Commander Red is the diminutive, megalomaniacal supreme leader of the Red Ribbon Army and the primary antagonist of the Red Ribbon Army Saga in original Dragon Ball. A tiny man with an enormous ego, Red commanded a global military empire with technology far exceeding any national government, all dedicated to a purpose he kept secret from even his most loyal officers: the Red Ribbon Army's entire mission, its vast resources, and the lives of its soldiers were sacrificed not for world conquest, but to gather the Dragon Balls so Red could wish to become taller.Commander Red is the diminutive, megalomaniacal supreme leader of the Red Ribbon Army and the primary antagonist of the Red Ribbon Army Saga in original Dragon Ball. A tiny man with an enormous ego, Red commanded a global military empire with technology far exceeding any national government, all dedicated to a purpose he kept secret from even his most loyal officers: the Red Ribbon Army's entire mission, its vast resources, and the lives of its soldiers were sacrificed not for world conquest, but to gather the Dragon Balls so Red could wish to become taller. His height — or lack thereof — was his sole motivation. This reveal, when discovered by his second-in-command Staff Officer Black, led to Black executing his own commander in disgust, deeming the man's vanity-driven ambition unworthy of the army that had been built around it. Red's ruthlessness matched his small stature: he executed subordinates for minor failures, employed the world's deadliest assassin (Mercenary Tao) to eliminate a child, and presided over a military dictatorship that developed killer androids, super-soldiers, and weapons of mass destruction. His cartoonish design — a tiny, balding man in an oversized uniform dwarfed by his own desk — belied a genuinely dangerous villain whose organization's legacy would shape the entire Dragon Ball Z saga through its surviving creations: Androids 16 through 21, Cell, and even the Gammas of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero all trace their origin to the Red Ribbon Army that Commander Red built. His defeat marked Goku's first single-handed destruction of a global military power, a feat he accomplished as a pre-teen boy armed with little more than his Power Pole and indomitable spirit. Commander Red represents a particular type of evil: not cosmic or supernatural, but the banality of power concentrated in a petty, insecure man whose reach far exceeded his worth.... Read more
