''"Yahuh, I think you can do a lot of good Raditz, you're really strong."
— Son Goku
Anyone who has ever sat down and watched Dragon Ball knows of Raditz, the first villain of the Z-arc and brother to main character Son Goku. Ill-fated he died at the hands of his brother and rival Piccolo to spare the Earth and save Goku's son, Son Gohan. What-if that was not the case though and Son Goku grew strong enough before Raditz arrived to not only defeat his brother but also recruit Raditz to the cause of Earth's defense? Destiny Shattered
, a Dragon Ball fanfiction by Herodan3 revolves around that very idea.
Son Goku put extra effort into training after the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, building his power to a level beyond his canonical counterpart. Raditz manages to cheapshot his brother before taking his son, Gohan, and flying to the Spinach Wastes where Raditz slowly begins his climb to being a hero. From there a story unfolds that pushes limits to their breaking points and beyond.
As of 2018, the fic is completed.
Destiny Shattered contains examples of:
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Trunks' Brave Sword. Goku Black's Energy Sword. Vegetto's Spirit Sword.
- Action Dad: As with canon children do not slow down the likes of Son Goku or Vegeta, unless their children are directly involved. Raditz follows the same path after the birth of his sole child.
- Son Gohan does not allow his fatherly duties with Pan to stop his scholarly or heroic duties.
- Action Girl: Over the later course of the story Bra and Pan along with several other characters embody this trope as they engage in equally fierce battles as their male counterparts.
- A Day in the Limelight: Yamcha has a miniarc in the Sayonara Saga.
- Raditz's son, Rote has a chapter with Yamcha in the Sayonara Saga as well.
- Always on Duty: The main cast, being the defenders of Earth have this happen numerous times. The most prolific being when Frieza's Army returns for the Dragon Balls and the cast has to fight at four o'clock in the morning.
- Another example is during the Tournament of Power, after a grueling tournament every combatant has to engage in an all-out war with the rogue Grand Priest and his other Angel children.
- Awesome, but Impractical: The very definition of Tien's spirit-draining Kikoho/Tri-Beam Technique, along with the rarely used Shin Kamehameha.
- Concurrent with canonical Dragon Ball as well the Kaioken and the amplified Burst Kaioken fall into this category as well.
- Beat the Curse Out of Him: Raditz against Majin Turles. Arguably applicable to the trope "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight.
- Tien Shinhan and Yamcha, along with Goten, Trunks, against Majin Krillin also applies to this. The fights are quite brutal.
- Blood Knight: Son Goku and the other Saiyans encompass this trope quite thoroughly through their inbred lust for battle. However, it becomes clearer later on that even some Gods of Destruction carry this trait as well like Universe Eight's OC expy God of Destruction Yato.
- The Cavalry: During the Shadow Dragons Saga, Gods of Destruction from several Universes arrive to give their best aid to overcome the multiverse's largest threat.
- Also during the Namek Saga upon Goku and Raditz's arrival to Namek.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Pretty common with the villainous fodder characters, Tien versus Nappa, Vegeta against Cui, Raditz against Recoome, Super Saiyan Two Gohan against Perfect Cell, Raditz, Gohan, and Vegeta against untold amounts of Frieza Soldiers. Numerous others through the read.
- Dare to Be Badass: Raditz staring down Bojack upon obtaining Super Saiyan Two after Gohan falls in battle.
- Bojack: '"Oh and who is going to stop me now that your prodigy child is out of it? You were weaker than him remember?"'
- Door Stopper: Destiny Shattered is stupidly long at 253 chapters and over 2 million words
- Final Battle: A chaotic five chapter (Chapters 248-252) clash between the old guard of Saiyans to determine the strongest of them with Vegeta, Raditz, Son Goku, and Turles fighting from their starting power to their very peaks and beyond.
- HSQ goes pretty high here reaching its pinnacle when Son Goku and Vegeta obtain Ultra Instinct.
- Heel–Face Turn: Raditz, Vegeta, Turles, and by the end Mirra and Oceanus Shenron, Shadow Dragons from the third to final arc.
- Heroic Resolve: The cast relies on this quite often, especially prior to transformations or a series of powerful attacks. The biggest one being Super Saiyan God Son Gohan's interaction with the fierce Merged Zamasu, after Goku, Vegeta, and Trunks had been beaten down.
- Hot-Blooded: Vegeta for the majority of the first major sagas of the story. He however mellows with time.
- Turles on the other hand carries this trait into the later parts of the story, to the point where even in the Final Battle he is the first to lose his cool.
- Limit Break: The cast quite frequently have to break through their limits to accomplish their task. Goku's Dragon Fist always serving as his.
- No-One Could Have Survived That: Raditz, Vegeta, and Goku after suffering a blast described as 'a dimensional anomaly' during the Shadow Dragon Saga.
- No-Sell: As with canon Super Saiyan Goku tanks Frieza's most powerful hits during their exchange on Namek.
- Future Trunks, upon arrival, halts Frieza's Death Ball and slices the tyrant into tiny pieces.
- Beerus upon arrival takes everything the heroes throw at him, including their Macguffin, fusion.
- Divine Super Saiyan Gogeta against Omega Shenron.
- Original Character:
- Raditz pairs with Launch resulting in a half-bred human-Saiyan named Rote.
- Yamcha and Zangya, of Bojack's Galaxy Soldiers, also pair up for a reason that's explained later on to give birth to their daughter Cha
- With the exception of Beerus, Whis, Champa, and Vados the entire pantheon of Gods of Destruction and their respective attendants. Several are Expy Meliodas, Ban, Yato that the author seemed to favor enough to introduce into the story.
- Barring Omega, Oceanus, and Eis Shenron (who undergoes a redesign) the Shadow Dragons are all OC.
- Similarly the Tournament of Power, with the exclusion of some canon characters, also contains a vastly different cast of original characters that serve as fighters.
- Shout-Out: Numerous through the story several prominent, and early examples include:
- The author is a fan of DBZ Abridged and has shown it with the Namekian Grand Elder calling is guard Nail in the "Nailll!" elongation that Team Four Star had in their abridged Namek Saga
- Chapter 17 is titled "Elegant Egotist" which the author admitted was a reference to the Yu-Gi-Oh trading card of the same name.
- With the introduction of Hit and later Universe Twelve Fighter Melyn time manipulation became a thing, the author took advantage of this with Jojo's Bizarre Adventure references, specifically relating to Jotaro Kujo and his "Good Grief/Yare Yare Daze" catchphrase and the use of time resumes for the end of the time stoppages.
- Super Mode: Obviously this is Dragon Ball, the Saiyan cast train and obtain Super Saiyan and levels beyond, Piccolo and Kami still fuse into a Super Namekian.
- The Humans even gain a boost in power with their Burst Limit and Burst Kaioken powers.
- Title Drop: The first occurs in text of Chapter 42, again in the title of Chapter 43.
- The second as the closing words of the story in Chapter 253.
- Took a Level in Badass
- Tien upon returning from his training with King Kai.
- Raditz when compared to his canonical counterpart, though this could also be attributed to him being The Hero.
