Digital Overlord Tells Geekdom101 He Would Reboot Cooler as Black Frieza's Possible Training Partner

Was Cooler training with Frieza inside the Room of Spirit and Time? That was the theory going around the fandom in September 2022. My guest Digital Overlord told me that, given the chance, he would reboot Cooler, because "i think we could actually do a way better story" with the character than before.

At that point Frieza had just emerged from the dimension of time with Black Frieza, a new transformation revealed in the then recent Dragon Ball Super chapter. Much of the fandom was asking whether he had a sparring partner. We know from Dragon Ball Z, when the Room of Spirit and Time was introduced, that it is usually best to go in with a training partner. So did Frieza have one, and was it Cooler?

Cooler was getting a lot of emphasis in 2022

A lot of folks seemed to think so because of the emphasis on Cooler at the time, including the Dokkan anniversary event that highlighted him. The thought was that Cooler might be on his way to being rewritten into the Dragon Ball Super story, sort of like what was done with Broly.

This was not the first time fans had looked his way. Many people, me included, initially thought Cooler could appear in the next Dragon Ball movie after Broly, based on Frieza's teases. I even covered that possibility. That film turned out to be Super Hero, and it was not Cooler. With the Dokkan event and Black Frieza spending so long in the chamber, the questions came back: is Cooler his training partner, and if so, where did he come from?

Digital Overlord suggests a Universe 6 Cooler who is not Frieza's brother

I asked how a rebooted Cooler, rewritten by Toriyama and Toyotaro, could be brought back. Could he be from Universe 6, a lost character trapped in a dimension, or someone Frieza never bothered to mention? Digital Overlord said possibly they could have him from Universe 6 and, instead of being Frieza's brother, make him someone different who trains with Frieza. In the movies Cooler is Frieza's brother, he noted, and putting him in a different universe "would be really interesting to actually see."

We already have Frost, who was sort of Universe 6's counterpart to Frieza. One thing never explained is whether, since Frieza's race exists in Universe 7, there are other members of that race in Universe 6. Maybe Cooler could be Frost's dad, the way King Cold was to Frieza.

A lot of people like how Cooler was written in the old DBZ movies. He was more serious and very prideful about his family, which is why he went after Goku for revenge. If Cooler was Frieza's training partner, I feel they will have to reveal him at some point, and I genuinely wonder whether they were slowly building toward a Cooler versus Broly fight, since Broly was the first movie character Toriyama rebooted. Cooler might look different or he might not. We do not know.

Frieza has already seen fusion, so a team up is not out of the question

I also raised the idea of Cooler working with Frieza, or even fusing with him. Frieza has seen fusion. He saw Goku and Vegeta as Gogeta, though he did not see the pose. In the Dragon Ball Super anime he also saw Gotenks fuse in front of him, but that was only in the anime, which Toriyama did not write; that was Toei adding it. The Potara fusion of Kefla also happened in the anime, and that could have come from Toriyama, but we really do not know, because Kale was not really Toriyama's original vision.

Digital Overlord said what they could do is show the two actually working together, because we never really got that with Frieza and Cooler. There were flashbacks where Cooler would say their father always spoiled Frieza, though as I pointed out, that was in the dub. We never saw them together, except maybe in GT, which is a separate thing. If that happens, he said, he is on board, and he would like to see a new transformation for Cooler, calling him a really awesome and very popular character.

Cooler may be the second most popular movie character behind Broly

Digital Overlord added that he did not think Cooler was quite at Broly's level. Thinking about it, I would say the number two most popular movie character behind Broly is Turles, Cooler or Janemba, and the more I think about it, the more it is probably Cooler. Every villain in Dragon Ball gets one movie, except Broly, who got three, or four counting Super Broly, and Cooler, who got two.

Power wise, we have no idea how strong he would be, but they would have to do what they did with Broly and scale him up to Dragon Ball Super standards. That raised the question of whether he should keep the fifth form from the movie, get something totally different, or return as Metal Cooler. Digital Overlord said he would like them to keep the same form and Metal Cooler, but if they changed the form, "I would have no problem with it" because it would be something brand new added to the franchise.

Dr. Hedo's technology could be one route back to Metal Cooler

Thinking out loud, and this is just an idea from the back of my head, I wondered about Gamma 1 and 2 from Super Hero. Dr. Hedo has a brilliant mind, even more so than his grandfather who created the original androids. Maybe Cooler investigates what happened in Super Hero and steals some of Dr. Hedo's technology to eventually make Metal Cooler.

Instead of the Big Gete Star and Goku blasting Cooler into the sun, he could lose to Goku, Vegeta and Broly, decide he needs a strategic edge, and escape rather than die, like Frieza always does. Again, this is fan fiction at this point. Then he could create Metal Cooler clones like in the second Cooler movie, where the main Cooler was in the Big Gete Star and the regenerating Metal Coolers were the ones Goku and Vegeta fought.

Cooler could tip the scales against Goku, Vegeta and Broly

I had seen an Instagram artwork of Black Frieza fighting Broly in his green legendary form, Goku in Ultra Instinct and Vegeta in Ultra Ego. Against those three, I think Frieza would probably still win, because of how strong he was at the end of chapter 87. With Cooler there, though, that might tip the scales a bit, which could be a way to write Gohan and Piccolo back in now that they have new forms.

I also asked whether Cooler should get an evolution of his final form, like Golden Frieza and Black Frieza, where he looks the same but his colour changes, and whether that could already have happened while training with Frieza. Digital Overlord said that possibly could, and he would like to see it, calling Cooler "the second like villain best" in his view. He also said it would be interesting to see Broly with a new transformation battle Cooler in his.

A Cooler and Broly fight would need room to breathe

I agreed. People have to remember that Cooler is big. In his fifth form he is a giant, about as big as a buffed up Broly, maybe bigger, so that would be a wild fight. One thing I was getting tired of, and I criticised Super Hero for this with Cell Max, is that these characters are now beyond universe level. As I put it, "these guys need to be fighting in space and having like quasars get blown up." If Cooler and Broly fight, I do not understand how they could be contained.

I think the most marketable idea for Dragon Ball would be to bring Cooler back and have Toriyama reboot him. Digital Overlord agreed he would reboot Cooler, whether in the manga or in the next movie, whenever that would be made. As I said, that was a while off at the time, but they could save him for a movie, since he is a pretty big character to reboot.

So were the Dokkan event and the slow drip of Cooler teases really pointing to his return, or were we just overthinking it?