Could Cell have had the most potential of any character?

[Kingdom Heartless]

Saiyans seem to have an infinite potential, but combine that with Freeza's cells, which we now know have the potential for absurd growth in a relatively short time. Not to mention we've seen that even No. 17 was able to reach insane heights... so just how powerful could Cell become if he trained in a similar way, especially since he still had the capacity for massive power-ups from near death experiences.

The guy had more than half the Universe 7 team in him!

[ToshioWrites]

Possibly. Although I tend to think that if Buu applied himself , he could reach absurd levels of power

[Kingdom Heartless]

Possibly. Although I tend to think that if Buu applied himself , he could reach absurd levels of power

Fat Buu probably wouldn't have much luck... Since when he trains he seems to fall asleep and regress.

But pure Buu... Maybe. Goku seems to think Uub had amazing potential, so who knows?

[SupremeKai25]

Fused Zamasu had the most potential in Dragon Ball. When Goku Black and Future Zamasu fused, their power didn't just merge, it expanded to no end. In addition, Fused Zamasu had Goku Black's Saiyan body, which allowed him to exploit the insane benefits of the Zenkai Boosts. We saw how powerful Black would grow using his own pain and anger as weapons. While other Saiyans get these boosts during near-death experience, Black was a special case, and therefore he didn't require a near-death experience to make use of the Zenkai Boosts. In an instant, he was able to expand his power beyond his own comprehension using his divine anger. And Zamasu obviously was the most powerful Kai who ever lived, an apprentice who was revered as a genius even by his superiors, and was a fighting prodigy. Goku even aknowledged that Zamasu had the potential to become stronger than Beerus himself, and that is astonishing if you take into account that Zamasu was a Shinjin, a species not renowned for their fighting capabilities. Fused Zamasu was unstoppable. Even without his physical body, he was able to take over the entire Multiverse and transcend time and space in a few moments. His power was endless, his potential limitless. He was the ultimate being: immortal, supremely powerful and extremely intelligent. It says a lot about his strength and potential if it took the King of All himself to wipe out an entire timeline to get rid of this being.

[PerhapsTheOtherOne]

Possibly. Although I tend to think that if Buu applied himself , he could reach absurd levels of power

Fat Buu probably wouldn't have much luck... Since when he trains he seems to fall asleep and regress.

But pure Buu... Maybe. Goku seems to think Uub had amazing potential, so who knows?

But during that brief period, Buu did make some amazing gains, increasing in speed and being able to keep up with Goku.

The sleep seems to be more of a cyclical thing, since he needs to hibernate every so often.

[Lord Frieza]

An organic robot created using the DNA of three very powerful alien species and incorporating the power of two bioborg class Artificial Humans is something that would have a lot of potential. His not just a mix and match clone, he was designed and aspects of his biology are superior to his fobears, his zenkai still works to its full potential despite his hight power level and his regerative powers are superior to a namekian.

While I argue agenst him being able to do everything his genetic forbares could, Cell's physiology is to heavily modified for anyone to say with any certainty that he can attain things like a Golden Form and without help from someone like Whis God Ki would be difficult, he'd defiantly be able to reach god level and beyond in time.

But Supermekai25 has a point, Merged Zamasu is superior to Cell. He's got Super Zenkai (gets stronger from any damage) and is immortal (so he cannot be killed by anyone short of Zen-Oh and will keep getting stronger). That totally eclipses Cell's abilities. But it gets worse, the time ring means Zamasu has the ability to control time allowing him both an infinite amount of time to improve as far away from his foe as he likes as well as infinite time to think of how to beat them if he chose to use it to its full potential like he did with the super dragon balls. Also the real kicker is that the ring protects him from the effects of causality, meaning you have to kill him at his current point in time after he put the ring on or even time traveling back to kill a weaker version of him wont help.

[kn83]

I think Android 21 might have the most potential of any character, as she has both Cell's and Buu's genetics and abilites, as well as the ability to learn techniques by looking at them once.

[theherodjl]

I'd say that its Gohan, because unlike a lot of other characters who have appeared in the series, Gohan was stated from the beginning to have enormous potential but had proven feats to actually back up this sentiment.
At the mere age of 4 and lacking any formal training, Gohan was almost as strong as a common Saiyan adult while his 23 year old father was only about 1/3rd of his son's strength after a lifetime of training. Raditz even remarked that its impossible for a child to have strength that high.
Fast forward about 11 months later, half of that time spent training with Piccolo, and a now 5 year old Gohan had some control of his battle power but still held a degree of strength hidden within that was nearly double of Raditz' power.
Once Gohan had his inner power drawn out(stated by Saichoro to be incredible and called Gohan's Earthling status into question) is when he was now stronger than the vast majority of Saiyans.
Upon getting his neck broken but being healed soon afterwards, Gohan now had the strength to knock down even a freak of nature like Freeza(a foe way too strong, just in his first form, for even the strongest Saiyans of the then-current age) and upon being healed yet again, Gohan almost had the strength to overwhelm Freeza's penultimate form.

Despite all these previous examples, Gohan still was not trained all that much and was just taking advantage of either techniques or Saiyan biology working its natural course. Now we get onto actual training for more than a handful of months.

Gohan spends 3 years of training with not just Piccolo but also his father thus experiencing what the rest of the Z Senshi has put effort into for most of their own lives. The result was Gohan being of use in the battle against the Androids who were supposed to be a greater threat than even Freeza. Upon entering the ROSAT for one year with Goku, Gohan had become multiples stronger further and now could become a SSJ and was the strongest fighter of the Z Senshi. Shortly after this, he became the first known Saiyan hybrid to reach SSJ2 and cemented himself as one of the strongest beings in the universe.
Despite not training any for 7 years, Gohan's strength dropped somewhat but his potential was still a factor and Goku had confidence that tapping into said potential meant Gohan could still be the strongest of them. This was confirmed when Rou Kaioshin brought out Gohan's power to his limits & beyond and now made him stronger than the threat of an improved Majin Boo, Gohan was briefly the 3rd(4th if Hirudegarn is counted) strongest being in the universe during this time.

Now this is where Gohan's journey of power just about ends but it should be noted that Gohan only spent 5 years of his life training and after several methods pulled out his power, Gohan had reached a tier of strength unparalleled by everything except for fusion & God transformations among U7 fighters.

Finally we get to DBS, Gohan begins his training again after encountering & losing to Freeza's honed power and once again achieves his Ultimate status after it was defunct for awhile. Gohan then improves and demonstrates that his Ultimate state was not the limit on his strength, managing to combat his father in SSJB form and lasting until Goku stacked Kaio-ken on top of it. The Tournament of Power then demonstrates that Gohan can fight a being with speed surpassing light and contributing against a massive fighter with strength on par with the best of the Z Senshi, cementing that Gohan is very justified in having enormous potential and that if he puts his body & mind to it, he can jump over any hurdle just like any Saiyan can.

I'd attribute it to the fact that Gohan is as human as he is Saiyan, humans in fiction always seem to surpass their limits and then you combine that with Saiyan biology and its ability to always overcome limits and you get an impressive hybrid. I think we still have yet to see Gohan's true potential.

[SupremeKai25]

But Supermekai25 has a point, Merged Zamasu is superior to Cell. He's got Super Zenkai (gets stronger from any damage) and is immortal (so he cannot be killed by anyone short of Zen-Oh and will keep getting stronger). That totally eclipses Cell's abilities. But it gets worse, the time ring means Zamasu has the ability to control time allowing him both an infinite amount of time to improve as far away from his foe as he likes as well as infinite time to think of how to beat them if he chose to use it to its full potential like he did with the super dragon balls. Also the real kicker is that the ring protects him from the effects of causality, meaning you have to kill him at his current point in time after he put the ring on or even time traveling back to kill a weaker version of him wont help.

Exactly. Also, Fused Zamasu's immortality allowed him to become extremely resistant and tough, even tanking easily the massive and point blank Final Kamehameha of Super Saiyan Blue Vegito. Also, Fused Zamasu, unlike Vegito and Kefla, lasts forever, since his fusées are Supreme Kais so they don't have a time-limit. Which means that, while Vegito and Kefla have the crushing weakness of having a time-limit, Fused Zamasu doesn't even have that weakness, so he can keep getting stronger without worrying about his fusion ending.

Because he has an immortal soul, completely obliterating Fused Zamasu's body still won't put an end to him. Trunks utterly destroyed every trace of Fused Zamasu's body, and yet that still didn't stop his immortal soul from taking over the Multiverse and even transcending time and space. Whereas Cell, who wasn't immortal, was destroyed for good once his body was obliterated.

[Super_Divine_Genki]

Perfect Cell is no longer allowed to be a part of main series continuity for this very reason. In a little more than a week of existence in "perfect" form, he already had demonstrated that he could take anyone's signature move and not only make it his own, but perform it better than they did. To think that he was only just getting started...

[Grimlock]

Yes. When you create someone that has the capacity to use the same forms that other different people do, you literally have a perfect fighter with potential beyond people who has their respective forms.

And things just get worse because there is Mira as well. Mira is stronger than Cell and he also has DNA of different races. Both of them have the most potential of any character (and then we get a fusion between these two... I don't think I need to say more, do I? Damn, Dragon Ball Fusions missed a great opportunity here).

[Sonofman]

Agreed. I think Cell would have the most potential of all the characters in DB, since he has most of their cells in his body. The only issue was his pride and ego. He just kept believing he was the most powerful person. If he trained... who knows how strong he could have become.

[kn83]

If you limit this to canon characters then Cell does have the most potential. However, if you include non-canon characters then both Mira and A21 would have more potential than Cell.

[Firebolt]

He probably does have the most potential. Plus, he's probably the most dangerous thanks to the fact that he can regenerate from a single cell, is capable of zenkai boosts, and is able to instantly learn techniques (such as Goku's IT). He could probably master Destruction Energy and Ultra Instinct pretty quickly.

Not to mention he has Freeza's cells – which means he also possesses Freeza's insane potential.

Thankfully for our heroes – unlike Freeza – Cell doesn't have any allies/minions that would want to revive him.

[sunsetshimmer]

Cell no contest. He had both Frieza's and saiyans cells. You can't beat that.
Now imagine if Cell trained for 4 months or what's worse - if GT followed DBS logic since Frieza and Cell trained for years in hell.
Such Cell would be truly unbeatable.

Other than that Baby had huge potential as well getting not only much stronger by himself but also making his host much stronger to the point where regular SSJ Vegeta was far more than enough to destroy SSJ3 Goku

If we count movies and games, then Broly also has huge potential. He is pure asspull character, getting all the forms, even God and SSJ4.

Super 17 also could grow infinite but the downside is that he needs to fight (like Goku Black). But other than that, his power seem to have no end + if we count games he can absorb 16, 18 and Cell making him hypothetically most dangerous character assuming he gets Cell abilities for zenkai boosts.

[Almighty Majin]

Cell definitely has one of the highest potentials within the DB universe that's for sure but there are other characters who I think can compete with him in terms of potential:

Uub
Merged Zamasu
Android 21
Mira
Fuu
Bebi
Hatchiyack
Tapion (if he could harness Hirudegarn's power)
Meta-Cooler

[Puaru]

No, Gohan has the most potential, even if I'm honestly starting to think that he will never actually get to be strong again. But he could have been stronger than all the other Z fighters, thats for sure.

[sunsetshimmer]

No, Gohan has the most potential, even if I'm honestly starting to think that he will never actually get to be strong again. But he could have been stronger than all the other Z fighters, thats for sure.

I wonder what kind of potential Pan has then. Even in GT where TOEI wanted to keep her as damsel in distress, she still overpowered Dr Gero which means she could beat or at the very least rival Frieza from Namek. Now who knows what would happen to her if she was to train serious.

[PFM18]

No, Gohan has the most potential, even if I'm honestly starting to think that he will never actually get to be strong again. But he could have been stronger than all the other Z fighters, thats for sure.

I wonder what kind of potential Pan has then. Even in GT where TOEI wanted to keep her as damsel in distress, she still overpowered Dr Gero which means she could beat or at the very least rival Frieza from Namek. Now who knows what would happen to her if she was to train serious.

Yes a small child that is stronger than Freeza on Namek for no particular reason.(probably stronger than everyone in the Cell Saga too) GT makes me physically ill

[sunsetshimmer]

Yes a small child that is stronger than Freeza on Namek for no particular reason.(probably stronger than everyone in the Cell Saga too) GT makes me physically ill

5yo boy being able to fight against elite saiyans for no reason also makes me ill. DBZ is retarded.
If Pan's potential is stupid to you, then Gohan's also. Simple. There is no excuse.
Pan is 10yo btw. Gohan was 5 on Namek and could damage transformed Frieza, the galactic tyrant feared even by Kaio sama. Makes sense.

And Pan isn't stronger than everyone in Cell saga. She might be about equal to Android 18 and that's it.
Just like Gohan she could get stronger when angry like when she punched Rildo in face.