Goku and Vegeta have been rivals for many years now at first they were mortal enemies but eventually they even became friends however for Vegeta the Saiyan prince ever since they met he has been chasing Goku never quite able to surpass him well fortunately for the little guy it looks like the status quo might just be changing while Vegeta and Goku have always had a fairly similar style of fighting owing to their obvious Saiyan heritage and similar training the pair are beginning to diverge more and more as the series goes on as Vegeta continues to train with Beerus and learn new techniques from the cat-inspired god of destruction it’s looking more and more likely that Vegeta may be the next candidate for the impressive title for universe 7. let’s take a look back at Vegeta’s past struggles with Goku his new powers and training and just what role he plans to play in the future of the dragon ball universe.

Vegeta

Everyone who knows anything about dragon ball is aware of the tragic downfall of the Saiyan Homeworld planet Vegeta, Frieza’s worried about an eventual Saiyan uprising and their limitless potential yadda yadda Bardock tries to stop him and Frieza uses his Deathball to turn the entire planet to rubble this is all pretty common knowledge well this event was not only significant for the Saiyan race and dragon ball as a whole but it’s also a major cause for many of the differences we see in the two fighters Vegeta continued on as a part of Frieza’s army and became much more ruthless and sadistic whereas Goku became the happy-go-lucky fighter savant we know him as today regardless when these two first clash it was between the would-be destroyer of earth Vegeta and earth’s protector Goku the exceptionally long fight ended in what would be considered something of a stalemate but Vegeta had enough of an edge over Goku by going into his great ape form at the end of the fight after this much of Vegeta’s life has been spent just trying to step out of goku’s shadow he is always the second to achieve a new form or master a new technique there were very few obstacles that Vegeta could overcome that the lowly Saiyan Kakarot could not and this has continued to be a massive blow to his ego ever since their initial interactions while Vegeta’s new powers are very impressive and divert from the path that Goku is taking back in his earlier days he took more drastic measures in order to surpass Goku the Buu saga in dragon ball z was a defining point for Vegeta both because he came to accept his position in life and because he committed a truly selfless act redeeming many of the evil deeds he had done in his life in this saga the evil wizard Babidi was able to see the frustration Vegeta had for his struggle to surpass Kakarot and he used a mind control spell on the Saiyan prince Vegeta was resistant to it however but ultimately gave in to the effects as it granted him power that could be used to defeat Goku eventually Vegeta knocks Goku out and goes to fight Majin Buu realizing that his actions cause the resurrection of the bubblegum villain filled with remorse Vegeta realizes that the only way he can atone for what he had done is to sacrifice himself in order to finish off Majin Buu once and for all and in one final explosion he does just that he does return later of course i mean it’s dragon ball no one’s really dead for good after all however this was always a turning point for Vegeta as he accepted his place in life while still vowing to surpass Goku one day since then it’s been much of the same with Vegeta always being just a slight step behind Goku incredibly impressive in his own right but never able to surpass the lowly Saiyan for long.

Vegeta still on some level continues to chase Goku

Now in dragon ball super Vegeta still on some level continues to chase Goku but he’s also diverged in his path in significant fashion while mastered ultra instinct may be the new hotness for Goku the prince of Saiyans has taken a very different approach to his training and thus has a different set of abilities that Goku does not unlike Goku Vegeta has been spending his time training with the god of destruction of universe 7 Beerus extensively it was through this training that Vegeta was able to attain a brand new form entirely separate from Goku best known as a godly destroyer form the prince decided that ultra instinct wasn’t the correct path for him to take so he learned this new set of skills from Beerus eventually leading to this brand new form much like the iconic super Saiyan 3 form in this new godly destroyer form Vegeta goes full on neanderthal gaining a pronounced brow line and losing his eyebrows it’s almost like a one punch man situation except instead of losing the hair on your head you have to lose hair on your eyebrows to power up he also gets a new bulky appearance it’s not quite a Kaio ken in terms of visuals but it gives Vegeta’s already impressive form a fair bit of extra muscle this form is only able to be achieved by gods of destruction as well as those who have been trained by them the latter of which obviously applies to Vegeta we haven’t gotten to see it in action yet unfortunately but there are some clear implications that can come from its showing it represents a drastic increase in Vegeta’s power as granola who was previously destroying the super Saiyan god ss evolved form of Vegeta shriveled up in fear at the mere sight of the godly destroyer form it shows that Vegeta no longer feels the need to compare himself to Goku at least not in the same way with this training a new transformation Vegeta stepping out of goku’s shadow and forging his own path towards becoming the multiverse’s strongest warrior yeah finally some justice for Vegeta you know anyway and lastly it echoes what we saw with Toppo near the end of the tournament of power how he was becoming a god of destruction while fighting Vegeta Toppo was in line to become the next god of destruction for his universe and was being trained just like Vegeta is with Beerus currently if it wasn’t obvious before with this new transformation we may just be seeing the beginning of Vegeta’s path towards becoming a god of destruction.

Vegeta’s new form and his arduous training

As is common in dragon ball the poster boy Goku always gets the center stage and because of that there was a sort of assumption that Goku would ultimately take the mantle as the god of destruction for universe 7. but with Vegeta’s new form and his arduous training time spent with Beerus Vegeta’s candidacy for the new god of destruction is looking more and more impressive by the day unlike Goku who decided ultra instinct was the path for him Vegeta decided to take a more offensive and dare i say destructive path after the prince of Saiyans powers up Goku himself even notes that Vegeta’s power seems to resemble that of a god if that’s true just how far away is Vegeta from attaining the god of destruction title is he already there what happened with Toppo in the tournament of power is nearly indistinguishable from Vegeta’s current transformation and he was clearly set up as the next in line for universe 11. could we see Vegeta going through the same process right now only time will tell but it certainly seems like a path that makes sense for the Saiyan prince but if Vegeta truly is in the running to be the next god of destruction he may just be one of the most powerful fighters in the entire multiverse regardless it’s nice to see Vegeta finally forging his own path separate from goku’s we may see a situation akin to the cell saga where Gohan defeated the final foe as opposed to the always reliable Goku with Vegeta ending as the strongest of the two right now it seems that Beerus and Whis are trying to have a competition over who the better teacher is with Whis teaching Goku how to further perfect his ultra instinct form while Vegeta is training with Beerus to enhance his god of destruction powers it’s nice to see Beerus finally rooting on a mortal for a change and he seems confident that the power being passed down to Vegeta is in fact better than ultra instinct time will tell but for now when we do finally get a destruction power vs ultra instinct fight it is bound to be one of the coolest in the series whether or not Vegeta does become the next god of destruction he’s got the power to give Goku a run for his money either way it’s nice to see Vegeta finally step away from following Goku and instead forge his own path towards becoming the strongest warrior in dragon ball.