Throughout his Dragon Ball career, Goku’s heroism has often been called into question as it isn’t uncommon for him to value a good fight over the fate of the world, or even the entire universe–and one event in particular shows that even arguably the evilest villain in Dragon Ball Z knows Goku was never a real hero.
Goku made his debut in the first chapter of Dragon Ball, and right from the start it was clear his morals were questionable at best. Goku is seen wandering the forest looking for animals to hunt and eat, which is all well and good until one considers that most of the animals in Dragon Ball possess human-level intelligence. In fact, in that first chapter, readers see Goku kill a fish that had the ability to speak and understand complex human emotions and logic. To make this even more egregious, the king of the world in this universe is a dog (named King Furry), and one of Goku’s best friends is a pig, so killing animals in this universe is pretty much just as bad as murdering a human–and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
In Dragon Ball chapter 475 by Akira Toriyama, Goku has powered up to Super Saiyan 3 for the first time and is in the middle of an epic battle with Majin Buu, all while Buu’s temporary master, Babidi, watches and critiques from the sidelines. While SSJ3 proved to be immensely powerful (though horrendously ki-draining), it was also really dangerous to use in practice on Earth. In fact, the fight between Goku and Buu resulted in one-tenth of the Earth’s population being eradicated immediately, a fact that was called out by none other than Babidi himself.
Babidi Exposes Goku’s Apathetic Villainy, and That Isn’t the First Time
Aside from Goku killing and eating anthropomorphic animals and destroying a fraction of all life on Earth during a battle against an equally strong opponent, Goku has made it clear that he values a good fight above all else in practically every situation he’s in. When Goku was battling Frieza, the two fighters’ unparalleled power resulted in the destruction of an entire planet. When the Z-Fighters were battling Cell, Goku gave the villain a senzu bean, so he could restore his health and be a greater challenge, even though Cell’s victory would mean the end of the world. When the god above all gods, Zeno, passively mentioned their desire to hold a multiversal tournament, Goku pushed the issue which resulted in the complete obliteration of entire universes.
In short, Goku doesn’t care about collateral damage, his main goal is becoming stronger, whether that means killing and eating anything that moves or fighting increasingly more powerful enemies–and even someone as evil as Babidi, whose quest for power led him to unleash the greatest force of chaos and destruction in Dragon Ball Z, can see it as he pointed out that Goku is a pretty terrible Dragon Ball hero.