It's finally time for one of the biggest matches in Death Battle history. Yeah, the giant robot fight of all giant robot fights.
The Megazord, the heavy-hitting mech commanded by five Power Rangers, and Voltron, the Defender of the Universe piloted by five Paladins.
For this match up, there will be no Dragonzords, no Galactic Garrisons, no robot brachiosaurus and no... mice.
The fourth episode of the fourth season and the series' 75th Episode sets to pit the mecha icon of the 80s against the mecha icon of the 90s.
First up is the Megazord and the legendary heroes known as the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. This story starts over 10,000 years ago as the war between the kindly wizard Zordon and the evil witch Rita Repulsa drew to a close. In their last acts, Rita trapped Zordon in an interdimensional warp while Zordon trapped Rita in a... trashcan. However, Zordon knew Rita would escape one day and came up with a plan to fight back, recruiting five of the greatest warriors in the galaxy to defeat Rita. Or rather... a bunch of overbearing and overemotional humans. Somehow, this worked and it gave birth to the legendary hero team, the Power Rangers. Jason Lee Scott, Billy Cranston, Triri Kwan, Kimberly Ann Hart and Zack Taylor would use their powers to fight Rita and, when all hope seems lost, they would call upon their massive machines known as Zords. And when the five of them aren't enough, they combine into the mighty machine known as the Megazord.
The Megazord is a 333 foot monstrosity with enough power to tear down buildings effortlessly. Sometimes unintentionally. Among its arsenal are a cranial laser, firing fireballs from its hands, using the Mastadon's head as a shield and, its greatest weapon, the Power Sword, which can recharge the Megazord when it's low on power and capable of not only striking down foes with an energy slash, but also redirect energy to its opponent. Beyond that, the Megazord is strong enough to lift the Dragonzord effortlessly over its head and into a mountain range. The individual Zords are durable enough to hold the weight of various monsters and the Megazord itself is powerful enough to gut punch a 10,000 ton monster into the air. Or probably knock someone into orbit.
The Megazord's main problem is its power supply, which seems to get drained very quickly, especially due to the fact that the thing has poor mobility.
However, no matter what, with the fate of the world in their hands, no one will ever take them down.
From days of long ago, from uncharted reaches of the universe, comes a legend... or about 1200 years ago, the Drule Empire came incredibly close to ruling the known universe until a group of sorcerers and scientists banded together to forge a mighty warrior known as Voltron. Voltron proved effective in stopping the Empire, but in desperation, an evil witch casted a spell meant to kill Voltron. Instead, it was split into five lions and robbed of its sentience. All hope seemed lost until five explorers crash-landed on Planet Arus, the same planet the lions crashed at, and were given a chance to pilot them by Princess Allura. Together, Keith, Lance, Hunk, Pidge and Sven—er... Allura became the mighty Voltron Force, Defenders of the Universe.
Ready to take down the evil Zarkon and his Robeasts, this 300 foot robot is armed with all sorts of weapons and abilities. From shooting stingray missiles, to shooting fire out of the lion heads, and weapons it can manifest out of thin air, including its most powerful weapon... the Blazing Sword. This blade has been used to destroy every Robeast the team has battled and can recharge Voltron with electricity. The Blazing Sword can even destroy a satellite bigger than Voltron itself. Even without its weapons, Voltron is tough enough to kick monsters sky high and survive explosions the size of countries. Not only can it fly, it can travel between galaxies in less than day. Voltron itself once survived landing on the Omega Comet, which has the gravitation force of a black hole.
With all that said, even the might robot Voltron has its limits. Being ganged up on by multiple Robeasts, a lack of finese and skill in martial arts, and a shocking design flaw. Should the release plates on any of its limbs are struck, the lion will detach. Granted the last one has only happened in training.
However, despite this, no matter what the Lion Force encounters, the universe can always depend on Voltron.
- Voltron: (Slices a Robeast with its Blazing Sword)
And now, both contestants have been fully examined head to toe, weapons, technology and all. One sponsor promotion for Blue Apron later, it's time for a Death Battle!
The Lion Force investigates prehistoric activity, when Allura picks up something. The Power Rangers teleport in, and when Hunk comes in closer to greet them, they mistake it for an attack and summon their zords. Both sides form their giant robots, Voltron takes a quick moment to realize the Megazord towers over it.
FIGHT!
The Megazord has the upper hand at first, managing to use its superior size to overpower Voltron in hand-to-hand combat before tossing it onto the ground. As the Megazord is about to stomp on Voltron, however, the smaller robot flips backwards. Keith commands for Voltron to retaliate with spinning laser blades. The blades bombard the Megazord as a result of its poor maneuverability. The Paladins follow up by a series of three optic blasts. Just in the nick of time, the Rangers pull out the Mastodon Shield and deflect the blasts back at their opponent.
With the Megazord now having the upper hand, Jason exclaims that the Rangers need the Power Sword. As the massive sword/power source enters Earth's atmosphere, it strikes Voltron in the back, knocking the legendary defender to the ground. The Rangers take advantage of the opening to run up and grab the Power Sword, knocking the opposing mecha into one of the canyon's wall. Overpowered, Keith is forced to have Voltron form the Blazing Sword. The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers power up their blade while the Lion Force flies towards them with their own gargantuan sword. Both robots use their iconic finishing attacks... and they just cancel each other out, to the surprise of Kimberly.
With it becoming apparent that the fight is to continue, the Megazord headbutts Voltron away. Undeterred, the Defender of the Universe proceeds to engage its larger opponent in a sword duel. The Megazord eventually overwhelms Voltron and knocks the Blazing Sword away. After briefly considering turning back to retrieve their signature weapon, the Paladins decide to continue to fight without it. Flying forward, Voltron drags the Megazord across the ground of the canyon, before tossing them into another of the canyon's walls. The Megazord quickly gets up and retaliates with its cranial laser. After pushing Voltron back a long distance, the Megazord lands several devastating blows with the Power Sword, then uses the Mastodon Shield's freeze blast to pin the Green Lion to the opposite wall.
As the Rangers are about to sever legendary defender's left arm off with a powered-up sword strike, Lance maneuvers the red lion to take the blow for Pidge. The Power Sword hits a joint, forcing Voltron's right arm to detach. An enraged Pidge breaks free from the ice and punches the Power Rangers' machine backwards. The Green Lion's head is launched so Pidge can retrieve the Blazing Sword. The rest of the Lion Force holds the Megazord back with an onslaught of all of Voltron's projectile weapons. Billy tells Jason to redirect the energy, but Jason informs him that it is too much for them to redirect. The Mastodon Shield is subsequently overloaded and destroyed, just as Pidge returns with the Blazing Sword. With the Rangers' defenses nullified, and Voltron's most powerful weapon in its possession once more, Voltron strikes the Megazord, destroying it in a massive explosion and killing all five Rangers.
KO!
With a battle worthy of the big 75th episode, the hosts explain the reasoning for Voltron's victory. While the Megazord was superior in size and close range combat, there's a reason why Voltron is known as the Defender of the Universe. Voltron's greater range of weapons, flight and speed gave it the edge. The Megazord is strong enough to punch a monster presumably 10,000 tons over 100 feet into the air, while Voltron once kicked a Robeast that weighed 3,900 tons 1,900 feet up. While the Megazord's opponent weighed more, Voltron's feat is technically more impressive, as it would require at least 5 and 1/2 times more strength. Voltron showed being able to survive black hole level gravity, meanings its durability was beyond what the Megazord is capable of. As proof, in season 2 of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, they gain a new Megazord called the Thunder Megazord, which was said to be more powerful than the original Megazord in every way. When this new Megazord battled against the gigantic Zord known as Serpenterra, which has the power to destroy entire planets, a single blast immediately took down the Thunder Megazord, that blast wasn't even half of Serpenterra's power. Ultimately, Voltron outclassed the Megazord in every way that counted: speed, strength and durability.
- Boomstick: Trust me, I'm not lion...
Wiz: The winner is Voltron.
Tropes:
- All of Them: Currently the page image for Awesome Moments of Season 4.
- Always Someone Better: The Megazord may have put up an impressive showing, but as the post-fight analysis shows, Voltron outclassed it in almost every single way. Voltron proved to have superior strength feats, could fly across galaxies in short time spans, and survived direct contact with the omega comet(which has the gravitational force of a black hole). The Megazord was nowhere near as fast and it's durability was less than that of a planet-buster, let alone a black hole.
- An Arm and a Leg: The Megazord cuts off Voltron's right arm after immobilizing the left arm.
- Big "NO!": Pidge lets one out when Lance sacrifices himself.
- Combining Mecha: What else would you expect?
- Cool Sword: Both mechas attempt to finish their opponents by summoning their respective blades.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Despite being far outclassed, the Megazord put up a impressive fight against the Defender of the Universe. It was able to deprive Voltron of the Blazing Sword for a good chunk of the fight and even sliced off one of his arms. It's telling that Voltron needed to throw everything he had at the Megazord to win.
- Dynamic Entry: Jason summons the Megazord's Power Sword, which enters the battlefield by slamming right into Voltron's back and sends it crashing into the ground, giving the Megazord time to grab the sword.
- Finishing Move: The Megazord and Voltron use sword attacks to defeat their enemies. Subverted in the fight itself; as when they both attempt to use them, the attack end up cancelling each other out, dragging the fight a bit longer than both teams are used to.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted. When Voltron's left arm is frozen and immobilized, Lance blocks the Megazord's finishing strike with Voltron's right arm, destroying the Red Lion and possibly killing him. According to
Word of God, he survived. - Impossibly Graceful Giant: The Rangers use their martial arts skills to pilot the Megazord, while Voltron makes liberal use of his jet thrusters to acquire extra speed and mobility.
- Leader Forms the Head: Keith with Voltron and Jason with the Megazord.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The Megazord makes liberal use of the Mastodon Shield in this fight.
- Mecha Expansion Pack: Defied. The intro specifically states that only the basic mecha will be used in this fight, so no Dragonzord or other extra mecha.
- No-Sell: Both mecha's sword attacks end up cancelling each other out. Lampshaded even.
- Poor Communication Kills: The fight begins when Hunk goes out to the greet the Power Rangers in his Yellow Lion. The Rangers mistake the Voltron Lions as enemies and immediately go on the warpath, causing the Voltron pilots to retaliate.
- Recruit Teenagers with Attitude: The Power Rangers are the Trope Namers.
- Rocket Punch: Voltron uses this to retrieve the Blazing Sword and take down the Megazord.
- Sword Fight: The Megazord and Voltron immediately cross blades once they pull out their swords.
