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howsitduud · 10 months

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Hi there. Hello.

So, I love Death Battle. A lot. It's by far one of my favorite webshows, and like a lot of fans, there are plenty of matchups that I would give my left nut to see them tackle. So, I am officially using this blog that I'm sure nobody cares about to make my official

TOP 16 MOST WANTED MATCHUPS

as of 2023 at least. These are going to be ordered from least wanted (but still great) to most wanted, and I'll give my overall thoughts on what I'd want and why I'd think it'll be cool to see, as well as the connections and a potential track name. All thumbnails were made by me, let's go.

#16: Locus vs Din Djarin (Red v Blue vs Star Wars)

Connections: Two ruthless bounty hunters who rarely show their faces who were originally not interested in forming relationships with anyone, just acting as killers. That was, until they met someone who needed help protecting and had a change of heart, turning over a new leaf.

Potential Track Name: Beskars of the Past

I know what you're thinking: "Isn't this just Boba Fett vs Predator 2: Electric Boogaloo?" While yes, these two are similar to Boba and John Yautja, there's plenty in this matchup to give this a different feeling than that episode had. You can have actual banter between these two that doesn't rely on forced movie quotes, higher stakes if the animation is set up like Locus is hunting Grogu, and there's more interesting weapons that can be used, like Locus' shield and Din's rifle. For this matchup, I'd say give Din the Darksaber, only because a final battle between that and the Great Key would be really cool, having Din use a stronger weapon than the key, but one he's not at all skilled with. There's more than enough here to make this a solid spiritual successor to Boba's three episodes without bringing him back.

#15: Old Man Logan vs The Last Ronin (Marvel vs TMNT)

Connections: Older, more jaded versions of classic comic book heroes, jaded by experiencing the loss of most people in their lives and being forced to keep on living due to specific mutations in their bodies.

Potential Track Name: You've Changed, Man

This is among the most highly requested TMNT matchups, and for good reason. There's just enough different with this matchup that makes it a really solid and debatable version of Wolverine vs Raphael. You can do so much with the storytelling here, too. I'd personally like if the two knew of each other as the Wolverine and Michelangelo, so that both of them can have that moment where they're shell-shocked (haha) by who it is they're really fighting. There can be a moment where Logan's claws don't come out fully and he needs to force them up with his hands, to Mikey's confusion, or there can be a moment where Mikey acts way more brutal than his cartoon counterpart, to Logan's confusion. It'll be a nice way to differentiate between the two and add some storytelling and emotional elements to this script.

#14: Ghost Rider vs Spawn (Marvel vs ...)

Connections: Edgy comic book anti-heroes who were orginally ordinary men who made a deal with the Devil (or devil-adjacent) to become hellspawns at the cost of their servitude, using chains and guns to deliver their version of justice. Eventually they unseated the Devil and became the ruler of Hell. Also, it's an angel vs demon fight.

Potential Track Name: Chained to Hell

I don't even know what to say about this. It's the most basic bitch answer to anyone's favorite Marvel matchup. Both Rider and Spawn deserve a runback due to how much content that wasn't used in their episodes and how long ago they were, and both have plenty of weapons and abilities they can use to make this fight interesting. Out of all the matchups on this list, this actually has a chance of happening this season, given how people said that they pentagram in the cipher was teasing this. I hope they're correct, but I wouldn't be mad either way.

#13: Jimmy Hopkins vs Karma Akabane (Bully vs Assassination Classroom)

Connections: Two delinquent children with a long history of violence who came into a new classroom ready to cause trouble, only for them to learn the error of their ways and be on the paths for forging something else out of their lives, changing up their school's entire social hierarchy.

Potential Track Name: Juvenile Justice

I fucking love both Bully and Assassination Classroom. While other matchups like Jimmy vs Yandere-Chan or Koro-Sensei vs Monokuma work, I don't know, there's just something about this matchup that hits for me. I really like the idea of these two talking trash to each other the entire animation, both of them pulling out their non-lethal weapons like stink bombs and BB guns, and running around the Bullworth campus avoiding getting caught by prefects and teachers. I also really like the dynamic of Jimmy being more physical and using his guns while Karma is way more strategic, using his advanced training to get ahead. I don't know why, but I really like this matchup. It would be so fun to see play out.

#12: Elliot Dunkel vs Guy Hamdom (El Goonish Shive vs She-Zow)

Connections: Two teenage boys who can transform into female superheroes, originally dreading this until learning that they had a mission to protect their small towns.

Potential Track Name: She's a Superhero!

Despite the gimmicky nature of this matchup at first glance, there's a lot more to it. You can have the fight start out with both of them in their base form, where Elliot has the advantage due to his Anime-Style Martial Arts training, until Guy turns into She-Zow and forces Elliot to transform as well. I'd love if we get a brief fight with Elliot as his cat form before he turns into Cheerleadra, but I'd understand if that's too much. Speaking of too much, She-Zow has a lot of weapons and abilities at their disposal. To name a few, there's a Boomerang Brush, Lipstick Laser, Shrink Ray, Vanishing Cream, she can wink so hard she creates gusts of wind, she can make her fist grow bigger, and she can even do a Sailor Moon-esque sonic shriek. I'd love to see She-Zow bust out all of these weapons, only for Cheerleadra to just brute-force her way through all of them. Despite Elliot's obscurity and She-Zow's problematic writing, I still think this matchup is worth doing. Just don't watch the show She-Zow's based on, it's not very good. I just wanted a good matchup for my boy Elliot.

#11: Ridley vs Vile (Metroid vs Mega Man)

Connections: Villains from classic NES/SNES series with purple motifs and cybernetic enhancements that have a personal vendetta against the protagonist of their series, who they fought and almost killed on multiple occasions if not for an outside force messing with them.

Potential Track Name: Ride for Revenge

I know there's a lot of debate over who Ridley should fight, with some people saying Rayquaza and others saying Vilgax, but I personally think Vile is the best option for him. Both have great potential for banter and some cool exchanges, like a beam struggle or Vile busting out all the Ride armors to compete with Ridley physically. The big question is if Ridley would have his cybernetics or not. I'd vote yes, but only so that you can have Ridley start the fight with his full enhancements to lose them as the fight progresses, mimicking how he progresses in canon and to simulate battle damage on him. Plus, I'd love for the fight to start out like Vile is investigating a planet when Ridley starts picking off his crew one by one, similar to how he does in his Smash Bros. trailer. Metroid and Mega Man are franchises I've gained more and more appreciation for, and this matchup would be so cool to see.

#10: Yor Forger vs Beatrix Kiddo (SpyxFamily vs Kill Bill)

Connections: Two fake brides who are secretly assassins that specialize in blades.

Potential Track Name: Newlydead

I again don't have much to say about this other than "it's fucking cool." Yes, it's a complete stomp in Yor's favor, yes Beatrix only has 2 movies to work with, and yes, this is a street-tier fight between who people with not a lot of weapons to work with, but I don't care. This is the female version of Bond vs Wick, what's not to like? Yor is one of my favorite anime characters, and Kill Bill is a movie I love to death, so seeing them both be covered would be awesome. Plus, there's plenty of potential for cool moments, like both of them pushing through lethal wounds to keep fighting. In particular, I would like Beatrix to land the heart-exploding technique on Yor, but have her keep going to show how resilient she can be. Really, this can just be a cool ass sword fight and nothing else and I'd be happy.

#9: William Afton vs Junko Enoshima (Five Nights at Freddy's vs Danganronpa)

Connections: Main antagonists of their series who were behind most of the events that happened, using robot bears to kill children.

Potential Track Name: Remnants of Despair

I know, I know, lot of negative feelings towards this matchup. While I get the criticisms, I think there's plenty here to make for a great episode. Junko can take control of the Monokumas and have those protect her, as well as having plenty of weapons on her own and Alter Ego Junko. William, meanwhile, has the springlock crank, a fucking gun, a time-travelling ball pit, hallucinatory disks, and an ai alter ego of his own (I know it's technically an ai reconstruction of him, but shush). Plus, you can have major moments in this animation where they both use their intellect to get one-ups over each other. I would love there to be a scene where William has Junko dead to rights, there is no escape for her, only for her to start laughing uncontrollably and say that she loves the despair she's feeling. The only problem I forsee is how they'll tackle the FNAF story, but that's easy to work around. I kinda get why this matchup is taken with such vitriol, but I still love it and would love to see it happen someday.

#8: Kimiko Miyashiro vs Nezuko Kamado (The Boys vs Demon Slayer)

Connections: Ordinary girls who live in worlds where dangerous super-powered individuals run free that eventually became one of those individuals after their families where murdered. Due to their powers, they became extremely protective of their brothers and joined a team of people who stop the super-powered individuals, eventually falling in love with one of the members.

Potential Track Name: Josei no Seizon-Sha

This would honestly be just a better version of Mileena vs X-23. This would have to be a high-paced fight between two girls who brutally tear each other apart, only to quickly heal from these wounds and get right back into the fight 2 seconds later. There's so much potential for cool moments that you can focus on because these two don't say much. One scene I'd love to see is if Kimiko ripped a tree off its roots and pinned Nezuko's arm with it, only for Nezuko to rip her arm off to take a swing at her, regrowing the arm like it's nothing. This fight sounds way too cool to pass up and I wouldn't miss it for the world.

#7: Aragorn vs Jon Snow (Middle Earth vs Game of Thrones)

Connections: Literary rivalry between two human warrior kings in fantasy worlds.

Potential Track Name: A Song of Snow and Flames

I mean, duh, right? This has been a debate ever since both these series hit the mainstream, and not just in vs debating circles. You'd be shocked to know that I haven't watched Game of Thrones or read the original books, but I am a huge fan of the Middle Earth books and the LOTR movies, and Jon Snow is a character who interests me a lot. With the release of Sauron vs Lich King and Undead vs Dragonborn now making fantasy matchups actually cool and hip with the kids, I forsee that this will at least be in consideration for future season of the show. It's not particularly close, but it's still rad as hell.

#6: Raven vs Sailor Saturn (DC vs Sailor Moon)

Connections: Magical girls on teams of peacekeepers who are seen as misfits due to their past trauma with their abusive parents, but with the power of their friends, learned to overcome it and make their own destinies.

Potential Track Name: Titans of Silence

Raven was a character who meant a lot to me growing up, with me seeing a lot of myself in her, and the same can be said about Tomoe when I first watched Sailor Moon later on in life. Both perfectly straddle the line between cool as fuck and being genuine sympathetic characters; easily some of my favorites in their respective shows. So, imagine my joy when I realized that this matchup had plenty of great animation potential. Both have so many neat abilities they can use, it'll be cool to see them bounce off each other. Raven is a returning character, but her episode against Twilight mainly focused on emotion-manipulating magic. Here, you can focus on the more destructive side of Raven, perfectly in line with Tomoe being the guardian of silence and destruction. One scene that could perfectly exemplify this is a moment where Tomoe strikes her glaive on the ground, destroying the planet the fight is taking place on, forcing them both to fight on the bits of the exploding planet. This has a lot of potential, and I'm not alone in seeing it.

#5: Pennywise vs Freddy Kreuger (It vs Nightmare on Elm Street)

Connections: Two demonic horror icons who create nightmares and feast on people's fears.

Potential Track Name: New Nightmares

I feel like out of every single matchup on this list, this has probably the most animation potential, since both of them can do pretty much anything they put their minds to. Despite the nature of their powers, they're not bound by a single person or by being specifically in dream realms, this animation can just be a fun, chaotic, terrifying fight between two reality warping demons. What I love about this matchup is that they both have so many ways to banter with each other and insult one another. Obviously verbal insults are on the table, but both can shapeshift into characters and people from each other's past. Pennywise can taunt Freddy as anybody from Elm Street, the people who killed him, or even Jason Vorhees as a cool reference, and Freddy can turn into any of the Loser's Club. I'd love if they turned into Wes Craven and Stephen King and pretended to be their creators renouncing their creations. This matchup is only bound by the crew's imaginations (and budgetary restraints), and I would love to see what they could come up with. Just don't turn this into Jason vs Michael 2 and have it be about Jane Shlane.

#4: Henry vs The Second Coming vs Red vs Fancy Pants Man (Henry Stickmin vs Animator v Animation vs Dick Figures vs Fancy Pants Adventures)

Connections: Four stick figure characters who were pioneers of their specific genre in the world of internet animation and Flash games.

Potential Track Name: Stick it to 'Em

Yes, I'm using the name that Brandon Yates used is his track for this matchup, bite me. As for the reason I want this matchup to happen it's simple: I think it'd be really cool. I loved stick figure animations and games growing up. I spent probably all of middle school thinking about the cool animator vs animation episode that I watched or the funny things that happened in Dick Figures and Henry Stickmin, and I only just now got around to playing the Fancy Pants Adventure games, but they're still really good! I love all of these characters, so why not have them kill each other? And yes, The Second Coming is the AvA rep because he has more to work with than anyone else. Speaking of, the animation potential for this matchup is through the roof. Henry and Red have so many weapons to pull from, and TSC and Fancy Pants Man can interact with the environment in so many cool and creative ways that they're bound to be tons of cool shit that happens. In terms of who wins; Fancy Pants is obviously the Volnutt here, Red isn't doing particularly much, but I've heard plenty of good arguments for either Henry or TSC. I'm personally leaning towards TSC, only because I want a death that involves a choice screen popping up like in the Henry Stickmin games, only for TSC to completely ignore that and stopping Henry from making the choice in the first place. This matchup has only gotten better with time, and I would love nothing more than this to be Death Battle's tribute to Flash animation.

#3: Shuma-Gorath vs Starro the Conqueror (Marvel vs DC)

Connections: One-eyed alien conquerors based on starfish that can control people’s minds.

Potential Track Name: Seeing Stars

Look, I know Marvel vs DC matchups have gotten really stale ever since a certain season dropped during the pandemic, but a lot of those matchups can still be really creative. We got a glimpse of that with Ant-Man vs Atom and Wanda vs Zatanna, but Scarecrow vs Mysterio lends itself well to horror and trippy visuals, and matchups like Swamp-Thing vs Man-Thing and Dormammu vs Trigon can have the hosts explore the Marvel and DC cosmologies without seeming like huge undertakings. But for me, my personal favorite Marvel vs DC matchup is Starro vs Shuma. Both these 2 are some of my favorite villains in all of comic books, and I would love to see how high-scale Death Battle can make this matchup be. The tricky part here is getting their personalities down, since they both can oscillate between "goofy ridiculous golden age weirdos" and "lovecraftian horrors beyond comprehension." The way I'd handle it would be to have the fight start out as a campy kaiju fight between giant starfish that gradually escalates beyond the plane of reality, taking the fight to the Nightmare Realm and beyond, with both of them becoming more etherial and horrifying as the fight progresses. I don't have much to say besides that. This is by far my favorite Marvel vs DC fight and one that I wouldn't complain about being the sort of farewell to that trope on Death Battle.

#2: Nimona vs Grace Scuiridae (... vs El Goonish Shive)

Connections: Two shapeshifters who were demonized for their unnatural abilities. Both would be the target of capture for a major antagonist, meeting up with a mad scientist that they would soon grow attached to. Both can mold their bodies into whatever form they wish and both desired to go down opposite paths; Nimona wanted to become a villain and Grace wanted to become a hero. Eventually, both Nimona and Grace would end up confronting the people who tortured them all that time ago and face off against them, showing off a powerful rage-induced form that they would get lost in until one of their friends helped them calm down.

Potential Track Name: Shady Shapeshifters

I think I'm the only person on the planet to ever conceive of this matchup, but fuck it. Nimona and El Goonish Shive are two of my favorite webcomics of all time, with the movie adaptation of Nimona being my second most anticipated film of this year (second to Spider-Verse, but still). So, once I saw the similarities between these two, I fell in love with this matchup. As much as I would love to see how Death Battle tackles the stories of Nimona and EGS, it's the animation and writing that excites me the most. The start honestly writes itself; Nimona starts some shit in Moperville, Grace goes to stop her. Easy peasy. But it's the rest of the fight choreography and writing that I think could make this something special. Nimona and Grace have such different ways of shapeshifting, so it'll be cool to see Nimona's rapid beastial shapeshifting contrast with Grace adapting her own body to counter what Nimona's doing. You can have Nimona breath fire at Grace and be confused as to why she seems completely fine (since Grace's fur is fireproof), you can have a moment where they both transform into squirrels and awkwardly scratch at each other in the trees, you can even have an exchange where they're talking about their geneology and Nimona says "I'm a shark!" and Grace replies "Well, did I mention I'm part space alien?" Speaking of the writing, you can have a sort of narrative follow the fight, where Grace tries her best to pacify Nimona, who keeps getting frustrated that Grace isn't really taking the fight seriously. Then when Grace accidentally triggers Nimona's trauma from their past and/or calls them a monster, Nimona goes berserk and starts destroying Moperville (either the comic dragon or the film beast works for me, but I prefer the dragon). Then Grace looks at all the destruction they're causing to her home and starts getting mad too, transforming into her berserker form like she did against Damien. I imagine that the kill would be an accidental one where the winner starts getting emotional while the loser comforts them as they're dying. Even though there's one matchup I love more than this, given how obscure these two are in the realm of versus, this would get a much bigger reaction out of me. Speaking of a matchup I love more...

#1: Percy Jackson vs Zagreus (... vs Hades)

Connections: Two sons of one of the "Big Three" gods , who have massive daddy issues due in part to them being lied to about their parents. They eventually embark on a quest where they need to go in and out of Tartarus to see their biological mothers. Both have been trained by famous Ancient Greek heroes, both have had weapons and abilities passed onto them from the Olympian Gods, and both have connections to Achilles.

Potential Track Name: Thicker Than Water

I know what you're thinking: "What about Percy vs Harry Potter? Or Pit vs Zag?" While I think Pit is a fine opponent for Zagreus, I am not a big fan of Harry vs Percy for a lot of reasons. I won't get into them now, but I'm kind of over Harry Potter as a franchise at the moment. Hades, on the other hand is my favorite game of all time and Percy is my favorite fictional character of all time, so imagine how shocked I was that nobody else was really suggesting this matchup even though it would be really fucking cool to see. Now, there's not really much in terms of connections (more than Korra and Storm had tho :P) but where this matchup shines is the animation potential. Both Percy and Zag have so many weapons and abilities to bounce off each other, it might shock people to learn that Percy isn't just water bender man. He can shake the earth, create storms, and he has a javelin that can fire nets. I would love to see Zagreus use Hestia's boons to create wind vortexes and have Percy create a small storm to counter it, or have Percy use the water created in Poseidon's calling to whip Zagreus around. Obviously the fight would take place in Tartarus or Zagreus can't stand a chance, but I would love if the end took place near the surface world like the final boss does in the game. Hell, I think an appropriate way to start the fight would be to have Percy beon a mission from Hades himself to stop Zag from reaching the surface world. Oh, and the banter here would be awesome to hear; they're basically the same in terms of personality and how they talk. I can go on about this matchup for days, but just know that this is my favorite matchup of all time and I would love love love if Death Battle (or any vs show really) tackled this.

Not gonna happen tho :/

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