The Origin

Acting on Frieza's orders and the scheming of the Heeters, Saiyan soldiers wipe out the Cerealians. Bardock — Goku's father — breaks from the mission to save the Namekian Monaito and the orphaned infant Granolah from the Heeter Gas. Granolah grows up as the last of the Cerealians.

Sensing the end coming, Bardock and Gine send their infant son Kakarot away in an attack pod bound for a distant, low-threat world — Earth. He alone of his family will survive.

Fearing the Saiyans and the legend of the Super Saiyan, Frieza obliterates Planet Vegeta with a single sphere of energy. Bardock makes a doomed last stand against him as the homeworld burns. Almost the entire Saiyan race is wiped out in an instant.

A Saiyan infant is sent to Earth and found by the martial artist Grandpa Gohan, who names him Son Goku and raises him in the mountains. The shared starting point of every timeline.

Young Goku meets Bulma and joins her quest for the seven Dragon Balls for the very first time, clashing with the would-be world conqueror Emperor Pilaf along the way.

After training under Master Roshi, Goku enters his first Tenkaichi Budokai, narrowly losing the final to his master in disguise.

Hunting the Dragon Balls, Goku single-handedly dismantles the Red Ribbon Army and, with Fortuneteller Baba's help, briefly reunites with Grandpa Gohan.

A stronger Goku reaches the final against Tien Shinhan, as the shadow of King Piccolo begins to fall over the tournament.

The demon King Piccolo escapes and lays waste to the world. After desperate training, Goku defeats him — but Piccolo spawns an heir with his dying breath.

A grown Goku faces Piccolo Jr. in the final and wins, then keeps a childhood promise by marrying Chi-Chi. The close of Dragon Ball — and the bridge into Z.

Goku's brother Raditz lands on Earth and reveals that Goku is a Saiyan sent to conquer the planet. Goku and Piccolo team up, and Goku sacrifices his own life so Piccolo can land the killing blow. Gohan's hidden power flashes for the first time.

Prince Vegeta and Nappa reach Earth. Piccolo, Tien, Chiaotzu and Yamcha fall holding the line until Goku returns from training with King Kai. Goku downs Nappa and duels Vegeta to a standstill; a wounded Vegeta flees offworld to recover.

Gohan, Krillin and Bulma travel to Planet Namek for its Dragon Balls, only to run headlong into Frieza and the Ginyu Force. Vegeta turns against his former master as the planet tears itself apart.

Frieza kills Krillin before Goku's eyes. Rage shatters a thousand-year limit and Goku ascends to Super Saiyan — the legendary transformation Frieza destroyed an entire planet to prevent — and defeats the tyrant on the dying Namek.

The Frieza saga concludes naturally on Namek and Earth. No time traveller ever interferes here — the calm before the Androids arrive.

Goku succumbs to the heart virus. No antidote exists in this timeline — it was never invented and no traveller delivers one.

Cell gestates in Dr. Gero's lab. With no Z Fighters alive to find and destroy him, this is the only timeline where Cell grows completely unchecked.

Androids 17 & 18 activate and systematically murder the remaining Z Fighters. Earth collapses into a two-decade nightmare.

With every defender dead, Androids 17 & 18 roam Earth for sport — levelling cities and killing millions on a whim. Humanity is driven into hiding for more than a decade.

Goku's son Gohan grows into the world's lone Super Saiyan — the only one who still dares face the Androids. He takes the young Trunks under his wing and trains him to fight.

Overwhelmed in a brutal clash with Androids 17 & 18, Gohan is beaten down and loses his left arm, barely escaping with his life.

Gohan slips away to face the Androids alone while Trunks lies unconscious. He is killed in the rain — Trunks wakes too late, finding only his fallen mentor.

Grief and fury over Gohan's death shatter Trunks's limits. He ascends to Super Saiyan for the first time, vowing to destroy the Androids — and to change the past.

Out of desperation, Bulma builds a time machine — the only one ever constructed in T1. Her son Trunks will pilot it.

T1 Trunks pilots the machine into the past to deliver the heart-virus cure. His arrival in a fixed past spins off a new branch: T2.

Trunks comes home powered up and destroys Androids 17 & 18. But he trained in T2, where Cell was quietly erased in a lab — so he has no idea Cell exists.

T1 Cell — fully matured — ambushes a Trunks who never learned he existed. Cell kills him and steals the time machine.

Cell pilots the stolen machine toward T2's past. But T2's timeline is already set, so his arrival spins off a copy: T3, the main show timeline.

Babidi arrives but finds no powerful fighters to harvest. Buu never hatches, Supreme Kai is never threatened, and Beerus sleeps on. The ruined Earth simply endures.