Why has vegeta never advanced to ssj3? I mean majin vegeta ssj2 was much stronger than goku ssj2. Not to mention vegeta held his own against cell for 30 seconds after trunks got killed by cell's sneak attack, and in my opinion it was vegetas attack that distracted cell enough for gohan to blast his kamehameha to a point stronger than cell's. But I don't understand why vegeta never ascended to ssj3. He is a very strong character and is the prince of all sayjins so how does this pass by dbz fans?

I'm guessing he was too evil, and Hadn't powered up enough. I don't really understand it either, Because Goku became ss4, and vegeta was able to handle that just fine... Strange.

I don't know why he never ascended to the ss3 form, i think that is rather weird to be honest, I agree he is a very powerful character and the prince of saiyans, but I think that he always trained and trained hard but he never relaxed like goku did, he only trained and never took a break in between. And the only reason he made it to ss4 was because he had to have bulma zap him with the generator thing, otherwise he wasn't able to do it on his own like goku.


That is just what I know about it, personally I thought he was always stronger than dumb goku, but I guess not. But this is all the light I can shed on the matter I am afraid. 

Vegeta went ssj3 in raging blast 1 or 2 in the mission strongest ssj3

i do not know why vegeta never achieved ssj3 maybe because the creator wants only goku and gotenks to be achieve ssj3?

I believe it was to furtherly imply that Goku was the superior brother. Also this is the same situation with Vegeta not being able to become SSJ4 naturally and Goku can.

I actually know the answer to this one. It was because SS3 is not a natural transformation. The only reason why Goku was able to find this unnatural form was because he was dead. He achieved it when he didn't have his living body. While he was dead, it didn't have much of a negative draining effect on him. But when he transformed when he was wished back alive, he could only keep the transformation for a very brief period. During that time, he said so himself that SS3 appeared to be an 'Other-World Form". So it wasn't a form that was achievable while in a living body. He cold transform into it when he got his life back, but only because he knew how to do it. But again, he couldn't really sustain it.

Gotenks is an anomaly. He was able to achieve this form while in a living body because he, himself was unnatural. He wasn't a single body, but two bodies combined. So he was capable of finding this form. But you will notice that Goten and Trunks never transformed to SS3. This is because when they split back, their recollection isn't complete. That is why they were never exactly clear on all the details about what they did while fused. So they didn't retain the full knowledge on how to transform.

You will notice that once Goku figured out how to change into SS4, he never used the SS3 transformation again (that we saw). SS4 form was not only stronger than SS3, but did not have that HUGE weakness of drastically draining his energy that SS3 did. So that made SS3 obsolete.

But the point is, SS3 is a form that can only be achieved under unnatural conditions such as being dead or being fused.

Kanye's Mama's F : Goku and Vageta were not brothers...

Ah yes my apologizes didn't mean to say brothers. Yet I was thinking of Raditz as I typed this.

Goku said you have to bring the power out from inside you in Dragon Ball Z I guess Vegeta's never done that.  That could be why Vegeta's not a Super Saiyan 3 in the anime.

While Rcarter's answer pretty much answers this question, there is another answer.
Vegeta didn't really have a reason to transform SSJ3. He was SSJ2 while fighting Kid Buu, and when he was destroyed he didn't have any reason to train any more. By the GT saga, he didn't have much time to train to SSJ3, and once he became a SSJ4, he had no need to transform SSJ3.

rcarter2 : Goku said to pull the power out from within you.  It has nothing to do with whether the form is natural or not.  Vegeta never learned the lesson he taught Goten and Trunks.  You can learn the Super Saiyan 3 form while still alive and unfused.  You just have to tap into the power deep within you.  Super Saiyan 3 is a natural transformation, just the way you transform is unnatural.  He couldn't sustain it while dead, either.  Goten and Trunks don't have the power in their split forms, but as Gotenks they were stronger than Goku.  That means that the power inside of Gotenks was enough to transform into Super Saiyan 3.

UltimateKyurem : You are referring to a line from the anime that was adapted for Western viewers. That was not said in the original Manga. Just like how Goku said in the anime that with instant transmission, you travel the speed of light. But in the original un-westernized explanation, it was literally instant. In the original context, the "tap into the power deep within you" line was not even there. You will only find that in American translated versions. You will, however, find in the original context Goku explain how Super Saiyan 3 was more of an other world form, not for physical bodies. True, he couldn't sustain it for a prolonged period of time in his non physical body, but it was far less taxing on him while dead. But all of that doesn't even matter compared to the fact that Akira Toriyama specifically gave the explanation I did. And given he created the whole thing, I trust his word.