Dragon Ball: Is Black Frieza the strongest character in the series? Explored

Dragon Ball is a series that relies heavily on power scaling and how strong the antagonist is, which is something that has led to a lot of criticism during the Super portion of the story. Be that as it may, if there is a character who made a strong impression from the moment he showed his new form, that is Black Frieza in the manga.

The truth is that the Dragon Ball Super manga has not shown a lot of Black Frieza's exploits and what he is fully capable of but he still managed to make quick work of Ultra Instinct Goku and Ultra Ego Vegeta without much of an issue. Therefore, it makes sense that he is very strong. However, the question of how he ranks compared to the rest of the characters in the series remains.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the Dragon Ball Super series. Any opinion expressed here belongs to the author and not Sportskeeda.

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Explaining how strong Black Frieza is in the current Dragon Ball landscape

Black Frieza is the strongest mortal character in the Dragon Ball series at the moment. This has been confirmed through his introduction in the Granolah Arc, making quick work of Vegeta and Goku at their strongest, which says a lot considering how much they have improved throughout the franchise.

Moreover, Frieza himself mentioned that he wasn't within the universe when Granolah made his wish to become the strongest.

Of course, a lot of people will bring up the character of Gohan and the massive power-up he obtained with his Beast transformation in the recent arc, which puts him back again as one of the most powerful individuals in the series. While author Akira Toriyama has mentioned that Gohan can become the strongest in the story, it remains to be seen if he can stack up to Black Frieza at the moment.

There is also the element of the Angels and the Gods of Destruction, with many of them being, on paper, stronger than Frieza. At least, this is what has been hinted at with Beerus, who remains the pinnacle of strength in Universe 7.

Whis also seems to be way stronger than any other character in the main universe, although it has been confirmed that he cannot influence the events that take place within his jurisdiction.

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What is Frieza's role in the story at the moment?

Black Frieza overpowering Goku and Vegeta in the Dragon Ball Super manga (Image via Shueisha)

It is no secret in the Dragon Ball community that Frieza being brought back to life was a very divisive decision several years ago. While the character had a very entertaining performance in the Tournament of Power, particularly in the anime version, there are still debates surrounding his use in the story.

Furthermore, the plot point of Frieza being a battle prodigy and getting extremely powerful through training was handled better in the Granolah Arc as he trained for ten years. However, this decision was also quite divisive.

Be that as it may, Frieza has returned to the pinnacle of strength in the series and seems to be in a very unique position where he has become a running character in the story but remains a villain.

Now that he has managed to overpower Goku and Vegeta with ease, it seems that the heroes are bound to come up with a strategy to defeat him beyond just getting stronger, which could be the focus of the upcoming arc in the manga.

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Final thoughts

As of right now, it seems that Black Frieza is the strongest character in the Dragon Ball series since readers haven't seen the full strength of Gohan's new transformation. The same can be said with Frieza and his new power-up since he didn't break a sweat when defeating Goku and Vegeta.