Why Didn't Goku Didn't Use Kaioken on Snake Way?

[Hero]

This has been bugging me ever since I thought about it. When Goku returns to Snake Way after his training with King Kai why doesn't he use at least a regular Kaioken to reach Kami and Earth faster? After all, kaioken or not he was going to be tired either way and he knew he was going to get senzu beans from Korin. He even took one anyway, so why not kaioken your way through Snake Way?

And yes, the obvious answer is because Toriyama wanted keep kaioken secret until the fight with Nappa and Vegeta but from an in-universe perspective this makes Goku dumb for intentionally going slow on the way back.

[Doctor.]

Perhaps he thought he'd exaust himself before he even reached the end and be enable to complete the trip back as such.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

I guess I'd boil it down to Goku wanting to have what her perceived as the most favorable outcome. He could:

A.) Run at normal speed and likely make it on time.

B.) Use the Kaio-ken to run faster, but end up tiring himself out because of the extended use and actually end up unable to reach his destination before everyone is dead.

C.) Similar to B, he uses the technique to run faster, but he makes a mistake during the extended use and damages his body, making him unable to reach his destination before everyone is dead.

So, despite probably having a senzu waiting for him, maybe he just didn't want to take such a risk before he was even in the fight.

[GogesusSSG]

I guess using kaio-ken on snake would be like trying to sprint a marathon, which as has already been mentioned he wouldn't be able to sustain it due to exhaustion and probably slow him down to the point where he'd take longer than going at the constant speed he opted for. He, also probably wanted to save some energy incase Karin didn't have any senzu beans to give him.

[Khin]

and why doesnt Popo just use his magic carpet to just teleport Goku to the battlefield?

[irreality]

and why doesnt Popo just use his magic carpet to just teleport Goku to the battlefield?

Maybe he can't take the magic carpet into the heavenly realm? ETA: (oh you mean after that -- dunno, brain fart I suppose).

[Darkprince410]

and why doesnt Popo just use his magic carpet to just teleport Goku to the battlefield?

Though there's no in-universe explanation for it, out of universe, one can assume that Toriyama wanted Piccolo to die prior to Goku reaching the battle, and the timeline of events wouldn't have really allowed that if Popo was able to get him there instantly.

[Tectorman]

and why doesnt Popo just use his magic carpet to just teleport Goku to the battlefield?

I don't know if this was filler only or if this was also in the manga, but didn't the Old Crone's crystal ball short out because of the immense (at the time) power levels that Vegeta and Goku were putting out at the time? Maybe Mr. Popo's magic carpet was similarly affected and just wouldn't have been able to take Goku anywhere near the battle.

[SylentEcho]

Kai-O-Ken is pretty rough on his body. He was forbidden to use it, unless really required in battle.

[Tectorman]

He couldn't take a Kaioken x3 for an extended length of time, while he could maintain a double without difficulty.

But that's only from the perspective of a fight. Something lasting minutes, not hours. He could maintain Kaio x3 for about a minute at a time, while I would say that, if he needed to, he'd be able to keep up a regular Kaioken for ten, maybe fifteen minutes at a stretch.

Under no circumstances does that mean that he'd be able to use Kaioken for the twenty-eight (well, fourteen) hours it would take to fly across Snake Way.

[dbzfan7]

Kaio-Ken would only last for a very very short burst. So he'd end up taxing himself a lot quicker. In the Namek arc he could hold Kaio-Ken/X3 probably for much longer periods of time. At this point he can only manage bursts. So Goku bursts faster for like a second, then go slower again. He'd probably burn his energy before he makes it to the end. Kinda like on a jog why a sprinter does not run at full speed the whole time, they go at a good pace to conserve energy for the long trip. It still took just over a day for him to get back, so that's still a pretty long trip to conserve and use energy wisely for.

X2 was already risky enough to use on it's own, and probably taxing as is. X3 is beyond Goku's limit and hurt him while he used it. x4 was far beyond Goku's limit it left him the equivalent of a horribly sun burned person.

[FoolsGil]

You don't waste your deus ex machina on a race.

[mikey4111]

Kaio-Ken would only last for a very very short burst. So he'd end up taxing himself a lot quicker. In the Namek arc he could hold Kaio-Ken/X3 probably for much longer periods of time. At this point he can only manage bursts. So Goku bursts faster for like a second, then go slower again. He'd probably burn his energy before he makes it to the end. Kinda like on a jog why a sprinter does not run at full speed the whole time, they go at a good pace to conserve energy for the long trip. It still took just over a day for him to get back, so that's still a pretty long trip to conserve and use energy wisely for.

X2 was already risky enough to use on it's own, and probably taxing as is. X3 is beyond Goku's limit and hurt him while he used it. x4 was far beyond Goku's limit it left him the equivalent of a horribly sun burned person.

Off subject, what scene is your avatar from?

[buutenks]

Kaio-Ken would only last for a very very short burst. So he'd end up taxing himself a lot quicker. In the Namek arc he could hold Kaio-Ken/X3 probably for much longer periods of time. At this point he can only manage bursts. So Goku bursts faster for like a second, then go slower again. He'd probably burn his energy before he makes it to the end. Kinda like on a jog why a sprinter does not run at full speed the whole time, they go at a good pace to conserve energy for the long trip. It still took just over a day for him to get back, so that's still a pretty long trip to conserve and use energy wisely for.

X2 was already risky enough to use on it's own, and probably taxing as is. X3 is beyond Goku's limit and hurt him while he used it. x4 was far beyond Goku's limit it left him the equivalent of a horribly sun burned person.

Off subject, what scene is your avatar from?

History of trunks special.

[AvatarReiko]

The better quesion is why didn't he fly to the battlefield himself instead of using the nimbus, which is slower?

[Lord Beerus]

You don't waste your deus ex machina on a race.

The Kaioken was hardly a deus ex machina.

[SylentEcho]

You don't waste your deus ex machina on a race.

The Kaioken was hardly a deus ex machina.

I agree. I wouldn't call it that, either.

The better quesion is why didn't he fly to the battlefield himself instead of using the nimbus, which is slower?

I'm pretty sure Kinto-Un was faster than he was at that point. Plus, he was saving as much Ki as he could for the big battle.

[irreality]

Isn't there a scene of SSJ Gohan comparing his speed to Nimbus in the high school episodes? The implication I got was that nimbus is slower than SSJ speed, but faster overall until that point if the user wants to go that fast.

[Darkprince410]

The better quesion is why didn't he fly to the battlefield himself instead of using the nimbus, which is slower?

Korin only had two senzu available for Goku, and he ate one to restore his strength from racing across Serpent Road. Had he flown to the battle under his own power, it would just have exhausted him again, meaning he'd either need to use the other (thus Gohan and Kuririn not getting healed up) or going into the fight with less than full strength, which would have made things that much worse for him.

[Speedster]

Isn't there a scene of SSJ Gohan comparing his speed to Nimbus in the high school episodes? The implication I got was that nimbus is slower than SSJ speed, but faster overall until that point if the user wants to go that fast.

At the start of Z Piccolo was shown being able to keep up with the nimbus so I will say that Goku could fly as fast as well and just used the nimbus to retain his power plus he had already be beaten by Radditz. By the way in the cross over chapter of Dragonball and Dr. Slump the nimbus was stated to fly as fast as Arale could run. Arale was shown being capable to run around the world several times as a morning exercise so if we lowball and say it was 3 rounds in two hours then she could run 60,000km/hr or 16.6km/s or Mach49 (i.e. 49x the speed of sound). But let's round it up for a more round number and say that the nimbus speed is Mach50.