A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Easter egg in the movie Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero raises many new questions about Dr. Gero’s original androids.
Androids have recently made a big comeback in Dragon Ball Superfollowing the release of the last film in the series, Dragon Ball Super: Super heroes. As the film tied into the series’ past, however, a startling revelation raised many questions about Dr. Gero and androids – and Android 16 in particular.
Android 16 was another android created by Dragon Ball’s Dr. Gero, just before 17 and 18, as his numbering suggests. While 17 and 18 had biological components (which technically made them cyborgs), 16 was a purely mechanical android. As 16 traveled with 17 and 18 initially, he developed a love of nature and soon found himself battling Cell. 16 ended up sacrificing himself to stop Cell, and his last words were a plea for Gohan, asking him to protect the wildlife he had come to worship in his brief existence.
In Dragon Ball Super: Super heroes, the Red Ribbon Army is revived by Magenta, the son of the former Red Commander. Magenta approaches Dr. Hedo, a very young man who happens to be Dr. Gero’s grandson. Hedo has previously been interested in developing robots and androids, but lacks the funds for such an endeavor, so he initially agrees to work with them. At one point, a chart is shown depicting Dr. Gero’s family tree. He reveals his wife, a woman named Vomi who resembles the popular but so far non-canonical Android 21, and a son, Gevo, who resembles Android 16. It should be noted that Gevo is not Hedo’s father, indicating that Gero must have also had another child at some point.
Android 16 is based on Dr Gero’s son
Given the identical appearance, it’s safe to assume Dr. Gero based Android 16’s appearance entirely on his son’s, which has all sorts of implications. Since Gero ended up putting himself in an android body, Android 16 may be meant to house his son’s spirit in the same way. Gevo is shown to be a member of the Red Ribbon Army, so he probably wasn’t a very good person, which would put him at odds with Android 16’s behavior. This fact may even be the real reason for which 16 was shut down – Gero couldn’t stand having this robot that looked like his son but acted nothing like him. After all, 17 and 18 read that Android 16 was shut down for “posing a threat to the existence of Earth”, but if anything, he was pretty underpowered compared to the Androids that came over later, and Dr. Gero created Cell, a far worse threat that wasn’t similarly staved off. Also, if Android 20 was Gero and Android 16 was his son, then could other Androids also be based on members of his own family? It paints a very different picture of Dr. Gero if he was also tragically rebuilding his lost family rather than just going after Goku.
It’s not yet clear if any of this will have any relevance to the upcoming story, but given Dragon Ball SuperThe return of these characters in chapter 88 of the manga, now is the time to return to them.