What exactly is "purity of heart"?

[Ketchup_Revenge]

Exactly what it says.

Everyone seems to think that it means purity of good, or purity of evil, but it never says.
Vegeta says he's "pure evil" when he reveals himself to be Super Saiyan, but I highly doubt he was considering he'd obviously had some sort of non-rape romp with Bulma that resulted in Trunks.

[Gyt Kaliba]

I've always kind of assumed the 'pure' part was either complete BS (I can't remember if that's even in the Japanese version or just the dub either, come to think of it), but if it isn't then...perhaps it just means a pure kind of rage, since rage is what triggers it.

Sure, Goku's transformation is started because of Kuririn's death. Vegeta's is triggered by his anger at himself for not managing to get there. But maybe those were just the surface feelings, and the actual anger was just...anger. A 'pure' and simple feeling of rage.

Anyway, that's my guess on it. I've got absolutely nothing to back it up of course, so take it for what you will, and hopefully someone with a better answer will come along next.

[DBZAOTA482]

It is free from any additional qualities. It's one entire essence.

[Mystic Gohan]

I just checked by japanese dub, and that line is present in it. I think that the "pure of heart" is simply an excuse for Goku to be the first one to do it IMO. As Akira Toriyama said, "It's useful to keep Vegeta around in the story" or something like that. Keeping Vegeta around would naturally mean he would have to be relevant to Goku in some shape or form, and giving him Super Saiyan is the best way to do it.

[Chuquita]

Vegeta's an excellent walking plot-device. If anything, he's good at causing plot-stuff to happen; be it helpful or dangerous. XD

For "pure heart" though; I always felt it was kind of a cultural thing. Like this trait applied to characters with certain personalities in order to either make them stand out or make them more desirable depending on what type of audience you're aiming the character at.

[Ketchup_Revenge]

The reason why I was wondering was because the whole "pure heart awakened through rage" thing isn't really clear if you don't even know what pure is to begin with.

I've wondered if "pure" is essentially "ignorant".
What I mean by this is that someone who's pure is essentially mindful of themselves and not others, not because they have the intention to not care, or hurt people by not caring, but simply because they don't. This would explain why Goku doesn't seem to care about Chi Chi's feelings, not because he wants to hurt her, but simply because he doesn't pay any mind to how his actions hurt her or those around him. Goku fights and trains for the sake of seeing how strong he can get, and not to beat the crap out of people.

[hleV]

That's just something for characters (Vegeta...) to talk about, though it has nothing to do with SSJ.

[Hitiro]

The reason why I was wondering was because the whole "pure heart awakened through rage" thing isn't really clear if you don't even know what pure is to begin with.

I've wondered if "pure" is essentially "ignorant".
What I mean by this is that someone who's pure is essentially mindful of themselves and not others, not because they have the intention to not care, or hurt people by not caring, but simply because they don't. This would explain why Goku doesn't seem to care about Chi Chi's feelings, not because he wants to hurt her, but simply because he doesn't pay any mind to how his actions hurt her or those around him. Goku fights and trains for the sake of seeing how strong he can get, and not to beat the crap out of people.

I feel that's a harsh assessment of Goku's personality to be honest. Yes he says certain things without any regard for the other persons feelings some times. He may also do certain stuff that others don't agree with. But he does care about others around him, he's just hardly been shown to do so. I can think of a few examples where he's cared about how others have felt and has helped them out purely because he cares. Saving Upa from Captain Yellow, collecting the dragonballs to wish his father back. Changing his mind about Gohan fighting Cell and asking for a Senzu bean only for it to be too late. Telling Gohan he did an amazing job, that he's proud of him and telling him to say sorry to Chi Chi for him before he teleports Cell away before he can blow up the Earth.

[Ketchup_Revenge]

I feel that's a harsh assessment of Goku's personality to be honest. Yes he says certain things without any regard for the other persons feelings some times. He may also do certain stuff that others don't agree with. But he does care about others around him, he's just hardly been shown to do so. I can think of a few examples where he's cared about how others have felt and has helped them out purely because he cares. Saving Upa from Captain Yellow, collecting the dragonballs to wish his father back. Changing his mind about Gohan fighting Cell and asking for a Senzu bean only for it to be too late. Telling Gohan he did an amazing job, that he's proud of him and telling him to say sorry to Chi Chi for him before he teleports Cell away before he can blow up the Earth.

I'm not saying he doesn't care, but can you honestly say that he cares enough about Chi Chi and his family to stick around for their emotional benefit?

They guy was off training for pretty much half of Gohan's childhood, and left Chi Chi at the end of DBZ to train with some kid he just met. Not to mention, following the ten years after Boo, what's the first thing we see him doing? Training. And it wasn't light training because Bulma mentions that she barely ever hears from him anymore.

The only reason he re-thought his senario against Cell was because Piccolo dogged him. Granted he was probably concerned for his son, but the honest part of it is was that he didn't want the responsibility of defending the Earth anymore, and that was the whole reason why he'd trained him in the first place. And he chose not to come back after he died against Cell. He said it had to do with all the enemies being after him, but he immediately follows that up with the fact that he was excited that he could now seek out more training in the afterlife.

[Hitiro]

I'm not saying he doesn't care, but can you honestly say that he cares enough about Chi Chi and his family to stick around for their emotional benefit?

They guy was off training for pretty much half of Gohan's childhood, and left Chi Chi at the end of DBZ to train with some kid he just met. Not to mention, following the ten years after Boo, what's the first thing we see him doing? Training. And it wasn't light training because Bulma mentions that she barely ever hears from him anymore.

The only reason he re-thought his senario against Cell was because Piccolo dogged him. Granted he was probably concerned for his son, but the honest part of it is was that he didn't want the responsibility of defending the Earth anymore, and that was the whole reason why he'd trained him in the first place. And he chose not to come back after he died against Cell. He said it had to do with all the enemies being after him, but he immediately follows that up with the fact that he was excited that he could now seek out more training in the afterlife.

To be fair, the time Goku was missing from Gohan's childhood was mostly because he was dead. He spent 4 years with him in the beginning, was dead for a year, stuck in space for a year admittedly he stayed to train but he was also injured for a portion of that time. Spent 3 years training with Gohan in preparation for the Androids and a further solid year of just him and Gohan in preparation for the fight with Cell. And was then dead for 7 years again. Goku was in 50% of Gohan's life which would have probably been more if he hadn't of died at the Cell Games. Also the reason why he sent Gohan out to fight wasn't because he didn't rant the responsibility of defending the Earth anymore. It was because he believe that only Gohan could defeat Cell, which he was correct in that assumption.

Also, like you said, the reason why he didn't want to be brought back is because Bulma pointed out before that Goku seems to attract bad guys so staying dead seemed to be the best option as his friends would have some peace. Adding the whole "being excited about meeting different martial artists" in the afterlife I felt was just something to comfort his friends, as in, he's letting them know that he'll be fine up there and will enjoy it. He says a similar sort of thing when Gohan was getting depressed about him dying during the short prelude before the kamehameha duel. Something like "Don't worry about it, me and Kaio will have lots of fun up here!" Though you can choose to believe that he did it for selfish reasons if you want I believe he said it because he liked the prospect and he was was thinking about how his friends felt.

[Zykar]

That's just something for characters (Vegeta...) to talk about, though it has nothing to do with SSJ.

I think this would be true.

Either that or what purity of heart meaning staying true to oneself. Looking back to the Saiyan Arc, Muten Roshi said that Goku was an evil kid, but when he lost his memory he also had what could be called a change of heart, it's not that he wasn't true to himself anymore it's just that he changed his nature due to an accident. Still he never hid his saiyan pride imo, always trying to be the best, undergoing all kinds of training to beat his opponents.

In a way Vegeta is the same, even though one might say he was evil in the beginning i think otherwise, he just changed his view on how stuff worked. He tried all kinds of training to become the very best like Goku did, staying true to himself and to his saiyan pride.

Wasn't there also an episode on DB where a guy used an attack to kill everyone that had "impurities", but it never got to work on Goku? Not sure on this one though.

[hleV]

Wasn't there also an episode on DB where a guy used an attack to kill everyone that had "impurities", but it never got to work on Goku? Not sure on this one though.

You must be talking about Akkuman and his Akumaito Kōsen, which does something like taking the opponent's inpure thoughts, multiplying them by infinity and using that against them.

[Gokuden]

I think it alludes to the small minority of people who aren't driven by selfish desires.
But Goku also fails there because he likes to fight at the expense of his friends and family.
lol I think, at the beginning of DB Goku was pure of heart, but then he changed because Toriyama wrote him differently later-on when he figured out he was a fight-crazed saiyan.

[hleV]

I think it alludes to the small minority of people who aren't driven by selfish desires.
But Goku also fails there because he likes to fight at the expense of his friends and family.
lol I think, at the beginning of DB Goku was pure of heart, but then he changed because Toriyama wrote him differently later-on when he figured out he was a fight-crazed saiyan.

I think that unlike law, heaven can forgive ignorance. And with this, Gokū has remained pure (good) for the whole series.

[Gokuden]

I think it alludes to the small minority of people who aren't driven by selfish desires.
But Goku also fails there because he likes to fight at the expense of his friends and family.
lol I think, at the beginning of DB Goku was pure of heart, but then he changed because Toriyama wrote him differently later-on when he figured out he was a fight-crazed saiyan.

I think that unlike law, heaven can forgive ignorance. And with this, Gokū has remained pure (good) for the whole series.

Heaven considers him a prophecy, I don't know if they think he's ignorant, at least to King Yenma. I think it was because he was written differently later, the pure of heart was just remains of the preceding.

I really believed Goku was pure of heart during the DragonBall era, but not later, I mean suggesting Videl get naked, or even Bulma. He became a normal humanoid.

[omegalucas]

Yet he can still ride Kinto-Un... now that I think of it, he only does it in GT, so who knows if Goku actually lost the ability of riding it (ignoring GT).

[Gokuden]

Yet he can still ride Kinto-Un... now that I think of it, he only does it in GT, so who knows if Goku actually lost the ability of riding it (ignoring GT).

That's what I've been thinking, because we never see him use later in DBZ.

[SSJFinny]

I tink it would be how Piccolo described where Vegeta would go before Vegeta sacraficed him self. Goku devoted his whole life to protecting others without regards to his own life. With complete selfless actions it gave him purity.

[penguintruth]

Judging by the way Goku eats, his heart is purely bacon fat. I bet his fighting ki is the only thing keeping him alive.

[Saitou Hajime]

I think it's a moment of complete focus and single-mindedness. I guess you could compare it to the SEED mode in Gundam SEED where something just pops inside you and you go into a kind of zone.