King Cold and Frieza: did he really favor Frieza over Cooler?

A CBR article asking why King Cold preferred Frieza over Cooler has a basic problem: nothing in Dragon Ball ever says he did. The idea comes from a single line in the English dub of the Cooler movie, a line that isn't in the Japanese version. Once you take that line away, the article falls apart, and much of what's left is headcanon.

The article opened by saying Dragon Ball Z introduced the villainous brothers Frieza and Cooler, then asked why their father always spoiled one over the other. There are many problems with that piece, and to me they prove a point I've been making about how these sites cover Dragon Ball.

Why I don't trust Dragon Ball coverage from sites like CBR and Screen Rant

Sites like CBR, Screen Rant and We Got This Covered never cared about Dragon Ball until Super came out and got popular. They had been covering other things for years, and only started writing Dragon Ball articles once it took off. To me, the whole thing is a cash grab.

I also heard from somebody who used to work at Screen Rant. I was going to debunk one of his articles, but he clarified to me what happened. According to him, Screen Rant finds people to write about Dragon Ball who aren't even Dragon Ball fans. Those writers then have to look things up online, and they go to Facebook, Reddit or Dragon Ball Wiki, which gets things wrong. Or they watch the series themselves, or they're casual viewers who watched Dragon Ball Z on Toonami and write everything from memory.

I'm not saying CBR does what Screen Rant does and hires people who aren't really fans, but it seems like they do. And I want to be clear: there's nothing wrong with being a casual Dragon Ball fan. I'm not one of those elitists who think you have to be an expert. Maybe I used to be years ago, but I'm not that guy anymore. Still, if you're going to write articles and produce content on Dragon Ball, you should know what you're talking about.

Nothing in Dragon Ball states King Cold spoiled Frieza

It's never stated that King Cold spoiled Frieza more than Cooler. The only time it was maybe implied that Frieza was spoiled is in Dragon Ball Super: Broly, when King Cold gave Frieza the empire. But that's because Frieza had come of age, and probably because Frieza may have earned it. We don't even know why, because they never clarify it.

So I did some research, because I wanted to know when anyone ever stated that King Cold preferred Frieza. Cooler is only in the movies. He isn't in the manga, and he isn't in the TV anime. And it turns out the idea came from the dub.

The line comes from the English dub of the Cooler movie

The dub of the Cooler movie has an atrocious and ridiculously bad script. In the dub, Cooler says: "Father always spoiled you rotten, you little brat." There's a dub only line in the Cooler movie where Cooler, sitting on the throne, says his father always preferred Frieza over him. That line isn't in the Japanese version. I didn't even hear it when I first saw the dub, because the rock music was so loud you couldn't hear what Cooler was saying. I had to go back and check to figure out what he said.

Much of the material dubbed back then had terrible scripts: the Cooler movie, the Lord Slug movie, and the Bardock and Trunks specials. They changed story points, took things out of the Japanese version and put things in, and that confused fans, as this article proves. The writer didn't take two seconds to cross reference the dub with the Japanese version to see whether the line was even there.

The article then went on about how King Cold preferred his younger son even though Cooler was more powerful. That makes no sense, because it was only in the dub, and King Cold never said it. Cooler did.

The article's timeline for the Cooler movie doesn't work

The article got into Dragon Ball Z canon, which I hate seeing in these articles, because when I hear somebody use the word canon I already suspect they don't know what they're talking about. It said it's hard to determine how much of what Cooler said should be taken into consideration. The answer is none, because it's only in the dub.

It also said the film should take place immediately after the Frieza saga but before King Cold's arrival on Earth. That's impossible. King Cold arrived on Earth with Frieza before Goku did. Trunks killed them, and then Goku arrived. Goku is already in the Cooler movie, and Master Roshi says he's glad Goku is back from Namek. So how could the movie take place before King Cold's arrival?

The only place this movie can fit is during the three year gap after Trunks leaves and before Androids 19 and 20 show up. It still doesn't quite fit, but that's the only place it could. Most Dragon Ball fans know that. The article also said Cooler believed Goku killed Frieza, rather than Frieza being rebuilt by his father and slain by Trunks, and that Goku wasn't on Earth at the time. So the writer brought up Trunks killing Frieza himself, which contradicts what he said at the start.

King Cold had nothing to do with Metal Cooler

The article said King Cold went out of his way to rebuild Frieza while allowing Cooler to return as Metal Cooler, and that he offered Cooler no help. King Cold didn't allow Cooler to do anything. Cooler didn't become Metal Cooler until much later.

Vegeta is a Super Saiyan when Metal Cooler appears, and Vegeta didn't achieve Super Saiyan until the three year gap between Trunks leaving and the Androids coming. So Cooler became Metal Cooler after King Cold was already dead. King Cold had nothing to do with Cooler at all, and asking why he didn't help him makes no sense.

"Planet Trade Organization" tells me the writer used Dragon Ball Wiki

The article also used the phrase Planet Trade Organization. That phrase was never used in the dub or in the sub. It was invented by Dragon Ball Wiki, and it's a fan made term. Whenever somebody uses it in one of these articles, I know they went to Dragon Ball Wiki and don't follow the series. To me, these articles are all copy and paste.

The rest of the article is headcanon

When it compared Frieza to Cooler, the article said King Cold might have preferred Frieza because he seemed to accomplish more. That's true. Frieza did accomplish more than Cooler, so if King Cold did prefer him, that could be one reason. But Cooler was also a different guy, and I don't think King Cold cared. Plus, how do we know that in the Cooler timeline, King Cold didn't give half his empire to Frieza and the other half to Cooler? We don't know the details.

Many fans would say the movie isn't canon, so Cooler doesn't exist in the main Dragon Ball timeline. If you spend time trying to explain it, you're going to fall apart, because it's a movie. Toriyama never even thought about Cooler. If Cooler gets rebooted into a new movie or series, they might retell the story, but until then we don't have that.

The article said Cooler's armored squadron were the only people loyal to him, which is possible. It said Cooler accomplished everything through his own efforts while Frieza was given power by his father. We don't know that. Then came a section claiming King Cold spoiled Frieza because he was younger. That's made up. It's a stereotype about parents, okay, maybe, but this is Dragon Ball, and it doesn't follow every stereotype.

My verdict: do more research before writing about Dragon Ball

The writer has also written for Screen Rant, among other places, which is exactly what I'm talking about. My advice to him is to stop writing about Dragon Ball. No offense, and I'm sure he's a nice guy, but this article bases its entire premise on a dub line.

If you're writing these articles, ask some real fans and reach out to people. Don't go to Dragon Ball Wiki and copy what it says, and don't watch the dub without cross referencing the sub. Not everybody knows everything, and that's fine. But these writers get paid to write these articles while they're spreading misinformation, when all they need to do is "do a little bit more research. It ain't that hard."