Dragon Ball Super: It’s Time Piccolo Got a Major New Power-Up

Dragon Ball Super has taken the Dragon Ball to bold new heights in terms of the series’ signature power-ups and transformations. Goku and Vegeta have progressed so far during the course of the series that their respective power is now tapping on the door of actual godhood – but the distribution of power has been anything but even. While Dragon Ball’s two Saiyan protagonists (Goku, Vegeta) have evolved in a major way, the other characters from the Dragon Ball “Z-Fighter” roster has been left far behind. Well, Dragon Ball Super‘s latest manga arc has set the stage for one of the most popular Z-Fighters to get a major power-up, which is long overdue.

This is why it’s time that Dragon Ball Super gave Piccolo a major new power-up:

Out of the entire lineup of primary Dragon Ball Z characters Piccolo is one of the top fan-favorites. Before Vegeta, Piccolo had one of the most dynamic character arcs of any character in Dragon Ball, starting off as a demonic villain before eventually morphing into one of Goku’s closest allies. Throughout Dragon Ball Z Piccolo’s tactical wisdom and leadership kept the Namekian hero at the forefront of the series, but like so many of the Z-Fighter characters (see also: Gohan) Dragon Ball Super kind of left Piccolo’s character arc in limbo. The Namekian did get a bit of time to shine in DBS‘ Universal Survival Arc, but got knocked out of the tournament before the final round, as his power was simply not great enough to keep up with the class of fighters the ToP brought together.

Throughout Dragon Ball Super (and even beyond that to the Broly movie release) Piccolo has been a great advisor, mentor, trainer – even babysitter. But that’s not the role the Namekian warrior was intended for. Thankfully, as stated, the DBS manga’s “Galactic Patrol Prisoner” arc has now provided both good reason and opportunity for Piccolo to get a power-up.

In the current arc, a new villain named “Planet-Eater Moro” broke out of Galactic Patrol prison after ten million years, and went on a mission to invade New Namek and secure the Namekian Dragon Balls. Once Moro terrorizes New Namek he eventually gets the balls, and gets to make wishes to both restore his dark magical powers and magically empower his own gang of escaped convicts. With his goal achieved, Moro lives up to this nickmame and consumes all life-force from New Namek and its inhabitants, leaving the planet dead, with only Piccolo, Dende, and young New Namekian healer Esca as the only surviving Nameks in the uinverse. Piccolo and Dende learn as much when Galactic Patrolman Jaco brings Esca to Earth’s Watchtower, but the Namekians don’t get to mourn long, as Moro is headed to Earth next!

Piccolo battles Moro’s scout gang and manages to best them (including a powerful new evil android). However, the power of Moro and his top lieutenants is much greater than that, and both Goku and Vegeta off-world pursuing new forms of training to defeat Moro with. That leaves the Z-Fighters getting drafted into the Galactic Patrol to defend Earth on their own.

So there it is: Piccolo now has all the reason in the world to want to break his limits and get vengeance for his people, and defend the Earth from Moro in Goku and Vegeta’s absence. There are several means by which that power-up could occur, but with just three Nameks left in the universe, Piccolo fusing with an all-seeing guardian (Dende) and healer (Esca) would truly provide him a uniquely important improvement on his current power. It would also make Piccolo the last Namekian in the universe and potentially Earth’s guardian – both of which would be important turns in his character arc.

Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block on Saturday evenings, and is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese-language release of the series is complete, and available to stream on FunimationNOW and Crunchyroll. The manga has chapters that can currently be read for free thanks to Viz Media, and Dragon Ball Super’s big movie, Dragon Ball Super: Broly, is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.