- “It's ironic, isn't it? After all my years of training to defeat your father, I go out like this trying to save you; his son.”—Dragon Ball Z, "Goku's Arrival"
| Piccolo | |
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 The Namekian | |
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Character Type: |
NPC |
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Initial Level: |
N/A |
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Class: |
N/A |
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Affiliation: |
Neutral Good |
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Appearance: |
Chapter 1: A New Beginning |
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Original appearance: |
Dragon Ball |
Piccolo (ピッコロ・ジュニア, Pikkoro Junia) is the Namekian reincarnation and final son of King Piccolo as well as the final villain in the Dragon Ball series. He is a protagonist in both the Dragon Ball Z and the Dragon Ball GT series.
According to Grand Elder Guru, Piccolo, Kami, and his father King Piccolo, are part of the Dragon Clan, who were the original creators of the Dragon Balls.
A wise, expert strategist, he was originally a ruthless enemy of Goku until he later becomes a permanent member of the Z Fighters during Dragon Ball Z, specifically when he forms a close bond with Goku's son Gohan after training him in preparation for the impending arrival of the Saiyans and other future threats.
History[]
After King Piccolo's defeat, he forcefully spitted out an egg containing his son, Piccolo Jr.
Piccolo spends the next three years in intensive training, preparing himself for the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, where he knew Goku would be a contestant with the intent to kill him and realize his father's dream of taking over the world. During the three year wait till the tournament, Piccolo wanders the Earth and trains for his revenge against Goku.
After spending the three years training, a now physically teenage Piccolo enters the tournament using the alias "Junior." He manages to find Goku before the tournament properly begins, and Piccolo reminds himself not to let Goku win as he must avenge his father. When the tournament starts, Piccolo easily breezed past the preliminaries and into the finals. From there, he first faced off against Goku's best friend, Krillin. Though Piccolo managed to beat him with relative ease, even believing at one point that he had killed the small warrior, Piccolo was surprised by Krillin's resilience and his ability to fly. Krillin even managed to score a hit, but missed Piccolo using a Kamehameha blast due to Piccolo had used an afterimage trick and managed to knock Krillin back to the ground. In their fight, Krillin eventually gave up, realizing he could not beat Piccolo.
His next match is against a powerful but awkward human named Hero. Piccolo soon discovers that Hero is actually Kami, the good counterpart of King Piccolo, in disguise by means of possessing a weak, everyday human. When Kami attempts to use Evil Containment Wave to seal Piccolo into a small container, Piccolo surprises everyone by reflecting it and instead capturing Kami. Piccolo then swallows the bottle, making chances of freeing Kami seem very slim since what is apparently the only way to rescue Kami is to kill Piccolo and if that happens, Kami will also die.
Piccolo's next fight is the one he was waiting for, the match/rematch with Goku. Although Piccolo uses an assortment of new powerful techniques, Goku finds a way to make many of them work to his advantage. Goku manages to free Kami from captivity when he tricks Piccolo into increasing his size (so large that Goku could go down his throat and retrieve the bottle). However, even after Goku seemingly defeated Piccolo by using the Meteor Combination attack, firing his new Super Kamehameha technique at Piccolo, Piccolo manages to cripple Goku's arms and legs after surprising him with a Mouth Energy Wave through his shoulder, saying he will not make the same mistake his father did (which was letting Goku have one working arm). In the end, Piccolo loses narrowly, with Goku using flight on-screen for the first time and knocking Piccolo out of the ring with a headbutt. He is shown mercy when Goku gives him a Senzu Bean, which fully heals him instantly. Piccolo holds little gratitude for this act though, and promises to continue his quest to destroy Goku and take over the world before leaving the tournament.
Years later, Piccolo is soon forced to form an uneasy alliance with Goku and his friends against newer, more dangerous threats known as the Saiyans (with Goku's older brother, Raditz, being the first Saiyan they ever encountered).
Raditz takes his son Gohan hostage and then escapes to his space pod. Goku and Piccolo manage to locate Raditz. Goku makes a feeble effort to rescue his son through discussion rather than action. However, this fails, resorting in a battle.
Despite their combined powers and effort, Raditz proves to be more powerful. With the battle seemingly hopeless, Piccolo asks Goku if he has developed any new techniques to assist in these kind of battles. Goku answers he has not, with Piccolo scoffing at Goku's lack of planning or preparation. Piccolo reveals he has developed a technique to pierce even the strongest of bodies, naming it the Special Beam Cannon. Piccolo demands for Goku to buy him extra time to charge the technique. As Goku begins to get pummeled, Piccolo finishes charging the attack. However, he is now in even more woe as he fears Raditz will be fast enough to evade. Piccolo's prediction comes true when he fires the blast, Raditz manages to side-step the attack, taking off only a small fragment of his Battle Armor.
As Raditz starts to pummel Goku into submission by breaking his ribs, Gohan intervenes after destroying the pod he was contained in and charges towards Raditz directly on his chest, damaging Raditz's armor and hurting him greatly. Now due to Raditz being much weaker from the assault, Piccolo manages to mortally wound Raditz with the Special Beam Cannon, although Goku sacrifices his life in the process to restrain Raditz. Thus, Piccolo avenges his father at a bit of an unexpected moment.
However, as Raditz lay dying, he tricked Piccolo into telling him about the Dragon Balls and reveals that two other, more powerful Saiyans will be arriving on Earth in one year. In anger, Piccolo finishes Raditz off with one final blow rather than making him suffer, an action noticed by Kami who suspects that Piccolo is changing. When Goku dies shortly afterwards his body mysteriously vanishes, with Piccolo confirming Kami's intervention.
Anyone killed by Piccolo before he turned good would be sent to limbo, with their spirit wandering in agony. Since Goku and Raditz did not suffer this fate after Piccolo killed them, Kami cited this as an indication that Piccolo was becoming less evil.
With the news of even more powerful opponents soon to arrive, Piccolo takes Gohan in to train the boy and raise his survival skills. That way, Piccolo can use Gohan's massive potential to help defend the Earth from the Saiyans, and originally, to help Piccolo take over the world afterwards. His treatment to Gohan is initially harsh, leaving him alone in the Wasteland for six months to raise his survival techniques, then brutally training the boy for the next six months. Surprisingly, he begins to warm up to Gohan and the two forms an unbreakable bond.
Years later, the saiyans Vegeta and Nappa finally arrive on Earth. They are met by Gohan, Goku's friends (Krillin, Chiaotzu, Tien Shinhan, and Yamcha), and Piccolo. Goku had been wished back to life, but would take several hours to arrive. Piccolo soon learns from the Saiyans that he is a Namekian rather than a demon as he previously believed. The Saiyans then start the fight off by growing six Saibamen, small, humanoid plant-like aliens grown from the ground who all have power levels equal to Raditz's 1200, which they instruct to fight in a mock tournament against the Earth's defenders. The Saibamen are all destroyed, though Yamcha is killed in battle when one of them manages to grip him and self-destruct, killing them both. Piccolo destroys the last remaining Saibaman, after it attacks Gohan, with a punch in the stomach, followed by a mouth blast, disintegrating it.
With the Saibamen gone, the larger Saiyan Nappa decides to join the fight. In the ensuing battle, Chiaotzu and Tien perish while the others are heavily beaten. When Chiaotzu prepares to self destruct while holding Nappa, Piccolo orders Gohan to watch Chiaotzu's sacrifice, and then proceeds to compliment Chiaotzu by saying he has won his respect for his sacrifice to take down a powerful enemy. Despite Piccolo landing some decent hits, and planning team attacks with Krillin and Gohan, Nappa seems invincible. Throughout the fight, the smaller Saiyan named Vegeta detects that Goku is arriving, sensing he far is more powerful than anticipated (being read at 5,000 without powering up, already). He then orders Nappa to quickly kill the remaining defenders, as their working with Goku might result in a challenge. Nappa first aims for Gohan with an extremely powerful attack, but Piccolo jumps in the way of it, sacrificing himself to save Gohan. His body ruined, Piccolo falls to the ground. With tears in his eyes, Piccolo bids farewell to Gohan, whom he admits made him soft and is the only person to ever call him friend. Piccolo's death also results in Kami's passing, as they were once a single being, and therefore if one dies then so would the other.
After the Saiyans are beaten by Goku and the remaining fighters, Vegeta is forced to retreat.
Gohan, Krillin and the brilliant inventor Bulma head to Namek and to locate the Dragon Balls so that they can wish Kami, Piccolo, Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu back to life and restore the Dragon Balls of Earth.
While in the afterlife and training under King Kai, Piccolo discovers Goku, Gohan, Krillin, and Bulma at his home planet, Namek. He also learns about their current situation involving a powerful tyrant named Frieza. He was wished back to life by the Namekian dragon, Porunga, and is sent directly to the planet with the second wish. Piccolo's reason was that if he is brought back, then the Earth Dragon Balls will immediately return alongside Kami, allowing for wishes to be made to bring back Tien, Chiaotzu and Yamcha.
Piccolo soon arrives on Namek at a random point, since Gohan did not specify where on Namek he should be sent to when he asked Dende to have Porunga grant the wishes. After recovering from the initial shock of seeing his strangely familiar homeland for the first time and feeling the suffering of his people, Piccolo heads in the direction of a large energy source, believing it to be Frieza.
During his flight, he passes over a dying Namekian, Nail, who was earlier easily mauled by Frieza. Piccolo drops down to inspect the crippled Namekian and they begin to converse. Nail offers Piccolo to join with him, as the option of merging with his counterpart Kami could not be realized here (nor did Piccolo even want to be one with him, at this point). At first, Piccolo refuses, but Nail explains that Piccolo will not lose his personality, he will only feel the power gained from the fusion. Piccolo reluctantly accepts. After the fusion is complete, he is amazed by his new power and rushes to Frieza's location.
When Piccolo arrives, he finds a battle in progress between Gohan, Krillin, and Vegeta (who had rebelled against Frieza), with Dende supporting them, against Frieza. The battle was fierce, resulting the death of both Vegeta and Dende. Fortunately, their fight was even by Goku's timely arrival. Even with Goku by their side, Frieza proves to be far more powerful as he changes forms. His fourth and final form, which resembles that of a small lizard, proves to be very dangerous.
After witnessing Piccolo being heavily wounded and Krillin being blown to pieces by Frieza, Goku finally had enough and unleashed his hidden Super Saiyan powers. Gohan carried Piccolo off of the battlefield as Goku and Frieza clashed on the dying Planet Namek, with the former emerging as the victor. Piccolo is healed by Dende (who had been wished back to life along with the rest of the people killed by Frieza and his men) after being sent to Earth by a wish made to Porunga.
When the Namekians find a planet suitable to be New Namek, Piccolo declines to travel with them, and he stays on Earth with Gohan to protect and watch over the boy. Piccolo does not desire the peaceful, therefore dull, life to be had on Namek and instead wishes to keep training in order to become more powerful.
From that point, he and Goku kick off the formation of the Z Fighters, fully joining their struggles against ever more powerful villains. During the android saga, he finally to fuse with his counterpart, Kami. Piccolo still retains a bit of ruthlessness and cockiness, but all traces of evil and hate have disappeared. Piccolo is completely reborn as a pure soul. He is shown to be very wise, and strategic in battle. Even after merging with Kami, Piccolo remains a loner, preferring to stand apart from others.
As the story progresses, his role shifts from warrior to mentor.
Role in Rakenzarn[]
Piccolo is a member of the Nutsy Guild alongside Goku and Krillin, acting as both a mentor and a trainer. He also takes part of the Guild Tests, testing the newbie's strength.
He appears in the very first chapter when Kyuu stumbles into the training room. Piccolo mistaken him as a newbie partaking the Guild Test. Despite Kyuu trying to defend himself, he is severely beaten. Thankfully, Kite and Krillin arrive just in time to clear the misunderstanding.
During Chapter 2, Goku assigns Piccolo to look after the new brigade while the former investigates the incident involving the monster attack.
Piccolo assigns Kyuu and the brigade (consist of Kite, Dark Magician Girl, Sakura, Kanata, Nina, Noel, and Kanon) their very first mission, to find a rare flower for their client. He lectures them about working together as a brigade and warns them not to fail their first mission, otherwise he'll punish them.
Unfortunately, the brigade fails their first mission due to complications. As a result, Piccolo severe punishes them by not giving them their rewards. Their 'second' punishment is rather harsh though not seen on screen.
From that point, Piccolo is not seen for the remaining two chapters until the very beginning of Chapter 6. He is thoroughly impressed by the brigade's effort in restoring the Cyril Region.
Players can find Piccolo at the training room in said chapter, where talking to him will have him put Kyuu through training, giving him a stat boost. They can also have a rematch with him, which winning will grant Kyuu a new weapon.
Kyuu can have another training session with Piccolo after he has reached Level 25 and completed at least 20 Guild Quests. This round is unique in that the goal is not to win, but to last 15 rounds without items. Winning gives Kyuu the Rush Strike move.
In Chapter 9, Piccolo stays behind to guard the Cyril Region while the brigade heads to Kandur to restore it. If Kyuu gathers 35 Demon Fangs from slaying enemies there and has completed all of the previous training sessions, Piccolo will offer a final bout with him. Winning grants Kyuu a new gauntlet weapon, the Namek Soul equipment to grant him a Soul Break and Piccolo's Support Card. As a Support member, Piccolo will attack with his Special Beam Cannon move and grant attack boosts.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Piccolo is the first rival and the first one-on-one duel.