Vegeta

Vegeta or Prince Vegeta is the prince of the fallen Saiyan race and arch-rival to Goku. He is the husband of Bulma, the father of Trunks and Bulla, the estranged older brother of Tarble, Rival of Karrkaz The Saiyan and the great-great grandfather of Vegeta Jr.. He first appears in Dragon Ball Z as an antagonist, but he forms an allegiance with the Z Fighters in the Namek and Frieza Sagas. He officially joins the Z Fighters in the Android and Cell Games sagas. Throughout the majority of the story, he has set his main goal on defeating Goku, even though they later turn from enemies and rivals to allies and close friends. After the Frieza Saga, he begins living on Earth, where he stays for the rest of his life.

Personality
Vegeta is arrogant throughout the series, and becomes bitter due to the abuse his race suffered at the hands of Frieza. Following the destruction of his home world Planet Vegeta, his hatred toward Frieza grows. His royalty seems to have bestowed upon him an inflated sense of superiority, holding himself above nearly everyone he encounters. He is immensely proud of his Saiyan heritage and believes his race to be the most powerful in the universe. Despite this, even as an antagonist he did not act like an ordinary Saiyan, being even more cruel and prideful thanks to Frieza's influence. As the Prince of a demolished Planet Vegeta, Vegeta is initially introduced as an unrepentant villain. Judging from his evil intentions before joining the Z Fighters, Vegeta has been consistently characterized as extremely arrogant, vengeful, and at times, cold. Many of Vegeta's early heroic acts are because of self-interest or revenge, although he later settles down and grows fond of Earth as his home, raising a family with Bulma. Having been born into the upper tier of Saiyan society, Vegeta was fixated on achieving the legendary status of Super Saiyan and becoming the most powerful warrior in the universe. Vegeta is more of a tactical fighter who often rushes in the brawl without hesitation. However, his rage or arrogance often causes him to underestimate his opponent and usually leads to his eventual defeat and sometimes death. His royal blood and intense fighting style has both benefited and harmed him in many battles. Vegeta has been shown to be one of the more intelligent characters of the series, as well as one of the most serious, rarely exhibiting humor. When he does so, his humor is often very dry and far darker than his fellow Z Fighters. However, he does delight in mocking his enemies, as demonstrated when he offers to reconstruct Android 18 into a "toaster" or a "washing machine" (Funimation dub only). He also shows his bleak sense of humor towards Goku when he was about to battle him in the World Martial Arts Tournament. Aside from his more bleak sense of humor, he has also at times engaged in more sarcastic humor when gloating. A notable example of this was when fighting Semi-Perfect Cell. When Cell demanded to know how Vegeta was as strong as he was, Vegeta flippantly stated that he got that strong by "doing lots of push ups and sit ups, and [drinking] plenty of juice", as well as calling Kid Buu a "gifted speaker" when the latter barely responded at all just before the latter destroyed the Earth. Normally, his massive ego and arrogance overshadow his positive qualities. Despite his personality flaws Vegeta is capable of respecting individuals, although he never outright states it often showing his respect non verbally. By The Majin Buu Saga it his heavily implied that he and Piccolo were on civil terms and seemed to have mutual respect for one another. He also expressed some grief over Gohan's fate at the hands of Buu himself. Outside of these two instances, his relationship with the rest of the Dragon Team seemed cool at best.

Initially, Vegeta was extremely aggressive and cold-blooded. Since his childhood, Vegeta had proven himself to be a ruthless killer, merciless like most Saiyans. During the Namek Saga however, he began to exhibit changes; rather than killing Krillin or Gohan as he promised in the previous saga, he instead forges an alliance with them. Throughout the first half of the Frieza Saga, whomever he defeated, he killed without mercy. His first sign of mercy was kneeing Gohan in the stomach, instead of killing him while looking for the Namekian Dragon Balls. Another sign of mercy he displayed was when he let Namekian Frog Captain Ginyu live, taking delight at the notion of Ginyu's being stuck in the frog's body as punishment enough and not wanting to get frog guts all over his boots. After his defeat at the hands of Frieza, Vegeta tearfully explains to Goku that Frieza forced him to be ruthless and that he never had the chance to be anything else (implying that he could have been kinder and more merciful were it not for Frieza). He used to have a bigotry towards other races, considered physical and emotional attachments to be meaningless, and admittedly was repulsed by children, especially those with mixed heritage. However, all this changes when he falls in love with Bulma and she bears him two half-Saiyan children. After settling on Earth, Vegeta softened up and began to exhibit compassion for his family. As a result of his love for Bulma and the birth of his children, Vegeta started to feel content settling down with a loving family while being a competitive warrior. However, Vegeta secretly felt ashamed for sacrificing his goal of becoming the strongest warrior in the universe for the sake of his family and came to believe it was his attachment to them and the planet that rendered him weak compared to Goku.

Although he kept those thoughts hidden, it was not until the Babidi Saga that he gave in to his obsession of overtaking Goku in might, becoming a Majin and "evil" once more. This was a desperate, failed ploy to restore his former wickedness, believing it to have been the source of his true power. Goku believes Vegeta is bluffing, and correctly so; Vegeta demonstrates his prevailing softness in hugging Trunks for the first time and telling him that he is proud to be his father, before performing a sacrificial Final Explosion against Majin Buu. It is when his family falls victim to Majin Buu that Vegeta finally understands the pain of losing a loved one and fully grasps the harm he has caused to so many people, and he comes to regret his many transgressions. Since then, he has refrained himself from killing his opponents unless necessary and tries to be cautious of situations