Dragon Ball Twitter explodes at Toriyama over skewed Goku-Vegeta-Bulma panel

It seems that the Dragon Ball fandom’s rediscovery of an old panel from the Super manga has started heavy debate over Akira Toriyama. Additionally, some of this debate has further evolved into fans shredding Toriyama for his portrayal of Goku as a father.

While this is true for some Dragon Ball fans, it is far from a universal truth as to what the series’ fanbase is feeling towards this rediscovered panel. Some are advocating that it’s actually a key piece of worldbuilding that expands upon an interview Akira Toriyama has previously done.

Follow along as this article briefly recaps the panel and situation in question, as well as fully covers the predominant reactions of Dragon Ball fans in this latest discussion.

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“Goku is a bad father” debates dominate Dragon Ball fandom's social media discussion once again

Fan reactions

The tweet in question from @HamavalThorfinn (Image via Twitter)

Twitter user @HamavalThorfinn (Truggler) recently posted a Dragon Ball Super panel to their account, which focuses on an interaction between Goku and Vegeta. The scene in question sees the duo discussing Bulma’s pregnancy, which is nearing its final days. Vegeta expresses a desire to stay with her because of the imminent birth, telling Goku he won’t go train right now.

Goku, however, asks why he’s staying since he’s not the one giving birth. Vegeta counters that Bulma would never forgive him, but Goku simply asks why he cares. He then points out that he doesn’t even know when Gohan and Goten were born, trying to use himself as an example as to why Vegeta can sweat the birth of his daughter.

Truggler expressed a heavy distaste for this series of panels, which essentially further propagate the “Goku is a bad father” joke with legitimate, canonical Dragon Ball material. Fans in the comments also expressed a similar distaste, with many blaming Akira Toriyama for both beginning and furthering this long-running joke.

Many pointed out how pointless the scene fell, even suggesting that it sounded like a forced joke shoehorned into the story. The conversation did feel a little out of place, given what is happening in the series at the moment, as well as feeling unnecessarily drawn out. Goku’s added line regarding not knowing when Gohan or Goten were born felt particularly unnecessary here.

Fans also cited other events in the franchise at large to contradict the point being made here of Goku being a bad father. His involvement with Gohan prior to the Saiyan saga, him training Gohan throughout the Android and Cell sagas, and his reaction to hearing Zamasu murder Goten and Chi-Chi all prove that Goku does genuinely care for his family.

It seemed to be this blatant disregard for what has come before in the series, which left fans particularly upset over this exchange between Goku and Vegeta. While there are certainly plenty of moments in Dragon Ball where Goku isn’t the best parent, there are twice as many where his love for his family shines brighter than any Super Saiyan aura.

While not everyone is upset about this, a vast majority of those who are aware of and involved in the discussion of this Dragon Ball Super scene seem to be wildly upset. One fan who isn’t upset pointed out that Toriyama may be trying to do some worldbuilding with this interaction between the two.

However, its subtlety proves that this attempt was ineffective at best, and potentially disastrous (in terms of characterization) at worst.

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