Vegeta is... not a great guy. Don't get us wrong, he's gotten much better since the first time he showed up on Earth, but the prince of Saiyans still isn't your ideal good guy. It's no secret that Vegeta has a dark, murderous past, but that's part of what makes his character so interesting; he started out as a planet-destroying alien warrior, but now he's an attentive family man who fights for the safety of his adopted home, family and universe. Vegeta is a fan favorite of Dragon Ball Z lovers for perhaps this very reason, and has become an interesting, dynamic character who has multiple layers.

Of course, with layers come some dark underbellies, something that is especially true of Vegeta. Vegeta's origins and villainous acts aren't the only things about him that have been more or less forgotten or buried, his present-day life is also pretty dark. There's also some dark behind-the-scenes facts the might surprise fans. Dragon Ball Z fans might know a few of these Vegeta facts, but we bet you never thought of the negative ramifications of them.

15 MASS MURDERER

It's not exactly a secret that Vegeta is a mass murderer. When he first showed up on Earth, he killed citizens of East City, and when he became Majin Vegeta, he killed the world martial arts tournament audience. This is already very dark on its own, knowing that Vegeta has killed so many people and yet is treated like a hero later on.

However, what makes it even darker is the fact that the world doesn't even know that Vegeta is a mass murder. Sure, most people were wished back to life, and the existence of the Z-Fighters is kept relatively secret, but it's still kind of messed up that the world's memory of the mass murdering Saiyan has been erased. Thanks to the dragon balls, Vegeta got a clean slate from his past murders, but that doesn't make it any less horrifying.

14 ALIEN KILLER/EATER

Anime Vegeta Nappa Alien Planet DBZ

Humans aren't the only people that Vegeta has killed, he's also contributed to the extinction of entire planets. As a member of Frieza's galactic army, Vegeta was assigned to wipe out the life on alien planets so that Frieza could conquer them. In the anime, we saw Vegeta and Nappa in the aftermath of a mission like this, but we have no idea how many came before this planet.

For all we know, Vegeta has caused the extinction of countless planets, wiping out entire species without a second thought. At least with humans he never actually destroyed them all, but with these alien races, he snuffed them out completely. It's seriously messed up that no one seems to talk about this in later sagas of Dragon Ball.

13 DIDN'T TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR TRUNKS (AT FIRST)

It took a while for Vegeta to become the surprisingly good father that he is by the time of Dragon Ball Super. In fact, fans will remember how he basically ignored his son for the first year or so of his life. After an intimate experience with Vegeta, Bulma got pregnant and gave birth to Trunks. Though we don't see Bulma's pregnancy, it is implied that Vegeta completely ignored her during the nine months.

Vegeta also ignored Trunks for quite some time. Though he was aware that Bulma was pregnant and that Trunks was his son, Vegeta didn't care to contribute at all to raising Trunks for the first years of his life. He never even held his son until the Majin Buu saga. Of course, he became a much better father later on, but it's still messed up.

12 BRUSHED OFF THE DEATH OF HIS PEOPLE

Goku and Vegeta (and his brother Tarble) are currently the only pure-blooded Saiyans left in the universe. They're the last of their people after the destruction of Planet Vegeta and the genocide of the Saiyans at the hands of Frieza. This kind of loss would be tragic for any survivor, but not Vegeta.

Though he eventually shows signs of remorse for the death of his people, Vegeta's initial reaction to the death of the Saiyans was indifferent at best. When Vegeta first learned that Planet Vegeta was destroyed by a meteor (a lie told by Frieza), he simply said "Oh... Really?" brushing off the extinction of his people. Even when he later learned that Frieza was responsible, he claimed he didn't care about his people, just that Frieza thought he could make a slave out of him. Of course, this might have all been a way to cover up his grief.

11 TROUBLE SHOWING AFFECTION

Saiyans are a cold-blooded warrior race that values strength and fighting ability over anything else. Because of this, procreation was more of a necessity than for starting a family on Planet Vegeta. As such, family and affection were deemed unnecessary, a notion that Vegeta was raised under. Thus, despite the fact that he is now a husband and father, Vegeta has a lot of trouble showing affection.

Sure, he shows love for his family in other ways, like angrily going super Saiyan after Beerus slaps Bulma, or doing the same whenever someone made his newborn daughter cry. But, when it comes to displays of affection, Vegeta comes up a bit short. He even got embarrassed when Goku pointed out the now famous "My Bulma!" scene and when Bulma kissed him on the cheek. He might love his family, but he has a hard time showing it.

10 HIS CUSHY LIFE

By marrying Bulma, Vegeta married into the richest family in the world. As a result, he lives a rather luxurious lifes. He has access to state-of-the-art training facilities and doesn't need to worry about the cost of the massive amount of food he eats. Vegeta is shown to take advantage of this lavish lifestyle from time to time, but when you think about it, this cushy setup might be tearing him apart.

Okay, hear us out. Vegeta might be royalty, but he was raised as a warrior, not a pampered prince. In fact, Vegeta is such a proud warrior that his younger self might be disgusted with how comfortably his older self lives in the Briefs household. Vegeta doesn't exactly talk about his feelings, but we bet he struggled for a while knowing how far he's "strayed" from his warrior ways.

9 ALTERNATE TIMELINE

The timeline that Future Trunks hails from is the true timeline of Dragon Ball, one where there was no warning of the androids or Goku's heart disease. As a result, the Z-fighters were killed not too long after Trunks' birth. The Vegeta of this dark timeline lives a pretty bad life when you take everything into consideration.

In this timeline, Vegeta and Bulma have a one-night stand, Vegeta never marries her and Trunks never gets to meet his father. This is a messed up way for Trunks to grow up, though as we've seen, the real timeline isn't much better. Luckily, Vegeta and the other Z-Fighters were able to stop this future in their own timeline, but this dark fate for Vegeta, Bulma and Trunks still exists.

8 HE'S ACTUALLY THE KING OF SAIYANS

You know how every time Vegeta's pride as a warrior is wounded, or whenever he's about to kick some serious butt, he usually spouts some line about how he's the prince of all Saiyans? Well, technically that's no longer true. In fact, after his father's death, Vegeta is now the king of all Saiyans, even if that means just him, Goku and their kids.

What makes this fact dark, or at the very least incredibly hilarious, is that no one corrects him. Maybe the reason is that Vegeta takes so much pride in being a Prince that if someone were to challenge the idea, he might actually murder them. That, or Vegeta doesn't actually want to take up the position of king, perhaps to shirk responsibility. Then again, he'd only really have power of Goku, so it's probably not even worth it.

7 MORE OR LESS IGNORES HIS BROTHER

Anime Vegeta tarble

In 2008, the first Dragon Ball animation in ten years premiered. It was called Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! and it was never dubbed in english. In the special, we learned that Vegeta has a little brother named Tarble, whom he had never mentioned once before. This special was said to be canon with the rest of Dragon Ball, and there is some mention of Tarble made in Battle of Gods, another canon movie.

So, if Tarbel is canon, then Vegeta failed to tell anyone about him and completely ignored his existence. Of course, this is the result of Tarble being a retcon of sorts, but the fact remains that Vegeta doesn't seem to give a crap about his brother. After the special, Tarble has yet to be seen again, not even in Dragon Ball Super.

6 WENT THROUGH DEPRESSION

The key to turning Super Saiyan is emotion. Having access to raw emotions such as despair, anger or even the panic that comes from needing to survive are vital in triggering the transformation into a Super Saiyan. Goku was able to turn Super Saiyan because of Krillen's death at the hands of Frieza, as well as the knowledge that Frieza killed his people.

Vegeta' first transformation into a Super Saiyan was much, much darker. After his pride was wounded from being surpassed by Goku and getting pummeled by a meteor while training in space, Vegeta gave up. He was done with training, he was done trying to be a Super Saiyan and he was done trying to surpass Goku. He didn't care about anything, and in his despair, his depression unlocked his Super Saiyan transformation.

5 HE WASN'T SUPPOSED TO STICK AROUND

Vegeta is one of the most beloved characters in Dragon Ball and all of anime in general. He's gone from being a fan-favorite villain to a fan-favorite hero of Earth, defending his adopted home and new family. But, everything beyond the Saiyan Saga might not have ever happened. Why, you ask? Well, because Vegeta was only planned to be a one-off villain.

Fans have speculated that Vegeta was supposedly going to die in the Saiyan Saga and stay dead. But, due to his popularity, Akira Toriyama left him in the story, allowing him to change and grow over time. This may not necessarily true since various villains before Vegeta ended up being allies in Dragon Ball, so this might have been planned for him as well.

4 GOKU NEVER BEAT HIM

Vegeta is constantly trying to surpass Goku, always trying to break past the limits that the supposedly lesser Saiyan broke before him. It is a core part of Vegeta's character, personality and motivation, acting as the driving force behind all of his training. But, here's the thing, Goku might be stronger in terms of energy, but he has never actually beaten Vegeta in a fight.

In every single fight between Goku and Vegeta, Goku either needed help to defeat the prince of Saiyans, like when Yajirobe cut off his tail, or he was bested by him, like in the Majin Buu saga. To be fair, during the Majin Buu saga, Goku was holding back Super Saiyan 3, but Vegeta was still able to best his rival. Perhaps it's because Vegeta is more skilled than Goku, despite being less powerful.

3 HE'S NEVER GONE SUPER SAIYAN 3

Vegeta exudes pride in Super Saiyan Blue form

Goku has never actually beaten Vegeta, but he is constantly surpassing him in power levels. However, most of the time, Vegeta ends up catching up to Goku with each new form that he achieves. When Goku turned Super Saiyan, Vegeta eventually went Super Saiyan, and the same can be said of Super Saiyan 2, Super Saiyan God (in the Super manga) and Super Saiyan blue.

However, there is one that Vegeta just completely skipped over, Super Saiyan 3. Outside of video game appearances, Vegeta has never ascended past a Super Saiyan 2. It is the one form that Goku has achieved that Vegeta has yet to reach. And yet, it seems that the form has become pointless with the introduction of Super Saiyan Blue, which is probably why Vegeta doesn't bother trying to reach it.

2 IT'S OVER... 8,000?

Vegeta crushes his battle scouter in rage in Dragon Ball Z

You've heard the line a million times. It's been subject to countless memes and has gone down in both anime and internet history as one of the most memorable lines ever. "Its over 9,000!" is perhaps Vegeta's most famous line in all of Dragon Ball Z. But, here's the thing, it's totally incorrect.

When Dragon Ball Z first came to America, the voices were recorded over with english dialogue in the now infamous "Ocean Dub." This dub was known for its various edits translation errors, and this line was one of them. In the original Japanese episode, Vegeta stated Goku's power level was "Over 8,000" and somewhere in the translation, the number got increased. Despite this being an error, when it was re-dubbed for Dragon Ball Z Kai, it was kept as 9,000 as a tribute to the fans.

1 HE ALMOST PERMANENTLY FUSED WITH GOKU

Vegito poses a challenge to Buu in Dragon Ball Z

Fusion is somewhat gross when you really think about it. It's two people fusing for the sake of increasing their power, but the more, *ahem* "biological" aspects of sharing a body are kind of disturbing to think about. With Potara earring fusion, it is permanent, or at least it was thought to be at the time of the battle against Super Buu. Regardless, Vegeta almost permanently fused with his most hated rival.

Think about that for a second. Vegeta pretty much hates Goku, or at the very least he can't stand him in large doses. They were able to come together to fuse and fight Buu for the sake of their fallen friends and family, but if they had stayed fused, things would be kind of horrific. Both their everyday lives and their marriage lives would get real weird real fast.