Why do so many people think that Goku is a bad father?

Goku is an awesome guy for the most part. However, when it comes to family that's an issue. It seems like he's always disappearing for long periods of time. Although it was cool to see Gohan go SSJ2, Goku should have been at the front the entire time, gave himself time to heal and fought him to his last breath. When Goku went through a mass amount of suffering with Cell, Gohan's power could have been unleashed because his need to aid to his father would have given him the edge he needed to take go SSJ2 and take on Cell. Just to trigger power from his son was a horrible reason for Goku to put Gohan in front of Cell.

Originally posted by Csdabest
1. Let his son get drunk
2. Let his son miss tons of school
3. Let his son almost get killed
4. Let his son go to namek by himself
5. Left him fatherless for years to come
6. At the end of GT left his son to do Goku.
7. Bitched Slapped Chichi into a house
8. Let him hang around master rochi

many the list goes on

Read Wei's post

Originally posted by TheBadguy
The only time Goku ever bothered was when the world was in danger. In times of peace either ran off to live with some kid or he was staying dead so he could train and fight in heaven. In all those years he didn't even bother to comeback and see his son for the first time, he cameback to fight in a tournament. In 10 years he had only seen his friends once and they had to come find him, the guy who knows Instant Transmission. Against Cell he bs'd his way through, he didn't even try. From the beginning he was planning to just throw it all in his kids lap.

HOW CAN YOU COME BACK IF YOU'RE DEAD?

Originally posted by TheBadguy
Yes I can. His son was barely a teenager, you can train him all you want but I can definitely fault him for putting the fate of the universe in a kids hands when he clearly wasn't ready, and while he was still more than capable. If he had bothered to actually know his son he would have known that Gohan just isn't that guy. Piccolo knew it and Goku eventually realized he was wrong. He had plenty of choice, Goku had zipped around between Earth, Heaven, and Hell on whims all the time with IT. and even without that he was able to get strings pulled to let him comeback for the tournament but he didn't bother with that to comeback and see his son whom had never even seen him before.

Goku smacking ChiChi through the house, a tree and a boulder
http://s4.tinypic.com/2e655kp.jpg
http://s4.tinypic.com/10zoks1.jpg

I know, it was a little bit stupid of him, but it wasn't intentionally cruel: he wasn't like "oh, I want to get Gohan willed so I'll..."

That was an ACCIDENT

Originally posted by jimBOFH
Pretty sure Vegeta is a better father than Goku is.
Let's compare how they react when their sons are in mortal danger.
Vegeta:
Goes berserk when Trunks is killed by Cell.
Goku:
Slacks off at training because he's "confident Gohan can beat Cell".
Vegeta:
Sacrifices himself in an attempt to destroy Majin Buu for the sake of his family and friends.
Goku: Saves a shameless fraud instead of his own sons when Buu blows up the earth.

Vegeta never even hugged Trunks. Did you see how he treated future trunks (up until he got hit by cell)? He also hit Trunks for trying to help him in the time chamber. Goku on the other hand spent almost all his time training Gohan.

Originally posted by Kento
Eh Gohan, Vegeta, and Mr. Satan are also.

Gokou is just a bad father and husband. Him saving the day has nothing to do with him being either one of those. And in times of peace he doesn't even talk with his friends since at the beginning of Z they didn't even know he had a 4 year old son. I think the only thing that kept the Son and Brief family together at EoZ was Goten and Trunks.

He does talk with his family what are you talking about?

Originally posted by Terryc250
Lol i think he b1tch slapped her through a house wall and into a tree actually.

BY ACCIDENT

Originally posted by Dark-Jaxx
Goku is just a social dick, even to his family, his friends as well.

While alive, if the universe isn't about to get blown up, the guy with Instant Transmission who can pinpoint people weaker than alot of his friends from across the universe, can't spare some time to go see them.

He pretty much just watched as Gohan was having the shit kicked out of him by Cell, and slacked off during training because he thought Gohan would take the challenge and everything would be alright. Including himself, at least 3 people died the day of the tournament.

Goku actually wanted to stay dead, despite what his family and friends would have wanted. Leaving Chi-Chi husbandless, and Gohan and the soon-to-be born Goten fatherless.

He never respects his wife's wishes. I mean, seriously, she asks him not to do something, he'll do it anyway. Like letting their son skip school to train. She's her son too.

He slapped her through a wall, a boulder, and a tree. Lol.

he doesn't care about gohan's studying because he never studied himself so he doesn't see the importance, not because he wants gohan to be bad.

And GOKU'S SAVED GOHAN'S LIFE COUNTLESS TIMES!!!!!!!!

Originally posted by Hewhoknowsall
And GOKU'S SAVED GOHAN'S LIFE COUNTLESS TIMES!!!!!!!!

And Goku may spend lots of time training Gohan for the Cell games- but if you equate "being a good father" with "does lots of martial arts training", then Vegeta must be the most awesome father in the world- he spends years training Trunks, while Goku is off in Otherworld- i know he was dead, but he CHOSE not to be resurrected.

Goku has comeback from the dead with Instant Transmission more than once. Nothing not even being dead can really control Goku, he basically has free reign in his reality, he does what he wants. Even outside of Instant Transmission he was able to get strings pulled that allowed him to comeback for a tournament. Not once did he IT or get the strings pulled to comeback to Earth to visit his wife and teenage son, let alone the son he had never even seen.

Originally posted by Hewhoknowsall
And GOKU'S SAVED GOHAN'S LIFE COUNTLESS TIMES!!!!!!!!

More to being a good parent than showing up every 5 years to save your son, especially when you are the one that threw him in front of a super powerful murderer in the first place.

Originally posted by TheBadguy
Goku has comeback from the dead with Instant Transmission more than once. Nothing not even being dead can really control Goku, he basically has free reign in his reality, he does what he wants. Even outside of Instant Transmission he was able to get strings pulled that allowed him to comeback for a tournament. Not once did he IT or get the strings pulled to comeback to Earth to visit his wife and teenage son, let alone the son he had never even seen.

More to being a good parent than showing up every 5 years to save your son, especially when you are the one that threw him in front of a super powerful murderer in the first place.

http://community.livejournal.com/hated_character/386347.html

Besides, go watch how Goku treats Gohan in the time chamber.

So what? And i didn't say that Goku was intentionally being a bad father- he's just a socially retarded moron when it comes to his family.
He doesn't develop, personality-wise, at all during Dragonball and Dragonball Z. His innocence and naive nature were acceptable and charming in a 12 year old boy or whatever at the beginning of Dragonball- as a 50 year old grandfather they're not.
Sure, when he focuses on his family etc he's a really nice guy- if he wasn't a halfwit he'd probably make a really good dad- unfortunately, he's an idiot when it comes to anything that's not fighting.

but he does care for his family and isn't a careless heartless father like some people think.

Goku has Instant Transmission, he can comeback from Heaven and Hell at will and he didn't. He only cared to comeback for the tournament. and its not like they couldn't use the namek dragonballs, if he wanted to comeback they would have got him back. Anyway none of that goes against what I said, I already said in this thread that after Piccolo chastised him he realized he was wrong. and I never said Goku didn't love them. Nobody in here said Goku was a careless or heartless anything, he is benevolent but is unaware of how bad he is as a parent husband and friend.

My main question is if you think Goku is a loving father.

Well yeah, but he's incompetent. Vegeta might rarely state his true feelings (generally only when death is imminent) but at least he's generally reasonably intelligent and observant. Goku is a nice guy, but he doesn't think about anyone else most of the time- not in the sense that he doesn't care about them compared to himself, but that he actually never thinks about them- it's completely unintentional but it results in him neglecting his friends and family completely.
I'd bet that the only time he remembered about half of his friendsin the 10 years between Buu and EoZ was if he felt Piccolo, Vegeta or Trunks powering up during training.

Goku cares more about himself? When was Goku selfish? he's the opposite.

Originally posted by Hewhoknowsall
Goku cares more about himself? When was Goku selfish? he's the opposite.

Originally posted by Hewhoknowsall
My main question is if you think Goku is a loving father.

Yes. but at best he is just an ok parent.

Originally posted by Hewhoknowsall
That was an ACCIDENT

It was a friendly "pat" on the back, not intended to be a "slap"

Goku is not the perfect guy that he's made out to be- he's got good intentions, but have you ever heard the phrase "The road to hell is paved with good intentions?"
Anyway, here's my take on him- on the positive side, he's friendly, merciful, generous and will never knowingly do anything evil or that hurts others. He's also innocent- but innocence isn't the same as being good. Innocence is the lack of knowledge, and therefore temptation. It's like saying that lack of fear is the same thing as courage- it isn't. Courage is standing up to fear, Fearlessness is having no fear to begin with. Innocence is not being aware of temptation- virtue is being fully aware of it and resisting.
So Goku is innocent, but in some ways this actually makes him a worse person. At the beginning of Dragonball, Goku is so innocent that he regularly gropes people to determine their gender- compared to Oolong who is most definitely not innocent, but rarely gropes people. It's the same sort of thing throughout his life. We can't blame Goku for being innocent- but that doesn't mean that it's always a good thing.
This is why I think Piccolo and Vegeta are more believable, and admirable characters- they choose to be good, whereas it's hard-wired in to Goku to be "innocent".

Originally posted by jimBOFH
I didn't say he was selfish- i said that he never thinks about others while he's off training

He is training so he can protect them.

Originally posted by Hewhoknowsall
he doesn't care about gohan's studying because he never studied himself so he doesn't see the importance, not because he wants gohan to be bad.

Oh, and to add to that, it was not bad enough he made his son fight Cell, but he gave Cell a fvckin SENZU BEAN. 😐

Seriously, wtf is up with that shit? 😬

Originally posted by Wei Phoenix
He is training so he can protect them.