Dragon Ball GT Confirmed Goku's True Successor Long Before Super

Since the start of Dragon Ball Super, many Dragon Ball fans have overlooked some elements established by the original sequel series, Dragon Ball GT–including Goku’s true successor, who’s about to take on a starring role in the DBS manga. Goku has been the main protagonist of Dragon Ball since the very beginning of the series. In the first chapter, Goku is introduced as a small child, wandering the woods alone, totally primed for adventure–and sure enough, adventure soon finds him in the form of a teenage girl named Bulma who invites Goku on a journey around the world to hunt for wish-granting Dragon Balls.

During this initial run, Goku is depicted as a hero who simply couldn’t be beaten as he dismantles crime syndicates, topples fascist regimes, and even kills a demonic overlord with relative ease. It isn’t until Dragon Ball Z when Goku is truly put to the test in the form of increasingly powerful villains that force Goku to push himself further than he’s ever gone before. Not only that, but more interesting fighters were introduced in Z who challenged not just Goku physically, but also his role as the main character–including one in particular who wouldn’t become Goku’s obvious successor until GT.

Trunks is Actually Goku's Successor in Dragon Ball GT

In Dragon Ball GT season 1, episode 7 (written by Aya Matsui, directed by Osamu Kasai, produced by Toei Animation), Pan, Goku, and Trunks find themselves on an alien planet while searching the cosmos for the Black Star Dragon Balls. When they track one of the Dragon Balls to a village on this particular world, the villagers tell the Z-Fighters that they are being terrorized by a horrible Dragon Ball villain named Zoonama. Zoonama (who looks like a giant, anthropomorphic catfish) seemingly has the power to create earthquakes by vibrating his whiskers, and he uses this to force the villagers to do whatever he says–including forcing them to offer him a bride. In order to get close enough to defeat Zoonama, Trunks dresses up like the bride who was chosen to marry Zoonama and tricks the villain–giving the Z-Fighters the advantage they needed to defeat him.

Trunks dressing like a bride to trick and then defeat a giant villain who’s terrorizing a small town is literally the exact same plot line as a previous story within Dragon Ball canon–except it was originally Goku who dressed as the bride. In Dragon Ball chapter 5 by Akira Toriyama, the shape-shifting villain-turned-hero, Oolong, makes himself appear as a giant beast who is terrorizing a town and forces the people who live there to offer him a bride. So, Goku dresses as a bride, tricks Oolong, and takes him down. This early Dragon Ball chapter details one of the first missions Goku had ever been on, so for Trunks to follow in Goku’s footsteps that specifically means that he is destined to take up the mantle as Dragon Ball’s main protagonist moving forward–and the current plan for the future of Dragon Ball Super only solidifies that.

The next Dragon Ball Super manga saga will star Goten and Trunks rather than Goku and Vegeta. This is a big deal as it marks the first time Goku won’t be at the center of the franchise for an ongoing storyline, leaving Trunks free to claim his spot as the new series protagonist. While it is true that Trunks will be sharing the spotlight with Goten, it is still a safe bet to say that Trunks will be the main focus as his character has been way more fleshed out throughout the franchise–including both sagas involving Future Trunks in Z and Super plus his co-starring role in GT. Trunks is already one of the biggest names in Dragon Ball, and this episode of Dragon Ball GT showing Trunks literally filling a role once played by Goku just confirms that Trunks is Goku’s true successor–and he has been long before Dragon Ball Super.