While Goku consistently stays one step ahead of Vegeta in the pages of Dragon Ball Super when it comes to breaking through the barriers of Saiyan capabilities, Vegeta proves he’s better than Goku in another way–one that is absolutely heartbreaking.
Vegeta was introduced in Dragon Ball Z as a villain who was working under Frieza to conquer as many planets as he could. Once he decided to turn against Frieza and work with Piccolo, Krillin, Goku’s son Gohan, and the other Z Fighters to defeat his former master, Vegeta slowly became one of them until one day he was a full-fledged hero of Earth. During that transition from villain to hero, Vegeta fell in love with Bulma and together the two had a son, Trunks, who was born around the same time as Goku’s second son, Goten. Years later during the events of Dragon Ball Super, Vegeta and Bulma were expecting a second child and no matter what, Vegeta was going to be there for the birth–something Goku couldn’t relate to.
In Dragon Ball Super Chapter 27 by Akira Toriyama and Toyotarou, Vegeta is training with Whis and Beerus before Goku summons them back to Earth as he wished to partake in their training session as well. However, Vegeta tells Kakarrot that he can go on without him as Bulma is due to give birth any day and he wasn’t going to miss it. Vegeta’s logic utterly confused Goku, leading him to ask Vegeta why he’d stop training just because Bulma was going to give birth. Goku went on to say, “Look at me! I don’t even know when Gohan and Goten were born” to which Vegeta replies, “You may not be a bad person…but you’re a horrible father.”
Vegeta calling Goku a bad father was decidedly harsh, but overall pretty accurate. Goku regularly chooses to go off and train or partake in some tournament or cosmic conflict rather than spend time with his family. Goku didn’t even train his first son, Gohan, in the ways of martial arts despite being one of the strongest beings in the universe. Goku instead left that up to Piccolo who was always more of a father to Gohan than Goku ever was. The most heartbreaking part of Goku’s parental shortcomings is that he is completely oblivious to the fact that he is an absolutely terrible father.
When Vegeta calls him out in this chapter, Goku is baffled and can’t comprehend how his actions could consider him to be a bad father despite the fact that he consistently chooses to increase his strength rather than be there for his children. Even though Vegeta has been shown to be harsh with Trunks, he at least takes the time to train him and help him increase his strength the Saiyan way. Plus, Vegeta’s willingness to give up training with a god to be there for Bulma and his newborn baby proves that he is committed to his family, which is a far cry from Goku’s actions. While Goku may be faster at leveling up his power than Vegeta, he is easily a way worse father which is expressly shown in this Dragon Ball chapter–proving that Vegeta is actually better than Goku in one heartbreaking way.
