Beyond just their interpersonal relationships, one of the main ways characters display growth in Dragon Ball is through the fights. Actions have always spoken louder than words in shonen’s greatest battle manga series, and that doesn’t change in Super. One of the biggest ways Vegeta and Goku grow in Super is through their new transformations. Ultra Instinct and Ultra Ego are excellent new additions to the series that emphasize the strengths and weaknesses of the characters well. In fact, these new forms seem to focus in on Goku and Vegeta’s character flaws, showing how their mastery can lead to even greater strength.
With Ultra Instinct, Goku has to fight without thinking, allowing his body to move at will. This should actually be a fairly natural progression for Goku, because thinking was never his strong suit anyway. However, it’s more than just freeing the mind, but gaining mastery over the mind’s connection to the body that’s important. Goku has to let go of all emotion, which requires a state similar to meditation during battle. While Goku always fought with emotion, calming his emotions was actually somewhat harmful to his growth. This was shown when he eventually reached the stage of Mastered Ultra Instinct, in which he could utilize his emotions while still gaining the benefits of the Ultra Instinct technique. Whereas Vegeta utilizes his greatest weakness to make him stronger, Goku seems unable to hone his own weakness in the same way.
For Vegeta, Ultra Ego lets him tap into a part of himself that he pushed to the wayside in becoming a family-man and protector of Earth. There was always a deep sense of pride and egoism in Vegeta’s fighting style, and that was always part of what made him unique from Goku as a fighter. That mercilessness was something he had to bury within himself to grow as a person, but it inadvertently stunted his growth as a warrior. By accepting who he is, Ultra Ego allows Vegeta to let loose because he knows in his heart that he can never go back to who he was before. No matter how much he gives in to the powers of destruction, Vegeta doesn’t just embrace destruction wantonly. He does so through careful introspection and with a heavy heart that takes into account the pain he and his saiyan people had caused through that very same destructive power.
Vegeta’s growth throughout DBZ and Super has been about him accepting his faults, acknowledging his mistakes, and finally letting go of his foolish pride. In the Ultra Ego transformation, Vegeta lets loose with his characteristic pride like never before, making it a full circle moment for him. It’s only because Vegeta’s ego no longer defines him that he can fully utilize it to its full potential. Vegeta has steadily continued to improve and learn valuable lessons in Super that he actively applies to change as a person. In contrast, Goku is still the same character fans know and love in Super, though there are aspects of his growth that seem to have taken steps backwards in ways. Like any real person, Vegeta is constantly learning and growing, making him feel like a much more relatable and realistic character than Goku could ever be.
Vegeta has still yet to definitively surpass Goku in terms of pure strength, as the two are still pretty much completely equal. However, in becoming Goku’s equal, Vegeta shows how he has grown even more than Goku has. Vegeta’s character flaws held him back from surpassing Goku in the past, so the fact that he is finally on par with Goku in Super shows how much he has changed from who he was in DBZ. Ultimately, Vegeta only became the person he is due to the lessons he learned from hanging around Goku. It may be time for Goku to learn a thing or two from Vegeta.
