Episode 21: Thor vs Raiden
I feel like even as a kid I knew this fight was a stomp. Not because I actually knew who Thor was, but because Raiden just kinda looked like a jobber. Anyway the fight overall was enjoyable, but man it's super funny how weak Thor was placed in the episode in hindsight.
Episode 22: Link Vs Cloud
I consider this to be one of the most important episodes to me personally.
So the story goes that Ben sent this episode out to the animator Lang. Lang took a REALLY long time to get the animation back to Ben. Ben found out later that this was because Lang decided to make the fight a 3D animation, rather than 2D as initially planned. The result of the animation change is that the episode was delayed significantly from its intended release.
I love Zelda, so this was the first ep I got REALLY invested in. I think I remember debating this guy named Jaxon(Jaden?) or something in the comments of the episode for days on end. It was kinda funny. They were a bit aggressive, but I think we had fun. I argued that Link should win and he argued that Cloud should win. Since this was like early in the fandom the debate was based more along the lines of “eyeballing it” and focusing on power counters.
Anyway, because of the delay, I decided to make a “fan blog” for the first time to pass the time. It was Samus vs Master Chief. This was the main reason why I got into the Death Battle bogging community.
Additionally this fight was the first ep that introduced the Fan Blog that would later become the Research Team. Essentially it was a group started by Lousy, Akuma, and two other community members (SamuraiSpartan and PSB) who would make blogs to predict the winner of each Death Battle fight.
Official Fan Blog introduction. https://web.archive.org/web/20120830183123/http://www.screwattack.com/news/introducing-death-battle-fan-blog
The first prediction they did was for Link vs Cloud. Funny enough they sided with Link.
ODBFB Link vs Cloud prediction blog
This might sound funny in hindsight, but the most people did at the time was eyeball things and go with what “felt right”. I actually think the conclusion they came up with wasn’t unreasonable at the time given how the characters were portrayed and how people analyzed them.
Anyway the fight came out and it being in 3D was super cool. I also remember being really happy that Link won. The animation is pretty clunky by today's standards, but it threw everyone for a loop at the time. The outcome was a bit controversial, but I wouldn’t say it was considered “wrong” in any unanimous aspect at that time. Though I think the most interesting thing to talk about is what weapons and abilities they chose for both characters to use. Using Link’s Smash arsenal and Cloud’s Dissidia arsenal.
This is not how we would approach the characters now, but the community thought differently back then. At the time I think RPG and customizable characters were seen with a level of uncertainty. There was this belief that you needed to give the characters what they were “canonically” implied to have. I distinctly remember there were a lot of other RPG characters people would try to analyze in a similar way to what Death Battle did. It wasn’t until years alter that everyone went “just give them fucking everything”. Even the fan blog defended how Death Battle approached the fight.
Fun fact after the fight Lang posted this gem that’s lived rent free in my head for 10 years.
Episode 23: Spiderman vs Batman
ODBFB Prediction https://web.archive.org/web/20120909010347/http://www.screwattack.com/news/death-battle-predictions-spider-man-vs-batman
This is probably one of the early fights that holds up the best in terms of general analysis. Spider-Man’s powers counter Batman’s stealth and he’s far stronger. Obviously you can take that concept farther with calcs or whatever, but even like 10 years later Batgirl vs Spider-Gwen boiled down to the same logic.
Episode 24: Pikachu vs Blanka
OBDFB Prediction https://web.archive.org/web/20130207092105/http://www.screwattack.com/news/death-battle-predictions-pikachu-vs-blanka
Not gonna lie, I was a hardcore Pikachu defender. I remember arguing against Lousy that Pikachu should be able to outmaneuver and stun Blanka with some of his more passive electric abilities. When the ep came out I accepted Pikachu losing, but lol in hindsight maybe Pikachu would have won lol? The old episode is also kinda wonky in treating Blanka like he’s a Pokemon when he clearly isn’t.
Episode 25: Goku vs Superman
ODBFB Prediction https://web.archive.org/web/20130330063247/http://www.screwattack.com/news/death-battle-predictions-goku-vs-superman
This was the big one. I remember the debate on the episode exploded at the time. Multiple people made blogs trying to debunk Goku and Superman feats. It got a lot of pop culture coverage, etc.
Personally I like the episode. I know some people might look back on it and get angry at all sorts of misc things about scaling or whatever, but this episode had a lot of WORK put into it. They got popular fan voices for the ep, they got people on major Dragon Ball/Superman websites involved with the verdict. It was 30 minutes long and had like a 9 minute fight. Most of the “logic based” parts of the recap also still hold up for the most part.
A lot of the detractions can only be made many years later due to shifting opinions in power scaling. At the time Comic characters generally were not considered to be universe busters or whatever. At the time people arguing Goku was MFTL or universe via GT wasn’t a thing either. Most people thought the logic of the gravity formula held up for the most part. It just wasn’t nearly as deep.
Though that being said Superman was the “underdog” at that time. Most people had never read a Superman comic and based his power on what they saw in cartoons. People thought he was like “building busting”. I can’t imagine what people back then would have thought about his stats now.
Anyway this fight ended and the ODBFB made this nice poster about the show.
https://web.archive.org/web/20130206215325/http://www.screwattack.com/news/thank-you-death-battle
This was also around the time that I got asked to join the ODBFB. I had been in the community for a while at that point, and had become friends with Lousy and the others.
Episode 26: He-Man vs Lion-o
ODBFB Prediction https://web.archive.org/web/20130716153724/http://www.screwattack.com/news/death-battle-predictions-he-man-vs-lion-o
So a funny thing happened after Goku vs Superman aired. Ben contacted us and asked if we wanted to share information for future episodes. TBH in hindsight it kinda makes sense cause he must have been doing all the research purely by himself up until that point.
The ODBFB didn’t actually have any insider knowledge of winners, any formal connection to the show, or direct decision making, but informally could send over notes if we wanted too. I’m assuming this was probably only allowed to happen because Death Battle wasn’t owned by some huge parent company at the time. I actually still have the email from when Ben contacted us(because I haven't emptied my mail in 10+ years)
Apparently the first time I took notes on anything was Lion-O. I did not remember this! I looked through and I unofficially sent notes on Dan Habiki, Hercule, the Pokemon Battle Royal, Toph, Kirby, Solid Snake, Fox, Sam Fisher, Raiden, Knuckles, Donkey Kong, Hercule, Megaman, Astroboy, Jak/Daxter, Mewtwo and Shadow before the team became “official”.
Anyway this fight was pretty good from what I remember. I feel like season 2 was when they started getting more animators, and that there was a noticeable bump in quality.
Episode 27: Shao Kahn vs Bison
ODBFB Prediction https://web.archive.org/web/20130717042140/http://www.screwattack.com/news/death-battle-predictions-m-bison-vs-shao-kahn
I don’t remember this fight very well. I think I thought the recap made sense though. Khan eats souls and Bison uses soul power. Yeah that makes sense probably.
Episode 28: Ryu vs Strider
ODBFB Prediction https://web.archive.org/web/20130729145134/http://www.screwattack.com/news/death-battle-predictions-ryu-hayabusa-vs-strider-hiryu
I remember being strangely invested in this fight and it being one of the first fights where people didn’t just “eyeball it”. Strider dodging anti-aircraft ammunition was seen as a big deal at the time, and I remember us actually comparing it to the speed of normal bullets. We thought his sword was super OP as well for some reason. Not sure how well it holds up since Ryu can make black holes apparently, but Strider was cool and the animation was awesome.
Episode 29: Ivy vs Orchid
ODBFB Prediction https://web.archive.org/web/20130909163945/http://www.screwattack.com/news/death-battle-predictions-ivy-vs-b-orchid
I think this was the first episode that the ODBFB got “wrong”. I think we rolled with it at the time, but it was a bit surprising. I remember Lousy in particular mentioned he didn’t think about Orchid’s phasing ability being a game changer.
Episode 30: Fox vs Bucky O Hare
ODBFB Prediction https://web.archive.org/web/20131211043807/http://www.screwattack.com/news/death-battle-predictions-fox-mccloud-vs-bucky-o%E2%80%99hare
I do remember trying to go out of my way to research this one and being really invested in Fox winning. I think the ep was overall good and thought Fox winning despite losing his legs to be really cool. Funny enough years later it was confirmed the “Star Fox Amputation” thing was fake. I won’t lie Ben and Chad must really like this show, cause I can’t think of any more niche or obscure character that’s appeared on Death Battle.
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