Which Trunks was killed by Cell?

[mystic trunks]

It was the Trunks that came to warn of the androids (and killed Freeza) that was killed by imperfect Cell correct?

[Fox666]

Yeah, he returned to the past and used the blueprints to build the control to destroy the androids of his own time.

[Michsi]

This was always so confusing for me, the whole timeline thing. I always thought that the Trunks that came to warn them was one and the same who came to help them.... but I could never really place the one that had been killed by Cell.

[kaialone]

I think it was a different Trunks than the Trunks that killöed Freeza, because the Trunks that was killed by Cell is said to have brought blueprints with him, while Future Trunks didnt bring any of those with him.

[Fox666]

Time-line 1
- Goku fights Freeza and Cold
- Goku dies by heart disease
- no.17 and 18 show up and kill all heroes
- Trunks goes back to time-line 2
- Trunks returns with blueprints and successfully destroy no.17 and 18
- 3 years later Cell kills Trunks and get back in time

Time-line 2
- Trunks (time-line 1) fights Freeza and Cold
- Goku receive a heart medicine
- it's unknow if no.19 and 20 appear
- no.17 and 18 show up but do not kill the heroes
- Bulma build the blueprints to destroy no.17 and 18
- Trunks returns to time-line 1

Time-line 3
- Goku fights Freeza and Cold
- Goku dies by heart disease
- no.17 and 18 show up and kill all heroes
- Trunks goes back to time-line 4
- Trunks returns with a great power and defeat no.17 and 18
- 3 years later Trunks kills Cell

Time-line 4
- Trunks (time-line 3) fights Freeza and Cold
- Goku receive a heart medicine
- no.19 and 20 appear
- no.17 and 18 show up but do not kill the heroes
- Bulma build the blueprints to destroy no.17 and 18
- Cell (time-line 1) evolve
- Events of the main series
- Trunks (time-line 3) returns to his time

[Kroni_Hunter]

So why does it split at the point where they find the blueprints? One Trunks stays to help fight and the other takes off to use the remote.

IMO, the only way to explain it is that a multiverse exists in Dragonball outside of the different timelines. Timelines 1 and 2 are from Multiverse A and the Timelines 3 and 4 are from Multiverse B, and so on. It would cycle infinitely with small deviations in each multiverse like Trunks building a remote instead of training. (I think a Daizenshuu stated that Cell would achieve Perfect Form in an unseen Timeline 5 where Goku dies from his heart disease. This would fit the multiverse pattern)

[Bussani]

So why does it split at the point where they find the blueprints?

It doesn't. Or I've never seen it interpreted that way, at least.

The best way I've seen it explained is as follows: in the very first version of the timeline, the Androids wreck everything and a Trunks (not our Trunks that we meet) goes back in time, creating a new timeline in the process. This new timeline is a lot like the one we see in the manga, except there's no Cell. This means that everyone continues to focus their efforts on the Androids, leading to them discovering blueprints for the shutdown controls in the ruins of Gero's lab. They then use the controls to stop the Androids, and this Trunks returns to his future and uses it to stop his as well. This original timeline, however, is also the timeline our Cell comes from; when he wakes up and finds the Androids gone, he kills Trunks, steals his time machine, and travels back in time looking for them. Why the time machine takes him back to a year before Freeza arrives is anyone's guess, but Cell's presence is what causes the timeline we actually see in the manga. In other words, the Trunks we see kill Freeza and the Trunks who later returns are the same Trunks; it's the Trunks from Cell's timeline that dies.

This is the best interpretation of the timeline sections of the guides if you ask me, but it still leaves one or two questions that fans have to answer in their own way.

[rereboy]

This was always so confusing for me, the whole timeline thing. I always thought that the Trunks that came to warn them was one and the same who came to help them.... but I could never really place the one that had been killed by Cell.

The one who was killed was the Trunks that we know... if Cell never had time traveled to the past.

If Cell had never traveled back, the gang would probably figure out the remotes to destroy the androids with it, and Trunks would return to his time. And this actually happened. But then Cell killed Trunks and traveled back in time.

And so, Cell, like Trunks did the first time, created yet another timeline in which the events played out differently for Trunks and the others. And this is what we see in the manga/anime.

[Dorexx]

So why does it split at the point where they find the blueprints? One Trunks stays to help fight and the other takes off to use the remote.

Because of Cell. His appearance in the timeline causes an altered present from the original one that the first Trunks traveled to, so this time the events can play out differently and Trunks decides to train with his father, unlike the first Trunks who went home with the blueprints from the present where there was no Cell.

It's a mystery how they got to the blueprints in the original present, because it was Cell who told Piccolo about the basement at Gero's lab.

[Herms]

It was the Trunks that came to warn of the androids (and killed Freeza) that was killed by imperfect cell correct?

Well, there'd be more than one Trunks who did that, wouldn't there?

[CODii]

I've been watching through the Jinzoningen and Cell arcs recently. While watching I attempted to make sense of the different timelines. It all became too confusing so I just gave up.

[Bussani]

It's a mystery how they got to the blueprints in the original present, because it was Cell who told Piccolo about the basement at Gero's lab.

The timeline section in the guidebook doesn't specify that they found the same blueprints for #17 and #18 that were hidden in the basement. It says "blueprints for the shutdown controller" if I remember right, which could have been something separate that they found in the rubble of the upper lab. On the other hand, they could always have stumbled across the basement on their own. Why would they return to the ruined lab at all, you ask? Well, when Gohan and Trunks are heading to meet Bulma at the second time machine, Trunks explains that he still hopes there's a way to stop the Androids, and that he's sure Gero had some kind of off-switch or he wouldn't have risked using them. If the second time machine and Cell hadn't turned up and distracted them all, it's very likely someone--probably Trunks--would have returned to the lab and searched it for something like that.

[Kroni_Hunter]

So why does it split at the point where they find the blueprints? One Trunks stays to help fight and the other takes off to use the remote.

Because of Cell. His appearance in the timeline causes an altered present from the original one that the first Trunks traveled to, so this time the events can play out differently and Trunks decides to train with his father, unlike the first Trunks who went home with the blueprints from the present where there was no Cell.

It's a mystery how they got to the blueprints in the original present, because it was Cell who told Piccolo about the basement at Gero's lab.

What I'm saying is that neither Cell nor his timeline should exist at all based solely on Bulma's invention of the time machine. Trunks goes back to the past to give Goku the medicine, then again to the android battle where he stayed until being a USSJ2. He never went back with the blueprints to blow the Androids up. That's why I think Cell comes from a different universe.

[goldsaint13]

Yes, most of you have guessed it... There's two further Timelines never shown in the manga... One, the one from Cell came from, is actually mentioned in DB Forever and it's that Trunks the one who has been killed by Cell...
That Trunks arrived in a different present, where there was no Cell arrived from the future... Herew possibly Goku fought the Androids battle and maybe they won... It's possible that the Android 13 Movie is a squel to this Timeline...
Trunks returned to his future with the blueprints or managed to defeat the Androids on his own (he took three years, maybe to let Bulma build the controller or to train up enough to defeat them), but is then killed by Cell that came to the past... Possibly the first part of the future where Cell kills Trunks is identical to the future of the Trunks appearing in the manga, but as long as he travels back and finds another past, hil future is different by the time he returns and he is killed by Cell... The Trunks that came to the past where there's the training in the RoSaT, then returns to a future where he easily kills both the Androids and Cell three years after...

[Bussani]

Trunks goes back to the past to give Goku the medicine, then again to the android battle where he stayed until being a USSJ2. He never went back with the blueprints to blow the Androids up.

Trunks stayed, became an "USSJ2", and never went back with the blueprints because of Cell. In a timeline without him, things would have played out much differently.

[mystic trunks]

Am I correct in saying Trunks killed Cell twice and Cell killed Trunks twice?

[dbgtFO]

Am I correct in saying Trunks killed Cell twice and Cell killed Trunks twice?

The Cell we know killed two Trunkses, while it's just as possible that Krillin killed "main timeline Cell", as it is that Future Trunks did, meaning it's unknown, if Trunks killed one or two Cells.

[Kroni_Hunter]

Trunks goes back to the past to give Goku the medicine, then again to the android battle where he stayed until being a USSJ2. He never went back with the blueprints to blow the Androids up.

Trunks stayed, became an "USSJ2", and never went back with the blueprints because of Cell. In a timeline without him, things would have played out much differently.

We both agree there, but it's the presence of Cell in the first place that doesn't make sense if Future Trunks's timeline is the original.

EXAMPLE: If I invented a time machine today and went back in time to 2001 then that would be a new timeline. It wouldn't make sense for me to meet a guy in 2001 who says he kills me in the future and steals my time machine, unless he actually did kill me. Trunks goes back and destroys Cell, making that an impossible event in his timeline, and if it didn't happen in that timeline, how could it happen in any other?

EDIT: I just thought of another possibility. What if Cell's timeline is actually the original one? That could potentially solve the discrepancy. (Goku gets heart virus, Z warriors are killed, Trunks uses remote on Androids, Cell kills Trunks and time travels) Then the timeline where Trunks finds the blueprints is the second timeline. Cell's time travel can't go to the blueprint timeline because he would create a paradox, so it takes him to manga timeline (a carbon copy of the blueprint timeline, where he alters it to what we see in the series. (Future Trunks' timeline, the one that is made out to be the original, would only exist because it is a requirement for the manga timeline to exist.)

[dbgtFO]

Trunks goes back to the past to give Goku the medicine, then again to the android battle where he stayed until being a USSJ2. He never went back with the blueprints to blow the Androids up.

Trunks stayed, became an "USSJ2", and never went back with the blueprints because of Cell. In a timeline without him, things would have played out much differently.

We both agree there, but it's the presence of Cell in the first place that doesn't make sense.

EXAMPLE: If I invented a time machine today and went back in time to 2001 then that would be a new timeline. It wouldn't make sense for me to meet a guy in 2001 who says he kills me in the future and steals my time machine, unless he actually did kill me. Trunks goes back and destroys Cell, making that an impossible event in his timeline, and if it didn't happen in that timeline, how could it happen in any other?

First off, we have Trunks(1) and Trunks(2).
Trunks(1) is the Trunks we don't get to see in the manga, but he's the one Cell(1) kills to get a hold of the timemachine.
Trunks(2) is the Trunks we know, the guy that fought at the Cell Games and destroyed both the androids and Cell in his own timeline.

Because there was no Future Cell in the timeline Trunks(1) went back to, he wouldn't know about Cell's existence in his own timeline and he didn't become as strong as Trunks(2) and therefore, when preparing to go back to the past, he's killed because he isn't strong enough to put up a fight.

EDIT: Yeah what you said in your edit.

[Bussani]

If I invented a time machine today and went back in time to 2001 then that would be a new timeline. It wouldn't make sense for me to meet a guy in 2001 who says he kills me in the future and steals my time machine, unless he actually did kill me.

It would make sense if he killed you in your future, but Dragon Ball timeline doesn't work that way.

I just thought of another possibility. What if Cell's timeline is actually the original one?

That's what everyone's said, basically. It's hard to follow without visual aids. Oh, come to think of it, I already made some last time this discussion came up. Please forgive their poor quality and keep in mind that the labels I use may not match up with those in the guidebooks.



Timeline 1 is the original timeline--as you correctly guessed, the timeline that the Cell we know best comes from. The future here is basically identical to the one we see in the manga. Trunks goes back in time just like in the manga, which creates a new history: Timeline 2.



Timeline 2 plays out pretty much exactly as we see in the manga at first. Trunks defeats Freeza, warns them of the androids, returns to his time for a while and comes back to help three years later. This timeline, however, has no Cell hiding underground, and no second time machine for Bulma, Trunks and Gohan to be distracted by. Without Cell or any of that, everyone only has the androids to worry about. The timeline from the Daizenshuu implies that they find the blueprints for the shutdown controllers in this timeline, stop the androids, and then Trunks returns to his time (Timeline 1) and uses the remote to do the same there. Then, when Cell wakes up, he finds the androids mysteriously gone; he kills Trunks, hijacks his time machine and (for whatever reason) goes back further in time to create another new timeline, which is the one we see in the manga. It should look something like this...



But this raises the question of where our Trunks comes from. He's a different Trunks to the one Cell killed from a different yet basically identical future--but if this Timeline 3 has Cell in it, how could that future possibly happen? One theory I've heard is that Cell tried to absorb the androids prematurely, overconfidently, and was killed without any of the good guys even getting to see him. Another possibility is that time travel just works that way in Dragon Ball, and Trunks' future was "copied" along with everything else in order to still have Trunks appear and defeat Freeza. In either of those cases, the timelines might then look something like this:



With the green Timeline 4 being the manga timeline that we actually see for the most part, and the purple Timeline 3 being the future our Trunks comes from.

Cell's time travel can't go to the blueprint timeline because he would create a paradox

Well, as you can see from my lame diagrams, Cell doesn't go to the blueprint timeline because he went back further, to before that timeline even existed. Paradoxes aren't possible in Dragon Ball's model of time travel, anyway; if Trunks tried going back to when he first arrived in the blueprints timeline so he could kill himself, he'd just create another branch from that point--a new timeline where Trunks was killed by another Trunks.