I'm aware of that interaction where Goku is being a mouthpiece of the author to show Vegeta's World-view which later is broken and leads to his downfall. If Goku's speech meant anything, which it doesn't until that point and ins't developed after, I might call it a theme. As it was presented it's meaningless. Because Goku's never did any exceptional "hardwork" neither did all his previous foes and friends, it's blatant because at various points they share the same training and there's no distinction about who went hardest at it.Doctor. wrote:Except it's not Vegeta's own crisis. The theme is clearly vocalized through Vegeta and Goku's first interaction:
You choosing to willfully ignore it does not mean it's not there. It then follows into the Namek arc, where Goku, a low-class Saiyan, keeps surpassing Saiyan limits through gravity training and defeats the epitome of natural-born talent, Freeza.
You could argue that it's not well-presented, what with the zenkai boosts being essentially free power-ups due to Saiyan biology (even if Super Saiyan still epitomizes the idea that hard work pays off since only through his gravity training could Goku achieve the necessary power to achieve the state), or that the series ditches that theme in the following arcs (which I'd somewhat agree with), but that does not mean it wasn't a major theme during two of the series' most iconic arcs.
The only difference is that some are better than others, Goku the best of them all.
Further ahead in Namek it's not existent, Goku having once again perfect training conditions while having the plus of his broken physiology doesn't contribute to the theme. Where's the hardwork? Super Saiyan like the Holy water in the Piccolo Daimao arc is just rewarding the prodigy for being one.
Let's not even go to the Android Arc and beyond.
A couple of interactions don't make a theme. Much less when it's contradicted everywhere else in the manga.
