Who's stronger: Super Perfect Cell or SSJ2 Gohan?

[mAcChaos]

For a long time I've considered it accepted fact that SPC was weaker than SSJ2 Gohan. Gohan beat him even after being weakened by Cell's blast that was meant to kill Vegeta.

But after some further reading around and contemplation, I saw some points that suggest it was the opposite:

1) After Cell miraculously regenerated, he came /back/ on his own volition to fight Gohan again. He can sense ki, so if Gohan was stronger, why did he come back? Cell isn't the type to get a second chance and then waste it by going into a suicide charge against Gohan when he doesn't have to.

2) The blast meant to kill Vegeta injured Gohan so much that he lost his arm and a significant deal of power. If Gohan was so strong that even half of his power could take on Cell (since a lot of people think that Gohan was at half strength after this) then why would Cell's attack injure him so grievously?

3) During the Kamehameha struggle, it's clear that Cell is just toying with Gohan. Gohan is fighting for his life, while Cell is just joking around.

This changes my interpretation of the final battle: I always thought that it just meant Gohan was always stronger all along, and he just had to bring it out. But if Cell was truly the stronger one, then Vegeta's last second distraction becomes way more important.

It also has ramifications for the Gohan VS Dabura fight, if Dabura is as strong as SPC, and SPC was actually stronger than SSJ2 Gohan. It means that Gohan would almost certainly have to have been SSJ2 during that fight.

What do you guys think?

[ZazamPow]

Yes and no. Gohan BECAME stronger than Cell, at least for a moment, via shonen will power. At standard, I do like to think Cell had become more powerful.

[Kamiccolo9]

I generally think that Cell was stronger. Otherwise, he wouldn't have come back, and would have just nuked the planet from orbit or something.

Gohan got a typical shonen "saving the day" moment, but Cell had everything under control until Vegeta bonked him on the head.

[mAcChaos]

Keep in mind I'm not just talking about SSJ2 Gohan after he was weakened.

I'm talking about SSJ2 Gohan when he was perfectly healthy, being weaker than SPC.

[Kamiccolo9]

Keep in mind I'm not just talking about SSJ2 Gohan after he was weakened.

I'm talking about SSJ2 Gohan when he was perfectly healthy, being weaker than SPC.

Yeah, I know.

[ZazamPow]

Keep in mind I'm not just talking about SSJ2 Gohan after he was weakened.

I'm talking about SSJ2 Gohan when he was perfectly healthy, being weaker than SPC.

Yup, in pure power Super Perfect Cell was SSJ2 level, and since his base was stronger than Gohan's base, he was at a higher level of SSJ2. Just makes Gohan's defeat of him all the more impressive considering he was severely wounded at the same time.

[dbzfan7]

I don't think Cell was stronger. Gohan never put out his full power against Cell I believe as he never needed to go all out on Cell. I believe they were on par though with barely any difference. Kinda like 16 vs Cell or SSJ2 Goku vs Majin Vegeta where it could have gone either way. Gohan held back even during the beam struggle until Goku encouraged him to go all out. I also believe Cell didn't go full power when he first returned as he could keep putting in more and more power into the Kamehameha. Though there is nothing wrong with believing Cell was stronger as either interpretation I believe works in the story.

[Super Saiyan Turlast x4]

Maybe it's me, but I just can't see Cell getting his own "Super Saiyan 2 like" power-up and not fighting anyone. I think he came back because he knew he was at least in Gohan's league and was in a better position to compete with his power. I honestly think that's more than a good enough reason for Cell to challenge Gohan again. When it comes to Gohan's arm, I think it's a combination of Cell's power and the fact that Gohan underestimated Cell's power-up, like he says.

Another reason why I always thought Gohan was more powerful is the fact that he's still considered pretty impressive by the Boo saga. Piccolo's not even sure if Majin Vegeta's power is greater than Kid Gohan's, but Vegeta was expecting Goku to surpass Gohan and makes note of it. Both of these guys knew how strong Cell was, but going beyond the power Kid Gohan displayed seemed to be a bigger deal, in my opinion.

[Hitiro]

As dbzfan7 said. Gohan never output his full power against Cell before Cell came back. We basically have a repeat scenario of Goku vs. Freeza. At the time Goku couldn't believe that Freeza was holding back so much of his power. He thought Freeza was bluffing. In the Dragon Ball universe it seems that if someone is holding back their strength then there is no way to judge their true maximum unless they actually use it. The reason for Cell coming back was probably because he exceeded suppressed SSJ2 Gohan's power and he thought that Gohan was close to using his maximum.

[Hugo Boss]

I think Gohan used like 80% of his power to fight Cell and that was the level Cell was aiming to defeat. In another hand, Cell is close to Gohan at 100%, like Piccolo Daimaō was close to Kid Goku.

[DBZAOTA482]

Both were pretty confident in winning.. so I'd say they were pretty evenly-matched in terms of power. After all, Cell only lost the beam struggle because Vegeta distracted him.

[kuartus4]

SSJ2 Gohan with his rage boost was stronger than Super Perfect Cell by a good margin imo.

Context: after Gohan's injured saving Vegeta, and Cell charges up his final Kamehameha
Goku: “Go strike with an all-out Kamehameha, like Cell! If you do that,you’ll definitely win! Absolutely!”

Goku is basically confirming that Gohan should have no problem winning if he goes all out.

And I don't think Cell was toying with Gohan at all. In the quote above Goku even tells Gohan to strike with an "all-out Kamehameha" just like Cell is. The reason IMO that SPC was pushing Gohan back is because Gohan was holding back his rage power, but I believe he was at full non rage boost capacity for the majority of the khh battle.

Context: as Gohan and Cell’s Kamehamehas clash
Gohan: “I’m doing it at full force…! Any more than this is…”

So I have it as SSJ2 Gohan(w/o rage boost)<SPC<<SSJ2 Gohan(w/ rage boost). The reason Cell came back I think is because the power boost he received went to his head and clouded his judgement. We've seen big power boosts go to people's heads in other instances, such as with Vegeta post krillin zenkai on namek, with Base Gotenks before going to go fight Fat Buu, and with Kibitoshin just after he fused.

[Lord Beerus]

SSJ2 Gohan is leagues ahead of Super Perfect Cell in raw strength and pure power . So much so that even when his power level dipped as he broke his arm saving Vegeta from Cell attack killing him and he could only use one hand to power up a Kamehameha, his was still strong enough to kill Cell. If he actually went all out, SSJ2 Gohan would have annihilated Super Perfect Cell in no time at all.

[Friezacooler]

SPC was stronger till SSj2 went full power, that is what got from Piccolo's comments lol.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

I think Gohan is the strongest of the two. If he wasn't, Cell wouldn't have been completely eradicated IMO.

I generally think that Cell was stronger. Otherwise, he wouldn't have come back, and would have just nuked the planet from orbit or something.

But Cell easily gets arrogant when he gets stronger. I mean, Super Vegeta had to kick the shit out of him to prove him that he was stronger, even though he can sense ki perfectly.

[Saiga]

Cell also tried to use Grade III, knowing the drawbacks, and he still couldn't tank a kick to the head - meaning that form was probably weaker than Gohan and he still tried it.

Plus, Gohan was just as confident about fighting him. I think that they were fairly close in power, but Gohan was still stronger. It's Gohan's power that is the measuring stick later on, Cell's only used to compare to a guy who fights a weakened Gohan. And the comparison just isn't made with the same importance as all the comparisons to Cell Games Gohan.

[RandomGuy96]

Plus, Gohan was just as confident about fighting him.

That's before he admits he underestimated Cell.

Cell also tried to use Grade III, knowing the drawbacks, and he still couldn't tank a kick to the head - meaning that form was probably weaker than Gohan and he still tried it.

I like to think that, while his punches were strong enough to damage Gohan, his durability wasn't upped at all by the transformation.

Anyway, I'm not sure how strong SPC is, but I think it's safe to say that he's weaker than Gohan based on Goku's statements, Vegeta using kid Gohan as a measuring stick, and his death. I've been thinking that maybe he wasn't even THAT close to Gohan to begin with- strong enough to put up a fight if they actually fought, but still not enough to win. Something like a 6 to Gohan's 7, while Goku and Majin Vegeta are slightly higher, at 7.5 or so. I think that's more consistent with the way the Buu arc treats him; Goku says he wouldn't be a problem today, and Vegeta doesn't instantly go "OMG GOKU'S WAY STRONGER THAN ME!" just based on that (which indicates to me Vegeta should be about as strong as SPC now, if not a tiny bit stronger). I think it'd make the most sense if Dabra at least rivaled Super Perfect Cell (e.g. a 5 to SPC's 6), since it seems like the whole reason he exists is to underline that Cell is nothing now. Hence why he gets one-shotted by Buu, the new big guy on the block.

[Saiga]

Plus, Gohan was just as confident about fighting him.

That's before he admits he underestimated Cell.

Ah, I forgot about that. Although I think that would at least mean the power Cell was giving off wasn't higher than Gohan's, or Gohan wouldn't have underestimated him that much either.

[Tectorman]

I think Gohan had the edge, but in a roundabout way.

I think Gohan's base was stronger than Cell's so-called "base" (he effectively has a base, but not really, if you get my meaning). Making Gohan's SSJ stronger than Perfect Cell (and the fact that we never see this is perfectly attributable to his holding back.

So, Perfect Cell > SSJ Gohan (suppressed), but SSJ Gohan (full) > Perfect Cell.

It's only 16's death that makes him unleash his power, and he goes to full SSJ and straight on to SSJ2. And he dominates Cell outright.

But then things get screwy. Gohan doesn't finish off Cell, which results in the Earth being threatened in a way that Gohan can't do anything about. Then he loses his father over his mistake. And when Super Perfect Cell arrives, his failure is further compounded.

Considering that his emotions still heavily influence his power at this point in his life, I think he was already re-suppressing himself by this point. Then we see him go back to SSJ2, but I think that it was something like 60% full power. The arm injury knocks him down to half, but I think the blows to his confidence over his failures were already doing the bulk of driving his power down. And when he finally unleashes his full power in the beam struggle with Cell, I think that was his full power minus the injury from his arm, putting him at like 95%, which exceeded Cell. So surely his uninjured self could've done the same.

[Pantalones]

I figure that SSj2 Gohan when enraged and going all-out is a good bit more powerful than Super Perfect Cell, but he's about equal to Cell or even a little weaker when he's no longer raging and discouraged. The initial burst of rage had definitely faded by the time Cell returned, and Gohan needed to push himself pretty hard to bring his power back up to that level afterward.

If Gohan had just barely beaten Cell when at full health (and with both arms intact) there'd probably be more of a debate here, but he was able to push out enough power to destroy Cell with just one working arm after some encouragement from Goku... so I would have to say that Gohan's full power (including the rage boost) is greater than Cell's.