We need Dragon Ball Super to give Goku’s long-forgotten sibling a larger role in the current timeline and to give him the same opportunity for forgiveness as Vegeta!
Dragon Ball Super should provide more screen time to Goku’s older brother, Vegeta, who has been largely neglected.
For the evil cosmic ruler, Raditz has worked under Lord Frieza since he was a young Saiyan, journeying from planet to planet, conquering them for the duration of his time under him. Raditz’s origins are extremely similar to Vegeta’s, as the two served alongside and were around the same age. However, time has been much more kind to Vegeta than it has been to Raditz, which should be rectified.
Raditz originally appeared in Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball Chapter 195: The Mysterious Warrior From Space, which was published in 1989. The moment Raditz arrived on the scene, he kidnapped Goku’s son Gohan in an attempt to coerce his father into following him on his evil mission across the galaxy.
It wasn’t long until the Saiyan’s narrative came to an end when Goku used all of his strength to fend off the villain while Piccolo delivered a lethal blow, killing both Goku and Raditz in the process. While Raditz begged for his life, he took comfort in the knowledge that his fellow soldiers would use Earth’s Dragon Balls to bring him back to life. However, even if the promise of resurrection had been removed from the equation, Raditz would not have died a warrior’s death, as he had hoped.
Despite the fact that Raditz was not brought back in the manner in which he had hoped, with the continuance of Dragon Ball legend with Dragon Ball Super, it is possible that he will be brought back and become a key character with his brother and Vegeta. The resurrection of Frieza in Dragon Ball Z: Super is a prime example of an early DBZ villain making a comeback, as the character was able to acquire a level of power that fans had never expected from the character.
Raditz might be subjected to the same treatment, albeit given Raditz’s reaction to the prospect of death, he may not prove to be as valuable an asset to the present Z-Fighters as Frieza has proven himself to be. The villain Raditz exhibited cowardice even before Piccolo killed him, and even before that when Goku held him by the tail and was able to weaken Raditz.
Raditz pleads for his life in both cases, demonstrating that he is not unafraid of the thought of death when confronted with a terrible circumstance. In order for a Saiyan to acquire a greater degree of power, they must train so hard that they are on the verge of death, at which point they must either die or unlock a new, more powerful form that will eventually take them to the rank of Super Saiyan or higher.
If Raditz is unable to overcome his dread of death upon his hypothetical return, he will follow in the footsteps of Yamcha and be relegated to the status of a mid-level powerhouse from a bygone era. Despite the fact that Raditz perished early in the Dragon Ball mythos and has not yet made any form of comeback, the Dragon Ball Super series hasn’t completely forgotten about the villain.
At one point in the Granolah Saga, Goku’s father, Bardock, is shown in a flashback, and it is revealed that he played a role (or did not play a role) in the Cerealian massacre on Granolah’s home world. Despite the fact that Raditz’s segment of the flashback was brief, depicting the Saiyan as an innocent boy playing with a bug, it provided some insight into his character.
The Saiyan’s brief appearance demonstrates that he has some redeeming qualities and that he may have been corrupted by Frieza in the same way that Vegeta was, but that he is still deserving of salvation. Furthermore, Raditz is Goku’s brother, therefore it is logical to think that he has the capacity of unlocking a very high power level if he can muster the guts to push himself to his limits.
Alternatively, Raditz may be transformed into a figure that his original self would not recognise, thereby adding another champion to the Z-Fighter squad and bringing him back together with his brother Goku and his old fighting buddy Vegeta for the purposes of future Dragon Ball storylines.