Simon the Digger VS Kyle Rayner, originally Kyle Rayner VS Simon the Digger, later Simon the Digger VS White Lantern, later Gurren Lagann VS White Lantern is the 196th episode of Death Battle, featuring Simon the Digger and Gurren Lagann from the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann series and Kyle Rayner from DC Comics in a battle between cosmic heroes with indomitable will. Simon was voiced by Kieran Regan and Kyle was voiced by Brandon Acosta.
Interlude
The episode opens with the towering Gurren Lagann mech charging towards Kyle Rayner as the Green Lantern manifests a construct to block an incoming punch, which pauses and grays out as Ringmaster shouts...
The screen then statics into playing the Death Battle intro.
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Wiz & Boomstick by Brandon Yates  
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Wiz: Simon the Digger.
Boomstick: Kyle Rayner, the White Lantern.
Wiz: Two men born of Earth with the willpower to pierce the heavens and conquer infinity.
Boomstick: He's Wiz and I'm Boomstick.
Wiz: And it's our job to analyze their weapons, armor, and skills to find out who would win... a Death Battle.
Simon the Digger/Gurren Lagann
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Wiz: Deep underground, Giha Village lived in dreary isolation, oblivious to the wider world above their squalid cave.
Boomstick: That's where the hero of our story comes in, the young man who would lead his comrades into the sunlight at last: Kamina, the great and mighty! ...Oh, and his little brother from another mother, Simon. He was there, too, I guess.
Wiz: Simon was a digger, content to drill endlessly through the dirt, until the day he found the Core Drill.
Boomstick: A key that activated the mysterious buried mech that Kamina named "Lagann". Under his magnificently masculine leadership, Kamina finally drilled their way to freedom, seeing the Sun after a life in the dark.
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Furious Chase by Pacho Buscadoro
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Wiz: But the sky was by no means the limit. The surface was ruled by the cruel chimeric Beastmen, and Kamina would lead his compatriots against them to reclaim the Earth for humanity, scoring a second mech in the process, aptly named "Gurren".
Boomstick: And as befits Kamina and Simon's unbreakable brotherly bond, Gurren and Lagann merged, creating "Gurren Lagann"!
Wiz: With Kamina piloting the body and Simon the head, these two were unstoppable.
Boomstick: Of all the giant fighting robots in all the animes across history, Gurren Lagann might just be the absolute coolest, fueled by its pilots' willpower and capable of making any weapon they can imagine.
Wiz: Including missiles, a jetpack, a sunglasses boomerang, and of course...
Boomstick: Drills! Wrist-mounted drills, kunai drills, shield drills, Kamehameha drills, and everyone's favorite, the Giga Drill Burēku! Side note: it is so funny that the only thing they could think of was drills. That's like if I made booze or something my whole personality.
99 Bottles: ORA!
Wiz: With Gurren Lagann's awesome power, Kamina laid waste to enemy forces, liberated human villages, and fomented a rebellion against the Beastmen king, Lordgenome.
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Taken by Mars Lasar
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Boomstick: Until Kamina... died. Oh, wait. Shit. W... Was that supposed to happen?
Wiz: Nope, and it was all Simon's fault; he let his willpower waver, and his soul brother paid the price. After all, he was just a humble digger, at home in the darkness, guided solely by the light of Kamina's spirit.
Boomstick: So, his big bro left him with these final words: "Have faith in the Simon who believes in you." Damn...
Wiz: Kamina was the one looking up to him the whole time. It was Simon who found Lagann, Simon who pierced the surface, and Simon who would now lead humanity to victory.
Boomstick: Especially with his gal pal Nia at his side, who helped pull him out of his rut and kick Lordgenome's ass! But victory only lasted seven years, before the Anti-Spiral attacked.
Wiz: Unimaginably powerful godlike aliens, the Anti-Spiral feared humanity's potential, what they dubbed the "Spiral Nemesis".
Boomstick: Remember how Gurren Lagann runs on fighting spirit? Turns out that's just a manifestation of Spiral Power, an energy that all Spiral beings, like humans, have. That's right; the laws of physics run on chutzpah!
Wiz: Just as the spiral turned inward represents endless obsession and madness, the spiral turned outward spins forever into infinity, the perfect representation of humanity's evolutionary potential.
Boomstick: Potential Simon would use as he led Team Dai-Gurren across the multiverse to take the fight to the Anti-Spiral. And this is when Gurren Lagann gets crazy.
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Time To Act by Ilan Kunik
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Wiz: Channeling Spiral Power lets you constantly adapt to threats, no matter how overwhelming. Simon can create portals to different realities and higher dimensions. He can generate force fields, absorb energy attacks, and even merge Gurren Lagann with bigger and stronger machines.
Boomstick: Creating the Arc-Gurren Lagann, which is strong enough to shatter space and time... with a punch!
Wiz: Or the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann, which can fire lasers that are fast enough to hit, and I quote... "all time, space, and dimensions", all within a Planck instant.
Boomstick: That's the smallest unit of time physically possible.
Wiz: Meaning, each laser would have to be moving... oh, guh-- 4.6 x 10117 times faster than light!
Popped confetti appears on the screen as the sound of noisemakers and cheering children rings out.
Wiz: Oh, well, looks like this wins the award for fastest calculated speed feat in our show's history. Congratulations, Gurren Lagann.
Boomstick: Move over, SpongeBob! You've been dethroned! Oh, and the guidebook says they hit an innumerable number of enemies across infinite universes. You literally cannot calculate how fast that is.
Wiz: But it wasn't enough to escape the Anti-Spiral's greatest trap: the Multiverse Labyrinth, an attack that imprisoned Simon in his own unique multiverse, forced to experience an infinite number of alternate realities that controlled his mind, permanently arresting him in a dream world.
Boomstick: Except, Simon and his Spiral Power are just built different, and after being inspired by his bro, Simon absorbed that whole multiverse to escape.
Wiz: What makes this even more impressive is that this labyrinth was 11-dimensional, meaning Simon absorbed a higher dimensional structure several orders of infinity greater than himself. The jump between dimensions is basically infinite. Each new dimension adds a new direction of space that extends infinitely; thus, an infinite gap in size and scope.
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Proud Epic Theme by Marc Dall'anese
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Boomstick: WHAT?!
Wiz: Oh, we're just getting started. Imagine a two-dimensional drawing interacting with a three-dimensional person.
Boomstick: OK... That's not too far off from what actually happened!
Wiz: Because when Simon absorbed the Multiverse Labyrinth, he merged with every alternate universe version of himself, including an alternate universe Simon who was writing his own alternate universe version of Gurren Lagann, and that author's Spiral Power made his fictional Simon real, adding another to the mix.
Boomstick: Wait, if every human being has Spiral Power, you're telling me we can all do this shit?!
Wiz: This all gave our Simon enough Spiral Power to form the next step in mecha evolution: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
Boomstick: This is when Gurren Lagann gets actually fucking crazy. Like, shooting missiles that alter probability so they have a 100% chance of hitting you, or tossing galaxies around like frisbees! Sorry, did I say "galaxies"? I meant "universes"!
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Current Affairs Now by Peter John Nickalls
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Wiz: Simon's power was so immense that he started generating Super Spiral Space, a higher dimension encompassing our own universe.
Boomstick: With it, Simon turns his thoughts into reality, letting him create his mech and all of its weapons in the first place.
Wiz: Not only does this mean he no longer needs co-pilots; he can also regenerate any damage done to him or his mech just by willing it back into existence.
Boomstick: Like when Lordgenome used Spiral Power to survive quantum breakdown, or the time Nia, now the best wife in the universe, used Spiral Power to constantly regenerate her body from being erased at the informational level... for seven days straight!
Wiz: Information in physics is essentially the ones and zeros that make up every possible outcome in reality. Nia literally regenerated from the statistical certainty of her own destruction.
Boomstick: If I have Spiral Power, Wiz, when the fuck is my leg growing back?
Wiz: When even this was not enough for the Anti-Spiral, Simon evolved one more time.
Boomstick: Into... SUPER TENGEN TOPPA GURREN LAGANN!
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Flight Over Africa by Detlef Friedrich Petersen
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Wiz: This mech is so big, its size is literally incalculable, and with a drill somehow even larger than that, Simon and his friends shattered the Anti-Spiral once and for all.
Boomstick: Hey, cruel indifference of the universe, meet the indomitable human spirit.
A clip of Simon and the Anti-Spiral's trading fists in the final fight from Gurren Lagann The Movie: The Lights in the Sky are Stars plays on-screen while Boomstick validates this.
Wiz: Proving Kamina's words prophetic, that Simon's drill is the drill that would pierce the heavens.
Boomstick: With no more worlds left to conquer, Simon chose to wander the Earth for the rest of his days, in service to others.
Wiz: Always looking up, for all the lights in the sky are stars, and every star, another world of Spiral cousins that can live free.
Boomstick: All thanks... to a humble digger.
Kyle Rayner/White Lantern
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Nothing but Shadows by Emmanuel Stephane Rousseau
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Wiz: The universe is a dangerous place. Should you find yourself face-to-face with an interdimensional vampire, alien dictators, or this one really pissed-off cat, you know who to call.
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Into Infinity by Alistair Hetherington 
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Boomstick: The Green Lantern Corps! They're the space fuzz, an intergalactic police force founded billions of years ago by blue leprechaun gods!
Wiz: And the greatest Green Lantern among them was everyone's favorite, Hal Jordan.
Boomstick: You know him! You love him! You... might hate him. But you gotta respect the man with a will as unbreakable as Hal's.
Wiz: Until the day his will... broke.
Boomstick: After his hometown got completely obliterated, Hal lost his mind. He rampaged through the Corps, killing everyone in his path, and absorbed the Central Power Battery, the literal "Green Lantern".
Wiz: Becoming the emerald tyrant, Parallax.
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International Intrigue by John G Smith
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Boomstick: There was only one survivor of Parallax's killing spree: Ganthet; and with what remained of his strength, he gave the last Green Lantern Ring in the universe to a human: Kyle Rayner.
Wiz: So, was Kyle picked for his indomitable willpower, like Hal was?
Boomstick: Nah, he was just there; he had no idea what was going on. Must feel good being given the most dangerous magical weapon in existence to figure out on your own. Hey, if Colonel Sanders, Daffy Duck, space wheat, and a sentient box can master it, what's your excuse, Kyle?
Wiz: The Green Lantern Ring can do anything, fulfilling any wish its user desires as though it were a genie from a lamp.
Boomstick: It lets you fire energy blasts, create force fields, affect gravity, turn invisible and intangible, manipulate matter, time-travel, warp reality, and erase things from existence.
Wiz: Think we're exaggerating? Well, consider the time Kyle stretched the very fabric of space to increase the Planck length a billion billion times over. That's like stretching an inch into a light-year.
Boomstick: Lanterns control time and space, letting them fly so fast, they can create a "Speed Force singularity".
Wiz: Tapping into the Speed Force requires entering a higher dimension of space, requiring speeds that are not only faster than light, but totally immeasurable. And the rings have an artificial intelligence that operates just as fast, automatically protecting its user from danger.
Boomstick: Like the time that poozer Kilowog survived being erased from existence by the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Wiz: The ring is fueled by its user's willpower and limited only by their imagination.
Boomstick: While Hal may have had the greatest willpower in the Corps, Kyle's imagination is unmatched, probably because he's a comic book artist, and we know from this show... they think up some wild shit.
Wiz: But the Green Lanterns' most recognizable ability is their constructs, Kyle's speciality.
Boomstick: Samurai armor, pirate ships, giant dragons, actual working home computers, and his favorite, super fighting robots! Hey, that one looks familiar...
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Wiz: Kyle can make them strong enough to lift the Spectre, who weighs as much as... eternity.
Boomstick: Or hold back a 12.3-dimensional Big Bang. Wait... ".3"? DC's multiverse has 12.3 dimensions? That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.
Wiz: The ring's only downside is that it's limited to 24 hours before needing a recharge.
Boomstick: So it can blow up universes, but it has the battery of an iPhone? Nevermind; that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Although, I'd say Kyle's biggest weakness was... Kyle; with great power came no responsibility.
Wiz: Perhaps a manifestation of Kyle's self-doubt. Any reflection came too late, though, when one of Kyle's villains brutally murdered his girlfriend, Alex, and put her body in a fridge.
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Final Equation by Brian Christopher Delgado
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Boomstick: Kyle wasn't the only one traumatized. This moment was so infamous, it started the trope called "fridging".
An animated panel of Spider-Man holding the lifeless body of the love of his life, Gwen Stacy, vowing deadly revenge from Amazing Spider Man #121 appears on-screen as a bitter example.
Wiz: For how female characters are often sacrificed as mere plot devices to further a male character's development.
Boomstick: So it might surprise you that it happened to Kyle... again!
Wiz: Kyle finally got serious. He became a prominent member of the Justice League, faced off against Hal, and even rebuilt the Green Lantern Corps better than ever.
Boomstick: But little did he know, this torchbearer's greatest journey had only just begun.
Wiz: In order to save Ganthet from an... emotional lobotomy (it's a long story), he had to master all the colors of the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum.
Boomstick: There are seven colors, each representing a different emotion. The Yellow Light of Fear lets Kyle manipulate the worst horrors in your mind; the more scared you are of him, the stronger he becomes.
Wiz: Orange Light is fueled by bottomless Avarice, possessing Kyle to absorb not merely his enemies' attacks, but also their souls.
Boomstick: Red is Rage, ripping out Kyle's heart and replacing his blood with napalm, which... sounds like it sucks, but it's metal as hell!
Wiz: Blue Light is powered by Hope, and allows Kyle to heal wounds, resist mental domination, and supercharge his ring.
Boomstick: Indigo is Compassion, reducing his opponents' will to fight and letting him open portals across space, connecting him to others.
Wiz: The final one was the Sapphire Light of Love; with it, he can trap enemies within crystal matrices and control their minds. But Kyle only mastered it by forgiving himself for Alex's tragic death.
Boomstick: Oh! Self-love. I get it. Must be nice... And, with their powers combined, he doesn't just make his enemies taste the rainbow.
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Wiz: The lights of the Spectrum merged, and Kyle became a White Lantern, with total control over the power of Life.
Boomstick: Wiz, I cannot think of an attack more useless in a Death Battle than something that makes you live.
Wiz: Empowered by the physical embodiment of all life in the DC Multiverse, Kyle is vastly more powerful than any other Lantern in existence.
Boomstick: Far stronger than Hal, who could harness the energy of every Power Battery across the multiverse!
Wiz: Not only can Kyle instantly heal all wounds, purify corruption, and resurrect the dead; the White Light of Life is strong enough to go up against threats to all of Creation, like the Anti-Monitor.
Boomstick: OK, so it's not totally useless.
Wiz: Especially after Kyle visited the Source and acquired the Life Equation. Essentially the "source" code to reality, the Life Equation is mathematical proof that life is worth living.
Boomstick: With it, Kyle can alter all of reality at a whim, even threatening the New Gods like Darkseid.
Wiz: The Life Equation -- like its counterpart, the Anti-Life Equation -- is a conceptual artifact from a higher reality, originating in a Platonic realm that is, in a sense, more "real" than we are.
Boomstick: So, it's not a shock that the Equation made Kyle too powerful.
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Absolute Unit by Emmanuel Stephane Rousseau
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Wiz: He struggled to control it, and it subconsciously manifested a being composed of his fears and anxieties: Oblivion; Kyle's greatest weakness was still himself.
Boomstick: Kyle spent his whole life struggling with the power that the gods granted him, and throughout it all, he always rose to the occasion, carrying the universe on his back.
Wiz: But ultimately, the only way to stop power from corrupting is to spread it, so Kyle split the Life Equation into pieces to found his second Corps: the White Lanterns. And together, they shattered Oblivion, destroying the self-doubt that plagued Kyle once and for all.
Boomstick: Not bad for a comic book geek from L.A.
Wiz: And now, he was the one giving out rings of unlimited power to people who weren't sure if they could command it.
Boomstick: So, he told them the truth: you can't teach someone how to use such power. You have to learn yourself, making mistakes along the way.
Wiz: But with the power of Life at their command, there's no end to their journey; only endless beginnings.
Prelude
Wiz: Alright, the combatants are set. We've run the data through all possibilities.
Boomstick: IT'S TIME FOR A DEATH BATTLEEE!!!
Death Battle
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In a deserted canyon, the top half of a giant mountain is seen being sliced clean off it's base, causing it to fall and then crumble into dust, by the Gurren Sunglasses Boomerang as the giant pair of glasses come flying back to the clutches of Gurren Lagann, piloted by one Simon the Digger. He is on a test run in Gurren Lagann, his trusty mecha, checking if he's still got it.
Simon: Alright, I'm not rusty at all!
Simon throws the glasses again to try them out once more, only for the Gurren Boomerang to be caught by a green construct of a giant hand (with the words CATCH! appearing as well, comically). The perpetrator levitates down and talks to the pilot, all while his construct hand spins the Gurren Boomerang on its index finger.
Kyle: Hey dude! Green Lantern officer Kyle Rayner, here.
The Green Lantern officer Kyle Rayner reads a construct of a scroll letter with information conceived by the ring, a little confused about what he was actually reading. He reads it over, examining it carefully, then shrugs carefreely. He takes notice of Simon's mech, and beckons for him to give it, but Gurren Lagann raises it's fist in defiance, not allowing Kyle to confiscate it.
Kyle: Ring says you've got a "Class-A galactic super weapon", whatever that is... I'm thinking it's the giant mech. Why don't you hand it over?
Simon: Gurren Lagann's mine, officer. Just who the hell do you think you are?
Gurren Lagann runs towards Kyle to get its glasses back, but the punch it throws out is stopped by Kyle summoning a giant Green Lantern construct of Balrog to block the blow. He then follows up by throwing a few punches that Gurren Lagann easily dodges, after which the mech responds with a rushing charge attack that breaks both the Balrog and hand constructs, the force of the impact sending Kyle back as Gurren Lagann catches and reattaches the glasses to Gurren's face.
Kyle lands on the ground but bounces back up and flies upward as his ring glows. In response, Gurren Lagann fires several drill missiles at Kyle, only for them to be sucked in by Kyle's Orange Lantern construct of the Poltergust 3000. Kyle then shifts the construct to a Yellow Lantern construct of Shenron, which coils around Gurren Lagann, constricting it.
Simon: I'm told I'm bad with authority.
One of Kyle's constructs then pushes the mech towards Kyle from behind, but Simon is prepared, and upon getting close enough, headbutts the Lantern away. However, a Red Lantern construct of Banbaro's antlers then ram into Gurren Lagann, knocking the still-constricted mech backwards as Kyle recovers, preparing a new attack. Simon looks up in confusion.
Kyle: Tell me about it. FORE!
Simon: "Fore"?
Suddenly, a giant green construct of Tiger Woods (ironically landing a perfect quick-time event for maximum output) behind Gurren Lagann swings his golf club at it's head, knocking a shocked Lagann off of Gurren as a result. While in the air, Simon tries to strike Kyle with Lagann's drill and take him by suprise, and while he initially misses when Kyle flies away, he then drills into the ground and makes a burrowing U-turn underneath before rocketing upwards into space to chase after Kyle, who has encased Gurren in a force field to take into custody. However, Kyle takes notice of Simon's approach from behind (making a "?" construct in confusion) and creates a violet crystallized shield construct to try and defend himself and the mech, something which Simon sees as ineffective.
Simon: That's nothing! My drill will pierce the heavens!
As Simon says this, Lagann drills through the crystallized shield, knocking Kyle out of the way and shattering the force field surrounding Gurren in a instant to reattach to it. With Gurren Laggan reformed, Simon uses his Spiral Power to evolve it as his goggles also transform to his late brother's red-tinted glasses alongside it. Afterward, a giant arm is seen bursting of a galaxy, and emerging from it is the rest of Simon's newly-evolved mech in the Super Spiral Universe, with kanji appearing among the stars and galaxies shining in the background:
Simon: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann!
As Kyle looks above through the hole in space-time leading to the Super Spiral Universe, he notices Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann lowering its leg at him, so he closes his eyes and channels power into his ring, causing it to glow white before the giant mech could "step in loser". Immediately after, however, Simon sees light coming from the bottom of its foot, and before he can react, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann gets knocked back by the emergence of a giant white construct of the Thought Robot from under it. Kyle, now as the White Lantern, then creates two more constructs, a Green Lantern construct of a sword and a Blue Lantern construct of a shield, and rushes towards the mech and a delighted Simon.
Simon: That's really cool...!
In response, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann proceeds to pull out a pair of Viral's Enki Swords, before charging at massive speeds towards the Thought Robot construct, creating a massive shockwave as both giant entities clash their swords, smirks on their faces.
Simon: I'm a Digger!
Kyle: I'm a Lantern!
Kyle manages to overpower Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann's swords and make it stagger, giving him the opportunity to grab the mech by its flames and toss it across the Super Spiral Universe, disarming it in the process, sending the Enki Swords flying away.
Kyle: We do the impossible...
Simon: See the invisible...
Flying through space, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann manages to regain control, jumping on a universe and blasting through the Super Spiral Universe at the Thought Robot construct, arming a punch. The construct raises it's blue Wonder Woman shield construct in defense.
Kyle: Touch the untouchable!...
Simon: Break the unbreakable!...
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann throws a punch that easily shatters the shield in a single blow, sending the Thought Robot construct back and making it lose hold of its sword. The construct manages to regain it's footing and takes aim at it's enemy once more.
Kyle: If you ain't know...
In response, the construct fires out Red Lantern plasma from its eyes at Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, forcing it to shield the impact as it skids back.
Simon: NOW YOU KNOW!
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann fires out another set of missiles at the Thought Robot construct, and while Kyle tries using Indigo Lantern portals to protect himself, the missiles are revealed to not be ordinary missiles, but rather special Probability Alteration Missiles, the probability alteration causing the missiles to strike it's target. Kicking up dust as the impacts barrage him, dazing him.
As the smoke clears, the Thought Robot construct tries to react and try and launch a counterattack, but the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is faster, as it then grabs the White Lantern construct by several dimensional anchors like a lasso, before swinging it around the Super Spiral Universe using Dayaka's "I've Got The Best Wife In The Universe" Swing before launching Kyle and the construct flying away, it jumping after them shortly after. The two massive entities begin flying in space, approaching the looming Source Wall in the distance. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann races forward, pointing at the White Lantern.
Simon: I'm Simon the Digger! If there's a wall in my way... I'LL SMASH IT DOWN!
Upon shouting this, Simon uses Spiral Power to form a massive drill, charging forward and unleashing a Tengen Toppa Giga Drill Break on the dazed Thought Robot construct, which cannot recover and time and is rammed into by the massive drill, Kyle groaning in pain as the construct is destroyed along with a portion of the source wall. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann finds itself on the other side of the cosmic wall, looking around and noticing parts of the Life Equation.
Simon: Huh?
Before it comes to Kyle, empowering him.
In response, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann then leaps at the White Lantern. Kyle, however, quickly responds the threat and summons the powers of the Emotional Spectrum, each of them firing a beam of energy that all merge into one, immensely powerful, singular beam that hits the mech, stopping it in it's tracks. Kyle speaks to the Gunmen's pilot, trying to reason with him to back out of fighting, quoting each Lantern Corp's emotions.
Kyle: Stop fighting. Think about your fear of death, your love of your friends, your compassion for me, your hope for the future.
Simon is beginning to become overwhelmed by the sheer power of the Life Equation, starting to lose his will to fight. He tries to struggle even further, but it's too much.
Kyle: Choose life.
Just then, as a monochromatic Simon's will begins to waver from Kyle's words, a voice in his head of a long-lost brother tells him otherwise. The imaginary version of Kamina points upwards in his signature pose, giving words of motivation.
Kamina: Have faith in the Simon, that believes in you...
With the reminder of Kamina's words, Simon's will and the fight's colors are restored, his glasses transforming once more into the shape of the star as his Spiral Power increases exponentially to greater heights. An unimaginable proportions blue hand made of pure willpower energy closes its fist before transforming into the brotherly combined incarnation of Simon and Kamina's spirit, complete with crossed arms and kanji glowing. Standing great and mighty, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann evolves to its final and most powerful form:
Simon: SUPER TENGEN TOPPA GURREN LAGANN!
The Digger declares his ultimate aim, preparing the finishing move.
Simon: My drill is the drill that will transcend the heavens!
Uncrossing its arms, the universal mech throws its countless-sized cosmic red cape aside, ready to tear the skies.
Simon: GIGA DRILL BREAAAK!!!
As Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann's drill rockets towards his opponent, an initially surprised Kyle grins at the opportunity and creates his own Emotional Spectrum Giga Drill Break using every emotional light in the spectrum and drills towards the Super Tengen Toppa Giga Drill Break, achieving Spiral Nemesis, ultimately causing reality to break from the ensuing clash's infinite power and the two to fall through rifts right back to Earth in the canyon the fight started in. As they get up, Kyle realizes something about Simon.
Kyle: The super weapon wasn't your mech...
Simon: It was me!
Kyle: Then Simon, I'm taking you in!
With a newfound determination towards each other, the two heroes of indomitable will rush towards each other, swinging hit after hit in hand-to-hand combat as Kyle recites the Green Lantern Oath to himself.
Kyle: In brightest day, In blackest night, No evil shall escape my sight...
During this, Simon and Kyle punch each other hard in the face, with Kyle in particular hitting Simon with enough force to shatter his glasses as his Core Drill flies off of his body and glows with Spiral Power while Kyle's ring simultaneously starts glowing green. Afterward, Simon grabs his Core Drill and forms a drill out of his own blood surrounding his forearm.
Kyle: Let those who worship evil's might, Beware my power...
Kyle, on the other hand, uses his ring one last time to create a Green Lantern construct drill to match Simon's own right before the two clash their weapons in one final bout.
Kyle: GREEN LANTERN'S LIIIIGGGHHHTTT!
After a few intense seconds, the two opposing drills shatter from the force of their powers, exposing Simon and Kyle's bare fists as they prepare to meet. However, with the Core Drill in between his fingers, Simon manages to instantly overpower Kyle and his ring, causing the Lantern's arm to explode in the process.
Simon: Let's see you GRIT THOSE TEETH!
Simon proceeds to then charge up Spiral Energy in his fist, throwing it at Kyle with all his might. A shocked Kyle cannot dodge the megaton punch as it lands square in the cheek, hitting him with enough power to shatter reality and return him to a normal Green Lantern as he screams in pain. Exhausted and mortally wounded, a dying Kyle falls on his back, panting heavily. Simon's shadow comes upon him, and he looks up to see a triumphant digger, the cosmos lurking behind him. Seeing this, he feels satisfied and realizes Simon's true potential. With his dying breath, he acknowledges Simon one last time.
Kyle: You'd make... a good Lantern...
As the light in Kyle's eyes die down and he returns to his civilian form, he begins to dissipate from reality, dying with a smile of approval on his face as his Green Lantern ring then flies up towards Simon, recognizing his will as a potential successor to hold the mantle of a Lantern.
Green Lantern Ring: Simon of Earth, you have been chosen.
All Simon does is merely give off a smirk before the screen blacks out, leaving a title card of "The End" on top of it's kanji "完 (kan)" in glowing green light in the dark.
Simon: Heh... Just who the hell do you think I am?
Results
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Ringmaster: For the guy with the snazzy sunglasses!
Wiz: When both combatants possess unlimited power, it's hard to judge them by our normal standards. Take speed.
Wiz: Simon can hit an infinite number of targets all at once, and Kyle can fly fast enough to surpass the normal concept of speed itself.
Boomstick: When you control space and time, things like strength and speed kind of become irrelevant.
Wiz: Instead, let's analyze them through a lens more applicable to beings as absurd as Simon and Kyle: their imagination, their willpower, and their ultimate potential.
Boomstick: First up, imagination! The boundless things they could conjure to use against the other. Both could think up just about anything the other could, like absorbing each other's attacks, fighting across time... a-anything.
Wiz: Simon did have a few attacks that Kyle hasn't encountered, like the probability-altering missiles, but it's likely Kyle could adapt, considering his ring could protect against existence being erased across the multiverse.
Boomstick: And in general, Kyle's constructs were a lot more creative than Simon's arsenal, which was mostly drills. Though, again, nothing Simon couldn't adapt to with, say, his energy absorption. Imagination is a draw.
Wiz: That leaves the other main factor for both characters, the origin of their unbelievable might: their willpower.
Boomstick: And that's really going to be the winning factor here, since it's the source of everything for both of them. Whoever's got the stronger willpower wins.
Wiz: Both can manipulate reality on a multiversal scale with their willpower, but we can use dimensions to roughly calculate a difference. This might sound absurd for most characters, but it's necessary for beings as beyond the pale as Simon and Kyle.
Boomstick: The Multiverse Labyrinth that Simon absorbed contained 11 spatial dimensions. That's 1.3 dimensions less than the multiverse Kyle's power can threaten.
Wiz: And remember, each numbered dimension infinitely surpasses the one below it.
Boomstick: Which meant Kyle's willpower was stronger at a base level. However, that doesn't necessarily mean Kyle gets the edge, because if there's one thing both of these guys are known for, it's that they can always get stronger.
Wiz: So to determine the limits of their willpower, we first need to understand their full potential.
Boomstick: Simon's whole deal with Spiral Power is how he can constantly evolve to get stronger, so just because Simon starts off weaker doesn't mean he'll stay that way.
Wiz: Absorbing the Multiverse Labyrinth required Simon to leapfrog several orders of infinity in an instant. Simon made himself that much stronger through sheer force of will.
Boomstick: More than enough to close the gap with Kyle, especially since Spiral Power also lets him regenerate his body down to an informational level. Kyle's never destroyed something that thoroughly before.
Wiz: Without the ability to easily kill Simon, it was only a matter of time before Kyle's ring ran low on charge, especially since Simon could likely regenerate for at least a week straight, like Nia did. While Blue Lantern light could boost Kyle's power, he's never jumped several orders of infinity in strength like Simon has.
Boomstick: And while Kyle could manipulate emotions to reduce Simon's willpower, Simon resisting the Labyrinth's mental manipulation meant he could power through anything Kyle threw at him.
Wiz: Everything, that is, except for the Life Equation. It originated from a higher level of reality, and would have more than evened the odds.
Boomstick: Too bad Kyle couldn't control it. It was just as much a detriment to him as an asset, forcing him to relinquish it to keep from destroying reality... and himself.
Wiz: Compare that to Simon, who merged with a version of himself writing a version of Gurren Lagann, and using Spiral Power to make that fiction into reality.
Boomstick: A pretty similar level of reality to the Life Equation, and a level of power Simon had no trouble embracing and mastering by the end of his story. No matter how you look at it, Simon might start weaker, but his peak will always transcend Kyle's; isn't that how all of Simon's battles usually go anyway? That's Gurren Lagann in a nutshell.
Wiz: So, Simon's incredible potential eclipsed Kyle, which means his willpower was ultimately greater. Kyle may have embodied Life itself, but Simon's unstoppable evolutionary potential would shatter even this Lantern's light.
Boomstick: I hope Kyle at least "dug" the fight, because when it comes to Death Battle losers, he was a dead ringer.
We cut to the "Winner" card.
Wiz: The winner is Simon the Digger.
Comparison
Simon
- + Greater rate of adaptation
- + Superior regeneration
- + Resists the Emotional Spectrum
- = Countered each other's abilities
- - Weaker initially
Kyle
- + Stronger at base
- + More creative use of his ring
- = Countered each other's abilities
- - Far weaker eventually
- - Limited battery charge
Original Track
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Composition
The track for this fight is "Spiral of Emotion" by Brandon Yates ft. Sithu Aye, with mixing and mastering done by Anthony DiGiacomo. In its lyrics and parts of its melody, it references Will of the Drill, the fan-commissioned track for this matchup that Brandon Yates previously worked on. Its melody also references Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann's main theme, Sorairo Days. It also features a reference to a melody from Spellaholics Synonymous at the end.
Title
The title references the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum from which all Lantern Corps draw their power in the DC universe, including Kyle, and Spiral Power, the primary energy source that all Spiral Beings in the Gurren Lagann universe draw their power from, including Simon.
Cover Art
The cover art depicts Simon holding a rainbow-colored drill to the sky with the Giga Drill Breaker, piercing the Death Battle logo while standing atop the hand of the Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, stretching out from the hole in the Source Wall. On its palm, Simon stands atop the sigil of the White Lantern Corps, surrounded by the sigils of Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Indigo, and Sapphire Lantern Corps (the designs of which were done by LOOPY[1][2]) to represent the entire Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum, and in the background, various galaxies and silhouettes can be seen.
Lyrics
I've never been good at knowing my limit |
Trivia
Production
- The core connections between Simon the Digger and Kyle Rayner are that they were initially both ordinary, young men living on Earth, down on their luck and leading rather boring and mundane lives until one day, they came into possession of an empowering and mysterious alien object (the Core Drill and a Green Lantern Ring, respectively) that is powered by their willpower in the form of green energy (Spiral Power and Green Lantern Will, respectively), leading them to become cosmic heroes. In addition:
- Both act as successors who surpassed previous heroes who also channeled these energies (Kamina and Hal Jordan, respectively), having their acknowledgment and blessing to take their spots as both a hero and a member of their former teams (Kamina believed in Simon having the will to carry out his dreams, with the rest of Team Dai-Gurren eventually seeing Simon as their leader, while Hal, as Parallax, gave the Green Lantern Ring back to Kyle and told him that he should be Green Lantern, a sentiment shared by the Justice League).
- Both would later learn that there used to be many who wielded these energies (the Spiral Beings and the Green Lantern Corps, respectively), but they were wiped out by one of their own members (Lordgenome and Hal Jordan, respectively) who were corrupted by multiversal entities that represented the antithesis of their energies (the Anti-Spiral locked away their own Spiral Power and destroyed most of the Spiral Beings, while Parallax is the embodiment of fear, the enemy of the Green Lantern Corps).
- Even though both are human, their indomitable willpower allowed them to reach even further heights and attain stronger cosmic forms (Simon evolved his mech into Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and later Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, while Kyle mastered the entire Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum to become a White Lantern), protecting the entire multiverse from harm.
- Both of their greatest enemies were abstract black beings who wielded dark versions of their powers (the Anti-Spiral and Oblivion, respectively) and were born from fear of overusing said powers which could destroy the universe (the Anti-Spiral was the physical consciousness of the Anti-Spiral tribe who stifled their evolution to counter the Spiral Nemesis, and Oblivion was born from Kyle's negative emotions and was made to erase Kyle before he could use the Life Equation to control the universe). Both destroyed these enemies by further evolving their powers with the help of their friends, eventually overcoming the danger of their powers [Simon and Team Dai-Gurren combined their powers to evolve into (Super) Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and promised to protect the universe from the Spiral Nemesis, and Kyle split the Life Equation to form the White Lantern Corps and prevent the power from corrupting him].
- Both had romantic relationships with the daughter of an enemy (Nia Teppelin and Soranik Natu, respectively).
- Funnily enough, Gurren happens to be a construct Kyle has created in the past (specifically in Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer: Red Son), which Boomstick points out in his analysis.
- Also funnily enough, the comparison between Gurren Lagann and a Green Lantern's Ring was pointed out by Nick Cramer during a Screwattack Top 10, over eight years before this episode.
- This episode was confirmed during the Save Death Battle Kickstarter, having been the $450,000 stretch goal reward alongside another unrevealed episode.
- It was previously an option for Season 10's Champion's Poll, where, as part of Death Battle's paid YouTube membership, members were able to vote for two matchups to become episodes, with one being animated in 2D and one animated in 3D. This episode was an option for the 2D poll, but it lost to Bill Cipher VS Discord.
- This makes it the third matchup that lost a fan poll to be made into an episode, after Among Us VS Fall Guys and Kratos VS Asura, and with the next two being Hulk VS Godzilla and Gru VS Megamind.
- This is the third losing Champion's Poll matchup to do so, after Among Us VS Fall Guys and Kratos VS Asura.
- Interestingly, as the match on the 2D poll was first suggested as Kyle Rayner VS Simon the Digger, the billing from its initial placement on the poll to its official announcement was swapped, turning into Simon the Digger VS White Lantern, likely for future SEO reasons, as Kyle is less well known compared to Simon.
- The title was later changed again to Gurren Lagann VS White Lantern upon the actual reveal of the episode at the end of Master Chief VS Doom Slayer.
- The title was then changed a final time to Simon the Digger VS Kyle Rayner, though the episode's reveal title would still be used in the parentheses.
- The title was later changed again to Gurren Lagann VS White Lantern upon the actual reveal of the episode at the end of Master Chief VS Doom Slayer.
- This makes it the third matchup that lost a fan poll to be made into an episode, after Among Us VS Fall Guys and Kratos VS Asura, and with the next two being Hulk VS Godzilla and Gru VS Megamind.
- It was previously an option for Season 10's Champion's Poll, where, as part of Death Battle's paid YouTube membership, members were able to vote for two matchups to become episodes, with one being animated in 2D and one animated in 3D. This episode was an option for the 2D poll, but it lost to Bill Cipher VS Discord.
- This episode's release date, May 25th, is three days after the sixth anniversary of Ben 10 VS Green Lantern.
- Notably, this episode can be considered a spiritual successor to it, as both episodes feature an animated character voiced by Yuri Lowenthal in their home series who are highly promoted in the VS community for how powerful they are fighting against a member of the Green Lantern Corps.
- This is the eighth episode whose track references a previous one (in this case being "Emerald Heroes"), after Madara VS Aizen, Scarlet Witch VS Zatanna, Deku VS Asta, Gogeta VS Vegito, Darth Vader VS Obito Uchiha, Goku VS Superman (2023), and Omni-Man VS Bardock, and with the next two being Goku VS Superman 2 and Spider-Man VS Deku.
- This is the third episode whose track references a fan-commissioned track (in this case, being "Will of the Drill"), after Deku VS Asta and Frieza VS Megatron.
- This is the second episode to reference the prior commission track for the matchup itself, after Frieza VS Megatron.
- This is the third episode whose track references a fan-commissioned track (in this case, being "Will of the Drill"), after Deku VS Asta and Frieza VS Megatron.
- This episode's storyboards by John Mitchell reveal several minor differences compared to the final episode. In order, they are as follows:
- Unlike, previous episodes storyboards, these boards feature an early mix of "Spiral of Emotion" that Brandon Yates sent to Anthony DiGiacomo to use a reference for the final mix.[3]
- Kyle's boxer construct was that of a generic boxer rather than Balrog specifically.
- A few pieces of Simon's dialogue in the boards are either altered, absent, or outright cut compared to the final episode.
- He does not shout the names of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in the boards upon transforming Gurren Lagann into them.
- He originally yelled "NIA IS THE BEST WIFE IN THE UNIVERSE SWING!" while using the attack on Kyle. In the final episode, he instead lets out a long yell.
- His short speech about himself before using a Tengen Toppa Giga Drill Break to ram Kyle through the Sourch Wall originally had him shout 'GIGA! DRILL! BREAK!" at the end before unleashing the attack, with said line being cut from the final episode. The way he formed the Giga Drill Break was also more in line with the attack's formation in Gurren Lagann proper.
- He originally referred to the Super Tengen Toppa Giga Drill Break in full upon its formation instead of just a Giga Drill Break.
- After the initial universe-spanning blade lock, the Thought Robot construct originally kicked a universe at Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann before turning invisible, with the mech responding by deflecting the universe and catching a surprise attack from behind and breaking Kyle's Green Lantern sword construct, after which Kyle blocks a punch with his Blue Lantern shield construct before grabbing the mech by its flames and tossing it across the universe. This entire sequence was cut from the final episode, with it instead skipping straight to the Thought Robot construct grabbing Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann's flames after throwing a surprise punch during the blade lock.
- According to the episode's lead animator Zack Watkins, Kyle's own variant of Simon's Giga Drill Break in the Source was planned to be a single White Lantern drill construct with rainbow effects, but he instead opted to give it extra drills of Lantern Corps color for a more distinct design to avoid Kyle completely mirroring Simon one-to-one.[4]
- Simon and Kyle's 1-on-1 fistfight in the fight's climax is slightly extended in the boards, as it features a cut wide shot of the clash that furthur references Simon's final 1-on-1 bout with the Anti-Spiral in Gurren Lagann The Movie: The Lights in the Sky are Stars.
- Death Battle seemingly created their own interpretation of the Life Equation as no canonical version (at the time of the episode's release) has been confirmed, mentioned, or noted by DC Comics. The formula is as follows: Companionship + reconciliation + will + hope + self-worth x adulation x approval x understanding ⋅ righteousness ⋅ pride ⋅ success n=y where y=hope and n=wisdom love=truth life=eternity self=infinity.
- In addition to the main storyboards, John Mitchell also did a few additional boards for fun that depict unofficial bonus scenes. In order, they are as follows:
- A scene after the Thought Robot construct gets hit by the Probability Alteration Missiles where, after Simon proclaims "Ha! No shield can save you this TIME!", Kyle says "Time huh...?" and tries to travel back in time to end the fight before it began, similar to the infamous climax of Ben 10 VS Green Lantern. However, Simon responds by firing the Mega Vortex Maelstrom Cannon to hit Kyle at every single point in time all at once after shouting "NICE COMPLEX ABILITY DIPSHIT! CHECK THIS OUT!!!" (referencing this variation of the classic Internet meme regarding powerful characters), sending him back to the present.
- An alternate ending that has Kyle win over Simon by using his White Lantern Ring to absorb the Core Drill after converting it into energy before punching Simon's arm in half and delivering the fatal punch to the cheek on him instead. Afterward, in his dying breath, Simon recognizes the power Kyle possesses and requests him to take care of the Core Drill for him, to which Kyle agrees as the screen cuts to black.
- Another alternate ending labeled "0.00001% CHANCE!!!!!!!!" where, upon their fists meeting after their drills shatter, Simon's Core Drill absorbs Kyle's ring, resulting in Kyle reverting back to his civilian form and Simon becoming a White Lantern himself, much to both combatants' confusion, with Simon saying that it was an accident and asking Kyle to somehow remove the ring so the two can attempt the final clash again.
- This is the seventh episode to receive an alternate ending, after Shao Kahn VS M. Bison, Omni-Man VS Bardock, Joker VS Giorno, Bowser VS Eggman, Among Us VS Fall Guys, and Kratos VS Asura.
- This is the first episode to receive more than one alternate ending.
- This is the seventh episode to receive an alternate ending, after Shao Kahn VS M. Bison, Omni-Man VS Bardock, Joker VS Giorno, Bowser VS Eggman, Among Us VS Fall Guys, and Kratos VS Asura.
Easter Eggs
- Boomstick saying that Spiral Power "[runs] on chutzpah" in Simon's analysis is accompanied by this clip from the Gravity Falls episode "Dipper vs. Manliness" edited into the spiral galaxy seen at the end of Gurren Lagann's third opening.
- The number of pictures for each past Death Battle combatant seen on the "FASTEST SPEED CALCULATIONS" wall (an edit of the Krusty Krab's Employee of the Month Award Wall from the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "The Original Fry Cook") in Simon's analysis roughly correlates to when they took the title during the show's history based on what their respective episodes gave them and how long they held it for. As a reference, the specific speeds for each combatant shown, the feats attributed to them, and how long they held the title are as follows:
- Samus Aran (Boba Fett VS Samus Aran (2010)): No specific value given other than "Extremely fast" in her "Screw Attack" slide, holding onto the title for two episodes.
- Wonder Woman (Rogue VS Wonder Woman): No specific value given other than "hypersonic" thanks to Hermes' powers in her analysis, holding onto the title for nine episodes.
- Notably, the image used for Wonder Woman is the memetic scene of the DCEU version of the character yelling "Kal-El No!" in the 2017 Justice League film.
- Shadow the Hedgehog (Vegeta VS Shadow): Near light-speed as Super Shadow, holding onto the title for 14 episodes.
- Superman (Goku VS Superman 1): 9.4 billion kilometers per hour (roughly 8.7 times faster than light) for flying from Earth to the Sun and back in two minutes, with a highball of 17 billion kilometers per hour (roughly 15.75 times faster than light) according to Batman, holding onto the title for 25 episodes.
- Superman (Goku VS Superman 2): 800 trillion miles per hour (over a million times faster than light) from flying to Vega to Earth in 10 minutes, holding onto the title for 44 episodes.
- Doctor Fate (Doctor Strange VS Doctor Fate): 28 decillion times faster than light from the Helmet of Fate flying from Earth to the edge of the universe and back in around a year, holding onto the title for nine episodes.
- Darkseid (Thanos VS Darkseid): 87 duodecillion times faster than light from taking a trip to the Source Wall in five seconds, holding onto the title for two episodes.
- MegaMan.EXE (Mega Man Battle Royale): 3 novemdecillion times faster than light from searching the entire Cyberworld in under a minute, holding onto the title for 62 episodes.
- SpongeBob SquarePants (SpongeBob VS Aquaman): 8.2 quinvigintillion times faster than light from unraveling the universe in around five seconds, holding onto the title for 29 episodes.
- When Wiz describes how dimensions infinitely transcend each other on the Board of Wizdom in Simon's analysis, a few notable characters make cameos throughout, including:
- Bill Cipher
- Multiple Scuttle Bugs from Super Mario 64, referencing their memetic uses in glitches involving parallel universes within the game.
- Mr. Game & Watch
- Springtrap
- Infinite, who near-immediately gets crushed by a Thwomp in reference to his undignified defeat in Bowser VS Eggman.
- This is the second episode since Season 3 where the Board of Wizdom makes an appearance, after Omni-Man VS Bardock.
- A semi-transparent image of Marisa Kirisame from Touhou Project (edited over the cover of Sonic Generations) alongside figurines of Sonic and Tails can be seen during the clip of SammyClassicSonicFan memetic "idiots rant" edited to have Kamina's glasses in Simon's analysis. This is presumably a reference to community member Kirbonic Pikmin, who is a fan of Marisa, Gurren Lagann and Sonic the Hedgehog, and is the main driving force behind the popularity of Kasen Ibaraki VS Fleetway Sonic, leading it to be featured on the Tournament of Champions.
- As Boomstick refers to Nia as "the best wife in the universe" in Simon's analysis, footage of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann performing the "I've Got The Best Wife In The Universe" Swing in Gurren Lagann The Movie: The Lights in the Sky are Stars is shown.
- This swing was also referenced in the fight when Simon uses said move to launch Kyle into the Source Wall.
- A blue-tinted image of the Leprechaun from the Leprechaun series can be seen in the clip of the Guardians of the Universe that plays as Boomstick calls them "blue leprechaun gods" in Kyle's analysis.
- Kyle's "Background" slide lists "DC Editorial" as the first thing he dislikes, likely referencing the limited amount of appearances Kyle has in DC Comics media both in and out of the comics themselves, much to the chagrin of fans.
- Wiz and Boomstick's discussion of the "fridging" trope after the death of Alexandra DeWitt in Kyle's analysis is accompanied with the "Stuffed into the Fridge" trope page on TV Tropes, which the incident was named after and where the episode itself is edited into the trope image.
- Amusingly, TV Tropes would later acknowledge this by adding the section of the episode onto the page as a video example, as well as adding Wiz and Boomstick's discussion to its "Quotes" subpage.
- Being a spiritual successor to Ben 10 VS Green Lantern, this episode contains a few references and call-backs to it:
- In Kyle's analysis, after Wiz introduces Hal Jordan, Boomstick says that the audience "might hate him", calling back to the episode's controversial verdict, with a clip of its infamous killing blow even playing as Boomstick says this.
- In the beginning of the fight, Kyle states that Simon is carrying a "Class A galactic superweapon", which is the same quote said by Green Lantern when describing Ben's Omnitrix at the start of the episode's fight.
- When Simon chases Kyle through the universe in Lagann to get Gurren back, Kyle makes a Green Lantern question mark construct in response to Lagann's incoming approach, a call-back to Hal's past self doing the same thing in confusion at the end of the fight in response to his future self's appearance.
- After summoning Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Simon attempts to end the fight by stepping on Kyle, similar to how Ben tried to do the same thing to Hal as Way Big partway through their fight.
- During the chase, constellations in the shape of a Crystal Heart from Celeste alongside ones of the Brand of the Exalt from Fire Emblem Awakening and a Time Gear from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers, the latter two of which reference Lucina and Grovyle, characters from the aforementioned games and a popular matchup idea.
- This is the fourth episode to reference the matchup, after Killua VS Misaka, Guts VS Dimitri, and Bowser VS Eggman.
- During the Tournament of Champions back in 2023, Lucina VS Grovyle was one of the matchups available to vote on for Week 6, though it lost to X VS Optimus Primal.
- As Kyle tells Simon that he's in possession of a "Class A galactic superweapon" at the beginning of the fight, the squirrel from Android 18 VS Captain Marvel and Jotaro VS Kenshiro (two fights previously solely animated by Zack Watkins, who also worked on this episode as its lead animator) briefly appears from behind a rock formation in the background alongside a rabbit before the two lower themselves back down.
- Befitting of Kyle's occupation as a comic book artist, all of his Lantern constructs are overlayed with Ben Day dots, and several of them are formed as pop culture references throughout the fight. In order of appearance, they are as follows:
- A Green Lantern construct of Balrog from Street Fighter.
- An Orange Lantern construct of Luigi's Poltergust 3000.
- A Yellow Lantern dragon construct similar in appearance to Shenron from Dragon Ball.
- A Green Lantern Construct of Tiger Woods, specifically his depiction in the PGA Tour games.
- A Red Lantern construct of a Banbaro's antlers from Monster Hunter.
- A Violet Lantern construct of Star Sapphire's crystalized shield.
- A White Lantern construct of the Thought Robot wielding Green and Blue Lantern constructs of Wonder Woman's sword and shield, respectively.
- A White Lantern construct of a drill surrounded by seven other drills in the other colors of the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum plus a final Green Lantern construct of a drill surrounding his hand in the final clash, both of which reference his prior knowledge of Gurren Lagann as a series.
- The scenes of Simon's goggles transforming into Kamina's glasses as he summons Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagann and later into its star-shaped form as he summons Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann are references to it doing the same thing during Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann's transformation at the end of Episode 25 of Gurren Lagann.
- The energy reading of the Spiral Gauge turning rainbow and extending into open space after the latter scene is a reference to the same thing happening after Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann absorbs the converted energy of the Anti-Spiral's Infinity Big Bang Storm in Episode 27.
- When Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann moves to stomp on Kyle after its transformation, multiple constellations can be seen in the right-end of the background. From top to bottom, they are as follows:
- Hatsune Miku.
- The mole from the Shaun the Sheep episode "Mountains Out of Molehills", as confirmed by Larrywinwood on Twitter[5] after it was initially confused for B.O.B. from Monsters vs. Aliens.[6]
- GIR from Invader Zim.
- The Timberland boot construct Hal Jordan infamously used to kill Ben Tennyson with.
- Discord.
- The Ouroboros from Fullmetal Alchemist.
- Columbo.
- This is the ninth episode to hide Columbo in it as an easter egg in some form, after SpongeBob VS Aquaman, Sauron VS Lich King, Gogeta VS Vegito, Bill Cipher VS Discord, Gojo VS Makima, Scooby-Doo VS Courage the Cowardly Dog, Rick Sanchez VS The Doctor, and Galactus VS Unicron, and with the next one being Wile E. Coyote VS Tom Cat.
- During their clash in the Super Spiral Universe, Simon and Kyle exchange the lines of "We do the impossible...", "See the invisible...", "Touch the untouchable!", "Break the unbreakable!", "If you ain't know...", and "NOW YOU KNOW!" which reference the lyrics of "Rap is a Man's Soul!", befitting Kyle's otaku nature and doubling as a nod to Kyle's prior knowledge of Gurren Lagann in the comics.
- Simon's line of "I'm Simon the Digger! If there's a wall in my way, I'll SMASH IT DOWN!" right before he drills the Though Robot construct through the Source Wall is similar to his short speech before using his Core Drill to kill Lordgenome at the end of Episode 15 of Gurren Lagann.
- Kyle attempting to demotivate Simon using the Life Equation before he breaks out thanks to Kamina's words is a reference to when the Anti-Spiral attempted to do the same using the Multiverse Labyrinth.
- Simon's initial charge with the Super Tengen Toppa Giga Drill Break features the names of several Death Battle crew members hidden in the drill's smear frames. In order, they are as follows:
- A few of the impact frames throughout the fight contain references:
- The impact frame for when Kyle's Tiger Woods construct knocks Lagann off Gurren with their golf club is accompanied with the words "NICE SHOT" overlayed on top of it.
- The impact frame for when Kyle summons the White Lantern construct of the Thought Robot is accompanied by Superman's "S" insignia overlayed on top of it.
- The impact frame for when Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann rushed at White Lantern Kyle using the Life Equation feature several names and community members and team members and team members all throughout it. As seen in a clearer view of the frame here, these include Axel, Milk, Gumball, Hyper, Manon, Tre, Sonix, Zenith, Gun, Boomer, Levi, Adam, Willow, Space, Chikin, Origin, Bagel, DJ, Zack, Noah, RedJuan, Mr. Lost-In, Starry, Gothic, Huntimus, Jacop, Luis, Larry, and Annie.
- Two impact frames depicting monochromatic versions of John Mitchell's promotional artwork from the end of the episode's sneak peek trailer shown in the 419th episode of DEATH BATTLE Cast are flashed on-screen right as Simon's Super Tengen Toppa Giga Drill Break collides with Kyle's Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum Giga Drill Break.
- Said artwork can also be seen within the Death Battle logo behind the text of the episode's current thumbnail.
- The clash between Simon's Super Tengen Toppa Giga Drill Break and Kyle's Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum Giga Drill Break is a reference to the Super Tengen Toppa Giga Drill Break's clash with the Anti Spiral's Giga Drill Break in Gurren Lagann The Movie: The Lights in the Sky are Stars, right down to the infinity symbol appearing after the universe zooms out to complete darkness.
- As Simon and Kyle fall back down to Earth from rips in space-time in the fight's climax, Segata Sanshiro can be seen fading into view within the rip Simon falls out of right before it closes.
- Simon and Kyle's final clash being barefisting hand-to-hand combat before resorting to hand-formed drills is a reference to Simon's final 1-on-1 bout with the Anti-Spiral in Gurren Lagann The Movie: The Lights in the Sky are Stars.
- During this clash when both combatants are struck for the first time, both combatants' media genres are referenced; Simon's visage when uppercutted in the jaw turns a monochromatic black-and-white coloring in reference to typical Japanese mangas (with the punch itself and Simon's face when it connects being a reference to the uppercut the Anti-Spiral gave him during their final bout), whereas Kyle's kick to the ribs causes a comic book-styled "Crack!" effect to appear, as seen to emphasize strike and attack effects in the usual superhero comic.
- Simon yelling "Let's see you grit those teeth!" before he lands his final punch on Kyle's cheek is a reference to Kamina doing the same thing to Simon in Episode 8 of Gurren Lagann to snap him out of his mental rut, as well as Simon doing it himself to Rossiu in Episode 23 to stop him from taking his own life.
- The effects of Kyle's disintegration death are a reference to the ones seen when Nia gets recalled to the Anti-Spiral homeworld after reverting back to normal at the end of Episode 22 of Gurren Lagann, as well as her ultimately fading away after her and Simon's wedding at the end of the series.
- The "The End" card seen at the end of the fight is a reference to the ones seen at the end of every episode of Gurren Lagann.
- The bonus storyboard alternate ending where Kyle wins instead of Simon features two references in its dialogue:
- Kyle's line right before punching Simon is "Nothing can contain my will!!!", referencing the final line of the chorus of "Will of the Drill", the fan-commissioned "What If?" track for this matchup that Brandon Yates previously worked on.
- Simon's line upon looking up at Kyle after getting fatally punched, "So this is the power of a Lantern, huh?... Not bad... Not bad at all...", is a reference to Kittan's last words regarding Spiral Power during his sacrifice at the end of Episode 25 of Gurren Lagann.
Errors
- Oddly, the "COMING UP..." text is absent from the bottom left of the fight preview at the beginning of the episode.
- While Wiz is explaining spatial dimensions in Simon's analysis, the visual shows a zero-dimensional dot when displaying 1 dimension, and a one-dimensional line while displaying 2 dimensions, and then skips a two-dimensional square to go straight into a three-dimensional cube to catch up.
- Based on how the sentence is structured, the second pop-up box in Simon's analysis has an unnecessary comma after "brane theory".
- During the fight, Gurren Lagann is noticeably missing its Glenn Wings on its back.
- After the Super Tengen Toppa Giga Drill Break clash sucks in all of reality, the lyrics of "In brightest day" can briefly be heard looped and repeated once before the screen cracks.
- When Simon acknowledges himself as the superweapon to Kyle, the "my drill" lyric from "No heaven or space can stop my drill" suddenly replays.
- In the final pop-up box in the post-analysis, the last sentence misspells "Equation's" as "equations".
- The period after Wile E. Coyote's middle initial is missing when Wile E. Coyote VS Tom Cat's title appears at the end of its Next Time trailer.
Other
- This is the 13th episode to be animated in a hand-drawn style, after Smokey Bear VS McGruff the Crime Dog, Samurai Jack VS Afro Samurai, Mario VS Sonic (2018), Deadpool VS Mask, Genos VS War Machine, Macho Man VS Kool-Aid Man, Saitama VS Popeye, Omni-Man VS Homelander, Scooby-Doo VS Courage the Cowardly Dog, Rick Sanchez VS The Doctor, Bowser VS Eggman, and Shigaraki VS Mahito, and with the next two being Wile E. Coyote VS Tom Cat and Spider-Man VS Deku.
- Excluding sprite animations with hand-drawn shots, this is the 11th episode to be animated in more than one animation style, after Metal Sonic VS Zero, Optimus Prime VS Gundam, Deadpool VS Mask, Macho Man VS Kool-Aid Man, Saitama VS Popeye, Bill Cipher VS Discord, Goku VS Superman (2023), Joker VS Giorno, Bowser VS Eggman, and Among Us VS Fall Guys.
- This is the fourth episode in which all traditional animation styles (sprites, 3D, and hand-drawn) were used, after Saitama VS Popeye, Bill Cipher VS Discord, and Goku VS Superman (2023).
- This is the 13th DC VS non-Marvel-themed episode, after Goku VS Superman 1, Goku VS Superman 2, Joker VS Sweet Tooth, Raven VS Twilight Sparkle, Ben 10 VS Green Lantern, Black Canary VS Sindel, She-Ra VS Wonder Woman, Flash VS Sonic, Goku Black VS Reverse-Flash, Harley Quinn VS Jinx, SpongeBob VS Aquaman, and Goku VS Superman (2023).
- This is the third time that the non-Marvel character wins, after Harley Quinn VS Jinx and SpongeBob VS Aquaman.
- This is the 17th Anime/Manga VS Comic Book-themed episode, after Goku VS Superman 1, Goku VS Superman 2, Android 18 VS Captain Marvel, Carnage VS Lucy, Optimus Prime VS Gundam, Genos VS War Machine, Venom VS Crona, Hulk VS Broly, Goku Black VS Reverse-Flash, Saitama VS Popeye, Thor VS Vegeta, Magneto VS Tetsuo, Trunks VS Silver, Frieza VS Megatron, Goku VS Superman (2023), and Omni-Man VS Bardock, and with the next one being Spider-Man VS Deku.
- This is the sixth time that the Anime/Manga character wins, after Android 18 VS Captain Marvel, Carnage VS Lucy, Venom VS Crona, Hulk VS Broly, and Frieza VS Megatron, and with the next one being Spider-Man VS Deku.
- This is the second Successors-themed episode, after Batman Beyond VS Spider-Man 2099, and with the next one being Spider-Man VS Deku.
- This is the fifth episode to feature universal destruction, after Thanos VS Darkseid, Scarlet Witch VS Zatanna, Goku VS Superman (2023), and Galactus VS Unicron.
- This is the second episode to feature multiversal destruction, after Galactus VS Unicron.
- Prior to this episode, Brandon Yates made a track for the matchup called "Will of the Drill" as part of his "What If?" commission tracks.
- This makes it the 13th episode that received its own commission track before its release, after Blake VS Mikasa, Goku Black VS Reverse-Flash, Jason Voorhees VS Michael Myers, Guts VS Dimitri, Bill Cipher VS Discord, Frieza VS Megatron, Gojo VS Makima, Galactus VS Unicron, Joker VS Giorno, Bowser VS Eggman, Kratos VS Asura, and Master Chief VS Doom Slayer, and with the next three being Spider-Man VS Deku, Ruby Rose VS Maka Albarn, and Ash VS Yugi.
- This is the 12th one to be done by Brandon Yates, after Blake VS Mikasa, Goku Black VS Reverse-Flash, Jason Voorhees VS Michael Myers, Guts VS Dimitri, Bill Cipher VS Discord, Frieza VS Megatron, Galactus VS Unicron, Joker VS Giorno, Bowser VS Eggman, Kratos VS Asura, and Master Chief VS Doom Slayer, and with the next three being Spider-Man VS Deku, Ruby Rose VS Maka Albarn, and Ash VS Yugi.
- A vocal version was released a few months later, making this the first episode with a commission track that received vocals before the matchup became an actual episode, with the next one being Ruby Rose VS Maka Albarn.
- On May 21st, 2025, Brandon released a remaster of the track's vocal version to commemorate the episode's then-upcoming release.
- This is the first episode to have a commission track with a remaster, with the next two being Spider-Man VS Deku and Kirby VS Majin Buu.
- A snippet of the track's bridge (specifically the lyric "TEAR A HOLE IN THE SKY!") was used at the end of the episode's sneak peek trailer shown in the 419th episode of DEATH BATTLE Cast, making this the first episode whose prior commission track was officially used by the Death Battle crew in some form.
- On May 21st, 2025, Brandon released a remaster of the track's vocal version to commemorate the episode's then-upcoming release.
- This makes it the 13th episode that received its own commission track before its release, after Blake VS Mikasa, Goku Black VS Reverse-Flash, Jason Voorhees VS Michael Myers, Guts VS Dimitri, Bill Cipher VS Discord, Frieza VS Megatron, Gojo VS Makima, Galactus VS Unicron, Joker VS Giorno, Bowser VS Eggman, Kratos VS Asura, and Master Chief VS Doom Slayer, and with the next three being Spider-Man VS Deku, Ruby Rose VS Maka Albarn, and Ash VS Yugi.
- This is the 13th episode in which the winner shows respect for their fallen opponent (via Simon smiling at his worthy opponent knowing he fought a good fight, chuckling and likely accepting the Green Lantern Ring of his fallen opponent), after Goku VS Superman 2, All Might VS Might Guy, Korra VS Storm, Tanjiro VS Jonathan Joestar, Magneto VS Tetsuo, SpongeBob VS Aquaman, Gogeta VS Vegito, Darth Vader VS Obito Uchiha, Guts VS Dimitri, Martian Manhunter VS Silver Surfer, Goku VS Superman (2023), and Kratos VS Asura, and with the next two being Spider-Man VS Deku, and Ruby Rose VS Maka Albarn.
- This is the second episode in which Ringmaster comments on the results of the fight before Boomstick, after Bill Cipher VS Discord.
- This is the 11th episode in which Wiz comments on the results of the fight before Boomstick, after Fox McCloud VS Bucky O'Hare, Boba Fett VS Samus Aran (2015), Donkey Kong VS Knuckles, Flash VS Sonic, Excalibur VS Raiden, Ant-Man VS Atom, Killua VS Misaka, Scooby-Doo VS Courage the Cowardly Dog, Galactus VS Unicron, and Bowser VS Eggman, and with the next one being Wile E. Coyote VS Tom Cat.
- ↑ https://x.com/DEALOZEAL/status/1926759079168377169
- ↑ https://bsky.app/profile/dealozeal.bsky.social/post/3lq2dplfg6k2v
- ↑ https://deathbattle.fandom.org/wiki/Simon_the_Digger_VS_Kyle_Rayner#/media/File:DB_-_Spiral_of_Emotion_Early_Mix_(Simon_the_Digger_VS_Kyle_Rayner).jpg
- ↑ https://x.com/xZackAttack27x/status/1927433099182240255
- ↑ https://x.com/larrywinwood/status/1927105638691152096
- ↑ https://x.com/larrywinwood/status/1927144627728953553