Was establishing that only 28 planets in Universe 7 have sentient life a mistake from a creative standpoint?

[WittyUsername]

I know that it’s been an entire year since the anime established this about Universe 7, but looking back on it, does the fact that Universe 7 apparently only has 28 planets with sentient life restrict what they can do with the franchise moving forward, in terms of Universe 7 specifically?

[BlueVegerot]

It would be but shin is a notorious dumbass and toriyama can just retcon that line by giving the in universe explanation that shin is dumb and has no idea what he's talking about if toriyama wants to

[Logania]

It does limit the universe, but only if they don't make Shin create more planets for the future due to the awareness of their low mortal ranking now. He and other Supreme Kais have been changed to be creation Gods who can make planets anytime, so that boy better get to work.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

They've never done anything in space ever since Namek so no it doesn't. Other universes exist now for space exploration, if they wanted.

[sintzu]

I think this was done to close the door on U7 by Toriyama so he can focus on the other universes. I think it's Toriyama's way of giving closure to things as before there were all these questions about what's out there so when Toriyama ends his story there won't be as many open plot points as before.

[Diccolo-420]

Big time, but the bigger mistake was not exploring space after the namek saga. The Cell Saga made sense for it to be centered around Earth, the buu saga, however, should have taken place elsewhere earlier on. The scale has been pretty limiting after that, sadly.

[Simere]

Not at all. The size of a universe means nothing in terms of how big a world can be. The biggest universes tend to be set on a single planet, and often only a fraction of that world, with one or two continents being the primary focus. Middle-earth, Westeros, and Tamriel are far bigger than DB and its 12 universes.

What DB needs for continuing storylines is stronger enemies. The "mistake" that limited U7's potential to provide that was committed almost 30 years ago when Freeza was established as the strongest in the universe; Boo further confirmed that, and Beerus left no doubt. The 28 planets tidbit was comical, but U7 already had no potential, which is why it's U7 in the first place: eleven other universes were created to find new enemies.

[BlueBasilisk]

It was certainly an odd detail to throw out there since it had nothing to do with the conclusion of the arc, but I agree with Simere that it doesn't actually change anything. Universe 7 was already greatly limited by Frieza and then Buu, and Beerus was the final nail in the coffin. All it does is confirm that Goku really is the peak of U7's mortals.

[shadowfox87]

I don't think it is and it makes sense. Universe 7 has had its share of destruction more often than creation. Hence, why its mortal level is so low. Buu destroyed several planets waay before the story even started. Many of the Kaioshins were killed, so there were few people left to "create". Kaioshins have the ability to create the "impetus" for life and planets as stated by Toriyama. Then Freeza and Beerus destroyed even more planets.

[Lord Frieza]

I don't think it is and it makes sense. Universe 7 has had its share of destruction more often than creation. Hence, why its mortal level is so low. Buu destroyed several planets waay before the story even started. Many of the Kaioshins were killed, so there were few people left to "create". Kaioshins have the ability to create the "impetus" for life and planets as stated by Toriyama. Then Freeza and Beerus destroyed even more planets.

And to add to that, Champa has also made a number of secret trips to U7 in his hunt for the Super Dragon Balls. During those trips he never had a radar and was more then willing to just destroy a planet to find out if it was really a db. While we will never know exactly how long he’s been collecting, even if it’s only been during the time Beerus last too a long sleep, so just befor Goku was born, he’s seen destroying planets at random in U7 for potentially many years. That makes him another likely contributor to the low number of inhabited planets.

Another factor is Shin was not only alone but also, from what we know of him, likely a junior. He lacks much of the knowledge older kaioshin posses. Also he Primary focus since the loss of his fellows has been stopping Buu’s resurection. With his focus on Buu he could have been neglecting his creation duties.

[Michsi]

I think so because aside from the fact that it suddenly make U7 feel really small and empty, it also makes the whole Planet Trade business Freeza and the saiyans had going seem really pointless. The fact that Freeza's empire was technically just a real estate company instead of your run-of-the-mill dominion acquired through conquest was always really appealing, but in order for you to run a business you need clients and a market. Who were those rich aliens that bought whole planets? Are all or most of the 28 worlds now inhabited by the people that paid Freeza ? What about all those planets that the saiyans destroyed for a price?
Why couldn't they have said 2800 planets instead? It would still be considered a small number by galactic standards.

[Lord Frieza]

I think so because aside from the fact that it suddenly make U7 feel really small and empty, it also makes the whole Planet Trade business Freeza and the saiyans had going seem really pointless. The fact that Freeza's empire was technically just a real estate company instead of your run-of-the-mill dominion acquired through conquest was always really appealing, but in order for you to run a business you need clients and a market. Who were those rich aliens that bought whole planets? Are all or most of the 28 worlds now inhabited by the people that paid Freeza ? What about all those planets that the saiyans destroyed for a price?
Why couldn't they have said 2800 planets instead? It would still be considered a small number by galactic standards.

Well that depends on if a recolinised world is conisered a new planet of it's own or an extention of another planets bio-sphere. Advanced technology practaly hults most enviormental pressures, not factoring terraforming or the planet being of a simlur nature to the colonists home planet, so many advanced races are unlikely to have undergone any drastic changed as a result of living on a new world. A functioning intergalactic society/s further exaggerates these factors. This may also explain why the number of advanced alien races outnumber the 28 worlds, as they may continue to exist as part of the collective society even after the destruction of their home planet. In the case of planets affected by the Frieza Force, well since any existing occupents are purged befor sale, that planets life potential has effectively be stopped as efficiently as if it had just been blown up.

These factors, combined with Buu's rampages, Beerus's capricious nature, the death of all the more experianced Kaioshin, Shin being predominatly focused on stopping Babidi and Buu, the actions of both Frieza and his forces, Champa's raids and a whole host of universe wide factors such meteor strikes, super novas, black holes, environmental changes, wars, potentially other planet traders, acts of geneacide etc, could explain the situation. Not perfectly I'll grant but it's not totally unreasonable either.

[Zelvin]

It's still a huge mistake no matter how one tries to justify it. Because they already established in Super that the Universe is Infinite. Not only that, but you have Zuno who is a near-omniscient sage whose wisdom is sought after by all beings in the universe. That there are so many who want to ask him questions that there's a waiting list. That already flies in the face of the idea that only 28 planets have sentient life forms on them.

Honestly, I feel the mistake was the context of what was said. They were trying to prepare a team of fighters for the Tournament of Power. It'd be more accurate to say that Shin only meant that there were 28 worlds or civilizations with a technological level comparable to Earth or had warriors comparable to those on Earth. Not that only 28 other inhabited worlds existed.

[Michsi]

I think so because aside from the fact that it suddenly make U7 feel really small and empty, it also makes the whole Planet Trade business Freeza and the saiyans had going seem really pointless. The fact that Freeza's empire was technically just a real estate company instead of your run-of-the-mill dominion acquired through conquest was always really appealing, but in order for you to run a business you need clients and a market. Who were those rich aliens that bought whole planets? Are all or most of the 28 worlds now inhabited by the people that paid Freeza ? What about all those planets that the saiyans destroyed for a price?
Why couldn't they have said 2800 planets instead? It would still be considered a small number by galactic standards.

Well that depends on if a recolinised world is conisered a new planet of it's own or an extention of another planets bio-sphere. Advanced technology practaly hults most enviormental pressures, not factoring terraforming or the planet being of a simlur nature to the colonists home planet, so many advanced races are unlikely to have undergone any drastic changed as a result of living on a new world. A functioning intergalactic society/s further exaggerates these factors. This may also explain why the number of advanced alien races outnumber the 28 worlds, as they may continue to exist as part of the collective society even after the destruction of their home planet. In the case of planets affected by the Frieza Force, well since any existing occupents are purged befor sale, that planets life potential has effectively be stopped as efficiently as if it had just been blown up.

These factors, combined with Buu's rampages, Beerus's capricious nature, the death of all the more experianced Kaioshin, Shin being predominatly focused on stopping Babidi and Buu, the actions of both Frieza and his forces, Champa's raids and a whole host of universe wide factors such meteor strikes, super novas, black holes, environmental changes, wars, potentially other planet traders, acts of geneacide etc, could explain the situation. Not perfectly I'll grant but it's not totally unreasonable either.

It's not that you couldn't come up with a reason for it, it's just that they shouldn't have made it such a small number in the first place. It somewhat goes against what has been shown about the universe.

[LimitbreakerKrillin]

IMO they should have wished for all the erased universes planets and all of it inhabitants move to Universe 7. This would fix the 28 planets "problem", but it would also be a way for the ToP characters to interact with the main cast without the barrier of being in different universe, as it seems (to me) you cant travel to another universe without the aid of an Angel or a kai.

[Marlowe89]

Narratively speaking, not at all. It aligns with why Universe 7 has such a low mortal level while actively explaining why most of Universe 7's fighters in the Tournament of Power were Earthlings. If anything, it works surprisingly well with the arc's premise and story.

What I really like about it is that it effectively doubles down on the idea that Freeza, Buu and Beerus were meant to be the most powerful threats in the universe, which works far better than GT's idea of random aliens and robots being on Buu's level since all the other big threats would simply come from other universes instead.

[Simere]

It's still a huge mistake no matter how one tries to justify it. Because they already established in Super that the Universe is Infinite. Not only that, but you have Zuno who is a near-omniscient sage whose wisdom is sought after by all beings in the universe. That there are so many who want to ask him questions that there's a waiting list. That already flies in the face of the idea that only 28 planets have sentient life forms on them.

I don't see how. We have waiting lists in real life without needing to have mingled with the populations of thousands of other planets in the universe. Zuno's queue is only six years, actually, which is rather small considering. There's more demand for NFL season passes.

And what does the universe being infinite have to do with the number of inhabited planets?

[Zelvin]

I don't see how. We have waiting lists in real life without needing to have mingled with the populations of thousands of other planets in the universe. Zuno's queue is only six years, actually, which is rather small considering. There's more demand for NFL season passes.

And what does the universe being infinite have to do with the number of inhabited planets?

The Fermi Paradox and the Drake Equation. Both factor in the probability of intelligent life on other planets existing within our universe. The most conservative estimates of the Drake Equation being as low as 1 planet with sentient life per galaxy. There are over 100billion galaxies in the observable universe and estimated to count over 200billion in the next 10yrs as technology improved.

In an infinitely scaled universe, which means there are an infinite number of galaxies, there would equally be an infinite number of sentient species within it.

[Simere]

I don't see how. We have waiting lists in real life without needing to have mingled with the populations of thousands of other planets in the universe. Zuno's queue is only six years, actually, which is rather small considering. There's more demand for NFL season passes.

And what does the universe being infinite have to do with the number of inhabited planets?

The Fermi Paradox and the Drake Equation. Both factor in the probability of intelligent life on other planets existing within our universe. The most conservative estimates of the Drake Equation being as low as 1 planet with sentient life per galaxy. There are over 100billion galaxies in the observable universe and estimated to count over 200billion in the next 10yrs as technology improved.

In an infinitely scaled universe, which means there are an infinite number of galaxies, there would equally be an infinite number of sentient species within it.

The Drake equation probabilistically assumes spontaneous generation based on conditions in our galaxy; in the DB world we know that Kaioshin create life, and I don't think it's been established abiogenesis occurs on top of that. Even with the Drake equation and an infinite universe, an infinite universe doesn't necessarily need to be infinitely inhabitable.

[WittyUsername]

It's still a huge mistake no matter how one tries to justify it. Because they already established in Super that the Universe is Infinite. Not only that, but you have Zuno who is a near-omniscient sage whose wisdom is sought after by all beings in the universe. That there are so many who want to ask him questions that there's a waiting list. That already flies in the face of the idea that only 28 planets have sentient life forms on them.

I don't see how. We have waiting lists in real life without needing to have mingled with the populations of thousands of other planets in the universe. Zuno's queue is only six years, actually, which is rather small considering. There's more demand for NFL season passes.

And what does the universe being infinite have to do with the number of inhabited planets?

For me personally, the main thing that’s odd about establishing that U7 only has 28 planets with sentient life is that it makes the idea that Freeza is able to run a stable intergalactic trade business seem a bit more difficult to swallow. It also begs the question of how exactly Freeza was able to find so many new followers in such a (presumably) short period of time at the end of Super.