Boomstick: ...and the Predator, the monstrous manslayer from beyond the stars.
Wiz: There's nothing quite like the thrill of the hunt, especially when you're chasing that most dangerous game.
Boomstick: Not humans; we're talking face-hugging aliens and space wizards!
With Death Battle about to wrap up the first half of season 9, we're set to travel the cosmos and enter the domain of two intergalactic assassins of the highest caliber who will stop at nothing to take whatever prey is unfortunate enough to be marked by them. The honor of two warrior races is on the line as the successor to one of the most legendary Mandalorians in existence takes on the idealized representative of the Yautja culture's dedication to the hunt. No stranger to battling foes from all walks of life, it's time to pit this veteran against his second opponent and figure out who would win in a death battle.
The first of the space hunters to be examined is the returning Boba Fett, whose reputation is still as feared as ever. Having been born as an identical clone to be raised by his father, Jango Fett, in exchange for serving as a genetic template for the Kaminoan Clone Army, Boba was trained to live as a bounty hunter. While he and his father were successful for some time, Jango would eventually find himself killed in a conflict with the Jedi Master, Mace Windu. Even still, Boba was determined to avenge his father and live up to his legacy. A legacy that could be traced to the formidable warrior race known as the Mandalorians.
In ages past, the Mandalorians were even capable of waging war against the Jedi with nothing more than their skills and their iconic armor, both of which Boba inherited from his father. Fett's armor is composed of the metal Beskar, one of the strongest materials in the galaxy, and is capable of surviving just about anything: from thermal detonator blasts to lightsaber blows to even bolts of electricity capable of vaporizing human bodies. The mechanisms within Fett's helmet contain targeting systems, thermal imaging and even 360° tracking, enabling him to see all around him. Moreover, his vambraces have yet more tools that allow him to successfully contend with Jedi, such as a flame projector, a fiber cord wire, a mini concussion rocket, built-in laser blasters and forearm blades. Fett's armor is so absurdly equipped that even his kneepads contain a rocket dart launcher.
Fett's non-armor arsenal is equally as impressive, with an emphasis on long-range engagement. He possesses his iconic jetpack that allows him to maneuver the battlefield with ease and can obliterate most small spacecraft with an anti-vehicle missile. His most favored blaster is his signature EE-3 carbine rifle, but he also possesses blaster pistols capable of disintegrating his targets in one shot. Even when forced to engage in close-range combat, he remains a formidable foe with his gaderffii stick, crafted during his time living with a Tusken tribe. He also has bombs of all sorts, with his most powerful being the thermal detonators, which are capable of destroying massive stone structures.
The man himself makes good use of all of this gear thanks to his expertise in marksmanship, hand-to-hand combat and tactics, capable of outsmarting and defeating the Jedi, all the while claiming their lightsabers as trophies. He would battle many Jedi and other Force-users throughout his life, including Darth Vader himself, whose reaction times reach near lightspeed. It helps that Fett, while honorable in his conduct, is very ruthless during his hunts and is willing to use any tactic necessary to achieve victory.
Fett has achieved many impressive feats through his career, like denting solid steel, outracing explosions while in flight and even walking off being shot in the chest out of sheer anger. He's escaped the dreaded Sarlaac pit and has proven a capable military commander and mentor in both Legends and Canon. Regardless of the continuity and of the opponents he's faced, Boba Fett remains the galaxy's greatest bounty hunter for very good reasons.
One advertisement for Mint Mobile later and now the hosts shift focus onto Boba Fett's opponent. Or rather, they relay the details of a classified American Spec-Ops mission sent to Central America to eliminate a group of insurgents. While successful in their mission, they would come to realize that there was something even more dangerous in the jungle than any man. "It" was a Predator hellbent on hunting down them down.
Hailing from beyond the stars, this Predator has dedicated its entire life to hunting the most dangerous beings of other worlds. To facilitate its hunts, it uses a vast array of tools, both high-tech and mundane, dedicated to murder. One of these iconic weapons is the Plasma Caster which, as the name suggests, is a shoulder-mounted cannon capable of firing bolts of superheated plasma. The masks, or Bio-Helmets, that the Predators don possess a tracking system that works in tandem with their Plasma Casters and grants them multiple modes of vision, such as X-ray, UV and night vision, while the Predators themselves possess natural infrared. All of this makes them very capable of tracking down their prey even in the most hostile environments while making it difficult for others to do the same thanks to their light-bending camouflage. In spite of this phenomenally high-tech equipment, Predators are honorable fighters who prefer to engage close-range combat with their Wristblades.
This arsenal made the original Jungle Hunter an absolute killing machine and yet, there are other Predators who are even more dangerous. The Predators, or the Yautja as they are officially called, fully commit their centuries long lives to hunting the deadliest creatures throughout known space. Hunters who have lived this long and achieved victory throughout the entire time are known as "Elders" and serve as the pinnacle of prowess in their society. Even becoming a mere independent hunter requires a Predator to slay the just as deadly Xenomorphs. The Xenomorph's own biological advantages necessitate the use of a more diverse arsenal than what would be carried by an average Predator; an arsenal that itself needs to be earned through yet more successful hunting. Some highlights include the Combistick, a netgun and Smart-discs that vibrate at high-speeds and can be thrown and recalled remotely cutting anything in its path. Further gear includes an EMP capable of disabling most electronic equipment and a Plasma Scythe that utilizes "Dark Plasma" that can bypass conventional durability to strike directly at an opponent and potentially kill them within four strikes.
Even without this gear, the Predators are physically superior to most of the opponents they hunt. They're strong enough to tear through solid steel with ease, can pull apart people even easier and decimate most of the actual predators in Earth's ecosystem, some of which can be attributed to their durable plasma-forged armor. They've proven tough enough to survive gas explosions and even dodge laser beams. Yet, this does not make them invincible. If any opponent can overcome them, the Predators are compelled by their honor to use the nuclear explosive device on their wrist to vaporize both themselves and everything around them within 300 city blocks. Trying to survive a Predator is an arduous task and trying to kill them is even more so, making them deserving of their name and a terrifying foe for even the most hardened killers.
Both combatants have been analyzed and the Hello Fresh advertisement has been completed. Now it's time for a death battle!
On an unknown planet filled with dense jungle, the bounty hunter Boba Fett disembarks from his Slave-1 ship, unaware that a cloaked Elder Predator is stalking him from the canopy above. He pushes his way past some foliage, only to be greeted by mutilated bodies that have been strung up. He disparages them for their foolishness and is seemingly oblivious to the Predator aiming at the back of his head with their Plasma Caster. The Predator opens fire...
FIGHT!
... but Fett quickly sidesteps the shot and fire back at the still-cloaked Predator, who leaps out of the way. Realizing that his opponent is invisible, he deploys his visor and scans his surroundings. The Predator reappears on a branch behind Boba, deploys their wrist blade and leaps at the bounty hunter but is shot out of the air by Fett and slams into a tree from the force. Boba strides up to the alien hunter and points his rifle at their head, ready to execute the Predator when the Plasma Caster reactivates and blasts Fett in the chest, knocking him back. The Predator capitalizes on the opening to slice Fett's rifle in two and kick him back. The Mandalorian takes to the air, intercepting the Yautja's plasma shots with his wrist laser, before firing his anti-vehicle missile at the Predator. They roll back to avoid the blast and, amidst a hail of laser fire, shoots an EMP into Fett's jetpack causing it to malfunction and sends him crashing into a tree.
Winded but alive, Fett sees the Predator charging at him and deploying their wrist blade. He rolls out of the way of their stab and deploys his own forearm blade. The bounty hunter and the alien hunter engage in close combat before a slash at his chest prompts Fett to fire his fibercord wire. The Predator dodges it and severs the wire but is caught by Fett's kneepad rocket darts and subsequently, his miniature rocket. He emerges from the explosion unharmed and reveals his Combistick. The Tatooine crime lord counters the assault with his own Gaderffii stick, but is eventually overpowered and stabbed in the shoulder, but his armor holds firm, allowing him to smack the Elder on the head with his weapons. This breaks the deadlock between the two, but the Predator follows up by throwing two Smart Discs at his enemy. Boba deflects one with his Gaffii stick while the other bounces off of his armor into the forest behind him. Fett watches as the Predator presses a button on his wrist gauntlet, mimicking his voice and causing the Smart Disc to fly back to the Yautja and sever the bounty hunter's right arm at the elbow. The pain forces Boba to drop his weapon and retreat while firing his wrist laser.
The Predator picks up his opponent's arm and roars in triumph, while Fett takes shelter behind a tree. To finish the job, the Predator tracks the Mandalorian's blood and stabs through his "cover". Fett however has since climbed up the tree and drops a thermal detonator right in front of the surprised Predator. The bomb explodes, wiping out much of the surrounding forest. When the smoke clears, both Boba Fett and the Predator are revealed to have survived. Both hunters unveil their strongest weapons, a lightsaber and the Plasma Scythe, with Boba cauterizing his wound. With his Bio-helmet damaged, the Predator unveils his true face, much to Fett's disgust. The Elder roars and charges at Fett, who holds him at bay with his flame projector. The Predator overcomes it, clashing with and eventually knocking Boba to the ground. As they prepare to deliver the final blow, the accumulated flames begins to cloud its vision. Fett capitalizes on the opportunity, slashing at its abdomen and after outmaneuvering the Predator, slashes through their scythe and the torso.
As the Predator lays defeated, they activate their nuclear wrist bomb. Fett briefly taunts the Yautja, who simply responds with yet another of Fett's own words. The device wipes out the remainder of the forest, leaving behind a smoking crater. Despite all of that, Boba Fett emerges exhausted and wounded, but victorious and makes his way back to his ship with his severed arm in hand.
KO!
The elder Yautja's ashen remains are scattered across the scorched hunting grounds to mark the end of Season 9's first half, and it's now time to get the breakdown as to why the Predator became Boba Fett's newest prey. Heading into the battle, the Predator boasted a solid strength advantage - being able to tear through solid steel whereas Boba could only really dent it, and while most Predators could dodge laser beams, Boba has battled Force users with lightspeed reactions, putting them roughly in the same ballpark. Durability was an entirely different ballgame, as this marked the first of many arsenal-based advantages the son of Jango Fett boasted over his bloodthirsty opponent.
Predators and their armor are surely tough, but not to the extent of a Mandalorian's beskar armor. Not only did it simply cover more of Boba's body than the Predator's own equivalent, beskar is such an absurdly sturdy metal that the majority of the Predator's weapons would not be able to penetrate it. Even shots from a plasma caster would fail, considering that beskar has remained durable against attacks from the plasma-based lightsabers. The plasma scythe could reasonably take Boba out in a few hits thanks to its ability to ignore conventional durability, but Boba could easily retreat via his jetpack to safely get out of melee range and engage the Predator from a distance with his various firearms and explosives. Said arsenal had a lot needed to counter the Predator's own too; Boba's helmet countered the Predator's cloak, his flamethrower could mess with the Predator's thermal vision, and nothing in the Yautja's own toolkit could survive strikes from a lightsaber. Even employing a EMP would do little good, as Mandalorian armors could take bolts of electromagnetic energy without shorting out. Granted, while elder Predators' centuries of combat experience trumping Boba's far shorter lifespan in comparison meant the Yautja could find ways to deal with Boba's weapons, the hosts bring up another key article in Boba's victory. Both hunters have their codes of honor which they adhere to, but whereas Predators rarely employ dirty tactics to win battles they deem fair, Boba has no such qualms holding him back from trying to come out victorious.
Most of this would not matter given that the Predator could easily kill Boba by self-destructing, were it not for a few caveats holding this trump card back. While the hosts ascertain that Boba would not survive if he were trapped at the epicenter, his odds of survival would increase simply by running away so that he would take less of the explosion's power. Even getting away a minimum of 50 feet makes surviving the explosion akin to that of a thermal detonator, which Boba has cleanly survived before. Not only that, but the countdown until self-destruction runs for 40 seconds, giving more than enough time for Boba to escape, especially considering that Dutch Schaeffer was able to escape the blast radius of the Predator he defeated simply by sprinting away in time. Most importantly, what finally gave the edge to Boba here were the types of prey both combatants have been able to battle and defeat in the past; while the Xenomorphs are truly deadly creatures who have earned the reputation of being the worthiest prey in Yautja culture, Boba's encounters with Jedi and Sith who routinely employ the mystical powers of the Force to achieve feats far beyond what any normal human can attain meant he had the more impressive list of targets to conquer.
Overall, this wild hunt truly tested both warriors' guile and might, but Boba Fett's durability and versatility gave him the tools needed to vanquish this elder Predator and add yet another target to his book of legend.
Wiz: The winner is Boba Fett!
Next time on a special episode of Death Battle...
This Death Battle includes the following tropes:
- An Arm and a Leg: The Predator employs his smart disks to slice off Boba's right arm. It doesn't impede him much, and Boba does take his arm back after incapacitating the Predator right as the self-destruct sequence starts.
- Battle Amongst the Flames: The fight's climax reaches this point where it actually comes into play against the Predator, whose natural infrared sight gets blinded and confused by all of the fire raging around them, leading to Boba exploiting this weakness and taking down the Yautja hunter.
- Boomerang Comeback: The most significant hit the Predator inflicts to Boba Fett is by throwing a pair of smart disks. Boba initially deflects them with his gaffi stick, but then one makes a loop behind him and, on the return trip, cleanly lops off his right arm.
- Broken Win/Loss Streak: If counting his encounter with Samus and its remake as two separate battles, Boba Fett scores his first proper victory of the show.
- Call-Back: Boba's "You're mine" is a callback to the very first episode of Death Battle, where it's Samus Aran's Pre-Mortem One-Liner towards him. The Predator even throws it back against him again quite literally by recording Boba saying it and repeating it back to him right before a smart disk lops off Boba's right arm.
- Composite Character: On both ends to boot.
- Boba's feats and arsenal are composed of elements given from his Canon and Legends incarnations. For example, he wields a gaffi stick as per the Disney canon via The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, but also keeps a lightsaber as per his collection from Legends.
- The Predator is treated as a composite of his entire species, taking elements from different Predators from the movies, comics and video games. Backstory-wise, the initial parts of his analysis are taken from the one Predator who fought Dutch Schaeffer and his squad.
- Ironic Echo: The Predator mimics Boba's "You're mine" before its smart disk loops back around to slice off Boba's arm.
- Heal It With Fire: After drawing his lightsaber, Boba uses it to cauterize the stump of his right arm.
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Boba and the Predator's forte. What proves to help Boba stand above his opponent is that his prey are Jedi, individuals who have all sorts of powers, including powerful telekinesis and mind reading. In comparison, whilst the Xenomorphs are incredibly deadly, they're essentially just smarter-than-average animals. Thus, Boba has gone through much more intense battles.
- The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: The fight starts out with Boba minding his business in a jungle while an elder Predator stalks him before attacking, thinking that the Mandalorian would make a good hunt. The Predator instead ends up defeated by its would-be prey, forcing it to self-destruct — but even that doesn't kill Boba.
- Logical Weakness: As the Predator finds out in the fight's climax, having natural infrared vision to see heat signatures isn't so great when your surroundings are literally all on fire and your opponent's flame projector would only make your confusion even worse.
- Mythology Gag:
- Boomstick closes out the Predator's rundown by referring to it as a "goddamn sexual Tyrannosaurus", a memorable line from its debut film.
- Once again, the Predator is referred to by his opponent as "one ugly motherfucker".
- The Predator is blinded when it is surrounded by fire, like Berserker/Mr. Black.
- Offhand Backhand: At the start of the fight the Predator tries to attack Boba from behind, only for the latter to casually shoot him over his shoulder.
- Precision F-Strike: Boba delivers one when giving the same insult Dutch gave to the Jungle Hunter.Boba Fett: Ugh. You are one ugly motherfucker.
- Soldier vs. Warrior: Boba is the soldier, a ruthlessly efficient bounty hunter who fights primarily for money and uses a wide array of weapons and gadgets. The Predator is the warrior, a vicious hunter who fights solely for the thrill of the hunt and generally eschews more advanced weaponry in favor of getting up close and personal. Ultimately, the soldier wins this fight.
- Suddenly Voiced: After going completely silent in his battles with Samus, Boba Fett is given a voice actor who gives him proper dialogue.
- Taking You with Me: Upon being mortally wounded, the Predator activates its self-destruct as per Yautja custom. Boba avoids being taken with him by getting out of range within the time limit.
