans in the Japanese version ever since the Buu Saga, and the English dub usually refers to Earth-based humans as Earthlings.
• Kill and Replace: In a sense. After switching bodies with Son Goku via the Super Dragon Balls, he kills Goku then proceeds to invade Future Trunks' timeline while pretending to be the Saiyan.
• Kill the Gods: In the future timeline, Future Zamasu and he murdered all the gods in the multiverse so they alone can rule as the 'supreme god' and promote their view of justice, which is to wipe out all mortals.
• Klingon Promotion: This iteration of Zamasu was successful in murdering Gowasu for his position of Supreme Kai, his Potara earrings, and his Time Ring. Then he went into the future todo it again for his counterpart as part of recruiting him. And this guy is supposed to be a a Kai.
• Knight of Cerebus: Any sort of levity or goofiness stops whenever he shows up. He's introduced by causing a second apocalypse on Earth and murdering a major character, and very nearly killing another, in his debut episode. His arrival marks the darkest tone Super has ever reached, which had mostly been light-hearted and humor oriented up to this point. Also, unlike most of the villains in the series, he is never Played for Laughs. The ending of the saga also marks one of the most depressing chapters in the entire franchise.
• Knight Templar: He is a black-hearted villain who has caused mass genocide to countless planets before he even arrived on Earth. At the same time, he truly believes that he's carrying out the gods' will by getting rid of all the mortals, who are the sole failure of the gods. He even mourns for the mass destruction of Earth, saying how sad the planet looks. Despite his misguided view of his own good intentions, Whis calls Black's aura cold and evil. In Episode 63, when Gowasu calls him out on murdering all the gods in the multiverse, Black calmly justifies it by stating that the other gods would never understand his ideals and would try to stop him.
• Kubrick Stare: Will often give these alongside a Psychotic Smirk.

L-R

• Lack of Empathy: He thinks nothing of the people he murders, calling death a blessing for them. He also mocks Future Trunks over Mai's apparent death, assuring him that he will join her soon. It's later revealed that he also murdered Goku after taking his body through the Super Dragon Balls, and then kills his family for no other reason than to be cruel.
• Laser Blade: Much like Zamasu which makes sense since they're the same person, he demonstrates the ability to create a sword out of his energy, which he first uses to impale Vegeta.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • His manga counterpart becomes subjected to this, since practically nothing goes his way on his own. He is twice on the receiving end of beatdown from Vegeta, repeatedly outsmarted by Trunks and constantly throws temper tantrums when things don’t go his way that ends up making him nothing more than a Psychopathic Manchild. It’s made clear that it’s only thanks to Future Zamasu that he was only able to get as far as he could.
  • His appearance in Xenoverse 2’s Infinite History saga really puts him through the wringer. Even in the normal route, where despite he and his Future counterpart being bolstered by a Brainwashed and Crazy Jiren, he’s ultimately defeated and killed by Tapion, the Time Patroller, and Future Trunks. The other routes have his own stolen body itself hijacked by Ginyu and reduced to a laughing stock, tortured by Frieza, and given fruit from the tree of might by a traitorous Turles only to die all the same, with Black even Lampshade Hanging his abysmal luck during his Villainous Breakdown. No one feel sorry for him, of course.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Super Saiyan Rosé. Aside from being linked in an Amazon image, this form is highly advertised. This gets to the point that in Dragon Ball FighterZ, Black is already available in this form upon the game's release.
• Laughing Mad: He can often be seen wildly cackling with a Psychotic Smirk on his face.
• Lean and Mean: While still physically fit, he's leaner than Goku (who's very muscular), and is also unambiguously evil. Especially noticeable since Black's body is an alternate version of Goku's. Zamasu must have put more emphasis on fighting powerful opponents instead of physical training to get stronger.
• Leitmotif: Has a very dark, foreboding theme that accompanies his every appearance. The song is called Justice from the Dragon Ball Super OST, and there are indeed remixes and unofficial music themes for him to, like his theme song from the Dragon Ball FighterZ OST, and the unofficial Goku Black Theme made by The Enigma TNG.
• Living Shadow: Takes this form in most of Episode 47 before his true appearance is seen. He also does this as one of his introductions for FighterZ.
• Loony Fan: He comes off as this since he is obsessed with Goku, copying everything he does and heaping praise on him whenever they come face to face. From battle stances to even some aspects of his speaking pattern, Black slowly takes on more of Goku's traits every time they fight. He even outright says being like Goku is his life's goal. It becomes even crazier and disturbing when it's revealed that he's Zamasu who actually used a wish on the Super Dragon Balls to take Goku's body, killed him and his family in cold blood, and then went on to use his name.
• Magical Accessory: He has a green Potara earring, a mark of the Supreme Kais, and a Time Ring which can be used to travel across time. The former is necessary for the latter to work.
• Manipulative Bastard: In the manga, Goku claims that Black is just using Future Zamasu and has been manipulating him the entire time. Future Zamasu tells Goku to shut up, but he's clearly unnerved since it's probably true since Black is him.
• Mask of Sanity: When we first meet Black, he didn't talk and just killed everything in sight. When we finally see his form, he grins and tells Future Trunks how he was finally going to kill him, while still remaining calm and polite. It's in the second episode that we get hints that Black may not be completely sane, given how he laughs when Trunks punches him in the stomach. In Episode 51 when Black tells Trunks why he's killing humans, it's confirmed that he isn't really sane, especially with all his mood-swings.
• Me's a Crowd: After using his ki scythe to make a tear in reality, he's able to summon endless copies of himself made of pinkish mist. They disperse with one hit, but reform almost instantly. Black ends the technique when he senses that Future Zamasu is in danger.
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body:
  • He is an alternate version of Present Zamasu possessing Goku's body, but he's clearly taken on parts of Goku's personality like his love for battle, the need to grow stronger, and the desire to be challenged. Even his speech pattern, which is considerably more formal and articulate than the way Goku speaks, grows slightly less formal as time wears on, and he specifically starts using Goku's personal pronoun, 'ore'.
  • The manga is a far more prominent example. While Anime Black at least retains the regal demeanor of Zamasu, Manga Black is far more bloodthirsty and brutish, inheriting the savagery that the Saiyans were often known for. This is reflected in his fighting style, where he relies on his fists to beat down his opponents, as opposed to his anime counterpart who primarily use his signature Laser Blade in combat.
• Mood-Swinger: He swings between stoic and dispassionate, and murderous, sadistic, and giddy. When fighting Future Trunks, he laughs when Super Saiyan Trunks hits him in the stomach and smiles as he pummels him, but then becomes stoic when he's ready to kill Trunks.
• Moral Event Horizon: In-Universe — For Goku, Goku Black went well past the line when he revealed that he remorselessly murdered Chi-Chi and Goten after taking his body and killing him with it in front of his family. To put this in perspective, this is one of the few times, especially as an adult, that we see Goku trying to actively kill someone.
• Moral Myopia: He genuinely believes he is carrying out justice for the greater good of creation by eradicating mortals, which he sees asva mistake. Though it falls flat given he's doing the very thing he criticized the mortals for, along with the fact that even non-mortals aren't spared with him even killing all his fellow gods.
• Motive Decay: There are subtle signs of this. After Goku and the others escape to the past, instead of hunting down the remaining humans he is content to sit back at his cottage with Future Zamasu and patiently wait for them to return. He did this again when Goku and Vegeta escaped. He only starts trying to kill the humans when they directly attack him. This is justified in that Black needs to fight Goku to get stronger, which is part of Project Zero Mortals. At the same time, he also had Goku's battle lust and put having a good fight over finishing his mission on Earth since he could have easily killed the remaining Earthlings while he waited.
• Motive Rant: Unlike Future Zamasu, he rarely if ever rants about his motives. However, he tears Future Trunks a new one after he calls him a murderer, saying it's Trunks' fault that the future Earth was destroyed since he saved Goku from the heart virus. If he had let Goku die like history dictated, he would have never been interested in taking Goku's body. He even cites this as the reason why he came to Future Trunks' time in the first place, since Trunks is a sinner who messed up time and broke the gods' law.
• Multiversal Conqueror: Future Zamasu and his ambitions aren't limited to just one universe: they want a multiverse free of mortals. To this end, they slaughtered all the other gods so no one could stand in their way. This gets them called out as hypocrites by Vegeta and Gowasu since they're gods murdering gods, yet they still claim to be good and promoting justice. In the manga, he wants to spread their terror to other timelines once they're done with Future Trunks' time.
• My Future Self and Me: He teams up with Future Zamasu, who is himself from the future.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: He's a Supreme Kai that has grown tired of the gods doing nothing while the mortals misuse the knowledge giving to them and keep killing themselves. So, he decides to personally wipe out the mortals on the gods' behalf... while he murders all the other gods in the future multiverse since he knows that they would stop him. So, he's basically murdering mortals on his own behalf.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: He wants to kill all mortals because he feels that the universe would be better without them, and that the gods are the only beings truly deserving of life. And by "gods", he really means himself.
• Nerves of Steel: A standout trait of his. Nothing seems to unnerve him, not even seeing Beerus despite knowing who he is. Seeing Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta gets almost no reaction out of him other than amusement, and he is barely fazed when Vegeta beats him up and gives him "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
• Never My Fault: When Future Trunks confronts him for destroying most of humanity, Black claims that Humans Are Bastards and that they need to die to start a utopia. He later blames Trunks for his own rampage, stating that his existence would not have been possible without Trunks going back in time and starting the Stable Time Loop that created him.
• New Body, Old Abilities: In addition to all of Goku's power and techniques, Goku Black retains all of his old body's abilities, like Zamasu's Laser Blade.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: After being overwhelmed by Vegeta after he trained in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for six months, he reaches the conclusion that Saiyans get their power from anger. So he taps into his own anger towards the mortals to create a Sinister Scythe from his energy sword that can cut through dimensions and somehow create endless clones as long as he's near the rift. Not even Black knows how he pulled this off.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: After his first fight with Goku, he has grown so powerful that a barrage of attacks from Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta don't even hurt him in his normal form — and then he reveals he has his own Super Saiyan transformation.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Thanks to his refusal to become an immortal, which in itself was caused by his stealing a Saiyan body which gave him a sense of Saiyan pride and battle-lust, it taints Future Zamasu's Complete Immortality when they fuse. This downgrades Fused Zamasu from "Completely Invincible" to just "Really Damn Hard to Kill" which gives the heroes a shot at killing him.
• No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: When Future Zamasu suggests wishing for immortality on the Super Dragon Balls, he dismisses the idea since he won't have any more challenges and stop growing. He also needs to become stronger for 'Project Zero Mortals'. In the Super manga, he's closer to Cell and Super Buu in this regard. He only likes fighting people who can give him a reasonable challenge, but not actually beat him like Future Trunks. The moment he goes against a superior opponent, he has a breakdown.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis:
  • Downplayed, as he prefers to have fun murdering and torturing mortals slowly instead of killing them quickly like Super Buu. However, he kills Future Bulma instantly and seemingly kills Future Mai in a similar manner. While he does play around with Future Trunks, allowing him to attack and go Super Saiyan, he is ready to kill him after a short beat-down. When he was about to be sucked back into the future, he destroys Future Trunks' time machine, trapping him in the past, figuring if he couldn't kill Trunks he could at least keep him from ever returning to his world. When Goku and the others fight him the second time, he lets Vegeta pound on him for a few seconds before getting serious and transforms into Super Saiyan Rosé. He then impales Vegeta in the chest with an energy sword. He also chooses to double team Goku instead of just letting Future Zamasu handle things.
  • Unlike all the other Dragon Ball villains, he isn't in the habit of telling people about his motives. Although he tells Future Trunks he wants to wipe out mortals on the gods' behalf because he sees them as failures, he doesn't say how he came to this conclusion. He's also tight-lip about his origins. He gives hints about how his current body isn't his natural state, but that's about all he's willing to say on the subject and refuses to answer Goku's questions when asked about his statements. When he does reveal who he is, he says that he killed the original Goku, unlike Ginyu who tends to keep his victims alive. Furthermore, when he does talk about his origins, he says he killed all the other gods, leaving only Future Zamasu alive, and destroyed the Super Dragon Balls once he used them to give Future Zamasu immortality, much like King Piccolo did back in Dragon Ball.
  • When Trunks tries to expend all his energy to blow up Future Zamasu in the hopes there was a limit to his regeneration, rather than letting Trunks perform his Heroic Sacrifice and seeing if Zamasu could heal, Black promptly stabs Trunks in the back before he has a chance to go through with it.
  • When told it was time to get serious by Future Zamasu since they can't afford to underestimate the mortals anymore, Black agrees and fuses with him.
• "Not So Different" Remark: He gets this from Goku, who notes that he loves to fight and test himself, just like him. They are also both slow starters, preferring to gradually build towards their true power to test their opponents. This is a side effect of taking Goku's body. Zamasu doesn't really share that love for fighting, but he does love getting stronger.
• Not So Similar: Surprisingly, one to Turles. Both have a dark motif and are evil knockoffs, but Black thinks he's doing the right thing, while Turles relishes in his villainy. Also, Black has disdain for Saiyans while Turles had pride in it. Their body shapes are opposite as well, Black being Lean and Mean while Turles was an example of Evil Is Bigger. Lastly, Turles being identical to Goku was never explained (outside of a vague statement about them both being low-class Saiyans that were few in number), while Black is an alternate timeline Zamasu who stole Goku's body, making the similarities more moot.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He often speaks about bringing justice to the humans and how his acts are a necessary evil to bring peace to the universe. However, his claims fall short when the first thing he does after taking Goku's body is murder him and in his family out of spite. Not to mention the fact that he slaughtered all of the other gods in Future Trunks' time to prevent them from interfering with his plans, which he justifies by saying they would never understand his ideals anyway.
• Obviously Evil: More so than any other villain in the series. He is heavily associated with the color black, dressing in black clothes and possessing dark ki, manifests as a Living Shadow in his debut appearance, wears a Psychotic Smirk all the time, and is introduced as having caused the second apocalypse in Future Trunks' timeline. Although, ironically, he's a Knight Templar.
• Oh, Crap!: Despite his cool, detached demeanor, he has a couple of these:
  • He has this expression just as he realizes that he was being pulled back towards the time portal during his first match with Goku.
  • After being distracted by Future Trunks' time machine, Goku flies towards him with a kick. His expression says it all before he gets nailed.
  • When fighting Super Trunks, he's caught off guard when Trunks throws his sword to distract him and punches him in the stomach. Trunks then fires a Garlick Gun that sends Black flying, much to his shock.
  • He gets another one after Vegeta unleashes an energy blast when he's ranting to himself about Vegeta's increased power.
• Omnicidal Maniac: He goes further than any other villain to appear in the franchise, on a mission to wipe out all mortal life from The Multiverse. Upon his introduction, he has already eradicated most of humanity, and is about to finish off the last survivors when the story picks up. He outright tells Future Trunks that he's destroyed many planets, along with their inhabitants, before coming to Earth. Even more, Future Zamasu and he had wiped out the other gods in the future timeline to become 'supreme gods' and the only authority left in the multiverse. In his mind, this is all justified in that he wants to create a perfect universe, and mortals are obvious mistakes of the gods. Although, in truth, this is all just an excuse to reshape the multiverse in his image. Even Vegeta wonders what exactly he wishes to achieve by killing everyone.
  Vegeta: You believe your own lies, all this lofty crap?! You can't build utopia by hunting down people. Even gods!
  Future Zamasu: We know you can't understand the beauty of this...
  Goku Black: ...It's beyond the limitations of your feeble mind.
• Omniscient Morality License: He feels that he has one since he comes from a 'higher place' and has 'seen the truth'. He feels no remorse killing billions of mortals in the name of creating a perfect universe.
• One-Steve Limit: Even though he claims to be called Son Goku, he is simply nicknamed Goku Black or just Black. However, the franchise already introduced Adjutant Black three decades before.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: He doesn't really call himself Goku Black (outside of his Xenoverse 2 appearance), but everyone else does (to differentiate him from Goku, like how Future Bulma dubbed him that for that very reason).
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In FighterZ, Black usually greets his opponents with his trademark, cocky smile... unless said opponent is Beerus. At which point, his smile turns into a scowl as he chastises him for allowing mortals to live. And surprisingly, the feeling is mutual as Black is the only opponent Beerus doesn't greet with a smile.
• Outside-Context Problem:
  • Little is known about his motives or where he comes from. He just appeared one day and started slaughtering humanity in the name of justice. He also appears to grow stronger from fighting and getting injured. On top of that, he has accessories only used by the Kais like a Potara earring and a Time Ring. Even Beerus and Whis are confused by what Black is, and Whis suspects that he's a creation of the Super Dragon Balls. A large part of the Future Trunks Saga is devoted to unveiling who or what Black is, how he relates to Zamasu, and how he's connected to Goku. The Reveal clears his identity and motives up, while showing just how much this trope he truly was. He's not only from another universe entirely, something Trunks didn't even know existed when he showed up, he's not even from the same timeline as any of the heroes at this point.
  • He's also this in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2. Aside from the likes of the Time Breakers and Demigra, usually when the Time Patrollers travel to a point in history to help the heroes engage a villain, they are doing so to repair the timeline and are relatively safe within the Time Nest themselves. As a former Supreme Kai, however, Black knows about the Time Nest and Time Patrollers, and his possession of a Time Ring presents the risk of him being able to follow the Time Patrollers back; during the first mission involving him, the Old Kai even warns the Future Warrior to wear Black down quickly and then flee to make sure Black doesn't follow them.
• Paradox Person: Goku Black's entire existence is paradoxical. Dragon Ball utilizes Alternate Timelines, so that any changes made in the past would create a new timeline and leave the original future untouched. That is until Super introduced Time Rings allowing "acausal time travel" that did not create timelines. Goku Black was created as the result of Present Zamasu using the Super Dragon Balls to steal the body of Goku, before traveling to the future. However, Beerus had taken the liberty of destroying Zamasu in the present, yet Goku Black still exists in the future. Black explains wearing the Time Ring allowed him to evade being erased from existence and preserve his own history. It gets even more complicated in Episode 67, where it's revealed Beerus' actions did create a Time Ring (and by extension a new timeline) after all.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: He wholeheartedly believes in this philosophy since he views mortals as Always Chaotic Evil and a mistake by the gods. This gives him the belief that it is his duty to wipe out all the mortals from the multiverse, even if he knows that his actions are evil. He specifically kills off the Earthlings in the slowest, cruelest way possible as a 'special' punishment for Trunks breaking the time taboo.
• Person of Mass Destruction: He handily causes Earth's second apocalypse and mentions he has wiped out numerous planets prior to this. He's on a personal mission to wipe the universe of all mortals.
• Physical God: Prior to his debut, he killed off all of the literal gods in Future Trunks' timeline. He was then shown to outclass Future Trunks, and was evenly matched with Super Saiyan 2 Goku in his base form, with Trunks implying Black was at least as strong as Super Saiyan 3 Goku. After their battle in the past, he grows even stronger, becoming capable of standing his ground against for Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta in his base form. On top of his immense raw power, Black has also displayed an assortment of strange powers, like being able to manifest as a Living Shadow (although this could have been an artistic choice to hide his true form), growing stronger from each battle experience, Goku's Instant Transmission technique, and his own transformation called Super Saiyan Rosé, He is easily the most powerful foe Goku has faced aside from Beerus. Later, it's revealed he's literally a god, as he is Zamasu in Goku's body.
• Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: He's quite polite and speaks formally to his opponents. He even compliments Vegeta when he sees Super Saiyan Blue for the first time, saying how well-trained Vegeta is and how magnificent it is to see a warrior race with god energy. In contrast, Vegeta and Goku are both very rude to him, with Vegeta calling him a bastard and making death threats, while Goku calls him a weirdo and curses him and Future Zamasu.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: He constantly throws derogatory comments towards the Saiyans. He is also an extreme racist who sees mortals as inferior.
• Power Copying: Black states that getting beaten up by Goku allows him to embed Goku's fighting style into himself. Being that he took Goku's body, this might make a little sense in that his body might recognize its own style on an inherent level.
• Power Makes Your Voice Deep: Oddly played with in the Xenoverse dub. Sean Schemmel's original voice for him was was a deep, threatening one. Upon assuming his Super Saiyan Rosé form, he completely ditches this in favour of a posh, condescending accent reminiscent of Zamasu.
• Powers Do the Fighting: After being beaten up by Vegeta, he uses his anger to create a giant scythe that can tear a hole through dimensions and create endless clones of himself. He then has his clones fight Goku and Vegeta while he stands back and watches.
• The Power of Hate: He uses his anger towards the mortals who disrespects the gods and losing a sparring match with Goku to gain a power up that allows him to surpass Vegeta after he spent six months in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, enabling him to turn his Violent Fierce God Slicer into the Sickle of Sorrow. He even gloats over its abilities, including those he himself does not understand.
  Goku Black: Now I've figured it out. The reason for the runaway growth in your power level compared to my own. It's anger, isn't it? Watching us hurt your son made you angry, which made you stronger. So that's how Saiyans' strength works. How primal. Turning your fleeting raw emotions into power! Only a pathetic mortal like yourself could thrive on a tactic that unrefined, which explains why it took so long to realize it. But if that's what fuels this body, I shall use my anger! Anger toward the mortals who defile the universe. Anger toward the other gods who have tolerated such behavior. And most importantly, the white hot rage I now feel toward myself for letting you get the upper hand on me in our battle. [...] You must realize the consequences of my learning rage is a source of power. My fury runs deeper than any mortal mind can ever comprehend which means my might will be unrivaled too. And this scythe will carve a reminder into your mortal flesh with the strength of my divine wrath!
• Power Parasite: He hijacked Goku's body specifically to steal his power for himself.
• Pragmatic Villainy: He chooses to slowly wipe out humanity instead of just blowing up the planet, unlike many previous villains in the series. It quickly becomes apparent why he's going about it this way: he has no desire to harm the Earth and in fact enjoys its beauty, so just blowing planets up wholesale wouldn't be productive to his goals. That and he wants to punish the humans in particular since Future Trunks broke the time law.
• Pride: He thinks a great deal about his power or more specifically the power he stole when he forcibly took Goku's body using the Super Dragon Balls. He's so sure of his strength that he doesn't want immortality and just wants to grow stronger to fight. This end up biting him in the butt when he fuses with Future Zamasu.
• Principles Zealot: He is a full believer in the 'god's justice' that cites that all forms of evil must be struck down. Since mortals are all evil by nature, they must be destroyed for justice to prevail. Even taking Goku's body is seen by him as a necessary evil since he needs Goku's power to carry out his "Project Zero Mortals", and he wants to carry the 'sins' of Goku as an eternal reminder of the gods' failure. Everybody else sees him as a smug hypocrite.
• Psychotic Smirk: He's very fond of these, especially towards Future Trunks who he regularly mocks and belittles.
• Psychopathic Manchild: His manga version is one, as opposed to the calm and regal demeanor of his anime counterpart. Whenever he starts losing his fights, he would constantly have a Villainous Breakdown similar to how a child would throw a temper tantrum when things do not go his way. In the first fight with Vegeta he also starts whining about how he killed the Gods Of Destruction to him after he starts losing handily, almost as if he’s begging Vegeta to take him seriously.
  • However, his anime version has shades of this as while he may be significantly calmer and more focused, his motivations for hating Goku still remains the same, and when he starts tapping into his own supply of anger for an extra power boost, it’s clear that despite his more mature attitude as a result of possessing Goku’s body, he still hasn’t gotten over it.
• A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Is actually an alternate Present Zamasu who succeeded in murdering his master Gowasu.
• Purple Is Powerful: Although his Battle Aura is often presented as pure darkness, the aura directly surrounding his body is purple.
• Psychological Projection: He partakes in this just as much as his former and future selves, prattling on about how mortals are violent, destructive creatures who cannot learn from their mistakes and are inflexible in their ways. All of this coming from the person who is fanatically and unbendingly obsessed with annihilating all mortal-kind, completely and utterly deranged and a danger to everyone around him barring literally himself, and whose first actions upon taking Goku’s body to fulfill his mad quest for power being to gruesomely murder him, his wife and youngest son, just as a final insult to the man for bruising his ego.
• Rage Breaking Point: After realizing that the Saiyans' true power comes from anger, he too tries to channel his rage to make himself stronger. It largely works and he uses his new ability to keep Goku and Vegeta busy so Future Zamasu can kill Future Trunks, Bulma, and Future Mai. His plan was to purposely make them angry, which would make them stronger, and then fight them so he too can grow powerful. He abandoned the plan after Future Zamasu was nearly sealed and chose to fuse with him.
• Real Men Wear Pink: His Super Saiyan form, Super Saiyan Rosé, turns his hair pink. He also talks for several minutes about how beautiful the form makes him.
  Goku Black: "What do you think of it? Quite the color, huh? In keeping with how you like to label your power levels, the name of this one is Rosé. That's right, I've now reached Super Saiyan Rosé! At last, I have not only mastered Goku's powers, I have made them my own!"
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: He wears dark clothing and is known as "Black" by his enemies. His Super Saiyan form turns his hair pink, instead of gold or blue.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Interestingly he tends to fluctuate between red and blue with his partner Future Zamasu. On the one hand, Black is the active threat through the majority of the arc being the one who is seen personally destroying mortals and their settlements the most, while Future Zamasu observes from a distance. This extends to their battles; Goku Black is the main fighter while Future Zamasu tends to defend him. This would make him the Red Oni during combat. However Black is much calmer, composed and serene in his disposition in comparison to Future Zamasu who is a lot more emotional and hammy during battle and undergoes several Villainous Breakdown moments during the final fight (as opposed to Black who undergoes none) which would make Black the Blue Oni attitude wise.
• Red Herring: A lot of characters were led to believe that Black was Zamasu, but Zamasu came into the fray they thought that Black was a separate entity made by the Super Dragon Balls. However, Future Zamasu was a distraction... Black is actually an alternative version of main timeline Zamasu who switched bodies with a Goku and killed him.
• Red Baron: He is known and feared by his In-Series Nickname, Goku Black or just Black.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: In his shadow form, he has glowing red eyes.
• Redemption Rejection: In episode 63, Gowasu comes to the future alongside Shin to lecture both Black and Future Zamasu on their actions and give them a Last-Second Chance, begging them to stop what they're doing and revive everyone they've killed with the Super Dragon Balls. Instead, Black coldly reveals that he destroyed the Super Dragon Balls, making it impossible to undo their destruction, and it's only thanks to Goku and Vegeta's intervention that Gowasu and Shin don't get blown up on the spot by Black and Future Zamasu. In the manga, Black acts like he will accept Gowasu's offer to repent and grabs his hand, before promptly impaling him and calling him an idiot.
• The Reveal: Episode 60 reveals that Goku Black is a Zamasu from a timeline in which he switched bodies with Goku.
• Reality Warper: After getting his ass handed to him by Vegeta in the anime, Black uses his anger to power up even further and transform his energy blade into a giant Scythe capable of causing fissures in reality used to spew clones of Black to corner Goku and Vegeta. In Xenoverse 2, he cuts open a gash in the very fabric of time itself, allowing him to summon foes from alternate timelines to attack the heroes in place of his clones. Too bad he didn't consider there that his newfound superpower could be a double-edged sword.
• The Right of a Superior Species: How he views his actions. Black is firmly convinced that everything he does is justified because he's a god, and he passes judgement on the mortals despite being just as bad, if not worse.
• Rummage Sale Reject: He wears a gray gi over a black turtleneck, baggy pants, stark white boots, and a piece of red cloth wrapped around his waist like a sash. He also has a single Potara earring on his left ear and a Time Ring on his right hand.

S-Z

• Sadist: He kills Future Bulma by letting the lab explode on her while he holds her by her neck and psychologically traumatizes Future Trunks, as well as feigning a moment of weakness just so he could see the look on Trunks' face when his attack fails to even dent him. He also chooses to hunt down humanity slowly over a year instead of killing them all at once like Super Buu, pushing them to the breaking point, all to punish the humans for Future Trunks' 'sins'. Probably one of his cruelest moments is him telling Goku how he murdered his family after killing his alternative self.
• Sanity Slippage: He was once Zamasu, a promising upcoming Supreme Kai who was promoted from a regular Kai. After Goku beats him in a sparring match, he became so obsessed with Goku that he uses the Super Dragon Balls to switch bodies with Goku. He even takes on Goku's name and mimics some of his body's movements.
• Satanic Archetype: As opposed to Goku's Messianic Archetype. Black is the closest thing in Dragon Ball we have to Satan himself: A being who was born in the light, but motivated by his arrogance and narcissism, slaughtered his own people, commited mass genocide on a multiversal level to serve an empty justice, and enjoys causing misery and destruction on Earth. During his introduction, his demonic silhouette seems to emphasize exactly what he is: A depraved, soulless monster.
• Seeking Ultimate Strength: It is not enough for Goku Black to destroy humanity and turn Earth into his private garden. He wants to be the strongest warrior he can be, battling Goku several times to increase his power and even turning down a chance at immortality, reasoning that he would be too dependent on it.
• Semi-Divine: He is Zamasu, a Supreme Kai who is one of the Gods of Creation. However, since he traded his godly form for Goku's body, he is a god trapped in a mortal's shell.
• Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Inverted a bit, as Goku Black's clothes have sleaves and a turtleneck in contrast to Goku's clothes having no sleeves and showing his neck, but gets inverted moreso with the Broly fusions in Dragon Ball Fusions where Karoly Black wears a more covered shirt in contrast to the original Karoly being shirtless.
• Serial Escalation: After two or three series of Goku's limitless potential allowing him to overcome almost every threat that came his way, there's nowhere to go with that than an enemy that's just another version of Goku himself, who can grow in leaps and bounds even in the midst of a battle that he started on the losing side of.
• Shadow Archetype: To Goku, his Good Counterpart. With all of Goku's power at his disponsal and none of his purity and kind-heartedness, Black is living proof of just how terrifying and unstoppable Goku would be as a villain. Their origin stories are also the complete reverse of each others: Goku Black was originally Zamasu, a young, promising in-training Kai from the realm of the gods, who ends up despising all mortals and desiring their destruction, yet goes on to become so obsessed with the mortal Saiyan Goku that he steals his body. Meanwhile Goku was born a low-class Saiyan who wasn't expected to amount to anything, yet grew up to be an All-Loving Hero who saves the world several times over, befriends nearly everyone even some of his worst enemies, and winds up achieving a power state akin to a god.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: When Trunks calls him out on his rampage and calls him a murderer, Black retorts that everything that's happening is Trunks' fault because he went back in time and saved Goku from the heart virus; had Trunks just let Goku die as he was originally supposed to, then Goku never would have met Zamasu, Zamasu would never have stolen Goku's body, and Black himself would have never existed.
• Signature Move: In his base form it's his Black Kamehameha, while in his Super Saiyan Rosé form it's stabbing his enemy with his Laser Blade.
• Sinister Scythe: He's able to forge his Laser Blade into a scythe which can cut a hole in reality, allowing Black to summon ethereal copies of himself.
• Slasher Smile: This certain picture should be able to explain things well◊. This is very much his default smile.
• Smarter Than You Look: Black gets this since everyone thinks he's simply a golem created by Zamasu to act as his loyal servant and has no real will of his own. They're shocked to learn that Black is Present Zamasu and he's the mastermind behind everything including: recruiting Future Zamasu and giving him immortality, destroying the Super Dragon Balls, and killing all the gods in the future timeline.
• Smug Snake:
  • Manga Black comes off as this since he gives a long Motive Rant to Vegeta about how he's righteous because he's a god, while getting his butt kicked. He demands to know what era Vegeta came from to be so powerful and can't go no further than a Super Saiyan. Vegeta would have outright killed him if Future Zamasu didn't save him. Also, before then, he isn't happy to see Goku and Vegeta nor is he amused by how powerful they are, while in the anime, Black is little surprised, but delighted to see Goku. He only starts acting smug again after he gains his Super Saiyan Rosé form and stomps Vegeta. In fact, the only real reason why he didn't get squashed like a bug in the wake of Vegeta and Goku and made it as far as he did was luck and little else.
  • Anime Black also have signs of this given that his end goal was to eventually fused with Future Zamasu to create the ultimate supreme god, Fused Zamasu. The problem, he didn't take into account that his lack of immortality would ends up gimping Fused Zamasu, taking him from completely immortal to merely Nigh-Invulnerable. He also didn't seem to have a plan to deal with Zeno outside of him maybe thinking Fused Zamasu could beat him since he would be a powerful, immortal god.
• Smug Super:
  • He is unafraid of Future Trunks and personally kills Future Bulma and Future Mai (although the latter was just knocked unconscious) in front of him. The first time he speaks is to tell Future Trunks that he was going to die today with a huge grin on his face. Even as Trunks attacks him as a Super Saiyan, he laughs as he takes a blow to the stomach and is completely unphased by the attack. Furthermore, when he sees Beerus in the past, instead of being fearful of him like everyone else who knows about his reputation, he's only mildly curious and is overall disinterested in the God of Destruction. Keep in mind, Golden Frieza, who was powerful enough to knock around Super Saiyan Blue Goku, was terrified when he saw Beerus. Given that he has a Super Saiyan transformation and his base form is at least as strong as Super Saiyan 2 Goku, he does have a great reason to be smug.
  • However, what makes Black stands out from other Smug Super villains in the franchise is that he isn't content with his power. King Piccolo thought he was invincible once he regained his youth, Frieza was happy to sit in his chair and basked in being the strongest mortal in the universe, Cell thought he couldn't get any stronger once he became perfect and no one could possibly surpassed him, Super Buu was much like Cell and absorbed anyone who could challenged his power, and Beerus (while not really a 'villain') is lazy bum who is never seen training since he's the strongest thing in his universe. Black, however, wants to keep pushing his limits even after he becomes the strongest being in Future Trunks' timeline to the point that he's willing to pushed Goku and Vegeta to their Rage Breaking Point to make them stronger so he too can get more powerful from fighting them. Most of this is because Black inherited Goku's power lust.
• So Last Season: In the manga, Black actually gets destroyed by Vegeta in their first encounter, apparently only being around upper Buu arc levels while Vegeta has Super Saiyan Blue. If not for the intervention of Future Zamasu, he would have been killed immediately and the arc would have ended. He catches up through the Saiyans' signature near-death power-ups, aided by Future Zamasu's Healing Hands.
• The Sociopath: Goku Black has many of the traits of one. He is openly psychotic and enjoys the death and destruction he spreads, he has a grandiose opinion of himself as his unveiling of Super Saiyan Rosé lays bare and he sees himself as a 'true god' after murdering all the other gods in the universes, a staggering Lack of Empathy for those he kills, like him murdering Goku who was trapped in his old body in front of his wife and child before killing them in cold blood and, at least in the manga, grows bored when there is no one left to satisfy his Blood Knight nature. Which all makes sense since Goku Black is an alternate version Present Zamasu who has many of the exact sociopath characteristics.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: He speaks in a soft tone and rarely raises his voice. His softness, however, only plays up how sadistic and cruel he is.
• Sophisticated as Hell: He dips into this once he transforms into his Super Saiyan Rosé. His language becomes less formal and his tone is generally rougher.
• Sore Loser: After being trashed by Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta, he reaches a realization. He comes to the conclusion that Vegeta became so powerful in such a short time because of his anger. Anger towards him for hurting his son and his world. So, he decides to use his own anger to fuel his new power-up. One of the grievances he names in his anger is losing to a mortal, showing that he's still sore at Goku for beating him in a sparring match, despite it happening years ago and he killed that version of Goku.
• Sphere of Destruction: He was going to kill Future Trunks with a large energy ball that was black in the middle and yellow on the outside.
• Stalker without a Crush: To say that Black has a complexed relationship with Goku is an understatement. From the moment Goku defeated him as Zamasu, he became utterly obsessed with Goku, especially after seeing him with god energy from watching his fight with Hit on Godtube. Once he learns about the Super Dragon Balls, he threatens Zuno's life to ascertain the location of the Super Dragon Balls for one reason: to take Goku's body as his own. Once he gains control of Goku's body, he slaughters the Son family and Goku who's trapped in his old body, before making his way into Trunks' timeline where henceforth calls himself 'Son Goku'. He openly adores and reveres Goku's body and power as being the ultimate form of existence for him. He also has a love/hate relationship with Goku as a person. On one hand, he sees Goku as being everything wrong with mortals, despises him for challenging the gods, and takes his body as an eternal reminder of the gods' failure. At the same times, he respects and reverses Goku's for his strength and openly tries to get approval from him. Goku is also the only one he sees as a Worthy Opponent, dismissing Future Trunks and Vegeta even when they overpower him.
• Stable Time Loop: In the future, Goku Black appears and starts wiping out humanity. Trunks uses the Time Machine to travel back for help and reveals Black to Beerus and Whis when Black follows him. Beerus and Whis draws a connection to Zamasu of Universe 10, who Goku fights and overpowers in a friendly sparring match. Bitter about losing, having all his bias about mortals confirmed, and seeing Goku with god energy drives Zamasu to seek out the Super Dragon Balls, which Whis speculates were used to create Goku Black. The two then somehow wind up in Trunks' timeline, starting the cycle again. In truth, Goku Black is Present Zamasu who succeeded in killing Gowasu, taking the Time Ring, and use the Super Dragon Balls to switch bodies with Goku. A split in the timeline occurred when Beerus killed Present Zamasu, but Goku Black is protected by the changed thanks to the Time Ring.
• Story-Breaker Power: Just like Goku, he can perform the Instant Transmission, one of the most powerful techniques since he can teleport anywhere he can sense energy and avoid powerful attacks, even from people who can teleport too. His Adaptive Ability is also a good candidate for this title for he can almost passively grow stronger as he fights, which means he can regain the advantage against superior opponents if the fight drags on long enough. Something which gives the heroes no end of trouble.
• Strong and Skilled: Black is an interesting example. While he is undeniably powerful, having stolen Goku's body, and has garnered extensive combat training in preparation to be a Supreme Kai, he actually falls into being Unskilled, but Strong when it comes to using his Saiyan body. He's unfamiliar with his Saiyan physiology and is unable to utilize into its full potential, which causes him to seemingly fluctuate in power as he gradually taps into more of his power. However with more usage, he does manage to better control his power, learning that Saiyans grow stronger through anger, which he had previously been suppressing. Upon gaining this newfound understanding, Black immediately becomes a far bigger threat.
• Super Mode:
  • He has a Super Saiyan form, dubbed Super Saiyan Rosé, which gives him pink hair instead of gold or blue. The Super manga states that Super Saiyan Rosé is his equivalent of the Super Saiyan Blue form, and its different color is because Black has a proper godly status, whereas Goku and Vegeta are just mortals who possess godly Ki.
  • According to Toriyama Black has a normal gold Super Saiyan form on top of his Super Saiyan Rosé form. The anime just never used it, while the Super manga gave him Super Saiyan before he gains access to Rosé.
• Superpower Lottery: He not only has the ability to grow stronger from the pain he experiences during his battles, but he also has his own form of Super Saiyan, Super Saiyan Rosé, that is very similar to Goku and Vegeta's Super Saiyan Blue forms. On top of that, his base form alone can match Goku and Vegeta at their strongest, and he's still evolving. He also knows the Instant Transmission, making him one of the few named characters who can teleport. In addition, he has one of the best cloning techniques, where he opens a rift with his ki scythe that can create clones of himself of equal strength.
• Super Smoke: How he appeared in Future Trunks's timeline until he revealed himself to the viewers. It almost looked like he was a smoke/fog dragon. Oddly enough, when he first started to wreak havoc, he wasn't in his "smog" form, so he might have just developed that afterwards. For some reason, he is never seen using it again, even though it makes him larger.
• Taught by Experience: In the manga, it's stated that Black initially had a hard time making full use of his host body's power after stealing it with the Super Dragon Balls. He had to go to other universes and timelines, battling gods and Future Trunks to become stronger.
• Tautological Templar: He acknowledges that Future Trunks may find his actions cruel, but nonetheless states that he's doing what must be done, and that it's his duty to wipe out all mortals and correct the gods' mistakes. It takes a whole new level when it's revealed that he personally murdered his fellow gods to carry out his plan, which he justifies to Gowasu by claiming that the other gods would never understand his ideals.
• Technician vs. Performer: In the anime, one of the most noticable differences between Goku Black and Goku from the outset is that Goku Black is portrayed as having a more refined and tightly controlled fighting style, as if he'd learned in a formal martial arts school, compared to Goku's loose and mostly self-taught style. This is especially obvious in their first fight with each other. However, over time, Goku Black starts to emulate Goku's fighting style, becoming more like the real Goku in battle mannerisms with every fight they have.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: In the manga, both him and Future Zamasu clearly do not like each other due to differing views on what they define as power but they reluctantly worked together in order to carry out their Zero Mortals Plan where Black murders any mortals that Zamasu could not do even with his immortality while the latter looked down on Black due to forsaking immortality for power. Indeed, when Goku and Vegeta managed to gain the upper hand on them, it caused them to briefly suffer from infighting before Black suggest that they fuse.
• Temporal Paradox: We come to find out that the events that created Goku Black happened because of a Stable Time Loop. In the Dragon World, if you travel to the past and change something, you create an alternative timeline instead of changing the past, much like how the main timeline is different from Future Trunks' timeline. However, with the Time Rings used by the Supreme Kais, one can travel forward in time, make changes, and not create an alternative timeline. In other words, you can alter the future. That is what Present Zamasu did. He went to the future, used the Super Dragon Balls to take Goku's body to become Goku Black, travelled to Future Trunks' timeline to recruit Future Zamasu, and then went on to kill off all the gods in the future timeline before wiping out the mortals from all 12 universes, eventually leading to Goku Black arriving at Earth, and Future Trunks going into the past for help. Goku Black follows him, where Goku, Beerus, and Whis sees him with the latter identifying Goku Black's Time Ring. This leads to a series of events where Goku fights Zamasu to see if he's Goku Black and beats him, which is Zamasu's Start of Darkness since he becomes obsessed with Goku and solidifies his hatred of mortals. This eventually leads to Zamasu killing his master, taking the Time Ring, and going into the future where the cycle begins again. The cycle is broken when Beerus kills Present Zamasu before he can murder Gowasu (apparently a god killing another god doesn't create an alternative timeline), however, Goku Black still exists since he's wearing a Time Ring that protects him from any changes in time. In other words, Goku Black is now a walking paradox since he shouldn't exist. We later found out, however, this paradox fixed itself by simply creating an alternative timeline, the very thing Beerus was trying to avoid. Whis fixes this by warning the Beerus of said timeline so that Zamasu's plans never come to fruition.
• Teleportation: Because he copied/ stole all of Goku's moves, he can perform the Instant Transmission. Goku learned this the hard way when he thought he had an advantage over Black during their second battle.
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: Actually invoked by Black. After witnessing Vegeta's growth, he deduces that Vegeta's power came from his anger (seeing his son hurt and his world destroyed). So, he decides to use his own anger towards the mortals, the gods and losing to Goku in a sparring match to become stronger. Thing is, he never visibly shows anger. His demeanor and voice are completely calm, while he tells Vegeta about his inner rage.
• There Can Be Only One: Just like his counterpart/alternate self, Zamasu, Goku Black sees himself as the ONLY god worth living, believing the other gods are too lazy to do anything about mortals. This is why he and Future Zamasu killed all the gods in Future Trunks' timeline before beginning their campaign to kill all the mortals and become one with the fabric of the cosmos itself in order to become "justice itself".
• Timey-Wimey Ball: While Dragon Ball has long since utilized Alternate Timelines, Time Rings were introduced as allowing time travel without the creation of new timelines. They were also the reason why Goku Black could exist, as even though Beerus destroyed him in the past, the Time Ring is stated to have preserved his existence. While this whole incident already made Black a walking paradox. Then, in Episode 67, it's revealed that Beerus accidentally created a Time Ring when he killed Present Zamasu, and by extension a separate timeline (which is what a Time Ring signifies), because Black was protected by his Time Ring. In other words, a god killing another god shouldn't have created a new timeline, but since Black was protected, it split the timeline instead of the erasing Black's timeline, something Beerus was trying to avoid. Whis goes to the Beerus of that timeline to warn him of Zamasu's plan, ensuring his plans never come to fruition.
• Too Clever by Half: His plan to kill mortals and take over the multiverse as the supreme god was nearly flawless outside of two major errors. He didn't seem to noticed that Goku's body was corrupting him since he didn't have the desire for immortality, only gaining more power. This error gimped Fused Zamasu's immortality and made it possible for the heroes to destroy his physical body. His second major error, not coming up with a counter to deal with Zeno outside of probably hoping that Fused Zamasu could beat him.
• Tranquil Fury: When he draws upon his anger to grow stronger. Even as he tells Vegeta about his inner rage, he remains completely calm and collected.
• Translation Correction: Despite being written "gokuu burakku" (ゴクウブラック) in Japanese, any time his name is written in Latin letters (for example on official merchandise) in Japan, it's almost always misspelt as "Gokou Black". Outside of Japan, he's known as "Goku Black", as his kana name would suggest.
• Trash Talk: Interesting, Black in the anime doesn't do this often except to Future Trunks. He barely acknowledges Vegeta's existence and he sees Goku as his one and only Worthy Opponent. Manga Black, however, talks crap to everyone, especially Vegeta. Funny enough, Black's battle record in the manga is much poorer than his anime counterpart.
• The Usurper: Has the rank of Supreme Kai (with the Japanese name "Kaioshin" translating to God King of Worlds), but stole it by murdering his master Gowasu.
• This Cannot Be!: His reaction in Episode 63 when Vegeta begin to overpowers and beat him down. He quickly gets over it and uses the revelation that anger make mortals stronger to increase his own strength.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • According to Future Trunks, he is as strong or stronger than Super Saiyan 3 Goku. After fighting Goku in the past and growing stronger, he is able to hold his own against Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta in base form. He then reveals that he can transform into what he calls a Super Saiyan Rosé and takes Vegeta down with a single strike. He then overwhelms Super Saiyan Blue Goku and claims to be getting stronger. Before fusing with Zamasu, he regains his advantage over Vegeta, who severely overpowered him, by using his anger to grow stronger, rip a hole in dimensions, and create endless clones.
  • In the Super manga, Future Trunks states that originally Black had to go Super Saiyan against him when they fought. In time, he got so strong that Black didn't need to transform anymore. After getting his ass kicked by Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta, he's able to beat Vegeta easily using only Super Saiyan. Then he reveals that he has Super Saiyan Rosé, his version of Super Saiyan Blue.
• Tsurime Eyes: Unlike Goku, who has Tareme Eyes, Black has sharp eyes similar to Bardock's.
• Ultimate Lifeform: After fully copying Goku, he considers himself one, possessing Goku's innate power, but at a level no mortal can ever reach. This is explained more in the Super manga where Black needs to become the strongest life form to have any chance of killing all mortals in the multiverse. In the anime, however, it's hinted that Black was going to eventually fuse with Future Zamasu to create the true supreme god, Fused Zamasu once he reached the peak of his power.
• Underestimating Badassery: After easily handling Vegeta twice, he gets a nasty surprise when Vegeta starts kicking his butt thanks to spending six months in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
• Undying Loyalty: In the anime, he and Zamasu present incredible teamwork abilities, which is somewhat unique in this franchise as they never even so much as bicker even once. Despite having different ideals (Black wants challenge, is a mortal; Zamasu settles on immortality, despises mortals) they respect their differences and always fight in perfect balance. Even when Black was about to kill Goku, he instantly stopped when Zamasu told him to. He did not hesitate to check on Zamasu and drop his fight with Goku and Vegeta when he felt Zamasu's ki disappearing briefly. Interestingly, his manga counterpart is basically the opposite of this.
• The Unfettered: He absolutely won't stop on his mission to annihilate humanity and chases Future Trunks across time itself to kill him. When he fails to kill Trunks, he destroys his time machine, trapping Trunks in the past, giving him free reign in the future. Even more disturbing, he kills Goku's family without any remorse and rubs their deaths in Goku's face.
• Unknown Rival: Vegeta has made it his mission to kill Black after he went after and tormented his family. Black, however, returns none of these feelings and just sees Vegeta as a Warm-Up Boss, even when Vegeta temporarily overpowers him. This is different in the Super manga where Black hates Vegeta for beating him up in their first encounter and does so again after Vegeta trained in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Played With. While he's very well-trained thanks to his preparation for becoming a Supreme Kai. He is unable to fully utilize Goku's strong body to its highest potential, as he is still learning how it works along the way, which is why he experiences such rapid growth from fighting. The manga makes this more evident as when he can only get as far as Super Saiyan before getting a near-death experience by being beaten up by Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta that boosted his power and he upgraded to his Super Saiyan Rosé form.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: He wants to rid the universe of all mortals, who he sees as failure of the gods, to make a perfect paradise. To that end, he murders his master, take the Time Ring, uses a wish from the Super Dragon Balls to steal Goku's body, murders him and his entire family, kills Future Gowasu, teams up with Future Zamasu, and murder all the gods in the multiverse.
• Victory Is Boring: In the manga, he finds the idea of no one being left to oppose him, since Future Trunks is gone to the past and he murdered all the gods, to be boring.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: With Super being Lighter and Softer compared to its predecessor series, Black truly stands out as a disturbingly dark and wicked villain. He is an Omnicidal Maniac and a cold-blooded sadist, and lacks any comedic traits that even the previous villains had. His appearance alongside Zamasu's marks a darker shift in tone that not even the Ressurection 'F' arc could match.
• Villainous Breakdown: Manga Black suffers a noticeable one after Vegeta goes Super Saiyan Blue and proceeds to beat the crap out of him, while giving him a vicious "The Reason You Suck" Speech just like the anime. He had yet another one after Vegeta trained in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and beat him up as a Super Saiyan God (he was using the form to save energy while he 'attacked' as a Super Saiyan Blue Kaio-ken from the Frieza Saga).
• Villainous Friendship: Although Future Zamasu doesn't see him as his "comrade", they get along very well. When they're not out killing mortals, they live together in a house outside the city and have tea together. Since Future Zamasu and him are practically the same person (both being Zamasu), it would make sense why they get along so well. He's literally his own best friend.
• Villain Respect: He has nothing but praise towards Goku, seeing him as a Worthy Opponent and refers to Goku as the beautiful peak to aspire towards. His general respect towards Goku does take on a creepy and more disturbing tone after learning that he is Zamasu who used the Super Dragon Balls to steal Goku's body. He also praises the Super Saiyan Blue form, saying how it's magnificent to see a warrior race garbed in godly energy. He does note, however, that Saiyans are still just mortals, even with godly energy.
• Villains Out Shopping: He and Future Zamasu are seen chilling out in what looks to be a summer house located in a beautiful field drinking tea and admiring the view outside the city.
• Visionary Villain: It was Goku Black who recruited Future Zamasu in his quest to destroy all the mortals after he took Goku's body and murdered him and his family. They then go on to murder all the gods in Future Trunks' timeline so they would become the 'supreme gods' and execute their form of justice.
• Vocal Evolution: Sean Schemmel's take on Goku Black, in Xenoverse 2, had a much more gravelly voice, but his Super Saiyan Rosé form toned it down to be a bit more natural and accented, which is also how the voice is in FighterZ. The dub of Super proper initially uses a voice more similar to the real Goku for his base form, but with a sinister politeness similar to the Japanese version. After transforming into his Super Saiyan Rosé form for the first time, not only is his British accent from the video games brought back, albeit slightly toned down, but he also now retains the British accent in his base form, essentially replacing the voice he had prior to the transformation entirely.
• Voices Are Not Mental: Unlike Captain Ginyu who switches voice when they switched bodies, Zamasu speaks using Goku's own voice when he uses his body. The same also applies to Goku in Zamasu's body who also speaks with the latter's voice.
• Voluntary Shapeshifter: Played with very early on. He seems to be able to transform into some kind of black shadow or cloud that resembles a red-eyed beast more than himself. What it is supposed to be is never explained, however.
• Walking Spoiler: Who and what Black is, is one of the major plot points of the Future Trunks Saga. So the revelation that Black is a version of Zamasu inside some version of Goku's body is a big surprise, even for people who thought Black was Zamasu (the common theory was that Black was Future Goku's corpse being possessed).
• What the Hell, Hero?: Since he was once Zamasu, Gowasu's former student, Gowasu lectures him and Future Zamasu about their crimes against mortals and the gods. He then begs them to used the Super Dragon Balls to undo all the damage they did. Black scoffs at him and tells his old master that he destroyed the Super Dragon Balls. He then tries to kill Gowasu, for the third time.
• Where's the Fun in That?: As he tells Future Zamasu, this is the reason why he didn't used the Super Dragon Balls to wish for immortality. He'll eventually get rusty and fights won't be as fun.
• Wicked Cultured: Just like his previous incarnation (Zamasu), he is impeccably polite, intelligent, drinks tea, and is a psychopathic mass murderer.
• With Us or Against Us: The reason he and Future Zamasu slaughtered all the other gods in Future Trunks' timeline. As Black explains, he knew that the other gods would never support or understand his plans or ideals, so they had to die to prevent them from interfering.
• Worf Had the Flu: Although very powerful and can fight evenly with Super Saiyan 2 Goku, he can't fight all out since he keeps being pulled towards the time portal, allowing Goku to land several solid hits on him. Eventually, his time in the past runs out and he forced back into Future Trunks' world before he can fight seriously. When we finally see him fight semi-seriously, he takes down Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta effortlessly with his Super Saiyan Rosé form.
• World's Best Warrior: He fits this for not only being strong, but being well-trained to the point of being able to critically injure someone with only a few attacks. In term of pure skill, he's about equal to Goku, who he fought to a standstill when they first fought.
• World's Strongest Man: According to Atsushi Kido (Super's producer), the anime version is the strongest character after Beerus if you don't count fusions during the Future Trunks Saga. He has the edge on both Super Saiyan Blues in all of their fights. Of course, even in the anime, he is outdone by several fighters in the Tournament of Power, like Kefla, Jiren, and Toppo. The manga version does not have this title, as he gets thrashed by Vegeta even with Rosé, after Vegeta learns to negate Super Saiyan Blue's stamina drain problem.
• Worthy Opponent: He shows nothing but respect towards Goku, calling him the strongest of the Saiyans. He also considers it an honor to fight him so he can increase his own power. This goes so far that he still talks to Goku and praises him while he's fighting Vegeta.
• Would Hurt a Child: With his extreme sadism and cruelty, he definitely doesn't care about the age of any of his victims.
  • Black has committed many genocides of countless planets. This would obviously include a lot of children.
  • He cuts down Goten in cold-blood, along with Chi-Chi, after offing his father.
• Would You Like to Hear How They Died?: He does this to Goku, gleefully explaining how he killed Goku's Alternate Self after stealing his body, and then killed Chi-Chi and Goten. Goku flies into an Unstoppable Rage at the revelation.
• You Are What You Hate: In a very unusual way. Goku Black is a version of Zamasu who used the Super Dragon Balls to trade bodies with Goku before killing him. This is despite Goku being everything Zamasu hates about mortals like him hanging out with gods like he's their equal, fighting them in the battle, and being immature as well as being extremely powerful. It was his entire meeting with Goku that sent him on his Start of Darkness. Yet, not only did he steal the body of the mortal he hates the most, but he also begins to take on several of Goku's character traits like his need to fight, grow stronger, and be challenged. He even deliberately takes on Goku's name. Furthermore, after getting into his first fight with present day Goku, his distinctly polite speech pattern begins to slowly devolve into informality similar to how Goku speaks (though he never loses his sinister tone or articulation). We later find out that this was on purpose. Zamasu views Goku as the symbol of everything that is wrong with mortals and he wants Goku to be his eternal reminder of the gods' failure.