Nappa

"What's wrong? Oh wait, don't tell me. I think I know what you need. A nice trip to the afterlife. One way, of course."

- Nappa

Nappa is a villain in the manga and anime series Dragon Ball Z (as well as the anime's redux Dragon Ball Z Kai). He is the secondary antagonist of the Saiyan Saga.

Biography
Despite his appearance of being in his early 30's, Nappa is actually roughly 50. He is one of the larger characters in terms of muscle mass. When younger, he had black hair, but he has since gone bald. Nappa is an arrogant, obstreperous, cocky, and violent brute who loves beating up anyone weaker than him. He is capable of being friendly, but like most other Saiyans, he is also arrogant and hotheaded, with Raditz as a prime example.

It is shown that Nappa can be loyal and trustworthy to other Saiyans. He was extremly loyal to Vegeta, and though he did not personally like Raditz, he still suggested bringing him back to life. Also, in an anime-only filler, Nappa was was depressed about the death of the many Saiyans. He was likewise shocked to hear that Vegeta mentioned that every Saiyan deserved to die just for not being half as psychically strong as himself. Both Nappa (and Raditz of all people) were also disgusted to hear that Vegeta was willing to serve Freeza after killing his father.

Dragon Ball Z
Nappa was a member of the Saiyan race, and formerly served as commander-in-chief of the Saiyan army before the planet was destroyed. He accompanied Vegeta when he went to Earth. He is not as strong as Vegeta, but he is still strong enough to take on many of the heroes, even Son Goku at one point.

Upon hearing from Raditz about the Dragon Balls, Nappa and Vegeta decided to go to Earth to use the Dragon Balls to wish for immortality. Along the way, they stopped at Planet Arlia, where Nappa killed many of the wicked King Moai's guards, as well as his pet, the fearsome monster Yetti (Vegeta killed the king and blew up the planet).

When they arrived on Earth, Nappa destroyed a city with little effort. The two head toward the strongest energy they could sense, and thus ran into Piccolo and Son Gohan. After a short wait, everybody showed up for battle.

Nappa planted six seeds to grow into Saibamen to fight Yamcha, Tenshinhan, Chaozu, Kuririn, Gohan, and Piccolo. One Saibaman was capable of killing Yamcha, who was unaware of their secret ability of exploding. Kuririn, angry with Yamcha's death, kills most of them, with Piccolo killing the last one, so Nappa stepped up to fight. During the battle, Nappa showed himself to be vicious, sadistic and practically unbeatable. He cut off Tenshinhan's hand with a punch. Chaozu believed that the only way to defeat Nappa was to sacrifice himself, so he grabbed Nappa's back and self-destructed in a vain attempt to kill him, but Nappa survived, practically uninjured. As Tenshinhan attacked Nappa in revenge, Piccolo devised a plan to stop him. This failed, as Gohan froze with fear when it was his turn to attack and give the finishing blow. This causes Piccolo to scold Gohan, but it is later shown that this attack had an unlikely chance of succeeding anyway.

After Piccolo and Kuririn's Tri-Form was unsuccessful at beating Nappa, Tenshinhan used all his lifeforce energy for a Kikoho as a final attack, which did no damage to Nappa but damaged his armor. After Tenshinhan died from using up all his energy, Vegeta ordered him to stop, as he was interested in seeing Kakarot (Son Goku) fight, and gave Kuririn, Piccolo, and Gohan three hours for Goku to show up. Nappa spent the time going on a rampage by destroying cities, boats, and planes (in the manga and in Kai, he destroys a camp set up to film the event, as well as a few jet planes. Nothing more). After three hours, Goku did not show up, however, so Nappa removed his broken armor and resumed the attack, promising to enjoy bullying them all for much longer.



Piccolo devised a plan to grab Nappa's tail, however this failed, as Nappa and Vegeta had become immune to having their tails squeezed, and Nappa hammered Piccolo. He nearly caught Kuririn's Kienzan (and would have been killed by it), but Vegeta warned him at the last second and he avoided it, but his face was scratched. This caused Nappa to lose all sense of restraint and put more effort into killing Kuririn. When Vegeta realized Goku was coming, he ordered Nappa to kill all three of them - even Piccolo, whom he had previously told to spare so he could ask him about the Dragon Balls. Nappa attacked Gohan, bullying him, sitting on him while face up, and threatening him with fart jokes. After getting up, he continuously mocking the boy's father, leading Gohan to attack him back with a powerful kick. This kick, however, had practically no effect, other than angering Nappa. Nappa beats Gohan tremendously, and prepares to kill him with a Deluxe Bomber. Piccolo, who had grown a good relationship with Goku's son, jumped in front of him, sacrificing himself to save him. This sacrifice was nearly in vain, and now, nothing could stop Nappa from killing Gohan. Fortunately, Goku showed up and saved his son with the Kinto'un.

Goku fought and found himself evenly matched with Nappa, due to Kaio's training. Originally, the fight seemed in Goku's favor, however, Nappa calmed down and focused his power, allowing him to fight on and even get in a few hits. Soon, Vegeta told Nappa to stop, realizing that his partner could not beat Goku without getting seriously injured. An infuriated Nappa then decided to go after Gohan and Kuririn, leaving Goku as their only hope. Goku could not catch up with Nappa, so he had to power up and reveal his new technique, the Kaio-ken, at x5. With this, he caught up with and crippled Nappa, being the first to take the mighty brute down. Despite the heartfelt moment in which Nappa, who could not move his body, begged for Vegeta's help, the Saiyan prince threw him into the air and killed him with an energy wave, believing that Nappa has proven himself as no longer useful.

Dragon Ball GT
Nappa briefly returns in Dragonball GT. He, along with nearly all the Dragon Ball villains were revived and escaped Hell. He managed to destroy an entire city (just like when he first landed on Earth, but with even less effort). This shows that, like all Saiyans, Nappa's power and strength has grown tremendously as a result of being resurrected. Vegeta appears and the two seemingly "catch-up." Vegeta shows some signs of apology for mistreating Nappa, though the former Saiyan commander-in-chief is still enraged at being killed. Vegeta warns Nappa to cease his destruction, but his former partner attacks him immediately, so Vegeta effortlessly kills him again with an energy blast. He is later seen in Hell trying to attack Piccolo and loses.

Oozaru
Nappa possess the ability to transform into an Oozaru ape since he has a tail. He can transform by absorbing blutz waves from the moon, a planet, or a power ball. He never uses it in the anime or the manga due to Piccolo having blown up Earth's moon, though it appears in Budokai Tenkaichi 3. It's unknown whether this form could have given him more of an advantage against Goku.

Super Saiyan
While Nappa never uses this form, he mentions it as a "what-if" in Budokai Tenkaichi 3. It is possible he attained it at some point during his time on Earth after he was revived. Since he's bald, only his mustache and eyebrows turn blonde in this form.

Dragon Ball Abridged
In TeamFourStar's comedy parody, Dragon Ball Abridged, Nappa is portrayed as an incredibly annoying man-child who gets on Vegeta's last nerve. He whines about how long it takes to get to Earth for a whole year, repeating "Are we there yet?" He serves as the main comedy relief for the Saiyan Saga, until Vegeta kills him due to being annoyed by him. But Nappa continues to haunt Vegeta as a ghost after he leaves Earth, giving him useless advice and trolling him throughout the Namek Saga.

When everyone killed by Freeza and his men were wished back to life with the dragonballs, Nappa was also brought back, though he was no longer involved with Vegeta or the Z Fighters, presumably leaving to live his life in peace as a producer in Hollywood, becoming Mr. Satan's manager. He didn't reappear again until Cell announced the Cell Games, and Nappa called on Mr. Satan to participate.