Characters / DEATH BATTLE! (Death Race)

Death Battle:

Season 1
Season 2: Episodes 26-39 | Episodes 40-48 | Episodes 49-57
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6
Season 7: Episodes 120-129 | Episodes 130-139
Season 8: Episodes 140-147 | Episodes 148-155
Season 9: Episodes 156-163 | Episodes 164-171
Season 10: Episodes 172-179 | Episodes 180-187
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Death Race Characters
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Batmobile Battle

General

• Adaptational Villainy: Unlike the typical portrayals of Batman, who are known for their Thou Shalt Not Kill philosophy, all of the Batmen plus the Robin have no qualms of trying to kill one other, and all of them save for the Tumbler let loose their missiles on innocent Gothamites. Robin in particular delivers an Evil Laugh when he launches an ICBM on the Arkham-Mobile.
• More Dakka: All of them, minus the Adam West one, come equipped with machine guns.
• Thememobile: They are practically the trope namers.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Humorously averted. When they reach a traffic jam filled with innocent bystanders, they proceed to blow it up just as Boomstick is assuring Wizard that Batmen are bound by this rule.
• Weaponized Car: All of them come equipped with a wide variety of gadgets and weapons.

Burton-Mobile

• Freud Was Right: Ringmaster, Wiz, and Boomstick make mention of the Burton-Mobile being phallic-shaped, with Boomstick even outright remarking that "It looks like a dong!".
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Loses the race due to taking out the Adam West-Mobile with a bomb, launching the wreckage across the finish line to technically win despite itself being the only one to survive.
• Oil Slick: Uses one early on to try and take out the other Batmobiles.
• Second Place Is for Winners: Even though the Burton-Mobile comes second in the race, it's also the only one to actually survive; due to the actual winner (the Adam West-Mobile) being exploded by one of its bombs.
• Weaponized Exhaust: Takes out the Tumbler's Batpod with this; blasting its flamethrower exhaust (from Batman Returns) into it and forcing it to spectacularly crash.

The Tumbler

• Disposable Vehicle Section: When the Arkham-Mobile tricks it into driving off the track, the Batpod is ejected back onto the track in order to continue the race.
• Kill It with Fire: Goes out this way, with the Batpod being set on fire and forced to spectacularly crash by the Burton-Mobile's flamethrower exhaust pipe.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: The Batpod gets destroyed mere seconds after it shows up, before Batman has a chance to actually do anything.

Arkham-Mobile

• The Strategist: Seems to be this. Uses its turret to not only to try and shoot down some of the other Batmobiles, but also trick one of them into turning around to fire back, due to all their guns being mounted on the front rather than on a turret. The Tumbler takes the bait and crashes through the barriers and off the track when they reach a sharp turn.
• Technical Pacifist: Ringmaster points out that this armed vehicle's 60mm cannon and a vulcan minigun are the "perfect tools for a hero who definitely, DEFINITELY DOES NOT KILL!"

Adam West-Mobile

• Evil Laugh: Robin unleashes one, along with his inner psychopath, when he gets to retaliate against the competition.
• Leitmotif: An arrangement of the theme song from the 1966 television series plays once it escapes from the Burton-Mobile's Oil Slick.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: In the form of an exchange between Batman and Robin:
  Robin: Holy copycat, Batman! These dumb bastards have a death wish!
  Batman: Then you'd better answer their prayers, old chum!
• Pyrrhic Victory: Technically wins the race, but only because it was launched over the finish line first by the Burton-Mobile blowing it up with a bomb.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Takes out the Arkham-Mobile by firing a giant missile at it— an ICBM that Youtube commenters have dubbed "The Bat Nuke."

Optimus Prime VS Thomas the Tank Engine?

General

• Running Gag: The line "Man, I really need to stop drinking absinthe before shows." is iterated on three separate occasions, by different characters each time: First the Ringmaster, then Boomstick, and lastly Optimus.
• Sentient Vehicle: All of them.

Optimus Prime

• The Alcoholic: Somehow. He really needs to stop drinking absinthe before shows. This was a Brick Joke due to both Ringmaster and Boomstick stating the same thing about themselves.
• Cutting the Knot: He cuts down the Whomping Willow instead of trying to bypass it.
• Driven to Suicide: After winning the race, Optimus purposefully drives off the track and falls to his death due to him winning via sheer luck and brutality.
• Eagleland: Ringmaster thinks that Optimus is patriotically American, because he's got "red, white and blue, and (he carried out) the murder of an anime pretty boy cough*AMURO!*cough two seasons ago."
• Honor Before Reason: Even though he clearly won the race fair and square, Optimus knows it was only through sheer luck and brutality, which to him is the equivalent of cheating. Because this goes against his code of honor as an Autobot he drives himself off the track to commit suicide to atone, or as Wiz calls it, "Autobot seppuku". But Ringmaster says his win still counts anyway.
• Mistaken for Racist: Wiz notes that taken out of context, Optimus Prime's hatred of the Decepticons sounds "robo-racist." This is immediately followed by an awkward silence by both hosts when Optimus shouts out about those "dirty, filthy, stinking Deceptions!" while destroying the Whomping Willow.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Optimus won, yes, but read the Driven to Suicide entry above.

Flying Ford Anglia

• Cruel and Unusual Death: The Anglia (Along with Harry and Ron inside) is set ablaze by Thomas before they fly off the track and explode, similar to the Bat-Pod in the last episode.
• Flying Car: The same magic that makes it sentient also allows it to fly, which nullifies most of the track's obstacles.
• Harmful to Minors: The use of this car means Harry and Ron are in their Chamber Of Secrets incarnations, making them around 12 years old. They die horribly because of Thomas.
• Invisibility: Another one of its magical abilities, which it uses to escape the Whomping Willow.
• Kill It with Fire: Ron and Harry die at the flaming breath of Thomas the Tank Engine.
• Story-Breaker Power: Because it can fly, it manages to bypass nearly every obstacle on the course and avoid most of the other vehicles that are ground bound. Boomstick even lampshades how having a flying car kinda defeats the purpose of the race. Ironically, despite this massive advantage it is the first one destroyed, causing it to come in last place.
• Together in Death: After the Anglia's destruction, Wiz stated that Harry would be able to see his parents again due to dying.
• Token Human: Optimus is a Transforming Mecha, and Thomas and Lightning are sentient vehicles. Harry and Ron, as the passengers of the Ford Anglia, are the only human competitors in the Death Race.

Thomas the Tank Engine

• Ascended Meme: After falling off the track and seemingly being eliminated early on in the race, Thomas returns near the race's end with the ability to fly and breathe fire, alluding to a famously bizarre The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim mod that replaces all of the dragons with Thomas. To quote Boomstick:
  Boomstick: Okay, who turned on the Skyrim mods?!
• Cool Train: Being a London, Brighton and South Coast Railway E2 0-6-0T tank locomotive, Thomas is already quite good by the usual standards; but it goes well beyond that once he turns on the Skyrim mods to fly and breathe fire like a dragon.
• Dungeon Bypass: Thomas crashes and falls off the course early in the race due to being unable to turn without rails. He shows up again in the final stretch of the race, flying and breathing fire due to a The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim mod. This means he skipped nearly everything on the course.
• Facial Horror: While, thankfully, the animation doesn't show the actual damage; Thomas still was finished off by an Energon axe to the face courtesy of Optimus, causing him to fall onto Lightning and explode them both.
• Glass Cannon: Once the Skyrim mods are turned on he gains the ability to fly and breathe fire, but he still goes down with just one hit from Optimus Prime's Energon axe.
• Leitmotif: Fittingly, Thomas' appearances tend to be accompanied by various arrangements of the memetic intro theme from Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends.
• Lethal Joke Character: Despite him being a massively unexpected character from a relatively non-violent children's' TV and book series whose appearance is lampshaded in-universe as being humorous and unfitting, Thomas ties for second and ends up taking out half the field; burning the Flying Ford Anglia and its occupants to death with dragon breath, and then blowing up Lightning McQueen in a Mutual Kill despite taking a lethal injury from Optimus Prime only moments beforehand.
• Nightmare Face: Thomas doesn't naturally have this kind of face, but the Ringmaster highlights his face in a demonic light while discussing this.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Thanks to the magic of Skyrim modding, this particular one looks like a blue tank engine with a weirdly human face on the front.
• Sentient Vehicle: Thomas is a steam locomotive with a mind of his own.
• Taking You with Me: Ends up taking out Lightning this way. After being fatally wounded by Optimus Prime's Energon axe, Thomas aims at and falls down onto a passing Lightning, taking both of them out in a spectacular explosion.

Lightning McQueen

• Badass Normal: Compared to a magical flying car driven by two boy wizards, a giant robot in disguise as a truck, and a talking steam locomotive that somehow attained the abilities of a dragon, Lightning is just a racecar, but was able to stay ahead of Optimus Prime, avoid the Whomping Willow's branches, and go through the loop, all through sheer driving skill.
• Catchphrase: "Ka-chow!" Doubles as Pre-Mortem Catchphrase as it was the last thing he said before dying.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Lightning is presented as an annoying doofus who can only say one phrase, but he pulls off some magnificent stunts despite being heavily outgunned by the other competitors.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Optimus didn't finish Lightning off but rather Thomas ended up crashing on top of him, blowing the both of them up.
• Forgot About His Powers: In Death Race's defense, how many people know Lightning can shoot other cars, blow them up with explosives, and use a freakin' satellite laser on them in the Cars 2 video game?
• Sentient Vehicle: A racecar with a voice and a personality.

Battle Cars!

General

• Weaponized Car: The main theme of this episode.

Aston Martin DB5

• Ejection Seat: One of its main features. Ironically using it is what kills Bond.
• Helicopter Blender: Bond's attempt to use his ejection seat to escape backfires by sending him straight into the blades of a helicopter.
• Leitmotif: An arrangement of his own theme plays near the end of the race when he tries to escape with his ejection seat, which ends after got shredded by a helicopter.
• Spiked Wheels: Comes equipped with these, with Bond using them to attack the Warthog. Ironically, this is what leads to the Warthog's victory, due to Halo's buggy physics throwing the Warthog aside rather than just blowing the tires.

KITT

• Adaptational Villainy: KITT was always kind of cocky and assured of his own brilliance, but even considering this happens to almost everyone in DR, he's a far more sinister character here, being more akin to Hal 9000 driving a car. He even takes over Wiz's body through his cybernetically enhanced brain.
• Affably Evil: Pretty polite and calm while he's murdering competitors.
• Creepy Monotone: How he speaks, all the time. Wiz talks like this, too, after KITT hijacks his body.
• Grand Theft Me: Pulls one on Wizard by upload himself into his cyborg body in order to save himself from death.
• Sentient Vehicle: Courtesy of its built-in A.I, KITT.

Spy Hunter

• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Lives up to its moniker by immediately going after the Aston Martin once the race begins. Sure enough, it ends up taking out Bond's car at the end of the race.
• Taking You with Me: After Boomstick destroys the track, the Spy Hunter fires a missile at the Aston Martin while they are both falling.

Warthog

• Ascended Glitch: Its wonky in-game physics are listed as its biggest weakness. Ironically this is what allows it to win as it is propelled over every obstacle on the track and over the finish line, and unlike the Adam West-Mobile it is completely fine.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Well, not quite dialogue, but the intent is still there. After being sent flying towards the start of the race, the SPARTANs are shown to be completely unconcerned, with the driver reading "The Art of the T-Bag Vol. 2" while the vehicle tumbles.
• I Fell for Hours: Plenty of time for the gunners to read a book while they're flying.
• Unsportsmanlike Gloating: The gunner of the Warthog celebrates their victory by teabagging the ground.

Sonic vs. Mario vs. Star Wars vs. Initial D

General

• Awesome, but Impractical: Most of the racers and their cars are well-equipped for a Death Battle spin-off. Delivering pizza is a little more out of their league. The exception is the Toyota Sprinter, which is both nowhere near armed enough for a Death Battle and driven by someone who has experience with delivery.
• Interesting Situation Duel: Unlike the previous Death Races, these racers do have a condition to adhere to - the safe delivery of a pizza.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Fighting to the death from the driver's seat just to make sure a pizza reaches a customer. Ringmaster calls it "one of the holiest endeavours ever conceived by mankind".

Blue Falcon (Driven by Captain Falcon)

• Car Fu: Sonic plows into him in the Speed Star after he saves Mario, sending him flying off the track.
• Compensating for Something: Ringmaster says this of him over footage of Falcon tearing his shorts from behind.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: While outside his car, the Captain gets knocked off the track Super Smash Bros.-style and explodes, with the word "GAME!" onscreen.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: He ditches his iconic helmet right before Falcon-Punching the spiked pinball.
• Megaton Punch: Even in a Death Race, they couldn't resist having Falcon leap out of his vehicle and give a giant spiked ball a good old Falcon Punch. Unfortunately, much like in Super Smash Bros, Falcon leaves himself wide open for a killing blow by using it.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He saves Mario from a giant spiked pinball, and gets flipped off by him in return, and (accidentally) run-over by Sonic shortly afterwards.

Standard Kart (Driven by Mario)

• Adaptational Jerkass: The canonical Mario would never give Captain Falcon the finger or call Sonic a "bitch", but it makes this Mario even funnier to watch.
• Adaptational Villainy: Mario is a lot more cruel than in canon and in his battles in the main show as he has no qualms actually killing his foes, as evidenced by his use of a Bullet Bill and Bob-Omb against Sonic or him flipping Captain Falcon off after the latter saved Mario.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: When he turns into a Bullet Bill to catch up with Sonic.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: This is how Mario dies. Sonic and Mario throw their respective explosive power-ups at each other: Mario, a Bob-omb, and Sonic, a Blue Shell. Unfortunately, Mario missed with his Bob-omb, which was then shot right back at him by the Barrel Cannon both plumber and hedgehog had been shot out of. Mario can only let out a 'Mama mia...' before he's blown to smithereens. This, however, leads directly into the Hoist by His Own Petard that ends Sonic's life, as well.
• Morphic Resonance: Retains his hat and mustache as a Bullet Bill.
• Oh, Crap!: Mario's reaction to seeing his own Bob-omb fly right back at him is a simple 'Mama mia...', which also doubles as his last words.
• Precision F-Strike: After Sonic bypasses him while taunting him, Mario replies, "Oh, it's-a on now, bitch!"
• Ungrateful Bastard: After being saved from a giant, spiked pinball by Captain Falcon, how does he repay the F-Zero Racer? By flipping Falcon off before driving away.

Speed Star (Driven by Sonic the Hedgehog)

• Hoist by His Own Petard: Just like his metafictional rival, this is how Sonic dies. Sonic gets a Blue Shell from the item boxes and hurls it at Mario who is ahead of him, right before the finish line. However, Mario's missed Bob-Omb flies back and blows Mario up first. This causes the Blue Shell to immediately switch targets to the racer currently in first place... which is Sonic himself.
• Obi-Wan Moment: Sonic doesn't try to dodge the blue shell homing in on him, and calmly accepts his death. The only regret he has is that he doesn't have any chili dogs available.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Sonic technically outlasts his rival Mario in the race, but ends up dead shortly afterwards himself.
• Smug Super: After bypassing Mario, he shouts "Gotta go way past faster than that!"
• This Is Gonna Suck: Sonic's last words are this.
  Sonic: "They call me the fastest thing alive, but there are things even I can't outrun, like the inevitability of death... I need a chili dog."
• Transforming Vehicle: The car can transform into a plane and a boat. He uses the former to stay in the race after Mario knocks him off the road.

The DeLorean (Driven by Doc Brown)

• Cutting the Knot: Subverted. It looks like Doc won the race by avoiding the track and the other racers altogether through time travel, but his busted-up cargo shows his solution wasn't as simple or effective as he thought it would be.
• Noodle Incident: Exactly what happened that led to the pizza it was supposed to deliver being switched by a bullet ridden replacement is unknown.
• Sore Loser: Doc Brown can be seen crying outside his car after Takumi beats him at the pizza delivery race.
• Vanity License Plate: The DeLorean's famous OUTATIME plate carries over to here, complete with it popping off and pirouetting on a corner once the car time travels.

Takumi Fujiwara's Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86

• Badass Normal: Stands out from the pack by being the most normal car to ever participate in a Death Race, lacking most of its contemporaries' use of weapons and other fantastical elements. Also, Takumi is the only racer noted to actually be a delivery boy, which plays a role behind his victory. Ringmaster openly defends his interest in it by saying "It's AWESOME! SCREW YOU!!"
• Boring, but Practical: Takumi's way of racing is simply staying far enough behind the other racers to avoid the chaos and focus on eventually delivering the Pizza. Thanks to everyone either killing each other or destroying their pizzas this has leads to him winning easily.
• Dark Horse Victory: Who would have known the factory model car driven by an ordinary delivery boy would have come out on top against all these larger-than-life rides?
• Left the Background Music On: Every shot that focuses on him is accompanied by a loud Not-Eurobeat-Version of Eurobeat booming from his speakers.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Retreats from the pack when it becomes apparent the competition is too much for it to handle in a fight. The hosts believe Takumi to have thrown the race, but with the Delorean disqualified and every other racer dead, his surprise return and finish clinches the victory.

74-Z Speeder Bike (Piloted by Bob the Scout Trooper)

• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Gets a Fire Flower from one of the Item Boxes and proceeds to just completely miss all the shots aimed at Mario. Boomstick lampshades this:
  Boomstick: Holy shit, did he hit some- ah no, of course he missed.
• Joke Character: Unfortunately, Bob is no more threatening than his other Red Shirt brethren.
• Stock Scream: Perhaps predictably, the Scout Trooper lets out the Wilhelm Scream when eliminated by Mario.

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