Is Goku the Real Villain of Dragon Ball Super? Why the CBR Argument Falls Apart

CBR published an article arguing that Goku is the real villain of Dragon Ball Super, and I didn't come across it until some time after it went up. The pitch is that Goku can hardly be called the savior of the universe when he's the one constantly putting it in danger. There are a lot of bad opinions out there about Dragon Ball, and this is one of them, and it falls apart once you look at what happens in the series.

This take has been going around since Super was on the air. There's a meme that says Dragon Ball fans can't read, and I don't get offended by it, because there's truth in jest. Many fans misunderstand or forget some of the most basic concepts in this series. I think a lot of it comes from reading something on a Facebook or Instagram meme page and treating it as fact.

CBR's case that Goku is directly responsible for most Dragon Ball Super threats

The article, written by Ryan McCarthy, runs through the villains of Super: a God of Destruction who sought out Goku for a fight, an evil space emperor who escaped Hell for revenge on Goku, a disgruntled Kai who stole Goku's body to purge all life from the cosmos, and a multiversal tournament, held at Goku's request, in which losing universes were destroyed. From there it concludes that across 131 episodes, Super has only had one villain the entire time: Goku.

It also points to the Cell Saga, where Goku sacrifices himself and chooses to stay dead because he knows he's indirectly responsible for the attacks on Earth. That part is true. Goku blamed himself because Dr. Gero created the androids and Cell as revenge for Goku destroying the Red Ribbon Army when he was a kid, and Frieza coming to Earth was also about revenge. But then the writer says that this time around Goku is directly responsible for most of the threats because of his selfish obsession with strong opponents. That's one of the most moronic things I have ever read.

Beerus, Frieza, Universe 6 and Goku Black were not Goku's doing

Take the idea that Goku is directly responsible, one villain at a time. Beerus came to Earth because he had a dream about fighting the Super Saiyan God. Goku had no idea what that was. He found out and became a Super Saiyan God, but he didn't cause Beerus to show up. Frieza was resurrected because Sorbet and Tagoma brought him back to life, and Goku didn't even know they existed. Frieza wanted revenge, yes, but Goku didn't bring him to Earth.

The Universe 6 and 7 tournament wasn't Goku's fault either. That was between Beerus and Champa. Then there's Goku Black, which the article blames on Goku wanting strong opponents. That's not what happened. Zamasu went to another timeline, found Goku, killed Chi-Chi and Goten, and took Goku's body after making his wish on the Super Dragon Balls. Goku didn't give Zamasu the Super Dragon Balls. Goku existing may have been the catalyst for Zamasu hating him, but Goku didn't make him do any of that. Hit coming to fight Goku in that filler material wasn't Goku's fault either.

The article also brings up Goku forfeiting the Universe 6 and 7 tournament, when Earth almost got transferred to Universe 6. But if Earth had gone to Universe 6, it wouldn't have been destroyed. Nothing would have happened to it. Lots of fans I know were saying that arc didn't really have high stakes.

Wiping out the losing universes was Zeno's idea, and the article admits it

The point I see raised constantly in the fandom is the Tournament of Power. The article says Goku is "solely to blame" for it, which resulted in the temporary destruction of seven other universes. In the very next sentence it concedes that eliminating the losing universes wasn't Goku's idea, arguing it never would have happened if Goku hadn't reminded Zeno about the tournament. So the writer contradicts himself in the same paragraph. Solely to blame means it's only Goku's fault, and then he admits the destruction wasn't Goku's idea.

All Goku wanted was to fight other opponents. He never once told Zeno to wipe out the universes, never condoned it, and was never okay with it. Nowhere in his request did he say he wanted everyone else to die. That was all Zeno's idea, and Goku can't tell the Omni King what to do. Did Goku want to fight? Yes, because Zeno had brought it up to him before, and Goku has always wanted to challenge people. But he never wanted anybody to die.

The article also says Goku had been warned about the Omni King's appetite for pointless destruction and should have known better than to remind him of anything. Maybe he should have thought it through better. Maybe he should have listened to Beerus. But he wasn't the one who made that choice. It was Zeno.

Zeno was going to wipe the universes out anyway

What makes this whole argument fall apart is that the Omni King himself said he was going to wipe away those universes anyway. At the end of the arc he even says that if the right wish hadn't been made, he would have wiped them out regardless. So he was going to destroy them no matter what Goku said.

If anything, the Tournament of Power saved those universes. Had Goku not reminded him, the Omni King could have woken up one day and wiped everybody out. Goku gave them a fighting chance without even realizing it. When Android 17 and Universe 7 won and 17 made the right wish, Zeno was okay with the universes not being destroyed. If anything, Goku saved the multiverse. As I see it, "zeno is the one that likes destruction not goku."

I've talked before about how people misunderstand Dragon Ball. They pick and choose what they want for their arguments without looking at the full context. You can't take one line from one episode and twist the narrative to fit what you want.

Think of it this way. If I pick up a hitchhiker and he kills me and my friends, maybe I shouldn't have picked him up. Fair point. But he's the one who killed us, not me. That might be a bad analogy, because Goku isn't trying to do a good deed. He's trying to fight other opponents. But he had no idea Zeno would want to destroy the universes. That wasn't part of his plan.

Goku getting bailed out is nothing new to Dragon Ball

The article also says Goku has to rely on someone else to clean up his mess, getting bailed out one last time by Android 17's wish to resurrect the destroyed universes. If you want to talk about Goku getting bailed out, it's happened throughout the series. Against King Piccolo, if Tien hadn't picked Goku up from that crater, he would have died. Against Vegeta, it took Krillin, Yajirobe and Gohan to deal with him, and Goku would have lost to Great Ape Vegeta.

He beat Frieza fair and square, but against Cell, Gohan had to be the one to win. Against Majin Buu, he needed help from Vegeta, Fat Buu and Mr. Satan. Goku almost never wins fights on his own. Even against Moro, had it not been for Majin Buu and Vegeta, Goku wouldn't have beaten him, and Beerus and Whis were there as backup.

That's a problem with Dragon Ball Super that I definitely think needs to be fixed, and you can argue Goku gets bailed out too much. That's a fair point. But you can't say he's only getting bailed out now in Super when it has always happened. It's part of Goku's growth as he realizes he needs his friends.

A "harbinger of death" is not what a villain is

One of the most melodramatic things I've ever read is this line from the piece: "Dragon Ball Super has transformed Goku from the savior of the universe to a thoughtless harbinger of death and destruction." I don't know this writer, but that's bad writing. When I think about Goku, death and destruction are not the first things that come to mind.

The article goes on to say that Goku stands between villains and their goals but rarely for altruistic reasons. Generally he's excited to have a powerful opponent, and saving the world is a side effect. That's basically saying he's a hero, just not for the right reasons. He's still a hero, so again the writer contradicts himself. The article ends by saying that if a villain is judged by how often they endanger the universe and force someone else to save it, Goku is the most villainous character in Super. It's like they don't know what a villain is.

Is Goku a traditional hero? Of course not. He's not Captain America and he's not Superman. He's a different kind of hero, but he is a hero. Go back and read the manga.

Why I keep pushing back on articles like this

The reason I do these debunks is that the people who write them either don't pay attention or take meme pages as fact. My view is that with sites like CBR, Screen Rant or comicbook.com, you can write whatever you want as long as the piece has a certain number of paragraphs and pictures for search engine optimization. I don't even think they proofread these things. Anybody could write six paragraphs about Dragon Ball that barely scratch the surface and make money from it, and I think that's what happened here.

I don't think many of the people writing for these sites are real fans, or they're very casual ones. There's nothing wrong with being a casual fan. I'm also not saying I like the writing in Super. There's a lot of bad writing in it, let's be honest. But the idea that Goku endangered those universes doesn't hold up. Don't take what someone posts on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter as fact. Watch or read the series, think for yourself, and form your own opinion.