DEATH BATTLE

• A continuation of the previous episode with Leo fighting Zitz from Battletoads.
• I kind of like how cavalier Boomstick is about the Turtles all being killed by Leonardo. It kept the show in its own bizarre reality.
• A Go Daddy advertisement again.
• Fight! The fight starts this time because Leo showed up on Zitz's turf, and Zitz wasn't having that.
• The finishing blow was Leo leaping from the sewer and bifurcating Zitz with his ninjato swords.
• Zitz couldn't respond to Leo's ninja skills and experience while Leo is used to dealing with tougher mutant opponents. That's it.

I think that both episodes are right so it's just a trivial complaint, but I like how in Leonardo VS Zitz, one of Leonardo's key advantages is his mastery of stealth and sneakiness, and how he could use this to get past the (at the time thought to be) stronger Battletoad. Stealth. Leonardo is really good at it.

...

Anyway in Leonardo VS Red Ranger Jason, he falls from the sky screaming "COWABUNGA!!!!" in the most obviously telegraphed attack possible. Doesn't even ever try stealth; the closest he gets is when he disappears into the sewers, then teleports back and announces "Hey, I'm back and over here now!" before even attacking. Leonardo: Master of Stealth.

Edited by Elmo3000 on Apr 15th 2024 at 6:50:59 PM

I will say, with some of the recent research I've seen for Ninja Turtles, I think Leo sweeps Jason at this point lmao.

"Sorry tights, I'm all healed up. -points ninjaken- BEHOLD THE IMMORTAL TURTLE!"

Early Death Battle had (comparatively) little focus on things like stats and scaling, doing only pretty mundane calcs by today’s standards. This, obviously, left out a lot about the character’s powers and capabilities, and meant that sometimes very big gaps in power or speed were ignored compared to how they’d be handled today.

The trade-off was a more notable focus on abilities and interactions like that and how they’d play off each other. “Dig Dug can control the environment to the point he’ll make Bomberman blow himself up with his own bombs” is the kind of hilarious logic that definitely doesn’t hold up to modern standards, but has a fun charm you’d only get from early Death Battle.

They have confirmed that next Tuesday, they will be doing Wiz VS Boomstick as the last Death Battle Cast… At least, last under Rooster Teeth.

They’ve stressed that they still plan to continue on as long as possible doing things even in the absence of Rooster Teeth, but still don’t have things to share at the moment.

-pouring one out for DEATH BATTLE-

Don't doompost, please. Doesn't help anything.

Its not over until they say its over and right now all that has been said is that this is to mark the end of Death Battle under Rooster Teeth.

I might be huffing hopium on this but I genuinly think that the fact that they have dodged saying anything specific about the future of the show could be because someone else picked them up and now they are under NDA until the Rooster Teeth shutdown is finished.

I am glad they're doing Wiz vs Boomstick. They said that was supposed to be the final episode.

Though if it continues this means we could have a Wiz vs Boomstick 2...

Let's see if Death Battle stays with the team after this one. Would be a shame if this was actually the end of Death Battle as a whole, hope it lives on without RT. Besides, just because a match-up gets a Cast doesn't mean it'll be an actual episode.

Edited by Witherbrine98 on Apr 16th 2024 at 3:08:42 AM

They did get sponsored by Dragon Dogma 2, it’s their best way to keep it going

I don't know if this one has already been touched upon but:

Travis Touchdown vs. Jack Cayman

It’s arguably Travis’ most popular outside of Scott Pilgrim.

It makes sense, it’s a fun match. Definitely has some good potential for fun visuals with its hyper violence, and especially if they commit to the black and white style of Mad World. It’s a bit dragged down by the fact that Mad World remained basically a single Wii title while No More Heroes expanded on, and Travis beats Jack in… Basically every category by a large degree, but hey, that’s never stopped a match from being really good before.

Worth noting is that Jack reappeared in Anarchy Reigns, where he fought against/alongside Bayonetta.

Also he was in color there.

Edited by Rockernator on Apr 17th 2024 at 7:00:25 PM

I don’t know how far Anarchy Reigns itself scales, though I’d also be hesitant to use Bayonetta scaling here. To my understanding she was just a pre-order bonus/DLC in that game, which could mean trying to scale anyone to her would be dubious at absolute best in my opinion.

N/A

Edited by FOFD on Apr 17th 2024 at 2:48:58 PM

I'm going to argue Jack does not scale to Bayonetta. She appears as a multiplayer-exclusive DLC character and her appearance in Anarchy Reigns' universe is arbitrary at best, and never referenced in Bayonetta proper.

Though on the grounds that it would be funny his chainsaw is now swinging with enough force to hurt someone who can survive atmospheric reentry.

• Two video game dinosaurs.
• "A baby launcher is a terrible idea... every time you'd want to reload you'd have to wait nine months."
  • -snickers-
• This was my first experience of Killer Instinct. Hearing Wiz and Boomstick introduce Riptor.
• Squarespace ad. Wonder if they're still around.
• Fight. I guess Riptor wanted to eat Yoshi? Let's see if it works out for him.
• It didn't. The finishing blow was Yoshi eating Riptor, turning him into an egg, and pooping him off a cliff and onto Boomstick's car.
• Death Battle Screw Attack was officially getting so many suggestions with this episode they began a subscriber's-only service for requests.

• Videogame anthromorphic cat women from iconic fighting franchises. This is probably my least favorite episode. I like sexy cat women but its so... poorly represented here.
• How on earth did a catgirl get raised by a nun and develop interests in pop music?
• FIGHT
• The fight begins because Felicity was chasing a butterfly and Taokaka uppercutted her.
• Most justified murder in Death Battle history.
• The animation resembles... is that really bad flash animation from the 2000's, but still nostalgic because where else were you ever going to see Taokaka fight Felicia?
• The finishing blow was Tao slicing Felicia in half. Ouch. Tao had superior agility and razor blades claws (Felicia didn't?) despite Felicia having slightly better endurance that gave her the win.
• Felicia took her final meow.

• Two warriors who've dethroned mythical pantheons with unholy abilities and power, and made Faustian deals for that power that cost them their loved ones.
• Still disappointed we never got a rematch with Kratos. Greek Kratos vs Norse Kratos though would be my preferred matchup because there's a sizable fandom rivalry there - and Death Battle is at its best when it's answering a question the main franchises never could.
• FIGHT! The fight starts because Kratos walked into a room and Spawn appeared through a burst of fire. That's it.
• The finishing blow was Kratos impaling Spawn only for Spawn to reverse this and impale him through the head. Spawn's magical prowess and near indestructible body made Kratos' attacks irrelevant. It stands to reason that no Olympian weapon could fall Spawn, and Spawn could constantly feed on the evil energy from Kratos and his weapons.
• Notably this was our first non-video game vs video game Death Battle.

I preferred that, but I'd like if there were a way to marry both approaches because I do like getting that hilarious calculation of Aang lifting the entirety of ancient Egypt. I just hate "Excalibur scales to all these other stronger Warframes therefore he beats Raiden."

Edited by FOFD on Apr 17th 2024 at 10:25:13 AM

Maybe they could live off of a Patreon account?

For the expenses these productions would undoubtedly incur, they'd need either an excessively generous amount of people pumping hundreds of dollars into each episode, or the productions would have to go down in production value somewhat.

Considering the amount of people who make VS debate/debunk channels because they believe DEATH BATTLE is wrong, I think the pitch "help save DEATH BATTLE" might be a poor sell.

Maybe reduce the time of each episode. I'm not sure specifically what the payscale is or how they would mitigate certain features to compensate for lesser funding.

Though crazier things have happened

• Samurai Jack got back to the past
• Sonic got a good movie
• Dragonball, Avatar, Steven Universe, and Adventure Time all came back
• Harley Quinn shot Batman in the face unscripted
• Metal Gear and Silent Hill are both getting new releases

So maybe the production costs/Patreon donations would work?

Edited by FOFD on Apr 17th 2024 at 8:24:26 AM

They’ve already ruled going indie off the table.

My guess, then, is either that they're going to try to get WB to sell it to some other company (the same as what's allegedly happening with RWBY), or that Death Battle itself dies but Chad and Ben intend to start a Spiritual Successor at another company.

Why not indie? Rights issue?

Regarding Squarespace...oh yea, definitely. I get a sponsor for them every 5 or so videos I find.

These classic Death Battle reviews are pretty neat, even if they delve into some pretty dated humor at times.

I guess with Netflix and Audible still being here it shouldn't be surprising, but I haven't heard the name Square space in a while.

• Anti-heroes who walk the line Johnny Cash-style whenever they want how they want. Also Sonic is low-key a Dragonball rip-off we all know it Shadow and Vegeta have energy attacks and gold super forms
• So we got Vegeta in Death Battle before Goku, huh.
• Super Saiyan improves Vegeta's strength by FIVE HUNDRED PERCENT
• Vegeta can't have Super Saiyan 4 because he couldn't use it in GT without Bulma's help.
• FIGHT
• The fight begins when Vegeta mocks Shadow for a little bit and the moment Shadow makes fun of him, Vegeta writes out his death warrant.
• There was nothing too special in this fight animation. A lot of projectile-spamming, Shadow actively using his teleporting abilty to outmaneuver Vegeta. Love how Vegeta's response to being on the moon was to punch the moon down to the Earth.
• Shadow flings the moon back into orbit just like he did the Space Colony ARK.
• Super Shadow runs out of rings and Vegeta disintegrates him
• The question wasn't if Vegeta could kill Shadow, it was if he could survive Super Shadow. If not for that period of invincibility Shadow was basically cooked.

• A classic video game rivalry between Nintendo and Sega's mascots.
• The metal cap makes Mario 10x stronger/faster? Where did they get this multiplication?
• Boomstick's suggestion was placing a GPS tracker on Peach. I guarantee that doing so would not alleviate Peach being hard to find.
• The pre-fight analysis says Sonic knows martial arts. I at least wouldn't say he knows any conventional form of martial arts.
• The only reason for these two to fight is that they're already rivals. These episodes were obviously lacking thematic or narrative quality. Though this is the most dynamic fight of Season 1 - we go from them just punching each other to a volcano full of Bob-Ombs to Sonic getting trapped underwater. Nice that we got to see a variety of powerups instead of Sonic rushing to Super Sonic and getting embarassed by Cat Mario.
• The powerups were a match for one another but once those were exhausted Sonic's natural speed trumped Mario.

• This episode could've been a make it or break it.
  • If Black or Bieber had been successful enough at the time to have their own legal defense team, I'd imagine they could have used over this. It's a pretty mean-spirited parody of both of them.
  • Even though I don't dislike this episode it is pretty low quality. If you were watching DEATH BATTLE back in an American high school you'd completely grasp this episode, but outside of that it'd two random teenagers being put in an unconventional battle to the death.
  • If they'd stayed the course with these types of matchups, it'd probably have left the show in "one-year nerd trend" instead of propelling it to cultural landmark territory.
• The sprites used in this battle were Stephen Stills and Kim Pine from Scott Pilgrim Vs The World The Game. The fight begins because Black approached Bieber and he sprayed her in the face, and it ends with Black crashing her car and the resulting explosion killing the Jonas Brothers. A stray katana landed in Miley Cyrus's skull.
• The exaggeration of their feats is amusing. And I guess this was our first gag episode?

Holy cow Season 1 is longer than I remember.