Synopsis: Nappa's deadly attack at Gohan is blocked by Piccolo, saving the young boy's life and surprising Nappa who thought for sure he'd just taken down the young boy. Gohan is even more surprised, as Piccolo tells him to run before collapsing on the ground before him, gravely injured. Gohan asks Piccolo why he saved him, and Piccolo again urges him to run, but Gohan refuses and pleads with Piccolo not to die as he's sure his father will be here soon to save them. Nappa curses Piccolo for making him kill them out of order, but he supposes it's all the same in the end. Rushing towards the battlefield, Goku can feel one of the powers he sensed getting smaller as they die. At Kami's sanctuary, Kami can feel his life force fading and says that Goku must not have made it in time. As Popo tries to help Kami, Kami says that at least he can die in peace now that Piccolo has finally surpassed him. Lying on the ground dying, Piccolo muses on how pathetic it is for the once great Demon King Piccolo to sacrifice himself to save a child, the child of his greatest enemy no less. He lays the blame for this upon both Goku and Gohan, claiming that their softness must have started to infect him. He can't find it in himself to truly be upset about it however, as he acknowledges that Gohan was the only person who ever tried to talk to him and treat him like anything other than a monster. Piccolo tells Gohan that the months he spent with him training weren't so bad, and as he takes his last breath, Piccolo tells Gohan not to die. Goku senses Piccolo's energy fade away, and at Kami's sanctuary, Kami himself disappears before Popo's eyes. Heartbroken by the death of his master, Gohan screams and aims an angry look at Nappa. As Vegeta's scouter registers Gohan's power reaching 2,800, confirming his suspicions that the Earthlings are able to vary their power greatly, and a watching Kuririn is likewise taken aback by Gohan's power, the young boy fires a powerful Masenko (Demon Flash) attack at Nappa. As the blast approaches him however, Nappa calmly punches it away much to Gohan's horror. Nappa wrings his hand and admits that it actually stung a bit, and Vegeta notes that Gohan's power has dropped back to normal after that attack. Spent, Gohan looks to Piccolo's body and apologizes as not only did he not avenge him, he's too low on energy to run now either. Kuririn curses his own inability to help as Nappa approaches Gohan, raising his foot above Gohan's body and saying that he can't wait to see Kakarot's face when he finds his son crushed to a pulp. Nappa slams his foot down, assuming that he's crushed and killed Gohan. To everyone's surprise however, the only thing beneath Nappa's foot is the ground. Looking to the side, Nappa is surprised to find Gohan floating on a strange yellow cloud, and Vegeta quickly notices someone floating in the sky above them. Gohan and Kuririn are overjoyed, and as Nappa looks on in confusion, Vegeta thinks that it's about time, as Goku floats to the ground, looking on at the scene in anger. Review: While this chapter features Goku's long-awaited return to the forefront of the story, don't mistake this chapter as being his story – it is very much Piccolo's. Piccolo as a character is someone we've known for some time now. He's the newest member of the fighting cast other than Gohan, but despite that, we've still been around the block with him a fair bit by now, and no character in the series has gone through as much change and growth as he has. Toriyama has long made use of redemption arcs to make a formerly bad character turn good – basically every single one of Goku's larger friend group is in that boat to some degree or another – but none of them had the origins that Piccolo did. Piccolo was literally introduces to us as the reincarnation of the biggest villain the series had ever seen up to that point. The second most evil person to turn good up to this point was Tenshinhan, and his greatest crime was aspiring to be an assassin and breaking people's legs – I'm not saying these aren't terrible things, but they pale in comparison to Piccolo's past. There's also the fact that Tenshinhan's change of heart was practically instantaneous, he already ditched his evil ways and joined our heroes in the very same arc that he was introduced in. Now compare that to the road that's lead us to Piccolo's redemption. The original Piccolo was introduced to us as essentially the devil, the biggest, most vile evil imaginable. Then we get his reborn son who, at first, seems to be just as much of a threat as he was, seemingly showing no change at all in terms of who he is at his core. But that's where things do deviate and start leading us to the Piccolo we have now. The original King Piccolo was as arrogant as he was evil, and truly thought himself the better of anyone that he would meet. His defeat resulting in the current Piccolo's birth however, humbles Piccolo against his will. Unlike his forefather, this Piccolo is forced to acknowledge that he might not be the strongest thing out there after all. Oh he still believes he is, but he's wary enough to be cautious of even those he deems his lesser (such as his being impressed by Kuririn, or even his acknowledgement of Chaozu in this arc), and definitely wise enough to be fearful of someone like Goku. The ultimate insult to Piccolo's pride and the nail being put in place for his development is definitely Goku choosing to spare his life after defeating him at the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai. This is something that Piccolo cannot understand, nor stomach. His greatest foe, his very reason for existing, chooses to spare him instead of finishing him off, or even sealing him away again like what was done to the previous Piccolo. Although Piccolo scoffs at Goku's choice as weakness when he leaves, it becomes abundantly clear by this point that it's stuck in his mind all this time. How could someone be so strong, like Goku is, and yet also be merciful, even to someone like Piccolo? It flies in the face of everything that Piccolo has seen and experienced. Enter Raditz, the threat of the Saiyans, and the kindness of a small child named Gohan. After spending the last so many years training to kill Goku, and no doubt ruminating on being spared by him, Piccolo has one hell of a day out of nowhere. He's humiliated by a higher power than his own once again, and is then forced to team up with his greatest rival. The worst part though comes when he finally achieves his goal of killing Goku – rather than feeling good about it or better about himself or anything like that, Piccolo seems to feel nothing. In fact, the threat of the Saiyans places an onus on Piccolo to actually NEED Goku to come back to life – after all, if the Earth is destroyed, Piccolo can't conquer it. This threat is enough to force Piccolo to train Goku's own son as well, due to his having seen the boy's potential in the fight with Raditz. Piccolo's training of Gohan is far from altruistic at first, but over the time he spends with the boy, he notices how differently Gohan treats him. In truth, we haven't seen Piccolo around very many people, and it's pretty much just been our core cast of characters. That said however, he's been met with nothing but anger and/or fear from every person he's met in this life. Even Gohan is initially scared of him, partially due to him being scared of every thing but also due to his mother and grandfather having told him about how bad Piccolo is. That changes as the boy spends time with him though, and while there's certainly an argument to be made that it's a little unrealistic, or worse, Stockholm Syndrome-ish that Gohan ends up liking Piccolo, the boy does ultimately see that Piccolo isn't as bad as he's presenting himself to be, a fact bolstered further by the fact that Goku and Raditz both passed on to the afterlife rather than becoming lingering souls as those killed by demons do. And through Piccolo's own words, we see that Gohan is the first and only person who's ever bothered to actually have a conversation with Piccolo. It might seem a little strange to say, but Piccolo up until this point was a victim of circumstance. That doesn't necessarily absolve him of his crimes, but it does put him into a new perspective. He was trapped from birth into a revenge scheme that he had no choice of being a part of, and his very existence was cursed both by his own creator in the form of Kami, but also all of the people of the world who hated him simply for who he was. Now that Piccolo has seen that it doesn't have to be that way however, that even one person being kind to him is a person worth protecting, his change of heart has lead him to make the ultimate sacrifice for that person, even if it means putting them into a worse place overall by losing the Dragon Balls. Piccolo's change of heart might be somewhat abrupt and sudden in some ways, but all the clues leading to this have been seeded in since the start of the story arc, and it's a far more interesting character arc than any that Toriyama has done up til now. This chapter does give us more than Piccolo's death – there's Gohan's angry outburst showing that he truly has the power that Piccolo saw in him, and of course Goku's arrival on the battlefield signaling a turn in the tides – but I don't think either of those are anywhere near as important on a story level as Piccolo's choice in this chapter and what it means for him. Honestly, there are probably only two other characters with arcs anywhere near comparable to Piccolo's, but I'd personally say both fall short to his in some ways – Piccolo is Dragon Ball's greatest redemption story. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: Goku, back in action!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
About the AuthorAspiring author and big anime/manga fan, just trying to do my best in the world. For more details, go to About Me. Archives
September 2022
Categories
All
|