Son Goku does not care about adventure

[Yuji]

It's something that irked me in the first few Daima episodes, the way Goku was characterized, as this wide-eyes eccentric adventurer, gawking and admiring wildlife and scenery, whereas this was simply never the impression I got of Goku myself.

In the Pilaf arc, he was strung along by Bulma and it seemed to me he kept himself around out of kindness and some subtle curiosity, but he never showed the kind of over-the-top giddiness that he does in Daima. In fact, the things that brought him excitement were the prospects of fighting people and getting stronger, which is true in the Red Ribbon Army and Namek arcs too. The actual "travel/exploration" part of the journey, he was actually rather impatient and would routinely ask if they were there yet.

The child had been living comfortably in his corner of the woods for his entire life without branching out. As an adult with God-like powers, he doesn't seek out new realms. He's largely a reactive character.

Son Goku may like "adventures" in the sense that it's another way to get stronger and fight strong guys, but he doesn't like adventure in the same way as, say, Luffy does. He does not care for the adventure as it is, he does not care about the journey nor the destination, he cares about improving himself.

I think consciously or not Toriyama recognized Goku is not very suited to an adventure story, which is why he discarded that format and stuck to martial arts fights.

[Dr. Casey]

Agreed on his personality and motivations in general. I don't think he showed any strong reaction when Roshi told him to travel the world at the end of Baba's tournament. Whether his behavior in early Daima is out-of-character I'm less sure on, I think it's blurry and can go either way. Anyone can get excited about new sights when traveling somewhere foreign even if liking adventure isn't a major part of their personality, or even if they're a homebody who'd actively hate going new places with any kind of regularity. I'd consider it out-of-character if the narrative framed it as "That Goku really loves adventure, look at him enjoying going adventuring as he always does, adventures sure are one of his favorite things in life," but since that element hasn't been present past the first few episodes, I'm leaning towards Daima Goku just getting a normal person level of enjoyment out of doing something active and traveling to a new place.

[GokuHater]

I kind of disagree a bit.

I mean, sure, Goku's pure goal was never just to see new things and to have a non descriptive adventure for the sake of it but also I got a sense he likes adventures when being on them very much - especially as a kid.

In the Pilaf saga he gets the idea that "his grandpa would surely want him to journey and learn things" and also after RR saga, Rishi told him to go around the world, train and learn new stuff.
I think Goku took all those things to heart, for him training and exploring, meeting new situations, people was always tied to each other.

And remember in the original Goku's motivation wasn't that focused on fighting strong guys. He enjoyed it but never sought for it actively back then.
In Pilaf he enjoyed the journey.
In RR he just wanted to find the 4 star vall and by the end revive Bora, he didn't actively seek to fight the army.
In Piccolo he wanted to fight but not because of the thrill of it but because of revenge.

By the time Z rolled around, the series changed a little and journey from point A to point B started to feel more "fillerish" to focus more on action.

But if we look at a series which is interested to take DB to its roots and especially have kid Goku, I don't think that's so much out of character for him to enjoy adventures.

[smiley]

I agree with the OP 100%.

In fact, it's very interesting that you bring up Luffy. I had an argument with a friend a few years ago, he claimed that Goku and Luffy are basically identical characters.

I disagreed, and this point about adventures was one of the things I brought up in response.

It's not entirely on-topic, but there are other important differences:

- Goku does not care all that much about hanging out with his friends. He does not see Bulma for five years, etc. For Luffy, hanging out with means the world to him.

- Adult Goku is not that stupid or immature. At least not to the extent Luffy is.

- Luffy does not care about fighting as far as I know. He fights to protect his friends. We all know how Goku feels about fighting.

The only similarity I see is that they both eat a lot.