'Dragon Ball Super: Broly' Reveals Beets and Paragus Death Connection

Warning: This is a SPOILER discussion.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly is now out in theaters, and with the initial wow factor wearing off (great as it was), fans are beginning to dig into the finer details of the film - and are coming away with some pretty cool insights!

Case in point: one of the biggest thematic subtexts in Dragon Ball Super: Broly is the idea of the proverbial 'karmic wheel of fate.' The movie goes to great lengths to retcon Dragon Ball Saiyan lore into a story of how Freeza's advancement to leader of the Freeza Force and master of the Saiyan homeworld, starts the wheels of fate turning. Freeza's maniacal extermination of the Planet Vegeta leads to Goku and Vegeta becoming the powerhouse fighters that ultimately end (and restart) his reign of terror, while Broly becomes a major wild card in the mix.

Well, a lot of fans may not notice it upon first watch, but one way Dragon Ball Super: Broly plays with the idea of fate and karma is with the two big character deaths in the film: low-level Saiyan Beets, and Broly's father, Paragus.

In this retconned story, King Vegeta III exiles young Broly after discovering he has a higher power potential than his son, Vegeta IV. Paragus defects from Planet Vegeta by commandeering the pod that Beets is piloting, and follows Broly to the Planet Vampa. Unfortunately, the pod's flight mechanism is damaged when crash-landing on Vampa, leaving Paragus and Beets stranded there. Beets freaks out, stating that there's not enough food to sustain them; Paragus reveals that he has one strategy for conservation, by pulling out a blaster and shooting Beets point-blank through the heart!

Here's where things get thematically interesting:

Later on in the film (and decades after Beets' death), Paragus allies himself with Freeza, who brings Paragus and Broly to Earth so that Broly can battle Goku and Vegeta. While Broly engages the two Saiyan heroes, Paragus and Freeza stand off to the side observing and measuring Broly's true battle power. Eventually Broly starts to go full berserker, and his rapid power boosts frighten Paragus. But while Paragus begins to have reservations, Freeza wants to see even more. The evil emperor inquires if Broly has ever gone Super Saiyan, but Paragus has no idea that transformation even exists. Freeza, however, recalls how Goku first achieved Super Saiyan: after Freeza blew Krillin up, causing Goku massive grief. To recreate those same circumstances, Freeza kills Paragus with a laser blast, point-blank through the heart.

As stated, Dragon Ball Super: Broly's thematic subtext is all about fate and karma. Paragus betrayed and murdered Beets in cold blood, and ultimately paid for it by losing his own life in the exact same way. Akira Toriyama doesn't pull any punches with the heavy fist of fate governing his universe!

Dragon Ball Super: Broly is out now. Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release is available to stream on FunimationNOW, VRV, and Crunchyroll.

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