Dragon Ball Series: Vegeta (ENTJ)

Unfortunately, Dragon Ball’s heavy focus on action tends to cause a bit of lack of in depth character development, so we struggled a bit to peg this down… which is why this expedited request unfortunately took longer than we would have liked. Here’s what we got.

Te:

“I don’t care about my home planet, my family, or any of the other Saiyans Freiza did away with. I’m just disappointed in myself for not figuring it out a lot sooner.”

“What good is all that power if you don’t have the killer instinct to finish the job?”

“You shut your mouth, you disrespectful toy! I’ll rip you all three to pieces. Who’s first?”

“Gladly. But don’t assume I subscribe to the Earth’s idiotic notions of chivalry.”

“Even the mightiest warriors experience fears. What makes them a true warrior is the courage that they possess to overcome their fears.”

Vegeta is the very epitome of an unhealthy and unbalanced Te dominant. Every phrase that leaves his lips is filled with the forceful commanding nature of that function. Throughout all of Dragon Ball, there never seems to be a moment when Vegeta isn’t yelling, screaming, commanding someone to do something, or asserting his ego. He is cocky, arrogant and is so overly sure of himself that he rarely takes time to even consider that what he says or thinks could be wrong in any way shape or form. He is a very blunt and to the point individual, saying exactly what he thinks at all times.

Vegeta regularly criticizes Goku for his lack of follow through. When dealing with the Ginyu force, he chides Goku for sparing them, and then swiftly moves in to finish them off, much to Goku’s dismay. He also swiftly disposes of his allies when they become of no use to him. He kills Napa without hesitation after Goku breaks his back. As a murderous warrior, this is the way that his Te effectiveness is outleting.

Vegeta’s one and only purpose throughout the entire show is to gain power. Power enough so that he can defeat Goku and finally put him under his heel. This is his obsession, his constant state of mind. His relentless push for power is completely different from Goku, as Vegeta is only striving to be better than everyone else rather than just improving and becoming better for the sake of it. Te is driving him to become the best so that he can stand unopposed. Anything less than that severely bothers him.

Vegeta is extremely quick tempered as it seems that anger is the only allowable emotion his Te can accept (which is relatively common for Te users to think). He readily hurls insults at his opponents, assuming his own superiority and becoming very agitated if anyone questions it. This is displayed very clearly in some of the quotes above this section.

Vegeta is prone to acting first and thinking later, which points to him being an extravert. This oftentimes causes him to fail, like with Frieza, the Androids, Cell, and etc. If Vegeta was indeed a Ni or Si dominant, he would NOT repeat these same mistakes over and over again. Of course, some of this is evidence of him being in a Te-Se loop, but we’ll talk more about that in the Se section.

Ni:

“Every time I reach a new level of strength, a greater power appears to challenge my authority. It’s as if fate is laughing at me with a big stupid grin, just like Kakarot.”

“Kakarot, you’re quite impressive. I never stood a chance against Buu. You’re the only one who can fight him. I think I finally understand how a genius like myself can’t surpass you. I thought it was because you had something to protect. I thought your drive to protect allowed you to take advantage of your capabilities… this may have been a reason, but I too have this drive. I fought to do as I wished, because it was fun to kill my enemies and feed my pride. But he’s different, he fights not to win but because he absolutely won’t lose, causing him to break his limits and he really doesn’t care who his opponent is. So when he didn’t kill me, it was because he saw I could care for others, like I do now…”

“I’ll explain this once.”

Vegeta is very direct and single-minded, which makes him doubly so since his Ni is coupled with dominant Te. He is focused on being the strongest being in the universe, and works tirelessly to accomplish this goal. During the Frieza arc, he’s willing to work with Goku’s friends to help take Frieza down, similarly to how he’s willing to yield to Babidi’s control in order to gain the willpower to duel Goku like he once had. The example with Babidi specifically suggests an intuitive because he’s willing to yield his physical body, which suggests a devaluing of the sensory. (A sensor is less likely to do something like this.)

Vegeta also has moments where he displays Ni tunnel vision, and leaps to specific conclusions surrounding that. For instance, he gets the idea in his head of becoming the legendary Super Saiyan warrior. From that point on (until he achieves it, obviously), he begins constantly assuming that either he or Goku has reached that status. If Goku does something in the least bit impressive, suddenly Vegeta is proclaiming that Goku has become the legendary Super Saiyan warrior. He even does this in regards to himself.

Vegeta is also impatient when it comes to explaining, and generally just prefers to not explain anything. (He appears highly irritated when he has to.) Granted, some of this could be him trying to maintain superiority over others. However, a good example can be seen during their preparations to fight against Cell. Future Trunks launches into his fight with Cell, completely unaware that the next level of Super Saiyan that he had achieved was too clunky to be usable. Vegeta had already figured this out, but never bothered to tell him.

Se:

“If it comes to it, I’ll tear this rat hole apart with my bare hands.”

“The more you talk the less I hear. Stop yammering and just throw a punch. I’m in a hurry to get this over with.”

“This waiting around is pointless. We can blast our way down right now.”

Vegeta is more than likely in a Te-Se loop. For starters, he’s constantly screaming and yelling at people. While we attributed some of that Te, the extent to which he does it is extreme and overly frequent. Vegeta appears to rarely be calm, and doesn’t appear to do much introspecting or strategizing.

He also tends to display a general lack of caution. While a Te dominant can be brash, Vegeta’s actions appear far more brash then they should, lacking any clear strategy or calculation. As mentioned earlier, he is so confident in himself that he rarely walks into battles with a plan. He fully expects that he can just brute force his way to victory and rely on his battle instincts to get him through. He’s quick to rush into battle, and get the fight going. As mentioned in the Te section, this frequently causes him to fail. Among the examples listed in the Te section, his urge to rush in is also shown in Babidi’s spaceship, while they’re waiting for different opponents to emerge. He keeps feeling the urge to rip the place apart with his bare hands, or blast his way down.

Vegeta also gets a thrill from battle (which supposedly is inherited from his race). This thrill, which is very Se-like in nature, also results in him displaying further risky behavior, for the sake of the challenge. When facing Cell, he allowed Cell to achieve his perfect form so Vegeta could fight Cell at his maximum power level.

Fi:

“The only way you can beat him is if you harden your heart, you fool! You have to put aside your mercy…”

“Time and time again you’ve succeeded where I failed, left me behind chasing your tail in disgrace, the proud Saiyan Prince forced to play second to a low born commoner like you, and for that I will cut you down inch by inch, the way you have cut down my pride!”

“There’s no such thing as fair or unfair in battle. There is only victory or in your case, defeat.”

Vegeta has a very sensitive ego. The slightest insult is enough to push him over the edge into a fit of rage. This is all conclusive of a very underdeveloped feeling function. Of course, he takes this to further extremes like getting angry with and criticizing Gohan for saving him in the Frieza arc. He also has deep seated fears that he will be surpassed by others (like Future Trunks in the Cell arc), and resents Goku for all of the many times that he effortlessly surpasses him in power. (Of course, this is what leads Vegeta to relinquish control to Babidi in the Buu saga.) Young Gohan defeating Cell ends up being a huge blow to his pride, causing him to claim that he was giving up fighting permanently.

In addition to this, Vegeta is very lacking in personal morals or honor. He openly states that there is no such thing as fighting fair. He also openly mocks Goku for being merciful and being kind. After he lets Babidi semi-take over him in exchange for more power to defeat Goku, Vegeta openly asserts that he doesn’t care about earth, Bulma or Trunks. He expresses dismay and frustration that he even let himself have any kind of emotional attachments. This all draws back to him viewing his Fi as a weakness and attempting to reject it. Some people probably want to attribute him wanting to return to his past self as Si. However, we see this as inferior Fi, since he unwittingly turned into a different person over time (new identity) and feels disgusted with himself due to his new moral constraints.

Fortunately, we see a slight amount of Fi development as he slowly realizes his error while fighting Goku. He eventually expresses affection for Trunks, embracing him before going off to fight Buu. He then sacrifices himself in an attempt to save his family and earth. This is because he realizes that he does truly care for them in spite of his attempts to smother out those feelings.