Akira Toriyama was always careful when making his characters in Dragon Ball. Whether it was about practicality, names, or even their abilities; there was always this personal level of understanding that came to each and every one of his characters. It helped in providing depth, seeing them as more than just flat characters, and instead humanized them in many ways.
One of the most interesting characters, Vegeta, has been foundational in many ways not just for Dragon Ball but also with the many ways his character is perhaps the best expanded upon. Even though he is seen as such a complex figure, his one relationship in particular lacked depth in more ways than naught.
Akira Toriyama Could Have Expanded on Trunks and Vegeta’s Relationship
During an interview with Dragon Ball’s official website, Daisuke Akamatsu, an educational psychologist went into detail about Vegeta as a character and most importantly his relationship with Trunks. Vegeta gets to interact with both Future Trunks and his own son from his timeline, both of them reacting contrastingly to their paternal figure. This was one aspect of Dragon Ball that Akira Toriyama did not go too much in depth of.
Vegeta died when Future Trunks was still very little. If Vegeta wasn’t around for the Trunks of his timeline either, that version of his son might have developed a similar personality to his future counterpart. But since they’re both very different types of people, it’s reasonable to assume Vegeta played a role in his son’s upbringing, which had a significant impact on his personality.
As someone who had seen the progression of Vegeta’s character, an almost immediate observation every fan could make is his love for Trunks. After what happened to Future Trunks, Vegeta was completely distraught, consumed by melancholy and rage; his only goal was to kill Cell. It became evident that above all else, Vegeta had a special connection with his son.
However, as the story progresses, his relationship with Trunks isn’t one that gets explored as much as it could have been. Especially considering how there was a softer side of him that could have also expanded his character.
Vegeta’s Impact on the Trunks
Both the younger version of Trunks and Future Trunks are essentially the same person, just in different timelines. What makes them stand apart so much is the way Vegeta was with them. For Future Trunks, he was an absentee figure who wasn’t able to form much of a bond, making him somewhat cold and stoic.
The teenage version of Trunks is cool and straightforward, while the child version of Trunks is a bit of a scamp and quite proud of himself. Both versions of Trunks have the exact same genetic makeup, so in that sense they are the exact same person. Despite this, their personalities could not be more different. This could be due to the different environments each one was raised in and how much that impacted their respective development.
On the other hand, the younger Trunks was somewhat influenced by Vegeta’s presence in his life. He was confident in a way that brought about pride. He has a father figure to look up to rather than one who was absent for the majority of his life. That simple difference makes both these characters, who are basically the same, increasingly different.
The impact Vegeta’s own presence had on their life is easily underappreciated and perhaps Akira Toriyama could have gotten into greater detail about them. Were they given a bigger playground to explore, perhaps they would have made an amazing team.
