Why did Gero turn his own wife into an artificial human ?

[Keedounan]

At the very moment it was revealed that 21's son (the guy 16 is based on), who also happened to be Gero's son, it became clear that 21 is Gero's waifu. However, at the same, another question occured to me: why did he turn her into 21 ?

Was he trying to save her from a terminal illness with Boo's cells ? Or was he just so obsessed about taking revenge on Goku that he was willing to use his own family ?
Additionally, why did 21 forget about Gero, yet still remembers about being the mother of their kid ?

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Considering that Gero's son was an adult at the time of the RRA's fall, #21's original self ought to be around Gero's age. That said, Gero couldn't have made much progress with her before his death, given her numbering shows he started work on her sometime during the 3 year timeskip, especially with her confirming her current body is less than 10 years old. ( :withheld )

My guess is that he implemented his wife's brain cells or an electrical reaction to simulate memories into #21. #16 being modelled after his son shows Gero has an emotional side when it comes to his family, so #21's body and memories may have been a way for him to keep her alive in some way, with his computer needing to finish the job. As for her selective memory, it's most likely due to the materials provided, be it brain cells or synthetic memories, were somewhat damaged or the experimentation incomplete. Brain cells slowly die after death, so perhaps Gero couldn't complete the process before her corpse started to deteriorate.

 

[Boo Brand Milk]

So the fans can Jack off
:cabba

 

[Papasmurf]

Not much to add to what CC said. I was always of the opinion that the current #21 is a clone of the previous body, given that Gero couldn't just antiage himself before turning himself into an artificial human either, and some complications seem to have fragmented her memory, either due to an incomplete preservation of her brain or imperfect implantation of her memories or because of those Pink Joseph Johns cells added to her body that made her so unstable in the first place.