What was Piccolo's strategy when he got hit by Gero?

[Doctor.]

When #19 was stealing Goku's Ki, Piccolo let himself get hit by Gero. He said it was on purpose, so that he could catch them by surprise later, this until Vegeta interrupted the battle at least. But... this makes no sense. Goku was dying. If Piccolo had enough strength to kill Gero, he should have just caught him by surprise right then and there, kicked him out of the way, then saved Goku. Letting himself get hit was useless.

We know that the out of universe answer here is that Toriyama probably didn't think that Piccolo's power was gonna be superior to Gero's at that point, but I'm looking for an in-universe one here.

[FoolsGil]

Piccolo was saving face because he didn't see Gero's attack, and it hurt really bad so he stayed on the ground for a little while. He's a liar, sir.

[Super Saiyan Turlast x4]

I always thought it was to distract the Androids, but #19 didn't seem to care.

[Wizard Sesame]

I always thought that was the exact spot where Androids 19 and 20 became secondary android antagonists. Beforehand, Android 20 really did knock Piccolo down, but afterwards, the line was added to make it seem like Piccolo was stronger than he had previously been and could therefore be a threat to Android 20. Just my opinion.


In universe, I'm sure he was hoping that Android 20 would think of him as defeated (and therefore turn his attention to the other Z-Fighters), so he could quickly lower his ki and sneak up on Android 19 before Android 20 realized that he wasn't actually defeated.

[Kuririn Fan]

I always found it annoying when the out of universe answer is used for something like this. Piccolo said that he was acting hurt so that he can save Goku when they're not looking, 19 and 20 seemed strong at that point because Goku had trouble with 19 and they couldnt sense their Ki so they didnt know that wasnt true, then Vegeta messed up his plan.

[nickzambuto]

Piccolo was stronger than Gero, but he had no idea how much stronger. Of course we know in hindsight that Piccolo can totally curbstomp Gero and rip his arm off, but at the time, just letting himself take the hit was a gamble. I would assume Piccolo guessed he was stronger than Gero based off how easily a weak Goku was dominating 19, then comparing his own power to Goku and assuming 19 and 20 were relatively close, but it was still a huge gamble because for all he knew, Gero could have been 5x stronger than 19. But Piccolo went ahead and made the assumption that he could take Gero, so at that point he had two options: attack Gero, and risk the two being even or Gero possibly even being stronger, then getting stuck, or the much more clever option, purposely take only one attack, which even if Gero was stronger, likely wouldn't have knocked Piccolo out instantly unless Gero was a LOOOOT stronger, then when he sees an opening when nobody is paying attention, spring on 19.

Pretty pragmatic if you ask me. What was his other options? Again, fighting Gero outright risked himself being weaker. At least this way, if Piccolo found himself weaker than Gero upon taking the blast, he wouldn't be targeted any further. So then he's on the ground, just waiting for his chance to strike, I'm sure an alien warrior/former demon king grandmaster of martial arts is better at seeing openings than any of us, so we can't really criticize him for not striking instantly.

[Lord Beerus]

He gave Dr Gero as false sense of superiority. That's the in-universe explanation I've always rolled with.

[dario03]

He gave Dr Gero as false sense of superiority. That's the in-universe explanation I've always rolled with.

Yeah it could be that he wanted to be able to sneak attack 19 or 20 so that he could one shot one of them. Which I think would of been fine if he had only been slightly stronger than 20. However later on we see him smack 20 around easily so he probably could of just smashed through him head on. But I guess he was playing it safe since he didn't know exactly how powerful they were, they could steal energy, and 19 had already stole a decent bit of energy from Goku.

[apex_pretador]

IMO, this was his strategy :

GOKU, your power is being drained, I'm coming

Well, you can't

(fires blast)
Piccolo falls down.

piccolo, no. Lets help them

(turns around) like you can, lol >you are jokes vs me, remember that.

Piccolo gets up & knocks #19 away as gero's face is towards humans. He tells yamcha or krillin to take goku home, while he prepares to fight #19 & #20 with gohan's help.

[Khin]

He gave Dr Gero as false sense of superiority. That's the in-universe explanation I've always rolled with.

This actually makes sense since Piccolo can't sense the Android's Ki because they have no Ki to begin with.I think Piccolo only realized that he was superior to Dr.Gero when Vegeta was beating up No.19 or how Gero didn't dare fight Vegeta.

[rereboy]

I always found it annoying when the out of universe answer is used for something like this. Piccolo said that he was acting hurt so that he can save Goku when they're not looking, 19 and 20 seemed strong at that point because Goku had trouble with 19 and they couldnt sense their Ki so they didnt know that wasnt true, then Vegeta messed up his plan.

Except that doesn't make any sense. He didn't inform the others of his plan with telepathy so, obviously, at least some of them (namely Gohan) gathered around Piccolo thinking that he was really hurt and remained there. Since #20 was now paying close attention to all of them after Piccolo's attempt, the fact that at least some of them were next to Piccolo ensures that Piccolo would never have been able to sneak past #20 unnoticed. And obviously, #19 would not be distracted by what was going on with them.

So, a very, very bad plan with almost no chance of success. The stupidest Piccolo moment in the series.

[apex_pretador]

I always found it annoying when the out of universe answer is used for something like this. Piccolo said that he was acting hurt so that he can save Goku when they're not looking, 19 and 20 seemed strong at that point because Goku had trouble with 19 and they couldnt sense their Ki so they didnt know that wasnt true, then Vegeta messed up his plan.

Except that doesn't make any sense. He didn't inform the others of his plan with telepathy so, obviously, at least some of them (namely Gohan) gathered around Piccolo thinking that he was really hurt and remained there. Since #20 was now paying close attention to all of them after Piccolo's attempt, the fact that at least some of them were next to Piccolo ensures that Piccolo would never have been able to sneak past #20 unnoticed. And obviously, #19 would not be distracted by what was going on with them.

So, a very, very bad plan with almost no chance of success. The stupidest Piccolo moment in the series.

See my post above with explanation of his strategy.

[TheUltimateVegito]

I always found it annoying when the out of universe answer is used for something like this. Piccolo said that he was acting hurt so that he can save Goku when they're not looking, 19 and 20 seemed strong at that point because Goku had trouble with 19 and they couldnt sense their Ki so they didnt know that wasnt true, then Vegeta messed up his plan.

Except that doesn't make any sense. He didn't inform the others of his plan with telepathy so, obviously, at least some of them (namely Gohan) gathered around Piccolo thinking that he was really hurt and remained there. Since #20 was now paying close attention to all of them after Piccolo's attempt, the fact that at least some of them were next to Piccolo ensures that Piccolo would never have been able to sneak past #20 unnoticed. And obviously, #19 would not be distracted by what was going on with them.

So, a very, very bad plan with almost no chance of success. The stupidest Piccolo moment in the series.

Piccolo didn't need to inform the others, it's better that he saved time and initiate his plan to save Goku. Piccolo was on the ground which distracted #20 from Goku, Gero was a good enough distance from Piccolo for him to be able to charge and save Goku before Gero can catch up/realize what's happened.

Pretty smart move if you ask me.

[Doctor.]

Piccolo didn't need to inform the others, it's better that he saved time and initiate his plan to save Goku. Piccolo was on the ground which distracted #20 from Goku, Gero was a good enough distance from Piccolo for him to be able to charge and save Goku before Gero can catch up/realize what's happened.

Pretty smart move if you ask me.

But... Piccolo was stronger than Gero. He could have killed him at ANY time. Letting himself get hit only allowed #19 to suck more of Goku's Ki and potentially get to a strength level way above everyone else.

[TheUltimateVegito]

Piccolo didn't need to inform the others, it's better that he saved time and initiate his plan to save Goku. Piccolo was on the ground which distracted #20 from Goku, Gero was a good enough distance from Piccolo for him to be able to charge and save Goku before Gero can catch up/realize what's happened.

Pretty smart move if you ask me.

But... Piccolo was stronger than Gero. He could have killed him at ANY time. Letting himself get hit only allowed #19 to suck more of Goku's Ki and potentially get to a strength level way above everyone else.

But he wasn't sure of #20's full capabilities. What if Gero had greater Ki Absorbing abilities than #19? That would screw up everything. Piccolo is the kind of guy that wouldn't jump into the fight like that if he has a better option.

Piccolo was able to sense how much Ki was being drained from Goku, so he'd be able to estimate whether or not allowing #19 to absorb Goku's energy like that would backfire on him.

[NitroEX]

As stupid as the English dub explanation was, I find the idea of Piccolo being momentarily distracted by Vegeta's approaching Ki more plausible than some failed distraction attempt. Of course they botched the dialogue in the Z dub by saying that he "got in the way" but I always rationalized it as it just being his Ki rather than a physical interference.

[rereboy]

Piccolo didn't need to inform the others, it's better that he saved time and initiate his plan to save Goku. Piccolo was on the ground which distracted #20 from Goku, Gero was a good enough distance from Piccolo for him to be able to charge and save Goku before Gero can catch up/realize what's happened.

Pretty smart move if you ask me.

- The only way Piccolo's plan could work would be if Piccolo had told them his plan so that they could draw Gero's attention away from Piccolo once Piccolo went down so that Piccolo could slip past Gero (since Gero would think that Piccolo was done for and thus wouldn't be watching him). Instead, since he didn't inform them, once Piccolo went down, at least some of them were right beside Piccolo, worrying about him, and Gero was watching them, making it impossible for Piccolo to slip past unnoticed since he still remained in his line of sight.

- It doesn't matter if Gero was watching Goku or not, Goku wouldn't be able to get away from #19 without help.

In short, it was a dumb move. It had no chance of working without informing the others.

See my post above with explanation of his strategy.

It is you who should read my post again because I already addressed his strategy and its flaws.

His strategy forgot the essential point of informing the others of his plan so that they could draw Gero's attention away from him. Because of that, they were beside Piccolo, worrying about him and thus Gero always had Piccolo in his line of sight while he was watching the others, making it impossible to slip past Gero without being noticed.

[TheUltimateVegito]

Piccolo didn't need to inform the others, it's better that he saved time and initiate his plan to save Goku. Piccolo was on the ground which distracted #20 from Goku, Gero was a good enough distance from Piccolo for him to be able to charge and save Goku before Gero can catch up/realize what's happened.

Pretty smart move if you ask me.

- The only way Piccolo's plan could work would be if Piccolo had told them his plan so that they could draw Gero's attention away from Piccolo once Piccolo went down so that Piccolo could slip past Gero (since Gero would think that Piccolo was done for and thus wouldn't be watching him). Instead, since he didn't inform them, once Piccolo went down, at least some of them were right beside Piccolo, worrying about him, and Gero was watching them, making it impossible for Piccolo to slip past unnoticed since he still remained in his line of sight.

- It doesn't matter if Gero was watching Goku or not, Goku wouldn't be able to get away from #19 without help.

In short, it was a dumb move. It had no chance of working without informing the others.

It does matter if Gero was watching, because during that short time he turned his attention away from Piccolo and was talking to and facing the Z-Fighters (Who were all up in the air too), so it'd be more likely for Piccolo to save Goku (via hitting #19 similar to Vegeta) before Gero can catch up. Informing them wouldn't really help, Gero's intention was to prevent the Z-Fighters from interfering. Trying to draw attention away would most likely make it obvious that it's a ploy. Piccolo had enough space and gave Gero a false sense of security.

[rereboy]

It does matter if Gero was watching, because during that short time he turned his attention away from Piccolo and was talking to and facing the Z-Fighters (Who were all up in the air too), so it'd be more likely for Piccolo to save Goku (via hitting #19 similar to Vegeta) before Gero can catch up. Informing them wouldn't really help, Gero's intention was to prevent the Z-Fighters from interfering. Trying to draw attention away would most likely make it obvious that it's a ploy. Piccolo had enough space and gave Gero a false sense of security.

Like I just said, there were Z fighters, namely Gohan, right beside Piccolo on the ground.

That happened because Piccolo didn't inform anyone that he would be faking getting hurt and thus they became worried about him.

Because there were other fighters beside Piccolo, Piccolo remained on Gero's "radar" since Gero was now keeping watch on whoever might try to get past him next, which included who was right beside Piccolo.

The only way for Piccolo's plan to work would be if there was nobody beside him so that Gero could completely ignore Piccolo and where he had landed, thinking that he was out, and only focus on the others that would be away from Piccolo.

Piccolo neglected this factor on his strategy and doomed it to failure by not informing anyone.

Relevant manga pages:

Here we can see Gohan diving towards Piccolo as he goes down: http://comic.dragonballcn.com/list/0.Dr ... -NA1Kx.jpg
Here we can see how Gohan was right beside Piccolo while he was down, instead of trying to keep Gero's attention away from where Piccolo was: http://comic.dragonballcn.com/list/0.Dr ... -1Lq7q.jpg

I don't know how to make it more clear than this. Piccolo's plan would never have worked because he planned it poorly and didn't inform anyone of what he was trying to do.

And even if he had planned it perfectly, it's difficult to say that the plan was really better than just trying to get past #20 by force. It's true that Piccolo didn't really know how strong #20 was but isn't getting hit on purpose very dangerous if the opponent might be much stronger? And if he didn't plan to get hit and made the plan on the fly once he got hit but realized that he was still ok, wouldn't it be better to continue fighting since his attack wasn't that strong after all? Not to mention that Goku was getting killed out there, they had to hurry and trying to create a ruse like that isn't the fastest course of action.

[TheUltimateVegito]

It does matter if Gero was watching, because during that short time he turned his attention away from Piccolo and was talking to and facing the Z-Fighters (Who were all up in the air too), so it'd be more likely for Piccolo to save Goku (via hitting #19 similar to Vegeta) before Gero can catch up. Informing them wouldn't really help, Gero's intention was to prevent the Z-Fighters from interfering. Trying to draw attention away would most likely make it obvious that it's a ploy. Piccolo had enough space and gave Gero a false sense of security.

Like I just said, there were Z fighters, namely Gohan, right beside Piccolo on the ground.

That happened because Piccolo didn't inform anyone that he would be faking getting hurt and thus they became worried about him.

Because there were other fighters beside Piccolo, Piccolo remained on Gero's "radar" since Gero was now keeping watch on whoever might try to get past him next, which included who was right beside Piccolo.

The only way for Piccolo's plan to work would be if there was nobody beside him so that Gero could completely ignore Piccolo and where he had landed, thinking that he was out, and only focus on the others that would be away from Piccolo.

Piccolo neglected this factor on his strategy and doomed it to failure by not informing anyone.

Relevant manga pages:

Here we can see Gohan diving towards Piccolo as he goes down: http://comic.dragonballcn.com/list/0.Dr ... -NA1Kx.jpg
Here we can see how Gohan was right beside Piccolo while he was down, instead of trying to keep Gero's attention away from where Piccolo was: http://comic.dragonballcn.com/list/0.Dr ... -1Lq7q.jpg

I don't know how to make it more clear than this. Piccolo's plan would never have worked because he planned it poorly and didn't inform anyone of what he was trying to do.

And even if he had planned it perfectly, it's difficult to say that the plan was really better than just trying to get past #20 by force. It's true that Piccolo didn't really know how strong #20 was but isn't getting hit on purpose very dangerous if the opponent might be much stronger? And if he didn't plan to get hit and made the plan on the fly once he got hit but realized that he was still ok, wouldn't it be better to continue fighting since his attack wasn't that strong after all? Not to mention that Goku was getting killed out there, they had to hurry and trying to create a ruse like that isn't the fastest course of action.

It was only Gohan. Dr. Gero would figure that Gohan wouldn't be strong enough to be able to stop Android 19 after Piccolo appeared so easily beaten. Also, it appeared that Gohan was tending to the appeared to be defeated Piccolo rather than attempting to go after #19. Dr. Gero was still facing the Z-Fighters and not Piccolo which was all Piccolo needed. Because he still had a false sense of security.

Think about it, since Piccolo was defeated by a weak eye blast, Dr. Gero would then assume that #19 and himself can defeat any of the Z-Fighters with a similar technique which can be done while '#19 is still choking Goku (Or briefly turn his attention away from Goku). This would lead Dr.Gero into a false sense of security since he was unsure about the Z-Fighter's powers beforehand. Vegeta was only able to kick #19 because he didn't see him coming.

Attacking #20 would be dangerous whether or not he's stronger than him. He was testing #20's strength by holding back. Like I said, he didn't know #20's full capabilities so he'd rather take the safest option than continue fighting. Also, Piccolo mastered how to raise his energy in short bursts which would help his defence while seeming weak still.