The Dragon Ball franchise has no shortage of memorable villains, but the long-running manga/anime story took things to the next level with Dragon Ball Z, blending science fiction and fantasy to deliver some truly intimidating foes for Goku and the Z Fighters to battle. However, while there are plenty of fan-favorite antagonists to surface in DBZ, not all of them received their just due, with King Cold and Dabura among two of the most striking and formidable opponents who did not live up to the hype behind their respective appearances. Both were rather pathetically dispatched.
Here are the all-too-brief roles that King Cold and Dabura each played in DBZ, how they were individually defeated and which villain's true potential was ultimately squandered as the biggest missed opportunity for the story.
King Cold's Story in DBZ
King Cold is the father of Frieza, one of the biggest villains in the entire Dragon Ball franchise. Cold made his debut shortly after his son was soundly defeated and left for dead in the planetary wreckage of Namek, with his army recovering Frieza's body and fitting it with cybernetic parts to revive him. With Mecha Frieza in tow, Cold arrived on Earth to seek revenge on the Z Fighters while Goku was still in transit back home.
After the mysterious Future Trunks singlehandedly defeated Cold's army and killed Frieza after transforming into a Super Saiyan, Cold pretended to offer to join forces with Trunks to attack the teenager an instant later. Unfazed, Trunks easily killed Cold with a single energy blast. In filler anime storylines, Cold would resurface, causing trouble in Hell with his son, the Ginyu Force and Cell, only to be defeated by a single blow from the stoic warrior Pikkon.
Dabura's Story in DBZ
Dabura is revealed to be the king of the Demon Realm, a hellish world within DBZ. The sinister wizard Babidi took advantage of Dabura's dark powers and the immense amount of evil in the demon king's heart to magically bring him under his complete control, also empowering him in the process. Following this, Dabura was rarely seen away from Babidi's side as his most powerful warrior, able to transform opponents into solid stone if they came into direct contact with his spit.
Dabura easily killed Babidi's minions Yamu and Spopovovich, along with the Supreme Kai's attendant Kibito, before turning Piccolo and Krillin to stone, leaving the Z Fighters stunned. Gohan would battle Dabura one-on-one but neither fighter emerged triumphant, even with Gohan transformed as a Super Saiyan 2. Instead, Dabura would be devoured by Babidi's awakened monster Majin Buu before undergoing a change of heart in the afterlife to become a peaceful figure.
King Cold vs. Dabura: Who Was More Wasted in DBZ?
While Captain Cold brings in a certain amount of backstory to Frieza, he was never presumed to be stronger than his son, with Cold in the second transformative state of his species; two levels behind Frieza. Cold even alludes to being weaker than his son in the anime film Dragon Ball Super: Broly as he turns over control of his empire to Frieza. Frieza was always the ultimate threat, with Cold perpetually in the shadow of his son.
By contrast, Dabura was established as a threat so deadly that he could take out three of the Z Fighters before even Goku or Vegeta could react in time. Goku estimates that Dabura is slightly stronger than Cell, with Gohan struggling to keep up with his demonic opponent, although Vegeta remained largely unimpressed. But rather than Dabura being given an epic sendoff, he was quickly defeated by a joke attack from Buu, transformed into a giant cookie and eaten just to prove how dangerous Majin Buu truly was. With Dabura's redemption, there is little chance the demon king will become a threat to the Z Fighters and show his full potential, making the promise of his menace all the more unfulfilled.
