The REAL Reason Vegeta Can NEVER Beat Goku

all right when it comes to Rivals Goku and Vegeta may be the most famous duo in all of fiction and yet ever since Dynamic Saga Vegeta has basically played second fiddle to Goku the entire way to the point where this becomes a critical sticking point for his character and is even a catalyst for the most dangerous situations in all of Z during the Buu saga but despite this tragedy of Vegeta it's part of what makes him one of the most in-depth characters in the series and there's a good reason why Vegeta has never and could never surpass Goku [Music] in writing in narratology there's a very well-known template called the hero's journey and since I'm sure most of you already know it we'll skip the lecture but anime specifically shown in series like Dragon Ball follow a more condensed version of this narrative wheel the hero is presented with a foe or villain the villain is far too powerful for the hero to overcome usually resulting in an initial loss they train up face the villain again and with some sort of new knowledge or power up or transformation they overcome the villain and the cycle starts all over again for Dragon Ball let's take a recent and very condensed example the tournament of power where Goku faces off against jiren in the anime Goku fights jiren and initially loses pretty badly then uncovers a new form UI Omen and manages to keep up with jiren for a short time then he loses again and again until he unlocks mastered Ultra Instinct and finally is able to overpower his Foe and this is what Dragon Ball is all about the constant evolution of strength and the continuous breaking of limits and while of course Vegeta 2 is following the same cycle his goal is not quite the same as Goku's the goal of the Saiyans can be pretty easily simplified down to getting stronger and for Goku it really is that simple but crucially he doesn't want to be the strongest he just wants to get stronger more on that in a moment on Vegeta's side while his goal is also to get stronger he has an end game in Psych ever since Dynamic Saga he's wanted to be stronger than Goku and this want is what truly drives him can't I surpass despite a goal that's relatively simple and within reach Vegeta never seems to quite grasp it every time Vegeta has an opportunity to be the hero it's snatched away from him usually by Goku [Applause] and while it may be frustrating for the audience and certainly is for Vegeta it's actually a good thing way back in the Saiyan Saga we witnessed the original Vegeta's arrogance not every little lawyer gets the chance to spar with a super Elite like myself how he thinks he's the strongest by Birthright and no amount of training could help someone like Goku surpass him now let me show you a wall you will never have the ability to scale through effort alone but after Vegeta's loss here after Goku manages to keep up with him and even surpass him in Kaioken times 4 Vegeta's world including his perception of himself his hopes and his desires all burned down around him and From the Ashes of this brutal defeat a true desire is created this desire is the desire to get stronger which Vegeta interprets as a desire to be the strongest or to be stronger than Goku specifically who he views as his ultimate opponent a desire that he didn't have before meeting and fighting Goku before the Saiyan Saga Vegeta had just assumed he was the strongest and as his customary of Saiyans didn't bother training or pushing himself much to become stronger his desire to be the strongest is created like all desire out of lack more pointedly Vegeta's desire for strength is his lack of strength being refracted back at him on its most surface level to desire strength is to admit weakness to accept that he could even lose in the first place when I truly own the self-hatred that realization brought the Super Saiyan Within Me erupted to life something we actually see Vegeta do during the end of the Buu saga are number one back in the days on Namek where Goku becomes the Legendary Super Saiyan before Vegeta we can finally see this new desire made manifest Vegeta starts to train harder and harder and it culminates in both one of the most iconic and fulfilling rivalries of all time between Vegeta and Goku and since then Vegeta has become dependent on this rivalry Goku is now a crucial part of Vegeta's life and even of his own sense of self to Vegeta Goku acts as the physical object representing his desire this is why it can often feel like Vegeta hates Goku since Goku is a constant reminder of Vegeta's desire to be the strongest and in turn of his lack of strength essentially Vegeta's powerlessness projected in physical form Vegeta's rage is a byproduct of his desire for strength forcing him to accept his own weakness as much as any of us Vegeta is a victim of his own desire constantly reminding him of his inadequacies and for him this is represented by Goku but Vegeta can't just be rid of Goku because of fact that he's shaped so much of who he is based off this desire that began with his initial defeat in the Saiyan Saga on that day I committed my life to surpassing you having no idea just how far you would go it's something that we see exemplified in the Buu saga when Vegeta so desperately wants to fight Goku that he's willing to go back on his progress in living a more Earthly family life just to fulfill this desire of a battle against Goku to prove he's the strongest without Goku constantly overcoming him without this consistent challenge Vegeta would likely be empty as is always the case with desire as Lacon first theorized and Nietzsche put into an easily digestible quote ultimately it is the desire not the desired that we love or what we desire is desire itself it isn't really to be the strongest that Vegeta desires it's the pursuit of that strength I discussed this in depth during my video about alter ego but part of who Vegeta truly is deep down will forever be intertwined with his Saiyan heritage his battle-hungry Saiyan side informs many of his desires and his rivalry with Goku is a constant and nearly never-ending source of competitive battle with which his hunger can be saved this symbiotic relationship between the two Saiyans results in a codependency that means if one is taken away the other will lose this physical representation of their desire that makes up a large part of themselves namely their drive for power and we can see other examples of this really easily by looking at parallels shown in series [Music] one punch man is a story built around this idea of completing the Shonen cycle to reach the Pinnacle of strength that Vegeta thinks he wants to reach and after doing so it's left saitama Hollow he starts out failing a job interview parallel with Vegeta's initial failure versus Goku and in a time of desperation his desire to be a hero to have ultimate strength is realized saitama had this incredible drive this desire the same as Vegeta but upon reaching his goal he was met only with empty self-validation and a world devoid of obstacles with which to test himself and grow as a person and in one punch man it's even to the point where saitama is losing touch with himself incapable of feeling not only sadness anger or fear but also joy and excitement in a lot of ways he's losing his very Humanity obstacles and trials are what shape us as people Vegeta specifically showcases this perfectly each Arc of Dragon Ball Vegeta finds himself face to face with his own desire and is knocked down by it again starting him back on his journey and giving him new lessons to learn and grow from just like the trials in anyone's life you may lose your job or break up with a partner but these hardships shape who we are and inform the people we become moving forward in the Saiyan and name Saga Vegeta already thinks of himself as the strongest and as he's beaten by Goku and Frieza respectively he's forced to learn that training and hard work are required to be truly strong in the cell Saga again he thinks he has surpassed everyone after training in the time chamber and unlocking Super Saiyan grade 2. go on obtain the so-called perfect form but again he's knocked down this time by self he repeats essentially the exact same cycle in the Buu saga this time even sacrificing himself because of his mistakes and as I mentioned earlier learning to accept his own weakness which leads to him changing his Lone Wolf ways and accepting help in his pursuit of strength taking on Masters like whis and eventually beerus these lessons are crucial parts of Vegeta's character building and if he had been the strongest from the start he would have just cleared out Goku Frieza Cell and boo right away we wouldn't have gotten such pivotal moments for his personality changes sort of like Goku who as Mark puts it is more of a flat character meant to stay rigid in his positive example to more so affect those around him rather than growing drastically as a character himself so what does this mean well if Vegeta wins if he's the one to overpower the villain that Goku can't or he finally takes Goku down one on one his Arc is over if Vegeta wins he doesn't need Goku anymore this representation of his desire a desire he would no longer have or need in turn this could mean that Vegeta could completely lose his drive for strength entirely or even everything he's grown to be since he developed his rivalry with Goku like his life on Earth think of how many sports players end up retiring or only playing for money after they finally win a championship if any of you follow Dragon Ball Fighters many consider Wawa to be the best player of all time and after winning Evo and the fighters World Championship he lost his interest in playing the game anymore and essentially retired to pursue other interests back to the world of shonen's we can take Naruto or Pokemon as examples for Naruto the entire basis of his character since day one was to become Hokage throughout both the original Naruto and Shippuden this remains his end goal and what happens at the end of the show Naruto becomes Hokage and the series is over for Ash in the Pokemon community and Beyond it became a meme just like it has for Vegeta that he could never win when it mattered he always lost at the end of the arc just to start all over again the next season despite being the main character it took Ash 25 years to reach his goal of becoming world champion and now it's over Ash has taken a back seat in exchange for new characters and stated himself at the end of his show that now all he wants to do is travel and make new friends this aligns perfectly with Vegeta just like with Ash it becomes a meme how often Vegeta loses or plays second fiddle to Goku as the star even in some people's minds being embodied in his new form alter ego but what if this final win means Vegeta ending up like saitama Hollow with no goals and no emotions or like Ash and Naruto culminating in the end of the show possibly with a handoff to the Next Generation in trunks Goten Bola and pan the story of King Midas exemplifies this all as a cautionary tale about the side effects of having desire fulfilled Midas wished for everything he touched to turn to gold and once his wish was finally made reality despite enjoying the power at first he quickly learned upon accidentally turning his own daughter to Solid Gold that it was more of a curse than a gift for saitama it's the same for Vegeta it would be the same and even for us fans it could be the same resulting in the end of the show as we know it like Naruto or Pokemon whatever the case may be Vegeta's eventual Triumph will Mark a pivotal moment in Dragon Ball's history and the show may never be the same [Music] [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Planet Level

Views: 18,638

Keywords: dragon ball, dragonball, dbz, dbs, super, video essay, philosophy, anime, db, vegeta, goku, lacan, dbz philosophy, one punch man, opm, pokemon, naruto

Id: a2_RMDE3sd4

Length: 12min 12sec (732 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 11 2023