Vegeta and Beerus: The Parallels Behind Ultra Ego in Dragon Ball Super

Vegeta, from even early childhood, may have been destined to tap into Ultra Ego, the power of a God of Destruction. The parallels between him and Beerus run deep, and I think they show why Vegeta was kind of meant, in many ways, to be Lord Beerus's number one student.

Some time ago I wrote about Ultra Ego Vegeta, explaining the transformation and how it worked for him. It turned out to be one of the most popular things I'd put out in a very long time. That wasn't really a surprise. Vegeta is one of the most popular characters in Dragon Ball, if not the most popular character in the West, and Vegeta using the power of Beerus, the God of Destruction, is something people had wanted for years and years. People then started asking for more about the connection between the two, because there's a lot more to it than I covered the first time. At the time, I also thought Vegeta would continue to be Beerus's top student going forward.

King Vegeta under Beerus's foot left a lasting fear in Vegeta

Beerus is one of the newer characters in the grand scheme of Dragon Ball. He was introduced in 2013's Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods and didn't exist during the original run of Dragon Ball, DBZ or the original manga. Even so, he has a long running history not only with Vegeta but with the Saiyans and Frieza that stems back decades. The way Beerus and Vegeta's relationship was portrayed in both Battle of Gods and the anime is kind of a bullying situation. Vegeta and even his father, King Vegeta, were incredibly fearful of Beerus, and King Vegeta was essentially at Beerus's mercy.

There's an actual flashback in the series where we see King Vegeta under Beerus's foot. That one moment traumatized Vegeta so much that he would never even attempt to fight Beerus until he saw his wife getting slapped, which led into that awesome "my Bulma" rage mode. Before then, he felt like Beerus was pretty unstoppable.

There were only two other times we'd seen Vegeta react this way. One was in the original Broly movie, where he's terrified of facing the Legendary Super Saiyan. That wasn't written by Toriyama, so you can set it aside if you want; some fans count it and some don't, but I wanted to include it. The other was in the original manga, when Vegeta is fighting Frieza and gives up the will to fight once he realizes he has no chance. Other than that, he's pretty brave. Yet even after all the battles of his life, Vegeta still fears Beerus.

Vegeta took the wrong lesson from Beerus and misread him as a merciless bully

There's a lot more to that scene than people really understand once you break down Vegeta's psychology. Vegeta was already raised by his father and other Saiyans to believe that the Legendary Super Saiyan was supposed to be a ruthless killer who could barely control his power. When he first saw Beerus bully his own father, it cemented, even more than his father's own behavior over the years, the idea that being a bully, being superior and having no mercy is the right way to live.

Obviously Vegeta would evolve as Dragon Ball Z went on, grow out of that mentality and become a more whole person. But it's the same mentality he carried through most of his life, including on Planet Namek, when he implores Goku with his final breath to have no mercy and insists Frieza must die at the hand of a Saiyan.

The interesting thing is that Vegeta was wrong about Beerus. We later find out Beerus's appetite for destruction is more like Goku's: it's more of an appetite for competition, because Beerus craves challenge. He also seems to be a guy who's not really evil, and bullying people is evil. Beerus does have an ego, which leads into Ultra Ego, but he doesn't get satisfaction from mercilessly killing people. In the Granolah arc, he has to explain to Vegeta that to become a proper destroyer you have to let go of attachment and of the guilt Vegeta carries; if not, he'll never really tap into the maximum God of Destruction power.

Beerus might want Goku as strong as possible so he can beat him

At the same time, it does make you wonder why Beerus is so supportive of Goku training with Whis. We saw Beerus visibly rattled in the Tournament of Power when Goku tapped into Ultra Instinct, and when we saw Jiren's incredible power for the first time. Could it be possible that Beerus wants Goku to get as strong as possible so he can ultimately beat him and satisfy his own ego? Is that something he would do?

That's not very Vegeta like, because Vegeta would just want to surpass you; he doesn't really want you to get stronger. But he does view Goku, as he said in Resurrection 'F', as his measuring stick, and the stronger Goku gets, the more it motivates Vegeta. Could Beerus be like that? Beerus seems a bit lazier, while Vegeta is one of the hardest working guys in the series. That's why so many people believe Goku either has already surpassed Beerus or is going to sneak up on him, because Beerus likes to mess around too much. Will Vegeta ever become lazy? I don't think so. It's not in his nature.

Vegeta and Beerus were introduced as destroyers but are really martial artists

Going all the way back to Vegeta's first appearance, the parallels with Beerus are noticeable. Early on, Vegeta's ability to destroy ruthlessly was probably the most highlighted aspect of his power, and we watched him run through opponent after opponent on Planet Namek while still getting stronger and stronger.

When Beerus is first introduced, all anyone talks about is his destruction capabilities. But when we first see him fight Goku, he leans on the martial artist side to win. He knows pressure points and martial arts technique. I've covered a lot of this in my history of Beerus, because he's much more than just a destroyer; he's a legitimate martial artist. Vegeta has the spirit of one and would become one as his life continued.

Both characters act as measuring sticks for Goku

Just as Goku is a measuring stick for Vegeta, Vegeta's strength when the two first fought in the Saiyan Saga at the beginning of Dragon Ball Z became a huge motivator for Goku. Beerus's incredible power at the start of Battle of Gods, throughout that movie and even since, motivates Goku as well.

We know this is a fact because even during the fight with Hit in Dragon Ball Super, well after the fight with Beerus, Goku remarks that he's been working on the Kaio-ken with Blue specifically to beat Beerus. He has that rematch in the back of his head, and so do all of us as fans. Could it be that Goku is seeking this rematch as much as Vegeta wanted his rematch with Goku in DBZ?

Vegeta pushes Granolah for the same reason Beerus pushes Goku

More recently, things came to light that make me really believe there are even more parallels between Vegeta and Beerus, especially in their bond as student and master in Dragon Ball Super's Granolah arc. They share similar ideologies about destroying things and being destroyers, even though Vegeta is still trying to fully grasp a power Beerus has had for who knows how long.

You may look at the interaction with Granolah and not fully understand what's going on. Vegeta makes it seem like he wants to help Granolah, make up for what the Saiyans did to his people many years ago and relate to him. But go back and look at it: Vegeta is pushing Granolah for the same reasons Beerus pushes Goku, to feed his own ego by beating somebody as strong as they can possibly be. "What good is it to pick candy from a baby"? That's why Beerus was bored for so long, and why he was intrigued by Goku and even Vegeta when he first met them. He talks at the end of Battle of Gods about the Saiyans' incredible potential. It was the first time in who knows how long that Beerus couldn't break someone.

Vegeta wants to beat you and prove his superiority, to Goku and, believe it or not, even to Beerus. Granolah is just another opponent and possible rival. Vegeta always wants you at your absolute best so he can beat you. Why did he let Cell become perfect? It was a boneheaded move, we can all agree, but he wanted to satisfy his ego and beat Perfect Cell. He failed, but that's what he wanted. Remember his speech to Goku Black while beating him, calling Black a counterfeit Goku and himself the genuine article, and how mad he was to learn about Super Saiyan 3 and that Goku had been toying with him. To me, that's exactly who Vegeta is. He doesn't like being messed around with.

Neither Vegeta nor Beerus cares about the Saiyans

The conversation in Dragon Ball Super about the Saiyan race is a very important moment. Beerus confessed to Vegeta's face that he okayed Frieza destroying Planet Vegeta and was fine with it. Fans had waited years for that, because a lot of us thought Vegeta would try to kill Beerus when he found out. That's a misunderstanding of his character. As I've said dozens of times, Vegeta doesn't care about the Saiyans anymore. He stopped caring decades ago.

Finding this out was more important for his development, because it shows both of them do what they do for similar reasons. Vegeta killed Nappa, his companion for who knows how long, because Nappa was defeated by Goku, whom Vegeta perceived as a low class warrior at the time, before he'd witnessed Goku's real power. He saw Nappa as useless and more of a nuisance than anything else, which is exactly why Beerus didn't care about the Saiyans, and neither does Vegeta.

It always leaves me scratching my head when fans ponder why Vegeta won't resurrect the Saiyans or at least try. He doesn't care, and he's said so himself multiple times. He calls himself the Prince of all Saiyans to remind himself of his status as a high class warrior, because he was beaten by a low class warrior, Goku, at the beginning of Dragon Ball Z. It's not because he cares about his race. Neither does Beerus, so that's another parallel.

Ultra Ego makes Vegeta animalistic because destruction requires instinct without guilt

When Vegeta fights Granolah in Ultra Ego, he's more animalistic. There are a few reasons, some tied to Eastern philosophy about karma, in which animals acting out of instinct are sort of above karma. Sun Wukong, whom Goku is based on, was a sentient ape who kept his animal instincts. There are some parallels with Ultra Instinct, but that's a Goku topic, not a Vegeta topic, and not one to truly discuss here.

For Vegeta, he has to be purely in that destructive mode, with no guilt and no care about who he's destroying, to really tap into that power, and that requires animalistic instincts. An animal attacked in the forest won't care what it kills as long as it stays alive. Look at any nature documentary: it's all about survival of the fittest. That's the bottom line of both characters: "survival of the fittest survival of the strongest." Goku, on the other hand, is more of a pure martial artist who wants to challenge himself and be the best he can be. Vegeta and Beerus share some of that, but their approach is different.

Their respect for Goku shows Vegeta becoming more like Beerus

Goku is one of the bigger commonalities between them. Both first meet Goku and show him very little respect, and the respect only builds after fighting him. It took much longer for Vegeta, who was far more immature than Beerus. Beerus figured out quickly that Goku was special, while Vegeta was envious of him for most of Dragon Ball Z, until by the end he realized that Goku, despite being a low class warrior, was a very formidable foe and a fighting genius in many ways.

I like that they both respect Goku's methods and appreciate them despite not agreeing with them, and to me that makes them more complex characters than people realize. Remember, Beerus is a god, and for a god to show respect, as we saw in Dragon Ball Super, is kind of a big deal.

"Beerus is pretty much what Vegeta has always wanted to be." The more Vegeta is around Beerus and trains under him, the more he becomes like him, except for maybe someday becoming lazy, which I never see him doing. I could see Vegeta mastering Ultra Ego, though not becoming a God of Destruction in rank or position, because he isn't really interested in that. But I could see him becoming a better martial artist by using Beerus's God of Destruction philosophy.

Which parallel between Vegeta and Beerus do you find most convincing?