Ningen's Blog Without a Cause: Mewtwo Vs. Shadow the Hedgehog 2

Death Battle Prediction: Tetsuo Shima Vs. Vegeta (also Shima) - the Spoonquel

(Credit to TodayRemarkable5042 and AverageWooperLover respectively)

Not surprised this is the first rematch I have to cover. Frankly, I'm surprised it didn't win the rematch poll to begin with. Certainly would've spared us the infsufferable circlejerk around Doomsteel the Edgeslayer, but on the other hand, I've got two delusional fanbases to deal with. No matter what though, this fight's getting more than a spoonful of salt, and isn't that what really matters?

Did This Deserve a Rematch?

[Art by Shadow, not the hedgehog; don't know where their socials are, so here's the original source (which, among other blogs, helped with research]

Yeah, I have to change things up a bit for this one. I'm not giving Season 12 credit for having a great matchup when the show came up with it a decade ago.

If you're somehow still curious, yeah, this pairing works really well. But there is a little more to it than what you usually hear. More than the obvious battle of heel-turnt-tweener ultimate lifeforms, it's a Nintendo Vs. SEGA matchup that's not Mario Vs. Sonic. You've got good heat off going for the low-hanging fruit of Wario Vs. Shadow or Knuckles. You've also got the original Vs. copy angle (pretty ironic) adding some extra spice. SEGA blatantly copy-and-pasted Mewtwo's movie backstory for Shadow. If you want to go even further, see "Shadow Mewtwo" becoming a thing, though that's probably just a coincedence.

Finally, even the OG episode is a pseudo-rematch. Shadow was the jack-of-all trades against his admitted predecessor Vegeta's sheer power and speed. Now, Shadow's in the Vegeta spot versus someone even more focused on versatility than himself.

But none of this answers the real question: is running this back justified? It's especially important to ask given these series are some of the leaders in returning combatants...and, you know, the 100th episode was already a Nintendo Vs. Sonic rematch.

My verdict is a resounding...maybe?

Look, the original episode is bad. I won't rewrite history and say it wasn't a notable disappointment, for myself and others (especially as the last SGC one). The animation was literally incomplete, and that does suck. In-theory, that's enough ground for a rematch, or at least a remastered animation.

But the way a lot of people talk about that episode, you'd think it was the spawn of Satan. It's a frequent contender for worst episode in the show, when if we're being realistic, it's probably closer to the bottom 30.

Yeah, Shadow was portrayed as too dickish compared to his actual character, but dozens of episodes have had similar issues without the same pushback. If they didn't say Taka was directed to "act worse", I don't think it would be a sticking point at all. Outside of that and a poor fight, it's a fairly average episode of the era. On my scale, it'd be a 4; more forgettable than anything else.

Frankly, the analyses were a bit above-average. Given modern DB's track record, things will actually get way worse there.

There's also the matter of Shadow "needing a win". Presupposing a result aside...he got one already. His last episode, one that's still in the show's modern era (unless you treat the Kickstarter one as entirely seperate, which is a fair position). Sonic already got an undeserved win this season too.

Putting it all together, I'm fairly neutral here. There's enough arguments for and against this one happening. At the very least, it is still an actually popular suggestion, and one with history. If you pointed a gun at my head, I'd say this is a good pick, but not one I'm personally enthused about.

What I'd Like to See

• We already know Mewtwo's getting a nonsensical composite, but hopefully their analysis isn't just "He can do this move! And has that ability! And another new form!" ...Oh who am I kidding, we all know it's gonna be that.
• At least have Shadow's be more story-driven. His prior analyses do a good job covering his backstory, but not much after.
• The animation should be all-about Shadow's speed and strength versus Mewtwo's absurd range of abilities and intelligence. The old one actually got the dynamic right, but there wasn't nearly enough of it to be satifsying. Shadow should have the initial advantage, with Mewtwo gradually turning the tables until Shadow's full power shows up. From there, it should be down-to-the wire.
• Metal Sonic copying Cell's moves was cool, so I wouldn't mind Mewtwo replicating some of Shadow's moves. Not a requirement though.
• Please, no Oscar bait.

Who Should Win?

If you remember my Cell Vs. Metal Sonic prediction, you'll already know where I scale Shadow. Yeah, he's a bit above Metal, but by an unquantifiable amount.

In that blog, I placed Metal at Multi-Continental via him scaling above individual Chaos Emeralds, which can move continents and huge chunks of the Earth, requiring roughly 305.3 Exatons of TNT. 

I know the calcs you see - including the one I just gave - get way higher, but most rely on inflated sizes for Sonic's Earth (which has no real evidence of being larger than our own) or kinetic energy. As I've discussed many times, applying KE to feats of power like this leads to results which contradict the narrative, and this is no exception. The math from the above calc is fine minus using it instead of potential energy.

It's also worth noting that Eggman and other Sonic villains - including Shadow during SA2 - have tried to destroy the Earth before, and explicitly needed all 7 Chaos Emeralds to do so. There are many arguments to try and get (non-Super tier) Sonic characters higher than this, but I've addressed the most reasonable already for Cell Vs. Metal Sonic. Suffice it to say, they don't hold much validity. 

For speed, I think a fair assessment is him being Faster than Light. You could argue against the statements claiming Sonic is at that level, but they're fairly consistent and backed by a handful of feats. That includes one from Shadow himself, where he navigates atop light in an electrical circuit. The most impressive of these is Sonic moving 11.42x faster than his Light-Speed Dash in Sonic Unleashed. His Boost also moves 7.94 times faster than his normal speed in that game, which you could argue as a multiplier for his speed. However, we've seen Sonic run his fastest on numerous occassions without Boosting (even just looking at games after that mechanic was implemented). Sonic also shouldn't be that much faster than his own Light-Speed Dash, which requires him building up velocity to begin with (this also makes already questionable speed feats I'm not mentioning a hard no). So, a low-end estimation of Shadow's speed is Relativistic+, a high-end is FTL+, and the most reasonable is FTL.

How does Mewtwo compare? Well, it depends on what version you're using.

(Credit to MaleficTexX; it's not every version of Mewtwo, but still a very helpful guide)

TLDR, the main Mewtwo comes from mainline games and Legends. The anime and Detective Pikachu doesn't really fit the game universe, but you could argue Pokopia does. Luckily for us, only the mainline games really matter for feats.

Mewtwo should be above Groudon and Kyogre via the Rainbow Rocket Gang (Team Rainbow Rocket if you're a casual). The Mewtwo there is a higher level than them, used by the group's seeming leader Sakaki (cooler name than Giovanni), and acts as the final boss. Not Palkia and Dialga though. Seriously, they maintain the space-and-time Mewtwo exists in. Anyway, Groudon and Kyogre created all the continents and oceans, and can cover the Earth in each respectively. This is most impressive for Kyogre, whose feat would reach 25.1 Exatons of TNT...still over 12.1x weaker than The Ultimate Lifeform.

But what about speed? Mewtwo would scale well-above non-Legendary Pokémon, who can dodge various light-based moves. Normally I'd dismiss this as being legit, and for normal Pokémon...yeah, I would. But Mewtwo is far above them. It's heavily implied they dismantled Blue's team single-handedly, an interpretation backed by the anime and radio drama (yes, that was a thing. They stuck around a while in Japan). This would get the Legendary Genetic Pokémon to 1.17x FTL via Golonya (again, cooler name than in English) over 10x slower than Shadow's high-end...but actually a bit faster than his low-and-mid ends.

So speed's fairly even, but that power gap is major. A few clean hits from Shadow would be enough to end Mewtwo...if not for Mewtwo's moves. You know, ones that can boost their power, speed and durability up to 6x? Just a few uses would put Mewtwo only twice as weak, and likely 7x faster. That's without getting into moves which would swap stats immediately too, among other options.

Sure, Shadow has ways to boost his stats too, but not to the same extent. His best option would be Chaos Control, but Shadow consistently uses this to land single strikes, rather than spamming it. Meanwhile, his stat boosts only come out when he's pushed into a corner.

It's really close, but Mewtwo has the speed and versatility to win more times than not.

But Who Will Win?

So I agree with the original spooning, but will it hold up on the show? Rematches tend to go the loser's way (unless you're Goku), and we've seen DB's nonsensical logic give Metal Sonic a win he shouldn't have had very recently. But there's a little more going on than that.

Looking at the records, Shadow himself is 1-2, but coming off a win. Sonic as a whole is...complicated, given they had a rematch, Metal Sonic killing the combatants of an episode and then dying with Eggman, plus Archie. I count both Mario Vs. Sonics, Metal Sonic killing Wily and the android losing to Bowser, but not Archie, giving us 5-8 for the total. Pretty bad.

As for Pokémon, things are thankfully easier up. The Pokémon Battle Royale is in-series, so it doesn't count, but that episode establishes Charizard as an individual combatant. That's...not good for their record, since he, Lucario and Pikachu all got killed by Yugi along with Ash. This leaves us with an abysmal 3-7. Keep in mind that 5 of these losses came from finales, one of which was meant to be episode 200, outweighing Sonic's loss in 100.

So on a meta level, Pokémon actually needs this one more. Sonic just got a win too, whereas 200 ended rocky for Pokémon. I think that's enough to at least balance-out Shadow's original loss.

Where does that leave us? Well, we know Mewtwo's getting basically every official source. That grants an absurd number of Moves, Abilities, and other powers, many of which either severly impair Shadow or are win-cons all by themselves. Shadow can resist some, but not enough to win without the stat advantage.

Luckily for him, he's sure to get the Chaos Emeralds for...no real reason, granting him Super Shadow. Since we just saw them ignore Metal getting speedblitzed before using the Emeralds, it's safe to say this particular transformation is on the table. Mewtwo will also get their own transformations, but these mainly just further their existing advantages.

How will the stats shake-out? Looking at the last apperances for each series, Mewtwo would far surpass non-Legendaries matching Dialga, who was stated to control the abstract concept of time. This places Dialga at Universal+ (4D) and Immeasurable. Meanwhile, Metal Sonic's Super Neo and Overlord forms were scaled to Time Eater and Solaris destroying dimensions, universes, and timelines in seconds. Super Shadow would thus upscale Low Multiversal and - by Death Battle's numbers - Massively Faster than Light+, with arguments for Infinite and Immesurable speed blackboxed.

So Shadow's slightly stronger and either laughably slower or even in speed. Even in the best-case scenario, that's not looking like a victory. And this is assuming Mewtwo isn't scaled to the games' Creation Trio via Dialga and Palkia working under Giovanni in Rainbow Rocket. Those versions maintain time-and-space across the infinite multiverse.

Sure, Sonic's multiverse is likely infinite too, and both can be wanked to have higher-dimensional spaces. But you see the running theme, right?

I think they'll say Shadow has the stats to contend and win with Chaos Control, but that Mewtwo has too many options at their disposal.

Final Thoughts

Not much, since this was a long one. It's nice to have a fairly big episode compared to the supremely lame matchups this season has brought us.

Will it be better than the original?

My answer is a resounding...maybe? Again.

I'm certain the animation will be, but those analyses are probably gonna be rough (particularly Mewtwo's). The research is almost certainly a lost-cause, and the tracks have been hit-or-miss this year. The original's wasn't great, but decent.

I really doubt this will be better than Shadow's first two though. Hmm, maybe someone should do a retrospective on all his fights once this is over...