A question I was asked.
Him: Pakl, How is Movie 3 so weird with battle powers. Goku is 30k+, but he was never stated to be 30k+ in the series.
Me: Movie 3 was released on July 7 1990 between episode 54 to 55. The movie is based on the first arc of the Freeza Saga, the Namek Saga. At that arc, Goku was in the middle of his training on his spaceship on the way to Namek and the humans were training at Kaio. in episode 54, Goku controls the 50x gravity so we can assume Goku post 50× gravity was 30k+. Since the movie is based on the Namek Arc where they were mid training, TOEI gave them random power levels in between the Vegeta Arc to the Ginyu arc. The 30k number for Goku represents the strongest base character at that point who was Monster Zarbon. Goku surpasses him and is comparable to Vegeta (post Zarbon) who was 30k. That's backed up with the fact the highest basic power on the manga 3 months (the time it takes to produce the movie) was Vegeta after he killed Zarbon. Piccolo was given the power level of 18k becuase that was the power stated for Vegeta in the Vegeta Arc as said by Dodoria in the Namek Arc which is the arc movie 3 follows.
Him:Ok. But what about Gohan? He was stated to be 10,000 in movie 3 but the movie came out before he got his power up from the elder namek. Before, that he was said to be 1,500 in the manga and surpassing 10,000 vs Guldo.
Me: You need to differ between the anime and the manga. The movies are based on the anime and the anime contradicts the manga a lot of time. It's true in both the manga and anime, Gohan was stated to be 1,500 but in the anime, his power is later stated to be greater. In the anime, After Dodoria chases Gohan and Krillin, Zarbon wonders who Gohannand Krillin were and that their power levels were somewhat stronger than the Namekians, meaning stronger than 3,000. That's anime hax. In the manga, Gohan and Krillin are stated to be over 10,000 when they fought. In the Anime though, this line was not used by Jiece. That's probably because Gohan was already showing power of 10,000 in movie 3 which was a needed hax, greater than somewhat stronger than 3,000 but somewhat weaker than he was vs Guldo in the manga. In the anime, Jiece even states that when Gohan fought Recoome, his power level reached over 20,000. So there is no contradiction.