Why were everyone surprised when Piccolo got serious?

[Piccolo Daimao]

There's something that I've been wondering. During the Freeza Arc, why was everyone surprised when Piccolo revealed he was holding back against Freeza? After all, he was wearing weights, which were known to suppress a character's power.

[hleV]

People other than Goku had no idea that Piccolo used weighted clothes.

[Gaffer Tape]

Basically because that's what passes for drama during the Freeza fight. Vegeta puts up a decent defense. Freeza gets "serious." Gohan gets in some hits. Freeza gets "serious." Piccolo knocks him around. Freeza gets "serious." Freeza knocks Piccolo around. Piccolo get "serious." Piccolo gets some hits. Freeza gets "serious." Gohan knocks him around. Freeza gets "serious." Vegeta gets a power-up. Freeza kills him and is still just screwing around. Then Goku shows up, and basically the same thing happens again except replace every other character's name (except Freeza) with "Goku."

Seriously, though, I love the Freeza arc in general, but the fight is just a mess.

[Savage68]

Because Piccolo has never been the type to hold back on an opponent, especially when he knows just how much devastation his opponent has caused...? And really, I don't think anyone cared about the weights. They looked like the same ones he had against Raditz that brought his battle power up by some crap amount (by Namek's power scaling standards). Those things should've been far irrelevant by the time his power strengthened a few hundred points or so.

[Sprite Satan]

By that point, the weighted clothing Piccolo had on (which seems to be the exact same as he wore when his battle power was ~300) would mean next to nothing so fighting with them on wouldn't indicate that he was holding back in any meaningful way.

[SylentEcho]

Most of the fighters in the series tend to first test out their powers against an opponent. The others thought that Piccolo was going all out against Freeza, but were surprised to know that he had even more.

[Vegeta Jr]

I thought it was because the weighted clothing slowed him down not that it increased his power level. He even says when Freeza transforms to the third level that he can't keep up with him (even though we find it he certainly can).

[Savage68]

I thought it was because the weighted clothing slowed him down not that it increased his power level.

Speed and power go hand-in-hand. Like we saw against Raditz, the removal of weights increases battle power, because the wearer isn't being "restrained". By the time Namek comes around, those weights are essentially meaningless to Piccolo/Goku's power though.

[Tyro]

He could've created heavier weights to put in the cape shoulder pads and turban. Just sayin'.

[Savage68]

He could've. But he apparently didn't.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Because Piccolo has never been the type to hold back on an opponent, especially when he knows just how much devastation his opponent has caused...? And really, I don't think anyone cared about the weights. They looked like the same ones he had against Raditz that brought his battle power up by some crap amount (by Namek's power scaling standards). Those things should've been far irrelevant by the time his power strengthened a few hundred points or so.

That seems to be a logical explanation.

[Dayspring]

He could've. But he apparently didn't.

Unless he did and the reason people are surprised are because they forgot he could. Piccolo has the ''clothes beam.'' I always figured whenever the weights became useless, he just turned them into heavier weights with Picco-magic.

[Savage68]

If no one else stayed with the weighted clothing, even if they could (like when they were in the afterlife), I don't know why Piccolo would. It just looks like the idea was tossed aside after they got strong enough to make the training method irrelevant. How heavy would his clothes need to be at his level, anyway? They'd make a ginormous crater when they hit the ground.

[Dayspring]

If no one else stayed with the weighted clothing, even if they could (like when they were in the afterlife), I don't know why Piccolo would. It just looks like the idea was tossed aside after they got strong enough to make the training method irrelevant. How heavy would his clothes need to be at his level, anyway? They'd make a ginormous crater when they hit the ground.

But Piccolo clearly did. He's always wearing them.

Plus we see they're not necessarily directly proportional with the increase one's overall power: a specific workout method of Goku's in the Boo saga is to train with 1 ton. That's only 10x what he had no problem wearing in the 23rd budokai, while he's clearly more than 10x stronger than back then.

Piccolo trained under 10Gs with his weights for less than a week, then roughly a year in the ROSAT. I can see Goku dropping the weights, as he's used to 100Gs, but Piccolo's power almost always comes from Ki development of some kind. Since he still wears his weights all the time, my guess is his physical strength alone isn't as balanced as other strengths of his, or, at least to the point where wearing the weights is still beneficial to maintaining some sort of balance.

[Savage68]

Piccolo wears what appear to be the same weights that he wore against Raditz, same as Goku. Nothing proves that he re-created them after he died, or that if he did re-create them, he made them even heavier to match his increased power. Same goes with Goku wearing his weighted clothing after the battle with Raditz. His clothes appeared to be the same, but there's nothing to support the idea that they're still heavy enough to have any kind of effect on the wearer's actions. Weighted clothing was just another obsolete training method after they became powerful enough, which I don't see any problems with.

Ar you saying Piccolo never stopped wearing the weights? Because he was still sporting the turban and everything all the way up to the end of the series. How heavy would his weights need to be once his battle power reached the millions? Or the hundred millions?

[Kiyza]

Piccolo wears what appear to be the same weights that he wore against Raditz, same as Goku. Nothing proves that he re-created them after he died, or that if he did re-create them, he made them even heavier to match his increased power. Same goes with Goku wearing his weighted clothing after the battle with Raditz. His clothes appeared to be the same, but there's nothing to support the idea that they're still heavy enough to have any kind of effect on the wearer's actions. Weighted clothing was just another obsolete training method after they became powerful enough, which I don't see any problems with.

Ar you saying Piccolo never stopped wearing the weights? Because he was still sporting the turban and everything all the way up to the end of the series. How heavy would his weights need to be once his battle power reached the millions? Or the hundred millions?

Well, there really isn't anything to prove or disprove the idea, thus your argument would be just as valid as his. It is possible that he could have made new, heavier clothes. Otherwise, why would he bother wearing clothes with any sort of weights at all?

[Savage68]

Well, there really isn't anything to prove or disprove the idea, thus your argument would be just as valid as his.

...Seriously? When you have two stances that are both incapable of being 100% proved, it does NOT mean that the validity of each meet in the middle. Thinking this would mean that the idea of Goku mastering SSJ3 by the end of the series and Dr. Brief being stronger than Cell are both equally as valid, since neither can be proved or disproved.

The weighted clothing is only shown to affect battle powers in the first fight after the 23rd Budokai, or the beginning of DBZ. After that, Goku never even removes his clothes to fight, and Piccolo's clothes are never implied to have been made heavier nor is it ever implied that his clothing was restraining his power in some capacity (once he removes them). And that falls into accordance with how much more powerful they've become. Using such an outdated method of training was left behind in the dust, because it wouldn't do anything.

Sure, Piccolo could've made heavier weights. And Goku could've increased his SSJ1 power after the Cell Games. But I don't like to entertain hypotheticals like this, because I would need some solid proof of them actually being the case. Not saying it's fact that weighted clothing was ineffectual after Raditz, but I'm certain that it's more than likely the case.

[Kiyza]

Most people seem to forget this, but Goku's clothes apparently weren't weighted after his training at Kaio's. At the end of it, Kaio replaces his gi with something that's noted to be very lightweight, which would explain why Goku never removes his clothes again. It's a distinct possibility that weighted clothing could still affect their strength.

Perhaps I should have rephrased that. Arguably, there's probably not enough supporting evidence either way, but either theory does make sense, so could potentially be correct. I'm honestly willing to accept either theory at this point.

[Dayspring]

It's not really a total hypothetical that at least Piccolo still uses training weight. You're probably right in that it may be the same exact weight as back in the 23rd budokai. If he did increase it, it's clearly not by a lot. Regardless, he definitely did NOT stop using them, so I'm not going to assume that they're completely useless at this stage. Especially since people got excited when they realized he was wearing weights against Freeza. Hell, they're frickin' shoulder pads; maybe the weight was just bonus and the true strength came from forcing one's self to fight using restrictive movements. Regardless, Piccolo and co still see the benefits of him sporting them, we see he's wearing them, so I'm not going to pretend he's not.