1) What if instead of Super Saiyan 3, Goku had achieved Super Saiyan Rage during his 7 years of training in the Otherworld? Then, had taught it to Trunks and Goten?Pantalones wrote:Three possibilities I see being most likely...2) What if in Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks, and hours before Android 17 and Android 18 first fought the Z Fighters, Vegeta, Gohan, Krillin, Piccolo, Yamcha, Tien Shinhan, and Chiaotzu had their Potentials Unlocked by Grand Elder Guru? (With this miraculous event being made possible from Kami having a bad enough feeling to transport the Z Warriors to the Grand Elder Namekian's current location in the Otherworld.)
1: Vegeta vs. #18 happens, and would be a much closer fight than the version we saw in the main timeline, with #18 probably ending up injured a little in the process (but not nearly as bad as Vegeta, of course.) And "strong enough to actually hurt future #18" is just how strong Vegeta would be at first. Guru's potential unlock continues to increase your power more and more over time (as we saw from Krillin going to 10,000 right away, 20,000ish later, and finally 75,000 vs. Freeza just in the time they were on Namek)... so if the Androids for whatever reason didn't kill Vegeta during their initial encounter, he would surpass them both in a matter of days (if not hours) once he recovered from his injuries. And this is Vegeta, so you'd better believe he'd track them down for a rematch as soon as he was able. He probably wouldn't end up nearly as strong as the Vegeta who pummeled Semi-Perfect Cell (partly due to not having pushed beyond ordinary Super Saiyan at all), but he'd still be able to take on both future Androids at once and win with very little effort -- maybe he'd be somewhere around full-power Imperfect Cell or #16's level.
2: Vegeta vs. #18 happens, and at the end #18 snaps his neck rather than his arm. The two Androids then go after everyone else who's still standing. If Gohan gets a rage boost and goes Super Saiyan during the following battle with the Androids (possibly due to Piccolo dying, or being near-fatally injured?), he'd probably destroy them right then and there and that timeline would never have the whole post-apocalyptic future Trunks thing happen at all! Cell would come along at some point and, with no Androids to absorb and an even stronger Gohan (and Trunks! and maybe even Vegeta and Piccolo if the Androids didn't kill them or they got wished back) there to stop him, he'd probably end up getting killed without much trouble. Assuming Gohan(/Trunks/Vegeta/Piccolo) keeps training just in case and reach Cell Games-esque levels or higher, there might be a Buu Saga equivalent in this timeline. Their best chance of surviving that would be if Goku comes back for a visit and teaches Gohan and Trunks fusion (resulting in "Gohanks" who could probably go at least SSj2, and possibly learn SSj3 the way Gotenks did with a little bit of extra training) or if they manage to beat Dabura and prevent Babidi from ever unleashing Buu in the first place.
3: If Gohan doesn't go Super Saiyan during the first encounter, but still survives like in the regular future timeline, he ends up beating the Androids somewhere down the line as the combination of the gradually-increasing unlocked potential and his own training and near-death boosts push him further and further beyond the level the ordinary Future Gohan reached. There's still a destroyed future timeline, but it's not quite as bad since the Androids got stopped relatively early on, and Gohan survived in addition to Trunks this time around. Future Trunks would probably end up stronger than the version we knew as a result, since he'd have a stronger Gohan to train with and he'd do so for his entire life rather than Gohan dying when he was a kid (though they'd both probably stop training quite as hard after the Androids were gone)... so when he went back in time to hand over the medicine and warn everyone, he'd be by far the strongest of the Saiyans rather than trailing behind them. The difference in power between the present and future Androids might still be a big enough gap that the two of them could beat him (at least fighting together, even if they're not quite strong enough to pull it off so easily one-on-one), though, so he might be the one to get a big fight scene rather than Vegeta -- and he'd certainly lose against #16 if he happened to step in. So overall, the Android Saga happens pretty much exactly as in the main timeline, but with Trunks as the strongest fighter (at least until Kamiccolo happens) rather than Vegeta.
Possibility #2 seems the most interesting to me -- basically ends up being like a version of the main series if Toriyama had actually gone through with Gohan taking the main-character title from Goku. #1 is what Vegeta imagines during "image training" sessions and #3 is pretty much just the regular future timeline, but with less destroyed cities and more Gohan.
2) What if Full Power Super Saiyan Son Gohan took his match against Perfect Cell seriously from the start?
3) What if Kid Trunks and Goten didn't waste their time with Vegeta and Gohan respectively, and sought out Piccolo to train them for the 4 years before Gohan became Great Saiyaman and Vegeta had turned himself into a Majin? Or would the improved Piccolo, Trunks, and Goten have stopped the return of the Evil Prince?