SupremeKai25 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 14, 2021 2:42 am
Because he hates thinking of innocent people getting erased, but then he's friends with someone who's erased TONS of innocent people and never even brings that up, despite it having happened literally in front of his eyes. So Yes that IS hypocritical in itself.
To be fair, Goku's not as morally consistent as he
should be. It should be noted that he didn't wanna kill Freeza or Vegeta, even though he knows they've killed a lot of people over their lives (Frieza even killed Krillin right in front of him), or even the Ginyu Force. The first 2 because he took pity on Freeza & wanted to fight Vegeta again at some point, then the other 5 because they were already defeated. Him being friends with Zeno is pretty on-brand, if you ask me, though I'm assuming you COULD say he's hypocritical in those as well. However, I'm assuming he sees Zeno as a kid mentally, so should be treated like one. Goku's been making friends with people we'd consider irredeemable, or bad literally since the start of the series. Hell, Beerus has wiped out PLANETS of people, or authorized the wiping out of them. I don't know how it isn't more consistent with his character just because Zeno's wiped out universes. How do you call someone who regularly makes friends with morally-gray people & turns them into good people hypocritical? Yamcha, Tien & Chaotzu, Piccolo, Vegeta, Majin Buu, Beerus...
Seems like you're forgetting one of Goku's specialties in the show.
And, here's the thing. Would YOU not wanna be on the good side of a morally gray, chaotically neutral being capable of wiping you &/or everything else from existence in the blink of an eye for literally any reason they'd find justified, or even just because? I'd say that makes more sense to do than give them a lecture over their past erasures of parts of reality. I'm not saying you shouldn't be able to, but Goku's clearly not in a position to do that. Now, if Zeno were wanting to listen, then he'd have a shot, but I don't believe he does currently, nor does he WANT to. I'd think that'd be more up to someone like Gohan.
I think your problem is more with the fact that him befriending Zeno isn't really addressed at all than him doing so. That's a legit criticism, I think. Would Toriyama, or any other writer in the future, ever wanna address that elephant in the room? I don't think so. While DB has done more smarter stories & storytelling that're meant to make the audience think afterwards & has allowed for some great technical analysis of them, it's just not that deep most of the time. Would I like Goku to self-analyze & address things? Yeah, but it's not likely to happen. Otherwise, we lose what makes Goku himself partly. Goku himself isn't that deep of a character, but he makes up for that with his best traits of being a mostly happy-go-lucky optimist wee like to see go on whatever adventures Toriryama, or other creatives, send him on. It's why other shonen manga authors & shonen anime writers have tired to reverse-engineer his archetype & characterization to varying levels of success since DB became popular. I'm not saying he's perfect & I'm not saying characters like him are without criticism, but to not understand this, I think, is missing the point. Goku befriending people & them becoming good people afterwards, or at least less evil, is a constant. I'd wager that was the entire point of the Tournament of Power, as Zeno doesn't just wipe out all of reality afterwards. Goku having it go through was his way of changing Zeno's mind on the people living under the gods. I think you're wanting Goku to be something he's just not. There are plenty of criticisms to throw his way as a character that are legitimate, but I don't think he's a hypocrite for befriending Zeno, as there are legitimate reasons for him to do so. Gohan is more morally-consistent with how you want Goku to be than Goku actually is.