Dragon Ball Super: was Zalama stronger than Zeno?

Dragon Ball Super introduced the Super Dragon Balls, and I think they're one of the greatest mysteries in the whole series, one many of us will be thinking about for years. What's the true origin of these Dragon Balls? Where did they come from, and why do they exist? My theory is that their creator, a mysterious figure named Zalama, may be a god even higher than Zeno, the King of All.

In Dragon Ball Super (2015), these Dragon Balls the size of planets changed the balance of power. Before I get to that theory, it's worth going through what we actually know about them.

The Super Dragon Balls came before the Namekian Dragon Balls

Originally, the manga told us that the Dragon Balls came from planet Namek and that the Namekians were their original creators. Dragon Ball Super gave us some new and interesting information showing that wasn't true. The original set of Dragon Balls is the Super Dragon Balls, which existed even before the Namekian ones.

In fact, the Namekian Dragon Balls were made by scraping or breaking off pieces of the Super Dragon Balls.

Year 41 of the Divine Calendar, and why even Whis seems unsure

The Super Dragon Balls were created in year 41 of the Divine Calendar, and we have no idea what the Divine Calendar is. It isn't the original calendar Dragon Ball established years ago. As far as we know, it's some kind of celestial calendar that nobody seems to know about except highly knowledgeable figures like Zuno.

My guess is that the top gods, such as the Grand Priest and maybe the King of All, have full knowledge of the Divine Calendar. But the series made it clear that even the angels don't truly know. Why else would Whis want Bulma to go and talk to Zuno if he already knew about the Divine Calendar and the Super Dragon Balls? He doesn't seem to know everything about them, which only deepens the mystery.

Zalama made the Super Dragon Balls, but he is not Super Shenron

We also know the Super Dragon Balls were made by a mysterious figure known as Zalama, or Zarama, who is as much of a puzzle as anything else connected to them. There's a big misconception about Zalama that needs clearing up: the idea that Zalama is Super Shenron, the dragon inside the Super Dragon Balls. They're not the same character at all.

The Funimation dub and some fans got this mixed up. Zalama is the maker of the Super Dragon Balls, not the dragon inside them. Or at least, that's not what we were told in the original Japanese script.

Planet-sized, limitless and found only in Universe 6 and Universe 7

The Super Dragon Balls are enormous, measuring 37,196 kilometers, the size of planets. That means they can't be spotted and moved around easily the way the Earth or Namek Dragon Balls can. As far as we know, setting GT aside, these are the only sets of Dragon Balls that have ever existed, and they seem to belong to Universe 6 and Universe 7 alone. Why is that?

We also shouldn't forget that the Super Dragon Balls were said to have no limits, unlike the Dragon Balls that came before them.

Every set of Dragon Balls is tied to its creator's power

Each set of Dragon Balls is bound to the one who made it. On Earth, we had the original Kami, the son of Katattsu, the nameless Namekian who came to Earth many years ago. He knew how to make Dragon Balls because of his heritage as part of the Namekian Dragon Clan. That's how he was able to create them, and those Dragon Balls were tied to his power.

The dragon can't grant a wish that goes beyond the power of its maker. The same applies to Dende's Dragon Balls and to the Namekian ones. That's why Dragon Balls can't manipulate or kill someone stronger than their creator. Since Vegeta and Nappa were stronger than Kami when they first showed up in Dragon Ball Z, Earth's dragon couldn't wipe them out.

As the series went on, we learned about more powerful Dragon Balls, like the Namekian set. Dende also upgraded the dragon several times to give it more wishes and more power. Even so, it stayed fundamentally linked to the life force and the power of its original maker. When it comes to the Super Dragon Balls, you could assume a similar situation, although we don't have much evidence.

Why Zalama may have been born in Universe 6 or Universe 7

The fact that the Super Dragon Balls belong only to Universe 6 and Universe 7 is a big mystery in the Dragon Ball world. What's special about those two? They're twin universes, like the other universes in the omniverse. But why were these two given the Super Dragon Balls?

Based on the history and the mystery behind it, that tells me Zalama maybe was born in Universe 6 or Universe 7. One thing we know for sure is that Zalama has vast knowledge and immense power. It would take someone with incredible strength and a deep understanding of the universe to create these Dragon Balls. He had to have an astonishing knowledge of the multiverse that most humans had no idea about, because he knew about at least these two universes, and most likely others as well.

Reversing Zeno's erasure suggests a god above the King of All

At the end of Dragon Ball Super, we find out that the Super Dragon Balls are powerful enough to undo what Zeno, the King of All, did when he erased multiple universes. The fact that they have no limits, and the fact that they can reverse Zeno's work, is to me one of the biggest mysteries of all. If these Dragon Balls are tied to their creator, then their creator is as powerful as the King of All, if not more powerful.

It also means Zalama may still be alive. The old Dragon Ball series showed us that when a creator dies, the Dragon Balls disappear, as we saw with Kami and with the Grand Elder on Namek. So the fact that the Super Dragon Balls are still active and used again and again in Dragon Ball Super tells me there's a chance a god higher than Zeno exists, a being who has been lurking in the shadows.

There's plenty to support this. Although Zeno is the King of All, as far as we know he has never created anything. He only destroys, which makes him something like a higher level God of Destruction, if you want to put it that way. So it makes you wonder who created the universe in the first place. Is there a divine being who made everything? Could Zalama be the creator not only of the Super Dragon Balls but of the entire omniverse?

Why Tori-Bot isn't the true supreme god of Dragon Ball

One thing fans will tell you is that they feel Tori-Bot is the ultimate creator of everything. That's closer to a meta joke than a fact. Tori-Bot is Akira Toriyama's avatar inside the worlds of Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump, and in the manga Toriyama uses Tori-Bot as a kind of narrator. But you have to understand that Tori-Bot isn't meant to be taken seriously.

It's like saying Stan Lee is a real character in the Marvel multiverse, which he actually is, because American comics are crazy. I won't sit here and say the idea of Toriyama existing inside the Dragon Ball world is impossible, but it was clearly put there as a joke. Tori-Bot did nothing at all in Dragon Ball Super, either on screen or in the manga. To me he isn't a real entity in the series. He's more a representation of the author's thoughts, interviews and that sort of thing, so you can't treat him as the true supreme god.

Zalama may have handed Zeno the throne

There has to be another mysterious god, one who may be responsible for more than the Super Dragon Balls. Zalama might rank above Zeno, and maybe he was the one who gave Zeno the throne at some point in the distant past.

If Zalama is still alive, and if he's still tied to the Super Dragon Balls, then because those Dragon Balls have no limits, Zalama himself may have no limits either. Even Zeno has some form of limitation, but Zalama doesn't seem to have any. That means he could indeed be stronger than Zeno. And if you're strong enough to surpass Zeno, you're probably the creator of the universe, or at least of multiple universes.

The Super Dragon Balls were made for gods, not mortals

Consider this too: Super Shenron only grants wishes to those who speak the language of the gods. That tells me Zalama probably created these Dragon Balls for the lesser gods, such as the angels and those at the power level or rank of the Grand Priest, and not for anyone beneath them. They were never meant to be used by mortals. Anyone can use the Earth's Dragon Balls, for example, but these ones are very special.

At the time I wrote this, it was a mystery Dragon Ball sadly had not solved, and one we may never get an answer to, though I hope we do someday because there's so much mystery around these Dragon Balls. Who is Zalama? Where did the Super Dragon Balls come from, and why were they made? As The X-Files put it, the answer is out there. It might be in Toriyama's head, or maybe not, and maybe he doesn't even care. But I do, and many of you do too.