Dragon Ball alternate timelines
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In the Dragon Ball manga and Dragon Ball Z anime, several alternate dimensions and timelines are shown to exist during during the Androids the Cell story arcs.
Below are the timelines and their events. A number beside a characters name indicates which dimension they are from; if there is no number, they are from the dimension the description is under.
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[edit] Source of the timelines
The timelines were unchained because of a time machine. As the Androids 17 and 18 killed all the heroes of Earth (Z Fighters), Bulma created a time machine to send Trunks to the past and find a way to destroy the Androids or to bring Goku to the future to destroy them there.
[edit] Timeline 1: Main
This is the main timeline in which the Dragon Ball series takes place and ultimately leads to the Buu story arc. There are two time/dimensional travellers who interfere with this timeline: Trunks from timeline 2 and Cell from timeline 3.
- Cell3 arrives from the future in an egg form. He hatches and burrows underground to develop.
- Cyborg Freeza and his father, King Cold, invade Earth to get revenge on Goku. They are killed by Trunks2 who appears from the future. Trunks then meets Goku when he arrives on the planet and gives him the heart medicine; he also warns the Z fighters about the androids, who will arrive in three years, before returning back to his future.
- In the next few years the Z Fighters go into intense training, Trunks1 is born.
- Doctor Gero (aka Android 20) and Android 19 battle the Z Fighters. Goku, who didn't take Trunks' medicine, becomes sick during his fight with Android 19. Vegeta arrives and takes over, destroying 19, and Goku is taken home and given his medicine. Dr. Gero flees.
- Trunks2 arrives back to this timeline and finds the destroyed Android 19, a robot he's never seen before. He begins to realize that this timeline is starting to branch off considerably from his.
- Dr. Gero escapes back to his lab and awakens Androids 17 and 18 who then proceed to kill him. They go on to activate Android 16.
- The Z Fighters are defeated by 17 and 18, but none are killed.
- Trunks' time machine from timeline 3 (used by Cell3) is found, along with Cell's shed skin.
- Cell3, now fully grown, starts razing cities and absorbing the people to raise his power.
- Piccolo fuses with Kami and battles against Cell3. Cell tells Piccolo about who he is, why he's here, and how he got to this timeline. Cell escapes after Trunks2 and Kuririn arrive on the scene to aid Piccolo.
- Piccolo hunts for Cell3 while Trunks2 and Kuririn go to Gero's underground lab to destroy Cell1 while he's still gestating. While there, Trunks finds blueprints for the androids which he gives to Kuririn to take to Bulma.
- To become stronger, Vegeta and Trunks2 train in the Room of Spirit and Time.
- Piccolo, unable to find Cell, is confronted by the androids. He decides to attempt to destroy them in order to prevent Cell from absorbing them and becoming stronger.
- During Piccolo's battle against Android 17, Bulma contacts Kuririn telling him that she's created an emergency shut-off control device based on Gero's blueprints. It has a range of 10 meters so Kuririn rushes to intercept her and obtain the control device to deactivate and destroy the androids. Cell3 detects Piccolo's raised ki and deduces that he's battling an android; Cell rushes to the scene to absorb the androids and complete his development.
- Cell3 interrupts Piccolo and 17's fight, quickly dispatching Picclo and nearly absorbing 17 before Android 16 intervenes. Cell and 16 fight relatively evenly, but in the end Cell manages a surprise attack that allows him to absorb 17 and become Semi-Perfect Cell. Cell proceeds to easily deal critical damage to Android 16 and is going to absorb 18 but is halted temporarily by Tenshinhan, allowing 16 and 18 to escape. Goku quickly arrives on the scene and rescues Piccolo and Tenshinhan before retreating again.
- Vegeta and Trunks emerge from the Room of Spirit and Time, letting Goku and Gohan enter. Vegeta battles against Cell and is clearly dominant in the fight. While they are fighting Kuririn approaches Android 18 with the shut-off device, but is captivated by the beautiful android and destroys the shut-off device. Vegeta quickly becomes arrogant with his power and gives Cell leave to absorb 18 to attain his perfect form.
- Cell finds 18 and fuses with her, becoming Perfect Cell; he then goes on to defeat Vegeta and Trunks. Cell decides to hold a tournament, the Cell Games, in ten days to test his new abilities.
- Goku and Gohan emerge from the Room of Spirit and Time. Trunks, Vegeta and Piccolo all use the room before the tournament starts. Goku recruits Dende to serve as the Earth's new God and reactivate the Dragon Balls.
- The Cell Games start and Goku fights with Perfect Cell. Goku eventually forfeits the match and chooses his son Gohan fight instead.
- Gohan fights Perfect Cell and, after eventually being provoked into transforming into the Super Saiyan 2 stage, delivers a fierce set of hits to Cell, causing him to regurgitate Android 18 and transform back into his semi-perfect form.
- Semi-Perfect Cell attempts to destroy the Earth by self-destruction, but Goku sacrifices himself to teleport Semi-Perfect Cell from the Earth to King Kai's planet. Cell explodes, killing Goku and Kaio. Cell's regenerative organ miraculously remains intact, allowing him to regrow himself. Cell returns to Earth, stronger then ever and kills Trunks2, but is defeated for good by Gohan.
- Trunks2 is revived by a wish on the dragon and returns to his timeline.
[edit] Timeline 2: Trunks
This is the timeline belonging to Mirai Trunks and depicted in a few chapters of the manga. In this one, Trunks goes back in time to the main timeline and returns with enough power to kill both the androids and Cell.
- Cyborg Freeza and King Cold invade Earth and are defeated by Goku.
- Goku dies from heart disease, Trunks is born.
- Doctor Gero activates Androids 17 and 18. They kill him and then proceed to kill all of the other Z Fighters except for Gohan and Trunks.
- Gohan trains Trunks, but is eventually killed by the androids. Trunks attempts to avenge Gohan but is badly beaten.
- Bulma builds a time machine to send Trunks to the past with the hopes of finding someway to destroy the androids. Trunks takes medicine to cure Goku's heart condition with him.
- Trunks goes back in time to timeline 1. He returns after killing Freeza1, giving Goku the medicine, and warning the Z Fighters about the androids.
- Trunks goes back in time again to help the Z Fighters in timeline 1 to combat the androids.
- Trunks returns from timeline 1 vastly more powerful as a result of his battles and training while there. He quickly finds and kills androids 17 and 18 with little effort.
- Three years pass and Trunks kills the newly emerged Cell, knowing about Cell's plan to kill him and go back in time.
[edit] Timeline 3: Cell
This timeline follows the same path as timeline 2, but diverges on Trunks' second return from the past as in this timeline, Trunks returned with the android blueprints, not the massive powerup. The androids were still destroyed, but Trunks wouldn't have been powerful enough to combat Cell. Cell ended up killing Trunks and using his time machine to go back in time to find the androids.
- Cyborg Freeza and King Cold invade Earth and are defeated by Goku.
- Goku dies from heart disease, Trunks is born.
- Doctor Gero activates Androids 17 and 18. They kill him and then proceed to kill all of the other Z Fighters except for Gohan and Trunks.
- Gohan trains Trunks, but is eventually killed by the androids. Trunks attempts to avenge Gohan but is badly beaten.
- Bulma builds a time machine to send Trunks to the past with the hopes of finding someway to destroy the androids. Trunks takes medicine to cure Goku's heart condition with him.
- Trunks goes back in time to timeline 4. He returns after killing Freeza4, giving Goku the medicine, and warning the Z Fighters about the androids.
- Trunks goes back in time again to help the Z Fighters in timeline 4 to combat the androids.
- Trunks returns from the past with blueprints for the androids. Bulma uses the blueprints to create a device which destroys or deactivates the androids.
- Cell emerges and, realizing the androids are gone, decides to use Trunks' time machine to go back in time and find the androids in the past. Cell ambushes and kills Trunks, gets the time machine and goes to timeline 1 in the past.
[edit] Timeline 4: Unseen
No characters from this timeline are ever seen. This is the timeline where Trunks3 went and is what timeline 1 would have been had Trunks gone back in time, but not Cell.
- Cyborg Freeza and his father, King Cold, invade Earth to get revenge on Goku. They are killed by Trunks3 who appears from the future. Trunks then meets Goku when he arrives on the planet and gives him the heart medicine; he also warns the Z fighters about the androids, who will arrive in three years, before returning to his future.
- Trunks3 returns, finds the androids blueprints and leaves back to timeline 3.
All other details of this timeline are unknown.
[edit] More Timelines?
It is known by the fans that other media works (games, books, movies, etc...) on Dragon Ball universe ignore many events in manga's stories (considered canonical by the fans) and tell stories that usually conflict with the canonical sagas. Some just ignore the canonical sagas and enjoy the media, others consider the divergent media apocryphal, and just ignore its stories.
Although not explained anywhere in Dragon Ball's works, a reasonable explanation is considering these stories being in another timelines, as things turned out differently. It is a very similar explanation to DC Multiverse.
[edit] Character summary
| Character(s) | Timeline | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| Freeza and King Cold | Killed by Trunks2 | Killed by Goku | Killed by Trunks3 | |
| Goku | See Goku | Died from heart disease | Unknown | |
| Trunks | See Trunks | See Future Trunks | Killed by Cell | Unknown |
| Other Z Fighters | See respective biographies | Killed by androids | Unknown | |
| Androids 17 and 18 | Absorbed by Cell3 but eventually freed and reformed; see Android 17 and Android 18 | Killed by Trunks in combat | Disabled and destroyed with device based on blueprints obtained by Trunks in timeline 4 | Likely destroyed by device made based on blueprints or absorbed by Cell |
| Cell | Killed as a fetus by Trunks2 and Kuririn | Killed by Trunks in failed ambush | Killed by Gohan1 in timeline 1 | Unknown |
