Recap / Dragon Ball Z Abridged M 9

As the newly-reawakened Android 17 kills Dr. Gero, a supercomputer in the basement of his lab awakens, and the doctor's mind goes about setting up his backup plan, since his other backup plan won't be ready for several more years yet.

Goku, Chi-Chi, and Gohan are out shopping along with Master Roshi, Oolong, Krillin, and Future Trunks when a pair of Red Ribbon Androids, 14 and 15, show up and blow things up. Goku decides to lead them to the Arctic so the city won't take any more damage, but things get tough for our heroes when Gero activates his trump card: the sinister Android 13... and his trucker hat.

How will our heroes stop this latest android assault?

I have had it with these monkey-fighting tropes in this Monday-to-Friday timeline!

• Adaptation Expansion: Despite the shorter run time, the movie manages to do this for the Androids. In the original, they were just more androids that Dr. Gero posthumously sent out against Goku. They tried only to meet this goal, and barely talked. Here, they're androids Gero completed earlier but shelved due to petty problems, with each having their own personality quirks and programming defect. 13 is a Southern-Fried Genius obsessed with his trucker hat, and was shelved because Gero hated his accent. 14 is somewhat of a Warrior Poet who can't be understood because the drivers for his sound card are corrupted, and Gero couldn't find them online. 15 is a 'gangsta' to the point where he somehow managed to develop a drinking problem despite being an android.
• Arc Welding: The ending of this version of the movie links with Episode 44, both with Krillin investigating Gero's sub-lab. It ultimately ends with he and Trunks finishing off both Gero and the fetus!Cell. Although according to the Episode Breakdown this movie takes place in it's own timeline so it's not a completely clean link however.
• Big Damn Heroes: Piccolo for Gohan, as is per usual. Given a Lampshade Hanging by Gohan, who cried for Piccolo's help even before it was apparent that the latter was even in the area.
• Brick Joke: As 15 scans Goku when they first met, he views his crotch as a "potential weak point". When 13 becomes Super 13 near the end, he quickly delivers a punch to said weak point.
  Dr. Gero: Weakness... identified!
• Call-Back:
  • The movie opens with the main characters shopping for Korin and Yajirobe's wedding, alluding to the special video that TFS made with the two getting engaged following the Supreme Court verifying the legality of gay marriage in the US.
  • When the additional Androids are revealed, Future Trunks asks Goku not to tell his father what they found. When Vegeta himself shows up and asks Goku what's going on, Trunks can be heard saying "NO NO NO!" as Goku explains three more Androids showed up. Vegeta then says that "pretty sure that makes eight, never letting the boy live this one down."
  • So many are made to Android 17's line about Super Android 13's trucker hat. It turns out that he really is obsessed with it. He actually introduces himself with the exact line that 17 quoted.
    Android 13: Howdy there, I'm Android 13. Look at my trucker hat.
  • Vegeta throws a doggy biscuit at 15's severed head, just as he did with Guldo and 19.
  • Goku is punched by Super Android 13 in the dick and left asking why anyone would do such a thing. Vegeta notes how the tables have turned, referencing the number of times that he got kicked in the dick in Cooler 2.
  • Right before Super Android 13 is confronted by Trunks, Dr. Gero says "Oh my non-existent God". Keep in mind that this is after Piccolo had fused with Kami. So technically, since Earth is currently without its Guardian, non-existent is right!
• Crying Indian: Android 14 is voiced by images turned into audio with PhotoSounder. His line subtitled "They do not understand our struggle." is actually a picture of the "Crying Indian" from the famous 1971 environmental commercial.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • Goten and Teen Gohan briefly appear in a Cutaway Gag that shows the former being Ret-Gone'd after Goku gets punched in the dick.
    Gohan: (Beat) What was I doing here?
  • Dr. Wheelo is mentioned at the beginning by Dr. Gero, saying that he should thank Wheelo for him being able to back up his brain in the supercomputer.
• Forgot About His Powers: Both Goku and Trunks forget to turn Super Saiyan for a good while into their fight with 13, 14, and 15. It's only when Vegeta does so that they get inspired to follow suit. Dr. Gero, who had previously witness this before, just remembered.
  Trunks: Oh right. Super Saiyan. HAAAAH!!
  Goku: Oh right. Super Saiyan. HAAAAAH!!!
  Gero: Oh shit. Super Saiyan... DAAAAAHHHHH!!!
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The androids analyzing Goku with their 3D-Scan Mode has a brief moment when it targets his crotch, labeling it as a "Potential Weak Point", making this a Brick Joke as well.
• Gag Echo: Vegeta and Piccolo each make their entrances by popping out of ice to help take out a bad guy, with each also remarking in deep, booming voices that they had been awoken from a slumber.
• Groin Attack: Super Android 13 punches Goku in the dick so hard, his future son Goten fades out of existence. Vegeta is quick to remind him that he also suffered this trope. Luckily, a couple of Senzu beans heal his nuts back to normal.
• Godzilla Threshold: The only reason Gero activates Androids #13-15 is because Cell is still in development and he himself was destroyed thanks to 17 and 18. As 13 puts it, the doctor "gone plum run out of options".
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Trunks knows that this trope would be in play if Vegeta found out that there were another set of Androids that existed in this timeline, given how they would be another three that Trunks had no knowledge about. Sure enough, Vegeta invokes it immediately upon entering the fray and learning about them.
  Vegeta: Never letting the boy live this one down...
• Once More, with Clarity: The movie opens up showing us Gero's death at the hands of 17 and 18 again, only now we get to see what happens to Gero's mind in the aftermath. Turns out that he transferred himself into his lab's underground supercomputer.
• One Last Smoke: Before engaging with a now Super Saiyan Vegeta and knowing that there'd be a chance he might die, Android 15 grabs his bootflask and drains the last of his booze from it.
  Vegeta: Does that even do anything to you?
  Android 15: ...Not anymore...
• Persona Non Grata: To the surprise of no one, Master Roshi is not welcome at most Victoria's Secret stores.
  Krillin: I don't get it; how are you not on some kind of list?
  Roshi: You think Master Roshi is my real name?
• Running Gag: Frequent uses of the "Race Card".
• Self-Deprecation: In frustration over his lines, the narrator complains that Team Four Star stopped trying after Season 2.
• Shout-Out:
  • 13 has his trademark trucker hat lowered onto his head to a banjo rendition of the Imperial March.
  • The chant that Kami and Nail do to amp Piccolo up during the fight with Super Android 13 is taken from "Piccolo Takes a Beating" from Weekly Tube Show. To make it more notable, WTS does the voice of Kami in DBZ Abridged, so it essentially serves as a reprisal.
  • The music that plays as Future Trunks confronts Super 13 is "I am the Doctor", the Leitmotif of the Eleventh Doctor, referencing Trunks' status as a time traveler.
  • When Future Trunks sees 13, he paraphrases a certain speech from a certain movie starring Samuel L. Jackson. Even better, he paraphrases the TV edit version of said speech.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Not only do both Vegeta and Piccolo independently decide to find some alone time in the Artic, but they do the same opening speech when they emerge from the ice.
  Vegeta/Piccolo: For thousands of years I lay dormant! WHO HAS DISTURB MY-
• Take the Third Option: After uploading himself in the sub-lab's supercomputer, he planned to go with Plan B, which involves sending Cell out to kill the Z-Fighters and the rogue Androids 17 and 18. As Cell is still a fetus, Gero resorts to using Androids 13-15 as Plan C, despite their defects, and thus kick off the movie's plot.
• Transformation Is a Free Action: As 13 transforms, Piccolo suggest to attack him. Goku invokes this trope because he wants a good fight.