I've never seen a person suggest that he did outside of the meditation he did to expel piccolo.
Like eldagusto stated, kami is a god and his role is not that of a fighter. He is a sage like character who does not participate in conflict. The reason kami did not beat down piccolo was stated in the anime at least possibly the manga because he was not allowed to do so, and in fact, suicide was taboo for kami as well. He had no other course of action but to stay on his temple while piccolo rampaged. In fact, he was so desperate to kill piccolo by the 23rd budokai that he asked tenshinhan to kill him so piccolo died too.
But lets assume that kami did train to power himself up. Piccolo was sealed in the rice jar via the mafuuba, so his main reason to train was gone, and any "training" done from that point was godly things, and learning new skills such as the mafuuba in case piccolo came back, which is what he did. The mafuuba failed, but that was his best option according to him. By borrowing a human body, I'm guessing the human would die, but he'd be brought back via the dragon balls.
So there'd be no need to train even if piccolo was a threat because he was dealt with by mutoaito or whatever roshis masters name was.
And as to whether they were even, I doubt that as kami speaks as though he were the original, and piccolo was the runt in most depictions, with piccolo surpassing him later as a warrior type.
Aside from kami, the only other time we saw a split like that was with majin buu, and that wasn't a calculated move, so much as it happened by accident, and even then it was not an even split. The gap widened more so when the evil side became kid buu, which is kind of a weird parallel to kami and piccolo. Its different in some ways, but similar in others. The "original" was overpowered and eventually absorbed by the evil one.
I realize some of this is taking notes from the anime, but thats fine as quite a bit of stuff from the anime was worked on with toriyamas involvement. Pikon for example was created by toriyama and was noted to take facial expressions from piccolos model sheet for the face when applicable. If I had to give a precident as to canon, the manga is first, then the anime, then any guide books to fill in extra details. If the guide book contradicts the anime, the anime is correct. If the anime contradicts the manga, the manga is correct. This is acceptable in my opinion. I don't think video game "canon" has any bearing or merit outside of cool factor.
And as far as kami not training because he's old, he really needs to take a page out of roshis book and train anyway. Its a stroke of luck considering the multiverse that piccolo stayed good after dying. For all kami knew, piccolo could have reverted back to his old ways and used his strength as a super namekian merged with nail post king kais training. Given dbms "infinite universes" there is bound to be a universe where piccolo had a 2nd change of heart and went evil again, without any majin power up from babadi and so on. and if kami was worried about dying of old age, theres always the super elixir roshi used to mke himself kinda immortal, so he could train as long as required, and he has the HTC as well. So I don't buy the "old age can't train" explanation as its entirely possible for him to do so.
AS to the process of kami splitting his evil side from himself, I would assume that his nameless one persona had a huge power, as guru stated "his strength is so vast, if a saiyan had bested him, it would have to have been a ssj".
The wordings a bit different, but guru seems to know a regular saiyan couldn't beat the nameless one. This is the evidence that suggests he wasn't on the same level as the 3000 power namekians facing off against the freeza grunts or even nail. I'm thinking like in the several millions. It doesn't have to be as much as say freeza, but if he were like 40 million then base goku on namek couldn't beat him. Never mind other power up techniques like the kaioken. This is why I'm suggesting the dividing process actually did more than subtract piccolos power from kami, it sort of had the opposite effect of a namekian fusion. It'd be like if piccolo split nail from him (impossible I know) and nail popped out at 42,000 and piccolo was whatever he was, like 5,000 and they have less between them than the 1 million that super piccolo had. It, like namekian assimilation, has random variables, and the result was a weaker duo than the original.
It's merely an assumption of mine, as kami and piccolo even added together were weaker than radditz, and thats taking into account kami and warrior type piccolo who trained to battle goku.
It's been a while since I've seen Piccolo arc. I could be wrong, but I was always under the impression that the only reason Kami didn't stop Piccolo was because he had no way of containing him and killing him would mean Kami's death as well. I can't recall if Kami isn't allowed to stop a conflict or not. I just figured as god it was left to their own discretion on when to possibly interfere in mortal affairs. I admit there is nothing suggesting Kami did, but I never got the impression that Kami was breaking or bending the rules to confront Piccolo at the 23rd tournament. Perhaps this is me mixing manga and anime together, but I always felt gods in Dragon Ball were martial arts masters meant to train both body and mind. I know they never directly confront foes in the story themselves, but they always seem to be one of the strongest fighters in that arc or set the benchmark for Goku and his friends to pass to defeat their next even stronger foe (except Shin, but his role seemed to be how mortals have surpassed the gods at the point he was introduced). It didn't seem odd to me that the previous Kami could have trained his eventual successor in martial arts. I could even see it being a good way to teach Kami self-discipline along with meditation. Kami never seemed to out of place during the brief time we saw him fight as Shu (was that the name of the human he possessed?). I just figured he had to have experience and trained at some point. At least I wouldn't be surprised if Kami did train and meditate as way to keep his mind off his other half's rampage when across the planet he was overseeing in his youth. I just never saw it as far fetched that Kami trained even if the story never told us about it. To me gods in DB usually are martial artists who train our heroes, so I tend to think back in the day they did train in their youths before they got lazy and stopped.
I'm willing to concede that the split wasn't even and Kami just got the lion share of the power similar to Evil Buu and Fat Buu situation though and Kami stopped or never really was a trained martial artist. I do still think it wouldn't be uncommon for Nameless Namek to not have been as strong as the Elder/Guru and Nail thought he was and he had a much lower power level than he was supposed to have. Reading that page you provided nothing suggests the Elder/Guru has an accurate gauge on how strong Nameless was before he left Namek. He said Nameless was gifted, a prodigy, and came from a powerful clan. He even expressed surprise that he could be killed by a common Saiyan, but does that necessarily mean as a child Nameless was working a power level above 18,000? I find that harder to believe, especially considering how weak Piccolo and Kami were. I know you compared it to Vegetto fusion and it being a division and subtraction, but that idea didn't sit right with me. Vegetto was originally two beings and were using a magical item to combine them. When Vegetto separates it makes sense for Goku and Vegeta to go back to the original power levels they had before the fusion. Nameless started out as one being who split up into two newer beings and his power was divided up among them. Like with Buu example you gave I would find it easier that one half just got the lion share of the power and the two halves should still be fairly strong on their own right or at least still strong enough to deal with low level Saiyan like Raditz who is below the norm of his race in terms of power than for the original to be stronger than an elite Saiyan and gone down to below average Saiyan. That just feels too big of a loss in power in my mind.
I try to justify this in my mind to mean Nameless as a boy was stronger than average Namek children, but not necessarily as strong as the adult warrior clan Nameks, especially if they were in the ballpark of Nail's power. The reason I think he was deemed a prodigy is because he was learning his clan's abilities and techniques at a much faster pace than what was considered normal by his clan's standards. That would make him a prodigy without making him have a power level like 10,000 or something higher. Since Nameless came from a powerful clan that Elder feels could handle the average Saiyan it would make sense if he thought an adult Nameless could or should have been stronger than actually was. Nameless for whatever reason put on space ship alone he didn't have anyone to guide him. He eventually lost his memory for whatever reason and only had a vague idea of his past, like the language and a vague idea of Dragon Balls. I think that could have seriously hindered his growth. He may have been a prodigy, but without his memory or someone being there to help teach and guide him in his clans ways that Nameless may have just stayed at a fairly low power level by his clan's standards. When he finally cast his evil aside and unintentionally split his power and potential with it he became two fairly weak Nameks who were much weaker than even low level Saiyans. There is nothing in the manga that directly states this I admit, but I can see this being the case, because a prodigy and gifted boy doesn't necessarily mean he is as strong or stronger than average adult of his race or in his clan. That impressive power level by standards of his race for a child wouldn't be so impressive if said child didn't get much further than that due to not remembering much or practicing his fighting and magical abilities.
If in the very unlikely chance that Toriyama ever came out and said Nameless Namek's power level coming to Earth was only 1,000 I wouldn't call it bullshit or Toriyama forgetting his lore. I would just suggest being gifted and prodigy as a boy meant 1,000 was extremely high for a Namek boy to have and the kid just didn't live up to his potential because circumstances of his life forcing him to grow up with no memory and away from his clan.
I don't know man. The role of god doesn't seem to be reliant on martial arts as dende became the god of earth and he was not even all that powerful. He never trained either, so being a martial arts master who trains doesn't seem to be a condition that is required. Sure, it couldn't hurt, but its not expected either.
>but I was always under the impression that the only reason Kami didn't stop Piccolo was because he had no way of containing him
Perhaps to a degree this is true of before mutaito, but almost immediately upon piccolos birth, mutaito fought piccolo, lost, and a few later years he came up wiht the mafuuba and contained him. Kamis role to stop him and contain him was superceded by a mortal, and even then kami just decided to recycle a good idea. it would have worked had piccolo jr not made a counter move to the mafuuba.
>I can't recall if Kami isn't allowed to stop a conflict or not. I just figured as god it was left to their own discretion on when to possibly interfere in mortal affairs. I admit there is nothing suggesting Kami did, but I never got the impression that Kami was breaking or bending the rules to confront Piccolo at the 23rd tournament.
I think this has to do with gods attitude or possibly the rules of kami. God can't be expected to fix everything.
It would appear that, even though piccolo was kamis own creation and had escaped somehow, its not gods role to fix everything. This would likely be expanded upon in the anime, so it would appear that gods simply don't fix things, and humans are expected to fix the world on their own, with their own powers, which is what mutaito did.
>but I never got the impression that Kami was breaking or bending the rules to confront Piccolo at the 23rd tournament.
Well, maybe that was the loop hole in that he "borrowed" a human body. that, or he was so fed up with piccolo being an evil ass hole he finally did snap and broke the rules "just this once" so that he could clean up the mess he made. he didn't have faith that goku would kill piccolo or even defeat him, so he took it upon himself to do it.
>I just never saw it as far fetched that Kami trained even if the story never told us about it. To me gods in DB usually are martial artists who train our heroes, so I tend to think back in the day they did train in their youths before they got lazy and stopped.
I don't think gods were ever anything more than "strong base form" entities. Kami was strong at birth, to the point that guru thought a ssj had beaten him, king kai was just sleeping all day and doesn't train unless he's training a pupil. during the cell saga I think he just sleeps until woken up by goku to be informed about cell.
Another god entity was dende who never trained and wasn't a strong person in any scope of the story. He was not powerful in any capacity, but was noted to be qualified for the role of kami of earth. Not in any point in the manga did they suggest his lack of strength would be an issue. I think this misconception comes from somewhere on the internet, or is just a head canon. The role of kami is not judged on ones physical strength.
>He even expressed surprise that he could be killed by a common Saiyan, but does that necessarily mean as a child Nameless was working a power level above 18,000?
possibly. Brolly was born with a power of 10,000 in his movie (le gasp a non canon movie villain) freeza was born with a rare power that we don't know of, and he never trained for his power, saiyans are judged based on the power they are born with. some humans like uub had a huge power as well, though we know why that is of course. A single super namek with a huge power level isn't unthinkable when other races are explicitly judged amongst their own kind entirely on their birth power rating. Guru suggested a ssj would have to beat him, not an elite saiyan of royal blood. He could have said "was it king vegeta? or one of his sons?" no, he said ssj because that was the power tier he was suggesting. a 40 million power would beat even oozaruu goku, but still lose to freeza. given the rarity of a ssj, at least at the time and that guru was so adamant it was a ssj and not a random elite saiyan, I have to assume based on the preponderance of evidence that the nameless one had a rare gifted power level, higher than nails 42,000.
>I know you compared it to Vegetto fusion and it being a division and subtraction, but that idea didn't sit right with me. Vegetto was originally two beings and were using a magical item to combine them.
Then imagine the seperation process being a magical thing too, which it kind of is. You can't just separate like that under most conditions. Magic kind of follows its own rules, and this magic splits your self into 2 entities, the dr jekyll and mr hide principle, except that the 2 can exist at the same time, and the evil one takes away from the original. It might very well be a namekian only ability.
>When Vegetto separates it makes sense for Goku and Vegeta to go back to the original power levels they had before the fusion.
It wasn't intended to be a 1 to 1 ratio comparison. its a completely different magical process, possibly only well, possible for namekians. this was never done before or since in db via this method. I'm guessing if evil did invade the heart of a namekian, such as if slug was absorbed into a good guy namekian, the resulting super namek can just purge the evil, even if it isn't just slug, its a dark version of the new super namekian.
If its compared to the potarra fusion, thats only because it was supposed to give you an idea of what a purge was supposed to give you. Its fusion, but in reverse. Its a different magic in this case, having the opposite effect, and used as an example to somewhat parallel the other.
I would say, suppose vegetto was not a fusion, but was his own person all along, and he underwent this splitting kami used process to create goku and vegeta. Vegetto with vegeta being the one with most of the power, and goku surpasses him eventually. They eventually merge together again, and vegetto is created again, in their original form, kind of.
Their isn't really a good 1 to 1 ratio that describes this process, so the potara defusion is probably the best one that I could use to explain it, albeit ina round about fashion.
>Like with Buu example you gave I would find it easier that one half just got the lion share of the power and the two halves should still be fairly strong on their own right
well yeah. compared to most earthlings, kami and piccolo were fairly strong. 99% of the population was fodder to them.
>or at least still strong enough to deal with low level Saiyan like Raditz who is below the norm of his race in terms of power than for the original to be stronger than an elite Saiyan and gone down to below average Saiyan. That just feels too big of a loss in power in my mind.
Not according to guru. The splitting process made them so weak a regular elite saiyan beat him. nappa isn't a ssj, neither was radditz.
>I try to justify this in my mind to mean Nameless as a boy was stronger than average Namek children, but not necessarily as strong as the adult warrior clan Nameks, especially if they were in the ballpark of Nail's power.
I mean, when you compare the namekians to other races, maybe like brolly, freeza, uub and other races he was that strong warrior prodigy of the dragon clan. We could even just assume he was a strong person reincarnated like uub was. Uub is just a human and was already stronger than 99% of any saiyan. So, even if nameles one was born with a rare power level in the lower millions, its not like he couldn't be a rare exception, be it a mutation, a reincarnated one, or was just born from a strong parent and got the bulk of his power. Goten, for example was born from goku and chichi, and was stronger than goku and gohan at the same age.
uub was a rare exception I believe, so its not as though it couldn't happen in another rare exception, though his reincarnated self isn't on the same level as uub and buu.
I'm not claiming he was reincarnated btw, though this is a possible explanation for his high power level.
>The reason I think he was deemed a prodigy is because he was learning his clan's abilities and techniques at a much faster pace than what was considered normal by his clan's standards.
That could be one reason, but it contradicts the plot point of the ssj by guru.
>That would make him a prodigy without making him have a power level like 10,000 or something higher.
But he mentioned a ssj. And well, most ssj have a big power level outside of the ssj boost. And well, later on guru was retconned into knowing not just about ssj, but the ssj god. So we should defer to his knowledge on the subject. If he was sure nameless one could handle a regular saiyan and not an elite, he'd have mentioned king vegeta or his sons, being of the royal blood line, not a random elite less than 10,000. Nappa clocks in at 4,000 according to toriyamas interviews, and most guide books. even at 8,000 thats not a ssj. even 100,000 would lose in terms of power to an oozaruu vegeta, though speed would come into play with that.
>If in the very unlikely chance that Toriyama ever came out and said Nameless Namek's power level coming to Earth was only 1,000 I wouldn't call it bullshit or Toriyama forgetting his lore
well, it would contradict the manga, but that wouldn't be the first time. even during the first run, he forgot sobas name, later calling him "shuu".