Dragon Ball Super: Broly weirdly made an extremely obscure movie character - Tarble - canon. Despite how much the Dragon Ball Z movies are loved and appreciated by fans, they’re not considered canon. The Dragon Ball Z movies have produced quite a few fan-favorite characters, but none actually exist in Dragon Ball’s continuity, including Bojack, the original Broly, Janemba, and more. That’s why it was such a big deal when Dragon Ball Super: Broly introduced canon versions of Broly and Gogeta, an incredibly popular Goku-Vegeta vision that appeared in Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn.
Tarble appeared in the 2008 short film, Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!, which was the first installment in the Dragon Ball franchise in 12 years. The 35-minute film introduced viewers to Tarble, Vegeta’s brother. Apparently, Tarble was banished from Planet Vegeta due to being too weak. He comes to Earth looking for help with fighting remnants of the Frieza Force, which is when Goku, Vegeta, Goten, Trunks, Piccolo, Yamcha, and the others get involved.
In Dragon Ball Super: Broly, a flashback scene shows Nappa and Vegeta discussing Planet Vegeta’s destruction at the hands of Frieza. Nappa asks Vegeta if Tarble survived, and Vegeta remarks that he doesn’t care. This is confirmation that Tarble, who was previously only a movie character, is now Dragon Ball canon.
He was referenced in the movie Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, but because of Dragon Ball Super, this brief mention doesn’t actually mean anything. Dragon Ball Super’s Battle of Gods Saga used the same story and most of the same scenes, but left Tarble out of it, which indicated that the character didn’t exist in this timeline. The Broly movie, on the other hand, is canon, and is proof that Tarble does exist somewhere in the Dragon Ball universe. Whether or not the events of Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! actually took place, though, is another story altogether.
Regardless, Tarble being canon is surprising, considering that the anime has made a big exception with him, when it hasn’t with others. It’s also strange, because Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! is among the least well-known Dragon Ball films. Unlike nearly every other Dragon Ball movie, it never received an English dub and isn’t as widely available as the others. For this reason, Tarble is a character that many fans may not familiar with. Either way, Tarble is alive somewhere in Universe 7, and it’s worth wondering if future installments in the anime will take a stab at adapting one of the more popular movie characters, such as Frieza’s brother, Cooler.
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