Gaffer Tape wrote:
I get the feeling you really aren't too familiar with the "pre-Z" portion of the story. You weren't even sure how old he was when he first met a girl. But the fact of the matter is, Toriyama really began writing Goku differently starting around the Cell arc, really playing up all this "Saiyan instinct" bull that he almost never showed signs of prior to. So if you are less than familiar with the earlier portions, I suppose it can be understood, but for the majority of Dragon Ball, he very much knew the concept of friendship. He went out of his way to be selfless. In the first arc that was what made him a foil for Blooma. She was selfish. He was more than willing to take this turtle he'd never met to the sea. He decided to gather the rest of the Dragon Balls just to wish his friend's dad back to life. He was always thrilled to see the gang again. He never showed the "instincts of a reclusive wild animal" at any point in the series nor was he even remotely like Tarzan.
You know, you're right. Goku did change throughout the series. I remember that turtle moment.
What happened? :'(
No. No, no, no, no, no, no. There will be no whitewashing of Vegeta here. Even Vegeta readily admits, and the story explicitly shows, that Vegeta was doing what Vegeta wanted to do. Babidi did not make him kill those people. Babidi did not have control over him. Vegeta chose of his own free will to fire a killing blast no more than several feet away from the family he supposedly cares more about than Goku does his.
I'm not saying he was controlled by Babidi, but in that form, his rage, anger, and hate were augmented, sort of how SSJ increases the aggression of the saiyan, only to a greater extent. In real life, no matter what sort of person you are, if you're depressed or infuriated, you may do things in your control you later regret. I believe Vegeta later on regrets doing that, but at that point, he was in full control; his emotions were just amplified by the magic. I mean, did you see that dude's veins?! O_O
