Theory on the role of the Dragon Balls in Earth history

[L3anD3RStar]

I think the Dragon Balls must be a big reason why the “Earth” of the DB universe is as wacky as it is. I think the Dragon Balls have played an important but invisible role in “Earth” history for a long time.

Think about it. Why are the dinosaurs back? Someone wished them back. Pilaf is an Emperor with a ton of money and resources but no empire, like it got wished away somehow. The Red Ribbon Army has a ton of hardware and weapons but no support network, like it belonged to a state that no longer exists. Animals talk and walk, which also sounds like a wish someone would’ve made. King Furry is a very Good Boy who could not have taken the throne of the world without some help.

This is probably my wackiest headcanon, but it just seems to explain so much. Am I insane or am I maybe onto something here?

[MasenkoHA]

Pilaf being “an emperor” is a dub only thing. He’s never addressed as anything other than Pilaf-sama by Mai and Shu and only because he’s their superior. And as best as I can tell “Emperor “ Pilaf probably comes from Funimation misunderstanding Bulma’s off hand comment about how the last person who used the dragon balls became King. The 1995 dub rewrites that line so she says she needs to find the dragon balls “before that crazy emperor does”’(even though she’s not supposed to know who Pilaf is). The 2001 redub “fixes”’that line so she says something unrelated but keeps all that nonsense about Pilaf being an Emperor.

I assume the King seen in the Daimao arc is a descendant of the man who wished to be King since the wish was made a long time ago but that’s mostly conjecture.

The Red Ribbon Army is funded on Commander Red’s zeni. They never had government funding and do not serve any state.

[Koitsukai]

Animals speaking was explained in Kakarot, the game (was it based off some interview Akira gave?). There was a drug people used to take to become animals, for some fucking reason.
King Furry, more than descendant, probably was the royal family's pet who ended up being the sole heir. If the human King didn't take the animal drug, that is.

I guess dinosaurs being a thing could be related to the DBs, since Beerus said he had extinguished all of them.

[funrush]

I never thought of it like that cause I never saw all the creatures and animal people as something that needed to be explained, but maybe you're onto something LOL. It would be neat to get a one-shot chapter about all the crazy wishes throughout history or something.

[L3anD3RStar]

Pilaf being “an emperor” is a dub only thing. He’s never addressed as anything other than Pilaf-sama by Mai and Shu and only because he’s their superior. And as best as I can tell “Emperor “ Pilaf probably comes from Funimation misunderstanding Bulma’s off hand comment about how the last person who used the dragon balls became King. The 1995 dub rewrites that line so she says she needs to find the dragon balls “before that crazy emperor does”’(even though she’s not supposed to know who Pilaf is). The 2001 redub “fixes”’that line so she says something unrelated but keeps all that nonsense about Pilaf being an Emperor.

So then where does Pilaf come from? He’s got spaceships, airships, castles, mechs, and at least three (two) devoted soldiers. Where did he get all his money? Why does he have pointed ears, like he’s from the demon realm? We find out later he has an aptitude for multiversal technology as well, when he redesigns Bulma’s Time Machine to be able to hop between timelines, not just different places on the same timeline.

Do we have any theories on any of that?

I assume the King seen in the Daimao arc is a descendant of the man who wished to be King since the wish was made a long time ago but that’s mostly conjecture.

I gotta say, if someone wished for a Very Good Dog to be King of the Earth, that’s not the worst wish anyone ever made.

The Red Ribbon Army is funded on Commander Red’s zeni. They never had government funding and do not serve any state.

Where did Commander Red’s zeni come from? It’s obvious they do not serve any state, and Commander Red’s long-term goal seems to be to take over the world and install a military dictatorship, but where are those resources coming from?

I admit it’s just a guess, but I thought it would make sense if wishing away whatever state Red Ribbon used to serve didn’t make the military vanish, it just erased all memory of whoever it was who used to supply them.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

It's fun to think about but the Dragon World is the way it is because Toriyama is a gag mangaka. His other works have anthropomorphic animals and all sorts of wacky worldbuilding. It's all part of his appeal and charm.

[MasenkoHA]

Pilaf being “an emperor” is a dub only thing. He’s never addressed as anything other than Pilaf-sama by Mai and Shu and only because he’s their superior. And as best as I can tell “Emperor “ Pilaf probably comes from Funimation misunderstanding Bulma’s off hand comment about how the last person who used the dragon balls became King. The 1995 dub rewrites that line so she says she needs to find the dragon balls “before that crazy emperor does”’(even though she’s not supposed to know who Pilaf is). The 2001 redub “fixes”’that line so she says something unrelated but keeps all that nonsense about Pilaf being an Emperor.

So then where does Pilaf come from? He’s got spaceships, airships, castles, mechs, and at least three (two) devoted soldiers. Where did he get all his money? Why does he have pointed ears, like he’s from the demon realm? We find out later he has an aptitude for multiversal technology as well, when he redesigns Bulma’s Time Machine to be able to hop between timelines, not just different places on the same timeline.

Do we have any theories on any of that?

I assume the King seen in the Daimao arc is a descendant of the man who wished to be King since the wish was made a long time ago but that’s mostly conjecture.

I gotta say, if someone wished for a Very Good Dog to be King of the Earth, that’s not the worst wish anyone ever made.

The Red Ribbon Army is funded on Commander Red’s zeni. They never had government funding and do not serve any state.

Where did Commander Red’s zeni come from? It’s obvious they do not serve any state, and Commander Red’s long-term goal seems to be to take over the world and install a military dictatorship, but where are those resources coming from?

I admit it’s just a guess, but I thought it would make sense if wishing away whatever state Red Ribbon used to serve didn’t make the military vanish, it just erased all memory of whoever it was who used to supply them.

Where Pilaf and Commander’s Red wealth comes from doesn’t matter. It’s just there to explain how they have all these resources. They’re rich because the story requires them to be.

And yes, retroactively, Pilaf is probably at least a descendant of a migrant from the demon realm .!

[L3anD3RStar]

It's fun to think about but the Dragon World is the way it is because Toriyama is a gag mangaka. His other works have anthropomorphic animals and all sorts of wacky worldbuilding. It's all part of his appeal and charm.

I know that’s true, from a logical point of view. One of Toriyama’s most charming traits was he never took himself or his work too seriously. He just wanted to draw cool things and made up the story as he went along.

But it’s still fun to think about!

[Makaioshin]

Pilaf being “an emperor” is a dub only thing.

He is referred to as "Daiou-sama" or "Pilaf Daiou-sama" a few times by himself or his subordinates in the original. So emperor was just the dub's approximation of his title of great king.

So then where does Pilaf come from? He’s got spaceships, airships, castles, mechs, and at least three (two) devoted soldiers. Where did he get all his money? Why does he have pointed ears, like he’s from the demon realm? We find out later he has an aptitude for multiversal technology as well, when he redesigns Bulma’s Time Machine to be able to hop between timelines, not just different places on the same timeline.

The video game Kakarot gives the background that Pilaf was the heir to the Meshikiya Kingdom. His father was a king who fled with his wealth after losing a war. This game did tout Toriyama's input on their side missions and such but they never really specified what he provided. But an interesting tidbit.

[L3anD3RStar]

The video game Kakarot gives the background that Pilaf was the heir to the Meshikiya Kingdom. His father was a king who fled with his wealth after losing a war. This game did tout Toriyama's input on their side missions and such but they never really specified what he provided. But an interesting tidbit.

See, that’s what makes me think that the Meshikiya Kingdom might have been wished out of existence. Because there don't seem to be any maps of it, or relics of it, or citizens or soldiers or former officials or anyone who really remember it.

[Makaioshin]

The video game Kakarot gives the background that Pilaf was the heir to the Meshikiya Kingdom. His father was a king who fled with his wealth after losing a war. This game did tout Toriyama's input on their side missions and such but they never really specified what he provided. But an interesting tidbit.

See, that’s what makes me think that the Meshikiya Kingdom might have been wished out of existence. Because there don't seem to be any maps of it, or relics of it, or citizens or soldiers or former officials or anyone who really remember it.

I mean all that might exist. The main story doesn't go that in-depth into the history of the world as Goku has no interest in that. What it focuses is on is the martial world which we are supposed to believe is incredibly niche on Earth until Satan commercializes it.

[worldmonsters]

I had never thought of this before, so I love this original thought. I think especially for like Dinosaurs this seems like a fun idea. But also… not everything in Dragon Ball needs an explanation. And even if it did… it doesn’t need to be magic wishes. Red can just be from a rich family, or was just good at campaigning for soldiers. Pilaf could’ve found an abandoned castle and crowned himself Emperor or Daiou.

It’s like… I see something flying in the air that I cannot identify, so it’s a UFO, so it’s aliens. It absolves the claimer of having to think about it, because alien tech could just explain everything that the claimer finds unexplainable. It’s a little easy to say that everything that’s weird is thus explained by the Dragon Balls.

That being said, it’s always fun to speculate and think about cause some things COULD be explained by Dragon Balls in a way that might make it more interesting. But I think I don’t want there to be official canon information on this, cause it’s more fun to live in a world where we can speculate and imagine our own ideas, rather than it just being laid out by someone tbh