Weakest Core Villain Ever...

[DBZAOTA482]

Cell himself stated he liked to make humans suffer in fear, I don't see why we're questioning whether he should have turned to the heroes' side or not when he said something like that.

That still doesn't really explain why he'd destroy the Earth. When he reaches perfection he wants to test himself to his limits and he knows Earth is the only surefire place where he can do it. That's why it seems forced for him to be so gun hoo about destroying it, especially since Trunks & Vegeta's fast power increase intrigues him so much.

Except Cell didn't mention anything about wanting to destroy Earth... till he became SPC where he was literally insane.

[ekrolo2]

Except Cell didn't mention anything about wanting to destroy Earth... till he became SPC where he was literally insane.

He kind of does [spoiler][/spoiler]

[Lord Beerus]

Babidi is underrated.

Anyway, probably Cell, after his first two forms. He's soooooooo boring. I pretty much agree with Gaffer's opinion on this matter.

I'm not going to weigh in exactly on how I feel about this arc, but I will say I agree with those who say that Cell is such a BORE! Easily the worst villain in the series.

And that's a shame because he is interesting when he's introduced. I like first-form Cell. He's creepy. He sucks the life force out of people. When that guy shriveled up, that was genuinely scary. He wasn't as strong as the heroes, which was cool because it forced him to be strategic, yet he still managed to best them at every turn. He was like a bug. You're stronger than him by far, but you just can't get rid of him.

But then he started getting what he wanted, and he just lost all of his appeal. First off, Second Form Cell is easily the least aesthetically-pleasing design Toriyama has ever put out. Why did Toriyama like this design? How could anyone disagree with his editor to get this stupid crap off the page as soon as possible? Every time he's shown, I just want someone to punch him in his ugly face! But it certainly doesn't help that that entire sequence on those islands just takes for-freaking-ever!

But once Cell reaches his perfect form, he is just a snooze fest. He has no motivation anymore. He got exactly what he wanted, and so everything he does afterwards just does not feel organic at all. He just has to do villain things because he's the villain, but he doesn't have any reason for it. "Um... I guess I'll have a tournament! And, uh, if I win, I'll blow up the world... for... reasons. Why not? I got nothing better to do."

Ugh. What a waste.

Honestly, Cell didn't even have a reason to be a villain in the first place after he ate all those people (damage that could be repaired with the dragon balls later). Acting villainous past that point was actively counterproductive, since his goals (kill the androids and then spend the rest of his life looking for stronger foes and challenging himself) are identical to those of the heroes.

Gaffer Tape summed it up perfectly. I love Cell in his initial imperfect stage, but after that he loses all of his uniqueness and appeal and just become a generic doomsday villain.

[DBZAOTA482]

Except Cell didn't mention anything about wanting to destroy Earth... till he became SPC where he was literally insane.

He kind of does [spoiler][/spoiler]

That's not the same... he said he would take his sweet time killing off every single person if not beaten because he likes to see their faces to twist in fear and despair then probably repeat the process on other planets... which isn't exactly counterproductive.

[fadeddreams5]

Honestly, Cell could have been saying those things to push Goku and his friends over their limits in an effort to test his abilities. I don't believe Cell actually cared about destroying Earth or not. By the time he became SPC, he sort of snapped and had a "to hell with it" mentality.

Personally, I love Perfect Cell. He takes all of Goku's most recognizable traits (sans food obsession), and distorts it in a villainous way; whereas Goku is always excited to test his abilities against strong foes, even if he indirectly harms others in the process, Cell is willing, and even eager, to directly hurt others to do so. He is absolutely obsessed with himself and his perfection in a way no other villain in the series displays, and it makes sense since he was programmed to believe this, making him absolutely egomanical and delusional.

The worst core villain (assuming we're choosing out of Piccolo, Vegeta, Frieza, Cell, and Buu) is Buu. Honestly, it's hard to choose this villain because he does have fun moments, and there are so many incarnations of him. It also sucks to lump them in as one character. But to review: Fat Buu is terrifying when he's introduced, but that fear factor is immediately diminished the minute we realize he really is just an innocent manchild. Also, his design is blah. Super Buu would be a logical step up, but by this part of the story, they gave the spotlight to Gotenks over him, which was just terrible. When Super Buu absorbs Gotenks and Gohan, he becomes an incredibly boring and generic villain--Perfect Cell 2.0. People say Cell had no reason to do what he did, but this guy was 10x worse. And finally, Kid Buu... okay, I love Kid Buu. I love everything about Kid Buu, but he only comes out at the very end of the story by the time I'm sure everyone just wanted Buu dead.

[Kid Buu]

Probably #17/#18 for the same reasons why people here are listing Cell, but I find them even worse since at least Cell is fun in his first form.

[PelicanDynasty]

Probably Junior for me. Now don't get me wrong, his arc kicks ass. His fights are all dope. But his character is so lame. Generic villain garble using terms like "worms" and gets angry every time Goku does something. I do like the reverse Mafuba and like I said, the fights are great. But something about the way he acts just pisses me off.

[Fionordequester]

Probably Junior for me. Now don't get me wrong, his arc kicks ass. His fights are all dope. But his character is so lame. Generic villain garble using terms like "worms" and gets angry every time Goku does something. I do like the reverse Mafuba and like I said, the fights are great. But something about the way he acts just pisses me off.

So what you're saying is that he acts like a 3-year old?

Personally, I love Perfect Cell. He takes all of Goku's most recognizable traits (sans food obsession), and distorts it in a villainous way; whereas Goku is always excited to test his abilities against strong foes, even if he indirectly harms others in the process, Cell is willing, and even eager, to directly hurt others to do so. He is absolutely obsessed with himself and his perfection in a way no other villain in the series displays, and it makes sense since he was programmed to believe this, making him absolutely egomanical and delusional.

I dunno man; I'd say Zamasu gives him a run for his money in THAT particular area .

[DBZAOTA482]

Probably Junior for me. Now don't get me wrong, his arc kicks ass. His fights are all dope. But his character is so lame. Generic villain garble using terms like "worms" and gets angry every time Goku does something. I do like the reverse Mafuba and like I said, the fights are great. But something about the way he acts just pisses me off.

So what you're saying is that he acts like a 3-year old?

Well he was 3-years-old.

[PelicanDynasty]

Probably Junior for me. Now don't get me wrong, his arc kicks ass. His fights are all dope. But his character is so lame. Generic villain garble using terms like "worms" and gets angry every time Goku does something. I do like the reverse Mafuba and like I said, the fights are great. But something about the way he acts just pisses me off.

So what you're saying is that he acts like a 3-year old?

Pretty much

[fadeddreams5]

Personally, I love Perfect Cell. He takes all of Goku's most recognizable traits (sans food obsession), and distorts it in a villainous way; whereas Goku is always excited to test his abilities against strong foes, even if he indirectly harms others in the process, Cell is willing, and even eager, to directly hurt others to do so. He is absolutely obsessed with himself and his perfection in a way no other villain in the series displays, and it makes sense since he was programmed to believe this, making him absolutely egomanical and delusional.

I dunno man; I'd say Zamasu gives him a run for his money in THAT particular area .

He's up there in the egomaniac category, but something that stands out about Cell to me is how composed he is immediately after desperately blowing himself up. As he needlessly explains how he came back to life, he stops acknowledging Gohan and speaks to everyone collectively. It's so bizarre. Like, "did you just forget you got your ass handed to you by a kid a few minutes ago?"

[SSJ Human]

I love Fat Boo, but the other versions just feel so generic to me, especially Super Boo turning into Perfect Cell when he absorbed Gotenks and Piccolo. His personality before wasn't much to appeal to me though, but at least he was just looking for a good fight and I could understand why he was evil since the Evil Boo was technically the one that was in control and whatnot. Kid Boo was disappointing since by that point I was ready for the arc to be over and I couldn't buy that he was stronger than Fat Boo because the latter was the fat Kai absorbed and that somehow made him weaker.

[RandomGuy96]

I love Fat Boo, but the other versions just feel so generic to me, especially Super Boo turning into Perfect Cell when he absorbed Gotenks and Piccolo.

In at least one situation he brings up how Perfect Cell would act and then proceeds to do the opposite.

[Fionordequester]

In at least one situation he brings up how Perfect Cell would act and then proceeds to do the opposite.

Wait, when was that?

[RedShift]

I'm going to have to dogpile on Majin Buu as well.

Buu had no personality or motivation other than what pleases him. He's like a toddler given SS3 Goku's power... He was a obstacle for the main cast that was so beyond there league at his introduction. But the real problem is his lack of depth & character. It's not until he absorbs Piccolo that I start to actually like him, even if he's more generic in that form.

[ABED]

What do you consider "depth"?

[Doctor.]

In at least one situation he brings up how Perfect Cell would act and then proceeds to do the opposite.

Wait, when was that?

I assume the time where he self-destructed, which was just a bluff to gain some time and think of a strategy, whilst Cell was legitimely going to kill himself. Boo is far more cunning than Cell.

[Lunatic Fringe]

In at least one situation he brings up how Perfect Cell would act and then proceeds to do the opposite.

Wait, when was that?

I assume the time where he self-destructed, which was just a bluff to gain some time and think of a strategy, whilst Cell was legitimely going to kill himself. Boo is far more cunning than Cell.

Well, in Cell's defense, unlike Buu at that point, he had a gaggle of insanely strong fighters who could slaughter him once #18 was forced out of him. Gohan, Vegeta, Piccolo, Goku, and Trunks could all deal with Cell at that point and even if the others wouldn't interfere with his fight with Gohan, he still has to fight Gohan while he's practically breathing down his neck. The only possible thing I could see Cell doing at that point, other than self-destruction, would be to use the Taiyoken and either A. Book it and get the hell away from the battlefield, B. Try to hurt Gohan while he's blinded, or C. Grab a nearby hostage while everyone's blinded to try and force everyone to let him escape/get Gohan to lower his guard so he can kill him, etc.. Implying that Gohan wouldn't instantly counter him before he could pull it off anyways, Option A seems implausible since Gohan would tag him before he could get very far. Option B wouldn't work since in his Semi-Perfect state, he wouldn't be able to hurt Gohan at all. Option C crumbles apart when you realize that the heroes realize that they have two sets of Dragon Balls to undo the damage that Cell could do and that one of those heroes involves Kurirn, who had no problems with letting Mr. Satan get killed by Cell since he could be brought back to life once the Cell Games were over.

Meanwhile, Buu only had one threat in front of him, a much easier dilemma to get out of than Cell's.

[DBZAOTA482]

In at least one situation he brings up how Perfect Cell would act and then proceeds to do the opposite.

Wait, when was that?

I assume the time where he self-destructed, which was just a bluff to gain some time and think of a strategy, whilst Cell was legitimely going to kill himself. Boo is far more cunning than Cell.

Pretty sure Cell did something similar when #16 hit him with Hell Flash...

Also Cell had literally no options left so killing himself along everyone else seemed like the best move. No one expected Goku to be so suicidal.

[ABED]

No one expected Goku to be so suicidal.

How was he suicidal?