After Cell, wouldn't Future Trunks travel to DBGT?

[Appūru-sama]

I'm sure this question has been asked many times before, but it's always bugged me and I never found the answer.

Future Trunks leaves in his time machine to the future of the CURRENT DB universe that we follow. So...even though it's been established there are numerous timelines, wouldn't Trunks be kinda stuck in this timeline? If he traveled 20 years in the future, wouldn't he be going to the events of Dragonball GT? (Which would be an awesome cameo IMO)

[TheDevilsCorpse]

Where is it said he wen't 20 years into the main timeline's future? He just returns to his own time...

[DBZGTKOSDH]

Where is it said he wen't 20 years into the main timeline's future? He just returns to his own time...

I think that's the question. Why did Trunks go to Age 784 of Timeline 2 instead of Age 784 of Timeline 1 or 3 or 4?

[hleV]

He traveled to his own timeline. It's not stated how, so we're left to assume that the Time Machine is capable of doing that.

[SSJ4_Zankuto]

I believe it's because Majin Boo Arc didn't happen yet in present timeline. And Future Trunks' future timeline would be different to present timeline.

[TheMightyOzaru]

I'd say it's pretty easy to assume Trunks' time machine has a tie to it's place of origin.

[Blade]

I'd say it's pretty easy to assume Trunks' time machine has a tie to it's place of origin.

That's a pretty good explanation.

I mean we could go into a whole Time Travel/Multiverse-Spawning debate when talking about this, but frankly the mechanics are pretty complicated even to be plausible in a work of a fiction, so as with most such debates in Dragonball: the simplest and most obvious explanation based on empirical evidence within the narrative will suffice.

[Hellspawn28]

He went back to his timeline and it seems like a new timeline is born when you change the past in most fictional universe. GT never happens in Trunks universe since Kami is dead which means no Black Star Dragon Balls or Shadow Dragons. Super 17 never exist since Dr. Myuu never meet Goku and would have no reason to team up with Dr. Gero. Bebi is most likely somewhere in the universe trying to get revenge on the Saiyajins.

[Blade]

He went back to his timeline and it seems like a new timeline is born when you change the past in most fictional universe. GT never happens in Trunks universe since Kami is dead which means no Black Star Dragon Balls or Shadow Dragons. Super 17 never exist since Dr. Myuu never meet Goku and would have no reason to team up with Dr. Gero. Bebi is most likely somewhere in the universe trying to get revenge on the Saiyajins.

But Buu's egg is still on Earth, and when Babidi comes to revive Majin Buu he has to take a little longer to gather the energy... And then they embark upon Universal conquest.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

But Buu's egg is still on Earth, and when Babidi comes to revive Majin Buu he has to take a little longer to gather the energy... And then they embark upon Universal conquest.

Doesn't the Daizenshu's timeline page explain that Babidi took Buu's ball away from Earth when there wasn't enough energy to revive him?
Without our favorite Saiyans screwing everything up, Kaioshin may have actually enacted a successful plan in Trunks' timeline...

[Hellspawn28]

I think Babidi most likely left Earth in Trunks timeline knowing that there is no energy to revive Buu. Bebi could have bump into Babidi and Dabra somewhere in the Galaxy and most likely killed them. I'm not sure how the DBZ movie villains work in Trunks timeline. I guess Metal Coola most likely took over Namek and Broli most likely destroy most of the galaxy by now. Bojack does not exist since King Kai's Planet was never destroyed and Goku most likely took care of Janemba in the afterlife. Hoi most likely never travel to Earth since there is no way for him to open his box.

[RandomGuy96]

Bojack does not exist since King Kai's Planet was never destroyed and Goku most likely took care of Janemba in the afterlife.

No way. He's nowhere near strong enough to even think about SS3 at this point, and there's no way Vegeta would agree to fusion. Even assuming he did, Gogeta would be faaaaar too weak, with the heroes never having gone into the ROSAT. So Janemba laughs and one-shots Gogeta and proceeds to take over everything.

But that's not a problem, since Janemba wouldn't exist if Buu hadn't died. Pity though, a world of jellybeans might have been fun.

I like to think that Dabra and Babidi came into contact with Broly and killed him, with Dabra beating him down for energy. That is, if I just don't say "Broly? Who?" instead. Dabra may have also slaughtered the Metal Coolers, since Namek would be a place Babidi might want to go for energy and followers.

...this should totally be a thing. The Adventures of Dabra and Babidi in Trunks' timeline.

[KentalSSJ6]

He probably did, but then saw his GT counterpart and high tailed it out of there never to return.

[Pantalones]

DBZ time travel isn't "technically" time travel, but travel to alternate universes (aka different timelines.) It doesn't seem possible to go back or forward within the same timeline, only to jump from one point in one timeline to another point in a different timeline. Whenever you go "back in time," you're actually branching off a new alternate-universe where things went exactly as they did in the timeline you knew until the point where you showed up in your time machine, and after that things are different in that timeline.

So when Trunks goes from his future to "the past," what actually happens is that he branches off a new timeline where a Trunks in a time machine showed up at the year he set the time machine to arrive at. He never actually arrives in his own timeline's past, and no matter how much happens differently in that timeline from his home timeline, nothing about the history of his home timeline actually changes since they're separate universes from each other. And when he goes back home, he goes home to his own timeline (probably back to the same point he left in the first place?), not randomly jumping 20 years forward within the same timeline.

...

...there are some people who claim that it's only Trunks' time machine that works this way, and that "real" time travel might also be possible... but it makes a lot more sense to me that the way Trunks' time machine works is just how all time travel works in DBZ. It seems like this "multiple kinds of time travel" theory didn't really pop up until after Episode of Bardock came along with its random "Freeza blows that planet up so hard it sends Bardock flying back through time!" nonsense, and even that makes a lot more sense as being an alternate timeline due to inconsistencies with what we see there vs. what we hear about the Super Saiyan legend in-series. (I guess the way it'd work is something like this: Timeline A is the original line where Freeza had overheard the Saiyans' own legends, referring to the legendary Super Saiyan mentioned in the show itself who was a raging warrior that destroyed himself 1000 years ago, and was worried about a Super Saiyan because of that. When Freeza kills all the Saiyans, Bardock is sent back, creating Timeline B where Bardock becomes Super Saiyan and causes another Super Saiyan legend to be told, this one passed down as a warning among Freeza's clan. The series we know up until Trunks arrives is Timeline A, due to Freeza apparently not recognizing the golden hair as passed down in the warning by Chilled; we never see the future of Timeline B.)
And also because time loops/paradoxes are super lame (Freeza killed the Saiyans because they were getting stronger and he was afraid a Super Saiyan might show up, but only knew about Super Saiyans because his ancestor Chilled was killed by Super Saiyan Bardock, who was only there because Freeza killed the Saiyans, which only happened because they were getting stronger and he was afraid a Super Saiyan might show up... and repeat forever.) I figure DBZ time-travel probably works the way it does specifically to prevent infinite loops and "killed yourself/your dad/etc. in the past, so you randomly pop out of existence" problems from happening.

[Super Android 17]

GT isn't canon(wasn't written by Toriyama), so of naturally there are going to be some inconsistencies.

I just think of GT as an entire parallel universe; The first universe ends at the end of the manga/DBZ, and the other one has all the movies and GT.

[Marco Polo]

He probably did, but then saw his GT counterpart and high tailed it out of there never to return.

I like this explanation

[Hellspawn28]

Bojack does not exist since King Kai's Planet was never destroyed and Goku most likely took care of Janemba in the afterlife.

No way. He's nowhere near strong enough to even think about SS3 at this point, and there's no way Vegeta would agree to fusion. Even assuming he did, Gogeta would be faaaaar too weak, with the heroes never having gone into the ROSAT. So Janemba laughs and one-shots Gogeta and proceeds to take over everything.

Paikuhan found Janemba's weakness by screaming insults directly at him which causes his body to crack. Janemba is strong, but he is not that hard to beat when you know what his weakness. Goku most likely lived with King Kai after he died and he may reach SSj3 by the time when Trunks is adult.

[RandomGuy96]

Pikkon TRIED to use that to beat Janemba, but Janemba proceeded to laugh, reform himself, and one shot Pikkon.

[Hellspawn28]

I like to think that Dabra and Babidi came into contact with Broly and killed him, with Dabra beating him down for energy. That is, if I just don't say "Broly? Who?" instead. Dabra may have also slaughtered the Metal Coolers, since Namek would be a place Babidi might want to go for energy and followers.

There's also Bebi. Bebi would likely kill Babidi and Dabra or take over their bodies. At this rate, Bebi would have taken over the whole galaxy and rule the whole universe.