Does Goku play up his innocence and ignorance?

[vilker]

He's not dumb, he's just ignorant to certain things because he grew up alone. DBS hit the nail on the thumb and made him straight dumb.

Chichi did such a nice job teaching him how to live decently. She was so patient, caring and loving. Goku was lucky to find her as a wife.

But seriously, try to look at this scientifically (I did go to exact sciences uni) whenever they state that Goku hit his head and that is how he got rid of the evil saiyan part of his brain, it is safe to assume that he suffered brain damage in an specific area, meaning that some neurons died and therefore he lost them... He is not dumb... but by not having his entire brain, he is more like Forest Gump, maybe a little smarter than that.

I completely disagree with the Forrest Gump comparison and the "incapacitating brain damage" diagnosis.

First of all, any theory based on Dragon Ball Super needs to be thrown out the window. DBS completely assassinated Goku's character, flanderizing him into a brainless, irresponsible clown for cheap laughs. That series is an insult to the mature, battle-hardened genius we saw at the end of the original manga, and using it as a baseline to analyze Goku's psyche is a massive mistake.

Looking strictly at the original work, the reality of Goku's mind is very different:

1. A biological reset, not a lobotomy
The head trauma didn't cause cognitive impairment or destroy his reasoning. It simply wiped out his innate, aggressive Saiyan programming. It was a biological "factory reset" of his violent instincts, leaving a blank slate to absorb Grandpa Gohan's teachings, not brain damage.

2. Tactical genius over formal education
Lacking academic studies does not equal an intellectual deficit. Goku grew up completely isolated in the mountains. He is an absolute prodigy in his field: martial arts and Ki manipulation. He reads opponents, builds strategies in milliseconds, and masters techniques in seconds that take masters decades to learn. He doesn't care about earthly societal norms or bureaucracy, so he simply doesn't waste mental energy on them. He isn't incapable of understanding them; he actively ignores what doesn't interest him.

3. Respect is earned, not imposed
His refusal to bow to kings or deities isn't due to a lack of social intelligence, but rather his strict value system. For Goku, hierarchical titles mean absolutely nothing. Respect is earned on the battlefield through actions and true power. Why should he show submission to the King of Earth when he regularly fights entities that threaten the entire universe? Those authority figures simply aren't in his league, and he sees no logical reason to fake a reverence he doesn't feel.

Goku is not a child in a man's body lacking half his brain; he is a tactical genius with an extremely specific compass of interests and a purely meritocratic value system.