Why Didn't Vegeta Help Nappa Destroy The Z-Fighters?

[Lunatic Fringe]

Tenshinhan, Chaozu, and Yamcha are all dead and Krillin, Gohan, and Piccolo are barely holding their own against Nappa. But just as things seem to be taking a turn for the worst, with the tail grabbing strategy being fruitless, the three remaining Z-Fighters finally sense Goku's presence and it's heading towards the battlefield. Without being able to naturally sense BP's, Vegeta verifies their claim of his imminent arrival with his scouter. After realizing that, yes indeed, a BP reading is in fact closing in on them, to his and Nappa's shock, the number reads 5,000. It's then that Vegeta urges Nappa to stop toying around and finish off the survivors before Goku shows up...

...and proceeds to stand idly by regardless of his urgency. Why? What reason does Vegeta have to just stand their and let Nappa take care of things himself instead of ensuring that Goku won't have any back-up by helping Nappa out? I highly doubt it's down to honor, since Vegeta stepped in and finished off Guldo in order to keep as small as an advantage as possible against the imposing power of the Ginyu Force. Confidence? Perhaps but then again, this is the same Nappa who would've had his head sliced in half by a Kienzan had Vegeta not told Nappa to dodge at the last minute. You'd think he'd assume that Nappa could at the very least be stalled enough for Goku to show up in time. Obviously, the out of universe answer is that Gohan and Krillin were needed for the final battle of the Saiyan Saga that Akira Toriyama had in mind but in universe, it makes no sense to me why the at the very least, the notion of Vegeta helping Nappa never seems to cross his mind.

[Polyphase Avatron]

He probably considered them to not be worth his time.

[Ushabtis]

well, Vegeta never likes to fight in a team. and if that happened everyone would have been dead way before goku would have gotten there.

[B]

Vegeta is the most arrogant ass in the universe. Also, he's clearly not that worried about Goku when they begin their battle.

I guess the scouter-crushing scene was just for dramatic effect.

[Lunatic Fringe]

He probably considered them to not be worth his time.

When you consider that Vegeta didn't want things to boil down to 4 vs. 2, you'd think he'd drop all the pretenses of "I'm the Prince, these maggots aren't even worth the effort", get off his royal ass, and make sure Goku gets no aid on his side when he shows up.

well, Vegeta never likes to fight in a team. and if that happened everyone would have been dead way before goku would have gotten there.

But that's exactly what Vegeta wants. He didn't want things to be 4 vs. 2 because he read Goku's BP as 5,000 and because he knew that the Z-Fighters can raise their BP's at will, the number could be even higher if he wanted it to so he tells Nappa to finish them all off since he thinks with their combined strength, they might actually be more than they bargained for.

[fadeddreams5]

Plain and simply, he thought Nappa could do the job quickly and was likely distracted focusing on the incoming threat. He also probably didn't want to waste any energy at all before Goku arrived.

[Alex9196]

i am pretty sure he didnt consider him a real challenge. he had a power of 18.000 while goku had one of 5000. also vegeta could transform and goku not. and vegeta disnt know about the kaioken or genkidama. if he knew about that he would have probably helped i guess.

in the guldo situation he krillin and gohan really needed every advantage they could get. if goku didnt show up in time it would have probably been over against rikkum.

[supercat]

Being completely unaware of Frieza's knowledge of the Dragon Balls, there were probably a very few things plaguing Vegeta's mind at the time. With the assumption that he would easily dispose of Goku and then promptly begin searching for the Dragon Balls, he probably felt that his intervention wasn't necessary. Seeing how easily Nappa was able to outclass the Z-Fighters, I doubt that he was concerned about them suddenly overwhelming him. Regardless, it looked like the prince had intended on stepping in, if at any time the tables were turned on his incompetent sidekick.

The situation overall didn't nearly warrant as much urgency as his fight with the Ginyu Force. At that point, he had every reason to secure even seemingly trivial things that could work in his favor. Not only was he up against far superior opponents, he was also faced with the challenge of competing for the Dragon Balls.

[Lord Beerus]

Vegeta was just absurdly arrogant and pompous. He thought the Z-Fighters were beneath him and not worth his time or effort.

[Diotor]

Vegeta was just absurdly arrogant and pompous. He thought the Z-Fighters were beneath him and not worth his time or effort.

They all are at the time, with the exception of Goku. He felt he didn't need to get his hands dirty on such weak trash,

[LightBing]

First he didn't felt the need to interfere, just for Nappa to hurry it up. Second I see it as respecting they're deal: you fight the "trash and I fight Kakarot.