The Demon King - King Piccolo, Enemy of Goku & Why he Rocked by Dan
And why this is one of the greatest DB stories ever
Dragonball Z was an extremely popular anime, one that defined anime, and put it on the map for many, since the 90s. But the tone, the genre, and even the feel started far earlier. Actually, it was the most notable story arc in the original series, Dragon Ball, and that was the King Piccolo arc.
This is the not the Piccolo we know and love in Dragon Ball Z, but his predecessor and “father”, the evil King Piccolo, who was the dark side of kami, who was exercised by Kami himself, in order to prove himself to his narrow minded predecessor, but Piccolo became a threat to the earth, and because of Kami’s oaths, he couldn’t interfere in anything. This caused a major problem, in which Kami couldn’t truly fulfill all his duties to earth, and created one of the biggest threats Earth has ever seen.
This is a theme that is commonly used, and a part of Daoism that is present in the story. You have the good half and the bad half, and it displays the eternal battle between good and evil, and very reminiscent of various mythologies that have twins that represent opposites. Light and death, day and night, creation and destruction and so on. It is also important to note that in the series, Toriyama did take influence from both Buddhist and Christian elements in the series, which is rather obvious when you look at the series.
The season starts after the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament, when Goku forgets his Dragonball and Power Pole back where he left them, only for Krillin to run off to get them, but he doesn’t come back, and Goku has a premonition about something bad happening to Krillin. Ignoring it initially, which is very much a common trope in stories, one anime tends to use all the time, it leaves Goku with doubt. Gut instincts are often dismissed, as our minds wish to act based on facts, not instinct, which cannot be quantified. It bothers him so much that he cannot eat, unless he knows Krillin is safe.
One thing that we need to understand is that Goku has a very strong connection with all of his friends, that he has some form of spiritual connection with them, which can lead him to sense if something is happening to them. This is usually explained with sensing ki, or Bardock’s psionic gifts being passed down to his son, but as far as we are concerned at this point, this was an unusual feeling, and when he hears Krillin’s dying cries through his bond, this confuses everyone, when Goku, not touching a crumb of his plate, he dashes off to find Krillin dead, and the Referee injured, who says that the list of all the previous competitors at the Tournament stolen. To look a bit more into it, Krillin is Goku’s first friend his own age, and the childish competition, and the innocent will to train to surpass their limits is what is part of the bond between the two.
Krillin’s death also represents the shift in tone, and the end of innocence. Goku may have gone up against villains like Emperor Pilaf, the Red Ribbon army, and even Master Crane, but that was simple and easy, compared to the monster that was King Piccolo. Goku’s childhood is now over, and it is now a baptism by fire. Enough playing the role of the fool like he did before, (a particularly amusing fight that displays Goku’s playfulness and Superdickery was against the “ninja” Murasaki.)
It was time to grow up. No more will the Martial Arts Tournaments stay the same. Fair play has been tossed out when Krillin was brutally murdered in the Tournament hall, and the list stolen in order to murder all the competitors. This tells us that the major threat is not interested in playing by the rules, and that the previous opponents are no longer worthy to be considered warriors. Goku is wracked with survivor’s guilt, and he grieves hard for his friend.
As much as the series can still be whimsical and childish, it is no longer like that. It has gone from lighthearted and easygoing, to far more mature and serious, which implies that Goku’s childhood is now over, at the young age of 12, and he will grieve hard for it, as this is what Krillin represents. To raise the stakes, it requires Goku to make a sacrifice, and often, a character in stories is often killed early in order to deliver a call to adventure for the main character, similar to Peter Parker losing his Uncle Ben.
But with Spider-Man, it was a loss of safety, and the emotional safety net that he felt with his Uncle. He was a bit of a Daddy’s boy with his uncle, but with that loss, he needed to mature and grow up. Goku lost his best friend Krillin, and considering their history, Goku lost something far more important: His innocence. Even through the battles with the Red Ribbon army, Goku kept a portion of his innocence intact, and a part of it was embodied within Krillin. But now? Goku is now at war, and Piccolo took his first casualty.
Goku’s response was to take his Power Pole, and Bulma’s Dragon Radar to hunt down the stolen Dragon Ball, captured by Piccolo. Bulma may be a neurotic, hormonally driven girl, but a part of her represents the logical facts, and everything based in science, that doesn’t take things that can’t be explained logically very well, and the Dragon Radar is her invention.
By taking the Dragon Radar, he takes the tool he needs, which is intelligence in order to confront the threat. However, knowing how to use something, doesn’t mean you understand how to use the tool at hand, and Goku is going in, unaware of what he is going up against, which is going to face a monster that is far stronger than him, as him and Krillin have a similar level of power. However, Roshi’s wisdom to wait, and not jump in irrationally falls on deaf ears, which is a common enough response, but Goku should have heeded Roshi, and thought through his options, something that he might regret later.
We then learn about Roshi’s master, Mutaito, who fought and sealed the mighty King Piccolo inside a rice cooker. In Asia, rice is symbolic of fertility and prosperity, and we can also allude to the story of Pandora’s box. Pilaf was a fool and an idiot, and he released something he really didn’t know, and it would unleash havoc upon the Earth. Piccolo is a poison and an agent of death, therefore both were poisoned, and it will lead to the end of the earth.
And since the first victim after Piccolo’s return was a child, we see that he wishes to destroy the fertility of the future, and the prosperity of the earth. We discover that Mutaito sealed the evil Namekian inside the rice cooker with a technique called the Evil Containment Wave, or the Mafuba in Japanese. This technique uses the life energy to take the evil being, and seal it within a container of some sort. It can be a Rice cooker, a bottle, and so on, but at the cost of one’s life. It’s a kamikaze attack, and one that cost Mutaito’s life.
Once Goku finds Tambourine, he is easily taken down, and Nimbus is destroyed. The power of flight is often symbolic of freedom, but then you have to consider that Goku falls from the sky, and crashes into the Earth, several times. Goku learns that he can’t just jump into the fight recklessly, without preparation, and he needs to get out of the hole that he fell in, before he can confront, and kill King Piccolo, nevermind Tambourine.
This leaves us with Goku meeting the fat warrior Yajirobe, who fights Goku because the main character stole his fish. To describe Yajirobe, is that he is a strong warrior, and extremely fast on his feet. He isn’t as educated, and can be rather clever. He also thinks a lot with his stomach, and fights for the basic things he likes. Food, a fair fight, and his pride. The way Goku and him meet is very much like Goku seeing himself, and Yajirobe representing all of Goku’s base desires and instincts, such as feeding his bottomless pit of a stomach, and wanting a good and fair fight.
However, Yajirobe at his core, has a cowardly side that likes to run away from threats he can’t fight, and yet Goku has to put his trust in him, with Yajirobe escorting him and carrying him where he needs to go. This is a revisit to Goku’s origins, finding someone along the way, and needing help to travel to where he needs to go. But this time, he doesn’t have Oolong’s advice, nor Yamcha’s strength. It’s himself, and Yajirobe who would really not like being with Goku at that time.
After Yajirobe kills Cymbal (And eats him… Let’s not look too deep into that.) King Piccolo sends Tambourine to go and avenge Cymbal. In the anime, Tambourine was fighting Yamcha, but decided to leave part way through the fight, and left to fight Goku, with this time Goku fighting Tambourine at full strength. Outspeeding the shocked Tambourine, Goku makes short work of him.
Killing the one who murdered Krillin and his childhood, is Goku’s first step in fighting against Piccolo. The first hurdle and test has been completed. In storytelling, overcoming the one who killed the precious person is significant, as it represents the first step into the responsibility of manhood, and Goku is acknowledging the fact that he can no longer be a child, and that he has to grow up. He has broken through his limits, but he has far to go.
King Piccolo is now angry that two of his “children” are killed by what he assumes is Goku (even if one was killed by Yajirobe) and is to avenge them. Goku is easily taken out, and falls deeper, with his heart momentarily stopping, which causes King Piccolo to leave, thinking Goku is dead. This can tell us that Goku had to fall even deeper than he did with Tambourine, in order to rise back up.
His heart stopping for a second also is representative that Goku’s spirit and body has been shown its limits and he then can barely move. This can represent to Goku that he is now helpless to fight the current threat, and needs to go back to basics, and find someone that can help him find that person, and with Yajirobe being representative of Goku’s most base instincts, it means he needs to go back to the beginning, but this time without the training wheels. He has to get power, and he will find it in the shape of the eternal cat Korin.
In the meantime, Roshi tries to confront Piccolo himself, facing the ancient demon that killed his mentor, using the technique Mutaito used before, and as much as Tien was with him, Roshi paralyzed Tien to protect him. The Mafuba therefore fails, and Roshi dies due to this technique, after he missed the rice cooker. Roshi holds the wisdom and tradition of the Turtle School, and missing the rice cooker is representative of his doubt.
In all his wisdom and experience, it wasn’t enough to take out Piccolo, and his history, with the death of his fellow students, would have him question “Can I do this?” It's why he was scared, and it cost him dearly. So Goku’s experience and innocence have both fallen against King Piccolo, and this leaves the Demon King with all the Dragonballs, and ready to make his wish. Chiaotzu tries to interrupt, with a different wish to kill Piccolo, but then he is murdered with a mouth blast. Chiaotzu may not be prominent like other members, but what is notable is that the direct psychic powers is Chiaotzu’s greatest skill. If we apply Chiaotzu as being representative of Goku’s pure skill, we see now that it isn’t enough.
So we have Piccolo who took away Goku’s innocence, the experience and wisdom, and the skills and techniques that Goku had before, and this won’t be enough for Goku to win against this major threat. And Piccolo does something else, and that is to kill Shenron, the Dragon who grants wishes. He was the only hope for Goku to get his friends back, and now, that is no longer something that Goku can rely on. So Goku has just lost everything that can carry him through to victory. And yet he still needs to go on, despite losing hope.
Piccolo has regained his youth and power, which makes him a far greater threat to Goku, and the stakes have been raised, in a way that can’t be measured. Goku can’t even move properly, so he has to rely on Yajirobe to carry him up Korin's Tower, which means he is helpless like a baby who needs to be carried. By getting help climbing up the tower, there is a form of rebirth that is going on, as he is leaving the hole he fell down in order to find someone who can grow stronger, and to grant him the Sensu bean.
Once he reaches Korin, he eats the bean to get healthy again, and now he has to track down the Ultra Divine Water. In the anime, there is a test where he has to go through a dark and icy cave, with Yajirobe able to climb upwards, but Goku on the other hand is falling deeper in the darkness, only to be greeted with an illusion of Master Roshi who tempts him to stay with illusions of Bulma, Launch, Puar, Oolong and Yamcha, but Goku is not deterred, nor is he tempted. He knows he has to grow strong, and find the special water to make him grow more powerful.
The Darkness tempts Goku to let go of everything, but when Goku insists on drinking the Ultra Divine Water, he is deemed worthy of drinking the water. However, the pain isn’t over. When Goku drinks it, he suffers a night of pain as he needs to break the physical limits. His mind and spirit has broken its limits, and now it’s time for his body.
In the meantime, King Piccolo has taken over the Earth, and forced the leaders of Earth to abdicate to him. He also destroys Central City, and decides to go to destroy West City, where Goku met back up with Yamcha and Bulma. The home is meant to be safe and secure, where one can be him or herself. Bulma’s house means that safety is now a memory, and that the facts state that Goku will lose.
But there’s someone who decides to stand up to King Piccolo, and that is Tien, who tries Roshi’s technique, but it fails. In the anime, the rice cooker is destroyed, and in the manga, there’s a huge crack that makes it useless. This means that Tien has to face off against Drum, who nearly kills Tien, only to be killed by Goku, who arrives just in time. Tien can represent the ability to learn and adapt for Goku, and he nearly escaped death, so this means that Goku has to learn and adapt to kill and take down King Piccolo, but it isn’t easy.
Initially in the fight, Goku holds the complete advantage. Speed, strength, everything, until Piccolo decides to power up. This part of the fight represents Goku’s former limits and the wall he was up against, and now, he broke through the wall, and is now prepared to face the true threat, which is King Piccolo’s full power. Even then, the blows are exchanged evenly, with Goku avoiding most of them, and his attacks landing a lot more, and in many ways, a lot harder. Piccolo gets the advantage, only after he cripples Goku by shooting him in the knee, and even this doesn’t stop Goku, even going so far to knee Piccolo in the face with his other knee, which shows how strong Goku’s willpower is.
When it comes to Bulma and the others, they are watching the fight on tv, only for the tv crew to be killed, and the tv unable to continue showing the fight. Yamcha is also known for his loyalty, and the bonds of brotherhood, but when he falters, it is Bulma, who represents the solid facts, decides to have faith in Goku, this is a powerful statement. She has accepted that the numbers may not weigh in Goku’s favour, but she needs to find faith in something, and reassures everyone and tells them to have faith in something she doesn’t know, and that’s important.
Tien may falter in battle, and he may be the representative of the bonds of brotherhood, but faith is also important, and in this situation, we can argue that Yamcha can also represent faith, as does the rest of the family. This will be a reminder and will help guide Goku to victory, as they each represent something Goku learned along the way. Oolong represents the cynical side within Goku, Puar represents the side of Goku that is concerned for his friends, Turtle the humble life Goku lives for, and Launch represents the two sides of Goku that can be gentle, or aggressive, depending on what he needs to be. They lose hope for a minute, and when the knowledge of who Goku is, even without Goku’s childhood, special techniques and his innocence, he can still win, it tells us that Bulma, despite all her flaws and Goku sometimes keeping her at arm’s length because of her fickle and irrational behaviour, does have faith in Goku’s abilities. It started with her in the series, and now she comes back and tells everyone that he will pull through. Even when Yajirobe doubts, he returns to assist Goku, bringing forth who Goku is deep within him.
As the battle proceeds, Goku is fighting Piccolo, even with a broken leg, keeping up with a certain advantage, on even footing. Even causing a crater and dropping essentially a mountain on Goku isn’t stopping him, thus King Piccolo has to get creative, and is getting desperate. This is when the evil Demon King takes Tien hostage. When it is revealed that Shenron, the representation of Hope, is dead, Goku can no longer gamble Tien’s life, and stands still, as King Piccolo shatters Goku’s leg, and one of his arms.
Piccolo is evil, and he cannot fight good on an even playing field, because Evil can’t win. It can only destroy, and that includes himself. He represents a fatal flaw, which is that of Pride, his Vainglory, and he cannot fight someone who is just as strong as him, and that is why he needs to cripple Goku, just to be able to fight Goku evenly. And this is when King Piccolo makes a grave mistake. He drops Tien, and flies into the sky, then charges downwards towards what he perceives to be a helpless and immobile Goku, who charges a Kamehameha to propel himself upwards towards King Piccolo.
Now this is the culmination to Goku’s training in this arc, when he blasts himself out of the crater, and flies upwards towards his foe, who decides to stop charging and protect himself. This is the cowardly nature within King Piccolo, and when confronted with Goku’s raw emotion, he gets scared, only to end with Goku putting a huge hole in him, at the shock of his enemy. In a last ditch hope, King Piccolo gives birth to the Piccolo we all know and love from the last season of Dragonball, and from Dragonball Z.
This Piccolo is a brave and stoic leader, who never gives up in the face of conflict. He does not hesitate, and he represents this within Goku, and now we have Goku that is reborn into the leader of the group, proving himself to be a true warrior. Even when everything was set against him, he never gave up, and took down King Piccolo through sheer force of will. The villain decides to pass on his legacy and memories to his Junior, but he doesn’t take into account that his son is his own person, and can do what he wishes with the legacy put upon him.
Piccolo’s legacy is one of hatred and evil, and that is something that haunts him, just as the later revelation of the Saiyans haunts Goku, which make them very much alike, and someone Goku considers a brother. Also, we have to note that the day that Piccolo is officially born is also Goku’s birthday in canon, and so Goku loves to share it with his rival. As Goku spent the same time training with Kami, this would be representative of the two growing in power, and eventually becoming his closest friend and greatest rival of all his friends.
This entire arc is a very good story arc which represents what it means to put everything on the line in order to overcome adversity and evil, and for good to fight for it. Even when things are hopeless in the end for all those who died, Goku tries to get it to be fixed, which he goes to Kami for help, and we have Krillin, Chiaotzu and Roshi all coming back from the dead. So Goku can love life, work on improving his techniques, and gaining new experience and wisdom upon their return to the land of the living.
I think I appreciate this story arc a lot more than before after exploring the King Piccolo arc again, and I think DBZ fans need to go take a look at experiencing the story and see what makes Dragonball so great. It isn’t just Energy Blasts, Super Saiyan power ups and Vegeta’s revolving door of Damnation-Redemption arcs, but it is heart, and what everything represents. This is a story that brings out the peak of anime and manga storytelling, and Toriyama worked really hard on this series. Forget Super and GT. Just go back and watch the classics, and you will probably get an incredible experience. Sure, a little bit more lighthearted, but it doesn’t mean it’s bad, or terrible.
Bless those slugs/demons/aliens.
I like how its a sort of reincarnation, and how the former would be absolutely pissed at the latter's playing babysitter with Goku's grandkids.
It also disturbs me that at any time the Namekians could spawn a veritable army. They could choose horrible demonic traits and dragonoid features to imbue these slug/reptile things, but instead they go with humanoid features. King Piccolo really was the most vile of their kind.