TRUSEV CITY

STATING MY CASE

So what's the run-down for Trusev exactly? Well, when I mention Trusev, my main focus is more specifically on Future Trunks x Present Android 17. There are definitely things to explore with Future 17, but things get muddy there and I don't see it working long-term under most contexts for a variety of reasons.

The easiest way for Trusev to develop as an enemies to lovers dynamic would involve Trunks returning to the past once he's ensured his timeline is safe. In Dragonball Super, it's shown during Trunks' conversation with Android 18 that he had no idea if the androids had truly turned good until then. I am aware that this doesn't occur in the manga and will be regularly combining evidence from both sources.

Trunks is shown to be a very paranoid and careful person and I always found it a little silly that he was never shown to be anxious or at least curious about the present androids and how they were readjusting into society, if at all. Furthermore, Trunks has traveled to the past in multiple (admittedly non-canon) DB media for less logistical / unexplained reasons.

I think a side-story where Trunks travels back to the past and has to put up a front for the Dragon Team while secretly borderline stalking the androids to make sure they weren't up to anything would be interesting. 18's "innocence" would be an open and shut case considering she'd be starting a relationship with Krillin, but 17 is more vague and goes out of his way to avoid formally befriending the very people who saved his life. Additionally, he would have no issue antagonizing Trunks over his suspicion for his own amusement, only fueling the latter's paranoia more.

Trunks getting to know and eventually come to level ground with both of the androids (Though it would take much, much longer with 17) would be more proper closure for him in regards to the affects his actions had on the past and his trauma from the future androids in general. Trunks' trauma absolutely would still be present in spite of their friendship and would even persist into their relationship, but it wouldn't dictate how he treats 17 if he knows for a fact that he's a good person.

In addition, I don't believe Trunks would stay in the past if he and 17 fell in love (I also don't think this would be fully realized love, but complicated feelings they wouldn't properly sort out until months after in their separate lives). They would spend the ten year time gap between the end of Cell Saga and Super apart, then reunite after Goku Black.

Now that we have the general gist sorted, let's address comments I'm sure have arisen during my ramble. Because of how polarizing media discussion tends to be in this fandom, I would like to reiterate again that I am coming from a place of enjoying talking about Trusev and Trunks and 17 as characters. I am not going to judge you as a person for disagreeing with what I say. These are my opinions, not an aspect of my identity.

#1 "MAI IS TRUNKS' GIRLFRIEND!"

I will state this once and refer back to this in further arguments that dabble in this subject: The thing with Trusev and any non-canon ship for that matter is that their exitsence diverges from canon by design. While we're on the topic of Mai being his implied love interest, we would have to first stop at him never time travelling again in Z before we even worry about Super if we were going by things that are supposed to happen. Fictional characters are not bound to their partners in real time. Imagining them with someone else just means the canonical pairing never happens.

Plenty of DB fans grasp this concept with "What Ifs" and other ideas, so I don't see why it's magically different when it comes to shipping. Furthermore, I'll be outright in saying that I don't like Trumai and even outside of Trusev dislike it as a canon choice. It is portrayed much nicer in the manga, but in the anime especially it's very forced and just a plot device to give Trunks a happy ending and a way to manage his trauma without working on himself as a person. It also yet again reduces an initially interesting female character into nothing more than a damsel to be saved and an accessory to a male character and his overarching story. All of this is not even to mention how Dragonball goes far out of it's way to focus on the technical 30+ year age gap between both Mais and their respective Trunkses.

#2 "17 IS MARRIED WITH KIDS!"

See above for why this doesn't matter to me within the context of Trusev. As for how it relates to 17 as a character, I am also not a fan of him being given a wife and 3 children that are never shown. I would be much warmer to the idea if they were, but I know that they aren't because just like Mai they're plot devices to shortcut his development. In DBS, it's very clear the new focus on 17's character is his relationship with family and being "human". Him being given a family is supposed to parallel 18 in the sense that he's not as cold as he appears and is capable of seeking relationships with others.

However, there was ample opportunity to do this with 17 being an active part of 18 and Krillin's family. 17 is very fond of Krillin and their dynamic is incredibly fun. The notion that he absolutely has to be married in order to have a family and a softer side is lazy. This is again not even to mention that his show of concern for his family is inconsistent, flip-flopping between him not caring if they were to be erased with the rest of the universe, to mentioning his animals and island more often than them and seemingly spending more time being a ranger than at home.

Until they're shown and given personalities, I am free to not acknowledge them.

#3 "17 / TRUNKS AREN'T GAY!"

The automatic assumption with same sex ships that both characters must be implied to be gay has always been funny to me. If I were to say they were bisexual (Which I do think they are), it wouldn't matter if they've only been shown with women, because that would be an attraction to any and all genders.

I've seen some people claim that Dragonball has LGBT subtext, but that's actually a hard disagree for me. I think it's very clear that the authors intend for most characters to be heterosexual (unless they're caricatures). However, I don't care and can do what I like. In fact, most of my points could simply instead be made with "I can do what I want", but I think if I can explain my thought process and passion, then I should.

#4 "TRUNKS COULDN'T LOVE 17 BECAUSE OF HIS TRAUMA!"

I have two answers to this. If you are someone who has ever considered 18/Trunks to be a cute ship or could see it working, then you don't actually hold true to this statement. If you don't fall into the first category, hear me out. Bulma married Vegeta despite him being introduced as a planet busting, bloodthirsty monster who wanted nothing more than to erase her kind. This in and of itself is fine, because Vegeta has come a long way since then and the dynamic between an outgoing earth woman and a bewildered man from space is appealing.

One could argue that this is not comparible to Trusev because Vegeta was more of a general threat, rather than someone who was a consistent and extremely personal terror like Future 17 was. But there's the counter right there, Future 17. Present 17's issue with Trunks could be comparable to Vegeta and the Dragon Team in terms of severity / personal grudge. This is actually a big part of why I believe Trusev with Future 17 is harder to pull off. It could make more sense with Present 17 because Present 17 not only didn't do any of those things, but would be growing as a person everyday, and Trunks would have the opportunity to see that growth.

It wouldn't make the association go away. No matter how much time passes it would always be present in some sense, because that's how mental illness works. It would take work, which is fine and what I want out of this ship.

IN CONCLUSION:

it totally actually happened and they look like this:

COOL TRUSEV STUFF

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FANART

all used with permission! click to enlarge

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