Freeza Saga

The Frieza Saga is the second story arc of Dragon Ball Z. It focuses on the Z-Fighters' battle against the galactic tyrant Frieza and his henchmen on Planet Namek. The saga spans from volumes 23 to 27 of the original Dragon Ball manga and episodes 36 to 107 of the Dragon Ball Z anime. It originally aired from 1990 to 1991.

In the English dub of the anime, the Freeza Saga is divided into three seasons or sub-sagas:

Plot

Namek Saga

Following the fight with Vegeta, the only survivors of the battle are Goku, Gohan, Krillin, and Yajirobe, after Yamcha, Tien, Chiaotzu, and Piccolo were all killed by Nappa. Because Piccolo is dead, Kami is also gone and the Dragon Balls are useless, meaning the others can't be wished back to life. Remembering when Vegeta spoke of Piccolo's home world Namek having Dragon Balls, Gohan, Krillin, and Bulma depart for the planet in the spaceship Kami originally came to Earth with. Goku is forced to stay behind until he recovers from his injuries. Meanwhile, Vegeta arrives at Planet Frieza #79 and heals in a rejuvenation chamber. Once recovered, he is told by his rival Cui that Frieza has already departed for Namek to get the Dragon Balls and wish for immortality. Furious, Vegeta also takes off for Namek to get to the Dragon Balls first.

Once on Namek, Gohan, Krillin, and Bulma learn of Frieza and his henchmen's presence and are even more spooked when Vegeta's space pod arrives on the planet. Back on Earth, Goku is healed by a Senzu Bean from Yajirobe and he takes off to Namek in a rebuilt version of his old Saiyan space pod built by Bulma's father Dr. Brief. During the trip, Goku trains under 100x Earth's gravity to get stronger. While inside the spaceship, King Kai contacts him, warning him that there is something far worse than any elite Saiyan waiting for him on Planet Namek. Back on Namek, Vegeta defeats Cui, Dodoria & Zarbon, Frieza's top henchmen. After realising that Vegeta is more than enough for his henchmen, Frieza then summons his elite fighting unit the Ginyu Force. Gohan and Krillin, along with a young Namekian they rescued named Dende, meet with the Great Elder of Namek, Guru who unlocks their hidden potential. They are then forced to form an allliance with Vegeta to fight the Ginyu Force.

The weakest of the Ginyu Force, Guldo is the first to fight. Guldo uses his time binding abilities to freeze Gohan and Krillin, but is decapitated with a surprise attack by Vegeta and then blown to bits. The strongest of the Ginyu Force, Recoome is the next to fight. Vegeta steps up to fight him first, charging at him with a high-speed assault. Though they fight bravely, Gohan, Vegeta, and Krillin are all easily defeated. Before they can be finished off however, Goku finally arrives on Namek and heals them all with Senzu. Goku quickly finishes off Recoome with a punishing blow to the stomach during his preparation for the "Recoome Fighting Bomber", to everyone's shock. (If you want to see this move, play the Budokai games.) As the remaining Ginyu Force members, Jeice and Burter charge in to fight, Vegeta begins to suspect that Goku has become the first Super Saiyan in 1000 years.

Captain Underpants Saga

Despite their combined attacks, Jeice and Burter are unable to even land a blow on Goku, who keeps dodging everything they throw, without even appearing to. After failing to defeat Goku with their desperate attempts, Burter suggests to Jeice firing his Crusher Ball, so that they can follow up with a special attack called the "Purple Comet Flash". Goku deflects Jeice's Crusher Ball with ease, angering Burter with the fact that there is someone on the planet that has exceeded his speed. Eventually, Goku defeats Burter with ease, but Jeice retreats to Captain Ginyu. Goku and Ginyu then fight, but Goku proves to be far more stronger than the Captain realized. After witnessing Goku's special Kaioken, Ginyu is then forced to use his Body Change technique, and switches bodies with Goku. However, he is unable to use Goku's power. After Vegeta dispatches Jeice with a charged blast to face, he takes out Ginyu. Before he can land a finishing blow however, Ginyu again uses his Body Change to switch with Vegeta, but Goku jumps in the way and is returned to his own body. Ginyu tries to change bodies with Vegeta a second time, but Goku throws a Namekian frog in the way, causing Ginyu to change bodies with it. With the Ginyu Force defeated, and Frieza away for the moment, Goku is placed in a rejuvenation chamber inside Frieza's own spaceship to recover from the wounds Vegeta gave his body while Ginyu was in it.

Frieza Saga

After cautiously gathering the Namekian Dragon Balls from a sleeping Vegeta, Gohan, Krillin, and Dende summon the Eternal Dragon Porunga, who, unlike the Earth's dragon Shenron, can grant three wishes. With the first wish, they bring Piccolo back to life, causing Kami and the Earth's Dragon Balls to come back as well, and with the second wish, they teleport Piccolo to Namek so he can assist them. However, before Vegeta can use the third wish for immortality, Guru dies and the Dragon Balls become useless. Just as Vegeta thinks of what else can go wrong, Frieza arrives.

Angered at being foiled for his quest to attain immortality, Frieza attacks Vegeta. After an even match, Vegeta tells Frieza to transform and show his real power. Frieza does this and becomes more powerful than Vegeta thought. Frieza then goes in to attack Dende, but Krillin throws him out of the way and impaled on Frieza's horns. Later, he is healed by Dende. Meanwhile, Piccolo, on his way to the battlefield, finds the dying Namekian warrior Nail, who had tried vainly to stop Frieza. At Nail's suggestion, Piccolo merges with him, becoming even more powerful, and he continues on to the battlefield. Once there, he proves to be more than a match for Frieza, but then the tyrant transforms a second time and becomes even stronger. After Piccolo is badly injured by Frieza's Crazy Finger Beam, Gohan explodes again in a bout of rage and attacks Frieza with his finishing move, the "Bakuretsu Ranma". After discovering Dende's ability to heal others, Vegeta has Krillin injure him to that he can be healed and become stronger due to his Saiyan genes. During this, Piccolo & Vegeta are healed and Frieza decides to turn into his ultimate transformation. He first kills Dende with his Death Beam, so the others can't be healed anymore. Vegeta, believing that he is now a Super Saiyan (arrogant bastard), attacks Frieza, only to discover that he still can't keep up with the tyrant. Eventually he gives up and is beaten to death by Frieza.

Just as all hope seems lost however, Goku completely recovers inside Frieza's spaceship and discovers his power has greatly increased since his fight with Captain Ginyu. The Saiyan hero then arrives on the battlefield and Frieza recognizes Goku as the son of Bardock. Vegeta begins to boasts that Goku is a Super Saiyan and Frieza fires his Death Beam at Vegeta, piercing the Saiyan Prince's heart. With his dying breath, Vegeta shed tears as he tells Goku of how Frieza used the entire Saiyan race to do his dirty work and then destroyed them all out of fear of an uprising. Upon hearing this, Goku vows to show Frieza no mercy and he buries Vegeta in a shallow grave. Goku and Frieza then begin to fight and for a while, Goku is able to hold his own, even exploiting Frieza's inability to sense another's presence. However, Frieza claims that he is only using 33% of his maximum power, and then powers up to 50%, turning the tables in his favor. After almost drowning and realising that he can't beat Frieza with the Kaioken 20x, desperate, Goku prepares his Spirit Bomb, gathering energy from Namek and its neighboring planets, and with Gohan, Krillin, and Piccolo distracting Frieza, Goku completes the Spirit Bomb and hurls it onto Frieza.

However, Frieza is able to survive the Spirit Bomb, and he critically injures Piccolo with his Death Beam, and then kills Krillin by levitating him into the air and causing his body to explode. Enraged beyond belief, Goku's fury unlocks his hidden power and he finally transforms into a Super Saiyan. After ordering Gohan to leave with Piccolo in his spaceship programmed for Earth, Super Saiyan Goku attacks Frieza and overpowers the tyrant. Desperate, Frieza fires his Death Ball on Namek, but fails to gather enough energy to instantly destroy it. With five minutes left until the planet explodes, Frieza powers up to 100% of his maximum power and continues his fight with the Super Saiyan. During this, King Kai has Kami use the Earth's Dragon Balls to wish back to life all those on Namek who where killed by Frieza and his henchmen, bringing back all the Namekians, Dende, and even Vegeta. Guru is also brought back to life for a short time, and the Namekian Dragon Balls are also brought back. At Goku's request, Dende uses the final wish to teleport everyone on Namek to Earth except for Frieza, and also Goku, so the Super Saiyan can finish Frieza off once and for all.

With everyone else back on Earth, Goku and Frieza continue their battle on the dying Namek. Goku grows tired of the pointless battle and begins to leave, but Frieza cannot swallow his humiliation at the hands of a "monkey" and launches two energy disks. Eventually, Frieza is defeated when his body is sliced in half by his own energy disk. The dying tyrant begs for help from Goku, who's merciful soul makes him give some of his own energy to Frieza. However, Frieza, unable to accept defeat to a Saiyan, launches a final energy blast at Goku, but the Super Saiyan easily repels it back with a blast of his own and finally destroys the tyrant (or so it seems). Namek soon after explodes and everyone on Earth believes Goku has died, but when they use the Namekian Dragon Balls 130 days later to wish Krillin and Yamcha back to life, they are informed that Goku is still alive, and will come back home later. 130 more days later, Tien and Chiaotzu are wished back to life and then the Namekians, except for Piccolo, teleport to a new planet. With the events of Namek over, the Z-Fighters return to their peaceful lives, waiting for Goku to return.

References

Vegeta is a hippie and wears thongs for casual occasions.