Lord Frieza. Reread the Namek Saga, and he is delightful at every turn. He maintains a masterful faux persona of his calm, collected and polite individual whilst ordering the slaughter or demises of countless Namekians. He’s cunning when he needs to be, joyful when the cards are in his hand and an adept fighter despite the clear lack of challenge in his existence.
Common misconceptions around Lord Frieza is that he kills henchmen easily and he loses his temper quickly. Both are false. Only once does Lord Frieza threaten someone—Zarbon for his follies in the quest for immortality—and be never strikes down a single soldier in his employ.
Frieza doesn’t show much petulance either or succumbs to a babbling embarrassment (which, ironically, Cell does quite readily). Instead he continues to fight Goku after Super Saiyan was displayed, concocted a strategy to ensure his victory but nonetheless fought Goku by himself despite it all. In the face of his true fear, Frieza would not surrender quietly nor entrust the planets destruction in removing Goku from the universe. The only moment we see frieza display anything close to what the fandom associates with him is after being cut in two by his own attack, and receiving energy (and pity) from this half evolved monkey.
Which, he lost his most elite mercenaries, his legs, a fight against his dreaded nightmare and his opportunity for immortality. It’s not shocking that his will broke and he acted the way he did.
In short, respect DBZ Frieza.