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Following my analysis of Goku's character, it's time to focus on his most consistent rival. I'll put the idea of continuing Goku's character in Super on-hold, since that topic may be best to add Vegeta to the mix.
Part 1 - Early history and Saiyan Arc
Unlike Goku, where he could be analysed without drawing too much on his Saiyan genes influencing decisions in his early arcs, Vegeta's character in the Saiyan Arc can't be viewed as anything but one-dimensional without drawing on his fleshing out in the Freeza Arc to explain his characterisation. It's not until the Freeza Arc that we learn key details such as him being the Saiyan Prince, his desire to break free of Freeza's grip and so on.
That said, Vegeta's early life was a pretty extreme one, even compared to a Saiyan survivor like Raditz. Speaking of Raditz, his introduction is surprisingly important for understanding Vegeta's character. Notice this line he adds on when telling Goku he's a Saiyan:
Now, it's easy to rule this and Vegeta's later statement of being the strongest in the universe as a retcon and that Toriyama simply forgot about it. Whilst the latter is true, the former need only be the case if not wanting to look deeper at the work.
I'm going to cut to the chase somewhat and declare that due to the traumatising experience of having all but 3 (as far as you know) of your entire race wiped out including the father who's status you respect and attempt to embody would have someone like Vegeta develop narcissism as both a biproduct of the trauma and a coping mechanism. It's far from rare for those who have suffered huge trauma in childhood to develop one or several mental illnesses as a result, usually leading to PTSD or many other illnesses intersecting with it to form CPTSD (Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). To simplify things, the traits and qualities of a narcissist going by the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders include:
* Exaggerated sense of self-worth
* Exaggerating achievements or talent
* Obsessed with fantasies of power, fame, brilliance, beauty of the perfect partner
* Superiority complex and the need to only associate with those who are equally special (ie. elitism)
* Need for constant admiration
* Sense of entitlement
* Expecting special favours and unquestioning compliance with your expectations
* Taking advantage of others to get what you want
* Inability/unwillingness to recognise the needs of others, a low level of empathy
Now, anyone within the fandom can see how well Vegeta's character matches most of these symptoms, though just covering the checklist isn't a ticket to producing a psychological character. If a mental disorder's traits are all that required to their characterisation, we'd be talking about how Zarbon's desire for beauty is a thought-provoking creation. Vegeta's narcissism will act as a standard to show in greater detail to help explain some of his decisions and offer a realisation as to just how important his transformation as a character was.
That out of the way and on to talking about his Saiyan Arc self, his introduction says a lot about him. Whilst Nappa is sitting on a rock doing nothing, Vegeta is lying on the corpse of his fallen victim and eating them.
It's surprising Nappa wouldn't be hungry enough to eat the dead too, assuming he hadn't already. Leaving aside the survival aspect of it, Vegeta being introduced eating someone he killed in a casual manner helps depict his character's sense of dominance over lesser beings to the point they have the worth of animals to him, despite the panel also showing they were advanced enough to use the blasters that Freeza's lesser soldiers utilise. This can be seen as quite similar to a point people make about Tarantino movies such as Pulp Fiction in which characters may eat whilst talking to another character to show a sense of superiority and lead the conversation. You can see Vegeta not only eating his foe, but sitting on them in a similar vein. Not too much of a stretch when considering a being containing his genes would later have this as their initial selve's main gimmick (Trunks EXPOSED Cell).
We also see his response to Saiyan hybrids:
It's easy to write off Nappa's Super Saiyan remark as going from a joke to being retconned into Vegeta's main thing in the Freeza Arc. If viewing this as a collective though and perhaps using Nappa's motivation as his way of musing that their new Saiyan Empire may be able to produce someone who can defeat Freeza, then Vegeta's insistence to not have a Saiyan hybrid surpass him goes further in showing his sense of self-worth and need to exaggerate talent. From what we're later told through Vegeta telling Goku that he was the strongest of all Saiyans, Dodoria mentioning how the birth of Saiyans like Vegeta influenced Freeza's decision to destroy them or how Vegeta surpassed his father when he was a child, we're shown clearly how Vegeta has always been placed on a pedestal far above other Saiyans and when under Freeza's servitude, that sense of accomplishment would become even greater in keeping track of his sense of identity when vastly outclassed in power even by several of Freeza's henchmen. If someone were to prove this a lie, it would destroy the only thing that separates Vegeta's sense of self worth and pride from that of other Saiyans. This will become very relevant again when covering the Cell and Boo Arcs.
We later see he's quite perceptive in being able to deduce Piccolo was linked to the Dragon Balls by linking small pieces of information together, as well as showing he's more experienced as far as universal knowledge than Raditz when the latter didn't seem to know Piccolo was a Namekian and just deduced he wasn't from Earth.
We also start to see Vegeta exhibiting the previously mentioned trait of elitism, and not just in his constant mentions of being a Saiyan elite. Using Raditz as a surprisingly relevant benchmark again, notice the joy Raditz has at the idea of Goku killing humanity as though he were the one doing it when their average members have a battle power of 5.
This paints the picture of Saiyans loving to sadistically torture or slaughter those weaker than them. This is reinforced when Nappa fights the Z-Warriors. Vegeta, on the other hand, seems to go against this. Here's Exhibit A:
Whilst enjoying the idea of seeing the Earthlings fruitlessly die in what's practically a game to he and Nappa, Vegeta forsook the desire to kill them himself despite it being much easier and instead let the Saibaimen and later Nappa dirty their hands until he was forced to take matters into his own hands. Vegeta sees dirtying his hands with pathetic opponents beneath him, separating him from the other Saiyans as much as he wants his status as a super-elite to invoke this.
Speaking of his status, this brings to mind an important question that could add an additional aspect to his character often overlooked - why is he still the prince when the previous king is dead? You could assume that there's more to Saiyan monarchy's line of succession than we're shown, which DBZ Movie 8 seemed to allude to somewhat, or that there was little point in naming yourself the king ruling over 2 subjects and a small slave race of Saibaimen (though there's little sense of declaring yourself prince either in that case). Of course, this trait never appeared until the Freeza Arc but retcon or not, that may show Vegeta's identity as Prince of the Saiyans only started to become important to him once the 2 others following him were dead as a reminder of who he was. Vegeta's sense of identity is, of course, a trait that remains prevalent in his character throughout the series and helps display his sense of self-worth (bringing things around to that checklist).
Moving on with that point, take note of Nappa's reaction to the death of the Saibaiman Tenshinhan was fighting:
Not only does this line up with his reaction to Raditz's death and the narcissistic trait of Vegeta using others without empathy, but shows us that Nappa has never seen Vegeta eliminate a Saibaiman for poor performance in battle before. It would seem fairly doubtful not even one Saibaiman has died in their past battles when Raditz noted the difficulty their current assignment seemed to be, suggesting had previously succeeded to serve their purpose to Vegeta.
That said, it's surprising Nappa was completely shocked at Vegeta offering him the same punishment:
Of course, Nappa wouldn't expect Vegeta to treat a Saiyan life the same as some slave creature, though that can be seen as doubtful with Vegeta's reaction to Raditz's death. This of course reinforces Vegeta striving to only associate with those he considers on the same tier, but it's important to note the wording Vegeta has here. Rather than specify killing Nappa due to being weak, he specifies it's that Nappa cannot fight. This says a lot about the Saiyan battle mentality and is also quite surprising with the later emphasis Vegeta places on his Saiyan heritage and pride when he executed his fellow Saiyan in a manner similar to what was his slave creature. The only way Vegeta can show his talent is through fighting so to him fighting is everything as far as judging someone's worth goes.
Vegeta truly has a low value for any life beneath him and that's more than a case of establishing him as the villain. We'd later see Freeza has a similar tolerance for failure when threatening Zarbon with death if he doesn't find Vegeta, so this ruthlessness was likely not only inherited from years working for Freeza, but possibly an emulation of him in order to try and gain the strength necessary to overthrow him.
Going onto the iconic Goku VS Vegeta fight of this arc, we get one of the most famous pieces of dialogue from the arc and the series:
Along with, again, reinforcing Vegeta's elitism, emphasising his talent and showing his obsession with flaunting his rank, the last panel helps signify a lot of events going forward. The idea of hard work being enough seems like a display of Vegeta asserting his dominance, but it also gains a new light with the context of the wall that Freeza poses when it comes to his aspirations. It will also retroactively serve as amazing foreshadowing for the motivation of their rematch years later.
Once Goku uses Kaioken x3, we of course see how Vegeta reacts to his notions of being the greatest Saiyan and being surpassed by someone not of his social level:
You can chalk up the "I'm the strongest in the universe" part as a retcon, but it's in not doing so that it becomes far more interesting. It's important to note Vegeta says this to himself, as if a motivation and validation of himself despite his inferiority. Along with linking it back to the narcissism traits, the later revelation that Vegeta isn't even within the Freeza Force's top 5 (and barely ties with Cui for the top 10 when including Super) would have this recontextualised as part of Vegeta's coping mechanism in a belief that he despite reality, he deserves to be the best. This goes a long way in showing his characterisation in the Cell Arc, but that's jumping a bit too far ahead for now.
Soon after, we're shown Vegeta was calculating enough to plan their arrival to be on the night of a full moon. This helps establish the later cunning and strategic thinking he'd display in the events on Namek.
We later see the narcisstic tendencies when Oozaru Vegeta is blinded in one eye:
Along with the stereotypical narcissistic trait of value in their appearance, Vegeta now show a sadistic side of his personality and a need to make those who wrong him suffer. Whilst past villains such as General Blue or Piccolo Daimao were no stranger to either of these, the latter trait takes a unique twist when judging this as a dark reflection to Goku taking a situation personally. Whilst Goku shows the need to pay people back for hurting his friends, Vegeta will make someone suffer for hurting him. This would be standard villain fare if not for the opposition between them being strengthened through one being a hard working low class defined by where he was raised and the other being a super-elite of natural talent who's sense of his race defining him is mitigated compared to other's perceptions of him.
We then get more affirmation of Vegeta's inflated sense of his worth and accomplishments when fighting Gohan.
More of a battle-based analysis now as we see Vegeta replicating the Kienzan against Oozaru Gohan.
Considering Nappa had no awareness of the Kienzan's true nature, it's safe to assume Vegeta couldn't use it prior to their arrival and he developed it upon viewing much as Goku did with the Kamehameha and Zanzoken, reinforcing that as part of a Saiyan's great fighting potential and helping showcase that of an elite Saiyan, considering a Ki technique designed for a specific function is far more advanced than one that's a simplistic Ki wave or a result of superhuman speed.
Then we have Vegeta retreating in defeat.
We see for the first time Vegeta's fear at being unable to do anything, something that becomes more prominent not only in looking at how the previously established traits clash with his sense of uselessness here, but also how Freeza's existence will offer greater impact to what uselessness means to Vegeta in being unable to stop the Saiyan genocide or being unable to escape Freeza's control. We also see how intent Vegeta is on getting revenge once he's able, showing how much the idea of letting a sleight to him go unfinished means to him.
I initially planned to also cover the Freeza Arc as well here, but given how long an arc in which Vegeta got far less screentime has already gotten, that's best saved for another day.
Part 1 - Early history and Saiyan Arc
Unlike Goku, where he could be analysed without drawing too much on his Saiyan genes influencing decisions in his early arcs, Vegeta's character in the Saiyan Arc can't be viewed as anything but one-dimensional without drawing on his fleshing out in the Freeza Arc to explain his characterisation. It's not until the Freeza Arc that we learn key details such as him being the Saiyan Prince, his desire to break free of Freeza's grip and so on.
That said, Vegeta's early life was a pretty extreme one, even compared to a Saiyan survivor like Raditz. Speaking of Raditz, his introduction is surprisingly important for understanding Vegeta's character. Notice this line he adds on when telling Goku he's a Saiyan:
Now, it's easy to rule this and Vegeta's later statement of being the strongest in the universe as a retcon and that Toriyama simply forgot about it. Whilst the latter is true, the former need only be the case if not wanting to look deeper at the work.
I'm going to cut to the chase somewhat and declare that due to the traumatising experience of having all but 3 (as far as you know) of your entire race wiped out including the father who's status you respect and attempt to embody would have someone like Vegeta develop narcissism as both a biproduct of the trauma and a coping mechanism. It's far from rare for those who have suffered huge trauma in childhood to develop one or several mental illnesses as a result, usually leading to PTSD or many other illnesses intersecting with it to form CPTSD (Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). To simplify things, the traits and qualities of a narcissist going by the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders include:
* Exaggerated sense of self-worth
* Exaggerating achievements or talent
* Obsessed with fantasies of power, fame, brilliance, beauty of the perfect partner
* Superiority complex and the need to only associate with those who are equally special (ie. elitism)
* Need for constant admiration
* Sense of entitlement
* Expecting special favours and unquestioning compliance with your expectations
* Taking advantage of others to get what you want
* Inability/unwillingness to recognise the needs of others, a low level of empathy
Now, anyone within the fandom can see how well Vegeta's character matches most of these symptoms, though just covering the checklist isn't a ticket to producing a psychological character. If a mental disorder's traits are all that required to their characterisation, we'd be talking about how Zarbon's desire for beauty is a thought-provoking creation. Vegeta's narcissism will act as a standard to show in greater detail to help explain some of his decisions and offer a realisation as to just how important his transformation as a character was.
That out of the way and on to talking about his Saiyan Arc self, his introduction says a lot about him. Whilst Nappa is sitting on a rock doing nothing, Vegeta is lying on the corpse of his fallen victim and eating them.
It's surprising Nappa wouldn't be hungry enough to eat the dead too, assuming he hadn't already. Leaving aside the survival aspect of it, Vegeta being introduced eating someone he killed in a casual manner helps depict his character's sense of dominance over lesser beings to the point they have the worth of animals to him, despite the panel also showing they were advanced enough to use the blasters that Freeza's lesser soldiers utilise. This can be seen as quite similar to a point people make about Tarantino movies such as Pulp Fiction in which characters may eat whilst talking to another character to show a sense of superiority and lead the conversation. You can see Vegeta not only eating his foe, but sitting on them in a similar vein. Not too much of a stretch when considering a being containing his genes would later have this as their initial selve's main gimmick (
We also see his response to Saiyan hybrids:
It's easy to write off Nappa's Super Saiyan remark as going from a joke to being retconned into Vegeta's main thing in the Freeza Arc. If viewing this as a collective though and perhaps using Nappa's motivation as his way of musing that their new Saiyan Empire may be able to produce someone who can defeat Freeza, then Vegeta's insistence to not have a Saiyan hybrid surpass him goes further in showing his sense of self-worth and need to exaggerate talent. From what we're later told through Vegeta telling Goku that he was the strongest of all Saiyans, Dodoria mentioning how the birth of Saiyans like Vegeta influenced Freeza's decision to destroy them or how Vegeta surpassed his father when he was a child, we're shown clearly how Vegeta has always been placed on a pedestal far above other Saiyans and when under Freeza's servitude, that sense of accomplishment would become even greater in keeping track of his sense of identity when vastly outclassed in power even by several of Freeza's henchmen. If someone were to prove this a lie, it would destroy the only thing that separates Vegeta's sense of self worth and pride from that of other Saiyans. This will become very relevant again when covering the Cell and Boo Arcs.
We later see he's quite perceptive in being able to deduce Piccolo was linked to the Dragon Balls by linking small pieces of information together, as well as showing he's more experienced as far as universal knowledge than Raditz when the latter didn't seem to know Piccolo was a Namekian and just deduced he wasn't from Earth.
We also start to see Vegeta exhibiting the previously mentioned trait of elitism, and not just in his constant mentions of being a Saiyan elite. Using Raditz as a surprisingly relevant benchmark again, notice the joy Raditz has at the idea of Goku killing humanity as though he were the one doing it when their average members have a battle power of 5.
This paints the picture of Saiyans loving to sadistically torture or slaughter those weaker than them. This is reinforced when Nappa fights the Z-Warriors. Vegeta, on the other hand, seems to go against this. Here's Exhibit A:
Whilst enjoying the idea of seeing the Earthlings fruitlessly die in what's practically a game to he and Nappa, Vegeta forsook the desire to kill them himself despite it being much easier and instead let the Saibaimen and later Nappa dirty their hands until he was forced to take matters into his own hands. Vegeta sees dirtying his hands with pathetic opponents beneath him, separating him from the other Saiyans as much as he wants his status as a super-elite to invoke this.
Speaking of his status, this brings to mind an important question that could add an additional aspect to his character often overlooked - why is he still the prince when the previous king is dead? You could assume that there's more to Saiyan monarchy's line of succession than we're shown, which DBZ Movie 8 seemed to allude to somewhat, or that there was little point in naming yourself the king ruling over 2 subjects and a small slave race of Saibaimen (though there's little sense of declaring yourself prince either in that case). Of course, this trait never appeared until the Freeza Arc but retcon or not, that may show Vegeta's identity as Prince of the Saiyans only started to become important to him once the 2 others following him were dead as a reminder of who he was. Vegeta's sense of identity is, of course, a trait that remains prevalent in his character throughout the series and helps display his sense of self-worth (bringing things around to that checklist).
Moving on with that point, take note of Nappa's reaction to the death of the Saibaiman Tenshinhan was fighting:
Not only does this line up with his reaction to Raditz's death and the narcissistic trait of Vegeta using others without empathy, but shows us that Nappa has never seen Vegeta eliminate a Saibaiman for poor performance in battle before. It would seem fairly doubtful not even one Saibaiman has died in their past battles when Raditz noted the difficulty their current assignment seemed to be, suggesting had previously succeeded to serve their purpose to Vegeta.
That said, it's surprising Nappa was completely shocked at Vegeta offering him the same punishment:
Of course, Nappa wouldn't expect Vegeta to treat a Saiyan life the same as some slave creature, though that can be seen as doubtful with Vegeta's reaction to Raditz's death. This of course reinforces Vegeta striving to only associate with those he considers on the same tier, but it's important to note the wording Vegeta has here. Rather than specify killing Nappa due to being weak, he specifies it's that Nappa cannot fight. This says a lot about the Saiyan battle mentality and is also quite surprising with the later emphasis Vegeta places on his Saiyan heritage and pride when he executed his fellow Saiyan in a manner similar to what was his slave creature. The only way Vegeta can show his talent is through fighting so to him fighting is everything as far as judging someone's worth goes.
Vegeta truly has a low value for any life beneath him and that's more than a case of establishing him as the villain. We'd later see Freeza has a similar tolerance for failure when threatening Zarbon with death if he doesn't find Vegeta, so this ruthlessness was likely not only inherited from years working for Freeza, but possibly an emulation of him in order to try and gain the strength necessary to overthrow him.
Going onto the iconic Goku VS Vegeta fight of this arc, we get one of the most famous pieces of dialogue from the arc and the series:
Along with, again, reinforcing Vegeta's elitism, emphasising his talent and showing his obsession with flaunting his rank, the last panel helps signify a lot of events going forward. The idea of hard work being enough seems like a display of Vegeta asserting his dominance, but it also gains a new light with the context of the wall that Freeza poses when it comes to his aspirations. It will also retroactively serve as amazing foreshadowing for the motivation of their rematch years later.
Once Goku uses Kaioken x3, we of course see how Vegeta reacts to his notions of being the greatest Saiyan and being surpassed by someone not of his social level:
You can chalk up the "I'm the strongest in the universe" part as a retcon, but it's in not doing so that it becomes far more interesting. It's important to note Vegeta says this to himself, as if a motivation and validation of himself despite his inferiority. Along with linking it back to the narcissism traits, the later revelation that Vegeta isn't even within the Freeza Force's top 5 (and barely ties with Cui for the top 10 when including Super) would have this recontextualised as part of Vegeta's coping mechanism in a belief that he despite reality, he deserves to be the best. This goes a long way in showing his characterisation in the Cell Arc, but that's jumping a bit too far ahead for now.
Soon after, we're shown Vegeta was calculating enough to plan their arrival to be on the night of a full moon. This helps establish the later cunning and strategic thinking he'd display in the events on Namek.
We later see the narcisstic tendencies when Oozaru Vegeta is blinded in one eye:
Along with the stereotypical narcissistic trait of value in their appearance, Vegeta now show a sadistic side of his personality and a need to make those who wrong him suffer. Whilst past villains such as General Blue or Piccolo Daimao were no stranger to either of these, the latter trait takes a unique twist when judging this as a dark reflection to Goku taking a situation personally. Whilst Goku shows the need to pay people back for hurting his friends, Vegeta will make someone suffer for hurting him. This would be standard villain fare if not for the opposition between them being strengthened through one being a hard working low class defined by where he was raised and the other being a super-elite of natural talent who's sense of his race defining him is mitigated compared to other's perceptions of him.
We then get more affirmation of Vegeta's inflated sense of his worth and accomplishments when fighting Gohan.
More of a battle-based analysis now as we see Vegeta replicating the Kienzan against Oozaru Gohan.
Considering Nappa had no awareness of the Kienzan's true nature, it's safe to assume Vegeta couldn't use it prior to their arrival and he developed it upon viewing much as Goku did with the Kamehameha and Zanzoken, reinforcing that as part of a Saiyan's great fighting potential and helping showcase that of an elite Saiyan, considering a Ki technique designed for a specific function is far more advanced than one that's a simplistic Ki wave or a result of superhuman speed.
Then we have Vegeta retreating in defeat.
We see for the first time Vegeta's fear at being unable to do anything, something that becomes more prominent not only in looking at how the previously established traits clash with his sense of uselessness here, but also how Freeza's existence will offer greater impact to what uselessness means to Vegeta in being unable to stop the Saiyan genocide or being unable to escape Freeza's control. We also see how intent Vegeta is on getting revenge once he's able, showing how much the idea of letting a sleight to him go unfinished means to him.
I initially planned to also cover the Freeza Arc as well here, but given how long an arc in which Vegeta got far less screentime has already gotten, that's best saved for another day.
