Vegeta's recurring injury.

[Hitiro]

As a lot of people will remember in Vegeta's fight against #18 she did a pretty bad number on Vegeta's left arm. Later throughout the story we see Vegeta holding his left arm if he's received quite a beating. So, do you guys think this was an intentional recurring thing in the series in reference to that battle? Some part of me says that the senzu bean he took should have healed him completely but it might be possible that it didn't restore the bone properly, due to age or whatever other factors could affect the recuperative powers of the senzu bean. What do you guys think?

[SuperSaiyan3Goku]

Kaboom was mentioning this in the Daizex chat, and since he doesn't want to waste his 10,000th post, he called on me.

When you think about it, the left arm just seems to be one of Toriyama's favorite spots upon which to inflict major injuries on the characters.

-King Piccolo disabled Goku's left arm, but not his right, which was his undoing.
-Piccolo got his left arm blasted off by Raditz.
-Along with his lower half, Freeza chopped off his own left arm.
-Future Gohan lost his left arm to the Androids, and SSj2 Gohan likewise had his left arm critically injured by Cell.
-When Piccolo chopped him in half, Bobbidi lost his left arm along with his lower half much like Freeza did.

[Hitiro]

Kaboom was mentioning this in the Daizex chat, and since he doesn't want to waste his 10,000th post, he called on me.

When you think about it, the left arm just seems to be one of Toriyama's favorite spots upon which to inflict major injuries on the characters.

-King Piccolo disabled Goku's left arm, but not his right, which was his undoing.
-Piccolo got his left arm blasted off by Raditz.
-Along with his lower half, Freeza chopped off his own left arm.
-Future Gohan lost his left arm to the Androids, and SSj2 Gohan likewise had his left arm critically injured by Cell.
-When Piccolo chopped him in half, Bobbidi lost his left arm along with his lower half much like Freeza did.

Yes, but that is when a character actually gets noticeably hurt in that location like all of the examples that were mentioned. It may be just lack of sleep or I'm bad at remembering but I can't think of any fights the he visually shows one of the characters hurt in this manor unless he demonstrates the injury such as the examples you just provided. However, Vegeta just gets beaten around a bit without any clear indication that his left arm was attacked and he always seems to come back to holding it which leads me to believe that it's a recurring pain that acts up when he fights. Much in the same way Frodo Baggings is in pain every now and then from being stabbed by the Witch-king of Angmar.

[Chuquita]

Isn't Toriyama himself left-handed? If so, choosing the left arm over the right (consciously or subconsciously) so often might have more of an impact to him, especially so to someone who uses that hand to draw/earn money doing so.

[Son_Gohan]

Vegeta has been seen clutching that left arm as early back as his encounter with Recoome on Namek.

He's been healed not just by Senzu beans, but also by Dende's restorative powers, revived with the Dragonballs, and even granted a dead body. If it is a recurring injury, then it is IMPOSSIBLE for him to recover, evidently.

[TrunksTrevelyan0064]

Vegeta has been seen clutching that left arm as early back as his encounter with Recoome on Namek.

He's been healed not just by Senzu beans, but also by Dende's restorative powers, revived with the Dragonballs, and even granted a dead body. If it is a recurring injury, then it is IMPOSSIBLE for him to recover, evidently.

Maybe it's like a scar. Neither Yamcha's nor Tenshinhan's scars disappear whenever they munch on some Senzu.