Power scaling in anime has always had a little bit of wiggle room when it comes down to how understandable it is. Being an anime fan means never escaping the “Could X Character beat Goku” conversation for the next thousand years. The point of fandom discussion is to relive the joy of smashing our collective action figures together and to come up with new and interesting ways for them to beat each other up. These discussions, of course, are not only limited to being cross-fandom debates and that is half the fun.
Dragon Ball is the franchise that really raised the bar on power scaling. It started small, mainly a martial arts fairy tale, and ended with characters who can blow up entire galaxies with very little overall effort. This immediately makes for interesting fandom discussion about which versions of which characters could come out on top — especially fan favorites. Characters like the beloved villain Frieza and the campy God of Destruction Beerus spark a lot of discussions, especially as Frieza’s power has only grown with his ever-thickening plot armor. With the introduction of the Black Frieza form, it is worth taking a look at whether he could defeat one of the greatest forces in his universe.
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Frieza first arrived in Dragon Ball as the main antagonist of the Namek Saga, though he didn’t see much action himself until the very end of the conflict. When the audience is first introduced to him in his first form, the small alien is on a hunt for the Namekian Dragon Balls in order to wish for immortality, something of a theme that Shenron has shockingly rarely heard. His goal to make his empire everlasting was thwarted by Goku’s ascension to Super Saiyan, ending his reign of terror over Namek but not killing him. It would be a different Super Saiyan, Trunks, who would kill him during Dragon Ball Z for what seemed to be for good. Though, as is the way for Dragon Ball, the megalomaniacal dictator would not stay dead forever. And not without learning something to make himself better.
One of Frieza’s biggest flaws is his arrogance and, despite all that power, he never actually trained or worked to get stronger. He was just strong. So, like any millennial ex-G&T kid, seeing someone better than him immediately sent him into a self-improvement spiral. When he was revived, for the first time, he came to the realization that training would be the thing to do in order to compete with the Saiyans. This is the choice that gave him access to his golden form. Gold Frieza was the biggest evolution he had experienced up until that point, and it gave him an incredible jump in power. According to a January 2017 V-Jump article, the Golden Frieza form was noted to surpass Super Saiyan Blue. The biggest drawback to the form is actually very similar to Super Saiyan in that it is a major drain on stamina, a fact that Vegeta and Goku point out. This could have been circumvented with training after achieving the form, but Frieza wasn’t done being humbled yet.
The Black Frieza form would make its first appearance in the Granolah the Survivor Saga in the manga, showing off his new, all-encompassing power. He managed to achieve this form by finding a hyperbolic time chamber on a planet he’d conquered and trained within it for the equivalent of ten years. Any long-time lover of the franchise knows how useful the time chamber can be to gain a lot of power quickly and Frieza used this expertly. He is shown to be overwhelming with V-Jump stating that the power of this form is practically beyond measure, quickly defeating an Ultra Instinct Goku and Ultra Ego Vegeta, who are both Saiyans at the peak of their abilities. He was just so tired of getting trounced all the time that he put his head down and did the work, but does that make him more powerful than a literal god?
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It’s actually quite difficult to unpack exactly how strong Beerus is. He is, after all, a God of Destruction and meant to basically destroy planets and solar systems whenever it is needed or wanted. Frieza needed his permission to blow up Planet Vegeta. That is just how in charge he really is. But there are hints in the franchise that can give fans a better sense of Frieza’s limitations. The angels like Whis are already known to be stronger than the Gods of Destruction as a whole and, in the Universe Survival Saga, it is mentioned that Beerus is not the strongest in all the universes and that there is a mortal who outstrips his ability. Beerus blatantly states that Whis and Zeno are stronger than him, but they are celestial entities that are far beyond most mortal understanding of the concept of power.
Super Saiyan Blue isn’t enough to really take him on, but forms like Ultra Instinct and Ultra Ego are offshoots of abilities used by Angels and Gods of Destruction respectively. Goku and Vegeta, shown using these forms, are able to put more pressure on Beerus in their spars and fights, but it is unclear exactly how much they really measure up to him. Toriyama stated in an interview in “Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods Anime Comics” that, in terms of power, Super Saiyan God Goku would be a six, Beerus would be a ten, and Whis would be a fifteen. Beerus is incredibly powerful, but he has one weakness: his life is linked to the Supreme Kais and Shin is the only one left, meaning that his survival is imperative to Beerus’ continued existence. Much like Piccolo and Kami before him, he needs that little guy alive.
Only One Dragon Ball Character Truly Deserves to Beat Black Frieza
The major question, ultimately, is whether Black Frieza is a match for Beerus. While that form is on the level of the Gods of Destruction, this is a question that Akira Toriyama himself tackled. While the late creator of the franchise was known to change his mind and retcon things, he did outright state in “Dragon Ball Volume ‘F’” that Frieza is no match for Beerus no matter what he does, even after his training. This did exist prior to the reveal of Black Frieza, however, and is definitely something that could be considered up for healthy debate.
Frieza’s best bet at defeating Beerus would be to go after Shin, ultimately, as fighting someone like Beerus head-on would, at minimum, be challenging even for Black Frieza. While he is incredibly powerful, the thing to note is that Beerus is also well-trained in martial arts and has an eternity of experience under his belt. Frieza is powerful but, in the context of Dragon Ball, he isn’t a very skilled fighter. He is clever and ruthless, but he isn’t a trained martial artist with the same ability to gauge out a fight. His initial conflict with Goku actually showed this off, with the famously dense Saiyan being an out-and-out better fighter and using that to carry him through. Does this mean that Frieza will never become stronger than Beerus? No. What it shows is the potential. As of right now, however, it is highly unlikely that Beerus would lose to Frieza’s newest form in a fair fight.
