WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Chapter 77 of the Dragon Ball Super manga by Akira Toriyama, Toyotarou, Caleb Cook and Brandon Bovia, available now in English through Viz Media.
Raditz, the older brother of Goku, is the most hilariously disposable character in the history of Dragon Ball. From his relevancy to the series to his power level, Raditz even makes Krillin look like the Omni King. Introduced as the most powerful villain yet whose Goku's-alien-brother backstory turned the entire series on its head, it took a Goku and Piccolo team-up and Goku's death to defeat him. After spending most of Dragon Ball Z as a posthumous punchline before being forgotten entirely, Dragon Ball Super has confirmed that Raditz was also the black sheep of his family.
DBZ turned Raditz into a joke pretty quickly by having him get his bell rung by a four-year-old before failing to escape a nelson hold by a guy with shattered ribs without thinking to just fly away. Once Vegeta and Nappa reach Earth, they plant monsters in the ground known as Saibamen, proclaiming the creatures to be equally as strong as Raditz. This means that Raditz was so weak that his death was completely meaningless to his comrades because they could essentially just grow more of him. It's no wonder Nappa and Vegeta would taunt him by calling him "Radish-boy."
If there's one thing DBZ wanted fans to take away from the early days of the series, it's that Raditz sucks. A total jerk who would have had no issues killing his own brother or nephew, Raditz is a rare DBZ villain who has had no redemption or character development. Of course, he was typical of Saiyans from his time, heartlessly cruel and only looking out for number one. Nappa was no different, and it took many years for Vegeta to grow beyond his violent Saiyan nature.
Surprisingly, a flashback in Dragon Ball Super: Broly and the events of Chapter 77 of the Super manga have confirmed that Raditz is the only member of his family with no capacity for compassion. His mother, Gine, is known for being a rare, kind Saiyan who was ill-suited to combat and preferred to focus on helping others. Bardock, his father, also displayed something resembling a conscience by sending an infant Goku off-world when he feared for Planet Vegeta's safety. He also spared the lives of Granolah and his mother during the Saiyan invasion of Planet Cereal, saying he just felt like it was the right thing to do.
Goku's history of fighting for what's right is well known, leaving Raditz as the only member of the family who was a stereotypically violent Saiyan. Perhaps Raditz's attitude and willingness to kill Goku in DBZ is a result of childhood resentment, as Gine and Bardock may have paid more attention to their baby Kakarot. However, Gine and Bardock didn't seem to despise Raditz, as Bardock once asked about him after a mission and Gine proudly replied that Raditz was off fighting alongside Prince Vegeta.
Perhaps spending so much time with Vegeta as a child helped create Raditz's cruel personality. After all, Vegeta was a full-on psychopath as a kid, considering his only reaction to the destruction of Planet Vegeta was an irritation that he would never get to rule the planet now. Still, it's clear that even in Vegeta's company, Raditz was an outcast and a loser who was nowhere near as powerful as Nappa or Vegeta. This would possibly explain why Raditz was traveling alone at the beginning of DBZ while Vegeta and Nappa stuck together -- he was tired of being a punching bag.
Unfortunately for Raditz, even after being dead and forgotten for most of the series, the additional backstory regarding his family history only makes him look worse. Still taking Ls from his grave (or whatever they did with his body), Raditz has one of the poorest reputations of any character in the franchise. As Goku's evil older brother, the possibilities for his future in the series felt endless -- yet in all this time, he hasn’t even warranted a cameo from Hell, which means he's even less significant than Guldo.
