Characters / Dragon Ball: Cooler

Dragon Ball Main Character Index
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])

Cooler/Coola (クウラ, Kuura)

"This isn't the best place for anyone now!"

^{Click here to see Fifth Form Cooler}

^{Click here to see Meta-Cooler}

^{Click here to see Cooler's remains "fixed" by the Big Gete Star}

Voiced by (Japanese): Ryūsei Nakao
Voiced by (English): Andrew Chandler (Most media), Christopher Sabat (Shin Budokai) (Funimation dub); Doug Rand (Cooler's Revenge), Ed Marcus (The Return of Cooler - Meta-Cooler) (AB Groupe/"Big Green" dub); Apollo Abraham (Creative Products Corporation dub)
Voiced by (Latin American Spanish): Ricardo Brust

"There is no one in the world that can stand against me! I am the strongest in the universe!"

Frieza's older brother. On the day the Saiyans' planet was destroyed, Cooler noticed the pod carrying Goku away from it, but thought nothing of it and let it be. Years later, Frieza has been beaten, and hearing of it, Cooler goes to Earth to check it out. Eventually coming into contact with the Z-Warriors. A long fight later, and Cooler is killed by Goku via being thrown into the sun...

...Or so it would seem. An attack on the new Planet Namek brings the Z-Warriors back into another confrontation with him. Only now with a much sleeker body. Another tough fight ensues till it's revealed that Cooler isn't one person but a whole army of himself. Eventually, Goku and Vegeta find out that none of these Coolers are the real one, and that the true Cooler is nothing more than a head that had grafted itself to a metal star, took over it and made robots of himself to carry out his revenge. But revealing himself proves to be his undoing and Goku and Vegeta manage to finish him off.

Unlike his brother, he stayed dead in Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F', though he did get brought back to life in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, and in the Prison Planet arc of Dragon Ball Heroes.

---

A-D

• Adaptational Badass:
  • Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2: While all the Non-Serial Movie villains are this in the game thanks to Towa, Cooler is a unique case since it is implied his Meta-Cooler form from the Resurrection F arc is his own variation of his brother's Golden form. After being brought back from the dead, he is able to fight on par with Super Saiyan Blue Goku and Vegeta.
  “You noticed me? This planet's Dragon Balls can grant two wishes! So guess who is back? It's Cooler!”
  • In Dragon Ball Heroes, he gains his own golden form. His one actually bears close resemblance to his fifth form, because you aren't gonna pass up a Cool Mask like that. Even without the Golden Form, Cooler is much stronger than he was in the movie, at least upper Super Saiyan 2 tier in only his fifth form given that he was able to match post-Tournament of Power Goku as a corrupted Super Saiyan 2 and take out Bojack with one Death Beam. His Golden form is apparently stronger than Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta.
  • He is also this when comparing the Heroes anime to the manga. In the anime, Golden Cooler has seemingly mastered his stamina, defeats the corrupted "Berserk" Super Saiyan Goku with one punch, and then unleashes a prolonged assault against Cunber, which while not strong enough to do any noteworthy damage on the ancient Saiyan nonetheless managed to get him excited; in the Manga Golden Cooler burned himself out using his strongest attack to knock out Goku and is instantly thereafter dispatched and nearly killed by Cunber, only getting saved by Future Trunks.
    • Lastly, Heroes take on Meta-Cooler. In his own movie, Meta-Coolers are simply powerful remote-controlled drones the real Cooler employs. In Heroes, Meta-Cooler is a cutting-edge cyborg transformation the real Cooler himself underwent, and is not only much, much stronger compared to the original film, but also keeps Heroes-Coolers' established ability to turn Golden. Other than Ultra Instinct Goku he is the first character to defeat Cunber head-on.
  • In Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku Cooler is a Superboss, stronger than Cell.
• Adaptational Wimp: In movies, the Meta-Coolers that appear after the "original" is destroyed are supposed to be as strong as him. In games they are usually treated as mooks, while the "original" is treated as a boss.
• Adaptive Ability: The Meta-Coolers' bodies automatically repair any and all damage they suffer and correct any design flaws that allowed that injury in the first place, essentially rendering them unable to be harmed the same way twice. When the computer that monitors him realizes that the flaw is that there's only one of him...
• Affectionate Nickname: Not so much "affectionate" as it is acknowledging , but during their Enemy Mine on the Prison Planet Cooler takes to calling Trunks "boy", rather than giving him a slur name based on his Saiyan heritage, which amongst Frieza's family is rather peculiar. The fact that Trunks killed Frieza might have something to do with this.
• Aloof Big Brother: In the Japanese version, instead of having the Cain and Abel relationship the Funimation dub gave him and Frieza, he's instead cold and distant towards him, not really caring about what Frieza does.
• Always Someone Better: He says that his brother was always trying to best him, but Cooler himself is basically Frieza +1. In addition to being much more powerful, he also possesses many abilities that Frieza notably lacked; he appears to be able to sense ki, he can control himself in his true form all the time, and he's higher in the hierarchy of the empire. Expanded materials elaborate that Cooler is stronger than his brother when he was at 50 percent on Namek, but that he needed the extra transformation to get ahead of his brother's full power. When Cooler is finally given a Golden Form in expanded materials, it's a Golden version of his fifth form, just to drive the point home.
• And Your Little Dog, Too!: Before he fights Goku, he tells him that he's going to blow up the Earth after he kills him.
• The Artifact: His Fifth Form is this in light of the debut of Golden Frieza. Modern media in which Cooler appears in attempt to rectify this by giving Cooler a Golden Form (Heroes), an equivalent form (Xenoverse 2), or a different playstyle from Frieza (FighterZ).
• Ascended Extra: Although Cooler has always been one of the most popular Movie villains, outside of video games isn't really used any more than other Non-Serial Movie Villains. Going by promotional materials, however, he is set to play a key role in the Dragon Ball Heroes anime.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: In Ultimate Tenkaichi his Meta-Coola form is used as one of the controller-throwingly difficult giant bosses.
• Avenging the Villain: Played with; While his motive for attacking Goku is to avenge Frieza's death, he makes it clear that he never cared for Frieza either way, and seeks to restore their Family Honor, which he believes Frieza sullied by losing to Goku.
• Badass in Distress: Cooler is nearly killed by Cunber in the Heroes manga and has to be saved by Trunks at the last minute.
• Benevolent Boss: Unlike his brother, he never is shown to abuse or kill his underlings for understandable shortcomings. And when his Armed Squardon finds themself up against someone too strong for them, he'll step in himself to deal with it. In Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, when the player character infiltrates Frieza's Army as a side-quest. Should you become Cooler's right hand, he praises you and speaks very fondly of his Armored Squadron. He'll even offer to spare Frieza's underlings for you, promise you a portion of the galaxy, and even promises to leave your planet alone. Why someone like that could possibly have fewer minions than someone like Frieza remains a mystery.
• Big Bad: Of the fifth and sixth films.
• Big Brother Instinct: Best showcased in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2. For all his vitriol towards Frieza, Cooler does step in to defend his brother when he's outmatched by Goku and the player character. And even if he manages to take over Frieza's empire in a side-quest, he spares him because they're family. Though Frieza will now have suffered a massive blow to his ego, so Cooler may have been going for Cruel Mercy.
• Blasphemous Boast: His "It is I who decides who lives and who dies!" rant before Goku blasted him into the sun.
• Breakout Villain: Right after Broly, Cooler is the most well-known and well-received Movie Villain. He is the first Movie villain to have multiple movies (unless one counts Garlic Jr. getting a filler arc in the anime) and appears in video games. He is even set to be a major character in the Dragon Ball Heroes promotional anime and manga. It helps that, aside from being a grade A Badass, he also displays surprising levels of cunning and intelligence.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: He's implied to feel this way about blowing up planets.^note "Subjugating" them in the original Japanese.
  Cooler: Frieza's the one in charge of this quadrant. Let him clean up his own mess! I've got seven planets to destroy by the end of the day! Why should I allow myself to get behind schedule just to cover his mistake?
• Cain and Abel: He has no love for his brother. In fact, if Goku hadn't killed him, Cooler would've gladly done the job for him ^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 only reason he even goes to Earth to avenge Frieza in the first place was because, in his opinion, Frieza disgraced their family name by losing to Goku and felt it was up to him to redeem it.
• Came Back Strong: After his first defeat, he fused with an Eldritch Abomination and became strong enough to No-Sell Super Saiyan Goku and Vegeta and beat up Kami-fused Piccolo.
  • Came Back Wrong: A very small and subtle example, but for whatever reason, Meta-Cooler is based on his fourth form, instead of his stronger fifth form. Not that he needed it, given that Meta was still strong enough to push Goku and Vegeta to their very limits, and came scarily close to killing them both.
• Canon Foreigner: His movie, along with Garlic Jr's, is the only one put in the anime's timeline in the Daizenshuu 7 guidebook. This timeline was reprinted in the much more recent Chozenshu 4 guidebook, with the only difference being the addition of Battle of Gods and the 2008 JSAT special (Cooler and Garlic Jr are still there). Daizenshuu 6 did this even earlier by noting that his movie takes place in the 3 year training period in the Android arc, while Xenoverse 2 has him as the only movie villain to butt in on the events of the main timeline and the only one explicitly acknowledged as having a preexisting history with one of the main timeline's characters. He also made a cameo in GT. How this all fits into the manga's continuity is unknown (as, unlike the anime, no guidebook or other media has an official manga timeline).
• Card-Carrying Villain: He described himself crueler than his brother, which doesn't really align with what we see of him. Still, when Salza says that Goku will "soon be at Cooler's mercy", his response is "what mercy?"
• Character Exaggeration: Cooler is similar to Broly in regards to videogames taking one trait and exaggerating it, to the point of flanderization. While in his debut film he is smug about being better than his little brother, videogames and other licensed material exaggerate this trait of him to the point it feels he has an inferiority complex. Doesn't help that due to his limited screen time due to the formula of the movies, he doesn't get more complexity to his actions than comparing himself to his brother.
• Chessmaster Sidekick: He's similar to General Blue in this regard. Not only is he much stronger than his father and brother, but he also has more self-control: he doesn't execute henchmen for nothing, doesn't go berserk when it looks like he's outmatched, doesn't underestimate opponents, and can control his power enough to be in his final form all the time (contrast Frieza, who had his first three forms specifically to limit his power, because he couldn't properly control and sustain it). He could easily overthrow them, yet he doesn't.
• Clipped-Wing Angel:
  • Becomes this after the Big Gete Star is partly disabled by Goku and Vegeta overloading it. He looks like a big, scary Meta-Cooler made of wires, but is taken down in only two attacks. Which, thanks to his Load-Bearing Boss properties, also made the Big Gete Star explode.
  • In the Heroes manga, his Golden Form burns out after using only one attack. Even pre-mental training Frieza didn't have such bad stamina.
• Combat Pragmatist: After realizing that Super Saiyan Goku is stronger than him, Cooler attempts to instantly blow up the Earth to kill him. This is in contrast to his brother Frieza, who held back from instantly destroying Planet Namek out of fear of being killed in the explosion. After Cooler gets blasted off Earth by Goku, the English dub has him briefly consider just blowing up the sun and letting Goku freeze to death.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Averted. Vegeta and Goku barely take down a Meta-Cooler that had previously been effortlessly smacking them around with a combined energy attack... only to be confronted by hundreds more immediately afterward, each of which was just as strong as the original. Sadly, this is played straight in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, where a lot of Meta-Coolers interrupt the Cell Games but are done away rather easily.
  “The Big Gete star allowed me to cheat death! How can this be?!”
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Frieza. Unlike his brother, he's not Ax-Crazy and seems to really care about his subordinates.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Against Super Saiyan Goku, Cooler is completely outmatched in direct combat and he has to resort to using a Supernova to be a direct threat. That being said, the Supernova does nearly give him the win, and Goku is extremely exhausted afterward, to the point where Goku gets knocked out of Super Saiyan and is completely helpless when an injured Salza comes back to finish him off.
• Determinator: He flies straight through a 20X kaio-ken empowered Kamehameha wave with no damage at all, survives being blasted into the sun and then comes back as a cyborg by overpowering the mind of a mechanical Eldritch Abomination, and kicks the asses of TWO Super Saiyans, leaving both extremely exhausted after they (barely) manage to defeat him.
• Dissonant Serenity: Inverted. In the original Japanese, when we see him burn up in the Sun it looks like he's screaming in agony, but instead of hearing him scream we only hear him quietly and calmly berating himself for not killing Goku when he had the chance and acknowledging that he screwed up just like Frieza did.
  Cooler: If only I'd killed him back then. Frieza wasn't the only one that was too soft...

E-K

• Enemy Civil War: In Budokai Tenkaichi 2 Zarbon deliberately sparks one of these between him and Frieza.
• Enemy Mine:
  • In Heroes, Cooler teams up with Trunks and later on Goku, Mai and Vegeta to escape the Prison Planet, even making legitimate efforts to save Trunks on a few occasions.
  • Alongside Frieza, he helps Goku and Vegeta in their fight against Crimson Masked Saiyan, actually an alternate Goku Black, attacking him as he overpowers the heroes, although mainly concerned on revenge for themselves after he humiliated them earlier.
• Establishing Character Moment: In his very first encounter with the heroes, he brushes off their attempts at conversation, takes out base Goku in one hit after trying to kill Gohan, and then chastises his men for instantly jumping to the conclusion that said hit killed Goku, before ordering them to find his body. This handily establishes his power, pragmatism, and ruthlessness.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission, it's revealed that Cooler cares for his nephew Kuriza. And while love may be a stretch, he certainly cares for his minions enough to step in when they're outmatched, and in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, if he is your player character's mentor, explicitly states that he holds them in high regard and that they're making him soft.
• Eviler than Thou: He apparently considers himself this to Frieza, often commenting on how "soft" he is.^note This was only in the original Japanese version.
• Evil Mentor: He is an optional mentor for the player in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2.
• Evil Overlord: Similar to his brother, though Cooler seemingly outranks him.
• Evil Sounds Deep: In contrast to the original Japanese version, where he has the same voice as Frieza, the English dub gives him a unique voice that becomes noticeably deeper after he goes to his fifth form.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: The English dub of his first movie gives us two from him in short order:
  • Near the end of the film, when Cooler has been shot into space by Goku, he notices the sun and contemplates blowing it up and letting the Earth freeze to death... before he realizes that Goku's shooting him into the sun:
    Cooler: It's the star from this planet's solar system. Maybe I'll blow that up instead and let them all freeze to death in darkness. Wait a minute... I'm heading right for it!!
  • As he's frying in the sun, he's ranting at Goku and wondering why he wasn't destroyed with the rest of the Saiyans when Frieza destroyed Planet Vegeta, and then flashes back to the day Frieza did so; during that time, Cooler saw Goku's space pod escaping the explosion, but refused to intervene, partially because he had his own schedule and refused to fall behind to cover Frieza's own mistake, and partially because Goku was just a baby at the time, so he dismissed him as any immediate threat. With that, Cooler realizes that Goku was the very Saiyan he let escape, and suffers a Villainous Breakdown:
    Cooler: I don't believe it! I could have killed him! I let him go! I let him go!
• Face-Revealing Turn: He does this in the prologue for Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge, though we couldn't see what his color scheme was at first.
• Family Honor: His motivation for attacking Goku. Cooler has no real love for Frieza, he only cares that Frieza has pretty much shamed their family for letting Goku kill him.
• Fantastic Racism: He shares the near-universal Frieza Force contempt for Saiyans, although in adaptations Villain Respect may kick in and override it. Bardock, Broly, and Trunks are Saiyans who have earned his respect, though he never holds Goku or Vegeta in very high regard.
• Foil: Although the two have never met, he's one to Raditz - both are the older sibling of another character (Raditz to Goku, Cooler to Frieza) who hold their younger sibling in contempt, but is willing to put aside his differences with said sibling if a common enemy shows up (although will try to kill said sibling if the opportunity presents itself), only to be eventually surpassed by said younger sibling (Goku surpasses Raditz by becoming a Super Saiyan, while Frieza surpassed Cooler by obtaining his Golden Frieza form). However, the difference is that Raditz's disdain for Goku came from the latter rejecting his violent saiyan heritage; Cooler and Frieza have similar ruthless personalities, but Cooler considers Frieza an obstacle in conquering the universe.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Not Cooler himself, but the Big Gete Star, which started off as a tiny little computer chip.
• Galactic Conqueror: At the time of their respective introductions, Frieza is confirmed to have conquered at least 79 planets (Vegeta travels to Frieza Planet No. 79 after the fight on Earth), while Cooler has conquered at least 256 (Dore comes from Cooler Planet No. 256). It is implied that he actually rules said planets and makes money off of the inhabitants in the manner of The Empire rather than just killing all sapient life and then selling them as Frieza does, given his use of the term "subjugate" and the fact that his loyal Armored Squadron minions are all natives of planets he owns. This is further backed up by his appearance in Xenoverse 2, where he states that he has no problem leaving Earth alone and offers the Player Character planets full of people to rule (as opposed to empty real estate).
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: As Meta-Coola in Ultimate Tenkaichi. He pops up after the Cell Games (which is rather later than when he was hinted to appear in his movie) and since the events of the first Coola movie are Adapted Out, it's essentially a case of Goku having to fight a vengeance-fueled giant space alien he's never met before.
• Hurl It into the Sun: Via Goku's Kamehameha pushing his own Supernova back into him. He did survive, but could do nothing but drift for a while afterward.
• Informed Ability: Cooler has three recursive transformations that disguise his true power just like his brother, making his true form the fourth, but we never see them because, unlike Frieza, he chooses to remain in his normal form by default and makes no attempt to hide how strong he is normally. Instead, he works his way up the line of transformation instead of toying with his opponents by taking weaker forms just to give them a false sense of hope.
• Informed Attribute: Cooler is stated to be crueler than his brother by himself, his henchmen, and even Frieza himself in some video games (with Frieza stating that Cooler only believes that violence is the best answer), however, in Xenoverse, if you're his apprentice, he offers you a portion of the galaxy, to spare some of Frieza's henchmen and to leave your planet be. Judging by his own remarks and attitude, it seems likely that he deliberately encourages this perception of himself. You could say he believes that Space Hobbes Was Right. This extends to the Heroes anime, where Cooler is pretty amicable with Trunks over the course of their Enemy Mine.
• Kick the Dog:
  • After beating Goku senseless, he laughs as he mourns over an injured bird.
  • Earlier before that, he blasts an injured Piccolo in front of Goku just to spite him.

L-R

• A Lighter Shade of Black: Though he's evil to the core, he just doesn't seem as bad as his brother is. Not only does he not kill his own men, but he seems to care about the Family Honor sense (which is more than can be said for his brother and father).
• Loves the Sound of Screaming: While siphoning Goku and Vegeta's power to fuel the Big Gete Star in the second movie, he's quite ecstatic at their pained screaming.
  Cooler: Wonderful! What exquisite agony!
• Me's a Crowd: After taking over the Big Gete Star and reviving himself as a cyborg, he gains the ability to mass-produce hundreds of Metal Coolers.
• Mind over Matter: Just like his father and brother. He shatters the ground with his mind while bragging about his power.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: He had the chance to kill Goku long before he even made it to Earth. He didn't, and he and his brother lived to regret it. When he realizes this, it leads to his Villainous Breakdown.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: On Super Saiyan Goku and Vegeta, as Metal Cooler.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: In the first film. When one of his henchmen has trouble dealing with Piccolo, he personally steps in to deal with him. Also, when his Armored Squadron blasts the landscape into rubble in an effort to kill Goku and automatically assumes they did the job, Cooler is not so arrogant and orders them to search every corner of the area for Goku and Make Sure He's Dead. Averted in his second movie, where he grabs the Villain Ball and never lets go.
• Not So Stoic: He's The Stoic until he started going after Goku, fighting him with a Psychotic Smirk and Evil Laugh, and then suffered an ironic Sanity Slippage.
• Oh, Crap!: His reaction to getting blasted into the sun in the English dub.
  It's the star from this planet's solar system. Maybe I'll blow that up instead and let them all freeze to death in darkness. Wait a minute... I'm heading right for it!!
• Older Than They Look: Like his brother, Cooler ages at a slower pace than human beings and doesn't show any difference in appearance in between the destruction of the Saiyans (age 737) and his invasion of planet Earth (In-between age 764 and age 767).
• One-Winged Angel:
  • In his debut movie, Cooler has an extra transformation that Frieza didn't have at the time, having seemingly found a way to use their bodies' suppression technique to boost it instead. In this form Cooler grows in size, develops horned appendages and extra blue gems adorning his body, while also getting a Cool Mask and red eyes. It completely outclasses Goku at Kaio-Ken times twenty and, according to supplementary materials, could have beaten Super Saiyan Goku on Namek. However, it is mostly outmatched against the newly trained Super Saiyan, forcing Cooler to use a Supernova to have a chance of winning. Unlike his brothers' eventual Super Mode, Coolers' transformation does not lose stamina faster.
  • In the Heroes anime, on top of being much stronger, he has his own Golden form. Seemingly more advanced than Frieza's, as it's a golden version of his fifth form rather than his base form. It's powerful enough to defeat an SSB+ tier opponent.
  • Averted with Meta-Cooler, who is never seen in that form, and does not have access to it in the video games in which he appears. Probably because he's just a robot duplicate whose power comes from machinery, so what form he's constructed in is presumably arbitrary. In Heroes however, his Meta-Cooler form can still turn Golden, probably as a result of it being an actual cyberized Cooler rather than a mere drone.
• Pet the Dog: He gets a fair number of these in video game adaptational appearances:
  • In the video game Budokai 3; for all his apparent disregard for his brother, he does respond to a distress signal from him (which spells trouble for you).
  • He's also respectful and protective over his subordinates, which is a stark contrast from his brother in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 and can extend to the player character.
  • In the Heroes manga, he keeps his terms of the Enemy Mine with Trunks and saves the latter when he is fighting Bojack (in the manga); in the anime, he tries to save Trunks from Cunber but is less successful (in the manga, Trunks is the one who has to save him from Cunber instead).
  • In Dragon Ball Fighter Z, he promises not to interfere with Bardock's revenge against Frieza, remarking that his brother's got it coming anyway.
• Power Incontinence: Averted for the most part as Cooler is consistently depicted as having extraordinary Ki control no matter the transformation. In Heroes however, his Golden Form does deplete his stamina faster, and in the case of Golden Meta-Cooler actually risks overheating his Cyborg components.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Cooler is just as ruthless as his brother; the difference is that he's also considerably calmer and more levelheaded. He doesn't torture his enemies unnecessarily (his pre-Super Saiyan Curb-Stomp Battle with Goku lasts about two minutes compared to hours for Frieza, and takes down Piccolo with a single conservative beam attack), he isn't a Bad Boss (stepping in to help his henchmen when they're in trouble, as powerful minions are hard to replace), he's reasonably polite and helpful in an Enemy Mine situation (in Heroes, he even goes out of his way to defend Trunks at the cost of injury to himself), he attempts to avenge (and in EU works, protect) his family members unlike King Cold (if for no other reason than that not doing so would reflect badly on his reputation), and, if Xenoverse is any indication, he's willing to let certain planets go unmolested as long as they give him something he wants (in that case, a powerful and loyal apprentice). As noted under Chessmaster Sidekick, he also has no ambition of killing his weaker father and brother to take over the universe, probably because he's perfectly content with what he already has. You could probably survive a random encounter and conversation with Cooler as long as he didn't have any reason to kill you, whereas Frieza could blow you up at any moment for kicks.
• Pride Before a Fall: See the Blasphemous Boast above? He says that literally seconds before his defeat.
• Purple Is Powerful: Has far more of it visible on his body than his brother, who's also an example of this trope, and is also the stronger of the two.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Just like his brother, but they become much more sinister looking when his mask obscures his face. They turn into Monochromatic Eyes in his fifth form.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: His father is King, thus making Cooler a Prince, but he still steps into the fight almost immediately to deal with those who crossed his family or his troops.

S-Z

• Sanity Slippage: Not to the extent of his brother, but in his fifth form he seems noticeably more unhinged, constantly smirking, snarling, laughing, and mocking Goku as he quickly overpowers him.
• Single-Stroke Battle: His first encounter with Goku has Cooler contemptuously one-shotting the Saiyan with his Eye Beams, putting him out of commission for the bulk of the film. He does the same thing to Piccolo later, with a finger beam. Judging by the sounds, Goku seemingly pulls out the anime's "invisible" Kaio-Ken x10 to contend with Cooler's base form in their next encounter.
• Small Role, Big Impact: According to his debut movie, the entire Dragon Ball franchise happened because Cooler decided to be a Jerkass to his brother and let Goku live out of spite. It came back to bite him.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Especially in the Latin American Spanish dub. Not only that, he never raises his voice, even when angry. Subverted in his fifth form, which gives him a deep gravelly voice.
• Spell My Name With An S: Cooler, Coola, Koola, Kula? Let's just chalk this one up to personal preference.
• Spikes of Villainy: His fifth form's head has four prominent spikes on it.
• The Stoic: For the most part of the film, he tended to be calm and somewhat expressionless.
• Strong and Skilled: What makes him more dangerous than Frieza at the time is not only his fifth form but also the fact Cooler is much more conventionally skilled at combat than his brother was back then. Cooler can control his ki at full power with no issue, sense ki, and has enough mental and physical discipline to keep up with Goku when both are fighting at similar levels of power. His superior ki control is best seen in his ability to instantly form a planet-destroying Supernova, whereas it always takes Frieza a couple of seconds to generate a similar-sized attack.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Despite not looking very much like Frieza, he gets confused with him by both Goku and Piccolo. In their defense, Frieza does have a habit of changing his appearance while keeping only the elements that he also tends to share with Cooler. Visually, he could easily have been another Frieza transformation. It's also more excusable in the Japanese version, where he and Frieza share a voice actor, meaning they sound very similar.
• Stronger Sibling: To Frieza, with even an extra transformation to run the point home. Eventually inverted as Frieza makes a comeback, becomes far more powerful than Cooler even in his first form, and unlocks his own, more potent evolved state. At least Cooler is still more savvy and has a Super Mode that doesn't bleed stamina. It's actually a Subverted Trope, though, as even at the time of the original movie, however, Cooler's fourth form was only somewhat over half as Frieza's, and he actually needed the extra transformation to get ahead of Frieza, which he flat-out admits in the English dub. Cooler was, however, consistently much more skilled until Frieza's second revival, efficient Super Mode included. And then the Heroes Prison Planet arc has Cooler retaking his title by obtaining his own Golden Form, which is powerful enough that he can knock out "Berserk" Goku who was beating SSB Vegeta, who at that point is much stronger than Frieza. He does however have the drawback of losing stamina even quicker than Golden Frieza, at least in the manga.
• Superpowered Mooks: The Metal Coolers in Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler. Unusually for this trope, a single Metal Cooler is much stronger than any of the protagonists, dealing out curb stomp battles to two Super Saiyans and a Super Namek.
• Teleport Spam: The favored technique of Meta-Cooler.
  Goku: It's called Instant Transmission.
  Cooler: I know. It's one of my favorite techniques.
  Goku: Your favorites?!
• Token Evil Teammate: In Super Dragon Ball Heroes, where he teams up with Trunks, Goku, and Vegeta to escape the Prison Planet.
• Took a Level in Badass: In his first movie, Cooler is quickly defeated by Goku when he turned Super Saiyan, while in his second movie, Cooler is able to fight against two Super Saiyans at the same time. Also subverted as Meta-Cooler is essentially a remote-controlled drone for the real Cooler, who has actually gotten weaker since the last movie.
• Theme Naming: Double subverted. His name actually derives from the phrase, "Meshi demo kura" (meaning "Let's chow down",) a phrase from producer Kozo Morishita's hometown of Shizuoka. Morishita felt calling him "Cooler" outright was too direct and instead took inspiration from that particular phrase. This also explains why in Japanese print, Cooler's name is written "クウラ" ("Coola", short vowel) rather than "クーラ". Spelling it "Cooler" in English (like Funimation did) isn't too incorrect though given how Ls and Rs are in the Japanese language and it still slots in nicely with the general Freezer-Cold-Cooler theme naming of the Frieza clan as a whole.
• This Was His True Form: Downplayed, since his base form was already shown, but Cooler reverts to it as he's dying from the heat of the sun.
• The Un Favourite: Judging from his bitter remarks about how "Father always spoiled you rotten, you little brat!" (while thinking of Frieza) and the fact that King Cold never mentions him even in passing, and he can be reasonably inferred to be one of these (though he certainly handles it better than most examples).
• Villain Ball: After being reasonably smart in his first movie, Cooler grabbed a colossal one and never let go in his second. In his quest to drain worlds of life, he inexplicably decides to conquer New Namek, a planet with no real resources and only a few dozen people living on it under the protection of the protagonists and doesn't even make use of its Dragon Balls. He has a giant mechanical space thing that lets him produce hundreds of Meta-Coolers that are individually stronger than the strongest protagonists. With that in mind, he spends most of the runtime instead utilizing much weaker robots so that the other characters can have something to fight, and initially sends in just one Meta-Cooler that Goku and Vegeta manage to take down. After his Meta-Coolers have thrashed Goku and Vegeta, he decides to take them right in front of his vulnerable core and tries to drain their power despite the fact that they're weaker than he is (and somehow, they still manage to overload him).
• Villain Decay: Suffers quite a bit of this in Return of Cooler, where he loses almost all the cleverness he had in the original - his Level in Badass seems to have come padlocked to a Villain Ball, if his total inability to leverage his ridiculous power and resources to kill the heroes is any indication.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • When Cooler is being vaporized in the sun, he realizes that Goku was the baby Saiyan he let escape so many years ago and that it's his fault that Goku beat both him and Frieza.
  Cooler: I don't believe it! I could have killed him! I let him go! I let him go!
  • The Japanese dialogue for the same scene sees him acknowledge that he screwed up just like Frieza did in letting Goku's pod escape, saying that "Frieza wasn't the only one that was too soft".
• Villain Team-Up: An unique case in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2. He is the only villain that directly interferes in canon events, helping his brother in both Namek and Earth, and unlike the other movie villains, he is even brought back to life thanks to Frieza, something he wouldn't even do to his father!
• Villains Want Mercy: Inverted in the video-game what-if story "The Cosmic Emperor". Before passing out, he not only expresses disbelief that Frieza defeated him, but also tells his brother off for not finishing him off (wanting Frieza to be more ruthless). Played straight if he defeats Frieza, who begs for mercy (like he did to Goku on Namek) that is surprisingly granted but with a promise of a beating for asking for it!
• Weak, but Skilled:
  • In Xenoverse, Cooler was this next to Frieza before discovering his fifth form. While he was still powerful in his own right, he was only slightly over half as strong as Frieza was on Namek, and needed his superior intelligence and fighting abilities to stay in the game. After discovering his fifth form, however, he greatly surpassed the level of power Frieza initially possessed.
  • Cooler is this compared to Goku in his first appearance, oddly enough. While not as far off from Super Saiyan Goku's power as the latter's No-Sell would imply (since he does take a subsequent bloodlusted beating like a champ), Cooler himself admits he can't win in straight combat. So he distracts Goku before charging up and throwing a Supernova, which far exceeds his regular power to the point that Goku just barely repels it with his own Kamehameha, and is effectively incapacitated (and knocked out of Super Saiyan) by the effort. Notably, Cooler managed to create that attack in just four seconds, greatly shocking Goku, and wasn't exhausted after launching it like Goku was after countering it. This suggests his ki manipulation abilities are extremely advanced.
• Wham Line:
  • "You've got a lot to learn... brother."
  • "As you know, I am in the third transformed state, but I found a fourth beyond it!"
• Wolverine Publicity: Again, he's appeared twice and has been in numerous games, and even got to be one of the main characters of a promotional anime. Amongst movie villains, he probably gets the most love out of any villain not named Broly. Being the brother of the Franchise's overall Breakout Villain does that for you.
• The Worf Barrage: In Heroes, Golden Cooler attacks Cunber with everything he has; while Cunber is mildly impressed and gets excited, he is mostly undamaged. During their rematch, Golden Metal Cooler takes his attacks like a champ instead and then dishes out much worse.
• World's Strongest Man:
  • He was this for a long time, being superior to his little brother (and by extension, his father, who admitted anyone who could beat Frieza is the strongest by default) and even Goku when he originally transformed... but by the time of his movie, after more training, Super Saiyan Goku has surpassed him. During his second movie, he was stronger than both Super Saiyan Goku and Super Saiyan Vegeta... but Cell, back on Earth, was still arguably his superior (assuming this happened during Cell's rampage; if it happened in the three-year gap then he'd indeed be the strongest again). He achieves this trope again in Super Dragon Ball Heroes as Golden Meta-Cooler, when he manages to completely overwhelm Cunber, who until then had held at bay SS4 Gogeta and SSB Goku, putting Cooler right at the very top of the power scale of his universe. Downplayed in that, even then, it leads to a Heroic Red Ring of Death.
  • Downplayed and possibly subverted in the manga version where Cunber was strongly battered after a tough fight with Toppo and being accidentally injured by Ultimate Kamioren and where Cooler attacked Cunber quickly before the evil Saiyan could get the chance to recover and fight back.
• Your Head Asplode: Inverted in his first defeat: The only part of his body that WASN'T destroyed from being sent into the sun by the Supernova was his head.