Characters / Dragon Ball Frieza Tropes A To H

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Antagonists
Original Series Villains (Red Ribbon Army [Cell]) | DBZ Villains (Frieza's Empire [Freeza/Frieza [A to H, I to Y], Cooler/Coola], Majin Buu) | DBZ Movie Villains (Broly) | GT Villains | DBS Villains (Goku Black, Zamasu/Zamas [Fused Zamasu/Zamas])

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#-B

• 0% Approval Rating: Downplayed. While he is despised and loathed by all the main heroes and the universe at large, he is highly respected by his soldiers and followers. However, in Resurrection ‘F’ it's established that the only reason his men used the Dragon Balls to resurrect him is because with the empire going down since his demise, they see his fear factor as the only way to restore it. Even while searching for the Dragon Balls, Tagoma flat-out tells Sorbet that it's a bad idea to resurrect Frieza given what a psychopath he was, and Sorbet agrees that they may be better off without him. By Broly, the heroes are able to tolerate him, and Frieza has completely loyal supporters in his nanny Berryblue and top scientist, Kikono, who also are among the last remaining members of his inner circle.
• Abusive Alien Parents:
  • Frieza implies after Goku managed to deal some damage on him that King Cold has hurt him in his final form during either training or just out of abuse.
    Frieza : [dusting off] Well, well. It seems like you are the first to hurt me in my real form besides my loving parents.
  • He was also Vegeta's main parental figure for most of his life. Frieza made Vegeta one of his men and for years, took every possible opportunity to demean and insult him. During their fight on Namek, Frieza brutally tortured Vegeta to death both to punish him for his treachery and For the Evulz. Needless to say, Vegeta has every reason to hate Frieza and want him dead and that was before he found out Frieza destroyed Planet Vegeta. Ironically, going by Broly, Frieza may only be a few years older than Vegeta.
• The Ace: Although stronger characters were later introduced, at the time of his introduction, Frieza was the strongest being in the universe without training a day in his life. He also has an insane amount of durability thanks to his species' extreme survivability and was still alive after Trunks cut him to bits (although vaporising the bits finished him off). In Resurrection F, through training for only four months Frieza manages to close the power gap with Goku, who had powers beyond godhood. With that said, his own arrogance in his greatness proves to be his Fatal Flaw. He didn't bother to learn to control his full power, which left him with very poor endurance. Both times he fights Goku, he loses because he burnt himself out. The mental trauma he suffers after Goku beats him turns him into a Broken Ace.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • In the manga when Krillin cuts off his tail with the Kienzan, Frieza notably grimaces in pain. In the anime, Frieza isn't implied to actually be in pain from this and is simply shocked and angered.
  • Downplayed. In the manga, 100% Full Power Frieza put up a decent fight against Super Saiyan Goku, but never had a chance at winning. He puts up a better fight in the anime, and they are more evenly matched, but it is clear that he takes more damage from Goku's hits and his stamina drains much more quickly than Goku's, leading to his defeat.
  • Played Straight in Dragon Ball Super, when he not only has a ki sense, but is also able to match Goku more equally in his final form and outmatched him longer in his golden state in comparison to the movie where Frieza only had the advantage for a few minutes before his power began to drop. At the same time, his stamina issues are even worse as Golden Frieza . While in the movie Golden Frieza maintained his full power throughout most of the fight, Frieza burns himself out after only a minute at fighting at full power and is out of breath before Goku does anything to him. Episode 95 reveals that he's managed to control his golden form's stamina by meditating during his time in Hell.
  • Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' proper also shows a bit of this before fighting Goku. In anime filler, movies and Dragon Ball GT, he's constantly outclassed by the heroes after Trunks kills him, and is easily taken out by, in order: Pikkon before the Other World Tournament, Gohan in Fusion Reborn, and Goku in GT. Notably, Gohan's instance has him insta-kill Frieza's final form with a single punch. In Resurrection 'F', he realizes how outclassed he initially is due to his lack of training, and goes to amend that issue. After four months, he's able to take Gohan out of commission with a similar punch in his base form, and shows off Golden Frieza for the first time while fighting Goku. And to his credit, he comes extremely close to winning this time around, blowing up Earth much quicker than he did with Namek and managing to kill Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta this way; had Whis not been present, this would have sealed his victory right then and there.
  • Very few games translate the difficulty he has sustaining the effort of his 100% Full Power Form. Often Super Saiyan is harder to keep. Xenoverse is a particularly big offender in that his personal skill gives him energy as the fight wears on.
  • It's Downplayed but in the novel adaptation of Dragon Ball Super: Broly, Frieza put up a better fight than in the anime, with his attacks somewhat staggering Broly. He's still heavily on the losing end but he get a few licks in at least.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Played with in the manga compared to the anime. In the manga, his attempt to betray Universe 7 and join Universe 9 is removed entirely. He also makes the choice to sacrifice himself Jiren on his own while in the anime he needed Goku to convince him. On the other hand, in the manga he actively encourages Frost to eliminate his weaker teammates and only aids the stronger ones to eliminate enemies. In the anime, despite his Aloof Ally status, he does make sure to protect his teammates when they need it, saving Gohan from Jimizu, 17 from Top and Goku from Jiren when they are in danger of elimination.
  • In one of his routes in Supersonic Warriors 2, Frieza truly loves his father, and is genuinely grateful when Cold saves Frieza's life from Cooler.
• Adaptational Villainy: As absolutely amazing as it sounds, Frieza manages to get this in Dragon Ball Super when compared to Resurrection ‘F’. In the movie, Frieza kills his men when he's revived to test his power, throws Tagoma out of the airlock for speaking out against his revenge plan, kills off his entire army after they fail to kill even one of the Z-Fighters, and blows up the Earth after he loses to Vegeta. As bad as this list is, he's worse in Super. While he doesn't kill his men to test his power, he tortures and demeans them and shows no respect towards Sorbet despite all he's done to preserve the empire and bring Frieza back to life. He also tortures Tagoma for four months after he speaks out against Frieza plan and shatters the guy's sanity, turning the once Noble Demon to a coldblooded murderer who is just as bad as Frieza . As the Z-Fighters battle his army, he puts a bounty on Krillin's head, promising a planet to whoever kills him, since he knows that Krillin's death will cause Goku a great amount of pain. He then goes on to torture Gohan for reminding him of Goku's mercy towards him on Namek, which leads to Piccolo's death since he shields Gohan from a fatal Death Beam and he brags about how he is going to kill Gohan's entire family once he's done with him. When Goku finally arrives, he shows off his new power by killing off his remaining men when he goes into his true form and attacks Goku's friends during their fight to distract him. He then tells Goku about his plans to destroy Earth and Namek once he kills him so no one can ever be wished back again. The differences are so stark that Frieza in Resurrection ‘F’ looks like a decent person compared to his Super counterpart.
• 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 outside of nuking the planet. 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.
  • As of the Universe Survival Saga, this trope is finally averted. Frieza reveals that he managed to control his energy by meditating during his time in Hell, concentrating solely on killing Goku in the most brutal ways possible. This allows him to maintain his golden form with no loss of stamina. He even opts to rebuild his empire and get strong enough to assuredly kill Goku when he's brought back to life at the end of it.
  • Pissing off a Saiyan is not a smart move on his part. During the events on Namek, he pissed off Goku for both killing Krillin and threatening Gohan, which caused him to become a Super Saiyan. The second Saiyan he royally pissed off to the point of becoming a Super Saiyan? Broly, who beats the daylights out of him for a full hour. Didn't Think This Through does not describe how much he screwed the pooch by making a Saiyan very angry.
• The Ageless: While he may have been trying to gain immortality, Frieza doesn't show any signs of age. After training 10 whole years in the room of spirit and time, Frieza was able to one-shot Gas, Goku and Vegeta in quick succession with no sign of fatigue.
• Alien Invasion: He personally led hundreds of thousands of these on worlds across the universe by ridding the planets he conquers by killing off their natural species by using his own armies, and his last personally-overseen one being that of Earth in order to kill Goku. However, he was thwarted both times, by Future Trunks and Goku himself.
• Aliens Are Bastards: He is an alien and a ruthless Galactic Conqueror.
• All for Nothing: Turns out Frieza's genocide of the Namekian people was for absolutely nothing, seeing how they won't work unless someone speaking fluent Namekian does the summoning and stating the wish- which Frieza is unlikely to ever have them do thanks to his paranoia.
• All Webbed Up: In Resurrection ‘F’, his time in Hell is largely spent wrapped in a cocoon and strung from a tree.
• Aloof Ally: Despite all of his posturing and threats of betrayal, Frieza actually stays true to his word during the Tournament of Power and remains loyal to Universe 7. He even willing gives up his chance to make the wish on the Super Dragon Balls as long as it meant that Goku would stay true to his word and resurrect him.
• Always a Bigger Fish: Just when it seems like Gas may be the strongest being in the universe, Frieza shows up and effortlessly put him down with a punch. Though he's also on the other end of this trope as he was famously defeated by Goku in his Super Saiyan form and seemingly permanently killed by SSJ Trunks after he was cyberized. And although he is just as arrogant after his revival in Super, Frieza dares not to mess with Beerus nor Whis.
• Amusing Injuries: During his fight with Goku on Namek, he attempts to strangle him with his tail. Goku retaliates by biting his tail, resulting in a very out-of-character look on Frieza's face as he lets go to blow on his tail, complete with bite marks... and gives Goku a perfect opening to land a few hits. Late on in the fight, Goku, now a Super Saiyan, slaps Frieza around a bit, then elbows him in the head so hard that it causes Frieza's eyes to bulge out, giving him a goofy bug-eyed expression.
• An Arm and a Leg: When he got sliced by his own Destructo Disk, his left forearm was in just the wrong spot and got chopped off along with the lower half of his body and part of his tail.
• And I Must Scream: In Resurrection ‘F’ this is Frieza's fate after he dies. In Hell, he is trapped to a tree for the rest of eternity, or at least until he's reborn, unable to move while angels and toy-like creatures sing and dance around him, and it's so saccharine he wants to claw his eyes out. Much harsher than the free-roaming Hell from the Z fillers and GT. To be fair, Frieza's own arrogance and inherent feeling of superiority doesn't allow him to move on. This finally convinces him to give up pursuing immortality for good.
• And Your Little Dog, Too!: His indulging in this is what triggers Goku's first Super Saiyan transformation, leading to him beating Frieza to a pulp. First he kills Krillin, who was no threat to him whatsoever and had already been revived once, meaning (as far as Goku knew) he couldn't come back again. Then he declares he's going to do the same to Gohan. Goku promptly transforms.
• An Ice Person: Subverted. Frieza's name is a play on the word "freeze", but he has no ice-based powers. However, the translated lyrics to "Only a Chilling Elegy" make several references to freezing.
  In time, the sea will freeze over.
  He's coming to attack! Even dreams will freeze!
  I'm freezing your dreams.
  He is coming, freezing me!
• Antagonist Abilities:
  • While the vast majority of characters in the series either train to earn their power, are designed to have it, or at the very least had to assimilate/eat stronger opponents to evolve, Frieza was simply born strong and (prior to being defeated by Goku) never had to train for it. This isn't even a common trait of his species; Toriyama states that King Cold and his progeny are simply "mutants".
  • While not having the plethora of unfair powers that his successors Cell and Buu possess, Frieza has one major trump card over the heroes: unlike any of them, he can survive in the vacuum of space. This gives him access to a brutal Instant-Win Condition at all times: if he can't win against an opponent in a fair fight, he can always kill them by blowing up their planet.
• Arc Villain: The most important one in the saga; the Dragon Ball Universe would have been a very different place if Frieza didn't decide to destroy Planet Vegeta and he became the main villain of two story arcs.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • Frieza has made himself a lot of enemies but probably the two biggest examples are Vegeta and Goku, killing the former's father when he promised he wouldn't and killing the latter's father along with his own minions in a successful attempt in destroying planet Vegeta. It should be noted that Frieza is the only villain in the series to ever make Goku reach such a level of Unstoppable Rage and he is one of the two most personal enemies of Goku in the series (the other being Goku Black who outright murdered Goku and his family, even if from a different timeline), as it was Frieza's ruthless actions (and killing of Krillin) that got Goku to transform into a Super Saiyan in the first place. He also made an enemy in Piccolo as he has his entire race butchered in order to find the Dragon Balls.
  • From Frieza's point-of-view, Goku. He despises Goku for beating and humiliating him to the point he all but gives up running his empire just so he can get back at Goku. Even after coming back from the dead, he still wants revenge and dedicates his entire military might to invade Earth. He outright says that he can't stand to share the same universe as Goku and can't even sleep at night as long as Goku is alive.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: A staple of most Dragon Ball villains, but Frieza stands out as having all of the power but none of the discipline and maturity as a fighter and this is the main reason he's been defeated so many times. He never bothered to train for even a single day in his entire life and just assumed that nobody could ever challenge him. And those he does sees as a threat, like the Saiyans, he destroys before they can even approach his power. Even when he finally decides to train to attain more strength, he is short-sighted enough to not master his newfound power and ended up burning himself out once again. When he finally took care of that part, it's already too late: there are now stronger mortals than Goku, whereas Goku himself has leveled up by a lot as well.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: A terrible boss as mentioned below, but when you're as strong as he is, you can be whatever you want.^note To give proper context, in his weakest, most diminished form, Frieza is still 4 1/2 times stronger than his strongest soldier, who himself is almost a hundred times stronger than Raditz. This gets even worse in Resurrection F with the revelation that Frieza was this strong from birth, without training a day in his life.
• Ass Pull: An in-universe example. The whole "Namek blows up in five minutes" thing was speculated by Goku and later confirmed in other guidebooks to be one on Frieza part. His attack was meant to be an out-and-out Planet Killer but panicked as he feared that the explosion would be too much for him to survive and held back.^note The only other time he's shown to use the attack in question was to destroy the planet Vegeta in flashback, which it did instantly. In that case, he was in orbit, rather than being inside the blast radius of his own attack. Caught with egg on his face, Frieza threw out the five minutes number to save face.
• Author Appeal: An Inverted example. Per Akira Toriyama, Frieza is an amalgamation of everything Toriyama found frightening as a child.
• Ax-Crazy: Frieza is incredibly sociopathic and at times, is shown to be extremely sadistic to the point that killing and causing pain seems to be his favorite sport. For example, when he destroyed Planet Vegeta and left the Saiyan race near-extinct, he laughed his head off and declared it to be a beautiful sight the whole time. Dragon Ball Super manages to take his deranged behavior to even more disturbing levels.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Frieza for a long time had a big problem with this, mainly because he never truly fought a life or death battle prior to Namek (according to him, outside of his family he never had to use more than his second form to win battles). His techniques look cool but, with the exception of the Death Beam, are often inefficient:
  • Frieza can use the Kienzan and his version is far superior to Krillin's: it can still cut people stronger than him, but not only can he throw two instead of one, he can control their flight path with his telekinesis. The issue? They're still incredibly slow and loud, plus he loses control of them if his concentration is broken. When he tries to kill Goku with one while his back is turned, Goku is able to dodge it in base. When Goku goes Super Saiyan again they can't even come close to touching him. The only person Frieza ever hits with it is himself; Goku actually has to save him from his own technique.
  • Frieza's 100% Full Power Form. In this state he was the second strongest (non-sealed) mortal of his time, outdoing his father, ancestors, brother (not counting the latter's fifth form), other space pirate competitors,^note Xenoverse 2 implies that, while Slug and Turles didn't fight the heroes in the main timeline, they still exist in the universe. and all but the highest gods of his universe, as well as gaining a bunch of muscle mass and in the anime was able to briefly rival Super Saiyan Goku on Namek. But there are two big problems. One, as noted below, his stamina bleeds incredibly quickly in this form, with a couple minutes of exertion gassing him out. Two, unlike his power fluctuations within his base form, getting to this level actually requires a fairly lengthy power-up/transformation sequence, making it impossible to actually use in battle unless his opponent lets him. Goku did, because he wanted to humiliate Frieza. Trunks didn't and simply killed Frieza in his 50% power state with one hit. There wasn't a damn thing Frieza could do about it. By the time of the Universe Survival Saga, Frieza appears to be able to use it instantly and even knows when to use it best in battle for maximum effectiveness, but by that point his Mastered Golden Form basically makes it a Useless Useful Spell.
  • The two-handed energy sphere (called "Death Bomb" in some video games) he uses against Goku in the anime. It's big and looks impressive... but per unit area it's not actually any more powerful than a regular blast. Goku with some effort punches it away with Frieza having accomplished nothing but wasting a ton of energy and inadvertently blowing up an empty planet elsewhere in the system. Every other ki attack he used in that battle was more effective.
  • His Golden Form was powerful but impractical in its debut, although he eventually managed to iron out that flaw.
  • In general, Frieza eventually outgrew this trope as he kept focusing on getting revenge on Goku and improving himself. By the time of the Universe Survival Saga, he has fantastic energy control skills, a mastered Super Mode, great hand-to-hand capacities, and keen insight in the ways of battle. Considering the competition he had in the tournament, he needed it.
• Back from the Dead:
  • Frieza returns in the 2015 movie, Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F', resurrected by the remnants of his army using Earth's Dragon Balls. It doesn't take long for him to get sent right back.
  • It happens again in Dragon Ball Super, where Goku gets him a one-day pass to come back to the mortal realm to participate in the Tournament of Power. Frieza makes Goku promise to resurrect him fully if they win the tournament. And thanks to Whis, he does indeed get fully brought back!
• Backstab Backfire: After Goku decides to spare him so he can live in shame of his defeat, Frieza throws an energy disc at Goku's back, enraging him once again. That same energy disc ends up cutting him into quarters, forcing him to beg for his life before Goku. When Goku relents and gives Frieza some of his own energy to escape Namek's destruction, Frieza , in a fit of rage, uses that energy to attack Goku while his back is turned. Goku finally has enough and fires back at Frieza , frying him and leaving him for dead.
• Bad "Bad Acting": As Dragon Ball Super: Broly reveals, Frieza indulges in this trope:
  Frieza: Broly, look! It's such a tragedy!!!!
• Badass Boast:
  • He loves giving these out, but the one he gives to Goku at the end of their fight stands out.
    Frieza: Simian bastard...! I am Lord Frieza. None surpass me! No one even comes close! Etch this into your skull: I am emperor of the universe! The likes of you are only fit to grovel at my feet! Or better still... TO DIE! IN DISGRACE! AT THE HANDS OF YOUR MASTER!!
  • His final boast from the original dub also stands out:
    Frieza: Poor stupid Saiyan, you honestly think you've won? Your puny mind could never understand. I am Frieza, the most powerful being in the universe. And you're nothing but a beast, a fragile animal! You can't win, because I am mighty and you are not! Now learn! LEARN WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU MESS WITH THE MOST POWERFUL BEING IN THE UNIVERSE!!
  • The original Japanese version, while simple, deserves to have some extra credits too:
    Frieza: Simian bastard...! I-I am the greatest in the universe... I am the emperor of the universe, Frieza! And so, you... you simian bastard... YOU WILL DIE BY MY HAND! You... will be... will be... KILLED BY ME!!
  • It's surprising people forget about the original Latin American Spanish dub's version of his speech, full of venomous fury towards Goku.
    Frieza: (Original) Yo soy el más fuerte del universo. Soy el Emperador, Soy el gran Freezer! Por eso tu... por eso tu, maldito insecto... TIENES QUE MORIR EN MIS MANOS A COMO DE LUGAR! Grrrr... Yo te mataré. Te mataré, CUESTE LO QUE ME CUESTE!!
    Frieza: (Translation) I'm the strongest in the universe. I'm the Emperor, the great Frieza! And that's why... that's why you damn insect... YOU SHALL DIE BY MY HAND AT ALL COSTS! Grrrr... I'll kill you. I'll kill you... I DON'T CARE WHATEVER IT COSTS ME!!
• Bad Boss: Frieza personifies the Machiavellian doctrine of "'tis better to be feared than loved" when it comes to promotions and "demotions" (AKA vaporizing) of his employees in the anime. This is somewhat exaggerated from his manga self where he is just as sadistic, but not quite as prone to killing off his subordinates.
  • He's worse in Resurrection ‘F’. Upon being healed, he tests his power by shooting one of his men who wasn't doing anything. After Tagoma spoke out against Frieza's Revenge Before Reason, Frieza throws him out of the ship by slamming him through a window, which sucked up several soldiers. On Earth, after his soldiers failed to defeat the Earth's defenders, he brutally murders them. Frieza's utter disregard towards his men leads to a well deserve Nice Job Fixing It, Villain. In fact, the only reason his men wished Frieza back in the first place is because they needed his fear factor to stop his empire from self-destructing, something they're very reluctant to do. Lampshaded by Master Roshi.
    Master Roshi: I'm glad I don't work for that guy!
  • He's even worse in Dragon Ball Super. Instead of killing Tagoma like in the movie, he instead does something surprisingly worse to him. First he shoots him in the kneecaps for speaking against his revenge plan and then uses him as a punching bag during their training course, beating him within an inch of his life every single day for four months. Also, unlike the movie where he kills his men for failing to defeat the Z-Fighters, here he kills them simply to test his power via transforming into his final form right in front of them causing them to vaporize by the mass of his ki.
  • No longer the case by the time of Dragon Ball Super: Broly ; see Character Development below for more details.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Though he's ostensibly on the heroes' side, in Episode 131 of Super, Frieza gets exactly what he wants and is completely revived — and he doesn't die again in an attempt to get revenge like the last time he came back. That said, his army and empire no longer exist and Goku makes it clear that if he tries anything, he'll regret it. The Stinger, however, shows that he has already undertaken steps to rebuild the Frieza Force.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work:
  • With Jiren having beaten down Goku, Vegeta, and 17, Frieza takes it upon himself to attack Jiren, attempting to murder him and keeps him preoccupied so that he doesn't go through with knocking out the Saiyans. Granted he did so out of the selfish desire for revenge on being humiliated, but it still counts.
  • He also finishes off Gas.
• Bald of Evil: None of his forms have hair.
• Barrier Warrior: Creates a purple forcefield to protect himself from an explosion in the Broly movie.
• Bash Brothers:
  • Forms this with Cell after his death during filler episodes and Anime/Frieza .
  • With Goku of all people. During the climax of the Tournament of Power Frieza actually manages to fight in perfect sync with Goku, better than Vegeta could.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: While it's not stated if Frieza can breathe, he can survive in a vacuum.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: This seems to be Frieza's motivation at the end of the movie for why he wants to recruit Broly and decides to leave him, Cheelai and Lemo alone for now. At this point Frieza has figured out that, no matter how he improves, he can't win as long as he has to contend with both Goku and Vegeta. As such he wants a Super Saiyan of his own to even the odds against his Arch Enemies.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Interestingly enough, this is inverted. On Namek, when Goku lent him enough energy to make it back to his ship and leave the now exploding Namek, Frieza gets so infuriated that he tries to backstab Goku. In fact, Goku sparing Frieza's life was enough to give him some sort of PTSD.
• Benevolent Boss: After a butt-ton of Character Development, in Broly he gives Cheelai and Lemo a handsome reward for finding Paragus and Broly.
• Berserk Button: Many of them.
  • Saiyans: Frieza has the biggest hate for Saiyans not because they're barbarians not because they love to fight. But because of one Saiyan from planet Earth that actually managed to outmatch him in terms of power. This man was known as Son Goku.
  • Any kind of mercy being shown by anyone or anything he will unleash his Ax-Crazy side and Beam Spam you to death. This is due to Goku sparing his life after Frieza was brutally injured by bisecting his own body. Ever since then he despised kindness and mercy. Not that he was merciful in anyway shape or form.
  • Attempting to misdirect his vengeance made him torture his subordinate Tagoma to the point where he was just a living breathing punching bag.
  • As of Dragon Ball Super: Broly, he hates being mocked for his height. As it is confirmed that some of his subordinates were killed for simply calling him a pipsqueak.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Subverted. He claims he'd rather die by his own hands than a Saiyan's — then reveals he can survive in space and tries to blow up Namek.
• Beware the Superman: Toriyama revealed that the tremendous strength that his clan is known for, is unnatural even to his (unnamed) race. So what do they do with it? Conquer a large part of the universe with it. Frieza himself notes that prior to his revival, he had never once trained in his life as he is a natural prodigy. The movies with his brother also reinforce this fact as Cooler comments how Frieza's natural talent gave him an edge between the two and Cooler had to undergo intense training to match and eventually surpass the level his brother was at by having one more transformation than Frieza have.
• Beyond Redemption: It's established quickly Frieza is outright incapable of redemption when Goku suggests recruiting him for the Tournament of Power in Super. The Supreme Kai reminds Goku there's a reason Frieza is in Hell. In fact, this was established as early as the Namek Saga.
• Big Bad: Of the Frieza Saga, the Bardock special, and the 2015 movie, Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' as well as its retelling in Super. His influence over the series' background, most notably the destruction of Planet Vegeta, makes him the overall main antagonist of the Dragon Ball franchise.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: He and Paragus form one in Dragon Ball Super: Broly. While Frieza is the more dangerous and powerful of the two, it’s Paragus’ personal grudge against King Vegeta that drives the plot.
• Big Bad Ensemble:
  • With Vegeta for the Namek Saga. Both are competing and undermining the other for control of the Dragon Balls almost as much as they clash with the heroes. Vegeta's cunning allows him to stay ahead for a time but when Frieza forces a direct confrontation, the tyrant handedly pummels him to death.
  • In Dragon Ball Super: Broly he forms on with Broly, despite the latter not being evil. Frieza kills Paragus to make Broly unlock his Super Saiyan transformation and quickly overshadows Frieza as the bigger threat and then he goes on a rampage attacking everything and everyone including Frieza himself.
• Big Bad Wannabe:
  • Became one in the Android/Cell Saga. While Frieza remains a legitimate threat with his arrival on Earth, he ends up being killed by Future Trunks in a very anti-climactic fight.
  • He's also one in the movie Fusion Reborn, being killed by Gohan in a matter of seconds.
• Big "NO!": He lets out one in The Stinger of Resurrection ‘F’, having been killed again and sent back to the Ironic Hell he was shown in at the beginning of the film.
• Big Red Devil: His second form, though its more of a Big Ivory Devil.
• Bishōnen Line: A significant Trope Codifier, but he actually zigzags the trope in several ways. Firstly, most of his forms are power limiters rather than power-boosters and in fact he usually spends most of his time in his most transformed state. Secondly, his most powerful forms — 100% Full Power Frieza and Golden Frieza — initially subvert the trope by being more "monstrous-looking" than his Final Form, but then play it straight when you remember that these forms truly are power-up transformations rather than power seals.
  • Form 1 is Frieza's most restrained form, being a small humanoid alien with a prehensile lizard-like tail, lizard-like feet, a helmet-like growth of bone on his skull, and two stubby horns jutting from his temples.
  • Form 2 unlocks a significant proportion of Frieza's power. This form is essentially a bigger, buffer and scarier version of Form 1, with Satanic horns that it can use as weapons being the major physical difference apart from size and build.
  • Form 3 is the barely restrained form and the most monstrous-looking of Frieza's forms. It's even bigger and more top-heavy than Form 2, with a distorted, muzzle-like face and an extended, spiky skull vaguely like a Xenomorph.
  • Form 4 is Frieza's true form. In this state, he shrinks back down to the same diminutive stature and waifish build as Form 1, but he no longer has the same "helmet growth" on his head, instead having a smooth, bulbous head, rather like a Gray, lacks any semblance of armor, and has no horns.
  • 100% Full Power Form is Frieza unleashing all of his power. It basically looks like Form 4, but hugely swollen with muscle, essentially an ugly hulkified Top-Heavy Guy version of Frieza , with skin visibly straining to hold back his musculature. After mastering his true form in Resurrection F, Frieza no longer needs this form to access his true power. He can still opt to do it to increase raw might at the cost of stamina, but seeing how he has a much more potent and efficient transformation in his Golden Form this is fairly useless. Unless you're using it to deceive your doppelganger, that is.
  • Golden Frieza is a Golden Super Mode that Frieza unlocks in Resurrection F by training for four months after being revived. It mostly looks like Form 4, but is slightly taller and visibly muscled, in contrast to the androgynous and waif-like slenderness of Form 4, but in a streamlined and graceful fashion, rather than the hulked-out look of 100% Full Power Form. In addition to being, well, Golden, it also has somewhat differently shaped "bio-gems".
• Bizarre Alien Biology: His first form's battle armor is actually a part of his body, hence why he regenerates with it in Resurrection 'F'. Dragon Ball Xenoverse also shows that his species is able to grow armor of different shapes from their own bodies. His race can also survive the vacuum of space, and can shapeshift to limit their power so as not to destroy their surroundings.
• Blatant Lies: On Namek, every time he transformed and unlocked a little bit more of his true power, he kept saying that this was his true power. Justified, at least to his sadistic, torturous true personality (more on that below) in that every time he crushed a Hope Spot with the revelation that he had more reserves, it contributed to the sense that he contained an infinite vat of power inside that his enemies could never truly overcome, making him that much more terrifying to face.
• Blood Knight: In a very dark way, he loves killing and fighting. Which comes off as hypocritical since he looks down on the Saiyans for being stupid blood knights who only care about fighting and lack common sense. His entire downfall on Namek happens because he enjoyed fighting and tormenting Goku when he could have turned him into space dust at any time before he became a Super Saiyan.
  • Becomes a real one by the end of the Universal Survival Arc. Frieza has gained a respect for the power of others, genuinely likes an interesting battle, has become more of a warrior than a thug and likens his future clashes with Goku or any other challenging opponent as a fun game. He even states that he wouldn't wish for an invulnerable body because it would take all of the fun out of the game.
• Body Horror: In Resurrection ‘F’, when he was revived, he was literally in pieces, almost like a jigsaw puzzle. Even creepier in the tie-in manga, he tried to put himself together and stand up, only to fall apart again.
• Bond Villain Stupidity:
  • He shows that he completely outclasses Goku and the rest of the heroes while only fighting at 50% power and that he could kill all of them in an instant, and yet he toys with them and lets the fight drag on... until Goku transforms, that is. Frieza himself even remarks that he should probably just take Goku out right now after the 20x Kaioken, but he still keeps screwing around anyway. He lampshades this again after Goku transforms, yelling at himself for not killing Goku from the start and letting his strength grow. By the time he realizes his mistake, his chances for victory has gone right out the window.
  • It happens again in Super, where he goes out of his way to target Goku's friends and loved ones to make him suffer, even going so far as to put a bounty on Krillin's head to his men, despite full knowledge that his doing so was exactly what pushed Goku past his Rage Breaking Point and led to his first defeat.
  • And yet again in Super at the end of the Granolah arc, where he opts to leave Goku and Vegeta alive despite one-shotting them both in his Black form.
• Bookends: In an interesting way that could speak to some Character Development. When he was first resurrected, he dismissed Tagoma's suggestion to leave the Saiyans be for the time being and focus on rebuilding his empire instead; he dismissed this immediately, took a bit of time off to get a new super mode, and rushed straight to his second death. After he was resurrected by Whis as a thank you from Beerus for helping to save the universe, he seems to have taken the late Tagoma's suggestion to heart, wisely choosing to rebuild the Frieza Force.
• Boring, but Practical: He managed to substantially reduce his Golden form's stamina problem while in Hell after his second death. How did he do it? By simply meditating during his time in Hell, concentrating on the best ways to kill Goku. Simple? Yes. Effective? Sidara's team of assassins learned the hard way that it most definitely was.
• Born Winner: He was born the strongest being in the universe. Without training a day in his life, his power was so unrivaled that only the gods and an Eldritch Abomination surpassed him. When he did set his mind on becoming stronger, he surpassed Goku who by then had absorbed the power of godhood, only falling behind because he didn't train his ultimate form and burned himself out while fighting Goku. Once he did train his ultimate form, he can control an energy ball from Sidra albeit with some difficulty.
• Bowdlerise:
  • His defeat by Goku is caused by being blind-sided and getting sliced in half by one of his own energy disks. Video game adaptations will avert this part by being simply defeated and getting blasted by Goku for his trouble. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot however is so far the only game where Frieza gets sliced in half.
  • His own death at the hands of Future Trunks is also this. In the anime and manga, Trunks first cuts him in half, then, cuts him into several pieces, then gets vaporizes Frieza. Video game adaptations often shows Trunks while he's attacking and cutting him before blasting him to smithereens.
• Boxed Crook: He is brought back from the dead a second time to fight with the Z-Warriors in the Tournament of Power.
• Break the Haughty:
  • Frieza spent years believing he was the strongest in the universe and no one could possibly defeat him... until Goku came along and utterly humiliated him.
  • He gets further humiliated in Resurrection ‘F’. After coming back stronger than ever, he still gets trounced by Goku in his true form and he wasn't even a Super Saiyan. After using his ultimate transformation and getting the upper hand for awhile, he burns through his energy and gets beaten by Goku again. Then, when he finally has Goku at his mercy, Vegeta beats him up using the same form of Super Saiyan as Goku. As a final kick to the balls, when he succeeds in blowing up the Earth, Whis rewinds time on him, negating his victory. He is then killed by Goku.
  • After numerous episodes in the Universe Survival Saga of him curb-stomping foes he knows he can easily defeat, Frieza gets a taste of his own medicine when he faces Toppo of the Pride Troopers. He starts to pick on Toppo as he's having a Beam-O-War with Android 17, in an attempt to make him break balance and just because he can. Therefore, Toppo makes up his mind and decides to embrace being a God of Destruction to ensure his universe's survival. It doesn't take long for Toppo to completely manhandle Frieza, causing him to finally lose his cool.
• Breakout Villain: Although one in a long line of Big Bads in the series, Frieza has practically become synonymous with the franchise. He is often regarded as the most iconic villain, being a catalyst for many of the important events in the series. He has been featured the most as the main villain of the video games, and is one of the go-to villains for representing the franchise in crossover games (He's notably the only villain from the series who made it into J-Stars Victory VS). As if to cement his role as this, after spending decades getting his ass kicked and humiliated, He's Back! with bloodthirsty vengeance as the Big Bad of the Resurrection ‘F’ movie and its Dragon Ball Super adaptation, after taking several thousand levels in Badass. He returns yet again in the Universe Survival Saga of Super where Goku is forced to pick him as a member of Team Universe 7.
• Brilliant, but Lazy:
  • To a degree. The brilliant part lays in his unbelievable natural power and his ability to quickly increase his power, though he lacks the genius level fighting instinct that characters like Goku possess. Frieza is long established as The Dreaded in-universe because of his natural overwhelming strength. However, he is never depicted training and rarely gets his own hands dirty (he kills King Vegeta with a single blow and effortlessly destroys the Saiyan homeworld with a single finger). He could have laid waste to an entire planet in minutes, but always sits in his chair and lets his minions do all the grunt work. It takes his entire army being wiped out before he even bothers to take on the Z-Warriors, and that was due to his rage at losing his chance for immortality rather than any loyalty to his men. This contrasts neatly with Goku - a warrior who wasn't born especially strong, but spent his life dedicated to becoming a stronger, more effective fighter.
  • In Resurrection ‘F’ it's reveals that Frieza was always a prodigy, so he never bothered to train. After a particularly brutal Humiliation Conga from Goku and Trunks, he's done with his complacency… at least until he acquires a super form of his own, after which he immediately heads into battle without bothering to take the time to master it. He finally realizes how important training and mastery of his powers are in the Universe Survival arc - with nothing else to do in his Ironic Hell, he fantasizes about murdering Goku if he's ever released again. Those fantasies eventually morph into battle scenarios... which finally lead to meditation, which allows him to truly master his Golden Form. It's telling that Frieza had to die twice to realize how much work goes into actually being powerful.
  • His methods of becoming immortal fall into this considering how he tries to get it. Resurrection ‘F’ reveals that with only a small amount of training he has the power to surpass a Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan, making him practically this due to the innate power of his race. But instead of doing that, he'd prefer to go to Namek, sacrifice seemingly endless amounts of his best troops while he sits in a Hoverchair, and wish for immortality rather than doing any actual fighting or training. If he trained as much as Goku did, he would by far and away be the most powerful villain in the universe, and would almost certainly be completely unstoppable.
• Broken Ace: After his defeat at Goku's hands, Frieza became mentally broken. He has nightmares about Goku and suffers from a clear case of PTSD. His mental status only get worse from his suffering in Hell. By the time he returns in Resurrection ‘F’ and Super, he is clearly not sane anymore, only caring about revenge.
• The Bully: The trait which most sets him apart from the Z Warriors. They all like a fair, even fight. Frieza deliberately taunts and picks on those far weaker than him, and if he catches wind of any actual threats to him, he stomps them out and crushes their morale.
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • Even when it's made crystal clear that he stands no chance against Goku after the hero has awakened his Super Saiyan form, Frieza just has to get one last dig in by telling Goku he's going to blow him up just like he did to his "annoying Earthling friend." Frieza killing Krillin right in front of Goku is exactly what brought forth a Super Saiyan in the first place and all this accomplishes is make Goku that more determined to beat seven shades of hell out of Frieza.
  • During Resurrection ‘F’, even when he realizes that Vegeta is a Super Saiyan God SS just like Goku and has every intent to kill him, Frieza just can't resist mocking him and calling him the "prince of no one."
  • And he's on the receiving end of this again in Dragon Ball Super: Broly, when he kills Paragus in front of Broly, who was already on a berserker rampage, in order to provoke him into going Super Saiyan. The end result: Frieza finds himself on the receiving end of Broly's wrath, and gets beaten senseless for an hour, only being saved when Whis arrives to keep Broly busy long enough for Goku and Vegeta to fuse into Gogeta.
• The Bus Came Back: After returning from the dead and dying again, Frieza returns in Super to join the U7 team in the Tournament of Power.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Ironically this gets reversed on him. After he returns to life, he is the one way below the heroes who have literally reached godlike levels. So, he trains for four months to unleashed all his latent power and take his revenge against Goku. Despite his major power-up, he's barely keeping up with Goku in his base form and his Golden Super Mode drains his energy so fast that he stops hurting Goku after only a short amount of fighting. Even after using his backup plan to take Goku out, he's forced to fight the almost equally powerful and far less merciful Vegeta, who proceeds to beat him up and knock him out of his golden form. With his army destroyed, his power drained, and utterly humiliated he destroys the Earth out of spite and to get the last laugh. It is all undone when Whis rewinds time, giving Goku the opportunity to kill him once and for all. In this case, Frieza challenges the gods and lost everything.

C-D

• Cain and Abel: In the Non Serial Movies, it's made clear there's no love between him and his elder brother Cooler. Cooler states that he's only going after Goku to avenge Frieza's demise because, in his opinion, Frieza disgraced their family name by losing to Goku and felt it was up to him to redeem it; in fact, if Goku hadn't killed Frieza, Cooler would have gladly done so himself^note In the Funimation dub, that is, which made their relation as a rivalry. The original dialogue showed no hints towards a desire of Cooler to kill his sibling, and portrayed him more like an aloof big brother. Cooler's henchman Salza also clearly held Frieza in high regard - mentioning him as "Frieza-sama". .
• The Caligula: He's a deranged tyrant who readily kills his own men when he's in a foul mood, but he really falls off the deep end after his defeat to Goku. When he's rebuilt into a cyborg, he rushes to Earth with his dad to get revenge, and is killed by Future Trunks. When he's revived, instead of listening to his men who beg him to leave the Super Saiyan alone and rebuild his failing empire, he ignores them and devotes all his remaining resources to invading Earth. Although he last longer against Goku and Vegeta thanks to his four months of training, he's killed again in the end, and what is left of his empire also dies on Earth.
• Came Back Strong:
  • His Cyborg Form is noted by Frieza himself to be even stronger than his 100% Full Power Form.
  • And he comes back even stronger in the 2015 movie, though not exactly a straight example. He came back about as strong as before then trained to become stronger.
  • When he comes back again during Super, this is played straight. While he wasn't able to train physically, he was able to mentally train to fully master his Golden Super Mode and eliminate its Achilles' Heel, which had the added benefit of increasing its power.
  • Chapter 87 reveals that he’s been training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber on one of the planets he conquered to train for 10 years in it and achieve his newest transformation, Black Frieza which has him kill Gas and defeat True Ultra Instinct Goku and Ultra Ego Vegeta with a single strike. Notably, he killed Gas, at that point identified as the strongest person in the universe even before removing a power limiter that made him even stronger, with about as much effort as he took for Gars.
• Came Back Wrong: In Resurrection ‘F’, when Shenron resurrects him. As Frieza had been dead for longer than a year, the Dragon Balls brought him back exactly as he was when he died; as Mecha-Frieza, literally in pieces, but alive nonetheless. His minions solve that by putting him in an advanced healing tank that completely regenerates his body.
• Can't Catch Up:
  • This happened to him throughout Z and GT after Super Saiyans were introduced. Any time Frieza shows up either in the afterlife or temporarily resurrected, he would find himself thoroughly outclassed by the Saiyans.
  • Frieza reprimanded this by training for the first time in his life and acquired his golden form which was on par with the Super Saiyan Blue and finally evened the gap between Frieza and the Saiyans. But come the Tournament of Power, the Saiyans have gained several power-ups yet again with Goku having Super Saiyan Blue Kaio-Ken while Vegeta has Beyond Super Saiyan Blue in the anime (while both just have Completed Super Saiyan Blue in the manga, which is still well above Frieza), not to mention other god-like characters that they're up against like Toppo, Kale, and Jiren. Frieza gets utterly wrecked when he attempts to go up against these powerhouses.
  • Averted by the time of the Granolah Arc. Frieza found a Hyperbolic Time Chamber on one of his conquered planets and trains for ten years in it. In those ten years, he unlocked a new form, Black Frieza, that left him able to knock out Mastered Ultra Instinct Goku and Ultra Ego Vegeta with one punch. He also took out Gas, the Big Bad of the arc and "Strongest in the Universe" by punching him through the chest.
• Can't Take Criticism: He nonchalantly mentions that when he was told he'd never be worthy of the Namekian Dragon Balls, he killed the elder who said so. As he puts it, he's never taken bad news well.
  Frieza: Well, as you can imagine, I had quite a difficult time convincing the poor fellow to see me as worthy. I was told flat-out I'd never obtain a single Dragon Ball. And since I've never been one to take bad news well, I'm afraid I killed him.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Openly gloats about his cruelty, relishes bringing immense pain onto others, freely admits all the horrible stories told about him are true, and wants immortality to forever stay in control of the universe. And it's played very darkly straight. His own minions call him the Emperor of Evil. Even after fighting alongside his sworn enemies for the sake of the universe, he openly admits he won't stop being evil after being fully resurrected.
• Cavalier Competitor: The second kind. He constantly toys with his opponents and plays cat-and-mouse games because he's so certain that no one could ever possibly defeat him. All playfulness goes out the window as soon as the tables turn.
• Character Development: Three lifetimes worth of Humiliation Congas and 17 years of being tortured in an Ironic Hell can subtly change even the most proud and unrepentant of villains, however slightly. Although Frieza at his core remains a sadistic, vile individual that relishes destruction, post-resurrection media has evolved him from an Unskilled, but Strong Smug Super who had mental breakdowns at the mere thought of being rivaled, to a more seasoned warrior who can respect opponents (read: Goku) that have bested him before. Just compare his Villainous Breakdown when Goku attempted to use a Spirit Bomb on him and first went Super Saiyan to the smirk on his face when observing Jiren and Goku's Spirit Bomb tug-o-war and Goku's Ultra Instinct form. Dragon Ball Super slowly and gradually begins to change the once totally self-absorbed monster that is Frieza by showing the humbling effects of defeat on a once-omnipotent A God Am I fallen tyrant. Frieza's attempt at a Breaking Speech to an exhausted Jiren could just as easily apply to himself:
  Frieza: Oh? What happened to your usual poker face?
  Jiren: Silence!
  Frieza: Once shattered strength is so fragile. I can almost hear your heart shrieking, afraid to become the weakling you once were.
  • Interestingly enough, the show seems to imply that while his development has at the very least edged him out of the monster territory he was at before, it only makes him more formidable: He's much more patient, smart, and cunning at the end of Super than at the beginning. He's also no longer a Bad Boss by his second resurrection, even casually discussing the silliness of his wish (to grow five centimeters taller) with his higher ranked minions... though he still threatens death if they dare discuss it with anyone else. Prior to the final battle of Dragon Ball Super: Broly, Frieza actually bothers to order his men to retreat to safety rather than just powering up and vaporizing them as collateral damage as he casually did so in the past. He has also matured enough to retreat when confronted by Super Saiyan Blue Gogeta and to refrain from killing the deserters Cheelai and Lemo in favor of playing the long game.
  • Also, ever so subtly, after temporarily fighting as an honorary Z-Warrior, Frieza has also learnt the virtue of courage; even though he no longer desires immortality, as he realizes that comes with the risk of some horrible fate that would be inescapable if it didn't lead to death (ask Garlic Jr. for proof of concept), he also blows off his subordinate's suggestion of becoming invulnerable as well. After all, the adventure that is life would be so much more boring if it is not a challenge.
• Character Exaggeration: Prior to the Universe Survival Saga and Dragon Ball Super: Broly finally showing a pragmatic and tempered Frieza, his tendency toward abusive command towards his own minions would get increasingly worse between adaptations.
  • Bad Boss: He was a cruel tyrant in the manga to be sure, but he wasn't prone to killing subordinates. In the anime, he kills his minions at the drop of a hat, reasons varying from "failing him", to "being no longer useful", to "speaking out of turn", to "just needing a target". These exaggerated tendencies are carried over to the canon movie, Resurrection ‘F’. which was overseen by Toriyama, as he kills several of his men just to test his power, and eradicates the whole rest of his men for failing against the Dragon Team. Even worse in the ‘F’ arc of Dragon Ball Super, as he tortures one of his men mercilessly as a form of "training" for speaking out of turn, then thoughtlessly kills off his own entire army mid-battle just powering up.
  • Clipped-Wing Angel: In the manga, Super Saiyan Goku is clearly superior to him from the very beginning. In the anime, he puts up a much better fight and gets several good hits in before his stamina fails him. In Resurrection ‘F’, Golden Frieza starts out enjoying the upper hand on Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Goku… but then Goku and Vegeta point out that he still has the same weakness and it goes all downhill from there aside from backup plans and rage quits. In Super, he outright dominates Goku for an entire episode—but in the next episode the weakness still kicks in and breeds the exact same result as in ‘F’.
• Characterization Marches On: In older Dragon Ball media, filler and GT in particular, Frieza after his own arc was characterized as something of a Small Name, Big Ego in the grand scheme of things who got used as a punching bag for newer characters to show of their power and never really was a threat to Goku anymore. This probably stemmed from his sole manga reappearance, where Trunks killed him in one hit. His characterization in modern Dragon Ball media is the exact opposite, with Resurrection F instead overhauling him as in insanely talented natural prodigy and one of the only true villains who actually can keep pace with Goku.
  • In the Universe Survival Arc of Super, Frieza is portrayed as a cunning and strategic fighter that often tricks his opponents. This is in contrast to his portrayal in Z and even his earlier appearance in Super. While he was never shown to be dumb, he was written as someone who almost always just used brute force to deal with opponents rather than being particularly strategic, though this could be justified since he's in a situation where his normal tactics will get him disqualified.
• Child Prodigy: He was born so powerful that he never had to train a day in his life... until Goku came along.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Proves to have this as of the Universe Survival Saga. When he tries to double-cross Team Universe 7 to join Team Universe 9, Rō blatantly refuses to accept him into his team, stating that Frieza is a traitor to his own universe - and a potential traitor to any other universe as well. In the battle royale (long after Universe 9's erasure), Frieza proposes a similar alliance with Frost, and when it seems that Frieza defeated Gohan, Frieza double crosses Frost by blasting him off of the arena and revealed he was just pretending to beat up Gohan. Frieza isn't just untrustworthy for Universe 7 ... he's untrustworthy for any other universe as well.
• Classic Villain: An Evil Brit Foil of The Hero, who is represented by ambition, pride and wrath. The latter two become more obvious when he focuses on revenge.
• Climax Boss: His final fight with Goku in the Namek Arc is a major turning point in the entire franchise; Goku ascends to a Super Saiyan, the primary powerup that the Saiyans will be using in every subsequent story arc and Frieza's loss against Goku is what prompted Beerus to take notice of the latter and introducing him to the realm of the gods.
• Clipped-Wing Angel:
  • After Goku transforms into a Super Saiyan, Frieza cannot even hurt Goku with 50% of his power. Goku, who wanted to utterly defeat Frieza by humiliating him with the knowledge that even at full strength he never had a chance, gives Frieza enough time to reach his 100% Full Power Form, at which point he is Goku's equal for a short time in the anime version. However, staying in that form burns up his energy at an accelerated rate in addition to eroding his emotional stability, since he never fought at full power before that moment. This is made worse since Frieza also already burnt a lot of energy from the arc-long fighting. After only a few minutes, he couldn't keep up with Goku anymore, turning the last leg of the battle into a curb stomp.
  • His golden form in Resurrection ‘F’ also turns out to be a Clipped-Wing Angel. He is much stronger, able to fight toe-to-toe with Goku who has surpassed a god, but much like his original 100% Full Power Form he rapidly lose energy and burns out quickly during the fight. Vegeta surmises that Frieza, in his eagerness to get revenge, rushed to Earth as soon as he obtained his new transformation and never bothered to master it. In Super, he manages to master it while meditating in Hell, and by the time he is resurrected again, he doesn't waste even the slightest bit energy, even maintaining it while barely conscious.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: It's his fighting style. He impales Krillin on his horn, slowly crushes Gohan's skull, blasts Piccolo with a Beam Spam, thrashes Vegeta until he breaks down in tears out of despair and agony, and spends a really long time beating up Goku while at 50% power, at one point holding him underwater and nearly drowning him.
  • After Goku goes Super Saiyan, he subjects Frieza to similar tortures like beating him within an inch of his life, dragging out the fight and allowing Frieza to reach his maximum power so he knows how outclassed he is, psychologically terrorizing him to the point of pushing him near the Despair Event Horizon and finally delivering a ruthless "The Reason You Suck" Speech before sparing his life so he can live with the shame of his defeat. The effectiveness of the torture Goku gave him causes Frieza to have PTSD after he's rebuilt into a cyborg and is his worst memory in Hell.
  • In ''Resurrection ‘F’', after Goku is shot in the heart, Frieza kicks him several times, forces him to wake up when he loses consciousness so he can hear him scream, and stomps on Goku's heart wound before kicking him into a cliff. He even tries to delve in psychological torture by trying to bribe Vegeta into finishing Goku off for him.
  • In Super, Tagoma serves as Frieza's sparring partner for his four months of training, during which Frieza beat Tagoma within an inch of his life every single day in order to find out the best ways to keep Goku alive as long and as in as much pain as possible before killing him. Tagoma doesn't come out of that experience with his sanity intact. Furthermore, when Gohan shows mercy to Tagoma during their fight, Frieza blows his stack and blasts Gohan with a Beam Spam until he can't move.
• Combat Compliment: While he looks down at the Saiyans for being brainless brutes, he does praise Goku during the first part of their battle. He's so impressed that offers Goku a job as one of his top men, saying it would be a waste to kill such talent. In Resurrection 'F', he's impressed when he realized what Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan is, saying that Goku has grown stronger than he imagined. In the Super adaptation, he actually gives a bow of respect when he hears that Goku has become a god among the Saiyans.
• Combat Pragmatist: By the standards of this show, anyway. Cell and Buu both WANTED to fight strong opponents, and the heroes were able to buy time from both of them by promising a better fight if they waited. Frieza had none of this, and attempted at every turn to kill his opponents when he wasn't playing with them. In Super, he's even more of a pragmatist. He shoots Gohan in the middle of his fight against Ginyu, targets Goku's friends to distract him, and attempts to shoot Goku while he's transforming.
  • In the Universe Survival arc, Frieza's Character Development and pragmatism come full circle - he mastered his Golden Super Mode in his Ironic Hell (despite it being tailor-made to prevent him from doing just that), he never takes fights he knows he can't win, and masterfully manipulates his universal foil/twin Frost into letting his guard down so he could blast him off the arena floor. It took a Humiliation Conga or two, but Frieza is finally learning.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To King Piccolo. Both are powerful aliens that are feared by many and both serve as the Arch-Enemy to Goku, but while King Piccolo was a being born from the evil side of another Namekian and formed an army of demons on earth, Frieza was an alien prodigy that lead an entire army that was feared across the universe for decades.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: As revealed in Resurrection ‘F’, Frieza's punishment for his sins in life is to spend eternity in Hell... in a Sickeningly Sweet fairy land wrapped in a cocoon while angels, fairies, and living stuffed animals happily sing, play, and dance around him. He hated every second of it, and when he confronts Goku and Vegeta after his revival, describes it as if it were the most horrible torture ever devised.
  Frieza: Oh, you couldn't begin to imagine the depths of my suffering there. I spent most of my days strung up like a damned pupating moth trapped above a delicate field of flowers where angels, fairies, and enchanted stuffed animals lived. They played songs and danced asinine jigs as if their only care in life was when they would get their next warm, fuzzy hug! Instead of ruling the universe with an iron fist, I was serenaded by teddy bears!
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Somewhat. His Planet Trade Organization functions similarly to a real estate business. Frieza sends his men to liquidate the planet of all native forms of life so Frieza can sell the vacant planet to the highest bidder.
• The Corrupter:
  • He served as this to Vegeta, corrupting him into a cold-blooded sociopath even by Saiyan standards by nurturing his dark tendencies and treating him like trash for being a Saiyan. In the original Funimation dub, Vegeta even states outright that Frieza was the one who made him the way he is.
  • In Super, he is this to Tagoma. In the film, he merely killed Tagoma by throwing him out into space. In Super, he tortures him by shooting him in the kneecaps, then has him assigned as his sparring partner during his four month training regiment. After four months of brutal training, Tagoma's sanity is shot to hell and he becomes every bit as cold and ruthless as Frieza, so much so that he ruthlessly kills Shishami in an attempt to kill Gohan. Frieza is so impressed by his ruthless cunning that he offers Tagoma his own planet if he kills the Z fighters.
  • He also serves as this to Frost during the Universe Survival Saga. Frost was initially A Lighter Shade of Black to Frieza, being more pragmatic and not a sadist, but during his brief moments under Frieza's tutelage, he begins picking up Frieza's sadism and Ax-Crazy tendencies, highlighted when he tortures Master Roshi with a Beam Spam while laughing his head off.
• Crazy-Prepared: In Resurrection ‘F’, he apparently anticipated that Goku would not only prove to be the better fighter, but would again offer him mercy, and arranges for Sorbet to shoot Goku in the heart when his guard is down.
  Frieza: Good thing for contingency plans, right, Goku? As if I'd allow even the slightest chance of losing to you again!
• Create Your Own Hero: The reason why Goku exists in the way we know is all because of Frieza. If Frieza had not destroyed the Planet Vegeta, Gine and Bardock would have never sent him to Earth and he would have been raised as an ordinary Saiyan who, given his background, most likely wouldn't have amounted to anything special. It was also Frieza's bullying fueling Vegeta's ambitions to overthrow him which caused Vegeta to order/allow Raditz to pursue and retrieve Kakarot, then to travel to Earth upon hearing about the Dragon Balls, setting off the course of events that would see everyone go to Namek. There, it was Frieza sadistically pushing Goku over the edge that made him transform into a Super Saiyan. In a larger sense, him manipulating and nurturing the Saiyans' violent nature and turning them into spacefaring Blood Knights sowed the seeds to his eventual downfall. All together, Frieza was done in by a monster that he himself created. Also, the one who finally kills him, i.e. Trunks, is the son of Vegeta, that same Saiyan Prince he let live and bullied, bringing this trope full-circle.
• Creepy Highpitched Voice: Frieza tends to have this type of voice in the English dubs. Even his male voice actors sound high-pitched and feminent. Averted in the Japanese version where he has a very deep voice instead.
• Crossdressing Voices: Zigzagged in the dub as sometimes he is voiced by a female though as of 2010 he is voiced by a male.
• Cruel and Unusual Death:
  • He inflicts this on Krillin by hitting him with an energy beam, lifting him up in the air, and causing him to explode from within, with Krillin screaming the entire time.
  • He as Mecha-Frieza later receives this trope from Future Trunks by getting sliced into many pieces before getting completely vaporized at point-blank.
• Cruel Mercy: Goku subjected Frieza to this during their fight, beating him senseless and driving him to a Villainous Breakdown before deciding that, with Frieza's pride in shambles over being defeated by a Saiyan of all beings, he's Not Worth Killing, outright telling Frieza to "go crawl off someplace and hide" and continue to live with the shame.
• Crutch Character: An extremely rare villain example. Because of how overwhelmingly powerful he is, most of his soldiers tend to rely on his strength to protect them and deter anyone from rebelling against the empire. Vegeta calls out Cui, Zarbon, and Dodoria for relaxing with Frieza and growing complacent and content while he fought on the front lines growing stronger. While those three remained relatively powerful, most within Frieza's army are only as strong as Raditz. Also, Cui and Dodoria did try to run to Frieza for help once Vegeta proved to be stronger than them. When Frieza was killed on Earth, his empire fell apart without him because none of his men had his strength or fear factor.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • His special hobby, until he meets Goku. After his defeat, he repeatedly gets resurrected and killed this way.
  • After being resurrected for the first time, he dominates Super Saiyan Gohan in his first form and nearly kills him, despite a Super Saiyan form being the one that killed him initially.
  • In the anime version, he as Golden Frieza dominates Super Saiyan Blue Goku until he runs out of stamina, whereafter Goku and Vegeta basically take turns beating him brutally. Subverted in the original movie version, while he does have a slight lead on Goku in their fight, it’s not remotely enough to qualify as a curb stomp.
  • Likewise his hobby in the Tournament of Power, until he fights Toppo(anime)/Kale(manga) and Jiren, both of whom tear him a new one.
  • After his training in a Hyperbolic Time Chamber, he kills Gas in a single strike and defeats Goku and Vegeta with one punch as Black Frieza.
• Curb-Stomp Cushion:
  • It happens to him a few times during the fight on Namek. Gohan gets in a few good hits on his second form, and Krillin manages to slice off the tip of his tail. Goku also manages to get several good hits in on Frieza's final form before Frieza powered up, and even when he did, the Spirit Bomb did quite a bit of damage.
  • In Broly, his fight with Broly is rather one-sided in the latter's favour, but Frieza nonetheless survives an hour of solo combat against a foe actively trying to kill him.
• Cutting the Knot: The Namekian Dragon Balls were supposed to be gathered only by the worthy, with each village offering a different test to anyone who came looking for them. Frieza opts to just slaughter all the Namekians and take them by force. This bites him in the ass since this leaves him without anyone who can speak the Namekian language, which the Dragon Balls require to be activated.
• The Cynic: Much like The Joker in The Dark Knight, Frieza believes that deep down everyone is as selfish as he is, enough so that once he had served his purpose in saving Universe Seven in The Tournament of Power, he fully expected the Z-Warriors to kick him straight back to Hell because he had outlived his usefulness to them, much like how he disposed of useless pawns... Only to be pleasantly shocked when he was granted life for keeping his word. This validation of honor and kindness shattered his world-view so much that he quipped "I just might go back to my evil ways you know" in defensive sarcasm, the better to hold onto his cynicism. Of course, this cynical attitude is derived from his sociopathic thinking–he believes that virtues such as honesty and kindness are, at best, silly self-defeating nonsense. He's genuinely shocked (and almost appalled) to see anyone actually following through on them.
• Dark Is Evil: Most of his abilities either have references to darkness or are dark-colored, and his second form has a very devilish look.
• Dark Messiah: Possibly. He either sees himself as a dark messiah or is actively posing as one. Frieza himself does not really consider his soldiers as an army, looking at them more as a convenient group of fanatical followers.
• Deadly Disc: He has his own version of Krillin's Destructo Disc, even using the actual thing in "GT" and stating its actual name. Though unlike Krillin's, his can home in on enemies and are remotely controlled by him. It ends up being his undoing as he ends up sliced in half by them.
• Deadpan Snarker: Is prone to throwing out some pretty cruel and venomous one-liners, usually when his underlings screw up. Unlike most examples, this only makes him more threatening.
• Death by Irony: Due to his fearing the legend of the Super Saiyan, he killed practically the entire race... leading to a Super Saiyan being created. Worse yet, the second Super Saiyan he fights and the one to ultimately kill him is the son of one of the Saiyans he let survive.
  • His second death is also this: he is killed by an ascended Super Saiyan with godly powers, the type Frieza could only delude himself as.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype:
  • Of Smug Super, Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy, and World's Best Warrior. He was born as powerful as he is, allowing him to become the most powerful being in the universe without even trying. As a result, he never bothered to hone his power through training, firmly convinced that he outclasses everyone else and always will. This bites him in the ass when Super Saiyan Goku comes along and he's forced to go all out for the first time in his life; since he never bothered to train, Frieza can't control his full power, has no endurance for a prolonged fight with someone his equal, and when simply crushing his enemies with his raw power proves ineffective, he has no response aside from simply blowing up the planet he's standing on since he can survive in a vacuum. As shown by the fact he became even with SSB Goku with four months practice in Super, if he had trained for a single week of his godforsaken life, even Super Saiyan Goku wouldn't have stood a chance.
  • He also provides a deconstruction of Determinator. While his will to live and continue fighting is certainly impressive, his downfall is primarily because he refused to accept his defeat at Goku's hands, even after he's sliced into pieces by his own attack.
• Dehumanizing Insult: He's quite blatantly racist towards the Saiyans, often mockingly call them apes, monkeys, primates and simians.
• Despotism Justifies the Means: Only cares about staying in power as "the strongest being in the universe," and he'll slaughter entire races to do so.
• Determinator:
  • Frieza refuses to give up, even after all the chips are down and Goku offers to let him to live. Frieza will not stop until Goku is dead, even if it means blowing up the planet. Even when cut to pieces, he still doesn't give up trying to kill Goku. The planet blowing up on him still doesn't stop him. After being saved by his father and rebuilt into a cyborg, he wasn't even off the operating table before ordering his father to set a course to Earth.
  • Also shown when Namek's Eternal Dragon returns. Frieza figures that it's not too late to get his wish, and he would have actually succeeded... if he knew Namekian.
  • In the movie Resurrection ‘F’ Frieza is brought back to life. As it turns out, Shenron can bring someone back to life after a year has past but usually the body is in such a bad state there's no point and Frieza's body was in an even worse state after what Future Trunks did to it. Even with the new healing units that his minions have on their ship his resurrection would largely depend on Frieza's vitality to succeed. Frieza quickly shows how determined he is to get his revenge before even getting in a tank, as when he is brought back to life in chunky pieces, his first act is to try and pull his own disassembled body back together again. Say what you will about him his will to live is pretty damn impressive.
  • Later, in the Universe Survival Arc of Super, he is on the receiving end of a biblical pummeling by the freshly-ascended God of Destruction Toppo, culminating with Frieza getting his skull painfully crushed. Come the next episode, Frieza's back on his feet, as smug as ever as he attacks Toppo all over again. He gets another beating for his trouble, but that doesn't change the fact that even a God of Destruction can't make Frieza stay down.
  • Overall, Frieza's determinator status is a Deconstruction. His complete inability to give up, accept defeat, and swallow his pride not only leads to his downfall on Namek, but also his death, both times.
  • By the time Broly rolls around, he's moved past this; he opts to retreat rather than pick a doomed fight with Super Saiyan Blue Gogeta.
• Did You Actually Believe...?: During the Universe Survival Saga, he pulls this off against Frost after briefly teaming up with him and promptly betraying him, complete with a Pretender Diss.
  Frieza: Did you really think I'd join forces with an amateur like you?
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • Goku's very existence. As far as he knew, there were only three surviving Saiyans and he had them under his watch. He had no clue that Goku would come to Namek and be far more powerful than even Vegeta, who is supposed to be the strongest Saiyan in existence. That said, in the manga he had a premonition about an encounter with a powerful saiyan and called the Ginyu Force to intercept it. Ginyu's body swap worked as planned, or would have had Vegeta not escaped and interfered.
  • He had Goku at his mercy after he drained all his energy forming and throwing the Spirit Bomb. So, he takes his time killing Goku's friends in front of him to rub in his face how helpless he is. This triggers Goku going Super Saiyan, the very thing he feared.
  • When he came to Earth for revenge, he was prepared to fight Super Saiyan Goku. He had no way of preparing for Trunks, a Super Saiyan from the future.
  • After being returned to life, he trained for four months to challenge Goku and even came up with a backup plan just in case he lost. His plan falls into ruins because he didn't know Vegeta was on Earth, has been a Super Saiyan for years, and can become a Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan like Goku. Even when he uses his trump card, destroying the planet, he couldn't have prepared for Whis rewinding time on him, giving Goku the chance to kill him.
• Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: His desire for the Super Dragon Balls if he wins the Tournament of Power is to put himself "above the gods" themselves.
• Dirty Coward:
  • He tries to kill Goku while his back is turned, even though Goku has allowed him to be healed after Frieza literally begged for his life, and immediately berates Goku for this.
  • Not to mention that he begged Goku for his life as he was laid dying on the ground. He was so afraid of death that he couldn't face it with any dignity.
  • Everything he does is out of fear. He blew up Planet Vegeta because of a mere rumor that a Super Saiyan would rise and defeat him, attempts to find the Dragon Balls out of fear of death, does not personally make a move against Gohan, Krillin and Vegeta until it's too late, and every one of his henchmen are dead.
  • In Resurrection F, he gets his minion Sorbet to shoot Goku in the heart when Goku proved to be the better fighter again.
  • Also from the movie instead of being killed by Vegeta, he chose to destroy the Earth out of desperation, knowing that he can survive in space.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Frieza is initially presented as the Final Boss of the franchise, considered to be the greatest fighter in the universe so terrifying that even King Kai (whom at the time was presented as the ultimate Big Good of the series) flat out tells his students that Frieza is unbeatable, and is indirectly responsible for the entire series up to that point. However when he returns early in the Android Saga he is killed by Future Trunks and, as the audience soon finds out, there are far more powerful and dangerous threats than him in the universe. Then "Resurrection: F" and "Universal Survival Arc rolls around and makes him a credible threat again: no matter how much stronger the future enemies might become, Frieza always has a chance to train and overcome their abilities, as demonstrated in "Resurrection: F" itself, after training for 4 months, he became far stronger than the Super Saiyans, Androids, Cell, all forms of Majin Buu and Super Saiyan 3 Goku as well, only getting defeated due to his own hubris again.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • After Tagoma tells Frieza to go back to his empire and leave Goku alone, Frieza has him Thrown Out the Airlock. In Super, although Tagoma survives speaking up, what happens to him is arguably worse. First, he's shot to a cripple until he apologizes. Then, he is forced to be Frieza's training partner, going through four months of endless torture, which destroys Tagoma's sanity and turns him into a monster no different from Frieza.
  • He mercilessly tortures Gohan for reminding him of Goku's mercy towards him when he tries to spare Captain Ginyu.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: Before he unleashed half of his power, he offers Goku the chance to come work for him, saying it would be a shame to destroy such talent. When Goku says no, Frieza is quite upset about it, saying what a complete waste it is, along with how stupid the Saiyans were for not remaining his faithful servants.
• Dragon Ascendant: After his father's death, and his own revival, he becomes the true ruler of the Trade Federation.
• Dragon-in-Chief: To King Cold. Despite King Cold being the Greater-Scope Villain of the trade empire, Frieza runs most of the operations and is more-or-less the face. This is why he was chosen to be revived over his father in Resurrection ‘F’^note technically, the plan was to revive both, but Frieza was revived first; the Pilaf gang used the other wish before Sorbet could revive Cold.
• The Dreaded:
  • Prior to his defeat, even the Kais themselves feared him; when King Kai learned that Frieza was on Namek, he flat-out told Goku to just take the Dragon Balls and run, and not to confront Frieza no matter what. Even the Galactic Patrol, who are apparently the legal authority across most of the galaxy, consider trying to get in Frieza's way to be suicide.
  • To Frieza, the legendary Super Saiyan. He all but wiped out the Saiyans out of pure fear of one. His fears turned out to be justified after Goku ascended and kicked his butt all over Namek. He became so traumatized after his defeat that he has PTSD just thinking about Goku and Super Saiyans. His pride, however, outweighs his fear, which is why he keeps coming back for revenge.
• Dub Personality Change: Frieza in Funimation's Z dub is a lot less regal and polite than the original Japanese and Kai versions, trading in the original's sophisticated and effeminate imperialist for a tough talking, androgynous bad guy with a fondness for puns. This had the effect of significantly downplaying the Faux Affably Evil aspect of his character.
• Dub Name Change:
  • In France, Germany and Mexico, Frieza is "Freezer".
  • When Dragon Ball Z was dubbed into Hungarian, the Hungarian dubbers thought he was female, and changed "her" name to Dermesztina ("Freezetina"). One they got the memo that Frieza is actually a male, they changed it to to Dermesztő ("Freezer").
• Dull Surprise: Frieza evolves into this when he's revived to become the tenth member of Universe 7 during the Universe Survival arc. During the tournament, very little rattles Frieza, from seeing Universes 9 and 10 being erased, to seeing Goku's new techniques, to sensing Jiren's energy, or the entirety of Goku and Jiren's fight; he watches all of those events with the same evil smile that he usually has on his face. It takes Toppo nearly killing him with an Energy of Destruction to break this state.
• Dumbass No More: By the time the Universal Survival arc starts, the beatdowns and torment he's suffered have finally gotten him to work on overcoming his Fatal Flaws like his Bad Boss tendencies, the Clipped-Wing Angel effect that being Unskilled, but Strong has on his full power, and his insistence on being a Determinator even when it's against his interests.

E-H

• Earn Your Happy Ending: Although he is a Token Evil Teammate during the Universe Survival Saga, and is as cruel as he can be within the limits of the rules, Frieza ultimately battles for Universe 7 without cheating or betrayal and during the final battle genuinely teams up with Goku, putting his full trust in him because he knows Goku keeps his end of the bargain. This act of unconditional trust earns him a free revival, courtesy of Beerus, although Frieza sarcastically quips that he may go back to his old evil ways... And does so not long after.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: When in doubt, this is his solution to every problem. Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle actually made this Golden Frieza's Special Attack.
• The Emperor: He is the prince of the trade empire. He's even called the Emperor of Evil by his minions and the Galactic Patrol.
• Enemy Mine:
  • He becomes a last-minute replacement for Buu in the Universe 7 Team, in order to save his universe (afterlife included) from being erased. Just to drive home how much he is at odds with the team, he's literally killed half of them at one point in time or another (counting the ones who died before Whis reversed time).
  • In Super Dragon Ball Heroes, him and Cooler arrive and assist Goku and Vegeta in their battle against an alternate version of Goku Black as pay back for him humiliating them earlier, attacking just as he starts to overpower the heroes.
• Entitled Bastard:
  • In Resurrection ‘F’, he offers Vegeta a high-ranking position back in his army if he kills Goku for him. Despite the fact that Frieza slaughtered Vegeta's entire species, destroyed his homeworld, belittled him at every turn while Vegeta served him, and tortured him to death for fun back on Namek, he's genuinely shocked when Vegeta shoots his offer down in favor of killing him. Vegeta even lampshades it:
    Vegeta: Use your head. Do you honestly think I would stay loyal to you after you blew up the planet I was destined to rule?!
  • During the Universe Survival Saga, he also genuinely expects that Goku will resurrect him for real if he helps them out during the Tournament of Power, trying to exploit Goku's Blood Knight tendencies. Goku simply asks Frieza if he really thinks he's in a position to bargain.
• Epic Fail:
  • His failure to realize that it wasn't a good idea to drive the race who made Dragon Balls into near extinction before he made his wish.
  • Earlier, his attempts to eradicate the Saiyan race only led to circumstances where his defeat and death were assured by the legacies of the Saiyans he failed to kill.
  • After returning to life, he trains himself to be stronger than ever and unlocked a new Super Mode. He also finally mastered using his full power in his true form. Then... he loses for the exact same reason he lost the first time. In his rush to get revenge, he left his training early and didn't master his golden form, giving him the same stamina issues as his original 100% Full Power Form, to an even greater extent. Despite acknowledging he made mistakes in his first battle against Goku, he repeated the same mistake.
  • The whole affair with trying to conscript Broly into killing Goku and Vegeta was one big collective failure on his part. He fails to kill Goku and Vegeta (again), tips Broly into an Unstoppable Rage in a barely thought out plan that almost ends with Broly pulling his limbs off, and even after admitting defeat and fleeing, he’s only made things worse for himself in the long run, only succeeding in making an enemy out of the most powerful Saiyan alive.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • His first appearance features him ordering his men to murder every Namekian in a village. As if the audience needed more confirmation that he was pure evil.
  • Even more so in Kai. In his first few minutes of screen time, he drives the Saiyans to near-extinction by blowing up their planet and laughing about it. And in the process of destroying them, wipes out his own men who have come to restrain Bardock.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Defied. He didn't care for his father to rot in hell as opposed to wishing him back to life, and he was willing to betray his own universe for his own sake. The Universe 9 Gods found it unbelievable. This is especially notable because we see Frieza be trusting, generous and even affectionate to others at several points during and after this period, and this scene reminds us that come crunch time, Frieza's priority is still ultimately looking out for number one, namely himself.
  Sidra: Do you really wish to betray your own universe? Even if it means its obliteration?
  Frieza: Yes, and what of it?
  Roh: How could you? Even the most despicable of villains has something which they hold dear and wish to protect! A loved one? Cherished memories? A precious place from one's childhood, even?
  Frieza: Excuse me, my good man: I simply do not understand what it is that you are prattling about.
  • Surprisingly played straight in Broly. Berryblue, his advisor, childhood nanny and hence the closest thing to a lifelong mother-figure, is the one of the only few people Frieza shows genuine affection for, even allowing her to make snarks at his expense when he has killed countless for less.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Malignant as he is, even he disapproves of the two Zenos erasing Universe 9 without a care in the world. It's not so much in the act itself (though he acknowledges it as horrendous) as the childish lack of understanding the two display in its spirit.
  Frieza: Those colorful brats. The difference between their cute voices and horrendous acts, I find it quite vexing. One day, I promise I shall reign over you.
  • In Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai, Frieza mentions that Cooler believes that violence is the answer to almost anything, something which Frieza disagrees with.
  • Two in Super. One is implied that, after he put Tagoma through Training from Hell by making him his training dummy for four months, Tagoma boasts that nothing can hurt his steel body before Gotenks unintentionally proves him wrong... meaning Frieza seemingly thinks attacking Tagoma/his opponents under the belt is too crude for his tastes. The other is that as evil as he is, and as much as he hates Goku and his friends, even he agrees that having his universe wiped out due to losing the Tournament of Power is a less-than-desired outcome. As such, he willingly puts his hatred aside and teams up with Goku and company in defense of Universe 7.
• Evil Brit: Chris Ayres, Frieza's actor from Kai onwards, gives him a slight British accent. After Chris died, Daman Mills took over his place as the new current voice.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: His personal hell, as seen in Resurrection 'F', is a peaceful meadow filled with fairies, angels, and living stuffed animals parading around and wanting nothing but to give him joy and happiness, but Frieza, being an immoral Sadist, finds it disgusting and infuriating.
  • In the same movie, Frieza mistakes Vegeta stopping Goku from fighting him as signs of loyalty towards him and says he's glad that Vegeta still knows "who holds his leash". But Frieza's also dumbstruck when Vegeta refuses the chance to kill a wounded Goku when offered, and Vegeta has to remind the Emperor that he has the most beef with Frieza for destroying his planet/kingdom, leading to Frieza having a massive tantrum and Rage Quitting when Vegeta kicks his ass.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • He’s one to Goku. Both are extremely powerful fighters, they both are also arrogant when fighting their opponents, they both come from powerful yet evil races, they both also managed to achieve new god-like forms, and both are hailed as being some of the most powerful mortals of Universe 7. But while Goku was born weak and only trained to get stronger over the years, Frieza was born powerful and never trained a day in his life, until he learned that Goku managed to defeat Majin Buu and decided to train to become stronger.
  • He's also an eviler counterpart to Vegeta. Both of them are princes of their respective empires, born extremely powerful, command the respect and fear of those around them, have lofty ambitions of ruling the universe for all eternity, are ruled by their pride of being the strongest, and are selfish, spoiled brats who will Rage Quit if things don't go their way. The difference is that Vegeta, who along with the remnants of his empire lived under the thumb of Frieza's, had his interests align with positive influences that slowly got him to change and become a better person, one who would eventually put aside his pride for the sake of others. Frieza, who's never known a kind hand that wasn't out of either fear or pity because he's been the overbearing bastard above everyone else, remained an unrepentant asshole who allowed his pride to utterly destroy him, three times.
• Evil Feels Good: Is a firm believer in this. His entire fighting style revolves around Cold-Blooded Torture, and he constantly goes out of his way to ensure his enemies die in pain and despair, knowing they never had a chance at defeating him. A perfect example is when he blew up Planet Vegeta, Laughing Mad all the while.
• Evil Gloating: He really likes to play with his food when he fights, and always takes the time to rub in his enemies' faces how puny and weak they are compared to him. The most notable example is in Resurrection ‘F’, when after Goku is shot In the Back by Sorbet, Frieza decides to torture Goku slowly and painfully while rubbing in his face how stupid he was to show him mercy a second time. His gloating leads right to his downfall when, in an attempt to twist the knife even further, he tries to goad Vegeta into killing Goku for him by offering him a high-ranking position in his army; Vegeta refuses, saves Goku, and beats Frieza to a pulp.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: The Funimation dub has him throwing out lots of lame jokes and puns, in contrast to how superficially polite and regal he is in the original Japanese dub and Kai.
• Evil Is Bigger: Zig-Zagged. He starts off shorter than almost all of the heroes short of Gohan and Dende, then he transforms and particular focus is given to how he grows to tower over them, but then he shrinks back down in his true form, which is still taller than his initial form but noticeably shorter than Goku.
• Evil Is Deathly Cold: He and his family all have cold-themed names, and Frieza is as evil as they come.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: While Goku and company had little choice given the situation when recruiting him to Team Universe 7 for the Tournament of Power, Frieza makes it very clear within seconds of his revival that they have only the barest vestiges of a leash on him and he starts planning against them from the get go.
• Evil Is Petty:
  • His Fatal Flaw. Going hand in hand with his overwhelming arrogance, Frieza can't resist doing unnecessarily cruel things to those weaker than him, often just to prove he can. This became his downfall as it was his murder of Krillin in front of Goku that ultimately triggered Goku's ascension to Super Saiyan.
  • Even when he is brought back for the Tournament of Power, Frieza can't help but indulge in this: upon finding out that Cabba is something of a student for Vegeta, he resolves to defeat and ring out Cabba for just that reason. Surprisingly, Frieza's beatdown of Cabba was arguably the least drawn out or brutal one he had handed out until that point, but even so he tells the helpless Saiyan that he wil hunt down his teammates next just to get a rise out of him.
  • In Dragon Ball Super: Broly, his motive for going to Earth is to grab the Dragon Balls and wish for... an extra five centimeters to his height.
• Evil Laugh: In Japanese, his is a distinct Noblewoman's Laugh: "Oh-hohohohohohoho!!"
• Evil Overlord: Rules multiple galaxies.
• Evil Plan: He's definitely up to no good during the Tournament of Power. He's planning to subvert the rule of the gods and assert himself on top and to get to that goal, he's playing all sides.
• Evil Sounds Deep: In both the original and Kai dubs, his voice gets increasingly deep in his second and third forms, then shifts back when he crosses the Bishōnen Line.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: Frieza is very well-known for his very raspy voice; his later English performances by Chris Ayres and Daman Mills sound very similar to Starscream of Transformers.
• Eviler than Thou:
  • During the Namek Saga, he proves to be this to Vegeta, brutalizing him to the point Vegeta is crying and begging Goku to defeat him and avenge their race.
  • Reinforced in Super. Whenever Frieza shows up, the story goes out of its way to portray him as more evil than any other villains who happen to be around. King Yemma even states that most other villains that Goku has fought over the years have had their souls purified in Hell and been reincarnated, but Frieza's soul is still intact because he's actively resisting being purified, simply out of pure spite. Particularly in the Tournament of Power, wherein Universe 9, ruled by incompetent gods with a smarmy, greedy Supreme Kai, are horrified by Frieza's willingness to betray his own Universe if it meant an advantage, and he betrays his Universe 6 counterpart, Frost, while cruelly mocking him for being too soft and trusting (for the record, Frost has deliberately engineered genocides and profiteered off the ensuing wars).
  • He continues to be this in the Super manga when he appears at the end of the "Granolah the Survivor" arc to reveal that he knew what Big Bad Wannabe Elec was doing the whole time and kills him with one shot soon after.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: Goku recruits him to be the final member of the Tournament of Power, under the risk that the Universe would be erased if he didn't help.
• Evil Virtues: While still a monster, by the end of Dragon Ball Super Frieza eventualy became a gentlemanly monster capable of genuine courage, respect, trust and even to a certain degree honor. Even before joining Team Universe Seven, Frieza is characterized by determination and refusal to concede to defeat.
  • He is also slowly learning the virtue of gratitude, after years and years of being a purely Ungrateful Bastard. After his second resurrection, Frieza demonstrated a need to repay any and all acts of kindness towards him in full; mostly because his colossal pride cannot allow him to bear the knowledge of being in debt to anyone ever again. He claims to be grateful for Goku's naïve nature during their final battle with Jiren, and even flatly refused to be thanked by Goku after helping him save Universe Seven, considering even his appreciation to be yet another debt to his enemy. It may have been largely born out of circumstance, but it's still there.
• Ex-Big Bad: Frieza served as the Big Bad of the Namek Saga as well as the Resurrection F arc in Dragon Ball Super, before he is subsequently brought back again much later to serve as a Token Evil Teammate for the crew during the Tournament of Power arc.
• Expecting Someone Taller: His first form is rather diminutive and he powers up by deceptively shedding his armor (to get ready to beef himself up — the armor doesn't change size with him). Likewise his fourth form is only slightly taller then his first with both Goku and Krillin commending that they weren't expecting him to be so scrawny.
  • During their first encounter (at least in the manga) Goku comments Frieza looks younger than he expected.
  • Krillin had pretty much the same reaction when he saw Frieza's final form.
• Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: He explains to Vegeta, Gohan, Krillin, and Piccolo how his transformations work, namely how his different forms are Power Limiters and not enhancements. He also tells Goku how much of his power he's currently using. Given how overwhelmingly powerful he is, it makes little difference.
• Exploited Immunity: The main reason he blows up Namek; even if Goku could survive an Earth-Shattering Kaboom, unlike Frieza, he can't breathe in space.
• Exposed Extraterrestrials: This, combined with his Anime Anatomy, make one wonder just how his kind reproduces.
• Failed a Spot Check: His failure to notice Goku's gigantic, glowing Spirit Bomb in the sky until it was too late. Sure, it's a plot point he can't sense ki, but the attack sticks out like a sore thumb. It's implied (and explicitly stated in the English dub when he finally does notice) that he mistook it for one of Namek's several suns at first.
• Family Theme Naming: His entire bloodline all have ice related names.
• Fantastic Racism: Frieza thinks lowly of Saiyans, even the ones he favors, viewing them as mindless brutes and often calling them "monkeys". This is why he takes it especially bad when he loses to Goku. He also doesn't think much of the Namekians, calling them a primitive and stubborn race because they refused to submit to him.
• The Farmer and the Viper: Taken to the extreme: when Goku gives him a chance to walk away, he keeps attacking, ends up cutting himself in two, and is reduced to begging for mercy. When Goku relents, Frieza's reaction is to mock Goku to his face, then try to kill him again. By this point, Goku's done being merciful and blows him away.
• Fatal Flaw: Arrogance. Frieza's belief that he's the rightful emperor of the universe and tendency to toy with his enemies end up costing him dearly.
  • Goku figured that leaving Frieza alive with his pride in tatters was worse than killing him. He was also nearly killed by Goku when he just could not accept that he lost to a 'mere monkey'. In the end, it ended up killing him since after he was healed from near-death, he went to Earth to get back at Goku. In Resurrection ‘F’, he is revived and wants to go at Goku again, even as his own men tells him to leave the Super Saiyan alone and go back to running his empire. Naturally, his unwillingness to let go of his pride gets him killed again.
  • His lack of actual mastery of his powers comes from the belief that he's so strong, he doesn't need to train. The reason why Frieza has transformation states is because he is unable to maintain his power in his final form for long durations. This same issue occurs once more with Frieza's new Super Mode in Resurrection F.
  • His tendency to not to Know When to Fold 'Em has always resulted in his defeat, in the hands of Goku, then his death at Trunks's hands, then his brutal beating by Vegeta's hands, his second death, as well as him taunting the far more stronger Toppo and Jiren and getting beaten by them.
• Fate Worse than Death: The entire reason Goku opted to let him live after beating him on Namek. Frieza had spent years as the undisputed strongest in the universe, firmly convinced that no one could ever defeat him; thus, having to live with the knowledge that he was no longer the strongest, but was defeated by a Saiyan, a race he firmly believed to be inferior to him in every way, was a far worse punishment than death.
• Faux Affably Evil: When he's not infuriated, Frieza is quite polite and compliments his opponents' skills for lasting so long against him and even offers to spare them if they come work for him. Deep down, he's anything but nice and is quite temperamental, especially when things don't go his way. Him talking with Goku in Hell is this. During the entire conversation, he treats Goku like an old friend, but both Goku and the audience know he is just masking his vast hate for Goku, wanting to kill him on the spot. Once Frieza learns there is something to gain from it for him, though, his behavior towards Goku becomes a little bit more genuinely affable-although he makes it no secret he wants to fight/kill Goku again, nor does he bother hiding his homicidal lust for killing opponents in the tournament.
• Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: His attitude towards Goku from the Namek Saga onward. In Resurrection 'F', Frieza comes right out and says that he can't stand to live in the same universe as Goku, and won't even be able to sleep at night as long as he's still alive.
• Final Solution: His destruction of Planet Vegeta qualifies under this trope.
• Finger Gun: His signature moves tend to work this way, ranging from his Death Beam to his Death Ball. In his third form in particular he loves to fire barrages of energy blasts with dual finger guns.
• Flanderization: His Bad Boss tendencies. While he definitely didn't care when they died and occasionally threatened them, Frieza never actually killed any of his minions in the original manga and even tolerated some failures from them with little more than angry outbursts (such as when Dodoria let Gohan and Krillin escape the village). The obvious exception of course being the Saiyans, which had nothing to do with the You Have Failed Me/It Amused Me justifications he's famous for. Anime filler is what made this a habit of his, with Toei even creating original characters specifically for Frieza to kill (like Oren) and depicting him blowing up an entire army of his own men for no real reason in the Bardock special. 30 years after Frieza's last appearance in the manga, Toriyama himself would go down the same route by having him kill all of his soldiers for failing him in Resurrection F.
  • Downplayed by Broly, even when Frieza still killed some of his minions, it's only due to them being Too Dumb to Live by mocking Frieza as "short", he (perhaps) is fond of his nanny Berryblue, and he spares Lemo and Cheelai when they flee from him, necessitating due to the sheer struggles the Frieza Force is currently facing.
• Flaw Exploitation:
  • In the original dub, Frieza gets Goku to allow him to power-up to his maximum strength by telling Goku that as a Saiyan, he should want to see the power of the strongest in the universe. Goku takes the bait, wanting to fight Frieza at his best for fun and to show the tyrant that he never had a chance. Goku proves his point. Interestedly enough, Frieza pulls this exact trick on Goku in Super. He gets Goku to agree to revive him with the Dragon Balls if he wins the Tournament of Power because Goku wants to see Frieza's "further evolution". Goku even calls Frieza evil for exploiting his weakness.
  • In Resurrection ‘F’, he pulls this off not once, but twice. First, he uses Goku's tendency of showing him mercy to get Sorbet to shoot him in the back when his guard is down. Then, he takes advantage of Vegeta's tendency to overthink during a fight to blow up the Earth before Vegeta could finish him off.
  • In Super, he pulls it off again. This time against Frost, his Universe 6 counterpart. He exploited Frost's own arrogance and his desire to have a "master" from another universe like Cabba does to lull him into a false sense of security, culminating with Frieza fake-fighting with Gohan to convince Frost that they were on the same team. He then exploits Frost's ignorance of the various forms to get the latter into the buff 100% Full Power Form (which decreases his agility) and then blows him off the stage with no way to dodge or recover from it.
• Foil:
  • To Goku. Frieza is born extremely powerful, didn't need to train a day in his life and is the prince of an intergalactic empire. Goku is born a weakling, is the son of a lower class warrior and pacifist mother and had to train endlessly to reach his level of power. Frieza is very polite and well educated, while Goku has bad manners and is Book Dumb. Frieza thrives on spreading despair and corrupting others with his influence. Goku inspires hope and tends to bring out the good within people.
  • After character development, Vegeta becomes this to him. Through years of positive influence from living on Earth, Vegeta learns to care about others and being able to set his pride aside for the benefit of others and his own sanity. By letting go of the past, Vegeta becomes a happier person. Frieza , on the other hand, never learns from his experiences and remains an uncaring fiend even after he is given a second chance at life. He allows his hatred and anger towards Goku to drive him insane, and it's his inability to let go of his pride and the past that drives him to his death, twice. This is further expanded on Super with his relationship with Frost, which is a contrast with Vegeta and Cabba. While Vegeta was a Stealth Mentor to Cabba to teach him the Super Saiyan transformation, Frieza was a Manipulative Bastard to Frost, tricking him to catch him off guard.
  • He is one to Frost from Super. Both characters are powerful members of the same species, both are not above fighting dirty, and both are shown to be extremely cruel and sociopathic Galactic Conquerors, but their methods greatly differ from one another. Frieza is an openly and blatantly evil Card-Carrying Villain who rules through intimidation and fear while Frost is a Villain with Good Publicity who rules through charisma and manipulation. Furthermore, Frost actually fights on the front lines with his men, whereas Frieza can't be bothered to dirty his own hands until literally his entire army has been destroyed. Also, Frost is more pragmatic than Frieza and knows when to surrender when the odds are against him while Frieza (pre-Character Development) is so egotistical that he would sooner destroy the planet than admit defeat.
  • Also during the Tournament of Power, he becomes one to Jiren. Both had possessed reputations as the strongest beings of their respective universes, both were hyped to be impossibly strong during their respective arcs, both fought against Goku and overpowered both his Kaioken state (with an outsider even commenting that Goku was already using the highest level possible) and a spirit bomb, triggering a new, legendary transformation within him. The main difference is that Jiren seems to be a paragon of justice, whereas Frieza is reviled as the most evil being in the universe even by the other Gods of Destruction. Additionally, while the advent of Super Saiyan was enough to defeat Frieza, the advent of Ultra Instinct was *not* enough to defeat Jiren. To top it all off, his name, being a pun on the word "stove," is the direct opposite of Frieza's own name pun—"freezer," of course.
• For the Evulz: This is his extreme sadism. Frieza does half of what he does for this reason. He kills the Namekians after they give him the Dragon Balls and fully intends to destroy the planet once he gets his wish. Then there's his blowing up Planet Vegeta, laughing maniacally and declaring it a great fireworks show all the while.
• Formal Characters Use Keigo: In Japanese, his speech patterns are extremely formal, always using the most polite forms of verbs. This serves to contrast with his ruthless behavior, as well as contrast with Goku, whose own speech patterns are much more informal and have some elements of a Tohoku dialect (which is stereotypically associated with people from the boonies).
• Fountain of Expies: In-Universe, as other members of his small race (all of whom bar Cold have similar personalities, abilities, and, in the Japanese anime, the same voice actor) are often confused for him and play his role in later arcs. Bardock thought Chilled was Frieza, Goku thought Cooler was Frieza, and Vegeta calls Frost U6's Frieza.
• Freudian Slip: During the Golden Frieza saga, when Gohan spares Ginyu due to the fact that Ginyu can't fight anymore, Frieza goes ballistic and tortures Gohan. As he's about to finish Gohan off, he accidentally calls Gohan "Son Goku".
  Frieza: Serves you right, insect. Serves you right, Saiyan. Serves you right, Son Goku!
• Friendly Enemy: Downplayed. Even though Frieza definitely still has an axe to grind with Goku, by the time of his second resurrection where he joins Team Universe 7 for the Tournament of Power, he has come to admire and respect the Saiyan-warrior enough to be somewhat pleasant and civil towards him, even if most of it is faux. He is, after all, the only being in the universe who was able to defeat him not once but twice. For someone like Frieza this is the closest thing he will ever have to a lifelong friend. He will, however, still try to stab Goku in the back when given the chance though, with the latter fully expecting him to try. Unbelievably in Episode 111, Frieza even helps Goku by giving him energy!
  Frieza: Oops. Sorry about that. I guess my hand slipped after all.
  Frieza: [Missing a shot aimed at Goku from the back that ends up killing an Assassin] Sincere apologies, my hand has slipped again.
  • Even in the Resurrection F Arc, Frieza is completely capable of having a friendly conversation with Goku and Vegeta... although for a brief moment.
  • This carries over into Dragon Ball Fighter Z, wherein, if they are teamed up, he and Goku have a relatively lighthearted conversation about how exactly the latter knows Beerus.
  • Traces of this kind of relationship with Goku were there from the very beginning. When he and Goku first met, they had no real grudge against one another. Their initial bout and tests of strength against each other were remarkably casual, with Frieza even expressing some genuine appreciation for Goku's power and skill as the closest thing to a real challenge he could get. Everything changes after the Spirit Bomb. However, this is downplayed. Goku was still pissed at Frieza for torturing his friends and son. It was also implied that Goku tried to defeat Frieza less out of the desire to have a good fight and more because he genuinely deserved it, as made clear from his speech to him after Vegeta's death.
  Goku: For all the countless Saiyans you destroyed, as well as all the Nameks here... I am going to beat you! ^note Budokai Tenkaichi 3 dialogue
• Galactic Conqueror: And is willing to add more to his collection. At his peak, he ruled 70% of Universe 7.
  • Is back to this trope after re-establishing Frieza Force.
• Gallows Humor: He's rather fond of this in the original Funimation dub.
• Genius Bruiser: Became one in the Universe Survival Arc. He seems to have become much more calculating and pragmatic than before.
• Genocide Backfire:
  • He wiped out the Saiyans to prevent them from rising up and killing him. Goku survived and took him out years later. Even better, it is revealed in Dragon Ball Minus that Goku would have never been sent to Earth if Frieza didn't try to wipe out the Saiyans by recalling them home.
  • His cavalier extermination of the Namekians almost became this when he discovered simply having all seven Dragon Balls wasn't enough to grant his wish. Realising that the Namekians knew something about their use that he didn't, he made a quick but frantic search for any survivors.
  • His wiping out of the Cerelian race motivated its Sole Survivor, Granolah, to plot revenge against Frieza and attempting to destroy his force.
• The Gift: He has among the most natural fighting ability of any non-god character in the series. Even Goku and Gohan could not get stronger as fast as Frieza did. Before losing to Goku he literally never trained in his life and was still one of the strongest beings in the universe. After being revived, it only takes him four months of training to surpass even Majin Buu and be a match for a Super Saiyan Blue. Add about another year of just mental training and his power began to approach that of the Gods of Destruction. Jiren in comparison had to train for most of his life to surpass them. It's scary to imagine how powerful Frieza would be if he trained regularly for years. In the Super manga, he uses the Room of Spirit and Time to attain a level of power even greater than Goku and Vegeta with Mastered Ultra Instinct and Ultra Ego called Black Frieza.
• A Glass of Chianti: He is often seen drinking blood-red wine. Unless he gets mad, in which case, he breaks the glass.
• A God Am I: Thinks of himself as one, and really, who's going to argue with a guy that can casually blow up planets?
• God-Emperor: What Frieza aspires to be. He already has the power to be considered a Physical God and he wants to use the Dragon Balls to wish for immortality so he can rule the universe forever.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • After Goku becomes a Super Saiyan, he became so desperate to win that he tries to blow up Namek, knowing that he can survive in a vacuum while Goku can't. He didn't completely succeed since he held back too much power, both out of fear of killing himself and out of pride since he wanted to beat Super Saiyan Goku with his own power. When he returns as a cyborg, Frieza tries to destroys the Earth when he becomes outmatched by Super Saiyan Trunks in the anime. In Resurrection 'F', Frieza successfully blows up the Earth after Vegeta knocks him out of his golden form, killing everyone not near Whis. Basically, when Frieza is backed into a corner, he Rage Quits.
  • He becomes this in the Universe Survival Arc, as Majin Buu falls asleep leaving the U7 team down a member. Goku suggesting Frieza results in massive protest from his teammates, and Frieza only joins them under the condition that Goku revive him with the Earth's Dragon Balls after the tournament's end.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: In Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F', he develops a new Super Mode that turns his skin gold. He mentions that he chose to make it gold with this very trope in mind:
  Frieza: I know gold's a bit gauche, but I wanted to ensure you grasp my new position atop the pecking order.
• Golden Super Mode: His new form in Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F', which also bears some resemblance to Cooler, as his hands, feet, and the area around his mouth turn purple. He even calls it himself Golden Frieza, and intentionally colored it Gold as a way to mock the Super Saiyans.
• Gonk: His 3rd form is really disturbing to look at, with a beaked face and an elongated skull. Thankfully, it's also the one he spends the least amount of time in.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Being turned into a cyborg mended most of the injuries he got from losing his fight to Goku, but he walked away with some lasting scars on his chest. When he got resurrected and placed in a regeneration chamber, his scars healed away.
• Graceful Loser: At the end of Dragon Ball Super: Broly, instead of shrieking in indignation once he loses, he just leaves after saying "I'll be back for this world".
• Greater-Scope Villain:
  • Despite never coming into contact with the protagonists until much later in the story, his transformation of the Saiyan race into genocidal killers-for-hire and his decision to ultimately destroy their planet, Vegeta, ultimately sets the entire Dragon Ball series into motion.
  • Him destroying Planet Vegeta is the reason why Goku came to Earth and he indirectly influenced Vegeta's actions during the Saiyan Saga. Vegeta wanted immortality so he could challenge him and take his place as ruler of the universe.
  • Cell was cloned from Frieza's cells, and a few of Frieza's more horrible personality traits crop up in Cell's own mannerisms, particularly the smarmy arrogance and the Bishōnen Line transformation.
• Growing Muscles Sequence: When he first unleashed his full 100% Full Power Form to fight Super Saiyan Goku on Namek, his body bulked up from skinny to beefier than Goku himself. Curiously, when he did so again when he arrived on Earth in Resurrection F there was no visible muscle increase, implying his training to maximize his power naturally took away the need for it. Nonetheless, as revealed in the Universe Survival Saga, Frieza can still bulk up his muscles if he wants to.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: This is one of Frieza's main flaws. And how, if things don't go his way, he loses his composure and bursts into violent outbursts and his solution is to blow up the planet.
• Hard Work Hardly Works:
  • Frieza is as powerful as he is naturally, having never trained a day in his life until the day he met Goku. Upon being resurrected, he realizes that even a prodigy like himself has to work in order to attain the strength the Z-Warriors have achieved in the intervening years since his defeat. He is such a prodigy that he manages to hit near god-like power after a mere four months of training... power that the likes of Goku and Vegeta have taken decades to cultivate. It's fortunate that he happens to be an impatient Psychopathic Manchild, as it is downright frightening to think what kind of strength he could have attained with a year or more... Averted at the end of the Granolah arc, where it's revealed he spent 10 years training in a hyperbolic time chamber he found on a planet he conquered, and in doing so has become powerful enough to one-shot Gas, Goku and Vegeta effortlessly. Clearly he's learned his lesson - hard work does work.
  • As mentioned in Brilliant, but Lazy, Frieza would rather sit in a Hoverchair and sacrifice his best men without lifting a finger just so that he can wish for immortality with the Dragon Balls, rather than train in fighting and gain the kind of strength that would effectively make him that. In the Universe Survival arc, he masters his Golden form via meditation alone (as he didn't have much else to do in Hell), as he is slowly getting a grip on how his powers function.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Twice. The first time, after accidentally being hit by one of his own Destructo Discs, it's a horizontal cut, the second time, after Future Trunks cuts him in half, it's a vertical cut.
• Handy Feet: He has prehensile feet.
• Hate Sink: According to Akira Toriyama, Frieza was created around the time of the Japanese economic bubble and was inspired by real estate speculators, whom Toriyama called the "worst kind of people." He purposely does not draw bad guys so unscrupulous that it affects one psychologically, although he admits Frieza is close. While he underwent Character Development come the Universal Survival Saga of Super, Frieza himself is one of the most despicable characters in all of the series, which is especially notable when you consider two of the largest threats after him, Cell and Majin Buu, were literally made to be evil, and yet Frieza manages to be as cruel, if not more, then they are.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: While it's a stretch to say he turned good, his time during the Tournament of Power has him considerably mellowing out and doing more noble things than usual. He is no longer openly hostile towards Goku and instead treats him as a Friendly Enemy who he is genuinely civil towards, along with him not betraying his own teammates as originally expected. He even cooperates very efficiently with them and even puts himself on the line to help them out, including becoming Bash Brothers with Goku to have the two of them pull off a Taking You with Me on Jiren.
• Height Angst: His latest plot for the Dragon Balls, as of Dragon Ball Super: Broly is to be 5cm taller. He's decided he's had enough of his henchmen calling him a pipsqueak and his remedy for this (other than vaporizing his henchmen, like he usually does) is to gather the Dragon Balls to grow 5cm taller.
• Hero Killer: He personally murders Vegeta, Krillin, and Dende. He also mortally wounds Nail, who would have died if Piccolo hadn't merged with him. And then when he comes back to life in Resurrection 'F' and Super, he brings down Piccolo, who once again resorted to a Heroic Sacrifice to protect Gohan from a killing blow.
• Heroic Sacrifice: As hard as it is to believe, he pulls one of these (albeit a non-lethal version of it). During the climax of the Tournament of Power arc, Frieza and Goku drag Jiren out of the arena with them. Bear in mind, this is the very same Frieza who would sooner destroy a planet than do anything selfless; though, he was extremely hesitant and pained to do it, and demanded Goku's word that he would honor his bargain to resurrect him. Even then, the fact that he trusted Goku is an accomplishment in itself.
• He's Back!: In the final episode of Super's Universal Survival Arc, Beerus has Whis revive Frieza for his actions during the Tournament of Power. He proceeds to use his third life... to rebuild his empire.
  Frieza: Everyone, sorry for the wait. The Emperor of the Universe is back!
• Hidden Agenda Villain: When Frieza joins up as a member of Universe 7's ten man team during the Tournament of Power his motives are brought up by other characters who are unsure exactly what he wants. Once he starts teaming up with Frost and attacks Gohan Krillin speculates that Frieza may intend to be the last man standing on their team so that he can use the Super Dragon Balls for himself. Whis also speculates that Frieza may want the power of the Super Dragon Balls to kill Beerus as retaliation for being constantly humiliated by him over the years. Even after Frieza backstabs Frost with Gohan's help Krillin comments that it's entirely possible he may have still thrown Gohan out of the ring if he didn't catch on to his plan.
• Hidden Depths:
  • For man who practically embodies It's All About Me and clearly doesn't really respect anyone outside of Goku, in the final battle against Jiren, Frieza turns out be astonishingly good at teamwork. He easily coordinates his attacks with Goku's and Android 17's and even orders Goku to throw him at Jiren so he can take Jiren out with him. What makes this especially surprising is that earlier in the Tournament, Vegeta and Goku tried fighting together and their teamwork was so poor that Jiren struggled to adjust to it. However, in his first real battle alongside Goku ever, Frieza is immediately in sync with him, and Jiren is overwhelmed by their assault. Vegeta can even be seen visibly shocked by this.
  • In Dragon Ball Super: Broly, Frieza is shown to be very self-conscious (in the superficial sense, anyways), as Berryblue reveals, Frieza's latest wish is to be 5cm taller. No more than 5cm, though, he wants people to think he's still growing.
• His Own Worst Enemy: While undeniably powerful and dangerous, Frieza is repeatedly brought down by his arrogance, sadism, and general inability to learn from his mistakes and know when to call it quits. He could have killed Goku and his friends at any time during their battle on Namek, but he was more concerned with screwing around and toying with them as much as possible. Even when decisively defeated by Super Saiyan Goku, he refuses to accept his defeat and keeps trying to kill him, only to lose his entire lower half and be left to die in Namek's explosion. It takes over a decade in-universe, multiple Humiliation Congas, and being killed and going to Hell twice for Frieza to work on correcting this.
• History Repeats:
  • His defeat in Resurrection 'F' and Super amounts to this. Upon being revived, Frieza decides to train himself so he can exact his revenge on Goku, making a beeline for Earth after achieving his new Golden Super Mode. However, just like on Namek, he ends up running out of stamina before Goku since, just like before, he didn't master his new form and learn how to regulate his energy output. Goku shows him mercy and, just like before, Frieza throws it back in his face (this time more successfully, with the help of Sorbet). When Vegeta steps in to fight and defeat Frieza, Frieza destroys the Earth, just like before on Namek. However, thanks to Whis's ability to reverse time, Goku kills him before he can destroy the Earth and sends Frieza right back to hell.
  • He is killed twice by a Saiyan, first by Future Trunks and then by Goku.
  • Both Frieza and his ancestor Chilled have been defeated by Super Saiyans. For extra points, the two Saiyans are actually father and son.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • When he gets dismembered by his own attack. Ouch. And to add even more insult to injury, this was also in part due to ignoring Goku's warning about the attack approaching him from behind.
  • On a grander scale, his efforts in preventing the creation of a Super Saiyan lead to one being created and defeating him.
  • In Broly, his attempts to enrage Broly into a Super Saiyan resulted in him being brutally beaten up for an hour.
• Hope Crusher: He thrives on being this, preferring to have his victims terrified, hopeless, and killed them knowing that they never had a chance of defeating him, as Vegeta finds out the hard way. However, this comes back to haunt him after he pushes Goku to his Rage Breaking Point, with Goku subjecting him to the exact same thing.
• Horn Attack: The first thing he does after first transforming: blow up the island they're standing on. The second: run Krillin through with his lengthened horn (and lick up the blood splatter).
• Horned Humanoid: In all but his final form (which streamlines his body). Most dangerously exemplified in his second form, where the horns are long enough and arranged so that they're viable for impaling his headbutted targets.
• Horrifying the Horror: On both ends of this. On the one hand, Vegeta made it a point to avoid direct confrontation with Frieza as much as possible, and was visibly horrified and shaking when Frieza finally caught up to him. On the other hand, Frieza himself is openly and shamelessly afraid of Beerus, to the point that merely seeing him actually makes Frieza grovel before him, as well as utterly terrified of Goku after his near-death experience on Namek.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Goku more or less expresses this when he mocked Frieza's final attack after he deemed him too weak and Not Worth Killing. He states this again after Frieza was cut himself in half by his own attack. Finally, after being forced to blast Frieza after he tried to shoot him in the back, Goku has an expression that practically embodies this trope. For someone who was once called the strongest in the universe, it was indeed a mighty fall.
• Hulking Out: His second form packs a ton of size and musculature onto him and makes his horns curve upward, and he retains his imposing stature into his third transformation. He slims back down for his fourth (and true) form, but bulks back up for his Full-Power form.
• Humanity Is Infectious: Very subtly by the end of Dragon Ball Super; while he is still incontrovertibly a proud and unrepentant villain, when one is shown and given so much honor, respect and trust, even a monster like Frieza cannot help but be infected with such virtues.
• Humiliation Conga:
  • Frieza had a spectacular fall from grace. First, he awakens a Super Saiyan (the very thing he was trying to prevent), gets his butt kicked by a 'mere monkey', fails to have his wish granted twice, is shown mercy from said monkey after being told point-blank that he lost and to go crawl into a hole, gets cut to pieces by his own technique, has to beg for his life, is blasted by an energy wave, and has a planet explode on him. And soon as he recovers from the above, he goes out to get revenge, only to be cut to pieces again and then blown to kingdom come. Then he gets owned every time he appears in non-canon anime content as a dead man. How the mighty have fallen.
  • Despite returning stronger than ever with the full force of his empire at his back in Resurrection ‘F’, 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. 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 is killed by Goku's Kamehameha. He's sent back to Hell, trapped in the same tree as before, and the citizens of Hell welcomes him back. Yeah, he really should have taken Tagoma's advice.
  • Frieza continues to be humiliated even after death; every time he is met following his death, he is easily put in his place by the ever-growing power of the good guys. For instance, in one of the many (non-canon) DBZ movies, after being revived along with other evil beings, he is defeated with one punch by Gohan.
  • Frieza falls victim to this in the Universe Survival Saga as well. Even though he preferred to stay out of the action and usually toyed with unsuspecting opponents to have fun, once Universe 11 became the last remaining universe, things got bad for Frieza. Frieza tried toying with Dyspo, but once Dyspo activated his trump card, he almost knocked Frieza out until Gohan intervened, and even then, Frieza had some pain when setting up a Death Beam Cage for Gohan. Then come Toppo, he tortures the justice warrior and when he's about to knock him out, Toppo becomes a God of Destruction and tears Frieza a new one, including crushing him in a Destruction Sphere, breaking his skull, and tossing him like a ragdoll. Then due to Jiren's intervention, Frieza (alongside 17) ends up getting blasted by Jiren, thus knocking him out temporarily. Then he comes to try to get revenge on Jiren, but this proves futile as Frieza gets beaten yet again.
  • In Broly, all of his attempts to beat Goku blow up on his face: Broly beats him to a pulp in an enraged mode, several soldiers defect from his army after helping Broly, and Goku is also aware Frieza still wants to kill him, making a possible second chance very difficult for him.
• Hypocrite:
  • He regularly demeans the Saiyans by dismissing them as stupid and brutal Blood Knights who only care about fighting and lack common sense, despite the fact that under his calm and polite façade, he's just as bad. During the Namek Saga, it's clear he likes to fight just as much as the Saiyans, and he was the one who wanted to keep fighting after Goku called it quits and deemed him Not Worth Killing. Furthermore, he himself lacks the common sense to Know When to Fold 'Em, refusing to accept defeat even after losing his arm and entire lower body. Even funnier, he calls the Saiyans prideful to the point of being stupid. Read the above.
  • During his fight with Goku, he states outright that the Saiyans were evil, murderous brutes and he's a saint compared to them... despite the fact that he was the one who found the Saiyan race and turned them into the spacefaring, genocidal Blood Knights they were in the first place.
  • Thrice in Resurrection ‘F’ has three instances in which Frieza of all people called someone else out on being egotistical and arrogant:
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • After beating up a mortally injured Goku, Frieza mocks him for being too powerful for his own good and becoming overconfident. Frieza is the last person to criticize someone for overconfidence as he was so certain his new powers could defeat Goku that he didn't bother to train them.
  • Also, in the same film; After Vegeta reveals his Super Saiyan Blue form, Frieza mocks him by calling him the "prince of nothing". At this point, the last of Frieza's army and Sorbet have all been killed by him, and it is mentioned his empire is in shambles. So "Lord Frieza" has nothing left to "Lord" over.
  • He chides Dyspo on his Smug Snake tendencies, telling him that the only thing he knows how to do is run away. This is pretty rich coming from the guy who blows up planets to make sure the masses he rules over never produces someone who could actually defeat him, and whose first reaction upon seeing a Super Saiyan is to have an insane panic attack and attempt to nuke the planet they’re both standing on out of a mindless desire to flee twice. Frieza has no room to talk about cowardice given the lack of courage he’s shown when things even start to get tough for him.
  • Perhaps taken to it's greatest extreme in Broly; Frieza was willing to wipe out the entire Saiyan race out of paranoid fear of the Super Saiyan legend as well as mutual hatred and tension between the Saiyan army and the rest of the Frieza force. When Frieza is finally faced and beaten by an enraged Super Saiyan Broly, perhaps the greatest example of the savagery and power Frieza feared, he instead becomes enamoured by Broly and by the end of the film intends to make him his ultimate right-hand man. He doesn't even carry a grudge against Broly for the beating he gave him.
  • When calling Moro and his troupe criminals, when Kikono says that the Frieza Force is also a criminal organization, Frieza promptly brushes him off saying the Frieza Force is a business organization, conveniently forgetting he himself has wiped out more planets than Moro at that point.
• Hypocritical Humor: Frieza openly admits that he is completely unwilling to battle Jiren, calling the latter "a monster". While this use of monster is referring to Jiren's great power, it's still coming from the same guy who would otherwise sooner blow up a planet than admit defeat.