Bardock's Wish and the Dragon Balls: How Journey to the West's Karma Shapes Dragon Ball

The Dragon Balls look like simple wish granting artifacts, but their roots in Journey to the West tie them to karma, enlightenment, and the difference between selfish and selfless wishes. That idea runs all the way from the Pilaf arc to Bardock's wish for his sons, which may have passed good karma on to Goku.

This was another edition of our ongoing look at Dragon Ball and Saiyuki, where we talk about Dragon Ball's influence from Journey to the West, the original story Toriyama was basing Dragon Ball on. As the series progressed, he went in different directions, but a lot of it still ties back to that centuries old Eastern story. For this one I was joined by my regular co-host to dig into the Dragon Balls and one of the places Toriyama got the idea from. Wish granting artifacts have been around since Arabian Nights, and that kind of story has been told over and over again. Saiyuki is a little bit different, because it has more to do with an actual path of life than just granting wishes.

The Dragon Balls echo the Buddhist sutras Tripitaka sought in Journey to the West

Jordan laid out the parallel. The end goal of the journey in Dragon Ball is to discover the Dragon Balls and get a wish. The end goal of Journey to the West was to attain the Buddhist sutras, which Tripitaka was supposed to use to bring enlightenment to the world. When he started the journey, his concern was whether everyone on Earth could experience enlightenment, and he believed that if he could make the journey to the west, he could bring that enlightenment to the world.

What Jordan finds really interesting is that every time Goku uses the Dragon Balls, it seems like the world becomes a little bit more of a brighter and happier place. Toriyama plays on that in multiple ways. Another way he plays on it comes from a twist in the original story: the journey and the sutras are kind of a trick, because it turns out the journey itself was creating the sutras.

That comes through in the camaraderie between Sun Wukong, Pigsy, Sandy, and Tripitaka. Pigsy and Sandy are a couple more demons who were pretty nasty, like Wukong. In our conversation they were compared with Oolong, and Sandy with Yamcha, the desert bandit. All of them were pretty nasty before the journey, but as it progressed they started to care about each other, respect their master, and learn the principles of Buddhism. Tripitaka causes these demons to become better people, to become Buddhas themselves and find enlightenment. That's what Goku does with his friends on the hunt for the Dragon Balls: everyone grows a little bit, and everyone becomes a little less selfish.

Toriyama originally meant Dragon Ball to end with the Pilaf arc

To add some context for anyone who might not remember, when Toriyama first started the series back in 84, he didn't have any intention for it to be as big as it became. I've spent a lot of time debunking claims about where things supposedly ended, and none of that's true. However, Dragon Ball was initially supposed to be just the first arc, what we now know as the Pilaf arc or the hunt for the Dragon Balls. Those first 13 or so episodes are all Toriyama intended to tell, and in a way that mirrors Journey to the West.

Past that point, Toriyama starts going his own way. That direction was inspired by his editor, Torishima, who told him to put in more martial arts tournaments because people love those. That's when the series began to gain popularity, and Toriyama started to really fall in love with these characters and write new stories. Originally, though, he only intended it to be a few chapters, because he loved Saiyuki.

So you have to look at it from that perspective. When you watch the Pilaf arc, they summon the dragon at the end of the arc, and that's sort of the end of the story, so to speak. The story continues, of course, but that would have been the place Toriyama ended it had he not chosen to keep going.

Krillin's selfless wish for 18 and 17 shows karma at work

Krillin is one of the best examples of this enlightenment effect. In the Cell saga and the Android saga, he talks about how a lot of the people who used to be Goku's enemies are now his friends, and he's technically the first one who ever went through that. His journey from selfishness to selflessness is one of the most iconic in Dragon Ball. When he first shows up on Master Roshi's doorstep, he wants to learn martial arts to get women. By the time he's in a position to use the Dragon Balls selflessly, he does so, and that lands him his dream: a woman.

One of the things that led to 18 and Krillin getting together is that he made a very selfless wish, asking for her and 17 to no longer have the self destruct mechanism inside their bodies. Nobody forced him to make that wish. He did it out of the kindness of his heart, not even knowing he was going to end up with her, and it wound up working out for him. The minute you do something for the right reasons, you get rewarded, sort of like by the gods, and that's karma.

Dragon Ball Super ties the Dragon Balls to brave Namekian warriors

The selflessness and selfishness aspect is huge, especially in what was the current arc of Dragon Ball at the time, which expanded on this a lot. When Monaito and Granola have a conversation about the Dragon Balls, Monaito explains that they were originally part of a ritual to celebrate brave Namekian warriors, and that they're not meant to fulfill any old selfish wish. There's also the scene on Namek where one of the elders explains that the wishes were originally meant as a reward for bold warriors who sought out the Dragon Balls in times of great suffering, which is very Journey to the West. It seems like it's baiting for a selfless Namekian warrior to make a selfless wish to restore his own planet.

The Elder Kai fits in here too. When he talks about how the Dragon Balls can throw the universe into disorder, he explains that the Namekians were the only ones allowed to use them, because under controlled conditions that never would have happened. The Namekians were using the Dragon Balls the correct way, because a lot of them were selfless by nature, and they would only use them to restore their planet over and over whenever things got rough. That sounds an awful lot like how Goku uses the Dragon Balls.

GT plays on this a lot as well. In GT, evil karma builds up within the Dragon Balls, which isn't a thing in Super. The negative energy that made the evil dragons is basically karma for the selfish wishes. Not every wish was selfish in a bad way, since some were made to resurrect friends, but they still disrupt nature. There's a warning of that in the Buu arc, when the Elder Kai talks about how relying on these balls disrupts the natural balance of things.

Selfish wishes come back on the people who make them

Whether it's Shenron's Dragon Balls or the Super Dragon Balls, they may seem all powerful, but they're still bound to the laws of karma. That's why any time somebody makes a selfish wish in Dragon Ball, they pay for it one way or another. We see that with King Piccolo, with Zamasu, and even with Moro.

A favorite example came up even though it's from a movie, and people will say it's not canon. The story is still there. Garlic Jr. wishes to be immortal and ends up trapped in the Dead Zone for eternity, with an immortal body but no way to die and move on. That's one of the biggest examples of bad karma.

It's exactly what happened to Sun Wukong. He broke into heaven and stole the pills, the elixir, and the peaches of immortality, and he became like immortal times 20. When heaven tried to kill him, they couldn't, so they went to Buddha and asked him to trap Wukong. The same idea and the same principle carry over.

Bardock's wish may have passed good karma to Goku

The last wish we'd gotten at the time is interesting in terms of selfishness and selflessness, and it really seems like Bardock's wish. A lot of people are concerned that Goku has been sent down a path where he's got cosmic plot armor because of the Dragon Balls. But the Dragon Balls aren't above the laws of karma. Looking at how they work, all they really did for Goku and Raditz was take the good karma from Bardock's wish and apply it to Goku. Grandpa Gohan is still very necessary in setting Goku down the right path to benefit from that good karma, while Raditz was influenced by Nappa, Vegeta, and Frieza, which is why he turned out the way he did.

All the villains have eventually been brought down because of a selfish wish. When Bardock wished for his sons to grow up strong, that was a selfless wish, and it sounds a lot like what Goku wishes for everyone he comes into contact with. But there are layers to it. Bardock made the wish so he could stay and fight Gas, so there's a hint of selfishness there. He also did it because he had the pride of the Saiyan and wanted to stay and win a fight to the death. And when Raditz found Goku, he was upset that Goku didn't have the pride of the Saiyans.

Being above karma is Sun Wukong's whole thing. He's an instinctual creature who's pure of heart, and that's the entire reason he becomes a Buddha: by his very nature he creates nothing but good karma for himself, so he kind of hacks the universe. It makes sense that this is kind of what Goku does. That's the reason Goku accidentally uses the Dragon Balls the correct way all the time, because of the way Grandpa Gohan raised and influenced him.

Goku and Raditz meeting is why Dragon Ball has to come before Z

One underrated thing about Raditz's character is that his intention was to change Goku into a worse person, to be like him, which is the polar opposite of Goku, who tries to make people better. It's almost as if the two coming into contact was the opportunity for each one to either mess up or redeem themselves, basically the universe setting a course of events into play.

Neither thing happens. Raditz stays evil, Goku stays good, and they both die, but Goku is the one who gets wished back. Why? Because throughout all of Dragon Ball before that event, he had made friends. If Goku had never made friends like Bulma, Master Roshi, Puar, Yamcha, and Krillin, he would never have been brought back to life. That's a really important point when looking at the Saiyan saga, and it's why the advice came up that you can't start with Z. You have to watch Dragon Ball at some point to get the full context of what happened before Raditz showed up.

To wrap it up, decisions matter, both in the latest chapter of Dragon Ball Super at the time and in how the Dragon Balls themselves are used. Your decisions are just as important in determining your fate as anything else. Goku's choices may be the result of Grandpa Gohan's influence, and the Dragon Balls may have put him in a situation to thrive through good karma, but he had to maintain that nature. He's been tempted time and time again to go the other way. He might have gotten some help along the way, but the Dragon Balls are not above the laws of karma, and if you truly want to thrive in life, you have to be a good person and do good with all your heart. That's really the overall message Dragon Ball is trying to portray.

Which wish in Dragon Ball do you think best shows the line between selfish and selfless?