Saturday, 29 June 2019

Death Battle Predictions: Johnny Cage VS Captain Falcon


Throughout Death Battle’s long history, the show has never shied away from displaying the true potential each and every single one of their combatants could attain as they fought for their lives to the best of their abilities. Even those that could be passed off as nothing more than normal humans have proven themselves to be anything but “normal”, like our next pair of fighters; whether they’re off racing at speeds faster than the eye can perceive, making millions of that sweet Hollywood money, catching bounties, facing off against hideous monsters and even rivalling those that call themselves gods, both of these men have a knack for accomplishing the impossible and more, all while looking good and enjoying the spotlight along the way.
Johnny Cage, the celebrity Champion of Earthrealm from Mortal Kombat. Captain Falcon, F-Zero’s fiery Supersonic Slugger. With the bright lights of the Death Battle stage shining down upon them soon enough, this rather unique match-up will have Tinseltown’s living and breathing special effects master set to trade blows with the victor of the galaxy’s fastest and most dangerous racing league with some good old-fashioned fisticuffs to a bitter and bloody end. While they are true and proper prizewinners in their respective fields, there’s only room at the podium for one undisputed champ; will the ultra-fast F-Zero pilot show off his moves and coast on to a victory lap, or will the star of Ninja Mime himself steal the limelight one more time?
Also this is an actual conversation about the debates don’t @ us

Background

Johnny Cage
Millennia ago, Shao Kahn - the dreaded emperor of Outworld - sought to conquer all the realms and add them to his empire. All who had dared challenge him were destroyed, but not all hope was lost. To prevent the completion of his plots, the Elder Gods created the Mortal Kombat Tournament: every generation, a single-elimination martial arts tournament is held to determine which realms can invade another or defend against invasion themselves. With Outworld close to victory in the modern era, the Thunder God Raiden summoned fighters from all across Earthrealm to rally in its defense. Among his chosen warriors - ranging from Shaolin Monks to Special Forces operatives - stood an unusual anomaly: Hollywood B-lister Johnny Cage.
Having unknowingly descended from a group of elite Mediterranean warriors who possessed powers that allowed them to fight for the gods, the former Jonathan Carlton trained under the world’s foremost masters of martial arts to become one of the highest paid action stars in all of Hollywood. As his fame grew, so too did his arrogance, vanity and the rising doubt in his actual skills as a fighter by the general public. And as he got older, he started getting less roles and was more known for his public outbursts and drama rather than any of his films (his filmography consisting of such classics as Backbroke Mountain and Ninja Mime). Seeking to prove that his natural talent was anything but the use of green screens and stuntmen, Johnny joined the Mortal Kombat tournament to earn publicity, fight back his reputation as a fake and earn the respect he believed he deserved, completely unaware of the responsibilities he would have to bear as a defender of Earthrealm.
While allies and foes alike barely tolerate his tendency to run his mouth at all times, there is little doubt that Johnny has everything needed to back up his claims as one of the most skilled combatants to walk any realm in the Mortal Kombat tournament. When the fate of the world is at stake, he can be counted on to pitch in his lot and fight whoever he needs to protect his friends and the world itself. In recent years, he and fellow kombatant Sonya Blade married and had a daughter named Cassie, who inherited her mother’s path as a soldier and her father’s unending wit. Now more somber and mature but no less cocky or dangerous in a fight, Johnny Cage has continued to prove that he is much more of a hero in real life than he is in any of his movies.

Captain Falcon
In the 26th century, the successful implementation of interstellar travel led to humanity regularly interacting with the various other alien cultures and homeworlds that were scattered all across the solar system. As trade and commerce grew, a group of wealthy merchants opted to spend their fortunes on a new form of entertainment: the F-Zero Grand Prix. Contestants would take their finely tuned machines on dangerous high-speed races set throughout different cities and planets, all for a shot at glory, fame, riches and more. While the general public was initially appalled at the dangers these racers were subjected to, they brought about a level of excitement that soon made the Grand Prix the most watched event in racing history.
Chief among these racers who regularly risk life and limb on the track is, appropriately enough, one of Earth’s most trusted defenders and a multiple time champion of the F-Zero Grand Prix itself: the mysterious Captain Falcon. A masked bounty hunter in his 30s, little is known about his personal life away from the track. Some rumors say that he lives the life of a recluse when not attending to either of his jobs, often honing his skills on private race tracks to keep them sharp. Others say that he is the brother of fellow F-Zero racer Jody Summer, who had faked his death to investigate the Dark Million syndicate and its leader, Black Shadow. Even more claim that there have been multiple individuals who have once borne the name of Captain Falcon.
Regardless of who his true identity, the Captain has never once wavered in his duties as both a champion racer and hero to the people. On the track, his Blue Falcon is a well-balanced machine that has helped him attain podium finishes left and right to thwart would-be rivals from taking his spots - ranging from the vile hitman Pico to the tenacious Samurai Goroh and the calculating Dr. Stewart, while his larger cruiser - the Falcon Flyer - helps him travel between planets to hunt down criminal scum wherever they may lurk. With his mighty fists of justice ready to let out a thunderous Falcon Punch on all evildoers who dare cross his path, Captain Falcon has only continued to embody what a hero and champion of his stature should be.

Equipment

Johnny Cage

Brass Knuckles

A double set of brass knuckles with the word “Cage” on them. Johnny uses them in both MKX and MK11 as part of his moveset. Despite what they are, they don’t grant him any strength buffs, rather they give him access to an ability called Fisticuffs that grants him the ability to do extra chip-damage to his enemies… But you can just assume he can punch harder than before too. 

Nunchaku

You grab two wooden cylinders, chain them and bam, you got one of these. Johnny swings them to hit people very hard. He uses them in MK: Deadly Alliance and he seems to be quite proficient with them.

Bowie Knife

Believe it or not, the shit you are seeing on that image is not a sword, nor a scimitar, not even a really exotic machete, but a bowie knife that this guy apparently carries around. It's his designated weapon in MK4.

Shades

Costing almost $500, Johnny seems to use his shades to throw his enemies off guard… and apparently seems to have an infinite supply of them at hand (benefits of being rich I guess). Strangely enough, in one of his MK11 brutalities, the glasses explode when used by an opponent… Don’t ask how I don’t really know myself.

Camera

Used in MK11, Johnny Cage pulls out a camera to do his best Frank West impression and literally flash his opponents, blinding them temporarily, only for him to deliver a powerful blow with a goddamn chainsaw, Texas massacre-style.

Gun

It’s a fucking gun. (it comes from one of his costumes in MK4)

Excellence Award for Best Actor 

Yes, this guy apparently has one of these, and he uses it from time to time to bash people’s heads… literally… It may not be conventional, but to be fair, it must hurt like hell getting hit by it.

Captain Falcon

Racing Gear

Captain Falcon is decked out in clothes fitting for an F-Zero racer, but it has other uses besides style. Not only is his helmet useful for protecting his head from attacks, but he can also use it and a small device on his wrist to send coordinates to the Falcon Flyer’s computer on where its destination will be.

Laser Gun

A laser pistol that Captain Falcon has holstered on his hip. Obviously, it shoots alasers.

Grappling Hook

Dynamite

A timed explosive that Captain Falcon can throw before it detonates.

Ultimate Champion’s Belt

A belt made from the fusion of two Champion’s Belts. It’s said that one belt contains the power of light and the other contains the power of darkness, which are the two great forces that make up the universe. When worn, it would then allow one to seize this universal power, and Captain Falcon is the current owner of it. In actuality, the belt contains three ethereal beings known as the Creators, who created the world. Once Falcon beat them in a race though, they disappeared, leaving the belt uninhabited. Whether or not he becomes more powerful when wearing it remains to be seen.

Vehicles
As a racer, Captain Falcon knows how to pilot machines that move at extreme speeds. He has a few machines that he’s well-known for, even if they aren’t specifically made for combat.

Reactor Might

When the universe began, six powerful reactors were formed. These Reactor Mights can maximize the energy output in machines, and the more that are together, the stronger they are. In fact, it can create so much energy that it’s enough to destroy a planet. Captain Falcon has one of these, which is a major component in his F-Zero machine’s engine, allowing it to perform much better than what it would normally. It also grows stronger the more it’s used and lets Falcon perform a useful technique for both racing and combat called Boost Fire.
By deactivating his F-Zero machine’s safety control system and boosting while it’s already boosting, he can drastically increase his vehicle’s speed while veiling it in an aura. If he performs a spin while under Boost Fire, he can turn his vehicle into a destructive force to attack opponents by colliding with them or deflect attacks. F-Zero machines can even fly, tear through space or create vortexes to make gateways to other dimensions, or release disrupting waves that manipulate the environment and give memories to people while under these effects, and the energy given off from this can seal things up or counteract or overload the energy in other machinery. However, Falcon can only use Boost Fire once due to only possessing one Reactor Might and it putting a burden on his machine. While Reactor Mights have shown other abilities, Falcon’s is a component in his machine’s engine, and the different abilities Reactor Mights have used only occur when they aren’t part of a machine.

Abilities

Johnny Cage

Martial Arts

Boastful as he may be, Johnny Cage’s mastery of martial arts isn’t purely for show. As a young man - way before becoming a celebrated actor, he invested many years into training under different mentors to learn how to defend himself and fight; while his moves are flashy due to his own flair on them, his overall fighting style is one that is well-rounded and fundamentally sound.
While it is unknown how many specific disciplines he has trained in, the PS2-era Mortal Kombat titles have identified a few of them. For the most part, he seems to prefer Karate, the staple catch-all Japanese martial art that combines Chinese kung fu techniques with the closed-fist boxing utilized in the Okinawan islands. In an homage to a certain other celebrity martial artist, Johnny also practices the flashy-yet-deadly Jeet Kune Do. It's also worth to note that he more than likely received high-level military training from his time with Sonya and as a defender of Earthrealm, honing his already impressive hand to hand skill even further, becoming proficient in the use of firearms, military vehicles, and explosives.

Shadow Energy

A long time ago, there existed a mystical tribe of strange warriors from the Mediterranean: men that dedicated their body and soul to breed powerful warriors so they could fight for the very gods themselves. Each of these men possessed incredible abilities so they could hopefully give their lives on the battlefield protecting their deities.
But they are all dead anyway so who gives a shit? What's important here is that Johnny boy seems to be a descendant from these very same guys, and thus inherited their abilities. He can manifest this ancient power as a green aura that surrounds his body when he needs to, and he uses said aura to enhance his physical attacks. The guy can engulf specific parts of his body in this energy to enhance their striking power and even surround his entire body with it to shield himself from enemy attacks, making his already impressive might surpass that of a typical human being. 
Notably, Johnny’s aura can be buffed to a ridiculous degree, allowing him to defeat fallen Elder Gods like Shinnok in a fight. Raiden believes the trigger to be witnessing a loved one be put in danger, although no true specific conditions have been set in stone. In fact, as of MKX, Johnny himself states that he hasn’t been able to reawaken this buff again, with him also not going into the state in MK11.

Plasmic Bolt

Sometimes called the green fireball, the green forceball, the green orb or “the fucking green goo that the developers of this god-for-saken-game can’t decide a name for”. It’s a small projectile that Johnny can throw at his opponents. He usually launches it at high and low angles, but he can shoot them straight forward without any issue. In fact, he can shoot up to three in quick succession.

Rising Shadow

Also known as the Shadow Uppercut or Rising Star,it's basically a shoryuken, but instead of Johnny punching them with his fists, he uses just his legs and some elbow grease... the way god intended. The enhanced version of this move the Shadow Dropkick, it simply adds a kick at the end of the move (see the gif above).

Flipkick

Surprise, surprise, it's just a really cool looking flip but with a kick, it can be upgraded to the Ultra Kickflip even though it only translates to a couple more kicks (refer to the gif above). In MKX, thanks to the “A List” variation, he can charge the move to become the Rising Kick, a fully charged kick that’s strong enough to make a person's upper half explode into oblivion.

Shadow Kick

Also called the green kick, it might as well be one of the most famous moves from the whole franchise. Johnny engulfs himself in shadow energy before launching himself at high speeds, delivering a powerful kick to the opponent while sliding on his other leg. It’s usually a far reaching move, but if he needs a little more range, he can use the Eclipse Kick, or, if he needs it to hit harder, he can always charge it to unleash the Flashy Shadow Kick also thanks to the MKX “A List” variation.

Nut Punch

Despite having a ton of martial arts skills under his belt, and a plethora of incredibly flashy and out-of-the-box moves, Cage decided he needed to go the extra mile (like he always does) and develop a unique move of his own, something the people would see and say “yeah, Johnny Cage invented it”. Thus, after what probably took him a couple of hours to figure out, he came up with the one and only Nut Punch.
Also known as the split-punch, nutcracker, shadow nut punch, or as we like to call it, Defect’s fetish, it's a move where Johnny does a split and proceeds to punch his opponents in the groin, rendering them not only steryle for the boys (agonizing pain for the ladies), but unable to move for a short period of time. As if the punch wasn’t enough, Johnny can engulf his fist in shadow energy to add an uppercut (named the Nutcracker), and if he ever needs to charge the damn move, he can always do so thanks to the Nut Breaker (courtesy of MKX’s A-List variation).

In fact the move can get so brutal that in one of his brutalities, the force of the blow is so immaculate that the opponent’s head fucking pops clean off their neck.

Mimic/Stunt Doubles

Introduced in MKX thanks to Johnny’s “Stunt Double” variation, the guy can create up to two yellow copies of himself. These doppelgangers can perform one of his special moves before vanishing and are strong enough to kick a person’s torso clean off. As a trade-off though, when he uses them both, he has to wait a little bit before he can summon them again.
Worth noting out is that Johnny seemed to lose this ability in MK11. Instead of making copies of himself, he simply calls an actual stunt double of his to assist him in battle. This fella can do a bunch of stuff for his lord and savior Johnny. These go from a simple lariat, a kick, a sucker punch from behind or, to keep them in place, a full nelson.

Red Shadow Mode

It has been shown through the course of several installments that Johnny is able to enhance his special moves in the form of a strange red aura that replaces his green one on certain special moves or specific instances. The specifics as to how this works are not really explained, and it varies between games. However, in the most recent instalment of its appearance, MKX, Johnny has to be below 5% of his lifebar to have access to this sort of power, meaning he could potentially only use it in life-threatening situations. 

This red aura enhances all of Johnny’s physical and special attacks, making them hit stronger, travel longer and act more effectively. The special moves affected are the Shadow Kick, Shadow Nut Breaker, Shadow Uppercut, Shadow Flipkick and his mimics.

X-Rays
  • Ball Buster: Used in MK9, it acts as a counter move where Cage taunts his opponent. If, during this time, they attack him, he parries them and performs a triple Nut Punch in the opponent's groin area. As they double up, he jumps and then slams his elbow on their back, dealing damage to their spine.
  • Kasting Kall: Used in MKX, Cage stuns the opponent with an axe kick and then delivers a roundhouse to their heads, snapping their jaws. Then, Cage proceeds to slam their head into his knee with such force that it shatters their skull. To end it, Cage then does a backflip kick, dislocating the foe's jaw entirely and launching them upwards.
  • The Award Goes To: Cage starts by hitting the opponent with a charged palm strike after which he shadow kicks them in the gut and under their chin. Cage proceeds to land an overhead spinning kick, then backflips to kick them down face-first with his foot at the back of their head. He pulls out a trophy which is titled "Excellence Award; Best Actor" and strikes them away with it, causing the opponent to lie face-up and breaking off the base and part of the topper. With the broken trophy in his hand, he ends by stabbing them in the chest with it before back flipping away.

Fatalities
  • Head Pop: Johnny’s initial Fatality and one of his most used/referenced across the entire franchize, and it is a simple uppercut that decapitates his opponents (breathtaking I know). It has been his go-to Fatality for almost seven games in the series, and thus has had a few different interpretations, for example in MK4 Johnny engulfs his fist in shadow energy before performing said uppercut.
    • Triple Punch Decapitation: Used in both MK2 and MK:Trilogy this is a variation of the Head Pop, but instead of punching one head… He punches 3, how ? I dunno. Why ? Why the fuck not ? 
  • Torso Rip: Also one of the classics, where Johnny grabs his opponents by the… well, torso, and proceeds to rip it clean off their bodies, the move has also been in a plethora of games, with minor changes here and there, like how in MK4 he completely twists the torso 180° before ripping it off.  
  • Torso Kick: Only available on the Ninty64 version of MK:Trilogy, this is where Johnny decides he isn’t gonna use his hands but instead his legs, so he simply kicks half of your body away, not even joking, he just kicks half of your body away.
    • Forceful Shadow Kick: Not exactly the same fatality, but it's similar enough that it can be considered a variation. He uses this fatality in the SNES version of the original game and Shaolin Monks, in this fatality, Johnny uses his classic Shadow Kick to plant his foot inside of his opponents chest, killing them in the process, interestingly, he used this fatality in MK:Shaolin Monks to kill Goro.
  • Atomic Backbreaker: Ok so hear me out, Johnny lifts his opponents over his head and bends them on his back… In fact he does this with such power that they just fucking EXPLODE, exclusive to the Sega CD on MK: Trilogy, proving once more that SEGA does what Nintendon’t.
  • Brain Rip: In this one Johnny punches his opponent in the stomach, causing them a bad case of the vomit before forcing his fist inside their face and pulling their brains out… Talk about escalating quickly. He uses this one on MK: Deadly Alliance.
  • Super Split Punch: Done by him in MK:Shaolin Monks, this is where he simply does a Nut Punch, now that would be all good, but then he proceeds to use his opponents groin as a speed bag only for him to finish with a punch so ridiculously strong that he makes his poor victims legs go boom, it’s perfection in its purest form. 
  • Head’s Up: Used on the 2011 reboot, this is like a combination of his Head Pop and Torso Rip fatalities, as he first uppercuts their head off before ripping their torso off, kinda overkill if you ask me but hey, there’s no kill like overkill.
  • And the Winner is…: Also from the 2011 reboot and a classic, this Fatality has Johnny cut his opponents head in half with a wicked karate-chop before planting one of his many trophies between the split halves. 
  • Here’s Johnny: From MKX, Cage turns his opponent with a slap, and then, in an act of complete genius he jabs his hands inside the opponents chess, forcing it open, peeking through the hole and making his best Jack Torrence impression as he claims “Heeeeeere’s Johnny” before letting the victim fall on its back. (seriously it's great check it out)
  • Little Improv: Used in MKX, Johnny throws the opponent to the ground, and after holding their heads he starts to repeatedly slam its face down to the ground at high speeds using his shadow energy, to the point where their faces are turned to mush.
  • Mr. Cage's Neighborhood: From MK11, johnny gently punches their opponent so that their backs face him, then he just simply punches his way inside their spine and rips their torso (how unexpected) off, then proceeds to have a ventriloquist act with the deceased body, his jokes may be quite shitty but you can’t deny that the guy is a really good ventriloquist.
  • Who Hired This Guy: One of the best Fatalities from the whole franchize, from the latest installment no less, MK11. In this, Johnny cage uppercuts the opponent, basic stuff, but then a whole film crew appears ready to record the fatality and apparently it takes him 19 takes to get a good shot before accidentally punching the opponent's head clean off. It's definitely one of the best, if not the best, also check it out (here)

Captain Falcon

Falcon Punch

Raptor Boost

Captain Falcon winds up before rushing forward and performing a fiery uppercut on his opponent, launching them into the air. During the uppercut, he can even shrug off attacks that would normally stun him, though he’ll still feel pain from them. When used in the air, Falcon still rushes forward, but instead of an uppercut, he delivers an overhead punch on his opponent that can spike them downwards when hit correctly. He can also perform a slower dash that covers less distance but delivers a more powerful strike or step back a bit when winding up to dodge attacks before rushing forward much faster at the cost of the dash covering less distance and the attack dealing less damage and not letting him power through enemy attacks.

Falcon Dive

Captain Falcon leaps into the air with his first engulfed in flames. While mostly used to reach higher places, he can grab his opponent if they get too close and launch them away with a fiery explosion at point-blank range. The recoil of this will also make Falcon go up even higher. He can also jump higher and deliver a strong punch instead of grabbing his opponent at the cost of it being weaker and not going as far horizontally or jump slower and not as high so that he can create a bigger and more powerful explosion after he grabs his opponent.

Falcon Kick

Captain Falcon bursts forward with his foot aflame, mowing through any opponents who are in the way, though he will slow down for each one he hits. If he collides with a wall, he will bounce into the air, and when performed in the air, Falcon will instead kick downward to strike from above. He can also perform a multi-hitting kick that drags opponents along until the final hit at the cost of not going as far and dealing less damage or imbue his kick with electricity to stun opponents with a weak hit and go through them while going much further. The latter when used in the air also creates a small spark that stuns his opponent, leaving them open for a follow-up attack.

Knee Smash

A powerful kneeing attack that’s imbued with electricity if Captain Falcon perfectly times it against his opponent. However, if he mistimes it, it loses its electrical properties and becomes much weaker.

Pyrokinesis

Besides his well-known fire attacks, Captain Falcon can manipulate fire in general to imbue his physical strikes to make them more powerful and able to set opponents on fire. That or he can radiate a fiery aura around himself to flex on them.

Feats

Johnny Cage

Accomplishments

Strength

Speed

Durability

Captain Falcon

Accomplishments

Strength

Speed

Durability

Weaknesses

Johnny Cage
Despite the supposedly inhuman punishment the Mortal Kombat games subject him to, Johnny still squarely lands within the realm of “normal human” within the context of his home series. While his Shadow moves and mastery of different martial arts still make him a capable combatant, he is no less vulnerable to the same weaknesses normal people are subjected to, and can easily be dealt a fatal injury in spite of his pretty impressive durability.
His Inner Power did allow him to best a fallen Elder God, but the only known theorized trigger for it is for him to see a loved one about to die, which isn’t practical in the situation a Death Battle will subject him to and thus pretty unlikely to show up.
Also, Johnny had something of an attitude problem in his younger years, where his cockiness and arrogance got him into trouble more often than not. This has mellowed out as he’s grown older - the interactions between the past and present versions of Johnny in MK11 show this contrast well enough. It does slip out every now and then, however.

Captain Falcon
So that Death Battle curse failed to resurrect F-Zero. Literally puts the “press F to pay respects” in that series’ name pretty aptly.
Kidding aside, Captain Falcon squarely falls within the realm of a “normal” human within the context of F-Zero. He may be a reputable bounty hunter, but he’s much more known for his time as a racer as opposed to being a hand-to-hand combatant, and the amount of times he’s been seen in a proper fight - not counting his obviously non-canon appearances in Smash Bros. - can be counted on one hand. He has no known formal combat training, and rarely seems to go for his pistol despite the obvious advantages bringing a gun to a fist fight would have.

Summary

Johnny Cage
Advantages:
  • Has the experience and hand-to-hand edge
  • Trumps Falcon with an overall better moveset, both in terms of quantity and quality
  • Actually has been in games for the past decade
  • Can render Falcon infertile
Disadvantages:
  • Inner Power’s trigger is likely never going to come into play, meaning he won’t gain access to his powered-up state
  • Slower
  • Weaker and less durable, even with Inner Power
  • Doesn’t really have a way to put the Blue Falcon out of commission in the case Falcon uses it

Captain Falcon
Advantages:
  • Faster than Johnny by virtue of piloting the F-Zero at supersonic speeds and dodging lasers
  • Stronger and more durable, even with Johnny’s Inner Power
  • The Blue Falcon is not only more durable and faster than Falcon himself, but also gives Falcon more options
  • Yo did he just walk up slowly… And down-smash? (he really did tho)
  • Meme punch is more popular and well-known than Johnny’s
Disadvantages:
  • Is less experienced
  • Is less versatile
  • F-Zero is dead (Smash doesn’t count)
  • Even if he does win, might never be able to have children or proper sex ever again

Verdicts

Ramen
I played Undertale recently, and I mean this with all my heart: it is the most disappointing experience I have ever gone through in the last two decades I’ve spent playing video games. Thanks for the $10 and 5 hours I’ll never get back.
Also, what I’m just going to call my “anti-season” is going to continue over the corpse of the best dad in fighting game history, and that makes me sad. Let it be known that F-Zero is much more powerful and wack than anyone will ever give them credit for (especially Nintendo - thanks again for not succumbing to the Death Battle curse and not giving us another F-Zero game), and it’s that level of power that’ll give Captain Falcon the W here.
A big chunk of this sort of lies behind the fact that the F-Zero anime -- the one memed to death because of that scene -- is responsible for giving Cap good feats and scaling; most notably, scaling him and the Blue Falcon to Black Shadow and his machine gives us a character with Town-level strength at minimum thanks to blowing up a bunch of mountains and nearly MHS speeds because F-Zero machines obviously have to race in outer space in tandem with meteors. These feats are generally considered to be overall better than Johnny’s own, albeit with some personal caveats I have to put out.
Now, it is sort of possible for Johnny to theoretically beat those, but this depends on how much slack you’re willing to give Mortal Kombat feats, and last I checked, VS doesn’t really look upon MK fondly. Stuff like Kintaro surviving a nuke and Tremor creating an earthquake only top off to around City Block in terms of accepted values, and while you could make the argument that Johnny with the full green aura could match the likes of Raiden and Shinnok to get up to City with MHS speeds to probably surpass Cap, it’s likely that he won’t even get access to it considering that the only known trigger in MK history involves an outside influence Death Battle won’t consider because of the rules.
Could probably go on, but my boys down there have done a better job at sorting out the details, so I’ll funnel you to them. If you need me, I’ll be taking my L in advance, adding it to the pile I’ve amassed this season and consulting with the Elder Gods about getting a next time that will result in me not adding further L’s this year. 

ThankSwalot
You ever just put a racing character in a Death Battle? You ever just have a racing character kill a fighting game character from a series that’s all about killing?
Also nice, more Nintendo. Now to insert my Pokkén reference. Uuuuh, Blaziken is like Falcon cause fire and birbs and they’re both trash characters in their newest games. Yeah that works. Anyway, it’s nice to see Falcon getting in because this guy needs as much non-Smash attention as he can get. And if everything goes how I think it should go, then he should get the W too.
Cage and Falcon are both pretty stronk, and this is probably one of the closer fights of the season so far (kinda), but I think Falcon edges out. While Johnny does have more experience and skill because he was with the Special Forces and learned plenty of martial arts even before that. Falcon surpasses him in strength, speed, and durability.
First off, Johnny’s strength and durability don’t seem that impressive, at least in base form. Ranging from building to maybe city block from what I have heard. Most you could maybe put him is if you’re generous with Kintaro surviving a nuke or Tremor creating an earthquake, which would be around city level. With Inner Power Johnny, that’d also be around city cause Raiden can create storms. In comparison, the Reactor Might explosion that Black Shadow overpowered caused a space station to explode, reaching almost island level in power. That also brings up the question if Falcon actually scales. I think he does, considering when Black Shadow tried to escape before a different explosion at the end of the anime, Falcon is the one who stopped him with his punch. A character named Zoda while in his hyper form tried punching Black Shadow earlier in the series, and Black Shadow casually just took it without flinching, so I’d say Falcon definitely scales to him considering Black Shadow was obsessed with his dream and was desperately trying to escape. Also he was basically the light to his dark because apparently that’s how the legend in the anime goes.
So Falcon is stronger and tougher than even Cage with Inner Power. And if you wanted to, you could make Falcon planet level via a statement from Dr. Stewart in the anime, where he said the Reactor Might possesses enough energy to destroy a planet. This is the smartest guy in the series, and he said it seriously, so who knows, maybe that’s legit. I’ll still stick with the one that’s almost island cause it’s safer and is still stronger than Cage. Inner Power could be stronger than city, but that doesn’t matter because to enter it, Johnny has to see that a loved one is going to die. He’s only ever done it once, and that was to save Sonya. And even then, Cassie says in one of her texting intros in MK11 that Inner Power only works against Elder Gods. So y’know, Inner Power might be a bit useless here. For speed, base Johnny is a bullet-timer, while with Inner Power, he’d scale to Raiden’s lightning. For Falcon, he scales to Ryu Suzaku, who dodged meteors that got calced to be around Mach 33. That’s much faster than base Cage but still slower than Inner Power, but as said before, him going into that mode seems unlikely. Even then, Black Shadow piloting his Black Bull to outrace that same space station explosion the Reactor Might caused is a thing. While that hasn’t been calced yet, I think it should surpass even Inner Power Johnny’s speed. The Blue Falcon should definitely scale to the Black Bull, since in the anime they’re like brothers and they keep up with each other.
Speaking of the Blue Falcon, while Johnny has a versatility advantage, the Blue Falcon is pretty versatile in its own right. It can help detect surprise attacks with its radar and camera or just distract Cage since it can pilot itself. Plus, the Blue Falcon seemingly survived that same explosion at the end of the anime. The one that could be seen from outside a galaxy. And even though it did so off screen, so it could be questionable, Ryu’s Dragon Bird survived the same explosion, so it should scale either way in my opinion. Though, that could also be an outlier, but the Blue Falcon has never once been defeated in the anime if I recall, so it’s a possibility.
Captain Falcon just has the stats necessary to beat Johnny, with more reliable tools that don’t need specific circumstances in order to be used effectively. Cage should get Caged.
HYEZ! C’MON! BOOSTO FIYAH! FALCOOOON PUNCH!

Malcolm Belmont
“Cries about Captain Falcon vs Kamen Rider not being a thing”

Anway, as much as it sucks that one of my favourite matchups - Captain Falcon vs Kamen Rider not being a thing i do admit that this matchup has been interesting mostly because it’s honestly one of the closest DEATH BATTLEs we have had in a while and I like both characters - though more so Johnny sins Captain Falcon is nowhere near my main in Super Smash Bros (If ROB aka best boy or Palatuena get into DEATH BATTLE then i would most likely support my Smash Mains :D). Anyway enough dilly dallying - what about the matchup itself. Well before I get into it I've got one thing to say - no Johnny does not scale to the likes of Raiden. Fire God Liu Kang, Cetrion or Kronika - these are basically the top tiers of the MK Verse and while Johnny himself has had impressive feats - such as defeating Shinnok - I still don’t think it’s right to scale him to Unrestricted Raiden,Fire God Liu Kang, Cetrion or Kronika. If  i did that this DEATH BATTLE would be very one sided in Johnny’s favour plus there’s little evidence to suggest that he properly scales so i am not going to. Anyway now that little info is done - let’s talk about feats themselves and which one outclasses the other. 


First let’s talk strength. Now this is a bit tricky due to the fact that many of their strength feats aren’t really that impressive in the grand scheme of things such as Johnny shattering Sub-Zero’s Ice Sword and Captain Falcon breaking free of those magical binds by Black Shadow. Honestly, we really haven’t seen either character at their absolute limits - what we can do however, is scale them to characters they are comparable to and determine who wins this category. Johnny should be comparable to Restricted Raiden considering he has faced him as well as tanked attacks. Raiden created a storm in the Mortal Kombat X Comic. As Established by VSBW - the amount of energy it would take to create a storm would clock to 
2.2767297889753066335e16 Joules, 5.44151479200599 Megatons which is around City Level. Johnny scales to Restricted Raiden so at the very least his destructive capability and durability should be around City Level as well considering Johnny’s tanked attacks from Raiden and has faced him in combat. This would put Johnny at around City Level Destructive Capability. As for Captain Falcon - he scales to Black Shadow whom he has beaten in combat. Black Shadow is easily the most impressive combatant in the F-Zero Verse and has  who overpowered a Reactor Might, which caused a space station to explode. This feat was calced and it came to  slightly above 2 gigatons of TNT) which is around Mountain Level Destruction Capability. Considering that the good old Captain has beaten him in combat - CF should scale which would put his DC at atround 2 Gigatons of TNT - Mountain. Comparing them with Raiden’s feat - it is not even close - 5 Megatons vs 2 Gigatons and even people have argued that Johnny should not scale to Raiden because he’s never beaten him into a one to one hand - i am giving Johnny the benefit of the doubt here but if we ignored Raiden’s feat then Johnny’s Destructive Capability would be FAR lower. So considering everything - it’s pretty clear that Captain Falcon has the edge in destructive capability. 
Speed like Destructive capability is a bit trickier when it comes to these two characters as while both have definitely shown that they are faster than bullets and can dodge projectiles/lasers - they don’t really have that many impressive speed feats. However, like with Destructive Capability we can scale both to characters they have faced. Johnny Cage is able to keep up with Shinnok who has shown being able to dodge Raiden’s lighting (Johnny has also shown this in gameplay but MK Gameplay is dubiously canon). Considering Raiden’s level is Cloud from ground lighting and it has been stated that Raiden is faster than lighting - this would put Raiden’s Speed at Massively Hypersonic which when scales to Johnny would also put him as Massively Hypersonic right? Well kinda - Johnny has been shown to only be able to keep up with Shinnok while in his Inner Power Mode which only activates when a loved one is in danger so scaling his speed to Shinnok as normal Johnny Cage is dubious. So his most impressive feat would be dodging that rifle round fired by Kano which would put him at Supersonic speeds. So overall, in terms of Speed - Johnny has Supersonic Speed normally and Massively Hypersonic while in Inner Power Mode. . So what about Captain Falcon, well he has not displayed that many impressive speed feats but we can scale him to certain characters. We know that he is Superior to Samurai Goroh whom Captain Falcon has beaten numerous times , who once reacted to a fired missile which would put Samurai and likewise Falcon at Supersonic Speeds. But, the most impressive person in terms of speed that Falcon scales to is  Rick Wheeler, who dodged a meteor (calculated to be around Mach 33).This would put Falcon’s speed at around Mach 33 which falls into High Hypersonic Levels of Speed. So overall Speed depends on if you are using Inner Power because if so then Johnny likely is faster than Falcon due to his Massively Hypersonic Scaling to Raiden but normally he’s just Supersonic while Falcon scales to High Hypersonic characters - putting at his speed higher then Johnny while he is not in his Inner Power Form. So who wins this one really depends on Inner Power.
Let’s talk Durability - while both characters should scale their Destructive Capability to their Durability - for the sake of it let’s take a look at their best Durability Feats. For Johnny, as established earlier - he has tanked hits from Raiden’s Lighting and since it has been stablished that Raiden has City Level Destructive Capability then because Johnny has survived Raiden’s attacks then that should put him to at least City Level Durability..pretty simple if i must say myself. As for Captain Falcon - he has taken hits from Black Shadow - who has casually destroyed a small mountain just by snapping his fingers which has been calced as Town Level as well as overpowered the Reaction Might which caused a 2 Gigaton explosion - this should put Black Shadow at the very least at Mountain Level Destructive Capability and considering Captain Falcon has tanked hits from him - he should definitely scale. So this would put Falcon’s durability at Mountain Level which is superior than Johnny’s City Level so at the end of the day - Falcon simply has better durability. 


So which of these two characters is more versatile, well if you have been reading this blog. You should pick up pretty clear that Johnny is the more versatile fighter - no knocking on Captain Falcon but he basically only has his moves from Super Smash Bros as well as his Sweet Ride and a couple of smaller things to help him on the battle while Johnny has many many many more moves and special techniques at his disposal. I would list them all but that would be pointless considering the blog showcases most if not all of them. Plus for the most part Johnny also has the equipment that is better suited for combat compared with Captain Falcon (i mean Falcon has his gun but he barley uses it if at all). So due to Johnny’s overwhelming amount of moves and techniques when compared to Captain Falcon - he very cleanly wins this category. 
Let’s talk Experience and Accomplishments. This is somewhat tricky as Johnny has several more years on Captain Falcon considering his age and the types of foes he has defeated. While Captain Falcon defeating the likes of Black Shadow is no small feat as well as him being an extremely well down bounty hunter and celebrity but Johnny simply has a wider showcase of opponents he has beaten from the likes of Reptile, Baraka, Sonya, Kano, Revenant versions of Scorpion, Jax, Smoke and Sub-Zero, Erron Black and Sektor as well as his most impressive feat of beating Shinnok. I would say that unless F-Zero gets a sequel game or another anime (PLEASE NINTENDO). Captain Falcon’s experience and accomplishments fall a bit short when compared to the many opponents that Johnny has beaten - mind you Black Shadow is likely more powerful then most of the combatants that Johnny has beaten so it really comes down to Quality over Quantity - but overall I would say Johnny’s Accomplishments are more impressive than Captain Falcons. 
So Overall, Johnny has the edge in Versatility and Experience while Captain Falcon has the edge in Strength,Speed and Durability. So the question becomes, does Johnny have the versatility and experience needed to take down Captain Falcon’s superior destructive capability,durability and speed and sadly the answer is a solid no. If the gap between Johnny and Captain Falcon was smaller then i would say sure - Johnny’s versitility would overpower Captain Falcon but while this is indeed one of the closer fights of this season - Captain Falcon having the edge in all three of the main stats really puts a damper on Johnny - even when factoring in Inner Power which does close the gap slightly in terms of speed - Captain Falcon still has the superior destructive capability and durability meaning while Johnny in Inner Power is capable of keeping up with the Captain, he’s not going to be doing that much damage to him while all that Captain Falcon needs is a good Falcon Punch to destroy Johnny in one shot considering the Destructive Capability and Durability advantage. Johnny does have more experience and versatility but at the end i don’t see that mattering when the stat difference is just too big. As much as i love Johnny (he’s one of my favourite MK Characters) - Captain Falcon has this one in the back. Looks like Captain Falcon will make Johnny punch drunk. 

Animator3003
So once again I find myself on one of these, as always, I would very much thank the G1 blog people to allow me to hop in and help! It is always a tremendous honor and pleasure to work on these… Anyway, lets get on with this.
So… Captain Falcon vs Johnny Cage huh? It’s definitely a strange one... Granted at first when the match was announced I felt a bit weirded out by the choice, but once I decided to give it a shot since I like F-Zero and wanted to help, the idea grew on me fast, and as of writing this verdict I cannot wait for the episode! I’m sure it will be a complete spectacle to watch.
But who wins? Strangely enough when we started this blog I was sure it wasn’t going to be one sided, but that it was going to be close victory (if that makes any sense), at first I was sure that Johnny would legitimately take it due to his superior hand to hand skills and, what at the time, seemed like better feats and scaling thanks to Raiden and other bullet timers like Sub-Zero. And then our good friend ThankSwalot looked at the whole F-Zero anime and well this is where things started to shift...hard.
First and most importantly, both of these guys are kinda difficult when it comes to get definitive stats, not because they don’t have feats but because they rely on a lot of interpretation/speculation and a LOT of scaling. 
First, for Johnny, you have to look at his shadow energy, and if the buff he receives from “seeing a loved one about to die” could work on something like this, thankfully that was an easy one to figure out, since in MKX Johnny wasn’t been able to pull it off since that one time he fought Shinnok (he even states as such in the same game, and in MK11 he doesnt pull it off again). It’s unrealistic that he would be able to do it in a fight, at best he could use his red shadow mode but that's only a minor boost in power… In reality this sort of buff is a one time thing for him and highly improbable in a scenario like a DB.
But... For the benefit of the doubt, let’s assume he can access this power regardless, if we go by scaling to the characters he has defeated in this buff and others similar (this means Shinnok and maybe Raiden) this would put Johnny at a maximum of what it’s probably something around City for DC/Dura and MHS in speed. This is supported by feats from others characters like Kintaro surviving a nuke (not really as he wasn't in the epicenter but whatever)  Tremor making earthquakes, Raiden making storms yatta yatta, so yea, Johnny at his absolute best should be around City and MHS in the triple digits kinda. THIS is assuming he is using his full potential, remember he doesn't seem to be able to access this stuff anymore, without it Johnny would comfortably be between building and Multi-City block via scaling and feats, with supersonic to hypersonic speeds thanks to bullet timing.
So, pretty strong huh, but how is Falcon doing ? Surprisingly well actually... to be fair, when we first started this I didn’t think Falcon was going to be even close to Johnny’s power output but apparently he kind of is? Granted most of the stuff comes from the anime buuuut I digress… Let's look at the Cap.
FIRST! Let's first say a few things, although shown in the anime, I don't really particularly think Falcon should reach say… planet, it is specified in the anime but it feels inconsistent with the rest of the Reactor Mights and it feels like a huge outlier (for me at least). And even if the Blue Falcon did apparently survive the huge explosion from the final episode, which we know not only the anime but other games (more specifically F-Zero Climax), I'm still not 100% sold entirely on that idea. Don’t get me wrong, it’s entirely possible, but it feels inconsistent with the rest of his feats, and I don’t know if the BF’s durability can really be that high…. At least, thanks to scaling, we know he can at hurt/stop hurt Black Shadow, they are canonically rivals in-game and their machines have been on equal terms several times in the series, so we can assume they scale, with this, we know Black Shadow overpowering a Reactor Might resulted on something like… Large town to Island supported by the fact he is also able to destroy a mountain, so at least Falcon should scale to that. And in terms of speeds scaling to Ryu and his machine dodging meteors soundly lands him on the Mach 33 range... At bare minimum Falcon should be around Mach 4 since machines in the F-Zero universe have shown to move at such speeds and scaling to Samurai Goro slicing a rocket puts him around the HS to MHS range, but in the double digits, and we can assume these only get enhanced by virtue of his trusty machine.
Okay, so we have our stats, and it’s quite simple actually… Johnny goes from MCB-City (with buff) with HS-MHS (also with buff) speeds, while falcon is like Large Town-(maybe-ish)Island with HS-MHS speeds. When you put it like this, it kind of becomes clear doesn’t it? Now Falcon may not be as fast (ironically) since Johnny on his buff can reach the triple digits while Falcon can only reach two, but even then, Johnny can’t really deal a deadly blow at all, Falcon is just way above, even with his buff. And this is assuming Johnny gets his buff to begin with, which again is pretty unlikely, which then means he is waaaaaay below Falcon’s paygrade.
And that's only stats btw, while Johnny arguably has the better chance in H2H thanks to his special moves and plethora of weapons, Falcon can just call upon the Blue Falcon at any time, and Johnny doesn’t really have any reliable ways to get rid of it, let alone keep up with it, even with his Shadow Energy he gets kind of overwhelmed.
Simply put, while Johnny can certainly put a good fight (hell you can kind of argue his speed is enough) in the end Falcon’s greater stats and his impressive Blue Falcon are probably going to pull him a win more often than not… That's just what I believe though, after all I’m just an internet guy with an opinion…And those are never truly correct aren’t they?

Falcon probably wins this tho.
Also shoutouts to everyone on the discord server you guys are the actual best. (Defect, Munch, Homie, Mey, Medd, ETC and everyone else love you all ! no homo tho.)


MLDKF

Wolf King by MLDKF
I don’t know what to put for a song :(
Haha, back for round 3 bitches! Well, technically it’s more like round 6 since I was in 3 blogs from seasons past, but YEAH, MORE OF ME! Wow...that was rather uncharacteristic of me
Anyway, this might be the closest match I’ve done a blog with (or at least the closest one that wasn’t for an obvious joke episode). On one hand, Captain Falcon doesn’t have many feats to speak of. Way back when Death Battle was just a show on ScrewAttack and SA had its own website, I came up with a blog for Captain Falcon. However, coming up with legit feats for him was difficult considering what little we know about the guy. I assumed if Falcon was going to be in Death Battle, they’d have him fight Speed Racer or something in a car race that goes horribly wrong. But on the other hand, Johnny, even with all his feats, suffers from the same problem as several Mortal Kombat fighters before him: he’s a jobber. Granted, he’s probably one of the best jobbers in the series (both in quality AND stats), but he’s still a jobber
This is a pretty close match, and looking into it, it’s...hard to say who wins. Falcon has his powerful fire moves, sure, but we don’t know how powerful they really are and Johnny’s survived attacks like that before when he fought Scorpion. Johnny’s able to scale to opponents that are about MCB level, but Falcon’s scaling to Black Shadow makes him roughly town level.
I think it really comes down to their aces in the hole: Johnny’s shadow powers and the Blue Falcon (or one of its more powerful variants) and here’s where it becomes a little more clear cut. Johnny’s shadow powers are strong, but with the exception of tapping into them only for moves like the shadow kick, it has a prerequisite that can’t really be replicated in Death Battle without Falcon doing to Cassie what he did to Lucina. Falcon’s F-Zero machines, however, don’t have any prerequisites considering he can call them whenever he wants, they’re much faster than anything Johnny’s dealt with in his series (by about double or so at best), aren’t easily removed from play, and are easily strong enough to flatten Cage or send him flying through the air like a ragdoll.
Johnny Cage and Captain Falcon are both amazing characters, and this is certainly a close bout, but in the end, I just think Falcon’s got too many advantages over Johnny for him not to win. Captain Falcon takes this battle hand over fist.



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