Story:
- Vegeta taking in his rage and grasping hold of the Super Saiyan power to effectively take the lead role and changing history.
- Goku staying close to Super Saiyan Vegeta's Power using Kaioken x25. Enough to actually let Vegeta keep him alive to fight him proper in the future despite his (justified) indignation towards Goku.
- Vegeta annihilating Cooler, physically and mentally, for multiple reasons:
- In his fifth form Cooler was actually slightly stronger than Vegeta. Except he never learned how to fight beyond overwhelming the enemy with superior strength and Vegeta was far more skilled, leading to a very painful beatdown.
- As his last ditch move, Cooler destroyed the planet they were on, knowing that Vegeta needed atmosphere to breathe. Turns out Vegeta knew it, and spent the previous few days to teach himself how to breathe in space by using ki to compress oxygen into liquid form and fill part of his lungs with it (his physiology and Super Saiyan aura took care of the pressure and heat respectively). This is when Cooler breaks phychologically.
- Finally, after giving Cooler such a beatdown and collapsing from his Fifth Form, Vegeta didn't let him talk but cut him into pieces with a ki blade and disintegrated his body. Except for the head, that he kept as a trophy.
- King Cold beating down two Super Saiyans in his Fourth Form.
- King Cold being defeated anyway.
- Trunks' plan to deal with the Androids: knowing that the main problem was that Vegeta would have killed Goku well before their coming, he went to King Cold, turned into Super Saiyan, beat the crap out of his second form and dared him to go to Earth and fight Vegeta using his greater forms, so that his father would be able to appreciate the virtue of collaborating with Goku against superior opponents and at least postpone their fateful fight after they had dealt with the Androids... And told him as much to his face. And it worked.
- The end of the story of Trunks aquiring Tapion's Brave Sword: after Tapion had a child Trunks kill him to destroy Hirundegard before the half sealed in him broke free, our heroes discovered that the other half of the invulnerable monster was still alive, and with Tapion's ocarina destroyed and Gohan down, there was no way to defeat it... And then Trunks grabbed the Brave Sword (that could harm the monster), turned Super Saiyan for the first time, and wiped out Hirundegard.
- Gohan turning Super Saiyan and wiping out Android 21.
- After recovering from his sickness in the future, Goku went out to take down the future Androids. Between him being far more skilled than them and stronger that anticipated and they having weakened due a lack of maintenance, he easily smacks down 17 while telling his sister and him to change their ways or die for all the fight. Then 18 comes to help, and between their flawless coordination and Goku's inability to detect their energy signatures he risks being killed... And then, at the last moment, he goes Ascended Super Saiyan on them, and in that form he's not in the mood to have mercy. It's not pretty.
- The battle against the present Androids has several:
- Vegeta and Trunks taking on 17 and 18 one-on-one... And winning.
- Krillin Taking the Bullet for 18, who had not done anything yet, and getting Trunks to realize he was becoming no better than the future Androids.
- Trunks standing up to Vegeta.
- Vegeta whipping out his anti-Android technique: ki-generated EMP.
- And 16 knocking out Vegeta with one hit when he tried to finish off the downed 17 and 18. Turns out he's EMP-hardened enough to resist that from a distance... And strong enough to damage Vegeta's spine beyond a regeneration tank's ability to heal him, forcing the medics of his empire to replace the broken part of his spine with a metal spine that he can't properly channel ki through.
- C47 annihilating Wemu, Cui's equally strong brother, while being far weaker than him. Then again, he's an assassination droid.
- Imperfect Cell fighting Vegeta... And actually holding the advantage. It was so bad that Vegeta would have died, had he not achieved the Ascended Super Saiyan form during the fight...
- After that, and with Vegeta believing he has murdered Goku, Cell still manages to convince him to let him absord 17 and 18. You have to give him props for that...
- The fight between Vegeta and Semi-Perfect Cell. Cell is now much stronger than the Saiyan, even when holding back... And Vegeta, being the superior warrior, would have still killed him before he went almost all-out had it not been for his regeneration, and even when Cell got serious he forced him to actually try.
- In the future, Goku beating the crap out of Lord Slug... In base form. Oh, and Slug is actually stronger, it's just that Goku is a lot more skilled.
- Still, Slug manages to talk Goku down the few seconds he needs to hit him with the freezing power of his orbiting planet cruiser, a power he can channel through his body thanks to a wish to Porunga. Even Goku is helpless against the power to freeze a whole planet... And then Dende intervenes, blowing up the planet cruiser and annulling Slug's attack. Cue Super Saiyan, terror, and Slug hilariously breaking his own hand by punching Goku.
- The consequences of Goku's victory are even more awesome: the people of Namek, previously enslaved by Slug, recover their hope and clean the clock with those of Slug's soldiers who still want to fight, with Slug dead Namek's Dragon Balls are available again as soon as Dende can resurrect Porunga, and in the otherworld Kami, Piccolo and the recently dead Elder Moori have found a way to restore all the damage the Androids did to Earth.
- Polunga cannot send Goku back in time, as he cannot affect spacetime. Goku manages to word it well enough that Polunga can send him back.
- As soon as he's back in time, Goku saving Vegeta from Semi-Perfect Cell. As everyone, including Cell, believed him to have died in the future, this has the added effect of restoring our guys' confidence in victory and scaring Cell.
- Goku then proceeds to unleash a Curb-Stomp Battle on Cell, and when the bio-android pleads to let him absorb 18 so he'd be able to pose a better challenge Goku gives him a Hope Spot before saying that he won't let him go anyway and disintegrating him (not completely, sadly).
- In the second round Semi-Perfect Cell, after a Zenkai, is now stronger than Goku even in his ASSJ form... Turns out Goku already knew how to achieve Ultra Super Saiyan and was holding back to master the ASSJ form first. Cue a formidable battle of wits, as Goku has to think his way through the defect of the USSJ form and Cell has to deal with just how much stronger and tougher Goku is. Cell wins.
- Vegeta, incompletely healed from his earlier fight with Cell, and Trunks, who has just achieved his ASSJ form, against Cell. And, thanks to good tactics and the Brave Sword, hand him his ass.
- One for Cell too, for still finding a way to survive this one.
- One of the first things Perfect Cell does is an attempt to replicate Goku's Instant Transmission. He fails, but manages to devise a way to fly faster than light.
- Later, he enjoys the sight of a star six times heavier and two thousand times more powerful than the sun... By standing in space at a million miles from it and looking directly at the sun. And then tops it by walking directly into the star's heart and coming out unscathed. Thinking of himself that he was above gods may be a bit blasphemous, but after pulling that who wouldn't think it?
- And then, in a fit of anger, he destroys the star.
- An inspection in Gero's lab is a moment of awesomeness for the late scientist when Bulma discovers what powers the infinite energy Androids, with a process that starts by creating a completely new element (Element 138, predicted by current science but still undiscovered and unsynthetized). Even Bulma is in awe at it.
- After fusing with Kami, Piccolo inflicting an utter and absolute Curb-Stomp Battle to Present!Slug.
- Still, even when completely overwhelmed Slug is convinced he'll win, as Piccolo either will have to kill him, compromising his loyalty to the Old Ways of Namek he's been following after fusing, or let him go, and he'd be free to do whatever he wants again. The Old Ways gave Piccolo an alternative, one that Slug would have preferred death to.
- After that, Slug ordered his two orbiting Planet Cruisers to raze Namek's surface, killing everyone (including him) and making Piccolo's victory moot. Goku and Piccolo can't just blow them up, as otherwise the debris would devastate Namek. After deflecting their attack, Goku and Piccolo put in action Goku's crazy idea of pushing a Planet Cruiser on the other. It works.
- Krillin was dying due the number Cell did on him. Bulma's solution? Use Gero's recovered technology to turn him in an Android.
- Vegeta's reply to Paragus' challenge.
- When the military fires a Tomahawk missile at Cell, the Android, refusing to take credit for any evil he didn't commit himself, decides to save the people at the tv show he was a guest at by telekinetically capturing the missile, disassembling it, showing to the world it was a W80 200 kiloton nuke, reassembling the missile and then firing it back at the offending submarine.
- Vegeta and C47 ruining Paragus' plan by simply not caring for anything he has to say.
- Broly versus Vegeta. All of it, but especially the ending: overwhelmed by Vegeta after the prince unlocked SSJ2 but still dominated by Paragus' conditioning, Broly caused the local star to go supernova in an attempt at killing him. Vegeta knocked down Broly and pushed back the supernova blast, protecting the planet and the ships of his fleet that had been unable to escape.
- During the battle a frustrated Broly fires his Eraser Cannon at the Bringer of Death. The ship survives undamaged, thanks to Android 16, now the ship's AI, using a temporary slipstream to make the attack pass through the ship. And they can do it again at will. A trick that saves them even when Broly makes the local star go supernova, even if that one causes damage.
- The battle also reveals something incredibly awesome that Vegeta did by accident: by simply being himself, that is not as monstruous as the Frost Demons, he got his men's loyalty. Many, even most of them, follow him not because they fear him, but because they actually like serving under him, and know that if they were to face something too strong for themselves then lord Vegeta would protect them. And, as proven after Broly makes the local star go supernova, they're right.
- C47 also had his moment to shine: when Broly had the upper hand and was about to kill Vegeta, C47 came down and managed to hurt Broly, keeping him down long enough that Vegeta went SSJ2. It completely depleted his power core, but it still did something Vegeta had been unable to do before him.
- Finally, the end result of Vegeta's victory: Broly pulling a Heel–Face Turn.
- Cell being a Troll, he gets Mr. Satan in the same ring as Tienshinhan and Gohan. Mr. Satan being a Fake Ultimate Hero, he manages to spin it into his favour by quitting against Gohan and saying it's to humiliate Cell by having him lose against a kid. Plus good preparation for Gohan's entry in the Tenkaichi (that Mr. Satan expects), so that if he does it will look that Mr. Satan was simply surpassed by his apprentice instead than having the career ruined by losing against a nobody.
- The battles against Cell's sons:
- Goku annihilating Frieza jr.
- Piccolo III nearly wins against Gohan thanks to judicious use of the Hannibal Lecture, but a telepathic pep talk from the actual Piccolo allows Gohan to fight back, win, and save Piccolo III when Cell Jr. decides he has to pay for losing.
- Raditz Jr., the weakest of Cell's children, winning his battle against Android!Krillin. Also, the fact he could have turned into Ohzaru until Krillin chopped his tail and kept it secret.
- Gohan's dressing down of those who tought ki was a trick and ruining Mr. Satan's scheme.
- Trunks handing Cell Jr. his ass. Note that Cell jr. is actually stronger, but has no idea how to use his power, while Trunks has finely honed his skills and beats him up without bothering to use the Brave Sword.
- When Trunks get the upper hand Cell Jr. starts targeting the public, driving Goku to intervene. Cell interferes to keep it one-on-one... And Goku manipulates him into turning it into a team battle, knowing that Trunks can take down Cell Jr. and join him against Cell proper. And the best part is that Cell knows what Goku is doing yet can't help but accepting Goku's idea.
- The tag battle.
- The start has Goku and Cell awe Trunks and Cell Jr. into not fighting. And they aren't being serious.
- When they start getting serious, Goku asks Trunks to get rid of Cell Jr. fast and come to help. Trunks, going USSJ an instant before hitting his opponent, kills Cell Jr. with two shots.
- Even two against one, Goku and Trunks are getting overwhelmed... Right until Goku manages to lure Cell in the perfect spot to get skewered by the Brave Sword and completes the tactic with an attack tailor-made to disintegrate Cell.
- Cell surviving once again, and breaking the Brave Sword.
- Piccolo III's Heel–Face Turn, followed by getting Cell to kill him so that Gohan would unleash his power and turn into SSJ2.
- Piccolo III surviving long enough to get a senzu.
- SSJ2 Gohan's casual killing of both Raditz Jr. (now stronger than even Cell Jr. had been) and Frieza Jr. amd utter humiliation of Cell. In fact, Gohan hit Cell so hard that he damaged his regeneration ability.
- Yamcha, of all people, manages to shine by saving the spectators when Cell (accidentally) brings down part of the stands.
- Later, when the clash between Gohan and Super Perfect Cell endangers them, Yamcha saves even Mr. Satan and Jimmy Firecracker.
- After the beating suffered at Gohan's hands, Cell realizes he can still power himself up a bit by absorbing Android!Krillin. This backfires horribly: between Cell having been designed to absorb only two androids and Krillin having been a ki user even before transformation, our monk manages to fight back from inside Cell before escaping with Android 18 in tow, leading to Cell regressing to Semi-Perfect form. This is followed by a very satisfying scene of Krillin beating up Cell.
- Utterly defeated, Cell decides to blow himself up. As in canon, Goku teleports him away... But this time nobody dies: Goku homed in on Piccolo and teleported Cell on the indestructible Namek, and them teleports back to Earth with Piccolo in tow.
- And then it turns out that Cell knew he would survive the self-destruction and regenerate back to Perfect form and with a zenkai to boot...
- Vegeta's triumphant return to Earth. Especially for how he pulled it: he made his own version of the Instant Transmission from simple observation, something that Cell had utterly failed to do. Granted, it took him going SSJ2 to finally pull it off, but he still did something that should have been impossible.
- Followed by the rightous beating he inflicts on Cell. Especially because, for once, it's Cell who is completely outmanouvered. Goading Vegeta into giving him time to recover? Vegeta has nothing to prove anymore, not after defeating Broly. Luring him out of the atmosphere and then knock the wind out of him and let him choke? Vegeta's been ready for such a thing for years, and has actually trouble not laughing out when he realizes what Cell's planning. Cell's regeneration? It consumes ki that is not infinite, and Vegeta knows. Another self-destruction to regerate stronger than ever? Thanks to Gohan's warning, Vegeta triggers it early and not only it doesn't cause enough damage to repeat the trick, but leaves him completely defenceless against the Super Saiyan's wrath. Using Instant Transmission to dodge Vegeta's coup-de-grace and escape to the other side of the planet to regenerate (even if costs him another big part of his ki)? Vegeta's still stronger, and now he's even more furious.
- Cell still finding a way to escape and even (accidentally) reverse the course of the battle by using his Perfect Afterimage to escape the Final Flash, then burrowing under the ground and striking Vegeta, accidentally hitting him in the spinal protesis that Vegeta can't properly channel ki through.
- Gohan getting back some of his strength thanks to his allies and rescuing Vegeta.
- Vegeta using Gohan's energy for a self-destruction that finally kills Cell for good.
- During all of the Cell Games Jimmy Firecracker, a completely normal human, managed to chronicle the whole battle.
- The sheer awesomeness of Shenron's power. He cannot repair the magic of the Brave Sword, but can bring back all of Cell's victims aside for Goku and Vegeta and repair everything Cell has destroyed... Including 18 and Krillin's damaged circuits, Mars, and an entire solar system. The latter of which as a side effect of the wish, as nobody on Earth knew Cell had destroyed it.
- In chapter 79, King Kai verbally owns Vegeta.
- When they meet again in Hell, Frieza still knows he can't beat Vegeta in combat so resolves to drive him mad with careful insults and his knowledge of what makes Vegeta tick. The end result, however, is that Vegeta drives Frieza mad by simply not caring of what he's saying and pointing out that the Arcosians are extincts while he has a son that will continue his legacy.
- Frieza assaults Vegeta, and is of course defeated. What makes this awesome is that Vegeta was in base form. And he only needed a single hit.
- Goku's cathartic No-Holds-Barred Beatdown of Cell in Hell. Sure, Cell couldn't use his full strenght, but it didn't make it any less satisfying.
- While Goku and Vegeta are fighting Cell and Frieza respectively, Pikkon goes dealing with their accomplices in the attempt to break out of Hell. They don't even see him coming-and their numbers include Gero, Cooler, and Frieza jr. and Raditz jr.. And the guys listed above were taken down at the same time.
- There are magicks in Hell weakening the powerful inmates and preventing them from getting out even if they find the exit, and Vegeta, due his many crimes, is affected to them and can't leave Hell. He does it anyway. What's better, he doesn't do it by might (he tried that and failed), but by accepting his Character Development.
- Cell getting out of Hell.
- The destruction of Cell's soul is one for Pikkon: Cell being Cell he was ready for an Instant Transmission the moment he had a chance, but Pikkon (who is weaker than him) blocked it, keeping him in place long enough for Goku and Vegeta to finish him off for good.
- The ancient Kaioshin get one for being prepared to what the most powerful damned could try: by their ancient magicks, being in Hell drastically lowers the power of anyone evil inside and prevent them from teleporting out, as said above the service exit has enchantments that keep anyone evil from walking out, and in the far-fetched case a damned still got out and the deceased warriors failed to subdue him they have blocked any attempt of a deceased without an actual Otherworldly Body to go back to the living world without being properly resurrected as Cell learned the hard way when he initially escaped Goku, Vegeta and Pikkon and tried to teleport in the living world only to appear into Yemma's office to be disposed of. Oh, and they also went to the living world and eradicated any magic that could still bring back the damned without proper resurrection.
