Where do the dragons go?

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Civic
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Where do the dragons go?

Post by Civic » Sun Nov 20, 2022 8:18 pm

The eternal dragons are summoned when the seven dragon balls are collected. But where are they the rest of the time? Do the dragon balls hold a seventh of their souls, placing them in some sort of slumber, and when brought together they unite the dragon? Or is it more of a beacon that the dragons must heed? If so, where are they? Is it ever explained?

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dbgtFO
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Re: Where do the dragons go?

Post by dbgtFO » Mon Nov 21, 2022 4:05 am

I think the end of the Demon King Piccolo shows us this.
Kami restores Shenlong and the Dragon Balls by beaming a light at the miniature Shenlong dragon model he made and this causes Shenlong to disappear from the model and appear with the Dragon Balls on Roshi's island.
So this was the case of a dead Shenlong being given new life again, but I think this also applies to when the Dragon Balls are simply stone.

So he is chilling in the dragon model, until summoned.

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Re: Where do the dragons go?

Post by Ronin » Fri Nov 25, 2022 10:22 pm

I never thought of the dragons as being real beings who go somewhere when they're not being summoned. I always imagined them to be manifestations of energy that is connected to and takes the appearance of the model that their creators made and they're pre-programmed (for lack of a better word) to act a certain way once summoned.

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Re: Where do the dragons go?

Post by fleahop » Mon Dec 05, 2022 1:32 am

Below is simply my interpretation from all of the DB media I have consumed. There may be some more official info out there I haven't seen, but I've thought about this quite a bit.

I believe what we see are not actually the dragons, but manifestations brought about by their statue representations. For instance, I do not believe Shenron was actually killed by Piccolo, but rather that he simply destroyed his representation in this world.

I say this because the dragons have knowledge and abilities beyond their "creators". They seem to each have a personality of their own.

How I think this all works
  • Dragon God Zalama creates the super dragon balls
  • Super Shenron has a summoning ritual tied to Zalama
  • Namekians somehow carve out their own sets of dragon balls from these
  • I'm assuming the Namekians had contact with Zalama in ancient times and may have gained knowledge of these things due to this contact. I know this sounds crazy, but Zalama patented the star technology and something tells me he would have to have shown the Namekians how to do it because of that goofy trivia.
  • Gaining knowledge from the Dragon God, the Namekians make or are granted statues that allow summoning of Dragons. I believe this is where the "Dragon Clan" gets its start.
  • Zalama went back to his dimension at some point.
  • Zalama maintains Super Shenron, "Guru" maintains porunga, Nameless Namekian maintains Shenron, etc.
  • Dragon statues are paired with their dragon ball sets. They need a maintainer to function. The more powerful/knowledgeable the maintainer, the more they can get out of their dragon. For instance: Dende's Shenron is better as he had better/more training.
  • Dragons still have a hierarchy, however, and their dragon balls reflect this with smaller/fewer dragon balls reflecting lower ranking dragons.
So I think dragons exist in their own divine realm outside of the normal universes, similar to the world of void, as they can be summoned in either Universe 6 or 7. Also, I think their power/rules are tied to their maintainers through the dragon balls and statues. I believe the actual dragons are much more powerful and want to get back to their lives, which may be why Shenron is so annoyed (he gets summoned a lot). To end this I'll just ask, "If there is no world for dragons, why would there be a Dragon God?"
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Re: Where do the dragons go?

Post by Trouser » Mon Dec 05, 2022 4:18 am

I like to think there's some kind of a Dragon Realm where they live. We saw one in Dragon Ball Heroes and Toyotarou's used this concept in his DBAF fanmanga.
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Re: Where do the dragons go?

Post by Asin » Sun Jan 01, 2023 9:36 pm

Trouser wrote: Mon Dec 05, 2022 4:18 am I like to think there's some kind of a Dragon Realm where they live. We saw one in Dragon Ball Heroes and Toyotarou's used this concept in his DBAF fanmanga.
Wait, we did? When did that happen? And what does it look like?

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Galan007
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Re: Where do the dragons go?

Post by Galan007 » Mon Jan 02, 2023 10:38 am

Personally I have always just assumed that each Dragon Ball contains a sliver of the Dragon's cumulative essence. So when the Dragon Balls are all brought together, the Dragon's complete essence(ie. its physical manifestation) is released long enough to grant the wish. After the wish has been granted, the Dragon's essence is once again split/separated between the Dragon Balls, and they scatter.

So in short, I don't think the Dragon itself necessarily goes to some sort of metaphysical realm in its "down time" or w/e. I think the individual portions of its essence just lie dormant within the Dragon Balls, and are not 'activated' until the DBs are used again.

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Re: Where do the dragons go?

Post by Xeogran » Tue Jan 03, 2023 9:26 am

to a Tea Party.

...for REAL!

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Re: Where do the dragons go?

Post by Omori » Fri Jan 06, 2023 8:59 pm

Asin wrote: Sun Jan 01, 2023 9:36 pm
Trouser wrote: Mon Dec 05, 2022 4:18 am I like to think there's some kind of a Dragon Realm where they live. We saw one in Dragon Ball Heroes and Toyotarou's used this concept in his DBAF fanmanga.
Wait, we did? When did that happen? And what does it look like?
In DBH Victory Mission Chapter 27 we see a location called "Evil Dragon Nest" (邪悪龍の巣).
https://vjump.shueisha.co.jp/push/dbh/mission27.html

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