Is Bardock alive?

Not many life forms have Lord Frieza as an enemy and live to tell the tale, and sadly Bardock had Lord Frieza as an enemy! But Saiyans are made of strong stuff, and even though Planet Vegeta was destroyed, does that also mean that Bardock was killed, or is Bardock still alive?

No, Bardock is not alive. Bardock was killed by Frieza Age 737 during the destruction of the Saiyan homeworld, planet Vegeta. Although Bardock did appear in flashbacks in Dragon Ball Z, he’s been dead since the original Dragon Ball series started.

Who is Bardock?

Bardock is a Saiyan warrior who is the father of our favourite hero Goku and husband to fellow Saiyan Gine. Sadly, Goku never meets his father as Goku is sent to Earth, avoiding the genocide of the Saiyan race and planet.

In the Saiyan army, Bardock may have been considered a low-class Saiyan, but he was still a great warrior and was more intelligent than the average Saiyan.

He could also be considered one of the bravest Saiyans, as he led the defence of Planet Vegeta against Frieza, although he was a massive underdog in that fight.

How did Bardock die?

In the Age 737, Frieza became increasingly scared of the Saiyan race, even though they worked for him, and was worried that a legendary super Saiyan would emerge to kill him. So he called every Saiyan back to planet Vegeta with a dastardly plan of blowing up the planet with all Saiyans on it.

But determined not to go down without a fight, a few Saiyans, led by Bardock, confronted Frieza in the outer atmosphere in a last-ditch attempt to kill the tyrant.

The Saiyans fought bravely but were no match to Frieza and were all killed by the same giant energy ball that would go on to blow up their home planet. #RIPSaiyanrace Watch it on youtube here.

Vegeta’s father, King Vegeta, was also killed at this time, though not alongside his kin, but on Frieza’s ship just before the giant energy ball massacre.

Bardock’s appearance in Dragon Ball Z

Bardock does appear in Dragon Ball Z, but this is only through flashbacks. Due to the similarity in appearance between Bardock and his son Goku, Frieza keeps having flashbacks of Bardock while fighting Goku.

But the tragic events that led to the death of Bardock happened in Age 737, which was 12 years before the start of Dragon Ball, Age 749.

Bardock’s appearance in Dragon Ball Super: Broly

If the tragedy of the Saiyan genocide wasn’t bad enough, they decided to retell it again in the movie Dragon Ball Super: Broly in 2018. And since this movie was canon, it fleshed at Bardock’s backstory a little bit more and also showed Broly as a baby.

But sadly, in this flashback, Bardock also takes a heroic stand and is also killed by Frieza. But perhaps Bardock’s spirit can take comfort in knowing Goku got revenge multiple times on Frieza! Also King Vegeta should be equally happy that his grandson Future Trunks avenged his death as well.

Dragon Ball: Episode of Bardock

Although he only had a small amount of screen time, Bardock was popular enough to warrant 2 of his own spin-off Movies. One of these movies was Dragon Ball: Episode of Bardock, which shows Bardock transported back in time just as he was about to be killed by Frieza.

Then in the past, he learnt how to go Super Saiyan, which technically made him one of the first. However, like all Dragon Ball Z movies, this was not canon, so it didn’t happen in the eyes of almost every Dragon Ball fan.

So no, Bardock didn’t survive Frieza’s attack and never turned Super Saiyan. But just because it isn’t canon doesn’t mean it isn’t really cool!