If Goku never let go of Raditz's tail...

[Kamiccolo9]

The fact that Raditz was completely defenseless?

And when Raditz proceeds to casually shrug off whatever feeble attack Goku is capable of, what is Goku supposed to do then?

[thatdbzguy]

The fact that Raditz was completely defenseless?

And when Raditz proceeds to casually shrug off whatever feeble attack Goku is capable of, what is Goku supposed to do then?

Except he wouldn't do that. Because he's defenseless.

[Kamiccolo9]

The fact that Raditz was completely defenseless?

And when Raditz proceeds to casually shrug off whatever feeble attack Goku is capable of, what is Goku supposed to do then?

Except he wouldn't do that. Because he's defenseless.

He's over 4x stronger than Goku. None of Goku or Piccolo's attacks could scratch him. That's why they were powering up for the Makakansappo in the first place. Squeezing his tail doesn't suddenly make his body any less durable.

[qjz123]

...How?

Blasting Raditz while holding his tail would have defeated him.

No it wouldn't have even while holding his tail Goku's attacks are to weak to hurt Raditz.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

He's over 4x stronger than Goku. None of Goku or Piccolo's attacks could scratch him. That's why they were powering up for the Makakansappo in the first place. Squeezing his tail doesn't suddenly make his body any less durable.

Actually, it should, at least to some extent. Grabbing an untrained Saiyan's tail saps all their power, making them defenseless. If they could still utilize their ki in anyway, then Radtiz should have just blown Goku away with a kiai or something while he was immobilized. The only reason none of Goku and Piccolo's attacks damaged him was because they weren't powerful to overcome his defense, which he was using his power to augment, like all warriors in the series do. But if that ability is gone, even Goku's Kamehameha (which is about 2/3 of Radtiz) should be able to take him out like Kuririn did Vegeta on Namek.

[Kamiccolo9]

He's over 4x stronger than Goku. None of Goku or Piccolo's attacks could scratch him. That's why they were powering up for the Makakansappo in the first place. Squeezing his tail doesn't suddenly make his body any less durable.

Actually, it should, at least to some extent. Grabbing an untrained Saiyan's tail saps all their power, making them defenseless. If they could still utilize their ki in anyway, then Radtiz should have just blown Goku away with a kiai or something while he was immobilized. The only reason none of Goku and Piccolo's attacks damaged him was because they weren't powerful to overcome his defense, which he was using his power to augment, like all warriors in the series do. But if that ability is gone, even Goku's Kamehameha (which is about 2/3 of Radtiz) should be able to take him out like Kuririn did Vegeta on Namek.

Vegeta was allowing himself to be damaged, though. Raditz, despite being rendered helpless, was used to his body being subjected to forces that Goku could hardly even move in. Furthermore, Goku would not be able to pull off any of his more powerful attacks while at the same time holding on to Raditz's tale. And shooting a ki blast at Raditz in that state is just as likely to either hurt Goku because of his proximity to the resulting explosion, or just hit Raditz so hard that his tail gets pulled off, resulting in them all being royally screwed. Regardless, I fail to see how it's dumb of Goku to not blast Raditz while holding on to his tail, especially when the much safer option of having Piccolo kill him was available.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

Kinda major assumptions all around, don't you think? What makes you beleive that Raditz is that insanely durable?

We know nothing about how Raditz spent his time between planet Vegeta's destruction and his appearance on Earth. He may have never even been on another planet with gravity higher than Earth during that entire stretch of time. And if you are only counting the time Radtiz spent on Vegeta before Freeza blew it up, you also need to account for possible missions or how old Radtiz actually is. Because from what we know now, Goku grew up on Vegeta for a decent chunk of time too, similar to Radtiz.

And with just the time Goku was on planet Vegeta, if the gravity even really has an effect and all Saiyans aren't just naturally durable, we do see Goku having inhuman resistances to things that would kill most Earthlings. Even early on in the manga while he is still a child, he survives bullets, an ax to the head and various other weapons while unprepared. This same Saiyan body though? It's capable of being pierced by ki attacks from characters that are weaker than him while off guard, from attacks he can usually tank.

Yes, Vegeta was allowing himself to be hurt, but the principle is the same in both cases: their defenses were down. Vegeta had lowered his and Raditz was incapable of raising his. All characters are shown to be vulnerable when they are off guard and even more so when their defenses are actually down...except regenerators. With Raditz unable to defend himself, there is absolutely nothing to say that Goku's attack would blow up at point blank range. If anything, there is more to support Goku firing a one handed Kamehameha and it obliterating his brother's head or torso because there is barely anything to resist it.

I'm not defending that it wouldn't have been safer for Goku to hold his tail to the side and just let Piccolo Nail Gun him through the sternum. But I wholeheartedly disagree with the notion that Goku couldn't have taken his brother out himself if Piccolo weren't capable after losing an arm and wasting energy at that point.

[thatdbzguy]

Kinda major assumptions all around, don't you think? What makes you beleive that Raditz is that insanely durable?

We know nothing about how Raditz spent his time between planet Vegeta's destruction and his appearance on Earth. He may have never even been on another planet with gravity higher than Earth during that entire stretch of time. And if you are only counting the time Radtiz spend on Vegeta before Freeza blew it up, you also need to account for possible missions or how old Radtiz actually is. Because from what we know now, Goku grew up on Vegeta for a decent chunk of time too, the similar to Radtiz.

And with just that time Goku was on planet Vegeta, if the gravity even really has an effect and all Saiyans aren't just naturally durable for their to be their everyday norm, we do see Goku having inhuman resistances to things that would kill most Earthlings. Even early on in the manga while he is still a child, he survives bullets, an ax to the head and various other weapons while unprepared. This same Saiyan body though? It's capable of being pierced by ki attacks from characters that are weaker than him while off guard, from attacks he can usually tank.

Yes, Vegeta was allowing himself to be hurt, but the principle is the same in both cases: their defenses were down. Vegeta had lowered his and Raditz was incapable of raising his. All characters are shown to be vulnerable when they are off guard and even more so when their defenses are actually down...except regenerators. With Raditz unable to defend himself, there is absolutely nothing to say that Goku's attack would blow up at point blank range. If anything, there is more to support Goku firing a one handed Kamehameha and it obliterating his brother's head or torso because there is barely anything to resist it.

I'm not defending that it wouldn't have been safer for Goku to hold his tail to the side and just let Piccolo Nail Gun him through the sternum. But I wholeheartedly disagree with the notion that Goku couldn't have take his brother out himself if Piccolo weren't capable after losing an arm and wasting energy at that point.

So basically what I said. Goku could've killed Raditz but didn't because he was being more of an idiot than usual.

[sekzee]

The obvious reason he didn't do it is because plot. He needed to die to train with Kaio.

But yes, I don't even get why anyone would argue so adamantly that Raditz would be able to resists the same attacks from before when he is clearly weakened by his tail.

Did people not read the previous DB chapters? Jeeze.

Raditz is so weakened that he can't even shake Goku off, but he will magically resist his ki attacks?

[coola]

That`s one of things that always bugged me, if Goku knew Radditz could cut his tail, why he even bother to grab it, and hold to it, so Piccolo could finish him.

[thatdbzguy]

That`s one of things that always bugged me, if Goku knew Radditz could cut his tail, why he even bother to grab it, and hold to it, so Piccolo could finish him.

Because he was being more of an idiot than usual so that the plot could go where Toriyama wanted it to go.

Basically, because terrible writing.

[90sDBZ]

Movie 1 would happen instead of Vegeta and Nappa coming to earth. And that would make sense too as Goku would have to be a bit more ruthless to not let go of Raditz tail just like he was more ruthless than normal in Movie 1 in how he killed them henchmen in cold blood.

[Attitudefan]

Because Raditz is an experienced fighter, at the last second before he is killed be would have cut his tail off to save himself since he ran out of options of keeping his tail and living. I would think Piccolo would shoot, Raditz would think "shit, I have no other choice," and dodge the incoming ki blast losing his tail in the process. Either Goku gets hit by the blast or not is up to debate. After losing his tail, he'd be pissed, take it out on Goku with both Piccolo and Goku being killed because Piccolo could only shoot the light of death that last time. He couldn't do it a third time.

[i'mfuckingevil]

Because Raditz is an experienced fighter, at the last second before he is killed be would have cut his tail off to save himself since he ran out of options of keeping his tail and living. I would think Piccolo would shoot, Raditz would think "shit, I have no other choice," and dodge the incoming ki blast losing his tail in the process. Either Goku gets hit by the blast or not is up to debate. After losing his tail, he'd be pissed, take it out on Goku with both Piccolo and Goku being killed because Piccolo could only shoot the light of death that last time. He couldn't do it a third time.

He would've been in tremendous pain and lost a ton of ki if he just cut it off, wouldn't he?

[Kamiccolo9]

Because Raditz is an experienced fighter, at the last second before he is killed be would have cut his tail off to save himself since he ran out of options of keeping his tail and living. I would think Piccolo would shoot, Raditz would think "shit, I have no other choice," and dodge the incoming ki blast losing his tail in the process. Either Goku gets hit by the blast or not is up to debate. After losing his tail, he'd be pissed, take it out on Goku with both Piccolo and Goku being killed because Piccolo could only shoot the light of death that last time. He couldn't do it a third time.

He would've been in tremendous pain and lost a ton of ki if he just cut it off, wouldn't he?

Goku managed just fine when he lost his tail.

[Herms]

Please stop necro-posting.