Goku's biggest mistakes, from sparing Vegeta to the Moro Senzu

Goku's choice to give Moro a Senzu Bean and let him live in Dragon Ball Super manga Chapter 65 was heavily criticized by the Dragon Ball fandom all over the world. The truth is that Goku has always made questionable decisions. Even when things worked out in the end, there was still a real and sometimes high risk of catastrophic failure. Some of his choices were naive, and some were flat out dumb. "I will always love Goku as a character but man he's gotta really think about things sometimes."

Why Goku's mistakes often worked out anyway

Some of these mistakes were dumb and questionable, but at times they ended up working out for Goku later on. You never know what's going to happen in life. We have to do our best to make the best decisions possible, and none of us is perfect. Neither is Goku.

Still, when you take risks like this, they don't always work out. In Goku's case, plot shielding has protected him and the outcome of the story on most occasions. When you think about it, his questionable decision making began after he became an adult, even in the early years of his adulthood.

Sparing Piccolo at the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai paid off

Take the moment Goku spared Piccolo at the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai. At the end of the day it could be seen as a foolish move. Piccolo was the son of the Demon King Piccolo, who at one time ruled the Earth and threatened to destroy everything.

It still worked out. Had Piccolo died, there would be no Dragon Balls, because Kami would have died too. Nobody would have been able to stop Raditz when he showed up, and Gohan would never have been trained. So this is one that can be seen as dumb, but it worked out.

Goku spared Vegeta for selfish reasons, not because he was good

The same goes for sparing Vegeta. Don't let the English dub fool you. Goku never spared Vegeta because he thought Vegeta was a good guy. In the original Japanese manga, Goku himself says he spared Vegeta for purely selfish reasons. He admits to Krillin and everybody else that he wants Vegeta to stay alive because he wants to fight him again.

That was foolish, because nobody had ever given them as much trouble as Vegeta had. At the same time, Vegeta wound up being very useful in the Frieza saga, even though he died in that arc anyway. His battles against Dodoria, Zarbon and the Ginyu Force in many ways kept Gohan and everybody else alive.

Had Vegeta not been on Namek to take out Dodoria and Zarbon, there's a chance Gohan would eventually have been caught and taken out, along with Dende, and both of them were very useful. So Vegeta being the antihero of the Frieza saga turned out to be a good thing, all because of Goku's mistake. But Goku had no idea it would turn out that way, so it's still a dumb decision, just one that worked out.

Letting Frieza reach 100 percent power was a gamble

There are a few moments in the Frieza saga involving Frieza himself. Goku allowed Frieza to go to 100 percent power. This is classic Goku. He wants to see his opponents at max power and test himself against the very best, and I don't begrudge him for that. But doing this with villains, which he's done numerous times since, is always a big gamble, especially with someone as irredeemable as Frieza.

It wouldn't be the last time Frieza got a break from Goku. Goku even had so much mercy that he gave Frieza energy at the end of their fight, which Frieza used to try to kill him and ended up looking foolish. Goku was far stronger than Frieza and confident in himself, but it was still a risk. Sometimes an unreasonable risk yields great rewards, but the risk is still unreasonable.

There's a narrative among many Dragon Ball fans that Goku is a selfish person, and I disagree. He has had selfish moments without question, but he's not always selfish, though he does tend to think about himself. When he warps everybody off the planet back to Earth, it's a smart move to protect everybody, but it's also because he wants to finish his grudge match with Frieza, which could cost him his life. I like it, because sparing the innocent and taking the brunt of the battle is heroic. I also feel Goku giving Frieza energy is a great moment, because of how epic it is when Goku turns around, calls him a fool and blasts him.

The Cell saga: why fans call it the saga of stupidity

Many fans call the Cell saga "the saga of stupidity" because both Goku and Vegeta make dumb mistakes in it. I love the Cell saga. It has incredible moments, we love Gohan, and it has great new characters like the artificial humans and Trunks. But Goku does dumb things.

He knew there was a scientist creating killer machines that had taken everybody out in the future, and he didn't even go to him and have him arrested. That's an unreasonable risk given how dangerous the situation was. We know Goku and Vegeta have the blood of the warrior race and want to fight and get stronger, and we all love it. From a logical perspective, though, it makes no sense. A time traveler told them this would be a major problem, and it became a bigger headache than they thought. Had they stopped the artificial humans from being finished, there would never have been a Perfect Cell. There's always cause and effect in Dragon Ball, especially in the Cell and Buu sagas.

Then there's the infamous moment Goku gave Cell a Senzu Bean. He had given Piccolo one back at the 23rd tournament, but this is the one fans pointed to during the Moro arc, asking why Goku would do that knowing how dangerous Cell was. He had a lot of confidence in his son, and I think Gohan was the one who flubbed up more than Goku here. Goku at least repents for it, but I feel it's a bad decision. The fact that he repented is the main reason his later choices are so annoying. Goku apparently learned his lesson, but did he? I guess not.

The Majin Buu saga: Vegeta's betrayal, Fat Buu and the refusal to fuse

In the Buu arc, Goku and Vegeta both make selfish decisions that lead to catastrophic events. Vegeta becoming a Majin to equalize his power with Goku and fight him at his max was very selfish and very foolish, because he put everybody at risk, including his own wife and kid. Goku had to fight him, but the Supreme Kai had told Goku that if they fought, their energy output would be enough to resurrect Majin Buu, who had been teased for several chapters as the most dangerous threat to Earth. They did it anyway and hatched Buu, who was a problem for the rest of the arc. These things needed to happen for the plot, but it's still a boneheaded move.

Later, Goku reveals he could have defeated Fat Buu any time he wanted but wanted Goten and Trunks to be the heroes, because he didn't want to bail them out again. I question that statement, because I feel Goku may not have been able to finish Buu off, given the limitations of Super Saiyan 3 and Buu's incredible stamina. Either way it was foolish. If Goku thought he could take Buu out, he might as well have done it, because Buu and Babidi were rampaging across the Earth killing people left and right.

I've also always wondered why Vegito didn't kill Buu and then use the Dragon Balls to wish everybody back. They were going to use them anyway, so why go through the hassle of getting absorbed on purpose to free Goten, Trunks, Gohan, Piccolo and the rest? Then comes the infamous refusal to fuse against Kid Buu. Goku and Vegeta felt they could take him, but they weren't sure. They were overconfident, and they wanted a fair fight with Buu in his purest form. Given how often they were warned about him, and that Vegeta had felt Buu's power himself, many fans have criticized this over the years and I can't blame them. I love that fight, but logically it was a huge risk, I would say.

To me, Goku is a pure hearted, morally good guy, but he's very naive and at times selfish, and many of us can be that way. When you're dealing with intergalactic evildoers who can harm billions of lives, you have to find ways to prevent the damage instead of allowing it and fixing it later. Then again, if they did that, would we have Dragon Ball? Still, these moments in Dragon Ball Z aren't that foolish when you break them down. It's the fact that they continue into Super that gets annoying.

Resurrection F: Goku and Vegeta failed to finish Frieza

In the Dragon Ball renaissance, which began with Battle of Gods, Goku keeps making unusual decisions. In Resurrection F, he took too long to finish off Frieza and got blasted through the chest and incapacitated. Then Vegeta made the same mistake, and his mistake got the Earth blown up. Had it not been for Whis and his time reversal ability, they would have been in serious trouble. They would have had to go to Namek or figure something else out to bring Earth back. It would have been a nightmare.

These guys have to pull the trigger. The problem with the Moro arc is that they were in a very similar situation with Moro, and they still spared him. You could make the argument that Moro is just as evil as Frieza, maybe more, because of his feud with the Supreme Kais that goes back millions of years.

The Tournament of Power was more Zeno's fault than Goku's

One of the more controversial cases is the Universe Survival arc. Many fans think Goku endangered the multiverse. He was partially responsible, because he encouraged Zeno to hold the Tournament of Power. But it's revealed that Zeno was going to destroy the universes anyway. Whether he really was going to remains to be seen, since the end of the arc almost implies he wasn't, or that he had second thoughts.

Dragon Ball fans don't analyze this one as much as they should. Goku wanted the multiversal tournament, but he never once said he wanted universes destroyed if they lost. He wanted to fight strong guys. It was Zeno who made that choice. Can we blame Goku? Maybe partially, but I don't believe he should be chastised for it, because Goku gave them a fighting chance. The Omni King's desire to get rid of the low ranking universes was his choice, not Goku's.

It all worked out because of 17's wish. Zeno stated that had the winner not made the correct wish, the most selfless one, bringing everybody back, he would have wiped everybody away anyway. "So to me Zeno's kind of the brat here more than Goku."

Why did Gogeta let Frieza go in Dragon Ball Super: Broly?

Bringing Frieza back to help Universe 7 was a big risk, and all of Goku's friends came down on him for the suggestion. In the end, Frieza did turn out useful for Universe 7 in that arc. But in Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018), Frieza's true colors came back. He was once again manipulating people for revenge on Goku and Vegeta, still not over his beef with them.

Frieza brought Broly to Earth and put the entire planet, if not the universe, at risk from Broly's power and uncontrolled rage. So why didn't Gogeta finish him off at the end of the film? Gogeta has hold of him, stopping him from blowing up his minions who had turned on him, and then lets him go. I don't understand the reasoning, since we now know Frieza was manipulating Broly and Paragus the entire time. He proved things weren't going to be peaceful.

Earlier in the film, Vegeta scolds Goku for bringing Frieza back and reveals he's training to protect Earth from a possible Frieza attack. He was proven right. Vegeta is half of Gogeta, so why didn't Gogeta rid the galaxy of Frieza? It's a weird choice.

Giving Moro a Senzu Bean crossed into dumb territory

That brings us back to the Moro arc. After decisively defeating Moro with the completed version of Ultra Instinct, Goku not only spared him, which is naive in itself, but crossed into dumb territory by giving him a Senzu Bean. To me that was totally unnecessary. Moro was already beaten up. Put him in jail, or take him out after getting permission from Jaco, especially after Merus sacrificed himself.

Because Goku tried to sit down and talk to a guy who'd been a criminal for millions of years, he possibly caused a problem that put the universe, or at least the galaxy according to Whis, at risk, because Moro then fused with the planet. Goku should be better than this. He's an adult, he's been trained and taught by several different people, and he has been down this road before.

You could say he's overconfident, but he's been overconfident before and it cost him. There has to come a point where he shows some humility. I wondered how many more bad choices Goku would make before he smartened up. I hoped he finally learned from this one, but maybe he hasn't, because he's lived a long life and he should know better by now.