Frieza is one of the most villainous scoundrels to have ever existed in the Dragon Ball universe, though his latest appearance put the vile villain in a more humorous light as he sought the wish-granting Dragon Balls in order to fulfill a desire that would have been considered ridiculous if it wasn’t so iconic–though it turns out, Frieza wasn’t the first Dragon Ball bad guy who wanted this particularly narcissistic wish granted.
In the anime film Dragon Ball Super: Broly, Frieza is after Earth’s Dragon Balls so that he can make a truly unexpected though strangely fitting wish. When Frieza was first introduced in Dragon Ball lore, he was attempting to steal the Dragon Balls of Planet Namek to make himself immortal so that he could rule the universe for all eternity. In Dragon Ball Super: Broly, however, Frieza wants to use the near limitless magic of the Dragon Balls to make himself taller. To be fair, Frieza is fairly short especially compared to his all-time worst enemy, Goku, but for someone as ruthless as Frieza to waste a magical wish on something so shallow is hilarious verging on stupid.
In Dragon Ball Chapter 95 by Akira Toriyama, Goku is single-handedly taking down the entire Red Ribbon Army after infiltrating its main base of operations. Throughout this current story arc, the Red Ribbon Army was after the Dragon Balls, presumably so that the leader of the organization, General Red, could use the balls’ magic to take over the world. However, in this chapter, it is revealed that General Red wanted to use the Dragon Balls to make himself taller, and thereby–in his mind–more physically imposing. When General Red’s second in command heard the truth, he became so infuriated that he shot General Red and killed him, then proceeded to take over the Red Ribbon Army.
While Frieza had no alignments with the Red Ribbon Army this early in Dragon Ball canon, the similarity in their wishes is striking to say the least. Both General Red and Frieza were powerful leaders who sought world (or in Frieza’s case, universal) domination. However, both of them nearly squandered their chance at ruling their respective territories with impunity via the power boost that would have been granted to them from the Dragon Balls. General Red and Frieza were too concerned with appearing all-powerful rather than actually being all-powerful, and both suffered the consequences.
Just as General Red was foiled by Goku, who time and again beat the Red Ribbon Army in recovering the Dragon Balls, Frieza was kept from his size-altering wish because of the Saiyan warrior as well. What’s funny about both scenarios is that neither of them required Goku’s intervention for the protection of the world/universe as those wishes would have been of such little consequence that no one would have noticed they had been made at all aside from the two narcissists that made them. While Frieza didn’t know General Red already tried to make the same wish he tried to make in Dragon Ball Super: Broly, he was still the second villain to come up with that particular request–a funny coincidence that connects one of Dragon Ball’s greatest villains with one of its most forgettable.