Goku Finally Fights Bardock in Super Dragon Ball Heroes Ultra God Mission Episode 4, and the Payoff Falls Flat

Super Dragon Ball Heroes Ultra God Mission episode 4 gave fans something many of them had wanted for years: Bardock and Goku meeting, and not just meeting but fighting. For me, the episode was a big disappointment, because Heroes teased a fight people had long hoped for and then did not deliver on it.

If you want to talk about fan service, this episode is it. We had already had plenty of Bardock in the year or so before it, with the Dragon Ball Super manga using him as connective tissue to Granolah and to Goku, along with the idea some people had that Bardock has a place in Goku's mind going past the Granolah arc. Then Dragon Ball Heroes, whether purposely or not, literally gave us Bardock versus Goku.

Goku and Bardock meet for the first time in a promotional anime

I know a lot of Dragon Ball fans wanted Bardock and Goku to meet. I have always made the argument that Goku does not care about his father, and he doesn't. The Granolah arc did give some development suggesting maybe he does now. But instead of Goku meeting him in the afterlife, or after his spirit had perhaps been cleansed, the first meeting came in Dragon Ball Heroes, the promotional anime.

That might annoy some people, but at least they actually got to meet. This was, of course, an alternate timeline Bardock. The episode opened with Goku and Jiren facing off against the cloaked warriors, and one of them revealed himself to be Bardock from a different timeline. He also used Super Saiyan 3. It was not the first time Bardock reached that form, because he had done it before in the Heroes game, especially as the Masked Saiyan.

Goku was up for the challenge and went into Ultra Instinct Omen, which I thought was pretty interesting. What was also interesting is that Bardock recognised Kakarot. He knew who he was.

Dragon Ball Heroes uses fan wish list ideas first and never pays them off

They fought, but as expected, this is Dragon Ball Heroes, and Heroes is never going to give us the quality of fights we get in a regular Dragon Ball anime, and especially not a movie. The animation was choppy.

This goes back to something I have said many times. So many ideas that people want to see, good or bad, ideas that flesh out the Dragon Ball universe, are first used in Dragon Ball Heroes. It is crazy, because it is stuff fans have wanted and they give it to you, but it is Heroes, so it never pays off the way people want. You get no time for real emotion or real connection with what is going on.

They also cut to a lot of different fights, like Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta and Hit, taking us away from Goku and Bardock. They should not have done that. I am at the point with Heroes where "I don't even get mad"; I am just tired, and I go into these episodes with very low expectations.

Bardock's return looks like synergy with the Dragon Ball Super manga

What I find interesting is the question of why Bardock, and why bring him to Heroes again, since he had already been a big part of the Masked Saiyan storyline. Obviously, I think, it is because of the synergy with the manga.

It is like the Gohan reveal in the previous episode. The Super Hero movie had just come out in Japan, I think literally the week before, when they dropped that reveal. Maybe Heroes was not working with Shueisha and Toei to make everything line up before, but I think they are a bit more focused now. It could be a coincidence, but I really don't think it is, because it has happened too frequently lately.

Vegeta's Final Flash looked great, but it cost us the Goku and Bardock fight

Vegeta appeared to power up into Blue Evolution and did a Final Flash, which was awesome. There was also a part where Yamcha called timeout, which I thought was pretty cool. The episode was choppy, but that shot of Vegeta firing the Final Flash looked really good.

Here is what annoyed me. When we came back to Goku and Bardock, they had just finished fighting, looking at each other, sweating and breathing hard. Once again they teased a fight people have wanted to see for years and then did not deliver on it, seemingly because they wanted to cut away to Vegeta doing a Final Flash with some cheap animation. I really don't like that.

Bardock's blast recalls his stand against Frieza

Speaking of beam struggles, Bardock fired a blast that resembled, though I can't say it was exactly, the one he used when he confronted Frieza in space in the original Bardock special. Frieza answered with his big planet destroyer, and that was the end of Bardock.

This time Goku in Ultra Instinct Omen fired a Kamehameha, and they had a beam struggle. I would have preferred more actual physical fighting, and it annoys me because they do this a lot. Goku won, Bardock went back to his base form, and the two looked at each other and smiled. Reading the subtext, I am guessing Bardock was proud that Kakarot had become a great fighter, and Goku was proud his father was great. But they never had a moment where they talked at length. I think a lot of fans wanted that, and that is the price you pay for 10 minute episodes.

The original Supreme Kai of Time takes the throne

After the battle, the episode ended with the original Supreme Kai of Time on a throne in a place that looks like Conton City from Xenoverse, though I don't think it is. The current Supreme Kai of Time also appeared under a cloak, since everybody was wearing those.

At the time, I felt the current Supreme Kai of Time would eventually overthrow the original, though that might only happen if one of her team members actually won the tournament.

My verdict on episode 4: skip it

I didn't like this episode. It was the same thing we keep seeing from Heroes: "nothing ever really gets paid off." These great moments are wasted. In a proper Dragon Ball anime or a movie, there would have been time to let them sit and to have the characters react, whether Goku and Bardock, that Gohan reveal, or Gohan and Trunks from the future meeting for the first time in years.

To be honest, I only covered it because I had already started. Every episode I try to care, but this promotes a game most of us will never get to play. I have played it, but not everybody has, so you won't really get a story here, and the fights are not good. My rating is skip it, because I don't think anything important happened. Or just get through it, since it is 10 minutes long. "I have no desire to ever see it again."

Was a Goku and Bardock meeting in Dragon Ball Heroes better than no meeting at all, or should it have been saved for a proper Dragon Ball anime?