An ever-present aspect of the Dragon Ball Z series is the competition between Goku and Vegeta as both strive to be more powerful than the other. While most of the time this is a mutually beneficial relationship as they push each other to be the best they can be, sometimes one of them takes things a bit too far–with that ‘one’ almost always being Vegeta. In one such instance, Vegeta succeeded in defeating Goku in battle in an effort to claim his superiority, though it was easily the Saiyan Prince’s most shameful to date.
Vegeta made his first appearance in Dragon Ball Z as a villain who was sent to Earth by his boss, Lord Frieza, to wipe out the planet’s population then sell the vacant world to the highest bidder. When Vegeta got there, he was met with immediate defiance by the protectors of Earth, the Z-Fighters–with Goku being the most powerful among them. While this first battle between Goku and Vegeta was epic, its ending was actually pretty unexpected as the villain, Vegeta, surprisingly won. If it hadn’t been for the combined efforts of Krillin and Yajirobe, Vegeta would have crushed Goku in his hands (literally) and then taken over the planet. Even though Vegeta effectively beat Goku one-on-one, it didn’t take long for Goku to surpass Vegeta in power as shown when Goku went Super Saiyan during his battle with Frieza later in the series. It was at that point resentment started to build within Vegeta, a resentment that didn’t boil over until many years later.
In Dragon Ball chapter 462 by Akira Toriyama, Vegeta has allowed himself to be corrupted by the evil sorcerer, Babidi, in order to become one of the darkest and most powerful versions of himself, Majin Vegeta. With that power-boost, Vegeta also lost all sense of empathy and love for anyone he grew closer to after giving up his life as a villain and settling down with a family on Earth. This meant that Vegeta could fight Goku without holding anything back, and they could finally settle once and for all who is the most powerful between them.
Vegeta’s Win Over Goku was Hollow for More Reasons than One
Firstly, Vegeta was only strong enough to challenge Goku at this point in the series because of Babidi’s Majin power-up, so right from the start Vegeta didn’t earn his place as a true challenger to Goku. To make matters worse, Vegeta only landed the finishing blow on Goku after he said the fight was over, and he’d use the power given to him by Babidi against Majin Buu. While Goku is somewhat to blame for letting his guard down, Vegeta’s winning move was cheap and arguably wouldn’t have happened if the fight had kept going without any distractions.
What’s interesting about Vegeta’s inferiority complex when it comes to Goku is that the two of them have only fought twice in the entire Dragon Ball Z series (not counting GT or Super), and both times, Vegeta effectively won. Yet, Vegeta always feels as though Goku is stronger than him, even after this ‘victory’ over Kakarot. This means that Vegeta knows his wins are hollow. While he did beat Goku one-on-one in their first fight, in the end, he lost to the Z-Fighters who worked together to stop him–overshadowing his great victory. Then, following this win, Vegeta still yearns to be better than Goku despite his claim that this fight would be the deciding one–a fight where he technically came out on top. But, Vegeta didn’t really win, he cheated by accepting power he didn’t earn and then took a cheap shot to finish Goku off–proving that Vegeta’s ultimate Dragon Ball Z victory over Goku is his most shameful, and he knows it.
