Friday, 9 January 2026
Curious Thoughts - Vegeta
At the beginning of the very first Toonami TIE, The Intruder, Tom 1 was mentioning Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z before Sara screamed that an intruder had entered the hall. But, I'm curious about something: was Vegeta really friends with Tom 1? Because it all links to something potentially much more powerful. So powerful in fact that it would even bring the most feint-hearted Toonami fan into tears. Here goes:
When Tom 1 first arrived on US screens, Vegeta had been training him behind the scenes. The two had a mentor-student relationship that felt like that of a father and son, and as time passed and shows on Cartoon Network came and went, their bond strengthened and grew. The days grew into years, weeks and months, and with every second he spent with Vegeta, Tom 1, a weak little robot host, grew stronger and more powerful to face even the scariest content some of his shows had to represent.
However, the massive downhill point came when The Intruder aired. Vegeta prayed that Tom would survive this, but we knew what happened, don't we? It was an event that would change Vegeta's life forever and place a firm impact on his mental health. After watching Tom get consumed by The Intruder, he screamed as loud as his did in Dragon Ball Z and began crying mournfully.
For the rest of his years, he fell into a deep depression over the loss of his student. He couldn't eat or drink anything, he refused to partake in filming of future Dragon Ball episodes or films and worst of all, his Saiyan powers faded until it was just a spark. The Vegeta he used to be was gone forever, all thanks to the loss of his faithful student.
But when DBZ aired uncut in 2005, Vegeta couldn't take seeing Tom in his then-current form anymore. He flew into a rage and began throwing things around, overturning tables and attacking other characters that were attending every uncut screening, until, one day, he bit Goku's arm right off.
All this sent him to a mental asylum, where he was treated and experimented on multiple times before he emerged battered, bruised, bloody and with one arm missing. It was here that Toonami returned to TV screens in 2012, and years later, Intruder II premiered, and Vegeta knew it was his chance to help the Tom he despised show the Intruder who's boss.
He told the Intruder to listen to him very carefully, and said to him all the wise words he'd forgotten when he was consumed. Upon hearing those words, Tom 1 began crying, something he refused to do when he signed a contract for starring as the host of Toonami. And with that, after Intruder II had finished filming, he turned back into his normal self. Various news reports and tabloids said he'd disappeared for so long, leading to Vegeta's mental health spiral, but now, the two are reunited.
Remember: never be afraid to cry. Sometimes, it's through a robot host's tears that one depressed cartoon star manages to find one way when he is urgent to find another.
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