The thing is, I still completely believe 40 year old Goku would do this. Again, this is literal new dimension to explore full of new things. New flora, new fauna, new rules applied to the concepts they use diary. Being and adult doesn't mean you can't have child-like wonder or even act like one, I am one and I'm not ashamed to say I can jump in excitement if something is good enough, like a gift my ex partner did to me. Or act silly when talking to my pet. This seems to come from the idea that, again, being mature of X years old means you naturaly grow out of child manneris, which is not teue as it depends of each invidiual's experiences. It reads as hollow as Inside Out 2's idea that "it's normal to feel less happiness when you grow up". No, it isn't. If you are forced to mature is because the currenr system requires you to do so in order to have a stable job that pays bills, and even then it doesn't apply to all people. Goku has literally no reason to have lost his attitude when he didn't have any of those struggles or reasons to mature. Thinking this is wrong when we are talking about someone who gets physically excited and pumped up about fighting is quite nonsense to me. And it seems to come from a fundamental issue that we don't seem to agree, because I don't think being an adult makes you more mature just by aging physically.Yuji wrote: Sat Nov 02, 2024 3:22 pm I don't think Super has tainted anyone's view of anything. Both shows share the same issue regarding Goku's characterization: over-exaggerating his childlike traits to absurd degrees for the sake of levity and comedy. I guess that a literal child jumping around like a bunny rabbit is more palpable and believable to audiences than a 40-year old man doing the same, but they're both mentally the same age. The Goku of the original series would not, of course, do this as an adult, because he has some degree of decorum and maturity that his child self did not have. It's not about stripping away Goku's personality to someone who "lost his happiness", it's about showcasing his different emotions with the subtlety of an adult and not as a caricature.
Your post honestly just gives me more evidence than people are projecting themselves into someone with the peraonality of Goku, who has always been like this but the series has only been able to show new things when it comes to fighting. In fact, I would argue that gives even more of a reason for his excitement- the guy has literally being dead, and no one in the afterlife could compare to him. He has been 7 years there and saw what it has to offer. He has seen everything Earth can offer as well. Now he is on a proper adventure actually discovering new thinga again rather than just pure fighting, and even using a weapon he finds nostalgic. You are, again, projecting your own "subtle behaviour as an adult" to a character that is literally the baseline of shonen protagonists. You could argue this for literally any of Dragonball's characters *but* Goku. Hell, one of the recurring jokes about the character is that he lacks the social clues and understanding meccesary to adress people by honorifics or propertly introduce himself in Japanese language. If that doesn't tell you the guy lacks the attitude that you apparently expect socially from an adult, I don't know what it will. Do you think Roshi acts like an old man too, or does he gets a pass because of the joke being that he is a pervert? Because Goku's easy-going nature is a pretty fundamental trait of his if you ask me, and why Gohan didn't act the same despite being similar ages.
