Personally, I think the simplest explanation is that 16 is present in the future timeline but Trunks never met him. Unlike the others, he was single focused on killing Goku, but Goku was already dead, so 16 didn't have anything to do. He either deactivated himself or simple wondered off somewhere.
Given how Gero didn't want to activate him, I don't see why that would happen. That is literally the opposite of what happened in the main time-line.
I mean, sure, alternate timelines and butterfly effect, etc. But I am trying to go to the simplest explanation and assuming everything was equal except for Trunks warning. 16 never bothering to show himself is perfect in line with his character so we don't need any further explanation than that.
Well if Gero let them loose on his own terms in that timeline maybe in addition to making them crueler he also weakened them some for "control purposes". Not that it did him much good.
I don't think it would work unless it was used consistently. If Gero started making them stronger again while still not being able to control them due to making them too strong, he'd be the biggest idiot in the series.
The series does have Gero/20 be stronger than 19, the first successful model. I think that makes it work best.
Before entering the room, Goku says he's definitely no match for Cell, and others say Goku isn't that inferior to Vegeta at the time. I guess if you consider Vegeta an opponent Goku "definitely can't beat" he could be stronger than Cell. But Vegeta himself admits that Piccolo is far superior to him (and this isn't even Piccolo's full power) while his own power is comparable to 18.
I like the answer as well, especially given the placement of the manga version of Trunks: The Story
The problem is that Trunks originally mentions Androids 19 and 20 showing up on that island (because this was before the retcon) so explaining it would be pretty convoluted. Like, the sequence would have to be - Gohan/Bulma tell Trunks that Android 19 and 20 attacked without explaining how they were different from 17/18 or what happened to them, Trunks went on fighting 17/18 without ever learning their numbers, traveled back in time, found out 17 and 18's numbers and just completely disregarded how he previously knew them without reflecting on it or putting two and two together when he met the actual 19 and 20. That one line makes it really fricking hard to explain anything simply.
To be fair, it's first brought up in relation to Goku's heart virus. Piccolo speculates that the timing of it changed due to the alterations in history. I quite like the idea of time travel fucking with matters relating to time, since the very act is violating the laws of the universe. Especially with all the recent material about how time travel is bad. This explains the Androids' late attack and Goku's heart virus coming at a different time, and could potentially explain the change in the Android line-up if Gero's planned adjustments on 17/18 were delayed in the present or he didn't get Android 16 to a stage where he could be reactivated in the future.
Discrepancies in timing of certain events is a fair way to have the butterfly effect that actually relates to time travel and isn't totally unexplained.
Daizenshuu 7, in the characters bios. They mention that the future 17 and 18 are somewhat inferior to their present counterparts in terms of power.
I hated that. Just outright said "no such thing as infinite energy" as the reason why they got weaker. I find that incredibly stupid that you'd draw the line at infinite energy as a concept when you've got time travel and capsule technique and magic.
Hell, Yamcha's explanation is that they are constantly losing energy and can't recover it on their own. Not only do they not have infinite energy, they're actually worse at conserving energy than flesh and blood beings.
I thought the reason for the delay of the heart virus was because Goku never fought Mecha Freeza and King Cold. Since he never really did anything as a Super Saiyan for those three years, the heart virus took longer to take effect. That's why Goku seems relatively fine at the start of the battle and then is suddenly dying shortly after going Super Saiyan.
I also have to wonder why the heal everything magical bean can't cure the heart virus.
Let the joy of love give you an answer! Check out my book!Because it's not a heal everything bean. It heals injuries.
And that theory would work, because Vegeta says turning Super Saiyan made the strain on Goku's heart worse.
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Well, even though Multiverse doesn't actually explain that, I would give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they meant that the energy drain is slow enough to be beneficial in short fights.
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To be fair, I think Goku probably trained harder in the timeline where he knew the Androids were coming, than he probably did in Trunk's timeline. Whether or not he trained in Super Saiyan is another matter, especially given that nobody - save Vegeta, who was likely away from Earth for a huge part of that time - was capable of matching his SS power.
Personally, I'd think he'd still go SS at least a few times, both to keep himself easily capable of transforming when necessary, as well as maintaining his understanding of its power, and how to control it.
edited 5th Feb '16 9:35:01 AM by Reservoir
Ah, so then it's unlikely his transformation against 19 is what caused the heart virus to strike, then.
I wonder if Saiyan immune systems work better when the body is constantly being exercised and worked? If that were the case, then the intensity of his training - against a coming threat vs. just for giggles - could've been the deciding factor in how long the virus took to debilitate him.
He might not have trained for long as a Super Saiyan, though. Even if he did, the strain of a fight against Freeza and King Cold would be nothing compared to training with someone who has a third of his base power and someone who's far weaker than that.
Let the joy of love give you an answer! Check out my book!There's simply too much we don't know about the Future Trunks timeline, especially the bit between Goku's victory against Frieza on Namek, and the arrival and initial fighting against the Androids.
I'd love to see how the fight between Mecha Frieza, King Cold, and SS Goku would've been, especially since the threat against Earth would've been serious enough to put Goku into full combat mode.
edited 5th Feb '16 9:51:12 AM by Reservoir
Episode 51 Breakdown
in which Kaiser finally addresses the elephant in the room:
Why he addresses Goku's name the way he does lol.
Really? So it's not just that they were holding back and Trunks never knew?
Man, there's always new shit coming out isn't there?
Maybe it was a flaw that Gero might have repaired if he'd lived, but died before he could discover it, while the Gero of the world Yamcha came from did find out about it.
Once again, Gero could have just messed up and died before getting a chance to fix it....or deliberately put it in as a control measure (if you don't do what I say, you'll run out of power eventually and be helpless) but was killed before he could really explain it.
I mean, when you think about it, we were talking before in one of the threads about why he made himself a weaker model, so maybe that's it right there. The energy draining models are weaker, but provided you can find energy to suck, you can keep your power constant.
One Strip! One Strip!Just be glad they only showed the top half of that shot.
In GOOD news, we're just over 10,000 subscribers away from World's Strongest Abridged.
Has anyone here watched the opening to episode 51 and decided to watch Steven Universe to see what the reference was, then get hooked on the show?
edited 5th Feb '16 5:35:34 PM by WillKeaton
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No that's not how references work, we're not suppose to get them.

Yeah, that's one of the things I actually think Multiverse did well.
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