Dragon Ball Super's New Arc is Actually Ruining Piccolo, Not Improving Him

In spite of canonizing Orange Piccolo, Dragon Ball Super’s Super Hero Arc continues an unfortunate trend of depicting him negatively.

Warning: Spoilers for Dragon Ball Super chapter #98Most fans appreciate how Dragon Ball Super‘s manga adaptation of the Super Hero film makes Piccolo relevant again by canonizing his powerful Orange form. However, the arc continues to belittle his character most embarrassingly, despite the fact that Piccolo was depicted as a smart warrior in Dragon Ball Z.

The latest jab at Piccolo occurs in Dragon Ball Super chapter #98 by Akira Toriyama and Toyotarou. After Gamma 2 manages to sever one of Cell Max’s arms, the android falls unconscious onto the ground and is about to get crushed when Piccolo transforms and comes to his aide.

However, this puts Orange Piccolo in a compromising position due to his small size. Luckily, Krillin remembers Piccolo’s Great Namekian form and suggests he grows as he did during the Tenkaichi Tournament. Piccolo outright admits he forgot about that, which seems quite unlikely.

Piccolo Forgets A Lot of Important Information In Dragon Ball Super

While this was obviously a narrative device to remind readers about the last time Piccolo used this technique, it comes at Piccolo’s expense. Piccolo is so forgetful that he can’t even remember his own ability and has to be reminded by someone who only witnessed it. Previously, Dragon Ball Super had Piccolo fail to put two and two together during another critical moment in the series. In chapter #93, Bulma and Piccolo fail to think of asking Shenron to teleport Goku and Vegeta back to Earth to help them against the new Red Ribbon Army. When Bulma realizes their mistake, Piccolo tries to steer the blame away from himself by noting how she had to ask for a cosmetic fix, but as she retorts, he didn’t think of it either.

This is a far cry from how knowledgeable Piccolo used to be. During battles, Piccolo once served as the insightful warrior who would always explain the situation to those who couldn’t comprehend what was happening and even explain the next logical steps the enemy would likely take. His expert knowledge and cunning intellect let him play a role even when he was outmatched in terms of power by all the Saiyans. In essence, Piccolo took Master Roshi’s place as the wise and experienced warrior.

Orange Piccolo Was Not Enough To “Fix” The Character

Unfortunately, while the Super Hero Arc fixed the issue of Piccolo’s power gap by making him a lot stronger thanks to his Orange form, it seems that this came at the expense of Piccolo’s other qualities. While Dragon Ball Super fans have welcomed positively Piccolo’s power-up in Super Hero, the series should also get rid of this tendency of portraying him as a fool, and turn him back into the wise and cunning warrior he once was.