Editing Vegeta (section)

==Development==
{{expand section|date=November 2021}}
When creating Vegeta, Toriyama originally intended for him to be a short-lived antagonist and second-tier character, with little influence to ''Dragon Ball's'' story. Toriyama intended for Goku to simply kill him at the climax of their first battle, and portrayed him as simply and one-dimensional as he should have been considering this.

Despite this, the character became more popular than he had expected, and Toriyama became afraid of the backlash of killing him unceremoniously. Thus Toriyama decided to keep Vegeta in the story for longer. [[Frieza]], who was designed as the antagonist of a later story arc whom Vegeta would come into conflict with much later in the story, was used with the secondary aim to create a reasonable "Death" for Vegeta. But he would be revived due to his popularity still.

He explained his surprise at the character's popularity in an interview during the release of ''[[Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods]]'', "I had thought about bringing an end to [his story] as just a villain, but as I was writing, I felt that his villainous [...] warped straightforwardness was unexpectedly interesting. I couldn't imagine that a guy with this kind of hairstyle would become popular, and yet he'd get more votes than [[Goku]] in favorite-character polls."<ref name="Kanzenshuu Toriyama and Nakagawa Interview Translated">{{cite web |last1=Toriyama |first1=Akira |last2=Nakagawa |first2=Shōko |title=SPECIAL CONTENTS - Akira Toriyama × Shōko Nakagawa |url=https://www.toei-anim.co.jp/movie/2013_dragonballz/special/interview.html |website=www.toei-anim.co.jp |access-date=June 7, 2021 |archive-date=September 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210924184257/https://www.toei-anim.co.jp/movie/2013_dragonballz/special/interview.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="TOEI Web Toriyama and Nakagawa Interview Japanese">{{cite web |last1=Toriyama |first1=Akira |last2=Nakagawa |first2=Shōko |title=Akira Toriyama × Shōko Nakagawa Interview |url=https://www.kanzenshuu.com/translations/official-battle-gods-website-toriyama-x-nakagawa-interview/ |website=Kanzenshuu |access-date=June 7, 2021 |archive-date=June 7, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210607012447/https://www.kanzenshuu.com/translations/official-battle-gods-website-toriyama-x-nakagawa-interview/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Toriyama initially harbored a dislike for Vegeta since he was created as a despicable character, but grew to like him as he considered the character's personality to be straightforward, therefore easier to write.<ref name="Kanzenshuu Toriyama and Nakagawa Interview Translated"/><ref name="TOEI Web Toriyama and Nakagawa Interview Japanese"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Peters |first1=Megan |title=The Creator Of Dragon Ball Dislikes A Very Surprising Character |url=https://comicbook.com/anime/news/dragon-ball-creator-least-favorite-character-vegeta/ |website=Comic Book |date=September 5, 2017 |access-date=June 7, 2021 |archive-date=June 7, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210607012446/https://comicbook.com/anime/news/dragon-ball-creator-least-favorite-character-vegeta/ |url-status=live }}</ref> He also found the character "Extremely helpful to have around".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Toriyama |first1=Akira |title=Dragon Ball Daizenshuu 2: Story Guide - Akira Toriyama Super Interview 2nd Round — The Unpredictable Story |url=https://www.kanzenshuu.com/translations/daizenshuu-2-akira-toriyama-super-interview/ |website=Kanzenshuu |access-date=June 7, 2021 |archive-date=February 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205235616/https://www.kanzenshuu.com/translations/daizenshuu-2-akira-toriyama-super-interview/ |url-status=live }}</ref> He stated at one point when he received a lot of [[fan mail]] telling him not to kill Vegeta, he purposely did just that.<ref>{{cite book |title=DRAGON BALL 大全集 5: TV ANIMATION PART 2 |year=1995 |publisher=[[Shueisha]] |pages=206–210 |isbn=4-08-782755-0}}</ref> After the release of ''Battle of Gods'', Toriyama expressed interest in having Vegeta be the lead in the event of another animated feature, though he insisted this was only his intent and no decision had been made.<ref>Interview with Akira Toriyama - Saikyō Jump #3, 2014</ref>

Following the trend that names of members of the Saiyan race are puns on vegetables, Vegeta's name is a pun of the word ''vegetable'' itself.<ref name="TenkaDen">{{cite book |title=DRAGON BALL 天下一伝説|year=2004|publisher=[[Shueisha]]|pages=80–91|language=ja|isbn=4-08-873705-9}}</ref>

===Voice actors===
[[File:Ryo Horikawa (14947949559).jpg|thumb|upright|right|[[Ryō Horikawa]] has been Vegeta's Japanese voice actor in most pieces of ''Dragon Ball'' media.]]

In the original Japanese version of the anime and all media, Vegeta is voiced by [[Ryō Horikawa]],<ref>{{cite web|last1=W.|first1=Sam|title=Interview: Ryo Horikawa [Voice Actor, "Dragon Ball Z"]|url=http://inside.anime-expo.org/ax-scoop/2012-08/exclusive-ryo-horikawa-interview-anime-expo-2012/|website=Inside AX|publisher=[[Anime Expo]]|access-date=August 21, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150106204723/http://inside.anime-expo.org/ax-scoop/2012-08/exclusive-ryo-horikawa-interview-anime-expo-2012|archive-date=January 6, 2015}}</ref> with the only exception being ''[[Dragon Ball Daima]],'' where a mini Vegeta was voiced by Yūdai Mino.<ref name="Daima" />

In the Ocean Productions English dub, Vegeta was voiced by [[Brian Drummond]]. Drummond returned in the Funimation dub of ''[[Dragon Ball Super]]'' to voice Vegeta's Duplicate.

In Funimation (now Crunchyroll)'s in house dub, [[Christopher Sabat]] has voiced Vegeta in all ''Dragon Ball'' media, including video games. While Sabat continued to dub Vegeta's adult incarnation in ''[[Dragon Ball Z Kai]]'',<ref>{{cite web|title=Funimation Announces Dragon Ball Z Kai's English Cast|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-02-14/funimation-announces-dragon-ball-z-kai-english-cast|website=Anime News Network|access-date=August 21, 2014|archive-date=December 9, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221209093039/https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-02-14/funimation-announces-dragon-ball-z-kai-english-cast|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Laura Bailey (voice actress)|Laura Bailey]] voiced Vegeta's child incarnation in ''Dragon Ball Z Kai'' and [[Justin Briner]] voiced Vegeta's child incarnation in ''[[Dragon Ball Super]]''.

In Brazil, where ''Dragon Ball'' is a huge success, Vegeta has been voiced by Alfredo Rollo since his debut. In Latin American Spanish, he's consistently been voiced by René García.