Gobu is a character from The Legend of Tarzan who makes his first and only appearance in the episode "Tarzan and the Enemy Within."
Role in the series
The Legend of Tarzan
"Tarzan and the Enemy Within"
While Terk eats termites from inside a log, she and Tarzan find a pack of hyenas surrounding Gobu, who has been injured from them. After Tarzan and Terk fight off the hyenas, making them go away, the two take Gobu to Professor Porter, who wraps a bandage on Gobu's injured left leg. Gobu tells Tarzan that he has been looking for him, stating that he and his family heard stories about a great hairless ape and that his leader sent him to see if the stories were true. Tarzan suggests that Gobu stays with his family while he heals.
Tarzan, Terk, and Tantor take Gobu to the other gorillas to make Gobu feel welcomed. When Terk sees two female gorillas walking with Gobu, she gets jealous and decides to ask the male gorilla if he would like to go to the watering hole to flee mud at warthogs. Before Gobu can agree, the two female gorillas convince him that Terk is too tomboyish to go out with him. Therefore, Terk goes to Jane to help her become more lady-like.
Meanwhile, after Tarzan shows Gobu his skill of shooting a spear and walks off, Fungi, a monkey from Gobu's family, appears and tells Gobu that his leader is impatiently waiting for him to return. The gorilla insists that these things take time and Fungi tells him that he's wanted back home and then leaves. When Tarzan returns with three spears filled with fruits, he and Gobu hear Tantor screaming as if he's in danger. They find Tantor stuck in tar. Tarzan uses his natural scream to get his family to show up and help him rescue Tantor using vines. When they are struggling to get Tantor out of the tar, Gobu decides to help and they finally succeed.
Later, Gobu tells Tarzan that his family isn't as fun and friendly as Tarzan's, making the savage man suggest that the gorilla can become part of his family. Later that night, Fungi returns and Gobu tells him that he is joining Tarzan's family and therefore not going back to his. But when Fungi warns him what would happen to his own family, Gobu reluctantly decides to go back, with Tarzan accompanying him. After letting Tarzan know, Tarzan decides take Gobu back to his family. After Tarzan and Gobu leave, Terk shows up looking more girly, much to Flynt and Mungo's surprise. After they tell Terk that Gobu left with Tarzan to go back to his family, the female gorilla decides to follow them.
The next day, Tarzan and Gobu arrive at Gobu's family and Tarzan discovers that Gobu's leader is Tublat. Gobu tells Tarzan that Tublat killed his family's former leader and taken over a few months ago. Tublat makes Gobu's family attack Tarzan, but the man manages to escape them. Tublat then reveals that the gorillas caught Terk. He shows Tarzan that he is about to throw Terk to the waterfall.
When Tarzan returns to Gobu's family, Gobu makes Tarzan walk with him. Tarzan tells Gobu that he doesn't have to take orders from Tublat, but the gorilla tells him that Tublat is stronger than he is. Tarzan reminds him that there's strength in numbers, meaning that it takes more than one gorilla to fight off Tublat.
When Tublat is about to attack Tarzan, Gobu, taking Tarzan's advice, convinces his family that they are stronger than Tublat and they attack the evil gorilla. This makes Tublat and Fungi leave. Later, while Tarzan tells Gobu that he would make a fine leader to his family, Terk tries to impress the male gorilla by being more lady-like, but Gobu prefers Terk the way she really is: tough. The two gorillas then go to the watering hole to fling mud at warthogs.
Trivia
- While Gobu did not originate from the original Tarzan novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, he may have been inspired by Taug, a male ape from the short story "Tarzan's First Love" from the Tarzan novel Jungle Tales of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs, who serves as a rival of a teenaged Tarzan for the romantic affections of Teeka the female ape (who served as a loose inspiration for Disney's version of Terk) in a similar fashion to Gobu's debut episode. It's possible that Gobu is the Disney equivalent of Taug.
- Ironically in the Disney adaptation, it is Terk (whom is female in this version) fighting the two female gorillas Munka and Teeka over the romantic affections of Gobu (Taug's Disney equivalent), instead of the other way round.
- The identity of the original leader of Gobu's gorilla tribe before it's death from the hands of Tublat is unknown.
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