Prelude[]
"Fire Emblem vs Persona"! These teenage girls may seem too shy and kind to hurt a fly, but which of these deadly damsels would win in a beautiful battle!
Description[]
"Marianne vs Haru" is a What If Death Battle created by LukeTime128. It is his fifth What If Death Battle. It features Marianne von Edmund from the video game "Fire Emblem: Three Houses" and Haru Okumura from the video game "Persona 5".
Introduction[]
Wiz: They are friends to all living things, noble ladies of grace and kindness, and the very embodiment of charity and fairness...
Boomstick: So let's make 'em kill each other!
Wiz: Marianne von Edmund, the Golden Deer's self-deprecating healer...
Boomstick: And Haru Okumura, the Fair Lady of the Phantom Thieves. He's Wiz and I'm Boomstick
Wiz: And it's our job to analyse their weapons, armour and skills to find out who would win a Death Battle.
Marianne[]
Wiz: The realm of Fodlan is known for many reasons in the Fire Emblem world. Controlled primarily by the Church of Seiros, the continent is split into three nations - the Adrestian Empire, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, and the Leicester Alliance. But this normally peaceful realm is dominated largely by the presence of Crests
Boomstick: The best kind of birthmark! Crests do loads of different things, like boosting strength and magic power, and grant superpowers inherited from freaking gods! Shame that in order to get as many Crests as possible, everyone decided to be a douche.
Wiz: Yeah, Crests grant immense power, but it's clear thy're just as much of a curse as they are a gift. Such is the case with Marianne von Edmund.
Boomstick: As the adopted daughter of an Alliance noble, Mary enrolled in the Garreg Mach Monastery, which is basically church school but with fighting classes. Damn that's cool, so do they have like a karate Pope or something?
Wiz: (cutting Boomstick off) Marianne proved to be a helpful ally to the Golden Deer house of Alliance. As a skilled mage and devout believer in the goddess Seiros, Marianne is proficient in healing magic and holy spells.
Note: Marianne doesn't appear in any post-timeskip story of Three Houses, so her class line is difficult to pinpoint, but we know that she's a Faith specialist ad the Golden Deer already have a Gremory, so it seems more reasonable for her to be a Holy Knight canonically.
Boomstick: It's likely Marianne didn't only revise one subject though. Thanks to studying Reason magic - the better magic, if you ask me - she can freeze people with ice, smite people with lightning and cut people with wind magic. But her best holy spell is Aura, a giant Jesus laser that kills basically anything with ease!
Marianne: I'm sorry!
Marianne uses Aura to finish off a Demonic Beast.
Wiz: Marianne can also use her magic to silence her opponent's magic, and wields multiple swords that benefit her skill set, like the Levin Swords and Blutgang - a Hero's Relic that works alongside her Crest, the Crest of the Beast.
Boomstick: This Crest might sound pretty cool, but it's... kinda not. See, apparently the guy who originally had the Crest of the Beast turned into a giant monster and started killing people, so everyone was like "nah, screw that guy" and erased him from history and now everyone who has the Crest is hated by society. So yeah, kind of a crappy trade-off for a small physical attack boost that you don't need.
Wiz: Yeah, Marianne's endured a lot of pain in her life, and it's clearly taken a toll on her. She tends to greatly underestimate her abilities and considers herself worthless, but seems to have mostly gotten over these faults by the end of the game.
Boomstick: I mean, you've got to be strong when all you're friends are in the middle of a war. And Mary takes the initiative with her magic healing powers. From horseback!
Wiz: Marianne has a strong connection with animals, especially horses. This skill helps her quite nicely as a Holy Knight, capable of dashing across the battlefield on horseback. And thanks to this class, Marianne has many useful combat skills to help her save Fodlan from entire armies of Demonic Beasts and evil empires.
Boomstick: She can counter sword users and axe users with Swordbreaker and Axebreaker, and enhance her sword and lance attacks with magic using Soulblade and Frozen Lance.
Wiz: She can decrease magical damage with Warding Blow and Defiant Resistance, tank instant kills with Miracle, and resist sealing magic with Unsealable Magic. How creative...
Boomstick: Eh, whatever works. With these powers, she's proved to be pretty helpful to the Alliance army, helping to take down the evil, underground organisation called "Those Who Slither in the Dark". Okay, never mind, THAT'S a dumb name.
Wiz: Marianne can dodge lightning spells and take down weaker foes in a single hit. When she allied with the Adrestian Empire in the Crimson Flower timeline, she was even able to help take down the Immaculate One, who could tank multiple city-busting nukes with little injury.
Note: This feat likely doesn't make Marianne a city-buster on her own however, as the Immaculate One was eventually overpowered by this attack and she needed help from an entire army of other Hero's Relic users to take the dragon down.
Boomstick: But Marianne doesn't always need her whole army to be useful. She was able to hold off against several Demonic Beasts in her "Mass Effect Loyalty Quest" paralogue, even without Blutgang!
Wiz: Yeah, Blutgang is incredibly powerful. As a Hero's Relic, it is comparable to Byleth's Sword of the Creator, which can cut whole mountains in half. In addition, it is a weapon only Marianne can wield, as if anyone who doesn't bear her Crest attempts to wield it, the blade will turn them into a Demonic Beast.
Boomstick: Man, I need wonder if my shotgun leg works like that... But anyway, Marianne isn't as fit for battle as all this makes her seem. Given that she's a frail 5 foot 4 teenage girl, physical strength and durability aren't her strong suits, and many opponents can take her down easily if they can catch up to her horse.
Wiz: Still, Marianne is not to be underestimated. She may seem meek and feeble, but she's incredibly strong deep down. She finally found her worth in the world after all.
Marianne: Goddess, forgive me...
Haru[]
Wiz: In the realm of... Tokyo, Japan... the multi-million food corporation of Okumura Foods is everywhere in everyday life. Through the fast-food store of Big Bang Burger, the company's owner was able to make millions of dollars worth of wealth, and used his momentum to reach for political power.
Boomstick: "But hey", the CEO thought to himself, "why do it fairly when I could just sell my daughter to get power instead?" Seriously, screw this guy.
Wiz: This was Haru Okumura, the sheltered but sweet daughter of Kunikazu Okumura. Though she was raised like a princess thanks to her father's crazy bank account, her life wasn't exactly great.
Boomstick: You know the guy she's stuck in an arranged marriage with? Yeah, he's an abusive douchebag. See if you can guess how happy Haru is right now.
Wiz: Fortunately, Haru was eventually saved thanks to a chance encounter with the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. Wanting to get out of her abusive future marriage and save her father from himself, Haru joined the group and by overcoming her inner strife, awakened her very own Persona.
Haru: Rush them, Milady!
Milady destroys a Shadow with Psiodyne
Wiz: Milady is psychic attack based Persona that grants Haru her own set of superhuman abilities. With Psiodyne to attack single opponents and Mapsiodyne for area of effect, the psychic powers of Milady deal boosted damage on opponents suffering from mental afflictions. Milady also makes use of many alternate weapons to take down any foes not defeated by its magic.
Milady reveals the enormous array of weapons under her dress.
Boomstick: OH DAMN! Where do I get one of these Per-sonar things?
Wiz: In addition, Milady makes use of its magic powers for healing status ailments, boosting stats and erecting magic barriers-
Boomstick: Heh heh... "erect"
Wiz: - that deflect physical attacks and offensive magic: Tetrakarn and Makarakarn.
Boomstick: So her Persona's super cool, but Haru doesn't always need it to do all the fighting for her. Why? Because she's rocking giant axes and grenade launchers to beat down Shadows herself! Haru's strongest axe is called Fleur de Mar, which can cause opponents to become dizzy, and her best grenade launcher is called Yagrush, which can electrocute people! Jeez, this chick is crazy. I wouldn't wanna piss her off, she'd probably just straight up murder me...
Wiz: And she'd probably enjoy every second of it too.
Haru: Cutting down the enemy as they approach... Ah, what a thrill!
Boomstick:... Well, there goes my sleep...
Wiz: Well, at least Haru's using her... slight sadism to torment the bad guys instead of... anyone else. Moving on, thanks to her Persona's influence, Haru's physical attributes are boosted and she gains greater acrobatic skill.
Boomstick: When she joined the Phantom Thieves, she was already pretty strong, being able to carry a 30 kilogram bag of fertiliser by herself. That's 66 pounds! So much for being a dainty damsel. Based on their stats, Haru's also supposed to be stronger than her ally Makoto, who could crush a floor tile before even awakening to her Persona powers, as well as Ann Takamaki, who could break apart these steel handcuffs with relative ease.
Wiz: Persona users also get boosts to their speed and durability. Many Persona users have demonstrated the ability to dodge natural lightning and similar electrical attacks, and have survived great falls and impacts that would instantly kill any normal human. Her stamina is also capable of fighting in the Metaverse for several hours.
Note: Whether or not all Persona users receive the same boost from fusing with their Personas is a debated topic, as there is evidence to support both perspectives. In this case, it is reasonable to scale Haru to these feats given the more evidenced physical superiority of the Phantom Thieves compared to previous characters, and Haru has feats that support this idea.
Boomstick: So yeah, Haru's really strong. But get this, that's not even her final form!
Wuz: After solving her inner conflict and abandoning her heritage of Okumura Foods, Haru awakened to her ultimate Persona...
Haru: Astarte, descend!
Wiz: Similar to Milady, Astarte also uses psychic abilities, but also comes with an immunity to said psychic attacks alongside a resistance to ice powers.
Boomstick: Awh, what a downgrade. Where's the hidden gatling guns?
Note: As Persona 5: The Royal hasn't been released yet, Haru's third tier Persona will not be included. There are too many unknown factors as for the strength of said Persona relative to Astarte in addition to its elemental resistances.
Boomstick: Well, guns or no guns, Haru's helped the Phantom Thieves take down a tone of terrifying Shadows, from her own father in a Buzz Lightyear costume to the freaking Demiurge!
Wiz: True - though Yaldabaoth from Persona doesn't appear to be the same Demiurge from Shin Megami Tensei, the false god with universal power. Despite this, Yaldabaoth is incredibly powerful, easily the most powerful the Phantom Thieves have ever faced, capable of fusing the real world and the Metaverse together. And while Haru didn't exactly do most of the heavy lifting in said fight, the fact she's able to keep up with it at all is pretty impressive.
Boomstick: But while Haru is capable of killing beings with universal power, she doesn't actually have it herself. Her fighting experience is easily the most limited of the Thieves, since she's still a sheltered damsel deep down.
Wiz: And alongside her helpful resistances comes a weakness to nuclear attacks. But these hardly hold her down from helping to fight Shadows alongside her friends. Thanks to her own strength, Haru's found a purpose far greater than her greedy father could possibly possess.
Boomstick: Who needs money when you've got happiness?
Haru: Time to punish them!
Haru initiates an All-Out-Attack, killing two shadows, before landing next to a table and a cup of coffee, which she drinks from.
Haru: Wasn't that graceful?
Pre-Fight[]
Wiz: All right, the combatants are set and we've run the data through all possibilities.
Boomstick: Its time for a DEATH BAAAAATTLE!!!
Fight[]
Thanks to the work of an unknown sinister force within the Metaverse, Garreg Mach Monastery rested near the deeper reaches of Mementos. Exploring this new corner of the Metaverse was Haru Okumura, who had been separated from the rest of the Phantom Thieves while exploring Mementos. Approaching the monastery stables, she was exhausted from fighting hordes of Shadows, worried about how her teammates are holding out.
Haru: I hope the others are okay... the Shadows here are stronger than usual...
Haru's thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of another group of Shadows; generic Fire Emblem soldiers wielding lances, which were dealt with quickly thanks to Haru's grenade launcher and axe skills. However, her victory was short-lived as she was struck with an electrical blast that threw her across the floor.
Haru recovered from the attack fairly quickly, looking around to find its source - Marianne von Edmund, wielding a Levin Sword.
Marianne: You shouldn't be here. Leave!
Assuming this figure attacking her was affiliated with the Shadows, Haru drew her grenade launcher and aimed at Marianne.
Haru: Well, here we go again...
Fight!
Haru fired a round from the grenade launcher; the round exploded upon contact with the floor, but Marianne leapt upward to dodge. Pointing the Levin Sword into the air for another attack, Marianne fired another electrical attack, but this one was also dodged by Haru, who used her Phantom Thief agility to jump into the air and force the fight into close range. Both combatants exchanged blows with their melee weapons in mid-air, only for Haru to launch Marianne into one of the stables.
Haru: Whew... so much for her...
Haru attempted to leave the battlefield only to be interrupted by a loud neighing sound. She turned around to see Marianne, now riding upon a horse and wielding Blutgang.
Marianne: Sorry, but my blood compels me! Nosferatu!
The Faith spell drains Haru's health and uses it to heal Marianne; before she can recover, the Holy Knight uses Blutgang to fire a lightning blast that launches her down toward the docks, where Marianne follows her.
Haru was barely able to stand from the damage she had withstood, but she knew she had to keep going - she still had to find her friends. As her opponent approached, she glared onward and thrust her hand into the air...
Haru: If you stand before me... I won't run away! Come, PERSONA!
Milady materialised behind Haru, the Persona towering over both combatants.
Marianne: Wh-what?!
Haru: Rush them, Milady!
Milady pulled up its dress to fire rounds from its machine guns, forcing Marianne's horse to stop and run around it. Marianne tried to throw her opponent's guard off by casting a Blizzard spell, only for Haru to shrug off the attack.
Haru cast her hand forward again, and Milady used a Psio spell to attack Marianne; this magic attack dealt far more damage, with Marianne clutching her head in pain. Marianne retaliated by firing a Thoron lightning beam, launching Haru backward, before retreating upon her horse. After Haru recovered, she gave pursuit by leaping over a nearby wall.
As Marianne arrived in the garden, she took the opportunity to use her magic to heal herself, ridding her of the headache. She wondered what kind of magic that bandit had used, and what the giant beast she had summoned could have been. Her horse was clearly rattled from the experience, so she took the time to soothe it.
Marianne: It's ok, Dorte. It'll be over soon.
Haru: I'll see to that myself, thank you!
Marianne: Huh?
Haru jumped down from the roof above and dashed toward Marianne, using her axe to attack the Holy Knight. Marianne's horse barely moved out of the way in time, casting two cutting Gale spells with each dodge of Haru's axe swings; the second blast launching Haru backwards and recreating distance.
Haru: Perrrsonaaa!
Haru responded by re-summoning Milady and dashing towards Marianne again, having her Persona use its Gun skills to lay down suppression fire. In response, Marianne countered by using Blutgang to fire lightning blasts to halt Haru's charge, only for her opponent to reflect the attack with Makarakarn.
Dodging another Psi attack, Marianne quickly grew frustrated with these magical attacks and used Silence to block them. When the attack struck, Haru was shocked as her Persona disappeared, and she was unable to call it back.
Haru: P-Persona? Oh no...
Marianne: It's over! Fall!
Marianne then closed the distance and thrust forward with a Silver Lance, enhanced by her Frozen Lance technique, impaling the Phantom Thief in the chest and lifting her into the air. Marianne then drew Blutgang for a follow up attack, charging its power with her Crest...
Marianne: I'm sorry, but I can't afford to lose!
Marianne uses Blutgang to launch Haru through the air, crashing onto the bridge to the monastery's Cathedral. Haru was badly hurt by the impalement, but had no time to heal as Marianne's horse had already caught up. At the very least, Haru had one thing going for her - the Silence had worn off, and her Persona could be re-summoned.
Haru: Enough; this ends now! ASTARTE, DESCEND!
The giant dress-skull of Astarte appeared behind Haru, and used its Heat Riser power to buff their stats. Marianne's horse stopped in its tracks, confronted with its opponent's giant form.
Marianne: You don't scare me! Nothing you do could scare me anymore! AURA!
A giant beam of light descended from the sky onto Astarte, causing the Persona to stagger. Marianne charged toward Haru wielding Blutgang, parrying an axe attack and causing Haru to retreat backward into the Cathedral, avoiding another Aura while Marianne gave pursuit.
Inside the Cathedral, Marianne couldn't find her opponent, who had used her Phantom Thief powers to hide among the pillars near the ceiling. Marianne dismissed her horse and looked around, trying to find Haru.
Marianne: Show yourself! This won't end any other way!
Haru: Don't you get it? It's already over! Persona!
Haru jumped through the air over Marianne, with Astarte appearing behind her, casting Psiodyne on Marianne. The psychic explosion erupted around her opponent, as Marianne cast another Aura spell on Haru.
Both attacks completely overwhelmed the combatant they were used on, only for Marianne to blast the Psiodyne apart with Blutgang. Exhausted, she looked on as Haru was badly damaged by the Aura...
...or so it seemed, as Astarte deflected the attack with a Makarakarn.
Marianne didn't have time to react before Haru closed the distance with the axe again, disarming Blutgang and landing several brutal strikes
Haru: How's this?! PAINFUL?!
Haru finished the combo with a grenade launcher blast that fired Marianne across the Cathedral, before summoning Astarte to her side. Before Marianne could land, Haru had Astarte charge the One-shot Kill Gun skill. The blast covered most of the room, completely overwhelming the Holy Knight.
Marianne: Goddess... forgive me...
In fact, the blast was too strong if anything, as the Cathedral had been so damaged it began to fall apart, forcing Haru to retreat as it collapsed around her.
Haru was barely able to escape back over the bridge as the Cathedral collapsed entirely. Looking on to her opponent's final resting place, Haru knew she had no time to honour the fallen - she had to find her friends sooner rather than later.
K.O.
Haru is shown resting in a random dormitory, taking the form of a Safe Room.
Analysis[]
Boomstick: Whoa, didn't think either of these chicks had it in them!
Wiz: This fight was fairly close, and both combatants held an equal amount of advantages over each other. Haru's physical attributes were generally superior, but surprisingly, Marianne could counter a lot of what Haru could throw at her thanks to Silence magic. Given the magical connection between Personas and their summoners, Silence stopped Haru from using Astarte and Milady while it was active, but alone wasn't enough to give her the win.
Note: As Marianne has largely overcome her depressive episodes after the timeskip in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Haru's Psi attacks wouldn't deal extra damage.
Wiz: As a result, finding the winner required a lot more detail into how powerful both combatants were.
Boomstick: First of all, Marianne was clearly the more experienced and better trained of the two, having received proper formal combat training and fighting in wars for over a year, whereas Haru's experience was barely more than four months.
Wiz: However, Haru's Persona tipped the odds back into her favour, Being resistant to ice countered half of Marianne's Reason based magic, giving her only four damaging spells to work with. Even with Axebreaker, all Marianne could do against Haru defensively was try to dodge, which wasn't particularly effective given Haru was noticeably faster.
Note: Dodging the Bolting lightning spell at the highest speed feat in Fire Emblem is around 70,000 mph. Given their presentation, Haru's lightning dodging feat is around 220,000 mph, making Haru 3 times faster than Marianne. In addition, Haru and other Phantom Thieves have dodged attacks that could be light speed or faster, like Shadow Okumura's Big Bang Challenge, but given their presentation, this is hard to define.
Boomstick: But Blutgang was a seriously powerful weapon. Compared to other Hero's Relics, it's technically a more powerful weapon than anything Haru's got. I mean, Marianne can hold out against several Demonic Beasts at once in her Paralogue without Blutgang, right?
Wiz: Well, while Marianne can certainly hurt giant monsters like Demonic Beasts, she can't exactly take a hit from them with much dignity. Meanwhile, the Phantom Thieves have faced monsters just as powerful with much less effort.
Boomstick: And really, Haru's durability pretty easily sealed the deal. Especially when considering how OP Astarte is.
Note: The weight of most Demonic Beasts is somewhere between 6 tonnes (weight of an elephant) to 20 tonnes (wieght of a truck), give what we can tell about its size. Haru's fellow Phantom Thieves can survive being crushed by Junya Kaneshiro's Piggytron, which weighs over 100 tonnes at least, making Haru around 5 times tougher than Marianne at the absolute least.
Wiz: Right; while Marianne's magic can damage the Immaculate One, who's durability can tank multiple nukes, Astarte is strong enough to damage Yaldabaoth; a demon strong enough to bend the universe to its will and is likely far tougher than a simple nuke. Even if we scale Astarte's damage output to 1% of Yaldabaoth's, it is still far superior to anything Marianne could scale to.
Boomstick: And while Marianne could disable Astarte with Silence, it only has limited uses and doesn't last forever. Marianne had a very small window to kill Haru before her Persona came back.
Note: Marianne has access to skills and classes that give her more uses of Silence, but it is unlikely that this alone would change the outcome, as Haru still retains her physical superiority when her Persona is silenced. Makarakarn also deflects the majority of Marianne's arsenal, giving Haru even more options to take the victory.
Wiz: Overall, this was a pretty close match, but Haru's power and speed were just enough to put down Marianne for good.
Boomstick: Marianne had an As-terrible time in this fight!
Wiz: The winner is Haru Okumura
Next Time Haiku[]
Slayers of demons
But a man who slays monsters
Becomes one himself