Hey guys, Tommy here. Today I’m bringing you another blog talking about Android 17. I’ve had mixed emotions on Android 17’s return in Dragon Ball Super since it originally happened. I feel like now with this whole Android 17‘a return is something I should put my input on so let’s get right into this.

Android 17’s Debut

Android 17 was a boy named Lapis. At a young age him and his sister Lazuli were kidnapped by the Rod Ribbon Army and used as experimentation for Dr Gero. Dr Gero experimented with the two siblings and gave them cybernetic powers that he would use for evil. He named them Android 17 and 18 because they were the 17th and 18th androids that he had made. Another person in the series that we met that Gero had used his experiments on was Android 16. It’s been stated that No. 16 was actually Gero’s son which is very messed up. Android 21 is another one of Gero’s experiments that he made. No. 21 was his wife. She appeared in the game Dragon Ball FighterZ so we can’t really consider her as canon because we’ve never seen her in canon Dragon Ball material. Gero was a pretty messed up guy though that took advantage of peoples’ bodies and enhanced them for evil.

Dr Gero’s plan was to use Androids 17 and 18 to terrorize the world. He created No. 16 for the sole reason of killing Goku. Gero had a burning hatred for Goku. Many years ago when Goku was just a child, he had killed hundreds of Red Ribbon Army members with a devastating attack on their base. Although they were evil, what Goku had done was still somewhat over the top. Dr Gero would avenge his fallen colleges of RRA by terrorizing the world and killing Goku. In Trunks’ timeline, Dr Gero’s plan had succeeded. Nearly all of earth population had been slowly wiped out by the Androids who made their evil actions out like a game. But Trunks wouldn’t allow this to happen to another timeline. He was the only one of earth’s fighters that hadn’t been murdered by the androids. He would warn the heroes of the past of what was to happen. Although Dragon Ball timelines operated by the Multiverse theory, Trunks still felt this was the right thing to do. It could also make him a lot stronger so he could take down the androids in his timeline.

We learned all of this much later on, but Android 17 had a very strong introduction for a DBZ antagonist in the present timeline. Goku’s heart virus unfortunately kicked in right once he was fighting Dr Gero’s Android named No. 19. This gave Vegeta his chance to shine. Surprising all viewers, Vegeta unleashed super saiyan for the first time. Vegeta easily killed Android 19 with a brand new move called Big Bang Attack. Since Dr Gero’s partner had been killed, he had no choice but to flee so he could unleash two stronger androids. Those two were none other than Android 17 and his sister Android 18. The Z Fighters tried to stop Dr Gero, but they were too late. Our heroes had lost him but they found him only seconds before he unleashed the two stronger androids. The Z Fighters watched in horror as Gero unleashed the two cybernetic villains to the world. Right after being released to the world, Android 17 kicked off his creators head, killing him. We immediately knew 17 was a huge threat from this moment on.

Even with lots of training for 3 years thanks to Trunks’ warning, the androids were still way stronger than the Z Fighters. Similar to Trunks’ timeline, the Androids playfully destroyed and terrorized cities and the Z Fighters couldn’t do anything about it. Goku unfortunately couldn’t help in battle due to his heart virus, so earth was missing its strongest fighter. After getting a bit bored of destroying cities, the two siblings went back to Dr Gero’s lab to let Android 16 free. Because of the way that Gero had designed him, all 16 wanted to do was kill Goku. This caused the group’s focus to shift on what 16 wanted. Unfortunately to the androids but luckily to our heroes, the androids never found Goku because he was hiding at Kame House. Everything would change once Cell arrived though.

Cell was another one of Gero’s creations that was a mix of technology as well as legitimate components of a living organism. He was created by all the Cells of Universe 7’s most powerful fighters at the time. This meant he had powers of Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Piccolo, Freeza, and many more. Cell would hijack his the time machine from the Trunks in his timeline to gain more power. His goal was to absorb 17 and 18 to reach his perfect form. All of this seems crazy but I love how time travel was used in the Android Saga. When first arriving in the present timeline, Cell went around from town to town absorbing every human he saw to gain small amounts of power from each of them. It’s a very fucked up way to get stronger but it worked for Cell. He eventually found the whereabouts of 17 thanks to the fight he was in against Piccolo. The two opponents drew attention to themselves leading Cell right to them.

After learning Cell’s motives 17 and Piccolo made an alliance because it would benefit both parties. Cell was much stronger than both Piccolo and 17 though. After hitting Piccolo with a devastating ki blast to the stomach, he tossed the Namek into the ocean and started walking towards 17 to absorb him. Piccolo would survive the attack given by Cell, but he wouldn’t be able to stop Cell from absorbing the Android. 17 tried to fight back to Cell but he didn’t stand a chance. Cell opens up his tail and absorbed 17 inside of it. This caused Cell’s power to increase exponentially and was the last we saw of 17 for years. Discluding his role as Super 17 in Dragon Ball GT and his cameo in the Buu Saga, Android 17 wouldn’t play a major part again in Dragon Ball until his return in Dragon Ball Super. In my opinion this was the “fall” of 17 that I put in this blog’s title.

Android 17’s Return In Dragon Ball Super

I personally really enjoyed Android 17 in DBZ. I was pretty annoyed when we got to see 18 return but 17 never did. Then it was announced and shown in promotional material that Android 17 would return in the Tournament Of Power. I was personally very excited when I first heard of Android 17’s return, but I should of known what was to come from what we’ve seen for other characters in DBS. I personally think Dragon Ball Super has handled almost all of its characters pretty bad and 17 was no exception. The main complaint I had with the way DBS handled 17 was the fact that they gave him an absolutely insane power boost. I know that the people behind super wanted 17 to be able to keep up with his opponents in Super but this is just ridiculous. The power scaling in DBS has always annoyed me because some characters get to god tier so easily. I wouldn’t call Z’s power scaling perfect whatsoever, but compared to Super it makes perfect sense.

How are all of these people behind Dragon Ball Super going to explain to me that 17 is on the level of SSB Goku with barely any training? 18 isn’t that strong so it doesn’t make a lot of sense. I’d expect Android 17 to be a decent amount stronger than he was in the Cell Saga, but we they did to him is just ridiculous and really doesn’t make any sense. I just think giving 17 a huge buff was a missed opportunity. One of the things I loved in my watching of DBZ is watching the characters’ strength grow. It was such a fascinating thing to watch play out and was so satisfying once they broke new limits. I shouldn’t have expected this in super though because they’ve basically abused super saiyan forms and just power scaling as a whole. We see a brand new form every like 30 episodes and even Goku and Vegeta’s rise and power is pretty rushed. I just wish we got to see 17 develop as a fighter similar to how characters such as Goku, Vegeta, and Gohan did in DBZ. It’s not satisfying when a fighter is strong with little buildup.