Would Cell even go to hell?

[MasenkoHA]

Disregarding anime only material where we do see him in hell he wouldn’t have a soul to cleanse. He’s an artificial life form so once Gohan Kamehameha’d him to oblivion wouldn’t that be it for him? No hell. No reincarnation. Nada

[precita]

He's more of a living being than 19 and 16 who were pure robots. We see him growing as a tiny cell in the lab, that makes him the same thing as any living creature.

[nickzambuto]

Yeah Cell isn't mechanical, he is definitely a biological lifeform. He is an unnatural birth but Dr. Gero did grow an organism in a test tube.

[theherodjl]

16 & 19 were never living beings in the traditional sense, just machines that had an emotionally-convincing AI to them. All of Gero's other creations were organic or originally-organic so they had a consciousness/soul as defined by DB.
On a side note, it is interesting that 19 was a confirmed denizen of Hell in GT; although, that was a Toei invention only. I wonder if 16 is in Heaven then???

[MasenkoHA]

On a side note, it is interesting that 19 was a confirmed denizen of Hell in GT; although, that was a Toei invention only. I wonder if 16 is in Heaven then???

One of the Dr.Wheelo’s creations…the fat yellow thing can be seen in Rebirth of Fusion with the rest of the escapees from hell.


16 was restored to life in the anime confirmed.

[Polyphase Avatron]

Yeah Cell isn't mechanical, he is definitely a biological lifeform. He is an unnatural birth but Dr. Gero did grow an organism in a test tube.

I don't see why being biological somehow automatically means you have a soul, or being non-biological means you don't. What about the Metal Men like Magetta? They aren't biological but they supposedly grow naturally. Do they have souls?

[WittyUsername]

Kaio seemed pretty certain that Cell should’ve ended up in Otherworld with him and Goku. That’s how they realized that Cell was still alive.

[Koitsukai]

Yeah, he is more like a test tube kid than a machine. He is like kids from The Boys from Brazil.

[Peach]

Yes.

He's not a fully mechanical being like 16 and 19. He's a living breathing creature.

[DBZAOTA482]

Yes, North Kai was shocked not to see him coming down Snakeway.

[precita]

On a side note, it is interesting that 19 was a confirmed denizen of Hell in GT; although, that was a Toei invention only. I wonder if 16 is in Heaven then???

Funnily enough in the end of the Boo saga Hell scenes, only Dr. Gero was down there. I guess the GT writers had no idea what they were doing putting 19 there.

[theherodjl]

On a side note, it is interesting that 19 was a confirmed denizen of Hell in GT; although, that was a Toei invention only. I wonder if 16 is in Heaven then???

Funnily enough in the end of the Boo saga Hell scenes, only Dr. Gero was down there. I guess the GT writers had no idea what they were doing putting 19 there.

It brings up further questions in how 19 even has a body and isn't a cloud like most others beings in the afterlife. That means that Enma actually decided to put 19's body back together after Vegeta destroyed it and allowed 19 to keep it...for whatever reason.

[BWri]

Yeah Cell isn't mechanical, he is definitely a biological lifeform. He is an unnatural birth but Dr. Gero did grow an organism in a test tube.

I don't see why being biological somehow automatically means you have a soul, or being non-biological means you don't. What about the Metal Men like Magetta? They aren't biological but they supposedly grow naturally. Do they have souls?

The Metalmen are classified as an alien race. They could be biological. Perhaps their core works like a heart and their skin could be bio-metal. I'm confident they have souls, but I'm not as confident about how their bodies work.

[WittyUsername]

GT also shows Metallitron as one of the many villains who escape from Hell. On a lesser note, some Saibamen are also among the villains there, which also seems a little weird to me. That would imply that every Saibamen that’s ever existed gets judged in the afterlife, but aren’t they basically just plants?

[Lionel]

Next to what others have mentioned, you could make the argument that the implementation of biological material from at least four different organic beings helped to institute the essence of Cell's being. It's not like with the aforementioned #16 and #19 who, while displaying some highly advanced personality traits for mechanical beings, probably don't have souls technically.

[nickzambuto]

Yeah Cell isn't mechanical, he is definitely a biological lifeform. He is an unnatural birth but Dr. Gero did grow an organism in a test tube.

I don't see why being biological somehow automatically means you have a soul, or being non-biological means you don't. What about the Metal Men like Magetta? They aren't biological but they supposedly grow naturally. Do they have souls?

Yes because Magetta is still biological. His species skin just evolved into metal.

[Hellspawn28]

He was probably sent to Hell for a while before his soul was restore into a new being. Unlike Freeza, he didn't live a very long life and would not need to be in Earth's Hell for very long.

[MasenkoHA]

On a side note, it is interesting that 19 was a confirmed denizen of Hell in GT; although, that was a Toei invention only. I wonder if 16 is in Heaven then???

Funnily enough in the end of the Boo saga Hell scenes, only Dr. Gero was down there. I guess the GT writers had no idea what they were doing putting 19 there.

It brings up further questions in how 19 even has a body and isn't a cloud like most others beings in the afterlife. That means that Enma actually decided to put 19's body back together after Vegeta destroyed it and allowed 19 to keep it...for whatever reason.

None of them should be able to keep their bodies. Piccolo said Vegeta was too evil killing too many innocent people that he would lose his body, go to hell, and have his soul cleansed and memory wiped and then reborn as a new being. The fact that all these villains have their bodies is a plot hole.

[VegettoEX]

I guess if you want to go about this thought experiment, maybe start with: did Dolly go to sheep heaven?

Cell was, similarly in many ways, a biological being grown from adult cell harvesting.

Gotta have a bit of both in- and out-of-universe reckoning with yourselves about the nature or existence of a "soul" and onward from there.

(For me, it's the Dragon World, and there's a known afterlife there, so that at least sets a baseline. We know souls exist since they're what get cleansed and reincarnated, so from there........ I guess I'd theorize that a really shitty person got reincarnated into what would become Cell's soul, assuming he got one, and I'm assuming he did, and it just continues from there?)

[Koitsukai]

(For me, it's the Dragon World, and there's a known afterlife there, so that at least sets a baseline. We know souls exist since they're what get cleansed and reincarnated, so from there........ I guess I'd theorize that a really shitty person got reincarnated into what would become Cell's soul, assuming he got one, and I'm assuming he did, and it just continues from there?)

Well, this is scary. Freeza's soul was somebody else's before...