Freeza's knowledge of Vegeta's defiance

[balrog]

I was watching the Season two dvds today, and I was really surprised about how Vegeta was openly defiant against Freeza. Before, I thought he just didn’t like him (before he found out he blew up Vegeta). So my question is: 1; how long was Vegeta disobeying Freeza, and 2; why didn’t Freeza try to kill him a whole lot earlier? Or am I completely off, and did Vegeta just start to rise against Freeza when he figured out that he was also going to Namek to look for the dragonballs?

[Tyro]

2; why didn’t Freeza try to kill him a whole lot earlier?

As Zarbon put it, "What master Freeza dreaded was a union of all the Saiya-jins! Alone you are nothing!!" Freeza specifically picked a time Vegeta wasn't on planet Vegeta when he destroyed it. I suppose he recognized Vegeta's great power, as Vegeta stated he surpassed his father, the king, when he was only a child, and decided to use him. He probably never thought Vegeta would get the auto-evolving mechanisms he eventually does get, as Vegeta's base power after all the years planet Vegeta blew up was just around 18,000.

[Hero 004]

Vegeta always planned to continually become more powerful until he knew he was more powerful than Freeza and could destroy him; as revealed in a flashback where he is talking to Nappa and Raditz.

I think Freeza always knew that Vegeta was in some way defiant, even though Vegeta didn't know that he destroyed the planet, but relied on Vegeta's fear of him to keep him in check. Vegeta was a useful tool as were the other two saiyans under his command. That's all I've got.

[Adamant]

why didn’t Freeza try to kill him a whole lot earlier?

I assume Freeza simply thought "He's a lot stronger than most of my underlings, so as long as he's just plotting around while still doing his job, I'll leave him alone. I'm powerful enough to kill him with my little finger if he ever tries anything anyway, so it's not like I'm in any sort of danger."

If they can't hurt you anyway, why care what they think of you as long as they're of use?

[zoiozazu]

2; why didn’t Freeza try to kill him a whole lot earlier?

As Zarbon put it, "What master Freeza dreaded was a union of all the Saiya-jins! Alone you are nothing!!".

Freeza was afraid of the SuperSaiyan as well, or this is what the Gnyu Forces think...

[Terra-jin]

Freeza was afraid that a Super Saiyan would rise from the Saiyan race as a whole. He thought that if he let them evolve much longer the possibility for a SSj would arise. This is why Freeza initially didn't care about individual survivors, until he saw how fast Vegeta and Gohan were advancing (not to mention Goku).