Does anyone else think that Vegeta joining the Dragon team was ridiculous in retrospect?

[MasenkoHA]

Goku also believed that Piccolo had changed and that he wasn’t really a bad guy anymore. There are a lot of context clues regarding the 23rd martial arts tournament that suggest this Piccolo is not as bad as the old one, Goku’s treatment of him kind of works in that framework.
https://imgur.com/a/ADyVkXv

Piccolo Jr. blew up an entire island and was behaving even more unhinged and violently than his original self. Once the veil of the tournament went away, mans lost his rocker. I need people to rewatch the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai and understand just how much Piccolo's behavior in the Saiyan saga even pre-Gohan sacrifice was already a massive departure. He goes from an absolute fucking lunatic speaking entirely in megalomaniacal monologues to a chill, stoic guy. Toei had to run interference and include a benevolent act to fill in the blanks, because otherwise the "My dad said you seemed less evil now" statement that even predates the Raditz ordeal feels like something Toriyama pulled on the spot just to accelerate his turn. Because nobody, least of all Goku, was actually treating Piccolo that way. Hell, Goku was probably more hostile towards Piccolo Jr, especially after he Mafuba'd Kami, then he was towards any other villain save Frieza and Raditz.

To be fair, it's possible Goku made the evaluation that new Piccolo wasn't as bad after about 5 years of him not causing any trouble.

But yeah Piccolo at the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai was shown to be every bit as sadistic as his original incarnation.

Kami-sama didn't even realized something had changed until Raditz was able to cross over to the other side to be judged by King Yama.

It was pretty much: Souls killed by him can know peace+ Willing to train Goku's son= Less Evil Piccolo?

[dragonballhero]

I'll say this much... I actually really owe a good deal of thanks to MistareFusion (or GafferTape, as they're known here). For literal YEARS after I rewatched the Majin Buu arc in the late 2000's/early 2010's, Vegeta elicited a feeling in me that I couldn't really place, but I just knew that, between the asinine bullshit he pulled in the Cell arc and the Majin Buu arc, it was definitely a negative feeling.

Cue me watching MistareFusion's Majin Buu arc review in 2022/2023 (can't remember exactly when I got into their content), and I FINALLY realize what it was about Vegeta that made me despise him following my watches of Cell and Majin Buu. The feeling I felt? Was that this asshole kept getting off INSANELY easy, despite all the crap he pulled in those arcs in particular. Like, life was throwing him SO many mulligans and he STILL couldn't keep himself in check when it would have REALLY counted.

I'd go as far as to say that, in the Cell arc? Everyone ELSE paid for his B.S. in a more substantial manner than he did.

Future Trunks (for all his efforts to keep his alternate dad alive) gets murdered by Cell for all his troubles and the Son family lives life without Goku for 7 years. What did Vegeta deal with? A broken spine and (apparently, FAR more importantly in Vegeta's eyes) his pride gets broken.

Come his sacrifice against Buu, and his death didn't stick anywhere NEAR as long as I would have liked. I WOULD taken perma-death for him, but this IS Dragon Ball.

[jjgp1112]

I think I've said this before, but I think a better conclusion to his character arc in the Buu saga would have been if he was excluded from the wish but shrugs and accepts it (dude was lowkey pissed he made the cut anyway ), but for his assistance in saving the universe King Yama put him on some Other World Work-Release-Probation-Community-Service deal or some shit that lasts a set amount of time, and Vegeta tells everyone don't bother wishing him back until he's fulfilled his duties, and the ten year timeskip could feature him finally being wished back.

[AliTheZombie13]

I'll say this much... I actually really owe a good deal of thanks to MistareFusion (or GafferTape, as they're known here). For literal YEARS after I rewatched the Majin Buu arc in the late 2000's/early 2010's, Vegeta elicited a feeling in me that I couldn't really place, but I just knew that, between the asinine bullshit he pulled in the Cell arc and the Majin Buu arc, it was definitely a negative feeling.

Cue me watching MistareFusion's Majin Buu arc review in 2022/2023 (can't remember exactly when I got into their content), and I FINALLY realize what it was about Vegeta that made me despise him following my watches of Cell and Majin Buu. The feeling I felt? Was that this asshole kept getting off INSANELY easy, despite all the crap he pulled in those arcs in particular. Like, life was throwing him SO many mulligans and he STILL couldn't keep himself in check when it would have REALLY counted.

I'd go as far as to say that, in the Cell arc? Everyone ELSE paid for his B.S. in a more substantial manner than he did.

Future Trunks (for all his efforts to keep his alternate dad alive) gets murdered by Cell for all his troubles and the Son family lives life without Goku for 7 years. What did Vegeta deal with? A broken spine and (apparently, FAR more importantly in Vegeta's eyes) his pride gets broken.

Come his sacrifice against Buu, and his death didn't stick anywhere NEAR as long as I would have liked. I WOULD taken perma-death for him, but this IS Dragon Ball.

Right, MistareFusion puts it in a much better way than I can ever hope to achieve with my grievances against Vegeta.
Highly recommend watching his Dragon Ball Dissection show.

[tonysoprano300]

Goku also believed that Piccolo had changed and that he wasn’t really a bad guy anymore. There are a lot of context clues regarding the 23rd martial arts tournament that suggest this Piccolo is not as bad as the old one, Goku’s treatment of him kind of works in that framework.
https://imgur.com/a/ADyVkXv

Piccolo Jr. blew up an entire island and was behaving even more unhinged and violently than his original self. Once the veil of the tournament went away, mans lost his rocker. I need people to rewatch the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai and understand just how much Piccolo's behavior in the Saiyan saga even prior to his sacrifice was already a massive departure. He goes from an absolute fucking lunatic speaking entirely in megalomaniacal monologues to a chill, stoic guy. Toei had to run interference and include a benevolent act to fill in the blanks, because otherwise the "My dad said you seemed less evil now" statement that even predates the Raditz ordeal feels like something Toriyama pulled on the spot just to accelerate his turn. Because nobody, least of all Goku, was actually treating Piccolo that way. Hell, Goku was probably more hostile towards Piccolo Jr, especially after he Mafuba'd Kami, then he was towards any other villain save Frieza and Raditz...and Vegeta when he kills the spectators.

Piccolo being civil enough and having the self-control to go through the tournament procedures doesn't make him any less evil - shit that's been the entire crux of my Vegeta argument for the last 8 million pages! That being evil doesn't mean every single breath you take is in the name of KILL EM ALL. His participation in the tournament is merely a function of this being a goofy manga where the world, and we eventually learn the entire multiverse, revolves around the culture of martial arts.

Yea he was definitely a bad guy, AFAIK it was never actually shown or implied that anyone died when he blew up the island. None of the characters behave as though he did but its not an unreasonable assumption I suppose.

I wouldn’t say that he was anywhere near as evil as the original, that guy is definitely not entertaining a tournament or accepting an L and walking away or being generally peaceful in the years leading up to the tournament etc. There are a multitude reasons that somewhat justify Goku’s reading of Piccolo.

[tonysoprano300]

I'll say this much... I actually really owe a good deal of thanks to MistareFusion (or GafferTape, as they're known here). For literal YEARS after I rewatched the Majin Buu arc in the late 2000's/early 2010's, Vegeta elicited a feeling in me that I couldn't really place, but I just knew that, between the asinine bullshit he pulled in the Cell arc and the Majin Buu arc, it was definitely a negative feeling.

Cue me watching MistareFusion's Majin Buu arc review in 2022/2023 (can't remember exactly when I got into their content), and I FINALLY realize what it was about Vegeta that made me despise him following my watches of Cell and Majin Buu. The feeling I felt? Was that this asshole kept getting off INSANELY easy, despite all the crap he pulled in those arcs in particular. Like, life was throwing him SO many mulligans and he STILL couldn't keep himself in check when it would have REALLY counted.

I'd go as far as to say that, in the Cell arc? Everyone ELSE paid for his B.S. in a more substantial manner than he did.

Future Trunks (for all his efforts to keep his alternate dad alive) gets murdered by Cell for all his troubles and the Son family lives life without Goku for 7 years. What did Vegeta deal with? A broken spine and (apparently, FAR more importantly in Vegeta's eyes) his pride gets broken.

Come his sacrifice against Buu, and his death didn't stick anywhere NEAR as long as I would have liked. I WOULD taken perma-death for him, but this IS Dragon Ball.

I actually found the funniest part of that arc to be when Porunga(a magical namekian Dragon) determines that Vegeta is worthy of resurrection. Vegeta only days prior had killed tons of innocent of people to pursue a petty fight, and consciously allowed the release of an ancient demonic creature to wreak havoc on the universe

Then is able to return and embrace Bulma despite nearly killing her at the world martial arts tournament lol, I feel they treat Vegeta more like a delinquent or a rascal than anything else

[dragonballhero]

Right, MistareFusion puts it in a much better way than I can ever hope to achieve with my grievances against Vegeta.
Highly recommend watching his Dragon Ball Dissection show.

I actually found the funniest part of that arc to be when Porunga(a magical namekian Dragon) determines that Vegeta is worthy of resurrection. Vegeta only days prior had killed tons of innocent of people to pursue a petty fight, and consciously allowed the release of an ancient demonic creature to wreak havoc on the universe

Then is able to return and embrace Bulma despite nearly killing her at the world martial arts tournament lol, I feel they treat Vegeta more like a delinquent or a rascal than anything else

For real, I thank GOD for MistareFusion. His DB Dissection series truly helps put into words and perspective some of my biggest grievances against DB that were difficult for me to express.

- Chi-Chi's sudden return into Goku's life feeling a bit 'hollow' and how it only seems to be a thing PRIMARILY to give Goku a child.
- Piccolo being Gohan's 'real dad' being nothing more than an unfunny meme
- Frieza holding back as often as he did.
- Bulma, out of NOWHERE, inviting Vegeta to stay at her place, despite having NO positive connection to him prior.
- On that same note, Toriyama going absolutely NUCLEAR on Yamcha's character to justify Bulma letting Vegeta knock her up (so on that front, he's technically going nuclear on BULMA'S character as well), thus allowing Trunks to exist.
- Goku staying dead for... VERY dubious reasons after Cell.
- Gohan's "death" at Buu's hands not making sense when you think about it for more than a minute.

And finally, the stream of insane bullcrap Vegeta pulls in the Cell arc and Majin Buu arc, with almost nobody meaningfully calling him out for his shit, being surrounded by nothing more than enablers who never at least consider the possibility that he MIGHT relapse. I know the Dragon Team isn't known for being proactive, but the fact that everyone (even some characters that he PERSONALLY slighted, like Dende) almost blindly trust him, despite knowing his history as a genocidal nutjob is just... look, I don't care if he 'behaved himself' for 7 years.

You DO NOT just sweep that kind of history under the rug and think 'Oh, he hasn't done anything questionable for 7 years. I'm sure he's doing fine and has NO baggage left to look into!'

Like I always say and will continue to say, Vegeta got off WAY too goddamn easy by the end of Toriyama's OG Dragon Ball story. I guess if there's ONE thing I can take solace in, it's the possibility that Vegeta might still be destined for Hell after everything he's done and even Toriyama at least had the idea to kill him off before readers claimed they wanted him to stick around.

[tonysoprano300]

Right, MistareFusion puts it in a much better way than I can ever hope to achieve with my grievances against Vegeta.
Highly recommend watching his Dragon Ball Dissection show.

I actually found the funniest part of that arc to be when Porunga(a magical namekian Dragon) determines that Vegeta is worthy of resurrection. Vegeta only days prior had killed tons of innocent of people to pursue a petty fight, and consciously allowed the release of an ancient demonic creature to wreak havoc on the universe

Then is able to return and embrace Bulma despite nearly killing her at the world martial arts tournament lol, I feel they treat Vegeta more like a delinquent or a rascal than anything else

For real, I thank GOD for MistareFusion. His DB Dissection series truly helps put into words and perspective some of my biggest grievances against DB that were difficult for me to express.

- Chi-Chi's sudden return into Goku's life feeling a bit 'hollow' and how it only seems to be a thing PRIMARILY to give Goku a child.
- Piccolo being Gohan's 'real dad' being nothing more than an unfunny meme
- Frieza holding back as often as he did.
- Bulma, out of NOWHERE, inviting Vegeta to stay at her place, despite having NO positive connection to him prior.
- On that same note, Toriyama going absolutely NUCLEAR on Yamcha's character to justify Bulma letting Vegeta knock her up (so on that front, he's technically going nuclear on BULMA'S character as well), thus allowing Trunks to exist.
- Goku staying dead for... VERY dubious reasons after Cell.
- Gohan's "death" at Buu's hands not making sense when you think about it for more than a minute.

And finally, the stream of insane bullcrap Vegeta pulls in the Cell arc and Majin Buu arc, with almost nobody meaningfully calling him out for his shit, being surrounded by nothing more than enablers who never at least consider the possibility that he MIGHT relapse. I know the Dragon Team isn't known for being proactive, but the fact that everyone (even some characters that he PERSONALLY slighted, like Dende) almost blindly trust him, despite knowing his history as a genocidal nutjob is just... look, I don't care if he 'behaved himself' for 7 years.

You DO NOT just sweep that kind of history under the rug and think 'Oh, he hasn't done anything questionable for 7 years. I'm sure he's doing fine and has NO baggage left to look into!'

Like I always say and will continue to say, Vegeta got off WAY too goddamn easy by the end of Toriyama's OG Dragon Ball story. I guess if there's ONE thing I can take solace in, it's the possibility that Vegeta might still be destined for Hell after everything he's done and even Toriyama at least had the idea to kill him off before readers claimed they wanted him to stick around.

For sure, I understand why fans identify so deeply with the character. In the first two arcs, Vegeta was awesome. He was cunning, pragmatic, viscous and a true unpredictable wild card, his death is deserved but ultimately a little tragic given how far he’s come.

His lashing out as Majin Vegeta was extremely childish but I guess a lot men can relate to the feeling of emptiness associated with not having the life you think you deserve. I've even seen people argue that Majin Vegeta had the saddest death in the series and while I couldn’t disagree more, I suppose that it does evoke some emotion on a surface level. If it didn’t come as a result of him acting like a toddler, it might have been impactful

[ABED]

I've even seen people argue that Majin Vegeta had the saddest death in the series and while I couldn’t disagree more, I suppose that it does evoke some emotion on a surface level.

I don't see people saying that it's sad. I see people say it's emotional. And it is. It's a compelling and beautiful arc. Vegeta is paying the ultimate price to do the right thing for no other reason than it's the right thing. He doesn't expect some karmic reward. The only way it does work is if to that point, he is acting like a toddler. He's not forgiven or redeemed, but he grew. And it wasn't regression to facilitate an arc, it was genuine progress. He had slowly become better over the course of the story. He went from genuinely not caring if his son lived or died to showing him physical affection. He finally found someone that truly mattered to him and died to protect it. He ultimately didn't succeed completely but there was value in the attempt.

[kemuri07]

I've even seen people argue that Majin Vegeta had the saddest death in the series and while I couldn’t disagree more, I suppose that it does evoke some emotion on a surface level.

I don't see people saying that it's sad. I see people say it's emotional. And it is. It's a compelling and beautiful arc. Vegeta is paying the ultimate price to do the right thing for no other reason than it's the right thing. He doesn't expect some karmic reward. The only way it does work is if to that point, he is acting like a toddler. He's not forgiven or redeemed, but he grew. And it wasn't regression to facilitate an arc, it was genuine progress. He had slowly become better over the course of the story. He went from genuinely not caring if his son lived or died to showing him physical affection. He finally found someone that truly mattered to him and died to protect it. He ultimately didn't succeed completely but there was value in the attempt.

I mean this. Absolutely this. Reading the Buu saga recently, Vegeta's death absolutely hits emotionally for the very things Abed says.

Saying that Vegeta gets off "easy" because no one yelled at him for it is kinda weird, especially when Vegeta pays for his arrogance and bad mistakes every step of the way.

[tonysoprano300]

I understand what they were going for but we really don’t see any of it and Vegeta’s atonement was so childish that its hard to take seriously, even for Dragon Ball standards. The entire thing is predicated on the Idea that Vegeta wants to fight Goku right at this moment instead of waiting to clear Babidi’s ship first.

What they should have done is make Babidi’s control of Vegeta more genuine, make it so that Vegeta actually did intend on preventing Buu’s awakening and that in a moment of desperation Babidi notices that Vegeta isn’t quite like the others. He detects the remnants of impurity, evil & resentment in his heart and then taps into it to bring out the worst aspects of Vegeta to the forefront. It still works because if Vegeta was as strong as the others then Babidi wouldn’t have been able to manipulate him.

[AliTheZombie13]

I understand what they were going for but we really don’t see any of it and Vegeta’s atonement was so childish that its hard to take seriously, even for Dragon Ball standards. The entire thing is predicated on the Idea that Vegeta wants to fight Goku right at this moment instead of waiting to clear Babidi’s ship first.

What they should have done is make Babidi’s control of Vegeta more genuine, make it so that Vegeta actually did intend on preventing Buu’s awakening and that in a moment of desperation Babidi notices that Vegeta isn’t quite like the others. He detects the remnants of impurity, evil & resentment in his heart and then taps into it to bring out the worst aspects of Vegeta to the forefront. It still works because if Vegeta was as strong as the others then Babidi wouldn’t have been able to manipulate him.

Right, it was a good idea on paper, but it was executed badly.
Vegeta hadn't given me enough to care about his change of heart.
Neither before nor after his sacrifice, he still keeps throwing temper tantrums and sabotaging the team.

[Majin Buu]

What they should have done is make Babidi’s control of Vegeta more genuine, make it so that Vegeta actually did intend on preventing Buu’s awakening and that in a moment of desperation Babidi notices that Vegeta isn’t quite like the others. He detects the remnants of impurity, evil & resentment in his heart and then taps into it to bring out the worst aspects of Vegeta to the forefront. It still works because if Vegeta was as strong as the others then Babidi wouldn’t have been able to manipulate him.

What I don't like about this is that there's no active personal failing on Vegeta's part. The fact that Vegeta actively chose to play into Babidi's hand is what gives that twist much of its impact.

The impact is dulled if he's simply taken by Babidi against his will with no agency on his part.

[ABED]

What they should have done is make Babidi’s control of Vegeta more genuine, make it so that Vegeta actually did intend on preventing Buu’s awakening and that in a moment of desperation Babidi notices that Vegeta isn’t quite like the others. He detects the remnants of impurity, evil & resentment in his heart and then taps into it to bring out the worst aspects of Vegeta to the forefront. It still works because if Vegeta was as strong as the others then Babidi wouldn’t have been able to manipulate him.

What I don't like about this is that there's no active personal failing on Vegeta's part. The fact that Vegeta actively chose to play into Babidi's hand is what gives that twist much of its impact.

The impact is dulled if he's simply taken by Babidi against his will with no agency on his part.

Exactly this. In the proposed scenario, Vegeta is clean and sober but Babidi shoves the junk into Vegeta's veins against his will. In the show, he simply puts the drugs in front of Vegeta.

Vegeta is a guy who for years went around the galaxy looting and killing without a care in the world beyond getting stronger and eventually being king of the mountain. Now he was a husband and a dad and talking about taking his kid to amusement parks? What's next, PTA meetings? The only real problem as I see it is the show goes one step too far and says Vegeta is a good guy. That's not what I'm arguing. he's not. I'm arguing that he's changed. He's not good, but he's taking steps, and that's a big deal. Giving his life to protect people without something in it for him is a huge change.

[MasenkoHA]

If anything, I think the problem with the Majin Vegeta plotline is he kind of just stops being evil. Goku just sort of reminds him he cares about Trunks and Bulma and Vegeta's like "oh right" and knocks out Goku to take care of Boo. It might have worked better if Trunks reached out to his dad or if Bulma got brought into things somehow and was killed by Boo and that was a wake-up call to Vegeta that he does care, mirroring what happened when Future Trunks was killed by Cell.

[tonysoprano300]

What they should have done is make Babidi’s control of Vegeta more genuine, make it so that Vegeta actually did intend on preventing Buu’s awakening and that in a moment of desperation Babidi notices that Vegeta isn’t quite like the others. He detects the remnants of impurity, evil & resentment in his heart and then taps into it to bring out the worst aspects of Vegeta to the forefront. It still works because if Vegeta was as strong as the others then Babidi wouldn’t have been able to manipulate him.

What I don't like about this is that there's no active personal failing on Vegeta's part. The fact that Vegeta actively chose to play into Babidi's hand is what gives that twist much of its impact.

The impact is dulled if he's simply taken by Babidi against his will with no agency on his part.

Exactly this. In the proposed scenario, Vegeta is clean and sober but Babidi shoves the junk into Vegeta's veins against his will. In the show, he simply puts the drugs in front of Vegeta.

Vegeta is a guy who for years went around the galaxy looting and killing without a care in the world beyond getting stronger and eventually being king of the mountain. Now he was a husband and a dad and talking about taking his kid to amusement parks? What's next, PTA meetings? The only real problem as I see it is the show goes one step too far and says Vegeta is a good guy. That's not what I'm arguing. he's not. I'm arguing that he's changed. He's not good, but he's taking steps, and that's a big deal. Giving his life to protect people without something in it for him is a huge change.

Not necessarily clean and Sober, he would still harbour resentment towards Goku, he would still question his life on Earth, he would still be fixated on a rematch with Goku and deep down would still regret the fact that he hasn’t seized his birthright as the saiyan prince.
All Babidi would do is detect this evil and bring it to the surface. To build off the point MasenkoHA just made, Vegeta could be brought back around by Trunks (the physical reminder that his life on Earth has changed him). After realizing the full weight of his actions, Vegeta would be angry with himself for not having the strength of will to resist those temptations.

The active personal failing would be the fact that Goku and Gohan could resist Babidi’s magic, but Vegeta is too “weak” to resist and ultimately falls victim. If he was a stronger spirit, it wouldn’t work.


In the current iteration, you get the sense that Vegeta is an evil guy who saw the opportunity to defeat Goku and just took it. Making him lucid and totally complicit in such an act for the pettiest of reasons with almost no internal conflict undercuts his redemption arc entirely.

[ABED]

Tony, he wasn't fixated on a rematch in that 7 year period. He gave up fighting because he thought Goku was dead for good. In your scenario, there aren't temptations. Babidi would take over Vegeta against his will. Your scenario absolves him of responsibility and also throws out any sort of thematic resonance of Vegeta's arc.

In the current iteration, you get the sense that Vegeta is an evil guy who saw the opportunity to defeat Goku and just took it
Because that's what it was. It's not implied. It's flat out stated that's why he did what he did. Vegeta gave up fighting previously because the object of his obsession was gone. He hadn't fully dealt with his problems. It's not really until he can accept Goku is the better fighter without hesitation that he can fully change for the better. It's YOUR scenario that gives him no internal conflict. Not being strong enough to resist magic isn't internal conflict. It's the exact opposite. His speech to Goku during their fight explicitly lays out what his internal conflict is. He sees himself aa domesticated and he hates it, or so he claims.

[tonysoprano300]

Well its just a thought anyway, I will say that I loved how the chapter was drawn and the visceral emotions that some of the imagery elicits. Vegeta becoming a statue might not make sense but its a fantastic visual. I think Toriyama even included a poem at the beginning but I forget exactly what it said.

Fundamentally, I just don’t believe that a grown man throwing a temper tantrum is a compelling motivation for a redemption story and thats probably where our foundational disagreement lies. The story can tell me that he’s a changed man but I just saw him nearly eviscerate his own wife, so all i can really say is “what is Goku talking about”

[ABED]

Fundamentally, I just don’t believe that a grown man throwing a temper tantrum is a compelling motivation for a redemption story and thats probably where our foundational disagreement lies. The story can tell me that he’s a changed man but I just saw him nearly eviscerate his own wife, so all i can really say is “what is Goku talking about”

I and others aren't arguing that he's a good man, just that he has changed. He's not completely changed his ways. He still has a long way to go but he has been fundamentally altered at this point in his life. He's having a midlife crisis, and that destruction was a last desperate act before he finally realized he's not the same space pirate he once was. The guy at the start of the show would never have shown his son affection nor given his life for them. He also wouldn't have done it unless there was a reward for it. That's what we mean by him changing. What is Goku talking about? Would the guy that we first meet have stayed with his family for years and stayed quiet? How is that not a change?

And him having a tantrum is NOT a motivation of any kind. I have no idea what you are getting at with that. What are you actually saying when you believe that's what's motivating him to change?

[jjgp1112]

Well its just a thought anyway, I will say that I loved how the chapter was drawn and the visceral emotions that some of the imagery elicits. Vegeta becoming a statue might not make sense but its a fantastic visual. I think Toriyama even included a poem at the beginning but I forget exactly what it said.

Fundamentally, I just don’t believe that a grown man throwing a temper tantrum is a compelling motivation for a redemption story and thats probably where our foundational disagreement lies. The story can tell me that he’s a changed man but I just saw him nearly eviscerate his own wife, so all i can really say is “what is Goku talking about”

The whole point of the arc is that he had changed and grown to care about Bulma and Trunks, but being reminded of Goku's superiority brought back all of his unresolved anger and obsession to the point that he was now questioning the path he was walking down. Everything is wrapped up in his broken ideals of what a Saiyan should be and how much Goku's shaken his entire identity to the core.

Him firing a blast with no regard for his wife being in the crowd was him slipping back into his old ways and trying to be as evil as he could again, only to eventually face the reality that he's not that guy anymore. Essentially, he's acting out and trying to push everybody away because he thinks that's what he wants.

Now I think there should've been a confrontation between Vegeta and Bulma after he came back to life, but whelp, Toriyama zoomed past everything and skipped straight to the end, so we can only imagine it.

Imagine for a second, a reformed criminal who used to sit on piles and piles of ill-gotten riches throws that all away and becomes a family man. But then that guy from his old neighborhood that he thought was a square comes through and is sitting on wealth and reputation from legitimate means that dwarfs anything he did on the street. And even though he's gone legit and tried doing things the "right" way, he still can't measure up to that square and he now feels like a soft ass shell of himself. He's an average nobody and gets to live the rest of his life as a shnook.

Sure, he's got a hot wife, a great kid, and lives pretty comfortably. But he's just another guy now. Back when he was selling dope, he was the man.

The only time he ever felt alive was when he was running the streets, so he thinks quadrupling down on his old glory days is the only way to reclaim his self-worth.