Plothole Reconciliation Thread

[Zephyr]

In-universe rationalization, reconciliation, and fixing, of the various plotholes, inconsistencies, and errors from the manga, filler, movies, guidebooks, and other supplementary material. Let's try and make it all fit!

I have to leave for school at the moment, but I'll do some when I return.

[sekzee]

You try to do this...and I swear to you...you will need to make SSJ3 Goku maximum.

[dbgtFO]

Claim: Cell regenerating after Goku had fired his Kamehameha at him from point blank range, destroying his arms, wings and head is a plothole.
Reasoning: Cell later stated, he could regenerate, as long as his nucleus inside his head remained intact, yet Goku destroyed his head, therefore making it impossible for him to regenerate.

Answer: Destroying Cell's head does not mean his nucleus has been destroyed, otherwise Cell shouldn't have come back from his self-destruction either. Claiming that his nucleus was destroyed just because his head was is a fallacy.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

I made all 18 movies, along with PtEtSS & the Telebico Special, all fit together in an alternative take of the anime story some time ago:

First, the 1st TV Special & Episode of Bardock happened.

Then, Dragon Ball Movies 1, 2, and 3 happened one after another.
Then, the 10th Anniversary happened, but differently. The encounters with the RRA were the same (Blue survived from M3), but instead of Goku meeting Bulma, Yamcha, etc for the first time, Bulma went & called Goku again for another DB Hunt, and reunited with Oolong, Yamcha, etc on the road.
After the RRA is defeated, Goku goes to train around the world (the filler arc takes place there, and Goku met Tenshinhan & Chaozu like in the filler, except that they were friends now). Three years later, the 22th TB happened, but without Tsuru-sennin. Tenshinhan & Chaozu reunited with Goku & co. there, to have a friendly competition (Tenshinhan trained Chaozu BTW). Tenshinhan wins, Pilaf Gang (yep, they survived as well) releases Piccolo Daimao, etc. Everything happens like in the anime at that point, up until Goku's marriage (fillers happened as well).

Then, we go to Dragon Ball Z (all the fillers happened as well). DBZ Movie 1 happens first. Then, Raditz attacks, and everything happens the same, until the fight with Vegeta & Nappa. Goku arrives earlier, so nobody dies. Vegeta kills Nappa, then gets beaten like in the anime. One senzu remained, so Goku got healed immediately. Kuririn mentioned the Namekian Dragon Balls that Vegeta & Nappa talked about, so the Z-Senshi decide to go to Namek in case Vegeta was to go there, but decide to stay to Earth for a month to train. Meanwhile, Dr. Brief builds the spaceship from Goku's spaceship.
Movie 2 happens. Gohan gets a haircut. Movie 3 happens, and then Movie 4 happens (all 3 movies happened during the 1 month break). Goku gets near-death power ups from those fights, and after Movie 4, he is as strong as he was in the manga/anime when he arrived on Namek. One month passed, and Goku, Piccolo, Gohan, Kuririn, and Bulma go to Namek. Yamcha, Tenshinhan, and Chaozu stayed behind to guard the planet.
The Z-Senshi arrive on Namek to find Vegeta getting his ass kicked from Reacoom (Vegeta's adventures were the same as in the main story, minus Gohan & Kuririn). Rest on Namek happens like in the anime, up until Garlic Jr. arc, up until Trunks' arrival & Freeza's death (the 2nd TV Special happened in the future).
Movie 5 happens during the 3 years time-skip. Kami decided a few months before the Artificial Humans' arrival that he should merge with Piccolo, Dende becomes the new Kami. Movie 6 takes place.
The Artificial Humans arrive. Everything same until #16's, #17's & #18's activation. Everyone gets their ass kicked (including Super Namekian Piccolo). Bulma makes the device to deactivate the Artificial Humans, and they succeed in doing so. Goku gets healed. Movie 7 happens. Cell appears, and learns that #17 & #18 are deactivated. He finds the "dead" bodies and absorbs them to reach his Perfect Form. Cell starts training in other planets to get stronger (because he is not as strong as in the main story, since he never had to get strong enough to beat the Artificial Humans), while the Z-Senshi (Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Trunks, Piccolo) enter the RoSaT in the same order as in the anime, but Goku doesn't focus on Gohan. After Goku & Gohan exit RoSaT, Movie 8 happens. After Vegeta's & Trunks' second trip, The Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans happens. Cell gets strong enough & announces the Cell Games. Goku decides to focus on making Gohan stronger than him. Cell Games happen as in the anime. Movie 9 happens.
Everything else happens the same, up until Videl learning how to fly. Gohan reveals her everything about Super Saiyans & Dragon Balls before the 25th TB. Movie 10 happens. 25th TB happens, and everything happens the same, until SS3 Goku kills Majin Boo (Innocent). However, Babidi escapes. Goku returns to After Life, Vegeta stays dead, Gohan returns to Earth without ever breaking the Z-Sword, the kids don't perfect Fusion (yet). Movie 11 happens. After the kids experience Bio-Broli's power, they decide to perfect Fusion to get stronger. Movie 12 happens. After the Dragon Balls get activated, Babidi collects them and revives Boo. Boo kills Babidi, Gohan restarts training with the Z-Sword. Rest of Boo arc happens like in the anime.
During the 10 years time-skip, Movie 13, JSAT Special, and Battle of Gods happen. The 28th TB arc happens. Dragon Ball GT(and its TV Special) happens. THE END.

[sekzee]

Claim: Cell regenerating after Goku had fired his Kamehameha at him from point blank range, destroying his arms, wings and head is a plothole.
Reasoning: Cell later stated, he could regenerate, as long as his nucleus inside his head remained intact, yet Goku destroyed his head, therefore making it impossible for him to regenerate.

Answer: Destroying Cell's head does not mean his nucleus has been destroyed, otherwise Cell shouldn't have come back from his self-destruction either. Claiming that his nucleus was destroyed just because his head was is a fallacy.

What?

How can the nucleus that resides within his head remain intact when his head is destroyed?

[hleV]

Cell never said he couldn't regenerate from half of his body even if his nucleous was destroyed. What he meant was that even if his body is seemingly destroyed, if his nucleous is still intact, he will regenerate. The way Cell phrased it may suggest that his nucleous has to be there, yes, but the truth is, he never said he couldn't regenerate otherwise.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

Cell's head was destroyed when he exploded, yet the nucleus remained intact.

[dbgtFO]

Claim: Cell regenerating after Goku had fired his Kamehameha at him from point blank range, destroying his arms, wings and head is a plothole.
Reasoning: Cell later stated, he could regenerate, as long as his nucleus inside his head remained intact, yet Goku destroyed his head, therefore making it impossible for him to regenerate.

Answer: Destroying Cell's head does not mean his nucleus has been destroyed, otherwise Cell shouldn't have come back from his self-destruction either. Claiming that his nucleus was destroyed just because his head was is a fallacy.

What?

How can the nucleus that resides within his head remain intact when his head is destroyed?

Who knows? It may be more sturdy than the rest of his head
The point is Cell getting his head destroyed, does not mean every last bit of it(read: his nucleus) got destroyed as well.
By that logic Cell self-destructing, yet being able to regenerate must also be a plothole.

[sekzee]

Cell's head was destroyed when he exploded, yet the nucleus remained intact.

But the explosion was self-triggered, and something his body may have been prepared for without his knowledge. Think of it this way: An outward explosion can expel parts of your body and disintegrate a large portion of it, but bits and pieces of your insides can remain, especially cells.

Goku blew away the top portion of his body entirely.

If the nucleus is inside of his head, that is a plothole. If the nucleus is somewhere within his body, then it doesn't matter. However, I am mostly of the belief that each Cell is programmed to reproduce and that there is no "head" nucleus that makes all the magic happen.

Cell probably thought that his regeneration works exactly like Piccolo's, and it doesn't.

[sekzee]

Claim: Cell regenerating after Goku had fired his Kamehameha at him from point blank range, destroying his arms, wings and head is a plothole.
Reasoning: Cell later stated, he could regenerate, as long as his nucleus inside his head remained intact, yet Goku destroyed his head, therefore making it impossible for him to regenerate.

Answer: Destroying Cell's head does not mean his nucleus has been destroyed, otherwise Cell shouldn't have come back from his self-destruction either. Claiming that his nucleus was destroyed just because his head was is a fallacy.

What?

How can the nucleus that resides within his head remain intact when his head is destroyed?

Who knows? It may be more sturdy than the rest of his head
The point is Cell getting his head destroyed, does not mean every last bit of it(read: his nucleus) got destroyed as well.
By that logic Cell self-destructing, yet being able to regenerate must also be a plothole.

So, this magic nucleus gets pushed into outer space by the KHH and is commanding Cell's bottom to regenerate. Got it.

[Super Vegetto]

Maybe because he had energy in his lower body and has Frieza's/Piccolo cells ?

Chapter: 413 (DBZ 219), P10.1, P11.3-4, P12.1
Context: after regenerating from his self-destruction
Cell: “There’s a small clump inside my head…This makes up my nucleus…As long as that clump isn’t destroyed, my body can continue regenerating…When I self-destructed, my nucleus fortunately remained uninjured…

Maybe he didn't nead the clump that's inside his head because first time he didn't blow up his whole body and a ofc his lower body has nucleus that he neads for regeneration ?

[dbgtFO]

So, this magic nucleus gets pushed into outer space by the KHH and is commanding Cell's bottom to regenerate. Got it.

Obviously not.
If I was to make sense of it all, I wouldn't think the nucleus got blown out in Space and that it conveniently managed to land right on top of, where the rest of Cell's body was or was somehow connected to his upper body.
It doesn't really matter how though.

[sekzee]

You are implying that his nucleus can survive a blast that the rest of his body failed to protect against.

Sorry, not buying it.

[Patrick]

I'm more accepting of the dub's explanation, or as you said, he just thought he was like Piccolo in the fact that he needed his head to regenerate. Besides, maybe the nucleus transferred to his mid-section literally just right before the blast?

[sekzee]

The nucleus IT'd to Cell's ass. Got it.

[dbgtFO]

You are implying that his nucleus can survive a blast that the rest of his body failed to protect against.

Sorry, not buying it.

Well yeah. I don't see much difference between that and Cell's self-destruct also failing to destroy his nucleus despite destroying everything else apparently. As far as this subject is concerned, I'm mostly underlining the fallacious logic people use, when claiming it's a plothole ie. "destroyed head must mean destroyed nucleus."
As we see even though Cell had his entire upper body engulfed in the Kamehameha, it was his arms, wings and head that got blown off, not his torso.
So why should one adamantly believe his nucleus wouldn't remain intact after taking that hit? Cell's torso staying intact despite taking a direct hit like the blown off limbs show, that taking a direct hit doesn't equal destroying every part of the object much like Cell's head apparently not getting every part of it destroyed.

But each to his own I guess.

[Super Vegetto]

Anyone here knows anything about biology ?

Are nucleus part of whole body or only in head ?

[sekzee]

A nucleus exists inside every cell.

[Super Vegetto]

So this is not a plothole...

[sekzee]

Cell made it clear, by his own words, that the one inside his head is responsible for his ability to regenerate (just like Piccolo later states [in the Buu Saga] that as long as his head is intact, he can regenerate).

So yes, it is a plot-hole.

And just to reinforce this a little further: If any of Cell's upper body survived Goku's KHH, why did Cell's "being" continue to exist on the bottom half only? Some of you are suggesting that some parts of Cell's upper half survived Goku's KHH, yet when Gohan destroys Cell entirely, no Cell comes back to life out of nowhere from some of those remaining cells.

In other words, if Cell was split in half and he regenerated the half that was missing, would you have two Cells? The answer is clearly no.