Chapter 99: Universe 12, 14, 15 - The cyborgs' victory

My head canon was always that their inability to complete their programming messed them up. Learning Goku died and they'd never be able to kill him...made them uhhh not well.

Where as the present Androids were way more chill because they still has the possibility of hunting Goku to keep them sane.

No proof but that was always my theory. No Goku somehow made a difference in them.

I always assumed it wasn’t anything that deep. Maybe because #17 and #18 were released under different circumstances, Gero could have had more time to work on their programming in Trunks timeline. Seeing as he wasn’t forced to activate them like in the present. This making them more blood thirsty and more about their programming in the process.

Where he was forced to activate them in the present timeline because the Z fighters were chasing him. He may have even worked on them more before activating them had the Z fighters not followed him to his lab.

To my understanding, the present cyborgs not being evil like their future counterparts, was just another changed attributed to the butterfly effect brought on by Cell and Trunks' meddling in the past. It is similar to how Goku got sicker much later in the main timeline than in the bad future timeline was a change brought on by Trunks' actions. Future Trunks just speculated all the changed between the main timeline and his own had to be due to his changing the past and later Cell's changes in the past. That was likely Toriyama using the butterfly effect to cover for why the main timeline had key differences between the bad future timeline. It is smart because the butterfly effect concept means even a small change like stepping on a bug can have a huge impact on the future without needing a super detailed map of how specific events lead to something else.

DBM tends to downplay the butterfly effect that Toriyama favored by giving us details on why events happened beyond Trunks and Cell time travel did it. If I had to guess why the future cyborgs turned out so different, then I think it is safe to say that 17 and 18 being activated later is the diverging factor. 17 and 18 in the present just decided to hunt for Goku out of boredom. I imagine they had the same motivation in the future, but in they were just the ones who attacked that city, which makes me think that was always Gero's plan, to lure Goku to them. While they waited for Goku to show up as they started killing humans, they found pleasure in it and became sadists. Since nobody was strong enough to stop them, their egos grew, and they started thinking all humans were their playthings.

Whereas the present cyborgs never developed that love, because they never attacked the city because 16 was there and knew where Goku lived. They went straight for him. Cell proved to be their superior, which shattered their egos and forced them to acknowledge their mortality. Instead of becoming inhuman monsters divorced from their humanity they embraced it again and eventually found joy in living as humans again. I realize I put way more thought into this than what Toriyama intended lol. For manga, butterfly effect was the answer. 

If only Future Vegeta had stayed down and lived another day, he would have taught Future Gohan all he knew about fighting and might have been able to take down the androids. 

“Don’t feel pain”
I think #17 that got painfully demolished by first form Cell would like to have a word with you about that head cannon statement Vegeta.

I agree, Vegeta surviving could have really turned the tides later if he trained with Gohan. Being a freshly turned SSJ though really seemed to hype his ego up to another level, so not surprised he didn’t run.

For sure, I think that it’s unbelievable to Vegeta at this point that anyone could match the power of a “legendary” SSJ. He had been hearing about it and obsessed with the legend his whole life. He needed the reality check that his race’s legendary transformation wasn’t indestructible after all.

This was an important turning point for Vegetas character to reflect on things imo. It’s just that he gets murdered before he gets a chance to do anything about it in the future.
If he had been humbled or lost as a SSJ before fighting the cyborgs, he might have been more tactical about things and less reckless/ego driven but who knows.

I don’t disagree with you on it being important, but Toriyama wasn’t a super detailed or forward planned writer usually. He admitted as much when he was still with us. For this arc he said he changed his mind on the villains based on his old editor thoughts on them being meh. Since he changed his mind a few times and made things drastically different from what Trunks said he used the time travel theory the butterfly effect as a catch all for all these changes, so he didn’t need a real explanation. It is smart for his writing style but not necessarily as satisfying for readers.

Calling it now, Vegeta is going to be murdered before he can release this blast.

And thus, future Vegeta is no more. And god damn the androids are sociopathic. Feel bad about Gohan who's hiding and being forced to watch his friends die one by one unable to do anything about it.