Anime / Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F'

aka: Dragon Ball Z Revival Of F

Spoilers for all Dragon Ball works preceding it, including Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

Now despair begins.

"The worst wish in history, that is the beginning of despair."

— Tagline

Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’ is the 19th official movie in the Dragon Ball franchise. Directed by Tadayoshi Yamamuro and released on April 18, 2015, it is a direct sequel to Battle of Gods and draws upon many elements from that film.

Some time after Goku's fight with Beerus (and Goku becoming a Super Saiyan God), the last remnants of Frieza's army find and use the Earth's Dragon Balls to wish Frieza back to life. Shenron grants their wish, but they get Frieza's body returned to them just as it was before Trunks blasted it into oblivion: partially mechanized... and cut into many, many pieces. After some time in an advanced healing chamber, Frieza emerges fully restored and more powerful than ever after training for the first time in his life — leaving the tyrant ready for both a fight with the Saiyans and an invasion of Earth to enact his revenge. Also, while Goku has a surprise in store for his old foe, Frieza didn't come looking for a fight without a surprise of his own to share.

For its release in the U.S., Funimation gave it a dubbed limited theatrical release (as they did with Battle of Gods), lasting from August 4th to August 12th of 2015. On October 20, 2015. The film came in three editions: standard DVD, Blu-ray and DVD combo pack, and Collector’s Edition. The Collector’s Edition includes no extra features, but different packaging and collectible character cards.

The trailers can be seen here, here, and here.

Like the previous film, this movie's events are revisited by the anime Dragon Ball Super. To date, this is the last animated work in the Dragon Ball franchise to bear the Dragon Ball Z name.

Production Credits:

• Original Author: Akira Toriyama
• Script: Akira Toriyama
• Character Design: Akira Toriyama
• Music: Norihito Sumitomo
• Storyboard: Tadayoshi Yamamuro
• Director: Tadayoshi Yamamuro
• Chief Animation Director: Tadayoshi Yamamuro

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Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’ contains examples of the following tropes:

• Actionized Sequel: While Battle of Gods had its fight scenes, it was much more focused on slapstick and comedy. Resurrection ‘F’ goes all-out with Frieza's return and a whole alien invasion, with many more action scenes than the previous film.
• Actor Allusion: Krillin's ringtone is We Are from One Piece. His Japanese voice actress, Mayumi Tanaka, voices Luffy and his English VA, Sonny Strait, plays Usopp.
• Advertised Extra: Tagoma. Early on, he suggests that Frieza should avoid the Saiyans and go back to running his empire; Frieza kills him for making the suggestion.
• Aesop Amnesia:
  • After losing to Goku and being killed by Trunks, Frieza realizes that being Brilliant, but Lazy was the catalyst of his downfall. So, he decides to finally train and bring out all of his latent power. However, he still didn't completely learn his lesson from Namek. Part of the reason why he lost was because he never learned to control his full power, had no endurance for a prolonged fight, and couldn't respond once raw strength proved to be ineffective. His golden form has the exact same problems to an even greater extent. After taking so much damage, he loses his ultimate transformation and is reduced to rage quitting.
  • You'd think after Namek, Goku would have learned to quit playing around so much and finish off his opponent, especially when he KNOWS said opponent is prone to blowing up planets when they're on the losing end of a beatdown.
• Alien Invasion: Frieza; this time with a much larger army.
• All-Powerful Bystander: Beerus and especially Whis. Either one of them could easily kill Frieza, but they don't get involved in the fight at all. In fact, they're really only there for the food. Subverted later on when after Frieza destroys the Earth, Whis protects everyone who was standing around him at the time and does Goku a solid by reversing time so he can kill Frieza before he gets a chance.
• And I Must Scream:
  • After being sent to Hell in Z, Frieza gets trapped inside a cherry tree's pod in an endless flower field, unable to move and stripped of his powers while angels and toy-like creatures sing and dance around him. It happens to him again towards the end of the film. Quite a grim end for a villainous character.
  • The result of Frieza's resurrection is this, being conscious while in pieces. He gets better eventually.
• Animation Bump: The battle with all the Earth's fighters, Goku vs. Frieza, and the Earth exploding are some of the best animated scenes in the movie.
• Anti-Climax: Frieza ultimately ends up as this, despite gaining a new Super Form because despite the power up, he still lacks the stamina to keep up with Goku or Vegeta. Neither Goku nor Vegeta takes the fight completely seriously, even briefly fighting each other at one point over whose turn it is to fight Frieza. Their lax approach to the situation results in Goku almost dying and Frieza successfully destroying the Earth.
• Apocalypse Wow: Frieza destroys the Earth after it's absolutely clear that Vegeta has beaten him. Unlike on Namek, he doesn't drag things out, but the ensuing destruction is still quite spectacular, as we see the ground cracking beneath the heroes' feet, volcanoes starting to erupt everywhere, and a good 30-second CGI shot from outer space where the planet is slowly consumed by fire and breaks apart before exploding.
• Arch-Enemy: Frieza fully sees Goku as this to the point he wants to kill Goku without caring so much about the Saiyan who sliced him up and blew him to bits. He went as far as to call Goku his old nemesis. The feeling is not mutual. Despite Frieza pushing him into Unstoppable Rage during their battle on Namek, Goku no longer holds any personal grudge against Frieza and even offers him the chance to leave and fight him again one day.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Frieza's ultimate transformation, Golden Frieza. In this form, his power surpasses any form of Super Saiyan, even a Super Saiyan enhanced by the aura of a god. However, since Frieza never mastered this form, he burns through his energy so quickly that Goku only has to withstand Frieza's attacks for a few minutes before they become completely ineffective.
• Awesome by Analysis: Jaco's approach to taking down large quantities of Freiza's henchmen involved precisely aimed shots to incapacitate them, and using his surroundings to evade from or take down his attackers. At one point he manages to trick a whole squad into getting eaten by a giant shark.
• Ax-Crazy: Frieza seems completely in control, composed, and on the ball with what needs to be done in order to reclaim his position in the universe...at first. Then he starts fighting, and more and more you see just how utterly broken his defeat at Goku's hands has left him. He's even fine with blowing up the planet, point-blank and immediately with a manic grin on his face, because even if it kills him, he has to kill Goku. He seems mentally incapable of accepting any other reality, whether or not he's even still alive afterwards.
• Back from the Dead: Frieza; with a taste for vengeance. One of his subordinates wished him back.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Jaco and Krillin fight back-to-back long enough to trade quips.
• Badass Normal: Jaco is the only fighter in this movie who cannot use ki or fly but he still beats Frieza's army very well.
• Bad Boss: Frieza kills all of his men, except Sorbet, for failing to defeat the Z warriors.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • One from way back in Z. Well Bulma, you finally got to see Frieza up close and in person. Was it worth it?
  • When Sorbet first wishes for Frieza's revival, Shenron says that it's pointless to bring him back since he would return in pieces. After talking with Tagoma, Sorbet demands that his wish be granted. Shenron calls it a foolish wish, but grants it anyway, though Frieza's put back together using healing technology. Turns out, Shenron was right, although for the wrong reason. The wish was extremely foolish since Frieza chose to get revenge on Goku instead of returning to his empire. That decision led to his entire army and what is left of the empire being destroyed.
• Benevolent Boss: Sorbet seems to care for his men; he was even distraught when Frieza killed Tagoma.
• Big Bad: Frieza.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: The Z-Fighters (including Master Roshi) vs Frieza's 1,000 strong army.
• Big Eater: Much like Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, Whis and Beerus spend more time eating than doing anything else. Beerus outright admits that he spared Bulma and all those around her when the Earth exploded because she kept feeding him. Whis also reverses time so they can feast after Frieza is dealt with.
• Big Guy, Little Guy: Tagoma and Sorbet, respectively, are the primary two henchmen of Frieza's remaining and they fit the height descriptions of the trope.
• Big "NO!": Frieza yells "No" after being sent back to Hell in The Stinger.
• Big "WHY?!": As Frieza starts losing, he loses his cool completely, complete with one of these as he screams at Goku.
  Frieza: DAMN YOOOUUU!! WHY?! WHYYYYY?! THIS SHOULDN'T BE HAPPENING!! I AM LORD FRIEZA!!
• Bittersweet Ending: Goku kills Frieza and sends him straight back to Hell, but Goku and Vegeta both blithely ignore the morals they were supposed to learn (i.e. to stop offering unrepentant villains mercy for the sake of good fights, to cooperate in battle, to overcome their specific character flaws, etc). The Earth was destroyed in the original, uncorrected timeline of events because of a combination of these failings, and alas, many similar mistakes are made by the two prideful Saiyans throughout the Super era.
• Book Ends: The beginning of the movie shows Frieza in hell. The Stinger shows him right back in hell.
• Brawler Lock: When Frieza and Goku do this in midair, Frieza comes up with a workaround - spinning Goku vertically and hitting him in the stomach.
• Break the Haughty: Yes, Frieza is again given this. Because he is so impatient to get his revenge, he rushes to Earth as soon as he becomes Golden Frieza. Despite greatly increasing his raw power, he has no endurance and his overall battle skills are subpar, which leads to him getting his butt handed to him by Goku and Vegeta. To add further insult, his army is stomped by people like Master Roshi, a character who lost to King Piccolo, who is nothing compared to the standards of the Z villains.
• Brilliant, but Lazy:
  • The Frieza we saw when he was first introduced was naturally very strong and never had to train for his power. Meaning, he was the strongest in the universe without even trying. That is until Goku came and humiliated him and he was killed off by Trunks. After coming back to life, Frieza decides to finally train to bring out all of his latent power. Even still, he does not measure up because he relies on raw battle power over skills and self-control, which comes back to bite him.
  • Gohan is a variation. Career martial arts masters like Roshi consider him a lazy slacker for not keeping up his training, but it's less outright laziness and more that Gohan is a Reluctant Warrior.
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • Shenron himself invokes this when Sorbet gets a little too mouthy.
  Sorbet: I don't care what shape [Frieza's] in, just bring him back like I told you!
  Shenron: It's unwise to be rude to a dragon.
  • Frieza's men see Frieza picking another fight with the Super Saiyan as this. Tagoma tells Frieza, as politely as possible, to leave Goku alone and return to his empire. This bit of wisdom cost Tagoma his life.
  • Bulma mocks Frieza when she meets him. Everyone, especially Jaco, asks her if she lost her mind because Frieza could vaporize her in an instant. When it finally sinks in for her that Goku and Vegeta are not there and that the other fighters are no match for Frieza, she is horrified and tries to retract her statements.
  • Averted when Frieza sees Beerus. Despite being an arrogant asshole, Frieza immediately humbles himself before the God of Destruction and goes out of his way not to make him mad.
• Call-Back:
  • Goku and Vegeta don't take too long to figure out Golden Frieza's weakness: lack of practice and stamina with a brand-new transformation. Back in the Cell arc, Goku and Gohan dodged this weakness by staying transformed at all times, while Vegeta avoided using the slow, bulky "between" Super Saiyan form after practising with it.
  • During their fight, Frieza swings his arm down and sends a blast of energy at Goku (which he barely manages to dodge) and leaves a clean cut through the immediate spot where it hit, exactly like Freiza did to Goku when they first fought on Namek.
• Calling Your Attacks: For once, averted in the end when Goku finishes Frieza. He doesn't call his final Kamehameha. He simply blows Frieza back to Hell.
• Came Back Strong: Played With. It's not the resurrection itself that makes Frieza stronger, but his realizing that he can't coast by on raw power any more and needs to actually work at honing what he has. In his true form he can fight base form Goku, but he is still overpowered. Then he transforms into his new ultimate form and can overwhelm Goku at full power. Too bad he never bothered to master this form and has the same stamina issues as his original true form. Still, if you don't count Beerus as a villain, Frieza has effectively returned as the most powerful villain in the franchise.
• Came Back Wrong: Shenron reveals the previous stipulation to resurrection wishes of needing to be within one year of death to technically not be absolute. He can restore the person's soul afterwards still, but their body will be in the state of its death when he does. Sorbet after being told this goes with it anyway, and brings back Frieza exactly as he was during the last moments of his life: in pieces. Said pieces have to be collected and put in a special healing chamber in order for the overlord to get himself back together.
• Canon Immigrant: Jaco from creator Akira Toriyama's Jaco the Galactic Patrolman manga appears in the film, and fights alongside the main cast against Frieza's forces. However, Jaco's final chapter reveals it to be a prequel to Dragon Ball, so technically the two stories were already in continuity. The main issue is that Jaco was created in 2013, well after Dragon Ball had ended, so this film is the first opportunity for such a reference.
• Can't Catch Up: Even in his new form, Frieza is still unable beat Goku, resorting to dirtier means.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You:
  • When Pilaf expresses concern that Sorbet might kill him once he's wished back Frieza, Sorbet assures him that his knowledge makes him more useful alive than dead. Pilaf isn't entirely convinced, but he's not in much of a position to negotiate.
  • When Frieza offers to let Vegeta kill a wounded Goku, Vegeta refuses on the logic that their rivalry is what motivates him to get stronger.
• Casting Gag: The Latin American Spanish dub brings back nine voice actors who were in the Dragon Ball franchise, albeit in different roles:
  • Laura Torres, who provides the original voice of Goku, Gohan and Goten as children, is the voice of the Capsule Corporation's receptionist.
  • Pedro D'Aguillón, Jr., who voiced Murasaki and Mercenary Tao in the original series, voices Sorbet.
  • Ricardo Tejedo, the voice actor for Oolong in the first dub of Dragon Ball and Cui in Dragon Ball Z Kai, voices Tagoma here.
  • Miguel Ángel Ghigliazza, who voiced Vodka in Dragon Ball, voices Shisami.
  • Humberto Vélez, the voice of Dr. Brief for the first 98 episodes of Kai, voices one of the bank robbers.
  • Eduardo Fonseca, who provided the second voice of King Kai in Kai, voices Frieza's frog henchman.
  • Laura Ayala (Bulma's VA in the first dub of Dragon Ball, based on the Harmony Gold dub), Magda Giner (the voice actress of Bulma's mother in Dragon Ball, Oceanus Shenron in GT and Uranai Baba in Kai) and Salvador Reyes (the voice of Recoome and Cell in Kai) are additional voices in this film.
• Cerebus Rollercoaster: Any scene with Beerus; everyone in the cast, including Frieza, is scared of him, but he's just so darned hilarious.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: While Frieza already had many powers that would be deemed "super" by our standards, he managed to surpass Majin Buu in power by simply training. In comparison, Buu himself was a magical creation that absorbed no less than three demigods, Gohan (whom Frieza put down with a single punch) had his power magically unlocked twice and even Goku only achieved his SSGSS mode because in the last movie Beerus told him about the ritual. What Frieza went through is downright mundane by comparison.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • While training with Whis, he mentions both Goku and Vegeta's Fatal Flaws. For Goku, it is his over-confidence which makes him lower his guard, leaving him vulnerable and easy to attack. For Vegeta, he is too tense and thoughtful while fighting, slowing his movements and reaction time. Both of these weaknesses come back to haunt them in the fight against Frieza.
  • When Goku and Vegeta arrive to fight Frieza, the Z Fighters had a single senzu bean left since Jaco declined having one. Later, Goku gets critically wounded by a sneak attack and has to eat it.
  • During the fight against Frieza, Bulma gets on Beerus for eating instead of helping. Beerus says that he did not care about the planet, but if Bulma keeps feeding him, he would spare her if the planet is destroyed. When Frieza blows up the Earth, Whis creates a barrier that protects Bulma and all those around her.
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • Near the beginning of the movie Whis casually mentions that he can rewind time by three minutes. He uses this skill to keep Beerus from destroying more than usual. By the end of the movie, it is Whis who reverses time for Goku after Frieza destroyed the Earth.
  • Near the beginning of the film, when Pilaf and co. are about to attack Sorbet from behind, he turns around and very quickly and adeptly shoots their weapons out of their hands with his ray gun ring. It's his skill with this very weapon that fells Goku when things look hopeless for Frieza.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: Golden Frieza. In this form, Frieza's power surpasses even Goku's new God transformation, but he still has the stamina issues of his original 100% form. Just like last time, Goku beats him simply by letting Frieza burn himself out.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: As always, Frieza's preferred fighting style is sadistic. After Goku is shot through the heart, Frieza beats him mercilessly, going so far as to stomp on his chest where he was shot.
• Combat Pragmatist: After Goku proves to be Frieza's superior once again, Frieza uses his backup plan. He has Sorbet shoot Goku from behind, piercing his heart.
  Beerus: Clearly a dirty move, but effective, you have to give him that.
• Continuity Nod:
  • When Goku and Vegeta are being trained by Whis in the manga version (but not the movie itself), there's a brief instant where Goku's fighting spirit particularly flares up and, as he lunges for an attack, a faded image of his Super Saiyan God form is superimposed behind him. It's just another reminder that Goku broke the supposed rule and independently retained the form.
  • The 10-minutes prologue of the Director's Cut version includes reanimated footage of the Frieza battle on Namek, but the scenes are closer to the manga than the anime. The footage of Goku vs Frieza is 5 minutes long.
  • This film marks the first time Bulma and Frieza meet and interact face-to-face, something Bulma has wanted to do since the Trunks Saga so she could at least get to see what Frieza looked like after missing out on Namek.
• Continuity Snarl: Shenron only granted two wishes, when he is actually capable of granting three. This was a rather minor mistake that was fixed in Dragon Ball Super (the third wish became the world most delicious ice cream).
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Frieza's personal Hell is this; he's wrapped in a cocoon and dangling from a tree in a Sickeningly Sweet fairy land, Forced to Watch as angels, fairies, and living stuffed animals happily dance, sing, and generally have a good time around him. Naturally, Frieza hated every second of it and describes it to the Z-Fighters as if it were the most horrifying and brutal torture ever devised.
  Frieza: Instead of ruling the universe with an iron fist, I was serenaded by teddy bears!
• Cool Ship: The flying saucers used by Frieza and his soldiers.
• Crapsaccharine World: Frieza is trapped in his very own Ironic Hell — one where he's forced to watch everyone having a happy time while being unable to hurt anybody, which seems like a suitable punishment for an omnicidal sadist.
• Crazy-Prepared: Frieza orders Sorbet to mortally wound Goku in case Frieza is unable to defeat him.
  Frieza: Good thing for contingency plans right Goku? As if I take the slightest chance of losing to you again!
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Krillin vs two ordinary bank robbers. They stood no chance.
  • The Earth's defenders versus Frieza's army of a thousand men. Literally the only reason there's even a struggle is that they're outnumbered. Only Shisami put up a decent fight and Gohan takes him down in one punch. How bad is it? Frieza outright states Gohan could have defeated the entire army himself if he felt like it.
  • Gohan versus Frieza. If you can even call this a fight since Gohan nearly died in one blow.
  • Goku's fight against Frieza's true form. Although Frieza's major power-up allows him to keep up with Goku's pace, he fails to get a single hit in and eventually Goku utterly owns him without going Super Saiyan. The only point where Goku showed any strain and effort at all was during their Beam Struggle, and even then Frieza nearly died when Goku overpowered him. If Goku wanted to, he could have ended the battle right there.
  • Vegeta also has an easy time smacking Frieza around once he takes over the fight. It's much shorter than Goku's turn... but then, Vegeta is completely fresh and unharmed in his Super Saiyan Blue form, whilst Frieza has exhausted all his energy from Golden Form and has been heavily beaten up by Goku. What would you expect?
  • Whis vs Vegeta and Goku during the training scenes. True to the scale given in Battle of the Gods, neither Vegeta nor Goku could even land a hit unless Whis wished it, and when they did Whis promptly no-sells it. When Whis does finally attack, he knocks out Vegeta with one hit.
• Darker and Edgier: After the light-hearted and humorous Battle of Gods, Frieza returns with thirst for revenge, as well as the level of menace he had during the original Namek storyline. However, while the film is darker than Battle of Gods it's still fairly light-hearted with plenty of humor, barring a few choice moments.
• Death Is Cheap: It's a Dragon Ball film.
  • First, there's Frieza's resurrection itself. One of Shenron's limitations is supposed to be that they can only revive someone a year after they were killed, but Frieza gets revived regardless, albeit in pieces and requiring Sorbet to use the healing tanks.
  • Frieza blows up the entire planet - thanks to Whis, this lasts about a minute.
  • After everything is said and done, Bulma nonchalantly mentions bringing back North City with the Dragon Balls later.
• Deity of Human Origin:
  • Or rather, Saiyan origin. While Goku still denies being a god in the traditional sense, he spends the time in-between Dragonball Z Battle Of Gods and this movie training under Whis to better control the Super Saiyan God power. He is now considered a "Saiyan Beyond God" and can fully control his god powers.
  • Frieza is technically not a god since his power can still be felt by mortals. He just has the strength of a god, which is extremely impressive and scary.
  • Vegeta is also this, as it's shown that he also gained, absorbed, and mastered the Super Saiyan God transformation's energy into himself before the movie kicked off, like Goku did.
• Department of Redundancy Department: The name of the new transformation Goku and Vegeta get, the Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan transformation. This is averted in the movie (Goku avoids the overly long explanation behind it), but played straight in Super.
• Determinator: Frieza attempts to piece himself back together immediately after being revived, and still manages to survive until his lieutenants succeed in fully regenerating him with an advanced healing apparatus. He might be a remorseless demon of a tyrant, but you have to respect such a will to live that he'd endure in such a state.
• Deus Exit Machina:
  • Vegeta and Goku are off-Earth training with Whis when Frieza invades, otherwise they would have wiped out his army in two seconds. Instead, all the weaker characters get to do the fighting, allowing the movie to pad its runtime with their various fight scenes.
  • Buu's Written-In Absence is a similar case. While he would have been no match for Frieza's golden form, he could have just turned the entire army into candy or conventionally killed them all just as easily. Depending on how arrogant Frieza is, Buu's candy ray could have conceivably hit him, too, ending the entire threat.
• Deuteragonist: As opposed to many other Dragon Ball films, and as seen with the page image, Vegeta has almost as much to do with the plot as Goku this time around.
• Dirty Coward:
  • After Goku proved to be the superior fighter, Frieza has Sorbet shoot him in the back. He then acts smug again and proceeds to beat the life out of Goku.
  • When Vegeta is about to kill him, Frieza chooses to Rage Quit and nuke the entire planet.
• Discontinuity Nod:
  • In Hell and when first resurrected, Frieza is still in his cyborg form when Trunks diced him. This puts a stopper to all the other times Frieza is shown after dying in his fully organic form such as anime filler, the movies, and GT — unless he was reverted to cyborg form and placed in the cocoon after the death of Kid Buu. It could also just be set in Dragon Ball Kai's loyal-to-the-manga continuity.
  • This also retcons any and all scenes of Hell in the non-manga timelines, as this is the first time we see Hell in the manga timeline. In contrast to previous depictions, where Hell seemingly consisted of little more than a dank cave where all the villains are allowed to have a body and roam free (meaning they can even easily start a revolution in Hell or even a breakout), here Frieza is shown to be trapped powerless in a personal Ironic Hell, which can be assumed to hold true for all those who end up there.
  • There's the part in the Buu Saga where Piccolo told Vegeta when he dies, he will be sent to Hell for the crimes he's committed in the past. Once his soul is purified, he will be reborn without memories of his past life. This means Frieza is forever stuck in that tree until he's reborn without his genocidal past.
• Divine Intervention:
  • Although Whis is technically not a god, at least according to him, he still counts since he can easily subdue Beerus and he has the power to rewind time for the entire universe by three minutes. He uses this power to reverse time on Frieza, stopping him from destroying the Earth.
  • Since Goku himself can be counted as a deity thanks to his mastery of Super Saiyan God, him coming to save his friends can be seen as this trope. Frieza lampshades this by saying that the Z-Fighters raising their energy is a distress signal to their savior. Vegeta would count as well since he too mastered Super Saiyan God.
• The Dreaded:
  • Frieza was this to his entire empire (as well as his own underlings), which meant that with him gone, his forces faced planetary revolts and internal disarray. Things are so bad that Sorbet sees no other choice but to bring back the only one the empire truly feared.
  • When Frieza's minions tell him that Goku defeated Majin Buu, he gets a perfect idea of how strong Goku is now; King Cold told him "The two people in this universe whom you should never cross are the God of Destruction Beerus and Majin Buu". When Beerus actually shows up on Earth, Frieza is as polite as he can be and makes sure Beerus will let him kill Goku.
  • Goku himself is feared by Frieza's entire empire to the point that they try to locate New Namek instead of using the Earth's Dragon Balls. They had to reach the Godzilla Threshold before they went to Earth and rushed from the planet as soon as Frieza was revived. When Frieza was made whole again and wanted revenge, Tagoma tells Frieza point-blank to leave Goku alone.
  • Despite Frieza's best attempts to hide it, he is also scared of Goku. He shows clear nervousness about facing him again and came up with a backup plan just in case Goku proves stronger than him. His fear also extends to the Super Saiyan in general. He freaks out when he sees Gohan transform and tells Sorbet that one doesn't know the terror of a Super Saiyan until it is glaring you in the face. In this case, Frieza's pride outweighs his fear.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Frieza, when he realizes he has been defeated again, goes this route in order to kill everyone else, since he alone can survive in the vacuum of space.
• Elite Mook: Shisami, a red devil-like alien who rivals Piccolo in power. To give context, after merging with Kami, Piccolo was far stronger than Goku when he first became a Super Saiyan. This would make Shisami more powerful than Frieza prior to his death and resurrection. Then Gohan goes Super Sayian and downs him with one punch, so he's still a mook.
• Epic Fail: Despite powering up, Frieza loses for the exact same reasons he lost the last time: Poor endurance, reliance on raw strength, and not having full control of his power.
• Epic Hail: All of the Earth's warriors raise their power so Goku can sense them. Beerus' planet is so far way from Earth that Goku can't sense any energies to use his teleportation technique. Frieza calls it a distress signal to their savior. In the Japanese text, he calls it a summons.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Sorbet and Tagoma are well-aware the risk of reviving Freiza is and do it mostly out of desperation and reluctance. The only reason Freiza was even considered to be brought back to life, in spite of how dangerous he is, was due to his former forces falling apart without him. To add to this, Sorbet is genuinely horrified when Freiza throws Tagoma out the airlock.
• Evil Cannot Stand Cuteness: Frieza's Hell involved him strung up in a cocoon on a tree, condemned to hang above a pretty little grove of flowers where cutesy angels, fairies and stuffed toys frolic, sing and play adorably all day long. Frieza treats this as if it were the most agonizing punishment anyone could imagine.
  Frieza: Instead of ruling the universe with an iron fist, I was serenaded by teddy bears!
• Evil Laugh: Frieza, as always, has a maniacal chuckle.
• Evil Overlord: Frieza, back to running his own empire after returning from the dead.
• Face–Heel Turn: Played with. When Vegeta interferes with Goku and Frieza's fight, Frieza mistakenly assumes Vegeta's attacking Goku because he wishes to go back to working for Frieza. The reality is Vegeta's just getting impatient and wants his turn. Thankfully, Frieza goes and opens his mouth about it, irking Vegeta enough to back off and just let Goku go back to smacking him around.
• Fantastic Racism: Frieza in regards to the Saiyans. This is played up more in the dub where Frieza calls the Saiyans "monkeys" regularly.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Frieza and his pride. Instead of taking the simple solution and going back to rule his falling empire, he had to get his revenge on Goku for beating him. His pride in his power also proves to be his undoing since, as Vegeta outright states, he rushed to Earth the moment he achieved his new form, rather than taking the time to master it, meaning that he wasn't fully adjusted to the form and was basically bleeding stamina while using it. His pride cost him his life, yet again.
  • Goku and his mercy, as well as his over-confidence. Instead of killing Frieza, he offered him the chance to leave peacefully and even says that he's willing to fight him again once he learns to control his new form. Goku should have known better given what happened the last time he gave Frieza mercy. His over-confidence also made him drop his guard, allowing Sorbet to shoot him in the back. Thankfully, Goku was able to fix his mistake thanks to Whis.
  • Vegeta's chip on his shoulder making him tense and his tendency to think too much before acting. Whis warned Vegeta earlier that he took too long to act which made him slow to react to changes in a fight. His slow reaction time allows Frieza to blow up the planet, killing him.
• Faux Affably Evil: Frieza's usual politeness and air of friendliness are clearly feigned and fail to cover his truly evil nature, even more so than in Z given his Sanity Slippage and Villainous Breakdowns.
• Finger Poke of Doom: One of Frieza's signatures. The first thing he does after landing on Earth is casually vaporize North City with one finger.
• Flying Saucer:
  • The alien invasion uses the familiar ship design.
  • This is also the design of Jaco's ship.
• Foregone Conclusion: Unless the ending of the original manga and Dragon Ball Z anime are retconned, Goku and Vegeta have no choice but to triumph over Frieza. The drama is less about whether they will do it than how. Correspondingly, there is none of the "he's unbeatable!" atmosphere from Frieza's first fight; everyone except Frieza knows how this fight is going to end and even Frieza set up a "contingency". That's why Frieza's minions advised him to stay away from Earth.
• Foreshadowing: Frieza makes quick mention of a "contingency plan" he and Sorbet have in case things don't go as planned. This turns out to be Sorbet stealthily using his previously displayed phenomenal accuracy with his ray gun ring to fell Goku when Frieza himself can't.
• Friendly Enemy: Beerus and Whis are not really enemies with the cast anymore. Whis is even training Goku and Vegeta. However, they don't care what happens to the Earth and eat while Goku is fighting Frieza. Beerus even commends Frieza for fighting dirty since it got the job done and Goku was an idiot for lowering his guard. Beerus was also initially not pleased with Whis reversing time, saying it was unfitting for a God of Destruction to save a planet, but changes his mind when Bulma offers a giant feast. Nonetheless, they are closer to true neutrals in this movie.
• Genre Blindness:
  • For Frieza, despite wising up and training before going to Earth to take his revenge, he never completely learns from his failings on Namek and when he came to Earth the first time. Frieza was also a fool to even consider that Vegeta would ever want to work with him again after he reduced him to tears, tortured him, and then murdered him. Not to mention killing his father and destroying his planet.
  • Frieza's men were also foolish to believe that someone as prideful and scornful as Frieza could walk away after being humiliated and killed (twice technically) by what he saw as overgrown monkeys.
  • Goku and the others are shocked and stricken that Frieza chose to destroy the Earth instead of being killed by Vegeta. Given that rage quitting has been a proud DBZ villain tradition since Vegeta tried it, they should have known this could happen.
• Give My Regards in the Next World: Just as he's about to kill Frieza, Vegeta tells him he'll see him back in Hell. Unfortunately, Frieza responds "You can all go the Hell without me!" and blows up Earth.
• A God I Am Not: Beerus asks Goku if he wants to become the new God of Destruction since he bribed Whis to train him. Goku says that he doesn't want Beerus' job and just wants to become stronger. Vegeta then adds that he's only there so Goku doesn't completely leave him in the dust.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • Tagoma and Sorbet only resurrect Frieza because they've been trying to keep his empire afloat, but they've lost planet after planet to revolts. While neither one feels particularly happy to bring Frieza back to life, Sorbet more or less says Frieza's the only one who can rebuild the Empire. Frieza himself lampshades this, accurately guessing their reasons for reviving him after such a long time.
  • Frieza's men going to Earth also counts. Before the empire began to completely fall apart, they were searching for New Namek to no avail. They wanted to avoid Super Saiyan Goku at all costs.
• Golden Super Mode:
  • It's not just for Saiyans any more — Frieza's new form is effectively this. He says he chose the color specifically to show off to Goku, only to learn blue is all the rage in super forms now.
  • Ironically, this is now averted with Goku and Vegeta's Super Saiyan transformations, as a side effect of mastering the Super Saiyan God transformation. Rather than getting gold hair when they transform, they now get blue/teal hair.
• The Greys: Tagoma's design seems influenced by this, from his dull complexion to his bulbous cranium. He is, however, exceptionally lanky.
• Guns Are Worthless: Averted big time. When Goku decides to let Frieza flee from Earth, Sorbet shoots him from behind with a standard ray gun. Which wounds him so badly that he gets KNOCKED OUT OF HIS SUPER SAIYAN BLUE FORM. Word of God states since Goku let his guard down, his ki shielding is turned off. Rendering him vulnerable to even conventional firearms.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Averted; Frieza assumed that being a natural-born prodigy made him stronger than anyone else — a notion shattered rather violently by his encounters with Goku and Future Trunks (who had to train in order to achieve Super Saiyan). Bearing this in mind, Frieza resolves to undergo training for the first time in his life so he can take his revenge. He ends up losing again since he didn't go very far with his training, and, beyond having unlocked his Golden Frieza form, he's practically the same old short-tempered brute as always. Not even his transformation helps him much; it has such a tremendous stamina drain that he can't use it long enough for it to threaten the Super Saiyans much. By his reappearance in Super, he's trained his Golden form more, and it's much more practical in use since it no longer drains his stamina.
• Heroic BSoD: For the first time since sending Gohan against Cell, it hits Goku hard when he realizes just how badly he screwed up — in offering Frieza a chance to live, once again. It leads to the sudden annihilation of the Earth and murder of his wife, his youngest child, his granddaughter, Krillin's family, Vegeta and Trunks, and essentially everyone he's ever known and cared for. This time, he's only got himself to blame for ignoring the obvious character of his enemy.
• He's Back!: Frieza is revived, and trains for once — making him more powerful than he's ever been before.
• History Repeats:
  • Frieza's biggest failing is that he never bothered to master his new transformation, rushing to Earth as soon as he achieved it, so he had next to no endurance when he fought Goku. Similarly, he was defeated the first time on Namek because he never trained his body to handle his full power and didn't have the endurance for a prolonged fight.
  • Goku offering mercy to Frieza gets him shot in the back again. Although, this time the sneak attack is more successful.
  • Just like on Namek, Frieza chooses to destroy the planet instead of losing to a mere monkey. He is much more successful in that he did destroy the Earth without dragging it out like Namek. However, Whis reverses time on him, allowing Goku to kill him before he could Rage Quit.
  • Although The Dreaded of the universe, the battle against Frieza ends with a whimper unlike all the other Z villains. This is just like the battle on Namek, which ended with Goku blasting Frieza after his second Backstab Backfire, and his first arrival on Earth where he is cut to pieces and blown away by Trunks.
• Humanity Is Infectious: Or at least the food is. Beerus cites several times that the reason why he doesn't destroy the Earth is because he wants to eat more of its food. That is also the primary reason why Whis is training Goku and Vegeta and why he rewinds time after Frieza destroyed the planet. Earth's cuisine saves the day.
• Humiliation Conga: Despite returning stronger than ever with the full force of his empire at his back, Frieza is still subjected to this. First, his entire army gets their butts handed to them without Goku and Vegeta's help. In fact, Gohan alone could have handled the entire army, as Freiza points out. Then, when he has the chance to show off how badass he has become, Goku arrives and is able to overpower him without bothering to go Super Saiyan. So, Frieza stops fooling around and transforms into his new ultimate form and fights evenly with Goku, who also has a new transformation. Despite having the edge for a time, his stamina fails him, again, and he's at Goku's mercy, who once again takes pity on him and tells him to go away. Then, when he does have Goku at his mercy, Vegeta steps in, shows that he can transform like Goku, and promptly kicks Frieza's ass. With his reserves gone, he loses his transformation and is about to be killed by Vegeta. So, he destroys the planet, seemingly getting the last laugh only for Whis to rewind time on him and be killed by Goku's Kamehameha. He's sent back to Hell, trapped in the same tree as before, and the citizens of Hell welcome him back. Yeah, he really should have taken Tagoma's advice.
• Hypocrite:
  • After Frieza transforms into his true form, he asks why Goku hasn't become a Super Saiyan. Goku says that it isn't necessary. Frieza says that Goku is arrogant like always. Frieza.
  • After beating up a mortally injured Goku, Frieza mocks him for being too powerful for his own good and becoming over-confident. Like Frieza is one to talk given that he was so over-confident about his new form that he didn't bother to train it.
  • After being revived, Frieza asks what happened to his father. Sorbet informs him that they were unable to revive him since Pilaf stole one of their wishes, and that they would try next time. Frieza dismisses the idea, citing his father's egotism. Yet another instance of the pot calling the kettle black.
  • After Vegeta reveals he can become a Super Saiyan God, Frieza mocks him by calling him the "prince of no one", but by the time he said this, the last of his army and Sorbet have all been killed by him. So "Lord Frieza" has nothing left to "Lord" over.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Whis boasts that his body is trained to avoid danger without even thinking about it. Goku then points out he's standing in poop.
  • We know Gohan slacked off on the training and is only half-confident in his fighting ability when Frieza arrives. Wanna know who's the one who called him on it? Master Roshi, who spent the entire twenty-ish years of the Z series doing absolutely nothing.
  • All of Frieza's statements calling other people arrogant and egoistical. See Hypocrite.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Krillin of all people pulls this: he chases the two bank robbers he's caught in the act on his bike, but eventually chooses to just Flash Step in front of them and floor them both with one kick.
• Idiot Ball: Frieza offers Vegeta a job back on the Frieza Force if he kills Goku, expecting him to fully accept despite Frieza's enslavement of him, torture and murder. While it's understandable why a sociopath like Frieza would think Vegeta would ever join him again — however Bulma believing her husband would just betray everyone and join Frieza on a whim (which he doesn't do) is more of a testament to how little she apparently knows Vegeta.
• I Need You Stronger: The primary reason Vegeta gives for refusing to kill Goku after Frieza offers to make Vegeta supreme commander of his army. He claims not to like Goku, but needs him to become stronger, most likely so he can still have a rival. Of course, his other reason for not siding with Frieza is because Frieza destroyed his planet on top of enslaving him.
• Ignored Aesop: Whis makes it very clear that Goku and Vegeta would be nigh unstoppable if they could work together. In fact, he says that they could have trivialized Frieza (even with his new Golden Super Mode) if they double teamed him. After the events of the film, Goku and Vegeta can clearly see that Whis has a point. They opt to completely ignore said point. Cue the entire audience's collective facepalm.
• I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That: Jaco says that he was supposed to prevent the Saiyans from reaching Earth and that there is a law against time travel. Earth is currently home to two full-blooded Saiyans and four more of mixed blood, Bulma casually admits to her alternate universe son from the future altering history, and Whis outright rewinds time in front of him. Given who he's dealing with, Jaco just says he didn't see anything and writes it off.
• Important Haircut: Krillin asks 18 to shave his head before he joins the Z-Fighters against Frieza. Gohan remarks how nostalgic looking at him feels. Frieza, however, just knows Krillin as that guy he blew up once.
• Incompletely Trained:
  • Frieza's biggest mistake is that he was so obsessed with getting his revenge he left his training too early once he obtained his new golden form.
  • This is lampshaded regarding Gohan, as it seems not keeping up with his training has left him "only" able to turn into a Super Saiyan, and he was even unsure that he'd be able to do that much. He's still the strongest Z Fighter aside from Goku and Vegeta though.
• Ironic Echo: Frieza dished out a whole bunch of punishment to Vegeta on Namek — and in this film, he dishes out the same amount of punishment to Goku. Goku is shot by Sorbet near his heart, which is where Vegeta was hit by one of Frieza's death beams on Namek. Goku also entered his Super Saiyan form (the Trope Codifier for Golden Super Mode) to beat Frieza; the new form Frieza uses to beat Goku senseless is also a Golden Super Mode.
• Iron Butt Monkey: For all his power and ruthlessness, Frieza is this throughout the entire movie. When we first see him, he's in an Ironic Hell where he's trapped in a pod hanging from a tree in a world that can only be described as Candy Land. He is revived in pieces, falls apart when he tries to put himself back together, and his pieces are gathered and dumped into a container to be thrown in a healing tank. Even after he Took a Level in Badass he gets heaps of humiliation piled onto him. Goku does not take him that seriously even after he becomes Golden Frieza, seeing their fight more like a sparring match with high stakes. Even him blowing up the Earth gets negated by Whis. After he dies, he's sent right back to his Ironic Hell.
• Irony:
  • Frieza's new transformation is a Golden Super Mode, no different than the Super Saiyan transformation he previously wrote off as a superstition.
  • The new Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan form, specifically its blue coloration. It's the most powerful thing we've seen out of the series protagonists yet, and yet blue is associated with softer and weaker tones in Japan. Heck, Toriyama himself acknowledged the irony outright.
  • Some of the Z warriors are out of the fight to keep them safe. Frieza blows up the planet and the only survivors are those watching the fight with Bulma. Avoiding the battle got them, temporarily, killed.
  • The reason why Goku and Vegeta became so powerful by the time Frieza returns for revenge is directly because he lost to Super Saiyan Goku. Beerus came to Earth seeking a Super Saiyan God because he was reminded of his dream after he learns of Frieza's defeat. Through Beerus' actions, not only was a Super Saiyan God created, but it gave Goku and Vegeta the opportunity to train under Whis. If these events never happened, Goku and Vegeta would have been much weaker and may have lost to Frieza.
  • Frieza committing his entire army to the invasion of Earth ends up saving the universe. Not only was his army defeated by the Earth's defenders, he ruthlessly kills them for their failing, leaving only Sorbet alive who is killed by Vegeta. With Frieza's final death, all the planets that remained under his empire's control are now free. In a larger sense, Sorbet's attempts to revive the planet trade empire back to its former glory by bringing back Frieza, actually help put the final nail in its casket.
  • Frieza's last words just before his demise are "DAMN YOU, GOKU!" Screaming Goku's name right before he dies... just like Krillin did right before Frieza killed him.
• It's Personal: Frieza has a bad case of this after his resurrection. He doesn't care about his failing empire or the personal risk, he wants revenge!
• Just Toying with Them:
  • Whis "trains" Goku and Vegeta by effortlessly dodging or blocking all their attacks, with a few light hits thrown in for good measure. He even writes on their clothing without either noticing.
  • With the exception of the first few minutes of Goku's battle with Golden Frieza, neither Goku or Vegeta are taking the fight seriously. Goku doesn't even bother transforming to fight Frieza's final form, which he easily dominates, and even Vegeta's short finisher is more drawn out than he needed it to be.
• Knee-capping: During the battle with Frieza's mooks, Jaco uses his blaster to kneecap a bunch of mooks that have him surrounded.
• Kick the Dog: It wouldn't be Frieza without several of theses:
  • While waiting for Goku, Frieza decides to kill all his friends just to cause Goku pain.
  • Frieza viciously murders his own men for being defeated by the Z-Fighters, despite not being surprised by the outcome.
  • After Frieza has Goku at his mercy, he viciously kicks him and steps on his heart wound, causing Goku to scream in anguish. He even tries to get Vegeta to give the finishing blow just to mock Goku.
• Killed Off for Real: By the end of the movie, Frieza is killed again. And this time, he's gonna stay in Hell forever.
• Kill Steal: At the end, Vegeta has Frieza on the ropes, but the villain suddenly blows up the planet on his face. Whis allows Goku to go back in time and fix his prior mistake by tearing Frieza apart with a Kamehameha while Vegeta leaps away in confusion. Vegeta obviously gets mad not only at what Goku did, but also at learning what his own carelessness would have caused. He declares them "even" for it.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Sorbet revives Frieza since he sees him as the only hope to save the empire, which has been falling apart without Frieza's power and fear factor. Bringing back Frieza completely destroys what is left of the trade organization because he couldn't let go of the fact that Goku defeated him. Sorbet is also killed on Earth, hit by a deflected blast of his master's energy.
  • Frieza is beating to the point of tears by Vegeta, just like what he did to Vegeta back on Namek.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: The start of the movie spoils the fact that Goku retained a vast portion of the power he had in his Super Saiyan God state from the last one, as well as the fact that Beerus and Whis aren't really all that bad.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When Frieza first arrives on Earth, we see his ship land and a few of his minions fly out before Frieza himself rises out of the top into the scene. Then, looking directly at the camera, Frieza makes a "back away" motion and orders someone to make room so he can take in the whole view - at which point the camera pans back to reveal the full shot of his massive army. The view then switches around, revealing that Frieza was actually looking at a city in the distance and talking to his henchmen.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Frieza had no idea that Vegeta had become a Super Saiyan, been one for years, and was almost Goku's perfect equal having become a SSGSS himself. This comes back to bite Frieza in the ass as he essentially has to fight two guys of the same power when he only beat one by fighting dirty. Especially since Vegeta was still at full strength since he hadn't taken part of the fight yet while Frieza was worn down from his fight with Goku and physically exhausted from maintaining his gold form for so long.
  • Frieza and his men still have no clue who Future Trunks is. They think he's either dead or retired to some backwater planet since they can't find him anywhere.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming: Frieza, befitting his sadistic nature. While he's beating on Goku after Sorbet shoots his heart, he orders an unconscious Goku to wake up, stating outright that torture is "no fun" if he can't hear Goku scream.
• Magical Defibrillator: Frieza punches Gohan in the chest so hard that Gohan's heart stops. Piccolo uses a blast of kiai to restart it so he can take a senzu.
• Magic Pants: Despite not really having anything to hide, Frieza inexplicably comes out of the healing tank with armor on. There's storyboard art floating around of him without it.
• Meaningful Echo: After falling to Frieza, Goku lies gravely injured, and Vegeta takes over the fight — a direct inverse from their meeting during the fight with Frieza on Namek.
• Mook Promotion: Sorbet goes from a relatively low position (Frieza had trouble recognizing him at first) to running Frieza's entire empire in his absence.
• Mooks: Frieza arrives on Earth with a massive army numbering in the thousands. However, outside one Elite Mook who could stand up to a weary Piccolo, all of Frieza's men are easy pickings even for people like Master Roshi and Jaco. Frieza even notes that a severely rusty and base Super Saiyan Gohan could end things in an instant. To add even further insult to injury, the Earth's forces were taking down Frieza's army without killing any of them.
• Mundane Made Awesome: As shown in the film, post-Battle of Gods, Bulma protects the Earth from Beerus in her own way. Namely, by bribing him with food so that he doesn't want to destroy Earth.
• Mundane Utility: Krillin decided to use his super-powered fighting skills to fight crime on the police force.
• Mythology Gag: When Sorbet is about to wish King Cold back to life after reviving Frieza, Shou steps in and wishes for money, assuming the exact same pose Oolong did when he stole their wish from them years ago.
• Near-Villain Victory: Despite being utterly trounced by Goku and Vegeta, Frieza succeeds in destroying Earth, killing everyone except those near Whis and Beerus. He would have won if it wasn't for Whis rewinding time.
• Never Trust a Trailer: From the way the trailers are cut it made Frieza and his army look much better than they are: like making it look like Gohan and Piccolo were taken down by Shisami, everyone being terrified of Frieza's return, and Frieza beating Goku after he transforms into Golden Frieza. In the actual movie, Piccolo had a tough time with Shisami, but Gohan took him down with one punch. While most of the characters were worried about Frieza, Goku and Vegeta treated him like a tag-team match and Frieza only had Goku at his mercy because of Sorbet's sneak attack. Even Frieza destroying the Earth is out-of-context. The trailers make it look like Goku lost a Beam-O-War or Frieza did it after he beat everyone instead of a last act of desperation.
• Next Tier Power-Up:
  • Frieza gains a new form to put him back on par with the heroes.
  • Played With in regards to Goku and Vegeta. Technically, they have two transformations in this movie: Saiyan Beyond God, which is the form they achieved by internalizing the power of Super Saiyan God and allows them to reach that level of power without all the "five good-hearted Saiyans" rigamarole. Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan is essentially just a Saiyan Beyond God going to the first level of Super Saiyan, which has light blue hair, eyes, and aura instead of the familiar gold.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: At the end of their fight, Goku just can't kick his wanting of a strong rival to remember that this is effing Frieza. His overconfidence and moment of self-serving comes back to bite him, seeing as it leads to the Earth being destroyed.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Frieza states that Vegeta would be the only member after Sorbet so he brought his entire army to Earth. Him killing all of them means that there are no more lackeys alive to resurrect him again. On top of that, he single-handedly destroys what is left of his empire, freeing the universe from its grasp forever and saving thousands if not millions of lives that would have been lost in planetary uprisings. Nice job indeed, Frieza.
• Nigh-Invulnerability:
  • Even by Dragon Ball's standards, Frieza takes the cake. He manages to survive despite literally being in pieces and attempts to put himself back together after he's revived. Keep in mind, unlike Cell and Buu, he has no regeneration powers. So him living is pure endurance and toughness.
  • Goku shows off his Saiyan's endurance. He has his heart pierced by a beam of energy and takes a brutal beat down by Frieza. He remains alive and fully conscious through the whole thing, although he would have eventually died of his wound if he wasn't given a Senzu.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
  • SSGSS Vegeta delivers one to exhausted Golden Frieza, eschewing DBZ's signature Ki attacks and high-speed fighting in favor of a few simple yet effective strikes.
• No-Sell: Goku purposely takes a punch from Frieza to show that his newfound power had dropped substantially and could no longer hurt him.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Bulma gets one when she overconfidently mocks Frieza due to thinking that Goku and Vegeta were on their way and that the other fighters could handle him until they arrived, only for them to point out they are no match for Frieza.
  • When Frieza decides to drop all pretenses when Goku and Vegeta arrive and heads for his final form from the start. Master Roshi drops his muscular form and tells the others that now would be the perfect time to get out of here.
  • During the battle with Frieza, Goku realizes his remaining weakness — his tendency to burn through his ki when going full-steam. They continue the fight at a more even grounding pace than before, before Goku begins to take a noticeable advantage. Frieza finally lands a solid right straight to his cheek... Then Goku turns his head.
  • Every time Frieza get hits by Goku's Kamehameha.
  • Frieza's expression when Vegeta turns Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan and states that he has been a Super Saiyan for years.
  • When Frieza realizes Beerus is observing the fight. He doesn't regain his composure until the latter reassures him he has no intention of interfering.
• Orange/Blue Contrast: The fight between Frieza and Goku turns into this.
• Palette Swap: Frieza's golden transformation and the Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan forms are Frieza's final form and the Super Saiyan forms with gold and blue colors, respectively. It brings to mind the Kaioken from the Saiyan arc of the original.
• Police Are Useless:
  • Averted because Krillin decided to join the police force shortly before the plot kicks off.
  • Played straight with with the Galactic Patrol. Jaco's job was to keep the Saiyans off Earth, which he naturally failed at. His organization is terrified of Frieza and won't engage him (not that one can blame them, if Jaco is taken as a measure of their individual skill). Jaco himself only sticks around to fight because Bulma pressures him into it.
    • That being said, Jaco does avert it to an extent as he was still an invaluable ally in taking down many of Freiza's minions. Of course, once Freiza, himself, decides to join the fray, Jaco casually starts to back away, knowing full well that any direct action on his part at this point would be nothing more than a senseless act of suicide.
• Pragmatic Villainy: While cooperating with Sorbet and Tagoma to revive Frieza, Pilaf is savvy enough to ask if Sorbet won't pull the You Have Outlived Your Usefulness ploy. Sorbet specifically reassures him that it's not in his best interest to kill potential future allies. He later tries it anyway, but only because the Pilaf gang stole one of his wishes.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Roshi delivers an epic one before blowing a group away with a kamehameha.
  You should learn to respect your elders!
• Pride: A major flaw in Frieza, Goku, and Vegeta:
  • In Frieza's case, his pride won't allow him to accept that Goku beat him. That same pride also keeps him from taking Goku's offer to leave peacefully and try again once he has mastered his golden transformation.
  • With Goku and Vegeta, their Saiyan pride keeps them from fighting together against Frieza. If they had, things wouldn't had escalated to the point where the planet was destroyed, giving Frieza his victory despite being outmatched.
• Psychopathic Man Child: Between his Sanity Slippage and Villainous Breakdowns, Frieza is an even bigger brat than he was before. He has a full blown temper tantrum when Goku bests him again, screaming that he is Lord Frieza and releasing waves of his energy. After Vegeta beats him so badly that he losses his ultimate from, he screams while pounding the ground, sounding like he's close to crying. Him rage quitting was the final act of a Spoiled Brat who didn't get his way.
• Rage Quit: After some interference from Sorbet, Frieza finally has Goku at his mercy. Then Vegeta tags in, and shows he possesses the same level of power. Frieza, with his reserves drained and all his men dead, decides to say "screw it" and point-blank detonate the Earth.
• Readings Blew Up the Scale: As Frieza finishes healing, his minions' scouters explode throughout the spaceship (in true DBZ tradition).
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • After Frieza has Goku at his mercy and is kicking him around, he mocks Goku for always showing him mercy. He also states that Goku is too powerful for his own good and he has become too over-confident, making it only a matter of time before he drops his guard.
  Frieza: Here lies one of the strongest mortals in the cosmos, felled by a common ray gun. How pitiful does that feel?
  • Despite knowing he has no chance against Vegeta after witnessing him becoming a Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan and no selling all his attacks, Frieza still had to get one last dig in.
  Frieza: (mock laughter) Your threats are just as empty as your title. All hail Vegeta, prince of no one.
• Recycled Premise: Several. Frieza is back for revenge against Goku and brought an army with him to wipe out all life on Earth is a plot point lifted straight from Z when Frieza returns as a cyborg with his father and a small army. The Earth's warriors battling a legion of mooks and Elite Mooks until Goku arrives because they're helpless before the main villain is taking from several DBZ movies as far back as Tree of Might, with the most obvious parallels coming from the movies centering around Frieza's brother, Cooler (Frieza realized that he never had to work hard to become strong, something Cooler mocks and resents him for, and finally decided to train to surpass his limits and achieve a new stronger form much like Cooler did.). What make things in this movie stand out is that everything is purposely played as anti-climactic. None of the previous stories were this comical either. Beerus and Whis are eating a sundae while the battle is playing out.
• The Remnant: Frieza's Empire has been reduced to a shell of it's former self after King Cold and Frieza were killed along with most of their high ranking minions. The remnant of his empire is losing planets at a rapid rate to the point that what little is left decides to resurrect him as a last resort to restore the fear of them they need to keep the Empire afloat. Unfortunately for them, Frieza is more focused on revenge on the ones who defeated him than doing that. This results in Frieza being killed again and the rest of his army being killed as well.
• Reset Button: After Frieza blows up the Earth upon being defeated by Vegeta, Whis demonstrates his power to turn back time for a few minutes. He does so, undoing Earth's destruction and allowing Goku to hit Frieza with a Kamehameha before he can do his rage quit attack.
• Resurrection Revenge: The plot centers around Frieza being resurrected and plotting a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the earthlings who defeated him. He ultimately fails due to rushing his revenge and not getting used to the stamina drain of his Super Mode.
• Revenge: The first thing that comes to Frieza's mind as soon as he's brought back to life.
• Revenge Before Reason: Tagoma tells Frieza that he doesn't necessarily need revenge upon Goku — he could go back to ruling his empire and the Z-Warriors would never notice. Frieza, being Frieza, takes offense to that suggestion and kills Tagoma.
• Retired Badass: Even Master Roshi is getting in on the action.
• The Rival: Invoked by Vegeta to explain why he can't kill Goku. Although he finds Goku annoying, Vegeta acknowledges that he would have no reason to grow stronger if Goku isn't around to push him.
• Running Gag: It seems that Frieza is destined to never have a climactic end, unlike every other major villains in the series.
• Sanity Slippage: Frieza is notably unhinged. One minute he is acting like his usual calm, polite self, the next he's screaming and snarling. His mental state gets even worse throughout the movie. Frieza's time in hell clearly didn't do any favors for his sanity, even if he tries to hide it at first.
• Say My Name: In the Japanese trailer...
  Goku: FRIEEZAAAA!
• Scenery Porn: It's a Dragon Ball Z movie. This is a given. Even the special effects alone are pretty impressive sans the noticeable CGI.
• Seinfeldian Conversation: Whis and Beerus have a conversation about enjoying an ice cream sundae for the first time... while Frieza and Goku are fighting for the fate of the earth.
• Serial Escalation: In regards to the transformations used by both the Saiyans and Frieza.
  • For the Saiyans we had Super Saiyan, then Super Saiyan God. Now we have Saiyan Beyond God and Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Despite coming back stronger than ever, Frieza's revenge plan doesn't really amount to much. In the end, he's unable to kill Goku or Vegeta due not mastering his newfound power. Even blowing up the Earth didn't mean much because Whis simply undid it and Goku simply kills Frieza with a Kamehameha, putting him right back to where he started.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Goten, Trunks, and Buu are all absent from the movie, the former two not even being aware of the conflict and the latter being in a deep sleep. They were the most prominent additions to the at-times silly Buu Saga.
• Shout-Out: Krillin's ringtone is We Are, the theme song from the One Piece anime. This also counts as a Casting Gag.^note Krillin's Japanese VA, Mayumi Tanaka, is also famous for doing the voice of One Piece main character Luffy. It also works in the English dub, as Sonny Strait plays both Krillin and Usopp.
• Shown Their Work: All of the Earth's defenders use real martial arts techniques and skills, especially Piccolo and Tien, outside the standard energy blast. This contrasts with Frieza and his army who fight more like street thugs.
• Sickeningly Sweet: Invoked as Frieza's punishment in Hell. He is trapped in a cocoon surrounded by dancing and singing fairies, stuffed toys, and flowers for the rest of eternity.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Despite Pilaf and his gang having much less screen time than Battle of Gods, it was because of their involvement that Frieza was revived. They also prevented Sorbet from reviving King Cold by stealing the second wish.
• Smug Snake: Frieza is reduced to this once Goku arrives. He thinks his incompletely mastered true form is enough to fight Goku and Goku beats him without going Super Saiyan. When he transforms into Golden Frieza, he overwhelms Goku and becomes assured of his victory until the flaws of his new golden form are revealed, and he didn't even notice until it was pointed out to him. He then tries to beat Goku as quickly as possible before his power runs out, but Goku tanks the attacks and waits until Frieza's power drops before wailing on him. He's on his knees in defeat before Sorbet interferes and he becomes smug again. He then tries to get Vegeta to finish off Goku. Vegeta transforms and beats the ever loving crap out of him. He loses his ultimate form and is once again on his knees in defeat. By this point, Frieza rage quits, blowing up the planet.
• Smug Super:
  • Frieza, naturally. After going through Training from Hell, he returns as one of the most powerful villains in the series, surpassing Majin Buu.
  • Surprisingly, Goku. Whis berates Goku for being over-confident and relaxing his guard, leaving even his powerful body vulnerable to attack. Frieza takes full advantage of this, getting Sorbet to shoot Goku in the heart while his guard is down.
• So Last Season:
  • Frieza's final form, which was previously slightly below a Super Saiyan, is now not even a match for Goku in his normal form and that's after his Training from Hell.
  • In many ways, Frieza and his entire army suffer badly from this. During the two years after Namek, an invasion of this size and scale would have been absolutely terrifying. The Z Fighters were in full panic mode when Frieza returned with an invasion force not even half this size with his father. Now, although everyone is concerned, it isn't the end of the world like last time. Frieza as a villain, despite his ruthlessness, is not as effective as Cell and Buu (especially Super and Kid Buu), since those two were much more clever when dealing with the heroes and Cell matched them in terms of skill and not just raw power. Frieza and his army fail primarily because they didn't evolve past what they were during the Namek/Frieza Saga.
• Sore Loser: Frieza is still a big sore loser. See Dirty Coward and Rage Quit.
• Space Age Stasis: Averted. The scouters Frieza's army wears have an updated look to them. Healing tank technology has also advanced to the point that they can reattach and regenerate lost body parts, allowing Frieza to return to normal after being wished back by to life in pieces.
• Sparing the Aces: From the start, Goku doesn't really want to kill Frieza because he sees him as a Worthy Opponent. He offers Frieza an out several times, which got him shot in the back and the planet destroyed. Goku admits that his softness allowed Frieza to have his victory.
• Stating the Simple Solution: Tagoma tells Frieza to forget about the Saiyans and focus on the empire. He is immediately killed. Frieza really should've taken his advice.
• Stealth Pun: It was said that Goku would be, in this movie, a "Saiyan Beyond God". Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan. The "Super Saiyan" part of it is the beyond the "god" part.
• The Stinger: Frieza returns to Hell, and to his dismay, is welcomed back by the fairies and teddy bears.
• Story-Breaker Power:
  • Whis' ability to rewind time by three minutes for the entire universe. It is so out there that Vegeta demands to know what Whis is.
  • The new form of Super Saiyan God, Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan. It grants a Saiyan the power of godhood without going through the Super Saiyan God ritual and doesn't have a time limit.
  • Frieza's new ultimate transformation, Golden Frieza. He went from being beating by Goku's base form to overwhelming Goku when he transformed into a Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan. The major drawback of this transformation is that it burns through energy and even that could have been avoided if Frieza took the time to master it instead of rushing to Earth.
• Strong and Skilled: Despite his lack of training, Gohan was still the most powerful fighter present at Frieza's arrival and showed much technical skill battling Frieza's minions; from judo throws to pressure point strikes.
• Summon Bigger Fish: Jaco escapes some of the mooks chasing him by diving underwater. They respond by shooting energy blasts at him. All the blasts miss Jaco, but they hit a very large and now very angry fish beneath the surface, which eats the mooks.
• Super Mode:
  • Frieza has one of his own this time around, which just so happens to be golden, not unlike the Super Saiyan transformation.
  • In addition, Goku and Vegeta's base Super Saiyan forms get one hell of an upgrade in this film, as a side effect of them mastering the Super Saiyan God forms.
• Sword of Damocles: More or less the reason Frieza's minions bring him back to life: the empire is falling to pieces without Frieza around, so they resurrect him so people will fear his wrath again and get back in line.
• Taking You with Me: Subverted: In desperation, Frieza destroys the Earth, killing everyone who was not fortunate enough to be close to Beerus and Whis at the time, but Frieza is suggested to have survived this move.
• Terrible Artist: Jaco's drawing of Frieza. Bulma at first scoffs and laughs at him for the drawing looking so ridiculous, and later says the drawing was more accurate than she gave him credit for when she sees Frieza herself for the first time. Doubles as a Take That! to the look of Frieza's first form.
• The Stars Are Going Out: Mentioned offhand by Whis to have not happened in the past because he changed time due to having trouble seeing in the dark.
• This Cannot Be!: Frieza screams this after Goku nearly defeats him with Kamahameha. After humiliating and killing Vegeta in Z, being beaten by the Saiyan Prince in his similar new form causes Frieza to lose his golden form, and proceeds to hit the ground with rage and seems to be on the verge of crying.
• Thrown Out the Airlock: Frieza kills Tagoma this way for the latter's suggestion of abandoning revenge against the Saiyans.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Pilaf and his gang, the perennial butt monkeys of the Dragon Ball franchise, walk away from this one 1 million zeni richer.
• Time to Unlock More True Potential: The reason why Frieza went into training once he was made aware how vastly strong Goku has become since he's been dead. Given that his inner latent power allowed him to almost bridge the gap between him and Goku, Frieza's potential rivals if not surpasses Gohan's.
• Time Travel Taboo: Jaco states that by the Galactic Patrol law, altering time in any way is absolute forbidden after hearing about Bulma's future son. When Whis rewinds time, he decides to bat an eye on the deal due to being useless to go against him. This is actually the first time the travel through time is stated to be forbidden in the franchise, with Dragon Ball Super explaning why in the Future Trunks saga.
• Too Dumb to Live: Despite all the chances given to Frieza to turn away and go back to his empire, he just can't let go of his pride and spite.
• Took a Level in Badass: This movie shows some of the biggest boosts in power in the entire series:
  • In under four months, Frieza managed to undo years of Badass Decay and remind everyone why he was once The Dreaded of the universe at large. For reference, someone of Frieza's original level was seen as kid's fodder in Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!. Now, he had to only punch Gohan to stop his heart, and that was in his weakest form (though Gohan likewise hadn't transformed).
  • Two words: Muten Roshi. Think about it, for him to be able to dispatch Frieza's men can only mean one of two things. The first is that Frieza's men are pitifully weaker than they ought to be, which would make no sense as we know his forces were preparing alongside him for the invasion. The only other explanation is that Master Roshi's been doing some bulking up in his spare time, at least enough for his "MAX" state to be able to blow them away.
  • Goku by the time of the movie not only mastered Super Saiyan God, but he can now transform into a Super Saiyan using his godly aura, surpassing a god. He can also easily fight off Frieza's true form, which he finally mastered, without becoming a Super Saiyan, reminding Frieza and the audience that once Goku surpasses someone they next to never catch up to him again.
  • Vegeta went from not surpassing Super Saiyan 2 to being able to reach the same level of Super Saiyan God as Goku, coming within striking distance of his rival's power once again.
  • Frieza's Elite Mook, Shisami. When Sorbet introduces him, he says Shisami rivals Zarbon and Dodoria in power. When he actually enters the fray, he proves to be an even match for Piccolo, who is far stronger than Frieza was before Frieza died and came back.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Frieza, amazingly enough, is more of an ass in the English dub. He regularly calls the Saiyans monkeys, going as far to call a Super Saiyan a Super Simian at one point. He refers to Vegeta as a pet and calls Krillin pathetic when he learns that the Dragon Balls revived him. Probably the worse burn comes when he mockingly calls Vegeta the prince of no one.
• Top God: Once again, Whis shows why he's canonically the most powerful character at this point in the series. Specifically, besides being stronger than Beerus, he even shows off some abilities that aren't native to the DB universe. Specifically, he can rewind time itself. Not jump back into time like Trunks did, mind, which ended up creating multiple time lines, but completely reverse the flow of time itself to prevent any alternate timeline shenanigans. Normally, he only uses it when Beerus has one of his tantrums and blows up far more planets than he's supposed to, but he was willing to do Goku a favor when Frieza successfully managed to blow up Earth.
• Training from Hell: No pun intended; this is what Frieza subjects himself and his men to for a grueling four months in order to prepare for the invasion of Earth. Given Goku, Vegeta and the Z Fighters had years of improvement since Namek, you can see the results pretty clearly in their ability to even provide a challenge, much less fight them evenly. Goku even compliments Frieza for coming so far within such a short time, saying it took him years to reach that level. Frieza doesn't take kindly to Goku's praise, especially since Goku still proves to be the better fighter. Even the strongest of Frieza's soldiers was one-shotted by Gohan, who's nowhere near as powerful as he could be.
• Transformation Is a Free Action:
  • Goku and Frieza let each other transform before they start their real battle.
  • Subverted in the prologue of the Director's Cut, where Frieza's first transformation lasts less than 30 seconds.
• Unstoppable Rage: This is Frieza's state of mind throughout the entire movie. Even though he keeps it buttoned up with Tranquil Fury, when the punches start flying he flies off the handle and turns into a rabid maniac.
• Underestimating Badassery: Played With. When Frieza hears that Goku defeated Majin Buu, he knows beyond a doubt that he cannot defeat Goku in his present state. This is what motivates him to buckle down and train for once, unlocking a terrifying amount of power in the process. When he comes to Earth, he is clearly appreciative of the fact that Goku will be a tough opponent to take down, and he goes so far as to have a contingency plan up his sleeve just in case he loses again. Despite this, he is still surprised that Goku didn't need to go Super Saiyan to easily handle his true form and that he should have mastered his new transformation and not rely on raw power alone. He also plays this straight in regards to Vegeta. The thought never crossed his mind that Vegeta might have become nearly as powerful as Goku. He didn't even believe Vegeta could become a regular Super Saiyan.
• Ungrateful Bastard: You would think Frieza would be a little more grateful to his men for reviving him and saving him from more years in Hell. Instead, he kills his own men to test his powers. Yeah, keep it classy, Frieza.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Frieza despite his training is still this. He can't sense energy without a scooter, has no endurance when fighting at his full power, and uses no real techniques outside the standard energy blast and what the budokai games call his "death wave", which is a regression of his performance on Namek where he had many creative techniques. He's so powerful, however, that it hardly matters until Goku outlasts him.
• Victory by Endurance: Despite Frieza overpowering Goku once he transforms into Golden Frieza, Goku still wins because Frieza is leaking power every second. By the end, Frieza exhausts himself so much that he can't even hurt Goku anymore and Vegeta completely kicks his ass once he enters the fight.
• Villain Cred: While Frieza is mostly after Goku for revenge, he does take a moment to point out that he can't be taken seriously if he is afraid to fight some filthy monkey on a backwater planet.
• Villain Decay: Averted and reversed. Frieza reminds us why he was once "Emperor of the Universe": he only needed four months to bring out his latent potential and surpass the likes of Majin Buu. Although, it does little to save him from the Humiliation Conga he's put through by Goku and Vegeta, but then, this is a result of his hubris combined with emotional immaturity, which have always been and likely always will be Frieza's Fatal Flaw.
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Averted with Frieza, who Came Back Strong. This was even discussed at Jump Festa 2015, in which it was stated that Frieza "decided to train for the first time in his life". Frieza remarks that he was such a natural prodigy that he had never needed to train even for a day in his life, and he never did, but now that he's aware that Goku has surpassed Buu, he decides to train, realizing that, since the Saiyans got where they were because of sheer work and effort in their training, just imagine how powerful he could be if he started training as well.
• Villainous Breakdown: Frieza has several. His first one is when Goku outmatches his true form without going Super Saiyan. He has another one after Goku beats his ultimate transformation because he's leaking power. He has yet another one when Vegeta reveals that not only can he go Super Saiyan, but he has the same type of transformation as Goku. Again when he loses his golden form, screaming and punching the ground in anger, almost as he's going to cry. Finally, Frieza screams in horror as he's welcomed back to his tree in Hell.
• Villain Respect:
  • Played with in Frieza's observation of Gohan as Sorbet stares in shock at how easily he takes down his army:
  "Oh, this is not surprising me in the least. That son of Goku could wipe out a thousand-man army in an instant he were so inclined. Watch him closely and you'll see his attacks are deliberately non-lethal. The boy has a soft heart, like his father! Despite all my heinous provocations on Namek, Goku still couldn't will himself to destroy me! He's a noble man of great moral clarity...so pure, IT MAKES ME WANT TO VOMIT!"
  • He gives subtle ones to Goku. First, when Sorbet tells him that Goku has gotten much stronger, Frieza isn't surprised and expects it to be the case. He knows that Goku is the "self-improvement type". When told the extent of Goku's growth, he's both surprised and impressed. After Goku easily beats him in his true form without going Super Saiyan, Frieza compliments Goku after he calms down.
• Virtue Is Weakness: As mentioned above, Frieza shows nothing but contempt and disgust for Goku for showing mercy to him, and considers Gohan weak for not killing any of his men.
• The War Sequence: The five Z-Warriors and Jaco VERSUS The 1000-strong Frieza Army. The Frieza Army got stomped badly.
• Wasteful Wishing:
  • Played With. After Frieza is revived, Sorbet and Tagoma still have one more wish from the Eternal Dragon. Before they can make it, Shou asks for a million zeni. While his cohorts deem this short-sighted, as he could have wished for a far greater sum at the very least, it does keep Sorbet from resurrecting King Cold.
  • The initial wish was meant to bring Frieza back to get his empire under control. Instead, he focuses on revenge and practically sacrifices what remains of his army for it. Ultimately, it amounts to nothing and the Frieza empire is completely wiped out.
• We Can Rule Together: Frieza offers Vegeta a job as a high-ranking general in his army. Hearing this, Vegeta considers it almost regrettable that he, of course, has no intention to serve the destroyer of his home planet anymore.
• We Have Reserves: Played with. When he makes his We Can Rule Together offer to Vegeta, Frieza pauses to note that he is currently lacking an actual army for Vegeta to command, but is sure he can get the ranks filled in short order.
• Weak, but Skilled: Physically, Jaco is the weakest fighter who can't even use energy attacks. However, he is very agile and fast, easily dodging and evading Frieza's men. He also uses a ray gun and shoots sensitive areas like the knees to disable his opponents.
• Welcome Back, Traitor: Despite Vegeta's treachery on Namek, Frieza is more than willing to forgive and forget if Vegeta kills Goku. He even offers him the position of Supreme Commander. Why Frieza expects Vegeta to join him after he bragged about killing his people, humiliated and demeaned him, and tortured him to death is beyond explanation, though it fits with Frieza's arrogance and he didn't expect Vegeta to have reached Goku's level.
• What the Hell Are You?: Downplayed, but this is Vegeta's suspicious reaction to Whis casually mentioning he can rewind time. "I am Whis" is basically how Whis answers that question.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Vegeta was going this route when he took on Frieza, foregoing gloating after slapping him around a bit. Freiza blows up the planet before he can fire the killing blow. Once Goku realizes it's what he should've done in their fight, Whis allows him the chance after rewinding time. Goku wastes no time in acting on it and blows Frieza to smithereens with a Kamehameha.
• Worf Barrage:
  • Subverted with the Kamehameha. Goku uses the Kamehameha three times total in the movie. He nearly kills Frieza with the first two and utterly vaporizes him with the third. After decades of the Kamehameha being victim of the Worf Effect outside the Cell Games, it's a nice reminder of why the Kamehameha was once considered one of the most powerful energy attacks in the series.
  • Played Straight with Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon. He hit Shisami dead on with it and only managed to knock him out of the air.
• Worf Effect: Wouldn't be Dragon Ball without it:
  • Shisami is able to fight Piccolo on equal footing and even seems to have the advantage. Then Gohan comes, turns Super Saiyan, and takes him out with one punch to the stomach.
  • How does Frieza show off how badass he has become? He punches Gohan so hard that it stops his heart. Frieza is even in his weakest form at the time, though Gohan likewise hasn't transformed.
• Worthy Opponent: Despite disliking the guy, Goku sees Frieza as this to the point that he says that Frieza would be a good rival if he wasn't so evil. Goku even offers to spare Frieza and fight again once he learns to control his golden transformation. Frieza shares none of these sentiments.
• Written-In Absence: Yamcha and Chiaotzu are told to stay behind by Tien, as he deemed them too weak to handle it. Trunks and Goten are asleep, as Bulma knew they would try to join the fight if they knew about it. Finally, Buu is in hibernation and can't be woken up.
• Wrong Context Magic: Once again, Whis manages to show why he's a god even by DBZ standards by using a Godlike ability that doesn't amount to firing giant energy beams around or creating energy spheres the size of planets. Specifically, being able to reverse the flow of time itself.
• You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!: After seeing Frieza's newfound strength firsthand, Goku remarks that Frieza could have been a perfect sparring partner were he not pure evil, declaring said newfound strength to be a "waste of talent." In response, Frieza states that that kind of attitude is one of many reasons he finds Goku's mere existence intolerable.
• You Have Failed Me: The Z Fighters take great pains to defeat Frieza's army without killing any of them, only for much of their effort to come to nothing when Frieza casually vaporizes all his fallen soldiers within range. Those knocked out elsewhere have likely survived.