DBZ Broly Was Iconic, but It’s Time to Let Super Broly Be His Own Character
I already know this is going to bother some Dragonball fans, but I think it’s time we move on from constantly comparing Super Broly to DBZ Broly as if the newer version is somehow inferior because he isn’t as evil or vicious. I understand the nostalgia. DBZ Broly was terrifying, his design was incredible, and watching him completely destroy Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks and Piccolo is still entertaining. He became one of the most recognizable movie villains in the entire franchise for a reason.
But whenever I hear people say Dragonball Super made Broly “soft,” I feel like we’re ignoring why Broly needed to be rewritten in the first place. DBZ Broly worked as a movie villain. Super Broly works as an actual character who can continue developing within Dragonball. Those are two completely different things, and personally, I would rather have a Broly who can grow than one whose entire purpose is showing up, committing mass destruction and screaming “Kakarot.”
DBZ Broly Was Designed to Be a Monster
I want to give DBZ Broly his credit because I don’t think you have to tear that version down to appreciate the current one. There is something genuinely intimidating about him. Once he transforms into the Legendary Super Saiyan, he feels less like another martial artist and more like a horror movie villain dropped into Dragonball.
He enjoys what he’s doing. He’s cruel. He’s destructive. He talks trash while beating everybody down, and there is a level of intentional brutality to him that Super Broly doesn’t have. That’s exactly why people still love him decades later. If we’re strictly talking about which Broly feels more evil and intimidating, of course I’m giving that to DBZ Broly.
The problem is that there’s only so far you can take that character.
Once you’ve established Broly as someone who enjoys slaughtering people and causing destruction, what comes next? Do we really expect Goku to invite him over to Capsule Corporation afterward? Is he going to eat dinner with Whis and Beerus? Is Vegeta supposed to casually train beside a man who intentionally terrorized everyone he cared about?
DBZ Broly works because he’s the villain. Trying to turn that exact character into one of the Z Fighters would require ignoring almost everything that made him DBZ Broly in the first place.
The “Kakarot” Motivation Didn’t Give Him Much to Build On
This is probably my biggest issue with the original Broly. His connection to Goku became one of his defining characteristics, but the reasoning behind it was never strong enough for me.
Broly and Goku were infants beside each other, and Goku’s crying became associated with Broly’s traumatic memories. Hearing “Kakarot” later triggers that connection, which eventually became one of the most recognizable parts of his character. I understand that there is more trauma surrounding Broly’s birth than simply “Goku cried and Broly got mad.” King Vegeta ordered Broly’s execution, Broly was stabbed as an infant, Planet Vegeta was destroyed, and Paragus controlled him for years. There was plenty of trauma there.
But that’s exactly why I think reducing so much of his fixation to Kakarot was a missed opportunity.
Goku didn’t do anything to him.
If anything, Broly should have had much stronger feelings toward Vegeta because of what King Vegeta did to him and his father. Instead, “Kakarot” became the defining element people remember, and by the later movies it became even more exaggerated.
It’s iconic, but iconic doesn’t automatically mean well developed.
Super Broly Has an Actual Reason to Be Angry
This is one of the biggest improvements Dragonball Super: Broly made for me. Broly’s history is now directly connected to the Saiyan hierarchy and Vegeta’s family in a way that makes sense.
King Vegeta sees Broly’s extraordinary potential as a threat to Prince Vegeta and sends him away to Planet Vampa. Paragus follows his son and spends years carrying resentment toward King Vegeta. Broly grows up isolated on a brutal planet with almost nobody except his father, and Paragus essentially raises him around that resentment.
That’s a much stronger foundation for a character.
Broly isn’t waking up every morning thinking about how much he hates Vegeta. He’s been shaped by a father who couldn’t let go of what happened to them. Paragus’ revenge became Broly’s responsibility even though Broly himself wasn’t the person obsessed with revenge.
That makes me sympathize with him instead of simply viewing him as another monster Goku has to defeat.
Super Broly Is Not “Soft”
This is the argument I really don’t understand.
Have we watched Dragonball Super: Broly?
That man was beating Goku into the side of an iceberg, dragging him through the ground, screaming uncontrollably and becoming increasingly dangerous every minute the battle continued. His power escalated so quickly that Goku and Vegeta eventually decided their best option was to get out of there and fuse.
Gogeta had to come out.
How is that soft?
The difference is that Super Broly’s violence isn’t driven by cruelty. He’s not smiling because he enjoys making people suffer. He’s losing control of himself. The stronger and angrier he becomes, the less capable he is of understanding what he’s doing. To me, that actually makes his rampages more interesting.
DBZ Broly causes carnage because he wants to.
Super Broly causes carnage because once his emotions and Saiyan power overwhelm him, he doesn’t know how to stop.
Both are dangerous, but they’re dangerous for completely different reasons.
His Confusion Makes the Character More Tragic
One thing I really like about Super Broly is that underneath all that ridiculous power is somebody who barely understands the world around him.
Think about his life.
Broly didn’t grow up on Earth like Goku. He didn’t experience Saiyan society like Vegeta. He spent most of his life stranded on Vampa under the control of Paragus. His social development is completely different from almost everyone around him.
Then suddenly he’s thrown into a conflict involving Frieza, Vegeta and Goku and expected to fight because his father wants revenge.
Broly isn’t really making informed choices during most of this.
That’s what makes the situation tragic. He possesses enough power to potentially destroy planets, but emotionally he’s someone who has barely had the opportunity to figure out who he is without his father controlling his life.
That gives Dragonball somewhere to take him.
This Broly Can Actually Become Part of the Main Cast
This is probably the most important difference for me.
Super Broly has a future.
We’ve already seen Goku show an interest in helping him. We’ve seen Broly brought into the larger world of Goku, Vegeta, Beerus and Whis. We’ve seen him training and learning to control his emotions instead of simply unleashing his power.
That opens so many possibilities.
Imagine Broly eventually learning how to access his full strength without losing himself. Imagine Vegeta having to interact with someone whose life was negatively affected by his father’s decisions. Imagine Broly developing friendships with the other Saiyans and learning what being a Saiyan means outside of Paragus’ interpretation of it.
You can’t easily tell those stories with DBZ Broly.
Super Broly was written specifically so that his first movie didn’t have to be his entire story.
We Don’t Have to Choose One Broly
I think this is another problem with Dragonball fandom in general. Sometimes we act like appreciating something new requires disrespecting what came before it.
DBZ Broly isn’t going anywhere.
He’s still iconic.
He’s still one of Dragonball’s most famous movie villains. His Legendary Super Saiyan design is still incredible. His fights are still entertaining. His brutality is still part of why fans love him.
Super Broly doesn’t erase any of that.
Instead, Dragonball took the basic concept of Broly and asked, “What if we actually wanted this character to stick around?”
That’s the version we have now.
Final Thoughts
I think Dragonball fans need to stop expecting Super Broly to become DBZ Broly because doing that would destroy the exact thing that makes the new version interesting.
Super Broly isn’t “soft.” He’s still an absolute monster when he loses control. We watched him push Goku and Vegeta to the point where Gogeta was necessary. The difference is that his destruction isn’t coming from a desire to hurt people. It’s coming from trauma, emotional instability, overwhelming Saiyan power and a lifetime spent being controlled by someone else’s resentment.
That gives him somewhere to go.
DBZ Broly was a great villain because he was terrifying. Super Broly has the opportunity to become a great character because there’s an actual person underneath all of that power.
Personally, I don’t want another Broly whose entire purpose is to show up, scream Kakarot and destroy everything around him. I’ve already seen that Broly, and I can still enjoy him for what he was.
I want to see what happens when this Broly finally learns who he wants to be.
And for the first time, Dragonball has created a version of Broly who might actually get the chance to find out.
