Frieza is to Dragonball what the Joker is to the Batman franchise.

>>150915553
a villain?

>>150916107
An overused/rehashed one.

Joker is famous because he's a foil

Vegeta is more of a foil to Goku than Frieza was. Only reason Frieza is popular was because it was the highest the scale gotten before it became a repetitive beam spam war.

>>150915553
Frieza was the best villain in Dragon Ball Z. Cell and Buu, we were told that they were strong, but you never really feel it. But Frieza felt fucking powerful. Because of the way they hyped him up, you felt intimidated by him. And once he started fighting, not matter how much power the good guys used, Frieze was just laughing it off. The whole time, it was obvious he had monstrous power. When he powered up, or blew shit up, or was beating on the characters, it didn't just feel like any old fight scene. You could feel the power to destroy planets behind every punch, kick, and stab. And that's why it was all the more incredible when Goku went SSJ. All of a sudden, this person you knew to be the most unstoppable force in the universe was getting his ass beat. Frieza didn't just feel like any old villain, he felt like THE villain. And that's why Dragon Ball could only go downhill after he was defeated. They couldn't ever really top the sheer power and awe you felt watching Frieza and Goku fighting and destroying this dying planet ever quicker. Now, Dragon Ball Z is a very simple story, it doesn't try to have pretentious morals or over detailed sob backstories. It just made you feel really, really hyped for really good fights between really powerful characters. You could watch it solely for the fights. That's where Dragon Ball goes right and other battle shonen go wrong. Dragon Ball Z didn't try to deny being a fighting manga/anime, it embraced it. While other shonen have these crappy character with stupid philosophies that they can't stop spouting, and shitty worlds with millions of background characters, Dragon Ball Z is just about a bunch of pretty nearly morally ambiguous characters going at it in fights that are fun to watch and really give off the power behind the characters. Dragon Ball Z just tries to be, and is, the best visual fighting adventure possible.

>>150915553
>/a/utist doesn't know what he's talking about: the thread.

Bane is THE one true Batman archenemy because he put Bats out of commision and had to be replaced. all Joker did was kill a shitty Robin, that puts him more in Nappa's league who curbstomped all of Goku's friends.

>>150915553
Frieda isn't in Dragon Ball retard he's in the garbage shit show that is Dragon Ball Z

>>150918049
I'm sorry both Frieda and Frieza don't appear in the original Dragon Ball my mistake

>>150917566
>Now, Dragon Ball Z is a very simple story... That's where Dragon Ball goes right and other battle shonen go wrong.

to be fair One Piece and Jojo also has this
why they're so popular

File: 509aacb132685ff8851ca0e073c9fad6.jpg (58KB, 465x720px) Image search: [Google]

58KB, 465x720px

>>150916740
Pretty much this.
>most powerful being in the universe
>name alone brings fear even to rulers in afterlife
After that it was just "oh hey we can get even stronger", and nothing came even close to be as menacing as Frieza.

>>150918492
>>150917566
Buu, Beerus, and the Dark Dragons could've been more menacing. Frieza was a Galactic threat, but those three were a universal threat and probably would've been lovecraftian if done right

but Toriyama did not want the first two to be threatening at all and the Dark Dragons was just bad writing plan and simple. Namek arc also had the benefit of having a good synthesis between Toriyama's writing and the editing departments love of fighting and atmosphere before they started breaking up during the Cell arc.