gren

A friend and I were casually chatting about Dragon Ball Z and GT one day, and he brought up the point that Goku could actually qualify as a deadbeat dad. Of course this had us in hysterics for quite some time, but the more I thought about, the truer it seemed. Let's look at the facts:

1. Other than repeatedly saving the world, Goku has no real job (at least not one that he gets paid for); his wife often must borrow money from her father to pay the bills and buy groceries.
2. He's more than willing to run off with complete strangers to "train", often being away from his wife and children for years at a time.
3. He constantly gets into fights, and has more than once gotten himself killed (this is possibly a scam to avoid child support payments).
4. He ran out on a very important interview to get his son into a good school because one of his buddies called.

The list could go on, but I haven't watched DBZ in while, so this is all I can come up with for now. So what do you think? Should Chi Chi be serving Goku with divorce papers, or allow him to continue his deadbeat ways just because he's saved her life (and everyone else on the planet's) a few times?

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Mr. K

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gren

Okay then, money aside, doesn't it seem like at some point Chi-Chi should have put her foot down and said, "Look Goku, you can't just run off every time the world needs saving and leave me here with one kid to look after and another on the way. I need your support; little Gohan is already starting to have daddy issues."

Oh, I thought of another one:

5. Because Goku never takes his wife out for a nice evening, or even to meet people, her only friend is a girl he used to hang out with in his younger, wilder days.

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Hassun

Goku isn't even human, you can't judge aliens by our standards you know...

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gren

Very true, and I guess when a guy comes from a planet overrun with testosterone, you can't really blame him for not having even the most basic parenting skills, or any idea how to treat a lady. Still, seeing the type of ill-tempered and pushy woman Chi Chi is, I really think she shouldn't have put up with that kind of crap.

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skyezero

and uhmmm... why are we so worried about a toon's personal life? are we ever curious about how often goku has constipation? no. are we curious to find own how often speed racer ever gets a speeding ticket? no. then why are we so worried and worked up about goku being a bad dad? besides, he's only gohan, Chi-chi's and Goten's problem. Plus he is a drawing on a piece of paper and a bunch of pixels on our t.v. screen. i think we figured out that anime can be very unreal since we were like 7 years old. Give that some thought, maybe it will help.

gren

A similar thought was voiced by a co-worker when my friend and I were discussing the social ramifications of superheroes wearing their underwear outside of their pants (or tights, in most cases). The co-worker said, quite snobbishly, "They're not real, you know."

Yes, I do know that. However, I and many other people find it amusing to discuss anime in the context of real life, mainly because it doesn't match up too well. To think of Goku as he would be regarded in the real world is just funny.

Hey, it got you to respond, and what harm does it do?

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medsed

Seriously, by todays standards he is a bad dad, he does not really support his son in so many ways. he is a hero in his world, but sometimes hero's lead the loneliest lives and have the least number of friends, family, and even loves. The hero must be single-minded in fighting eveils, even if his son, I guess, goes without a good papa.
It is interesting that you thought this, I realize that we think of hero's real or fictional as someone to look up to, but real or fictional we must remember perfection in a person or character would be boring and could not exist.

bulma

Sure, he is a bad dad but this is television, you are supposed to suspend disbelief. Things on any television series do not really mesh with real life. Perfection and Normality do not exist whether it is on TV, movies or in everyday life.

TaurusDemon23

Sounds like something Bulma would say.
But yeah, Goku sucked as a dad..........kinda like mine. Anywho,Vegeta did a better job as a dad. He actually paid attention to his family.
I think in the real world,Gohan woulda picked an actual fight with his dad a long time ago........and it would be a pay-per-view event. An expensive pay-per-view.Jerry Springer and Steve would commentate on it.

gren

I'd certainly pay to watch that fight. As far as Vegeta being a better dad...well, he did beat the crap out of Trunks while they were training, but on the other hand, he took his teenage daughter shopping, which anyone knows, is quite the sacrifice for the Saiyan dad.

And just as a reminder--read all posts before you reply. The idea of suspending belief and anime-is-not-real-life has already been addressed. This discussion is only meant to be in fun; an opposition to the hard-core fan base anime (DBZ in particular) has.

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