Goku is often portrayed as an innocent and kind-hearted individual in the Dragon Ball franchise, but that’s not always the truth. The beloved Saiyan has his moments when he becomes careless, angry, and even cunning if the situation imposes it. He might act like that just because of his sloppy nature, some would argue. However, that’s certainly not the case when it comes to his little discussion with Frieza in Hell.
Back in the Tournament of Power arc of Dragon Ball Super, Goku was eagerly looking to recruit fighters to join him in the Earth’s squad to defend the Universe in Zeno’s tournament. Zeno, the strongest deity of all, was ready to erase most of the universes from existence in order to maintain some sort of balance in the Multiverse. Therefore, the universe having Goku and the gang had to fight against all other universes in a battle royale in order to try to survive. Only the remaining universe would not get erased by Zeno in the end, which meant that only the best fighters were justified to appear fighting alongside Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Piccolo, and the others.
Goku lied to Frieza by promising him a full resurrection
Goku had the idea to bring Frieza back from the dead for one day in order to make him participate in Zeno’s Tournament of Power. That was more like an urgent measure knowing that Majin Buu couldn’t participate because of his old problem with sleeping too much. Obviously, Frieza had no interest in fighting for the survival of the universe, but Goku promised him a deal: if Frieza was willing to help Goku and the others, the beloved Saiyan would fully resurrect him using the dragon balls. But as Sportskeeda points out, the Eternal Dragon won’t resurrect the same person more than once. Frieza was already revived once by his henchmen back in the Resurrection F saga, and Goku couldn’t possibly forget about that. On the other hand, the former intergalactic ruler didn’t know much about the dragon balls, which means that he most likely didn’t know about their limitations. Therefore, Goku lied to Frieza in a blatant way so that he could get the villain to fight for the survival of the universe.
Of course, in the end, lying to a very evil character in order to save the universe isn’t exactly a bad deed. But still, it proves that even Goku can break moral rules sometimes if he needs to.