Vegeta has been shown to be arrogant and angry throughout the series due to the mistreatment his species suffered at the hands of Frieza, as well as his wounded pride due to repeated defeats compared to other Saiyans. After Vegeta destroyed his home world, his hatred for Frieza grew. His salary seemed to give him an exaggerated sense of superiority, as he outranked almost everyone he knew. He is very proud of his Saiyan heritage and believes his race is the most powerful in the universe. However, even as an opponent, he does not behave like a normal Saiyan, but becomes more ruthless and proud due to Frieza's influence.
As the prince of the destroyed planet Vegeta, Vegeta was initially portrayed as an invincible villain. Based on his evil intentions before joining the Z Fighters, Vegeta is often portrayed as extremely arrogant, vengeful, and sometimes sadistic. Most of Vegeta's early heroics were motivated by self-interest or revenge, although he later settled down and made Earth his home, starting a family with Bulma. Born into the upper echelons of Saiyan society, Vegeta worked to achieve the legendary Super Saiyan status and become the strongest warrior in the universe. Vegeta is a more tactical fighter, often jumping into battle without hesitation. However, their anger or arrogance often leads them to underestimate their opponents, often leading to ultimate defeat and sometimes death. His royal blood and ferocious fighting style have benefited or cost him many battles.
Vegeta has also been shown to be one of the smartest characters in the series, as well as one of the most serious and rarely displays a sense of humor. When he does this, his sense of humor is usually very dry and much darker than that of his fellow Z Fighters. However, he loves to taunt his enemies, as shown by his offer to transform Android 18 into a "toaster" or a "washing machine" (Funimation games only). He also showed a dark sense of humor towards Goku when he was about to fight him at the World Martial Arts Tournament. In addition to dark humor, he sometimes makes sarcastic jokes when he is happy. The near-perfect Cell War is a perfect example of this. When Cell demands to know how strong Vegeta is, Vegeta casually says he got it by "doing a lot of push-ups, sitting down, [drinking] a lot of juice," and calls Kid Buu. A "genius speaker" who barely spoke before destroying the earth. His immense ego and pride often obscured his positive nature.
Despite Vegeta's character flaws, he is still capable of respecting people, although it is not explicitly stated that he often expresses his respect in non-verbal ways. The Majin Buu Saga shows that he and Piccolo have a civilized relationship and seem to respect each other. He also expressed sadness at Gohan's fate at the hands of Buu. Aside from those two things, he seems to have a good relationship with the rest of Dragon Force.