7 Animation Myths, Rumours and Urban Legends Busted, Debunked and Questioned

 Trigger Warnings:

-Suicide
-Phallic Imagery

 

The world is full of urban legends, and honestly, these can be some of the most entertaining rabbit holes to explore. You get legends like "Dial a certain number on your cellphone and it magically charges it for you" to things like "The Cat-wolf-goat witch of Butt-knuckle nowhere who eats your eyes unless you offer her a cup of sassafras tea while singing old English sea shanties", these urban legends can get absolutely wild. Unsurprisingly, the art world is also full of these myths and urban legends, and they are especially prevalent in animation.

What it is about animation and urban legends is hard to guess. It might be because some people misremembered something, misunderstood a scene they watched, or just retold a story they heard the wrong way, sometimes things get misreported, sometimes opinion gets confused as fact, sometimes Fact A combines with Fact B to make Possibility Z, things happen. Regardless, there are a lot of rumours, urban legends and myths about animated shows and movies that just are not true, and some that are. So I figured it would be fun to talk about some of these myths and see if I can find the truth about them. So, with all of that said, here are five animation myths busted, and some others confirmed.

Before we begin I want to give an honourable mention to the Sponge Boy story. The story that the original name for SpongeBob, which was Sponge Boy, was already taken by a mop or cleaning product and so could not be used. I was tempted to include this one on the list, but I learned of it literally two days ago, so I'm gonna leave this link to a video by YouTuber Kid Leaves Stoop about the story.

7. Literally anything regarding creepypasta

Thumbnail Credit: "Cartoon Creepypastas are Dumb" by LS Mark, "Top 10 Worst Nickelodeon Creepypastas" by PhantomStrider, and "Top 10 Worst SPONGEBOB CREEPYPASTAS (Feat. PhantomStrider)" by HoodoHoodlumsRevenge

Okay, this one is kind of cheating, but I have to mention this because I know someone is going to bring up this "Lost SpongeBob Episode for being too dark" or "How everything in this show is actually just a dream or hallucination" or something like that, so let me break this down; the general rule is that, if it's a creepypasta, it's safe to assume it isn't true.

I feel like the big reason people even humour the notion that anything creepypasta related is true is simply the fact that, on some level, we all want it to be. We want there to be a lost Mickey Mouse short film that is satanic and evil, why? Because we want to expose every bad thing The Walt Disney Company ever did, and a short film that causes people to go crazy? That would be a perfect thing to dirty up Disney's squeaky clean image. A lost SpongeBob episode involving suicide? Of course we want that to be real, because it would explain why an episode like One Course Meal or A Pal For Gary exist.

What also gets to me are all the theories that people make about certain shows. Pokémon is actually all Ash's comatose dreams, Ed, Edd n' Eddy takes place in purgatory, the children in South Park are all ghosts, Family Guy is actually a mental delusion by Peter after his kids died in a car accident and his wife committed suicide. I did not make any of these theories up by the way. I think on some level we talk about these theories because, they are some explanations as to why the usual quirks of cartoons are the way they are. Like, why does Ash Ketchum stay 10 for his entire pokémon journey? Well of course it's because he's actually in a coma. Why do the kids in South Park never age despite the world around them changing? Well obviously they are all the ghosts of murdered children. Like, I get the temptation and the need to look deeper into things, but sometimes the curtains are just blue, you know.

I almost don't want to give too much guff about this, I fell into these traps too as a kid, and it's not like this is a new thing. I remember talking about a "Lost SpongeBob Episode" which was supposedly the final episode of the series, an episode where SpongeBob smoked, swore, and killed Mr. Krabs and Squidward. Still though, one does have to apply some common sense and logic to these cases, Disney making a short film that makes people kill themselves? Walt Disney was a lot of things, but a satanic sorcerer who put curses on his short films? I doubt he was that. The South Park kids being ghosts because they never age? I think a floating timeline is a better explanation.

I like to think that Creepypasta is losing its popularity, but recently I got a creepypasta screamer add-on for Garry's Mod, so maybe not. Creepypasta is so early 2010s.

 

6. Class of 3000 was dropped because of a lawsuit

Class of 3000 was not a cartoon I grew up with, I don't really remember watching much TV when it was airing, and it was never on when I was watching TV. Me not watching Cartoon Network because I had Teletoon instead might have also had something to do with it, though it's not like it wouldn't have aired on Teletoon. Anyway, the point I'm making is, the only times I ever heard of this rumour, was when it was being debunked.

Class of 3000 was a Cartoon Network show created by and starring musician André 3000, the premise was about a music teacher who taught about music, from the history to the creation of it and everything in between and beyond, and each episode featured one original song. Then, one day in 2008, the show just disappeared, and no real explanation was given, but there was a possibility. Around the same time, someone allegedly sued Cartoon Network over infringement, because they also pitched an idea about a music teacher who taught about music, from the history to the creation of it, and everything between and beyond, and each episode would feature one original song. This lead to people assuming the show was cancelled because of said lawsuit.

I'm not a lawyer so don't take anything I say as legal advice, but this kind of reminds me of two cartoons from the 1980s. You know why there were two different shows titled "Ghostbusters" in the 1980s? because one was based on the 1980s movie, with the characters and objects from the 1980s movie, titled "The Real Ghostbusters", and the other was based on a 1975 sitcom, and had characters and objects based on things from the 1975 sitcom. So, while someone did in fact sue Cartoon Network, as well as André 3000 and Turner Broadcasting, he lost the suit because Class of 3000 was determined to be different enough to not violate any copyright.

So why was it cancelled? Well, according to a comment designer David Colman made on DeviantArt, the ratings of the show were too low to justify the high cost of making it. It also appears that it was not an easy show to make, especially since André was probably busy with... you know other priorities since he is a musician. So, there you go, it was not due to a lawsuit, it was due to ratings... it's funny how this lesson of "It's usually pulled for ratings" is not a lesson we learn easily.

 

5. Korra was pulled from air for homophobia

Okay, of all the rumours on this list, this is probably the most believable, given the time period it was happening, frankly I can't blame anyone for believing it, honestly I'm not even sure if I fully disbelieve it. However, fair is fair so let's talk about The Legend of Korra, and how it was treated by Nickelodeon.

The Legend of Korra was the sequel series to Avatar: The Last Airbender, it featured the new Avatar, Korra, and her own journey of becoming the Avatar. Regardless of what you think about The Legend of Korra, and frankly I'm not the biggest fan of it, but the show was not treated well by Nickelodeon. In the late 2010s, Nickelodeon was pulling shows left and right because, the late 2010s was a transitionary period that nobody was prepared for, people were ditching cable to move towards streaming, and this meant that ratings started to dip for a lot of shows, even popular ones. However, something else was happening around the late 2010s, there was more of a push about queer rights and representation.

Why is that latter bit necessary? Because it was rumoured that the reason Korra was officially pulled from the network and dumped online, was because it was known that Korra and Asami were going to end up in a relationship at the end of the finale. Again, it is easy to understand why one would think this, many companies, especially Disney, have been very... apathetic about queer representation, preferring to make very minor queer characters that can easily be erased for markets that don't allow these characters on screen. The thing is, unless you were super into subtext, the only hint we got that Korra and Asami were going to get together, was right at the very end. To be fair, it is kind of hard to address your feelings in the middle of a giant mech fight, because Korra had a giant Mech fight, what was this show‽

Also, it is worth pointing out that, while Nickelodeon did treat this show horribly, it wasn't the only show of the 2010s that they mistreated, Harvey Beaks is also very much in this group chat, also according to Bryan Konietzko, the show did way better online and in streaming than on TV, so with all of that, I am going to go on a limb and say that it wasn't because of some light evidence of a same-sex relationship. You don't have to believe the official statement, but the official statement is made.

 

4. The Road Runner Rules

This one is... questionable, in that we have information to verify one part of this rumour, but not enough to fully confirm nor debunk this, so bear with me because this one may be true, may be false, or may just be true but misrepresented, or false but based on some truth, lots of rumours and urban legends fall under one of those four categories.

The Road Runner and Coyote are a famous Looney Tunes duo who debuted in 1949 in the short film Fast and Furry-ous, and have starred in a total of 41 cartoons from 1949 to 1966, with an additional nine cartoons from 1979 until 2014, and they have been mainstays in the Looney Tunes ensemble since their debut. These shorts were created by Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese, both of whom are animation legends. Famously, Chuck Jones had a list of nine rules that he laid out in his book Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist, these rules pertained to the Road Runner cartoons, and all the writers behind these cartoons had to stick to them.

Now, here is where this gets fuzzy, because Chuck may have had these rules, however it is also possible that these were just rules that he stuck to when he wrote these shorts, or rules he wrote down for other future creators to follow when making Road Runner cartoons, because Michael Maltese never actually heard about these rules. It also doesn't help that another writer, Jason Kottke, had a different list with eleven rules, so what does this mean? It means either, Chuck Jones ever actually wrote down these rules and only did so later in life, or these rules never actually existed in the first place, because some of these rules are just strange.

Rule 5 states that "The Road Runner Must stay on the Road - Otherwise, logically, he would not be called a road runner". There are many instances of the Road Runner running on not road things, including cliffs, fake roads and even the air. Rule 2 states that "No outside force can harm the Coyote - only his own ineptitude of the failure of acme products." There are moments where the Road Runner does actually cause harm to the Coyote, not directly of course, he usually just beeps at him and makes him jump off a cliff or into some rocks. Also, there are a couple times the Coyote gets hit by a vehicle or directly run over by the Road Runner, which also breaks Rule 1, which states that "The Road Runner cannot harm the Coyote except by going 'Beep-Beep!'". One of the extra rules from Kottke states that "The audience's sympathy must remain with the Coyote." which, I feel just kind of misses the point of the whole concept of the shorts, and directly contradicts Rule 3, which states that "The Coyote could stop anytime - if he were not a fanatic."

It might be fun to go through each cartoon and see how many times the rules are broken, but for now, I think with the fact that Michael Maltese never heard of these rules, there is contradicting evidence about how many rules there are, and the fact that some of these rules are very much not followed, or at least were not initially followed, I think it's safe to say that this is not one-hundred percent the truth.

 

3. Little Mermaid, Big Phallus

Alright, almost everything else on this list has been, and will be heavily involved, so let's do something that's relatively simpler. It was common rumour at the time, and still today that there is a phallus drawn on the cover of the VHS release of Disney's The Little Mermaid, and some even make the claim the it was a deliberate move by a disgruntled artist who was being laid off from Disney.

According to Snopes, this is not true. It is true that there is a tower in the background of the image that looks like a male phallus, actually there are a couple but one in particular that looks really phallic. The truth is that it was completely accidental, according to Snopes, the artist rushed to get the video release cover finished and did not even notice the resemblance until he heard people talk about the controversy. It also is not true that this was just for the VHS release, it's also on the theatrical posters.

Really, I could have gone with any weird Disney renaissance sex rumour, like the word "sex" appearing in dust and pollen in The Lion King, which was actually meant to be a nod to the Sound Effects crew of the movie by spelling "SFX", and I remember one person online claiming that Aladdin was telling people to take of their clothes, when he was whispering for a tiger to "Take off and go", it is easy to see these things, especially when we are looking for them, but it does not change the fact that none of it is true.

There is also a claim that Disney has a whole bunch of pornographic drawings of their characters that were drawn by Disney staff, whether or not this is real is debatable, I can see arguments being made on both sides, of course the rumoured Mickey and Minnie sex tape can also be thrown into this section, but the main point of this bit was the untrue stuff about Sex and the Disney Renaissance movies, so there you go.

 

2. Hey Arnold had a Suicide in it

Alright, back to the heavy stuff,  on November 20, 1996, the Nickelodeon show Hey Arnold! aired episode 14b, "Pigeon Man". The episode is about Arnold meeting the mysterious recluse known as Pigeon Man, in hopes he will take care of one of Arnold's sick pigeons. In the end, Arnold befriends Pigeon Man, but Arnold's friends trash his place, causing Pigeon Man to fly away towards the setting sun.

The rumour is that the original ending of the episode was that Pigeon man jumped off the side of the building and died, and that Nickelodeon had to step in and reject this ending outright, this leads to a similar theory that the ending is an allegory for suicide with the image of Pigeon Man flying towards the sun being Arnold blocking out the image of Pigeon Man jumping to his death.

Craig Bartlett has admitted that he hates this theory and he specifically put Pigeon Man in The Jungle Movie to put the rumours to rest. Pigeon Man was never meant to commit suicide, and he was never meant to be considered an allegory for suicide. I think this one was though about because, Hey Arnold! is one of the darker Nicktoons, not as dark as Invader Zim, but it was definitely darker than something like Rocko's Modern Life or KaBlam! was. It did seem plausible that the writers would try to get something like a suicide allegory into the show. Funny enough, in 1999 the episode "Dino Checks Out" aired, which was about the character Dino Spumoni faking his own death, and in 2003, the episode "Ghost Bride" aired, where Gerald tells the story of a ghost bride who was left at the altar and her fiance married her sister instead, so she murdered them both and jumped out the window to her death.

I think because of these later episodes, and the general tone of the show, it made sense for a lot of people that "Pigeon Man" would have such a dark ending, but the reality is that it was never the case, Pigeon Man was always going to fly off into the sunset, and he was always going to be alive at the end of the episode.

 

1. The Who and What Bears?

Let's finish this by discussing probably the most well known myth about... well okay this isn't about animation but it is animation adjacent, so I might as well talk about it. So, here's a question, were the books "Berenstain" or "Berenstein" for you growing up? That's a fun question because it has lead people to what is known as "The Mandela Effect", which is a term given to false memories, and has devolved into a conspiracy about parallel universes, named after Nelson Mandela, who people believed had died in prison in the 1980s, even though in 1993 he was one of the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize.

So a lot of people swear that the spelling of the name of both the bears and the authors of the books was spelled "Berenstein", however all the books are spelled "Berenstain", so what gives? Well, Mike Berenstain, current author of the books and the son of Stan and Jan Berenstain, has stated that this confusion actually predates the books, as one of Stan's teachers in elementary school said that "Berenstain" was not a real name and changed it to "Berenstein", but the name "Berenstain" is on the birth-certificates of Mike's grandparents, and other documents.

It might be due to the fact that the family was Jewish, so a "Stein" suffix to their surname would be expected, but the family was also Ukrainian, so the pronunciation of their names would have been different, so if they immigrated to the United States, whoever was documenting their arrival might have tried to spell their name phonetically, though Mike also says that spelling it as such was what the family did.

Of course, it is not out of the realm of possibility that the Berenstein surname was also used to sign the books a couple of times. Shakespeare had several ways to spell his surname, which leads to the theory that he either did not exist and was the sixteenth century equivalent of Alan Smithee, or that Shakespeare was not actually the writer of any of his work. The difference of course being that the Berenstains died in the twenty-first century, and have a lot more records about them written down.

 

So there we are, seven famous rumours, myths and urban legends about animation completely busted, or partially busted. I think ultimately there is an importance to doing stuff like this, Todd in the Shadows did a similar video about James Somerton and a bunch of mistruths and lies he spread in his videos, and the thesis of that was that the truth matters, and in some regards that is also the thesis of this blog. Really though, this is not spreading misinformation about medicine or even making weird claims about Nazis and fitness culture, at best this is silly nonsense kids talked about at school, and at worst it is accusing companies of things, neither of which are really crimes or even really wrong.

But still, eventually you are going to have to learn the truth behind these rumours. I don't really want to think about people who hold on to the idea that Hey Arnold! was going to have Arnold witness a suicide. Like, why do you still want to believe that? Do you really want to believe that the spelling of a surname is the proof that there are multiple universes that we jump between at random? What do you get from that, outside of people looking at you like you have a second head? I think the reality is that when you just accept something as a fact without looking into it, it only proves you're more gullible than you think.

YouTube's Algorithm is Terrible For All Creators, not Just Online Ones

FUTURE ME HERE!

So this blog was published back on March 27th and written prior to that, so past me who wrote this was not aware of things going on behind the scenes. In this blog I make a minor defence of YouTuber SaberSpark as he was in some hot water for making a video on the Snow White remake instead of the Looney Tunes movie in theatres at the same time. I want to stress, that is the ONLY thing I am defending here, but as information about his defending of an alleged groomer and alleged inappropriate behaviour on Saber's side as well, I want to make it clear that I can not defend, will not defend, and am not defending those actions.

Thank you and on with the show!

Do you guys remember back in the day when you could look up on YouTube and find videos on some of the most obscure nonsense ever? Like, watching a movie review on the fourth Karate Kid movie, or a video game review on some unlicensed NES Game that nobody ever heard of, or some foreign cartoon that never made it in the U.S. but was still somewhat decent. Have you ever noticed that now most YouTube creators tend to be making videos based more on trends and things that have become or were always really popular? Is there any reason that the Nostalgia Critic is reviewing the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies outside of the fact that they would get a lot of views? Has AVGN done a review of a lesser known game since Hudson Hawk? Maybe My Horse Prince, but that is an outlier in a sea of Garfield, SimCity and Final Fantasy 6 Reviews. You ever wonder why this kind of stuff is happening? Of course you probably haven't, because the answer has been talked about by everyone from controversial YouTubers to nobodies on the most obscure Social Media platform; YouTube has changed, and that change is bad for all artists and creators, not just online ones.

Obviously, we know why the YouTube algorithm is bad for online creators, it rewards monotony and content theft while punishing original work and obscure topics. I'm sure all those rappers who react to ERB and Freshy Kanal make great music, but the majority of people only watch their react videos, no judgement. If you're a media reviewer then the algorithm will punish you if you decide to talk about an obscure property that you hold absolutely dear to your heart. It makes sense why people make those videos that will do well, YouTube is a business and a job for many people, they have to talk about what will get them a lot of views. The problem with this is that it encourages content farms, YouTube channels that make three or more videos a day or have a dozen or so other channels that do pretty much the same thing, think 5-Minute Crafts or WatchMojo. These channels are able to pump out content because they take less effort and have bigger teams than Joe-Schmoe-Body-o'No with only 1000 subscribers.

However, I also want to stress that this algorithm is not just bad for the YouTube creators, it's just as bad, arguably even more, for other creators; filmmakers, game developers, musicians, animators, comic creators, the works. I realize that this does not seem like something worth complaining about, after all film studios spend thousands, upwards of millions on advertising, as do game studios. Plus, it isn't like the music industry is suffering from a garbage algorithm withholding their paychecks, Disney isn't losing money over YouTube deciding not to push their latest upload. Yes, the studios aren't going to suffer because of YouTube's algorithm, because the studios aren't people, they are corporations that don't have the capacity of suffering. No, the real people who will suffer are the artists who make the content for the corporations to hoard money from, especially indie creators.

Let me create a hypothetical; say you're a game developer, and you're spending months on this passion project video game. You don't have any money to afford a team so you create everything by hand, the sprites, the music, the coding, everything. It's heavily inspired by the games you loved growing up and know there are still demand for even though they really don't make them anymore, and you put a lot of attention to detail into this game, what elements to take from your favourite games, and which ones to leave behind. After years of work, you finally release your game to an astounding zero fanfare. Nobody talks about your game, very few people actually buy your game, and by the time it gains traction as a cult hit, the algorithm will have moved on to something completely different.

I've learned about so many weird movies thanks to online reviewers, Movies like Freaked, Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure, Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings, and The Room. Games like Klonoa, Harvest Moon: Animal Parade, Remington Super Slam Hunting: Africa, The Stanley Parable,  Thief Simulator, and of course I can't forget the mention Stardew Valley. Other things like The Legend of Calmity Jane and Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century, the Legend of Zelda Manga, all of these things were stuff that was introduced to me via online reviewers and content creators. For a lot of people, the internet is where one learns about media that interests them, everyone from reviewers to comedians to countdown artists, all of these lesser known, up and coming, or cult classic pieces of media that ultimately would have just been forgotten and now have been given a second life. Now it's all replaced with brand sponsorship deals and the popular seeking out the popular.

The internet used to be a fantastic place to learn about this movie that had zero staying power but was completely up your alley, because that is the kind of place YouTube used to be. A lot of this does have to fall on the shoulders of how YouTube is used nowadays, we don't really subscribe to personalities or characters, we subscribe to content, so who cares that this critic is talking about a pilot to an internet animated series that is full of promise? They aren't talking about The Amazing Digital Circus. Recently, some BlueSky users have been criticizing Saberspark for seeing the Snow White remake in theatres while the new Looney Tunes movie, The Day The Earth Blew Up, was hardly mentioned by him. However, to play devil's advocate a little bit, what do you think will get more views? The highly talked about, controversial and rage-baiting Disney movie, or the Looney Tunes movie that has stakes only certain people seem to care about. I'm sure Saberspark would have much preferred to watch and talk about The Day The Earth Blew Up, but between the two movies, one is very clearly the one more people will view. This is not speculation either, I can back this up, Doug Walker made a video about both movies, and in six days the video about The Day The Earth Blew Up got 39K views, while in half that time the video on Snow White got 138K views. (As of writing on March 24, 2025)

I can kind of see why it's becoming more popular for studios and companies to just completely remove stuff from streaming because it's not getting the views, because why spend money on something that is not going to be popular? YouTube is the same thing, why push this video that isn't getting any views when this video could get us more ad revenue? This is why it was surprising to many that Disney extended Elemental's theatrical run, and that move paid off because Elemental was a sleeper hit. However, Disney can pull that off because they're a multi-billion dollar company that can take a hit like that. Imagine if the company behind Flow did that, they'd be bankrupt before making a second movie. Funny enough, I can only find videos talking about Flow after it won the Golden Globe, which says to me that the movie would have been relegated to cult status if it wasn't an award show darling.

My ultimate point here is that, because YouTube's algorithm does not encourage branching out and discussing lesser known properties, a lot of creators are going to suffer. Indie creators depend largely on word of mouth and if that is unable to spread then that project ends up unfinished or completely rushed to finish it. We need YouTubers to talk about lesser known media, up and coming projects that show promise and cult classics that deserve re-evaluation, and the great thing is that the power to change this is in our hands. Encourage your favourite media reviewers to talk about obscure things, and actively watch those videos when they come out, don't just stick them in your watch later bin and forget about them. Be aware of content farms and never be afraid to re-watch a video you've seen before. It's also important to share and talk about things you're into, not just online but in person too, which is why video stores and comic shops are great places to check out. YouTube's push for popular content is bad for everyone, so let's do something about it.

The Top 10 Best Death Battle Fights

So earlier this year, it was announced that Rooster Teeth was being shut down, and as someone who has been on the internet for pretty much most of my life, it was a bit of a bummer to hear the news, even if I had made statements about Rooster Teeth being kinda sucky. Plus, it made myself, and a bunch of others, curious about what would happen to their shows, namely RWBY, Red vs Blue and the one I was most curious about, Death Battle. Recently though, it was announced that Death Battle creators, Ben Singer and Chad James and a few others, managed to acquire the rights to the show Death Battle and have finished crowdfunding campaign to continue on with the show. Now, I'm excited because  Death Battle is genuinely one of my favourite web-shows because it really tapped into conversations we've all had as kids, who would win in a fight? Seriously, if you were into any media as a kid and you had friends, you've had this conversation at least once, could SpongeBob beat Aquaman? Could Mario beat Sonic the Hedgehog? Could, I dunno... Lena from DuckTales fight Hunter from The Owl House?

Now being as I am excited to see this series return, I knew I had to do a blog about it, but what type of blog? Well, I could do one about what match-ups I'd like to see, and while I'd love to talk about Cybersix vs Jack from Bioshock, or Katara vs Lapis Lazuli, I've already done that on my Tumblr, so what haven't I talked about? Well, the battles we do have!

Seriously, I can't believe I haven't talked about my favourite fights in Death Battle before, I think it's because I wanted to save it for a different top ten list idea, the top ten animated fight scenes, but that idea hasn't materialized so I'll do it now, but I do feel like I need to get some ground rules out of the way, because Death Battle, and really versus debates as a whole, kind of lead to a lot of... y'know, the "Ak-shoo-allee" types, so let me state for the record;
1. Just because I am a fan of these fights, doesn't mean I necessarily agree with the outcome.
2. This list is about the fights themselves, not the analysis or research
3. It's my own damn list, so shut up!

That all being said, it's time for a Death Battle countdown!

10. Sauron vs Lich King

I think this one is a pretty good standard match-up. Nothing too flashy, nothing too over-the-top, just an entertaining duel between similar enough characters. I'm not actually a huge fan of either Tolkien or Warcraft, so I don't know that much about either character, save for the basics. I'm also really amused at how this is actually one of the biggest time-gaps between characters in Death Battle history. Lots of people will bring up some of the badass lines and moments, and those do elevate this battle quite a bit, but I think on its own, this is just a solid fight that is always one I enjoy coming back to.

9. Samurai Jack vs Afro Samurai

This battle's strength is in how well they emulate the feeling of a Samurai Jack episode, a lot of the editing and shots feel like they were lifted directly out of an episode of Samurai Jack. I didn't grow up with Samurai Jack, I watched it a bit later in life, and I liked it. It was one of those shows that took heavy inspiration from the anime that was becoming more popular in the west, so it makes sense that they would pit him up against a manga character. I do think it is the style that elevates this one for me more than anything else, more than anything, it does make me want to get back into Samurai Jack. I'm not super into the hand-drawn style they used, it just doesn't look super right for Jack, but it does fit the match-up so I guess that's just me.

8. Chuck Norris vs Segata Sanshiro

Oh man, I remember when this battle came out, being a huge fan of Screwattack's Top Ten videos, I was familiar with Segata Sanshiro, the Japanese advertising mascot for the Sega Saturn, and of course we all love the Chuck Norris jokes, so this battle was bound to be epic, and it was... for season 2. Yeah, early Death Battle match-ups do have a bit of a different feel to them rather than more modern ones, if I was gonna do a Crash Thompson style "How To Get Into" about Death Battle, I'm probably put Seasons 1 and 2 in the Procced with Caution section, but they both have good episodes, though it does say something about the season when the joke battle that ends with the fighters destroying the entire galaxy and they are still canonically fighting is one of the better episodes of the season.

7. Joker vs Sweet Tooth

If I had to pick a battle that represents the match-ups I thought we're gonna be lesser in some way (Not necessarily bad, but maybe pretty obvious) but ended up being really fun, I think I'd go with this one. I think my initial thought was that, being that Twisted Metal is primarily a vehicular combat game, I mean it wasn't that I thought Joker was outmatched, but I thought it was a bit unfair. Of course now knowing about the Joker-Mobile, the actual vehicular part of this battle was quite fun, and honestly I do wish it went on a bit more. However, seeing Joker just mess-around with Needles was just hilarious, so I do think the rest of the battle is equally satisfactory. It does go to show, sometimes weird ideas work, and work better than good ideas.

6. Goku Black vs Reverse-Flash

I think this battle was the biggest surprise to me, when I first watched it I genuinely did not anticipate the winner. Beyond that, I think this is another really entertaining battle, it is easily my favourite of the predominately sprite-animated battles. I was vaguely familiar with Reverse-Flash, I knew he existed, but not being a comics reader at the time, I just kind of figured he was an evil version of The Flash. I think this was a great introduction to the character for me, his behavior was just the right amount of vile that he was entertaining to watch. Also, I have to give points for one of the most gruesome defeats in Death Battle history, not the most brutal, but I do think it's got to be up there.

5. Goro vs Machamp

This fight was just straight up funny. Like the basic concept alone, Mortal Kombat champion Goro fighting just an average Pokémon, I mean, that's just hilarious. What's even funnier is that this isn't a joke battle like SpongeBob vs Aquaman, they do actually take this one as seriously as any other Death Battle episode. Just the idea of Goro getting repeatedly frustrated by a Pokémon is grounds enough to warrant putting this battle on the list for me, like I think this may be my pick for funniest Death Battle fight, at the very least a close second. Also, when Goro tells Machamp to face death like a warrior, I don't speak Machamp, but I'm pretty sure its response was "you first".

4. Ratchet & Clank vs Jak & Daxter

Now this one, this one is special to me. As a PlayStation 2 kid, I was very familiar with Jak & Daxter, and my brother did also play a lot of Ratchet & Clank, so this was a match-up we probably would have discussed as kids. Seeing this battle just brings me a fun feeling of nostalgia, it's match-ups like this that really do make these kinds of debates fun. Seeing characters I have known since childhood actually squaring off... you know in something that isn't complete crap, it just puts a big smile on my face.

3. Saitama vs Popeye

Remember when I said that if Goro vs Machamp wasn't the funniest than it was a close second? This battle may be the one that gives Goro vs Machamp a competition for the title. First off, it's Popeye, straight up I don't think they could have done this battle without making it funny considering that Popeye's rubber hose animation style lends itself to slapstick gags. Secondly, the transition between animation styles is just an amazing touch, they even have a style that gives a nod to the original comic strip that Popeye originated from. Though the 3D Popeye model was a weird choice, I mean seriously, when you have a cartoonish model for Saitama and a realistic model for Popeye, that's just bizarre, at least the model could have looked like Robin Williams a little. They really did go all out on this battle, and I think it's because they knew nobody was gonna be fooled, Saitama might be the One Punch Man, but Popeye is Popeye the Sailor Man.

2. Solid Snake vs Sam Fisher

For a while, this was actually my favourite battle. It was such a unique kind of match-up that Death Battle hasn't really done since. Snake and Fisher, both being characters from Stealth based video games, take more stealthy approaches to this battle, resorting to out maneuvering each other as often as they try to beat each other up. I also really like how this felt more like a team based battle, as it was just Snake and Fisher, but also Otacon and Grim, which leas to a battle brain just as much as a battle of brawn. There is a lot about season 2 that doesn't really hold up very well, but I think this one still holds up. It's a unique battle but doesn't stray too far from the formula. Really, the question is, why isn't this my favourite anymore, and I think I know the answer as to why.

1. Balrog vs TJ Combo

For a brief period of time, I was into pro-wrestling, and it made sense. There was something primal about it, something that tapped into a basic part of my brain, it was watching two people fight, and I believe that might have been one of the earliest form of entertainment. I bring this up because, the main gimmick behind Balrog vs TJ Combo is that it begins like a standard boxing match, and I absolutely adore it. I like that they are using a gimmick not as a way to make a battle different, but as a way to enhance the battle. Of course these two would meet up in a boxing match, of course they would take things to seriously and actually go this far, none of it fails to work. I think this is also a great example of taking an idea that didn't work and fixing it, because it is very similar to the episode Hercule Satan vs Dan Hibiki, where the gimmick was that it was a match-up set in the Tournament of Power, but it didn't work there because it felt much slower and was clearly played more for comedy, which makes sense considering the characters, but that was about it. This battle is much faster paced and the announcer isn't as annoying in this one. This battle is my favourite because it is everything I appreciate about Death Battle, it is not too different, not completely the same, and it is a better version of a battle that I didn't really like that much. Gotta give props for this one, it's good.

I am really happy that Death Battle is coming back, and while I can't say I'm super excited for Omni-Man Vs Bardock, I think it's just gonna be Goku Vs Superman Part 4, I can't say I won't watch it, I might even watch it as a premier if they do that. Will the upcoming season have any battles that usurp these as my favourites? Maybe, there are quite a few I am looking forward to, but as of now, we're just going to have to wait and see. Until next time, I'll see y'all in the ring.

Oh yeah, and some honourable mentions:

Batman vs Spider-Man - Definitely worth a mention, I feel like this was really the point where Death Battle really started to get refined into the series it is now. Granted a lot more refining had to be done, but I think this one is where it all started.

Crash vs Spyro - As a massive Spyro fan, I do like this battle, but I think it's just a bit too goofy for my taste.

Aang vs Edward Elric - If we ignore the show ignoring Aang's pacifism for this battle, it was a pretty solid fight.

Ghost Rider vs Lobo - Probably my second favourite Marvel vs DC match-up.

Cable vs Booster Gold - Second to this one.

Deadpool vs Deathstroke - This fight was just funny.

Red vs Blue - The new voice cast weirded me out a bit, but the fight itself was really good, and in keeping with the actual Red vs Blue series.

Pretty Much all of Season 10 - I didn't really want to include Season 10 on this list because, this season was just the best and it would have taken up like, half of this list if I included any of the battles, so I decided to play it safe. If you're curious, my favourite battle from this season is Frieza vs Megatron.

Ben 10 vs Green Lantern - PSYCHE!! I actually don't care about this one, I was never a Ben 10 or DC comics kid, so as far as I'm concerned this battle was a meh. I do enjoy a harmless trolling sometimes though.