Do Saiyans murder their own families?

[Adamant]

Vegeta is a psychopath even among Saiyans.

Remember that Nappa is stunned when Vegeta executes the Saibaman; also remember that Raditz tries five separate times to get his brother to join him.

Raditz also says that having to kill his own nephew "will be tough, even for me". He's willing to kill family, but he'd really prefer not having to do so.

[Dr. Machismo]

Yep. To be honest, I don't care about the dub change of this speech (or, at least, I don't care about it any more than any time a dub changes any line). In both cases, it comes out of nowhere and is completely out of character with what we've seen, so it's stupid either way. Same thing with Goku's Super Saiyan speech.

Vegeta was just demoralized, humiliated and driven to death by the being who killed his entire race. Of course he would say things he normally wouldn't. What Vegeta wanted was for Goku to kill Frieza. Goku also says that it wasn't the fact that Frieza killed his race that was bothering him, but that he was used as pawn by Frieza.

Vegeta wasn't lying to himself with his prideful antics like showing no remorse over the people he'd kill or not caring about the loss of his race. That was just the being Vegeta was. It was only after meeting Future Trunks did Vegeta learn to feel compassion and love for someone.

[mAcChaos]

I dunno, the anime at least makes it seem like it bothered him when Dodoria let him know the truth. The way it obscured his face, normally that's only done when someone has some hidden emotion.

That's just the anime though.

But considering how much pride he has in his position as Saiyan prince and Saiyans in general it would not make sense for him to not care about them getting wiped out.

[TheGmGoken]

I think so. If they were too weak(Tarble was an expcetion) or they pissed him off. I could see Kakarot pissing Raditz or bardock off by failing a misson or running away from a fight. So they kill him

[Dr. Machismo]

I dunno, the anime at least makes it seem like it bothered him when Dodoria let him know the truth. The way it obscured his face, normally that's only done when someone has some hidden emotion.

That's just the anime though.

But considering how much pride he has in his position as Saiyan prince and Saiyans in general it would not make sense for him to not care about them getting wiped out.

Vegeta has pride in being a Saiyan, but he initially didn't care for other beings of his race.

[soulnova]

Raditz in truth never really cared for Goku or he would have come to look for him much earlier. They had a blood bond but nothing else. Even then, Raditz kinda respected that bond to a point on not making a hole in Goku's chest right away. He wished for him to join them (and be true to his heritage)and decided to nudge him with Gohan, which ended up being the worst call in his life.

If we count Tarble, we can say that Saiyans at the very least keep the same partner/spouse to father children...

Vegeta is an extremist when it comes down to what a Saiyan should be. As others have said, Nappa wanted to bring Raditz back, Vegeta shot that idea down... as he did with the Saibaiman and with Nappa himself (surprised both times! lol).

Of course, I'm not saying Saiyans went all lovey-dovey over their family, but that doesn't mean there couldn't be some serious beatings with the excuse of "s/he was asking for it" and the rest of the family just rolling their eyes and shrugging it off.

[Travis Touchdown]

Based off various lines from the series, I think Saiyans kill their own if they feel forced to. Like how Raditz gave Goku several chances to join him. Once it became apparent that Goku wouldn't budge, Raditz decided his hand was forced and was willing to kill him.

So I can see Saiyans loving their own like Vegeta is implied to love his father, but say if a son decides to prove he is superior to his father, then that father will kill his own son, or vice versa. I don't think they feel particularly bad about it either.

Also I agree that Vegeta is an asshole even by Saiyan standards. I think that's proven when Nappa's first thought to use the Dragon Balls was to revive Raditz and Vegeta scoffed at the idea. Plus Nappa thought Vegeta was actually going to help him moments before Vegeta killed him. It seemed like Nappa & Raditz shared that brotherhood like bond Bardock had with his team while Vegeta only cared about number 1.

[Selcier]

Now, I know I have a bad habit of applying the real world to dbz. But, I think vsauce's video Are We Ready For Aliens ( at the eight minute mark) explains this perfectly. In short, we cannot apply human conditions and psyche onto aliens. I agree that that idea is almost completely impossible and still goes against most science fiction. But, really we can't assume that aliens will think the same ways as us.

Now, I know that this is difficult to apply in the DBZ universe. But, we should be able to at least understand that the Saiyan culture is significantly different than that of human culture. Especially since we hear all about their drive to become stronger and their desire to fight. It would stand that this drive would over come any supposed familial ties. Perhaps they don't even have families like humans do. They obviously know of their fathers. But a mother is never mentioned. They could be born in tubes with a female egg donner.

Anyways. I find this plays right into the 'is Vegata a good father' debate. Perhaps by human standards, no he is not. But, by Saiyan standards, where families don't exist or are inconsequential enough on a saiyan's way to power, he is doing what he thinks best.