Dragon Ball Super missed an opportunity to avenge one of the biggest beatings Goku ever received in Dragon Ball Z. Years ago, Goku suffered some of his worst injuries ever as a result of his fight with Captain Ginyu, the leader of the Ginyu Force and the second strongest villain in the Frieza Saga.
After arriving on Planet Namek and proving his mettle in battle with Recoome, Jeice, and Burter, Goku was opposed by Captain Ginyu, a powerful alien warrior. Despite being the strongest of the five-member crew, Ginyu was still inferior in power when compared to Goku. Having seen that defeat was imminent, Ginyu purposely injured himself and used a secret ability to swap bodies with his enemy. Trapped in Ginyu’s body, Goku was powerless to stop him – and so, Vegeta, Gohan, and Krillin had to step up to help him. In the end, Ginyu was stopped when a beaten and battered Goku tricked him into entering the body of a frog.
Ginyu remained a frog for the entirety of Dragon Ball Z and didn’t become relevant again until Dragon Ball Super’s Golden Frieza Saga. After stealing the body of Frieza’s most powerful new henchman, Tagoma, Ginyu easily beat Gohan and the Z-Warriors. Following the arrival of Goku and Vegeta, he was immediately killed by an energy blast from Vegeta. Considering that Dragon Ball Super gave him a huge upgrade via Tagoma, the anime could have given an actual fight with either of the Saiyans, but chose instead to give him an unceremonious end and skip straight to Frieza.
A Goku vs. Ginyu rematch would have been short and rather predictable but still would have been fun to see in Dragon Ball Super, based on what happened the last time they met. Part of what makes their Frieza Saga fight such a glaring loss for Goku is that it could have been avoided. After all, Goku was more powerful than him. As noted by the Ginyu Force, Goku was holding back against Ginyu for a large portion of their initial confrontation. If he hadn’t underestimated Ginyu, he could have beaten the villain before being taken by surprise by the body swap technique.
The events that unfolded with Ginyu was a major setback for Goku, because they resulted in his body being badly wounded by both himself and his own allies. Because of the situation they were in, the only way for Goku and the Z-Warriors to survive was to attack Goku’s own body with everything they had. By the time the fight was over, Goku was in terrible shape and in no condition to fight Frieza. Because of Ginyu, Goku had to be placed in a rejuvenation tank while his friends barely held on against Frieza. Considering how much of an obstacle the significantly weaker Captain Ginyu proved to be for Goku in Dragon Ball Z, it would have been interesting to see how both characters would have reacted to a second fight.
