User blog:CiscoTheSoto/PG Proposal Revisted: Goku

''Note: This proposal is on hold until September 19 due to the maximum limit of 10 proposals being reached. Please do not vote on this proposal until the aforementioned date arrives.'':

Hello there; although a PG Proposal was done by YTP King, it was rejected, and I wanted to give a second chance for Goku to be listed as Pure Good, so here it goes. Goku is the main character from the Dragon Ball franchise. Ever since a child, Goku has been in several dramatic and amazing adventures, meeting new teachers, making several friends, and fighting many enemies, some of which managed to turn over new leaves and become his friends. Some of his main personality features are his love for fighting, his naive and child-like nature, and his absence of hatred. Although he has killed several characters, this has been when they directly threaten his life or the lives of others and when they are opponents that can’t be reasoned with. Even when fighting against the worst of the worst, he’s almost always shown some small sense of mercy and unwillingness to kill others, and while he does often prefer to fight more than talk, he will often try his best not to kill his enemies. For this argument, I’m going to be using the new Broly movie as evidence, and for those who think it isn’t canon and shouldn’t count for this proposal, it’s basically been confirmed by Toriyama that it is canon and his attempt to put Broly into the canon.

Who is he? What has he done?
Being a Saiyan with amazing power and a sixth sense for battle, Goku’s childhood and adulthood has been defined as one of fighting and protecting the Earth. To list all of the fights he’s been a part of would take forever, although some major battles that took place during his childhood were against Mercenary Tao, an assassin hired to kill Goku and the first opponent who nearly killed him and whom Goku did not want to kill. Tambourine, the spawn of a Demon King who was trying to take over the world; Tambourine killed Goku’s best friend, and this was the first opponent Goku killed. Next, he fought King Piccolo, who he killed after a hard-fought battle with a very powerful punch. After this, his other major fight was with King Piccolo’s son, Piccolo Jr., who he managed to defeat after a very hard-fought battle.

Then, in the succeeding series, Dragon Ball Z, he encounters his brother, Raditz, who tries to convince him to join him in exterminating a planet, which Goku flatly refuses to do. When fighting Raditz, after it seemed his brother plead for mercy, Goku decides to give this to him, demonstrating his willingness to forgive.

The scene shifts to his fight with Vegeta and Nappa, two of Raditz’s comrades who came to Earth to get the Dragon Balls. Nappa is killed, and Vegeta barely escapes after Goku convinces Krillin to spare him, stating that with Vegeta’s potential, it showed how much Goku had to grow and he wanted to keep Vegeta alive as a way to improve and protect the Earth with increased power.

His next major fight is on Planet Namek, where he assists his friends in getting the Dragon Balls on this planet, and he has to fight several powerful warriors, such as the Ginyu Force and their leader, Frieza. During all of these fights, he has been willing to spare their lives and does not actively kill them.

I’ll skip over a major arc and go to the Buu saga, where a pink monster named Majin Buu comes to threaten Earth. Despite his evil nature and willingness to destroy planets, Goku sees that But isn’t really evil by choice, it’s just the way he is, and wishes him to be reincarnated in order to have a chance at a normal life.

Several more arcs and moments come along the way, but I don’t think they’re necessary for the proposal, although I will reference them in the following explanations for his pure heart.

Corrupting Factors
Now, there are some reasonable instances that indicate that he isn’t pure of heart, and I can see where people are coming from with this. One argument that people have is that he spared Vegeta only so he could use him as a training point to become even stronger later on; some other dubs just have Goku want to spare Vegeta simply as an act of mercy, but the first reason is the one that’s generally used and accepted in the airings. I admit that was somewhat selfish and even rather foolish of him because it could have led to the deaths of many more people, but I think that Goku grew past this notion and isn’t as willing to allow his opponents to get away if he can tell they are truly evil. For instance, Goku remarks that Frieza is an excellent sparring partner and a truly powerful opponent, but he doesn’t let him go in order to fight later on. While I get that Goku resurrected Frieza for the ToP and allowed him to resume running his empire, he did say he would stop him, and yea, Goku hasn’t fulfilled his promise on this, but still…

Another aspect of Goku that people view as grounds for not being pure of heart is his willingness to fight first instead of reaching a more rational solution and having little problems with killing. I reject this notion; while Goku does have a proclivity to fight first, it’s not like he fights with the intent to kill any of the time, and will only do so when absolutely necessary. And when Frieza came with Broly and Paragus, Goku was the first to try and defuse things, stating that they were all Saiyans and they could work something out instead of fight. Also, I’ve come to see that a reason why Goku isn’t as willing to reason or stop fighting his enemy is because through his fights with so many people, he’s been able to distinguish truly evil individuals and can tell when words aren’t enough. Take Buu, even though he was a genocidal pink monster, Goku knew that Buu was simply born this way and wished that the pink foe would be reborn, showing that he does carry a sense of regret for killing people who he feels slightly deserve redemption. He was also able to distinguish Broly as a misguided but pure soul and attempted to reason with him because of this and telling him he could stop fighting. This demonstrates he doesn’t allow his lust for fighting overtake his willingness to redeem others and that he doesn’t just blindly kill any opponent that he fights.

Additionally, he’s come to see that occasionally, mercy and not killing people has dealt him a bad hand, as seen when letting go of Raditz’s tail out of mercy was a mistake and nearly cost him his life as well as the lives of everyone else on the planet. Also, think of Frieza: even after everything he did, Goku was willing to spare his life and give him some energy, and only killed him when Frieza attacked first. Then, Goku saw the consequences of not killing his opponent when Frieza returned with his father and could have destroyed the entire planet because he didn’t end him on Planet Namek.

Admirable Standard
Overall, I’ve come to see Goku as a pure hearted character. Although I’m not a huge fan of his limited character development and his general immaturity in regards to abandoning his family and basically everything except for fighting, I still think that he has shown several instances of a pure heart.

Now, I’m gonna knock the first and probably the most obvious one right off the bat: Goku was immune to the effects of the Devilmite Beam, an attack that expands the darkness in one’s heart. This demonstrates how he doesn’t really show anger or hostility towards anyone, and while the definition of a “pure heart” has been muddled, such instances being in video games where Goku Black and Zamasu have Pure Hearts, I consider those non-canon and frankly a bunch of baloney.

Another instance of his pure heart is his unwillingness to kill others. While he killed individuals like Tambourine and King Piccolo while he was a child, this was when he was left with no other choice and because he was a kid, I don’t think he was that mature enough to understand or think of any other way to solve the problem. Additionally, he will not resort to killing anyone unless absolutely necessary and is willing to forgive his enemies if they try to repent. A few examples are with Mercenary Tao, an assassin who tried to kill him but Goku allowed to leave; Raditz, when he gave in when he asked Goku to let go of his tail and show him mercy; Vegeta, although this was more for the thrill of a future fight; the Ginyu Force, who he continually offers the chance to Jeice and Burter to surrender and leave, not killing either of them even when they fight him, and when Goku allows Captain Ginyu the chance to surrender after he sees his more honorable nature. Additionally, when Ginyu is turned into a frog and Vegeta tries to kill him, Goku tells him not to; Frieza, the most evil villain Goku ever came across, he was willing to spare and only attempted to kill him when Frieza attacked first. After this, he doesn’t really try to find alternate solutions and not kill others for a while, although I’d say this was because there weren’t many chances for him to do this and because he’d learned from his previous villains. He admonishes Vegeta for killing Captain Ginyu when Frieza is resurrected, and way later in the Dragon Ball Super movie, Goku screams at Vegeta not to kill Broly, and later on when Goku fights him, being one of the few non-evil antagonists, tries to reason with him and stop the fighting, only preparing to kill Broly once fused with Vegeta and after Broly becomes more mindless and feral.

Throughout the series, he’s managed to have a profound effect on his opponents, especially in the initial Dragon Ball series: several characters who were antagonistic, such as Yamcha, Tien, Giran, Piccolo Jr., and then later on in the main series, Vegeta, Androids 17 and 18 were all redeemed after having spent time with Goku and learned from him. Even Frieza gained a twisted sense of respect for him, although Goku never changed him like he did other villains.

He also never holds any anger towards anyone for any former actions, even the worst of the worst like Frieza, showing his pure heart and general lack of hatred. He always shows respect for his allies and sometimes his foes depending on the circumstances, such as Top and Jiren in the Tournament of Power arc and the Zeno Expo. Even after saying he would “never forgive” Jiren after attacking his friends, he later shook his hand and praised him when they were on the sidelines, once again showing his lack of resentment.

Final Verdict
Hopefully after all the evidence and counterarguments I’ve given, you will reconsider and make Goku Pure Good.