It’s honestly kind of amazing just how important Vegeta has become in the context of Dragon Ball’s greater narrative. Introduced as the main villain in the seventh arc of a ten arc manga, Vegeta went on to quickly dominate the story’s screen time, even surpassing Goku in the Cell saga. By the end of the Buu saga, he was the series🗹’ definitive deuteragonist, standing tall next to Goku right to the very end. Naturally, Vegeta’s something of a fan favorite in the franchise, consistently charting popularity polls. Of course, being such a popular character likewise means that few fans actually understand him.
A good chunk of the praise thrown of Vegeta is quite superficial. People want to see him defeat the main bad guys and surpass Goku in terms of power, but those two things never happening is exactly what makes Vegeta a good character. The moment Vegeta defeats a main antagonist or permanently surpasses Goku is the moment Dragon Ball loses its soul and Vegeta loses what makes him compelling. He’s a character wi🌌th a lot of depth, but he didn’t start that way. As a result, some fans get attached to that early depiction of Vegeta, so bitter and eager to be better. That isn’t reall♎y him, though. Vegeta is more than his rivalry.
25 🐬 💃 Vegeta Has Never Lost To Goku
Believe it or not, Goku has never actually beaten Vegeta nor has Vegeta ever actually beaten Goku. Both of their original series fights end not exactly with Vegeta as the victor, as he does lose in his own right which we’ll touch upon later, but not exactly the loser either. At least in regards to✅ Goku.
He's 2-2 so far.
In their first fight, Goku wins the beam struggle but doesn’t have any energy left to fight off Vegeta, effectively losing. In their rematch, the fight never actually ends. Vegeta asks Goku to stop and then knocks him out while he’s𓆏 distracted, choosing to fight on his rival’s behalf. That said, Vegeta never losing to Goku isn’t really a big deal.
24 Whꦉich Actually Isn’t The Point Of Their Rivalry
Mainly because their rivalry isn’t built on the idea that Vegeta has ever explicitly lost to Goku. Rather, their whole rivalry revolves around the fact that Vegeta feels like 🧸he personally couldn’t keep up with Goku when he, by all accounts, should have defeated him easily. Even if Vegeta w꧟on, it wouldn’t be enough.
In Vegeta’s eyes, and for a very long time at that, he saw Goku as inherently lesser. As a low-class warrior, Goku should never have been able to keep up with Vegeta, let alone surpass him. Vegeta sincerely believes that he is entitled to be definitively stronger in every sense, but he ca🐻n’t seem to keep up. That’s what drives their rivalry.
23 Super Saiyan Evolಌution Isn’t Stronger Than Super Saiyan Blue Kaioken
One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the anime’s version of the Tournament of Power is that Vegeta’s🎐 Super Saiyan Evolution puts him on the same level as Ultra Instinct -Omen- Goku. While a fine enough idea, in theory, Super Saiyan Evolut⛎ion has been confirmed equal to Super Saiyan Blue Kaioken.
SSE's got nothing on SSBKK.
Even without direct confirmation, Super Saiyan Evolution’s showing in the Tournament of Power was re𒅌ally no better꧃ than Super Saiyan Blue Kaioken. Vegeta arguably did even worse against Jiren than Goku did before he got Ultra Instinct. This is to say nothing of Jiren straight up holding back.
22 ꧋ Vegeta Gets The Last Word In൩ The Manga
One of the biggest bones Toriyama threw Vegeta was in the manga’s Kanzenban rerelease. Ra♐ther than simply ending the series on Goku flying away to train Uub, one lone panel remains at the very end where Vegeta exclaims that he’ll go on to surpass Goku even still, and that marks the very end of the series.
While an interesting final battle, let’s try to imagine what it means. This could be Toriyama’s way of reconciling GT’s existence into the manga continuity by hinting that the series defining rivalry isn’t over yet. Of course, the problem is that GT Vegeta doesn’t c🐈are about being Goku’s rival so it could just be Toriyama wanting to end on a less sentimental note.
21 GT Vegeta Is The Most Developed He’s Ever Been ꦯ
Speaking of Dragon Ball GT, although the series is far from well loved in the community, the anime only sequel actually does a much better job at writing Vegeta than Super does. Mainly because GT isn’t a𒅌fraid to actually let Vegeta be a developed character. Rather than falling back on his rivalry with Goku, he’s over it.
GT had to do something right.
This results in Vegeta actively teaming up with Go༒ku when necessary, spending more time with his family, and putting his pride on the sidelines at the end of the series to forgo training in favor of artificially pushing himself to Super Saiyan 4. Vegeta’s all grown up and he’s a far better c﷽haracter for it.
20 Toriyama Actually Does Like Vegeta ꦑ
For whatever reason, the fandom has latched onto this idea that Toriyama does not like Vegeta when this couldn’t be further𝓀 from the truth. Toriyama very clearly likes Vegeta a great deal, otherwise, he wouldn’t keep shoving him into the story front and center. Just look at how much Vegeta is used.
He’s the deuteragonist in the Freeza saga; gets the most screen time in the Cell arc; plays a major role in the ultimate defeat of Majin Buu; gets some good hits in against Beerus in Bat🎃tle of Gods; humiliates Freeza in Resurrection F; fights four out of U🌠niverse 6’s five fighters; defeats Goku Black; and gets a new form in the Tournament of Power.
19 Vegeta’s Chara🍰cteꦡr Arc In Super Isn’t Original
Although Vegeta does quite a bit of legwork in Dragon Ball Super, it perhaps is not for the best. Mainly due to the fact that his character arc in Super is blatantly a retread of his character arc from the original series. There is nothing original 🎃about his arc. In fact, it’s🍒 actually a regression for his character.
Not even GT was this derivative.
Rather than moving on from his rivalry with Goku, as the Buu saga implied, Vegeta is𒈔 back to lusting after his rival’s power and frothing at the mouth from not being stronger than him. All his big moments in the series are just references to the original series, like his final atonement. Vegeta’s arc was done better in the original series.
18 Vegeta F💙ights More Than Goku ✅
For the main character, Goku doesn’t actually fight all too often after the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai. Toriy🌺ama 🎃starts saving him for special moments. As a result, pretty much all of Goku’s fights end up being the best in the series, but they don’t happen as frequently as they once did. It perhaps goes without saying that this means Vegeta fights more than Goku.
In every single arc in the series, save🌸 for the anime’s version of the Tournament of Power, Vegeta has fought more than Goku. Vegeta fights almost all of Freeza’s men; the most forms of Cell; an🌠d 80% of Universe 6. There’s just no way Goku can keep up at this point in terms of sheer fight quantity.
17 Vﷺegeta Almost Never Loses
On that note, despite fighting so much, Vegeta rarely loses. Mind you, there are some fans who insist all Vegeta does is lose, but that’s only ever to the main antagonists. Vegeta has it really good when it comes to lesser villains. 𝓀He basically gets a free pass to 🃏dominate them with next to no consideration for the rest of the cast.
Seriously, Vegeta doesn't lose enough.
If it weren’t for Goku’s amazing track record in the first six-story arc, Vegeta’s win/loss ratio would be much higher than his rival’s at this point. Goku loses at an alarming frequency. If you’re a Vegeta fan and you co♚mplain about how much he loses, reevaluate and reconsider just how well he does.
16 🍬 Vegeta Does Not Care About The Saiyans
There is not a single moment in the series that even remotely implies some semblance of affection on Vegeta’s part towards the Saiyans. When Nappa wants to revive Raditz, Vegeta simply scoffs at the idea since Raditz was so weak. When Nappa wants to make Saiyan half breeds, Vegeta doesn🌜’t want to see the race revived.
Even in his final moments on Namek, Vegeta specifies to ♛Goku in complete clarity that he doesn’t hate Freeza for what he 🏅did to the Saiyans. He hates Freeza for what he did to himself. There is not a single part of Vegeta that cares for the Saiyan race outside of a conceptual sense that fuels his pride.