Vegeta and Piccolo Jr. really shouldn't be high on the list. Because while they were villains, and while they were excellent, they weren't necessarily excellent villains. Their best parts weren't while they were villains. Vegeta until he becomes an antihero was boring. Like, super-dull. He never became actually interesting until... probably the fight with Freeza. By that point calling him a villain is just incorrect.
Piccolo to a much lessor extent, though. His best parts were in DBZ where he was a hero, but he was still pretty awesome in DB. If they want to give him the top spot for his DB actions then I'm fine with that, I just don't want them to conflate the two.
edited 2nd Dec '16 6:51:57 AM by Larkmarn
Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.Still, he's no longer an antagonist by that point and won't be one anymore until the Buu saga.
This song needs more love.You know, I agree with this. Black's only mistake was that he didn't stop the fight with Goku before it was too late. By the time he realized it wasn't worth it to keep going, Goku was in no mood to let him go and he died because of it. The Red Ribbon army would still be kicking (likely with Gero Androids in their service) if he'd known when to fold them a little earlier.
I'm also hoping Tao gets in for the reasons mentioned.
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He's evil, but he's not a villain. He's not heroic, but he's still technically a hero.
Eitherway, Vegeta still becomes one of the main character of the show, so in terms of impact, no other villain compares. Even Piccolo doesn't get the spotlight Vegeta gets.
YMMV, Black still wanted the dragonballs, just for Red Ribbon Army reasons. And Goku needed them, so the faceoff was inevitable.
edited 2nd Dec '16 7:52:05 AM by Ghilz
Yes, but at that point, after he'd roflstomped the whole army on his own, backing down, letting Goku take them, and rebuilding stronger was a better option then continuing that fight.
I can't blame him for thinking he could solve the problem with giant mecha to the face but it was very much a mistake.
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No he's not, at best he's an anti-villain at that point. Honestly that describes Vegeta for most of the series. The only time I think he actually counts a "hero" is after he comes back to his senses from the whole Majin deal.
Just fighting with the main characters because you have no other choice, with ever intention to kill them later yourself, does not a good guy make.
edited 2nd Dec '16 8:00:23 AM by LSBK
I agree that he's not a hero but he's absolutely a protagonist during the entire period between him teaming up with Gohan and Krillin to fight the Ginyu Force to getting mind-controlled. Even then, Majin Vegeta and Saiyan Saga Vegeta are arguably different villains in terms of motivation and goals.
edited 2nd Dec '16 8:04:59 AM by LordVatek
This song needs more love.Who is the villain with the biggest lasting impact on the story?
For all that he's forgotten later I'd say that crown might go to Raditz. His arrival and his fight set about 3 arcs into motion and permanently changed the tone and scope of the story, and ultimately changed the course of Piccolo's life, to boot.
I have a message from another time...And I'd agree that Raditz is basically what changes everything, and though he dies, everything up to Trunk's arrival and his killing Freeza is a direct consequence of Raditz.
And even that's just for like five seconds.
I agree with the sentiment that Vegeta as a villain only counts until he flees Earth in his Saiyan pod to recuperate. He's still 100% rotten, dirty bastard through Namek and most of the Cell Saga and he relapses into it during Buu, but he's still a protagonist through nearly all of that.
Piccolo, likewise, only counts during the Daimao and 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai. Once Raditz lands, Piccolo ceases to be a villain and never picks up the villain ball again.
Regarding Staff Officer Black
I can appreciate that reasoning for him. I've always felt that the Red Ribbon Army in general has been generally underrated. Yes, Goku plows through them like a steamroller in an orphanage but that, in and of itself, is what makes it great. What Toriyama created with this arc was one of the best pieces of foreshadowing he's ever accidentally done.
Because when Raditz lands and says that Goku is an alien planet-killer from a species where even their children can butcher entire armies and slaughter legions of soldiers, it rings true. Before Saiyans were even a concept in Toriyama's mind, we got to see Goku demonstrate exactly what a Saiyan is capable of and why they are such a great and terrible threat to the universe.
Regarding best villain
For me, as should be no surprised to anyone, I'm rooting for Frieza. After spending an entire arc being built up as completely impossible to match, beyond the limits of anyone's imagination, you will die if you fight him no matter what...Frieza delivered. A lot of times, this kind of shilling is just setting up for the hero to overcome the impossible because he's awesome, but Frieza f*cking delivered.
Frieza faced everything the franchise had to throw at him. The protagonists pulled out every gun in Chekhov's Armory. Every cool technique and strategy that had ever worked for them before, they threw it all at Frieza and he waded through it with no f*cks given. He proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that every other character was right when they said that fighting him was a mistake because he cannot be beaten - not even by the almighty Goku.
The one misstep I feel that was taken with Frieza was having Goku pull Super Saiyan out of his ass right there on the spot for no other reason than because he couldn't win without it. It's another consequence of Toriyama not planning ahead. He saw the insanely ridiculous power gap between Ginyu and Frieza as necessitating a Deus ex Machina, whereas I see it as meaning Goku isn't supposed to be fighting this opponent at this stage.
Fighting Frieza on Namek is like fighting Vegeta immediately after the Red Ribbon Army. A power gap of that magnitude typically means you've jumped off the rails on the Sorting Algorithm of Evil and are about to get Beef Gated back into your proper position. Rather than ass pulling a new power-up on the spot to win, the victory condition of this fight should simply have been to escape. Frieza clearly establishes himself as an enemy for a later date.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Super Saiyan isn't an Ass Pull because it was talked about and mentioned plenty of times beforehand.
Let the joy of love give you an answer! Check out my book!It might not exactly be an Ass Pull, but I get why someone would consider it a let down given context. Like Tobias said, its sole reason for existing at that point is so Goku could be Frieza.

I love how nobody here's said a single thing about their #24 pick.
Because, really, what's there to say?
I have a message from another time...