Dragon Ball 10 Times Goku Was Smarter Than He Lets On

Goku might not always be portrayed as the smartest guy in Dragon Ball, but every once in a while, he proves to be quite smart.

Thanks to Dragon Ball Z Abridged, it's hard to view Goku as anything but one of the silliest characters in Dragon Ball. The character makes some baffling decisions during the series in battle and doesn't seem to know what basic things like marriage are or where babies come from. This purity of the character is meant to be somewhat charming.

However, Goku is far from dumb when it counts. The character isn't just smart at fighting--he's a genius. Over and over, he proves he has far better battle sense than the people he's fighting, and more often than not, he's only on the losing end because he isn't strong enough, even if he's a better fighter.

10 He Quickly Learned The Kamehameha

When on the search for the Dragon Balls for the very first time, Goku and the others met up with Master Roshi. Roshi aided them in finding one of the Dragon Balls by using his Kamehameha Wave to destroy an entire mountain. This incredible power was something that took Master Roshi decades to properly use. But after seeing it once, Goku immediately was able to replicate it, though it only worked on a tiny car. As comical as it was, Goku’s actions got Master Roshi to believe he was worthy of being trained.

9 He Wore Shades Against Tien To Counter His Solar Flare

In Goku’s time in the 22nd World Martial Arts tournament, he managed to get past multiple opponents to get to the finals where he would face off against Tien. Tien was no joke as an opponent at the time, having gotten past Master Roshi, who surrendered but admitted he would’ve eventually lost anyway. During the match, Tien uses his Solar Flare technique to take Goku’s vision. Thankfully, Goku puts on a pair of shades after just seeing Master Roshi struggle with the technique in the prior round of the tournament.

8 He Pointed Out How Multi-Form Splits The Power Level

Tien always brought out the best in Goku during the World Martial Arts tournaments. The two of them fought it out in the semi-finals of the tournament, where Tien reveals the latest technique he’s managed to master: the multi-form.

But while Tien manages to overwhelm Goku at first, Goku is smart enough to point out the biggest flaw in the technique: not only does it split Tien up, but it splits his power level up, making each form have only one-fourth of his full power.

7 He Outsmarted Frieza Despite Being Outpowered

The moment Goku finally faced off against Frieza, it felt like Dragon Ball Z had hit a new high. This was the fight fans had been waiting on from the beginning, and it didn’t disappoint. Though Goku was outpowered, he was consistently finding ways to outsmart Frieza in terms of sheer combat ability. From using Kamehameha missiles underwater to trick Frieza to managing to dodge a giant energy sphere he was trapped in that was meant to explode, the entire fight was about Goku showing off his superior battle knowledge.

6 He Realized There Was A Super Saiyan 2

This was something Goku realized without even having seriously fought the Androids. He realized that if Vegeta wasn’t powerful enough to defeat the Androids, he likely wouldn’t have been strong enough either. Knowing that, he suspected that Super Saiyan 2 was a form that existed—something that was beyond the form he was used to using. He also correctly identified that Gohan would be the person who was going to be able to tap into it in time.

5 He Instantly Realized The Flaw In Super Saiyan Third Stage

During Goku and Gohan’s training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, the two of them managed to discover one of the alternate Super Saiyan forms. Goku while teaching Gohan to go Super Saiyan discovers the Super Saiyan form Vegeta uses to beat Cell.

Beyond that though, he recognizes there’s a form beyond that, Super Saiyan Third Stage. But without ever using it, he knows the form’s weakness: it’s much too slow to be useful in actual combat. This is something that Trunks doesn't realize until he's in a fight with Cell, realizing that all his power isn't nearly enough to actually beat Cell without the speed to back it up.

4 He Mastered Super Saiyan Full Power

While Goku wasn’t strong enough to reach Super Saiyan 2 in time, he managed to figure out something Vegeta couldn’t. He realized becoming a Super Saiyan wasted a lot of energy, but knew the power was something necessary to defeat Cell. Rather than waste more time trying to attain Super Saiyan 2, he chose to completely master Super Saiyan by learning how to use it at all times, giving them the Super Saiyan Full Power form.

3 He Pointed Out How Useless Babidi Was

After Goku got into a fight with Majin Buu, he immediately realized while Buu was powerful, he’d be much less dangerous if he didn’t have a wizard telling him to cause as much destruction as possible. Knowing this, Goku pointed out how much stronger Majin Buu was over Babidi before leaving. This led to Buu eventually figuring out a way to trap Babidi before he could speak and immediately killing him so he could do what he wanted on his own.

2 He Realized The Limit To Frieza's Golden Form

While Goku and Frieza were going at it the second time, things didn’t go so well for Goku. Frieza’s Golden Form was actually stronger than Super Saiyan Blue, and before he knew it, Goku found himself on the losing end of a fight. Fortunately for him, Goku was able to figure out the weakness—that Frieza hadn’t trained his stamina up in his Golden Form. Goku was about to turn the tides and beat Frieza before Vegeta realized what was happening as well and stood in to finally defeat Frieza.

1 He Figured Out How To Fight Hit

Vegeta went up against Hit during the Universe 6 vs Universe 7 fight and things did not go well for him. The manga had the far more reasonable explanation of Super Saiyan Blue draining Vegeta’s energy after he abused it, but the anime had something that made Goku look pretty smart. Rather than trying to go all-out fighting Hit, he used his base form and sparred with Hit while realizing that Hit was only stopping time for brief periods which allowed him to figure out what Hit was going to do next in battle.