King kai is one of the gods that makes DB interesting, the god who got one of the more tragic character elements of the franchise after meeting Goku.
While Akira Toriyama’s hugely popular Dragon Ball series has certainly fallen into tragedy and failure before, one of the most tragic characters in the manga and anime series is one of the most popular sources of comic relief. Most variable of the story: King Kai. A martial arts friend and mentor to Goku and some of Z’s warriors, King Kai’s life has been nothing but a setback and difficulty after another since Goku first arrived at his house at the beginning of Dragon Ball Z .
While King Kai is as cheerful as ever, albeit seemingly annoyed with what has become of his life, these developments underline his long enduring character life right in the manga story/ current anime in Dragon Ball Super.
King Kai is responsible for overseeing the North Galaxy – the quadrant of Universe 7 where Earth is located – maintaining his sacred missions from his home on a small planet at the end of the Snake Way in the afterlife. King Yemma directs Goku to King Kai’s planet to train in the DBZ after his death at the beginning of the series in preparation for the arrival of the Saiyans. Setting the tone for his character, King Kai agrees to train Goku, but only if he can overcome a pair of challenges and tell a joke funny enough to make him laugh.
Goku completes the challenges and, with King Kai’s guidance, learns the Kaioken and Spirit Bomb techniques. The Saiyan Warrior then returns to Earth, though King Kai will continue to advise him from his home by telepathy while training several other Z Warriors.
The real tragedy for King Kai happened around halfway through DBZ in the Olympics. As Cell prepares to self-destruct and obliterate the Earth, a desperate Goku teleports himself and Cell to King Kai’s planet with just a few seconds to spare, reasoning that this would greatly minimize casualties. Unfortunately, the resulting explosion killed Goku, King Kai, Bubbles, and Gregory – Kai’s frequent companions – while his planet was completely wiped out. While the party was allowed to keep their bodies in the afterlife, King Kai was mocked by his colleague Kais for being dead because he was then forced to rebuild his house.
Even after ElderKai revived Goku at the end of DBZ, King Kai and his companions died before the start of Dragon Ball Super. When Goku decided to infiltrate and train on his rebuilt planet, King Kai scolded Goku for forgetting this detail. Goku has vowed to use the Dragon Balls to revive King Kai and his friends when he returns to Earth.
However, after the arrival of Beerus, the God of Destruction destroyed King Kai’s planet once again during his fight with Goku. Once again, Goku forgot his promise, much to King Kai’s dismay. And as Dragon Ball Super continues in the manga beyond the events of the anime series, King Kai’s desire to obtain a larger planet and ultimately live in greater comfort has been thwarted by Goku again. He longs for a world the size of King Kai’s original world, for him to be exactly where he started thanks to Goku’s usual ignorance.
While all of these hardships and disappointments are certainly played for laughs, making King Kai the laughingstock of repeated laughs, the ruler of the North Galaxy has had a rough life since Goku stepped in. there. He constantly has to rebuild and clean his house before Goku’s sudden appearance in order to train and deal with opponents like Cell and Beerus. Plus, he was killed and repeatedly forgotten while other perennial characters were brought back to life. King Kai just wanted to be resurrected and have a chance to improve his status as a heavenly king a little, but was left forever disappointed.