Dragon Ball Fans Need to Stop Claiming Akira Toriyama Gave Goku His Best Transformations as Plot Armor

Dragon Ball is known for its transformations, for better or worse. The series literally kickstarted the trend of new forms and made it popular. Sure, Dragon Ball started as an adventure series, but Toriyama’s editor wanted to make the series popular, so they introduced tournament arcs, more action, and eventually power levels.

When Dragon Ball Z began, Toriyama wanted to make the power scaling easier and introduced the scouters, but when the scaling went even further beyond, numbers became useless. Goku unlocked many forms after Super Saiyan and enemies became stronger and stronger. And in Dragon Ball Super, the scaling went to Multiversal level.

Beerus Vs. Goku in Super Saiyan God form | Credits: Toei Animation

By this time, a lot of fans were thinking Goku wasn’t working that hard to unlock his God forms, but the series itself proves that idea wrong.

Goku’s Super Saiyan transformations are plot armor, right or wrong?

Goku as Super Saiyan 3 | Credits: Toei Animation

Asspull is a common word used in the anime fandom. If something is gifted to the main character and they use that gift to win over the main villain, that feat is deemed as an asspull. That’s because the characters did not earn that gift out of their own efforts and got that gift because of the plot.

Some fans claim the same applies to Goku in Dragon Ball Z and Super, but that’s far from the truth. According to Dragon Ball YouTuber @CarthusDojo, Goku achieving the legendary Super Saiyan form is clearly built up right from the Saiyan Saga. It was first mentioned by Nappa after he and Vegeta learned about Gohan’s power.

Then Vegeta referred to Goku as a Super Saiyan when he landed on Namek and started to beat the cr*p out of Recoome and the Ginyu force. That’s because Goku trained for months with King Kai first and then on his own in the spaceship. There’s nobody in the series who trained harder than Goku (apart from Vegeta), so there’s no way the plot armor claim is valid.

For Super Saiyan 2 and 3, Goku trained in the other world under Grand Kai with the help of Pikkon as a sparring partner. Pikkon was strong enough to one-shot Perfect Cell in Hell so it was natural for Goku to ascend Super Saiyan and reach the next level. What’s more, Goku’s whole goal in the Cell Saga was to surpass the Super Saiyan wall.

He trained with Gohan in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for a year to reach Super Saiyan Grade Forms 2 and 3 and even attained the pinnacle of the Super Saiyan form during his fight against Perfect Cell. Fans can probably claim Super Saiyan 3 is an asspull, because it did come out of nowhere as Goku lied to Vegeta about ending their fight as soon as possible by unleashing his “full power”.

But even that can be countered with the fact that Goku did not use Super Saiyan 3 because he knew he’d have less time left with his family and friends after the fight. Coming to Dragon Ball Super, fans also claim that Goku did not deserve the God forms and those came out of nowhere, but that’s not true either.

Goku’s Super Saiyan God, Blue, and Ultra Instinct were all rightfully earned by him

Super Saiyan Blue Goku in DBS Broly | Credits: Toei Animation

Those who watched the initial episodes of Dragon Ball Super would know that Goku trained on King Kai’s planet many times to fine-tune his Super Saiyan 3 and base forms. Even he didn’t like it when he was gifted with Super Saiyan God, but later, while training with Whis, he learned how to unleash both Super Saiyan God and Blue all on his own.

In the anime version of Resurrection “F”, fans see Goku and Vegeta going into another dimension to tap into God Ki. Later in the same episode, both the Saiyans caught a glimpse of Super Saiyan Blue while sparring with each other. This means that the Saiyan duo were constantly training for their forms and weren’t merely gifted to them.

This applies to Ultra Instinct as well. Even though the timing may be convenient, Goku was training to unlock the Angel’s specialization since Resurrection “F” where Whis told him and Vegeta that their end goal is for their bodies to act on their own through sheer instinct.

For most of Dragon Ball Super, fans have seen Goku and Vegeta training on Beerus’ planet, even during the Moro, Granolah, and Super Hero arcs. So there’s no basis behind the fans claiming that Goku hadn’t trained for his forms.

Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball Super are available to watch on Crunchyroll.