Dragon Ball’s Bardock, the father of Goku, has stood the test of time as a fan favorite character despite barely ever being in the series. The battle-hardened battalion commander is best known for his heroic last stand against Frieza in the cold depths of space, fighting as a literal one-man army, but Super Dragon Ball Heroes teases Bardock’s greatest battle is still yet to come.
Within Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultra God Mission, there exist a group of fighters known as the Warriors in Black. Though most of them have gone unnamed thus far, a variant of Bardock is clearly recognizable among the group thanks to his signature headband and scars. The Warriors in Black are all fighters who have suffered a great loss in their timeline and have since become convinced to fight under Aeos, the former Supreme Kai of Time. Aeos’ plan involves determining the “correct history” by pitting multiple timelines against each other in a battle royale to the death known as the Super Space-Time Tournament. Where this version of Bardock plays into the tournament may just be one of his most difficult battles ever.
In chapter 6 of Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultra God Mission, Bardock appears in the cliffhanger, ready to take on none other than Jiren the Gray. Up until this point, Jiren has continuously been touted as one of the main timeline’s absolute strongest fighters. No version of Bardock that readers have ever seen have really gone up against a foe of Jiren’s caliber, and it remains to be seen just how the father of Goku would stand up to the man who almost defeated his son’s entire universe. Jiren has also never encountered Bardock, and though the dynamic between Jiren and Goku has yet to be truly fleshed out, Jiren and Bardock actually have a lot more in common than one might think.
Both Jiren and Bardock are warriors who have suffered great defeats in the past. In Bardock’s case, since he still bears his scars and headband, it can be assumed that he is fighting for Aeos in order to restore the Saiyan race after he failed to convince them of Frieza’s plot. Likewise, Jiren also fights because of his master’s death in the past, an event which traumatized him to such an extent that Jiren was convinced that individual strength was the only purpose for his existence. Since the Warriors in Black are fighting underneath Aeos primarily because they didn’t have the strength to save what was dear to them, Jiren and Bardock would have a particularly interesting dynamic, seeing as how Jiren has begun to move away from his former ideals of strength, while this Bardock is still clearly entrenched in a similar mindset.
Dragon Ball’s Bardock remains one of the most remarkable characters in the series with great levels of depth despite only appearing for such a short period of time. Pitting an alternate version of Dragon Ball’s Bardock that survived his race’s extinction against Jiren, a man who had to overcome the same feeling of loss and helplessness that once caused him to lose his own universe, would surely make for phenomenal character moments going forwards.
