How would Goku react to see Bardock and/or Gine?

[MaGyunia]

I know perfectly beforehand this is one of the immense list of questions asked over and over throughout the years, but how would Goku react to see his parents, or one of them (and there were multiple occasions where it could have been done in theory, and even speculated that it would happen - and it still might).

I think it's much easier to predict Goku's reaction to seeing their parents or father than the other way around.

Imagine Bardock coming back to life or meeting Goku in some other setting, place or circumstances, just for the sake of argument. Regardless of the "previous" Bardock we knew or this new one who actually cares about his son(s). He'd be like: What? Kakarotto? Where's your tail? You didn't wipe out the Earthlings? You actually made a bond with them, made a lot of friends on Earth and even saved it from conquest/destruction? Prince Vegeta survived too? It was you, Kakarotto, a lower-class warrior, who defeated Freeza? By becoming a Super Saiya-jin? So the legend was true? And it was you, a lower-class warrior, who achieved it? Prince Vegeta achieved it too? And many others? I have two grandsons? You mated with an Earthling, is that even possible? Vegeta too? Vegeta also established himself on Earth? What, there are numerous, much higher and much more powerful stages of Super Saiya-jin? You, along with Vegeta and your friends fought and beat enemies even stronger, much stronger than Freeza over all these years? Vegeta also mated with an Earthling and has two hybrid siblings as well? And all of these fights took place on Earth, of all places? The most powerful mortals in this Universe are on Earth, of all places? You met the most powerful gods in the entire hierarchy and even surpassed some of them? You've become a god yourself, along with Vegeta? There's more than one Universe? There are Kaioshins, Hakaishins, Tenshis and even entities above that, even more powerful? Just how the hell did you catch up with this level of unfathomable power? You, a lower-class warrior from birth. You just discovered two surviving Saiya-jins, Broly and Paragas? And Raditz survived as well? As well as Nappa, and Vegeta has a brother who also survived? I'm shocked, I'm more than proud of you, it would be surprising and incredible enough for me if you told me you defeated Freeza and became the legendary Super Saiya-jin, but the rest of all this immense stuff is just too much. I don't know whether to be more shocked or proud. It seems that you took some traits from your mother. And it also seems I have quite a lot of training to catch up with and an immense amount of stuff to learn from you. So, the son becomes the father's teacher.

Any ideas/predictions on this (still possible and potential) encounter? I think they avoided it up until now, and possibly forever, because the reaction would be just too strange, too far off. Goku has absolutely no connection to his parents other than being their biological sons. It's a trait shared by all Saiya-jins, even pure/good-hearted ones: caring little about family relationships (numerous examples, I might create one with the respective episodes identified soon). But just one exemple would be Goku's little care about the fact that Raditz is his brother and he needs to kill him with Piccolo's help. He doesn't hesitate in doing so and even sacrífices himself in order to accomplish that. And that's his brother. But then again, at that point it was either killing his own brother whom he never knew before, who threatened him, his friends and Earth, an evil guy who kidnapped his son/nephey, in order to stop him or doom for everyone on Earth. But even if there wasn't so much at stake, Goku would always care little about the fact Raditz was his brother. The same applies, in a certain sense and to a certain degree, to his father (and mother), I would assume. Goku's growth in character and his immense experiences in battle and outsider of battle over the years and decades and especially the fact that both his parents are good people would most likely smooth things up and he would be much more welcoming to them, but the truth remains that he has no real connection nor did he have any interaction with them (at least as far as he can remember).

[Kataphrut]

Bardock is in every Dragon Ball video game by divine writ, and yet none of them ever do anything with him being able to interact with Goku. At least with every DB game I've played that has interactions between characters, the standard script for Goku and Bardock always glosses over it. Usually we get Bardock recognising Goku but not revealing anything to him, while Goku is just "huh, you look like me" and doesn't press it. don't think there's ever been a "Kakarot, I am your father". It's like they're afraid to try and come up with an idea for what that meeting would actually be like if it ever somehow went down.

I feel like it's only a matter of time for someone to finally persuade Toriyama to pull the trigger on a "Bardock comes to the present" story. If that ever happens, I can see Goku being cheerfully nice in his usual Goku way. Bardock can't match him for strength and Goku probably wouldn't have many questions for him. There's not really a lot of potential for interaction between them.

[MaGyunia]

Bardock is in every Dragon Ball video game by divine writ, and yet none of them ever do anything with him being able to interact with Goku. At least with every DB game I've played that has interactions between characters, the standard script for Goku and Bardock always glosses over it. Usually we get Bardock recognising Goku but not revealing anything to him, while Goku is just "huh, you look like me" and doesn't press it. don't think there's ever been a "Kakarot, I am your father". It's like they're afraid to try and come up with an idea for what that meeting would actually be like if it ever somehow went down.

I feel like it's only a matter of time for someone to finally persuade Toriyama to pull the trigger on a "Bardock comes to the present" story. If that ever happens, I can see Goku being cheerfully nice in his usual Goku way. Bardock can't match him for strength and Goku probably wouldn't have many questions for him. There's not really a lot of potential for interaction between them.

Yeah, it's like they're "afraid" to come up with a setting for this meeting, or maybe they don't want to disappoint the fans about such an anticipated and phantasized-over scenario due to the lack of content it would have due to the reasons mentioned by you and me. In DBSuper they gave the fans a good part of what they wanted to see for the first time, what they wanted to see brought back and what they phantasized over throughout the long years of Dragon Ball inactivity (in terms of continuation of the story), but I don't see this one happening yet or even for a long time, of perhaps even ever. There's just nothing to make it as big as one would phantasize it should be.

And yeah, I also think that would be Goku's reaction. Just being nice to a kind-hearted person, saying "wah, you look just like me", "you're a Saiya-jin, let's fight", "you might not be able to keep up with me in terms of battle - we'll take care of that and train - but maybe you can keep up with me in terms of eating". Laughing, being nice and saying stupid, idiotic things, etc. The old Goku we all know, regardless of this particular individual being his father. He'd care very little about that fact. The same applies to his mother.

I think it's mainly the fear of disappointing the fans about what they know is an extremely phantasized-over scenario that has always kept them from doing it, and perhaps will forever.

[KBABZ]

In terms of meeting Bardock, I think Goku would have trouble connecting with him, particularly with his personality pre-Episode of Bardock, considering how ruthless he is. They probably would be able to bond just as fighters, though. Gine I can see being more pleasant because she seems closer to Goku's personality as the calmer spirit of the two.

Haha, now I want to see a conversation between Gine and Grandpa Gohan!

[emperior]

Goku would probably be surprised to meet his parents, there would be comments about his physical similarities with Bardock, his personality being closer to Gine’s, the lack of tail and Bardock would be proud and surprised to see how strong his low-class warrior son has gotten.
There could be some comments about how Raditz got himself killed by Goku.

Maybe Bardock and Goku would also have a friendly sparring match, but there wouldn’t be much of a point in it besides having the two bond from it?

I really can’t see what would be the point in bringing Bardock back to life, so if they ever want to have Goku interact with him they could find different ways, such as Goku meeting his parents’ soul in the afterlife or some other strange way. Besides, their interaction would be just fan service and I can’t see how it would add anything to the plot or to the characters.

[KBABZ]

I really can’t see what would be the point in bringing Bardock back to life, so if they ever want to have Goku interact with him they could find different ways, such as Goku meeting his parents’ soul in the afterlife or some other strange way. Besides, their interaction would be just fan service and I can’t see how it would add anything to the plot or to the characters.

Funnily enough, I kinda automatically assumed that this meetup was occurring in Other World to begin with, possibly after Goku sacrificed himself against Cell. Bardock, assuming he got his body back, would be in Hell, but Gine I can actually see making it to Heaven considering she didn't actively kill for a living as far as we know.

[Robo4900]

If we're going with the much more interesting original depiction of Bardock, Goku would probably be somewhat interested to meet his biological father, but not massively overjoyed with the guy, and would probably be generally more willing to just hang around with his grandpa Gohan if given the chance. Plus, this Bardock was kind of a dick; he'd be in hell. Even if he wasn't blended up like the souls that we saw get blended up in the Janemba incident, I'm not sure he and Goku would really get the chance to meet.

If we're going with the later, less interesting depictions that included Gine, I imagine Goku would get along with them okay, and Bardock would probably have some amount of pride in his son and his work, but given they'd have never really interacted before, I'm not sure they'd be like instant best buds or anything. And they really wouldn't have anything in common anyway... It'd take time to build a relationship, and presumably if Goku was meeting his parents in this scenario, it would be in the afterlife, where time is pointedly meaningless, and Goku would be spending his endless amounts of time instead hanging with his grandpa Gohan, the afterlife warriors we see in the tournament, and doing the training that permits him to train under the Grand Kaio. And then he comes back to earth in the Boo arc, only 7 years into his intended eternal stay in the afterlife, and then when his life does eventually end, he goes away with Shen Long to... Wherever they go, which presumably -- given he also said goodbye to Piccolo -- would mean he wouldn't be able to return to the afterlife again.

So, I don't think Goku would really spend much time with his biological parents.

Though, I have always very strongly headcanoned that Goku spent some significant amount of off time in the afterlife hanging around with his grandpa Gohan, and I like to imagine during the GT goodbyes, one we didn't see was him visiting heaven or Anin's place or wherever Gohan ended up, and saying a goodbye to him too.

[LordCrumb]

Considering Goku can barely hold a conversation with anyone, I agree that it would just be a "hey let's fight" and that would be it.

[Dragon Ball Gus]

Goku: "So, you guys are my parents. Eh, that's kinda cool, I guess."

[Kataphrut]

Also, while I have few complaints about Super's tendency to depict characters as equally skilled in fights, if we ever get a canon Goku vs Bardock sparring match I don't want Bardock to be somehow holding his own. I want him to get crushed. Maybe that's because I'm sick of Bandai Bardock being the most OP character in the room, even in games that try to adhere to power levels like...well every game that isn't FighterZ. For all his coolness, Bardock ain't shit now and it would be interesting to see how he reacts to just how much present day Saiyans have surpassed him.

Either that or make a joke out of it. Like, Bardock is landing all these hits on Goku that he's having trouble evading and he's like "man, I don't know how but it's like your punches are sucking me into some kind of...auto vacuum." And Bardock's like "yeah, I don't quite get it either. Also I'm a Super Saiyan rah."

[DragonBallFoodie]

Goku: "So, you guys are my parents. Eh, that's kinda cool, I guess."

That would very likely be Goku's reaction. He may want to scrap with his dad a bit, he may enjoy eating Gine's food, but to him the parent he cares for the most will always be Grandpa Gohan who raised him.

[KBABZ]

Goku: "So, you guys are my parents. Eh, that's kinda cool, I guess."

That would very likely be Goku's reaction. He may want to scrap with his dad a bit, he may enjoy eating Gine's food, but to him the parent he cares for the most will always be Grandpa Gohan who raised him.

I think it'd be more like "He-ey, that's petty cool!", in that he thinks it's neat and he appreciates it, but it's also not worth making that big a fuss over. Classic Goku.

[Lord Beerus]

He'd most likely challenge them to a fight, because, well, they're Saiyans. It's in their DNA to fight.

[RecolorSaiyan]

Same reaction he had to meeting Goten for the first time in the manga


Something along the lines of "Oh you are my parents? Cool!" (moves on to something else)

[Hulk10]

Yeah I'd say he'd say it was cool and then move on to something else.

[Tavarano]

More saiyajins?! Kakatte koi!

[Gligarman]

I'd be curious about how Bardock and Gine would react to meeting Grandpa Gohan.

[Thanos]

Considering his typical borderline apathy with all matters familial, I doubt it would go beyond momentary curiosity followed by an inevitable desire to measure the strength of his parents versus his own.

[zarmack]