Planet Namek's location within the universe.

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Master Turbo
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Planet Namek's location within the universe.

Post by Master Turbo » Wed Dec 26, 2012 12:08 pm

Just one day I was reading over the Freeza arc and I ran across North Kaio saying he can't help out in the situation of reviving Goku and Kuririn since its outside his jurisdiction. The Kaios in general east look after a galaxy, four in total that make up the entire Dragon Ball universe. North Kaio obviously looks over the Northern Galaxy so if Planet Namek is outside his jurisdiction that means its in another galaxy right? If so than this means Dragon Ball's galaxies are much different from out own since out our galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy has a diameter of 100,000 loght years. Earth is about 25,000 light years from the galactic center meaning 75,000 light years away is the edge of our galaxy before we leave it.

I decided to crunch some numbers in how long it took Bulma and gang to get to Namek from Earth. When Bulma first used the ship it took what appeared like mere seconds to reach Jupiter from what it seems. I used the anime as a reference and five seconds passed from it leaving Earth to Namek. By comparison it takes like 35 minutes to do that meaning Kami's ship is 420 times faster than light. It took Bulma and co. 34 days to get to Namek from Earth, by comparison it would take light 14,280 days to reach Namek so about 39 years, 1 month, and 15 days in total time.

That makes the original Planet Namek slightly over 39 light years from Planet Earth. If Namek is in another galaxy wouldn't that make the North Galaxy far smaller than our own galaxy, the Milky Way? I have no problem with this, but I always thought the North Galaxy = Milky Galaxy for simplicity sake, but then again Dragon Ball's universe is made up much different than our own so maybe their galaxies are made up differently as well. Is here any official information to say otherwise on this matter?

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Re: Planet Namek's location within the universe.

Post by Bando » Wed Dec 26, 2012 2:55 pm

Well there's this:

Chapter: 331 (DBZ 137), P3.5
Freeza: “It’s an honor that my name should be known on this planet so far removed from the rest of the galaxy…However, unfortunately you don’t seem to know that I have the greatest power in the universe…”

Maybe the galaxies are closely grouped together. Freeza implies he's flown all over the galaxy so their spaceships must be insanely fast.

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Re: Planet Namek's location within the universe.

Post by Ketchup_Revenge » Wed Dec 26, 2012 5:19 pm

I really don't put much scientific thought into an anime series where people can fly without wings and destroy planets with energy beams that come from the energy stores in their own bodies. So in all honesty, it's pretty cool you know that, but trying to combine it with real-life scientific facts, in all honesty, will just confuse you.

On the other hand, it's possible that Toriyama may simply have not come up with the specifics of the jurisdictions of the Kais at that point in the series.
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Re: Planet Namek's location within the universe.

Post by Herms » Wed Dec 26, 2012 7:46 pm

Ketchup_Revenge wrote:On the other hand, it's possible that Toriyama may simply have not come up with the specifics of the jurisdictions of the Kais at that point in the series.
It's actually right at this point that the whole idea of different Kaios with various administrative areas is first introduced. Kaio is introduced as simply Kaio, and said to stand above all other gods in the universe. It's not until the Freeza arc that Kaio introduces himself to the Great Elder as the "Kaio of the North Galaxy". Then a bit later we get the quote in question where he explains that Planet Namek is outside his administrative area and therefore there's nothing he can do to help them sort out the mess bringing Kuririn and Goku back to life. The implication being that if Namek had been in the North Galaxy, then he could have done something about the two automatically reviving in the empty space where Namek had been (the point is a little obscured in Viz, with the explanation being shortened so that it's never specified that the location of Namek is what's outside Kaio's jurisdiction). So basically, the whole idea of different Kaios with different jurisdictions seems to have been introduced specifically to complicate the plot at the end of the Freeza arc.

Anyways, as to the actual topic, Daizenshuu 7 basically says that "galaxies" is the unit the gods use to divy up the universe and doesn't have much to do with physical reality. Nothing stops people from going from one galaxy to another, provided they have the technology...which I guess is true in the real world too, but the implication seems to be that the division between DB galaxies is more like state boarder lines than the division between real galaxies.
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Master Turbo
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Re: Planet Namek's location within the universe.

Post by Master Turbo » Wed Dec 26, 2012 8:45 pm

Ketchup_Revenge wrote:I really don't put much scientific thought into an anime series where people can fly without wings and destroy planets with energy beams that come from the energy stores in their own bodies. So in all honesty, it's pretty cool you know that, but trying to combine it with real-life scientific facts, in all honesty, will just confuse you.

On the other hand, it's possible that Toriyama may simply have not come up with the specifics of the jurisdictions of the Kais at that point in the series.
I thought about that, but Toriyama went out his way to show their solar system is most likely the same as ours so wouldn't their galaxy be the same as our own just with a different name unless otherwise stated? I mean it could simply be an oversight on Toriyama's part, but forgiving that is its a slip up, but in-universe shouldn't Planet Namek technically be within the North galaxy if its identical to the Milky Way Galaxy in real life which is what North Kaio governs?

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Re: Planet Namek's location within the universe.

Post by Bussani » Thu Dec 27, 2012 2:10 am

Aren't you sort of making up rules there? Toriyama using familiar elements like Earth, the Moon, and Jupiter, doesn't really mean that he's going out of his way to make it exactly like our solar system or exactly like our galaxy. I don't think we can call it an oversight to stray from reality when the similarities are only there to give us something we're familiar with. I mean, Dragon Ball's Earth is almost nothing like ours in terms of geography, so why should anything else be?

I like your way of calculating how far away Namek is, by the way.
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Re: Planet Namek's location within the universe.

Post by Master Turbo » Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:45 pm

Bussani wrote:Aren't you sort of making up rules there? Toriyama using familiar elements like Earth, the Moon, and Jupiter, doesn't really mean that he's going out of his way to make it exactly like our solar system or exactly like our galaxy. I don't think we can call it an oversight to stray from reality when the similarities are only there to give us something we're familiar with. I mean, Dragon Ball's Earth is almost nothing like ours in terms of geography, so why should anything else be?

I like your way of calculating how far away Namek is, by the way.
Okay, I might have exaggerated a bit with that last post, but I meant to say they have similar things to us in real life such as the moon, Earth, and Jupiter so it wouldn't it be simpler to say they have the same solar system as our own unless otherwise stated? Why would I assume their solar system ends at say Jupiter or there sun is smaller if I have no reason to think so? I said oversight since there are a lot of things in Dragon Ball that are an oversight on Toriyama's part.

As for Dragon Ball's Earth, its true that it has different geography than our own, but that's about it. Everything else appears to be the same unless otherwise stated. Thanks for the compliment, I appreciate it.

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