The following is a transcript of a recording I made on November 1st after seeing Toei's Official Timeline of the events of the Future Trunks arc in Dragon Ball Super. This article serves as a reference to my next blog post, which is another transcript providing a review of the entire Future Trunks arc.
If there is one thing I'm not fond of with regards to Toei as a company, it's when they deal with science fiction. You could say Power Rangers is Sci-Fi, or even Captain Harlock as Sci-Fi. But neither one has the sophistication or charm like Star Trek, or Doctor Who, or the Gundam franchise. I am fine when a non sci-fi shows uses elements of sci-fi at the basic minimum, or as a gag. But when trying to apply it seriously on a series like Dragon Ball Super, it hurts my brain so much, it's frustrating. And this is Shonen anime! It's not supposed to be this complicated!
I'm willing to admit I am wrong if anyone can prove to me that an average 9 year old knows how to read the equations of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. But if that's too much, then why Toei's explanation of time travel in DBS, so-frustratingly-difficult?
So after carefully observing Toei's explanation of the events of the Future Trunks arc, and the interpretations of some people, I came up with my own conclusion on how this is supposed to work.
Now, before I go further, I want to make a few things clear. Although I am a fan of the Dragon Ball franchise, I'm not an expert on the subject. There are others who are far more knowledgeable and know the teeny little details of Dragon Ball than I ever will be. But I'm now at a certain age where I no longer watch a show like Dragon Ball just to see who's fighting who, like back in the days of Dragon Ball Z. I want to understand the plot. It's hard for me to appreciate any work of which I have a hard time understanding what's going on. As non-sensical as Alice in Wonderland is, for example, I totally get it.
So when it comes to me interpreting Toei's chronology of events of the Future Trunks arc in Dragon Ball Super, this is just my own take on it, just for sake that it makes sense to me. Whether you agree or disagree with what I think, that is irrelevant. You can go with what others are saying about it, it's not an issue for me. I'm not here to challenge others' interpretations of the timeline. This is neither the right way or the wrong way to approach it. Just my own take on the whole thing and nothing more.
Finally my observation of the timeline of events of the Future Trunks arc is SPECIFICALLY from the Anime version of Dragon Ball Super by Toei. At no point will I reference the Toyotaro manga, as the manga is its own thing and it will have a different explanation of the timeline of events of the Future Trunks arc. Again, this is for the Toei Anime and ONLY for the Toei Anime.
Before we get to Toei's chart of what happened, a recap of how time travel works and how it affects the world of Dragon Ball. To keep it simple, I will use the scene from The Flash TV series in which Barry Allen explains the events of Flashpoint.
When Barry goes back in time to save his mother from being murdered by Zoom, instead of altering history like he initially thought, he created an alternate timeline where his mother lived, and that caused a ripple effect, giving an entirely different history. But as things go bad and Barry is forced to let his mother die again, and going back in time to do exactly just that, instead of going back to the Prime Timeline before everything happened, Barry created another alternate timeline.
So by going back in time and change something in the past, rather than alter history, you simply create an alternate timeline or reality. Even J.J. Abram's Star Trek movies used this plot device to differentiate itself from the previous Star Trek works by Gene Roddenberry, and later by Rick Berman. This also applies in Dragon Ball Z when the Future Trunks goes back in time to prevent Goku from dying from the heart virus back then, as well as to defeat the Androids. Two timelines where created as a result - the Prime Timeline, where the main story of Dragon Ball takes place, and the Future Trunk's timeline, of which he is the last Z Fighter. Other timelines were made along the way, but we will focus on these two as they play a crucial role in Dragon Ball Super.
In the Future Trunks arc, Future Trunks went back to the Prime Timeline to warn Goku and company about Black. Unintentionally, this led to a series of events that resulted in Black's creation in the Prime Timeline. Fast Forward to when Zamasu kills Gowasu, Whis turns back time by 3 minutes, allowing Beerus to kill Zamasu.
Let's scratch that for a moment and say Beerus never intervened. After Zamasu kills Gowasu, he steals the Time Ring and uses it to go forwards in time by one year, in order for the Super Dragon Balls to be reactivated, since Beerus used it last time to restore the Earth of Universe 6 in the Champa arc. Zamasu at that point wishes to switch bodies with Goku, creating Goku Black.
After killing Chichi and Goten, Black then uses the Time Ring to travel to Future Trunks's timeline, meets that version of Zamasu, and instigate their Zero Mortals Plan. Now Black could've just done it in the other timelines and succeeded with little to virtually no resistance. But other than plot convenience, Future Trunks's timeline is chosen to punish Trunks for being the catalyst of this whole thing because of his time travelling.
Now let's go back to Beerus killing the Zamasu of the Prime Timeline. This, according to Beerus, should've prevented Black from being created. However, Black still exists in Future Trunks's timeline despite this, and Black explains that the Time Ring protected him from the Time Paradox caused by Beerus killing his past self in the Prime Timeline.
From my point of view, that was clear cut. Everything took place within the two timelines and the Time Ring does, for the lack of a better word, an 'asspull', to explain why Black is unaffected by the paradox. Metaphorically speaking, it's like a game of Yu Gi Oh where your opponent has all the Egyptian God Cards AND the full Exodia set in play that should've been an automatic win, but you had a card that prevents all of that from happening. Magic does exist in the world of Dragon Ball, though like others such as Psychic Powers, etc., it is less common and not much explored in favor of martial arts and Ki manipulation.
However, according to Toei's chart, ANOTHER timeline was created that brought the events that made Goku Black exist. This was contradictory to what was highly suggested in the Anime itself in which Black came from the Prime Timeline. Going with what the Toei chart is suggesting, one way to interpret it, whether that's what Toei meant or not, the moment which Zamasu was going to kill Gowasu is what created a Time Split - one where Zamasu failed and is killed by Beerus, thus the Prime Timeline we know now; and the one where he succeeds and becomes Goku Black.
This raises a lot of questions and confusions with regards to the technicality of all this happening. It's highly doubtful Beerus and Whis have no idea they'd create an alternate timeline by stopping Zamasu. And both are certain there will be no Time Split and the later episodes suggest it as much. Think about it. If by using Whis's power to rewind time by 3 minutes to change something actually created another timeline, then we should have another Time Split in Resurrection F in which Frieza killed everyone on Earth except those who were with Beerus. But as far as I know, nothing in Dragon Ball Super, be it Anime or Manga, or from anything Toei or Shueisha, the publisher for the Dragon Ball manga, ever mentioned a Time Split in Resurrection F.
But according to Toei's chart, a 3rd timeline was created, which is the part where Zamasu succeeds in killing Gowasu and becomes Goku Black.
This is why I'm saying Toei totally sucks at this when it comes to writing science-fiction. It just baffles me that Toei makes this so complicated for an Anime series aimed at young boys, but can also be seen by the general audience, because it airs 9 am on Sundays in Japan. If Dragon Ball were to air in the same timeslot as other late-night Anime like Drifters, for example, then Toei can throw in the complicated stuff, since the majority watching it would be the adult Anime Otaku.
It was easier for me to understand if everything is still set within the two timelines and what I explained earlier. And then they had to come up with this chart. But that's what they say it happened, so whether we like or not, gotta go with it. And the way I interpret it is, a time split happened. Others would explain it differently. Again, I'm not saying I'm right or wrong. This is just the way I see it. It's fine by me if you agree with what I say on this, or you prefer someone else's explanation. Important thing is that Black still existed despite all what happened up until he fused with Zamasu to become, well....."Zamasu".
So in closing, I blame Toei for the complications surrounding the history of events of the Future Trunks arc, by making this chart. Overall, Toei and their writing staff have been struggling to provide a very good narrative of Dragon Ball Super. It's been that way since the very first arc. They have improved a bit on the current arc with their added manpower and resources, and it shows. Plus the numerous breaks the show had due to events like the Olympics and other live events from Fuji TV and overseas, did give Toei time to polish up a bit. It's just that when it comes to them explaining the timeline of the Future Trunks arc, they screwed it up. They should have just left it alone and let the narrative of the Anime speak for itself.
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