Across the original Dragon Ball, DBZ, Dragon Ball GT, and Dragon Ball Super, Goku fights, survives, & even wins against characters who should’ve won.
As the codifier for modern Shonen anime and manga, it goes without saying that Dragon Ball has its fair share of plot armor, contrivances, conveniences, and coincidences to justify the Z-Fighters winning against seemingly impossible odds. Although Akira Toriyama is better at power-scaling than he’s given credit for (especially as far as the Dragon Ball manga is concerned), Goku’s villains have a bad habit of squandering what should be easy wins.
Across the original Dragon Ball, DBZ, Dragon Ball GT, and Dragon Ball Super, Goku fights, survives, and even wins against characters who frankly should have won & beaten him. Most of the time, this is done to make the story more compelling and resolve a narrative theme or character arc, but that doesn’t stop Dragon Ball from demanding a certain suspension of disbelief to pull these beats off. 1
King Piccolo Literally Stops Goku’s Heart in the Original Dragon Ball
Akira Toriyama was infamously sick while writing and drawing the Demon King Piccolo Saga in the Dragon Ball manga. It’s a testament to his skills as a writer and artist where the story arc is regularly heralded as the moment Dragon Ball becomes truly amazing, but for keen readers, it’s obvious Toriyama wasn’t firing on all cylinders. Case in point? King Piccolo literally kills Goku at the start of the arc. During their first battle, Piccolo stops Goku’s heart, checks to make sure he’s dead, and then leaves with the Dragon Ball once it’s confirmed Goku’s done for.
Goku’s heart then stops beating again out of nowhere in the next chapter. Never before or again has Dragon Ball so shamelessly defeated its main character only to bring him back from a clear defeat. Dragon Ball Super tries to retcon things by having Bardock’s wish in the Granolah Saga keep his sons safe and alive, but the fact of the matter is that King Piccolo did win and would have gone on to conquer the entire world if Goku’s heart hadn’t miraculously restarted. 2
Vegeta Would Have Beaten Goku If He Didn’t Turn Into a Great Ape
Outside of Goku using Kaioken x 4, Vegeta’s Power Level was higher than Goku’s during the Saiyan Saga, and to a tremendous degree once he turned into a Great Ape. Here’s the thing, though: Vegeta didn’t need to turn into a Great Ape. By creating an Artificial Moon and transforming, Vegeta sapped a massive amount of his Ki. By the time Yajirobe cuts off his tail, Vegeta is weak enough where Gohan and Krillin are able to subdue him with Goku’s support.
