Those of you who know Dragon Ball Z lore, even the bare bones of it, are familiar with Prince Vegeta and his development throughout the series. There are countless videos and essays out there explaining the how, the when and the where of Vegeta’s character growth, so I won’t be taking this route. However, what I did notice — in a very random ephiphany while browsing the r/dbz subreddit — is that Vegeta’s story could be linked to a higher meaning; namely, the 5 Stages of Grief.
Now, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept, here’s a “layman’s terms” version: the feeling of loss, not necessarily of a person, usually throws the person who lost something/someone into a course with five distinct phases — Denial, Anger, Bargain, Depression and Acceptance. But what did Vegeta lose to be in this state of grief? It is my belief that Vegeta’s loss wasn’t a person… or rather, it wasn’t another person.
Vegeta, in my opinion, “lost” his pride and confidence in himself during DBZ.
It’ll be better if we cover this step by step, so without further ado… (note: this essay operates under anime canon; sometimes, considering relevant filler — is that a thing? — as well. be warned)
Step 1: Denial
As a prodigy of unparalleled power, coupled with his status as royalty, Vegeta grew up thinking that no one could step up to him — except maybe his dad and Freeza. This, combined with the default Saiyan nature of being arrogant and brash, has led the Prince to grow self-important and a bit narcissistic, often boasting his power at little request and toying with opponents for near-sadistic pleasure.
When facing our very own Goku in battle, Vegeta may have had the advantage several times, and it is very arguable whether or not Goku would’ve won that fight if he had no external help — however, it is a fact that Vegeta, at one point, felt like his power wasn’t as absolute as he thought.
His objective on Earth was the same as for any other planet he invaded; he and Nappa would slaughter the locals, clean up the planet and put it for sale under Lord Freeza’s name, this time with the added bonus of recruiting “Kakarot" to bolster their ranks. Furthermore, overhearing about the existence of the Dragon Balls made their trip to Earth all the more valuable for underlying reasons. But, after being evenly matched and beat up by a low-class Saiyan warrior, Vegeta quickly threw his priorities out the window and charged up his Galick Gun, intending to destroy the whole planet.
Most people would simply classify this as anger — I wouldn’t. Trying to erase all traces of an embarassment you suffered is pretty much denial to me, even if felt amidst a fit of rage. Vegeta couldn’t process that information, couldn’t deal with the reality of being cornered by Kakarot of all people, so he sought to destroy everything; instead of, you know, taking a deep breath and coming up earlier with the decision of turning into Oozaru. Not to mention that Vegeta almost never mentions openly his loss on Earth during the Namek saga, despite being around the Z-Fighters a lot, and talks to Goku as if he was so much more powerful than him and wasn’t beaten to a pulp — it’s like it never happened, or it “didn’t count”.
Step 2: Anger
After losing the battle on Earth, Vegeta learned of the Namekian Dragon Balls, of Zenkai boosts (the Saiyan ability of growing stronger every time they almost die) and had a severe offscreen identity crisis that resulted in his actions throughout the entire Namek Arc: his “me against the world” mentality.
Not only did Vegeta attack and antagonize his rivals from Earth, even when working together with them, he also started to slaughter the people he worked with/for (countless Freeza Force soldiers, Cui, Dodoria, Zarbon, Guldo and Jeice), killed Burter and Recoome despite Goku specifically avoiding it, and even went as far as decimate an entire populated village for one single Dragon Ball.
The amount of blood on Vegeta’s hands wasn’t just a product of his Saiyan pride or his fierce, vengeful nature— it is my firm belief that Vegeta entered in a very dangerous state of mind after losing on Earth, a mindset that made him extreme, bloodthirsty and manipulative. The obssession with wishing for immortality with the Dragon Balls was more of a vice, an escapism for him. Though Vegeta does have zero qualms about killing his adversaries in battle, even after his redemption, and is overall much more rough and pragmatic than Goku, his actions on Namek weren’t what we’re used to see from Vegeta after watching the whole series.
Step 3: Bargain
The bargaining phase of grief is often characterized by commonplaces such as “If only I didn’t (x), that person wouldn’t have (y)!” and so on. However, there is another kind of bargaining that’s often confused with denial: lying to yourself.
During his fight with Freeza, Vegeta was convinced, drunk on his success in killing pretty much the entire force, that he was the Legendary Super Saiyan. He says that at least 3 times during the fight, all of them referring to himself. We don’t see any blonde hair, muscle growth or eye color change, but there he is, 100% sure that he’s the warrior that Freeza fears to death.
Even though, at the time, Vegeta had a lesser understanding of what a Super Saiyan was and how the mechanics behind it worked, he took whatever knowledge he had and applied it on his current situation, to “negotiate” with his subconscious, likely trembling in fear because he knew Freeza had him on the ropes and wasn’t even using his full power.
Step 4: Depression
Depression is often the longest phase of grief, and it’s no different in Vegeta’s metaphorical case. We first see the signs of depression in him when, after unleashing his full power on Freeza and seeing the Emperor deflect it effortlessly, our prideful prince starts to cry, completely hopeless. All of his carefully built facade of bravado and power had finally shattered before his eyes, and reality struck him hard. Freeza, then, humilliates him and kills him afterwards, still with tears on his eyes, both from anger and disillusion.
After the events on Namek, Vegeta is forced to live on Earth, but he’s often pictured as a loner. Now, Vegeta was never a social butterfly, but surely he wouldn’t want to be alone so much if he wasn’t suffering over something, right?
That’s where vices kick in. Depression is often associated with alcohol, drugs, candy, porn, whatever addictions we have usually flourish during depression. Vegeta’s new escapism, after giving up on the Dragon Balls and immortality, is becoming a Super Saiyan — namely, a Super Saiyan stronger than Goku. When he attains the form and crushes Android 19, he acts high and mighty, but quickly realizes he’s still got a ways to go after Android 18 hands his ass to him on a plate. Cue loner behavior again, going as far as neglecting his own son — you’d think someone like him, who had an abusive father and takes pride on his genetic heritage of a race that was almost decimated, would treat his son and only heir better, but depression makes you act out. A lot.
Also pictured in here are all the fake attempts a person can make, while depressed, at portraying themselves as being “better now”. When Vegeta hits the Ascended Super Saiyan form (or Super Vegeta, as it’s called on some other places), he absolutely curbstomps Semi-Perfect Cell, but is quick to cave in and go back to his old ways by toying excessively with him and being arrogant enough to let Cell transform, thinking that he would beat Cell regardless. When depressed, people can, sometimes, confuse happiness with arrogance, and in a desperate bid to feel better already, they start putting on a brave face while whipping everybody around them to prove a point on how much “stronger” they are now.
Fast forward to Gohan vs Cell; everyone — including Vegeta himself — chips in to help Gohan beat the evil menace, the Father-Son Kamehameha kicks in, and Cell is destroyed. Everyone is celebrating, except for Vegeta, who lost Trunks to Cell’s Death Beam. He now sees how shambolic his life is at that moment; he finally saw, with his own eyes, what loving friends and family can do to a person, whereas he, the loner, is now forced to see his son’s dead body — killed by a monster he helped create. His reaction is to give up on fighting altogether…
… Which, of course, he doesn’t. Depression is also being unable to commit to something you think’ll make you better. During the Buu Saga, Vegeta finally crumbles to his vice of besting Goku, and decides to let himself be controlled by Babidi’s magic. Majin Vegeta is, to all effects, no different than a raging alcoholic who no longer finds self-pity, but rather, finds strength on the bottom of a glass and is seen constantly acting out. He kills innocent people again, he’s evil, he’s bad, he never cared about anyone or anything, blah blah blah — Majin Vegeta lies to himself constantly, trying to validate his erratic behavior with all this “I’ve always been evil” discourse, using yet another facade to hide his real pain, and goes on to fight Goku and finally reach his climax — but not before telling Goku about how all of this is because he felt like he had “lost his pride” since coming to Earth.
You see now?
Step 5: Acceptance
After realizing that his outbursts hadn’t given him what he wanted — beating Goku fair and square — and instead did something much, much worse — waking up Majin Buu — Majin Vegeta is now morally hungover. He’s got nowhere to run, and he doesn’t feel ashamed, or sad, or anything anymore. Majin Vegeta is now empty, devoid of all purpose.
Like someone who feels they’ve hit a wall they can’t climb, and that no one will help them do so, Majin Vegeta decides to take a drastic measure… and commits suicide.
Now, Vegeta’s sacrifice can be seen as one of two things: the more accepted theory is that he kills himself mostly because of guilt, and he does so in a manner that will be useful to his friends and family, but moreso because he feels the world’ll be better off without him. I, on the other hand, think that Vegeta’s explosion is also his way of shedding off any trace of his bad vices from him before moving on to Hell.
Vegeta wants to purge himself from all of his addictions, anger, any bad influence he’s had over the years. In his final moments, he finally conveys his real ambitions and feelings, feelings he couldn’t express because of his nature, his mistakes and his upbringing. The memory he wants to leave behind after exploding is an illustration of what he, deep down, wanted to be seen as: A father, a friend, a warrior.
Of course, DBZ often doesn’t deal in subtlety, so we get further illustrations of acceptance in Vegeta in two more occasions: one, less obvious, when he fuses himself with Goku to form Vegito; and the other, more iconic, his internal monologue while Goku and Kid Buu face off.
Vegeta talking to himself and admitting “You’re number one, Kakarot!” is often seen by fans as 1) contradictory to his character growth, both before the Buu Saga, and afterwards, on Dragon Ball Super; or 2) out-of-character. What Vegeta is actually saying, right then, is that he realizes his vices are stronger than him, and he’s okay with that; but he also silently vows to be always fighting them, because that makes him stronger and helps him be the person he now wants to be, free of all that he did in the past — like Shin tells him to do on Babidi’s Lair, he lets go of the past, blown to dust behind him.
And what about Dragon Ball Super?
Dragon Ball Super is all about Vegeta’s balancing and growth as a person. He’s no nature-loving hippie, we still see him be very blunt, rough and conflicting, but he’s also found strength on his allies and his life. He’s better with Trunks, he displays fatherly concern for Bra, he’s much more loving (in his own, erratic way) to Future Trunks, and, more importantly, he straight up tells Freeza that he needs Goku around to keep him stronger.
The very fact that Vegeta didn’t bring up his planet’s destruction as soon as he started beating up Golden Freeza shows how he’s learned to come to grips with things. Right then, Vegeta could’ve raged much harder after all Freeza did to him, but he’s changed, he’s matured, aaaaaaaand he’s being taught by a divine being how to control his ki. There’s also that.
During the Tournament of Power, Vegeta’s growth reaches its highest pinnacle so far. His toying with opponents is minimal, and he overcame his limits many, many times out of sheer determination to save his universe — and, especially, his family, both literally with Trunks, Bulma and Bra, and metaphorically, with his universal counterpart Cabba. Not only does Vegeta fight for his promises, he also shows a never-seen-before team spirit in him, often telling his more stronger foes that he doesn’t care if he loses as long as Universe 7 wins. Even in his final moments before Jiren knocks him out, Vegeta goes out fighting, fueling himself on memories of his loved ones. After being eliminated, Vegeta constantly cheers for Goku and even goes as far as saying “I’ve put my pride in your hands”.
Cabba is an interesting relationship for post-acceptance Vegeta. Through him, Vegeta sees what he could’ve been when he was Cabba’s age, had he grown up in a peaceful planet with somewhat better influences around him instead of a deadbeat father and a genocidal tyrant. That’s why Vegeta takes a shine to the boy, vows to visit Planet Sadala, and feels like he has to teach him; it’s his way of preventing history from repeating itself, so to speak.
On the other hand, it’s not just Vegeta that lacks something that Cabba has; the Universe 6 Saiyan, being raised mostly on times of peace, is much weaker than Vegeta and less prideful, which Vegeta finds to be abhorrent, since it’s his #1 source of motivation and strength. So, basically, it’s a mutual thing. Vegeta instills Saiyan pride onto Cabba while he shows Vegeta a world where Saiyans still exist.
And, speaking of acceptance, Vegeta must have felt something after seeing Goku and Freeza, both mortal enemies to each other and the last two people he’d ever wish to cheer for, fighting side-by-side and beating Jiren where he couldn’t. His face tells the whole story. There’s much to be gained by letting grudges, past mistakes and all else go when the time is right to do so. Vegeta is all pride, but sometimes, pride has to take a backseat.
So, in summation, that’s all the parallels I can make regarding the Prince and his dealing with the loss, and rediscovery, of his Saiyan pride and shattered memories. Most of these aren’t actual parallels made by Toriyama himself that I noticed, but DBZ lore is all about filling the blanks that the man makes because he doesn’t care too much about lore. (And I love him for it. Rock on, Akira).
