Bardock's Wish in Dragon Ball Super Chapter 83 Meant Strong Sons, Not Lifelong Protection, Translator Herms Says

Bardock's wish in Dragon Ball Super manga chapter 83 was basically a wish for his sons to grow up to be strong men, not a wish that nothing bad would ever happen to them, according to the Japanese interpreter Herms. That leads me to another question: did the dragon that granted it actually protect Goku and Raditz throughout their lives?

For a few days after the chapter came out, Bardock's wish was probably the most talked about thing from it. I reviewed the chapter at the time and I was not a big fan. If you disagree, that's okay, it's your opinion, but there were decisions in this chapter that I thought were a little confusing and a bit weird. We may have some enlightenment from Herms on at least one of them. I think this could have some implications for the future of Dragon Ball, and it could also clarify some things we were wondering about before he weighed in.

Herms says Bardock wished for his sons to grow up strong

Herms is an N1 certified Japanese interpreter. For those who don't know, being N1 certified means you speak Japanese about as well as pretty much anybody who isn't from Japan. It's the highest degree of interpreter skill you could have. There was some debate over the wording of the wish Bardock made with regards to Goku and Raditz, along with other talking points from the chapter, and Herms addressed the wish directly on Twitter.

He wrote that "it seems that this still needs saying" and that "the Japanese wording for Bardock's wish basically means I wish my sons grow up to be strong men and not I wish that nothing bad will ever happen to my sons at any point in their whole entire lives ever." I think that's true. Essentially, the wish was never that Bardock wanted his kids to have a pain free life, but that he wanted them to thrive.

You have to understand that when it comes to translating Japanese, there are always different interpretations and different translations. It's not an easy language to translate, which is why being N1 certified is such a big deal. Understanding the language that well really matters here.

Raditz did grow up strong, even if he can't compete today

If the wish was about growing up to be strong, that did happen. I know people are going to make their jokes and say Raditz wasn't that strong. Yes, he was. He was the first villain of the Z portion of the story, he comes from way back, and no, he can't compete with pretty much anybody in the current Dragon Ball era. But that doesn't matter when you look at the entire universe.

Forget about the small group of really strong characters we have now, like the Z Fighters, the villains, or even the gods. When it comes to the mortals of the entire universe, or even just the population of Earth, which is not that small, there are millions upon billions of people who don't even know how to properly use ki. Only a few people in the story of Dragon Ball know how to use it, so Raditz was already ahead of the curve compared to most regular mortals.

Remember, Bardock wished for them to grow up, be strong, and live thriving lives. When Goku and Raditz first met, which led to Goku and Piccolo teaming up to kill Raditz, both of them were already grown. Goku even had a son by then. So Bardock's wish did come true.

Did the dragon protect Goku and Raditz until they met?

That leads me to another situation. Did the dragon actually protect them throughout their lives? That would mean that from the moment Bardock made the wish all the way until Raditz was killed by Goku and Piccolo, the dragon was so powerful that it could actually change the trajectory of their lives. That could be the case. Mr. Senpai was the one who brought this idea up to me, and at the time I planned to talk more about it with him while previewing the next chapter. It is something to think about.

Think about what happens if there was a protective layer around Goku and Raditz so they would never die until they met. Had Raditz and Goku never met, Raditz would never have died, and Goku would never have even known he was an alien. It would have been very unlikely for any of that to take place. So yes, it looks like that's a possibility, and it's something to wrap your brain around.

Monaito's wish happened off screen

Herms also said a lot of people seem to be taking the use of thriving to mean permanent protection from all badness, or other things that go beyond the original implication, which again pretty much says I wish they grow up fine. Bardock did wish for that. But let's not forget that the wish Monaito made was done off screen. What we got was only what Bardock said he would wish for, so that may not have been what actually happened.

Herms made the same point. He described Bardock's line as a hypothetical, along the lines of here's what I'd wish for if I made a wish, and said it's not revealed precisely what ultimately goes down between Monaito and the dragon. Monaito may have asked for that, and it's implied in the next few panels that he did ask for at least that. But we never actually saw the words come out of his mouth, which leaves it up to interpretation. We might find out more in later chapters, or we might not. I can't guarantee that.

Why I trust Herms over the Viz wording

Herms also said that even thrive doesn't carry such far reaching implications in English, and that it's a good fit for grow up well. On the other hand, he said, it's a wish, so Viz probably should have been more careful with the wording to avoid potential misunderstandings. He also thanked another person for giving basically the exact same explanation at least twice already.

I consider Herms to be a much more accurate translator than the people who work at Viz. It's nothing against them and it's not personal, but Herms has been doing this for something like 25 years, and the people at Viz aren't even 25 years old. I tend to trust somebody with more experience who actually lived in Japan. I'm not saying the Viz translators didn't, but Herms has proven himself over and over again to have knowledge of this.

If the dragon shaped their lives, its power goes beyond the Earth and Namekian Dragon Balls

If the protection idea is right, then this dragon's power goes far beyond even the Earth or Namekian Dragon Balls. Not the Super Dragon Balls, but definitely above those two. If you remember, the dragon can't really influence things beyond its own power or its creator's power, which in this case would be Monaito. So is Monaito really that powerful when it comes to his magic abilities?

There are a lot of questions here that I feel either will be answered later on, or to be honest, probably won't be, because Dragon Ball Super already has so many unanswered questions. We don't know how Beerus became a God of Destruction. We don't know who actually killed Jiren's parents. We don't know what happened to the other six universes. This could end up being explained, or it could end up being tossed aside by Dragon Ball Super's creators as not being important, even though I think it's very important.

A dragon manipulating Dragon Ball's history is a hard pill to swallow

This could be a huge change to Dragon Ball's backstory, and honestly it kind of takes away from the story. Imagine that this whole time the dragon manipulated all these people: Bulma meeting Goku, Goku fighting Piccolo and training with the people he trained with, Raditz going off with Vegeta and Nappa until it was time for him to go to Earth. If the dragon manipulated all of that, it's kind of a hard pill to swallow.

So I'm not buying that one fully, but that could be what happened here. Either way, the thrive wording is meant to be more like becoming stronger, and that did happen. At the beginning of Z, Goku and Raditz were both very strong, way stronger than most mortals in the entire universe. It is what it is.

Do you read Bardock's wish as a wish for strength, or as a wish for protection?