Throughout the extremely long span of dragon ball, we follow Goku and his friends from his very first moments on Earth, to his death. Now, lets set the environment of our story. Dragon Ball takes place on Earth, but its not the Earth that you and I know. This Earth is a fantastical planet with Dinosaurs, technology, and wonderful landscapes. On this Earth, anyone that is willing to train and learn the martial arts can learn to control there ki or fighting spirit, and harness it into energy. Your power and experience is only limited to your imagination and your desire to learn new things. Also found on this planet are seven Dragon Balls. Dragon Balls were brought to the planet a long time ago when a child named Kame from Namek came to Earth, and later took the throne as guardian of Earth. Kame did not bring the physical Dragon Balls with him, he created them on Earth without even knowing it. If for any reason Kame should die, the Dragon Balls will turn to stone.

The Dragon Ball story begins with a crashed pod from outer space. After hearing a large impact tremor an old man named Son Gohan slowly walks up to the pod and looks inside to see a naked sleeping child with a tail, suprised at his discovery, Son Gohan picks up the child and brings him to his house and starts caring for him. Son Gohan names the child Son Goku and continues to raise him as his own, keeping the title of grandfather for Goku. After many weeks, Son Gohan finds that maintaining the child is almost impossible cause of how tetra mental and excited the child is. The child starts fighting everything that Son Gohan does to help, and finally decides that the child might need to get out for some fresh air, he ties Goku to a backpack carrier and takes a walk along a beautiful trail overlooking a waterfall. During the trip Goku gets restless and breaks free of the carrier to find himself falling down a small canyon. Fearing the worst Son Gohan runs down to Goku to find him unconscious from a massive blow to the head after falling head-first into a rock. Son Gohan picks up Goku brings him back home, and treats his injuries. From that day on Goku put up no further fights, no further struggles, and no further spirit of destruction.

Son Gohan continued raising and training Goku in the Martial Arts. Goku caught on quick to everything, it was as if he was born to fight. After extensive training, Son Gohan taught Goku everything he knew, but found that Goku was still eager to learn more and more. Son Gohan saw this enthusiasm and enlisted him in the Worlds Martial Arts tournament. Unfortunately during the tournament a full moon rose, and Goku grew into a Giant Monkey, also known as Oozaru and started destroying the entire tournament. During Goku's Oozaru, he steps on Son Gohan, killing him instantly. Now alone, Goku lives in the forest alone for around a year. Later he runs into a young girl named Bulma, who is in search of the seven Dragon Balls, she is also extremely good with technology and machines. She asks Goku for his Dragon Ball, when he gives it to her, he asks her if he can join her in her quest to find the rest. Bulma accepts and they journey together in search of the other Dragon Balls. Later they come upon a man named Yamcha, who decides to destroy Goku and find the Dragon Balls for himself. After Goku defeats him and Yamcha gets his first glimpse at Bulma, he falls in love and agrees to join them on their quest. Later they run into a shape-shifting pig, who can change himself to resemble anything. The pig's name is Oolong and his goal is not the Dragon Balls, but to collect panties (don't ask). Oolong also decides to join the others in the quest for the dragon balls. Later in the Dragon Ball series, Goku travels to Kame-sennin's island to seek training from the strongest fighter on the planet. Kame-sennin first tells Goku that he will not train him until he finds a pretty female to be his maid, Goku runs all over the place trying to find a maid for Sennin, but keeps picking up ugly women because he has no taste. Then a small kid named Krillin shows up, he lands on Kame-sennin's island, and offers Kame-sennin some dirty magazines in exchange for training. Kame-sennin tells Krillin that to be trained he has to find a beautiful woman with Goku. Hoping that Krillin has some taste in women they travel around and pick up a girl named Lunch, a renowned criminal girl who changes into an evil Lunch whenever she sneezes, and back to good Lunch when she sneezes again. They manage to pick her up and take her back to the island. Kame-sennin almost wets himself when he meets Lunch. He says that they can't train on his little island and moves everyone to a much larger island. He then begins physically training Goku and Krillin. Goku and Krillin train intensively for the Tenkaichi-Bodoukai (The Worlds Martial Arts Tournament). When they get there they begin fighting, Goku and Krillin represent the Kame team, and Kame-sennin poses as a martial artist named Jackie Chun (don't ask). Goku wins all of his fights and ends up in the final match against Jackie Chun, who later beats Goku.

Goku has many other fights after that, and wins all of them, against fighters like Tenshinhan, Piccolo-Daimao, and much later Piccolo.

Many years pass and Goku gets married to a woman named Chi-Chi, and they have a child together. Goku names the child Son Gohan after his retired grandfather. Chi-Chi and Goku build a home and family, enjoying the wonders of life. One day Goku takes his son to Kame-sennin island for a reunion with all there old friends, Bulma has also grown up, and has been helping her father with his company "Capsule Corporation". Yamcha became a professional baseball player, though he still longed to fight. Krillin has been living with Kame-sennin already helping him around the house and keeping up with his training. Goku introduces his son, everyone is shocked beyond belief, then notice how cute he is, and how much he resembles his father. Goku tells them how strict Chi-Chi is on him, and how she doesn't let him train in the Martial Arts. The suprising thing is that Gohan has a tail, which gets everyone excited when thinking about what happend to the Worlds Martial Arts tournament a long time ago. Goku asks why everyone is concerned by it, but Kame-sennin even now prefers to keep the real reason why Goku's grandfather died to himself, in Goku's best interests. Goku explains how much Gohan studies, and how Chi-Chi wants him to be extremely intelligent instead of fighting in tournaments when he gets older. The short period of time when Goku lived by himself after his grandfather died, he always kept the #4 Dragon Ball with him, thats how Bulma found him, and is also why his son Gohan has the #4 Dragon Ball attached to the top of his hat. People are suprised that Goku is in as good shape as he is, especially after raising a family, but he ends up being stronger than ever.

The real Dragon Ball Z story begins when Goku's real brother Raditz shows up on Earth to find out why Earth has not been conquered yet. Goku is extremely confused, first not knowing what Raditz was talking about and second, not exactly sure that he should believe the claim that Raditz was his brother. Raditz starts calling his brother by the name of Kakarott, Goku has no idea what he is talking about, Raditz gets angry and explains the story of where he comes from, and why he was sent to Earth. Goku discovers that he is really from a planet named Vegeta, and is part of a race called the Saiya-jin (jin means person). Long ago the Sayia-jin race made deals with other races that had more technology to conquer planets and and sell them to the highest bidder. For strong planets adult Saiya-jins were required to destroy all life, but since there were so many planets they started sending saiya-jin baby's to other worlds, with orders to destroy all life, and report back when complete. Earth was one of those planets, and Kakarott (Goku) was the one sent there. It turns out that if Goku had never fallen and wacked his head as a child, he would have done just that, and defeated Earth. Raditz also tells Goku the sad news of there home planet's recent destruction, and that he needs Goku to finish off Earth and join back up with him. Goku of course refuses and this gets Raditz extremely angry, at the same time he notices that Goku's tale is missing, and is extremely angry because of it. After an operation, Goku was permanently exhausted of his tail, and lost the ability to transform into a Oozaru (giant monkey) which is a Saiya-jin's full power. Goku tells Raditz that his name is Goku, and that he wants Raditz to leave him and his friends alone. Since Goku is being so un co-operative he knocks Goku down with ease and takes his son Gohan. He tells Goku that if he wants to see the boy again, he will have to eliminate a large number of human life on the planet as proof of loyalty. Goku has no intention of killing anyone, and tries to think up a way to defeat Raditz. Shortly after Raditz leaves the island with Goku's son, Piccolo shows up and tells Goku of the encounter he had with the space born Saiya-jin. Piccolo also suggests that Goku and him combine forces to defeat Raditz. Goku is overwhelmed that Piccolo, his enemy would want to fight next to him, but Piccolo has not changed at all, and assures Goku that he will get his after they have taken care of Raditz. With that Goku and Piccolo Launch off and fight a waiting Raditz. During the course of the fight Gohan shows signs of being the most powerful being on the planet, and launches an incredibly powerful attack at Raditz. After much fighting, Raditz has proven to be to powerful for Goku and Piccolo and Goku sacrifices himself by holding Raditz still while Piccolo launches an attack that kills both of them. Raditz, overwhelmed with what just happened asked Piccolo why he would do such a foolish thing, and Piccolo tells him that on this planet they have Dragon Balls, and can wish Goku back whenever they would like. Raditz is extremely angry, but then changes his attitude, and points to the device on the side of his head, and tells Piccolo that other Saiya-jin have heard exactly what Piccolo has said about the Dragon Balls, and that they would come to get the Dragon Balls for themselves. He tells the dieing Goku that he has 1 year before they arrive, then both warriors die.

Now don't get too upset, in the Dragon Ball world there is a different excistance when you die. Kind of like Heaven, except good and evil go there. Once you die a Giant Pink man named Satan (not Satin, King Yama) and he decides what to do with you. After Goku dies, Kame and Goku ask Satan if it was ok if Goku traveled down Snake Way to get training from Kaio-sama. After some consideration Satan finally agreed and let Goku have his way. The rest of Dragon Ball Z will be very briefly summarized because its so long. While Goku makes his way down Snake Way, and trains with Kaio-sama, Piccolo steals Gohan away, and trains him because of the massive energy that he had put off earlier in the battle with Raditz. At the same time Krillin, Yajirobe, Chiaotzu, Tienshinhan, and Yamcha train under the watchful eye of Kame on his training platform that hovers high above Earth. One year passes and the two Saiya-jin land on Earth, there names are Prince Vegeta and Nappa. Vegeta was formally the ruler of the planet Vegeta until his nemesis Frieza destroyed the entire planet. From that point on Frieza became Vegeta's mortal enemy, and Vegeta has been looking for a way since to defeat him. Once Vegeta heard about the Dragon Balls he came to Earth immediately to wish for immortality so he could defeat Frieza and rule the Galaxy. Now you have to understand that Vegeta is not stupid, he is extremely intelligent, probably the most intelligent characters in the entire Dragon Ball universe. Vegeta knows how everything works, and he probably knows you better than you know yourself, on that note, you have to give the guy some Credit. As for his partner Nappa, he's kind of a block head, and he lets the vision of himself get to him. He follows Vegeta's orders without question even though he's much larger than Vegeta. Around the time that Vegeta lands on Earth he is still a very young guy, I'd say between 19-22 years of age, so he's still very short, later in the Z series he grows taller, but still a little shorter than Goku. Now since Earth's forces had no intention of letting Vegeta make a wish from the Dragon Balls, Vegeta and Nappa have no choice but to fight them. Also Vegeta wanted to find Kakarott and convince him to join there side and fight Frieza.

In the fight between Vegeta, Nappa and Earth's forces only four warriors survived. Yamcha was killed by a Kamikaze attack by a Saibaman that Nappa had created. Chiaotzu died while trying to attempt a Kamikaze attack on Nappa (which failed). Tienshinhan died in rage after throwing an energy attack at Nappa that took every last ounce of his ki. Last but not least Piccolo died while protecting Gohan from a blast that Nappa had shot out at Gohan. When Piccolo died, so did Kame and the Dragon Balls turned to Stone. When Goku finally arrived back from Kaio-sama's training, he finds most of his friends dead, and with a little bit of fooling around defeats Nappa. In turn Vegeta kills Nappa for his failure. Goku and Vegeta begin there fight where Goku uses the new techniques that Kaio-sama taught him. Kaio-Ken, and Genki Dama. After a long and hard fight, and one of the coolest Kamehameha scenes in Dragon Ball excistance, Vegeta is defeated. With the aid of Krillin and Gohan were able to hit Vegeta with a Genki Dama. While slowly crawling back to his pod Krillin grabs Yajirobe's sword and gets ready to impale Vegeta. Goku cries out to let Vegeta go, because he is one of the last Saiya-jin in excistance. With his release Vegeta climbs in his capsule and heads back to Frieza's headquarters to get rejuvenated. Gohan, Bulma, and Krillin hop aboard the ship that brought Kame to Earth and head off to Namek to find the Dragon Balls there and wish all of there friends back. Vegeta finally reaches his destination and gets all fixed up, he also finds out that Frieza is currently rounding up the Dragon Balls on Namek to wish for immortality himself. When Vegeta hears this he rushes to his pod in rage and shoots off to the planet Namek. At this point in the story everyone seems to be on Namek, it has become the focal point of the entire universe. While Frieza flies around the planet gathering Dragon Balls, Vegeta tries to devise a plan to destroy him. Krillin, Gohan and Bulma try to sneak around the best they can do to get some of the Dragon Balls. Back on Earth Goku finally gets a new batch on Senzu beans from Yajirobe, he pops one in his mouth which heals him instantly. Goku rushes off to Namek in a Giant space pod that Bulma's father had designed just for Goku, with a gravity generator so that he can train under extreme gravity on the way to Namek.

After the actual Frieza fight begins, Piccolo, Gohan, Krillin, and Vegeta try to hold Frieza back while Goku arrives. Vegeta has been severely battered by Frieza, while Vegeta was yelling something about Super Saiya-jin to Goku Frieza gets annoyed and kills him. The course of this battle lasts about 24 episodes, its the longest and most furious battle Dragon Ball has ever seen. They were going to make it the end of the Dragon Ball Z series, but the fan response was so great to this battle, they decided to let the series continue. During the course of the battle an extremely historical point is reached for the future of Dragon Ball. Krillin is killed by Frieza, and out of over emissive rage and hate Goku explodes into Super Saiya-jin mode. Super Saiya-jin is like an untamed horse that is impossible to ride, a legend that only a super elite Saiya-jin could achieve. Nobody had any concept of how powerful the Super Saiya-jin was, its like taking life to a higher level of excistance and power. Even though Goku had become immeasurable more powerful than all of his past enemys including Vegeta, Frieza was still able to keep up a massive fight. In the end it became somewhat of a draw, and the entire planet of Namek exploded from a blast that Frieza had earlier shoved into the planet's core. During the fight, all of the Nameks that Frieza had killed trying to get the Dragon Balls were brought back to life, and transported to Earth. Dende shortly after took over Kame's seat as guardian of Earth, and merged with Piccolo, who had already shortly before merged with a warrior Namek named Nail . After the Planet Namek was destroyed Goku and Frieza's ki disappeared and everyone feared for the worst.

Not too much farther in the Z series a man named Trunks comes from the future to warn Goku about some Androids that will eventually kill him and bring devastation over the planet. Frieza had shown up before with his father on Earth, but Trunks quickly destroys both of them with his Saiya-jin mode. Trunks hit his Saiya-jin mode while witnessing his trainer Gohan get killed in the future. Trunks also carries around a Sword that was given to him by a friend that was also from Trunk's future. I'm still unsure as to how Vegeta and future Trunks set a relationship in the Z series, but I'm still learning. I do know that Vegeta watches over his son, never really getting involved with anything he does, but if anyone ever threatens Trunks, they will immediately have to deal with adult Vegeta, who is now allot more powerful than he used to be, and can also pop into Super Saiya-jin mode. Vegeta keeps his distance from Goku, but is always very proud. Throughout the rest of the Dragon Ball Z series, new enemys are fought, like Cell, and Majin Boo. Power levels are increased to Super Saiya-jin level 2 and 3. and warriors merging to combine and double their strengths like Gogeta, and Gotenks. New characters arrive like little Goten, Goku's second son who is the spitting image of his father, and #18 who eventually has a child with Krillin who now has a full head of hair. We also get to see Gohan grow up and watch over his little brother, while dodging Videl's jealousy.

Now as for Dragon Ball GT, all I can really give you is an overall look at the story. I will tell you now that the Dragon Ball GT story line was not written by Akira Toriyama. You will find allot of Dragon Ball fans that would care to not acknowledge Dragon Ball GT's excistance. The main theme of Dragon Ball GT is to find the GT balls, I'm not sure if GT is just GT, or if it means Grand Tour (which I have heard numerous times). In the Very first episode of Dragon Ball GT, an old man who hates Goku and wishes to defeat him, asks Shan-ron to make Goku a child again. After that Trunks, little Goku and Gohan's daughter Pan, travel though the stars in a Capsule Corporation space ship searching for the GT balls. I don't know too much detail on the whole thing. Later they meet an evil guy named Bebi (baby) and he does a force merge with Vegeta and becomes extremely powerful. During the course of this fight, Goku transforms into this golden Oozaru, which is extremely powerful, but still not that powerful. Goku later hits Super Saiya-jin level 4 . This is Goku's most powerful form, and though not too much trouble defeats Bebi. I find that later in the Dragon Ball GT series that Vegeta also hits Super Saiya-jin 4, he just doesn't look as good as Goku. At the very end of the GT series, Goku speaks to Shenron who is very mad because of all the wishes that have been made, Shenron tells everyone that there is no longer any need for wishes, all damage to Earth can be repaired by the earthlings themselves. Then Goku somehow swallows, or merges with the Dragon Balls, and they both disappear out of excistance.