Fanfic / Death Battle Arena

"Death Battle Arena" is a DeviantArt project by user Dimension-Dino. It is a hypothetical video game based around the popular series DEATH BATTLE!. The journals utilize characters who have appeared on the show and each describes their costumes, move sets, and any special dialogue when pit against a specific character (or characters) inspired by those from Marvel vs. Capcom 3. As well as two fatalities and one friendship for each character. Not to mention, a special arcade mode for each character. The arcade mode section consists of a prologue, a rival cutscene (where each character faces off against their opponent on the show), and a special ending.

All of these profiles can be found on Dino's DeviantArt page here.

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These journals provide examples of:

• Actor Allusion: The Joker tells Luke Skywalker he seems familiar to him for some reason...
  • Bonus points for the fact Hamill is the hypothetical VA for the Joker, whereas Bob Bergen is Luke's.
  • Even spelled out when Joker's victory quote against Luke:
  "For my next act—my best Mark Hamill impression!"
  • Goliath and Spawn both have similar sounding voices.
  • Green Lantern has uncomfortable memories when speaking to Deadpool, and finds Spider-Man's voice familiar.
  • The Mask tells Doctor Eggman that it's a shame they couldn't hire Jim Carrey to voice both of them.
  • Zuko and Jake Long both think You Sound Familiar, since they're both voiced by Dante Basco.
  • The Ghost Rider doesn't like Johnny Cage because his surname brings up bad memories.
  • Archieverse Sonic, voiced by Jaleel White in the animated series, accidentally knocks out Doctor Eggman with a Power Ring in his Friendship, then sarcastically asks "Did I do that?"
  • Billy Butcher comments that the Doomguy brings back "diabolical memories". Apart from playing Butcher, Karl Urban also starred in the infamous Doom film.
  • Broly comments that Edward Elric's voice is somehow familiar to him.
  • Magneto's intro to Sauron is him saying "Do not take me to be some conjuror of cheap tricks!"
  • Both Scrooge McDuck and the Doctor tell each other that they both seem oddly familiar.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: Reverse Flash is the one who caused most characters's tragedies (He was responsible for deaths of Padme, Rin, and Lucy's dog, reprogrammed SKYNET and was the PAUL ALL ALONG).
• Adapted Out: Some characters whose Death Battles were purely supposed to be jokes, such as Justin Bieber and Rebecca Black, and Chuck Norris and Segata Sanshiro, don't have official journals.
• An Ice Person: Multiple in the roster, the clearest being Sub-Zero, Glacius, Weiss, Mitsuru, Gray, Esdeath, Todoroki and Lich King.
• Ascended Extra: Trish and Jeanne, despite only being helpers for "Dante vs. Bayonetta" on Death Battle and only having a match on DBX, are playable here.
• Ascended Fanon: Some of the dialogue quotes are submitted by fans.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Godzilla, Gamera, Megazord, Voltron, MechaGodzilla, Galactus, and Unicron all play the role of bosses, and as such, they tower over the playable characters.
• Ax-Crazy: Many of the fighters are a bit... off. Some examples include Doomguy, Joker, Sweet Tooth, The Meta, Doomsday, Carnage, Lucy, Lobo, Esdeath, and Sabrewulf.
• Back from the Dead: Some characters who are canonically dead in their series were brought back by Mastermind, while some of them pulled from their worlds before their dead.
• Bloodier and Gorier: This is possibly the only (theoretical) game where My Little Pony characters can graphically kill people on-screen. The same goes for characters from kid-friendly shows/games/whatever, such as Mario.
• Boss Subtitles: Each character has one that either describes who they are or an in-universe title.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Characters like Deadpool and The Mask are aware of being in a (hypothetical) fighting game. Pinkie Pie also gets in on breaking the fourth wall, particularly in her friendship and ending.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Goomba, Koopa, Dan Hibiki, Hercule Satan and Superfriends Aquaman tend to get the short end of the stick when it comes to interactions, with many characters not mincing words when it comes to how weak they are, though some characters do throw them a bone.
  • In terms of non-player characters, The Deep has it pretty rough. Basically every character from his home series throws potshots at him when fighting characters like Aquaman, and A-Train's intro has him reduce The Deep to Ludicrous Gibs just like he did seconds into The Seven Battle Royale.
  • The Reds and Blues teams also get mocked by nearly everyone and seen as bunch of unprofessional clowns (though some do make an exception towards Tex).
• The Cameo:
  • Dudley appears in TJ Combo's ending to challenge the boxer, as they are both rivals to Balrog.
  • Gengar from Pokemon and Hisako from Killer Instinct appear in Luigi's ending.
  • Beowulf from Skullgirls appears in Macho Man's ending.
  • King from The King of Fighters appears in Bond's ending.
  • Misaka, Homelander and Esdeath appear in Cole McGrath's Rival Cutscene.
  • Carnage, Shang Tsung and Leon Kennedy appear in Alex Mercer's Rival Cutscene.
• Cats Love Laser Pointers: Strider Hiryu's Friendship consists of him using a laser pointer to distract his Option C Drone- which is, need we remind you, a robotic big cat.
• Composite Character: Several characters are combined with versions from other mediums.
• Crossover Power Acquisition: Plenty of characters gains powers from another series in their Arcade Endings.
• Cuteness Proximity: Kirby. Several characters comment on how cute he is, and even the snobbish, aggressive Tatsumaki has a soft side for the little guy (which she fiercely tries to deny). Pikachu gets a little bit of this as well.
• Death by Cameo: Played for Laughs with The Deep, as A-Train's intro has The Deep appear and crack his knuckles… only for A-Train to body slam him and reduce him to a smear on the pavement.
• Dramatic Spine Injury: Seeing as Bane is a playable character, it's only appropriate that breaking backs is one of his special attacks. One of his Fatalities takes this even further by having him not just break his opponent's spine over his knee, but snap their entire body in half. Amusingly, his Friendship consists of him preparing to do this to the defeated opponent, only for his own back to lock up (rather appropriately), forcing him to go back to Arkham to have a soothing massage and a Cucumber Facial.
• Home Stage: All the characters get one that represents a place associated with them (The Batcave being Batman's HQ) or a well-known event regarding the character (Namekian Plains for Goku turning Super Saiyan for the first time).
• Hated by All: Understandably, nobody appreciates and almost routinely berate Homelander at any given point, not even people like Bill, The Mask, Vader and Steven are willing to show respect to the guy.
  • Downplayed with Deadpool, most characters are more-or-less bothered by his incessant chatter, with even more even-tempered people like Captain America expresses their annoyance.
  • Also Downplayed with Wario as his grotesque looks, awful stench, and crude and greedy personality often draw groans of disgust.
• Have We Met??: Some characters who already had a crossover with other characters can get a feeling that they've met before. (Cole vaguely remembers The Tournament, Yang remembers Justice League)
• Hired Guns: Boba Fett and Deathstroke. Based on dialogue they were hired by combatant's enemies
• Kill It with Fire: Mai Shiranui, Charizard, Scorpion, Sol Badguy, Yang, Mega Charizard X, Greymon, WarGreymon, Ken, Natsu, Ace, Ben 10 (as Heatblast), Captain Falcon, Aang, Ghost Rider, Sasuke, Hiei, Jake Long, Zuko, Todoroki, Korra, Tanjiro and Sauron are the most prominent users of this trope, but other characters use fire in one or two special moves.
• Large Ham: Zangief, Mai Shiranui, Starscream, Dr. Eggman, He-Man, Lion-O, Doctor Doom, Hercule Satan, Dan Hibiki, Joker, Jiraiya, Shazam, Ben 10 (as Rath), Captain Falcon, All Might, Might Guy and She-Ra invoke this in their dialogue. Also, despite Machamp having no dialogue, its mannerisms and general demeanor invoke this.
• Lighter and Softer: Like in the Mortal Kombat series, characters can end a match with a Friendship, instead of a Fatality. Yes, this even includes villains and characters from very dark works.
• Made a Slave: Some of villains such as Shao Khan, Lich King, Makima and etc. enslave their opponents if they win a fight.
• Multiversal Conqueror: In most of villains arcade endings they expand their original plans into multiversal levels.
• Mythology Gag: Plenty of 'em.
  • Lobo's Friendship is a reference to the fact that he's the Archbishop of the First Galactic Church of the Triple Fish-God in DC canon.
  • Lara brings up the fact that she's found Thor's belt and his hammer.
  • Aang's friendship has him crash into a statue in a manner similar to the opening of his show.
  • Todoroki asks All-Might if Midoriya is his illegitimate child.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Lobo commiserates with Dante over the fact that they both have trashy reboot counterparts.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. Lord Raiden and Raiden exist in the game, as do Ryu Hayabusa and Ryu Hoshi.
• Pet the Dog: The Goomba and Koopa tend to get bullied by everybody else on the roster. The only few who don't are Dan, who refers to them as tough fighters, Rock Lee and Might Guy, both of them offering to train them, and Captain America, who admires their dedication as soldiers.
• Shock and Awe: Thor, Lord Raiden, Pikachu, Blanka, Trish, Shazam, Ben 10 (as Feedback), Spider-Miles, Static, Kakashi, Reverse Flash, Storm, Black Adam, Killua, Misaka and Cole McGrath are the most prominent users, but other characters use it in certain moves.
• The Ghost: Throughout the arcade mode a mysterious mastermind is mentioned being responsible for the events of arcade mode. However, their identity remains a mystery.
• The Rival: In Arcade Mode, every character will face their opponent on DEATH BATTLE!.
  • For characters who have fought multiple times their default rival will be their first opponent (I.E. Batman will always face Spider-Man instead of Captain America, Black Panther or Iron Man.)
  • In the case of Dragonzord, its rival, MechaGodzilla, ended up becoming a boss. As such, instead its rival is Epyon, same as its successor the Tigerzord.
• Shared Universe: In some intros characters will talk like they are from same world (Star says that Marco is Homelander's fan, The Doctor says that he tried to save Krypton)
• Shout-Out:
  • Several of the Friendships:
    • Luke's is a reference to a scene from The Simpsons.
    • Snake's is a reference to the box episode of SpongeBob SquarePants.
    • Mega Charizard X's is a reference to the girl-eating plant scene from Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.
    • Ed's is a reference to Ed, Edd n Eddy.
    • Dio's is a reference to Aladdin.
  • If Johnny Cage, renowned for his Groin Attack, beats Sabrewulf or Jon Talbain, he says "Wolf-man's got nards!"
  • One Commenter on Joker's profile suggested that for Reverse-Flash, Joker would sing in his intro line "Who's been mucking up that streaker's life? It was Eobard All Along!"
  • Several quotes to SpongeBob reference episodes of the show. Michelangelo references Pizza Delivery, Balrog references The Bully and Sanji references The Original Fry Cook.
• Smashing Survival: Some combatants can trap their opponents via freezing or something else and only way to break free is button mashing.
• Suddenly Voiced: All three of the Legend of Zelda fighters have spoken lines, whereas in Zelda canon, the only game to include English voice acting is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and even there, Zelda's the only talkative one (Link can at least select reply speech boxes, but Ganon spends the entire game as a silent monster until Ganondorf reappears in the sequel).
• Teleportation: Many combatants have ability to disappear and reappear behind the opponent.
• World of Ham: The result of there being so many hammy characters.