How could an intergalactic tyrant lose to a Saiyan whose base form didn’t even reach one-third of Frieza’s full power? While the Super Saiyan transformation and the Kaio-Ken technique were Goku's primary keys to victory, one can’t deny that sheer skill and luck also played a part in one of Dragon Ball Z's most memorable fights.
An equally important factor, however, was Frieza’s own arrogance. If he hadn't been so fond of playing games with his enemies, the self-proclaimed “Emperor of the Universe” could have actually spared himself from a humiliating defeat. Frieza had many opportunities to defeat Goku if his own ego had let him.
10 If He'd Fought At 100% From The Start
Frieza often restrains himself but rarely out of mercy. Instead, he often chooses to hold back his power to prolong fights, especially when he can make his enemies suffer for longer.
Against Goku, however, holding back was a mistake. Thanks to the Kaio-ken, the Saiyan martial artist was able to hold his own, even when Frieza was fighting at 50% of his full strength. Worse still, prolonging the fight eventually allowed Goku to become a Super Saiyan. Had Frieza simply powered up to 100% from the very beginning, he could have won long before Goku awakened his Super Saiyan power.
9 If He'd Attacked (& Looked Up) Sooner When Goku Was Charging The Spirit Bomb
When a battered, weakened Goku began charging the Spirit Bomb on Namek, he gave Frieza a wide opening for several minutes. Yet rather than exploit it, Frieza instead toyed with Goku, not even noticing the Spirit Bomb until spotting its reflection in the water.
Had Frieza put more effort into figuring out why Goku had stopped fighting and started holding his arms up in the air, Frieza would have spotted the Spirit Bomb much sooner. Even if Frieza hadn’t, however, he could have simply attacked Goku with a lethal blast the moment he realized Goku was unable to defend himself.
8 If He Had Blown Up Goku From The Inside, Instead Of Krillin
Fighting Frieza and using the Spirit Bomb had left Goku utterly spent. However, he got a monumental second wind when Frieza used his telekinesis to blow up Krillin’s body, triggering Goku’s Super Saiyan transformation.
Frieza’s mistake was attacking Goku’s allies first, rather than Goku himself. Krillin was barely a threat to him, and neither was Piccolo, whom Frieza also attacked. If Frieza had begun his counteroffensive by using his telekinesis to instead blow up Goku, or use virtually any other powerful attack on the Saiyan, Frieza could have won easily. He could have focused on Piccolo, Krillin, and Gohan after that.
7 If He Had Just Spared Krillin (& Left Goku's Other Friends Alive)
If Frieza had killed Krillin any other way—or any of Goku’s closest allies, for that matter—he would have triggered Goku’s Super Saiyan power. All Goku needed was something to anger him enough to transform.
This is why Frieza shouldn’t have tried killing a single one of Goku’s friends. Simply keeping Goku from becoming enraged would have likely kept him from turning into a Super Saiyan. While Frieza had been badly injured when Goku had thrown the Spirit Bomb at him, he still had plenty of fight in him, meaning he could have definitely fought Goku’s base form until achieving total victory.
6 If He'd Kept Better Track Of His Death Saucers
Unable to fight at 100% for a prolonged period, Frieza found his battle against Super Saiyan Goku speeding toward a premature conclusion. Yet the tyrant had one more trick up his sleeve: his so-called “Death Saucers,” two energy disks sharp enough to cut through nearly anything. Ironically, however, one of the disks sliced through Frieza’s body instead, as Goku had distracted him by attacking Frieza physically.
Frieza should have tried regaining control of the Death Saucers the moment Goku’s attack ended. Given how Goku had kept dodging the disks earlier, it’s likely they could have cut through him as easily as they did Frieza.
5 If He'd Suffocated Goku In Space By Blowing Up Namek Immediately (Preferably From A Distance)
Frieza seems to have two different techniques for destroying the planet. The first is his “Supernova”—a gigantic orb of energy that can destroy a world immediately on contact. The other is his much smaller “Death Ball,” which gradually burrows through a planet’s crust until reaching its core.
Frieza used the latter when fighting Goku, presumably to allow Frieza time to escape Namek, but likely also so he could continue fighting. Yet, those five minutes gave Goku his victory. Had Frieza instead flown into space and used the Supernova, Goku would have died from the blast or suffocated once Namek’s atmosphere was destroyed.
4 If He'd Trapped Goku In An Imprisonment Ball & Released Him In Space
Frieza has one advantage over Goku that the Saiyan is physically unable to replicate: the ability to breathe in space. When Frieza fired his Death Ball into Namek, King Kai’s biggest worry was that Goku would not die from the planet exploding, but from the resulting lack of oxygen.
However, Frieza could have exploited this weakness much sooner. When Frieza trapped Goku in a ball of energy (aka his “Imprisonment Ball”), Frieza could have simply knocked the virtually unbreakable ball far into space and then destroyed it. Goku would have asphyxiated in minutes.
3 If He'd Saved His Last Attack For When Goku Was Fleeing Namek In The Ginyu Force Spaceship
When Goku gave Frieza enough energy to leave the planet, the galactic despot immediately squandered it by firing a blast of energy at Goku’s back. Yet he failed to catch the Saiyan off-guard, who unleashed his own energy beam and blasted Frieza away.
Frieza had attacked too soon. He could have instead waited and decimated the Ginyu Force space pod while Goku was flying off in it. Goku would have survived but had no time to find another abandoned ship. Or alternately, Frieza could have blown the ship up in space, leaving Goku helpless in space’s airless vacuum.
2 If He'd Summoned King Cold
At this point in time, Goku wasn’t as strong of a Super Saiyan as Trunks was when the half-Saiyan from the future defeated King Cold and Frieza with ease. Fighting Frieza on Namek, therefore, was a challenge for Goku, despite his Super Saiyan form being slightly stronger than Frieza's 100% full power.
King Cold was a being said to be only slightly weaker than Frieza himself. Had Frieza summoned his father to Namek for assistance, Goku would have had his hands full dealing with essentially two Frieza-level threats. The deciding factor, of course, would have been whether Cold could have arrived in time.
1 If Ginyu Had Taken Over Goku’s Body Again
When Captain Ginyu accidentally switched bodies with a frog, it was the last time he was seen in the manga, other than perhaps a few unconfirmed cameos. In the anime, however, Ginyu appeared on several more occasions, including in Bulma’s body while still on Namek.
Had Ginyu not accidentally revealed his true identity while posing as Bulma, he could have very well ended up back in Goku’s body eventually, with some ingenuity. From there, he could simply have continued to serve Frieza, leaving Goku in either the body of a frog or of Piccolo (whom Ginyu had also tried swapping bodies with).