Bardock vs. King Vegeta: Who Would Win in a Fight & Why?
We know that Son Goku, the protagonist of Akira Toriyama’s cult classic manga Dragon Ball, is one of the most iconic characters in the history of fiction. But we’re not going to talk about him in this article, which is strange for us because we usually talk about Goku in our Dragon Ball-related comparisons. The two characters who will be the focus of this article are Bardock and the lesser-known King Vegeta III, both Saiyan characters. In this article, we will tell you who would win in a fight.
Although not as powerful as Vegeta or Goku, Bardock would still have the upper hand against King Vegeta III. The main reason for this is that Bardock was able to activate several Super Saiyan forms, whereas King Vegeta III was only able to transform into the Great Ape. These transformations would be enough for Bardock to completely surpass King Vegeta III in battle.
Now that you have the short version of the answer, the rest of the article will be divided into three sections, with the first two introducing the characters, their powers, and their abilities. In the end, we’ll give our final verdict and explanation on why Bardock would ultimately be able to defeat King Vegeta III in a direct fight.
Bardock and his powers
Bardock is a low-class Saiyan from Planet Vegeta of Universe 7. He belongs to the Saiyan Army, which is under the leadership of King Vegeta and is the head of his squad during the annexation of the planet by colonial forces of the Freeza Empire. He is the husband of Gine and the biological father of Kakarot and Raditz. Originally, in one of his conquests, he receives a blow from a warrior from Planet Kanassa that allows him to see the future and thus discover Frieza’s evil plans, so he rebels against the evil emperor and goes into battle, trying to change the course of destiny for his race.
Bardock is a warrior of the lowest level, but this affirmation derives only from his social class since he is an excellent fighter. His fighting style is decidedly rudimentary, but as specified by Gas, his power is far superior to that of a common Saiyan. This is because his strength has been tempered by the battles he has faced. Being a Saiyan, he possesses superhuman strength, speed, and endurance, as well as faster healing times than an Earthling, and as a Saiyan, his period of youth lasts longer.
Furthermore, thanks to the tail on full moon nights, he is able to transform into a Monkey, amplifying his destructive force, but losing his reason. He is able to use the Ki. He can use the levitation technique. Not being able to perceive the energy of others with the force of the mind, he uses the scouter. He possesses the Saiyan ability called Zenkai, which allows him to grow stronger as his body heals from wounds and damage sustained in battle. In the Dragon Ball – Episode of Bardock manga, he acquires the ability to transform into Super Saiyan.
His main technique is the Final Spirit Cannon which allows him to concentrate all his energy on his right hand. The execution mechanics resemble the throwing of a javelin, Bardock aiming at the target and launching a beam of blue energy against it. With this shot, he defeated Chilled and Gas. Bardock, in the animated film The Origin of the Myth, possesses the prediction of the future (or precognition). This peculiar ability is transmitted to him during a fight by the Kanassian Toolo, who hits him on the head before being killed by his team, to show Bardock the end of his people.
It allows him to see events that will take place in the future, but Bardock cannot control the visions. That is, he is not one to “recall” them; still, in the feature film, the doctors who treat him estimate that his combat level is close to 10,000, higher than that of an elite warrior like Nappa, who officially has a combat level of 4,000, precisely because drawing power from Zenkai his strength it is continuously increasing reaching a level of 10,000.
King Vegeta III and his powers
Vegeta III, officially recognized as King Vegeta III or better known simply as King Vegeta, is the father of Prince Vegeta IV and Tarble. He was also the last and most recent king and leader of the Saiyans and the commander of the Saiyan Army who emigrated from the extinct Planet Sadala to Planet Vegeta, which was renamed after him after leading his people to victory in the Saiyan-Tsufruian War. After the Universe 7 Galactic Empire took over control over all of his people, he was forced to swear allegiance to the new rulers but still retained some level of control over his people.
King Vegeta belongs to the royal family, which is the elite group of Saiyans. He is now among the most powerful Saiyans of all time as a result. In the TV special, Bardock’s healers warn him that his fighting level is getting close to 10,000 and that he will soon overtake King Vegeta after defeating Planet Kanassa. In Dragon Ball Z, Vegeta claims that even as a young child, he was already more powerful than his father when fighting his own fights on Namek.
According to Dragon Ball Carddass, the power of King Vegeta is about 15,000 units, corroborating his elite level, although well below that of his son Vegeta in the Saiyan Arc with 18,000 units of power. Like all pure-blood Saiyans of Universe 7, King Vegeta was born with a tail that gives him the ability to turn into a Great Ape on a full Moon night. He is likewise capable of using a ball of power to transform, having absorbed through his eyes a considerable amount of bruit rays equivalent to 17 million zeno, multiplying his base power by 10.
He is first seen in the special Dragon Ball: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans and Dragon Ball GT, where he appears in a flashback fighting the Tuffle. His appearance is the same as any other Ōzaru, except that the shape of his hair is shorter. When he transforms into Dragon Ball GT, King Vegeta wears a fur outfit with a cape, and when he becomes Ōzaru, his clothes end up tearing, naturally.
In the video games Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 and Dragon Ball Heroes, King Vegeta can also become Ōzaru, although he does so by wearing the combat armor he is known for in the anime. Therefore, when he transforms, his clothing grows with him and remains intact, as is the case with Vegeta wearing the same special suit during his fight with Goku on Earth.
Bardock vs. King Vegeta III: Who would win?
And now for our article’s most important and interesting section – the analysis. Here, we will use what we have learned about these two characters and analyze how all these facts would (or would not) help them in a fight against each other. Let us continue.
The main issue we had here is that Bardock and King Vegeta III are actually from different timelines of Saiyan history, and it was, therefore, quite complex to compare the two properly. Had they fought in King Vegeta’s time, the King would probably win, whereas, in Bardock’s time, the latter would definitely win. This is why we had to “send” them to a “neutral terrain” and compare them objectively in order to properly determine the winner in this intriguing comparison. What did not help us is that by all objective parameters, they were on very similar levels of power (Bardock was around 10,000+, whereas King Vegeta was around 15,000), but the information we had came from various sources so it’s not set in stone.
Be that as it may, what we have to say is the following. On a basic level, Bardock and King Vegeta III are almost equal. Bardock is not one of the strongest Saiyans in the series, but he has solid potential and is quite powerful. King Vegeta III, on the other hand, was king for a reason and was a member of the royal family, but he himself wasn’t among the strongest Saiyans ever. It was an interesting comparison, surely, but ultimately both of them are very similar, and we couldn’t really determine the winner from this perspective.
What did help us decide were their transformations. Namely, King Vegeta III is only capable of transforming into the Great Ape, and that is his only known transformation. He has never been able to unlock the Super Saiyan form. Bardock, on the other hand, cannot only transform into the Great Ape but also into several Super Saiyan forms and that is why he is ultimately stronger than King Vegeta III. Super Saiyan would be enough for Bardock to defeat King Vegeta III, and that is why we have the Saiyan warrior as the winner here, not the Saiyan ruler.