Characters / Dragon Ball: Vegeta – Tropes A-D

Dragon Ball Main Character Index
Major Characters
Son Goku (A-C | D-H | I-O | P-Z) | Bulma | Krillin/Kuririn | Piccolo | Son Gohan | Vegeta (A-D | E-N | O-Z) | Future Trunks | Allies | Families & Friends (Chi-Chi | Androids 17 and 18 | Trunks and Son Goten | Mr. Satan/Hercule) | Fusions

#-B

• 24-Hour Armor: With the exception of the Buu Saga and GT, he's usually clad in some variant of Saiyan battle armor.
• Abusive Parents:
  • Frieza was his main parental figure for most of his life. He made Vegeta one of his men, and for years, kept him as a slave - it can be interpreted easily that he took every possible opportunity to demean and insult him. During their fight on Namek, Frieza brutally tortured Vegeta to death, both For the Evulz and to especially punish him for his treachery. Needless to say, Vegeta has every reason to not only hate Frieza but want him dead, and that was before he found out Frieza destroyed Planet Vegeta.
  • Although he loved his father, King Vegeta and one of the reasons why he resents Frieza is that he killed him which denied Vegeta of his birthright as the next King of the Saiyans, King Vegeta did raise him to be cold and ruthless, sure to have taught him anything besides physical strength was for the weak.
  • He himself was a lousy father to Future Trunks. Highlights include hitting him soon upon when the two start to clash (which is often), constantly being dismissive of his son and betraying his trust to fuel his own self interest. What little pride he does express in him is more about how it better reflects on himself (i.e. "Of course Trunks became a Super Saiyan at such a young age, he's my son after all!"). He realizes the error of his ways when Cell kills Trunks, and come the Buu Saga, he's no longer seen to be verbally or emotionally abusive, but he is heavily implied and later outright stated to be emotionally distant from his son.
• Accent Adaptation: In English dubs, Vegeta speaks with a mid-Atlantic accent (similar to the accents used by actors in old movies) to convey his pompousness and pride.
• Action Dad: To Future Trunks, Trunks, and Bulla.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Some versions of the English dub tend to soften the amorality and ruthlessness that defined Vegeta's character during the Saiyan and Frieza Sagas and give him a hefty dose of Freudian Excuse. While the original Japanese version of Vegeta's death simply has him bemoan his genocide of the Saiyans (solely because he couldn't become their king), the dubs have him outright tell Frieza that he was the one who made him who he is and even threatened his father's life if Vegeta didn't obey him (whereas in the original he didn't care one bit about his family).
  • In the Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' movie, Vegeta sees Frieza as more of his plaything and, like Goku, didn't take the fight seriously. In the Super adaptation, he is very concerned about Frieza's return and gets on Goku for taking too long to defeat him.
  • In the anime of Super, Vegeta wants to fight and kill Goku Black because he murdered his future wife and tortured his future son. He's overall far more willing to put aside his pride and fight for the sake of others compared to his manga version. Most of all, he willingly fuses with and fights alongside Goku against Fusion Zamasu at most just groaning about fusing in the first place.
• Aesop Amnesia: Big time. As the Prince of the Saiyans, Vegeta is utterly convinced that he's the strongest being in the universe and tends to bite off more than he can chew when it comes to enemies, as well as, for a long time, refusing to work with anyone he considers inferior in strength above all (which is basically everyone). To make matters worse, he's actually not as strong as Goku, which enrages Vegeta for decades in-universe and results in his being a liability for the good guys quite often. No matter how many times the villains kick his ass, Goku surpasses him, and/or he suffers a Break the Haughty, Vegeta just can't get it through his thick-enough head that he's not the strongest being in the universe; it isn't until the very end of Z that it finally sinks in and he accepts that Goku is better than him. Come Super, he's still working his ass off trying to surpass Goku, but his attitude towards it is much healthier, and his massive sense of Saiyan pride becomes an asset rather than a liability since he goes from blind stupidity to a top-class Determinator.
  • Suffers from this again in Super's manga adaptation of the Future Trunks arc, letting his pride get in the way of fighting alongside Goku to take down Zamasu and Black, resulting in the two taking their time to fuse despite the prior fight with Majin Buu proving how effective the technique was, effectively the situation ends up worse than if he had taken his opponent seriously to begin with.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg:
  • Usually averted, as his pride would never allow him to stoop so low. However he has been forced to resort to this when faced with Beerus.
  • When he is about to die, he begs Goku to defeat Frieza by a Saiyan's hand before expiring. Goku even comments this after he passes.
  • Getting truly desperate for his plan to defeat Buu to succeed, Vegeta attempts to swallow his pride and actually pleads for them to help him as possible. Notably, this succeeds in getting a few people to donate outside of the people on the lookout and Gohan's group, and might have actually worked if not for the unexpected drain donating to the spirit bomb involved.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Two big examples.
  • His death at Frieza's hands. Vegeta has been despicable for sixty-something episodes, and killed a village full of those who only wanted to stop his selfish use of Dragon Balls - namely some cute alien children, their big brothers, and their elders. You'd expect a character of this type to die in a spectacular manner, then never be seen again. Instead, he is given a horrible beating from Frieza after giving everything to beat him, including allowing Krillin to put a hole in his chest. His best attack was kicked like a beach ball and Frieza beats him up so brutally that he's left nearly unconscious, crying as he told Goku about all the years of Frieza enslaving him and had destroyed his whole planet, and - in the first Funimation dub - turned him into who he is. After seemingly being saved by Goku's arrival, he is shot in the heart and forced to beg Goku to finish the job of beating Frieza. Goku, who had no real love for Vegeta and kept him alive so he could beat him one day, buries him and loses all of his ill feeling towards him. After his revival, almost no one on Goku's side sees him as an enemy anymore, just a Jerkass.
  • After allowing himself to be turned into a Majin. He sold his soul to bridge the gap between Goku and him, killed a stadium full of people to provoke Goku to fight, and allowed Buu to be revived by his actions. Despite all of that, Vegeta's sacrifice is still tragic because he realizes what a selfish jackass he's been and how he made a terrible mistake underestimating Buu. After he asks Piccolo if he would see Goku in the afterlife, he is told point-blank that he would not end up anywhere but in Hell for his past actions and that he effectively will cease to exist as further punishment when his memories and soul are purified, meaning he'll never see his family or Goku again. He still gives his life to kill Buu, fighting for the sake of others for the first time in his life (barring his rage at Future Trunks' mortal wound 7 years prior), with Piccolo and Krillin, both of whom spent the majority of Z hating his guts, even being mournful when he sacrifices himself. Vegeta's sacrifice and the last battle with Kid Buu were the final turning points for his character arc that has been building since the Frieza Saga and everyone afterwards ceased hating him.
• All for Nothing:
  • In the Frieza Saga, he spent the majority of the arc avoiding a direct conflict with the tyrant, while using subterfuge and quick action to take the Namekian Dragon Balls for himself and pick off his men, reaching the brink of death more than once, so that he can use the Dragon Balls to wish for immortality, and thus finally be able to challenge Frieza. Unfortunately, the Grand Elder, whose life sustains the usage of the magical orbs, dies, and Frieza confronts him and his erstwhile allies, Krillin and Gohan. Seeing no other choice, they battle him head-on, but it's not enough. Piccolo is revived and on Namek so that turns the tables against Frieza, but it quickly becomes clear that the battle is still a losing one. Thus, in an attempt to become a Super Saiyan, Vegeta has Krillin bring him to the brink of death and Dende revive him, giving him a dramatic power boost. It works, but Frieza still toys with him, and he loses all hope when he realizes he's not a Super Saiyan, leading to a savage beatdown at Frieza's hands before he executes him. Everything he did was to free himself from the yoke of Frieza, and all it earned him was a pitiful death.
  • During the Buu Saga, he becomes so obsessed with topping Goku that he makes a Deal with the Devil with Babidi, allowing Babidi to turn him into a Majin and bring forth his inner evil to do so. As it turns out, Goku had unlocked Super Saiyan 3 and had been holding back against Majin Vegeta the whole time, so Vegeta sold his soul to Babidi, forsook his family, friends, and own convictions, and helped unleash Majin Buu upon the world for nothing. More than that, the very thing he did all of the above actions for, his pride, was utterly and completely destroyed. Not only were his sacrifices meaningless, he once again has to deal with the fact that Goku made a huge leap ahead of him by unlocking Super Saiyan 3, to say nothing of the apparent insult of being allowed to think he could win. As a result, Vegeta is pretty damn pissed with Goku when King Yemma brings him back to fight Buu after he gave his life in a failed effort to make amends.
• Aloof Big Brother: He acts like this to Tarble, which is a step up since it seems he could have most likely killed the much softer Tarble several years earlier.
• Always Someone Better: Vegeta's overarching storyline, the driving point of his character is this trope in relation to Goku.
  • At the start of Z, he was the someone always better to Goku as even with all he's got, the latter could only barely match him in his base but was helpless against his stronger states. From the Frieza Saga onward, he becomes Always Second Best to Goku. He also doesn't react well when anyone else surpasses him like Future Trunks, Piccolo, Cell, and Gohan.
  • In Super, after training with Whis, he becomes Goku's statistical equal for a good while. But then Goku noticeably jumps ahead upon perfecting Super Saiyan Blue and stays ahead with Ultra Instinct forms throughout the Moro arc. Once Vegeta gains Ultra Ego, the two move into more specialist roles.
  • The Super anime has a bit more of of a complicated relationship to this trope. In the Universe 6 tournament, Goku accesses Super Saiyan Blue Kaio-ken, which causes a massive boost in power, and Vegeta is certainly not happy. At the time however, it's a desperation move that risks permanent injury so it can't be readily used in battle. In the Goku Black arc, after Black beats both saiyans, Vegeta uses the time chamber to train for 6 months and is stronger than Goku for the rest of the arc. Between the end of the Black arc and the Universal Survival saga, Goku not only perfects but enhances SSB Kaio-ken, doubling its maximum and eliminating the risks, rocketing him ahead again, even before he gains the powerful but uncontrollable imperfect Ultra Instinct form. Vegeta on the other hand enhances Blue to a unique evolved level form, initially equal to SSB Kaio-ken, yet during his fight with Top(po) it's power skyrockets to put him squarely in God of Destruction territory (although exactly where he falls on that power scale is wholly unknown. We've also no indication of how a full power Vegeta would do against Jiren, as his fight with Top drained most of his energy). But then Goku gains the perfected Ultra Instinct form, which surpasses every fighter we've seen thus far, barring Jiren and probably the Angels. In both the case of the manga and anime, Goku cannot willfully access this form after the fight with Jiren, while Vegeta seemingly can still use his own enhanced form. This technically means that the Universe Survival arc ends in both mediums with Vegeta functionally on top. But since Dragon Ball Super: Broly largely ignores any forms beyond Blue, when the pair next appear they seem largely equal, although promotional material claims Vegeta is desperately trying to catch up. By the time of the Granolah the Survivor arc, Vegeta has begun training more closely with Beerus, achieving a form separate from Ultra Instinct to match up. This form is Ultra Ego, a form which allows Vegeta to fully tap into God of Destruction energy and having full offensive might against villians in battles. Vegeta's Ultra Ego provides a significant contrast to Goku's Ultra Instinct and is a representation of Vegeta's desire to seek his own unique level of power separate from Goku.
• Always Second Best: Throughout the series, he hates that Goku is stronger than him. Ironically, this wasn't the case when the two first clashed, as Vegeta had the edge on him in power by a fair degree until Goku gave himself the Kaio-Ken multiplier - then as a Great Ape, Vegeta decisively won by crushing all of Goku's bones before their fight was interrupted.
• Amazon Chaser: Vegeta likes Bulma's strong-willed nature. According to him, weaker-willed women are unsuitable to a Saiyan.
• Ancestral Name: His father was named King Vegeta who passed on his name to him. In fact, according to Dragon Ball Super: Broly, his full name is actually "Vegeta the Fourth."
• And Then What?: Notably, after the whole ordeal with Namek, Vegeta's grander ambitions die down considerably. He goes from wanting to become immortal and rule over planets (not unlike Frieza) to simply wanting to become the strongest fighter around to surpass Goku. After Goku sacrifices himself and Gohan ascends to a previously unknown form, Vegeta goes through this again, temporarily losing his will to fight - though he continues to train soon enough.
• Anger Born of Worry: After events of the Frieza Saga, Vegeta shows some degree of concern for Goku's life, all under the sentiment that he is the only one who should defeat Goku. When he saves Goku from Android 19, he scolds Goku for being foolish to fight and go Super Saiyan despite knowing that he was ill. In the Resurrection ‘F’ Saga in Super, he calls Goku an idiot for lowering his guard and allowing Sorbet to shoot him in the back, all while protecting him from Frieza.
• Antagonist in Mourning:
  • After Goku's death in the Cell Games, he swears to never fight again. When he sees a chance to get that rematch after all in the Buu Saga, he gets a mite... fixated on it.
  • His future counterpart from Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks has much the same reaction to Goku's death from the heart virus (though this is another dub line patching over his simply pronouncing the name as "Kakarot...to..."):
    Future Vegeta: Kakarot... no!
• Anti-Hero: One of the greatest examples anime or manga has ever given us. He created the mold for anti-heroic characters in Shonen anime and manga and went through the whole scale of anti-heroism during his character development in the series.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • His hatred of Frieza for enslaving him and destroying his planet. Killing Frieza by obtaining immortality from the Dragon Balls was his primary motive during the Saiyan and Frieza Saga.
  • He had this relationship with Goku for a long time after he was defeated on Earth. Their relationship would go on to develop into Friendly Enemies, and eventually into worthy rivals. In Dragon Ball Super, he becomes something of a Sitcom Arch-Nemesis.
  • Another one is Goku Black. While Black doesn’t really see Vegeta as one, considering him an appetizer to the main course, Vegeta grew to bitterly hate Black for what he did to his future family including killing Future Bulma and wounding Future Trunks.
    • On the subject of Black, Vegeta gets legitimately pissed off at Black when he learns that Black is actually Zamasu, having used the Super Dragon Balls to claim Goku's body for himself and starts screaming in his face about it with more rage than one would expect from Vegeta regarding anything relating to Goku. His ultimate reasoning for why he went off on Black? He's come to respect Goku's tenacity and courage, and seeing Zamasu try to steal Goku's power without putting in even a fraction of the effort that Goku exerted to get where he is turns out to be a Berserk Button for Vegeta. Apparently even Vegeta didn't realize it till it happened, either.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: The king of this trope. Often leads to epic Break the Haughty moments, even after becoming a good guy. When he first comes to Earth, he sits back and lets Nappa do all the work since the Earth's fighters are still far beneath him in power. He only actively fights after Nappa proves unable to beat Goku, and he spends most of his match against Goku demeaning him for being a low class warrior. This gets Downplayed on Namek since Vegeta knows very well how powerful his enemy is and acts carefully. However, his ego and arrogance return full force during the Android/Cell Saga where he finally becomes a Super Saiyan and has an overwhelming need to show-off his new power, which enables Dr. Gero to awaken Androids 16, 17, and 18, and allows Cell to become complete. He finally gets over this by the final story arc of ''Z''. He's still quite arrogant, but he knows and accepts where he stands on the power scale.
• Asshole Victim: He lets Cell absorb Android 18 to reach his Perfect Form because Vegeta wanted a real challenge after beating Cell rather easily and despite everybody, including his son telling him how bad of an idea that is. Vegeta gets more than he bargained for, being humiliated and effortlessly defeated by Cell, with Cell even remarking how much of a fool Vegeta was to let his pride override his common sense. And as far as Krillin is concerned, Vegeta deserves to be killed for potentially dooming the Earth for the sake of his pride, only helping the Saiyan Prince recover because Trunks insisted so.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He is the Saiyan Prince not just because his father was the king, but because he is the most powerful of all the Saiyans, surpassing even his father at a young age. Before Goku powered up, he was over three times stronger than the second strongest Saiyan, Nappa. He kind of loses this honor once Goku surpasses him and no one within Goku's circle of friends really wants to listen to him because of his Jerkass personality.
• The Atoner: Vegeta is an interesting example of this trope. He rarely directly references his previous actions from his villain days but most of his actions and motivations as he develops end up running directly counter to who he was. He initially disregards familial relationships to the point where he doesn't particularly care if Bulma and baby Trunks die, only to become the family man of the series with a lot of his most epic moments driven by love for his wife and children. His Saiyan pride was once completely centered around his own personal sense of supremacy, not giving any apparent damn about the members of his species and treating the entire rest of the Saiyan Army as expendable and worthy of death whenever they lost. Now he scolds any Saiyan who gives up on a fight by instilling in them the responsibility to get stronger and even surpass him if they can help it, and takes any opportunity he can to brag about the Saiyans' natural tendency to break their limitations, taking true pride in his people as a whole. He disregarded Goku as inferior, even after Goku continued to surpass him and would be the first to tear him down. Now, they're not only more likely to be found in each other's company than anyone else's but he will vocally support Goku in his fights against Buu and Jiren. Their rivalry is now one of equality rather than superiority. He goes from being a callous opportunist through the entire ordeal of Ginyu stealing Goku's body to one of the reasons he took pleasure in beating the piss out of Black being how Zamasu dared to think he could claim Goku's power and all the hard work that it came by for himself just from stealing his body. He wipes out millions of people over the years, then he ensures that when reviving the people of Earth during the fight with Kid Buu, his victims are included. Vegeta had wiped out a Namekian village searching for the Dragon Balls and later bragged or at least smirked about it when those same villagers weren't revived by a wish. When confronting the energy-devouring Moro much later on New Namek, he reacts faster than Goku to save a Namekian child and basically says "You'll hurt these people over my dead body."
  Moro: You would dare interrupt my long-awaited meal?
  Vegeta: I have a troubled history with these Namekians. I did them untold harm. So no, I can't allow even one more of them to perish. And they are most certainly not your food.
• Awesomeness by Analysis:
  • How he learned the protagonists' signature ability to sense other people's energy.
  • Managed to perfect his own version of the Destructo Disc to cut Great Ape Gohan's tail off after seeing Krillin do it twice. Note that Krillin, the inventor of the technique, failed to cut off Vegeta's tail with it himself.
  • Deconstructed by Whis. He tells Vegeta to stop over thinking all the time since it slows his reaction time during battle. This flaw is exploited by Frieza, who destroys the Earth because it took Vegeta too long to make the finishing blow.
  • Reconstruction by Vegeta during his fight with Jiren. Despite not having access to the Ultra Instinct like Goku has, he still manages to analyze Jiren's attack patterns, enabling him to dodge every single one of his Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs and land the first solid hit on him, shocking everyone. He even outright says that 'Kakarot can have his Ultra Instinct' — he'll find his own way to get stronger, as he always has.
    Vegeta: Bad news for you, Jiren. I've got you figured out!
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Vegeta and Bulma are full of this. They often yell at each other and Vegeta tries to pretend he doesn't particularly care about her. Despite all that, they are actually quite loving towards each other like Bulma making Vegeta an upgrade for his armor and kissing him on the cheek, much to his horror. Vegeta is also very protective of Bulma. He completely loses his shit when Beerus slaps her, causing him to surpass Goku for several seconds. He even rushes into her room when she screamed in fright. And when Vegeta learns Goku Black killed Future Bulma he becomes so mad he does not even show his anger like he normally does, he immediately starts training in order to murder Goku Black in the most painful way possible.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Ultra Ego in theory sounds pretty good: A form with near limitless growth that allows him to use his opponents's strength to fuel his own power. But in practice, it's far from useful in the long run, both times Vegeta has used the form, he's only been able to last so long until his body gives out of him. To make things worse, the form doesn't do anything to mitigate damage he suffers, so it'll just keep piling up on him, leaving him helpless once he runs out of steam, or cause him to fall apart before he can land the finishing blow. It doesn't help that the form encourages this by increasing Vegeta's bloodlust.
• Ax-Crazy: Borders on this during his first fight with Goku, freaking out and trying to blow up the Earth because Goku made him bleed. In the Frieza Saga, he massacres an entire village of Namekians, children included, for their Dragon Ball, which he easily could have just taken and left without issue, since the villagers were insignificant enough to him in terms of strength. He returns as this in the Buu Saga as Majin Vegeta, where it can be easily argued that his desire to be ruthless again manifests as he indiscriminately blows up dozens of innocent people to provoke Goku into a fight with a Psychotic Smirk on his face.
• Backup from Otherworld: Vegeta is semi-revived thanks to King Yemma so he can help in the battle against Majin Buu after Gohan gets absorbed, making Super Buu nearly unstoppable. While Vegeta power-wise would be of little use at this point, he gives Goku someone to fuse with and it is his plan that ends up killing Kid Buu.
• Badass Arm-Fold: Almost as iconic as his prideful smirk.
• Badass Boast: Vegeta has to be one of the kings of this trope.
  • One of his best was when Babidi was controlling his body, being an oft-liked dub line:
    Babidi: Kill! Kill the Kai!
    Vegeta: No! Get out of my head! I already told you! I will not be distracted from this anymore! I won't! It will take more than head games to stop me. You may have invaded my mind and my body... but there's one thing a Saiyan always keeps... HIS PRIDE!
  • The English Dub in general gives him a lot of these. This one from the early Cell Saga stands out:
    Vegeta: I do not fear this new challenge, rather like a true warrior I will rise to meet it.
  • One of his best ever lines was during his one-sided fight against Pui Pui. Pui Pui is outmatched even by base form Vegeta, so Babidi uses his magic to move the fight to Pui Pui's home planet, which has ten times Earth's normal gravity. Unbeknownst to everyone, Vegeta has spent the last 7 years training in progressively stronger gravity. Pui Pui begins mocking laughter, and Vegeta laughs back and replies thusly, shortly before finally obliterating the clown with an energy attack:
  Vegeta: Maybe if this was five hundred times Earth's gravity, you might have an advantage. But ten? I don't even feel it.
  • He gets a pretty good one in a later part of the Cell Saga as well, while charging up his Final Flash. He basically dares Cell to test his strength by not dodging the attack; had Cell not dodged at the last second, he wouldn't have survived.
    Vegeta: CELL!!!! You have mocked me for the last time! You truly believe your power is far superior to mine?! HERE! If you have the guts to put it to the test, LET'S SEE IF YOU'RE PERFECT ENOUGH TO WITHSTAND THIS!!!
    • The original Funi dub version of the above line:
  Vegeta: CELL!!! Once again you have taken for granted, the powers of a true Saiyan warrior! Now if you really want to test your strength, stay right where you are!
  • Similar to the above, he dares Jiren to take a fully charged Final Flash. Jiren has to block at the last minute and is still knocked to the ground. It's a lot more damage than Jiren took from Goku's Universe 7 Spirit bomb.
    Vegeta: You claim that I'm no threat to you. I assume that means you won't act like a coward and try to avoid this blast!!
  • He has one pretty amazing line in the Japanese dub of Super too, to Beerus.
    Vegeta: God of Destruction or not, you will know the boundaries of humiliation!
    • He gets in a low-key but cool one when Zarbon offers to assist him in taking down Frieza:
  If I thought we could take on Frieza together, I'd have tried myself long ago.
• Badass Decay: In-Universe, Vegeta feels like he suffers from this after he settles down on Earth and has a family. He wants to be evil again since that is when he feels he's at his strongest. So, he sells himself to Babidi for power and he does becomes stronger, able to fight equally with Goku for the first time in years. Goku calls him out on this, calling him a fool (dub-wise anyway, where in the manga he is just shocked at the news) for selling out his own convictions and family just so he can surpass him.
• Badass in Distress:
  • He had to be saved by Krillin and Gohan when Recoome was ready to kill him with his Eraser Gun. He wasn't happy about the rescue and still was very much out for himself with treachery in mind.
  • After going through a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Cell after he murdered Trunks, he is knocked aside and is nearly killed by an energy blast. He only survived because Gohan shielded him with his own body, losing the use of his left arm.
  • At the tail end of the Kid Buu fight, he is pinned down by Buu to keep Goku from throwing the Spirit Bomb. It is the combined efforts of Fat Buu and Mr. Satan that save him.
• Bad Boss:
  • After Goku cripples Nappa, Vegeta tosses him skyward and blows him up, declaring that Nappa no longer deserves to live. Previously, he had also killed one of the Saibamen with an explosive blast after it lost to Tien in a fight.
  • There's also Raditz. When Nappa comes up with the idea of gathering the Dragon Balls to wish him back from the dead, Vegeta immediately vetoes this option, stating that Raditz was unworthy of being revived since he had lost in a fight against beings with power levels less than his.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: On Namek, his story purpose quickly becomes "massacre the minor villains so the heroes don't have to". Goku calls him out for killing Recoome, Burter, and Jeice when they were basically helpless, to which Vegeta quickly retorts that as ruthless mercenaries of Frieza's they had it coming to them, even mentioning in the dub that they would've been just as merciless to Gohan and Krillin if Goku had arrived ten minutes later.
• Bad Samaritan: Before his Heel–Face Turn, he is initially introduced as an unrepentant villain. Judging from his evil intentions before joining the Z Fighters, Vegeta has been consistently characterized as extremely arrogant, vengeful, and at times, cold. In fact, many of Vegeta's early helpful acts are only for his ulterior motives, such as power and revenge. Thankfully, it all changes because of Goku's influence.
• Bash Brothers:
  • In the Non-Serial Movie, The Return of Cooler, he and Goku fight off one - and then (though offscreen) against a whole army of Meta-Coolers!
  • During the Tournament of Power, he and Goku, after breaking their limits and getting power-ups, finally decide to do this rather than take turns and double-team Jiren; Whis notes that their coordination isn't perfect, but this actually works to their advantage by confusing Jiren and throwing him off.
  • In the Super manga, Goku and Vegeta bitterly yet fondly joke to each other while preparing to make a futile last stand side by side against the Infinite Zamasu army in a manner very similar to the above Metal Cooler movie. Then Goku remembers the Zeno button.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Sure Vegeta, let an omnicidal bio-android assimilate the one remaining android he's hunting to reach his ultimate form, all for the sake of stroking your own ego. Surely, it's not going to end with Cell mocking, humiliating, and beating the crap out of you whilst noting just how much of an idiot you were for thinking you'd be given a reasonable challenge to fulfill your pride.
• Beam Spam: While other characters have used this, it's one of Vegeta's Signature Moves. In fact, when Majin Buu uses a Beam Spam during their first fight, Goku accuses him of copying it from Vegeta.
• Being Good Sucks:
  • He was a firm believer in this prior to the end of the Buu Saga. Having settled down on Earth and formed a family, he saw his newfound virtues as a weakness, and deliberately allows Babidi to brainwash him so he could be free of it and return to the super-powerful evil prince he was before.
  Vegeta: I was the perfect warrior, cold and ruthless. I lived by my strength alone, uninhibited by foolish emotion.... but slowly, over the years, I became one of you, my quest for greatness gradually giving way to this life of mediocrity. I awoke one day to find I had settled down, formed a family, I had even grown quite fond of them. Would you believe... I almost started to think the Earth was a nice place to live. You understand now, Kakarot? That's why I needed Babidi, to set me free.
  • Subverted in Super, where he's learned his lesson and became a much more genuinely heroic person who embraces this. His embracing this ultimately pays off, as his selflessness and desire to save and protect what he cares about gives him a much stronger Super Mode that, while somewhat weaker than Ultra Instinct, is far more practical, and still powerful enough to defeat God of Destruction Top.
  • A minor but interesting example in the Granolah arc. Vegeta gains the Ultra Ego form, a God of Destruction ability that allows seemingly unbounded offensive potential as you delve deeper into your destructive instincts. Using it seems to cause Vegeta to back track somewhat in his development in exchange for a colossal power boost but he considers it incomplete as he's changed too much to truly go back to being a person wrapped up in his Saiyan instincts.
• Berserk Button: From the start of Z to the end of Super, Vegeta has had numerous Berserk Buttons
  • The Goku Button: Goku's strength was a walking Berserk Button for him during Z and even after he admitted Goku was better than him in his speech at the end of Z, Super shows it's still a source of annoyance when people rank him below Goku.
  • Attacking his Pride and dismissing it as meaningless will utterly piss him off. This is perhaps his biggest button as he is very proud of his Saiyan heritage and absolutely hates it when people mock him and his race.
• Beyond the Impossible: Vegeta is just as often the person to break the established rules as Goku:
  • The Spirit Bomb was being hyped up as the thing to end the Saiyans' invasion of Earth. Not only did Vegeta survive it, but he got up and began soundly trouncing everyone again.
  • After Cell became perfect, nothing worked on him. Vegeta proved that Perfect Cell could be hurt by charging up a Final Flash for what looked like ten minutes and daring Cell to take it head on. He got a good part of his torso blown off, proving that he was not all-powerful.
  • Vegeta manages to break free of Babidi's mind control, leaving everyone awestruck. Babidi claims no one has ever managed to resist his commands, and judging by Shin's comments, it's something he had never seen before either.
    Shin: I can't believe it! What kind of strength allows a person to fight against and overcome their own enslaved body?
  • Vegeta blasts Kami's lookout from inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, the same place that's an endless expanse of nothing but white void. Twice even, with the second time looking to have been done with much greater ease than the first.
  • In the Super version of the Resurrection F arc, Goku explicitly states that Vegeta managed to attain Super Saiyan God on his own. Just how Vegeta pulled that off is never explained.
  • Vegeta and Top are battling in the Tournament of Power. Top has ascended to God of Destruction and is hurling massive spheres of Energy of Destruction at his opponent. Despite not having regenerative abilities, Vegeta manages to survive his own suicide attack inside said energy.
• Blinded by Rage: One of his Fatal Flaws, coupled with his Pride. When he gets angry enough, he becomes extremely reckless, which leads to humiliating defeats against the Androids and Cell.
• Big Bad: Of the Saiyan Saga.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Frieza in the Namek Saga. He defects from the Frieza Force in a bid to claim the Dragon Balls for himself. They spend much of the saga trying to undermine the other and while Vegeta does join forces with Krillin and Gohan later, it's only because he has no other option.
• Big Bad Wannabe: What he winds up being near the end of the Frieza Saga. While a legitimate threat who kills many of Frieza's men, including his Co-Dragons Dodoria and Zarbon, and would have killed Krillin and Gohan if given enough reason, he's little more than an overgrown flea compared to Frieza - partituclarly with the latter's hidden forms. What keeps him ahead is that he's much more clever than his former boss, who relies on brute force and his resources to get his way. However, once Vegeta is brought into the open and is forced to confront Frieza directly, he realizes he's still not strong enough to face him and is left trembling in terror before being mercilessly tortured to death by the tyrant.
• Big Brother Instinct: Has this dynamic with Cabba, as he looks out for him even during the Tournament of Power. When Cabba gets erased, Vegeta is PISSED.
• Big Eater:
  • He shows this side of himself in the Buu Saga as well as in Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return where he intends to eat competitively with Goku.
  • He shows this side again in Super when he goes on a vacation with his family, pigging out in each course meal. Bulma even notes that Vegeta becomes less moody when he eats and it's one of the few times we see him smile. Of course, this gets ruined by an octopus full of ink.
• Big "SHUT UP!": He does this a lot - in the dub especially.
• Birds of a Feather: He and Bulma are both intelligent, proud, at least slightly narcissistic, hot-tempered, extremely stubborn, and abrasive on the exterior but caring on the interior. No wonder they eventually got married.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Vegeta is the Saiyan Prince, a race of Human Aliens who are up to insanely aggressive and love to fight, have monkey tails, can transform into giant apes in the light of the full moon if they still have their tails, and can transform into Super Saiyans that changes their hair and eye colors while also greatly increasing their strength and speed. If they are pushed close to death and recover, they increase their strength. Despite this, they can interbreed with humans, creating even more powerful hybrids.
• Blinded by Rage: His overall Fatal Flaw, combined with his pride. Whenever Vegeta gets too many blows to his ego, he gets very angry and reckless. This leads him to suffer humiliating defeats at the hands of Android 18 and Cell.
• Blood Knight: Takes this Saiyan trait to such extremes that he allows Cell to become Perfect Cell in hopes of getting a greater battle from Cell. And boy, did he ever. Of course, being Vegeta, he didn't expect to be handily beaten while Cell was holding back most of his power the entire time. This almost becomes a deconstruction, every time Vegeta fully gives into his Blood Knight qualitites, it bites him in the ass, (Waiting for Goku to appear, letting Cell and Frieza transform, letting Babidi continue with his plan) and it ultimately makes things worse for him and the heroes.
• Blood Upgrade: When he realizes that Goku, a low-class warrior, has drawn his royal blood in their first fight, he goes absolutely nuts and tries to blow up the entire planet. Which would have - save his pod being called in time to save him - killed him as he couldn't survive the vacuum of space.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: The only character who probably has more of an "alien" view of how the world is perceived than Goku, is Vegeta; considering that his desperation for a great battle has been the driving force in his character. Ironically, his Character Development after the Buu Saga and carrying over into Super has been driving him away from this mindset, to the point that he comes off as relatively "normal" at times to Goku.
• Blue Is Heroic: After he becomes more heroic, his aura changes from purple to blue. He also gains Super Saiyan Blue, which that makes his aura, hair, and eyes blue. Then, during the Tournament Of Power, from his desire to revive Cabba and the U6 Saiyans, he evolves his Super Saiyan Blue form to an entirely new-and-unique form, allowing him to gain power that ultimately overpowers God of Destruction Top.
• Bond Villain Stupidity:
  • In the Saiyan Saga, he puts the fight with Nappa on hold for three hours for Goku to return to Earth, purely so he and Nappa could crush the Z-Fighters' hopes and make Goku watch as they killed his friends.
  • During the Cell Saga, he unlocks the Second Grade Super Saiyan form after training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, and becomes much stronger than Cell. Rather than finish him off, Vegeta gets bored slapping Cell around and allows him to absorb Android 18 and become perfect, purely for the sake of a good fight; Cell proceeds to completely curb-stomp Vegeta while rubbing in his face how stupid he was to help him. Even before then, Piccolo is left irked by the fact that Vegeta just keeps toying with Cell and won't just kill him already:
    Piccolo: Vegeta could've beaten Cell ten-times over by now! He's toying with him, leaving him an opportunity to fuse with Android 18! He's putting us all at risk to satisfy his own selfish pride!
• Boring, but Practical: Compared to Goku's Ultra Instinct form, his Super Saiyan "Beyond Blue/Royal Blue/Blue Evolved" form that he gained near the Tournament of Power's end is this, since while it's apparently weaker than Ultra Instinct and doesn't have automatic dodging capabilities, he can access it at will, and it doesn't appear to involve a Heroic RRoD that leaves him crippled after it ends. It is also this to Ultra Ego as while it doesn't increase his power with every hit he takes, it also doesn't affect his bloodlust, making him less prone to letting himself get hurt too much.
• Born Winner: He is the prince of his race and is considered the greatest Saiyan ever born by his people and Frieza. He is spared specifically for his talent and reaches levels unheard of by any Saiyan (barring legends of the Super Saiyan that once existed) even before he comes to Earth. For reference, the second strongest Saiyan, Nappa, is roughly three-to-five times weaker than him. He gives Goku a big challenge the first time they meet, after Goku had trained for a year under King Kai and made Nappa look like a fool. He is also one of the only ones to learn how to read energy without any training and figures out how to suppress his power only by observing the Earthlings for less than a day. He also manages to hurt Beerus on any level, being the first to do so and with one hell of a beatdown to boot, then become a real Physical God like Goku after mastering Super Saiyan Blue. Despite his amazing talent, however, he views himself as something of a runner-up since Goku is always one step ahead of him and is overall the better warrior, even though Goku/Kakarot was born a lower class fighter.
• Bowdlerize: His killing of Guldo. In the anime, he severs his head with an energy beam, while in the manga, he beheads Guldo with a karate chop.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the English dub to the audience near the very end. "What are you looking at?"
• Break the Haughty: His story is jam packed full of this trope. After he makes a very long speech about how there is no way he can lose, he promptly gets his ass handed to him on a platter. Then, he screams in rage about his pride and unleashes everything he's got, but it barely dents the monster. Then, comes the dramatic crying or at least brooding. This happens at least once per season, if not more. He finally got the message as the Buu Saga was in full swing.
• Breakout Character: He started off as just another villain who gave the heroes a noticeably protracted fight. He would survive and go on to play a major role in every subsequent arc and his Character Development spans the entire series. Nowadays, he's easily the second most recognizable character in the franchise just under Goku himself.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Much like Goku, if it doesn't relate to becoming stronger, he has about no interest in it. This is lampshaded by Bulma when she asked how Saiyans could spend days training, yet refuse to do something simple like cut the grass.
• Broken Ace: He is born the prince of his race and a Child Prodigy so talented that Frieza himself took a liking to him, grooming him into one of his righthand men. To the remaining Saiyans, he is a figure of both admiration and fear, having their complete loyalty. When he is introduced, he is far stronger than anyone in the series, including Goku. He is also a master tactician when level-headed. However, Vegeta hates being under the rule of another or anyone stronger than him and despises never being able to escape his oppressive employer, who has subjected him to Fantastic Racism despite his achievements, and oh, as it turns out, destroyed his home world. To make matters worse, he is surpassed in every way by a warrior he considers a lower class, who also defeats his enslaver, leading to an Inferiority Superiority Complex that nearly cost him his newfound family. His cold, uncaring nature also makes it hard for anyone to like or even tolerate him. It's not until the end of the series that he finally begins to recover and makes peace with the idea that he will never be the strongest in the universe, and even after that he still has to give it a good try to be sure.
• Broken Pedestal: Having grown up without Vegeta around, and having been given a whitewashed version of him by Future Gohan and Bulma, Future Trunks is horrified to discover that the father he never knew and wanted to meet is being an arrogant, self-absorbed Jerkass who not only doesn't give any real damn about Bulma or the son he fathered with her, but is perfectly willing to endanger the entire planet for the sake of a good fight. While Trunks still tries to earn his approval, he eventually snaps when Vegeta decides to help Cell become Perfect and doesn't hesitate to attack his own father in his efforts to stop it from happening. However, the pedestal is eventually rebuilt after he learns that Vegeta went medieval on Cell after he was killed.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu:
  • He pulls several successful gambits against Frieza to gather all the Dragon Balls and wish for immortality. In the end, not only does he not get his wish, but he is tortured to death by Frieza, even after being fatally shot by Krillin and healed by Dende to get a Zenkai boost.
  • Before then, he throws everything he had against Recoome, destroying the latter's armor. Recoome just smiles and beats Vegeta into the ground. He would have died if Krillin and Gohan hadn't saved him.
  • After allowing Cell to become complete so he can have a greater challenge, Cell completely overpowers him and he can't hurt the android. In a final gambit, he pulls all his power into one huge attack and dares Cell not to dodge. When it hits, he blows off Cell's entire right side. After playing hurt for several seconds, Cell effortlessly heals off the damage.
  • He goes into a berserk rage against Cell after he murders Trunks. His attacks not only did nothing, but his efforts almost gets him killed and Gohan's arm gets broken saving his life.
  • He tries to make amends and kill Majin Buu since his fight with Goku awoke him. His attacks have no lasting effect against Buu and he's totally outmatched. So, he decides to blow himself up so Buu can't regenerate again. It ends in failure and he dies for nothing.
  • In Battle of Gods, after Beerus slaps Bulma, Vegeta loses it and attacks the god, landing several powerful blows and pushing Beerus back for the first time. It all amounts to nothing or at least far from enough. Beerus takes no noticeable damage and slaps Vegeta out of Super Saiyan.
  • In Resurrection 'F', Vegeta beats the crud out of Frieza and is prepared to kill him. Frieza destroys the Earth, leaving him in the vacuum of space, and getting the last laugh. It is only by Whis' intervention that Frieza was denied his final victory.
  • In Dragon Ball Super, Future Trunks and he combined their Galick Guns to deflect an energy blast from Fusion Zamasu. Not only is Fusion Zamasu unharmed, he takes Vegeta down with one hit. Earlier, both Goku and he destroyed Fusion Zamasu's energy bird and attacked him directly. He caught their fists with ease and started breaking their arms literally.
• Bullying a Dragon: He actually mocked Frieza, goading him to transform since he didn't think there would be a major difference in power. He was very wrong. A flashback showed him mocking Guldo, a member of the powerful Ginyu Force, by calling him weak. Granted, Vegeta was likely power-wise stronger than Guldo even back then, but Guldo didn't get to be a member of the Ginyus for his fighting power or prowess.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • In GT. He gets put down by his own daughter for his mustache, and even after he shaved it off, neither Goten nor Chi-Chi seem to notice the change.
  • In the English dub, all the characters gave him endless grief over that pink shirt.
  • The movies made him a Chew Toy by having him being defeated rather quickly. The three canon films subvert this however by giving him a good showing even if he couldn't defeat Beerus, Frieza, and Broly [[labelnote]]It should be noted that Vegeta was briefly stronger than Goku when he fought Beerus, had an advantage over Frieza, but took too long to kill him, and Broly is wrecking him and Goku at the same time[[/labelnote]].
  • In Super, he is treated like absolute crap around Beerus who regularly demeans him and his race. Unlike the movie where he earns some measure of respect from the God of Destruction when he swallows his pride to do the Bingo dance and is the first to hurt Beerus, he gets no acknowledgment at all and had to bribe Whis to train him since Whis had no interest in him, where Goku just had to ask once.
  • Nowhere is this more apparent in the Cell Saga. Goku and Gohan emerge from the Room of Space and Time (not even having the spent whole requisite year there) having once again surpassed Vegeta in power, who had spent the full year there previously. Vegeta goes back inside, spends another full year there training, and is still vastly inferior to Goku. In fact he gained so little power for all his efforts that later during the battle with the Cell Juniors, even a single Cell Junior is perhaps way more powerful than him and treats his Final Flash like it's nothing (though it was fired without any charging, thus making it much weaker than the one he used on Cell).
• Byronic Hero: Willing to kill enemies, fighting dirty and always for his own purposes like power and fighting.

C-D

• The Call Put Me on Hold: While already super-powered, this is how Vegeta felt about not being able to turn Super Saiyan yet (he's a late bloomer), despite being the Prince of All Saiyans. Also, he was upset when Goku and and Future Trunks were all able to turn Super Saiyan before him to the point of having bad dreams, and when Gohan did the same with Super Saiyan 2.
• Can't Catch Up:
  • Initially Vegeta was stronger than Goku by a wide margin, to the point where Goku had to use Kaio-Ken past Two to even fight him equally. Then the later-Namek saga hit and Vegeta fell behind Goku for the rest of the series. It's also Deconstructed in the Majin Buu Saga. Realizing Goku was still seeming light years stronger then him despite being dead hit his pride so much he willingly allowed Babidi to control him just to boost his strength... Goku was still massively stronger. Vegeta eventually admits he's behind Goku and ends up being at peace with it.
  • His acceptance of Goku surpassing him actually seems to help him somewhat avert this trope since in the anime GT and the movies, he manages to catch up to Goku's level again. Although he still seems to remain weaker, the margin in their power is much smaller.
  • In Resurrection F, Vegeta says that the only reason why he's training with Whis is because he didn't want Goku to leave him in the dust. Given that Vegeta never trained under anyone before, it really shows his dedication not to fall behind again.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You:
  • When he and Nappa first attack Earth, they make a point not to kill Piccolo, as they need his help finding the Dragon Balls. Notably, they don't know that the Dragon Balls are tied to his and Kami's life-force, and when they learn Goku's coming, they decide to just kill him and go to Namek to use their Dragon Balls.
  • In Resurrection 'F', he tells Frieza outright that he can't afford to kill Goku, as his rivalry motivates him to train and grow stronger.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Before he got much better, he used to talk about how evil, "cold and ruthless he was, unencumbered by foolish emotion". When he is told how he can turn into a true Super Saiyan, he states that his heart is purely evil.
• Catchphrase:
  • In the English dub, he always called himself "the prince of all Saiyans".
  • His insult of choice for Goku is "clown".
  • In Japanese, he often insults with "Kisama", while in the Latin American Dub him calling anyone "Insecto"^note "Insect" or "bug" ("verme insolente"^note "Insolent maggot" in the Brazilian dub) has become his trademark.
• Challenge Seeker: Vegeta, like all pure-blooded Saiyans, love to fight and push himself in battle. This has led to making situations more difficult for the heroes, like him allowing Cell to become complete because he was bored knocking around Semi-Perfect, didn't want to fuse with Goku to fight Kid Buu, and didn't want to team up with Goku to take down Frieza when he returns stronger than ever. This last one leads to the Earth being blown up because he took too long to kill Frieza when he had the tyrant at his mercy.
• Changed My Mind, Kid: During Gohan's Beam-O-War against Cell in the anime, Vegeta wouldn't help the protagonists in trying to aid Gohan because he didn't think they could do anything. Then, at the last minute, Vegeta shoots a powerful beam that's strong enough to distract Cell, which allows Gohan to win the battle.
• Character Development: Vegeta has the longest character arc out of everyone in the entire series. He starts out as a Jerkass sociopathic villain who destroys planets at the beginning of Z and ends up as an honorable warrior and dedicated family man by the time Super rolls around. Although he can still be a jerk at times and can count as a grouch, Vegeta's actions nowadays can make him come off as the most mature and level-headed one in comparison with Goku. Highlights of his development include the following:
  • Realizing that he cared about Trunks and admitting to himself that both Goku and Gohan had utterly surpassed him, at the end of the Cell Arc was the first step down that road that would accumulate into accepting Goku was better than him at the end of Z.
  • His character in Battle of Gods, Resurrection 'F', and Super is a stark contrast to the self-absorbed douche who was willing to risk the safety of the Earth in exchange for a good fight just a decade prior, let alone the planet-busting marauder he was even before that.
  • It even extends to a personal level. In the Android Saga, he never particularly cared about neither Bulma nor Trunks. Future Trunks' death changed all of that. From that point onwards, he went out of his way to be a father to Trunks, but in a more aloof way. From the canonical movies and Super, he's willing to put his pride aside for the safety of his family.
  • He shows even more development in Super where he teaches Cabba how to become a Super Saiyan and transform at will by pushing him past his Rage Breaking Point. He then goes Super Saiyan Blue to show Cabba the levels he can reach if he trains hard enough, before knocking him out. He then revives Cabba and tells him to surpass him, not just become his equal. The Vegeta of the past despised anyone stronger than him, including his own son, and would have never have taught anyone how to become stronger than him. This is lampshaded by Goku who notes that Vegeta treats Cabba better than him, despite them both being true Saiyans.
  • When Future Trunks returns to Earth because of Goku Black, Vegeta goes out of his way to reassure Trunks not to give up and that they'll find a way to fix the situation. Later, when the two spar and Trunks becomes convinced that he doesn't need to worry because Goku and Vegeta have it taken care of, Vegeta harshly reminds Trunks that Black is not the only strong enemy out there, giving Trunks a pep talk which successfully motivates him to strive to become the absolute best in the universe. Combine this with Cabba's example, and it becomes clear how much healthier his attitude towards surpassing Goku and being the strongest has become in that he's willing and able to impart the same attitude in other, younger, more earnest and clearly good Saiyans — towards becoming even stronger than himself.
  • He shows concern and urges Bulma to have kid Trunks raise his power to get to Earth and have Goku go to Karin's to grab Senzu beans. The Papa Wolf in him wakes up even more. He even challenges Goku Black not for his sake, but for Trunks' and help him restore peace in his world. Black actually commends him for it.
  • While having another retreat, Future Trunks stalls Black and Future Zamasu so Goku, Vegeta, and Bulma can go back to the past to revive Goku and find a way to stop the two villains. Vegeta refuses to leave Trunks behind, but did so in his urging.
  • When Bulma was revealed to be pregnant, Vegeta dropped his training entirely so he could witness his daughter being born, that and Bulma would never forgive him if he missed the birth. Even at his most heroic, Vegeta would never stop training as long as Goku was, so he's really going out of his way on this one.
  • After being rather hypocritical about it in Z, Vegeta in Super is completely against using any kind of method that he cannot do with his own effort to gain strength. Things like the Dragon Balls, magic, or cheating in a tournament are completely disgusting to him and he never considers such methods as an option.
  • In Z, he wanted the Dragon Balls so he could become immortal. In Super, he states that he wants to win the Tournament of Power so he can use the Dragon Balls to revive Universe 6 if it's erased from existence.
  • In Super he shows respect (in his own Tsundere ways) to martial artists that he believes have truly improved themselves by their own power and effort, whereas in Z he would continue to belittle them or throw a tantrum. He's always displayed a mixture of both reactions with Goku, so that doesn't count.
  • In the Dragon Ball Super Manga Chapter 55, Vegeta was willing to spare Yuzun and his mooks if they turned themselves in to the Galatic Patrol, but at the same time, was about to shot them down when they tried to escape in their ship.
  • In the next arc, he finally admits that the Saiyans were responsible for their own evil, not Freeza, and that at the end of the day, they deserved their demise.
  • Chapter 74 of Super. During his battle with Granolah, He is CLEARLY outmatched in strength. The Vegeta of old would have been pissed off that he couldn't coast by on superior strength. Current Vegeta is calm, stating that while Granolah has a power advantage, Vegeta has more experience. He also states that rankings only matter at a specific point in time and are meaningless in the future.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • When he was introduced, Vegeta was a borderline unstable psychopath who was noticeably Faux Affably Evil and willing to let Nappa do grunt work. From the Frieza Saga onward, he's far more willing to get his hands dirty. He doesn't even bother to pretend to be polite, and doesn't lose his shit as much.
  • In both the Saiyan and Namek arcs, Vegeta is a full on Genius Bruiser and a brutal pragmatist. From the Android arc to the end of the Cell arc, Vegeta is Lethally Stupid Dumb Muscle who gets incredibly mad whenever someone suggests teaming up against an opponent, and is constantly schooled in matters of both power and skill. After quite a few Break the Haughty moments, he gets some of this back during the Buu Saga. Furthermore, in Super, he leans back toward the former a lot more, particularly in later arcs.
  • Vegeta originally viewed Goku as an upstart who he would eventually get around to killing once he gained immortality. He later views him as someone worthy of being his ally to the point of being proud when sees him as Super Saiyan. Most of this change happened because Goku became a Super Saiyan while he got a dog's death by Frieza.
• Character Tics: Tends to always fold his arms.
• Child Prodigy: His talent was so well known that Frieza immediately takes a liking to him and spares him specifically when he destroys Planet Vegeta. After that, Frieza more or less raises him as one of his elite soldiers. In the Bardock Special, little Vegeta is able to take on six Saibamen by himself with little trouble. Keep in mind, each one of those Saibamen are as strong as Raditz. It's been stated that even as a child he was one of the strongest Saiyans at the time.
• Child Soldier: Raised as one by Frieza and as a standard practice of Saiyan society. He has been conquering planets since he was at least eight.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Vegeta was practically defined by his tendency to betray his own comrades throughout Z. He killed Nappa in cold blood for losing to Goku while Nappa was begging him for help, betrayed the Frieza Force to take the Dragon Balls for himself, made it clear on Namek that he would kill Gohan and Krillin once Frieza was out of the picture, abandoned Goku to fight Captain Ginyu alone while hoping the two would kill each other, actively attacked Future Trunks in order to help Cell absorb Android 18 and ascend to his perfect form purely so he could get a better fight out of him, sold out the Z-Fighters and the entire world to Babidi solely so he could finally get the power to surpass Goku, and then turned on Babidi and refused to follow any order that doesn't involve fighting Goku.
• The Chosen One: He firmly believes himself to be one since he is the Saiyan Prince. He believes that it is his destiny to ascend to Super Saiyan, kill Frieza, and take his place as ruler of the universe. After being overwhelmed, humiliated, and tortured by Frieza, he comes to the conclusion that Goku is the true Chosen One destined to defeat Frieza and avenge their people. Initially, at least in the anime, he's happy to the point of tears to see that Goku has ascended and is beating the crap out of Frieza. He then becomes bitter and resentful that a lower class warrior like Goku did the very thing he believed was his birthright. So, he devotes his life in trying to surpass Goku, making himself The Unchosen One.
• Cold-Blooded Torture:
  • Horrifically subjected to this by Frieza after trying to take him on, thinking he was a Super Saiyan. It's not pretty, and is very comparable to Videl's own torture for one of the most painful scenes in the series.
  • He subjects Goku to this after he shots his eye out. He slowly crushes Goku as a Great Ape, nearly killing him. Earlier, he waited for Goku's return so he can kill his son and remaining friends in front of him and then take his time slowly torturing Goku since he was a traitor to the Saiyans.
• Combat Pragmatist:
  • Vegeta through the Saiyan and Frieza Sagas. When Goku outmatched him using the Kaio-Ken, he creates a false moon to turn into a Great Ape and literally crushes Goku. He also ordered Nappa to kill the remaining Earth's fighters so they can't team up with Goku once he reads Goku's power level. On Namek, he gets the better of Zarbon by throwing dirt into his eyes during their battle before impaling him with his hand from behind. Knowing that the Ginyu Force were as dangerous as they were silly, Vegeta kills Guldo, Burter, and Recoome after the former had his back turned, and the latter two were defeated and knocked unconscious by Goku. However, once he confronts Frieza, he eggs him to transform, thinking that Frieza won't become much stronger, instead of fighting Frieza in his weaker first form.
  • He loses almost all his pragmatic thinking from the Cell Saga, willing to let his enemies transform or power-up so he can have a better fight, even if that means letting his enemy eat another person.
  • He regains it somewhat in the Buu Saga. He decides to kill Pui Pui immediately, and would have done the same to Dabura had they not decided to let Gohan have his chance.
  • However, he regains a lot of it in Dragon Ball Super, after quite a few Break the Haughty moments. True, he still likes to have better fights and won't always immediately aim to end a battle, but when the chips are down, he goes in guns blazing from the start and fights to win.
• The Comically Serious: Vegeta's uptight and hard-headed demeanor is sometimes Played for Laughs, especially when having disagreements with Goku. This is also shown when the other characters tease him for his attitude, much to his annoyance.
• Critical Status Buff: Ultra Ego's power allows Vegeta's power to increase the more damage he takes, with him being at his strongest the more damaged he is. Being battered by Gas, the World's Strongest Man, reinforces Vegeta enough to hurt him with his attacks, much to the Heeter's annoyance and then fear. However, as noted under Awesome, yet Impractical above, the sheer damage he soak up in this form end up knocking him out of the fight before he can truly let loose with his power.
• Conquering Alien Prince: It's been mentioned before Frieza, that he was conquering planets left and right since the age of five (as such was a common practice for Saiyans), and even Planet Vegeta itself belonged to a different race of aliens until King Vegeta slaughtered them all and declared it the Saiyan homeland. In a filler episode him and Nappa even take a detour towards a minor planet named Arlia, and he surmises the planet isn't worth conquering, so he destroys it.
  • Even before Frieza, Vegeta was this.
• Covered with Scars: His Shower Scene at the beginning of the Cell Saga reveals◊ he has scars all over his chest and back.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Vegeta has a strong possessiveness over Bulma. He most notably gets pissed whenever Goku offers Bulma to someone else, albeit jokingly, and his jealous moments come out more in Super, i.e., getting pissed at Whis for having dinner with her, warning Jaco not to try anything funny with Bulma, etc. In Episode 70 of Super, when Vegeta hears Bulma cheering on both him and Yamcha, he takes every opportunity he can to hit Yamcha, using either a baseball or his elbow. Likewise, in the Funimation dub of Super, he singled out Yamcha (in a sarcastic tone) as part of why he doesn't want to be a part of Bulma's birthday (since the dub team thought it weird that he would want Bulma to be near her ex, especially since said ex ended up dead because of his initial invasion of Earth during the Saiyan Saga).
• Crazy-Prepared: Vegeta has his moment during the Saiyan Saga. After Goku proves to be his match after using Kaio-ken, Vegeta reveals that Nappa and him purposely came to Earth during a full moon cycle, although they mostly did it so they can begin wiping out the population quickly. When Vegeta realizes that the moon is destroyed, he uses a technique to create an artificial one.
• Cruel Mercy: The only reason why he didn't kill Ginyu after he gets trapped in a frog's body. He finds the thought of Ginyu living as a frog amusing.
• Crutch Character: In Super, he's become one alongside Goku. In the Resurrection 'F' Saga, the Z-Fighters have no choice but to call him and Goku to Earth to handle the newly empowered Frieza, and in the Future Trunks Saga, after seeing how powerful Super Saiyan Blue is, Future Trunks fully intended to just kick back and let Goku and Vegeta deal with Goku Black. In both cases, they end up learning a lesson: Gohan realizes that he can't depend on them forever and starts retraining himself alongside Piccolo, and Vegeta calls Trunks out on his complacency and tells him he should always strive to surpass his limits, advice that Trunks takes to heart.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Vegeta has been on the delivering and receiving end of multiples from the likes of Frieza, Cell, Beerus over his long career.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: He may suffer a lot of beatdowns throughout the series, but he gets plenty of cushions to soften some of the blows and still make him seem impressive. While he doesn't win the fights, he manages to get some damage in on Zarbon, same with Recoome, nearly outright kills Perfect Cell, manages to defeat Gohan and Goku and manages to last pretty long (and intimidate) Kid Buu.
• Dads Can't Cook: Vegeta shows in Super that he can't prepare a decent meal to even please a god as he breaks eggs just by simply grabbing them. All he can make is instant ramen.
• Deadpan Snarker: Sometimes. Especially when he outsmarts his enemies.
• Deal with the Devil: To bridge the gap between Goku and him, he purposely allows himself to be possessed by Babidi. Despite this, Babidi has no real control of him and Vegeta can ignore any order that isn't fighting Goku.
• Death Equals Redemption: Discussed and defied before his Heroic Sacrifice against Buu. When Vegeta asks Piccolo if he'll see Goku in the Other World, Piccolo tells him point-blank that he's most likely going to Hell and one selfless act isn't enough to make up for a lifetime of self-righteous evil and overall Jerkassery.
• Death Glare: His default if not constant look.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype:
  • Vegeta deconstructs The Rival, Overshadowed by Awesome, and The Proud Elite tropes. Because he was born and raised to believe that he was always the best and is the Prince of all Saiyans, he loses it when Goku surpasses him, especially since Goku is a lower class soldier and should be a nobody. It causes him to develop a severe Inferiority Superiority Complex where he's always trying to prove himself by fighting strong opponents, which allows Androids 16, 17, and 18 to be awakened and for Cell to reach his perfect state. It reaches a head in the Buu Saga where his obsession in surpassing Goku becomes so great that he sells his soul to Babidi for power and unleashes Majin Buu onto the world, who kills everyone on Earth except for Vegeta himself, Goku, Mr. Satan, Dende, and Bee, and destroys several other planets before his rampage is stopped. It is only by accepting that Goku is simply better than him that he finally begins to recover and becomes a happier person in the process. As the definitive shonen rival, Vegeta is also an Unbuilt version of these archetypes.
  • He also deconstructs Training from Hell. Vegeta trains harder and more frantically than Goku. He often hurts himself and actually comes close to killing himself on several occasions. And yet, he still remains weaker than Goku and the power gap between them grows despite his best efforts. He only begins to catch up again after training with Whis, who tells Vegeta that his biggest shortcoming is that he trains too hard and doesn't give his body time to relax like Goku and his training is learning when to take a break.
• Depending on the Artist:
  • Vegeta's design as a child is not consistent as shown here. In Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku and Dragon Ball Super, the animators follow Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru design with Vegeta having bangs over his forehead, while Akira Toriyama's design in Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, Dragon Ball Minus and Dragon Ball Super: Broly have him with his iconic widow's peak even as a child which is more internally consistent with the lore of Saiyans hair never changing from the moment they are born.
  • Vegeta is usually drawn with pure black hair, but sometimes it's colored brown or black with brown highlights in games, as well as in GT and Kai (albeit inconsistently in the latter). The original animation cels for Z actually colored Vegeta's hair brown, but it ended up black in the finished product.
• Defeat Means Respect: After his defeat on Earth, Vegeta is more respectful towards Goku, actually seeing him as a real challenger, despite still seeing him for some time as (at least destined to be) low level trash.
• Defiant to the End: Against Frieza, who is enraged by this and kills Vegeta as a result.
• Deity of Human Origin: Or more specifically Saiyan origin. Like Goku, Vegeta mastered Super Saiyan God and can merge it with his regular Super Saiyan form, becoming a Super Saiyan Blue. Interestingly, despite achieving godhood and Vegeta's legendary ego, he felt no need to brag about this. He's actually very nonchalant when he transforms in front of Frieza. It goes to shows how far Vegeta has come since the Buu Saga.
• Deliberate Injury Gambit: On Namek, he takes a near-fatal wound from Krillin and has Dende heal him to get a Zenkai boost to fight Frieza. It backfires; while he does get much stronger, it's not nearly enough to make a difference against Frieza.
• Demoted to Extra: Mostly in GT, although he does get a sizable role in the final arc. He also gets this treatment during the Great Saiyaman arc in Z and the story mode for Dragon Ball Fighterz.
• Depending on the Writer: Vegeta's views on Goku and whether or not he wants to be stronger than Goku largely depends on the series. In Z, Vegeta finally accepts he's not gonna surpass Goku, and admits it with pride. In GT, while Vegeta no longer makes mention of aiming to be stronger than Goku, he clearly does want to fight with him and test their strength, destroying a wall in a rage when Goku accidentally gets himself eliminated from a tournament. Super however reverts this to wanting to be equal, if not stronger than Goku yet again, stating he won't allow himself to be second best. This inconsistency is reflected in how powerful he ends up; in GT, Vegeta could only turn Super Saiyan 4 with the help of Bulma, as he lacked the tail necessary to become one and needed her Blutz Wave generator to create a tail for him, and was completely outclassed by Goku otherwise; while in Super, he gained the power of a Super Saiyan God through training and becomes Goku's equal again, even surpassing him in certain aspects.
• Determinator:
  • One of his most consistent character traits, from the Saiyan Saga to his fight with Kid Buu. No matter how much punishment he takes, he just keeps getting up. His refusal to stay down unnerves Buu more than SSJ3 Goku.
  • And when he's turned into Majin Vegeta by Babidi, his desire to fight Goku enables him to resist Babidi's control.
• Deus Exit Machina: Nowhere near as much as as Goku, he's hit with this trope a few times.
  • The anime put in a side arc, that got him no results, of leaving Earth to find Goku after the Namek Arc. Because in Garlic Jr's Filler Arc he would have been to powerful to brainwash or help.
  • His second death in the Buu saga made sure he wasn't a fusion candidate for Goku. Allowing Goten and Trunks a chance to learn fusion.
  • His quick exit in Wrath of the Dragon was also a way to take Gogeta out of the equation.
  • Broly Second Coming would also possibly be a lot shorter if Broly was fighting 2 fighters at Gohan's level instead of one.
  • Resurrection 'F' and the likewise arc in Super would also be much simpler if he was around to take care of Frieza's army.
• Deuteragonist: He is promoted to this in Dragon Ball Super, sharing almost equal spotlight with Goku.
• Diabolus ex Machina: See his Lethally Stupid and Nice Job Breaking It, Hero entries. His overwhelming pride and arrogance always manages to cause trouble for the universe, resulting in the planet blowing up and Goku's death, thus making him an living embodiment of this trope.
• The Diaper Change: Hilariously defied by Vegeta when his daughter Bulla is born. When Trunks struggles with changing her diaper, Vegeta walks over and very quickly and efficiently does the task, with a self-satisfied smirk on his face afterward.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • Goku uses the Kaio-ken X3 and Kamehameha combination to beat the crap out of Vegeta. When he tries to destroy the Earth for this offense, he is pushed back by Goku, who then destroys him with a powerful combination of moves.
  • He had Goku dead to rights as he crushed him in front of Gohan and he successfully dodged Krillin's Destructo Disc since he correctly guessed that Gohan wouldn't return alone. He didn't see Yajirobe coming at all and it cost him his tail.
  • Vegeta pulls a perfect gambit that allowed him to steal all of Frieza's Dragon Balls and he's able to track down Krillin to steal his Dragon Ball and kill Zarbon. All seven Dragon Balls are within his gasp, except Gohan finds the Dragon Ball he hid underwater and steals it right from under him. Vegeta doesn't take this well.
  • He's finally about to get his wish to be immortal since Krillin sees him as their only hope against Frieza. The Grand Elder dies before his wish can be granted, therefore rendering the Dragon Balls inert.
  • When he decides to help Cell become Perfect, he's blasted out of the sky by his own son after believing Trunks would never attack him.
  • He removes Fat Buu from Super Buu's body, thinking it will weaken him (his general assumption was that Super Buu would return to being either Fat Buu or Evil Buu). He's right in that Buu is indeed weakened, but he also gets the bat shit crazy Kid Buu who destroys the Earth upon his awakening.
  • Vegeta's plan to use the Spirit Bomb to kill Buu nearly falls into ruin because he didn't take into account that the Earthlings wouldn't listen to him.
  • In Resurrection 'F', he never considers (in time at least) that Frieza will destroy the whole Earth, once he is cornered.
  • One of the primary reasons why Goku, Vegeta, and Future Trunks lose their rematch with Goku Black. They were only expecting him to be as strong as Super Saiyan 3 Goku, not to power up to the point where he can challenge a Super Saiyan Blue, and that is before he transforms into a Super Saiyan Rose. Vegeta then gets taken out fast because he didn't expect Goku Black to pull out an energy sword and stab him. Things go further downhill once Future Zamasu arrives, which shocks everyone since they thought Goku Black and Zamasu were the same person, and he powered up and is able to challenge Goku at full power. To add their trouble, Future Zamasu is an immortal.
• Didn't Think This Through: A recurring habit, typically because he underestimates his opponents.
  • During the Saiyan Saga, after Gohan turned into a Oozaru. After escaping being crushed multiple times, he did seem proud of himself for a moment after cutting off the boy's tail, thus shrinking him to normal size. Then comes the realization that Gohan is still semi-gigantic, and now falling towards him. All of this happens in about a second, leaving Vegeta no time to dodge and sitting in a crater, struggling to crawl to his ship.
  • During the Frieza Saga, he takes a grievous wound from Krillin and then has Dende heal him to get a Zenkai boost against Frieza, only to discover that Dende does not feel obligated to heal him and nearly lets him bleed out. When he is healed, he finds out Frieza is still stronger than him.
  • He actually is about equal to a little bit stronger than Frieza in his first from, and arrogantly, goads the tyrant to transform so he can humiliate Frieza. Apparently, he never thought Frieza's transformation would make him that much stronger, or that it was possible for him to have more than one.
  • After training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, he lets his opponent, Cell, attain his Perfect form for the sake of a challenge, and gets his ass kicked.
  • He takes advantage of Babidi's brainwashing to become stronger, only for the released energy to refuel and revive Majin Buu.
  • Finally, he tries to sacrifice himself to destroy Buu, but dies for nothing because he underestimated just how powerful Buu's Healing Factor really was.
  • He and Goku’s Smug Super tendencies nearly cost them both their lives when they're cornered by Black's cloning technique, and are only saved when Future Zamasu decides it's time to fuse after nearly getting sealed away by Future Trunks.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
  • When Beerus slaps his wife Bulma, Vegeta goes into an Unstoppable Rage and punches the living personification of entropy hard enough to - if you look closely to see it - draw blood.
  • In the Tournament of Power, Vegeta goes from hurting a God of Destruction to beating one, as he uses his Final Explosion attack that he used on Buu to defeat the newly-awoken God of Destruction Top and lives.
• Disc-One Final Boss: When he was introduced, he was the most powerful character in the series - having the 10X power multiplier of the Great Ape-Oozaru at his disposal over Goku straining his somewhat less powerful body with Kaio-KenX4. Not even Goku with all his training could take him down for this and it took a heroic effort to defeat him. Even then, Vegeta along with his fellow Saiyan(s) and Saibamen all but killed off all of the Earth's strongest fighters. It is not until Namek/Frieza Saga that we find out that he is only one of Frieza's elite solders and he is nothing but a pest at that time to his boss.
• Divergent Character Evolution: Dragon Ball Super goes out of its way to differentiate Goku and Vegeta's fighting style: Vegeta is a brilliant fighting tactician which enables him to perform feats through Awesomeness by Analysis, but this also leads him to being somewhat slower than Goku, who, in turn, is better at Don't Think, Feel. Vegeta eventually comes to the realization that he and Goku are just too different in terms of fighting mindset for him to become stronger the same way Goku has, and from that point on he starts finding his own way, which culminates in him gaining a new Super Saiyan Blue form during the Tournament of Power. Reaches it's logical extreme when Vegeta learns the Ultra Ego technique, the God of Destruction equivalent and functional opposite of Ultra Instinct.
  Vegeta: I won't surrender control - That's not the man I am! Let Kakarot use his thoughtless Ultra Instinct all he wants, but I'm the one who's going to crush you, Jiren, and I'll do it my way!!
• The Dog Bites Back: His killings of Zarbon and Dodoria in the Frieza Saga. As he points out to Zarbon, the two of them have done nothing but insult him and push him around for years.
• Doting Parent: Subverted towards Trunks and eventually Bulla, as he is usually aloof in his attitude and sinks into training quite often but otherwise tries his best to be a good father to his son, and even moreso to his daughter (especially in GT).
• The Dragon: The reason why Frieza specifically spared him out of all the Saiyans was because he wanted to raise Vegeta to be one of his top men. This didn't work out because of Frieza's treatment and Vegeta's own pride since he wanted to be the emperor of the universe.
• The Dreaded:
  • He shared the dreaded role with his fellow Saiyans Raditz and Nappa, though he was the dreaded even between the three of them. The Earth's fighters trained for an entire year just to prepare for the Saiyans.
  • He was very much this in the Namek arc before forming an Enemy Mine with Krillin and Gohan. None of the heroes were in his league until Goku arrived, he was actively searching for the same thing they were, and he was the kind of guy who would kill an entire village to achieve his goal.
• Dreadful Musician: As shown by his bingo song in Battle of Gods and Super. According to Beerus, Vegeta's singing is even more horribly off than Whis', and Whis is stated to be such a horrible singer that Beerus would rather leave the comfort of his bed than be forced to listen to it.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: As revealed by Vegeta later in the saga, the only reason that Vegeta settled down and started a proper family with Bulma was that he believed that his strength literally came from Goku's love and companionship with his loved ones, but when he saw that Goku was now leagues above him despite what he viewed as the "necessary" steps, Vegeta nearly casts Bulma and Trunks aside in pursuit of catching up with Goku.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: When Vegeta trains Trunks to get stronger in the wake of potentially facing Goku Black again, he goes a tad overboard in it due to his rage over the recent events and gets reprimanded for it by Bulma.
• Driven by Envy: What drives him through the last half of the Frieza Saga all the way to the end of the Buu Saga. He despises that Goku is stronger than him and will do anything to surpass him and reclaim his place as the 'strongest of all Saiyans'. He finally gets over this when he admits that Goku is the Number-1 fighter. While he's still trying to surpass Goku come Super, he takes a much more ethical and healthier approach to it.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite being Goku's statistical equal and some times better in Super, no one puts any faith in Vegeta to solve the current problem of the story, not even his own wife. The reason why Bulma started to feed Whis Earth food was to get on his good side to protect them from Beerus, saying how not even Goku could beat Beerus, in front of Vegeta's face. During the Universal Tournament, she tells Vegeta not to overexert himself because they still had Goku and she only names Goku as being able to deal with Goku Black and Future Zamasu. This last one really ticks Vegeta, and gets him to shout 'Shut up' in at least one translation before being interrupted. Even Beerus gets into this. He names Goku captain and the lead fighter of the U7 team for the upcoming tournament and he wants Goku to get stronger specifically. He did this right in front of Vegeta's face without acknowledging his existence.
• Dumb Muscle: In the Cell Saga, he becomes this, displaying next to none of the intelligence or pragmatism that got him as far as he got in the Frieza Saga. He goes so far as to help Cell reach his Perfect form out of Blood Knight tendencies and a desire for a good challenge, and gets his ass kicked as a result; even Cell himself rubs in Vegeta's face what a stupid move that was.
• Dull Surprise: In Super's Champa Saga, he's not too surprised upon The Reveal that Frost, Frieza's seemingly benevolent Sixth Universe counterpart, was Evil All Along and a Villain with Good Publicity. In his own words, even if it was in an Alternate Universe, there's no way Frieza could ever be good/not some rotten scum.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Implied to have had one offscreen. According to Dragon Ball Online, Goku and Vegeta, intent on settling their rivalry and knowing they would die soon of natural causes, left Earth for one final battle. Years later, a supernova was detected that is assumed to be from Goku and Vegeta's final battle. Vegeta's final battle was so awesome it was the equivalent to an exploding star.

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