Nappa

"Hey Vegeta, what does the scouter say about his power level?"

- Nappa, the start of a meme

Nappa is a villain in the manga and anime series Dragon Ball Z (as well as the anime's redux Dragon Ball Z Kai).

Biography
Despite his appearance of being in his early 30s, 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, cocky, violent brute who loves bullying anyone weaker than him. He is capable of being friendly, yet does so in a arrogant manner, with Raditz as a prime example.

Dragon Ball Z
Nappa was a member of the Saiyan race, and a general 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 Goku at one point.

Upon hearing from Raditz about the Dragon Balls, Nappa and Vegeta decided to go to Earth to use the Dragonballs 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 Gohan. After a short wait, everybody showed up for battle.

Nappa planted six Evil Seeds to grow into Saibamen to fight Yamcha, Tenshinhan, Chiaotzu, Kuririn, Son 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 them all, so Nappa stepped up to fight. During the battle, Nappa showed himself to be vicious, sadistic and practically unbeatable; He cut off Tien's hand with a kick. Chiaotzu 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 Tien 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, Tien used all his energy (and his life) for a Kikoho, a final attack, which did no damage to Nappa but damaged his armor. After Tien 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 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 making Nappa angry. Nappa beats Gohan tremendously, and prepares to kill him with a Bomber X. Piccolo, who had grown a good relationship with Gohan, 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. Unfortunately, Goku showed up.

Goku fought and found himself evenly matched with Nappa; originally, the fight seemed in Goku's favor, however, Nappa calmed down and focused his power, allowing him to fight Goku on and even get in a few hits. Soon, Vegeta told Nappa to stop, believing that Nappa could not beat Goku without getting seriously injured. An infuriated Nappa went after Kuririn and Gohan, 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, by five, and beat 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 Nappa is still enraged at being killed. The two have a short fight to the death, with Vegeta remaining in his base form. After a short time, Vegeta wins.

Great Ape
Nappa possess the ability to transform into a great 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, though it appears in Budokai Tenkaichi 3.

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.

Ghost Nappa
A Form which only appears in TeamFourStar's Dragon Ball Abridged, it is Nappa as a ghost that can appear anywhere.

In TeamFourStar's comedy parody Dragon Ball Abridged Nappa continues to haunt Vegeta as a ghost, giving him useless advice and trolling him.

When Everyone killed by Frieza and his men were wished back to life Nappa was also brought back, though he never appeared again, presumably leaving to live his life in peace.