The Return of the King: Piccolo The Demon King Cometh Once more by Dan
And How Goku saved his soul
After the defeat of the demon king Piccolo, there was 3 years of peace, and Goku decided to continue his training by going up to Kami’s lookout, only to find a double of King Piccolo, and misunderstand what happened, as the double reveals himself to be Kami.
When Kami split from King Piccolo, he worked hard to prove himself to the previous Guardian of the Earth to get his current role, and worked to become a benevolent deity, all the while working on finding a way to seal his evil double away, and prevent him from doing harm.
Eventually, Emperor Pilaf released the evil King, and thus a reign of terror took place, and Goku rose up to the challenge and killed King Piccolo. The evil demon King put all his power, all his will into an egg that would hatch to become King Piccolo. The one detail that most forget, is that Piccolo was born on Goku’s birthday.
When he was born, he was confirmed a Namekian, and the next demon King, unlike the demons King Piccolo summoned, like Cymbal. Piccolo Jr grew up in a world that hated him, even when he wished to understand the world around him.
He may have had his “father’s” memories, but he was also an individual, and was “programmed” to be loyal to his predecessor’s objectives. He survived on hatred and in a dirty world, and he needed to either sink or swim, and he grew strong. Even stronger than his father, and far smarter and far more clever. We see Piccolo learn from his own, and his predecessor’s mistakes in battle, and in life.
However, unlike King Piccolo, Piccolo Jr. found an appreciation on Earth. He loves the quiet peace of nature, and meditating when the animals are just wandering around and doing their own thing, appealed to him.
Looking around the world to see the beauty of earth… It was something he craved for. But after much hardship of misunderstandings and judgements, he played pretend at being King Piccolo, there was a part of him that wished to deny that side of him, but he could not fight it back completely. He needed one big fight with Goku.
So he joined the 23rd World Martial Arts tournament to fight against Goku and the rest of the group himself. Arriving at the finals of the tournament to fight Goku as he planned, he took Kami off the table, so there could be no interruptions. The evil of King Piccolo guided him to fight Goku, even becoming a giant in order to crush Goku, but this is when Goku tricked him so he could save Kami.
What is fascinating is that Goku can’t stand life or death battles, but he loves the sportsmanship of a good fight, such as the World Martial Arts tournament. There are rules, there is a challenge, and your life is not on the line. This is how Goku prefers it.
This is a detail many think about, when the detail of making your enemies stronger through stupidity is not this protagonist. Goku doesn’t want villains to be at their strongest, but rivals is another story. During this match, both Goku and Piccolo told the Dragon crew (This is what they call them now, instead of the Z senshi.) to back off and let them have their fight.
But there are a couple things that captures Goku’s attention about Piccolo’s behaviour. First, is that Piccolo joined the tournament. Goku isn’t as stupid as what people make him out to be. He’s actually the most perceptive, and intelligent member of the crew, but he plays up the class clown act. It’s called obfuscating stupidity.
It means pretending to be a moron, to the point of trolling the people around him, just to have people underestimating him. And Goku does this, as it becomes a lifestyle in order to maintain this act. He is so convincing at times, that when Bulma would condescend him, he would break character, scold her, tell her not to disrespect him when he reminds her of how she knows it’s all an act.
He says so a couple times on screen. And yet, he is the only person who figures out early in the tournament that it’s Piccolo. King Piccolo would never have joined a tournament, simply for a chance to fight Goku. The father would cause a tragedy just to get the attention of Goku.
The second part is when he scared the audience into leaving during Goku and Piccolo’s fight. This isn’t something the previous Piccolo would do. Goku figured that there’s a certain amount of honour in him because of this act. It’s what he sees and this perception allowed him to help bring to his side his friends. Krillin was bullied and decided to be a bully, but he & Goku became inseparable and a really good playmate and friend.
Yamcha, was lonely and only had Puar. Chasing around Goku allowed him to become someone he never thought he could be, and became one of Goku’s closest friends, and an older brother.
Tien was a lost soul, and seeing the man who wanted to have honour as a warrior, Goku showed him there’s more to combat than simple murder. But King Piccolo? No. Goku knew he had no honour, and nothing good, therefore Goku had no problem with him dying, as King Piccolo would just blow up the entire area. This version of Piccolo opted to play by certain rules, despite twisting them into what he thinks is acceptable. Is it good? Not really. But it is part of his journey.
These actions allowed Goku to figure out that this was not the same person he took down three years prior. But it didn’t mean this version of the demon King wasn’t any less ruthless. He worked on his fighting style, in which he took the Kami school of Martial Arts that he knew, and King Piccolo’s style of combat, and developed his own, known as the Demon Style of Martial Arts.
In fact, this is the style Gohan primarily uses. The primary tactic to this school is to exploit a weakness, and only strike there. If there is no weakness, then you make one and strike there. This is shown by Gohan in the fight against Vegeta, when Vegeta gets an eye injury while he’s in his giant ape form and turns back, he fights against Gohan, and when they are fighting in melee, Gohan continuously strikes at Vegeta’s injured eye. You can notice this if you watch Gohan fighting closely, and this is how he fights, and this style he learned from Piccolo.
Piccolo does this against Goku, and launches a mouth blast that pierces Goku’s shoulder, but doesn’t strike his vitals. Goku thinks Piccolo missed, but deep down, Piccolo didn’t want to kill Goku, although it left him to blast Goku’s opposite arm, and break Goku’s legs. This is torture, and it is very rare to hear Goku scream in agony, as Goku has a VERY strong pain tolerance.
And this is when Piccolo tried to kill Goku. He wanted to give Goku a fighting chance in a fight, and play on an even playing field, and that is why he joined the tournament instead of ambushing Goku before the tournament, and why, after he fell outside of where the ring should be, and Goku told the referee, Piccolo respected the rules of the tournament, and acknowledged his defeat, wanting to improve himself.
It was like something in him changed after the battle, as if a part of his conflict with Goku had some form of resolution. This is something Kami didn’t see in his evil nephew. That Piccolo wasn’t as evil as everyone thought he was. Goku protected him from Kami, seeing through the lies that Kami inadvertently spread, in order to sacrifice himself to kill Piccolo.
Because something happened between Goku and Piccolo, and despite Goku nearly dying several times, there was something between the two that resonated between the two and Goku found a kindred spirit. Piccolo found something that he craved for, and that was honour and respect. He was given a second chance by Goku, and he accepted it. He could have gone and killed the entire crew after Goku gave him a sensu bean, but instead he told Goku they would fight again, and flew off. Everyone was scared and worried, but Goku was calm, and accepting. In fact, this is the only time where he was fine fighting an opponent in a life or death scenario, because it was Piccolo.
Over the years, Piccolo didn’t truly fight with Goku. Instead, he was training in the middle of the wilderness, finding some peace there. But one interesting piece of lore that Toriyama inserted was that every year, on Goku’s birthday, he, Goku that is would seek out Piccolo and give him the last piece of cake, telling him “Happy Birthday, Piccolo.” as they apparently share a Birthday.
This action left the Namekian in a tsundere state, and he ate the cake, appreciative that someone remembered and cared about him, and knew what was his birthday, because the two shared the same birthday, and that’s what was important, and it is why Goku trusts Piccolo in such a way might surprise many, including Piccolo in the fight against Radditz, how Goku did not hesitate to let Piccolo use his Special Beam Cannon on him.
They became friends during the tournament, without truly saying anything. Goku knew that Piccolo would no longer be a threat to the Earth, as deep down, Piccolo wanted meaning to his life, and Goku gave him one, and became his rival. Goku wanted to give Piccolo a chance to choose his own life, instead of King Piccolo’s life.
And all of this, learning about honour and respect, his intellect that allowed him to match wits with Goku, he never patronizes Goku for his act, but often gets flustered by Goku’s pranks, but he is part of the family, and can’t resist a good challenge with Goku, no matter the situation.
He wants to grow stronger, and eventually can’t stand cowards who go against women and children, even when he trained Gohan and put him in the battlefield. He became a harsh, yet good man. And yet, he is not safe. He is absolutely dangerous, and he can be volatile, but he cares deeply about those he cherishes.
He sees Goku has a brother in spirit. He treats Gohan as if he were his own son. He trusts Krillin to do what needs to be done. He respects Tien and Yamcha, and acknowledges them as equals, and warriors. And one of the hardest tasks, is for him to acknowledge Kami, and Kami in time accepts him, offers him his position and eventually fuses with Piccolo, with Piccolo being the one in charge.
There’s a reason why the green alien is amongst my favourite in the series. His redemption arc is like no other in the DragonBall mythos. His evolution as a character left a mark as the ultimate anti-hero redemption arc in anime history.
Nothing shows this more than his death scene, when he tells Gohan how important he is to him, and how he cares about Goku and Gohan a lot more than anything in the world. At the end of the day, the person who dealt the final blow to King Piccolo was not Goku, but Piccolo, who rejected his “father’s” objective, and became his own man. The shadow of the Demon King was dead, only for the new demon King to take his place, and show honour that impressed fans all over the world.
So that in this way, the Demon King became a True King, a King of the Dragon-Warriors rather than a demon. He chose family, and love over evil. And that’s what makes all the difference in life and is why he’s gone down in Japanese anime/manga and literature as one of the greatest characters of all times.
Is lord Slug just a slight more selfish "King Piccolo", or are those movies so bad as to not be worth mentioning?