Being a protagonist is something of a thankless title. Shōnen anime protagonists go through a lot of trauma to get that level of world-ending power that the climaxes of their series are designed to show off. The slow and steady build of character development is not an easy street for many of them and sacrifices are often made. Of course, most of that corresponds to the modern shōnen protagonist — the ones that came as a result of the Naruto generation changing the game as it evolved from its predecessors. While there have been a lot of changes, most of the road map came from Dragon Ball and the ever-influential Son Goku.
Goku has been through a lot as a protagonist. From his young and wild years finding Dragon Balls in Dragon Ball with Bulma to fighting literal gods for the sake of a good time in Dragon Ball Super, Goku has been on an incredible journey. He is the man who informed the template of the modern shōnen protagonist and the anime community owes a lot to Akira Toriyama because of it. However, Goku has been around for a long time, and he is not always the best narrative option to be in the spotlight. In fact, Dragon Ball Super should have been Vegeta's time to shine.
Dragon Ball Super Really Could Have Easily Shifted To Vegeta, He Earned It
Vegeta is a special case for anime rivals. Much like how Goku is the cloth from which anime protagonists have been cut, Vegeta is the character from which rivals are stitched. He shows up on the scene initially in Dragon Ball Z, as a major antagonist who arrives on Earth to collect the Dragon Balls for his own nefarious purposes. It is the moment that shifts the entire course of the series and Vegeta is only spared because of Goku's desire to have a strong opponent. This is a move he pulled on Piccolo earlier and, much like with Piccolo, this moment puts Vegeta on the path to character growth.
Much like how Dragon Ball was about Goku growing as a person, Dragon Ball Z dedicated a lot of time to developing Vegeta. Vegeta's next major appearance on Namek doesn't show him to be a better person at all. He effectively becomes the villain protagonist of the arc alongside the heroic protagonists Krillin and Gohan. He is definitely no hero — more an ally of necessity than anything else. He would go on to die and be resurrected, being shown that the Super Saiyan of legend was truly achievable. The Cell Saga would see Vegeta become a father, but even that did very little to change his attitude. Watching Trunks die was one of the first times the audience saw Vegeta regret his actions; these experiences would be what allowed him to become an actual hero during the Buu Saga.
Vegeta is an incredibly interesting example of how Dragon Ball as a franchise holds onto the idea that people can grow and become better if they put in the work. He and Goku both act as the physical embodiment of what determination can do, which is part of what makes him such a needed character for the franchise. Goku has had a few rivals, but he's had very few literary foils that could work so perfectly with him to establish a throughline that was easily reflected in so many characters.
Vegeta's arc throughout Dragon Ball Z was one of intense change, going from a planet destroyer to a family man with something to protect. This wasn't just major growth for Vegeta; this was a seismic shift in his entire internal world. Dragon Ball Z is just as much about Vegeta as it is about Goku and Gohan. Unlike Piccolo, however, Vegeta's Saiyan pride keeps things a little more volatile. Piccolo is, frankly, more mature than any of the Saiyans, and that little spark of wildness in Vegeta isn't completely dimmed by the end of the Buu Saga. Vegeta really had only just entered his hero arc at the end of the series, which opened up a lot of opportunities for Dragon Ball Super to play with it. It almost seemed natural to pass the torch to Vegeta to carry the next series, and it probably would have saved a lot of strife in the future.
Super Would Have Been Better For It
One of the biggest complaints about Dragon Ball Super is its treatment of Goku. As a main character, he seems to heavily regress in the series. While Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z spent a lot of time showing Goku growing up, Super almost backslides as Goku makes a lot of incredibly selfish and downright dumb decisions. Goku ends up putting a lot more people in danger throughout the show, causes a lot more problems, and seems almost uninterested in the consequences. Goku becomes a grandfather at this point in the show but starts acting like a much younger version of himself, which is frustrating for a lot of fans. No one wants Goku neatly buttoned in a suit and tie, but it doesn't mean he should be acting like a little kid anymore.
This flaw could have been avoided by shifting the focus of the show. Part of the pressure that would naturally come with Dragon Ball Super would be to create something better received than Dragon Ball GT and attempt to recreate the highs of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. With Goku pretty much at the end of this internal arc, it was only natural to basically revert him in the attempt to make that lightning strike twice. Vegeta was practically set up to become some sort of protagonist as his journey as a real hero was only just beginning and a lot of his moments got ripped away in Dragon Ball Super.Resurrection F is a particularly egregious example of Vegeta getting forced into the deuteragonist role, even when it feels more natural to have him front and center.
With Vegeta as the protagonist, it would have let Goku keep the best things he had learned about himself and saved his character from a certain level of Flanderization. Instead, Dragon Ball Super could have been an opportunity for Vegeta to navigate this new sense of the world a little more. Vegeta gets a lot of great moments, showing how much he truly loves his family, but none of them are ever really given the attention that Goku's own conflicting interests bring to his family. Vegeta's need to be the best never seems to have the same pull on him anymore, and it holds him and the narrative back.
Dragon Ball Z was originally supposed to be Gohan's story and a chance to pass the torch. That was pretty much scrapped because Gohan wasn't as popular as Goku. But Vegeta didn't have this issue. Rival characters are historically extremely popular, often saved from imminent death because of that popularity, and shifting focus onto Vegeta would never have been something people would be upset with. Goku is one of the most iconic characters in anime, but it felt like there was nowhere to go with him after a certain point. There are moments in Super that just feel so poorly plotted because of who Goku had become, and it left Vegeta with very few chances to show who he had become. There were a lot of great moments in the series, but letting Goku be front and center again made it feel like the whole thing was held back by his weight. Dragon Ball Super would have been an entirely different show with Vegeta at the wheel.
