Unlike their counterparts in Future Trunks' timeline, Android 17 and Android 18 didn't become evil. Here's why that doesn't make any sense.
Unlike their counterparts in Future Trunks’ timeline, Android 17 and Android 18 never became evil in the Dragon Ball Z anime. Both characters were presented as villains during Dragon Ball Z’s Cell Saga, but are now counted as allies of the Z-Warriors. 18 married Krillin after Cell’s defeat and stuck around as a supporting character, whereas 17 was brought back near the end of Dragon Ball Super as a park ranger devoted to protecting wildlife.
The lives led by the two androids contrast greatly with what was originally expected of them in the franchise. Following his arrival in the present, Future Trunks warned Goku of their coming battle with Android 17 and Android 18. In his timeline, the pair of bloodthirsty androids had ruthlessly murdered Gohan, Piccolo, Vegeta, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu. Thanks to Trunks’ warning, as well as other complications, events in the mainline ended up playing out differently. It was Cell who turned out to be their biggest threat, and though the Z-Warriors did ultimately fight the troublesome androids, neither remained antagonists nor did they ever actually kill anyone.
Android 17 and Android 18 were never the villains that Future Trunks promised them to be. Why both characters are so different from the two mass murderers that plunged the Earth into chaos in Trunks’ timeline was never properly addressed in the anime, and none of the possible explanations for it really work. A common assumption is that 17 and 18’s heroic turns were positive consequences of the alternations made to the timeline, but nothing that Future Trunks set in motion accounts for these particular differences.
Android 17 & 18's Personality Changes In Dragon Ball Z Explained
Numerous changes were made to the timeline as a result of Trunks’ trip through time, and not all of them have obvious reasons behind them. Some, like Android 16 being activated, can be attributed to the butterfly effect, as the Z-Warriors may have inadvertently motivated the androids into waking him up simply by being at Doctor Gero’s lab. However, the same reasoning doesn’t apply to 17 and 18’s inexplicable personality differences. They’re just not the same characters as the ones that massacred the Z-Warriors in Future Trunks’ timeline. This reality was impressed upon Trunks when he encountered 18 in Dragon Ball Super.
Over the years, many have attempted to make sense of why 17 and 18 have very little in common with the androids of the future. One popular theory postulates that Android 16 was responsible for the change. It’s been argued that his peaceful nature influenced their decision-making, but there are no scenes in Dragon Ball Z that support the idea that 16 somehow put them on better paths. After all, neither had a strong relationship with him, which is why it’s unlikely that 16 (or any other character, for that matter) had anything to do with why they’re not evil. This is one timeline change that seemingly came out of nowhere.
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