Would you like to see Goku age and become old eventually?

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Would you like to see Goku age and become old eventually?

Post by Shadow Light Master » Thu Jul 26, 2018 1:59 am

I feel like it's a misconception that characters have to be young to be interesting, likable, or relatable. I think an old character can be equally cool to put your shoes in.

Look at Old Snake, Heihaichi, and Ragyo. All iconic characters. Or at least popular.

It would be cool to see Goku age, as it's uncommon in anime. But I think it would be cool to see eventually, because his role could change.

Naturally, it would get stale to have him be the main protagonist forever. It would be cool if he took on a mentor role to characters like Caulifla and Uub and we saw him train them.

Naruto has proven this concept can be compelling.

We can also see how he deals with loss of strength due to aging and has to make up for it with better strategy and experience to read his younger opponents. This would be compelling because it would lead to an evolution of his fighting style and would make fights more interesting.

We could see Goku use new techniques he's invented like the Dragon Fist or other original attacks and others he's learned from training with all the GoDs of the universes.

It would also be cool to see how Goku gets closure on his life. How he reflects on it in the end, if at all. It would be very poignant to see Goku pass away naturally someday. If it was done with dignity, it could be a very dramatic moment.

I hate to be morbid, but if Nozawa passes, people have said Dragon Ball should end. I think that's a bit extreme, but to honor that occasion it would be cool to make an episode of Goku moving on to the afterlife as well.

Anyway, yeah. This is just a random thought I had. It would be cool to see a non-canonical OVA about time passing and aging. We see snapshots of Goku's life as he mentors Caulifla and Uub, and later reconnects with Goten, deals with the loss of his strength, and finally paying his respects to rivals and loved ones before passing on.

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Re: Would you like to see Goku age and become old eventually?

Post by DragonBallFoodie » Fri Jul 27, 2018 4:36 pm

Not really. Part of his charm in his everlasting "young at heart/spirit" character.
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Re: Would you like to see Goku age and become old eventually?

Post by Logania » Fri Jul 27, 2018 6:16 pm

I mean, I kinda felt that was what the final episode of GT was. Goku saying his final farewells to his closest friends and family, and going off with Shenron to the...wherever the hell Shenron goes?

I don't wanna see Goku get all old and wrinkly and die of natural causes, that'd be a very odd and quite dark moment (even though people die all the time in this series, it's usually not through real life circumstances like old age.) It's bad enough seeing an old Krillin.
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Re: Would you like to see Goku age and become old eventually?

Post by Gligarman » Fri Jul 27, 2018 6:17 pm

He did age. He’s got a granddaughter now. In fact he’s nearly aged in real time since it’s been roughly 25 years in universe by this point in Super.

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Re: Would you like to see Goku age and become old eventually?

Post by Vijay » Sat Jul 28, 2018 6:10 am

I like Goku to be someone like Netero (an epic character from HXH2011)

Or someone like Van Hohenhiem (FMAB)

Easily one of series strongest character randomly involving in training/adventurous trip almost isolated from humans/Z world. Yet when crisis strikes, dude comes out of his darkness in his full-glory, kick some ass then return to his work like a legendary phoenix

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Re: Would you like to see Goku age and become old eventually?

Post by floofychan333 » Sun Jul 29, 2018 8:20 pm

Yes. I'd be ok with Goku physically aging more though Saiyajins age much slower than humans so he'd have to be 70 or 80 before he started looking older.
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Re: Would you like to see Goku age and become old eventually?

Post by Chuquita » Sun Jul 29, 2018 10:06 pm

No because it would be depressing. I watched JoJo part four, I know how depressing seeing an elderly version of a once vibrant younger character is.

I'd instead either:
-write him out completely like in DBO
OR
-pull some kind of plot macguffin where a power up or something grants him incredibly slow aging/a super long prime.
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Re: Would you like to see Goku age and become old eventually?

Post by kaialone » Mon Jul 30, 2018 4:47 am

I would love to see Goku visibly age sometimes, I adore that hypothetical Old Goku that Toriyama drew once.

Goku seems like the kinda character who can deal with anything, so it'd be nice and refreshing to see Goku deal with an ageing body, finding his own ways to enjoy himself and have fun even if he can't pull off the feats he used to anymore.

Goku as a funny old man sounds like a gold mine, especially when there's cranky old Vegeta next to him or something.
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Re: Would you like to see Goku age and become old eventually?

Post by AloversGaming » Mon Jul 30, 2018 5:06 am

No. In fact i'd be fine if they used the Dragon Balls to deage themselves.

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Re: Would you like to see Goku age and become old eventually?

Post by Ssjcell » Thu Aug 02, 2018 2:28 pm

AloversGaming wrote:No. In fact i'd be fine if they used the Dragon Balls to deage themselves.
I think it would be cool if they used the dragonballs to make chi chi and bulma age like the Saiyans...

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Re: Would you like to see Goku age and become old eventually?

Post by emperior » Thu Aug 02, 2018 3:07 pm

It would be cool to see Goku and Vegeta fighting it out as old men, still kicking asses while mentoring the new generation.
The serie could lead up to that. We could get a few arcs of Goku and Vegeta past their prime , with them eventually facing an enemy too strong for them, their pupils and everyone else, but that they would have been able to beat in their prime. The key to defeat said enemy would be to ask Shenron their youthness, as Daimao once did. Actually the Dragon Balls are such an easy plot tool that I wouldn’t mind if the entire main cast decided to wish for eternal youthness. It would make sense as they could always decide to die and go to the otherworld, but Earthlings would still be able to resurrrct them in case of need, something they wouldn’t be able to do if the fighters die by natural causes.
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Re: Would you like to see Goku age and become old eventually?

Post by Waluigiman » Thu Aug 02, 2018 3:13 pm

Ssjcell wrote:
AloversGaming wrote:No. In fact i'd be fine if they used the Dragon Balls to deage themselves.
I think it would be cool if they used the dragonballs to make chi chi and bulma age like the Saiyans...
That's my headcanon idea of why the characters look younger in Dragon Ball Super. This will explain why Bulma decided to have a second kid at such advanced age. I mean you would think someone who likes to be beautiful wouldn't miss an oppurtunity to use the Dragon Balls to make a wish, especially if she has the radar and the friends to find them easily.

I don't want to see Goku look like a fighting raisin. I feel he will change too much even if he actually never began the series as an adult. That's a reason why I thought GT was a depressing concept because the cast was already past their prime and the characters seemed to had died both literaliy and figuratevily.

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Re: Would you like to see Goku age and become old eventually?

Post by ZodaEX » Tue Jan 15, 2019 10:12 pm

Waluigiman wrote:
Ssjcell wrote:
AloversGaming wrote:No. In fact i'd be fine if they used the Dragon Balls to deage themselves.
I think it would be cool if they used the dragonballs to make chi chi and bulma age like the Saiyans...
That's my headcanon idea of why the characters look younger in Dragon Ball Super. This will explain why Bulma decided to have a second kid at such advanced age. I mean you would think someone who likes to be beautiful wouldn't miss an oppurtunity to use the Dragon Balls to make a wish, especially if she has the radar and the friends to find them easily.

I don't want to see Goku look like a fighting raisin. I feel he will change too much even if he actually never began the series as an adult. That's a reason why I thought GT was a depressing concept because the cast was already past their prime and the characters seemed to had died both literaliy and figuratevily.
Which characters die in GT? I've never seen it.

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Re: Would you like to see Goku age and become old eventually?

Post by SuperSaiyaManZ94 » Tue Jan 15, 2019 10:33 pm

I have always been mystified and intrigued by how they portrayed Goku in the 100 years later parts in GT episode 64 and the Goku Jr. special, where his status is left kind of ambiguous as we don't really know if he's alive or not in a physical sense. Personally i would say since it likely took him a very long time to grow back to an adult from the de aging wish that Pilaf accidentally wished for with the Black Star Dragon Balls in the first episode. I have wondered if absorbing the Dragon Balls into his body while flying away with Shen Long may have had an effect on him in some way, though the show's writers never really provided any clear cut explanation for his rather unique appearance in both. I have thought for a long time that perhaps this led to him attaining some kind of special status in the world, maybe even immortality beyond simply wishing for it with the balls themselves. It's a possible theory to explain such things as why he appears halo-less and such although there has never been absolute confirmation from any of the official parties to prove that definitively.

In lieu of official statements on this subject, we can only speculate and theorize as has been done for well over twenty years at this point.
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Re: Would you like to see Goku age and become old eventually?

Post by ABED » Tue Jan 15, 2019 10:58 pm

You're overthinking it. At the end of GT, he's in effect dead. He's given enough time to look in on his family and the audience sees him one final time in the form we most recognize - his adult form.

I don't think I'd mind seeing it as a coda, but I don't care to see a whole story where Goku is an old man.
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Re: Would you like to see Goku age and become old eventually?

Post by SuperSaiyaManZ94 » Tue Jan 15, 2019 11:09 pm

ABED wrote:You're overthinking it. At the end of GT, he's in effect dead. He's given enough time to look in on his family and the audience sees him one final time in the form we most recognize - his adult form.

I don't think I'd mind seeing it as a coda, but I don't care to see a whole story where Goku is an old man.
Yeah, it's just that without the obvious signs of him being dead as we have previously seen in the series it kind of threw me for a loop. That was especially the case when i saw the show on TV as a kid back in the early 2000's and couldn't really make sense of what was happening, add that to the fact that there has never been any conclusive light shed on the subject from Toei or whoever else has contributed to some extent and why so many have debated this for so many years going all the way back to GT being relatively new.

We also don't know exactly where it was Goku flew away with Shen Long to, it's all just one big mystery with no real answers.
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Re: Would you like to see Goku age and become old eventually?

Post by NewKakarot » Wed Jan 16, 2019 12:41 am

Reading this thread reminded me of the "Old Geezer Goku" Toriyama drew somewhere around 1989 or 1990 while commenting that he didn't know when or how he'd end the series, and that maybe it'll end with Goku as an old man

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Re: Would you like to see Goku age and become old eventually?

Post by Travis Touchdown » Wed Jan 16, 2019 1:08 am

I’d really like to see Goku as an old man like in that sketch Toriyama drew years ago. Like Goku, due to his Saiyan biology, has seemingly outlived his friends and even immediate family and takes on a new student or two. Maybe even his descendant(s) who don’t even know who he is.
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Re: Would you like to see Goku age and become old eventually?

Post by Koitsukai » Wed Jan 16, 2019 1:31 am

I'd like that only because I don't want DB to become some timeless story like The Simpsons. I would prefer his journey to end before he ages that much though

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Re: Would you like to see Goku age and become old eventually?

Post by ABED » Wed Jan 16, 2019 5:31 am

SuperSaiyaManZ94 wrote:
ABED wrote:You're overthinking it. At the end of GT, he's in effect dead. He's given enough time to look in on his family and the audience sees him one final time in the form we most recognize - his adult form.

I don't think I'd mind seeing it as a coda, but I don't care to see a whole story where Goku is an old man.
Yeah, it's just that without the obvious signs of him being dead as we have previously seen in the series it kind of threw me for a loop. That was especially the case when i saw the show on TV as a kid back in the early 2000's and couldn't really make sense of what was happening, add that to the fact that there has never been any conclusive light shed on the subject from Toei or whoever else has contributed to some extent and why so many have debated this for so many years going all the way back to GT being relatively new.

We also don't know exactly where it was Goku flew away with Shen Long to, it's all just one big mystery with no real answers.
I think people are looking for the literal answer and aren't fine with the symbolic (for lack of a better word) ending. The point was that Goku was gone from the world.
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