Goku is known for many things; relentless training, a desire to get stronger, and supposedly being a bad father and husband. Despite this, he is not immune to showing some acts of kindness.
Throughout the Dragon Ball anime, when he's not fighting against the bad guys, Goku has had some pretty nice moments. These ten instances prove that, despite his singleminded quest to be the very best, he can still be caring.
Sparing Vegeta's Life
Just when Krillin was about to kill Vegeta before the Saiyan could escape, Goku makes a telepathic speech to his friend while he was in his defeated state. He convinces Krillin to spare Vegeta, stating that he could change his life around, just as Dragon Ball's perpetually mysterious character Piccolo could.
While Krillin appears doubtful at first, he eventually concedes and spares Vegeta's life. This touching moment shows Goku's strong optimism regarding others' willingness to change, and, as proven later in the anime, his choice to let Vegeta live paid off greatly.
A Special Wish for Buu
While doing some recruiting for the upcoming Tournament of Destroyers with Krillin and Vegeta, Goku suggests bringing Buu into the fold. Buu is hesitant to compete in the tournament at first, citing his disdain for Beerus as his reasoning.
However, he changes his mind when Goku promises to give him a wish from the Super Dragon Balls. Buu plans to give his wish to Mr. Satan, allowing him to make any wish in his place. A kind gesture—if not a little convincing—from Goku leads to a heartwarming moment between Mr. Satan and Buu.
Bonding With Goten
Goten asks Goku if he can tag along with him to his training session with Whis, and Goku happily obliges. However, Chi-Chi quickly objects, nagging her son about how much studying he had to do. While Chi-Chi nags away, Goku and Goten sneak out of the house.
While away from Chi-Chi, Goku spends some quality time with Goten. He gets some father-son bonding in with his seven-year-old son, as he takes his son with him to buy some daifuku for Whis before visiting Bulma at the Capsule Corp.
Moments Of Embrace After Recovery
Goku sustains a heart virus during the Cell saga, which appears during his fight against Android 19. Yamcha takes him home to recover, and Goku later receives the antidote. After ten days, Goku recovers from the virus.
But, before he jumps back into the fight, he first embraces Chi-Chi, sharing a very touching moment with his wife as he spins her around. Afterward, Goku teleports himself to the plane that his friends are riding in, embracing Krillin, as well as his son, Gohan. Knowing Goku, he could've returned to the fight against the Androids upon recovery, but, thankfully, he had a few things to take care of.
Farming For His Family
When he's not practicing martial arts or training to be stronger, Goku tends to work as a farmer, which is something that Chi-Chi convinced him to do. He doesn't particularly enjoy farming as much, but he doesn't do a bad job, either.
In one episode of Dragon Ball Super, Goku puts in a little more effort to his farming work, telling Chi-Chi and Gohan that he wanted them to have tasty food. So, while he may not care for farming that much, he still does whatever he can to make his family satisfied.
Some Lettuce For Beerus
Beerus may off as lazy and a hot-heated jerk, but he has grown to accept the company of Goku and most of the other characters. As Goku finds out, Beerus has a profound love for earth food.
After Goku crashes onto Beerus' planet during Vegeta's training session with Whis, Beerus asks the Saiyan if he brought a gift. Goku only offers a ball of lettuce to Beerus, and Beerus falls in love with the vegetable at first bite. It's a very simple moment that shows how much Beerus has grown to tolerate Goku.
Carrying Krillin Back Home After Punching Him
After a brief moment of reminiscing with Goku, Krillin makes a humble request to his friend to punch him in the face just to see how stronger he has become. Although Goku tries to warn him that his punch would hurt him, Krillin still wishes for his request to be granted.
So, Goku punches Krillin in the face, and the punch sends Krillin flying a far distance into a large rock. Acting rather sheepish about the amount of pain Krillin endured, Goku offers to carry his friend back home, showing the kind of friend that is.
A Friend For Zeno
While traveling in the future with Trunks, Goku sees Zeno lost and adrift in space and offers to take the king of the twelve universes to a better place. With Zeno in tow, Goku and Trunks return to the present, but Goku's good deed is only half-done.
Back in the present, Goku asks Shin to take him and the others to Zeno's Palace. There, he introduces future Zeno to present Zeno, telling the latter that he found him a friend. Goku had promised to find present Zeno a friend, and he followed through on his promise.
Goku's Noble Sacrifice
One of the more defining moments in Dragon Ball Z came when Goku sacrificed himself to save the earth. After he reverted to his Semi-Perfect form following a defeat to Android 18 during the Cell Games, Cell uses the Unforgivable! self-destruction technique to blow up the earth.
Thinking fast, Goku decides to sacrifice himself along with Cell as a means to save the earth and his friends. Before he sends Cell to the North Area, he gives his son Gohan a heartwarming speech that proves he might not be such a bad dad after all. While it wasn't necessarily a "nice" thing, it was a very noble move on Goku's part.
The Promise to King Kai
King Kai used to be Goku's mentor, and he would meet his end after Goku brought the self-destructing Cell to the North Area. The blast wounded up killing both Goku and King Kai.
While Goku was later revived, King Kai remained dead. However, that hasn't stopped Goku from using the Dragon Balls to wish his mentor back to life following the return of Future Trunks. Goku failed in his attempt, much to the chagrin of King Kai, but he did promise to revive his mentor—and he almost followed through.