So after re-watching the original dragon ball z series, Iv'e noticed something, the greatest threat to earth and the universe isn't the so called "villain's" of dragon ball z (Cell, Buu, Frezzia,androids) it's Goku and Vegeta and the rest of the sayians?!!!! Think about it, rather it be Goku or Vegeta there arrogance and thirst for blood and battle has allowed countless so called "villain's" to either be birthed, revived, allowed to train and power up, or allowed to awaken to full power when whole time Goku or Vegeta could have just stopped them at any point and seem to be the main cause of them awakening to full power just so they can have a good time fighting?!! And even now in Dragon ball Super Goku single handily put every universe on a set course of destruction all because he wanted to fight people think about it, if Goku hadn't asked Zen to set up a tournament to see who's the strongest in the universe then the losing universe's wouldn't be threatened with complete destruction if they lose...

So in my opinion the real villain's of Dragon Ball Z is Goku, Vegeta, and the sayians so every time you rooted for goku or any of the sayian's to win you were really rooting for the bad guy! You can't congratulate them for saving the world when they are the one's constantly putting it in danger all for there own sick bloodlust and thirst for battle!

But this is just my theory feel free to comment ^^

That doesn't make them the real villains. It just means that they're not ideal heroes. They're not the people creating the problems. They just solve them on their own flawed terms.

Obviously Vegeta is a villain because he is always an antihero. However Goku is not like that. The only way I could think Goku would be a villain is during the Android Saga when they do not just go blow up the guy making the Androids before they're built.

Vegeta used to be a villain and has a great amount of pride, so it's understandable (to me at least) that he would allow villains to be created in the earlier series, but he's not a villain after the freeza saga as he does help the universe

Goku is an airhead, he's strong and kind, but he's often just naive or he wants a fair fight, he's a flawed hero like others said, but by no means can you count him responsible

and that with Zeno you talk about in dragonball super, Goku is not responsible for that, he was surprised at Zeno's decision and actually wanted to stop it, something Whis and Beerus didn't let him do because they were worried about Zeno destroying Goku for that.

It's funny you say that because your theory just might be correct! It seems like that's how Toriyama is portraying it in Dragon Ball Super with this new Tournament Arc. Everyone is hating Goku, and with good reason, since he's responsible if any universe gets erased!

The real villain is the creator of the series for making something pretty bad in later seasons with absolutely ridiculous concepts and terrible pacing.

Just sayin

They're not villains (although Vegeta used to be, but he's no longer one anymore), they're just flawed heroes. Goku always wants to have a fun battle with his opponents. He often feels that the fight isn't going fairly since we feel like Goku is 'too strong', so he lets his opponents reach their full power. This is a very big and dangerous mistake. I mean, he could do that with his friends if he's sparring with them (like Krillin, Piccolo, Gohan...)...But not with enemies. Plus, Goku is too naive. It wasn't nice of his part to release Raditz's tail for example (especially he kidnapped his own nephew? Goku would never forgive such criminal)

As for Vegeta, he is similar to Goku when it comes to battles (when he let Cell absorb Android 18 for example to reach a whole new level which is his perfect form), except that he has a lot of pride. It gives us the impression that they're villains in a very indirect way, but they're not