Toriyama's change of heart regarding Vegeta

[BernardoCairo]

We've all heard stories about Toriyama "not liking" Vegeta or keeping him alive in the '90s only by popular demand. While there's a lot of exaggeration involved (I bet he had a lot of fun writing Vegeta in the Namek and Android arcs), some of it is just fact. But in modern Dragon Ball, it seems that Toriyama has gone to great lengths to make Vegeta the default co-lead. Even back in 2004, he changed the original ending of the manga and chose Vegeta as the character to be featured in the last panel of the series. He then made Vegeta a fairly important character in Battle of Gods (much more so than Gohan, for example) and even talked about wanting to write a movie with Vegeta as the protagonist. Around the same time, he decided to write a comic for Dragon Ball's 30th anniversary, and who did he choose to feature? Goku, Vegeta, and Freeza. Of course, he also kept Vegeta relevant while coming up with ideas for Super.

Personally, I don't think he did all this just because Vegeta is a popular character. To me, at least, it seems like he was trying to do new things with the character. So to say that he "hated" Vegeta by 2015 is a bit absurd, in my opinion. I just don't know when Vegeta "clicked" with him. I imagine he became even more fond of him after the end of Dragon Ball in 1995. Maybe while reading the series from beginning to end (as we know he did).

[Goe]

All we know without doubt is here:

https://www.kanzenshuu.com/rumor/akira- ... es-vegeta/

Apart from this source, I think Vegeta was used when Yuu Kondo was Toriyama's editor because Kondo thought Vegeta will be useful to reach the goal of girl becoming DB fans.

[L3anD3RStar]

This is just my opinion, but personally, I think Toriyama had a habit of running his mouth in interviews and saying things that he didn’t really mean.

But it seems pretty clear to me that he didn’t “keep” Vegeta alive. He had a use for him. You could hardly have had the Namek saga without him. If he stays dead after that, then you need another origin story for the mysterious Super Saiyan from the future. And Vegeta’s actions had a big impact on the Cell saga and how it went. You couldn’t easily remove him and had the story turn out the same way.

And Toriyama liked the “make shit up as I go” style of writing, but at some point he must’ve realized that Goku and Vegeta were the perfect foils for each-other and just putting them in scenes together is a good way to make something happen. And you can’t look at what he did for him in the Buu saga without concluding he definitely felt for this character. Even if he clearly had no idea what he wanted to do with Buu and really was scrambling to figure it out, Vegeta still got his moment.

[BernardoCairo]

This is just my opinion, but personally, I think Toriyama had a habit of running his mouth in interviews and saying things that he didn’t really mean.

I agree with you. Although I don't necessarily think he said things he didn't really mean. It's just that, depending on the day, he felt differently about a lot of things (like who his favorite character was). He approached interviews very casually and never tried to hide it (which is one reason he never minded admitting that he forgot things). Well, at least that's what it seems.

And Toriyama liked the “make shit up as I go” style of writing, but at some point he must’ve realized that Goku and Vegeta were the perfect foils for each-other and just putting them in scenes together is a good way to make something happen.

Probably near the end of the Boo arc, which (along with the beginning) is the most consistent part of the entire arc, to be honest.