Vegeta (AF)

**Vegeta (AF)** (*Vegeta*) is the alternate timeline counterpart of Vegeta who appeared in the alternate timeline in which the events of *GT*.

## 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 homeworld 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 as an ordinary Saiyan, being even crueler 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 have 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". 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 is 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 sparing Krillin and Bulma's lives in exchange for the Namekian Dragon Ball they were carrying when he could have easily killed them and taken it. Another sign of mercy came when he encounters Gohan a short time later and knees him in the stomach instead of killing him, and again 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 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 these 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 from killing his opponents unless necessary and tries to be cautious of situations.

From the beginning of the series to near the end, Vegeta is shown to be exceptionally vain and egotistical. A prime example of this is in his fight with Semi-Perfect Cell. Though he could have easily destroyed this weaker form of Cell, his arrogance bested him, and he purposely let Cell absorb Android 18 just to have a challenge in Cell through which to test his power. However, it should be noted that Cell used trickery and had knowledge of Saiyans due to their cells composing his structure. While fighting Super Buu, as well as while fighting Janemba on a different occasion, Vegeta vehemently opposed fusion with Goku due to his pride, but Goku managed to persuade him. Later, Vegeta becomes more willing to fuse, going so far as to propose it himself in the battle against Omega Shenron. On several occasions, Vegeta conceitedly underestimates his opponents; in the cases of Perfect Cell and Kid Buu, Vegeta was fooled by their diminutive appearances, believing that they had only "shrunk", which is somewhat ironic, given his own short stature, yet large power. While Vegeta lives for battling powerful foes, in some instances he has been seen to afraid of opponents for their tremendous power; such as the Legendary Super Saiyan Broly and Frieza. However, against Broly he visibly had a change of heart, displayed his pride, and took to the fight. Despite his lust for fighting against powerful foes, Vegeta's arrogance has a flipside too. It's debatable that stronger the foe, the more aggressive Vegeta's fighting style becomes and vice versa. He often recklessly throws himself into the fray against foes that are drastically more powerful than he is, while he barely bothers to touch significantly weaker enemies like Pui Pui for example. It could be argued that this attitude is a Saiyan trait instead of a personal quirk of his since there have been occasions when Goku shares this mentality albeit to a somewhat lesser extent. Where Goku might see workout potential in a weaker foe, it's likely that Vegeta refuses to dirty his hands with such menial tasks altogether.

Arguably, his most defining trait is his rivalry with Goku and his obsession to surpass him in power. Janemba Saga, he goes so far as to break down in tears over his inability to surpass Goku. However, this obsession has led him to save Goku's life on several occasions, insisting that only he will defeat Goku. When Goku sacrifices himself to save the Earth from being destroyed by Cell, Vegeta is devastated to the point that he vows never to fight again. Indeed, it would seem that Vegeta's most unique relationship is with his fellow Saiyan. Since their first battle, his opinion of Goku always being one step ahead of him, even though Goku is a lower class Saiyan, runs the gamut from contempt to rivalry, and later to respect and friendship. After the defeat of Kid Buu, he has a change of heart and his angry grudge against Goku becomes a friendly rivalry. Pan calls him "Uncle Vegeta", even though they are not blood-related, signifying a meaningful bond between Vegeta's family and Goku's.

Because of his arrogance, attitude and past wrongdoing, Vegeta gains much disdain from those around him, particularly Piccolo, Krillin, and Tien, who continually admonished him for his brutality. However, after his plan to defeat Kid Buu and save the Earth is a success, Vegeta is recognized as one of the most reliable and strongest warriors known, and this allows him to not only reconcile with all the Z Fighters but to accept them as genuine comrades. Though they grew up apart, Vegeta does care about his younger brother Tarble, though he is highly disappointed with Tarble's extreme lack of fighting power despite the fact he comes from the powerful royal bloodline.

After the Kid Buu Saga, Vegeta is much more relaxed. He is often seen smiling and cracking jokes, such as when he forced Trunks to enter the 28th World Martial Arts Tournament, threatening to "cut his allowance" if he did not enter the competition. Often being more caring and kind to his family, especially his daughter, Bulla, Vegeta admittedly has a kinder side, per his adjustment to Earthling life. His attitude towards fighting also changed; instead of training to surpass Goku, he is simply training because he is curious about what his own limits are. He does still retain his rivalry with Goku, but following his revelation at the end of the Buu Saga, Vegeta only wants to beat Goku purely to test himself rather than prove superiority. Vegeta later developed a strong age crisis, such as ignoring a group of teenagers flirting with his daughter until they called him a "geezer" and when Dr. Myuu criticized Vegeta for continuing to voice his pride as a Saiyan prince despite how much he had aged. However, Vegeta has been shown to retain his arrogance and competitive mood but he is more open to teamwork with the Z Fighters and is willing to help others in need. He has grown protective of the planet as he refers to it as his home and doesn't want to bear the burden of losing another home planet as he did with Planet Vegeta.