Dende
It has been a while since I've made a PG Proposal, but after having rewatched the Namek Saga of Dragon Ball, I've decided to propose a character that several people may have overlooked: Dende.
What is the Work?
Dragon Ball is a famous anime series, if not one of the most famous, that revolves around the life of Son Goku, a martial artist who goes on a journey to find the Dragon Balls, seven orbs that when gathered together summon Shenron to grant wishes. Goku encounters many enemies yet also makes many friends along the way. He eventually learns of his alien origins as a Saiyan, where the series expands in scope and it's revealed that Piccolo and Kami, two prominent characters, are Namekians, a race of aliens with mystic powers that allowed them to create the Dragon Balls in the first place. The Earth is invaded by two Saiyans, who kill several of Goku's friends, including Piccolo, rendering the Dragon Balls useless. Goku's friends, Krillin and Bulma, and Goku's son, Gohan, go to the Namekian homeworld, Namek, to ask to have their wish granted to resurrect their fallen friends. As it happens, the planet is invaded by Frieza, a galactic tyrant who was also Vegeta's master, who sought to use the Dragon Balls to gain immortality. When Gohan, Krillin and Bulma arrive, they find Frieza and his men terrorizing the populace. Gohan and Krillin stumble across a Namekian village being terrorized and see a young Namekian named Dende who is nearly killed, but they rescue him at the last second.
Who is He? What Has He Done?
As mentioned before, Dende is a Namekian child who lived on Namek when it was invaded by Frieza and his men. He had to watch as Dodoria killed his brethren, his village elder, Moori, and another fellow Namekian child. Dodoria nearly kills Dende, but Gohan comes in to save him, causing Krillin to jump in and distract Dodoria. The two of them flee with Dende and manage to lose Dodoria before they are captured. In gratitude for Gohan and Krillin saving his life, Dende decides to take Krillin to the Grand Elder, the leader of the Namekian people and the one who created the Namekian Dragon Balls. The Grand Elder has a Dragon Ball, which he gives to Krillin while also unlocking his latent potential through a special technique.
From there, Dende remains with the Grand Elder while Krillin brings Gohan to have his potential unlocked. Krillin and Gohan are forced to team up with Vegeta to deal with Frieza's soldiers, particularly his elite fighting squad, the Ginyu Force. Unfortunately, the Guru forgets to tell Krillin and Gohan how to summon Porunga since it's different from how Shenron is summoned. Guru unlocks Dende's hidden potential, giving him healing abilities and slightly boosting his power. Dende flies to Krillin and Gohan's location and meets Krillin along the way. From there, Gohan, Krillin, and Dende decide to covertly summon Porunga while keeping Vegeta out of the loop since he was sleeping and Goku was in the healing chamber.
Dende has Porunga summoned by asking for their wish in Namekian. Once Porunga is awakened, they attempt to revive everyone killed by the Saiyans, but Porunga is limited to reviving one person at a time. Piccolo communicates with Gohan in the afterlife through King Kai, the god who trained Goku and his deceased companions, and tells them to resurrect Piccolo. This would bring Kami back and the Earth's Dragon Balls, so Dende asks Porunga to bring Piccolo back to life. Piccolo also asks to be brought to Namek to fight Frieza himself, so Dende asks Porunga to do this. However, Dende didn't ask specifically to have Piccolo brought to their location and just to Namek. Before they can decide how to use the third wish, Vegeta arrives, furious over having been back-stabbed. Vegeta forces Dende to ask Porunga to give him immortality, but before Dende can make the wish, Porunga dissipates. Guru died of heartbreak over the slaughter of the Namekians, causing the Dragon Balls to be turned to stone. By the time this happens, Frieza has already arrived and furious at his wish being stolen from him. Frieza powers up and prepares to fight the group.
After seeing the rising power of Vegeta, Gohan and Krillin, Frieza reveals his ability to transform. Upon transforming, he decides to target Krillin and impales him. Dende doesn't participate in the combat, but heals Krillin with his new abilities. Gohan is critically injured by Frieza as well, and while the newly revived Krillin distracts Frieza, Dende heals Gohan, too. Before the battle can resume, Piccolo arrives and fights Frieza alone. Unfortunately for Piccolo, Frieza reveals another transformation and proceeds to overwhelm Piccolo. Gohan narrowly saves Piccolo from death thanks to a boost in power. While this happens, Vegeta has Krillin mortally wound him so that Dende can heal him and allow him to return stronger than ever.
Afraid of the rising power of Gohan and Vegeta, Frieza initiates his final transformation. Dende heals Piccolo, and while initially hesitant to heal Vegeta due to having slaughtered everyone in a Namekian village, is convinced to heal him by Piccolo. Unfortunately for Dende, Frieza saw Dende healing Piccolo and killed him to ensure he couldn't heal anyone else. From there, the battle with Frieza resumes. Vegeta is easily overwhelmed and killed by Frieza, Goku finally heals and arrives to fight Frieza alone. Goku begins to be overwhelmed and is forced to resort to his last-ditch move, a Spirit Bomb, to eliminate Frieza. It fails, and Frieza kills Krillin in retaliation. Krillin's death causes Goku to become a Super Saiyan, allowing him to overpower the tyrant. Infuriated by Goku's newfound power, Frieza destroys Namek's core, beginning the planet's destruction.
Throughout the battle between Goku and Frieza, King Kai coordinates with Kami to resurrect everyone killed by Frieza and his men on Namek. King Kai then communicates with Guru to have Dende use Porunga to transport everyone on Namek except Goku and Frieza to Earth. Goku manages to beat Frieza and escape Namek. Then, the Namekians summon Porunga to bring back the Z Fighters killed by the Saiyans, later constructing a new planet for the Namekians to live on. Dende is teleported with the other Namekians to this new Namek.
Dende doesn't make another appearance until the Cell saga, where a bio-android is wreaking havoc on Earth and killing thousands of people. Piccolo fuses with Kami, rendering the Dragon Balls useless, so Goku goes to Namek to request a Namekian to step up and become their new Guardian. Dende eagerly volunteers for the job and returns to Earth with Goku. Dende uses his powers to recreate the Dragon Balls while also increasing the number of wishes that can be granted to three. Dende watches from the Lookout as Gohan fights Cell and defeats him, then heals Gohan after the battle.
Seven years later, Dende is caught up in a battle against Majin Buu, the newest and most deadly enemy faced thus far. Buu arrives on the Lookout, killing nearly all of humanity and everyone on the Lookout. Dende is narrowly saved from death by Mr. Popo, his assistant, and stays on the sidelines for the major battle against Buu. He doesn't really contribute much, but during the conflict, he makes a suggestion to use the Dragon Balls on New Namek to assist in the battle against Buu. It's thanks to Dende's suggestion that the Dragon Balls are used to resurrect the people killed since the 25th Martial Arts Tournament.
Dende makes relatively few appearances besides attending parties with the Z Fighters and watching events unfold. About six to seven years after the events of the Buu Saga, Dende helps Goku with a multiversal tournament, the Tournament of Power, by locating the fighters Goku wishes to recruit. He helps Goku locate Android 17 while also informing Goku of Buu's reincarnation, Uub.
Dende becomes a prominent character again during the Galactic Patrol Prisoner Saga, when an ancient sorcerer named Moro escapes from a galactic prison and seeks to use the Namekian Dragon Balls to restore his magic power. Dende communicates with Piccolo about the situation and thanks to their coordination, they are able to learn about the chaos Moro is causing. Roughly one month later, Moro arrives on Earth to consume the planet and combat the Z-Fighters, specifically Goku and Vegeta, who had been training in preparation for his arrival. When he sees Moro getting the edge over the Z-Fighters, Dende flies down to the battlefield to heal them despite knowing the risks. While Moro initially puts up a barrier upon noting Dende's arrival, a hole is formed in the barrier, allowing Dende to heal Goku. This is critical as it gives Goku the strength to fight Moro at full-power and master Ultra Instinct, providing Goku exactly what he needs to defeat Moro once and for all.
During the Super Hero Saga, when the Red Ribbon Army reappears with new and more powerful androids, Piccolo goes to Dende to ask him to unlock his potential to deal with said androids. While Dende is unable to do this himself, he tells Piccolo that he can summon Shenron to do this for him. Thanks to Dende's support as well as the Dragon Balls he made, Piccolo is given a new form: Orange Piccolo. This new power gives Piccolo the strength he needs to assist Gohan in dealing with the androids, specifically Cell Max.
Admirable Standard
Dragon Ball has an extremely high admirable standard due to the long-running nature of the franchise as well as the scope of the series encompassing multiple planets and universes. However, even among the high admirable standards of the series, I would argue Dende manages to stand out in his own ways despite not personally defeating the villains or contributing in the battles through combat.
The first and most notable concern is how Dende compares to both Kami and Guru. They are both Namekians, both created the Dragon Balls which were used to resurrect many people, and both were individually approved as Pure Good because of it. However, even when compared to those two, I would argue that Dende still manages to stand out from them in his own ways. First one that comes to mind is that unlike Kami and Guru, Dende was only a child when he performed his most admirable deeds and had even lower resources compared to them.
While Kami and Guru did provide great aid to the Z Fighters, were critical in resurrecting the people who several villains had killed throughout the stories, and gave critical power-ups to the heroes in the form of training or unlocking their hidden potential, Dende managed to do several things they didn't. One is his healing abilities: throughout the Namek/Frieza Saga, Dende provided vital support with his healing powers. First, he healed Krillin, and thanks to that, Krillin was able to distract Frieza before he could kill Gohan. When Dende healed Gohan, it gave him another power-up, which allowed him to save Piccolo when Frieza nearly killed him. Afterwards, Dende healed Piccolo, which allowed him to contribute to the battle against Frieza when he stalled him while Goku charged the Spirit Bomb. Finally, Dende healed Vegeta after he'd been critically wounded by Krillin's attack. If Dende hadn't healed Vegeta, then he wouldn't have been strong enough to at least stall Frieza before Goku's arrival, and Vegeta wouldn't have been fast enough to save Gohan when Frieza nearly murdered him again. Each of Dende's healings was critical in the fight against Frieza. Had he not been there or been too late in healing any of them, they would've most definitely died (even though Krillin did die eventually, still would've been sooner, and it wouldn't have triggered Goku's Super Saiyan transformation.) Dende's healing abilities would be critical in the future, since it's what helped Goku defeat Moro after Goku had been drained of energy.
Dende provided great help beyond just his healing abilities. It was thanks to him that they were able to summon Porunga in the first place and use the wishes to resurrect Piccolo and bring him to Namek. It was only because of this that the Earth's Dragon Balls were restored, which would then be used to resurrect everyone killed by Frieza and his men. Dende having Porunga bring Piccolo to Namek allowed the Namekian to help Gohan, Krillin, and Vegeta against Frieza, giving Goku both more time to heal and time to gather energy for the Spirit Bomb. Perhaps most importantly, Dende is the one who made the final wish to transport everyone except Goku and Frieza off Namek. If Dende hadn't been there and been quick enough to make the wish, everyone would've died in Namek's explosion, eliminating both the Earth and Namekian Dragon Balls. While Kami and Guru played their part in this plot, Dende played his own role, and saving all the Namekians wouldn't have been possible without him.
Then there's Dende's status as the new Guardian. Once Piccolo and Kami fused, the Earth's Dragon Balls were rendered inoperable again. It was only thanks to Dende offering his services to become the new Guardian that the Dragon Balls would be recreated. Not only that, but Dende was able to increase the number of wishes Shenron grants to three. This aspect would be critical in the future, since it allowed Krillin to remove the bombs from Android 17 and 18's bodies. Furthermore, the Dragon Balls that Dende created would be used to bring back the thousands of people killed by Cell, as well as the millions of people killed since the 25th World Martial Arts tournament. This carries an equally large impact as all the lives brought back by the Earth's Dragon Balls made by Kami and the Namekian Dragon Balls made by Guru. The Dragon Balls Dende created also gave Piccolo the strength he needed to overpower Gamma 1 and hold Cell Max off long enough for Gohan to power up and deliver the finishing blow. Dende doesn't just help with the creation of the Dragon Balls, either. After the Hyperbolic Time Chamber was destroyed, Dende recreated it and even improved it, allowing for people to stay in the chamber for longer periods of time and without the two-time limit that the first chamber had, allowing for anyone to go in multiple times. Goku and Vegeta would use this many times, such as to train for the Tournament of Destroyers, the conflict against Goku Black, and when Vegeta trained for the Tournament of Power.
In terms of personality, Dende also manages to make his mark. Dende always maintains a grateful, compassionate, and determined demeanor. He wanted to pay Gohan and Krillin back for saving him from Dodoria, healed Vegeta despite him having slaughtered his fellow Namekians, and took up the mantle of Earth's Guardian while doing his best to live up to his responsibilities. He's also willing to put himself in harm's way despite knowing the dangers, as shown when he healed Gohan, Krillin, Piccolo and Vegeta during their fight with Frieza, or when he went down to the battlefield to try and heal the Z-Fighters during their battle with Moro. This shows his bravery and willingness to fight against drastically stronger enemies, a trait not seen in as many of the franchise's characters.
Corrupting Factors
I can think of practically no corrupting factors that Dende possesses. Throughout the story, Dende is always presented as a jubilant, upbeat and morally righteous child who wishes the best for his people and upholds his responsibility as Earth's Guardian. The most I can think of is during the Buu Saga when he gets annoyed by Mr. Satan's antics, but considering how reckless and arrogant he can be, Dende's occasional frustration with Mr. Satan was more than understandable, and it's not as though Dende held a grudge or treated him maliciously. Other than that, Dende is never depicted in a negative manner or anything that could be considered truly corrupting.
Overall Verdict
Despite the astronomically high admirable standard of the Dragon Ball series, I believe Dende manages to stand out due to his pivotal role in saving the Z-Fighters and the Namekians during the Namek/Frieza Saga, recreating the Earth's Dragon Balls by becoming the new Guardian, and continuing to play a supportive role in the future arcs through either his healing, his Guardian magic, or his knowledge. Therefore, I would argue Dende should qualify as the third Namekian creator of Dragon Balls to be Pure Good.