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This article is about the emperor of Universe 7. For other uses, see Emperor.

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"I doubt I need an introduction, but just in case, I am the mighty Frieza, and yes, all the horrible stories you've heard are true."
— Frieza in "Namek's Defense"


Frieza (フリーザ Furīza, lit. "Freeza") is the main antagonist of the Dragon Ball series. He is the descendant of Chilled, the youngest son of King Cold, the younger brother of Cooler and the father of Kuriza.

Inheriting his father’s imperialist army and rising to power as the emperor of Universe 7 at a young age, Frieza quickly established himself as a ruthless tyrant, feared across the universe for his unparalleled cruelty and power. Ever since his invasion of Namek, Frieza has been the series' most recurring villain, clashing with his archnemesis Goku and his allies on several occasions, becoming even more powerful every time.

Frieza is primarily responsible for the Genocide of the Saiyans and serves as the main antagonist of the overarching Frieza Saga and Golden Frieza Saga, as well as a villainous protagonist during the Universe Survival Saga.

Concept and creation

His name is a rephrase of "freezer". Akira Toriyama however envisioned a fridge when creating him, and so all of his underlings are named after items you would find in a fridge.

According to Akira Toriyama, Frieza's design is an amalgamation of what he thought monsters looked like in his childhood.[citation needed] According to the Daizenshuu, Frieza was also inspired by Toriyama's second editor, Yū Kondō. According to Daizenshuu 2, Toriyama was also inspired to create Frieza due to the events of the Japanese economic bubble that had occurred at the time he was writing the Saiyan Saga, with Frieza specifically being based on real estate speculators, which Toriyama claimed were "the worst sort of people".[8]

According to an interview done by Shonen Jump with Toriyama, Frieza's final form was purposefully made to look small and less menacing: Toriyama wanted to go against the expectation that villains and monsters become bigger and meaner looking the stronger they are.[citation needed]

Appearance

Frieza regenerated storyboard

Art of first form Frieza in the Resurrection ‘F’ original storyboards without any Battle Armor

Frieza possesses an entire range of transformations, each one being quite different than the others. It is implied by Vegeta and Frieza himself in the series that Frieza's fourth, most powerful form is actually his original form, with the other three being forms that suppress and conserve his enormous power. Frieza later confirms this while fighting the main protagonist, Goku. His forms seem to revolve around both western and Japanese concepts of demons.

In his first form, Frieza usually wears a standard armor of his army, consisting of a purple body suit with yellow shoulder guards. He also appears to wear black shorts. He also occasionally wears a red scouter. When in his true natural form, Frieza wears his race's Bio Suit. When in his Mecha form, his body is equipped with a permanent Cosmic Suit. In the Universe Survival Saga, he has a halo on his head due to being dead, although this is removed after the tournament due to Whis restoring his life for "good behavior."

Ideal Boss Frieza

Frieza in a tuxedo

A series of stamps promoting Dragon Ball Super showed "Ideal Boss Frieza", some depicting the tyrant wearing a black suit with a white dress shirt and a red tie. Frieza wears this outfit in the Society Survival Saga.

Personality

"Oh, to see the Dragon Balls turn to stone at the very moment your wish might have come true. Quite a pill to swallow, eh, Vegeta? Of course, even more so for myself. As a matter of fact, in all my years, I have never been so angry as I am now. How incredibly irritating not to have seen the writing on the wall... NOW YOU PAY! YOU VILE, FILTH-SUCKING MAGGOTS! YOU WILL RUE THE DAY YOU CROSSED MY PATH! PREPARE YOURSELF TO FACE OBLIVION!!!"
— Frieza to Vegeta, Gohan, Krillin, and Dende in "Frieza Closes In! Mighty Porunga, Grant Our Wish!"

FriezavsVegeta03

Frieza enraged after losing his chance for immortality

Unlike most primary antagonists, Frieza displays a civilized and refined demeanor, talking with a regal and eloquent nature. He even utilizes the Keigo dialect in the Japanese versions, which utilizes exceptionally respectful and formal phraseology. In the original and remastered dubs for Dragon Ball Z, while his polite demeanor is somewhat retained (such as his quipping when threatening the Nameks in his introduction that he neglected his manners and should have added "please" to his threat to them), it also ends up downplayed by emphasizing his more brutal nature. He tends to handle most situations with a systematic approach. He commonly utilizes dark humor, making twisted jokes and tasteless mockery of his foes before killing them. Frieza is fully aware of his reputation for brutality and makes no effort to deny it, but instead revels in it as evidenced by his introduction to the Namekians. Likewise, he has shown great anger at the idea of his cruel deeds being undone, such as the revival of all his previous victims from the Dragon Balls. Frieza can be best summed up as an intelligent, composed (for the most part), yet extraordinarily sadistic and completely heartless sociopath. His final form's character biography in Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 states that Frieza has unparalleled cruelty. He has even been commonly referred to as "The evilest guy in Universe 7". In Cooler's Revenge, Goku, when condemning Cooler, noted that Frieza was "filled with hatred."

While Frieza himself never attempted to kill either his father or brother during his lifetime and will work together with them to deal with threats to their family's reign (as shown in the Trunks Saga, Plan to Eradicate Super Saiyans, and Xenoverse 2), he has hardly any real love or attachment to them, and even scoffs at the notion of reviving his father when Sorbet suggested it in both Resurrection ‘F’ and Dragon Ball Super. This is further shown when Universe 9 Supreme Kai Ro asks why Frieza would willingly betray Universe 7, asking him about any memories or loved ones Frieza may have, Frieza only coldly dismisses him, saying he has no idea what he is talking about, causing Ro to label Frieza a psychopath when discussing the possibility of Frieza joining Team Universe 9 with Sidra. While he has no real love for his family, he is proud of his clan and respected his father during his lifetime, as he took his father's warning about never opposing either Beerus or Majin Buu seriously. While they can work together, Frieza and Cooler have a strong sibling rivalry, and it is implied that they would at some point have come into conflict over control of the universe, were it not for Frieza's defeat on Namek. In Dragon Ball Super: Broly, he is shown to be mildly annoyed when his father affectionately pats him on the back when they are on Planet Vegeta, showing his general dislike for affection, even from his father. Despite this, he does refer to his father as "loving" when mentioning that Goku was the first time someone other than his parents managed to inflict pain onto his final form, though he may have been using the term sarcastically.

Frieza is shown to be something of a perfectionist, expecting nothing less from his soldiers as any failure in his eyes will be met with extreme punishment if not death. Even more, he has absolutely no qualms with slaughtering his own forces, no matter how loyal to him, simply for being in his way, as seen from when he destroyed Planet Vegeta despite most of his men being within the trajectory, as well as his reason in the Japanese version for executing a soldier before deciding to personally deal with Future Trunks. In addition, in Resurrection 'F', when executing Tagoma by shooting him out into space, he also made no attempt at activating the secondary window to save his forces from being sucked into the vacuum of space (with only Sorbet doing so). He also reacts violently to criticism or if his plans either fail or if his pride is abashed.

Frieza DBZ Ep 86 002

Frieza mercilessly torturing Vegeta

At his core, Frieza relishes glory, power, agony, dominance, control, and destruction, as shown in his enjoyment of Planet Vegeta's destruction, as well as his maniacal glee from destroying planets and making his enemies suffer before he kills them. He is one of the most sadistic and megalomaniacal beings in the known universes, without any sympathetic or redeeming traits. Even more, he has an outspoken disdain for such joyful environments. Due to these combining traits, Frieza is more of a malignant narcissist rather than just a psychopath. During his imprisonment in Hell, he found his constant company of stuffed animals, fairies, and angels joyfully and cheerfully dancing and serenading him to be absolute torture, which ultimately turned out to be a fitting eternal punishment for the evil tyrant. Frieza holds a very profoundly cynical view of others, believing everyone to be selfish and untrustworthy as himself. Ironically, Frieza is outspoken against all forms of nobility, finding it an appalling concept. When Kikono states that the Frieza Force are criminals, Frieza retorts by saying that they merely overtake planets to sell them to those who need a new planet, viewing the interactions as transactional and demonstrating how he makes excuses for his malicious crimes and feels no responsibility for his actions.

Frieza's actions have greatly influenced Universe 7's perception of his race, as shown in Xenoverse when a heroic member of his race named Reso says his race being evil is a misconception. Future Zamasu notes in Xenoverse 2 that the Frieza Race is not well-liked, which again is likely due to Frieza and his family's evil actions. Frieza's amoral and selfish nature, even towards his own kind, could be seen when he met his Universe 6 counterpart, Frost. During their first meeting, they seemingly took a liking towards each other, as they both lived for conquest and destruction. Frieza even points out they have several things in common which leads to Frieza and Frost allying. Ultimately, once Frost outlives his usefulness, Frieza betrays Frost and eliminates him from the tournament. By this time, Frieza openly views Frost as an amateur, presumably due to his reliance on deception and sneak attacks. Frieza has been shown to have a strong influence over people, commonly corrupting them and bending them to his will over a long period. The two most notable examples of this corruption are Vegeta and Tagoma, who both have drastically changed demeanors due to Frieza.

"That is what I said - wipe out humanity. Although finding myself short on minions, thanks to you, I guess I'll have to roll up my proverbial sleeves and dish out the carnage personally."
— Frieza to Future Trunks in "I Will Defeat Frieza! Another Super Saiyan!"

Perhaps Frieza's most noteworthy trait is his enormous ego, matched only by his malice and power. Because of his high opinion of himself, he tends to react to any given situation relatively evenly. Accordingly, Frieza is quite confident in his abilities, commonly referring to his foes as lower life-forms such as insects, and often cherishes the opportunity to mock them (e.g., not using his limbs in some fights). For much of his life, Frieza was viewed as among the most powerful beings in the universe, with Lord Beerus and Majin Buu being the only beings he was warned by his father King Cold not to face. As a consequence, Frieza believes no force can challenge his authority. Owing to his arrogance, Frieza generally refrains from fighting his foes. Instead, he relies on his minions to deal with challengers, and only personally confronts his opponents when forced to do so; this is best shown during the events on Planet Namek and after his first revival. Overall, Frieza seems to simultaneously possess a superiority and inferiority complex, as he can quickly be driven over the edge in anger when foes prove able to overpower or even rival him. At the same time, Frieza possesses a competitive nature, enjoying a foe that can endure his power. As an example, he "congratulates" Goku for hurting him in his true form.

Another consequence of said arrogance is that Frieza never trained once in his life: he is a naturally gifted, phenomenal warrior and his powers are so strong that he had to suppress them in order to control himself. This on the other hand is, arguably, a consequence of his lack of training. In any case, even in a suppressed form, Frieza was one of the most feared creatures in the universe, immensely stronger than almost any other warrior in the galaxy, and able to disintegrate a planet with a single attack. When he decided to train, in four months only, he managed to equalize Goku's powers as a Super Saiyan Blue; also, only by meditating while he was in Hell, he managed to obtain a perfect control on his final form Golden Frieza. Upon his second revival, he has learned from his mistake and trained himself for a decade to obtain Black Frieza.

Frieza arguably desires absolute control more than being viewed as the most powerful being in the universe; this may be illustrated by the events on Planet Namek, as, by that time, he already controlled around 70% of the universe. By the time he fights in the Tournament of Power, he shows little fear around deities and angels. In fact, he slights Zeno, going so far as to address him simply as "Zeno" without the royal title "lord"; later in said tournament, he even refers to the deities as "colorful brats". In said tournament, he was annoyed by how Zeno and his future counterpart so casually destroy entire universes, whilst vowing one day to overthrow both Zenos. This serves to show that even Frieza's genocidal nature and love of destruction has its limits; that perception is supported by the fact he tends to only destroy on a planetary scale, and usually resorts to such extreme measures only when he believes them to be necessary.

Given his ceaselessly opportunistic and unrepentantly malicious intentions, Frieza knew that the Tournament of Power was the perfect chance to manipulate deities and use them to his advantage. When confronted by assassins hired by Sidra and Roh, he ignored Goku's pleas and slaughtered them. Further, Frieza offered his services to Universe 9 if they would revive him. The deities in attendance were disgusted by Frieza's lack of loyalty to his own universe. Roh noted Frieza's detached and destructive nature showed him to be even better suited to serve as a God of Destruction than Sidra.

Despite his evil nature, Frieza can be quite gregarious towards people who treat him with reverence, such as the Ginyu Force, who worship Frieza and exhibit extreme loyalty towards him. In Xenoverse 2, both Beerus and Whis note Frieza's charisma. In the Frieza's Spaceship rift, it is implied he has a unique leadership style, through which he allows his subordinates to fight amongst each other in an attempt to get in his good graces. However, Frieza has shown mercy towards some of his fighters by giving them second chances; one example is when he allows Dodoria and Zarbon to live after being defeated by the Future Warrior (who was working undercover at the time). However, Frieza rarely shows mercy, and such mercy is generally a one-time thing, as he admits he never gives them more chances. He was also capable of sparing even non-fighters if it served him in some way, as evidenced by how he recruited Macki and Oil into his Frieza Force to act as his wait staff. Frieza's leadership style favors the strong, and the in-fighting keeps his soldiers on their toes. Accordingly, his leadership effectively weeds out the weaker members and motivates his staff to become stronger to protect their positions, rank, and lives. He is also capable of sparing his foes, such as when he let Goku and Vegeta be after besting them with his Black Frieza transformation, although in that case it was mostly because he wasn't even planning on dealing with them anyways.

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Frieza ensuring his revenge on Goku

Following his crushing defeat on Namek, Frieza became obsessed with taking his revenge on Goku and his friends. Frieza's desire for retribution is so all-consuming that he is determined to exact revenge by destroying all his nemesis holds dear. Frieza also apparently suffers from a form of PTSD, as he sees hallucinations of Goku, which frightens him. The mere sight of Future Trunks in Super Saiyan form made Frieza noticeably shake in fear, struggling to recompose himself. However, by his first revival, Frieza overcame his trauma, again firmly confident in his capacities. To that end, he smirked at Kale ascending to her Legendary Super Saiyan form (and in the manga even expressed complete confidence he could beat her).

For all his arrogance, Frieza does not totally disregard potential threats to his rule, to the point of paranoia. Frieza destroyed nearly the entire Saiyan race once even their low-level warriors showed strength comparable to his elite soldiers. The Saiyans' growing strength made him concerned about the possibility of a revolution and added to his nagging fear of the Super Saiyan legend. Similarly, after his humbling defeat against Goku on Planet Namek, he willingly admits he cannot defeat certain foes, as shown by his refusal to fight Beerus or Majin Buu. Likewise, Frieza is willing to help others defeat common foes. For example, in the Tournament of Power, Frieza repeatedly aided Goku in his ultimate defeat of Jiren, a mortal warrior with power beyond a God of Destruction.

Following the defeat of Majin Buu, Frieza's unwavering desire for victory is tempered by a newfound sense of humility and patience; upon learning of Goku's victory over Majin Buu, Frieza puts his revenge on hold to begin training himself, despite his open disdain of such a "lowly" task. Frieza's drive for supremacy ultimately allowed him to reach vastly greater levels of power, leading him to unlock a new Ultimate Evolution. However, this discovery only serves to bolster Frieza's sense of confidence and blind drive for revenge. Rather than continuing his training to master his new form, Frieza immediately rushed to Earth. Though it is possible Frieza was convinced he could defeat Goku before his lack of mastery over his new form would become a factor, his impatience became his downfall. While Frieza's calculating nature leaves little room for failure, he nevertheless prepares contingency plans, such as destroying host planets to defeat his foe or using his followers to conduct sneak attacks. Ultimately, however, his execution proves sloppy. Nevertheless, his tactical skills are noted to be brilliant by Vegeta in Dragon Ball Legends, after witnessing Frieza enact a plan to eliminate Frost without transforming himself.

By the Tournament of Power, Frieza's long period of mental training seems to have returned him to his previous composed and self-confident self from before his defeat on Planet Namek. Additionally, he corrects his previous mistake and has refined his Golden Form to absolute mastery. At the same time, he is shown willing to temporarily put aside his rivalry with his sworn nemesis Goku to aid him in the Tournament of Power in exchange for his full revival. Still, when revived by Fortuneteller Baba for a single day, Frieza and Goku greet each other by punching each other in the gut, showing that while they are technically allies, their animosity towards each other remains. Frieza proves to be just as devious and scheming as before, playing mind games with his new "allies" by giving the impression that he intended to kill Goku instead of helping him. To that end, Frieza also makes it clear he will not take orders from Goku.

During the Tournament of Power, Frieza develops a measure of respect for Goku. For example, he shows gratefulness for Goku's naïve nature, and fights by the Saiyan Warrior's side to take down Jiren, in such perfect synchronization and understanding of each other's techniques that it is enough to shock Vegeta. Similarly, Frieza acknowledges Goku's might, and is seemingly unsurprised by Goku's ascension to his Ultra Instinct Sign state. At Goku's request, Frieza willingly donates energy to the Universe 7 Spirit Bomb, even as Vegeta proves unwilling. Frieza even saves Goku from Jiren by giving the Saiyan enough energy to return to his feet, as he realizes Goku's Ultra Instinct is the best chance of beating Jiren. Frieza also uses it as an excuse to square himself of his debt to Goku.

As previously stated, Frieza proved to be a surprisingly capable tag-team partner during the Tournament of Power. While teaming with Gohan, the two are able to follow each other's lead and come up with an effective battle strategy on several occasions to eliminate troublesome opponents, with Frieza even admitting to enjoying working with Gohan and openly admiring and complimenting Gohan's leadership skills on a few occasions. This respect also appears to have extended to several other members of Team Universe 7 as well. By the end of the Tournament of Power, despite still being openly as evil and selfish as ever, Frieza has come to respect Goku and his allies, and willingly celebrates with them for a little bit as well after being revived by Whis. His growing admiration for the Z-Fighters is shown with the happy flick of his tail at Goku's declaration that he will take him down if he does go back to his evil ways, implying the motivation for his inevitable showdown with Goku may have grown from simple hatred to the spirited joy of being able to fight a warrior who he can regard as his equal, admittedly viewing Goku as "a rare breed" of fighter. In Broly, he expresses some disappointment upon seeing Goku being easily defeated by Wrathful Broly, appearing to expect Goku to win and then fight himself.

In Broly, Frieza also reveals that he no longer seeks immortality, for his experience in Hell has made him fear the prospect of being left crippled and with no way out. This is interestingly enough one of the few instances where Frieza actually learns from his previous experiences. Similarly, he ordered one of his men to find out how to make a wish with the Dragon Balls of Earth, presumably to avoid a failure similar to that of Planet Namek, acting as another instance of Frieza learning from his past experiences. A third instance can be seen at the end of the movie, where, after being defeated, Frieza decided to just retreat from Earth for the time being rather than risk being killed by Goku (or rather, a fusion of Goku and Vegeta). On a similar note, when unveiling his new Black Frieza form to Goku and Vegeta and explaining the circumstances behind his accessing it, he quickly added that it took a lot of toil on his part during the decade-long training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, implying that he learned his mistake from when he first accessed Golden Frieza and made sure to master the form before formally unveiling it to his rivals. At the same time, Frieza is still filled with vanity. As revealed by Berryblue, Frieza is sensitive about his True form's height to the point that Frieza Force soldiers have been executed in the past for daring to call Final Form Frieza short. He appears to have a rather causal relationship with Berryblue and even allows her to comment on his short stature without killing her, implying a form of genuine fondness for his childhood nanny. More to the former, Frieza's insecurity of his height led him to steal the Earth's Dragon Balls to increase his height. At the same time, valuing how people perceive him, Frieza refuses to revert to his weaker yet taller forms to satisfy his vanity. Even more, he planned to make a wish for his True Form to only gain 5 centimeters, to create the illusion that he was still naturally growing while anymore would look unnatural.

Frieza also showed an interest in Broly's power and potential for growth using Paragus as a means to control him at first. However, once Paragus had outlived his usefulness and lost the remote to the Broly Control Mechanism, Frieza, reminded of how Krillin's death triggered Goku's Super Saiyan transformation, decided to use Paragus' death to trigger Broly's anger through tricking Broly by claiming a stray blast killed Paragus. However, his plan backfires as Super Saiyan Broly blindly attacks him after Goku and Vegeta fly by Frieza as they escape to Piccolo's location. Frieza responds angrily to Broly's attack and tries to fight back in his Golden Form but is no match for Broly's might. After leaving Earth in defeat, Frieza, having learned that the defectors Cheelai and Lemo have joined Broly on Vampa, decides not to hunt them down, hoping that they might tame Broly, whom Frieza hopes may one day serve under him, apparently recognizing the Legendary Super Saiyan's potential. This contrasts with his past fear of Super Saiyans that led him to exterminate most of them as he seeks to make Broly his subordinate.

Frieza's end goal is eventually defeating the Omni-Kings and ruling above even them.[9][10]

Relationship with Frost

"Oh and though you probably already know this, there is one more bit of wisdom I would like to impart. And that is, you should never trust anyone ever."
— Frieza betraying Frost in "Frieza and Frost! A Mutual Malevolence?"

Frost and Frieza - DBS96

Frieza and Frost form an alliance

Since Frost and Frieza are universal counterparts, they have several similarities and are nearly identical in many ways. When they first met each other, both smiled, with Frieza pleasantly surprised that there was another Emperor. The two Emperors conversed in private and presumably got to know each other, as Frieza noted they had several things in common. When Frieza asked if Frost wanted to work with him, Frost said he would be delighted to do so.

Screen Shot 2017-09-23 at 10.59

Frieza fires a ki blast at Frost, knocking him out of the ring

In reality, Frieza did not care about Frost at all. This was proven when Frieza tricks Frost by teaching him to enhance his strength, only to blast him out of the stage point-blank. Subsequently, Frieza reveals he thought of Frost as an amateur, rather than a teammate. Despite betraying Frost in the Tournament of Power, Frieza ultimately shows some measure of respect for Frost, commending his counterpart for getting rid of the troublesome Universe 9 fighters.

References

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