Dragon Ball Series: Frieza (INTJ)

(requested/bonus article)

For every 50 coffees donated, we promised to post a third/bonus article that week from off a request queue. This week we reached out our first 50th coffee! So, as promised, here’s the bonus article.  We weren’t immediately ready to publish any of the expedited requests, unfortunately. Instead, here’s a character analysis from a little further down the list… that also happens to go a bit against the grain. (Most people believe Frieza to be an ENTJ.) Hear us out.

Ni:

“You’ve successfully dashed my hopes against the craggy shores of your ignorance.”

“I have always believed it is better to err on the side of caution.”

Frieza appears to be an Ni dominant (which will make more sense once you read the inferior Se section). He’s overall calm and collected, and doesn’t tend to get demanding until denied what he wants. (An example can be seen when he semi-politely asks Nail to take him to the Grand Elder.) He doesn’t appear to jump into a fight quickly, but instead stands by and talks first. He claims to believe that it’s better to err on the side of caution. This could suggest that he’s an introvert, rather than a dominant Te user. Ultimately, his enjoyment comes from toying with people, moving his men around like pawns, and his general laziness, all of which take precedence over completing his ultimate goal as quickly as possible. This seems counter to that of a Te dominant.

Frieza also gets incredibly angry when his subordinates do not think things fully through. For instance, when Zarbon comes back and happily reports that he had killed Vegeta, you can see Frieza become incredibly angry. He berates Zarbon for not considering that Vegeta may have hidden a dragon ball and could be the only one who knows where it is. He further demands Zarbon go retrieve him and hope that he isn’t dead, further adding that Zarbon would be killed as well if he didn’t find Vegeta alive.

Frieza tends to speak in a metaphorical fashion, as demonstrated in the quote at the beginning of this section. Of course, this tends to be a general intuitive quality. He uses figurative or non-standard language in referring to others, like calling them dust mites, quivering insects, and etc. Frieza is generally very focused on his goal, and everything he does is to that end. He gets a sense of foreboding that one day a Super Saiyan would defeat him, which suggests Ni intuition. He gets incredibly angry whenever he fails to see something coming, which would certainly be the case for someone who is depending on foresight to guide them. We also see Frieza’s Ni crack in the final battle with Goku as he resorts to suggesting the unlikely possibility of the entire battle being a nightmare, as a way to explain how he is losing.

Te:

“Why you worm! You dare to mock me?!”

“I do not abide such foolish talk.”

Freiza’s Te comes out in the way that he deals with others and interacts with them. He is very commanding, although not without a certain level of vague and almost satirical politeness. This suggests more of an auxiliary Te rather than dominant, considering that he tends to drag things out by not going straight to demands and strong arm tactics. Most of the time, however, he seems to inevitably resort to those means. He has no qualms about ordering his men to torture and kill anyone who is withholding something that he desires. He gets incredibly angry whenever his orders or demands are refused.

Frieza refers to others in a belittling and demeaning way, in order to reinforce his own power and authority. He frequently refers to his subordinates and opponents as worms, mites, insects, and other derogatory terms. It all focuses around how insignificant they are in comparison to himself.

Frieza has a low tolerance for failure. The consequences for failure are oftentimes dire, such as death. However, he is one to give second chances to his more valuable men, as we see throughout the Namek Arc. This is another reason that we would argue auxiliary Te over dominant. In spite of this though, we do see him griping to himself (after many of his subordinates are killed) that if he wants anything done right, he has to do it himself.

Fi:

Frieza is very prideful, self-confident, and unafraid to express it. He claims to possess qualities like generosity. He also claims to be a man of his word, suggesting that he does have a certain set of personal standards that he holds himself to. Frieza calls Goku both a hypocrite and “disgustingly pure” during their battle, which suggests both Fi judgement and low Fi, since lower Fi specifically tends to express disgust for high Fi qualities like Goku’s self righteousness and purity.

Frieza’s standards are obviously twisted, considering that he is evil and not above using deception, but these examples and statements demonstrate his sense and view of himself. His standards for himself are also further emphasized later, when he begins losing his battle against Goku. He claims that he’d rather die by his own hands before letting someone like Goku kill him.

Se:

“Why don’t you just stand still and perish?!”

Frieza’s weakness appears to be Se. For starters, he uses a personal hover pod to transport himself everywhere, rather than just flying himself like everyone else. This demonstrates a lack of desire for Se experiences or activity of any kind. He is lazy in a way that neglects Se. He’s constantly delegating, rather than taking action himself when it would be much more efficient to do so. (Note: We’re not claiming that an ENTJ wouldn’t delegate. We’re claiming that Frieza over-delegates to avoid personally taking action when it would clearly be more efficient to complete the task himself.)

An obvious example can be seen in the way he avoids fighting Goku and team until the very end. He keeps sending men after them, who would subsequently die as a result. He even sends for the Ginyu force, and waits patiently for their arrival, rather than taking matters into his own hands. Of course, they die as well. He literally doesn’t involve himself in the fighting until all of his underlings are dead, and there is no other option.

We can see Frieza enter into the grip of Se when faced with the far superior Super Saiyan Goku. His previously strategic fighting degrades into a primal flailing mess. Goku even specifically calls out that he is resorting to cheap tricks out of desperation. Ultimately, his lack of Se awareness further perpetuates his defeat as he fails to keep track of his own attacks and effectively improvise in the moment, which results in slicing himself in two with his own homing energy disks.