Vegeta prince of all Saiyans? or King?

[samuraix123]

Hey guys!
Sense King Vegeta was killed by Freeza, Wouldn't that make Vegeta the King of all saiyans instead of the prince? Because through-out the whole series, Vegeta still refers to himself as the prince. Does it talk about this in the Manga?

[Fox666]

The planet was destroyed before he could be made the king...

[Eire]

Yes.
In our history death of the king didn't automatically meant taking the title by the heir. Usually coronation ceremony was required, in more ruthless courts preparation involved elimination of other pretenders or kind of voting in others. (For example kings from Polish Jagiellon dynasty were elected- always in order, but it was still under the question mark, that the last king was crowned during his father's life to preserve the throne).
IMHO Sayains didn't have any tradition (they had just one king), so Vegeta didn't even know what should he do to become the king of his two reminded people.

[samuraix123]

So if a planet that has a king explodes, and the prince survives that means he's out luck of becoming king?

[Eire]

It seems so:(
But seriously, living as a slave under Friza's heel such change a name would sound like a mockery.

[Piccolo Daimao]

I'm surprised that Vegeta didn't just start calling himself "King of the Saiyans", because it would suit his arrogance and no-one's going to deny him. If the King is dead when he's the Prince, then he has the right to call himself "King" (even if he officially isn't).

But I guess he didn't care that much about whether or not he was Prince or King, acknowleged the Saiyan tradition (or lack of it) or actually held some sliver of respect for his father. Either way, he doesn't really have any grounds to brag about being the Prince of an almost extinct race anyway.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

As Eire brought up, it's whether or not Sayains had formal coronations. Which we'll never know, particularly since everything we see related to King Vegeta is either filler or from Broly 1.

They very well could have, or it could have just been Sayains pretending they had class, since as a pirate race I could imagine having a mocking attitude towards most formal authority (Freeza's being entirely in his head, so he doesn't count).

[the_abberration]

It could have been a matter of him being a "king without a kingdom", which is why he continued to refer to himself as Prince Vegeta. Since the planet was named Vegeta, maybe King Vegeta had a double meaning (i.e.King of Vegeta). With no planet, there was no reason for Vegeta to refer to himself as king....that is until he conquered and named a new planet Vegeta.

Although it is not canon, I think this situation was reasonably addressed in the first Broly movie. Paragus did not refer to Vegeta as king, until he informed him that there was a new planet named Vegeta for him to be a king of. At that point Vegeta became a king with a kingdom.

[Masa95000]

He might've kept the title to preserve the memory of his father.

[samuraix123]

I love everyone's thoughts I really like the idea that he kept the title to preserve his fathers memory

[Fox666]

The only time we hear about Vegeta's father is about him and Freeza mocking the dude...

[penguintruth]

Clearly it's some kind of deep-seated denial of his father's death, which he never fully came to grips with. It's also why he tries to fill the void with his arrogance, feeling at heart, a lonely little boy who misses daddy.

[dario03]

It also conveniently makes it easy to differentiate the Vegetas when writing.

[Craddle]

It would have been a bit confusing at first if Vegeta and others were referring to the King as King Vegeta and then Vegeta started to refer to himself as King Vegeta. I'm dam near confusing myself just typing it.

[samuraix123]

Wow I got a little confused as well

[Tanooki Kuribo]

Hmm, I wonder if Piccolo is a prince too...

[samuraix123]

No he's a saiyan just like raditz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFTvabHR-9E
But I think we're all in an agreement that Vegeta calls himself the prince of all saiyans instead of king, out of respect for his father.

[Rocketman]

Prince means "first" or more eloquently, "most distinguished". It's not a title that specifically ties to certain property, unlike King.

Every time Vegeta calls himself "Prince of the Saiyans", he's literally saying he's the Best/First/Most Distinguished/Most Worthy of the Saiyans.

[Craddle]

Hmm, I wonder if Piccolo is a prince too...

I am Piccolo, Prince of the Namekians!

[Michsi]

Hmm, I wonder if Piccolo is a prince too...

I am Piccolo, Prince of the Namekians!

- of Demons actually,since his father called himself a king and so did he in the beginning. But that title is mostly self-proclaimed though and the demon heritage lost pretty much all meaning when he was established to be a namekian.

As for Vegeta, he calls himself a prince and not a king, so I suppose there was more to it than just the king dying to make room or him. Or maye there was no point in changing the title since it pretty much lost all meaning once his planet was destroyed.