Earthling Dragon Balls

˚✧ Name ✧༚
☆ Earthling Dragon Balls

˚✧ Type ✧༚
☆ Tool

˚✧ Description ✧༚
☆


The Earth Dragon Balls are about 7.5 cm (approximately 3 in) in diameter, and they summon a dragon named Shenron. They were created by Kami, and later re-created by Dende. Shenron can grant a wish within its powers as long as it does not create love, repeat a wish he previously granted, surpasses its creator's power, and meets a few more restrictions. Legitimate wishes include eternal youth, immortality, bringing back a scorched forest or even an annihilated planet.

One of the most common wishes is bringing a dead person back to life, although there are several limitations on that as well. For starters, as stated above, the dragon will not grant the same wish more than once, which has the net result of ensuring that nobody can be wished back to life more than once. Also, they cannot revive a person who has died of natural causes. Although Earth's dragon balls can revive multiple dead people at once, when multiple people are revived, only those who have been dead for one year or less can be revived. This is often misunderstood by fans to mean that only those who have been dead for less than a year can be revived, but that is never explicitly stated in the series; all Kami ever says is that only wishes to revive multiple people are limited to a one-year time frame. Indeed, this misconception is finally put to rest in the Golden Frieza Saga, when Frieza was restored to life with Earth's dragon balls, despite Frieza being unquestionably dead for longer than a year. It is unknown if this restriction is still in place after Dende upgraded Shenron. In addition, when one is wished back to life, they awaken in the place where they were killed, such as the case with Bora, essentially reuniting the body with the soul. If one's body had been completely vaporized, they would come back in the last state they were alive in as shown by Mecha Frieza who was revived in pieces as the last time he was alive was after Future Trunks' had cut him into pieces (Frieza continued to live due to his ability to survive horrific injuries) before finishing him off. As shown by Frieza condition of the revived person depends on the person being revived as Frieza was revived in pieces due to him being able to live despite his entire body being cut up. If a person has been allowed to keep their body in Otherworld as with Goku, then the person will be revived in Other World (which causes their halo to disappear) forcing them to return to the living world on their own. However this apparently only applies to noble souls like Goku, as evil souls like Mecha Frieza who kept his body in Earth's Hell was revived on Earth in pieces, though it is possible that Dende's alternations to the Dragon Balls how resurrection functions or Frieza being revived on Earth instead of Earth's Hell was due to Shenron's interpretation of Sorbet's wish as Sorbet wanted to restore Frieza to life, so he could restore Frieza's body using the Frieza Force's more advanced medical technology.

Another restriction is that it cannot kill enemies that exceed the creator's power. This is often understood by fans to be a ban on killing villains generally, but that is not explicitly stated. All Shenron states is that he cannot kill someone who exceeds the power of his creator (who, at the time, was Kami); as such, this dialogue opens the possibility for weaker villains such as Emperor Pilaf or Mercenary Tao to be killed off with a wish to the Dragon Balls; however, by the time someone had the idea to make such a wish, the villains were already more than 80 times stronger than Kami, who had a power level of only around 220, and villains would get even stronger after that. It should also be noted that such a wish would be unnecessary anyway as any villain Shenron could kill would also be within the power of his creator (Kami or Dende depending on the time frame) thus Kami or Dende could easily deal with the villain themselves (which would fit with their role as Guardian of Earth) or seek the aid the Earth's fighters that are stronger than them like Goku, Gohan, and Piccolo who are all far stronger than either Kami or Dende. This would have especially been true in Kami's time as Kami is experienced martial artist and the Dragon Balls could only grant one wish which would be far more useful in undoing the damage (deaths and/or destruction) caused by said villains who could be easily dealt by the heroes, Kami included. It should be noted that Dende takes on a more supportive role and tends to leave the fighting to the Z Fighters who would be unlikely to use the Dragon Balls to deal with villains that they could easily deal with themselves, especially given Goku and Vegeta's innate Saiyan love for battle, while others like Piccolo and Gohan (who's gentle nature would likely prevent him from making such a wish) would probably recognize the danger of over relying on the Dragon Balls to kill villains they could easily handle on their own. Additionally, said villains could simply acquire the Dragon Balls themselves to prevent them being used against them and/or use the Earth's Dragon Balls to acquire immortality as Garlic Jr. did.

The Eternal Dragon will grant the first wish uttered after it was called, by whomever is present. However, during the episode Eternal Dragon Resurrected, a notable exception to this rule was displayed: The Dragon has discretion to change a wish at the last minute, provided the original wisher consents to the change. First, Bulma asked the Dragon to revive "all of [their] friends who were killed by Piccolo." Oolong then clarified that the friends they wanted revived were "Krillin, Master Roshi, and Chiaotzu." Shenron was about to grant this wish, but at the last minute, Yamcha interjected and requested that all of Piccolo's victims, not just their friends, be revived as well. Shenron read the faces of Bulma and Oolong, realized that they liked this change, and agreed to make the change.


The Dragon Balls were rendered inert three times: the first time was after King Piccolo murdered Shenron shortly after the latter granted him his wish, and was subsequently revived by Kami after Goku proved to him that there were still some good people in the world (originally, Kami had no intention of reviving them due to the purpose for creating them being corrupted by man's greed). The second time was after Kami ended up indirectly killed by Nappa when Piccolo took Nappa's attack meant for Gohan, although they were restored upon Kami's revival. They were then rendered inert for a final time when Piccolo and Kami decided to reunite due to Cell's grave threat to the world. Goku and the other Z Fighters initially did not consider restoring the Dragon Balls, but after Cell wiped out the entirety of the Royal Armed Forces when they attempted to attack Cell during the ten day wait before the Cell Games, Goku decided to find a means to restore the Dragon Balls, even if Kami could not defuse from Piccolo.


When Dende became the Earth's guardian, he modified the burnt out Dragon Balls created by Kami, giving Shenron the power to grant three wishes (two wishes if one wish is used to revive a large amount of people). He chose simply modifying Kami's Dragon Balls over creating a new set because the time it would take to create a new set from scratch was far too long, especially given the imminent threat of Cell. In addition to this, Dende's dragon can grant one wish and then have the other wishes saved for a later time. This was shown in the Buu Saga, when one wish was made to revive all those killed by Majin Vegeta, and then Goku asked Shenron to save the following wishes. Therefore, only four or so months after Kid Buu's defeat, another wish was made to erase the Earthlings' memories of Buu. One obstacle that Dende could not overcome for the new set of balls is that, a person cannot be revived more than once. However in Dragon Ball GT Shenron is able to revive Krillin (and presumably Android 17 who had been revived after the Cell Games) who had previously been revived by Shenron, indicating that this limitation has been removed or it was due to the special nature of the wish itself which was granted by Shenron as a final wish after the defeat of the Shadow Dragons. Like the Namekian Dragon Balls, the summoner must utter a set of words. In Dragon Ball Z, these words are "Eternal Dragon, by your name, I summon you forth: Shenron!" In Dragon Ball GT, right before the Shadow Dragon Saga, the words have changed to "Arise, Shenron!"


It is unclear whether Dragon Balls can revive artificial life or not. While Android 17 was revived during the Cell Games Saga, he started out as a human and was made into an android by Dr. Gero. Android 16, who was killed by Cell, was not seen again in the series even after the wish was made to revive all of Cell's victims. However in Dragon Ball FighterZ it is implied that Shenron was apparently unable to revive Android 16 who was revived by Android 21 by uploading the original 16's memories into a new body. As his memory apparently survived the destruction of his original body, Shenron may have been unable to revive Android 16 as his mind had survived the destruction of his original body thus he was technically still alive due to his nature as a mechanical type android which presumably allows him to survive the destruction of his body as long as his original memories remain intact to allow them to be uploaded into a new body. Presumably this would have also prevented his revival by Shenron in the main series as well.

In the Dragon Ball episode "The Legend of a Dragon", Master Roshi told a popular legend about the origin of the Dragon Balls. This legend is only present in the anime and contradicts the explanation given later in the series about Kami being their creator. Since Roshi's tale is only a rumor he had heard, it was likely a myth presumably created by the Earthlings. However, it is worth noting that the rumor closely resembles the story of how the Dragon Balls were made from parts of the Super Dragon Balls in Dragon Ball Super. Another possibility is that Kami may have created the myth himself to obscure the Dragon Balls origins from the people of Earth. Additionally the story of the hero may have been created by Kami to inspire the people of Earth to use the Dragon Balls for good.


"The Legend, as I was told, goes something like this. In the beginning there was only one Dragon Ball. It was huge. I mean REALLY huge, it had to be. It held all of the mystical energies of the universe. An ancient tribe discovered it, and was inspired by its magnificent power. They built a shrine around it, and protected the orb by placing it in the mouth of a giant Dragon statue, said to be its eternal guardian. You should have seen the detail on this thing, it was INCREDIBLE, scales made of Ruby, teeth of pearl—speaking of pearl, they say there was this one native girl ("GET ON WITH IT!")—yes, well, the tribe enjoyed years of prosperity until one day, evil paid a visit to the village in the form of a band of thieves. These agents of Darkness stormed the temple in an attempt to steal the Dragon Ball for their own selfish gain. They were shocked to discover the true power of the Ball. To ensure such an attack never happened again, the Dragon Ball was divided into seven smaller orbs, and scattered across the globe. Separately, the Dragon Balls were useless, but when all seven were united, then a single voice could summon the Eternal Dragon for one wish, and one wish only. Some wishes were pure, but others were tainted by blind ambition. This led to pain and suffering as an unjust few wished for power and dominion over mankind. But as the story goes there will one day come a hero who will use the Dragon Balls for goodness, and bring peace and unity to the world once more."

˚✧ Effects ✧༚
☆ Summons Shenron
☆ Grants two wishes within the listed restrictions after all seven dragon balls have been gathered.