Broly

is a character from the Dragon Ball media franchise, the son of Paragus who is the unstoppable Legendary Super Saiyan, born the same day as Goku. Two different versions of the character exist: the original Broly, a non-canon major villain created by screenwriter Takao Koyama who appeared in a trilogy of 1990s Dragon Ball Z films, Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan (1993), Broly – Second Coming (1994) and Bio-Broly (1994), followed by a canonical, newer and reworked version of the character by series creator Akira Toriyama that debuted in the film Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018¹), where he initially served as one of the main antagonists, before eventually becoming a supporting character in his later appearances.

is a character from the Dragon Ball media franchise, the son of Paragus who is the unstoppable Legendary Super Saiyan, born the same day as Goku. Two different versions of the character exist: the original Broly, a non-canon major villain created by screenwriter Takao Koyama who appeared in a trilogy of 1990s Dragon Ball Z films, Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan (1993), Broly – Second Coming (1994) and Bio-Broly (1994), followed by a canonical, newer and reworked version of the character by series creator Akira Toriyama that debuted in the film Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018), where he initially served as one of the main antagonists, before eventually becoming a supporting character in his later appearances.

Creation and design

The character of Broly was created by Takao Koyama, who was inspired to create a menacing and powerful Saiyan villain after watching Future Trunks transforming into his Super Saiyan Third Grade form during the Perfect Cell Saga, and designed by Dragon Ball creator, Akira Toriyama. Following the Saiyan race's usual naming trend, which is based on vegetables, Broly's name is a pun on broccoli, while his father Paragus is a pun on asparagus. Besides flashback scenes of Broly as an infant in the 1990s movies as well as Toriyama's design sheets of that version of the character, neither the original nor the reworked version of Broly is seen with a tail, which is considered to be a defining characteristic of a Saiyan character within the series.

Powers and abilities

Like other Saiyans in the series, his heritage has given him superhuman strength, senses, durability, agility, speed, reflexes, and the ability to utilize his Ki. In the Daizenshuu 6: Movies & TV (1995) guidebook, it is stated that Super Saiyan Broly's power surpasses that of Super Saiyan Goku and that in his "Legendary Super Saiyan" form Broly is an opponent with infinite power. According to Takao Koyama in a 2006 interview, Broly is the strongest and most powerful antagonist in the Dragon Ball Z series. In Dragon Ball Super: Broly, it is said that Broly's latent power in his youth surpassed that of the young Vegeta. Additionally mentioned by Paragus was that he may have turned into a Ōzaru (大猿; lit. "Great Ape") after looking at Vampa's moon, an ability all Saiyan's with tails have, but is lost after their tail is cut off, something Paragus did to protect himself and Broly. However, facing off against Vegeta, Broly unlocked Ekari, which gives him the boosts of the Ōzaru, without transforming into one, but still loses control of himself. After Paragus is killed by Frieza, Broly unlocks the Super Saiyan transformation, in a manner similar to how Goku unlocked it after the death of Krillin, but loses his sanity, and combined with Ekari the transformation becomes Super Saiyan Full-Power. Goku states in the conclusion of the movie that the new incarnation of the character's power may surpass that of the God of Destruction Beerus.

Appearances

Dragon Ball Super

A canon version of Broly reworked into a quiet and slightly naïve Saiyan with a penchant for exploding in rage, debuts in the 2018 film, Dragon Ball Super: Broly, which tells the story of Goku, Vegeta, and Frieza encountering the exiled Saiyan for the first time. Broly's retconned storyline portrays him as an abnormally powerful Saiyan who is exiled to the wasteland planet Vampa by King Vegeta out of fear and jealousy of his power. Broly is portrayed as a rough and quiet character with significant social naivety from his time spent living on a desolate world. He displays additional personality traits that are deemed rare in Saiyans, such as compassion, gentleness, and a refusal to fight simply for the sake of fighting. Despite his initial docility, Broly has trouble controlling his power whenever provoked by severe stress, anger, or sufficient physical exertion such as when fighting; when he loses control, Broly enters a destructive, mindless berserker state in which he possesses little to no sanity or ability to distinguish friend from foe. He is also emotionally scarred by his father Paragus violently disciplining him via shock collar, but in spite of this abusive upbringing, Broly remains loyal to his father. Broly spent four decades living in exile with Paragus, being raised as an ultimate weapon of revenge against King Vegeta until they are rescued by soldiers of the Frieza Force, Cheelai and Lemo, who quickly befriend Broly. Recruited by Frieza and headed for Earth, Paragus unleashes Broly upon Vegeta to take his revenge on the Vegeta Royal Bloodline. Broly, untrained for battle against other powerful Saiyans, nevertheless quickly adapts against Vegeta and Goku, but gradually loses control of his mind and enters his Ekari (Wrathful) transformation. Later in the film, in a bid to use Broly's rage as a power increase against Goku and Vegeta, Frieza kills Paragus and calls Broly's attention to his father's death, lying to him that it was a stray energy blast from his fight with the other two Saiyans that killed his father. Paragus's death successfully provokes Broly, who transforms into the Super Saiyan form, at the total cost of his sanity. In this form, he defeats Goku and Vegeta in their Super Saiyan Blue forms, forcing them to retreat, before Broly turns his attention to Frieza and attacks him, provoking Frieza to transform into his Golden transformation, although it makes little difference against Broly. Goku and Vegeta, with the guidance of Piccolo and in spite of Vegeta's prideful hesitation, practice the Fusion Dance but fail twice, leaving Frieza at Broly's mercy for an hour. Ultimately, Goku and Vegeta succeed in fusing, becoming Gogeta. Gogeta returns to battle and enters his Super Saiyan form, resuming the battle with Broly. Gogeta and Broly clash, causing reality to 'break' around them. Broly enters Super Saiyan Full Power, The Legendary Super Saiyan's ultimate form, and in turn, Gogeta turns Super Saiyan Blue. The two continue fighting, with Gogeta trying various techniques against Broly, including a Full-Force Kamehameha to end the fight. Cheelai and Lemo use the Dragon Balls to transport Broly back to Vampa with a wish from Shenron before Gogeta can finish him off with the attack. Later, Cheelai and Lemo settle down with the reverted Broly but are visited by Goku, who brings the group supplies and offers to teach Broly how to control his power, befriending him and sparking a friendly rivalry between them. Broly is next seen on Planet Beerus, being trained with Goku and Vegeta under Whis and Beerus. Goku tries to teach Broly how to control in his anger midfight to prevent becoming an uncontrollable beast, but Whis has Broly sit out from training for the time being until he learns. Later on Vegeta is training Broly and does the same thing, talking to Broly on how he should not be afraid to use his full power, but should learn to control it. Whis notices that Broly has started to become better at controlling his anger while spectating his training. Broly makes a cameo appearance in the 2022 film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, while training with Goku and Vegeta under Whis to control his rage and power. After Gohan acquires his new 'Beast' form, Goku convinces him, along with Trunks and Goten, to spar on Beerus' planet. While Gohan and Goku fight, Broly notices how Gohan has learned to control his anger in his new form. This prompts Goku into setting up a sparring match between Broly and Gohan, in hopes of the latter helping Broly control his anger. During their fight Broly is able to transform into a Super Saiyan form without losing control and being fully aware of what's happening. Vegeta, Goku, Trunks, and Goten then join in, creating a massive Saiyan brawl. After they're all worn out, Broly joins the rest of the Saiyans in a giant meal before the others head back to Earth.

Reception

, 2018. Broly is considered to be one of the most popular villains within the Dragon Ball series, with a cult following. He placed second by fan vote in a poll of Dragon Ball antagonists published by the March 2018 issue of V Jump. Chris Carle from IGN ranked Broly as tenth on IGN's list of Top 13 Dragon Ball Z Characters. In a 2016 list of the best Dragon Ball Z fights, the fight between Broly and Goku and others in the first movie was ranked as seventh; and the fight against Goten, Gohan and Goku in the second movie, as sixth. On the character's popularity, Will Harrison from Polygon drew parallels between Broly and Boba Fett from Star Wars. Shawn Saris, also from IGN, states that one of the characteristics that makes Broly memorable is his frightening size as well as brutal behavior during fights. The Dragon Ball Super character Kale has received particular attention from critics as well as Dragon Ball fandom due to her similarities to the original version of Broly.

See also

List of Dragon Ball characters

References

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1376484582 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.