Frieza

"Hold on, I just had an excellent Idea. Because I'm generous I'll bury you with your father. Go on, you may thank me I've been more than merciful it's only polite! Hahahahaha!"

- Frieza to Gohan, KAI dub

Frieza is the second of the four arch–villains of Dragonball Z and Dragonball Z Kai (along with Vegeta, Cell, and Buu). He is arguably the main villain of the entire series, due to his role in Son Goku's origins, and one of the most evil and cruel villains of the Dragonball universe; while most other major villains are mindless killing machines who were created to be evil, Frieza is an intelligent being fully capable of reasoning, and commits all his atrocities expressly out of his own free will.

Appearance
Frieza is a lizardlike alien whom some refer to as a changeling. He has four forms.

1st form
In his first form, he is very small, with two black horns (similar to those of Captain Ginyu, the leader of his elite army, the Ginyu Force) and a long tail with a purple spike at the end of it. He also wears black shorts and Saiyan armor, except his is purple rather than white, black, or blue like his henchmen. His voice in this form sounds feminine, as he is voiced by Pauline Newstone in Ocean dub, Linda Young in FUNimation dub starting from Episode 54 (and in the redub), and in Dragon Ball Z Kai he is played by Chris Ayres, where he sounds considerably more masculine (and for that matter human; in KAI he has a somewhat British-sounding accent as opposed to the high, raspy voice he has in other dubs).

2nd Form
He shatters his armor before he transforms into his second form, which is much bigger and taller than his first form. In this form, his horns are like a bull and his voice sounds more masculine, nearly as deep as Piccolo's. He also stretches his tail in an "auto-wine" attack.

3rd Form
In his third form, his head is longer, and he has four white horns, and a face like a duck, and several spikes on his back, and his shoulders are in a similar shape to Saiyan armor. His voice sounds like those of his first and second forms together, and his appearance is similar to that of a xenomorph from the Alien series. He gains a distorted "background" voice in this form. When he transforms into his fourth form, his third form shatters.

4th Form
His fourth form looks much less intimidating than the previous three. He is taller than his first form, but is completely white with the usual purple spots on him, and he has no horns. Also his tail does not have a spike on it. This form is stated to be his true form. He can vary the amount of power he uses in this form from an unknown but small percentage (his "base" power, and incorrectly stated to be 1% in the anime) all the way to 100% (see below). He uses two other gradients during his fight with Goku: 50% and 70%.

100% Power
He can also power up to 100% of his maximum, and beef up. In the anime, this form sounds different from his first form, and a bit deeper, but in the games, movies, Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Z Kai, his voice is identical to that of his first form.

Personality
Frieza is an extremely sadistic individual, taking great delight in slaughtering and destroying others, particularly on a massive scale. This is best shown when he laughed in delight as he watched Planet Vegeta blow up from his Death Ball. Frieza also enjoys making people suffer before killing them, which is why he doesn't kill his foes outright. A notable fact is that he has tortured every character to fight him. He is also extremely egotistical and has a rather sarcastic sense of wit, such as when he was talking about Vegeta and stated, "There are three things I refuse to tolerate. Cowardice, bad haircuts, and military insurrection. And it is unfortunate that our friend Vegeta possesses all three of these." Frieza is very cold-hearted and cares about no one but himself, though he is respectful of his father, King Cold. Frieza's personality seems to be a counter to Goku's light hearted, kind, and peaceful one, but it is unknown if this was done intentionally. He is usually able to react to any situation evenly and only loses his cool when even his full power is not enough. However for all his pride and arrogance, Frieza is rather paranoid, destroying Planet Vegeta simply because of a myth of a Super Saiyan, which was supposed to be the one thing that could destroy him. Despite this, he boasts of being the strongest being in the universe, and he is (for the most part) correct in this assessment.

Early Life
Frieza has a large number of henchmen at his disposal, the strongest of which are Zarbon, Dodoria, and Cui. He also has an elite army called the Ginyu Force.

Frieza got the Saiyans to work for him and sell planets to him, killing all their inhabitants to conquer them. When the Saiyans began getting stronger, Frieza feared that a Super Saiyan would rise up and destroy him, so he killed their king, King Vegeta, and destroyed their home planet, Planet Vegeta. Only a few Saiyans were not caught in the explosion, including Vegeta, Nappa, Raditz, and Son Goku (whose Saiyan name is Kakarot), the protagonist of the series.

Hunt for the Dragonballs
When Raditz came to Earth and was defeated by Piccolo, he sent a message to Nappa and Vegeta about the Dragonballs.

Frieza heard the message, so he and his henchmen, including Zarbon and Dodoria, went over to Namek to get the Dragonballs so he could wish for immortality. Frieza killed the Nameks of five villages to get the Dragonballs, however, at the fifth, the elder, Moori, destroyed all his scouters, preventing him from tracking down the dragonballs. Dodoria became separated from them while chasing Kuririn and Son Gohan, who intervened to save a Namek boy Dende from Dodoria. Dodoria never returned, as he was later attacked and killed by Vegeta.

Once he deduced that Dodoria was dead (and deeming him expendable anyways), Frieza headed back to his ship with his five Dragonballs, leaving Zarbon and Appule to find the two remaining Dragonballs. Zarbon ran into Vegeta and transformed to defeat him, but Vegeta had previously attacked a Namek village and hidden its dragonball. The village was discovered by one of Frieza's henchmen, Orlen, who was killed by Frieza for not finding out the location of the Dragonball (he killed the only survivor). Frieza instructed Zarbon to bring Vegeta to him and heal him to make him tell them where the Dragon Balls were.

Calling for the Ginyu Force
However, Vegeta killed Appule, broke out of Frieza's ship, and stole all his Dragonballs. An enraged Frieza gave Zarbon one hour to find Vegeta. Though he transformed, Zarbon was no match for Vegeta, who becomes stronger after each time he recovers froms serious injuries. After Vegeta killed Zarbon and took the Dragon Ball that Kuririn got from Guru, the Eldest Namek, Frieza summoned the Ginyu Special Force (killing one of his own men, Orien, for no reason at all). The Ginyu Force - Recoome, Burter, Jeice, Guldo, and Captain Ginyu - arrived on Namek, and Jeice brought Frieza scouters.

Vegeta joined forces with Krillin and Gohan, however Captain Ginyu took all seven dragonballs from them and brought them to Frieza. Frieza tried to summon the eternal dragon, but as he did not know the Namekian password to summon him, he was unsuccessful, so he headed toward Guru's house to get the password from him, leaving Ginyu and his henchmen behind to guard the Dragon Balls. He flew right by Dende, whom Guru asked to tell Krillin and Gohan the password, but chose to ignore him for sake of time. He arrived at Guru's house where Nail, Namek's greatest warrior, told Frieza that if Guru dies, the Dragon Balls disappear.

Confronting Nails
To prevent Frieza to cause anymore harm, Nails challenged Frieza to a battle. However, Frieza easily beat him up, until the Namekian revealed that his plan was to distract Frieza so Dende could give the Z Warriors the password. Enraged, Frieza immediately headed back to his spaceship, and was shocked to discover on his scouter that all the Ginyu Force had been killed (except for Ginyu, who had accidentally switched bodies with a frog).

The Battles with Frieza
An extremely angry Frieza arrived at the scene shortly after Gohan, Kuririn, and Dende summoned Porunga and wished Piccolo back to life and teleported him to Namek, and after Porunga disappeared because Guru died at that moment. Frieza fought Vegeta and appeared evenly matched with him (if not at a slight advantage, seeing as how Vegeta was out of breath and Frieza was not), so Vegeta suggested that he transform.

2nd Form
Frieza transformed into his second form (which has a fighting power of one million) and impaled Kuririn with his horn. This made Gohan angry, and he beat up Frieza. However, Frieza survived and attacked Gohan, until Kuririn was healed by Dende and cut off Frieza's tail, then distracted him so Dende could heal Gohan. As Gohan, Kuririn, and Vegeta went for a head-on attack, Piccolo came. Before appearing to fight Frieza, Piccolo fused with a badly injured Nail to increase his power, and beat up Frieza.

3rd Form
This forced Frieza to transform into his third form. He barraged Piccolo, but Gohan nearly killed him with a Masenko, using up all his power in the process.

4th Forth
Frieza transformed into his fourth form, however he witnessed Dende healing Piccolo, so after finishing his transformation, he killed Dende with a Death Beam to prevent him from healing anyone again. Vegeta, who had previously been injured by Krillin and healed by Dende (as his plan to become stronger, and maybe turn into a Super Saiyan) fought Frieza, but was simply unable to hit him. Frieza patiently waited until the Saiyan had fully realized the hopelessness of the situation and lost his will to fight. He then attacked Vegeta, slowly beating him to death, until Goku arrived, having fully recovered from his injuries from the fight with Ginyu. Frieza killed Vegeta with a Death Beam through the chest, for no reason other than to shut him up about Goku being a Super Saiyan and how he would destroy Frieza.

Confronting Goku
Goku fought Frieza in an epic battle that took 19 episodes. At one point, Frieza said he's fight Goku without using his hands, but was forced to break the deal, as Goku gained the advantage after biting Frieza's tail (to prevent him from choking him). Frieza attacked by throwing rocks and chunks of land at Goku, and trapping him in an energy ball that would explode if it touched anything except Frieza. However, his one weakness was that he could not sense energy signals, and could not hit Goku unless he could see him.

Goku and Frieza were evenly matched, until Frieza powered up to 50% of his maximum and beat up Goku. Goku tried the 20-times Kaioken, and briefly regained the advantage, but Frieza survived, virtually untouched, and continued pounding Goku. With no other option, Goku gathered energy from Namek and the planets around it to form a Genki Dama (Spirit Bomb). Once Frieza realized the danger he was in he tried to kill Goku to stop him, but Piccolo attacked Frieza as a distraction. Frieza was about to destroy Piccolo, but when Goku's Spirit Bomb was complete, and he fired it at Frieza. Frieza used all his might to fight off the powerful Spirit Bomb, but The Spirit Bomb "ultimately destroyed" Frieza in the progress.

Confront Super Saiyan Goku
Frieza somehow survived, however, though with a bit of damage (not the least of which a portion of his tail was missing). He shot a Death Beam at Goku, but Piccolo took the hit and was seriously wounded. Frieza killed Krillin afterwards, angering Goku so much that he transformed into a Super Saiyan. Ironically, Frieza had created the very thing he had so long feared and gone to such great lengths to eliminate. In this form, Goku gained the advantage over Frieza, so Frieza shot a Death Ball at the core of Planet Namek, which would inevitably cause it to explode. Frieza estimated five minutes, but five hours was more accurate (it took 10 episodes to blow up). Later, Frieza powered up to 100% of his maximum. Against the wishes of Kaio, Goku let Frieza reach his maximum so he would be sure that Frieza was beaten at his best and would never come back to haunt them.

This proved to be a big mistake, as Frieza regained his advantage over Goku. Eventually, the two went on a crash course, with Goku shooting a Kamehameha and Frieza charging at him with red energy (called Nova Strike in the games). Though Goku appeared to be winning at first, Frieza jumped out of the kamehameha and pounded Goku into the ground, knocking him into the lava. Gohan returned to fight Frieza. Meanwhile, Mr. Popo collected the Earth's Dragonballs and Kaio told Kami to tell him to wish back everyone killed by Frieza and his henchmen (which only includes those who died less than a year ago) back to life. Kuririn did not come back, as he had already been wished back once, but Vegeta, Dende, Guru, and all the Nameks did.

Gohan used his hidden powers to gain the advantage over Frieza. As Frieza powered up again, Goku reemerged from the lava, having survived Frieza's attack. While fighting Frieza, Goku telepathically overheard Kaio's plan to use Porunga's last wish to teleport everyone on Namek to Earth except Frieza, and elected to stay behind to finish Frieza off. Guru told Dende to make the wish, however Frieza saw Porunga and got there first and wished for immortality. However, he did not know that one must speak the Namekian language to make a wish to Porunga, so when Dende made his wish, Porunga granted it and not Frieza's wish. Everyone on Namek was teleported to Earth except Goku and Frieza, who continued their battle.

Frieza's strength decreased with every blow and Goku beat him up. At one point, he decided to spare the evil tyrant's life, knowing that Frieza could not win because his 100% full power put tremendous stress on his body. However, Frieza attacked Goku with Tsubi Kienzan, unwilling to accept defeat, so Goku resumed the fight with him. During the fight, Frieza overlooked an energy disk that was coming up behind him (in an attempt to chase after Goku) and chopped him in half, cutting his left arm off as well. Goku decided to leave Frieza to die on Namek, but Frieza begged him for his life, so Goku reluctantly gave him some of his own energy so he could escape. Still unwilling to accept defeat, Frieza shot an energy blast at Goku as he attempted to leave, so Goku shot his own energy blast at Frieza, seemingly killing him.

Return
However, Frieza survived the attack (though Kaio believed him to be dead), and was caught in Planet Namek's explosion (which Goku escaped), but survived it as well (though a huge chunk was missing from his head). His father, the wicked giant King Cold, found him drifting through space, barely alive, and had him made into a cyborg, even stronger than before. The minute he reawakened he told his father to take him to Earth so he could blow it up as revenge on Goku.

Death
Frieza and King Cold arrived on Earth. Gohan, Kuririn (who was wished back with the Namek Dragon Balls), Piccolo, Vegeta, Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu went out to face him, even though they knew that he would defeat them easily. However, before Frieza could take his vengeance, Trunks appeared from the future. He killed all of Frieza's henchmen, but Frieza was not in the least bit intimidated - until Trunks transformed into a Super Saiyan! After two failed attempts at destroying him, Frieza shot a giant Supernova energy ball at the earth to blow it up. But Trunks caught it with one hand, so Frieza blew up the Supernova. Trunks was thought to be dead, but he escaped the explosion without so much as a scratch, and shot a Burning Attack at Frieza and King Cold. They dodged it, and then Trunks chopped Frieza vertically in half with his sword. He then sliced him to pieces and finished him off with an energy wave, reducing him to nothing more than dust. Trunks later killed King Cold just as easily.

Afterlife
Frieza was sent to hell after his death. Once Cell was destroyed and sent to hell, Frieza, King Cold, and the Ginyu Force (still minus Captain Ginyu) teamed up with him to cause trouble. Goku and Paikuhan went to stop them. Goku defeated the Ginyu Force, and Paikuhan defeated Cell, King Cold, and Frieza, knocking Frieza out cold with a punch to the face. All seven villains were locked up in a prison cell. They were later released, and apparently did not cause any more trouble. Frieza witnessed the battle between Goku and Kid Buu through a giant crystal ball with all the other villains in hell, sticking his tongue out at Goku and calling him "Lousy no-good Saiyan monkey!" His final appearance was in a scene only shown in the uncut; When Goku destroys Kid Buu, Frieza says "Why am I not surprised?"

Fusion Reborn
In the movie Fusion Reborn, Janemba's appearance caused many villains, including Frieza, to escape from Hell. Several of his henchmen, as well as movie villains (including Bojack and Paragus) were working for him, and he sent them to attack Gohan, but Gohan punched Frieza in the stomach and blew him up, completely destroying him. It is important to note, however, that the movies (with the exception of Dead Zone and the two specials, Bardock and Trunks) are canon with the anime storyline.

Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans
In Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans, Frieza escaped as ghost fighter along with Cooler, Turles, and Lord Slug thanks to Raichi. They plan to kill all living Saiyans. Frieza fights with Trunks and Vegeta and gets killed by Trunks, however in alternate ending Frieza kills Trunks and Vegeta. In another alternate ending, in the pre-fight with Frieza and Gohan, Frieza is easily over powering Gohan in the fight. Frieza end up killing Gohan after punching Gohan in the stomach few times.

Dragonball GT
In Dragonball GT, when Dr. Gero and the artificial Android 17 opened up a portal from Hell and all the villains escaped, Frieza and Cell remained behind to fight Goku when Dr. Gero and Dr. Myuu lured him into Hell. Goku beat up Frieza and Cell, but (in an inconsistency with Dragonball Z) was unable to kill them because they were already dead. Frieza and Cell sent Goku to a cave below Hell where he was tortured and frozen, but since he was not dead the ice melted. After knocking Frieza and Cell away, Goku used the ice machine to freeze Frieza and Cell. He accidentally knocked Frieza into Cell, causing them both to fall down and shatter. They later came back together, but were chained up, put in a cage, and hauled away by ogres. Some fans consider GT to canon

Video Games
Frieza is a playable character in the Budokai and Budokai Tenkaichi series of video-games for the PlayStation2. In these games, the voices for all his forms sound exactly the same (though his second and third forms sound slightly deeper than his first and fourth, barely noticable). Also, the games give insight as to what Frieza's third form looks like with his tail completely intact (as it was cut off by Krillin before he transformed into his third form). Frieza's cyborg form, Mecha Frieza, is counted as a separate character rather than a transformation.

Powers and Abilities
Frieza has superhuman abilities and the ability to manipulate energy, like many other characters throughout the Dragon Ball series. However, these powers go far beyond what had previously been seen; even in his first form his power level exceeds that of any character introduced up until that point by a factor of twenty. In a flashback to the genocide of the Saiyans, Frieza kills King Vegeta, the most powerful Saiyan at the time, with a single blow to the jaw. Actual levels of speed and strength (not power level) in relation to a normal human are never expressed and are essentially meaningless, as he can fly at hundreds of times the speed of sound and is millions of times physically stronger than a human (he is apparently capable of tearing planets apart with his bare hands in his final form). He can also survive in space and transform so as to be able to use more of his power. Frieza has a number of signature techniques, such as the Death Ball, a powerful ball of energy that he generates from his fingertip and grows the more energy he puts into it. He usually uses this to unleash mass destruction, such as when he destroyed Planet Vegeta.

Another technique he used often was his Death Beam, a small but potent beam of energy also fired from his finger that he often used to quickly kill people. Frieza also possesses telekinetic powers and great ability to survive grievous injuries, able to survive getting sliced in half, being blasted by Goku's final energy attack, and even getting caught in Namek's explosion.