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Why could Future Gohan not beat the Androids?

Ocarina_117

Ocarina_117

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Oct 26, 2017
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Okay so this has been confusing me for years.

All the strife future Gohan went through, a life full of combat and loss.... why could he never power up and beat the Androids?

Bare in mind 16 and 17 of his timeline were weaker than the actual 16 and 17.

We're told he's the character with the most potential, but present timeline adult Gohan never reaches it as he (understandably) gives up fighting.

A Gohan who's spent a lifetime in combat should have surpassed the androids with ease.
 
BasilZero

BasilZero

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Ocarina_117 said:
Okay so this has been confusing me for years.

All the strife future Gohan went through, a life full of combat and loss.... why could he never power up and beat the Androids?

Bare in mind 16 and 17 of his timeline were weaker than the actual 16 and 17.

We're told he's the character with the most potential, but present timeline adult Gohan never reaches it as he (understandably) gives up fighting.

A Gohan who's spent a lifetime in combat should have surpassed the androids with ease.
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You mean 17 and 18 right?

16 doesnt exist in the Future Trunks era

Even if he was as adapt in fighting , he probably wasnt as strong as the androids - look what happened to Vegeta in the present timeline and of course the one in the future timeline.
 
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Bigg

Bigg

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Oct 25, 2017
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Plausible answer: He never had a threat as strong as 17/18 in that timeline so there was no way he could be prepared for them, not only physically but mentally

Real answer: Toriyama was literally making shit up as he went and has admitted as much
 
Cipherr

Cipherr

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Oct 26, 2017
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I can understand it considering it would be a different timeline slightly. As soon as peace hit after DBZ Gohan went soft asf. I could see him either not being as prepared as he could have or should have been without the motivation of a looming incoming threat and the time chamber training... Then he gets killed before he could achieve the potential needed to beat them.

I could totally see it happening. Them being told the Androids were coming lead to some serious hard focused training for Gohan and even a year in the chamber. Presumably none of that happened in Trunks timeline. After Frieza they probably had years of peace prior to the Android showing up. If Gohan was hitting the books instead of training... ehhh. He just didn't train as hard in that instance and got bodied.
 
alexi52

alexi52

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Oct 28, 2017
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Because he's still Gohan so it doesn't matter what timeline he's in, he'll always be a jobber
 

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Piccolo wasn't there to tuck him into bed.
 
Weiss

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If he did then Trunks wouldn't have a character arc.
 
foxuzamaki

foxuzamaki

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Future Gohan had 3 years of not having to worry about threats and probably spent most of his time studying, he would have came into the fight unprepared and probably out of shape. Goku was probably a big motivator for him and since piccolo was no longer evil, had no plans of grooming him anymore
 
Inugami

Inugami

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Oct 25, 2017
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Remember, in future Trunks timeline, there was basically no strife after Frieza... Gohan grew up without training, and everyone who could train him was murdered... He didn't have a secret place to fight and train and get stronger or anyone to push him harder.

It's also dubious if future 17 and 18 were actually weaker. The line was mentioned, but there is no indication beyond that throwaway line.
 
The Adder

The Adder

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Oct 25, 2017
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Ocarina_117 said:
Okay so this has been confusing me for years.

All the strife future Gohan went through, a life full of combat and loss.... why could he never power up and beat the Androids?

Bare in mind 16 and 17 of his timeline were weaker than the actual 16 and 17.

We're told he's the character with the most potential, but present timeline adult Gohan never reaches it as he (understandably) gives up fighting.

A Gohan who's spent a lifetime in combat should have surpassed the androids with ease.
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Click to shrink...
Because he had no means by which to push himself beyond Super Saiyan 1. Emotions are only a part of the equation and not even an important part past 1. He also no real challenges to train with that would allow him to push that to a level he could beat the two of them together with. It's not like he could spar with them.

We know he was strong enough to beat them on their own.
 
_ifigured

_ifigured

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Oct 29, 2017
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Gohan is a half Saiyan and doesn't get the gameshark attribute of getting a huge power boost after coming close to death.
 
DiipuSurotu

DiipuSurotu

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The Androids never showed him their full power (until the day they killed him), so he trained to surpass a level that he thought was their maximum level but it wasn't.
 
Ra

Ra

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Oct 27, 2017
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Past Gohan had three years of training with Goku and Piccolo (plus the Hyperbolic Time Chamber), after Future Trunks warned them.

Future Trunks coming back is the reason everything wasn't a hopeless massacre.
 
BasilZero

BasilZero

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Actually the important question that should be asked is why after the Android/Cell saga....didnt Future Trunks go to Namek and use the Namekian Dragon balls to bring back everyone who were killed by the Androids in the future?
 
Cordy

Cordy

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Oct 25, 2017
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Current Gohan had people stronger than him he could learn from, train with and force him to level up. Current Gohan had mentors who could teach him SSj like Goku, current Gohan had the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and he had an opponent (Cell) who forced him to level up because he knew he had hidden strength. Gohan was a kid fighting with adults. Hell, Goku trained Gohan in the chamber knowing that his son had something.

Future Gohan didn't have any of that, all he had was the much weaker Trunks, nobody to teach him and Androids who just wanted to wreck shit and not care about how strong he was. They beat his ass and dipped while Cell was like "nah, you're hiding something, lemme see it" until he transformed.

Basically, the current timeline was better for Gohan's hidden potential.
 
Mekanos

Mekanos

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Oct 17, 2018
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There's too many things about the Trunks timeline that don't add up if you think about it.

Why didn't Mr. Popo ride in on a magic carpet and tell Trunks and Gohan about the ROSAT? (Hint: Toriyama didn't think of it then.)

Why didn't Goku use his one day on earth to help out? He would likely be SSJ2 by the time Trunks turns Super Saiyan, at least.

Ditto Piccolo/Kami fusion.

Just one of those convoluted storytelling devices that is in mid-late DBZ.
 
The Adder

The Adder

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Oct 25, 2017
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BasilZero said:
Actually the important question that should be asked is why after the Android/Cell saga....didnt Future Trunks go to Namek and use the Namekian Dragon balls to bring back everyone who were killed by the Androids in the future?
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There's a 1 year limit.

DiipuSurotu said:
What what?

Trunks did what you suggested when DBZ was written in the 1990s. But when DBSuper was created in the 2010s they retconned it.
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There's a 1 year limit on people being revived on all three sets of Dragon Balls.
 

Deleted member 721

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there's not much consistency in power ups and power levels in dragon ball, its a fool errand, but we love to discuss that nonsense
 
BasilZero

BasilZero

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DiipuSurotu said:
What what?

Trunks did what you suggested when DBZ was written in the 1990s. But when DBSuper was created in the 2010s they retconned it.
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Huh....I dont remember that at all of Future Trunks going to Namek and resurrecting everyone who died in the future timeline....

Is that Manga only or in the anime too?

The Adder said:
There's a 1 year limit.


There's a 1 year limit on people being revived on all three sets of Dragon Balls.
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??? But the Dragonballs were never used and/or werent a few years passed throughout the Android attacks and all?
 
Mekanos

Mekanos

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I will say I give Super a lot of shit, especially how it handled Trunks, but I did really like that they showed him fighting Dabra and stopping Buu's awakening (and even training with the Z Sword in the manga). Seeing that storyline finally addressed was oddly rewarding.

Also it seems crazy to me that there's never been an OVA or video game scenario or anything showing the fatal battle where 17/18 kill everyone but Gohan. The Super manga briefly teased it but I want it all mapped out.
 
Welfare

Welfare

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Oct 26, 2017
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They always held back.

17 says he wasn't even using half his power when Gohan thought he got strong enough to face them.

I think he never passed Yardrat Goku going by Trunks being impressed with Goku.

Since Gohan could never sense how strong the androids were, he had no way of knowing how strong he needed to be.

Also nothing proves future 17 and 18 are weaker. Trunks doesn't know how strong his androids are and wasn't there to hear 17 tell Gohan he held back more than half his strength. Present Androids could have just been using more strength because present Z Fighters are stronger than Future Gohan and Trunks.
 
Genryu

Genryu

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The androids could beat Gohan with one of his arms tied behind their backs.
 
The Silver

The Silver

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He probably didn't train much at all after Namek since there was no Trunks to warn them about the androids so he was super weak when they showed up. Also I guess he just hit a wall and needed a teacher/master or new way of thinking to break through to a new level.

It's only been recently in Super that he's actively looking for a new form/power by himself after regaining Ultimate, and he still hasn't reached it yet. Goku constantly tries to come up with new things like mastered SSJ, SSJ3, the bulky forms, perfected Blue, etc. When he hits a wall he gets a new master to break through.(Roshi, Kami, King Kai, Whis etc)

Future Gohan didn't have any master or strong sparring partner and he never really had the mindset of Goku who could find new forms by himself. He probably didn't think past basic SSJ1 and a large part of it was probably because he couldn't tell exactly how strong the Androids were since they held back and couldn't be sensed.
 
Weiss

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The real question surrounding Future Trunks is who stopped Mecha Freeza when he arrived on Earth in his timeline? Did Goku show up early?
 
PK Gaming

PK Gaming

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Because he had nobody to train with to push him to the next level

Remember, Gohan learned how to access a new level of Super Saiyan because he trained with Goku (full power super Saiyan)

That form was significantly more powerful than regular Super Saiyan
 
The Silver

The Silver

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Weiss said:
The real question surrounding Future Trunks is who stopped Mecha Freeza when he arrived on Earth in his timeline? Did Goku show up early?
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Trunks mentions that Goku should have beaten Frieza and only intervened cause Goku was running late and he assumed it was another thing he accidentally changed from time traveling.

Goku then reveals he has IT and could have showed up but he sensed Trunks' energy. So from that it's assumed Goku IT'd and took care of Frieza in Trunks timeline. Gohan and Bulma just didn't tell Trunks about IT and how it all went down.
 
Ekakkubris

Ekakkubris

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Oct 31, 2017
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the answer is simple folks…

He couldn't beat the androids because he didn't keep up his studying under Chichi, thus preventing him to be a robotic engineer where he can either design a weapon to disable the androids or create something like a super sayian mech. Focus on your education people!
 
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