There’s too many characters in this thing. Bulma is refurbishing the time machine for the assault on Goku Black, but she’s also got the Pilaf gang doing gofer work in the lab. Also, her dad is helping, and Kid Trunks is around too. Well, maybe the problem isn’t that there’s too many characters. It’s that this montage of working on the time machine could have just been edited down to a few seconds, or cut altogether.
Seriously, the way they keep cramming Pilaf scenes into this arc, you’d think Emperor Pilaf’s agent negotiated some sort of amazing contract with Toei. He doesn’t have any technical skills, and seems to leave all the manual labor to Mai and Shu, but he still hangs around anyway, making insipid comments about everything. He’s kind of like the Zamasu Saga’s answer to Giru from GT.
And I guess that makes Kid Trunks like GT Pan, because he has zero impact on the plot, and he keeps hanging around anyway in a desperate bid to be taken seriously. He goes with Mai to fetch some doohickey in “Lab 2″, which is an empty storage room with a pile of stuff in one corner, and he just pulls out random objects hoping she’ll be impressed with how he found what they needed. Then he finds a hacksaw and some cable and ties it around his chest like Future Trunks’ sword. That just looks dangerous.
Meanwhile, Future Trunks doesn’t have much to do while he’s waiting for Bulma to finish his ride. She tells him it’s going well, but it’ll take a full day to manufacture enough fuel for the trip. Trunks is amazed because it took Future Bulma a year to make the same fuel, but this Bulma has the advantage of working with the full resources of Capsule Corp. Trunks is just fortunate that this version of Bulma recently discovered how to make this fuel. It was the stuff she had Monaka help her with in Episode 44.
So Trunks goes outside, where Piccolo and Krillin have been tasked with repairing the grounds after the fight with Goku Black. He asks about Gohan and they tell him he’s left the world of fighting behind. That... doesn’t make sense, because Gohan begged Piccolo to whip him into shape after the whole Golden Frieza thing. They were training together in the Universe 6 arc, and the only reason they stopped was so Piccolo could participate in the tournament.
Anyway, Trunks tells Krillin and Piccolo the story of how the Gohan in his world trained him before he died, which is weird because you would think they’d know all of this. Well, maybe not Kirllin, but Piccolo should definitely know, because he overheard Trunks telling Goku about it when they first met. The point is that Trunks regrets not thanking Gohan when he last saw him after the Cell Games, and Krillin suggests that he go visit Gohan at the university where he... works? Studies? Interns? I have no idea what Gohan’s status is in this. Is he a student or part of the faculty?
Anyway, Trunks eats soft-serve ice cream with Gohan and he can’t believe it.
He meets Gohan’s family and can’t believe it.
Pan mugs him and he can’t believe it.
And as they sit down for dinner, Trunks realizes that this could have been his life in his own timeline. He had saved the world from the androids and Cell, and they were rebuilding. If Goku Black hadn’t shown up, then he could have been having this idyllic life with Bulma and Mai and that cat from episode 47.
Note to self, I need to commission some art of a scene like this, but with Xeno Trunks instead of Blunks, and Luffa in Mai’s seat, kind of slouching all badass, maybe eating a lobster in one hand like it’s a burger.
I say this because this is the sort of thing I envision for Future Trunks and Future Bulma in the Time Patrol continuity. I’ve been writing a fic about that for a while now, and they don’t get featured as much as I’d like, but I enjoy writing scenes where Bulma comes to Toki Toki City to check on the equipment, and she gets to spend time with her son and meet his rowdy ancestor. Maybe this is why I hate the Zamasu Saga so much. It’s precisely because Goku Black ruined this sort of happy life for these characters, and a story where that happens is the exact opposite of the sort of thing I wanted to see.
So Trunks thanks them for the meal and heads home, feeling refreshed. Seeing Gohan living the dream has reminded him of what he’s fighting for, and it proves that he can succeed. The thing Trunks needs to understand is that all this peaceful stuff he finds in this world is thanks to him. Beerus and Whis can scold him for meddling with history, but fuck ‘em. In this world, Gohan got to live! He has a wife and baby daughter! And two arms! Even if Trunks rolls snake-eyes for the rest of his life, no one can take away what he’s done for this world.
When he gets back to Capsule Corp, he asks where Goku is, and they tell him he went with Beerus and Whis to Universe 10. Wait what? Yeah, when Goku Black fought the real Goku, Whis thought Black’s energy seemed familiar, and it reminded him of a guy he knows in Universe 10, so they’re going to check it out.
And then we get a glimpse at this shithead. I’m pretty sure this is the first and last time we get to see Zamasu keeping his mouth shut, so enjoy it while you can.
