Recap / DEATH BATTLE! S11E13 - "Ruby VS Maka"

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Reaching Death Battle's 200th episode, Wiz and Boomstick celebrate by pitting two young demon hunters who wield scythes as their personal weapons in a fight. Will the young huntress leader Ruby Rose of RWBY be the winner of this battle to the death, or will the Meister student Maka Albarn and her demon weapon partner Soul come out on top? For the 200th time, it's time to settle this match up in one way: a Death Battle!

We first look at the world of Remnant, where fairy tales are real. In it, Huntsmen and Huntresses do battle with monsters called Grimm. And one particular person was inspired by the stories of these incredible warriors more than most others: A girl named Ruby Rose.

Ruby was the daughter of a world-renowned huntress named Summer, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances, though this did leave Ruby with a clear goal in life: being a Huntress. To that end, she enrolled in Beacon Academy, a prestigious school for Huntsmen and Huntresses-in-training. Ruby was even allowed in two years ahead of schedule due to her dedication and talent. Ruby is also incredibly enthusiastic about weapons, something which may have come into play when designing her signature weapon, Crescent Rose, which she made herself. As with many weapons in RWBY, Crescent Rose is simultaneously a melee weapon and a gun- in this case, a hybrid of a scythe and a sniper rifle. And Ruby has no issue swinging it around with ease, despite it being larger than she is tall, much to Boomstick's bewilderment, as despite her skill with such a massive weapon, Ruby is incapable of throwing a proper punch.

The explanation for this lies in the strength of Ruby's Aura, something all living beings on Remnant possess (except for dark beings like Grimm), though not all beings can use it without training. A manifestation of one's soul, Aura can form a barrier around its user, heal wounds, empower weapons and enhance physicality. It is also capable of triggering the various Dust cartridges Ruby carries around to empower Crescent Rose's bullets with various effects, like Fire, Ice, Electricity, Wind and Anti-Gravity. In particular, sufficiently charged Ice Dust can freeze a giant mech solid in a single shot, and Ruby has enhanced her physicality with Aura to the point where a single kick can leave a crater in military-grade steel. Aura is a limited resource, though with her scroll (which is basically just a smartphone), she can keep track of how much she has left.

Ruby quickly made a name for herself in Beacon Academy, very quickly being appointed the leader of her own team, the titular Team RWBY, comprised of Ruby herself, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Ruby's older sister, Yang Xiao Long. Note the bolded letters.

With that being said, Ruby's time at school would be cut incredibly short, as through the machinations of evil beings, Beacon was brought down, multiple of her friends were killed, and Yang even lost one of her arms. These evil machinations would be the work of the master of the Grimm, Salem, whose presence divided the world, and hope of a happy ever after quickly disappeared, though Ruby, not one to give up, set out on a journey to change the world- even as the pressure put on her increased the weight she felt from Crescent Rose, and her doubts about being able to live up to the legacy of those fairy tale heroes.

Crescent Rose was not the only thing that needed improving, though: She also needed to work more with her Semblance: A manifestation of her personality extending from her Aura. Ruby's in particular is called Petal Burst, which greatly improves Ruby's speed, seemingly teleporting, and making her intangible during it. Specifically, according to Penny, Petal Burst breaks Ruby's body down to its molecular components before zooming off in complex patterns. Petal Burst is so fast, Ruby can make flying missiles look as if they're standing still, and even giving the likes of Emerald and Mercury, who can dodge actual lightning, a hard time, and she's also comparable to her teammate Blake, and through her, her Ex-boyfriend Adam Taurus, who once blocked a particle beam, placing Ruby's overall speed very close to the speed of light.

With her abilities, Ruby quickly proved to become a beacon of hope across Remnant, but she had one more ability that only the most studied fairy tale enthusiasts would be aware of: her Silver Eyes. Just like her mother, Ruby inherited these from the God of Light, which serve as the kryptonite to negative energies like that of the Grimm, allowing her to wipe out things even as large as a giant Grimm dragon with ease.

Even after leaving Beacon, Ruby never stopped improving, taking on all sorts of magical or mechanical foes. Even despite being fresh out of Beacon, Team RWBY could match the Ace-Ops, long-time professional huntsmen, including Harriet, whose own super speed semblance was completely outclassed by Petal Burst, and Vine, whose aura was strong enough to contain a bomb whose explosion would have decimated the entire city of Mantle.

Perhaps the biggest challenge, however, would be the sheer pressure Ruby would face despite her youth; she is only 17 years old, after all. The pressure of being a leader, a saviour and Huntress like her mother would only intensify as time went on, but she eventually came to adapt and prove herself, continuing to strive to be the hero the world needs.

"A sound soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body." These are the words that start off the analysis of the second combatant. All the unjust, evil souls in the world threaten to become Kishin, destructive gods mutated from good-natured souls who can plunge the world into chaos and madness if left unchecked. Fortunately, there's an entire organization, a school, even- for the sake of making sure there are people for the job: The D.W.M.A: The Death Weapon Meister Academy, which is run by, well, Death.

Lord Death tasks the students at the D.W.M.A to become talented Meisters of Demon Weapons, who are living beings who can transform into weapons, be they guns, ninja stars, hammers, you name it. Meister/Weapon pairs kill and consume the lost souls to prevent the emergence of a Kishin. And in particular, one Meister and Demon Weapon pair are the focus of this analysis: Soul "Eater" Evans, and Maka Albarn.

Maka Albarn is a dutiful, serious person (or a teacher's pet, as Boomstick describes her), while Soul is generally more concerned with looking cool than getting anything done, though he admittedly does have the incredibly cool trait of his demon weapon form being a scythe, and his goal is to become a Death Scythe: the highest level of demon weapon, which can only be done by consuming 99 human souls and a witch's soul. This would be a tall order, but fortunately for Soul, Maka aims and achieves high, and the two united over this common goal. Maka is exceptionally perceptive, particularly when it comes to examining souls, being able to detect spiritual presences from millions of yards away, and can discern its nature, stability and emotions, to boot.

The two would quickly take to training, but their fighting style is somewhat unorthodox. While Maka does wield Soul as a weapon, and guides where she wants him to go, Soul (the scythe), does all the actual movement, somewhat like a conductor and instrumentalist. Unfortunately, their teamwork generally sucked at first due to their differing wavelengths, mandating they perform Soul Resonance to fix this, so as to not get shown up by their rivals, Black*Star and Tsubaki.

The "wavelengths" thing is very literal, as these are the means through which a Meister and Weapon can draw strength from each other. Like a guitar and an amp, they create a feedback loop to greatly increase their power and speed. Through Soul Resonance, Maka and Soul can also perform powerful attacks like the Witch Hunt Slash, a devastating energy wave that's especially effective against witches and other evil presences, made even more apparant by Maka having a rare Anti-Demon Wavelength.

Eventually, Maka and Soul came into their own and became a synchronized unit, though not without Maka occasionally having to reign in Soul's idiotic habits. With that being said, things changed after an encounter with Crona, an encounter in which Soul almost died. As a result, Soul was infected by Black Blood, a weaponized blood that strengthens and hardens its user's body, to the point where their bare skin can block blades, but it also comes with a side effect of Madness. While Maka was originally distraught at Soul's state, the two eventually got over it. In fact, the Black Blood actually strengthens the pair's Soul Resonance, granting Maka all of the benefits of Black Blood (as well as the insanity it brings, too).

With that being said, evil still won out, and despite the Meisters' best efforts, the original Kishin, Asura, had returned, and Madness was spreading everywhere. With their enhanced powers, though, Maka and Soul turned the Witch Hunt Slash into the even more powerful Demon Hunt Slash, and went on many more missions to reign in lost souls, alongside their classmates like Black*Star, who once outran his own shadow, something which pretty blatantly puts him at faster-than-light speeds, and at this point, Maka could keep up with her rival and classmate. She also once fought the Demon Tool Gopher, who could obliterate entire mountains.

However, their relationship still wasn't perfect, primarily because of the fact that Soul was doing most of the heavy lifting, leaving Maka to doubt her own capabilities and wonder if she was holding him back, though Soul quickly rebuked this: It was the teamwork between Maka and Soul that led them to win so many of their fights: Like any orchestra, it was only as good as the one conducting it. With this realization, their wavelengths finally synchronized, allowing Maka to don a dress made from Black Blood, which allows Maka to fly and unleash the power of her soul as a massive sound wave. Around this same time, Soul discovered his own unique ability: Soul Adagio, which allows him to effectively hack into the souls of others, transmitting Maka's Anti-Demon Wavelengths into them to shut them down.

They finally achieved their dream of reaching Death Scythe status, too. When Crona's Black Blood reached its final stage and threatened to destroy everything, Maka and Soul flew to the moon to confront them, and despite Crona's madness, Maka continued to reach out to Crona's soul until Asura showed up to put a stop to it. In what would be their final exam, Maka, Soul and all of their friends faced off against the Kishin, and despite Asura's best efforts including cratering them into the moon, punching holes in Maka's chest, and even flooding their souls with madness, Maka and Soul's perfectly in-sync wavelengths allowed them to overcome the powerful adversary, with one final upgraded move: The Kishin Hunt Slash.

Maka and Soul had proven that their souls were sound, because their bodies and minds were sound too, as the beginning quote stated. Nonetheless, this Meister and Weapon duo continue their work to keep the Kishin at bay and reap lost souls...

As Maka and Soul stroll through a town, looking for their target, "Little Red Riding Hood", they come across Ruby, eager to help them. Consulting with a drawing of the target, Maka accuses Ruby of abandoning her humanity, and, ignoring her fangirling over Soul turning into a scythe, attacks. Ruby disappears in a cloud of red petals, before appearing above and drawing the Crescent Rose.

"FIGHT!"

Fighters trade a series of strikes, with Ruby using the recoil of her weapon to jump around the Meister. As Soul taunts her for being not fast enough, Ruby ups the ante and engulfs Maka in a tornado of red petals, striking from all directions so fast, she can't be seen. In response, Maka and Soul activate Soul Resonance and strike Ruby with Witch Hunt Slash, catching her mid-movement and sending her flying.

Ruby hits the ground, as Maka attempts to hit her with another Witch Hunt Slash, but the huntress moves through her opponent, and hits her from behind. Maka falls on the ground, but quickly recovers, dodges another attack, and pulls Ruby in before beating her with her bare hands. Having had enough, Ruby tries to shoot Maka at point-blank range, though the Meister dodges the shot at the last moment.

Using the momentary confusion, Ruby hops to the rooftops. Maka quickly follows her, as the huntress showers her with a hail of bullets. Maka slices through the assault, but a single Dust bullet goes through, freezing her in place. Maka cries out to Soul, who hits the piano keys just as Ruby puts a bullet between Maka's eyes.

Maka emerges from the cloud of dust in her Black Blood dress, before once again rushing at Ruby. As their blades lock, Maka notes that Ruby's soul forms a protective barrier, and asks Soul to help out with it. Soul starts playing on the piano, and fighters trade blows once again, now with Ruby clearly on the defensive.

Finally, Ruby proclaims that she is a huntress and will never stop fighting, and goes for a decisive strike. But right before the attack could hit, Soul performs Soul Adagio, disabling her Aura and Semblance. Nevertheless, Ruby hears her sister's voice calling out to her, and activates her Silver Eyes, forcing Maka to cower. However, Maka and Soul power through it, and slice Ruby in half with a single strike, her body bursting into a cloud of red petals.

"KO!"

As the orphaned Crescent Rose glows in the moonlight, Maka and Soul approach Ruby's soul. Stopping Soul from eating it, Maka cradles the orb in her hands.

"A simple honest soul. Ruby Rose, huh?"

Meanwhile, Wiz and Boomstick discuss the results of the fight by breaking it down to four categories: strength, speed, skill, and powers. Starting with strength, Ruby's Aura can super charge her physical stats as a single kick was able to put a hole through a ship with ease, but Maka's Soul Resonance is strong enough to match Gopher's destructive Mountain Blast. And while team RWBY was able to defeat Vine, who was strong enough to contain a city destroying bomb, there's no possibility that Ruby's Semblance could replicate Vine's feat. In contrast, Black Blood Maka survived a blast from Asura into the moon, and his blast of 2.7 Petatons of TNT towers over Vine's containment of 366 kilotons of TNT, meaning Maka takes the strength category. As for speed, both Ruby and Maka are almost alike in different ways. Ruby's Semblance is already quick enough from the start, but as the series progressed, she and her teammates were able to keep up with and surpass Adam who could move 42% the speed of light. While Maka is able to keep up with Black Star, who's Severed Shadow attack is stated to be faster than light, Ruby's Petal Burst evolved to where she can also move faster than light, as evidenced by her fight with Harriet. So, both Ruby and Maka are even when it comes to speed.

As for skill, or scythery as Boomstick likes to call it, Maka is a skilled wielder, but Soul does all the movements for her. In contrast, Ruby controls the movements of Crescent Rose herself and has shown to be way more skillful with the weapon when compared to Maka. In addition, Ruby's training and experience is far longer than Maka's time with Soul, meaning Ruby takes the scythery category. But as for powers, this is where things lean more in Maka's favor. Even though Aura in the RWBY universe is impressive, it's a finite resource as Ruby requires it to do all of her attacks. Once Ruby runs out of Aura, she is left defenseless. And more importantly, Ruby's Aura and Semblance are all connected to her soul, which Maka can see and use to her advantage. There were multiple ways Maka could get through Ruby's Aura, such as Soul Adagio, but even then, she still had to contend with Ruby's Silver Eyes as they had the potential to interfere with the Madness used to power Maka's Black Blood form. However, Maka and Soul's main goal in Soul Eater has always been attempting to reach the perfect Soul Resonance and if Asura couldn't bring the two down and interfere with their wavelengths, there was no way Ruby could either. In the end, Maka and Soul's superior strength and powers proved to be enough to put the young huntress to a permanent sleep.

Next time on Death Battle...

"Ruby VS Maka" contains examples of:

• Always Someone Better: In a meta sense, this is the main hurdle that Ruby had to overcome somehow to defeat Maka and Soul. In short, as powerful as she is, Ruby is several orders of magnitude weaker than Kishin Asura, the final boss of Soul Eater. As Wiz and Boomstick both note, Asura did everything in his power to kill Maka and Soul, including cratering them into the moon and attacking their very souls with madness, and he still lost. As such, bar getting lucky with the Silver Eyes, Ruby just lacked the raw power necessary to put down Maka and Soul for good. Her only other edges were possibly being able to match Maka's speed with her Semblance and being a better technical fighter overall, but that could only take her so far.
• Ambiguous Situation: Was Ruby really the target that Maka and Soul were looking for? While the wanted poster figure showed remarkable similarity to Ruby, it was to her Volume 1-3 design. Furthermore, they called her Little Red Riding Hood, like the figure from fairy tales, and not her name, leaving it ambiguous if it was an epithet to the huntress or simply the name of a Kishin they were hunting. The fact that Ruby's soul was noted to be heroic and that the duo seemed to be showing some remorse post the fight lends credibility to the former theory.
• Bloodless Carnage: When Ruby is bissected, rather than falling out in bloody halves, she instead bursts in petals, leaving only her soul behind for Maka and Soul to collect.
• Boom, Headshot!: Barely averted. Ruby manages to tag Maka with a gravity bullet, and follows up by shooting her in the head with a round, but Soul managed to trigger the Black Blood just in time to tank the attack and for Maka to use the Black Blood Dress.
• Buffy Speak: In the post-fight analysis, Boomstick decides to replace skill with "scythery".
• Call-Back: The setup for the fight, Maka and Soul going out hunting for a entity called the "Little Red Riding Hood" with a wanted poster of the figure before crossing them by coincidence, is remarkably similar to how Zoro vs Erza began, though, unlike the last time, the hunters stood triumphant by the end.
• Cast from Hit Points: Ruby's powers working this way turn out to be a major reason for her loss. Though she is able to tank most hits, power her Dust, and use her Semblance using Aura, the fact remains that this Aura is a finite Life Energy that further drains as she takes attacks. Once Ruby's Aura is depleted, she becomes about as helpless as an actual normal girl her age, whereas Maka and Soul have ways of maintaining their own powers and defenses for much longer and against greater attacks than Ruby can dish out.
• Chirping Crickets: In the brief moment that Maka and Soul stare in disbelief as their target materializes right in front of them, a tumbleweed passes on, before they get back into the mood to start their In the Name of the Moon speech.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: In the post-battle analysis, Ruby's advantages are colored red, while Maka's advantages are colored orange.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Zigzagged. In the end, while she does put up an impressive assault, Ruby's powers and better proficiency with scythe combat were no match for Maka's and Soul's far greater powers. Even her Silver Eyes, her trump card, couldn't overcome Madness and Maka's and Soul's unparalleled soul wavelengths, though it does leave the former with severe burns.
• Damned by Faint Praise: The only category Ruby is noted to be superior in is skill, since she's actually swinging her scythe unlike Maka. Unfortunately, by that same logic, it's not really Maka's skill Ruby is going up against, but Soul's, making it a moot point. The fight animation does at least imply that Ruby's still more skilled with a scythe than Soul is at being one.
• Due to the Dead: After killing Ruby, Maka cradles her soul, and acknowledges the huntress as a "simple honest soul", seemingly realising that her initial assessment was a mistake. It's taken further when one of the Artists of Death Battle show a rendering after the fight with Ruby wielding Soul happily while Maka uses Crescent Rose, meaning the duo managed to resurrect Ruby to compensate for their misjudgement.
• Facial Composite Failure: The poster Maka and Soul use to identify Ruby as their target is a crude drawing of Ruby's original design.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: A vertical example, as Maka's final slash slashes through Ruby right in the middle of the body, before her body bursts in petals.
• Heroic Second Wind: Happens back-to-back for both fighters near the end. After Soul has disabled Ruby's Aura and deprived her of most of her abilities, it looks like Maka is about to finish her off... but then Ruby hears her sister Yang's voice calling out to her and this causes her to activate her Silver Eyes to blast the Meister and Weapon with the divine light. However, Maka then gets her moment as Soul calls out to her and gives her the strength to power through the light and cut Ruby in two, winning the battle.
• Logical Weakness: The hosts call out Maka and Soul's specialty in handling the soul as an effectively perfect counter to Ruby's powers, as she is very reliant on her Aura for protection, Semblance usage, and Dust. On the flipside, the similarities between Black Blood and Grimm lead to the hosts conceding that Ruby's Silver Eyes might be effective against the duo, but their mutual bond would let them endure the worst of it as they resisted being under the effects of a far stronger entity like Asura.
• Luminescent Blush: When Ruby mistakenly calls Soul Maka's boyfriend, while asking eagerly if he really could turn into a scythe, the latter blushes for a moment before hurriedly jumping to the battle.
• Musical Assassin: Soul's piano allows him to cancel out the abilities of enemy souls, which proves vital for his and Maka's victory, as it cancels out Ruby's soul-powered Aura, which leads to her death after they power through her Silver Eyes.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Amongst Ruby's feats, there is the fact that she met Ragna the Bloodedge and Superman, both previous combatants on the show she's had extensive interactions with in the respective crossovers (The former she actually faced and won against in a previous DBX).
  • Ruby's design in her wanted poster is reminiscent of a crude drawing of her design up until Volume 3.
  • The moment that Maka pulls out Ruby to nail her with close-ranged blows using Soul is an obvious nod to the same thing she did when facing Crona for the second time.
  • Besides the piano segment being an obvious nod to the many scenes that Soul Eater has with it — with even a cameo from the Little Ogre in the back — the song that Soul plays is an arragement of "Papermoon", the second opening of the anime.
  • The activation of Ruby's Silver Eyes at the last moment resembles how she used them against the Grimm dragon at the climax of volume 3.
  • In the aftermath of being hit with the brunt of Ruby's Silver Eyes, Maka's Black Blood Dress gets bleached, referencing how Maka looked at the end of the final fight with Asura after he used his abilities on her and Soul.
• Parody Assistance: Vocals for "Death in Bloom" were provided by Casey Lee Williams, the artist for the majority of RWBY’s soundtrack.
• Power Nullifier:
  • As it turns out, Maka's Soul Adagio serves as this to Ruby's Aura, being able to near-immediately remove Ruby's soul-based defenses and strike while the latter is vulnerable.
  • Averted in regards to Ruby's Silver Eyes against Maka's own Black Blood; whilst something like Black Blood likely would normally be vulnerable to the Silver Eyes (showcased by Maka being burned afterwards), Maka and Soul's spiritual bond have deepened to the point of being able to simply power through such an attack, though not without difficulty.
• Punctuated Pounding: Inverted. Ruby tries to compliment Maka while the latter repeatedly socks her in the face.
  Ruby: Wow! (punch) Cool... (punch) moves! (punch) Ow! (punch) Stop... (punch) hitting... (punch) me!
• Ship Tease: Ruby mistakes Soul as Maka's boyfriend, which visibly flusters the Meister...but neither of them vocally deny it. They did have a job to do, but still...
• Theme Music Power-Up: Once Soul starts using his Black Blood powers, a piano accompaniment of Papermoon, the opening for season 2 of Soul Eater is added to the music. A few days after the fight, a version of the battle track, "Death in Bloom", would be released incorporating the piano accompaniment.
• Uncertain Doom: Getting hit by Ruby's Silver Eyes turns Maka's dress white, in the manga doing so broke down the Little Ogre's world in a way that looked like he feared for his life. Whether he lived or died is just as unanswered here.
• Won't Get Fooled Again: During their final scythe battle, Maka attempts to do the same trick she did earlier of dragging Ruby in closer with her scythe to beat her up. This time however, Ruby is prepared and, using the momentum of the pull, punches Maka as soon as she gets yanked toward her, using the brief moment of stun to avoid the follow-up strikes, then use her Semblance to get away and try to shoot Maka some more from afar.