While the two are uniquely distinctive, there are many similarities between the Dragon Ball and Mortal Kombat franchises as both contain a wide cast of deadly characters who regularly engage in combat to decide the fate of one or multiple worlds–though in one of Goku’s earliest tournament-style battles, the two universes had never been more aligned as they seemingly merged into one during a fight that depicts Goku surviving an iconic Mortal Kombat Fatality.

Before establishing extensive lore within its fictional universe by way of comics, movies, and more story-driven video games, Mortal Kombat basically started out as a button-mashing arcade game that was simply a round robin tournament featuring a number of distinctive and increasingly deadly warriors. Some of those fan-favorite Mortal Kombat characters who first debuted in the original game and are still prevalent in the franchise today include Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Liu Kang, Sonya Blade, and Goro. The reason these fighters, along with the multitude of others, are so popular is not just because of their looks or fighting styles, but because of the impressive and incredibly violent Fatalities–which are basically finisher moves that are used when a fighter is on the verge of victory. Whenever a Fatality is used, there is nothing that the fighter's opponent can do to combat it–though Goku proved to be an exception to that particular belief, even in his weakest form.

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In Dragon Ball chapter 132 by Akiria Toriyama, Goku is battling Tien in the Tenkaichi Budokai, and the battle is not as one-sided as many fans would think. At this point in the Dragon Ball mythos, Goku is still a young child who hasn’t unlocked hardly any of the powerful techniques or transformations he has become known for, including Kaio-ken or Super Saiyan. However, that isn’t to say Goku isn’t incredibly strong especially when compared to the other fighters of Earth, making this battle with Tien even more intense. Just when Goku thinks Tien has reached his peak, the deadly fighter reveals that he had been holding back all along and shockingly grows two additional arms out of his back. With a total of four arms, Tien grabs Goku’s arms and legs and starts to tear them apart with Goku squirming to avoid brutal dismemberment.

Goku survived a Mortal Combat Fatality.

Tien’s attack in this issue is exactly like a Mortal Kombat Fatality carried out by Goro who is famous for having four muscular arms with which he uses to crush his opponent–or more accurately, tear them apart limb-from-limb. While there is practically no way to fight against Goro’s Fatality after he already has a hold on his opponent, Goku shows that he could survive the attack even as a child. In this chapter of Dragon Ball, when all hope seemed lost for Goku, the Saiyan child used his tail to whack Tien in the face until the martial artist let go, giving Goku the upper hand he needed to escape. Given the similarities in finisher-moves between Tien and Goro, it only makes sense that Goku would be able to use the same tactic against the Mortal Kombat fighter and survive Goro’s fatality just as he survived Tien’s.

The most impressive aspect of Goku’s accomplishment in this chapter isn’t that the Dragon Ball hero survived a Mortal Kombat Fatality, but that he did so when he was at his weakest. If Goku was at his current power level as depicted in Dragon Ball Super, there wouldn’t be anyone in the Mortal Kombat universe who could beat him, including the gods of that universe as Goku himself can now channel the power of the gods through his own variation of the angelic Ultra Instinct.

While Goku’s current power level is insanely strong, the Dragon Ball warrior proved that he doesn’t need even a fraction of that power to survive an iconic Mortal Kombat Fatality as he basically did so when he was just a child.

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