Dragon Ball needs a Goku vs. Bardock fight – and Dragon Ball Super is finally giving us the perfect opportunity to make it happen! The Dragon Ball Super manga’s latest arc, Granolah the Survivor, is all about how Goku and Vegeta encounter a new kind of warrior – Granolah, the sole survivor of the Cerealian race. Granolah had a serious grudge against Goku, Vegeta, and all Saiyans, due to their role in his people’s genocide; at the same time, Granolah’s violent revenge only unlocked a twisted by of irony: Goku’s father Bardock is the only reason that Granolah is still alive!
The Granolah Arc has served as an even bigger canvas for Dragon Ball Super to continue re-painting the image of who Bardock is. It started in the Dragon Ball Super: Broly movie, which retold the story of the Saiyan homeworld Planet Vegeta’s destruction by Freeza. In the retconned canon, Bardock was more compassionate and heroic, choosing to send his youngest son Goku away toward a better fate; and clearly breaking ranks with the Freeza Force to make a stand against Freeza during Planet Vegeta’s downfall.
Now Dragon Ball Super‘s Granolah Arc has gone further, revealing Bardock to have actually broken from Freeza earlier, during the Genocide of Planet Cereal. In fact, it was Goku’s birth that started to turn something in Bardock, which led him to save Granolah as a young boy by defeating the evil warrior Gas, of the Heeters organization that works with Freeza. Now Gas and the Heeters are back terrorizing Planet Cereal and looking to finish off Granolah. This time, Gas’s power has been boosted from a pair of Cerealian Dragon Balls – and the only person who knows the secret to defeat him is long dead. But he doesn’t have to stay that way when those same Dragon Balls can bring him back!
That all said, Bardock’s new anti-hero nature wouldn’t necessarily make him an instant warm, welcoming, father if he is resurrected. This is Dragon Ball we’re talking about: what fan wouldn’t expect a resurrected Bardock to instantly take things the wrong way and attack first, before figuring things out? It’s a classic Dragon Ball trope, and we’d almost be insulted if it didn’t happen that way!
More to the point: We all know that Goku has some serious daddy issues that he’s long been in denial about – issues that have arguably disrupted his own ability to parent properly (see: Piccolo and Gohan). He might not know it yet, but Goku arguably needs to get this fight off his chest in a very deep emotional way we rarely see from the Saiyan hero.
Finally, beyond the usual mistaken reasons for fighting, or the deeper father/son emotions of it all: Goku vs. Bardock needs to happen because it’s pretty much the only real way these two Saiyan warriors would actually be able to bond. Goku showing off his evolved powers to his father may be the only way Bardock would even come to respect his “low-level” son, Kakarot.
Dragon Ball Super‘s latest manga chapters are free online. The Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie will be released in theaters starting in April.
