So when you hear the word legacy, what's the first thing that comes to mind?
Is it generational wealth, a family business, or maybe just your family name?
And does a legacy only care about the future, or does it have something to do with the past as well?
Well, we're going to have the answer to all of this when we dive further into what a legacy is
by examining a character who redeemed his own past by trusting in the future.
And of course, I'm talking about the strongest Namekian, Piccolo.
Hey, what's going on guys? My name is Nate, and you're listening to the Otaku Liberation,
a show where we help you break free from the chains that are holding you back in your life
by connecting some biblical principles with themes from your favorite anime.
And without further ado, let's get into it.
So the first, before we get into Piccolo's character analysis, the first I was looking at
when I started writing this episode is from Psalm 145 verse 4. And it says,
one generation will declare your works to the next and will proclaim your mighty acts.
So that is to say, what the things that you're doing today, your kids, your kids' kids,
not even just your kids, but the generation after you, right? It can be your younger siblings,
or cousins, random kids you see in the street. If you volunteer at a children's home, things like
that, the people that are coming up after you, you're essentially laying the foundation and
the groundwork for them today. Just the same way that the people who came before you,
laid the foundation for what you're working on now. And it's just a never ending cycle, right?
And essentially that's what a legacy is. It's not just what you can leave behind,
but it's also what came before you too. And also your piece in it,
because you're living a legacy right now. And it's going to just get passed on and
just grow from there. And the reason why I chose Piccolo for this character is because
of the character, I mean, for this theme, right? Because again, overall the story of Dragon Ball
is about the journey, right? It's about a journey that we're all going on. And in Piccolo's case,
it was more or less understanding his legacy. So let me give a little background for those who
don't know who it is. So Piccolo, at least Piccolo that we know in Dragon Ball Z,
in all the later iterations of Dragon Ball is actually Piccolo Jr. So I guess before I get into
Piccolo, for those who don't know, Namekians are essentially like a alien race of plant people,
more or less. They're very similar to plants, a lot of things they do. And they reproduce by laying
eggs. So they don't have genders or anything like that. They just reproduce by laying eggs.
And typically the offspring are not exactly identical to the parent, but in a lot of the ways
are pretty, pretty, pretty similar. So again, just going forward, I say Piccolo, I'm referring to
Piccolo Jr. And if I'm referring to his father, I'll say King Piccolo or Piccolo Sr. So back to
Piccolo's history. So Piccolo's father, who was known as King Piccolo, was defeated by Goku,
who's the main character of Dragon Ball. And he was defeated, I believe, I think, Goku was an
adult at the time. So he was defeated by Goku. And when King Piccolo lost, like he was his dying
breath, he quote unquote had the Piccolo we know now in order to enact his revenge on Goku. And
then at that moment, he started a, it was a legacy, but it was also a generational curse.
And that curse was of hatred over this one person who he thought didn't hit, who he thought did him
wrong. But in all reality, Goku was just protecting the lives of the people on earth. And just in that
moment right there, I think there's so many, so many things that if we look back in our own family
history, you know, the way we grew up, the way our parents grew up and their parents and so on and so
forth, I fully believe it starts to see a pattern of some sort, whether it's good or bad. But, you
know, when people say, oh, this just runs in my family, you know, and they, they just kind of
accepted that that was like, just true. It probably does run in your family, but it doesn't have to
be like that, right? What is the cause of it? Where did this start? Cause it had to start from
somewhere with somebody. And, and I think looking back into our own past and our family tree and
family thing like that helps us better understand who we are in the present as a person. And with
that level of self-awareness, it helps us to be able to move forward and move past it and to break
generational curses, right? And to be the first to do X, Y, Z, maybe, you know, first to go off the
college, first to graduate college, the first to start their own business and really do things on
their own and not, you know, and not just conform to everybody else, whatever, whatever it may be,
whatever it looks like to you and for your family. And, and again, all that starts with really
understanding where you came from because honestly, we don't know, we don't know where you came from.
How can you hope to know where to go? Right. And cause knowing your past really helps you
understand your present so you can plan for your future. Thank you, Cold Spirit. I didn't,
I didn't feel disclosure. I didn't write that down. That just came to me just now.
So anyway, so in, in Pigalo's case, in Pigalo Jr., the one I'm talking about, in his case,
when he was hatched more or less, he, the only thing he knew that he had a hatred for Goku.
And that's all he knew, that's all he wanted to enact on that was till he was an adult,
which again, they grow up really fast. So I think Pigalo was like maybe a couple of weeks old
by the time he was fully grown. And so, so he finds Goku and, you know, they hash it out again.
But during this time is when they had a unite against a common enemy who, you know, can find
out with Goku's brother who came to earth to figure out why Goku hadn't destroyed it yet. And, you
know, things like that. So, but in a way, Pigalo and Goku team up to be Goku's brother and Goku
ends up dying in that fight. And who was left there is Gohan, who was Goku's son. And Pigalo
decided to, to take Gohan under his wing and to train him because some even bigger enemies were
coming, who were even more of a threat than Goku's brother was. And one of them we already talked
about who was Vegeta. And this was an interesting, this was an interesting thing to see. So again,
Pigalo hated Goku because essentially Goku killed his father. And now here he is taking, looking
after the very man who he hated, looking after his son. And from the outside looking at it,
it seemed like a kind of a selfish name because he wanted Gohan to be able to help defend the earth
because they all live there. But during the year that he was training, I mean, you could really
start to see a change in Gohan and Pigalo, but more so Pigalo. And their relationship that
developed out of that is probably one of the most well-known out of, honestly, any anime, I dare say,
but especially out of Dragon Ball, because it was at that point where Pigalo started to change,
like his heart, his heart started to change. He started thinking outside of who his father was
and who he wants to be now. And honestly, is it something just as small as, again, deciding to
take somebody under your wing or to even just to share your life with somebody can just pays off
dividends in so many different ways? Because you never know who's going to walk into your life.
You never know who's going to walk out of your life, right? And it's important to be able to
guard yourself and protect yourself to an extent because not everyone has your best interest at
heart. But if you cut yourself off from the rest of the world in general, then you'll never have
the chance to experience that next step, that next stage in your growth, that next person who
may help you get to that next level. And it's just, I don't know, man, this is coming from
somebody who's an introvert, right? So me, I don't generally like dealing with people.
I shouldn't say dealing with people. Meeting new people is always an event for me because I get
something. I used to get really nervous and was kind of shut down, the standoffish and things
like that. I'm getting better. Some of those tendencies do creep up from here and there, but
I am getting better. But I wasn't afraid to get to know other people. Once I realized they weren't
weirdos and were going to kidnap me, I fully just opened up to them and just accepted them for who
they were and accepted me for who I was. And we built that relationship like that. Now, are all
of them as life-changing as Gohan was for Piccolo? No. But I know that now, but I wouldn't have known
it if I didn't take the chance, right? And it's just the willingness to invite that type of change
into your life can already just, again, it'll pay off. I can't say it in any other way, it's that
it'll pay off because just the act of being willing to change is already going to change you in some
way. And when it comes to, again, trying to break free of, again, the chains that are holding us
down in our own life, but also, again, back to the generational curses, is that your willingness to
change is the only thing that's going to break those chains. Because otherwise, you're just going
to be caught up in the same mess that everyone else before you has been, right? If you're too
afraid to take that first step, then you're going to just get drugged back with the rest of them.
And again, all of this starts with you. All of this starts internal. And then just like every
other episode, Sam's podcast, all the self-help books that I'm sure you read and other self-help
podcasts that you guys listen to, all of this starts with you because no one else is going to
do it for you. No one else can fix your life for you. And I mean, that's the long and the short
of it. And honestly, we have to be willing to take that first step and then the next step and then
each step after that and keep going and keep going and keep going. And in order to be the change that
we want to see, and Piccolo's first step was, whether he knew it or not, was taking Gohan under
his wing and training him because one, Piccolo saw potential in Gohan. Now, at the time, it was
fighting potential because it needed him to be a fighter, but it was also, it was something else
that he honestly didn't know that he needed in his life until later on. And so, so during this time
that Piccolo was training Gohan, Piccolo had a vision of himself dying. And again, a little more
of Piccolo's backstory, he's actually two people. He was one, he used to be one person and he
split himself into two, a good person who they call Kami and then the evil version, which was
Piccolo's father, King Piccolo. So, and they have some type of connection so they can, they can talk
to each other still, but they both had the same vision that they were going to die in the, in the
upcoming battle soon. And it was at this moment that Piccolo realized he, he wanted, essentially
he wanted to leave something worthwhile behind. And I can speak to that on so many different levels
because I know, you know, I can just speak for myself in personal experience is that here, like
as I've gotten older, like I'm in my mid twenties now and sometimes I feel like I'm having a midlife
crisis, right? And essentially is, I ask myself this question all the time, what is it that I want
to leave behind? Right? What is it that when I pass and move on that people are just going to remember
and this is going to change, not necessarily me as a person, but something that's going to touch their
hearts and really resonate, transform their lives in some form or capacity. And honestly, I'm still
trying to figure that out myself, right? I mean, it's part of the journey of life is trial and error,
trying different things out and seeing what works and what doesn't. But I know that's something that
we all go through, trying to figure out what is it that we're going to leave behind that essentially
more or less proves that we existed in the first place, that we lived, you know, because
living life and existing are two different things because existing, you know, everyone,
like as soon as you're born, you exist, you're here, you know, you're walking around just like
the rest of us, but that doesn't mean you're living, right? I know some people just go to work,
you know, to a job that they hate every day, come back home to a personal life that they hate and
they just do that day in, day out, day in, day out, and until one day, you know, boom, they're gone.
That's not living to me. That's just, you know, going through the motions and in this day and age,
it can be easier for some and harder for others, just like with anything, but if you're not careful,
you can find yourself in a place where you may think there's no way out and you just accept it.
You just accept the fact that this is my life and as much as you hate it, as much as you wanted to
change, again, back to the making the choice, if you're too afraid to make that choice, to
try something different and not saying it's going to work out, not saying, you know,
it's going to work out, not saying the next idea or next ambition that you have is going to be
fruitful and you're just going to hit the big one, but I'm not saying it's not either. Again,
it's always coming back to you making the choice and being willing to make that change, to change
your own, to change your own story and to find something that you want to essentially leave
behind for the next generation, for the ones coming up after you, right? I know for a lot of
people that it is their kids, like they're the kids that they have, right? And they want to leave
something behind for them, you know, and for their kids. I mean, get back to the whole idea
of generation of wealth and generation of wealth is not just money. I know a lot of times when we
say it, people, that's the first thing people think about, it's money, but it's, you know,
good health, it's good values, you know, the things that you want your kids to hold on to
and to remember long after you're gone, right? It doesn't even go that far when they leave the house.
You can still be on earth and be with them, but because once, I mean, once we leave the nest,
we're out in the world, the world has us at this point, right? And you want to make sure that what
you've instilled in them stays with them, stays in their heart, that they always remember it.
Like my mom said this, my dad said this, I always felt like this when they were around and
every time I, every time, if I messed up, they, they would encourage me to keep trying to pick
back, you know, just, just think little things like that. It can be that, it can be money,
it can be whatever, whatever it is that you decide that you want to leave behind. You,
you, I implore you to, A, think about it, you know, think about it like I am, pray about it
and just really, really sit and mow that over. And then once you find out what you want to leave
behind, I was like, okay, how are you going to go about doing it? You know, who, who is this for?
That's the question. Who is this for? You know, because, and, and once you find that and you
figure out how you want to give that to somebody, to give that to, to the, the next generation
coming up, then I think that's worth living for because now you have a purpose. Because I think
at the end of the day, all of us want, all of us want a purpose in our lives to find something
meaningful while we're here. Right. And, you know, what, what better purpose can there be then to,
to, to, and then to live not, when I say you live for somebody else, not, you know, your life solely
resolves around them. And, you know, you're just obsessed. It's more so you want to do something
on behalf of somebody else because you love them, because you want them to be better off than you
were or are. And you just, you know, want to just keep, just keep the, keep the degeneration,
the generosity, excuse me. And just the good thing is going. I mean, I don't think anyone wants to
willingly sow malintentions, you know, just bad energy in the air. And at least not on purpose.
Right. But yeah, I mean, again, just find, find what it is that you want to pass on and then figure
out what, what it can do for you. And for, for Pigalo, Pigalo's case is honestly, it was his
bond with Gohan. Cause like I said earlier, it's honestly one of the most well renowned and
I dare say one of the strongest ones in the series because I mean, essentially Pigalo is a
pseudo father figure to Gohan. Cause he, cause he, keep in mind Gohan at the time was like three,
maybe four or something like that. And he spent a year with this green guy who was first really
cold and callous towards him. But Gohan saw something that Pigalo didn't know anyone else had at that
point. And, and it was through that cause Gohan saw Pigalo as a person, not a monster. And it was
through that, that Pigalo realized, okay, there's, there's more to me than just what I have known,
you know, what I was taught and what I've seen. There's something, there's, there's another side
of me that, that sometimes, hey, we can't even see ourselves all the time. Right. Cause I mean,
think about literally, you can't see yourself physically, right? Even in the mirror, it's just
a reflection. Only other people can see the entirety of you. And that's why it's important
to surround yourself with people who have your best interests at heart, who, um, see the, who can
see the truth in you to see who can see your truth and understand it. Right. They're not going to
gaslight you. They're not going to boost your ego. They're not going to do anything like that. They're
going to just shoot straight and tell you what it is. And that, I mean, that's honestly, that's the
best relationship you can, you can ever hope to have in, in any capacity. And with Gohan and with
Gohan and Pigalo, it's funny seeing that when, now that Gohan's an adult and how Pigalo gets on to
him, you know, like he's just, it's funny. It's funny. Again, you, you gotta watch it. You gotta
watch it. But, um, but it was, it was, again, his relationship with Gohan that actually changed
Pigalo's legacy. You're right. Because he went from being born from a father who was just
essentially pure evil and who had Pigalo just for revenge to Pigalo essentially fathering and
mentoring Gohan who isn't a Namekian nor is he evil. Gohan and Goku and Goku's other child,
Goten, all three of them are, are pure of heart. You know, I just wanted to say they all are very
pure individuals. They have never had any ill intentions ever. They're all very pure, honest,
decent guys. Uh, if you're pushing too much, then you will, you, you gotta fight in your hands, but
they don't have any malice behind anything that they do. And the stalk, the contrast from Gohan
to Pigalo's father is literally like night and day. And so that's the bright future that Pigalo
is seeing that he's looking forward to. He's helped to cultivate essentially because now Gohan has,
he has a daughter and Pigalo is essentially her godfather and Pigalo and Gohan's daughter spend a
lot of time together too, because he sees, you know, the kind person in him that Gohan did all
those years ago. And now you got a new generation, you know, a new generational wealth, so to speak,
a new take, you change the curse into a blessing and seeing that in real time, like over the,
that however many years Dragon Ball has been around, right. And really seeing that, that journey from
again, the enemy outsider to basically one of the closest things to a brother. You can obviously call
somebody or a father or a mentor, whatever you want to call Pigalo. And it just, it honestly just
warns, it just warms my heart if I can just be honest, and we just be plain with you guys.
It warms my heart because that is the type of thing that I really do think we all should strive for.
And honestly, yeah, that's it. I mean, we all can strive to make that change within ourselves. And
even if we, and here's the key, sometimes it's hard to do something for yourself. And the key is to
find somebody or something that's worth it to you, right. Because getting back to the deal with
parents, I know parents understand this, so that's why I'm talking about the kids a lot, but typically
when your parents have children and stuff, the whole world just flips upside down. Things just
change completely. Like, because before it was just you, then it was you and your partner. And now you
got this little human that you have to take care of and figure out how you're going to provide for
the next X amount of years. And not just provide for them, you got to protect them, you got to teach
them, you know, you got to keep, you know, all the things, everything. And that can be scary,
but it also is, from what I understand is one of the biggest blessings that you can ask for,
because it challenges you as a person and it requires you to grow and to change, right. In
some form or fashion, like you can't, you cannot change. And for those of us who don't have kids
like myself, you find something or somebody else that, who you are willing to change for in a
positive way. And I'm not saying change who you are, I'm saying to grow. To grow beyond who you
are currently and to really push yourself to be great, dare to be great. Don't just be content
with where you are. Don't just be content with the cards that you were dealt, you know, in life. You
know, you may think it's bad luck. You may think it's just luck, you know, luck that draws on people,
just have it. And some other people don't. It's like, no, very rarely is that really the case.
The, honestly, the biggest difference between those who are successful and those who aren't
is that, is those who are successful are willing to fail and those who aren't successful are afraid
to fail. And that's it. That's pretty much it. Because we're all born into this world, cold,
naked and afraid, and we're all going to leave this world cold, hopefully clothes, and we won't be
afraid anymore because, you know, we're gone. And so we're going to come in and we're going to leave
the same. The only difference is how you decide to react to the world around you. What do you decide
to do with your lot in life? How you play your cards, how you decide to, you know, live up to
your own expectations and even go past them. All right. So again, that's pretty much all I want to
cover with you guys is just really, really dig deep, deep, deep within yourself and really get
to the root of whatever it is that you feel like is holding you back. And I encourage you to talk
to some of your elders, you know, those, whether it's a parent, a grandparent, an older mentor,
you know, somebody who is older than you, who's experienced more in life and who's willing to
mentor you in a sense that, like, okay, you know, everything's not doom and gloom and everything's
not sunshine and rainbows either. We just have to figure out where you fit in, in this thing we call
life and what can you do to just impact it in a positive way. So, yeah. So again, I want to thank
you guys for tuning into today's episode. I pray that you got what you needed out of it and hopefully
that you learned something new about yourself. All right. Feel free to subscribe to the podcast
and leave a review because I would love reading you guys' reviews and encouraging me to get better
with this. Each and every time I sit down to record, write out the episode, do my research,
things like that. And I really, really do hope this makes a, you know, a significant impact in
someone's life out there. All right. And always remember, you are the main character of your story
and that story doesn't end until he says so. All right. Be blessed.