For a long time, Bardock - The Father of Goku was considered "canon-adjacent." Akira Toriyama, the original manga creator, liked the special so much that he referenced Bardock in the manga (drawing him in a single panel during the Frieza flashback).

intends to eradicate the Saiyan race out of fear of the Legend of the Super Saiyan. The Warning

Summary

Weaknesses

The final fifteen minutes of Bardock are arguably the finest sequence ever produced for 1990s Dragon Ball anime. Wounded, battered, and utterly alone, Bardock does the only thing a Saiyan can do: he charges directly at the impossible. Flying through an army of Frieza’s soldiers, screaming his son’s name (a name he barely acknowledged hours before), he confronts the galactic emperor.

A lone Bardock fights through Frieza's army in space to reach the tyrant’s ship.

The 1990 TV special is only 48 minutes long. Yet in that runtime, it gave us the franchise’s best antagonist (Frieza at his most cruel), its grittiest fight scenes, and its most bittersweet ending. Bardock set the template for every tragic Saiyan story that followed.