Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball Super continues to surpass expectations. The latest saga in Toriyama’s enduring shonen series puts Goku and friends up against the biggest challenges that they’ve ever faced after the anime successfully expanded the series' scope in fulfilling ways.
Some of Dragon Ball’s most important characters are figures who have been contained to flashbacks and non-canonical adventures. Dragon Ball Super has brought Goku’s father, Bardock, back into the picture in a major way, which has helped highlight the many ways in which this father and son are alike and dissimilar.
9 He Leads His Own Warrior Team
Bardock is considered a low tier Saiyan, but he still makes enough of an impression among other Low-Class Warriors that he’s put in charge of his own group of fighters, Team Bardock. Dragon Ball Z initially features a five-Saiyan team that consists of Bardock, Fasha, Tora, Shugesh, and Borgos. However, Dragon Ball Minus presents the team as Bardock, Gine, Leek, and Taro. Goku certainly fights alongside allies and is considered the de facto leader of the unofficial “Z Warriors,” but it’s not a formal team and Goku’s not used to such formalities.
8 He's Gifted With Premonitions Of The Future
Dragon Ball is forced to get creative and jump through some hoops when it comes to its earlier connections between Goku & Bardock, since their stories are displaced between different generations. An odd ability that Bardock experiences during Dragon Ball Z’s first TV Special was psychic premonitions that present him with visions of the future. Bardock doesn’t understand what he sees, but it allows him to witness his son’s progress and feel pride towards his accomplishments in a cathartic manner. Goku never experiences similar flashes, whether of the future or the past.
7 He's Conquered And Decimated Countless Planets
Dragon Ball Super has started to tease the idea that Bardock and Goku are actually both equally empathetic. Bardock ultimately turns a new leaf after the Saiyans’ mission on Planet Cereal, where he exhibits compassion, but this doesn’t excuse the Saiyan’s past.
Bardock has a storied history of leading his team to cause chaos on weak planets and leave their population destroyed and ripe for domination. Goku never once displays this desire to conquer and control.
6 He's Never Been To Earth
One of Bardock’s final actions on Planet Vegeta is to make sure that Goku is able to safely reach Earth, but he’s never actually had the pleasure of visiting the planet himself. Bardock is established to be quite the worldly Saiyan and he’s made his way across the galaxy, but Earth is still a place that’s evaded him. Alternatively, Goku has never been to Planet Vegeta. It’s also somewhat ironic that Bardock’s other son, Raditz, eventually makes his way to Earth. Bardock likely would have rampaged on the planet, but it’s compelling to think of Earth’s impact on him.
5 He Retains His Memories As An Oozaru
Bardock amasses a valued reputation as a Saiyan warrior, but he primarily heads into battle through the added benefit of his Great Ape transformation. Both Bardock and Goku are Low-Class Saiyans, which means that they can’t control their Great Ape forms like Elites, but Bardock is at least able to retain his memories during the transformation – which Goku cannot. Bardock relies on the strength and size of his Great Ape form, yet it’s always treated like an inconvenience for Goku, who even completely loses his tail.
4 Frieza Successfully Killed Him
There is a lot of history and generational grudges in Dragon Ball, but one of the most enduring relationships is the antagonistic connection between Frieza and the Saiyans. Frieza manipulates the Saiyans into carrying out his grunt work, only to destroy their planet with most of them along with it.
Bardock is one of the many Saiyans who perish from this disaster, despite his best efforts to fight back against Frieza. Frieza learns to resent Goku even more than Bardock, but he’s never able to kill him and make him face the same defeat as his father.
3 He Sends His Children Away To Train And Isn’t Close With His Family
Emotions and vulnerability don’t come naturally to Saiyans, especially for those that lived in ignorance back on Planet Vegeta. Customs that Goku learns to cherish more than anything else, like family, are foreign to Saiyans and leave Bardock confused more than excited. Bardock doesn’t cling very hard to keeping his family structure together. Raditz is sent out into space for training purposes early on in his life, and Goku is sent away to Earth when he’s still an infant. Goku wouldn’t dream of sending his children away to train on other planets.
2 His Signature Attack Is Flash Spirit
There are hundreds of powerful techniques that have been shown off in Dragon Ball, with some borrowing a lot from each other and some that are completely original. Goku’s trademark attack, the Kamehameha, is something that he’s lovingly able to pass on to his children. It’s quite sweet to see the bond and lineage between characters get represented through the techniques that they know. Bardock does not know the Kamehameha and his signature maneuvers are instead Flash Spirit and Final Revenger. Admittedly, Bardock wouldn’t have had opportunities to teach these moves to Goku, but it’s still a difference between them.
1 He Inadvertently Transcends Space And Time
Bardock's Dragon Ball appearances have been few and far between, but Episode of Bardock does some polarizing things with the character as it tells a twisted story that doesn't just turn Bardock into a Super Saiyan and put him up against Frieza's ancestor, but sends him through time. Goku does time travel in Dragon Ball Super, but through the use of a “conventional” time machine, whereas Bardock’s slip in the timestream is considerably more unstable and spontaneous.
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