What if Android 17 and 18 were the true villains?

[DBZfan2015]

What if Akira never created Cell, and Android 17 and 18 were the true villains of the Android Saga? Would the saga still be good?

Cell is one of my favorite villains, but I do wonder what would the saga be like if 17 and 18 were the real big bads.

[precita]

Its hard to think of where the saga would go. They would probably be truly evil like they were in the future timeline so there would be no reasoning with them. 18 of course would never become good and Krillin wouldn't get a family.

Its possible 16 would have been the voice of reason and ended up sacrificing himself to stop the fighting, who knows.

[Sandubadear]

I think about how boring the saga would be if Toriyama had gone with his original intention of 19 and 20 being the main villains, and 16, 17, 18, and Cell were never created.

[tomwew]

Does anyone know when in the story the plan changed? I imagine if 19 and 20 or 17 and 18 were the true villains the story would be MUCH different, like Vegeta wouldn't get the kill on 19 etc. I've always been interested in the chain of events that led to such a dramatic change in the direction of the story.

[nickzambuto]

I wonder where on Earth the story could have gone if 20 and 19 remained the true villains. Like, the arc pretty much BEGINS with the heroes and villains settling into a field to do battle... unless the entire arc is just one long as F battle, I couldn't imagine what would happen.

[Cipher]

I wonder where on Earth the story could have gone if 20 and 19 remained the true villains. Like, the arc pretty much BEGINS with the heroes and villains settling into a field to do battle... unless the entire arc is just one long as F battle, I couldn't imagine what would happen.

I'm wondering, honestly, if this might not have been the case more often without editorial requests at the height of Dragon Ball's self-serious era.

Now that Toriyama's flying relatively solo (to be fair, the movie format is also a huge influence here), we're getting pretty simple stories that act as one headlong rush into a battle. You see the same thing in the Saiyan arc--more or less with the Boo arc where, despite all kinds of wild twists, the latter half of the arc is a baton-pass series of fights against one villain--the first half of the series never really gets more narratively complicated than the Red Ribbon Army arc, which is still an adventure story, rather than a supervillain-focused one.

Might be that the arc would have looked a little more like the recent movies than the twisty-turny thing it became. But who knows.

Apropos of nothing, I rather love the Cell arc from the time the androids are introduced to Cell's absorption of #17. After that, it becomes one of my least favorite portions of the series.

[Vijay]

It would be boring

Like 17 & 18's motives were to kill Goku. Which they treated like game

At most, after killin Goku they would be similar to their Future counterparts. Kill and destroy. Kill more humans & destroy more cities. MOAR & MOAR

Like how is that any different to Majin Buu who is generally perceived as weakest villain in da franchise for his lack of motive & intelligence?

I think Cell's intro was what saved the show to a great extent. Especially so in his Imperfect form

The slithering conspiracy, his cunningness in manipulatin everyone while keeping his goal by late "dear Dr.Gero" as his ultimate priority makes him an enigmatic foe.

My 2 cents

[DBZfan2015]

Did akira intend Android 20 and Gero to be the same person? Why does Android 20 speak in third person? Why keep his identity a secret if he was planning to kill them?

[Polyphase Avatron]

Did akira intend Android 20 and Gero to be the same person? Why does Android 20 speak in third person? Why keep his identity a secret if he was planning to kill them?

That's a good question, actually. I would like to know the answer.

[Lord Beerus]

Well, the arc would be far less cluttered and the plot would be far more cohesive, but it would be a hell of a lot more boring. I mean, don't get me wrong, I still think the Android/Cell arc is an absolute trainwreck of a story, but it's at the very least an intriguing trainwreck of a story.

[IDreamtIWasABee]

It'd be an epic fight on that little island (I'm assuming the Android twins wouldn't bother leaving the city). The actual monsters from the future, Trunks as witness to their savagery, Gohan saving the day rather than the dead hero from the past, and Goku fighting 17 and 18 together as well as he fought Cell.

Maybe 17 and 18 would even have chi-sucking nodes on their palms, coupled with infinite energy. Why not? As good a reason as any for sudden power-ups.

I, too, love Cell's hunt for the Androids, but aside from Cell's man-crush on Goku, he's not a very compelling Big Bad.

[NitroEX]

I can't see it working unless Goku dies from the heart virus or the time chamber is never never introduced. If it plays out the same minus Cell then the Androids have no chance and the story becomes boring. Everything would need to be reworked from the ground up to accommodate them as villains. Gero might be able to fill the role of sneaky Cell absorbing people and I suppose 17 could host a fighting tournament of his own but it just wouldn't have the same impact not to mention it would be a clusterfuck of Androids, you'd need a totally different story.

[TheUltimateVegito]

The Android 18 What-If saga in Supersonic warriors pretty much answers this.

Spoiler:

Android 18 defeats Goku without killing him, then they part ways. I found this very interesting and I imagine things going down like this unless the Time Chamber still gets introduced. Then again, I doubt Android 16 would leave without killing Goku.