People wonder why Vegeta has never defeated a villain like Goku has. Vegeta is no longer the bad guy but the prince of Saiyans just never gets the win when it comes to fighting a big bad guy.
It has never been confirmed about the creators feel about Vegeta (more specifically Akira Toriyama). Vegeta has always been a fan favorite even when he was a bad guy. Everyone just loves the guy no matter how bad he is. As a matter of fact, Viz Media did a poll to find out what is the fan favorite character of Dragon Ball Super as the prince came out on top.
THE TOP TEN!
1 – Vegeta2 – Goku3 – Gohan4 – Goku Black5 – Future Trunks6 – Beerus7 – Whis8 – Android #179 – Freeza
10 – Kuririn
There is a reason why Bulma chose Vegeta over Yamcha. Back when Vegeta had joined the Z fighters and decided to have a family of his own (more like an accident) he thought that he would finally become as strong as Goku. Vegeta saw that Goku had a family of his own and always had something to fight for. Vegeta thought that was the source of Goku’s power. However, he still could not reach Goku’s level until he met Whiz and Lord Beerus of course.
Whenever Goku reaches a new level of power, Vegeta is always one step behind.
Just when you thought that Vegeta could defeat cell, he gets beat up. Just when you thought he killed Majin Buu, its was for nothing. Just when you thought he could beat Jiren, he loses. When he went to planet Yardrat where Goku learned his instant transmission technique, you thought he could beat Moro only to lose a chapter later.
Just when you thought that his new transformation, Vegeta Ultra Ego, he could beat Granolah but no. Toriyama thought otherwise.
Why does Vegeta keep losing. There are a few good reasons and some rumors. Lets find out.
Akira Toriyama Does Not Like Vegeta
For a while now, Dragon Ball fans have been saying that Akira Toriyama does not like Vegeta. Once upon a time, Toriyama did think about getting rid of Vegeta especially after planet namek. However, Since he saw that people liked Vegeta (even in Japan) he decided to keep the character and use him to carry on the plot.
Toriyama has killed Vegeta in Planet namek when fighting Frieza. It made Goku’s fight more meaningful. Toriyama also uses Vegeta to start the fight with a villain and then let Goku finish the job. We saw this with Cell and Golden Frieza in Resurrections F.
Some people say that this is just a rumor but the series itself shows how much Goku is preferred. Toriyama once wanted Gohan to become the main character that is why he decided Gohan would be the first to become a Super Saiyan 2. However, since the fans in Japan still wanted Goku to be the star of the show, Toriyama decided otherwise.
He always goes with what the Japanese fans want because at the end of the day, a huge percentage of the manga sales come from Japan. Dare we say that international sales of manga are only 25%. This is a loose analysis according to sales data. Japanese people still consume more manga than any country in the world.
As said before, both the west and Japan like Vegeta but to Toriyama, Vegeta is just an arrogant character that he likes to use to test the waters, like throwing bait in the ocean and see what he can catch (in other words, to see how he can carry on with the story).
Vegeta Is The Sasuke of Dragon Ball
Its a shounen trope. In Naruto there is the rival Sasuke. In My Hero Academia Bakugo is Deku’s rival. In Death Note, L was Light Yagami’s rival. In YugiOh, Seto Kaiba was Yugi’s rival.
The rival is always the arrogant bastard.
Vegeta was not meant to be the winner.
We all know that Naruto is lame and Sasuke is the cool one. Sasuke is obviously smarter than Naruto. However, Naruto always wins because, he eventually gets the entire village to trust him. Naruto, finds a master who teaches him the Rasengan and sage mode. Despite of how stupid Naruto is, he always comes out on top and keeps running after his boyfriend Sasuke…I mean friend…yeah…they are just friends.
Sasuke always fought against Haku but he did not defeat Haku, Naruto kicked Haku’s butt when he got possessed by the Demon Fox. Sasuke fought against Gaara but he did not defeat Gaara, Naruto beat Gaara when they both used their tail beast to fight outside of Konoha.
Its the same in other anime. Look at YugiOh. Kaiba fought against Pegasus but he failed, despite of the fact that he has the best card collection in the anime. Yugi ended up defeating Pegasus.
Vegeta was not meant to take out the final boss. HE IS NOT THE MAIN CHARACTER. The sooner you accept that the happier you will be. Its an odd thing to say but we just have to accept the roles that each character was meant to play.
Toriyama Always Wants Goku To Be The Star
Take a look at Dragon Ball GT. Vegeta was barely in that series and it was all about Goku. Some people call GT Goku Time….get it.
Goku will always be the preferred character. Its always the dumb, lame and stupid main character with some hidden talent or will power that wins.
There were multiple times during the lifespan of the Dragon Ball franchise when Toriyama just wanted the series to end. His manager and the magazine that published Dragon Ball wanted him to continue.
After Goku defeat King Piccolo in the old series of the manga, that is when it was suppose to end. However, the shounen magazine and everyone else who was profiting from the manga and anime wanted Goku to grow up because they knew that the fans would grow up as well.
This happened with Harry Potter. JK Rowling knew that she would have to make the books longer and Harry would have to grow up and graduate one day because the fans would grow with the series over time (this was back in the late 1990s and early 2000s).
This is why Vegeta was not meant to take the win from any big boss battle. We have seen Vegeta win small battles and take out “non-boss” opponents. If Vegeta were to take down an enemy like Frieza, Cell, Moro, Majin Buu or whoever, then he would be taken the spot light away from Goku.
Its a bad deal.
This was demonstrate in Resurrection F when Goku was taken down by a laser (seriously) then Vegeta had to step in and fight Frieze. By then, Frieza was already worn out and before the prince of Saiyans could obliterate Frieza, the mad villain decided to blow up the entire planet with his special energy technique.
Vegeta is not allow to take the win. That is just how it is and how the show was design.
