It's hard to find anyone that matches up with one of anime's strongest and most famous heroes, Son Goku of the Dragon Ball franchise. Between an always optimistic personality, his iconic moves, and an instantly recognizable head of hair, Goku is the kind of shonen protagonist that few others can ever hope to match.
However, Goku is not without his faults. Over many years, there's some questionable actions and details regarding this Saiyan that are puzzling, to say the least. Now, this doesn't make him any less of a character of course, but there are still some things about Goku that just don't make a lick of sense.
10 HIS MARRIAGE TO CHICHI
Goku met Chichi when they were kids and promised to marry each other when they got older. Unfortunately for Chichi, Goku had no concept of what marriage even was and believed it was food. That didn't stop them from getting hitched in the end, though being a husband is not one of his strengths.
Goku isn't heartless, but his ability to at least listen to his wife, do anything she asks of him, or really clear anything with her before doing it is pretty low. He doesn't seem to understand that marriage is a partnership, mostly leaving the heavy lifting of home life to her while he trains or fights, leaving her understandably frustrated with him, yet they stay together anyway.
9 HE WAITED FOR FRIEZA TO REACH FULL POWER
In a weird way, it was thanks to Frieza that Goku was able to reach the level of Super Saiyan. His rage at watching Krillin be killed so callously right in front of him drove him to reach that new level of power and for a majority of the fight that came after, Goku had the advantage. So, with that in mind, it's absolutely bonkers that he allowed Frieza to reach his maximum power.
Despite Planet Namek was on a time limit before blowing up and Goku still wanting to avenge his friend, Goku lets Frieza power up anyway so that he can fight him at his best. That is the only reason he gives for letting that happen, he just wanted to fight Frieza at his strongest. Goku's thirst for a strong opponent overwrote all logic and reason.
8 HE WAS ABLE TO SUPPORT A FAMILY WITHOUT A JOB FOR YEARS
For many years, Goku was technically unemployed, since he prioritized training and getting stronger over finding a job. Yet somehow, with no steady income to speak of, he was able to afford a house, kept the lights on in the said house, and support his family anyway.
In Dragon Ball Super, Goku actually became a farmer and would get more money from Hercule too, but before that, there was pretty much no income for the Goku household. It's not clear how they were able to make ends meet either, which might mean they were living off prize money from tournaments until Super came around.
7 WHY DID HE HAVE HEART PROBLEMS?
In Trunks' alternate timeline, Goku dies of heart failure, leading to the androids annihilating the rest of the Z-Fighters. Trunks was able to travel back in time and get Goku the medicine that would save him, but this leaves the question of why he even had heart problems in the first place?
Goku contracted the "Heart Virus" in both timelines, but it's never stated how he got it in the first place or where it comes from. It's implied it could've been contagious, but that's never really confirmed. Considering that Goku is physically active to an excess amount, it's pretty hard to believe he just got a heart disease out of thin air.
6 HE'S SOMEHOW A GOOD DAD & A TERRIBLE DAD AT THE SAME TIME
Now as a family man, Goku's not the best example, especially when talking about his skills as a parent. It's not to say that Goku's the worst father ever, he cares about his kids in his own way and does his best to protect them. That in itself should be commended but at the same time, he's also not a good dad either.
Goku tends to leave his family suddenly when he feels like it on their own for extended periods of time. Then there's the fact he constantly puts them in dangerous situations, whether they're capable or not, that they might not return alive from. The best example would be that time he "volunteered" Gohan to fight Cell. World's best dad? No. World's worst dad? Surprisingly also no.
5 WHY'D HE BRING CELL TO KING KAI'S PLANET?
A depowered Cell, in a desperate attempt to get the last laugh, gets ready to self-destruct and take everyone with him. Fortunately, Goku swoops in at the last second and teleports himself and Cell to King Kai's planet where he finally detonates.
While Goku's sacrifice was a standout moment, his decisions during it raise eyebrows. He claims to have brought cell to King Kai's planet because it was the only place he could think of, instead of literally anywhere else or, even better, someplace that was barren and empty. On that note, it's not explained well why he couldn't have just dropped Cell off to where he was bringing him and then teleported out before getting caught in the blast.
4 HE'S WAY TOO FORGIVING
Some say that everyone deserves a second chance, Goku tends to take that message to heart a little too well. While there's nothing wrong with forgiving an enemy, Goku always seems to forgive the ones that committed the worst atrocities with seemingly little reason for it. Sure in a lot of cases, those characters did change for the better, Buu and Piccolo for example, but they all still did some really bad stuff.
The most egregious examples include Goku wishing for Kid Buu to be reborn, he chose to show Radditz and Frieza mercy too many times, and he stopped Krillin from killing Vegeta, a violent killer at the time who would go on to kill even more innocent lives before ultimately turning good. There's forgiveness and then there's sheer obliviousness, Goku has both in spades.
3 HE FOUND OUT WHAT KISSING WAS AFTER HE BECAME A GRANDPA
One would think that after being married to Chichi for a number of years, having two kids, and becoming a grandfather, Goku would have some concept of what kissing is. Apparently though, no he did not. During Dragon Ball Super it's revealed that Goku finds out what kissing is after seeing Trunks and Mai do it, something that even Vegeta is stunned by.
This means that for the entirety of their marriage, Goku has never kissed his own wife. It gets even stranger when you consider that he would've had to have seen it at least when he was at Gohan and Videl's wedding. Unless that implies he wasn't there for long, there shouldn't be any way that Goku could've gone through life this long without knowing about that. It's getting easier to see why Chichi is almost always angry with him.
2 WHY IS HE SO IMPOSSIBLY STRONG?
One of the most inspiring aspects of Goku is his ability to shatter his own limits, reaching new heights time and time again. Though there's never any specific reason given most of the time for how he can break through those limits.
Goku was the first in the series to reach Super Saiyan level, something thought to be a myth at the time, but other than his rage over the death of Krillin there's no given reason how he did it. Even something like Super Saiyan God, which he needed help to achieve, he surpassed on his own. Goku even mastered something like Ultra Instinct after only a few tries, something that's supposed to be hard for even gods to master. When you look it like that, it really doesn't make sense why Goku is so massively overpowered.
1 HOW IS HE THIS DUMB?
Goku was raised in the woods by his Grandpa, so he's never had any form of education, but after all this time you would think that his life experiences would make for an excellent teacher. Yet somehow, Goku is dumb as rocks even now.
As a fighter, the man's a genius, there's no denying that. As a person though, it's incredible he's made it this far with barely any knowledge of pretty much anything outside of fighting. His stupidity is so bad that it nearly doomed multiple universes and trillions of lives during the Tournament of Power. If there's anything that most of the other entries on this list have in common, it's Goku's jaw-droppingly low intelligence.