Goku has strengthened his body throughout Dragon Ball, but mental discipline is essential for any martial artist.
Dragon Ball is one of the most popular and successful franchises in the world, since its first publication in November 1984. This manga written by Akira Toriyama, -with the adaptation by Toei Animation that also aired a couple of years after its appearance in Shueisha’s Shonen Jump- managed to capture the attention of its audience from the beginning with a story full of of action, fights for honor, memorable moments and many more adventures behind Goku, a Saiyan warrior whose destiny is to protect the Earth from other beings who seek to exterminate humanity.
Although this mission focuses on the Saiyan warrior that we all know, throughout history there are other characters who intervene with their help to make this possible, in addition to the fact that the magical spheres have also had a lot to do with it. Goku and his friends can continue to defend humans against evil beings that have even evolved over time.
This 519-chapter manga has shared some unexpected plot twists with its audience, giving it its own charm. However, one fact is that these same events have given importance to other characters who, from one moment to another, have also earned the admiration of fans. And it may seem that everyone agreed that Goku has become -probably- the strongest fighter in the Dragon Ball universe, in addition to another pair of gods who have charged him with their divine energy. But it may not be so, since in one of the first appearances of the warrior it was revealed that he will never be the best Dragon Ball fighter.
Goku’s powers would be complete through knowledge
To better understand, in Goku’s first appearance, as the protagonist of the series, during chapter 1, he began his career as an explorer in search of orbs that grant wishes. Although he soon began his mission to become the best fighter in the entire universe. Under this goal, Goku sought the help of Master Roshi -considered one of the best martial artists- to train him.. Even though Goku immediately learned how to strengthen his body, increase his powers, and harness his ki, there was something he never managed to master to accomplish this mission.
During chapter 28 of Dragon Ball, Master Roshi is evaluating the speed of his students to gauge their power level and guide their training. In this way, the teacher asks Goku and Krillin to run to a distant tree while he takes the time. While his speeds were impressive, he explained to them that they might be faster once they’ve undergone this training and Roshi tested his speed by performing the same action. At the end of the training, Roshi asked Goku for a beer, but Goku was surprised at this request since he didn’t know what exactly a beer was. Seeing his confusion, Roshi replies, “Hmmm…knowledge is also necessary to master martial arts, you know? We’re really going to have to work on training you in that area…”, making the future warrior understand that there are many things in life that he must learn to become what he longs for. After a series of physical training, both Krillin and Goku receive a basic education, in which Roshi apparently was unable to fully help Goku, as part of his training.
The saiyan is a fairly renowned fighter, who has reached deadly levels of power by harnessing the energy of the gods to increase his own. But, despite an extensive career, Goku is still as absent-minded as a child. His commitment to the land is quite strong, so his mission to be the mightiest warrior has been even ahead of knowledge.
It seems like a pretty obvious reason now that you think about it, however, Gouk has had some mistakes that could have been avoided with a better approach. An example of this, although he is not considered a failure as such, Goku almost destroyed the earth when fighting Lord Beerus, just because he was excited by the idea of fighting someone as strong as the God of Destruction. Or later, in Dragon Ball Super when the Saiyan warrior led to the obstruction of several universes just to test his strength against different enemies of the multiverse.
An undeniable fact is that Goku has greatly strengthened his body, but in order to become the most powerful fighter he would clearly have to strengthen his mind as well.. And as long as he doesn’t understand that he can lead other beings into danger just for the sake of testing his powers, he can’t claim to be the most brilliant and disciplined warrior Drago Ball has ever seen.