While fans were initially led to believe Cell’s the strongest Android (or, bio-android) in DBZ, GT confirms that it was actually Android 17 all along.
Upon watching Dragon Ball Z, it is clear on the surface that the strongest Android (or bio-android) was Cell as the other Androids were nothing more than power-boosters to him–though upon watching Dragon Ball GT, that once-clear assumption gets called into question as it is explicitly stated that Cell, in fact, wasn’t the strongest, Android 17 was.
In Dragon Ball Z, following the events of the Frieza Saga, the Z-Fighters are introduced to an all-new world-ending threat: the Androids. Fans and the Z-Fighters alike first heard of this threat from Future Trunks who literally ripped apart the timestream in order to right the wrongs brought about by the Androids. In Trunks’ alternate future, Androids 17 and 18 effectively brought about armageddon just because they could–so in Trunks’ eyes, those two Androids were the pinnacle of evil in the world. And then, DBZ introduced Cell who traveled from the future just like Trunks, but his reasons were much more sinister. For Cell to reach his perfect form, he needed to absorb both Androids 17 and 18–but in his timeline, they had already been defeated. So, he traveled to the past, absorbed the Androids that eluded him, and became the most powerful villain to date–at least, that’s what everyone thought.
17 Killed Dr. Gero in DBZ Before His True Potential was Unlocked
In Dragon Ball GT episode 42 (written by Atsushi Maekawa, directed by Osamu Kasai, produced by Toei Animation), a portal to hell mysteriously opened up in the sky, and hordes of long-dead villains flew through it and brought with them only chaos and mayhem. Meanwhile, in hell, the villainous Dr. Gero and Dr. Myuu have teamed up to create Dragon Ball‘s ultimate Android–and as it turns out, that’s 17. As explained by the mad scientists, 17 was created with a latent potential that, once realized, would make him more powerful than even Perfect Cell. So, the two created an exact copy of Android 17 in hell with a few upgrades courtesy of Dr. Myuu’s expertise with Machine Mutants. With the gates of hell wide open, the villains’ plan is to fuse this 17 with the original 17 to create the version of the Android that should have been realized long ago: Super 17.
Back in Dragon Ball Z, when Androids 17 and 18 were first awakened by their creator, Dr. Gero, 17 killed Gero without a moment’s hesitation. 17 did this to assert his dominance over the scientist and prove to Gero that he wouldn’t be his puppet. Little did 17 know, he was only hurting himself with that abrupt act of murderous violence. If 17 allowed Dr. Gero to be his guide and surrender some of that control to his creator, then Dr. Gero would have unlocked 17’s true potential–if only to kill Goku. Not only that, but 17 would have been able to save himself and his sister from Cell, as Super 17 could have easily killed the villain when he was in his bug-like imperfect form.
While Super 17 in Dragon Ball GT is more powerful than 17 could have ever been in DBZ due to the fact that he needed to fuse with a Machine Mutant version of himself to achieve that transformation, Android 17 still would have been powerful enough to kill Cell in Dragon Ball Z if he had just let Dr. Gero unlock his true power for him–and Dragon Ball GT proves it.
Source: Screenrant.com
