Vegeta’s Biography (He Has Issues)

There are many characters in DBZ, but I want to make this as comprehensible as I can. Vegeta often doesn’t pay much attention to others outside of those he deems special though he is aware of them so I’m not going to go too into depth on people, even if they are friends or often present when he is around.

Goku’s activities will be lightly sprinkled about even if placement of them feels awkward. He often arrives to things stylishly late but he and Vegeta’s storylines are intertwined so it’s bad for me not to mention him.

Vegeta’s Appearance (Saiyan Arc)

Vegeta was born in the year 732. In year, 737 when Vegeta is 5 years old, he is off planet with two other Saiyans when alien overlord Frieza destroys his planet, killing most of the Saiyans (though there are some scattered about Vegeta isn’t really aware of. This is also the year Goku is born and sent to Earth for context meaning he is 5 years Goku’s senior.

Vegeta spends the next 25 years serving Frieza and at some point comes up with a plan to overthrow him, likely seething the entire time as he is the prince of all Saiyans. He has a lot of affections for his culture, and often shouts his title when fighting other enemies as he believes Saiyans are a name meant to be feared- a race not meant to be in servitude under someone like Frieza.

Raditz, Goku’s brother who he is unaware of, arrives on Earth in the year 761. He and Goku both die at the hands of Piccolo (Goku comes back at some point), but not before Raditz radios to Vegeta telling about the Earth’s dragon balls which can be gathered to grant a wish for the user.

At age 29, this gives Vegeta the idea to use the Dragon Balls to wish for immortality in order to defeat Frieza after suffering under his reign for his entire life thus far. The suffering Vegeta has experienced is never directly stated in series outside of the genocide of his race and servitude he endured, but there are a lot of little things that hint at things he endured.

In the year 762, Vegeta arrives on Earth with his other Saiyan companion, Nappa.. He meets some of Goku’s friends and is impressed by their strength though knows he is much stronger than them. He decides to wait for Goku to have a good fight. Goku comes back from training and Vegeta begins to tweak out as he reads his power level as he has an insane inferiority complex and also has lived his entire life as the strongest saiyan and one of the strongest warriors in the galaxy.

Anyways, he’s turns into a monkey, gets his tail cut off, and loses the battle to Gohan, Goku's child. He leaves for a long time. He is 30 when he suffers his first embarrassing defeat (due to choosing not to fight those who he knows are much stronger). Most people who he’s encountered around his power level or higher are a part of Frieza’s entourage.

Desperation. Tweaking the Fuck Out (Dragon Ball Arc)

The Dragon Ball Arc is a continuation of knowledge he acquired on Planet Earth. This takes place primarily on Planet Namek, which also has Dragon Balls that can grant wishes.

Frieza has learned of the Dragon Balls via his monitoring of Vegeta via his scouter. Frieza and some of his entourage head to Namek. Some of Goku’s friends and his son, Gohan, also head to namek. They arrive in the year 762.

Goku isn’t there yet, but he will be there eventually.

Vegeta finds out Goku’s friends are there, and he wants to kill them, but unfortunately he is a bit preoccupied with Frieza and his soldiers. At this point, Frieza has decided to order a soldier named Cui to kill Vegeta.

Vegeta kills Cui though. Vegeta kills a lot of Namekians. At some point, he learns from another soldier Frieza wiped out Planet Vegeta though Vegeta is less angry about that at this current moment and his vengeance is still focused being forced to be enslaved under Frieza for his entire life. He kills that guy also. This leaves only one of Frieza’s elite left on Namek.

Vegeta’s killing spree ends for a little while. He almost dies in a fight with Zarbon, a character who slays and is kind of hilarious to me. There is notable information about Zarbon that gives context for power scaling in DBZ plus he also gives Vegeta some notable information:

• He tells Vegeta that Frieza has the ability to transform, something many alien warriors can do that increases their power level.
• Vegeta could do this under a full moonuntil he got his tail cut off on Earth (Saiyans can become giant monkeys and Frieza calls them monkeys as a slur lmao)
• Vegeta and Zarbon’s conversation is a lot of back and forth. Zarbon is impressed by Vegeta’s power increase, but recognizes that Vegeta’s ego is a bit silly. He knows that Vegeta cannot defeat Frieza, even if he is much stronger. He is still surprised by the death of other elite soldiers.
• Zarbon also tells Vegeta that even if Vegeta obtains immortality with the Dragon Balls, it will never be enough to defeat Frieza. Vegeta does not listen.
• Zarbon struggles with Vegeta until he transforms then throws Vegeta around like a ragdoll.
• This is the first loss he’s suffered to Frieza’s elite and one of his frames of reference for how powerful Frieza might be.
• Vegeta only survives because he ends up in water, and Zarbon assumes he drowned (and also Zarbon dislikes water for vanity reasons.). Zarbon would’ve killed him otherwise.
• Vegeta is later retrieved by Zarbon after Frieza discovers that the dragon balls are missing. He’s healed in a tank. He’s so baby in it by the way. So baby.

That was a lot but that fight is very important to me for context on why Vegeta is being insane in the dragon ball arc. He has no frame of reference for how strong Frieza may be outside of those he’s almost killed by or those he’s actually killed. He has very good reason to believe he’s strong because he canonically is one of the most powerful people in his universe and as he kills more of Frieza’s elite, this proves his feelings to be true.

Anyways.

Vegeta’s power increases substantially again. He escapes from Frieza’s ship with his dragon balls and finds Goku’s friends in possession of one. Zarbon also appears. Vegeta kills him in his transformed state, impaling him with his fist. Vegeta has now killed all of Frieza’s elite (sort of).

Vegeta spares Goku’s friends after they give him the dragon ball. He’s fucking winning. He runs into Gohan, which is interesting as I think the entire interaction reveals bits about Vegeta’s personality and attitude towards Gohan.

This scene is slightly different in the manga.
He mainly talks then punches Gohan in the stomach lol.

I don’t think Vegeta has much of an affinity for other Saiyans at this point in the story and was just being kind of a bitch since Vegeta has killed other Saiyans without really caring. He likely kept Gohan alive because of the merciful mood he was in.

I also do think he is somewhat fascinated by Gohan. Gohan is the one who almost killed Vegeta, he is a Saiyan child, and he also explicitly states that he shouldn’t even be there. Vegeta is really unaware of his feelings a lot of the time, so it's hard to know exactly how how feels about Gohan as he likely doesn't know either right now.

After this, Vegeta ltater realizes Gohan stole a dragon ball from him, and he goes back to the hideout he’d found the friends in and tweaks out, deciding he’ll probably kill them all later though lol. #BipolarBaby all of time~

Vegeta has interesting interactions with the cast from here on out.

He meets up with them but discovers something horrible. Surprise surprise, the elite soldiers under Frieza aren’t the most elite as he summons the Ginyu force, who are stronger than anyone they’ve faced thus far. Vegeta freaks as he is aware of them already and tries to convince the others to wish for his immortality with the dragon balls they’ve acquired to have a chance against the Ginyu, promising not to harm them (he still plans to kill them).

They actually almost do wish for his immortality, but Krillin decides not to due to feeling as though Vegeta being immortal would really suck for reasons that are obvious.

Anyway, Ginyu force arrives. Vegeta is horrified, and now I will describe the basic scenario for you in a comprehensible way.

Basic Ginyu Battle Recap

• There are 5 Ginyu force members total. Two take the Dragon Balls back to Frieza.
• Four ginyu force members are left in Vegeta’s presence. They do rock paper scissors deciding who to fight
• One, Guldo, engages in combat with Gohan and Krillin. They almost die, but while he’s focused on using his combat ability, Vegeta kills him.
• After killing Guldo, there are four ginyu left, three currently present. Vegeta must now face the Ginyu member Recoome, who he actually is quite wary of compared to everyone he's fought thus far. He tries very hard to kill attack Recoome, and Recoome even states that he's impressed by Vegeta holding up. 
• Recoome isn’t harmed. Vegeta is taken down pretty easily. Goku’s friend, Krillin, attempts to help Vegeta believing Vegeta is the only one present who can help them survive, but fails to do so. Gohan also attempts to fight Recoome, but is also taken down.
• Goku arrives, healing his friends and Vegeta.
• Goku fights the Ginyu, but Vegeta kills two of them off, upsetting Goku in the process. Vegeta is of the belief keeping them around would keep their lives at risk. One, Jeice, escapes.
• Anyway, the leader of the Ginyu who took the Dragon Ball to Frieza comes back. Hijinks. Trades bodies with Goku but isn’t exactly discreet which makes Vegeta clue in to something being wrong. Vegeta and Goku, in the Ginyu’s old body, team up to get Goku his body back. More hijinks. Captain Ginyu ends up in a frog. What a shitty power.
• Vegeta during this fights kills Jeice without much effort, almost kills Captain Ginyu, has technically killed the Ginyu members Goku nearly killed off, and in his mind, he’s killed the entire ginyu force (not including Captain Ginyu who is in a frog I guess)

After this, the main cast used the Dragon Balls while Vegeta is napping, but the Eternal Dragon darkens the entire sky, and is also a giant dragon in the sky, alerting Vegeta and Frieza to their use.

Frieza Time

I said all of this above, but will state it directly. Vegeta has no frame of reference for how strong Frieza is. He’s heard rumors, but he isn’t actually aware. He has substantial power increases and has defeated many enemies he once considered untouchable, but Vegeta himself to many people, is untouchable, and every time he dies, he becomes more untouchable.

Vegeta becoming immortal, in theory, would likely mean that if he were to keep dying, he’d keep getting stronger too. All Vegeta knows is that his power is substantially increasing. While he does have ways to read power levels in series, the scouters are severely underused, and I’m not sure Vegeta even has any frame of reference for how strong he actually is. He’s also extremely egoistic as well, and he has dreamed of fighting Frieza his entire life.

Anyways, let’s start.

Frieza and Vegeta Fight. The Ending of the Dragon Ball Arc.

Vegeta is able to match Frieza’s power level in his base form. If Vegeta had been unaware of Frieza’s transformation, he likely would’ve felt extreme joy at this, but he has already been made aware by Zarbon.

Frieza transforms after some provocation and kills Krillin. He taunts Vegeta, asking him if he’ll help Gohan but Vegeta does nothing.

Another friend who has been wished here by the Dragon Ball appears, Piccolo, the one who killed Goku earlier. He’s fused with someone, making him stronger than Vegeta and able to match Frieza which is very confusing to Vegeta as he knows namekians aren’t supposed to be strong.

Then Frieza transforms AGAIN! And he overpowers Piccolo, who is saved by Gohan. Vegeta continues to watch all of this happen.

Vegeta requests that Krillin seriously wound him and has another character heal him in order to receive another power increase. Vegeta, each fight so far, has been able to overpower anyone who he previously couldn’t defeat.

Well, Frieza transforms for a third time. Vegeta declares himself a Super Saiyan, a mythical Saiyan of legend (he is not a Super Saiyan and doesn't know if they exists), and tries very hard to beat Frieza. He uses the last of his energy and fails to beat him, and is then shot through the heart.

Vegeta and Goku’s Conversation

Vegeta dies very slowly, giving him a lot of time to talk and a lot about his nature is revealed to Goku… While other people in the cast heard Vegeta’s story and it influences how they interact with him from here on out, Goku is likely the only cast member of the series who would go out of his way to help Vegeta at this point in the timeline after hearing all of this.

Because of the nature of the conversation and scene, I’ll include a beautiful clip that provides a lot of context for both Vegeta and Goku, and well, while I’m not talking about Goku much, understanding some core parts of Goku is intrinsic to really getting exactly why Vegeta and Goku have the dynamic they do.

“Kakarot, please, destroy Frieza. He made me what I am. Don’t let him do it to anyone else. Whatever it takes, stop him please.”

Vegeta has few moments of self awareness, and they are always very good. Goku becomes a Super Saiyan, signified by blonde hair. He attempts to spare Frieza, but is forced to kill him off as a result of Frieza refusing to receive mercy.

During this fight, Vegeta is actually revived along with everyone killed by Frieza and his men (this includes Vegeta lol) and is aware that Goku is Super Saiyan. He's very excited about it, childishly so even. He also attempts to attack Frieza again (very chihuahua behavior), but is teleported to Earth along with everyone on planet namek.

Vegeta believes Goku dies and feels kinda weird not gonna lie but jokes about his death towards Gohan. He goes to namek to wish him back to ask him about how he achieved Super Saiyan only to discover Goku is actually alive. He flies around in a spaceship owned by a character named Bulma (that he stole), and looks for him but fails to locate Goku. He returns to Earth at some point.

THE DRAGON BALL ARC IS OVER.

CELL SAGA. (VEGETA’S CLOWN ARC)

Note: I’m only going to talk about main timeline Vegeta and mention the timeline Future Trunks is from otherwise I’ll die but just know alternate Vegetas are on my mind too.

Anyways, we were year in 762 for a long time, but Cell Saga takes place over a longer period of time, so we’re gonna bold the years.

In year 764 at age 32, Vegeta starts hanging out with Goku’s friend Bulma, using her equipment to train.

Interesting things regarding Vegeta and Bulma is that Vegeta does not like most of the Z fighters due to being generally paranoid and irritable, but he generally does anything Bulma asks of him. He may complain, but he treats Bulma differently from the rest of the cast, which is weird to everyone else since Vegeta’s thing is yelling and complaining and being generally whiny.

For context, Goku’s relationship with Bulma is similar in that he also does anything Chi-chi asks of him even if he does not want to or whines.

In Dragon Ball Super, Vegeta explains that women saiyans tended to be pretty fierce and stubborn. So Vegeta probably found this behavior of Bulma very attractive from the get go even if it took him a second to realize due to spending so much of his life in servitude without any close relationships.

It’s cute right…?

Anyways, some of Frieza’s family appears. They’re killed by a mysterious stranger named Trunks who Vegeta is jealous of because he can go Super Saiyan, which Vegeta still cannot at this point. Trunks stares very intensely at Vegeta for a lot of this time which makes Vegeta very aggro towards him due to him being basically an abused dog.

The stranger talks to Goku privately and explains some important things to him.

Vegeta is seething for a while and trains in the Capsule Corp equipment in order to reach Super Saiyan status. Bulma yells at him as he trains, and well, eventually Vegeta injures himself. Bulma nurses him back to health, and they start being intimate at some point between 764 and 766.

In year 766 at age 34, Bulma has a child named Trunks though Vegeta has no interest in the baby or his relationship with Bulma due to his obsession with surpassing Goku and the mysterious stranger, due to his desire to be the strongest in that universe.

Vegeta achieves Super Saiyan though um, the circumstances around it are a bit mysterious. In the anime it’s done out of sheer hopeless of a situation he gets himself into while training off planet while in manga he just says he did it with his heart of Pure Evil. It's kind of silly, but this is relevant later.

Not gonna lie though, the circumstances don’t matter, and now I’ll explain the things surrounding Future Trunks. Future Trunks when he appeared never told Vegeta his identity or name, but he did tell Goku. He also told Goku of androids who would be appearing on Earth they needed to kill and a heart disease Goku would contract.

This is a mess as Future Trunks doesn’t have all the information. The Z Fighters kill the wrong androids because the timelines have different events taking place. Vegeta’s confidence grows stronger.

I don’t want to go into everything that happens in this arc because I am the belief that Vegeta is mostly stagnant after achieving Super Saiyan in this arc outside of his growing ego, insane pride, and his strained relationship with Trunks. But, unfortunately, I realize I now have to go into the details because even if he is stagnant, a lot of things happen that make it clear why he is clown dancing. So we’re going to outline every clown move.

THE CLOWN DANCES. IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT AND IT HURTS SO BAD.

• Vegeta and the Z fighters fight the first ‘androids’ (one being Dr. Gero). Goku begins to experience pains from his disease, prompting Vegeta to save him. A friend flies Goku home to take the medication Trunks gave him.
• Vegeta realizes Trunks’ identity during this fight when he hears his name. He has some pride in his son achieving Super Saiyan but well, he also doesn’t save Bulma or young Trunks when they almost die because he didn’t care. Trunks is perturbed by this.
• One of the androids escapes and releases the actual androids. The android kills Dr. Gero.
• The new androids beat Vegeta’s ass beat and is mocked a lot prompting him to train harder to achieve new heights (The androids are little bastards; they’re funny). This is the first thing that pushes him to achieve even greater heights.
• Vegeta achieves a new Saiyan form but finds it to be flawed so doesn’t use it usually.
• At some point, Imperfect Cell appears who’s the true villain of the arc.
• He gets a lot of opportunities to train in the hyperbolic time chamber (which I’m not going to include HBT time into his age because I’ll die). So his power increases.
• Vegeta gets stronger than the androids and Imperfect Cell at this time. He has a lot of conflicts and issues with everyone around him though I want you to keep in mind he was freed from slavery just a few years ago and is sooo not normal.
• Imperfect Cell begins absorbing the androids. Vegeta decides to allow this and encourage it. This results in Vegeta and Trunks fighting, and Trunks blasting Vegeta into the ocean. Vegeta reflects for one of the few times in his life, feeling proud of his son for striking back at him. He gets mad about bleeding and then flies back.
• Upon flying back, Imperfect Cell is now Perfect Cell. Vegeta nearly beats him, but Imperfect Cell heals himself.
• Perfect Cell could’ve killed everyone, but decides to hold a Tournament of Power instead to bask in his perfection. Did you know Perfect Cell has cells from all of Z fighters? Warriors like to prove their strength, but this behavior feels particularly familiar.

Anyways, those are a lot of the main clown moments of Vegeta this arc. His presence on Earth fucks everyone over pretty bad.

In the year 767, the tournament takes place but we’re not gonna do a play by play. This fight is just between Cell (and Cell’s abilities) and the Z fighters, but just know this one villain overpowers a lot of the main cast, including Vegeta, and Vegeta just has to watch as people he always said he didn’t give a shit about dies because of his prideful behavior.

Future Trunk is killed by Perfect Cell. This is the crux of Vegeta’s punishment from the narrative. Vegeta attacks Perfect Cell and is saved by Gohan when almost killed, resulting in Gohan’s arm being injured. At this point, he’s embarrassed himself but purely through acting, refusing to think logically due to his prideful lens. He’s gotten other Saiyans killed out of silliness and although in the past he cared less, at this point, he really has to acknowledge that he has gotten people he’s cared about killed for no good reason.

Vegeta Apologizes

I wish Goku had heard it, but I think it’s important that he apologized to Gohan directly. Goku would never need to hear Vegeta say sorry, but Gohan doesn’t really give a shit about Vegeta, not at this point. His main knowledge of Vegeta is that he’s a prideful asshole. Vegeta also only really only showed any kind of emotional vulnerability around him when he got shot in the heart and died.

This is the crux of Vegeta’s development in this fight with Cell. Gohan fights Cell for a while and Vegeta blasts him to give Gohan a slight edge. Perfect Cell is beaten, but throws a tantrum and decides to blow himself up lmao.

Goku sacrifices himself to rid the world of Cell and decides not to come back to life to avoid more threats appearing as a result of his presence prompting Vegeta to say this.

Piccolo rules.

Post this, Vegeta chills out for a while. He says goodbye to Trunks after he is revived (in his own Vegeta way and shows respect towards him). He marries Bulma and wants to be a better husband and father.

Vegeta is not okay though. Vegeta has lost his rival, his main purpose for living and pushing himself post servitude, and these feelings he never addresses influence his decisions in Majin Buu arc.

MAJIN BUU (MIDLIFE CRISIS)

Okay, so this is the shortest Z arc, and honestly my least favorite (maybe), but Vegeta peaks here in Z and has a nice circle back to the end of Cell arc. Some of Vegeta's dialogue here is my favorite in the entire series. 

This is year 774, and Vegeta sort of 42-43. A few years would be added on due to the hyperbolic time chamber. Mid/Late 40s? Anyways, Vegeta has spent years training and is close to achieving the power Gohan had in the Cell arc, especially in Gohan isn’t actively training anymore.

Gohan is weaker. Vegeta meets him for the first time in 7 years and lambasts him for slacking.

Vegeta during this time has been training Trunks and has actively been present in his life. Trunks achieves Super Saiyan, and Vegeta is weird about it and also asks Trunks to land a strike on him. Vegeta hits back though he does not really intend to strike at Trunks and it's obvious he feels bad about it. This scene comes back up in Super too.

The half Saiyans in DBZ are depicted as easily achieving high levels of strength pretty quickly which is why Gohan’s power expanded so exponentially (probably also along with him almost dying in childhood haha..)

Kid Trunks is very happy and close with Goten, Goku’s young kid who was born a year after Trunks (and was conceived at some point during the Cell Saga). He’s comfortable around Vegeta, and more about their relationship is shown in Super. Important to me.

Anyways, that’s just to say, Vegeta’s been pretty chill. He’s friends with everyone. He’s close with his kid. His wife trusts and love him. They go to a tournament and Vegeta enjoys seeing Trunks win. He is still his aggressive self, but he's.. generally kind.

A new threat arrives. Umm ugh. Okay, so a threat named Babidi is here and his goal is to revive Majin Buu. We’re not gonna talk about this arc because Vegeta’s role is simple. Goku comes to Earth during this time frame to watch and tournament and it's also convenient for helping with the Babidi situation. makes Vegeta realize that despite his last 7 years of training, there’s still a gap between him and Goku.

Babidi is capable of ‘controlling’ people with darkness in their heart, and this happens to Vegeta. An M appears on his head. But Vegeta, being the way that he is, does not really get influenced by Babidi. He sort of just allows Babidi to be there and it benefits Babidi but Babidi is initially displeased at Vegeta ignoring him.

They teleport to Earth and Vegeta goads Goku into fighting him. He blows up a ton of people at the tournament to make this happen and begins to explain to Goku his thoughts throughout the fight.

Lots of feelings kept inside.

Side Note:

I enjoy a lot of Vegeta’s dialogue in this arc, and it really reminds me that he’s had a royal upbringing and how he’s lost everything but still continues to be himself. Vegeta really, his entire life, has never been able to process any of this. He just kept losing and trying to go stronger, and then Goku fucking died for 7 years, and Goku is the only person who is similar to Vegeta among the Z fighters. Goku then just appears and all those feelings he suppressed boil over and he gives into them when given the opportunity.

That is to say other characters empathize with to an extent at times, but Goku has a similar attitude to Vegeta in that he’ll also make some stupid decisions to engage in the name of combat. He likes fighting Vegeta, he really likes a good fight. Goku’s own issues with some other characters is that he assumes they’re warriors like him, but really, the only person Vegeta knows who is persistent to the climb as he is is Goku, and also, Vegeta is so insecure. He wants to prove himself against soo bad but Vegeta canonically is not that much weaker than Goku.

He is usually a few steps behind, but he reaches similar levels quickly, especially after the two reach their 40s. This is more obvious in Super and also it’s explored a bit in Daima too. Goku has advantages, but Vegeta doesn’t know much about Goku’s past.

He’s having this huge breakdown over it, but really, he is not viewing the truth of the matter objectively. Goku has also been training while being dead and is as persistent as Vegeta is. Goku has had many people in his life to support him throughout training while Vegeta mainly had himself and people who he didn’t care about (Nappa/Raditz primarily). Goku still uses the techniques people taught him to achieve greater heights while Vegeta relies primarily on his own techniques.

Super expands on this a lot to me even if it doesn't state everything directly. While I don't love a lot of plot things in Super, I feel a lot of satisfaction with Vegeta in particular.

Anyways, this fight ends not through either losing, which is more of my point, but because Majin Buu has awakened as a result of the fight between Vegeta and Goku, and Goku senses it. Vegeta refuses at first, but Goku lectures him because Majin Buu will killl all the things Vegeta loves, and he knows Vegeta, even if he’s going through something right now, does not want his loved to ones to die.

Anyways, Vegeta knocks out Goku when he’s distracted and he also knocks out Goten and Trunks (tapping Trunks on the head and punching Goten in the stomach lol). Vegeta holds Trunks close by the way, telling him he’s very proud. He fights Majin Buu and here’s how that ends.

This acts as atonement for him, and also well, I think even if his sacrifice is not super useful due to Buu regenerating, it’s important that he makes the decision to do this at all. Because in the past, his pride killed his son, and now he’s allowing himself to die like Kakarot did (who also almost got his son killed before that sacrifice now that I think about it). Can he be revived? Yes, but with context of his death, I’m not sure it matters or if he even considered that.

Vegeta comes back with a halo much like Goku, and Earth is destroyed. I realize that video of Majin Buu is probably weird if you haven’t seen Z, but Majin Buu has a good and evil side. They seperated. He can evolve. The version they is base level ‘good’ Majin Buu. That’s as much I remember anyways.

Goku and Vegeta have to team up on another planet to fight Buu, and Vegeta plays nice. He’s.. really different and normal now. Actually, that scene above is the turning point for Vegeta in the entire Dragon Ball main timeline (our timeline). Evil souls tend to not be revived in Z, but Vegeta is.

Vegeta does a lot of things he definitely wouldn’t have done outside of this situation and prior to his sacrifice. He fights knowing he’ll lose to give time for Goku to recover his strength, he has a lot of general silly interactions with Goku and they banter back and forth, and eventually, Goku launches a spirit bomb.

During this, more development happens, really told to us. Goku coordinates the search for the 7 dragon balls on Namek and wishes for the revival of everyone who died post Babidi’s appearance who does not have an evil heart. Vegeta’s halo disappears. This wish was made so everyone on Earth could contribute to the spirit bomb.

The bomb is used, but fails to completely kill off the Buu they’re currently fighting. Vegeta is also like, not good right now. LOL. He gets carried off a guy to be out of harms way, and through everyone’s effort together, they defeat the evil version of Buu.

EDITING TO BE DONE.

REFLECTION

There’s more in the timeline. All of Super. More of Daima. But, with this, I am satisfied so far. I really don’t think Vegeta has developed a lot post Majin Buu arc. As in, I think everything that is further down in the timeline is a culmination of all of his character progression in Z. He does great things in Super, but ultimately I feel as though a lot of the things he does in Super are things that were established he does in Z.

There’s technically another arc, but it’s an epilogue and possibly not even canon anymore. It doesn’t matter.

I really wanted to do all of this as I think um, people can be kind of weird towards Vegeta and Goku. Vegeta has canonically done many, many bad things, but he did a lot of this while enslaved. Genocide was normal to him at that time and for his people and then like, Cell Arc was shortly after he was freed being enslaved. Murder has always been very normal to him and really, murder is very normal in the Z Universe. I also think death being so normal to him and the actions of the Saiyans is one reason he doesn't actively grieve them. A lot of what he says is about what has been taken from him, but Vegeta has killed countless and so have many other Saiyans in this universe.

He’s relatively young also at the start of Z, not a teenager or in his early 20s or anything, but I mean people say he grew up quickly but he has never had any opportunities in his life to develop any sort of emotional intelligence until Saiyan Saga. He never cried until he died at the hands of Frieza. He met his first love in his 30s, but didn’t even know he actually cared about her. He couldn’t even acknowledge he cared for the other Z fighters until after his son died.

And when he developed these feelings and explored them, he hated them which I think a lot of people have experienced.. I mean, it’s easy to compare to smaller things. I miss being selectively mute because I felt like I rarely made a fool of myself. I miss not having friends because people are so annoying and it hurts to care about others. I miss having the pride I had as a child but continuously being humbled has made me a better person even if I miss not dealing with anyone’s shit. I hated a lot of those aspects of myself and over time, I was able to express my tendencies in better ways even though I miss those extreme aspects of myself.

That returns to this- Vegeta is still prideful but in a much healthier extent. I have spoken to people who think Vegeta is always suffering, but I really don’t agree. I think post Majin Buu he’s pretty chill and while he wants to surpass Goku, it’s not nearly as all consuming as it was before, and he even can choose to abandon this desire even if it eats away at him a bit. And it’s pretty normal for emotions to eat at you sometimes. It just needs to not be all consuming and for Vegeta, now that he's embraced all of this good things in his life, he has so much to look forward to outside of training. Training is his drive and a big core part of existence, but it's no longer all that he is.

He’s still weird at times and expresses his emoitons rough ways, but also in Super, Vegeta has the opportunity to be given a role that would make him surpass basically everyone in his universe, but he turns it down. He actually refuses to train with Goku at some point too because he wants to witness the birth of his child, and something has to occur for him to actually go. He clearly has been able to seperate important things in his life from training now. 

Goku and Vegeta are often depicted as being around equal strength in S too, and are associated with one another by other fighters. While it is a fact that Goku is often stronger, a lot of the time it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Vegeta and Goku are in such a league of their own (among some other fighters in S) that that kind of thing becomes minor. That is to say his rivalry with Goku is a big motivator, but in S there’s also fighters stronger than both Goku and Vegeta. It makes all of that stuff feel even sillier.

Vegeta also experiences a lot of satisfaction in S from various other things, and he’s also humiliated at the hands of Beerus in order to keep his family from getting destroyed. The only thing that really triggers him at the start of S isn’t pride but his wife being hurt (and also being annoyed surrounded by people lol). I really enjoy Vegeta’s depiction in S even if the show has other things that are weird to me.

That’s the end of my reflection and biography of my dear!