First animated apparition: Dragon Ball Z episode 5
Personality:
The young Saiyan prince is the only son of King Vegeta. Once orphan, he grew under Emperror Freeza tutelage. He developed a hard personality: proud, implacable, cruel, and obsessioned with the idea of being the best. In his case the best means the strongest in the universe.
Even tough he is evil at heart, Vegeta is perhaps one of the most strong-willed characters in the series. Like Son Goku, he is extremely industrious, constantly striving to be better, but different purposes drive Vegeta's spirit. Goku fought to defend the lives of others and to challenge his limits while Vegeta fought to satiate his bloodthirsty appetite and die hard pride, which is unwilling to accept defeat.
One of the most characteristic terms of his personality is the pride, that brings him to disrespect adversaries and to understimate them.
This gradually changes throughout the series. The primary driver of his will is Son goku. Vegeta's defeat in his first encounter with Goku and his unwillingness to accept Goku being more powerful had constantly fuelled his strong will to continue to train himself. After seeing Goku turn into Super Saiyan and defeating Freeza, he grew even more jealous of Goku's achievements and immersed himself in intensive training.
After much sweat and frustration, he finally became a Super Saiyan. That time he felt like the strongest in the universe and that nothing was anymore able to stop him. His eyes were full of pride while transforming in Super Saiyan in front of the other Z fighters. His revenge was near satisfied when, after Goku's defeat by the hands of Android 19, he succesfully fought with the being and destroyed him.
But soon his fleeting moment of pride was interrupted, when he has been defeated by Android 18. Again, he trained a lot and obtained the power of Sai Ni Dankai and was able to destroy Cell at his second form. But again, his pride let Cell became perfect.
Vegeta's first catharsis occurred during Son Gohan's battle with Cell. Because of his rash decision to attack Cell when he did not have the power to, had caused Gohan's arm to be seriously injured when Gohan saved his life. Not only he was not even close to Cell's ability, but also served as a hindrance to Gohan.
He decided to help Gohan during the final Kamehameha confrontation by attacking Cell with a ki blast and this was fundamental for the z fighters victory. But after that action he stated that he would have never more fought.
During the Borjack saga he changed his mind when he saw his son, trunks, in serious difficulties and started to fight again.
At the beginning of the Buu saga his personality was set up to indifference towards anything around him. That was in reality just a mask, under which there was the proud Saiyan Prince of ever, secretly proud of his son and still uncapable to admit the existance of someone stronger than him.
And that was clear when he became Majin Vegeta and get out of himself all the fury and hate towards Son Goku. When he suceeded to knock down Goku he was satisfied and he, once exhaled, understood finally what was really important for him: his family. Right before he proceeded to sacrifice his life in the attempt to destroy Majin Buu, he told Trunks that he cared about him and how he felt bad about giving him much less attention than what he deserved.
During Son Goku's final battle with Majin Buu, Vegeta goes through a complete catharsis. He realized that Goku's pure and kind heart gave him the power that Vegeta never had. He finally realized that the good always prevails.
After Buu's defeat, Vegeta's obsession to defeat Son Goku seems definetely disappeared.
Vegeta lives more or less serene on earth. One day baby arrived on earth, took the control over Vegeta's body and turned him into Baby-Vegeta. That way he was forced to fight once more with Son Goku, who was able to defeat him only when transformed in Super Saiyan 4.
During the fight with Super Android 17 he reveals to be jelauos of Goku's abilty to reach the fourth level of Super Saiyan since he pretends to be anough to destroy the android and when he hears Dr. Mieu talking about Goku he gets infuriated. Once again, he admits Goku superiority, when he defeats the android, by saiyng: "Yeah, you are the number one, Goku".
Finally, during the fight with with Omega (Li) Shenron, he is able to reach the Super Saiyan 4 power level (altough Goku already passed that level by turning himself into Super Saiyan 4 full power). His cold blood makes him an incredibly fearful warrior. He is determined, but not impulsive and his final goal is only to destroy the adversary, not to demonstrate something, so that he fights rationally and agrees immediately to fuse with goku and turn into Gogeta Super Saiyan 4.
When Omega Shenron survives to all that, he is again determined to sacrifice himself to save his family and friends, says them to escape with Bulma's spaceship, and engages a desperate fight with the evil dragon, knowing that his destiny is to die.
But Goku comes back, saves again Vegeta and destroys Omega Shenron. Goku goes away saiying him:"See you soon,Vegeta" and Vegeta understands that he will not see him anymore. Vegeta's last phrase is for Pan (Goku's granddaughter), referring to Goku's vest in Pan's hands:"Keep it with great care, Pan", and in the end we really see it weared by Pan's grandchild, Son Goku Junior during the fight with Vegeta's descendant, Vegeta Junior.
Techniques:
Barrier, Bakuhatsuha, Bukujutsu, Zanzoken, Renzoku Energy Dan, Galick-Ho (Garrick Cannon) Kienzan, Power Ball, Big Bang Attack, Final Flash, Final Shine Attack, Fusion.
Power levels:
Ohzaru, Super Saiyan, Super Saiyan Dai Ni Dankai, Super Saiyan Dai San Dankai, Majin Vegeta, Super Saiyan II, Ohzaru Gold, Super Saiyan IV.
Relations with other characters:
King Vegeta (father), Freeza (adopter), Nappa (body guard), Raditz (helper),
Bulma (wife), Trunks (son), Bra (daughter),
Dr. Brief (father-in-law), Miss Brief (mother-in-law),
Son Goku (fusion partner), Future Trunks (indirectly son and friend).
Why I like him:
His complex personality is really similar to mine. Arrogant, proud, pretends to be always the best, will to non-stop training and improvement, contraddictionarity, those are all charachteristics that we have in common. I give also a lot of importance to family values, as Vegeta did in the Buu saga.
Even tough he is evil at heart, Vegeta is perhaps one of the most strong-willed characters in the series. Like Son Goku, he is extremely industrious, constantly striving to be better, but different purposes drive Vegeta's spirit. Goku fought to defend the lives of others and to challenge his limits while Vegeta fought to satiate his bloodthirsty appetite and die hard pride, which is unwilling to accept defeat.