Why Was Goku Acting Weird During the Cell Saga?

Yes, I felt it, you felt it, and everybody knows Goku was different during this entire saga and it’s something that’s been eating at me for years because even his wife Chi-Chi is asking him if he’s okay, which tells you something is seriously wrong since she’s usually just yelling at him about training too much! Yeah, throwing that senzu bean to Cell was so completely unnecessary and makes zero sense when you think about it, and Goku still does it even when Piccolo and literally everyone is warning him not to like WHY did he do this when he’s supposed to be the guy who always wants to protect everyone?!

But what I feel deep down in my soul is that Goku was probably going through some serious depression and I know that sounds crazy because we’re talking about Goku here, but hear me out because I agree everybody has a completely different way of dealing with depression and trauma, but as I was watching some YouTube shorts on Dragon Ball Z there was this one short that absolutely destroyed me where Future Trunks is asking Goku, “Goku, you’re acting like this because you already figured out Cell’s weakness, right?” and Goku’s response literally blows my mind every single time I think about it because he just says so matter-of-factly, “I’m afraid Cell doesn’t have any weakness,” and then he just disappears from the whole situation and spends time with his family, goes fishing with his best buddy Krillin like he’s already accepted defeat or something!

What really struck me watching this unfold is that we have NEVER seen Goku so emotionally disconnected like this in the entire series and it’s genuinely haunting when you really think about it because yeah, I know the most obvious surface-level reason everyone gives for Son Goku behaving like this was that he believed in his son Gohan’s hidden Saiyan potential and knew that his son was the only one who could actually defeat Cell in the end, and he was right about that, but here’s the thing that keeps me up at night – we have literally never seen Goku acting this calm and normal when the absolute strongest opponent he has ever faced in his entire life was sitting right there waiting for him to battle, and that is NOT the Goku we know and love!

So what was the real psychological reason behind all of this? For me, and this is something I genuinely believe with every fiber of my being, I think the main reason why Goku was acting like this throughout the entire Cell saga was because Future Trunks came back in time and told him about his future where he dies of a heart virus, and now he gets this cure from Future Trunks which means he’s essentially living on borrowed time, and I think this revelation made him so incredibly sad and existentially confused to the point where he felt like he was living way past his destined fate or something like that, and maybe I’m completely exaggerating here but hey, this feels so emotionally real and authentic to me as someone who has been watching Dragon Ball Z ever since I was a little kid, and after so many countless rewatches over the years, this theory hit me like an absolute truck because of that YouTube short that made me see everything differently!

The thing that hit me hardest though was this other moment that absolutely destroys me every single time where during the Cell Games, Piccolo says something along the lines of “Goku, you fool! Gohan really doesn’t want to fight but you forced it on him anyway!” and the expression that crosses Goku’s face I mean that sharp intake of breath, that gasp he makes – it felt like lightning struck him and he suddenly realized in that horrifying moment that he had just completely overburdened his innocent son with the weight of saving the entire world and got so carried away with his own plan that he forgot Gohan is still just a child, and then immediately after this realization he becomes so ready to self-sacrifice himself to protect everyone, and the devastated yet determined face Goku makes when he grabs Cell and does that final Instant Transmission knowing he’s about to die still gives me actual tears every single time I watch it because you can see in his eyes that he knows this is his redemption!

I couldn’t believe how much more sense everything made once I started viewing the Cell saga through this lens this theory isn’t official canon in any way, shape, or form, but I genuinely feel like this psychological explanation covers everything about why Goku was behaving so out of character during the Cell saga and it makes the entire arc hit so much harder emotionally when you realize that Goku wasn’t just being strategic, he was actually processing his own mortality and depression in the only way he knew how!

Vamshi

Vamshi

Yo, Watashi no Namae wa Vamshi Chandar! Watching anime and reading manga has been my favorite thing to do since I was 11 years old. I've watched 5000+ anime episodes and read more than 2000 manga chapters. I prefer ISEKAI and Shounen mostly, but I do watch Seinen and Shoujo as well.

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