What Was Raditz Talking About Here?

[withheldforprivacy]

I don't think zenkai is a strict term. Everybody has this trait, even us in real life.
Muscles come back stronger after damage, bones harden. Piccolo raised his power
after a fight (322-329). It's just that Saiyans' increases are more visible after a
single workout/hard fight, because of their natural talent. The closer to the
limits the workout/fight pushes them, the greater the increase, so a near death
experience is the closest they can get to their limits.
Goku increased his power after fights that exhausted him (Roshi, Tenshinhan),
but not as much as in cases he was pushed literally near death.
All in all, Vegeta and Freeza knew generally of the ease Saiyans increased their
strength, but the increase after Earth surprised even Vegeta.

 

[Evil Vegeta]

I think Vegeta was just BSing about Goku not getting a zenkai. He was trying to convince Kuririn to give him the last wish.

Yeah, kinda leaning that way. Krillin wanted to wait for Goku to heal, so Vegeta probably just said that so he could attack him more quickly.

I mean, Vegeta knew that Goku knew about the Saiyan zenkai based on what Goku said after he ate the senzu. It wouldn't make any sense for Vegeta to not expect Goku to have experienced one directly.

 

[Captain Cadaver]

It could be that Vegeta expected Goku wouldn't be capable of gaining more Zenkais at this point. After all, we know from the Super manga that there's a limit to the amount of Zenkais one Saiyan could achieve and that Goku and Vegeta's Zenkai limit maxed out sometime after their Freeza Arc Zenkais. It's understandable Vegeta thought that the limit was higher for an elite and/or that Goku already used up all his when training on the ship.