Fandumb #74: It's How You Play The Game by Neodusk on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

FIRST:

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For those of you caught unawares, Death Battle decided to do a sequel for their infamous Goku vs Superman episode. They caught a lot of flack for their first episode, and it almost looks like even more flack for this one since they (spoilers) basically say Goku could just never beat Superman because he's in a totally different league. Honestly, as a fan of both these characters, I like the episode. I think it might've been a little inappropriate to label it as Goku Versus Superman 2, when really it's just them elaborating on why they made the judgment call that they did in the first one. But, still, I think the episode does a very good job of illustrations something very important about the Death Battle series. It is a series where we say "Hey, what would happen if we took these two characters and put them in a death match?" And then we proceed to analyze their abilities as defined by their fictional, and most importantly often very disparate, realities.

It has nothing to do with which character is better or more interesting. Just because Goku lost, that does not make him somehow a worse character. And just because Superman wins, that doesn't make him automatically boring or something. It's something we can forget when we get wrapped up in debates like this, but strong characters aren't defined by their actual strength. It's defined by what stories they tell. It's not about what they can do, but what they choose to do. Just because Sherlock Holmes would lose in a fist fight with the Hulk, that doesn't make Sherlock the worse character. In the end, Death Battle is all about innocuous fun, and while it's neat to debate things like this, I think the vehemence the showrunners get is probably a little unwarranted, and that passion can be more productively used elsewhere. So, I like that they made this episode to remind people of what's important, even if a lot of those people still don't want to listen.

Please comment and enjoy.