Vegeta: Redemption a Possibility?
Whenever I write about the surly Saiyan, chills go throughout my body, mainly because I fear for the response I’ll get from DBZ fans. I’ve made myself out to be quite the Yamcha defender in my time here and there was that one time I called Vegeta stupid. I’m pretty sure if I conducted a study on DBZ fans, 80% of them would be Vegeta fans. And why not? He’s the product of Goku’s biggest strength and weakness: mercy. He’s cool when he’s pissed and cool when he’s pissy. Makes a pretty good fighter, too.
HOWEVER…
There is one aspect of him I never liked, which ironically and paradoxically makes him a good character: his character development. Look, don’t get me wrong. Cool idea. I’ve heard many things about blowing himself up to defeat Majin Buu or whatever. I dunno the context there but still, cool idea.
HOWEVER…
It’s terribly executed. This man slaughtered most of the Z-fighters. And don’t give me that “oh but that was Nappa and that Saibaman” bullshit. Vegeta ordered them to kill Yamcha, Chiaotzu, Tien and Piccolo. He was in charge.
And everyone seems to forget about that city he and Nappa freaking destroyed. That’s some pretty grim shit.
But hey, he helps out on Namek, right? He saved some asses over there. I mean, he slaughtered a whole village, schemed against our heroes and abandoned them for his own needs (try to match the events from the show to these. Hint, first one is frikking obvious.), so water under the bridge. Let’s forgive him!
And that’s the thing. They forgive him. Bam. Almost immediately. Even the Namekians aren’t the least bit pissed when the asshole brags about killing a whole village of their people. They just grunt and murmur a bit and it’s pretty much forgotten when they move to a new subject. Where’s the rage, the emotion, the lashing out? Why doesn’t Vegeta pay the price for his actions?!
And Bulma, holy hell, Bulma. Put yourself in her shoes. This guy who has a rep for being a murderous and unforgiving asshole lands near your home. You go over there to see what’s up and there he is. What do you do?
Let’s see…Some good answers here. “I’d shit myself.” “Call the cops.” “Use the nearest human as a meat shield.” All very good answers…but you’re wrong. All of you hypothetical readers are wrong, you dumbasses.
YOU INSULT THE MAN’S STENCH!
First thing Bulma does when she meets Vegeta again is comment on how stinky he is. This man is a known murderer who has done nothing to redeem himself. How is she attempting any sort of banter with him now? Of course, what else do I expect from the woman who flirted with said murderer a year ago. Granted, he did give a good idea and their friends were going to be resurrected so she was in a good mood but if someone who murdered my friends came up to me when I was having difficulties and gave me a solution, I’d be grateful but I wouldn’t effing trust the man! He’s freaking dangerous!
And everyone’s cool with this except Yamcha, who is seen as being a jealous twat for doubting Vegeta. What? What BS is that? That’s common sense! He doesn’t want to die a second time by this guy’s hands. He wants to enjoy life! But fuck it. Let’s take the easy route and piss on Yamcha!
I really need to stop defending Yamcha on this blog. Shows too much of a bias.
Anyways, Vegeta assimilates with the humans with no effort whatsoever and even hooks up with one of them. Wha–HOW?! HOW THE RAT’S ASS DO YOU–FUCKIN’–WHAT?! This moved way too quick. I know in the show, a year has passed since he’s back on Earth but once more, Vegeta does nothing to prove himself to be a good person cause all he does is train in that time. There is no effort. As funny as his banter with Bulma can be, it makes no sense, especially for someone who quaked in her boots whenever Vegeta’s name was mentioned.
Let me conclude this rant with an alternate route Vegeta’s redemption could’ve gone down: Launch. I know what you’re thinking. “Who the bloody hell is Launch? You inserting your fanfic into the equation now, SantaRobin?” No, she’s a character, most prominent in the original Dragon Ball show. She has two identities, which she changes between by sneezing: blue-haired nice girl and blonde gun-toting bitch on wheels. She would be perfect with Vegeta. I think she’s paired up with Tien in the show but in DBZ Launch is never shown aside from one scene in some filler with Tien…I think. Look, I’m foggy on the subject. Launch just seems like a legend of some sort, she’s so obscure. Point is, break those two up, since all Tien does is train with Chiaotzu (lack of attention is always a good reason for breaking up. We never see Yamcha train so it’s assumed he gives Bulma some attention so dammit I’m defending Yamcha again. Someone control me…), and pair her up with Vegeta. Blue-haired Launch is a character that listens to Vegeta and depends on him, while blonde Launch kicks Vegeta into line and keeps watch on him, makes sure he does nothing stupid. It’s a nice balance, one that maintains Vegeta’s character. He can be a jackass to blue-haired Launch who just yesses him, but change and become a better person when blonde Launch tells him what’s what.
What makes this even better is that Launch is a character. Not much to be said there.
What do you guys think? Was this development too rushed? Too unbelievable? Does my alternative make sense? Your comments are encouraged. Leave a like, reblog, follow, yadayadaya. I’ll be seeing ya soon.
-SantaRobin
Geez louise! Let me just say that I’m so glad this fandom is alive and active. Seriously. Back when we had Shrines and Temple o’ Trunks (WHO’S WITH ME) we were lucky to get into chat rooms without our internet shutting down. What a wonderful time to be a DBZ fan. You guys are amazing.
WITH THAT SAID…… your rant was pretty glorious. Let me go through this point by point so get nice and comfortable….
You’ve never seen the Buu saga and yet you’ve decided to criticize Vegeta’s character development? Hmmm. You might want to remedy that before doing so?? Because the context literally destroys your entire argument.
It’s very clear that you’re unfamiliar with Vegeta as a character and the entire context of the series. Piccolo was a demon that literally almost killed Goku in Dragonball. He helped take Radditz down and kidnapped Gohan when he was 4 and yet, there were zero repercussions for him too. We’re in a world where fighting and being a fighter determines your importance. This isn’t a regular anime that takes place on a regular, normally-functioning earth. They have a talking cat as a president for goodness sake. Actions will not create ordinary reactions. It’s supposed to be centered around Fighting with glorious power-up moments, hilarious gags and the occasional nude scene. This is Akira Toriyama, pure and simple. Anything else we get out of it, like the romantic relationships and the incredibly touching moments, are all on us.
Toriyama is a huge supporter of his fans making up their own ideas about his characters. He’s said over and over that he doesn’t like writing romance and he doesn’t like planning ahead. Only in retrospect did he realize that putting Vegeta and Bulma together was actually a really good idea, and now, he’s the biggest Vegeta/Bulma shipper. I suggest you hop on over here and read some of his interviews. I hope you get a better sense of how Toriyama writes, which is obviously important to understanding how and why things happen in DBZ….
It also sounds like you’re unfamiliar with Bulma as a character too. She’s no ordinary human girl. You’re familiar with Dragonball at least right? She’s very much a self-made stupidly-brave genius who literally grew up beside aliens and powerful beings. She reminds me a lot of Vegeta actually; when they’re scared, they don’t let fear stop them. They might be horrified and in Vegeta’s case, facing death, but that doesn’t mean they’ll cower behind Krillin for too long. Eventually they’ll step up and fight back. They’re both fearless. It’s not a stretch at all to imagine Bulma going after what she wants, especially once she became a grown woman in DBZ.
At some point in the future, I’m definitely going to write a long exposé about Bulma and Vegeta. It seems that the fandom has kind of forgotten who these characters were and why their relationship makes perfect sense. How Vegeta acts and how Bulma reacts has everything to do with who they are as characters. But for now, let’s stick to your complaint…
No, the fact that Vegeta is a villain never escapes any of them. But like I said, you’re in a world where you’re literally surrounded by them. So who cares! If you plan on hanging around Goku, you’re going to become very familiar with villains and that’s something all of them were well aware of. Even within this culture of Fighting, most of them protested Vegeta’s presence (not just Yamcha), which means that none of them forgot who he was. (And um, Yamcha was a villain too! I don’t see you shitting all over him either!)
Then again, neither Tien, Chaotzu or Yamcha was present on Namek. If Krillin and Gohan feel more comfortable around Vegeta, than perhaps some character development happened on Namek that the others didn’t witness? Clearly, fighting side-by-side with a villain tends to put that villain in a different light. (You watched the Namek saga right? The original, not the dub? Cause it sounds like you kind of didn’t?)
You get to know Vegeta during the Namek saga. Yes he’s definitely 100% evil, but who wouldn’t be under the circumstances?? His character development is glorious here because for the first time, we see him shaking in fear, asking for help, referencing his past, saving Gohan, shedding tears and finally dying a slow and tear-filled death full of begging and regret. “Terror struck the depths of Vegeta’s soul for the first time in his life,” says the manga, upon his defeat by Freeza. “For the first time he felt despair… For the first time in his life, Vegeta shed tears… The great Vegeta had lost his will to fight.” His first death said a whole lot about how Vegeta felt deep deep deep deep deep deep deep inside, since he knew he was about to die and there was no need to hide behind a smirk.
And you’re telling me his character development was “terribly executed”?? What??
And I wanted to save this for my Vegeta/Bulma post but OH MY GOD, where did this idea that Bulma just out of nowhere decided to sleep with Vegeta come from??? Where?!?! Have none of you actually seen/read the original series???
Vegeta absolutely fascinated her, and it was obvious from the very beginning. She’s fascinated by Saiyan technology thanks to Radditz’ scouter, and it continues on with Vegeta’s ship and his armor. On the ride to Namek, Bulma’s still thinking about Vegeta and where he could have possibly gone to after he left earth. (”Earth has certainly been marked by an unbelievable guy!”) When they land on Namek and she sees him for the first time, she’s scared but completely intrigued. (They even have a filler moment where she supposedly dreamt about him.) She’s used to people like him (powerful, dangerous, etc.) but Vegeta is the only other full-blooded Saiyan in existence. If you’d known someone like Goku all of your life, how could you not be intrigued by this guy???
Vegeta doesn’t land on Bulma’s doorstep out of nowhere! What the hell? You’ve watched DBZ right? She invites him to live with her, he takes off in search of Goku, and then comes back when he fails to find him in space. He simply returned where he was “stationed”. What… are you talking about… Why wouldn’t he return??
VEGETA DOESN’T ASSIMILATE INTO LIFE ON EARTH UNTIL AFTER THE BUU SAGA, A SAGA YOU HAVEN’T EVEN SEEN. I mean…. seriously? Anyone who watched the Android saga knows that he and Bulma were not living together and yes, Trunks was a one-night stand. Anyone who watched the Cell saga knows that he got to know his future son in the Room of Spirit and Time and lost his shit when he was killed by Cell. (He also apologized to Gohan for getting in the way. But how dare they terribly execute his character development, right??)
What’s so very glorious is that if you actually watch the show, Vegeta isn’t the only one that gets development over time. His was just the most surprising and impressive because he’s Vegeta. It takes years and years and years for him to get to where he was in the Buu saga, and since Toriyama hates writing that shit, it might seem like it comes out of nowhere. But it doesn’t. You know that in those years between Cell (and Vegeta’s decision to never fight again) and Buu (and Vegeta’s decision to die for Goku, Bulma and Trunks) was a whole SEVEN YEAR GAP right? In those 7 years Vegeta tells us that “I got myself a family… and it wasn’t so awful…. I even started to like the comfortable life on earth…” and apprently HE EVEN MARRIED BULMA AT SOME POINT.
But oh no, his character development was just too fast. Toriyama didn’t exclusively write a manga about Vegeta so his character development was terribly executed.
Oh my god…….. LAUNCH?!? Are you kidding me?!?! You just made it very, very clear that you don’t understand Vegeta or earthlings at all. What, is Bulma suddenly not a character? Wow….
It’s just so sad that this is a matter of contention for a lot of DBZ fans. How come the other villains on the show get to be redeemed and Vegeta doesn’t? Vegeta goes the farthest in character development and still, he can’t be forgiven. He literally died for his family and his arch rival but that’s still not good enough. He gives a beautiful speech about how much he admires Goku and still, it’s not good enough. When he was brought back to life in the Buu saga, it was because the Dragon thought “he wasn’t a bad guy”. Goku admires him and Bulma (and kid Trunks) adore him, and STILL. It’s not good enough.
Whatever guys, then stop fucking watching, Vegeta is amazing.
Thank heavens. For so long, I figured no one would ever protest my posts. Thanks for being the first!
I just want to establish that I’m not a Vegeta hater. I think he’s an all-around badass. His character development is a good idea. It just wasn’t put in the right place.
I didn’t deny the fact that Bulma was a character. What I meant when I said “Launch is a character” is that she actually appears in the show. She exists. Praise be! Bulma is one of my favorite characters on DBZ and she is a very self-reliant woman with excellent intellect. I’ll build on that later.
My history with DBZ is a complex one. I was really into it a few years ago when I found the Kai dub but when the Android Saga started (aka past the peak of the show), I lost interest. I recently rediscovered it (thanks to Toonami) and realized there were some things that I didn’t exactly notice when I was younger. Hence, this blog was created. This means I did not watch the Buu Saga but I try to do as much research as possible to make sure I’m informed as much as possible.
That being said, I understand Vegeta’s assimilation on Earth and character development to the point of the Buu Saga where he comes full circle. The point of this post was that the way it was initiated was, in my opinion, silly.
As for Piccolo, I’m not completely satisfied with his character. Kidnapping toddlers is a dick move to be honest. The fact that Chi Chi never got her two cents on the subject against Piccolo upsets me.
A quick question before I continue, what do you mean by “stationed”? He’s not exactly stationed there because he doesn’t work for Frieza anymore. That’s part of your reply just kind of confuses me.
Toriyama’s style never really stuck with me, which is a shame because I see potential around every corner and not all of the right routes are taken. I don’t see “not planning ahead” as a quality, as it totally smells of BS. While it does allow me to create my own interpretation (Launch and Vegeta, for instance), it’s kind of lazy on his part. It’s incredible that I’m saying that, since this is the same guy who creates these massive storylines, linking so many events to the next. Toriyama also disliking writing romance also doesn’t help the Vebulma (Bulmeta? What is it the kids say these days?), as it proves it’s more of a tell not show thing, which is the biggest mistake one could make with writing.
Now for Bulma. Again, I love this character. Independent, smart, a kickass non-fighting character. That’s why it saddens me to see her sudden character shift on Namek, where she does so little (dragonball detector, home in a cave, watch a dragonball, and a frog translator. There was a bit in some filler where she fought crabs in a crab mech but that furthered nothing and was practically useless, which is why it’s filler.). When Vegeta comes to pick up a dragonball with Gohan and Krillin, she freaks out, and understandably so. That’s her relationship with him on Namek. Outside of that, she is interested by Saiyan tech but that’s not a strong component in a relationship. If that was so, call over Nappa and Radditz from the dead and they can all have a fun time in the Briefs’ jacuzzi. Also, Bulma thinking about where Vegeta went doesn’t support the relationship because that’s just a question with a mysterious answer. If Krillin did this, would we be pairing him up with Vegeta? As for Vegeta, Bulma’s independent nature would be fascinating to him. But so would Launch’s fierceness, as she can be a kickass fighter just like him. And that’s the thing. She can fight. Which is why it’s a shame Toriyama literally forgot about her. She has so much potential!
A (hopefully) quick thing about Yamcha. I understand Yamcha was a villain, the Desert Bandit. However, he didn’t kill 4 people and annihilate a city. He beat up Goku but never killed 4 people and a city’s population. As for people not trusting Vegeta, you got me there. Tien also had his quick spat with him. It’s so rare characters in the show are in the same ring as Yamcha or even acknowledge he’s there, so my bad.
The biggest issue with this is that I like to see concrete evidence provided by the creator. In the gap between Trunks’ arrival, and the start of the Android Saga, we’re supposed to just adapt to Vegeta being Bulma’s boyfriend in that time thanks to a comment she made to Yajirobe. I like being shown things, not told things.
Vegeta’s strongest development happened on Namek, where he cried. Good DBZ stuff here, in my opinion. However, that doesn’t make Vegeta someone who could be trusted. With an ego and power level that size, he’s a dangerous and kickass man. The way the trust is formed, the whole “enemy of my enemy is my friend” shtick, is silly cause he can very well remain to be your enemy. There was a time when all he wanted to do was kick Goku’s ass. That’s a tad unsettling, methinks.
Thanks for sharing your opinion on the matter. I think we can agree Vegeta is a good character. I did not like how his development on Earth was initiated. I personally use the liberties Toriyama gave us fans to conceive of new twists and takes on concepts and believe that Launch is an interesting and unique chance, as it brings her into the story (making her a character, as I said in my post) and she can be a badass fighter (of course in a different sense) just like him.
But that’s just my opinion. Thanks for writing. I trust you won’t leave a like here but be sure to follow along with my other posts. Not all of them bash Vegeta’s character development, trust me.
