Despite the fact that Android 17 not exactly a ‘household name’ when it comes to the most common Dragon ball characters, he has certainly made a name for himself in every early period of the series, including Dragon Ball GTwhere 17 seems to master vegetarianthe strongest way before the Saiyan Prince did in Super Dragon Ball.
Android 17 was introduced in Dragon Ball Z’s Android Saga, and he and his sister, 18, are considered the biggest threat the Z-Fighters have faced up to that point – mostly because that’s what the Z-Fighters told the time-traveling Saiyan warrior, Trunks. In Trunks’ alternate future, 17 and 18 have devastated the planet and practically killed everyone who could stop them, with only Trunks alive to move on. Thankfully, thanks to Trunks’ intervention in the timeline, the main version of season 17 avoided becoming a villain, and in Dragon Ball Super he really proved himself a hero. on a cosmic scale. Android 17 won the Tournament of Power and he used his infinite wish to bring back every universe that was wiped out after the tournament. Skip Dragon Ball GT and 17 returns to the villain position, but in a way that’s still hugely impressive given his immense strength compared to Super Saiyan 4 Goku. All in all, 17 has had a pretty good track record in Dragon Ball so far – and his legacy has grown a lot better.
Android 17 seems to have mastered the super ego long before Vegeta
In Dragon Ball GT episode 46 (written by Atsushi Maekawa, directed by Osamu Kasai, produced by Toei Animation), Goku is trying to stop Super 17 (a massively upgraded version of Android 17) from dominating the world. Although Goku has previously mastered the Super Saiyan 4 transformation while fighting the incredibly powerful Machine Mutant, Baby, he’s still no match for the upgraded 17, and for a reason. Any attack – most notably the ki explosion – Goku hits 17 with, 17 will only absorb it and that energy will only make him stronger.
17 not only took no damage while Goku put in a lot of effort throughout their fight, but the damage he was supposed to take added to his unparalleled strength. If this sounds familiar, that’s exactly how Vegeta describes Ultra Ego fighting Granolah in the final installment of Dragon Ball Super. Ultra Ego is the transmitted power of the God of Destruction through a mortal body, effectively making that mortal resemble a god – at least, if they can perfect it. Vegeta has only recently unlocked this power, which means he’s far from mastering the form. When using it, however, he explicitly stated that one of the benefits of Ultra Ego is that it gives him the ability to power up after each wound he takes. The more he abuses, the more powerful Vegeta becomes, just like Super 17 in Dragon Ball GT.
The only difference between the two seemingly identical abilities in GT and Super, respectively, is that 17 technically had it first (if considering the GT episode’s real-world release date versus the Super chapter) and that 17 is infinitely better. Since Vegeta is not yet able to sustain Ultra Ego, his ability to become stronger with each attack is very limited and eventually catches up with him – resulting in Vegeta being nearly unconscious from the pain and exhausted when he can no longer sustain Ultra Ego. Super 17, on the other hand, is able to absorb one explosion after another forever, and only ends up being knocked out by Goku with a buffed melee attack with the help of 18. So, not only Dragon ball‘s 17 is basically master vegetarianstrongest form in Dragon Ball GT (the previous way Super Dragon Ball) But Android 17‘s version is also much better in comparison.
See also: Super Saiyan 4 is almost the first Super Saiyan God form of Dragon Ball
