Dragon Ball Super Goku Needed Frieza to Beat an Even Stronger Villain

In Dragon Ball Super Goku and Freiza, “bury the hatchet” to fight a common enemy who threatens their mutual existence. Will they be successful?

One of the greatest of all rivalries in manga history is the one between Dragon Ball's Goku and Frieza, but Dragon Ball Super put a surprising twist on the classic feud.

Despite their mutual deep-seated hatred for each other, Goku and Frieza were able to put their feelings aside in the interest of achieving a greater goal, namely a goal that was necessary to their mutual survival. This played out in the Dragon Ball Super’s “Tournament of Power.” The tourney was organized by the master of the multiverse Zeno and Future Zeno as a method of determining which universe had the best champions, and therefore had the best reason to continue existing. Under the rules, any team that lost a match would have their universe wiped from existence.

The fighting was intense but, ultimately, came down to a battle between Goku’s Universe 07 and Universe 11, which included a being known as Jiren. Jiren was the most powerful member of the team and went about punishing all opponents who believed they were better. This included Goku who was initially defeated by Jiren. Frieza, who Goku invited to be on his team, as well as team member Android 17 “tagged” in for Goku but were unable to overcome Jiren’s abilities.

Goku was given another chance, but Jiren still proved invincible. With Goku near defeat, however, Frieza reappeared ready and energized to defeat Jiren as long all agreed to his wish to be reborn if he succeeded in defeating him. Realizing that the only way to defeat Jiren was if he and Frieza combined their strengths, Goku grabbed hold of Jiren as Frieza launched a power ball at him. Too focused on withstanding the blast, Jiren did not notice that once Frieza launched the power ball, he transformed into his golden form and plummeted like a bullet behind the power ball. Realizing too late to make a countermove, the impact knocked Freiza, Jiren, and Goku out of the battle ring thereby disqualifying all three. However, out of the wreckage of the battle-ring, a revived Android 17 arose. As the last player standing in the ring, he was declared the tournament winner.

What was interesting about the sudden turn of events was that Android 17 and Frieza had worked out the plan beforehand. That is, Android 17 agreed to sacrifice himself in the battle to Jiren so that he could lie dormant until a time when necessary to self-resurrect. More importantly, the fight showed that when their survival was at stake, Dragon Ball Super's Goku and Frieza were willing to put aside their life-long animosity to achieve a common goal. Neither was likely to defeat Jiren individually, even in their top-level battle forms. Moreover, even in success, they still need the assistance of a third party to seal the win. Goku and Frieza may be mortal enemies in Dragon Ball but in Dragon Ball Super they prove to be a devastating team.