Why didn't Fut. Bulma tell Fut. Trunks about Gero's Lab?

[thatdbzguy]

After Dr. Gero runs away from the Z-Fighters in the alternate timeline, Bulma reveals his true identity and the location of his lab. This, of course, has some people claiming this to be yet another plot hole of DBZ, because this leads them to believe that if Present Bulma knew about Gero's lab location, then Future Bulma should too, and she'd simply send Trunks back in time to destroy it.

Do you think this is just another plot hole, or do you think that there's some reasoning by this?

[Kaboom]

By the time Androids 17 and 18 were on the loose in the future, it was probably moot.

Though in at least one timeline, it may have led to Trunks beating the Androids by Bulma building a remote to shut them down.

[TheGmGoken]

Seems like you got this from TFS pointing it out

Most likely because of in the Future the lab was destroyed anyways and Trunks was suppose to help defeat the Cyborgs and save Goku. Not destroy the lab. That or Trunks going back into the past fucks everything up once again which makes Bulma(Present) know about the lab but Bulma future doesn't.

Lastly: Bulma thought with Goku the lab wasn't needed as she thinks Goku could kick ass

[ErikB]

It could just be that Future Bulma simply didn't think to mention it, and largely considered the only important task of Trunks's trip to be getting the antidote to Goku. Or maybe she did tell Trunks and he didn't think to mention it when he talked to Goku (I just checked the manga to refresh my memory, and they skip right to asking Bulma about the lab's location, so it's not established whether Trunks knew).

That having been said, I'd still say it counts as being a plot hole, if a somewhat minor one. Just because the audience can rationalize a gap in the narrative's logic doesn't mean it doesn't exist; "plot hole" would be a meaningless term otherwise. It's safe to assume that Future Trunks's timeline played out the same up until Frieza's arrival on Earth and it's not established exactly when Bulma learns about Dr. Gero and his lab but the dialogue does seem to, at least vaguely, imply she's known for a good while, so that would have applied to both the main timeline as well as Trunks's timeline, and that's a pretty significant detail for her to have overlooked when giving Trunks the message.

[Dbzfan94]

Well Trunks was an infant at the time of the first attack of 17 and 18, and by the time he was old enough, it was too late

[Friezacooler]

Because Bulma was confident enough that their Messiah would save them against the andriods this time, with the antidote, just like he saved her in Namek and BOG.

[thatdbzguy]

Going off of what TheGMGoken said, does anybody else think that it's simply because Bulma didn't originally know about Gero's location, but due to timeline interfernces by both Cell and Trunks, the alternate timeline Bulma did?

That's what I assumed.

[Saiga]

We don't know if future Bulma possesses the knowledge.

Present Bulma only shows that she knows after the time line split, and I don't know if it's hinted that it's something she knew before or what. It could easily be something she found out about because she researched Dr Gero after she first heard of him.

Hmm. I'm not sure we actually have enough information to be able to call it a plot hole.

[FoolsGil]

Great episode of TFS. Because that's a plot hole I don't think anyone has ever brought up until now.

[Rocketman]

Could you remember a random location you read in a magazine twenty years ago before the world ended?

[Saiga]

Come to think about it, Bulma doesn't know where it is located when they are first told about it. She must have read the magazine after that point, when they'd already decided not to kill him.

[caejones]

Yeah, I've just been assuming that she looked it up after they got the warning, and that this wasn't an option by the time Bulma built her time machine in the doomed timeline.
Makes me wonder, though... her dad's science magazines seem like they'd come in real handy when figuring out how to kick time and space in the face. It'd be weird (though not impossible) if the magazines about second-string quantum mechanics interpretations survived, but the one containing trivia about the Big Bad did not.

[rereboy]

After Dr. Gero runs away from the Z-Fighters in the alternate timeline, Bulma reveals his true identity and the location of his lab. This, of course, has some people claiming this to be yet another plot hole of DBZ, because this leads them to believe that if Present Bulma knew about Gero's lab location, then Future Bulma should too, and she'd simply send Trunks back in time to destroy it.

Do you think this is just another plot hole, or do you think that there's some reasoning by this?

- Future Bulma probably assumed, correctly, that Goku and the others wouldn't want to kill Dr. Gero before he actually created the androids.

- She wanted to save Goku, not just stop the androids, so just sending Trunk back in time to kill Dr. Gero wouldn't save Goku.

- She probably also hoped that whatever Goku and the others did to stop the androids, it could be used to stop the the androids in her own time, and as we saw that became true, since Trunks, thanks to the time travel, became strong enough to kill the androids in her own time.

or

- She only easily remembers Dr. Gero's lab location due to the changes in the timeline. In the Future, if she knew about it at some point, she had already forgotten it after then androids attacked, and their attacks and the consequences of their attacks probably made it impossible for her to find that out.

[Saiyan007]

hmmm i could have sworn I heard this question from TFS

[ABED]

What plot hole? All she knows is what Dr. Gero looks like. What's the connection to the lab? Did she say where the lab was?

[DBZAOTA482]

What plot hole? All she knows is what Dr. Gero looks like. What's the connection to the lab? Did she say where the lab was?

Bulma said it was near North City, though she didn't know the specifics.

[ABED]

Then how's that a plot hole? "near" is vague, and even if she specified the mountain ranges near the city, finding a hidden lab in a mountain range would still be difficult.

[DBZAOTA482]

Then how's that a plot hole? "near" is vague, and even if she specified the mountain ranges near the city, finding a hidden lab in a mountain range would still be difficult.

I don't know. There's some strange people out there.

[rereboy]

Then how's that a plot hole? "near" is vague, and even if she specified the mountain ranges near the city, finding a hidden lab in a mountain range would still be difficult.

If Future Bulma knew that Dr. Gero lab was near north city, she could have sent Trunks to stop him from building the androids. Not knowing exactly where it is, doesn't really matter because she has a time machine. If she sent Trunks back in time one month after Goku returned, Trunks would have almost 3 years to find the lab. Knowing that its near north city would be more than enough to find it. In fact, when Present Bulma told everyone it was around there, they immediately went to find it and got extremely close to it even before they found Gero entering it, and they only searched for a while, not 3 years... So, its either a plothole or there's an explanation for Future Bulma's actions, such as the ones I stated.

I don't know. There's some strange people out there.

Maybe there's people here who actually thought about it.

[ABED]

Then how's that a plot hole? "near" is vague, and even if she specified the mountain ranges near the city, finding a hidden lab in a mountain range would still be difficult.

If Future Bulma knew that Dr. Gero lab was near north city, she could have sent Trunks to stop him from building the androids. Not knowing exactly where it is, doesn't really matter because she has a time machine. If she sent Trunks back in time one month after Goku returned, Trunks would have almost 3 years to find the lab. Knowing that its near north city would be more than enough to find it. In fact, when Present Bulma told everyone it was around there, they immediately went to find it and got extremely close to it even before they found Gero entering it, and they only searched for a while, not 3 years... So, its either a plothole or there's an explanation for Future Bulma's actions, such as the ones I stated.

I don't know. There's some strange people out there.

Maybe there's people here who actually thought about it.

Time travel creates a bunch of plot holes. I wouldn't put too much thought into it because you could spend your whole life and not exhaust the possible plot holes that are created by time travel.