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Death Battle (stylized as DEATH BATTLE!) is a popular web series created by Ben Singer and formerly produced by Rooster Teeth, hosted on Rooster Teeth's website and the DEATH BATTLE! YouTube channel (formerly known as ScrewAttack). The show pits two or more fictional characters from different medias such as movies, comics, manga, television programs, literature, video games, advertisements, public service announcements, and even mythology in a simulated battle to the death. The characters are analyzed with their respective powers, strengths, and weaknesses to determine a winner.
On March 6th, 2024, it was announced that Death Battle's owner and production company, Rooster Teeth, would be shut down by its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.[1] Although the status of Death Battle is currently uncertain, Chad James has stated that the crew are working to find a way to keep the show going,[2] while Ben Singer has confirmed that the DEATH BATTLE! YouTube channel will remain up.[3] Further updates on the fate of the show will be given sometime in May, following Rooster Teeth's shutdown.
The show currently has 187 episodes, which are split up into seasons.
Season 1 had 25 episodes and a Bonus episode. It premiered on December 6th, 2010 and ended on January 10th, 2013.
Season 2 had 32 episodes and a Bonus episode. It premiered on May 31st, 2013 and ended on December 15th, 2015.
Season 3 had 14 episodes and a Bonus episode. It premiered on March 16th, 2016 and ended on December 21st, 2016.
Season 4 had 16 episodes. It premiered on February 1st, 2017 and ended on December 20th, 2017.
Season 5 had 16 episodes. It premiered on February 7th, 2018 and ended on December 19th, 2018.
Season 6 had 16 episodes. It premiered on February 6th, 2019 and ended on December 18th, 2019.
Season 7 had 20 episodes and a Bonus episode. It premiered on January 26th, 2020 and ended on December 28th, 2020.
Season 8 had 16 episodes. It premiered on March 7th, 2021 and ended on December 19th, 2021.
Season 9 had 16 episodes and a Bonus episode. It premiered on March 28th, 2022 and ended on December 21st, 2022.
Season 10 had 16 episodes. It premiered on May 22nd, 2023 and ended on December 18th, 2023.
Season 11 was set to premiere in 2024, though its fate is currently unconfirmed.
Format Overview
The idea of the show is to pit two or more fictional characters against each other in a simulated fight to the death, referred to as a "death battle". Matchups are decided based on the popularity of requests, debatability, entertainment, and theme.
The show is hosted by the original characters Wizard and Boomstick (along with the later additions of DUMMI, Ringmaster, and Jocelyn the Intern).
Before the fight, the hosts provide an analysis of each combatant, analyzing their backstory, character, powers, equipment, skills, strengths, weaknesses, and physicality. This is done by extensive research of each combatant's official, canon media, as well as the calculation of feats and powerscaling. If a character has multiple versions (e.g., Link), said character will be composited throughout all forms of media unless a certain version is too deviant from the main source (for example, Sonic the Hedgehog and Archie Sonic are considered two different characters, though the latter was composited into the former back in Season 1).
After the analyses, the fight animation is shown, portraying the combatants fighting to the death. The animation shows off how the combatants' various abilities and skills would interact with each other, and in later seasons, includes original dialogue provided by voice actors as well as an original soundtrack. The animation is not meant to completely accurately portray how a fight between the combatants would go, but instead exists mainly for entertainment and to display the verdict. The animation style varies with each episode, but is most commonly 2D sprite animation and occasionally 3D computer animation. The fights are also more uncommonly animated with hand-drawn animation or even portrayed in live action.
After the fight animation, the hosts combine the information from the combatants' analyses together in order to explain the verdict, usually capping off with Wiz summarizing the important factors for the winning combatant's victory and Boomstick making a pun based on either the combatants or what happened in the fight at the very end before Wiz announces the winner.
Rules
- Combatants have no prior knowledge of each other unless specified.
- To ensure a fair fight, any specific moral restraints from killing are removed from combatants. All other traits are considered.
- A combatant's maximum personal potential is examined unless specified otherwise. Factors unrelated to combatants cannot end the battle.
- Unless specified, all official material related to a character is applied unless found contradictory to the primary source material.
Schedule
For the first two seasons of the show, there wasn't a consistent schedule, as episodes were released from anywhere between a single week to a few months, with some episodes even having to be delayed due to external factors such as hardware failure or issues in the animation process.
From Season 3 to Season 6 (and for Gogeta VS Vegito), episodes were released every three weeks. In the first two weeks, previews of each combatant's analyses were released, and in the third week, the episode was released at around 12:00 PM CST.
Starting with Season 7, episodes are released biweekly. The schedule is similar to the old one, with the combatants' analysis previews being released the Monday and Wednesday before the episode is released and the episode itself releasing the following Sunday around 12:00 PM CST for FIRST Members (and Death Battle Champions starting with Gogeta VS Vegito) and on Monday for the general public. In the middle of the season, the show will generally take a short break, with DBX or Desk of DEATH BATTLE taking its place for an unspecified amount of weeks before Death Battle's return (though Season 10 lacked this break in exchange for starting two months later than usual).
During Season 10, the schedule was changed slightly. Due to internal speculation that the early releases for Champions were negatively affecting the overall performance of the season's episodes on YouTube, a test of a lack of them for both Champions and FIRST Members was done from Frieza VS Megatron to Scooby-Doo VS Courage the Cowardly Dog to see the potential difference.[4] After said tests, the early release perk was removed for both parties, with episodes going forward now releasing on Monday for the general public without any kind of early release the day prior.
Episodes
There is currently only one matchup that is confirmed for the future. Although other matchups may have been announced at one point or another (namely Galactus VS Unicron prior to its official reveal as the Season 10 Finale[5] and Wiz VS Boomstick as the series finale[6]), Ben Singer stated in 2022 during the 304th episode of DEATH BATTLE Cast that no matchup is 100% confirmed, with the exception of Ruby VS Maka[7], which was announced at ConBravo 2016.
Staff
Death Battle Musicians | |
---|---|
Primary Musicians | Brandon Yates • Therewolf Media |
Guest Musicians | Blake Robinson • Nathan Sharp • Trocadero • David Levy • Meredith Hagan • Mason Lieberman • Carlo Decanini • Omega Sparx • Cameron Sather • Sithu Aye • RichaadEB • Jonny Atma • ToxicxEternity • JT Music • SWATS • Myriani • Jun Mitsui • John Scigulinsky • Tre Watson • Daniel Vincent Galvan • LadyIgiko • Tiggs • Futakuchi Mana • Logan Adams • Victor Borba • The Death Battle Fan Choir • Infotron • Mr. Goatee • Nathaniel Wolkstein • Donna Caruthers |
Sound Mixers | Dale Brunson • Anthony DiGiacomo |
Death Battle Writers | |
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Writers | Ben Singer • Chad James • Nick Cramer • Sam Mitchell • Jessica Davis • Sean Hinz • Liam Swan • Genevieve Guimond • Thac Nguyen • Matthew Jones • Hershel Lousyton • Joshua Kazemi • Djmah'di Rivers • Cian Mulrooney |
Merchandise
Official Death Battle merchandise is available on the Rooster Teeth store. The merchandise is primarily various T-shirts, but also includes a hat and a card game.
Gallery
Trivia
- Ben has stated that the series was heavily inspired by Monty Oum's Haloid, Deadliest Warrior, and Machinima's Versus. However, since Versus did not have any conclusive winners, Ben decided to do an actual series with fully animated fight sequences.[8]
- The original series' name was going to be "Who Would Win?", and the original first episode (done completely by Ben) even used that title. However, it was later changed to the current name when Chad joined the show.
- As of Season 10, every season has featured at least one combatant from the series Marvel Comics and DC Comics.
- As of Season 10, every season has featured at least one combatant from the companies Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Hitotsubashi Group.
See More
Spin-offs
Trivia
- Death Battle Winners
- Death Battle Losers
- Death Battle Cameos
- Death Battle Curse
- Death Battle Music
- Combatants by Series
- Combatants by Company
- Locations
References
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/deathbattle/comments/1b85d86/roosterteeth_closure_megathread/
- ↑ Chad's statement
- ↑ https://twitter.com/BenBSinger/status/1765502609455014282
- ↑ Spinal vs Cervantes (Killer Instinct VS Soul Calibur) Who wins a DEATH BATTLE Debate?
- ↑ DEATH BATTLE! @ MAGFest 13
- ↑ [Convention Hopper] ConBravo 2016 - Death Battle Q&A
- ↑ Kyogre vs Chaos! | DEATH BATTLE Cast #304
- ↑ User blog:CrossoverKing96/Road to 100 (Archive) Samus vs Boba Fett