Dragon Balls only give one wish now?

[Kroni_Hunter]

After the Cell Saga, the Earth Dragon Balls received an upgrade. They now can supposedly grant 2 wishes (or 3 depending on how you interpret the new rules and what kinds of wishes you use.) Either way, there should now be more than just one wish possible.

In BoGs, they only seem capable of granting one wish. So were the Dragon Balls retconned? It's possible they felt the new rules were too convoluted to fit neatly into a standalone movie, so they changed it back to one wish to make it easier for the non-hardcore fans to follow.

But that answer is not very satisfying to me without some kind of In-Universe justification. I have three possible theories:

1. The Dragon Balls somehow lost power over time. Maybe Dende was "overclocking" the Dragon Ball magic to get those kinds of results but it couldn't be sustained.

2. Shenron only granted one wish at the party because someone used the other wish(es) earlier that year and left one for Bulma's birthday. (Maybe to restore Kaio's planet)

3. Pilaf actually used three wishes to make them all younger, and Shenron was too scared of Beerus to fulfill the wishes.


I think the story of DBZ 2015 will give us some more answers. I expect them to continue with this single wish formula. It's too big of an oversight to not be intentional, and furthermore I understand why they did it. It they do continue with it, I think that makes theories 2 and 3 less likely. (We might be able to make up another asspull explanation, but Occam's Razor would make me lean against it.)

[Kamiccolo9]

Did they even make a wish in BoG?

[Doctor.]

"Dende did it."

[Kroni_Hunter]

Did they even make a wish in BoG?

Shenron seems to believe they did.

[Kamiccolo9]

Did they even make a wish in BoG?

Shenron seems to believe they did.

Based on what? All I remember is that they called him, asked about SSJG, and Beerus scared him off.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

Did they even make a wish in BoG?

Pilaf made only one wish before BoG.

But then again, maybe they had made 2 out of 3 wishes in Boo arc, so maybe Pilaf made the 3rd wish. But I doubt that this is what they had in mind, so until the new movie is released, I'll go by the (extremely logical) theory that Dende decreased the wishes because he saw that Pilaf was gathering them.

[Doctor.]

Did they even make a wish in BoG?

Pilaf made only one wish before BoG.

But then again, maybe they had made 2 out of 3 wishes in Boo arc, so maybe Pilaf made the 3rd wish. But I doubt that this is what they had in mind, so until the new movie is released, I'll go by the (extremely logical) theory that Dende decreased the wishes because he saw that Pilaf was gathering them.

Everyone forgetting Buu -> Kaio-sama's planet -> Pilaf -> BoG -> DB2015

Could work even with the rule.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

Κaio most likely remade his planet with his own power.

[Hellspawn28]

Well they did had one more wish left after they wish back everyone that Majin Vegeta killed. The wish to erase Buu's memories seems to be ignored now since the 2008 Jump Special had Mr. Satan throwing a party on him defeating Majin Buu.

[Doctor.]

Well they did had one more wish left after they wish back everyone that Majin Vegeta killed. The wish to erase Buu's memories seems to be ignored now since the 2008 Jump Special had Mr. Satan throwing a party on him defeating Majin Buu.

It could have been to erase everyone's memory of Buu's appearance.

[sintzu]

In the 2015 movie teaser Shenron says he will only grant one so we know for sure now that that's the case

In terms of why,I think Toriyama just forgot about the 2-3 wishes but in in-universe reason the only thing i can think of is Shenron doesn't want to grant more then one now .

The wish to erase Buu's memories seems to be ignored now since the 2008 Jump Special

We never saw it happen so maby they never made it in the first place .

[Low Tone G]

I'd say Dende reduced the wishes to 1. I think we can give an in-universe explanation as after Buu the peace was restored, so Dende maybe decided to restore the number of wishes to the initial.

For everyone to forget about Buu, no... Goku didn't wish for forgetting about Buu, but he wish as Mr. Buu(Mr. Satan's friend) to not be recognizable any more as being the Evil Buu. In Eoz everyone knew that Mr. Satan was the one who saved the world two times.

[dbgtFO]

The wish to erase Buu's memories seems to be ignored now since the 2008 Jump Special

We never saw it happen so maby they never made it in the first place .

The narrator stated it happened.

[Hugo Boss]

Maybe the kind of wish that Shen Long will grant in movie 2015 uses up all the energy the Dragon Balls have left.

[Kroni_Hunter]

From Herms' History of Ever guide:

September 7th, Age 774
--The people of Earth’s memories of Majin Boo’s rampage are erased by Shen Long, allowing the good Boo to live on Earth in peace. People only remember that Mister Satan had saved them from “something”, and he becomes an even bigger hero.
--DB Chapter 517 (DBZ 323) is partially set on this day.
[Ref: Date from Daizenshuu 7. In Chapter 469 Dende says they’ll be able to use the remaining 2 wishes in 4 months, since they only used 1 of the 3 wishes. That was on May 7th, so four months later gets you September 7th. However, Chapter 517 says this wish occurs “half a year later”, which would put this in November. The JSAT Special and DBO seem to imply that people remember Boo.]

Sounds about right, but since that first wish was to revive a lot of people I think it should be counted as 2 wishes.

Did they even make a wish in BoG?

Shenron seems to believe they did.

Based on what? All I remember is that they called him, asked about SSJG, and Beerus scared him off.

He says that their wish was granted before flying off.

[Kamiccolo9]

He says that their wish was granted before flying off.

Ah, ok. Nevermind then. Thanks.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

He says that their wish was granted before flying off.

Ah, ok. Nevermind then. Thanks.

Actually, he didn't say that. He said that he told them how to create a SSGod, farewell, and excuse me to Beerus.

[Kroni_Hunter]

He says that their wish was granted before flying off.

Ah, ok. Nevermind then. Thanks.

Actually, he didn't say that. He said that he told them how to create a SSGod, farewell, and excuse me to Beerus.

Hmm, might be a sub issue then. I can tell you for a fact that the Funi Dub has him saying it.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

The dub is a dub. Even if it's mostly accurate, it will never be 100% accurate. I don't know Japanese, but I can tell when Shenlong says that the wish is granted, and he doesn't say it in the Japanese.

[Dbzfan94]

Wait, did I miss something? When did Shenron allow three wishes? I thought it was only 2 when Dende powered Shenron up.