Web Animation / DBX

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DBX (short for "Death Battle Exhibition") is a Spin-Off of battleboarding web series DEATH BATTLE!, with the pilot premiering on March 16th, 2016 alongside the third season premiere of its parent series. Like Death Battle, the series pits 2 (or more) characters against each other in a battle to death. Unlike Death Battle where the result is determined by researching both characters' powers and abilities, DBX results are determined by Author Appeal (Season 1—3) or viewers' votes (Season 4—6). The former method is based on that of 1 Minute Melee, which was originally also a Death Battle spin-off until it becomes a separate series published by Hyun's Dojo.

DBX originally had 1 of Death Battle's host Boomstick (Chad James) as the announcer. Following the Season 4 revamp, new host Ringmaster (Billy B Burson III) is introduced, who would host the fights by announcing the fighters and providing quick info on them. The fights themselves were each given 2 different endings that had each fighter victorious. The week before each fight, the viewers can vote on which fighter they would like to win. The fighter who has the highest percentage of votes has their ending released on Rooster Teeth and YouTube. The fighter with the least votes has their ending exclusive to Rooster Teeth.

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DBX provides examples of:

• Adaptational Badass: Thanks to the series no rules approach characters who'd otherwse be on entirely diffrent levels of power are shown as being able to fight on even ground
  • Special mention goes to Ronald Mcdonald Vs Colonel Sanders where thanks to both combatants being based on their M.U.G.E.N portrayals their both shown as being far more fight capable then either are shown as being in their commercials
  • Magneto Vs Darth Vader is also notable for this as realistically Vader would likely be crushed within seconds of encountering Magneto but not only is he able to keep up with him but he actually wins against the master of magnetism
  • Batman Vs Iron Man features a Batman with only his default gear and no prep time who's able to keep up with Iron Man
• Art Shift: Ryu VS Liu Kang starts out using mocap sprites like the early Mortal Kombat games but halfway through switches to Street Fighter-style sprites.
• Beam-O-War: Gohan VS Superboy ends with one of these between Gohan's Kamehameha and Superboy's laser eyes.
• Blind Without 'Em: Amy Rose VS King Dedede reveals that the king is near-sighted and thanks to a lack of glasses mistakes Amy for Kirby.
• By the Hair: Shantae VS Shovel Knight has The Knight grab Shantae by her hair and slam her around
• Camera Abuse: Daredevil VS Kenshi has Kenshi slamming Daredevil against the camera with it developing cracks because of it.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Batman VS Scorpion takes place after Venom VS Bane, with Batman investigating the aftermath and thinking that the damage was caused by Spider-Man.
  • The climax of "Goomba VS Koopa 2" has a nod to several Death Battle episodes, namely Koopa passing through Hal Jordan, Wally West, Archie Sonic and Booster Gold when time-travelling, referencing how those 4 combatants time-traveled in their respective battles.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • In Bruce Lee Vs The World none of Bruce's oppenants manage to do anything to him and all go down very easily. Special mention goes to Hitmonlee who goes down in a single hit
  • In both Thor Vs 100 Pikachu and Wolverine Vs 100 Barakas the 100 man teams go down without much effort and barely even phase the super heroes
  • In Ness Vs Sans' official ending Ness doesn't even land a single hit against Sans
• Darkhorse Victory: Several fights feature a third party declared the winner
• Dead Hat Shot: Master Chief VS Jango Fett uses this where after Jango is blown up by Chief we get a shot where we see his helmet falling down a shaft.
• Designated Girl Fight: thirteen episodes are girl vs girl
  • "Trish VS Jeanne"
  • "Sakura VS Rin Tohsaka"
  • "Aigis VS Noel Vermillion"
  • "Lara Croft VS Jill Valentine"
  • "Chun-Li VS Tifa Lockhart"
  • "Harley Quinn VS Domino"
  • "Amy Vs Sakura"
  • "Juri VS Mileena"
  • "Chie VS Karin"
  • "Catwoman VS Black Cat"
  • "D.Va VS Tron Bonne"
  • "Boa Hancock VS Rider Medusa"
  • "Mulan VS Lucina"
• Dragged Off to Hell: Batman VS Scorpion has Scorpion bringing Batman to Hell.
• "Everybody Dies" Ending:
  • Sasuke Vs. Hiei has both combatants fall into a spikey gorge
  • Captain Falcon Vs. Viewtiful Joe has both combatants die after crashing their vehicles into each other
• Eye Scream: Rapheal Vs Wolverine has Wolverine stab Raph in the eyes with his claws blinding the turtle
• Fire/Ice Duo: Natsu VS Iceman features this contrast with it featuring 2 combatants similar in personality but 1 uses fire and the other uses ice.
• Half the Man He Used to Be:
  • Trish VS Jeanne: Trish is split in half before her remains are blown up
  • Broly VS Doomsday: Broly gets sliced in half by Doomsday's claws
  • Cloud VS Guts: Gut's gets sliced in half by Cloud's Buster sword
  • Kratos VS Dante: Kratos has his top half punched off by Dante
  • Blade vs Hellboy: Blade gets split in half by Hellboy's punch
  • Luffy VS Mr.Fantastic: Luffy punches Reed so hard that he gets split in half
  • Chie VS Karin: Karin is sliced in 2 by Tomoe
  • Metal Sonic VS Megaman: in his ending Metal Sonic charges through Megaman and splits him in 2
  • Frieza VS Mewtwo: Frieza's ending has him slice Mewtwo in half with a destructo disc before the pieces get burned
  • Kenshin VS Law: Kenshin gets cut in half before being crushed by a block of ice
• Internal Homage: The main ending for "Goomba VS Koopa 2" is a homage to Death Battle's episode "Ben 10 VS Green Lantern", where like Green Lantern, the Koopa ends up going back in time and killing his opponent before the fight begins. Koopa even tells his past self "Don't Ask" as they look on in shock.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Ness Vs. Sans ends with Ness being impaled on stack of bones
• Multiple Endings: Catwoman VS Black Cat, Chie VS Karin and Juri VS Mileena had alternate endings featuring the opposite verdict, and from season 4 onwards, fight results are decided by votes and thus every episode has 2 endings for each possible result, with the winning ending released as the main one.
• Mythology Gag:
  • In Bendy VS Cuphead, after Bendy kills Cuphead it cuts to a card with a portrait of Bendy and a progress bar much like what happens when you lose to a boss in Cuphead's game.
  • in Gohan VS SuperBoy, Gohan's ending features Goku's spirit adding onto Gohan's Kamehameha much like how Cell was defeated.
  • In Batman VS Iron Man Bruce, outbids Tony by using the infamous Bat Credit Card from Batman and Robin.
  • Daffy's ending in "Donald VS Daffy" is one to "Duck Amuck", with both revealing that Daffy's tormentor is Bugs Bunny.
  • From "Palpatine VS Xehanort":
    • Xehanort's casual arrival which has him offhandedly uses telekinesis to knock out the 2 guards near the entrance is a nod to Yoda doing pretty much the same when arriving at Palpatine's Senate room for their duel in Revenge of the Sith.
    • Palpatine's response to Xehanort's refusal to join him is "So be it", the same as when Luke refuses his offer in Return of the Jedi.
• Off with His Head!:
  • Ryu VS Lucario: Lucario gets his head punched off by Ryu's Shoryuken
  • Spawn VS Alucard: Alucard has his head blown up by Spawn
  • Link VS Meta Knight: Link gets his head sliced off by Meta Knight
  • Akame VS Killua: Killua charges toward Akame and rips her head off
  • Juri VS Mileena: Mileena rips Juri's head off while she's dazed
  • Bendy VS Cuphead: Cuphead gets his head ripped off by Bendy
  • Shantae VS Shovel Knight: [[spoiler: Shantae gets decapitated by Shovel Knight's shovel
  • Zuko VS Roy: Zuko cuts Roy's head off with a sword
• Retool: Season 4 underwent a massive change as it became a Popularity Power-fueled event with a brand new host.
• Rule of Cool: "Donald Trump VS Hillary Clinton" is almost as if the guys at ScrewAttack decided to give the animators the instructions, "Have these 2 idiots fight and do whatever the hell you want with them." In the end, a bald eagle voiced by Chad reveals it's the story of how Captain America became the president of the United States forever.
• Shout-Out:
  • The whole fight of "Donald VS Daffy" takes place inside of Duck Hunt.
  • Before the start of the fight in "Goomba VS Koopa 2", Goomba briefly appears with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure aura, complete with the "MENACING" Japanese characters and Dio's face drawn on top of his own.
• Single-Stroke Battle: Kenshin VS Zoro ends this way. Zoro wins
• Slapstick: The fight between Sakura Haruno and Rin Tohsaka ends with Rin getting launched through a stone ceiling and into the sky where she disappears in a twinkle Team Rocket style.
• Take That!:
  • Like "Justin Bieber VS Rebecca Black" from the parent series, the battle between Trump and Clinton is more about seeing the 2 figures get injured.
  • in Akuma vs Iron Fist, the reason Akuma attacks Danny is because he didn't like his show.
• The Voiceless: due to the shows lower budget compared to Death Battle many fights either have the characters be completely mute or voiced by pre-existing audio
• Your Head A-Splode: Saitama VS Kenshiro has Saitama go out this way as is typical for people hit by Kenshiro's attack.

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