Why 3 years later and 1 year early?!

[Dayspring]

Why the heck did Trunks (from Cell's timeline) wait 3 years to go back to give news of defeating his Androids? At that, why go an era prior to even meeting any of them? IT MAKES NO SENSE, I TELL'S YA!!!

[Kendamu]

Why the heck did Trunks (from Cell's timeline) wait 3 years to go back to give news of defeating his Androids? At that, why go an era prior to even meeting any of them? IT MAKES NO SENSE, I TELL'S YA!!!

Wait. I thought Trunks went back to give Goku the medicine and every time he went back after that venture it was to a time after giving Goku the medicine.

Can someone point me to a part in the manga that corrects my memory here?

[Kid Trunks]

Why the heck did Trunks (from Cell's timeline) wait 3 years to go back to give news of defeating his Androids? At that, why go an era prior to even meeting any of them? IT MAKES NO SENSE, I TELL'S YA!!!

I don't know why he waited 3 years to go back and tell them he succeed. Maybe because it took that long for Cell to show up? And when does he go back to tell them at a point where they've never met him?

[Rocketman]

Why the heck did Trunks (from Cell's timeline) wait 3 years to go back to give news of defeating his Androids? At that, why go an era prior to even meeting any of them? IT MAKES NO SENSE, I TELL'S YA!!!

Doesn't it take that long for the time machine to charge? He has to wait three years between his trips to kill Freeza and to fight Main Timeline's Androids.

As for the one year prior...Cell reprogrammed it so he would have time to return to his standard form after regressing.

[Tweaker]

I think it's possible that it was an overlooked bit of plot--Toriyama may have considered the 3 year passage a literal passage of time; in other words, it took Trunks 3 years to beat the Androids on his end, and then he returned to whatever the "present" was in the time dimension that he went to the first time.

Of course, the problem is that this doesn't make any sense, because Trunks should have been able to return at any point in time. In fact, considering that the eventual defeat of Cell and Trunks' return to his own timeline were inevitable, he could have just silently come back in time, destroyed the Androids in Gero's lab, and prevented the whole thing from happening in the first place!

I'd say it was an intentional plot device, just poorly planned. It could also be a result of Toriyama's own perception on how time travel would work... then again, he wasn't exactly consistent with it, in that case.

[Dayspring]

I'm refering to what the daizenshuu calls Timeline 3; the timeline Cell came from. In this timeline, Trunks waits until 788 to go back in time to say that he succeeded in destroying the androids in his era, something he did in 785. Cell kills him to steal the time machine. He arrives 1-year prior to Trunks giving the heart medication. When asked why, Cell answers that the machine had already been programmed for that timeframe by Trunks.

[Sprite Satan]

Maybe Trunks just wanted to hang out in his time for a wee bit. After all, it doesn't matter at all to the people of the past we know if he leaves immediately after the machine charges (it takes eight months, I think) or in three years.

As for why he set the machine to take him back to before he ever encountered the group... uh, Cell nudged a button getting into the ship. The "add a few years to your intended destination button".

As for what Cell said, he lied to cover up his clumsy elbows. Perfection negates the thought of being a clumsy git.

[Dayspring]

Why the heck did Trunks (from Cell's timeline) wait 3 years to go back to give news of defeating his Androids? At that, why go an era prior to even meeting any of them? IT MAKES NO SENSE, I TELL'S YA!!!

Doesn't it take that long for the time machine to charge? He has to wait three years between his trips to kill Freeza and to fight Main Timeline's Androids.

As for the one year prior...Cell reprogrammed it so he would have time to return to his standard form after regressing.

It takes 8 months. The 3-year gap was because 3 years pass before the androids would appear.

[Tweaker]

I'm refering to what the daizenshuu calls Timeline 3; the timeline Cell came from. In this timeline, Trunks waits until 788 to go back in time to say that he succeeded in destroying the androids in his era, something he did in 785. Cell kills him to steal the time machine. He arrives 1-year prior to Trunks giving the heart medication. When asked why, Cell answers that the machine had already been programmed for that timeframe by Trunks.

Oh.

Damn it, this is the second time I've looked like a jackass due to a lack of knowledge.

[Terra-jin]

I've never thought of that before, why the first Trunks waited three years. It certainly wasn't because of Cell, he wasn't discovered yet. It could be that Bulma needed three years to create the emergency shut-down controllers. Yes, our Bulma did it in a little over a week, but Future Bulma doesn't have that much resources anymore. It could very well be that she took three years to create the controllers.

As for Cell's intended time: the manga does say that the year 764 was preset. It could be that Trunks1 didn't have time to specify the correct date (what with being absorbed by Cell and all) and that 764 happened to be the defeault year or something. However, I just call this a plothole and say that it was actually Cell that entered that time - surely he would've checked whether he would actually arrive in the right time?

Here's another interesting thought. Consider the jump Trunks2 makes after the Cell saga (to return to his time and kill the cyborgs and Cell). That was in the year 768 (roughly). The time in his future was still 785. Assuming timelines progress simultaneously, if Trunks2 waited three years (for Cell to emerge), the other timelines should progress three years, as well. At the time of Trunks' last trip, it would be 788 in his timeline and 771 in the past timeline. Which means, if he would travel to 768 in that same past, he would arrive in the past and therefore create a new timeline (if you adhere to the theory that jumps only create new timelines if they arrive in the past of a timeline).

So, we either actually have five timelines, or Trunks set to travel to 771 meaning that movie 9 actually happened three years later than the Cell saga. That also rhymes with the fact that Tenkaichi Boudokais were held every three years - so the one in movie 9 could be the first one after the Cell Games.

[Herms]

That also rhymes with the fact that Tenkaichi Boudokais were held every three years - so the one in movie 9 could be the first one after the Cell Games.

The tournament in DBZ movie 9 is not the Tenkaichi Budoukai, but rather the Tenkaichi Dai-Budoukai ("Tenkaichi Great Tournament" instead of simply "Tenkaichi Tournament"). It was held by Gyosan Money specifically to celebrate his son's birthday, and was the first one of those ever (a newspaper at the end of the movie advertises the second one).

[TheGreatness25]

Um... Even if it did take 3 years for the time machine to charge in his time...he can just come back to the same point in time. If you have a time machine, you can go to any point. Even if it took the machine 50 years to charge, he could literally go back in time to a second before he left that timeline in the first place. Does that make sense?

[ect5150]

Trunks also mentions that the time machine "targets" the time period and that is misses. He mentions this when he comes back the second time. Something to the effect of wanting to go back, but the time machine isn't too accurate, so he could miss his target date and be worse off.

So I'm guessing we just have to believe the time machine went way off when Cell jumped in it. Although it hit it dead on when he wanted to meet Goku the first time.

Looks like just another plot hole.

[Terra-jin]

Um... Even if it did take 3 years for the time machine to charge in his time...he can just come back to the same point in time.

You're right, you can go to any date you want. The question is whether that date lies in the future or in the past of the target timeline.

There's basically two schools of thought on the timeline question. Either jumps always create new timelines, or they only do so when you arrive in the past of a timeline. If you belong to the former, going to the past or future doesn't matter - you'll always create new timelines. However, if you believe in the latter theory, it becomes important because it determines whether a new timeline is created or not.

So the question was, did Trunks2 travel to the year 768 (shortly after the Cell Games) or did he go to 771 (three years later, accounting for the time he waited for Cell in his own timeline)?
While it was 788 in Trunks2's future, the present of the main timeline was the year 771. This means that 768 lies in the past. If Trunks2 traveled to that time, he creates a new timeline. If he arrives in 771, he doesn't create one.

I'd like to stress once again that both theories are valid. We just can't prove one over the other. That's why I can understand desirecampbell's theory - he just chose option A while I chose option B. I prefer option B because I don't like all those extra timelines, but they're both valid options.
The same can be said for the question whether a 'timeline-copy' Trunks (I've called him Trunks2) shows up in the timeline that Cell created with his jump or not. Desire's take on this is that he doesn't show up, because Cell's timeline is branched off before the previous, Trunks-affected past. I believe instead that timelines don't branch off, but that complete copies of a timeline are made. This means that any new timeline also contains a past from before it was created. For example, Trunks' very first jump created a timeline beginning at 765. Although it began at 765, it also has a past before that date.

So we basically have two major flexible rules here. It's up to you which options you choose and because of this, there are multiple valid theories of which mine is one.

[Rocketman]

I'm not longer sure what the question is.

[TheGreatness25]

About the Cell thing. I'm not sure if I fully understand. Remember, Cell appearing in the "real" timeline was not because of a shift in the timeline. Although Cell arrived years and years later in Trunks' timeline, that does not mean anything. Because it was Future Cell that used Trunks' (from yet another timeline) time machine and went back. In the "real" timeline, Cell was nothing but a little seedling that Krillin and Trunks destroyed after finding Dr. Gero's lab.

[Xyex]

Um... Even if it did take 3 years for the time machine to charge in his time...he can just come back to the same point in time. If you have a time machine, you can go to any point. Even if it took the machine 50 years to charge, he could literally go back in time to a second before he left that timeline in the first place. Does that make sense?

Not necasarily. We don't know how exactly Trunks's machine works but there's plenty of time travel theories where what you said is impossible for one reason or another. A good example is power reserves. We know that was a limitation for Trunks. And who knows what else could screw around with the rules too.

As for the original question, I figure it just took Trunks that long to get around to going back. I don't think it took him the full 3 years to beat the Androids (and I'm 100% positive there was no remote involved, that was a development that resulted from Cell's presence. No Cell means no remote) but he may have had to recover from the battle, may have stuck around to help out with things here and there, and so on.

As for Cell's destination I say he either bumped something and shifted the date a few years or Trunks hadn't yet programmed a date and Cell went back in time as far as the machine was cappable of going at full charge from its present time period.

[veshira]

Um, guys? Could it have anything to do with the fact that Trunks wanted to be born?

No, I see what you guys are saying. Why wait three years instead of one or two? Well, Trunks seemed like a pretty shy character at times. Also, he probaby only wanted to be there for when the Androids were there, cause otherwise, everyone would hunt him down and try to find out who he is.

(Maybe? :/)

[EDIT]: Oh, and as far as I've always thought about it, it seemed like Trunks was planning to go back one year earlier so he could kill Dr. Gero, since he knew where the lab was after that.

[Chibi Mystic Gohan]

(and I'm 100% positive there was no remote involved, that was a development that resulted from Cell's presence. No Cell means no remote)

Well, the official explanation from Daizenshuu 7 is that Trunks used a remote, so...

[Xyex]

(and I'm 100% positive there was no remote involved, that was a development that resulted from Cell's presence. No Cell means no remote)

Well, the official explanation from Daizenshuu 7 is that Trunks used a remote, so...

Yes, I know, but it's just another instance of where the Daizenshuu's information crumbles upon even a cursory inspection of the manga. The simple fact is that a remote is impossible without the blue prints and the blue prints would not be found without Cell.

It's just like how KKx20 Goku and 50% Freeza can't both be 60 million because the KKx20 Kamehameha would then have overwhelmed and killed Freeza.