HEY! HOW IS 17 ALIVE!?

[MaskedRider]

Clearly 17 and 18 are not killed when absorbed by Cell as evident when 18 is spit back out alive. They are neither killed (neither is Cell apparently despite mentioning the core inside his head) either when Goku blows off the upper portion of Cell's body which included his head. When Cell self destructed 17 should not have died because 18 couldn't have died from absorption alone nor when Cell's upper body - which included his core - was blown off but regenerated and spitted 18 out alive anyway. Therefore after Cell regenerated after self destruction 17 should have been still alive due to the core being present to regenerate Cell (and to perfect form as well!) Gohan killed Cell therefore 17 as well so the wish to bring back those that Cell killed shouldn't have brought back 17.

I'm not sure about exact translation as the website I was reading from used this old scanlation that would make the manga look like it was professionally done in MS Paint with the pencil tool. The translation made it clear that the wish was, "Bring those killed by Cell back to life." so I'm not sure if it was "Bring back Cell's victims" which would make more sense.

Did I discover something I wasn't supposed to or am I just tired from staying up all night and not thinking about something that would make me wrong

[PremiumSalt]

.....I....believe you just answered your own question?

[MaskedRider]

.....I....believe you just answered your own question?

In what way?

[ekrolo2]

I hadn't thought of this before but it does kind of not make sense. Neither 17 or 18 are killed by Cell, just absorbed and can get brought out if Cell vomits them. I guess you could say Cell "killed" 17 when he blew himself up but an equally good case can be made that Gohan & Goku "kill" 17 by ultimately vaporizing Cell himself.

[dbgtFO]

It's funny you should make this thread, as I was thinking about how it should work, since my headcanon was that he died alongside Goku, Bubbles and Kaio during Cell's self-destruct. But that would mean he'd be brought back in the afterlife and then Dende would have to pick him up.

[Asura]

I never understood how Cell came back in his perfect form after spitting out 18 and going back to semi-perfect before he self-exploded. I think that just adds to the confusion of where 17 even fits in this mix.

[Kataphrut]

The mechanics of absorption is one of those weird things you're probably not supposed to think about. Like, for someone holding back to save his sons, Vegito had no problem carving Buu up into pieces just to prove a point.

At least Buu has the excuse of being magical; either 17 and 18 were digested inside Cell and shouldn't have been vomited up whole, or they're not and they should've been blown to bits by Goku's Kamehameha. And don't get me started on the Cell Jnrs. The only explanation is Dr Gero gave Cell Time Lord DNA and his stomach is a TARDIS.

[Darkprince410]

We've seen before that the dragons are capable of reviving someone whose death was only indirectly related to someone's actions, such as the Namekian Grand Elder being revived by the wish to restore those killed by Freeza and his men, even though Freeza never laid a hand on him. In this situation, it might be the same general premise if it's Gohan's Kamehameha and not Cell's self-destruction beforehand that killed him. Yes, it was Gohan that actually destroyed him, but Cell's actions directly led to Gohan killing him, making him at least partially responsible for his death.

[KBABZ]

There was a bit of anime filler (I think it's filler?) where Cell does something weird by showing the souls of all the people he's absorbed, shocking Piccolo as to how many people he killed. That suggests that the people still exist inside of him somehow, and he also said that they should be "privileged" to be able to join with him. Plus there's that time he used 17's voice to try and trick 18.