Bardock
Goku's father, a low-class Saiyan who saw Frieza's betrayal coming and faced him alone.
- Signature move
- Final Spirit Cannon — one full-power ki ball, thrown like a spear
- Race
- Saiyan, a low-class warrior and squad leader
- Family
- Gine, his wife; Raditz and Kakarot, who is Goku, his sons
- First seen
- Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – The Father of Goku, the 1990 TV special
- Canon version
- The Dragon Ball Minus chapter (2014) and Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018); the Granolah arc of the Super manga
Who Bardock is
Bardock is Goku's father, a low-class Saiyan who led a small squad clearing planets for Frieza. He was good at it, and Frieza feared what a Saiyan could become anyway. In the 1990 TV special a psychic from a conquered planet curses him with visions, and he sees Planet Vegeta's end before it comes.
In the version that counts today, told in the Dragon Ball Minus chapter and the Broly film, he does not need visions. He notices Frieza calling every Saiyan home, guesses why, and with Gine sends their baby Kakarot to a backwater planet called Earth. Then he stays to fight.
The Super manga adds one more chapter to his life. Forty years before the Granolah arc, Bardock spared a Cerealian boy and his Namekian guardian during a raid, and beat the Heeter enforcer Gas to keep them alive. His scouter recorded it, and that recording is how Goku finally hears his father's voice.
What happens to Bardock
Manga spoilers, through the last chapter.
He dies with Planet Vegeta. Every version agrees on that: he faces Frieza's army alone, throws one last attack at Frieza's Supernova, and is swallowed by it with the planet. In the special he sees Goku beat Frieza as he dies.
Episode of Bardock, a short film that is not canon, has the blast throw him back in time, where he becomes the first Super Saiyan. The main story has never given him that form.
which one are you? not Bardock, one of your own
make your own Dragon Ball character — say what they look like and they get drawn in seconds. free, and they join the wall below.
make my Dragon Ball characterQuestions people ask about Bardock
- Is Bardock Goku's father?
- Yes. Bardock and Gine are Goku's parents, and Raditz is his older brother. They sent Goku, then called Kakarot, to Earth as a baby to keep him away from Frieza.
- Did Bardock go Super Saiyan?
- Only in Episode of Bardock, a short film that is not canon, where he is thrown back in time and becomes the first Super Saiyan. In the manga, the Broly film and the Super manga he never transforms.
- How did Bardock die?
- Fighting Frieza. When Frieza fires the Supernova that destroys Planet Vegeta, Bardock throws his last attack into it and dies with the planet.
- Did Bardock beat Gas?
- Yes. In the Super manga's Granolah arc, forty years before the story, Bardock fought Gas on planet Cereal to protect Granolah and Monaito and won. His scouter kept the recording.
