Description[]
Adventure Time vs. Shovel Knight. Two knights who turned on their former allies, reborn into fast-slashing enforcers with opposing affinities.
Introduction[]
Wiz: Whenever one returns from the brink of a vicious defeat, it is often with new parts to themselves, physical or otherwise.
Boomstick: And in the terms of otherwise, they will also keep some things. Like personal issues.
Wiz: Just like Fern, the grass clone of Finn the Human.
Boomstick: And Specter Knight, the undead enforcer of the Enchantress. 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.
Fern[]
Wiz: The exploits of Finn the Human as the hero of Ooo are very well-known, as he has battled against many evil-doers and world-ending threats.
Boomstick: And he goes through two different things at the same rate; love interests, and swords.
Wiz: Finn has indeed used many different swords throughout his career and often ends up losing them to strange circumstances. His Golden Sword was converted into a wieldable black hole, his Demon Blood sword got eaten by its demon blood donor and his Grass Sword was lost along with his arm.
Boomstick: Well, kinda. It actually became a part of him in a way and soon became a part of Finn's later sword, the Finn Sword, which contained a tiny little Finn and was made due to a time paradox. No, I did not make that up.
Wiz: As the curse of the Grass Sword was integrated with the Finn within the Finn Sword, it would later fuse with the Grass still a part of Finn, forming a clone of the human boy that wasn't exactly identical.
- Background
- Age: 17 mentally
- Height: 5'10 (taller as Green Knight)
- Past version of Finn corrupted by Grass Demon
- Remade into the Green Knight
- Became a giant tree in the future
- Bad at high-fives
Boomstick: No duh, he was made of grass. And after a rocky start with the flesh Finn, he renamed himself Fern the Human, determined to keep being what he always remembered being; a hero.
Wiz: It...didn't go so well. In fact, in his first skit as solo defender of Ooo whilst Finn was on a mission of self-discovery, he got turned into a candy man. No, I didn't make that up.
Boomstick: Eh, he should cut himself some slack. The whole thing was an instantaneous nuke of magic that no-one saw coming. Still, further shortcomings eventually brought him to the conclusion that if he was the only Finn, he wouldn't have anyone to be compared to.
Wiz: His attempt at entombing Finn didn't work so well, however, and he was reduced to yard trimmings in a short confrontation. But like Finn, he was tough to keep down, especially since Princess Bubblegum's uncle, although technically son, regrew Fern into his ultimate enforcer; the Green Knight.
Boomstick: Fern may have had a new identity but with it, he brought all of his previous abilities.
- Abilities
- Super strength
- Super speed
- Shapeshifting
- Weapon manifestation
- Axe
- Grass Sword
- Tentacle sprouting
- New armored body
Wiz: Like the Finn he originally was, Fern possesses a great deal of strength and speed, if not more-so than usual, given that Jake the Dog had a hard time keeping up with him.
Boomstick: Plus, there's the fact that, as the incarnation of the Grass Sword, he can slash so quickly, he's pretty much a blur. That's what made the Grass Sword so damn cool; faster-than-eyesight attacks.
Wiz: And in whatever state he's in, Fern is able to manifest all sorts of weapons that he can use. Most notably, the Grass Sword itself.
Boomstick: Aside from the super-fast slices I cannot seem to stop gushing about, it can spin the front of itself around like a helicopter blade, weed whacking through any opposition.
Wiz: The Grass Sword also has several abilities outside of the usual, ahem, weed-whacking. When Finn used the Grass Sword himself, he was able to literally kill the manifestation of his fear.
Boomstick: Well, that's technically still a slicing thing.
Wiz: Okay then, how about all the times that when its remaining presence in Finn's body activated, it increased in size, length and girth.
Boomstick: Well, still the same thing, since all those times, he used it for slicing. Well, also some grabbing and smashing, but still slicing above all else.
Wiz: Well, there's little doubt at least that this is an aspect that carried over to Fern himself, considering his ability to shapeshift. He can sprout tentacles, spikes, uncover his face at will and summon both the Grass Sword, a grass axe and replace one arm with a blade.
Boomstick: His shapeshifting also has a rather...ominous side, since with a few quick shakes, he can disguise himself as someone else, like Finn himself.
Wiz: That whole ability is what his replace-Finn plot hinged on. Although how he actually manages to make himself go into different colors is beyond me. After all, photosynthesis can only occur thanks to the green chlorophyll.
Boomstick: Maybe it's him using his plant-body control to produce mushrooms or fungus, since those things don't need all that photosynthesis deal. They just take nutrients from the matter around them.
Wiz: That's...scientifically accurate actually.
Boomstick: Yeah, I know all about fungus. All sorts of different species grow in my bathroom.
Wiz: Oh...gross. Back on topic, Gumbald's decision to rebuild Fern as the Green Knight was not based on random choice, as he knew all about what a clone of Finn could pull off.
- Feats
- Scales to Finn and overpowered his strength
- Lifted Sweet P.
- The Grass Sword sliced through Orgalorg and Fear Feaster
- Fought through the Grass Wizard's monsters
- Lived after being completely shredded
- Defeated Grass Wizard, Finn, Grass Demon
Boomstick: Because a clone of Finn could pull of what Finn could.
Wiz: Like lift a tree or a giant monster and strike with enough force to completely shatter a giant ruby.
Boomstick: Remember way back when we calculated what that was worth? Well, it was worth 1200+ tons of force.
Wiz: And who also survived getting launched from Mars back to Ooo, known formerly as Eartn, with the help of an energy field that vanished for the last few seconds of the journey.
Boomstick: There's also how Jake the Dog, who Fern sometimes moves faster than, was able to dodge a laser beam at nearly 50% the speed of light.
Wiz: The Grass Sword itself was also able to cut through the body of the cosmic conqueror Orgalorg, who was able to withstand catching a comet.
Boomstick: And when it came time for the sweet-sweet war of the Gum Family, Fern was right there as Gumbald's top enforcer.
Wiz: But Fern's greatest battle would be the internal one against the Grass Demon, that both created and subtly controlled him. And in the end, in the dreamscape, he emerged victorious, destroying its essence with the help of the boy he though he had to replace.
Boomstick: If Finn and Fern really were able to put their differences apart, I guess they really were the same person. And I'm saying that because they're just both good guys, not because they're the same guy.
Wiz: Although it ultimately destroyed Fern, he died content, with the simple wish to be planted at his home, to see the future of Ooo as a mighty tree, with the indirect gift a sword to its newest hero.
Boomstick: Too bad it wasn't a Blade of Grass; that was Fern's department.
Specter Knight[]
Wiz: The Order of No-Quarter serve as the top enforcers of the evil Enchantress, each one governing their own territory.
Boomstick: You've got Propeller Knight in a series of floating buildings, Plague Knight in a massive laboratory and King Knight, most appropriately, in a castle he kicked the actual king out of.
Wiz: But in a graveyard adjacent to a massive fortress, there lurks by far the most infamous member of the Order. An undead warrior forced into an unlife of servitude to the Enchantress.
Boomstick: It's Shovel Knight's resident edge-lord, Specter Knight. But before he was a specter, or a knight, he was a thief named Donovan. A living thief.
- Background
- Age: N/A
- Height: Est. 4>
- AKA Donovan
- Member of the Order of No-Quarter
- Bound in servitude to the Enchantress
- Dislikes knights
Wiz: Donovan was partners with a fellow thief named Luan. Together, they would ransack many different treasures, until the day Luan decided to obtain an Amulet that would grant his son protection.
Boomstick: But to get it, they first had to go through a tall tower. Oh, and a certain knight bearing a shield.
Wiz: Who, following the naming rules of this game, was called Shovel Knight. Anyways, a fight soon ensued and it resulted in three things happening; Luan dying, Donovan getting pushed to the brink of dying and Shield Knight getting corrupted by the power of the Tower's amulet, into the Enchantress we all know and fear.
Boomstick: Obviously not having a death wish, or an undead wish, Donovan accepted the Enchantress' deal that if he served as her undead enforcer, then she would restore him to life.
Wiz: Here's how it worked; the Enchantress tasked Donovan with assembling the Order of No-Quarter for her and with each victory, an Amulet would be filled with power. Once it was full, it would resurrect one person from death.
Boomstick: Under his new moniker of Specter Knight, he was dispatched to forcibly recruit Knights to the Enchantress' side. And forcibly he did with his terrifying tools. Like his massive scythe.
- Arsenal
- Scythe
- Will Skull
- Throwing Sickle
- Spider Scythe
- Chronos Coin
- Bounding Soul
- Shadow Mirror
- Barrier Lantern
- Hover Plume
- Judgment Rush
- Skeletal Sentry
Wiz: Not only useful for close-range slashes but for also propelling himself through both the air and enemies with jumping slashes.
Boomstick: He usually does so after climbing up walls, which he can totally do. Oh, and his scythe serves as a skateboard for going over grind-rails. Gnarly bro.
Wiz: His scythe may be the most eye-catching out of his arsenal but it's not his only weapon, thanks to the many Curios he can collect in exchange for Red Skulls.
Boomstick: Wonder if that skeleton dude who collects them would accept comic books featuring Red Skull? Anyway, Specter Knight has a whole collection of them for his use, so long as he has enough Darkness. With the Will Skull, he can reverse damage taken, throw out the Throwing Sickle and phase through walls and floors for a quick slash with Judgment Rush.
Wiz: The Spider Scythe can be sent out to crawl across grounds and walls and something similar can be made with the Skeletal Sentry, only its a skeleton that can shoot out projectiles and self-destruct after serving its purpose.
Boomstick: Specter Knight can shoot projectiles himself with the Bounding Soul and the Barrier Lantern, the lantern, I mean latter of can also be used to conjure up a rotating series of energy orbs.
Wiz: Shadow Mirror enables Specter Knight to send out a mimicking clone of himself, Hover Plume lets him float for a short time and he can even stop time with the Chronos Coin.
Boomstick: As if ghouls couldn't get any more terrifying, now they can stop time to haunt you all they like. And I'm certain that Specter Knight's various Cloaks only add to the fright factor.
Popup: In his old life as Donovan, Specter Knight used caltrops.
- Cloaks
- Crimson Cloak
- Cloak of Clemency
- Rail Mail
- Striker's Shawl
- Raiment of Risk
- Ghostly Garb
Wiz: Aside from his standard garb and the pretty useless Ghostly Garb, the Cloaks give Specter Knight some unique abilities useful in the field. One lets him become intangible when hitting spikes, another lets him grind over surfaces and Striker's Shawl gives him the option to charge his slashes.
Boomstick: And Raiment of Risk means that for halving his Will and Darkness by smashing a checkpoint, his Darkness will constantly regenerate and his attack power gets boosted until he next falls in battle. But that isn't going to happen anytime soon with how intense he is.
- Feats
- As Donovan, scaled a massive tower
- Survived two Kisses of Death
- Dodged lightning from Phantom Striker
- Sliced through cannon balls
- Bested 8 other Knights in combat
- Defeated Shield Knight, Phantom Striker, Dark Reize
Wiz: Not only did he battle against 8 other knights to induct them into the Order of No-Quarter, but each battle of them could be said to be slightly more intense than the ones Shovel Knight has against them.
Boomstick: Yeah, they're all packing new gimmicks that time around. Like the Black Knight with his pet turtle and several of who had changing terrains.
Wiz: Outside of the Knights, Specter Knight also battled against Phantom Striker. Before doing so however, he had to dodge bolts of lightning that looked to be nature of return strokes, which move at 220 million miles per hour.
Boomstick: Specter Knight has even sliced through cannon balls as big as himself.
Wiz: Taking into account the volume of the spherical cannon balls and the usual material used to make them, then Specter Knight must be striking with a force of over 300 tons.
Boomstick: He's even battled against the Enchantress herself as part of his personal mission to atone for getting his best friend killed.
Wiz: It was all due to his friend's son, Reize, getting corrupted by the Enchantress' dark power and becoming yet another enforcer of hers. In exchange for his chance to return from the dead, he saved him of the corruption after a lengthy battle by using all the magic he had collected in an old amulet.
Boomstick: Well, it was kinda his fault that the Enchantress became a threat in the first place, so I guess he paid in due course. Still, the Specter Knight is no spirit you want to incur the wrath of.
Interlude[]
Wiz: Alright the combatants are set and we've run the data through all possibilities.
Boomstick: It's time for a Death Battle!
The Battle[]
Setting: Outside of Gumbald's palace
Shouting and alarms rang out throughout Gumbaldia as clouds of smoke rose upwards and its citizens ran about in panic. The perpetrator of the carnage, Specter Knight, was now standing on the bridge leading into the central castle.
Just as he was about to move forwards, the castle gates suddenly creaked open and out stepped Fern, in the form of the Green Knight.
Specter Knight: There you are, Knight of Green. I have come here to offer you a position in a new world order.
Fern: Well, I've already got my foot in one of those.
Specter Knight: No matter. You are not the first to refuse.
He spun his scythe into the right side up whilst Fern conjured up the Grass Sword.
FIGHT!
In one instance, both knights made their moves, Fern slashing out with one of his signature FTE long-ranged attacks and Specter Knight slashing straight through it with his lunging slash. As a result, the latter was brought to in front of Fern, where they slashed out with their respective weapons, filling the air with sparks, grass shards and the clashing of metal. Each slash of the other was blocked or parried as their initial standings where reversed until Fern took to dodging backwards across the bridge from Specter Knight's slashes. When Specter Knight went for a downwards slash, Fern deflected the attack, making the undead warrior stagger backwards before he stabbed out with the Grass Sword. Thinking quick, Specter Knight lifted his foot and stomped down on the blade, pinning it to the ground and leaving him wide open for for Specter Knight to swing his scythe at his face. Before the point could connect however, Fern's face was covered by his helmet's visor, stopping the point short with a clang. With a heave of strength, Fern uprooted his sword from beneath Specter Knight's foot, sending the ghoul flying upwards into the air.
With his opponent up in the sky, Fern slashed his sword out repeatedly and after taking several hits, Specter Knight was forced to bring out the Barrier Lantern, conjuring up a circle of fireballs that burnt the Grass Sword bit by bit as it was flashed up at him, Fern only noticing this when he stopped his assault and observed the smoldering end of his weapon. He then had to dodge backwards when Specter Knight sent the rotating fireballs downwards him, where they exploded at the stop he had been standing a second ago. Free from Fern's attacks for the moment, Specter Knight landed and healed himself with a Will Skull, before charging back after Fern with the Dread Talon, closing the distance too fast for the Green Knight to avoid getting raked across the chest. On the other hand, he was able to somersault backwards from Specter Knight's upwards slash attack, tossing out a grass axes as he did. Specter Knight darted backwards to avoid them as they embedded themselves in the ground before intercepting one mid-flight with a lunging slash that thus carried him up into the air. He performed another homing slash at Fern, clashing with the slash he countered with via a newly remade Grass Sword. This happened about three more times before Specter Knight was finally forced to land and Fern came at him with a stab prepared. Acting quick, Specter Knight sent out the Spider Scythe across the ground, forcing Fern to instead stab his sword downwards, impeding the weapon's progress as it grinded against the blade.
Specter Knight followed it up by sending out a Bounding Soul straight towards Fern just as he was able to fully send the Spider Scythe spinning away at the cost of the Grass Sword shattering. He looked up to see the Soul just a few feet from hitting him and he quickly formed his arm into a blade, slicing through the projectile to send the halves exploding behind him. His turn to finally attack again, Fern did so by sending out spiked tentacles from his body towards Specter Knight, who activated Judgment Rush and completed phased through the tentacles, coming up to Fern to slash at his head. It was foiled, however, when Fern grabbed a hold of his scythe shaft and started swinging him about, slamming him repeatedly into the ground, leaving craters. Just as Specter Knight was swung down during one of these, he was able to active the Chronos Coin just before hitting the ground. With his opponent trapped in time, Specter Knight kicked himself free of Fern's grasp so that when time resumed, the Green Knight was left stumbling forwards in confusion at the lack of weight in his hand. He then got a Throwing Sickle embedded in his shoulder courtesy of his foe, which Specter Knight then yanked out before using in tandem with his scythe to riddle Fern with slash wounds. Fern snarled throughout it before flashing out with his head to slam it against Specter Knight's metal visor, denting it and sending the ghoul spinning backwards before he was able to re-right himself.
By now, in spite of the relative shortness of their bout, both were heavily battle-scarred and beginning to feel weary, yet they only took a moment to recuperate themselves (Specter Knight with a Will Skull and Fern by willing his injuries closed) before they lunged back at each other.
There was a short symphony of clashes before Specter Knight was smashed through the partially open gates to the bridge by Fern, courtesy of a massive thorn-covered fist. He spun about through the air to land on his feet as Fern stalked after him and he tossed out a skull that grew into a Skeletal Sentry, it firing out a series of shots. Fern conjured up the Grass Sword and set it to spin about in front of himself, blocking the projectiles as he continued forwards. As he got close to the Sentry, Fern slashed out with the sword, slicing the hand of the skeleton and disabling its shooting before preparing to cut it down the middle. However, just before he could, Specter Knight gave a command and the Sentry exploded, throwing up a cloud of dust and catching Fern. Injured by the attack, Fern stumbled about in the cloud of dust, looking about for his opponent as he did.
He was so busy looking around himself, he didn't look upwards, where Specter Knight had used the Hover Plume to float to. He was also now wearing the Striker's Shawl and he suddenly dropped down from the sky whilst charging up the powerful slash the cloak enabled. As soon as he landed behind Fern, he unleashed the attack.
Which was stopped short by Fern grabbing the shaft just below the blade and then lifted up his other hand, smashing it into Specter Knight's face and sending him reeling back and thus his scythe was fully torn from his grip by Fern. It was then slashed downwards and Specter Knight was cut in two with his own weapon. The ghoul's halves fell onto the ground, the similarly sliced cloak dispelling as Fern looked over his trophy.
KO!
Outcome[]
Boomstick: It's true what they say; you live by something, you die by something. Or technically, if you weren't already dead.
Wiz: Specter Knight may have been the Enchantress' top enforcer for a good reason but Fern ultimately outclassed him in just about every way. Except for, arguably, versatility.
Popup: Whilst Specter Knight is already an undead being, which are not usually susceptible to being re-killed, too much damage will deplete him of Will, which is a justifiable means of showing his limit to how much damage he can take.
Boomstick: Yeah, Specter Knight's array of curios made sure that Fern remained on his toes and he could always refill his Darkness with constant attacks.
Wiz: But when it came to 'constant' and 'attack', Fern held the edges in those areas with superior strength and speed. Oh, and durability of course.
Boomstick: Scaling to characters who move at 50% the speed of light means Fern could outpace the 30 or so percentage of light that Specter Knight could pull off, and in terms of striking strength, Fern was about four times stronger by scaling to Finn. But speaking of which, Fern contending with Finn actually proves that Specter Knight is even more outmatched.
Popup: There is a calculation claiming King Knight moved in tandem with light beams, but there is little to suggest they move like light, especially as they bounce off stone blocks.
Wiz: Finn withstood the final stages of being launched back to Ooo from Mars, an undertaking worth about 170 megatons of force.
Boomstick: Even if we applied the same thing to Specter Knight for being able to harm Shovel Knight, who can survive a landing from a catapult worth 1.7 megatons of force (Mr. Bambu), Fern still outpaces him.
Popup: Bamdu also calculated the feat of Shovel Knight pulverizing several blocks of stone, but this feat is likely to be due to the hidden weak points of the stone, like the digging points Shovel Knight has to use to dig.
Wiz: And even giving the benefit of the doubt and saying that Shovel and Specter could reasonably scale to the Tower of Fate collapsing, Finn using the Grass Sword was able to cut through the flesh of Orgalorg, who was known as the Breaker of Worlds and caught a catacylmic comet uninjured.
Boomstick: No matter the level of feats we look at, Fern has the strength, speed and durability. Specter Knight's ass was Grass.
Wiz: The winner is Fern.
Next Time[]
Under illusions
These two strike
Trivia[]
- Connections: Both are individuals who were recreated upon their deaths into knights (the Green Knight and Specter Knight respectively) after turning on their former allies (Finn and Luan respectively) to serve in new alliances (Gumbaldia and the Order of No Quarter, respectively). Both are skilled at slashing through their enemies. However, whilst Fern is associated with plant life, Specter Knight is an undead being, two notably contrasting elements.
- Animation Style: 2D.
- OST Idea: 'Grass and Ghouls', referring to Fern's Grass Sword and Specter Knight's status as an undead being.