Let's be real. Future Trunks is wasted potential

[Jord]

Entered the series as a mysterious SSJ. Looked cool. Used his sword to provide for a unique and extremely cool fighting style. Damn, he beat Frieza and his daddy just like that! Wow. He's the son of Vegeta? Too bad he leaves again in his time machine.

Very cool character.

And almost immediately after he returns from the future his potential as a character gets wasted. He's an Android jobber. Breaks his sword and never uses it again. Subsequently turns into an emotional prop for Vegeta, loses every fight he's in, gets killed by the big bad and afterwards gets send back to the future.

[ATA]

Entered the series as a mysterious SSJ. Looked cool. Used his sword to provide for a unique and extremely cool fighting style. Damn, he beat Frieza and his daddy just like that! Wow. He's the son of Vegeta? Too bad he leaves again in his time machine.

Very cool character.

And almost immediately after he returns from the future his potential as a character gets wasted. He's an Android jobber. Breaks his sword and never uses it again. Subsequently turns into an emotional prop for Vegeta, loses every fight he's in, gets killed by the big bad and afterwards gets send back to the future.

Disclaimer: I'm only talking about Z in this post.

I have to disagree with this. He was used very correctly. The reason why he was a "jobber" was because he wasn't a good fighter as Cell pointed out to him. Goku told the audience this indirectly as well. The reason why he wasn't a good fighter is because Gohan was a mentor. Gohan mentoring Trunks without the teachings of Goku(and more lessons from Piccolo) is good for the basics but Gohan wasn't a fighter, he was someone who can fight. Then Trunks had Vegeta to train "with". I doubt Trunks and Vegeta trained together for the most part as Vegeta knew Bulky SSJ wasn't worth shit while Trunks thought it was a genius transformation. When all Trunks know is Power more so than technical skills, of course he would become a jobber as all you need to beat Trunks is to have more power than him. So yes he SHOULD look less skilled and dumber than Veteran fighters like Goku and Vegeta. Once Trunks learns his lessons and spent time with Z fighters he went back to future and SAVED the Future. 18 breaking Trunks's sword was to show these Androids ain't Freeza..they're stronger. Yes Trunks played an important role in Vegeta's growth because he's his son. It'll be the first time we saw Vegeta attached to a person that's not himself.

I stole this quote belopw from Twitter so I'll link the Tweet as well:

•Saved everyone from frieza and king cold
•Saved goku from heart disease
•Is the reason this timeline even exists rn
•Would've beaten cell if vegeta didn't intervene
•Killed the androids in his timeline
•Killed cell in his timeline

Mind you he's a teenager

https://twitter.com/Jayzus_/status/1663181495886905344

[Raki]

Trunks had the most impact full debut of anyone in the series. He shows up and smokes the strongest villain in the series up until that point. The man survives a hellish future with almost no one to protect him. His character is fleshed out with detail. Trunks is way more than a jobber of the week.

[90sDBZ]

To be fair he did defeat the Androids and Cell in his timeline in the end. He got the happy ending he deserved until DBS did him dirty and screwed it up.

[BWri]

He was my favorite Saiyan up until DBS. What the OP listed is true, but I like how he was chosen my future Shin to save the world from Babidi and Dabura. If that was all we got from Trunks in DBS, that little side story that DB Kakarott fleshed out, I'd say Trunks was written quite well, but the Goku Black arc messed it all up.

[Jord]

To be fair he did defeat the Androids and Cell in his timeline in the end. He got the happy ending he deserved until DBS did him dirty and screwed it up.

That was pretty cool, I admit but to me the damage was already done. It would have been so much cooler if he kept using the sword. Maybe infuse it with ki or something. It would have made hem stand out throughout his stay.
Heck, Cell can regenerate. Perfect opportunity to let Trunks cut off some body parts to help.

[90sDBZ]

To be fair he did defeat the Androids and Cell in his timeline in the end. He got the happy ending he deserved until DBS did him dirty and screwed it up.

That was pretty cool, I admit but to me the damage was already done. It would have been so much cooler if he kept using the sword. Maybe infuse it with ki or something. It would have made hem stand out throughout his stay.
Heck, Cell can regenerate. Perfect opportunity to let Trunks cut off some body parts to help.

He did look badass with the sword, but it felt like he was using it as a crutch against the Androids at times. Seeing him mess them up without it showed how far he'd come as a warrior.

Still I'll always love the moment he kills Android 14 with it in movie 7.

[ATA]

To be fair he did defeat the Androids and Cell in his timeline in the end. He got the happy ending he deserved until DBS did him dirty and screwed it up.

That was pretty cool, I admit but to me the damage was already done. It would have been so much cooler if he kept using the sword. Maybe infuse it with ki or something. It would have made hem stand out throughout his stay.
Heck, Cell can regenerate. Perfect opportunity to let Trunks cut off some body parts to help.

If I had to take an edcuated guess, Toriyama most likely didn't feel like drawing sword-styled combat. I feel like that's why he also got rid of the Power Pole(Nyoibou). Toei seems to love Trunks with the sword as the sword appeared in every movie Trunks was in except Broly I believe. The sword was popular enough to return in Dragon Ball Super. As I said in my original post, I don't think Trunks was damaged by the writing. Could it be better? Yes. But you know who is a REALLY good comparison to Trunks? Supreme Kai. Now Supreme Kai was wasted potential in my opinion. He's introduced similar to Trunks but he looks like a joke compared to Trunks. Trunks at least got a chance to drag on Freeza, Androids, and Future Cell. Supreme Kai ain't do nothing besides save Gohan and exist .

[goku the krump dancer]

To be fair he did defeat the Androids and Cell in his timeline in the end. He got the happy ending he deserved until DBS did him dirty and screwed it up.

That was pretty cool, I admit but to me the damage was already done. It would have been so much cooler if he kept using the sword. Maybe infuse it with ki or something. It would have made hem stand out throughout his stay.
Heck, Cell can regenerate. Perfect opportunity to let Trunks cut off some body parts to help.

The sword doesn’t make the man.. I think he served his purpose well in the Android arc and he ultimately accomplished both his goals, helping the heroes in the present save the world from an Android apocalypse and becoming strong enough to save his own world from said apocalypse. Super pissed that all away for no good reason but that’s a discussion for another time.

[Y2_O3]

let's be real. One fact is that Trunks did waste his potential.

The surface reason is that he lacked battle experience and his understanding of training was not deep enough, so he and Vegeta both achieved half the result with double the effort.
Essentially, I think, it is that he was too obsessed. His persistence in peace, justice and victory was his driving force for hard work, but it also blinded him. This is a double-edged sword. Vegeta's obsession with defeating Goku and wasting potential is also the same reason.

Trunks realized when he first appeared that his appearance changed the course of history, but he still looked at Androids with colored glasses and ignored the changes in the enemy. A great man once said: "Who is our enemy? Who is our friend? This is the fundamental question for the success of the revolution." In contrast, Goku and Krillin are willing to accept Androids because they have no attachment of their own definition of justice and evil, or rather, they do not have these preset positions about anyone at all. As a result, we saw Android 16's series of returns.

Trunks' second problem is that because of his attachment, he could only see the problems in front of him and always chased passively after them. When Freeza appeared, he devoted himself to solving Freeza and his father; when Androids appeared, he devoted himself to solving Androids; when Cell appeared, he devoted himself to solving Cell... Did you notice that he only thinks about how to solve the problems in front of him? But he never thought that "contradictions are constantly changing"— this is also what the great man said. So Trunks wrongly chose only SSJ 1.3 form is a manifestation of the problem, more seriously, he always lagged behind because when he found a solution, the enemy had already evolved. Goku is a good contrast sample. Since his defeat by Android 19, he has not been obsessed with his personal strength but has focused on a long-term view. He didn't know what Cell would evolve into before entering the CHAMBER OF SPIRIT AND TIME, but it didn't matter because his goal was not limited to Cell. So Goku can fully stimulate his and Gohan's potential, and the final victory was a natural result, not a forced one.

"Attachment" is Trunks' and Vegeta's common shortcomings, which hinder their potential. This is why I like Dragon Ball — without them, I wouldn't see deep connotations. We all have this kind of shortcomings, many people are deeply trapped in it without knowing it. Vegeta and his son give us a good demonstration. They show us the harm of attachment and tell us how to overcome this weakness.

At the end of the Cell Arc, Trunks returned to the future and easily defeated his enemies. I'm glad to see that he no longer obsessed with using his sword or his hatreds of the past (or becoming a strong fighter). He not only won peace, more importantly, he had a new life.