How does it make any sense for Future Trunks to appear?

[bleed0range]

Now, don't get me wrong guys I'm all for it and love the idea, I've really enjoyed Super since the tournament arc and I think it's improved a lot. But I can't shake the notion that it doesn't make any sense for Future Trunks to return now. The future trunks we saw in the Android arc came back in time from a future where Gohan was killed as he was a teenager. Which means he came from a time not all that further in the future from where they are now. However, his actions by going back into the past have obviously changed things significantly and altered pretty much everything. Gohan has both achieved more strength through SSJ2 and less (his current state versus that of how he was when he trained Future Trunks). The version of himself that went back in time did not know his father so the kid version of him now has a different personality, he is more cocky like his father.

So think about it like this. Trunks goes back in time and changes everything and yet when he goes back to the future he does not go back to the altered future. He goes right back to his own. As though he changed nothing. He changed their fates but not his own other than getting strong enough to kill the Androids. So, if he went back in time to anytime after the events of the cell saga, wouldn't he only go back to the events of his own timeline? Like he would be alone without a father right now. The cell saga is where the timelines split and converge. If he went back far enough he would go back to the same events that we know. Like he could travel back to see Radditz or something. But if traveling to the future puts him in his own devastated ruined future timeline he shouldn't be able to go back to this altered timeline unless he went back and just stayed in it.

Do you guys get what I mean? How can he go back in time to a past that is so drastically different than his own future timeline? It doesn't make sense.

Even the way they present it never made sense. BTTF had way better time travel logic lol.

[Araki]

So think about it like this. Trunks goes back in time and changes everything and yet when he goes back to the future he does not go back to the altered future. He goes right back to his own. As though he changed nothing. He changed their fates but not his own other than getting strong enough to kill the Androids. So, if he went back in time to anytime after the events of the cell saga, wouldn't he only go back to the events of his own timeline?

You're forgetting the moment Cell went back to that past before him, that wasn't his past anymore either, it was changed already. That logic was ruined from the get go.

[bleed0range]

So think about it like this. Trunks goes back in time and changes everything and yet when he goes back to the future he does not go back to the altered future. He goes right back to his own. As though he changed nothing. He changed their fates but not his own other than getting strong enough to kill the Androids. So, if he went back in time to anytime after the events of the cell saga, wouldn't he only go back to the events of his own timeline?

You're forgetting the moment Cell went back to that past before him, that wasn't his past anymore either, it was changed already. That logic was ruined from the get go.

No that actually made sense at the time. Because he changed the events of the past by going back in time in the first place he caused cell to kill him and take his time machine and go back further. That made sense because his actions changed the timeline and the timeline changed around him. What didn't make sense was after cell is defeated when he goes to the future now, the timeline should be different. Or he should have ceased to exist since the version of him would be so different in the future.

[LuckyCat]

Going by DB Time Travel Rules, you'd have to assume that we're watching a timeline where Trunks visits at least 3 times and Cell visits once, affecting only the course of the current timeline. It doesn't really matter which timeline Trunks or Cell came from, as long as we accept that they leaped from a post-Android apocalyptic future.

[Araki]

No that actually made sense at the time. Because he changed the events of the past by going back in time in the first place he caused cell to kill him and take his time machine and go back further. That made sense because his actions changed the timeline and the timeline changed around him. What didn't make sense was after cell is defeated when he goes to the future now, the timeline should be different. Or he should have ceased to exist since the version of him would be so different in the future.

But when Trunks went back the 2nd time, that wasn't his past anymore. Get it? He was technically going trom one timeline to another already.
If he could reach "our" past that time, i don't see the problem with Trunks doing it again.

Well, for all we know this could be an U6 Trunks, which would make all this thinking pointless. Toriyama did say he would combine "a future related character and another universe", so while i'm not betting on this theory, i really wouldn't rule that out.

[NitroEX]

So think about it like this. Trunks goes back in time and changes everything and yet when he e goes back to the future he does not go back to the altered future. He goes right back to his own. As though he changed nothing. He changed their fates but not his own other than getting strong enough to kill the Androids. So, if he went back in time to anytime after the events of the cell saga, wouldn't he only go back to the events of his own timeline?

You're forgetting the moment Cell went back to that past before him, that wasn't his past anymore either, it was changed already. That logic was ruined from the get go.

But Future Trunks was still learning the rules of time travel when he went backward the first time. It makes perfect sense for him to learn his mistake through trial and error and not repeat it. I think the point here is that he wouldn't see the need to go back after the events of the Android arc because his timeline from then onward would be so radically different to the timeline we know (Buu arc onward).

If present day Kid Trunks grew up and experienced a totally different end of world scenario that required him to travel back in time to warn his past self (basically making him Future Trunks #2) then that would make more sense in this scenario than the original Future Trunks (Future Trunks #1) going back to a post Buu saga world that bares no resemblance to his own.

Hope that makes sense.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

But Future Trunks was still learning the rules of time travel when he went backward the first time. It makes perfect sense for him to learn his mistake through trial and error and not repeat it. I think the point here is that he wouldn't see the need to go back after the events of the Android arc because his timeline from then onward would be so radically different to the timeline we know (Buu arc onward).

If present day Kid Trunks grew up and experienced a totally different end of world scenario that required him to travel back in time to warn his past self (basically making him Future Trunks #2) then that would make more sense in this scenario than the original Future Trunks (Future Trunks #1) going back to a post Buu saga world that bares no resemblance to his own.

Hope that makes sense.

The original question posed in the OP isn't an issue. Trunks was always traveling to a "past" that wasn't his. The moment he (and Cell, but let's ignore that whole other mess) traveled back in time, his time machine split the timeline. Once Trunks realized that, which should have either been the moment he returned home and saw that things weren't different or it was something he knew from the start, his reason for coming back to the past would no longer be to alter his own history. His travels would be to seek to help our heroes save their timeline as well as to get help learning from them how to solve his problems in the future himself.

Likewise here with the Goku Black story. There's no need for this to "make more sense" by having a "present" Trunks traveling back from the future of the main timeline to fix his history, and I doubt that's what the Trunks we're getting is doing either. It's almost certainly the same Future Trunks from before and he's simply overwhelmed by this new threat, thus he returns to our heroes to seek refuge as well as get help with how to beat said opponent. The same way he came to help fight 17 and 18, as well as his trip to tell everyone he defeated them in his timeline.

[Araki]

But Future Trunks was still learning the rules of time travel when he went backward the first time. It makes perfect sense for him to learn his mistake through trial and error and not repeat it. I think the point here is that he wouldn't see the need to go back after the events of the Android arc because his timeline from then onward would be so radically different to the timeline we know (Buu arc onward).

Does it really matter if he knows the rules, though? In desperate times - as it seems to be, since he's all beaten up - he wouldn't think twice and just rush to his time machine again.

If present day Kid Trunks grew up and experienced a totally different end of world scenario that required him to travel back in time to warn his past self (basically making him Future Trunks #2) then that would make more sense in this scenario than the original Future Trunks (Future Trunks #1) going back to a post Buu saga world that bares no resemblance to his own.

Hope that makes sense.

Yes, that would make more sense...but it never was what Toriyama was going for.
The point is that the moment Trunks returned to the past again; the fact Cell was there, the androids were different, Goku had his medicine, his father wouldn't die, all that was making his life and timeline turning out to be so different already, but he was still able to return to the same place he was before, even after the timelines completely diverged. So that train of thought, while perfectly logical, doesn't matter as it isn't an established rule as far as the plot is concerned.

[B]

I guess the only weird thing for me would be how does the Trunks We Know and Love™ know how to get whatever Age Super is set in? Does he just randomly pick a year? I can't remember if this is outlined specifically in a guidebook, but I figured once the time machine has "found" a timeline/history, it can only "go back" to that timeline/history, and every "trip" creates a branching timeline; Trunks's bad future is "History 1", The normal timeline/Dragon Ball Super is "History 3", and "Histories 2 and 4" are just by-products of the time travel we never actually see. So theoretically, if Trunks travels back one year(he lives in 788) he would end up in Super's 787, and not his own 787, which I assume must not be terribly different from his 788... Minus all the bad guys he killed at the end of the Cell arc still being alive.

[FortuneSSJ]

Let them explain when it happens. Future Trunks will give you the reason.

[Herms]

I mean, this is how it's always been. As TheDevilsCorpse says, Trunks' time machine "splits" the time lines to create multiple co-existing histories. This is explicitly explained in the series, with Trunks acknowledging that his actions will not directly impact his own future. That's why we're able to see three different versions of Cell die in completely different circumstances, why Trunks can blow up the 18 in his time line while Kuririn remains happily married to the one in his own, etc. I guess it's a matter of taste whether Back to the Future has "better" time travel rules or not, but at any rate DB has always had it's own totally different rules that it's managed to stick to with surprisingly consistency.

On that note, my main worry for this upcoming Future Trunks arc is that it may disregard the previously established DB time travel rules and follow a more BttF route, which would indeed create a major inconsistency since as noted Future Trunks could not actually exist the way he does under that type of time travel setup.

[Cipher]

I guess the only weird thing for me would be how does the Trunks We Know and Love™ know how to get whatever Age Super is set in? Does he just randomly pick a year? I can't remember if this is outlined specifically in a guidebook, but I figured once the time machine has "found" a timeline/history, it can only "go back" to that timeline/history, and every "trip" creates a branching timeline; Trunks's bad future is "History 1", The normal timeline/Dragon Ball Super is "History 3", and "Histories 2 and 4" are just by-products of the time travel we never actually see. So theoretically, if Trunks travels back one year(he lives in 788) he would end up in Super's 787, and not his own 787, which I assume must not be terribly different from his 788... Minus all the bad guys he killed at the end of the Cell arc still being alive.

Agreed with this. The only way to have everything shake out nicely is to assume the splits only happen when travel to an earlier date occurs.

So it's Cell's going back to a date even earlier than Trunks did that creates the timeline of the series vs. the timeline that the unseen Trunks (killed by Cell) had created.

That implies that Trunks can never go back to the history of his own time, as every jump back would take him into the last altered timeline, but that works without introducing any wacky mechanics like a "pick a timeline" function on the Time Machine. Presumably if he went back before the point Cell arrived, he'd create another split, and that would be the one he'd then jump back to from that point onward.

Anyway, why is he back? I'm assuming at this point it's just to recruit help from this timeline's characters. There aren't any other strong warriors left on Earth in his timeline, but he knows plenty who are just a ride in the Time Machine away.

[bleed0range]

I mean, this is how it's always been. As TheDevilsCorpse says, Trunks' time machine "splits" the time lines to create multiple co-existing histories. This is explicitly explained in the series, with Trunks acknowledging that his actions will not directly impact his own future. That's why we're able to see three different versions of Cell die in completely different circumstances, why Trunks can blow up the 18 in his time line while Kuririn remains happily married to the one in his own, etc. I guess it's a matter of taste whether Back to the Future has "better" time travel rules or not, but at any rate DB has always had it's own totally different rules that it's managed to stick to with surprisingly consistency.

On that note, my main worry for this upcoming Future Trunks arc is that it may disregard the previously established DB time travel rules and follow a more BttF route, which would indeed create a major inconsistency since as noted Future Trunks could not actually exist the way he does under that type of time travel setup.

Okay. I accept that the rules are different. But how can that version of Trunks go back to this particular timeline only? Why would he go back to a time so far in the future from the last point he went back to? He can't follow the past events of this timeline like he originally could since they are so drastically different from his original time. Why would he look to go back to a time when they're all so much older?

[TheDevilsCorpse]

Okay. I accept that the rules are different. But how can that version of Trunks go back to this particular timeline only?

Likely because that's just the way the time machine works? I imagine it probably locks onto its home timeline somehow and then travels back into the past. Once it arrives, the timeline splits and thats the timeline the machine registers as the counterpart it will travel between. Obviously if you travel back further into the past, that would cause another change that can't alter the timeline that was created, thus they would split again. Whether the time machine can then travel between both of those split timelines or is stuck with the new one only, we don't know. It's never seen in the series. The Trunks and main timeline we follow only move forward with their trips, and Cell only travels to the past.

Why would he go back to a time so far in the future from the last point he went back to? He can't follow the past events of this timeline like he originally could since they are so drastically different from his original time. Why would he look to go back to a time when they're all so much older?

How do you expect us to answer something about the plot that only the staff surrounding the show would know right now? Just wait, watch the show and hope to find out like the rest of us...

[NitroEX]

The original question posed in the OP isn't an issue. Trunks was always traveling to a "past" that wasn't his. The moment he traveled back in time, his time machine split the timeline. Once Trunks realized that, which should have either been the moment he returned home and saw that things weren't different or it was something he knew from the start, his reason for coming back to the past would no longer be to alter his own history. His travels would be to seek to help our heroes save their timeline as well as to get help learning from them how to solve his problems in the future himself.

I don't share OP's issue with the time travel, I know full well that DB has branching timelines. My point was that since Future Trunks already figured this out for himself in the original story, he would (or should) now understand that as time goes on, the present timeline that he travelled back to would naturally become less and less relevant to his own.

Hypothetically, Future Trunks might not have had to deal with the same threats we saw in the present (i.e Buu or Beerus) because the deaths and changes in his time could've created a ripple effect that introduced vastly different enemies and outcomes. If this is the case then going back to the present doesn't seem like a very productive move because they'd have no experience dealing with his enemies and (due to timeline differences) may never have to. The best Trunks could do then is train with them but asking them for advice would be like asking Kid Goku how to beat Raditz.

Likewise here with the Goku Black story. There's no need for this to "make more sense" by having a "present" Trunks traveling back from the future of the main timeline to fix his history, and I doubt that's what the Trunks we're getting is doing either.

I'm aware that Trunks can't "fix" his own timeline by going backward. The purpose of that hypothetical scenario was for both timelines to have a relevant threat in the same way the Androids were a common threat to both the present and future. If we accept there's branching timelines then we can easily come to the conclusion that multiple versions of the future exist with different variations of Trunks. One way of getting around the issue of Future Trunk's timeline no longer being relevant is to have a grown present day Trunks come back instead, at least then he'd share a similar history.

It's almost certainly the same Future Trunks from before and he's simply overwhelmed by this new threat, thus he returns to our heroes to seek refuge as well as get help with how to beat said opponent. The same way he came to help fight 17 and 18, as well as his trip to tell everyone he defeated them in his timeline.

I agree that It probably will boil down to shallow fanservice like this but I still think it's less plausible for the original Trunks to come back now, especially since he chose not to do it during the Buu arc. That implies to me that he either knew he shouldn't interfere with the past anymore or that he encountered a different set of enemies, or none at all. If they reveal that he fought Buu as well then he's going to look like an asshole for not giving them a warning about it.

[bleed0range]

Why would he go back to a time so far in the future from the last point he went back to? He can't follow the past events of this timeline like he originally could since they are so drastically different from his original time. Why would he look to go back to a time when they're all so much older?

How do you expect us to answer something about the plot that only the staff surrounding the show would know right now? Just wait, watch the show and hope to find out like the rest of us...

Have you ever heard of hypothetical questions before? I'm talking out loud about what I think regarding the upcoming arc and speculating a little bit about it. I would appreciate a less condescending tone in response. Obviously we won't know until we watch the show but is it okay for me to talk about it anyway?

I don't think it makes much sense personally. And given Toriyamas track record I have a feeling he isn't going to explain it very well if at all and I'm sure he's going to forget something big like the fact that Goku was dead the last time Future Trunks saw him. But hey, who knows right? I'm not as excited as everyone else for this arc, not because of Future Trunks though. More because of this Black Goku business.

[TheQuazz]

Since the time travel in the Cell arc pretty much made no sense, I just decided to pretend that Trunk's time machine allowed him to travel to whatever timeline he wanted to.

[ChronoTwigger]

Ah, people need to play Steins:Gate XD.

The first time Trunks come in the past was to warn people about Androids and save Goku from the space illness. He hoped, acting like, to erase androids in the future. When go back home, Androids are not disappeared.
That's cause androids get stronger as much as people they had to fight. In fact, Trunks created more stronger androids in his age.

The second time he goes back was to know why androids are still there. So decide to join Z Fighters and defeat them directly in the past, thank to RoSaT training and other stuff.

Things are almost good UNTIL Cell from the future, searching for androids (in fact they doesn't exist in the future), come back with the time machine.

Now the Cell game and whatever. Cell get defeated and Trunks go back to his year.

Everything's fine, so far. Very logical and cool, too.

But there was a MISTAKE. Nothing else. There's no excuse or intellectual getaways. Studio Bird did a narrative mistake.
Having Trunks go back and find a wasteland, androids and imperfect Cell.
This was done to have a dramatical fight and avenge Gohan.
But, this, seriously cannot happen. It was a mistake.
Trunks had to go back in a future where androids and Cell are defeated and everyone is still alive.

People started to argue, and created timelines, rumors, hypothesis to avoid admitting this arc have a serious flaw.
Creators do mistakes, they're human. This was one of those mistakes.

[TheQuazz]

Ah, people need to play Steins:Gate XD.

The first time Trunks come in the past was to warn people about Androids and save Goku from the space illness. He hoped, acting like, to erase androids in the future. When go back home, Androids are not disappeared.
That's cause androids get stronger as much as people they had to fight. In fact, Trunks created more stronger androids in his age.

The second time he goes back was to know why androids are still there. So decide to join Z Fighters and defeat them directly in the past, thank to RoSaT training and other stuff.

Things are almost good UNTIL Cell from the future, searching for androids (in fact they doesn't exist in the future), come back with the time machine.

Now the Cell game and whatever. Cell get defeated and Trunks go back to his year.

Everything's fine, so far. Very logical and cool, too.

But there was a MISTAKE. Nothing else. There's no excuse or intellectual getaways. Studio Bird did a narrative mistake.
Having Trunks go back and find a wasteland, androids and imperfect Cell.
This was done to have a dramatical fight and avenge Gohan.
But, this, seriously cannot happen. It was a mistake.
Trunks had to go back in a future where androids and Cell are defeated and everyone is still alive.

People started to argue, and created timelines, rumors, hypothesis to avoid admitting this arc have a serious flaw.
Creators do mistakes, they're human. This was one of those mistakes.

...What?

[dbgtFO]

Spoiler:

Ah, people need to play Steins:Gate XD.

The first time Trunks come in the past was to warn people about Androids and save Goku from the space illness. He hoped, acting like, to erase androids in the future. When go back home, Androids are not disappeared.
That's cause androids get stronger as much as people they had to fight. In fact, Trunks created more stronger androids in his age.

The second time he goes back was to know why androids are still there. So decide to join Z Fighters and defeat them directly in the past, thank to RoSaT training and other stuff.

Things are almost good UNTIL Cell from the future, searching for androids (in fact they doesn't exist in the future), come back with the time machine.

Now the Cell game and whatever. Cell get defeated and Trunks go back to his year.

Everything's fine, so far. Very logical and cool, too.

But there was a MISTAKE. Nothing else. There's no excuse or intellectual getaways. Studio Bird did a narrative mistake.
Having Trunks go back and find a wasteland, androids and imperfect Cell.
This was done to have a dramatical fight and avenge Gohan.
But, this, seriously cannot happen. It was a mistake.
Trunks had to go back in a future where androids and Cell are defeated and everyone is still alive.

People started to argue, and created timelines, rumors, hypothesis to avoid admitting this arc have a serious flaw.
Creators do mistakes, they're human. This was one of those mistakes.

...What?

He's under the impression, that there are no alternate timelines and instead it's all just one and the same, thus Trunks changing things in the past should also change things in the future.
This is of course wrong. It's directly stated by Trunks, that changing the past has no effect on his own timeline.