Despite the fact that Piccolo was introduced as the Demon King, his original Dragon Ball title ended up being a complete lie–something that became strikingly obvious once the series introduced the real Demon King.
When Piccolo made his Dragon Ball debut, he wasn’t the heroic Z-Fighter fans know and love today, but was instead a centuries-old villain hellbent on decimating the entire world. As revealed in the King Piccolo Saga, King Piccolo was the incarnation of every ounce of evil that once resided inside Kami, the god of Earth. To become a god, Kami needed to expel his dark side and retain only goodness and light, and that darkness manifested itself as King Piccolo. Since Kami was god, King Piccolo saw himself as the devil–even if that wasn’t necessarily true. As it turned out, both Kami and King Piccolo were originally one Namekian who attained godhood. So, while King Piccolo thought he was a literal demon, there was nothing otherworldly about him at all, as he was simply just another evil alien creature.
In Dragon Ball chapter 448 by Akira Toriyama, Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Piccolo, Krillin, and Supreme Kai have tracked the villainous sorcerer, Babidi, to an underground lair where the villain was attempting to awaken the seemingly all-powerful Majin Buu. With Babidi was a demonic-looking warrior named Dabura who was completely under the sorcerer’s control–and in this chapter, the Z-Fighters are shown exactly what Dabura can do. With a single move, the villain obliterated Supreme Kai’s attendant, Kibito, and then turned Krillin and Piccolo to stone with another. When the surviving Z-Fighters asked Supreme Kai who that was, Shin told them that Dabura was the king of the Demon Realm.
King Piccolo Only Thought He was a Demon, but Dabura Actually Is
Dabura is actually a demon from an otherworldly realm whereas King Piccolo was essentially just a confused Namekian. Since he was the evil that once resided in ‘god’, King Piccolo figured it only made sense that he was the antithesis of that god, making him the king of demons. However, upon the introduction of Dabura, both readers and Piccolo himself knew that wasn’t the truth. Plus, not only was the existence of an actual Demon King an indicator that King Piccolo was never one, but the entire character arc of Piccolo himself proved that long before Dabura was even introduced.
Piccolo (as fans know him today) is the reincarnation of the ‘Demon King’ Piccolo and originally was just as hellbent on destroying the world as his ‘father’ was–though over the years, Piccolo found redemption and ended up becoming perhaps the greatest Dragon Ball hero in the series, proving he wasn’t completely bad. However, even if Piccolo stayed evil, he still wouldn’t have been a true Demon King as fans were once led to believe, as Dragon Ball confirms Dabura is the real Demon King.
