Turles

Turles
“ You poor fool. With the power I possess, you don't stand a chance against me! You're going to die just like this planet! It'll be your grave! But I'll give you a decent burial at least. After all, you're a Saiyan. „ ― Turles to Goku
Vital statistics
Names	Turles, Tullece
Gender	Male
Race	Saiyan/Saiyajin
Occupation	Space Pirate
Origin	Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might (ドラゴンボールＺゼット 地ち球きゅうまるごと超ちょう決けっ戦せん Doragon Bōru Zetto　Chikyū Marugoto Chōkessen, lit. Dragon Ball Z: A Super Decisive Battle for Earth) (1990)
Alignment	Evil
Age	Over 26 years old (Older than Goku)
Created By	Akira Toriyama, Takao Koyama
Height	{{{height}}}
Weight	{{{weight}}}

Turles (ターレス Tāresu) is a Saiyan who was once a member of the Saiyan Army under the Frieza Force, but he went rogue and off into the cosmos to conquer planets for himself with his group of henchmen known as the Turles Crusher Corps. He is the main antagonist of Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might. He bears an uncanny resemblance to Goku.

Appearance

Aside from a different skin tone and retaining his Saiyan tail, Turles looks exactly the same as Goku does, even virtually identical height and build. Their slight difference in hairstyle is that Turles is given at least two "devil horns" (this spikiness of his hair is excluded for Ghost Turles' appearance in Dragon Ball: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans remake and some Dragon Ball Heroes trailers, but Turles still has this in every other appearance). In the Dragon Ball Z: Anime Film Comics, it is stated that the reason why Turles and Goku look alike is that the facial patterns of each warrior are similar within the low-rank Saiyans. In the film itself, Turles says that he looks like Goku because they are low-class and because the low-class don't have many distinct physical looks.

Turles wears gray and black Battle Armor. Out of all the low-class soldiers wearing scouters in the series, Turles is the only one whose Scouter lens is red, looking similar to the one worn by Vegeta in his first appearance. Turles is also shown briefly wearing a white cape similar to Piccolo's. In the Universe Creation Saga, Turles is shown to have discarded his scouter and wears a black cape instead.

In the poster for the showing of The Tree of Might, Pink and Kennosuke-sama at the 1990 Toei Anime Fair, Turles is featured with Battle Armor that is white with a dark blue chest plate and gauntlets, and yellow shoulder pads, similar to Vegeta's original appearance in the Saiyan Saga.

Personality

Turles is shown to be a merciless, prideful and confident individual. His cruel treatment of Gohan proves that he cares little to nothing for others, shown again when he casually dismisses the deaths of his loyal subordinates at the hands of Goku. As such, his lack of empathy was such that, when Goku accuses Turles of not knowing the difference between good and evil, Turles reveals he has a firm grasp on what good and evil is, yet he doesn't even care about it. As with many other villains before and after him, his main objective is to conquer the universe, though he plans on doing so by using his Tree of Might, even if it means killing billions of innocent people in the process. He also seems to find pleasure in seeing others suffer, as to how he laughed when Goku was being attacked by his own son. According to Old Kai in Xenoverse 2, Turles' heart is essentially a "ball of pure evil" which makes sense as he is essentially Goku's polar opposite as Goku is known to possess a heart that is pure good. It also makes sense as Turles understands the difference between good and evil yet chooses to do evil.

Turles has a warped interest in having Gohan join him as he recognizes the boy's true potential much like Garlic Jr. did in Dead Zone. He even seems to ignore Gohan's half Saiyan status, though he may be unaware the boy's mother is not a Saiyan given that Gohan is the only hybrid born with a tail which may cause Turles to mistakenly believe he is pure Saiyan, or Gohan's great potential makes him simply overlook this fact. However, he does not care at all for Gohan's wellbeing and presumably only wishes to use his power for his own benefit given his cruel treatment of the boy and willingness to kill him if need be. Additionally he is shown to potentially view any Saiyan or powerful warrior he encounters as a potential underling or partner, given that he tends to try and recruit those he encounters such as Gohan. Even stating that fellow Saiyans should work together, indicating his seeking out potential Saiyan allies may be driven out of a desire for Saiyan camaraderie which he may miss from his days as a member of the Saiyan Army. Due to his Saiyan pride, even though he himself is a Saiyan Army deserter, he considers Kakarot a traitor to the Saiyan race due to Goku's rejecting the violent planet conquering ways of the Saiyans and his compassion for the weak. This makes Turles similar to Raditz, as they both despise Goku's compassionate views.

Interestingly he does seem to possess some respect for his ally Lord Slug, though has no desire to share control of the universe with him unless he was willing to work under him though he notes that fellow wanderers like them should stick together indicating he sees Slug as a kindred spirit as they are both members of their race who embrace evil. He retains his desire for Gohan to join him though after eating the Demon Realm enhanced Fruit of the Tree of Might he reconsidered the idea after asking Gohan to join him as he states he'd be a fool to take on the child of the traitorous Kakarot as he is just not that desperate indicating he sees the folly of trying to recruit the son of Goku who rejects his violent Saiyan Heritage. However even with Saiyans who share his evil nature and views, he may choose not to ask them to join him especially if they look down on him which is likely due to it being a reminder of his time as a low-class soldier, thus explaining why he never sought out the other known survivors Prince Vegeta, Nappa, and Raditz as he likely knew full well of the Saiyan Prince's elitism would make it unlikely for him to view Turles as anything but a low-class warrior and had no intention of serving under Vegeta as Nappa and Raditz did. He has demonstrated contempt for Goku, referring to him as a low-class warrior, despite being a low-class warrior himself. He also shows some resentment toward elite warriors, as in Raging Blast 2, when he defeats Nappa, he will remark that he expected more from an elite warrior. This suggests that Turles is very bitter about his own status as a low-class warrior and detests elite Saiyans for looking down on him, yet still enjoys ridiculing other low-class Saiyans for being weaker than him.

Additionally despite his evil and violent Saiyan nature, he does possess a certain among of calmness and restraint even refusing to utilize his Great Ape form due to his inability to control himself despite the form's power and approaches situations more methodically even playing the role of peacemaker when Lord Slug gets into an argument with Mira in Xenoverse 2 preventing a fight so they can get down to business and prevents their alliance with the Time Breakers from falling apart due to in-fighting, a trait which is somewhat rare among Saiyans due to their aggression and love of conflict making them more prone to joining in and starting a fight. This calm and methodical approach also serves as an evil analog to Goku's calm laid back personality. Presumably, it is this calm methodical approach that has allowed him to survive despite his low-class status due to it making him less prone to recklessly charging into battle and more careful when dealing with those stronger than himself such as Frieza or Mira. He sees the Legendary Super Saiyan as a loose cannon in Xenoverse 2 as he believes true Saiyan warriors have finesse, a belief the evil Legendary Super Saiyan himself disagreed with, countering Turles’ views by asserting that Saiyans only truly care for battle. This belief in finesse likely explains Turles' tendency to be more methodical. However, as with most villains, his sadism and arrogance tend to get the better of him, which causes him to overestimate himself and underestimate his enemies at times.

Additionally in contrast to Goku who prefers to train to grow stronger (though Goku will occasionally use other methods such as the Ultra Divine Water and Super Saiyan God ritual if he needs to acquire more strength and power than normal training would allow or to acquire it in a timely manner), Turles prefers to utilize the Tree of Might and its Fruit as a shortcut to increasing power and is willing to destroy as many planets as it takes to grow the Tree of Might in order to gain its strength enhancing fruit. The power granted by the fruit also makes him arrogant as he believes that he can simply surpass those stronger than him by consuming the fruit which leads to his defeat when Goku used the very energy that the Tree of Might had drained from the Earth to create a Spirit Bomb destroy both Turles and the Tree itself, thus it was his own source of power that leads to his defeat.

Biography

Background

Turles is a lower-class Saiyan warrior. Though he appears to be around the same age as Goku, Turles is older. Some media refers to Turles as being Goku's older brother, while others indicate there is no relation between the two. The Supplemental Daizenshuu adds that when Goku was born, Turles should have already been a first-rate warrior. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 states he used to work for the Saiyan Army under Frieza before leaving him to found his own group, and it is implied by Nappa and Raditz that he was apparently sent away on some secret mission, presumably before he chose to abandon the Saiyan Army and set out on his own. Vegeta also states that he was a troublemaker who never learned to obey his superiors, thus implying that he was an insubordinate soldier during his time in the Saiyan Army.  Turles had presumably already left Planet Vegeta on his own accord long before it was destroyed by Frieza, though Raditz and Nappa attribute his survival due to being on his secret mission at the time, thus presumably the secrecy of his mission was well as the Genocide of the Saiyans may have allowed him to go off on his own, though it's also possible that they simply assumed he was still in the process of completing it when Planet Vegeta was destroyed, unaware that he used the mission's secrecy to desert the Saiyan Army.

At some point he learned of the Fruit of the Tree of Might, a holy fruit from the Tree of Might that requires the energy of a whole planet to produce and is normally reserved for divine beings and gods such as the Core Person (in the Funimation dub of Tree of Might this was changed to it being reserved for Eternal Dragons) according to King Kai in the original Japanese dub and the explanation of the fruit by Old Kai in Xenoverse 2 (as he states that Supreme Kais may also partake of the fruit and also implies that other deities are permitted to consume it) which he somehow acquired during his travels, though how this occurred has yet to be explained. Regardless of how he acquired it, he was able to use extract from the Tree of Might to revive two members of the extremely intelligent Beenz people from fossils, the brothers Rasin and Lakasei. The two brothers then built Turles' spaceship and the rest of their ordinance.

Wanting to do as he pleased in the universe, Turles traveled around destroying planets, eating the fruits of the Tree of Might and gaining more allies. Turles hoped to one day acquire enough power using the fruit to challenge the Galactic Emperor and his former boss, Frieza for control of the universe. The medley of ragtag thugs he gathered are called the Turles Crusher Corps. who use the Seeds of Might to grow the Tree of Might in order to consume its fruit, as well as destroying any planets they find unsuitable for growing it according to Turles in Xenoverse 2. He and his men all got stronger by repeatedly planting the Tree on planets and eating its fruit. At one point his group invaded planet Nutts where Amond had been imprisoned after being arrested by the Galactic Patrol. Turles' invasion allowed Amond to escape during which he meets Turles, who recruited Amond. His recruitment of Amond likely increased his group's notoriety among the Galactic Patrol as Turles is stated to be a wanted criminal by Jaco in Xenoverse 2. Nearly thirty years after Planet Vegeta's destruction, Turles and his squad of henchmen make their way toward Earth to check up on the Saiyan called Kakarot. Supplemental Daizenshuu says that since Turles knew in advance that Goku was on Earth, he might have had an interest in the famously brave Bardock and his youngest son Kakarot.

Dragon Ball Z

The Tree of Might

Turles seeks out a planet that he would be able to plant the seed of the Tree of Might on, so he can eat the fruit and become exponentially stronger than before.

After his arrival to Earth, Turles mainly watches the battle between his men and the Z-Fighters from his spaceship. He does not appear until he sees Gohan defeating one of his men single-handedly. He muses at the kid's strength, but soon realizes that he is the son of Kakarot (Goku). Gohan is shocked to find that he has almost an identical appearance to his father, and is also, in fact, a Saiyan. Turles asks him to join his team, but Gohan refuses his offer. Piccolo soon comes to Gohan's rescue, but is defeated easily.

Turles soon sees that Gohan has grown back his tail. He quickly creates a Power Ball and forces Gohan to look at it. Helpless, Gohan transforms into a Great Ape and goes on a rampage, attacking Goku. He abruptly stops when he sees his friend Icarus in the area. He stops and, thanks to his innocence, plays around with Icarus. However, Turles attacks him, provoking Gohan. To Turles' surprise, Gohan is able to control himself and specifically attack him, but before Turles is able to retaliate and kill him, Goku cuts his tail off, causing him to shrink back to normal. Goku promises his son that he will defeat Turles.

Having defeated the Z-Fighters with ease, Turles' men all attack Goku. Watching from the sidelines, Turles is ambushed by Piccolo, but is able to survive his Special Beam Cannon at point blank range, and defeats him with a single blast. Using the Kaio-ken, Goku kills all of Turles' men with a single hit each, all of them falling at once. Much to Turles' anger, Goku's power continues to increase, and they begin their fight, during which Turles realizes that he has underestimated Goku.

Eventually, Turles successfully grabs and eats one of the fruits, which causes his strength to increase dramatically. Even with the Kaio-ken x10 (x20 in the Funimation dub), Goku is outmatched by Turles and nearly killed. With Goku apparently finished, Turles makes quick work of the other Z-Fighters and destroys a weak Spirit Bomb formed from what little energy remained on Earth. He then walks underneath the Tree to gloat about his victory and eats another Fruit, growing even stronger. However, Goku gathers the energy for the next Spirit Bomb from the Tree of Might itself and confronts Turles once more. Shocked to see him still alive, Turles and Goku have a tense standoff before blasting each other simultaneously. Empowered by all of Earth's energy, Goku's Spirit Bomb instantly overpowers Turles, carrying him up inside the Tree of Might's trunk, causing an explosion that annihilates both him and the Tree, returning all of their stolen energy to Earth.

Trivia

• The translation of Turles' Japanese name ターレス, Tāresu is a pun on the word lettuce. If the first two syllables of his Japanese name are rearranged, it becomes レタース, retāsu. Ignoring the elongated "a" sound, it becomes the accurate Japanese title for "lettuce", レタス retasu.
• In the November 1991 issue of V-Jump, it is noted that Turles is Goku's older brother. There are also several statements that Turles is the brother of Goku given in international dubs and surrounding media. These include the AB Groupe dub, the Danish dub, the French dub, and a line from Bardock during the German dub of Bardock - The Father of Goku. A booklet given to Japanese attendees of the original movie included a statement that such visual similarities were common among Saiyans of the same rank. However, the Dragon Ball Z Movie 7 "Film Anime Comic", which featured a family tree of several of the main Saiyan characters, places Turles on his own to one side.
  • In Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, Turles also notes their resemblance is due to them being low-class Saiyans. Additionally, his special dialog with Bardock indicates they are total strangers.
  • In Dragon Ball Fusions, Turles is also depicted as being unrelated to the various incarnations of Goku, Raditz, Bardock, and Gine, though he and Raditz can perform an EX-Fusion due to their shared affinity as ruthless low class warriors.
  • It should be noted that the Saiyan scientist Nion from Dragon Ball Super: Broly shares her facial features with nine of her fellow Saiyan scientists, indicating her case may be another example of visual similarities being common among Saiyans of the same rank.
• In the AB Groupe dub, Turles claims that he had just eaten a fruit from the Tree of Might (called the "Sacred Tree" in this version) after Goku defeats his henchmen. In all the other English dubs, as well as the original Japanese dub, he only consumes its fruit while fighting Goku.
• Turles is the only character who actually manages to destroy a Spirit Bomb. Even Frieza and Kid Buu, both of whom are significantly stronger than Turles, only managed to slow it down or repel it outright, respectively. However, it should be noted that the Tree of Might had drained most of the energy from Earth so there was very little energy used to make it. Also, the Spirit Bombs used on Frieza and Kid Buu contained much more energy, the Large Spirit Bomb contained energy from Namek and its surrounding planets, while the Super Spirit Bomb contained the energy of everyone on Earth, New Namek, and Other World. Thus Turles was only able to destroy a Spirit Bomb created from what little energy remained on Earth and Turles was later killed along with the Tree of Might by a Spirit Bomb created by the Earth's energy contained in the Tree of Might itself.
• In some games, Turles will have a special dialog where he will express surprise at seeing Goku's Super Saiyan form and in several games it is implied that he realizes the true nature of the form.
  • In Xenoverse 2 and Raging Blast 2, he has a special dialog with Teen Gohan where he will assume that Gohan had simply dyed his hair blonde.
  • Interestingly, despite other Saiyans such as Bardock, Raditz, and Nappa acquiring some form of the Super Saiyan transformation in other media, Turles himself has yet to acquire his own Super Saiyan form.
• In some games, Turles' alternate costumes have his Battle Armor colored similar to Tora's and a Scouter with a lens colored similar to Tarble's.
• In the original Japanese dub and many international dubs, Turles shares the same voice actor as Goku or has a similar voice, although this is not the case in the three official North American The Tree of Might dubs.
• In the edited three-part Saban dub, Turles mutters to himself "What? A Spirit Bomb? Huh? It can't be!" moments before Goku uses the attack. This would imply that Turles had encountered the technique before or met King Kai, although it should be noted that the line is not present in any other version.
• In the early English dubs, the gray parts of Turles' armor appear to be red lilac, due to the saturation filters Funimation applied to the original Japanese footage. Then the gray parts of Turles' armor appear to be violet blue in Funimation's subsequent Blu-ray releases.
• In the DBH trailers and Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans remake, Turles lacks the "devil horn" hairs on his head.
• In the debut episode of another evil Goku counterpart, lettuce appears heavily in the episode, likely as a reference to Turles (as Super tends to reference past characters' name puns).
• Despite both being evil counterparts of Goku, Goku Black is shown to be disgusted by Turles' barbaric Saiyan personality in Xenoverse 2. However, during the story, they technically become allies when Black summons Turles along with other villains.