Despite being considered a "smart" character, Piccolo isn't that smart

[DBNamek]

Piccolo is one my favourite DB characters (top 3), but truth be told, he really isn't all that smart.

Despite being considered one of the more smarter characters, he has his fair share of dumb moments. He let Cell get away when they first met. Okay, Piccolo gets some leeway here since he needed to get information out of Cell, but he should have killed him right there. Not to mention completely forgetting about Cell when he was fighting 17.

Don't forget abut the ToP moment where he didn't use his super hearing ears against the U4 bug. The guy with some of the best hearing in the series, and doesn't uses it all.

In the Moro arc, he let his guard down against 7-3, when Jaco explicitly told him to be careful of his abilities.

I guess I can say is Piccolo isn't "smart", he's just less dumb compared to most.

[LoganForkHands73]

Finally, someone said it. I love Piccolo but his reputation as the smart guy is only a measure of how much dumber most of the other characters are.

Going further back, he made lots of strategic errors in his first fight against Goku such as turning into an ungainly giant (almost never a good idea in Dragon Ball) and wasting all his energy on an all-encompassing blast that barely even scratched Goku. But that's forgivable. He was like three years old at the time. Less forgivable is demanding to be revived on Namek even though he was woefully unprepared to face Frieza at his level. If Nail hadn't conveniently been lying there, Piccolo would've been a fine green paste the instant he made his dramatic entrance.

He'll never live down losing to Damon in the ToP. On top of his super-hearing, he's got stretchy limbs for christ sake! He could've grabbed onto the ledge or ki blasted himself to propel himself back, both of which many non-Namekian characters did, but nope, a light push from a bug man is enough to put him completely out-of-commission. I find it interesting that it happens the same way in both the anime and manga, implying that Toriyama explicitly wrote that into the story outline. And people say Akira hates Vegeta?

I was thinking about posting a similar topic asking who's the more strategically intelligent fighter, Krillin, Tenshinhan or Piccolo? I think Krillin stomps them both in that regard. Krillin's greatest asset is that he knows when to quit.

[DBNamek]

Finally, someone said it. I love Piccolo but his reputation as the smart guy is only a measure of how much dumber most of the other characters are.

Going further back, he made lots of strategic errors in his first fight against Goku such as turning into an ungainly giant (almost never a good idea in Dragon Ball) and wasting all his energy on an all-encompassing blast that barely even scratched Goku. But that's forgivable. He was like three years old at the time. Less forgivable is demanding to be revived on Namek even though he was woefully unprepared to face Frieza at his level. If Nail hadn't conveniently been lying there, Piccolo would've been a fine green paste the instant he made his dramatic entrance.

He'll never live down losing to Damon in the ToP. On top of his super-hearing, he's got stretchy limbs for christ sake! He could've grabbed onto the ledge or ki blasted himself to propel himself back, both of which many non-Namekian characters did, but nope, a light push from a bug man is enough to put him completely out-of-commission. I find it interesting that it happens the same way in both the anime and manga, implying that Toriyama explicitly wrote that into the story outline. And people say Akira hates Vegeta?

I was thinking about posting a similar topic asking who's the more strategically intelligent fighter, Krillin, Tenshinhan or Piccolo? I think Krillin stomps them both in that regard. Krillin's greatest asset is that he knows when to quit.

You brought up good points, especially with Namek with Nail lying on the ground near death. Without Nail, Piccolo dies again and that's 2 wishes wasted (revive Piccolo + transport him to Namek).

Yeah, you're right Piccolo will never live down with what happened to him with Damon. That's just a really bad showing of Piccolo. Not using his stretchy limbs to save himself was dumb to. What's even more disappointing to see is that he used his limbs to save Gohan in that exact same episode, but not himself.

Yeah, I think I would agree with Krillin would be the smartest. Not only he knows his limits, he has some some "smart" feats himself. Well, smart enough to beat his dumber opponents . Two that comes to mid are him beating Chiaotzu with math, and beating that U4 fox man with his smelly shoe in the ToP anime. Granted, no one is going to confuse Krillin with someone like Bulma or Gero in terms of intelligence, but it's to show Krillin can beat up some enemies with more than brute force.

[Sadala Elite]

There have been threads about this very topic, and not just with Piccolo lmao.

[Lionel]

Given the superficial nature of Dragon Ball and its general inconsistency with ideas, Piccolo's alleged portrayal as a seasoned tactician falls flat when scrutinising the contents of his record. Toriyama simply didn't provide the attention to detail and tact needed for properly fleshing out and embellishing such qualities. It's why I have a hard time thinking another character like Vegeta could constitute as a "genius" fighter when most of his acknowledged feats have arguably been matched by others whom you wouldn't think to be the brightest themselves.

[Yuli Ban]

I wonder if Japanese fans think of him as "the smart guy." And by that, I mean "is Piccolo's alleged tactician intelligence a dubism?" 9 times out of 10 when asking if something popularly believed is a dubism, the answer is "yes."

Because thinking back to the subs, Piccolo always came across as a brash, headstrong quick thinker who happens to be reserved and cold. Yet the dub made him out to be a quiet brain, always trying to think ahead. Maybe I'm missing something, though.

If it is a dubism, it's entirely because American action cartoons typically need that archetype and he was the best fit for the promotional material.

If it's not, and even the Japanese think he's supposed to be a tactical genius, then I don't know.


Edit: It might be a case of fans latching onto the character doing something once and then holding them to that trait long after. Like with Vegeta, especially in the dub. He does the bare minimum of tactical planning in the Namek arc, and now he's considered one of the smartest characters. Or Krillin, cast as the cowardly butt monkey. Or Goku, aka Kung Fu Space Jesus.

[Melee_Sovereign]

I think by "smart" they mean Piccolo was the most level-headed, rational and reasonable character. I think I'd agree with that.