Dragon Ball Dropped the Ball With Its Coolest Idea for Goku’s Successor

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With the Dragon Ball franchise celebrating its 40th anniversary, it’s clear the series has evolved a lot over the years. One interesting aspect of the story is the idea that Goku might eventually pass the torch to a new hero. While the series has explored many concepts, it surprisingly hasn’t fully developed this potential successor, which many fans consider a missed opportunity.

Over the years, Dragon Ball has shown us several characters who could potentially protect Earth once Goku stopped fighting, and even fewer who were directly trained by him. However, a frustrating part of the series’ success is that Goku never really gets to retire. He’s become so strong and essential to the story that it doesn’t feel like he can step away from fighting, which is a shame because the idea of him passing the torch had a lot of promise.

Gohan Never Got to Take Over for His Father

The possibility of someone taking over as Earth’s protector after Goku first emerged during Dragon Ball Z. This series introduced Gohan, Goku’s son, who showed incredible potential. Goku recognized how powerful Gohan could become, and the Android Saga revolved around this idea. Knowing he wouldn’t live forever – having already experienced death and resurrection – Goku wanted to entrust the planet’s safety to his son. He even thought Gohan had the potential to surpass him.

Goku’s sacrifice during the Cell Saga served as a way for him to pass the responsibility onto his son, Gohan. Gohan rose to the occasion, unlocking incredible power and becoming the first Super Saiyan 2 – a significant moment for their family and the future of the series. However, as the story continued, Gohan unexpectedly stopped training and stepped back from being a central fighter.

After initially showing incredible power, Gohan’s strength diminished, and he never quite reached that same potential. Goku and Vegeta became the central fighters, leaving Gohan behind. This became even more pronounced in Dragon Ball Super, where the power difference between Goku and Gohan grew significantly. While Goku achieved god-like strength, Gohan often faced criticism and remained less powerful. Ultimately, the series seemed unable to move past its focus on Goku as the main combatant, and Gohan’s development suffered as a result.

It Was Even a Worse Case for Uub

Uub had a particularly tough situation. He was introduced at the end of Dragon Ball Z as the new form of Kid Buu, a villain Goku had wished to be reborn so he could fight again. Goku was eager to train Uub, but the timing was unfortunate. Since it was the end of the series, there wasn’t enough time to fully develop the exciting concept of a former villain being trained as a hero.

Although Dragon Ball GT attempted to address this, it wasn’t fully successful, and the late introduction of Uub makes it difficult to establish him as Goku’s true successor without revisiting the original ending. While the creators are now expanding the Dragon Ball timeline with series like Dragon Ball Super (where Uub has only made a brief appearance) and Dragon Ball Daima, they seem unlikely to move the story past the significant time skip in the original series. This suggests the idea of Uub taking over from Goku won’t be further explored.

It’s interesting to think about who might take over from Goku in future Dragon Ball stories, but it’s unlikely to happen while the series continues. Goku is too popular and important to the franchise – a new Dragon Ball anime, manga, or movie just wouldn’t feel right without him as the main character. He’s a guaranteed success, and no other character could replace his strength or appeal to fans.

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2025-11-17 00:12