How does the Super manga's time travel system make any sense?

[TheUltimateNinja]

Apparently Trunks was always from 17 years in the future which contradicts his statement that he's from 20 years in the future when he first arrives, but whatever.

The problem here is that if time travel works the way it does in Toyo's manga, then Trunks would have been 14 years old when he first came to the past.

This would mean he was only 11 years old when Gohan got killed.

[Darkprince410]

There is discrepancy within the original manga as far as the jumps as well. For starters, Trunks doesn't say he's precisely 20 years from the future, but "roughly" 20 years, meaning that could be more or less, but within that ballpark. Secondly, and more pressing, is the "Trunks: the Story" chapter, where Bulma tells Trunks to go 17 years into the past to see Goku and give him the medicine and warning. Since the arrival of Freeza on Earth took place in Age 764, that'd put Trunks' first jump as coming from Age 781, which would indeed only make him around 14.

This would also give some credibility to the "static 17 year jump" as it'd leave it that Trunks's second visit came around Age 785, as he mentions that Age 788 (Cell's origin date) was 3 years ahead of his second visit's jump. If he first came from Age 781 and his second was Age 785, it'd put Trunks having been in his time for over three years, fitting closer to the three years that transpired in the present.

One way or another, the dates and jumps in the original manga aren't consistent, and Super's manga hasn't made it any better.

[dbgtFO]

It all started with that side story...
It should of course be 20 years, but the official stance is to perpetuate a blatant mistake, instead of correcting it like one of us fanboys would, if we had the power.

Fact of the matter is Trunks said he was 17 years old, when introducing himself to Bulma and co, which goes hand in hand with his birth set 2 and a half years from that point and him coming from about 20 years in the future.

[Cipher]

Yes, provided the machine's destination can only be changed in the future.

It always goes to the last-altered past (or creates more splits off of it; we know this since Cell's time travel introduces further changes on top of Trunks'), so the only danger would be losing the connection to its original timeline, something one imagines would only be an issue were its destination to be altered in the past.

This does not work with the use of Cell's time machine in the anime version of Super's Future Trunks arc, of course.

[Terra-jin]

It always goes to the last-altered past (or creates more splits off of it; we know this since Cell's time travel introduces further changes on top of Trunks'), so the only danger would be losing the connection to its original timeline, something one imagines would only be an issue were its destination to be altered in the past.

This does not work with the use of Cell's time machine in the anime version of Super's Future Trunks arc, of course.

I preferred the idea that the time machine automatically goes to the timeline that's currently closest to the time machine's destination year. For example: the reason Trunks returned to his world instead of the future of the main timeline is that his world was at 784, while the time machine was also set to 784. Another example: in 785, Trunks set the time machine to 767 - the timeline that was closest to that date was the main timeline (otherwise Trunks would've created a new timeline in which he first appeared in 767).

[Ozotto]

Pretty much any and every fiction that involves time travel has some sort of plot hole, or inconsistency or in the very least a discrepancy.