Boomstick: Rocket, Marvel's murderous mercenary mustelid. Those're like weasels and ferrets and raccoons! Y'know, cuz he's a—
Wiz: [clears throat] Just because you're cute and fluffy doesn't mean you aren't the deadliest thing in the universe.
The fourth episode of DEATH BATTLE!'s tenth season takes to the waves as two of Disney's premier havoc-wreaking cosmic critters head to the battlefield. While their pasts may have been filled with loneliness and betrayal, they've since found a place among heroes and more importantly, families of their very own to channel all of their considerable destructive instincts to protecting. But how does Jumba Jookiba's greatest success stack up against the former protector of Halfworld? Time will tell which is superior: Stitch's potent mix of alien abilities or Rocket's improbable arsenal. Only one of these unlikely saviors can claw out a victory in a death battle.
[This recap is a work in progress]
On an island resort in the middle of space, Rocket Raccoon is busy working on repairing the underside of his trusted ship, the Milano. Nearby, the Ice Cream Man stands next to a sign that reads "ALOHA, Welcome to Space Hawaii" when he hears an explosion from the nearby volcano, from which emerges a flaming object that smashes into the Milano, resulting in a shockwave that causes the Ice Cream Man to drop his treat on the ground.
Stitch emerges from the crater to find himself face to face with a very ticked-off Rocket Raccoon. The blue alien growls at Rocket, who replies by pulling out his laser blasters.
FIGHT!
Rocket fires several shots at Stitch who dodges them and then starts firing back with his own laser blasters. The two continue to exchange shots until Rocket manages to destroy both of Stitch's blasters and his dog tag, to which Experiment 626 replies by insulting Rocket's mother in his own language. Angered, Rocket fires another blast at Stitch who catches it and throws it back at him.
Rocket is sent backwards from the explosion, and Stitch then jumps into the air before sneezing out a bit of conductive saliva that hits Rocket's blasters, sticking them to a nearby tree, much to Rocket's disgust. Stitch then leaps onto Rocket and hits him with a combo attack before throwing him into a tree. But when Stitch tries to find Rocket in the forest, he is nowhere to be found.
Suddenly, Stitch is surrounded by several turrets which promptly open fire on him, setting him on fire as Rocket uses his wrist device to cause more explosions which send Stitch flying back onto the beach. Experiment 626 looks up to find himself looking at Rocket Raccoon who uses his teleport to avoid Stitch's attack, causing the blue alien to hit a large metal object.
Rocket appears on top of the object which is a large nuke. The nuke explodes as Rocket teleports over to a table with a margarita on it. As he drinks, he hears Stitch's laughter emanating from the huge wave which is making its way over towards him, and a shockwave knocks his Margarita away before he notices Stitch surfing on the wave using a piece of metal.
The annoyed Rocket whips out a Rocket Launcher, only to find himself almost vomiting after hearing what Stitch has just shouted to him. He then lowers his rocket launcher and uses his wrist device to summon a care package from orbit before activating his rocket boosters so he can fly and shoot missiles at Stitch, who manages to avoid all of them by surfing around them.
Stitch then sprouts a pair of extra arms and antennae before leaping on top of a missile that knocks him into the wave from which he emerges like a missile flying towards Rocket who puts up an energy shield to protect himself from the blue alien's assault. Just then, Rocket's package arrives and he opens it to release the Rampant Arms Phasic Cannon that he uses to shoot himself up into the air.
Rocket then tells Stitch that it's hunting season before shooting an energy wave toward Stitch who is knocked into the water, losing his extra arms and antennae in the process. Believing he has triumphed, Rocket smirks. However, Stitch is far from finished as he regains consciousness to find some pieces of submerged metal and the missile launcher that Rocket was previously using.
Rocket spots some ripples in the water, causing him to realize that his opponent is still alive and kicking, much to his annoyance. A cackling Stitch emerges from the water using Rocket's discarded weapon that has been modified into a hoverboard with a sharp blade at the front. Rocket fires another blast at Stitch who steers the hoverboard out of the way before impaling Rocket on the blade.
Before Rocket can use his wrist device to teleport away, Stitch bites it before jumping off. As Rocket attempts to repair his device, he notices that he is flying towards his own orbital stash. All he can do is let out one last curse before the hoverboard crashes into the satellite, resulting in a huge explosion that causes fireworks to appear in the sky.
The ice cream guy watches the display as a piece of debris from the satellite narrowly avoids missing him. Unfortunately, Stitch makes contact with him as he attempts to lick his ice cream. Stitch gets up and shakes off the sand in his fur before the dead man's ice cream lands in his hand. Victorious, Experiment 626 devours the ice cream in one lick before pumping his fists in the air.
DOUBLE KO!
As Boomstick notes how unnecessary killing the ice cream guy was, the duo takes a look at what happened and why Stitch won. Although the two are similar in many ways, Stitch was the stronger of the fighters while Rocket had weapons that were designed to kill foes tougher than the former. So, the fight came down to one question: If one of them needed one hit to land the killing blow, who would do it first? Rocket's gadgets could act within one trillionth of a second, but Stitch being comparable to a supercomputer meant he could act in one quintillionth of a second, making him a million times faster. This isn't just confined to thinking either; being able to pilot a spaceship at a million times the speed of light proved that Stitch could out-react the two-thousand light-speed timing Rocket scales to. Despite Stitch's animal-like appearance, he tended to keep a level head in battle, whilst Rocket, for all his tactics and tricks, could fly off the handle in short time. And even these traits of Rocket would likely come up short compared to Stitch being smarter than a whole galaxy.
Wiz: The winner is—
[Cue various sounds and cries of confusion, chaos, panic, and a turkey as Stitch crashes in]
Stitch: The winner is Stitch! [laughs]
"Stitch VS Rocket Raccoon" contains examples of:
- Alien Blood: While Rocket has normal red blood, Stitch is shown to have purple blood.
- Amusing Injuries: Stitch takes a lot during the fight, but just keeps on trucking. Notably, he only starts changing the tides after he takes some not-so-amusing injuries.
- An Arm and a Leg: During the battle, Stitch ends up losing his extra arms as a result of being struck by Rocket's cold fusion cannon.
- Breather Episode: Following an episode between two electrical power houses in a dark city and a lot of blood even before the (rather messy) killing blow and before an episode between two heavy hitting Tragic Villains, this episode stars two cute aliens with a rather slapstick vibe.
- Brick Joke: In Stitch's analysis, when discussing how he was able to worm his way into other Disney films, Boomstick expresses worry that they may be dealing with another Deadpool situation. At the end of the episode, as Wiz is about to declare Stitch the winner, Stitch himself breaks into the studio, unleashing chaos (and apparently turkeys) on the studio before declaring himself the winner and laughing.
- Canon Discontinuity: Stitch's appearance in his Chinese spin-off Stitch & Ai was not mentioned at all in the episode, which DEATH BATTLE! may have overlooked for their research. Averted for the Stitch! anime, though, as it was incorporated into their research and is mentioned by Boomstick despite that show being a controversial entry in the Lilo & Stitch franchise.
- Curse Cut Short: Rocket's eloquent last words of "Motherfu-" are interrupted when he crashes into his satellite and explodes.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Rocket's reaction to Stitch's "Meega nala kweesta" is to unleash his Thanos Buster.Rocket: That's it! Gonna need a bigger gun!
- Dude, Not Funny!: Wiz cracking a joke about Boomstick's ex-wife is met with this from both Boomstick and DUMMI, with the former explicitly stating only he gets to make those jokes thanks to being the one paying alimony.
- Everyone Has Standards: Rocket has been through a lot and even everything Stitch does and takes only makes him react with gruff irritation and bemusement throughout most of the fight. Yet Stitch's trademark insult repulses Rocket so much he nearly gags and has him bust out the heavy artillery.
- Heroic Second Wind: After a direct blast from Rocket's Thanos-busting cold fusion cannon sends him crashing into the ocean, Stitch comes back with a vengeance atop an improvised missile and wastes no time finishing the fight right then and there.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Stitch runs Rocket through with an improvised missile to finish him off.
- Improvised Weapon: Rocket is noted to be a pro at using these, with an entry in the arsenal section reading "Basically anything he can get his hands on", but ironically, it's Stitch who makes use of one in the fight - a pointy rocket he assembled out of the wreckage of Rocket's spaceship and dropped missile launcher. In fact, he uses it to land the fatal blow on Rocket.
- Mythology Gag:
- As it did to the members of the United Galactic Federation, Stitch's go-to insult of "Meega nala kweesta" is enough to make Wiz and Boomstick vomit on the spot. In the fight proper, Rocket almost does the same when he hears it himself.
- Ice Cream Man makes two appearances at the beginning and end of the fight, once again being prevented from eating his ice cream. Stitch accidentally kills him the second time.
- Much like when he fought against Jumba, Stitch makes a remark that translates into an insult to Rocket's mother, much to the Halfworlder's fury.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Stitch quips "Aloha!" before sinking his teeth into the control panel on Rocket's gauntlet and sending him to his fiery demise.
- Profane Last Words: As he realizes he's about to die via being sent to crash into his own Orbital Weapons Stash, all Rocket can say is "MotherFUC-" before the ensuring explosion kills him.
- Rocket-Tag Gameplay: Pun aside, due to the incredible power of Rocket's weaponry and Stitch's physical strength, it's noted that despite Rocket's Glass Cannon nature and Stitch's greater durability, one single hit is all it would take for one to finish the other off. It's due to greater reaction speed and intelligence that Stitch is able to net the win.
- Rump Roast: At one point in the fight, Stitch runs around with his ass on fire.
- Shout-Out: Boomstick closes out the episode by stating that Rocket's "blasting off again". Also doubles as a Call-Back as he originally tried to reference it in "Black Canary vs Sindel" and "Goro vs. Machamp", but failed to do it properly.
- This Is Gonna Suck: After Stitch misses an attack against Rocket and crashes into the Big, Bulky Bomb nuke that Rocket planted, he makes an annoyed face of resignation towards the audience right before it blows up.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: After Rocket is killed, it seems like the Ice Cream Man is going to finally get to eat his ice cream, even avoiding getting hit by wreckage from the Orbital Weapon Stash... only to be splattered by Stitch accidentally slamming into him at high speeds and eating the ice cream himself.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Said by Rocket when, after knocking Stitch into sea, sees the water bubbling and realizes Stitch is coming back.
- Your Mom: At one point during the fight, Stitch says ”Yu porma dissy”, a Tantalog insult targeted at someone’s mother, to which Rocket retorts "What did you say about my mother?!".
