Hilarious In Hindsight / DEATH BATTLE!

Since Death Battle often uses characters from series that are still ongoing, it's all but inevitable that, as time goes on, various details and events depicted in Death Battle become Hilarious in Hindsight. Showrunner Ben Singer refers to occasions where this happens mere days, weeks, or months, after an episode is announced or aired as the "Death Battle Curse". Considering that this subpage exists, you could say it happens a lot.

Season 1

• Zitz vs. Leonardo wouldn't be the last time a turtle and a toad went up against each other on the show. Nor is it the last time the turtle wins and tears the toad in half. Ironically, the fighting styles of the combatants using these motifs are reversed that time around, with the toad being a ninja while the turtle has a more direct combat style.
• Kratos vs. Spawn became this after the two appeared as a Guest Fighter in different entries of the same franchise, not just once, but twice.
  • Furthermore, the song used in Spawn's reveal trailer, "Scattering the Ashes", has lyrics talking about a father and son's struggling with each other; aside from the song's title, this is pretty much the synopsis of God of War (PS4).
• In Vegeta vs Shadow, when Shadow goes Super, Vegeta remarks "Wow. What a ripoff." Cut to Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F', which sees Frieza returning with a new Golden Super Mode. Prophetic, no?
• Certain remarks in Mario vs. Sonic (2011) are worth a chuckle now that both characters had a rematch in 2018, such as Wiz's claims that their rivalry would "meet a decisive end".
• Luke Skywalker vs. Harry Potter: Just like with Goku vs. Superman and Robocop vs. Terminator, Luke and Harry would have a rematch in rap battle form.
• Starscream vs. Rainbow Dash
  • The music that accompanied Rainbow Dash's introduction to her Death Battle preview against Starscream posted in September 2011 was "Danger Zone". Just over a year later... The battle itself becomes quite funny with this comic cover.
  • Also, the IDW MLP Comics will have an official crossover with Transformers (G4 Ponies and G1 Transformers) although in the comic it's Rarity that fights off Starscream.
  • Rainbow Dash won by luring Starscream's heat-sensored missiles back at him. She uses the same tactic against Misfire in her story.
• Eggman vs. Wily, ever since their franchises had a crossover.
• One of the most common complaints about the Peach vs. Zelda fight was that Zelda never transformed into Sheik during the fight. Come Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, nearly two years later, Sheik became her own character instead of being part of Zelda's moveset, meaning that Zelda literally can't turn into Sheik mid-fight anymore. Of course, whether this is Hilarious in Hindsight or Harsher in Hindsight depends on whether you're fond of the announcement or not.
• Link vs. Cloud:
  • One complaint regarding the battle was how Link was able to throw several bombs at once, when previous incarnations have shown him capable of only using one at a time. Come Hyrule Warriors, now Link can spam his bombs well after Death Battle depicted him doing so! (Despite the fact that Eiji Aonuma stated that the game is non-canon.)
  • Here's one that came out of nowhere: Whether or not you agreed with the outcome, as of Smash 4, you can now "settle it in SMASH!" For an extra bit of hilarity, based on Smash 4 tier-lists, Cloud beats Link, the opposite result of their clash in Death Battle.
• Batman vs. Spider-Man:
  • After the fight, Boomstick comments "And all of Wayne's money, and the commissioner's men, couldn't put Batman together again." Batman is one of the very few Death Battle losers to come back for another match, let alone two.
  • The episode became this when it was announced that Batman alumni Michael Keaton had been cast as Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
• Pikachu vs. Blanka:
  • Neither of the fighters once paralyzed each other, either through electrical discharge or through Pikachu's Static ability. The match was made before Gen VI, where Electric-type Pokemon became immune to paralysis.
  • Six years later, Blanka would appear as an enemy spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's World of Light mode, and it's possible to fight him as Pikachu at that point. What's even better? Blanka (as Donkey Kong) has the Screw Attack item equipped.
• Goku vs. Superman:
  • When discussing Superman's strengths and weaknesses, it's stated that "even the buildings in Metropolis are more valuable to him than his own life". One of the main complaints of Man of Steel was the amount of damage to the city... which, in turn, became a major plot point in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
  • After the fight ends, Boomstick happily exclaims "It's over! It's finally over! We never have to hear about it again!" Cue the fan outcry, meaning the episode ultimately did little to even slow down this debate. Then there was a rematch; the first ever Death Battle rematch. Suffice to say, it wasn't over after all. This would go on to become a running gag in the show itself, with Deadpool insulting the hosts about it in Deadpool vs. Deathstroke and Ben Singer, the voice of Wiz, getting visited by a living Goku toy in the ad break in Kirby vs. Majin Buu, in addition to this spin-off video.
  • To win the Beam-O-War between his Kamehameha and Superman's Eye Beams, Goku combines the Kaio-ken with his Super Saiyan 4. Cue Dragon Ball Super, where Goku actually does just that with his Super Saiyan Blue while fighting Hit.
  • Also in Dragon Ball Super, Goku ends up fighting Jiren, a Superman Substitute. The result: Goku wins, but only by himself and Frieza pulling a Heroic Sacrifice to Ring Out Jiren, despite Jiren being far stronger than Goku.
  • Superman uses the Torquasm Rao martial art, in where his brain enters a state of unconscious dodging and attacking. Goku would obtain this very power years later in the form of Ultra Instinct.
  • During the climactic battle of the Galactic Patrol Prisoner Saga, Goku manifests a giant avatar of blue energy in his own image to battle the giant-sized Moro. In Action Comics #1054, Superman absorbs energy from Metallo that allows him to manifest a giant copy of himself made up of blue energy. Fittingly, this issue came out the same year Superman and Goku clashed for the third time in Death Battle.
  • Justin Chatwin, who infamously portrayed Goku in Dragonball Evolution, would later win back fans by playing a Superman Substitute called the Ghost in the Doctor Who episode "The Return of Doctor Mysterio".

Season 2

• The previews for He-Man vs. Lion-O seemed to imply that Lion-O's ability to control cats would be used on Battle Cat, which had some fans complaining that Death Battle was essentially breaking its own rules to give Lion-O an advantage in their fight. Needless to say, the battle itself made quick work of that little issue.
  • The fights starts because Lion-O took He-Man transforming Cringer into Battlecat as animal abuse. In 2018's He-Man/ThunderCats, Lion-O attempts to transform Cringer himself. Same comic would also have Lion-O quickly come to the same conclusion as Wiz and Boomstick about He-Man being vastly stronger...and then just ask Sword of Omens to give him "strength beyond strength", briefly becoming He-Man's physical equal.
• Ivy vs. Orchid came out only a few days before Double Helix revealed a sneak peak that Orchid would be in Killer Instinct for Xbox One.
• In Fox McCloud vs. Bucky O'Hare, Wiz describes the latter's nemeses of the Toad Empire as "amphibian Nazis... if Hitler was Skynet." The episode that comes after? The Terminator vs. Robocop.
• Much like Goku and Superman, Robocop and Terminator had a rap-based rematch.
• Didn't like the outcome of Terminator vs. Robocop? Now they can have a rematch in Mortal Kombat!
• Mario vs. Sonic came before dedicated animators started animating. As a result, Luigi and Tails's fight is far more visually spectacular.
• Kanto Starter Battle Royale:
  • Though "hilarious" might not be the right word for either episode, Blanka biting Pikachu's head off was later attempted by Charizard to Blastoise. Charizard's attempt failed, and he lost his wings (and life) as a result.
  • Nearly three years after the episode aired, Pokémon Sun and Moon, the first all-new generation after that Death Battle, added a Battle Royale feature for the first time in series history.
• Fulgore vs. Sektor:
  • After the episode's conclusion, Godzilla was announced as one of the two combatants for the next episode. This becomes even more amusing in that not only did the fight come out the same day as the Godzilla (2014), but in said film, Godzilla kills the bigger Muto in a rather Mortal Kombat-esque way.
  • The fight ends ends with Fulgore blowing Sektor to pieces with a Devastation Beam, prompting Boomstick to quip that the "Devastation Beam lives up to its name." Almost three years later, the Devastation Beam played a key role in Fulgore's Ultimate Combo in the 2013 Killer Instinct game, which gave it the power to utterly vaporize its victim, making it even more lethal than depicted. Boomstick would be proud.
• Around the same time the show started, The Spoony One made his own Deadliest Warrior-type show known as Deadliest Character, which was only one episode due to the fact that Death Battle was more popular^note Or, as Spoony tells it, because production on the one episode took a full year, and because it was only really meant as a one-off parody of Deadliest Warrior to start with.. The only episode was MechaGodzilla vs. The Megazord with James Rolfe even helping with the MechaGodzilla section. At SGC's Death Battle Panel and Godzilla vs. Gamera premiere, not only did they state that James Rolfe helped them with this fight, but one of the characters they previewed to be later in another fight was Tommy Oliver from Power Rangers, with his own Zord. Ironically, in the Deadliest Character, Mecha Godzilla lost to the Power Rangers; in Death Battle, Godzilla won his match while Tommy, piloting the Tigerzord and eventually the Mega Tigerzord, lost his.
• Kirby vs. Majin Buu:
  • Kirby channeling Ryu during the battle is even funnier now that Ryu himself is a playable character in Smash Bros. 4.
  • Even more so, Kirby defeated Buu despite being considered the underdog of the fight. Then the "World of Light" trailer for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate shows Kirby surviving Galeem's annihilation of the Smash world while deities like Palutena and Rosalina or god-slayers like Shulk and Bayonetta weren't as fortunate.
• Gaara vs. Toph:
  • During Magfest, the hosts outright stated that Naruto would be a series that wouldn't be featured in Death Battle until it ended. True to their word, Gaara vs. Toph was revealed to be in production shortly after Naruto's Grand Finale aired.
  • The memetic "Bending Options" statement spawned from Gaara vs. Toph has become this after the release of Gaara Hiden: A Sandstorm Mirage, in which Gaara now canonically has the "Magnet Release Kekki Genkai", which, to make a long story short, basically makes Gaara a metalbender, airbender, and advanced firebender (lightning) as well now. The irony is that Death Battle made a point of using Gaara only after Naruto ended, but barely any time had passed after the episode when new work featuring Gaara was being released, contradicting their research and justifying what they were afraid would happen in the first place.
  • This matchup can now be recreated with Garra and Toph's addition to Fortnite, with Toph herself being available for 2,000 VBucks while Garra was tied to a Battle Pass.
• Haloid had Samus fight Nicole, the Dead or Alive Guest Fighter who's a Spartan similar to Master Chief. The pilot episode of Death Battle had Samus battle Boba Fett, Master Chief's return in DBX pitted him against Boba's father, Jango, and to bring things full circle, Samus eventually faced off against Master Chief himself in DBX.
• Chuck Norris vs. Segata Sanshiro
  • The Nostalgia Critic would later review Segata Sanshiro's commercials, and he even made a comparison between him and Chuck Norris.
  • A few months after the episode aired, Segata was announced to be returning for Project × Zone 2, reprised by his original actor, no less.
• During Iron Man Vs Lex Luthor, Tony ends up chucking the Batmobile at Lex during the starting sequence of the fight. A few years later in Season 8, Iron Man makes a return against the owner himself, Batman.
• Solid Snake vs. Sam Fisher:
  • We saw Vegeta take on Shadow (and win) in the first season. Now in the second season, we have Vegeta's English dub voice actor Christopher Sabat participating in a Death Battle as Solid Snake, who also wins.
  • At one point, Ben joked that a Death Battle with Solid Snake would be easy to animate, with only a few gunshots in a dark room. In the episode proper, not so much.
• Epic Rap Battles of History has pitted Darth Vader against the infamous European dictator Adolf Hitler three times, each with him emerging victorious. After that, Death Battle saw Vader facing off against another European dictator, Dr. Doom. From the looks of it, Hitler will be quite pleased with Doom for dispatching his archrival.
• Goku vs. Superman 2:
  • The hosts use data from The New 52 era, making Superman a Composite Character. DC Rebirth reveals that the New 52 Superman and the pre-Flashpoint Superman were two separate characters. Superman Reborn reveals that the two Supermen are the same one, but separated. So, it seems that Screwattack was right after all.
  • On May 19 2014, Goku and Superman had a rematch in rap form before the actual rematch transpired.
  • One that overlaps with Harsher in Hindsight: A common complaint about the rematch is that realistically, one of Goku's opponents wouldn't be able to walk through a Super Saiyan Blue-powered Kamehameha. In Episode 100 of Dragonball Super, Goku fights Super Saiyan Berserker Kale in his Super Saiyan Blue form and attempts to defeat her with a Kamehameha... only for her to walk right through it.
  • During the post-fight analysis, Wiz is quick to suggest that Goku will gain a new form in the future. Cue Dragon Ball Super, where Goku gains the new form Ultra Instinct.
  • Power creep came into full effect as time passed by, as several battles featuring DC and Dragon Ball characters such as Flash Vs Sonic and Hulk Vs Broly would go to show that both Goku and Superman's universes (And them by new feats/scaling) have become MUCH more powerful than the feats recorded in this episode.
  • Goku fighting using Super Saiyan God in the Arctic. Sound familar?
• In Hercule Satan vs Dan Hibiki, one of Hercule's capsules contains the Scissor Blade. Come Season 8, Ryuko Matoi herself would fight in this show.
• In the Yang vs. Tifa battle, when Wiz mentions that Yang's team, Team RWBY, is lead by her sister Ruby, Boomstick sarcastically replies "Yeah, like that isn't confusing". In Volume 3, Episode 1, Ruby says the same exact thing when conversing at her mother's grave.
• There's another similar series called Fatal Fiction which does the same thing as Death Battle. Fatal Fiction released their Mega Man vs Astro Boy episode before Death Battle released theirs, and concluded that Mega Man would win. In Death Battle, Astro Boy wins instead, in part because the show uses a composite Astro Boy rather than simply using one incarnation like Fatal Fiction did.
• Fatal Fiction has an episode of Pikachu vs Agumon, concluding Pikachu wins because he has resisted flame attacks before, unlike Agumon with electric attacks, and is faster. Another part of the conclusion states that Greymon, and its further digivolutions, will be more than enough to stomp Pikachu. Considering what WarGreymon did to Mega Charizard X here, it's definitely proven to be correct.
  • Later on, Charizard (Though Red himself never canonically used it) would acquire access to a brand new ability, Gigantamax, in Pokémon Sword and Shield.
  • About 5 years after the Death Battle released, the Digimon film Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna would release, and in it, Tai and Agumon obtain a new, WAY MORE powerful friendship-powered form^note As in able to defeat Eosmon (Mega) who was able to effortlessly take down Omnimon, a Royal Knight Digimon for reference. , Agumon -Bond of Courage-. To say the gap between Digimon and Pokemon has widened is an understatement.
  • Meanwhile, in Digimon Adventure: (2020), the Tai of that continuity would manage to unlock more forms for Agumon, specifically BlitzGreymon, an alternative Mega form, which is capable of using electrical and plasma based attacks. While these attacks would likely be weakened due to Mega Charizard X's Dragon typing, it would definitely have allowed for Tai and Agumon to easily take down Charizard due to its weakness to electrical attacks.

Season 3

• Dante vs. Bayonetta:
  • On December 15th, 2015 Death Battle announced that the premier episode of Season 3 would involve Bayonetta fighting an unknown opponent (later revealed to be Dante). This was announced on the exact same day that Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U had announced that Bayonetta would be featured as their very last Guest Fighter. As Death Battles have to be planned weeks, if not months, in advance, there was absolutely no possible way the creators could have known about Bayonetta's Smash reveal before making the announcement.
  • The episode was almost the second time the characters would have met. After Bayonetta's announcement for a Death Battle, but before her opponent was revealed, Hideki Kamiya revealed that he had been approached about Bayonetta appearing in Project X Zone 2, alongside Dante.
  • Then Bayonetta and Dante both appeared in Shin Megami Tensei Liberation: Dx2, as guest characters.
  • While Dante doesn't make a full-fledged appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, he does appear as a downloadable Mii Costume, meaning that it's technically possible to reenact the fight in Smash.
• Flash vs. Quicksilver:
  • During the exposition on Barry Allen (the Flash depicted in the episode), both Wiz and Boomstick rag on him for causing The New 52. Two days later, it's revealed that it wasn't Barry, but Dr. Manhattan who caused it.
  • They mention how insanely convoluted Quicksilver's backstory is. Since the video, it somehow got even more complicated when it was revealed in Scarlet Witch (2015) that Quicksilver's parents that turned out to be his adopted parents that turned out to be his real parents were really his aunt and uncle.
  • The fact that Quicksilver died by getting impaled on a random statue was already hilarious enough... However, years later in Season 8, Goku Black Vs. Reverse-Flash shows us exactly how that statue got there in the first place, making the incident even more hilarious in hindsight.
• The Take That! video against Silvermania had Mewtwo facing Vegeta. Not too long after that, Mewtwo faced Vegeta's opponent, Shadow, in an actual Death Battle. Even funnier, the result of the latter fight means that Mewtwo and Vegeta both stomped same opponent in less than three minutes individually. This has led a small subset of people to imagine Mewtwo and Vegeta celebrating over their both of them killing Shadow and wiping out Silvermania.
• Tracer vs. Scout:
  • The Scout developed a crush on Miss Pauling, who couldn't really reciprocate, being attracted to women. In the show, he flirts with his designated opponent Tracer, and several months after the fight came out, it was revealed that Tracer has a girlfriend.
  • A common piece of fanon was that Scout's death wouldn't be permanent, as Death Is Cheap in his home series. When the next TF2 comic came out, Scout was killed in action... and immediately sent back by God himself. It also put much of the fan outcry about his durability feats to rest, as his cause of death came from being knifed in the stomach by a robot Spy, which all but proved that Death Battle was right in assuming that Scout's durability was less impressive than Meet the Medic made it appear.
• Just like with Link vs. Cloud before it, Ken vs. Terry can be recreated in Super Smash Bros. with the arrival of both fighters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Even funnier is that, unlike Link vs. Cloud, both Ken and Terry are third-party characters who were introduced to Smash after their fight, making the prospect even more unlikely back when the episode aired. Terry was especially a surprise since, unlike Ken, he was part of the Fighter's Pass DLC, meaning until he was announced, no one expected his appearance.
• Amy Rose vs. Ramona Flowers
  • The episode has the two fighting one another, with Amy being the victor. Flash forward to 2023 where an anime adaptation to the Scott Pilgrim story is released where they make numerous Sonic the Hedgehog references, even ending with Ramona fusing with her future self and getting a Super Mode that's literally compared to Super Sonic dubbed "Super Ramona".
• Zoro vs. Erza
  • Zoro's feat of slicing Pica's mountain-size stone golem form in half with a single strike as one of the main reasons he wins, since it's a level of strength Erza hasn't shown a comparable feat to. Some time after the battle concluded, Fairy Tail had Erza slice a giant meteor into thousands of pieces with one strike from her sword, while only having the use of one arm at the time and all her other bones broken.
  • When discussing Zoro's ability to use Haki, Boomstick makes a point to address that he only has access to two of the three "flavors", vanilla (Observation) and Chocolate (Armament). Cue the Wano Arc, and turns out, Zoro had access to strawberry (Supreme King's Haki) all along.
• At the end of Deadpool vs. Pinkie Pie, Deadpool crashes the Death Battle Cast podcast and it seems that he's about to kill Ben and Chad before it becomes a Bait-and-Switch. The Marvel TL;DR of Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe has him pull this off with the show.

Season 4

• Lara Croft vs. Nathan Drake was originally an episode of Super Power Beat Down.
• Scrooge McDuck vs. Shovel Knight:
  • The outcome of the episode, with Scrooge winning, became this as a day after the battle, a trailer for DuckTales (2017) surfaced on the internet.
  • And then again just a short two weeks after the fight, when it was announced that a collection of Disney NES games, including the two Ducktales games that heavily influenced the creation of Shovel Knight, would be given a remaster and rerelease as the "Disney Afternoon Collection".
• Venom vs. Bane:
  • The episode was well-timed, considering that Eddie Brock (the most famous host and the one depicted in the episode) would be rejoining the symbiote soon.
  • A couple of months after the episode's release, it was announced that Tom Hardy, who portrayed Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, had been cast as Eddie in Venom (2018).
  • In Marvel's Spider-Man 2, there's something really funny about the eventual Venom vs Kraven fight halfway through the game, where the latter can be seen as a stand-in for Bane, along with Venom (the victor) chomping off the head of Kraven (the loser).
• Overlaps with Harsher in Hindsight because holy moly, that death was gross: In 1 Minute Melee's version of Natsu vs. Ace, Ace beats Natsu by overloading him with fire and making him burst like a balloon. A pretty silly and clean death, all things considered. Death Battle's version of the fight, on the other hand, has Natsu turn Ace into nothing but ash, which we see in excruciating detail. The difference between those two endings couldn't be any more different, on more than one level.
• Metal Sonic vs. Zero:
  • In 1 Minute Melee, Meta Knight was very Out Of Character and on the receiving end of a horrific Curb-Stomp Battle against Zero. In DBX, not only is he in-character for the most part, he's also on the giving end of an even more one-sided Curb-Stomp Battle against Link!
  • In his canon, Zero's been known to fight against several evil animal robots. His opponent being Metal Sonic, who's an evil animal robot, makes this matchup all the more hilariously coincidental. And like the aftermath of his battles against evil animal robots, he achieves victory.
  • One of the Never Live It Down things that Zero is known for in the fandom is dying (and being resurrected). Which makes it all the more hilarious when in Death Battle, DBX, and One Minute Melee, he survives every one of his opponents, who end up killed — at least until Noctis showed up, anyway.
  • The episode made use of Johnny Yong Bosch's voice clips for Zero throughout the fight. Naruto vs. Ichigo, on the other hand, used a voice actor for Ichigo... who does an uncanny impression of JYB's voice, is credited as Adam Park, and has a link to the Wikipedia article on frogs instead of a Twitter profile.
  • Prototype Zero being able to shrug off everything or simply parry everything that Mega Man throws at him in Mega Man Unlimited becomes this after you see this episode. He's estimated to be tough enough to survive the explosive force of an impact similar to the meteor that killed the dinosaurs.
• Balrog vs. TJ Combo was released a week before the hyped mega-fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor, which the former won using counter-punching and outboxing, similar to how TJ defeats Balrog.
• In ''Smokey Bear vs. McGruff the Crime Dog", Smokey calls McGruff a "stupid dog". One of Season 10's combatants is Courage, and rather than him or his opponent, the loser is Eustace Bagge.
• Naruto vs. Ichigo:
  • Ichigo was originally supposed to fight Yusuke Urameshi, but was ultimately pitted against Naruto. Later on in Season 6, Hiei, deemed to be Yusuke's equal, proved to be superior to Sasuke, who was on the same level as Naruto, who Ichigo was no match for. Which means that as badly beaten as Ichigo was, he escaped a much worse fight.
  • The link to Ichigo's VA in the fight is instead directed to the Wikipedia page about frogs. Jiraiya, the Toad Sage, happens to be the next Naruto character to appear in Death Battle.
• Vergil vs. Sephiroth:
  • The match was announced not long after both concluded their rematch in One Minute Melee. With Vergil's win in the first battle and both fighting to a draw in the second, their third match (with proper research this time) decisively concludes the trilogy with Sephiroth's victory.
  • Devil May Cry 5 reveals that Vergil survived Dante... exploding him as noted in his rundown and actually became even stronger than was shown in the analysis.
  • The twist in Devil May Cry 5 that Big Bad Urizen and new hero character V are Vergil split into two beings becomes this as Sephiroth himself under went something similar in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.
  • Sephiroth's voice actor for the fight, Kamran Nikhad, later came back to voice Mario the following season. The most striking moment of Sephiroth's reveal trailer for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is of him seemingly impaling Mario.
  • The day Sephiroth was announced for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and the day Vergil was finally made available as DLC for Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition were in such close proximity to one another that it almost cannot be coincidence.

Season 5

• Black Panther vs Batman has the battle take place at a zoo. At one point, the two fighters are attacked by various animals, one of them being a rhino that T'Challa makes quick work of. Surely enough, come Black Panther (2018), T'Challa is once again pitted against rhinos during the final battle with Killmonger's forces.
• The reason that Raven wound up facing Twilight was because her original opponent, Jean Grey, was believed to be far too strong for them to even claim Raven had a chance of winning. Five seasons later, they would run that battle and as it turns out, Raven was more than a match for Jean, managing to actually defeat her.
• The outcome of Jotaro Kujo's appearance in the main Death Battle series and his DBX against Yu Narukami share many similarities: both fights have the eventual loser of the fight being the one who instigated it after a perceived slight, and both losers are reduced to a big bloody smear on the ground courtesy of a Time-Delayed Death immediately following Star Platinum's use of The World. Ironically, while it was Yu who was killed in the DBX episode, it's Jotaro who's reduced to paste in the official episode.
• Sora vs. Pit joins the discussion of settling it in Smash Bros. Thanks to Sora being announced as the last DLC for Smash Ultimate. The show's official Twitter account even acknowledged it.
• Less than three weeks after appearing in a battle against Frank West, Sony would announce that a remake of Leon Kennedy's debut game, Resident Evil 2, was in development. Not only that, but for added hilarity, the remake was released within a few days of yet another highly-anticipated title: Kingdom Hearts III. Both of their protagonists - Sora and Leon - not only appeared in back-to-back episodes but won both of them handily.
• Ryu VS Jin
  • While Ryu may have won his Death Battle against Jin, he will now have to deal with his opponent's father Kazuya in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
  • Nearly three years later, Jin appears as a spirit in his father Kazuya's DLC spirit board in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and the player can even fight him as Ryu.
  • One of major factors in deciding the victor goes to Ryu's Power of Nothingness surpassing Devil Jin in both power and control. Come Tekken 8, and Jin achieves his own Enlightment Superpower by not just mastering Devil Jin, but purifying it to gain even greater power as Angel Jin, which triumphs over even True Devil Kazuya.
• Samurai Jack won his Death Battle against Afro Samurai, and it won't be the last time we'll see Jack.
• Only a few days before Carnage vs. Lucy came out, a movie about a slender killer with tentacles targeting teenage girls was released in theaters.
• As Ben pointed out, a trailer for a new series based on Transformers: Generation 1 was released soon after Optimus Prime vs. Gundam had been announced.
• Nightwing vs. Daredevil:
  • Nightwing has often been portrayed as having had a falling-out with Batman, which led to their split when he was still known as the first Robin. He'll have the chance to exact his revenge in a roundabout way: Ben Affleck, the most recent man to don the cowl of the Dark Knight at the time the episode aired, infamously played Daredevil - Nightwing's opponent - over a decade prior. Judging by the outcome, he got his revenge.
  • A few days before the episode was released on RoosterTeeth and a full week before the fight was released on YouTube, Batman #55 had Dick Grayson get shot in the head by a sniper and survive. Among other consequences, Dick abandoned his Nightwing persona and changed his first name to Ric - ironic, given Boomstick's jokes towards his name. Whether this is Hilarious or Harsher in Hindsight depends on personal interpretation.
• Mario vs. Sonic 2:
  • Less than 24 hours after the episode was released worldwide, Nintendo released a new Halloween themed skin of Mario for Super Mario Odyssey as a zombie. Even though Mario didn't die this time around.
  • The art improvements mentioned under Luigi vs. Tails would come full circle with the release of Mario and Sonic's rematch here, which was created by dedicated animators and featured truly fantastic visuals.
  • A year prior to the rematch, 1 Minute Melee did their own version of Mario vs. Sonic. Like the rematch, the fight begins because Sonic's cocky attitude gets on Mario's nerves (he criticizes Mario for constantly saving Peach and bragging he could do better). And like the rematch, Mario beats Sonic this time.
• Roshi vs. Jiraiya: On October 12, a fan made fanart of Wiz and Boomstick using the Super Crown, and this went noticed by Ben and was shown on Death Battle Cast. During Jiraiya's preview (and his analysis in the episode proper) we actually see what a genderbent Wiz looks like with him using Sexy Jutsu.
• Thanos vs. Darkseid:
  • As Ben notes in this cast, the first trailer for Avengers: Endgame was uploaded in the very same week as Thanos's preview.
  • Death Battle collaborated with JT Music to make a Thanos vs. Darkseid rap battle. Epic Rap Battles of History would later release their own rap battle featuring Thanos on the same day as the following season finale (more specifically its YouTube release).

Season 6

• In Aquaman's analysis, Boomstick makes a connection that Aquaman is actually SpongeBob, much to Wiz's annoyance. Come Season 9, SpongeBob would appear as a combatant, where he faces off against a different version of Aquaman.
• A few months before the Mega Man Battle Royale, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate featured the four non-Classic Mega Men as unlockable Spirits. Comparing each Spirit's base Power stat (not factoring in other factors such as passive skills or Support slots) at maximum level from weakest to strongest (and in the case of X and Geo Stelar, being upgraded to their final form), the order^note disregarding Classic, who as a playable character cannot have a Power level as a Spirit is identical to the outcome of the fight: Mega Man Volnutt, Full Armour X, Star Force Mega Man, MegaMan.EXE.
• After Thanos vs. Darkseid and Aquaman vs. Namor, Black Widow ended Marvel's streak of two losses. Guess whose solo movie was announced for the year after (before being delayed due to COVID-19)?
• Captain Marvel vs. Shazam: Mere hours before the fight was announced at the end of the YouTube release of Black Widow vs. Widowmaker, Shazam star Zachary Levi stated that he didn't want to be pitted against the aforementioned Captain Marvel^note This was referring less to the actual "who would win in a fight" debate and more on certain online behavior regarding the former's release bleeding over to his film. It didn't take long for the DEATH BATTLE crew to hear about it.
  • The results of both Captain Marvel vs. Shazam and Ben 10 vs. Green Lantern are the exact opposite. While both Carol and Hal are Military Superheroes and Billy and Ben are both Kid Heroes who transform into much more adult-looking forms, Military Superhero Carol loses to Kid Hero Billy, while Kid Hero Ben loses to Military Superhero Hal.
• Speaking of Ben 10 vs Green Lantern, fans who still don't like the way Ben was handled and killed will get some catharsis when Hal was just as brutally killed in Justice League Apokolips War. Bonus points for the Paradooms holding onto his hand that had the ring, his primary weapon, to prevent him from attacking before killing him, exactly how he defeated Ben.
  • Remember Hal's iconic line before executing Ben, "Time, huh? Thanks for the tip."? Well, in Ben 10 (2016), another Alien X (Who coincidentally was attacking Ben to get his Omnitrix) is greeted with Alien Force Ben mockingly telling him, "Thanks for the tip", and then shortly after that the invading Alien X is defeated.
  • One of the characters who was considered as a possible opponent for Ben before settling with Green Lantern was Danny Phantom, but was rejected due to the idea being based more on nostalgia than the powers or themes, which would have ended up as a weird episode. The next year, Ben would fight Danny Phantom in DBX.
• Weiss vs. Mitsuru:
  • If we're going by BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle tiers, it's no wonder that Mitsuru stomped Weiss. .
    • In their post-battle interactions in BBTAG, Weiss mentions how she pities whoever would be Mitsuru's opponent. Which becomes hilarious considering the outcome of the match.
  • Jello Apocalypse recently made a So This Is Basically... episode based around RWBY. When he introduces Weiss, he says that her power is "To lose every battle she fights in." Come the episode, she takes another loss.
• Four years after Johnny Cage vs Captain Falcon, Johnny gets a fatality in Mortal Kombat 1 that bears a strong resemblance to Captain Falcon's final smash from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
• In the week after Ghost Rider vs Lobo, comedy advice podcast My Brother, My Brother and Me answered a Yahoo Answers question about who would win in a fight between Ghost Rider vs Everybody.
• Dragonzord vs Mechagodzilla
  • Another one that relates to Deadliest Character: the fight was supposed to be between the Megazord and Mechagodzilla, but the Dragonzord intruded on the fight as a way of making fun of Deadliest Warrior's questionable results. Thanks to Death Battle, Mechagodzilla has been given a chance to take revenge on the Dragonzord for ganging up on it. It did.
    • In Deadliest Character, the Dragonzord in Fighting Mode finishes off Mechagodzilla by impaling it with the Power Staff. This happens in Death Battle, except Mechagodzilla survives and takes advantage of it to perform its own Finishing Move.
  • Several fans have raised questions about the Power Rangers' potential to get a cheap win by having easy ways to take out the opposing pilots, usually by teleporting into their cockpit. In the Dragonzord's fight against Mechagodzilla, Tommy indeed takes out Akane by shooting her plane down... which only serves to make matters worse for him as Godzilla's soul takes over.
    • This also marks the second time Tommy shooting down his opponent's companion that enrages them into killing them too. Killing Noin accidentally is what drove Zechs to kill him first and shooting down Akane is what drove Mechagodzilla to go berserk and kill him.
  • The Dragonzord VS Mechagodzilla fight was released on September 4th on Youtube, by sheer coincidence, it was also the birthday of one Jason David Frank, who played Tommy in the original Power Rangers. Many tweeted Ben saying they really must have hated Power Rangers for the Dragonzord to lose on Jason's birthday.
  • Several years after the Death Battle, IDW and Boom Studios announced Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as a comic crossover, with the cover showing Godzilla fighting the Dragonzord.
• The live-action segment of Deadpool vs. Mask has Mask wearing a Kansas City Chiefs shirt. The Chiefs ended up winning that season's Super Bowl; Mask must've been manipulated the win for them.

Season 7

• Static defeats Miles by overloading him with electricity and sending him to the sky. In Spider-Man: Miles Morales , this same exact scenario, albeit altered, happens in the ending, where Miles takes in a ton energy enough to destroy a place as big as Harlem and is forced to take it up a skyscraper before going to the skies with some assistance from a friend before exploding it all out in the air. Unlike in the Death Battle, Miles survives this.
• Injustice 2 has Sub-Zero comment that Black Canary's abilities remind him of Sindel's.
• Alejandro Saab returned to voice Jason and fought Leonardo, a sewer dweller. Ironically, Saab voiced a different type of sewer dweller earlier this year, being the voice of Yuri in Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
• A common meme for War Machine is his "Sunday Best" from Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes. In a pure coincidence, the episode goes up for FIRST members on Sunday.
• Goro vs. Machamp:
  • This episode had been done by other video creators over four years ago. The outcomes were the same, with Machamp winning. Machamp even won his fight with the thousand punch flurry shown in the former video.
  • As revealed in the Goro vs. Machamp Q&A, as soon as the team made plans for both Sindel and Goro to feature in Season 7, Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge had been announced.
  • This also isn't the first time a Nintendo character voiced by Kestin Howard kills a Mortal Kombat character by punching him so hard he explodes into Ludicrous Gibs. The first time was Season 6's Johnny Cage vs. Captain Falcon.
• Cable vs. Booster Gold:
  • Following Deadpool, the X-Force entered Fortnite, which included Cable. As Ben pointed out, a few days before the fight came out.
  • The outcome of the fight is a bit funnier if you remember how Deadpool vs. Deathstroke, another Marvel vs. DC battle between a grizzled, no-nonsense fighter whose personality was similar to Cable's and a silly but highly effective antihero, ended. Turns out that there's a damn good reason to Beware the Silly Ones.
  • During Cable's preview and Booster's rundown, Boomstick references Back to the Future by mentioning the Grays Sports Almanac and making a pun about Michael J. Fox's name. Come episode 4 of spinoff series Death Race and the DeLorean became one of the racers and did time travel though thanks to the episode's rules of making sure the racers' pizzas stay intact alongside with the usual rule of racing to the finish, the car was disqualified despite being the first to cross the finish line.
• Obi-Wan Vs Kakashi:
  • Toonami used to have a bump where block host TOM took a weird potshot at American Dragon: Jake Long by saying Naruto could probably beat the titular character in a fight. Jake Long's fight with Danny Phantom was announced right after Obi-Wan vs. Kakashi, where Naruto's mentor ends up being cut down by the Jedi Master. Bonus points for Obi-Wan technically being a Disney character.
  • Similar to some characters having matchups be possible in Super Smash Bros., now it's possible for the two to fight in Fortnite with Obi-Wan making an appearance as a costume a good while after Kakashi appeared for a Naruto collab.
  • Kakashi traps Obi-Wan in a Sand Necktie and he busts out using the Force. Years later in Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader has Obi-Wan Buried Alive, and he busts out using the Force.
• Shortly after Danny Phantom vs. Jake Long was announced, Butch Hartman tweeted the following: "Good luck to Jake Long because Danny won’t be the only one Goin’ Ghost!". Come the actual fight, and Jake ends up reduced to a ghost thanks to Danny vaporizing his body with a charged Ecto-blast.
  • The fight itself becomes this because of all the crossover fanworks between the two characters.
• Aquaman's general Memetic Loser status (prior to Injustice: Gods Among Us and the DC Extended Universe) becomes this due to The Seven Battle Royale, where The Deep, an Aquaman Expy, proves to be the single worst performer in Death Battle history. The Deep has the shortest rundown in Death Battle history, which ends with Boomstick saying he sucks, with even his own teammate Black Noir nodding in agreement. Then A-Train kills The Deep in the opening seconds of the fight. Even Michelangelo, the previous record-holder for quickest death, outlasted The Deep.
• The Winter Soldier isn't the first Marvel anti-hero to face the Red Hood in a live-action fight to the death. And he's not the first to kill him, either.
  • Speaking of Super Power Beat Down, Jason Todd's not the first former Robin to battle against the Winter Soldier. Though, he fails to kill Bucky where Dick succeeded.
  • Even funnier is that Death Battle's Winter Soldier is played by Tyler Tackett, who also played Daredevil two seasons earlier. Winter Soldier and Daredevil have both faced off against another former Robin, Nightwing, in Super Power Beat Down and Death Battle, respectively, and both have lost. Clearly, Death Battle's Winter Soldier has avenged both of them indirectly by defeating Red Hood.
• Rock Lee's voice actor in the show, Mark Phillips, is well known for his work in RDCworld1. In one of their most popular videos "When People Take Anime Too Far Part Two", he even imitated some of Lee's techniques.
• Similarly to Captain Marvel, the Hulk is a Marvel character who dies twice, both from decapitation and by being blown up or vaporized, and loses to both DC and Dragon Ball.
  • Even funnier is that in Season 3, Hulk was killed by Doomsday, who's famous for having killed Superman, who killed Broly's fellow Saiyan Goku twice in Seasons 1 and 2. By killing Hulk, Broly's managed to outdo Goku himself.

Season 8

• The very first matchup of the season is Yoda vs King Mickey. Both are characters that the team originally didn't want to put in Death Battle for various reasons.
• During a Twitter Takeover from Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter, Shadow mentioned that his favorite anime is Kill la Kill with his favorite character being Ryūko herself. Come to this series, Shadow would find himself going up against her. The result of the battle had many, including the hosts themselves seeing it as a Pyrrhic Victory. Yes, Shadow finally scored a win on the show, but he had to kill his favourite anime character to do it.
• Considering Dr. Doom has become Iron Man for an entire series, Lex has now lost twice to two Iron Men in two separate battles.
• Heihachi vs. Geese:
  • The same time Heihachi vs Geese premiered on YouTube, a fight about martial artists with ridiculous superpowers, the first teaser trailer for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, a film about martial artists with ridiculous superpowers, was uploaded on YouTube as well.
  • Kazuya made it into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with Heihachi making a cameo in his stage, meaning that he and Geese appear in the same game once again, albeit as nonplayable characters.
  • Boomstick is rather certain that Heihachi will return in a future installment of his series regardless of him seemingly being Killed Off for Real in his final showdown with Kazuya in Tekken 7. Tekken 8 would reveal Heihachi is indeed dead (at least for now), but now his daughter Reina is set to pick up the slack for being the villainous Mishima determined to carry on his legacy.
• For Blake vs Mikasa:
  • During November back in 2020, Brandon Yates released a fan commission track for Blake vs Mikasa, Titanic Shadows, come Season 8 and Blake vs Mikasa is revealed to be a genuine matchup.
    • He even still gets to do the song (featuring two female singers for the vocal portion) for the match up anyway.
  • Mikasa and Blake both appeared in DBX before appearing in Death Battle proper. But whereas Mikasa won her DBX and Blake lost hers, here, the reverse is true.
  • In the Japanese Dub of RWBY, Blake is voiced by Yu Shimamura, who's famous for her role as Annie Leonhart, Mikasa's rival.
• Back in Kung Fu Panda 3, Po tried going through his plan to battle Kai with the panda villagers, only for one of the panda kids to eat his bamboo pointer. In Iron Fist vs Po, what does he do to deprive Iron Fist of his bamboo staff? He eats it!
• In Aang vs Edward Elric, Boomstick karate-chops a watermelon in half, showering Wiz in melon juice. Two seasons later, in Steven Universe vs Star Butterfly, Wiz tries to create a watermelon replica like Steven did, only for a disturbed Boomstick to shotgun watermelon Wiz to pieces, and Wiz ends up being sprayed again. Wiz just can't catch a break when it comes to watermelons, can he?
• For Link VS Cloud (2021):
  • Remember Season 6's Deadpool vs. The Mask, where Cloud was shown cutting Link in half while Deadpool used the Continuity Gem? That's exactly what happens in the Link vs Cloud rematch. Deadpool must have used the Continuity Gem again to retroactively undo Link's victory.
  • The first fight between Link and Cloud was released three years before the latter was revealed in Super Smash Bros. If one takes the tier lists for the fourth game into account, it's identical to the outcome of the rematch, as Cloud defeats Link this time.
  • A day after this episode came out on YouTube, the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild got a teaser trailer, with said sequel aiming for a 2022 release.
• Similarly to how Avengers: Infinity War reversed the outcomes of Batman's first three episodes (said film ends with Spider-Man and Black Panther dead while Captain America lives), the outcome of Batman vs Iron Man is a reverse of Iron Man's death at the end of Avengers: Endgame.
• For Goku Black vs Reverse Flash:
  • Like with Blake vs Mikasa, Brandon Yates made a fan commission for the matchup back in January, Flash of Darkness, and like Blake vs Mikasa, it was a genuine matchup.
  • Back in the first Goku vs. Superman, Goku launched Superman into the Sun...only for Superman to absorb the Sun's energy. Goku Black vs. Reverse-Flash ends with Reverse-Flash throwing Black into the Sun, completely incinerating him.
• One of Alucard's earliest opponents in his home series, Luke Valentine, holds many similarities to DIO, being a flamboyant, blond vampire who favored using daggers and happened to share both his English and Japanese voice actors (Patrick Seitz and Takehito Koyasu, respectively) with DIO. The clip used to end his analysis is the exact moment he kills Luke, and as a nod to that, he sics Baskerville on DIO - complete with the same taunt as a rebuke against DIO calling him a "dog".
• Korra vs Storm:
  • Less than a week after Storm was announced to be Korra's opponent, Marvel Studios announced a revival for X-Men: The Animated Series.
  • On the week that Korra Vs Storm premiered, a new story for The Legend of Korra, "Patterns in Time", would be announced on November 24, 2021.
  • In March 8, 2024, the second season of the fifth chapter of Fortnite would kick off... With Korra being revealed as one of the skins that can be unlocked in the Battle Pass. And with Storm already in the game from awhile ago, that adds another battle one can recreate in Fortnite.

Season 9

• Scarlet Witch vs Zatanna starts with Wanda appearing just as Zatanna is trying to summon a rabbit. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness features Wanda going on a violent rampage throughout the multiverse, giving the fight another possible reason to happen aside from Zatanna accidentally summoning her.
• Tanjiro's first encounter with a Demon Slayer was Giyu Tomioka, who's voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch in the English dub. Now he's facing off against another monster hunter with the same English voice (from the source material).
• Omni-Man VS Homelander:
  • One of Omni-Man's lines to Homelander is "Never been hit by someone your own size before?" to show how out of his depth Homelander is. In the comics, when Homelander fought someone of equal power in Black Noir, Homelander died.
  • When Omni-Man punches Homelander and makes him bleed, the latter has a shocked and panicked look when he realizes someone can make him bleed. In the Prime Video series, Queen Maeve manages to make Homelander bleed in the Season 3 finale.
  • Both Omni-Man and Homelander end up being Guest Fighters in Mortal Kombat 1, either to re-enact this battle or for a chance for Homelander to reverse the result.
• Hercules vs Sun Wukong had been done on a Death Battle fan wiki before, with both based on the feats before they achieved godhood as well. Interesting enough, they determined Hercules as the winner as it was deemed that Wukong's immortality could be overtaxed, and considered Wukong's best strength feat as holding the mountain he was trapped under by Buddha
• Trunks VS Silver has a good bit of history to the matchup, as both fighters have fought each other on both 1 Minute Melee and DBX, with Trunks handily taking the win in both cases. It's not the case here, as Silver manages to win against Trunks this time, breaking his win streak over him. Special mention goes to the DBX depicting Trunks killing Silver while the latter was in his Super Mode, as in the episode proper, Super Silver was deemed a massive reason for Silver's victory over Trunks. As most fans noticed, Silver beating Trunks also breaks a long-running streak for the half-Saiyan winning a lot in other versus shows, which was noted by this video released days after the match-up was announced for Death Battle.
• Jason Voorhees vs. Michael Myers:
  • Once again, we have a matchup that Brandon Yates had made a fan commission for prior to its reveal on the show in Jason vs Michael Myers with Brandon having made the track "13th Halloween" three months prior to the matchup's reveal as Season 9's Halloween episode.
  • Michael Myers' defeat would have further concrete evidence in Halloween Ends, where he's bled out and mutilated before being thrown into a junkyard shredder and reduced to mulch.
  • Merely two hours after the episode began to premiere to the public on Youtube, a prequel series to Friday the 13th, "Crystal Lake", was announced to be set to be in development on Peacock. The animation director, Luis Cruz, had fun pointing this out.
• Deku vs. Asta:
  • This◊ Virgin vs. Chad meme of Deku vs Asta correctly predicted that their DEATH BATTLE episode would happen and Asta would win.
  • During Deku's rundown, Boomstick proceeds to incorrectly note that his Shoot Style involves him pulling out a glock to shoot people. While Deku definitely doesn't do this in canon, about a week after the episode released, a new trailer for the fourth chapter of Fortnite would release... With Deku revealed as one of the character skins. Looks like he'll be whipping out the glock after all, along with a ton of other weapons.
  • A week after this episode's release on YouTube, the first Black Clover movie (Sword of the Wizard King) was announced.

Season 10

• During the wait for "Gogeta vs. Vegito", two polls were released for YouTube Champions to decide which two matchups were guaranteed for Season 10, one for a 3D fight and one for 2D, while the winner of the 3D poll was the heavily requested matchup of Alex Mercer vs. Cole MacGrath, the 2D winner was Bill Cipher vs. Discord... another matchup which had a fan commission by Brandon Yates prior with Yates having made "Deciphering Discord" on January 27th 2022, two months before Season 9 started.
• A really hilarious case has occurred during "Phoenix vs. Raven", as during the episode, Boomstick notes that Jean has died 15 times, and will probably die again in 2024. However, the hilarity is increased as a result of the recent Hellfire Gala chapter where Jean died again, meaning Boomstick managed to be off the mark by being a year late. There's even a notice to bring this to attention, revealing the incident had happened shortly after the episode's recording was done.
  "As of July 26, 2023, some time after this recording took place...
  Jean Grey has died a 16th time.
  Comics are f*kin' crazy."
• "Guts vs. Dimitri" was yet another match up that Brandon Yates did a fan commission for, having released "Vengeful Berserkers" on December 2, 2020.
• Bill Cipher vs. Discord ends with Bill "winning". The Book of Bill was announced near the end of 2023.
• "Frieza Vs. Megatron" would be once again, you guessed it, a matchup that Brandon Yates had done a fan commission prior to its release, this one being "Deceptive Tyrants" released on November 10, 2020. Transformers One, set for a September 2024 release, was also announced near the end of 2023.
• "Gojo vs. Makima" was yet another matchup that already had a commissioned track, "Curse Control", released on February 2, 2023. Though this is the first one where it was Therewolf Media who made it, rather than Yates.
  • Both of their official actors were eventually revealed to co-star as two of the lead characters in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.
• Before "Rick vs. The Doctor" released, it was confirmed that out of the last two matchups, one will be a controversial choice, leading many to believe said choice was Giorno vs. Joker. While the controversial matchup was revealed to be a reboot of "Goku vs. Superman", Xander Mobus, Joker's official voice actor, is slated to play the Man of Steel as revealed by the preview.
  • Near the climax of the fight, a new Rick bursts out of the Doctor while he was regenerating. A few weeks after the fight was released, the 15th Doctor would literally split apart from the 14th Doctor during the latter's regeneration in the 3rd 60th Anniversary special. Also helps that both the Death Battle & the 60th Anniversary specials featured the David Tennant version of the Doctor regenerating.
• In yet another example of Brandon Yates doing a commissioned track for a future battle, “Galactus vs. Unicron” got “Entropy Now Descends” on May 25, 2022.

DBX

• "Sasuke vs. Hiei" would end up being an official matchup in DEATH BATTLE three years later, the very first episode to do so. Unlike in DBX, there is no draw in the DEATH BATTLE episode, with Hiei taking the win over Sasuke.
• DBX's Saitama vs. Kenshiro came out the same week as Toonami's airing of The Lone Cyborg. One of the villains Genos and Saitama fight in the episode is Armored Gorilla, voiced by Kaiji Tang. Genos shows up to fight Ken on Saitama's behalf in DBX, and Armored Gorilla is the only villain he beats by himself in the OPM episode.
• In the Darth Vader vs. Magneto episode of DBX, a pinned-down Vader ends the fight by throwing his lightsaber into Magneto's head with the Force. Something similar happens in The Last Jedi, where Vader's grandson, Kylo Ren, ignites Rey's lightsaber (which used to be Anakin's) into the head of a Praetorian Guard, who sports a red helmet like Magneto, while said guard has him in a chokehold.
• The DBX between Aigis and Noel happened a month before BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle was announced. Both combatants are playable in the game.
• Ken's fight against Blaziken plays out eerily similarly to his reveal trailer in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate; easily besting his initial opponent, being challenged by a Fire-type starter Pokémon, and getting beaten by them.
• Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite was released eight months after Iron Man vs. Mega Man X, and has both combatants playable.
• The climax of "Ryu vs. Liu Kang" has Raiden empower/revive Liu Kang to transform him to his Zombie form. In Mortal Kombat 11, Raiden relinquishes his power to Liu Kang to transform him into a god.
• "Akuma vs. Iron Fist" takes place because Akuma watched Iron Fist (2017), and the inaccuracies angered him. Iron Fist's first appearance in Death Battle proper, Iron Fist vs. Po, doesn't include any footage from the series in Danny's rundown. Did Akuma have a word with the hosts?
• The second episode of DBX's Season 6 is Ness vs. Sans. The hosts must've seen that one controversial episode of Game Theory.
• In 2018, Alucard Vs Dio Brando was released as one of the episodes... Almost exactly 3 years later, the matchup becomes official as the episode was Season 8's twelfth episode. Ironically, the result for the Death Battle matchup was the opposite of what happened in DBX, as DIO wins this time.
• In Season 6, Black Adam Vs Apocalypse happened, with the conclusion of Black Adam winning via repeatedly electrocuting Apocalypse and stomping in his face to seal the deal. And a bit more than a year later, the two would have a rematch in Season 9 of Death Battle, with Apocalypse winning via dishing out the same fate but in the opposite order, stomping in Adam's head before deepfrying it with the stolen Living Lightning.
• The Season 6 Premiere, Gogeta VS Vegito, would get a huge Ascended Extra case as the fight would become a full blown Death Battle episode for Season 9's finale. However, while Gogeta took the win by votes in the DBX, here the roles were reversed as Vegito would be the one to come on top in the Death Battle.

Misc. & Other content

• Wiz's annoyance with all the various fictional universes having metals stronger and lighter than titanium is hilarious thanks to creation of a "High-Entropy Alloy" that's both stronger than titanium and lighter than aluminum.
• In a similar vein to Epic Rap Battles, JT Music has let several match-ups have either rematches or even matches before Death Battle itself.
  • Mario and Sonic.
  • Doomguy and Master Chief.
  • Tracer vs. Scout.^note The Scout won with more than 80% of the votes.
  • Nathan Drake vs Lara Croft.
  • This time, however, Thanos vs Darkseid came out the same day (in YouTube) as the rap battle of the same name. This crossovers with Heartwarming in Hindsight in the fact that both Screwattack and JT Music acknowledge each other in both videos (it helps that both groups now work with Rooster Teeth). Just see.
  • And, like Thanos vs Darkseid, Miles vs Static follows, this time JT providing the fight's soundtrack.
• In trailers leading up to the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Mario, Mega Man, and Luigi bite it, the first two by Ridley and the last by Death. All three of them got killed in their respective Death Battles (or, in Mario's case, his first) too. And in the World of Light opening cutscene which had pretty much the entire cast get killed off by Galeem, a good portion of the ones shown getting wiped out onscreen are those who have fought in a Death Battle and lost: Zelda, Pikachu, Charizard, Bayonetta, Bowser, Pit, Sonic, and Link, in order of their losses on the show.
• As of Johnny Cage vs. Captain Falcon, every time that two characters who are Moveset Clones or Echo Fighters of each other in Super Smash Bros. have both appeared in Death Battle, both fighters in the pair have shared the same outcome in their respective battles:^note At least, as of when the second member of the pair have had their appearance; Mario and Ryu both went on to win their second fights which were released after Luigi vs. Tails and Ken vs. Terry respectively, while Ganondorf lost his second fight after Johnny Cage vs. Captain Falcon.
  • Mario and Luigi both lost their fights against Sonic^note at least, the first one and Tails.
  • Ryu and Ken both lost their fights against Scorpion and Terry Bogard.
  • Ganondorf (as Ganon) and Captain Falcon both won their fights against Bowser and Johnny Cage.

---