Description[]
Akama ga Kill vs. RWBY. They believe in survival of the strongest, and with their elemental powers, they are the strongest.
Introduction[]
Wiz: The survival of the fittest mentally is held by several individuals, where the strong rise up over the weak.
Boomstick: And sometimes it's easy to follow this mentally because some people possess more power than others.
Wiz: Like Esdeath, the Empire's strongest general from Akame ga Kill.
Boomstick: And Raven, the Spring Maiden bandit leader from RWBY. He's Wiz and I'm Boomstick.
Wiz: And it's our job to analyze their weapons, armor and skills to find out who would win a Death Battle.
Esdeath[]
Wiz: To the far off reaches of the Empire existed the Partas Clan, whose style of life was definitely not for everybody.
Boomstick: That's because they spent their days hunting down giant monsters called Danger Beasts. The lifestyle of Monster Hunter Ultimate, and Monster Hunter World.
Wiz: In order to survive in the harsh environment the Partas Clan lived in one needs to possess a razor sharp killing ability, just like the daughter of the Clan's Leader, Esdeath.
- Background
- Age: Early 20s
- Height: 5’7
- AKA The Empire’s Strongest
- General of the Imperial Army
- Leader of the Jaegers
- Member of the Partas Clan
- Obsessed with Tatsumi
Boomstick: Who, with a name like that, you know has just gotta love killing people.
Wiz: Not just that, Esdeath was a natural born sadist, delighting in the suffering of her prey, an enjoyment she validated with her father's philosophy of 'The weak die and the strong survive'. In fact, it's the entire reason she didn't mourn the loss of her tribe or even her father when they were slaughtered in a surprise attack.
Boomstick: Damn, talk about cold.
Wiz: Funny you should make that description. You'll see why in a moment. After hunting down nearly all of the Danger Beasts in her immediate vicinity, Esdeath migrated herself towards to the Imperial Capital. There, she joined the Imperial army and rose quickly up the ranks thanks to her exceptional skills in, well...
Boomstick: Straight up butchering her opponents. For such a thin woman, she possesses superhuman strength, able to crack the ground with another man's skull with ease.
- Skills and Abilities
- Skilled swordswoman
- Super speed
- Super strength
- Enhanced senses
- Master strategist
- Expert hunter
- Killing intent detection
Wiz: She's also incredibly fast, able to blitz through entire organized forces of enemies and since this is a thing in Akame ga Kill, she had detect a person's killing intent and even give off her own, which is so intense it can actually scare off potential assassins. And thanks to her time hunting Danger Beasts, she's a skilled strategist and huntress.
Boomstick: And handy with a rapier that's almost as long as she is! Even though it's traditionally a stabbing weapon, Esdeath can actually use it to slash opponents into bloody pieces.
Wiz: Esdeath's rapier is certainly a noteworthy part of her arsenal, but that's nothing compared to her Imperial Arm.
Boomstick: Imperial Arms are legendary weapons created from Danger Beasts on the behalf of the First Emperor, numbering at 48 in total, although most of them were lost following a civil war.
Wiz: One of the ones to remain was Demon's Extract, and it was certainly unique. Whilst most Imperial Arms take the form of weapons or other oddities, Demon's Extract is literally a goblet full of blood, and not just any kind of blood but the blood of a Danger Beast with the ability to manipulate ice.
Boomstick: To obtain the Imperial Arm, you had to directly drink the blood. Unfortunately, anyone who did ended up going insane.
Wiz: But not Esdeath, whose overwhelming willpower and drive to win enabled her to resist the maddening effects of the Demon's Extract. And her reward was the power to summon ice from thin air.
- Demon's Extract
- Elemental Type Imperial Arms
- Once consumable blood
- Ice generation
- Techniques
- White Mouth
- Grey Horn
- Hail Pounce
- Ice Armor
- Trump Cards
- Mahapadma
- Ice Cavalry
- Ice Storm Commander-in-Chief
Boomstick: Spikes, lances, walls, pillars, icebergs and even giant blenders. As long as Esdeath can think it, it will appear as a massive ice sculpture.
Wiz: Even a giant suit of armor. Most of these abilities have specific names as well, like White Mouth, Grey Horn and Hail Pounce.
Boomstick: Better known as weird German words for some reason. But her Trump Cards have the best names of all, because one of them is the name of the lowest level of the Indian hell.
Wiz: And Mahapadma is just as terrifying, because with a single word, Esdeath can expand a freezing aura to literally freeze time. Note she doesn't stop the flow of time directly, she freezes it all. That's...impossible.
Popup: Demon's Extract originally didn't even have a Trump Card. Esdeath created them all on her own merit.
Boomstick: Oh, who cares. Esdeath even has two other Trump Cards; the Ice-Cavalry, an army of ice golem centaurs and the Ice Storm Commander in Chief, which blankets an entire country in ice whilst refueling Esdeath's ice powers.
Wiz: But all these Trump Cards have limitations. The time-stop can only be used once a day whilst the latter two require preparation time to create. But that hardly ever slows down Esdeath.
- Feats
- Defeated numerous armies
- Dodged lightning
- Froze over 400,000 warriors
- Froze an entire river
- Survived a strike from Tatsumi, who hurt Budo
- Resisted the maddening effects of Demon’s Extract
- Defeated Najenda, Susanoo, Leone
Boomstick: She's killed hundreds of enemy soldiers, sometimes all in the same instance, and defeated some of the top members of the assassination team Night Raid, like Leone and her former ally Najenda.
Wiz: And Najenda's organic Imperial Arm Susanoo who's title is Speed of Lightning. A lightning bolt typically moves at over Mach 300 but Esdeath, and most of the other characters in this series, are actually faster than that.
Boomstick: Ah, here comes the Mach 825 calculation by Lina Shields from dodging one of Budo's lightning bolts. One of the classics.
Wiz: Even at the lowest point of her power, she was able to freeze an entire river in a single second. According to VS wiki calculations, this would have required 3.7 megatons of TNT.
Boomstick: Esdeath has achieved a lot of things but one of the things she most wanted to win was the heart of someone she loved. Not there actual heart, though considering her track record of torture and mutilation you wouldn't be faulted for thinking that.
Wiz: The person of her affections was Tatsumi, who was ironically a member of Night Raid her personal team the Jaegers was formed to hunt down, as he fitted all five of her requirements to be her lover.
Boomstick: Oh, do I fit any of the requirements?
Wiz: Are you under 20?
Boomstick...My GSCE scores are.
Wiz: Well, speaking of failures, Esdeath herself is not exempt from having any. In spite of her incredible power she's not so good at taking hits herself, making her a glass cannon in battle.
Boomstick: We've also mentioned before that her Trump Cards have certain limitations and without Ice Storm her ice generation weakens over time the longer a fight goes.
Wiz: But in the end, in spite of her death at the hands of the assassin Akame, Esdeath considers her greatest failure to be unable to win Tatsumi's heart.
Boomstick: Yeah, real sad. She's still an ice wielding sadist however, with all the power and strength to boot.
Raven[]
Wiz: Before the formation of Team RWBY, Beacon Academy was home to Team STRQ.
Boomstick: There was Summer Rose, Taiyang Xiao Long, and the twins, Qrow and Raven Branwen.
Wiz: Whose intentions weren't exactly heroic when they first came to Beacon. Turns out, they were both members of a bandit tribe who attended Beacon in order to learn how to defeat huntsmen. You know, getting your enemies to teach you the trade secrets.
Boomstick: Like me playing Pokemon Go pretending to be on team Valor when I'm actually on Team Mystic. But eventually Raven and Qrow where approached by the headmaster of Ozpin to be told about the truth of the 'war' Huntsmen were trained to fight.
Wiz: As it turned out, the animal-like Grimm that populated Remnant in fact had a leader, Salem, whom I'm pretty sure is meant to the the Wicked Witch. Those flying ape Grimm are a bit of a giveaway. In need to skilled warriors to help him in this war, Ozpin brought the Branwen twins into his inner circle and for a while both followed him loyally.
- Background
- Full Name: Raven Branwen
- Age: Approx. 40s
- Height: Approx. 5’10
- Twin sister of Qrow Branwen
- Secretly the Spring Maiden
- Leads a tribe of bandits
- Mother of Yang Xiao Long
Boomstick: Key word being, for a while, because soon Raven became convinced she was fighting an unwinnable war. Considering what we later learn about Salem, she's not entirely wrong in thinking so.
Wiz: Still, could have done something better that abandoning the people who counted on her, including her husband Taiyang and their infant daughter Yang.
Boomstick: Oh yeah, Yang. She fought not-Mortal-Kombat Raiden in our first episode here. Anyway, Raven retreated back from the war against Salem to lead her tribe, fighting for them with the skills she obtained at Beacon, which pretty much made her one of the most skilled fighters around and she has the weapon to show it off, the aptly named Omen.
- Arsenal
- Omen
- Odachi Sword
- Telescopes to twice its length
- Dust Blade Chambers
- Launches Omen hilt first
- Red (Fire)
- Dark Blue (Ice)
- Purple (Gravity)
- Yellow (Electricity)
- Omen
Wiz: Capable of telescoping itself to a longer length styled after the Odachi blades from Feudal Japan, the ones used for gutting entire horses, Omen is strong enough to let Raven cut through giant boulders in a single swing.
Boomstick: Speaking of the blade, not only does it look like Raiden's High-Frequency Blade most of the time, ironic considering who we made her daughter fight, but it is in fact interchangeable with other differently colored blades.
Wiz: As we all know, colors in RWBY are usually indicative of Dust usage. For those who may need a bit of reminding, Dust is a substance used to generate elemental effects. Red for fire, blue for ice, yellow for electricity and even purple for Gravity.
Boomstick: Gravity's an element? That's weird.
Popup: Although Raven's blades haven't demonstrated any outright Dust effects, they should still be capable off doing so.
Wiz: It's actually fairly common in Remnant, as is Raven's usage of Aura. A forceful made up of a person's soul that enhances their physical abilities. Super strength, super speed, a slight healing factor, all the works.
- Powers
- Aura
- Enhanced physical abilities
- Can block deadly attacks
- Heals minor wounds
- Semblance: Kindred Link
- Generates a portal for travel
- Raven Form
- Spring Maiden Powers
- Control over elements
- Flight
- Weapon constructs
- Aura
Boomstick: But what she unique has in her Semblance, which enables her to generate portals, most notably to those she links them to.
Wiz: However, her Portals don't seem limited to travel to other people. She can use them to teleport away from them and can apparently even open one to fire what seems to be a fireball, although how she pulled that off isn't exactly elaborated on.
Boomstick: And that isn't even the end of the tricks she has up her sleeve, or should we say wing?
Wiz: Thanks to her former allegiance to Ozpin, she was gifted with a small amount of magic which enabled her to transform into an actual Raven, perfect for stealthy flight. But it turns out that it wasn't the only magic she possessed.
Boomstick: Recall that there are four Seasonal Maidens who wield magic that enables them to control the elements, like Cinder Fall. Well, Raven herself is actually the Spring Maiden, having obtained this power by...Wiz, how did she get the power?
Wiz: Well, a Maiden's power will be passed onto the person they're thinking about when they die. The Spring Maiden before Raven trusted her a great deal, up until her death.
Boomstick: Aw, that's nice.
Wiz: A death which came from Raven's own hands.
Boomstick: Aw, that's awful. Certainly worked out for Raven though, because she got the ability to control the elements of ice, electricity and can now even fly. And since magic isn't finite like Aura, her powers are basically limitless.
- Feats
- Led her tribe on various raids
- Kept her Maiden powers secret
- Generated a storm
- Cut through a giant boulder
- Evenly matched with Qrow Branwen
- Fought with Cinder Fall on a falling boulder
- Defeated Weiss Schnee, Neapolitan, Cinder Fall
Wiz: With her powers, Raven was able to lay waste to a small village and even generate a storm. What's more, she's even taken on fellow Maiden Cinder, who should possess the same level of power as her.
Boomstick: According to TheRustyOne, the generation of this storm must have been worth 516 kilotons of TNT. As Cinder should possess the same level of power, this also means that Raven's Aura can hold up to a similar level of power.
Wiz: And via scaling to Mach 18 characters, as found by Kepekley23, it's likely the same range of Raven's speed, if not superior considering the Mach 18 character, Ruby Rose, is on a lower level of skill than Raven. A level of skill that has let her hide the fact she has Maiden powers by using a decoy in the form of the loyal Vernal.
Boomstick: Who ended up getting killed because of her loyalty.
Wiz: And partially due to Raven's own flaw, her cowardice.
Boomstick: Yeah, she tries to justify her actions with 'Survival of the Fittest', but deep down, Raven's simply afraid of Salem and her wrath. Hence the whole abandoning her daughter and family thing.
Wiz: Still, when you push Raven into a corner, more times than not she will cut her way right through you.
Interlude[]
Wiz: Alright the combatants are set, time to end this debate once and for all.
Boomstick: It's time for a Death Battle!
The Battle[]
In the middle of a forest, General Esdeath stood among the bodies of several bandits, having cut them down when they had ambushed her, her sword still red from their blood.
Esdeath: Weak and worthless, as always.
?: Maybe they were, but you made a grievous mistake in taking their lives.
Esdeath turned to see a masked Raven Branwen standing behind her, hand on her sword's hilt. The general flicked her sword of the old blood and pointed it at Raven.
Esdeath: Ah, another challenger. Let's hope you're up to the challenge of providing me with a satisfying battle.
FIGHT!
Raven pressed a button on her scabbard/chamber and Omen shot out, hilt first, towards Esdeath, who simply flicked her rapier to deflect it backwards. Before it had landed on the ground, Raven had dashed forward, grabbed it and swung at Esdeath, forcing the latter to to block the attack. Raven and Esdeath then began trading a series of slashes at the other, both blocking and attacking whenever they got the opportunity to. Esdeath blocked one of Raven's slashes from the side, before manipulating Raven's sword over her head and reaching out with her free hand.
Esdeath: Now freeze!
As soon as Esdeath's hand grabbed a hold of Raven's helmet-like mask, Raven undid it from around her face, letting it come free before it was encased in ice. Raven the sliced straight through her own frozen head wear to get as Esdeath, who levered her rapier in front of her to block the attack, although she was still sent skidding back several steps. As she came to a stop, Esdeath planted her hand on the ground and sent out gigantic spikes of ice towards Raven. In a flash, the bandit leader sheathed her sword then pulled it out, sending out a wave of fire from the Dust-made blade, blasting through the ice and removing it to let Raven charge back towards Esdeath.
The two warriors began to dash throughout the forest, leaving behind afterimages as they slashed with and blocked attacks. Soon they came to a stop with their rapid movements to slash at each other in a three action attack before Esdeath summoned a short stack of ice to block Raven's forth slash, trapping it and leaving the bandit leader wide open for Esdeath to stab her with her sword. However, Raven's Aura held up against the stab, much to Esdeath's surprise, before Raven slashed at her with Omen, breaking the ice that held it and forcing Esdeath to dart backwards, some locks of hair being cut free. Esdeath snapped her fingers, summoning rows of icicles that hung in the air before shooting straight towards Raven, who stood a stance with her sword hovering at her sword. With lightning speed, Raven chopped through the icy projectiles, before charging towards Esdeath, chopping through the additional icicles that the general had summoned when she had came to a stop after avoiding Raven's earlier slash. Raven performed another similar slash at Esdeath as she came within range, and Esdeath leaned backwards to avoid the slash so far she flipped backwards; from her rising foot, she summoned an upwards spike of ice that shot upwards towards Raven, who leaped into the air to avoid it, the tip almost grazing her midriff. Equipping a gravity blade to Omen's hilt, Raven sliced the spiked end of the ice spike off. As it drifted into the air due to the effects of the gravity dust, Raven kicked it back towards Esdeath. Esdeath chopped the re-purposed icicle into tiny pieces as it nearly hit her and couldn't afford to slow down as Raven landed in front of her and slashed at her. Esdeath countered with her own slash, smashing the gravity blade dust to pieces, before dodging back from Raven quickly sheathing Omen's hilt and slashing out with a green blade. Esdeath slashed her own sword, sending out slashes of ice that Raven shattered with her sword; each time she did however, the blade shattered, forcing Raven to, in the span of a split second, draw out another one. Three times over an ice slash and dust blade collided, with both shattering before Raven was able to close the distance between her and her opponent.
Raven slashed down at Esdeath, who brought her sword up to block the attack, before she summoned to her hand a sword made of ice, stabbing at Raven's midriff, only for the bandit to grab the wrist holding the improve sword, leaving the two warriors trapped in a stalemate.
Esdeath: You're clearly a skilled warrior.
Raven: As are you, but like you I am full of surprises!
Raven released her grip on Omen, letting her place her hand on Esdeath's chest and blast her with an short electrical burst. Esdeath let out a cry of pain and surprise as she was propelled backwards through the forest. Raven caught her blade before it dropped to the ground and dashed after Esdeath, who crashed onto the ground. Esdeath groaned in pain before opening her eyes to see Raven stab down at her with Omen. The general rolled to the side to avoid the stab, before getting back to her feet and sweeping out with her leg, catching Raven's legs and knocking her off her feet, remaining temporarily suspended in the air before Esdeath delivered a second powerful kick into her midriff. The bandit leader was sent flying backwards before crashing to and rolling across the ground before coming to a stop. Raven attempted to get back up before Esdeath slammed her heeled shoe down on her throat, pinning her as she coughed in pain.
Esdeath: I thought you said you were full of surprises. Were you not telling the truth?
Raven glared up at her.
Raven: I assure you, I am!
Suddenly, Raven was replaced by a literal one, which flew from Esdeath's tread. Esdeath let out an exclamation of surprise and hurled an icicle at the black bird, but it missed and instead struck a tree before the raven vanished into the woods. Esdeath kept her keen eyes peeled around the forest in search of the black bird, before a flapping of wings alerted her that something was coming in from behind. She whipped around and slashed at the now human Raven, intercepting her own sword stroke before the bandit turned back into a raven and flew over Esdeath's shoulder and back into the cover of the trees. Now becoming vexed, Esdeath unleashed barrages of icicles into the surrounding areas, impaling into the bark pillars, but none hitting a target.
Esdeath: You wish to hide? Try to hide from this!
She leaped up, high into the air and snapped her fingers, summoning an iceberg to descend onto the forest, intending to crush the entire area.
But then a massive burst of magical energy flowed through the trees as Raven exited her bird form and unveiled her full Maiden powers, her eyes glowing with ethereal magic. To her hand, Raven summoned a sword made of magical ice, leaped upwards and delivered a slice into the massive iceberg, causing it to crack apart. Seeing the showing of power, Esdeath summoned a massive pillar of ice to rise up of the ground to meet her in the air, touching down on it and looking down at Raven, the two exchanging eye contact for a brief moment before Raven ran forward, leaped up and landed on the vertical surface of the ice pillar, running straight up it and towards Esdeath. Esdeath gestured with her hand and an offshoot of ice shot out of the side of the pillar the exact spot that Raven had reached. She was able to dodge, however, by jumping upwards to increase her upwards assent before landing back down on the expanding offshoot, aiming with her hand and firing a lightning bolt straight as Esdeath on top of the pillar, blasting it to smithereens. Cracks spread down the rest of the pillar of ice and soon it had fallen into massive pieces that rained down to the ground.
And among these falling pieces were Esdeath and Raven, leaping from them and slashing at each other as they did, often times doing so faster than the eye could see. At one point, they both landed on a rounded piece of falling ice, engaging in a close range sword duel before jumping upwards before the piece of ice smashed to the ground. The two warriors kept themselves in the air using their respective powers of flight, Esdeath by encasing her limbs in ice and levitating them upwards, whilst Raven used her Maiden powers to gift herself flight, surrounding herself with rings of various elements. Seeing Raven's additional armament to her flight, Esdeath added her own in the form of a hollow sphere of ice around herself. The two then charged at each other, their elemental shells smashing together and coming apart to let the two of them clash their blades together.
This collision caused a large explosion that sent the two of them flying backwards through the air to crash onto the ground, just as the last of the ice pillar chunks came falling down. They got back to their feet and stared each other down for a moment.
Raven: Had enough yet?
Esdeath: Never.
Esdeath thrusted her hand forward and a massive mass of ice shot towards Raven, who calmly stepped backwards through a portal she conjured with a slash of her sword. The portal closed before the spreading ice could reach it and Esdeath was taken by surprise by Raven's disappearance.
Esdeath: Hiding again are we?
Raven: No; just getting a better angle.
Esdeath looked up to see that Raven had teleported herself into the air, where she now floated as storm clouds billowed above her, their strong winds whipping the trees around Esdeath, who looked up at Raven with admiration. With a wave of her hand, Raven sent massive bolts of lightning shooting down towards the Imperial General. Esdeath dashed backwards from the bolts as they struck the ground, but Raven intercepted her retreat by commanding a spike of ice to appear behind Esdeath. She crashed into the icicle with an exclamation of surprise before looking up just in time to see more lightning bolts coming straight at her.
The lightning blasted the area around Esdeath, leaving nothing but a scorched crater. Raven looked down at her handiwork, seeing that there was no trace of Esdeath.
Because she was no longer on the ground, but as Raven found when she looked up in shock, Esdeath was in fact above her in the air.
Just before the lightning has ravaged the area, Esdeath shouted out;
Esdeath: Mahapadma!
And time froze. Esdeath took advantage of the freeze to leap into the air above Raven before time resumed it's flow.
As Raven looked up in shock, Esdeath gave a wicked grin, drew her sword back and slashed down at Raven. Not only did this cut the bandit leader in half, but it also generated a massive wall of ice, which separated the two halves of Raven from the other. Raven's lifeless eyes remained open before her divided body peeled off the ice wall and fell to the forest floor. After they had, Esdeath touched down onto the ground, adjusting her cap as a sign of respect.
Esdeath: Impressive.
KO!
Outcome[]
Boomstick: You know, I don't think that's so Raven.
Wiz: Raven may have had more years of experience under her belt than Esdeath had and her Maiden powers offered her a wider range of elemental effects, but that didn't really matter compared to Esdeath's advantages. For one thing, Esdeath was way more powerful than Branwen.
Boomstick: Even Esdeath's lowest showing of power, freezing a river with 3.7 megatons of TNT, was 717 times more powerful than Raven generating that storm and don't forget that was when she was still learning how to use Demon's Extract.
Wiz: This level of power also demonstrates to us the amount of power Raven's Aura can likely hold up to, as she was able to battle against Cinder, who should have a level of magical power the same as her's. Since Esdeath's attack potency was much higher than that, it means she could easily break through Raven's Aura. And Esdeath clearly held the speed advantage as well, dodging lightning at Mach 825 whilst Raven, at most, only scales to characters at Mach 18.
Popup: Whilst the calculation finding Esdeath's speed technically gave her a different rate of speed, Esdeath scales to Akame who was the one directly gifted with the Mach 825 speed level in the same calculation.
Boomstick: Esdeath may have been a bit of a glass cannon, but that wouldn't matter if she could dodge anything Raven could throw at her. Her speed wasn't even Esdeath's only means of dodging Raven's attacks either. Even if she turned into an actual bird or used a portal to get a surprise attack, Esdeath can sense a person's killing intent, which would give her a head's up to whatever was coming her way.
Wiz: And with her speed and power, even Esdeath's ability to freeze time would simply be just another insurance of victory.
Boomstick: In other words, thanks to her techniques, icy power and speed, Esdeath stood head and shoulders above Raven Branwen, making her victory not a question of if, but Bran-when.
Wiz: The winner is Esdeath.
Next Time[]
Dogs on adventures
With shape-shifting abilities
Trivia[]
- Connections: Both are both powerful women who have the power to manipulate the elements, most notably ice, thanks to their possession of legendary powers; Demon's Extract and Spring Maiden magic, respectively. Both also possess a survival of the fittest mentality and in spite of their amoral natures have people they love and wish to have by their sides until their separate paths put them apart; Esdeath wanted Tatsumi as her lover before understanding he would oppose her as a rebel and Raven wanted her daughter Yang to be part of her tribe but ultimately let Yang take the Relic of Knowledge she originally sought. Both also wield long swords and have been parts of tribes.
- Animation Style: Hand-drawn.
- OST Idea: "Omen of Ice", which refers to Raven's sword and the fact both can manipulate ice