Warning: The following contains spoilers for Dragon Ball Daima, Episode 2, “Glorio”, now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Key Takeaways
- Shenron can now grant three wishes, but only to those he considers regulars.
- Becoming a “regular” and receiving three wishes is likely tied to the number of times someone summons Shenron.
- Black wishes, like eliminating someone, may not be granted by Shenron, implying a division between white and black magic.
In Dragon Ball Daima, episode 2, “Glorio”, the new king of the Demon Realm, Gomah, uses an old Namekian named Neva to magically collect Earth’s Dragon Balls. His wishes? Well, the first one is to change the Z Fighters’ and their friends’ bodies into first-graders and those who are already children into babies, which goes through as planned. His second wish, however, which was to gain a powerful artifact called the Evil Third Eye, was not granted. Apparently, Shenron’s three-wish rule is a bonus for “regulars”, but whether this was a safety measure placed by Dende or simply a limitation of his powers is unknown.
During the Cell Saga, Kami fused back with Piccolo, which left Earth without a Guardian, and to remedy that, Goku headed over to New Namek in search of a new Guardian, eventually picking Dende. Shortly after assuming the role of the new Guardian, Dende restored Earth’s Dragon Balls and gave Shenron an upgrade, the ability to grant three wishes instead of one. Even back then, that upgrade had a condition, which was that Shenron could only grant two wishes if one of the three was used to revive a large number of people, but now, it seems that a new condition has been revealed.
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So, if a person has to be considered a “regular” before Shenron starts granting them three wishes, how many times would someone need to summon or make wishes to Shenron before he considers them one? Well, Shenron never gave King Gomah an exact number, so the best guess anyone can make right now is the number of times the Z Fighters summoned and made wishes to Shenron up until Dende recreated Earth’s Dragon Balls.
Before that, though, it’s clear that it doesn’t have to be the same person who makes a wish to Shenron, because if that were the case, then technically no one should be classified as a regular. No single person has made a wish to Shenron more than once pre-Cell Saga, so a person only has to be part of the group that summoned him, or perhaps they just have to be present at the time for it to count. And since different groups of people are present each time he’s summoned, Shenron might be able to recognize who knows who and count them as well.
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From the original Dragon Ball series to Dende becoming Guardian, Shenron has granted five wishes to the Z Fighters, six if you count Demon King Piccolo’s wish for youth. Even though he wasn’t part of the Z Fighters at that time and was even their main enemy, Shenron might still recognize and count him since Piccolo is, in a sense, a reincarnation of Demon King Piccolo. Here are all the known wishes made by Z Fighters, or people acquainted with them before Dende’s change. This list also includes who summoned Shenron in each instance:
- In Dragon Ball, episode 12, “A Wish to the Eternal Dragon”, Emperor Pilaf summons Shenron, then Oolong wishes for the world’s most comfortable pair of underwear.
- In Dragon Ball, episode 78, “The Eternal Dragon Rises”, Goku summons Shenron, then Upa wishes for his father Bora to come back to life.
- In Dragon Ball, episode 112, “King Piccolo’s Wish”, Demon King Piccolo summons Shenron and wishes for his youth to be restored.
- In Dragon Ball, episode 126, “Eternal Dragon Resurrected”, it is unclear who takes the credit for summoning Shenron since multiple people summon him at once. Yamcha then makes a wish to revive everyone killed by Demon King Piccolo and his sons.
- In Dragon Ball Z, episode 15, “Counting Down”, Master Roshi summons Shenron and wishes for Goku to come back to life.
- In Dragon Ball Z, episode 99, “Approaching Destruction”, Mr. Popo summons Shenron and wishes to revive everyone on Namek killed by Frieza and his henchmen.
Having to summon Shenron five or six times to be considered a regular sounds right, but it’s a really tall order. That’s all just speculation though. For all anyone knows, maybe you only need to have collected the Dragon Balls twice to be considered a regular. After all, collecting the Dragon Balls is supposed to be an incredible feat that only a few should be able to achieve even once in their lifetime. Not everyone has Dragon Ball detectors, magical old Namekians, and friends who can move faster than light, which severely trivializes the search for the Balls.
Another Rule Concerning Shenron’s Wishes Revealed
White and Black Magic and Wishes
According to Degesu in Dragon Ball Daima episode 1, “Conspiracy”, Shenron uses something called white magic to grant wishes, making him incapable of granting a “black wish”. It’s not really clear what makes a wish black, but it seems that eliminating or killing someone is a type of black wish. This rule is why King Gomah settled on making the Z Fighters revert to children rather than straight-up getting rid of them. If Earth’s Dragon Balls use white magic, then perhaps the Demon Realm’s Dragon Balls use black magic, and if so, then Dragon Ball Daima might dive deeper into the rules that govern the Eternal Dragons in the future.
“But what will you wish for? I’m sure their (Earth Dragon Balls) power is based on white magic, so I doubt a black wish like eliminating them will be accepted.” – Degesu to Gomah
Dragon Ball Daima has only been around for a couple of episodes, and it’s already been making huge revelations and additions to the lore of Dragon Ball. Who knows what else Akira Toriyama’s final gift to the fans has in store?
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Dragon Ball Daima is now available to stream on Crunchyroll and Netflix. The release date for Dragon Ball Daima, episode 6, is set to be November 15, 2024 at 10:00 AM PT.
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