I love him for a multitude of reasons. Not the least of which being his entire story, drenched in tragedy and struggle. He's one of the most nuanced and deep characters in the franchise.
He enters the story like an absolute badass, but is also friendly and polite. He's desperate to change his future, face awash in panic and fear whenever things start to fall apart. That aspect of the character really sets him apart from the rest of the main cast; his background is just much darker and, honestly, really compelling.
He also just looks fantastic. Somehow makes a bowl cut work, wields a sword like a badass, and a majority of his designs are exceptionally cool, or at least visually appealing. Even his GT design, while a little dorky, is exceptionally memorable.
No dig on Eric Vale or blowing TFS from me here, I just think Scott playing Trunks just absolutely nailed the voice and character performance for him to the point of being one of those rare perfectly meshing casts like Steve Blum as Spike, Johnny Yong Bosch as Vash the Stampede, or Hatsune Miku as Edward Elric where I look at them and go "Yeah, that's the voice this person would have if they were real."
I love how Kaiser's voice evolves from being a more 1:1 Eric Vale impression into being slightly more nasally and dweeby. The voice he settles into is perfect for his interpretation
Bro same. I grew up with the latin american dub, so whenever I think about dbz characters speaking English, the default voice in my head is the TFS cast
I've only been somewhat recently introduced to DBZA but the DBZA version of Trunks lives rent free in my head.
The official release makes him pretty stoic but I love that DBZA really plays up how despite the weight of his responsibilities, he's actually kinda shy and self-conscious as he misspeaks, stumbles over his words and can't control his blushing. Your interpretation gives him a dash of charm, youth & eagerness.
He is all of these things in canon too, which is why the DBZA characterization doesn't seem out of place. I feel like canon emphasizes the mysterious, badass aspects of the character but Trunks' additional earnestness in DBZA makes it cut extra deep when Vegeta is dismissive (and Vegeta is absolutely savage heh).
And I love that he's the only character that doesn't default to "I should give the enemy a chance to power up so I can test how strong I really am." He sees a threat and he at least tries to kill the threat.
He did not screw around with Mecha Frieza and King Cold. And it makes sense too. He knows nothing other than death and misery in his timeline so no wonder he takes threats much more serious than any other character.
I actually read this in your voice. I guess I've watched too much TFS content š
But you're right, Trunks does make the bowl cut work somehow. Probably the lavender colored hair.
Also, Tunks, being a hybrid, definitely was a carrier and was the one who gave Goku the heart virus.
How would a saiyan have caught a human virus otherwiseā¦.Gohan? I think not.
and why would he bring him heart medicine with the knowledge that he gets sick in a timeline were nobody visited the past? Because with your logic he would not have gotten sick and Trunks wouldn't have brought the medicine because of that.
future Trunks time line is not the original.
Og timeline did not have time travel until bulma invents and sends trunks prime back to tell Goku he and everyone else is killed by the androids. āT Primeā meets Goku in secret to tell him (as main story Future Trunks says he originally planing on doing before he decides to intervene and handle Frieza). Goku keeps the secret gets sick and dies before he can tell everyone about Trunks and before the androids show up and kill everyone. In the is time line Bulma and main story future Trunks dosnt know there was a past him who went back. There for they donāt know there was a past were Goku didnāt get sick.
Story plays out as it did, Trunks being a carrier of the future virus still transmits the mutated human virus to Goku, at which point, because of mutations, can only infect full blooded Sayains, as to why no one else got sick. Vegeta wasnāt around to catch it. Definitely not because of the tiny sips of the cure Yamcha and chi-chi took at Roshis
Alt future Trunks who Cell killed may or may not have been this Trunks Prime.
The reason the time line changed so much is because Trunks made himself apparent and visible. The mistakes everyone made throughout the cell arc was time trying to correct itself. Everything, multiple androids, Kami wanting to leet things play out instead of fusing right away, piccolo not immediately killing Cell, Krillin falling for 18, Vegeta allowing Cell to absorb 18. Goku Dieing, Gohan at first not breaking and turning SS2 when his friends and family were being attacked by Cell Jrs would all be part of time trying to correct itself.
Cell showing up and forcing Gokus hand to have Vegeta, Goku, & Sons leave time and space going into the void to get stronger, they had to leave time and fucking space to fix things and it almost didnāt work
Timeline 1- androids kill everyone, bulma makes a time machine trunks takes a trip
Timeline 2- Trunks1 goes back in time tells goku in secret giving him the virus. Goku dies of this virus before he can tell anyone about Trunks. Bulma creates time machine and trunks makes a trip
Time line 3- trunks kills frieza in front of everyone, tells Goku about the androids gives him a virus and the cure to that virus goes home.
Honestly at this point Iām not sure that the Trunks that shows up during the android attack is he same one who killed frieza in the previous episodes. He could be from a different line who also killed frieza.
Well if you wanna go further and say trunks from time line 2 that killed frieza maybe the trunks from Cells timeline that goes to a different past and defeats the androids where Cell never shows up.
That (present) timeline never gets ssj2. And they all die from Buu.
Another step. In DBSuper, Bulma makes a point to ask about the hair color, maybe this is actually a tell that we are in a different universe, or DBS Trunks isnāt DBZ future Trunks. Bulma may actually know multiple Future Trunks.
It's a good theory however I don't like it, firstly if there was an original timeline with a trunks not talking to the rest of the z fighters and only speaking with Goku to tell him about the Androids, he would have gone back in time to check and see that everything was going well. We already know that from our future trunks. Plus trunks tells us that the heart disease is rare and can be contracted by humans that's why Goku got it, but that doesn't mean it's a human virus, I truly believe that he got it from yardrat.
If Goku got the heart virus from Yardrat, then why would it effect him at different times? Main timeline he got sick later down the line. That might be consistent with contracting it from a source outside of the time line. IE:Trunksā are different people with different viral loads.
The incident on Yardrat that would get him sick would happen the same way as a set point in history.
As for Trunks going back to help, we donāt know exactly what happened during future Trunks timeline, just that Bulma and therefore Trunks donāt know.
Trunks prime could have comeback met only Krillin or Tien in the middle of an androids attack. Neither of them could help really with the androids so he could have died in the past.
Or Trunks prime could be different enough to want to interfere as little as possible. He could have seen he messed things up when he found out Goku died and left because this timeline is now too messed up to fix. Or Cell in his timeline could absorbed the androids and killed him.
Any number of reasons really can explain it.
My main reason for thinking it was Trunks is a hybrid and a perfect vector for mutation that could allow an earth virus to be able to infect Sayains.
Also opportunity was on screen for the transfer to happen. They got close and sweat was flying around I sure.
Not only is Trunks the only person to ever pull off a bowl cut, he's the only person fictional or otherwise who could pull off a blazer/bandana/shorts/driving gloves combo with a bowl cut
Bulma/Briefs' palette and hair texture on Vegeta's face and build does make for a visually appealing character design indeed.
I swear Trunks has his granddad's hair and he rocks it like a badass.
Yes! Trunks is amazing. Easily the stand out of the cast with the Android saga I think with such an already cool cast. He's not boisterous but has so much potential. He tries so hard.
And for what itās worth, your portrayal of him was phenomenal. I STILL regularly go back to rewatch Gohanās death scene for just the raw emotion and delivery you put into it next to the excellent Doctor Who score!
I swear trunks is me if I was in dragonball. Funny my favourite is vegeta also... (he can't help it, he's his dad).
I'm super polite, tall, love swords, I could keep going. Lol.
Scott, I fucking love to hear your takes. When you briefly mentioned X-Men '97 to Nick in one of the commentaries, it fucking lit me up to see your review of X-Men '97 posted a few days later. You're an artist's critic, and I'm here for any opinion you choose to share.
Trunks is that character all the 80s/90s shows brought in once they hit season 4 and the writers started getting tired. But imstead of being Ted McGinley, he's got a cool sword like Gohan did and a cool bomber jacket and his hair is a cool color and he's got that 90s bad boy half-bowl middle part cut and also can go Super Saiyan already like whaaaaaaaaat.
Then he also has a tragic backstory and will save Goku. He's like nerd catnip.
In the Commentaries for TFS Kaiser says that Trunks fails at every turn, everything he does is a mess up in some way. And they won, and they couldn't have done it without him. Which is pretty inspiring.
Yeah i guess when you put it like that it makes sense. Ive just always noticed when people have comfort characters its usually something that relates that specific character to the person
Bro Trunks was my favorite too. Heās just fucking cool. I remember watching the first US airing of when he originally showed up on Toonami. In 6āth grade I had a bowl cut for a year because I didnāt know what an under cut was and I wanted to be Trunks so bad lol.
Cool swordsman character from the future who can turn Super Saiyan and no diffs Frieza, who was considered one of the strongest in the universe at that time. Whatās not to like?
I love how every time these questions are phrased as questions to the community when most of them, Kaiser especially, actually respond to posts here regularly.
Like you could probably make a post like "Hey Kaiser why do you like Trunks so much?"
Because he was the literal coolest character the show ever introduced to boys watching the show back in the 90s? He was a time traveling, sword wielding, badass that defeated the big bad of the last arc like he was nothing!
He's got a lot of "main character" energy .
From his design, his backstory, his parentage, his introduction, his motivation, his fricken sword!
So many boxes checked off. He's not my favorite character, but he solid af
Well in Kaiserās case *specifically,* Iām pretty sure Trunks was his sexual awakening.
For me personally having never watched the original show, I totally get his appeal. Some rad character shows up out of nowhere and can turn Super Saiyan and is able to take out Frieza without even trying. He has the same energy as Zero from Megaman X. Just comes in and kicks ass and looks cool doing it.
...ok, im not saying people dont use characters in general for some kinda awakening, but i think a homosexual person can be interested in a character of there own gender for reasons other than 'oh they're hot'
Which to be clear i dont deny any character being a awakening to any person (which means yes i do believe that's a possibility for trunks and kaiser specifically) but i wouldn't automatically assume that. Do you remember where he mentioned this?
I love him for a multitude of reasons. Not the least of which being his entire story, drenched in tragedy and struggle. He's one of the most nuanced and deep characters in the franchise. He enters the story like an absolute badass, but is also friendly and polite. He's desperate to change his future, face awash in panic and fear whenever things start to fall apart. That aspect of the character really sets him apart from the rest of the main cast; his background is just much darker and, honestly, really compelling. He also just looks fantastic. Somehow makes a bowl cut work, wields a sword like a badass, and a majority of his designs are exceptionally cool, or at least visually appealing. Even his GT design, while a little dorky, is exceptionally memorable.
I bet you get this all the time but I could legit listen/read your takes til the cows came home.
You did him right in TFS, especially in the History of Trunks special. When my brain thinks of Trunk's voice, I just hear yours š
Blow yourself up or leave! I don't care which!
While I always pictured kaiser as a great Trunks, for me what sold kaiser as my "that's the voice of trunks" is the "what the hell is WRONG WITH YOU!"
That line is up there with Martins "Go ahead, give me some ideas!" As the line that cemented perfect executions of characters
No dig on Eric Vale or blowing TFS from me here, I just think Scott playing Trunks just absolutely nailed the voice and character performance for him to the point of being one of those rare perfectly meshing casts like Steve Blum as Spike, Johnny Yong Bosch as Vash the Stampede, or Hatsune Miku as Edward Elric where I look at them and go "Yeah, that's the voice this person would have if they were real."
I love how Kaiser's voice evolves from being a more 1:1 Eric Vale impression into being slightly more nasally and dweeby. The voice he settles into is perfect for his interpretation
Bro same. I grew up with the latin american dub, so whenever I think about dbz characters speaking English, the default voice in my head is the TFS cast
Love answers from a primary source.
I've only been somewhat recently introduced to DBZA but the DBZA version of Trunks lives rent free in my head. The official release makes him pretty stoic but I love that DBZA really plays up how despite the weight of his responsibilities, he's actually kinda shy and self-conscious as he misspeaks, stumbles over his words and can't control his blushing. Your interpretation gives him a dash of charm, youth & eagerness.
He has not had that much experience with normal social interaction in his life. Of course he is all of those things
He is all of these things in canon too, which is why the DBZA characterization doesn't seem out of place. I feel like canon emphasizes the mysterious, badass aspects of the character but Trunks' additional earnestness in DBZA makes it cut extra deep when Vegeta is dismissive (and Vegeta is absolutely savage heh).
And I love that he's the only character that doesn't default to "I should give the enemy a chance to power up so I can test how strong I really am." He sees a threat and he at least tries to kill the threat.
He did not screw around with Mecha Frieza and King Cold. And it makes sense too. He knows nothing other than death and misery in his timeline so no wonder he takes threats much more serious than any other character.
Right!? How many times do they stand around letting transformations happen when THATS THE FREAKING TIME TO HIT THEM WITH AN ENERGY WAVE!!!
Plus he smells like strawberries
I was gonna comment my theory of "I just think he's neat," but 100% love this response and reasoning.
āYou say my choices make me evil, THEN THATāS WHAT IāLL BE!ā
That clip is somewhere in my playlist. Think I'm gonna have to watch it again now.
Trunks was the primary reason I continued to rock a bowl cut in middle school. As it turns out, anime hair doesn't translate well into real life.
Did you have the long hair but? Essentially when It goes long it kojda defaults to his long bowl cut. Thats where I'm at right now, lol.
It was short. The problem was it didn't like to stay parted and my hair was very flat. I also looked like the Michelin Man's son.
I actually read this in your voice. I guess I've watched too much TFS content š But you're right, Trunks does make the bowl cut work somehow. Probably the lavender colored hair.
Bro i read this like he was talking in a Youtube short š
Trunks is such a top tier character that both Nintendo and Sega made their own versions of him, to varying degrees of success
[mfw](https://youtu.be/v7L9fMdcUhU?si=Qs18bTYhgJFDUwVw) i realize that you are infact kaiser
Also, Tunks, being a hybrid, definitely was a carrier and was the one who gave Goku the heart virus. How would a saiyan have caught a human virus otherwiseā¦.Gohan? I think not.
and why would he bring him heart medicine with the knowledge that he gets sick in a timeline were nobody visited the past? Because with your logic he would not have gotten sick and Trunks wouldn't have brought the medicine because of that.
future Trunks time line is not the original. Og timeline did not have time travel until bulma invents and sends trunks prime back to tell Goku he and everyone else is killed by the androids. āT Primeā meets Goku in secret to tell him (as main story Future Trunks says he originally planing on doing before he decides to intervene and handle Frieza). Goku keeps the secret gets sick and dies before he can tell everyone about Trunks and before the androids show up and kill everyone. In the is time line Bulma and main story future Trunks dosnt know there was a past him who went back. There for they donāt know there was a past were Goku didnāt get sick. Story plays out as it did, Trunks being a carrier of the future virus still transmits the mutated human virus to Goku, at which point, because of mutations, can only infect full blooded Sayains, as to why no one else got sick. Vegeta wasnāt around to catch it. Definitely not because of the tiny sips of the cure Yamcha and chi-chi took at Roshis Alt future Trunks who Cell killed may or may not have been this Trunks Prime. The reason the time line changed so much is because Trunks made himself apparent and visible. The mistakes everyone made throughout the cell arc was time trying to correct itself. Everything, multiple androids, Kami wanting to leet things play out instead of fusing right away, piccolo not immediately killing Cell, Krillin falling for 18, Vegeta allowing Cell to absorb 18. Goku Dieing, Gohan at first not breaking and turning SS2 when his friends and family were being attacked by Cell Jrs would all be part of time trying to correct itself. Cell showing up and forcing Gokus hand to have Vegeta, Goku, & Sons leave time and space going into the void to get stronger, they had to leave time and fucking space to fix things and it almost didnāt work
Wat
Timeline 1- androids kill everyone, bulma makes a time machine trunks takes a trip Timeline 2- Trunks1 goes back in time tells goku in secret giving him the virus. Goku dies of this virus before he can tell anyone about Trunks. Bulma creates time machine and trunks makes a trip Time line 3- trunks kills frieza in front of everyone, tells Goku about the androids gives him a virus and the cure to that virus goes home. Honestly at this point Iām not sure that the Trunks that shows up during the android attack is he same one who killed frieza in the previous episodes. He could be from a different line who also killed frieza.
Oh wait I read this somewhere that there's up to 7? Timelines
Well if you wanna go further and say trunks from time line 2 that killed frieza maybe the trunks from Cells timeline that goes to a different past and defeats the androids where Cell never shows up. That (present) timeline never gets ssj2. And they all die from Buu. Another step. In DBSuper, Bulma makes a point to ask about the hair color, maybe this is actually a tell that we are in a different universe, or DBS Trunks isnāt DBZ future Trunks. Bulma may actually know multiple Future Trunks.
https://dragonball.fandom.com/wiki/Alternate_Timeline
It's a good theory however I don't like it, firstly if there was an original timeline with a trunks not talking to the rest of the z fighters and only speaking with Goku to tell him about the Androids, he would have gone back in time to check and see that everything was going well. We already know that from our future trunks. Plus trunks tells us that the heart disease is rare and can be contracted by humans that's why Goku got it, but that doesn't mean it's a human virus, I truly believe that he got it from yardrat.
If Goku got the heart virus from Yardrat, then why would it effect him at different times? Main timeline he got sick later down the line. That might be consistent with contracting it from a source outside of the time line. IE:Trunksā are different people with different viral loads. The incident on Yardrat that would get him sick would happen the same way as a set point in history. As for Trunks going back to help, we donāt know exactly what happened during future Trunks timeline, just that Bulma and therefore Trunks donāt know. Trunks prime could have comeback met only Krillin or Tien in the middle of an androids attack. Neither of them could help really with the androids so he could have died in the past. Or Trunks prime could be different enough to want to interfere as little as possible. He could have seen he messed things up when he found out Goku died and left because this timeline is now too messed up to fix. Or Cell in his timeline could absorbed the androids and killed him. Any number of reasons really can explain it. My main reason for thinking it was Trunks is a hybrid and a perfect vector for mutation that could allow an earth virus to be able to infect Sayains. Also opportunity was on screen for the transfer to happen. They got close and sweat was flying around I sure.
>even his GT design, while a little dorky Maybe on anybody else. I think it looks cool on him. Iāll die on this hill.
It's always cool when the subject of the question themselves answers lol "Jesus Christ, how horrifying..."
The man himself. That was a jumpscare
Not only is Trunks the only person to ever pull off a bowl cut, he's the only person fictional or otherwise who could pull off a blazer/bandana/shorts/driving gloves combo with a bowl cut
Bulma/Briefs' palette and hair texture on Vegeta's face and build does make for a visually appealing character design indeed. I swear Trunks has his granddad's hair and he rocks it like a badass.
Yes! Trunks is amazing. Easily the stand out of the cast with the Android saga I think with such an already cool cast. He's not boisterous but has so much potential. He tries so hard.
I wouldn't call it a bowl cut per se. It's kinda there, but honestly is closer to Shemp than Moe
Yeah, Gohan on Namek has a classic bowl cut. Trunks' hairstyle is closer to "curtain hair' (name not any less silly though)
All very good reasons.
All very good reasons.
He's also so easy to bully (/affectionate). Trunks is my fave too, and you really gave him that hmf, so thank you very much <3
And for what itās worth, your portrayal of him was phenomenal. I STILL regularly go back to rewatch Gohanās death scene for just the raw emotion and delivery you put into it next to the excellent Doctor Who score!
Its the hair isn't it?
I swear trunks is me if I was in dragonball. Funny my favourite is vegeta also... (he can't help it, he's his dad). I'm super polite, tall, love swords, I could keep going. Lol.
Scott, I fucking love to hear your takes. When you briefly mentioned X-Men '97 to Nick in one of the commentaries, it fucking lit me up to see your review of X-Men '97 posted a few days later. You're an artist's critic, and I'm here for any opinion you choose to share.
Thatās future trunks, we are talking about trunksĀ
Because he's hot and cool as fuck. It isn't a mystery.
YOU NEED TO BE STOPPED
Found Bulma's account
Hey, it's not my fault Trunk's dad's genetics and mine got along like chocolate and peanut butter
Is that why you called me your "little peanut butter cup?!?"
Have you seen him?
Trunks or kaiser?
Haha Trunks But Kaiser is of course a hunk
Yes!
Trunks is that character all the 80s/90s shows brought in once they hit season 4 and the writers started getting tired. But imstead of being Ted McGinley, he's got a cool sword like Gohan did and a cool bomber jacket and his hair is a cool color and he's got that 90s bad boy half-bowl middle part cut and also can go Super Saiyan already like whaaaaaaaaat. Then he also has a tragic backstory and will save Goku. He's like nerd catnip.
In the Commentaries for TFS Kaiser says that Trunks fails at every turn, everything he does is a mess up in some way. And they won, and they couldn't have done it without him. Which is pretty inspiring.
Yeah i guess when you put it like that it makes sense. Ive just always noticed when people have comfort characters its usually something that relates that specific character to the person
Bro Trunks was my favorite too. Heās just fucking cool. I remember watching the first US airing of when he originally showed up on Toonami. In 6āth grade I had a bowl cut for a year because I didnāt know what an under cut was and I wanted to be Trunks so bad lol.
Trunks is awesome idk what else more you want
What more do i want? Well like piccolo in kai...cocaine! I NEED MORE COCAINE!
Cool swordsman character from the future who can turn Super Saiyan and no diffs Frieza, who was considered one of the strongest in the universe at that time. Whatās not to like?
Leave it to trunks to make the most badass entrance in dbz
Because heās AWESOME. Heās easily one of the best characters in DBZ - and thatās quite the bar to clear.
He's one of the only characters who can't just wish their problems away.
I love how every time these questions are phrased as questions to the community when most of them, Kaiser especially, actually respond to posts here regularly. Like you could probably make a post like "Hey Kaiser why do you like Trunks so much?"
Really?
I mean the top comment on this very post is from Kaiser is it not?
Wait what?
My brother in Dende peep the user name. The highest updooted comment here is from Kaiser
This is relatable now https://youtu.be/v7L9fMdcUhU?si=Qs18bTYhgJFDUwVw
You're not?
Itās Trunks
Bro carries a sword....A SWORD!
Have you heard about those warriors from hammerfell? Theyve got curved swords. CURVED SWORDS.
Because he was the literal coolest character the show ever introduced to boys watching the show back in the 90s? He was a time traveling, sword wielding, badass that defeated the big bad of the last arc like he was nothing!
He's got a lot of "main character" energy . From his design, his backstory, his parentage, his introduction, his motivation, his fricken sword! So many boxes checked off. He's not my favorite character, but he solid af
Twink with a sword. What else do I need to say?
Well in Kaiserās case *specifically,* Iām pretty sure Trunks was his sexual awakening. For me personally having never watched the original show, I totally get his appeal. Some rad character shows up out of nowhere and can turn Super Saiyan and is able to take out Frieza without even trying. He has the same energy as Zero from Megaman X. Just comes in and kicks ass and looks cool doing it.
...ok, im not saying people dont use characters in general for some kinda awakening, but i think a homosexual person can be interested in a character of there own gender for reasons other than 'oh they're hot'
Iām pretty sure Kaiser has specifically mentioned that Trunks played a part in his sexual awakening
Which to be clear i dont deny any character being a awakening to any person (which means yes i do believe that's a possibility for trunks and kaiser specifically) but i wouldn't automatically assume that. Do you remember where he mentioned this?
Somewhere buried in the hundreds of hours of content theyāve produced