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Death Battle / Tropes D to M

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  • Dance Party Ending:
    • As part of a tribute to Monty Oum, the remastered Samus vs Boba Fett battle includes one at the end, with other characters from other Monty Oum projects and previous Death Battles joining in (specifically Deadpool and Deathstroke).
    • Deadpool vs. Deathstroke ends with Deadpool doing the Macarena after decapitating Deathstroke.
    • Deadpool vs. Pinkie Pie ends with the two calling off their fight, Pinkie Pie finding out its Deadpool's birthday, and throwing him a massive party in Ponyville.
  • Darkened Building Shootout: The final confrontation between Solid Snake and Sam Fisher starts off with this after Snake shuts off all the lights in the building they were fighting in.
  • Darker and Edgier: Season 9 is notably this compared to previous seasons. Many of the fights have a tragic angle to them, such as Omni-Man vs Homelander, Tanjiro vs. Jonathan, Magneto vs. Tetsuo, James Bond vs. John Wick and Black Adam vs. Apocalypse. Furthermore, the only straight laced heroic combatants of the entire season thus far are Zatanna, Jonathan, Tanjiro, Thor, Hercules, Xeno Trunks, Archie Silver, SpongeBob SquarePants, SuperFriends Aquaman, Deku, Asta, Gogeta, and Vegito. The rest of the combatants have been varying shades of Anti-Hero, Anti-Villain or outright antagonist.
  • Dark Horse Victory:
    • Wily uses his Roboenza on Metal Sonic, which sends Metal Sonic on a rampage, killing Eggman, which would normally be a win for Wily. But since Metal Sonic was Eggman's robot and kills Wily directly afterwards, Wiz and Boomstick can't decide who wins. So they just declare Metal Sonic the victor.note 
    • Scooby-Doo vs Courage inverts this. Eustace Bagge ends up dying instead of either main combatant and is declared the loser.
  • Data Drive MacGuffin: A flash drive with valuable data is what causes Solid Snake and Sam Fisher to fight one another. Sam is trying to prevent Snake from getting his hands on the flash drive while Snake is trying to take it from him.
  • David Versus Goliath: Many battles pit a small character and a much bigger character against each other, with the smaller character usually (but not always) triumphing over the bigger one.
    • Blanka is a large and muscular wildman, while Pikachu is a small, electric rodent. Blanka eats Pikachu.
    • Starscream is a giant robot, while Rainbow Dash is a (relatively) small Pegasus pony. Rainbow Dash wins.
    • Riptor is a vicious wild Velociraptor, while Yoshi is a cute little thing that you can ride. Yoshi wins.
    • Godzilla is nine times heavier than Gamera, and a bit taller as well. Godzilla wins.
    • Standing 15 stories tall and weighing 150 tons, the Tigerzord towers over the Gundam Epyon, which stands only 57 feet tall and weighs less than ten tons. Epyon wins.
    • Kirby is about eight inches tall so few beings he wouldn't be David to exist, and Fat Buu is the size of a morbidly obese man. Kirby wins
    • In the final part of "Ragna vs. Sol", we have Ragna, now as the towering Black Beast, against the man-sized Sol in Dragon install form. Sol wins..
    • Guts vs. Nightmare is an extreme example where Guts is a Badass Normal swordsman mercenary while Nightmare is a demonic entity that is manifested in Soul Edge. Boomstick even admits that Nightmare wields more power than Guts. Guts wins this match.
    • Donkey Kong is easily twice the size of Knuckles and acts as the Mighty Glacier in the fight. DK wins.
    • It goes back and forth in the battle between Charizard and Greymon. Starting off as Agumon, he is much smaller than Charizard. But once he becomes Greymon he's over three times his size. (they didn't even use Metal Greymon who's about twice that size). Even the considerably smaller War Greymon towers over Charizard. War Greymon completely vaporizes him.
    • Similar to Tigerzord vs Epyon, the Megazord vs Voltron is like this. The Megazord is noticeably bigger by an evident margin as compared to Voltron. Voltron destroys the Megazord.
    • Metal Sonic vs Zero starts out at similar size until Metal Sonic transforms into the building-sized Metal Overlord, who towers over Zero. Just like how Zero's beaten huge robots in his canon, this same fate befalls Metal Sonic.
    • Being a bear, Smokey already towers over McGruff the Crime Dog. And then Smokey shows off his alleged ability to grow to the size of a mountain, which McGruff can't do. Smokey Bear crushes McGruff like a bug.
    • The RX-78-2 Gundam is around 2-3 times the size of Optimus Prime (whose size varies, but is smaller than the Mobile Suit). Optimus wins, and Boomstick even note that "Size matters not" in this case.
    • Ben 10's Way Big transformation is the size of a Kaiju, and Green Lantern fights him with huge constructed energy fists. Green Lantern manages to get the upper hand, forcing Ben to transform into Alien X.
    • Goro towers 3 whole feet over Machamp. However, Machamp despite being smaller vastly dwarfed Goro in both strength and durability.
    • While they're even in height at first, once he dons the Fierce Deity's mask, his size increases to the point where Link is notably taller than Cloud, being about twice as tall. Unfortunately, even with the Fierce Deity's power, Link couldn't catch up to Cloud's sheer power and speed, and he falls to the (not)Ex-SOLDIER.
    • Tetsuo's Ego Collapse form towers over Magneto. Magneto wins.
  • The Day the Music Lied: The Theme Music Powerup hasn't stopped an attack from being countered and the song to go silent when the character dies. Like the moment Blanka decides to eat Pikachu in the middle of their Lightning Cannonball and Volt Tackle.
    • When M. Bison unleashes the full extent of his Psycho Power, the music jumps to his theme from Street Fighter II. Even while fighting his foe at max potential, this stops when Shao Kahn smacks Bison into the ground with his hammer.
    • Ryu Hayabusa vs. Strider Hiryu includes a Single-Stroke Battle like the opening to Ninja Gaiden, complete with the Ninja Gaiden theme, but Strider takes the edge in the fight, smashing Ryu through a building with a Ragnarok.
    • "I Am...All of Me" starts playing once Shadow goes Super. It also starts playing just as Mewtwo is about to kill him.
    • "Strongest Alive" has choruses of two tracks related to Izuku, "Mighty" and "Marvel For All". Asta just barely wins in the fight animation.
  • Deader than Dead: On a few occasions, a Death Battle ends when the opponent's death is them being killed by other means, like having their souls utterly destroyed, leaving their existence completely wiped.
    • Anyone hit with Akuma or Ryu's Raging Demon technique is destroyed to their very soul. Shang Tsung eats it from the master that is Akuma, but Scorpion's agile enough to avoid being hit, especially since Ryu has very little experience using it in the first place. Shao Kahn on the other hand counters the last hit of Akuma's Raging Demon, as he has survived worse attacks, averting this trope.
    • In Strange vs. Fate, Strange attempts to invoke this by taking the fight into the helmet of Nabu so he can destroy Fate's soul. In the end it's Strange that suffers such a fate.
    • In Ghost Rider vs. Lobo, This was honestly the only way for either man to win the fight, unfortunately for Lobo, Ghost Rider utterly destroyed Lobo's soul, including his clones, by hell fire, penance stare or simply walking up to him and eating it, leaving no trace of main man.
    • Storm kills Korra in the Avatar State, breaking the Avatar Spirit's cycle of reincarnation.
    • Sauron ultimately consumes both the Lich King's soul and all the souls inside of Frostmourne.
    • The Doctor's D-Mat wipes Rick from time, meaning he never existed.
  • Deadly Escape Mechanism: In the "Death Race" spin-off, after Boomstick blows up the race track below the wheels of the Spy Hunter (1983) and James Bond's Aston Martin, the Spy Hunter fires a missile at Bond whilst they're both falling. Bond uses an ejection seat to escape his car before it gets blown up, but that just means that he sends himself flying into the rotary blades of a helicopter flying overhead.
  • Deadpan Snarker:
    • Both Wiz and Boomstick have a fair amount of snark in them, the former making (sometimes vulgar) jokes about the combatants while the latter indulges in sarcastic observations.
    • Vegeta had a couple of good ones; for example, his response after Shadow goes Super?
      Vegeta: Wow! …What a ripoff.
    • Rainbow Dash has shades of this while battling Starscream. A perfect example is at the start of the fight, when he threatens to annihilate her.
      Rainbow Dash: You talk a lot.
    • Spider-Man engages in witty banter during his fight and it's especially noticeable because Batman doesn't say a word.
    • Superman has a dry wit compared to Goku's naive outlook. Considering his voice actor, it's not surprising.
      Superman: Ultimate form, huh? About time you ran out of hairstyles.
    • Tommy Oliver and Saba show shades of this during their fight with Epyon.
      Tommy: (confronted by Epyon) Is it just me or do Zedd's goons keep getting smaller and angrier?
    • Toph throws the sass out constantly during her fight with Gaara.
      Toph: Come on, are you really that scared of a little blind girl? I'm touched.
    • Mewtwo's response to Shadow calling him a "freak":
      Mewtwo: I know not its name, but it is black, red, and very annoying.
  • Dedication: Boba Fett vs Samus Aran Remastered was dedicated to the late Monty Oum, whose work helped inspire the show.
  • Deep South: Boomstick shows quite a few signs of this. His accent and extreme love of sas are the most blatant of which.
  • Defeat Equals Explosion: Usually, this tends to happen with robotic characters.
    • Non-robotic example: In Guts vs. Nightmare, Guts slices through Inferno and Soul Edge, exploding the former.
    • In Megazord vs. Voltron, Voltron slices through the Megazord and strikes a pose after it erupts into a fireball.
    • In Metal Sonic vs. Zero, this happens to Metal Overlord shortly after Zero bifurcates him.
    • The five Foot Clan ninjas in Shredder vs. Silver Samurai all explode after Silver Samurai cuts them down in a single slash.
    • In Optimus Prime vs. Gundam RX-78-2, Optimus' Matrix of Leadership causes the Gundam to blow up in a nuclear-sized explosion.
    • In a second non-robotic example, Mario VS Sonic (2018) has Sonic die in a mushroom-shaped explosion after Mario throws him into the ground from freefall.
    • And a third non-robotic example is in Leonardo vs. Red Ranger Jason, though given the latter's series of origin, this is to be expected. Specifically, Leonardo's body explodes after he's sliced in half by Jason. This is exactly as it would occur in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
    • At the end of Ant-Man vs Atom, Ant-Man's giant ants burst out of Atom's body, causing the latter to blow up.
  • Deliberate Injury Gambit: Some of the more daring combatants pull this off in order to get an advantage over their opponent.
    • Guts is known for pulling these off often in his canon to get an advantage in the fight. Against Nightmare, he lets his face get grazed so he can shoot Nightmare point-blank with his Arm Cannon, and later on leaps through a wall of flames to perform a surprise attack on Night Terror, allowing him to slice off Nightmare's sword arm.
    • Lucario runs right through Renamon's Diamond Storm, getting hit by several shards in the process. It catches Renamon off guard and allow him to finish her off.
    • Dragonzord vs. Mechagodzilla ends on one of these: The Dragonzord has impaled Mechagodzilla on its spear, making it look like the match will go to Tommy. Then Mechagodzilla pulls the spear even further in and starts charging the Absolute Zero Cannon. Tommy doesn't dodge in time, and both he and the Dragonzord are completely frozen on a molecular level by the blast and shattered into nothingness by Mechagodzilla's roar.
  • Demographic-Dissonant Crossover: In some episodes, a family-friendly character fights a not-so-family-friendly character.
  • Demon Slaying: About half of the warriors have fought some kind of Devil or evil god.
  • Denser and Wackier: The Chuck Norris Vs. Segata Sanshiro episode got many Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann comparisons for many reasons.
  • Designated Girl Fight: Nineteen so far:
  • Destination Defenestration:
    • Zangief throws both himself and Mike Haggar out of a several-story window as the final scene of their battle. On their way up said several story building, they also throw Princess Peach, Big the Cat, and Pedobear (not to mention a globe and a sofa) out of different windows.
    • Batman kicks Spider-Man through the window of a skyscraper, and Peter later returns the favour, resulting in a Free-Fall Fight.
  • Destructive Saviour: Taken to extremes in the Goku vs. Superman fight - Goku, thinking that Supes is an alien who'll try to destroy the Earth, unintentionally blows it up when his Dragon Fist and the Infinite Mass Punch collide.
  • Detonation Moon:
    • In Thor VS Wonder Woman, Thor does this by throwing Mljonir to the moon in an attempt to kill Wonder Woman. It doesn't have much effect.
    • Mario VS Sonic 2018: Both combatants in their respective super modes end up destroying the moon in their clash.
  • Diagnosed by the Audience: In-Universe: Wiz speculates that Crash Bandicoot is actually plenty smart, and that his muteness and unusual behavior stems from having autism.
  • Did Not See That Coming: Several battles in the series had fandom opinion firmly on the side of the combatant that ended up losing. Even Wiz and Boomstick express shock at the result occasionally.
    • The fandom and the hosts were shocked when Yoshi defeated Riptor. Despite taking a nasty mauling from the Bio-Raptor's claws and teeth, Yoshi's durability and iron stomach was able to win the match by spitting her acid into her eyes.
    • Neither Wiz nor Boomstick expected Metal Sonic to pull a Dark Horse Victory out from the battle between Dr. Wily and Dr. Robotnik.
    • Wiz and Boomstick are completely blindsided when Pinkie Pie and Deadpool become friends and decide 'screw this' before jumping across several videos and ultimately into the real world to confront them. Ultimately, the two are left dumbfounded and can do nothing other than admit defeat.
    • Zelda vs Peach: Many people expected Zelda's powerful magic to steamroll Princess Peach. But Peach had powerful magic of her own to bring to the fight and was in vastly superior physical shape to Zelda which clinched the match in her favor.
    • Ryu vs Jin: not many people pegged Ryu to win his fight over Jin, given the reputation Street Fighters garnered over the years in Death Battle, but come the fight itself, many were surprise to see Ryu not only win the fight, but outclass Jin in raw strength and durability.
    • Hiei vs Sasuke: The majority of fans, including anime fans, didn't give Hiei a chance seeing he was up against Sasuke, due to his numerous Hax and reliable scaling to Naruto, who has already won his fight. Come the actual fight, Hiei actually wins due to countering the Sharingan and actually surpassing Sasuke in raw strength and durability.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
    • Kirby, did you just bring down Majin Buu by yourself?
    • Guts defeats THE most powerful entity in the Soul Calibur universe, Night Terror. And then he also takes out Inferno and Soul Edge.
    • Dante, being the experienced Devil Hunter that he is, manages to not only match Madama Butterfly's punch but also behead her.
    • Zero successfully bifurcates Metal Overlord, the very same being who managed to destroy Wily and Eggman's armies and then the entire world in an earlier Death Battle, and whom Super Sonic needed help to defeat in canon.
    • Deadpool shoots Thanos dead. Granted, this happened in one of Darkseid's Omega Sanction-induced series of endless deaths.
    • Subverted in Ben 10 vs. Green Lantern. Ben uses his nigh-omnipotent Alien X form, which Green Lantern doesn't defeat, but instead goes back into the past to kill human Ben before the fight even starts.
    • Given what we learn about the Hulk having traits similar to an eldritch abomonination, the question we have is Broly, how did you manage to beat the ever loving crap out of the Hulk?
  • Died Standing Up: In the climax of Guts VS Dimitri, the latter sweeps the former up into the air and drives a critical Atrocity hit through him. As Dimitri yanks Areadbhar from Guts's thoroughly-bloodied body and leaves him for dead, Guts gets back up and slashes for Dimitri from behind, splitting his lance in the process. Midway through the swing that Dimitri is now powerless to defend against, however, Guts's body finally gives out.
  • Dirty Coward: Wiz's analysis of Starscream emphasizes this trait, and Starscream shows it in the actual fight.
  • Disney Villain Death: Played with in Yoshi vs. Riptor. Yoshi traps Riptor in an egg and drops him off a cliff (and into Boomstick's car), but the loser would likely have died anyway since his face was drenched in acid.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: All battles have to end in death, but the setups for many of those battles are decidedly less serious.
    • Vegeta's ideal way of reacting to Shadow calling him short is to kill him.
    • Donkey Kong has the same reaction to Knuckles getting hungry and helping himself to one of his bananas.
  • Distracted by the Sexy:
    • Boomstick is happy to notice that their girlfights involve hot chicks with big boobs.
      Wiz: When it comes to fighting, combatants come in all shapes and sizes!
      Boomstick: And I'm likin' the shapes and sizes on these two!
    • And...
      Wiz: [Mai] wears it for kunoichi, a female ninja method of sensually distracting the foe before striking.
      Boomstick: ... I'm sorry, what? I was distracted.
      Wiz: Never mind.
      Boomstick: Okay!
    • Boomstick get very enthusiastic about the girl fights...
      Boomstick: Ivy from Soul Calibur...
      Wiz: And Bla-
      Boomstick: Black Orchid from Killer Instinct! Sorry, I'm excited!
    • invoked Inverted with their pre-battle bio on Yang Xiao Long, where Boomstick is so thoroughly distracted by her ridiculously awesome shotgun gauntlets and physical feats that he didn't make so much as a single comment about her looks. Possibly Justified to avoid potential Squick, as Yang is 17 years old and would be underage in quite a few places.
    • He's initially put off by Bayonetta's use of her hair as clothing and ability to fire guns with her feet but quickly warms up to the idea upon discovering she's still human.
    • Wiz and Boomstick speculate that Erza Scarlett's "Seduction" armor is pretty much designed to do this. Boomstick comments that it's actually quite hard to fight someone when you have a Raging Stiffie.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?:
    • Right before the battle between He-Man and Lion-O begins, this exchange:
    He-Man: (trying to discourage Lion-O from fighting him) Back off, feline! You are clearly not equipped to—
    (Lion-O pulls out the Sword of Omens, which then extends to the size of a longsword)
    He-Man: Oooooooh!
    • During the Hulk's introduction in "Hulk vs. Doomsday", footage was used from a 1960s Hulk cartoon detailing Bruce Banner's origins, specifically about how the US government hired him on to test a gamma bomb. The gamma bomb itself was drawn with a rather phallic design. The upper corner of the screen specifically noted "*NOT A DICK".
  • Double Entendre: Episode 20. It starts with Vibe Scepter and goes on from there. Boomstick is... amused.
  • Doppleganger Attack:
    • Dante's Doppelganger Style.
    • Sephiroth is capable of creating fake doppelgangers via illusions, but these can actually attack. Vergil destroys every single summoned one which bought Sephiroth time for his Supernova to hit.
  • Downer Beginning:
    • "Black Widow vs. Widowmaker" starts with Widowmaker successfully killing her target, who Black Widow was supposed to protect. Natasha gets her revenge by killing the assassin.
    • "Omni-Man vs. Homelander" begins with Omni-Man returning home to find that Homelander murdered his wife Debbie with heat vision as an attempt to intimidate him.
  • Downer Ending: Given the nature of the battles, most fights will be this to somebody.
    • "Eggman vs. Wily". Metal Sonic becomes Metal Overlord and goes on a Robenenza Virus-fueled rampage and kills everybody, and most likely, the world is doomed.
    Boomstick: Well, that world's f*cked! Our bad.
    • "Son Goku vs. Superman" ends with Superman winning the fight... at the cost of the destruction of the entire planet.
    • "Shao Khan vs M. Bison". In a case of the worse guy wins, Shao Khan eats Bison's soul, giving him the godly Psycho Powers combined with his previous skills in sorcery. If Shao Khan wasn't dangerous before, now he's virtually immortal and twice as powerful.
    Boomstick: That can't be good.
    • invokedWhile it's not outright said after the battle and more like a case of Fridge Horror, "He-Man Vs Lion-O" ends with the entire ThunderCat race being wiped out. What makes matters worse is that He-Man was one of the few fighters who actually thought about leaving his opponent alive, but the Eye of Thundera tried to kill him, forcing him to destroy it.
    • Tigerzord vs Epyon: Even though Zechs manages to kill Tommy Oliver, his girlfriend, Noin, is now dead as a doornail, leaving Zechs to cry over the remains of her Mobile Suit, while Zordon is left mourning the loss of the White Ranger.
    Boomstick: Ow... My childhood...
    • Godzilla vs Gamera: Gamera gives it his all, and even loses his life, to try and halt Godzilla's rampage. He fails, and it seems unlikely that anything else can stop him.
    • Ryu vs Scorpion: In a case of The Bad Guy Wins, Ryu gets dragged to hell with Scorpion, and ends up being incinerated by him.
    • Darth Vader vs Doctor Doom: In another case of the worse guy wins, Vader gets defeated by Doctor Doom, creating a power vacuum. Doom takes over as a general of the former Imperial Army. With this, Doom now has reign over the stormtroopers and most likely their spaceships along with his already established reign over Latveria.
    • Dante vs. Bayonetta: Bayonetta gets a particularly nasty fate for a Death Battle loser: she's dragged to Inferno for an eternity of pain after Dante finishes her off. (Still, Jeanne still lives, and given the events of her second game, you never know... unless a certain devil hunter comes calling for the death of his partner.
    • Hulk vs Doomsday: In another case of The Bad Guy Winsnote , Hulk fights with all his might, and yet Doomsday matches him blow for blow and ultimately kills him. Meaning now The Avengers just lost one of their heaviest hitters and probably their best chance to stop Doomsday's rampage.
    • Deadpool vs. Pinkie Pie: Obviously Played for Laughs. Instead of either of them killing the other, they decide to invade some of the previous Death Battles, and even the ScrewAttack staff, where Pinkie then throws a party when she hears it's Deadpool's birthday. Dumbfounded by all of this, Wiz and Boomstick decide that they've all lost to both combatants.
    • The Shredder vs. Silver Samurai: In yet another case of the worse guy wins, the far more villainous Shredder manages to decapitate the morally-grey supervillain Silver Samurai, but it doesn't just end there. Silver Samurai then ends up in Hell where his soul is destroyed for good.
    • Sephiroth vs. Vergil: In yet another case of the worse guy wins, the far more villainous Sephiroth cleaves the Noble Demon Vergil into two after Supernova overtaxes Vergil's Healing Factor.
    • Ultron vs. Sigma: It's debatable if this is a case of the worse guy winning like above but regardless Ultron has taken over Sigma's forces and given that even with scaling Sigma is nowhere near Ultron's level of power, Zero and X's futures aren't looking too bright.
    • Mega Man Battle Royale ends with Abel City in complete ruins, and MegaMan.EXE looking none too happy about it.
    • Deadpool vs. Mask but for the hosts instead of the combatants. After Deadpool gets completely obliterated in the fight, the hosts realized that the outcome isn't satisfying because they intentionally stacked the odds against Deadpool by putting him up against someone who literally cannot be harmed, robbing him of a fair fight and compromising their own impartiality. Later subverted when it turns out moments later that the loser didn't stay dead after all.
    • Gray vs. Esdeath: The first true case of The Bad Guy Wins since Hulk vs. Doomsday happens with Esdeath freezing Gray into a corpse. Additionally, her use of Ice Storm Commander-in-Chief means that all of Fiore has been turned into a near-inhospitable wasteland, meaning Esdeath is free to take over it with seemingly no one to stop her.
    • Goku Black vs. Reverse Flash: The end of the battle with Reverse Flash throwing Goku Black into the sun results in it going nova and engulfing everything.
    • Black Adam vs. Apocalypse: The episode begins with Apocalypse staging an invasion of Kahndaq, with Black Adam arriving to stop him. It ends with Apocalypse showing a brutally beaten and barely alive Black Adam what remains of his country, taunting him with his failure and assuring him that his legacy will be destroyed right before killing him with his own lightning.
  • Dragged Off to Hell: Bayonetta suffers the exact fate she does in her own game's Game Over screen after Dante finishes her.
  • Dramatic Ammo Depletion: Robocop VS Terminator: Terminator starts firing at Robocop with a powerful shotgun repeatedly as he approaches. When he finally aims the killing shot at his head, he's out of shells. Robocop responds with this.
"9 shots: you're out."
  • Dramatic Spine Injury: In "Bane versus Venom", after delivering a beatdown, Bane attempts to break Venom's spine the same way he did to Batman. Unfortunately for Bane, Venom is unaffected.
    Venom: We're unbreakable!
  • Driven to Suicide: Played for Laughs when Boomstick decided he couldn't go after hearing about Justin Bieber's popularity. He felt better after hearing Bieber could be rather aggressive and seeing a clip of a character of his getting shot to death.
  • Dual Wielding:
    • Deadpool and Deathstroke both dual wield whenever possible. Whether it is swords or submachine guns or a sword in one hand a pistol in the other, these two enjoy having both hands full. It's even pointed out with a freeze frame and alert sound when Deathstroke finds himself with one hand empty because Deadpool stole the weapon out of it and is about to turn it on its owner.
    • Dante and Bayonetta are fond of doing this with Ebony and Ivory and Love Is Blue respectively, although for Bayonetta it's more quadruple wielding as she also uses the two guns strapped to her feet to fight.
    • When using his True Shikai, Ichigo does this with both of his Zangetsus.
  • Duel to the Death: The entire point of the series is to take two characters who share something in common and pit them in a battle to the death. There has been only one subversion in the entire series: Deadpool vs Pinkie Pie ends with the two becoming friends and deciding to have a party in Ponyville instead of killing each other because their Medium Awareness allows them to break the rules of Death Battle.
    • Techincally, Starscream and Raiden are still alive after their deaths due to their natures.
    • Chuck Norris and Segata Sanshiro are said to be still fighting after their ongoing battle sends them through another dimension.
    • Courage vs Scooby Doo is framed as the two dogs attempting to escape a monster, and the 'fight' breaks out when Courage (accidentally or otherwise) trips up Scooby. The two still spend half the battle still trying to escape. Ultimately, neither Courage or Scooby are ruled to have sufficient offensive power to overcome each other's ludicrous durability feats, so the fight ends up a draw... But the monster (Eustace) dies instead in order to fulfill the show's criterion of one death per battle.
  • Dumbass Has a Point:
    • Boomstick occasionally has something profound and intelligent in the midst of his ramblings, much to Wiz's surprise.
    • Goku goes off to face Superman because he believes as a superpowered alien he will one day destroy the Earth. Given how often it's been attempted in DBZ canon (and how often Superman turns evil, is driven insane, or is mind controlled in DCU's canon...), it's not that big a leap in logic. Their battle does end up doing just that.
    • After hearing Grif and Simmons discuss wether Meta or Carolina would win, Caboose decides that a Death Battle would probably provide a more accurate answer.
  • Ear Worm: Boomstick says the original Ben 10 theme song is 'so damn catchy'.
  • Early-Bird Cameo:
    • Before her big fight with Zelda, Peach was thrown out of a window during Haggar vs Zangief.
    • Tommy Oliver was one of two options when voting for someone to face off against Leonardo after he killed his brothers. He lost out to Zitz, but eventually made it in and fought Epyon.
    • Scorpion was one of Shang Tsung's transformations in his fight before getting a proper one of his own. Likewise, Ryu appeared in the alternate ending of Shao Kahn vs M. Bison.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness:
    • The first two Death Battles included health bars for the combatants. Boomstick's voice wasn't as distinct either (Ben would later remark that he and Wiz initially sounded like one guy doing two voices, despite them always having different voice actors) and there were a few typos. Wiz was also not clearly established as the Straight Man.
    • Also applies to Season 1 in general, at least up until Thor VS Raiden. Many Season 1 episodes have very short rundownsnote  and fight animations that are sub-par in quality at best when compared to today, making it very consistent that it was once a small low-budget web series that didn't always take itself seriously, and it shows. It also had more joke episodes than the later seasons (Goomba VS Koopa and Justin Bieber VS Rebecca Black, Both of which ended in a draw.), and Eggman VS Wily is the only episode to have a major surprise twist where Metal Sonic goes rogue and kills both combatants as Metal Overlord. Also, blood and explosions were very primitive compared to those later on. From here on out, Death Battle would improve with better rundowns and fight animations, and become more serious on delivering the results, and joke episodes were relegated to being a once-per-season thing at most.
    • In regards to 3D animations, the first Link VS Cloud for how stiff and awkward the animation looks when compared to more later animations, and how it is the only 3D fight to be set in a generic, pillar filled arena with the ScrewAttack logo on the walls. Goku vs Superman also counts, being the only other 3D battle made before Torrian joined the show, but its animation is a clear improvement over Link vs. Cloud.
  • Earth-Shattering Kaboom:
    • Really, it's Goku vs. Superman with both going all-out. There was little chance of it ending otherwise.
    • In Chuck Norris vs Segata Sanshiro, not only does Chuck split Earth in half, but Segata slices Mars, Venus, and Mercury with the rings of Saturn, launches Chuck through the sun and blows it up, and punches Chuck's leg while he performs a roundhouse kick, destroying the universe.
    • This is how Beerus vs Sailor Galaxia starts: Galaxia points at the Earth, destroying it and Beerus' ice cream which instigates the fight.
    • The combatants of Hulk vs Broly destroy not only the planet they're fighting on, but also every star in the galaxy they're fighting in, much like Broly's initial appearance.
  • Eating the Enemy:
    • How Blanka beats Pikachu.
    • How Rainbow Dash disposes of Starscream's Spark.
    • How Battle Cat disposes of Lion-O's corpse.
    • Blastoise eats Venusaur's flower after killing Charizard.
    • Strider's C-options dispose of Ryu's corpse in this manner. Doubly humiliating for Ryu because C-options are robotic falcons, an enemy that many a Ninja Gaiden fan will remember as a common reason for cheap deaths in the first game.
    • Subverted in "Kirby vs. Majin Buu". Kirby attempts to do this in his battle with Majin Buu but Buu uses the Vice Shout to escape. Played straight at the end of the episode when Kirby inhales Buu's shoe to obtain the chocolate beam and uses it to eat his regular enemies.
    • Bowser tries to defeat Ganon by eating him. This doesn't work.
    • Lobo crushes a building he threw Ghost Rider in into a small ball, then eats it. This only makes Ghost Rider explode out of him.
    • Ghost Rider as Zarathos disposes of Lobo's Barred from the Afterlife soul by eating it.
    • Dracula finishes off Ganondorf by ripping his body in half and feasting on the blood that runs out of it.
    • In the climax of "Cole MacGrath vs Alex Mercer", the latter attempts to consume the former. It doesn't work, and he promptly gets his bio-electricity absorbed and pulverized with a Thunder Drop.
  • Edible Theme Naming: Boomstick is amazed at learning that Dragon Ball's Angels and Gods of Destruction are named after alcholic drinks.
    Boomstick: Wait... BEERus, WHISkey, CHAMPAign? OH MY GOD! All the cats are named after booze! I like 'em now.
  • Edutainment Show: In a way, not only does Death Battle educate the viewers on the combatant in question, but they also frequently discuss real world scientific calculations and feats to help determine the fighters' maximum performance.
  • Empathic Environment: This impacts the fight of Superman vs Goku. As Goku reaches Super Saiyan 4, it causes storm clouds to form. This darkness weakens Superman, who is powered by sunlight. Because of this, Superman flies over the clouds to recharge.
    • Blastoise's rain dance, while an attack, set a dark tone for the final battle against Charizard: made even more epic with Charizard's fire burning the ground.
  • Energy Weapon: Several of the fighters have Laser weapons or moves.
    • Terminator's futuristic gun.
    • Metal Overlord
    • Fox McCloud and Bucky O'Hare's pistols.
    • Fulgore's Devastation Beam
    • Saba can shoot laser beams, in addition to controlling the Tigerzord.
    • Boba Fett's EE-3 carbine rifle and pistol
    • Samus's Arm Cannon and Paralyzer, which can double as a Laser Blade
    • The Tigerzord can fire energy balls strong enough to destroy giant monsters.
    • All five Mega Men have variants of Mega Busters.
  • Enforced Plug: While the commercial breaks before most battles manage not to sound incredibly forced, this trope is exaggerated in "Death Battle vs. The World", itself a promotion for their own merchandise, when they cut to commercial to talk about the ScrewAttack store.
    Boomstick: This episode of Death battle's brought to you by... us.
    Wiz: That's right, we just promoted a promotion in a promo of the same promotion.
  • Enlightenment Superpowers: Through enlightenment, Ryu gains access to the Power of Nothingness, a more powerful Super Mode than the Satsoi no Hadou.
  • Evasive Fight-Thread Episode:
    • Eggman vs. Wily ended in a Dark Horse Victory, with both of the main combatants down for the count. This is the first battle (aside from the pop star duel, and Goomba vs Koopa Troopa) to not present a definitive, clear-cut victory for one of the headlining parties.
    • Chuck Norris vs Segata Sanshiro ended with nobody winning or losing since they're probably still fighting each other after their plane of existence collapsed and Death Battle's instruments were no longer able to track them.
    • Deadpool VS Pinkie Pie ended with a no-contest because both combatants' penchant for Breaking the Fourth Wall has led them to defy Death Battle's rules and call off the fight to become friends.
  • "Everybody Dies" Ending:
    • Goomba Vs. Koopa Troopa: the Goomba tried to kick the withdrawn Koopa Troopa into a pit of lava. But the lava pit was too small to fit and the Koopa shell ricocheted back, taking down the Goomba and his brethren and ultimately falling into a bigger lava pit, killing the Koopa Troopa inside.
    • Justin Bieber Vs. Rebecca Black: The final death toll includes Bieber, Black, her driver friend, the Jonas Brothers (who simply walked into the scene after the first three died) and Miley Cyrus while she was about to sing the U.S. National Anthem in a baseball field.
    • The end result of Robotnik vs. Wily is implied to be the apocalypse.
      Boomstick: Well, that world's fucked. Our bad.
    • While Superman survives his fight with Goku, the planet has been blown up at the end of the fight, likely killing everyone both of them were fighting for.
    • He-Man crushed the eye of Thundera, unknowingly killing every every single ThunderCat.
    • When Ragna's Black Beast form and Sol's Gear form collide at the climax of the fight it ends up destroying Ragna completely. Unfortunately the resulting blast is so large that the entire city they were fighting in and everyone in it turns into a giant smoking crater with only Sol standing in the center.
    • When Segata Sanshiro's fist and Chuck Norris' roundhouse kick collide it ends up collapsing the entire universe.
    • While it's treated as if there's a clear winner, All Might vs. Might Guy also likely commits this: While Guy wins, he succumbs to the effects of the Eighth Gate immediately after killing All Might.
  • Everybody Lives: Despite the show being called Death Battle, there are a few instances where both combatants live for better or for worse:
    • Starscream vs. Rainbow Dash is technically an example. Rainbow Dash does destroy Starscream's body but she doesn't really have any means of actually killing his immortal spark. Likewise, the technology in Ponyville is much less advanced than his body so his chances of killing her are even less.
    • Deadpool vs. Pinkie Pie is one of three Death Battles to end with neither combatant dying (with the others being Chuck Norris vs. Segata Sanshiro and Scooby-Doo vs. Courage the Cowardly Dog), rather befriending each other instead. This leaves a terribly confused Wiz and Boomstick to ponder that their shared ability to break the fourth wall allowed them to break the very rules of Death Battle itself.
    • Sora vs. Pit is a downplayed and implied example. Sora succeeds in killing Pit but Palutena remains unharmed and Pit has stated that he has died several times in his home series only to have Palutena revive him every time. The fact that Pit is used to being killed, was geeking out at Sora's abilities during the fight and is generally a Nice Guy means that this trope was likely the overall outcome of the episode.
    • Ultron vs. Sigma is a rather dark example. Instead of killing Sigma, Ultron completely hacks his A.I. and takes over his forces. It's implied that by doing so he has put Sigma in an And I Must Scream situation.
    • Played with for Thanos vs. Darkseid. Neither combatant directly kills the other but Darkseid traps Thanos in the Omega Sanction essentially forcing Thanos to die over and over again for all of eternity. At the same time being trapped in the Omega Sanction technically means Thanos does live... until his next death and the one after that and so on.
    • Deadpool vs. Mask is another example involving the Merc with a Mouth. Sure he does die in the episode but before The Mask announces himself as the winner of the match, Wiz and Boomstick accidentally wished that he was alive again in the presence of the Continuity Stone which was with the letter The Mask delivered to them, causing him to be revived.
    • Macho Man vs. Kool Aid Man: Macho Man does get killed by Kool Aid Man but is resurrected moments after the battle ends with the two even agreeing to have a friendly rematch.
    • Scooby-Doo vs. Courage the Cowardly Dog is one of three Death Battles to end with neither combatant dying (with the others being Deadpool vs. Pinkie Pie and Chuck Norris vs. Segata Sanshiro), as both of them were about equal in terms of strength, speed, and durability, on top of neither of them having an efficient way of killing each other.
  • Evil Versus Evil:
  • Everyone Has Standards: Wiz and Boomstick may research a variety of offbeat characters, but even they are left dumbfounded by Kirby and Majin Buu.
  • Exact Words: Discussed at the end of Scooby-Doo vs Courage. Wiz and Boomstick are left wondering if the draw is acceptable since per the rules, a battle has to end with the loser dying. The rules however don't say that the loser has to be a featured combatant, and both dogs were attacked by a monster which turns out to be Eustace and gets his head ripped apart.
  • Excuse Plot: Enough examples for its own page.
  • Expanding Thrown Weapon: Doctor Doom, among his various marvels of technology and magic, carries a ray gun that makes molecules grow bigger. Death Battle with Darth Vader, he demonstrates this by throwing a bunch of pebbles at the Sith Lord while both combatants are falling into a volcano, then making them grow into massive boulders which knock Vader down further and push him under the lava.
  • Exploiting the Fourth Wall: In "Deadpool vs. Pinkie Pie", Wiz has enough of Deadpool interrupting their analysis of his powers and decides to literally erase him from the episode with a giant pencil eraser. He says it's been 2 years since Deadpool last appeared, so he had time to prepare for it. During the battle proper, both Deadpool and Pinkie break the fourth wall to use a function of youtube as a weapon (Deadpool the view counter and Pinkie a pop up ad). This causes them to realize they both have Medium Awareness, resulting in them becoming friends and deciding to use it to leave the video and go Off the Rails rather than killing each other.
  • Expy Coexistence: A very common episode theme is matchups where one character is clearly inspired by or meant to be a spiritual successor to the other. Examples include Dante vs. Bayonetta, Jason Voorhees vs. Michael Myers, Sauron vs. The Lich King, Ken vs. Terry, Deadpool vs. Deathstroke and Ragna vs Sol.
  • Eye Pop:
    • Happens to Bomberman right before he blows himself up.
    • Also happens to Charizard right before it explodes from Blastoise overfilling it with water.
    • Again when Toph senses Gaara's Desert Wave coming right at her (despite being blind; she's always had a very expressive face).
  • Eye Scream: Deathstroke's wife shoots him in his right eye, making him unable to use it ever again. Deadpool decides to even it out by getting the second one...
  • Face Palm: In "Thor vs. Wonder Woman", Boomstick's inquiry to if Asgard is a type of protector for your ass is met with Sokka smacking his forehead in response.
  • Fanservice: Boomstick seems to fancy the designated girl fights of the series quite a bit; he makes several quips regarding his attraction to both combatants in Rogue vs. Wonder Woman, for example. He also calls adding that most famous line from the Street Fighter film during their rundown of M. Bison an example of fanservice.
  • Fantastic Racism: Bucky's crew kill Slippy, even though the poor guy was doing absolutely nothing that would warrant it. He's basically killed for being a toad.
  • Fate Worse than Death:
    • invoked According to Word of God, Starscream is the only character that has survived losing, even though his Spark was swallowed by Rainbow Dash. However, he's a sewing machine or an arcade cabinet by now.
    • Thanos vs. Darkseid ends with Thanos trapped in the Omega Sanction effectively forcing him to have an "endless death" as Darkseid calls it. Thanos can do nothing but die over and over again with each death getting progressively worse.
  • invokedFetish Retardant: In-Universe. Boomstick doesn't know if he's turned on or grossed out by Bayonetta's hair clothes, and disgusts himself by imagining Bayonetta firing the guns on her feet with weird, misplaced thumbs.
    Boomstick: Oh my god! She's covered in hair, and she uses her feet like hands! She's a monkey! Monkey witch!
  • Fear-Induced Idiocy: This is how the Koopa meets its demise in the episode "Goomba vs. Koopa". After a kick sends it sliding across the ground, the Koopa - too timid to come out of its shell and stop itself - ends up sliding right into a lava pit.
  • Fighting Across Time and Space: Doctor Strange VS Doctor Fate has the two sorcerers teleport to various dimensions as they clash against each other.
  • Finishing Move: Nearly every episode of Death Battle involves the winner killing the loser with a finishing move.
    • Some losers attempt to do a finishing move, but the winners either block, dodge, over-power, or survive said move. This is often done to set up a fake-out. This happens in Goku VS Superman, Ryu VS Scorpion, Tigerzord VS Gundam Epyon, Naruto VS Ichigo, and Stitch VS Rocket.
    • Played with in Kirby Vs. Majin Buu. Majin Buu clearly meant to end the fight with his Planet Burst attack, but Kirby used Miracle Fruit to become Hypernova Kirby, who ate the attack and shot it right back at him. And while that didn't kill Buu, getting shot into the sun most certainly did.
    • Subverted then played straight with finishing moves that were done again after a failed attempt earlier in the fight. This happens in Johnny Cage VS Captain Falcon, Dragonzord VS Mecha Godzilla, and Killua VS Misaka.
    • Subverted chronologically with Kenshiro's Hokuto Shinken Finger Poke of Doom that caused Jotaro to explode due to being a Time-Delayed Death and subsequently not the final move he used. This happened two-thirds through the fight, and Jotaro's fate was sealed for the last third of the fight.
    • Subverted in Wario vs. King Dedede with Wario's Waft. While it was indeed the finishing move, the manner in which it finished the fight is why it's a subversion. Specifically King Dedede clogs Wario's butt with a Gordo, resulting in the Waft building up until Wario explodes, taking the planet (but not Dedede) with him.
  • Five-Second Foreshadowing: When Homelander and Omni-Man first interact, while Homelander is giving his polite introduction and ultimatum, Nolan glances off to the side for a moment, then resumes glaring at Homelander. We see seconds later that he was likely distracted by the sight of his wife's charred corpse, left there by Homelander as an intimidation tactic.
  • Flight, Strength, Heart: From Episode 21, Thor's powers are listed as being able to lift over one million tons, move at supersonic speeds, never feel exhaustion, survive the vacuum of space, and talk with frogs.
  • Flipping the Table: Boomstick really wanted to do this after the reveal of the "Son Goku vs. Superman" Death Battle.
    Boomstick: Somebody gimme a Motherfuckin' table to flip!
  • Foil: Most battles are between two characters with contrasting motives and history. Boba Fett, for example, is an amoral bounty hunter who does his work by the client's parameters, while Samus Aran is a very moral bounty hunter known to outright go against her employer's direct orders.
  • Foreshadowing: If the contestants are noted to have a weapon or skill that could negate one of the others, it usually comes into play.
    • In "Son Goku vs. Superman", when discussing Superman's weakness to magicnote , Boomstick wonders if he can harm Supes with something as pathetic as a magic stick. Fast-forward to the fight and Goku's Power Pole (basically a magic stick) manages to do some harm to Superman.
    • In the analysis rundown for Fox McCloud, we see a Bob-Omb explode while Fox's reflector is active and he's sent flying. In the actual fight Fox gets blown up by one of Bucky's grenades. Thank God the legs he lost were artificial or that could've been it for the leader of the Star Fox fleet.
    • During Venusaur's preview, that it's the Jack of All Stats of the fighters is stressed that in practice and its stat spread is not optimized. Venusaur falls first and its lack of optimized moves fail to significantly harm the others.
    • The analyses of Chuck Norris and Segata Sanshiro note that they're both effectively immortal. Death is scared of Chuck Norris and Segata judo-flips the laws of physics, allowing him to do almost anything. It's no surprise this match came to a draw.
    • Near the end of Chuck Norris vs Segata Sanshiro, you can see multiple Death Battles from the past and one Death Battle rematch.
    • During the rundown for Deadpool, Wiz mentions how Deadpool being diagnosed with cancer hits him like a flaming semi-truck to the face. This actually happens to him during his battle with Deathstroke.
    • During Yang's rundown, the song "Sacrifice" played, specifically the lyric "you can't have my life". She wins.
    • Clank is noted to not only have time-slowing powers but also immunity to the effects of another's powers, such as Light Jak's own ability. He can also pass this onto other people.
    • An interesting and rather meta example with Sephiroth VS Vergil. When 1 Minute Melee was still a ScrewAttack show, this matchup was done and though Vergil won that matchup, Sephiroth still lived and was able to say "I'll see you again". This led many to speculate that this foreshadowed the two having an actual death battle. It took two years for this notion to be proven correct Note.
    • Played for laughs in "Wario vs. King Dedede". When Boomstick speaks about the Gordos that King Dedede sometimes carries around, he mentions that they can be a 'real pain in the ass'. Turns out that line came quite literally to Wario, as getting one stuck in his butt as he was about to release a Waft is what led to his death. The kicker? The first line Boomstick says after King Dedede's victory is as follows:
    Boomstick: "I told you those Gordos could be a pain in the ass!"
    • During Zuko's rundown, Wiz states that wherever fire remains alight in an area that's not too cold, Zuko can manipulate, or "bend" it to his will. Shoto Todoroki's sub-zero temperatures manage to prevent Zuko from using his limbs and attacking further.
    • The Deep ridicules the idea of Billy Butcher taking out his teammates. Guess who wins?
    • During Winter Soldier's rundown, Wiz mentions that if anyone other than the Winter Soldier tries to use his firearms, they will self destruct. That includes Red Hood, leaving him open to having his skull crushed.
    • Boomstick calls Sheila "the perfect companion for Caboose's team-killing sprees". Caboose is the only survivor of the Red VS Blue team battle.
    • Boomstick says that if you're too close to one of the Thunder Spear's blasts, it's game over. Three guesses as to how Mikasa Ackerman dies.
    • Another meta example: Silver Surfer and Megatron, heralds of Galactus and Unicron, showed up in Season 10 before Galactus vs. Unicron was revealed to be the season finale.
      • "Gojo vs. Makima" hinted at its existence through a man killed when Makima transferred her injuries to him reading a newspaper featuring a picture of a unicorn in space with Japanese text reading "Galactic unicorn. We have entered the solar system."
      • Later in "Goku vs. Superman", there is a very faint glimpse of the two before Goku and Superman accidentally destroy the universe.
  • Forgot Flanders Could Do That:
    • In a meta sense, many fans had taken his loss to Spider-Man as proof that without preparation, Batman is completely useless, with many saying he is less able a fighter than Mike Haggar, Zangief, or even Felicia. With his decisive win over Captain America, he reminded everyone that he is still a human being well beyond what is believed to be the limits of a human, and one of the most skilled and deadliest fighters in his world. But then his loss against Black Panther made some fans feel that he's again useless without preparation, especially when it comes to an opponent with something he can't beat without prep.
    • In another meta sense, Raiden's often treated by many fans as a girly joke before becoming a cyborg ninja. Death Battle reminds people that even before becoming a cyborg, Raiden was a lethal killing machine on the battlefield that led his own unit of soldiers at 10 years old. Then, they remind people of how Raiden managed to survive the Big Shell incident, even when he had to go up against two dozen Metal Gears (though they do make a joke about Raiden's young appearance). And then in the fight proper, he makes mince meat of Wolverine's head.
    • In Hercule Satan vs Dan Hibiki, after bumbling around for most of the fight, Hercule gives Dan one hell of a beating and claims victory. Wiz and Boomstick then remind us that, as much of a joke as he is to the main cast of DBZ, he's actually incredibly strong for a human and a good fighter, if sometimes a bit clumsy.
  • The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You:
    • During the live Superman vs. Goku rematch, there's a part where the fighters crash through the SGC convention and the animation pauses for a moment to cut to two cosplayers fighting in front of the audience.
    • Pinkie Pie and Deadpool break out of their video and confront the hosts in the real world, with Deadpool chewing them out for making him fight a Death Battle on his birthday.
  • Free-Fall Fight:
    • The final part of "Mike Hagger vs. Zangief".
    • Zelda and Peach also continue to battle when the bridge is destroyed.
    • Also done half-way into the "Batman vs. Spider-Man" fight.
    • The final part of "Darth Vader vs Dr. Doom".
    • The final part of "Mario vs Sonic (2018)".
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus:
    • At one point in "Starscream vs. Rainbow Dash", Derpy Hooves can be seen hidden in the clouds.
    • Starscream's Robo Cam view has some good ones, like "target: stupid pony" or...
      objectives
      destroy happiness - in progress
      defeat megatron - calculating...
    • A lot of the pre-fight and post-fight information goes by pretty quickly. One could lose an important bit of information if you're not pausing the video.
    • In a humurous example, Mike's Bong weapon has actual stats.
    • The building Superman is knocked into is the Lexcorp building. Which is why in the ruins, there's a piece of Kryptonite.
    • Also, if you look carefully, you'll see that Raiden's body is already in half just frames before Thor's hammer connects.
    • It's hard to see where the punch lands, but right as M. Bison starts the fight by attempting a scissor kick, Shao Kahn counters with a Groin Attack that even makes Bison flinch.
    • When Lion-O blinds He-Man with smoke, you can clearly see his sword is sheathed in his gauntlet when he clearly just lost the sword. It's probably a case when the animator didn't want to make two models of the gauntlet.
    • Among RobCop's Robo Cam view and analysis of the Terminator's threat level, there is the mention "Cool Sunglasses".
    • When Nightmare smashes Guts into the sky and later, as Night Terror, first blasts Guts with his Eye Beams during the battle, you can see Chuck Norris and Segata Sanshiro's constellation in the sky.
    • In Chuck Norris vs. Segata Sanshiro when Segata's fist and Chuck's roundhouse kick connect one can see scenes of previous Death Battles as the universe rips apart and, at the end, a brief few seconds of Goku in Super Saiyan God form teasing Goku vs. Superman 2.
    • In Hulk vs. Doomsday when Worldbreaker Hulk and Doomsday clash, a single frame is dedicated to showing the blast radius destroy South America and can be visible from space.
  • In the end of the Mario vs Sonic rematch, the loser disappears in a mushroom cloud (with eyes, because of course). Take a closer look: that scowl and the skull on its cap as seen in the reflection of Sonic's shades show it's a Poison Mushroom cloud. Yes, those are Sonic's shades... that Mario is wearing.
  • Freudian Slip: During the presentation of Godzilla vs. Gamera, the pre-rendered previews were destroyed when Ben's computer crashed, leading to Wiz and Boomstick improvising them; which leads to a moment in which the Fire Ejection technique is mispronounced as Fire Ejaculation.
  • Fun with Acronyms: Boomstick wonders if Wally West ever has to deal with NARBs: No Apparent Reason Boners.
  • Funny Background Event:
    • In The Joker vs. Sweet Tooth; During the part where Needles Kane lifts The Joker by his neck, a Starbucks can be seen in the background.
    • In Goku vs. Superman; when Goku declares, "Finally! Someone as strong as me!", you can barely hear Vegeta in the background shout back, "Screw you!"
  • Gainax Ending:
    • Chuck Norris vs. Segata Sanshiro ends with the both of them attacking each other so hard that they end up phasing out of our dimension, with a constellation of their likenesses being all that remains.
    • Kirby vs. Majin Buu ends with the Sun turning around to reveal Kirby's face occupying the entire other half.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: Inevitable. These are fictional characters who are from completely different worlds that operate on completely different rules, and in some cases, the problem stems from the worlds they come from.
    • For example, technically, just tapping the shoulder of a bad guy for Mario or Sonic would mean instant death in gameplay, unless you're playing one of their later games and this element is never incorporated into story lines for obvious reasons.
    • In Halo, you can't throw grenades through your own bubble shield, a fact which is glossed over to Master Chief's advantage in his battle with Doomguy.
  • Giant Foot of Stomping:
    • Tommy tries to crush the Epyon under the Tigerzord's foot, but Zechs manages to escape.
    • Ben, as Way Big, stomps on Green Lantern in their fight, which doesn't work. Hal returns the favour by flattening Ben with a giant green boot.
  • A God Am I: Lex Luthor calls Tony out on this because of how he uses the Iron Man, before invoking this trope himself, and then destroying the Hulkbuster armor with a Kill Sat. Tony counters this by donning his Symbioite armor, and outright defying this trope.
    Tony: I don't know Lex, being a god can't be too hard. I mean, I'm the most intelligent capable person on the planet. I'm not playing god. All this time, I was playing human.
  • Good Versus Good: More than a few battles have two heroes going toe-to-toe with each other.
  • Gone Horribly Right:
    • When Wily uses the Roboenza virus on Metal Sonic to kill Eggman, it works its intended purpose. However, he then absorbs the entirety of the Egg Fleet, becomes Metal Overlord, and goes on an unstoppable rampage, killing the remaining members of both parties.
    • Twilight Sparkle casts the "Want It, Need It" spell on a nearby rock to get Raven to fall in love with it and stop attacking her. It does for a moment... up until the huge amount of emotions causes Raven to turn into her more powerful and monstrous Dark Raven mode. This proves to be a bad mistake after Dark Raven makes no hesitation to drain Twilight of her powers.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: Happens when Toph turns Gaara's sand armor into stone. The camera looks up, there's a splatter of blood with Gaara's dying scream, and we scroll back down to see a dead Gaara.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck!: In Deadpool vs Pinkie Pie. Deadpool actually stops to check the setting PG rating before finish cursing.
    Deadpool: What the -Beat- heck?.
  • Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: During the battle between Harley Quinn and Jinx, the two fight while on a roller coaster in an abandoned amusement park. The coaster detrails and the two are left hanging in the air over a long drop outside of their cars. The two manage a short exchange before falling into a large tent below, laughing the whole way down.
    Jinx: Well, that's unfortunate.
    Harley: [Nods]
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: At one point in the Pokémon Battle Royale, Charizard throws Blastoise at Venusaur.
  • Groin Attack:
    • Rebecca Black gives one to Justin Bieber... it doesn't work.
    • Master Chief nails Doomguy in the extremities with a sniper rifle shot.
    • He-Man vs. Lion-O has an unorthodox example in the stinger:
      Battlecat: Raaaar, I miss my balls.
    • It's hard to notice, but Shao Kahn counters M. Bison's scissor kick with this.
    • Mario delivers one to Sonic in their rematch, complete with the ring-loss sound effect.
    • Johnny Cage is famous for his Nut Punch. He successfully performs one on Captain Falcon while dodging a Falcon Punch, with a Sickening "Crunch!" sound effect to go along with it.
    • Tex delivers a couple of these to Grif, who already received plenty of these over the years.
  • Guns Are Worthless:
    • The few times an actual gun have been used in any fights (such as in "Master Chief vs. Doomguy", "Kratos vs. Spawn", or "Lara Croft vs Nathan Drake"), they do little to no damage. In the former, very few bullets hit their target, and even a sniper shot to the groin only momentarily stunned Doomguy, with the killing blow coming from a Plasma Grenade. Kratos simply deflected the bullets from Spawn before knocking the gun away. Neither Lara nor Nathan could hit each other with a single bullet, thanks to being trained at avoiding bullets in a firefight.
    • In Starscream vs. Rainbow Dash, Starscream's gatling gun is worthless because he has terrible aim even when shooting at other giant robots, so he stood no chance of actually hitting Rainbow Dash, a small pony. The weapon he did use once against her was only effective against other Cybertronians, so all it did was push her away.
    • Justified in Terminator vs Robocop. Both are literally Made of Iron cyborgs capable of walking through a firing line, so both of their low end weaponry only impart slightly irritating momentum. Once the heavier firepower is out, however...
    • Guns are inconsequential to Bucky and Fox's fight. Bucky can outrun Fox's aim, who in turn has the reflect shield. Grenades on the other hand...
    • Justified more in Deadpool vs Deathstroke, as bullet wounds mean very little to those with healing factors. However, Deathstroke's healing ability works best for repairing, not replacing. If you shot out his eye...
    • Justified and played with during the "Solid Snake vs. Sam Fisher" battle; justified due to the fact the latter wears a Kevlar vest that is more than a match for Snake's pistol and played with because while Snake's own Octocamo doesn't prevent him from getting shot and it's played up a bit, he still manages to go on fighting regardless. Ultimately, Snake takes the win by stabbing Fisher in the chest with his Stun Knife before finishing it with Sam's own combat knife.
    • Dante's incredible regenerative abilities, Bayonetta's split-second reaction time, and both combatants time stopping magic render each others gunfire ineffective.
    • Despite the might of the Gundam’s Beam Rifle, Optimus Prime’s far-superior speed and durability allowed him to dodge or tank all sixteen of its shots.
    • In “Leonardo vs. Red Ranger Jason”, Jason’s Blade Blaster proves to be a far less effective weapon than his Power Sword. All of its shots miss or get deflected by Leonardo’s shell before it gets knocked out of Jason’s grip, whereas the Power Sword not only shatters all of Leo’s blades, but finishes him off as well.
    • Alucard's guns had bullets that were specially made to kill vampires, but these were only useful against Hellsing's vampires. DIO was an entirely different type of vampire that lacked those particular weaknesses, meaning Alucard's shots were only about as effective as normal bullets. Furthermore, DIO's superior speed allowed him to evade all of Alucard's shots that weren't fired at point-blank.
  • Gun Kata:
    • Solid Snake and Sam Fisher do a lot of close quarters combat and repeatedly knock each other's guns away as they fire.
    • Given how much this factors into their respective fighting styles, it's natural this would play a big part of Dante vs Bayonetta.
  • Half the Man He Used to Be:
    • Rainbow Dash leads Starscream's missiles back towards him, blowing off his lower half.
    • Zitz and Felicia were also fatally cut in half by Leonardo and Taokaka respectively.
    • Both Ryu Hayabusa and Strider Hiryu are known to cut people in half. However, while Ryu needs the Dragon Sword to pull it off, the more physically adept Strider manages with his bare hands.
    • Fox McCloud gets his legs blown off by a grenade. He writhes on the ground for a few seconds, but ends up surviving because the legs were cybernetic and he still had a functioning jetpack.
    • Though he was already dead by the time his opponent did this to him, Captain America gets his body cut in half by Batman using Cap's shield.
    • The Tigerzord's upper half explodes...with Tommy and Saba still in it.
    • Kirby bisects Majin Buu as Sword Kirby. This doesn't faze Buu in the slightest.
    • Zoro not just cuts Erza in half in their last attack but he also manages to cut the mountain behind her in half as well.
    • This is the fate of Metal Sonic after Zero's Dark Hold ends, having been cleaved in two during the final attack.
    • It's noted that Vergil has survived having this happen to him in canon, thanks to his ridiculously powerful Healing Factor reattaching himself as soon as he was cut. Sephiroth's Supernova is more than capable of overtaxing it, and the One Winged Angel finishes off a weakened Vergil with this.
    • The trope returns in Ganondorf vs. Dracula, where it ends up being the killing blow. Specifically, Ganondorf suffers this after Dracula's Demonic Megiddo overpowers the Triforce of Power, leaving him vulnerable. Dracula is still in his monster form at this point and has no trouble tearing Ganondorf apart.
    • It's also the killing blow in Leonardo vs. Red Ranger Jason. Specifically, after a brief Blade Lock in midair Jason shatters Leonardo's Odachi, then as the two reach the ground, Jason stabs Leo before cutting him in half. Leonardo's body then proceeds to explode, in true Power Rangers fashion.
    • Obi-Wan Kenobi and Kakashi end their fight with a Single-Stroke Battle which cuts the latter in half.
    • Queen Maeve is on both ends of this trope. First, she punches A-Train in half, then Billy Butcher bisects her with the Laser Shooting Baby.
    • In their second fight, Link dies this way, with Cloud powering through the Triforce of Courage to bisect Fierce Deity Link with the last blow of Omnislash Version 5.
    • Dio rips Alucard in half early on. This being Alucard, it doesn't stick.
  • Halloween Episode: The Ganondorf vs. Dracula episode, pitting the Demon King and giant boar monster against the Lord of Vampires in his haunted abode, was released during October 2019 creating this effect.
  • Headgear Headstone: At the end of "Shredder vs Silver Samurai", after defeating the Silver Samurai, Shredder plants his sword in the ground and hangs his helmet on the hilt.
  • Healing Factor: A few characters have one, but the aspect of having one boils down to how powerful one is that it can save a character from death. This, and whether their opponent has any Anti-Regeneration abilities are determining factors in the Deadpool vs. Deathstroke, Dante vs. Bayonetta, Hulk vs. Doomsday, Deadpool vs. Pinkie Pie, Kirby vs. Majin Buu, Venom vs. Bane, Carnage vs. Lucy, the Mega Man Battle Royale, Ghost Rider vs. Lobo, Deadpool vs. The Mask, Wally West vs. Archie Sonic, Venom vs. Crona, Hulk vs. Broly, Shadow vs. Ryuko Matoi, Dio vs. Alucard, Madara vs. Aizen and Vader vs. Obito battles. Deadpool and Doomsday had healing factors magnitudes greater than their opponents, with Doomsday overtaxing Hulk's to seal his win. Dante's healing factor allowed him to take a lot more punishment than Bayonetta and became a factor as to why Deadpool and Pinkie's fight ended in a draw thanks to Pinkie's Toon Physics. Kirby shot Buu into the sun and won. However, Vergil's healing factor while ludicrously powerful was overtaxed by Sephiroth's Supernova, allowing Sephiroth to finish him off. While Carnage could restore himself from Ludicrous Gibs, it wasn't enough against nuclear-level incineration that Lucy's vectors were capable of. Mega Man X could physically regenerate from being destroyed down to his core, but this didn't help him against Star Force Mega Man's superior hacking ability. Lobo could regenerate from a single drop of blood, but Ghost Rider's hellfire could burn out said regeneration and destroy his soul. After wiping out the Lobo clones this way, Ghost Rider Penance Stares Lobo's soul and eats it. The Mask's Toon Physics proved superior to Deadpool's regeneration and couldn't be negated with the carbonadium sword. Wally West could survive being in the depths of a black hole, regenerate from being turned into gas, and even resist existence erasure, making him much sturdier than Archie Sonic. Venom was both sturdier than Bane and had a superior healing factor. Bane couldn't exploit the Venom Symbiote's weaknesses to fire or sound, but Crona's sound waves proved over a thousand times stronger than anything that Venom has survived. Despite the Hulk's healing factor being greatly upgraded in his second appearance, it still doesn't help him when Broly completely atomizes him. Shadow could use his far superior speed in addition to the teleportation and time manipulation granted through his Chaos Control to attack Ryuko fast and hard enough to prevent her Life Fibers' healing factor from kicking in. Alucard, while his regeneration speed is far superior to Dio's, has a set limit based on how many souls he has, which Dio was strong and fast enough to drain. Dio's healing factor was inferior, but Alucard would never reach the point that her could wear it down. Madara and Aizen both had extremely impressive healing factors, both of which left the other without any real way to put the other down... except for Madara's Truth-Seeking Orbs, which could negate similar regeneration from Edo Tensei zombies, which was ruled to be sufficient to bypass Aizen's healing factor and take the soul reaper down for good, and while Vader could sustain himself through the Force, it was nowhere near adept enough to restore lost limbs, while Obito's regeneration as the Ten-Tails Jinchuuriki was far superior, allowing him to regenerate having half of his body destroyed, leaving Vader without a good way to bring him down.
  • Heh Heh, You Said "X":
    • In "Zelda vs Peach", Boomstick cannot stop laughing when the vibe scepter comes up. (Heehee, 'comes up'!)
    • He finds Bayonetta's Umbran Climax equally amusing.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Discord traps Bill Cipher back in the Nightmare Realm to keep him from ruining the world of Equestria at the cost of his own life. Cipher may have killed Discord, but Discord won.
  • Heroic Second Wind: Averted in season 1. Due to the way the fights are decided, simple tenacity in the face of defeat doesn't give anyone the win. There are exceptions in season 2.
    • Ivy vs Orchid. Calling Killer Instinct's mechanic to recover in a last ditch burst of energy at the brink of defeat, Orchid reinvigorates just before the final blow and wins the battle.
    • Bucky vs. Fox has Fox get his legs blown off by a grenade. However, Fox's legs are artificial, so he doesn't die. Instead, he amps up his jetpack, rockets right into Bucky, thereby dislodging the jetpacks of both combatants. Both land on the ground, Fox chokes Bucky and blows his head off with a fully charged shot from his blaster.
    • Goku and Superman both use the sun to power up.
    • Fulgore overcharges his reactor in his fight when he starts losing. And when he finishes, it's more than enough to completely crush Sektor.
    • Technically Sonic gets one because he is completely healed after his Super Mode wears off.
    • Kirby, with his Star Rod destroyed and Buu about to blow up Popstar, forces himself out of a Heroic BSoD and activates the Miracle Fruit he already had in his stomach dimension to become Hypernova Kirby, absorbing and firing Majin Buu's Planet Burst attack right back at him and into the sun, taking the win for himself.
    • Yang vs. Tifa. Yang is seemingly bested after Tifa unleashes all of her LimitBreaks, but the sight of some of her hair being ripped out in the process makes her get back up, unleash her full Semblance, and beat Tifa down with the strength she gained in the process before giving her a Neck Snap.
    • Pokemon vs. Digimon has this at multiple points, first with Charizard getting smashed into a lake by Greymon before Red uses Charizardite X to Mega Evolve him into Mega Charizard X, then with Tai warp-digivolving Agumon into WarGreymon after Mega Charizard X's attacks force him back to normal from Greymon form.
      • WarGreymon finds himself pinned down heavily by Mega Charizard X's attacks, horrifying and angering Tai. In turn, Tai lunges at Red beating up the Trainer and demanding he call off Charizard on his friend. This confuses Charizard and allows WarGreymon to end the fight
    • TJ Combo has his Last Breath, which upon being knocked down immediately activates his Berzerker Mode (though with a shorter lifespan than normal) in order to put him back into contention. It comes into play during his fight against Balrog, and proves to be just what he needed to win the battle.
    • In Ryu vs Jin, Ryu gets one of these with the Power of Nothingness/Mu no Ken after the Satsui no Hadou proved to not be enough against Devil Jin. Once it comes into play, Ryu wastes no time in ending Jin.
  • Hidden Depths: Boomstick possesses a surprising amount of knowledge about dinosaurs, raptors in particular. It stems from his childhood when he wanted one as a pet named Barney after learning what irony was.
  • Highly-Visible Ninja: Both Ryu and Strider rarely use their ninjitsu for stealth, instead charging straight into entire armies of enemies. Wiz also questions why Sektor would need missiles. Naruto takes this trope up to eleven, with his ultimate form being a gigantic nine-tailed fox avatar with three heads which couldn't be stealthy if it tried.
  • Hiroshima as a Unit of Measure: Justified as some of the calculation for the feats done by combatants enter frankly absurd numbers. Usually measured in "____tons of TNT" (kilotons, gigatons, etc.)Even when using the highest known measurements calculable (such as the speed of light), certain fighers are still able to exceed this by factors in the hundreds of millions. Exaggerated with "Hulk vs. Broly", where the combatants are so absurdly powerful that our universe has to be used as a unit of measure to describe their destructive power.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard:
    • White Bomberman, in the classical sense, is blown up by his own bomb.
    • Starscream blew himself up with his own missiles.
    • A two-way example. In "Eggman vs. Wily", Wily uses Roboenza on Metal Sonic. However, this leads to not only Eggman's defeat, but Wily's as well.
    • Goku never realizes that the yellow sunlight is the source of Superman's power until the end. By then, he had already boosted Superman's powers in an attempt to blind him with Solar Flare and blasted him into the sun where the Man of Steel is at his most powerful.
    • Lion-O took the eye of Thundera into battle. This may be what he always does, but by doing it this time, he caused the death of not just himself, but his entire species!
    • Yoshi defeats Riptor by spitting the raptor's own acid back into her face.
    • As M. Bison finds out using the power of your own soul to fuel your fighting style against an enemy that has devoured souls for millennia like Shao Khan isn't the best way to win a fight.
    • Kirby beats Kid Buu by shooting his Planet Burst attack right back at him, hurtling him into the sun.
    • In Gaara vs Toph, Gaara's sand armor was revealed to be a liability since Toph's ability to sense earth even in mid-air meant that she could always sense him wherever he was. She also used it for her kill-shot once she got close, bending the sand to compact and crush him.
    • After Solid Snake electricutes Sam Fisher with his stun knife, he delivers the coup de grâce with Fisher's own knife.
    • Knuckles enrages Donkey Kong into slamming the ground repeatedly, then digs out the ground under him, causing DK's smashing to break the ground and drop the Kong into an abyss. Unfortunately for Knuckles, a homing coconut from earlier also knocks him in, forcing him back into the fight.
    • Scrooge finishes off Shovel Knight with the latter's own weapon.
    • Natsu Dragneel vs. Portgas D. Ace ending as it did could be ascribed to this. Ace's attacks and the source of his defense played right into Natsu's ability to eat fire, meaning he didn't really have a good way to put Natsu down, whereas Natsu did have an element of attack Ace wasn't immune to.
    • Balrog escalating the fight into a deathmatch leads to his death.
    • Twlight Sparkle's Want It Need It spell ends up working too well, causing Raven to turn into Dark Raven.
    • Had Doctor Strange not tried to cut off Fate's power, he would have just died rather than had his soul obliterated.
    • In his second fight, Sonic dies this way, with his own Spin Dash being used against him.
    • Happens twice in Dragonzord vs. MechaGodzilla, with Tommy being on the receiving end both times. Firstly, when he shoots Akane down, it causes Godzilla's soul to take over. Secondly, Dragonzord Fighting Mode's finishing move does hit MechaGodzilla, but it isn't fatal, and leaves the Dragonzord wide open for the Absolute Zero Cannon to connect and finish the fight.
    • In Goro vs. Machamp, Goro's fire breath ends up triggering Machamp's Guts ability, giving the Superpower Pokemon a power boost.
    • Sailor Galaxia dies by being forced into the black hole that she herself created and tried to force Beerus into.
    • Spider-Gwen uses Batgirl's grappling hook to pull her in for a finishing blow.
    • Happens twice in Lex Luthor vs. Doctor Doom, with Lex on the receiving end both times. First, the power of the Mother Box is stolen by Doom's Cosmic Power Siphon, and then later, Doom uses Lex's Everyman Project powers against him via the Ovoid Mind Swap, forcing Lex to impale himself.
    • Blake takes Mikasa down by sending one of her Thunder Spears back at her and detonating it in Mikasa's face.
  • Hilarious Outtakes: Electric Star released a Blooper Real of his performance of Saba.
  • Homage:
    • Episode 29 of Season 2, "Yang Xiao Long vs. Tifa Lockhart", appears to be an homage to the deceased Monty Oum and his two most popular works, RWBY (where Yang is from) and Dead Fantasy (which prominently featured Tifa).
    • Episode 58, the premier episode of Season 3, seems like one to Hideki Kamiya, as it pits his two most famous gunslingers, Dante of Devil May Cry and Bayonetta against one another. The preview for the episode featured another couple of nods to the Bayonetta series in its choice of background music; "The Sound of Silence" is an old classic given a modern twist, which is similar to the choices made for the secondary theme songs of the Bayonetta franchise. In addition, the song "The Sound of Silence" was originally popularized by none other than Simon & Garfunkel, who covered the song "Scarborough Fair," which was used as inspiration for Bayonetta's signature pistols from her first game.
  • Honor Before Reason:
    • One of Goku's noted weaknesses is that he won't exploit "unfair" advantages, preferring to defeat enemies when they're at their strongest (with a noticable example being his duel against Freeza and allowing him to transform to 100% power). This comes into play during the fight with Superman: A random chunk of Kryptonite (from the ruins of Lexcorp's skyscraper) starts killing Supes. Seeing his weakened state, Goku charges up an energy attack, aims... and destroys the Kryptonite. Earlier, after Goku eats a Senzu Bean, he also offers Superman one in the interest of fairness, but Superman declines and destroys the satchel.
    • Charizard immediately attacks Blastoise, thinking that he would be a more powerful and challenging opponent than Venusaur. Then Blastoise was hit with Venusaurs sleep powder, and Charizard started fighting Venusaur, its honor dictating that it needed to fight a strong, active opponent, not finishing off one who was sleeping. The fact that Charizard took Blastoise head-on while trying to ignore Venusar's attacks made him take too much damage from two different opponents, which is bad for a Glass Cannon like Charizard.
  • How Much More Can He Take?:
    • Spider-Man survives many of Batman's nonlethal explosives, tasers and punches (even falling onto a car that explodes from Batman's bomb). Death Battle has mentioned that this is realistic to Spider-Man canon, as he has survived lethal explosions at point-blank range and has been pummeled by powerful characters like the Hulk, Juggernaut and Doctor Octopus without permanent injuries.
    • Many fights go like this. Either the character pulls out their ace and wins or the attack simply kills the enemy with an opening. A point nearly parodied when Blanka decides to just eat Pikachu.
    • A crucial factor in Vegeta's victory over Shadow — his ability to outlast Shadow's super form is the decisive factor.
    • While this applies to both Terminator and Robocop by virtue of literally being Made of Iron, Robocop proves to be much tougher.
    • Guts manages to survive a lot of painful punishment from Nightmare - a kick, followed by a lightning sword uppercut, then a Sphere of Destruction that causes him to fly and slam against a tree. After Nightmare transforms into Night Terror, Guts tanks three Eye Beams (enough to finish off any normal Soul Calibur fighter), one of which slams him against a tree, an impalement by Soul edge followed by explosion that flings him against a rock, and a wall of flames. He only resorts to using the Berserker Armor when confronted by Inferno's literal inferno.
    • Yang spends a lot of final part of the fight against Tifa getting her ass whooped once Tifa stops holding back, up to taking a full Limit Break plus a Final Heaven. She's able to turn it around by the end though.
  • Humongous Mecha: Epyon vs Tigerzord, Megazord vs. Voltron, and Optimus Prime vs. Gundam has two several story robots fighting each other.
  • Hurl It into the Sun:
    • Segata Sanshiro throws Chuck Norris into the sun using, appropriately, Saturn's rings. Chuck survives, but the sun doesn't.
    • Thanos tries to defeat Darkseid by throwing him into a star. It has no effect on Darkseid.
    • Sailor Galaxia does this to Beerus, but it has no effect on him.
    • Sailor Popeyes gets pushed to the sun. Due to being possessing Toon Physics, he survives unscatched and uses the sun as a springboard to bounce back to Saitama, causing it to deflate like a balloon.
  • Hurricane of Puns:
    • The entire He-Man vs. Lion-O battle.
    Lion-O: (having just wrapped He-Man in grappling hook rope) Want to keep going? I think you're a little tied up at the moment.
    He-Man: Sorry, cat-man; but you won't string me along that easily!
    • And at the end of Gaara VS Toph:
    Boomstick:Looks like Gara couldn't sand up to Toph. I know you're floored. I really ground that one in, didn't I? What can I say? It's my earthly delight!\
    Wizard: Ugh... The winner is Toph Bei Fong.
    Boomstick: No need to gravel. Can't we just bury the hatchet? (Walking into background) I'm out!
    • Wiz and Boomstick compete to see how many bear puns they can throw into their analysis of Smokey the Bear. Boomstick manages to pull off a 7th pun and break the tie at the end of the match.
    • The Bond vs Wick episode naturally takes every single opportunity to sneak in a Bond film title. And they nearly get them all.
  • Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Saba controls the Tigerzord and keeps Tommy in check when he's goofing off. He also actively participates in the fight.
  • Iaijutsu Practitioner: Raiden from Metal Gear, who pulls an awesome quick draw on Wolverine
  • I Am Not Left-Handed: During Goku Vs. Superman, Superman holds back his true power less and less until it gets to the point where he has to give nearly everything and destroy Goku and Earth in the process.
  • I Call Him "Mister Happy":
    Boomstick: Bucky captains the best named spaceship of all time, the Righteous Indignation, which is now the new name for my penis.
  • I Can't Believe I'm Saying This: Boomstick seemed to have this attitude through the entire Rainbow Dash vs Starscream match; Wizard was a little more serious about it.
  • Idiot Ball: During the analysis of Shao Kahn, Boomstick claims the only reason Kahn could start his rise to power was because the Elder Gods, assigning him the role of advisor to the dragon king Onaga, held onto the ball with a vicegrip. invoked
    "Good job on that one, gods. Heck, why did they even think this guy needed a bodyguard!?"
  • Immune to Bullets:
    • Both Robocop and the Terminator take their fair share of bullets in their fight.
    • Evil Ryu is shown with bullets deflecting right off of his body. and in the battle itself, Scorpion's sword shatters upon making contact with him.
    • Segata Sanshiro gets shot up by Chuck Norris's guns, to no effect.
  • Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Rainbow Dash benefits because Starscream's aim is even worse than an Imperial Stormtrooper's. He can barely hit giant robots, so a small pony is out of the question.
  • Ironic Echo: Weiss Schnee calling someone else an Ice Queen, something she's been called many times in the show. She lampshades this:
    Weiss: Can't touch me, Ice Queen! (To herself) Huh. So that's what it's like.
  • I Surrender, Suckers:
    • Starscream pretends to surrender to Rainbow Dash, to stall while he arms his missiles. This backfires when she leads Starscream's own missiles back into him, blowing him to smithereens.
    • Wily to Eggman. Wily's robot is destroyed and begs his surrender to Eggman. Eggman in his giant Death Egg Robot stomps on Wily and crushes him to death and then Eggman realizes that the person he crushed was a robotic dummy. The real Wily reappears in a new robot and surprises Eggman.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
    • Miley Cyrus gets impaled by a falling sword in the Justin Bieber vs. Rebecca Black battle; the falling sword in question was from said fight and was sent flying after Rebecca's friend's car exploded, eventually landing in Miley's head, killing her.
    • In Luigi Vs Tails, Luigi is killed when Tails sends his Magic Hand right through Luigi's chest.
    • In Deadpool Vs Deathstroke, Deathstroke runs Deadpool through with his sword before shooting him in the head for good measure. It doesn't work, and Deadpool later returns the favor, with Deathstroke's own sword no less. It also fails to take though.
    • In Ragna the Bloodedge Vs Sol Badguy, Ragna manages to grab a weakened Sol and run him through with his BFS, seemingly ending the fight. Sol then shows he wasn't quite beaten yet and returns the favor, prompting Ragna to unwillingly turn into the Black Beast.
    • In Guts Vs Nightmare, Night Terror impales Guts against a tree as part of a deadly combo. This being Guts, he still manages to survive, albeit wounded.
    • In Dante vs Bayonetta, both combatants do this to the other at the same time. However, only Dante has the Healing Factor to shrug it off. He then proceeds to impale Bayonetta even more with Lucifer, finishing her off.
    • In Lara Croft vs Nathan Drake, Lara Croft's hijacked helicopter is blown up, causing Nathan to hit the ground right before the helicopter blade lands right into and does him in after his luck finally runs out
    • In Optimus Prime vs. Gundam, this happens twice to Optimus in the fight courtesy of the Gundam's Laser Blades. He is capable of surviving both of them.
    • Widowmaker tries to defeat Black Widow by stabbing her with glass. It doesn't work.
    • In Weiss vs. Mitsuru, Weiss uses her rapier to stab Mitsuru in the chest by using time-dilation to get the jump on her. Mitsuru summons her Persona who heals that off with ease. Later in the same fight, Mitsuru gets her Persona to freeze Weiss before using her rapier to impale the huntress as a Finishing Move.
    • In Dragonzord vs. Mechagodzilla, the Dragonzord in its Battle mode successfully impales Mechagodzilla with its drill lance. Mechagodzilla responds by pulling themselves down the lance in order to fire an Absolute Zero Cannon at point-blank range.
    • Crona impales Venom before vaporizing him with a Scream Resonance at point-blank range.
    • Ryūko ends up getting impaled by multiple Chaos Spears after Super Shadow shatters the Scissor Blades. This doesn't kill Ryūko off, but the Chaos Blast that Shadow follows that up with does the trick.
    • Lex Luthor vs. Doctor Doom: Doctor Doom does this twice against Lex. When an Everyman Project-empowered Lex has Doom on the ropes, Doom uses the Ovoid Mind Transfer to swap bodies with Lex, then use Lex's own arm to impale Lex in the chest. Doom swaps bodies back to blast the mortally wounded Lex into the Lexcorp logo, where the rebars impale him, before Doom follows up with the actual finishing move.
    • Blake vs. Mikasa: Mikasa gets impaled by her own Thunder Spear. This doesn't kill her, but then Blake detonates the Thunder Spear, obliterating Mikasa on the spot.
    • Jonathan vs. Tanjiro: Tanjiro manages to impale Jonathan with his sword... but Jonathan managed to dodge enough so that Tanjiro's sword missed his lungs. This allowed Jonathan to disarm Tanjiro and take him down with Sunlight Yellow Overdrive.
  • Inertia Is a Cruel Mistress:
    • When Goku tries the Afterimage Technique, Superman holds his fist out and Goku runs into it.
    • In Jiraiya vs. Roshi. In a twist, it turns out to be cruel to the object that ISN'T moving: Jiraiya caught Roshi in a genjutsu, but as he prepared to finish Roshi off, Roshi's still-moving body flew into Jiraiya and killed him.
  • Irony:
    • Goku went to face Superman because he saw a threat to the planet. Guess how the fight ends.
    • Lion-O went to fight He-Man to stop his "animal cruelty". The fight ended with the complete genocide of the ThunderCat race.
    • Briefly discussed in Yoshi vs. Riptor; Boomstick once wanted a pet raptor as a child, and planned on naming it Barney after learning about irony.
    • Bucky and the Righteous Indignation are taken down by a righteously indignant Fox.
    • Kirbopher was chosen to voice Tommy because of his work on Super Freakin Parody Rangers. A series he did not voice a ranger in. The White Power Ranger was destroyed to the tone of White Reflection.
    • Guts' voice clips were that of Siegfried... who was one of Nightmare's previous hosts.
    • Carnage and Lucy are two of the bloodiest and most brutal killers on the show, complete with the latter tearing apart the former repeatedly. However, Lucy kills Carnage by vaporizing him with a giant explosion without leaving any blood or gore behind.
    • Saitama vs. Popeye is ultimately this in a sense. Despite being named The One-Punch Man, Saitama had no way of defending against Popeye's reality warping punches and turning him into eggs, meaning Popeye could defeat him with one punch.
    • Similarly to Carnage vs Lucy, Tetsuo Shima is one of the bloodiest and most brutal killers on the show, but Magneto kills him with a bloodless headshot.
  • Insistent Terminology:
    • Even after Wiz tries proving otherwise, Boomstick still claims that Link is a fairy.
    • Boomstick calls Sektor's Pulse Blades lightsabers.
      Boomstick: Sweet royalty-free lightsabers...
    • And he does it again in Optimus Prime vs Gundam, with the Gundam's Beam Sabers.
      Boomstick: Because you can't have space battles without royalty-free lightsabers.
  • Jack of All Stats: Mario, the former Trope Namer, has balanced abilities, but no standout skills. Without a noticeable ability, he can't compete with Sonic's speed without power-ups in his first fight. In his rematch, it appears that he's a Master of All compared to Sonic with the exception of speed, but including reflexes.
  • Jack of All Trades:
    • Fox's bio specifically mention this trope as both a strength and a weakness, since he can adapt to many different scenarios, but has no clear advantage over his foes.
    • Link isn't the most skilled swordsman, but he is skilled with many types of weapons (including bombs, boomerangs, arrows and some magic powers and magical items). This helps Link significantly in any battle, including against Cloud- but only the first time does it net him the win. In the rematch, Cloud's Materia and equipment are noted to answer most of Link's arsenal, forcing him into a physical contest he just couldn't win.
  • Japanese Ranguage: Sol Badguy's move list rundown includes his signature Gun Flame with the side-note that it's "Commonly mistaken for 'Girlfiend' when called out" by Sol when he speaks in English.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Boomstick points out that the villagers were justified in ostracizing Gaara as a child, since the One-Tailed Beast Shukaku was killing people outside of Gaara's control, and that a raging tummy demon isn't something 'you can just fix with Pepto-Bismol'.
  • Joke Character:
  • Jumping the Sharkinvoked: In-Universe, when analyzing Robocop, Wiz says his sub-sonic jetpack helps him do just that.
  • Kindhearted Cat Lover: Boomstick clearly seems to have a fondness for felines, even though he's known to have a laser-guided kitten cannnon:
    (after discussing how the space capsule Lion-O traveled to Third Earth in malfunctioned, causing him to physically age en route) Awww, we missed the cute kitty stage! ... Shut up! Kittens are adorable.
    (when seeing Black Orchid transform into a panther made of fire) Look at the kitty! I'd hug it, but... you know... the burning.
  • Kiss of Death: Rogue finishes off Wonder Woman with a kiss because it steals power and energy.
  • Kung-Fu Sonic Boom:
    • The fight between Goku and Superman releases several of these. Their last one, a collision between Goku's Dragon Fist and Superman's Infinite Mass Punch, destroys the planet.
    • Thor and Raiden set off quite the shock wave when they collide in mid-air at one point of the battle.
    • Also, Vegeta and Shadow, after they both power-up to their Super Modes and begin pummeling each other.
    • Hulk and Doomsday's colliding fists eventually level the entire city.
    • When Optimus' Energon Axe and the Gundam's Beam Sabers collide on top of the Ark, it causes quite a huge shockwave.
    • Thanos and Darkseid punch each other so hard that they literally reset the universe.
    • Subverted in Wario vs. King Dedede. When both of them grow large, they perform a Punch Parry with their fist and hammer respectively as the screen zooms out... and instead of this occurring, it immediately cuts to a scene of them both being tired from their attempt.
  • Lame Comeback: While Robocop is toasting the Terminator with a flamethrower;
    Robocop: Property damage, resisting arrest, assualting an officer, murder. Your hot streak ends here.
    Terminator: Fuck you, dickwad!
  • Lame Pun Reaction: Boomstick has a habit of making bad puns after the end of a fight, causing the others to react.
    Boomstick: Riptor just didn't have the stomach for this Dino-mite, dino fight.
    Wiz: ... What?
    Boomstick: I'm clever!
  • Laser-Guided Karma: In the Amy Rose preview, Wiz tricked Boomstick into thinking he had an iron liver, so he could drink all the beer he wanted. A week later, in the Ramona Flowers preview, we see the consequences: Boomstick lost his lunch... all over Wiz.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler:
    • Due to being so thorough in their research and presenting all the facts, key plot points about the characters sometimes come up in the rundowns.
    • He-Man vs. Lion-O spoils the outcome of Superman vs. Goku, which in turn spoils the outcome of Vegeta vs. Shadow.
  • Laughing Gas: In two episodes, Joker venom is used by two combatants- the Joker himself and Harley Quinn, in that order- against their opponents, Needles Kane and Jinx, respectively. Both Needles and Jinx are reduced to helpless deranged laughter upon exposure to the gas, but whereas Needles suffocates in front of the Clown Prince of Crime, Jinx's upbringing in the toxic undercity of Zaun means that she can No-Sell the venom, instead entering an Unstoppable Rage and wiping the floor with Harley.
  • Leitmotif: Throughout each combatant's rundown, snippets of themes iconic to their character/franchise provide background music.
  • Lethal Joke Character:
    • Although considerably weaker than his robot allies, Sheep Man absolutely destroyed Scratch and Grounder during the Eggman vs. Dr. Wily fight.
    • When the teaser for Episode 20 was revealed, just about everybody expected Zelda to win her battle with Peach easily. Come the actual episode, Wiz and Boomstick remind us just what Peach is capable of. In the end, she puts up quite a fight and wins the match.
    • The same was true for the Riptor vs. Yoshi fight. Not many people, even the show's creators, expected the cute little dinosaur to beat the bio-engineered raptor.
    • Many people expected Rainbow Dash to get absolutely destroyed by Starscream, but Wiz and Boomstick show off just how superior the victor is.
    • While Hercule is a weakling in comparison to the main characters in Dragonball Z, he does in fact have genuinely impressive abilities for a normal human. Something Dan learns the hard way after completely messing up the Satsui no Hado.
    • SpongeBob Squarepants was considered to be this. Wiz initially saw him as an utter dork that was Pathetically Weak... and then his Toon Physics feats started coming in, including accidentally turning the Earth when fastening a nut, absorbing enough water to become moon-sized, and even unraveling the universe through a loose string.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
    • In Sam Fisher Vs. Solid Snake, just as Snake fakes Sam out with an empty cardboard box and starts to sneak up on him, the next song in the fight starts to play with the opening phrase, "Ha ha, I'm laughing at you!"
    • In the Carolina Vs. the Meta fight, the video begins with Carolina and Epsilon arguing about what movie to watch. Epsilon's summary of why he likes action movies could be used to accurately describe Death Battle's fight scenes.
  • Let's Fight Like Gentlemen:
    • In "Son Goku vs. Superman", Goku chooses to destroy a piece of Krytonite that was weakening Superman rather than take advantage of the opportunity, stating that there was no point in the fight if it wasn't fair.
    • Charizard does this in the Pokémon Starter Battle Royale. Its strong sense of honor dictates that it must fight a strong opponent, which makes it decide to not attack Blastoise when it was put to sleep by Venasaur's sleep powder, and attack Venasaur instead. It's also implied that it attacked Blastoise first at the beginning because it considered its type weakness to it equated to the opponent being stronger.
  • Letting the Air out of the Band: Darth Vader is in the process of Force Choking a failing subordinate as we see through a holographic display, when suddenly Doom steps into view and strangles the officer, and Vader's theme, to death.
  • Like Father, Like Son: Way way back in Vegeta VS Shadow, after Shadow transformed into Super Shadow, Vegeta called him a ripoff. Years later, when Silver turned into Super Silver, Trunks too, called him a ripoff.
  • Like Reality, Unless Noted: If details are left vague the hosts will use physics calculations to determine things like strength, speed, and durability. However, if an event in canon (ie breathing in space) explicitly violates physics that's taken to apply instead.
  • Limited Animation: Optimus Prime vs Gundam has very spotty animation in the fight.
  • Literally Shattered Lives:
    • How Jak & Daxter meet their ends; Ratchet freezes the both of them solid before smashing them into tiny pieces with the Omni-Wrench.
    • The fate of Zuko, who's own fire breath was also flash-frozen by Todoroki's quirk before shattering into pieces.
  • Long Song, Short Scene: The brief shot of Beerus laying on the beach before Sailor Galaxia blows up the planet is accompanied by the last few seconds of a track called Sea Salt Ice Cream, which is over two minutes long.
  • Lost Food Grievance: A fair amount of fights are started because of this.
    • After Majin Buu turns various dreamland inhabitants into sweets, Kirby inhales them all before Buu can even eat one, which angers Buu to attack Kirby.
    • Knuckles eats a banana from Donkey Kong's hoard, getting him pissed.
    • While driving around in an altered Batmobile, The Joker drives by Needles and steals his ice cream, prompting the driver of Sweet Tooth to give chase.
    • Ace steals food from a tavern, then eats the food in front of Natsu instead of giving it back.
    • As Beerus gets ready to enjoy some ice cream, Sailor Galaxia arrives and destroys the planet he is on while also ruining his ice cream. Beerus angrily confronts her about this only for her to respond by attacking him. This prompts him to fight back.
    • While racing against the Flash, Sonic pulls out a chili dog to taunt him. In response, the Flash swipes the dog out of Sonic's hand, prompting the hedgehog to turn their race into a fight.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac:
    • Boomstick, who's aroused by just about every female combatant on the show.
    • Deadpool demanded that his trait of being a 'raging sex machine' to be mentioned, so much so that he rewrote Wiz's script and wrote it into his analysis. Boomstick points out that Deadpool is so sex crazed that he has absurdly low standards, like having a romance with Death herself.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me:
    • One of the major deciding factors for Link's victory over Cloud the first time was his access to the Hylian shield and the defensive capabilities it provided against Cloud's arsenal.
    • Tails' shield bot. But only temporarily.
    • Captain America's shield came in handy blocking attacks, though it lacked enough offensive capability to turn the fight around.
    • Both Ratchet and Jak can use shields in order to protect themselves, with the former using a weapon while the latter uses Light Eco. Ratchet's is far stronger in that it absorbs HP damage in place of Ratchet, while Jak's shield - despite being invincible - is fueled by his very limited Light Eco reserves.
  • Ludicrous Gibs:
    • The fight between Spider-Man and Batman ends with Spidey slingshot-kicking Bats into salsa.
    • Doomguy gets blown to bits by one of Master Chief's plasma grenades.
    • Before they start fighting, Ryu Hayabusa and Strider Hiryu rush a guard on the battlefield, both slicing through him, who then promptly explodes in a shower of gore.
    • Charizard explodes in a shower of blood after Blastoise fills it with water and inflates it like a balloon. Its tail seems to be all that remains of it... which was still burning.
    • Kirby unleashes this upon Majin Buu with the Star Rod's Wave-Motion Gun. It doesn't kill him.
    • Garra is reduced to bloody chunks when Toph surprises him and compacts his sand armor to crush his body.
    • Donkey Kong uses his Shockwave Clap to completely pulverize Knuckles... except the arms. Which Donkey Kong then uses to dig out of the caverns he would've been trapped in.
    • Poor Dan. Having a full size jukebox suddenly pop out of a capsule your stomach is a perfect and likely painful way to become chunky salsa.
    • Bayonetta becomes this after Dante detonates the Lucifer blades she is impaled with.
    • Thanks to Kenshiro hitting his pressure point 2/3 through the fight, Jotaro swells up and explodes into blood after being told that You Are Already Dead.
    • Samurai Jack finishes Afro off by slicing him to chunks.
    • Lucy's usual method of killing is to use her vectors to inflict this on victims. This happens to her opponent Carnage several times, but his Healing Factor easily puts him back together. Ultimately, she had to completely vaporize him to destroy him.
    • Goro vs. Machamp ends this way, with The final blow of Machamp's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown being a brutal Dynamic Punch that blows Goro's body apart (minus the arms, which Machamp had quite literally torn off moments prior) — while sending the remains flying into orbit.
    • After impaling Lex Luthor onto the Lexcorp logo's "L", Doctor Doom slices him into six pieces with an energy blast.
    • Reverse-Flash punches Goku Black's past self to pieces. This doesn't affect the actual Black.
    • Saitama reduces Popeye to gibs at the start of the fight. It doesn't slow Popeye down, his disembodied head just eats some spinach and he's as good as new.
  • MacGuffin:
    • Both Solid Snake and Sam Fisher are after important data during their fight. Sam got to the location first and destroyed the hard drives after downloading everything to a flash drive. The two are fighting over the flash drive through the entire conflict.
    • The crystal from Lex Luthor vs. Iron Man. We never find out just what it is and it really wasn't important to, only that Lex was willing to pass up the Dragon Balls, a Gundam and the Keyblade for it, and that he was willing to make an enemy of Tony Stark to get it.
    • Nathan Drake and Lara Croft were both searching for and end up fighting over the Holy Grail.
  • MacGuffin Guardian: One of the themes of Knuckles vs DK as both are guardians of macguffins; the Master Emerald for Knuckles and the Crystal Coconut and Banana Horde for DK.
  • Macross Missile Massacre:
    • Goomba and Koopa dodge a barrage of Bullet Bills and cannon balls in their middle of their fight, all while airborn.
    • Starscream unleashes one upon Rainbow Dash. Who promptly turns it into a Misguided Missile Massacre.
    • Link unleashes one upon Cloud, albeit with bombs. It doesn't kill him, but it gives Link the opening for the move that does. In the rematch he tries it again with Remote Bombs, with help from the Four Sword. It's not as successful this time.
    • Tails also is more than a little bomb happy...
    • Sektor's main weapon is missiles, which he fires constantly at Fulgore during his battle. Fulgore either reflects or destroys them all.
    • Donkey Kong's Coconut Cannon fires a flurry of homing coconuts at Knuckles. They're surprisingly effective, managing to score direct hits on Knuckles several times in the fight. And even after Knuckles is reduced to a pair of arms.
    • Mega Man's heat-seeking Dive Missiles fulfill this role as he fires easily over a dozen at Astro Boy in an attempt to shoot him down. Considering Astro Boy's Super-Speed, not a single one manages to hit him.
  • Made of Indestructium: Many of fiction's various metals, such as Mandalorian iron, vibranium, and Gundanium/Gundarium, have played roles in victories and defeats for certain fighters. For Wiz, this is a big pet peeve of his as he's expressed incredible annoyance at the existence of metals stronger than titanium alloy, but he'll accept it if they have drawbacks or weaknesses.
  • Made of Iron: Pretty much every combatant takes one hell of beating before one of them eventually goes down. In fact, durability feats in blunt force and endurance are often brought up and analyzed in the show as part of why one character would win.
    • Examples of blunt force durability include episodes involving comic book heralds Dragon Ball characters, who have survived attacks that can destroy planets or even universes.
    • Examples of endurance include Guts VS Nightmare, where part of Guts winning was due to tenacity, and Sabrewulf VS Jon Talbain, where one combatant got brutally injured yet still pulled off the win.
    • Crash VS Spyro is an interesting case in that their defensive capabilities are often far greater than almost all their offensive capabilities, making it difficult for either of the two to die. Almost, because Dark Spyro's Aether Breath which disassembles stuff on the molecular level was far too much for the bandicoot to handle.
  • Mad Scientist:
    • Wizard, nicknamed Wiz. He uses rats for genetic testing, dissected a Goomba to study its anatomy, and often states scientific real world facts on the combatants' tactics/weapons and how they can effectively kill a person.
    • This trope was more or less the basis of Wily vs. Eggman.
      Boomstick: It's no secret that scientists are, well, crazy as hell. But these two take it way too far.
  • Magic Versus Science:
    • Luke Skywalker vs. Harry Potter; the former fights with a Laser Blade and aural energy, the latter with wand blasts and magic curses. It's played with in that while Luke wins, his use of The Force is critical in his victory.
    • Starscream Vs. Rainbow Dash is this. One is a technological robot, the other is a magic little pony. As we all know, Friendship is Magic. Magic wins here.
    • Played With in Link vs. Cloud Strife. While both combatants have magic in their arsenals, Link also has several magic-enchanted objects and augments to boost his attacks, while Cloud relies more on technological feats such as genetic engineering and advanced swords. However, Link also wields technology like a hookshot, bow and arrow, and bombs, while Cloud relies firmly on sword and magic. Link won the 2012 battle, while Cloud won the 2021 rematch.
    • Ryu Hayabusa the magic-wielding ninja vs. Strider Hiryu the tech-wielding ninja. Technology wins, partially because most of Ryu's weapons weren't plasma-proof.
    • Luigi Vs Tails could be considered this considering Luigi's main attack was the thunderhand technique and he also used the Negative Zone, while Tails uses gadgets. Tails' gadgets end up giving technology the victory here.
    • Hercule Satan v.s. Dan Hibiki: The former's a Badass Normal who uses a Jet Pack and Hoi-Poi Capsules, the latter is able to use Ki Manipulation. Technology wins, as Dan's Ki Manipulation is inept, and he is done in by swallowing a capsule containing a jukebox.
    • Yang Xiao Long vs. Tifa Lockhart. Though both ladies prefer to settle things with their fists above all else, Tifa likes casting Fire and Ice magic to augment her martial arts, while Yang prefers using the firepower that comes from the Ember Celica to bolster her boxing. Subverted in a way, as although Yang wins, the reason isn't given down to Ember Celica (which played a minimal part in the fight) but largely due to her Aura and Semblance.
    • Ratchet & Clank vs. Jak & Daxter. Ratchet and Clank have a vast array of technology at their disposal to work with including weapons, shields, nanotechnology, and even Clank himself as a robot partner, while Jak can use the power of his Eco in offensive and defensive abilities as well as activating his super mode with light and dark Jack. Thanks to Ratchet's varied weapons and abilities, Clank's advanced technology being able to counter pretty much all of Jak's Eco attacks, Jak's own pool of Eco being limited, and Daxter being a rather incompetent companion, technology wins over magic.
    • Deadpool v.s. Pinkie Pie. The former's a gun and weapon-toting merc, the latter's a pony with physics-defying powers. They both and stop their fight and become friends with each other instead.
    • Scrooge McDuck v.s. Shovel Knight: Scrooge's an old mallard with a cane and bunch of cool and interesting gadgets, Shovel Knight's a Magic Knight with a shovel and a bunch of magical relics. Technology wins, as Scrooge could survive a beatdown from Shovel Knight's various relics and seal the victory via his physics-defying Ray Guns.
    • Crash Bandicoot vs. Spyro the Dragon: Crash is a bandicoot that's a product of mad science with a Helicopter Pack, Mini-Mecha and fruit bazookas, although he also has mystical assistance in Mojo and Aku Aku. Spyro's a magic purple dragon who channels the elements like fire, ice, lightning, earth, and Aether. Magic wins here, as both combatants were mostly unable to overcome each other's durability — except for Dark Spyro's Aether breath that completely atomized Crash and Aku Aku.
    • Johnny Cage vs. Captain Falcon: Johnny has mystical powers are stemmed from a Mediterranean War cult that allow him to fight divine forces and protect against them. Captain Falcon has a Cool Car in the Blue Falcon and powers theorized by the hosts to have been obtained from exposure to the Blue Falcon's Reactor Might. Science wins, thanks to Johnny losing out in raw stats and his war cult powers only protecting against divine forces which the Captain is not.
    • Aang vs. Edward Elric: Aang is born to a line of reincarnated mystics that bonded with a light spirit and controls the classical elements through Supernatural Martial Arts. Ed comes from a series that treats alchemy as a scientific process with specific rules, results, and limitations in order to manipulate the chemical elements. Magic wins, thanks to having better showings and an ace in the form of the Avatar State.
    • Ghost Rider vs. Lobo: Ghost Rider is empowered with supernatural hellish abilities by the demon Zarathos. Lobo has his natural Czarnian physiology and a plethora of technological weapons. Magic wins, as Lobo had no holy weapons and thus no good way to put down Zarathos for good, while Zarathos had a good way to put down Lobo for good.
    • Danny Phantom vs. American Dragon Jake Long: Danny became a ghost superhero due to the technology his parents use to catch and contain ghosts. Jake is a descendent of dragons who are the guardians of magical creatures and has magic-based senses. Science wins, as Danny has survived attacks that overshadow Jake's strongest attack, who also had no defense against being possessed, allowing Danny to be victorious.
  • Major Injury Underreaction:
    • Deadpool, of course.
      Deadpool: Oh my spleen! My leg! It's cramping! [after being stabbed and shot in the back]
    • Knuckles response when Donkey Kong is about to splatter him? "Oh no!"
  • Martial Artists Are Always Barefoot: As Ryu himself has noted previously, he can certainly afford shoes, but he prefers to go barefoot for both comfort and self-discipline as a martial artist. This is mocked in his analysis — which says that he probably has a foot fungus from walking barefoot all the time.
  • Mathematician's Answer:
    • From "Deadpool vs. Deathstroke":
    Wiz: How many push-ups can [Deathstroke] do?!
    Boomstick: All of them.
    • From "Beerus vs. Sailor Galaxia":
    Wiz: Be it the power or her own mind, Galaxia was cursed with unparalleled vanity. So cosmic in scale that she could not be satisfied until the whole universe bowed before her, or else.
    Boomstick: Just like my ex-wife. If she appeared on the horizon, you'd be totally screwed.
    Wiz: Galaxia, or your ex-wife?
    Boomstick: Yes.
  • Mega Neko: The Tigerzord's base form resembles a giant tiger.
  • Memetic Badass: In-Universe, the entire point of Chuck Norris vs Segata Sanshiro. Its episode description even calls it "the clash of the modern tall tale legends".
  • Mercy Kill:
    • Yoshi's victory against Riptor can be seen as this. Boomstick acknowledged that even if Yoshi hadn't dropped Riptor off that cliff, the acid Yoshi sent back at her would've eventually melted her face.
    • Sol's victory over Ragna could also be seen as this, given that Ragna had just unwillingly transformed into an Eldritch Abomination that would destroy the world and whatever was left of him could only watch on helplessly from within. The quick and destructive kill would seem like a blessing to someone in a state like that.
    • The post-match scene of Leon S. Kennedy vs. Frank West could be seen as this when Leon throws a knife into Frank's disembodied, but still-moving zombified head to end its life.
    • In Tetsuo vs. Magneto, after Tetsuo mutates into his Ego Death form, Magneto hears his telepathic cries for help. Once he manages to get Tetsuo back to his normal state, he quickly and painlessly shoots him in the head, which Tetsuo thanks him for.
    • Darth Vader vs Obito can also be seen as this, as the victims of Infinite Tsukuyomi are fated to slowly degrade into White Zetsus, yet Obito sees fit to end Vader on the spot after ensnaring him in the illusion.
  • Me's a Crowd: Segata Sanshiro went at Chuck Norris with a small army of himself (including one giant him) in a reference to the commercial of Dragon Force II.
  • Messianic Archetype: Tony Stark's parents somehow met an alien while they were trying for a kid. The alien helped them conceive, and Howard requested that the kid be intelligent enough to lead humanity to a new age of technology. That kid was Arno Stark, Tony's perpetually ill brother. Tony was adopted shortly after Arno's birth.
  • Metafictional Device: During their match, Deadpool seizes the YouTube view counter and start using it like a lightsaber. In response, Pinkie Pie grabs an ad pop-up and uses it as a shield. This makes them both realize they have a similar ability to ignore the fourth wall.
  • Meta Mecha: The way Ironman uses the Hulkbuster; Tony pilots it while wearing his regular armor.
  • Mid-Battle Tea Break:
    • Felicia and Taokaka play with a butterfly for a bit before Taokaka kills it by accident.
    • Sonic and Mario's fight is briefly halted when Mario uses his Tanooki Suit statue mode.
    • "Son Goku vs. Superman" has some lulls in the beginning before it starts getting climactic.
  • Minecart Madness: Present in the final part of the fight in Donkey Kong v.s. Knuckles.
  • Mirror Boss: Shang Tsung, having absorbed a good deal of Akuma's soul, transforms into him in the last stretch of their fight. He loses in the end.
  • Mirror Character: Most pairings are based on two combatants sharing the same roles/careers, abilities and even origins. While these make them evenly matched at times, their individual feats and accomplishments tend to tip the scales in one's favor over the other during the actual battle.
  • Mistaken Identity: Some fights start from a mistaken identity from one of the combatants.
    • One of the earliest examples was with Red in Pokémon VS Digimon, in which Red tried to catch Agumon.
    • Optimus Prime VS Gundam happened for both combatants; Amuro thought that Optimus was an enemy Mobile Suit while Optimus thought that the Gundam was a Decepticon.
  • Mondegreen Gag: Brought to us by Boomstick during the Goku vs. Superman episode:
    Wiz: Superman has also studied two Kryptonian martial arts; Torquasm Rao and Torquasm Vo.
    Boomstick: Orgasm what now?
  • Mood Whiplash:
    • Shao Kahn vs. M. Bison has an example that manages to go from comedic to tragic back to comedic.
    Boomstick: (after Wiz explains the swapping of names between M. Bison and his henchmen) So the boxer's Mike Bison, like Mike Tyson, I get it! But why was that a big enough change to—
    (screen shows that Street Fighter II's international release and Mike Tyson's rape trial happened on the same year)
    Boomstick: ... Oh.
    Wizard: Anyway, after murdering his parents at a young age, he was raised by a tribe of nomadic gypsies.
    Boomstick: Wait, are we still talkin' about Tyson?
    • Harley Quinn vs. Jinx spends most of its run time on fast-paced action and comedic bits that are fitting for two girls who are off of their rockers. But the instant Jinx gets a whiff of Harley's Joker Venom, her psychosis kicks in, and she has a legitimate fit of madness that ends with her hurling herself at Harley in such a deranged frenzy that she even scares herself.
  • Mook Horror Show:
    • Once Eggman and Wily send in their Elite Mooks, their lesser ones get massacred.
    • Venom vs Bane starts with Venom slaughtering Bane's henchmen.
  • Moment Killer: A very literal example in Tigerzord vs Epyon. Poor Noin...
  • More Dakka: Doomguy's strategy against Master Chief. It fails.
  • More Deadly Than the Male: While they're rare (most battles are either between two guys or between two girls), men do not have a good track record in fights against women. For a long time the only male combatant to ever defeat a female one was Yoshi of all creatures (and even that doesn't technically count because Wiz and Boomstick do not consider Yoshi to be male but genderless), but as of Solid Snake vs Sam Fisher, Otacon has joined that number with his successful hack of Grim's system and forced crash of her plane. A while later, Dante had the honor of being the first official combatant to break this, managing to defeat Bayonetta. After that Roronoa Zoro, Lucario, Shazam, Beerus and Shadow the Hedgehog joined him by defeating Erza Scarlet, Renamon, Captain Marvel, Sailor Galaxia and Ryūko Matoi respectively. The record stands at Males: 7 and Females: 13. While it has more to do with the individual character than the gender of them, the women have also committed arguably more brutal kills to their opponents than the average fight between male characters, and there are more male characters that normally have an aversion to fightingnote than there are femalesnote.
  • Most Wonderful Sound:
    • The sound of the Falchion, Strider Hiryu's plasma cipher blade, being swung, again, according to Boomstick. invoked
      Boomstick: (after Wiz describes some of the characteristics of the Falchion) And it does it all with an incredibly satisfying "ching" sound. (cut to Strider swinging the Falchion rapidly, with each swing going "ching") That's the one!
    • The sound of Yang's shotgun gauntlets, according to Boomstick.
      Boomstick: With just a punch, the Ember Celica fires off a flash of kinetic energy, blasting a foe with an explosion of force and a beautiful sound.
  • Motion-Capture Mecha: The Tigerzord has a mode where it mimics Tommy's movements in battle.
  • Mugging the Monster: Most of these battles occur with the loser starting a fight with their opponent. It usually doesn't end well for them. The hosts even bring out the stats to show much more powerful the victors are to the losers and most combantants wouldn't know each other.
  • Mundane Made Awesome:
    • The Goomba vs. Koopa battle was way more epic than it had any right to be, even in spite of the hilariously anti-climactic ending. Lampshaded by Boomstick:
      Boomstick: Aw man. I thought this was gonna suck! That was awesome! Who knew those little fuckers could fight like that?!
    • All Might vs. Might Guy starts out as an arm wrestling match of overwhelming might.
  • Mundane Utility: How Boomstick sees the Sword of Omens' Tractor Beam.
    "Sword of Omens, bring me snacks beyond snacks... and a beer!"
    • He also jokingly speculates that Shao Kahn uses the Wrath Hammer to "decimate whack-a-mole records!"
    • Wizard joins in on the fun in Ryu Hayabusa vs. Strider Hiryu, stating that Ryu's ninpo arts would also work as amazing magic tricks at parties.
  • Musical Spoiler: "Balrog vs. TJ Combo" has TJ's Leitmotif playing throughout the entire fight. Sure enough, he decapitates Balrog in the end.
  • Mutual Disadvantage:
    • Natsu vs Ace has both combatants pretty much immune to each other's fire-based attacks, the former being able to eat fire, the latter being able to turn into (and back from) it at will. Natsu also had lightning magic up his sleeve, which Ace wasn't immune to.
    • Both Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon had similar levels of toughness, far above each other's offensive capabilities for the most part. As such, neither could even harm the other that much. "For the most part", because Spyro's atomizing Aether breath was capable of vaporizing the bandicoot.
    • In a rare double-play on this trope, both Dracula and Ganondorf have and are weak to holy magic. Ganondorf has a holy weapon in the Sage Sword and Dracula has the Demonic Meggido spell (which the Castlevania games specify as being holy magic despite having "Demonic" right in the title), which they both use to greivously harm the other in their battle. Dracula survives being beheaded with the Sage Sword, then wins with the Demonic Meggido.
  • Mutual Kill:
    • Mike Haggar vs. Zangief. Subverted when Zangief stands up and raises him arms in triumph.
    • The Ninja Turtles Battle Royale. Subverted when Leonardo realizes he's killed his brothers, Raphael's sai having missed his vital organs.
    • Bieber vs. Black is a straight example, as Black stands up in the car that runs over Bieber, getting herself splattered on a wall as well.
    • All Might vs. Might Guy has an implied example. All Might is killed in the fight, but Might Guy is forced to use the Gate of Death to defeat him and is also impaled through the chest, meaning he's extremely unlikely to survive much longer.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: In Jonathan vs. Tanjiro, Jonathan has one of these when a mortally wounded Tanjiro explains that Nezuko is his sister, causing him to burst into tears.
  • My Significance Sense Is Tingling:
    • Spider-Man's and Spider Gwen's spider sense plays a crucial role in their victories over Batman and Batgirl. However the same cannot be said for Miles Morales and Spiderman 2099. While their Spider Senses did give them an edge in combat awareness and anticipating danger, they were much too slow to react to Static Shock and Batman Beyond's vastly superior speed.
    • Ryu can sense a person's chi, which he uses to sense Scorpion's teleporting a few times.
  • Mythology Gag: Enough examples for its own page.

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