Goku's Guard!

[TheMikado]

Most certainly. Keep your eye on the birdie though.....here I go

Goku is an idiot who doesn't learn from his mistakes. He continuously brings his guard down. He did it against that ugly green slug in Dragonball. He did it in RoF, with a gun lazer. He did it against Vegeta.

It's the author's way of saying nobody's perfect, even in combat. It's a flaw that Goku can simply not shake and should have avoided many times after it happened to him the first time.

What else is there to add here? It's a simple topic.

Excellent post, I won't grade this one and consider it a rough draft, now we will test your critical thinking skills.
Do you feel that the continued use of the plot device hurts the narrative or should it be continued to be used as his established character flaw and personal weakness?

My my my, Raditz. I'm flattered. Now take that scouter off and read so you won't get distracted:

It doesn't hurt the narrative. It hurts Goku's fans because they expect progression in his character. They expect him to improve, and it annoys them every time he makes this error.

It's better to keep this as a flaw Goku has. Although they shouldn't use it as much as they do in this crap of a tournament we are watching. Don't use this plot device against fodder characters. They should use it sparingly as he fights a major villain. That creates more drama in the show, to have him almost beat a major villain and then he makes this habitual mistake. Goku is about willpower, and at that point the audience will watch him overcome the odds yet again.

Not every aggressive guy is stupid, I just don't like cupcake softies like Lord Beerus who get offended so easily. Soon it will be offensive to call someone a he or a she, that's how secular we are becoming, but that's another topic for another day.

Wouldn't introducing that as a character flaw result in a change to Toriyamas character, what would be the natural justification for this becoming a chronic character flaw of his at this point in his fighting career? The argument is that he's pretty experienced at this point so he should know better. How narratively could we fit both this redefined character flaw and Toriyama original vision of a growing maturing character?

[Lord Beerus]

Not every aggressive guy is stupid, I just don't like cupcake softies like Lord Beerus who get offended so easily. Soon it will be offensive to call someone a he or a she, that's how secular we are becoming, but that's another topic for another day.

Excuse me? No, I'm not the sort of person who gets offended easily. You could easily make your point without the name calling.

[Vegeta123]

Excellent post, I won't grade this one and consider it a rough draft, now we will test your critical thinking skills.
Do you feel that the continued use of the plot device hurts the narrative or should it be continued to be used as his established character flaw and personal weakness?

My my my, Raditz. I'm flattered. Now take that scouter off and read so you won't get distracted:

It doesn't hurt the narrative. It hurts Goku's fans because they expect progression in his character. They expect him to improve, and it annoys them every time he makes this error.

It's better to keep this as a flaw Goku has. Although they shouldn't use it as much as they do in this crap of a tournament we are watching. Don't use this plot device against fodder characters. They should use it sparingly as he fights a major villain. That creates more drama in the show, to have him almost beat a major villain and then he makes this habitual mistake. Goku is about willpower, and at that point the audience will watch him overcome the odds yet again.

Not every aggressive guy is stupid, I just don't like cupcake softies like Lord Beerus who get offended so easily. Soon it will be offensive to call someone a he or a she, that's how secular we are becoming, but that's another topic for another day.

Wouldn't introducing that as a character flaw result in a change to Toriyamas character, what would be the natural justification for this becoming a chronic character flaw of his at this point in his fighting career? The argument is that he's pretty experienced at this point so he should know better. How narratively could we fit both this redefined character flaw and Toriyama original vision of a growing maturing character?

It wouldn't necessarily change Goku's character. Goku has a record of doing this, that's why it's a flaw. The natural rational for that would already be imbedded in the specific attribute of his which is he loves fighting. This love for fighting strong guys makes him happy, but it also makes him habitually assume the excitement is over prematurely. He loves fighting so much that he's worried the excitement will be over as soon as the opponent shows signs of a clear struggle. Hence he drops his guard and gets unexpectedly hit. They can add that explanation, and this doesn't change Goku's core character.

[TheMikado]

My my my, Raditz. I'm flattered. Now take that scouter off and read so you won't get distracted:

It doesn't hurt the narrative. It hurts Goku's fans because they expect progression in his character. They expect him to improve, and it annoys them every time he makes this error.

It's better to keep this as a flaw Goku has. Although they shouldn't use it as much as they do in this crap of a tournament we are watching. Don't use this plot device against fodder characters. They should use it sparingly as he fights a major villain. That creates more drama in the show, to have him almost beat a major villain and then he makes this habitual mistake. Goku is about willpower, and at that point the audience will watch him overcome the odds yet again.

Not every aggressive guy is stupid, I just don't like cupcake softies like Lord Beerus who get offended so easily. Soon it will be offensive to call someone a he or a she, that's how secular we are becoming, but that's another topic for another day.

Wouldn't introducing that as a character flaw result in a change to Toriyamas character, what would be the natural justification for this becoming a chronic character flaw of his at this point in his fighting career? The argument is that he's pretty experienced at this point so he should know better. How narratively could we fit both this redefined character flaw and Toriyama original vision of a growing maturing character?

It wouldn't necessarily change Goku's character. Goku has a record of doing this, that's why it's a flaw. The natural rational for that would already be imbedded in the specific attribute of his which is he loves fighting. This love for fighting strong guys makes him happy, but it also makes him habitually assume the excitement is over prematurely. He loves fighting so much that he's worried the excitement will be over as soon as the opponent shows signs of a clear struggle. Hence he drops his guard and gets unexpectedly hit. They can add that explanation, and this doesn't change Goku's core character.

Fair enough, I'll take that. However I can quickly see his character devolving such that now every battle is entered into waiting for the moment when Goku drops his guard. While it does go back to what you said about using it sparingly, its no different then basically watching Superman go into fight and waiting for every street thug on the corner to whip out a piece of Kryptonite. Keeping the flaw a bit more subtle and having him have a number of close calls as he slowly weans himself out of the bad habit may be more in line with the character progression we've seen from Toriyama style of character writing.

[Vegeta123]

Not every aggressive guy is stupid, I just don't like cupcake softies like Lord Beerus who get offended so easily. Soon it will be offensive to call someone a he or a she, that's how secular we are becoming, but that's another topic for another day.

Excuse me? No, I'm not the sort of person who gets offended easily. You could easily make your point without the name calling.

I've been doing this a long time. I can tell you're offended. It's ok.

And you're right. I could stop the name calling. But you're such a nice guy that you are practically asking for it.

Nice guys finish last. Always remember that. Not only on here, but everywhere in life. Take what's yours. Don't be a pushover.

[omaro34]

Not every aggressive guy is stupid, I just don't like cupcake softies like Lord Beerus who get offended so easily. Soon it will be offensive to call someone a he or a she, that's how secular we are becoming, but that's another topic for another day.

Excuse me? No, I'm not the sort of person who gets offended easily. You could easily make your point without the name calling.

I've been doing this a long time. I can tell you're offended. It's ok.

And you're right. I could stop the name calling. But you're such a nice guy that you are practically asking for it.

Nice guys finish last. Always remember that. Not only on here, but everywhere in life. Take what's yours. Don't be a pushover.

Good lord. Shove the that ego as far as you can stick it. Don't belittle others and act like you have a superiority complex.

Someone ban this fool.

[Jigurashi]

I don't know why people are claiming Goku dropping his guard is a thing that Super has just invented when it's happened in the past. Notably against Piccolo, Vegeta and Freeza.

This and the fact that it isn't even a Goku only problem. This is something these writers use to have any character let their guard down. It isn't exclusive to Goku. Only happens more often to Goku because Goku fights more often than anyone else. I'm also not sure why Super decided to make this feel like it's a problem only Goku has when this problem has existed for pretty much all characters throughout the series. I do feel like it's just a crutch though a lot of the time, but I can't give Goku only flak from something like this when it's not a Goku problem, but a writing problem. This is a problem more with the writing making people drop their guards whenever it's convenient no matter the character.

[VegettoEX]

Good lord. Shove the that ego as far as you can stick it. Don't belittle others and act like you have a superiority complex.

Someone ban this fool.

Do not post comments like this. Please report posts so a moderator or administrator can investigate.

I've been doing this a long time. I can tell you're offended. It's ok.

And you're right. I could stop the name calling. But you're such a nice guy that you are practically asking for it.

Nice guys finish last. Always remember that. Not only on here, but everywhere in life. Take what's yours. Don't be a pushover.

You've been given free warnings about your attitude and posting style issues. This is now a formal account strike.

This is not how we act here, and it may be best if you review the community guidelines before making any further contributions. Trust me; I've been doing this a long time.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

I don't know why people are claiming Goku dropping his guard is a thing that Super has just invented when it's happened in the past. Notably against Piccolo, Vegeta and Freeza.

Because RoF highlighted the issue already and there's been no progression.

This comes to my biggest issue with RF, it gave Goku an easy way out with the time-rewind instead of sticking with the destruction and thus leave some sort of impact about his dropping guard but nah Whis rewinds time and Goku saves the day instead and knowing Goku it make sense he wouldn't learn anything from that.

[Akyon]

Is it just me or is this guard dropping weakness spreading?

18 let her guard down and nearly got eliminated by Shosa.
Krillin let his guard down and got eliminated by Frost...
Fully expecting at least three more members of Team U7 to do it at this rate.

[Nano]

it got a lil crazy in here lol.

On topic:
I don't really care about other characters getting caught off guard, it's just Goku. I feel like they're gonna make Goku learn Whis' ability where his body moves without thinking allowing him to escape almost anything. It happened in the episode from the mini Hit arc when Bulma tried to hit him. Until then we'll continue to see shenanigans and disbeliefs.