272 | dbz rewatch thoughts, episodes 1-5, raditz edition

[straightforwardly]

► Thoughts on my Dragon Ball Z rewatch, up through the end of the Raditz…. arc? (Does that count as an arc? It was surprisingly few episodes—only five—compared to the impact Raditz left in my head as a kid/teen.)

• Something I never noticed before: the screen is incredibly thirsty for Raditz. There are so, so, so, so, so many lingering shots focusing on his codpiece lower armor and the way it’s framed by his bare, ridiculously muscular, tree trunk thighs! I’m surprised I never noticed it before, not even as a hormonal teenager rewatching the series maybe it helped that I’ve never been into muscles or traditional markers of ““masculinity””. (Raditz’s long hair, on the other hand… my younger self did have a fondness for him based on that alone.)
  
  I do kind of wonder if it’s meant as a subliminal messaging related to his role in the story. Like: here’s our hero’s surprise older brother, who is so much stronger and dangerous than anyone else in the planet and can beat Goku to the ground, oo la la, and have we mentioned that his dick is bigger too? (Or maybe I’m reading too much into it.)



• Things that I’ve forgotten: how early Gohan’s hidden power showed up! <3 In my mind, I associate it very strongly with the Cell Games, so I forgot it was a character trait for him from the very start. The contrast between Gohan not having a passion for fighting like the other characters, but also having the potential to be (one of the) the strongest of them all despite that is something that’s always interested me about his character, so I’m a fan of this!



• Also: RED-HAIRED VEGETA. Oh my god. I was dying (and laughing) the whole time he was on screen. I had absolutely zero memory of this.



• brothers dying together <3 how romantic <3 /joking, but also, with another set of characters in another canon in a similar scenario, this might not have been been a joke, lol



• Raditz calling Piccolo “green man” as he’s dying… amazing, haha. I have no idea if this is a dub-ism or if it’s in the original (I’m watching the dub, because nostalgia & I’m still fond of it), but I kind of love that they fought this life and death battle, and yet Raditz never bothered to learn his name. Which, now that I’m typing this out, does work with the sense of superiority Raditz approached the whole situation with.



• It’s honestly genuinely quite sad that Raditz dies fully convinced that his comrades will come for him and wish him back to life, only for Vegeta to immediately go “lol no, what a waste of a wish, he was useless anyway”.
  
  Thinking about it, I could see that being meant to demonstrate how cold-hearted the Saiyans can be. And for all we know, maybe Raditz would have reacted the same were their positions/social-power roles swapped. But it’s interesting to me that Raditz fully believes they’ll come for him and Nappa at least suggests that they do so, while Vegeta is the coldest and most callous of them all—but he’s also the one who undergoes a redemption arc and joins the heroes, while the other two die as one-off villains.
  
  (To be clear, I love Vegeta and his role in the story.)



• On a similar note: I know I’m far, far from the first person to comment on this, but Raditz’s role in the story has always interested me. He’s literally the main character’s surprise older brother! But while he plays an important role in revealing Goku’s heritage and opening up the scope of the Dragon Ball universe as a whole, as a character he… has such little narrative weight? He’s important for those opening five episodes, and then that’s it, he’s gone. Maybe we get a glimpse of him in the afterlife later on, idk for sure, but he’s not a major player in any way later on.
  
  Then, contrasting that to Vegeta, who’s—okay, yeah, prince of all Saiyans, but it’s not like they haven’t faced emperors and kings before, and is emotionally a “just some guy” of villains when introduced… it’s just wild to think of how disproportionate their narrative weight is when compared to the expectations set up by their introductions! Like if Sesshomaru had just fucked off from the series after Inuyasha cut his arm off, idk.



• I’ve never shipped Raditz with anyone, but I did find myself musing over the possibilities this time around. There’s… not much.
  
  Raditz/Vegeta came up as a background past relationship in one of the Vegeta/Bulma fics I read last month, but it doesn’t quite click with me—and Vegeta’s reaction to his death kind of put the nail on the coffin, in how thoroughly he doesn’t seem to care, positive or negative. Maybe I just haven't seen the right argument for it, but based on what we see in canon, idk, it just doesn't do it for me.
  
  As I half-jokingly alluded to above, I toyed with the thought of Goku/Raditz—like, on paper, there’s a lot of weird things going on there that I could be into—but it runs into the roadblock that is Goku being a character I find difficult to ship with anyone…
  
  The only other possibility that comes to mind is Raditz/Bulma. After all, Bulma is canonically willing to bang the dangerous Saiyan who threatened the lives of she and the people she loves, so maybe she’d go for Raditz too? It’d need work, but I feel like there could be a fun AU there…
  
  Raditz/Piccolo? Honestly feels more like an Abridged joke waiting to happen, considering all of their interactions and Raditz’s joke about his arm, but maybe…? Otherwise, I’m at a loss.



• Anyways, I have a surprisingly large volume of Raditz thoughts relative to his presence in the series, if it’s not obvious. Possibly a side-effect of my general thing for sibling relationships (particularly complicated, unusual, and/or emotionally charged ones) in media.

► I also meant to talk about/update on my Digimon Survive thoughts in this post, since I finished my first route/playthrough with my brother today, but it’s gotten quite late, so another time!

Comments

[shinsengumi]

I love all your Raditz thoughts. The dub is so sarcastic, it's hilarious. I can't remember the last time I laughed so much watching something.

Coincidentally, our household has also started a DBZ dub rewatch. I'm excited to share my nostalgia with my wife, who has her own independent nostalgia of the show.

I look forward to more of your thinking as you progress!

[straightforwardly]

I'm glad you enjoyed my thoughts! And yesss, the dub is such a delight <3 There are some series where I (unfortunately) can't enjoy the dubbed version anymore, but DBZ definitely isn't one of them. I hope you continue to enjoy your own rewatch as much as I'm enjoying mine!