The Dark Knight‘s Harvey Dent has a famous philosophy when it comes to heroes and villains, but Dragon Ball offers a counter-argument. Since 1984, Goku has been protecting the universe from all kinds of threats in Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball series. Despite being strong enough to destroy a planet with a single energy blast, Goku has earned a reputation for mercy, with his allies often left exasperated by the Saiyan’s refusal to finish off his opponents.
While DC’s Batman and Dragon Ball‘s cheerful protagonist have precious little in common, Bruce Wayne is similarly averse to killing – even in Christopher Nolan’s grimly realistic Dark Knight trilogy. After the origin story of Batman Begins, Christian Bale’s Bruce begins to contemplate the meaning of being a hero in 2008’s The Dark Knight. At a fancy restaurant, he encounters Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent, and the White Knight of Gotham offers a nugget of wisdom over dinner- “you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” The quote is one of many from The Dark Knight to have seeped into the cultural consciousness over the years.
Dent’s iconic quote was actually about Julius Caesar, but the line is intended to foreshadow the landscape of Nolan’s Gotham. Dent survives his encounter with the Joker and, instead of dying as a heroic DA, he lives to become the villain known as Two-Face. Bruce then repeats Dent’s words when deciding to turn Batman into a villain for the good of the city. Dent’s philosophy can be applied to a range of different fictional heroes, but Dragon Ball has always leaned in the exact opposite direction. The majority of enemies that Goku lets live eventually become his allies, including Pilaf, Tien, Piccolo, Vegeta, Majin Buu, the Androids, Broly and, to a far lesser extent, even Frieza. Those who don’t accept Goku’s offer of mercy, however, die as villains. These include Raditz, Nappa, King Piccolo, Cell, Kid Buu, Zamasu and Moro. Essentially, Dragon Ball says “you either die a villain or live long enough to see yourself become the hero.”
There are a couple of reasons why Dragon Ball and Batman adopt opposing views about heroes becoming villains and vice versa. Although Bruce and Goku both (typically) refuse to go for the kill, the Saiyan is far more interested in redeeming his opponents than the Caped Crusader. Where Goku goes out of his way to offer an olive branch to former foes, Batman’s modus operandi is to give his defeated enemies a one-way ticket to Arkham. And, with all due respect to the famed institution, Gotham City’s asylum has such an appalling track record of rehabilitating its inmates, it’s a miracle the place is still open. The occasions where Batman has actively reached out to redeem DC villains are comparatively few and far between. It’s also worth noting that death is far more fluid in Dragon Ball than the Dark Knight trilogy (although not in the Batman comics where pretty much anything goes). This means a character such as Frieza can die as a villain, get resurrected, and become slightly less of a scumbag than he was before.
Despite a delivery so convincing even Bruce Wayne was sold, Harvey Dent’s philosophy (and Goku’s too for that matter) are inherently flawed, even within their own universes. Christian Bale’s Bruce might want to retire his Batman mantle before turning into a “villain,” but DC comics starring the Dark Knight in his twilight years prove that while Batman might get jaded and grumpy in his old age, he never turns rotten as Harvey Dent predicts. Equally, there are characters in Dragon Ball that are impossible to imagine as anything other than despicable villains. The likes of Cell and Kid Buu could never have found redemption, no matter how long a stay of execution Goku might’ve given them.
