LogFAQs > #979427416

...stayed dead?

For whatever reason, perhaps the wording of the wish or Dende not wanting to bring back the guy who literally slaughtered an entire village of helpless Namekians, Vegeta doesn't get revived alongside everybody else on the planet after Frieza kills him -- he just stays dead, and his corpse gets exploded along with Namek.

What would happen then? I imagine the other Z Fighters wouldn't be very motivated to use a wish to bring him back, except maybe Goku, but he's off world so can't voice his opinion there. Besides, every other wish is accounted for (bring back Krillin / Tien / Chiaotzu / Yamcha, make a new Namek, send the Namekians to New Namek) so there's no wriggle room to fit him in anyway.

Obviously, this means Trunks can't come back in time to warn everybody about the Androids, because Trunks doesn't exist. Does Bulma come back in time instead? Or does she send Gohan before he gets killed? Does she just settle for Yamcha and have a kid with him, and that kid travels back in time? If Bulma comes back, that means that unless a LOT has changed in the future, nobody's going to one-shot Frieza and King Cold on Earth. It's not hard to believe that at least one of the Z Fighters ends up dead again while stalling until Goku arrives.

Then there's the issue of Android 19 and Dr. Gero. This is when Goku's heart disease hits, and without Vegeta appearing to show off his new Super Saiyan hair, it's hard to say whether the other Z Fighters could defeat 19 -- he looked dumb, but once he got ahold of some energy he got fairly strong.

Hard to say what happens with Cell. By the time he absorbed 17 and 18, he was stronger than a Kami-fused Piccolo in his imperfect form, and Piccolo at that time was the strongest of the Z Fighters' main roster. 16 could hold Cell down, but he'd still get at 17, and once Cell becomes semi-perfect, he's stronger than the competition; only Vegeta and Trunks could defeat him at this point after their stint in the HTC, and neither of them exist right now. Of course, Goku and Gohan would have probably been able to enter the Chamber a day early since it wouldn't be occupied for those first 24 hours, and just show up to kill Cell. End of arc -- no Cell Games, no second death for Goku, no (temporary) baton passing to Gohan.

(Unless, of course, Goku's desire to fight a strong opponent ends up with him allowing Cell to power up anyway, but I doubt Goku would do that if he knew it meant another life (18's) would have to be lost in the process.)

I don't know if the Buu arc happens at all because Vegeta won't be able to screw up Shin's plan by still having darkness in his heart, and Majin Vegeta doesn't happen to help Buu's seal break faster.