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Description
By the way, yes the title is forced, I'm not perfect and it was the best I could do so please don't come at me. Also, in case it isn't obvious, I did not rip these models. Talented people on DA did. So, let's discuss this shall we. At the end of Rick Sanchez vs. The Doctor (Which is another banger episode by the team of Death Battle.), we get the announcement for the penultimate episode of this season and... it's a doozy. Now we were told in advance that the last two episodes were likely to be some of the most controversial matchups and now? We can see why since we have Goku vs. Superman 3... except not really and we should start by explaining this. See, if you are to just call this Goku vs. Superman 3? No one's stopping you and it would be fair since this would be the third time on Death Battle that Goku would fight Superman. In fact, this is coming out ten years after the original battle back in 2013. However, it notably doesn't say that in the preview. It just says Goku vs. Superman. In fact, if one goes to the original videos? One would see they've been retitled appropriately to be in line with how Mario vs. Sonic and Samus vs. Boba Fett have been retitled. Meaning we ain't for a continuation, this is a reboot. Now of course, the moment this was announced as we've seemingly seen from a ton of fights this season? The reaction has been... mixed to say the least though this time, it's somewhat fitting. Goku vs. Superman is the versus debate matchup you are likely to think up the moment you hear of the idea and is one with a ton of history behind it, not just in the connections between the two but also how heated it got. For those who are unaware, most agree the first time this fight entered truly the public consciousness was in the October 2002 issue of Wizard Magazine which put together a hypothetical fight between the two characters which ended for the record with Goku winning with a Kamehameha. It was a fun bit of fluff really just there to fill page space and acknowledge the growing popularity of Dragon Ball Z in the West as well as the similarities between these two. Little did Wizard know though? When you poke a nest as nettled and rabid as one of comic fans and you pit them against early 2000s weebs? They are bound to fight and as a result? This goofy little idea has been responsible for many a discussion online and several flame wars as people debate ravenously which of these two would win. Hell in some regards it can be considered the forefather to versus debating for all the good you can see come out of it as well as the ugly and it's also the forefather of the "But can they beat Goku?" meme which spoofs incessantly certain DBZ fanboys' need to hype up their character so much that them losing what ultimately is just a contest for fun is enough to ruin life... at least, that's my impression. With that in mind? It's understandable why the reaction is the way it is.

Though it's also because to be fair, Death Battle is digging into this well a third time and of course this raises the question of what the point is... for some reason. Me though? I'm pretty fuckin' hyped and the more I think about this? The more it just feels right. So if you don't mind me bein' a windbag and are willing to read what I have to say? Allow me to just speak about Goku vs. Superman, my history with this fight and why I feel the remake is welcome.

Rewind the clock. We're a good ways through 2011 and a little show by the name of Death Battle has been making the rounds on the internet as being this Deadliest Warrior-inspired thing that pits fictional characters against one another in battles to the death. The show at this point was tackling a variety of different matchups from the most iconic to the just plain weird to the whatever the hell the shit garbage that was Rebecca Black vs. Justin Bieber was and with this in mind? One matchup was bound to pop into discussion and sure enough? Goku vs. Superman was the the most requested Death Battle by a huge margin. In fact, it would be so requested that it'd be acknowledged in one of the few video Q&As they did for Death Battle where they noted it would happen eventually. Then at the end of Blanka vs. Pikachu... we'd get one of the best teasers the show has ever produced. A simple dark background before you'd hear Goku's voice as he charges up the Kamehameha and see the Superman logo partially before it's then fired which fully envelops the logo and the screen in white. It was the best way to announce that the fight was finally happening. We'd later learn that it would be the subject of the first season finale and that it was coming out on December 21, 2012, the day a whole bunch of doomsday predictions said would be the end if anyone remembers that wild period. Then later we'd get a delay and instead it would be released January 19, 2013.

And... look, love or hate that fight? If you were on the internet in 2013? This felt like an event. For years, Goku fought Superman primarily in the realm of text and pieces of fanart whereas this would be the first time we'd actually get a proper animated fight with some truly high production value or at least, high for what they could manage back then. I remember watching this the moment it came out... and being like every Goku fan a salty bitch when Superman won. Nowadays? It's an amazing triumph to see unfold since back then? Death Battle was a very different series. It was far more memey and edgy like the internet it was posted to and it was not anywhere near as big as it now is. For a good while, Ben Singer, the voice of Wiz, was the only dude researching and animating. They'd eventually get more animators but there'd be the issue of the writing still being purely by Ben with help from Chad, the voice of Boomstick. This is also reflected in how season 1 picked opponents where with the exception of Goku vs. Superman and maybe like one or two others? Fights were picked based on characters that Ben generally knew well enough to make the process easy and whatever ScrewAttack thought would be cool. This is why it's hilarious to look back through older episodes since not only were none of them super in-depth? They were based on a lot of cursory glances at media and misremembered details which leads into many instances of info being outright wrong or situations like game Sonic being composited with Archie Sonic for his fight with Mario who only had the games used which made things woefully unfair. But Goku vs. Superman? This was not the same. The episode even makes this clear with how it opens by setting clear criteria for what they're doing for the match and how they researched it where they combed through all official media at the time and pit Goku against Post-Crisis Superman. This episode was also a full half-hour and the analyses lasted for longer than a minute or two with the fight animation coming out to be the longest one they've ever made. This was a truly special moment for not just the internet but this show in general and really even as Death Battles got badass finales after this? This one sits comfortably at the top because it's basically the one to cement how Death Battle would change going forward and watching it today? It still holds up surprisingly well...

But... it's still a video from 2013 and a DB video from season 1 and that means it still falls into some of those trappings. Let's address the big elephant in the room right now, Goku loses and he loses in part because they say Superman is limitless. Many fans, especially Superman fans, contest this and... yeah they're not wrong. That being said, in the original fight it's more of a footnote that punctuates the other insane differences between Superman's strength and Goku's strength at least with how they conducted the research since remember, versus debating is subjective. It is not objective fact, you are analyzing fantasy facts with a scientific mind. Even the wikis you might browse are still based on opinion. Anyway, it's still of course wrong to say Superman is limitless, especially when if that were the case, Superman should never lose whatsoever which is an issue that really bites them later. Next, they make calculation mistakes and... it happens. Look when you get into math that hits the millions and you see how shithouse the production of DB used to be? It's a freaking given mistakes are gonna be made. Also real quickly, let's cover the mistake that's not a mistake. Many people like to say the big problem with this episode is that it composites Superman and therefore that's why he wins. Thing is? Death Battle was fair. They also composited Goku since remember, they used both the manga and the anime. To paraphrase what Ben once said, Death Battle doesn’t usually focus on specific iterations. While certain matches will take a specific approach? They often keep it broad because to be selective would involve a lot of additional personal choice that would affect the fight, unintentionally or otherwise. You won't see complete composites unless they opt to do that for fun for a match-up like they almost did with their Tournament of Champions where they had for one of the matches you could vote on be Composite Goku vs. Composite Ryu where they'd use all available versions and mash them up but you will never see them unless they state it to be the case just constantly restrict themselves.

As for the actual biggest issue though? I'd say it's the animation which fight-wise is great. Character-wise? It really is flawed. Again, season 1 Death Battle was a product of its time. The fight animations put at this time way too much emphasis on just having the fight be high quality while the set-ups were often secondary and loaded with lame gags. Goku vs. Superman is no exception. While MasakoX and ItsJustSomeRandomGuy are fantastic in their roles as Goku and Superman? The writing does not serve them well with in particular the biggest offender being Superman. Superman at his best and core is not a flawless god among men who trash-talks his opponents, he's a humble soul who's been bestowed with amazing power who doesn't view himself as being above anyone. He's meant to be a beacon of hope and an inspiration for humanity, showing them what they can achieve just through being kind and helping out their fellow man. Death Battle's Superman is not that, he just isn't a good representation of the character and that can be pinned on Chad and Ben who admitted that as fans, they like Goku more than Superman... and it shows. If anyone has ever read a story where a writer just doesn't get Supes? He tends to be portrayed the way he is in this Death Battle and especially in the sequel. That being said, Goku is not devoid of problems. Bear in mind at the time Goku vs. Superman came out, TFS was just barely getting started with season 3 of DBZA, meaning it was right before the show went through its major leap in quality and when the most common beloved parts of DBZA came from early episodes of DBZA and when you have that influence being applied to people who are not the writers of DBZA? Oh god, one sees the problems. Goku at many points doesn't really feel like Goku, he feels more like a parody of himself and when considering both him and Superman are voiced by their top parody actors? The issues more than clear. As later episodes of DBZA and DB have shown, the TFS actors when they're properly directed and working off great writing can easily perform these characters. MasakoX practically at this point is second to Sean Schemmel to me as my favorite English Goku... but this is not his best work. There are moments of greatness but the whole package just isn't as good as it could be. Then the animation and... oh god it's so jank. There are many moments where the models come off as creepy emotionless dolls, the textures are crap, cases where choreography drops in quality because the stiff animation doesn't sell the impact well. It's definitely a battle that has aged. It's good but it could be better...

Same can especially be said for its "sequel".

Goku vs. Superman 2 should not exist. Plain and simple, it just shouldn't. When the retitle just straight-up calls it irrelevant? You know you're in for something. Now, in the original Road to 100 blog (Which was a blog where Ben shared his thoughts on each episode leading up to at the time Death Battle's 100th), Ben has stated looking back this fight was his least favorite episode of the series for how it completely was misrepresented and mismarketed. So, for those who haven't read the blog? Basically after the first fight, Ben had brought up that there was about 20 minutes of content cut from the script to keep the episode watchable with the idea being to present a means to release said content. Later on, SGC, the convention that ScrewAttack used to run, was on the verge of happening with ScrewAttack's manager at the time suggesting to Ben that he could maybe turn that cut content into an episode that would be shown at the event which he felt worked out. There wouldn’t be a ton of additional research to do outside of adding additional bits about Super Saiyan God and the New 52 and it would satisfy the many requests people had to pit God Goku against Superman (Which for the record happened because people genuinely thought that the form would earn Goku a victory, not because there was anything interesting to look at).

The biggest mistake was that the episode was marketed as a rematch and hyped up to the point where it gave people the idea it would be a complete redo on the analysis of the characters, not an addendum that's there to have something to show for a convention and restates the original conclusion. It didn't help that SGC put up advertisements for this fight all over the place and Ben didn't say or do anything because he didn't expect that this would be the case which resulted in the episode not being just a cute little bonus but rather a flick to the taint. So now that you know what this episode was meant to be? Let's look at it from that perspective and honestly? It's alright... but it has major issues compared to the original.

For the positives? The animation is fantastic, Torrian really nailed the fluidity and the choreography, MasakoX sounds much more comfortable playing Goku and thus some deliveries are significantly higher quality. Seeing Super Saiyan God and Super Saiyan Blue so soon after their debuts kicked ass, the live-action gag that's in the livestream version is great, the original track Alive slaps and... okay let me be frank, I actually really like the King Kai scene and the ultimate idea behind the conclusion. Set aside the thing about how Superman has limits please, I don't care to hear the whining. Just taken as an addendum to the conclusion? It does a decent job of explaining the differences between the cores of Goku and Superman and even brings up a fair point that frankly if Goku ever hit the point where he has no limits and no challenges he stops being the character people love, a point that some DBZ fans really, really need to understand. I also think the analysis focusing more on what led to the creation of both characters was a great way of adding to the original fight.

Now, that being said... this battle has problems. Problems that at one point inspired me to create a fanfic based on this. Superman's character is fucked in this and fundamentally misunderstood. In the original, it wasn't great but this episode really kicks it into overdrive and has Chad and Ben blatantly show their bias against him. In particular, this leads to the worst part of the conclusion where their point about what Goku and Superman mean to people gets utterly shot in the foot by saying that Superman is unrelatable and is not meant to lose which... no... he isn't. Speaking as a Superman fan, the man has lost many times and at many points is shockingly relatable despite his frightening power. Couple that with the battle portraying him as being even more of an asshole and it is not surprising that this pissed off Dragon Ball fans beyond even those who were just gonna be pissed because Goku lost. Next, the fight is barely a fight. It's fun, it's good eye-candy but it really is not the big drag-out rematch that SA stupidly advertised it as and is way too short. Really looking back? They should've considered just putting out the cut content for people to look at and not made this episode. The original Goku vs. Superman is good enough on its own and did not need a follow-up, especially if it was gonna be like this.

That being said... why am I excited for this then? Well, there's a few reasons. First, as stated at the top, this is not Goku vs. Superman 3. This is a Goku vs. Superman that's being conducted with Death Battle's modern rules. While we don't know really anything about this fight? We can use the Road to 100 blog for the original videos to speculate on what we will likely see. First off, it's highly unlikely we will see a limitless Superman. Ben explained that one of the reasons they moved away from complete composites was they realized just how insanely broad rule 4 was in breaking characters. For the record, Rule 4 nowadays states that unless it's stated otherwise all canon material is considered for the analysis unless it's contradictory. Now for modern standards, that means say you have Mario. They'd likely use the game Mario with info pulled from other sources as long as it doesn't contradict. Case in point, don't expect to see manga and comic facts thrown in unless you want Mario to have unholy toon force shit. Back then? This was significantly broader and as a result meant characters ended up becoming far, far more broken than what one would expect. Case in point, it meant they could pull for Superman material that outright made him more broken and was not supported by the official canon and because Goku didn't have anything like that for him? He was screwed. Now we got a clear idea of what's being used. Goku will have info pulled from the canons of Dragon Ball as usual but also info from Dragon Ball Heroes while Superman will pull primarily from Infinite Frontier which to my knowledge basically takes the approach of compositing the main iterations of Superman which gives us something much closer to his Post-Crisis counterpart. This likely means we will see info analyzed from Post-Crisis and New 52 but not to the extreme extent as we saw in the original videos which is a noteworthy change. Another big factor is that Death Battle is not exclusively written by Chad and Ben anymore. They still have a hand in it mind you but they now have a rotating list of people who help them and even instances where the battles are straight up not written by them. This means there are significantly less chances of characters being bastardized and bear in mind what we've seen from the writers so far what with Megatron delivering a beautifully in-character monologue to Freeza and how that fight tells a great mini-story and how in the most recent fight they manage to keep the Doctor perfectly in-character with his approach to fighting Rick. We're in very good hands here which brings me to another big point which is how the animations have changed. Back during the early seasons, one aspect Death Battle's animations consistently struggled with is balancing entertainment with being a good representation of the characters. They gradually got better and better over time with season 9 in particular featuring the most consistent quality yet but they still had clunkers or episodes with moments that hurt the overall presentation whether it was wonky pacing or in the case of Deku vs. Asta, a climax that felt unnecessarily cruel and brutal just for the sake of it and made Asta come off like a colossal jackass. Season 10 on the other hand has managed the most insane feat by having so far nearly every episode nail the animation with this recent stretch of episodes just being banger after banger. With this in mind? Goku vs. Superman 3 is bound to be something very different than just being another fight between these two. Finally, there's the reason why they'd do this.

Goku vs. Superman like I said before is the versus matchup and it's one that has a lot of history with Death Battle. It was the subject of the first season finale and was Death Battle's 25th episode while its sequel was the 50th episode overall but also? It's the fight Death Battle owes a ton of its success and evolution to. The first showcased a lot of hallmarks that would be featured in several Death Battles to come and lay the groundwork for improvements we'd see adopted in modern seasons and was the first episode to make a massive splash to the point where even non-Death Battle fans were watching and talking about it. The second is horribly flawed but it led to some significant improvements going forward such as Ben working hard to ensure that a situation like it never happens again. If anything, it's the battle that the more I think about it? The more obvious it is for why it'd be on the cards to be remade and would be over all other season 1 and 2 fights. Like Boba Fett vs. Samus? It has major significance to the show's history. Like Mario vs. Sonic? It's a legacy matchup that is the poster boy for the idea of versus debates and finally like Link vs. Cloud? It's a battle that could serve to benefit from Death Battle's modern approach and considering it's coming more than ten years after the original battle in December like the original was supposed to? I think it's too perfect. Plus with it being the penultimate episode with some episodes beforehand basically being finale tier already? That leads one to get giddy over what the finale could be. I get being disappointed in seeing this over more original matchups or even just a different one involving Goku and Superman but I hope in my long-winded explanation I have at least adequately explained why I'm excited.

Anyways, thanks for reading, hope you all stay gold and have a very good Thanksgiving this week.

Description
By the way, yes the title is forced, I'm not perfect and it was the best I could do so please don't come at me. Also, in case it isn't obvious, I did not rip these models. Talented people on DA did. So, let's discuss this shall we. At the end of Rick Sanchez vs. The Doctor (Which is another banger episode by the team of Death Battle.), we get the announcement for the penultimate episode of this season and... it's a doozy. Now we were told in advance that the last two episodes were likely to be some of the most controversial matchups and now? We can see why since we have Goku vs. Superman 3... except not really and we should start by explaining this. See, if you are to just call this Goku vs. Superman 3? No one's stopping you and it would be fair since this would be the third time on Death Battle that Goku would fight Superman. In fact, this is coming out ten years after the original battle back in 2013. However, it notably doesn't say that in the preview. It just says Goku vs. Superman. In fact, if one goes to the original videos? One would see they've been retitled appropriately to be in line with how Mario vs. Sonic and Samus vs. Boba Fett have been retitled. Meaning we ain't for a continuation, this is a reboot. Now of course, the moment this was announced as we've seemingly seen from a ton of fights this season? The reaction has been... mixed to say the least though this time, it's somewhat fitting. Goku vs. Superman is the versus debate matchup you are likely to think up the moment you hear of the idea and is one with a ton of history behind it, not just in the connections between the two but also how heated it got. For those who are unaware, most agree the first time this fight entered truly the public consciousness was in the October 2002 issue of Wizard Magazine which put together a hypothetical fight between the two characters which ended for the record with Goku winning with a Kamehameha. It was a fun bit of fluff really just there to fill page space and acknowledge the growing popularity of Dragon Ball Z in the West as well as the similarities between these two. Little did Wizard know though? When you poke a nest as nettled and rabid as one of comic fans and you pit them against early 2000s weebs? They are bound to fight and as a result? This goofy little idea has been responsible for many a discussion online and several flame wars as people debate ravenously which of these two would win. Hell in some regards it can be considered the forefather to versus debating for all the good you can see come out of it as well as the ugly and it's also the forefather of the "But can they beat Goku?" meme which spoofs incessantly certain DBZ fanboys' need to hype up their character so much that them losing what ultimately is just a contest for fun is enough to ruin life... at least, that's my impression. With that in mind? It's understandable why the reaction is the way it is.

Though it's also because to be fair, Death Battle is digging into this well a third time and of course this raises the question of what the point is... for some reason. Me though? I'm pretty fuckin' hyped and the more I think about this? The more it just feels right. So if you don't mind me bein' a windbag and are willing to read what I have to say? Allow me to just speak about Goku vs. Superman, my history with this fight and why I feel the remake is welcome.

Rewind the clock. We're a good ways through 2011 and a little show by the name of Death Battle has been making the rounds on the internet as being this Deadliest Warrior-inspired thing that pits fictional characters against one another in battles to the death. The show at this point was tackling a variety of different matchups from the most iconic to the just plain weird to the whatever the hell the shit garbage that was Rebecca Black vs. Justin Bieber was and with this in mind? One matchup was bound to pop into discussion and sure enough? Goku vs. Superman was the the most requested Death Battle by a huge margin. In fact, it would be so requested that it'd be acknowledged in one of the few video Q&As they did for Death Battle where they noted it would happen eventually. Then at the end of Blanka vs. Pikachu... we'd get one of the best teasers the show has ever produced. A simple dark background before you'd hear Goku's voice as he charges up the Kamehameha and see the Superman logo partially before it's then fired which fully envelops the logo and the screen in white. It was the best way to announce that the fight was finally happening. We'd later learn that it would be the subject of the first season finale and that it was coming out on December 21, 2012, the day a whole bunch of doomsday predictions said would be the end if anyone remembers that wild period. Then later we'd get a delay and instead it would be released January 19, 2013.

And... look, love or hate that fight? If you were on the internet in 2013? This felt like an event. For years, Goku fought Superman primarily in the realm of text and pieces of fanart whereas this would be the first time we'd actually get a proper animated fight with some truly high production value or at least, high for what they could manage back then. I remember watching this the moment it came out... and being like every Goku fan a salty bitch when Superman won. Nowadays? It's an amazing triumph to see unfold since back then? Death Battle was a very different series. It was far more memey and edgy like the internet it was posted to and it was not anywhere near as big as it now is. For a good while, Ben Singer, the voice of Wiz, was the only dude researching and animating. They'd eventually get more animators but there'd be the issue of the writing still being purely by Ben with help from Chad, the voice of Boomstick. This is also reflected in how season 1 picked opponents where with the exception of Goku vs. Superman and maybe like one or two others? Fights were picked based on characters that Ben generally knew well enough to make the process easy and whatever ScrewAttack thought would be cool. This is why it's hilarious to look back through older episodes since not only were none of them super in-depth? They were based on a lot of cursory glances at media and misremembered details which leads into many instances of info being outright wrong or situations like game Sonic being composited with Archie Sonic for his fight with Mario who only had the games used which made things woefully unfair. But Goku vs. Superman? This was not the same. The episode even makes this clear with how it opens by setting clear criteria for what they're doing for the match and how they researched it where they combed through all official media at the time and pit Goku against Post-Crisis Superman. This episode was also a full half-hour and the analyses lasted for longer than a minute or two with the fight animation coming out to be the longest one they've ever made. This was a truly special moment for not just the internet but this show in general and really even as Death Battles got badass finales after this? This one sits comfortably at the top because it's basically the one to cement how Death Battle would change going forward and watching it today? It still holds up surprisingly well...

But... it's still a video from 2013 and a DB video from season 1 and that means it still falls into some of those trappings. Let's address the big elephant in the room right now, Goku loses and he loses in part because they say Superman is limitless. Many fans, especially Superman fans, contest this and... yeah they're not wrong. That being said, in the original fight it's more of a footnote that punctuates the other insane differences between Superman's strength and Goku's strength at least with how they conducted the research since remember, versus debating is subjective. It is not objective fact, you are analyzing fantasy facts with a scientific mind. Even the wikis you might browse are still based on opinion. Anyway, it's still of course wrong to say Superman is limitless, especially when if that were the case, Superman should never lose whatsoever which is an issue that really bites them later. Next, they make calculation mistakes and... it happens. Look when you get into math that hits the millions and you see how shithouse the production of DB used to be? It's a freaking given mistakes are gonna be made. Also real quickly, let's cover the mistake that's not a mistake. Many people like to say the big problem with this episode is that it composites Superman and therefore that's why he wins. Thing is? Death Battle was fair. They also composited Goku since remember, they used both the manga and the anime. To paraphrase what Ben once said, Death Battle doesn’t usually focus on specific iterations. While certain matches will take a specific approach? They often keep it broad because to be selective would involve a lot of additional personal choice that would affect the fight, unintentionally or otherwise. You won't see complete composites unless they opt to do that for fun for a match-up like they almost did with their Tournament of Champions where they had for one of the matches you could vote on be Composite Goku vs. Composite Ryu where they'd use all available versions and mash them up but you will never see them unless they state it to be the case just constantly restrict themselves.

As for the actual biggest issue though? I'd say it's the animation which fight-wise is great. Character-wise? It really is flawed. Again, season 1 Death Battle was a product of its time. The fight animations put at this time way too much emphasis on just having the fight be high quality while the set-ups were often secondary and loaded with lame gags. Goku vs. Superman is no exception. While MasakoX and ItsJustSomeRandomGuy are fantastic in their roles as Goku and Superman? The writing does not serve them well with in particular the biggest offender being Superman. Superman at his best and core is not a flawless god among men who trash-talks his opponents, he's a humble soul who's been bestowed with amazing power who doesn't view himself as being above anyone. He's meant to be a beacon of hope and an inspiration for humanity, showing them what they can achieve just through being kind and helping out their fellow man. Death Battle's Superman is not that, he just isn't a good representation of the character and that can be pinned on Chad and Ben who admitted that as fans, they like Goku more than Superman... and it shows. If anyone has ever read a story where a writer just doesn't get Supes? He tends to be portrayed the way he is in this Death Battle and especially in the sequel. That being said, Goku is not devoid of problems. Bear in mind at the time Goku vs. Superman came out, TFS was just barely getting started with season 3 of DBZA, meaning it was right before the show went through its major leap in quality and when the most common beloved parts of DBZA came from early episodes of DBZA and when you have that influence being applied to people who are not the writers of DBZA? Oh god, one sees the problems. Goku at many points doesn't really feel like Goku, he feels more like a parody of himself and when considering both him and Superman are voiced by their top parody actors? The issues more than clear. As later episodes of DBZA and DB have shown, the TFS actors when they're properly directed and working off great writing can easily perform these characters. MasakoX practically at this point is second to Sean Schemmel to me as my favorite English Goku... but this is not his best work. There are moments of greatness but the whole package just isn't as good as it could be. Then the animation and... oh god it's so jank. There are many moments where the models come off as creepy emotionless dolls, the textures are crap, cases where choreography drops in quality because the stiff animation doesn't sell the impact well. It's definitely a battle that has aged. It's good but it could be better...

Same can especially be said for its "sequel".

Goku vs. Superman 2 should not exist. Plain and simple, it just shouldn't. When the retitle just straight-up calls it irrelevant? You know you're in for something. Now, in the original Road to 100 blog (Which was a blog where Ben shared his thoughts on each episode leading up to at the time Death Battle's 100th), Ben has stated looking back this fight was his least favorite episode of the series for how it completely was misrepresented and mismarketed. So, for those who haven't read the blog? Basically after the first fight, Ben had brought up that there was about 20 minutes of content cut from the script to keep the episode watchable with the idea being to present a means to release said content. Later on, SGC, the convention that ScrewAttack used to run, was on the verge of happening with ScrewAttack's manager at the time suggesting to Ben that he could maybe turn that cut content into an episode that would be shown at the event which he felt worked out. There wouldn’t be a ton of additional research to do outside of adding additional bits about Super Saiyan God and the New 52 and it would satisfy the many requests people had to pit God Goku against Superman (Which for the record happened because people genuinely thought that the form would earn Goku a victory, not because there was anything interesting to look at).

The biggest mistake was that the episode was marketed as a rematch and hyped up to the point where it gave people the idea it would be a complete redo on the analysis of the characters, not an addendum that's there to have something to show for a convention and restates the original conclusion. It didn't help that SGC put up advertisements for this fight all over the place and Ben didn't say or do anything because he didn't expect that this would be the case which resulted in the episode not being just a cute little bonus but rather a flick to the taint. So now that you know what this episode was meant to be? Let's look at it from that perspective and honestly? It's alright... but it has major issues compared to the original.

For the positives? The animation is fantastic, Torrian really nailed the fluidity and the choreography, MasakoX sounds much more comfortable playing Goku and thus some deliveries are significantly higher quality. Seeing Super Saiyan God and Super Saiyan Blue so soon after their debuts kicked ass, the live-action gag that's in the livestream version is great, the original track Alive slaps and... okay let me be frank, I actually really like the King Kai scene and the ultimate idea behind the conclusion. Set aside the thing about how Superman has limits please, I don't care to hear the whining. Just taken as an addendum to the conclusion? It does a decent job of explaining the differences between the cores of Goku and Superman and even brings up a fair point that frankly if Goku ever hit the point where he has no limits and no challenges he stops being the character people love, a point that some DBZ fans really, really need to understand. I also think the analysis focusing more on what led to the creation of both characters was a great way of adding to the original fight.

Now, that being said... this battle has problems. Problems that at one point inspired me to create a fanfic based on this. Superman's character is fucked in this and fundamentally misunderstood. In the original, it wasn't great but this episode really kicks it into overdrive and has Chad and Ben blatantly show their bias against him. In particular, this leads to the worst part of the conclusion where their point about what Goku and Superman mean to people gets utterly shot in the foot by saying that Superman is unrelatable and is not meant to lose which... no... he isn't. Speaking as a Superman fan, the man has lost many times and at many points is shockingly relatable despite his frightening power. Couple that with the battle portraying him as being even more of an asshole and it is not surprising that this pissed off Dragon Ball fans beyond even those who were just gonna be pissed because Goku lost. Next, the fight is barely a fight. It's fun, it's good eye-candy but it really is not the big drag-out rematch that SA stupidly advertised it as and is way too short. Really looking back? They should've considered just putting out the cut content for people to look at and not made this episode. The original Goku vs. Superman is good enough on its own and did not need a follow-up, especially if it was gonna be like this.

That being said... why am I excited for this then? Well, there's a few reasons. First, as stated at the top, this is not Goku vs. Superman 3. This is a Goku vs. Superman that's being conducted with Death Battle's modern rules. While we don't know really anything about this fight? We can use the Road to 100 blog for the original videos to speculate on what we will likely see. First off, it's highly unlikely we will see a limitless Superman. Ben explained that one of the reasons they moved away from complete composites was they realized just how insanely broad rule 4 was in breaking characters. For the record, Rule 4 nowadays states that unless it's stated otherwise all canon material is considered for the analysis unless it's contradictory. Now for modern standards, that means say you have Mario. They'd likely use the game Mario with info pulled from other sources as long as it doesn't contradict. Case in point, don't expect to see manga and comic facts thrown in unless you want Mario to have unholy toon force shit. Back then? This was significantly broader and as a result meant characters ended up becoming far, far more broken than what one would expect. Case in point, it meant they could pull for Superman material that outright made him more broken and was not supported by the official canon and because Goku didn't have anything like that for him? He was screwed. Now we got a clear idea of what's being used. Goku will have info pulled from the canons of Dragon Ball as usual but also info from Dragon Ball Heroes while Superman will pull primarily from Infinite Frontier which to my knowledge basically takes the approach of compositing the main iterations of Superman which gives us something much closer to his Post-Crisis counterpart. This likely means we will see info analyzed from Post-Crisis and New 52 but not to the extreme extent as we saw in the original videos which is a noteworthy change. Another big factor is that Death Battle is not exclusively written by Chad and Ben anymore. They still have a hand in it mind you but they now have a rotating list of people who help them and even instances where the battles are straight up not written by them. This means there are significantly less chances of characters being bastardized and bear in mind what we've seen from the writers so far what with Megatron delivering a beautifully in-character monologue to Freeza and how that fight tells a great mini-story and how in the most recent fight they manage to keep the Doctor perfectly in-character with his approach to fighting Rick. We're in very good hands here which brings me to another big point which is how the animations have changed. Back during the early seasons, one aspect Death Battle's animations consistently struggled with is balancing entertainment with being a good representation of the characters. They gradually got better and better over time with season 9 in particular featuring the most consistent quality yet but they still had clunkers or episodes with moments that hurt the overall presentation whether it was wonky pacing or in the case of Deku vs. Asta, a climax that felt unnecessarily cruel and brutal just for the sake of it and made Asta come off like a colossal jackass. Season 10 on the other hand has managed the most insane feat by having so far nearly every episode nail the animation with this recent stretch of episodes just being banger after banger. With this in mind? Goku vs. Superman 3 is bound to be something very different than just being another fight between these two. Finally, there's the reason why they'd do this.

Goku vs. Superman like I said before is the versus matchup and it's one that has a lot of history with Death Battle. It was the subject of the first season finale and was Death Battle's 25th episode while its sequel was the 50th episode overall but also? It's the fight Death Battle owes a ton of its success and evolution to. The first showcased a lot of hallmarks that would be featured in several Death Battles to come and lay the groundwork for improvements we'd see adopted in modern seasons and was the first episode to make a massive splash to the point where even non-Death Battle fans were watching and talking about it. The second is horribly flawed but it led to some significant improvements going forward such as Ben working hard to ensure that a situation like it never happens again. If anything, it's the battle that the more I think about it? The more obvious it is for why it'd be on the cards to be remade and would be over all other season 1 and 2 fights. Like Boba Fett vs. Samus? It has major significance to the show's history. Like Mario vs. Sonic? It's a legacy matchup that is the poster boy for the idea of versus debates and finally like Link vs. Cloud? It's a battle that could serve to benefit from Death Battle's modern approach and considering it's coming more than ten years after the original battle in December like the original was supposed to? I think it's too perfect. Plus with it being the penultimate episode with some episodes beforehand basically being finale tier already? That leads one to get giddy over what the finale could be. I get being disappointed in seeing this over more original matchups or even just a different one involving Goku and Superman but I hope in my long-winded explanation I have at least adequately explained why I'm excited.

Anyways, thanks for reading, hope you all stay gold and have a very good Thanksgiving this week.