Let's talk about Piccolo

Discussion specifically regarding the "Dragon Ball Super" TV series premiering July 2015 in Japan, including individual threads for each episode.

Moderators: General Help, Kanzenshuu Staff

User avatar
namekiansaiyan
I Live Here
Posts: 4358
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2015 9:39 am

Re: Let's talk about Piccolo

Post by namekiansaiyan » Thu Jun 07, 2018 10:24 am

Did i really just read that last post?

Fighting Piccolo is the best Piccolo. Simple as that.

User avatar
Marlowe89
Banned Alternate Account
Posts: 1926
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2015 8:30 pm

Re: Let's talk about Piccolo

Post by Marlowe89 » Thu Jun 07, 2018 12:07 pm

Whatever wrote: In the Freeza arc he saved Goku from certain death by kicking Freeza before he death beamed in the face.
So he contributed to Goku's survival once, much like how he contributed to Universe 7's survival multiple times in the tournament. Piccolo's story relevance doesn't seem so comparatively different here. If anything, he was sidelined much more quickly in the Freeza arc.
Whatever wrote: so yeah if he got a power up that would mean he would contribute to the story in some way.
Right, but my issue is that a lot of his fans seem to want him to be as strong as the Saiyans for the sake of making him as strong as the Saiyans, rather than thinking about what kind of distinct narrative roles he can fulfill. The latter shouldn't (and indeed doesn't) depend on the former; Piccolo doesn't actually need to be put on a godly pedestal at any point in the story to contribute to that very same story, as the Universe Survival arc demonstrates in both its anime and manga counterparts.

User avatar
Saiga
Kicks it Old-School
Posts: 8311
Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2011 8:36 pm
Location: Space Australia

Re: Let's talk about Piccolo

Post by Saiga » Thu Jun 07, 2018 5:12 pm

namekiansaiyan wrote:Did i really just read that last post?

Fighting Piccolo is the best Piccolo. Simple as that.
That seems awfully shallow to me. Piccolo's done plenty of fighting, and he very often hasn't been very good at it.

But his character interactions have always been great, and he's a good straight man to the goofy characters while having his own goofy side between his extreme stoicness and more caring side.
I'm re-watching Dragon Ball GT in full on my blog. Check it out if you're interested in my thoughts on the series as I watch through it!

User avatar
namekiansaiyan
I Live Here
Posts: 4358
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2015 9:39 am

Re: Let's talk about Piccolo

Post by namekiansaiyan » Thu Jun 07, 2018 5:31 pm

Saiga wrote:
namekiansaiyan wrote:Did i really just read that last post?

Fighting Piccolo is the best Piccolo. Simple as that.
That seems awfully shallow to me. Piccolo's done plenty of fighting, and he very often hasn't been very good at it.

But his character interactions have always been great, and he's a good straight man to the goofy characters while having his own goofy side between his extreme stoicness and more caring side.
Interactions that don't involve Gohan and Pan are mostly alright but I hate Piccolo babysitting Pan and also hate that Piccolo and Gohan have to be together so much. These 2 interactions make him worse.

Piccolo is my favourite because of his fighting so that will always be the best Piccolo to me and I just hope he can interact with Goku and Vegeta in the movie instead of Gohan.

User avatar
Logania
Regular
Posts: 593
Joined: Sat Feb 17, 2018 6:47 am

Re: Let's talk about Piccolo

Post by Logania » Thu Jun 07, 2018 5:34 pm

With how helpful he was with the video of the Mafuba, maybe it's time for Piccolo to go to his true calling. Being a GodTuber.
"I can't increase my ability through some kind of noisy transformation the way Frost and you Saiyans do. If I wanna become more lethal, I don't have the luxury of cutting corners, I just have to do it the old-fashioned way.

Combat is craft. What matters most is not raw power, but the skill by which you hone it."

User avatar
Khin
I Live Here
Posts: 2540
Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2015 12:33 am
Location: West City
Contact:

Re: Let's talk about Piccolo

Post by Khin » Thu Jun 07, 2018 5:34 pm

Regarding Piccolo's role in the Freeza and Android/Cell arc, while it's definitely cool seeing him as one of the of tops dogs, I think my main issue with him in those arcs is when he got those huge power-ups, he got too full of himself and fucked things up. This happened to other characters in the series as well, but for someone who's supposedly the "smartest" of the group, you'd think he would be better than that. In the Freeza arc, he held back and let Freeza transform into his third form, all while thinking Freeza's transformation won't increase his speed for some reason. When he got revived, he was so full of himself that he thought he could beat Freeza despite only training in Kaio's planet for like 6 days, then in the Android arc, he asked Vegeta to leave Gero to him, and instead of finishing him off, he toyed around with him to the point that Vegeta of all people had to tell him to finish it off. It ultimately lead to Gero escaping and activating the androids. He also did the same thing with Cell later on, who he could've also beaten easily. It's really ironic how he shits on Gohan for being arrogant and over-estimating his power in episode 88.

As for his role in the movie and (possible?) future arcs, I think him becoming a God of Destruction candidate would be a good new development for his character. He seems to be the most well-suited for the role out of the everyone in Universe 7, and with the whole God candidate concept being introduced in the recent arc, it could be give him something instead of just being Pan's babysitter. Though I believe you don't have to necessarily give a character a power-up to make him relevant, it could be a good way to bring him back among the top fighters. Also, gotta say I'm not a fan of the whole "Namekian God" thing that I've seen many fans speculate/hope about him. To me, it just feels like giving him power-up for no reason other than "Look, Piccolo is now one of the strongest guys". It doesn't bring anything new interesting thing to the table.

In any case, I'm quite content with Piccolo's role in the Universe 6 and Universe Survival arc, though I certainly wouldn't mind a bigger role for him. I like his goofy moments in Super (especially with Pan), but I think it's one of things that could get old real fast.

User avatar
namekiansaiyan
I Live Here
Posts: 4358
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2015 9:39 am

Re: Let's talk about Piccolo

Post by namekiansaiyan » Thu Jun 07, 2018 6:10 pm

Khin wrote:Regarding Piccolo's role in the Freeza and Android/Cell arc, while it's definitely cool seeing him as one of the of tops dogs, I think my main issue with him in those arcs is when he got those huge power-ups, he got too full of himself and fucked things up. This happened to other characters in the series as well, but for someone who's supposedly the "smartest" of the group, you'd think he would be better than that. In the Freeza arc, he held back and let Freeza transform into his third form, all while thinking Freeza's transformation won't increase his speed for some reason. When he got revived, he was so full of himself that he thought he could beat Freeza despite only training in Kaio's planet for like 6 days, then in the Android arc, he asked Vegeta to leave Gero to him, and instead of finishing him off, he toyed around with him to the point that Vegeta of all people had to tell him to finish it off. It ultimately lead to Gero escaping and activating the androids. He also did the same thing with Cell later on, who he could've also beaten easily. It's really ironic how he shits on Gohan for being arrogant and over-estimating his power in episode 88.

As for his role in the movie and (possible?) future arcs, I think him becoming a God of Destruction candidate would be a good new development for his character. He seems to be the most well-suited for the role out of the everyone in Universe 7, and with the whole God candidate concept being introduced in the recent arc, it could be give him something instead of just being Pan's babysitter. Though I believe you don't have to necessarily give a character a power-up to make him relevant, it could be a good way to bring him back among the top fighters. Also, gotta say I'm not a fan of the whole "Namekian God" thing that I've seen many fans speculate/hope about him. To me, it just feels like giving him power-up for no reason other than "Look, Piccolo is now one of the strongest guys". It doesn't bring anything new interesting thing to the table.

In any case, I'm quite content with Piccolo's role in the Universe 6 and Universe Survival arc, though I certainly wouldn't mind a bigger role for him. I like his goofy moments in Super (especially with Pan), but I think it's one of things that could get old real fast.
It is Dragon Ball so power is always a major factor in how relevant a character is. Power will make theohoriry of characters better as a whole. Power is also why certain characters don't do anything in the series now.

'Namekian God' might not bring anything new but some Piccolo fans don't want anything new as they want something like the old Piccolo back.

I would like Piccolo to be the next of God of Destruction for Universe 7 with Hit being the next God of Destruction for Universe 6.

Piccolo was used to make up the numbers in both tournaments and had no meaningful role. There are too many characters like this in Super.

User avatar
RandomGuy96
Kicks it Old-School
Posts: 8862
Joined: Sun Mar 03, 2013 3:57 pm
Location: San Diego, California, USA

Re: Let's talk about Piccolo

Post by RandomGuy96 » Thu Jun 07, 2018 7:33 pm

I concur with Saiga that giving him an entertaining supporting role is preferable to giving him a lead fighting role but making him boring and/or stupid. Of course, it's best when you can have both, like the Saiyan arc. But I think we're long past the point where that would be remotely believable. The last time he was somewhat relevant in combat was the Cell Games at the absolute latest, and even then, he could barely hold his own against small monsters that the villain produce by the half dozen without effort.
The Monkey King wrote:
RandomGuy96 wrote:
dbgtFO wrote: Please elaborate as I do not know what you mean by "pushing Vegeta's destruction"
He's probably referring to the Bardock special. Zarbon was the one who first recommended destroying Planet Vegeta because the saiyans were rapidly growing in strength.
It was actually Beerus disguised as Zarbon #StayWoke
Herms wrote:The fact that the ridiculous power inflation is presented so earnestly makes me just roll my eyes and snicker. Like with Freeza, where he starts off over 10 times stronger than all his henchmen except Ginyu (because...well, just because), then we find out he can transform and get even more powerful, and then he reveals he can transform two more times, before finally coming out with the fact that he hasn't even been using anywhere near 50% of his power. Oh, and he can survive in the vacuum of space. All this stuff is just presented as the way Freeza is, without even an attempt at rationalizing it, yet the tone dictates we're supposed to take all this silly grasping at straws as thrilling danger. So I guess I don't really take the power inflation in the Boo arc seriously, but I don't take the power inflation in earlier arcs seriously either, so there's no net loss of seriousness. I think a silly story presented as serious is harder to accept than a silly story presented as silly.

Post Reply