Death Battle Prediction: You're Either Perfect or You're Not Winning
Apologies for getting this out at the 11th hour. Shanks Vs. Minato took a lot longer than I thought it would (you should go read that btw), but this would've come out a few days ago the earliest. Do note that unless I think the matchup really requires and/or deserves it, my episode predictions aren't going to be full breakdowns. Even if I wanted to do one here, I've not the time or energy for it after Shanks Vs. Minato.
Is the Matchup Good?
The theme is...fine. Ultimate not-Terminators made by mad scientists isn't too inspired, but certainly not bad. The main selling point is the copycat angle; Cell's literally made-up of spare parts, which Metal would basically rip-off in Sonic Heroes. That's a fun comparison, albeit one SEGA would try and have you forget. Save some IDW comics, Metal's barely been pushed to have mid-battle copying since the 2000s. And we all know the comic writers aren't on the same page as the higher-ups over there.
Here's the issue: we've done this already:
Even putting all that aside, there's no good reason for Metal Sonic to have two solo episodes and major roles in another two. Depending on your standards, he now has the second-most stints as combatant in the show. Number one is Batman, one of the most popular fictional characters in the world. And people still complain about him getting so many episodes. Metal Sonic is barely even a B-tier character in the video game series equivalent of peaking in high-school.
Another Sonic character showing up isn't the issue per say (though I would say its been too soon since Bowser Vs. Eggman); its Metal having nothing new to offer, both with his kit and the matchup.
With all that said...I still don't hate this. Cell has a decently diverse set of abilities and comes from roughly the series' midpoint. That places him in a relatively untouched spot on the totem pole. The closest we've gotten to him are Buu and 18, who are a fair bit above and below him respectively. This isn't that refreshing compared to most series, but it still makes an impact.
More importantly for the show, I have to give credit where credit is due. After years of the show not striking while the iron was hot for no reason, the team saw how much Metal Sonic got hyped-up after Bowser Vs. Eggman and wanted to capitalize. If you somehow still don't believe that, you probably don't know the guy who animated that episode is working on this one (albeit not solo). If you're going to bring back Metal, Cell is the guy to get you more views (and the best remaining choice, tbf).
Say what you will about this episode, but at least to me there's a real big fight feel in the air. I'm not hyped...at all, really, but I look at the thumbnail and think "This is a big matchup". In that sense, the team's already succeeded.
Oh, and just a heads-up, I'm planning to talk about the DA stuff in a seperate blog. That'll be out in the next few days.
What I'd Like to See
- We already know they're using anime-stuff for Cell and the Classic Era for Metal, but it'd be nice to get an explanation for it. Do I need one? No, they've been that shit, but it stands out more here. Cell's only main apperances are the manga and Z; Metal's big game was in the Classic series, which is now retconned to being an alternate reality.
- Don't exaggerate Metal's success-rate against Sonic. This isn't a scaling complaint, since the comics ensure he scales to current Sonic. But outside of them his track-record is pretty poor excluding his extra forms. Even those have often jobbed.
- Special mention here goes to the oft-cited claim that Neo Metal handily beat Sonic. This is technically true, but only because he had Sonic bio-data, Badnik support and a battleship. Sonic still had plenty left in the tank for a 1v1.
- I know we'll get some sort of cringey aura farming joke(s), but I'm hoping they don't hype-up either as the coolest thing since sliced bread. Aside from being generally dumb, these guys are way weaker than the top-brass of either series' prior combatants.
- I don't have a ton of specific desires for the fight. Cell taking on the Egg Fleet to some degree would be cool, and obviously copied powers have to be thrown around. A death fake-out with regeneration is inevitable for Cell, but it'd be fun to do with the Cell Juniors too.
- Hoping this is a good send-off for DA on the show. It'd be nice after all the drama.
Who Should Win?
There's two ways of looking at this. I'll start with the one an average viewer is thinking of: Cell Vs....well, Metal Sonic; no extra forms allowed save Neo (since he's in the thumbnail). No anime for Cell, no other forms for Metal.
Cell Vs. Metal Sonic (The One People Actually Think Of)
Cell can blow-up a solar system. If you're still using that "he lied/was cocky" shit in 2026...not the worst argument compared to what we get nowadays, but he's clearly way past star level based on being hundreds of times stronger than Frieza. Solar system level is hardly a stretch, even without bringing in all the other sources indicating his claim was legit.
Metal Sonic can reasonably scale to individual Chaos Emeralds moving continents. You'll commonly see people inflate that feat to large planet, even small star level based on size and KE calcs. But a constant plot-point in Sonic is characters needing Macguffins to threaten and destroy planets (and yes, larger areas too, more on that later). Why would Eggman awaken Dark Gaia or gather the Emeralds for his Eclipse Cannon if his usual roster could just tear apart the planet themselves?
The usual argument against this is Emerl taking the Final Egg Blaster's power, which destroyed a star cluster. The FEB is way above Cell when accounting for the spaces between stars; the explosion would be far bigger than it sounds on-paper. What's the problem? Emerl didn't actually absorb the weapon's energy. He was planning on using it to destroy the Earth, rather than just doing it himself. That also places him at sub-planet level.
You'll also see people say characters fighting Chaos with varying numbers of Emeralds means their power is several times that of individual ones. But the Emeralds don't provide linear increases in power. Even putting aside Da Lore saying they're like Lantern rings, their boosts are inconsistent and - with all 7 - exponential. To be frank, this talking point really doesn't matter. Sonic is never winning the multiplier game with Dragon Ball anyway, and the Eclipse Cannon being able to pierce a star with 6 Emeralds is largely unquantifiable and still way lower than even lowballed Cell.
Speed specifics are inherently trickier to figure-out since both series have hefty scaling and multiplier chains. Cell is obviously way past FTL given mid-level Saiyan Saga characters were close to lightspeed; the usual multipliers should safely get him to thousands of time FTL at least. That's around where Metal would get to with generous usage of gameplay mechanics and treating the lightspeed Sonic statements as legit. But that's his cap; highballed Cell is well into the tens of millions.
Metal can copy bio-data, but he can't cross a stat-gap this big mid-fight. We know that because he was still in-range of Sonic's stats despite copying his bio-data in IDW. So even if Cell plays around for a bit, he's not at risk of an upset.
Cell Vs. Metal Sonic (DeviantArt Power-Ups)
Really, I could have just called this Cell Vs. Metal Overlord; Metal's two other forms are a joke. Super Neo got one-tapped by Shadow, and "Master" Overlord lost without Super Sonic being needed. Neither bridge the gap in stats at all. Before anyone points out that Ian Flynn said Super Neo lost because of Chaos energy destabilization or whatever, that really doesn't matter. Ki is similar in make-up to Chaos energy, so it would do the same (and really, if one-shotting Super forms with Chaos energy was a thing, why did it never happen anywhere else)?
Overlord is a different story (skipping Metal Madness because its just the imperfect version). Fighting Super Sonic already shows that, and you could argue Tails and Knuckles were Suped up too. He pretty firmly scales above the Final Egg Blaster, which likely traveled as a beam to the star cluster it destroyed. That places Overlord at multi-solar system level and billions of times lightspeed. There's nothing manga Cell can do here.
But if we're going to give Metal his one-time power-up (no, time-wimey stuff from Shadow Generations doesn't count), I'd say its fair to give Cell his anime version. That turns the tables, since Cell can also scale to multi-solar system level - far above it at a higher-end - while being way faster. Base Goku post-Cell Games flew across the Afterlife, which is universal in scale. No dumb universe-size math needed, that floors any speed feat Metal can definitively scale to (we're talking at least quadrillions of times FTL).
Of course, Overlord can potentially be scaled to later Super form characters. To make a long story short, doing so means he could reach universal - multiversal and a speed around Cell's. But being similarly lenient to Cell places him in a similar range of power while widening the speed gap yet again. Even if Cell started weaker, Metal wouldn't be strong enough to get past his regeneration. A similar scenario unfolds using higher-dimensional and infinite to immeasurable scaling slop.
Metal copying Cell's abilities would be annoying, but the proccess takes time, which isn't on his side. Even assuming he got Cell's regeneration and zenkais too, Metal taking too much damage can revert him to weaker forms. The second he drops out of Overlord, he's toast.
But Who Will Win?
Most hardcore fans are saying Metal giga-stomps, and the G1 Blog had a decisive - albeit not that one-sided - 0-12. What's the reasoning?
Well...I'm still trying to figure that out.
I've presented the main arguments for Metal's stats already, including the ones I don't believe. Yeah, you could fudge the numbers a bit to get him above Cell, but that goes both ways. Being similarly lenient to both, I don't see any way he wins save arguing against anime Cell's inclusion since he's pretty clearly less canon than the manga. That line of thinking actually makes sense, even if I don't personally agree.
But that argument's dead-in-the water. They always use the anime for Dragon Ball, and we saw it in the preview.
G1 argued Metal was stronger because of the Sonic multiverse "having 15-18 universes". This is despite Death Battle claiming the Dragon Ball universe was over a thousand times larger than our own. That should really tell all you need to know.
The only way I see Metal winning is if they say the Sonic multiverse is infinite and don't scale Cell to 5D or above. Is that plausible? I guess, but it would be a really arbitrary choice.
Final Thoughts
Put all the arguments I just gave aside for a second. After Omni-Man Vs. Bardock, are they really going to give Dragon Ball their second losing streak here? On DA - the Cell guy -'s retirement episode? Metal already made the Death Battle Hall of Fame by winning an episode he wasn't even headlining, let alone how much he got undeservedly gassed up in Bowser Vs. Eggman.
Sonic going 0-2 is rough, but its coming off 2 wins. They can afford the loss, even if the fanbase would have you believe otherwise.
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