Was 73 really as strong as Young Moro on Namek when he copied his abilities?

[dragonball0900]

As you might already know, I'm talking about 73 with Moro's draining ability. There are some people that say he did, and it also made me consider that he was indeed as strong as Young Moro on Namek, mostly due to the fact that 73 was stated to copy every bit of the user's power. We know that Young Moro on Namek was stronger than SSG, but weaker than 100% CSSB according to Vegeta, most likely around regular SSB level. This leads to assume that 73 was that strong as well, and Android 17 was even far above that level due to stomping that same 73, putting him at possibly ToP CSSB level.

However, after checking the manga once again, I figured out that this is just not true. 73 wasn't really as strong as Young Moro on Namek, and this is based on this bit:



Clearly there's a difference between 73 copying everyone's abilities, with him copying Moro's abilities. Moro said: "It wasn't only my magic that I had 73 copy." Then proceeds to say he copied his combat abilities. That means 73 didn't use Moro's actual raw power before. He was just base 73 with Moro's magic. The fact that Moro had to explain that it wasn't just his magic that he let 73 copy shows that 73 did not use Moro's raw power. When it comes to Moro's raw power, 73 actually had a copy of Moro AFTER the two months time skip, which was saved for emergencies and fuse to become Moro 73.

This means the 73 that drained Gohan, Piccolo and Krillin's energy, and the one that Android 17 fought with, was actually Base 73 with ONLY Moro's draining abilities, not a full copy of Moro's raw power from 2 months ago.

What are your thoughts? I made this topic because there are people that believe 73 was Blue tier with Moro's powers, even though it's clear that the only thing everyone focused on when 73 used Moro's abilities was his magic and that was it.

[Magnificent Ponta]

I agree entirely with the premise of this topic - as a rule, OG73-I copies 'moves', not Battle Powers as such.

I've made some posts on this point before, such as this one some time back, and I haven't seen anything in the manga since then that has really caused me to fundamentally revise the position.

[BWri]

I agree entirely with the premise of this topic - as a rule, OG73-I copies 'moves', not Battle Powers as such.

I've made some posts on this point before, such as this one some time back, and I haven't seen anything in the manga since then that has really caused me to fundamentally revise the position.

To be fair, he does absorb the battle power of whatever particular "move" even stuff as pedestrian as punches as kicks, which you mention in your other post. If the battle power matching covers "moves" as simple as punches and kicks, perhaps it also effects simple combat actions such as dodging, evading, running, jumping, and flying. It's a weird distinction, because on its face, other than durability, 73 would be as powerful as whoever he copies but clearly that is not the case as your #17/73/Moro example points out.

Overall, I agree with you both. The power that 73 obtains from Moro is a complete backup of his power at its peak, which is after the 2 month time skip. So Moro likely backed himself up just prior to his invasion of Earth. And it would be using some sort of secondary ability of 73's copying power, something different from what was used before.

It could also be that Moro performed some magic to alter what 7-3 could do. The Moro 7-3 merger was definitely a merger of magic and tech which created permanent Piccolo/Gohan buffs for Moro, something normal 73 could not do.

[Cipher]

The long and short of my answer would be: when attacking.

Jaco’s explanation to Piccolo earlier in the arc is that Seven-Three copies both moves and the power of said moves as they would be used by their original owner.

Offensively, he should be as powerful as whoever he’s copied, and breaking through his attacks poses a problem.

Defensively though? Nothing ever tells us there’s a change, and the wording surrounding his powers goes out of its way to imply the opposite.