Future Trunks is definitely one of the best characters in the classic Dragon Ball Z anime, especially since he was a total surprise at first.

I remember when he showed up as a surprise Super Saiyan shortly after Goku mastered the transformation. He killed Frieza and his father King Cold like it was nothing! Then we find out that new Androids are even worse in the future—and that Trunks is actually Vegeta’s son, with Bulma as his mother. I never would have guessed that.

He was horrified to learn that he had changed the future so much that entirely new Androids—ones he didn’t even know existed—were released.

He’s also really the only one who takes the Android threat seriously out of all the Z Fighters. Vegeta sees them as a challenge, the others think they might be reasoned with, and Krillin just wants a romantic night with Android 18.

It was kind of cute how much Bulma cared about Future Trunks once you realized she was his mother. It was also heartwarming to see Future Trunks interact with baby Trunks.

He became one of the most powerful characters in the series during that time frame. He was technically stronger than Semi-Perfect Cell, but due to Vegeta’s ego, they both fumbled the chance to stop Cell and allowed him to become perfect.

And during the Cell Games, Trunks basically does nothing significant—he just gets his butt kicked by some of the Cell Juniors.

Cell surprisingly kills him when he returns, after everyone thought Goku had eliminated the threat for good.

Trunks is later revived with the Dragon Balls, but if Akira Toriyama hadn’t decided to kill him off briefly, he would’ve been one of the very few characters in Dragon Ball Z who never died at all.

I’m glad the series included scenes of Future Trunks taking down his versions of Android 17 and 18, especially since he had grown so much stronger than them.

And of course, he made Imperfect Cell look like a complete fool—lol.