Dragon Ball (artifact)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Dragon Ball is a fictional artifact from the manga and anime Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z, as well as Dragon Ball GT. A similar version of them with the same name also appear in the Akira Toriyama manga Dragon Boy (the proto-Dragon Ball one-shot series).
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[edit] The Legend of the Dragon Balls
Seven magical stones scattered across the Earth that when gathered, can summon the dragon god, Shenlong (Shenron in the English Dub) who will grant the summoner a single wish within his power, even reviving a person who had died (but only of unnatural causes, and within a year of that person's death. There was also a once per person limit until late into DBZ).
Each dragon ball is about the size of a softball and is a crystalline orange-ish color. The Dragon Balls also have reddish colored stars inside (Black in the case of the Black-Star Dragonballs introduced to us in Dragon Ball GT). Each dragon ball has a different amount of stars from the next one. After each usage, the dragonballs scatter randomly around the Earth again and turn to stone for 365 days. Originally, the Dragon Balls were meant to be used only once every hundred years, due to the negative energy that builds from each wish.
The Dragon Balls were originally created by the Namekians. Kami made the balls after he traveled to Earth from his home planet called Namek. The Dragon Balls are directly connected to Kami's life force, so when Kami dies or his individual life force becomes absorbed into something, the Dragon Balls turn to stone, permenantely, unless the balls are revived by another Namekian guardian. Other restrictions on the balls include, not being able to grant the same wish to the same person a second time. For example, Shen Long will not revive a person a second time and he can't transform anyone into something that they naturally are not, but he can grant eternal life.
The first Earth Dragon Ball we are introduced to is the "Four-Star Dragon Ball", possessed by Son Goku. Goku's adoptive grandfather named Son Gohan had given the ball to Goku when he died. Goku spent his life guarding the Four-Star Dragon Ball, until he learned of their true purpose from Bulma, a young girl who came looking for the balls so she could get her wish granted of having the perfect boyfriend.
Another set of Dragon Balls we know of reside on Namek, created by Saichuro (also known as Guru in the dub). These Dragon Balls are similar to the ones on Earth in powers and appearance, however the Namek ones are as large as volleyballs. There are also two extra precautions taken on the Namekian Dragon Balls; the summoner is required to utter a Namekian password in order to summon the Dragon God, Porunga. The other precaution is that the wishes must spoken in the Namekian language. Once Porunga is summoned, he has the ability to grant three wishes, that are somewhat less powerful than Shenlong's wishes. For example, Porunga could only revive one person at a time while Shenlong could revive an infinite amount of people at a time, but Porunga can grant the same wish as many times as the summoner pleases. The time the Namekian Dragon Balls took to restore was 180 days, not like the 365 days required for the Dragon Balls on Earth.
Later on, both dragons were modified, after the conflict with an evil overlord named Freeza which resulted in the destruction of the planet Namek. Porunga (on a re-established Planet New Namek) was modified to have the power to revive more than one person at time, even though he didn't seem quite as powerful as Shenlong when it came to that power because he had to work harder than Shenlong to revive numerous people. Shenlong's modification was that he was given the ability to grant two wishes instead of one.
Dende, a Namekian, became the Earth's god when Kami combined with Piccolo in order to become strong enough to defend Earth against a new threat. Since Piccolo and Kami's individual life forces became one, the Dragon Balls became inert because Kami's individual life force ceased to exist. Rather than creating a new set of Dragon Balls, Dende revived and modified the old ones based on Kami's design. This was when Dende also gave Shenlong the power to grant 2 wishes instead of the original one.
In Dragon Ball GT, the concept of "Black Star Dragon Balls" was introduced. This set of Dragon Balls was created by Kami, during the time period when he still had the influence of Piccolo Daimaō. The Black Star Dragon Balls can summon a much more powerful "Red Shenlong", a mighty dragon that is not restricted like Shenlong (eg. Red Shenlong can kill a person if wished to). To counter this powerful improvement, the side effects of a wish made on the Black Star Dragonballs is catostrophic. There are two major issues that happen when a wish is made on the Black Star Dragonballs; one is that when a wish is made, they scatter across the galaxy, rather than the Earth. The second unfortunate side effect is the planet upon which Red Shenlong grants a wish will be destroyed in one year unless the Black Star Dragon Balls are returned to the planet that the wish was made on. The Black Star Dragon Balls and the Red Shenlong disappeared forever when Piccolo allowed himself to be killed by Earth's destruction, as he was the balls' creator.
Like many aspects of GT, most fans consider them non-canonical. The primary reason for this is that the Dragon Ball GT series was never part of the written manga or even created by Akira Toriyama, therefore most of it is void of canonical facts. The existence of the Black Star Dragon Balls does present a major plot hole. Bulma's Dragonball radar never picked up the signature of the Black Star Dragon Balls. If the original counterpart of Kami and Piccolo was the one that created an original set of Dragon Balls (the Black Star Dragon Balls), it doesn't make sense that Piccolo Daimaō didn't know about them until he was told of their existence by Emperor Pilaf in the first place. It also doesn't make sense that Pilaf knew of them when their creator didn't even know of them.
[edit] Negative energy
Dragon Ball GT introduced the concept of negative energy in Dragon Balls. According to Dragon Ball GT, when a wish is made on the Dragon Balls, an equal amount of negative energy is created along with the beneficial wish granting energy. To prevent this energy from causing problems, the Dragon Balls absorb this dark energy, which only dispers after the original 100-year waiting period. The Dragon Balls then scatter across the planet, giving them time to disper the dark energy, since it would, in theory, take years for someone to find all 7 Dragon Balls and summon Shenlong again. Unfortunately, this counter measure was proved near useless when Bulma invented the Dragon Ball Radar, making it near effortless to find the Dragon Balls. Eventually (during Dragon Ball GT) all seven Dragon Balls were filled to full capacity, causing them to crack and the dark energy to leak out. When these damaged Dragon Balls were used to summon Shenlong to restore the Earth after Goku's battle with Super 17, the Dragon Balls summoned years worth of dark energy instead, which manifested into an evil Black Smoke Shenlong, who in turn swallowed the Dragon Balls and split into seven lesser evil dragons called "Evil Dragons", each one made by a wish that was made within the past 100 year period (all the wishes made by Goku and his friends).
[edit] Wishes granted
- Oolong wishes for a pair of panties off a "hot babe". (Brought forth Liu Xing Long in GT)
- Son Goku wishes for Bora to be revived. (Brought forth Liang Xing Long in GT)
- Piccolo Daimaō wishes for his youth to be restored. (Brought forth Si Xing Long in GT)
- Reviving everyone killed by Piccolo Daimao and his children.
DragonBall Z:
- Muten-Rôshi wishes for Son Goku to be revived. (Brought forth Wu Xing Long in GT)
- Dende, Son Gohan and Kuririn wish for Piccolo's life to be restored. (Granted by Porunga)
- Dende, Son Gohan and Kuririn wish for Piccolo to be transported to Planet Namek. (Granted by Porunga)
- Mr. Popo wishes for all those killed by Freeza and his henchmen on Planet Namek brought back to life. (Granted by Shenlong)
- Dende wishes everyone on Planet Namek to go to Earth except Son Goku and Freeza. (Granted by Porunga)
- Dende wishes for Krillin to be brought to the Earth's check in station (Granted by porunga)
- Dende wishes for Kuririn's life to be restored. (Granted by Porunga)
- Dende wishes for Tenshinhan's life to be restored. (Granted by Porunga)
- Dende wishes for Chaozu's life to be restored. (Granted by Porunga)
- Dende wishes for Yamcha's life to be restored. (Granted by Porunga)
- Dende wishes for all the Namekians (apart from Piccolo and Kami) to be transported to another planet. (Granted by Porunga)
- The Z-Senshi wish all people killed by Cell and the other androids to be revived.
- Kuririn wishes for the self-destruct bombs in #17 and #18 to be removed.
- Bulma wishes for all the good people who got killed by Majin Vegeta to be revived. (Granted by Shenlong) (Brought forth Qi Xing Long in GT)
- Dende wishes the planet Earth to be restored (Granted by Porunga)
- Dende wishes for all those killed since the day of the Tenkaichi Budokai restored, except the evil ones. (Granted by Porunga)
- Dende wishes for Son Goku's strength to be restored (Granted by Porunga)
- All memories of Majin Buu would be erased from the populance of Earth, save for the memories of the Z-Senshi. (Granted by Shenlong)
- Pilaf accidentally wishes for Goku to be turned into a child. (Granted by Black Star Shenlong)
- Bebi-Vegeta wishes for a new Planet Vegeta to be created and located near Earth, complete with buildings and plants. (Granted by Black Star Shenlong)
- A wish to restore the Earth after being destroyed by the side effects of using the Black Star Dragon Balls. (Granted by Porunga)
- A wish to revive all the people who were killed by Super 17 and all vilains thereafter.
Dragon Ball Movies:
Dragon Ball Movie 1: Curse of the Blood Rubies
- Pansy wishes for the end of the rubies
Dragon Ball Movie 3: Mystical Adventure
- Goku wishes for Bora to be revived.
Dragon Ball: The Path to Power:
- Goku wishes for Shenlong to rebuild Mechanical Man (Jinzoningen/Android)#8 and remove the bomb inside him.
Dragon Ball Z Movie 1: Dead Zone
- Garlic Jr. wishes for immortality.
Dragon Ball Z Movie 2: The World's Strongest
- Dr. Koichin wishes for Dr. Wheelo to be released from his prison.
Dragon Ball Z Movie 3: Tree of Might
- Bulma, Son Gohan and Kuririn wish to restore the forest.
Dragon Ball Z Movie 4: Lord Slug
- Lord Slug wishes for his youth to be restored.
Dragon Ball Z Movie 10: Broly, Second Coming
- Son Goten wishes that his father were there, and an image of Goku appears; (though this creates an interesting plot hole. Not only did Shenlong not appear, but at this point, Dende had powered up Shenlong to grant two wishes, though when Goten asks to see Son Goku, the Dragonballs still scatter at the end of the movie. It doesn't really matter though, as the movies are non-canon.)
Dragon Ball Z Movie 12: Fusion Reborn
- Shenlong appears, but no wish is made due to his inability to grant the one Gohan wanted, leading to a somewhat comedic ending.
Dragon Ball Z Movie 13: Dragon Fist Explosion
- Goku wishes to unlock a box Son Gohan and Videl found (Tapion was in it).
[edit] In other media
- In the manga Dragon Boy, Dragon Balls are small balls that appear very similar to the balls in the Dragon Ball series. However, instead of granting wishes, they can be opened using ki energy to release a small baby dragon that does not grant wishes.
- In the anime Puni Puni Poemy, the main character is shown to have collected 3 Dragon Balls to wish back her deceased parents. This is simply a gag on Dragon Ball and not meant to be taken seriously.
