Piccolo's intelligence

[SingleFringe&Sparks]

I actually dont find intolerable characters who boast on and on about convoluted or unecessarily complicated plans/objectives equal to real intelligence if we're going but today's standards of anime.(Especially in Bleach and Naruto).Nor do I like pretentious characters that put misplaced drama in simple situations or its narritive to other characters isnt smart to me either. I'm fine with the relative adaptivity DBZ characters have toward unpredictable chains of events, but cause with these villains nothing can really be planned, they react better than they do learn.

[Blade]

Piccolo is as intelligent as Bulma is an air-headed super genius.

Whilst those two positions aren't mutually exclusive, such contradictions are a recurring hallmark of Toriyama's characterisations, that are also present in Gohan, Vegeta and to some extent even Goku, who we're led to believe is, allegedly, a fighting genius, who happens to lack even the basic observational skills.

[Cetra]

Piccolo can read minds and never did it, when he needed, except when he read Kami's mind. But I guess you could excuse this with being to overkill of an ability. Still it would have saved his life against Boo if he wouldn't just have said "uh, wait Gotenks, I think he's up to something (and there is no way I can know because I have no psychic skills)!"

[Vijay]

I'm non-Piccolo fan. Found him to be strange at first, but later have come to ackowledge his smartness.

I'd rank Piccolo with Goku & Vegeta. Many will disagree, I know.

Poor writing has a lot to do when it comes to Negatives/Mixed variables which'll question Piccolo's intelligence.

[Cold Skin]

Dragon Ball is interesting because it's populated with stupid, lovable assholes.

Doesn't Vegeta says something like "Sorry, thinking's not what we're good at" or something like that to Kaio Shin?

Still, most characters have those moments when they're really smart, able to analyse the situation well and act accordingly. Vegeta's bluff against Gero, Goku taking advantage of Freezer's inability to sense auras in a very clever way, Vegeta casting aside his pride to avoid getting on Beerus' nerves, etc...

Pretty much all of the characters can both act stupid at times (especially if it helps the plot) and act incredibly smartly sometimes with a keen sense of observation and remarkable sense of strategy to device very intelligent plans in just a few seconds.

It's what I like in Dragon Ball, all characters have their failures where you think "ah, dumbass!" and all characters have their moments where you say "man, you're really a smart badass!"

I'd say the best strategy senses are probably during the quest for the Dragon Balls on Namek, where characters often show a great way to analyze things, conclude with the info they have, act accordingly while limiting the risks, which is why every side has their "leading moment" taking the upper hand at some point or another in that quest for the Dragon Balls.

I think Piccolo's said "intelligence" comes mostly from the fact that he is often seen as being calm, watching and analyzing the situation. He will often be the one to tell other characters "bad idea, cause then this would happen, the best thing to do is that for that reason!".
For example, he is the only one during the Saiyan invasion to actually draw conclusions by analyzing Nappa and Vegeta's actions and dialogues, so as to have informations about the upcoming fights, where others are not shown to analyze what Vegeta's power level may be, what the Saiyans' interactions may imply as to who is the strongest and by how much, etc...

[Zephyr]

Thank you. I thought about doing the same thing for Vegeta and maybe some of the other villains (i.e. Freeza/Cell/Buu).

I think Vegeta would be the most interesting to look at. He's always given so much flak about his stupid decisions, but who knows if they actually outweigh the smart decisions or not.

[thatdbzguy]

I think remarkable intelligence is an overrated character trait. Dragon Ball is interesting because it's populated with stupid, lovable assholes. If they were smart, then they would have avoided both the Artificial Human and the Boo arcs before they even properly kicked off.

I fail to see how contagious stupidity throughout an entire cast makes them "interesting". And if a story has to rely so heavily on the stupidity of its characters, that's just poor writing.

[RandomGuy96]

Thank you. I thought about doing the same thing for Vegeta and maybe some of the other villains (i.e. Freeza/Cell/Buu).

I think Vegeta would be the most interesting to look at. He's always given so much flak about his stupid decisions, but who knows if they actually outweigh the smart decisions or not.

Even then, it's arguable whether small, intelligent tactical decisions (such as the way he hid the dragon balls from Freeza) would outweigh huge, universe-dooming decisions (such as releasing Majin Buu), no matter how much of them there are. I haven't made a list yet, but I feel pretty safe in saying that Vegeta does next to nothing dumb in the Saiyan and Freeza arcs, and next to nothing smart in the Cell and Buu arcs, despite Toriyama's attempts to make him seem smart (at least combat wise).

[SingleFringe&Sparks]

Even then, it's arguable whether small, intelligent tactical decisions (such as the way he hid the dragon balls from Freeza) would outweigh huge, universe-dooming decisions (such as releasing Majin Buu), no matter how much of them there are. I haven't made a list yet, but I feel pretty safe in saying that Vegeta does next to nothing dumb in the Saiyan and Freeza arcs, and next to nothing smart in the Cell and Buu arcs, despite Toriyama's attempts to make him seem smart (at least combat wise).

Agreed. I cant recall Vegeta ever doing anything remotely smart as a character at all. Everything he has done was either impuslive from greed or irrational from fear or realization. He only seems smart when hes cocky out of a one-sided advantage within a small situation. He's never done anything legitamently strategic even in battle.

Piccolo can read minds and never did it, when he needed, except when he read Kami's mind. But I guess you could excuse this with being to overkill of an ability. Still it would have saved his life against Boo if he wouldn't just have said "uh, wait Gotenks, I think he's up to something (and there is no way I can know because I have no psychic skills)!"

Goku can speak telepathically, and read minds but instead chooses to shout his plans out loud in front of the villain.

[dbgtFO]

He's never done anything legitamently strategic even in battle.

I always felt his 2nd battle against Zarbon demonstrated, he at least had some strategic sense.

[coola]

RandomGuy96

[*]Demanded that Vegeta not waste time with the Saibamen- and even killed his own Saibaman super fast as a demonstration- even though the whole reason they're there is to buy time.[/list]
I completely agree with first part, but, for 2nd one, we saw that Saibamen self-destruct and killed Yamucha, maybe Piccolo was afraid, that they could have another trick up their sleeves. So he decided to kill it quickly, rather than toy with it/waste energy.

[Kid Buu]

I haven't made a list yet, but I feel pretty safe in saying that Vegeta does next to nothing dumb in the Saiyan and Freeza arcs,

Not having Gohan and Kuririn killed off earlier in the Saiyan Arc battle came back to bite him in the ass, I'd say.

and next to nothing smart in the Cell and Buu arcs, despite Toriyama's attempts to make him seem smart (at least combat wise).

Well, didn't he come up with the idea of ascending Super Saiyan?

[DBZAOTA482]

Doesn't Vegeta says something like "Sorry, thinking's not what we're good at" or something like that to Kaio Shin?

Funny that, thinking doesn't seem to be Kaioshits' forte either.

Oh and no, he didn't.

[RandomGuy96]

I haven't made a list yet, but I feel pretty safe in saying that Vegeta does next to nothing dumb in the Saiyan and Freeza arcs,

Not having Gohan and Kuririn killed off earlier in the Saiyan Arc battle came back to bite him in the ass, I'd say.

and next to nothing smart in the Cell and Buu arcs, despite Toriyama's attempts to make him seem smart (at least combat wise).

Well, didn't he come up with the idea of ascending Super Saiyan?

"next to nothing" =/= "absolutely nothing"

Didn't that turn out to be the exact wrong way of going about things?

[Kid Buu]

I haven't made a list yet, but I feel pretty safe in saying that Vegeta does next to nothing dumb in the Saiyan and Freeza arcs,

Not having Gohan and Kuririn killed off earlier in the Saiyan Arc battle came back to bite him in the ass, I'd say.

and next to nothing smart in the Cell and Buu arcs, despite Toriyama's attempts to make him seem smart (at least combat wise).

Well, didn't he come up with the idea of ascending Super Saiyan?

"next to nothing" =/= "absolutely nothing"

Didn't that turn out to be the exact wrong way of going about things?

I know, I was just saying.

Ascending SSJ did kind of work, it was just that he ruined it by having the dumbass idea of letting Cell become complete.

[RandomGuy96]

I know, I was just saying.

Ascending SSJ did kind of work, it was just that he ruined it by having the dumbass idea of letting Cell become complete.

But Goku's whole point was that Vegeta was wrong in trying to "ascend", and that what he should have been doing was instead mastering the regular form.

Bluffing Gero out of a fight could also be considered smart, but he only had to resort to it because he was being stupid in the battle before.

[ParkerAL]

Vegeta pretty ran circles around Freeza and his goons tactically during much of the Namek Arc, and probably would have achieved immortality if it wasn't for those meddling Earthlings.

[Kamiccolo9]

I know, I was just saying.

Ascending SSJ did kind of work, it was just that he ruined it by having the dumbass idea of letting Cell become complete.

But Goku's whole point was that Vegeta was wrong in trying to "ascend", and that what he should have been doing was instead mastering the regular form.

Bluffing Gero out of a fight could also be considered smart, but he only had to resort to it because he was being stupid in the battle before.

To be fair, Goku got it wrong initially too.

They were going into uncharted territory here; no one had ever done it before. I don't think this really counts as a dumb moment, seeing as the grades worked fine until Vegeta's REAL dumb moment of the arc.

[RandomGuy96]

I know, I was just saying.

Ascending SSJ did kind of work, it was just that he ruined it by having the dumbass idea of letting Cell become complete.

But Goku's whole point was that Vegeta was wrong in trying to "ascend", and that what he should have been doing was instead mastering the regular form.

Bluffing Gero out of a fight could also be considered smart, but he only had to resort to it because he was being stupid in the battle before.

To be fair, Goku got it wrong initially too.

They were going into uncharted territory here; no one had ever done it before. I don't think this really counts as a dumb moment, seeing as the grades worked fine until Vegeta's REAL dumb moment of the arc.

I don't think it should count as a dumb moment, but considering that this turned out to be the wrong way of going about things and probably set them back more than anything, I'm not sure if it should be classified as smart either. I guess it did at least work for the goal they were trying to accomplish at the time (become stronger than the androids and the current forms of Cell), albeit in a less ideal way than if Vegeta had followed Goku's route earlier.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

The grades seem like a neutral act, on the smart to stupid scale. Goku and Vegeta had no idea what form ascending would take, it was purely a gut instinct that they could push harder and something would happen. Would it be clean? Would it be strained? They didn't know. We can discredit Vegeta for seemingly taking the easy way out and settling with the grade forms, but then did Grade 2 even have the signature speed drop? What do make of Vegeta's making Grade 2 in two months?