Why do people consider Frieza to be the worst out of all villains in the series?

[Doctor.]

Villains who are somewhat sympathetic aren't unique.

It is in the context of the Dragon Ball franchise.

[ABED]

Villains who are somewhat sympathetic aren't unique.

It is in the context of the Dragon Ball franchise.

Fair point, but Freeza still stood out for a good reason. And whether we the audience actually find the villain or even the hero sympathetic ultimately boils down to execution. I know I'm sounding like a broken record but it's true.

[SingleFringe&Sparks]

Zamasu's motivations are intersting for example. They are unlike any we have seen before in this show. Name me another character who fought in the name of justice, to create an utopian world for Gods, by Gods. Heck, even Cell is more unique than Frieza, because he wants to achieve perfection and show everyone that he is the ultimate fighter. But villains like Frieza are just ugh...he never even showed remorse for the things he did. He might look cool and be a psycopath, but the reasoning behind his actions is that of a 4 years old: i am evil and I'm going to hurt innocents cuz i am evil. gosh i am so evil! Like, atleast Frost tried to deceive us into believing he was a benevolent ruler, even he had more depth than "EVIL EMPEROR" Frieza, and Frost appeared for about 6 episodes.

What i mean when i'm talking about a character with a deep personality is someone who is not black and white, someone who shows some conflict within itself. Vegeta and Zamasu are examples of "deep" villains, because they are not just black and white. Vegeta was ruthless and cruel, but he came to appreciate Goku and that rivalry he had with him. Zamasu was a promising Apprentice Kai who doubted the purpose of mortals and came to hate them because of their violence and stupidity (and he was right btw). But Frieza is just a bad guy doing bad stuff because he wants to be the evil emperor of the universe and torture everyone because he is sooo evil!! I personally don't find him that much interesting: he is basically the average evil emperor that you find in many other franchises. Atleast with Zamasu and Vegeta, they tried to make a villain a little more unique.

I disagree with Zamasu being the better villain. His plan being complicated doesn't necessarily make it deep. The reason why Freeza is so highly regarded is just because of his connection to the protagonists. His plan was relatively similar to Zamasu's except easier to obtain because it was simple. He wasn't evil because he was evil, he was evil because he just needed to protect his authority at all costs and did so while demanding more power in it, when analyzed his issue was with if he should have taken caution with the Saiyans to expand his authority or if he could have ignored them to retain the power he had, but his confrontation with them would have been inevitable. There was no need for a bigger rationalization for it if we already understand why, and if the motives make sense then they fill the need for depth. With Zamasu, he had all these concepts and boasted but unlike Freeza, he did not actually do anything to get closer to his goal beyond just killing everyone.

He already killed all the gods so who would his world be for? Beerus wanted nothing to do with him and he was afraid of him. In order to get the room for his plan to even work, he already killed all the kais whom his ideals were conceived for. What is worse is that he seemed to just ignore the fact that Otherworld already is a parallel dimension where all the Kais exist. No mortals but the worthy are brought there so who can he blame? Then you have the demon realm whom are worse than the petty humans and exist in an entire dimension for themselves as well where they exist. Are demons worse than Mortals by his logic? But the fact that the worst of them live in their own dimension doesn't make them a threat. The thing with Zamasu is that his plan was only seemingly "deep" because it was complicated and laced with a lot of his rhetoric, about why he wanted it. It was all just idealism that wasn't plausible at all in their Universe at all. But there wasn't an actual need for him to gain something, not the way Freeza, Cell and Baby had a simple goal that required them to go through the protagonists to actually get.

If Zamasu just killed everyone from the start, he would have been done. But for what end? Cell could absorb all the humans and still achieve perfection. Freeza killed most of the Saiyans while he could still seek immortality and Baby could have killed the remaining Saiyans and still convert the humans into Tuffles. Zamasu though didn't really have a goal he could accomplish for the Gods, if he already killed all the Gods in order to start his plan to begin with. It seemed more like he just wanted a reason to rationalize his sociopathy from how its presented. Not to mention that his source of his hatred in both the manga and the anime seemed very petty and are both easily contradicted by the lore of prior events in the series itself. To me a good villain is not about the surface "complexity" of a motive, it should be about the means a character would go through to get it and what they need to gain from it to improve on their situatuon. Thats what DBZ villains did well. It's just when they are evil for the literal sake of it or want nothing out of their existence that makes the others one dimensional. Which only really started with Super Buu, Kid Buu, Broly and most of the lesser GT villains.

[Marugoto]

I like that he's actually after the titular MacGuffins. I understand that having each villain lusting for the Dragon Balls would get old really fast, but at the same time I think it's a shame that no Big Bad after him cared and the DB's are reduced to a reset button.

I think what hurt him the most character wise was the ridiculous one upping of his power near the end of the arc. Freeza's at his best when his sadistic side comes out. The scene where he tortures Vegeta is great. Making the audience feel sorry for the previous scumbag is a great way to set up the new big bad. No need add more zeros at the end of his mandatory battle power, or have him say at what percent he currently is.

I'm not sure if he's my favorite villain. There was a lot of great variety before him, but he's definitely the best of the big three.

[RandomGuy96]

Well, he does stand to have the highest body count out of any character in Dragon Ball.

According to what? Buu probably killed more. Cold might have. Zamasu certainly did.

Anyway, on how well-written Freeza is as a character: I've said before that I find him to basically be a less entertaining clone of Saiyan arc Vegeta. But I would also like to say that I find him boring because literally the only thing that makes him a threat is his high power level. He's not cunning, he's not charismatic, he doesn't have unique abilities, he doesn't have a plan, his henchmen aren't actually relevant in a fight compared to him, etc. He just was born a bajillion times stronger than everyone else for no reason, and the arc is about how he somehow manages to squander his enormous advantage.

[MaxZ]

I've never heard anyone say Frieza was the worst villain (in terms of quality)

people seem to usually say he's the best in my experience

[ABED]

Well, he does stand to have the highest body count out of any character in Dragon Ball.

According to what? Buu probably killed more. Cold might have. Zamasu certainly did.

Anyway, on how well-written Freeza is as a character: I've said before that I find him to basically be a less entertaining clone of Saiyan arc Vegeta. But I would also like to say that I find him boring because literally the only thing that makes him a threat is his high power level. He's not cunning, he's not charismatic, he doesn't have unique abilities, he doesn't have a plan, his henchmen aren't actually relevant in a fight compared to him, etc. He just was born a bajillion times stronger than everyone else for no reason, and the arc is about how he somehow manages to squander his enormous advantage.

He does have charisma, he has a plan, and he is unique in terms of being a dictator. Why does he need to have a "reason" to be stronger than everyone else? I think the reason you don't see anything is because you aren't looking.

[DBZAOTA482]

Well, he does stand to have the highest body count out of any character in Dragon Ball.

According to what? Buu probably killed more. Cold might have. Zamasu certainly did.

Anyway, on how well-written Freeza is as a character: I've said before that I find him to basically be a less entertaining clone of Saiyan arc Vegeta. But I would also like to say that I find him boring because literally the only thing that makes him a threat is his high power level. He's not cunning, he's not charismatic, he doesn't have unique abilities, he doesn't have a plan, his henchmen aren't actually relevant in a fight compared to him, etc. He just was born a bajillion times stronger than everyone else for no reason, and the arc is about how he somehow manages to squander his enormous advantage.

A few things to say about this:

1. Saiyan Saga Vegeta wasn't a pussy or was he actively sadistic like Freeza.

2. Vegeta was never to polite to anyone. In fact, he displayed openly asshole-ish behavior even to his comrades.

3. Freeza never fought for the sake of a challenge.

4. Freeza is charismatic. He's polite and seemingly generous in a good/neutral mood with a bit of sarcasm.

[floofychan333]

We watched Frieza destroy Planet Vegeta and destroy almost its entire population, enslave countless races while conquering their planets, execute his own soldiers for failing him, and kill some of the characters we have grown to love. I'd say Frieza is the worst because his destruction spans across the universe, unlike Cell or King Piccolo, and Buu's destruction isn't developed nearly as much.

[Merged Zamasu]

We watched Frieza destroy Planet Vegeta and destroy almost its entire population, enslave countless races while conquering their planets, execute his own soldiers for failing him, and kill some of the characters we have grown to love. I'd say Frieza is the worst because his destruction spans across the universe, unlike Cell or King Piccolo, and Buu's destruction isn't developed nearly as much.

If that's the case, we saw Zamasu corrupt the very Multiverse at its core. He disintegrated the entire Human species and is responsible for the destruction of an entire timeline. Frieza was all evil and stuff, but what he did does not even come close to the horrors Zamasu committed when he truly lost what little was left of his sanity. Heck, what Black did to Goku, Goten and Chi Chi would shock even Frieza.

[floofychan333]

We watched Frieza destroy Planet Vegeta and destroy almost its entire population, enslave countless races while conquering their planets, execute his own soldiers for failing him, and kill some of the characters we have grown to love. I'd say Frieza is the worst because his destruction spans across the universe, unlike Cell or King Piccolo, and Buu's destruction isn't developed nearly as much.

If that's the case, we saw Zamasu corrupt the very Multiverse at its core. He disintegrated the entire Human species and is responsible for the destruction of an entire timeline. Frieza was all evil and stuff, but what he did does not even come close to the horrors Zamasu committed when he truly lost what little was left of his sanity. Heck, what Black did to Goku, Goten and Chi Chi would shock even Frieza.

That is true, but Zamasu hasn't been around long enough and isn't iconic yet.

[RandomGuy96]

Well, he does stand to have the highest body count out of any character in Dragon Ball.

According to what? Buu probably killed more. Cold might have. Zamasu certainly did.

Anyway, on how well-written Freeza is as a character: I've said before that I find him to basically be a less entertaining clone of Saiyan arc Vegeta. But I would also like to say that I find him boring because literally the only thing that makes him a threat is his high power level. He's not cunning, he's not charismatic, he doesn't have unique abilities, he doesn't have a plan, his henchmen aren't actually relevant in a fight compared to him, etc. He just was born a bajillion times stronger than everyone else for no reason, and the arc is about how he somehow manages to squander his enormous advantage.

A few things to say about this:

1. Saiyan Saga Vegeta wasn't a pussy or was he actively sadistic like Freeza.

He was actually very sadistic, but like Freeza he only directed torture at people who made him angry. And Freeza was no more of a "pussy" than Vegeta. Both fought to the end.

2. Vegeta was never to polite to anyone. In fact, he displayed openly asshole-ish behavior even to his comrades.

He was at least as polite as Freeza with his smugness and faux-compliments. But neither were polite really, both were short tempered thugs whose every other word was a boast or threat.

3. Freeza never fought for the sake of a challenge.

Yes, he did.

Chapter: 321 (DBZ 127), P5.2
Context: Freeza’s still powering up
Freeza: “85%...90…”
Goku: “Freeza…The reason I’m waiting for you to reach full power…is because I want to beat you down when you’re at your best…That way, you’ll have no regrets as a warrior…You want to try testing out your full power too, right? If you didn’t, you would have just fired at the planet again and ended it…”

Freeza just smiles in response when Goku says this

4. Freeza is charismatic.

He's not.

: a personal magic of leadership inspiring special popular loyalty or enthusiasm for a public figure (as a political leader)

exercising a compelling charm that inspires devotion in others.

Freeza doesn't inspire his men to follow him. He's purely a thug who relies on brute force. If he wasn't born with a high battle power, none of those people would be working for him.

[ABED]

Freeza doesn't inspire his men to follow him. He's purely a thug who relies on brute force. If he wasn't born with a high battle power, none of those people would be working for him.

You've given one definition of Charisma, and the one I was thinking of has nothing to do with leadership. There's a magnetism about the guy and not all of his followers follow him out of fear. They do so because they are also sadistic. Freeza has a charm about him.

[Freeza9000]

I'd say he was a pretty great villain back in the Namek arc until ROF butchered his character.

[Gog]

But he isn't the worst, at least in terms of villainy, Freeza runs a business, there is no getting around that, and it is also a very horrid business that runs around genocide. But Freeza probably hasn't killed a lot of people, or blown up a lot of planets, heck I think that he's only blown up two planets. Because going around destroying planets is unprofitable.

[Cipher]

Not a single villain in the series makes for a more hopeless situation than Freeza in his initial arc. The heroes are never that thoroughly desperate and outclassed again.

That, in combination with his memorable personality, visual iconography (seriously, his design is genius), absolutely horrible actions within pages of his introduction (killing a kid as part of a planet-wide extortion/genocide), and deep connection to the background events of the series, easily leaves the strongest impression of all the villains.

He may have been eclipsed in power, in repugnancy, and in scale, but never in impact.

Freeza was an absolute masterstroke and it's amazing Toriyama managed to come up with him while plotting the series week to week.