Alright, here's a theory when it comes to Mr. Popo. The reason why he's so powerful is because he's Zen-Oh's dark counterpart. And as such, he's his complete equal in every way.
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If you're ever going to ask that question, or other questions similar to it, the answer is pretty much always going to be no.
Bringing Piccolo to Namek is the stupidest decision anyone in the arc makes. It's the "Goku and Vegeta destroy the Potara" of the Frieza arc. Having it be a dumb impulse by one of the people making the wish, rather than a plan Piccolo comes up with that Gohan and Krillin promptly accept, works better for me.
I hated that line because it shifted the blame on Kuririn, especially Piccolo being the one to call it out like he can do no wrong.
And it only works better in TFS because they made Kuririn far stupider in a way that has no basis in canon. That kind of impulsive "let's bring him here for no reason!" would not fit anyone in canon making that an incredibly flawed comparison.
What Piccolo did was certainly stupid, but understandable given the circumstances. Freeza was closing in, and Kuririn/Gohan did not know what to do. Piccolo didn't know how strong Freeza was, Gohan/Kuririn only knew that he'd become stronger and was confident. Only Nail, who gauged both their powers, knew Piccolo would be slaughtered.
Piccolo's decision was motivated by two things: a desire to protect Gohan and a desire to avenge the Namekians. He wasn't thinking things through, and Gohan and Kuririn didn't have a plan. To act like they're going to think things through in the way you described isn't realistic at all. Despite the risk, they would have thought their chances with Piccolo there are much better than fighting Freeza alone.
They were willing to let Vegeta have immortality even though he could just kill him after. They were all desperate.
Agreed. While I love these guys (and thought that part was kinda funny) they basically set that joke up to make Krillin look stupid.
Also, considering we were just saying that the dragons often interpret the spirit of the wish, it's odd that Porunga would just drop Piccolo anywhere rather then putting him on some random spot on Namek.
Though as others have pointed out, it was plot convenient since he put him near Nail and let them fuse.
One Strip! One Strip!You know, it's kinda funny that Gohan and Krillin were probably more powerful than Piccolo before he fused with Nail. After all, Piccolo had only been on Kaiou's planet for, what, 10 days? Assuming when Kaiou contacted Goku was when they arrived.
Let the joy of love give you an answer! Check out my book!According to the manga
◊, Nail sensed Piccolo's power and realized how strong he was
◊. He probably was stronger than Gohan and Krillin before the fusion.
Yeah, that makes sense it does.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.I'd also like to point out that, only Vegeta knew that Frieza could actually transform, Gohan, Krillin, and Piccolo weren't aware of that, and even then Vegeta didn't know Frieza could transform multiple times, or just how high Frieza's power could get in his true form. How was anyone supposed to know that Frieza could become over 226 times stronger than what he was at then?
Let's see if you can get past my Beelzemon. Mephiles, WARP SHINKA!It's not made clear either way. Both Gohan and Kuririn were stronger than Nail at that point (Gohan especially so) and Piccolo only had 6 days training.
Now, the characters have made huge leaps in a small amount of time before but we don't get much of a gauge off Piccolo. He's definitely much stronger than the average Namekian, which means he had to grow from his battle power of 3,500 vs Nappa given that the warriors who fought Freeza were around 3,000.
More than that, they didn't even know Freeza's full power in his first form.
edited 17th Dec '16 4:12:10 PM by Saiga
I mean, Nail was probably as strong as he was due to having Guru awaken his potential. Which, kind of makes one wonder how strong the resulting fusion would have been if Piccolo had managed to get his potential awoken by Guru beforehand.
Let's see if you can get past my Beelzemon. Mephiles, WARP SHINKA!About that part where Guru awakens Gohan's "true potential." He really doesn't, because Gohan is later able to become a Super Saiyan. And moreover, didn't the old Supreme Kai use the exact same phrasing when he turned Gohan into Mystic Gohan? I mean, what's the difference between what Guru did and what the Supreme Kai did?
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And longer.
Guru's wasn't able to pull it all out (and it takes longer for it to come out since Krillin didn't achieve his full potential until after the Ginyu were beaten, when he likely would have needed it more).
Old Kai's takes longer, but gets everything because it takes that time, thereby making it more thorough.
Except they end up losing anyway.
edited 17th Dec '16 4:50:45 PM by HandsomeRob
One Strip! One Strip!The thing is, the original term for it is "dormant power". And that's never been meant as a stand in for "overall potential". Goku had his dormant power unlocked back in the Daimao arc, and immediately after his fight with Daimao talked about training to become stronger.
Dormant power can be realized through training, but even those without much dormant power can get stronger by training. It's never fully outlined what the distinction is, but you can look at dormant power more like unrealized potential - if you trained in the most efficient way possible, you might realize all your dormant power as you grow stronger. If not, you're going to be less powerful than you could be at any given point which is your dormant power.
Transformations and techniques that rely on dormant power kind of throw a wrench in that, though.

Well, he'd eventually target Earth if he still decides to go all crazy....
Except he was only able to get as far as he did by switching bodies with Goku and going to Trunks' timeline, something that can't happen if Vegeta and Bulma never leave Namek alive, and Trunks isn't born to come back in time, because there's no Goku for Gero to release the Androids on.
In fact without Goku around, it's possible that Gowasu does eventually succeed in taming his apprentice's violent urges towards humanity.
So Goku fucks everything up again...then again things were already bad when you think about it.
One Strip! One Strip!