He is one of the protagonists of hyper popular Japanese media franchise, Dragon Ball, perhaps most famously appearing in the anime TV shows Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super.
His story is that he was introduced as a pretty sadistic villain who would casually commit genocide. He was arrogant and prideful and met all the necessary criteria for being a ‘total bad ass’.
Case in point he pushed the protagonists to their absolute limits and only through teaming up on him were they able to gradually chip away at his power. But even then they basically won due to outright luck.
In the next arc he began developing, remaining a villain and antagonist to the heroes of the story but was now in opposition to the new main villain, Freeza. Once again he was cruel, sadistic and a total bad ass. As in would slaughter an innocent village for his own purposes with a smirk on his face and then flip off the other bad guys who were after the same thing as him.
The arc after this showcased a serious shift in his character. He was still prideful and could be cruel, but he wasn’t honestly a villain anymore, more an anti-hero. More noticeably he formed a kind of relationship with human woman Bulma and through that relationship had a son called Trunks he gradually accepted. Notably when he saw Trunks murdered by the villain he flew into a rage to avenge him, a stark shift considering up until then he only expressed such rage for selfish reasons.
In the final arc a vital subplot was him coping with his domestication on Earth. No longer a sadistic villain he found his warrior nature and old instincts at odds with his new family life even though he truly cared for his wife and son.
This led him to make a Faustian bargain of sorts to become sadistic again but he relatively quickly goes back on this and gives his life in an attempt to defeat the latest villain. It is his ultimate moment of redemption and the culmination of his arc since his debut. Hell he even hugged his son before killing himself.
And yet…his story didn’t stop there.* In the same arc his character in spite of being redeemed CONTINUED to develop. He gave up his fiercely defended sense of pride to fight alongside his long time rival and even came up with the final plan to defeat the villain of the arc. This plan happened to rely upon the collective citizens of Earth, the planet he originally showed up to destroy and the denizens of which he regarded as trash, working together. He went from regarding the planet and its people as nothing to believing them to hold the power to save the entire universe.
In Dragon Ball Super as gruff and arrogant as he can be he ultimately retains this mentality. In fact his first appearance in the show depicts him on a family outing with his wife and son, the fulfilment of a promise he made to the latter.
His appearances throughout the show have emphasised his affection for his family beneath his seemingly cold and gruff exterior and they have been key to his unlocking new depths of power within himself.
His attitude even extends to other people beyond his family as he has adopted a master/student relationship with another character.
Vegeta is nothing short of one of the most popular characters in the entire franchise. It is even possible that he is THE most popular character over all.
And the thing is whilst the fandom and general audiences love his character over all and his character arc there is a widespread consensus that his later depictions in light of his familial relationships are brilliant strokes of character development and beloved by fans.
So beloved are they that in more recent years moments like that have been thrown in for pure fanservice.
Why do I bring all this up and go to such lengths to explain Vegeta’s evolution as a character?
Because in my 15+ years as a fan and observer of this franchise I have literally NEVER seen anyone say Vegeta became LESS interesting, LESS bad ass, LESS engaging as a character when he gained a family.
And as I mentioned above there is a broad consensus that it actually made his character MORE interesting and MORE beloved. True this stems largely from where he began vs. where he wound up but the point is for a character who began as a bad ass sadistic villain with a lot of attitude and style to him, seeing him at times be goofy and affectionate or driven by love for his family should be the ultimate betrayal of his character right?
As Tom Brevoort would say it would be like Fonzie transitioned from a motorcycle riding cool dude into a school teacher right?
Except…that happened and…it made Vegeta MORE popular.
So…why again does having say Spider-Man who did not as drastically change when he got married magically become ‘less interesting’ after his wedding?
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