YMMV / Dragon Ball Z Android Arc

• Complete Monster: Cell is a bio-android from an alternate timeline created by Dr. Gero to become the Ultimate Lifeform by absorbing Androids 17 and 18. When he discovers that the Androids of his timeline have been defeated, he kills the Future Trunks of his timeline. Cell then steals Trunks's time machine and travels back in time to complete his goal. Cell goes to town after town, devouring thousands with his tail just to increase his powers. When pursuing Android 18 and unable to find her, he begins bombing islands full of inhabitants to flush her out. Upon reaching his Perfect Form, Cell hosts the "Cell Games", promising that once he wins he will terrorize Earth before destroying it and that he would relish the expressions of fear and terror of the people he would hunt down one by one. Cell, wanting to unleash Gohan's hidden potential, begins physically and emotionally torturing the boy. He spawns the Cell Juniors to torture and kill the Z Fighters to further goad Gohan into transforming, succeeding when he callously kills Android 16 in front of Gohan. But when the fight stops going his way, Cell attempts to self-destruct and take the Earth with him out of spite, forcing Goku to perform a Heroic Sacrifice. Cell survives his suicide attempt, however, and kills Future Trunks when he returns, before firing an attack that he promises would wipe out the solar system. Cell reveals he plans to systematically wipe out all life in the universe after he's done with Earth and bring forth "perfect destruction"
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: This is the most popular arc of the entire franchise in the United States; it's nowhere near as popular in Japan.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Unlike how time travel is usually seen in fiction, it's presented as creating a separate timeline that doesn't alter the future one in any way. Many years later, the Avengers would wind up going through the same kind of time travel. This is even more hilarious in the Latin American Spanish dub, where Mario Castañada and Sergio Bonilla, who voice Goku and Future Trunks, also provide the voices for both Bruce Banner/Smart Hulk and Scott Lang/Ant Man II, respectively.
• Moral Event Horizon: Cell crushing Android 16's head. He'd done a lot of horrible things before, but that was mostly because of his programming and wanting a good fight. Android 16, however, posed no threat to Cell yet he stepped on him anyway just to shut him up.
• Rooting for the Empire:
  • Relatively minor cases, but a number of fans were not sympathetic to Vegeta in the slightest when he received a Curb-Stomp Battle from Perfect Cell, having basically allowed him to achieve that form in order to get a better challenge. Even in-universe, Krillin who's also partly responsible as well yet had more understandable motives (him being infatuated on #18, who he didn't see as totally evil, and took pity on her as she had no choice in being turned into a superpowered cyborg for an old man's revenge) outright said that he has No Sympathy whatsoever for Vegeta and couldn't see why Trunks cared about him at all.
  • In-universe was Mr. Satan's "fight" with Cell. Once Mr. Satan insisted on going first, the Z-Fighters allowed it - reasoning that if he gets killed by Cell, they'll just wish him back to life. Some of them were openly disappointed that Cell couldn’t be bothered enough to do even that. Mr. Satan stealing the glory of Gohan's defeat of Cell some time later makes some fans out-of-universe wish the same thing.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Mercenary Tao reappears in two filler episodes. The length of time between this and his last appearance could have easily justified his cybernetics being upgraded into something worthy of taking on some of the weaker characters. Instead, he is simply scared off by Gohan and Goku's sheer presence.
  • With the arc heavily involving the Androids built by the last surviving member of the Red Ribbon Army, there was a good opportunity to bring Android #8 / Eighter back into the story. Since he's a pacifist, he obviously wouldn't have fought, but Goku could have still gone to him to see if he knew anything about Dr. Gero that could help.