We know that Son Goku, the protagonist of Akira Toriyama’s cult classic manga Dragon Ball, is one of the strongest characters in the history of fiction. The guy has grown a lot since his debut and the manga has devotedly followed his evolution from a whimsical child to one of the universe’s strongest warriors. But, even Goku is not invincible and there have been instances where he would lose in a fight. In this article, we are going to determine whether Son Goku is stronger than Turles, his Saiyan rival from the movie Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might.
Goku is able to defeat Turles, as was shown in the Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might movie. Turles heavily underestimated Goku, as the latter was able to overcome his men with relative ease. He then ate the Fruit of the Tree of Might, but even that was not enough for him to finally defeat Goku, as the protagonist managed to not only defeat him, but also kill him with a powerful attack.
Now that you have the short version of the answer, the rest of the article is going to be divided into three sections, with the first two introducing the characters, their powers, and their abilities. In the end, we’re going to give our final verdict and explanation on why Goku was ultimately able to defeat Turles in a direct fight.
Turles and his powers
Turles is a Saiyan deserter from Frieza’s army who later became a space pirate. A sinister character with a great physical resemblance to Son Goku who, together with the help of a gang of henchmen, planted a diabolical seed on the planets that gave a fruit capable of giving tremendous power to whoever tasted it, this seed gave a tree that destroyed to the planet by spending some time absorbing all of its energy.
Despite being a low-class Saiyan, Turles’ fighting level is higher than other Saiyans of the same class. He is able to effortlessly outmatch Piccolo (whose power was 18,000 units according to Turles’ tracker) even without eating the Fruit of the Tree of Might.
According to a booklet for the movie, Turles has a fighting level of 19,000 without having eaten the Fruit of the Tree of Might, although he was able to dodge Goku’s attacks, which at the time was increasing in power (starting from 30,000 and increasing, according to Tracker’s reading) and was forced back to seek the fruit that would grant him strength.
After eating the fruit, its power and speed increase sharply, surpassing Goku’s Kaio-ken x10. It is not known for sure how much his power increased: it was probably more than ten times as Goku outclassed him before he ate the fruit and was then outclassed by Turles even though he used Kaio-ken x10.
He returns to eat another Fruit of the Tree of Might later, but his power is not put to the test, as he was no match for the Genki-dama that Goku armed with the energy of the same fruits. In the OVA Dragon Ball: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans, being one of the Ghost Warriors, Turles can fight Gohan in Super Saiyan, although his power increase may be due to Dr. Lychee increasing his powers when he created them.
Son Goku and his powers
Son Goku is the main protagonist of the manga Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Super, and their animated adaptations, Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z / Dragon Ball Kai, then Dragon Ball Super, as well as the alternate animated sequel to the first two series, Dragon Ball GT.
Son Goku is a born martial arts expert and fan, managing to read the movements of his opponents and get used to their attacks and speed. Usually in combat, Goku reserves large amounts of strength and restrains himself to the point of seemingly decreasing his ki level to absurdly low points in order to save energy.
However, he also demonstrated the ability to unleash all his power at just the right time as he launches a physical attack. As a Saiyan, Goku is able to use the Saiyan Power, which allows him to surpass his strength whenever he takes large amounts of damage or fatal injuries. Goku being an alien also has enhanced senses of smell, taste and sight, which further increases his combat senses.
Son Goku is one of the strongest characters in the series; he rivals Vegeta for the position of Warrior Z and the most powerful warrior of Universe 7. At birth, his power was two units.
Upon arriving on Planet Earth at the age of three, Grandpa Gohan realizes that he is incredibly strong and that it would have been dangerous for him if he were not an expert in martial arts. Thus, he was in charge of molding and training him in martial arts.
Turles vs. Goku: Who would win?
We could, actually, give you a proper analysis of the things we have written above but that wouldn’t really do the trick when compared with what we have decided to go with. Namely, as Goku and Turles have, indeed, fought in the movie, we thought that it would be better for us to just recap this fight for you and show you how Goku was ultimately able to overpower Turles.
When Gohan turned into his Giant Ape form, Turles almost killed him. Goku entered the scene and cut off Gohan’s tail before Turles could actually kill him. Goku then swore revenge on Turles for having harmed his son. With the Z Fighters defeated very easily, the Saiyan pirate’s men attack Goku.
Watching on the sidelines, Turles is ambushed by Piccolo, but is able to survive the Makankosappo. After this, Turles easily defeats Piccolo. With a single Kaio-ken, Goku defeats all of Turles’s men with a single blow. To Turles’ anger, Goku’s power continues to increase. Soon Turles realizes that he had highly underestimated Goku’s power and resorts to eating the Fruit of the Tree of Might.
Finally, Turles successfully grabs and eats a Fruit of the Tree of Might, which significantly increases his strength. Even with a Kaio-ken x10 his strength is normal and even with a Genki-dama created with the little energy of the planet, Goku is unable to defeat Turles. Finally, when everything seemed lost, Goku intelligently begins to absorb the energy of the Tree itself, thereby creating a powerful Genki-dama, which he throws at Turles.
Turles, at the same time, launches an attack to counter it, but in the end, ends up being hit by Goku’s attack, which definitively kills him along with the Tree, thus ending the battle and saving the Earth.
And this is how it all played out. Despite the enhancements, Turles was unable to defeat Goku, and this is something that the numbers have confirmed as well. This is why Goku is the clear winner in this one.