Vegeta (DuttPanda)

 "You can take control of my body and mind, but there is one thing that a true Saiyan always keeps.. his pride!"

- Vegeta to Majin Buu

Vegeta (ベジータ, Bejīta) is the proud prince of the decimated Saiyan race. e is the eldest son of King Vegeta, the older brother of Tarble, the husband of Bulma, the father of Trunks and Bulla, and the great-great grandfather of Vegeta Jr. Alongside Goku, Gohan, Krillin, and Piccolo, he is easily one of the most prominent characters in the series, receiving more character development after being introduced than a number of other characters. He is one of the most well-received characters throughout the entire franchise.

Regal, egotistical and full of pride, Vegeta was once a ruthless, cold-blooded warrior and outright killer, but later abandons his role in the Frieza Force, instead opting to remain and live on Earth, fighting alongside the Z Fighters; all the while striving to become the universe's most powerful warrior, specifically with the mission to defeat and surpass Goku in power. His character evolves from villain, to anti-hero, to a hero through the course of the series. Appearance Vegeta is a slim yet well-built man of a rather short stature. His hair is spiky and it firmly stands upwards, and has a prominent widow's peak. Like most Saiyans, he possesses black eyes and jet black hair, though his hair is infrequently black with red highlights in various media (posters, trading cards, and similar merchandise in particular). A main characteristic of Vegeta's is the fact that he is the only living Saiyan who has continued to don the traditional Saiyan armor over a dark blue long-sleeved jumpsuit with white gloves and boots. He has also been seen wearing alternate forms of the armor, customizing the armor to better suit his persona. During the Androids Saga, he now wears an updated battle armor over a medium blue long sleeved jumpsuit with white gloves and boots. However, once he integrates into Earthly society, he abandons the Saiyan armor, at first gradually in Dragon Ball Z wearing a dark blue sleeveless jumpsuit while retaining the white gloves and boots

If observed closely, Vegeta actually changes appearance physically over the course of the series. He was originally intended to appear deceptively small, lean, and less threatening in comparison to his massive partner, Nappa. However, by the end of Dragon Ball Z, he seems to be taller and more muscular, the length of his hair having also been shortened, though he is still comparatively shorter than Goku, who also appears to have grown taller. Vegeta's facial features also look more distinct and sharply defined as the series progresses, making him look older (though this may be attributed to gradual aging). It should be noted however that some of these changes (mainly the more defined facial and anatomical features in most male characters, and the increase in muscularity in all characters) are mainly due to a visible shift in Akira Toriyama's artistic style over the course of the series.

Personality
Vegeta is arrogant throughout the series, and becomes bitter due to the abuse his race suffered at the hands of Frieza. Following the destruction of his home world Planet Vegeta, his hatred toward Frieza grows. His royalty seems to have bestowed upon him an inflated sense of superiority, holding himself above nearly everyone he encounters. He is immensely proud of his Saiyan heritage and believes his race to be the most powerful in the universe. In "Dragon Ball Super", Vegeta showed great anger at the realization that Goku Black was really an impersonator who stole Goku's body. To which, he firmly stated that only a real Saiyan like Goku could bring out the true potential of the warrior race.

As the Prince of a demolished Planet Vegeta, Vegeta is initially introduced as an unrepentant villain. Judging from his evil intentions before joining the Z Fighters, Vegeta has been consistently characterized as extremely arrogant, vengeful, and at times, cold. Many of Vegeta's early heroic acts are because of self-interest or revenge, although he later settles down and grows fond of Earth as his home, raising a family with Bulma. Having been born into the upper tier of Saiyan society, Vegeta was fixated on achieving the legendary status of Super Saiyan and becoming the most powerful warrior in the universe. Vegeta is more of a tactical fighter who often rushes in the brawl without hesitation. However, his rage or arrogance often causes him to underestimate his opponent. His royal blood and intense fighting style has both benefited and harmed him in many battles. Vegeta has been shown to be one of the more intelligent characters of the series, as well as one of the most serious, rarely exhibiting humor. When he does so, his humor is often very dry and in some rare occasions it is based on black humor.

Initially, Vegeta was extremely aggressive and cold-blooded. Since his childhood, Vegeta had proven himself to be a ruthless killer, merciless like most Saiyans. During the Namek Saga however, he began to exhibit changes; rather than killing Krillin or Gohan as he promised in the previous saga, he instead forges an alliance with them. Throughout the first half of the Frieza Saga, whomever he defeated, he killed without mercy. His first sign of mercy was kneeing Gohan in the stomach, instead of killing him while looking for the Namekian Dragon Balls. Another sign of mercy he displayed was when he let Namekian Frog Captain Ginyu live, taking delight at the notion of Ginyu being stuck in the frog's body as punishment enough and not wanting to get frog guts all over his boots.

After his defeat at the hands of Frieza, Vegeta tearfully explains to Goku that Frieza forced him to be ruthless and that he never had the chance to be anything else (implying that he could have been kinder and more merciful were it not for Frieza). From then on, Vegeta softened up and occasionally showed compassion to his new family, Bulma, Trunks, and Bulla. In addition, during the Kid Buu Saga, he notably became enraged when he learned that Goku's deal with Old Kai involved allowing the latter to take advantage of Bulma, feeling it was very senseless of Goku. It was not until the Babidi Saga that he gave in to his obsession of overtaking Goku in might, becoming a Majin and "evil" once more. This was a desperate, failed ploy to restore his former wickedness, believing it to have been the source of his true power. Goku believes Vegeta is bluffing, and correctly so; Vegeta demonstrates his prevailing softness in hugging Trunks for the first time and telling him that he is proud to be his father, before performing a sacrificial Final Explosion against Majin Buu. Arguably, his most defining trait is his rivalry with Goku and obsession to surpass him in power.

From the beginning of the series to near the end, Vegeta is shown to be exceptionally vain and egotistical. A tragic example of this is in his fight with Semi-Perfect Cell. Though he could have easily destroyed this weaker form of Cell, his arrogance bested him, and he purposely let Cell absorb Android 18 just to have a challenge in Cell through which to test his power. While fighting Super Buu, as well as while fighting Janemba on a different occasion, Vegeta vehemently opposed fusion with Goku due to his pride, but Goku managed to persuade him. His opinion of Goku always being one step ahead of him, even though Goku is a lower class Saiyan, runs the gamut from contempt to rivalry, and later to respect and friendship. Because of his arrogance, attitude and past wrongdoing, Vegeta gains a lot of disdain from those around him. Naturally, Goku always takes an optimistic opinion about Vegeta. Vegeta almost always addresses Goku by his Saiyan birth name, Kakarot. After the defeat of Kid Buu, he has a change of heart and his angry grudge against Goku becomes a friendly rivalry, though he is still highly annoyed with Goku on the grounds of his immature tendencies. In the manga, Pan calls him, Uncle Vegeta, even though they are not blood related, signifying a meaningful bond between Vegeta's family and Goku's.

During The Universe 6 saga, he is shown to be rather ignorant and uncaring about the events around him, as he does nothing but sit on the platform as Champa threatens to kill all of the Universe 6 team. He also does not care if Jaco is killed when he claims that Frost was cheating in the tournament by Champa but simply wants to see if Frost was cheating. Along with this, he insults Magetta, who did nothing to him at the end of the battle between the two of them. It isn't clear why he suddenly became more cold and secluded with the events around him like this, though it could be because he was in a competitive mood. This attitude continues to show, as he leaves Bulma and Trunks once again to train with Whis, and when Future Trunks says hello to him, Vegeta does nothing, not even a nod, and simply stands there with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. After Future Trunks tells the others about Goku Black, instead of sympathizing for Future Bulma's death and the destruction of earth in the future, he simply just insults Future Trunks for not fighting to the very end against Goku Black, and how it is dishonorable and disgraceful of him to retreat to the past. Though seems to be only because he knew Trunks fleeing and feeling sorry for himself wouldn't accomplish anything. So he took Future Trunks to spar. This was to instruct him in higher Super Saiyan levels since Trunks had no knowledge of them. Despite all of this, he was shown to have a degree of care for his family, as he was shown to be internally upset with the death of Future Bulma while he was in the Gravity Room.

As a father, Vegeta was initially a very indifferent one, viewing Trunks only as Bulma's child. However, as he spent more time with his son's future counterpart and developed respect for him, he came to appreciate his son, show great outrage when Cell killed Future Trunks. Upon settling down with Bulma and Trunks, his attitude as a father slowly but continuously improved. He has spent time with his family and attempted to connect with them. When Trunks wasn't willing to do certain things in his training, Vegeta motivated him to try by rewarding him if he succeeded. One example was he offered to take Trunks to the park (amusement park in the original dub) if he was able to land a punch on Vegeta's face. When Trunks succeeded and Vegeta reflexively punched Trunks in the face, he realized he went too far, and although his pride prevented him from apologizing, he kept his promise to Trunks. Having known he was always emotionally distant with his son, Vegeta attempted to be a better father after the fight with Buu by spending more time with his family and was willing to make amends as a father, yet he seems to stray away from this path after the battle between Goku and Beerus, going to Beerus' planet for many months, and supposedly not talking or interacting with his family unless the situation called for it.

After approximately a year since Future Trunks' warning about the Androids, Bulma breaks up with Yamcha and becomes romantically involved with Vegeta, ultimately leading to the conception of Trunks. However, even the birth of their son was not enough to bring the two together, as of that time Vegeta prioritized his rivalry with Goku before anything else, even his relationship with Bulma. Arguments were common between the two, with Bulma often calling Vegeta a "jerk" and Vegeta showing little to no care or emotion for either his son or his future wife; this was demonstrated during an incident in which Bulma's plane is destroyed and their lives are at risk. When Future Trunks saves the two and questions Vegeta as to why he did not try to save them, Vegeta responds that he has "more important things to worry about than that foolish woman and her blasted child." Bulma later humiliates Vegeta in front of everyone when she says that every time he sticks his "Ugly Mug" up to Trunks, it makes Trunks cry, much to Krillin and Gohan's amusement and Vegeta's anger. Vegeta's and Bulma's indifference to each other during the Androids Saga strongly implies that the circumstances surrounding their child's conception was no more than a brief affair; Future Trunks states to Goku that in his timeline, even though Bulma fell in love with Vegeta, they did not stay together very long because their attraction was solely based on passion and loneliness, and with Vegeta's goals and priorities not concerning Bulma, they had no reason to continue the relationship.

However, the seven years of peace that came after the conclusion of the Cell Games would suggest that the two settled their differences and began to have a much better relationship than previously, as they were already married by the time the Majin Buu conflict took place. Vegeta eventually became fond of his family in the Majin Buu Saga, but is ashamed of himself for doing so, wanting to be the cold-hearted prince he once was. He attempted to return to his former self by allowing Babidi take control of him and denounced his ties to Bulma and Trunks, but Goku deduced that Vegeta was bluffing. Nonetheless, Vegeta eventually realizes what is really important in his life, and sacrifices himself to save his family and Earth when fighting Majin Buu. Vegeta showed his love for Bulma when Beerus slapped Bulma and Vegeta flew into a heated rage, causing him to attack Beerus, whom he was initially afraid of; Master Roshi and Goku note that Vegeta's power surpassed the latters in that moment of anger.

Background
Vegeta is born around Age 732. His father, King Vegeta, is the king of the Saiyan race. King Vegeta and his race are also under the rule of the interplanetary warlord Frieza, and the former was also forced by Frieza to surrender him to the latter through undisclosed means. While under Frieza's grip, Vegeta was pressured by Frieza to do his bidding or else Frieza would murder Vegeta's father. In his youth, Vegeta saw his father being stepped over by Beerus the Destroyer. Vegeta attempts to help but he gets paralyzed, restraining him from moving by Beerus. A little while before the genocide of the Saiyans, Vegeta is shown effortlessly destroying several Saibamen during a training session, and soon later conquering a planet for Frieza. Despite this, Frieza kills King Vegeta anyway after the latter attempted to form a mutiny against him to free Vegeta. While Vegeta is on another planet, Frieza destroys Planet Vegeta. As a result, most of the Saiyans are killed but few remain.

Frieza keeps Vegeta, Nappa, and Raditz as slaves to do his bidding. In the manga chapter of the Namek Saga, Vegeta is angry over working under Frieza. Vegeta is especially reluctant to take orders from Frieza's right-hand man, Zarbon, whom Vegeta states is responsible for mocking him for many years and "working him like a slave." Despite being Frieza's underling, Vegeta constantly and proudly calls himself the "Prince of all Saiyans." Vegeta does not refer to himself as the "King of all Saiyans", possibly out of respect for his father, a refusal to admit the extinction of the Saiyans, or because he was never formally declared King. Vegeta planned to assassinate Frieza several times. However, after witnessing Frieza's incredible display of power when he destroyed an entire planet and the rebels who opposed Frieza on it with a single gigantic energy ball fired from his index finger, Vegeta decided that he would need to wait before challenging Frieza.

Dragon Ball Z
Much of Dragon Ball Z's history is left untouched except for the ending, which is completely altered. After Goku annihilates Kid Buu with the Super Spirit Bomb, they return to Earth, where reconstruction and order is brought back. With chaos and riot brought about Buu, they make a wish to the Earth's Dragon Balls to remove Buu from the memories of the Earthlings. A heated argument between Goku and Vegeta ensues whether Buu should be placed on Earth. Eventually, Buu proves that he is no longer violent, and is happily accepted into the Z-Fighters, as their own.

To celebrate the 'rebirth' of their lives, Satan decides to reorganize the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament. With Majin Buu being inaugurated within the Z-Fighters, all the Z-Fighters, including Buu, decide to participate. The final scene of the series shows Goku and Vegeta reaching the final stage of the tournament, and the screen fades to black after they exchange some punches while the rest of the spectators including their family and friends witness their glorious battle.

Techniques and Abilities

 * Galick Gun: Vegeta's signature technique. Vegeta bends to the side while holding the back of his hands parallel to each other, conducting purple ki that discharges a concentrated, powerful beam. Similar to Goku's Kame Hame Ha.
 * Final Flash: Vegeta's signature technique. Vegeta conducts ki in both of his hands that places next to each other, combining the ki that discharges in the form of a devastating stream of energy. He used this against Perfect Cell, though the Android regenerated.
 * Big Bang Attack: Vegeta discharges a medium-sized ball of ki in his hand. On impact, this technique causes a violent explosion. He uses this attack for the first time onscreen to kill Android 19.
 * Evolution Hack: A trait that Goku, Vegeta and their children all achieve, through self improvement and rapid cell growth and enhancement, the Saiyans can hack their evolutionary stasis to constantly upgrade their bodies, meaning that they are completely bypassing the evolutionary waiting period for evolvement, basically, tapping into new transformations.

Great Ape
In order for the transformation to take place, the Saiyan needs to have a tail, as the glands responsible for initiating the transformation are located exclusively there. The Saiyan also needs to absorb at least 17 million zeno units of Blutz Waves through the eyes to initiate the transformation. Blutz Waves are found only in sunlight reflected by a moon. If there is no moon, a planetary body will reflect the same amount of rays. The easiest way to achieve this is to gaze at the full moon, making Saiyans similar to werewolves in this aspect. If any clouds covered the moon and/or a planetary body, it would block certain amounts of the radiation.

Vegeta transformed into the Great Ape transformation during his battle against Goku and later Gohan, Krillin, and Yajirobe. When Vegeta is first seen transforming into the Great Ape transformation by sing Blutz Waves because the Earth had no moon. Unlike Goku and Gohan, Vegeta retains his rationality and composure when transformed. Likewise, he also retains the ability to fully speak and manipulate his energy for feats such as flying. He is ten times more powerful than his normal form when transformed, and easily crushed Goku, who exclaimed that not even a Kaio-ken x5 would work on him. Despite his immense increase in size and bulk, he is noted by Goku to have grown equally faster in this form. In direct proportion to his paramount size, his ears are become equally keen, able to detective the most minute sounds from great distances.

Super Saiyan
This is Vegeta's Super Saiyan form. Though it was only a Saiyan Legend at the time, Vegeta was fascinated with this transformation and obsessed over obtaining it so that he could avenge his race by having the power to defeat Frieza. Goku achieved the state prior to Vegeta as did Future Trunks, which only fueled his desire to unlock the potential hidden within him (though chronologically, Future Vegeta actually achieved it before Future Trunks). Vegeta first showed off the Super Saiyan state while he was fighting Android 19, ripping off the Android's arms and thereby rendering it unable to keep absorbing his energy, after which he reduced it to a lifeless head with the Big Bang Attack.

In this form, his power increases many times over from his regular level. His hair turns blond becoming a bit more rigid while standing more up right, the irises of his eyes become green, and he acquires a golden aura just as Goku before him. He gains a slight increase in muscle mass as well. Currently, this form is mastered to the same level as Goku's Super Saiyan transformation which can go toe to toe with an unsupressed full powered Frieza in his savagery. Vegeta takes great pride in this transformation and believes that this is the greatest source of power anyone can possess, as shown with his battle against Leya (a Saiyan from Universe 6; pun of Parsley) where he exclaims that the Super Saiyan transformation is something that one should be extremely proud of since this shows the utmost point of one's career as a warrior.

Super Saiyan Second Grade
This form wields much greater power than his Super Saiyan level. At this level, Vegeta personally calls himself "Super Vegeta." He has the same basic golden features of his Super Saiyan level, only now his muscles are much larger. His hair also is bigger and slightly sharper, and he looks and acts more dominant. Due to Vegeta's muscle mass increase, he is much stronger than in his Super Saiyan form, and his speed and agility are unencumbered, unlike the 3rd Grade Super Saiyan, which significantly decreases speed (but greatly increases in strength). Vegeta went through this transformation when he was training to fight Cell in his Semi-Perfect form. He also used it against Cell in his Perfect form (where he is outmatched, and knocked out with his face to the ground after a hard hit to the spine, reverting him to base form). It is suggested by Tien that this form had a power equal to Perfect Cell's, and by Piccolo that Vegeta only lost against Cell because he fought sloppily as when Vegeta used the Final Flash attack, he destroyed a large portion of his body, but he had to redirect the majority of the power of his blast upwards to avoid destroying the planet, and it assumed that Cell escaped the brunt of the attack. Had Cell taken the brunt, he might have actually been destroyed. However it was soon realized that Cell was really holding back. #16 also notes that although Cell had grown much stronger after absorbing Android 18, he was still ahead in every way, though Vegeta is able to tell that Cell was holding back his power, and this is proven when Cell does not use anything close to his full power to defeat Vegeta with ease.

Super Saiyan 2
Vegeta attained this form through many years of intense training. When Vegeta transforms to a Super Saiyan 2, he receives some noticeable changes, such as his hair growing a little bit longer, spikier and becoming more defined than his other previous Super Saiyan forms. He also gains electricity in the aura surrounding his body in this form.

Vegeta is first seen in this form when he fights against Goku while as Demon Prince Vegeta. He also uses this form when fighting Super Buu before the Vegito fusion, albeit only in the anime. He also fights Kid Buu so Goku can gather enough energy in his Super Saiyan 3 form to defeat Kid Buu, during which he is easily beaten and reverted to base as Goku fails to charge up to his full power due to energy depletion. Strangely enough, in all three of those instances, including when fighting Kid Buu, lightning is removed from his transformation despite the bolts constantly surrounding his body in the original manga, causing some confusion over whether he actually used this form in the anime or not, as the bolts only appear for about a few seconds when he fires a barrage of ki blasts to stall for time. Currently, this form is mastered to the point that he can go toe to toe against the likes of a Super Saiyan 3 Goku, depending on the conditions.

Demon Prince/Majin
Demon Prince (魔王子, Maōji), also known as Majin Vegeta, is a powered up form taken on by Vegeta. Vegeta takes this form when Babidi harnesses the evil in Vegeta's heart to take control of him, giving him a significant boost in power, including maintaining his Super Saiyan form. While having the Demon mark on his forehead, dark black lines around the eyes, and increased muscle mass puff up to the level that veins appear all over Vegeta's body and face.

Vegeta's dark nature is reawakened and he becomes more powerful than he was before (thanks to Babidi's magic unlocking his potential), the Manipulation Sorcery also gives him other special traits - including a seemingly unlimited stamina supply and the ability to survive and heal from injuries in an almost zombie-like way. Demon Prince Vegeta usually fights at the level of Super Saiyan 2 and his power equals that of Goku at his Super Saiyan 2 level. After Vegeta is killed by his devastating Final Explosion as a last resort to destroy Majin Buu, he loses his Demon Prince state and reverts back to his normal stage, but retains the power boost gained from it.