| 1 | !'''WARNING: Administrivia/SpoilersOff is in effect here, and unmarked spoilers abound below. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.''' |
| 2 | \ |
| 3 | '''Do not add details about the actual battle to this page before the corresponding battle is able for view by the general public! While it is admirable you are supporting the show, it spoils the surprise for those who don't and have this page on their watchlist.''' |
| 4 | ---- |
| 5 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 6 | ---- |
| 7 | !Fridge Brilliance |
| 8 | [[folder:General / Meta / Multi-season]] |
| 9 | * Some losing combatants like Batman and Goku were given the benefit of the doubt for their fight, allowed to use every weapon they commonly use, have many opportunities to overwhelm their opponent. This was to make their defeats more acceptable. |
| 10 | * Season One's second episode was a Franchise/StreetFighter VS Franchise/MortalKombat match-up (Akuma vs Shang Tsung). Now, Season Two's second episode is a Street Fighter VS Mortal Kombat match-up (M. Bison VS Shao Khan). |
| 11 | ** Also, when you consider that Season One was originally going to end at Mario VS Sonic and not Goku VS Superman, if you don't count Justin Beiber VS Rebecca Black as a real episode, then the second episode would've been Chun-Li VS Mai Shiranui, not a SF VS MK, but a SF character is still in the ring here. |
| 12 | * Why did Wiz and Boomstick have to change the "FIGHT" to a different voice? Probably because Shao Kahn, who did the voice in the first season is now a contestant of ''Death Battle'', so it would be unfair to let him decide when the battle should start. |
| 13 | ** That didn't stop Deadpool from declaring the start of his own fight. Then again, the NoFourthWall thing with him was in play, as always... |
| 14 | * Both Link VS Cloud and Ryu VS Strider were said to be very close, and Cloud and Ryu left relatively intact bodies at their moments of death compared to [[YourHeadAsplode other]] [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe Death]] [[LudicrousGibs Battle]] [[OffWithHisHead combatants]]. While Ryu's body was eventually disposed of, he died when he was driven through the building by Strider. Maybe if the fights were more one-sided, the weaker defenses/stronger attacks would have left behind messier corpses. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | * Why do some combatants return despite dying in a previous episode? Do you ''know'' just how many times some characters (especially superheroes) get revived, let alone the Dragon Balls, Continuity Gem, and Boomstick's comment in a fan Q&A regarding dead fighters coming back for a future episode? |
| 17 | |
| 18 | ---> '''Boomstick:''' "Sure? We have the power. To do ANYTHING~" |
| 19 | |
| 20 | * A large amount of FridgeHorror below revolves around the aftermath of the battles - for example, the Mushroom Kingdom being screwed since Ganon's arrived, or Red's mother never learning her son is dead. However, bear in mind: one common fact about the show is that the fight scenes are just fun representations and don't necessarily show exactly how the fight would go. This is proven by the fight scenes sometimes contradicting canon facts, like Master Chief throwing a grenade through his drop shield, or anyone being a CompositeCharacter (like Snake having his ''Metal Gear Solid 2'' model but some ''Metal Gear Solid 4''-specific weapons and abilities). Even within the universe of Death Battle, these battles are just simulations for fun designed by Wiz and Boomstick, meaning the battles have no consequence. This also explains how characters can come back from the dead for future battles or cameos. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | * Why did Superman see good in Goku even though he's the reason the planet is destroyed? Remember, in his analysis, Wizard explains that Superman can see into people's soul (each with varying colors), surprising even Boomstick. He saw that deep down, likely due to his pure heart, Goku is a good fellow in spite of his rashness and reckless indulgence in fighting, thus explaining why Superman was actively holding back in both of his fights until it went too far. It also explains why he says "I'm sorry" before killing Goku the second time; he's knowingly killing an innocent life. |
| 23 | * The ways Vegeta and Mewtwo beaten and killed Shadow were [[{{Foil}} complete opposites of each other]]. Vegeta relied on his physical power, enduring the strongest of Shadow's attacks while retaliating with one of his own, and ultimately besting him through his sheer firepower and durability. Mewtwo on the other hand used his greater intellect, anticipating Shadow's moves by reading his mind, enhancing his own chances of winning by healing and using defensive tactics, and ultimately outdoing the hedgehog by attacking him mentally, leaving Shadow unsure what to do. Doubles as RewatchBonus[=/=]GeniusBonus, for those who watched both battles. |
| 24 | * Speaking of which, Mewtwo's CallBack to Vegeta vs Shadow by saying "Sayonara" before finishing him off. The reason for this time is because he read all of Shadow's memories, including Maria's final words to him. He was pretty much mocking Shadow by saying it. |
| 25 | * [[Franchise/StreetFighter Gouken and Akuma]] were both taught by the same martial artist, Goutetsu, in the style of a lethal martial art called Ansatsuken. Akuma sought to perfect its killing power, so he challenged his master to a fight to the death and won while embracing the dangerous Satsui No Hadou. Gouken on the other hand modified the style to a non lethal form and placed more emphasis on inner strength and discipline, which he ended up teaching to his students Ryu, Ken, and Dan (before Dan was expelled and went on to mutate that technique to create Saikyo). While Death Battle removes all comabatants' sense of morality and restraint to kill, and Ryu ended up going Evil anyway aganist Scorpion, it's still funny how Akuma (against Shang Tsung) won his match in [[CurbStompBattle a rather one sided fashion]] while Ryu (In his fight against Scorpion), Ken, and Dan ended up losing in their own [[CurbStompBattle one sided fashion]]. |
| 26 | * At the start of Donald VS Daffy on [=DBX=] we see a classic video game title screen with two options; Game A and Game B. Because Game A is the episode's main ending and Game B is the alternate ending with both versions selecting the respective option. |
| 27 | * A lot of fights can begin with a case of DisproportionateRetribution, which makes the offending party come off as petty and vindictive and totally out of character from how they usually are in canon. However, it's entirely possible that, when the fight begins, neither one actually ''intends'' to kill the other. After all, a lot of the fight animations present it as a CurbStompCushion, with either one getting one advantage or another even when the end analysis proves they really shouldn't have. This can actually be chalked up to how an opponent holding back, fighting only as a means to fix their wounded pride and not necessarily being out for blood. However, as many animations show, combatants usually resort to increasingly dangerous techniques and abilities, usually because the other does so too. Regardless of if one intended to kill the other to begin with, as the fight starts escalating, so too are they forced to fight more seriously as the other does as well, up until a lethal point. |
| 28 | * From a metafictional standpoint, there's something very fitting about how some episodes featuring characters whose mental health plays a major role in their storyline are sponsored by [=BetterHelp=], a mental health platform. |
| 29 | ** A major factor in deciding the victor for Scarlet Witch VS Zatanna was Zatanna's better mental stability with her powers. |
| 30 | ** In Ant-Man VS Atom, the hosts went into Ant-Man's mental health and need to prove himself as well as how that led him down a dark path. |
| 31 | ** In Killua VS Misaka, the hosts went into Killua's seeing his unhealthy dependence on Gon and Misaka's shouldering her burdens and having difficulty with her self-esteem when her powers were not enough. |
| 32 | ** Phoenix and Raven both have storylines involving overcoming their psychological issues involving their powers. |
| 33 | ** Guts VS Dimitri features two characters with [[SanitySlippage major psychological problems]]. |
| 34 | ** One of Makima's signature parts of her characterization is subjugating others, whether with her ability of Control or by psychological manipulation to Denji, and a major plot point of ''Chainsaw Man'' involves Denji dealing with such toxicity. In Gojo VS Makima, part of why Gojo ultimately won is his ability to resist such control, both on the ability and psychology. |
| 35 | ** Rick and The Doctor both contended with their past and their losses, with Rick’s family having done therapy (and Boomstick calling Rick to check out BetterHelp in the preview). However, their characterization differs in that Rick is an arrogant nihilist while The Doctor is a pacifist idealist, and the battle itself even highlighted these differences. It could also be argued that these traits are part of why the Doctor won. |
| 36 | [[/folder]] |
| 37 | |
| 38 | [[folder:Season One]] |
| 39 | * ''Rogue VS Wonder Woman'': Rogue may be one of the cheapest characters for being able to add her enemy's abilities on top of her own. Even Superman had trouble with a similar character; Parasite. |
| 40 | * ''Goomba VS Koopa'': Many players believe that a Goomba is less dangerous than a Koopa. This is the case only because the Koopa's shell can bounce back at you, but otherwise the Goomba and Koopa can both be defeated by one jump. Even though it takes 2 to kill a Koopa, it will be immobile after the hit for so long that it doesn't really matter. |
| 41 | * ''Zitz VS Leonardo'': The hosts declare that part of the reason why Leo won is that whilst the Toads have beating the legendarily NintendoHard Battletoads games as a canon feat, the Turtles have achieved similar feats of skill. This may be a reference to the [[VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1989 1989 NES TMNT game]], which is ''also'' legendarily NintendoHard. |
| 42 | * ''Felicia VS Taokaka'': Whenever Felicia throws her opponent down mid-combo, Tao always lands without a hitch. Why? ''Cats always land on their feet.'' |
| 43 | * ''Kratos VS Spawn'': |
| 44 | ** It should be noted that Spawn's near-immortality and instant regenerative powers made him immune to almost every attack that Kratos had. If Spawn lacked his god-like defenses, the outcome would have been different. In a way, Kratos is mortal and Spawn is immortal/extremely difficult to kill. |
| 45 | ** But the reason why Kratos didn't decapitate Spawn is because ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'' doesn't allow the warriors to know of each other unless they do in canon—so he didn't know Spawn could survive getting impaled by his deadliest weapon, the Blade of Olympus. Besides, Kratos doesn't use much strategy to begin with, instead just thrashing things to death wildly. |
| 46 | * ''Mario VS Sonic the Hedgehog (2011)'': |
| 47 | ** Sonic's victory against Mario was foreshadowed from the beginning. At the start of the fight, base Sonic's physical attacks were too quick for base Mario to counter. A similar ambush was used at the end (when the power-ups apparently ran out) before Sonic ground Mario into the ground. |
| 48 | ** Sonic VS Mario ultimately ending in a CurbstompBattle, [[BrokenBase as much as it may upset Mario fans]] was a given since Mario lacks any unique abilities without power-ups. While he and Sonic were evenly matched while using power-ups, without them, all he has his jumping skills and his above-average strength. Compare that to Sonic's {{super speed}}, homing attacks, and razor rapid spin, and you can see why Mario was outclassed. After all, Mario's the former TropeNamer for JackOfAllStats. Being perfectly average is a bad thing when your opponent has a decisive edge in a category that can be used against you. |
| 49 | * ''Starscream VS Rainbow Dash'': |
| 50 | ** As several observers have noted, Starscream lost his fight with Rainbow Dash because [[ButtMonkey he's always doomed to lose in the G1 continuity.]] |
| 51 | *** [[IronButtMonkey And survive the loss too, apparently]]. |
| 52 | ** Makes sense how Starscream VS Rainbow Dash is one of the few battles that is [[BloodlessCarnage completely bloodless]] and technically, neither fighter "dies", since Starscream is still alive in his Spark (though with Rainbow Dash having eaten him, he won't be doing anything for a while); both fighters come from kid's shows, where blood and graphic deaths are very, ''very'' rarely - if ever - shown. |
| 53 | ** Starscream surviving having his Spark eaten at the end of his match makes perfect sense even without the WordOfGod; Sparks are ephemeral energy, so there's nothing for Rainbow's stomach acids to actually ''digest'', so Starscream was never in any real danger. Besides which, Starscream is intangible when in his "ghost mode", so he could just fly straight through Rainbow's flesh whenever he wanted to. He may well have popped out of her, shouted at her for being disgusting, then flown off a minute after the episode ended. |
| 54 | ** The FateWorseThanDeath of the loser of ''Starscream VS Rainbow Dash''... when you think about what's established for the character it's not that bad. Starscream doesn't need a physical body to survive, he can exist just fine as a ghost indefinitely. It just means he can't interact with the material world in significant ways. Furthermore, Starscream is indifferent to time; what's waiting a century or two for Equestria to develop more advanced machinery to somebody who's already [[TimeAbyss been alive for millions of years]]? Finally, among the things Starscream can do in his ghostly state? Travel from planet to planet. So, ultimately, Starscream doesn't need to be stuck in any Equestrian machine unless he wants to; he can just fly away as a ghost to some other, more advanced world and take over machinery there. |
| 55 | ** Many commenters say that Starscream should have won against Rainbow Dash because he has all those weapons. However all those weapons would have been rendered ineffective for different reasons. His Null Ray is stated to be useless on anything but a machine, which Rainbow isn't, and it has been used on humans in the cartoon to no effect. The various missiles he has would also be useless because they are designed primarily to destroy other aircraft or vehicles and she is too small and fast to be hit by them. And finally his minigun which is what most people say should guarantee his victory is also ineffective. The reason being that the gun (M61 Vulcan) has a muzzle velocity [[note]]The speed a bullet has when it leaves the gun, it is also the fastest point of a bullet's flight since loss of energy and air friction would slow the bullet[[/note]] of roughly 1050 meters per second. Rainbow can easily fly at Mach 5, which is at least 1710 meters per second. In short terms, Rainbow ''can fly faster than Starscream's bullets''. You can also say that since Starscream regularly fails to hit targets that are on average 15-20 feet tall, he has an abysmal chance at hitting a target several times faster and 5 times smaller than him. |
| 56 | ** Many others claim that while G1 Starscream was incompetent, Michael Bay's Starscream or later versions would be far superior, and they are. However, even the competent versions of Starscream feature him bringing down tanks, jets, and other Transformers with ease, but he's clumsier when hunting individual humans. It's a trait shared by most Decepticons; Soundwave, Barricade, Frenzy, and Laserbeak are the only ones who can do it, which is why they're saddled with the duty, and are not the greatest fighters amongst their faction. Also, speedsters like Sonic the Hedgehog have dealt with giant, competent robots, and done so without magical powers; Dash is in the same league as Sonic, with FlyingBrick powers, not to mention several magical abilities and techniques. |
| 57 | ** Why was Starscream pitted against Dashie? For the contrast! She represents the [[UndyingLoyalty Element of Loyalty]]; he has a [[TheStarscream trope]] named after him. |
| 58 | *** And alternatively to troll the vocal anti-brony crowd that had populated the video comments before the episode aired. There had been many requests for a Transformer to fight, and a pony from the new generation now that people were actually researching and calculating things about it. They both wanted fair fights. The anti-bronies just wanted something huge with no conceivable chance of losing to stomp on a pony. Bloodily. And instead, they got taken for a ride. |
| 59 | * ''Master Chief VS Doomguy'': |
| 60 | ** Master Chief managed to block Doomguy's bullets with the energy sword, despite not having much ability with the sword and not being able to do it in the game. [[Anime/HaloLegends He knew it was possible because an Elite had done it to him.]] |
| 61 | ** It also demonstrates one of Doomguy's weaknesses: being oldschool, he only usually fired at chest level, and the Chief only needed to hold out the sword in front of him to block the shots. If Master Chief had tried that in his own games, his opponents would merely have shot his legs instead, which is why he can't usually do it. |
| 62 | * ''Doctor Eggman VS Doctor Wily'': |
| 63 | ** One can wonder where the heck that Chaos Emerald randomly came from during the Wily VS Eggman battle, but it was explicitly stated earlier that Silver Sonic is powered by a Chaos Emerald, which is what allowed Metal Sonic to later absorb it and become a near unstoppable force even BEFORE he absorbed the Egg Fleet. |
| 64 | ** Something that might strike a viewer as odd in the Wily vs Eggman fight is the inclusion of [[WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog Scratch and Grounder]] when the armies seem to be primarily based on the games. However, not only did they both [[VideoGame/DoctorRobotniksMeanBeanMachine appear in a game once]], both are canonically based off/[[{{Expy}} expies]] for Badniks from VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 -- Grounder is lifted directly from the Grounder badnik (which itself was a slightly redesigned version of the Burrobot from VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1), while Scratch is a less-accurate version of the Clucker badnik (the turret gunner chicken Badniks that guard Robotnik's flying fortress). |
| 65 | * ''Princess Zelda VS Princess Peach'': |
| 66 | ** Some characters or abilities may not have been used because they don't have sprites or animations that the ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'' animators can use at the time. This may explain the lack of Sheik for the Peach VS Zelda fight. While she didn't use Sheik attacks (like the chain or needles from SSB), you may have noticed that Zelda was a lot more speedy and agile than normally depicted. |
| 67 | ** The odds of ANYTHING without a homing device to launch randomly miles into the air and directly hit a human head is WELL OVER a million to 1. This means Peach won by luck. What makes it FridgeBrilliance is that this in itself is an ability attributed to Peach. The sheep summoning spell appears to aim itself at the intended target. |
| 68 | * ''Link VS Cloud Strife (2012)'': |
| 69 | ** I was kind of confused in the Cloud VS Link battle; when Cloud used his Omnislash, it looked like Link was easily about to die, but then Link somehow landed a hit that saved him without any explanation as to how. I didn't understand why until I watched the battle again; I previously FailedASpotCheck and didn't notice the yellow reticule around Cloud during the attack. Link was Z Targeting! This also extends into the research shown earlier, where they flat out stated Z-Targeting = Fast Reflexes. This not only explains how Link countered the Omnislash, but also how he was able to keep pace with Cloud's super-soldier speed in swordplay. It is an ability shown consistently throughout the series, which is what the weapons and abilities chosen for the fight were based on. And just because Cloud can slash like crazy doesn't mean he has Z-Targeting or Spidey-Senses- that's not how it works. Link's quick reaction time was shown as a confirmed ability. |
| 70 | ** It should be noted that Cloud's Limit Breaks cannot be performed multiple times in a single turn. This means after each attack, Cloud is wide open (he can still block or dodge but in gameplay he can still be hit very easily). So Cloud can perform large combos but cannot overwhelm another superhuman or magical swordsmen like Link on speed alone. |
| 71 | ** Link appears to be as strong or as fast as a normal human, but his magical items do give him superhuman abilities. Link with his weapons isn't much different from Mario without his powerups or Taokaka running out of Seithr. These warriors are very effective with their weapons and magic, and because of this they can stand up against naturally superhuman opponents with ease. |
| 72 | * ''Batman VS Spider-Man'': |
| 73 | ** The reason why Batman didn't win in his battle with Spider-Man, if you read the comics, is obvious Spidey had the jump on him, and when it comes down to it, Batman's main advantage is being CrazyPrepared. As Wiz and Boomstick pointed out, Spidey's weaknesses are impossible to utilize unless one is prepared, which the rules of Death Battle prevent. |
| 74 | *** If Spider-man knew how serious and aggressive Batman is as a fighter, he probably would have been less cocky and more careful during the fight—like how he didn't realize that Batman had explosive Batarangs. |
| 75 | *** Spider-Sense: Any of Batman's gadgets would have no effect on this, since this is one of Spidey's innate abilities. |
| 76 | *** Stamina and strategy: Whilst Batman may have encountered enemies and defeated them, this was due to having some form of advantage due to his gadgets. Compare this to Spider-Man, who is known for taking a lot of punishment but not necessarily dying and defeating enemies with plans formulated on the go. This could prove effective in countering whatever scheme Bats may cook up. |
| 77 | *** And in canon, Batman's very aware that in a straight-up fight against meta-humans with no prep time, he'd probably lose. |
| 78 | *** Also most of Batman's weapons are DESIGNED to be NONLETHAL. Since ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'' is about KILLING the enemy, Batman didn't use the right tools because of his pacifist fighting style. |
| 79 | *** This is FridgeBrilliance in and of itself. Batman does not kill, period, outside of Final Crisis. He knows that he is a master of fighting, and that there is a chance that his mind may be subverted by some enemy (probably Poison Ivy or the Mad Hatter). Thus, he designs his equipment and techniques so that, even if his will is subverted by an outside force (like, say, whatever it is that removes a Death Battler's compunctions about killing), he won't be able to break his oath to himself not to kill. Which is to say, Batman is so {{crazy prepared}}, ''he outsmarted Wiz and Boomstick''. |
| 80 | * ''Pikachu VS Blanka'': |
| 81 | ** Despite Pikachu's enormous popularity, he is still one of the weakest Pokémon in terms of base stats. Pikachus are very weak. their high speed coupled with their buffing and debuffing movesets make them good ''Annoyers''. This means nothing against Blanka. First, many debuffs a Pikachu might use are electrically-based. Second, Ash does not use Pikachu as an Annoyer but as a powerhouse. Third, if Pikachu is confused without Ash to command it trying to be a powerhouse, strategic Annoyance is probably FAR beyond its capabilities. In conclusion, real people use Pikachu because of his popularity, not his skill. |
| 82 | *** Although with the addition of the Light Ball, Pikachu DOES gain offensive prowess rivalling that of Legendaries (In particular, it becomes the second hardest-hitting user of Physical Electric STAB, beaten only by Zekrom with Fusion Bolt or Bolt Strike), but it is still a glass cannon with only decent speed. Problem being Ash's in particular doesn't have that item. |
| 83 | * ''Goku VS Superman'': |
| 84 | ** As they themselves noted and hinted at the end, the victory of Superman over Goku makes perfect sense. Both of them deal with limitations; the difference is, Superman has emotional limitations (his history of mental limitations on his power, his devotion to saving lives rather than training, his dilemma of Krypton VS Earth), and completely lacks physical limitations; Superman's story is an unending one of a PhysicalGod dealing with the realities of life, balancing the world's needs against his own, and finding his identity. By contrast, Goku, being simpleminded and living for the fight, has no emotional limitations, but has many hard-and-fast physical limitations, with his story being an unending one of trying to overcome those limitations by unceasing training and determination. Both of them excel where the other struggles; just as the limitless Superman will always overcome the limited Goku in battle, the limitless Goku will always overcome the limited Superman at simply living, enjoying life, and coping with backstory and plot events. Unfortunately, this is a [[DuelToTheDeath Death Battle]], so Goku's quality-of-life victory is a bit hollow here. |
| 85 | ** It should be noted that the reason that pre-1986 Superman is not being used is because not only are his powers inconsistent throughout the series because of different authors, but some technicalities would be too cheap for the fight (i.e. destroying entire solar systems with sneezes or feeling no pain from being attacked by The Incredible Hulk). |
| 86 | ** The Goku VS Superman fight was originally scheduled for December 21, 2012; the day many people feared the world would end. At the end of the battle, the Earth was destroyed. |
| 87 | ** Some of what the two did in the fight didn't make sense, then I figured it out. |
| 88 | *** Why did Superman fly away after saying "I haven't even begun to play"? He was going around the earth to punch Goku in the face when he came back, it's a common enough move used by the Flash and other speedsters that he should be familiar with the concept and probably use it himself. However, WordOfGod is that Superman noticed the sun setting, so he traveled to Japan (Goku's DBZ arena) so he would be where it is high-noon, and the sun would be high in the sky. You can see the sun 'rising' from Superman flying around the world, that was his intention— not to punch Goku. |
| 89 | *** Why would Goku say "Oh no you don't!" While chasing Superman? He didn't understand that Superman got stronger. If Goku thought Superman was like the average ''Franchise/DragonBall'' villain, the only reason to get above the ground a lot would be to fire one massive beam at it and blow it up. |
| 90 | ** The revelation of the new Super Saiyan God form from ''Battle of Gods'' would not have much effect on Goku's loss against Superman match. Why? Because the form requires six pure-hearted Saiyans to gather their energy, and that's five too many for a [[DuelToTheDeath Death Battle]]. In fact, it actually might dig Goku's hole even deeper, since with a new canon source after DBZ proper, GT may not count as a permissible research source and Goku wouldn't have access to Super Saiyan 4, leaving his physical limitations far lower than even the inadequate stats calculated by Wiz and Boomstick for use in the battle. |
| 91 | ** Also, God Form has a time limit[[note]]Later episodes confirmed that Goku did absorb it into his base[[/note]] and its limits were never fully measured at the time.[[note]]In later episodes, it was calculated to be able to destroy our own universe at least 9 to 13 times over, though considering Superman can scale to beings who can destroy the DC universe which was calculated to be at least one billion times larger than our own universe, it's a moot point.[[/note]] |
| 92 | ** As Goku gets stronger throughout the fight with his Super-Saiyan forms, Superman gets stronger by getting closer to the sun. That way, both warrior's 'power levels' consistently grow throughout the match. |
| 93 | ** The battle between Goku and Superman is pretty much the hosts ShownTheirWork of their research and responding to many fan predictions of the fight, specifically actions or situations that would have one fighter overwhelm the other IN THEORY. |
| 94 | *** How would Goku survive getting overwhelmed early in the fight before transforming? Senzu Beans. |
| 95 | *** Which Superman would destroy quickly after realizing what they do. |
| 96 | *** Would Goku use Kryptonite? No, Goku has too much pride and honor to defeat Superman like that. |
| 97 | *** Would After-Image work on Superman, who has super-vision? No. |
| 98 | *** Can the magical Power Pole hurt Superman? Yes, but Goku had little experience with it in DBZ and GT, so Superman could quickly disarm him. Also, a pole is not the most lethal weapon to use. |
| 99 | *** Would the Spirit Bomb have any use in a fight against Superman, who is pure of heart? Well, if Goku absorbed the energy of the Spirit Bomb it would be useful, but not as an actual weapon.[[note]]If his fight with [[SupermanSubstitute Jiren]] in ''Super'' is anything to go by, he can actually do it. It's not enough to overpower Jiren though and he needed Frieza's help to ring him out.[[/note]] |
| 100 | *** Goku had read minds in the past, wouldn't he just discover Superman's weaknesses like that? No, Superman trained himself to resist psychic attacks with his superhuman mind. And besides, he's friends with Martian Manhunter who is also telepathic, which would also allow Superman to resist mind-reading. |
| 101 | *** Would Solar Flare work against Superman, who is not only powered by the sun but has superhuman vision and has stared into the sun before? No. |
| 102 | *** Ice Breath is one of Superman's weaker attacks, so would it be effective against someone as powerful as Goku? Overall, no. |
| 103 | *** Shouldn't Superman just fly into the sun and get stronger so he can beat Goku? Well since Superman's speed and durability are virtually unlimited, Goku has little chance to slow him down if Superman decides to do that. |
| 104 | *** Why not teleport Superman away from the sun? Four reasons; (1) Goku wants to fight his enemies at full power. (2) Goku doesn't understand Superman's powers. (3) If Goku tried to, he would need time to concentrate, and Superman would try to fight back, so it would be risky. And (4) Goku might accidentally teleport Superman closer to a sun or to a ''blue'' sun, making the situation worse. (5) Goku would have to teleport to somewhere with a Ki signature and be breathable to him, further narrowing down his choices. |
| 105 | *** Why not destroy the sun? Even if the Kamehameha was powerful enough to do so the supernova explosion would kill Goku (and would suffocate in outer space if he isn't instantly incinerated) but not Superman (who survived supernova explosions). |
| 106 | *** Doesn't Goku have an enormous power-level? Power-levels were used as a plot-device to make the villains overconfident by underestimating the Z-Fighters. Realistically Goku is too powerful for his power level to be measured. Also, Superman's power level is never leveled by DBZ's definition of what a power-level is. |
| 107 | *** Isn't ki a type of magic, thus easily killing Superman? No, Dragon Ball shows an obvious difference between ki and magic. |
| 108 | *** Ki is relevant to how powerful someone physically is and acts more like energy. |
| 109 | *** Magical characters like Kami, Babidi, and Dende can be very powerful with their magic despite being physically weak. Also, their magic is not always designed to kill but to alter logic or physics. For example, Majin Buu can turn people into candy and Kami can create objects out of thin air, but Ki users like Goku cannot. |
| 110 | *** Aren't there several depictions of Superman showing him to be much weaker than most DBZ characters? Superman's powers are inconsistent between the writers of DC but according to Superman canon, his power is dependent on how much sunlight he has absorbed. With more sunlight, Superman gains more strength. Also Superman is able to control his strength to any level; from having trouble opening a soda can to pulling THE EARTH. Superman limits his strength so that he does not kill his enemies as he is a pacifist. Also, because his strength is determined by his solar aura, which also determines his defenses, Superman can appear vulnerable when he is not at full power. Also, Superman had to break mental blocks that limited his abilities in his youth. This is why Superman wore a spacesuit in ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries''. |
| 111 | ** In ''Goku VS Superman'', Vegeta states that he could've defeated Superman faster than he could've defeated Shadow the Hedgehog. There's a scene during the fight where Superman gets crippled by Kryptonite and Goku destroys the Kryptonite so he could fight Superman fairly. Vegeta isn't as merciful to his foes as Goku. Unless Superman used Vegeta's "Saiyan roots" against him, there would be a chance that Vegeta would've left the Kryptonite there so Superman could die. |
| 112 | [[/folder]] |
| 113 | |
| 114 | [[folder:Season Two]] |
| 115 | * ''He-Man VS Lion-O'': Usually in ''Death Battle'', a combatant's personality restraints about killing are removed. However, that was not the case for He-Man. He never tried to kill Lion-O, only brutally beat him down. Lion-O's death came when He-Man shattered the Eye of Thundera to protect himself. He couldn't have known that it would have killed Lion-O... And the other Thundercats... |
| 116 | * ''Ryu Hayabusa VS Strider Hiryu'': The scene of Hayabusa being blown up even after he was already killed is also a case of brilliance for Hiryu's end for the main reason that his healing ability takes awhile to activate, hinting that Hayabusa was faking death and Hiryu had his Option C [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill blow up the corpse to make sure.]] |
| 117 | * ''[[Franchise/StarFox Fox McCloud]] VS [[ComicBook/BuckyOHareAndTheToadWars Bucky O'Hare]]'': |
| 118 | ** In the teaser, Bucky appears to be following Slippy, and calls for battle stations shortly after his entrance. This makes a lot of sense, since Bucky's nemeses are... well, look at the title of his franchise. |
| 119 | *** The above observation was made before the whole fight was released. |
| 120 | ** It initially seems like Slippy getting downed by Bucky with him just sitting there taking damage seems like just an excuse to [[BerserkButton get Fox's blood boiling]]. However, keep in mind that the group was flying with their wings closed. Anyone whose played ''Star Fox'' knows that in order to change directions on a dime you have to be in All Range Mode and then U-turn. BOTH take a few seconds to execute. On top of that Slippy ''was'' trailing behind the rest of the team so Fox had to speed up to get there, but, of course, once the Arwing's wings are out it moves slower. Anyone who has played the "true" ending to ''VideoGame/StarFox64'' would know that too. All of this leads to one thing: Fox ''wanted'' to save Slippy the ''moment he got hit'', but he just didn't make it in time, hence his RoaringRampageOfRevenge throughout the ''entire fight''. |
| 121 | * ''Terminator VS [=RoboCop=]'': |
| 122 | ** If the Terminator was given knowledge on all weapons which would include his shotgun, why didn't he know how many shots he had? Then recall this: One thing they said was that Terminator could learn how to feel sadness, meaning it might be able to learn how to feel other emotions like, say, anger. Given how Robocop survived his Grenade Launcher, jammed his minigun, set him on fire, and destroyed both his right arm and plasma rifle, it's quite possible Terminator was incredibly angry. One of the traits that comes with being angry is the inability to realize, remember certain things, or even to think logically, meaning Terminator just wanted Robocop dead so much...he forgot he had only 9 shots. Another possibility is that, since the Terminator is less durable than Robocop, he was ''damaged enough'' that he forgot to keep track of its ammo. |
| 123 | *** Alternatively, his disregard for how many shotgun rounds he had may been due to him being in a state of desperation, given the extensive damage he suffered from Robocop throughout the fight and and most of his other weapons having been destroyed or disarmed, The Terminator may have recognized he was losing and threw what firepower he had left at Robocop to bank on the knowingly slim chance he might penetrate Robocop's armor. |
| 124 | ** When the fight went in Terminator's favor, the music tended to be from the original 1984 film. That was the only film, until Salvation, where the T-800 series was sent out to kill. |
| 125 | ** It's rather ironic that they ended the Terminator's rundown with the clip of him driving the car through the police station. Especially since he was going after a ''cop'' in this episode. And said cop being the victor in the end. |
| 126 | * ''Pokémon Battle Royale'': |
| 127 | ** The three starters are in their first evolutionary stages before being fed a bunch of rare candies in order to reach their final forms. This isn't just for humor. At the beginning of the video, it is stated that they would not be taking EV training into account for the final battle. Rare candies help bypass that problem as while they do level up the Pokémon, they also don't give them any EV values (as opposed to leveling normally). |
| 128 | ** Venusaur and Charizard died [[CruelAndUnusualDeath horrendously and painfully]], even by the standards of Death Battle, but what did you expect from a fight between ''wild'' Pokemon? NatureIsNotNice doesn't just apply to humans, after all. |
| 129 | ** Long after this battle, [[Creator/JeremyChinshue TerminalMontage]] released the WebAnimation/StarterPokemonBattleRoyale featuring all the starter Pokémon from up to Generation IX. Blastoise fared worse than Charizard as the former died early on while the latter made it quite far, due to context changes that countered most of Blastoise's advantages in the Death Battle. |
| 130 | *** The presence of other many other starter Pokémon meant that Blastoise also has to contend with other starters, including Delphox, who ''can'' naturally learn Sunny Day and thus counter Rain Dance, and Inteleon, who has better speed as shown in Terminal Montage's battle royale. Meanwhile, Charizard can hang in there with the Fire starters that are better likely to outlast the competition. |
| 131 | *** The "no trainer influence" restriction went right out the window with the ''Terminal Montage'' battle royale, and it turns out that when you look at the competitive history of Pokémon, Fire Starters have historically trumped Water Starters in winrates and usage simply because while they barely learn any counters to Water starters naturally, they can ''absolutely'' be taught them by trainers. |
| 132 | * ''Batman VS Captain America'': |
| 133 | ** Why did Captain America fail to defeat Batman, when Spider-Man did it? Spider-Man had the Spider-Sense, which negated Batman's stealth tactics. Cap has stronger than normal senses, but nothing like the Spider-Sense, meaning Batman's tactics could overwhelm him. Furthermore, Spidey has SuperStrength, but he's also got SuperReflexes, SpiderSense, and SuperIntelligence, and a lot of modern continuities add some degree of HealingFactor and SuperToughness on top of it. Plus, his webs are extremely versatile, allowing him to attack, defend, restrain, harass, and move as he needs to without breaking momentum. The DC universe doesn't have many characters like Spider-Man for Batman to engage with. Marvel, on the other hand, has plenty of gadget-slingers, martial artists, superhero detectives, and {{Badass Normal}}s in it, and Spidey's scuffled with all of them. |
| 134 | *** One advantage Cap could have used over Batman but didn't was that he can use guns. This is important considering that Batman wouldn't be proficient with guns based on his no-guns policy. However, when did a gun ever become a part of Captain America's default arsenal? If anything, using a gun would have made the fight even worse for Captain America. Batman fought many people who used guns and came out on top. Granted, most of them aren't as skilled as Cap, but still, it counts. Plus, Batman possesses light body armor which should allow him to survive most gunshots. |
| 135 | *** Not to mention the environment (a dark foggy alley) played an important part in Cap's defeat. Batman, wearing all black, could blend into the shadows for a stealth advantage; whereas Cap's bright red, white, and blue suit made him a sitting duck. |
| 136 | *** The Death Battle format also nullifies one of the primary reasons Captain America was on the Avengers......his ''leadership'' and teamwork-oriented skills, whereas Batman is a bit of a lone wolf and a stealth expert. While both semi-normals had skills that were highly prized by their respective super teams, Cap's weren't of much use in a one-on-one no-bars-held fight to the death as Batman's stealth and explosives. |
| 137 | * ''Ryu VS Scorpion'': |
| 138 | ** [[Music/{{Skrillex}} Reptile's theme]] may seem out of place in Scorpion's recap, but it makes sense from the perspective of Reptile originally being a PaletteSwap of Scorpion and Sub-Zero, combining their moves before establishing his own skill set. |
| 139 | ** More of {{Foreshadowing}} in any case: part of the fight used music from ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'', which ended up being a subtle cue to the fight's winner. What is the one thing [[{{Ninja}} Raiden and Scorpion]] have in common? Funnily enough, the ''Rising'' music kicked in when the fight moved to the Netherrealm, which gave Scorpion the home-field advantage needed to take Ryu down. In addition, a remix of the [[VideoGame/StreetFighterIV Volcanic Rim]] theme played at the beginning of the fight. What happened to the last [[VideoGame/NinjaGaiden Ryu]] who had his theme play during his fight? Ask Strider Hiryu. |
| 140 | ** Most of the fight ended up echoing what occurred in a previous Death Battle: Goku VS Superman. Like Goku, Ryu aims to continue improving himself through training and fighting others. The two also possess various SuperMode transformations, as well. On the other hand, Scorpion echoed Superman ([[VideoGame/MortalKombatVsDCUniverse ironic,]] [[VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs ain't it?]]) through NighInvulnerability relating to a heat-related power source: the sun for Supes and the Netherrealm for Scorp. When this was established, it was only a matter of time before both attained their respective victories. |
| 141 | ** Near the end of the fight, why does Scorpion casually stroll towards Ryu, who was charging a Shinkku Hadouken enhanced by the Power of Nothingness, despite the fact that he has tried to defend himself beforehand (especially with the Raging Demon)? Scorpion had spent more than half of the battle already in the Netherrealm, which can increase his power with no clear limit. By then, he would not need to try and defend himself against anything Ryu could throw at him. |
| 142 | * ''Deadpool VS Deathstroke'': |
| 143 | ** Deadpool has Dreadpool's carbonadium sword because he has an Infinity Stone that alters continuity. |
| 144 | ** As part of his constant references to existing media, [[Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren The Chase of Highway]] and [[Literature/SwordArtOnline Swordland]] play during the later half of the fight. |
| 145 | *** The latter being more meaningful considering that they ''were'' sword fighting. |
| 146 | ** Why did Deadpool show up after when both Wis and Boomstick finished explaining his origin? Simple. [[DarkAndTroubledPast Deadpool doesn't like Weapon X so much, thus he chose to let the host speak in his stead, due to his fears there.]] |
| 147 | * ''Kirby VS Majin Buu'': |
| 148 | ** Kirby gains his Fighter ability by eating a Knuckle Joe. Why is the Knuckle Joe still hanging around several minutes after the fight began, long after every other {{Mook}} nearby had either ran or been killed/eaten, let alone running ALONGSIDE a dazed Kirby riding a Warp Star? Simple: Kirby, having saved Dream Land from several EldritchAbomination level fighters, was clearly the best chance the planet and its inhabitants had against Majin Buu, so if Kirby lost he was going to die anyway. The Knuckle Joe, being a skilled fighter and arguably one of the more heroic of Kirby's garden-variety enemies, stuck around in case Kirby needed help. In other words, he committed a HeroicSacrifice, letting Kirby eat him to gain any advantage possible over the invading Buu. Some might argue that this breaks Death Battle's rules about outside help, but since Kirby could technically have drawn upon the power of any Knuckle Joe he's consumed over his adventures anyway (see: the consumed Miracle Fruit that turned the tide of the battle), this was done simply for the sake of providing RuleOfDrama. Rest in peace, little guy. |
| 149 | ** One might question how Kirby was able to keep up with Kid Buu's Instant Transmission on foot. However, this makes sense when you remember that TeleportSpam is trademark tactic of Kirby bosses. |
| 150 | ** What was considered a wallbanger and a headscratcher for letting Kirby use the Star Rod, which in the Death Battle analysis, was based on the Anime canon of it being purely a dream weapon. At first, people would say that this was a move to make it so that Majin Buu would not win, but let's take a step back. Death Battle is a fictional webseries pitting two or more characters in a battle to the death. They are playing our **dream** fights- the entire series is a set of dreams, thus the Star Rod makes perfect sense. |
| 151 | * ''Ragna VS Sol Badguy'': |
| 152 | ** The outcome of the Sol VS Ragna fight makes a lot of sense considering that Ragna is, in many ways, Sol gone horribly wrong. |
| 153 | *** This also explains why the beginning of the fight has Blood Pain II as its music, as it is the track in ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' used for MirrorMatch scenarios. |
| 154 | * ''Chuck Norris VS Segata Sanshiro'': |
| 155 | ** Why does Chuck Norris vs Segata Sanshiro end so inconclusively? Because in both of their rundowns, it was explicitly stated that neither of them are able to die, among other things. This being a battle where at least one combatant MUST die, there could've been no way either of them could kill each other, at least not before all of reality is shattered. |
| 156 | ** Segata Sanshiro weaponizing Saturn's rings isn't just him being a RealityWarper. He's showing his mastery over (the Sega) Saturn. |
| 157 | * ''Guts VS Nightmare'': |
| 158 | ** How did Guts come across Nightmare in the forest? His Brand of Sacrifice attracts demonic entities to him, and as such could have subtly forced him to encounter Nightmare. |
| 159 | ** Before Nightmare (now the flying Night Terror) summons his wall of flames, Guts fires a lot of arrows at him. Now, the arrows wouldn't do much to the heavily armored Night Terror and would be disintegrated by the flames, but if one watches closely, the arrows make a spark of sorts as they hit the flame wall. Guts wasn't trying to hurt or counter Night Terror, he was trying to confuse Night Terror as to where he would strike from, as seconds after Guts leaps through the flames and slices Night Terror's sword-wielding arm off. |
| 160 | ** Many were confused as to why Nightmare's Soul Wave didn't kill Guts immediately by devouring his soul. Those who have read ''Berserk'' will know the rather terrifying reason why; Griffith, upon becoming Femto, claimed ownership of Guts' soul with the Brand of Sacrifice, so Griffith owns Guts' soul, and nobody else can take it or sacrifice it in any sort of way. [[DramaticIrony Meaning that Griffith was one of the major factors in why Guts didn't die.]] |
| 161 | * ''Iron Man VS Lex Luthor'': When Tony disables Lex's Warsuit with an EMP, his warehouse's lights remain on. In ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'', Tony mentions how he outfits all his buildings as EMP-proof. |
| 162 | * ''Solid Snake VS Sam Fisher'': |
| 163 | ** The hosts don't mention Snake's [[UnexpectedCharacter appearance]] in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'', not that he needed it. However, if you recall, Snake likes to keep his load light with a few guns and a knife beforehand. In ''Smash'' however, Snake is carrying bombs, mortars, rocket launchers, a flying drone with enough strength to lift him up, no silenced weapons [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and a cardboard box.]] It'd be out of character for him to be carrying all that in the battle. No? |
| 164 | ** The songs in the fight, [[VideoGame/AnarchyReigns "Gotta Get The Cash" and "Laughin' At U"]]. While they may seem like odd choices, remember that "Laughin' At U" is a song that has lyrics stating gleefully that WarIsHell and in ''VideoGame/MetalGear'', the plot revolves around the US profiting from the war economy despite knowing how much destruction there is, much like how "Gotta Get The Cash" describes someone who's OnlyInItForTheMoney, despite knowing the death and lack of justice. |
| 165 | * ''Darth Vader VS Doctor Doom'': |
| 166 | ** During the last seconds the boss battle theme from ''VideoGame/RadiantHistoria'' begins to play. It kind of fits considering that ''Radiant Historia'' is about time travel and in the fight they had traveled to the past. |
| 167 | ** After Doom kills Vader he's shown with several Stormtroopers bowing to him. This makes a lot of sense when you think about Doom compared to the Emperor and the Empire in general. The Emperor is a power hungry, xenophobic psychopath who will destroy planets without a second thought to keep his grasp on everything, while Doom, though a tyrant, is not racist in the slightest and generally at least ''cares'' for his people. Doom is a NobleDemon and the Emperor decidedly ''isn't''. Compared to what they were already suffering from, Doom is the LesserOfTwoEvils and an ''improvement'', so of course people would go to him. |
| 168 | * ''Goku VS Superman 2'': |
| 169 | ** Notably, there is nothing in the Goku/Superman rematch which involves Supes' weakness to Kryptonite, lack of resistance to magic and even the 24-hour downtime after the Super Flare (which doesn't appear in the fight itself). This reinforces the fact that Goku is still honor-bound to using his strength alone to beat Superman, which will never be enough to take down the Man of Steel. |
| 170 | ** Why did Goku fly out of the ground for the rematch? If you recall, the first battle ended at the Earth's core. Since Goku was revived and reconstituted along with the Earth, that meant he ressurrected at the Earth's core. That deep down, he'd probably lock onto the largest power and fly straight up. That power being Superman. |
| 171 | ** Goku and Superman's attitudes during their rematch seem to reflect two differing viewpoints on the whole Goku VS Superman debate. On one hand, Goku continues to push himself further to defeat Superman, representing his fanbase's unwavering belief that their man could win. Another side has Superman respectfully try to talk Goku out of fighting as nothing good could come out of it, much like the side of fans that believe in the futility of the debate. Upon his loss, Goku realizes that trying to take Superman down wouldn't be much fun, representing how fans should just accept that Goku's limits will never be enough to outlast Superman's limitlessness. In a way, the rematch serves as a meta commentary on the whole debacle, with Ben and Chad swearing in the aftermath panel that a third round as well as future Dragon Ball VS Superman Death Battles (like a suggested fight between Vegeta and General Zod) will never come to be. |
| 172 | *** An additional point comes from Superman's last words before killing Goku: "I'm sorry." Probably an attempt to comfort the emotionally wrecked Dragon Ball fanbase after seeing their hero die again? |
| 173 | ** On both occasions, Superman is the one to force the fight into a new location, physically pummeling Goku across the globe. On the first time, he goes from the frozen mountainsides to an empty rocky plain, but afterwards, he drives Goku ''into the heart of a city''. At first, this seems ''highly'' out of character for Superman, but combined with his forwards immediately afterwards it suddenly makes sense. He's using the populated surroundings to hammer home his point about the potential consequences of them continuing their fight. |
| 174 | ** The use of [[Anime/AttackOnTitan Eren's Berserk theme]] during the Goku/Superman rematch climax is fitting as both characters have unleashed their true powers: Goku fires a Kamehameha as a Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan while Superman no sells the attack to end the match quickly before causing more damage, truly demonstrating how he was on a whole other level than his opponent. |
| 175 | * ''Donkey Kong VS Knuckles'': |
| 176 | ** Much like hedgehogs, echidnas possess sharp spines that run down their backs. While one would think that Donkey Kong would have suffered damage from crushing Knuckles with his bare hands, much like how Mario was shredded by Sonic's quills, DK's hands have survived so much hardship over the years (punching a moon, slapping volcanic rock that's freshly emerged from lava, and hitting other spiny creatures over the course of his adventures, just to name a few) that they're probably such a callused, scarred, nerve-damaged mess that he wouldn't have even felt Knuckles' body, including the spines and his bones, shatter and explode under the pressure of his palms. Depending on how hardened they are, they might not have even drawn blood. |
| 177 | ** Why does Donkey Kong's sprite look so feral and unhinged? Remember that Death Battle removes any qualms a person has about killing. This is Donkey Kong when he's ready to kill, and the sprite reflects that. |
| 178 | ** Fridge Humor: at one point, Donkey Kong falls down a big hole and Knuckles is content to just walk away, but a homing coconut knocks him into the hole, forcing him to continue fighting DK. This means that the homing coconuts had a big part to play in Knuckles's death. Between this and the post-battle animation, you have to wonder if the coconuts are somehow chasing Knuckles in the afterlife. |
| 179 | ** At the start, Knuckles enrages Donkey Kong by eating one of the bananas from his hoard. There's a big sign right next to the giant pile of bananas labeled "Kong's Banana Hoard". Knuckles can't read, so he probably just thought it was free food. |
| 180 | ** For those of you wondering what Donkey Kong was doing holding Knuckles's hands at the end, look at Donkey Kong's face as Knuckles attempts to climb his way to safety. That's the face of someone who just discovered something useful - Donkey Kong may be an idiot, but he's still smarter than ordinary gorillas when it comes to tool use, he saw Knuckles's fists were capable of climbing up a ridge and digging through earth, so after quashing him between his palms, he used Knuckles's hands ''as tools'' to dig himself out! Which also explains why he discarded them after emerging from the ground. |
| 181 | * ''Wolverine VS Raiden'': |
| 182 | ** Here's a slight example of a MusicalSpoiler: the final few seconds are set to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgntMps1Q-w Vergil's Devil May Cry 4 theme]]. Aside from the fight taking place in Fortuna City, the piece is thematically appropriate. In Vergil's ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' ending, he uses Wolverine's Muramasa to mortally wound him via bypassing his healing factor. The Muramasa is a popular AchillesHeel of Wolverine's, since it cuts on a molecular level... which Raiden ends up doing with his High Frequency Blade. |
| 183 | ** Raiden exhibits some really good swordplay, even after losing one of his arms. However, when you consider that losing limbs for him must be commonplace, it wouldn't be out of place for him to brush up on fighting with just one arm. Besides, he did end up fighting the [=FROGs=] on Outer Heaven without ''any'' arms at all. |
| 184 | ** Raiden's Blade Mode deducing that Wolverine's head was his weak spot may seem odd to some people at first. But recall that one of Raiden's opponents in Revengeance was Monsoon, a powerful being that could survive as long as his head wasn't cut off. At the very least, his experience in killing people by rapidly slashing them enough played a part in killing Wolverine. |
| 185 | ** Wolverine's attempted PreMortemOneLiner to Raiden, "Good night, Robocop!" actually foreshadows who's going to win the battle. After all, in ''Film/Robocop1987'', [[CopKiller Clarence Boddicker]] said those same words to Robocop himself after pinning him down with metal girders and impaling him with rebar. What happened to Boddicker after he said those words? Robocop gave him an ImpromptuTracheotomy with his data spike while he was bending down to gloat. And just like that heroic cyborg, Raiden frees himself and manages to kill his taunting opponent. |
| 186 | * ''Yang VS Tifa'': |
| 187 | ** Why were Yang and Tifa chosen to fight against each other? This could be viewed not as WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} VS Franchise/FinalFantasy, but RWBY VS WebAnimation/DeadFantasy, which were both created by Creator/MontyOum. |
| 188 | *** Furthermore, why fight in a bar? Tifa is a bartender, and Yang was first introduced looking for information at a bar and then stirring up trouble. |
| 189 | *** Yang winning the fight also makes a twisted form of sense when you notice a single important detail: Tifa slammed her fist down hard on Yang's biggest BerserkButton by damaging her hair, which as Junior can attest, is a surefire way to get yourself beaten to a pulp. |
| 190 | *** Additionally, there's a reason that the fire and ice powers of the Premium Heart and her Materia barely fazed Yang. Weiss, one of her teammates, utilizes a similar moveset with her reliance on Dust. Even if Yang couldn't have known the particulars of Tifa's fighting style with those powers, she would definitely know how to counter them when she saw them, at least in a "broad strokes" sort of way. |
| 191 | *** Even if Tifa hadn't used her Limit Breaks, which brought the Premium Heart back down to their base strength, it wouldn't have made any difference. In fact, the only time Yang has canonically been close to being killed in a one-on-one fight was against an opponent who [[CherryTapping Cherry Tapped]] her until she was weak before nearly landing a single, killing blow. In other words, Tifa's actions in the fight (hitting with relatively weak attacks until her Limit Breaks were charged) were very close to those of the opponent that almost killed Yang in her canon, giving her the best possible chance she had. Or, in other words, Tifa's loss was because her base strength [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard was too high to cherry-tap Yang]]. |
| 192 | ** Wiz mentions in Yang's rundown that in the world of Remnant, every single weapon "is also a gun... even nunchuks". Way back in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles battle royale, he expressed a major disliking of nunchuks for being AwesomeYetImpractical and convoluted to use. He's likely pleased to see nunchuks being made useful by being part gun, hence his pleasantly surprised tone. |
| 193 | * ''Mega Man VS Astro Boy'': |
| 194 | ** At one point, Astro Boy catches some Metal Blades that Mega Man had just tossed at him and threw them back. This isn't the first time we've seen this happen; [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros one game in particular]] makes it possible for any other character to pull off the same trick. |
| 195 | ** As noted by the hosts, Astro Boy has a heart that can detect good & evil within any being, a neat explanation as to why he just let Mega Man go to get some repairs. |
| 196 | ** Usually there's always a setup for every battle. However, in Mega Man VS Astro Boy, Megaman just teleports in before he starts shooting at Astro. This is somewhat odd, but recall one of Megaman's weaknesses: he can't hold more than 8 robot master weapons without going crazy. In this battle, he brings ''10''. No wonder Megaman starts shooting at Astro the moment he saw him. He was crazy from the get-go. This also ties in with the above point: the evil Astro detected within Megaman isn't his inherent nature, so he decided that the best course of action is to neutralize him. Him throwing Megaman's head at Rush isn't a mocking gesture, but he's telling Rush to get Megaman back to Dr. Light's lab to be fixed. |
| 197 | * ''Pokémon VS Digimon'': |
| 198 | ** Tai beats up Red to keep him from issuing orders. This is because the battles Tai saw were already a matter of life and death, while Pokemon battles are more sport than lethal confrontations. Tai probably thought Red was trying to kill Greymon instead of capture him, and took drastic actions to protect his buddy. This also serves as another reason why Team Digimon won: more experience with opponents who were out to kill them. |
| 199 | ** [=WarGreymon=] killing Charizard makes a bit of sense when you realize he likely thought that Charizard was a Digimon and would likely respawn. |
| 200 | *** Transforms into FridgeHorror, however, since it's established that Digimon who die in the real world (the likely area where the fight takes place, since Red and Charizard are in it) will remain dead, as seen with Wizardmon and Leomon's deaths. [=WarGreymon=] was knowingly killing someone he knows cannot come back. |
| 201 | ** The Tyrant([[BossInMookClothing Unique Monster]]) theme from ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOeb7StJlRc "Uncontrollable"]], plays when Agumon Warp Digivolves into [=WarGreymon=] and destroys Red and Charizard with Terra Force. How did the fight start? Red thought that Agumon was a unique Pokemon who could talk and wasn't in the Pokedex, so he wanted to capture him. Needless to say, he bit off more than he could chew there (Which just happens to be something that occurs a lot when dealing with Tyrants). |
| 202 | *** On an additional note for the song, upon paying attention to the lyrics, you'd think a song about a couple's broken relationship wouldn't be fitting for a battle between two duos of best friends... But if anything, it's more ironically fitting, being used in a battle to determine whether Pokemon or Digimon have a stronger relationship with their human partner. |
| 203 | ** A major complaint with Pokemon VS Digimon is that Mega Charizard and [=WarGreymon=] were fighting evenly beforehand, then about a minute later, [=WarGreymon=] suddenly has the total advantage over Charizard. Keep in mind that 1) Animations are built purely for entertainment, meaning that's not likely how the fight would go, and 2) [=WarGreymon=] doesn't know anything about Mega Charizard, thus would have to be cautious with what attacks he will use. After Blast Burn, Charizard's most powerful attack, failed to inflict any real damage, [=WarGreymon=] realized he had nothing to worry about, and decides to cut-loose on his weaker opponent. |
| 204 | [[/folder]] |
| 205 | |
| 206 | [[folder:Season Three]] |
| 207 | * ''Dante VS Bayonetta'': |
| 208 | ** Some of the QTE prompts from ''VideoGame/Bayonetta2'' appear in her Death Battle against Dante. A nice aesthetic choice, but note that both of Dante's boss themes from ''Devil May Cry 4'', "Blackened Angel" and "Forza del Destino", play during the fight. Putting two and two together: the fight plays out as a ''Bayonetta'' boss battle against Dante. "Blackened Angel" plays during their initial fight in the church - a CallBack to Nero's initial fight with Dante inside a similar structure, where Dante held back. After Dante's victory, his analysis is set to "Forza del Destino", the theme which plays during his second fight; an encounter which many fans consider to be ThatOneBoss, compounded by the fact that beating him still results in Dante handily having the advantage over Nero in the following cutscene. Here he fulfills a similar role to Bayonetta, as well as being a HopelessBossFight, considering she still falls behind Dante. |
| 209 | *** The method through which he wins plays into this too. He was simply too durable compared for her to inflict meaningful harm, and she loses once he lands enough hits, a standard-issue HopelessBossFight. |
| 210 | * ''Bowser VS Ganon'': |
| 211 | ** A common complaint is that Ganon's 'curse' activated too fast. But, at the beginning of the fight, we see him apparently casting a spell. That spell could very well be the curse that took effect at the end of the fight. The only reason he engaged in hand-to-hand combat, was so Bowser's immune system would be taxed from both the damage from the 'cursed parasite' and the physical damage he was taking. |
| 212 | ** It seems silly that Ganondorf would turn into his blue pig form from ''A Link to the Past'' rather than one of his more intimidating beast forms. However, those forms rely on Ganon using nothing but brute force and attacking like a mindless animal, while his blue pig form, while a bit goofy looking, actually uses tactics and intelligence in battle. In other words, Ganon is using [[GeniusBruiser an advantage]] that Bowser [[DumbMuscle doesn't have]]. |
| 213 | * ''Ratchet & Clank VS Jak & Daxter'': Jak and Daxter started a fight with Ratchet and Clank over them accidentally destroying their house (and because Clank called Daxter a weasel). Considering all the shit they had to go through in their adventures (including being ''poisoned!''), the last thing they need is to lose their home as well. |
| 214 | * ''Flash VS Quicksilver'': |
| 215 | ** The outcome of the fight actually has a bit of {{foreshadowing}} if one is a big comic book buff. Way back when Marvel and DC did their first IntercontinuityCrossover event, Flash and Quicksilver fought two battles, ending up tied with one victory each. Flash won in the DC Universe, because his access to the Speed Force simply made him that much faster and more powerful than Quicksilver; when the trip to the Marvel Universe stripped him of the Speed Force, his power level dropped sharply and Quicksilver kicked his ass. In the end of the episode, the basic summary for why Flash won is "the Speed Force makes him far faster and more powerful than Quicksilver"... exactly like the rationale behind their tie-draw in the comics! |
| 216 | ** The hosts saying that Flash's max speed is only 10x the speed of light makes sense when you realize that if they talk about his real speed, his fight with Quicksilver would've ended with an even bigger [[CurbStompBattle curbstomp]]. They've, after all, done the same with Superman, when they realize he's too strong for Goku to handle in a straight fight. |
| 217 | * ''Joker VS Sweet Tooth'': |
| 218 | ** Joker's preview title was "Joker Laughs Into Death Battle!, noted for being too ridiculous and silly sounding for a preview, despite it still showing how dangerous the Joker was; much like the Joker. |
| 219 | ** Joker not using the Titan Serum might seem like a waste of an epic fight, but considering that said serum was what killed him in the first place, Joker's probably thinking twice about using that. |
| 220 | *** What's more, the hosts declared that Joker's Joker Venom and wits alone were enough to put down Sweet Tooth, thus he wouldn't ''need'' the Serum anyhow. |
| 221 | ** Joker using his Acid Flower on a guy with a mask on didn't seem very effective, until you realize his ace in the hole, the Joker Venom, wouldn't work unless Needles can inhale it. The acid was meant to create openings in the mask for his secret weapon to work. |
| 222 | * ''Mewtwo VS Shadow'': |
| 223 | ** A major complaint about is that Mewtwo ended it too early and anti-climactically. However, consider that Mewtwo had already read Shadow's mind and figured out everything Shadow could do. He knows that he can't deal with everything in the long run, so he chose the practical method of victory. |
| 224 | ** Shadow attacking the Zubat that was attracted to the Chaos Emerald. Zubats, being one of the [[GoddamnedBats most annoying wild Pokemon]] tend to frustrate lots of people, and Shadow was no exception. |
| 225 | * ''Meta VS Carolina'': |
| 226 | ** Some people were confused as to why Meta got distracted when Epsilon popped up. Simple. Sigma is manipulating Meta into catching ''all'' the AIs to form a perfect AI and Church is no exception. |
| 227 | ** During the analysis, Boomstick constantly demonstrates weapons on [[ButtMonkey Grif]] which he states is because it feels right. Considering the ending implies Sarge is (at least this version's) Boomstick's dad, it makes a lot of sense: Torturing Grif is genetic. |
| 228 | ** The song that plays for the fight actually contains parts that are good representations of both combatants; there are heavy guitar riffs that perfectly reflect the Meta's physical prowess and status as a juggernaut, whilst the lyrics are much more focused on Carolina and her personal mission to take down Project Freelancer and be the best, and more notably it would make sense for ''her'' sections to have lyrics in the first place since the Meta is mute. These musical parallels to both combatants can be further supported by the moments in the fight when one gains an advantage over the other; the guitar riffs are used for the moments where the Meta has the advantage over Carolina and the lyrics kick in when Carolina gets the best of the Meta. |
| 229 | * ''Tracer VS Scout'': |
| 230 | ** Notice how, there's never any real comparison of who's faster; the closest we get is them mentioning Scout's running speed. Yet whoever was faster was a common debate between fans. This could be Death Battle's way of trying to say that speed isn't everything in a battle of speedsters, similar to how they often have to point out how raw strength and power isn't everything. |
| 231 | ** It's mentioned how Bonk Atomic Punch makes Scout invulnerable, when really in ''Team Fortress 2'' it's supposed to make him too fast to be hit. However, if you drink Bonk in the game and stand perfectly still, you still won't take damage; meaning, technically, invulnerability is at ''least'' a side effect. |
| 232 | ** During their fight, Tracer refers to Scout as a Yankee, which usually refers to people from New England. Scout was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. It could also play into Tracer being British. |
| 233 | ** At first glance, it would seem that a RED Scout trying to protect a BLU intelligence briefcase was a technical goof, but upon further reflection it makes a lot of elements of the fight make sense. Why was the battlefield not a Team Fortress map? Where's the rest of the RED team? Simple: Scout, being the usual intel carrier, was likely taking the freshly captured intel off-site for safe keeping, much like the start of ''Expiration Date'', except this time he was on his own. The alarm went off because Tracer stole it while he was leaving. He didn't try to kill Tracer at first sight not JUST because he was trying to flirt with her, but also because Tracer's predominately yellow outfit made it clear she wasn't part of the BLU team. Speaking of Tracer, claiming that "Overwatch needs (the intel} more than you do" doesn't make a lot of sense when if it was RED's own intel, but if it was freshly stolen from BLU, it makes much more sense. Not to mention, it would explain why Tracer was sent in alone; sending in just one Overwatch agent against nine insanely dangerous mercenaries would be a suicide mission, but if Overwatch was only expecting light resistance, having Tracer pop in, grab the intel, and get out would be a valid strategy. |
| 234 | ** In ''VideoGame/PokerNightAtTheInventory'', Heavy talked of nightmares he had when the topic of respawning comes up, and in-game the mercs comment about coming back again and again (in revenge kills for example). In ''Expiration Date'', the RED Team weren't highly concerned about the fact that they were possibly going to die in three days. These situations have created theories that the mercs are aware of the respawn system. That may explain Scout's unfazed final quote at the end of his fight with Tracer. Rather than scared, angry or distressed, he just said, "[[KilledMidSentence "Oh C'mon, give me a bre...]]" in a mildly annoyed tone before exploding. Scout knew that [[DeathIsCheap he's not going to be dead forever, nor was he concerned]]. After all, this wasn't the first time he got blown to pieces. |
| 235 | ** The outcome starts to make a bit more sense when you [[{{Pun}} recall]] that Tracer already has experience dealing with shotgun-totting maniacs, if her fight with Reaper in the museum is anything to go by. |
| 236 | * ''Amy Rose VS Ramona Flowers'': |
| 237 | ** Ramona's match appeared to be over when her copies swarmed Amy inside the Subspace Suitcase's domain, only for Amy to overwhelm the entire lot by herself. Sounds odd at first, but in addition to Amy's physical advantage over a single Ramona, both her Modern and Boom incarnations have faced off against large numbers of robots, whether commanded by the likes of Eggman or Lyric, meaning that the numbers advantage in the Subspace Suitcase is meaningless. |
| 238 | ** Near the end, Scott kneels at Ramona's side, seemingly shocked and horrified at the condition she's in, but players of the ''[[VideoGame/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorldTheGame Scott Pilgrim]]'' game will note that he assumes this pose when he's attempting to revive another player character. Unfortunately, this makes Ramona's death more tragic, knowing Scott tried to bring her back from the brink of death. |
| 239 | ** Death Battles in general portray violence as realistically as possible, regardless of how it's portrayed in the fighters' source works-- so it doesn't make sense for Ramona to explode into a shower of coins when Amy pulverized her with an arcade machine. The explanation's simple: She didn't. Those coins spilled out of the arcade machine when it landed. Ramona's actual remains are hidden under the machine; you can see the pool of blood around it. |
| 240 | * ''Hulk VS Doomsday'': Hulk's rundown states that one of the few people who could stop him at full strength was Sentry, AKA "Marvel's Superman". What is Doomsday [[ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman most famous for]]? |
| 241 | * ''Deadpool VS Pinkie Pie'': |
| 242 | ** This fight had no death or gore, due to the fact it's a massive nuke shaped like a middle finger heading straight for the fourth wall. |
| 243 | ** The fight also uses music from ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda''. This is a good choice of soundtrack for [[RuleOfCool this battle]], since ''Zelda'' is also known for having endlessly reincarnating heroes, a convoluted timeline with multiple branches, little creatures that hide [[FictionalCurrency Rupees]] in grass and only show themselves to children, and other zany elements. |
| 244 | ** The fight ending with the two getting along and calling it a draw might seem weird at first due to the fact that one of the rules of Death Battle is that contestants lose any reservations they have against killing, but keep in mind that it's established that these two [[BreakingTheFourthWall do not play by the rules.]] |
| 245 | *** Early in the fight, Deadpool noticed the TV-Y7 rating and aborted a PrecisionFStrike. Deadpool is an AxeCrazy Awesome ComedicSociopath who dispenses swears and sexual innuendos like gumballs while murdering people, easily earning his movie outings their R ratings. Internet videos such as ''Death Battle'' do not ''have'' content ratings and restrictions like movies and TV shows do, which enables them to have characters from kid-friendly properties commit acts of very kid-unfriendly violence against each other in a bloody NoHoldsBarredBeatdown to the death. Deadpool is willingly choosing to adhere to a kid-friendly content rating that says he can't use deadly force against his opponent on an internet show where he's not only free, but ''mandated'' to use deadly force against his opponent, just to screw the rules of ''Death Battle''. At least, he was before he and Pinkie realized they're not so different and took the fight OffTheRails. |
| 246 | *** When noting how much both combatants love breaking the rules, Deadpool defeating Deathstroke makes a lot more sense considering what he can do here. |
| 247 | *** In a way, you could say Pinkie Pie was the victor of her fight with Deadpool. In the world of Equestria, what is the Mane Six's (and especially Pinkie Pie's) preferred way of defeating any antagonizing force other than blasting them with friendship-powered rainbows? By befriending them so they become allies rather than enemies. |
| 248 | *** At the end of the video Boomstick remarks "I think the loser was us". This makes sense if we're playing by Death Battle rules because Wiz and Boomstick's greatest power is the ability to [[AuthorPowers compel people to fight each other]]. Deadpool and Pinkie Pie are both [[NoFourthWall avid fourth wall breakers]], Pinkie Pie has powerful RealityWarper powers and Deadpool has hurt or killed AuthorAvatar's on numerous occasions. So by analyzing their weapons, armors and skills, we can conclude Deadpool and Pinkie Pie would in fact beat Wiz and Boomstick in a Death Battle. |
| 249 | [[/folder]] |
| 250 | |
| 251 | [[folder:Season Four]] |
| 252 | * ''Lara Croft VS Nathan Drake'': The helicopter blade impaling and killing Nathan Drake sounds like a rather unlikely and unfortunate incident, but it actually isn't. It's been said by the developers of ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}'' that Nate actually ''doesn't'' get hit by lethal attacks, but narrowly dodges them due to [[BornLucky sheer luck]]. The screen graying as he "takes damage" is actually a representation of his luck running out, with the bullets actually doing him in when it does run out. Thanks to having used up pretty much all his luck when surviving the crash of his vehicle followed by the exploding helicopter ''and'' the crash to the ground, he finally runs out of it leaving only misfortune behind, causing the rather unlikely and unlucky death by impalement of the helicopter rotor happening to land right on him. |
| 253 | * ''Scrooge [=McDuck=] VS Shovel Knight'': |
| 254 | ** Why was Scrooge [=McDuck's=] manor door left open with a trail of gems and money leading out from it, even though it would be ''very'' OutOfCharacter for Scrooge to do that? Somebody else must have gone in and stolen stuff from there without getting caught, dropping a few of the valuables on the way out. |
| 255 | ** Even if Shovel Knight was able to avoid, counter or NoSell almost all of Scrooge's attacks on him, he would have no way to evade the Anti-Inertia Ray and Neutra-Friction Ray. It's been shown in the comics that both weapons are instant-hit [[EnergyWeapon rays]] making it nearly-impossible to react to once fired, and Shovel Knight would have a near-zero chance to dodge them because of Scrooge's ImprobableAimingSkills. |
| 256 | ** A common complaint among fans is that Scrooge [=McDuck's=] opponent wasn't [[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants Eugene Krabs]], since the latter is far more identical to the former in terms of character and personality than Shovel Knight is. However, the decision to avoid said matchup makes a lot more sense when one remembers that [=SpongeBob=] characters are repeatedly depicted as being the size of mice compared to humans, and that Mr. Krabs is no exception to that rule. Not only does this mean that Eugene's feats would be scaled down to reflect this, it also means that the fight would end up being a ''literal'' stomp in Scrooge's favor thanks to the difference in size between the two of them. However, with the advent of [=SpongeBob=] Squarepants VS Super Friends Aquaman, the size issue would not be a problem since the latter was scaled to size for the former. |
| 257 | ** Scrooge and Shovel Knight fighting in the former's mansion may supposedly give Scrooge a home-field advantage, but Shovel Knight has experience in fighting enemies on their own turf, as seen with the various boss fights from his home game. |
| 258 | ** When one compares the otherwise very similar killing blows in Scrooge vs Shovel Knight and the Shantae vs Shovel Knight DBX, you may notice that Shantae died much more quickly against SK than SK did against Scrooge, as she was decapitated with one slice while it took Scrooge three to decapitate SK. But it makes sense. Shovel Knight has perfected the use of his weapon, and as such, he would know the perfect way to strike to land an instant decapitation. Scrooge has never used anything like the shovel blade before, and wouldn't know the cleanest way to end things, so his execution was sloppier as a result. |
| 259 | * ''Venom VS Bane'': Venom's taunt in response to Bane hitting him- "Ooh, Big Daddy can punch!"- makes sense when you consider that Venom's host, Eddie Brock, had an abusive father. |
| 260 | * ''Power Rangers VS Voltron'': Much of the Power Rangers' battle against Voltron becomes darkly funny when you remember that they lost to a superior opponent in a DavidVersusGoliath match-up where their Zords are the Goliath, much like Tommy, Saba, and the Tigerzord when they also fought and lost to a smaller but more physically capable opponent in the Gundam Epyon. |
| 261 | * ''Metal Sonic VS Zero'': |
| 262 | ** In Zero's analysis, it is mentioned that Dr. Wily was so determined to have the last laugh in his rivalry with Dr. Light that he was willing to do so from beyond his grave. Considering how his battle with Eggman sort of ended in a draw thanks to Metal Sonic, Zero's decisive victory technically vindicated Wily and proved that his own magnum opus was superior to Eggman's. |
| 263 | ** Zero facing Metal Sonic is pretty much like the times he and the Maverick Hunters faced [[Characters/MegaManXMaverickBosses other evil animal robots]]. And like said other times, he [[DeadlyEuphemism retires his evil animal robot enemy.]] |
| 264 | ** How could Zero manage to cut Metal Overlord in half just like that in one move? From the attack animation (StabTheSky with his Z-Saber [[{{BFS}} massively enlarged/extended]]), the attack he used was most likely [[https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/powerlisting/images/e/e3/Zero_Ittouryoudan_Genmurei.png Genmurei/Genmu Zero]]. As this move in ''VideoGame/MegaManX5'' could OneHitKill Mega Man X, who would have an extremely high level of durability similar to Zero (calculated to be way tougher than Metal Overlord), it could certainly one-shot Metal Overlord. |
| 265 | *** It's also worth noting that Metal shares X's affinity for copying the weapons of defeated enemies, and since X and Zero fought each other already, it was just icing on the cake for Zero's win over Metal thanks to experience. |
| 266 | ** Even if one considers Sonic's statement in ''VideoGame/SonicColors'' about being [[FasterThanLightTravel faster than light]] not to be hyperbole (or the preceding statement from Omega that implied he at least had the potential for it), [[ShownTheirWork both of which were shown in the rundown]], it wouldn't mean much for Metal Sonic since he was built during the Classic era with only a younger Sonic in mind. |
| 267 | * ''Lucario VS Renamon'': |
| 268 | ** The effects of Lucario's moves do tie in to the Pokemon games' attacks. Bone Rush allows Lucario to get a string of hits in, and in the games it hits multiple times. The one time Lucario uses Aura Sphere, it hits Renamon successfully, being an AlwaysAccurateAttack in the games. Extremespeed pretty much allowed it to attack before Renamon could do so, being a [[ActionInitiative high-priority]] move in the games. |
| 269 | ** Why did Lucario [[DeliberateInjuryGambit charge right into Renamon's Diamond Storm to perform his attack]]? Earlier on, the Digimon used that move against it and it was easily deflected by a Bone Rush bone. From the ease of deflection, Lucario found out that the force behind the attack was nothing to fear (especially due to being a Steel-type, which the presumably Grass-typed attack would be less effective against), and could afford to take a few hits. The other reason could be the Inner Focus ability to prevent himself from flinching from the attack. |
| 270 | * ''Balrog VS TJ Combo'': |
| 271 | ** There's a throwaway reference to ''VideoGame/PunchOut'' during the post-fight analysis, suggesting that Little Mac is a "Swarmer"-style boxer, and would complete the TacticalRockPaperScissors triangle with the two combatants, having an advantage against "Outboxers" like TJ and being at a disadvantage against a "Slugger" like Balrog. At first glance, this seems out of place, as nearly all of Mac's opponents, all of whom he canonically beat, were Slugger-style boxers. But upon further reflection, this was possibly an intentional design choice by Nintendo tracing back almost thirty years before this episode aired-- Little Mac is ''supposed'' to be the ultimate underdog, with his size and strength being dwarfed by his opponents, yet coming out on top by force of will, speed, and raw talent despite the odds being against him. Him being at a tactical disadvantage in most of his fights makes perfect thematic sense, further cementing his underdog status. |
| 272 | ** Balrog taking the fight into death battle territory and getting away with it isn't just convenient pacing for the sake of the series's title. Look at who the sponsors are in the lead in. Blue Apron doesn't count, but this is also clearly an Ultratech/Shadaloo set up bout. Neither of which have too much respect for conventional boxing and would probably welcome the kill of TJ especially. |
| 273 | * ''Smokey Bear VS [=McGruff=] the Crime Dog'': |
| 274 | ** [=McGruff=] has the ability to appear at a crime scene before the actual crime takes place. In the battle itself, he appears before a crime does happen -- said crime being Smokey murdering him. |
| 275 | ** Likewise, Smokey could easily pull a sudden appearance when [=McGruff=] tried to run away from the fire caused by his inaction. Not only is Smokey known to be able to sneak up on people in the forest, the analysis also mentioned that he has omniscience concerning wildfires which allowed him to know when and where the fire started and whose negligence or inaction caused it. |
| 276 | ** Why is [=McGruff's=] Circle of Respect so easily shattered by Smokey? It's only effective against bullies. Bullies, by definition, are those who pick on and and antagonize those who are weaker than them, whether for fun and/or for exploitation. Smokey was feeling pure righteous fury during the fight with [=McGruff=] due to the latter's negligence, thus the Circle of Respect was not effective at all. |
| 277 | ** When [=McGruff=] [[TimeStandsStill stops time]] to try to avoid a mauling from Smokey, he's unsure of what to do and unable to stop it. While this is an obvious jab as to how he can't interact with his surroundings during his time stop, it's also because the analysis mentioned he has omniscience concerning crime -- but a bear mauling (or any other animal attack for the matter) ''isn't'' a "crime" by the animal itself. Also a reason why he's unsure of what to do and just [[FaceDeathWithDignity faces death with dignity once the giant Smokey is about to crush him and his monster truck with his paw.]] |
| 278 | * ''Thor VS Wonder Woman'': [[Film/WonderWoman2017 Wonder Woman's DCEU movie]] goes a long way towards explaining why she won. She was conceived and trained explicitly as a "god-killer". Then she goes off and kills the Greek god of war, who happens to use ShockAndAwe, just like Thor. This battle is basically a repeat of that. Although the hosts do not mention this, they use a lot of footage from the movie and so this information is added to the pot of feats. It is easy to imagine this tipping the scales in her favor. |
| 279 | * ''Naruto VS Ichigo'': |
| 280 | ** How is it that Naruto's attack was able to interrupt Chuck and Segata's fight when their fight [[ApocalypseHow destroyed the universe]]? Easy, at the end of that episode Wiz mentioned that they might still be fighting on a different plane of existence. In this episode a point is made on how Naruto was able to sense and fight beings who were in a completely different dimension to him so of course one of his strongest attacks would be able to affect those on a similar plane. |
| 281 | *** This also explains why Chuck and Segata haven't appeared since episode 44. Most of the combatants thus far have not had the ability to affect beings on a separate plane of existence yet both Naruto and Ichigo can; allowing them to actually reach Chuck and Segata where most others can't. |
| 282 | ** Naruto using his Sexy No Jutsu on Ichigo may just seem like a doofy gag pulled out for RuleOfFunny, but remember that he used a similar tactic when he fought Kaguya. And it ''worked.'' |
| 283 | *** On that note, why did it not work on Ichigo? Other than the fact that he is HappilyMarried, he's seen a naked woman up close before, Yoruichi, and he regularly hangs out with either his current wife, Orihime, or Rangiku, both of which have, uhhh, larger assets than even Naruto's Sexy Jutsu form. |
| 284 | * ''Batman Beyond VS Spider-Man 2099'': |
| 285 | ** Out of the multiple ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' VS ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' matchups across the seasons, only season 4's ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' VS ''ComicBook/SpiderMan2099'' ends with a win for the Bat-family -- Spider-Man beat Batman, Spider-Gwen beat Batgirl, and Venom beat Bane. But this makes perfect sense when you think about it: for the most part, the Batman VS Spiderman fights have been about pitting a BadassNormal against an actual Superhuman[[note]]and one with a powerset practically tailor-made to defeat an "urban ninja" style BadassNormal, to boot[[/note]] and having the latter win. Batman Beyond VS Spider-Man 2099 is the one matchup that breaks this paradigm, essentially pitting Batman's SuperiorSuccessor against a ShoddyKnockoffProduct Spider-Man, and thus the future Batman takes the only victory. |
| 286 | *** Normally, the Spider-Man characters vastly outmuscle and out-tank their Batman counterparts. Due to Terry's use of PoweredArmor, that advantage is stripped away. And because Miguel is canonically weaker than the average Spider-Man, Terry's tech-based SuperStrength goes beyond equaling the playing field to granting him the advantage. |
| 287 | *** Batman characters tend to lose against Spider-Men because they rely heavily on stealth and projectiles against characters who are immune to both tactics. Terry's always been more of a brawler, which combined with his PoweredArmor puts him on more equal footing with Miguel. |
| 288 | *** Terry JumpedAtTheCall to become a superhero and actively studied how to be a better hero under the tutelage of the original Batman. Miguel was mutated in a freak accident and wanted nothing to do with superheroics, he just kept getting dragged into things and usually spent most of his fights running away. So in terms of skill, Terry was the superior fighter. |
| 289 | *** Even the disparity in the two fighters' costumes made the outcome clear from the beginning. Terry is running around in the most advanced suit of PoweredArmor that Waynetech ever built, which is stated in-universe to still be years ahead of anything comparable even in Terry's time. In comparison, Miguel is running around in an almost literal Halloween costume, albeit one with self-cleaning and self-repair capabilities, as well as the broken and barely functioning remnants of a JetPack. |
| 290 | * ''Sephiroth VS Vergil'': |
| 291 | ** Vergil barely surviving the Supernova right before Sephiroth finishes him off by slicing him in two may not make sense at first, but if you look deeper into it, there is a basis: In the international versions of ''Final Fantasy VII'', Safer Sephiroth's Supernova will never kill the target, and instead will always deal 93% of the target's current HP, as well as the possibility of inflicting Confuse, Silence and Slow. In this case, Supernova was adhering to its effect in ''Final Fantasy VII'': leaving the target on the brink of death. All Sephiroth had to do was follow up and finish Vergil off. |
| 292 | ** Why didn't Sephiroth just [[CuttingTheKnot cut the knot]] by using [[HpToOne Heartless Angel]] then striking Vergil once? After striking Vergil a few times, he knew that the half-demon had an excellent healing factor that would regenerate very quickly from a single hit point, and would need something to overtax it (indeed, despite the attacks Vergil took earlier, his health was at 9999/9999 right before Supernova hit). That, and he'd have to get a good hit in on Vergil, which Vergil's super speed would complicate. Supernova, which also leaves the target on the brink of death in addition to inflicting Slow and therefore suppressing said speed and regeneration was thus a far more ideal choice. |
| 293 | [[/folder]] |
| 294 | |
| 295 | [[folder:Season Five]] |
| 296 | * ''Black Panther VS Batman'': |
| 297 | ** The hosts mention that Batman had the resources to possibly get past Black Panther's Vibranium Habit, but brilliance kicks in beyond Batman's dislike for firearms - especially considering that he has used non-lethal variants and actively killed criminals in other canons. To find a way for Bruce to get past it would necessitate that he get prep time and possibly knowledge on T'Challa, Wakanda and Vibranium to do so. However, remember Batman VS Spider-Man; Wiz and Boomstick acknowledge that not only would that be against their rules to ensure a fair fight, but Spider-Man's own smarts meant that he would have the opportunity to prepare as well; the same goes for this fight too. If Batman had time to prepare here, so would Black Panther, whose own smarts, resources and status as the king of his universe's most technologically-advanced nation as opposed to the former being the C.E.O. of a privately owned world-wide company could compare, if not surpass entirely. |
| 298 | ** Unlike the other original tracks made for the fight animations, "Battle in the Zoo" is very straight-forward and has no unique naming convention. Given the types of people [[NoNonsenseNemesis Batman and Black Panther are]], it makes sense to have a very straightforward title. |
| 299 | ** Batman's "attempt" to defeat Black Panther would have been clever and one heck of a way to get rid of his opposition, if it weren't for the fact that everything Batman, and even the zoo itself, has thrown at T'Challa has done zero significant damage to him, all Batman could have done was delayed the inevitable. If an orca somehow swallowed Black Panther whole, that suit of his will still protect him and he would have clawed his way out of the animal and fought Batman again, which just goes to show [[CurbstompBattle Batman could not win in any method]] he's shown onscreen. |
| 300 | * ''Raven VS Twilight Sparkle'': |
| 301 | ** When Twilight's final spell turns Raven into a potted plant, Raven's soul self releases Twilight from its grasp. It initially appears that the control was lost due to Raven getting incapacitated, but as it's shown to still be functional, this is more likely due to sensing that Raven was in danger due to {{Transflormation}}, and thus it didn't try to magically/emotionally damage Twilight further, instead going into the air for a quick divebomb kill. |
| 302 | ** Why couldn't/didn't Twilight copy Raven's spells, after it's known that she's capable of learning and copying other spells by just watching them? Most of Raven's abilities and especially her soul self stem from her heritage as half-demon, thus it would take ''far more'' than simple watching for it to work. That, and since most of the spells that Raven used were oddly similar to Twilight's spells, such as teleportation, telekinesis, and energy blasts, Twilight did't have much need to copy them. She also couldn't copy the Soul-Self's emotion/magic draining ability, since it well, drained her of her powers when used. |
| 303 | ** In a strange meta sort of way, Twilight's loss, in spite of being on the same tier as her fellow ponies to show up in Death Battle, if not higher up, kind of makes sense. Both Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie seemed to benefit from AchievementsInIgnorance, the former in that her actual "fighting" amounted to DeadlyDodging, causing Starscream to blow himself up without her doing anything actually malicious or really even acknowledging she was in a fight for her life at all, while Pinkie Pie... well, was [[CloudCuckooLander Pinkie Pie]]. Twilight, however, was taking the fight seriously, and thus didn't benefit from the same sort of cartoon logic as her fellow ponies... in other words, [[YouWereTryingTooHard she was trying too hard.]] |
| 304 | *** Twilight's loss is almost obvious in hindsight when you realize she's the princess of ''friendship''. With few exceptions Death Battle is about 1-on-1 fights, and the very core of her character (indeed, the whole premise of her show) is about working together to solve problems and using empathy and communication instead of violence, so of ''course'' her greatest feats would have only been accomplished with outside help. While she is insanely powerful on paper, she is not a true fighting character the way Raven is. |
| 305 | * ''Jotaro VS Kenshiro'': Joseph was the only crusader accompanying Jotaro while travelling in presumably Egypt. Since Jotaro's part 3 incarnation is present and he used his time stop ability during his fight with Kenshiro, this would mean the fight between him and Dio Brando has already happened, Polnareff is recovering in the hospital, and Avdol, Iggy, and Kakyoin are dead. |
| 306 | * ''Crash VS Spyro'': |
| 307 | ** During the scene where Crash is being chased by Spyro and trying to dodge his flames, the camera is positioned right in front of Crash in such a way that it emulates the chase sequence levels that are prominently featured in many of Crash's games. |
| 308 | ** When Crash's Fruit Bazooka fires a Wumpa Fruit that misses Spyro and hits a cliff face, the splat it makes is both purple and orange-yellow. Wumpa Fruits in the ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' series have been depicted as having either purple or orange-yellow juice depending on the game, and this instance takes both of them as canon. |
| 309 | ** For Spyro to tap into his [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Dark Spyro]] form, he needs to have strong negative emotions such as rage and hatred. This was a very easy task here considering that Crash had squashed his adoptive brother and companion Sparx like a bug earlier on. |
| 310 | * ''Sora VS Pit'': The fight begins with Sora waiting for a fight at the Olympus Coliseum, and judging by both his and Pit's dialogue before the fight starts, it seems to be a pre-planned event instead of a spontaneous fight or an ambush. How do Sora and Pit know about each other? The answer is that they have one friend/acquaintance in common: [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud Strife]], who is a recurring character in Kingdom Hearts, and was a GuestFighter in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU''[[note]]And if we count Ultimate, just them agreeing to this match-up for the future as Sora is now also a DLC fighter[[/note]]. |
| 311 | ** In addition, this also explains why Sora remorselessly killed Pit, despite his heroic nature: he knows that Pit has [[DeathIsCheap died many times before, and can always just be revived.]] |
| 312 | * ''Leon Kennedy VS Frank West'': |
| 313 | ** "Game over" may just seem like a pretty badass PreMortemOneLiner Leon pulls out right before killing Frank, but it works on a few different levels: |
| 314 | *** It's a joke on the fact that one of Frank's main gimmicks is turning into other Creator/{{Capcom}} characters using magic arcade machines. |
| 315 | *** Barring certain exceptions, rocket launchers have normally been used to finish off every FinalBoss in a ''Resident Evil'' game, and appropriately enough, Leon uses one to win. |
| 316 | *** In one way, you can view the entire fight as a HopelessBossFight from Frank's perspective, akin to the above example from Bayonetta's fight with Dante. Like this fight, ''Dead Rising's'' Psychopaths are often fought in the middle of a large area with zombies constantly interfering, and a few of the bosses Frank has beaten in the past have included soldiers and government agents like Leon himself. However, unlike them, Leon ''had'' the tools, stats and experience needed to end Frank, and by extension, his "game" as well. To put it in further, the opening shots of the fight follow Frank's perspective, with Leon seemingly appearing out of nowhere. |
| 317 | *** Similarly, Frank acts in a manner not unlike a ''Resident Evil'' boss, with multiple escalating forms, albeit not via mutating. He starts off just coming at Leon with his baseball bat, mirroring early mostly human bosses, then the focus goes to regular zombies again, and then to a "form" of Frank that acts like the first, except exaggerated with a hint to things to come (The Electric Crusher), and then two much more out-there ones, (The X costume, then the Exosuit) that take the hinted-at element and let it go wild (Frank's absurd use of [[=MacGyver=]]-esque technology), with the final form coming from after the second-last one is blown up and out of sight. |
| 318 | ** Compared to most other losers in Death Battle history, Frank has one of the tamest reactions to meeting his incoming demise; when most others have had their deaths built up to, he simply shrugs and lets out one bored-sounding "shit" before he's blown to bits. However, you can't the guy, since he did technically "die" during the events of ''VideoGame/DeadRising4''. |
| 319 | ** The hosts don't factor in Frank's powers as a zombie from ''Dead Rising 4'', but it's highly unlikely that even if he did retain them for his fight, they'd be enough to net him a win over Leon. While Frank would have retained his intelligence in addition to getting a few boosts in powers and abilities, it wouldn't change the fact that he'd also become something ''very'' similar to the many B.O.W.s Leon has fought and most importantly, ''killed'' throughout the ''Resident Evil'' canon. Frank would basically turn into the type of monster Leon kills on a near-regular basis, given the latter's already overwhelming experience advantage. |
| 320 | ** The arcade machines Leon gets knocked into at the start of his fight all pertain to Frank in some way, shape or form: ''[[Creator/{{SNK}} Baseball Stars 2]]'' references Frank's [[BatterUp main melee weapon]], ''VideoGame/MetalSlug'' pertains to the Exo Suit, and ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcomClashOfTheSuperHeroes'' recalls Frank's [[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3 two]] [[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcomInfinite playable]] appearances in [[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom said series]] thus far. |
| 321 | ** The result of the fight also illustrates an important factor. While it's very impressive that Frank could survive all he went through with his creativity and talent, the fight shows the difference between someone who's very good at improvising and someone who actually had a lot of professional training to deal with dangerous threats and zombie plagues, Leon essentially demonstrated this with the advantages he held when the fight was in close quarters. |
| 322 | * ''Ryu VS Jin'': The ''Goro VS Machamp'' actually indicated some brilliance in the fight in the animation or it being like the fighting game rounds. Turns out ''Ryu VS Jin'' also has that: |
| 323 | ** Round 1: Ryu wins by using Shinku Hadoken to knock down Jin. |
| 324 | ** Round 2: Jin wins (when both have unleashed their SuperPoweredEvilSide) when they clashed. How? Jin got up like it was nothing (further brilliance when you realize that Jin absorbed the Satsui No Hado's energy to restore himself) while Ryu was struggling to get up. |
| 325 | ** Round 3: Ryu wins by unleashing his LimitBreak to kill Jin. This could also be a case of Good triumphing over Evil. |
| 326 | * ''Samurai Jack VS Afro Samurai'': Jack being willing to kill Afro makes sense in another way than the 'ignore compulsion against killing' rule: Jack instantly notices that Afro's sword stinks of blood. While Afro replies in kind, given the match seems set during Jack's stay in the future, it's likely only alien blood while Afro's is definitely human. Afro is a NominalHero at best who's left a ''lot'' of pain and suffering in his wake. He is not innocent in any way, shape or form. |
| 327 | * ''Optimus Prime VS Gundam'': |
| 328 | ** Aside from the LetsYouAndHimFight trope in play, there's actually an InUniverse reason for Optimus Prime VS Gundam to happen from both sides. |
| 329 | *** For Amuro, his opponent is a ''red'' robot. For all he knew, Optimus is his rival Char Aznable's newest machine to match his Gundam and the Ark could easily pass off as the next line of mobile suits for Zeon. There's no way he could let it reach them hence that's why he was investigating the Ark in the first place. |
| 330 | *** For Optimus, Amuro's intrusion and the Gundam's seeker-like body design (square vents on the sides of the chest surrounding a longer central section, vent-like shapes on the side of the helmet), give the impression of a Decepticon infiltrator, something further reinforced by his Decepticon-like purple beam saber blade and rifle shots. With both sides jumping to assumptions, all Amuro needs to do is to shoot down the Ark during the fight and the rest is history. |
| 331 | ** Many concluded that Optimus would be against killing Amuro, if he found out that the Gundam was not a living Machine, but a pilot running it, he'd immediately try other methods to end the fight. However, Amuro destroyed the Ark, and possibly numerous of innocent Autobots on board, meaning that Optimus has every reason to defeat Amuro, no matter what. |
| 332 | ** Optimus' PreAsskickingOneLiner/PreMortemOneLiner of "I must stand... So you shall fall!" can have a double meaning behind it. It could mean that he needs to be alive in order to destroy the Gundam. It could also mean that he needs to be alive for the survival of the (remaining) Autobots, so he has to destroy the Gundam that's trying to end him. |
| 333 | ** It seems odd that the Amuro got one of the biggest {{Curb Stomp Cushion}}s and managed to nearly finish off Optimus despite being horrifically outclassed, essentially putting the Autobot into a ''very'' dire situation. For plot contrivances, this was likely done to have the power of the Matrix showcased in the fight -- and at [[DarkestHour what moment]] does the Matrix of Leadership tend to shine in? |
| 334 | ** Optimus Prime VS Gundam appears to be an antithesis to the previous time a Transformer was in Death Battle. Both episodes had a Transformer face off a living foe (Rainbow Dash for Starscream, Amuro Ray in the Gundam for Optimus) in a DavidVersusGoliath battle. Starscream was the bigger combatant and despite being seemingly stronger in the analysis, never once held the AdvantageBall with him on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle. Optimus was the smaller combatant and despite the analysis being a [[CurbStompBattle decisive win in his favour]], the fight itself has his opponent [[CurbStompCushion fighting on par with him]] and even managing to get him on the ropes near the end before Optimus managed to score the victory. |
| 335 | * ''Nightwing VS Daredevil'': Why would Daredevil choose to fight Nightwing over the suitcase which Nightwing claimed was for an investigation? One of Daredevil's powers is to tell if the person is lying via their heartbeat. From the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzWWoAs7fSs Death Battle Cast on Nightwing VS Daredevil]], the suitcase Daredevil found actually held his porn collection. Of course, Nightwing is going to lie to deter Daredevil away from the suitcase and why Daredevil insisted on fighting: Daredevil knew right away that Nightwing lied and proceeded to fight him. |
| 336 | * ''Mario VS Sonic (2018)'': The final part of the fight is a callback to Mario's death against Sonic in their original matchup where Sonic grinds Mario to death via a spindash. Except this time, Mario manages to avoid the same fate by grabbing Sonic before turning the fight around and earning the win. |
| 337 | * ''Ultron VS Sigma'': |
| 338 | ** This fight draws parallels to Eggman VS Wily. Both of them involve a ''Franchise/MegaMan'' BigBad and their army fighting against another army and both end with the ''Mega Man'' villain losing. The difference is that [[RedshirtArmy Wily's army]] was destroyed by Metal Sonic, while Sigma's Mavericks [[BadassArmy actually held their own pretty well]] and none were killed by Ultron Drones. |
| 339 | *** With a deeper look, recall how Metal Sonic's win in Eggman VS Wily was rationalized; the Roboenza Virus basically undoes whatever chance Eggman had at winning even if he had the better robot army, so Wily's virus tactics still worked out for him. Sigma would've likely done the same thing here... except Ultron ended up being AlwaysSomeoneBetter in the end. |
| 340 | ** A {{Foreshadowing}} of Sigma's loss to Ultron? Despite using his bigger body to damage Ultron's body repeatedly, it appears to be undamaged at the end of the battle, sealing Sigma's physical defeat to Ultron. |
| 341 | * ''Roshi VS Jiraiya'': Like ''Spider-Man VS Batman'' (and [[FunnyAnimal in a more literal sense]] ''Fox VS Bucky''), the outcome of ''Roshi VS Jiraiya'' follows the real-life food chain in regards to their AnimalMotifs. Just like how certain species of spiders eat bats and how foxes eat hares, some species of omnivorous turtles are documented to eat toads. |
| 342 | * ''Thanos VS Darkseid'': |
| 343 | ** Like ''Doctor Strange VS Doctor Fate'', ''Thanos VS Darkseid'' is basically a fight between a mortal and a god. Even having the same conclusion. |
| 344 | ** The outcome makes even more sense when you remember that Thanos [[RedBaron is known as the "Mad Titan"]]. [[Myth/ClassicalMythology The last time that the Titans fought against Gods, it didn't end well for them, either.]] |
| 345 | ** Judging by where the red mist appears when Deadpool shoots Thanos at the end of the fight, he shot Thanos in the chest. Given that this will be the first of many humiliating deaths that Thanos will suffer in the Omega Sanction, and that Deadpool shot him after he walked in on him in the middle of a romantic moment with Death on top of Thanos' own throne, it seems that Darkseid decided to start by ''breaking his heart''... figuratively and literally. |
| 346 | ** A little subtle at first but, remember, Thanos had an arch enemy in the form of Drax, the being specifically created to kill him. Darkseid, once known as Uxas, killed his brother, Drax, to become more powerful. So when you look at it, Darkseid [[HilariousInHindsight technically killed the man who can kill Thanos, so it's no surprise Darkseid can beat Thanos too]]. |
| 347 | ** Notice which of the Infinity Gems are used by Thanos and when he uses them, based on their color shine: |
| 348 | *** The Space Gem (Purple) is used to enter through portals and teleport multiple times throughout the fight |
| 349 | *** The Power Gem (Red) is used to hit Darkseid with pure brute force, first to throw him out of the building and then to punch him into space. |
| 350 | *** The Reality Gem (Yellow) is used to literally bend New York to his will, throwing off gravity for Darkseid and reversing the building thrown at him. |
| 351 | *** The Mind Gem (Blue) is used when Thanos is about to hit Darkseid from the back, likely in some attempt to read his mind or keep him unaware of his presence. |
| 352 | *** The Soul Gem (Green) shines when Thanos is frustrated, asking Darkseid who he is, likely in some attempt to find Darkseid's true soul and why he won't die. For bonus points, the Soul Gem is where those in the Marvel Universe go to die, meaning Thanos was likely trying to see if he had truly died every time he snapped him away. |
| 353 | ** If there was moment that the fight was well and truly over, it was when Darkseid headbutted Thanos's punch with the Infinity Gauntlet. It was stated that since the Marvel and DC crossover was technically canon, so Darkseid came into this battle with the important information of the Infinity Gauntlet's fatal flaw, and knew he had easy answer to it. Simply put, a strong message was sent when Darkseid headbutted that Gauntlet. |
| 354 | ** One of the lines in the soundtrack is "Who can win, a new god or the hands of a titan?", foreshadowing that this isn't a battle between Darkseid and Thanos, it's a battle between Darkseid and ''the Infinity Gauntlet''. The power of the Gauntlet gives Thanos an advantage, but once it's taken out of the equation, Darkseid makes quick work of him. |
| 355 | [[/folder]] |
| 356 | |
| 357 | [[folder:Season Six]] |
| 358 | * ''Mega Man Battle Royale'': |
| 359 | ** During the first half of the Battle Royale, Classic, X and Volnutt fight each other down on the streets, while EXE and Star Force fight each other back on the tower. This makes sense, as Classic, X and Volnutt are from one timeline, while EXE and Star Force are from another. |
| 360 | ** Mega Man X's death is extremely similar to his own ArchNemesis Sigma's in the previous season. Both of them get their personality/data wiped by a foe who was superior to them in hacking ability. |
| 361 | ** Zero and the ''[[VideoGame/MegaManZX Mega Man ZX]]'' protagonists are excluded from the Battle Royale, with Zero only getting a passing mention during Wiz and Boomstick's overview. |
| 362 | *** Model ZX is the combined soul data of Mega Man X and Zero in Biometal form. X is already present. |
| 363 | *** Zero is not technically part of the Blue Bomber lineage. Despite being the franchise's EnsembleDarkhorse, Zero remains a {{Deuteragonist}} to X throughout the ''X'' series. In the ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' series, he shows no interest in succeeding X as Earth's next Mega Man. |
| 364 | *** Despite claims made to the contrary in ''Mega Man ZX Advent'', Model A's appearance and abilities are clearly based on Axl, another {{Deuteragonist}} to X from later ''Mega Man X'' titles who, like Zero, bears no relation to the original Mega Man. |
| 365 | ** Even without the Noise manipulation's advantage, X's Mother Elf still wouldn't have done much against Star Force. Why? Because the Mother Elf was created to rewrite the code of Reploids and other cybernetic beings, and as a human kid fused with an alien, Star Force is an ''organic'' being. |
| 366 | *** Star Force Mega Man can copy the abilities of [=FMians=], which are energy beings similar to Omega Xis, the alien half of Star Force's FusionDance. The Mother Elf is an energy being similar to Omega Xis and the aforementioned [=FMians=]. So by firing the Mother Elf at Star Force, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard X only made himself even more weak to Star Force's powers.]] |
| 367 | ** The massive black hole formed in the fight goes a long way in spelling out how the Mega Men compare to each other long before the actual verdict does: |
| 368 | *** Volnutt, being the only one not to contribute to it, is collateral damage from Rock and X's fight to show how all the others are far above his weight class. |
| 369 | ** The original Mega Man is only taken out by the black hole collapsing demonstrates how wide the power gap between even him and Volnutt. Even then, he eventually gets taken out by the black hole, showing how wide the power gap between him and the remaining fighters are in turn. |
| 370 | *** X isn't destroyed by the black hole, but it ''is'' powerful enough to reduce him to his core. While he does have some basic cosmic-tier feats to scale to, such as the Eurasia space colony and the planet-busting Final Weapon satellite, he still has a ways to go before he can measure up to the alternate timeline heroes. |
| 371 | *** Star Force survived the destruction of the black hole, but at the expense of losing an arm. The highest extent of his durability shown would be going up against the black-hole creating Sirius, so it's not going that far to assume black holes are the threshold of how much he could take. |
| 372 | *** Lastly, .EXE makes it through none the worse for wear, just needing a second to patch himself back up; being capable of withstanding the destruction of an ''entire universe'' means a solar-system level attack is well below the full extent of his power, and by extension, well above the second-best Mega Man. |
| 373 | * ''Captain Marvel VS Shazam!'': The outcome of this battle was evident right from the start, all one has to do is look through the previous Death Battles. To put it in perspective, Shazam is one of the very few beings considered a match for Superman. Superman defeated Goku twice by this episode. Goku is canonically more powerful than Android 18, who had beaten Captain Marvel in her previous Death Battle. |
| 374 | * ''Wario VS King Dedede'': When Dedede tries to pull a Gordo out to counter Wario's massive fart attack, he first pulls out a Waddle Dee that he throws away. In ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'', his Waddle Dee Toss had a small chance of pulling out a Gordo. |
| 375 | * ''Weiss VS Mitsuru'': |
| 376 | ** In terms of the combatants' inheritance status, Mitsuru soundly beats Weiss as well. Weiss had her inheritance stripped from her by her father. In contrast, Mitsuru became the leader of the Kirijo Group. |
| 377 | ** In ''Persona 3: The Answer'', Mitsuru is fought as a boss and has a passive ability Sharp Student, which reduces her chances of suffering a CriticalHit. As such, Weiss' time-dilated stab attack failed to critically hurt her despite clearly impaling her through. |
| 378 | * ''Johnny Cage VS Captain Falcon'': Captain Falcon sparks a fight to test Johnny Cage's worthiness when the latter declares that he's going to become the next Captain Falcon. Considering [[HeroicSacrifice the circumstances]] behind the legacy being passed down to him, Captain Falcon had a sentimental reason to be defensive over it. |
| 379 | * ''Ghost Rider VS Lobo'': |
| 380 | ** Only one of Lobo's soul appears after the explosion at the end of the fight despite him having become an army of himself. Why? Because that Lobo's body was destroyed in the blast, while the rest were incinerated by Ghost Rider's soul destroying hellfire. |
| 381 | ** There's something ironic in Lobo's name and somehow made a rather hilarious foreshadowing to his failed attempt at eating his opponent. His name translates to "He Who Devours Your Entrails and Thoroughly Enjoys It", which implies most of his victims are flesh and blood. But what was Ghost Rider [[DemBones made of]]? He lacked any entrails at all! |
| 382 | * ''Dragonzord VS Mechagodzilla'': |
| 383 | ** In the post-fight analysis, it was stated that Tommy had the advantage over Akane when it came to experience and skill. Indeed, he held onto the AdvantageBall when she was piloting Kiryu. However, once she went down, Godzilla's soul took over -- and along with his [[StrongAndSkilled superior skill and experience]]. The advantage ball was then passed to Kiryu, who delivered a swift NoHoldsBarredBeatdown. In addition, Kiryu seems to become significantly more mobile after Godzilla takes control. This makes sense, considering that while Akane is a skilled pilot, Kiryu ''is'' Godzilla's body (albeit with cybernetic upgrades) -- it's only natural that he'd have much more efficient and graceful control over it. |
| 384 | ** Notice how the Dragonzord Battle Mode got its drill spear [[LeftStuckAfterAttack stuck in the ground]] twice. This foreshadows what would happen after it impaled Kiryu with it. |
| 385 | ** The final part of the fight has a Knight VS Dragon motif, where the Dragonzord's lance-wielding, humanoid-looking [[DragonKnight Fighting Mode]] is the Knight, while Kiryu, now controlled by Godzilla's berserk soul, is the Dragon. |
| 386 | ** Every episode with the Power Rangers so far has them losing, but with somebody on the opposing side being taken down. In Tigerzord VS Epyon, it was Noin. In Megazord VS Voltron, it was Lance. And in Dragonzord vs Mechagodzilla, it was Akane. |
| 387 | ** Dragonzord VS Mechagodzilla has several callbacks and similarities to previous Mecha battles: |
| 388 | *** White Tigerzord VS Gundam Epyon: Both involve Tommy's Zord shooting down a girl's craft, causing his opponent to attack him in a fury. Both have Tommy's Zord combining with other zords into a SuperMode. At the end of the fights, Tommy's attack is taken advantage of, leading to his loss. |
| 389 | *** Megazord VS Voltron: Both of them involve the Power Rangers' ultimate attack being unable to kill the opponent, as well as the Zords being destroyed at the end. |
| 390 | *** Optimus Prime VS Gundam RX-78: Both have endings where the winner is put into a dire situation by the loser, only for them to open a ChestBlaster that fires a laser which destroys the loser. |
| 391 | *** All: Each one of them involve an ally of the winner being taken down by the loser (Noin, Lance, Autobot Ark, Akane), and are DavidVersusGoliath battles where the David wins. |
| 392 | * ''Ganondorf VS Dracula'': |
| 393 | ** With how much Dracula truly had going for him against Ganondorf with little to no downsides, and how he straight up ripped him apart and drank his blood, it's not hard to see Dracula basically playing with his food. |
| 394 | ** The fight has some historical basis behind it. Vlad the Impaler, who's widely believed to have helped inspire the character of Count Dracula, famously struggled against Middle Eastern invaders. The battle, meanwhile, features Ganondorf -- who's from a fantasy version of the Middle East -- attacking Castlevania with intent to take it over. Of course, unlike in history, the party being invaded wins. |
| 395 | * ''Deadpool VS Mask'': |
| 396 | ** Despite Wiz and Boomstick explicitly stating that the comics iteration of The Mask, who is the main source being considered for this Death Battle, is one of the most sadistic, violent, and remorseless killers in all of fiction, the battle proper depicts him as the more harmless and benevolent Jim Carrey type. He hardly, if ever, outright antagonizes Deadpool, and is even partially responsible for bringing him back to life. Seeing as how the battle begins by Deadpool dropping The Mask into a bus full of bystanders, it's most likely that The Mask's current host is a nicer guy than its usual hosts. |
| 397 | ** It makes perfect sense for The Mask to go along with Deadpool's BatmanGambit against Wiz and Boomstick, given the circumstances. The Mask is known to do things [[ItAmusedMe for no other reason than his own amusement]], and in the film and animated series, he's a HeroicComedicSociopath. What could be more fun for him than trolling [[MediumAwareness the hosts of the show that he knows he's on]] by causing their well-laid plans to kill off another funny fourth-wall breaking character (especially one that he seemingly had fun hanging out with while trying to fund the second half of the fight) to blow up in their faces? |
| 398 | ** The fight isn't even the first time on the show that Deadpool was brought back to life thanks to a RealityWarper: note how Thanos turned him into confetti only for him to pop back up at the very end of the show to steal Boomstick's one-liner. If he wasn't retconned back to life thanks to the second Big Bang, Darkseid likely brought him back as one last "Fuck you" to Thanos, though the Deadpool in Thanos's Omega Sanction is from an alternate universe by definition. |
| 399 | * ''All Might VS Might Guy'': |
| 400 | ** The outcome retroactively explains why [[TakingYouWithMe previous attempts from the losing combatants to take their enemy with them]] (ex. Terminator, Gamera) have failed. The problem with [[SuicideAttack most attacks that require the user to explode or otherwise die while using them]] is that, technically speaking, they cause the user to die ''first''. This means that by the time they're forced into using it, they've already lost by default, so there's no point in them being successful. Might Guy is the exception, because by the time he dies from opening the Eighth Gate, his opponent is already dead, which means he wins. |
| 401 | ** The winner was already decided at the VERY BEGINNING of the match - from the arm wrestling alone. The moment they broke the table and headbutt each other, they get blown back away from each other and knocked into trees. But watch closely again. When they knock each other off, All Might had already fallen flat on his face, but Guy was still standing on both of his feet, a good show of how [[{{Foreshadowing}} the two delivered equal blows onto each other, but only one of them still won]]. |
| 402 | ** The "Power of Youth" might have actually helped Might Guy win, seeing as he's 14 years younger than All Might. |
| 403 | [[/folder]] |
| 404 | |
| 405 | [[folder:Season Seven]] |
| 406 | * ''Genos VS War Machine'': |
| 407 | ** There's something subtle about the difference between the end of Genos' rundown and War Machine's. Genos tells his opponent a threat while aiming his cannon at them, but War Machine simply shows what he can do, tearing apart his enemies without uttering anything. Not only does it show the difference between [[ShowDontTell mere words and actually letting your actions speak for you]], it shows just how hotheaded Genos is compared to the professional and experienced soldier, James Rhodes. |
| 408 | *** Perfectly displayed in the fight as well, Rhodes kept his cool through the entire fight (barring the comment Genos made of his armor suit), while Genos continuously escalated the situation. Ultimately, it shows that Genos' impulsiveness in picking a fight ended poorly for him, in contrast to the level-headed Rhodey whose actions backed him up. |
| 409 | * ''Gray VS Esdeath'': |
| 410 | ** Gray (whether this was intentional or not) actually fits all of Esdeath's [[https://pm1.narvii.com/6113/79d39bc94024d27a900929e202e1ac9fd8bbaf8b_hq.jpg requirements]] for being her lover. To explain: |
| 411 | ** 1. Gray still has a lot of untapped potential, as the [[Manga/FairyTail100YearsQuest sequel series]] is currently ongoing. |
| 412 | ** 2. Gray's quite fearless (aside from [[TheDreaded Erza]]), as he has never backed down from a fight. |
| 413 | ** 3. Due to the crossover nature of the fight, Gray was not raised near the Capital. |
| 414 | ** 4. Gray's 18 as of this writing, while Esdeath is in her 20s. |
| 415 | ** 5. Gray is capable of giving a genuine smile. |
| 416 | ** That being said, it makes sense that Esdeath is NotDistractedByTheSexy of Gray whipping off his shirt: remember her SingleTargetSexuality VillainousCrush on Tatsumi. |
| 417 | ** The battle music perfectly parallels the results with Myriani having more parts in the lyrics than Brandon and she's the one that finishes the song, just like Esdeath had much more going for her than Gray did and won the battle too. |
| 418 | * ''Goro VS Machamp'': |
| 419 | ** Fitting for a cross between the serious Mortal Kombat series and the sillier Pokemon series, the fight is both brutal yet has a good number of hilarious moments: |
| 420 | *** Goro attempts to brutally stomp Machamp, only for Machamp to pull off an epic looking Seismic Toss that grabs him and sends him comically screaming all the way, then dabbing in front of Goro. |
| 421 | *** The effects of Machamp's final blow were both gory (Goro being reduced to LudicrousGibs) yet hilarious (said gibs flying into the stratosphere). |
| 422 | ** If we're taking Type effectiveness into account, we can consider Goro to be a Dragon and Fighting Type due to his Shokan blood and fighting history. But Machamp could actually answer to it, since Machamp has a Dragon Type move in the form of Dual Chop which would theoretically be super-effective. |
| 423 | ** The animation appears to be like a 3-round ''Mortal Kombat'' fight. The first round ends after Machamp dazes Goro after a Seismic Toss. The second round ends after Goro throws Machamp through the wall. The third and final round ends in a fatality where Machamp rips off Goro's arms, subjects him to RapidFireFisticuffs, and reduces him to LudicrousGibs with a MegatonPunch. Likewise, it also mirrors a Champion Battle in Pokémon, with Goro as the Champion and Machamp as the challenger, even with a remix of the Champion Battle music thrown in -- and just like in the Pokémon games, the challenger wins. |
| 424 | ** It makes sense that the fight doesn't allow for Machamp to either Dynamax or Gigantamax, because it is stated that those two forms can only be achieved in the Galar region. Seeing as the fight took place in Goro's lair, which is outside of the Galar region and most likely outside of the Pokémon world, it therefore makes sense that those forms aren't used by Machamp. |
| 425 | ** It may seem a bit random at first to have Goro VS Machamp as a milestone episode (the 125th) but it actually makes sense when you consider their characters, the nature of the show and the nature of the series they are from; Death Battle is about pitting two (or more) characters in a fight with each other, similar to the different games that Goro and Machamp come from, fighting games, with the two of them being considered some of the best at fighting within those games. So for the milestone episode of Death Battle, it would make sense to use two adept fighters from games all about fighting, as Death Battle, Pokemon and Mortal Kombat all carry fairly similar premises when you think about it. |
| 426 | * ''Obi-Wan Kenobi VS Kakashi'': |
| 427 | ** The real reason Kakashi got past Obi-Wan on the high ground is because Obi-Wan [[IronicEcho had figured that Anakin would pull off the same move]] [[Film/ThePhantomMenace he used himself to defeat Darth Maul]], but here, his opponent is a complete stranger with a different fighting style than his own. |
| 428 | ** The fight Kakashi using several joke-y techniques such as the [[AssShove Thousand Years of Death]] and fights while reading his book. It is clear that this is an attempt by Kakashi to test Obi-Wan's strength and see where his skills lie. He begins fighting seriously the moment he throws away the book. |
| 429 | * ''Danny Phantom VS American Dragon Jake Long'': |
| 430 | ** Jake Long's Eye of the Dragon being unable to SeeTheInvisible is shown early in the fight when he fails to see an invisible Danny Phantom. Later on, this plays into Jake's loss when he assumes that his combined fire attack destroyed Danny and his clones when one of them managed to escape, go invisible, then reappear and possess him from behind. |
| 431 | ** As many viewers have joked, under Pokémon logic, Jake would be at a massive disadvantage as his typing would be Dragon/Flying while Danny would be Ghost/Ice. This foreshadows Jake's loss against Danny. |
| 432 | * ''Beerus VS Sailor Galaxia'': Like Doctor Strange VS Doctor Fate and Thanos VS Darkseid, the fight is a mortal vs a god, with the god winning. |
| 433 | * ''Zuko VS Shoto Todoroki'': Wiz attempts to imitate Zuko's Dancing Dragon and tried to firebend towards D.U.M.M.I but instead hits Boomstick. It actually makes more sense when you think again about what his actual job is. He is a scientist and analyzer, and thus definitely not a fighter like Zuko. While he ''may'' have the knowledge of Zuko's skills, he ''doesn't'' have the same ''experience and training''. |
| 434 | * ''Flash VS Sonic'': Wiz and Boomstick theorized that you need to be a genius to be capable of using the Speed Force at its full potential. When Wiz gave Boomstick some cosmic kinetic energy, Boomstick ran to Jupiter and disappointingly used the powers to come up with a usual pun. Boomstick, while not entirely dumb, is by no means an intellectual genius (At least outside weaponry), so of course he wasn't going to use it for any purposes past the basics and what Wiz would have wanted to know. In a sense, they've proven their theory. |
| 435 | * ''The Seven Battle Royale'': There is actually a good reason why Black Noir is with Wiz and Boomstick and not in the battle royale itself, it would spoil that he is actually much stronger than Homelander in the comics. |
| 436 | * ''Venom VS Crona'': Venom's defeat at the hands of Crona makes sense, just like Thanos' own defeat at the hands of Darkseid. Venom, like all the Klyntar symbiotes, is a creation of the GodOfEvil, Knull. What is Crona's LivingWeapon named? Ragnarok, [[MeaningfulName as in]] the [[Myth/NorseMythology Fate of the Gods]]. |
| 437 | * ''Sabrewulf VS Jon Talbain'': Boomstick thinking Sabrewulf is a vampire instead of a werewolf makes [[DumbassHasAPoint some sense]]; in Slavic folklore, sometimes werewolves ''became'' vampires if they weren't killed properly. |
| 438 | * ''Red VS Blue'': |
| 439 | ** Sarge's indifference to Grif's death would make sense for his character, but only at a certain point for him; during the original series, which is when he most blatedly tried to get Grif killed himself, and before he went through CharacterDevelopment that led him to genuinly care for all the soldiers under his unit, even his least favorite, Grif. This characterization for Sarge during the battle actually makes sense however, as is a battle that looks at who would win in a real fight to the death between the original Blood Glulch Crew. In other words, they are presented as they were in the ''original five series'', weapon and skill composition aside. The old Sarge wouldn't have batted an eye at Grif dying. |
| 440 | *** As a matter of fact, this pre-season 6 characterisation explains why this battle went to the fatal lengths it did; these are the Reds and Blues before they overcame their differences and joined forces. |
| 441 | * ''Sanji VS Rock Lee'': |
| 442 | ** The reason Sanji is fighting Rock Lee is because the latter insulted his cooking by saying that the curry served is too mild. After eating the [[https://naruto.fandom.com/wiki/Curry_of_Life Curry of Life]], is it any wonder Lee tasted it as mild? |
| 443 | ** Of course losing a leg wouldn't bother Sanji. As shown by Shanks, Nekomamushi, Inuarashi, and others, losing a limb in the ''One Piece'' universe is barely a mild annoyance to a strong pirate. |
| 444 | * ''Hulk VS Broly'': |
| 445 | ** From a narrative perspective, the fight is a subversive and satisfying fight. Most Saiyans enjoy the thrill of combat and a challenging fight, while Bruce Banner is often portrayed as trying to stay calm and at peace, lest he cause destruction as the Hulk. However, in this fight, the Hulk is a BloodKnight who wants a good fight out of Broly and provokes him to show off his true strength, get angry, and cause as much destruction as possible. By contrast Broly, a Saiyan, enjoys a peaceful time with some deer right before the fight and is angry at the Hulk for disturbing the peace. In other words, Hulk is acting in an unexpected manner for the Hulk (or rather, Bruce Banner), while Broly does not act in a way expected for his species. And after all of the Hulk's goading to show off his power and cause destruction, Broly does just that in the ultimate way...by winning the battle. |
| 446 | ** The song that plays during the fight, "Ikari", seems like a serious case of SoundtrackDissonance at first. It's rather tame for the background music of two rage-fueled supermen attempting to tear each other a new one. But then, a big part of Hulk and Broly's character arcs are about ''controlling'' and ''embracing'' the rage, and that added context makes the song a perfect fit; it's energetic, but ''focused'', much like the fighters themselves. |
| 447 | [[/folder]] |
| 448 | |
| 449 | [[folder:Season Eight]] |
| 450 | * ''Yoda VS King Mickey'': |
| 451 | ** Of course Yoda's Force powers and lightsaber were not enough to beat Mickey. Mickey and several Keyblade wielders have already fought someone exactly like him: Xemnas, who could not only attack at a distance and keep his foes at bay with projectiles and telekinesis, but also wields his own [[BrandX totally-not]]-lightsabers in close combat. |
| 452 | *** And Yoda pulling down meteors? Nothing new when Donald himself can do the same thing, and it's safe to assume Mickey is on par or close to his wizard friend and knows how to deal with this. |
| 453 | * ''Shadow VS Ryuko'': Ryūko's analysis noted that any feats from ''VideoGame/KillLaKillIF'' would not be included due to being a WhatIf story that was decidedly non-canon. While she would have been much more powerful had feats from it were factored in, not only would that have not benefitted her much (the Primordial Life Fiber fought in ''IF'' is noted to be comparable yet weaker to {{VideoGame/So|nicTheHedgehog2006}}laris, whose reality-warping powers were far superior), adding in more non-canon sources to Shadow's end in the interest of fairness would have to include a discussion about the Archie comics, and as the show established, Shadow being even remotely comparable to the reality-warping god that Sonic is in the comics would have just made the resulting CurbStompBattle even more one-sided than it already was. |
| 454 | * ''Lex Luthor VS Doctor Doom'': |
| 455 | ** In the beginning, after the Lex-bot is destroyed, its burnt pieces are seen scattered across the laboratory. Now then, how did Lex end up dying exactly? Being sliced to pieces by Doom, before his body is immolated by the explosive aftermath. |
| 456 | *** Lex's counterattack after revealing his powers from the Everyman Project is a clear reference to Superman's super move in ''VideoGame/Injustice2''. While the original Injustice featured a villainous Superman and a heroic Superman, only the villain is present in the sequel. Superman has several iconic moves or attacks that Lex could mimic, but Lex uses the only one associated with an evil version of the Man of Steel. |
| 457 | * ''Heihachi Mishima VS Geese Howard'': |
| 458 | ** Referenced in the show itself: Geese is somebody who is memetic for falling from high places like skyscrapers. Heihachi is somebody who is memetic for throwing people from high places (like cliffsides or into volcanoes). Was it ever any wonder Heihachi won (by throwing Geese into the volcano they fought at, no less)? To quote Boomstick: |
| 459 | -->'''Boomstick''': Sorry, Wiz, but this one was obvious. One of them throws people off cliffs, the other has people throw ''them'' off cliffs. Kind of a "no duh". |
| 460 | *** There's also the fact that both of the businesses they run end up being a representation of each man's power. The Howard Connection, for all its influence, mainly stays within the border of South Town; conversely, the Mishima Zaibatsu is an international conglomerate with its own private army, capable of starting up world wars by itself. Geese's ambitions for success may have matched his drive to attain more power, but his scope for both turned out to be far limited compared to what Heihachi is able to enjoy. |
| 461 | * ''Iron Fist VS Po'': |
| 462 | ** There's a bit of Fridge Sadness when you realize that another similarity between Iron Fist and Po is that their mothers were killed by wolves after distracting the pack away from their child. |
| 463 | ** Partway into the fight, Danny attacks Po with a bamboo staff, only for Po to [[FurryReminder eat it shortly afterwards]], just like how pandas eat bamboo in real life. |
| 464 | ** During the whole Wuxi Finger Hold scenario, Iron Fist isn't allowing Po to use it on him, so Po has to hold him down and use it on himself to send them to the Spirit Realm. While funny, it does show each other's clear advantage against one another. Iron Fist is too fast for Po to get a proper hold on him and too experienced to even think of letting him try it. Po, on the other hand, is far stronger and larger than Iron Fist that he could just hold him down with no issue and use the Finger Hold on himself. |
| 465 | * ''Steven Universe VS Star Butterfly'': |
| 466 | ** There's quite a bit of irony that Steven Universe was calculated to be at star-level power while Star Butterfly was calculated to be at universe-level power. |
| 467 | ** Another twist of irony involves the move that Star used to defeat Steven: Mega-Explosive '''Crystal''' Laser. She defeated a gem-based being using a spell with the word "Crystal" in it. |
| 468 | ** The fight ends with the IrisOut from the former's cartoon, which is ironically that of a '''star''' shape. |
| 469 | * ''Link VS Cloud (2021)'': |
| 470 | ** When the fight starts, a GUI from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' appears and the music changes to a piece resembling the regular battle music rather than the boss music of said game. Considering how outclassed Link was against Cloud this time, this was less of a boss battle and more of a [[ButForMeItWasTuesday regular (albeit strong) random encounter]] to Cloud. |
| 471 | ** Why did Cloud's Stop triumph over Link's Stasis Rune? Watch closely. Link activated his Rune before Cloud activated Stop. Because of this, Cloud had a comparatively smaller timer than Link did. Thanks to being over 12,000 times faster than Link was, this was more than enough time adjust and disarm Link of the Master Sword. |
| 472 | ** When Link uses the Four Sword, his clones are green, red, and purple, as he already fills the "blue" slot instead of green due to wearing his ''Breath of the Wild'' outfit. Those who read [[Manga/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwords2004 the Four Swords manga]] will remember that Blue Link is characterized as being hotheaded and angry. This matches up with how in this fight, Link seemed to instigate combat for no reason and seemed uncharacteristically bloodthirsty throughout it. |
| 473 | ** Cloud's Remove appears to more closely resemble ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII's'' Demi 3 than Remove, which was a huge PillarOfLight in that game instead of the purple vortex displayed in several other installments of the series. Demi 3 [[PercentDamageAttack removes 3/4 of a target's current health]]. The spell removed 3 of the 4 Links that were split from the main one via the Four Sword, ergo dealing 3/4 of Link's health in damage. |
| 474 | ** Cloud nonchalantly stares Link down when he dons the Fierce Deity mask, and his stoicism is rightly justified. Many of the bosses he's fought against ''Final Fantasy VII'' often transform into a larger, more dangerous form; hell, remember he even fought and defeated the TropeNamer of OneWingedAngel, and his experience fighting them shows by how well he adapts to battling the Fierce Deity. |
| 475 | ** As the Fierce Deity, Link is a tall, white-haired man with an enormous sword; i.e., like Sephiroth. |
| 476 | ** Cloud's attempt to use Omnislash in their first episode failed due to Link parrying his attacks and countering, but he's able to land Omnislash Ver. 5 in its entirety against Fierce Deity Link in their rematch with no issue. It's little wonder why that worked when you factor in that he defeated Sephiroth in ''Advent Children'' the exact same way: failing the initial Omnislash, paying the price for it and then coming back with Ver. 5 to win. Furthermore, Cloud's speed was calculated to be ''way'' faster than Link's this time around, meaning that he was just [[SpeedBlitz way too fast]] for Link's Z-targeting this time. |
| 477 | ** Mipha's Grace reviving Link may have just been around to set up his HeroicSecondWind, but remember that it's only triggered by Link being hit with an attack that would have killed him. This actually reinforces the CurbStompBattle Cloud gives him; combined with the removal of the other Links, he ends up effectively killing Link 5 times over the course of the animation. |
| 478 | ** One of the key advantages Death Battle gave Link in the original episode was that his more analytic fighting style and ability to improvise on the fly edged him out over Cloud's more direct brute force approach. However, to coincide with Cloud's win in their re-evaluation, the animation actually depicts this being inverted; Fierce Deity Link does nothing beyond using his natural size advantage and Helix Sword, while Cloud's more evasive maneuvers gave him key opportunities to prepare Omnislash Ver. 5 in advance to secure his kill. Goes to show that while Link may be well known for his tactics, [[GeniusBruiser Cloud is absolutely no slouch in that department.]] |
| 479 | ** Why does Cloud call Link an "asshole" in his PreMortemOneLiner? Snarker aside, you would be saying that too if you saw that person ''vandalise your deceased friend's place''. |
| 480 | ** One aspect of Link and Cloud's original fight that went unanswered in this one was the Master Sword's ability to deal extra damage on beings of pure evil, which was argued to be very effective on the Jenova cells inside Cloud's body. This aspect is ignored in the episode, and for good reason: as the being of Jenova itself isn't inherently evil, moreso acting on its basest instincts without being outwardly malicious. As such, cells from its body do not automatically mean they are evil, and thus, the Master Sword would not become more effective on Cloud than any other opponent Link normally faces. |
| 481 | * ''Batman VS Iron Man'': |
| 482 | ** Tony had a very good reason to send in an AI-controlled Model Prime armor to confront Bruce in the Watchtower, instead of going there while wearing it himself. The Justice League has several members that would absolutely destroy it along with him, and Tony wouldn't want to take chances. Likewise, Tony was in the Godbuster armor for that same reason -- if his attempt went ''very'' south and attracted the other Justice League members who could easily reach him, being inside the Godbuster would be the safest place for that outcome. |
| 483 | ** The end of "Suit Yourself" closes with part of Batman's theme, which might make one who heard the music but didn't watch the Death Battle assume that he won. However, that part suspiciously sounds like LosingHorns as well, reflecting Batman's loss. |
| 484 | ** Since Tony himself said he had already implanted his micro suit at the beginning of his fight with Bruce in the Watchtower, why didn't he just use it immediately and snatched the win early? Well, several things: |
| 485 | *** If the FreezeFrameBonus of his HUD is any indication, Tony already knows about the Hellbat suit. Since it can form around Batman like a second layer of skin, Tony likely anticipated that it could purge his suit from Bruce and render his sneak attack moot, so he had to make sure the Hellbat was out of the way first |
| 486 | *** Secondly, it's [[AwesomeEgo Tony Stark]]. Sure, he could just end Bats right there, but why do that when he can just kill him with his [[OneManArmy Iron Legion]], his [[PhysicalGod God Buster]] or his [[KillSat Sol's Hammer]] and look cool while doing it? |
| 487 | ** Tony's Godbuster getting defeated by the Hellbat, a godlike suit is very similar to how his Buster suits have often been trashed by the superhero it was supposed to fight in question. |
| 488 | ** Iron Man having the more versatile set of technology in his battle against Batman may also serve as a reflection of which one of these millionaire heroes is richer than the other; [[https://www.forbes.com/special-report/2013/fictional-15/index.html the final Fictional 15]] list written by the business magazine Forbes actually lists Tony Stark's net worth (estimated at $12.4 billion) as greater than Bruce Wayne's (estimated as $9.2 billion). Much of that could be tied to their chief focuses as companies, which also tie into Iron Man's tech advantage. Both have diverse portfolios due to the number of subsidiaries they have in various fields of business, but Stark Industries was created at its core to be a weapons manufacturer with vast amounts of military funding to back them up whereas Wayne Enterprises originally began life as a merchant house that only got into the weapons and defense fields much later. It stands to reason why Tony would be able to outgun Bruce: not only was he richer and had more resources to throw at his superhero work, his entire fortune was based entirely on being an advanced weapons developer to begin with. |
| 489 | *** This feeds back into itself. ''Because'' of Tony's focus on technology, his company has access to immensely profittable proprietary technology in several fields such as Energy and Consumer Software, which are directly linked to his work on his suits and other Iron Man tech. |
| 490 | ** "Suit Yourself" is entirely sung from Tony's point of view, acting as a BadassBoast for himself while also doubling as TheReasonYouSuckSpeech towards Bruce; considering that at best Batman is a NoNonsenseNemesis, it's actually fitting that the parts of the song that reflect him are the instrumental orchestra parts with no vocals to begin with. |
| 491 | * ''Goku Black VS Reverse-Flash'': |
| 492 | ** Most of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSDTVSeMZnI&lc=UgzjmOKhWVBZmTsTB0J4AaABAg this entire comment chain]] has plenty of fridge brilliance. |
| 493 | *** In the fight animation, the only times Goku Black managed to land any significant hits are when he managed to distract Reverse-Flash (like the shadow clones) or catch him off-guard (like when Thawne was setting up the statue that will kill Quicksilver or when he just finished reading the newspaper). |
| 494 | *** Observe how Reverse-Flash kills Goku Black. It really shows Eobard's AwesomenessByAnalysis. First, Thawne tries an enhanced punch on Goku Black, but he survives somehow, possibly due to the Negative Speed Force. Next, Thawne impales him with his speed, and Black still lives, hinting at a potent HealingFactor. Thawne resorts to atomization for a third attempt to prevent healing, but Black miraculously survives again, revealing his paradoxical nature. Thawne deduces the source of this paradox from a scene where Black kills his past self, realizing it's the time ring. He decides to remove it, quickly swallows the ring during a struggle, and destroys it. With the paradox powers gone, Thawne finally defeats Black. |
| 495 | *** Similarly, another comment pointed out that it would be natural for Thawne to deduce the importance of and target the Time Ring; after all, he comes from a world where there are entire '''[[ComicBook/GreenLantern armies]]''' of people using a RingOfPower. |
| 496 | * ''DIO VS Alucard'': |
| 497 | ** The fight makes even more sense as a matchup when you realize that DIO embodies almost everything Alucard hates. He threw away his humanity, becoming a vampire for the sake of power, stabbed Jonathan in the back, manipulated everyone loyal to him and has killed countless innocents for his own purposes and sometimes even just for the fun of it. DIO hits every single BerserkButton Alucard has, were it not for Death Battle's rule that combatants can't have advanced knowledge of each other this would have been among the most bitter matchups in the entire series. To rub salt in the wound, Alucard ''loses'' - dying not from a man as he wanted, but from a monster. |
| 498 | *** In a similar vein, Alucard is essentially what DIO wanted to ''become''. An unyielding, undying force with a loyal army of millions that no creature in his world could manage to surmount. A being that managed to go so far as to defy God Himself and come out the victor, and will last until the end of time to oversee humanity. Hell, at the end of the series, Alucard gained the power to essentially dictate his own fate in the form of Schrödinger, much like how DIO's plans for "Heaven" were to reach a point where everyone knew their own fate. |
| 499 | ** In canon, one of the few people that pushed Alucard to the absolute brink and nearly killed him was Alexander Anderson, a priest who, after impaling himself with Helena's Nail, became "The Monster of God". With this in mind, it only seems fitting that the one to truly accomplish the act of killing the King of Vampires is the man who bears the name of God himself, DIO. |
| 500 | ** DIO's Road Roller explodes shortly after he drops it on Alucard and hits it a few times, but Alucard obviously survives it. In ''VideoGame/JojosBizarreAdventureHeritageForTheFuture'', the Road Roller only explodes if it ''didn't'' finish off the opponent. |
| 501 | ** Just like with Luke Valentine, Alucard retorts that if he is a dog, DIO is dog food. While the exchange is seemingly in Alucard's favour at first glance, think about what happens to dogs in Jojo. |
| 502 | ** DIO's "Greatest High" state at the end of ''Stardust Crusaders'' is attained when he sucks out Joseph's blood. Fittingly enough, his sprites change to reflect the jacketless look he dons while in this state when he's drowned out in the sea of blood caused by Alucard activating Level 0. In a twisted sort of way, Alucard unintentionally managed to indirectly heal and power DIO up, which is later brought up in the analysis of the episode. |
| 503 | * ''Akuma VS Shao Kahn'': |
| 504 | ** During Shao Kahn's rundown in his fight with Akuma, Boomstick makes another one of his puns, only for Shao Kahn to tell him if that's his best and that he sucks, somewhat breaking the fourth wall. How does he do this? Because he worked with them before, he's the one started all the fights in Season 1 and was even a fighter in season 2, so Shao Kahn does in fact know Wiz and Boomstick and was probably allowed freedom by the two. |
| 505 | ** While it was stated in the results that Shao Kahn could dodge the Shun Goku Satsu, there's also another reason it failed; At the start of the fight, we see Akuma use it already on an unlucky kombatant. Shao already ended up knowing about it and would be prepared for it being used later as Oni's attempted finishing blow. |
| 506 | * ''Madara VS Aizen'': Some wondered how Aizen fell for Madara's sharingan effect near the end after he thinks he defeated Madara. But if you look closely, right when Madara and Aizen laugh like hyenas when they clash near the end, Madara's eyes are not purple for rinnegan, but red for the sharingan, you can even hear the familiar sound of the sharingan activating. Madara had the fight won the moment he acknowledged Aizen, causing Aizen to let his guard down for exactly the moment Madara needed. |
| 507 | * ''Saitama VS Popeye'': |
| 508 | ** Why do some segments have 2D characters in 3D environments? Because some of Popeye's cartoons did something similar through the stereoptical process. |
| 509 | ** Saitama was pretty quick to try and kill Popeye at the beginning. Normally, he wouldn't do so with any human being, except Popeye literally popped out of a spinach label. Saitama comes from a world where even the simple fact of loving cars to an unhealthy degree will change you into a car monster, so Saitama really does have legitimate reasons into believing Popeye would be a monster as well. He doesn't even refer to Popeye as a person in the end, just a "weird spinach mascot." |
| 510 | ** During the climax, when they each leap of the Sun and Pluto, the after effect really shows exactly what they are. Saitama jumping off of Pluto leads to it exploding due to his enormous power and how it realistically can't handle it. Popeye jumps off the sun and sends it flying off like a balloon letting all of it's air out in a cartoony fashion, befitting of how Popeye works in his world. |
| 511 | *** On that note, Popeye clearly sends the sun flying off into deep space when he jumps off it, but when he later lands on Earth it's right where it's supposed to be. Why? NegativeContinuity, a common trope of the cartoons Popeye belongs to. |
| 512 | ** When Saitama asks Popeye out of amazement how Popeye is so strong, and Popeye simply explains that he eats his spinach, he doesn't get mad from confusion the same way Genos did. Why? Because Saitama has an equally mundane explanation for his strength as well. |
| 513 | [[/folder]] |
| 514 | |
| 515 | [[folder:Season Nine]] |
| 516 | * ''Harley Quinn VS Jinx'': |
| 517 | ** The fight ends with Harley trying to pull the exact same trick Joker used to win his fight against Needles Kane (Driver of Sweet Tooth) on Jinx, but failed miserably. Jinx is not a mindless killer like Needles Kane. She is very intelligent and is (somewhat) levelheaded, so she isn't going to throw away an opportunity over a potential satisfying kill, especially when her taste would just be blowing Harley up her with explosives. |
| 518 | *** Related to the above, Harley trying to pull the trick makes sense in that it could have worked in two ways had Jinx taken the bait. Either she finishes Jinx off with the joy buzzer or she stuns her long enough for Harley's HealingFactor to kick in so they can keep fighting. |
| 519 | ** Jinx's laughter when Harley sticks dynamite in her mouth and not taking opportunities to get rid of it may seem like just her being her usual insane self at first. However, Jinx is an ''explosives expert''. She could probably estimate how long it would take for the dynamite to blow up by the length of the fuse and was very likely already formulating a plan to use it to her advantage. |
| 520 | ** There's a subtle visual representation of Jinx's power compared to Harley's. Before the fight, Harley takes on a strength test game and gets the very top. At the end of the fight, Harley is wounded at the bottom of that same machine, and Jinx shoots her with her rocket, which carries her directly up... and far, ''far'' past the top of the game, into the sky. Harley's hammer is strong, but Jinx's rocket is above and beyond. |
| 521 | ** There's a joke where Fishbones helpfully "tells" Harley that Jinx is right behind her. After she thanks it and calls it a pal, Jinx fires off a rocket, making Harley accuse it of being a traitor. Harley getting attached to something only to realize it might actually kill her can be taken as a compressed metaphor for her relationship with Joker, which, depending on your sense of humor, makes this joke a little sad, funnier, or both. Bonus points for Fishbones' design being based on Silco, Jinx's own mob boss whom she loved dearly, albeit in a more familial and less backstabby way. |
| 522 | * ''Scarlet Witch VS Zatanna'': |
| 523 | ** In the end of Scarlet Witch VS Zatanna, seeing the crowd cheering for Zatanna with a bisected Wanda in the back seems a bit off putting, but then again, there are two reasons why. Zatanna claimed it was all part of the show, to avoid any worry and, likely knowing that she could be capable of such, so they probably did not know any better and really believed it was part of the show. Also, Scarlet Witch came off as a very dangerous individual who is attacking the performer, to see her prevail and, potentially save their lives, of course they would cheer for their hero. |
| 524 | ** Zatanna claimed the difference between her and Scarlet Witch was presentation and it can be seen as a reflection of the tipping point of her victory; her sanity. After all, to properly present yourself, you need a good deal of self-control to make sure that it's ''all your doing''; after all, '''presenting''' is just a few steps away from '''using''' something. That's why the real difference between Zatanna and Wanda really isn't power (especially since they're actually matched). |
| 525 | * ''Thor VS Vegeta'': |
| 526 | ** Thor's Mjolnir narrowly missing Vegeta's head in the opening (both when thrown, and on the way back) foreshadows how Vegeta meets his end -- a thrown Mjolnir returning and ''not'' missing his head. It's also highlighted by the brief period where Vegeta catches Mjolnir only to be dragged down to earth with it; for as immensely powerful as he may be, ''nothing'' stops Mjolnir from returning to Thor's hand. |
| 527 | ** Vegeta losing to Thor makes a lot of sense considering where he and Goku stand against the gods in ''Dragon Ball''. While they both definitely have the strength needed to fight the likes of Beerus and Top, their strength can only go so far against deities who are so powerful they still cause curb-stomps even while actively holding back. Vegeta's own godlike abilities aren't enough to take down an actual god in the form of Thor - someone who also holds back his immense power in battles. It's actually reflected well in the battle animation: Vegeta does manage to get stretches of him delivering a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown well enough, but Thor often takes control back with just a single hit. |
| 528 | ** Thor recalling "Always aim for the head" in the final moments of the battle is not stating that Vegeta somehow missed with the Final Flash (we see Thor's bloodied face in one ''hell'' of a DeathGlare after all), nor is it just a {{foreshadowing}} of what he intends to do, it's also a jab that Vegeta, at that point, is resorting to the [[FantasticNuke Final Explosion]]. An attack that literally cannot be aimed ''at all''. |
| 529 | ** Season 9 brought back the post-match results screen which showed which advantages and disadvantages each fight brought to the match-up. It's worth noting that Vegeta had very little advantages given to him that Thor could not easily counter; the resulting CurbStompBattle ended up being so horrible, the fight never received said results screen, which ties into how Vegeta lacked enough in the tank needed to stand a remote chance against Thor. |
| 530 | * ''Omni-Man VS Homelander'': |
| 531 | ** In ''The Seven Battle Royale'', Homelander lasers off Wiz' right arm at the end of the battle. Wiz gets his revenge by pitting Homelander against Omni-Man, an opponent he stood [[CurbStompBattle absolutely no chance against]], who gives Homelander one of the most brutal executions in the entire series. In a way, it could be a [[AssholeVictim very well-deserved]] DisproportionateRetribution by Wiz. |
| 532 | ** The name of the track used for Omni Man vs Homelander is "Diabolical Invincible Me," referencing not the combatants themselves like most tracks but their respective protagonists (Butcher and Mark respectively). Fitting, given that they're both only pretending to be heroes. |
| 533 | *** The lyrics also sound like a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech - which given how it's a CurbStompBattle in Omni-Man's favor, is likely his thought process giving a ''massive'' PretenderDiss to Homelander. |
| 534 | *** The track has a striking similarity to the song "Tom Tom", which plays in the Invincible animated series when Omni-Man is genociding the Flaxans for invading Earth. One of that song's lines is "Execution of a worthless man", and considering what Omni-Man does to Homelander in the fight, it's quite apt. |
| 535 | ** Overlaps with FridgeHorror: The fight is notably one of the only fights that leans into its premise being a CurbStompBattle instead of ignoring it, but Omni-Man realistically would have deleted Homelander on the first punch. Obviously, a fight that ends in one punch isn't very interesting, but there might also be an in-universe reason for Omni-Man to pull his punches: he was going to express his anger over Debbie's death by [[ColdBloodedTorture taking his sweet time disassembling Homelander]]. |
| 536 | *** Even the quick pace of the fight works in this context, as Omni-Man probably didn't know Homelander could exploit one of his weaknesses and decided to end things quickly instead of succumbing to BondVillainStupidity. Homelander digging himself deeper by threatening to massacre everyone Omni-Man knows definitely helped, too. |
| 537 | *** The reason why Omni-Man destroyed Homelander's lower jaw? He most likely had enough of Homelander's ranting and just wanted him to shut up. |
| 538 | *** It's noted in the analysis that before his HeelFaceTurn, Omni-Man considered Debbie as more of a pet and less of a wife (Or at least, that's what he claims to Mark). Thus, Nolan doesn't immediately go for the kill initially, although he was certainly planning to toy with Homelander before doing so. But when Homelander threatens to kill his son, who Nolan has much more emotional investment in, he ''immediately'' makes no hesitation in killing his opponent. |
| 539 | *** Pay close attention to the setup for the fight, and you'll see that Omni-Man actually glanced to his left before Homelander's PR statement-slash-threat. We didn't see that Homelander fried Debbie just yet, but he ''did''; if he wasn't bound by his mission to conquer Earth for the Viltrumite Empire, he would've just pasted Homelander right then and there. The fact he didn't was to size up his opponent, figure out what they were about, and it was clear to him that Homelander was in way over his head. |
| 540 | ** The one-sided nature of the fight is shown through even before the fight begins. Homelander very obviously sees Nolan as a threat to his status and tries and fails to intimidate him out of fear he could damage his brand. Omni-Man on the other hand, barely seems to register Homelander as a blip on his radar until Homelander reveals he killed Debbie. From the start, Homelander was never a threat to Nolan no matter how big his ego was. |
| 541 | ** Why is Omni-Man not so scared about having witnesses of killing Homelander? Homelander was having a panic attack when he's showing his true colors, but Omni-Man really doesn't bat an eye. While ignoring his true intentions on Earth, Omni-Man, and the Global Defense Agency, have a solid cover story. Homelander was seen as a psychopath by any fortunate survivors, while Omni-Man kept a cool head, so to paint him as the major villain here that needed to be put down was not going to be difficult. Omni-Man can potentially still be the hero if he so wishes. |
| 542 | *** Plus, a lot of his coldness in the fight can be explained: "Homelander killed my wife out of paranoid narcissism." His TranquilFury and flying off after a bitter "Merry Christmas" can be explained away to the public as him going off to have a private HeroicBSOD. An elegant excuse, made even better by the fact [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes it happens to be 90% true]]; even if Nolan wasn't lying to himself about viewing Debbie as more of a pet than a spouse, that's still a pretty deep emotional blow and Nolan can be forgiven for [[VillainousBSOD having a nice cry once the adrenaline wore off]]. |
| 543 | *** On top of that, Homelander very explicitly threatened to kill several people, ''including'' all of Nolan's neighbors who witnessed his rampage. It's not out of the question that those same neighbors would help corroborate Nolan's alibi, if not because of them knowing Nolan, then because they were threatened by Vought's premier hero. |
| 544 | *** Speaking of said threat to the community, there's also Homelander's [[VillainousBreakdown little freakout]] before he issued that threat - the hyperventilating, the wide eyes, the glaring at his bloodsoaked hands. There were witnesses, and we all know [[LeaveNoWitnesses his policy on witnesses]] to his more malevolent deeds. This was made even worse when he heard Omni-Man taunt him after the fact - he put his all into that last attack, and all it destroyed was his own reputation. He outed himself as a monster for ''nothing''. |
| 545 | ** Homelander's only real advantage was his supersonic screaming. It really encapsulates Homelander's position in this fight, he starts screaming like a spoiled brat when Omni-Man proves too much for him, which somehow works for a bit. Homelander's whining and crying about his position really was his only way to hurt Omni-Man. |
| 546 | ** Look at the punches in the fight between Omni-Man and Homelander: at every punch Omni-Man turns with the torso, putting as many muscles as possible into the attack, while Homelander throws wild haymakers powered only by his arm. Even when holding back, Omni-Man is so skilled he instinctively moves in a way that would reinforce his attacks, while Homelander is so unskilled he can't do the same even when going all-out. |
| 547 | ** It’s noted on the Characters page about the fight, under SoldierVersusWarrior, that Omni-Man and Homelander belong to the category opposite of what they appear to be at first glance; Omni-Man is really The Soldier, Homelander the Warrior. The same comment, further illustrating their nature being at odds with first appearances, also applies to the RedOniBlueOni - Omni-Man’s colour scheme heavily features red and Homelander has a lot of blue, but both fighters have the opposite personality than what the colours that imply. |
| 548 | * ''Magneto VS Tetsuo'': |
| 549 | ** Magneto winning against Tetsuo makes sense if you realized he fought Kenji Uedo before, an expy to Tetsuo with a lot of similar powers. |
| 550 | ** While Magneto doesn't have any particular aversion to killing, he fought extremely defensively against Tetsuo at first, only starting to actively create weapons after Tetsuo went [[OneWingedAngel Ego Dissolution]]. Magneto's opening line explains why - he actively snarks at Japan for not recognizing mutant superiority, meaning he sees Tetsuo as another mutant. Up until it became clear Tetsuo was incapable of controlling his powers, Magneto was trying to ''recruit'' him for the Brotherhood, not kill him. |
| 551 | ** Why is Magneto in Japan of all places? Because his son, Quicksilver, was killed in Japan during the fight with the Flash. He's looking for the one responsible for his son's murder. |
| 552 | * ''Hercules VS Sun Wukong'': |
| 553 | ** If you think about it, Hercules VS Sun Wukong is the closest we'll ever see to a third Superman VS Goku matchup. Especially if you consider how [[WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}} certain adaptations]] have made the connections even more apparent. |
| 554 | ** The image on the original track hints at the result of the battle: A Chinese Scroll depicting Sun Wukong is exploding from and shattering a Greek pottery depicting Hercules. |
| 555 | ** The entire fight starts because of a fight over an apple. Guess you could say it was an AppleOfDiscord. |
| 556 | * ''Boba Fett VS Predator'': The title of the track for the fight hints at the outcome: "If it bleeds", a quote from ''Film/{{Predator}}''. It seems odd that the track name only fits Predator... but the second half of the quote is "we can kill it". Indeed, Boba was more than capable of doing so. |
| 557 | * ''James Bond VS John Wick'': |
| 558 | ** Although Bond ''appears'' to have been stabbed in the heart at the end of his bout with John Wick, it's highly likely that John, still abiding by the rules of the Continental, [[Film/JohnWickChapter2 stabbed him in the aorta as a "professional courtesy"]], absolving himself of murder on a technicality should Bond pull the knife out. On the flip side, given that Bond most likely knows to leave the knife ''in'', his odds of survival immediately improve. |
| 559 | ** Bond seems remarkably okay breaking the rules of the Continental. One possible reason for this is his License to Kill might overrule the High Table and allow him to kill on Continental Grounds without any repercussions, hence his "Lucky Me" reply when John mentions that killing is forbidden on Continental Grounds. |
| 560 | *** That or, given his previously mentioned suicidal ideation and determination to get the job done by any means necessary, [[DeathSeeker Bond just doesn't care]]. |
| 561 | *** It could also simply mean that Bond doesn't abide by the Continental's rules if only because he himself isn't a member of it. |
| 562 | *** It's also entirely possible the whole reason Bond was there to take out Wick in the first place is because [=MI6=] wants to take out the Continental, and Wick is their deadliest assassin. |
| 563 | * ''Black Adam VS Apocalypse'': There is some bitter {{Irony}} that Black Adam, a man who spent his StartOfDarkness by saving his country from bandits and warlords, watches Khandaq be conquered by Apocalypse, a man whose own StartOfDarkness was being ''raised'' by bandits and warlords. |
| 564 | * ''Trunks VS Silver'': When one thinks about it, the circumstances of Trunks fighting Silver makes sense: The Knights of Kronos seek to create a better future by changing history, essentially being a GoodCounterpart to the Time Patrol's main foes, the Time Breakers. Despite the differing reasons, both are changing history which Trunks, and by extension the Time Patrol, are tasked to prevent. |
| 565 | * ''[=SpongeBob=] VS Aquaman'': |
| 566 | ** In the fight, Aquaman pulls out a move he's never even come close to doing, using all of the Earth's water to great a giant whirlpool to try to and defeat [=SpongeBob=]. This seems like Death Battle being very kind to him, and it honestly could be that. On the other hand, Superfriends Aquaman comes from a era where heroes could practically do whatever they wanted as a super power, heck, Superman could just sneeze a universe away, it's just that no one decided to give anything like this to Aquaman during all of it. Here, Superfriends Aquaman, after a pep-talk from [=SpongeBob=], shows off just how powerful he could be if he was given the same treatment from said era of comics. While still nowhere near most, it's far more respectable than what he has now, and more than what Aquaman from the comics did in his fight with Namor. |
| 567 | ** Hell, that pep talk really did wonders for Aquaman. The Reef Blower feat [=SpongeBob=] survived, over 6000 Yottatons of TNT (something far beyond the likes of even Saitama and Popeye can only amount a fraction of), Spongebob replicated this feat when he absorbed the Earth's water, and Aquaman popped him with the trident. While it may be based on Aquaman's immunity to all water based attacks, his survival similar to how [=SpongeBob=] came out unharmed can show he was truly at the level befitting of the title of Aquaman. |
| 568 | ** [=SpongeBob=] getting Aquaman's superhero name wrong on the gravestone isn't just because of a gag, he changed it to something grander for his Super Friend. |
| 569 | * ''Jason Voorhees VS Michael Myers'': |
| 570 | ** The way Wiz and Boomstick present the overview for Jason and Michael like a spooky campfire story and a psychiatric report respectively is very fitting considering their origins. |
| 571 | *** Similarly, the character introductions being made around a campfire in the woods are a hint at who would ultimately come out on top. |
| 572 | * ''Sauron VS Lich King'': It seems weird that the very first ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' representative was none other than BigBad Sauron himself, [[SidelinedProtagonistCrossover instead of any member of the Fellowship]], or even other villains like Saruman, the Balrog, or the Witch-King. However, it's also oddly fitting since Sauron is the [[AntagonistTitle titular villain]] of the work! Similarly, the Lich King is the only ''World of Warcraft'' villain to get name-dropped in an expansion, that being ''Wrath of the Lich King''. |
| 573 | * ''Gogeta VS Vegito'': Vegito being Blue for most of the match, while Gogeta had to be in Super Saiyan 4 for a good portion of the fight before going blue himself, is a side effect of Vegito's higher time limit, as he could stay in a stronger form for longer. |
| 574 | [[/folder]] |
| 575 | |
| 576 | [[folder:Season Ten]] |
| 577 | * ''Ant-Man VS Atom'': |
| 578 | ** The locations where the ants appear near The Atom foreshadows his demise, as they get ever-closer to being inside him each time. First, Hank summons them around him on the floor. Next, they're spawned inside his Bio-Belt to destroy it. Finally, they're spawned ''inside him'', tearing him from the inside-out. |
| 579 | ** While both Hank and Ray are two of the smartest physicists in fiction and have the ability to shrink their sizes down to the point that they can reach the Microverse of their respective universes, Hank ultimately comes out on top due to him being a more accomplished hero and scientist. |
| 580 | *** Hank was a founding member of the Avengers while Ray was simply a member of the Justice League. |
| 581 | *** Hank did not just limit himself to shrinking like Ray and constantly expanded his powersets, eventually learning how to control ants as well as grow large enough to access the Overspace. This versatility can be seen reflected in the many aliases and codenames Hank has employed throughout his run as a hero (e.g. Ant-man, Giant-man, Wasp, Yellowjacket etc.) while Ray has mostly stuck to just being called the Atom. |
| 582 | *** Hank's creation of Ultron, while definitely a mistake, is a testament of his ability as a scientist as he managed to create a villain that could challenge, evolve and defeat the Avengers multiple times. It also speaks volumes that Hank was able to best his creation in multiple instances as well, showing his constant growth and adaptability as a scientist, so much so that Hank's accomplishments as a scientist earned him the title of Scientist Supreme while Ray's scientific accomplishments tended to be more modest and safer in comparison. |
| 583 | *** And of course, their methods of changing size; Hank created a serum that would allow him to shrink and later would discover Pym Particles (a type of particle that was never known of before he discovered it) in order to shrink and grow his body and other objects and people as much as he wants. Ray on the other hand utilised a fragment of an already known material (a White Dwarf star) that could shrink him just fine but other objects would end up exploding after a certain amount of time and it ''couldn't'' increase his size past his natural size. |
| 584 | * ''Skyrim VS Dark Souls'': |
| 585 | ** Due to their respective ideologies, it would make sense for the Chosen Undead to fight the Dragonborn [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eLLhsGRj-o&lc=Ugw-Um_ceReB6Q9il3x4AaABAg.9qaxnLbHSt59qbH6q01LQt according to this comment.]] To explain: |
| 586 | *** For the Chosen Undead, the Last Dragonborn is a Dark Lord trying to prevent their mission to save humanity with the latter's mission to kill the gods via snuffing out the flame. |
| 587 | *** For the Last Dragonborn, the Chosen Undead is keeping the gods alive to let them continue have humanity under their thumb. It doesn't help that having fought either a imperialist dictatorship or a fascist terrorist group, both of them would be similar to the gods in ''Dark Souls''. |
| 588 | ** At first it seems that the Dragonborn messed up big time by snuffing out the First Flame. And then you realize that he could go for Darkstalker Kaathe next when he tries to bring the Age of Dark and ''replace'' the First Flame with their own power after learning the context. Given the sheer power the Dragonborn possesses compared to the Chosen Undead, bringing about a new age is child's play. |
| 589 | ** The power of both combatants, and thus the outcome of the battle, was well-reflected by how they affected their respective worlds and the legacies they would leave behind. |
| 590 | *** While the Chosen Undead was indeed a mighty warrior capable of killing gods and either prolonging the Age of Fire or bringing about the Age of Dark, their actions would ultimately not matter in the long run. The cycle of kindling the First Flame would persist well after they were long gone, and their legend would ultimately fade from the memory of those in the future. |
| 591 | *** By contrast, the Dragonborn, through their deeds throughout Skyrim and slaying of Alduin, irreversibly changed the fate of the world and would cement them as a legend on par with, if not outright exceeding, the past heroes of Tamriel. |
| 592 | ** The Chosen Undead's final words to The Dragonborn, [[FamousLastWords "Prepare to die"]], was his greatest downfall since it signified to the Dragonborn that the Vow of Silence wore off and he was free to use his shouts magic again, which he made sure to swiftly put The Chosen Undead down for good afterwards, given how dangerous the spell is against him. |
| 593 | ** When the Chosen Undead hits the Dragonborn with an ice spell, he suddenly can't dodge or block the oncoming onslaught of attacks and has to call on Odahviing to buy him time. And after being hit by the Lightning Spear, the Dragonborn doesn't cast any more spells for the remainder of the battle. These both line up with how ''Skyrim'' treats frost and shock damage, as frost damage drains the target's stamina while shock drains their magic. |
| 594 | * ''Stitch VS Rocket Raccoon'': |
| 595 | ** Of course Boomstick would go DudeNotFunny when Wiz likened his ex-wife to the Bottom-feeding Scum Sucker. Calling her that also implies that she only seeks out the lowest of the low, which in turn is an insult to Boomstick. |
| 596 | ** In the fight, Rocket immediately knows exactly what Stitch is saying, even gagging at one point. Given his occupation, he would undeniably pick up numerous languages in the known galaxies, so he'd likely pick up what Stitch was saying. |
| 597 | ** Despite being a character from a kid-friendly cartoon, Stitch is just as foul-mouthed as Rocket. It's just that Stitch's insults are in an alien language (Tantalog). |
| 598 | ** How does Stitch survive the "Thanos Killer" from Rocket even though it was stated he couldn't survive such a hit? He was in his SuperMode during the hit, which granted him an increased in power. Getting hit by it didn't kill him, but it cost him a few limbs and the form as well. |
| 599 | ** Stitch's resourcefulness and intelligence is showcased a few times: |
| 600 | *** When he jumps off his makeshift surfboard to knock Rocket's missile launcher away, he knows it's in the water, and when Rocket's Cold Fusion cannon blasts him into the ocean, Stitch quickly pinpoints the dropped missile launcher's location to jury-rig it into a hoverboard. |
| 601 | *** He notices that Rocket's arm device is what allows him to teleport as well as call down more weapons, so he quickly takes care of that once he gets into range the final time. |
| 602 | * ''Darth Vader VS Obito Uchiha'': |
| 603 | ** True to his purpose as an EvilCounterpart to Naruto, Obito's victory over Vader plays out like a dark mirror to many of Naruto's canon conflicts. Our young idealist finds himself facing an older and more experienced foe and finds that their ruthless actions have been guided by a troubled, sorrowful history that resembles his own... but instead of finding common ground with his enemy and winning him over, Obito instead locks Vader in a blissful illusion that papers over his traumatic past before slaying him with the Sword of Nunoboko. |
| 604 | *** In the story of ''Naruto'', Obito was prevented from summoning the Ten-tails by a seal in his heart put in place by Madara. While research wise, this would not be relevent, since the fight would just take place after Obito had it removed, this is actually incorportated into the animation, by having Vader destroy Obito's heart right before Obito summons the ten tails, just as Obito tricked Kakashi into doing in canon. |
| 605 | ** The difference in illusions both Darth Vader and Obi-Wan were subjected to were complete opposites and had different difficulties. Obi-Wan saw a vision he never wanted, because he regrets that that's the path he's on now and he could have done more. Vader on the other hand was given everything he's ever wanted, which is to be with Padme; even if he was capable of breaking through, he'd never take it because it's just too good of a vision for him to leave. Given how much torture he's been through his life, even self-inflicted at times, all he ever wanted was a life with Padme. |
| 606 | ** Back when Obi-Wan fought Kakashi, part of his finishing blow had him use the Force to destroy Kakashi's Sharingan eye as a last resort. Darth Vader did the same to Obito as part of his ''opening assault,'' demonstrating the difference in power and brutality between the combatants of both battles. |
| 607 | ** When Vader had Obito by his neck and told him to die, Obito responded by saying "Too late". There is a double meaning in Obito's words. The obvious first meaning is that Vader was too late in stopping the Infinite Tsukuyomi while the second meaning is that the younger, more idealistic version of Obito had already died and the current Obito is as good as dead since he can't feel anything. |
| 608 | * ''Phoenix VS Raven'': |
| 609 | ** It's ironic that it was Raven who had the ability to literally rise from the ashes (which is exactly what happened after being incinerated by cosmic flames) and continue fighting while Phoenix lacked a similar level of (soul) healing. |
| 610 | ** The background analysis for Phoenix and Raven also unintentionally foreshadowed the winner. As [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qjc1FhpLLrY&lc=UgwFAv8BvERpjAYyKCN4AaABAg noted by a commenter]], Jean is willing to ''die'' for her friends while Raven goes through hell to ''live'' for her friends. Combined with how many times the former has been killed off and brought back, everything fell into place. |
| 611 | * ''Guts VS Dimitri'': |
| 612 | ** Of course Dimitri beat Guts, after all, in ''Fire Emblem'', TacticalRockPaperScissors states that Lance beats Sword. Interestingly, the skills Dimitri had that closed the speed gap riffed on the mechanic from said games. |
| 613 | ** Could be unintentional, but Guts cuts Areadbhar to just the right length where Dimitri can handle it like a crude sword. Swords are the typical armament for most other Fire Emblem heroes, most of whom are much more clean-cut than Dimitri, and Dimitri taking on an army of demons to save the soul of a man who almost killed him is one of the most noble things any Death Battle combatant has done, emphasizing that he's got more in common with his less troubled predecessors than his vicious exterior might indicate. |
| 614 | ** Why is Dimitri so willing to help Guts' soul? He says so in his fight with him, "The dead will have their revenge", and seeing that Guts had so clear baggage due to the demons, plus being a worthy foe, Dimitri just saw another dead man in need. |
| 615 | ** Despite losing, Guts manages to break Dimitri's weapon as his final act. While normally a sad outcome, there is something hilarious about Dragonslayer, a sword meant to slay dragons, was able to (eventually) break Areadbhar, a spear ''made'' from a dragon (well, dragon-like, but still). |
| 616 | ** Dimitri's weapon breaking at the end from an attack that didn't seem much, if at all, stronger than the previous ones he blocked. In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', all weapons eventually break if used repeatedly, and their durability goes down faster if the wielder uses Combat Arts. After a big fight like this, of course Areadbhar, which only has a durability of 20 (even less than a basic iron lance's 30), would end up breaking. |
| 617 | *** The fact that Dimitri can still wield the broken lance as a makeshift sword could also refer to how, when a weapon is broken in ''Three Houses'', it can still be used, just with significantly less effectiveness. |
| 618 | * ''Bill Cipher VS Discord'': |
| 619 | ** 'Discordant Decipher' subtly foreshadows the end of the battle: Discord's lines mostly consist of goading and mocking Bill, while Bill's lyrics do have some insults, they mainly revolve around Bill killing Discord or how awesome he is. The entire fight was Discord goading Bill into the battle to the death so he could trick him back into the Nightmare Realm. |
| 620 | ** Even setting aside the fact that both are from kids' shows where the good guys triumph and the bad guys fail, Discord managing to sabotage Bill and achieve his goal of saving his friends despite losing the Death Battle is wholly appropriate when you consider this episode's main theme was utter chaos: he managed to screw with the typical winner/loser dynamic like a good avatar of disorder should. |
| 621 | ** Discord is aware he's in a ''Death Battle'', and hates playing by others' rules. How does he break the rules? By never playing the game at all. Discord wasn't playing to beat Bill in a ''Death Battle'' to begin with, he was ultimately playing to beat Bill in the ''plot'' of the ''Death Battle'', which is saving his home and his friends. Which he succeeded in. |
| 622 | ** Discord's letter says Bill will learn a lesson about friendship. His loss can be seen as the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of his friend, and Bill learned this the hard way with one big ol' metaphorical middle finger by a resigned Discord. As a corollary, his letter can also be seen as a goodbye letter. |
| 623 | ** The entire plot of the battle was seen in Discord and Bill's banter in the character analysis. Discord boasts that he has friends while Bill goes "Not for long", initially a reference to the G5 comics when Discord has outlived his friends. Cue the battle starting with Bill creating Weirdmageddon and turning the Mane 6 into banners. Discord's main goal for the battle is to save Canterlot ''and'' his friends before being killed. |
| 624 | ** Why was Bill attacking Equestria? Unicorn hair is one of his weaknesses. In true Bill Cipher fashion, the best way to make sure there's no more unicorn hair is to make the whole race go extinct. |
| 625 | ** Why doesn't Discord just snap Equestria back to normal? Because one of Discord's other weaknesses is that if he starts going against his chaotic nature, he becomes weaker. If he put things back in order, he wouldn't have enough strength to stop Bill. Teleporting Bill to the Nightmare Realm was the best of both worlds: separating Equestria so it can start healing, and ensuring that Discord was still at full power when he did the stunt. |
| 626 | ** A cute MythologyGag to Discord's show is the sock puppet world. Discord attempted to send a pony named Tree Hugger, whom Fluttershy became friends with and he was showing envy towards, into a portal where the inhabitant was a Mexican sock puppet. What's Discord's plan? Sending Bill, who harmed Fluttershy, ''into another dimension''. |
| 627 | ** Bill crushes Discord with a giant chess piece. What chess piece? The [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic horse-like]] knight, known for its erratic movements. |
| 628 | ** Discord's own plan likely contributed in his defeat too, depending on how you interpreted from the beginning. If he had plan to defeat Bill as well, his greatest downfall was telling Bill that he knew exactly how to defeat him because he watched his show. Bill likely knew this as well, and because he knew when to take things seriously, at long before Discord could, he knew it was time to stop playing around and end it quickly. Discord likely got too cocky because he had already achieved his goal in saving Equestria, so everything else, including defeating Bill, didn't matter as it was all a bonus by that point. |
| 629 | ** One of Bill's defining traits is making deals that eventually result in him screwing over his business partners, so it's [[LaserGuidedKarma fitting]] that his victory is something right out of a [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor monkey's paw]] story: winning the Death Battle at the cost of his [[SealedEvilInACan freedom]], his [[MeaninglessVillainVictory success in taking over Equestria]], and his [[VillainousBreakdown dignity]]. |
| 630 | ** It just so happens that this fight ends in much the same way as [[Recap/DeathBattleS01E17StarscreamVsRainbowDash the first MLP episode]]: a backstabbing snake suffering a FateWorseThanDeath thanks to their equine opponent even though they technically didn't lose by the rules of the show. [[note]]Starscream's Spark didn't die and Bill Cipher won the Death Battle[[/note]] |
| 631 | * ''Cole [=MacGrath=] vs Alex Mercer'': |
| 632 | ** The difference in the two is reflected by the climax of the fight. Alex tries to gain the edge by [[OneWingedAngel transforming into his monstrous armored form]], while Cole gains control of the battle with his Karma Overload mode. Cole remained good to the end, while Alex threw away his humanity. So it's fitting Cole weaponized his good karma to win while Alex became a monster. |
| 633 | ** Alex, by the time of ''VideoGame/Prototype2'', is an evil mastermind and WellIntentionedExtremist who's more intelligent and has decades of knowledge over Cole... which happens to be an accurate description of Kessler, who was killed by Cole at the end of the first ''VideoGame/{{Infamous}}''. Not helping Alex's case is that Kessler was also very interested in Cole's powers, much like Alex was during the fight. |
| 634 | *** Not just that, but in ''[PROTOTYPE 2]'', Alex turned into a monstrous harbinger of an advanced species after turning his back on humanity. He's not just a reminder of Kessler, he quite literally represents the Beast and Evil Cole in turn - someone Cole could have become in another lifetime. This makes his defeat at Cole's hands all the more fitting, considering Cole's final act in ''[=inFamous 2=]'' is to launch a CurbStompBattle on the Beast himself, and Alex proved to be no different. |
| 635 | ** There's a hilarious amount of irony that a character codenamed ZEUS is vaporized by an explosion of electricity. |
| 636 | ** The power difference between Cole and Alex is also a lot more apparent when you consider how both of them canonically died. Alex dies being absorbed by James Heller, supplanted from his metaphorical "food chain" as the strongest in his world. On the other hand, Cole dies definitively defeating the Beast to establish that he's more powerful than his world's strongest being prior to sacrificing his life to stop the Ray Sphere Plague. Even in his final moments, Cole was able to establish his level of strength far better than Alex. |
| 637 | ** Why does Cole attempt to flush Alex out with Ionic Freeze inside the office space? Ionic Freeze is one of Cole's powers that explicitly does not affect civilians in its path. As he heard screams coming from the building, he attempted to take Alex out without causing collateral damage; contrast with Alex, who unashamedly causes more of it over the course of the fight. |
| 638 | ** Despite being the heroic incarnation of the character, Cole definitely proves that GoodIsNotSoft when part of his killing blow involves using a power that grants him Evil Karma. |
| 639 | ** Besides his "room for dessert" quip at the beginning of the fight, Alex never once dismisses Cole as a threat or assumes an attack has killed him, and he doesn't even try to eat Cole the moment he first grabs him, instead flinging him away before using his [[BeginWithAFinisher Tendril Barrage Devastator]]. That insult isn't just Alex being cocky right before getting humbled--he just experienced Cole's lightning powers and likely assessed them with his hyperspeed cognitive processing, so he says a sick joke to try and bait the Conduit into unleashing them in full force, to test his worthiness of joining Alex as an Evolved. He also seemed to intend on recruiting Cole primarily than killing him, and it's only when Cole fully rejects him does Alex decide that he would rather consume him instead. |
| 640 | ** Cole uses Karmic Overload to overpower Alex and finally defeat. Karmic Overload requires certain actions to build it up before unleashing it, and since this is the canonical Good Cole, then he must do "good" actions to do so, and we actually see him build this up over the course of the fight: |
| 641 | *** First, he saves the surviving passenger of the helicopter Alex brought down. |
| 642 | *** Then, he uses Ionic Freeze to attack Alex without harming any potential surviving civilians and protect them from Alex (though he unfortunately could not save everyone from being used to fuel Alex's [[OneWingedAngel Evolved Form]]). |
| 643 | *** Then [[RuleOfThree finally]], Alex gives him a choice (not unlike the ''VideoGame/{{Infamous}}'' games giving choices that affects alignment and Karma): Join him or die. Naturally, Cole picks the good option and opposes Alex. With that, it solidifies Cole's good nature as a hero, and how it ultimately gives him the advantage he needed against Alex via Karmic Overload finally built up. |
| 644 | * ''Frieza vs Megatron'': |
| 645 | ** The battle has Frieza lose track of Megatron after a SmokeShield obscures the view, despite it being part of his rundown that Frieza learned to sense energy and should be able to keep track of him. However, this makes perfect sense when you realize it's not the first time MechanicalLifeforms have stumped that ''exact'' sense in Frieza's universe. |
| 646 | ** Why is Frieza so dead set on killing all Cybertronians? He has always been [[TheParanoiac a paranoid person]]. It was part of the reason he killed all the Saiyans out of fear that they would rise up against him and that the legend of the Super Saiyan was real, [[SelfFulfillingProphecy all of which came true]]. But these were things he had no real reason to think would happen. Megatron, however, gave him a brush with death he had never truly experience before, especially from someone vastly weaker, and not only that, Frieza was in his strongest form at the point that made it him leagues above Goku and Vegeta, and he still almost died. Frieza began thinking that all Cybertonians have similar potential now, even if they don't, and he isn't about to let that become a reality. |
| 647 | ** The battle draws parallels to Season 1's Starscream vs. Rainbow Dash. In both episodes, a prominent Decepticon fights and is killed by a smaller user of the supernatural. However, Starscream was the aggressor in his fight while Megatron was the defender, and Megatron put up a much closer fight against Frieza than Starscream did against Rainbow Dash. |
| 648 | ** Megatron showing off his intelligence and eons of battle experience by landing his Antimatter attack on Frieza with nothing but his charisma and attention to details. He picked up on the fact that Frieza is an arrogant tyrant, judging by his constant monologue. When he starts giving his [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech scathing speech]] to him, he knew Frieza would fall for it because he knows people like Frieza wouldn't tolerate such insult. It's why Megatron tells him "Die a fools death", because you'd have to be an idiot to fall from such an obvious trick. |
| 649 | * ''Gojo v Makima'': |
| 650 | ** While Hollow Purple may have been what allowed Gojo to completely destroy her body without any means to regenerate, it's really Unlimited Void that's responsible for bringing about Makima's end, even/especially if she could perceive the infinite knowledge, because: |
| 651 | *** She would now know everything about who/what Gojo actually is and can do, making it impossible for her to perceive him as lesser than her, negating her mind control abilities. |
| 652 | *** Such infinite knowledge would likely include the true nature of Pochita/Chainsaw Devil's relationship with Denji, and thus how he would not appreciate what she was trying to do to his friend. |
| 653 | *** It would also give her proper insight into the Chainsaw Devil's actual motivations and personality, exposing how wrong she was about him and why her attempt to gain his love was meaningless. |
| 654 | *** On a minor note, such knowledge would also show how empty and hollow her "perfect world" would truly be. |
| 655 | *** In summation, Gojo's final blow with Hollow Purple was less a final blow, and more akin [[MercyKill to putting a wounded animal out of its misery.]] |
| 656 | * ''Scooby-Doo v Courage'': |
| 657 | ** It's pretty clear that this is viewed as Season 10's Halloween themed episode, yet it will be released after Halloween, meaning it technically misses the deadline to be such. However, it is after Halloween that ''masks come off'', and Scooby is part of a team which specializes in revealing that monsters are simply humans in disguise. Whilst Courage deals more often with real monsters, in a more metaphorical manner it can be seen as symbolic of him besting/outlasting these threats. |
| 658 | *** Now that the episode is out, [[HilariousInHindsight turns out this fits even better than expected!]] The fight ends with their shared antagonist getting unmasked and suffering a FateWorseThanDeath, with both dogs winning in the end. |
| 659 | *** [[RuleOfThree Yet another reason]] why this episode came after Halloween: both contestants are massive cowards, so of course their episode would air after the spookiest time of the year. |
| 660 | *** Not to mention, this episode comes right after Gojo vs Makima, which arguably seems like a more traditional Halloween episode, being between two prominent figures of the most recent and Horror themed Shonen at the time, and ''also'' has the (Ironically dog-loving) antagonist die at the end. |
| 661 | ** Scooby and Courage are canonically friends, so it's likely they've swapped stories about their adventures. Thus, Scoob isn't worried about using his big moves against Courage because he knows the other dog will be fine. The entire fight is just a bigger version of their thumb wrestling to determine who deals with the monster. |
| 662 | ** Courage never bothers to hypnotize Scooby with the God Bone, instead slamming it into him and the Mystery Machine. Of course, it makes sense it wouldn't work on him- ''dogs'' find it irresistably, but Scooby is at least partially a Space Alien, meaning it effects would be greatly diminished if it even worked on him at all. |
| 663 | ** Scooby turning into a Giant God with an VideoGame/AsurasWrath style attack to boot makes sense, he never shown to be able to do this before, but he ate the God Bone. He was turned into a God because he ate a literal meal fit for the gods. |
| 664 | *** Speaking of God Bone, why doesn't Courage make Scooby eat it as it is? It's either because Scooby loves Scooby Snacks to resist the temptations of said God Bone, or Courage doesn't ''want'' to see Scooby die by licking the bone to death. |
| 665 | ** Even if the Chest of Demons only targeted ghosts, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think it could still imprison Eustace, given he's [[TheyKilledKennyAgain died multiple times and come back]] in his show. |
| 666 | ** Both combatants' best chances at a win condition (The Chest of Demons and Dark Matter Meteor) ultimately ended up doing Eustace in. The Chest of Demons is used to imprison him, but he could have escaped if not for tripping over the Dark Matter Meteor that happened to be on the floor. |
| 667 | ** While Courage does use the Dark Matter Meteor to attack Scooby, Scooby does not use the Chest of Demons against Courage, only using it to trap Eustace at the end. This is because the whole fight was them trying to get the other to deal with the monster for them. If Scooby trapped Courage inside the Chest, he obviously wouldn't be able to deal with the monster for Scooby, making it pointless for him to use it. |
| 668 | ** The post-fight analysis has Wiz and Boomstick point out that, in their crossover, Computer was shown to not have any information on how to defeat Scooby. That would explain why, in the fight animation, Courage asks "How to defeat a Great Dane with a speech impediment" - he gives a less specific (but still applicable) question since he knows asking "How to defeat Scooby Doo" turns up nothing. |
| 669 | *** This also explains why it failed. Sure, smashing the God Bone onto a normal Great Dane probably ''would'' defeat them. But Scooby is more than that. |
| 670 | ** The fight animation goes insane with the combatants and uses things brought up in the analysis that you wouldn't expect them to use in an actual fight - Courage pulling himself in half, Scooby having the Chest of Demons, and the out-of-nowhere VideoGame/AsurasWrath reference. Since the fight is determined to be a draw, they wanted to make sure the viewers knew they took ''every single possibility'' into consideration, from weaponizing one-off jokes to reaching the logical conclusion of every aspect, and determined it all just perfectly balanced each other out. |
| 671 | * ''Rick Sanchez VS The Doctor'': |
| 672 | ** Having the Doctor be modeled after Creator/DavidTennant could just be due to the Tenth Doctor being usually considered the most popular incarnation. Or it could be because, when the battle came out, the current incarnation was the Fourteenth Doctor, who was once again played by Tennant and deliberately meant to be a temporary return of Ten. |
| 673 | *** There's a coincidence that this episode was released on the ''10th season'' of this show as well. |
| 674 | ** It's a bit of a coincidence that this episode was also released on the year of the 60th anniversary of ''Doctor Who'' (Monday 20/11/2023) and even releasing ''on the same week'' the first of the 60th anniversary specials premiered (Saturday 25/11/2023). In a sense, you could interpret this episode and its results as a celebration of the ''Doctor Who'' franchise. |
| 675 | ** How did Rick manage to get a Rick Army to infiltrate the TARDIS? The last we saw of him, he was being attacked by a Weeping Angel, whose touch causes their victims to be sent back in time. This likely just gave Rick all the time he needed to get back to the present with an army of himself to infiltrate the TARDIS, whose door was open. |
| 676 | ** In the post-fight analysis, it's noted onscreen that even though Rick mentions ''Series/DoctorWho'' in his series, there's no actual proof he's seen the show or knows enough about the Doctor to have prior planning. This may seem like a copout, but bear in mind the line he says that references it: "I'm Doctor Who in this motherfucker." If he ''did'' watch the show, he'd know that Doctor Who isn't the character's name and wouldn't refer to himself as such, and he'd also have known what to do when the two were surrounded by Weeping Angels, instead of blindly following The Doctor's [[SchmuckBait intentionally wrong advice]]. |
| 677 | ** With all the punishment the Doctor's faced, two laser shots seems like a pretty small amount to trigger his regeneration. However, based on where the wounds are, it's likely that each laser hit one of his two hearts, damaging or destroying them, which ''would'' lead to it. |
| 678 | ** Befitting the Doctor's pacifist nature, he never directly attacks Rick. He uses a spoon to defend himself from Rick's sword and disarms him, uses his sonic screwdriver to shut down Rick's devices (with an unintended explosion from one), tries to trick him into getting caught by Weeping Angels, indirectly causes the TARDIS to start falling apart on Rick, and tricks Rick into killing himself via the portals. Even when he's going for the D-Mat gun, he's noticeably very hesitant and ultimately isn't the one who fires it. |
| 679 | ** Why does Rick listen to the Doctor when he tells him to "blink rapidly" in the room full of Weeping Angels? Rick doesn't know what they are; he thinks they just fell into a room full of statues and the Doctor's talking out his ass. |
| 680 | ** Rick emerges from a portal on the Doctor's back, appearing to come out of him, and literally bursts out of his chest shortly after. Dan Harmon has said ''Doctor Who'' was one of the inspirations behind ''Rick and Morty'', so this could be taken as a suitably grisly representation of how Rick is partly descended from the Doctor. |
| 681 | ** Rick is erased by the De-Mat Gun and yet despite him having been erased; Morty still exists despite being his grandson. However Morty is the grandson of Rick-Prime and not Rick C-137 in particular so while our Rick has been erased; not his alternate universe counterparts. |
| 682 | *** This would also explain why the Space Cruiser and the Rick AI are still around, as technically speaking C-137 Rick didn't build them (or at least not those specific versions), he just co-opted them from one of his dead counterparts after hopping between universes. |
| 683 | ** A bit of Heartwarming-Fridge for The Doctor, when he tells Morty "Don't be a Cynic", he's looking at the audience when he says it. One can interpret him telling the audience as well to not be like Rick, don't let the negatives outweigh the positive and allow it to cloud your judgement, and the first thing he does in the end is give Morty some much needed positive encouragement. |
| 684 | ** At the climax of the fight, a part of the TARDIS breaks off and cuts off Rick's escape through a portal. Seems like a lucky coincidence, but the TARDIS is noted to be conscious and can act autonomously, meaning she likely did this ''intentionally'' so the Doctor could trick Rick into finishing himself off. |
| 685 | ** The fight starts over the Doctor figuratively turning the other cheek and ends when the Doctor literally turns the other cheek. |
| 686 | ** In a way, Rick can be seen as having a lot more in common with the Master, who's seen as a more ruthless and antagonistic counterpart to the Doctor. In a sense, the Doctor was applying his experience dealing with the Master against Rick, making his defiant stand against him a lot more poignant. |
| 687 | ** When Rick and the Doctor fall into the room of Weeping Angels, the Doctor's eyes are noticeably red as he tries not to blink, even though it had only been a couple of seconds at most. It's likely the dust from the crash landing got into his eyes, making it harder to keep his eyes open. |
| 688 | * ''Goku vs. Superman'': |
| 689 | ** The ending, with both Superman and Goku staring into infinite possibilities of their fights from different versions. Superman is oddly content watching it all, knowing that his universe is destroyed. However, he's likely relaxed because A) Goku just showed him how fun fighting truly is, especially with someone he can consider an equal to, to an extent, and B) the thought of using the Dragon Balls, likely the Super ones, puts his mind at ease knowing that everything they've destroyed will be fixed. |
| 690 | ** In ''Dragon Ball'', Goku has had a habit of befriending characters whom he had once considered rivals and enemies (Vegeta, Piccolo, Yamcha, Buu and Beerus among others). Ever fitting his good-natured attitude, his relationship with Superman here is much more cordial given how their contest is treated as a friendly spar with both men enjoying the contest until the very end. |
| 691 | ** The final clash sees the silver-colored Ultra Instinct Goku attempt to take down the gold-colored sun-dipped Superman; no wonder then that Superman wins the exchange - after all: gold medals are placed higher than silver. |
| 692 | ** Each alternate clash presented similar versions of Goku and Superman: |
| 693 | *** GT Goku vs Superman Blue: Both are versions from the 90's that are often FanonDiscontinuity. |
| 694 | *** Goku Black vs Ultraman: Both are evil versions from alternate universes. |
| 695 | *** Xeno Goku vs. Thought Robot: Both come from canons where entire timelines or multiverses are threatened. |
| 696 | * ''Galactus vs. Unicron'': |
| 697 | ** The season started with two of the smallest combatants in Death Battle's history. Its thus only fitting that the season ends with two of the largest combatants in the show's history. |
| 698 | ** The Silver Surfer's appearance in the middle of the season ended up heralding the arrival of Galactus at the end of the season. To add to this, Megatron also made an appearance, being one of Unicron's devoted servants in various continuities (usually as Galvatron). |
| 699 | ** Galactus basically absorbs Unicron's very essence into his because he feels that Unicron has no idea what his power's true potential is. He has a point, as Galactus can exist as a necessary evil, all the while Unicron has no reason to exist other than evil existing. Galactus sees Unicron's reasonless destruction as a waste and he can be productive with it. |
| 700 | ** The above entry shows why Galactus is technically the Hero of the fight. Sure he begins with the destruction of Earth, but it's out of necessity, not of malice. Unicron is simply doing it because he can, what starts the fight is because Unicron shows his callousness of simply destroying the Earth by throwing it at Galactus, which angers him to attack, because such disregard of life and resources will of course anger him. |
| 701 | ** When Unicron's Spark gets ahold of the Ultimate Nullifier, Galactus warns him "YOU KNOW NOT THE POWER WHICH YOU COMMAND". This is also foreshadowing -- Unicron doesn't know that Galactus is capable of evading its effect. |
| 702 | ** The first ''Transformers'' Death Battle ever, ''Starscream vs. Rainbow Dash'', and this, the first ''Transformers'' episode to be a season finale, both end with the winner neutralizing the loser by consuming his Spark. The difference is, Rainbow Dash eating Starscream's is ultimately inconsequential for him and just a way to convey he's outclassed, but Galactus devouring Unicron was one of the only things that ''would'' put a stop to him indefinitely after he tried hijacking the Ultimate Nullifier. |
| 703 | ** Wiz and Boomstick spend a long time expounding how Unicron is the embodiment of evil and empowered by everything that is evil. In a subtle way, this foreshadows Galactus' victory because he's claimed from his first appearance to be [[AboveGoodAndEvil above good and evil.]] |
| 704 | [[/folder]] |
| 705 | |
| 706 | !Fridge Horror |
| 707 | * Battle Consequences [[FridgeHorrorBattleConsequences/DeathBattle now have their own page]]. |
| 708 | |
| 709 | [[folder:Other]] |
| 710 | * The implications of Orchid's "Heart Attack" No Mercy as described by Wiz and Boomstick are TERRIFYING. All evidence points to it causing instant death to any male of any given species (at least, dinosaurs and whatever type of alien that Glacius is) who gazes upon her breasts. Think about this: even an accidental flash, or even accidentally showing them to any... intimate partner would kill them outright. And Ivy's are even BIGGER. How many unintentional deaths have those things caused over the years? Worse, in the wrong hands, they could be hypothetically weaponized to induce {{Gendercide}} on a possibly universal scale, indiscriminate of species. |
| 711 | ** Then again, death by boobs is [[BlackComedy really hard to take seriously.]] Such a huge loss of life would normally be tragic, but not if the victims' eyes are bulging out like [[WesternAnimation/RedHotRidingHood the Big Bad Wolf's]]. There's also no telling what would happen if Orchid tried this on a homosexual male. |
| 712 | * During Solid Snake VS Sam Fisher, Sam used an EMP to eliminate Snake's ability to use his stealth suit's Octocamo. A smart move in of itself, however, keep in mind that the entire reason these two are fighting each other happens to be a USB stick filled with sensitive data - a USB stick that happened to be in Snake's possession during Sam's EMP attack. Considering it happened to fry Snake's Octocamo, it's highly unlikely that the data survived the attack. Two highly capable government agents fought to the death over what essentially became a useless piece of plastic and fried silicon, a fight resulting in Sam and Grim losing their lives. |
| 713 | ** An EMP (at least in fiction) generally only damages electronics that are currently powered on and active. The USB stick was disconnected from any power source, so there is a chance that it's intact. |
| 714 | ** It's difficult to say what the exact effect a weaponized EMP would have in real life, but it's generally believed that the effects would be systemic (phone network knocked out) instead of individual (phones still work). It is also known that turning off a device or disconnecting it provides protection (this is the method via which power grids are protected from Coronal Mass Ejections in real life, which have a similar effect). It is thus very likely the USB actually did survive. |
| 715 | *** They're spies. They probably have a special flash drive that is resistant to EMP waves. |
| 716 | * Dan's death may have been hilarious at first glance...But just imagine how PAINFUL it would be to have a jukebox around the same height as you slowly open in your body and cause you to EXPLODE. |
| 717 | * Yang VS Tifa |
| 718 | ** It should be noted that Yang is only a Huntress IN TRAINING. That is, she is nowhere near the level of her mentors. On Remnant, Yang is relatively WEAK. Tifa is one of the STRONGEST fighters in her world and couldn't beat her. Given that Cinder and her followers have [[BigGood Ozpin and co]] worried, how could Avalanche hope to stand up against them? |
| 719 | * In Pokémon vs Digimon, Red and Charizard are completely vaporized by [=WarGreymon's=] Terra Force, meaning not only are the two of them dead, but the 5 ''other'' Pokémon Red likely had on him (since Trainers carry up to 6) were also killed in the blast, trapped inside their [=PokéBalls=]. |
| 720 | * In the Wily VS Eggman fight, Bass is actually ''not'' Wily's greatest creation. That would be [[VideoGame/MegaManX Zero]], who was absent from the battle presumably because Wily never actually used Zero at any point during his lifetime. Let's suppose, though, that Zero was unleashed at the end of the fight after Metal Sonic supposedly won. What would happen? Well, first of all, Metal Sonic would instantly lose any of the powers he gained from Roboenza (since the Maverick virus is an improved form of it, and there's no way the Maverick virus would benefit Metal Sonic over Zero, its intended host). If Metal Sonic was completely subverted by the virus, the fight would end right there, but even if it didn't, he'd still have to deal with still-Maverick Zero, who is basically [[VideoGame/MegaManZero Omega]] without the Mother Elf. Metal Sonic powered himself up with a Chaos Emerald, while Zero's powers come from... Zero himself. All Zero would have to do is somehow separate the Chaos Emerald from Metal Sonic, as seen with Mecha Sonic in ''Sonic & Knuckles'', and he falls apart from there. And [[FromBadToWorse there's nothing to say that Zero can't use the Chaos Emeralds, himself]] -- his blueprints are near identical to X, who in turn was based on the original Mega Man. And Mega Man has, [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsCollide semi-canonically]], used Chaos energy before. As bad as Metal Overlord might be for the world, Super Maverick Zero would be even worse -- most certainly after Zero put Metal Sonic on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle. |
| 721 | ** To be honest, Super Maverick Omega Zero would be the least of the Mega Man universe's concerns. Why? The Ultron vs Sigma matchup occurred with Ultron decimating Sigma like it's nothing via rewriting the Sigma Virus to an extension of his will. Since the Maverick Virus and the Sigma Virus are essentially one and the same, assuming that both Metal Sonic vs Zero and Ultron vs Sigma happened relatively close to each other in time (both have Central Highway in the battles), it would mean Ultron can simply remove Zero's power rather easily. Now, who rather have just Metal Sonic won after this nasty outcome? |
| 722 | * At the beginning of Pokemon VS Digimon, Red's initial attempt to catch Agumon could be simply just an honest mistake, not only by believing that Agumon's a Pokemon, but that he's wild. However, once Agumon digivolves into Greymon, Red attempts to capture him a second time. While this is played for laughs, remember that in the Pokemon games, throwing a poke all at another person's Pokemon is forbidden, as it's basically stealing. By the time Agumon digivolved into Greymon, Red should have easily figured out that Tai was his partner, and yet he attempts to steal Greymon away from him anyway. Red is a dirty thief! It makes him a whole lot less sympathetic when he gets incinerated by Wargreymon. |
| 723 | ** Another thing, what would have happened with Tai if the ball had worked and his best friend was essentially kidnapped by a random kid who would not only probably box him, but has the law of the Pokemon world on his side? |
| 724 | * Superman can hear extremely well, to the point where he can hear in the vacuum of space. This means that he probably heard EVERYONE on Earth screaming in agony and horror as the planet blows up from his and Goku's first fight. Suddenly makes Superman killing Goku a lot more catharsis and more meaningful, he's avenged all those fallen people. |
| 725 | * Goku being resurrected along with the Earth in Goku vs Superman 2 is great and all...but that also means that all of the other Death Battle losers (including villains like Lex Luthor and M. Bison) are alive as well, and will try to find and get revenge on the ones who killed them. |
| 726 | * Hulk VS Doomsday. Hulk had to already be en route to Doomsday's impact location. This means the Avengers knew Doomsday's threat level and had determined dispatching Hulk--even to a population center with potential for a massive loss of life and collateral damage--was [[GodzillaThreshold the best course of action]]. |
| 727 | ** Worse still, with Hulk dead, the Avengers have only a handful of other options with which to deal with Doomsday, one being the ''Ultimate Nullifier''. It's the one thing that might actually stick, but if it doesn't... well, Doomsday might actually gain CompleteImmortality from his subsequent adaptation. |
| 728 | * The corpse of the loser of ''Black Panther VS Batman'' was ultimately disposed of by being SwallowedWhole, suit and all, by a Killer Whale living in the aquarium tank that the fight's climax took place above. Unfortunately, this likely means that the whale in question is not long for this world-- if not because of a newfound taste for human flesh or the zookeepers finding human bones in the whale's bodily waste resulting in the whale being euthanized, then because Batman's utility belt was also eaten in the process, which contains no shortage of razor-sharp, poisonous, or simply indigestible gadgets that will almost certainly kill the whale in a slow, gruesome fashion. Even if the outcome had been reversed and the winner had ended up in the belly of the beast, it wouldn't have mattered, because Black Panther's Vibranium suit, especially with those Antarctic Vibranium claws, would have had the exact same effect on the whale's digestive tract. |
| 729 | * Lucy may have been victorious and put down a murderous threat such as Carnage, but that final ability where her vectors cause an explosion with the force of an atom bomb? It took place in an urban setting, at a train stop with enough of a body count from the train alone. [[InferredHolocaust Think about that for a minute]]. Even if any passengers in the train survived Carnage's rampage, they would all have become charred corpses at the end. |
| 730 | * Amuro's final shot with the Beam Rifle ''destroyed'' the Autobot Ark in seconds. Not everyone in there is as durable as Optimus Prime, and there would certainly be huge casualties from it. It could explain the rather panicked BigNo Optimus gives out when the Beam Rifle destroys it, as Prime could have very well witnessed everyone on board go up in flames, likely painting his subsequent NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on Amuro when they land as a RoaringRampageOfRevenge. |
| 731 | * Mario and Sonic blew up the Moon in their fight. While it's not as bad as the ''Thor VS Wonder Woman'' example thanks to the Moon not being completely obliterated (and that, at least in Sonic's home canon, the Moon has been blasted in half at least once with surprisingly minimal consequences), they've likely caused all sorts of damage to the planet, especially if some of the larger pieces of debris fall into the atmosphere (which, seeing as the pieces of the Moon were drifting apart when we last saw them, seems likely). [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Again, nice job breaking it, Mario and Sonic.]] |
| 732 | * Let's all hope that no one was ''in'' Kame House after Jiraiya summoned Gamabunta. If not, Oolong, Turtle, or Kami forgive, ''Marron'' might have been crushed underneath the massive toad, meaning that Jiraiya and Gamabunta killed innocent bystanders over something as petty as a difference in literature tastes (and that would definitely drive the overprotective MamaBear herself Android 18 (who would be in no mood to deal with shit after killing Captain Marvel) to murder Roshi in a fit of rage). |
| 733 | * The aftermath of the Mega Man Battle Royale pretty much destroyed Abel City, causing a massive body count. Even Megaman.exe's expression at the end is a face of horrible realization. Let's hope that Megaman.EXE still has enough power to remake things back to normal. |
| 734 | * Widowmaker getting decapitated is one of the least objectionable kills on the surface: she's a cruel and sadistic villain, she assassinated an innocent civilian in the very fight itself, and her death came after a long, thrilling action sequence. And then you remember that she used to be an innocent civilian herself and was forcibly brainwashed by Talon into becoming one of their deadliest killing machines. Kind of adds a macabre tint to what would normally be an unambiguously triumphant victory. |
| 735 | ** Not to mention they bring up evidence that she might be attempting to break through the brainwashing. |
| 736 | * Sure, Dedede beat Wario, but at the expense of his castle AND the planet it was sitting on. It's hard to be a king with no kingdom except the vacuum of space, to say nothing about Dedede's life expectancy now that he has no planet to live on. |
| 737 | * Possibly averted with Ed vs Aang as, even though Edward is dead and nobody else has the knowledge or skill to give his brother Alphonse his human body back, leaving him stuck in his suit of armor until his blood seal is broken, its not all bad. On the bright side, Edward didn't seem to play much of a part in killing any of the homonculi except for Pride, who could be beaten by other means, and played only a small, not entirely needed, roles in defeating Father. It's entirely possible that his world can still be saved and the villain defeated entirely without him. |
| 738 | * Ghost Rider's second attack after Zarathos takes over ''blasts a massive crater'' in West China. While this did turn Lobo's body to ash, it also most definitely killed a massive amount of innocents too. |
| 739 | * Gray vs Esdeath sees the latter use [[WalkingWasteland Ice Commander-in-Chief]], which blankets all of Fiore in a deadly blizzard. This means that even if Esdeath's conquest is stopped somehow, countless people will die regardless. |
| 740 | * A single ''wild'' Machamp was capable of turning the powerful Shokan warrior Goro into LudicrousGibs with a particularly powerful punch. Boomstick even takes it one step further by realizing that since the Machamp species, who learn Seismic Toss (a move that is often depicted throwing the target into low-orbit) naturally even as young as their Machop form, train against each other to get stronger, '''this type of violence is likely commonplace in the Pokemon world'''. Imagine if humans in the Pokemon world (or even other, weaker Pokemon) ''didn't'' have the luxury of AmusingInjuries or NonLethalKO when being attacked by wild, or worse, another trainer's Pokemon... |
| 741 | * Yes, Jon Talbain managed to kill Sabrewulf, but he was still GuttedLikeAFish beforehand, and his entrails are still hanging out after he howls to the blood moon. If he doesn't get medical help soon, the Darkstalker prince could die from his wound. |
| 742 | * Sanji managed to successfully kill Rock Lee, but now he's missing a left leg and spilling blood onto the cobbles. If he can't get medical help soon (such as from Tony Tony Chopper), he has a high chance of bleeding out. |
| 743 | * Doctor Doom successfully killed Lex Luthor, but he destroyed [=LexCorp=] in the process, along with the company's resources which he was planning on taking for the betterment of Latveria. |
| 744 | * Po's won his battle with Iron Fist, but once the euphoria wears off, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone how's he going to react when he realizes he killed someone as pure-hearted and heroic as himself]]? |
| 745 | * During Steven Vs Star's battle, we could see Steven's in his Future appearance for it when Star tries to cheer him up with a Cupcake Blast, which he defends himself from and instigates him to fight back. It's very likely possible that Star was triggering Steven's PTSD when she tried to forcefully cheer him up, especially when we see him enter his Pink State after seeing her Mewberty form and her unicorn army charging him. |
| 746 | * When Tony first arrives at the Watchtower to demand Bruce take it offline, while they first try to talk each other down, Bruce had set up an explosive trap, and Tony had sent in a remotely piloted suit and already started hacking Batman's tech. It's pretty likely that these two were already antagonistic to each other to some extent; if not personally, then at least in the sense of the Avengers and the Justice League being at odds. It's highly likely they both knew full well the fight was going to end with someone dying. |
| 747 | ** Tony remarks that Captain America and Black Widow had been "on [his] ass" about dealing with Bruce. Considering what happened and the above point, either those two ''supported'' the idea of killing Batman if it came down to it, or they're going to have some words with Tony over how he handled it. |
| 748 | * Later on in Season 8, specifically in ''Goku Black Vs Reverse-Flash'', it's revealed that Eobard himself was responsible for Quicksilver's death back in Season 3, specifically moving the statue that he was impaled on into place, framing Barry as a villain. With a good serving of ParanoiaFuel, just how many times has Eobard caused the death of a combatant in various other Death Battles? Though this does get a bit negated, since he only really targets Barry (Wally's case was him directly killing Sonic, so Zoom likely didn't interfere). |
| 749 | * The dead woman that Dio had been draining before Alucard caused his car to crash looks strikingly similar to Mai Shiranui, save for the purple clothes instead of red. Sure, this may not be her, but there is always a possibility that, after killing Chun-Li, [[ShaggyDogStory Mai herself eventually fell prey to a powerful vampire she would have no chance at defeating]]. |
| 750 | * Between the exploding steamroller, the horde of zombies, and just in general all the damage done to the city, DIO vs Alucard likely had a pretty high body count. |
| 751 | * If Korra vs Storm is to go by, all the losers of previous death battles are in the Spirit world and they aren't just fog illusions, it means that all these battles are connected to one another, even if they had no prior connections at all, such as Street Fighter vs DC (Ken Masters vs Batman). Why is this a Fridge Horror? It means all these episodes are connected much more than just the characters' franchises. For all we know, we could have PhysicalGods like Shao Kahn and Darkseid deciding to attack the Manga/YuYuHakusho universe. |
| 752 | * You know how both Wanda and Zatanna threw those orbs in the later half of the fight? Those are universes. Trillions of people died in the brawl between the magic users. |
| 753 | * The preview for Jonathan VS Tanjiro shows that Nezuko is present for the fight. If Jonathan wins, we may be in for one hell of a TearJerker. [[spoiler: And it was. Holy shit.]] |
| 754 | * Despite being a demon that subsists off of human flesh, Nezuko had her instincts kept in check by a hypnotic suggestion that makes her see every human as part of her family. This means she most likely saw Tanjiro and Jonathan's fight to the death as one of her flesh and blood killing the other, a possibility made even worse by the massacre that started the Kamados' journey in the first place. |
| 755 | * Considering Homelander's track record in his [[ComicBook/TheBoys origin]] [[Series/TheBoys2019 series]], it's very likely that he [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil did some very bad things to Debbie]] before killing her. |
| 756 | ** In addition, due to the composition of the initial scene, Nolan's gaze wandering off to one side isn't just an awkward AsideGlance; He likely registered the burnt corpse in the room and is now quietly wondering who it is, hoping it's ''not'' Debbie. |
| 757 | * More like Fridge Tragedy in this case: Magneto VS Tetsuo's tragic finale becomes moreso if you interpret the fight as taking place after Flash VS Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch VS Zatanna, in which both of Magneto's children died. Not only does Magneto survive where his son and daughter couldn't, but he pities his own opponent, a mutant boy who had the misfortune to have more power than his body could contain, too much to celebrate. It really feels like this show can't give Max a break. |
| 758 | * Excalibur VS Raiden sees two ChildSoldiers - with all the trauma that entails and then some - fight to the death solely for our amusement. Yeah. That and to promote a corporate sponsorship, something that would make Raiden puke his guts out if he had any left. |
| 759 | * Any survivors of the invasion of Khandaq might end up wishing they were dead, because if Apocalypse doesn't think of them as being too worthless to toy with, he might just show them the mutilated body of their savior and have a laugh over them hurtling over the DespairEventHorizon in a mirror of what he did to Adam himself. |
| 760 | * During the analysis portion of Sauron VS Lich King, Boomstick, in a fit of [[ArtifactOfAttraction temptation]], ''eats'' the One Ring. Given that it will never be destroyed except by the inside of Mount Doom, he and Wiz had better hope it passes safely and ''fast'' before the Nazgûl come by to ''cut it out''. |
| 761 | * Superman blowing up the Earth in the first ''Goku VS Superman'' becomes even more bitterly ironic when you consider that his comic book incarnation compromised his own morals and executed three villains for killing everyone on an alternate Earth, having to deal with immense guilt in the aftermath. What's worse, he specifically killed them with Kryptonite: ''Death Battle'''s version probably wondered if Goku should have just finished him off after that crash into Lexcorp Tower. |
| 762 | * When Fox shot down Bucky's ship, none of the latter's allies came to help him despite explicitly being on board (Bucky calls "Attention all hands, battle stations" and we hear their voices cheer "Let's croak toads!"). They almost definitely died in the crash. Or, only slightly better, they were knocked out and are going to find Bucky's corpse when they awaken, with the latter being more likely due to Blinky mourning his captain's demise. |
| 763 | * Despite the battle going with a more traditionally antagonistic take on Megatron, the eye beams he fires after Frieza's Golden Death Ball dooms Cybertron and the antimatter flowing out of his eyes after Frieza counters with his own eye beams can be taken as metaphorical tears shed for the loss of his homeworld, which would make his eventual loss to Frieza all the sadder. Then again, he did manage to severely damage Frieza with the antimatter: scarring a tyrant with your metaphorical BerserkerTears is a hell of a note to go out on. |
| 764 | * During "Scooby Doo vs Courage", there's a shot of Scooby making a run for the Mystery Machine, which is then crushed by the God Bone thanks to Courage. While Scooby has been shown to be able to drive before, considering that Scooby calls out for Shaggy in the beginning of the episode, did Courage accidentally crush the rest of Mystery Inc. by mistake? |
| 765 | ** [[FridgeLogic Why would they all just be sitting around in the Mystery Machine if it was clearly parked?]] Their crossover showed that if Scooby ran off, the gang would have no reservations to follow after him- it's much more reasonable to assume that they were either in another part of the mansion to solve the mystery or in the Bagges household, [[MeaningfulBackgroundEvent which can be seen in the background of the last shots of the battle.]] |
| 766 | * When Rick and The Doctor encounter the Weeping Angels, as The Doctor jumps through the portal, the ones behind Rick still don't move, despite Rick having his back turned to them. Why aren't they attacking? Because the shot is still on them, and ''we're'' still watching them. The only time they've moved is when we're taking into Rick's POV and blink with him. |
| 767 | %%* A case for the Death Race SpinOff which started on the very first episode; When the Burton, Arkham and West-Mobiles all were temporarily stopped by what Wiz stated was a traffic jam as an obstacle, when he noticed the cars all had civilians in them Boomstick stated they would be a better obstacle due to the ThouShaltNotKill rule all the Batmen share [[TemptingFate preventing them from simply blowing them up]]. After the Batmen do just that, Wiz berates Boomstick for aquiring them, implying unlike the battles in the main show and DBX, these races are actually happening, meaning that consequences similar to each of the main show's own battles are a lot more likely to happen. |
| 768 | %%** And considering that in the very next episode, there's live replay of the death of both Harry Potter and Ron Wesley, that might be more true... oh no... here's the list of consequence from the series: |
| 769 | %%*** Episode 1: The remaining Batman must be feeling horrified over breaking his ThouShallNotKill. |
| 770 | %%** Except not really. Michael Keaton Batman never really followed the ThouShaltNotKill rule in his two films(he directly caused the Joker's death by strapping him to that gargoyle, remember?), and in his defense, Adam West Batman and Burt Ward Robin were trying to kill him, and judging by Robin's EvilLaugh when he launched a nuke at the Arkham Knightmobile, those two were [[AdaptationalVillainy significantly more deranged and murderous than their canon counterparts,]] so I don't see how Keaton Batman is going to shed much tears over killing those two. |
| 771 | %%*** Episode 2: With Harry Potter and Ron Wesley dead [[HarmfulToMinors in their early years]], who could stop Voldemort from taking over the UK? Also, Optimus Prime has [[DrivenToSuicide committed suicide]] because he won brutality and with luck. Remember the conflict between the Gundams and the Autobots from Season 5? Yeah. Now the Autobots have no leader. |
| 772 | %%*** Episode 3: KITT has now taken over Wiz's body. Does this mean that Wiz is going through a AndIMustScream moment? Who knows what else would KITT do? Unless this was PlayedForLaughs and [[StatusQuoIsGod he goes back to normal next episode]]? |
| 773 | %%** Nevermind. It was indeed PlayedForLaughs in Episode 4 because Wiz is back. Probably KITT just needed Wiz as a temporary body until he got a new one. |
| 774 | %%*** Episode 4: Although that clears up the conflict that Mario and Sonic had from both Season 2 and Season 5, now they are both dead (again). At least Mario's brutal murder over Sonic would be avenged but would that do anything to the lost morale when Sonic's allies found out he's dead? |
| 775 | [[/folder]] |
| 776 | %% No Fridge Logic, folks; we'd normally reroute to Headscratchers, but the Edit Warring on that page had it permanently cut and locked. We apologize for the inconvenience. |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Fridge / DeathBattle
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
