Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball is celebrated for many different reasons, but the franchise’s fascinating foes are responsible for much of the shonen series’ success. Dragon Ball has an unforgettable cast of heroes that includes Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, and Piccolo, but an anime’s story is often only as strong as its villains. Dragon Ball Z made waves with its eighth feature film, Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan, which introduces the titular fan-favorite figure.

Dragon Ball Z often isn't afraid to get creative and go for broke with its villains, but Broly tends to receive extra attention and dominates the narrative. Broly’s popularity is undeniable, which is why he’s a character who has stuck around in various forms and capacities for over three decades. Broly has left a huge impression on Dragon Ball, but not necessarily always for the better. Broly is a villain who is successful in many respects, but he also ushers in some very bad habits that have seriously hurt Dragon Ball Z’s brand.

Dragon Ball Z’s Broly immediately makes a strong impression because he’s a gigantic juggernaut with an almost comically muscular body. Broly’s natural strength is never in question and it’s not hard to believe the claim that his power level as a baby was already at 10,000. Broly wears his intimidating brutality on his sleeve, but there’s really not much substance to the character underneath all this.

In fact, Broly has one of the weakest backstories for any Dragon Ball Z villain and it’s really his father, Paragus, who does the heavy lifting and feels like a fully fleshed-out figure. Broly’s resentment towards Goku boils down to the fact that the Saiyans were neighbors in their nursery and Goku’s incessant crying drove Broly mad. It’s an embarrassing origin story for these characters’ conflict that actually weakens Broly’s purpose and makes him feel increasingly like a parody.

Additionally, Broly barely speaks and isn’t the type of villain to reveal his feelings through a complex confession. Broly’s “dialogue” largely consists of grunts, screams, and “Kakarot.” Broly probably says a dozen words between three movies, which just highlights how he’s always been a character who is celebrated for their strength, rather than their character.

It’s for this reason that Dragon Ball Super’s version of Broly is so much more emotionally complex. He’s a layered take on the character that rises above the point of caricature, whereas Dragon Ball Z is content to embrace this simplicity if it translates to flashy fights and popular villains. The greatest Dragon Ball villains are the ones that audiences can understand or even empathize with, whereas Broly is all style and no substance. However, the character’s success reinforced the dangerous idea that a villain just needs to look strong, above everything else.

Dragon Ball is a franchise that features hundreds of battles and it’s only natural that some are going to hit harder than others. The original Dragon Ball is hardly a “realistic” action series, but it’s considerably more grounded than Dragon Ball Z and beyond. The absence of flight, transformations, and constant ki attacks forces Dragon Ball to turn to more creative and innovative battles.

The original Dragon Ball’s characters are all incredibly strong, but it’s rare that strength alone is ever enough to win a fight. There’s always some sort of twist, which often reveals a genuinely brilliant strategy that catches the characters – and audience – off guard. The Fortuneteller Baba Tournament, for instance, is such a brilliant mix of powerful opponents who also require outside-the-box thinking to defeat. This creativity is an important part of Dragon Ball’s DNA and so it’s always disappointing when this level of thought and craft for a big battle is disregarded in favor of two muscular warriors repeatedly punching each other.

Broly is a force of nature, but the bulk of his battles in Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan and Broly - Second Coming consist of brutal physical violence that takes advantage of his huge size and how he can fling everyone around like a rag doll. There’s a ruthless, visceral quality to this kind of combat, but it’s beneath Dragon Ball’s standards and the easiest type of conflict and danger. Anyone can throw a punch or trap their opponent in a vicious combo, whereas it takes genius, intuition, and patience to properly execute the Evil Containment Wave or a Spirit Bomb. Broly’s popularity and the excitement that surrounds his brawl against multiple Saiyans simultaneously indicates that this is enough and Dragon Ball doesn’t have to try harder. To be clear, this doesn’t mean that Dragon Ball Super’s fights completely lack creativity. These battles are still full of surprises, but there are still frequent occasions where brute strength and repeated physical violence is enough to make a statement without anything deeper behind it, which ultimately does Dragon Ball’s storytelling a disservice.

There are only so many times that a villain with an intimidating physique continues to generate results. Furthermore, Goku and many other Dragon Ball heroes are literally as powerful as Gods, so the prospect of equally strong opponents becomes increasingly implausible. Saganbo is a perfect example of this and a character who becomes so powerful that his body literally gives out on him and he dies. Planet-Eater Moro and Gas even experience similar fates, although they’re ultimately defeated by outside forces.

Dragon Ball Z found a successful rhythm with its standalone movies, which eventually decided to indulge in sequels for particularly popular villains. This becomes the most gratuitous with Broly, who is front and center in three separate movies. Furthermore, there were originally plans for Broly to be featured in Dragon Ball Z’s 12th movie, which gets set up at the end of Dragon Ball Z: Bio-Broly. Bio-Broly’s diminishing returns led to Dragon Ball Z changing course and the development of the far superior villain, Janemba.

This speaks to a larger problem that Broly’s role in two sequels means that those are two Dragon Ball Z movies that could have gone to superior original villains instead. All of Dragon Ball Z’s movie villains are really unique before Broly, who at this point isn’t even the first evil movie Saiyan. There’s a lot of value in a sequel, but Broly - Second Coming and Bio-Broly don’t do enough with their ideas and they suffer from the same problems as the initial Broly offering, despite how they showcase different groups of heroes. Each Broly movie feels like a variation on the same theme, whereas The Return of Cooler has a very different energy than Cooler’s Revenge.

Dragon Ball Z’s obsession with Broly led to his domination of the franchise’s movies and it’s also why he’s the one non-canonical movie villain that Dragon Ball Super has rebooted into its narrative. Before Dragon Ball Super: Broly, Universe 6’s Kale from the Tournament of Power was supposed to be Dragon Ball Super’s way to cheat the Legendary Super Saiyan into the series. Beyond these appearances, Broly is incredibly popular in Dragon Ball video games, Super Dragon Ball Heroes, and he’s even the villain in Universal Studios Japan’s 4D ride, Dragon Ball Z: Super Tenkaichi Budokai.

All this has given Broly more opportunities than any other movie villain, and as a result he’s even become a core member of Dragon Ball Super’s Dragon Team. Broly appears to work best in small doses and any of his repeat appearances might have gained greater value if they decided to feature someone like Bojack, Janemba, or Super Android 13 instead. Broly’s influence in Dragon Ball is now unavoidable, and he’s nearly as iconic as Goku, Vegeta, or Gohan. However, the Legendary Super Saiyan’s introduction marks a tacit turning point for Dragon Ball where brute strength and blunt motivations reign supreme.