Boomstick: And Mikasa Ackerman, the giant-killing scout from Attack on Titan.
Wiz: These two reluctant heroes are fighting for a better world.
Boomstick: What'll happen when they go toe-to-toe to see who's the swingiest and the cuttiest?
This landmark season's fifth episode brings together outcasts of society, who face the monsters of their land with their twin blades and a desire for a world free from that evil. Acrobatic in nature, one of these warrior women fights with the power of her soul, the other with the cutting technology of her world. These heroines of Remnant and Shiganshina, Blake Belladonna and Mikasa Ackerman, both known for their exploits in their own settings, now gauge who has the greater feats when they meet in a death battle.
First off is the Faunus huntress Blake Belladonna. In the world of Remnant, pureblooded humans are the species with the most influence; Faunus, humans whose appearances also feature animal traits, are treated as second-class citizens in comparison. This discrimination led to the founding of the White Fang, a political party devoted to Faunus rights. When the Faunus revolutionary Adam Taurus took control of the White Fang, he redefined its mission with the rhetoric that it was the Faunus, not humans, who deserved to be the dominant species in the world. Under Adam's regime, the White Fang adopted increasingly violent tactics, eventually becoming a terrorist organization. Blake, a staunch supporter of the White Fang, was met with opposition by her family's wariness regarding the organization's increasingly aggressive tactics. In response, Blake ran away from her home and joined the White Fang proper, becoming a personal partner and confidant to Adam. She served the White Fang as a guerilla agent, but complications arose during a plot in which Adam sought to blow up a human-owned train and all the personnel onboard. Blake could no longer tolerate what the White Fang became and severed her ties with them, leaving her once again alone in the world. Her travels would take the Faunus to Beacon Academy, a school where youths such as her were trained to fight the evils of the world; alongside fellow students Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao Long, and Weiss Schnee, Blake formed the huntress team RWBY, thus starting a new line of adventures across Remnant.
As a terrorist or a heroine, Blake is well-versed in combat, and heightened senses courtesy of her Faunus physiology only improve that competence. Nowhere is Blake's skill more pronounced than with her signature weapon, the multiform Gambol Shroud. A katana with a pistol hidden in the hilt, the blade of Gambol Shroud can fold into a sickle or backwards to expose the pistol; an additional ribbon attached to the hilt lets Blake use her weapon as a grappling hook. Even the sheathe of Gambol Shroud is a valid tool, as it carries a bladed edge that Blake can wield alongside her actual weapon. With this versatility, Blake adds to her weapon's usage with a set of three mystical elements: Aura, Semblance, and Dust. An Aura is the manifestation of a person's soul, which amplifies their physical traits while active. Aura is also vital as the fuel for Semblances and Dust. Unique to any who possess an Aura, Semblances are superhuman abilities that complement a person's character; Blake's Semblance allows her to create shadow duplicates of herself for more complex strategies. Lastly, Dust is an energy source that can take on different elemental properties. When combined with her Semblance, a Dust sample's element is adopted by the Blake clones, who develop secondary abilities to match that element.
The former terrorist of the White Fang has gone a long way in clearing her name. Having defeated man and monster alike, Blake demonstrates how adept she is as a fighter. She compares to assassins who can dodge lightning, and Blake herself is capable of the same. With her Aura, Blake has fought creatures like the Sea Feilong, once again outmaneuvering its lightning attacks, and soundly beating it. The Faunus huntress also can withstand being rammed by giant birds and the robot-destroying blades of Adam; in both cases, surviving such feats would be to survive attacks that bear four tons of force behind them. This durability is no minor feat considering that sufficient damage can temporary destroy one's Aura, and deprive the victim of their Semblance by extension. Aided by her team, Blake has taken these threats head on, even defeating Adam. With her allies, Blake has come a long way towards making amends for her sins in the White Fang, and only great things lie ahead of her as long as she finds the motivation in herself to reach them.
- Blake Belladonna: I'll end this! (knocks Ragna the Bloodedge into the air) So long. (repeatedly slashes Ragna back to the ground)
Having finished Blake's study, the episode moves on to her opponent, Mikasa Ackerman of Shiganshina. The world Mikasa lives in faces a constant threat from Titans, colossal humanoid abominations that tower over the landscape; what remains of humanity has since taken shelter in walled communities. Born to a bloodline genetically crafted to guard the royalty of Eldia, Mikasa was raised in the confines of Wall Maria when her parents were murdered by human traffickers. Aided by the young Eren Yeager, she was able to exact her revenge on the killers before being adopted by the Yeager family. Tragedy would continue to hound Mikasa when Titans laid waste to Shiganshina and her newfound family sans Eren perished in the attack. Mikasa took it upon herself to protect Eren with her life, and followed him into his own life goals of protecting mankind against the Titans. Together, they enrolled in the military, where Mikasa stood out among the recruits in training, and placed on the front lines against the Titans. Though the burden of protecting Eren only grew when he discovered he had the ability to transform into a Titan himself, Mikasa stood by her self-appointed responsibility, accompanying Eren wherever more malicious Titans arose to threaten mankind.
Mikasa faces a terrifying threat with every battle, but she makes for an equally intimidating foe. Because of the Eldians' genetic manipulation, the Ackerman family possesses some of a Titan's strength without the resulting transformation into one. Their bloodline also lets them draw from the battle experience of their ancestors to use as their own, if only done subconsciously. Mikasa compounds the gifts of her linage with her vertical maneuvering equipment; also known as omni-directional mobility gear. The basis humanity rests on in its crusade against the Titans, a set of vertical maneuvering equipment is a body-length harness with additional gear, focused on extreme mobility. At the harness's thighs are grappling cables that, when fired, hook into any surface for the user to propel themselves towards. A back-mounted fan on the harness with pressurized gas canisters helps a soldier change direction mid-flight. As for actual weapons, Mikasa has a set of single-edged blades comprised of ultra hard steel. These swords are designed to pierce the hardened flesh of a Titan, which wears down their sharpness and renders them brittle; thus, Mikasa carries up to a dozen spare blades in reserve. For Titans with skin so tough even her blades are ineffective, Mikasa has the thunder spears; these primitive rocket launchers are tossed like javelins and remotely detonated by severing their fuse from the vertical maneuvering equipment.
A world like the one Mikasa survives in requires her skills to be perfectly honed, and honed they are. By fighting the Titan onslaught, Mikasa regularly battles at a third the speed of sound and under g-forces nearly twice the real-life limit that a human can sustain, all against Titans that can destroy eighteen tons of solid rock. As Mikasa can keep pace with her relative Levi, she should even be capable of dodging point-blank gunfire just as Levi has. Mikasa has survived everything from the crushing grip of Titans to shrapnel from exploding thunder spears. Much of this can be traced back to the Ackerman bloodline, which works for her and against her in equal measure. The connection Mikasa has with Eren can lead to her taking impulsive, drastic action in the name of protecting him, and while she inherits some of a Titan's strength through her bloodline, it still pales when compared to a real Titan. The circumstances Mikasa faces despite this do nothing to hinder her worth as a protector and a soldier; if anything, it only highlights her skill against the horror she endures.
- Mikasa Ackerman: I'm not listening to another word of this! There's no point.
Having finished both studies, today's combatants are ready. One advertisement for Bluechew ED treatment later, and now, it's time for a death battle!
Behind the walls that surround Shiganshina, Blake Belladonna rests herself atop a scaffolding frame. The Faunus boredly peruses a book when a voice calls out from the streets below; Mikasa Ackerman, pride of the Survey Corps, warns her that the area is to be evacuated before the Titans arrive. Blake pays her no heed and attempts to continue reading when the novel is thrust out her hands. A cable extending from her vertical maneuvering equipment, Mikasa orders Blake to leave, but as Blake pulls back on the cable and yanks the Titan-slayer towards her...
FIGHT!
... a surge of pressurized wind blasts Mikasa away from a haphazard punch. The Faunus watches as Mikasa touches down on a nearby rooftop. Above her, the Titan hunter sees the sickle form of Gambol Shroud anchored to the chimney, with Blake swinging on her weapon's ribbon towards her. Mikasa parries the huntress away and launches her own cables to chase Blake. With her eyes focused on the incoming Mikasa, she intercepts the ultrahard steel swords with her own twin blades. A second attempt at a punch succeeds, knocking Mikasa off the scaffolding; quick to react, the Ackerman scion flies around her foe, getting into position behind the Faunus. A diving slash makes contact, slicing Blake in half. As she fades into nothingness, the real Blake emerges from behind the decoy and fires several rounds from Gambol Shroud at Mikasa. The Shiganshinan blocks every incoming bullet before flying towards Blake with an upward slash that barely misses. Both women get in close quarters and meet every swipe of blades with equal ferocity. Mikasa is soon forced onto the defensive, blocking another volley of gunfire, until she attempts to strike back. Finding her blades phasing through the Semblance, Mikasa is kicked onto another scaffold by the illusory clone.
The Survey Corps soldier refuses to give in, however, shown by how she propels herself towards and drives the swords clean through the Faunus. A second passes before Blake bursts into ice and the real huntress backflips away. Swinging Gambol Shroud's ribbon, the felid Faunus swoops out of view, leaving Mikasa bound to the frozen decoy. Upon landing, the ice Blake shatters, freeing Mikasa to draw a new set of ultrahard steel blades. In her undulating trip through the empty Shiganshina, Blake barely has time to spot Mikasa behind her when the Titan slayer drives her swords into her. With yet another shadow clone vanishing, Mikasa scouts out the terrain, unaware of Blake's position until the Faunus swoops from behind and plunges her feet into Mikasa's back. The force of the dropkick, though knocking Mikasa through a building, does little to stagger the Ackerman daughter; she quickly recovers and watches Blake escape on Gambol Shroud's ribbon.
Deducing Blake's strategy, Mikasa primes another pair of blades and launches herself towards the former White Fang. Blake backflips out the way of a lunging Mikasa, only for the Shiganshinan to redeploy her cables and swing back towards Blake. The huntress leaps off Mikasa, who uses the momentum to become a flurry of steel. Her defenses broken, Blake flees from a pursuing Mikasa who gives chase at every turn. The Shiganshinan ejects the blades from their hilt, catching Blake off guard. Propelling herself skyward, Mikasa grabs hold of Blake and drives a fist into her forehead until a fire Dust decoy bursts on contact. The escaping huntress falls atop a roof when Mikasa, swinging away, eyes a set of thunder spears. The soldier grabs the missiles and swings back towards Blake, who can only watch a thunder spear landing before her and its fuse pulled. As Mikasa touches down on the same now empty roof, she awaits the inevitable ambush; this time, she launches a second thunder spear at Blake, who catches it mere inches from her face. The explosion disrupts the huntress's Aura long enough for Mikasa to divebomb the Faunus; with a fierce swing, the ultrahard blades sever Blake's left arm at the elbow.
Watching her foe crumpled on the street, the Shiganshinan soldier maneuvers back towards Blake. The Faunus braves through the pain to shoot an ice Dust bullet at Mikasa; the bullet freezes Mikasa's leg, causing her to lose her last thunder spear. Holding Gambol Shroud in her remaining hand, the feline huntress hooks her weapon's edge on the missile and redirects it at Mikasa. The heroine of the Survey Corps reorients herself to find the thunder spear impaling her in the chest. With a firm tug backwards, Blake slides Gambol Shroud towards her, cutting the rocket's fuse in the process. A horrifying scream escapes Mikasa as she becomes enveloped in the thunder spear's charge, ground zero in a explosion that knocks Blake backward. The tattered remains of Mikasa's scarf flutter in front of Blake, who, uprighting herself, is caught under a looming shadow that grows ever larger. Shifting Gambol Shroud back to a katana, the huntress eagerly charges towards the Titan, none the worse off after disposing of her previous foe.
K.O.!
As Wiz points out, Mikasa had the brutality to keep herself going against Blake; the omni-directional mobility gear also kept her as agile as the Faunus. Those, however, proved to be her only real advantages. Gambol Shroud's ribbon can extend up to 96 meters in length; at least ten times greater than the cables of her foe's harness. Mikasa's vertical maneuvering equipment has a limited supply of fuel for changing direction and her brittle blades are limited in supply; this means Mikasa would eventually run out of equipment to fight Blake with. Combining her Semblance and Dust gave the huntress further versatility to trick Mikasa into fighting a decoy while her Aura was able to withstand the ultrahard steel swords. The thunder spears, with a payload over four times stronger than the defenses provided by her Aura, could theoretically overwhelm Blake's defenses in comparison; the problem is that Mikasa would have to hit her first. Comparing their greatest speed feats, the bullet-timer Mikasa is forty times slower than the lightning-dodging Blake. The final point against Mikasa is how heavily her skillset relies on a threat that exists only in her series. The Ackerman family's primary forte is in fighting Titans, the increase in battle experience Mikasa could inherit when channeling her bloodline is under the same restrictions, and the thunder spears are meant to defeat massive, lumbering behemoths. Blake, in comparison, would have skills and fighting styles that Mikasa had no familiarity with. The Titan slayer had a fighting spirit that kept her going, but the huntress had versatility, speed, and a more reliable weapon that could see her through the long game and onto the path of victory.
- Boomstick: It may have been a Gambol, but Blake had the spearit to win without a shadow of a doubt.
Wiz: The winner is Blake Belladonna!
Blake Belladonna vs. Mikasa Ackerman contains examples of:
- Awesome, but Impractical: Mikasa's Thunder Spears are effectively this. They're incredibly powerful explosives that the hosts judge would be able to reliably shatter Blake's Aura and kill her with even just one direct hit, but the Spears were mainly designed for fighting the much slower and behemoth Titans and would be hard-pressed to reliably hit a human-sized target, let alone one like Blake that outclasses Mikasa's speed and reflexes many times over. And as shown in the fight animation itself, Mikasa is no less vulnerable (if not moreso) to the explosions as Blake is.
- Bolivian Army Ending: At the end of the fight, the Titan Mikasa tried warning Blake about finally arrives. The last we see of Blake, missing one arm and with her Aura broken, is of her shifting Gambol Shroud to a katana and heading towards the Titan.
- Clone Angst: Similar to Blake's semblance, Wiz demonstrates that he too has mastered the art of cloning when one Wiz is frozen and burnt. The replacement mopes about not knowing if he's the real deal.
- Continuity Nod: Mikasa, with her acrobatic fighting style and Building Swing-capable cables, is called a "steampunk Spider-Man," whom she went up against in the first season of DBX.
- Crippling Overspecialization: A key point in Mikasa's loss; as effective as she is as fighting Titans, those tactics and weapons don't work nearly as well against a smaller, more agile superhuman opponent like Blake.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Blake outclassed Mikasa in virtually every way that mattered — from stats and experience to superpowers and equipment — to the point where Mikasa had no listed advantages in the post-episode analysis. Mikasa's Thunder Spears — the only means she had to kill Blake — were noted in particular as being designed for slow, large lumbering targets and not nimble human-sized opponents. What's more, their effectiveness was also considered dubious at best even with a direct hit (IE. a best-case scenario for Mikasa) due to Blake's fellow huntresses Weiss and Penny surviving even bigger explosions with no lasting issues.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Despite being badly outclassed by Blake, Mikasa managed to slice off her arm in the battle.
- Fighting a Shadow: The forte of Blake's Semblance, creating shadowy body doubles that look exactly like her to distract Mikasa.
- Foreshadowing: Boomstick says that if you're too close to one of the Thunder Spear's blasts, it's game over. Three guesses as to how Mikasa dies.
- Fun with Homophones: Once Wiz describes Blake as a guerilla fighter, Boomstick mocks him for calling the catgirl a gorilla fighter.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Those thunder spears that Mikasa grabs backfire once Blake uses one against her for the killing blow.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: This episode spoils plot elements from late in the Attack on Titan manga, going beyond what the anime adaptation had covered at the time of its airing. A popup box warns viewers of this at the start of her analysis, so those who only watch the anime can be aware of this.
- Magic Versus Science: Representing magic is Blake, with her Aura and Semblance backed by the mystical energy of Dust; on science is Mikasa, with early modern gunpowder and engineering harnesses. It's downplayed in that while Blake wins, the versatility that acts as her biggest advantage is credited equally to both her mystical elements and Gambol Shroud.
- Mythology Gag: Blake loses her arm in the battle, styled similarly to when her partner Yang lost her own arm against Adam.
- Rocket-Tag Gameplay: Done more subtly than other examples; Mikasa lacked any means to truly survive Blake's attacks, whilst a single good hit from her Thunder Spears could bust both Blake and her Aura. She was just too slow to get in an attack with them.
- Super-Toughness: Both combatants are tougher than a normal human. However, Blake is far tougher than Mikasa, whose notable durability feat is mainly surviving g-forces, to the point the latter is essentially a Glass Cannon.
- You Answered Your Own Question: Boomstick's own queries into the Fantastic Racism between humans and Faunus; it only dawns upon him when he says it out loud."How could humans be racist against Faunus? Aside from looking slightly different, they're basically exactly the same... oh... I get it."
