Does Goku give you the warm feels?

[TheZFighter]

I think "the warm feels" is most definitely the right term to use, though not necessarily in the way you may have meant.

I have been a fan of this franchise for over 16 years now, that is nearly 70% of my life. I believe many of you will be able to relate to this. Over that period of time, I've followed intensely as Goku has grown from a little boy to a man, started a family, had two children and become a grandfather, whilst largely maintaining the same group of friends, who have grown along with him. How good is that!? While this guy has got bigger, stronger, more powerful and experienced all kinds of great evils, he is still very much the same little boy, with that same childlike innocence naivety, optimism and enthusiasm. The only anime franchise I have followed so closely for the same period of time is Pokemon. However, due to Pokemon's complete lack of heart and soul in recent years (pretty much since the end of the original series), as well as its lack of character development, timeline and story progression, it most definitely does not give me the same "warm feels" (sometimes I wonder why I still follow that damn series!).

I'll admit that towards the end of Dragon Ball Z, I did tire of the focus on Saiyan characters (particularly Gohan pre-Elder Kai power-up, Goten and "Kid" Trunks), and I quickly became bored of the completely unnecessary introduction of more and more Super Saiyan forms (glad they're stopping that), but Goku always remained my favourite character. In the real world, you'll find that many of the big, muscular and strong people can be very arrogant and come with pretty large egos attached, not dissimilar to many Dragon Ball characters, actually. Goku, despite being one of the strongest people ever, is still completely humble. The fact that guys like Yamcha and Krillin, who he has known for the majority of his life but now pale in comparison to his awesome power, are still his best friends, speak volumes about Goku. He is generally a peaceful guy, but he is still an fierce competitor. He is always completely fair and true as well, sometimes to a fault. Whether he is your favourite character or not, I think it is impossible not to like him.

Excuse me, my eyes are watering...

[BrandonR24]

I get the 'Warm-Feels' thing. Totally would be best buds with Goku if I had the chance, haha.

[Suupaa Gohan 2]

Marked for deletion.

[Lord Beerus]

I feel the same way. My father was never there for me and passed away while I was still a teen. In fiction, I found Goku as a father figure of sorts and got me into training and lifting weights.

Weights are my passion along with drawing, thanks to Goku again for his cool look. I love drawing Goku.

But yeah, I've been in the gym since I was 16, now I'm 20. DBZ and Goku does that to people it seems.

So much feels for your story man. So much feels.

[Attitudefan]

I feel the same way. My father was never there for me and passed away while I was still a teen. In fiction, I found Goku as a father figure of sorts and got me into training and lifting weights.

Weights are my passion along with drawing, thanks to Goku again for his cool look. I love drawing Goku.

But yeah, I've been in the gym since I was 16, now I'm 20. DBZ and Goku does that to people it seems.

So much feels for your story man. So much feels.

DBZ had been my escapism. Without it, I dunno what I might have done. I always admired how Goku persevered and was still kind to others despite his hardships. So I try to be the same way and treat others with respect. I make goals, in strength, in school, in art, much like Goku did to become the champion of the tournament, or get his friends wished back.

[90sDBZ]

Yes he does. I've always loved how he refuses to give up even in the most dire circumstances. I've noticed how whenever he shows up on the battlefield after his friends taking a beating, things just always feel less dark somehow. Like when Vegeta, Gohan, Krillin and Piccolo were all taking on Frieza and things felt really grim and hopeless throughout, and then Goku finished his healing and right away you knew that things were taking a turn for the better. Simply put the guy represents hope(no pun intended).

Regardless of which version I'm watching, I always find the Kaioken x20 scene to be the most inspiring in the entire series.

[Careless Saiyajin]

I see a lot of words here people use that sum it up for me like "reassuring", "father figure" "makes the world seem safer". I could go on and on but Goku is symbolically behind all of us that have had our lives touched by this series.
I know it's corny and some might judge people for this but I'm a junior in college and still feel that Dragon Ball will always mean something to me.

[Rocketman]

Which is pretty funny since he's a shitty dad and actively makes the world more dangerous.

[Careless Saiyajin]

Which is pretty funny since he's a shitty dad and actively makes the world more dangerous.

It's his charm, attitude and personality; not his actions in the plot.

[garnetjester]

I really really love Goku. He's not even my favorite character, but he's just so charming. I mean, he's stupid and irresponsible and reckless but he's also so laid-back and clueless, it's hilarious really. What I really love about Goku is that he never gives up, he's determined to just do his best and that's his best character trait imo. Also, his completely chill attitude about lots of things that are "important" is amazing to me, although perhaps not really admirable in real life

[Rocketman]

Which is pretty funny since he's a shitty dad and actively makes the world more dangerous.

It's his charm, attitude and personality; not his actions in the plot.

So he's Ronald Reagan.

[Eire]

Well, I can't match two things- on one hand we have lots of Chi-Chi's bashing, because she wanted Gohan to follow her dreams, yet people see ideal father figure in Goku who does exactly the same, only in "cooler" way- even when it turned that Gohan rather gave up fighting than learning.

Goku is interested in his son only when it coems to martial arts. He has no interest in Gohan's well being, regardless if we talk about physical matters like money or house or his dreams and plans. Kind of shitty material for dad if you ask me. Man child who sees his son as another sparing partner, not new life he is responsible for. So yes, Goku is still behind me- reminding that some people should be left alone and never ever start a family.

[rereboy]

Which is pretty funny since he's a shitty dad and actively makes the world more dangerous.

It's his charm, attitude and personality; not his actions in the plot.

No, he's not a shitty dad. However, his selfish naivety does endanger the world sometimes.

[Kid Buu]

No, he's not a shitty dad.

Subjective. Although it is kinda saying something when even the mangka doesn't think too highly of his parenting skills.

[rereboy]

Subjective. Even Toriyama seems to not think so highly of his parenting skills.

I don't agree. Goku is simply ill-equipped to be a modern day father. If they lived wildly in the mountains, like Goku grew up, he would be a perfect father. But since they need money and jobs and Gohan wants to go to school and study and whatnot, all that stuff is kind of beyond him. And this is what Toriyama is referring to.

However, even for a modern day father, he is not a shitty one. Ask anyone with shitty fathers, and 99,9% will answer that they were shitty because they treated them badly, didn't care at all about them or were bad persons. None of that really applies to Goku.

Of course anyone can disagree with this opinion... but then I wonder what they call fathers who do the things I mentioned.

[Eire]

You know, urban legend here says that that Stalin loved kids and treated them kindly, because when they asked him for food he just kicked them in the stomach. But he could shot them dead.

Not being outright malicious or abusive doesn't make one a good parent. Goku was never interested in Gohan beyond teaching him how to fight, having the rest of his son's life... deeply somewhere. He could have been carefree and selfish social outcast when he was alone. When he decided to start a family he was supposed to behave like responsible parent. Instead he is just the same grown up child who shows interest in his own family only when they suit his tastes. I know kids who to get any form of notice from their fathers had to stick to their interest (eg. learning poems in Latin by heart) because proud fathers never lowered themselves to anything beyond their profession. And regarding Gohan Goku is no less a-hole than those snotty professors.

[rereboy]

You know, urban legend here says that that Stalin loved kids and treated them kindly, because when they asked him for food he just kicked them in the stomach. But he could shot them dead.

Not being outright malicious or abusive doesn't make one a good parent. Goku was never interested in Gohan beyond teaching him how to fight, having the rest of his son's life... deeply somewhere. He could have been carefree and selfish social outcast when he was alone. When he decided to start a family he was supposed to behave like responsible parent. Instead he is just the same grown up child who shows interest in his own family only when they suit his tastes. I know kids who to get any form of notice from their fathers had to stick to their interest (eg. learning poems in Latin by heart) because proud fathers never lowered themselves to anything beyond their profession. And regarding Gohan Goku is no less a-hole than those snotty professors.

And he did act like a responsible parent. For full 5 years he lived with his family and raised Gohan. They were perfectly happy and adjusted and Goku wasn't even training him because Chichi didn't want him to fight. And yet, even though he wasn't teaching him how to fight (which is basically Goku's life), Goku still cared for him, raised him, lived with him, was nice to him, etc, etc. Gohan himself regards going with his father to fish with fondness and becomes instantly happy when Goku mentions it the Saiyan saga to him.

Everything beyond that point was a consequence of the circumstances... Goku died to protect Gohan... Then he was hurt and couldn't go right away with them to Namek... He was kind of selfish when he decided to take a year off to learn teleportation and when he decided it was fine for his friends to not do everything possible to revive him when he, once again, died to save Gohan and the others, but those decisions are not just character decisions but mostly plot related decisions.

So where is this big parental irresponsibility that Goku supposedly has? All I see is a nice father who unfortunately is not very good with how the modern world works (studies, job) and that in two moments in the manga, for mostly plot reasons, decided something that is kind of selfish.

And yet you compare it to Stalin? To a person that is "ok" because he doesn't kill people when he could? Yeah, no, that comparison doesn't make sense at all.

[Eire]

Of course it does. You said that being nice to your kids and hanging around doing nothing counts as a good fatherhood, because there he could have been much worse. You admitted that he abandoned him when he found better things to do- and no, that's not "plot related decision" but part of the character who happened to have different priorities than you know... raising own son.

[rereboy]

Of course it does. You said that being nice to your kids and hanging around doing nothing counts as a good fatherhood, because there he could have been much worse. You admitted that he abandoned him when he found better things to do- and no, that's not "plot related decision" but part of the character who happened to have different priorities than you know... raising own son.

I never said that. The only thing I said was that I don't understand the use of the term "shitty" regarding Goku, which is an extremely negative classification and thus should be used to really bad things, and I also mentioned that pretty much all of the reasons people give for why they consider their fathers shitty don't really apply to Goku.

And my justification for him being a good/nice father was never because he could be worse, like you are implying. I said he is a good/nice father because, as shown, he cares for his son, raises him and treats him well and lovingly even when the son isn't doing what Goku enjoys (fighting). His flaws only amount to not being skilled in a modern way of life and making two kind of selfish decisions that mostly exist for plot reasons, which, honestly, is not negative enough for him to lose the classification of a good/nice father. He certainly isn't perfect or flawless, but he also isn't bad or shitty.

And yes, those decisions by Goku are heavily plot influenced. There's little point in denying this. Goku conveniently takes a year off to learn a technique that is instrumental in the next arc, and Goku decides that its ok to stay dead without any strong justification for it, just so the arc could end with Gohan taking the role of his father, in a "passing the torch" scenario ending.

So, no, that has nothing to do with Stalin or with me claiming that any guy is a good father because he could always be worse. That's just poor interpretation of what I said.

[Eire]

Using your argument one may say that Scarlett O'Hara could have been sweet, innocent bonnie belle had not Civil War started. But from some reason author decided to put her in that context that gives us rights to judge her characters by her deeds. Goku is even worse case, since DB was a free fantasy. Had Toriyama thought about Goku/Gohan's relationship he could have just think about any obstacle that prevented him from coming. Or even not that, just show that Goku thinks about them, decides that learning new techniques is important enough, but he regrets nevertheless. Nope. Nothing happened. No reflection, not one thought.

Guy who doesn't give a single thought about leaving his family? Definitely a shitty father.

What bothers me is that everyone forgives Goku and lots calls him a "father figure" yet Chi-Chi who did her best to be the good mother and ultimately cared for Gohan is considered a bitch.