Trunks' Tragic Story

[DragonBalllKaiHD]

I think now is an excellent time to discuss about Future Trunks and his tragic story, since the upcoming arc will be about Trunks. I feel as though his story is very different from what we have seen from Dragon Ball up to the Freeza arc. I think different is good, because the story of Dragon Ball has never been so serious until the appearance of Trunks. His future was quite grim and depressing. He was the only warrior still alive from the Artificial Humans' massacre. I quite enjoyed his story. His return to Dragon Ball Super has me quite a bit excited and something to look forward to.

How do you feel about his story? Is it worth your enjoyment?

[Anime Kitten]

I do like that his story is very dark, and yet he remains friendly when he comes to the past. I hope the upcoming arc THIS SUNDAY BY THE WAY will be the same way.

[JulieYBM]

What is so tragic about Trunks' backstory? He plays no active role in his own misery.

[Cipher]

"Tragedic"?

Anyway, I like the choice to temper what is an unusually bleak background for Dragon Ball with such obvious Terminator pastiche. Actually, more so than the Saiyan and Freeza portions of the story, which are a little more fantastic and hopeful than a ruined future on the surface, though mostly play out quite straightly and dire, Trunks' arc starts firmly with its tongue in its cheek.

It plays it totally straight, of course, but there's still that sense of anything-goes whimsy to it.

[DragonBalllKaiHD]

Oops. Somehow, it was autocorrected. But yeah, I meant to say 'tragic'.

What is so tragic about Trunks' backstory? He plays no active role in his own misery.

Not sure what you mean by that.

[Chuquita]

I didn't realize how deeply it borrowed from Terminator until I actually saw Terminator. I hope the show gets to spend some time in Trunks' Future before his inevitable trip to Super's present. We've seen so little of Future Bulma and I always thought she was an interesting character. The next episode preview looked like it won't disappoint in showing that timeline.

[ArchedThunder]

What is so tragic about Trunks' backstory? He plays no active role in his own misery.

He lives in an apocalyptic future where he is surrounded by death and then we have the death of Gohan.
How is this even a question?

[Cipher]

I didn't realize how deeply it borrowed from Terminator until I actually saw Terminator.

It began when Terminator 2 was brand new (I'm actually not sure if it would have hit Japan yet, though marketing had likely begun) so it would have been even more obvious at the time.

[TheGreatness25]

I'm just waiting for the point in the story where he reprograms the T-1000.

Trunks has a very tragic story. Although the Trunks special made it seem like that's just how life is. They have lots of moments of levity. It's kind of like the Cyborgs destroy random places every once in a while, which sucks... But if you don't want to get killed or hurt, don't fly off to fight them. Since Trunks never really did except a couple of times in his special, I feel like he possibly didn't even realize how bad his world was.

[Chuquita]

I didn't realize how deeply it borrowed from Terminator until I actually saw Terminator.

It began when Terminator 2 was brand new (I'm actually not sure if it would have hit Japan yet, though marketing had likely begun) so it would have been even more obvious at the time.

It makes me wonder if some DB fans in Japan rented the movie to see if they could theorize where exactly the story was going in Dragon Ball at the time and how much they thought Toriyama was going to borrow or change from it.

[Saikyo no Senshi]

Mirai Gohan's story is more tragic than Trunks the dude never had any happiness in his life.

Trunks definitely is a tragic character no doubt about that. I liked the fact after all that he went through he finally brought peace and earned the respect of his dad his two main motives.Trunks' arc had a great conclusion.

- Travis

[dbgtFO]

I'm just waiting for the point in the story where he reprograms the T-1000.

Yeah, come to think of it, I didn't realize until now that DBM paid homage to that, by having Future Trunks befriend Android #16 after killing off Cell and the two twindroids.

Trunks' tragic background is definitely something that gave me extra resonance with the character and so made me root for him.
I'm very interested in how it'll be handled in the new arc.

[Anime Kitten]

Twindroids.

[dbgtFO]

Twindroids.

[samuraix123]

I'm glad you made this topic because I thought about making one haha But man...I just feel sorry for Trunks. Seems like he never has a happy future or anything like that.
This is a major spoiler for anyone that don't know IF! it's true?

Spoiler:

That this Evil Goku will be the one who kills Future Trunks

Someone on Youtube said that and I just unsubscribed. tired of that crap.

But yeah I'm very excited to see what has been going on in Trunk's timeline and how things will continue to go for the poor guy. We kinda got a little something for Trunks in Xenoverse.

[JulieYBM]

What is so tragic about Trunks' backstory? He plays no active role in his own misery.

He lives in an apocalyptic future where he is surrounded by death and then we have the death of Gohan.
How is this even a question?

That's not tragic. It sucks for him, but that doesn't fit actual 'tragedy'. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy because their misfortune is ultimately a result of their own stupidity despite their good intentions.

[ABED]

What is so tragic about Trunks' backstory? He plays no active role in his own misery.

He lives in an apocalyptic future where he is surrounded by death and then we have the death of Gohan.
How is this even a question?

That's not tragic. It sucks for him, but that doesn't fit actual 'tragedy'. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy because their misfortune is ultimately a result of their own stupidity despite their good intentions.

That's not a requirement for it to be a Tragedy.

[ArchedThunder]

What is so tragic about Trunks' backstory? He plays no active role in his own misery.

He lives in an apocalyptic future where he is surrounded by death and then we have the death of Gohan.
How is this even a question?

That's not tragic. It sucks for him, but that doesn't fit actual 'tragedy'. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy because their misfortune is ultimately a result of their own stupidity despite their good intentions.

trag·ic
ˈtrajik
adjective
1.
causing or characterized by extreme distress or sorrow.

[Lord Beerus]

Twindroids.

No. They're Terroroids.

What is so tragic about Trunks' backstory? He plays no active role in his own misery.

He lives in an apocalyptic future where he is surrounded by death and then we have the death of Gohan.
How is this even a question?

That's not tragic. It sucks for him, but that doesn't fit actual 'tragedy'. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy because their misfortune is ultimately a result of their own stupidity despite their good intentions.

Actually, Trunks story is tragic in the sense that Gohan went alone to fight the Androids, only for 17 to reveal he didn't use even half of his power the last they fought. This would further indicate that in all the times Trunks and Gohan have battle the Androids, they never had a chance at wining. This is further compounded when Trunks take on the Androids himself and ends up in the hospital for several days. Trunks was essentially doomed to fail at every attempt to kill the Androids. The Android would eventually either found out where he lives and kill him and Bulma, or Trunks would die in battle. It's tragic in every sense because Trunks could essentially do nothing to save Gohan, his family or the human race, unless he took the gamble of going back in time. And that arguably made the situation even worse. He essentially died twice and unwittingly created the events of the Cell arc in his last ditch attempt to save his world. Trunks' whole story is tragedy incarnate.

[Cipher]

I know everyone's enjoying an intellectual dick-measurement contest right now, but, because of the way language changes, it's entirely possible to have discussions about either a "tragic" story in terms of its use as a tonal adjective and ways in which narratives may align with classic tragic arcs. Maybe even both at the same time! And until we step into the realm of critical discussion of the latter, wherein you'd need to avoid confusion, no one really needs to condemn anyone's use of the former. Hey!

Certainly, there was a point at which it may have been useful to nitpick to stem the tide against this particular imprecision, but that's long passed. English is still one of the most precise languages this side of German, and changes in ways that both move toward and away from that specificity in small ways every day.