We asked an AI to make 10 characters who can beat Goku instantly (& it took us by surprise)
Speculations about characters who can beat Goku instantly are nothing new. Fans have been making lists on the same for decades and entire forums have been set aflame with back-and-forth arguments regarding which characters can beat Goku. Naturally, this gets out of hand really quickly.
We decided to ask an AI, ChatGPT specifically, to make up 10 characters who can beat Goku, and it made several different archetypes that multiple characters can fit into. There's a certain amount of overlap with existing characters, so this article will profile the AI-created 10 characters who can beat Goku.
Disclaimer: As this article deals with AI-created archetypes, it will contain Dragon Ball spoilers and a few characters that can match those powersets. The opinions here are subjective.
There is likewise a stipulation in play: Goku is scaled up to his most current power level in the Dragon Ball Super Manga. This is purely speculation, and shouldn't be taken too seriously.
10 AI-created Characters who can beat Goku, and the characters matching those power sets
1) Omnipotence Man
Omnipotence is literally the power over reality - absolute godhood. The AI describes its created character's powerset in the following manner:
"Omnipotence Man: This character has absolute power and can manipulate reality itself, effortlessly negating Goku's abilities and rendering him powerless with a mere thought."
The description by the AI certainly fits the bill of a few characters who can beat Goku. That type of power is usually coveted by villains like Thanos with the Infinity Stones, or Darkseid with the Anti-Life Equation. Finding characters that are naturally omnipotent took quite a bit of effort, especially given that very few of them are characters who can beat Goku.
Omnipotent characters certainly exist throughout the multiple realms of fiction: Marvel's Franklin Richards and the One Above All, DC's The Presence and the Endless, Stephan from Shin Megami Tensei, and others. Basically, these characters are gods in every sense of the word, and they have absolute power and can do with it whatever they wish.
2) Time Lord Chronos
Time manipulation is a tricky power to master. Yet, it's already proven a problem in Dragon Ball Z and Super when it comes to characters who can beat Goku.
Laying down this option, the AI says:
"Time Lord Chronos: A master of time manipulation, Chronos can freeze time or rewind it, allowing them to incapacitate Goku before he can even react."
This power is tricky since Guldo and Hit had certain time manipulation powers, yet Vegeta decapitated Guldo and Goku was able to defeat Hit. Those types of time manipulation would be on the level of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, which wouldn't be able to effectively destroy Goku since they have short time limits.
Now, characters who can beat Goku with that scale of ability would probably be either Kronika from Mortal Kombat 11 or Sakuya from the Touhou series of video games.
The thing with Kronika, however, is that she required the Soul Krown fully powered with souls from multiple fighters to effect all of time, whereas Sakuya is just naturally powerful with time magic, able to manipulate it on every level.
3) Void Sorceress
There are probably more than a few characters that come to mind when Void Manipulation is mentioned. The AI describes this character's powerset as follows:
"Void Sorceress: This character can control the void and manipulate nothingness, instantly erasing Goku from existence or trapping him in an eternal void."
Considering that void manipulation implies the existence of nothingness that can erase anyone from existence, Dragon Ball Super has that kind of power in Hakai. Hakai is a power used by Gods of Destruction primarily. Goku has copied this power and has used it in limited instances.
As far as characters who can beat Goku with that type of power, there are few that possess absolute void manipulation akin to a God of Destruction. They include people like Alien X from Ben 10 who is capable of creating and recreating the universe, Grand Zeno from Dragon Ball Super, and Rimuru Tempest via the Void God, Azathoth in That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime.
4) Mindwarp
Given the description for this power, there are more than a few characters who can beat Goku that probably come to mind. The AI's description of this powerful mind person likewise is helpful:
"Mindwarp: Mindwarp possesses telepathic abilities beyond imagination, allowing them to enter Goku's mind and obliterate his consciousness with a single mental command."
Telepathic suggestion and mind manipulation are not powers Goku has faced before. He does have his own version of telepathy though, as demonstrated in both the anime and manga, when he talked to multiple people. He can resist mental manipulation to some extent, but not a full-bore attack.
The types of characters who can beat Goku that excel in mental manipulation on that level are characters like Marvel's Charles Xavier/Professor X, Mewtwo from Pokémon, as well as Phoenix and Dark Phoenix aka Jean Grey of the X-Men.
5) Anti-Matter Annihilator
Now the list starts getting into the multiversal. Needless to say, while the other powersets include characters that can beat Goku, this is the part where we start listing characters that will beat Goku. The AI describes the power as follows:
"Anti-Matter Annihilator: This character harnesses the power of antimatter, capable of annihilating Goku's physical form on a subatomic level with a touch or a thought."
This type of power would probably kill most people if given the chance since Goku is a user of matter. He's in the physical realm most of the time, with things that exist, that can be seen. His spiritual form may have beaten Moro to a pulp, but that was a one-time event that required energy from others.
As far as characters who can beat Goku using anti-matter, there is only one example that immediately comes up: the main villain of DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths, The Anti-Monitor. The Anti-Monitor was able to use a wave of anti-matter to destroy multiple universes throughout the DC Multiverse before it was stopped. Even then, it required a titanic effort from multiple versions of Superman and multiple Justice Leagues.
6) Absolute Nullifier
Nullification of powers is a very dangerous powerset to have. It means that someone can turn Superman, into a regular human with a snap of their fingers. The AI affirms this definition:
"Absolute Nullifier: Armed with the ability to nullify all forms of energy, the Absolute Nullifier can neutralize Goku's ki, rendering him completely powerless."
Power nullifiers exist throughout fiction, though Dragon Ball doesn't quite have anyone other than the Androids, and those are power absorbers of ki. A famous example of a power nullifier would be Eraserhead, aka Shoto Aizawa, from My Hero Academia. Not that Aizawa's Erasure would work on ki, since ki is considered life force.
Nor would any sealing jutsu from Naruto. For characters who can beat Goku, they'd have to try to nullify life force itself. There are a couple that fit that particular bill, the Demi-Fiend aka the main character of Shin Megami Tensei, Anos Voldigoad of The Misfit of Demon King Academy, and Osamu Dazai of Bungo Stray Dogs among them.
7) Quantum Flux Manipulator
This one is more realistic on the front of powersets and characters who can beat Goku. The AI describes it as follows:
"Quantum Flux Manipulator: This character can manipulate quantum fluctuations, disrupting Goku's energy flow and molecular structure, effectively incapacitating him instantly."
Disruption of Goku's energy flow would neatly dovetail into power nullification, since ki is a life force rather than a superpower. This does mean these kinds of characters who can beat Goku will only have a matter of time before scrambling Goku's energy flow and molecular structure.
The one character that fits the description is Dr. Manhattan from Watchman. That's his primary power after all. But likewise, there's Captain Adam from DC, The Beyonder and Dr. Doom from Marvel, and the titular Noein from Noein. Several monsters from the SCP foundation, such as 001 aka The Children proposal also have this ability.
8) Dimensional Shifter
Dimensional shifters and hoppers aren't uncommon to anime, cartoons, video games, and live-action television. It's also a curious powerset to push against Goku. The AI defines it as such:
"Dimensional Shifter: With the power to shift between dimensions at will, this character can trap Goku in an inescapable pocket dimension or manipulate reality within his vicinity."
Dimensional shifters are actually common when fused with reality warpers. There are plenty of famous examples, since reality warping covers everything from the fourth wall breaking to Looney Tunes physics in a much more grounded setting. For example, Luffy's Gear V in One Piece throws physics out the window to make everything a Saturday Morning Cartoon.
But in terms of characters who can beat Goku with the ability to dimension shift and reality warp? Famous examples include Marvel's Scarlet Witch and The Living Tribunal, and Star Trek's Q. Anime examples include The Anti-Spiral from Gurren Lagann since its a massive amalgamation of Anti-Spirals that primarily creates its own closed pocket dimension.
9) Reality Eater
Those that can consume reality, time, and matter to absorb everything that exist are usually either the final villain or a cosmic and existential threat like the heat death of the universe. The AI describes this character archetype perfectly:
"Reality Eater: This character possesses the ability to consume and absorb reality itself, effectively erasing Goku from existence by devouring his entire existence."
The reason why this is a scary and existential prospect is that it implies a sort of gluttonous hunger for everything that exists. Characters like that usually require some godlike power to defeat, or some world-saving objects. Needless to say, these are characters that can beat Goku.
Famous examples of cosmic and reality consumers that are utterly massive in size are Marvel's Galactus and Transformers' Unicron. Galactus himself usually requires the entire Marvel universe working in tandem to stop, Unicron requires one empowered by The Matrix of Leadership or another Celestial Sized being like Primus.
10) Multiversal Destroyer
The best for last is Multiversal Destroyers. The kind of fighter Goku is on the level of who can obliterate multiple multiverses without any thought or at full power. The AI defines this particular powerset as such:
"Multiversal Destroyer: This character has the power to destroy entire multiverses, capable of obliterating Goku and all his alternate versions across different timelines and realities."
It's worth noting that Goku is at that level at his most powerful with Perfected Ultra Instinct. That being said, there are beings throughout the multiverse that can and will destroy them all if given the chance. These characters who can beat Goku tend to be several degrees above even the top superheroes like Superman.
Superman's primary antagonist in power, Darkseid, is on here due to his powerset and feats shattering several multiverses. Marvel has Adam Warlock and likewise Dr. Strange at his most powerful as characters who can beat Goku. There's likewise a few surprise characters who can beat Goku if powerscaling is taken into account like Sonic the Hedgehog and Sora from Kingdom Hearts.
This concludes the list of 10 AI-created characters who can beat Goku. It's worth noting, again, that all these characters are more archetypes than anything, and even ChatGPT points out that any outcome regarding these hypothetical battles would depend on the specific rules and contexts within the respective fictional universes the various characters originate from.
In layman's terms, there's no real way to actually truly quantify every single aspect of a given encounter between two or more characters with number crunching and power levels alone. Powerscaling and power levels tend to be completely irrelevant when narratives have the Power of Friendship or other narrative devices and/or situational contexts to fall back on.
If any other characters are missing, or any disagreements are had, readers are encouraged to comment and be civil about any discussion or disagreements.
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