#me looking at my refs like 'I love that Toya draws Vegeta standing close to his wife :3 oh ...he stands closer to everyone ;u;'

[shannonsketches]

An underrated detail I really like about super's manga in describing Vegeta's growth without saying anything is that he stands much closer to everyone. Not just the Z-fighters, but anyone he considers an ally. Throughout Z he's kind of famous for standing on the outside of the group and facing away from everyone, usually with his chin down and his arms crossed (very cold, very standoffish, very guarded, 10/10). In super even when his arms are crossed, his body language is more open. He tends to be Part of the group, he generally faces everyone else, he contributes to casual conversation, and he's much more comfortable overall -- not just with the people that he knows well by now, but with everyone.

I like to read it as Vegeta trusting himself again, after his extremely high fall off his pedestal, and having rebuilt his confidence. Not the performative confidence that he has to prove to anyone else, but the genuine confidence he had way back in the Saiyan saga, when he had very little reason to be anything but. Except now he can also afford to be gentle, because instead of his company consisting of those who would pick his bones if he failed, he has had several very intense moments of proof that failing is not a death sentence here. There is always someone coming to help -- whether it's a fighter on the front lines stepping in to buy him a few more minutes, or a support player with a backup plan -- there's someone coming to help.

He's been repeatedly exposed to compassion as something other than a strategy. He's learned how to feel valuable as both a fighter and a support, himself, and it's made him more confident and comfortable in every other aspect of his life.