Future Trunks is one of the most popular characters in Dragon Ball Z, and it's easy to see why. He's a half-Saiyan who traveled to the past to prevent a dystopian future in which everyone has been destroyed by androids and he carries a giant sword. What's not to love about all that?

Still, despite being such a big part of the Android and Cell sagas, Future Trunks hasn't actually had that much time in the spotlight aside from his early appearances. His place in the series was eventuallytaken over by his younger, past counterpart.

Because of this, fans of Dragon Ball might not know everything there is to know about Future Trunks, despite his popularity. Though the Android and Cell sagas are easily some of the most beloved storylines in the franchise, as is the Goku Black saga in Super, there are still a few things that the average fans might not know about Future Trunks. Even if you do know everything about this time-traveling half-Saiyan, you can still test your knowledge with this list.

With that, we decided to dig deep into the past, present and future of the character to bring you 16 Things Only True Fans Know About Future Trunks.

SO MANY DIFFERENT TIMELINES

Future Trunks from Dragon Ball

Let's start with a rather well-known, but not always remembered fact. Future Trunks is, obviously, from the future, but some fans forget that he's actually from just one possible future of the Dragon Ball timeline.

Future Trunks comes from an alternate timeline in which all the other Z-fighters are gone, most of them having been destroyed by the Androids. When Trunks went back in time to prevent this, he was only able to save the main timeline from turning into his own.

Confused yet? Well, you will be, since there are actually quite a few timelines tied to Future Trunks. There's the timeline he came from, which was unaffected by his trip to the past, the timeline in which he was killed by Cell and his time machine was stolen, the timeline in which Zamasu was prevented from enacting his plans, and, of course, the main timeline in which kid Trunks grows up.

WHY HIS HAIR COLOR CHANGES

Future Trunks was the first Saiyan shown to have hair that wasn't dark in color, brandishing that infamous purple Brief family hair - or is it blue?

See, there's actually a weird story behind all of this, and part of it has to do with Trunks' mother, Bulma. In the original Dragon Ball manga, Bulma's hair was supposed to be purple, but when it came time for the anime adaptation, it was changed to blue.

Trunks did not receive the same treatment in the anime, and he got to keep his blue hair. However, in Dragon Ball Super, he was given blue hair, perhaps to match the changes made to his mother's hair.

But wait: his younger self still has purple hair. Well, hair can change color as a person ages, so this inconsistency isn't that far-fetched.

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HE IS THE SECOND SUPER SAIYAN

Future Trunks DBZ

Future Trunks was the second Super Saiyan to ever be introduced. Goku was the first, obviously, but many don't remember that Vegeta didn't obtain the form until after Future Trunks showed up.

Future Trunks first used this form when he showed up in the past, going Super Saiyan and destroying Frieza, King Cold, and all the soldiers they brought along with them. Being the second Super Saiyan was both a big deal for the series and a huge hit to Vegeta's pride, though if he had known that Trunks was his son, it probably would have been the opposite.

Though Trunks might not have been the first Super Saiyan, we can all agree his middle-parted Super Saiyan hair looks the coolest, right?

 HIS ORIGINAL TIMELINE WAS ERASED

Look, timelines in the Dragon Ball universe are kind of weird and hard to explain, but we'll do our best. At the end of the Goku Black saga in Dragon Ball Super, yet another alternate timeline was created, one where Zamasu never enacted his zero mortals plan. However, with the creation of this timeline, another one was erased by the great and powerful Zen-Oh.

The timeline that was erased was the one that Future Trunks came from, which is really messed up when you think about it. Future Trunks traveled back in time not once, but twice to protect the people of his timeline, only to have it erased from all of existence? That's a bittersweet ending.

Luckily, he and Future Mai were able to get away using the time machine and they are now living in the new timeline that was

HE WAS TRAINED BY GOHAN

Future Trunks training with Future Gohan

There are very few movies/TV specials in the Dragon Ball franchise that are canon, but History of Trunks could easily be considered one of them, since it built on the lore set up by the flashbacks of Trunks' timeline. The TV special depicting the events that led to Trunks going back in time, showing how he learned to fight from an alternate future version of Gohan.

After Goku perished of a heart virus and the other Z-fighters were destroyed by the Androids, the only warrior on Earth left was Gohan, so he decided to train Trunks to join in the battle for Earth's survival.

Under Gohan's tutelage, Trunks became a great warrior, and the two shared a strong bond as teacher and student, a relationship that led Future Trunks to show great respect to the younger version of Gohan.

 THE LOSS OF GOHAN MADE HIM GO SUPER SAIYAN

Unfortunately, Gohan and Trunks alone were not enough to take on the Androids, and Gohan lost his life in the fight for humanity. After losing an arm and having his face scarred, Gohan was destroyed by Androids 17 and 18, leaving his student and friend devastated. In fact, Future Trunks was so devastated, he was able to go Super Saiyan.

See, in order to go Super Saiyan, a Saiyan needs to be angry. High power and training will give a Saiyan the potential to go Super, but the actual trigger is sudden, extreme emotion.

When Future Trunks found his mentor lifeless, his grief and anger served as the catalyst for his first Super Saiyan transformation, which was easily the greatest moment in the History of Trunks special.

NO BEST FRIEND

Along with losing Gohan as a mentor, Future Trunks also lost Goten as best friend - or rather, he never had him in his life to begin with.

In the main timeline of Dragon Ball, Goku and Chi-Chi had a second son named Goten who was conceived just before the Cell games. But, in Future Trunks' timeline, Goku passed from a heart virus before even Androids 17 and 18 appeared.

Thus, in Future Trunks' timeline, Goten never existed, which is kind of sad to think about. Why, you ask? Well, Trunks might have had Gohan to teach him, but he went through a traumatic future full of tragedy and loss without having a good friend by his side to keep him going and vice versa. What? We're not crying, you're crying.

 HIS TWO DIFFERENT SWORDS

In most of his appearances in the Dragon Ball franchise, Future Trunks is almost always seen with a sword. The sword that he carried in Dragon Ball Z was believed to be from Tapion, a character who gave Trunks the sword in a (most-likely) non-canon story. Regardless of its origins, the sword was eventually destroyed by Android 18, but it wouldn't be the only one Future Trunks wielded.

In the Dragon Ball Super manga, it was revealed that Future Trunks wielded the Z-Sword, the legendary weapon given to Gohan in the Buu saga. After he defeated the Androids and Cell in his timeline, Trunks was chosen by Supreme Kai Shin to wield the Z-Sword, which he mastered very quickly.

However, the sword was broken when Dabura turned it to stone and Trunks got yet another blade at some point before his appearance in Super.

HE'S BEATEN EVERY MAJOR VILLAIN... EXCEPT ONE

Future Trunks slices Mecha Frieza in half in Dragon Ball Z

Future Trunks' timeline lost all of its great warriors to the Androids after Goku's passing from a heart virus. Because of this, the only Z-fighter left was Future Trunks himself, and as a result he has faced and defeated more villains than any other character in the series.

Future Trunks has defeated every major villain of the franchise, easily making him one of the coolest and toughest characters around.

In the main timeline of the series, Trunks easily destroyed Frieza, chopping him up to bits before taking out King Cold immediately after. Then, in his own timeline, Future Trunks defeated Androids 17 and 18, Cell, and stopped Majin Buu from awakening.

That means that Trunks defeated every major villain of Dragon Ball Z except for his own father.

TIME TRAVEL POLICE

With all of his meddling with the past, Trunks' time traveling antics got him in some serious trouble with the Kais, specifically the Kai of time of Chronoa. In the Dragon Ball Online and Xenoverse games, Trunks paid for his time crimes by working off his debts as a time patroller, a warrior who prevents distortions on the time stream from destroying the universe.

Time Patrol Trunks did more than repay his debts too, since by the time of the Xenoverse games, he acted as the assistant to Chronoa and the head of all the other Time Patrollers. Though these games might not be 100% canon, this was definitely a cool idea of the character; he started as a rogue time traveller, now he prevents rogue timelines.

FATHER-SON ATTACK

Fathers and sons sharing the same techniques is kind of a staple of the Dragon Ball franchise; Goku and both of his sons all know how to use the Kamehameha wave, Gohan knows the Masenko like his surrogate father Piccolo, and Trunks knows how to use his father's signature move, the Galick Gun, a technique he first used in the Goku Black saga of Dragon Ball Super.

Another similar staple of Dragon Ball is a father and son using the same technique together to create and even more power attack.

In Dragon Ball Super, Trunks and Vegeta combined a Galick Gun and a Super Galick Gun, to create a father-son attack that was both awesome and was powerful enough to push back a literal god's attack.

BASED ON THE TERMINATOR

When Akira Toriyama was writing Dragon Ball Z, he had a ton of different influences, two of which stand out immediately. Aspects like Goku being a Saiyan and one of the last of his kind drew inspiration from American comics like Superman. The Android saga, on the other hand, drew heavy inspiration from the first Terminator film.

Toriyama took elements of the film's story and characters when creating Future Trunks, his backstory, and the Android saga as a whole.

Like The Terminator, the Android Saga is about a warrior who travels back in time from the future to warn others about and/or prevent the attack of Androids and the end of the future's only hope. Some might call it a ripoff; we call it an awesome tribute.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON

Trunks takes after his father quite a bit, with everything from his stubbornness to that infamous scowl, there's no doubting that Trunks is Vegeta's son. In fact, their similarities go beyond biology and personalities, as they both lost their lives in almost the exact same way, wearing almost the exact same clothing and with the exact same expression.

Back in the Frieza Saga, Vegeta was destroyed by a beam fired by Frieza. The beam struck Vegeta straight through the chest, piercing his armor and firing out of his back. Then, in the Cell saga, Trunks was also struck by a similar beam, but this time it was a supercharged version of the attack fired by Cell, the blast also puncturing a hole straight through him.

Like father, like son, huh?

 THE LAST SAIYAN

In Future Trunks' timeline, he and Gohan were the only Saiyans left on Earth, and after his mentor's passing, the Saiyan race was dwindled down to just Trunks. Even if Vegeta's brother Tarble is canon, he knows nothing of the Saiyans on Earth and vice versa.

Trunks believes that he is the last being in the universe with Saiyan blood.

Because of this, Trunks has a great fear of perishing at the hands of the androids. It's not like he wouldn't have feared losing his life at their hands anyway, but the fact that he is the last Saiyan weighs heavy on his shoulders.

If Future Trunks is gone, then so is the Saiyan race; an even greater motivation for the character to change the past and save the future.

 EVERYBODY LOVES FUTURE TRUNKS

As we mentioned in the intro of this list, Future Trunks is easily one of the most beloved characters of the franchise. Many cite the time-traveling half-Saiyan as their favorite character, as do some of the people who actually worked on the English version of the series.

The composer of Funimation's American soundtrack of the series, Bruce Faulconer, stated the Future Trunks was his favorite character, showing that the character was so cool, even the crew saw it. Even more surprising is that Chris Sabat, Voice of Vegeta, Piccolo and Yamcha, also stated Future Trunks as his favorite character, stating his cool origin and awesome fights as the main reasons why.

The reason this is so surprising is that Sabat voices a character that everyone loves, yet Vegeta isn't his favorite character.

SUPER SAIYAN ANGER

Last but not least, we have the fact that Future Trunks achieved a new form that we had never seen before. In Dragon Ball Super, Future Trunks uses the Super Saiyan Anger form to take on Zamasu and Goku Black. We have seen similar forms before, like when Vegeta got a Super Saiyan power up from seeing Bulma get slapped by Beerus, but this was an all new take on the idea of rage powering up the Super Saiyan form.

Future Trunks achieved this form after Zamasu and Goku Black enraged him and caused him to go Super Saiyan 2 for the first time. His anger then drove him past the power of Super Saiyan 2 as a blue aura formed around him and his eyes went blank. With the power of the Super Saiyan Anger form, Trunks was able to hold his own against not one, but two gods.

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Did we miss any trivia about Dragon Ball's Future Trunks? Let us know in the comments!