Bardock, the father of Goku, was once the leader of his alien race and the strongest fighter on his home planet, Planet Vegeta. Yet despite his power and strength, he was unable to defeat Frieza, the evil emperor who exterminated Bardock’s entire race with his army of henchmen known as the Frieza Force. Bardock somehow managed to escape Frieza’s wrath, but not without losing all of his team members and most of his sanity in the process.
His story:
However, he is struck down by Freeza and only able to weaken him slightly before dying himself. In honor of his actions and bravery on behalf of Saiyans everywhere, King Vegeta has Bardock buried on Planet Plant with the bodies of his crew-mates. Four years later, when Raditz arrives on Earth looking for Kakarot, Bardock’s spirit appears before Goku and Nappa are defeated by him.
While possessing Kakarot (Goku), Bardock tells him that he has a low power level compared to Freeza and offers to transfer his energy to Kakarot so that he can defeat him. However, if Kakarot accepts Bardock’s energy, it will weaken both of them and shorten their lives. After Goku thanks Bardock for all he has done for Saiyans in general and his son in particular before preparing to defeat Freeza himself Nappais killed by Vegeta who had awoken from his injury moments earlier as Kakarot.
His life:
Bardock was a low-class Saiyan warrior from Planet Vegeta who had worked his way up to be a captain (or commander) in King Vegeta’s army. Bardock is first introduced in Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – The Father of Goku as he and his team return from a routine maintenance mission on planet Meat (named for its flesh-like appearance). The crew collects their bonus and stops at Frieza’s spaceship to resupply and celebrate.
His relationship with his family:
Bardock was a caring husband to Gine and a loving father to Raditz, Kakarot (Goku), and Tora. He cared deeply for his son but did not understand his ambitious character as well as he should have. Bardock also had a sense of shame over having so many soft emotions which made him worry that he was unfit to be a Saiyan warrior. This is probably what led him to believe that one with these emotions would make for a great test subject in Dr. Raichi’s machine when looking at destroying all Saiyans.
Though a loving father, Bardock was not without his frustrations with his son Kakarot. While proud of him for being accepted into a squad under Frieza’s banner, Bardock secretly resented that his son had such admiration for Frieza who he viewed as an oppressive dictator. Though he tried to express these concerns when given a chance to speak during a rare family gathering, it only served to annoy Kakarot who angrily flew off after taking offense at Hatsuharu Sohma calling him soft before his mission on Planet Meat.
His popularity:
Bardock quickly rose to prominence in video games and merchandise following his debut in 1988. In 1991, Nintendo released a special limited edition series of Legend of Zelda games called Zelda no Densetsu: Kamigami no Triforce (ゼルダの伝説神々のトライフォースZeruda no Densetsu: Kamigami no Torafōsu), in which Link has to rescue Princess Peach from King Dadada (King Vegeta) and was packaged with a gift certificate that allowed buyers to enter a contest for an original Dragon Ball character.
