Alright! We're back with Let's Talk Ships! Now remember with this particular series, I'm basically just going to dissect and examine couples & ships to the best of my abilities while trying to keep it as brief as possible; we'll be discussing Vegeta and Bulma this time around.
And I must say, I really wonder what everyone's thoughts are on this couple.
Because I know for a fact we've all wondered the same thing at some point. How in the world did this happen? One moment we see Bulma with Yamcha, Vegeta comes around and is kind of in and out of everyone's lives, obsessed with surpassing Goku, and then Bulma pops up with a cute purple-haired alien baby out of nowhere!
Not going to lie, I was obsessed with this couple at one point - so much so that I was reading FANFICTION about them. Anyway, let's jump in and figure it out together! We're going to start with the background and how they met and then we're going to pass our verdict on this infamous and fiery couple.
Background & How did they meet?
Background
Vegeta
First and foremost, Vegeta is a Saiyan, and Saiyans were known as a warrior race. But Vegeta wasn't just any Saiyan. In fact, he was the Prince of All Saiyans. Or at least that's what he kept calling himself. I feel like he should've referred to himself as the King of All Saiyans seeing as his father is gone, but maybe that's how he honored his late father in a sense.
Anyhow, I can't count how many times Vegeta reminded us of his status. In addition, Vegeta was actually named after his home planet and was the child of King Vegeta. Sadly, the Saiyan warriors were conquered by Frieza, and the Saiyan warriors basically did Frieza's bidding.
And even that still didn't save them.
I mean they were kinda like slaves essentially.
But it wasn't as if there was anything they could do about it - especially seeing as Frieza made King Vegeta surrender. And there was no telling how King Vegeta felt. That must have been a huge blow to his pride considering he wasn't able to protect his own people - let alone his own son. And it wasn't as if Frieza was just some lightweight; it was quite the opposite and worst of all, even Freiza had a family and they were scary and powerful as well.
I gotta say I kinda wonder if Vegeta's mother got wiped out when Planet Vegeta was wiped out because I don't remember seeing any information on her, but we did find out that Vegeta has a younger brother named Tarble.
Like Goku, Tarble was sent off as an infant. However, in Tarble's case, I believe it was because he was weaker than the average Saiyan, but I'm not entirely sure. Whatever the case may be, like Goku, Tarble was able to avoid the fate of Planet Vegeta - as well as Raditz, Nappa, and Vegeta who seemed to be on a mission at the time.
Vegeta has certainly come a long way compared to when we first saw him; the character development is both insane and amazing. Unfortunately, despite his status, Vegeta kinda gets pushed to the back burner a lot. And even if Vegeta does get a step ahead of Goku, it's usually not for long.
And then it's back to Vegeta catching up again; it seems to be an inescapable fate.
Bulma
We knew of Bulma Brief since Dragon Ball. In fact, she's known Goku since he was a kid and they met when she was 15 or 16. Bulma was searching for a dragon ball that Goku had at the time. I believe it was the four-star dragon ball; however, Goku didn't want to give it up because his Grandpa Gohan gave it to him. Unable to convince kid Goku to hand it over, which I wouldn't want to hand it over either, Bulma shamelessly tries to charm him into doing it. Of course, it didn't work because Goku could barely tell the difference between men and women back then.
If you remember, he did a lot of feeling and patting around.
Luckily, Goku doesn't have to resort to that anymore.
Anyway, after that encounter, Bulma and Goku pretty much stuck together, and a lot of other characters started joining and tagging along like Krillin, Yamcha, and Tien - up until we get to our Z-fighters that we know in today's time.
Now despite how Bulma's character may have seemed when she tried to entice Goku back then, she clearly followed in her father's footsteps; Bulma's actually pretty intelligent and is a scientist, and that's pretty much the gist of her background.
At the age of 5, according to Jaco the Galactic Patrolman, she was able to help fix Jaco's ship which no one really noticed. In addition, Bulma was able to design a laser gun as well as graduated from some type of university ten years later. Apparently, a 15-year-old Bulma found a two-star dragon ball in her basement and this led to her creating the Dragon Radar in order to search out the rest. Our favorite scientist basically wanted to wish for a perfect boyfriend, but even she should've known that that simply doesn't exist.
We're all just imperfect beings trying to love another, after all.
Anyhow, Bulma eventually ends up crossing paths with Yamcha and they seemed inseparable at first; I honestly thought they were going to stay together throughout the entirety of the series.
However, that seemed to come to an end in Dragon Ball Z after the Saiyan Saga and he was done in by the Saibamen, who was basically the opening act.
The rest is pretty much history as we know it as far as Bulma as a character.
How did they meet?
Okay, so when Bulma and Vegeta first met, they met as enemies on Planet Namek. And naturally, it wasn't a pleasant interaction. I'm sure Bulma was pretty terrified of Vegeta and I can't fault her for feeling that way at all. Anyway, I really liked how their relationship evolved because we clearly see the progress of their interactions from when they were enemies to currently - where they have two kids and Vegeta isn't as cold anymore.
And I genuinely feel like they've come a long way.
Anyhow, after their first interaction, I think their second one went a lot smoother - considering that Bulma was no longer afraid of him.
I mean Bulma did call Vegeta cute after the Namek Saga when they were back on Earth. And she did invite Vegeta to live with her. And apparently in the Ocean Dubs, Vegeta referred to her as gorgeous. Personally, I just couldn't imagine Vegeta being interested in anything other than training and getting stronger. I also thought he would've kinda been alone because I figured he would find human women inferior because it's not exactly like Saiyan women were still around.
But who knows? Maybe he still would've ended up with Bulma either way - especially considering I felt like he would've wanted to pursue the dragon balls regardless in order to get immortality. Anyhow, back to the matter at hand, I think it's pretty fair to say that Bulma may have been the initiator here - the one responsible for starting their relationship in the first place.
Even though we have no way of really knowing for sure, I have a few reasons that may support my theory:
1) We saw how forward Bulma was with Yamcha in Dragon Ball.
2) Bulma isn't the shy type and is very capable of seducing others - primarily as a way to get what she wants. We saw this at least three times in the series with kid Goku, Master Roshi, and that blonde general in Dragon Ball.
3) Lastly, I believe we were starting to see the beginning of just how much Bulma cared for Vegeta in DBZ. It was something I didn't give much thought to at first, but as I went back, I think we can somewhat see the early stages of what ultimately led to their relationship.
Now, as far as Vegeta and his feelings go, I'm guessing that Vegeta may have liked Bulma's fiery personality - even more so since he explained this to Goku in DB Super. And I kinda feel like he could see that Bulma cared for him and eventually she got past his walls and his cold personality.
I think if you live with someone, the interactions are unavoidable. And it's obvious that Bulma and Vegeta interacted a good bit. At least enough for us to see that she cared about him. As for Vegeta, sure he had a kid with Bulma, but the moment that reflected Vegeta's feelings was when hugged Trunks and told him to look after Bulma before his sacrifice.
And when Goku was trying to get Vegeta to fuse with him and had to remind Vegeta that everyone, including Bulma, would be done for if they didn't fuse.
And more importantly, when Goku hilariously offered up Bulma to the Old Kai.
The Verdict
Alright, so here's my verdict: I think this is a really great pairing. It's actually one of my favorites just like Krillin and 18. I definitely have to say that Vegeta and Bulma's relationship has a lot of development and I really enjoy seeing that. Then again, maybe their relationship developed so much because Vegeta as a character was able to develop. Either way, it was nice seeing them interact and even clash.
Especially since both characters are stubborn and basically complement each other in a lot of ways. Vegeta went from not caring about Bulma and baby Trunks, not even bothering to save them when their plane was going to crash, to willing to throw hands with the God of Destruction over her.
Very impressive.
Vegeta is a man of few words when it comes to Bulma at times and there's nothing wrong with that. Not everyone cares or loves everyone the same; some love in small gestures while others have a completely different love style.