Why do People Think Goku would have sacrificed 18 ?

[Gogeta Blue]

This was brought first with What-If topics of what if Goku and Gohan entered the RoSat First then engaged Cell, people started debating either if Goku would have let Cell reaches his Perfect Form or not, and a handful of People said yes based on Goku vs. Freeza, But that wouldn't be the case at all.
knowing Goku he would never sacrifice anyone for a good battle, even if he loves battles, he's not as bad as you think, Z Goku (or at least Manga Goku, haven't watched the anime but pretty sure it's making Goku a bad parent). Please don't bring the Cell Games and the Senzu Beans, if it happened the other way, who would have beated Cell at his Full Power ? Nobody, the Earth would have been DESTROYED, he intended to bring Gohan's Hidden Power, it was the only way to beat Cell, and guess what ? did you see Gohan's arrogance ? i never saw anyone talk about it, he literally made his Father sacrifice his life for literally nothing, but nobody (or no Gohan's fanboy) bringed that up.
TL DR:
A: Manga Goku would never have 18 sacrificed/Cell reaches Perfect Form
B: Goku isn't that bad as people think
C: Thanks for reading

[sintzu]

I also don't think Goku would sacrifice her or anyone else like that.

[PerhapsTheOtherOne]

I also don't think Goku would sacrifice her or anyone else like that.

Goku never intentionally lets people get hurt or die for the sake of fighting; he has his own moral code with regards to stuff like that.

Is he naive and thickheaded to the actual dangers villains present? Yes. But it's only because of his fight-oriented mentality. He IS a good person, he just doesn't know better sometimes.

He'd never sacrifice a person for the sake of fighting intentionally; innocents don't deserve that, and he'd prefer to fight someone using their own power.

[Michsi]

It's crass exaggeration of Goku's character flaws that belongs in the same category as "he doesn't care about his sons at all". Him letting Cell absorb a person would've been heartless and cruel, and that's in no way a correct description of Goku. Selfish and reckless and naive? Sure. Heartless and cruel? No way.

[ABED]

Goku's very concrete bound. He's not bothered by abstract notions that allowing villains to go free will put people in danger, but if it's right in front of him, he's the first to try and stop it. In that way, I don't think he would've intentionally let Cell absorb 18, even if it resulted in a better fight. If Cell just needed time to gather his energy to reach his perfect form, like Freeza did, then he wouldn't bat an eye.

[Forte224]

Yeah, Goku definitely wouldn't have let Cell absorb 18. Some fans like to deal with character traits in absolutes, and just because Goku has done similar things before (like allowing 100% Freeza) they say he would've done exactly what Vegeta did with Cell.

Had Cell tried to goad him into it, Goku most likely would've said something like "I admit, it gets me excited thinking of a strong opponent like that. But, I can't just let you go having your way" and finished him off, with a little regret probably that he didn't get to fight him at full power.

Despite not being a superhero, Goku does care about people and innocents in general. He constantly moves his fights to where no one will get hit in the crossfire, and even tells Cell not to hurt anyone before the tournament. Vegeta at that point could've cared less who got hit in the crossfire, as evidenced by that unfortunate truck driver that he never even acknowledged during the 18 fight.

[90sDBZ]

I agree that there's no way he'd intentionally allow it to happen. It's actually surprising that 18 doesn't seem to hold it against Vegeta later on, at least not openly. I guess that's what she gets for breaking his arm.

What would have been interesting is if instead of Trunks being present with Vegeta during that battle Goku had been instead. Would Goku go against Vegeta's wishes to stop it and end up fighting Vegeta like Trunks did? Or would he be on the fence about it like "I dunno Vegeta maybe this ain't such a good idea", to which Vegeta would reply "Stay out of this clown!", and then Goku might be like "Well okay I guess...".

Joking aside I think Goku would ultimately try to put a stop to it regardless of what Vegeta wanted, except for opposite reasons to Trunks. Trunks couldn't give a shit about 18's well being at that point, but would want to stop Cell from absorbing her out of fear. Goku would want to save 18 due to her being too weak to defend herself, but wouldn't be scared of Cell powering up and would be really curious about it if it did happen.

[TheGreatness25]

I don't think Goku would ever sacrifice 18 either. But I also think that if it did happen, he wouldn't necessarily be disappointed. I can totally picture Cell slipping past him somehow and absorbing 18 to have Goku excited and remind whomever is beside him, that they can always wish 18 back with the Dragon Balls. That seemed to be the thing he rested on since post-Namek... kind of like the audience, really. "Eh, what's the worst that can happen? We have the Dragon Balls!"

But would he offer up 18 to Cell the way Vegeta did? No shot.

I don't think that Goku is as bad as everyone makes him out to be. I guess it's the cool thing to hate on him. Now, granted, I will admit that he does things that bring his character into question. For me, I was a little put off by him not returning to Earth right away after Namek. Realistically, Goku hadn't seen his son or wife for a year, saw his son for a couple of days and saw his wife for a couple of months (or whatever it was), then saw his son for another day or so on Namek, and then he chose not to see his son or wife again for a while (whatever that stretch of time was between Namek and his return to Earth).

Then, Goku chose to stay dead after the Cell Games. I get that he said something about attracting baddies, but come on. He didn't really look like he was keeping tabs on his friends or family from Other World either for those seven years.

Then, probably the most infamous one (because it was so blatant) was, "Well I'm just going to take this kid whom I met today who is a reincarnation of my strongest baddie and I'm gonna go train him; bye everyone, including my child granddaughter who obviously adores me!"


But, it's not that he's a bad guy, it's that he just doesn't think. He's very spontaneous and just does things. But if a moral decision was put right in front of him, he'd never make the wrong call.