I think the point of Raditzes appearance...

[Hector]

... was to show us how strong an ordinary Saiyan is. Raditz represents middle class Saiyans. That's why I think Saiyans' average PL is 1500 (which is Raditzes PL in my books).

 

[Captain Cadaver]

Raditz was born a mid-class Saiyan, but he certainly didn't have the power of one. Toriyama clarified in more recent interviews that mid-classes are basically elites such as Nappa that aren't Super Elites like Vegeta and his father, which makes sense when considering that elite is the mid-class between lower class and super elite. The Daizenshuu, whilst contradicting Toriyama's words on Raditz's rank, does confirm his battle power to be of the lowest level amongst Saiyans and that part has not been contradicted.

Raditz can be seen to be close to the representation of an average Saiyan's personality (though I'd say Nappa's more one-dimensional characterisation is a better fit there), but not their power.

 

[GreatSaiyaman123]

On the other hand, he could also be representing how outclassed Goku and co. were against even bottom tier Saiyans. Though he can also fill this in the context of the Freeza Army since the Saiyans he died hyping were Elite.

 

[Boo Brand Milk]

In my fanfic I remember giving 'capable' Saiyans pl's of 800-900 in order to make Raditz's 1250 an admirable level of power.

 

[Hector]

In my fanfic I remember giving 'capable' Saiyans pl's of 800-900 in order to make Raditz's 1250 an admirable level of power.

Post the link.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

I think the point of making Raditz Goku's brother & Gohan's uncle can be seen as showing how ruthless Saiya-Jins are, to the point of being like that to even their family. Other than that there was really no point in Raditz being related to Goku.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

P.S: I know that has nothing to do with your thread.

 

[Warmmedown]

I think the point of making Raditz Goku's brother & Gohan's uncle can be seen as showing how ruthless Saiya-Jins are, to the point of being like that to even their family. Other than that there was really no point in Raditz being related to Goku.

On the other side of the same coin, I think it also showed us how Goku loved Earth and his friends on it so much that he was willing to kill his brother to save everyone. Aside from that, it made viewers hope that, being brothers, they could reconcile by the end of their fight - rather than having to fight to the death. (Bit like when I was 5 or so I thought Freeza might stop trying to kill Goku because Freeza is a woman and I figured women are more forgiving than men). Also if Goku's sibling was never introduced, then it wouldn't be as clear just how weak Goku's bloodline is without the hard work and desire to fight for others Goku had. You could say we'd have Bardock still to show how his father was weak, but in Episode of Bardock he's actually decently powerful by the end - plus even ignoring everything not written by Toriyama and focusing on the manga, just showing Bardock being the one to confront Freeza would make us wonder if Goku was genetically gifted for a saiyan. Plus, the Bardock stuff is only relevant later anyway. The part of the story where Goku being a low-class, naturally weak saiyan is most central to the story is during his fight with the elite, genetically-gifted saiyan Vegeta, where without Raditz being Goku's brother, we would have no evidence at all that Goku was a low class bum (you could say the evidence would be that Goku had a measly battle power of around 416 before getting access to extremely special and exclusive training with King Kai, but viewers could easily have thought "maybe he was only 416 because he was surrounded by weak humans so never had good enough competition").

 

[Fantastische Hure]

You do have a point about the low-class status.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

AT said Goku doesn't have much of a sense of family though IIRC but that to me doesn't seem to make sense in certain ways.

 

[Warmmedown]

Well I guess compared to a typical human he doesn't, since he left Gohan and Chi Chi to train all the time. He definitely has some sense of family though, since he cares about them. He also clearly loved Grandpa Gohan. If you mean family as in his saiyan family, then it wouldn't make much sense for him to place much, if any, value on them, since he never knew them, aside from when he learnt they have a totally different set of values than he does and when Raditz tried to enforce those values on him and tried kill everyone on Earth when Goku refused.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

Well I guess compared to a typical human he doesn't, since he left Gohan and Chi Chi to train all the time. He definitely has some sense of family though, since he cares about them. He also clearly loved Grandpa Gohan. If you mean family as in his saiyan family, then it wouldn't make much sense for him to place much, if any, value on them, since he never knew them, aside from when he learnt they have a totally different set of values than he does and when Raditz tried to enforce those values on him and tried kill everyone on Earth when Goku refused.

I meant his family; not his brother, father and so-on since you said that because they were brothers maybe they could talk it out.

 

[GreatSaiyaman123]

P.S: I know that has nothing to do with your thread.

It’s a more interesting subject tbh

 

[Fantastische Hure]

It’s a more interesting subject tbh

Oh youuuuuuuu *blushes*

 

[Warmmedown]

I meant his family; not his brother, father and so-on since you said that because they were brothers maybe they could talk it out.

Oh, that's why you said it. Yeh, I mean the viewers would hope (not even expect it necessarily, just gives them more hope, compared to if it was a random saiyan) somehow they'd reconcile somehow. The viewers didn't read the daizenshuu to have their hope crushed (although even that wouldn't crush my hope that Raditz might have a genuine change of heart. Goku would be willing to forgive Raditz even if they weren't related).

 

[Pocket-Gog~]

Raditz is like Tambourine. He exists to gas up the next opponents while also providing cool fight and escalating the action.