Characters / Dragon Ball Vegeta Tropes A To L

Dragon Ball Main Character Index
Major Characters
Son Goku (A-H, I-Z) | Bulma | Krillin/Kuririn | Piccolo | Son Gohan | Vegeta (A-L, M-Z) | Future Trunks | Allies (Dragon Team/Z Fighters) | Families (Androids 17 and 18 | Trunks and Son Goten) | Friends | 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.

E-I

• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The manga that Dragon Ball Z is based on was mostly done in black and white. When Vegeta was first introduced in the anime, he had yet to appear◊ in a color chapter, so Toei made up a color scheme◊ and changed it later. This was corrected in Dragon Ball Z Kai.
  • During his first appearances in the first tv anime, Vegeta is shown to know Telepathy and communicates with Nappa through it. This detail was completely scrapped in further appearances since it contradicts quite a lot of Vegeta's background.
  • His first anime appearances also has him obliterating a planet and its moon with a small energy beam. His fight with Goku properly establishes his actual power level with him showing that he has to power up his Galick Gun in order to destroy the Earth.
• Easily Forgiven: Goku and Bulma forgive him a lot easier than the other fighters for the murderous things he did in the past. Subverted with Tien, Krillin and Piccolo, all of which who takes until the Buu Saga before they really forgive Vegeta, and even then they are the less trusting of Vegeta. But even then, everyone seemingly looks past the fact Vegeta betrayed everyone and killed civilians for his own gain.
• Embarrassing Rescue: He hates being rescued due to his pride. During the Buu Saga, Vegeta outright states that one of the main reasons he hates Goku so much is because Goku saved his life in the past.
• Enemy Mine: His role in the second half of the Frieza Saga. He's still evil due to ruthless killings if he needs to take something, but forced to team up with Gohan and Krillin out of necessity once the Ginyu Force shows up. Arguably in the Cell Saga times as well, since he doesn't really consider the Z-Fighters his allies, but nonetheless helps against bigger threats because he doesn't want anybody destroying the planet he's living on (or killing Goku before they have their rematch).
• Energy Ring Attack: Majin Vegeta creates five energy rings to restrain Goku during their battle. Two restrain Goku's arms, two others restrain his legs and the fifth one is placed on his neck.
• Enraged by Idiocy: Especially when involving Goku. When Goku says or does something stupid, Vegeta typically blows his stack and calls him an idiot or clown. He's also quick to snark and blow up at anything idiotic the other Z Fighters do, sometimes even functioning as the Only Sane by Comparison of the group. Ironically, it's his pride that allows the Android/Cell situation to escalate to a point where Cell manages to kill Goku and Trunks. He is also responsible for enabling Frieza to transform and prolong the conflict, as well as Majin Buu being revived, which leads to the deaths of everyone on Earth, including himself, except for Goku, Mr. Satan, Dende, and Bee.
• Entitled Bastard: Zigzagged:
  • During the fight against Frieza, Vegeta gets himself critically injured by Krillin as part of a plan to get a Zenkai boost by having Dende heal him, and is genuinely shocked when Dende refuses to do so, since Vegeta was just as villainous as Frieza and had killed numerous Namekians himself. Dende ends up doing so anyway after Piccolo, Gohan, and Krillin point out that they need Vegeta to stand a chance, and for bonus points, the very first thing Vegeta does after being healed is punch Dende in the gut for taking so long. At the same time, he gets confused when someone wants to help him, or even cares for his well-being.
  • This is Vegeta's major flaw, along with his pride, before the final fight with Majin Buu. He feels he should be the strongest because he's the Saiyan Prince and was born the most gifted among his race, whereas Goku was born at the absolute bottom of the Saiyan pecking order. His entire rivalry with Goku is built on entitlement.
• Establishing Character Moment: In his first appearance he's shown sitting among a pile of aliens he'd slaughtered, feasting on one of them as he chews on an arm's innards, deducing the information from Earth he'd just received and using it as an excuse, if not a need to commit further genocide (eliminating any possibility of hybrids stronger than them being born in any real numbers...), showing authority over a larger, more intimidating Saiyan and displaying no remorse over the loss of a comrade. Right away we're shown that Vegeta is exactly what Goku could have turned into had he not sustained a head injury, being intelligent, cruel and driven to conquer.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Although he tries to hide it, he is somewhat disturbed when Frieza slowly crushes Gohan's head under his foot.
  • He mocks Cell for nearly killing Krillin who was no threat to him even before he became perfect, despite the fact Vegeta's done something similar in his past.
  • In the dub, Vegeta is quite disgusted with Android 19 for beating on a sick Goku and sucking his energy. He goes as far as to call the android out on it as he was beating him. Also in Kai, Vegeta makes it a point to say that he will kill Goku, as soon as he's well, instead of humoring killing him when he's sick.
  • Crosses over with Hypocrite, Vegeta tells Piccolo to stop pulling tricks on Dr. Gero and finish him off before he pulls another trick or gets away again.
  • Vegeta is disgusted with Goku when he fails to save their children from the exploding Earth in the Buu saga. He is also upset with himself after letting Trunks get killed by Cell.
  • Just like all, the other Z fighters, he was also shown to be very shocked when Goku was willing to put Gohan in a fight with Cell, and let him get brutally beaten.
  • Vegeta appears to have had standards with Gohan from the start. In the anime, he was shown to save Gohan from getting blasted, and although he had headbutted and then brutally beaten him up in an anime filler fight, he never went as far as killing him and felt remorse afterwards.
  • When Vegeta finds out that Frost cheated in his fight with Goku and Piccolo, he is livid at the cheating and requests Piccolo forfeit so he can beat Frost. He ends up beating Frost by waiving the disqualification clause for hidden weapons and even murder so Frost is free to deploy his tactics uninhibited.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Showed two examples of this during the Android Saga: Following the near-fatal capsule explosion, Vegeta couldn't fathom why Bulma had chosen to stay by his side while he was recovering. Later, just before his battle with #18, he scoffed at the thought of the other Z Fighters coming to his aid, even asking why they'd want to help him.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • To Goku, initially. They are both Saiyans who love to fight and challenge themselves. The difference is that Goku values life and fights to protect those he loves, while Vegeta could have almost never cared less about anyone but himself. In fact he is supposed to represent what Goku would have become if he was raised as a Saiyan, minus the power differential. The contrast lessens over time as the two slowly influence each other through the course of the series: Goku comes to take pride in his Saiyan heritage and embrace it as part of him along with his Earth upbringing, while Vegeta eventually learns to value others and to accept and return love, things that were once near-completely alien to him.
  • Also to Gohan. Both were kidnapped by men who murdered their fathers in some way to be used as minions for conquest. The difference being, Gohan's kindly nature made Piccolo a better person, while Vegeta was only ever seen as a useful brute. When both had the opportunity to kill Cell, they got cocky and let him live long enough to become stronger and kill a family member. Both also have violent tempers, except while Gohan's rage amplifies his power, Vegeta's seems to waste his energy, at least until Battle of Gods.
• Evil Is Easy: Part of his arc in the Buu Saga. Having gotten nowhere training his ass off to surpass Goku, and viewing his newfound love for his family and the Earth as a weakness holding him back from doing so, Vegeta voluntarily sells his soul to Babidi, both to recapture the feeling of glee he felt when he was evil and to finally bridge the gap between them. Ultimately, however, the strong ties he formed on Earth prove to be stronger than any joy he felt being evil again, and he gives his life to stop Buu and make amends for all the evil he has done; on top of it all, it turns out Goku had unlocked Super Saiyan 3 and was holding back against Majin Vegeta the whole time, meaning he sold the world out to Babidi and Majin Buu for nothing. Ultimately subverted, as by the end of the Buu Saga, he's embraced such virtues as love and friendship, and by doing so, he's gotten much closer to Goku's level.
• Eviler than Thou:
  • When Vegeta was first introduced with the Saiyan survivors, he was much eviler than Piccolo and his father, who only wanted to rule the Earth rather than destroy all its inhabitants. King Piccolo was also a Father to His Men despite being made of and acting on pure evil, while Vegeta mercilessly murdered his injured comrades, something that shocks Piccolo.
  • He gets this himself once Frieza shows up, with Krillin even contemplating giving Vegeta immortality since he was the Lesser of Two Evils compared to the tyrant. Vegeta himself invokes this, basically telling the Earthlings that him being an immortal can't possibly be worst than being murdered by Frieza.
• Evil Feels Good: He fully believes this during his Evil Prince days. He laughs gleefully as he slaughters a Namekian village and enjoys putting his opponents in pain before killing them. Part of the reason why he sells his soul to Babidi is to recapture that feeling of glee he felt when he was evil. However, the strong ties he formed on Earth proves to be stronger than any joy he felt being evil again, which is why he gives his life to stop Buu and make amends for all the evil he has done.
• Evil Is Petty: During his Evil Prince days. Case in point: his response to Goku giving him a bloody lip during their fight was to absolutely Freak Out and try to blow up the Earth out of spite.
• Evil Laugh: Does this constantly during the Saiyan Saga, and sometimes afterward.
• Evil Tastes Good: When Vegeta kills Nappa, he can be seen licking his lips.
• Evil Versus Evil:
  • The Namek Saga almost has him in the role of a Villain Protagonist. He was the Big Bad of the previous arc (barely a month before) and his methods of obtaining the Dragon Balls (massacring the village they're kept in) are exactly the same ones that Frieza's men employ. But, with Goku in space/healing and Piccolo dead, he is the best chance of holding off or defeating Frieza for most of the saga.
  • Then during the Cell Saga, Vegeta, now an Anti-Hero, fights Semi-Perfect Cell. When Tien notices Piccolo doesn't look pleased he asks if they were winning, and gets this response.
    Piccolo: It's Vegeta who's winning Tien, not us.
• Ex-Big Bad: In Dragon Ball Z, Vegeta was the Big Bad of Saiyan Arc, bent on seeking Immortality via the Dragon Balls. After he is defeated, he begrudgingly and gradually joins the Z fighters against other forces more evil and becomes an invaluable ally despite being The Friend Nobody Likes. Though he eventually legitimately reforms and settles down with Bulma.
• Extreme Doormat: To his daughter, Bulla in GT to a lesser extent.
• Extremity Extremist: While he does use punches occasionally, Vegeta tends to use kicks and knee strikes far more often than other characters in the manga and anime, and usually reserves his hands for energy attacks.
• Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: Vegeta goes into lengthy detail about how Saiyans can become Great Apes at the sight of a full moon and how certain elite Saiyans like himself have been trained to create artificial moons if the natural one is missing. In Vegeta's case, he assumes Goku knows most of this information since he's a Saiyan himself.
• Eye Scream: Goku blinds him in one eye as a Great Ape, causing him to lose its function for the rest of the fight.
• Face Death with Dignity: Twice:
  • After Piccolo tells him he'll go to Hell if he dies, Vegeta goes through with it anyway for the sake of Bulma, Trunks, and Goku, and self-destructs to try to kill Majin Buu.
  • In Super and Battle of Gods, after his attempts to appease and face Beerus fails, Vegeta calmly accepts his fate, remarking that he'll take pride in the fact that it took a God of Destruction to kill him. That goes out the window after Beerus slaps Bulma.
• Face of a Thug: Naturally, as he started out as a villain whose default expressions are either a smug smirk or an angry snarl. Oddly, it get's Lampshaded only once, in Super, where some humans who didn't know him mentioned that he had a more evil face than the villain. Justified in a sense, as his developing sense of compassion tends to manifest as Anger Born of Worry.
• Face Realization: He was a murderous, egotistical, power hungry bastard, but after settling down on Earth, getting married, and raising a family, he found it hard to go back to his more villainous (and in his opinion more powerful) self. He had to cut a deal with an evil wizard to make himself evil again, and even then, he was still too good. It finally sinks in that he is no longer the villain he used to be when, after asking the Namek Dragon to restore every person on Earth who was killed by Majin Buu except for the evil ones, he is brought back to life along with them. Goku hangs a major lampshade on this, declaring that Vegeta is now a good guy. Vegeta is equally shocked by this.
• Fantastic Racism: Much like most Saiyans, Vegeta, notably more in some dub moments had an extremely low opinion of anyone that wasn't a Saiyan. Unlike Raditz and Nappa, this sentiment also extended to a form of an elitism and Social Darwinist to his fellow Saiyans. He dismissed Raditz as a weakling for getting killed and refused to even consider wishing him back. He also coldly murdered Nappa for being a disgrace for losing. He hated Goku for not only betraying the Saiyans, but for being a low class scumbag who dared to challenge the Saiyan Prince. He does get better as the series progresses, but he still holds his race at the highest regard, known to scoff at humans for being sentimental.
• Faster Than They Look: As a Great Ape. He's as big as a skyscraper, but his speed is unaffected; Goku himself is shocked at how fast Great Ape Vegeta can move despite his size.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • His pride, which directly results in most of the conflicts throughout the series, and which Cell is able to use to his advantage.
  • His wrath. When he gets angry enough, he becomes extremely reckless and makes stupid mistakes. This leads to him losing pathetically against Android 18 and Cell.
  • Whis also says he has another one: taking too long to react to sudden changes in fights. It means he doesn't have time to react in Resurrection ‘F’ when Frieza goes to blow up the Earth. Whis also says he and Goku share the flaw of being unwilling to work together even when they should.
• Faux Affably Evil: As long as he feels he's got the advantage, Vegeta acts in a condescendingly polite manner as a way of psyching his opponents out. Once he realizes he's been outclassed, he openly expresses his hatred and rage.
• Fearless Fool: Vegeta's the type to charge into battles with opponents who are much stronger than him. This may be due to his arrogance because he doesn't believe they are stronger than him.
• Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: His attitude towards Goku for most of the series; the fact that he, the Saiyan Prince, is constantly Always Second Best to a low-class Saiyan drives him crazy, which eventually leads him to make a Deal with the Devil by selling his soul to Babidi in exchange for power. During their subsequent fight, Majin Vegeta goes on a rant while beating Goku up, declaring that that Goku's very existence is an insult to him and a stain on his honor.
  Vegeta: Every breath you take is an assault to my honor! But no more, Kakarot! By my hands, you will be cut down inch by inch, the way you have cut down my pride!
• The Fighting Narcissist: Despite his love of fighting, he's so furious that Goku managed to draw blood from him that he tries to blow up the Earth. Afterwards, when Goku shoots him in the eye with a Ki Blast, Vegeta was so furious that he tortured Goku by slowly breaking every bone in his body.
• Final First Hug: When he hugged his son Trunks for the first time expecting it to also be the last time, as he was about to sacrifice himself in an attempt to kill Buu.
• Foil:
  • To his eternal rival, Goku. Both are thrill-seeking Saiyan warriors always looking to test, expand, and overcome their limits. While Goku is a cheerful man who cherishes others, greatly values his Earthly upbringing, and was born weak among commoner parents, Vegeta is a rough, arrogant prince who initially cares only for himself, and was born very powerful and heir to the throne of his planet. Through a series of trials and hardships, they gradually influence each other as their rivalry matures from resentment to respect. Goku comes to understand Saiyan pride and Vegeta learns compassion for loved ones. This is also reflected in their divine abilities. Goku's Ultra Instinct works by the body reacting without the mind, allowing you to avoid any attack and strike back with great power. Vegeta's Ultra Ego focuses on the person's indulgence and sense of self, requiring them to take damage head on to greatly raise their power.
  • After character development, he becomes this to Frieza. Unlike his former boss, Vegeta learns to properly care about others and being able to set his pride aside for the benefit of others and his own sanity. By letting go of the past, Vegeta becomes a happier person. Frieza, on the other hand, never learns from his experiences and remains an uncaring fiend even after he is given a second chance at life. He allows his hatred and anger towards Goku to drive him insane, and it's his inability to let go of his pride and the past that drives him to his death, twice.
• Forced to Watch: After learning that Goku has been revived and will join the fight, Vegeta orders a three hour cease-fire. When Nappa asks why, Vegeta explains that as a traitor to the Saiyans Goku has to be made to suffer and the first part of his punishment is to watch his friends and family be killed before his eyes. Then, they will take their time with him. However, the moment he realizes that Goku is much stronger than he thought, he orders Nappa to kill the surviving Z-Fighters since they couldn't afford to have them join Goku.
• Forehead of Doom: Could be said to be a general trait of Toriyama's art style, but Vegeta's is especially egregious, to the point of being a meme in Japan.
• Four Is Death: The number of (pureblood)Saiyans still alive, according to Raditz.
• Flaw Exploitation: He pulls this off at the climax of his fight with Perfect Cell. After being beaten around, Vegeta exploits Cell's ego and Blood Knight tendencies while charging up the Final Flash, outright daring Cell to test his Perfect form by not dodging the blast. Cell only survives the blast by dodging at the last second, and he still loses his right arm and a sizable chunk of his torso to it.
  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!!!
• Freudian Excuse:
  • The dub adds in that one of the reasons he served Frieza was essentially by blackmail, as Frieza demanded that he submit to Frieza or else daddy will die by his hand. Of course, Frieza ended up killing daddy anyways, along with most of his race. This is implied somewhat in the original, but with nowhere near the level of importance the dub suggests to Vegeta's motives.
  • His fear of Beerus comes from meeting him as a child... while Beerus was utterly humiliating his father, terrifying Vegeta. Super takes it up a notch by having Vegeta try to help his father and get stopped by the god.
• The Friend Nobody Likes:
  • In the late Frieza Saga and the Cell Saga, to everyone but Goku, Bulma and to a lesser degree Trunks — even if Trunks spends about as much time berating him as he did seeking his approval. It's so bad that whenever Vegeta gets hurt no one is in any hurry to heal him, even when he's demanding it, and it would be in their best interest to help him. When he first went Super Saiyan, the entire main cast all but groaned. After Vegeta was beaten unconscious by Cell, Krillin says point-blank that he didn't really care if he dies and is only helping him because Trunks believes in him.
  • Even in Dragon Ball Minus, his own fellow Saiyans didn't seem to like him too much. Bardock calls him a pain in the neck partner when he learns Raditz is paired up with him.
  • He's so bad about pissing everyone off that it wasn't until Super (almost twenty years after he first came to Earth in-universe) that all of the Z Fighters began to form anything resembling friendship with him, and even then only Goku, Gohan, their family, and Vegeta's family are completely open with liking having Vegeta around. Everyone else has a mutual Tsundere act going with him.
• Friendly Rivalry: It took a long time, but by the end of the Buu Saga, Goku and Vegeta's rivalry evolves into this. They even have petty rivalries like who can eat the most or cut grass the fastest, but now when the chips fall down it's clear they have each other's backs.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: A rare inversion when it comes to his allies even though he’s become infinitely more powerful, but when it comes to Frieza’s Empire this is played fully straight! He started out as part of an army that looked down on him and his entire race in terms of class and power. He wasn’t considered a threat or even worth killing when he betrayed them and everyone scoffed at him when he came to Namek thinking the weakest of their ranks could still deal with him with extreme ease. Come the Frieza saga, Cui, Dodoria, Zarbon, Guldo, Recoome, Burter, Jiece, and just about every other warrior who came with Frieza to Namek find themselves eating those words with most of them cowering and begging him for mercy before dying by his hands. By the ‘Resurection of F’ arc in ‘Super’ even Frieza gets a taste of this when Vegeta wipes the floor with him.
• Fury-Fueled Foolishness: Vegeta's Fatal Flaw, alongside his pride, is his wrath. When he gets angry enough, he gets extremely reckless, leading to humiliating defeats and exacerbating the problem.
  • When Cell kills Future Trunks, Vegeta goes Papa Wolf on him and attacks him with everything he has... only for Cell to No-Sell it and beat him into the ground. The only reason Vegeta lives to tell the tale is because Gohan took the bullet, which disabled his arm and severely bottlenecked his power, thus giving Cell the advantage.
  • This leads to a significant chunk of the Buu Saga happening; Vegeta was so furious that he was still second-best to Goku even after the latter had been dead for seven years that he doesn't hesitate to sell his soul to Babidi for a power boost, not caring that in doing so, he'd unleash Majin Buu.
• Genius Bruiser: When he completely swallows his pride and uses his head, he becomes this. He outsmarts Frieza's entire army on Namek and steals their Dragon Balls right from under their nose. It is also his plan that finally kills Majin Buu by using the Spirit Bomb and gathering energy from everyone on Earth. In Super, he finds a way around Magetta's seemly invincible defense by destroying a large chuck of the ring after dazing him with a Final Flash.
• Genocide Survivor: He's only of the few Saiyans left in the universe after Frieza destroyed their home planet.
• Genre Blindness: Despite his moments of intelligence, he has a few of these:
  • Because of his arrogance, he let Cell become complete and then muses about how Cell's final form isn't impressive and is smaller than before. Given that he is one of the smallest characters in the series and also a powerhouse, he should know better.
  • He does it again with Kid Buu, saying that his puny-looking size makes him looks much easier to handle. Although Kid Buu isn't as powerful as Super Buu at his strongest with Gohan or Gotenks absorbed in terms of raw power, he should know not to trust appearances.
  • Especially considering that he's experienced first-hand the power of Frieza in his final form, which was also smaller and slimmer than his second and third forms. Cell's perfect form is also not quit e as tall as the last two were. Nevermind how he, not being the tallest around, told the much taller Nappa what to do and started annihilating Frieza's men. He really should have known better, but it's likely just a product of his immense ego.
• Genre Savvy: Played for Laughs. In Super, when he and Goku face off against Arale from Dr. Slump, he says that Shōnen characters like himself are no match for gag characters like her. To his credit, he tries to adapt by fighting like a gag character, but it doesn't work out for him.
• The Glasses Come Off: Though it was not really glasses but a monocle-like scouter. Doing this, however, showed the audience exactly how dangerous he really was. And he only became even more dangerous when he stopped needing it at all.
• Golden Super Mode: His Super Saiyans transformation that were introduced in the original manga / Z anime.
• Godhood Seeker: Deconstructed. He spends much of the Frieza saga believing he's the destined "Legendary Super Saiyan." When that doesn't pan out, he starts thinking it's Goku. When he meets (pre-canon) Broly, the actual Legendary Super Saiyan, Vegeta temporarily loses the will to fight as he initially fears the power he coveted too much to try and stand against it.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • After Vegeta is overpowered by Goku's Kaio-Ken X4 and Kamehameha combination, he decides to becomes a Great Ape to beat Goku. He doesn't like it since he sees the Great Ape transformation as a planet destroyer and he shouldn't need it to crush a lower class warrior.
  • When Vegeta hears that the Ginyu Force was heading for Namek, he immediately teams up with Krillin and Gohan to fight them. He even asks Krillin when Goku was coming since they needed the manpower.
  • As Frieza is transforming into his final form, Vegeta orders Krillin to mortally wound him so he can have Dende to heal him, which would greatly power him up and allow him to become a Super Saiyan.
  • Vegeta listening to Goku's pleas and fusing with him using the Potara Earrings, which is permanent, so they can beat Super Buu who absorbed his son and killed the rest of his family.
  • He put his pride aside to keep Beerus happy, going as far as to dance and sing.
  • In Super's Future Trunks Saga, he agrees to use the Potaras to fuse with Goku again to fight the Fusion Zamasu; he states he isn't happy with it, but he acknowledges they're out of options.
  • In the final saga of GT, upon ascending to Super Saiyan 4, he, not Goku, is the one to suggest performing the Fusion Dance to defeat Omega Shenron. Vegeta himself lampshades this, acknowledging that he wouldn't suggest doing so unless it was their very last hope.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: When he was first introduced, Vegeta' Battle Aura was purple, which is the color usually used for evil characters in the series. After he becomes an ally to the Z-Fighters, his aura is changed to blue, which is the color of most of the heroes.
• Good Is Not Nice: Even after his Heel–Face Turn, he's still a grouch who snaps with rudeness at others pretty easily.
• Gone Horribly Right: He deliberately let Cell reach his perfect form for the sake of having a challenging fight. Cell proceeds to beat him senseless.
• Going Native: By Super, he has basically become completely accustomed to life on Earth. He ends up even having a much more normal marriage with Bulma than Goku does with Chichi.
• Good Costume Switch: Vegeta starts off wearing a full suit of Saiyan armor. As the series continues, and Vegeta gradually undergoes a Heel–Face Turn, he stops wearing some pieces of it, and by the time of the Buu arc he's just wearing the gloves and boots over the blue bodysuit. And at the very end of the series, once Vegeta has fully become a good guy and accepted the Earth as his home, he starts wearing Earthling clothes instead. He goes back to wearing the Cell Saga armor in Super, but he's also more frequently seen in casual clothing.
• Good Counterpart:
  • Frieza is an eviler version of Vegeta. Both of them are princes of their respective empires, born extremely powerful, commands the respect and fear of those around them, have lofty ambitions of ruling the universe for all eternity, are ruled by their pride of being the strongest, and are selfish, spoiled brats who will Rage Quit and cause highly dangerous destruction if things don't go their way. Vegeta gets better through character development and living on Earth. Through a series of trials, Vegeta eventually learns to put aside his pride for the sake of others and be thoughtful of those besides himself. Frieza, meanwhile, remained an unrepentant asshole-type (who, like Vegeta and other antagonists, talk more stereotypical villain trash in the FUNimation dub) who allowed his pride to utterly destroy him, three times. Frieza also serves as Vegeta's Shadow Archetype.
  • Cell, much like Frieza, is an eviler counterpart to Vegeta. Both love to fight and challenge themselves in battle. They are also both extremely arrogant and believe that there's nothing stronger than them and will throw a fit if that belief is proven incorrect. Their pride and arrogance becomes their undoing, first with Vegeta for letting Cell reach his perfect form for the sake of the challenge and Cell pushing Gohan over the edge so he could become powerful enough to challenge him. The difference, Vegeta eventually learns the value of life, family, and does becomes a good person. Cell remained a Jerkass personality to the bitter end.
  • Goku Black is another evil counterpart of Vegeta. Black's actions parallel the Saiyan prince's in his younger days, such as committing genocide and reveling in his ability to get stronger with each recovery. He also claims to take great pride in his race, but in practice disregards his kin. While Vegeta never got a chance to use the Dragon Balls, Black succeeded and became a greater threat than Majin Buu. The fact that his first victim happened to be Future Bulma really hammers the point across.
• Gratuitous English: In the Japanese version, he is the only major character to have English signature moves, namely the Big Bang Attack and Final Flash. Everyone else has Japanese-named techniques. According to Toriyama, this was done to make the alien Vegeta more exotic, or as he said in an interview, "to portray his foreign personality".
• Green-Eyed Monster: Towards Goku regarding his strength. This even got him to sell his soul to Babidi due to getting tired of being second best to Goku.
• Growing Muscles Sequence: Got a couple. The first time he ate a senzu bean and the first time he attempted to go beyond Super Saiyan against Cell. He didn't go USS so it wasn't as dramatic as Future Trunks'.
• Hairstyle Inertia: Much like Goku, Vegeta has the same hairstyle since he was a child. It remains in place even when wet. This is a racial trait of pure-blooded Saiyans. Their hair never changes. In GT, he's cropped his hair◊, but eventually goes back to a shorter version of his familiar hairstyle◊.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: He was always temperamental, but being bested or knowing Goku's better is usually what gets him the most mad. He almost blew up the planet over his blood being drawn by Goku. He is so bad tempered that whenever he he gets frustrated or upset at something or someone he becomes extremely irrational and will become very ruthless and more aggressive when he fights back.
• Happily Married: At first, he had "no interest in" Bulma or their son after he was born. But seeing Future Trunks die at the hands of Cell deeply disturbs him, and he tries to show more concern for his family afterwards. After the battle against Buu, he finally settles down with Bulma for real, and they have a daughter. When Goku talks about the deal he made with the Old Kai, Vegeta tells him 'let him kiss your wife, not mine!', indicating that they married after the Cell Games.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: A Deconstruction. Vegeta starts out wholeheartedly believing this trope, then is shown in spectacular fashion that he is wrong. He reacts to this by fully applying the work he once dismissed, only for the trope to to still play out as true for him relative to his personal goal... because he's been overdoing it to the point of obsession, consumed by said goal.
  • When Vegeta is first introduced, he fully believes that one's birth determines one's power. Since he is the Saiyan Prince he is, naturally, meant to be the strongest. He scoffs at Goku when he claims that a lower class soldier like him can surpass an elite through hard work. However, Goku, through the Kaioken multiplier, is still able to do significant damage to him, and a high-gravity training regimen in space after recovering from the damage of their fight tips Goku well ahead of Vegeta in strength. After seeing Goku be the one to ascend to the legendary heights of the Super Saiyan, Vegeta trains more frantically and harder than Goku and becomes a Super Saiyan himself, only to find that he still can't catch up to him. This is something that drives him crazy for most of his adult life. ^note In the Cell Saga, Goku and Gohan emerge from the Room of Spirit 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 inferior to Goku, Gohan and Perfect Cell. In fact he gained what might look like so little power for all his efforts that later during the battle with the Cell Juniors, even a single Cell Junior is more powerful than him, and treats his (uncharged, and therefore much-weakened) ultimate attack like it's nothing. In Resurrection ‘F’, it's suggested by Whis that he trains too hard and doesn't allow himself to relax, keeping himself from reaching his full power. This is Truth in Television: overtraining, and stress, can hurt athletic performance. The other issue is whereas Goku gets good sparring partners and seeks out trainers, Vegeta largely trained by himself until this was pointed out, as he was just too proud to train with anybody. The only time he ever took on a training partner, and all the beneficial results thereof, prior to this was his own future son in the Time Chamber, and even that was begrudgingly.
• Hates Being Touched: Vegeta's ill-accustomed to physical affection. When he tried hugging Trunks, the gesture looked quite awkward and not the least bit loving despite his otherwise intentions. Later after beating Zamasu Bulma rushed in and hugged Vegeta, to which he shoved her away in alarm. When he saw Bulma was crying, he softened up and hugged her back in a more chaste manner.
• Hate Sink: In his earlier appearances, Vegeta was a despicable and sadistic douchbag who lacked empathy, had no morals, took glee in destroying up to entire planets full of innocents (including children) and was quick to kill and backstab his own comrades when they outlived their usefulness to him. As the series progresses, he grows out of it and changes for the better.
• Hated by All: For most of the franchise, nobody liked Vegeta, and given his arrogant, selfish personality, it's not hard to understand why. He was ostracized and insulted by Frieza's empire for being a Saiyan, and the Z-Fighters could barely tolerate him and somtimes mustered insulting him to his face, with Krillin coming right out and staying he wouldn't care one bit if Vegeta died; even Future Trunks, his own son, spent as much time berating Vegeta as he did seeking his approval. As revealed in Minus, not even his fellow Saiyans really liked him, with Bardock outright describing him as a pain in the neck. This has leveled off come Super after Vegeta got a healthy dose of Character Development, but even then, Goku, Gohan, and Vegeta's family are the only ones who are completely open with liking having him around.
• Haughty "Hmph": His arrogance and supreme confidence in his own skills are expressed through these, especially at the beginning of battles.
• Heavyworlder: Vegeta was born on Planet Vegeta, a world that had ten times the gravity of Earth, which partly explains why the Saiyans were so powerful. Both Nappa and he note how weak the gravity of Earth is and how they can move more freely. During the Buu Saga, Babidi tries to give his minion Pui Pui an advantage over Vegeta by sending them to Pui Pui's homeworld of Zoon, which also had ten times Earth's gravity... but it backfired because not only was Vegeta from a planet with similar gravity, he's also trained under 450 times Earth's gravity.
  Vegeta: Maybe... if your planet had five hundred times Earth's gravity, you'd have an advantage, but ten? I don't even feel it!
• Heel: During his fight with Cabba, he sets himself up as one. In order to push Cabba to his Rage Breaking Point, Vegeta draws upon his old space pirate self and verbally threatens to destroy Cabba's entire planet and kill his family once he kills him. This pushes Cabba over the edges and he ascends to Super Saiyan.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: To sum up his alignment changes in DBZ: he's bad, he's starting to turn good (sort of), he's bad again (for a cup of coffee), he's generally good (for real).
• Heel–Face Turn: It took almost entire Dragon Ball Z to gradually become a somewhat pure good guy.
• Heel Realization:
  • He has a minor one after Future Trunks is killed. He realizes what an utter Jerkass he's been to his son, through a very angry reaction.
  • During the Buu Saga. The realization that his selfish desire to beat Goku allowed Buu to be revived and led to the apparent death of Gohan is quite the wake-up call.
• Hereditary Hairstyle: Same hair as his father, King Vegeta.
• Heroes' Frontier Step: Vegeta starts the series as a villain, becomes a Nominal Hero on Namek who only helps so he can become the Emperor of the Universe by killing Frieza, reluctantly helps Gohan finish Cell to avenge his son (also apologizing to Gohan when the roller coaster of danger very much was careening out of control there), then becomes evil again during the Buu saga out of resentment at his turn to good. In the end, he opts to pay for his mistakes and firmly becomes a heroic character after he sacrificed himself to kill Majin Buu, knowing full well that he was going to Hell for his past deeds; Piccolo himself notes that it's the first genuinely selfless thing Vegeta has ever done. He took it a step further when he swallowed his pride to fuse with Goku to stop Super Buu and admit that Goku was his better after so many years of denial. By the time all the good people are revived from Buu's massacre, Vegeta is shocked to find that he's among them.
• Heroic Build: When he started out as a villain, while he still was muscular, he had an overall skinnier build. As Character Development kicked in, he started getting more and more jacked. The more heroic he became, the more muscle-mass was added to his frame and by the time he fully reformed, his physique was comparable to Goku's. This is sometimes pointed out by fans.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He willingly kills himself trying to take Majin Buu down with him, all for the purpose of saving his son's life, knowing he would go to Hell afterwards where he'll effectively cease to exist upon reincarnating for all of the terrible things he had done in his life.
• Heroic Willpower: If Vegeta sets his mind on something, he's not going to let a little thing like someone else having control of every fiber in his body stop him. In the words of Babidi:
  Babidi: B-but this has never happened to me before! Since when can the possessed say "no" to the possessor?!
• Hidden Depths:
  • Despite looking like all he does is train all day and nothing else, Toriyama has said that his "bargain sale" line possibly came from something he saw on television. Likewise, Toyotaro drew him dancing his bingo dance from a workout video on television. So yeah, the prince of all Saiyans has some curiosity for Earthling's television, folks.
  • As the Battle of Gods arc of Super shows, he's skilled at making Takoyaki.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: He eventually develops one over the course of the series, despite his attempts to deny it. He takes Trunks to the park after he manages to hit him and is upset when Gohan is seemingly killed by Majin Buu. He also completely loses it when Beerus hits Bulma, going into a blind rage that boosted his power past Goku's. He's willing to utterly humiliate himself in order to protect Trunks and even grows to care for Goku as a friend, but hides it behind their rivalry. An episode of Super has him musing to himself whether it's alright for Bulma to be moving so much at that stage of her pregnancy. Another example is when Roshi is so exhausted that he's about to collapse, during the Tournament of Power. Vegeta tells him to leave the ring and get a Senzu Bean, but not in a condescending way, rather with actual concern. He then tells Roshi to leave the rest to him.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: During his fight with Goku on Earth, Vegeta created an artificial full moon necessary to transform himself into a Great Ape after the original was destroyed by Piccolo earlier in the year. That very same moon ends up being used by Gohan to transform into his own ape form needed to provide the crushing blow necessary to finish Vegeta off.
• Holding Your Shoulder Means Injury: While numerous fighters tend to do this in Dragon Ball after a brutal battle, Vegeta in particular tends to do this a lot, to the point of at least once per saga, as part of the trend of having Vegeta display more realistic injuries and usually to show that he has received one hell of an ass-kicking.
• Honor Before Reason: Much like Goku, though with a distinctly Saiyan-centric cultural influence to it. While Goku will allow his opponents to power-up or transform to their maximum power before fighting them, Vegeta will take it a step further and let his opponents eat another person to reach their full power, as he has done with Cell and Android 18. With that said, he is also more willing than Goku to be pragmatic, usually when his ego isn't out of control.
• Hope Bringer: To a lesser extent, he become this after becoming much more good, especially after training with Whis and becoming a Super Saiyan Blue. The heroes become quite distressed when he goes down in battle.
• Hope Spot: Vegeta loves providing these moments for his opponents by holding back ever so slightly and then when it looks like they're starting to turn the fight around, he crushes their hopes and then crushes them.
• Horrifying the Horror:
  • On both ends of this. On the one hand, Nappa, who had tanked everything the Z-Fighters had thrown at him before and caused the deaths of both Tien and Chiaotzu, is easily cowed by Vegeta merely raising his voice at him for questioning his orders. On the other hand, Vegeta himself made it a point to avoid direct confrontation with Frieza as much as possible, and was visibly horrified and shaking when Frieza finally caught up to him.
  • He manages it again during the Android Saga. Android 19 starts out completely confident since he and Dr. Gero had spent all their time analyzing the Z-Fighters' power and techniques, Vegeta included, and they can take anything they can dish out. By the end of his fight with Vegeta, during which he loses both arms, 19 is left trembling in fear before outright trying to flee from him in absolute terror, which Vegeta lampshades.
    Vegeta: I guess it's true after all. Androids do experience fear.
  • At least for a time, he inflicted this on Kid Buu. Buu had just beat the living crap out of Vegeta and blasted him into a crater, leaving him to gloat with laughter... until the badly-wounded Vegeta climbs out of the crater anyway, stating it'll take a lot more than that to kill him; Buu is shaking a little as he stares at Vegeta with shock, awe, and a bit of horror.
• Hot-Blooded: Even if it does lead to a lot of trouble for the protagonists, he still looks cool talking about the hurt he's going to deliver. He is almost nothing but pure anger, pride and bloodlust, at least until the end of Z. This trait seems to be the main attribute of the Saiyan race in general.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Vegeta's death to Frieza has elements of this. He's the Saiyan Prince and the strongest his race has to offer, reduced to tears before Frieza's power. After surviving a brutal beating, he is given an anticlimactic end by being shot in the heart and is reduced to begging a lower class warrior to beat Frieza.
• How Much More Can He Take?: Vegeta's endurance can prove absolutely unreal. Even (or rather, especially) when he's severely outmatched, Vegeta often takes some of the worst beatings out of anyone in the entire series, but it never slows him down until he's literally on death's door.
• Human Alien: Like most Saiyans. They look perfectly human other than their tails and can produce offspring with humans, though they do have extraordinary abilities (most notably, they can turn into a giant ape). Saiyans also age slower than humans. They have long childhoods, staying small and cute looking so they will be underestimated before quickly growing to their full adult height, and they stay in their prime until at least eighty.
• Humans Through Alien Eyes: When Android 17 kills Dr. Gero by stepping on his detached head, everyone, save Vegeta, is shocked. Krillin talks about how unbelievable it is that the android killed their own creator. Vegeta scoffs at them, saying that humans are the strange ones since "one should" kill anyone one doesn't like - its said to be not unusual to what he's seen, known to extend past his Saiyan kind.
• Humanity Is Infectious: His love for Bulma and Trunks really helped mellow him out, which caused him great angst in the Buu Saga, since he saw this trope as part of his in-universe Badass Decay.
• Humanizing Tears: Finding out that he's completely outclassed by Freeza knocks the wind out of Vegeta so hard that he burts into tears. At this point, anyone who was savoring his defeat found themselves sympathizing with him.
• Humble Pie: After suffering heavy Aesop Amnesia most of the series, and a Break the Haughty at least Once a Season, Vegeta receives one of these during the final battle with Kid Buu, acknowledging that Goku is better than him and always will be and making peace with that decision. Come Dragon Ball Super, he's still trying to surpass Goku, but his attitude towards it is much healthier and he manages to get much closer.
• Humiliation Conga: Happens at least Once a Season in Z.
  • He gets the crap beat out of him by Goku after he activates his Kaio-ken and deflects Vegeta's Galick Gun. Then when he regains his advantage by turning into a Great Ape, he gets his tail cut off and nearly killed by a Spirit Bomb. Just when he's sure he can kill everyone, Gohan turns into a Great Ape and lands on him just as he cuts off Gohan's tail. He's then left at Krillin's mercy and is only spared because Goku begs for his life.
  • When he reaches Namek, he easily kills Cui and Dodoria and steals one of the Dragon Balls. He then gets his butt handed to him by Zarbon. Although he eventually defeats Zarbon and steals Frieza and Krillin's Dragon Balls, Gohan steals the Dragon Ball he hid right from under his nose. Once the Ginyu Force arrives, he gets manhandled by Recoome. After all of that, he finally gains access to all seven Dragon Balls, but can't use them because he doesn't know the password and has his chance at immortality denied because the Namekian dragon dies before the wish can be granted. Frieza then arrives and beats and humiliates Vegeta before killing him in cold-blood. When he comes back to life, he learns that Goku became a Super Saiyan. He's really not happy about that last part.
  • In the Android/Cell Saga, Vegeta finally becomes a Super Saiyan and beats one of the androids without any problems. He then gets curb stomped by Android 18 and learns that there is an even more powerful android running around. After training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for a year, he becomes so strong that Semi-Perfect Cell can't even harm him, which goes to his head and he lets Cell absorb 18 to have a better challenge. Once Cell becomes perfect, he beats Vegeta effortlessly. Vegeta even trains for another whole year in the Hyberbolic Time Chamber and he is still inferior to Cell, Goku and Gohan, and is humiliated by one of Cell's inferior children during the Z-Fighters' battle with them. Vegeta never harms Cell again, even after he murders Trunks.
  • After seven years of training, Vegeta is stronger than Gohan, who has been slacking off. He then learns that Goku is still stronger, so he gives his soul to Babidi to bridge the gap and fight Goku one last time. Their battle awakens Buu, who seemingly murders Gohan, causing Vegeta to realize that he's made a terrible mistake. To make amends, he fights Buu, but can't do any lasting damage and is almost killed. He chooses to sacrifice himself to stop Buu, knowing that he will go to Hell because of his past deeds. His efforts utterly fail and he dies for nothing. He is semi-revived to fight Buu and has to fuse with Goku to even have a chance, something he hates. His actions also lead to Buu's pure evil form returning and Buu destroying the Earth along with his son. And to add salt to the wound, he performs even worse against Kid Buu then he did against Fat Buu, nearly being beaten to death, even when he's still dead. This final Humiliation Conga finally makes Vegeta a much more humble person.
• Hunk: Despite his short stature, he is ruggedly handsome and is ripped to the core, granting him a number of fan-girls.
• Hypocrite:
  • He's also Enraged by Idiocy and always badmouths Goku for saying or doing something stupid, and yet Vegeta's pride and arrogance, which borders on Lethally Stupid at its worst, constantly results in him making incredibly rash and idiotic decisions that always put the Earth in danger.
  • He berates Goku for fighting and going Super Saiyan when he's clearly ill. He makes a very good point and Goku was indeed foolish, but Vegeta is the last person who should be giving this lecture since he is known for going into battle when he's far from prime condition, like trying to fight Android 18 with a shattered arm.
  • He's left utterly stunned by how Mr. Satan doesn't realize his limits after being flung from the ring by Cell. He calls Mr. Satan's stupidity beyond belief. He is right about Mr. Satan overestimating himself and should realize how outmatched he is, but it's funny that this commentary is coming from a character who is infamously known for overestimating himself.
  • Vegeta is a Social Darwinist who firmly believes in the survival of the fittest, the stronger rule and survive over the weaker, and anyone who is killed deserves it for being weaker. Part of the reason why he is the Saiyan Prince is because he is the strongest their race has to offer. This mindset is never applied to himself when he isn't the strongest. When Frieza proves to be his superior, instead of accepting the outcome as natural selection, Vegeta has a mental breakdown before breaking down in tears. He also demeans and badmouths Goku, despite the fact that by his own standards Goku is his superior since he is the strongest Saiyan. He does get better and eventually drops the Social Darwinist mindset.
• I Am X, Son of Y: A variation: "I am Vegeta, Prince of the Saiyan warrior race!"
• Iconic Outfit: His typical ensemble is Saiyan armor over blue spandex, with white gloves and shoes, which he wears in the Android, Cell, and the majority of the Super sagas. When he's not wearing it, it's just some variation; In the Saiyan saga he was wearing Blue Spandex, but wore the traditional Frieza Force armor (with elaborate shoulderpads), and in the Frieza saga he wore a smaller, torso-only version of said armour, but over a black spandex. He only went with a blue muscle shirt and pants with the gloves and shoes but without his armor in the Buu Saga and the EOZ, likely due to the rules of the tournament restricting protective wear. In Resurrection ‘F’, both the movie and Super retelling, and the Champa Saga, he wears grey undergarments instead of blue.
• Iconic Sequel Character: He isn't introduced until the very first saga of Z, but he ends up becoming the second most recognizable character in the series aside from Goku.
• Icy Blue Eyes: Vegeta once he becomes a Super Saiyan. It isn't a real big change for him, unlike Goku and Gohan, outside of the change of eye color since Vegeta just becomes more of a cocky jerk when he transforms.
• Idiot Ball:
  • He drops a fairly big one during the Frieza Saga; when Krillin goes to Guru's to gain the password needed to activate the Namekian Dragon Balls, Vegeta decides to take a nap, not only disregarding the fact that Frieza could return at any moment, but also trusting Gohan to come and wake him up when Krillin returns. Although, it is somewhat justifiable since he was close to passing out because he's been awake for several days guarding his Dragon Balls from Frieza and the Earthlings.
  • In Chapter 13 of the Super manga, Vegeta lost 90% of his power when fighting Hit since he transformed too many times into Super Saiyan Blue, which severely sap his stamina. What makes Vegeta make an idiot of himself is that the transformation only saps stamina when transforming, meaning that Vegeta would've kept his power if just stayed transformed after showing off to Cabba. Since Vegeta trained Super Saiyan Blue for over four years, he should have known better. To be fair to him though, Frost was introduced as the emperor of the universe and the best hand-to-hand fighter in U6, despite being a comparative weakling who Vegeta wrecked easily when Frost was at full power and Vegeta was stuck to Super Saiyan 1. Frost's lower forms, Cabba, and Botamo were substantially weaker than even that. So he probably just thought that 10% of SSB would be more than enough to handle Hit, not knowing that Hit is the real World's Strongest Man of his universe. He had no way of knowing how ridiculously stronger Hit was compared to everyone else in his universe.
• I Gave My Word: Vegeta only gives his word to those he holds dear to his heart, hence giving his word is the closest he will ever get to openly admitting love for another being, as his immeasurable pride makes his word his absolute bond. Heaven help you if you hurt someone he promised to protect.
• I Just Want to Be Special: While already one of the most powerful fighters in the series, he has repeatedly fallen on this, from wanting to become a Super Saiyan to accepting a Deal with the Devil to surpass Goku. And in true Dramatic Irony, he gives up and accepts that Goku is better than him.
• Immortality Seeker: He was this until Frieza was defeated on Namek, then he lost all known desire to live forever.
• Immune to Mind Control: It's Implied that Vegeta's pride and Heroic Willpower renders him impossible to mind control; the implication comes from the only canon example of mind control being used against him in the Buu Saga, where he willingly let himself be subjected to Babidi's Mind Control sorcery to gain the power-up benefit that came with it as a sideeffect. His mind, however, was never under Babidi's control, and the moment he was given a command contrary to his own desires he successfully fought off the Mind Control part of the spell, keeping the power boost despite it.
• Impossibly Graceful Giant: In his Great Ape form, he is far more agile than his size would suggest (and not just because he retains his ability to fly). When Goku dodges one of his punches, Great Ape Vegeta spins his entire body around in the blink of an eye, nailing Goku with a kick. Goku even lampshades this in the Kai dub:
  Goku: Big as he is, he moves like a rabbit!
• Implacable Man: From the very beginning, Vegeta was an absolutely relentless foe. Goku had to multiply his Kaio-ken up to x4 just to be able to fight Vegeta evenly, and even after being hit point-blank by a Spirit Bomb, Vegeta's able to get back up and keep fighting. It's only through the sheer dumb luck of being crushed by Great Ape Gohan that he's finally forced to retreat, and even then, he vows to return.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: To an absurd degree, he simply cannot accept people being more powerful than him. It all starts with him growing up under the crushing heel of Frieza. Then he goes to Earth and finds out there's a Saiyan stronger than him, even though he, being the Saiyan Prince, should be stronger. Then he goes to Namek and that same Saiyan comes in and shows he's even more powerful, then he dies at Frieza's hands. Vegeta wishes to become stronger, but because of his insecurities he doesn't seek out training partners that could help him advance the way Goku does. The result is that Goku remains one step ahead and this further fuels Vegeta's insecurities. He gets better by the time of Super.
• Inner Monologue: Despite not being the main protagonist of the series, it is Vegeta whose thoughts we are most often made privy to via his internal monologues. His monologues usually highlight the insecurities and chronic self-doubt that his pride would never allow to be spoken aloud.
• Insistent Terminology: Vegeta makes a point of always calling Goku by his Saiyan name Kakarot, because he believes that Goku should take pride in his Saiyan heritage. In fact, in GT, when Vegeta is possessed by Baby, Goku is able to tell right away that Vegeta is Not Himself because Baby-Vegeta calls him "Goku" rather than "Kakarot".
• Insufferable Genius: He is a brilliant fighter and tactician when he is calm. He also knows very well that he is very good and will remind everyone so they do not forget. Almost everyone, save for Goku and Bulma, finds him unbearable, but tolerates him since he really is as good as he claims most of the time.
• Interspecies Romance: With Bulma. She is a human while he is a full-blooded Saiyan.
• Irony: A pretty good source of it.
  • At the end of the Kid Buu Saga, it is Vegeta who comes up with the way to defeat Kid Buu by using the Spirit Bomb, the technique Goku originally learned to try and kill him.
  • Nappa suggested to have Human-Saiyan children to repopulate the Saiyan race. Vegeta disagreed on the grounds that they would beget children stronger than them. Later, Vegeta is the one to have children with a human.
    • Adding to the irony, Vegeta's offspring actually saved humanity when Vegeta himself only came to Earth to kill everyone, made clear for the above reasoning.
  • When first introduced, he scoffed at the idea that even a lower class soldier could surpass an "elite" through hard work. When proven wrong, he spends the entire series working trying to surpass Goku.
  • After his initial loss on Earth, he swears to return and exact his revenge by exterminating the planet. By this time he does, he has no interest in revenge or genocide. His new goal was to become a Super Saiyan, and he sought out Goku in space to learn how to do it.
  • After finally accepting that Goku was Always Someone Better, Beerus comes and becomes Goku's Always Someone Better. Twisting the irony knife Vegeta did better fighting Beerus then Goku did.
  • In the post Z stories, Vegeta finally gets within striking distance of Goku. He does this in both the movies and GT by swallowing his pride and accepting help from others. Things Goku himself had to do to gain those powers.
  • Despite being Always Second Best, Vegeta has never actually lost a fight against Goku. Partly because Goku would never bother fighting someone weaker than himself and partly because of extenuating circumstances.
  • Vegeta, the proud Saiyan who in the Buu saga boasted that his pride was the essence of his being and before that kept going on and on that concepts like mercy and love made you soft. He overcomes his limits (twice) and becomes a nightmarish force of nature in the Tournament of Power through The Power of Love.
• It Can Think: In his Great Ape form; unlike Goku and Gohan, who become rampaging, mindless berserkers, he retains his intelligence and higher reasoning as a Great Ape, and can even speak.
• It's All About Me:
  • He's easily one of the most self-centered beings in the universe; specifically around the Androids/Cell events, where he's so confident that he's invincible and could easily beat Cell no matter how strong he gets that he lets Cell absorb Android 18 and become perfect purely to stroke his own ego... only to lose pathetically against Perfect Cell, who even mocks him for his arrogance and self-centeredness. He returns to it again in the Buu Saga, where he forsakes his wife and son and allows Babidi to turn him into a Majin just so he could have the power to beat Goku; in this case, Vegeta was fully aware that doing so would unleash Majin Buu upon the world, but he was so fixated on being better than Goku that he didn't care. Needless to say, in both cases, he learns to regret it when Trunks is killed by Cell and when Buu is assumed to have killed Gohan.
  • Greatly subverted by the time Battle of Gods rolls around. He may still be fairly self-centered, but Vegeta will do almost anything to guarantee Bulma and Trunks' safety at least. Just don't tell him to dance again.
• It's Personal:
  • Vegeta's deep hatred for Frieza is almost unparalleled in a series full of personal conflicts. And that's BEFORE he finds out Frieza was the one who blew up Planet Vegeta and wiped out most of the Saiyan race.
  • He really hates Goku Black for Future Bulma's murder and targeting his future son. He has every right to be pissed.
• I Was Beaten by a Girl: Implied by Piccolo in the original Japanese text and the Kai dub. After losing to Android 18, Vegeta leaves in a fit of rage. Trunks wants to follow him, but Piccolo said not to bother since his pride has been crushed. Not only did he badly lose after achieving the fabled Super Saiyan form, he lost to a woman, adding extra salt to the wound.
• I Work Alone:
  • Vegeta absolutely despises getting help and will always insist on doing everything himself, fighting or otherwise. Vegeta will also always be the last character to offer assistance to anyone. He's the only character in the series that takes this beyond just having a fair fight, and will readily accept suicidal odds like fighting more than one person that is strong enough to be a threat to him, or trying to attack a fused opponent on his own. It's only when things get "the world will end" bad that he gives in, but he'll still complain about it non-stop. His stubbornness nearly wastes all the effort everyone put in to get him and Goku back to the world of the living to stop Buu.
  • It's actually so ingrained in his psyche that even when he decides to work together, he subconsciously cannot grasp synchonized motions in combat, especially with Goku. It's even to the point where Frieza, who wants to betray and murder them all when the ToP is all over, and Android 17, who had just met everyone sans 18 and Krillin the day before the tournament have FAR better teamwork with each other, even though he's been training and fighting alongside the Z Fighters for the last 10 years. The result was that Goku, Frieza and 17 pull off a nearly perfect strategy on the fly to beat a weakened Jiren in the anime's final episode, something Vegeta finds utterly shocking and wouldn't have been able to do.

J-L

• Jerkass Has a Point: There's no doubt about it, Vegeta has stood far enough in asshole territory. But more often than not, he provides more than a few good points or reasons:
  • His killing Burter and Recoome in cold blood after Goku defeated them. Goku states that Vegeta was being cruel, but Vegeta then retorts - in expansions past the manga - that their deaths were deserved, especially since Gohan and Krillin were on the verge of death, and that they had killed countless people under Frieza's orders. This is further emphasized later on when Goku spares their even more sadistic leader Frieza's life at least twice — which only prompts Frieza to try to stab Goku in the back both times.
  • After saving the heart virus-stricken Goku from being killed by Android 19, Vegeta proceeds to chew him out for it, reminding Goku that he was warned about the heart virus and should have known that fighting in his condition, let alone going Super Saiyan, would have only made it worse.
  • When Cell announces the Cell Games, Piccolo wants to train first in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber after Goku and Gohan leaves. Vegeta calls this a waste since the fight with Cell will be beyond any level outside the Saiyans, but mockingly allows Piccolo to go first. Piccolo's year-long training didn't amount to nearly as much as the gain received by Goku/Gohan/Vegeta. For a long time, no non-Saiyan Z-Fighter approached Cell's level of power. Even then, the Saiyans still have the overall highest potential to get stronger.
  • Although Vegeta was too harsh with Gohan about him getting weaker in the Buu saga and how his fight with Dabura was a "disgrace," he made a good point: Gohan was struggling against a foe that, seven years ago, he wouldn't have had such a problem with, and it was in their interest to beat these foes as quickly and efficiently as possible.
  • Vegeta gets another one in the climax of the Buu Arc when he calls out Goku for leaving his children to die while Kid Buu blows up the Earth, and choosing to rescue Mr. Satan and Dende instead. During the entire exchange, Goku has nothing to say in his own defense. Of course, Dende, Mr. Satan, and the dog proved instrumental to Buu's defeat but no one could have known that at the time.
  • Vegeta once again has a point that finishing off the unconscious Fat Buu was the safest bet despite Hercule insisting he was good. Seeing what happened because Bee and Hercule were shot, there's no telling what could happen in the future when they run the risk of repeating the same incident again.
  • During the Resurrection F arc of Super, Goku tells Vegeta how killing Ginyu was too extreme. Vegeta tells him he simply killed somebody who was too dangerous to leave alone. He likely would have tried to take either of their bodies, so it was definitely the right choice to end his life.
  • Vegeta becomes angry when Goku, as usual, played around with Goku Black instead of instantly killing him when he had the chance. This gave Black the opportunity to study Goku's fighting style and destroy the time machine, giving him the chance to become more powerful to the point where he could challenge Goku and Vegeta in their blue forms.
  • When Future Trunks, having seen the strength of Super Saiyan Blue, is prepared to just kick back and let Goku and Vegeta handle Goku Black, Vegeta lifts him up by the collar and furiously chews him out on his complacency, remarking that Black most likely won't be the only threat to his time that comes his way and he should always train to surpass his limits no matter the situation. Bulma call him out on his harsh attitude, but Goku stops Bulma, acknowledging that while Vegeta is harsh he also has a point as he points out it's "how Saiyans work" and Trunks himself takes his words to heart.
  • Come Super: Broly, Goku naively believes that since Frieza helped them during the Tournament of Power, this means that he'll no longer be evil and is now their friend. Vegeta calls him out on that and openly calls him an idiot, telling Goku point-blank that Frieza will never change Frieza, will never change and will always try to kill them. And he's proven right when he comes to Earth and sics Broly on them. While Goku and Vegeta are able to handle Frieza just fine in the movie itself, Vegeta's expressed fears that Frieza could surpass them both become fully realized in the Grandolah Arc of the manga when Frieza shows up with a new powerup as "Black Frieza" and dispatches the two with zero effort when both Saiyans were at the strongest they've ever been, having achieved both Ultra Instinct and Ultra Ego.
• Jerkass Realization:
  • When Future Trunks gets mortally wounded by Cell, Vegeta realizes how harsh he was towards him and wanted to avenge his death.
  • He has another one when he realizes just how powerful Buu was after he seemingly murdered Gohan. He even says outright he would never forgive himself and fought Buu partly to avenge him, stating this out loud.
• Jerkass to One: Pre-Character Development, he was a Crueler to One example. While Vegeta was enough of a bitter, cynical asshole who looked down on everyone in general and then slowly ebbed away from that, he was much ruder and nastier to Goku than he was to everyone else, unable to tolerate being Always Second Best to him since he's the Saiyan Prince while Goku is a low-class Saiyan born at the bottom of the pecking order. By the end of Z, he's gotten over it, and in Super, they're friendly rivals and Vitriolic Best Buds.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In the Saiyan — Cell Saga, Vegeta is more of a definite and straight-up Jerkass. He's crossed the sadistic asshole line by finding fun in killing people weaker than him, bullying others to get his way, and he was a Bad Boss who would fatally explode his minions for failing. He also has a high rate of running his mouth on those who annoy him, with a dirtier mouth. The Funimation dub makes him even worse on a consistent basis across the series despite some watering down from them of how he became what he was. However, Vegeta starts becoming this trope in the Time Skip following the Cell Games of Dragon Ball Z, where he becomes a loving, if not distant, father to main timeline Trunks, and he's become more attached to Bulma. He also performs a selfless Heroic Sacrifice on Majin Buu later onward, and fights with Goku on friendly terms for the first time against Kid Buu, also fighting for the Earth for the first time. By the end of the saga, he finally got over most of his Jerkass tendencies and is a stark contrast to the callous, self-absorbed villain that came to destroy Earth years ago. This is best shown in Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods and Dragon Ball Super, where he swallows his pride and tries to please Beerus, and absolutely loses it when the Destroyer God slaps Bulma.
• Joker Immunity: Originally just intended as an Arc Villain, Vegeta's popularity caused him to survive his intended death and return to act as a supporting villain for the next major saga, surviving multiple brushes with death before he's killed by Frieza. And then he's brought back to life when a wish is made to revive all of Freeza's victims, and joins the main cast as the Token Evil Teammate for the series, with all the Plot Armor to be expected if he were one of the good guys. After a Face Realization in the final arc, Vegeta makes a Heroic Sacrifice that was once again intended to have him Killed Off for Real, but once again his popularity has him brought Back from the Dead again, but by this point he's made a full Heel–Face Turn so the trope no longer applies.
• Just Toying with Them:
  • During his fight with Goku in the Saiyan Saga, he enjoys toying with him at first, thinking Goku's just good enough to give him a decent challenge. But once Goku breaks out the x3 Kaio-ken and beats him around, Vegeta's done playing around.
  • In the Cell Saga, he toys with Semi-Perfect Cell at first, to the point he soon gets bored and stupidly allows him to become Perfect so he can get a better challenge. Once Cell reaches his Perfect form, he wastes no time returning the favor.
• Kamehame Hadoken: His Galick Gun and Final Flash.
• Karma Houdini: Zigzagged. In terms of the overall story narrative, he comes off as a massive one, getting a spot on the team and marrying Bulma despite having spent most of his life as a genocidal, remorseless maniac and even committing plenty of outright murderous and Jerkass deeds even after he became a nominal ally to Goku and the Z Fighters. On the other hand, when he gets ready to blow himself up to kill Buu, he asks Piccolo if he'll see Goku in the afterlife, to which Piccolo replies that he's certainly going to hell for his past actions. He would have, if they hadn't decided to revive him because he was too useful to waste. Also, he doesn't entirely fit this category in the purest sense because he usually does tend to pay very dearly not long after he's done something either murderous, stupid, or douchey, getting beaten to an inch of his life (or occasionally getting outright killed) by characters like Zarbon, Recoome, Frieza, Android 18, Cell, and Majin Buu usually after he's done something like massacring innocent people or just something outright stupid like allowing the enemy to reach his full potential.
• Kick the Dog: He does this so often throughout Z that he might as well have had puppies tied to his shoes.
  • His speech to Gohan in the Frieza Saga about Goku's supposed death on Namek.
  • He has one much earlier with him kneeing Goku while he was down, right in front of Gohan when they were having a tender moment.
  • After Yamcha was killed by a Saibamen, Vegeta tells Krillin to clear the trash from the battle. Cues Krillin's berserk reaction.
  • He knees Gohan in the stomach on Namek for little reason but to be a dick, he even says he normally would've killed him if he wasn't in a good mood.
  • Punches Dende in the gut immediately after being healed by him for nearly letting him bleed out despite the fact Dende had every right to have reservations.
  • After Shenron revives all of the Namekians who were killed by Frieza and his men, the ones Vegeta killed are not revived as Vegeta was no longer one of Frieza's men; Vegeta outright laughs over this.
  • When Dr. Gero/Android #20 escaped making an energy wave attacking Bulma and Present Trunks, Vegeta didn't even bother trying to rescue them. When Future Trunks called him out on it, he responded he doesn't care about them.
  • Earlier, after saving Goku from Android 19, he finishes chewing Goku out for fighting with the heart virus and making it worse by literally kicking Goku over to Piccolo.
  • He punches Future Trunks in the gut for attempting to warn him about the dangers of 17 and 18, being vocally dismissive of anything Trunks has to say on top of that.
  • He later insults and strikes Future Trunks for attempting to prevent Cell from becoming perfect, not long after boasting about his son's strength to Semi-Perfect Cell, showing the comment was about his ego.
  • Again with Future Trunks, Vegeta gives Trunks a hard elbow to the gut for the crime of asking to help his father when he struggles against Bojack.
  • Also in the episode "Vegeta's Pride" when he effectively nukes numerous spectators in the World Martial Arts Tournament's stands just to get Goku to fight him.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: Vegeta loved doing this, especially during his days as a villain:
  • Vegeta brutally murders Nappa after he gets his back broken by Goku and is asking Vegeta for his help.
  • While Goku and Gohan are having a tender moment with Goku trying to encourage Gohan to fight Vegeta, he flies down and knees Goku in the stomach before rapidly kicking his head. Keep in mind, Goku is crippled since he had all his bones broken and is defenseless. In the dub, Vegeta even brags that the key of being a good villain is to find the right moment to do this.
  • Goku defeats two members of the Ginyu Force very easily, leaving them lying on the ground unconscious or in serious pain but still alive, not killing them even though they came very close to murdering his son and best friend (and also Vegeta). As he and his friends discuss the events on Namek, Vegeta suddenly murders both weakened fighters. Goku chews him out for this, saying they were no threat and couldn't even defend themselves but Vegeta (unsurprisingly) doesn't care.
• Knight of Cerebus: While King Piccolo's arc was dark, his defeat was a fairly simple matter of a 1v1 kung-fu fight and the damage he did was all undone by the end of the arc. He also had Laughably Evil and Pet the Dog moments in regards to his children. The arrival of Vegeta and his minions altered the tone significantly from the 23rd Budokai arc, a trend that stayed for a long time. The Saiyan arc remains to date the most serious arc in the franchise, with a brutal and hopeless tone and next to no comedic elements at all (even the Cell arc had Mr. Satan).
  • Previous villains usually had world conquest on their minds. Vegeta is introduced having already "exterminated" what could be countless planets worth of people. Unlike the people killed on Earth by the Red Ribbon Army and Piccolo, the vast majority of Vegeta's victims remain dead. Vegeta also brutally kills his own minions and due to his Social Darwinist philosophy, which visibly shocks the heroes, even Goku, who is no stranger to brutal villains at that point. He doesn't even share the other Saiyans' perverse sense of camaraderie.
  • Vegeta's the first villain that the latest plot power-up doesn't work on. When they do come up, Vegeta (or sometimes his minion) just beats the shit out of them and keeps going, with a single-minded desire to murder his opposition. The main hero admits defeat and is utterly unable to beat him. He spends most of the fight crumpled on the ground with Vegeta occasionally walking over to kick him in the ribs. Every hero who isn't already dead ends up beaten to shit by the time Vegeta is forced to leave. It's only by the pure luck of Oozaru Gohan falling on him that they finally manage to repel him, and even then, it's a Pyrrhic Victory that ends with most of the cast and roughly a city's worth of Earthlings dead.
• Knight in Sour Armor: He was more willing to fight with the good guys once the Android and Cell Arc began but was still very bitter, angry and hostile towards the protagonists, especially Goku. And his elitist view on how a Saiyan should be never changed even if it went against his own son's wishes and even if it created more problems than solutions as far as the plot went.
• Lack of Empathy: Prior to his Heel–Face Turn. Up to that point, the sheer extent of his cruelty disturbed even brutal Saiyan warriors like Nappa and Raditz. He coldly murdered his partner Nappa who asked him for help and refused to consider bringing Raditz back because he was unneeded for getting himself killed. He also laughed when the Namekians he killed weren't wished back because of how the wish was worded. Even when he wasn't technically evil anymore, he still doesn't give a clear damn about anyone but himself, including his own son from the future until said son was mortally wounded for him to really lose it. It wasn't until the Buu Saga that he would allow himself to show any empathy towards people and it's mostly because he became begrudgingly fond of them, which he saw as a weakness and was why he gave himself to Babidi. By the end of the series, he ''finally'' learned to truly care about someone other than himself.
• Lame Comeback: In Funimation's dub, to Android 18. "Sad for you!"
• The Lancer: After the Frieza arc, acting as a foil to the other protagonists.
• Large Ham: His ham level is OVER 9000!!!
• Laser-Guided Karma: Happens at least once per season of Z:
  • He creates a fake moon to turn into a Great Ape and nearly crush the life out of Goku. He is done in by Gohan turning into a Great Ape and nearly crushing him to death.
  • Vegeta loves to terrorize the people he fights by overwhelming them with his power and bring them to despair before they die. This is exactly what Frieza does to him before coldly murdering him.
  • He ignores Trunks' warnings about 17 and 18's strength, as well insulting and dismissing all the Z fighters during the appearance of the androids and being drunk on his newfound Super Saiyan power. He's immediately curb-stomped by Android 18.
  • He helps Cell to become perfect so he can have a better fight. He is promptly and mercilessly beaten up. Cell even toys with him, the exact same way Vegeta did to him earlier. In fact, the Funimation dub of the episode where he gets his ass kicked by Perfect Cell is actually titled "Vegeta Must Pay", which works as a double meaning: Vegeta pays for betraying his allies and Cell gets his revenge.
  • And probably the most vicious dose of karma of all, Vegeta sold his soul and killed thousands of people to get Goku to fight him. Not only is he not enough of a match for Buu, who he helped awaken, but Goku is still much stronger than him. Meaning he literally sold out his family, friends, and his own convictions for nothing. Even worse, when he is semi-revived, he is of no use to Goku power-wise outside of being fusion fodder and a distraction since he stands no chance against any form of Majin Buu. It's little wonder why Vegeta became more humble.
• Last of His Kind: After Goku's death during the Cell Saga, Vegeta became the last pure-blooded Saiyan in the universe (if you don't count Tarble, Broly, and Paragus).
• Leeroy Jenkins: When not using his head, he rushes into everything. Best displayed during the climax of the Cell Saga; after Cell regenerates From a Single Cell, returns to Earth, and kills Trunks, Vegeta goes full Papa Wolf on him, unleashing a vicious attack on him without warning. Cell promptly retaliates, beating Vegeta senseless, and Gohan has to save him from being killed, suffering a broken arm in the process.
• Leitmotif: Appropriately named "Hell's Bells".
• Lethal Chef: In Super, Vegeta, Prince of All Saiyans, cannot cook to save his life. He can't even break eggs without the stupid things shattering in his hands. The only thing he can cook is instant ramen noodles. Bulma even lampshades this trope though Vegeta quickly points on how she has no grounds to stand on this:

Bulma: (after seeing Vegeta fail to crack one egg into the bowl) Give it up Vegeta! We both know you never cooked a rice omelette in your life!
Vegeta: (Slightly enraged) You got some nerve criticizing my cooking skills Miss Microwave Dinner!

• Lethally Stupid: His overwhelming pride always manages to cause trouble for the universe. In this order, he goaded Frieza into transforming, let Cell absorb 18 and reach his Perfect form for the sake of a better challenge, and deliberately became one of Babidi's Majins to fight Goku despite full knowledge that it would resurrect Majin Buu. In all three cases, a planet ends up exploding^note first Namek, then King Kai's world, then the Earth itself, and in the case of Frieza and Buu, Vegeta got himself killed.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Serves as this to Frieza during the Namek Saga. Both are truly evil forces with plans on conquering the galaxy, with Dende even remarking Vegeta is hardly any better Frieza, but Vegeta nonetheless has a warrior's sense of pride, Villainous Valor, and is willing to work with the Z-Fighters against a common threat, while Frieza at his best is far more sadistic and cutthroat than Vegeta at his worst, and a Dirty Coward to boot. In fact, this is the entire reason Krillin agrees to make Vegeta immortal using the Dragon Balls, because while Vegeta is undoubtedly a monster, Frieza is just that much worse.
• Lightning Bruiser: Vegeta in his Great Ape form. He's as tall as a skyscraper and his power increases ten times over, yet he maintains his speed, making him both big and fast. He's also insanely fast when he decides to pull out any Super Saiyan form against an opponent.
• Little Bit Beastly: Like all Saiyans, Vegeta had a monkey tail when he was introduced, which he wrapped around his waist like a belt. He lost it after Yajirobe cuts it off.
• The Load:
  • Zigzagged. While he does do some useful things and is a highly competent fighter, his arrogance, stubborness and insecurity causes a LOT more problems than he fixes. He's actually responsible for every major story arc in the series. He was the Big Bad of the Saiyan saga, indirectly tipped Frieza off about the Dragon Balls, let Cell absorb Android #18 so he could fight his perfect form, and agreed to Babidi's mind control to fight evenly with Goku, resulting in Buu being released. He usually makes up for it afterward by helping out against the Big Bad but oftentimes, it's his mistakes that made the confrontation necessary in the first place. He finally gets out of this habit in Super, only for his disaster-causing trait to get passed on to Goku.
  • The movies manage to avert this: While he does act unhelpful and uncooperative at times, he still contributes to every fight and manages to actually do good in some cases.
• Lord Country: Exaggerated. Vegeta was the prince of the planet Vegeta which his father, King Vegeta, ruled over.
• Love Is a Weakness: Part of the reason he let Babidi turn him into a Majin during the Buu Saga: he believed his love for his wife and son was hindering his goal of surpassing Goku. He later realizes he had it backward; it was his goal of surpassing Goku that hindered his love for his wife and son. Ironically, this realization and subsequent lifestyle change ends up getting him closer to Goku's strength than ever before in Super.
• Lunacy: The Oozaru transformation. He's at his strongest under a full moon. In the absence of one Vegeta can transform by creating a "false moon" but doing so drains his might so he really does not get the full power boost.(ideally, another elite warrior would make a false moon and let his fellow soldiers do the fighting, but as Zarbon emphasized, that strategy is no longer valid thanks to Frieza)

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