| “ | You see, I'm perfect, my strength is perfect, and with that I shall bring about equally perfect destruction through the rest of the universe | „ |
| ~ Cell's in the Funimation dub of Dragon Ball Z Kai. |
| “ | I thought Dr. Gero only meant for me to defeat the Earth, but I know now I was designed for much more. Once I'm finished tearing this world into pieces, I'll just use Goku's Instant Transmission technique to move onto other planets. That is my destiny. I am the universe's end! | „ |
| ~ Cell deciding to wipe out all life in the universe. |
| “ | Now, my dearest children. Those 7 on the cliff are your enemies. Give them pain. Kill them if it makes you happy. | „ |
| ~ Cell ordering the Cell Juniors to torture the Z-Fighters. |
Cell is the main antagonist of the Androids/Cell Saga of Dragon Ball Z.
He is a biomechanical android created by Dr. Gero's supercomputer who has the genetic material of Frieza, King Cold, Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo. Despite the examples of Cell inheriting genes that were not all that bad, he decided to embrace his more egotistical power-hungry bloodline, seeking out ways to show off his perfection through defeating anyone he deems imperfect, even wanting to go as far as to commit omnicide across the universe. He is one of Goku and Vegeta's most dangerous enemies and the archenemy of Gohan, Piccolo and Androids 16, 17 and 18.
He is voiced by Norio Wakamoto in Japanese who also voiced M. Bison and Vicious, and Dameon Clarke in English.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- Even though he was created by Dr. Gero to be evil, he still displays moral agency and knows what he's doing as his goals go beyond what he was initially created for, not only intending to kill Goku, but the entire universe as well. Further evidence of his moral agency comes from filler/anime-only content, where it is shown that his soul was sent to Hell due to how wicked he is, which is only possible because he surpassed his own programming due to becoming a very advanced android.
- While he acts polite and shows respect for some of his opponents (such as Goku), this is more for pragmatic reasons rather than genuine, since that once he realizes he is losing, he will have an mental breakdown and play dirty, such as when he tried to self-destuct to destroy Earth just because he was overpowered by Gohan.
- This reaction upon losing to Gohan also shows that, despite having Goku's love for fighting, Cell lacks any honor, fighting for the thrill of it rather than seeing it as a sport.
- While he seems to have some respect for his creator Dr. Gero, this doesn't necessarily mean that he cares about or has any loyalty for him. In fact, Cell's respect for Gero is largely self-aggrandizing rather than genuinely affectionate, believing that only a genius can create a perfect being like himself.
- In Dragon Ball FighterZ, he shows that he doesn't share Android 17 and 18's hatred for Gero, but he doesn't care about or have any gratitude for him. Had Cell meet Gero, he would have mostly likely tried to kill or simply insult him for being weak.
- He has zero redeeming qualities or comedic moments whatsoever and is taken completely seriously.
- According to Grand Kai, Cell was sentenced to Hell by King Yemma, proving just how vile he is.
- While Dragon Ball's heinous standards is incredibly high, Cell manages to stand out because of his enormous kill count with the little resources he has compared to later villains in the series and their big strength and power differences and he does have personal villainy against Gohan as he murdered Android 16 and his father Goku in front of him, and to add to all of that, he's one of the only villains to actually kill Goku. Not to mention his crime of horrifically absorbing hundreds of thousands of people in a painful way is fairly unique.
Background[]
- Killed Future Trunks from an alternate timeline and used his time machine to get to the present timeline.
- Absorbed over thousands of people into his body for the sake of his own strength, including people in both the alternate and present timelines. What's worse is he delusionally rationalized this by saying that they should have considered it an honor, due to having "become one with perfection".
Cell Saga[]
- Attempted to kill Krillin and Piccolo prior to reaching his Semi-Perfect Form. He didn't kill Krillin because his allies were nearby, and he spared Piccolo by accident as he genuinely thought he had killed Piccolo until Goku found out otherwise.
- Broke Piccolo's neck and blasted a hole through his torso before tossing him into the ocean to drown in an attempt to kill him for interfering with him trying to absorb 17 and 18.
- Beat up and then absorbed Android 17 to achieve his semi-perfect form.
- Critically damaged Android 16 shortly after reaching his semi-perfect form, even though 16 was unable to harm Cell in this form.
- Used Android 17's voice in an attempt to manipulate and trick Android 18 into letting him absorb her.
- Attempted to kill Tien even though he was unconscious, largely out of anger for buying enough time for Android 18 to escape from him until he meets Goku when he escaped with both Tien and Piccolo.
- Bombed multiple islands of thousands of people to flush Android 18 out of hiding.
- Convinced Vegeta, who became a Super Saiyan, to let him achieve his perfect form so he could give him a real fight.
- Absorbed Android 18 to achieve his perfect form and then kicked Krillin aside when he tried attacking him in rage for absorbing Android 18.
- Nearly killed Vegeta and Future Trunks after achieving his perfect form.
- He initially planned on killing Future Trunks, but later decided to create a tournament known as the Cell Games, which Cell sadistically said that the main goal of the tournament was to spread terror thought the world and see the look of fear on people's face's, leaving Future Trunks completely horrified.
- Upon arriving in a television station to make the announcement of his tournament, he interrupts a live news broadcast and kills a reporter.
- He said that after the Cell Games, he would kill off everyone on Earth for his own pleasure.
- After ending the broadcast of his tournament, he blasts a hole thought the wall of the television station, which destroyed half of the city, wreaking chaos in the entire world.
- While he agreed with Goku to wait for the Cell Games without killing anyone, it was clearly only pragmatic and not at all genuine.
- Killed many army soldiers in the lead-up prior to the Cell Games. Although they found and actively tried to kill him, they did not pose a true threat to him due to how strong he was, and they were retreating when he killed them.
- Although when Mr. Satan challenged him, Cell didn't end up killing him, but it was just because he didn’t want to waste any effort in doing so when he viewed Mr. Satan to be an idiot not worth it.
- During his fight with Goku, he fired a Kamehameha stated by Goku to be strong enough to destroy Earth, without hesitation.
- Even when Gohan made it clear that despite everything Cell has done, he doesn't want to kill him and begs him to repent of his crimes and end things without violence, giving him a redemption chance, Cell instead just mocks him for thinking he could actually talk him down, and upon hearing of Gohan's hidden power, he proceeded to torture Gohan only to see the extent of his power.
- He spawned out the Cell Juniors and sent them torture the Z-Fighters to death while he was fighting Gohan. What's worse is he forced Gohan to watch and ignored his pleas as an attempt to enrage him in order for him to reveal his hidden power.
- Stole the Senzu Beans so the Z-Fighters couldn't heal themselves.
- Killed Android 16 while he was trying to encourage Gohan by stomping on his disembodied head, and mocked his death. This caused Gohan to transform into a second level of Super Saiyan.
- While he was shocked at first that Gohan killed the Cell Juniors, he quickly got over it and didn't care about his children's deaths.
- Also, in Dragon Ball Xenoverse, if a Cell Junior is beaten up while having Cell as a ally during Parallel Quests, Cell would ruthless say "I have no use for failures", even though Cell Junior would ask him for help.
- In Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, he didn't show any sign of anger and was just watching Gohan killing his children with a smile on his face, showing that he likes seeing people suffering, even his allies.
- Attempted to blow up Earth when he was outmatched by Gohan, leading to Goku sacrificing himself by teleporting him to King Kai's planet, which was also notably the first time a villain actually manages to kill Goku (before revived by Old Kai).
- Not only did this affect Gohan, but it also affected Chi Chi as well, as it's mentioned she cried herself to sleep for multiple nights due to Goku's death. Not only that, but this also means that Goten had to live the first 7 years of his life without ever knowing his father.
- Killed Future Trunks with a Death Beam before mocking his and Goku's deaths.
- In Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, he then mocked Vegeta by saying "So much for the Prince of Saiyans", when the latter tried to avenge his future son's death by trying to destroy him.
- Broke Gohan's left arm while trying to kill Vegeta.
- He almost destroyed Earth and the entire Solar System with a Kamehameha Wave, and he would've gone through with it if Vegeta hadn't interfered.
- He said that after he's done destroying Earth, he will move on to every other planet in the universe and do the same thing to them as well.
Majin Buu Saga[]
- His actions of killing Goku would indirectly prevent him from helping the Z-Fighters when they needed him, thus allowing Majin Buu to kill all of humanity and destroy Earth.
- Additionally, this also led to Moro escaping his prison and continuing to cause havoc due to the magic containing him disappearing after Goku killed Kid Buu.
Filler/Anime-Only[]
- In the Cell saga, he tried to absorb a woman and her younger brother Tommy, and would have done it if Krillin didn't save them in time.
- He is responsible for the events of Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound, since his murder of both Goku and King Kai managed to help Bojack escape from his imprisonment and the energy from the Cell Games were also used to help Bojack and his minions find Earth.
- He tortured an ogre to find a way to escape from Hell, sadistically telling him he'll do the same to the rest of the ogres if he doesn't show him the way out and tried to kill him by throwing him on a pit of spikes. Once Goku arrives in Hell to protect the ogres, Cell tries to kill him again. According to Goku, even in death, Cell will never learn from his actions.
- He allied with Frieza, Goku's arch-nemesis, and tried to kill Goku alongside him, not caring that Goku was a child back then (because of Pilaf's wish to one of the Shadow Dragons).
- Even though they seem to get along since they trained together and their shared hatred towards Goku, both he and Frieza actually hate each other, as shown in Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Fighterz, and would only team up if that would benefict them, rather than genuine partnership.
- In Hell, he and the other villains are shown cheering for Kid Buu during his fight with Goku. He was also still upset at Goku for quitting their fight back when he was alive on Earth.
Dragon Ball Heroes (TV Series)[]
- Despite being freed by Shroom, he doesn't show gratitude towards him for it.
- While he does save Goku, Vegeta, Cumber and Hearts from Goku Black and teleports them to Earth, it is only so he can get out of Hell after he was free from his prison, thanks to the former Demon God Shroom. He even makes it clear (in his mind) that he will not simply return to Hell so easily after being there for so long, secretly vowing to get his vengeance on the Z-Fighters (mostly Gohan) for killing him.
Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero[]
- His actions inspire the Red Ribbon Army to return in some sorts of ways.
- Dr. Hedo, Carmine, Hachimaru, and Magenta renewed the Red Ribbon Army, although Dr. Hedo was forced to do so.
- New androids were built, such as Gamma 1, Gamma 2 and Cell Max, who almost killed Piccolo. They were the inspirations from Android 17, Android 18 and Cell himself.
Trivia[]
- Cell is the only Red Ribbon Army android to be Pure Evil, as all the others have either redeeming qualities, moral agency issues, or fail to stand out.
- Cell serves as a foil to Android 16, who is Pure Good. Also, both Cell and Android 16 are androids created by Dr. Gero.
External Links[]
- Cell on the Villains Wiki
- Cell on the VS Battles Wiki
- Cell on the Dragon Ball Wiki
[]
 Pure Evils
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Dragon Ball Z | ||