History BrokenBase / EpicRapBattlesOfHistory

* In general, any battle featuring two modern, purely fictional combatants (''Rick Grimes Vs. Walter White'' and the aforementioned ''Superman Vs. Goku'', for example) rather than at least one historical figure will receive a fair bit of criticism for not actually including any historical figures, thus making the "History" part of the "Epic Rap Battles of ''History''" name redundant. Others, however, don't necessarily mind if two contemporary fictional characters are used, so long as the raps themselves are of decent quality (''Indiana Jones vs. Lara Croft'', for example, has received comparitively little criticism in this regard.)

* ''Batman vs. Sherlock Holmes'' is very polarizing; half the fans like it just fine, the other half are put off by the delivery of Batman's verses, on top of Batman having very few good lines.[[note]]Many not knowing that Batman in ERB is more of a shout out to ''Badman'' as portrayed by Pete Holmes of Website/CollegeHumor, which is a rather brutal (but [[AffectionateParody affectionate]]) parody of Batman.[[/note]] [=EpicLLOYD=] actually references this in ''Nice Peter vs [=EpicLLOYD=] 2'':

* While most fans are otherwise fine, some fans are split about ''Goku vs. Superman''...mainly because of the fact that Goku is [[XPacHeat played by]] [[WebVideo/EqualsThree Ray William Johnson]], who is pretty disliked by more elite Website/YouTube enthusiasts.

* ''Godzilla vs King Kong'' got a pretty mixed reception from fans, especially after premiering after the very well-liked "Henry Ford vs Karl Marx". The battle had a pretty long production time of nearly 3 years and was Pete and Lloyd's first time using motion capture VFX, yet a lot of fans were disappointed by the weird-looking effects that looked more like a video game and also felt like the titular characters weren't that interesting for a rap battle. More criticism was also leveled at Kong's design, which some users likened to Bigfoot, and the sound mixing for the rappers, which some said had too much bass on it and sounded pretty incomprehensible for some of the lines.

* ''Adam vs. Eve'' is often regarded as underwhelming, with the battle's theme feeling less like a battle between the two historical figures and more of a "boys vs girls" battle. Others have noted that Jenna Marbles was underutilized as a guest star.

** The visuals for the battle, compared to the two gorgeous preceding battles, are a much simpler fare, with Trump and Biden rapping in front of American maps. Some are fine with the humble ensemble, with the pandemic still raging on in the US, while others are dissapointed by the visual downgrade.
* "Godzilla vs King Kong" got a pretty mixed reception from fans, especially after premiering after the very well-liked"Henry Ford vs Karl Marx". The battle had a pretty long production time of nearly 3 years and was Pete and Lloyd's first time using motion capture, yet a lot of fans were disappointed by the weird-looking vocals that looked more like a video game and also felt like the titular characters weren't that interesting for a rap battle. More criticism was also leveled at Kong's design, which some users likened to Bigfoot, and the sound mixing for Godzilla's voice, which some said had too much bass on it.

* ''Jim Henson vs Stan Lee'' has had a polarizing reception in the fanbase since it came out. Some people find it to be a really great finale, citing its use of storytelling in a rap battle (with its [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments heartwarming]] and [[TearJerker tearjerking]] moments) and finding Walt Disney’s verse at the end to be one of the greatest in the series, some other people, on the other hand, find it to be a disappointing and underwhelming finale, that moves too far away of what a rap battle is supposed to be, and find Walt Disney at the end to be a [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter wasted character]] by him being an AnthropomorphicPersonification of the Disney Company instead of being a direct portrayal of the real person.

** His lines; while some people think he had some good hard-hitting lines, some others think that they were mediocre, at least in comparison to his opponent’s verbal slaughter, and that he relied too much on [[WereStillRelevantDammit memes and current pop culture references]] (most infamously his VideoGame/{{Fortnite}} reference, which according to many [=YouTube=] commenters made him automatically lose the battle the moment he said it).

* ''Bruce Banner vs. Bruce Jenner'' is one of the most divisive battles in the show's history, with by far the highest dislike percentage. This is due to Caitlyn Jenner's presence alone (she's a very controversial figure, ''especially'' in the transgender community itself), as well as how one-sided the battle becomes in the second half (Jenner gets almost three times the number of lines Hulk does). Then there's the debate over whether Banner should've had a different opponent; one side dislikes the reasoning behind the matchup (simply the fact that they're both named Bruce and that they have a second form to them that changes radically who they were) and often brings up [[Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde Henry Jekyll]] as a better choice, while the other side says that Jenner deserved a voice and/or that Jekyll would have been too obvious. And that's before getting into the political side of things, with some people accusing the battle of being transphobic, others calling it too "politically correct," and still others who think the first two groups are making mountains out of molehills.

* ''Bruce Banner vs. Caitlyn Jenner'' is one of the most divisive battles in the show's history, with by far the highest dislike percentage. This is due to Caitlyn Jenner's presence alone (she's a very controversial figure, ''especially'' in the transgender community itself), as well as how one-sided the battle becomes in the second half (Jenner gets almost three times the number of lines Hulk does). Then there's the debate over whether Banner should've had a different opponent; one side dislikes the reasoning behind the matchup (simply the fact that they're both named Bruce and that they have a second form to them that changes radically who they were) and often brings up [[Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde Henry Jekyll]] as a better choice, while the other side says that Jenner deserved a voice and/or that Jekyll would have been too obvious. And that's before getting into the political side of things, with some people accusing the battle of being transphobic, others calling it too "politically correct," and still others who think the first two groups are making mountains out of molehills.

* Reception to ''Miley Cyrus vs Joan of Arc'' was pretty divided: while some people are fine with it, it has a share of detractors who think it's one of the worst battles. There are also fans who are disappointed at the match-up and wish Joan had gotten a different opponent.

--->'''Theodore Roosevelt''': Some people will hate it. ''(clip of [[spoiler:Lincoln smacking Obama]])'' Some people will love it. ''(clip of [[spoiler:Lincoln smacking Romney]])'' [[PunctuatedForEmphasis I! Don't! Give A! Damn!]]
* While most fans are otherwise fine, some fans are split about ''Goku vs Superman''...mainly because how Goku is [[XPacHeat played by]] [[WebVideo/EqualsThree Ray William Johnson]], who is pretty disliked by more elite Website/YouTube enthusiasts.

* ''Artists vs. Turtles'' caused a bit of division between people who loved it, and people who thought that it was good but weak compared to other season finales. A major point of contention was its very short length (1 minute 42 seconds) despite its large cast. The fact that Season 4 started with an ''even bigger'' battle suggests that [=EpicLLOYD=] and Nice Peter could have done a better job.
* ''Oprah Winfrey vs Ellen [=DeGeneres=]'' is a pretty divisive battle. It tends to be seen as either one of the most underrated battles, citing its pretty good writing and performances, or as one of the most forgettable, blandest and/or downright worst battles in the series, citing its dull writing, lazy editing and overall {{Filler}} feeling to it.

* ''Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton''. Apart from the obvious, [[spoiler: Lincoln explicitly telling Hillary to 'beat this dummy' and a call-back to Obama vs Romney, where Lincoln slaps Trump... and then slaps him again]] have caused a lot of controversy, as it blatantly showed Lincoln favoring Clinton over Trump.
* ''Freddy Krueger vs Wolverine'' has some division among fans, some liked the battle, citing its great verses (most notably Wolverine’s) and [[SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome its stunning visual effects]], but some found the flow and the pacing to be kind of weird and awkward at times and Freddy Krueger’s verses to be weaker than usual. There’s also some people who found Freddy’s costume (namely the mask) to be kind of poor-looking (for the reasons given in [[SpecialEffectFailure/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory this page]]), while some people liked it just fine, especially since they now have a much smaller budget.
* ''Vlad the Impaler vs Count Dracula'' has drawn a lot of criticism, primarily related to its slow pacing, the quality of the costume design (particularly with regards to Dracula), and the fact that Dracula gets very few good disses against Vlad. There are some, however, who call it an underrated gem of the sixth season, usually citing Peter's performance as Dracula, embracing the campier aspects of the character (even referencing The Count from ''Series/SesameStreet'' in his first few lines) while also acknowledging the more terrifying aspects. Of course, this also breaks the base, as many would have preferred Dracula to have been played more straight, with the comedic aspects taken out.
* ''Thanos vs J. Robert Oppenheimer'' has caused a lot of division, while J. Robert Oppenheimer‘s portrayal was universally praised by audiences, Thanos’ portrayal caused an enormous split for numerous reasons:

** His costume is by far the most controversial part; while some people think he looks fine, especially when one considers that ERB doesn’t have a Hollywood level budget to pull off a character that needed millions of dollars of CGI to be pulled off, some others still think he looked abominably awful (for the reasons given in [[SpecialEffectFailure/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory this page]]) to the point of being distracting, or even making half of the video unwatchable, with some even saying that if they weren’t able to pull off a good costume, then they shouldn’t have bothered doing the battle, with some other people calling these out that it’d be a waste to scrap the whole battle just because one character doesn’t look good.
* ''Donald Trump vs Joe Biden'' was guaranteed to get its detractors:
** Bias against Trump is once again a hot button ERB issue. While Trump does have better and longer lines, Biden does have slightly more lines than him (4 more) and raps slower. It's generally agreed that Trump is treated much fairer than the 2016 election.

** Lincoln's abscence from the battle. While many are upset there he wasn't there to drop hot bars and slap the candidates about, a few are fine with him being absent to let Trump and Biden make use of their verses and [[ShooOutTheClowns darken the mood]].

---> And then I try to tell you things but you're too stubborn to understand/Like dude that ''is not'' a cool way to play Batman!

* There's a division between fans who want to see more "Adolf Hitler vs. Darth Vader" matches, and fans who think those battles are getting stale and the focus of the show should be placed elsewhere. The latter was acknowledged in "Hitler vs. Vader 3" in the form of an included comment.
* "Batman vs. Sherlock Holmes" is very polarizing; half the fans like it just fine, the other half are put off by the delivery of Batman's verses, on top of Batman having very few good lines.[[note]]Many not knowing that Batman in ERB is more of a shout out to ''Badman'' as portrayed by Pete Holmes of Website/CollegeHumor, which is a rather brutal (but [[AffectionateParody affectionate]]) parody of Batman.[[/note]] [=EpicLLOYD=] actually references this in Nice Peter vs [=EpicLLOYD=] 2:

* Reception to "Miley Cyrus vs Joan of Arc" was pretty divided: while some people are fine with it, it has a share of detractors who think it's one of the worst battles. There are also fans who are disappointed at the match-up and wish Joan had gotten a different opponent.

* While most fans are otherwise fine, some fans are split about Goku vs Superman...mainly because how Goku is [[XPacHeat played by]] [[WebVideo/EqualsThree Ray William Johnson]], who is pretty disliked by more elite Website/YouTube enthusiasts.
* Many people found "Stephen King vs. Edgar Allan Poe" either unfair because Stephen King had longer verses, or fair because Poe's really fast rapping and trochaic meter style compensated for it.
* "Artists vs. Turtles" caused a bit of division between people who loved it, and people who thought that it was good but weak compared to other season finales. A major point of contention was its very short length (1 minute 42 seconds) despite its large cast. The fact that Season 4 started with an ''even bigger'' battle suggests that [=EpicLLOYD=] and Nice Peter could have done a better job.
* “Oprah Winfrey vs Ellen [=DeGeneres=]” is a pretty divisive battle. It tends to be seen as either one of the most underrated battles, citing its pretty good writing and performances, or as one of the most forgettable, blandest and/or downright worst battles in the series, citing its dull writing, lazy editing and overall {{Filler}} feeling to it.
* The first two battles of Season 4's second half ("Lewis and Clark vs. Bill and Ted", "Harry Houdini vs. David Copperfield"). Some call the battles "brilliant", and others find them lackadaisical and missing the spark that made the series so great to begin with. The two sides do not get along.

* ''James Bond vs. Austin Powers'' also had varied reception, with some people who were fine with how the battle was executed, and some other people thinking that the battle should have been [[spoiler: Daniel Craig's Bond vs. Sean Connery's Bond]] from the beginning, and some thinking [[spoiler: that Austin Powers shouldn't have been pushed to the side halfway through.]]

* ''Ivan the Terrible vs. Alexander the Great'' also has varied reception. Some thinks that the battle should have kept Alexander and [[spoiler:Frederick the Great]] alive at least until the end of the battle for them to have an all out brawl with [[spoiler:Catherine the Great]] and Ivan while others think that is just too many characters and the former two would end up doing nothing anyway and/or that [[spoiler:Catherine]]'s rap and Alexander's / [[spoiler:Frederick's]] historical accurate death was awesome enough to compensate for their send off. Most of them agree that [[spoiler:Pompey the Great]] is completely wasted, though.

* ''Thanos vs J. Robert Oppenheimer'' has caused a lot of controversy, while J. Robert Oppenheimer‘s portrayal was universally praised by audiences, Thanos’ portrayal caused an enormous division for numerous reasons:

** Peter's portrayal of Biden. While he has generally been praised for his appearance and rapping, some find him awkward and creepy, and his impression to be poor and inaccurate to the real Biden’s, just sounding like most of his old man’s voices.

* ''Bruce Banner vs. Bruce Jenner'' is one of the most divisive battles in the show's history, with by far the highest dislike percentage. This is due to the presence of Caitlyn Jenner, as well as how one-sided it becomes in the second half (Jenner gets almost three times the number of lines Hulk does). Then there's the debate over whether Banner should've had a different opponent; one side dislikes the reasoning behind the matchup (simply the fact that they're both named Bruce and that they have a second form to them that changes radically who they were) and often brings up [[Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde Henry Jekyll]] as a better choice, while the other side says that Jenner deserved a voice and/or that Jekyll would have been too obvious. And that's before getting into the political side of things, with some people accusing the battle of being transphobic, others calling it too "politically correct," and still others who think the first two groups are making mountains out of molehills.

** Biden supporters and Trump supporters continue to argue in the comment section about why their candidate is better - even after Biden was sworn in, the battle has become a hotbed between {{Conspiracy Theorist}}s who [[IRejectYourReality refuse to accept the result]], conservatives/liberals, rabid Trump/Biden supporters, and moderates with no in-between.