Since its start over 30 years ago, Dragon Ball has seemingly never stopped having a decent fanbase. Children and adults alike are drawn to the series, with each new episode or manga being the highlight of their week.

The TV series in particular have gained the most buzz, as the Dragon Ball franchise now has 5 TV shows under its belt, and nearly 20 movies.

As long-running and in-depth as Dragon Ball may be, however, it is not immune to having a few slip-ups along the way.

Considering that Goku is the main protagonist of Dragon Ball, it is understandable that a few things about the hero may not make sense.

While he is certainly not the only character to not make sense, considering other characters like Vegeta have their flaws as well, it is arguable that Goku may have the more flaws than anyone else.

However, this is understandable, considering he has had more screen-time than anyone else. It makes sense proportionally.

Whether it's due to laziness from the writers, or simply a lack of continuity over time, Goku has had many issues over the years.

This doesn't necessarily mean he's a bad character; it just means mistakes have been made when writing his character over time and thus, there are quite a few things that just don't hold up logically.

With that in mind, here are the 19 Things About Dragon Ball's Goku That Make No Sense.

 The Time He Was Inexplicably Beaten By Kefla

Kefla Dragon Ball

As one of the few powerful female characters in the Dragon Ball universe, Kefla is certainly a force to be trifled with. However, there was one recent point in the series where she defeated Goku, and it simply didn't make sense at all.

While Kefla was certainly powerful at the time, and has always been a powerful character, making her way up to the Super Saiyan 2 level, she shouldn't have been able to defeat Goku.

At the time, Goku was at Super Saiyan God level.

While Goku has lost many fights over the years, they were almost all to people stronger than him. The fact that he was defeated by someone at such a lower power level than himself, without her having any real advantage, is simply nonsensical.

 His Power Level Always Being Higher Than Vegeta's

Vegeta Behind Goku

This one is most likely at the fault of the writers, who were presumably focusing more on convenience than consistency. Throughout the series, Goku tends to inexplicably increase his power level at a greater rate than his partner Vegeta.

Take, for example, their arc taking place on Namek. When Goku arrived, he had a 90k Power Level, whereas Vegeta had 30k.

By the time they left Namek, Goku’s Power Level increased all the way to 3 million, while Vegeta’s power level only increased to 1.4 million.

Clearly, these are both huge spikes for their power levels, but they aren't proportionate. Goku increased his power level by over double Vegeta's.

While this was clearly written to continue giving Goku the upper hand, it was simply illogical, and has occurred numerous times throughout the series.

Underutilizing His Super Speed

Goku Super Speed Dragon Ball

Super Speed is a very useful ability that Goku possesses that he almost always happens to forget about.

While Goku does utilize his ability of moving extremely fast at times, there have been a number of times throughout the series where a complex situation could've been easily solved had Goku just moved fast.

Explosions could've been escaped, important items could've been grabbed, and villainous escapes could've been halted had Goku simply used his Super Speed.

It is understandable why the writers chose to not have Goku use this ability consistently, as it would've made a lot of the stories a lot less interesting.

Why watch a hero easily solve a conflict when you can watch them struggle and develop instead? The latter certainly sounds a lot more interesting.

That Time He Passed Away From Heart Failure

Goku Heart Disease

During Dragon Ball Z, there was a period of time where Goku, kind of out of nowhere, passed away from heart problems.

This really didn't make sense, however, considering how much Goku works out and makes sure to keep his body healthy. Having heart failures while in perfect health is practically unheard of, so why did it happen?

Well, at the time, the show's head writer Akira Toriyama was trying to find a way to end the series. Desperate to wrap things up, Toriyama felt suddenly ending Goku was the most practical solution.

Unfortunately, killing off Goku didn't work long term, as any Dragon Ball fan knows death is almost never the end, as they can bring almost anyone back if they get all of the Dragon Balls together.

This was not a long term plan for Toriyama, and it ultimately became a confusing bump in the road for Dragon Ball Z.

 Underutilzing His Solar Flare

Another ability that Goku, among other characters, underutilize is the Solar Flare. This is a very successful technique that will instantly blind whoever it's used used on, which will almost always guarantee the user a win in a fight.

The reason why Goku stopped using the Solar Flare shortly after learning the ability was because his enemies learned that they can easily deflect the attack if they wear sunglasses.

Since then, however, most of Goku's enemies don't normally wear sunglasses, which means there's really not anything stopping him from blinding anyone who tried to fight him.

Goku could've avoided so many defeats or prevented so many tragedies had he just used his Solar Flare. This is just another example of convenience outweighing consistency in the writers' room.

 He Regularly Forgets His Philosophy Of "Never Giving Up"

Goku Beaten

"When life changes and becomes harder, change yourself to become stronger," is one of Goku's most memorable and inspiring quotes over the series. Goku always preaches about never giving up, which is a philosophy that his father told him that he always remembers to follow in his own life... except when he doesn't.

Some of Goku's greatest moments are when he follows this philosophy and stands his ground, no matter what.

Unfortunately, these moments don't come often enough, as there have been a number of times throughout the series where Goku has conveniently forgotten his greatest rule.

While some of his acts of giving up are true moments of weakness where he remembers the philosophy but chooses not to follow it, a majority of the situations of Goku standing down are caused by the writers just forgetting Goku's rule.

 Childhood Goku Kept Getting Singled Out For Having A Tail

Young Goku

Back when Goku was younger, mostly during the original Dragon Ball series, one of his most notable features was his tail. Since Saiyans were not a common race, Goku was regularly singled out and teased for having a tail attached to him.

The thing is, this really didn't make much sense considering Goku's tail was one of the least abnormal parts of the Universe.

A good portion of Earth's population in the series consists of animal-humanoid hybrids. The King of the planet himself is a dog.

Additionally, aliens were not uncommon on this planet, with a good number of them looking human with additional features much stranger than a tail.

It would appear the writers just tried to single Goku out to traumatize him and possibly make him ashamed of being a Saiayan. While this motivation was feasible, having people make fun of his tail was not the most realistic way to do it.

The Lack Of Physics Regarding His Hair

Goku Gravity Training

This nonsensical part of Goku is more likely credited to the animators than the writers themselves. One of Goku's most notable features is his spiky hair, which almost always stays up.

Even in the Gravity Chamber, when experiencing gravity 300 times stronger than Earth's, Goku's hair stays up.

Logically, his natural hair style should've crumbled under the gravitational pull, but it remained up, unfazed by the enormous pull for it to go down.

The issue is, we know that Goku's hair does go down. We have seen Goku's hair actually fall back while in the shower.

While a case could be made that water is his hair's greatest weakness, it just doesn't make physical sense for water to force his hair down when a monstrous gravitational pull has no effect whatsoever.

 Learning More From King Kai Than Anyone Else, Despite Being There For The Shortest Amount Of Time

At one point in the series, Goku passes away and travels the Snake Way. Here, he trains under King Kai for two months. When he began the training, he had a power level of merely 400, and left with a power level over 9,000.

Conversely, the characters Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu also entered the Snake Way. Each had a power level over 1,000. Tien and Chiaotzu trained for eight months, and Yamcha trained for four.

Despite training significantly longer, entering at a higher power level, and enduring the exact same training, the trio of characters did not increase their power level nearly as much as Goku.

This is one of many examples in Dragon Ball where the writers simply try tried to overpower Goku without having enough backup to justify his drastic increase.

 Mastering Ultra Instinct After Only Using It 3 Times

Goku Ultra Instinct

Ultra Instinct is a very useful, yet very hard to learn, ability in the Dragon Ball universe that essentially gives the user perfect reflexes and instincts.

Goku became a master of this, which helped his character development, but the logic of him becoming a master didn't make much sense.

The thing was, Goku had only used Ultra Instinct thrice before becoming a supposed "Master."

In addition, during each of the three times he used Ultra Instict, he could barely hold the power for more than 60 seconds.

Ultra Instinct is one of the hardest abilities to learn in the Dragon Ball universe, with very few people actually being able to use it, and even fewer becoming masters.

This is why it's purely illogical that Goku could suddenly master the power, despite never being able to fully use it an any point prior.

 The Time He Let Frieza Power Back To 100% Rather Than Taking Him Out

Goku vs Frieza in Dragon Ball Z

One of the most noteworthy moments in Goku's history was his transformation into Super Saiyan in the middle of a fight with Frieza. Frieza had just endedDragon Ball: 19 Things About Goku That Make No Sense Krillin and was ready to be finally taken out by Goku once and for all, but did Goku draw that final blow? Absolutely not.

Goku decided to show mercy, which is usually an honorable move in stories like this, but it didn't make any reasonable sense.

This was a psychopath who had just finished destroying another one of the show's more powerful characters (granted, Krillin passes away all the time, but still).

Instead, Goku let Frieza power back up to 100%, which was seemingly a decision by the writers just to raise the stakes. Even then, Goku didn't finish Frieza after winning the fight.

Instead, he let Frieza live, which completely backfired when Frieza gained full health again and continued to try destroy Goku. While it is understandable that the writers didn't want to write off the show's greatest villain, all of Goku's decisions here were total nonsense.

 His Farming Skills Seriously Decreased As He Aged

Goku tending to his farm in the Dragon Ball anime series.

In Dragon Ball Super, one of the things always holding Goku back is that he needs to tend to his farm, preventing him from training as much as he should. He spends almost all day farming now, with no time to spare.

However, back in the original Dragon Ball series, when Goku was only a child with a power level of only 10, he would be able to plow through an entire field in a matter of minutes.

Today, even though Goku's power level is literally millions of times stronger than it was when he was a child, it now takes him all day to plow a field.

It feels illogical that this thing he used to do in moments as a child now takes him hours.

While some have theorized that the issue is that he doesn't want to burn the fields with his power, this is never introduced, and it still wouldn't explain why he couldn't just use minimum power while farming.

 Goku Has The Ability To Destroy Planets, But Not Open Doors

Dragon Ball Video Game

This one is more of a criticism of video game logic than the character Goku as a whole. Goku, being one of the most powerful characters in the Dragon Ball universe, can destroy almost anything he wants, from buildings to planets.

The thing that doesn't make sense is that, in the Dragon Ball video games, Goku cannot open doors without a key. If he really needed to get into a building urgently, he would just kick down the door.

He wouldn't need to follow a long string of clues to find a key to open a thin piece of wood that he could likely incinerate with the snap of his fingers.

This is a flaw in many video games, but for the Dragon Ball games in particular, it can't help but take any player out of the game due to how unrealistic half of the game play really is.

 The Time He Teleported Himself And An Exploding Cell To King Kai's Planet

Goku Teleports Exploding Cell in the Dragon Ball anime series.

In one of the most heroic and controversial moments in Dragon Ball history, in order to save everyone around them, Goku teleported himself and Cell, who was about to explode, to King Kai's planet.

He chose to save the lives of those near him originally, but in doing so, destroying everyone near where they arrived in the second location.

Instead of letting anyone else pass away, Goku easily could've teleported himself and Cell to an abandoned planet, a star, or even into space itself.

However, claiming King Kai's planet was the only place he could think of at the time, Goku illogically had a bunch of random people destroyed, starting conflict between himself and everyone else on the planet.

It was certainly an interesting event to take place from a storytelling perspective, but looking back on it, it just didn't make much sense.

 Ignoring The Physics Of Space

Goku in Space

Everyone knows that in space, it is literally impossible to breathe, and if you're in a ship that has a door or window suddenly open, you will get sucked out into the abyss at a drastic speed. This, however, does not appear to be the case for Goku.

One particular instance of Goku defying the physics of space was during his journey to Namek. Due to circumstances we don't need to get into, Goku once got his foot glued to the inside of a spaceship.

Somehow, he miraculously was able to breathe during this entire course of time, despite being out in open space with no helmet or oxygen mask.

Additionally, his problem was illogically solved when they finally opened the door to the spaceship and he climbed back inside.

It would have been physically impossible for him to get into the space ship, considering the vacuum caused by the door opening would've thrust him deeper into space and further from the ship. There are many instances of Goku defying the laws of physics in space, and they really don't make a lot of sense.

 His Horrible Parenting Tactics

Super Saiyan 2 Gohan vs Perfect Cell in Dragon Ball Z

This is one nonsensical part of Goku that the show occasionally touches on, but not nearly enough. Goku is truly a horrible father to his son, Gohan. Not only is he never there for his wife and kid, but when he is there, it feels like he's always pitting his son against some super-powered adult who wants to punch the kid's teeth in.

While Goku's reasoning is that he's just trying to train and prepare Gohan, the logic of it doesn't make much sense at all.

At what point does Chi-Chi just leave with Gohan in order to keep their son safe from the dangerous whims of her husband? And at what point does Child Protective Services step in?

While Goku isn't personally harming his child himself, he's almost always putting Gohan in mortal danger.

During the Cell Games, even, Goku pitted his son against Cell, who is arguably stronger than Goku himself, and then gave Cell Senzu Beans to make him stronger. It's almost as if Goku hates being a father so much that he wants to end his son's life at any means necessary.

 His Ship Is Somehow Usable, Long After It Was Destroyed By A Special Beam Cannon

When Goku first arrived on Earth, he arrived in a high-tech Saiyan space pod, but it was later destroyed by Piccolo using a Special Beam Cannon. Goku's ship was seemingly, completely incinerated.

This, however, all changed when Goku was able to use the pod to travel to Namek after having Dr. Briefs fix it.

Despite there being practically nothing left of the wreckage of the ship, somehow it was restored. How is this logically possible?

The actual story behind this is that the whole plot where Goku's ship was destroyed by Piccolo was written for the anime because they had completely caught up with the manga at the time.

This short story arc, featuring Gohan being transformed from the ship's holograms, never occurred in the manga, so when the manga later wrote an arc where Goku's ship returns, the anime writers just kind of went with it, rather than rewriting and changing the ship Goku uses to travel to Namek.

 Inexplicably Surviving A Special Beam Cannon Drilling Through His Chest

Goku Holding Radditz Piccolo Special Beam Cannon Dragon Ball Z

Goku has passed away and come back many times, but the most inexplicable resurrection of all was the time (in the manga) when Piccolo drilled an enormous hole straight through Goku's chest using a Special Beam Cannon.

This was a very dramatic moment in the manga that Goku logically should not have survived. However, with no explanation as to how, Goku miraculously came back to life, absolutely unscathed by the fact that all of his inner organs were pretty much drilled down to nothing.

The story needed Goku to come back to life, and so it happened. The writers didn't feel there needed to be a reason for his resurrection, so it just sort of happened with no logical explanation whatsoever.

If he can really come back to life that easily, are there really any stakes in the series anymore?

 He Is Generally Way Too Overpowered

Goku is one of the most powerful characters in the Dragon Ball universe. While this may make him a cool character, it also makes him an uninteresting character.

Considering that there are only a handful of characters stronger than Goku, it kind of makes any threat or foe uninteresting to see Goku go up against, unless they're one of the spare few who are stronger.

In the few situations where Goku goes against someone weaker and they somehow get an upper hand on him, it makes the entire scenario nonsensical.

Goku was a lot more interesting when he was younger and weaker, but now that he is older and stronger, his character just stops becoming interesting, and when he is actually interesting, he doesn't make much sense.

---

Can you think of any other aspects of Dragon Ball's Goku that don't make any sense? Let us know in the comments!