Remember Raditz?

Dragon Ball has a whole slew of incredible villains. The Red Ribbon Army. Freeza. Cell. And who could forget: Jelly Vegeta!

And then there’s Raditz.

When this dude showed up, literally EVERYTHING changed! Before, Goku was a magical monkey boy! Then Raditz revealed that he was actually, in fact, an alien! And that Raditz was his brother! And that Goku was here to wipe out all life on Earth! He didn’t just change the tone, he changed the god damn genre!

It’s a common cliché in fiction. The main character’s brother is evil and they fight, and then the evil brother is redeemed throughout the story. It’s trite, true, but it’s cool and fun! Besides, what could be more brotherly than trying to kill each other before becoming best buds?

Only… Raditz didn’t do that. He just dies and they kinda just… forget about him.

Just like Launch…

Honestly, Raditz being unceremoniously shoved aside is a really cool subversion of the trope. You expect him to become a major deal. Yet when he’s gone, he never comes back! They don’t even mention him!

What did we get instead? Vegeta. You know. Everyone’s favorite Dragon Ball Z character and one of the most iconic anti-heroes in anime history. Sorry, Radish man. You and your weekday themed attacks can’t really compare to that.

Even still, I can’t help but feel like there’s some missed potential there. Raditz literally changed the entire series, and gave us a pretty sick tag-team fight with Goku and Piccolo. Not to mention that his design is lowkey really cool and his attacks, while being named stupid things, are pretty flashy.

Is that all very surface level and basic? Yes. This is Dragon Ball, after all.

Like, imagine if they brought Raditz back. The landscape of the series has changed so dramatically since he was around. How would he react if he returned to see multiple forms of Super Saiyan and all the other crazy stuff that’s left him irrelevant? Would he swallow his ego and accept help to try and catch up? Would he get closer or further from his family? How would Vegeta treat him? Or Goku or Gohan?

All of that seems far more interesting to me than what we’re getting in the Super manga. How about instead of ruining Bardock, we do something cool with his other son? Just a thought!

It’s not like there’s not an audience for the character. Short though his tenure was, Raditz still left an impression on a large portion of the fanbase. People are still asking for him to get added into Fighterz, and modders have taken the task into their own hands to incredible effect (mod here, if you’re curious)! TFS even made him a main character in their parody series, HFIL, and the results are hilarious!

Is Raditz ever going to come back in the main series? No. And honestly, I’m fine with that. At this point, Dragon Ball needs to start doing new things if it’s gonna survive. It’s reaching the end of its ability to rehash old stuff.

Even still, I find Raditz to be a fascinating character. He could have been a major player in the series, given his frankly massive impact on it. Yet he simply vanished into thin air. Thus, the fans picked up the pieces and basically did their own thing with him.

I dunno. I just think that’s really cool.