When did you start liking Vegeta?

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TheRed259
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When did you start liking Vegeta?

Post by TheRed259 » Mon Mar 25, 2019 2:23 pm

For me it was when Vegeta fought Cui on Namek.

I really liked how he impressed everyone with his new powers. His scream was intense and some scouters exploded because of his power level.

The fact that he admits he learned something from Earth was also a plus. And of course, he is against the main villain of this new arc.

So when did you start liking him?

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Re: When did you start liking Vegeta?

Post by TheBigBoy » Mon Mar 25, 2019 2:32 pm

During his first fight on Earth. He's just such a tough, tenacious bastard. I love him on Namek too, using his wits to isolate Freeza's forces and steal the Dragon Balls. It's only after he gets drunk off the idea that he's the Super Saiyan that he starts making bad decisions. His character arc culminates perfectly with his death and realizing that Goku is the guy, not him. He's never quite that interesting again and in all honesty probably should have stayed dead.

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Re: When did you start liking Vegeta?

Post by JohnnyCashKami » Mon Mar 25, 2019 2:42 pm

I on!y liked Vegeta when he was his true self, the cold-hearted, villainous Saiyan we were introduced to. So, it was during the Saiyan arc, Freeza arc (when he went on about the Saiyan pride), Majin Boo arc (during his time as Majin Vegeta) and.. Duplicate Vegeta (Super). The real Vegeta departed a long time ago.

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Re: When did you start liking Vegeta?

Post by ABED » Mon Mar 25, 2019 2:46 pm

The final fight of the Saiyan arc. Vegeta is such a tough SOB and refuses to die.
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Re: When did you start liking Vegeta?

Post by Forte224 » Mon Mar 25, 2019 3:05 pm

ABED wrote: Mon Mar 25, 2019 2:46 pm The final fight of the Saiyan arc. Vegeta is such a tough SOB and refuses to die.
I will wholeheartedly agree. I felt it was executed better than Freeza's toughness and refusal to die for sure. I also like him during the Namek arc though, where he's planning, conniving, teaming up with Gohan and Kuririn one second and threatening to kill them the next. That arc up to Freeza (ironically) is so much fun, largely due to Vegeta's actions.

Design wise I prefer his look during the latter half of the Namek arc. His modeling in general and his new armor look good.

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Re: When did you start liking Vegeta?

Post by sunsetshimmer » Mon Mar 25, 2019 3:06 pm

I liked Vegeta when he changed his attitude and could be considered a good person.
That is Buu saga and GT.

The worst and totally unlikeable version of Vegeta was in Cell saga.
He was interesting villain in Saiyan and Frieza sagas, but i still prefer him as protagonist.
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Re: When did you start liking Vegeta?

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Mon Mar 25, 2019 3:08 pm

I guess it was also in the Saiyan Saga. Gets beaten by Goku, is injured by the Spirit Bomb and gets crushed by Oozaru Gohan. Talk about being a tough motherfucker.
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Re: When did you start liking Vegeta?

Post by TheBlackPaladin » Mon Mar 25, 2019 3:16 pm

TheRed259 wrote: Mon Mar 25, 2019 2:23 pm For me it was when Vegeta fought Cui on Namek.

I really liked how he impressed everyone with his new powers. His scream was intense and some scouters exploded because of his power level.

The fact that he admits he learned something from Earth was also a plus. And of course, he is against the main villain of this new arc.

So when did you start liking him?
The first episode of DBZ that I ever saw was this episode that you mentioned...and, as it turns out, this episode was also the point at which I decided I liked Vegeta. Having tuned into DBZ for the first time, I didn't know who was who, but I got the impression that Freeza was the "main" bad guy, and that Vegeta was a bad guy himself...who was going up against the other bad guys.

I know the show is aimed at young boys and, as such, not meant to be especially deep, but that kind of moral relativism was not something I was accustomed to seeing on TV as a kid. The whole idea that there was this badass bad guy who went rogue against the other bad guys, but was still not a good guy himself...I remember thinking, "I don't know who this guy is...but he's cool. I like him!"
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Re: When did you start liking Vegeta?

Post by ABED » Mon Mar 25, 2019 3:20 pm

That one fight is so well executed. I'm not a fan of "tough" people whose way to show toughness is not budging after getting hit. I like seeing people take an ass kicking and keep getting up. Still, it has to be believable. Freeza gets cut in half, blasted by Goku, and if that wasn't enough, he survives Namek's explosion with a good chunk of his brain gone. Too far. The Vegeta fight hit that sweet spot. He's evil, but surviving what he did is admirable.

There was a thread about evil Goku, but Vegeta is basically Goku's foil. He shares his love of battle and an overwhelming desire to be the best, but also has the barbarism of the Saiyan race.
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Re: When did you start liking Vegeta?

Post by MasenkoHA » Mon Mar 25, 2019 3:32 pm

.....Started?

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Re: When did you start liking Vegeta?

Post by Lord Beerus » Mon Mar 25, 2019 4:17 pm

When he effortlessly killed Nappa and established his dominance and ruthlessness.

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Re: When did you start liking Vegeta?

Post by Kinokima » Mon Mar 25, 2019 4:36 pm

I know I will be the ONLY one to say this but in the Cell saga

Note: I did not initially watch DBZ is order. Watched the Saiyan saga from my friends tapes, did not get hooked. Then my Friends introduced me to the Future Trunks saga and Cell Saga and this is when I became a fan. And yes it was because of Vegeta. I was intrigued that the villain from the first arc somehow became a father

I then went back and watched the Freeza saga and then saw the Buu Saga


I just want to clarify I didn’t like Vegeta in the Cell Saga because I thought he was a great guy or really cool. I liked him because he was extremely flawed but I saw potential for him to become something better.


Even though he does show he cares for Trunks at the end of the Cell Saga I don’t think he truly reaches that potential until the Buu Saga. So yes my favorite Vegeta in Z is still Buu Vegeta (namely from Final Atonement on). It was Cell Vegeta that made me a fan

And while I understand people disliking Vegeta in the Cell arc (he isn’t supposed to be likable) I don’t understand why people can’t see that he was a greatly written character here. That his flaws and the major mistakes he made in this arc are essential to his growth of a character


And it also weird for me that people love Majin Vegeta. who was also Vegeta at his very worst. But that doesnt mean I think Vegeta is poorly written here, quite the opposite


And going back now I do like Vegeta as a villain to but because who Vegeta was in the past impacted who the character is today. If he had stayed a villain no I would not be a fan.

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Re: When did you start liking Vegeta?

Post by jamiljamtheman » Mon Mar 25, 2019 4:40 pm

Baby (in Gohan's body): you wouldn't hurt your friend's son, now would you?

Vegeta (grinning): what makes you say that?
(Not exact wording)

GT was my first dragon Ball show, so that's where my first moment I liked him comes from. Other notable ones are the shaved moostache and the "you hit my Bulma" scene from BoG. Then it was some of his excellent entrances in the dbz movies.

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Re: When did you start liking Vegeta?

Post by SuperSaiyaManZ94 » Mon Mar 25, 2019 4:41 pm

I'd say it would be somewhere around the Cell or Buu arc, once his antagonistic traits really had begun to lessen and the first shades of him becoming a better person started to take root.
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Re: When did you start liking Vegeta?

Post by TheZFighter » Mon Mar 25, 2019 4:59 pm

I liked Vegeta right from the off, largely due to his design and sense of pride, but I have to say its only as I've got older that I've really grown to appreciate how great he is.

The change in his character towards the end of the Buu Saga as he becomes a "better person" is so satisfying.
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Re: When did you start liking Vegeta?

Post by PFM18 » Mon Mar 25, 2019 10:35 pm

I've pretty much always liked Vegeta from the very beginning of my knowledge of the character's existence. However, I find his character arc in the Buu arc to be grossly overrated and it left a sour taste in my mouth by the time of the end of the original run of the series. I didn't start actually loving the character until Super to be quite frank. I feel they managed to balance his character growth and more moralistic and family-oriented values with his core traits like his conviction, his pride as a Saiyan and his competitive nature with Goku, extremely well.

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Re: When did you start liking Vegeta?

Post by MajinMan » Tue Mar 26, 2019 12:16 am

To me it’s more appropriate to say when I STOPPED liking Vegeta. I’ve pretty much always liked Vegeta. Sure he got annoying in the Cell arc, but I never started to hate the character because of that. Then came Super and the ToP arc. For the first time in my life I started to hate Vegeta, and wished he wasn’t on screen. I felt he got completely butchered and turned into a literal shell of himself for 50 straight episodes. I think the new Moro arc is doing a much better job with him, so I may come around to liking him again.
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Re: When did you start liking Vegeta?

Post by linkdude20002001 » Tue Mar 26, 2019 6:39 am

Huh... I don’t think I EVER like’t Vegeta (as a Z Soldier). Maybe as a villain, I like’t him, tho. He was pretty terrifying on Earth. The threat he posed was annihilation of the entire population, and even the planet itself. Nothing had ever been that serious before. On Namek, he wasn’t the big, scary threat anymore. Basically once we saw Freeza, he’d been replaced. Why bother fearing Vegeta when Freeza is obviously the true villain of the story arc?
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Re: When did you start liking Vegeta?

Post by Gyt Kaliba » Tue Mar 26, 2019 10:25 am

It looks like I might be in the minority here, but for me? I didn't really start to truly 'like' Vegeta until Battle of Gods.

Don't get me wrong, he's an effective enough villain in his original arc. I don't really have any complaints with him there (though one of my issues with him as a character in older material definitely shows it's ugly head during his fight with Goku just the same). And on Namek, he's definitely a more engaging character, with all of the plotting and backstabbing he's doing. But...then comes the Androids/Cell era, and my god, does he get insufferable. His habit of just raging about 'I'M THE BEST!' only to get smacked away and whine 'BUT I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE BEST!' is at it's absolute peak worst in this arc. And it almost always seems to boil down to his same answer of 'whine, throw a ton of basic energy blasts at opponent, get shocked it doesn't work, get taken out'. The gimmick just doesn't work for me, at all. For what it's worth though, I do like and appreciate his growth at the end of the Cell Games. It's just not enough to really save him for me.

*sigh* And then, the Boo arc rolls along, and decides to find a way to make Vegeta even more frustrating for me. Things seem a little better at first, especially once Goku's on his way back into the mix of things, and we're going to get to see a re-match between the two of them! And we do get that re-match, but at the expense of Vegeta's character. His decision to allow Babidi to enchant him just so he can get more powerful is easily the most infuriating, backstepping moment in Vegeta's entire arc for me. For someone so full of pride, who even declares that he will never let go of that pride...he sacrifices that pride in the most stupid way possible. And 'I'm going to give up my family that I kinda love now just so I can fight Kakarot who I know is TOTALLY stronger than me but I can't let that stand!' isn't just egotistical, it's...it's stupid. Vapidly stupid. And it makes me hate Vegeta in this arc ALMOST more than I do in the Cell arc. The saving grace though again comes at the end of the arc, and unlike with Cell, this time it's done with enough flair and actually affects more in the long run that it actually halfway saves his involvement in the arc for me a little better. Vegeta's coming to terms that he might not ever surpass Goku is easily one of his finest moments.

Disregarding GT (where what little we get of Vegeta, I like okay I suppose), that moves us right on in to the Super era. Battle of Gods started the journey by giving us a Vegeta who is willing to bear the embarrassment of his infamous 'bingo dance' to try and placate Beerus so that he doesn't kill them all. Couple that with the equally infamous 'My Bulma!' moment, and we've got a Vegeta that I can actually enjoy at long last. He's no longer just an arrogant prick who constantly makes the situation worse, he's a stern guy who still has his overall pride, but is willing to not let every single little slight against him make him turn into a complete dumbass. The Super retelling of Battle of Gods adds onto his character growth in a way I appreciate as well. Having Vegeta remember his acknowledgement of Goku as number one, and ponder why Goku is still training if he's already the strongest, and come to the realization that that must mean there's strength yet to be gained and therefore he might be under Goku now but it doesn't have to be that way? It allows Vegeta to get his own drive to get stronger back, and allows him to reinstate his rivalry with Goku, but now it's coming from a much, much healthier and far less egotistical place. Now he just wants to get stronger for the sake of getting stronger, as well as to protect his friends and family, rather than just 'I'M THE PRINCE, I HAVE TO BE THE BEST, RARGH!'. And all of that makes for a far more enjoyable Vegeta to me - though I suppose I have to admit, it's only as enjoyable as it is because we had to get through all the other BS with him first. So it all comes together, I suppose.

TL;DR: I find the original version of Vegeta to be far more aggravating and annoying when compared to the newer take on him, though I might be alone on that. :P
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Re: When did you start liking Vegeta?

Post by Robo4900 » Tue Mar 26, 2019 11:20 am

I've always liked him. He was a fun villain, then a devious antihero, then across the Cell and Boo arcs, he experienced some very interesting developments that took him to so many places, with no one point you could declare as a single moment where he became "One of the goodguys", just several times where he showed his progress. GT continued things a little, with him kind of living the aftermath of where he ended up after the Boo arc, which was neat to see for an ending to the story.

So, IMO he was always good.

Though, I really hate modern Dragon Ball's attempts to back-peddle parts of his Cell/Boo-era character development. Really irks me. One of many instances of modern Dragon Ball taking some kind of pop culture osmosis simulacrum version of a character, rather than actually continuing that character's progression from where they were in the Boo arc, and it invariably ends with a far less interesting portrayal of the character. (See also: Super Goku's idiocy)
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