Death Battle Retrospective 81-90

 

Episode 81: Balrog vs TJ Combo

G1 Blog:

https://g1dbteamblogs.blogspot.com/2017/08/death-battle-predictions-balrog-vs-tj.html 

I think this was the first episode that had music by Omega Sparx? It was really good. The animation also did a great job of working around the fact both characters were really just boxers. In hindsight it’s probably another win that might not hold up under a modern context. This was also another Street Fighter loss, and I think they had been on a loss streak for several years at that point. I’m surprised we didn’t get more hate from their fanbase given that tbh.

Episode 82: Shredder vs Silver Samurai

G1 Blog:

https://g1dbteamblogs.blogspot.com/2017/09/death-battle-prediction-shredder-vs.html 

Another good ep. I remember there was a lot of debate on what incarnations of Shredder could be used, with the alien version from the 2000s being a big standout. Personally, I think they hit a pretty good middle ground.

Episode 83: Smokey Bear vs McGruff

G1 Blog:  N/A

This was a silly joke fight and I enjoyed it. It was also the first episode that had a 2D animation. Apparently this was a fight they had wanted to do for years at that point.

Episode 84: Thor vs Wonder Woman

G1 Blog:

https://g1dbteamblogs.blogspot.com/2017/10/death-battle-predictions-thor-vs-wonder.html 

This episode would look a lot different if it was done today.

For context comic book Heralds being universal, multi, dimensional or whatever wasn’t something that was accepted back then. In fact just the shattered god feat was a huge deal in this episode. Thor didn't have the Thorforce then. Frankly I’m not sure who would come out on top now.

Anyway I don’t remember this fight particularly well. I recall the animation holding up well enough, but that people had issues with Thor’s model.

Episode 85: Naruto vs Ichigo

G1 Blog:

https://g1dbteamblogs.blogspot.com/2017/11/death-battle-predictions-naruto-vs.html

I’ve heard people say that Bleach fans don’t like this matchup, but I think Death Battle went above and beyond for their research. This episode is the longest out of any fight since Goku vs Superman. It also introduced the concept of black boxes, and utilized A LOT more of them than any subsequent episode. They had extrapolations of form multipliers, and tried to cover anything they could in the verdict. It clearly had a lot more effort put into than a standard ep. Anyway the animation holds up. The voice actor for Ichigo was also spot on for some reason.

Episode 86:  Batman Beyond vs Spider-man 2099

G1 Blog:

https://g1dbteamblogs.blogspot.com/2017/11/death-battle-predictions-batman-beyond.html 

Ngl I think now Spider-man might be the winner. Nowadays it's probably a closure fight. It really does deserve a 3D remake, particularly given how popular the Spider-Verse movies became.

Episode 87: Sepheritoth vs Vergil

G1 Blog: 

https://g1dbteamblogs.blogspot.com/2017/11/death-battle-predictions-batman-beyond.html

The final of season 4. I loved the fake out with the supernova attack and the usage of the clones early in the fight. I also think this was the first episode where some headway was made with the whole “RPG” character thing(granted Seph was a boss, so his moves were set outside of player control). 

Anyway this ep used the supernova feat for the first time, and I remember us having to argue pretty hard for it. There were some other feats brought up that were portrayed a bit odd though. I think the ep claimed that slicing down a door was like nuke level(I think it was units of force being confused with TNT or something). Regardless it’s still a big improvement over previous final fantasy eps. I also remember people thinking we wouldn’t let Seph win and being surprised we got it “right”. Though funnily enough Vergil’s fans became a more adamant of him potentially winning years later, at least in a more causal space. 

Episode 88: Black Panther vs  Batman 

G1 Blog: 

https://g1dbteamblogs.blogspot.com/2018/02/not-all-heroes-are-born-or-created-equal.html 

I don’t remember this episode much, though I think it was funny that Batman came back for a 3rd time. I feel like most people considered it to be a stomp in Black Panther’s favor due to his suit, though in hindsight I feel like it's not implausible Batman might have a gadget to get past it.

Anyway I “believe” this was around the time the G1 blog made their own discord server specifically for discussing fights. They would invite people in and they would work on eps on a non committal basis. Despite not having an official connection, a lot of the researchers were still allowed in to hang out.

Episode 89: Raven vs Twilight

At least the next time Raven shows up. Everyone will be normal and calm about it.

G1 Blog: 

https://g1dbteamblogs.blogspot.com/2018/02/death-battle-predictions-raven-vs.html 

Choosing my words carefully here.

I guess I’ll start by explaining how the research team worked throughout seasons 3-4. During this time period we were under NDA, but technically were still “volunteers”. We were not obligated to actually contribute to any episodes and many of us often wouldn’t work on a fight that didn't specifically appeal to us. Additionally the research style that we used is what I would describe as  “free for all”. This meant anyone could take notes, anyone could just jump into the discussion, and there wasn’t a set time limit on making the verdict or specified assignments. It wasn’t really "focused". Ultimately the episodes turned out best if people had time or incentive to research thoroughly and if the people contributing were discussing the topic “in sync” with each others opinions. That last point was particularly important, because a discussion can easily become a mess otherwise.

I think this episode demonstrated a lot of the reasons why that system couldn’t work long term. In the end the debate lasted much longer than it probably should have and securing Raven's win was much more difficult than I think anyone was anticipating. 

To be fair obviously standards for sources have changed a lot since then and both characters are considered much stronger now, but even back then some stuff was wonky. I’d say that neither side really got the representation they wanted.

Anyway I think the reaction to this fight's announcement was interesting. I think that initially people didn’t like the idea and got angry because they thought we were setting up Raven to lose. At the time I thought Raven winning would placate that reaction, but it turned out to not work out the way I thought. Twilight's fans got really really really really mad instead. I would argue some of this was due to feeling that her representation was bad, but I would also argue that there was a fair amount of “railroading” in terms of wanting her to be the victor. I distinctly remember stories about death threats towards Chad’s family and Death Battle having to beef up security because someone claimed that they would attack the headquarters in the aftermath of this fight. A lot of people were still angry about it years later.

Anyway, like a lot of “controversial” episodes, I would say this ep was fairly harmless if you weren't in the power scaling community. The soundtrack was also great.

Episode 90: Jotaro vs Kenshiro

G1 Blog:

https://g1dbteamblogs.blogspot.com/2018/03/death-battle-predictions-jotaro-vs.html 

I liked this episode. Jotaro’s a bit weaker than he would be nowadays, but the episode was definitely correct. I remember specifically watching some Fist of the North Star and thinking Kenshiro was really cool. 

Funny thing the whole “crushing his heart” thing was this huge argument about the fight, even though I’m fairly sure Jotaro has never done that in canon before.

Episode 91: Crash vs Spyro

G1 Blog:

https://g1dbteamblogs.blogspot.com/2018/04/death-battle-predictions-crash-vs-spyro.html 

This was one of the best 3D fights we had done up until this point. The verdict also was pretty solid. I liked how Spyro more or less decided to give into his evil self after being hit by a couple of apples. Really reminded me of how evil Ryu is utilized in a lot of animations. lol

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I divide Death Battle into “Eras”. Season one was its classic era, season 2 was its golden era and season 3 & 4 was this transitional era. After Raven vs Twilight I remember sending Ben a message about changing how the Research Team was set up. Essentially that was when we changed from being the “Volunteer Research Team” to simply being the “Research Team”. From that point on we got specific assignments and where obligated to work on each episode. We also would have conference calls where Ben would mediate a discussion and determine a victor of the fight himself. You can really see the massive improvement to episodes that was caused by that decision.