Why was Universe 7 the only universe with 5 Supreme Kais?

[Asura]

This is something I've never understood and still can't make sense of no matter how hard I try to rationalize it. We learn in the Buu saga that there were 5 Supreme Kais. One for each of the four quadrants, plus the "leader" (or whatever he was called). We know that four of them (including the leader) were absorbed by Buu, leaving only the East Supreme Kai, aka Shin.

Fast-forward to Super, and things seem to become super confusing. We learn that Beerus has a life-link to Shin. If one dies, the other dies. The question is, why Shin? Was it just Shin, or was the life-link to all 5 Supreme Kais, and since Shin is the only one remaining of the five, hence if he goes, Beerus goes? If this is true, does Beerus also have some sort of link to Majin Buu? The other Supreme Kais are still absorbed by him afterall, but then what about Elder Kai? He precedes Shin, so why wouldn't the life-link be with Elder Kai instead?

To make matters even more confusing with this "5 Supreme Kai" ordeal, we now see that every other universe only has one Supreme Kai. So what was the deal with Universe 7? Why did we have 5? Do you think this fact was just forgotten about and retconned in Super? Do you think it will ever come up again, or do you think the show will continue to treat Shin as if he always was the only Supreme Kai of Universe 7?

[Hellspawn28]

My theory is that Zeno decided to have each universe with one Kaioshin after he hear what happen in Universe 7. It makes it easier for each universe.

[Psykomatik]

Or perhaps it's the only universe who's working with north / east / south / west?
Or Toriyama forgot?

[Araki]

The other Supreme Kais are still absorbed by him afterall, but then what about Elder Kai? He precedes Shin, so why wouldn't the life-link be with Elder Kai instead?

I don't think it's that problematic. Shin is supposed to be the current one, and if not for Gohan the Elder would be gone forever, so the life-link was handled to him somehow, the moment he took the position. I mean, we don't know how exactly it works, but it seems to me to be more of a hierarchical than biological matter.

As for the 5 Supreme Kai from the past, that was long, long ago, when maybe more universes used to have multiple Supreme Kais. We have no idea about the history of other universes yet, so it's plain wrong to call it a retcon or whatever. As long as all 12 of them have one, main Supreme Kai as the representative in the present, who cares?

[Makai]

I have two theories:

1. Every universe does have 5 kaioshins, but we only saw the Grand Kaioshin of each universe.

Or

2. We know Universe 7 was one of the lowest level Universes, so perhaps it needed a higher number of Kaioshins than the higher level Universes?

[Kishido]

Or maybe... back than there was no Beerus in Toriyamas mind and the whole link stuff.

[mAcChaos]

It could just be completely random, ie, how many fruit fall that become Supreme Kais, and U7 just happened to have five way back when.

[Hugo Boss]

My theory is that Zeno decided to have each universe with one Kaioshin after he hear what happen in Universe 7. It makes it easier for each universe.

I like this. Perhaps all of them had more than one Kaioshin in each and Zeno decided there were too much.

[precita]

I have two theories:

1. Every universe does have 5 kaioshins, but we only saw the Grand Kaioshin of each universe.

I think this is the case. The Supreme Kai's were seeing at this tournament are the Grand Kaioshins of each universe, not the 4 Supreme Kai's who govern the quardrants.

So if Buu never killed the Kai's, then Shin wouldn't be here and we'd see the Grand Kaioshin instead.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

I don't think the previous Kaioshin system has been forgotten (certainly not by Toyotaro anyway), but I do think it's being retconned for simplicity. Having a single Kaioshin just removes excess clutter and makes things easier when it comes to having to create all these new designs.

As for why Universe 7 had 5 of them, at this point I chalk it up to Beerus if I have to give it some sort of explanation. His Universe is the second lowest in terms of Human/Mortal Level, probably because he doesn't really do his job. He's often sleeping for long periods and destroys whatever he wants based on his mood, rather than specifically trying to wipe out evil or other low-level beings. It's also mentioned that the Kaioshin have no idea how much Beerus will destroy when he's awake. So perhaps Universe 7 employed extra Kaioshin to balance that, allowing them a better chance of creating more high-level life and being able to TRY and stand against threats like Boo when then arise.

[RedRibbonSoldier#42]

weren't there multiple kaioushin from universe 6 at the tournament?

[Lord Frieza]

Well Zen-Oh says there are too many universe at the moment. Maybe sometime after Buu's first rampage, Zen-Oh decided that 5 kaioshin to run a universe was to many as well and decided to cut it down.

Shin seems to do an ok job by himself in the grand scheme of things even if he's not all that strong, that could have been proof enough for Zen chan.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

weren't there multiple kaioushin from universe 6 at the tournament?

No. Only the short, round one is a Kaioshin. The tall, skinny one is an assistant like Kibito.

[kinisking]

My head canon is they adopted 4 from the 6 destroyed universes. The other 2 went to other universes.

[simtek34]

Either Zeno killed all of them, or the one who came is the Grand Kaioshin from all the Universes

[Beek King]

My worthless headcanon tells me that each universe simply chose a representative Kaioshin and the existence of others is still up in the air because of Japanese language's lack of plurals.

[Lord Beerus]

I have two theories:

1. Every universe does have 5 kaioshins, but we only saw the Grand Kaioshin of each universe.

I think this is the case. The Supreme Kai's were seeing at this tournament are the Grand Kaioshins of each universe, not the 4 Supreme Kai's who govern the quardrants.

So if Buu never killed the Kai's, then Shin wouldn't be here and we'd see the Grand Kaioshin instead.

That's the theory I'm rolling with, too.

[MagmonKai]

I have two theories:

1. Every universe does have 5 kaioshins, but we only saw the Grand Kaioshin of each universe.

I think this is the case. The Supreme Kai's were seeing at this tournament are the Grand Kaioshins of each universe, not the 4 Supreme Kai's who govern the quardrants.

So if Buu never killed the Kai's, then Shin wouldn't be here and we'd see the Grand Kaioshin instead.

That's the theory I'm rolling with, too.

But why werent there any other supreme kais in Universe 10? All we saw was Gowasu and Zamasu. I'm sticking with Universe 7 is a unique case since its the one our story is told from.

[Grimlock]

But if the ones we are seeing are Dai Kaioshins, why they haven't been labeled as such so far? "Dai Kaioshin" is a name never mentioned in Dragon Ball Super at all.

[GodVegetto91]

Well i think the biggest problem of all is the life link between Beerus and our generation Shin specifically. It was revealed that Beerus was affraid "Shin" might die, however Elder Kai is still around. Considering Beerus was around during the time Elder Kai was in duty, shouldn't his life link apply to him aswell? Why just Shin? I think it would be better if the Life Link should apply to the last Kaioshin to stay alive. I.E kill all of them and Beerus dies, and have 1 of the 5 surivive and Beerus is still fine. (Doesn't matter who)

As for the other universes only having 1 Kaioshin, this could easily be explained, both from an in-universe perspective, aswell as an out of universe perspective. In-universe: Universe 7 was unique among them in that it has 5 Kaioshins. Out of universe: Toriyama either forgot, or simply retconned it. (Which seems more likely)