Goku being stronger than Vegeta at specific points in the story does make sense, but the franchise's insistence on keeping Goku at the top of the pack doesn't make sense, and it honestly gets tiresome after a while (at least for me).

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- When they first met, Vegeta underestimated Goku. Goku had literally been training with a god (King Kai), and Goku had outside help --> Makes sense

- On Namek, Goku became Super Saiyan because of his upbringing; this is to say that the strong bonds he shared with the other warriors were the emotional tipping point that triggered the Super Saiyan transformation. Meanwhile, Vegeta had no such emotional triggers, and he was obsessed with obtaining the Dragon Balls. In other words, while Goku was trying to save his family, Vegeta was trying to find a shortcut to defeat Frieza and save his own skin --> Makes sense

- During the Andriod saga, while Vegeta had been busy training hard enough to become a Super Saiyan, Goku was training in places so extraordinary that we hadn't even seen them in the franchise yet (and probably never will) --> Makes sense

- During the Cell Saga, it begins to get messy. Goku and Vegeta both trained in the Hyperbolic Chamber, and Vegeta trained even there more, so it really doesn't make sense that Goku (and Gohan?) is still somehow stronger than Vegeta during the tournament. Seriously, Vegeta and Trunks trained for an extra year in the chamber... the math is not mathing

- In Buu saga, Vegeta was at an unreasonable but familiar disadvantage because Goku had been training with gods. As if that weren't enough, Goku was dead while he was doing it, so it stands to reason that Goku did not have the physical training limitations that Vegeta, as a living being, must have had. This is demonstrated by Goku's SS3 transformation and Vegeta basically having to sell his soul to even be in the same league as SS2 Goku --> This makes sense... but is unreasonable IMHO

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**As a side note, what doesn't make sense to me here is that Goku is the one who delivers the final blow at the end of this saga. The Cell saga succeded in passing the proverbial torch to the next generation of warriors, so having Gohan be such a big letdown only to have Goku win again was a big meh for me -- I know that irl people just wanted Goku to be the main protagonist in the manga, but I think it would have been more interesting if the spotlight would have been shared**

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- Battle of the Gods takes place shortly after the Buu saga, so Goku's superiority here still makes sense

- Resurrection of F is where I start getting frustrated... by this point in the story Goku and Vegeta had both been training with Whis. SS3 was made obsolete due to the introduction of SSG and SSB, and they both had that power-up. Vegeta defeating Freiza made narrative sense because Vegeta had a MUCH bigger grudge against Freiza. The movie even teased at Vegeta defeating Freiza, but the movie pulled the rug out from under our feat to have Goku defeat Freiza again in a Deux Ex Machina --> You will never convince me that this made any sense

- Tournament of Power... I liked tournament of power because the spotlight was shared among the protagonists, but Goku still being stronger than Vegeta didn't make sense. By this point in the story, Goku and Vegeta have been sparing partners for a long time. At a mimimum they should be on the same level. Why? Because for Goku to have been stronger the whole time he was Vegeta's sparing partner, Goku would have to have been pulling his punches. If Goku was pulling his punches, and Vegeta was constantly being tested, then Vegeta would have inevitably gotten stronger faster than Goku. This means that Vegeta should have at least caught up to Goku... but thats not what happened... what happened is Goku got another power up... smh

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TLDR: Vegeta is typically placed at unreasonable disadvantage compared to Goku. When they should be on par, they aren't; there's no good reason for this.