What kind of person was King Vegeta?

[batistabus]

We never really get much about him, but what kind of person is he? He doesn't seem very ruthless...at least not as much so as Vegeta. The other Saiyans seem to look up to him. His strength was likely above average. Do we know anything else? Any thoughts/opinions?

[Herms]

In Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans, Kaio says that his intelligence was superior to the Tsufruians, and so that's why he was able to unite the Saiyans and conquer the planet. He doesn't seem like much of a super genius in the other anime stuff he appears in though.

[Eire]

If so I would worry about average intelligence of his race.

Even if his behaviour is caused by being hounded by Frieza his act doesn't show him as a good ruler, politician or strategist. Frieza constantly shows him who is the boss- how it comes that he once agreed for that? Ok, let's assume that he didn't have any other choice etc. His attempts to get rid of him shows that Vegeta Senior doesn't think at all.
In the state of fragile union he had to face enemy stronger than his army. Moreover, his only son is a hostage. Negotiations, alliances, poisons, play for time?

I've learnt about many historical uprisings but never heard about something so pitiful like this one. Running through ship killing everyone on the way is like sending Frieza a kind txt that he could get ready. Frieza waits for him with two strong allies. OK, the door open and attack starts. Maybe it was a plan... making Frieza died laughing seeing how one warrior try to attack while the rest is standing and staring.
Move 8 added that that day he attempted to kill promising baby born to his loyal solider. And didn't make sure thet they were dead.

Any advantages?
He is handsome, so I sweep everything I've written above under carpet and try to make him a proper FF biography

[violadude]

One thing I find interesting about King Vegeta is that he's much like prince Vegeta in that, he doesn't care much about personal relationships with his family. He puts his pride in front of any kind of love for his son. When one of the soldiers asks if he's really going to give the prince away to Freeza he says something like, I don't care about things such as my son's life, what I care about is Freeza's attitude, he thinks he can just boss us around like we're slaves or something.

I'm heavily paraphrasing, but that's the gist of what he said. I see the very same type of attitude in Vegeta as well.

[Super Saiyan Turlast x4]

Someone stupid enough to fight Freeza one-on-one. Even after he was cowardly enough to let him take his throne for a few seconds.

[Eire]

I don't care about things such as my son's life.

According to FF authors, as a father of millions Mary Sues, he could afford for such a gesture.

[Piccolo Daimao]

I'd say that, being the King, he held a level of authority over the Saiyans, perhaps enough to rival Freeza's. I doubt he has that much attachment to his son, since I don't think Saiyans are the kind of people to care about anything other than fighting and eating. Vegeta himself only formed an attachment to Trunks out of living on Earth with him for 7 years and training him.

As for his decision to fight Freeza one-on-one...I'd say that's just part of Saiyan pride. I don't think you could expect the King of the Saiyans to just sit back and do nothing once he'd realized Freeza's plan to destroy the Saiyans and Planet Vegeta, especially when he'd die anyway if he didn't do anything, as Freeza only really intended to keep Prince Vegeta hanging around.

And I suppose it's worth mentioning what Daizenshuu 7 says about him.

Though he was the strongest Saiyan at the time, Freeza easily killed him without transforming.

A genius strategist. It seems that the mark on his chest is the crest of the royal house of Vegeta. As might be expected of Vegeta's father, he has a rough-mannered personality, and instantly wipes out some of his underlings after getting irritated at them for being unable to capture a planet by the scheduled day.

[Eire]

Comparing to things seen on the screen text about "genius strategist" seems like a joke. If we want character to have any features we show them to reader, not put in description and hope they will be stupid enough to not see the difference.

I don't think you could expect the King of the Saiyans to just sit back and do nothing

To sit and think, not to do stupid actions that made the things worse. Genius strategist would swallow his pride and play for time, cheat, pretend to be weaker than he is, looks for enemies cons, negotiate, gather forces. History know many David vs. Goliat battles, but I don't recall any won by blind run to opponent's forces.

When Vegeta Sernior appeard onscreen his fate had already been made, but the way it was shown make me bit my own fingers.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Comparing to things seen on the screen text about "genius strategist" seems like a joke.

Perhaps they're referring to the King leading the riot against the Tsufruians. Which you could again say is a joke, but I guess we're not supposed to argue.

[Eire]

Judging from results he once succeed to lead a rebellion against technologically advanced foes. We don't have any reasons to say that he wasn't a good strategist back then, but this make his later actions even stupider.
History textbooks are full of ideas how to make his second uprising well-planned, even if it finished as we know. Thanks to the laziness of producers next potentially interesting thread was wasted.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Judging from results he once succeed to lead a rebellion against technologically advanced foes. We don't have any reasons to say that he wasn't a good strategist back then, but this make his later actions even stupider.
History textbooks are full of ideas how to make his second uprising well-planned, even if it finished as we know. Thanks to the laziness of producers next potentially interesting thread was wasted.

Well, then you could say that he used to be a "genius strategist", but perhaps he got arrogant in his comfortable role as the King of the Saiyans and relied on brute force, like probably most Saiyans.

[Eire]

Unfortunately it's the most reasonable explanation.

[Herms]

"Genius strategist" probably comes from the OVA, where he's described as being smarter than the Tsufruians...in ways that are never explained.

[SuperForteX]

He was quite ruthless if you were a Tuffle. Anyway, I think he was the same gruff man the anime showcased. He also had a wife though. So the way he conceived Vegeta, is through actual marriage. So I guess there is a Queen of Saiyans. What kind of person do you suppose she was?

[Eire]

Hmmm... how to say that... you know... get married doesn't exactly mean to conceive a child. What is more, the children can appear apart of it. Sorry for destroying your outlook of life.

There's everything you can get about her and I don't like this data. Next lazy idea. They don't look for a family man- IMHO so proud and ruthless man would rather hide all his emotional bonds, especially in situation where every relative was turned into his weak point.

Why do we assume that Sayians had a queen? Even on earth there were many other funny models of royal family to choose from.
In tribal cultures marriage of a chief was his private matter. In Ottoman Empire the most important woman was ruler's mother who once proved that she was smart enough to help him to get a power. In China besides empress there were many concubines fighting for high ranks. In medieval Poland marrying a king didn't automatically provided coronation till XIV century (the last case where king's wife couldn't take a crown was in the beginning of XVI century) etc.

So we can guess endlessly- one or more, ruthless, or submissive, love or raison d'etat? Think, don't get the simplest solution.

Edit: If you want to know my idea: King's wife was crowned, because he frighted with him hand in hand. Managing a newly born kingdom need time, so when everything started to get on quite well, they had to face the fact that they aren't young any more. She was rather sensible than sensitive, so it was her idea to add a fresh blood to a newly established dynasty. Not everything went as they planned, but finally just one man realised that one of her beloved servants one day was pregnant and stopped just before the new heir was presented to the world. And no one was happy ever after.

[Choice195]

A king that had the power over his own people, But was enslaved by another emperor.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

So I guess there is a Queen of Saiyans. What kind of person do you suppose she was?

IMO, a cutthroat bitch. That's all based on my own wild ideas for events from the time-frame since even though we have the more info on Saiyans han the other sraces, we still don't have a lot of factual details for this sort of stuff (normally just vague statements that aren't even necessarily true).

[roidrage]

I think he cared about Vegeta, actually. In the anime (sub, mind you, not dub), when a soldier questions his decision, he says he "doesn't care", but the response is clearly forced and hesitant. I've never bought into the belief that Saiyans are "psychopaths"; rather, they choose to forego sentimentality, and for the most part do a very good job of it. But as Vegeta develops, he actually starts to love his family and respect his allies. I have some academic knowledge of how psychopathy works, and if you don't have a conscience at the beginning of your life, you never will. Vegeta's conscience never would have surfaced if there hadn't been something to work off of in the first place.

[Piccolo Daimao]

I think he cared about Vegeta, actually. In the anime (sub, mind you, not dub), when a soldier questions his decision, he says he "doesn't care", but the response is clearly forced and hesitant. I've never bought into the belief that Saiyans are "psychopaths"; rather, they choose to forego sentimentality, and for the most part do a very good job of it. But as Vegeta develops, he actually starts to love his family and respect his allies. I have some academic knowledge of how psychopathy works, and if you don't have a conscience at the beginning of your life, you never will. Vegeta's conscience never would have surfaced if there hadn't been something to work off of in the first place.

Wasn't there a filler scene where the King was talking to Vegeta about the Super Saiyan and that he would become it someday? I liked that scene.

I don't think Saiyans are psychopaths either. They're not mental. There's a difference between being insane and just having no conscience and doing what suits you.

As for the psychology part, we're talking about DB, not real-life. I mean, Goku's still considered pure and gets to ride Kinto'un, after he'd knowingly made selfish decisions by sparing Piccolo and Vegeta (with the latter, he states himself that he knows it's wrong and it's probably because of his Saiyan blood). And I never thought that Fat Boo was evil; he was just a childish guy who'd been manipulated by Bibbidi and Bobbodi and didn't have a conscience because he saw killing as a fun game. I mean, he immediately quits killing once Mr. Satan says that it's bad. Yet he still ends up expelling evil that personifies into, basically, an evil version of Boo.

I don't think the psychology that, if you don't have a conscience at the beginnng of your life, you never will, applies to DB, because of the examples I just gave. Also, the fact that Saiyans are portrayed as nothing other than heartless bastards who enjoy playing with and killing their opponents. I don't think Saiyans have or ever had a conscience. And, as a sidenote, there are some people who think that you can end up losing your conscience, since you learn about what's right and wrong in your upbringing, and that's vital to how you develop in life. A number of paedophiles, for example, were abused when they were young too, which is why they don't show remorse or guilt for their actions because they were never taught that was wrong and accepted it as normal.

But I agree with you in that I think the King cared about Vegeta. Among Saiyans, Vegeta was a special case who didn't care about anyone of his race. Nappa wanted to revive Raditz (although that could've been because they needed him alive to conquer that planet they were having trouble with; this was before Vegeta introduced the plan to wish for immortality), even though he thought he was trash, and was surprised when Vegeta killed the Saibaimen that fought Tenshinhan. Vegeta just didn't give a shit and treated Nappa on a similar level to Raditz and the Saibaimen: just henchmen who, once they can't fight, are useless, which is why he killed Nappa and the Saibaimen. Vegeta only began to develop a conscience once he'd settled on Earth.

[Rocketman]

Among Saiyans, Vegeta was a special case who didn't care about anyone of his race.

Of course, the interesting part of this is that Prince Vegeta is also the only one who wasn't raised in Saiyan culture.