90sDBZ wrote:Well he seemed more scared against Raditz than against some of the later enemies. But I'd have to say Vegeta was a bigger challenge. He had every bone in his body crushed and was totally helpless without Gohan, Krillin and Yajirobe. Also Freeza was a very tough fight for him too, going on for a long time and making him question if he could actually win.
To be fair that was more of Goku being and fighting like an idiot more than anything. he had a couple of chances to kill Vegeta, he just pissed them away on poor judgement. Its not the same again Raditz where he had absolutely nothing that could affect Raditz, even with Gohan's added help Raditz it still wasn't enough to put Raditz down for the count and to be honest Raditz could have still killed everyone had he killed Goku first after back handing Gohan unconscious, then him second, and then finally Piccolo. Poor judgement killed Raditz more than anything. The closest thing to Raditz I could think of for Goku would be Tao Pai Pai and Piccolo Daimao. The only reason Goku survived those encounters is because those two were too careless to bother destroying Goku's body after beating him into submission, that's it.
In fact, I would dare say Raditz is the catalyst for changing Goku's entire mindset about training to better himself for future threats, if it wasn't for him Goku would still be taking it easy fighting Piccolo every now and then to pass the time since he's unaware of larger threats lurking out there beyond the boundaries of Earth itself. The arrival of Raditz was perfect, if you re-watch both versions of Raditz first appearance to the end of his appearance in the Japanese and ocean dub version it just really nails the dynamic of the whole thing. Raditz set the bar to damn high for badass introductions. he changed everything on a physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental level. No antagonist has every done that before and no one has been able to replicate it either in my honest opinion.
Just think about it, Raditzz showed up like a boss, humbled Piccolo as he pissed himself, owned Kuririn in a single tail swing, mind screwed Goku about his origion and relation to him, terrified and humiliated Goku in one blow, kidnapped his son just cause, made Goku team up against his mortal arch-enemy, demolished both of them at the same time took Gohan's best and backhanded into unconsciousness afterwards and forced Goku to sacrifice himself and still killed everyone's joy by mentioning their victory was empty. Radutz brought the pain and despair and it still continued up until 11 months later for more terror and disaster. You gotta to give it up for Raditz, despite being a minor character he definitely left his mark.
