Vegeta

Vegeta IV (ベジータ四世, Bejīta Yon-sei[29]¿?), credited as Prince Vegeta (ベジータ王子, Bejīta-ōji¿?) and better known as Vegeta (ベジータ, Bejīta¿?), is the deuteragonist of Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Z Kai, and Dragon Ball Super. He is the eldest son of King Vegeta III, as well as the newest prince of the Saiyan royal family and one of the few survivors following the Saiyan genocide of Universe 7's Planet Vegeta at the hands of Freeza. He is Son Goku's eternal rival, Tarble's older brother, Bulma's husband, Trunks and Bra's father, and Vegeta Jr.'s ancestor. Although at the beginning of Dragon Ball Z, Vegeta plays an antagonistic role, soon after he decides to rebel against Freeza's Army, becoming a key ally to the Z Warriors. Over time he would change his way of being, choosing to stay on Earth and have a family to fight by his side against the imminent adversities to overcome. Along with Piccolo, he is one of Goku's former enemies who has evolved from being a villain and antihero, to finally a hero throughout the course of history, thus becoming the deuteragonist of the series.

appearance

He is 1.64 m tall and weighs about 56 kg. He has a height below the average Earthling. He has a thin build in the Saiyan Arc but gains an increase in muscle for the Android and Cell Arcs. His skin is pale cinnamon-colored and his forehead is quite wide and has a widow's peak, as well as his spiky, bushy hair that ends in a point (similar to his Super Saiyan form) [30]. However, in several official anime media, Vegeta is shown as a child with several locks and spikes on his forehead. Likewise, his gaze is hard (with which he is usually intimidating), his eyes are slanted and have black irises, and his hair is jet black with a brown hue in its shine. A main characteristic of Vegeta is the fact that he is the only living Saiyan who has continued the tradition of wearing the Battle Armor on a regular basis. In the beginning of the series, Vegeta wears a blue suit and white and yellow armor; white boots and gloves and a Scout with a fuchsia red lens. When he arrived on Earth, he had a tail, but it was cut off by Yajirobei in his fight against Goku. In the Namek and Frieza Arc, he uses a navy blue suit, and gets rid of the scouter when he obtains the Ki Sense, now using a more synthesized version of his armor. Only in the Buu Monster Arc and in the 28th edition of the Martial Arts Tournament did he stop using his armor except for his gloves and boots. In Dragon Ball Super and Dragon Ball: Hey! Son Goku and Friends Return!, he resumes the use of his characteristic armor and only in the arcs The Resurrection of Freeza and Universe 6, he uses a variant of his armor with lines of various patterns, more circular and the Whis symbol on the chest. His suit is dark gray with reliefs or ornaments.

personality

Vegeta is a cold, inexpressive Saiyan who is filled with resentment for Frieza's betrayal of his race. Vegeta despises camaraderie, leaning instead to act on his own merits and rarely accepts help in a fight (so long as their goals coincide), this is demonstrated when Vegeta offers to form an "alliance" with Goku, Gohan, and Krillin to defeat the Ginew Special Forces and Frieza. Also like most Saiyans, he is extremely arrogant and prideful, to the point of being overbearing, as he faithfully believes that his abilities as a high-class Saiyan make him a generically superior warrior, choosing to mercilessly kill his enemies if possible, and even acting in a petty and cynical manner by abandoning or betraying his allies when they are no longer of use to him. While the latter may not always be the case, Vegeta's "pride" has been indisputably reflected as both his greatest strength and his greatest weakness, demonstrating on the one hand his dedication and persistence in surpassing himself, but on the other hand it unleashes the worst of his personality, and several villains have known how to take advantage of this trait to their advantage in order to gain the upper hand. A tragic example of all this is in his fight against Cell. Although Vegeta could have easily destroyed him in his current second form, his arrogance got the better of him, and he intentionally allowed himself to be absorbed by Android 18, only to have a better challenge in Cell, through which he would test his new powers, but in return suffered a humiliating and crushing defeat at the hands of the perfected android. On several occasions, Vegeta goes so far as to underestimate his opponents; In the cases of Perfect Cell and Pure Boo, Vegeta was fooled by their appearances, believing that they had merely "shrunk", which is somewhat ironic, given his own short stature, but great power.

relationship with goku

His relationship with Son Goku runs from contempt to rivalry, and later to respect and friendship. His perception of Goku is that he is always one step ahead of him, despite being of lower class, awakening in the prince a great feeling of antipathy and envy towards the kind-hearted Saiyan. From that moment on, Vegeta makes it his personal goal to defeat and surpass Goku in power with the aim of being the strongest warrior in the universe. Due to his arrogance, bad temper and actions in the past, Vegeta earned much disdain from those around him, particularly from Piccolo, Krillin or Tienshinhan, who continually reproached him for his cruelty. However, after his idea to defeat Pure Boo and save the Earth was a success, Vegeta has been recognized as one of the most reliable and strongest warriors known, this not only allowed him to redeem himself from his actions, but also to reconcile with all the Z Warriors and accept them as genuine comrades. Following Pure Boo's defeat, Vegeta's anger and frustration towards Goku turns into a friendly rivalry, though he is still somewhat annoyed with Goku over his immature ways. Their rivalry becomes a major point throughout the rest of the series, to the point that Toriyama then decides that if Goku has offspring, then Vegeta should too, by pairing him with Bulma; though this relationship is not explicitly shown, it is later shown in the Boo Arc that Vegeta cares greatly for his new family, and often reacts with jealousy when they speak pervertedly about his wife.

as a father

As a father, Vegeta was initially very indifferent, seeing Trunks only as Bulma's son. However, upon spending more time with his son's future counterpart, he developed some respect towards him, learning to appreciate his son, showing great indignation when Cell killed Future Trunks, going berserk and recklessly attacking the bio-android. Upon moving in with Bulma and Trunks, his attitude as a father was slowly but steadily progressive. He has spent time with his family and attempted to connect with them. When Trunks was unwilling to do certain things in his training, Vegeta motivated him by rewarding him if he succeeded. One example was him offering to take Trunks to the amusement park for a day if he was able to punch him in the face. When Trunks succeeded, Vegeta punched Trunks hard in the face. There he realized that he went too far, and although his pride prevented him from apologizing, he kept his promise to his son.

Vegeta later displays a complete personality change during the Buu Arc, attempting to sacrifice himself in order to protect Bulma and Trunks by attempting to eliminate Innocent Buu, but tragically to no avail as Buu regenerated. He later again displays his entirely new appreciation for life in the Dragon Ball Z movie: Dragon Fist Explosion! If Goku Can't Do It, Who Will?, by protecting strangers in a building from a powerful attack by Hildegarn. By the beginning of Dragon Ball Super, he shows a progressive change, becoming more tolerant of others, although he has shown that, when it comes to vacations, birthdays, and most occasions to share with his family and friends, he has a hard time joining them and ends up distancing himself from the places where there is more fun (in Dragon Ball Super manga #17 there is a single exception where he plays "Go Karts" with Goku, Beerus, the two Trunks and the Pilaf gang) when it is more important for him to become stronger. Several characters (including Whis, who refers to this while training him and Goku, telling him that "when the moment of relaxation comes what you should do is rest", and Goku, indirectly, when at times like this he suggests that he not distance himself from others) have pointed out this tendency of his to avoid relaxing, resting and having fun fully. He and Goku also agree to avoid helping each other fight during battles as they did in the past, when they decided to fuse using the Pothala Earrings to fight Super Buu, something Goku had already briefly referred to in Dragon Ball Z, during the final battle against Pure Buu on the Sacred Planet, by telling the Kaio-shin that "it's just not our style."

During the "Future" Trunks Arc, his attitude as a father continues to progress, as he moves away from his family once again to train with Goku and Whis, Future Trunks returns to the past and greets him, but Vegeta does nothing, not even a wink, and simply stands there with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. After Trunks tells the others about Goku Black, instead of sympathizing with Bulma's death and that of almost all of humanity in the future, he simply scolds Trunks for not fighting to the end against Black, and how it is a dishonor to him and the Saiyan race by running away from the enemy. Though it seems to only be because he knew Trunks was running away and feeling sorry for himself wouldn't accomplish anything. So the next day he took Future Trunks to train, this was to instruct him in the new higher levels of Super Saiyan, as Trunks had no knowledge of them. Despite all of this, he is shown to have a degree of care towards his family, as he is shown to be internally upset with Goku Black for the death of Future Bulma while he was alone in the Gravity Machine. Later, Vegeta is shown to be proud of Future Trunks, for how he was giving everything he had to protect his world from Black. His fatherly side grows even more throughout this saga, as Vegeta constantly tells his future son not to give up, and did not want to leave him behind when he told him to return to the past. During his fight against Fusion Zamasu, Vegeta stood next to Trunks and praised his will to not give up, and together, they performed the Galick Cannon against Zamasu, but after the attack was not enough and Zamasu launched another attack, Vegeta stepped forward taking the impact to protect his son.

In the Universal Survival Arc, Vegeta's attitude towards fatherhood has greatly improved, as he seemed happy and excited during Bulma's pregnancy with Bra, and refused to go train with Goku until after their daughter was born. Vegeta even boldly ignored a direct order from Beerus, saying that he would only comply if Bulma agreed. As soon as Bra was born, Vegeta felt an instant attachment towards his daughter and became overly protective of her, even when he pulled her out of Trunks' arms for not holding her "properly". He has been shown to have learned how to care for babies, such as changing diapers, which shocked Trunks and Goten. Before the Tournament of Power, when Piccolo mentioned that both of his children would be eliminated if Vegeta did not cooperate with Frieza, the latter put aside his resentment towards the tyrant in order to protect them. Already in the Tournament of Power, Vegeta reveals that his reason for continuing to fight is to protect his pride and fulfill his promise to Cabba, but more importantly, to ensure that his Universe survives in order to protect everyone, showing a much more human side. At the beginning of Dragon Ball Super, Vegeta is clearly terrified of interacting with Beerus and the God Realm. When he is defeated, that changes. After Beerus slaps Bulma, he goes berserk, entering a rage state in Super Saiyan 2. This theme is consistent throughout Dragon Ball Super. Vegeta is now a loving father and husband. He went with Bulma and Trunks to an amusement park, and refuses to attend the tournament for his family at first. He isn't solely fighting to get stronger or surpass Goku; he's fighting to protect his family. When the Saiyans of Universe 6 are introduced, Vegeta's priorities shift even further, even taking on the role of a teacher with Cabba. The Tournament of Power had him fight for his people (of Universe 6) and his family on Earth.

Vegeta went down fighting against indescribable odds, far beyond his limits, standing against Jiren while even Goku couldn't. Hearing Bulma's voice in his subconscious, he fought on, well aware of his limits, but refusing to let himself fall until he could no longer stand. Achieving his own unique transformation through the feeling of promise towards his disciple, Cabba defeated a full-fledged God of Destruction despite his initial terror, and gave his all to stop Jiren. Even when defeated, he passed the last of his energy on to Goku. In the Galactic Patrol Prisoner Arc of Dragon Ball Super, Vegeta demonstrates his biggest change yet, saving a Namekian child from being killed by Moro, and openly expressing that he regrets all the harm he did to his race and wishes to redeem himself for his actions, thus demonstrating a change never seen before. During the finale of Dragon Ball Z, Vegeta is shown to be much more relaxed. He is often seen smiling and joking around, such as when he forced Trunks to enter the World Martial Arts Tournament, threatening to "pay him only half of his allowance" if he did not participate. His attitude towards fighting has also changed; instead of training to surpass Goku and prove his superiority, he now simply trains because he is curious about what his limits are. In Dragon Ball GT, Vegeta shows a certain degree of favoritism towards Bra, such as not forcing her to train, taking her shopping, and reacting with dismay when boys flirt with her. In short, Vegeta, the proud prince of the Saiyans is currently a good man, plus one of the best fathers and husbands in the franchise, who has a hard time openly expressing his feelings, preferring to be strict with himself and others in training.