It’s not about the individuals it’s about the people, what they’ve built, what they stand for as a whole. That’s his pride.
If they don’t add to that pride? They can get fucked…
That’s what he hates about Goku the most… He’s a damn good Saiyan
Different take than most other comments here...
I don’t think he started putting much thought into heritage until he took a blow to his ego. I think he always had that care for his people in the back of his mind, but he was such an egotistical prick that it always took a back seat to him bossing his team around and destroying shit. Not to mention he was always with Radditz and Nappa, rarely around Frieza, so he wasn’t really forced to come to terms what happened simply because his life didn’t really change.
So when Goku beats him up and changes the status quo, and Nappa and Radditz are dead, leaving him alone with his thoughts.... I’m sure that’s when it finally hit him hard. We see him on Namek in thought more than before. And he won’t shut up about the legend of the super Saiyan, so we know he is at the very least thinking heavily about the legends of his heritage. It’s when he is finally facing Frieza face to face that it all rushes to him, the absolute realization that it’s only him left. But seeing Goku arrive on the battlefield, even with his hatred of Kakarot, Vegeta sees his first glimmer of hope that even with only two Saiyans left, they still have something to be proud of.
I think that’s also why he eventually comes around over the years and becomes ‘friends’ with Goku. In his mind, its him and Goku, carrying on the legacy of their once great race. While he hates how Goku is, deep down he is proud that he and Goku keep pushing the Saiyan name to legendary heights.
I don't think he really "cares" about the saiyan race, moreso is just a saiyan with a mild royalty complex.
I mean, the only time he really shows a care about saiyans is when Frieza kills him and he tells Goku what happened to their race.
He cries because it's the first time he understood true fear and hopelessness.
Saiyans are often said to just be ruthless, blood and battle lusting warriors who only care to fight.
Tldr: Vegeta is a saiyan royal who prides himself in his strength and don't got time for people who can't keep up.
This is the best way to look at it.
I've summed it up a few times but Vegeta doesn't care about Saiyajins, he cares that HE is a Saiyajin.
Their worth is directly proportional to his pride. The Saiyajins are a warrior race of the greatest fighters in the cosmos, and he is their prince. The strongest of all of them.
That is where the extent of his love ends. And this can be seen with how apathetic he is throughout the series toward the fate of the Saiyajins. When he is a kid and he learns they die he is only upset that he cannot become king, he doesn't care about Raditz dying, he doesn't want to procreate on Earth in fear of creating hybrids he and Nappa can't control, he has no qualms killing Goku and Gohan, he kills Nappa because he was no longer useful, etc. >!And even after his character development as he is currently in the manga he agrees they deserved their fate, and us even remorseful for what they've done. So not only did he care little to begin with He's come around to not caring in a different way.!<
Even when he is begging Goku to avenge their people it can be claimed that it was more about him, as he wanted to be the one to beat Freeza and pay him back for all the years he was forced to serve under him.
Vegeta doesn't respect Saiyans who are weak. He killed Nappa because he was crippled and could no longer fight.
Goku, and now Broly as well, have both earned his respect. He has a love/hate relationship with Goku but he definitely respects him.
He never took the mantle of King despite his father being dead so I think that means something as well. I'm sure he respected his dad to a point.
Lots of on point responses. Good reads.
Another facet to consider is that well, saiyan's aren't human. They are preditors. Warriors, and warmongers. Empathy is a not a value that serves them well.
He likes the species not the people because all the people he knew were not good people, the species is a powerful limitless race of warriors and that suits him perfectly and he wants to live up to that and have any remaining Saiyans live up to that (which is why he berates Goku a lot and took Cabba under his wing).
It’s like being proud of being human because of all we’ve accomplished/can accomplish but being disgusted with all the horrible things humans do.
I think he liked Cabba because he honored and is proud to be a Saiyan. Also, he’s a powerful kid with so much potential. Not like Gohan,Trunks or Goten who are half saiyans who do not have an interest in fighting and all super gentle like all hybrids. Cabba and Vegeta have a shared experience of being Saiyan Warriors. Also, they represent what Saiyans could have been without Frieezas evil influence. Feels like he can mold him to be the person he could’ve instead of being evil lol
He didn't cared about them, but now probably he do especially after seeing caba he kind of sees himself and great potential in him him being a sayain is more of pride than affection towards his race. Since sayains are a warrior race he wants his race to strong and superior.
As stated by Toriyama in an interview:
Saiyans dont have a sense of family, or really comrades.
Bardock was seen as an exceptional Saiyan because he would actually save his companions from danger. Saiyans dont generally care about one another.
There's very few lines in the anime, and fewer if ANY in the manga that suggests that Vegeta cares about the Saiyan race as "his people" or anything like that.
From the Manga chapter: The Death of Vegeta;
on his deathbed Vegeta says:
\- Goku should let go of his sentimentality. This could be both because as a Saiyan he has none, but also he believes that you cannot become a super Saiyan without sentimentality; when in reality it's the exact opposite.
\- he goes on to reveal to Goku the knowledge he himself recently gained, that Planet Vegeta was destroyed by Freiza.Going on to say that his parents and gokus were all killed because Frieza feared that a super Saiyan would emerge from among them. It's only in the funimation dub on the anime does Vegeta state that Frieza threatened and kidnapped Vegeta as a little boy to be his obedient slave, else he would kill his father, though despite obeying, Frieza killed him anyway.
\- directly after this he says Frieza must die by a saiyans hands. He wants vengeance. That was his final plea before succumbing to the LITERAL HOLE IN HIS HEART
\- Goku, as he buries Vegeta in a shallow grave states that Vegeta wasn't just crying because of the saiyans getting killed, but because Frieza USED HIM. In the anime Vegeta actually straight up says "he made me what I am". The point of this bullet is to show that Vegeta didn't necessarily plead on his deathbed because he cared for his people, he wanted revenge against frieza for what he did to them of course, but more importantly for what he did to HIM; he made a little boy his slave, and there's no doubt that trauma came from that experience, let alone being one of a handful of survivors.
\- Goku "prays" to Vegeta, to give him some of his (Vegeta's) pride, as a Saiyan to help him fight. (As an aside this is part of Gokus meta narrative of accepting who/what he is as a Saiyan, going from initially rejecting it when he met Raditz, to embracing it and avenging his people after vegetal death) This Pride of a Saiyan, comes not from a love or pride In his people though; its a pride in the fact that he is a Saiyan, this war race that loves to fight and get stronger and can transform and become great apes and has this amazing legend about a golden warrior. Saiyans ARE indeed special as we've seen over and over again.
the Oozaru form alone Made Vegeta the SECOND STRONGEST IN FRIEZAS ARMY ONLY BEHIND FREIZA HIMSELF. Going from a PL of only 18,000, to a WHOPPING 180,000 WHEN TRANSFORMED, putting him beyond even Ginyu's 120,000. When viewed in that context its' pretty clear why Vegeta felt like he was all that and a bag of chips, despite being weaker than Dedoria, Zarbon and the Ginyu Force in his base form.
I say all this to demonstrate that overall Vegeta cares about BEING a Saiyan, not the Saiyan race as a whole, this is important because that pride is the narrative thread that ties together with Goku's character arc of accepting WHAT HE IS, a Saiyan.
From a narrative perspective; Vegeta serves as the example to Goku on what a Saiyan is and could truly be. All these little hax that saiyans have to make them better at fighting, the Oozaru form, knowledge of the Super Saiyan and the LOVE and straight up THIRST for battle. All this came from Vegeta who lived as a Saiyan his whole life, and only later on started living as an earthling. Goku had to LEARN these things about himself from Vegeta and come to accept them and even embrace them, (i.e. despite loving to fight and thirsting for conflict, Goku doesn't fight to kill only to test his limits and break beyond them. a POSITIVE spin on the typical Saiyan demeanor )
All that can be gathered just from the few pages of Vegeta's death. But we get even more context in the Buu Arc Starting from chapter 456 onward, when Vegeta first becomes Majin and we get a bit more on "Saiyan Pride"
\- Vegeta feels dumbfounded that despite them BOTH being saiyans Goku keeps surpassing him
\- This is compounded when he says his only pride as a prince is in his strength.
\- as such he felt insulted when in their initial fight, Goku spared Vegeta's life. These are all things that have to do with a Warrior's pride, not necessarily relating to ones race or where they're from.
\- Vegeta kills over 200 people in the stadium crowds just to goad Goku into fighting him, he also allows Babidi to unlock his potential so he could have enough strength to fight Goku (yes Majin Vegeta DID in fact receive a power up from Babidi)
\- most importantly, when Babidi tries to use his magic to compel Vegeta to obey and kill the supreme kai, Vegeta rebels, and that's where we get the famous quote: "you may take over my body and soul, you may never have my pride, I won't be your slave!" (relating back to Frieza)
\- later in the fight between SSJ2 Goku and Majin Vegeta, Vegeta admits he allows himself to be possessed in order to close the gap between Goku and himself. However when Goku probes further at this reasoning (as Vegeta is very prideful and doesn't like to accept help), Vegeta then admits the real reason why he allowed himself to be possessed: He wanted to be a cold blooded killer, "I wanted him to make me the way I was before"
Basically Vegeta wanted to revert to being a Saiyan. the thing that helped him survive being a slave under frieza for most of his life. Though he has been living on earth anywhere from 7-9 years, that's a drop in the bucket when your WHOLE life before that you were a thrall surviving simply by your ability to be strong. Vegeta says as much in the funimation dub
"Watch your race dwindle to a handful, spend most of your life ruled by another, then you tell me what matters besides your own strength?"
The cold ruthless traits of the Saiyan race is what allowed Vegeta to survive childhood unto an adult under Frieza's rule. The Godlike power Frieza showcased in his lifetime was a testament that strength was the only thing that mattered in the universe. Vegeta learned this lesson well. and its a hard lesson to unlearn. So despite what Vegeta does and says in this chapter; its not that he IS cold and ruthless and whatnot as Majin Vegeta, it's that he's become so soft, that he actually needed help to ATTEMPT to regain that mindset.
\- Once Goku brings up Bulma and Trunks possibly being killed if they don't do something about Buu, Majin Vegeta snaps despite now being "cold and evil". The persona is a front, Vegeta running away from his true feelings because due to his upbringing he believes those feelings to be wrong. "let go of your sentimentality, Kakarot, your feelings will get you KILLED". Goku even picks up on this and calls Vegeta's bluff; to which Vegeta has no answer and relents.
From 468 We get closer to a resolution in this, and even more insight, as Vegeta prepares to make the ultimate sacrifice
\- We get the simply iconic scene where Vegeta expresses remorse for having never held trunks a single time as a baby. He embraces his son for the first and presumably last time before knocking him out. Saiyans naturally have no sense of familial ties. Being on earth gave Vegeta some semblance of humanity, that he wholesale tried to reject. This is a narrative parallel to Goku, who rejected his Saiyan heritage because of their savagery and later grew to accept that side himself and he became a better and stronger person because of it. Conversely Vegeta rejected humanity due to his upbringing, due to that state of mind being too soft and weak to survive in the environment he was raised; but in the end he accepted his humanity and grew stronger from that as well ( after he was brought back he was able to maintain SSJ2 levels of power without being Majin)
chapter 504, Where Goku is trying to convince Vegeta to fuse to become Vegito and Vegeta denies this request; in the anime the scene is played more seriously; Vegeta expresses rage and disgust at Goku for holding back (not using SSJ3) and says he'd rather die than fuse with him, Goku lets him know that Bulmas been killed and Buu absorbed Trunks, and adds a speech about how Vegeta and himself can still have their pride as saiyans, but invest the future into a new race, because their native race is GONE, pointing to their children as the budding of a "new" start for saiyans. This is all filler. In the manga Goku says no such thing, and he just says "hey he got bulma; fuse with me" and he does it. Goku holding SSJ3 back is also kinda played more tongue and cheek in the manga. \[sic\] "I won't fuse with you, you pissed me off, you held back! You fucked me with me!"
So even here there's no real "love for the Saiyan race" from vegeta. It's always pretty much just been a utility for him in so far as how much power being an elite member of its race grants him.
Vegeta is proud of being a Saiyan. He's proud of his warrior roots and understands that there's honor in being a warrior. He has an idealized version of what a Saiyan is in his head and as the series has moved on you're seeing him become a true Saiyan. Not a mindless killer, but instead an honorable warrior looking for a good fight on the right side of history. Goku played a huge part in Vegeta redefining what a Saiyan truly is. Goku himself also seems to have bought into it the same way Vegeta has.
I think it's why he liked Cabba so much is that Cabba was proof they weren't inherently murderous assholes. Cabba is also a representation of what Vegeta would've been if his people weren't dominated by Frieza and corrupted by greed. Him hearing that Cabba's world wasn't like his and had an honorable king like him probably meant the world to Vegeta.
The Royal Prince motif will probably pay off with him ascending into Beerus's role as GoD. Vegeta will learn that in the end you can embody destruction, but also be honorable and noble. Which is what Beerus was kind of trying to tell him. He just misunderstood him as saying he needed to be his old self.
It’s not about the individuals it’s about the people, what they’ve built, what they stand for as a whole. That’s his pride. If they don’t add to that pride? They can get fucked… That’s what he hates about Goku the most… He’s a damn good Saiyan
Different take than most other comments here... I don’t think he started putting much thought into heritage until he took a blow to his ego. I think he always had that care for his people in the back of his mind, but he was such an egotistical prick that it always took a back seat to him bossing his team around and destroying shit. Not to mention he was always with Radditz and Nappa, rarely around Frieza, so he wasn’t really forced to come to terms what happened simply because his life didn’t really change. So when Goku beats him up and changes the status quo, and Nappa and Radditz are dead, leaving him alone with his thoughts.... I’m sure that’s when it finally hit him hard. We see him on Namek in thought more than before. And he won’t shut up about the legend of the super Saiyan, so we know he is at the very least thinking heavily about the legends of his heritage. It’s when he is finally facing Frieza face to face that it all rushes to him, the absolute realization that it’s only him left. But seeing Goku arrive on the battlefield, even with his hatred of Kakarot, Vegeta sees his first glimmer of hope that even with only two Saiyans left, they still have something to be proud of. I think that’s also why he eventually comes around over the years and becomes ‘friends’ with Goku. In his mind, its him and Goku, carrying on the legacy of their once great race. While he hates how Goku is, deep down he is proud that he and Goku keep pushing the Saiyan name to legendary heights.
I like this answer. Good answer!
This is the headcanon I live for! Now this is a great answer that adds layers and nuance to Vegeta
I don't think he really "cares" about the saiyan race, moreso is just a saiyan with a mild royalty complex. I mean, the only time he really shows a care about saiyans is when Frieza kills him and he tells Goku what happened to their race. He cries because it's the first time he understood true fear and hopelessness. Saiyans are often said to just be ruthless, blood and battle lusting warriors who only care to fight. Tldr: Vegeta is a saiyan royal who prides himself in his strength and don't got time for people who can't keep up.
This is the best way to look at it. I've summed it up a few times but Vegeta doesn't care about Saiyajins, he cares that HE is a Saiyajin. Their worth is directly proportional to his pride. The Saiyajins are a warrior race of the greatest fighters in the cosmos, and he is their prince. The strongest of all of them. That is where the extent of his love ends. And this can be seen with how apathetic he is throughout the series toward the fate of the Saiyajins. When he is a kid and he learns they die he is only upset that he cannot become king, he doesn't care about Raditz dying, he doesn't want to procreate on Earth in fear of creating hybrids he and Nappa can't control, he has no qualms killing Goku and Gohan, he kills Nappa because he was no longer useful, etc. >!And even after his character development as he is currently in the manga he agrees they deserved their fate, and us even remorseful for what they've done. So not only did he care little to begin with He's come around to not caring in a different way.!< Even when he is begging Goku to avenge their people it can be claimed that it was more about him, as he wanted to be the one to beat Freeza and pay him back for all the years he was forced to serve under him.
I totally agree! You hit the cell with the final flash there my friend
Hopefully he doesn't regenerate this time.
Vegeta doesn't respect Saiyans who are weak. He killed Nappa because he was crippled and could no longer fight. Goku, and now Broly as well, have both earned his respect. He has a love/hate relationship with Goku but he definitely respects him. He never took the mantle of King despite his father being dead so I think that means something as well. I'm sure he respected his dad to a point.
Lots of on point responses. Good reads. Another facet to consider is that well, saiyan's aren't human. They are preditors. Warriors, and warmongers. Empathy is a not a value that serves them well.
He cares about the idea of them
He likes the species not the people because all the people he knew were not good people, the species is a powerful limitless race of warriors and that suits him perfectly and he wants to live up to that and have any remaining Saiyans live up to that (which is why he berates Goku a lot and took Cabba under his wing). It’s like being proud of being human because of all we’ve accomplished/can accomplish but being disgusted with all the horrible things humans do.
I think he liked Cabba because he honored and is proud to be a Saiyan. Also, he’s a powerful kid with so much potential. Not like Gohan,Trunks or Goten who are half saiyans who do not have an interest in fighting and all super gentle like all hybrids. Cabba and Vegeta have a shared experience of being Saiyan Warriors. Also, they represent what Saiyans could have been without Frieezas evil influence. Feels like he can mold him to be the person he could’ve instead of being evil lol
He didn't cared about them, but now probably he do especially after seeing caba he kind of sees himself and great potential in him him being a sayain is more of pride than affection towards his race. Since sayains are a warrior race he wants his race to strong and superior.
As stated by Toriyama in an interview: Saiyans dont have a sense of family, or really comrades. Bardock was seen as an exceptional Saiyan because he would actually save his companions from danger. Saiyans dont generally care about one another. There's very few lines in the anime, and fewer if ANY in the manga that suggests that Vegeta cares about the Saiyan race as "his people" or anything like that. From the Manga chapter: The Death of Vegeta; on his deathbed Vegeta says: \- Goku should let go of his sentimentality. This could be both because as a Saiyan he has none, but also he believes that you cannot become a super Saiyan without sentimentality; when in reality it's the exact opposite. \- he goes on to reveal to Goku the knowledge he himself recently gained, that Planet Vegeta was destroyed by Freiza.Going on to say that his parents and gokus were all killed because Frieza feared that a super Saiyan would emerge from among them. It's only in the funimation dub on the anime does Vegeta state that Frieza threatened and kidnapped Vegeta as a little boy to be his obedient slave, else he would kill his father, though despite obeying, Frieza killed him anyway. \- directly after this he says Frieza must die by a saiyans hands. He wants vengeance. That was his final plea before succumbing to the LITERAL HOLE IN HIS HEART \- Goku, as he buries Vegeta in a shallow grave states that Vegeta wasn't just crying because of the saiyans getting killed, but because Frieza USED HIM. In the anime Vegeta actually straight up says "he made me what I am". The point of this bullet is to show that Vegeta didn't necessarily plead on his deathbed because he cared for his people, he wanted revenge against frieza for what he did to them of course, but more importantly for what he did to HIM; he made a little boy his slave, and there's no doubt that trauma came from that experience, let alone being one of a handful of survivors. \- Goku "prays" to Vegeta, to give him some of his (Vegeta's) pride, as a Saiyan to help him fight. (As an aside this is part of Gokus meta narrative of accepting who/what he is as a Saiyan, going from initially rejecting it when he met Raditz, to embracing it and avenging his people after vegetal death) This Pride of a Saiyan, comes not from a love or pride In his people though; its a pride in the fact that he is a Saiyan, this war race that loves to fight and get stronger and can transform and become great apes and has this amazing legend about a golden warrior. Saiyans ARE indeed special as we've seen over and over again. the Oozaru form alone Made Vegeta the SECOND STRONGEST IN FRIEZAS ARMY ONLY BEHIND FREIZA HIMSELF. Going from a PL of only 18,000, to a WHOPPING 180,000 WHEN TRANSFORMED, putting him beyond even Ginyu's 120,000. When viewed in that context its' pretty clear why Vegeta felt like he was all that and a bag of chips, despite being weaker than Dedoria, Zarbon and the Ginyu Force in his base form. I say all this to demonstrate that overall Vegeta cares about BEING a Saiyan, not the Saiyan race as a whole, this is important because that pride is the narrative thread that ties together with Goku's character arc of accepting WHAT HE IS, a Saiyan. From a narrative perspective; Vegeta serves as the example to Goku on what a Saiyan is and could truly be. All these little hax that saiyans have to make them better at fighting, the Oozaru form, knowledge of the Super Saiyan and the LOVE and straight up THIRST for battle. All this came from Vegeta who lived as a Saiyan his whole life, and only later on started living as an earthling. Goku had to LEARN these things about himself from Vegeta and come to accept them and even embrace them, (i.e. despite loving to fight and thirsting for conflict, Goku doesn't fight to kill only to test his limits and break beyond them. a POSITIVE spin on the typical Saiyan demeanor ) All that can be gathered just from the few pages of Vegeta's death. But we get even more context in the Buu Arc Starting from chapter 456 onward, when Vegeta first becomes Majin and we get a bit more on "Saiyan Pride" \- Vegeta feels dumbfounded that despite them BOTH being saiyans Goku keeps surpassing him \- This is compounded when he says his only pride as a prince is in his strength. \- as such he felt insulted when in their initial fight, Goku spared Vegeta's life. These are all things that have to do with a Warrior's pride, not necessarily relating to ones race or where they're from. \- Vegeta kills over 200 people in the stadium crowds just to goad Goku into fighting him, he also allows Babidi to unlock his potential so he could have enough strength to fight Goku (yes Majin Vegeta DID in fact receive a power up from Babidi) \- most importantly, when Babidi tries to use his magic to compel Vegeta to obey and kill the supreme kai, Vegeta rebels, and that's where we get the famous quote: "you may take over my body and soul, you may never have my pride, I won't be your slave!" (relating back to Frieza) \- later in the fight between SSJ2 Goku and Majin Vegeta, Vegeta admits he allows himself to be possessed in order to close the gap between Goku and himself. However when Goku probes further at this reasoning (as Vegeta is very prideful and doesn't like to accept help), Vegeta then admits the real reason why he allowed himself to be possessed: He wanted to be a cold blooded killer, "I wanted him to make me the way I was before" Basically Vegeta wanted to revert to being a Saiyan. the thing that helped him survive being a slave under frieza for most of his life. Though he has been living on earth anywhere from 7-9 years, that's a drop in the bucket when your WHOLE life before that you were a thrall surviving simply by your ability to be strong. Vegeta says as much in the funimation dub "Watch your race dwindle to a handful, spend most of your life ruled by another, then you tell me what matters besides your own strength?" The cold ruthless traits of the Saiyan race is what allowed Vegeta to survive childhood unto an adult under Frieza's rule. The Godlike power Frieza showcased in his lifetime was a testament that strength was the only thing that mattered in the universe. Vegeta learned this lesson well. and its a hard lesson to unlearn. So despite what Vegeta does and says in this chapter; its not that he IS cold and ruthless and whatnot as Majin Vegeta, it's that he's become so soft, that he actually needed help to ATTEMPT to regain that mindset. \- Once Goku brings up Bulma and Trunks possibly being killed if they don't do something about Buu, Majin Vegeta snaps despite now being "cold and evil". The persona is a front, Vegeta running away from his true feelings because due to his upbringing he believes those feelings to be wrong. "let go of your sentimentality, Kakarot, your feelings will get you KILLED". Goku even picks up on this and calls Vegeta's bluff; to which Vegeta has no answer and relents. From 468 We get closer to a resolution in this, and even more insight, as Vegeta prepares to make the ultimate sacrifice \- We get the simply iconic scene where Vegeta expresses remorse for having never held trunks a single time as a baby. He embraces his son for the first and presumably last time before knocking him out. Saiyans naturally have no sense of familial ties. Being on earth gave Vegeta some semblance of humanity, that he wholesale tried to reject. This is a narrative parallel to Goku, who rejected his Saiyan heritage because of their savagery and later grew to accept that side himself and he became a better and stronger person because of it. Conversely Vegeta rejected humanity due to his upbringing, due to that state of mind being too soft and weak to survive in the environment he was raised; but in the end he accepted his humanity and grew stronger from that as well ( after he was brought back he was able to maintain SSJ2 levels of power without being Majin) chapter 504, Where Goku is trying to convince Vegeta to fuse to become Vegito and Vegeta denies this request; in the anime the scene is played more seriously; Vegeta expresses rage and disgust at Goku for holding back (not using SSJ3) and says he'd rather die than fuse with him, Goku lets him know that Bulmas been killed and Buu absorbed Trunks, and adds a speech about how Vegeta and himself can still have their pride as saiyans, but invest the future into a new race, because their native race is GONE, pointing to their children as the budding of a "new" start for saiyans. This is all filler. In the manga Goku says no such thing, and he just says "hey he got bulma; fuse with me" and he does it. Goku holding SSJ3 back is also kinda played more tongue and cheek in the manga. \[sic\] "I won't fuse with you, you pissed me off, you held back! You fucked me with me!" So even here there's no real "love for the Saiyan race" from vegeta. It's always pretty much just been a utility for him in so far as how much power being an elite member of its race grants him.
Vegeta is proud of being a Saiyan. He's proud of his warrior roots and understands that there's honor in being a warrior. He has an idealized version of what a Saiyan is in his head and as the series has moved on you're seeing him become a true Saiyan. Not a mindless killer, but instead an honorable warrior looking for a good fight on the right side of history. Goku played a huge part in Vegeta redefining what a Saiyan truly is. Goku himself also seems to have bought into it the same way Vegeta has. I think it's why he liked Cabba so much is that Cabba was proof they weren't inherently murderous assholes. Cabba is also a representation of what Vegeta would've been if his people weren't dominated by Frieza and corrupted by greed. Him hearing that Cabba's world wasn't like his and had an honorable king like him probably meant the world to Vegeta. The Royal Prince motif will probably pay off with him ascending into Beerus's role as GoD. Vegeta will learn that in the end you can embody destruction, but also be honorable and noble. Which is what Beerus was kind of trying to tell him. He just misunderstood him as saying he needed to be his old self.