Why did he Kill All Humans? Because he was bored.
"You took my body. You took my life! Then you even killed Chi-Chi and Goten! You're gonna regret telling me that, Zamasu. 'Cause now I'm mad. I'm really, really mad. And now it's time... to PAAAAAYYYY!!!"
— Goku upon finding out that Goku Black slaughtered his family, Dragon Ball Super
For a series known for its idealism, Dragon Ball has some of the cruelest, most brutal actions committed by villains in Shonen.
Dragon Ball
- Tao Pai Pai crossed the line when he killed Upa's father, Bora, for no particular reason. Contract killing is dirty business by default, but Bora wasn't even his primary target. He then threatened Upa, a small child, saying he should be thankful that he's still alive. There is also the underlying fact that he had no problem taking a contract to kill a twelve-year-old boy, super-strong or not.
- Commander Red crosses the line when he admits to Officer Black that he was only using the Red Ribbon Army to gain the Dragon Balls so he could wish himself taller. The fact that his pettiness led to the deaths of not only his soldiers, but countless innocents caught in the crossfire had many people cheering when Officer Black put a bullet in his head.
- Officer Black jumps the line himself after he decides to destroy the entire Red Ribbon Army base just to kill Goku. For someone who just betrayed his commander for callously throwing lives away, this is especially heinous.
- The Crane Hermit becomes completely irredeemable after he tries to murder his own students because they refused to kill a defenseless opponent.
- King Piccolo's son, Tambourine, crosses it when he kills Krillin and brags about it to Goku.
- Goku has his brother Raditz pinned down by the tail, and Raditz is begging for his life, citing their familial connection in his pleas for mercy. Goku gives in despite Piccolo's warnings, and how does Raditz respond? By attacking Goku right away, breaking his ribs, and laughing in his brother's face as he beats him down. This despicable act of cowardice and hypocrisy assures that Raditz will not be missed after his death.
- Frieza crossed it prior to the start of the series with his destruction of Planet Vegeta and the entire Saiyan population, who were nothing but loyal to him, out of paranoia that one of them could become a Super Saiyan (an old legend at that point) and surpass his power. Ironically, this would set in motion a chain of events that would create the very Super Saiyan that would finally strike him down.
- Frieza's Co-Dragon, Dodoria, crosses it when he kills Dende's brother, Cargo, in cold-blood. Just for good measure, he snaps Elder Moori's neck immediately afterward, after the Elder had already handed over the Dragon Ball that Frieza wanted.
- Recoome crosses it on behalf of the entire Ginyu Force when he brutally beats 5-year-old Gohan (who posed NO threat to him) to a bloody pulp, breaking his neck in the process. Burter and Jeice are no better, joking around as the poor boy slowly bleeds to death. Thankfully, Goku arrives just on time to save his son, and unleashes a karmic beatdown on the three of them.
- King Cold crosses it when, after getting over the initial shock of seeing his son Frieza hacked to bits in front of him, he calmly congratulates his son's killer and offers to take him on as his new heir. An interesting case as it is a moment of cruelty in regards to someone else who crossed the line and most would agree the character deserves no sympathy, yet it still stands out as an exceptionally heinous act since the character is his own son.
- In the filler of the Cell saga, Garlic Jr. crossed it when he transforms every living being from Earth into bloodthirsty vampires.
- One would assume that Cell crossed the horizon before even appearing, what with his mass-murder of several cities' worth of people. Even after Cell racks up a laundry list of further heinous actions during the course of the saga, Gohan is hesitant to kill him because he is a pacifist who refuses to commit murder. What pushes Gohan over the edge and finally causes him to snap in a rage is Cell crushing Android 16's head. The lore of the setting goes a long way in explaining why: all the people that Cell killed before could be resurrected en-masse by the Dragon Balls, but 16 — as an android — is not alive in the same way; once his head was crushed, his life was gone for good. Then, to add insult to injury, Cell mocks both 16's sacrifice and Gohan afterward, revelling in the latter not stopping him when he had the chance.Cell: (smugly, as he grinds his foot into 16's remains) Yet another one you could have saved!
- Spopovich crosses it with his brutal beatdown of Videl in the World Martial Arts Tournament. He beat her close to death, to the point where she was screaming and crying, all because he lost to her father in the previous tournament. Even his partner Yamu is sickened, and forces him to stop.
- Babidi reveals his true colors by offing his enslaved servants Spopovich and Yamu, even after they surpassed his expectations, but the way he does it pushes him over the line. He has one of his minions shoot Yamu, then personally tortures Spopovich by making the brute's body swell up like a balloon until it explodes. The guy may have deserved it, but Babidi's sadism negates any possible schadenfreude.
- Van Zant, the ax-crazy gunman from the Buu Saga, crosses this line when he snipes a harmless old lady in the head right in front of her husband, and then has his lackey shoot the husband too. He exists to prove how heartless humans can act in the face of a possible apocalypse, and his eventual fatal encounter with Buu only exacerbates the threat to the planet.
- Super Buu's first action was to murder the lackey of Van Zant by liquefying himself and filling the man's body until it exploded. Gross, but fitting, considering how heinous the man was. Then Super Buu puts any doubts about his morality to rest with his visit to Kami's Lookout. Piccolo, desperate to buy time for Goten and Trunks to fuse, tells Buu that there are plenty of people on Earth to kill while he waits. Buu takes him up on that offer quite literally in one motion: the aptly-named Human Extinction Attack. He lifts his hand and shoots enough ki blasts to massacre 99% of Earth's population without even moving from his spot. It's at this point that Piccolo (and the audience) realizes that this monster is a different beast from the innocent bubblegum-pink monster that came before.
- Kid Buu crossed this by destroying the Earth, killing almost everyone except for Goku, Mr. Satan, Dende, and Bee. He then nearly destroys the Afterlife, which would erase everyone he already killed. Interestingly, this doesn't serve as an indicator of morality in any way; it just convinces the cast that Buu must be destroyed for good, as he's a being of pure instinct that isn't cognitive enough to learn right from wrong. Left alone, Kid Buu would be willing and able to erase the entire universe.
Dragon Ball Super anime and manga
- Tagoma crossed it when he killed Shisami so that he could also kill Gohan. While Sorbet was disgusted by this, this makes Frieza proud of him.
- In Episode 34, it's revealed that Frost crossed this a long time ago. He's a planet broker Space Pirate who provoke wars to end them, and have an image as a savior. Once he ends the wars he starts, he buys the ruined planet to fixed them and sells them at a high price. To add further insult, he helps take care of the children of the parents he indirectly murders, uses the noble Saiyans to further his cause, and mocks Piccolo and the others for not seeing through his true nature. He's so bad that Champa wants to kill Frost right there.
- After spending most of his screen time in Super acting like more of a childish jerk then an evil bastard, Champa officially crossed the line for some fans in Episode 40. Not only does he admit multiple times that he doesn't care about his team and that they are just pawns in his Sibling Rivalry he decides to murder his team after Hit throws his match for falling to win the tournament and for dragging his name in the mud.
- No matter which incarnations of Zamasu are there, every single one of them cross the line at some point with their "Zero Mortals Plan" but each version specifically crosses the line as mentioned:
- For Present Zamasu, he not only does it when he is about to murder his master but also when Goku tells him what his future counterparts had done, his reaction is simply joy at what his future selves had done.
- Future Zamasu already tethers on the edge when he joins his Alternate Timeline counterpart completely ignoring that this guy killed his master but bragging about how his counterpart murdered Goku and his family is definitely his all-time low considering that there is absolutely no reason for him to do that other than showing what a cruel sadistic bastard he is.
- The alternate Present Zamasu, his incarnation who became Goku Black, crosses the line when his first act upon stealing his body is to immediately teleport and kill not only Goku but also Chi Chi and Goten. Considering that he quickly fled into Future Trunks timeline afterwards, he didn't even need to do that, he just did it out of spite for the man who beat him in a sparring match. When Goku learned this fact, he immediately flips out in rage and considered both him and Future Zamasu truly unforgivable, one of the very few times when Goku became outright angry.
- Despite his limited screentime, Quitela crosses it with his plan to sabotage both Universe 7 and Universe 9 by lying to Sidra about Universe 7 planning to take down his universe first in the upcoming tournament so that he would have Frieza dealt with before the tournament and so that Universe 9 would be the one to take the fall if Zen'o happened to get word of it. Effectively killing two birds (or universes in this case) with one stone.
- Mojito crossed it with his reaction to his universe getting erased. Instead of being shocked or even just blase about it as an amoral angel, he gives a ghastly smirk and makes a comment that essentially says "Oh well...". If anything, he seems happy that his universe was erased since he doesn't have to deal with Sidra and Roh's incompetence anymore, nevermind the countless innocents who were erased from existence.
- Napapa and Mechiōpu cross this when they needlessly and sadistically torture Kale until she loses consciousness. Caulifia later gives them a well deserved beatdown.
- Maji-Kayo crosses it when he tries to cut off Dyspo's ears for fun during the Tournament of Power, all with a sadistic smile.
- Planet Eater Moro crosses this in his flashback introduction by devouring the life force of an entire planet purely out of his hunger for power.
Films
- Future Androids 17 and 18 in Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks. For many, they became completely irredeemable after they murdered Gohan by shooting him to death, while he's screaming in agony.
- In The Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans OVA, Goku & Gohan seem to consider the genocide of the Tuffles as this for most of the Saiyans at the time.
- Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan:
- Paragus crossed it when he forced a mind-controlled Broly to destroy the South Galaxy,.
- Broly himself crossed it when he destroyed the home planet of the Shamoians, the race of people that Paragus had enslaved over to New Planet Vegeta, just for fun
. - If you take the events of the first Broly movie as true, then most fans feel that King Vegeta crossed it when he ordered Broly's death for no other reason then fear.
- Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound: In a desperate attempt to catch Gohan off guard, Bojack casually sacrifices Zangya, who was nothing but loyal to him.
