Greatest Villains of All-Time: Frieza
The Search for the Greatest Villain of All-Time
I seem to have gotten away from my original intent. When you think of a villain, you might get an antagonist with evil motives, yet a tragic backstory that somewhat excuses their acts of crime, so that you feel a bit of pity on them. This is typical with a lot of villains these days, and some might argue that their tragic backstories make them more relatable. But the truly great villains are ruthless, cold-hearted, and unsympathetic. Enter, Frieza.
He was born evil. No tragic backstory. No pitiful origin. He destroys planets and societies not out of some extravagant revenge story, or moral justification, but out of the simple fact that he wants to be the most powerful. He's ruthlessly merciless, feared by trillions, and destroys on impulse. Frieza may actually be the perfect villain.
Gleeful Annihilation
Perhaps the most destructive and defining act of Frieza’s career involves his contentious history with the volatile Saiyan race. More than comfortable abusing and manipulating the Saiyan population for years, and using them to do his grunt work, he doesn't hesitate to eradicate them all once he decides they've outlived their usefulness.
Frieza is frequently shown as the type to destroy entire planets on a whim. And during his destruction of Planet Vegeta, he laughed with sheer jubilation over the murderous deed. By extension, Frieza effectively attempts the genocide of the Saiyan race, turning them into an endangered species. With this act, his villainy is intrinsically tied into Goku and Vegeta’s origin stories.
However, it’s not just his enemies that must fear his powerful temper, but the hundreds of warriors that have sworn allegiance to him as well. In addition to his awesome power, he also commands an expansive army known as the Frieza Force, an army that is more than capable of handling their leader's conflicts without him ever getting involved. Even so, Frieza has no qualms with turning them into cannon fodder. In Dragon Ball Z’s Resurrection ‘F’ movie, Frieza decides to debut his new Golden form with a burst of energy that kills his entire crew, a result he’s proud of rather than distressed over. In this instance, he wasn’t fighting or defending, their deaths are merely the byproduct of him powering up.
Deus Ex Machina
For Frieza, the life of one planet is meaningless in the face of greater personal gain. Again, in Resurrection ‘F’, in a final act of desperation to exact his revenge, Frieza destroys the entirety of Earth. The only reason that complete annihilation is avoided is because Whis steps in and rewinds time in order give our heroes a second chance. Frieza literally forced divine intervention.
Frieza's impact goes beyond just being one of the franchise's most powerful villains. He's the one who drove Goku to become a Super Saiyan. Like him or not, Frieza set the bar for every villain in the franchise, and as great as some of the others were, none of them redefined Dragon Ball like he did.
