History NightmareFuel / DragonBallZ

* Much of the {{Family Unfriendly Death}}s[=/=]{{Cruel and Unusual Death}}s in general are rather uncomfortable to experience, such as the picture above, of Dr. Gero killing an ordinary human [[DisproportionateRetribution just because he bothered him]].

** Speaking of Recoome, he later [[DeconstructedTrope horrifically deconstructs the concept of durability that heroes are known for]], managing to keep going even after his armor is broken, most of his hair is singed off, and a lot of his teeth are blasted out of his mouth. Two notable instances are when he is seemingly knocked out for the count on the ground... only to swiftly jump up in an eerily graceful way - the other has him left in a shocked expression of pain when he gets head-butted in the gut by Vegeta, [[{{Troll}} only to immediately shift into a mocking expression to show how little it affected him]]. Of note is that [[HumanAliens Recoome is probably the closest to human in appearance out of the entire Ginyu Force]], and at this point in the series he's taken enough brunt to rival the likes of ''Goku''.

*** And when he absorbed 17, NightmareRetardant aside, it's surreal seeing a monster like that getting an expressive, vaguely humanlike face with the Android's iconic IcyBlueEyes with a human-like mouth with visible lips. It really demonstrates how much of a [[HumanoidAbomination an aberration of nature that happens humanoid that Semi-Perfect Cell was- not a potentially pre-existing organic monster like his Imperfect form or being like a pale-white skin man in a suit like his Perfect Cell, but some unnatural hybrid that is an intermediate between the two, a scientific horrific chimera of insect and humanoid parts half-hazard put together]]. Thankfully, the unnatural feel effect disappears when he reaches perfection, in which he becomes [[TheDreaded scary for other reasons]].
** Here's a chaser. Something to think about when Android 18 is regurgitated. ''She was never dead.'' She was absorbed by Cell two weeks before the Cell Games, and ''she never died''. She wasn't digested. She wasn't assimilated. She was still perfectly intact inside Cell for about two weeks. [[AndIMustScream And she was completely powerless to do anything about it.]] Thankfully, she seemed to be unconscious during the whole time, but still...

* Cell's desperate attempt after he takes too much heavy damage from Super Saiyan 2 Gohan who manages to beat Android 18 out of him. Reverting into his second form, Cell goes ballistic knowing he is outmatched, and starts bloating up like a [[BodyHorror grotesque balloon version of himself]]. Before the inevitable EarthShatteringKaboom, Goku intervenes and manages to transport him onto King Kai's planet until he finally detonates, taking King Kai, Gregory, Bubbles, Goku, the still absorbed Android 17 (who tragically didn't get regurgitated in time, unlike his sister) and the ''entire'' little planet with him. You would think with Goku's HeroicSacrifice that it would be the end. [[FromBadToWorse But it's not]]. Cell regenerates with his cell core and manages to resurrect himself into a more powerful state called [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "Super Perfect Cell"]]. Cue MassOhCrap from what's left of the Z gang at that point on.
* Cell's [[CameBackStrong self-resurrection]] is a bundle of nightmares by itself. It starts with the core mass of cells growing, with a disgusting version Cell's Perfect form bulging out gradually. It shows how inherently wrong his existence is.
** The literal first thing Cell does when he returns is fire an energy beam ''through Future Trunks' chest.'' Out of a dust cloud, too fast for anybody to dodge or react before the Z-Fighters can even take in what is happening. Future Trunks hits the ground with a basketball-sized hole in his torso. And then hacks up about a pint of blood.
** The next thing that happens is that Vegeta goes all out and attacks Cell with all he has. With Goku gone, this means that the Prince is now the second-strongest Z-Fighter. Cell [[NoSell not only doesn't suffer any damage]], he isn't even slowed down. He attacks Vegeta and nearly kills him as a reflex more than anything else.

** It doesn't help in the brief moment before his body breaks apart completely that his face distorts into deranged exaggerations of himself at a rapid pace.
* What makes Cell so scary is the fact that he isn't some alien such as Freeza and his Empire or some eternal mass of chaos like Buu. He is a creature created on Earth by an ordinary, vengeful ''human''. A human, the people that Goku and the others spent their lives protecting, created an absolute monster that ''feeds'' off of other humans in the slowest, most painful way possible. How morally bankrupt and cruel does a person have to be to create such a creature?
* Another thing that makes Cell terrifying is that saying he's strong is an ''understatement.'' Until Majin Buu came back to life, Super Perfect Cell was the [[PhysicalGod most powerful evil being in the universe]]. So strong that the Supreme Kai, who wasn't keeping track of his existence, was shocked at how strong the Z-warriors had to become to fight him.

** The sheer suddenness of the Android's victory. At first Gohan was holding his own against both Androids, even drawing blood... Then they exchanged a nod and they completely overwhelmed him. [[LetsGetDangerous They had been toying with him for most of the fight, but at that moment they realized he posed an actual threat and decided to fight with their full power]].
** As horrifying as it is in the anime, the manga is even ''worse''. [[HeroicSacrifice Gohan went in knowing he would die but that he'd at least take out one of the Androids to allow Trunks an easier time with the other]], and he is indeed strong enough to overpower 17... Who then [[WhamLine drops the horrific revelation he and his sister had only ever shown him half his true strength]]. [[OhCrap Gohan just has enough time to realize what that means]] before 17 starts fighting at ''full'' power.
* The look into Trunks's nightmarish future, with a blinding orange sunset, coupled with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewzi45xuuzU "Mind, Power, KI"]] gives an idea of how bleak things are under the Androids' reign.

* Broly's screams when going Legendary Super Saiyan. He sounds like ''a baby crying'' interspersed with maniacal laughter.
** At the last part of the transformation, we get a close-up of Broly's face. He then lets out a loud scream of agony and hatred as his power rises, and we see his eyes glow green as his [[BodyHorror skin starts to crack open,]] then he literally '''EXPLODES''' as he reveals his Legendary Super Saiyan form!

** Also consider that, at least in the original continuity, Broly was ''stabbed'' as a newborn by agents of King Vegeta. Talk about Adult Fear if you're Paragus - but Broly came close enough to die from this. The fact that he didn't die from being stabbed in the chest as a baby is frightening, but keep in mind what happens if you nearly kill a Saiyan but [[CameBackStrong doesn't get the job done.]] As ridiculous as Broly's power level was out of the womb, how much more was it after an assassination attempt?

** In the anime, the moment Gohan's neck gets snapped, the scene shifts to Chi-Chi on Earth who knows something went wrong through motherly intuition but doesn't know what happened and proceeds to weep in despair at the fate of her five-year-old son. Any reason why the poor woman is against her boy being involved in fights against genocidal aliens?
*** Speaking of Recoome himself, he [[DeconstructedTrope horrifically deconstructs the concept of durability that heroes are known for]], managing to keep going even after his armor is broken, most of his hair singed off, and a lot of his teeth blasted out of his mouth. Two notable instances are when he seemingly is knocked out for the count on the ground only to swiftly get up in an eerily graceful way and even disturbingly when he gets head-butted in the gut by Vegeta with a shocked expression of pain- [[{{Troll}} only for it to immediately shift into a mocking expression to show how little it affected him]]. This [[HumanAliens further demonstrates that Recoome is not an Earth-bound human; only an extremely durable alien that has the appearance of a human.]]
* The unusual amount of focus given to Android 18 shattering Vegeta's arm with a single kick. Never mind that broken limbs are often RealLife NightmareFuel in and of themselves. It was the fact that Trunks and everyone up on the hill realizes how screwed Vegeta is right on impact. Or the ''scream'' Vegeta lets out right as his arm goes limp. By this point, Vegeta pretty much established himself as a guy that can not only take a pounding but talk crap the entire way. To hear Vegeta scream out in pain to that degree is hair-raising (no pun intended) because it's something Vegeta ''just doesn't do''.
** For the lulz, 18 dislocates Vegeta's other arm a few minutes later.
* The disturbingly creepy look that [[{{Jerkass}} Ve]][[WarriorPrince ge]][[VillainProtagonist ta]] gave to Gohan back on Namek.
** Doesn't help that he [[WouldHurtAChild hits Gohan]] in the most painful way possible soon after, then makes the threat that once he's done, he plans to destroy Earth.

** ''Manga/JacoTheGalacticPatrolman'' managed to make this one even scarier in hindsight. He explains that the Galactic Patrol has Extinction Bombs, devices that release a virus that quickly drives an entire race into extinction, but they never managed to create one that worked for the Saiyan. A Saiyan's immune system can deal with the mightiest bioweapons of a galaxy-spanning civilization...but not with that.

* Aside from being blown up or vaporized by energy blasts, Creator/AkiraToriyama seems to like large chest wounds as indicators of fatal[=/=] near-fatal injuries. Happens to Goku (literally in the second episode), Vegeta, Piccolo, Yamcha, and Future Trunks at different points, among others. During Super Buu's infamous Human Extinction attack, the ''ENTIRE POPULATION OF EARTH'' save a handful, and gets a terminal case of hole-through-torso, including (although not shown on screen) all the kids.

* One detail that gets more terrifying as each succeeding story arc raises the stakes is when Raditz scans a farmer and sees his power reading ranks at a measly level 5. Keep in mind farming is a very physically demanding job - which this farmer had likely been doing his entire life - and that farming was part of Goku and Krillin's training regime, which pushed even these two past their physical limits. For context? Raditz's power level in comparison is anywhere from 1,200 to 1,600. An average human farmer doesn't even measure up to 1% of THE WEAKEST of these invaders!
* [[ItWasHisSled When it was still the latest chapter]], the reveal that Goku was an alien was quite the shocker, but what's horrifying is how strong Raditz, Goku's older brother seemed at that time. He had no problem dealing with both him and Piccolo '''at once'''. Goku was now knowing what it was like for the first time to feel utterly hopeless. For extra damage, he then tells both that the two other Saiyans are '''FAR''' stronger than he is. [[FridgeHorror Let that sink in for a bit.]]
** For Goku's friends, the idea that there is someone even stronger than Goku running around out there and that Goku himself was sent to wipe out humanity. Keep in mind that as a young child, Goku destroyed an [[OneManArmy entire army by himself]] and was close to the invincible outside of a few named martial artists. He also single-handedly killed what was [[TheDreaded Satan]] of the Dragon World. To them, the very idea that Goku could have been their enemy must have been terrifying.
** ''Manga/JacoTheGalacticPatrolman'' reveals that Bulma had long known about the Saiyans, even if she didn't know what they looked like... And all of sudden, one of the monsters shows up, smacks her best friend around, and reveals that said best friend is another Saiyan.
* In a filler episode, the human Z-fighters are sent to a special room to prepare for the Saiyans. While there, they are all defeated with little to no effort and are given some brutal off-screen and on-screen deaths (which acts as an unnerving foreshadowing of what will happen to them). But what made it scary was how Kami confirmed that they did well considering how strong Saiyans are known to be and that Vegeta and Nappa are far stronger than the illusion Saiyans that the human Z-fighters had to take on.
* Nappa. [[TheFool For those used to how he is in the abridged series]], you'll be given an ugly reminder that he's every bit as sadistic and serious as Vegeta in [[Anime/DragonBallZ canon]]. None of the scenes that were played for laughs in the abridged series are done so here. (BewareTheSillyOnes, though.)
** How about when he punches Tien's left arm '''CLEAN OFF'''? The scream thrown in great pain was more than adequate and Vegeta laughed about how fragile humans are.
** It goes FromBadToWorse when Chiaotzu tries to do a suicide bombing on him and it not only fails, it doesn't even scratch the brute!
** There's some scary foreshadowing in-universe for Piccolo, Krillin, and Gohan when they see Nappa being terrified when Vegeta yells at him for attempting to disobey his order to stall the fight for three hours. Piccolo comes to the correct conclusion that the one tearing them apart with ease was the '''weaker''' one.

* Vegeta himself, for that matter. When he becomes Oozaru to stomp Goku, he does a damn good job of it. Made worse that unlike Goku and Gohan when they became Oozaru, he retained his consciousness, amplifying the already scary transformation. He then goes on to squeeze Goku with his bare hands in cold blood, which is especially terrifying.

** Minor though it may be, Kid Buu FALLING ASLEEP in front of Goku is oddly disarming and chilling. Though one could see it as kinda funny? It goes to show how little Buu actually thinks of his opponents that he can just casually take a nap before attempting to kill them. Then Goku makes the mistake of waking him up...

** You know it's that bad when Yamu is the one who forces Spopovich to end his brutality on Videl. This is the same guy who's enslaved by Babidi, one who must have traces of evil in them, and yet viewing Videl's torture made Yamu feel enough humanity in him to feel genuine sadness.

* Early in the Buu saga, we see the fight between Videl and Spopovich. Long story short, this entire episode, if you remove the fantasy elements, is a wrestler ''pounding a young girl in a tournament, and absolutely no one is coming to help her!!''. There's a shot of Spopovich ''stepping on her head, and all Videl can do is cry out in pain!!'' She's lucky Gohan defied his father and flew in to save her, which, brings up a whole 'nother issue! Even Goku is disgusted with this guy (Spopovich), and went on his way to mutter "I don't like him" and "there's something wrong with that guy" more than once. Still, he didn't intervene, but it was more of a matter of time: if Gohan didn't do it first, Goku would have.

** How about when he tears Tien's left arm '''CLEAN OFF'''? The scream thrown in great pain was more than adequate and Vegeta laughed about how fragile humans are.

** How about when he tears Tien's left arm off '''CLEAN'''? The scream thrown in great pain was more than adequate and Vegeta laughed about how fragile humans are.

* Aside from being blown up or vaporized by energy blasts, Creator/AkiraToriyama seems to like large chest wounds as indicators of fatal[=/=] near-fatal injuries. Happens to Goku (literally in the second episode), Vegeta, Piccolo, Yamcha, and Future Trunks at different points, among others. During Buu's infamous Human Extinction attack, the ''ENTIRE POPULATION OF EARTH'' save a handful, and gets a terminal case of hole-through-torso, including (although not shown on screen) all the kids.