Does Raditz deserve redemption?

[theherodjl]

With all the fan art & manga aside and supposing that Raditz' soul is still around in hell, is there a case to be made that Raditz could redeem himself from evil and find a way to atone for his past like Vegeta? He wasn't quite as ruthless as Nappa, who killed an entire city of people(and many others in filler) upon arriving on Earth, while Raditz only had one kill which could be seen as somewhat retaliatory rather than outright genocidal slaughter. Vegeta certainly had far more kills than Raditz, and Piccolo & Boo were personifications of evil initially. Even Freeza seems at least a little less evil than he was on Namek as well as during his first revival, so does that mean Raditz has a chance?
Or should he just stay dead and then his soul reincarnate into something more worthy?

[Xeogran]

I wish, thankfully the BT2 What-If exists for a glimpse of good guy Raditz

He would be fun and add much needed new dynamics to the cast, but I think that it's far too late for it now considering he'd have missed 120% of all important things that happened ever since his death, unless he had a crystal ball in hell.

[MasenkoHA]

Don't know about "deserves" but Dragon Ball has redeemed genocidal maniacs before so...

Tbh I feel like fans are too attached to him being Goku's long lost brother and want it to be a bigger deal than it actually was because that's typical narrative convention.

For all the appraisal about Toriyama as an unconventional writer I think his crowning achievement in that regard is being like "Yes this is the main character's big brother he never knew about but he's not really important just the opening act for the real villains of this arc"

[Majin Buu]

He wasn't quite as ruthless as Nappa, who killed an entire city of people(and many others in filler) upon arriving on Earth, while Raditz only had one kill which could be seen as somewhat retaliatory rather than outright genocidal slaughter.

He seemed pretty damn ruthless and genocidal to me. His terms to Goku for giving Gohan back was for Goku to kill a bunch of people.

Given what we know about how Saiyans lived, we can assume that the guy likely had a ridiculously high body count prior to entering the story and I highly doubt every single one of those kills was retaliatory. Basing his redemption potential on his only having one onscreen kill requires you to ignore how Saiyans typically operated as well as the guy's own statements on killing people.

Or should he just stay dead and then his soul reincarnate into something more worthy?

This. Trying to redeem Raditz would feel as forced as trying to redeem Nappa. Just let him reincarnate into someone with the potential to be good (same with Nappa).

Tbh I feel like fans are too attached to him being Goku's long lost brother and want it to be a bigger deal than it actually was because that's typical narrative convention.

Agreed. No one would give a shit about Raditz if he was just some rando Saiyan.

[Hellspawn28]

Raditz did his purpose in the series. He was added to show how big the universe is and that threats outside of Earth exist.

[Trouser]

Of course. Vegeta was a total asshole and a mass murderer and he had his redemption. Raditz has more potential for being a good guy with a good redemption story arc than Vegeta ever had. But it's too late now.

[Cybersai]

Please don't give them any ideas. With all the re-using old concepts coming, the last thing we need is Radditz, Nappa or Bardock coming back to life to be redeemed.

[Peach]

Raditz will always be an important part of the Dragon Ball franchise, whether he stays dead/evil or not.

Every character we have seen, including Raditz, Nappa, Frieza Henchmen, Androids are important and classic characters.

[Saiya6Cit]

Yes
I would not mind if they bring him back and redeem him.

Or even...

The son of Radditz. A hybrid with a human maybe? I could accept that

Even more Bardock's son. Bring. More. Saiyans.

[Goe]

I don't think Nappa was worse than Raditz. He destroyed a city because he landed in a city, while Raditz landed in the countryside and only saw a farmer. Raditz didn't show goodness at all.

Despite of that, if Vegeta ended being a good guy, I guess all pure saiyan could change, but I am not a fan of the evil guys resurrecting trope. In all DB, only good guys resurrected with dragon balls... in general terms, because Vegeta resurrected being a bad guy in Namek, but it was exceptional, and a colateral effect of the "resurrect all people killed by Freezer" wish. That was good point of old DB: only good guys resurrect because they are good friends and evil guys only cooperate when needed but they aren't really friends, so they are not interested in it.

With DBS that changed: Sorbet was a bad guy but resurrected Freezer. As a consequence, Goku and Freezer relationship became something like a good relationship... that wasn't good!! Goku hated Freezer because he killed his best friend!

Even resurrecting good guys is a bad idea when finally writters abuse of this.

There's no good reason to resurrect Raditz, so let him being a dead character. He is weak and evil, so useless for Goku's interest.

[BernardoCairo]

I don't see the point in this. It's been so long that he's probably already reincarnated.

[Hellspawn28]

Honestly, I don't get why people want Raditz back so much? He did his purpose and Goku was willing to give up his life rather than work with a mass murder. Goku still probably doesn't forgive him.

[TobyS]

Raditz and Nappa were both less evil than Vegeta, he did not deserve his second chance but got it anyway, lifes unfair like that sometimes.

So they didn't deserve redemption but didn't deserve it less than Vegeta did.

It's too late now their souls have been recycled by this point.

[MasenkoHA]

Raditz and Nappa were both less evil than Vegeta, he did not deserve his second chance but got it anyway, lifes unfair like that sometimes.

So they didn't deserve redemption but didn't deserve it less than Vegeta did.

It's too late now their souls have been recycled by this point.

Raditz was down to commit some good ol fratricide and nepoticide and Nappa was all good to go on a rape fest and breed an army of Saiyan/Earthling uber warriors.

Idk if they were less evil. It's kinda like saying pre-Cell saga Vegeta was less evil than Freeza. Less powerful for sure. But all 4 were about that mass genocide.

[JulieYBM]

What story do you want to tell with Raditz by bring him back to life? What questions do you want to ask? What interactions with which characters do you want to see unfold?

Raditz isn't a real person, so I don't necessarily think the 'should' is as important as the "what do you as a storyteller want to say?"

[Benjamin-Simons-91]

No, he's a mass murderer and a colonizer.

Honestly, I don't think that Vegeta should have been redeemed either.

It's not like the cases of Oolong, Yamcha and Puar, Krillin, Tien and Chiaotzu, and Piccolo who basically killed no one.

[Goe]

Raditz was down to commit some good ol fratricide and nepoticide and Nappa was all good to go on a rape fest and breed an army of Saiyan/Earthling uber warriors.

I don't think that Nappa was thinking about rape when he said something about mating with female earthlings. My reasons to think so is that rape is, in general terms, a serious taboo in shonen/shojo manga, because is for kids. Toriyama only drew a rape joke once, in Lady Red. And Lady Red was published in Super Jump, the seinen version of Shonen Jump.

Rape was a taboo in all Dragon Ball. For example, the Red Ribbon guys "only" wanted to touch Bulma. That scene of that 2 guys is the classic rape scene transformed into "only touching" instead rape. There are a lot of sexual jokes in Dragon ball but at 80s/90s, the red line was erections and rape.

For this reason, I think Nappa wanted to have sex with consenting earthling women to have new saiyan warriors. Toriyama would never write in a shonen a line suggesting that someone wants to rape women. Nappa is evil anyway, but not a rapist.

In any case, I agree: I am not sure Raditz and Nappa were less evil than Vegeta. raditz never did a good thing until he died, Nappa neither. Vegeta did a good thing by first time when he decided to avenge Trunks at the end of Cell saga.

[JulieYBM]

Raditz was down to commit some good ol fratricide and nepoticide and Nappa was all good to go on a rape fest and breed an army of Saiyan/Earthling uber warriors.

I don't think that Nappa was thinking about rape when he said something about mating with female earthlings. My reasons to think so is that rape is, in general terms, a serious taboo in shonen/shojo manga, because is for kids. Toriyama only drew a rape joke once, in Lady Red. And Lady Red was published in Super Jump, the seinen version of Shonen Jump.

Rape was a taboo in all Dragon Ball. For example, the Red Ribbon guys "only" wanted to touch Bulma. That scene of that 2 guys is the classic rape scene transformed into "only touching" instead rape. There are a lot of sexual jokes in Dragon ball but at 80s/90s, the red line was erections and rape.

For this reason, I think Nappa wanted to have sex with consenting earthling women to have new saiyan warriors. Toriyama would never write in a shonen a line suggesting that someone wants to rape women. Nappa is evil anyway, but not a rapist.

In any case, I agree: I am not sure Raditz and Nappa were less evil than Vegeta. raditz never did a good thing until he died, Nappa neither. Vegeta did a good thing by first time when he decided to avenge Trunks at the end of Cell saga.

Reading between the lines makes it clear that the soldiers wanted to do a bit more than merely touching Blooma. The implication from Toriyama is pretty clear.

[MasenkoHA]

Raditz was down to commit some good ol fratricide and nepoticide and Nappa was all good to go on a rape fest and breed an army of Saiyan/Earthling uber warriors.

I don't think that Nappa was thinking about rape when he said something about mating with female earthlings. My reasons to think so is that rape is, in general terms, a serious taboo in shonen/shojo manga, because is for kids. Toriyama only drew a rape joke once, in Lady Red. And Lady Red was published in Super Jump, the seinen version of Shonen Jump.

Rape was a taboo in all Dragon Ball. For example, the Red Ribbon guys "only" wanted to touch Bulma. That scene of that 2 guys is the classic rape scene transformed into "only touching" instead rape. There are a lot of sexual jokes in Dragon ball but at 80s/90s, the red line was erections and rape.

For this reason, I think Nappa wanted to have sex with consenting earthling women to have new saiyan warriors. Toriyama would never write in a shonen a line suggesting that someone wants to rape women. Nappa is evil anyway, but not a rapist.

In any case, I agree: I am not sure Raditz and Nappa were less evil than Vegeta. raditz never did a good thing until he died, Nappa neither. Vegeta did a good thing by first time when he decided to avenge Trunks at the end of Cell saga.

Yeah no Nappa was definitely not planning to court a bunch of earth women and wine and dine them into his bed consensually.

And yeah what Julie said the subtext was clear the two RRA officers were planning to sexually assault Bulma.

Obviously they're not gonna depict actual rape because its a comic for kids. There's even a quip from Bulma that what the officers wanted to do wouldn't be appropriate for Shonen Jump's target demographic.

Toriyama's also not gonna actually have Vegeta and Nappa rape a bunch of earth women so Vegeta quickly shoots the idea down because he doesn't want offspring more powerful than him. But it should be clear from Nappa and Vegeta's characterization that consensual sex was not a concern of Nappa when he suggested they breed an army of Saiyan/Earthling hybrids

[Super-Shenron]

Redemption being the act of improving morally or saving oneself from evil, it would imply there's such a thing as being too bad to deserve a shot at becoming a better person. I don't think so. What I think is that there are few people as evil as Raditz who would show actual efforts in repenting or changing as a person. But if they do, especially after paying for their sins, who's to say they shouldn't have a shot? Now, would they be owed forgiveness from the people they hurt? That would be a whole other question only these people should have the answer for. If they choose to forgive them (or not), nobody can tell them to choose otherwise.

That's my take on it from a moral perspective. Now, the storytelling perspective is another thing: assuming Raditz can even be revived in one piece at this point (which I doubt), would he really be an interesting addition to the story? We already have lengthy redemption arc for another Saiyan character, one who was a more appropriate (and quite frankly more popular) foil for Goku. What would Raditz add at this point that Vegeta doesn't cover? And whatever he adds, would it truly be valuable for the story or the characters? I have serious doubts about that. To me, having a redeemed Raditz is a fun idea from a "what-if / what could have been" point of view, like Goku and Bulma becoming the main couple, but it doesn't get beyond that.