Cell was lying about his regeneration

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RandomGuy96
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Cell was lying about his regeneration

Post by RandomGuy96 » Tue Mar 14, 2017 10:14 pm

One of DB's oldest and most famous plot holes is that of Cell's healing factor. As he tells us, he can regenerate only as long as his nucleus is intact, which is contained in his head. But as we all know, at the end of their fight Goku completely wiped out his upper body without a bit left- including his head. So how did Cell regenerate from that?

It's simple: Cell is slightly less of an idiot than he appears to be. In reality, his nucleus is in his lower body, probably his codpiece. Telling everyone that the nucleus was in his head was an intentional diversion. "Yep, this is how you kill me; (points to head) aim HERE. Definitely not anywhere else. (taps dome) You 100% should only attack here." Unfortunately for him, Gohan saw through his clever ruse, and decided to just blow him up entirely instead.
Last edited by RandomGuy96 on Thu Mar 16, 2017 3:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.
The Monkey King wrote:
RandomGuy96 wrote:
dbgtFO wrote: Please elaborate as I do not know what you mean by "pushing Vegeta's destruction"
He's probably referring to the Bardock special. Zarbon was the one who first recommended destroying Planet Vegeta because the saiyans were rapidly growing in strength.
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Herms wrote:The fact that the ridiculous power inflation is presented so earnestly makes me just roll my eyes and snicker. Like with Freeza, where he starts off over 10 times stronger than all his henchmen except Ginyu (because...well, just because), then we find out he can transform and get even more powerful, and then he reveals he can transform two more times, before finally coming out with the fact that he hasn't even been using anywhere near 50% of his power. Oh, and he can survive in the vacuum of space. All this stuff is just presented as the way Freeza is, without even an attempt at rationalizing it, yet the tone dictates we're supposed to take all this silly grasping at straws as thrilling danger. So I guess I don't really take the power inflation in the Boo arc seriously, but I don't take the power inflation in earlier arcs seriously either, so there's no net loss of seriousness. I think a silly story presented as serious is harder to accept than a silly story presented as silly.

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Re: Cell was lying about his regeneration

Post by ChiefWamsutta » Tue Mar 14, 2017 10:44 pm

Ehhhhhh, I really like the idea, but I don't think Cell was lying. It makes more sense to me to say that Goku just didn't obliterate the nucleus. It survived.

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Re: Cell was lying about his regeneration

Post by Polyphase Avatron » Wed Mar 15, 2017 3:08 am

I think you might be right
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Re: Cell was lying about his regeneration

Post by Kid Buu » Wed Mar 15, 2017 4:28 am

I like that explanation. Works for me.

Also to be fair he would have actually won had Goku not interfered, so I guess he is smarter than Vegeta who also helped power up his foe. :lol:
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Re: Cell was lying about his regeneration

Post by TheUltimateNinja » Wed Mar 15, 2017 4:55 am

I disagree, I go with the interpretation that the nucleus isn't needed if he still has a lot of body mass left.

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Re: Cell was lying about his regeneration

Post by Saturnine » Wed Mar 15, 2017 5:07 am

TheUltimateNinja wrote:I disagree, I go with the interpretation that the nucleus isn't needed if he still has a lot of body mass left.
Yeah, same.

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Re: Cell was lying about his regeneration

Post by Tyro » Wed Mar 15, 2017 11:33 am

Saturnine wrote:
TheUltimateNinja wrote:I disagree, I go with the interpretation that the nucleus isn't needed if he still has a lot of body mass left.
Yeah, same.
Agreed on my end as well. Cell's body can continue regenerating even if only his nucleus remains, not that he can "only" regenerate if it remains.

Here's Herms's translation. The wording is vague enough that you can conclude that he needs his nucleus to regenerate if he's almost entirely destroyed, but if a significant portion of his body remains, not counting his nucleus, he'll be alright then too.
Chapter: 413 (DBZ 219), P10.1, P11.3-4, P12.1
Context: after regenerating from his self-destruction
Cell: “There’s a small clump inside my head…This makes up my nucleus…As long as that clump isn’t destroyed, my body can continue regenerating…When I self-destructed, my nucleus fortunately remained uninjured…Quite frankly, I hadn’t calculated on being able to regenerate…I was lucky…And even more happily, my body regenerated as my perfect form, even without No.18…And it wasn’t merely my perfect form: I had vastly powered up like Son Gohan…This was probably done by the Saiyan cells, which greatly increase in power when they are saved from the brink of death…And I even managed to learn Son Goku’s Teleportation…So in short, I was able to return here, having become even more perfect. It seems that rather than defeat me, Son Goku has given me several presents.”

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Re: Cell was lying about his regeneration

Post by Ki Breaker » Wed Mar 15, 2017 1:51 pm

RandomGuy96 wrote: It's simple: Cell is slightly less of an idiot than he appears to be. In reality, his nucleus is in his lower body, probably his codpiece. Telling everyone that the nucleus was in his head was an intentional diversion. "Yep, this is how you kill me; (points to head) aim HERE. Definitely not anywhere else. (taps dome) You 100% should only attack here." Unfortunately for him, Gohan saw through his clever ruse, and decided to just blow him up entirely instead.
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Re: Cell was lying about his regeneration

Post by LuckyCat » Wed Mar 15, 2017 2:30 pm

Tyro wrote:Here's Herms's translation. The wording is vague enough that you can conclude that he needs his nucleus to regenerate if he's almost entirely destroyed, but if a significant portion of his body remains, not counting his nucleus, he'll be alright then too.
Herms wrote:Chapter: 413 (DBZ 219), P10.1, P11.3-4, P12.1
Context: after regenerating from his self-destruction
Cell: “There’s a small clump inside my headThis makes up my nucleus…As long as that clump isn’t destroyed, my body can continue regenerating…
I don't see how you're reaching that conclusion from this translation. "This" in the second sentence is referring to "small clump inside my head" from the first sentence. If you read the sentence in Japanese, it's even more apparent since ellipses connect these two sentences together: "私の頭の中に小さな塊がある…それがこのわたしの核をなすものだ…"

That's not to say that your theory is wrong, however. It's entirely possibly Cell is lying like the OP says and indeed there are other ways Cell can regenerate.

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Re: Cell was lying about his regeneration

Post by RandomGuy96 » Sat Mar 18, 2017 1:08 am

Ki Breaker wrote:
RandomGuy96 wrote: It's simple: Cell is slightly less of an idiot than he appears to be. In reality, his nucleus is in his lower body, probably his codpiece. Telling everyone that the nucleus was in his head was an intentional diversion. "Yep, this is how you kill me; (points to head) aim HERE. Definitely not anywhere else. (taps dome) You 100% should only attack here." Unfortunately for him, Gohan saw through his clever ruse, and decided to just blow him up entirely instead.
Can we take a moment to appreciate what a fine work or art and humour this is
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TheUltimateNinja wrote:I disagree, I go with the interpretation that the nucleus isn't needed if he still has a lot of body mass left.
The wording of his statement is really weird if he doesn't actually need the nucleus.
The Monkey King wrote:
RandomGuy96 wrote:
dbgtFO wrote: Please elaborate as I do not know what you mean by "pushing Vegeta's destruction"
He's probably referring to the Bardock special. Zarbon was the one who first recommended destroying Planet Vegeta because the saiyans were rapidly growing in strength.
It was actually Beerus disguised as Zarbon #StayWoke
Herms wrote:The fact that the ridiculous power inflation is presented so earnestly makes me just roll my eyes and snicker. Like with Freeza, where he starts off over 10 times stronger than all his henchmen except Ginyu (because...well, just because), then we find out he can transform and get even more powerful, and then he reveals he can transform two more times, before finally coming out with the fact that he hasn't even been using anywhere near 50% of his power. Oh, and he can survive in the vacuum of space. All this stuff is just presented as the way Freeza is, without even an attempt at rationalizing it, yet the tone dictates we're supposed to take all this silly grasping at straws as thrilling danger. So I guess I don't really take the power inflation in the Boo arc seriously, but I don't take the power inflation in earlier arcs seriously either, so there's no net loss of seriousness. I think a silly story presented as serious is harder to accept than a silly story presented as silly.

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Re: Cell was lying about his regeneration

Post by Deathbringer » Sat Mar 18, 2017 11:32 am

Well maybe Goku's Kamehameha just blew up Cell's upper body without destroying his nucleus? Let's not forget Cell first mentions his nucleus as a way of explaining how he came back from having his entire body destroyed. I always thought the implication was that to kill Cell you have to destroy every cell in his body (and then to kill Majin Boo you have to destroy every molecule).

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Re: Cell was lying about his regeneration

Post by Darkprince410 » Sat Mar 18, 2017 11:53 am

Deathbringer wrote: I always thought the implication was that to kill Cell you have to destroy every cell in his body (and then to kill Majin Boo you have to destroy every molecule).
The idea that he could regenerate from any cell in his body was a Funimation dub invention. In the original manga and anime, it w as specified that it was a special clump of tissue in his brain that served as his nucleus.

My personal head-canon is that, since he's based in part on insects, he has certain anatomical features associated with insects, such as having multiple nerve bundles in the body that serve as "brains" for an insect alongside their primary brain. It is due to these bundles that an insect with its head cut off will still try to sting, walk, or fly away, as they're still trying to protect the body. In this case, part of their function is to regenerate the body if the primary brain is destroyed or otherwise severed from the body (their way of protecting the body)

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Re: Cell was lying about his regeneration

Post by Tectorman » Sat Mar 18, 2017 3:35 pm

Darkprince410 wrote:
Deathbringer wrote: I always thought the implication was that to kill Cell you have to destroy every cell in his body (and then to kill Majin Boo you have to destroy every molecule).
The idea that he could regenerate from any cell in his body was a Funimation dub invention. In the original manga and anime, it w as specified that it was a special clump of tissue in his brain that served as his nucleus.

My personal head-canon is that, since he's based in part on insects, he has certain anatomical features associated with insects, such as having multiple nerve bundles in the body that serve as "brains" for an insect alongside their primary brain. It is due to these bundles that an insect with its head cut off will still try to sting, walk, or fly away, as they're still trying to protect the body. In this case, part of their function is to regenerate the body if the primary brain is destroyed or otherwise severed from the body (their way of protecting the body)
So, multiple "brains" and therefore multiple nerve clusters, and the only reason he pointed to the one in his head was for the convenience of the humanoids he was talking to? Makes enough sense.
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Re: Cell was lying about his regeneration

Post by Jinzoningen MULE » Mon Mar 20, 2017 2:20 am

If Cell was lying about regeneration, then so did Piccolo, because he said the exact same thing after Dabra was killed and he regenerated from shattered pieces. I guess Piccolo could have whatever anomalies Cell had as well, but I don't like making superfluous assumptions, and that requires 2.
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Re: Cell was lying about his regeneration

Post by The gr » Mon Mar 20, 2017 7:42 am

Why would he lied,his regeneration is inconsistent because the plot demanded
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Re: Cell was lying about his regeneration

Post by FoolsGil » Mon Mar 20, 2017 9:41 am

Not that he was lying, but he just doesn't know. Because not long after that he blew himself up, his nucleus would have disintegrated. But he comes back and now its you have to destroy every one of his cells.

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