When he and Nappa went to Earth to destroy Goku when they heard of what happened to Raditz, he had a little competition. At first he and Nappa were in charge beating Gohan, Yamcha, Piccolo, Tien, Choutzu, and Krillin but then Goku showed up. After losing his friend, Vegeta had to battle Goku. After relentless battling, Vegeta made an artificial moon and transformed into Oozaru. Vegeta was winning at that time until Yacherobi entered the sceen and cut off his tail. Then he was defeated by a spirit bomb given to Krillin by Goku and, after missing the shot, was deflected by Gohan who nailed Vegeta.
On Namek against the Ginyu Force, he battles and kills Goldo but loses to Recoome. After being healed by a sensu bean, he helped Goku battle Captain Ginyu. He also tried his luck with Freeza and was winning but Freeza, after turning into his second form, sent Vegeta on his way and kills him.
While in the beginning part of the show he is evil and Goku's mortal enemy, he becomes an ally to good in a final outcry for the destruction of Freeza to Goku. His heart unhardens and the pain and anguish of the destruction of his father, race, and planet. His heartouching speech of the cruel circumstances of which he became his evil self. When he finally finishes the story, sadly, he dies.
When he is wished back by the dragonballs, he seems evil and threatens to destroy the Z Gang but, deep down he is good and eventually he has a love child with Bulma, Trunks.
When the androids came to take over the Earth, he took over Goku's place against Android 19 and became the third saiyan to reach super saiyan because Goku was having a heart attack...(he was the third in the series but second in the timeline). In actuality, he reached super saiyan when he was training in space defending his ship in a meteor storm when he suddenly just didn't care about being better than Goku or being a super saiyan. Vegeta, knowing he couldn't blast the android, just beat the living crap out of him. When the android was trying to absorb all of Vegeta's energy, Vegeta simply used him as a springboard and ripped his hands off. Then while the android runs away, Vegeta gives him a going away present that he unfortunately accepts.
In the Cell Saga, Vegeta, after the time and space training, easily dominates Imperfect Cell. But, after Vegeta makes a stupid decision to let Cell become perfect, he soon finds out that it will be a true test for his new powers. To stand a chance against Cell, Vegeta becomes the first saiyan to reach max power but the bulky muscle mass makes him too slow for Cell so he powered down. The end result is Cell is sliced big time after Vegeta uses his Final Flash technique but, Cell simply regenerates and beats Vegeta into the ground.
In the Cell games, Vegeta foolishly attacks Cell and gets batted down. Luckily Gohan saves Vegeta's life by blocking Cell's attack.
In GT Vegeta tricks Buu in to teaching him how to be a majin and in doing so ditches his saiyan armor for blue slacks and gets an "M" on his fore head for majin.
While through the entire show he keeps his rough exterior, deep down inside he really cares.
He is one of the only two saiyans to reach the so-called SSJ4.
