Once upon a time, Goku was a strange kid with a monkey tail. All we knew about him was that an old martial artist, Gohan, found him and adopted him as his grandson.
And it wouldn’t be until Dragon Ball Z that we’d get an answer on why Goku had a tail. Or why he could turn into a Great Ape!
Sacrifice your tail or the moon!
Akira Toriyama based Goku and Dragon Ball on The Journey to the West. And many believe he based several of his characters on the Monkey King.
But the greatest basis is found in the Saiyan race. They’re known for their love of battle, tails, and transforming into the Great Ape during a full moon.
But the tail’s significance decreased over time. Nowadays, you’ll only see a Saiyan with their tail in a flashback or odd movie.
Such as Dragon Ball Super: Broly, where Paragus has his tail, but Broly doesn’t. And the rules surrounding a tail are very tricky.
Goku and Gohan lose and regrow their tails several times, but Vegeta and Broly don’t. Trunks, Goten, Pan, and Bulla, are never seen with tails.
The Universe 6 Saiyans don’t have them, and there’s the Super Saiyan 4 transformation in Dragon Ball GT. But do Saiyans need their tails?
As long as a Saiyan has their tail and either looks at a full moon or uses another method to trick themselves into thinking they’re looking at the moon. They can transform into a Great Ape.
But if you grab a Saiyan’s tail, they become powerless, and cutting them off cancels their transformation. So Vegeta and Nappa were able to train themselves to surpass the tail-grabbing weakness.
And Raditz used his tail to smack Krillin into a wall. Plus, nothing stops the Saiyan from getting up and attacking if their tail gets free.
This makes me wonder if removing a Saiyan’s tail is more of an annoyance to them.
Super Saiyan 4 vs. Super Saiyan God/Blue
This is not a power ranking or which could beat which topic. I understand Dragon Ball GT isn’t technically canon, including Super Saiyan 4.
But the Super Broly movie referred to Super Saiyan 4 when Broly’s eyes changed to yellow, the same shade that Goku’s eyes took in Super Saiyan 4. As a result, many fans speculated that Super Saiyan 4 is a precursor to Super Saiyan God.
Nothing is stopping Broly from tapping into Super Saiyan Blue. However, I don’t think he needs to get this transformation, considering he handled himself well against Goku and Vegeta in their Super Saiyan God forms.
Plus, there’s the fact that Super Saiyan God didn’t exist when Dragon Ball GT aired. But it would be nice to see Super acknowledge its predecessor anime in the future.
Especially since time travel and the multiverse theory are canon.