Cell

"In the end, when I'm the victor.. I will kill every single human being on this planet. I'll come methodically after every last one of you, and I'll watch your faces twist with fear."

- Cell "Once I've finished tearing this world into pieces, I'll just use Goku's Instant Transmission technique to move onto other planets. That is my destiny! I am the universe's end!!!"

- Cell "Hahahahaha! This place has been good to me, but all my feasting here is done. And I'd hate to leave without first cleaning my plate. Soon it'll be nothing but a cloud of dust!"

- Cell to Gohan before the Kamehameha struggle. "THIS CAN'T BE!! I AM PERFECTION!!!"

- Cell's last words as he is obliterated by Gohan.

Cell is one of the main antagonists of Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Z Kai (along with Vegeta, Freeza and Majin Buu) and the true main antagonist of the Android Saga. He is also the final villain in the English dub of Dragon Ball Z Kai. He is an evil, insect-like, humanoid android seeking to gain more power in order to complete his ultimate form. Cell is the most powerful of all Dr. Gero's creations, and was created with the sole purpose of being the "Perfect Warrior." He is the archenemy of Son Gohan, Future Trunks and Android 16. His fighting skills, powers and even his personality traits are derived from the cells of the greatest warriors in the universe; including Son Goku, Son Gohan, Piccolo, Yamcha, Kuririn, Tenshinhan, Chaozu, Vegeta, Nappa, Frieza, and King Cold.

Although Frieza is considered the primary antagonist of Dragon Ball franchise as well the arch-enemy to Goku and Vegeta, Cell is arguably the most personal and psychologically inflicting nemesis to Son Gohan and Future Trunks in DBZ, due to him being responsible for the emotional death of Android 16, which triggered Son Gohan's rage transforming into a Super Saiyan 2. He was also the only villain who did not want to destroy earth directly, but instead made a martial arts tournament that would determine the fate of the planet just so he can prove that he is the best and perfect warrior.

Imperfection
Cell first appeared as a monster like green insect creature that desired to absorb Artificial Humans 17 and 18 to attain his perfect form.

Cell came from the future to absorb the Artificial Humans 17 and 18 so he could become "perfect." This was something that he could not do in his time because Trunks had killed them both. He killed Trunks and took his time machine, regressing into his larval state so he could fit into it, arriving four years before Trunks would have appeared. He absorbed the inhabitants of Gingertown before fighting Piccolo (fused with Kami), and taking a beating from him. He escaped using Taiyoken, after Piccolo tricked him into revealing everything to him, and regained his lost strength by absorbing the inhabitants of Nicky Town.

Cell ran off whenever he encountered more than one Z Fighter at once. Soon, he sensed Piccolo's energy signal while Piccolo was fighting Artificial Human 17, and arrived at the battlefield. Piccolo and #17 attacked Cell, but he beat them up and nearly killed Piccolo with an energy blast through the chest and a broken neck. He then beat up #17 before opening his tail up into a giant sucker to absorb #17, but Android 16 stopped and fought him in an even match. Cell survived #16's Hell's Flash, however, and absorbed #17.

Obtaining Semi-Perfection
After absorbing Android 17, Cell became much more powerful, and human-like in appearance. He also became much more arrogant and easily believed that there was no being who could defeat him. Vegeta fought him in his "ascended Saiyan" form, and was almost able to defeat him. Before he could, Cell used Vegeta's pride against him, and was able to convince him to help him absorb Artificial Human 18 so Vegeta could have a "real challenge".

Gaining Perfection
Once he had absorbed #18, Cell's powers became far greater than that of the heroes. He easily defeated Vegeta and Trunks after obtaining this form. When fighting Piccolo, Cell got the idea to bring back the Tenkaichi Budokai tournament, in the form of the Cell Games. Cell entered a TV station where he told the world about the games, then gave the heroes 10 days to prepare for the games and told them that if he emerged undefeated, he would destroy the world.

Cell Games
In the Cell games, Cell fought Son Goku first, after easily defeating Mr. Satan and his students Caroni and Piroshki (though all three survived), and at one point destroyed the ring so the entire desert could be the arena. Goku destroyed Cell's top half with a Kamehameha wave, but Cell regenerated, though he was weakened nonetheless. After a bit more fighting, Goku gave up and assigned Son Gohan to fight Cell next. Gohan refused to fight back, telling Cell about his hidden power. Determined to see this power for himself, Cell fought Gohan but eventually, Artificial Human 16 jumped on him and tried to self-destruct. However, his bomb was removed when Dr. Brief was fixing him, so this this tactic did not work and Cell destroyed his body.

Cell created clones of himself, which he called Cell Juniors to fight the other heroes and force Gohan to unleash his hidden power. After Cell crushed #16's head, however, Gohan unleashed his full power and turned Super Saiyan 2, killing all seven Cell Juniors. He then fought Cell and beat him up. Cell revealed that he was not even using half of his true power, and powered up to what is most likely 50% of his full power, dramatically increasing his strength and speed, but Gohan was unaffected by any attacks and punched Cell twice, inflicting serious damage.

After Cell realized that he could not beat Gohan, he attempted to blow up the earth with a Kamehameha wave, but Gohan overpowered him with his own Kamehameha, destroying most of his limbs. Cell regenerated and powered up to his full power; however, he was too big and slow to even hit Gohan, who kicked him in the stomach, forcing him to regurgitate #18 and revert to his second form.

Knowing he was about to lose, he started to set off the bomb that had been placed in his body, and Goku nobly decides to be the one to take care of him, He used Instant Transmission to transport him to Kaio's planet, in order to avoid the destruction of Earth. Goku, Kaio, Bubbles, Gregory, and 17 were killed in the blast, but this did not destroy Cell. This was because, as Cell revealed, as long as a single cell of him still existed.

He could come back, and he returned in his perfect form because it was saved within the memory. Now he was stronger than ever, due to the Saiyan cells in his body, since a near death experience greatly powered up Saiyans, becoming what is referred to as Super Perfect Cell. Upon reappearing, Cell killed Trunks with a Death Beam and Vegeta attacked him in a rage. Though Vegeta's assault was unable to injure Cell and Gohan took a hit from Cell to save him, injuring his arm and decreasing his energy in the process. However, he was able to manage a one-handed Kamehameha, entering a beam struggle with Cell. With guidance from his deceased father and help from Vegeta, who distracted Cell with a Big Bang Attack at the last second, Gohan was able to overpower Cell and completely destroy him once and for all.

Hell
Cell teamed up with Recoome, Burter, Jeice, Guldo, Frieza, and King Cold in Hell and terrorized the ogres there, but Goku and Paikuhan came to stop them. After Goku defeated the Ginyu Special Force, Cell attacked him, but Paikuhan knocked him away and into the bloody pond. He then threw Cell and the Ginyu Force onto a spiked mountain, and the five of them were locked up in a cell with Frieza and King Cold.

Cell's final appearances in Dragon Ball Z was during the Kid Buu Saga, alongside several other dead villains watching Goku's fight with Kid Buu.

Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 shows that Cell and Frieza often train together in Hell.

Future Trunks' Timeline
In Trunks' future timeline, Trunks encountered Future Cell, but seeing as how he could defeat Cell in his second form in the present, Future Cell was no match for Trunks while in his imperfect form, and Trunks threw Future Cell up in the air and destroyed him with an energy dome.

Dragon Ball GT
In Dragon Ball GT, Cell, along with Frieza, fought Son Goku during the Super 17 Saga, while the other villains escaped Hell. Though Goku matched their power easily, Cell and Frieza managed to keep fighting, thanks to the fact that they were already dead and Goku could not destroy them. Eventually they attempted to use a new technique they had invented, the Hell Bazooka, which trapped Goku in an energy prison and forced him to go through the Four Circles of Hell. After the Saiyan was frozen in the Tundras of Hell, Cell and Frieza prepared to destroy him with a final energy blast. However Goku managed to break free of the ice, since he was alive and far too warm for the ice spirits to freeze. He then turned Cell and Frieza's strategy against them by freezing them instead and shattering them (though he did the latter by accident).

Cell then appears in the Dragon Ball Z - Idainaru Son Goku Densetsu game fight.

Dragon Ball Z Abridged
In TeamFourStar's Dragon Ball Z Abridged series, Cell has appeared in all 3 forms and is currently in his Perfect form. All 3 forms have very different personalities; Imperfect Cell is very sadistic and socially awkward, Semi-Perfect Cell is careless, overbearing and whiny and Perfect Cell is arrogant and overly confident with an ego that rivals Vegeta, he also seems to have OCD.

Imperfect Cell made his first full appearance in episode 42, creepily singing before presenting himself to Piccolo. In the following episode he showed Piccolo what happened to everybody in the city by shouting "WANNA SEE ME DRINK THIS GUY?", before absorbing the man he was holding, much to Piccolo, Kami and Nail's disgust/horror. Piccolo and Cell soon start fighting and Cell realizes that he had fused with Kami, so he used the Makkokosappo to attack him. He then used the Kamehameha and absorbed Piccolo's right arm, remarking that he was starting to look like Kami. Pretending to be hopeless, Piccolo tricked Cell into revealing his origins, which are the same as the original, and Piccolo regenerates his arm, much to Cell's surprise. He escaped using the solar flare when Trunks and Krillin showed up. Afterwards he appeared trying to figure out the extremely confusing directions to North City and killed the East City Westmen battle ball team, he then killed several North City residents and took over a radio show (after killing the hosts) and broadcast-ed the screams and pleas of his victims. He next appeared in Krillin's dream in the Celloween holiday special, trying to kill Krillin and a family to no avail. He showed up after 17 and Piccolo's fight, revealing his intentions (with multiple sexual and insestual metaphors) and brutally beating the two, supposedly killing Piccolo, until 16 intervened. 16 easily defeated him, although he didn't destroy him and he absorbed 17, becoming Semi-Perfect Cell.

As Semi-Perfect Cell, he finally knew what lips felt like, playing with them like a child. He wounded 16 and was about to absorb 18, only to be stopped by Tien, who was sick of standing on the side line while all the aliens and androids did the fighting and attack him his ticoho attack with surprising effectiveness. After Tien gave out, Cell was puzzled and downright confused when Goku teleported in, took Tien and Piccolo (who somehow survived) and told him that he was going to die, shouting "I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS." He then continued his search for 18, only to be interrupted when his shouting attracted the attention of a small town which confused his problems for girl trouble. He began systematically destroying the islands, only to be stopped by Vegeta who beat him into having an "I WANNA, I WANNA" temper tantrum about becoming perfect. He tricked Vegeta into letting him become perfect and used Tien's solar flare attack to blind everyone and absorb 18.

Upon becoming perfect, he sang a song about perfection and effortlessly shrugged off Krillin's kienzon attack. He then tempted Vegeta to attack him as hard as he could, only to either shrug off of regenerate from every blow, before beating him while shouting lines from various fighting games. He and Trunks then battle and Cell pretends to be on equal terms, only to reveal how worthless and generic Trunk's new form is and spare him. Cell spends most of episode 54 trying to build the arena for his Cell Games, getting more and more frustrated when his ring isn't perfect. He then takes over a news station and publicly broad casts his announcement of the Cell games, also trending #CellGames on social media sites, telling everyone who's not participating to catch up with friends and family, kill their boss, pray to their god etc, he then leaves as Master Roshi decides to spend his last days watching Hentai. In episode 55, he makes a sponsorship deal with the Heat Tap company, who are perfectly fine with him destroying the planet. When Goku shows up to check how strong he is, they develop a semi-bromance with Cell stating that he`ll miss Goku when he`s dead and Goku saying to his friends that Cell is surprisingly hansom. During Piccolo`s time in the Hyperbolic time chamber, he has a hallucination of Cell on day 3 and, realizing he can`t put up with Nail, Kami and his hallucinations alone for a year, he immediately jumps out.

Personality
Cell's personality has differed between his various forms. At first, the only thing driving him was his desire to attain his perfect form, curious to see its limits and was very cautious, sneaky, and calculating, not going after the Androids, since he knew he could not beat them. After attaining his Semi-Perfect form, Cell became much more brash, impatient, and relied less on strategy, using brute force. However, he still shows some cunning when he plays with Vegeta's love for having a good fight and uses it to make Vegeta back down so that he can absorb #18. He also views himself as attractive in this form. Upon becoming Perfect, his personality became a combination of the people whose cells he possessed. Cell had Piccolo's coolness, knowledge, and cunning, Vegeta's confidence and pride, Goku's laid-back attitude and love of fighting, and Freeza's conceitedness, polite mannerisms, and sadism. He is unique in that he has no desire for conquest, immortality, or power and instead seeks only entertainment and to test the limits of his perfection.

Cell is actually quite knowledgeable and (in the manga) compliments his opponents abilities. Later, he wanted only to unleash annihilation upon the universe and on anything he considered imperfect or, to put it bluntly, anything besides himself. In all forms, he retains Freeza's sadism: while created evil, he is still fully conscious of the morality (or lack thereof) of his actions and commits them because he wants to. His stated reason for wanting to destroy humanity is simply to see the looks of terror on their faces before they die.

After his death, he gets along well with Frieza in hell.

Powers and Abilities
Cell possesses superhuman natural abilities and the ability to manipulate energy in the form of blasts and flight. He has only one unique ability of his own, absorption, though how he does this differs depending on what he is absorbing. For the normal people he absorbed in his Imperfect form, Cell impales them with his tail and absorbs their whole body, leaving only their clothes behind. For Artificial Humans 17 and 18 and Goku in GT, he absorbs them by widening the opening of his stinger and simply swallowing them whole. Cell has the signature techniques of all of the people whose cells composed him, including the Kamehameha wave, Makankosappo, and Death Beam. He also inherited Piccolo's regenerative powers, but far more powerful, to the point where he could regenerate from only one cell and Freeza and King Cold's ability to survive in space.

Baby
Cell takes on this form while he is growing in Dr. Gero's lab, he is completely immobile and does not have any developed features.

Larval
Cell after being born, he is already very intelligent and is quite powerful compared to other life forms. He is quadrupedal in this state.

Imperfect Cell
Cell's 1st bipedal form. Cell takes on this form after emerging from his larval state, in this form Cell possess high power, though not as strong as a Super Saiyan, Super Namek, or any of the Androids. He now has a tail which he can use to absorb other beings.

This is Cell's equivalent of Base Saiyan, Base Namekian, and Restricted Arcosian 1.

Semi-Perfect Cell
Cell's 2nd bipedal form. Cell takes on this form after absorbing either Artificial Human 17 or 18, his power skyrockets in this form to be able to outmatch the Saiyans, Namekians, and fellow Androids. Vegeta's cells take more prominence in this state.

This is Cell's equivalent to Restricted Arcosian 2.

Perfect Cell
Cell's final form. Cell takes on this form after absorbing both Artificial Humans 17 and 18. In this form Cell's power further skyrockets to surpass even an Ascended Super Saiyan.

This is Cell's equivalent to Full-Power Super Saiyan, Super Namek, and Base Arcosian.

Cellin
This is Cell's weakest form, he takes this form after absorbing Artificial Human 17, and the absorbing Kuririn by mistake. Cell does not actually use this form and it only appears in a dream he had while waiting for the Cell games.

This is Cell's equivalent to Base Human.

Power-Weighted
A form that Cell takes when he is being outclassed by Super Saiyan 2 Gohan. In this form, Cell's height doubles, his muscles grow huge and his voice deepens. His power becomes greater than a Super Saiyan 2 but his speed is slower than any of Cell's other forms.

This is Cell's equivalent to Ultra Super Saiyan, Great Namek, and 100% Full Power Arcosian.

Super Perfect Cell
Cell's most powerful form in the anime and manga. Cell takes on this form after receiving a huge Zenkai from blowing himself up.

This is Cell's equivalent to Super Saiyan 2.

Majin Cell
A form displayed in several video games where he is resurrected by Babidi. Perfect Majin Cell has the power of a Super Saiyan 2, so it is likely that if he went Super Perfect Majin Cell his power would double.

Ghost Warrior
A form that Cell takes after being resurrected by Hatchiyack, his power is amplified due to his hatred of Saiyans.

Villainous Mode
"Did you think telling me that little story would somehow make me afraid of you? Well, it hasn't. It's only made me more eager to piss you off."

- Cell (in Villainous Mode)'s response to Gohan wanting to stop the battle.

Like many villains in the game, Cell also gains a Villainous Mode.

Reception
Cell is frequently named one of the best Dragon Ball villains, along with Frieza, Broly, and Super Buu. He gave birth to the Shoop Da Whoop internet meme, which is based on a face he makes while in his second form.

Trivia

 * When Cell absorbs Android 18, this marks the point in which Dragon Ball Z's subtheme of tails diminishes. This is seemingly symbolized by Cell's tail retracting when he transforms into his perfect form.
 * Cell is the second person to succeed in killing Goku, and the first villain to ever kill him, as Piccolo Jr was good when he killed Goku. Both, times were also in part a self-sacrifice by Goku.
 * Of the three main villains (Frieza, Cell, and Buu), he is the only one to not kill Krillin. (ironically his present counterpart is killed by Krillin) Counting Vegeta, he is one of the two to not kill Krillin.
 * It is interesting to note that Cell has killed Trunks twice and been killed by Trunks twice. The main Cell strangled Trunks of his (Cell's) future with his tail and killed Trunks of his (Trunks's) future with a Death Beam, though in this instance he was revived. Cell's present counterpart was destroyed by Trunks while in larval form, and his counterpart from Trunks's future was destroyed by Trunks in his Imperfect form, though the main Cell was killed by Gohan.
 * Out of the four main villains of Dragon Ball Z, (Vegeta, Frieza, Cell, and Majin Buu,) Cell is the only one who didn't have a Spirit Bomb launched at him.
 * Ironically, despite being created to kill Goku, Cell has the least personal connection to him compared to Frieza and King Piccolo only fighting Goku for sport, but he is the arch-enemy to Gohan and Future Trunks.
 * Cell is similar to Ultron: Both are androids, both are mass murderers, both are supervillains and both are complete monsters.
 * Cell is also similar to Orga from the Godzilla series because both need to absorb a powerful being to become perfect (Cell needs to absorb Android 17 and Android 18 and Orga needs to absorb Godzilla.