Fanfic / The Fall of Lord Frieza

The Fall of Lord Frieza is a Dragon Ball Z Fan Fic by Mr. Arkham. The main story breaks off from canon when Frieza decides not to throw Goku's borrowed energy back at him at the end of their battle on Namek. After flying off (with his missing half in tow), and being found by King Cold, he decides to return to his home planet, Arcos, and train to take revenge on the Z-Fighters.

The fic is praised for providing massive amounts of character development and backstory for not only Frieza, but also his family, his entire species, and his empire.

Tropes in The Fall of Lord Frieza:

• Absurdly Sharp Blade:
  • Trunks' sword, as ever.
  • Janemba's sword.
• Acid-Trip Dimension:
  • The Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
  • Hell and the rest of Otherworld quickly becomes one of these when Janemba appears.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Tien, confirmed asexual in canon, is straight and in a relationship with Launch.
• Always Someone Better: Cooler's resentment toward Frieza, and their Sibling Rivalry, is all due to the fact that Frieza was stronger, and was therefore chosen as King Cold's heir. It is this same resentment which leads him to eventually discovering his fifth form.
• Always Lawful Evil: Averted. The narrative goes a long way to tell us that the Arcosian race as a whole is NOT evil.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: The Arcosians, and the Brench.
• Amazon Chaser: Yamcha to Inyon.
• Amazonian Beauty: Inyon. Yamcha certainly thinks so, at least.
• And I Must Scream: When Frieza sees Cooler's remains attached to the Big Gete Star, he theorizes that he might be going through this in chapter 16.
  • In addition, this happens to Goku when he is possessed by Dr. Raichi.
• Apologetic Attacker: Frieza, when he destroys Metal Cooler and the Big Gete Star.
• The Apprentice: Saike becomes this to Goku after Janemba is sealed away.
• Arc Villain: King Cold (with Cooler as his Dragon-in-Chief), General Kanchapp, Metal Cooler, Broly, Cell, Bojack, Raichi, and Janemba.
• Armor-Piercing Response: Slak gives one to Vegeta when he objects loudly to Goku's suggestion of enlisting the help of Frieza and his friends against Cell.
  Slak: You are not of a mind to judge Frieza, Prince of Saiyans. You have carried out his genocides, laughing as you destroyed the cities of those who begged for mercy. What kind of penance of you done for your past?
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Janemba in his first and third forms.
• Ax-Crazy: Inyon, Hatchiyack, and Broly.
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: Lampshaded and subverted. Frieza is naked most of the time and when Goku asks about it, Frieza explains in a flustered fashion that everything is 'stored internally.'
• Bad Boss: Frieza (at first) and King Cold.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: All Arcosians, and Cell by extension due to having Arcosian DNA, although they're not actually breathing.
• Beam-O-War: All the damn time. Then again, this is Dragon Ball we're talking about.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Goku and Gohan are nice guys, but they're also Saiyans and can ruin you if you piss them off.
• Big Brother Bully: Cooler was apparently rather mean to Frieza when they were children. They later began getting along more in their adolescence, before pulling a total 180 and hating each other again. The story sees them rekindle their brotherly bond after Frieza frees Cooler from Raichi's metal shell.
• Big Damn Heroes: Frieza and Cooler swoop in to save Inyon, Piccolo, and Gohan from Raichi.
• Big "NO!": Frieza, when King Cold dies. Could also apply to Cooler in the same situation.
• Bishōnen Line: Frieza and later Cell.
• Blood Knight: Every Saiyan ever.
• Break the Haughty: Losing his planet and his entire race make Frieza ponder a lot about his past actions.
• Butt-Monkey: Averted for both Krillin and Yamcha, who get to become far more awesome here than they did in canon.
• Calling Your Attacks: Lampshaded when Raichi performs an attack he hadn't shown before and makes up a name for it on the spot, which Frieza dryly snarks at, before doing the exact same thing.
• Can't Catch Up: The author goes to great lengths to avert this with the human characters and Piccolo.
• Character Development: Frieza's is the centerpiece for most of the story.
• Child Soldier: Word of God confirms that Inyon was one, like most Saiyans.
• Chrome Champion: Frieza's sixth form.
  • Metal Cooler.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Inyon, very much so.
• Cool Starship: Frieza gets his hands on two. The first is an Arcosian stealth-craft called 'Shatterstar' and later he takes Paragus' egg-ship for his own.
• Corrupt Church: Before the events of fic, Dr. Raichi founds a fake cult, and uses his machines to leech ki from the various worshipers to power Hatchiyack.
• Crazy Survivalist: Inyon lived for over 20 years on a desert planet populated by extremely powerful monsters. She might have gone nuts, but she became insanely powerful.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Ultimately, Bojack's galaxy soldiers never stood much of a chance.
  • Goten and Trunks receive a particularly brutal one at the hands of Hatchiyack.
  • Frieza vs a rather powerful bandit gang. It's like watching Kenshiro fight a FotNS filler villain.
• Deadpan Snarker: Frieza. Apparently the Dragon Ball Z Abridged incarnation of the character held some influence over Frieza in this fic.
• Death by Origin Story: Queen Cold.
  • Dr. Raichi's family.
• Death World: Arcos, which lead to the Arcosians becoming incredibly powerful through natural selection alone.
  • The desert world Inyon was exiled to, filled with dangerous monsters.
• Defeat Means Friendship: How Frieza acquired Inyon's loyalty, in addition to removing her from her twenty-year exile.
• Demonic Possession:
  • It's not actually demonic, but Dr. Raichi takes control over Goku's body through Nano Machines after he lets his guard down.
  • Janemba taking over Saike is a more literal example.
• Determinator: Frieza goes through a lot of shit, for the sole purpose of getting a rematch against Goku.
• Domestic Abuse: It's not exactly the most common use of the trope, but King Cold killed his queen for trying to convince Frieza and Cooler to be kind rulers (or at least not complete tyrants) when one of them takes over the empire.
• The Dragon: Inyon to Frieza.
  • Hatchiyack to the Raichi AI.
    • Dragon-in-Chief: Even after Raichi merges with it when it activates its Super Mode, it's Hatchiyack's body and abilities doing all of the fighting.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: General Kanchapp blows up Arcos during the rebellion, just to hurt Frieza. Not surprisingly, this triggers Frieza's Rage Breaking Point.
• Eldritch Abomination: The flaming monster Frieza fights in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. It is implied that it reads your mind and morphs into the form of what you fear most.
  • Janemba.Exaggerated when he gets hit with the Majin Symbol and becomes a giant, grotesque, centipede-like monster.
• The Empire: The Planet Trade Organization, much like in canon. It is implied to have crumbled and broken apart once Arcos and the rebellion destroy each other.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Frieza and Cooler both remember their late mother fondly.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Frieza genuinely cares about his family, even Cooler, and actually cries when King Cold is killed. He also cares enough about his race to want to wish Arcos back after its destruction. The same can be said about Cooler, before he's assimilated by the Big Gete Star.
• "Everybody Laughs" Ending: The end of the Raichi saga.
• Evil Old Folks: King Cold, who, based on rough character ages, appears to be between 90 and 120 years old.
• Evil Overlord: Frieza. At first.
• Evil vs. Evil: Frieza vs Kanchapp. While the rest of the rebellion genuinely believes in their cause, Kanchapp is just a power-hungry tyrant who longs to usurp Frieza's place while Frieza still hasn't had his Heel–Face Turn yet.
• Eye Beams: Several characters.
• Fate Worse than Death: Frieza tells Dr. Raichi that while he doesn't want to kill the possessed Goku, he knows the Saiyan would rather die than suffer what he's going through.
• Flaming Hair: Frieza in his sixth form... sort of.
• Flying Brick: Everyone important, and many who aren't.
• Finger Gun: The Death Beam and Special Beam Cannon.
• Fingore: Salza tries to use his energy blade against Trunks' sword. It doesn't end well for him.
• Freudian Trio:
  • Terrible Trio: Before the Heel–Face Turn is finally complete.
    • The Id: Inyon
    • The Superego: Slak
    • The Ego: Frieza
• Foreshadowing: During his journey to Earth,Frieza (in disguise) will sometimes indirectly help people while achieving purely selfish objectives. For instance, he destroys a group of bandits because he wants their fuell. Nevertheless, he'll be praised as a hero by the unsuspecting populations. Each time, Frieza will note that it feels good to be seen as such and not just feared, even though he's not trying to make amends yet. This is one of the early clues of his eventual Heel–Face Turn.
• From a Single Cell: Take a wild guess.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: General Kanchapp was once a tournament fighter with freakish strength. King Cold discovered him while spectating one tournament, which led to him becoming one of the Planet Trade's highest-ranking generals.
• Fusion Dance: Frieza and Goku fuse into Goza in order to fight Beerus.
• A Glass of Chianti: Frieza loves his wine. Subverted in that Frieza isn't a Big Bad anymore.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: Inyon used to be psychopathic, but her exile caused her to completely lose it.
• Gorn: A few examples in the earlier chapters, the author doesn't seem to do it as much as the story goes on.
• Handicapped Badass: Thoroughly averted early in the story. Frieza notes that his prostheses are somewhat slow and clunky compared to his organic limbs (feeling things with his new arm is compared to doing so while wearing a glove), and he cannot tap into 100% of his power with the mechanical limbs. Thankfully, the maiming is only temporary.
• Heel–Face Turn: A major element of the story, and not just for Frieza either. Cooler and Zangya also turn.
• Hellfire: The Flames of Porunga. The technique isn't actually evil in any way, but they act just like your usual cut-and-dried example.
• Heroic RRoD: The Kaioken, as well as anything that taxes someone's energy output too much. During Goku and Frieza's rematch, Goku activates Kaioken while a Super Saiyan in order to win a Beam-O-War, but underestimated how much it would drain him.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Goku during the Cell games as he does in canon.
  • Android 16 attempts this by unsuccessfully self-destructing against Cell as in canon.
  • Frieza shoves Trunks out of the way of an incoming Death Beam from Cell.

• High-Heel–Face Turn: Of all the members of Bojack's crew, only Zangya turns good.
• Hurl It into the Sun: How Frieza finally deals with Dr. Raichi.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each chapter title in the first part of the story is named after an adjective describing what state Frieza is in during the chapter.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Kanchapp.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Frieza, after Hatchiyack is finally dealt with.
• Interspecies Romance: In addition to the canon ones, Yamcha/Inyon and Frieza/Zangya.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Invoked. Frieza and Cooler both had their morality beaten out of them (sometimes literally) by King Cold after their mother died, and her influence with her.
• Just a Machine: Frieza is briefly tempted by the immortality and power that joining Cooler in the Big Gete star would grant him, before realizing that Cooler isn't completely sentient anymore due to the CPU guiding his logic.
  • It is explained that the Raichi AI is incapable of changing and leaving his hatred behind because he was created with the sole purpose of destroying the Saiyans.
• Kamehamehadoken: If you don't know, then why exactly are you here again?
• Ki Manipulation: Comes with the territory. The author actually goes into detail into the features of various blasts, such as color, type, and size.
• The Lad-ette: Inyon. Considering she's a female Saiyan, it's not really all that surprising.
• Little Miss Badass: Glace. Only to be expected when your father is Freeza.

• Mighty Glacier: King Cold, at least if one uses Freeza and Cooler as a baseline.
• Mind over Matter: Most people skilled with Ki manipulation have at least a little, but Frieza trained his telekinetic powers into a deadly weapon. In his sixth form, he can casually smash gigantic icebergs together with little strain.

• Monochromatic Eyes: Arcosians in the fifth form.
• Morality Chain: Pollari and Eis are mainly there to help show that there is the tiniest chance that Frieza's soul might not be completely black and rotten.
• Nano Machines: How the Big Gete Star works. Dr. Raichi duplicates them when he captures one of Cooler's backup bodies.
• Neck Snap: How Yamcha kills Salza, and how Dr. Raichi kills Yamcha.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: As in canon, everyone, to an unbelievable degree.
• Noble Demon: When you think about it, Queen Cold's perceived kindness and anti-Machiavellian philosophy only makes her look truly good when juxtaposed with the rest of her family, but she at least seems to be a nice person. She also managed to make into heaven, so she couldn't have been that bad.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Several times.
  • When Frieza unlocks his fifth form, he gives General Kanchapp the beating of the century, drags him across the hull of spaceship, and impales him on a spire of ice on a moon with no atmosphere.
  • Goten and Trunks get a horrific stomping from Hatchiyack.
  • When Janemba's power resurrects the denizens of Hell, and Frieza finally sees his father again, who he has grown to hate... it's not pretty.
• Not That Kind of Doctor: When Frieza asks Midgyo for advice about his nightmares, he gives some theories, but says that he doesn't really know anything for sure, since he's not a psychologist.
• Oh, Crap!: King Cold's reaction when he and Frieza meet again in Hell, and Frieza tells him he knew what Cold did to Frieza's mother. It's even lampshaded in the narration.
  If there were two words that perfectly summed up King Cold's expression in this instance, they would be 'oh shit.'
• Older Than They Look: Frieza is nearing his fifties (later in his mid fifties) and Inyon is at least 7 years older than Vegeta. Note, in chapter 3 Frieza states that he thinks it's been almost 100 years since he's trained in his training room meaning he's likely closer to 125-150 than he is to 50, unless the author just forgot about that.
  • Or it was an exaggeration.
• Original Character: A few show up in the fic. Most notable are Inyon and Slak, but there are others like Ais and Polarri (Two of Frieza's handmaidens from Arcos) and Midgyo (The scientist who restored Frieza's limbs.)
• Overlord Jr.: Frieza and Cooler were this to King Cold.
• Papa Wolf: Goku, and surprisingly enough, Frieza after the 7-year Time Skip.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Frieza is stated to be quite small for a male Arcosian, but, well... he's Frieza.
• Playing with Fire: Slak and later Piccolo.
• Power Levels: The author tries to implement them for a while longer, and although he does well, he makes mistakes from time to time, and eventually just drops them altogether.
• Pride Before a Fall: A key part to the first half of the story.

• Psychic Nosebleed: Frieza gets one when he pushes his psychic powers to the very limits.
• Psychic Powers: One of the main specialties of the Arcosians.

• Rage Breaking Point: Losing to Goku (and getting sliced in half from his carelessness to boot), then losing his brother and father (although Cooler turned out alive but Came Back Wrong later on before being restored to his organic form) in short order, it's little surprise Frieza is under a lot of stress during the Kanchapp arc. When General Kanchapp destroys Arcosia, Frieza snaps.

• Rubber Man: Piccolo is a mild example.
  • Janemba can also warp his proportions in a similar fashion.
• Run the Gauntlet: Part of the reason Frieza was able to beat Raichi was because he was tired from fighting Inyon, Yamcha, Gohan, and Piccolo in quick succession, with no time to rest.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Janemba is sealed away inside Saike.
• Signature Move: Frieza explains that the Death Beam is actually a Signature Move for the entire Arcosian royal bloodline, invented to quickly and efficiently execute those who were suspected to be traitors on the spot.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Arcos, outside of its domed cities.
• Smug Super: Frieza has to move past being one.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Frieza (obviously), Cooler, Android 16, Goku (whom Frieza convinced to come back after his Heroic Sacrifice during the Cell games), and Zangya.
• Sphere of Destruction: The Death Ball and Supernova attacks.
• The Starscream: General Kanchapp.
• Start of Darkness: Some is simply put out there through flashbacks, but much of it is shown through Frieza's nightmares.
• Statuesque Stunner: Inyon is described as being 7 feet tall, and is insanely ripped.
• Stronger Sibling: Cooler, at first, thanks to his fifth form. He actually manages to defeat Super Saiyan Trunks and comes close to killing Goku right after. We all know how Frieza vs Trunks went in the actual series...
  • And yet before that, Frieza was superior, and after Frieza attains the fifth form and Cooler is returned to his organic body, Cooler is just a bit behind, only for Frieza to surpass him again when he attains his sixth.
• Super Mode: It's a Dragon Ball fic, of course. In addition to the standard Super Saiyan forms, there's also the Arcosian fifth form.
• Super-Strength: Damn near everyone.
• Superior Species: The entire Cold bloodline is stated to be made up of insanely strong freaks of nature, but the Arcosians are still possibly the strongest species in the universe on average.
• Superpowerful Genetics: As was the case in canon, the offspring of the Saiyans are incredibly powerful. However the Cold Family do have a lineage of this, as one of their ancestors was the first to unlock the 5th form. It's implied only members of Frieza's bloodline can utilize this form.
• Talkative Loon: Inyon.
• Theme Naming: In addition to Frieza's family, every single Arcosian introduced so far has a name somehow related to coldness.
  • Inyon keeps up the tradition of Saiyans being named after vegetables, with her name sounding close to onion.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: General Kanchapp's rebellion, which immediately goes after Arcos and blows it up, and is led by a man who plans to be just as much a tyrant as Frieza, and doesn't actually care about the usual rebellion stuff.
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Vegeta to Cell during the Janemba Arc. "Super Saiyan 2, bitch!"
• Took a Level in Badass: Yamcha. While all the human fighters have become far more important in this fic than in canon, Yamcha has undergone the biggest change.
  • There's also Frieza (who eventually takes on a possessed, albeit highly fatigued and worn out, Super Saiyan 3 Goku), Cooler ( who becomes stronger than Super Perfect Cell), and Piccolo, who gets to Cell's level by fusing with Slak.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Compared to his canon counterpart, Frieza takes about a million, bit by bit, over the course of the story, many of them without realizing it.
• Transformation Is a Free Action: Averted completely. Transformations are interrupted quite a few times, and when someone manages to pull one off without a hitch, it is usually justified. It is this very aversion that costs King Cold his life when Trunks kills him before he can finish transforming into his fourth form.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Frieza and Cooler.
  • Strangely enough, Hatchiyack, who was originally an experiment into the limits of soft AI, before being turned into a Saiyan killing machine.
• Unstoppable Rage: Frieza completely loses his shit while fighting Kanchapp, and as a result transforms into his fifth form, in a scenario mirroring that of Goku unlocking his Super Mode in the same fashion.
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Averted. In fact, the whole premise of the story is what happens when a villain does decide to level grind. Until the events of the fic Frieza hadn't even trained rigorously for a very long time. He spends the story training constantly whenever possible. Cooler also level grinds, though only after his Heel–Face Turn.
  • In addition, Dr. Raichi notices that Hatchiyack can't beat a Super Saiyan 2, and delays his invasion to upgrade him.
• Villain Protagonist: Frieza. At first.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Inyon, to Yamcha.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Janemba, just like in canon, is hurt by insults of all things. This time, it's actually exploited.
• Why Am I Ticking?: See You Are Already Dead.
• World of Badass: Like canon, except even more so. A major theme in the story is discarded badasses stepping up.
• Would Hurt a Child: Hatchiyack.
• You Are Already Dead: The unnamed attack which Frieza used to kill Krillin on Namek, as well as the leader of a bandit gang. It is unknown how it actually works, or what its limitations are.
• You Killed My Father: Yet another reason for Frieza to hate the Z-Fighters.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Piccolo forces himself to keep fighting Raichi, who is far stronger than him at this point, until Frieza and Cooler arrive.

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