What If Raditz Went To Earth Instead of Goku? is a Dragon Ball What If? fanfic by Lawrence Simpson aka MasakoX of Team Four Star fame as part of his Dragon Ball Discussion series of Youtube videos. This topic started on December 8th, 2020, and is the fifty-seventh entry in the overall series.
Thanks to a stomach bug, Raditz is stuck on Planet Vegeta when his father Bardock finds out that Freeza is planning to destroy the sevens, leading him to send both of his sons far off to their safety. However, when a group of Freeza soldiers go to investigate the two pods, Raditz frantically blasts off leaving his little brother behind. When he crashes on Earth, he needs to discover what it means to be a fighter and how to improve himself for the sake of his home. Meanwhile, Kakarot ends up in the clutches of Prince Vegeta, granting him a different destiny as well as some sibling issues towards his brother.
You can find the playlist for it here
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See also Masako X - Dragon Ball What-If which explores other possibilities in the Dragon Ball verse.
What If Raditz Went To Earth Instead of Goku? has the following tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Raditz never received much affection from Bardock growing up due to Saiyan values lacking anything in the way of traditional child-rearing standards, and when Bardock is brought back to life by Fortuneteller Baba, he proceeds to subject his son to a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown while mocking him. The latter case is admittedly somewhat understandable, as Bardock had found out that Raditz had abandoned Kakarot to Frieza's forces to save his own skin after Bardock explicitly entrusted Raditz with Kakarot's safety.
- Adaptational Backstory Change:
- Bulla is now the daughter of Raditz and Bulma, rather than Vegeta and Bulma. She takes the place of Future Trunks.
- Due to him being a significant player on Earth, Raditz is part of Cell's DNA, and with him also having a more conniving Krillin, this makes Imperfect Cell even more crafty than before.
- Adaptational Badass:
- Kakarot and Raditz both become significantly stronger than they were originally due to training and different environments. By the time of the Buu saga, they have the Mastered Super Saiyan 2 form that Future Trunks had in the Super manga.
- Nappa is significantly stronger, as well, able to go toe-to-toe with Dodoria for a short time to allow Kakarot a chance to escape.
- Imperfect Cell becomes significantly stronger than his canon counterpart and even stronger than Perfect Cell after he absorbs Future Bulla and indeed is able to fight nearly equally with Super Saiyan 2 Raditz. Absorbing her doesn't change his appearance, even though he did it the same way he absorbed the androids.
- Adaptational Early Appearance:
- Like in What If Frieza Turned Good?, Berryblue is revealed much earlier than in the original timeline. During the events of Dragon Ball, in fact.
- Majin Vegeta is shown significantly earlier, during his first appearance at the 25th Martial Arts tournament, in fact, in the place of Yamu.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Krillin doesn't care for Raditz and his bluster, and eventually joins the Crane school alongside Tien and Chiaotzu. In part 11, he joins Tambourine and King Piccolo and kills Bulma and steals her Dragon Radar.
- Adaptational Name Change:
- Much like in What If Gine Went With Goku to Earth?, canonical lack of a name change, since Kakarot is left with the Frieza force, he never gets his name changed to Goku. Raditz, being old enough to talk, doesn't get a name change by Grandpa Gohan, either.
- Instead of being named Gohan after Grandpa Gohan, the first-born son of Kakarot and Chi-Chi instead goes by the Saiyan name Kyarro, due to Grandpa Gohan surviving and Kakarot not being as close to him, since it was Raditz who had him as his adoptive father. The name is derived from kyarotto ke-ki (the Japanese pronunciation of "carrot cake"), which references both of his parents since carrot cake contains both carrots and milk.
- Instead of being named Goten, Kakarot and Chi-Chi name their second son Jarga, which is a pun on the Indian drink Gajar Ka Doodh. Like with Kyarro, the name references both parents, as the drink is a mixture of, among other things, pureed carrots and milk.
- Adaptational Nice Guy:
- Raditz, having been raised by Grandpa Gohan, became a much nicer and cordial individual than he had been in the source material, though he's still temperamental and cocky.
- Nappa is a protective surrogate father to Kakarot, doing his best to keep the wrath of Vegeta away from him, teaching him how to speak and training him to get stronger so he can stand up for himself.
- Amazonian Beauty: Bando is described as looking like Bulma, but much more muscular. Her thumbnail art in Part 18 shows some very toned arms.
- Bad Boss: Though Vegeta was this in the source material pre-Heel–Face Turn, here he's this in spades. Due to his own Inferiority Superiority Complex, the first thing he does when faced with a toddler Kakarot is beat him senseless, making Nappa intervene. He also threatens Nappa with death should he continue to train Kakarot and, had it not been for Raditz's wish, Vegeta would have likely made good on his word.
- Cain and Abel: A bit of a role switch compared to canon when Kakarot found out the truth of why he was left behind. Neither brother is exactly evil though, but it is evident that Kakarot has much scorn towards his own brother for abandoning him to save his own hide.
- Chick Magnet: Being a tall and muscular young man, Raditz manages to catch the attention of Bulma, Chi-Chi, and Launch.
- Create Your Own Villain: Downplayed in that it's more of a rivalry with bad blood, but Raditz gets an opponent in his brother, Kakarot, as a result of Raditz abandoning Kakarot to Frieza's forces in order to keep himself from being arrested.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Kakarot punches Vegeta in the gut and then breaks his arm in payback to the abuse Vegeta had put him through when he was young.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: First form Frieza manages to rough up Kakarot and Raditz before they both go Super Saiyan. Frieza's too shocked at seeing two of the legendary beings and gets killed by a Double Double Sunday before he can transform.
- Death by Adaptation:
- Mercenary Tao gets outright killed by Raditz during their first encounter, since Raditz is significantly stronger than Goku was.
- Instead of Krillin getting killed by Tambourine, Krillin joins Tambourine and kills Bulma, stealing her Dragon Radar.
- Launch gets turned into Majin Launch and gets grimly and cruelly blown up by Babidi in an attempt to kill Kakarot.
- Did Not Get The Guy:
- Chi-Chi has a crush on Raditz, but the fact that he's in a relationship with Bulma and Chi-Chi's significantly younger and shorter than him makes him uninclined to reciprocate her affections. However, when she meets young Kakarot...
- Videl never gets together with the Gohan equivalent, Kyarro, since he never takes up the "Great Saiyaman" persona to get her to be interested in him. She just keeps up what she did originally, in being a vigilante crime fighter. Instead, he gets together with Erasa.
- Dies Different In Adaptation:
- Dodoria gets killed by Nappa, who uses his Blaze Pillar Volcano Explosion to take out Dodoria along with himself.
- Commander Silver and most of the Red Ribbon Army get wiped out differently than originally.
- After Krillin joins King Piccolo and kills Bulma, Raditz kills Krillin when he finds him.
- Frieza gets killed by Raditz and Kakarot while in his first form on Frieza Planet 1.
- Androids 17 and 18 are killed by Future Bulla while still in their pods.
- Grandpa Gohan passes away peacefully in-between the Cell arc and the Buu arc.
- Launch gets turned into Majin Launch and is killed by Babidi in an attempt to kill Kakarot, making her explode gruesomely.
- Dirty Coward: When Frieza's forces detected the escape pods, Raditz panics and blasts off on his own, leaving Kakarot behind, though Raditz does admittedly feel incredibly guilty about it, especially when he initially believes his brother might have been among the Saiyans stuck on Planet Vegeta when it exploded. Raditz's impulse to save himself in times of danger ends up being something he has to wrestle with.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Master Shen is actually somewhat perturbed by just how much of a conniving cheater Krillin has become under his tutelage. However, he pushes these thoughts aside due to Krillin achieving more victories in the World Martial Arts Tournament than Roshi's pupil.
- Face Death with Dignity: Grandpa Gohan explicitly requested Raditz to not have his life extended artificially, saying that if fate decreed that he die soon, then so be it. Raditz tearfully complies.
- Face–Heel Turn: Krillin joins Tambourine and King Piccolo due to his jealousy of Raditz.
- Heroic Build: Future Bulla is sulking while in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber after getting the Super Saiyan Grade 3 form saying it seems useless. It doesn't help that Raditz and Kakarot are laughing their ass off at how she looks. Raditz then cheers her up by transforming into it himself and starts posing like a bodybuilder, which makes her laugh.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Android 16 blows himself up to kill Imperfect Cell.
- Innocently Insensitive: Raditz beat up Krillin during their sparring matches under Master Roshi because Krillin wouldn't stop making perverted comments towards Bulma. It's only when Raditz and Krillin fight during the World's Martial Arts Tournament that Raditz finds out that Krillin perceived Raditz's beatdowns as Raditz lording his strength over him, which genuinely catches the Saiyan off-guard.
- Ignored Epiphany: Roshi defeats Krillin in the World Martial Arts Tournament in a manner meant to dissuade Krillin from continuing his cheating ways. Unfortunately, Krillin only took the defeat as a sign that he needed to get stronger and he ends up joining forces with Tambourine and King Piccolo.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Despite having been abandoned by his brother, forcibly inducted into Frieza's army at a young age, and routinely beaten by Vegeta, Kakarot is still as optimistic as ever. Nappa and Frieza see this as a good thing, for varying reasonsnote .
- Roshi still wins the 22nd World Martial Arts tournament.
- Honorary Uncle: Nappa takes on this role after taking Kakarot under his wing, being referred to as "Uncle Nappa". He also doubles as Kakarot's Parental Substitute.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Raditz is cocky and impulsive, but he cares deeply about his friends and adopted homeworld.
- Kid from the Future: "Bando", AKA Future Bulla is the person to come back in Future Trunks' stead.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Vegeta, after having his attacks effortlessly blocked by Kakarot, decides to spin it as a Secret Test of Character before hastily fleeing.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Kakarot, Raditz and Nappa all send Vegeta to be a fighter for the Nediyani Galactic, which is where Kakarot had to fight while hiding from the Frieza force.
- After she killed Androids 17 and 18 while they were still in their pods and showed no remorse, even after being called out on it, Future Bulla gets absorbed by Cell in the next episode.
- Lazy Bum: Jaco manages to track down Raditz to Gohan's house. But, not wanting to deal with having to detain a Saiyan, he claims he needs to do the “paperwork” to properly arrest Raditz and leaves him in Gohan's care.
- Meet the In-Laws: Bulla and Kyarro introduce their partners Sharpner and Erasa, respectively to their parents in Part 25. It goes well and both sets of parents are alright with them, though Sharpner is a little intimidated by Raditz's size and bluster.
- Mr. Fanservice: Bulma definitely sees the tall, strapping Raditz as this.
- My Greatest Failure: Raditz beats himself up mentally and then when Bardock is temporarily brought back by Baba, physically for years for abandoning Kakarot to the Frieza force. When he confesses this to Kakarot and Kakarot rejects him, Raditz turns Super Saiyan for the first time out of grief and self-loathing.
- Mythology Gag: When Raditz comes out of the shower in just a towel, Bulma looked at his abs and thought "You could grind meat on those!"
- Next Tier Power-Up: Invoked by Raditz. When he gets his hands on the titular Dragon Balls, he wishes for Kakarot to be strong and for no harm to come to him.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Because Raditz didn't let the auto-function of the pods do their job and tried to pilot it manually. Frieza's forces detect Kakarot and his pods, resulting in him leaving Kakarot behind and Kakarot being captured by the Frieza forces.
- In what had seemed to be Laser-Guided Karma, by sending him off to Nediyani Galactic, they stripped Vegeta of his one hallmark: Pride. This ends up making him very dangerous in that the only thing he wants now is revenge.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Android 19, who is still in it's early stages of development, tries absorbing Raditz' energy. Instead, it malfunctions and gives Raditz energy, basically forcing him to turn into Super Saiyan 2.
- Nice Guy: Grandpa Gohan, naturally. He takes Raditz in and allows him to live with him for several months even after learning he's a decendant of Always Chaotic Evil Space Pirates.
- No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction:
- Raditz was initially intrigued by Jaco chasing him, but loses interest when he realizes Jaco is too lazy to do his job properly.
- When given the chance to wish on the Dragon Balls, Raditz briefly considers wishing to become stronger. He decides against it due to already being strong, and wanting a challenge.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
- When looking for the final Dragon Ball and going to Fortuneteller Baba to get it, instead of bringing back Grandpa Gohan, who is still alive in this timeline, she brings back Bardock. Bardock isn't proud of his son after he admits to leaving Kakarot behind to say the least, and mercilessly beats and mocks Raditz.
- Raditz subjects Krillin to this after Krillin kills Bulma. Raditz methodically beats him to a pulp before vaporizing him.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Raditz discovers that he's actually fairly strong by the standards of most Earth's beings. The fact that his power, which was dismissed on his home planet for being rather meager, could be of use on Earth is one of the reasons he develops an attachment to the planet.
- Official Couple: Raditz gets together with Bulma and marries her, later. Kakarot naturally gets together with Chi-Chi, as well.
- Oh, Crap!: Bulla and Bulma when they find that something (strongly implied to be Cell) took Androids 17 and 18 from the underground vault Bulma had them in by digging through several hundred feet of rock and dirt and a reinforced concrete wall.
- Parental Substitute:
- With a baby Kakarot being captured by Frieza, Nappa ultimately takes over the guardianship of the lad and is considerably more level-headed than Vegeta, who took out all of his pent up anger on him.
- Grandpa Gohan takes on a parental role to Raditz rather quickly, caring for him and training him. This is what leads him to be a much better person than in the source material.
- Point of Divergence:
- The reason why Raditz wasn't initially off-planet with Prince Vegeta like in the original story is because… he came down with a tummy bug and had to stay home. Raditz feels appropriately embarrassed.
- As a result of Kakarot's presence, Vegeta becomes much more short-tempered and prone to lashing out. Nappa becomes more willing to argue and stand against him in order to protect Kakarot.
- Due to their similar ages, Raditz and Bulma become a couple. Raditz gets to use the Dragon Balls and wishes for Kakarot to become stronger.
- Krillin and Raditz do not get along, ultimately leading to Krillin abandoning Roshi and joining the Crane Hermit as a pupil.
- Raditz loses his fight against Krillin. He takes this as a lesson in humility and works to improve.
- Retcon: At first Masako misremembered that Zarbon had stayed behind with Frieza and Dodoria alone was killed to having Zarbon killed alongside Dodoria, before correcting himself in episode 11 that Zarbon is still alive.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Unlike in canon with Goku, Krillin doesn't get along with Raditz at all while they're training under Roshi and eventually gets fed up enough to demand either Raditz goes or he does. Roshi refuses, citing Krillin had more then enough time to make peace with Raditz but didn't and if he feels that way, then he's not stopping him. Krillin acts on his word and leaves Roshi's training.
- Ship Tease: As a result of being older than Goku, Raditz's first encounter with Bulma ended up resulting in Belligerent Sexual Tension ensuing. By part 5, they become a couple.
- Shout-Out:
- After commenting on how her car took more damage than Raditz when he was hit, he comments "'Tis but a scratch!"
- When Roshi first greets Raditz with a "Hello there!", Masako barely manages to stop himself from making a "General Kenobi!" reference.
- Space "X": Raditz asks Shin if he's "chopped space liver" When Shin ignores Raditz
- Spared by the Adaptation: Jaco gives Grandpa Gohan a heads up to not let Raditz look at the moon. Raditz eventually tells Gohan of his Oozaru transformation, so Gohan ends up avoiding his original fate.
- Super Mode: Raditz gets decent control of his Oozaru form at a young age.
- Super-Speed: Raditz is able to run as fast as a car while jogging with Bulma on his shoulders. He's later able to use it to grab Roshi's dragon ball before Roshi notices.
- Talking the Monster to Death: King Piccolo wishes for immortality from Shenron, so no matter how much Raditz beats him to a pulp Piccolo will always get back up. Raditz switches tactics and reveals to the demon king that he's actually a Namekian. This sends Piccolo into an existential crisis, leaving Kakarot free to seal him with the Mafuba.
- Token Heroic Orc:
- Due to Raditz having made it to Earth instead of Kakarot, Raditz becomes this due to his tutelage under Grandpa Gohan.
- Played With in regards to Kakarot and Nappa. They both work under the genocidal space emperor, Frieza, though on the other hand Kakarot isn't actively malicious and doesn't seem to understand that what he's doing is wrong, and Nappa isn't sadistic like he is in the source material.
- Took a Level in Badass: Raditz uses his wish on the Dragon Balls to make Kakarot stronger, bringing his power level up to 2000.
- Unskilled, but Strong: King Cold is portrayed like this. He may be stronger than Super Saiyan Kakarot and Raditz individually, but they had a lot more martial arts training and experience than Cold, who had almost none. They also worked well as a team, despite having been estranged for years.
- What the Hell, Hero?: When Fortuneteller Baba brings Bardock back to life and has him face Raditz, Bardock wastes no time royally laying into his son both verbally and physically over Raditz abandoning Kakarot to Frieza's forces to avoid being arrested.
- Who's Laughing Now?: Krillin twofold in this continuity. Krillin ends up abandoning Master Roshi in favor of the Crane school due to not getting along with Raditz, who made his own mutual disdain known by repeatedly beating down Krillin whenever they sparred. Krillin proceeds to not only beat up his bullies from his old monastery in the World Martial Arts Tournament but also Raditz.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Grandpa Gohan, upon learning how ashamed Raditz is of his very un-Saiyan-like nature, assures him that it's a good thing he's different from other Saiyans.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Shen just disappears after the 22nd World Martial Arts tournament.
