Dr. Wheelo
Dr. Wheelo (ウイロー Dokutā Uirō), alternatively known as Dr. W (ダブリュー Dokutā Daburyū) or Dr. Willow, is a scientist who performs experiments in biotechnology. He is the main antagonist of Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest.
Names: Dr Wheelo, Dr. Whiro, Dr. Willow, Dr. Wilo, Dr. W
Origin: Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest (ドラゴンボール このでいヤツ Doragon Bōru Zetto Kono Yo de Ichiban Tsuyoi Yatsu, lit. Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest Guy) (1990)
Gender: Male
Race: Human, Cyborg
Alignment: Evil
Occupation: Scientist
Created By: Takeo Koyama, Akira Toriyama
Concept and Creation
Dr. Wheelo was originally supposed to have organs besides his brain in the cockpit, but it was eventually decided to just make his brain larger. His brain being twice the size of a human head caused the Daizenshuu 6 authors to speculate that Wheelo's brain "evolved".
Appearance
He has a large metal scorpion-like body that holds his brain inside of a glass container. His brain is enormous, roughly twice the size of a human head. He has a mouth with a single red eye above it, two claws, feet with two toes and a giant tail.
Personality
Dr. Wheelo is an intimidating and arrogant being who was once seen as an arrogant lunatic. Due to how the people viewed him in the past, Dr. Wheelo has a strong desire to get revenge. He can also become violent when things don't go according to his plans such as when he was beginning to lose the fight with the Z Fighters, Dr. Wheelo decided to blow up the Earth and find a new planet. Despite his arrogance, he can be cautious, noted when Wheelo warned Dr. Kochin not to underestimate Gohan, indicating he can sense ki energy when his body isn't even engaged. Also noting his respect of Master Roshi as a great martial arts master, Dr. Wheelo is arrogant as far as his intellect goes, but he does acknowledge the strength and skills of his adversaries. Also, a man of science, he treats all his encounters as a means of testing and analysis. At the same time, he is not void of emotion. After completing his test on Xeno Goku and Xeno Vegeta's Super Saiyan 4 might, Dr. W gleefully laughed at being able to begin his next stage.
Biography
Background
Dr. Wheelo's goal is to rule the world using a modified human army via his science. However, he, Dr. Kochin (his assistant), and his entire laboratory become encased by ice, as if his inhumane experiments are being shunned by the heavens. His physical body dies of frostbite, but Kochin is able to save his brain and encase him in a robotic shell.
The World's Strongest
Dr. Kochin comes through for his colleague a second time fifty years later when he gathers the Dragon Balls and wishes for Shenron to thaw him and the fortress. Wheelo tests his Planet Geyser on a vast forested area near South City - turning it into a wasteland. Freed from the ice, Dr. Wheelo becomes obsessed with finding the world's strongest man so that his own brain might be transplanted into it. He heads out with Kochin and the Bio-Men to find this man, and at first, they think it is Master Roshi and take him from Kame House along with Bulma back to their fortress, but when the Brutal Warriors Kishime, Misokatsun, and Ebifurya defeat Roshi, Dr. Wheelo starts to doubt they had the right person.
He then goes after Goku's body, after he arrives to save Roshi and Bulma. When his further attempts to subdue Goku meet with failure (such as using a special device to make Piccolo fight Goku and Gohan), the enraged scientist decides to emerge with his own body and fight him on his own and Dr. Kochin accidentally dies in the resulting reveal. Dr. Wheelo easily takes down Piccolo and then shrugs off a combined Kamehameha from Goku, Gohan, Krillin and Master Roshi before taking down the latter three. He battles Goku one on one and even overpowers him while using the Kaio-Ken x3 but is then overpowered himself when Goku pushes himself to using times four.
Dr. Wheelo decides to just concentrate the energy contained within his laboratory's power core to fire a gigantic wave and destroy the entire planet Earth along with Goku. Gohan, Piccolo and Krillin are able to buy enough time for Goku to be able to form a Spirit Bomb, and he uses it to overpower Dr. Wheelo's attack and destroy the robotic scientist, although not before the latter spitefully curses at Goku.
Trivia
- His name is a pun on "uirō", a type of Japanese cake and Nagoya specialty. However the katakana for his name translates to "willow" - a type of tree - in English. The English dub's name for him bears a resemblance to "Wheel".
- Dr. Wheelo is similar to Dr. Gero as both are brilliant yet evil mad scientists who have had their brains placed into Android bodies by an Android assistant (Dr. Kochin and Android 19) and are skilled in the field of bioengineering.
- Dr. Wheelo is the first movie villain to be voiced by Ward Perry in the Ocean dub, the second was Turles.
- Dr. Wheelo is the first villain to seek to take over Goku's powerful body as his own, the second being Captain Ginyu and the third being Zamasu. Of them, however, he is the only one who does not succeed in any way in this goal.
- Dr. Wheelo is the first villain ever killed by the Spirit Bomb. Goku defeats the main enemy of a movie with the Spirit Bomb three times in a row: Wheelo is the first, with the other two being Turles and Lord Slug.
- In the Funimation dub and Ocean Group dubs of the movie, Dr. Wheelo says two minor swear words. When Goku is gathering energy for a Spirit Bomb, he says "What the hell is he trying to do?" and right when Goku strikes the death blow with his Spirit Bomb, Wheelo says "Damn you Goku!" 'Hell' is often used in Dragon Ball Z due to HFIL also going by that name, but 'damn' is rarely used. Also, in the Ocean dub of the movie, Dr. Wheelo curses more often.
- Wheelo has a single red eye resembling Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey. At one point, there is a close-up of Wheelo's eye in the same way as Hal.
- Frieza's final words in Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’ and Golden Frieza Saga are the same as Dr. Wheelo's. Coincidentally, both were taken down in a similar manner, and both even make a reference to Hell in their penultimate words beforehand (In Frieza's case, telling Vegeta and everyone else to go there without him in reference to his attempt to blow up Earth before Goku intervened).
