Vegeta's character and popularity

[Eire]

OK I can bet that if he had wanted to resign Frieza would have smiled and wrote him an reference note.
That's not psychical slavery with picturesque chains etc, but how to call it? He had much "freedom" as long as it didn't interfered with Frieza's orders.

[Michsi]

He had much "freedom" as long as it didn't interfered with Freeza's orders.

As it generally applies to all members of any type of criminal organisation.

All I'm saying he would have ended up the exact same way had he not been under Freeza's rule. I see no "damage" coming from growing up in Freeza's organisation. For crying out loud he had his own servants.

[Eire]

We are not on the same page. I don't say that Frieza beat or starve or (popular ff idea) him, but about awareness of being a tool of a being who threat you as a tiger on chain. Pretty a degradation for a person risen to rule.

[Michsi]

I understand what you mean but I don't see how Vegeta became what he was due his time under Freeza's rule. I don't deny that he probably felt humiliated and plotted revenge from day 1 but believe that he would have ended up the exact same as a character had he and his race never met Freeza.

[Eire]

I'm far away from statement that "it was only Frieza's fault" but I think that living in such conditions had to influence him. Alternative universe Vegeta still wouldn't be a nice person to meet, but maybe he wouldn't for example have his stupid obsession with surpassing everything.

[Kingdom Heartless]

That's his back-story though.... I'm talking about people who claim he got it rough in the actual story of the series.

But yes, maybe he was a slave... but he was just doing what he would have been doing anyway.... he just didn't make his own hours. I'm not going to feel bad for the guy because a tyrant used his willingness to slaughter countless millions.

[Piccolo Daimao]

Vegeta wasn't a slave. He enjoyed his job, just like all the other Saiyans. Sure, he hated Freeza because, as a Saiyan, he didn't like being ordered around, didn't like how he was used and Freeza was annoyed that Vegeta went to Earth without permission, but no-one should feel sorry for him. He was a sadistic bastard who continued doing the same torturing and killing all Saiyans had been doing for years, only it was a job this time.

[Gaffer Tape]

So here is my long, unabashed critique of Vegeta's character over the course of his appearance in the series. Assuming anyone makes it through this tome, I can only imagine the hate I'm about to get from Vegeta fans by posting this. I admit I'm kinda scared.

I think Vegeta was a wonderful villain. He also continued the trend of the "character who lives to outdo Goku," which was started with Tenshinhan and continued to Piccolo. But Vegeta was definitely the best model. He had the same ancestral background. And there was the always-intriguing concept of "classes" that Vegeta took really seriously. It pushed their rivalry even further, with Vegeta anguishing over this low-class peasant outdoing him.

In the Freeza arc, Vegeta became even more complex and interesting, being ousted from the main villain role and hovering in this anti-hero, unknowing ally role. It fleshed out his character and backstory, and gave him a more compelling reason for his actions and his desire for immortality. And then he died, realizing his own ineptitude, and being forced to place all of his hopes and dreams into the hands of the man he hated. It was amazing. It was perfect.

But then he had to come back to life... Why, oh, why, did he have to come back to life?

Freeza was dead. Goku was gone. And Vegeta... just sorta hung around for a year at Capsule Corporation having barbeques? I think this is one of the few things the anime did better by having Vegeta steal a spaceship and stay in space for a year, only coming back right before Freeza returned. But now we had this new, quasi-domesticated Vegeta.

There's a trope referred to as Redemption Equals Death that basically states that when a huge villain renounces his evil ways and joins the good side, there's a very large chance he's not going to live very long after that. And there's a very good reason for that. It's hard to make a compelling villain a compelling good guy. How stupid would it have been if Darth Vader had survived to the end of Return of the Jedi? Do we really want to see him dancing around the campfire with Ewoks or giving Luke a big old hug? No. That would completely diminish the fear we felt for him as a villain. We want to see him have his one moment of redemption and then die for his crimes. And that's the other reason. The more horrible a person is as a villain, the harder it is to accept him as a hero. If we've seen this person rape, murder, and pillage, do we really want to see him get a happily ever after ending? Usually, no. And that's why it's just easier to have them do one good thing and then go out in a blaze of glory rather than have to deal with those huge ethical implications. Not to say that it can't be done and successfully, but we all know how well Toriyama does handling weighty issues.

Obviously Dragon Ball very often lives on turning former villains into heroes. Most of its main cast started out as villains. But there's again that obvious reason why Vegeta is one of the last: the more evil someone is, the harder it is to accept the changeover. Look at Oolong. He was the very first villain to hero conversion. Yes, he kidnapped girls, and we know he's a lech. But when we actually see the kidnapped girls, they're quite happy where they are. It doesn't seem like Oolong actually mistreated them in any way. If he had, it would have been much harder (maybe impossible) to find him humorous afterwards. Next is Yamucha. He's a bandit. He attacks and steals from travelers. Not very nice. But we never really see him do anything that bad. After his initial meeting with Goku and Oolong, he's generally treated as a comedic villain. He generally gets what he wants through strategy, not violence. So it's easy to accept his conversion to hero. Tenshinhan and Chaozu are training to be assassins and are unethical and cruel. But as far as we know, they've never actually killed any innocent people. So again, it's easy to accept their conversion. Piccolo's a bit tougher. Let's just ignore what the original Daimao did. He did blow up all of Papaya Island... but did he actually kill anybody? It seems quite a bit of a stretch that everyone had gotten away by that point (a la dub Nappa's "That city may have been evacuated" bullshit), but it's still possible. I mean, an unconscious Chaozu managed to get away safely. There's no way that anyone outside of the Budoukai grounds would have had any advance warning that Piccolo was about to blow them up, so I would assume they started evacuating as soon as Ma's "disguise" was removed. We don't really know how much time passed between then and the explosion, so maybe he never even killed anyone. At least we never saw him murder anyone.

But Vegeta's different. We as an audience were there to see him kill innocent people (including being indirectly responsible for the deaths of several main characters). He even slaughtered an entire village of elderly and child Namekians. Even after he's brought back to life, he seems to relish the fact that that village didn't come back to life. He never shows any remorse for that. That alone for me is enough to find him completely unforgivable.

Vegeta didn't exactly redeem himself by the time of his death, but he had had some character growth, and he'd gotten what he deserved. And with Freeza gone, he really didn't have any more in the way of story responsibilities. He never seemed to have any desire to wish for immortality again. Basically, in the Cell arc, Vegeta just runs around doing "Vegeta things." He became a caricature of himself. We need someone to yell at people and threaten to kill them? That's Vegeta! We need someone to be arrogant and pushy? That's Vegeta! But that's all he was. He was just going through the motions.

And that wouldn't be so bad if he actually did anything useful! Well, hell, he wouldn't have had to do anything useful. He just would have had to not be as harmful as the main villains. The heroes teamed up with Vegeta in the Freeza arc because they needed him. There was no way they could handle the Ginyu or Freeza (well, debatable for Freeza since he didn't really accomplish much there) without his aid. But Vegeta's only positive contribution in that arc was killing #19, which Piccolo probably would have been able to do himself. Then he follows that up by letting #20 get away (by stupidly needing to confirm that #19 drains energy through his palms), thereby being indirectly responsible for the release of #16, #17, and #18 (which he would have gladly done himself anyway). Then he lets Cell complete his transformation. Then he gets Gohan seriously injured during his fight with Cell. But since that at least was done out of a caring for someone other than himself, I might actually let that one slide.

The only good thing about Vegeta in this arc is his relationship with Trunks. That's not to say Vegeta does much of anything good. But it just gives Trunks one more thing to be tortured about, having a terrible father, and that's good for Trunks's character.

So Vegeta is less than useless in this arc. He completely diminished any reason the other main characters had for keeping him around. Which makes you wonder why they do. Or why NOBODY gives him a hard time for letting Cell become complete. At that point, the other characters should have let him go in the ROSAT and then destroy the entrance, citing him as a complete danger to himself and others.

And then we have the Buu arc, where Vegeta is at his worst. It's one thing to let your pride allow you to do stupid things that happen to indirectly result in death and destruction. But it's quite another when you choose to do so, knowing full well the repurcussions of those actions. And that's what happens when Vegeta lets Babidi "control" him. And I put that in quotes because we all know that Vegeta damn well did exactly what he pleased. He even tells Goku this. He murders hundreds of innocent people and knowingly gives Babidi the energy he needs to revive Buu, which results in nearly EVERYBODY in the entire world dying. And all of this so he could fight with Goku. This just doesn't work for me for a couple of reasons. One, if Vegeta wasn't already an irredeemable monster, this definitely pushes him over that line. And this is supposed to be the domesticated Vegeta! The one that had spent the past seven years raising a family and living in peace. Yet he's acting just as bad (if not worse) than the Vegeta we'd seen in the past! Which leads me to number two: This was supposed to be Vegeta getting back to his roots. Well, how is he getting back to his roots for us when he's acting exactly like we've always seen him act? If he had spent the past seven years volunteering for charities, dressing up as Santa Claus, and painting orphanages, it's nothing we ever got to see. So instead we spend about ten to twenty chapters with this new and improved nice guy Vegeta before going straight back to the same old Vegeta we always knew. I don't know about you, but I consider the nice guy Vegeta to be more of the surprising aberration than the Majin variety. And, yes, he (uselessly) sacrifices himself to try to make things right. Well, that's a nice (but useless) gesture, but it doesn't cover up the fact that the main conflict of the story, as it always is, is largely Vegeta's fault. Say what you will about Yamucha, Chaozu, and Yajirobe being completely useless by this point in the story, but at least they aren't actively making things WORSE ON A REGULAR BASIS!

But Vegeta finally does get some decent things to do at the very end of the story. He gets his nice big monologue saying that Goku is #1, and he comes up with the idea for the Genki Dama. So at least Vegeta finally gets to do something useful and almost selfless at the very end of the story. Is it enough? Eh, probably not, but at least he finally started to develop a little bit and act like a fully-fleshed character rather than the annoying caricature he had become after the Freeza arc.

So, yeah, that's my extremely length analysis of Vegeta. For those of you who felt that was too long, here's my summing up: I don't really get Vegeta's massive popularity. He was a great villain, but he just didn't work as a character after the Freeza arc. He couldn't comfortably make the transition into an ally because doing so would diminish all those characteristics that helped define him as a great and interesting villain. Therefore he spent his time being more of a menace while allied with the heroes than he ever did as an out-and-out villain.

[Piccolo Daimao]

I agree with most of that. After Freeza, Vegeta was basically brought back to life, only to not have anywhere to go and just hung around at Capsule Corporation for convenience's sake, while literally all that was going for his character was "defeat Kakarrot", besides a few little spots of development (although the one that fully un-jerkifies him in our eyes is finally getting over his hard-on for Goku).

[Maphisto86]

The critique Gaffer Tape created concerning Vegeta as a "villian turned good" and whether he really justified his presence or was truly rehabilitated after the Freeza saga would make a great main topic for the podcast. As for whether Vegeta actually ever turned good, well I would like to think so but I agree with Gaffer that Toriyama does not really make a good case for the guy. Then again Dragonball was never meant to be a "morality tale". Heck we all know how Son Goku is not exactly a paragon of nobility either but he is not as much a flawed hero as Vegeta is. I thought I saw hints of Vegeta having new found feelings of guilt over his past when I first saw the Buu saga as the anime but I did not know if that was accurate as the dub often changed the dialogue in a way unintended in the actual version.

[roidrage]

So here is my long, unabashed critique of Vegeta's character over the course of his appearance in the series. Assuming anyone makes it through this tome, I can only imagine the hate I'm about to get from Vegeta fans by posting this. I admit I'm kinda scared.

I think Vegeta was a wonderful villain. He also continued the trend of the "character who lives to outdo Goku," which was started with Tenshinhan and continued to Piccolo. But Vegeta was definitely the best model. He had the same ancestral background. And there was the always-intriguing concept of "classes" that Vegeta took really seriously. It pushed their rivalry even further, with Vegeta anguishing over this low-class peasant outdoing him.

In the Freeza arc, Vegeta became even more complex and interesting, being ousted from the main villain role and hovering in this anti-hero, unknowing ally role. It fleshed out his character and backstory, and gave him a more compelling reason for his actions and his desire for immortality. And then he died, realizing his own ineptitude, and being forced to place all of his hopes and dreams into the hands of the man he hated. It was amazing. It was perfect.

But then he had to come back to life... Why, oh, why, did he have to come back to life?

Freeza was dead. Goku was gone. And Vegeta... just sorta hung around for a year at Capsule Corporation having barbeques? I think this is one of the few things the anime did better by having Vegeta steal a spaceship and stay in space for a year, only coming back right before Freeza returned. But now we had this new, quasi-domesticated Vegeta.

There's a trope referred to as Redemption Equals Death that basically states that when a huge villain renounces his evil ways and joins the good side, there's a very large chance he's not going to live very long after that. And there's a very good reason for that. It's hard to make a compelling villain a compelling good guy. How stupid would it have been if Darth Vader had survived to the end of Return of the Jedi? Do we really want to see him dancing around the campfire with Ewoks or giving Luke a big old hug? No. That would completely diminish the fear we felt for him as a villain. We want to see him have his one moment of redemption and then die for his crimes. And that's the other reason. The more horrible a person is as a villain, the harder it is to accept him as a hero. If we've seen this person rape, murder, and pillage, do we really want to see him get a happily ever after ending? Usually, no. And that's why it's just easier to have them do one good thing and then go out in a blaze of glory rather than have to deal with those huge ethical implications. Not to say that it can't be done and successfully, but we all know how well Toriyama does handling weighty issues.

Obviously Dragon Ball very often lives on turning former villains into heroes. Most of its main cast started out as villains. But there's again that obvious reason why Vegeta is one of the last: the more evil someone is, the harder it is to accept the changeover. Look at Oolong. He was the very first villain to hero conversion. Yes, he kidnapped girls, and we know he's a lech. But when we actually see the kidnapped girls, they're quite happy where they are. It doesn't seem like Oolong actually mistreated them in any way. If he had, it would have been much harder (maybe impossible) to find him humorous afterwards. Next is Yamucha. He's a bandit. He attacks and steals from travelers. Not very nice. But we never really see him do anything that bad. After his initial meeting with Goku and Oolong, he's generally treated as a comedic villain. He generally gets what he wants through strategy, not violence. So it's easy to accept his conversion to hero. Tenshinhan and Chaozu are training to be assassins and are unethical and cruel. But as far as we know, they've never actually killed any innocent people. So again, it's easy to accept their conversion. Piccolo's a bit tougher. Let's just ignore what the original Daimao did. He did blow up all of Papaya Island... but did he actually kill anybody? It seems quite a bit of a stretch that everyone had gotten away by that point (a la dub Nappa's "That city may have been evacuated" bullshit), but it's still possible. I mean, an unconscious Chaozu managed to get away safely. There's no way that anyone outside of the Budoukai grounds would have had any advance warning that Piccolo was about to blow them up, so I would assume they started evacuating as soon as Ma's "disguise" was removed. We don't really know how much time passed between then and the explosion, so maybe he never even killed anyone. At least we never saw him murder anyone.

But Vegeta's different. We as an audience were there to see him kill innocent people (including being indirectly responsible for the deaths of several main characters). He even slaughtered an entire village of elderly and child Namekians. Even after he's brought back to life, he seems to relish the fact that that village didn't come back to life. He never shows any remorse for that. That alone for me is enough to find him completely unforgivable.

Vegeta didn't exactly redeem himself by the time of his death, but he had had some character growth, and he'd gotten what he deserved. And with Freeza gone, he really didn't have any more in the way of story responsibilities. He never seemed to have any desire to wish for immortality again. Basically, in the Cell arc, Vegeta just runs around doing "Vegeta things." He became a caricature of himself. We need someone to yell at people and threaten to kill them? That's Vegeta! We need someone to be arrogant and pushy? That's Vegeta! But that's all he was. He was just going through the motions.

And that wouldn't be so bad if he actually did anything useful! Well, hell, he wouldn't have had to do anything useful. He just would have had to not be as harmful as the main villains. The heroes teamed up with Vegeta in the Freeza arc because they needed him. There was no way they could handle the Ginyu or Freeza (well, debatable for Freeza since he didn't really accomplish much there) without his aid. But Vegeta's only positive contribution in that arc was killing #19, which Piccolo probably would have been able to do himself. Then he follows that up by letting #20 get away (by stupidly needing to confirm that #19 drains energy through his palms), thereby being indirectly responsible for the release of #16, #17, and #18 (which he would have gladly done himself anyway). Then he lets Cell complete his transformation. Then he gets Gohan seriously injured during his fight with Cell. But since that at least was done out of a caring for someone other than himself, I might actually let that one slide.

The only good thing about Vegeta in this arc is his relationship with Trunks. That's not to say Vegeta does much of anything good. But it just gives Trunks one more thing to be tortured about, having a terrible father, and that's good for Trunks's character.

So Vegeta is less than useless in this arc. He completely diminished any reason the other main characters had for keeping him around. Which makes you wonder why they do. Or why NOBODY gives him a hard time for letting Cell become complete. At that point, the other characters should have let him go in the ROSAT and then destroy the entrance, citing him as a complete danger to himself and others.

And then we have the Buu arc, where Vegeta is at his worst. It's one thing to let your pride allow you to do stupid things that happen to indirectly result in death and destruction. But it's quite another when you choose to do so, knowing full well the repurcussions of those actions. And that's what happens when Vegeta lets Babidi "control" him. And I put that in quotes because we all know that Vegeta damn well did exactly what he pleased. He even tells Goku this. He murders hundreds of innocent people and knowingly gives Babidi the energy he needs to revive Buu, which results in nearly EVERYBODY in the entire world dying. And all of this so he could fight with Goku. This just doesn't work for me for a couple of reasons. One, if Vegeta wasn't already an irredeemable monster, this definitely pushes him over that line. And this is supposed to be the domesticated Vegeta! The one that had spent the past seven years raising a family and living in peace. Yet he's acting just as bad (if not worse) than the Vegeta we'd seen in the past! Which leads me to number two: This was supposed to be Vegeta getting back to his roots. Well, how is he getting back to his roots for us when he's acting exactly like we've always seen him act? If he had spent the past seven years volunteering for charities, dressing up as Santa Claus, and painting orphanages, it's nothing we ever got to see. So instead we spend about ten to twenty chapters with this new and improved nice guy Vegeta before going straight back to the same old Vegeta we always knew. I don't know about you, but I consider the nice guy Vegeta to be more of the surprising aberration than the Majin variety. And, yes, he (uselessly) sacrifices himself to try to make things right. Well, that's a nice (but useless) gesture, but it doesn't cover up the fact that the main conflict of the story, as it always is, is largely Vegeta's fault. Say what you will about Yamucha, Chaozu, and Yajirobe being completely useless by this point in the story, but at least they aren't actively making things WORSE ON A REGULAR BASIS!

But Vegeta finally does get some decent things to do at the very end of the story. He gets his nice big monologue saying that Goku is #1, and he comes up with the idea for the Genki Dama. So at least Vegeta finally gets to do something useful and almost selfless at the very end of the story. Is it enough? Eh, probably not, but at least he finally started to develop a little bit and act like a fully-fleshed character rather than the annoying caricature he had become after the Freeza arc.

So, yeah, that's my extremely length analysis of Vegeta. For those of you who felt that was too long, here's my summing up: I don't really get Vegeta's massive popularity. He was a great villain, but he just didn't work as a character after the Freeza arc. He couldn't comfortably make the transition into an ally because doing so would diminish all those characteristics that helped define him as a great and interesting villain. Therefore he spent his time being more of a menace while allied with the heroes than he ever did as an out-and-out villain.

I really don't care what Vegeta did, since the events ended up being negated, and he does show genuine remorse for what he's done in the Buu saga. As for the Androids saga, Gohan and Kuririn make decisions that are every bit as stupid; if I blame anyone for what happened, it would be Kuririn, because if it hadn't been for his stupid second wish, everyone who died in South City could have come back and it would have been no harm, no foul. Blaming any one character over another is pointless.

As for Vegeta's "useless" second death, he had no way of knowing it would be useless. You can hardly blame him for doing what he thought was the best thing at the time. "But it's his fault they were in that situation to begin with." You can second-guess everybody in the story arcs, not just Vegeta.

In the end, since his actions don't make any real difference, I couldn't give a shit whether he makes things worse or not. I like to think the Namekians he killed were revived on New Namek; why else would Muri upgrade the Dragon Balls to bring multiple people back at once?

I'm not saying you don't have valid points, I just don't know why it should matter.

[SuperForteX]

I think that Chris Sabat (good Lord! I had to google his name because I simply couldn't recall it! What's becoming of me?) guy said it best: People like Vegeta, because he's the type of guy you'd want around if the waiter brings the wrong order to you in a resturant. He's the brash, loud, arrogant, and rude guy who never takes crap from anyone. We may not want to be him, but we admire certain characteristics that define him... and, well, we just really want a guy like that around as a friend.

That's my take it on it, anyway. Everyone has a little bit of "Vegeta" beneath the surface. Everyone. So I'm going to dare to say that those who like Vegeta enough to call him their 'favorite character', are those who most want to be like Vegeta. (Or wish they were.)

[roidrage]

I agree, but you've also got to feel for him because as Cipher pointed out there, Goku has done way more stupid things than Vegeta has and yet nothing bad ever happens to him. One has to agree that Vegeta almost always gets the short end of the stick.

I can't agree with that. Being basically exiled from your home for seven years, while doesn't seem like something that bad in the Dragon Ball world, isn't exactly ideal.

I mean, whatever happened to Vegeta that was so bad? Goku got plenty of beatings that were as bad as any Vegeta got, including one that was delivered by Vegeta himself.

People complain about Goku getting to 3 million through "bullshit power ups," after he got there through extreme training and about 8 zenkais, while Vegeta got close to Freeza with like 4 zenkais and no proper training.

Again, what exactly happened to Vegeta that was so bad? He was a villain that ended up with a family who gave him (often undeserved) love, he ended up like the 3rd most powerful of the warriors and he was basically accepted by the people who he spent years wanting to kill.

Goku has had plenty of bad things happen to him... he just lets them slide a lot more than Vegeta.

Goku didn't care about being gone for 7 years! He was happy he got to train and meet other fighters. There's no indication that he genuinely missed anybody; he just picks up right where he left off.

Love is only "undeserved" if it's not returned. Vegeta loved his family even if he had no idea how to show it (he was never shown affection, so how can he show it?), and when he betrays them, he's shows actual remorse.

Goku gets off easy because the people who wrong him end up dead. The people who wrong Vegeta do one of two things: stick around and rub it in his face, which is what he sees Goku as doing, or die by someone else's hand.

[Ranmarotto]

I thought Vegeta was a bit too "ruthless" for a villain and I agree with most people here when I say that the Freeza arc was probably his best showing. It tapped into the side if him that reveals how angry he can get at one single man and the fear that has been in him his whole life. He felt more 'alive' in this arc, by the time the Cell/Jinzoningen arc came about he seemed like his confidence had gone through the roof and he just didn't have the fear holding him back that he needed.

[Kingdom Heartless]

Goku didn't care about being gone for 7 years! He was happy he got to train and meet other fighters. There's no indication that he genuinely missed anybody; he just picks up right where he left off.

Love is only "undeserved" if it's not returned. Vegeta loved his family even if he had no idea how to show it (he was never shown affection, so how can he show it?), and when he betrays them, he's shows actual remorse.

Goku gets off easy because the people who wrong him end up dead. The people who wrong Vegeta do one of two things: stick around and rub it in his face, which is what he sees Goku as doing, or die by someone else's hand.

Vegeta, Tenshinhan, Yamucha, Oolong, Fat Buu and Piccolo all wronged Goku. All of them were still around at the end, and were mostly his closest friends. Vegeta's woes are mostly amplified by the fact that he whinges about them so much. Yes, Goku didn't mind being gone for 7 years, but that doesn't negate it being a bad thing. He just turned it into a positive.

[Kid Buu]

I actually find Vegeta's mindset in the Cell Saga to correspond very accurately to his mindset in the Freeza saga.

First of, let's go back to Vegeta's childhood. He's a powerful Saiyan prince who are a bunch of ruthless warriors. A rumor has it that a Saiyan can become a SUPER SAIYAN that is the power to end all powers. Vegeta is the Saiyan Prince who is stronger then anyway (even stronger then his dad as a kid, IIRC). Therefore, Vegeta grows up believing he is going to become a SSJ and be the #1 fighter in the universe.

Fastforward to his adult years and Vegeta has a power level of 18,000. But as a Oozaru he has power level of 180,000...making him the #2 strongest being in the universe. However Vegeta wants to rise to the top and he has found a way to surpass Freeza: the dragonballs.

Saiyan arc comes around and Vegeta beats the crap out of Goku. However, the other fighters interfere that thwart Vegeta from getting the Dragonballs. But Vegeta is not out of the game yet, he goes to Namek to get the Dragonballs. Now during his battles with Dodoria and Zarbon, I don't remember dwelling over his failure to kill Goku. It seems only when Goku surpasses him during his arrival does Vegeta obsession with Goku start. Not only that, but Goku becomes the one thing Vegeta always desired to be - a Super Saiyan.

So Vegeta chills on Earth, awaiting Goku's comeback so he can challenge him to a rematch. When he does, it turns out that some random guy has come out of no where and has also beaten Vegeta to the SSJ status. Vegeta then discovers about the Androids, and much like Goku he is eager to fight them.

Android Arc starts and Vegeta becomes a SSJ who is even stronger then Goku and defeats Android #19. Now here everyone criticizes him for letting the other Androids released...but I don't. Vegeta is not the type of guy to care about saving the world, he wants to prove himself as the most powerful being in the universe. He's also grown up with the mentality that SSJ is the power to end all powers, so why would an cyborg teenage girl made in a cave surpass it? Sure, Trunks had warned them of the Androids amazing power. But SSJ Vegeta is stronger then SSJ Goku, who was stronger then the SSJ Goku of 3 years ago...the same Goku that stopped Trunks with his finger. Trunks power was nothing to Vegeta at that point. It's almost the same thing as Yajirobe being afraid to fight someone. However, Vegeta does lose.

Realizing that the legend of SSJ was just hype, Vegeta aims to ascend SSJ and rise to the top again. Vegeta accomplishes this and defeats Cell. However Cell can become stronger and rematch Vegeta. Vegeta agrees to this, but I can still understand his line of logic here. If Vegeta can't beat Cell at his full power, then he can't prove himself as #1.

So Vegeta's actions in the Cell arc are not superheroic. But since when was Vegeta ever a superhero anyway? He always been lusting over being the most powerful being in the universe.

As far as the Buu arc goes, Vegeta made some mistakes there. But everyone did really, I still love that arc though.

[roidrage]

Goku didn't care about being gone for 7 years! He was happy he got to train and meet other fighters. There's no indication that he genuinely missed anybody; he just picks up right where he left off.

Love is only "undeserved" if it's not returned. Vegeta loved his family even if he had no idea how to show it (he was never shown affection, so how can he show it?), and when he betrays them, he's shows actual remorse.

Goku gets off easy because the people who wrong him end up dead. The people who wrong Vegeta do one of two things: stick around and rub it in his face, which is what he sees Goku as doing, or die by someone else's hand.

Vegeta, Tenshinhan, Yamucha, Oolong, Fat Buu and Piccolo all wronged Goku. All of them were still around at the end, and were mostly his closest friends. Vegeta's woes are mostly amplified by the fact that he whinges about them so much. Yes, Goku didn't mind being gone for 7 years, but that doesn't negate it being a bad thing. He just turned it into a positive.

I don't see Goku turning a negative into a positive, I see him looking at his seven-year exile and not even caring. Say what you will about Vegeta, he at least has some concept of what spousal and parental love is. Goku I'm not so sure about.

None of Goku's opponents who lived were truly bad or unlikable people (unless you think of Vegeta that way); the evil ones died. Vegeta gets kicked around by characters who are either worse or more irritating than he is (Goku is an exception, but Vegeta sees him as such), and he doesn't get his revenge. It's not really reasonable to expect Vegeta to "let it go" either. As Cipher said, you may not like what Vegeta does, but you can't expect anything else from him. You may complain about it, but can you come up with any alternative actions that would have been consistent with Vegeta's personality? I can't.

[Kingdom Heartless]

Vegeta was looked down on by Kiwi, Zarbon, Dodoria and the Ginyu Force as well, and he killed practically all of them, so you can't really say he never got revenge on anyone who wronged him.

[roidrage]

Vegeta was looked down on by Kiwi, Zarbon, Dodoria and the Ginyu Force as well, and he killed practically all of them, so you can't really say he never got revenge on anyone who wronged him.

But he didn't kill the ones that really mattered. He didn't kill Freeza, and he didn't get to kil Goku, whom he puts in the same category and feels has wronged him the most.

[Kid Buu]

Vegeta was looked down on by Kiwi, Zarbon, Dodoria and the Ginyu Force as well, and he killed practically all of them, so you can't really say he never got revenge on anyone who wronged him.

Which is really interesting because prior to Namek Vegeta was actually their superior. His Oozaru form power level is at 180,000.