The thing with Vegeta is that while he is a patriot for his race, and he shows this much more proudly with his experiences with the androids and how he hates them so, Vegeta is and will always be a self righteous warrior at heart. As much as he loves his race, in truth, Vegeta loves no one more then himself.
Vegeta's pride for his race does not change his zero tolerance for "weakness" you can tell by his utter lack of concern or care that Raditz was killed and how he didn't want to wish him back (and obviously his betraying/killing Nappa). Even in the Bardock special, Vegeta was totally careless to learn his race was destroyed by Frieza.
Another sign is his obvious hatred for Goku being the fact he is a low class Saiyan and Vegeta is a royal prince, that royal blood of his is something Vegeta treasures more then anything else. DBZ makes many transitions with Vegeta's character, even admitting he does have a heart before being slain by Frieza as he begged Goku to kill him.
You don't need to worry about the human characters because in truth, while their services may be slim in numbers they are vast in quality. Consider Bulma's knowledge of the Namek spaceship, her working of Raditz's scouter, and most importantly, her dragon radar which is the most important object in the entire series.
Krillin actually gets a lot of air time and contributes a lot, once the Saiyans invade, he remains center stage and stays a main character until Goku and Frieza start duking it out. I give Krillin a lot of credit because he's so insanely unlucky and in way over his head, yet he still comes fighting EVERY single time beside his friends.
He contributes more then anyone can imagine and he became Gohan's best friend after Piccolo died, their partnership was always something I remembered vividly when I first saw DBZ on public TV (before CN bought it). As for Yamcha, I think his woman problems are what ended up earning him that negative scorn.
I also feel bad for Tien, Yamcha, and Chatozu, reality hit them like an atomic bomb. When you think about it with Vegeta and Nappa's power levels being what they were, none of those guys even stood a chance and they were slaughtered so easily. Yamcha specially took it rough during the androids saga when he attempted gravity training.
As for other under appreciated characters, I think King Kai deserves a lot of support considering all the hard work he's done not only training Goku and his friends, but actually helping him through communication. That brilliant plan he concocted with resurrecting all of Frieza's victims, transporting everyone to Earth, was pure genius.
The fact a short, fat, blue faced little bug man could orchestrate such a risky plan with Goku, using both sets of dragon balls all telepathically was (in my opinion) one of the most impressive feats accomplished in the series.
|