Now let me start off by saying, this isn't some Superman fanboy thats speaking. I LOVE Dragonball/DragonballZ (GT is mostly crap) but the way they show off goku compared to all the other awesome characters is sickening to say the least. I was watching some dragonball Z and I just couldn't take it anymore, and had to come to these forums and rant!... ... lol

First off, Kid Goku isn't so bad. I will be talking mostly about adult goku here. anyway, Goku has the tendency to be over powered as hell, and always be one or several steps ahead of every other protaginist, who in my opinion trains FAR harder then Goku ever does. take Vegeta for instance, Training to become stronger then goku has become a total obsession for him. he practically trains himself to the edge of death, and is always serious about it. he does not need luxury, only the very essentials to train. all to one day become better then Goku.

Goku on the other hand always has this laid back attitude towards everything, and barely takes anything seriously. sure he is kinda dedicated to his training, but he's always like "I gota go pee! or time for a break! or whats for dinner?" and despite all this, Goku is actually stronger then Vegeta for the majority of the DBZ series. infact he gets stronger then Vegeta as time goes by. the same could be said for other characters like Tien and even Krillen. Tien gets SERIOUSLY nerfed later through the DBZ series, but at one time he was neck and neck with goku. its not that he let up on his training, he propably worked even harder as time went by (as he kept saying, "I will train twice as hard" and much like Vegeta he was a lot more serious about his training then Goku was. He is so focused, he was even able to bring out his third eye through intense meditation. thats how serious he takes his training. and again ofcourse Goku far surpasses him in power, probably barely even trying to do so. at the end of the series he is a god in comparison. krillen probaby doesn't train any harder then Goku, but surprisenly enough he is the weakest of the characters. same with Piccolo, who even after 2 fusions was eventually massively overpowered. maybe this is partly due to racism towards everyone but a Super Saiyan, but atleast the likes of Vegeta trains like theres no tomorrow. this was also evident in dragonball, where the only reason Goku was stronger then a lot of them imo was special training from gods lol.

another problem with Goku that I found was only evident in DBZ and GT was that Goku was in a sense the main antagonist. So Trunks comes back in time to warn Goku about the androids that are stronger then Super Saiyans and kills everyone, and what does Goku do? does he try and find the androids before the activated? he could have gathered the Dragonballs to find who created them and stop him. but what did he do!? he just casually trained with Gohan and Piccolo, not even teaching Gohan to use the power of a super saiyan, and not even pushing for the next level of super saiyan. would have saved A LOT of lives if he did atleast some of my suggestions! but NOOOOOO, he wants to fight some androids deeeerp :p and another time while Majin Vegeta challanges Goku, but Suprmeme Kai CLEARLY warns him that fighting him will provide energy to release Majin Buu. ok, why didn't Goku just go full power and transform to Super Saiyan 3 and take out Vegeta as soon as possible giving as little energy as he could to Majin Buu. BUT WHAT DOES HE DO!!?? he stays in his base form while Super Saiyan Majin Vegeta fires an energy blast at Goku, and Goku struggles to stop it from killing a lot of people in the stadium that they're in, because he's in his FRACKING BASE FORM! HE COULD HAVE SAVED LIVES IF HE JUST TRANSFORMED TO SUPER SAIYAN AND HAVE THE NECESARY POWER TO DEFLECT IT AWAY!!!... and these arent the only ones where Goku is stupid/evil. out of any show, Goku is probably the WORST main protaginst out of all the TV shows I have watched. he is probably responsible for more deaths in DBZ, then any other character.

and you know what? IT GETS WORSE WITH FRACKING GT!!!

...ok rant over :/

Gohan is stronger than both Vegeta and Goku in Dragon Ball Z so at least Goku isn't the strongest in the series. Or at least until GT.

The thing is, the show wanted to show that heart and desire was just important as anything else. Another important note to remember is some people are born more skilled than others and regardless of how much training you have that wont change. It would be like comparing you to Michael Jordan. Sure you could practice 24/7 but MJ will still be better because he was born with a natural talent for it. Practice only helped him improve even more.

yeah I guess so. but it's basically saying that hard work doesn't pay off lol

Mystic Gohan was the most powerful Dragon BallZ non-fused character.  You can search it up if you want.  It has prob been a decade since Ive watched it but from what I remember Super Buu was more powerful than Kid Buu but Kid Buu was more dangerous because he wouldn't hesitate to destroy the world.  Super Buu just blind sided Gohan with absorption which was the only reason he was able to move on.  Goku and Vegeta both got destroyed by  Super Buu up until the vegeto fusion.  That is if i am remembering everything correctly.

It pays off but some people are just more naturally talented is all :P  Every one of the all time greats in sports also had to train a lot as well even though they had a natural talent or gift.

As cringe-worthy as his attitude is in DBZ, it's what made the series so great in my opinion. He's just over the top naive yet righteous that it makes him such a unique hero

If I am not mistaken, goku always got better results in training due to taking some rest when the body most needed, In fact, goku make references in the series as to why resting the body was important, that's why he decided no enter in the hyperbolic time chamber the second time. The other reason for the better improvement is because he always has someone as a training partner, vegeta prefer to train alone.

Your complaining about power levels in an anime not to mention dragonballz

I can't say who the worst Goku is but my favorite Goku is Naruto.

well they've been revived later, so at one point their lives are saved.
Obviously dying still hurts....