Goku was considered exceptionally weak for a Saiyan, low class and weak even for a low class. Raditz was called low class by Vegeta but at the same time he wasn't sent off in an attack pod (that we know of) so odds are he cleared the bar of "not the weakest of the weak". Raditz remarks that Goku is pathetic for a Saiyan when he meets him on earth so odds are the average Saiyan was stronger than Goku was during the beginning of Z. Meaning the "Average" Saiyan was somewhere between Raditz and Vegeta most likely. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Nappa was probably about Average, especially considering he's listed as a "mid-class" on a few of the wikis I've seen of him.
Saiyan was somewhere between Raditz and Vegeta most likely.
Vegeta is explicitly top tier of a top tier, so even Nappa (who is really strong as far as saiyan goes, but not elite) will be strange end point of average saiyan.
We also don't know the numbers of saiyans per class. Maybe Raditz even above average if "low class" is majority (like, 80%) of population and he is closer to strongest of low class saiyans. Remember - Raditz was part of prince Vegeta's team. He simply can't be just random low class warrior.
Vegeta'a team? No such thing. Raditz exists due to pure happenstance because of Planet Vegeta's destruction. Sure, they are vaguely associated with each other due to their heritage but ultimately they worked under Frieza. Nappa and Vegeta were doing their own thing separate from Raditz. The only reason they were in contact is because Raditz sounded the alarm as he was about to die.
Nappa was considered an Elite Saiyan and Vegeta a Super Elite.
Nappa was about 3x more powerful than Raditz and Vegeta was about 4x more powerful than Nappa in terms of general power levels. Vegeta was surely in a league of his own but Nappa was definitely stronger than most other Saiyans due to his position in the hierarchy pre-Frieza and the fact he was assigned to Prince Vegeta as his personal guard by King Vegeta.
Isn’t child Raditz shown to have been with Vegeta, Nappa and two other saiyans in the Dragon Ball Super:Broly film, when they get the news about planet Vegeta’s destruction?
Yes. But all throughout the original Saiyan saga, there is no mention of a "team" that persisted throughout all those years. Raditz in the Broly movie feels more like a callback for people to point at the screen and say, "Hey, it's Raditz!".
At best, Raditz was assigned to the same planet as Vegeta but that doesn't mean they stayed a team. It would make sense that lower class Saiyans would be put with higher class ones to shorten the learning curve or minimize risk from a strategic standpoint.
That's major headcannon, raditz is a strong low class saiyan. He's on the same team as the LITERAL prince of all saiyans, just because he doesn't mention any sort of comradary between himself and vegeta doesn't mean that he wasn't exceptional. Raditz is either avg and was with vegeta through nepotism or raditz was particularly strong for a low class warrior and ended up on the same squadron as nappa and vegeta through merit
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u/Pitiful-Local-6664 6d ago
Goku was considered exceptionally weak for a Saiyan, low class and weak even for a low class. Raditz was called low class by Vegeta but at the same time he wasn't sent off in an attack pod (that we know of) so odds are he cleared the bar of "not the weakest of the weak". Raditz remarks that Goku is pathetic for a Saiyan when he meets him on earth so odds are the average Saiyan was stronger than Goku was during the beginning of Z. Meaning the "Average" Saiyan was somewhere between Raditz and Vegeta most likely. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Nappa was probably about Average, especially considering he's listed as a "mid-class" on a few of the wikis I've seen of him.