Vegeta has been chasing after Goku for most of his entire character arc in the series, so now we see him start to go his own way.

Ever since his introduction to the series all the way back in the Saiyan Saga, Vegeta was a character that quickly won the hearts of millions of fans simply because of how cool and ruthless he was. In a series like Dragon Ball, where the virtue of goodness and doing the right thing is always applauded, it was just so refreshing to see an absolutely unfiltered anti-hero doing the right thing but for selfish reasons. Vegeta quickly catapulted to the heights of popularity and despite franchise creator Akira Toriyama publicly stating that he himself wasn’t always the biggest fan of the character, Vegeta became the archetype for the typical anime anti-hero and has inspired the likes of Sasuke from Naruto and Zoro from One Piece.

However, if Vegeta was always only kept around to be the dark anti-hero, the entire thing would get old pretty quickly if he only had his mysterious ‘cool factor’ as his defining character trait. In truth, the real reason that Vegeta is the favorite character of most fans of the series is despite his brash Saiyan attitude, he has undergone the most character development in the entire Dragon Ball series. What once started as a callous man who cared only for strength has eventually turned into a nuanced and complex hero who fights for more than just himself. This can be seen in both the way he evolves and the way that he fights.

Getting Ultra Ego

Now, when Vegeta became a staple of the Dragon Ball series, he was initially defined by his desire to be stronger than Goku, alongside his bottomless pool of Saiyan pride. In the Cell Saga, he attained the Super Saiyan Grade 2 transformation in his rush to outperform his rival, sacrificing his speed for sheer strength instead of refining his transformation like Goku and Gohan did. Even after that, he did the same with his iconic Majin form which was also quickly overshadowed in strength by Goku’s Super Saiyan 3. While all this at the time was frustrating to witness, it was always just a way for us to see how Vegeta tends to come up short whenever he has to catch up to Goku on Goku’s terms and how he is always being fettered by his past as a ruthless destroyer, which can hinder his progress. This is where the Granolah arc comes in.

After the Tournament of Power we saw Goku achieving his Ultimate Technique, Ultra Instinct, which is a power up that relies on discarding your emotions and essentially letting the body fight on autopilot. This was something that was in direct conflict with how Vegeta fights, so he opted to find his own path to power with the help of Beerus. Beerus tells him that Ultra Instinct is a technique of the Angels that requires tranquility of mind and that Gods of Destruction are beings whose entire nature goes against this as they are always thinking about destruction. He tells Vegeta that it is selfish of him to take on all the problems and the past of the Saiyans and that to achieve godly power, he must be clear of mind and conscience by having him reinvent himself.

As the arc continues, we see Beerus acknowledging Vegeta’s strength as a potential God of Destruction and gives him the earring of a Destroyer to mark his achievement. When Goku and Vegeta eventually go to planet Cereal and fight Granolah, we see Vegeta eventually reveal his new technique by seemingly incorporating all the training he did with Beerus and growing exponentially in power to achieve the technique used by a God of Destruction.

How Does Ultra Ego Work

Since Gods of Destruction are beings that are seen as counterparts or opposites to Angels, so too is their technique an opposite of Ultra Instinct. Where Ultra Instinct is a technique that hones the mind to tranquility and the body to hyper-awareness, allowing it to think for itself, Ultra Ego is more like a full on adrenaline dump where the user is fully aware and responsible for the intake of damage to their body. While this initially seems like a very poor tradeoff, Ultra Ego allows for the user to get stronger with each hit they take, fully maximizing their output for their next attack. Since Ultra Instinct is the perfect defense, Ultra Ego is the perfect offense.

Since Vegeta is all about Saiyan pride and fighting like a warrior, Ultra Ego is the perfect technique for him. This is because he, like traditional Saiyan fighters, is an all out brawler. Instead of honing his martial arts to the perfect technique like Goku does, Vegeta prioritizes sheer might over everything else, with a tendency to beat his opponents down and overpower them. Unlike Ultra Instinct Goku who dodges oncoming attacks, Ultra Ego Vegeta takes those attacks head on and makes it so his own next move will be many times stronger than before.

However, something that this technique does have that is similar to Goku’s is the fact that it is a very difficult divine technique that needs to be refined to suit the user to be most effective. This is seen in the Granolah arc when Vegeta first uses this technique and is able to completely pummel Granloah for a while. He takes Granolah’s attacks head on, making his next move much more powerful, allowing him to temporarily outclass an opponent that took out Ultra Instinct Goku in one hit. However, Ultra Ego Vegeta eventually succumbs to all the damage that he has taken and cannot fight anymore, which goes to show how much more he needs to refine Ultra Ego.

Ultra Ego and Ultra Instinct

The ultimate techniques of both heroes of Dragon Ball Super are extremely powerful but are vastly different from one another. However, this is a decision that is extremely beneficial for the series going forward. Even though fans were eagerly anticipating Vegeta attaining Ultra Instinct as he has done with the other forms before, the fact that he never did and went his own way is not only great for his character, but for the whole series in general. Now, we have two protagonists that are seeking to become stronger, but they have wholly different ways of achieving this.

Ultra Ego is a form that is perfect for Vegeta’s character and perfectly highlights his strengths. He is no longer in Goku’s shadow and is now achieving more strength for his own sake, not just to rival Goku. This also creates a beautiful dichotomy of how Vegeta may eventually become the new Destroyer God for Universe 7 with Ultra Ego and Goku may eventually approach the position of Angel with his Ultra Instinct.