Despite the fact that Trunks is one of the greatest heroes in the Dragon Ball universe, he came incredibly close to destroying it during his Dragon Ball GT career–and Dragon Ball Super explains exactly how that happened.
Trunks is the half-human/half-Saiyan son of Bulma and Vegeta who had perhaps the coolest intro out of any Dragon Ball character in history. Originally, fans were introduced to a version of Trunks from the future (dubbed Future Trunks) who was a mysterious sword-wielding warrior who killed Frieza like it was nothing. While this new character was undoubtedly awesome, the lore surrounding him became even more exciting when it was revealed that he wasn’t even the version of Trunks from the prime Dragon Ball timeline, and that the main version was still a baby who would presumably grow up to become a warrior similar to what fans got with Future Trunks. This meant that when Future Trunks’ time with the Z-Fighters was done, fans still had the main timeline version of the character to look forward to–and that excitement and anticipation was paid off with Dragon Ball GT.
Dragon Ball Super Reveals Trunks is Bad with Computers, & GT Confirms It
In Dragon Ball GT season 1, episode 22 (written by Aya Matsui, directed by Osamu Kasai, produced by Toei Animation), Trunks, Goku, and Pan expose a hidden chamber within the villainous Dr. Myuu’s lair–a chamber that contained Dragon Ball GT‘s strongest Machine Mutant known as Baby. Baby is an immensely powerful entity with the strength to conquer any known planet in existence, basically making him a universe-ending threat. In this episode, Baby was still little more than an artificial fetus who was growing inside a tank powered by computers and generators. When the Z-Fighters were face-to-face with the unconscious Baby, Trunks revealed that he already snuck into this chamber earlier and uploaded a virus into the computer that was designed to keep Baby alive. Unfortunately, moments later, Baby awoke as he proved too strong for the virus uploaded by Trunks–either that, or Trunks simply didn’t do it right.
Based on the official Dragon Ball timeline, Dragon Ball Super takes place between Dragon Ball Z (immediately following Goku’s battle with Majin Buu) and Dragon Ball GT (which takes place five years after Dragon Ball Z’s ten-year time jump). This means that anything that happens in Super is just a precursor to what will happen in GT–including an explanation as to why Trunks’ assault on Baby didn’t work. In Dragon Ball Super chapter 88 by Akira Toriyama and Toyotarou, Trunks (the main timeline version) and Goten are teenagers who decided to commit themselves to being superheroes. When Goten gets word of a cybercriminal and wants to spring into action, Trunks vetoes that mission as it sounds too boring and doesn’t require any physical action. Goten then acknowledges that Trunks’ feelings towards that mission makes sense, noting that Trunks isn’t good with computers.
Dragon Ball Super confirms that Trunks isn’t good with computers, yet only a few years later, the same version of the character tries to stop perhaps the most dangerous being in the universe through the use of a computer. Trunks could have just blasted Baby’s tank like Future Trunks did to Cell back in DBZ, but instead he tried to stop Baby through his apparently non-existent computer skills. It’s no wonder the virus didn’t kill Baby, Trunks probably didn’t even upload it correctly if the information given in Super is to be believed. This means that because Trunks is bad with computers as established in Dragon Ball Super, his mission to kill Baby through a computer virus failed, which put Dragon Ball GT’s entire universe in danger of total destruction.
