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  • Vegeta is behind everything. Everything. Read the page for more details than your mind can handle.
    • It also could be stated that had Piccolo simply ignored Raditz and simply shut up about the Dragon Balls, a large portion of the conflict would have been avoided in Dragon Ball Z. In that case, his eventual demise was a form of Karmic Death.
      • Of course, by the time the androids arrived everyone would have been significantly weaker had the Saiyan and Namek sagas never happened, and everyone probably would have been killed.
      • The androids themselves might have been weaker too, since they were designed to kill Goku, and Dr. Gero would not have had access to data or DNA from the other Saiyans or Frieza and King Cold. Nor would he have ever been exposed to Super Saiyans. Of course, none of this would have prevented Babidi from coming, and then everyone would have truly been screwed. (He possibly might not have gathered enough energy to resurrect Buu, but he still had Dabura...)
      • The arcs with Buu and Babidi are only shown to occur in the main timeline where Future Trunks did a lot of unnecessary time traveling (stopping Mecha-Frieza and King Cold being the first). That in itself plays the trope straight, but again, the events of Future Trunks' timeline (and most of DBZ) would not have happened if Piccolo didn't tell Raditz about the Dragon Balls. Nappa, Vegeta, Mecha-Frieza, and King Cold would have never come to Earth for revenge and Goten and Trunks would have never been born. Piccolo would have never merged with Nail or Kami and Dr. Gero wouldn't have the data to make the Androids as strong as they were. And without everybody needing to get so ridiculously strong to survive the previous arcs, Babidi would've presumably had to look to some other planet to get enough energy to take a shot at reviving Buu. Or there might not even have been such a planet (not even Frieza and King Cold, the two strongest mortal beings in the universe at the time, would've been strong enough, since a significantly stronger Gohan wasn't), and thus Babidi might never have attempted to revive Buu at all. Dragon Ball Super actually explains this - Babidi did actually try in Trunks' timeline, however Trunks and Shin the Supreme Kai were able to stop him before he was able to revive Buu. Though the fight did cost Shin his life.
      • On the other hand, it was made apparent that Frieza's empire wanted to conquer Earth and sell it, so Nappa and Vegeta would likely have been sent to Earth anyway. If not them, then some of Frieza's other soldiers.
      • Not really. Earth was some backwater little planet where Bardock sent his son to keep him safe from Frieza. Raditz only went looking for Goku because he was his brother, and Vegeta and Nappa came because of the Dragon Balls. Considering the three usually worked as a team, the fact that Vegeta and Nappa didn't show up with Raditz meant it was more of a personal errand for him than anything to do with wanting Earth. Frieza's organization might have gotten to Earth eventually, but it was just one of countless inhabitable planets with nothing special about it other than the Dragon Balls. If nobody off-world knew about those, it would've remained far beneath the notice of Frieza and his top minions. Worst-case scenario would probably be some of those nameless mooks with the wrist-mounted blasters being sent to conquer it, and even Chiaotzu could handle those losers.
    • Kami making the Dragon Balls in the first place. He made them to make the world better but people only wanted them for selfish purposes (Pilaf taking over the world, Vegeta wanting immortality, Bulma wanting a boyfriend...).
      • Piccolo has another one when he fights 17 for the second time. Because he powers up, Cell can locate him and therefore the androids, speeding up his plans to absorb them. Had he waited for Vegeta and Trunks, 17 and 18 would have gone the same way as 19 in half the time, before Trunks takes out Cell like he does upon returning to the future.
      • Even moreso than Kami making the regular Dragon Balls; how about the Black Star Dragon Balls? They work just like the original ones did, only they scatter over the entire galaxy when a wish is made, and rather than turning to stone for a year, they destroy the Earth in one year's time if they're not all gathered and brought back! I know you made these before you expelled your evil side, Kami, but still, what were you thinking?! Or was that just your trial run?
    • The entire premise of the Shadow Dragon Saga in GT. The threat is their own fault for using the Dragon Balls too much throughout the history of the show.
      • They were meant to "rest" for many years between wishes so the negative energy that built up after a wish was made to dissipate naturally. The Z-Fighters' overuse allowed so much energy to accumulate that it "overloaded" the Dragon Balls and gave birth to evil, powerful dragons bent on destroying humanity.
      • Then again, GT has a serious Canon Discontinuity problem, so this might have to go on that page.
    • The entirety of the Cell Saga was made possible by a long series of screw-ups on the part of the heroes:
      • Piccolo, for forgetting that Cell could sense energy before he fought Android 17,
      • Future Trunks, for holding back in trying to prevent said absorption due to his Daddy Issues,
      • Android 18, for not running from Cell while both Tien and Android 16 were fighting desperately to buy her time to do just that,
      • Krillin, for smashing the shutdown remote when he had the chance to deactivate Android 18 because of his infatuation,
      • Bulma and Dr. Briefs, for removing 16's internal bomb, though Cell notes that since he's so overwhelmingly strong at this point; the blast would either blasted him into easily regenerative pieces or not affected him at all.
      • Goku, for failing to inform the others of his plans, not even considering the possibility that his son might not want to fight, and giving Cell a senzu bean to make things "fair,"
      • Gohan, for not killing Cell when he had the chance because he didn't feel Cell had suffered enough, allowing him to use his self-destruct attack, leading to a Senseless Sacrifice by Goku and Cell becoming even more powerful after he recovered.
      • Not to mention, given how fast the Z fighters can move, Goku grasps the Idiot Ball moreso by simply not just teleporting Cell, grabbing King Kai and his pets, and then teleporting the fuck out. It would have prevented their deaths, and even with Cell coming back, they would have had another fighter to even things out. However, this is solely an anime issue - In the manga, Goku barely had enough time to get to King Kai's planet, and Cell exploded as soon as he landed.
      • And finally, the entire Z-gang for deciding not to, even though they had been given three years' warning:
      • Stop Gero before he created the androids.
      • Wish Goku to be immune to the heart virus that killed him in Trunks' timeline. They had medicine, but Goku forgot to take it.
    • After Cell returns to Earth and kills Future Trunks, Vegeta has a Jerkass Realization about his poor treatment of his son and goes off on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Cell, only for Cell to No-Sell his attacks and nearly kill him. Gohan ends up Taking the Bullet for Vegeta, losing the use of his left arm and more than half of his power in the process. At the time, Gohan still could have beaten Cell, and Trunks still could be revived by the Dragon Balls, so Vegeta flipped out and attacked Cell for nothing.
    • According to the movies, Goku's Senseless Sacrifice against Cell was an even bigger example, as Cell's explosion freed Bojack from imprisonment.
    • Buu was even worse, and would never have gotten as far as he did without the heroes. Shin allowed Gohan to be drained of his energy, vastly underestimated how much of the necessary energy would be extracted, and explicitly forbade the Z-Fighters from interfering. The battle between Vegeta and Goku produced so much power it accelerated Buu's awakening even more. Piccolo's attempt to buy more time for Goten and Trunks prompted Buu to kill every person on Earth except for the main cast with one attack. Gotenks acts like he's completely outmatched and that he's going to be defeated as a setup for his Super Saiyan 3 transformation, but Piccolo takes him seriously and destroys the door to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, leaving them trapped forever after Buu escapes anyway. And finally, when Goku and Vegeta successfully rescue their sons and Piccolo from within Super Buu, Vegeta gets the bright idea to also yank out Fat Buu, causing the monster to revert into Kid Buu, who was much weaker than Super Buu but even more monstrous.
    • Vegeta is the entire reason Majin Buu was awakened to begin with, as he deliberately let Babidi brainwash him and turn him into a Majin so he could bridge the gap between him and Goku. He knew that their resulting fight would accelerate Buu's awakening, but was so obsessed with beating Goku that he just didn't care.
    • Goku admits he might possibly have been able to kill the fat Majin Buu at Super Saiyan 3, but deliberately chose not to, partly because he wanted to give Trunks and Goten a chance to do so, and partly because he was already dead and didn't want the next generation to think that they could just depend on him all the time. Goku's inaction kicks off a series of events that lead to Super Buu being born.
    • It gets worse when Goku and Vegeta's fusion, Gogeta, starts playing around with the final boss Omega Shenron and loses his chance to finish him off. Goku realizes he became extremely cocky as Gogeta and spends an entire episode trying to fuse again since the duo can't defeat Omega without being combined.
    • Especially during the Cell and Buu arcs - quite a few problems would have been solved if the Z Fighters hadn't gone in with both guns blazing.
    • Shin's plan for stopping Babidi from gathering enough energy to resurrect Buu involves... bringing individuals with a lot of energy right to him, as well as straight up allowing him to acquire Gohan's energy without a fight. Though Babidi's plan has a few hitches, it succeeds without sacrificing anything Babidi cares about. Babidi takes great pleasure in rubbing it in to his near-dead enemy how Shin pretty much handed him victory on a silver platter.
  • Ultimately, with the sheer regularity of both this trope and Goku's displays of mercy to fallen foes, it's a wonder how often things work out to where the Z Fighters keep gaining allies in the end...
  • In the Buu Arc, when Vegeta and Goku are in Buu's body, Goku deliberately shouts out that he and Vegeta can't fuse together anymore, in front of Buu.
    • Again in Buu's body, after Vegeta noticed how agitated Buu was when he saw that Fat Buu was about to get disconnected. Buu screams not to do it as he will "no longer be himself again", but Vegeta rips Fat Buu free anyway. What he wound up doing was cause Buu to revert back to Kid Buu, his most dangerous form as he had absolutely no restraint. He blows up Earth without a second thought moments later. Whoops...
  • In Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F', after gaining the upper hand against Frieza's new Golden form, Goku gives Frieza the opportunity to walk away again. Frieza quickly exploits this by having his minion Sorbet near-fatally shoot Goku In the Back, and then proceeds to torture Goku while he's wounded and helpless, all while rubbing in Goku's face how stupid he was to show him mercy a second time. Then, when Vegeta takes his turn and pummels Frieza into submission, Frieza blows up the Earth out of spite, killing everyone except for those close to Whis; all Goku can do is hang his head in shame and lament that he didn't kill Frieza when he had the chance. Fortunately, Whis rewinds time by three minutes, allowing Goku to rectify his mistake.
  • In Dragon Ball Super, the heroes decides to use the Evil Containment Wave in order to seal the immortal Future Zamasu with the pot and talisman among the most important components for the seal, unfortunately it turns out that not only Roshi has forgotten the talisman required for it but the others also didn't remind him to bring the seal with them. This caused Future Zamasu to escape and subsequently decide to fuse with Black when he realized that they could actually defeat him.
    • Played with earlier in the Goku Black arc. Goku defeating Zamasu in a sparring match is what triggers the Kai's Start of Darkness. However, once Future Zamasu enters the story and reveals his backstory, it quickly becomes apparent that there was already something rotten inside Zamasu long before Goku ever met him, and if Goku didn't trigger his descent into villainy, something else very well might have.
    • Goku's actions in the next story arc make him a serious contender for the worst user of this trope in the history of fiction: Bored and spoiling for a fight, he remembers Zen-Oh's talk about an all-universe martial arts tournament and wants to ask about it. Beerus tells Goku in no uncertain terms NOT to do it, even threatening to destroy him at one point. Goku goes anyway and speaks to Zen-Oh, who had forgotten about the tournament and thinks it sounds like fun. And then he announces the rules, including that any Universe that's eliminated in the tournament will be completely destroyed. Meaning that unless he somehow changes his mind, about 92% of reality is doomed. Way. To. Go. To Goku's credit, he does offer to try and talk Zen-Oh out of this, but Whis tells him not to bother since it won't do any good and at worst he might piss off Zen-Oh and get destroyed.
      • However, a subsequent episode patches things up a bit by revealing that Zen-Oh already felt that there were too many weak universes and was going to destroy them anyway, the tournament just gives him a way of determining which ones are the weakest. Additionally, the four strongest universes are exempt, which means that only about half of creation is at risk (assuming there's no last-minute "That was so much fun I decided to spare everyone!" decision, which there isn't). Not only does this take most of the onus off of Goku, it suggests that he may have given them a fighting chance. Doesn't stop Bergamo from turning the participating universes against Goku, however.
      • Turns out the tournament was also a Secret Test of Character for everyone participating as the winner gets a wish from the Super Dragon Balls. Many of the participants wanted petty or selfish wishes that were a waste of their power such as 17 wanting a boat for his family to go on a cruise (Something he would be able to get with the regular Dragon Balls), Jiren wanting to revive his master to have his approval, Goku wishing for someone strong to fight. Zen-Oh had a premonition that 17 the winner would wish for the revival of all the universes that were erased, and simply made the tournament to see if the multiverse deserved to be spared as if the winner had wished for something selfish, he would have destroyed all the universes.
    • In the climax of the Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc, Goku has mastered his Mastered Ultra Instinct state as a result of Merus's death and has beaten Moro so badly that he begged for his life. But rather than finishing him off here and now, Goku instead opts to give a Senzu Bean for him to eat while demanding him to go back to prison. Moro instead opts to attack Goku which lead to the loss of his arm. But Moro then realizes that the arm that Merus previously cut off is still intact which means that after claming said arm, he now gains Merus's angelic powers. While Moro ended up mutating because of it, he ended up fusing with the planet ensuring that Goku could not kill him without taking the planet along with it. All of which could have been avoided had Goku just finish him off already instead of sparing him as an Earthling.

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