"Two 'scorching' beauties battle to the death! Can the half-genie hero dance through this danger, or will the fortune teller seal her opponent's fate?"
Introduction[]
(Cue Wiz and Boomstick)
Wiz: The art of dancing has been a cultural piece of history throughout the years, and for many, it is their best quality.
BMS: And today, we have two of the best dancers around, complete with some literal firepower.
JA: Like Shantae, the Half-Genie Hero of Scuttle Town.
Wiz: And Rouge, the fortune telling gypsy dancer from Power Stone.
BMS: They're Wiz and Jersey Angel, and I'm Boomstick.
JA: And it's our job to analyze their weapons, armor, and skills, to find who would win a Death Battle!
Shantae[]
JA: Let’s take a journey to the past, when a peaceful coexistence between humanity and a magical race of beings called genies had been in effect.
BMS: But before you could say, “it can’t be THAT perfect”, well…it really should’ve been, what with all of the beautiful girls that were just flying around most of the time. Sadly, some Jack Skellington steroid knockoff called the Pirate Master rose to power and started wrecking s%%t up.
Wiz: With all of his power, Pirate Master brought his darkness across all of Sequin Land, forcing the genies to use all of their magic to destroy him, turning him to ash and bone.
BMS: That’s crazy…crazy AWESOME! But the bad news kept coming as the genies ultimately decided to leave our kind behind for good…for some reason. It’s almost as if they said, “You know what? We did our part. Let’s just be cute dicks and let humanity deal with stuff like this for a while”.
*Contrary to Boomstick’s rant, the real reason the genies left was so they, like Marvel’s Doctor Strange, can deal with any magical threats that may mean harm for Earth.
JA: Actually, Boomstick, they had to leave because their magic was their tether to our world. Without it, they couldn’t stay, but that didn’t mean that we would be genie-less. For there was a newborn child would become one of the greatest heroines in video game history…Shantae.
Wiz: Born from a human father and a genie mother and under the protection/guardianship of her human uncle Mimic, Shantae lived in the not-so-put-together-well town of Scuttle Town.
*It is currently unknown who the human father is. However, a giant man in the Village of Lost Souls in Pirate’s Curse is heavily implied to be her long lost father.
BMS: Well, hey, when your town mayor happens to be a fatter, more idiotic version of Toad from Super Mario Brothers, you’re not going to be getting any awards. Plus, he doesn’t deserve to be voted for re-election, especially since he doesn’t do jacks%%t about the constant threats to his town.
JA: Yes, this rundown mini-metropolis is not of easy living due to the ever-growing conquests of the evil pirate lady, Risky Boots. With her army of Tinkerbats and her array of super pirate boats, she had declared herself the “Queen of the Seven Seas”.
Wiz: Fortunately, Scuttle Town is not without a protector.
BMS: Yup, because Shantae wasn’t just a child under some inventor’s watch. She was a half-genie, which gives her super strength, speed, and stamina, and so many dance moves that even the hardiest men would fall before her…or rather into her if you know what I mean.
JA: Or female zombies OR young bird caretakers. What? Wayforward don’t discriminate. Anyway, she didn’t inherit those dance moves; she learned them naturally from the local nightclubs.
BMS: Really? Awesome, though I don’t think those ladies were expecting her to use those moves in combat, such as her back slide, the in-the-air corkscrew kick, and a foot-bringing uppercut. Damn!
Wiz: Well, her combat skills have been tailored by her longtime human friend, Bolo, who has a bit of a, um, complex when it comes to being intelligent.
JA: He tries to be, though his weapon of choice – the Pike Ball – makes up for it. With it, Shantae can have it fly around her to attack foes. Yet that’s not the only thing she’s packin’, and I’m NOT talking about her “girls”, I’m talking about her arsenal.
BMS: Heheh, yeah. She’s got protective bubbles, fireballs, lightning clouds, swords, giant bouncy balls of death, and even her…hair. Okay, so she’s like Bayonetta somewhat.
*Shantae has also used Risky Boots’s gear for a mission, but later returned it to Risky. Therefore, she will not be using the gear in the Death Battle.
Wiz: Oddly, her hair isn’t tethered to her magically, but for her weapons, she uses her unique Dance Magic to make them appear. This is helped even further with her dancing experience. And if she feels like giving her hair a bit more oomph, she can use special shampoo and silky cream to increase her hair damage and speed.
JA: WHIP IT GOOD! (whip cracks) Now, stupidly, the games have her equipped with a limited supply of magic to use, but thankfully, she can use different potions to heal herself, refill her magic use, or just come back from the dead with her Auto-Potion, getting back health AND magic. But if healing potions aren’t enough, she can munch down on different foods like Bunchi Boxes and Lobster Tails, and even the properly named Monster Milk.
BMS: This delicious dairy drink gives Shantae a bigger boost in power, able to do more damage than before. The Super Monster Milk does the same, but just 3x better. Also, considering what she’s eating, she’ll need to wash it down.
JA: But perhaps aside from her unexpected appetite that even Kirby would be happy for, she also has the best ability around to kick some pirate ass…
BMS AND JA: TRANSFORMING INTO F%%KING ANIMALS!
Wiz: Through her years of training and fighting foes, Shantae has gotten quite a huge number of transformations to help her out, such as –
BMS: A wall-climbing bullet monkey, a bubble-blowing mermaid, a very shaky harpy, and even a…Tinkerbat?! Well, funny that that’s not even her strangest transformation. Hell, she can actually turn herself into a mouse, a fruit tree…they really should give her a list of these so that she can remember which ones kick ass and which ones don’t.
*The Tinkerbat transformation has only been seen in two games, SHANTAE and SHANTAE: ½ Genie Hero. It is stronger than any other Tinkerbat. Despite it being essentially a DLC addition, it will be included in the analysis.
JA: I hope that includes her gem pot form, which when submerged in spa water can grant her tons of gems somehow, and this little but effective machine gun car.
*The Sophia Dance is exclusive to ½ Genie Hero, as it requires a trade from Tuki the Snake Lady. It will be included in the analysis. However, Shantae’s time being in Blaster Master Zero is still surprisingly considered non-canon.
BMS: OOH! That’s got to be a reference to the Sophia Mk 3 tank from Blaster Master, one of my favorite games.
Wiz: I didn’t know that you played video games.
BMS: Well, yeah! 5 time Blaster Master Champion right here!
JA: Did you play the reboot? Shantae’s a DLC on that one.
BMS: Hmm…you don’t say…
JA: I do say. Speaking of extra content, Shantae got another means of transforming, and it doesn’t even require dancing.
Wiz: Upon finding, meeting, and rescuing 4 other half-genies on a faraway island, she discovered Fusion coins, which allowed to take the form of any creature found only in that area, like the Boulder Tortoise and Octo Jet.
BMS: And then there’s the Fusion-HA Dances. By combining her magic with her new found genie folk, she gained the ability to see through things, blow up ghosts, electrocute tech, and even go all Thor Odinson on her foes. (cue Quake Dance) Too bad those other genies can’t give her a hand today.
JA: She’ll be fine. For the cherries on top, she can use the Metronome to double her dancing speed, thus transforming quicker, and can even use her magic to gain invincibility, which normally would take a toll on her use, but with the Magic Tiara, she literally gains unlimited magic. Or she just needs to use her also hard-as-hell-to-find Monster cards, which, when defeating certain foes, can grant her different enhancements, like damage increase, magic increase, and even means to destroy certain enemies which can’t normally be killed.
Wiz: And that’s just the weapons.
BMS: Seriously?! We’re not done with her yet?! That’s awesome. Well, turns out that she needs some kind of protection – not just the sexy kind – to keep on fighting back. Her bikini armor (random catcall) can increase her defense, while her Egyptian style outfit can give even more magic to use.
JA: But if she feels that magic is too powerful to wield, though I don’t know why, she can go out in different clothing, complete with their own arsenal, ranging from literally guns a-blazing in her Officer outfit to go all out with Nin-Genie-Jitsu in her Ninja outfit.
*The Officer and Ninja outfits, as well as the Swimsuit and Pajama outfits, as well as their abilities, as considered to be part of non-canon stories, and will not be used in the Death Battle.
Wiz: With these and all of her talents, Shantae is definitely a magical force to be reckoned with, though that hardly makes her invincible.
BMS: Yeah, she’s been known to doubt her status from time to time. Plus, she’s a bit immature and has a tendency to rush into dangerous situations, regardless of the risks.
Wiz: This has even caused her to lose her magic to Risky Boots in the form of her negative counterpart, Nega-Shantae.
JA: But you know what? Our not-so-magical Shantae still managed to fight her off. Plus, she eventually got her powers back after going toe-to-toe with Risky’s old boss, the Pirate Master himself. She’s strong and clever enough to go up against the Barons of Sequin Land, who are skilled treasure hunters, and beat all of them in just a day. Oh, and she’s quick enough to destroy these tiki masks.
*While the number of hours remains unspecified, this is confirmed canon by an in-game comment by Uncle Mimic. This also includes Holly Lingerbean’s inclusion in the story.
BMS: Man, she got dem hips. She’s dodged the giant Giga Mermaid’s super laser, survived an undead dragon’s fire, made her way through a carpet race IN THE SKY without falling off, and used her hair to break stone.
Wiz: Assuming that stone is made of granite, this means that her hair is as strong as 19,000 psi. And her fights with different machines imply that it’s even stronger.
BMS: DAMN! She’s tanked a cannonball to the face, ran through a graveyard rave WITHOUT her powers, and even survived a fall from, like, hundreds of feet. I give that landing a 10!
JA: And of course, she has defeated Risky Boots multiple times and even the Empress Siren, who was near-invincible thanks to some half-genie blood. But yet the one accomplishment that is above the rest is the acceptance of her mother’s disappearance.
Wiz: Indeed, her initial journey was to find out what happened to her. But by the time she was 18, Shantae had finally accepted that her mother had gone out of her way and left her child behind simply to help protect the world and her from universal threats.
JA: Well, unless my new video game crossover with her and Kirby has anything to do with it.
BMS: Excuse me?
JA: Oh nothing. Anyway, despite the emotional baggage, Shantae has the heart of a heroine, rushing to save the day when many others wouldn’t. Clearly, she has more than earned the title of ½ Genie Hero.
Rouge[]
(cue Power Stone 1 Player Select)
JA: Hear ye, hear ye! The story of Power Stone be-th upon us!
Wiz: Uh, what are you doing?
JA: Just getting into character. (crickets) Too much?
Wiz: Yeah, just a bit.
BMS: Strange voice aside, our story begins somewhere in the 19th century, when a legendary artifact called the Power Stone was being sought out by hundreds or rather thousands of "believers". Why? Well, legend says it can make any dream come true, so you better believe that there'll be a lot of people fighting for it.
JA: Including a young and somewhat mystifying fortune teller by the name of Rouge. Ahem...lights!
BMS: Damn...she's got some style. (cue Rouge theme)
JA: She sure does. Now, while most of her life is not officially documented, she is confirmed to be a citizen of the fictional town of Mahdad.
Wiz: Which happens to be a reference to that of Baghdad, the capital of Iraq itself.
BMS: Iraq? Holy shit, is she one of those Arabbian terrorists?
JA: Absolutely not! But she is quite the charmer. However, she's not to be mistaken for just another pretty face. (Cue Power Fusion) As one of the many believers of the Power Stone, she set out on a journey to obtain it so she could bring happiness to others.
BMS: And to do that, she needed to kick some ass!
JA: By the way, there are at least 3 different types of media to work with (anime, manga, and video games), but for this matchup, we’ll be sticking with the anime and video games, since Rouge’s powers seem to be similar in both of them. Plus, if Death Battle has taught me anything, it’s that fights are always better with both combatants are at their strongest.
BMS: Damn straight! That and the manga panels were pretty much reflected into the anime, anyway.
Wiz: Ahem, in a matter similar to Street Fighter EX’s Street Fighter EX’s Pullum Purna, and in accordance with her heritage, Rouge uses a Gypsy dancing fighting style to move around the battlefield with ease. JA: Ooh, she pretty. Ahem, it also helps that she possesses incredible speed and jumping skills, which are often used to avoid attacks.
BMS: Just think of her as a really sexy acrobat, especially when she can use those athletics to dodge gun fire. Yeah, that happened once.
Wiz: This means that she would have matched the speed of sound. But she isn’t just a good dancer.
JA: Uh, she’s a great dancer. Did you not see the clip? Anyway, she can also handle different types of weaponry. In the game universe, there are several kinds of weapons that each player can pick up to give them more of a fighting chance. These include guns, swords, hammers, bombs, elemental rods, shields, a flippin’ chainsaw, and even -
BMS: GIANT F&&&ING BAZOOKAS! Now that’s what I call packin’ heat! From the looks of it, that one there seems to be similar to the Spanish Alcotán-100', which has a firing range of 656 yards and weighs about 14 kg.
JA: And yet Rouge can lift this giant piece of death metal with ease.
Wiz: But this all still pales in comparison to her best abilities yet.
BMS: Yup, it's time to FLAME ON! Apparently despite being human, she’s also a fire bender, capable of wielding and launching fire at her foes and keeping them at a distance.
JA: Still, it’s weird that the anime doesn’t show this often, but I won’t complain. After all, she makes up for that with the addition of being to predict incoming circumstances, though to do this accurately, she’ll need her very own Crystal Ball.
BMS: Yeah, you know how her occupation as a fortune teller requires her to have a crystal ball with her at all times? Yeah, she definitely has one, and her predictions with it have actually never been wrong. Wonder if she's making bank with that stuff.
JA: She doesn't do it for money, BMS. She does it for happiness. Anyway...remember how Rouge wanted to find a Power Stone of her own? Well, here's the funny thing: SHE ALREADY HAS ONE!
BMS: (stammers) SAY WHAT?!
Wiz: That's right. When she and her friends visited her hometown in Fire Land, a turn of events led to Rouge discovering that her crystal ball was in fact an orange Power Stone.
JA: And right after that, she used it to Power Change and save her fellow ally Ryoma from a palace that was going up in smoke.
BMS: Oh, yeah, that’s how everyone in the Power Stone world usually gets a leg up on the competition. On the off chance that Rouge uses her own stone in the anime -
Wiz: Or she manages to find three of them in the video games, which frankly confuses me.
BMS: - She becomes even hotter than usual with her transformation into "The Scorching Beauty".
(show scene of Rouge transforming)
Rouge: Power Change!
(We are shown Rouge's Power Change form, and yeah, it looks sexy)
BMS: HOT DAMN!
JA: Settle down there, tiger. We all know how blazin’ she looks.
BMS: No kidding! Not only does her hair light up AND her outfit gets WAY sexier, but her already severe fire attacks get a serious boost in power.
Wiz: During combat, Rouge literally brings the heat with her Power Drive and Power Fusion attacks.
JA: First up is the one and only Hellfire Sign. In the game version, she uses this attack to release flames from her mouth, though I'm pretty sure that's just a really hot side effect from eating spicy food.
BMS: Or maybe she’s training with the Ghost Rider. You think maybe it’s the same kind as his?
Wiz: Hmm…well, maybe, but she can’t use the Penance Stare like our ethereal skeleton motorist can.
JA: Well, at least Hellfire Sign OR Breath of Hellfire a better name than, well, what she says in the show.
Rouge (anime): Carpet Bomb!
JA: Almost sounds like a really bad dust bunny.
Wiz: In this case, she's launching fire from her hands and not her mouth. Her Dream Temptation, however, is included in both worlds as she zooms after an opponent with her magic carpet.
JA: Now that's some Aladdin s&&t right there. And she's even used this move to chase after a couple of thugs when they put her crushie wushie Ryoma on ice. Which she took the liberty to melt down later on, because of you know, her flaming body.
BMS: Yup, and that's just the Power Drive moves. Her Power Fusion techniques are just as deadly, if not deadlier. Her Fiery Trap, or...
Rouge: Red Hot Trap! (she unleashes waves of flame against her foe Jack)
BMS: ...can make her fireballs even larger and once they're thrown on the ground, say goodbye to any surfers or really crazy people who might be in her sights at that untimely moment. By the way, Rouge is NO trap; she's ALL woman.
Wiz: Um...that's...randomly encouraging.
JA: Yeah it is. Though if I ever saw a trap like that Boku No Pico himself, I'd -
Wiz: PLEASE...DON'T. A-a-a-anyway, Rouge's Secret Heaven allows her to catch opponents and -
BMS: Give them a live show! Hehe, talk about getting a real fortune.
Wiz: NO. Definitely not that. (BMS groans) She attacks them multiple times as a whole bunch of magic carpets fly around them.
BMS: Where the hell is she getting these carpets?
JA: That's your biggest question? There's a guy getting friend-hearted by her, like for real.
Wiz: Are you acting gangster right now? With a Kirby reference?
JA: Star Allies be awesome, yo. And as for the carpet thing, she's probably getting discounts at Kepple's Carpet by singing their tune or something. Or maybe getting her part of a deal for using her dancing skills to bring in customers.
Wiz: Well, that would be impossible since Kepple's didn't exist back then.
BMS: Oh, shut up, Wiz, you're ruining the moment. Anyway, one of Rouge's best tricks is to jump into the air and unleash her signature - and might I add pretty f%%king awesome - move of flaming goodness: the Summon Giant attack.
JA: What does this mean? Oh, nothing really, just bringing to life a giant flaming head that literally spews out - obviously enough – EVEN MORE FLAMES! Man, this girl really does put the word "hot" in "hot mess".
Wiz: There's no end to these "hot" puns, is there - oh s%%t.
BMS: Ha! You just made one, Wiz. So no, there's no stopping this pun train.
JA: With these powers to literally "heat up" the competition with, it's no surprise that she is quite a powerful adversary thanks to her accomplishments.
Wiz: In the anime, she had put these abilities to the test by taking a journey with actual Power Stone holders Edward Falcon and the samurai Ryoma and helping them face plenty of obstacles.
BMS: Man, there's always fire with Rouge around, isn't there? I mean, you could say that she was a "bitch in heat".
Wiz: Boomstick!
BMS: Just calling it how it looks, Wiz.
JA: Well, Rouge certainly is no bitch, but a fiery Firefox of the ages, and with her talents, she's proven to be no pushover. She's defeated another Power Stone holder (Jack Winslow) alongside her ally Ayame, melted a whole bunch of ice to free a Titanic parody (no, I'm not joking here), battled against a bunch of dark crystal-powered people, and once absorbed a room of flames from within a burning shipwreak.
Wiz: From the looks of the flames in question, and given the type of room that it was, it would seem that our heroes were entering the furnace room, which can house roughly around 2,000 degrees Farenheit and even greater.
BMS: Which would normally burn someone to bits, but not our girl Rouge! She just waltzed in there and ate every bit of fire in there.
JA: I wouldn't say she "ate" it, but she was definitely capable of taking it all in at once...eh, no sexual pun intended.
Wiz: Phew. About time.
JA: Yup. Rouge had even survived an attack from the evil Valgas's 2nd Power Change form, and in the game canon, she actually defeated him and another big villain known as Dr. Erode, along with a giant Pharaoh walker. Too bad that anime fight with Valgas, though, wiped out her transformation and several others in one shot.
BMS: Yeah, despite being a sexy hothead, she's not invincible. Her Power Change form can only last for a short time, and even then she's still vulnerable to attacks.
Wiz: That is quite a dilemma for her. But luckily, and quite amazingly, knocking Rouge out of her form is no easy task. In fact, a Power Stone within itself is a powerful defense mechanism; it will immediately return to its owner should said owner be in trouble. The red stone, for example, once saved Falcon from being crushed to death by a giant boulder, which, given its size and composition, could weigh up to 30 tons.
BMS: It was several feet away - the stone, not the boulder - and it just flew right back to Falcon in a heartbeat. That's incredible, honestly.
JA: And once Valgas was finally defeated, our heroes went on their separate ways to live their lives; Rouge in particular opened up a non-gambling fortune hall where many others can learn from her about fortune telling.
Wiz: Which made her in-game and in-anime quests to make the world a happier place a much easier one.
BMS: So much inconsistency with those two worlds, but who cares? Rouge is perhaps one of the most powerful fire users that we've ever seen, and a really sexy one at that. And for those who wish to seek good fortune, she's definitely the one who will help you get it.
(cue scene of the orange Power Stone transformation)
Rouge: Power Change!
(Scorching Beauty Rouge is shown)
Pre-Battle[]
Wiz: Alright, the combatants are set, and we've run through all the analysis.
JA and BMS: Close. IT'S TIME FOR A DANCE BATTTTTTTTTTTTLE!!!!
DEATH BATTLE!!!![]
(Cue whatever awesome mix that Death Battle has on hand)
We cut to a giant town where a certain half-genie was apparently running from someone. Neither one is happy.
Shantae: (grunts) Geez lady! What’s your deal?! I was just trying to recover some lost magic stone for my uncle! …oh, and to keep it away from Risky Boots. Too bad it wasn’t there.
We then show Rouge, who was chasing Shantae, looking at her crystal ball rather seriously.
Rouge: I see a dark future for this place…a building up in smoke…(looks up at Shantae) and a girl with hair like yours standing in front of it. That can only mean one thing…(prepares fighting stance)…YOU caused it to burn.
This causes Shantae to stop and gasp in horror.
Shantae: Wait, WHAT?!
Rouge: And I must stop you! (charges at Shantae)
Shantae: Hmph! (prepares fighting stance) Sorry, lady, but you’re off your rocker.
Rouge attempts to land some punches in, but Shantae dodges them, then proceeds to use some of her own.
Shantae: Yahh!
However, Rouge also avoids the punches. The two continue to throw punches followed by some kicks. This goes on for a few more seconds until Rouge finally to get a punch into Shantae’s exposed belly.
Rouge: Huh! Here I GOOOOO…!
But not surprisingly, the punch doesn’t hurt the genie girl.
Rouge: Hmmm?!
Shantae: (grunts) (chuckles) Really? I work out daily, so my body is in great condition. But this is just –
Just then, Rouge head butts Shantae, knocking her back a little.
Shantae: (grunts) HEY! (growls) Okay then…
She then delivers a strong punch and hair whip, knocking Rouge back through a store door, breaking it. Shantae nervously gives the best response to this.
Shantae: Uh, whoops.
Rouge then kicks the rest of the door away and comes out with, unexpectedly, a machine gun.
Shantae: What the genie?!
Rouge: Hmph! Normally, I wouldn’t use weapons like this, but…(cocks weapons)…let’s get wild!
Rouge starts firing, and Shantae begins to dodge the gunfire by dancing out of the way. Rouge decides to use her own dancing physique to attempt to catch Shantae with bullets. The genie girl sees this while continuing to avoid bullets and is impressed.
Shantae: Whoa! Check out those leg movements! Did she take the same lessons as me?
Rouge, who was able to hear Shantae amazingly, gladly replies.
Rouge: Maybe…but I’m probably better!
Soon after, she runs out of bullets, and Shantae takes a chance to counterattack.
Shantae: (thinking) Now’s my chance! (speaking) Ready for this?
Using some magic, she brings out three Super Pike Balls that gravitate around her, giving her both offense and defense. She then runs at Rouge while providing dance moves of her own.
Shantae: Time to get served, lady!
Seeing this, Rouge drops the gun and starts maneuvering around trying to avoid the Pike Balls, but seconds later, Shantae starts kicking them at her, and she’s barely able to dodge them. The genie girl ends with a pose and taunts the fortune teller.
Shantae: Yeah! Top that! (sticks tongue out)
Rouge: Wha?! (growls) Hmph. So immature.
Obviously offended, Shantae decides to take things up a notch.
Shantae: Excuse me?! How’s THIS for immature?!
She brings out her metronome and flicks it on. Then she puts it away with magic and starts dancing again to do a signature move.
Shantae: TRANSFORM!
With her fast dancing, Shantae quickly changes into her famous monkey form, which surprises her opponent.
Rouge: Whoa! Okay, that’s impressive – YIPE!
Despite being complemented, the genie monkey launches at her with her signature Monkey Bullet, doing so multiple times. Soon, Rouge trips up and falls, becoming quite dizzy from the attack. She than realizes too late that Shantae has changed back to her ½ human form, then an elephant and is charging at her. Shantae lands the impact and knocks Rouge back into a few randomly placed crates, then transforms back into human form.
Shantae: Huh. Thanks for the compliment. Now stay down!
Sadly, the fortune teller does not give in as she gets up and has in her hands a giant-sized rocket launcher. Once more, the genie girl gives the only response that she can to this.
Shantae: Or not.
Rouge: Taste rockets, amateur!
Rouge fires the rockets, but Shantae shoots out some Homing Rockets to counter the other incoming rockets.
Rouge: Ugh! Seriously?!
Shantae: Here’s some more for ya! (yells)
Quickly moving, Rouge dodges the rockets, though she accidently crashes into some boxes. Surprisingly, she finds a shield and activates it, placing her in a protective bubble. Other rockets are fired, but they prove useless against the barrier. Rouge can only snicker.
Rouge: (snickers) No good fortune for YOU.
Rouge then finds a flamethrower on the ground, picks it up, and runs toward the genie, looking to char her down.
Rouge: Let’s try this for a “hot” moment!
She stops and fires, and although it looks to be a complete hit, the flames suddenly bounce back, revealing that Shantae had her own magic bubble brought up. Rouge backs up a bit and looks on in surprise.
Shantae: Heh. Nice try, skimpy. But I can make bubbles, too, albeit better bubbles.
Shantae then drops the bubble while Rouge drops the flamethrower, and from here, the fight gets complex…but a bit fun. The two charge at each other a few times with Shantae getting a lead over Rouge, then she dances to transform into other various forms: first, her harpy form to try to scratch Rouge; then her spider form (the HGH one) to launch web gunk at her; and finally, without hesitation, Shantae quickly changes into her Newt form without dancing, surprising Rouge even more, whom by this point had been barely evading the genie assault. She’s getting exhausted as Shantae decides to gloat.
Shantae: Ha! Had enough yet?
Yet Rouge seems to be completely undeterred.
Rouge: Hmph! You think YOU’RE the only one who can transform?
Rouge then brings out her crystal orb again. Shantae is confused.
Shantae: Eh? Wait a second. YOU can transform?
Rouge: Sure, with the help of THIS!
Rouge then breaks her orb open, revealing an orange-colored stone. It is the Orange Power Stone. Shantae immediately recognizes it.
Shantae: Hey, wait! THAT’S the magic stone that I had to find. You stole it!
Rouge: Stole? I think not. Now it’s time to really get in gear!
Then the iconic Power Stone transformation scene occurs, featuring Rouge.
Rouge: POWER CHANGE!
When the scene is done, we see Rouge donning her “Scorching Beauty” look. The half-genie is somewhat impressed.
Shantae: Whoa…okay...that’s cool. (to herself) Wonder if I could do that…
Rouge: You mean “hot”? (giggles) My dear Ryoma would think so.
Shantae: (unamused) Wow. And I thought Rottytop’s puns were ba – AAH!
Rouge fires some – well, fire – at Shantae to try to hit her, Shantae dodging all the while.
Rouge: Time to set your life ablaze! Carpet Bomb!
The fortune teller launches her attack, nearly hurting Shantae, though she’s able to avoid more upcoming damage. She takes cover behind some barrels.
Shantae: Ugh! Gotta keep movin’! Otherwise, I’m gonna be scorched! Better heal up first.
She takes her only Super potion and drinks it, replenishing her health (and adding some more magic). But soon after, Scorching Rouge launches another barrage of flames, destroying Shantae’s hiding spot.
Rouge: Ha! There you are! Red Hot Trap!
Shantae: Okay, now you’re just overcompensating…AAHH!
Once again, Rouge takes the advantage by overwhelming Shantae, but the half-genie then quickly charges some energy while running and transforms into her Boulder Tortoise form, spinning away from the flames. She then bounces off some building walls back at Rouge, who dodges but gets a little scraped, though it’s barely noticeable. After a few more ricochets back and forth, Shantae transforms back to her human form and then quickly dance-forms into her Elephant form and charges at Rouge…only to get a face full of flames. But the half-genie pushes through and stomps the ground, sending projectiles in Rouge’s direction, forcing the fire-launching beauty to float back to avoid them. Shantae is back in her human form again, her face barely burned. She brushes it off magically.
Shantae: (grunts) Okay, are you sure that I’M the one who’s destroying everything?
Rouge is confused by the question.
Rouge: What do you mean?
Shantae continues her rant.
Shantae: I mean, you might be powerful, but like your flames, you’re full of hot air. Just look at what you’ve done to this place!
Rouge looks around seeing Shantae’s point, but is not accepting of the realization.
Rouge: (growls) Okay…that does it. You have truly forced my hand. I have to use this…
Rouge is now preparing to use her Summon Giant technique to hopefully finish the fight, with Shantae staring in awe.
Shantae: Oh boy.
Rouge: Like I said, honey. When it comes to my predictions…
Her attack is charged, and with this line, she launches it.
Rouge: …I’M… NOT… WRONG!
With the Summon Giant Attack unleashed, Shantae quickly covers her face with her arms as the scene goes orange from the spread of flames. The surrounding area is engulfed in flames as well, and about a moment later, the entire area is left smoldering with some leftover flames and seemingly no genie in sight. Rouge is looking around to see if Shantae is still alive, but sees nothing. She transforms back to her basic human form.
Rouge: Well…that’s that.
She turns to walk away, but unbeknownst to her, a little mouse is scurrying around the flames, rushing toward Rouge’s feet and quickly goes to bite her.
Rouge: OW! What the?!
Immediately, the mouse disappears in a flash of light, and in its place is Shantae herself, bruised but alive.
Shantae: SURPRISE!
The genie proceeds to head butt Rouge as revenge for earlier in the fight.
Rouge: AHHHH! What?! Impossible!
As Shantae speaks the following line, we are shown how she survived: she summons a magic bubble at the last second to block the Summon Giant’s assault, then under the cover of the flames, she quickly transforms into a mouse.
Shantae: (pants) You kidding? I’ve dealt with worst from a really bad and confused pirate. (pants) Anyway – EEP!
Regardless of the surprise, Rouge grabs her by the throat and holds her close so she can finish her off.
Rouge: You still don’t get it, do you? You need to DIE.
Using the Power Stone in her hand, Rouge prepares a fireball.
Rouge: My vision says so.
Shantae: (grunts) Is that so? Because it looks like your vision just got...CLOUDY!
Within an instant, the genie summons a fireball behind her back and shoots it into Rouge’s eyes, blinding her. The fortune teller screeches in pain while also letting Shantae go and dropping the Power Stone. While she’s forced back, the genie jumps away to take a breather before making her move.
Shantae: (pants) Get it?
Noticing the Power Stone by her feet, she picks it up and proceeds to do what Rouge did with it minutes earlier.
Shantae: So this allowed you to light up like a Christmas tree, huh? Hmm, I wonder…
She then strikes a pose and then the PS transformation scene occurs again, but with Shantae instead of Rouge.
Shantae: POWER CHANGE!
Rouge hears this, though she’s still blinded, giving the proper reaction.
Rouge: WHAT?! That’s not possible!
But it is, as the scene completes its course, and Shantae is shown to have the same “Scorching Beauty” look as Rouge did earlier.
Shantae: Sorry, but…(prepares some scimitars on fire)…it’s possible.
Shantae launches her signature scimitars, which are now on fire, with her dance moves in a frenzied but controlled matter at Rouge, who can’t react quick enough to dodge them and gets hit over and over, leading to them piercing her body and finally her neck, gasping the blinded fortune teller to gasp.
Shantae: I’ll say this; you could definitely dish out the heat…
Shantae prepares herself with yet another pose to finish Rouge off.
Shantae: …but you sure can’t take it.
Then said genie dances up to Rouge and delivers a final fiery uppercut kick to one of the scimitars in her burning neck, kicking it through thus decapitating her, ending the fight. Rouge’s headless body then falls to the ground, still burning, while the other scimitars vanish from her body. Shantae, after her kick, lands right-side up and strikes, surprise, a victory pose. Her Power Change mode then subsides.
Shantae: Phew, that was tough. Huh?
Upon saying that, the genie looks around at the surrounding area and sees the arena building in ruins with no one else around.
Shantae: Well…she wasn’t completely wrong. Hmm…
She looks at the Power Stone in her hand for a brief moment, then at the headless Rouge’s body.
Shantae: So, I guess you won’t need this anymore… I’ll just take it for safe keeping, and um…Bye! And with just a dash, the half-genie winner takes off with the stone while the area continues to burn.
KO![]
BMS: (sighs) Now THAT was an amazingly “hot” catfight! (laughs) Too bad for Rouge, though.
Wiz: Yes, Boomstick, it would seem that another fighter’s time in the spotlight has been cut short.
JA: Well, her TV series only had 6-7 months. But that’s not what decided her fate. For that, we’re going to take quite the journey through this final analysis.
BMS: First off, let’s look at speed. Rouge is able to dodge bullets, right? Considering one such instance and by dodging one, she basically matched the speed of sound, though she did get scraped by one. But Shantae took it way higher when she dodged the Giga Mermaid’s super laser.
Wiz: To be clear, this is confirmed to be a laser as it moved in a straight line and burns without exploding. Given that it moved at lightspeed, Shantae, in her case, would’ve have had to react at 50% the speed of light, which is million times faster than Rouge’s top speed.
JA: That’s a bit of a high baller, but even a smaller percentage of that is still faster than Rouge’s reaction speed. But as far as their agilities were concerned, neither one held a distinct advantage against the other. I mean, their dance moves were still incredible – and feisty – even before the real fight began. But unlike Rouge, Shantae has incorporated her dancing into her prime means of using magic, which helped to catch Rouge off guard.
BMS: In terms of strength, Shantae is no slouch either. She can destroy rocks with JUST her hair alone, and it can even bust through metal. Sure, Rouge can lift bazookas off the ground and give them a good firing, but that hair? Yeah, I’d beware the hair more.
*Shantae’s hair has even been proven to bust up and break through actual flesh, such as the enemy wolves in Pirate’s Curse. Despite what power Rouge had, she is still not considered superhuman and would’ve eventually broke apart from Shantae’s constant hair whipping.
Wiz: Plus, the fact that Shantae can whip a cannonball “back to sender” proves this fact. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Rouge, as her physical attacks aren’t anywhere near the level of Shantae’s.
BMS: Yeah, she definitely didn’t have training like Shantae did. Hell, the genie girl’s been using close quarters combat AND genie magic for years while Rouge basically relied on her quick agility to evade punches.
JA: Also, in terms of foes, Shantae has fought giant machines, giant mermaids, giant dragons, several armadas, the Barons themselves, a super sexy pirate, and even dark magic itself. Rouge REALLY didn’t have anything that our genie girl had never faced before.
*Wayforward founder Matt Bozon once confirmed that Shantae, the character, was 13 years old in the first game and 18 in the Seven Sirens, thus showing that Shantae’s combat experience equaled 5 years, more than Rouge’s half-a-year experience.
BMS: Not to mention the arsenal; while I do prefer Rouge’s weaponry, and that includes her literal firepower, I don’t think it really matters to someone who has tanked cannonballs and dark magic attacks for a living.
JA: Honestly, in terms of actual weaponry, Shantae and Rouge did have some that could counter each other fine, such as Shantae’s magic bubble and Rouge’s protection shield. But while Shantae can summon her bubbles – and other weapons - whenever she wants thanks to her magic, Rouge can only use weapons that she finds in crates. She’s never shown to have any on hand before any fight.
Wiz: In addition, Shantae’s variety of transformations meant that she had plenty of options on how to combat Rouge, though the fortune teller’s own fire attacks can fend off most of them, with the exception being Shantae’s elephant form weirdly enough, as typical elephants can’t normally stand really hot conditions such as weather temperatures at 31 degrees Celsius.
BMS: That’s about 87 degrees Fahrenheit, by the way, which is somewhat hot, but staying out so much as 4 hours can put an elephant down. But not our genie elephant! She just pushes right through the heat.
JA: And even when Shantae did get torched, she could always heal quickly with her potions, whereas Rouge never really had the means to recover herself.
Wiz: Or use one of her Monster cards, though quite frankly, she rarely needed them for this bout.
BMS: But still, how do Shantae and Rouge’s strengths REALLY mesh out, though? Well, for that, we needed to scale both fighters to comparable characters. Strap in, everyone. This could take a while.
JA: In Rouge’s case, that would be a few of her friends: Edward Falcon, Ryoma, Ayame, and Gunrock, each in their Power Change forms, as a lot of feats in the franchise would not have been accomplished without the forms.
Wiz: We here at Death Battle do our best to look at potential fighters in their prime, bringing together their best qualities, yet also bringing their worse qualities. However, the Power Stone world was so confusing that it’s amazing to see someone go through the trouble of finding the feats throughout the whole series for us. Thanks, JA.
JA: No prob, Bob.
Wiz: That’s…Wizard.
BMS: Meh, whatever. So Eddy Falcon was considered an underground fighter, and a damn good one. He proved it by taking out plenty of fighters in the ring and later members of the Octopus crime gang. Later that same day, he Power Changed and used his new found missile power to blow them out and cause a big explosion, which seemed to be at 2 tons of TNT.
JA: Meanwhile, his samurai rival/buddy Ryoma can, like Rouge, move at the speed of sound. In his form, he once sliced up more than 18 super sharks in less than a second with just one sword swing.
Wiz: In terms of elemental power, Ayame can create a massive tornado, which, compared to a real-life tornado, can blow up to speeds of over 300 mph, more than enough to lift plenty of people into the air or cause significant damage.
BMS: And then there’s my favorite, Gunrock, who is obsessed with seeing gold. In fact, his own Power Change literally turns him into a golden golem! Look at him! He’s living large for sure, and can even attack as a giant boulder. Oh, and he once moved two mine carts full of gold BY HIMSELF!
JA: A typical mine cart could weigh up to as much as 1500 lbs, and in the case of gold, these look to be the size of a gold bar, which would be 27.4 lbs each.
Wiz: With that, we’ve calculated that the total weight of the carts AND the gold together would equal up to more than 6,000 lbs.
BMS: Well, s%%t, that’s what I call “heavy-hitting”! So for Rouge to match ALL of that, she would need to be in Scorching Beauty mode all the time, which unfortunately doesn’t work well when there is a time limit.
Wiz: Indeed, time is a fickle mistress.
JA: Yeah…so let’s check Shantae out now. For her story, let’s turn to Sky, Bolo, Rottytops, and Risky Boots – surprisingly enough – for each of their most impressive feats to compare to.
Wiz: This wouldn’t be possible without a CANON DLC, such as Friends to the End, which takes place upon Shantae getting turned into Nega Shantae during ½-Genie Hero.
JA: Right. Sky, for instance, has used bird eggs and actual birds to attack with, and they’re pretty capable of damaging foes. Yet for her own strength feat, she once got captured in Pirate’s Curse by some furry-dressed Egyptians when she was mistaken for a princess. During that time, she, along with Shantae, Risky, and Rottytops, had to pull down a giant rope to open a door. Assuming each of the four girls had nearly the same body weight, each of them would have to have pulled on the rope with about ¼ of the total force each. But that’s a shared feat, so let’s move on.
BMS: Well, Bolo can be pretty tough with his Pike Ball skills, and that’s strong enough to pummel through foes as strong as the Barons, hitting with about a ton of force. Just wish that he wasn’t an idiot with the ladies.
JA: He tries not to be…I hope, or otherwise, Rottytops would eat his brains up.
Wiz: Speaking of which, Rottytops is apparently able to remove her head, toss it someplace else, and have her body reappear at the landing area, re-attaching her head in the process. That’s…impossible to say the least, but it must be attributed to some sort of undead magic.
BMS: Or just being dead, but who cares? Back in the day, she once raced Shantae across a haunted forest. Damn those rocks and trees! Despite being a zombie chick, she could run up to 17 mph, which is slightly faster than a normal human being. Thankfully, Shantae outraced her.
JA: Finally, we get to Risky Boots, a human who might as well be superhuman, considering her unorthodox jumping ability and incredible endurance. Generally, normal humans can jump up to 2 ft in the air, so considering the height that Risky gets, she probably close to anywhere between 50-100 times stronger than the average human.
Wiz: Shantae has fought Risky on several occasions, and even after getting hair-whipped, burned, and/or slammed by other weapons, the pirate queen has still gotten away unscathed each time.
BMS: And yet Shantae still survived each encounter. Plus, in Pirate Queen’s Quest, it’s shown that Risky had taken on every enemy that Shantae has before their final encounter in the volcano lair, showing that she has perhaps some similar strength to Shantae, although the whole thing was proven to be a story of her design.
Wiz: But it yet remains canon, except for the final battle. Shantae still won that one canonically.
JA: So does Shantae scale to them? Well, maybe not her friends, for they’re definitely not stronger than her, but she definitely scales to Risky, though one of her later mentioned feats could prove even more, especially when it comes to durability.
Wiz: This was definitely where the math was more complex, though not impossible to calculate. In terms of such, there were two foes that needed to be checked out – the Pirate Master and Power Stone’s Valgas’s 2nd form.
BMS: Valgas was known at the time for being the best fighter in the world, but he quickly used that for some evil purposes with the help of the Dark Stone, which gave him a lot more power than even the other Power Stones put together. Also, just look at this guy! Would you really want to get in his way if THIS was what you had to deal with?
Wiz: He distributed a bunch of Dark Stone shards amongst his henchmen, making them tougher to handle, even for our heroes.
JA: But the full stone was the worst, because it basically turn Valgas into f&&kin Doomsday, and then later evolved him into a giant electrifying blob monster.
Wiz: In this form, his power was so massive; it took out 6 of the 7 Power Changed heroes all at once, followed by temporary stone holder Jack Winslow.
BMS: Who once thought that Rouge was his long-lost mother and actually fought her while she was teamed up with Ayame. Fun fact, he stole Falcon’s stone so he could transform, and in his case, he could destroy 3 granite-based boulders at 22,000 psi each. But he didn’t even get a hit onto Valgas before getting zapped.
Wiz: Based on the radius of Valgas’s attack here, we can assume that he was launching an power output of over 100 mA of energy, which is fatal to normal human beings.
BMS: Of course, that would’ve killed Rouge and her friends if not for their Power Change forms. However, it’s still not simple enough to identify just how much they could take, but if I had to guess, then perhaps the amount of electrical energy needed to force them back to normal (or kill them if they weren’t powered up) would have to be somewhere above 50 volts.
JA: Definitely hard to beat, but with that said, let’s see how an ancient skeleton warlord gets his giant pirate ass kicked!
Wiz: With a single move, Pirate Master had spread darkness throughout the entire planet, which seems to be similar in size to Earth. To save the day, it literally took ALL of the genies in the world to reduce him to ash and bone, as in, it took SO much magic that literally nothing could stand against it. Even then, PM had plenty to fight with, ranging from spreading darkness to that of clones, giant swords, and bullet hell type attacks and Shantae herself had to deal with that all on her own.
JA: Think that stopped her? Hell no! In fact, this just made her even madder. When she got her magic back, she practically equaled the strength of said genies, which, if I heard correctly, could’ve been a planet busting attack. In the case of Earth, the planet’s GBE –
Wiz: Or Gravitational Binding Energy.
JA: - is equal to 60 zettatons of energy, so to launch such an attack on the evil pirate, it would’ve had to been greater than that, realistically in the ball park of say 1,200,000,000,000,000 (1 quadrillion) nukes.
BMS: SWEET JESUS! That’s assuming that the nuke in question would be the Tsar Bomba, the largest real life nuke ever made. And yeah sure, Shantae wasn’t quite dishing out THAT much power with every strike, and really, it only worked out because she was using light magic, which WAS the PM’s weakness…
Wiz: But even the fact that she could damage him and keep going is still impressive enough.
JA: In simple terms, Shantae was basically fighting someone who had his own power output at 1 quadrillion nukes, which is WAY more powerful than anything Rouge has ever dealt with. (sighs) Man, I told you this would take long. Oh, and did we mention that Shantae has dealt with THAT kind of power a SECOND time, when she fought against the ENTIRE GENIE REALM WHILE IT WAS CORRUPTED?! Well, now we have.
Wiz: That certainly shows how durable Shantae definitely is, though ironically, the device used to corrupt the realm, the Tinker Brain Dynamo, was pre-programmed by Risky prior to the fight to target only full genies, not half-genies. She even mentioned as such during their brawl.
BMS: But still, Shantae fought them back and destroyed the device, saving both genie kind and humankind. There’s no way that Rouge could’ve handle any army of that size on her own.
JA: Honestly, when Rouge goes to fight, which rarely happens, she’s usually with a team. But when Shantae goes out on a mission, she handles it herself, even when dealing with the Seven Sirens.
BMS: Including the Empress Siren, whose Ultra form was much larger, stronger, and faster than that of even the Giga Mermaid, all thanks to the blood of 4 – not 5 – half-genies; Rottytops (or rather Fillin’ The Blank) was mistakenly kidnapped as one of them, which did still result in an imperfect transformation, but dang it, ES was still strong enough to give Shantae a great fight.
Wiz: That’s probably even more than fighting a giant green monster (Dr Erode) who had his own giant Power Stone powering him up, if not terribly.
BMS: Actually, there is an interesting question to answer…which is better, the genie magic or the Power Stone?
Wiz: Well, based off all of Shantae’s feats, and despite her magic being stolen and manipulated a few times, it still proved to be more efficient than that of Rouge’s Power Stone, and here’s why. Each stone has the capability to protect their owners from certain harm, such as Falcon with a giant boulder that nearly killed him. However, it did not return to him when he fought Valgas in his “Doomsday” form, so it’s not an automatic response all the time. Given that perspective, it’s likely that the same would apply to all of the other Power Stones, including Rouge’s. Moreover, unlike magic, the stones themselves can be broken and shattered with enough force.
BMS: Like how Edward Falcon used the Light Stone – basically the Master Emerald of Power Stone – to break the Dark Stone apart and defeat Valgas. Oh, and they can even be manipulated to work for others, like when the evil pirate Kraken stole Ayame’s Power Stone long ago and used it himself with no issue. So there’s no mistake that Shantae would use Rouge’s stone herself to get the win.
Wiz: And if you really figure it, Rouge was practically a human borrowing some kind of godly power, while Shantae already was one…a demi-god, that is.
JA: So, to sum it up, Rouge may be top tier in her own way, which was definitely showcased here, but she really didn’t have the means to kill Shantae, who ultimately had the speed, strength, experience, arsenal, AND endurance to lead the blazing fortune teller to her untimely and deadly fate.
BMS: Man, Rouge really didn’t see this coming at all, both literally and figuratively. She should’ve just “uppercut” her losses.
JA: Well, hey, both their bodies were “blazing”, and thankfully, we never got, ehem…(pointing to BMS while he points back)
JA and BMS: “Burned” out.
BMS: (laughs) (sighs) Wiz…I think I really like this guy.
Wiz: (sighs) Yeah, me too.
D.U.M.M.I.: Hey, everyone. What did I miss? (looks at JA) Who’s this frail human?
JA: Um…new intern? (chuckles nervously)
Wiz: Ahem, the winner is Shantae the ½-Genie Hero.
