Dragon Ball Z's Time Paradox


Dragon Ball Z's Cell Saga was a time paradox era. We meet Future Trunks the son of Vegeta and Bulma from the future. Would that sound a little bit similar to Cable from X-Men? Knowing that America and Japan copy from each other, I also felt like Cable's type of story was implanted into Future Trunks as a mysterious time traveler. Cable was first published in X-Men in 1986 so I'd say Dragon Ball Z copied the concept of Cable but modified it. So unlike Cable, Trunks is not time displaced but like Cable, he seeks to prevent a dangerous catastrophe from hitting the future. And like Cable, he ended up meeting his own infant self at one point, which during the Android Saga to the Cell Saga, Future Trunks STAYED in the past. He also destroyed a cyborg Frieza and King Cold before the start of the saga.

Future Trunks' timeline is different from the present. His timeline was ransacked by several of Dr. Gero's robots (and I'd love to imagine Dr. Gero as being based on Bastion from X-Men) have conquered the future... and the abominable Cell was another time paradox which his friends died including a future version of Gohan. Cell was the ultimate abomination and chaos-bringer into the world. Cell was sent from the future to the present to absorb Android 17 and 18. So I thought was Cell's storyline similar to Stryfe? While Stryfe was a clone of Cable, Cell was a composite clone like Serpentor in G.I.Joe, that of the various warriors but like Stryfe, he is an insane sadist who has been absorbing people in order to mature himself. Like Stryfe, he is also the abomination of destruction and comes from a distant future.

So it's awkward really how Future Trunks interacts with his father from the past. Just think, he probably came in older than his parents like when Cable appeared in the 20th century, he was a full grown man older than his parents. During that time, Future Trunks displays tremendous power that nobody can imagine. On the other hand, Gohan is the "prophesied one" who somehow again, has the role of "Askani's Son". Piccolo foresaw Gohan's strength would one day come useful as Gohan's powers were beyond that of his father and even if Goten activated Super Saiyan mode earlier, Gohan still displayed more raw power which was hindered when he ceased training for a while.

The bond between Vegeta, Bulma and Future Trunks felt like a parallel to Cyclops, Jean Grey and Cable. Cyclops couldn't care less if Cable was now older than he was, Jean Grey even if she wasn't Cable's mother (and Bulma IS Future Trunks' mother) still felt the bond with her future son while holding her current son. When Future Trunks was killed (later revived at the end of the saga), Vegeta felt that pain. After Gohan defeated Cell, Future Trunks returned to his timeline to finally fulfill his destiny destroying all the powerful enemies that messed up his future.


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