- —Tagline
Ruby Rose VS Ragna the Bloodedge is the 64th episode of DBX, featuring Ruby Rose from the RWBY series and Ragna the Bloodedge from the BlazBlue series in a battle between red-clad scythe wielders.
Exhibition
Under the cover of night in a castle, Ragna the Bloodedge dashes forward, only to notice a round of Fire Dust speeding toward him. He crouches low and performs a backflip to narrowly evade the projectile. Clearly irritated by the attack, he adjusts his collar with a calm yet frustrated motion.
Ragna: T-huh, you gotta be kidding me.
His attacker is revealed to be Ruby Rose, who spins around with her weapon, Crescent Rose, as she happily introduces herself.
Ruby: The name's Ruby Rose!
Drawing his Aramasa, Ragna swiftly slashes at Ruby, but she deftly evades the strike and counters by swinging the shaft of her own scythe, landing a blow to his face. Ruby then attempts a slash of her own, though she misses.
Ruby: Strike!
Ruby's Crescent Rose and Ragna's Blood Scythe collide with a resounding clash, but before Ragna can react, Ruby quickly strikes him on the head with the spine of her weapon.
Ruby: Yah!
Ragna delivers a powerful kick to Ruby's face, following it up with a rapid series of slashes and kicks that propel her into a mid-air spin. Seizing the moment, he attempts to strike her again with another slash; however, Ruby avoids the attack just in time and manages to regain her balance.
Ruby: I'm not done!
Unleashing her red Aura, Ruby dashes around Ragna too quickly for him to react, leading him to compliment her skill.
Ragna: Not bad!
Ragna tries to go for a kick, but Ruby is quicker to attack and shoots another burst of Fire Dust at him, knocking him in the air. While he is airborne, Ruby switches Crescent Rose to its sniper rifle mode and fires another round of Fire Dust, which sends him back to the ground as he lands on his feet.
Ruby: Fire!
Ragna: Ow, bitch!
Ruby: Come here!
Before he can react, Ruby manages to throw Ragna away with the blade of her scythe...
Ragna: What the— ow!
...before launching two bursts of wind in his direction.
Ruby: Take that! How's this?!
Ruby lightly chuckles, but Ragna is not impressed at her attacks, easily dodging the first burst of wind before dispersing the other with his Blood Scythe, creating a cloud of mist in the process.
Ragna: Is that all you've got?
Ruby's Crescent Rose and Ragna's Aramas clash once more, creating a shockwave. Ragna grabs Ruby by her throat and slams her into the ground with such force that it destroys the floor beneath them. As the two fall to the ground, Ruby uses the falling fragments of the castle's floor as platforms to propel herself towards her opponent.
Ruby: Hah! Yah!
Ruby launches an attack that Ragna narrowly blocks. They both land on their feet atop a crumbling piece of the castle, kicking up a cloud of dust. The two engage in a fierce exchange of blows, with Ruby skillfully evading some of Ragna's strikes using her Semblance, Petal Burst. As their fight intensifies, the fragment descends, resulting in a violent upheaval of the ground below.
Ragna: BlazBlue... activate! Booyah!
Harnessing the energy of the Blue, Ragna propels himself into the air, aiming to hit Ruby with his Aramasa. Ruby swiftly evades and counters with a kick directed at Ragna. He successfully blocks this strike along with three additional bursts of Fire Dust using his blade. Ragna retaliates by sending a fourth Fire Dust shot back at Ruby, but it goes astray. He then tries to slash at Ruby twice, yet she skillfully avoids the blows with Petal Burst.
Ruby: Over here!
Ruby intercepts Ragna's blade with her scythe, but is sent flying by a subsequent blow. Leaping from a tree, she attempts to launch a counterattack...
Ragna: This'll sting!
...only to be ensnared by a flurry of swift slashes from Ragna. However, she successfully halts the onslaught by unleashing a surge of her Aura. As Ragna regains his footing, he blocks an attack from the spine of Ruby's Crescent Rose; however, a second attack from the blade strikes him down, forcing him to rebound off the ground.
Ruby: You're mine!
Using her Semblance to outspeed her opponent, Ruby slashes Ragna omnidirectionally, throwing him into the air with her blade and drawing some blood before pursuing him into the sky. As Ragna comes to his senses, he sees that Ruby's eyes are now glowing white, having activated the Silver Eyes.
Ruby: Here I go!
The Silver-Eyed Huntress spins through the air, her scythe whirling rapidly as she prepares to deliver the finishing blow
Ruby: Eat this!
Ruby strikes Ragna with such intensity that it proves fatal, causing him to collapse to the ground, surrounded by a pool of his own blood. Ruby lands safely on the ground, happy about her victory.
Ruby: I guess that's a wrap.
Trivia
Production
- The core connections between Ruby and Ragna are that they are both red-clad heroes who wield scythes (Crescent Rose and the Aramasa/Blood Scythe, respectively) and are the main protagonists of their series. In addition:
- Both can tap into ancient and legendary power sources (the Silver Eyes and the Blue Grimoire, respectively).
- Both are also playable characters in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, which is where the sprites of the two in the animation originate from.
- This is also a battle of opposites, as the two have have contrasting personalities; Ruby is optimistic, selfless, cheerful, empathetic, is driven by a desire to protect others and leads with optimism and emotional strength, whereas Ragna is cynical, angry, motivated by revenge, has a hard-edged exterior shaped by trauma and loss, is driven by personal vendettas and struggles with emotional barriers.
- Interestingly, Ragna is known as the Grim Reaper, a title also shared by Maria Calavera, who mentored Ruby at one point.
- Due to this episode being sponsored by RWBY Volume 6 (with an advertisment for it even being played at the start of the episode) and the fight supposedly being a one-sided beatdown in Ruby's favor, many people claimed the episode was rigged by Rooster Teeth to make Ruby win, with a common claim being that one of the fight's animators supposedly said they wanted Ragna to win instead in a much closer and fairer animation. However, Rooster Teeth's only involvement with the episode was that they wished for Ruby to win, as they did not want their character to be eliminated in a series they own, especially with the upcoming new season of RWBY;[1] nowhere in the animator's statements does it explicitly say that the fight was intended to be closer or that Ragna was meant to win instead.
- It's likely this rumor was spread due to people still thinking the Death Battle crew was biased toward RWBY due to ScrewAttack merging with Rooster Teeth and Yang Xiao Long controversially beating Tifa Lockhart on the show three years prior to this episode's release.
- For unknown reasons, this episode is not listed in the YouTube playlist for DBX.
- Possibly because of this, it is one of the two currently available episodes prior to Season 6 to not get its thumbnail updated with its template, alongside Donald Trump VS Hillary Clinton.
Errors
- This episode's description, "Two world collide has these combatants battle to prove who is the most powerful scythe wielder!", is grammatically incorrect, with "world" not being in its plural form and "has" likely being a misspelled "as".
Other
- This is the seventh Male VS Female-themed episode, after Amy Rose VS King Dedede, Spider-Man VS Mikasa, Donald Trump VS Hillary Clinton, Samus VS Master Chief, Wii Fit Trainer VS Dhalsim, and Noctis VS 2B, and with the next four being Blake VS Inuyasha, Shantae VS Shovel Knight, Yang VS Bakugo, and Sailor Mercury VS Blue Ranger.
- This is the third time the female character wins, after Spider-Man VS Mikasa and Samus VS Master Chief.