Goku sparing Freeza

[Evil Vegeta]

Goku's counter blast looked like it wiped Freeza out, but he seemed to believe he was too soft.

So did Goku intentionally hold-back and also expect Freeza to somehow withstand the planet explosion? Or something else?

 

[Captain Cadaver]

The entire school of thought that he'd expect Freeza to survive seems weird. After all, he knew absolutely nothing about Freeza's biology, with all he had to base it on was that a bisected Freeza could still move and avoid a fatal injry once given enough Ki. Are we to assume his punch connecting with Freeza caused him to have a psychic infodump like when he touched Kuririn's head?

Then there's the fact that he did this whilst in Super Saiyan, where his emotions such as rage were at their peak. Him sparing Freeza in the first place was ridiculous, but then he says he was still too soft in a form in which he made mention of how angry he was no less than 3 times.

Not sure how to explain it as anything other than bad writing.

 

[withheldforprivacy]

Maybe he meant allowing him to go full power.

 

[Diamond Ryan]

Maybe Toriyama forgot he fired that final blast at him?

Or maybe he did intend to finish off Freeza off with that blast, but the fact that he allowed Freeza to survive up to that point meant that he didn't have time to make sure he properly finish the job.

 

[ahill1]

That's a rather interesting question. Trunks also warned Freeza to come at him with everything he has got since he is not soft like Son Goku. Hmm, I wonder.

 

[ahill1]

Maybe they are just trying to sell the narrative here that Freeza is rather outclassed against the SSJs and then justifying their close battle on Namek as Goku going easy on him?

 

[Jeff Styles]

So Goku imply he let Freeza live? I mean, after Goku's angry Kamehameha, he look at the aftermath and it seems he finally kill Freeza. After all, Goku can sense ki, so he should know if Freeza was alive or not.

 

[Evil Vegeta]

Here's what he says in the Anime:

So, not that different. He seems more sure of his softness in the Manga.

 

[Southern Gothic]

I can think of a couple things here. He might have been referring to earlier intervals of his fight with Freeza. Goku kept up the battle, then later gave Freeza his energy, when he might have been able to kill him before Freeza even gets a chance to blow up Namek. Or at the least, he could have killed Freeza with time left on the clock, so he wasn't rushd by the end.

Assuming he destroyed Freeza earlier, he might have had a better chance to determine for sure that Freeza had died.

That, or Goku thinks he should have put enough into the blast to completely obliterate Freeza to the point of disintegration, ala Shello.

 

[withheldforprivacy]

Maybe they are just trying to sell the narrative here that Freeza is rather outclassed against the SSJs and then justifying their close battle on Namek as Goku going easy on him?

Makes sense. So, who supports that theory?

 

[ahill1]

Maybe they are just trying to sell the narrative here that Freeza is rather outclassed against the SSJs and then justifying their close battle on Namek as Goku going easy on him?

Makes sense. So, who supports that theory?

Well, it might be possible... and it'd make Trunks SSJ (Mecha saga) ~ Goku SSJ (Namek) workable. Something like:

Freeza (Namek) : 120,000,000
Goku SSJ (Namek, holding back) : 130,000,000
Mecha Freeza : 135,000,000
Goku SSJ (Namek) : 150,000,000
Trunks SSJ : 155,000,000

 

[Diamond Ryan]

Goku wasn't holding back against Freeza on Namek

 

[SSJ2]

Maybe they are just trying to sell the narrative here that Freeza is rather outclassed against the SSJs and then justifying their close battle on Namek as Goku going easy on him?

Makes sense. So, who supports that theory?

Well, it might be possible... and it'd make Trunks SSJ (Mecha saga) ~ Goku SSJ (Namek) workable. Something like:

Freeza (Namek) : 120,000,000
Goku SSJ (Namek, holding back) : 130,000,000
Mecha Freeza : 135,000,000
Goku SSJ (Namek) : 150,000,000
Trunks SSJ : 155,000,000

It honestly disgusts me that you've seriously written this out.

 

[ahill1]

k

 

[ahill1]

But honestly sometimes I think that how it was implied mecha saga Trunks had a bigger gap over Namek Freeza than Namek SSJ Goku had could be justified by the difference in their demeanors and motivations. Future Trunks wasn't interested in combat adrenaline and wished to finish Freeza as soon as possible so he could convey to Goku what he was really there for, hence him being not as soft as Son Goku, who at that time was driven by anger and wished to kind of embarass Freeza for what he did against his best friend.

Sometimes I feel that the SSJ >> Freeza narrative they are trying to sell in the Mecha Freeza saga isn't due the SSJs from the mecha saga being on a whole new level compared to Goku on Namek, but rather, Freeza never being so significant to Namek Goku to beging with, hence retroactively inserting the "Goku went too easy on Freeza" as a way to justify their close battle there.