#asks157

ok so personally for me i can't really get into ships if i don't think there are legit grounds for it in canon. like an actual indication that these characters feel something romantic/sexual towards each other. and i just did not feel that at all with kakavege... dont get me wrong cuz i LIKE their relationship, i just feel that it is exactly what toriyama intended it to be, which is a close but frequently inflammatory friendship between a guy who, for a long time, saw the other guy as a symbol of all his insecurities and thus made himself hate him and then revere him before finally being able to settle on "he's frustratingly good at stuff but fun to be around and keep my blood pumping", and a guy who is just like kind of chill and nice.

i do not particularly think that vegeta would WANT the person he was closest with in his life to be his rival in combat. like so much of his story is about learning to let go of all the bullshit he was raised on, because it ruined his life and his outlook and his ability to connect with people and love. he doesn't have to compete with bulma, not because she isn't strong (admittedly in a different way than him), but because she doesn't expect him to compete with her. she isn't constantly challenging him. goku has, of COURSE, been instrumental in vegeta's growth considering goku repeatedly refused to see him as anything other than an exciting new opponent, refused to see him as irredeemable, and in general continuously reached out to him over and over. but, i don't think that their combative relationship, however ultimately amicable it is, is something that vegeta truly in his heart of hearts wants as the core relationship in his life considering he is clearly something who is learning that living peacefully (gently) makes him happy as well. he loves fighting, OBVIOUSLY, he lives for it, but he needs balance otherwise he will just feel like frieza's lackey again.

also, goku is indisputably aroace. goku is so aroace that if you watched/read dragon ball while knowing that aroaceness exists and didn't come out if it thinking goku was aroace then you might be ahhhh i try to be nice.... a bit daft. and the particular manner in which he is aroace kind of deems him completely incapable of operating in a relationship where his partner expects anything out of him that looks pretty much at all different from a friendship. he doesn't like kissing, he doesn't like sex, he doesn't like sticking around, he doesn't much like heart-to-hearts, and vegeta in particular is completely emotionally incapable of carrying out the type of communication that would MAYBE make a relationship with goku possible. vegeta can never initiate any emotional or physical connection that he desires and goku has no idea that he should/could.

that said vegeta still recognizes goku is hot he just has no desire to do anything about it.

but yeah no clue