End of Z: Did Goku really abandon his family?

[Marco Polo]

I keep reading people claim that Goku abandoned his family at the end of the manga to live with Uub, but is that actually official? In my opinion he just takes a trip to go visit Uub's village, probably talk to his parents or something and then yes he will train Uub for the time to come but I don't think they ever say where they will live and that his family can expect to never see him ever again.

In GT we see them training on Kami's Palace but we don't know if they live there, and besides that's GT anyway, it's not the same continuity as the manga and Super. In Neko Majin, we see that they live at Goku's house after the end of Z. Sure Neko Majin isn't canon either but I don't see why Toriyama would have changed that aspect of the end of Z for Neko Majin.

[Krillin1994]

I keep reading people claim that Goku abandoned his family at the end of the manga to live with Uub, but is that actually official? In my opinion he just takes a trip to go visit Uub's village, probably talk to his parents or something and then yes he will train Uub for the time to come but I don't think they ever say where they will live and that his family can expect to never see him ever again.

In GT we see them training on Kami's Palace but we don't know if they live there, and besides that's GT anyway, it's not the same continuity as the manga and Super. In Neko Majin, we see that they live at Goku's house after the end of Z. Sure Neko Majin isn't canon either but I don't see why Toriyama would have changed that aspect of the end of Z for Neko Majin.

He tells Uub that he's decided he is going to live in his village.

He says goodbye to all of his family/friends and that he doesn't know when he'll see them again. He only says he'll visit from time to time when Pan cries.

[Nejishiki]

I'll quote myself here:

I always wondered if it was fair to assume that Goku "abandoned" his family for Oob. It just seems to be a concept that arrived from one interpretation of the story and we stuck to just that one interpretation from Dragon Ball GT. For what it's worth, Neko Majin follows up on the adventures of Goku and his family. While continuity is as flimsy as ever in that series, Toriyama himself puts pen to paper that Oob is actually staying at the Son household. It's also interesting he used Instantaneous Movement to return to his residence, which implies he normally scours the Dragon World in great distances in search for challenges for either himself or his student. Who's to say he doesn't regularly transport Oob as well? I'm not one to be a stickler for canon, but is it not fair to consider Toriyama's views on his own characters? He specifically had Goku return home instead of to Oob's village.

Krillin1994, as far as the original interpretation is concerned, Pan never cried over it. Really, everyone was shocked and then concluded it was typical Son Goku in action and they aren't bothered in the slightest by his behavior. I'm sure he lives in the village in the same respect that he lives in the entirety of the mountains. That is, he never stays in one spot for too long. Even considering he lived with him, I don't see why it should be construed as ditching his family forever (Or even the idea that he "ditched" them at all! The phrasing normally used is quite negatively charged.). Didn't he want to help his village first by using Mr. Satan? That seems to be his way of getting Oob and/or his friends and family into his favor before taking him wherever he needs to properly train him.

[TheGreatness25]

Doesn't really make sense from Goku's standpoint seeing as he can have his cake and eat it too. It's not as if he'll be training Oob 24/7 and it's not like it takes any amount of time to go visit his family or friends. I mean... Instantaneous Movement? There's really no reason why Goku wouldn't visit them -- well, besides being a prick.

I think this was just done so we could yet again say goodbye to Goku. We've been saying goodbye to Goku since the end of the Freeza arc (said goodbye after Freeza, after Cell, and after Boo). See the double meaning? We say goodbye to him because it's him going away and it's the end of the series. Well, until a week later when GT was dropped lol

[MaxZ]

it was kinda poorly executed

Goku can easily just instant transmission to Uub's village to train him every day while still living with his own family. the way it was written made Goku seem like a bigger jerk than he usually is.

I never liked the conclusion. I hope they rewrite it (not necessarily retcon it) for Super.

like it'd be cool if they wrote it so Goku wanted to train Uub for the omniverse tournament.

[Krillin1994]

I'll quote myself here:

I always wondered if it was fair to assume that Goku "abandoned" his family for Oob. It just seems to be a concept that arrived from one interpretation of the story and we stuck to just that one interpretation from Dragon Ball GT. For what it's worth, Neko Majin follows up on the adventures of Goku and his family. While continuity is as flimsy as ever in that series, Toriyama himself puts pen to paper that Oob is actually staying at the Son household. It's also interesting he used Instantaneous Movement to return to his residence, which implies he normally scours the Dragon World in great distances in search for challenges for either himself or his student. Who's to say he doesn't regularly transport Oob as well? I'm not one to be a stickler for canon, but is it not fair to consider Toriyama's views on his own characters? He specifically had Goku return home instead of to Oob's village.

Krillin1994, as far as the original interpretation is concerned, Pan never cried over it. Really, everyone was shocked and then concluded it was typical Son Goku in action and they aren't bothered in the slightest by his behavior. I'm sure he lives in the village in the same respect that he lives in the entirety of the mountains. That is, he never stays in one spot for too long. Even considering he lived with him, I don't see why it should be construed as ditching his family forever (Or even the idea that he "ditched" them at all! The phrasing normally used is quite negatively charged.). Didn't he want to help his village first by using Mr. Satan? That seems to be his way of getting Oob and/or his friends and family into his favor before taking him wherever he needs to properly train him.

The friends and family didn't all seem fine with it. Piccolo was smiling about Goku being happy. But Gohan, Chi Chi and Bulma definitely seemed peeved about it.

He says he doesn't know how many years it'll take and that he'd visit them. But it's likely he'd forget.

Pan definitely cried.

It just never really sat well with me because the whole notion of a martial artist usually seeks out the master and trains with him rather than the master coming to the student.

Also Goku only mentioned Mr Satan's money after Uub expressed joy at being trained but he couldn't due to needing to work for his village. Helping him was an after thought.

[GodKaio-Ken]

Personally I doubt Goku even knew how babies were made when Gohan was born and I doubt he ever wanted to be a father before that. Of course this is my own idea based on his naivety and personality in Dragon Ball.

He did a good job raising Gohan but along his travels learned of the Kaioshin, Afterlife, Heaven, Hell, etc. Saying goodbye doesn't mean the same thing to Goku as it does everyone else IMO because life and time mean something different entirely to them.