The Dragon Ball series has become such a landmark hit in the anime and manga industry because of series creator Akira Toriyama’s excellently crafted fight choreography, design, and well-written characters.
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The series is no strangers to, well, strange characters and oddities so fans each have their own particular favorites. But one character fans can all agree is one of the series’ best is Vegeta.
Vegeta started off as the main antagonist of Dragon Ball Z‘s first arc, but through the course of the series all the way to Dragon Ball Super Vegeta has made his way into the hearts of fans as he slowly grew into one of the good guys.
Through loss, struggle, and finding a new family, Vegeta proved himself to be the best character in the Dragon Ball series.
Read on to find out why.
His Origin Is Heartbreaking
Vegeta comes from a sad, sad place. As the Prince of a warrior race of conquerors, he had built up a certain amount of pride in himself and his race until an evil tyrant comes and absorbs their race into his army. After fearing how strong they’d become, the tyrant Freeza decides to destroy Vegeta’s entire planet with only a few surviving Saiyans left scattered throughout the universe.
With no planet or family left alive, Vegeta is then forced to continue working under Freeza, the monster who destroyed his entire race. All the while building up anger, resentment, and hatred toward his inability to be a Prince to his former people and only has his pride as a warrior to keep him going.
Until, he meets Goku.
Started Out As An Enemy, Helped Out Heroes Anyway
Carrying this chip on his shoulder, he begins his attack on Earth and battles one of the last surviving Saiyans. Despite being the Prince of all Saiyans, and a warrior with more training than Goku, he’s still defeated by someone he deems lower class than he. This battle them humbles him, and he’s forced to rethink his priorities in life.
This brings him to Namek, where he begins his begrudging fight against the monster that killed his people. This wasn’t because Gohan and Krilling needed help, however, as Vegeta just meant to use the Namekian Dragon Balls to his own ends. But he soon realizes this form of thinking stunts him as well as Goku once again proves himself to be the stronger warrior and takes out Freeza instead.
Reached New Levels Of Power Offscreen
Vegeta may have played a key role in the first two arcs of Dragon Ball Z, but he always loses to Goku somehow. Still carrying the burden of his terrible origin, being made even worse since he was not able to close the book on Freeza himself, Vegeta felt lacking in comparison to Goku. He then managed to take his rage and frustration and turned it into new levels of power that he reached off-screen.
Reaching Super Saiyan before the fight with the Androids, and with a stronger version of Super Saiyan, in his fight with Cell, all off-screen kept Vegeta in the picture. While other side characters fell by the wayside as Goku reached new levels of strength, Vegeta was always two steps behind him and nipping on his heels.
Some of the best moments of the series came from his surprising strength increases, and were even more surprising when he still wanted to test himself as a warrior and made the situations worse.
Was Frustrated At His Lack Of Growth
Much like Goku, Vegeta had a nasty character flaw that has him put his pride as a warrior above all else. It’s why he allowed Cell to reach his Perfect form, and it’s ultimately why he was never able to achieve the Super Saiyan powers when he wanted to. His origin, coupled with his constant comparisons to Goku’s power, built up several years of frustration eventually coming in the form of a heel turn during the Majin Buu saga.
Seeing how peaceful his life had become, and how complacent he had been in his lack of growth in the years since Cell’s defeat he eventually gives his “mind” over to Babidi and regresses into his first personality. He assumed that this killer mentality would give him the power he had sorely been lacking, and thus needed to challenge Goku one more time, living out the fantasy of an alternate world in which had never lost the sight of his original goal of killing Freeza and cementing his place as a Saiyan Prince.
Chose Saving The Earth Over His Pride
But after his fight with Goku leaves Vegeta with the ultimate decision to save the Earth against Majin Buu or continue living this false life, he chooses to save the Earth and embrace the “humanity” that had been slowly growing within him all this time. Hugging his son and apologizing to him, his last thoughts are of Bulma and his family as he sacrifices his life to defeat a new monster.
This unfortunately, does not work but ultimately allows him to get a second chance at victory when he and Goku fight against Kid Buu on Supreme Kai’s planet. Needing to win, Vegeta ultimately decides that his past is what truly weighed him down and instead decides to work with Goku to defeat Kid Buu once and for all.
‘What Did You Do To My Bulma?’
After Dragon Ball Z did much to help Vegeta shave off his past transgressions and finally grow beyond the reach of those ghosts, Dragon Ball Super took the first steps into fleshing out Vegeta into a much more sympathetic character. Vegeta and Bulma had been steadily growing closer since the end of the Namek saga, but Super shows their relationship in full force.
The best example of this is early on in the series as God of Destruction Beerus threatens to destroy him. Vegeta is willing to throw away his life, as fighting back against Beerus would be disrespectful, and nearly dies before Bulma steps in and slaps Beerus.
Vegeta, angry, shouts “What did you do to my Bulma?!?” and is willing to throw everything out to the wayside after seeing the love of his life, and mother of his son slapped in the face. It’s a far cry from the Vegeta fans were first introduced to.
He’s A Good Dad
Goku is arguably the strongest character in the Dragon Ball series, but he has major weakness such as his seeming inability to think more about his family than fighting. There have been major jokes in the fan community about Goku being a bad dad, but the same is never said about Vegeta. Sure Vegeta still has selfish tendencies, but he will still put the safety of his children and family before himself.
He helped Future Trunks train during the Cell saga (and gave him some great advice during Super’s Future Trunks arc), and knocked his son unconscious so he doesn’t have to watch him die in the Majin Buu arc. It shows a much better sense of self and others that Goku never quite portrayed.
Never Forgets His Saiyan Pride
But despite all of his change in the Dragon Ball series, Vegeta is still resolute in the same character motivations that have fueled him for years. He may act differently, but he’s still the same warrior that cares about his pride. It’s just less prickly during his interactions with Cabba (even taking the young Saiyan under his wing), and is ultimately what led him to survive for so long during the Tournament of Power.
He may have been fighting for the survival of his universe in the Tournament of Power, but that want to save others isn’t what brings him to the next level of power. He finds the strength within himself, and instead of being prideful of his Saiyan heritage, his pride now comes from a sense of being a warrior with a through purpose.
It’s why he was so angry with Jiren, someone seemingly sharing his origin yet fights without purpose.
Vegeta Has The Fullest Arc In The Series
Jiren may not be the most inspiring foe in the Dragon Ball series, but he is a great reflection of where it started. Vegeta was hoping to break through to him with his methodology of finding pride in a new purpose other than fighting, but unfortunately doesn’t come close enough. It’s also why he seems to take comfort in this loss and ability to reside all of his hopes on Goku.
Although his universe is on the line, he has essentially won. His character has changed to the point where a loss to a stronger warrior isn’t the damning thing it was when he was younger. He’s evolved beyond the need to needlessly battle, and in the end knows that he has a family who loves him despite all of this.
Vegeta is a character that has been the most fun to watch grow throughout the entire series, and in some cases, is more of a compelling through line than its main character. Vegeta may not ever have the same exact strength as Goku, but he doesn’t need it. Vegeta had found strength in the trust of others that had been burned by Freeza long ago.
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