The infamous dragon balls from the Dragon Ball franchise have the🐠 ability to bring forth Shenron, the eternal dragon. As long as it is within the power of Shenron’s creator, the eternal dragon can grant any wish. Onc♑e they grant a wish or two, the dragon balls turn into stone for a year.
Finding the dragon balls and summoning Shenron is the source of most of the conflicts in the series. Villains like Emperor Pilaf, the Red Ribbon Army, King Piccolo, and Frieza, have searched for the dragon balls to grant their evil wishes. Shenron and the dragon balls are pretty much the MacGuffin of the Dragon Ball universe. Shenron himself has become an iconic character. He is featured prominently in many Dragon Ball merchandises, including toys, video games, and ꦗis even featured heavily in the opening title ❀sequences.
Shenron may be an important character in the series, fans hardly know much about him outside his role in granting wishes. A lot of information about him is generally not common knowledge, which is why we are going to go through the 20 Things You Didn’t Know About Shenron. There is more to 🍸learn about this dragon than🍨 meets the eye, and we are going to go through the twenty of the most surprising things that you probably didn’t know.
20 ꦦ Shenron Can P🥂erish
Despite being called the Eternal Dragon, Shenron is capable of perishing like any other living being. This is proven when King Piccolo exterminates Shenron in the King Piccolo saga of the original Dragon Ball. After granting Piccolo’s wish of eternal youth, Piccolo ꦰblasts the d📖ragon to oblivion.
Up till that point, the Eternal Dragon was thought as being completely impervious; King Piccolo proved otherwise. Up till that point, the villains of Dragon Ball were mostly silly or non-threaten𒅌ing. Piccolo changed that in a big way, adding greater stakes to the conflict, and giving a worthy villain for Goku to face. Shenron’s passing was, in many ways, when the series started transitioning from a light-hearted martial arts story to a high tension action drama. Fortunately, Shenron is brought back to life by his creator Kami.
19 No Pไlace Like Home
Not mౠuch thought is given to what Shenron does when he isn’t summoned to grant peoples’ wishes. In fact, I just always assumed he just doesn’t exist when he is not summoned. Like, he only comes to life every time he summons, and simply disappears out of existence until he is summoned again.
It turns out that Shenron lives in the center of the Earth
Apparently, that is n✱ot true. It turns out that Shenron lives in the center of the Earth, and is only summoned when the seven dragon balls gather. What he does there is anyone’s guess. When Kami made him, did he make in the center of the Earth, or did he teleport to the center of the Earth? Whatever was the reason, it is nice to know that Shenron has a place to call home.
18 Don't Make�🐠� Him Mad
Since no one has ever successfully wished it, many assume Shenron can’t eliminate people. If he was able to exterminate the protagonists’ enemies, than a lot of the heroes’ problems could be easily fixed. Unfortunately for Earth’s protector, Oolong tries to wish Shenron to get rid of Vegeta and Nappa before they arrived to Earth. Shenron could not comply, as both🥂 of the Saiyans were more powerful than Kami, the dragon’s c🐟reator.
Shenron makes it clear that he can’t make wishes that exceed the power of his creator Kami. However, he never states that he can’t eliminate anyone. He just can’t eliminate beings stronger than his creator. While that would make him virtually powerless to stop any foes post-Dragon Ball, it also means he could’ve been used to pretty much snuff out any of the antagonists in the original Dragon Ball show.
17 Sharinꦅg A Voice ꦅ
In a time before Dragon Ball Super was even a twinkle in Toei Animation’s eye, for the longest time, Omega Shenron was considered to be the strongest Dragon Ball villain of all time. This was before Beerus, Hit, Goku Black, or Jiren ever hit television screens. Omega Shenron is the final antagonist in Dragon Ball GT. Omega is all the negative energy that the dragon 💮balls have gathered after decades of the heroes using the dragon balls too 𝄹much.
Sabat voiced a vast majority of the Dragon Ball cast
A clever thing that the English dub did with Omega is that he is voiced by Chris Sabat. That alone is unusual, as Sabat voiced a vast majority of the Dragon Ball cast including Vegeta, Piccolo, Yamcha, Racoome, and many more characters. Nonetheless, Sabat also voices Shenron. Sabat🍬 uses a more distorted version of his Shenron voice for Omega, highlighting the fact that Omega is meant to be a corrupted 𒁃version of Shenron.
16 Namekians Ma꧂y Have Stolen This Idea 🍃
Dragon Ball Super introduces a 🎃new set of dragon balls and a new kind of Eternal Dragon. The Super Dragon Balls and Super Shenron are able to grant any wish, with no limitation. Whereas the normal dragon balls from Earth and Namek have limits of what they can do, Super Shenron does not have those limits, he can literally make a𝔉ny wish possible.
In a little retcon in Dragon Ball Super, it is revealed that ancient Namekians came ac♌ross the Super Dragon Balls and took pieces from them to invent their own set of dragon balls. For the longest time Namekians were taking credit for the creation of the dragon balls. It turns out they actually stole the 🧜idea from someone else. If the Namekians didn’t invent dragon balls, who did?
15 Zalama, T✤he Dragon God ꧒
Zalama is dragon god from ancient times who invented the Super Dragon Balls and Super Shenron. Not much is kno✅wn about them other than the f🧔act that they are essentially the father of all dragon balls. If Zalama didn’t invent the Super Dragon Balls, then the Namekians wouldn’t be able to take pieces of them and invent their own set of dragon balls.
No dragon balls would mean that Goku would have never met Bulma
If Namekians didn’t create their own dragon balls, then Kami wouldn’t have come up with the idea of the dragon balls for Earth either. No dragon balls would mean that Goku would have never met Bulma, meaning the entire franchise couldn’t exiജst without Zalama creating the Super Dragon Balls…
Unle♌ss, of course, it turns them also stole the idea from someone else, yet nothing has been revealed about that.
14 ꦰ Origins Of T🗹he Shadow Dragons
After the Super 17 saga in Dragon Ball GT, the protagonists try to use the dragon balls again to wish everyone who perished back to life. Instead of no💞rmal Shenron being summoned, Black Smoke Shenron appeared. So it turns out that every time the dragon balls grant a wish, negative energies from across the universe is absorbed into the orbs. Fortunately, the orbs are able to expel these negative energies naturally over the course of a hundred years. Since in ancient times it took humans a🐠bout a hundred years to gather the dragon balls anyways, it was never an issue until Bulma created the Dragon Radar.
Because finding the dragon balls became so easy for Bulma and the others to do, more and more negative energy was being built up without enough time for the orbs to expel it. All the negative energy eventually corrupted the dragon balls and𒈔 created Black Smoke Shenওron.
13 ♔ Black Star Dragon Balls 𝐆
Surprisingly, before Kami came to be, there was another set of dragon balls on Earth. The Black Star Dragon Balls and Ultimate Shenron work pr🔯etty much the same as normal dragon balls and normal Shenron. They can grant a wish, and afterward, the seven balls will be split up. Ultimate Shenron is actually bigger than no𒈔rmal Shenron and is bright red.
The Earth will explode after a year when Ultimate Shenron grants the wish
The other main difference is that the Black Star Dragon Balls will scatter not across the Earth, but all across the universe. Also, the Earth will explode after a year when Ultimꦺate Shenron grants the wish. They are meant to be more effective dragon balls, yet I find the consequences out🌃weigh the benefits.
12 Dark Dragon Balls ♒ 🍨
Dragon Ball Heroes is a card focused arcade game released in Eastern Asia. It’s the source of very nonsensical storytelling, and fan fiction quality. In Dragon Ball Heroes there is an arc that centers on Dark Dragon Balls and Dark Shenron, and they are not the same as Black Star Dragon Balls from GT; they are apparently completely different. Dark Dragon Balls ﷽are red orbs with black stars on them. They are created by an evil version of Dende, and they are scattered across the galaxy.
Each dragon ball has latched onto some of the biggest villains in the franchise, giving them a power🃏 boost. Frieza, Cell, Kid Buu, Turles, Janemba, Lord Slug, and Broly, each has their own Dark Dragon Balls. Once all together, the orbs are used🅘 to summon Dark Shenron, who is completely evil, but still grants wishes.
11 𓃲 Shenron Is Based On Chinese Lore 💖
Despite being a Japanese product, a lot of the early elements of Dragon Ball were based on Chinese lore. The first arc of the entire series was based on the Chinese novel Journey to the West, which was about a monk traveling to India and finding some sacred scrolls through his trek. Most of the original cast of Dragon Ball was based on the characཧters in Journey to the West, and the dragon balls serve as the scrolls the monk is searching for.
The entire Earth gets surrounded by black clouds
Shenron is based on the mythical Chinese dragon, Shenlong. Shenlong is a spiritual dragon who controls the weather. Shenron, in a way, also controls the weather. Every time he is summoned, the entire Earth gets surrounded by black cl♉ouds.
