Wit mj the downfall of Rooster Teeth, it would seem that fate of web shows like RWBY, Red vs. Blue and Gen Lock are up in the air. But a bit of good news, Death Battle! a show that it’s two fictional characters of any media has decided to go a different
A few weeks ago, Ben Singer, the creator of the show, decided to crowd fund the show’s fights in and effort to save. With overwhelming support, it looks like it’s here to stay as it already has two almost finish.
The first being a clash between Omni-Man from Invincible and Bardock from Dragon Ball. The second being a fight between legendary video games villains, Bowser from Super Mario Brothers and Dr. Eggman from Sonic the Hedgehog.
To commemorate this, I would to share with you some Death Battle I think would great for the show.
Battle 1
Genie vs. Discord
Two comically powerful goofballs during to see who has the most powerful entity.
Genie
On the outskirts of the Arabian city of Agrabah, exist’s the mythical Cave of Wonders, where inside harbors untold riches. But it’s greatest prize is a magic oil lamp. Living inside this Itty bitty living space is a creature of phenomenal cosmic power granting three wishes to those who hold it. That creature is the ever-impressive, long contained, often imitated but never duplicated Genie of the lamp.
For ten thousand years this lovable ball of unbridled energy has been sealed in the lamp yearning for freedom from his slavery, until a peddler boy named Aladdin found it and quickly establishing a friendship with the entity promising to use his third wish to set Genie free which Al ultimately does after mascarading as a prince and getting the lamp back after being stolen by the villanous vizer, Jafar, who sent him in the cave in the first place.
As a being whose power is immeasurable beyond comprehension, Genie has the universe at his fingertips. He is a reality warper whose can bend the frabric of the universe with ease. He can bend space through teleporting, reshape his body into anything and anyone (usually to make reference to pop culture which also demonstrates his ability to his break the fourth wall), can make anything appear out of thin air, transmute matter, clone himself, change his size, blast bolts of magic, the lists just goes on and on and on. In short, Genie can do just about anything. But despite all of his power however, Genie has a couple of things he can’t do like kill anybody, make anybody fall in love with someone else, and resurrect the dead (evidence does show that he can do performing resurrection but chooses not to).
When he had been freed from the lamp, Genie power level decreased making them “semi phenomenal and nearly cosmic”. While still powerful even in this weaken state, he can be outmatched by other powerful magic users such as Jafar, who turned into a genie during the first movie giving him the cosmic powers of a genie, or Mirage, who is evil incarnate with powers that even the likes of Jafar is scared of.
While he is a showman at heart, Genie will get serious when the situation calls for it reminding everyone that even in his weaken state, Genie is still a powerful force to be reckoned with.
Discord
A long time ago, the kingdom of Equestia was under seige by the spirit of chaos and disharmony, Discord, a draconequus (part horse, part dragon among other things in Discord’s case) who relishes in the chaos he sows. It wasn’t until the princesses Celestia and Luna used the elements of harmony to turn him to stone. After a few centuries, he broke out and started cause chaos again only to be turned back to stone by the Mane 6. It wasn’t until Celestia had a change and decided to enlist the shy Fluttershy to rehabilitate him which was a success despite a few bumps in the road.
True to his chaotic nature, Discord has a whole bunch of reality warper powers at his disposal. Much like his opponent, he can do just about anything from shape shifting to teleportation. He can move the sun and the moon and eve effect mathematical dimensions turning 3D objects 2D. He can even olberate the fourth wall. He basically on top of the My Little Pony power tier which is both a pro and a con. The negative side to this is that he is so use to be the powerful one that it makes him vulnerable to being a caught off guard. Plus if he betrays his own nature, he can leave him at risk into fading out of existence.
But for all his chaotic power, Discord was never truly a maviolent entity, he was just another cog of the fabric universe, a mere player in the grand scheme of thing just doing his job as the spirit of chaos. But if you ever get on his bad side, you’re in for a wild ride.
The winner...
A Draw
An outcome that is sure to be expected against two character that can do anything. While Discord had his weakness such as inflating ego that causes him to get reckless and the the fact that is very essence is tied to causing as much chaos as possible, but Genie would not have any way of taking him out for good unlike Discord’s previous foe.
On the other end, Discord’s chaotic power can be compared to that of one-shot character from Genie’s home franchise appropriately named Chaos, a spirit who thrives on the unpredictable who is said to " have more magic than any genie". With Discord’s ability to break the fourth wall he would have fugured out that a genie’s life force is tied in their lamp, ergo, destroying the lamp would mean destroying Genie. But, since Aladdin freed Genie from it’s magic binding it had on him, one would come to the conclusion that would not matter to him anymore. While not being teathered to his lamp is a lifesaving pro on Genie’s part, there is his power decrease to consider. With his cosmic powers cut dramatically, Genie is prone to be more suseptible to magical attacks, which would give Discord the upper hand. But for all his cunning, Discord would not have any true way to destroy Genie (if some would consider Genie to be immortal) rendering all his chaotic power utterly useless.
While Discord could get the high ground advantage for his cunning and unpredictability. In the long run, it’s just a fight two immortal, super powerful beings that could match each other blow for blow, a mere example of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.
Battle 2
Jafar vs. Bill Cipher
Now that we cover the good part of reality warper, their are those who are tend bend the universe to their will for evil proposes.
Jafar
More than anything, the vizer of Agrabah, Jafar, would want not more than to ruler the city as sultan. He believes that by finding the lamp that contains a powerful genie inside from the Cave of Wonders, that could be achieved. So, he used the peddler boy, Aladdin, who is only who can enter the cave unharmed, to fetch for him, which failed miserably. But once he got his hands on the lamp, he wastes no time accumulating power as he esclate from sultan to the most powerful sorcerer in the world to a genie, the third of which would prove to be his undoing.
Originally, Jafar is known for his extreme cunning often manipulating situation to his favor resorting to hypnosis from his cobra staff if someone doubts his word. But once he became a powerful sorcerer, his magic power increased ten fold as he is capable of great feats of magic such as blasts of condensed magic, undoing magic of other entities like Genie, transmuting matter, making swords fall from the sky, breathing fire, and even transforming into a giant cobra. His magic powers were increased even further when he became a genie. As such, Jafar has the entire universe in the palm of his hand as he is capable of things such as teleporting, shapeshifting, cloning, and invenuerabilty to name a few. He can open up chasm of lava, throw lava balls of extreme size, creating lighting bolts, immobilize his enemies and even create vortex of debris that can prove devastating to those who make wrong step.
But for all his power, Jafar has a consistent flaw, his overinflated arrogance, he think that with all this power, no one can harm him which can prove to be quite hazardous. Such as when Aladdin goated him into wishing ro be a genie only to be imprisoned in his own lamp. Speaking of his lamp, it is something to note that a genie’s life force is tied to it’s lamp. Meaning, if you destroy the lamp, you destroy the genie who resides in it.
For all of his arrogance and power-lust, Jafar is truly a force to be reckoned with solidifying himself as one of the greatest Disney villains of all time if not the most powerful. So, it just goes to show, be careful what you wish for.
Bill Cipher
Of all the creatures and oddities that are drawn to the sleepy town of Gravity Falls Oregon, most of them are not inherently evil or would cause any real harm. But even weird clouds have their unseen tempest, and that tempest has one name: Bill Cipher.
Despite his deadpan one-liners and goofy demeanor, Bill is a psychopath in every sense of the word. After he destroyed the second dimension as a way of liberating it of it flat and bland existence, Bill became a fugitive on the run from the Time Police choosing to hide in the nightmare realm which he turned into his personal kingdom. But he set his sight on our universe just waiting for some poor unfortunate soul to let him in which would kick off an event known as Weirdmagedon.
Bill is being made of pure energy, able to craft bodies out of nothing and makes repairs to it if it sustained damage. He also has the ability to bend reality to his will turning it into his own weird playground. He change his size, clone himself, make a laser out of his eye, shoot fire, control several aspects of universe such as space and time and invade your dreams as if he were a two dimensional Freddy Kruger. But one thing that set him apart from any regular reality warper is his power over souls, he can interact with spirit invisible to other, do damage to them or obliterate them completely and if anyone would let him, hijack their bodies.
A prideful creature of neither compassion or forethought, Bill has a nasty habit of underestimating his foes. It’s in his belief that everyone is out for themselves never considering that anyone would put themselves over others. This led to his downfall several times until he was ultimately erased from existence by the collaboration of Stanley and Stanford Pines.
All in all, Bill is less of a villain and more of a force of nature not too be taken lightly. So, if a yellow triangle in a top hat appears in your dreams and tries to make a deal with you. A piece of advice: Don’t take it.
The Winner
Bill Cipher
While Jafar does have the power of a celestial, Bill would gain the victory.
Even though Jafar has bested Genie in magical combat before, but only because Genie’s powers have decreased exceptionally since he was free from the lamp. But pit Jafar against someone like Bill, and he’s basically a big fish in a small pond. Although Jafar would frustrate Bill with his cosmic power and sorcery, let’s not forget, Bill can regenerate his body in any harm was taken upon it. While Jafar is cunning could be proven useful, it would not really matter when your opponent can see an infinite kaleidoscope of futures and possibility rendering all strategic attack pointless.
As for Bill, he just has a few aces in the hole, such has his control of souls. Even though Jafar is far from stupid and wouldn’t haggle with him by any means, Bill can always invade his dreams and do battle with Jafar’s spirit which he can easily destroy. As a genie and powerful sorcerer, Jafar did have all the tools to replicate Bill’s death, but that would rely on exploitng Bill’s tunnel vision which wasn’t going to happen. Then there’s the matter of how they deal with a threat. Since Jafar is a genie, he feels as nothing would hurt or outmatched him thus leading to making fatal mistakes. Bill on the other hand, would take beings such as Time Baby with the utmost importance and would go for the kill almost immediately.
As a genie and an all-mighty sorcerer, Jafar had the means to put up a fight, but Bill would proved to be more powerful and more ruthless than him thus giving the advantage to Bill to deal the winning blow.
Battle 3
Loki vs Azula
In some cases, siblings have a hard time getting along but these two take sibling rivalries to a whole new level.
Azula
Ivan the Terrible, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin. These are just some of the names of dictator that rule their country with one personal philosophy in life: It’s far better to be feared than loved. And no one fit these words better than Princess Azula of the Fire Nation.
The only daughter of Fire Lord Ozai and the younger sister of Zuko, Azula learned from a young age that fear is the mark of true power. One could probably guess where she learned that from. Not only was she Ozai’s favorite child, but she is a fire bending prodigy excelling in advances skills at a young age. But there was a few personality flaws. First, she was not very good in the social department often using intimidation and scare tactics to gain obedience. Second, she has a nasty sadistic streak on her often reveling in the pain of others, more specifically, her more kind-hearted if not tortured brother. When Zuko failed to kill Avatar Aang in the north pole, Ozai took it upon himself to assign Azula to the task.
As mentioned before, Azula has got skills to back her up her threats, demanding nothing but perfection in her fighting style. As a firebender, Azula can shoot fire out of thin air. Not just regular fire but blue fire which is much hotter than red. Azula is living flamethrower as she not only for combat, but to propel herself at break neck speeds and even fly. But one of her more powerful move is the power to bend lighting. A devastating move that can be very hard to redirect without injuring yourself and with her skill level, her lighting could even kill Aang in the avatar state or, thanks to Katara healing him with spirit water, at least cut him off from the energy to achieve it. But her fire and lighting isn’t the only thing that makes her such a threat in battle.
Azula is also a cunning strategist who can formulate plans on the fly and is able to manipulate the minds of other, and make up lies so convincing that even Toph, who can tell if people are lying, as a little bit of hard time.
But for all of her skill, Azula has a few flaws, being Ozai’s favorite child, the apple dosen’t fall far from the tree as she is unstable, both mentally and emotionally. She is also not the very best at understanding people as mentioned before even though she claims to be a “people person”. So take both of those, add in her perfectionist tendencies, and mixed in some mother issues and you have the perfect recipe for being just one bad day away from going straight up kookie dooks. Which she promptly does after becoming fire lord, a title that now worhtless since Ozai declared himself Phoenix King, banished most of her servants out of paranoia and had her royal butt handed to her by her own brother and Katara.
“How the mighty have fallen” indeed.
Loki
Of all the the villains in the Marvel multiverse. One stands out from all the others. A unwavering being that would always stay consistent regardless of his intentions. A god of mischief who claims he burden with purpose, glorious purpose. And that god’s name is Loki.
Born from Laufey, ruler of Jotunheim, the land of the frost giants, Loki didn’t have the best childhood ever. He was reviled by his father for being a little smaller than a frost giant should be. So, Laufey did what any evil father would do: Throw his tiny son out into an frozen wasteland to die. After Laufey was killed by Odin, the ruler of Asgard, Loki was found by the old king and decided to take him in and raise him as his own. As a prince of Asgard, Loki excelled in combat but he also had a hand in magic. But, Loki also didn’t like his half brother, Thor, very much claiming him unworthy of the throne. So, he set to take the throne for himself quickly become Thor’s unwilling arch enemy as well as a prominent villain of the Avengers, a team of which Thor is a founding member of.
As already mentioned, Loki is a natural when it comes to magic, illusionary magic to be precise. Loki can craft illusions with ease which he uses to confuse and manipulate others. He can created copies of himself and others, whip up convincing disguises, and can cast illusions that can fool anyone. As a god, he has an enhanced endurance able to take hits from Thor’s lighting and even survived a thrashing from the Hulk. We can’t talk about the God of Mischief without mentioning how wickedly smart he is. What Loki lacks in strength makes up in intelligence. He is capable of orchestrating plans and even improvise if things don’t go his way. He was even the mastermind of Thor’s exhile. And even if he’s not as strong as any asgardian, he can actually hold his own when going toe to toe with heroes like Thor and Captain America.
All though Loki can keep a calm and cool head, his arrogance can be proven to be his fatal flaw and he would underestimate his foes and get reckless. But for his arrogant streak, he has been prone to cheat death multiple times one of them being a time paradox as he took the tesseract and escaped before getting caught by the TVA.
Hey, can’t expect anything less from god of mischief.
The Winner
Loki
Let’s just say that if the world of Avatar had a god, he would be working out some aggression.
Both Azula and Loki are both skilled in combat, Azula with her fire bending and Loki with his magic. Azula’s lighting bending can take down super powerful being like Aang. But according to Roku, the avatar before Aang, the avatar state leave the person at it’s most vulnerable giving Azula the opening she needed. With Loki, not so much for he had taken hits from lighting before from his brother. You know, The Lord of Thunder!?! Which can be deduced that Thor’s lighting is more powerful than Azula’s. The real pressing matter is: Who can outfox the other?
While Azula can easily talk her way to victory and create lies to win, Loki can take his manipulation ome step further with illusion casting. Let’s not forget that not only is Azula unstable due to her father’s twisted upbringing, but she is still a kid and would quite possibly believes Loki’s illusions if it meant she would win.
And then there is the experience to consider. Even if she is a firebending prodigy, Azula still has too learn which took roughly a few years of fighting experience give or take and even then she didn’t have try too hard. Whereas Loki, who is a god raised by warriors who lives to fight and has experienced in years that expand to thousands dealing with people such as giants, witches, aliens, genius with technology that far surpasses Asgard’s, and even his own adopted family.
And there is the key difference between the two. One is a warrior and an accomplished mage while the other is mere bully. Azula’s skill and cunning could give her a leg up but it’s Loki’s unpredictability and vast arsenal of magic that would leave her in the dust.
Battle 4
Hercules vs. Maui
To demigods of two different mythologies clash to see how far they can go thr distance. For this one, we are not going to focus on the Disney adaptations and instead, use the original myths as reference.
Hercules
Long ago, in the far away land of ancient Greece, it was a golden age of powerful gods and extraordinary heroes. But the greatest and strongest of all these heroes was the mighty Hercules (or Heracles meaning “glory to Hera”).
Herc’s story began like any other Greek story would, with Zeus cheating on Hera…again. Feeling spited that her husband had yet another demi-god with another women for the umpteenth time, Hera decided to take care of it and Herc had to die. She send down two serpents to kill the baby, only for the newborn to choke them out. Even as a young boy, his strength and intelligence showed no bounds. As he grew, he excelled in everything… except for the art in which he accidentally killed his music teacher in a fit of rage. To make up for it, he work hearding cattle until he was eighteen with Hera throwing every fierce forest creature after him to male it difficult. When he killed a few soliders from a city who were terrorizing his hometown, he was hailed as a hero and earned the handed of Princess Megara in which she had three children together. Hera wasn’t going to give up though. He enchanted Herc into killing his sons thinking they were demons. When he came to his senses, he realized what he had done and went to redeem himself again, thus leading him into accomplish his most famous quest, the twelve labors of Hercules.
Apart from his demi-god strength, a club, a sword, and bow and arrows in his arsenal, Wonder boy had stack up alot in his arsenal. Such as a pelt from the Nemean Lion, a lion whose fur was so thick that no weapon can harm it. So Hercules wrestled it to death. He gotten blood from his second labor, killing the Hydra. What so special about hydra blood? Well, apart from the whole head slicing thing, hydra blood is actually very poisonous, even gods didn’t go near the stuff and these cats will do just about anything. And when he was fighting a flock of stymphlian birds for his sixth tasks, which are apparently man-eating robot birds (which i guess existed in Greece), he uses using a krotala, to produce a noises so loud that they couldn’t stand it.
Anyway, apart from the three I mentioned, Herc also took a girdle from some amazons, clean the stable of King Augeus by redirecting a river, he even went the Underworld to fetch Cerberus. Out side the labors, he beats up the personification of death (who is a totally a different god from Hades) to fetch the wife of a depressed king in a drunken stupor. He even beated a giant who couldn’t be defeated as long a he was on the ground, so Herc just simply picked him up and strangle him in the air showing he has both brawn and brains.
But for all strength and wit, for all the monsters he bested, his life ended in the simplest way possible. By accidentally putting on his lion pelt that drench in centaur blood laced in hydra blood after saving a stranger who was tricked into thinking that centaur blood was a good love position. On his death pyre, instead of descending into the Underworld, he ascended into Olympus to join his father and the other Olympians as the god of strength earning his godhood and a legend that would live on for eons to come.
Maui
While Polynesian mythology is not as well known as other mythos such as Greece, Egypt, or Norway to those outside of Polynesian heritage. Thanks to Moana, we are introduced to Polynesia’s own Hercules. He is a warrior, a trickster, a shapeshifter, demi-god of the wind and sea and a hero to all. He even has a island named after him. His name is Maui.
Unlike his animated counterpart, Maui was not a normal human whose parents threw him into sea because they didn’t want him when he was baby. Maui was born a demi-god out right from the moon goddess, Hina-a-ke-ahi (or Hina for short) and had three brother, who were also named Maui. While Maui never actually stole the heart of a life goddess nearly causing the end of world, he has done alot such as pulling mountains from the ocean, lifting up the sky, teaching mortals how to make fire, and his most famous feat: slowing down the sun.
Apart from his demi-god strength, Maui can also shapeshift into anything from a Hawk to a fish. His weapon of choice is his fish hook he calls Manaiakalani. He uses this baby to haul up island with the unwitting help of his brother thus creating the Hawaiian islands (Whether Maui needed his hook to shapeshift in the actual myth is a mystery). Thanks to his godly physiology, he is very durable able to take hit from things that would seriously hurt or kill a normal person such as the sun as he tried to get it to slow down.
Much like his animated counterpart, Maui has a inferiority complex and a big ego, often doing his heroic deeds to earn admiration of those around him. As such, he is very reckless and often acting on impulse rather than thinking through all the way. In turn, this makes Maui prone to making very big mistakes that do more harm than good. Which is exactly what drove him to slow down the sun in the first place. You see, when Maui pushed the sky up, this gave the sun more elbow room and just quicken it’s pace given the world just a few hours of daylight. Whoops!
But for all his flaws and tricks, Maui is a good soul deep down who just wants what’s best for his people… in his own ego-filled messy way.
The Winner
Hercules
To all the fans of Greek mythology and fans of Wonder Boy, you’re welcome.
Both being demi-gods, their strength Is pretty evenly matched. While Maui has his hook, shapeshifting and god-like endurance, Hercules has a killer arsenal from a weapon proof pelt to poison-soaked arrow to make for his lack of flashy powers. Herc has a niche since hydra blood can kill even devine beings such as himself, all Herc needs is one clear shot to put Maui. But Maui, being the trickster that he is, wasn’t going to give it to him wihtout a fight. And Maui’s hook wasn’t going to do anything as long Hercules had his Nemean Lion pelt.
So, with them being matched in strength and has personal skills and weapons that can counter each other. How does Herc win this? One word: Discipline! As the old saying goes: Misery builds character. And for Hercules, he had plenty of that going for him from Hera trying to kill mutpile times from accidentally in a blind rage. As a result, his work herding cattle and the twelve labors allowed him to focus his vast strength and intellectual in a logical way. Maui, on the otherhand… didn’t. He did his heroics on a whim to satisfy his fragile ego which would lead him to more trouble. So he would act on impulse when it comes to a fight and his mindset would be: hit em and hit em hard not realizing his mistake until it’s too late.
Maui may have a niche when it comes to being wily. But it’s Hercules’ perseverance, adaptability and versatility that would make him go the distance.
Now it’s your turn, what battle would you like to see and who would win?