[LuckyCat]

Originally Posted by ChronoReverse

Erm, I always felt that it was implied that he

Spoiler:

"defeated" the Androids because they figured out how to build the remote shut-off. When Trunks was hurrying to time travel back to tell everyone, he was killed by Cell

Spoiler:

Bulma needed blueprints to make a remote, and it was believed by Trunks that Gero's lab was destroyed. It was only after using a time machine once, that a remote was built.

Originally Posted by roriconfan

Oh, you missed the part where the timeframe Cell went back to was the same as when Trucks went there the first time. He wanted to tell himself not to intervene with this timeline as the problem was solved (or he thought it was).

Spoiler:

Cell went back to create the main SSJ2 Gohan timeline. There is no point in that timeline where Trunks got a remote or blueprints and solved the problem of the Androids with it in his time. So there needs to be an alternate main timeline, #4, which we never see.

It might be better to wait for these episodes to air in Kai, so we can discuss it with the facts fresh in our heads. I'm sure there's going to be inconsistencies with any explanation, though.