The inspiration is that he's mde up of the cells of all the powerful fighters.
And I guess you could also say that it signifies his current state as the first form of a greater evolution or something.
He doesn't learn about the trope-naming extent of his regeneration until he blows up in the Cell Games.
I have a message from another time...So… speaking as someone who never actually watched this far… what's going with the timeline split? Like, why is there one timeline where Trunks somehow beat the Andriods only to get killed by Cell, and another where Trunks doesn't beat them, and both versions remember going back and warning Goku about the androids?
The timeline Cell is from is one where Trunks defeated the androids (with the shut off device I think) and then cell woke up and killed this trunks who wasnt strong because he never had to fight the androids/cell. he then goes back to the present. the trunks in the present now is one who hasnt gone back and deactivated the androids and been killed yet. it was a possible future for him if cell hadnt intervened.
So... if Cell was in his imperfect form in the future... why was there an egg in his time machine? Why did he molt?
I've got new mythological machinery, and very handsome supernatural scenery. Goodfae: a mafia web serialIt goes like this. The original timeline is the one where Trunks grew up. That timeline basically ends (technically it splits in two) when Trunks goes back in time - because Bulma building the time machine is part of the original timeline, there's no future where Trunks didn't go back in time.
The original timeline has two possible futures: one where Trunks didn't meet Cell in the past and thus isn't strong enough to prevent being killed by him (our Cell's timeline), and one where Trunks has gone through the Cell games and the time chamber and stuff and is thus way more powerful than Imperfect Cell when they meet (effectively the timeline of the Trunks we know, the Cell of this timeline is dead).
Then there's the timeline we know, where Trunks goes back in time and warns folks about stuff, then comes by later. There's another timeline that we never see (the one that Cell's Trunks went back to, in which the gang defeated the androids without incident), but I'm pretty sure the reasonable conclusions stop there.
In short, the timeline splits every time someone arrives in the past (but not when they leave). Trunks created a split between the original timeline and the altered timeline, and Cell split both of those in two (it kinda sorta happens simultaneously kinda, so it's not one then the other). I think there's maybe one more (I broke it all down a while ago), but that's the basics.
edited 24th Aug '14 8:54:39 PM by KnownUnknown
That.
In short, Cell killing Trunks and going back in time inadvertantly resulted in Trunks becoming powerful enough to overpower and kill Cell instead at the point where Cell had killed Trunks in the previous iteration.
Hypothetically, this means there is an unseen timeline in which the protagonists fought the androids without Cell ever arriving in the past - because Trunks killing him means Cell never went back in time - but the series was content to stop there.
- A-1 - Androids win, Trunks goes back in time, Trunks returns and is murdered by Cell.
- A-2 - Androids win, Trunks goes back in time, Trunks returns and kills Cell.
- B-1 - Protagonists are warned of androids, Cell arrives, attains Perfect Form, is defeated.
- B-2 - Protagonists are warned of androids, Cell never shows up.
Timeline B-2 is where the story takes place. In any case, B-2 would have been the timeline both before and after Cell's arrival created B-1, thus closing the time loop with no further iterations. Cell fell victim to the greatest danger of time travel and unwrote himself from history.
edited 24th Aug '14 9:02:10 PM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.And there's the twisted timeline I saw in a fanfic once, in which Trunks decides to go "fuck it" in regards to rebuilding the future timelines, shows up in the main timeline when Kid Trunks is a teenager and takes his place. Then he goes on space adventures with Pan and Goku, and nobody's ever the wiser...
edited 24th Aug '14 9:00:56 PM by KnownUnknown
I choose to believe that this conversation transpired at some point which resulted in A-2.
- KRILLIN: I don't understand something. Why didn't you just wish us all back to life with the Dragon Balls?
- TRUNKS: ...because Piccolo's dead? I mean, without Kami, the Dragon Balls are gone.
- KRILLIN: No, I get that, but why not use Porunga?
- TRUNKS: Por-what?
- KRILLIN: The Namekian Dragon? I mean, their elder died, but they've got to have a new one by now.
- TRUNKS: Hold on, what's this about another dragon?
- KRILLIN: *facepalm* No, seriously, Future Bulma, what the shit?
And then Trunks returned to the future and summoned Porunga.
- TRUNKS: Okay, I wish for you to come up with a way I can defeat the androids.
- PORUNGA: Use the off switch.
- TRUNKS: Hilarious, but really, that's what I want for my wish.
- PORUNGA: No, seriously, use the off switch.
- TRUNKS: ...you've got to be f*cking kidding me. There's an off switch?! HOW LONG HAS THERE BEEN AN OFF SWITCH?! HOW MANY PEOPLE DIDN'T HAVE TO DIE OVER THE LAST 16 YEARS THAT THERE HAS BEEN AN OFF SWITCH?!?!
- PORUNGA: For your next wish?
- TRUNKS: Next wish?
- PORUNGA: You have two remaining wishes.
- TRUNKS: You're joking. No, really, tell me you're joking. Tell me we couldn't have been making three wishes a year for the last decade and a half and fixed our entire world by now.
- PORUNGA: No, you could not.
- TRUNKS: Oh, thank god.
- PORUNGA: You could have made three wishes per each 130 day period.
- TRUNKS: God-fucking-dammit, Future Bulma, what the shit?!
edited 24th Aug '14 9:19:14 PM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Change it to "mom", and it's canon-worthy.
edited 24th Aug '14 9:59:43 PM by wanderlustwarrior
Gero mentions that the spy robot was there for the battle with Vegeta, nothing about Raditz. Which means that Piccolo taught Cell regeneration.
Also, the Porunga thing is covered in the series - only Goku could get there, with IT.
Except he didn't know he could regenerate to a significant even after he fought Piccolo. Remember, he was surprised when he survived his fights with Gohan and Goku. Also, even if he learned it from Piccolo, it would've happened anyway. Additionally, we don't know what he needed to see and what he didn't. Remember, he used several signature attacks without seeing them first.

I warned the whole thread about the fly sex.
Maybe Cell knew he could regenerate From a Single Cell if it was part of the inspiration for his name, but didn't know Piccolo could as well.