For starters, while I have to admit there's no denying that unlike his first-born son; Gohan, Goku's certainly no Einstein when it comes to most stuff learned in school, books, etc...and may not exactly be the brightest of the Z-fighters (of whom in my opinion, the smartest is Piccolo), but who can blaim him?? Incase you didn't already know, he NEVER had a proper education nor attended school while growing up and not to mention, he lived COMPLETELY isolated from the rest of the world during the first 11 or 12 years of his life (a period in which he had NO contact with ANY human beings other than his Grandpa Son Gohan, up until the day he first meets Bulma; that was SO obvious throughout the original Dragonball series). So he IS IGNORANT ( ignorant basically means having a lack of knowleage or education) and he IS SIMPLE, but he's not by any means a baka. His adopted grandfather simply never educated him at all in many aspects...i.e. the differenses between boys and girls, etc.
But it was this life that he lead; of which he was so sheltered from all other people and civilization way out in the boonies around Mt. Pauzu, that contributed to why Goku is so innocent, pure of heart (thus able to ride the nimbus cloud or "Kintoun" in the original Japanese/subbed version) and at times quite naive: especially in Dragonball. And the fact that Akira Toriyama intented to keep him much the same way throughout the entire series. Actually, to those who didn't know; he stated that he WAS thinking of altering his personality somewhat and making him more aggressive when he first whent SSJ, during his battle with Freeza (which is when he really wanted to put an end to Dragonball; basically he originally wanted it like this--Goku and Freeza both die on Namek when it exploted, thus making Goku the one and only Legendary Super Saiya-jin like he was supposed to be and his remaining friends and family safe on Earth, the end... But due to popular demand and an enormous plead from fans wanting more, he was forced to continue) after that he decided to revert him back to much the same good ol' Goku we all know and love. That is why you will find very little developement in Goku- from the very beginning of DB right through to end of DBZ. Well, his character does change and develope somewhat to an extent as the series goes by, just not as profoundly and dramatic as some other more complex characters like Piccolo and Vegeta. Althought it's never been officially stated, some have argued that due to the severe head-trauma he suffered from that childlehood accident, it could be that he suffers some degree of perminent brain damage/mental retardation, since he seems impaired and a bit slow in some aspects (while in some other subjects such as Ki energy, he has shown himself to be a genius). I actually know of someone who's cousin had a similar accident as a child and he's apparently VERY similar to Goku, personality-wise. (who says people like Goku can't exist in REAL life!? ;-))
Here are some of the three main culprits of Goku's much undeserved reputation as a dumbass...
The way I see it, probably the #1 reason is TOEI FILLERS: some of you have probably heard the term "filler" on meantioned on DBZ message boards and maybe a few websites... But incase some of you don't know exactly what filler is, I'll explain right here... Filler is a fan-made term used to describe any material that has been added to the Anime version of Dragonball and DBZ that wasn't in Akira Toriyama's manga; considered by many hardcore Dragonball/Z enthusiats/fans (including myself) to be the most original and purest form of all of Dragonball. These things added into the anime were done so without the help of the original creator/author- Akira Toriyama and infact he didn't even have a part in making it besides helping on some character designs, choosing voice actors and a few other things he helped out on...but plot wise, he had no control.
Since I've read a great deal of the manga, i've made a list of some prime examples of fillers that made him come off as an airhead...
-In one of the episodes during the Cell games saga (after Dende took Kami's place as guardian of Earth and the Dragonballs were reactivated, but scattered all over the wold...), while Goku is searching around the world with the dragonradar to gather them all to wish back all the people killed by Cell...he finds the four remaining dbs that he had not yet gathered, in this building where Taopaipai is with a small group of other men and Goku enters the building to gather them... Well Goku acted like a complete ditz and not only that, he appeared to forget that Tao is his enemy from DB, couldn't get it through his head that Tao and those guys he was with where up to no good. He also acted as though Tao (who never appears again in the manga after the original DB series) was an old buddy of his. I'm sure that the REAL Goku would have known better than that.
-It's during the 10 days before the Cell Games when Goku and Gohan are eating a meal in their home with Chichi. Goku and Gohan are in SSJ mode like they were for that entire time. They start breaking all of their plates and cups, and pretty soon Chichi gets mad. Goku apologizes to her and pats her on the back, but forgets that he is in SSJ mode, and accidentally knocks her through the wall of their house and across the yard. Then the next scene shows Goku wrapping Chichi in bandages and she asks Goku to leave and go do something until dinner. I'm pretty sure you know what I'm talking about now.
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