How Dragon Ball Reinvented Its Most Popular Movie Villain

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home March 8, 2025 22 Views 14 Min Read
How Dragon Ball Reinvented Its Most Popular Movie Villain



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Summary

  • New Super Broly has a sympathetic backstory, motivation, and actual character development.
  • Super Broly battles Goku, Vegeta, and Gogeta with improved storyline and animation.
  • Super Broly’s reinvention maintains original powers and design while enhancing characterization.

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Dragon Ball Z counts with many iconic villains in the manga, games, and anime. The likes of Freeza, Perfect Cell and Buu are just the biggest examples of how memorable and everlasting the antagonists of the series are. But since his debut in 1993, a certain movie villain has been a massive fan favorite for western fans of Dragon Ball. The Legendary Super Saiyan, Broly, has been one of the most marketable villains in Goku’s rogue’s gallery for decades. Despite his status as a non-canon character, Broly has seen just as much representation in media as the three main villains of Dragon Ball Z.

But with the release of the movie Dragon Ball Super Broly, the character was reinvented and redesigned completely to be introduced into the canon. While some fans still prefer the original movie version of Broly, many have fully embraced the new iteration with open arms, considering him to be the superior version. Let’s explore the differences in both Broly versions and how the super Broly completely redefined the character.

Broly powers up in his Super Saiyan Berserk state against Gogeta in Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018)

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Dragon Ball Z Broly

The Legendary Super Saiyan

In the original movie Dragon Ball Z: The Legendary Super Saiyan, released in 1993, Broly was a lower-class Saiyan who, for no apparent reason, was born exceptional and completely beyond any other Saiyan, including Prince Vegeta. His mere existence as a natural anomaly threatened and intimidated King Vegeta, who believed the baby to be dangerous for his kingdom. He attempted to kill Broly and his father Paragus, and left them to die, but when Freeza destroyed planet Vegeta, the baby’s powers activated, miraculously saving himself and his father. The two fled to a remote planet where his father plotted his revenge against Prince Vegeta, one of the few survivors of the Saiyan race.

“If you’d just let me kill you all before, you wouldn’t be dealing with this pain now. You’re all complete and utter wastes of Saiyan blood!“

Several decades later, Paragus convinces Prince Vegeta and the rest of the Z Warriors to go to his planet, only to stall them as the planet was destined to be destroyed by an asteroid. Before that, an adult Broly met Goku, whom he had an irrational hatred for since he was born, and his rage exceeded his limit, and he transformed into the legendary super Saiyan, a warrior far beyond the abilities of all the Z Warriors combined.

The notable thing about the original Broly is that even though the movie is named after him, his overall participation in the plot is much smaller than that of his father. The one with the plan to kill Prince Vegeta for revenge is his father, and the one to orchestrate all the events of the movie is his father. Broly essentially just stands silently near his father and Prince Vegeta during most of the movie, only showing emotion whenever he sees Goku. Once he transforms into the legendary super Saiyan, Broly simply battles the Z Warriors at once, completely decimating them. His father tries to flee the planet, trusting that Broly will probably survive the asteroid, but the Z Warriors and, most importantly, Prince Vegeta will die. However, Broly, who has sustained the continuous abuse from his father, kills him in cold blood.

At the end of the day, Broly poses no narrative threat to the Z Warriors or Prince Vegeta. He is merely a physical threat and undoubtedly the biggest that Z Warriors have faced till then. Broly has no real motivation or agency in the plot except to kill Goku. He has no real interest in enacting revenge against Vegeta; a large portion of his dialogue revolves around his hatred for Goku. What fans remember most fondly about Broly are his few lines where he acts as a formidable and intimidating villain, but those lines are far in between his constant antagonizing of Goku.

Dragon Ball Super Broly

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His hatred of Goku and the reason for it is the biggest reason why many fans dislike Broly. The sole reason for his unbearable irrational hatred for Dragon Ball’s protagonist and the reason he forcefully transforms into the legendary super Saiyan is because when he and Goku were babies, they were next to each other in the Saiyan baby chamber. And Goku cried next to Broly for an undisclosed amount of time, which distressed baby Broly. That is the entire reason why Broly despises Goku, which activates his transformation. Goku cried a lot when they were babies. To this day, the fact that this is the only motivation and agency that defines Broly is the greatest example of why this character is ultimately extremely shallow and one-dimensional. His only contribution as a villain is what he does in battle, his design, and his powers.

Dragon Ball Super Broly

A Sympathetic Antagonist

The origins of Canon Broly are very similar to the original’s. He was a Saiyan baby with a natural power that threatened the kingdom of King Vegeta, but this time King Vegeta exiled the baby and his father Paragus went to save him. Parags and Broly were left alone on an inhospitable and hostile planet for decades until the Freeza Force discovered them. Then they joined Freeza as he was planning to raid Earth to get the dragon balls, and he saw the two Saiyans as valuable assets in his battle against Goku and Vegeta. Paragus also shares his motivation for enacting revenge on Prince Vegeta and, most importantly, his bad fatherhood and abuse of his son.

“I was so sure my strength was getting close to its peak… and then this guy showed up and was so much stronger than me! And he’s a Saiyan, just like I am.”

But the great difference in these two iterations is the characterization of Broly himself. Unlike the original version, this Broly is naturally kind and quiet. As a child, even though he only lived with his father, he befriended a local animal on his hostile planet. His father didn’t approve of this friendship, and he attacked the animal completely, turning him against Broly and leaving the boy alone and sad. Broly loved his father and he was offended and conflicted whenever Cheelai criticized him.

Another key difference is that Super Broly does hold a grudge against Prince Vegeta and his father because he is fully aware that his life is worse because of King Vegeta. So he did share that common goal with his father to defeat Prince Vegeta, so when he and his father arrived on Earth with Freeza, he didn’t hesitate to battle the prince. And the biggest difference between the original Broly and Super Broly is his relation to Goku. The new Broly has absolutely no hatred towards Goku, as, unlike in the original version, the two were never close to each other when they were babies, and by the time he was exiled, Goku hadn’t even been born. This means that throughout Broly’s battle with the two Saiyans there is absolutely no dialogue antagonizing Goku from Broly, completely erasing his original shallow motivation to fight the protagonist.

New Broly’s powers are very similar to the original as he has an unnatural version of his super Saiyan that causes him to grow drastically in size and muscle mass and become feral. However, his green-haired legendary super Saiyan form is not referred to as the legendary super Saiyan in this version as that entire plot line is completely absent from this movie. New Broly is merely a natural anomaly in terms of Saiyans. And in this movie, he battles Goku and Vegeta, Freeza for a short period of time and, most importantly, Gogeta, as all the other Z Warriors are completely absent from the conflict.

By the end of the movie, after Broly’s father is killed by Freeza, and he is defeated by Gogeta, he moves back to his home planet, but now with Cheelai and Lemo there, he is visited by Goku, who immediately starts befriending the three. Since then, Super Broly has been portrayed as a new ally for Goku and Vegeta, solidifying that this iteration is completely different from the original. New Broly has an actual motivation to be resentful of Prince Vegeta and his father, and he completely forgoes that extremely shallow hatred for Goku. Furthermore, he has many more lines that, instead of painting him as a monstrous, intimidating villain, they portray a sympathetic, lonely character who is not sure of what he wants to do. Super Broly keeps his awesome design and powers while now carrying actual narrative weight and a decent characterization. Super Broly has also been immediately embraced by Dragon Ball media since his inclusion as a playable character in the fighting game Dragon Ball FighterZ and then Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2. Since then, Super Broly has had many appearances in Dragon Ball media and merchandise.

Broly Kale Legendary Super Saiyan Dragon Ball

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The original Broly was a shallow attempt at an intimidating villain by having him be merely a physical presence instead of an actual fleshed-out character. The new Broly has a distinct personality, motivations, backstory, and interactions with other characters that aren’t just cool one-liners and screaming the protagonist’s name over and over. His new battle with Goku, Vegeta, and Gogeta is also far superior to the original movie, thanks to the breathtaking animation of Dragon Ball Super Broly. In this reinvention of the character, they kept the cool aspects of the original version in his powers and design, and completely revamped the aspects that were lacking in his characterization and personality. Super Broly is a great example of how Dragon Ball can introduce non-canon characters into the canon in the best way possible.

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