eledoremassis02 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 19, 2020 2:08 pm
There could be an alternate timeline where Funimation kept Zero and it wasn't revealed until later that his alien name was Goku and he ends up sticking with that
Well, Funi's initial dub of DB movie 1 in 1995 with the Vancouver cast kept the Harmony Gold names (as well as a few other name changes), but they also recorded alternate takes using the more familiar dub names.
I guess they decided to keep a few of HG's inventions, though, to minimise the need of alternate takes; Master Roshi, Flying Nimbus, Power Pole, etc. were all Harmony Gold inventions, I'm pretty sure.
And furthermore, we know from the Zero Y El Dragon Magico dub (the short-lived Spanish dub that was re-translated from Harmony Gold's DB dub scripts, both used and unused) that their way of adapting the tournament announcer misreading the kanji of Goku's name (or rather, Zero's name, since we're talking Harmony Gold) in the first tournament arc would have been that he reads the name out as "Goku", and then Yamucha points out that the announcer is reading out his own name, rather than a contestant's name.
And we know that Funi based their early scripting -- at least partially -- on Harmony Gold's scripts, so it's possible that, while your idea wouldn't have exactly happened, something somewhat similar would have likely ended up in the series if Funi had stuck with the Harmony Gold names.
The point of Dragon Ball is to enjoy it. Never lose sight of that.