(A/N: I forgot to put this warning in the Season 1 trivia, but this trivia will contain spoilers about my S02 fights. Read at your own risk, if you haven't read all my S02 battles yet.)
All right, now that the season is officially over, I thought I'd do a little recap on things. Now, let's see how I improved from my sh*tty first season in this...less-than-sh*tty season! A bonus: ya get to read a pretty nice throwback!
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Crash Bandicoot vs Spyro the Dragon
This season opener is, at best, average. I mean, it isn't anything I can be really proud of, but it isn't a complete disappointment, either. It's definitely a step-up from my...less-than-stellar series opener, Cloud vs Mikasa. Plus, this matchup was yet another popular one. Maybe not as popular as Season 1's finale, but something that has largely been debated on ever since the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro series became popular. However, unlike Vergil vs Sephiroth, this had already been done twice before I wrote it. The first one was on DeviantArt, where Spyro emerged the victor (then again, Crash and Spyro fought one-on-one there). The other one was on the DB Fanon (the one site where I don't wanna write my battles for now), where Crash won (and that one used their classic versions). So that got me thinking: "What if I used composites of them AND gave them BOTH their companions?" And then, boom, clap, the idea of Crash vs Spyro was born.
In the end...I'm somewhat okay with this fight. As for the results, I now personally think it can go either way. Well, at first, I sided with Crash due to the versatility and durability of Aku Aku, demonstrated in the PS2 and PSP versions of the (canon) games Crash of the Titans and Crash: Mind over Mutant (some people tend to overlook Aku Aku's durability as demonstrated in the games I mentioned, and tend to side with the Aku Aku in the classic games that die in one hit), and his skills in close combat. But now that I think about it, with the power of Dark Spyro, this match can REEEEALLLLLY go either way depending on the situation.
Results aside, I can say that I did enjoy writing this fight. While I could REALLY have stepped up the banter between these PlayStation heroes, I did make up for it with a fight that not only was kind of good, but one that was a definite step up over Season 1's opener, which to this day I have no idea why I wrote.
Overall, in my tastes, this is a passable debut for Season 2. Tell me what you guys think.
Alex Russo vs Terra Branford
nobody asked for this
This is one of those fights which I have no idea why I thought them up. I think I just thought "hm, two girls that can use magic, could fly". Also, I guess I had just wanted to use Terra in a DB for too long, that I was fine with any foe she comes across. Hm. Maybe I should have pitted her against Reboot!Dante, since they have a few things more in common. Still...hm...Terra vs DmC!Dante...could be a good idea for DeviantArt...*writes it in DA matchup considerations list*
As for the fight...yeah, I did NOT realize how much of a stomp this was until it was too little and too late. I mean Alex has the hax for it, but Terra is simply a girl that can slice her up in the blink of an eye, star-moving magical hax or no. But hey, at least Alex had hax going for her, right? And she had the perfect way to end Terra, right? Unlike the ridiculous sh*tstomp that is Esdeath vs Exdeath, this fight is quite closer...
Overall, this fight was kinda fun to write up. With the wide array of magic these girls have up their sleeves, the possibilities are boundless, and though I think I could have written it better, I like to think I delivered, if only by a bit.
Oh, and obligatory Boomstick Disney fetish joke was obligatory.
Captain James Hook vs Captain Jack Sparrow
Lo and behold, the shortest fight in this season, rivaled only by an entry further down this list.
This fight...it's just meh. I mean, with one combatant having little source material to base off of, and the other being just too...exuberant, I had little to work with. Now, Jack Sparrow is quite the interesting character, with a lot of wit and intelligence, but with my idea well having run dry, I kinda feel like I was rushing to meet a deadline, and I rolled out a rather...bland fight onto your computer screens.
Overall, this fight is kinda just...kinda there.
There. Short analysis for a short fight.
Ragna the Bloodedge vs Kamui Tokinomiya
There are two fights that I'm VERY disappointed with in this season. One is an entry further down this list. The other one is — you guessed it — this.
I'm very, very disappointed with this fight. I regret failing to deliver the full potential of both Kamui and Ragna, as I had written this fight before I became a fan of the BlazBlue series (I will admit, I only wrote Kamui's bio based on what I saw on gameplay videos, and the Ragna that I used was a mixture of Dante and Death Battle Classic's HORRIBLY lowballed version of Ragna). The matchup could also be seen as a bit of an antithesis. One defends the earth from harm, and the other possesses a power that can destroy the world many times over. One is serene, the other is angry. There are endless possibilities with a fight like this...but I regret missing out on and leaving out so much.
But that's not the MAIN reason why this is the fight that I'm most disappointed in. I'll admit...yes, I wrote this out of spite. I wrote this fight out of SALT. I had seen a battle on the DB Fanon where Kamui fought The 12th Doctor and won in a fight where she should have LOST. "Oh, you're salty that your fave character lost in an insignificant little fanon fight? That's petty!" Oh yeah, I was salty. I was VERY, VERY salty. Back then, I believed I had EVERY RIGHT TO BE SALTY AND BUTTHURT. The Doctor was HORRIBLY MISREPRESENTED in that fight. The rules were skewed HEAVILY in Kamui's favor just so she could win against a character she should realistically lose to. Now, I could go on and on why I was so salty with that fight, but I deeply regret being salty about it now. And...yeah, now I think it's really petty getting angry at a Fanon fight (don't get me wrong, there are a few good fights in the Fanon Wiki, The Doctor vs Kamui just isn't one of them). I still believe the Doctor should have won, but now with my newfound respect for Kamui, I think the fight's a lot closer than I initially thought it would be.
Anyway, back on topic...I was INCREDIBLY ANGRY with The Doctor vs Kamui that I, without admitting it at first, thought this idea up. Now don't get me wrong, Ragna and Kamui have some things in common and a few contrasting characteristics, but I'll admit that this wasn't thought up because of those reasons. I now admit that I thought this up JUST because I wanted an excuse for Kamui to die.
Thus, this fight was born. I repeat, I wrote this fight because I just wanted to see Kamui burn after her killing the Doctor in a fight where she should have LOST. What's more, I wrote this fight KNOWING that Ragna would win (even in this spite match, I did research. I was so focused back then on finding stuff for Ragna that could help him kick Kamui's ass), and was so focused on having Ragna kill Kamui that I HORRIBLY misrepresented BOTH characters.
Now...I deeply regret writing this out of spite. I now respect Kamui as a character, and Arcana Heart is...a pretty awesome game, based on what I've seen on YT. Also, I'm now proud to be a fan of the BlazBlue series, and Ragna's my main. Hell, I've written a Ragna fight on DeviantArt where I used a correct version of Ragna, and I thoroughly enjoyed writing it that I had to split it into two parts.
Again, I deeply regret having written this fight out of utter bitterness over The Doctor vs Kamui. Ragna vs Kamui is a match idea with boundless possibilities, and I regret missing out on so much potential just because I was so consumed in my anger on Kamui killing the Doctor in a fight where she should have lost. Still, this is a great match idea, and I'm thinking of remastering this fight in Season 4 or so. Still believe Ragna wins, but now with my newfound love for BlazBlue and newfound respect for Kamui and AH as a whole, I can just imagine the boundless possibilities the matchup has, waiting to be written out.
Again, while a great idea overall, Ragna the Bloodedge vs Kamui Tokinomiya is the fight that I'm most disappointed in.
Mai Shiranui vs Tifa Lockhart
Remember how I said Hook vs Jack was my shortest fight? Well, this one rivals it in terms of length. But unlike Hook vs Jack, this was a filler fight that I thoroughly enjoyed writing (though I made a mistake on Mai's analysis. "Kunoichi" actually means "female ninja", not "distracted by the sexy" as ScrewAttack said).
While this was short, this was a pretty fun battle to write. Ninja tactics versus brute force was kind of thrilling to write out, and since I was still a massive fan of FFVII back then (not really much now), I had a blast (ha, geddi--*shot*) inserting a few nods from Advent Children, something I failed miserably in doing in my first FFVII match...
So yeah. Another short analysis for another short fight. But hey, for a filler fight, it was kind of enjoyable to do. I don't know if I can say the same for the next episode, though...
Sam Fisher vs Ezio Auditore
I'm not terribly disappointed with this fight. It's just...pretty lackluster. The only thing that stands out in it is the incredibly wasted potential between Sam and Ezio. They're masters of stealth and silent assassination, and direct confrontation isn't really their main thing. There are so many possibilities on how a fight between two master assassins could play out. Hiding in hypothetical haystacks, catching your opponent unawares with a gunshot or something behind a metal grill, stealthily laying in a fatal knife stab...there are many good possibilities in a match involving two masters of stealth, but why the hell would I waste them?
Well, I can probably chalk it up to two things. Firstly, this one was rushing to meet a deadline I had set for myself. When I look at it, the fight feels so...rushed, as if I wanted to finish this fight as fast as possible that I had Sam and Ezio just wail on each other with their weapons for the rest of the fight (there was literally only one stealth sequence, and it didn't really stand out that much in my opinion).
Second, I lacked sufficient background knowledge on Splinter Cell and Assassin's Creed back then, using information I took from wikis and the Snake vs Fisher Death Battle. Though I think I reached a logical conclusion, I feel like I didn't do research on this fight. So to sum up, I got lazy.
Overall, this isn't terribly disappointing, just lackluster and rather boring. Tell me what you think.
Dante vs Raiden REMASTERED!
Dante vs Raiden was a really good match idea, but I regret having flopped HORRIBLY when writing it at the sh*tstorm that is Season 1. There was so much info I left out, so much wasted potential, and the battle itself was quite horrible (not as horrible as my sh*ttiest fight, Blake vs DS, but still). Plus, at the post-battle results, my explanation felt off...VERY off. Still, Dante vs Raiden was too great an idea to just dismiss and bury in the soils of time, so I decided to re-work it from the ground up. In case some of you didn't know, Ruby Rose vs Nero was originally going to be the fight after Sam vs Ezio, but when I decided to drop it, I briefly found myself stuck on which match to replace it...until I re-read Dante vs Raiden and decided "hm, maybe I should remake this." And thus began my long-ish quest to remake this battle.
I'll admit. I found remastering Dante vs Raiden problematic at first, because at the moment, I didn't want to stray away from my old writing style, which works AGAINST remastering, or writing better quality fights in general. Also, thinking up new scenes and unearthing new information wasn't exactly an easy task for me. Last but not least, I feared that I would deliver the same results again, that absolutely nothing would change.
Lucky for me, then, that I had written my first fight on DeviantArt when I thought of remaking Dante vs Raiden. It was then that I pondered if changing my writing style would work in this particular fight. By then, I had done sufficient research and supplied Dante and Raiden with new abilities that they could utilize, so all I had left to do was write the fight. And then, I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to try out my new writing format.
Suffice to say...I think it worked. I am thankful that no repetitions of what happened in the original fight (the results are the same, but this time I'm thankful that I explained them a bit better), and that I had delivered a far better fight than the last. Also, the metal gear scene. THE METAL GEAR SCENE. Granted, that was inspired by a few Raiden-suplexing-something-giant scenes in his fights on DeviantArt, but it was real fun adding that in.
This is, without a doubt, a huge step-up from the overall abysmal quality of my Season 1 fights, as well as one of the best fights of this season, I'll tell ya that.
Also...no MCR song in the remaster 'cause I feel it wouldn't fit the new fight. Like, at all.
Goliath vs Eren Yeager
I am really disappointed with this fight. Now, don't get me wrong, I did my best to deliver, utilizing my new writing style and making the descriptions as vivid as I could make them...but what ultimately makes this fight disappointing is the ending alone.
The ending, I will admit, felt like a major copy-paste of a certain Eren fight on DA. I'd wanted the ending to be a bit similar, but I was so wrapped up in writing that I made it TOO similar. Hell, some of the descriptions were really, really similar to the ones on the aforementioned Eren fight. I feel real guilty for that, and despite having written a good battle around it, the ending botches this fight completely. Because not only did it feel like a copy-paste, it felt too rushed, too convenient, and too sloppily-delivered. I can chalk that up to nothing.
Ultimately, while not as disappointing as Ragna vs Kamui, Goliath vs Eren has such a disappointing ending that it isn't exactly a fight I can be proud of.
Brachydios vs Yang Xiao Long
In case you didn't know, the fight after Goliath vs Eren was going to be Gamera vs The Cloverfield Monster, but having expended so much of my brainpower on Goliath vs Eren (disappointing ending aside) and Ragna vs Nightmare on DeviantArt, I felt so...drained. That was too bad, since I'd wanted to write Gamera vs Clover for a while. Don't know why I suddenly lost all will to even make it, aside from the aforementioned brainpower drain. So here I was, stuck in yet another dilemma on which fight to pick. And out of all potential replacements...I picked this.
I had my hesitations with this matchup at first. Don't get me wrong, I think the whole "hunter-against-hunted" theme of this matchup was a good concept, and the connection that they have is that they both explode stuff with their fists and even more so when ya piss 'em off. Still, I had my doubts. Could I make this work? 'Cause this is the first time I did a hunter-versus-hunted fight between hunter and monster.
In the end...I'm thankful that it did work. Overall, I had lots of fun writing this up. Yang's one of my favorite characters in RWBY, and even though I'm sad that she lost to one of the monsters I despise the most in MH4U (goddammit Brach, just stop boxersprinting at me in this cramped area and carting me while I'm drinking this one megapotion, just give me a bre--*You fainted.* AAAAAAGH--), I thoroughly enjoyed writing this exploderfest.
Still, NathanTheManTheMHFan, you hypocrite, you said you weren't writing Ruby vs Nero because RWBY isn't finished yet, but you wrote a Yang fight AAAAAAAAAAA—(no sarcasm intended)
Queen Elsa vs Jack Frost
This was one of my earliest match ideas, and to be honest, I was completely unsure on how to make this work. Mainly because I found Frozen too cheesy for my taste. And though the "Let it Go" trend died off three years ago and has been rotting six feet under ever since, it still retains that cheesiness. So I was unsure on how to make that cheesiness work in a fight scene.
Also...I was taking a bold step here. Elsa and Jack Frost have been shipped together at some point, even though they're from COMPLETELY DIFFERENT MOVIES. So, with that in mind, I thought, "What if they fought each other to the death?" And thus, one of my earliest DB ideas was conceived.
Overall, this fight was...kind of enjoyable to write, actually. I dug having Elsa and Jack unleash their imaginations (to some extent) to come up with somewhat creative attack methods rather than just hurl ice at each other like mindless drones. Also, the fight between Jack and the ice-armored Marshmallow was, believe it or not, inspired from the Gilgamesh vs Berserker fight in Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works (great anime, by the way), and the music used for that part should further prove that point.
The verdict was fairly easy to arrive at. With all the power Elsa has, she lacks the combat experience and physicality that Jack has, and she struggled with two assassins whilst Jack was able to defeat Pitch, albeit with help. It also doesn't help that her emotions can get in the way and cause her powers to fluctuate, whilst Jack, by comparison, was the more level-headed one.
If there's one thing I struggled with, though, it was the ending. I was unsure whether I should kill Elsa or spare her, but after a period of time thinking, I decided on the latter. That was because I couldn't see it in Jack's character to just up and kill Elsa when she's down. Yes, I agree that the non-death ending was a bit corny and fanfiction-y...but the rest of the fight was more than enough to make up for it. Especially the Fate ref. Could not resist.
Tris Prior vs Katniss Everdeen
I have a slight obsession for Metal Gear Rising soundtracks now, I'll tell you that.
Back when I first started writing Death Battles, this was one of the very first ideas I came across. Unfortunately, with my first season's lineup filled like that, I had to place Tris vs Katniss in this season...AND delay it further, near the very end of the season. That was because, at the time, I had lost interest in it for a while AND I was excited to do Goliath vs Eren, as at the time, I wanted it release at exactly the same day I released the prelude for my fourth DeviantArt fight, Mikasa Ackerman vs Asuna Yuuki (then again, WHY DID I NOT THINK OF THAT EARLIER?!? WHY CLOUD?!?!? Oh and go check out Mikasa vs Asuna on DA. Shameless self promotion).
Turns out that me delaying Tris vs Katniss was kind of for the best. Had I done it earlier, I fear that I wouldn't have delivered as well as I did. Though to be honest, I probably could have done more. (Also, on a little side note, if I had written this fight before I discovered the majestic pieces of art that are Metal Gear Rising songs...yeah, the fight would suck a little.) But in the end, it was fun. It's a rather popular debate among YA novel fans, but I've yet to see anyone give it the Death Battle treatment, so I decided to give it a shot. For a filler fight, I'm glad this paid off the way it did and I'm glad I had fun with it, 'cause BOY, would the next match be my greatest challenge yet...
Jotaro Kujo vs Yu Narukami
*sniff* Why is it that in season finales, I always end up killing off my favorite characters...?
Wow. What a way to end Season 2! As I did with my last season, I wanted to end this season big and as gloriously as I possibly could. The idea I initially had for a season finale was Chuck Norris vs Madoka Kaname, but despite the immense scale of power they possessed, it just wouldn't work as a season finale. A Death Battle, yes, but not a true season finale. Ever since I saw and became a fan of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, I have been itching to see a JoJo character strut his stuff in my Death Battles. (Well, I HAVE used one on DeviantArt--Dio Brando, fighting the infamous Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way.) And after a long, tedious search on the Internet and various inspirations (a certain DBX included), I came across the most ideal opponent for Jotaro Kujo: Persona 4's very own Yu Narukami.
Now, I've seen various people do their take on this battle. There was one on DeviantArt, and it was awesome, but I feel that that fight didn't deliver enough. The other was on the *sigh* Fanon Wiki, which was admittedly quite good, but then again, didn't deliver nearly enough. And the DBX between Jotaro and Yu...I'll admit, it was good, but because of the IMMENSE limit of time within a DBX, that animated fight felt severely lackluster in my case. Won't touch on the outcome since it's literally anyone's game in DBX anyway. THAT's when I decided, "I'll be taking up Jotaro Kujo vs Yu Narukami as my season ender."
As a season finale, I wanted to make this fight as glorious as I possibly could. I wanted it to be something far more than just a mere battle. So with all the time in my hands, I went the hell out of my way to make this work. I pushed myself to the very limits of my imagination. I even went so far as to put in some visual appeal in the fight.
While incredibly thrilling and fun, writing this battle was not easy. Oh no, it wasn't. Aside from the verdict, which was REALLY tough to call, I did not have an easy time writing the fight itself. I can partly chalk that up to the fight having 17,000+ words, but apart from that, even with all the time I had in my hands, I couldn't take this easy. Both combatants have a diverse set of attacks, and even with the Personas I restricted him to, Yu still possessed a-plenty of attack options. With that, there are plenty of possible scenarios, and I knew I couldn't limit myself to just one when I came across it. So I visualized and visualized some more, juggled between scenarios every now and then...
And now, looking back on it...was all that work worth it in the end? Delivering one of my current favorite vs ideas on the internet as a season finale? That I can't say for myself...but when it comes to the finished product, I have zero regrets. The atmosphere, the action, the conclusion—they're all great.
...Eat your heart out, Regret vs Sora. Jotaro vs Yu is easily the best fight I've ever written thus far. It may have its flaws, but this is the fight I can currently pride myself on the most.
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(A/N: Welp, that's it for arecap. I hope y'all enjoyed the season. Hope it's a step up from the unholysh*tstorm that is my first season, even though it has its own flaws. See youall next time in Season 3! As for its premiere...I will be revealing it shortly.Until then, peace out!)