Warning: Spoilers Off applies to these pages. Proceed at your own risk.
"Don't forget us! KAKAROT!"
- The young Kakarot sees his parents for the first time, but Bardock and Gine have him sent to Earth for his protection. Keep in mind that he is still a child and losing the memory of the faces of his parents for years to come brings a tear to your eye. Gine, understandably, is terrified at the thought of her son being forcibly abandoned. In the English dub, she even begs the young Kakarot not to forget about them... which as everyone knows is exactly what ends up happening.
- If you listen; when Bardock and Gine are sneaking away with the pod. You'll hear Baby Kakarot crying and banging against the pod
- The scene recontextualizes Baby Kakarot's brief time on earth before the head injury. When he was first found by Grandpa Gohan he was violent, ill tempered, and refused to listen to the old man. Was this because of the boy's Saiyan instincts that made him destructive? Or was it because, as we see here, he was a scared little boy torn away from his parents? Kakarot wasn't some raging monster in potentia, he was an innocent child thrown into a world that he couldn't understand and that couldn't withstand him.
- The whole scene acts as a subversion of Kal-El/Clark origins in Superman: The Movie. Kakarot is a child sent away in a world where he'll be forever a different, alien being. Where he'll be set apart by anyone else by the very powers he'll need to survive until someone kind will take care of him. However, while Jor-El had time to leave for young Kal recordings and teaching, Bardock couldn't. And while Jor-El wished and trained Kal-El to be Earth's protector, Goku became a Superman-archetype by a complete accident. Gine desired loudly for Kakarot to live a "peaceful life" and "never forget her love". In the end, Goku still claims he had "an interesting life", but sure he had to work harder than anyone to earn the love of a family and some brief moments of peace that Gine would have willingly give him for free.
- The destruction of Planet Vegeta shortly afterward. This movie, unlike many other entries in Dragon Ball canon, showed that not all Saiyans were bloodthirsty monsters. Some, like Gine, were even rather kind, but they were all killed by Frieza nonetheless, who cackles sadistically as he watches the planet's life signs dwindle from billions to zero.
- This movie marks the first time that Planet Vegeta's destruction is framed as an unequivocally tragic event. In the past, Frieza destroying the planet served as a cautionary tale that what goes around comes around, that even the planet-destroying Saiyans get their comeuppance. Here though, the Saiyans are an oppressed people, forced to work for a petty tyrant who holds their planet in the grip of an iron fist, and who ultimately betrays them by killing them all.
- Bardock's death here is even more heartbreaking than the original, because at least in Father of Goku he had the reassurance of his future vision to tell him that his son would not only live on, but avenge him and all Saiyan kind, and was able to pass peacefully because of that. Here? He dies screaming in agony, thousands of miles from his wife who he knows will share his fate, and millions of miles from his son who he has no idea will go on to become the greatest hero the multiverse has ever seen. It's almost an unbearably bleak way to go out.
- Also, while the original Bardock was a sadistic monster cursed to become better, he was a good man from the start. Too scared/ashamed to do good in front of a tyrant willing to kill him and his entire family, but a decent man ending up dying alone and scared for the son he left behind.
- A subtle one is infant Broly's first appearance on Vampa in the past, where his space pod first opens up on the barren planet, exposing him directly to the planet's moon. Just look at the way he slowly opens his eyes as the door of his space pod opens up - he looks just like a newborn baby opening his eyes for the first time. Imagine if you're just a baby, and you've just become aware of your surroundings. However, instead of being welcomed into the world under the protection of your loving father, the first thing you ever see and know is the unrelenting environment of a harsh Death World - and it's all you'll know for the next forty or so years.
- It's worse than that. He was looking directly at the moon. The full moon. His first conscious experience was turning into a rampaging giant ape.
- When Paragus shows the remote for Broly's Shock Collar while telling Frieza about its function. Broly's reaction just from seeing the remote is clear child-like fear, and despite trying to rip the collar off, he's unable to despite clearly being strong enough to do it. He's just plain unable to defy his father since he's not just his only family, but also the only person he's known period for over forty years.
- Cheelai and Lemo are both shocked when they see Broly's terrified reaction.
- Later on, Cheelai calls Paragus out on his cruel behavior towards his own son. Paragus in turn demands that she and Lemo stay away from Broly.Cheelai: He's your son! How could you do that to him?!Paragus: If I hadn't stopped him he might have killed that buffoon.Cheelai: That's your fault! You're the one who raised him to be this way!
- The story of the pelt Broly wears. It came from one of the monsters on planet Vampa, a giant beast that was Broly's only friend growing up. But Paragus didn't like his son playing with a monster, and sliced its ear off. The beast was too scared to go near Broly after that, ending the only friendship he had ever had. Now he keeps the pelt as a memory of the time when they were friends.
- Broly's brutal way of fighting when you get past the awesomeness of it, since it's really hard to believe this was the same gentle and pure man seen earlier. But his rage has now molded him into a raging animal with barely any resemblance to human nature.
- Goku's pained expressions and agonising screams, especially in the English Dub, as he's getting tossed around in his Super Saiyan God form by Broly are as terrifying as they are saddening.
- The death of Paragus. In spite of his hatred for the Vegeta dynasty driving him to abuse Broly into the perfect weapon, the latter still loved him as the only family he has left; the grief-fueled-rage from this loss was the final push to transform Broly past the wall of Super Saiyan. Even worse, Paragus had finally remembered, far too late, how much he loved his little boy, enough to tearfully admit to Frieza how he is going to lose him to Goku's fists. The anger and sadness after seeing his father's corpse causes the mighty Saiyan to go into a literal blind rage. This helps the contrast between this incarnation and the movie 8's personalities on which Broly deserves your sympathy.
- The fact that Frieza lied to Broly, telling him that Paragus was killed by a "stray energy blast". Making Broly believe that he might have been responsible for his own father's death.
- Broly's agonized screams when he goes Super Saiyan for the first time are really painful and heart-wrenching to hear.
- Broly going Super Saiyan. In most cases, a Super Saiyan transformation has a degree of cool factor to it, since it usually comes about when someone needs it and often results in the person who triggered it promptly getting their ass beat. But here? Here we see a Super Saiyan transformation depicted as legitimately horrifying and tragic. Broly loses all sense of self and becomes a raging death machine akin to the Broly of the previous films, except here, it is explicitly portrayed as bad thing; it benefits no one, not even Broly himself, and at the end of it all, Frieza (with the exception of an hour-long pummelling he handily survived anyway) is a complete Karma Houdini; Broly didn't even score a kill on the person who triggered it. Making it even worse is that when it's happening, it almost looks like Broly is trying to resist it. Like he knows what he'll become and is scared of it.
- Gogeta's savage beatdown of Broly. Every villain who has had such a devastating beatdown usually has done something to deserve such horrific punishment, but Broly on the other hand, is going through the mother of all psychotic breaks, driven mad with grief and unimaginable fury at his father’s sudden and unexpected passing. Although necessary, it’s still very saddening that Broly has to be subdued in such a manner before he hurts or kills someone else. Thank God for that Dragon Ball wish to send him back to Vampa as well as finally managing to regain the mental strength (with a little help from Gogeta striking the fear of dying into him) to finally power down in the wake of such madness.
- You know it's bad when Team Four Star, who are known to despise the original Broly, sympathize with this version. Scott Frerichs even said it best during the group's review of the film:
Scott: And I like to point out: So during that scene, it was hard for me to feel like "Oh yeah, this is the big triumphant where they win", because again, this is Broly's fight it's all about, and that's why... you don't want Broly to die.
