It's The End Of A Dragon Ball Era As Vegeta Finally Surpasses Goku

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR DRAGON BALL SUPER'S GALACTIC PATROL & GRANOLA ARCS

While Vegeta did officially defeat Goku at the end of the latest Dragon Ball movie, unadapted manga arcs have truly proved how much further the former Prince of All Saiyans has evolved compared to arguably the most famous anime character of all time. The dynamic between the two Saiyans has grown to such iconic levels that several of today's most popular series try to emulate it in one form or another. Still, the Dragon Ball franchise has consistently found new ways to make Goku and Vegeta's rivalry compelling to follow.

Being one of the best fights of the Dragon Ball franchise, Goku and Vegeta's first clash was a defining moment in many ways. The naturally strong elite fighter against the martial arts genius of seemingly lower birth was an underdog story for the ages. It was a battle that changed the franchise and Vegeta forever, resulting in the series' greatest redemption arc that has been tough to surpass.

Dragon Ball Super provided plenty of exciting moments for Goku and Vegeta, but besides offering a few new transformations, the sequel series barely included any meaningful or lasting character development for either of the fan-favorite Saiyans. While the simple desire to get stronger was fun to watch for a while, Vegeta's character has since found more interesting ways to grow than Goku's.

Super's Anime Let Vegeta's Character Down Too Much

In one of the best moments of the Dragon Ball Z anime, the Prince of All Saiyans finally put his pride aside to sacrifice himself against Majin Buu. This choice was the ultimate catharsis for the former villain's character arc, in an act so good that the sequel series felt the need to rip it off, but this time with less emotional stakes.

The often arrogant Prince of all Saiyans was directly tested against a Destroyer God in training, Universe 11's Toppo, during the Tournament of Power. In their battle, Vegeta's sheer might and willpower were able to overwhelm the destruction energy Toppo used against him. While that seemed like an impressive accomplishment, the end of Dragon Ball Super's anime concluded with a version of Vegeta that felt barely evolved from where he was at the end of DBZ. Thankfully, Dragon Ball Super’s later manga arcs have fixed that.

The Sequel Series Provided New Forms, But It Failed To Transform Its Characters

The introduction to Beerus, the God of Destruction, and his angel attendant Whis provided the franchise with entirely new power systems for the protagonists to master. Since then, Goku and Vegeta have both trained to manipulate divine energy, which has so far been demonstrated with Beerus’s Destruction Energy and Ultra Instinct, a form of transcendent reflexes used by all angels. Both energies required very different types of training to utilize, while at the same time requiring each fighter to confront something within themselves.

While Goku proved to be more efficient in Whis's lessons on the selfless and the divine energy needed to unlock Ultra Instinct, Vegeta’s attempts to use Ultra Instinct failed miserably before he even admitted that it was a fighting style he was not made for. This opened the door to Vegeta's development that’s arguably more fascinating: to control destroyer energy. But that goal is only one of the ways Dragon Ball Super’s unadapted material sought to grow the depths of the character fans have been following for decades.

While Goku Continues To Build Strength, Vegeta Has Been Growing His Character

The anime’s long-overdue continuation of the Dragon Ball Super storyline is set to adapt The Galactic Patrol arc, which contains more character development for Vegeta than the anime series so far. Its story takes Goku and Vegeta to New Namek, where the former Frieza lackey was directly forced to confront the atrocities he'd committed against the Namekian people years in the past. While it was not nearly as explosive a moment as Vegeta's first Super Saiyan transformation or his sacrifice against Buu, it provided a moment of depth in a series where such moments are too far in between.

Another stark contrast between Dragon Ball's two leading Saiyans is the way that they seek out strength. Goku always finds ways to leave the house and train with whichever teacher previously fell into his lap, while Vegeta takes the initiative in order to better himself. After suffering a brutal loss on New Namek at the hands of Planet Eater Moro, the Saiyan prince made the conscious decision to travel to the planet Yardrat to learn special techniques needed to accomplish his goals.

Vegeta’s trip to the same planet that Goku sought refuge on after his planet-breaking battle with Frieza yielded very different results. Not only did he learn the Instant Teleportation technique, but he also learned the fundamentals of Spirit Control. By learning how to further manipulate the spirit, or ki, he played a huge role in weakening Moro by separating the foe’s spirit. He’s not used any similar techniques since, but the experience saw the character grow and transform on a personal level, instead of with a flashy transformation.

By Finding His Own Way, Vegeta Has Become More Interesting To Follow Than Goku

Goku's ability to quickly adapt to new styles and transformations has been a huge push for Vegeta to continue getting stronger, but in his continued training with Beerus, Vegeta has had to reevaluate himself in many ways. Which is itself another brilliant layer to the characters, with Goku's personality that prefers to go with the flow compared to Vegeta's analytical mind. It was that stern mindset that made him incompatible with Ultra Instinct and a big reason why he felt the need to create his own Divine Form.

So far, the anticipated return of Dragon Ball Super’s anime has only confirmed the adaptation of The Galactic Patrol arc, but the arc after it also contains a lot of exciting moments readers are excited to see animated. The Granola arc finally explores what would happen if someone with Dragon Balls wished to be the strongest warrior in the universe, resulting in clashes that forced both Goku and Vegeta to utilize their divine training and show off some of the coolest transformations the Dragon Ball series has seen yet.

With Vegeta training to use destruction energy from the God of Destruction, he’s unlocked a form that’s almost the polar opposite of Ultra Instinct: Ultra Ego. While Goku’s go-with-the-flow mentality is perfectly represented by Ultra Instinct’s water-like movement, Vegeta’s Ultra Ego absorbs damage, turning it into strength. Which is another physical manifestation representative of the character’s desire to take on responsibilities and bonds that he once thought would weigh him down.

It seems obvious that Beerus is training Vegeta because he sees him as a viable candidate for the next God of Destruction. With his current life on Earth, it seems unlikely that Vegeta would take on such a godly promotion. With how much his character has grown further into the opposite of the man he was when he first arrived on Earth, it’s unclear exactly what the happiest ending would be for the once-arrogant character, but it’s a journey anime-only Dragon Ball Super fans should be excited to witness, and one manga readers are anxious to see evolve further.