Alright, my first removal. Got permission from ZorLink21. Let's see how this goes.
What's the Work?
Dragon Ball Z is an anime science fiction action adventure series created by Akira Toriyama, focusing on a Saiyan named Goku who will do whatever it takes to protect Earth and the ones he loves.
Who's the Hero?
Goku is the main protagonist of the Dragon Ball franchise. He is a Saiyan sent from his dying home planet to Earth who trains to protect the planet with his group of friends the Z-Fighters. He is the youngest son of Bardock and Gine, the younger brother of Raditz, the husband of Chi-Chi, the father of Gohan and Goten and the grandfather of Pan.
Why Doesn't He Qualify?
He definitely passes the admirable standards for saving Earth countless times and defeating genocidal villains, but the reason why I don't think he qualifies is because of his corrupting qualities being too severe.
- Despite outgrowing most of his lethality, he still has this moment of overkill that he didn't exactly show remorse for when he threatened to blast the Supreme Kai Shin for getting in his way, even though he was just trying to solve things peacefully and tried to tell Goku that fighting Vegeta was what Babidi wanted to reawaken Majin Buu. Though Vegeta wasn't exactly easy to reason with, it was completely unnecessary for Goku to do something like this, and this even shocked Vegeta himself.
- He can be arrogant and overconfident when fighting his enemies, as he chooses to mock and ridicule them instead of immediately defeating them just because he has the upper hand.
- He can be neglectful towards his family. He usually spends his time training somewhere far away while not even maintaining contact with them to the point where he outright forgets some of them (like Gohan and Pan) existing, with examples being with refusing to come home after the fight with Frieza, not talking to them while in Other World for 7 years despite having the ability to do so, and outright leaving them to train Uub without their consent, thus leaving them upset except for Goten, Trunks, Vegeta and Piccolo. This is one of the primary reasons why his wife Chi-Chi is always so hot-headed, overprotective and grumpy.
- While it doesn't really happen a lot and he's usually a nice person, there are a few moments where he can act like a jerk, such as offering Old Kai pictures of Bulma without her or Vegeta's consent, saying an unborn Pan is at fault for the Super Saiyan God not working due to not being pure enough, much to Gohan and Videl's annoyance and there's this one part in the manga where he outright almost calls his own son Gohan a little sh*t for not coming to the Universe 6 Tournament, even though he couldn't because he had work.
- He's somewhat of a flawed mentor to his son Goten. After the fight with Majin Buu, Goku, along with the rest of the adults, refuses to let Goten train to get stronger and often remains very distant with him, as previously stated, which is one of the reasons why Goten doesn't have much guidance in fighting and development, alongside Trunks. It also doesn't help that Goku and the others don't seem to have a problem with training Pan, who's a child, while also forcing Goten to train when he loses his taste for fighting and tries to be a normal person.
- Not to mention that saying Goten and Trunks are too careless and immature was HUGELY hypocritical of Goku, as he himself constantly shows both of those traits multiple times throughout the series.
- Finally, one of his biggest preventions is his recklessness. He makes very careless decisions where he puts himself, his family and others in danger. While there's moments where he's remorseful, this isn't exactly the case since he has times where he brushes it off and sometimes doesn't fix them, with it happening over and over and the consequences are very severe. Examples below include:
- Having a tendency of holding back against his enemies, which often allows them to gain the upper hand, beat him to a pulp and cause more damage, with examples being with Frieza, Cell and Majin Buu.
- Abusing the Kaioken technique on a few occasions during his fights, with a main example being with his fight with Hit, which causes him to have Delayed Onset Ki Disorder, something that would've been a serious danger if Earth was under attack.
- Refusing to listen to reason to King Kai about finishing Frieza off, even allowing him to reach full power, which leads to Planet Namek being destroyed and Goku nearly dying with it.
- Forgetting to take the heart medicine before his fight with the androids, which nearly leads to him dying from the heart virus.
- Making the irresponsible choice to make Gohan, who was still a child at the time, fight Cell, even giving Cell a Senzu Bean to even the odds, which results in Earth and the Solar System nearly being destroyed and Goku, Android 16, Future Trunks and King Kai dying, with Goku outright causing the latter's death by choosing to drop a self-destructing Cell off at his planet.
- Despite arriving at the battle, he at first does nothing to help his friends during their fight with Beerus at the start, and it's only as soon as Beerus is about to destroy Earth that he chooses to help.
- Forgetting to bring the seal to trap Zamasu with the Evil Containment Wave, allowing him to escape it and continue causing damage.
- Being willing to jeopardize the world if it means getting to fight, with his worst moment being with endangering the safety of the multiverse with his suggestion to host the Tournament of Power where the 8 weakest universes fight to keep their universe alive, to the point of even lying to his friends that the prize was a million zeni so he could get them to fight. His choice of hosting this tournament leads to nearly all the universes being erased by existence. While it did have some positive qualities, as it showed Zeno that mortals can be trusted and convinced him to spare the multiverse, this is still too severe on Goku's part.
Final Verdict
Sadly, I'll have to give him a Cut.