The key feature that helps to clearly illustrate that the graph has been moved down 3 units from the parent function \( y = x^2 \) is the y-intercept.
In the parent function \( y = x^2 \), the y-intercept is at (0, 0). In the transformed function \( f(x) = x^2 - 3 \), the y-intercept is at (0, -3), clearly showing that the graph has been shifted down by 3 units.