Why I Think Goku's Senzu Bean for Moro in Dragon Ball Super Chapter 65 Is a Mistake

When draft pages from chapter 65 of the Dragon Ball Super manga leaked, many fans were upset at what they showed: Goku offering Moro a senzu bean. I think that anger was justified this time. To me, the scene was character regression and, in my opinion, bad writing from Toyotaro, the artist and writer behind the Dragon Ball Super manga.

The point many people were missing is that it doesn't matter whether Goku goes on to beat Moro. What matters is the fact that he made this decision when he knows better. And it's not a Goku decision. It's a Toyotaro decision, because he's the one writing these characters.

Waiting for the full Dragon Ball Super chapter 65 does not fix this

Some people told me to wait for the entire chapter, and that's fair. Every time leaked pages and spoilers come out, I've said the same thing: wait until the full chapter is released and see how it plays out instead of crucifying Toyotaro. Sometimes it plays out better than we thought. Other times it's just bad. It depends.

I've been critical of Toyotaro for a very long time, and I've tried to be honest and fair about it. When he does well, I say he's improving as an artist and point out what I like. When he doesn't, I say what I don't like. Some people found it strange that I had said nice things about him before. But just because a director makes a good movie doesn't mean all his movies have to be good, and it doesn't mean I have to praise everything he does.

In the past, people have sometimes panicked over nothing. This is not one of those times. The reason fans were so irritated with Toyotaro over this chapter makes perfect sense.

Goku already learned this lesson from Cell and Frieza

If you only saw the dub 15 or 20 years ago, you might not remember this, or might never have known it. But if you've studied, read and rewatched Dragon Ball for years, you know Goku has an arc running from Dragon Ball into Z. He learns more than techniques along the way. He learns about mercy, and about not killing his opponents.

The infamous moment came in the Cell saga, when Goku gave Cell a senzu bean before Gohan fought him. Goku was very overconfident in Gohan's abilities. He had no idea Cell would try to blow himself up and risk destroying the Earth, and that wound up leaving Goku dead. Goku giving Cell that senzu instead of letting Gohan simply beat him has always been criticized, and it makes sense. We're dealing with super villains who can wipe out the Earth and even more than that, in Cell's case and especially in Moro's case.

The Cell saga wasn't the first time, either. Goku also gave Frieza a lot of mercy in the Frieza saga, and Frieza wound up not being redeemed. So as the series went on, Goku learned when to show mercy and when not to. The problem with Dragon Ball Super is that Goku keeps learning the same lessons over and over again. It's almost as if his character has regressed.

In Resurrection F, Goku let his guard down and got blasted in the chest. The fandom heavily criticized that, understandably. At the same time, I didn't mind it too much, because it was different from this.

Goku's offer to Moro undoes what Merus did

Here, Merus bailed the good guys out. Had Merus not shown up, Moro would have won. So once again we had divine intervention in Dragon Ball, which has irritated me. Merus showed up to help Goku by destroying Moro's crystals, which were a real problem. That stopped Moro from stealing anybody else's techniques and gave Goku and the others a chance to heal up and fight him again.

Because Merus got involved, he ended up disintegrated. He broke the angels' rule about getting involved in combat with mortals. His death gave Goku an emotional moment where he got angry and focused, and he tapped into the silver haired form of Ultra Instinct. With it, he was able to beat Moro and avenge everything Moro had done, while learning that people like Moro are not good to have around. Merus wanted the universe to be at peace. That was the big lesson.

By giving Moro a senzu, Goku tramples on all of that. It doesn't matter if Goku beats him later in the chapter, or even if he one shots Moro after this. To me, this is character regression.

Moro is not a villain who can be redeemed

After all the battles Goku has had from Dragon Ball through Z and into Super, he should already know that some people just can't be redeemed. Not everybody is Broly, Jiren, Piccolo, Tien or even Vegeta, characters who eventually became good guys. Some people are just bad, and I don't see Moro ending up as a Z Fighter.

Goku should know better. He asked Jaco if he could kill Moro, and Jaco said yes, Moro faces the death penalty. That means if Moro goes in with the Galactic Patrol, he might end up getting the death penalty. We don't know. But in the leaked pages, Goku asks Moro to promise to go to prison in exchange for a senzu bean.

Why does he have to give him a senzu bean at all? He could just tell Moro he isn't going to kill him and send him to prison as beat up as he already is. There's no need for the senzu. It makes no sense logically, and that's why fans are mad.

Is Goku getting dumber in Dragon Ball Super?

People have complained for a long time about Goku getting dumber in Dragon Ball Super. I don't entirely agree with that criticism, but I understand why somebody would say it, because there are moments in Super where Goku acts very strangely. This is one of them. He should have already learned this lesson from how sparing Cell backfired, and from Frieza. Sometimes you can't spare these guys.

That goes double for somebody as evil as Moro, who had these heroes on the ground bleeding badly a couple of chapters earlier. Now he's back up and re-energized, and he even says he's going to kill Goku. That proves he's not redeemable. Maybe Goku is telling himself to give Moro one more chance just to see if he'll change. Maybe that's stubborn Goku, and if that's the case, I can somewhat understand it. But I feel that, at this point, it tramples on everything Merus did for him.

Whether Moro or Goku wins is irrelevant. Goku is giving a chance to win to a cunning, sly and intelligent opponent who has evaded death throughout this entire arc. Moro has overcome Goku, Vegeta and Majin Buu. He overcame Vegeta's Forced Spirit Fission. He's a survivor, a selfish survivor, and sparing him is a very big mistake. Has Goku not learned anything from his entire life?

Goku's overconfidence on its own is a cool part of who he is. We saw him do it against Nappa and the Ginyu Force. But this isn't the same thing, because now it reaches the point of stupidity. Unlike Nappa and Captain Ginyu, Moro has dangerous abilities and he's a thinker. This isn't a bunch of weak opponents. Even the Galactic Patrol said to go ahead and kill him because he's a dangerous criminal. And Goku hands him a senzu so they can fight for sport after his friend sacrificed himself. To me, in my opinion, it's bad writing. If you disagree, that's fine.

I don't think Toyotaro is the right writer for Dragon Ball

I'm genuinely dumbfounded that Goku would make such a dumb decision. Goku isn't that dumb. He's a guy with experience who learns things. So I think Toyotaro is either not thinking straight or not understanding these characters. I've said before that he isn't the guy to continue Dragon Ball. He's booked to be the guy, but I don't think he's that good of a writer. In my opinion, he's very subpar. That said, people can improve, and I'm not going to sit here and hate on him.

There were a hundred different things Toyotaro could have done to keep Moro alive. There's the hand. There's cunning Moro doing cunning things. Maybe even Goku not being able to handle Ultra Instinct again, which would contradict the previous chapter but would still be better than the senzu. This shouldn't be that hard to do.

Now Merus is gone. Whis may or may not get involved, and if he does, it goes back to the idea that the heroes are friends with gods, so they'll never lose. There's no real drama there, and that's the issue. People defend Toyotaro, but he isn't that good of a writer. And Toriyama was the editor at the time, so why didn't he say something? These are strange anomalies in this story, and I'm keeping an open mind until more spoilers arrive.

Why Dragon Ball fans are justified in being upset

I'm not mad myself, because to me Dragon Ball ended in 1996 when Z ended. That was the story of Goku from a kid to a grandfather. All of the Super material is like DLC to me: new stuff we can enjoy or not, depending on what it is. Some folks love it and some hate it. I don't think it will affect my love of the original Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z.

Some people said they would drop Dragon Ball over this. If you want to drop it, it's your time and your choice, though I know many fans will say that and keep reading anyway. I'm going to keep reading, hoping for some good out of it. I also don't want people attacking Toyotaro on social media. I've seen some folks do that, and it's not worth it. But if you want to say this part sucks, you have every right to, because we want better stories.

Goku's on a hamster wheel here. Where's the development? They've done everything they can with Goku and Vegeta. They should develop a new character, even if they're scared to, and it needs to happen. If every arc is going to be them learning the same thing over and over again, then what's the point?