Broly has always had a rather divisive character in the Dragon Ball Fandom. The Monstrous Saiyan initially debuted in the 1993s Dragon Ball Z: Broly – the legendary Super Saiyanand was beloved by viewers who enjoyed the muscle-bound showdowns of DBZ. In the years that followed the film, however, the narrative around Broly changed, and a large part of the fans relegated the Saiyan legend to nothing but mindless meat.
Nothing more spread that story than The reimagined Broly’s return to the series in 2018 Dragon Ball Super: Broly. Now a more sympathetic character, with an innocence and gentleness taken from Gohan’s playbook, The new Broly stole the admiration of fans right out of his former self’s hands. However, many of the common criticisms around DBZBroly’s are largely misplaced, and some can even be more accurately placed on SuperBroly’s.
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Criticisms such as being a boring character with nonsensical motivations were targeted Dragon Ball pBroly’s. And while his few appearances after the original 1993 movie did nothing to help change the narrative, Many fans just forget How entertaining and interesting Broly was during his beatdown of the Z Fighters on New Vegeta.
DBZ Broly has a better personality than DBS Broly
Despite what fans think, the original Broly was more entertaining
One of the more commonly discussed upgrades of Dragon Ball pBroly’s new counterpart is a supposedly better personality. And while SuperBroly has a more fleshed out backstory and sympathetic character, for the most part, this idea is just wrong. At some point in time since Broly’s initial debut, his personality was boiled down to that of a meathead who could only shout “Kakarot”. And although this is mostly true of his second appearance, in Broly – Second Coming, The description couldn’t be more wrong in the first movie.
In particular, the English dub of Broly – The legendary Super Saiyan Contains some of the best lines in the series, mainly spoken by the titular Saiyan himself. When asked for a handicap, Broly responded with, “Is that another word for coffin?”, and while Gohan was hanging from the side of a building, badly beaten, he asked Goku, “Kakarot, how much do you love?” Your son?” After transforming and taking his legendary Super Saiyan form, Broly has a kind of edge and sass that makes him extremely entertaining on screen.
Interestingly, when SuperBroly transformed, He takes on the personality that most fans have ascribed to DBZs version of the character. He rampages against anyone in sight, including Frieza and Whis, while being able to do nothing but scream and power up. Before the two characters take on their Super Saiyan forms, DBS Broly has more personality in an innocent, caveman sort of way. But after they transform and start to fight, Dragon Ball pBroly’s is much more entertaining.
DBZ Broly’s anger is largely misunderstood
Broly’s hatred for Goku goes beyond crying babies
The other most common criticism of Broly is that his main motivator to become the most fearsome Saiyan in the galaxy basically boils down to this. He is angry that Goku cries a lot when they are babies. While this is a pretty laughable reason to hate Goku to the point that he becomes uncontrollable, This isn’t really the reason for Broly’s anger either. As shown through flashback sequences, King Vegeta tried to have Broly murdered in the same crib next to Goku.
It can be inferred by what is shown that Broly’s reaction to Goku probably has to do with what was done to him while that loud scream was happening. Being spurned by his own people, marked for death before he can even speak a word, and having to survive his planet being blown up all before he can even walk, Broly likely associates the disaster with Goku’s presence.
Even if that’s not the case, a line of dialogue spoken by background characters during the flashback could also explain Broly’s hatred. They say about Goku, “…he even made Broly cry, his battle power may be low, but Kakarot has guts!”
It’s possible that even as a baby, he felt intimidated by Goku and his absolute lack of concern for how powerful Broly was. Whatever the reason, like most of Dragon Ball pBroly’ss characterization, it is a little deeper than fans have come to believe.