I was hoping to not dwell on it as much I used to but, the fact of the matter is that the “Return of Frieza” story arc of Dragon Ball Super is still incredibly bothersome for me, since there really seemed like there was no way out of it all without its deus ex machina at the end.
Gohan, Piccolo and all of the others all went off to fight off Frieza’s army, but, clearly, they all stood no chance against them. Not only did Piccolo go down but Gohan was even tortured to point where Goten actually yelled out his name in tears. That scene still haunts me to think about. And even when Goku and Vegeta both arrived onto the scene, in the end, the battle was still not swaying in the good guys favor. Goku, even whilst in Super Saiyan God form Blue, was still not enough to defeat Frieza, especially not while he was within his new Golden form, which was still enough to overpower him, and the big reveal about Frieza’s new weakness while within this new form not only came to light by sheer luck, but it ultimately mattered nothing in the end, because they had to make Goku suddenly let his guard down around Frieza of all people and get hit with a blow that didn’t seem like it should have been enough to do much to him (say what you want, but Goku never really let his guard down that much with Frieza, especially not when his family and friends were involved either). Now, if Goku had been shot just when he was about to deliver the final blow to Frieza, that would have seemed more fitting to his character, but, instead they make it so that he just powered himself down and then got shot and everyone just kept on giving me grief for it no less too. Not that it really mattered in the end anyways, since when Vegeta’s turn finally came up, not only was his gaining of the upper-hand mostly just because Goku had already tired Frieza out, but, in the end; Frieza still won by destroying the entire planet and according to Beerus, he likely still survived such an action. In the end, Frieza’s return was a threat that had no possible way of ending well, Goku and Vegeta still could not defeat him with their new powers, and, had Whis not suggested his do-over abilities while berating Goku, there would have been no way out of all of it. The fact that it all still worked out okay in the end hardly really matters all that much, since the whole ordeal was still only settled because of a simple stroke of pure luck.