Vegeta's Feud with Goku is not unrealistic nor insane

[DarthJupiter]

One of the criticism's towards the franchise is how unrealistic Vegeta is in regards to his feud with Goku and how insane it is. Specifically how long it lasts and how he continues it even onto the Buu arc in which he already has a family with Bulma and Trunksis a ten year old.

Now I must say before you go on reading what I posted, I have a movie recommendation to make. Go watch the movie The Duelist. The director of Gladiator, Ridley Scott, directed this movie so thats rrason enough alone for many action fans to watch it. But it shows Vegeta isn't anywhere closse to insane in regards to his feud. I wish I can post details because the plot makes Vegeta seem like a completely normal person in comparison by Western standards of morality.

With that said, there is a reason why Vegeta would spend around a decade holding his grudge against Goku for his defeats back when Nappa was still his buddy.

To start with the culture Vegeta comes from is what anthropologists and sociologists call an "honor culture". In this culture feuding is basically not only the norm but its expected you immediately react to someone who called you a chicken by getting your knife and stabbing him to death. Hell witnessing a guy flirting with your sister often gets the response of you shooting him because you have the responsibility of defending her "purity".

It is precisely the honor-based psychology why many Islamic cultures in particular Arabic countries and Afghanistan are so violent and into feuding. Because in their world, you don't respond to an insult by violence, you will be sending the signal that your family is weak and open season to be targetted for rape, murder, and captured and sold as slavery. In the Arabs and other honor culture, by killing a man who cut in front of you in line, you're telling everyone else in town that you guarantee you will kill them if they tried to kidnap your little brother to sell him to slavery. Because in these places even just walking away from someone taunting you is the go signal to burn down your home or something.

The Saiyans are shown tobe predominantly an honor culture. If you have to kill someone for making a joke about your mama because being humiliated in public will convince other people to harm your family, just imagine how great the consequences will be if you're defeated in a duel and you have the reputation of biggest MOFO in town........... Which is why Vegeta had to avenge his defeat with Goku! He believes if he never defeats Goku, he will always have a weak reputation and that will target him and his loved ones to be targeted by Predators (even stupid small fries with a sense of grandiose such as Nappa)! Because he's so powerful this sounds so silly but that is how life is in honor cultures if you get defeated. Even if you're a master swordsmen and continues to kill anyone who gets the smart idea of trying to rape your wife after a single defeat, if should you decide to leave town for a business troop or some other thing requiring you not to be around at home, other guys in town will try to move in against your household (unless you have another capable warriors to deter them while you're gone). Which leads to another point.....

Even more specific in Vegeta's case, Vegeta comes from the Saiyan aristocracy. Not just any, but he is the SON of the KING of the Saiyans and his family has been the ruling dynasty for a while and had the reputation of hands down strongest Saiyans for generations! Even, if we assume King Vegeta is the first and only king so far from his family line, that is still huge position to be born into.......

As the Bardock prequel and how other Saiyans ahve treated Gokus has shown, Saiyan society seems to have a very strict social hierarchy with plenty of rules of how each person in each class should behave. And since Saiyan society is shown to be primarily based on rule of the strongest, anyone below is probably treated like worse than human poop. At least treated as barely human (which was the case in Japanese civilization for Japanese peasants and merchants for thousands of year before the American occupation).

So BASICALLY Vegeta is defending his sacred birthright and duties as heir to his family! Even if Saiyan society was not based on survival of the fittest and Vegeta did not care about being the strongest, the simple fact he's an aristocrat who lost to a descendant to peasants is something beyond insulting, something worse than death. Just by manner of being not just an aristocrat, but the PRINCE of his people, he'd have to avenge his defeat.

This sounds really stupid to us today but in the past, not only where even minor aristocrats (knights, hoplites, Chinee scholars, etc) seen as intrinsically superior to anyone born below especially peasants. To the point it was believed they had the divine right to rule granted by God, or in some civilizations like the Greek, even seen as being the descendants of demigods or even the religious pantheon. They were seen as potentially being inured with magical powers (or as seen in the Hindus, even having magical properties such as blood that can cure diseases).

It was for this reason why any peasant trying to rise through the ranks was usually killed, but even a peasant showing to be superior to a minor noble and even wealthy non-aristocrats (merchants, clerks, professional soldiers) at one thing such as running speed or art knowledge or skill in dancing was often seen as blasphemy . Peasants for literally put to death for knowing more about the Bible than kings or beating a local chieftain's son in wrestling or even simply becoming richer than a Korean Yangban.

Since Vegeta's culture valued fighting prowess above all, it is the ultimate disruption of Saiyanm culture and sociology for Goku to have beaten him. Basically this is an insult so great that other Saiyan aristocrats and even a good chunk of the Saiyan populace would have supported Vegeta in trying to avenge his defeat rather than crowning Goku as king even if Goku was known to become the first Super Saiyan.

I kid you not, this has happened so much in history. There was even a Shogun whom the warlords and even some of the peasants wanted to expel merely because he did not have Bushi blood even though he proved a capable leader and its only a combination of his outstanding rulership and his aggressive use of his armies against dissenters that he was able to maintain power, he even made the social classes even more rigid in his reign!

Vegeta is showcasing human social stratification as it had been for the last thousands of years in his obsession to avenge his defeat from Goku.

Last but not least, there is a certain personality type with the need to win. We're not talking about clinically insane or upbringing (like I mentioned above). We are talking about 100% normal people as diagnosed by psychologists who come from loving families and raised under pacifist religious upbringing and humanism. These personalities are just naturally aggressive and obsessed with winning even without culture, upbringing, and mental illnesses. No amount of bribes, begging from loved ones, and even threat of police can make them stop because their whole mind revolves around the need to win Basically jocks are the minor version of this personality and Vegeta is the far most extreme manifestation with plenty of (psychologically normal) hardcore criminals in between.

Even if he came from a typical commoner background, I can't help but believe Vegeta would still hold a long long grudge. As history shows, many American figures hold grudges and would not speak with a relative for years for perceived betrayal and there are historical people who tried not five but 20 attempts to kill someone in a duel for a past offense from not two, not five, not even 10, but 20 years ago. These are real life figures who shaped America's history we are talking about but they held grudges and went at attempt even longer than Vegeta had!

Now I must mention again go watch The Duelist to see a very realistic (and even more insane) attempt at holding grudges and trying to avenge old defeats just to see how ingrained Vegeta's attitude is within human nature.

What do you think?

[ricky84]

All of this true and I'm surprised others in this form haven't caught on this yet.