Raditz being so weak does really bring up the question again of why Bardock was so strong for a low-class Saiyan. He's 10'000, slightly better than Nappa, who was an elite. You'd think low class Saiyans would be much more like Raditz.
"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"Oh right, Nappa was 4000, I don't know why I thought he was 8k, since then he'd be on par with Goku in the original Japanese.
BTW, if Goku was able to train his tail in a few years when he was much, much weaker than Raditz, then yeah, I'd say that reflects badly on Raditz. Why not train to remove your biggest weakness?
edited 29th Nov '17 9:50:51 AM by Sigilbreaker26
"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"While Saiyan honour is very dumb, even it isn't *that* dumb. They're not Sontarans. More to the point, Vegeta and Nappa have their tails trained, and Vegeta's basically the icon of Saiyan honour (even if it will take another arc or so to really kick in, given all the sneaking he does in the Freeza arc)
I think Smug Snake is a pretty good description of Raditz. In technical ability as opposed to power he's pretty damn weak for a DB villain.
"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"You know, something I find odd in hindsight is that Goku notes that Nappa almost managed to injure him with his Break Cannon at one point. And that Nappa was able to outfly Goku to Krillin and Gohan without the Kaioken.
Seems kind of inconsistent with how strength differences are portrayed at every other point in the series.
The only reason why I wouldn't necessarily call Raditz a Smug Snake is that, at the time, he legitimately was a powerhouse in comparison to our protagonists - that smugness is more than justified for the situation he's in, it's just when you look beyond that situation that he turns out to be a joke in comparison. He's more Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy.
edited 29th Nov '17 10:08:47 AM by KnownUnknown
The reason I'd stick with Smug Snake is that power is *all* Raditz has. He's a terrible combatant, one of only a scarce few examples of a character in Dragonball losing despite having the highest single power level on the field by the end - and unlike the other example that springs to mind, Vegeta, he wasn't beaten with the help of a huge amount of luck.
(Also, Gohan has his AKFG moments as well.)
edited 29th Nov '17 10:28:31 AM by Sigilbreaker26
"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"@Hob That's not really inconsistent. The break cannon was Nappa's strongest attack, and Goku negated it by tossing out a casual Kanehameha. Weaker characters can still injure stronger ones if the gap isn't too big.
Goku may be faster, but that doesn't mean he was fast enough to intercept Nappa when Nappa had the head start on reaching Gohan/Kuririn.
As for Raditz not training his tail, I think it's more likely he didn't know it could be done rather than pride. He was quite young when Vegeta was destroyed, and Vegeta/Nappa looked down on him, so they may not have told him about it.
Shouldn't Piccolo be in that pic?
Goku was over 9000 8000. Nappa was 4000. The gap was way too big. If 3500 Piccolo was still getting utterly trashed by Nappa, then Nappa should have had zero chance of hurting Goku.
But...he should have been. He's got the higher power level. That's exactly how it works isn't it? Though I suppose this was at the point in the series where you could have a lower power, but still specialize in different things, and everyone was weak enough that you could theoretically outspeed someone more powerful than you if you were far ahead enough.
See, that I can buy. They never cared about Raditz, so they didn't bother to tell him. If he got himself killed because he never realized the Tail weakness, that's his fault.
edited 29th Nov '17 2:55:18 PM by HandsomeRob
One Strip! One Strip!I think it's kind of crazy how Cell is, in a way, younger than Gohan when they fought. Counting his emergence from the tube as birth, he spends two years in his own timeline and four years hibernating in the main timeline. So he's only six years old, and has only been fully conscious for two years. I wonder if you could really call him a Psychopathic Manchild when he is a child from a certain point of view

We don't know that.
For all we know, having a bigger power level makes you a bigger great ape.
Which would mean Raditz is positively tiny.
One Strip! One Strip!