Despite popular belief, the Dragon Ball Super manga does not make Bardock weaker and actually remains true to Bardock: The Father of Goku.
Warning! Spoilers ahead too Dragon Ball Super Chapter 77!
Some fans say so Dragon Ball Super does Goku’s father Bardock weaker than he was originally portrayed – but that is not necessarily true. dragon ball first introduced fans to this now controversial character in the film Bardock: The father of Goku as a true Saiyan who enjoyed serving Frieza. But Bardock underwent a massive change when one of his victims cursed him with foresight, causing him to go crazy with images of the planet Vegetas’ destruction as he hurried home to save his newborn son, Kakarot.
Dragon Ball Super later reintroduced Bardock in the rebuilt Broly movie. Bardock now suspects Frieza’s betrayal on his own without being cursed. Then came the manga’s Granolah bow, in which Namekian Monaito tells the titular Cerealian villain in Chapter 77 about how Saiyan Bardock saved both him and his mother, even though he had been tasked with destroying all the Cerealians. Many fans now believe that Bardock’s decision to save his enemies weakens his character in terms of how Dragon Ball Z originally portrayed him in his original film. But is that really the case?
Bardock: The father of Goku established that the titular Saiyan loves his son enough to do anything to ensure his survival – even dying in battle against Frieza. The reason he saves Granolah and his mother is because he sees Kakarot and Gine in them, a contrast that the manga depicts through a flashback to when he first saw his son after missing his birth. Bardock is clearly filled with regret over his absence, and to see a mother cradle her son without the boy’s father there to protect them strikes a chord. Bardock has always loved his son, even more than most Saiyans, so it is understandable that his mind would find connections between everyday life and his family at home, causing him to react more kindly than he normally would.
It is also crucial to point out how it renewed Broly the film and the manga depict Bardock’s previous interactions with enemies both before his son’s birth and when he does not face a scene that would remind him of Kakarot. They do not have that. In the film, Bardock first appears as he flies home from a mission. So most of his interactions are with his family and own nature. Viewers do not get to see how he treats his enemies as in Bardock: The father of Goku. Meanwhile, in Chapter 77 of Dragon Ball Super, the only time the manga shows Bardock behaving like a typical Saiyan is when he’s a big monkey, and even then his only real actions involve him looking at Granolah’s mother and following her before falling over her protecting Granolah in its usual form. In other words, the mangaka Akira Toriyama essentially gives readers a false impression of Bardock. He just seems too kind and weak because that’s all he allows fans to see. Bardock could very well be the same twisted Saiyan as his predecessor.
In fact, there is ample evidence that even Bardock is upset about how he treats his enemies, suggesting that he would normally just have killed them. After the sight of Granolah and his mother causes Bardock to remember his family on the planet Vegeta, he expresses frustration just moments before hiding their presence from another Saiyan, a clear indication that he is unhappy with his decision. Akira Toriyama makes Bardock’s excitement even more apparent as Bardock wonders if there is something wrong with him after literally fighting allies to protect them. Although readers are presented with these clues that what he is doing is not normal, Bardock’s heroic actions far outweigh – yes erase – these two minor instances, leaving Dragon Ball Super fans with a Saiyan who they mistakenly think is a weaker Saiyan.
