Where are the Western and Northern Kaiōshin?

[Vegetto95]

I was having a discussion with a friend the other day about how WILDLY inconsistent and contradictory the "rules" of the Other World were in ALL FOUR anime series, meaning DB, DBZ, DBGT, and DBS (because Tōei just could never get their shit together I guess lol), in particular when it comes to how, when, and why the deceased are allowed to keep their bodies and what can happen to those bodies. And in the course of that, I realized something that I have NO IDEA how I never realized at some point over the last twenty years... well, as you read in the title... where are the Western and Northern Kaiōshin??

Like, it's established several times both in the manga AND the anime that Gods immediately keep their bodies upon death, appearing simply with a halo in the exact spot where they died (at least since the two examples we've seen of that were both in some part of the Other World). We saw this when Kaiō-sama was blown up by Cell and just hung around on the Dai Kaiō's planet for the rest of time (or moved back to his own inexplicably-restored planet in Super), and again when the Old Kaiōshin gave his life to Gokū (resulting in one of my favorite jokes in the whole franchise), and he just stayed in the Kaiōshin Realm with Kibitoshin for the rest of probably eternity as well. So where did the bodies of the Western and Northern Kaiōshin go after they were killed by Boo? Wouldn't it stand in accordance with all of that that they should still be walking around the Kaiōshin Realm with some shiny halos just the same?

Are their spirits just stuck endlessly drifting around, unable to pass into the afterlife because they were killed by a Majin, A.K.A. a member of the Demon Race, as Kamisama said happens to those killed by Mazoku, A.K.A. members of the Demon Clan? Does that apply to Majin the same as Mazoku? Even if so, would that even apply to the universe's highest Gods? Or is it more likely that Toriyama just made one of his many, many oopsies? OR, does the answer somehow lay somewhere in the dumb, incredibly contradictory, and absolutely BONKERS stuff he pulled out of his ass in the late 2000s/early 2010s where he talks about the Kaiō and Kaiōshin being born from some divine fruit tree? Thoughts?

[NeoZ Duwang]

Majin Boo most likely killed them again after they died, making them disappear forever

[Vegetto95]

Majin Boo most likely killed them again after they died, making them disappear forever

That's an interesting theory and one of the only few that might make any sort of sense, but it does still present another problem, one that I alluded to when I mentioned "how, when, and why the deceased are allowed to keep their bodies and what can happen to those bodies" at the beginning, and that is... it was said over and over again during the course of the story that dead characters can't die again because they're already dead... UNTIIIIIL Toriyama COMPLETELY changed that for no other reason than to create some bullshit artificial stakes by having Gokū tell Vegeta to be careful holding off Boo for a minute because he'll "vanish and no longer exist in this world or the Other World" if he dies again... which, again, completely contradicts the multiple times before that where it was explicitly stated that dead people CAN'T die again.

That's why I prefaced my main point by talking about the inconsistent afterlife "rules", because not only were they already inconsistent in the manga as I just showed, but the Tōei made it even WORSE by showing all the villains in Hell like Freeza, Cell, the Ginyu Special Forces, Bobbidi, Doctor Gero, etc. with their bodies and full powers, despite the manga (AND anime in the same scene) explicitly stating that people that go to Hell have their bodies taken away and memories wiped in reference to why Enma left Vegeta with his body (meaning that, somehow, the 12th Z movie was simultaneously more faithful AND less faithful in that regard to the manga than the Z TV show was lmao); and then made it EVEN worse than that twenty years later by showing Freeza with his (mechanical) body in a cocoon in his own personal Hell, despite zero precedent for the existence of individual Hells. Just... NONE of it makes any sense...

[NeoZ Duwang]

it was said over and over again during the course of the story that dead characters can't die again because they're already dead... UNTIIIIIL Toriyama COMPLETELY changed that

The idea that the deceased are unable to die again is anime only. Admittedly, it makes perfect sense and is a much more intuitive conclusion than what Toriyama presented later, I'd go as far as to say that if he hadn't estabilished his own rule about the dead dying again, most of the fans would believe that it works the same way in the manga as it previously did in the anime. Still, it was never part of the original Dragon Ball manga written by Toriyama, so it's not a contradiction if you're only following his story

The anime on the other hand is a complete mess, since it's mostly a 1:1 adaptation that also contains a few original stories and ideas, and they usually don't work together at all. It's not uncommon for anime original material to be completely incompatible with the manga material without the show even trying to adress it. That's a pretty regular occurence for adaptaions of narratives that are still in progress, especially when you also need to worry about not catching up with the original work and has to create tons of original ideas just to fill time

I have no idea what's going on in Resurrection F though, but Super seems to selectively include elements from the TV series anyway, so I guess that checks out

[Vegetto95]

The idea that the deceased are unable to die again is anime only. Admittedly, it makes perfect sense and is a much more intuitive conclusion than what Toriyama presented later, I'd go as far as to say that if he hadn't estabilished his own rule about the dead dying again, most of the fans would believe that it works the same way in the manga as it previously did in the anime. Still, it was never part of the original Dragon Ball manga written by Toriyama, so it's not a contradiction if you're only following his story

To be fair, there is the line in the manga by the Oni who drove Gokū to the head of the Snake Road commenting on Gokū's hunger, which was unusual for a dead person, saying that Gokū "can't starve to death since [he's] already dead!". And that's in the same scene when we actually see the afterlife for the very first time! I mean, yeah, it's just the one thing and it's partly written as a joke, but the numerous other instances exclusive to the anime where that was said do line up with it and Tōei was most likely just going off of that.

[NeoZ Duwang]

To be fair, there is the line in the manga by the Oni who drove Gokū to the head of the Snake Road commenting on Gokū's hunger, which was unusual for a dead person, saying that Gokū "can't starve to death since [he's] already dead!". And that's in the same scene when we actually see the afterlife for the very first time! I mean, yeah, it's just the one thing and it's partly written as a joke, but the numerous other instances exclusive to the anime where that was said do line up with it and Tōei was most likely just going off of that.

Oh, I completely forgot about this line. I'm willing to ignore it since it's not too relevant, but good point.

I think that the line can easily be reinterpreted as the dead not having to worry about the concept of energy in general considering how Super Saiyan 3 works, even if that's not the original intention. The dead not being able to die is the more intuitive conclusion, so I'm not surprised that the series indirectly implies it earlier on

[Vegetto95]

I guess we'll either just never truly know, or perhaps one day Toriyama will come out with another little mini-interview published in Saikyō Jump/V Jump/another reprinting of the manga/another guidebook with an answer. Though considering the content of some of his previous answers of that nature (Bobbidi is a clone of Bibbidi and Bibbidi only discovered Majin Boo probably being the most infamous one, though there are many more of that ilk), it'll likely be something I'll find completely nonsensical and contradictory and file under the "Ignore this stupid crap" mental folder XD

[GreatSaiyaman123]

I always thought they either tried to fight Boo again and died forever, or that they just didn't bother and are somewhere in Heaven or reincarnated. Kaio went straight ahead to Enma's place since we see him with Goku in the Snake Way, heading back to where his planet was. Kami also vanished into thin air when Piccolo died. I guess Old Kaioshin was an exception? He was already outside of the mortal realm, and his body wasn't mortally wounded or destroyed so no need for Enma to make a new one.

I like the idea of Boo sending them to the limbo though, and it makes sense. I always saw Boo as mix between a demon and a djinn.

[Hellspawn28]

They are probably somewhere in Heaven. They didn't want to fight Buu again and found it safer to be in Heaven.

[Vegetto95]

Them going to Heaven is an interesting theory that makes sense, but it's still kind of weird to think that they would want to go there instead of stay in the Kaiōshin Realm (which again, as the Old Kaiōshin proved, they can stay in after they die), considering Kibito made such a HUUUGE deal out of "Bu-but, Kaiōshin-sama! A MORTAL?? In the Kaiōshin Realm?? Why, such a thing just isn't done!! It's pure hogwash! Codswallop! POPPYCOCK, I SAY!! The Kaiōshin Realm is a Sacred RealmTM meant ONLY for Kaiōshin! It's literally there IN THE NAME!! Why, I may just faint!!" (I exaggerate... but only a bit. He was being rather fussy lol )

Only thing I can think of is that maybe the Northern and Western Kaiōshin didn't have sticks jammed quite so firmly up their butts as Kibito did, which would make sense with their anime-only personalities we briefly saw in flashbacks, where they seemed to be the most carefree of the five, aside from perhaps the Dai Kaiōshin.