A new model to make sense of Cell arc time travel mechanics

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Terra-jin
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A new model to make sense of Cell arc time travel mechanics

Post by Terra-jin » Thu Mar 09, 2017 4:31 pm

In 766, after saving the universe from the evil tyrant Freeza, Goku dies from a heart virus. Cruel enough as this was, two years later two artificial humans appeared. They were much more powerful than even Freeza or King Cold and killed everyone, including Vegeta, Gohan and Piccolo. Despair took over. The only glimmer of hope was Bulma’s time machine, which Trunks was going to use to travel back to the past to set things right. The Trunks that we know wasn’t the first to travel in time, however…

In this post, I’d like to propose a new perspective to make sense of Dragonball’s time travel during the Cell arc. My aim is to delve deeper into its workings and construct a model of time travel mechanics, consisting of six laws. The main novelty is the idea that traveling to the past alters all timelines, not just one.

Super contradicts this theory on some points, just so you know, but their concept of the 12 universes helps to illustrate certain points.

Throughout this document, the years and characters of the four different timelines are color-coded for your convenience: bold black for timeline I (the original timeline), green for timeline II (the unseen timeline), blue for timeline III (Trunks’s future timeline) and red for timeline IV (the main timeline). So Cell is the embryo home to the main timeline and Cell is the one of the original timeline. Standard font indicates that no specific timeline or traveler is meant.


Walkthrough establishing laws of time travel

In Dragonball, alternate timelines are treated like ‘separate worlds’ that continue to exist parallel to each other. As Trunks traveled from 784 to 764, the first alternate timeline was created as a new world, almost identical to the original one but running 20 years slow and with an altered history thanks to Trunks.

It gets confusing because they refer to timeline I as “the future”. But timeline I exists as another world with its own past, present and future. So during Trunks’s first visit, Bulma was not waiting for him in the future, but in the present of timeline I. Not only that, but timeline III would be another “future world”, making it even more confusing to refer to either world as “the future”. They are both separate worlds that happen to be further along than the two “past” timelines.

Like the 12 universes, the alternate timelines are different places that exist side by side. Before Trunks’s initial trip, the omniverse contained 12 universes; afterwards, you could say that there were 24 separate worlds. At the end of the Cell arc, there are 48.

In other works of fiction, the future is changed as soon as the past is altered and only one world exists. Isn’t it strange to think that the future would suddenly disappear? If you change the past, you’d essentially disintegrate everyone and everything you knew, your memories being the only trace left of them…

• Law #1: alternate timelines are preserved as separate worlds


When Trunks first arrived in timeline II, he must’ve wondered how Bulma was doing in the other timeline. He knew that timeline I still existed, like a parallel dimension, and that while he was talking to Goku, Bulma was waiting at home, in a separate world. He was gone for a few hours in total, which means that Bulma was waiting for Trunks for a few hours, as well. As is the case between different universes, time flows at the same rate in all timelines. One hour passes in timeline II, one hour passes in timeline I.

Time flowing at the same rate is what you would expect if alternate timelines are a sort of separate worlds, since this principle is also true between different universes. Variations like the RoSaT are possible, but there’s no reason to think alternate timelines would function this way. It is, however, impossible that two timelines stand still from each other’s perspective, just as time on two timelines cannot each flow faster than the other, because that would lead to logical contradictions.

Alternate timelines run slow on the original they were copied from, by the duration that the traveler went back into the past. Since Trunks traveled 20 years into the past, timeline II runs 20 years slow on timeline I.

• Law #2: time flows at the same rate on all timelines


A few hours after his first visit, after giving Goku the warning and the medicine, Trunks was ready to return to timeline I, which was now at year 784 plus a few hours, or 784+ for short. While he was entering the return time in the time machine, he must’ve been confident that the time machine wouldn’t end up in 784+ of timeline II. After all, he was in timeline II, so traditional time travel mechanics dictate that he would end up in the future of that timeline. Luckily, the third law of Dragonball-style time travel is that the time machine can select which timeline it goes to. Just the destination year is not enough information; you’d need the destination timeline as well to get a definitive destination.

The default setting seems to be to select the timeline whose present year was closest to the destination year. When Trunks put in 784+ as his destination date, the time machine selected timeline I because it was precisely at 784+, while timeline II was at 764+. This principle becomes important later on for Trunks’s initial trip.

• Law #3: the time machine selects the timeline which present year is closest to the destination year


At this point, timeline I is still 20 years ahead of timeline II. Trunks returned to exactly the present, not the future or past of timeline I, so this trip was more like interdimensional travel than time travel. So if you travel to the present of another timeline, you do not alter time at all. It’s like a trip between different universes in this sense.

• Law #4: traveling to the present of another timeline does not alter time at all


Approximately one year later, in 785, Trunks prepares for this next trip. At this time, timeline II is at 765. However, Trunks’s destination year is 767 (the time of 17 and 18’s attack). Following law #3, Trunks travels to 767 instead of 767.

When Trunks arrives in 767, what year is timeline I? It can be logically demonstrated that it must also have fast-forwarded the same amount as timeline II, which is to say two years. At this point, the year is 787 and 767, respectively. For Trunks, this trip seemed instantaneous.

Why must this be the case? Let’s suppose that only timeline II is fast-forwarded. In this case, time on timeline I would stand still at 785 during the interval of 765-767 of timeline II. The logical contradiction of this view becomes apparent if you suppose that someone in timeline II travels from within this interval to the future of timeline I (say, 786). This would mean that there’s an interval at which both timelines stand still from each other’s viewpoint. Since this is logically contradictory, it must be the case that trips to the future fast-forward all timelines equally. To further support this, this is exactly what you’d expect if alternate timelines are separate worlds.

• Law #5: traveling to the future fast-forwards all timelines equally


A few weeks later, Trunks returns to timeline I at 787+. The original manga implies that it would be 785+, but that would be problematic. Fortunately, there’s a reading that allows 787+ in this context (see end of post).

It is never shown what happened in timeline II, all that we know is that Trunks found some means to stop 17 and 18, but not Cell. Although there have been four trips in total, only one of those went to the past and caused a new timeline to be born. This would soon change, because Cell got his hands on the time machine in 788. At that moment, timeline II is at 768, still differing exactly 20 years with timeline I.

The time machine was set to the year 763, which would allow Cell to regrow into his mature form by the time of 17 and 18’s attack (how convenient!). Since 763 lies in the past, Cell would change the past while the future would be preserved (following law #1), just like Trunks did four years earlier.

Most theories say that only the directly affected timeline is copied. This would lead to three timelines, at 788, 768 and 763, respectively. Would this new timeline be visited by a version of Trunks? We’ll return to this point shortly.

What would happen if time is rewound on all timelines equally? We’ve already established that time must be fast-forwarded on all timelines equally, so it seems elegant to assume that it works the other way around, too. It also fits well with the fact that timelines are separate worlds like universes – as universes are all affected, so are all timelines. This would entail an exponential proliferation of separate worlds each time someone alters the past… no wonder it’s considered a sin!

If this is true, then the pasts of timeline I as well as timeline II are altered, resulting in two new timelines. Since I and II were rewound equally, III and IV also have the original 20 years time difference. But by how much were they rewound? 763 is five years from 768 but 25 years from 788. Which one is it?
Well, 763 was closest to 768, so following law #3, it must be five years. Now we can fill in the next piece of the puzzle: timeline III must be at 783. There’s an interesting implication to this. III and IV are at 783 and 763, which means that one year later, when Trunks sets the destination date for his first trip to the past, timeline IV is at exactly that date!

This hypothesis solves a number of plotholes, contradictions and inelegancies of the theory that only the directly affected timeline is copied. In that theory, there’s two scenarios:
If the new timeline is not visited by Trunks, then there’s the “lazy Cell” problem. Since things went bleak in 767 without Trunks having intervened, Cell would be relatively unopposed. How could be not have become perfect and ended the world? It might be possible to explain it, but not really in an elegant way in my opinion.
If the new timeline is visited by Trunks, then where did he come from? He either comes from thin air, or he comes from timeline I even though he simultaneously ended up in timeline II. This would be a contradiction. He’d be the very same Trunks that is killed by Cell, while being the one who kills Cell… which is absurd.
A similar absurdity can be found in the previous scenario (the “lazy” Cell and the main Cell are one and the same – yet not). Broadly speaking, this hypothesis leaves the door wide open to all sorts of these absurdities, where a traveler comes from two timelines simultaneously or two travelers originate from the same timeline. The hypothesis that all timelines are affected always avoids this; you can plug in any number of trips and travelers you like – it’ll always result in a set of timelines that is free of the aforementioned contradictions.

Here’s another way to think about it. The separate world of timeline II exists just the same as timeline I. It’s right there, on the ‘other side’. It’s like a neighboring planet on the far side of the Sun. In that sense, timeline II is completely part of the world – it even has the same flow of time. So when you travel to the past, you travel to the past of this dual world and thereby copy that dual world into what becomes a quadruple world.

• Law #6: traveling to the past affects all existing timelines equally, not just the destination timeline


So timeline IV is now at 763, five years earlier than timeline II. Timeline I is also rewound five years, so its copy, timeline III, is at 783. This corresponds with the fact that timeline I was at 783 when timeline II would’ve been at 763 (though technically, timeline II did not yet exist then).

There are now four timelines and their present years are 788, 768, 783, and 763 respectively. Cell lies dormant in timeline IV, while in timeline III, Bulma nears completion of the time machine. In timeline I, Bulma mourns the loss of Trunks and in timeline II, they start to worry if something went wrong.

A year later, in 784, Trunks makes his first trip to 764, believing to travel to the past. Unknown to him, there was already a timeline waiting for him that was exactly at his destination year: timeline IV at 764 (following law #2).

Following law #3, he ends up there instead of changing the past again (which would’ve resulted in eight parallel timelines). After all, 764 was closest to timeline IV, which was exactly at that year then. At his return trip, he didn’t alter time at all, since he targeted the present of timeline III (following law #4).

In 785, Trunks plans to travel to 767. Since the timelines were at 790, 770, 785 and 765, the time machine went to timeline IV and fast-forwarded the timelines to 792, 772, 787 and 767 (following law #5). During his various subsequent trips, he never alters the past, thus no new timelines are created.

If you count movie 13, Tapion uses a time machine to travel 1000 years into the past. Following law #6, this would result in eight timelines at 799, 779, 794, 774, –201, –221, –206 and –226. Of those timelines, I & V, II & VI, and III & VII are wholly identical, while IV and VIII are slightly different – movie 13 wouldn’t happen in VIII.
Interestingly, all trips made by Trunks and Cell in those further timelines would precisely line up with the present at each timeline (as with Trunks’s trip to 764), resulting in an identical itinerary of time travel as with the original four timelines. Elegant, isn’t it?

At the end of the Cell arc, eleven trips were made by three distinct travelers (Trunks, Cell, and Trunks). Four timelines exist and each timeline is home to one and only one incarnation of Trunks and Cell.


Overview of trips

1. Trunks travels from 784 to 764 and warns Goku about 17 and 18, creating the first alternate timeline
2. Trunks travels from 764+ to 784+ and recharges the time machine
3. Trunks travels from 785 to 767 and finds some means to stop 17 and 18, going through a significantly different series of events than Trunks
4. Trunks travels from 767+ to 787+ and stops 17 and 18 in his timeline, sets the time machine to 763, but is killed by Cell
5. Cell travels from 788 to 763, creating two more alternate timelines and regrows over the course of four years
6. Trunks travels from 784 to 764 and warns Goku about 17 and 18, in a practically identical manner as Trunks’s first trip
7. Trunks travels from 764+ to 784+ and recharges the time machine, again practically identical to Trunks’s previous trip
8. Trunks travels from 785 to 767 and becomes strong enough to destroy 17, 18 and Cell
9. Trunks travels from 767+ to 787+ and destroys 17, 18 and Cell
10. Trunks travels from 790 to 770 and visits his friends in timeline IV
11. Trunks travels from 770+ to 790+ and lives peacefully… for the time being


Overview of timeline outcomes

In timeline I, all traces of the Saiyan and Namekian races are gone from Earth. Bulma and a few others survive and live their lives peacefully, yet saddened by Trunks’s death and the uncertain fate of another timeline.

Timeline II is almost completely unknown, except for the fact that Trunks found some means to stop the artificial humans, without gaining the power to stop Cell. That implies that the artificial humans there are defeated, but who survived? Did they find Dr. Gero’s secret laboratory basement and did they destroy Cell as they wondered what he was, leaving them the same ominous unease that Bulma must’ve felt in timeline I?

In timeline III, Trunks kills 17, 18 and Cell, and lives happily ever after (OR DOES HE?)

Timeline IV is where Cell met his end, Cell was killed as an embryo and Trunks gained the power to kill Cell. The higher SSj transformations are reached and eventually Majin Buu is defeated.


Resolution of plotholes

Cell tells Piccolo that he could have gotten Trunks’s DNA, but it seems to be a plothole because Trunks was not there in the original timeline. Or was he? There have been elaborate theories making it fit, but there’s a simple explanation: Cell refers to baby Trunks here. Trunks was present in the early history of timeline I, just as a baby.

That same Trunks set his time machine for 763. This seems strange, because if he wanted to go back to tell his friends in timeline II that his world is safe, as well, he should’ve set it for 768. Perhaps he wanted to go back further so he could destroy Gero and his laboratory before the artificial humans were completed? If that’s the case, it may indicate that things didn’t go smoothly in timeline II.

The year 785+ (the date of Trunks’s return from his second trip) is taken from two bits of information in the manga: that Cell came from 788 and that Trunks waited three years to kill Cell after stopping 17 and 18. However, the bits refer to different characters and timelines: Cell came from 788 and Trunks waited three years for Cell.
Therefore, it is not stated that Cell appeared three years after Trunks returned or that Cell confronted Trunks in 788. Hence, it’s possible that Cell appeared one year after Trunks returned and that Trunks killed Cell in 790.
It’s still strange that Trunks would leave Bulma alone for two years, with the threat of 17 and 18 out there, and all. Then again, Trunks waiting around for two years would arguably be strategically dangerous, since he was the only one left with the potential to one day defeat the cyborgs.

Well, that's about it. I really love this nerdy topic and I'd like to hear your opinions about it!
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