Death Battle

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About

Death Battle (stylized as DEATH BATTLE) is an animated internet series created by Ben ''Wizard'' Singer and Chad ''Boomstick'' James and hosted by ScrewAttack and formerly produced by Rooster Teeth. In each episode, fictional characters from different media are compared against each other to decide who would presumably win in a fight to the death, with each episode featuring an animated battle between the two.

History

On December 6th, 2010, episode one "Boba Fett VS Samus Aran* of the Death Battle series premiered on ScrewAttack's YouTube^[1] channel (name later changed to DEATH BATTLE!). The episode (shown below) garnered over 6.9 million views in 13 years.

As of March 2024, the show had ran for 10 seasons with between 14 and 25 episodes in each.^[2] Following the 2024 shutdown of the production company Rooster Teeth, show's creator Chad "Boomstick" James wrote on Discord that the show's team is aiming to keep the show going.^[2]

As of March 2024, episodes "Goku VS Superman 1" and "Deadpool VS Deathstroke" are the two most-watched episodes^[3]^[4] of the series, with over 47 million views and 41 million views, respectively (shown below, left and right).

Spin-Off Show

Between October 2014 and January 2016, spin-off series One Minute Melee^[5] ran for 32 episodes, featuring short fight animations between two fictional characters not based on any research.

Controversies

Multiple videos posted by Death Battle have sparked viral debates online, with users discussing the results and making their own arguments why one character would win in a fight against each other.

Goku vs Superman

On January 19th, 2013, Death Battle posted one of its most anticipated and requested videos, Goku VS Superman,^[3] with the creators judging that Superman would ultimately defeat Goku. The result, however, along with the research presented at the end, resulted in heated debates between the Dragon Ball and Superman fandoms. Since then, multiple comments, forum threads and even YouTube videos were posted online, with users bringing up arguments that favored Goku's victory and criticized the channel's research (example shown below).

The video was followed by two official rematches: a 2015 episode^[6] in which Superman once again won against Goku (shown below, left), and a 2023 episode^[7] in which Goku yet again lost to Superman (shown below, right). The last episode was well-received compared than the previous installments, mainly due to the characters treating their fight more like a friendly competition rather than a fight to the death, and the episode generally considered wholesome.

Other Controversies

Other Death Battle videos that sparked debates over the quality, judging and the research include the 2011 episode "Justin Bieber VS Rebecca Black", the 2012 episode "Zelda VS Peach" and the 2014 episode "Kirby vs. Majin Buu."^[8]^[9]^[10]

Use in Memes

Online, the template images used at the start of each episode of Death Battle has been used to create parody memes, with users editing in various pairs of characters characters. Some parodies imitate the series further, listing the characters' stats and abilities and explaining why one character would win the fight against the other.

The parody battles have been posted on various fan blogs such as G1 Death Battle Fan Blogs,^[11] on the dedicated subreddit /r/DeathBattleMatchups,^[12] and on social media such as X / Twitter and Tumblr (examples shown below).

Death Battle Bot

Death Battle Bot (@DeathBattleBot) is a gimmick X [13] / Twitter account that parodies Death Battle, posting randomly generated battles between two characters every 30 minutes (examples shown below). The bot launched in 2020 and ceased activity in February 2024.