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Prince Vegeta,

Once a prideful, arrogant alien royalty, now a loving father and all but human. Throughout the initial 520 chapter runtime of Dragon Ball many consider Vegeta to be the best written character, for good reason. The journey that Vegeta takes through the original run is one of the most iconic and well represented redemption arcs in all of fiction, alongside other greats like my personal favorite redemption arc, Prince Zuko. But what exactly is it that sets Vegeta apart from the rest? Why, of all the enemies turned ally in Dragon Ball is Vegeta’s journey towards the title of hero so revered while the others seem to be in the background to many fans? That’s exactly what we’re going to try and find out as we explore the life and times of the throneless heir, Vegeta.

Early Life

We don’t see a whole lot of Vegeta’s childhood, the only glimpse being a questionably canon training session with the ruthless Saibamen. As we see when they crop up in the current time, a Saibamen will stop at nothing to claim victory, even resorting to self-destruction if it means taking out an opponent, a newborn Saibamen was even able to kill Yamcha, who, while commonly made fun of in the fandom today, at the time he was considered one of the strongest humans on the planet, stronger then characters who are easily planetary in strength, making the Saibamen are comparable in strength to planet busting characters, when you lean back and take a look at the true scope of these characters, a Saibamen truly is nothing to scoff at, and remember that these are the opponents that Vegeta faces as just a child. This one scene really isn’t much but it provides insight into the conditions Vegeta must have endured as a child, being the prince of a space pirate warrior nation under the foot of the emperor of the universe, training and strength are always his highest priority. Day in and out fighting life or death battles against foes far outside the scope of what he should realistically be expected to handle. If this is an accurate representation of his daily life, it’s clear to see how this kind of childhood molded him into the ruthless elitist that we see when his character is properly introduced in the Saiyan Saga.

Saiyan Saga

When we’re properly introduced to Vegeta in the story of Dragon Ball, he’s one of three living individuals from his race. By this point, as far as he knows, a stray meteor destroyed Planet Vegeta while the entire race was gathered there, and the only survivors were him, Nappa, Raditz who was already killed by the time we first see Vegeta, and Raditz’ younger brother Kakarot, also known, as Son Goku.

Upon Raditz’s death and using the communication feature of the Frieza Force’s scouter, Vegeta finds out about magical wish orbs known as Dragon Balls residing on the planet Kakarot was sent to as a baby, earth. Vegeta then decides to go to earth and use these dragon balls to wish for immortality. When you take a look at how he got where he is, It makes sense that this is what he’d wish for. As one of the last of his race, and from his perspective, the only one worthy of deserving it, and someone who’s clearly well learned about Saiyan history as we see far later in the story, preserving his race must have been of the utmost priority to him, so to wish for immortality is effectively the most selfless act that a narcissist like him is capable of, not only does he do so in order to he can preserve Saiyan history, but he also intends to free the memory of the Saiyans from the shackles of lord Frieza.

Yes, Vegeta is a villain, a dastardly one at this point especially, but his selfishness and overall motivation are born of the environment he grew up in, and given the chance to live under different circumstances, he could have ended up a better person, maybe he could have even been kind from the beginning.

Upon their arrival, Vegeta and Nappa confront the earth’s defense force, sans Goku, and Vegeta ruthlessly sends out Nappa and a small group of Saibamen to decimate them. Nappa alone own managed to kill Piccolo, Tien, and Chiaotzu, and one of the Saibamen killed Yamcha. But before he could finish off Gohan and Krillen, Goku appeared and quickly dispatched of him. An important note is that Goku’s Kaioken assault left Nappa paralyzed making him unable to fight moving forward, Vegeta, the ruthless bastard he was at this time, decided to kill him as he “has no use for a Saiyan who can’t fight”

This heartless decision is a result of the elitism that his upbringing instilled within him, and perhaps even a product of his own insecurity. Because he was forced to become so strong at such a young age, Vegeta derives much of his self-worth from his strength, and in order to justify that kind of self deprecating behavior, he makes a conscious effort to enforce that worldview on others, leading him to look down on those weaker then him, i.e. Nappa in this moment, and the Z-Fighters.

Goku Fight

Which leads us into Vegeta’s legendary first showdown against… Son Goku.

This fight is easily one of my favorite in not only Dragon Ball Z, not only the entire Dragon Ball franchise, but out of any fictional fight to ever exist, and that’s because there is literally not a single instance of wasted motion. Every action taken on both sides serves to further develop and contrast their personalities perfectly, especially when given the position they each stand in relation to one another, which is used to wordlessly encapsulate the status of both characters mindsets at several points during this fight.

Just before they begin, as Vegeta attempts to recruit Goku to his cause, he’s standing above Goku, talking down to him, and refusing to call him anything but his Saiyan name, whereas Goku not only stands on a lower platform initially, but the battle stance he takes up puts himself even lower then Vegeta when looking at them side by side. This dichotomy perfectly encapsulates Vegeta’s mindset going into the fight, he sees himself as effortlessly above Goku, while he may have overpowered Nappa, that doesn’t necessarily mean that he stands a chance at taking down Vegeta given his status as a Saiyan Elite, which was later retconned into being the Prince of all Saiyans, as far as Vegeta knows based on pure genetics it should be impossible for any of the currently living Saiyan to be stronger then him, so to fight Kakarot one on one is more of a formality than anything else.

Interestingly Vegeta seems to be a staunch Utilitarian at this point in his life, and no moment shows this better then him asking Goku to replace Nappa as his second hand to help conquer the galaxy. From his point of view, he had one level of power under his control, and a far stronger one from a Saiyan lineage just showed up, so clearly, as his rightful ruler, he has no choice but to join his cause or be beaten into submission, Vegeta truly didn’t even consider the possibility that Goku could have become stronger then him, the numbers simply didn’t allow for it.

The next section of dialogue takes place after the first few attacks have been thrown, during this initial flurry Goku proves to Vegeta that he can hold his own in this fight, and planted the seeds of doubt in Vegeta’s mind, but a narcissist won’t stand idly by as they’re proven wrong, especially when all the cards have yet to be revealed. Now the two are flying on the same level as one another, Vegeta’s misconception of being effortlessly stronger than Goku has already proven to be untrue, he may still be stronger, but it’s coming in closer then he would have liked, so, to end this foolishness and prove the last few minutes were just a fluke he turns up the intensity and unleashes his full power.

Later on, Vegeta is even further distressed by his the fact that he can’t put Goku down, and so in a rage driven gambit, he threatens to destroy the earth should Goku not stop his Galick Gun attack, he no longer cares about the Dragon Balls, at this point the mentality that he’s carried his entire life is being challenged, and all he can think about is proving that he hasn’t been wrong all this time, interestingly, in this action, Goku is literally, physically the only thing standing between the earth and complete destruction, and in the first moment of him being directly overpowered by another Saiyan in his entire life, Goku pushes through to Kaioken times 4 and blasts Vegeta into the stratosphere.

Upon his return Vegeta decides that he must rely on the Great Ape form that he feels to be barbaric, all other pretense has faded away and Vegeta is now desperate to defeat Goku and prove to himself that what he’s believed all along has been true, he is the rightful prince of all Saiyans, and the strongest one at that, it’s what he’s always believed, and as a slave to the Frieza force it’s all he has, he can’t lose this part of himself because it’s all that’s kept him sane.

Unfortunately for the status quo of Vegeta’s mental stability, the Great Ape form isn’t enough to put Goku and friends down for good, he had Goku in his grasp, dead to rights, but before he could finish off this stain on his reputation, his tail was cut off by a lowly human, and not even a notably strong one at that, saving Goku at the last minute. An important moment in bringing the fight to an end is that Gohan’s pure heart and Goku’s willingness to sacrifice himself against Raditz allow for the Spirit Bomb to connect, the heroes are rewarded for being good people, and Vegeta is directly penalized for harboring hate in his heart.

Vegeta is ultimately rendered unable to fight just like Nappa, but unlike himself, Goku was merciful and begged Krillen to let him live, who abides by his wishes and allows Vegeta to escape.

He managed to survive the encounter, but something within him has changed, he’s been outsmarted by mere earthlings and overpowered by another Saiyan who by all rights had no business being a challenging fight, and most importantly, he definitively lost. Sure he managed to physically beat Goku, but he wasn’t Vegetas only opponent, and that isn’t what he originally wanted to get out of the fight, he only began caring about that once his ego came into question, Vegeta came to Earth to wish on the Dragon Balls, and Goku wanted to drive him off of Earth and stop him from getting his wish, because Goku got what he wanted and Vegeta didn’t, that makes Goku and the Z Fighters the winners of this encounter.

Frieza Saga

From Earth, Vegeta returns to the Frieza force Headquarters, defeated and with the seeds of gradual change planted within him. Throughout the Frieza saga Vegeta is put in a more humanizing light, he’s still a villain for sure, but now we have a closer insight into his actions given that we see the life he’s had to endure. This Saiyan Elite mindset is a reaction to and denial of his status as a lowly underling beneath Frieza, it absolutely does not justify his actions, but it draws a clear line between action and mentality for the audience.

Vegeta’s race was enslaved by Frieza incredibly early on in his lifetime, forcing him to keep his head down and roll with the metaphorical punches, but after his fight against Goku begins this arc confident from his newfound ability to sense ki and a huge zenkai boost from his fight against Goku, confident enough to finally fight back against his long time oppressor, the Emperor of the Universe, Frieza.

Through his journey on Namek Vegeta fights his way through most of Frieza’s army, resolving himself to team up with Gohan and Krillen if it means defeating Frieza, and although the alliance is obviously a shaky one, this is progress. Vegeta is far from a formal Z Fighter, as the truce he strikes with Gohan and Krillen is out of pure self-preservation on both sides, but after his humiliation on Earth, he’s able to humble himself and accept the help of the earthlings.

When they draw out Frieza himself the fight is incredibly tough but still seems within the realm of possibility, until he reaches his final form that is, in which he makes a complete mockery of Vegeta, leaving him physically beaten and mentally broken. This is the lowest moment of his life, and in this moment, he finally reaches out to another Saiyan for help, he relies upon the very person he swore to destroy just a mere few weeks ago, Kakarot.

In this heartbreaking display of loss and with no other options, Vegeta puts the weight of the Saiyan race that he’s been carrying for so long on the shoulders of the only person in the universe that can help him now, putting his pride away and coming to terms with the fact that he is in fact not the Super Saiyan, Kakarot is. He sees this confirmed for him when he’s revived with the use of the Dragon Balls and sees with his own eyes that Kakarot has become the legendary Super Saiyan, all while he was rotting in a shallow grave.

This moment sticks with Vegeta, who now has to come to grips with the fact that not only was he bested by Kakarot, but he couldn’t so much has offer help in the final fight against the evil creature that tormented him for his whole life, and he had to sit by on another planet entirely while the fight played out and his dream of becoming the Super Saiyan was fulfilled by another.

He decides to stay on earth for the time being with Bulma, and there he stays until we see him next.

Cell Saga

About a year later, while still waiting for any sign of Goku’s return from planet Namek, Vegeta is once again confronted with a Super Saiyan, but this time it’s not Goku. Not only has a legendary Super Saiyan appeared before him, but a second, currently nameless Saiyan has shown up and is the only person to ever become a Super Saiyan while another exists. Not only is Vegeta not the first one to do it, he’s not even the first one to do it second. This then makes him the only adult Saiyan in the universe (I’m ignoring Tarble on purpose) that isn’t a Super Saiyan. Time after time in this story Vegeta has had to confront the possibility that he’s not the best like he always told himself he was in order to get through the day, and now he’s staring face to face with proof that he might actually be the worst.

Vegeta of course does eventually become a Super Saiyan, but the impetus for his transformation comes from this feeling of mediocrity, from how badly he wanted to best Goku, and his need to prove that he wasn’t wrong all those years, he simply cannot handle being shown up time and time again, as due to his upbringing, his strength is all that matters to him.

Watching Goku go from marginally stronger than him in short bursts to straight up defeating an enemy that had been haunting him his entire life, and was so far out of his reach that he died trying to combat him left his ego in shambles. That loss ego death was on par in terms of emotional intensity to Goku watching his lifelong best friend being killed permanently and relatively newfound ally fatally wounded, and Trunks seeing the closest thing he had to a father figure and only line of defense between him and a world ending threat mutilated and murdered. This is what pride means to Vegeta, it’s absolutely everything to him given he had to grow up in a world where strength was all that mattered.

Vegeta is something of a wild card through the main story of the Cell saga, he fights with the Z Fighters pretty consistently, but he is far from kind and costs the team greatly for the sake of his pride. And the instant he gains a leg up on Kakarot, the true frailty of his personality is on full display for all to see.

The display of overconfidence and arrogance that surrounds Vegeta’s duel with Semi-Perfect Cell is a falsehood. Deep down Vegeta knows that he’s been bested by Goku and as someone who hasn’t learned any form of emotional maturity, the only way he can deal with this is putting on a show of confidence, if he can convince the others that he’s still got it, he might be able to convince himself, so despite his multiple failures in this arc he keeps up that facade of self-assuredness and keeps himself at arms length so that he can keep the true feeling permeating this period of his life, weakness, to himself.

Though along for the ride on the roller coaster that is Vegeta’s increasingly fragile ego is his son from the future, Trunks. As they spend more and more time together through the arc, particularly during their time in the room of spirit and time, Vegeta would never admit it, but he began to care for the boy, something not even he realizes until Trunks’ untimely demise at the hands of Cell.

Vegeta’s tough exterior really starts showing the cracks here that began to form in his outbursts of rage during the Saiyan saga, and his time on earth is what’s implanting this change within him. His personality has become so centered around becoming stronger than Goku given the void that was left by Frieza’s defeat to the point where when Goku is made to sacrifice himself to save the world, Vegeta reaches a breaking point, and he gives up fighting. His whole life he served Frieza, indoctrinated into the army from an unfairly young age, he spent his days becoming strong enough to survive as we see in Dragon Ball Super, Vegeta’s somewhat of a Saiyan history buff, and as one of three living Saiyans that he knew of growing up, he had to survive by any means possible if the memory of the Saiyan race was to be kept alive.

Then, after spending his whole life focusing on growing his own strength with the hope of one day taking down Frieza and restoring the Saiyans to their rightful glory, carrying the weight of his entire race on his shoulders, another shows up out of absolutely nowhere who has the potential to surpass him. Time and time again proving that he’s superior until all Vegeta can do is direct that drive he once had to surpass Frieza and apply it to Goku. The emotional effort it would take to settle down and move on past this incessant need to prove himself is something he just doesn’t have in him, so in order to avoid acknowledging that he failed, he directs these emotions towards Goku. But the big issue here is that when you really look at it, there’s no justifiable reason him to surpass Goku like there was with Frieza, at least with Frieza he could pretend it wasn’t about validating himself, given how objectively evil his target was, but when it comes to the kindhearted Goku who isn’t suppressing his freedom or anything close to the evil that Frieza was doing, he’s forced to come to terms with the fact that this is a facade he’s hardened throughout his life to avoid doing the work to truly move on with his life, and this refusal manifests itself in the insecurity that fuels his overconfidence. But now that Goku’s gone, Frieza is defeated, and no outstanding existential threats remain, for the first time in his life Vegeta has nothing to strive for and has nothing to distract himself from confronting his emotions head on.

Buu Saga

7 years later Vegeta seems to have gotten used to life on earth, and while he still trains alongside his son Trunks, he is unfocused. He still has a lingering feeling of unease, he never truly settled things with Goku, and the prince of all Saiyans, being reduced to a mere earthling must have been incredibly humbling, and this is where we find the once boisterous prince of all Saiyans.

Goku is allowed to return to the world of the living for the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament, and this lights a fire under Vegeta. He’ll finally have the chance to prove once and for all that he is superior, it brings all those old insecurities back to the forefront, and suddenly Vegeta once again has the chance to prove what he failed to time and time again, that his youth wasn’t wasted chasing a lie. Unfortunately for Vegeta, the tournament is interrupted by a new evil emerging, and the tournament is interrupted before he’s able to finally settle his duel with Goku, not that he’s going to let that stop him.

The villain that emerges, Babidi, has the ability to grant an increase in strength at the cost of giving one’s self over to his mind control, but Babidi never encountered someone as strong as the Saiyans, and his mind control doesn’t fully work on Vegeta, who simply takes the power boost, and the access to Super Saiyan 2, and uses it to goad Goku into another fight, despite the fact that he’s putting his family and the lives of all the other humans he’s been living amongst at risk, this fight just means too much to Vegeta, no matter the outcome, he’ll finally be relieved of the emotional turmoil he wasn’t equipped to deal with. There’s a quote here that I think perfectly sums up Vegeta’s entire character and the reason he makes these decisions, it goes as follows “Meaningless, huh?! What do you know of meaningless?! Spend most of your life ruled by another! Watch your race dwindle to a handful! And then tell me what has more meaning then your own strength!” “I have in me the blood of a Saiyan prince, he is nothing but a joke. Yet I had to watch him surpass me in strength. My destiny-thrown to the wayside. He has even saved my life as if I were a helpless child…he has stolen my honor, and his debts must be paid.”

Despite this outburst, and despite Goku clearly acknowledging how much this means to Vegeta, a man he claims to respect, Goku still decides to hold back. This fight, this answer is everything to Vegeta, he believes that the outcome of this fight is worth sacrificing the lives of all he holds dear, but from Vegeta’s perspective, by holding back this is just another obstacle Goku has to overcome to confront the real issue at hand.

Vegeta realizes during this fight that he doesn’t REALLY need this answer, he wishes he could be that man again, that he could have that hunger for battle once more, for no other reason then because that was the last time he truly had a goal, a direction in life. But in his attempt to return to that way of thinking, he incidentally proves to himself that he’s changed, and he truly can’t return to that mindset. He also realizes in this moment that he doesn’t need to prove himself anymore, he has another reason to fight that he’s been ignoring all this time, his family. This realization cuts through Vegeta, as the magnitude of his actions settle in, and he understands that short of defeating the villain outright, the only thing he can do to even begin to atone is to put everything he has into ending the horror he brought upon the universe in allowing Buu to be revived.

The rest of Vegeta’s interactions through the Buu saga build on this realization of what’s truly important to him, even allowing himself to fuse with Goku for what he thought at the time to be forever, and this all culminates in Vegeta finally being able to admit a fact that’s been staring him in the face since his introduction, a fact that he’s spent a significant portion of his life denying, that Goku is in fact, #1, and for once, he’s okay with that.

Throughout Dragon Ball Z, Vegeta has gone from a character who was incapable of admitting when he was outmatched, to comfortably acknowledging another as the best and understanding his own place as second best, on the Land of the Kais he takes on the responsibility of the second strongest and buys time for the real best fighter to gather himself. Vegeta began a ruthless killer who will do anything to confirm his mental statis quo, and after the trials he was put through, he gained the emotional intelligence required to overcome his troubled past and look to the future with hope.

Post Buu

In pretty much all canon material after the Buu saga, Vegeta sort of settles into a very consistent characterization, and while I believe there is much more his character could do, as I do with most modern interpretations of Dragon Ball Characters, Super Vegeta isn’t the unique train wreck that most fans would have you believe.

Vegeta settles into his role as #2, he still focuses on surpassing Goku, strangely obsessed at times, but it’s no longer his main focus. He’s a family man through and through, and save for an imminent threat appearing, he’s content to stay that way. He actually finds a very good balance between family life and training, a habit that the most recent manga one-shot proves Gohan has finally picked up, which made me so so happy. Yes he obsesses over surpassing Goku in a way unbefitting of a character who could give that “you’re number one” speech at the end of the Buu saga, and through the most of super he doesn’t have a considerable amount of nuance, but I recently came to a sort of understanding with Dragon Ball Super, and so I don’t judge it’s faulty characterizations as harshly as I once did.

Ultimately, I see Dragon Ball Super as more as a nice end point for the character akin to a slice of life adaptation of Dragon Ball then a meaningful expansion of it. Yes I’d like to see him grow more and for him to be used in more interesting ways then just making the villain look strong when they beat him, but that’s honestly more of a critique of super then of Vegeta’s character itself, and the manga content that hasn’t been adapted is a fairly nuanced, satisfying adaptation of the character.

Manga Content

The Moro arc of the manga gives Vegeta a chance for reflection on the man he used to be and the man he is now. During this arc he visits new Namek and is clearly remorseful for the things he’s done. He acknowledges that he has committed horrible, unforgivable atrocities which he can never fully atone for, but he’s going to try his best. He’s almost too self deprecating in a way that I can see become meaningfully expanded upon in future manga content, for the first time since the Buu Saga, there is a clear effort to use Vegeta’s character in an interesting way. The Moro arc overall is a step in the right direction in terms of writing depth and quality, but then again Piccolo also says Vegeta was never the type to underestimate an enemy, so… baby steps.

The Granola arc is where we leave Vegeta for now as it’s the most recent story arc to heavily feature him. During this part of the story, he taps back into his Saiyan battle instinct in the form of Ultra Ego, using this form he is able to grow stronger the more his fighting spirit increases, and because of that he taps back into his battle hungry instincts that must still linger within him as a Saiyan. Given his role as a father who nowadays only battles out of a sense of heroic responsibility, I can imagine that tapping back into this must feel like saying hello to an old friend, as it’s a big part of his early life that he seemingly tried to cut off completely. I really like this concept of accepting that his Saiyan heritage will always be a part of him and using it to his advantage, but I do think the way it was written was a bit rocky. It feels less like he’s slipping into old habits in order to get an advantage or tapping into a latent thirst for battle that he’s always had but long since suppressed, and more like it’s Ultra Ego itself that makes him act selfishly, which isn’t necessarily how it works to my knowledge. Regardless, this is still another clear attempt at moving forward without making the characters feel like the action figures that Super’s currently animated content does.

Conclusion

I started this thinking I would have a lot more negative things to say about the way Vegeta’s character is handled after Z, but in reality my main issues come down to one main thing, Vegeta feels like a watered-down action figure of his former self. Most characters in Super feel like less complex easier to digest caricatures of what was most marketable about them in Z, which makes sense given that the show is marketed towards a younger audience. I could say the same about how Goku feels like a silly immature idiot, when his character was far more mature and his Battle IQ was heavily emphasized. I truly hope these are issues of the past like they seem to be as Daima put heavy emphasis on making Goku seem like the mature adult that he always should have been once they become adults again, and the manga exclusive content finally gives Vegeta new ground to cover as a character.

I really can’t say it enough, I love Dragon Ball, I don’t like critiquing it because there’s just so much to enjoy about the series but there are definitely times where, especially in a lot of the modern material, you can feel that there’s less and less effort being put towards creating interesting characters, but the note that I want to leave this off on is that strides are being taken in the right direction. Daima showcased not only the absolute best that Dragon Ball has ever looked, but what the modern material can really do with these characters, and how much ground the series can still cover, there’s plenty of fresh story arcs and character nuances that Dragon Ball is capable of, and if nothing else, I want this to serve as a reminder that people who genuinely care about the series, namely Toyotaro, are making sure that the best has yet to come.