Close your eyes and imagine a world where Bulma had never set out on a quest to retrieve all seven Dragon Balls. Now, imagine a world where she was just an ordinary girl, never batting an eye to the endless possibilities of science, only drifting through life with her eyes half open.
Then ponder our lives without Goku, what would this look like and would how would it be different? Where could the story have gone differently? What could have been done about it?
Let’s analyze this in further detail.
Bulma and the dragon radar
Obviously, Bulma is the foundation of every quest that the Z Fighters have had the pleasure of experiencing. So the consequences of not having her around would be immense. This would begin raising the stakes for Goku and could potentially lead to the destruction of Earth. Without her expertise in science, Goku and his friends would be all brauns and no brains.
So what would a life without science look like for Bulma?
After many hours of reading romantic novels and watching romance movies, Bulma would have remained at her house gushing at all the boys that she wished she could go on a date with. She would make a full time job out of it.
There would be no Yamcha to sweep her off her feet. And there would be no Goku to keep her from harms way, since harms way would not be an issue for her anyways. Even without science, she is still very brilliant and hails from brilliant parents as well.
The possibilities of her career paths are endless. So it is highly likely she would pursue something that correlates to her current interests.
Perhaps a smut writer?
Goku stays isolated?
A life without Goku would be a bleak one indeed. He is the light that draws people forward. And in every situation he may find himself in, he always attempts to rise above it. He never loses sight of his goals and does whatever it takes to conquer the inner limitations of both his mind and body. As a descendant of a mighty warrior race, Goku lives and breathes the challenges of combat. So it is highly probable that Goku never abandons it and continues to train as he normally would.
What would come of his training?
Goku’s Saiyan blood would inevitably get the best of him. This would cause him to leave his home with his four star dragon ball in the hopes of finding worthy foes. With this in mind, he would seek out the world martial arts tournament so he can begin honing his strength.
He would then find fighters from all different walks of life to challenge. He may even find himself fighting his best friend Krillin as well.
Roshi at this point would have taken on Krillin as an apprentice, as there is no way of preventing him from seeing Roshi at all in the first place since he came by boat. But they would most likely battle it out in the semi finals. Goku would win and they would form a special bond from it.
Goku would have no problem making it to the finals. This is where he would be up against Master Roshi disguised as a fighter known as Jackie Chun, don’t ask why.
Goku would fight against Roshi and lose terribly, this is where Goku would have been eager to ask him to be his master. Master Roshi would have no choice but to take Goku on as an apprentice after noticing the power pole that his old student Gohan had possessed. They would then go off to the island where Goku would experience the turtle hermit way of training.
Emperor Pilaf becomes emperor of the world?
He is by far the most feared dictator in all of Dragon Ball, and he goes by the name Emperor Pilaf.
It is amazing how the creators of Dragon Ball found a way to incorporate one of the original antagonists in Dragon Ball Super. He was by far a big hurdle to jump when Goku and his friends were attempting to steal six of the Dragon Balls Pilaf and his crew managed to keep locked away.
Through a few failed attempts at retrieving Goku’s four star ball Dragon Ball, Piccolo would be revived to settle the score between Goku and Pilafs rivalry. His revival would spawn the Dark Vassels, who would end up killing Krillin and Roshi in the process as seen in the original chain of events in Dragon Ball.
This would force Goku to train with Korin on the lookout, summoning enough strength to kill Piccolo and his goons. Goku would eventually stop Pilaf, retrieve the Dragon Balls and revive Krillin and Master Roshi.
Of course there is still the possibility that they wouldn’t be revived.
Pilaf would be at the helm of the chain of events, and still end up being screwed in the process.
Evil would prevail.
Without Bulma at the helm of space travel and flight, evil would have no trouble making its way to earth.
Frieza would be able to collect all the dragon balls on Namek, inevitably wishing for immortality without anyone to stop him. The universe would then be thrown into turmoil within months of Frieza’s rampage. Goku would never have known about Frieza until it was too late.
Foes like Buu and Cell would probably wreak havoc on earth even if Frieza had not gotten to their planet yet. It would be a battle field of powerful opponets, each evtually cowering in the palms of Frieza and his henchmen.
Not a very pretty picture?
The life of Adult Goku.
There is still a highly likely chance that Goku will have met Chi-Chi, since they are just a connection away from meeting. Perhaps they meet when the Ox King decides to make a pit stop to see his old master, or perhaps the Ox King brings Goku back with him to meet her.
So if this were the case, Gohan would still be born and their family dynamics would not be effected. Although people like Piccolo, Paur, Oolong, Bulma and Yamcha would be disincluded from it all. Yajirobi would be just as happy kicking it in the woods like he is accustomed to. Tien and Chaoutzu would still be discovered at the marital arts tournment, so that would not change much.
Gohan would most likely enter the world of marital arts as he grew, he would have no choice but to since he is one of the only people on Earth that possess powerful latent abilities.
Epilogue.
A life without Bulma would be a tricky one to navigate. Bulma and Goku have been together since the begining. She found a way to make it possible to have their wildest dreams come true.
In the end, there are so many directions Dragon Ball could have gone, it would be very difficult to describe every potential scenario.
Goku would have to find a way to beat the odds without help from the Dragon Balls, perhaps it would have made him even stronger.