ABED wrote:People make a bigger idea out of Uub being Earth's defender, but that's a position that Goku took by happenstance. He didn't actively seek it out and he often puts the world in danger. His biggest reason for wanting Uub around is to spar with him.
The idea of Goku being "Earth's defender" is one that flat out just doesn't even exist in the manga (or for that matter the Japanese version of the original anime run) anyway. That's a notion that the various English localizations have come up with to make the show more "palatable" to clueless American kids.
Like you said, Goku has always fulfilled the role of being a "protector" of sorts for Earth by sheer happenstance. Its not something he'd ever for one fleeting moment think of himself as, nor would any of the other characters with him. Hell, nor does even the story in and of itself think or or treat him as that. Goku is simply the greatest martial arts master on the planet: by sheer virtue of the degree of power we're dealing with here, it just simply shakes out that his enemies' very existence, in being so powerful and so reckless with that power, happen to also threaten the world (increasingly more often as time goes on).
But that's never really been an issue that has particularly concerned Goku as much as fighting those enemies for his own personal reasons (typically revenge for something they did to him and his family/friends, or out of excitement to test himself against a new worthy foe). That whole "Gotta save the world" angle has always been a distant,
distant secondary concern (and sometimes not even that) to Goku, and to most of the other core cast too for that matter (Future Trunks really being the main big exception to this).
By this token though, Oob DOES still represent something a whole lot more than just someone to spar with. Whether Goku realizes it or not (and its definitely implied that he doesn't consciously fully realize this) what he's ACTIVELY made for himself here isn't just the ultimate sparring partner, but also moreover a
student. Oob represents the first character Goku's come across (certainly far moreso than Gohan, his own son) who can serve as a recipient for all his knowledge, wisdom, and experience about fighting.
Someone who he can finally pass all of his skills onto before he himself inevitably dies (for keeps) and through which all of his accumulated knowledge and methods of fighting may carry on beyond his passing into the future through others. Its one of the single most important tropes in all of martial arts fiction, this idea of a master "living on" past death through their students, and its often been compared to the kung fu fiction equivalent of having kids (more so than a character actually literally having a kid).
As an end point for Goku, it definitely works and I've come to appreciate it as an end point more and more as time goes on (not that GT's final episode isn't still lovely of course). And I think its also totally fitting for Goku's character that he inherently has this burning desire to teach a student without seeming to fully understand or realize it or what it means for him (seeing it as simply another avenue to "fight a great opponent"). Its a great character-focused ending (and its funny how there was a thread recently asking of DB is more plot or character focused), but one of the things that it DOES leave you with is that if you WERE to continue the story past it, by sheer overwhelming necessity of what's been set up (and the magnitude of it on Goku's character arc and trajectory) you simply HAVE to make Oob some kind of a major character lest you rob all the power, point, and meaning behind that ending. Ignoring it just comes across as beyond cheap and careless to where the story had gone previously.
And its not like there's isn't already a ton of built-in potential for plenty interesting things for Oob to do or have happen to him: I mean, poor Indian peasant who is being trained by Goku as his successor while being secretly, and unbeknownst to himself, the reincarnation of the most powerful, lethal, and fearsome god-slaying demon in all of existence? Yeah you can do
plenty of perfectly interesting and cool things with that premise, and STILL keep tons and tons of the focus more on Goku if you want. It doesn't in any way have to be an either/or.
