The Dragon Ball series is chock-full of characters that often don't practice what they preach.
- Bulma:
- In her relationship with Yamcha, Bulma would always flirt with other guys and try to find another boyfriend, but Kami forbid Yamcha try to do the same thing. Simmers down a lot after becoming a wife and mother, but that's possibly due to Vegeta showing no interest in anyone besides her, no matter how little.
- During the Buu Saga, Bulma tears the Z-Fighters a new one for depending on Goten and Trunks to fight Majin Buu, especially after Piccolo traps them in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, where they will remain forever until Buu kills them. While she makes a valid point and the Z-Fighters are being too casual about death, she never made this protest when kid Goku would go off on dangerous adventures, one that she started with the first Dragon Ball hunt, and even encouraged Goku to come with her. She also had no problem with kid Gohan fighting super-powered, mass-murdering aliens and androids, and didn't bat an eye when he asked to go to Namek with them. It's not until her child is in mortal danger that she suddenly realizes the negative implications of having children fight on the front lines.
- In GT, the Dragon Balls shatter and give birth to evil dragons born from the negative energy that built up in them from over-use; they were originally intended to rest for a few decades in between wishes so the energy could disperse naturally. Bulma immediately blames Goku for all this, citing all the times they've used the Dragon Balls. Of course, Bulma is the one who invented the device that allowed them to use the Dragon Balls so frequently, and kicked off the entire franchise by going to Goku's house to get the Four-Star Ball (and on top of that, her wishes were extremely petty: a lifetime supply of strawberries, later amended to finding the perfect boyfriend). When this is pointed out, Bulma dismisses it and still tries to foist all the blame off on Goku.
- At the beginning of Z, Raditz outright declares Goku, his own brother, a disgrace to all Saiyans for his soft nature, when he himself isn't a credit to their race. As a whole, Saiyans are Blood Knights who would rather die than live with the shame of defeat, especially when their opponent is weaker, whereas Raditz is a Smug Snake and a Dirty Coward who bullies others weaker than him and begs for his pathetic life as soon as he's threatened.
- Cell is one on multiple levels:
- When Goku insists that he's not strong enough to beat him when they first meet but will be the next day, Cell completely scoffs at the idea that a single day could make that much of a difference. This took place as Cell was directly in the middle of executing the plan of his design to increase his strength exponentially simply by eating a couple of semi-robotic twin punks through his giant expansive tail.
- He dips into it again during his fight with Super Saiyan 2 Gohan; he comments on Gohan's Sanity Slippage and outright calls him a monster when he gets his ass beat. Considering the fact that he's a brutal sadist who drank 600,000 innocent people, killed thousands of others in cold blood For the Evulz, and freely admitted that the extent of his plan after winning the Cell Games is to personally hunt down every last human on Earth and kill them one at a time while savoring their fear and despair, Cell has no business calling anyone a monster.
- Cell mocks Trunks for using a Super Saiyan form that is too bulky to land any hit with. He shows it off himself, and notes that even Vegeta would know how useless the form is. Later during the fight with Gohan, Cell gets desperate to the point of bulking up his body the exact same way, to the exact same effect. Trunks even points out Cell is making the same mistake he did.
- During the Cell Saga, Piccolo gives Goku a What the Hell, Hero? speech over his decision to throw Gohan into battle with Cell, pointing out that Gohan doesn't share Goku's Blood Knight attitude and is Just a Kid. While he makes a valid point, Piccolo himself did just that during the Saiyan Saga, putting Gohan through Training from Hell for a year, forcing him to help fight the Saiyans, and angrily chewing him out for failing to follow through with a team attack on Nappa; to add to that, while Gohan was nine (eleven in the dub) when Goku pitted him against Cell, Piccolo did all of that to Gohan when he was only four.
- Vegeta, and in more ways than one:
- He once lectured Nappa about keeping his cool in a fight, and ignoring the insults; ironically, Vegeta loses his temper himself every time someone insults him or if he's about to lose a fight. Note also, that he threw a temper tantrum at Goku for overpowering him in just a few episodes after he lectured him, and in the same fight.
- He's also Enraged by Idiocy and always badmouths Goku for saying or doing something stupid, and yet Vegeta's pride and arrogance, which borders on Lethally Stupid at its worst, constantly results in him making incredibly rash and idiotic decisions that always put the Earth in danger.
- He berates Goku for fighting and going Super Saiyan when he's clearly ill during his fight with Android 19. He makes a very good point and Goku was indeed foolish, but Vegeta is the last person who should be giving this lecture since he is known for going into battle when he's far from prime condition, like he does just a few episodes later trying to fight Android 18 with a shattered arm.
- He's left utterly stunned by how Mr. Satan doesn't realize his limits after being flung from the ring by Cell. He calls Mr. Satan's stupidity beyond belief. He is right about Mr. Satan overestimating himself and should realize how outmatched he is, but it's funny that this commentary is coming from a character who is infamously known for overestimating himself. And they're in this very mess because Vegeta arrogantly allowed Cell to absorb 18 to get a better fight.
- He is The Social Darwinist who firmly believes in the survival of the fittest, the strong rules over the weak, and anyone who is killed deserves it for being weak. Part of the reason why he is the Saiyan Prince is because he is the strongest their race has to offer. This mindset is never applied to himself when he isn't the strongest. When Frieza proves to be his superior, instead of accepting the outcome as natural selection, Vegeta has a mental breakdown before breaking down in tears. He also demeans and badmouths Goku, despite the fact that by his own standards Goku is his superior since he is the strongest Saiyan. He does get better and eventually drops this mindset.
- Frieza is one on multiple levels:
- He regularly demeans the Saiyans by dismissing them as stupid, brutal, and prideful Blood Knights who only care about fighting and lack common sense, despite the fact that under his calm and polite façade, he's just as bad. During the Namek Saga, it's clear he likes to fight just as much as the Saiyans, and he was the one who wanted to keep fighting after Goku called it quits and deemed him Not Worth Killing. Furthermore, he himself lacks the common sense to Know When to Fold 'Em, refusing to accept defeat even after losing his arm and entire lower body.
- During his fight with Goku, he states outright that the Saiyans were evil, murderous brutes and he's a saint compared to them... despite the fact that he along with his father King Cold were the ones who found the Saiyan race and turned them into the spacefaring, genocidal Blood Knights they were in the first place.
- Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 has a lampshaded example if Freeza fights Beerus' attendant Whis:Freeza: "You know, I've always hated that smug attitude of yours!"Whis: "I'm the smug one? Oh, that's rich."
- Thrice in Resurrection ‘F’, Frieza—Frieza—decided he was an authority on calling someone else egotistical and arrogant:
- After being revived, Frieza asks what happened to his father. Sorbet informs him that they were unable to revive him since Pilaf stole one of their wishes, and that they would try next time. Frieza dismisses the idea, citing his father's egotism.
- After Frieza transforms into his true form, he asks why Goku, who's in his base form, hasn't become a Super Saiyan. Goku says that it isn't necessary. Frieza says that Goku is arrogant like always.
- After beating up a mortally injured Goku, Frieza mocks him for being too powerful for his own good and becoming over-confident. Like Frieza is one to talk given that he was so over-confident about his new form that he didn't bother to train it.
- Also, in the same film, after Vegeta reveals he can become a Super Saiyan God, Frieza mocks him by calling him the "prince of nothing". But by the time he said this, the last of his army and Sorbet have all been killed by him. So "Lord Frieza" has nothing left to "Lord" over.
- He chides Dyspo on his Smug Snake tendencies, telling him that the only thing he knows how to do is run away. Coming from the guy who blows up planets to make sure the masses he rules over never produces someone who could actually defeat him, and whose first reaction upon seeing a Super Saiyan is to have an insane panic attack and attempt to nuke the planet they’re both standing on out of a mindless desire to flee twice, it’s obvious that Frieza has no room to talk given the lack of courage he’s shown when times even start to get tough for him.
- When Goten prepares to face Ikose in a tournament, he starts by bowing respectfully. Ikose mocks him and calls him a hick, seemingly unaware that he's the one acting like a hick by being disrespectful.
- During his "fight" with Vegito, Super Buu complains that he cheated by fusing, even though he previously absorbed Gotenks, Piccolo, and Gohan to gain an advantage and bragged about it. Vegito rightfully calls him out on it.
- Baby, the first Arc Villain of Dragon Ball GT, is a living DNA archive of the Tuffles, a race destroyed by the Saiyans. Baby, being the last of his kind, attacks Earth, where the remaining Saiyans are, for Revenge. He establishes himself as king, recreates the Tuffle homeworld, and has just about everyone under his control. He goes on and on about how the barbaric, bloodthirsty, and cruel the Saiyans are. However, he seems to neither notice nor care that his actions make him similar to the Saiyans, if not worse. Notice that there are exactly two Saiyans living on Earth, seven if you count those who are part Saiyan; all the rest of them are dead. Baby was barbaric, bloodthirsty, and cruel to humans, who had nothing to do with what happened to the Tuffles. Baby becomes an insufferable prick specifically because he's an utter hypocrite who claims to be doing everything in the name of the Tuffles that were oppressed by the violent Saiyans, but is really using it as the world's weakest Freudian Excuse to be a galactic dick and flaunt power that he stole from the Saiyans.
- Beerus, God of Destruction, can't stand being disrespected by anyone, but as shown in Battle of Gods and Dragon Ball Super, he has no qualms against disrespecting people himself; for example, he humiliated King Vegeta in front of his own son by using his head as a footstool while the king treated him to an elaborate feast.
- Goku Black/Zamasu is quite possibly the most hypocritical villain in the franchise. Where do we start?
- He truly believes that he's doing right for the universe, by wiping out all the mortals, since they're the one mistake of the gods, and yet does not admit that he's a depraved sadist who enjoys killing people. He's just a racist serving an empty justice and proves to not only be a Knight Templar, but simply deciding to hurt people because he likes to do so.
- Black considers Future Trunks a sinner due to his history of time travel which is forbidden by the gods. He declares that since Trunks' actions made his existence possible to begin with, he was essentially responsible for killing all the people on Earth. This is, of course, coming from someone who murdered all the other gods in the future multiverse, which is also likely forbidden, and even murdered his own master to advance his goals. He also killed mortals, something that only the Gods of Destruction are allowed to do, while he is a Supreme Kai. On top of it all, his very first act upon stealing Goku's body was to go straight to Earth and personally slaughter Goku and his entire family just to be a spiteful dick.
- He looks down on mortals and thinks they all deserve to be destroyed, yet he steals Goku's body in order to attain a perfect form. The irony seems to be lost on him at least until Future Zamasu openly mentions it while talking outside their little house. He also murders all the Supreme Kais in the different universes, which killed all the Gods of Destruction. So while he's preaching about how the gods are righteous and mortals are their only mistake among all their creations, he has no problem killing even them to further his goals. Even more, in the manga, he let mortals like Future Dabura and Babidi kill Universe 7's Supreme Kai. Then, after Future Trunks flees the timeline and with all the gods in his timeline dead, he becomes bored without anyone to oppose him — just like how he and Zamasu believe mortals can't go on without war and destruction.
- Manga Black hates Vegeta because he finds him an arrogant prick. This is coming from Black who bullied Future Trunks for over a year and rubbed his face in about him being weak. He also declares himself to be beyond any mortal after he obtained his Super Saiyan Rosé form.
- Interestingly enough, Zamasu is fully aware of his own hypocrisy, but considers it necessary. In his eyes, Goku represents everything wrong with mortals and gods, and he believes that by making Goku's body a part of his own, he will forever carry the sins of mortals and the failures of gods so they will never be forgotten.
- Jiren calls Vegeta arrogant and an impure person full of self-absorbed pride, but this is coming from someone who does not hesitate to show off his powers to other fighters and is even fully willing to meditate just because there are no more fighters worth his time while looking at Goku, showcasing an extreme amount of arrogance.
- The Supreme Kai of Universe 11 is enraged at Universe 7 for their supposedly dirty tricks when they eliminate Dyspo from the tournament, but this is coming from someone whose fighters trap two Saiyan girls in the barrier to fight them without interference, a.k.a. the same tactic that Frieza and Gohan did to eliminate the sonic warrior.
- One of the key reasons why Zeno decides erase the other universes is because there are too many of them to be watched over and starts by erasing the universe with the lowest mortal level. Essentially, he punishes any gods who are incompetent at their job. But the problem is, Zeno proves to be just as incompetent, if not even moreso as he's never shown to actually do his job as the ruler of all gods and leaves just about everything to the Grand Priest, and Goku Black and Future Zamasu killed all the gods of Future Trunks' timeline and rampaged across the future multiverse slaughtering mortals right under Future Zeno's nose without him knowing a thing until Goku called him in to destroy Merged Zamasu.
- But when Zamasu and Gowasu went a thousand years into the future, their universe was still very much intact. And it was actually revealed that the entire Tournament of Power was a Secret Test of Character. Zeno had already expected them to wish the universes back. In fact, the tournament was also a test and Scare 'Em Straight initiative by Zeno and the Grand Priest so that the multiverse does not produce someone like Zamasu again.
- Paragus from Dragon Ball Super: Broly is a big one. Like other villains, he antagonizes the Saiyans (despite being one himself) saying that trusting a Saiyan is a way to get yourself killed. He hates King Vegeta in particular for being so prideful and for banishing his potentially dangerous son Broly to Vampa. Yet, Paragus himself is arrogant and brutal even by Saiyan standards, as he kills Non-Action Guy Beets in cold blood. Despite his supposed care for Broly, he has no qualms putting a Shock Collar on his son and he'll happily use it to restrain him, but when Broly becomes uncontrollable (ultimately proving King Vegeta correct) Paragus goes into Villainous BSoD. Also, despite not trusting his fellow Saiyans, Paragus happily serves Frieza of all people, for the sake of Revenge against King Vegeta's son (despite Vegeta having nothing to do with Broly's banishment) which comes back to bite him hard.
