Boomstick: Dimitri, the savage Savior King of Fire Emblem.
Wiz: Vengeance is an ever-malicious force that can turn anyone into a broken, traumatized—
Boomstick: —unstoppable one-man army!
This next episode of Death Battle marks yet another returning combatant to the show's storied history, as the bearer of the Berserker Armor means to conquer a new challenger in the leader of the Blue Lions. Scarred for life due to the bloodshed they've experienced as youths, they now exist to wage war and cause more, daring any unlucky foe to put an end to their wrath should they prove powerful enough. Our warriors have conquered foes from Midland, Faerghus and beyond, but only one of them will live to tell the tale after a tenacious death battle.
The hosts begin the episode by travelling again to the dark world of Midland, wherein the black-clad warrior wielding a massive blade, Guts, resides, and once more recounting his origins. Born from the recently-hanged corpse of his mother, the infant Guts was taken in by band of mercenaries led by Gambino, who regularly beat Guts, forced him to train with swords too large and heavy for him, sent the boy into combat at the age of nine, and even sold Guts to one of his men for a night, whom he was raped by. While wielding oversized blades made him stronger than any ordinary man, eventually Gambino's abusive behavior would lead to Guts accidentally stabbing the man in the heart, killing him in self-defense. With no home left for him, Guts wandered for years as a lone mercenary until he caught the eye of Griffith, who was impressed by the man's skill with a blade and honesty, and invited him to join his own group of mercenaries, the Band of the Hawk. Guts' bold fighting style made him a natural fit for the band, as he was skilled enough to slay a hundred enemy soldiers in succession by himself and help end a hundred-years-long war. Finally, he had found a place of his own where he had respect, earnest friends, and even a lover, Casca... That is, until Griffith, out of jealousy towards his newest recruit, summoned a horde of demons known as the God Hand on the night of the Eclipse, transforming himself into the demon Femto, sacrificing most of Guts' comrades to the abyss, and marking the man himself with the demon-attracting Brand of Sacrifice. A helpless Guts could only watch as Femto violated Casca before him as his right eye was split open, and was forced to tear off his left forearm when an Apostle bit down upon it. With him and Casca barely escaping the massacre with their lives thank to the timely aid of the Skull Knight, Guts furiously vowed to kill Griffith for his betrayal, along with every demon in existence, down to the last one.
No ordinary blade could help Guts in his quest for vengeance quite like his signature primary weapon, the Dragonslayer. Measuring in at six and a half feet long and weighing over 300 pounds, this massive sword, while seeming quite impractical to any other person due to its sheer weight, proved to be a natural fit for Guts' impressive strength. With it, he can slice through suits of plate armor and demons with skin of corundum, a real-life metal harder than steel. Having been the instrument of death to a veritable legion of demons, Dragonslayer has been coated in demonic blood enough times that it exists not just physically, but also on the astral plane, ensuring it can match any supernatural creature its wielder faces. While Guts also carries spiked explosives and throwing knives on his person, the mechanical arm made to replace his lost left limb holds some surprises of its own, as it houses not just a magnet to help Guts hold onto Dragonslayer, but also can mount a repeating crossbow that fires 4-5 bolts per second, and hides a cannon within to reduce unfortunate hellspawn to smithereens.
With this arsenal and his sheer force of will, the Black Swordsman slaughtered all challengers in his path, from an army of trolls, to the Elf-fairy-like Apostle Rosine, to the Holy See's bishop Mozgus, who rained cannon-like blows upon him with his stone fists. And while he always triumphed against the physical challenges in his journey, his mental battles were another story, as with both literal and figurative demons haunting him, Guts struggled to keep his inner rage-fueled Beast of Darkness contained. Trying to shoulder the burden by his lonesome, for a time he left behind his longtime love Casca, who had been mentally broken by her trials during the Eclipse. And while none would replace the fallen comrades he had lost, eventually Guts would reunite with Casca and come to rely on a new band of companions, including Serpico, a young man able to dodge lightning a hundred times faster than sound, and whom Guts has kept up with on several occasions. The witch Flora would also grant the Black Swordsman both his greatest and most dangerous asset in the Berserker Armor, a suit of armor that shuts off all mental limitations to boost Guts' strength even further and causing him to feel no pain, but also forcibly pulls broken limbs back into place and holds his body together no matter how severely injured he becomes; the risk of him bleeding out and dying is quite present in this state, and the Beast of Darkness gains more influence on his mind the longer he wears the armor for, causing him to enter an unstoppable berserker rage.
Fortunately, while donning the armor has proven near-fatal for Guts before, his feats of sheer strength and durability are nothing to scoff at, having held back a demonic dragon, survived impalement, fought alongside the Apostle swordsman Nosferatu Zodd against the lightning-channeling rogue Apostle Ganishka, and killed the massive Sea God while trapped within it, the scream of which Guts barely survived conjured storms spanning an entire island, which would require energy equivalent to 687 kilotons of TNT. Taking down this eldritch monster was required for Guts and his party to reach the land of Elfhelm, where Casca's lost sanity was finally restored. While there may finally be a glimpse of hope for the Black Swordsman, he cannot rest while the demonic legions and his former ally Griffith threaten the safety of him and his allies. However, Guts has proven time and again that no insurmountable odds, not even the death of his series' creator, will prevent him from completing his quest for vengeance.
Boomstick: He has new friends, a renewed heart, a badass sword, and the last thing any man, demon, or god wants to do is mess with him! F[beep]k yeah!
*Work in progress*
FIGHT!
The sound of metal is heard clashing in a dark, snow-covered forest, the fierce duel already in high swing. The two one-eyed men halt their assault just long enough for Dimitri to question his opponent's motives, only for Guts to dismiss the noble warrior and charge in with Dragon Slayer. Areadbhar blocks the jumping slash and the follow-up side swipe that pushes its wielder away. The next attack, a downward slash, is diverted into the ground, giving Dimitri an opening to stab at Guts' head, who dodges it and retaliates with a spinning slash leading into an upward swing, which are evaded and guarded against. Dimitri's return stab is blocked, and before long the noble is found caught in another whirlwind of metal that launches him back. Unperturbed, Dimitri immediately rushes back into the melee, Areadbhar's blade glowing green as it pushes the Black Swordsman back.
At this moment, Guts changes tactics, driving his sword into the snow and extending his prosthetic arm. Dimitri proves himself to have no difficulty escaping the swarm of bolts launched from his foe's crossbow and retaliates with Thunder, forcing his opponent to grab his blade and flee from the dark clouds barraging his side of the battlefield. Thinking fast, Guts tosses a dagger into Dimitri's shoulder, drawing first blood and breaking Dimitri's concentration on his spell. Pressing his advantage, Guts swings his sword down on the king's head, Dimitri's attempt to deflect the strike with a stab doing little to prevent the blunt edge of a hulking mass of iron from loudly colliding with his skull. There is ringing in the noble's ears as Guts slashes widely, Dimitri unable to collect himself fast enough to prevent his back from getting a bloody wound. This only ignites Dimitri's fury, the king angrily piercing Guts' chest and pinning him to a tree.
The Boar King's threats and ranting fall on deaf ears as Dimitri receives his second head injury of the battle, courtesy of Guts headbutting the sanity-challenged lancer. The two clash, Dimitri losing the struggle before casting another Thunder, the bolt engulfing the swordsman. Guts' cry of pain is soon overshadowed by Dimitri unleashing a storm of icicles with the Frozen Lance art, the paralyzed Hundred-Man Slayer only able to watch as the spikes impale his torso and good arm. Seizing his opportunity, the Blue Lion leader leaps forward to stab at Guts, but is stopped by the sudden volley of spiked bombs Guts throws into his armor. The noble's shock gives the one-armed man the opportunity to ready his arm cannon. Telling the king to go to hell between gritted teeth, he pulls the trigger cord to blast Dimitri. Caught in his own explosion, Guts' frozen prison is shattered and he yet again finds himself against the lone tree on the battlefield, flames coating the snow-covered ground.
Bloody and winded, Guts sees the silhouette of his foe rise up through the wall of fire. In the middle of the flames, Dimitri finds himself flashing back to his worst memory, the Tragedy of Duscur. As the noble frantically struggles against the voices that haunt him since that fateful day, the Black Swordsman finds himself hearing a voice in his own head, the Beast of Darkness tempting him to give him to his hate, and the two vow to slay their foes no matter the cost. Guts engages his Berserker Armor and lets out a demonic roar while Dimitri, his furs completely erased by the inferno, dispels the orange flames with the blue fire of his Awakening, and the two charge to the battlefield's center. The speed and ferocity of their strikes grows and grows, the frenzy of their battle staining the ground with blood as minor hits are landed off-screen.
Dimitri ducks a huge slash and pierces the swordsman's chest, only to be punished with a broken nose from an armored fist. The berserk Guts' frenzied strikes are dodged by Dimitri, who shatters the Berserker Armor's helmet with a well placed stab. As the feral swordsman roars, the noble swiftly launches Guts into the sky, who is now unable to defend himself from the Faerghus leader's trump card, the Atrocity art. Leaping after the swordsman and enveloping his Heroes' Relic with a red light, the lancer's attack slams the duo into the ground with considerable force.
With almost his entire body coated in blood and his foe lying lifeless in the snow, Dimitri pulls his spear out of his opponent's body and begins to leave, not noticing the demon slayer grasping his blade to continue the fight. The noble reacts just in time to block the revived Guts' surprise attack, only to gasp in horror as the sudden impact shatters Aredbhar's handle and shoves him onto his back. He grabs the handle of the lance of the slaughterer, ready to use it as a makeshift dagger to defend himself... only for Guts to suddenly stop cold. Dragon Slayer's momentum had instantly halted as if its wielder was petrified. Guts' last drop of life was drained by his cursed armor.
As Dimitri notes his opponent's fate, Guts' Brand of Sacrifice begins to bleed as a horned shadow rises up to engulf the two fighters. The King of Faerghus stands and shouts his intent to defend his opponent's honor and soul, walking past Guts' lifeless body with a crazed smile on his blood-covered face. Mad laughter rings out through the night as Dimitri leaps into battle, Guts' corpse left to stand in the light of the full moon.
KO!
The Black Swordsman's wrath has finally been quelled in death; for as much as Guts proved his mettle in battle by slaying foes stronger than him on a daily basis, he finally came across someone who not only matched his ruthlessness but surpassed it entirely. At first glance, Guts certainly had his edges against Dimitri; comparing their speeds showed that Guts' lightning-timing feats put him at twice Dimitri's speed from him dodging meteors, and the Berserker Armor provided a higher level of raw endurance when put against Dimitri's minor healing magic. However, the Boar King had answers to these leads Guts had and also boasted a wider array of advantages that Guts conversely couldn't counter.
With skills such as Seal Movement and Swordbreaker, Dimitri could restrict Guts' mobility to cut down the speed difference, and Areadbhar's various anti-armor attacks negated whatever additional sustainability the Berserker Armor could give Guts, especially as it couldn't heal him against life-threatening wounds. In addition, the various magic spells Dimitri had gave him more variety to pull from, such as lightning attacks that the Dragonslayer and Guts' gear acted as perfect conductors for.
This is still without going into the overwhelming power advantage that the Kingdom noble had heading into this fight; the hosts - through cross-referencing the various routes present in Fire Emblem: Three Houses - determine that Dimitri defeating the crest-empowered Hegemon Edelgard in his Azure Moon route would make him comparable to her in terms of raw power, and in turn, this would make him comparable to Rhea, whom Edelgard defeats in her Crimson Flower route. As the Immaculate One, Rhea survived 2 Javelins of Light, which created the Valley of Torment in Fódlan. By comparing how many of them were used to create it, they determine that the output of surviving at least 1 of these weapons - even if lowballed - would still make Dimitri about 4000 times stronger than Guts' best scaling would afford him. At the end of this brutal affair, the Hundred Man Slayer certainly had the capacity to fight even on the verge of death, but the Savior King of Faerghus had enough tools of the trade needed to put him out of his misery for good.
Wiz: The winner is Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd!
"Guts VS Dimitri" contains examples of:
- Actor Allusion: Xander Mobus, Guts's voice actor for this episode, happens to be the official English voice actor for Arvis, a villain from Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War who's one of the inspirations behind Edelgard, Dimitri's Arch-Enemy.
- Back for the Dead: Guts returns from his previous battle back in the second season, but ends up losing to Dimitri.
- Bait-and-Switch: Double Subverted. Dimitri seemingly kills Guts by impaling him with his spear Areadbhar, but then Guts' body has a Finger-Twitching Revival. He then gets back up and swings his sword, breaking Dimitri's weapon... but then dies for real right before the finishing blow would have connected.
- Bloodier and Gorier: This episode is bloodier than most of the previous ones, but especially compared to Guts' previous outing, which was surprisingly tame despite his presence. Unlike most episodes, both Guts and Dimitri are coated in blood halfway through the fight.
- Composite Character: Discussed by Wiz, who notes that depending on the timeline what happens to Dimitri and what he does is very different. Outside of that, his feats and various abilities are drawn from both Three Houses and the Alternate Timeline in Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, such as channeling lightning directly through his weapons.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: This fight takes place between two mass murdering One Man Armies and the show itself is well-known for these... and yet, this episode goes to every length to avert this. Guts dies standing up, looking every bit the legendary warrior he was in life, and the animation even addresses the Fridge Horror of his death by having Dimitri go hunt down the demons that come for his soul. While we don't see if he succeeds, the already-drastic change of pace for this show implies that Dimitri did manage to give Guts peace in death, against all odds.
- Dark and Troubled Past: One of the connections between Guts and Dimitri is they have tragic pasts that involve betrayal from individuals they trusted that were preceded by hope spots, among other things.
- Guts' backstory was horrific from the very beginning, as he was born from his mother's hanged corpse, subjected to Training from Hell from his abusive foster-father Gambino, and was sent to the battlefield at the age of nine, before killing Gambino in self-defense. After wandering alone as a mercenary for years, things started looking up for Guts when he befriended Griffith, joined the Band of the Hawk, and played a role in ending a hundred-year-long war. But then that gets thrown away when the Eclipse happened, as Griffith, now Femto, summoned demons to kill nearly one of his former comrades. Guts was then marked with the Brand of Sacrifice, was forced to watch Griffith rape Casca while his eye gets gouged out by an Apostle, and chiseled off his own arm when it got clamped by another Apostle. It was very telling that Boomstick had to warn the viewers beforehand that things were very, very dark.
- While Dimitri's past isn't as dark as Guts', it's nothing to scoff at. He witnessed the Tragedy of Duscur, where his father (the King of Faerghus), stepmother, and several knights were killed by a mysterious group, burning them all in front of him. This left him with serious survivor's guilt. Things looked up for Dimitri when he joined the Officers Academy at the guidance of Rodrigue and led the Blue Lions through thick and thin, but things went sour when he finds out Edelgard, his beloved stepmother's birth daughter whom he gifted a dagger to in the past, was the Flame Emperor all along. This betrayal caused him to snap, which shaped him into the brutal warrior five years later.
- Defiant to the End: Subverted, though not for lack of trying on Dimitri's part. When Guts' final assault manages to slice through the shaft of Areadbhar and knocks Dimitri to the ground, the King of Faerghus scrambles to grab the glaive's head and bring it up in a final effort to defend himself from Guts' finishing blow rather than just die helpless, only to find Guts has already expired.
- Died Standing Up: In the midst of performing one last, maddened charge on Dimitri — breaking Areadbhar apart and having the Tempest King dead to rights — the Berserker Armour ends up draining the last of Guts' blood and killing him; his lifeless body left frozen in mid-swing. Dying in this way also marks Guts as one of the rare Death Battle losers to die respectfully with his dignity intact.Dimitri: Still standing?
- Due to the Dead: After Guts' death and seeing the God Hand coming for him, Dimitri realizes that Guts was like him in that they were both haunted by demons. This makes Dimitri resolve to defend Guts' soul from them, ending the fight by viciously charging them as he wields the spearhead of Areadbhar to defend his fallen foe.Dimitri: So we're both shackled to the dead. (turns to the God Hand) You foul beasts... WILL NOT HAVE HIS SOUL! (laughs psychotically as he pursues them)
- Also, Boomstick is noticeably distraught at Guts' death. When he says his ending pun, he and Wiz bow their heads and pay respect to the fallen Black Swordsman.
- Finger-Twitching Revival: Guts' fingers twitch just before he gets back up from being impaled, though he doesn't stay revived very long afterwards.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Dimitri pulls Areadbhar out of Guts' body after his critical hit, one can very briefly see that the blade has no blood on it, indicating Guts has run out.
- Irony:
- Even though Dimitri was the first character to appear on the show from Three Houses, none of the hosts picked the Blue Lions route, with Boomstick picking the Golden Deer, Wiz going with the Black Eagles and Jocelyn being an Ashen Wolves' player.
- You'd think the guy who died in three out of the four routes in his original game would lose to the one who keeps surviving all kinds of horrible shit, right? Nope, Dimitri's winning a straight fight to the death with Guts.
- Mythology Gag:
- Guts' first successful blow against Dimitri is throwing a knife into his shoulder, reminiscent of how Edelgard did the same after her defeat in Three Houses' Azure Moon route.
- Dimitri's finishing attack with Atrocity is preceded by a Super Move Portrait Attack, replicating the framing of Critical Hits in Three Houses.
- The spearman Dimitri's victory against the BFS wielder Guts subtly reflects the Fire Emblem series's weapon triangle, in which spears are advantageous against swords.
- One small detail that's true to Three Houses is Dimitri going forth to fight with a broken Areadbhar at the end. Unlike in most Fire Emblem games, broken weapons in Three Houses are still usable, albeit in a much weaker state.
- After being thrown back by Guts' second spinning attack, Dimitri's charge is punctuated by a rushing sound that Three Houses players will recognize as the cue that plays when a unit attacks.
- No Plot? No Problem!: No clear reason is given for why Guts and Dimitri are fighting; the animation starts with their weapons already clashing. The most that's implied given Dimitri's comments (such as directly acknowledging Guts as having killed 100 men at the very start and then ranting about how he'll rip Guts' head off to appease the vengeful voices of the dead as his Sanity Slippage goes on) is that Dimitri is fighting to avenge certain victims of Guts' blade.
- Sanity Slippage: Dimitri's gradually loses his sanity over the course of the battle as his Trauma Buttons are hit. Being struck by a throwing knife, in the same spot where Edelgard once did the same thing, causes him to become much more Ax-Crazy and violent, and he further descends into madness when Guts' explosives and cannons light the arena on fire, reminding him of the Tragedy of Duscur. In comparison, Guts' own loss of sanity happens much more abruptly when he yields to the Beast of Darkness' demands and activates his Berserker Armor, which Dimitri counters by entering Awakening.Dimitri's hallucinations: Avenge us...
Beast of Darkness: Yield to me...
Dimitri: I promise... I'll kill them!
Guts: All of them!
Guts and Dimitri: DOWN TO THE LAST ONE!!! - Snow Means Death: The fight takes place in a snowy field surrounded by mountains; the white ground gets stained with blood as the fighters clash, until Guts eventually runs out and dies.
- Title Drop: Boomstick says "BAM! Title drop!" after pointing out that when Guts uses the Berserker Armor, the Beast of Darkness tempts him to "go Berserk."
- Worthy Opponent: By the end of the fight, Dimitri is impressed by Guts' power and tenacity to the point where he's not only amazed that the Black Swordsman died on his feet right as he was about to kill him, but also turns on the God Hand to protect his adversary's soul from being taken.
- Wrecked Weapon: After Guts' Finger-Twitching Revival, his last swing smashes Dimitri's spear Areadbhar clean in two, though he dies for real before he can finish off his foe. This doesn't stop Dimitri from picking up the spearhead first as a last-ditch if unnecessary effort to defend himself and then to defeat his fallen foe's demons, however.
