Death Battle Predictions: Leonardo VS Red Ranger Jason

When the world is in need of saving, who better to save it than a bunch of overbearing and overemotional kids? Despite the questionable ethics and effectiveness behind this process, let it not be said that fiction continues to prove, for some reason; how teenagers are probably the best line of defense against any and all villainous scum that threaten the safety of society. For teens who choose to combine their efforts into well-oiled teams, a leader that pushes their comrades to fight as one to the best of their abilities that shines as an example for them to follow is a must. Thus, in a matter of days, we’re taking a trip back to the 1990s to pit two such icons of the era - veterans of the show with prior fights to their names - against each other for a radically crazy bout:

Leonardo, the fearless leader of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Jason Lee Scott, the legendary Mighty Morphin’ Red Power Ranger. Death Battle welcomes back these two battle-tested warriors; dudes with attitudes to test whose arsenal, skills, and tenacity wins out in a strictly one-on-one fight with no assistance from their allies. Their fates have crossed before as both ally and enemy.  While they have proven their mettle against each other since then, this will be the best possible chance to do so for the final time. Will the mutant from Manhattan find himself on the receiving end of a mighty beatdown he won’t be recovering from, or is it the prodigal son of Angel Grove who’ll end up shellshocked?

Note: While he did not work on this blog, credit goes to DoctorMooDB for his Leonardo Blogs as well as Grand Blazer and Ultraguy for their Leonardo Blogs

A Heads Up from Ya Bois

Some specific guidelines for you lovely folk to consider as you walk through this blog. If you feel we’ve missed something, please do not @ us; we’re mainly working with whatever official information we get from stuff like the Death Battle Cast:

First off, this is a strictly ground-based battle. No Zords, and no crazy transformations like Leo’s Dragon form from 2003.

Jason will not be getting his Gold Zeo powers, nor situational gear he wouldn’t normally have on hand during a fight. Likewise, Leonardo won’t be getting anything that’s too far out of the ordinary for him, such as his secondary mutations or future weapons.

Background

Leonardo

"Ready for a lesson in turtle power?"

Leonardo began his life as a simple turtle who ended up in the sewers of New York City. After getting taken in by disgraced foot clan ninja Hamato Yoshi (or Yoshi’s pet in some continuities), his life was pretty normal for a turtle, until a freak accident left him and his three brothers covered in a strange radioactive liquid “ooze” later called Mutagen. This particular strand of Mutagen transformed the turtles from normal turtles to anthropomorphic ones and turned Hamato Yoshi into an anthropomorphic rat who then became known as Master Splinter.

With his four sons transformed, Splinter decided to train them in the ways of ninjutsu, and named the turtles after four renaissance greats, with Leo being named after the most famous: Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo, of course, became the leader of the turtles thanks to his honorable and dedicated nature. 

Alongside his brothers, they’d take on every challenge from crime bosses to alien warlords to Splinter’s old rival from the Foot Clan: Oroku Saki, now going by “The Shredder” and dressed very fittingly for such a name.

Leo brought out the best in his brothers. As the oldest and most tactical of them all, he reinforced Raphael’s toughness, Michelangelo’s talent, and Donatello’s rationality. But the greatest thing about him and his team isn’t their weapons or their skills; but rather, it’s their unbreakable familial bond.

Jason

"It’s Morphin’ Time!"

10,000 years ago, a fierce battle of good and evil rang between the good-natured wizard Zordon and the disastrous witch Rita Repulsa. Zordon prevailed and was able to trap the evil sorceress in a cosmic trash can of sorts, but Rita managed to trap Zordon in a time warp as a result. Rita would remain in her space dumpster for thousands of years, desperate to escape.

When that day finally came, Zordon had to be prepared. Rita Repulsa was back and she had already set her sights on planet Earth. Zordon’s plan was to tap into the Morphing Grid, an alternate dimension of great power, and bestow its abilities onto 5 great warriors. Who would be these worthy warriors? Emotional and overbearing teenagers, of course!

Enter Jason Lee Scott: a kindhearted jock attending high school as a freshman in Angel Grove, California. Called upon by Zordon alongside 4 of his good friends, he would become the leader of the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.

As the leader of the team, Jason became the Red Ranger, and drew his powers from the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex, the most dangerous and marketable of dinosaurs. With his team, these teenagers with attitude and perseverance to spare will save the world from devastation.

Equipment

Leonardo

Katanas

Like his brothers, Leonardo has a favorite pair of weapons he brings into battle. Historically, the katana was used as the weapon of choice by the ninja’s rival profession, the samurai. Compared to swords from other cultures, these are known for their curved, single-edged blades which have been called some of the sharpest cutting tools in history.In the majority of his appearances, Leo’s katana are strong enough to deal with any range of enemies and has no problem cutting through most substances with ease. Aside from the variety of offensive options his swords give him, he can also spin them around to deflect or parry any type of attack, and the polished steel is nearly mirror-like in appearance, allowing Leo to look at the reflections in them to increase his spatial awareness.

Twin Ninjaken

Not to be confused with Leonardo’s katanas, these are straighter blades that are closer to the main weapon of the ninja: the ninjato. These blades, however, are longer than most ninjato were. Ninjato were seen as more efficient weapons than katanas as they were more suited to the stealth tactics of ninjas. 

Odachi

A five-foot long mystic weapon that Leo stole from Baron Draxum in Rise of the TMNT. While he is naturally quite skilled at the swordplay aspect of it, the real beauty of this weapon is its Portal Power/Power Portal Jutsu. With enough concentration, skill, and sometimes just a ton of luck, Leo can slash the air in front of him and create a portal, though where exactly it will lead is a little unspecific at times. In some instances, it goes exactly where Leo wants it to, in others it’s a rather general “away from where we are right now”, and then if he’s not thinking of a place at all it’s at complete random. However, he has shown to have gained more mastery over his portals as the series has progressed. He has been shown to use it as both a means of escape and to redirect projectiles away from him. Leo’s best record when it comes to making portals is going from New York City all the way to Tahiti, approximately 6,200 miles away.

Yumi

In comparison to bows used by other cultures, the Yumi used in Feudal Japan were long asymmetrical weapons often made out of bamboo and wood, although modern variants use material such as fiberglass or carbon fiber. A yumi is noted for its rather strong draw weight, requiring a large amount of force to fire. Given their intense physical training and their natures as mutants, it is no surprise at all that the Turtles can make fast and accurate shots with their bows from any and all angles.

Shuriken 

The ninjas’ signature throwing stars were, strangely enough, not actually used by ninjas as much as they were utilized by the samurai. Still, Leo is no slouch with these sharp secondary projectiles.

Kunai

These were the true and authentic ninja weapon of choice both for up-close assassinations and projectile usage.  The ninja originally favored these because the Kunai were used for farming and these were easy to conceal and explain away while they got close to their target.  Like the shuriken, Leonardo is an expert with their myriad of uses in combat.

Mini Tanto Blade

While he prefers to use his Katanas/Odachi whilst in combat, Leonardo has used a tanto blade before though it’s mostly through it’s utility rather than its combat prowess.

Kogatana

Stored in the Scabbard Wrapping, Leonardo has  Kogatana which is a mini-tanto. It’s small size makes it easy for concealment and quick stabs though due to its small size, it is not a strong weapon as it is more prominently used for defense. 

Smoke Bombs

These smoke bombs were an invention of Donatello’s. They were made from literal eggshells and filled with flash powder. When the user of these smoke bombs throws one down - it will produce a smoke that conceals their movements and as such - allows them to make a quick get away. The smoke combined with their ninjutsu abilities makes it almost appear as if they were actually teleporting, as the Turtles can disappear and travel impressive distances without being spotted in an instant. They can also be used to temporarily blind an opponent.

Climbing Claws 

Also known as the Shunko, these Climbing Claws are a great way of scaling walls and buildings that previously would have been too difficult to climb due to being entirely vertical. Shunko can also be used as a great close range combat tool as you can use the spikes to strike at an enemy.

Chain and Hook

Also known as the Kusrigama or Kunai with Chain (thumbs up if you get that reference). The Kusrigama was an extremely useful tool for the Ninja as it allowed the user to easily restrain a target through disarming them and then fishing them off. The Turtles can also use this weapon to great effect. 

Grappling Hook

Likely invented by Dontello, these specialised Grappling Hooks can be used to climb and swing on buildings as well as combat. They can be used in order to ensnare enemy weapons and then disarm them as well as wrap around an enemy in order to restrain them. 

Suction Cups 

Leonardo and the rest of the TMNT use Suction Cups as a way of scaling buildings or to make a quick escape. 

Jason

Power Sword

Given to him by Zordon himself, this is the individual weapon of Jason, as well as his successor Rocky, as the Red Ranger. It is a  double edged blade that serves as his primary weapon should his blade blaster fail, it works just like a normal sword would, cutting just about any material out there, its edge doesn’t seem to ever dull and its nearly unbreakable. It was later upgraded by Zordon to be more powerful once they fought a set of doppelgangers. Jason can engulf the blade in a sort of red energy by running his fingers through the blade either to enhance its striking power, or shoot it out as a powerful energy slash. 

When used as part of the Power Blaster, it is placed on top of it and the blade is pointing towards the barrel. Zordon stated that it’s the key to the weapon’s powers. The blade itself is not completely indestructible however, and has been damaged at least once, this was done by the Knasty Knight’s Sword (it should be noted that the sword was forged by one of Rita’s Spells, which probably enhanced is power), however; this occurrence has never been repeated.

Blade Blaster

   

The Blade Blaster is an extremely makretable weapon that mostly serves as a ray gun and can be turned into a small blade, it's the Rangers’ primary sidearms. Now, don’t be fooled the thing, it might look pretty pathetic but it's quite powerful, when used by a set of fake rangers, a single blast was enough to cause a building to explode, and when used by the real rangers are powerful enough to send monsters reeling back or make them go kaboom and it even completely disintegrate objects (like it did this sword). It tends to be mostly used, however, on fodder and lacks any real power against more powerful enemies, they can still be deflected such as when Tommy used his Dragon Shield.

Thunder Slinger

Modeled after a slingshot, the Thunder Slings are fired by pulling back the real trigger and releasing it, firing large golden energy blasts from the top aperture that’s powerful enough to damage monsters and disintegrate fodder. They’re capable of evaporating Super Putty Patrollers, which are upgraded versions of Putty Patrollers that can regenerate from bits.

Wrist Communicator

Built by Billy Cranston, the Blue Ranger, it is a portable watch-like device that Jason can use to communicate with other rangers and teleport to the Command Center (although it doesn’t necessarily have to be the Command Center, as it has been shown to transport them to just about anywhere). It has even shown to be able to transport the Rangers In and out from completely different dimensions, like it did when it pulled them out of the island of illusions, however the teleportation can be taken away if the communicator is damaged, Zordon is destroyed,a Power Surge happens or sometimes… it just doesn’t due to the place they are in.

Omega Morpher 

In the Boom Comics, there are an ancient faction of Rangers operating in the most dangerous and remote areas of space. At the end of the Necessary Evil storyline, Jason, along with Zack and Trini, obtained the Omega Ranger rank.

Along with this new rank is the Omega Morpher, a new morpher that allows Jason to transform into the Omega Red Ranger. Unlike regular morphers, the Omega Morpher is specially designed to have a far stronger direct connection to the Morphin Grid in order to allow Rangers to utilize it anywhere in the universe for special operations. As a result, the Omega Morpher is resistant to EM fields and other environmental factors that disrupt standard morphers in ways that prevent them from working entirely or distort their power connections in odd ways. This should also make him theoretically stronger than in his normal ranger form, but as of right now, there doesn’t appear to be any evidence of that.

Abilities

Leonardo

Mutant Physiology

Enhanced Physicality

As a mutated organism, Leonardo has super strength, speed, and endurance. 

Shell

The shell of the ninja turtles has blocked blades and projectiles and renders them resistant to most impact and blunt force.  Like actual turtles, they can retract into the shells and have even done so to dodge canonfire aimed at their heads. An empty box turtle's shell can withstand up 200 times its weight, but in order to crush it, it will take thousands of pounds worth of pressure.  As Leonardo is 180 pounds, his shell can withstand 36,000 pounds of force and likely 300,000 pounds of crushing force.

Ninjutsu Training

Taught to the TMNT since childhood by Master Splinter, ninjutsu is not strictly a fighting style or martial art, but the use of specialized military tactics with uses for espionage and guerilla warfare. The origins of ninjutsu date back to the early days of Japan, where shinobi or ninja served as spies for feudal lords. These warriors employed stealth and deception to carry out different missions, including information gathering, infiltrating rival territories and assassinating high-value targets.  Currently, the Bujinkan - a martial arts organization based in Japan - have dug up records from the Togakure-ryu school of ninjutsu which detail the essential skills every practitioner must learn, regardless of their mode of instruction. These became known as the Ninja Jūhakkei - the Eighteen Disciplines:

1. Seishinteki Kyoyo (spiritual refinement): A form of spiritual education. Before and even after mastering the other aspects of ninjutsu, practitioners must mentally, spiritually and emotionally prepare themselves for their duties as shinobi through meditation. The recommended points for reflection including knowing one’s self, nature, destiny, harmony, sight, the heart and love.
2. Ninpo Taijutsu (unarmed combat): Taijutsu is the common term to refer to any form of unarmed combat. Here, users not only learn mastery of striking and grappling techniques, but other modes of combat like mutou dori (fighting armed opponents without a weapon), koppojutsu (bone breaking), taihenjutsu (environmental movement based on spatial awareness) and senkojutsu (infiltration techniques). Some techniques here overlap with those taught in traditional Japanese martial arts like karate and judo.
3. Kenjutsu (sword techniques): An umbrella term to refer to training with most bladed weapons, such as katana, nodachi and kunai. There is also a distinction made between schools which teach dual-wielding (nitoryu) and single weapon (ittou-ryu) skills.
4. Sojutsu (spear techniques): Training in the use of spears, or yari.
5. Naginatajutsu (glaive techniques): Mastery of the naginata, a polearm. These are more known for being close combat weapons as opposed to spears, which keep opponents in mid-range.
6. Bojutsu (staff techniques): Training in the use of the staff and sticks. Besides attacks, practitioners learn to complement weapon use with hand-to-hand strikes and using the staff as a tool for movement.
7. Kayakujutsu (explosion techniques): This branch deals with the use of firearms and explosions.
8. Kusarigamajutsu (chain-sickle techniques): Deals with using a kusarigama, a weapon consisting of a sickle connected to a chain with a heavy weight on its end. Wielders of this often attack by using the chain and weight to immobilize an opponent or disarm them of their weapons, giving them an opportunity to strike with the sickle. They can also spin the sickle around to extend the range of their attack.
9. Shurikenjutsu (throwing weapons techniques): A general term referring to the use of any type of throwing weapon, like bo shuriken (spikes), hira shuriken (throwing stars) and tanto knives.
10. Hensojutsu (disguise techniques): Ninja were expected to blend in with the environment and impersonate locals with the use of costumes and proper acting, all through studying the area and planning accordingly.
11. Shinobi-iri (silent infiltration): Ninja were also expected to infiltrate any location without being detected, and this discipline covered all the skills needed to make such missions successful. These included causing distractions, taking note of weaknesses within the physical location or guard patrols, reducing sources of sound and light, and if need be, eliminating obstacles by any means necessary.
12. Bajutsu (mounted combat): This governs the use of horses as a means of escape or combat, depending on the situation. If the time calls for a fight, the practitioner must learn how to apply whatever combat training they have to protect themselves and their mount.
13. Sui-ren (water techniques): To cross water efficiently while maintaining cover, ninja employed ways to move across it quietly and submerge themselves in it if needed for long periods of time.
14. Boryaku (strategy and tactics): Aside from employing conventional strategies when the situation calls for it, boryaku deals with formulating more unorthodox means to win battles by exploiting psychological, emotional and political weaknesses to deceive and manipulate the enemy into an outcome favorable to the ninja.
15. Choho (espionage): This particular discipline was about using one’s mind to gather information and using it to further their goals.
16. Intonjutsu (escape techniques): In the event a ninja was discovered, he or she was required to disappear as silently and quickly as possible, using elements from the other disciplines to make their escape.
17. Tenmon (meteorology): Ninja were expected to take advantage of the local weather and adapt to the changes within it to exploit possible weaknesses.
18. Chimon (geography): By using the terrain of the area, ninja could employ different types of strategies and movements in accordance with battle conditions.

The TMNT (especially Leonardo) have been taught these 18 Techniques through the teaching of Master Splinter. Leonardo has also been trained by the likes of the Ancient One and the Ninja Tribunal. Leonardo out of his brothers uses ninja based techniques the most and will frequently display these techniques in combat.

Chi Gong Technique

“Internal breathing”. Leonardo can use this technique to slow his breathing and heart rate to survive extreme conditions for extended periods of time, such as a lack of atmosphere, though this does require some form of meditation and concentrated focus.

Pressure Point Combat

By applying pressure to weak points in the body, Leonardo can make an opponent tense up and struggle to move or even knock them out cold. He even knows how to perform it on alligators.

Healing Hands

In the 2012 series, Splinter teaches Leonardo the Healing Hands mantra, a remedial technique passed down from the Hamato Clan. After performing the appropriate hand gestures, those who invoke this can heal themselves and others from all sorts of injuries, whether it takes the form of physical damage, poison or mental ailments such as mind control. Learning how to master this technique can be difficult given that only a select few individuals in history have been able to do so successfully, Leonardo and Splinter chief among them in the modern day.

This practice has its basis in the Kuji-kiri, the nine mantras of the ninja:

 rin - pyo - to - sha - kai - jin - retsu - zai - zen.

These were said to be based on Buddhist teachings, and are meant to help its user harness spiritual energy through enlightenment and awareness of their surroundings.Unfortunately, it does not seem capable of healing fatal wounds, as (*spoiler alert*) Leonardo never even attempted to save Splinter from death with it after he had been stabbed through the chest and thrown off a building. Not to mention, given he has to perform each hand movement one at a time, it takes a while to pull off.

Jason

Ranger Physiology

Enhanced Physicality

By becoming a Power Ranger, Jason and many others receive a boost in their physical capabilities. One of those boosts is in physical strength allowing Jason the ability to lift a giant boulder with ease. Another boost is in physical speed, as Rangers such as Jason and Trini can run fast enough to cause dirt and wind to fly up behind them and appear as blurs in the background. Lastly, Rangers gain a boost in physical durability. For example, Jason, while morphed as the Red Ranger, can survive attacks from Zords, monsters, and Rita Repulsa. In later seasons, some Power Rangers actually receive other super powers.

Martial Arts

Before he became the Red Ranger, Jason Lee Scott trained his entire lifetime in martial arts. Everyday, he spends most of his time practicing martial arts. If he’s not working too hard, he’ll only spend 2-3 hours in martial arts practice. He would either teach a martial arts class at Ernie's Juice Bar and Gym, teach a class at a karate dojo, or spar with fellow Ranger Tommy Oliver at the Youth Center. Among the list of various types of martial arts, Jason learned kenpo, taekwondo, judo, and shinkido with the former two being his favorite. He would utilize his knowledge of martials arts on the battlefield as the Red Ranger.

Kenpo

Also known as Kenpo Karate, this is an updated system of martial arts based on modern-day street fighting that applies logic and practicality. It is characterized by the use of quick and powerful strikes delivered from all of the body’s natural weapons, powered by rapid stance transitions known as “shifting”.

Training starts with basic attack responses, and the purpose of it in this manner is to increase physical coordination and continuity with linear and circular motion. Each movement, when correctly executed, keeps an adversary’s “dimensional zone” in check while limiting their ability to retaliate. Should the adversary not react as anticipated, the skilled Kenpo practitioner is able to seamlessly transition into an alternative and appropriate action, drawn spontaneously from the trained subconscious.

Kenpo emphasizes lightning fast techniques to destroy an attacker in seconds. Kicks are less common and are usually directed at the lower body because high kicks are slower to execute and potentially compromise the practitioner's balance. Higher kicks are taught to more advanced and capable practitioners. It also contains a wide array of kicks, punches, open-hand, elbow and knee strikes, finger strikes, some throwing and joint locking techniques, as well as club and knife training.

Kenpo is not a traditional art but a combat science that is designed to evolve as the practitioners' understanding improves, though it also places the burden of effectiveness on the individual practitioner. There are some common elements among Kenpo schools in the United States.

• “Marriage of Gravity”: Settling one's body weight in order to increase striking force
• Every block is a strike, every strike is a block: A block should be directed and forceful enough to injure an opponent, decreasing their ability to continue an attack. Every strike should counter an opponent’s movement, decreasing their ability to amount an attack
• Point of Origin: Moving any natural weapon from wherever it originates rather than cocking it before deploying it, helping to eliminate telegraphing of moves
• Economy of Motion: Choose the best available target, choose the best available motion, and choose the best available angle, in the least amount of time, to get the desired results.
• Personalization: Aspects should be tailored to meet the practitioner's own personal needs and strengths.

Taekwondo

Taekwondo is a Korean martial art that’s characterized by its emphasis on head-height kicks, jumping and spinning kicks, and fast kick techniques. In fact, World Taekwondo sparring competitions award additional points for strikes that incorporate spinning kicks, kicks to the head, or both. To facilitate fast, turning kicks, Taekwondo generally adopts stances that are narrower and taller than the broader, wide stances used by martial arts such as karate. The tradeoff of decreased stability is believed to be worth the commensurate increase in agility, particularly in Kukkiwon-style Taekwondo.

The emphasis on speed and agility is a defining characteristic of Taekwondo. In the Theory of Power, the kinetic energy of a strike increases quadratically with the speed of the strike but increases only linearly with the mass of the striking object. In other words, speed is more important than size in terms of generating power. This is a principle that was incorporated into the early design of Taekwondo and is still being used today. A relaxed/strike principle has also been advocated for Tawkondo. According to the principle, between blocks, kicks, and strikes, the practitioner should relax the body, then tense the muscles only while performing the technique. It is believed that the relax/strike principle increases the power of the technique by conserving the body's energy. Components of the Theory of Power include:

• Reaction Force: The principle that as the striking limb is brought forward, other parts of the body should be brought backwards in order to provide more power to the striking limb.
• Concentration: The principle of bringing as many muscles as possible to bear on a strike, concentrating the area of impact into as small an area as possible.
• Equilibrium: Maintaining a correct centre-of-balance throughout a technique.
• Breath Control: The idea that during a strike one should exhale, with the exhalation concluding at the moment of impact.
• Mass: The principle of bringing as much of the body to bear on a strike as possible.
• Speed: The speed of the execution of the technique in Taekwondo is deemed to be even more important than mass in terms of providing power.

Shinkido

While Shinkido is confirmed by Jason's actor Austin St. John to be a real martial art, information about it is very scarce. We do know that it seems to be a mix of karate and Japanese sword fighting, making Jason’s use of the Power Sword even more dangerous to his opponents.

Judo

Generally categorized as a modern martial art, judo has since evolved into a combat and olympic martial arts. Judo's most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the objective is to either throw or take down an opponent to the ground and immobilize or otherwise subdue them with a pin or force an opponent to submit with a joint lock or a choke. Strikes and thrusts by hands and feet as well as weapons defences are a part of judo, but only in pre-arranged forms and are not allowed in judo competition or free practice.

Judo encompassed a philosophy and way of life in addition to specific martial arts techniques. Philosophies for judo include maximum efficiency with minimum effort, mutual welfare and benefit, and softness (or gentleness) controls hardness. Judo also has a moral code, which includes the principles of politeness, courage, sincerity, honor, modesty, respect, self-control, and friendship.

Techniques are generally intended to turn an opponent’s force to one’s own advantage rather than to oppose it directly. Judo moves are broken down into three main categories:

• Throwing techniques (nage-waza): These techniques break down further into standing techniques performed with either the hand, hip, foot, or leg, and sacrifice techniques that involve falling on one’s side in order to execute the throw.
• Grappling techniques (katame-waza): These techniques break down into holding or pinning, strangulation, and joint locks.
• Striking techniques (atemi-waza): These techniques are only performed during kata (forms).

Karate

Karate is a striking art using punching, kicking, knee strikes, elbow strikes and open-hand techniques such as knife-hands, spear-hands and palm-heel strikes. Historically, and in some modern styles, grappling, throws, joint locks, restraints and vital-point strikes are also taught. Karate can be practiced as an art (budō), self defense or as a combat sport. However, traditional karate places emphasis on self-development (budō). Modern Japanese style training emphasizes the psychological elements incorporated into a proper kokoro (attitude) such as perseverance, fearlessness, virtue, and leadership skills. Sport karate places emphasis on exercise and competition. Weapons are an important training activity in some styles of karate. Karate training is commonly divided into kihon (basics or fundamentals), kata (forms), and kumite (sparring).

Kihon means basics and these form the base for everything else in the style including stances, strikes, punches, kicks and blocks. Karate styles place varying importance on kihon. Typically, this is training in unison of a technique or a combination of techniques by a group of karateka. Kihon may also be prearranged drills in smaller groups or in pairs. Kata literally means “shape” or “model” and is a formalized sequence of movements which represent various offensive and defensive postures. These postures are based on idealized combat applications. They’re referred to as a Bunkai when applied in a demonstration with real opponents. The Bunkai shows how every stance and movement is used and is a useful tool to understand a kata. Sparring in Karate is called kumite, which literally means “meeting of hands.” Kumite is practiced both as a sport and as self-defense training.

General Abilities

Morphing

Despite Jason already being a pretty talented and strong martial artist on his own, If a monster proves to be a bit too much he can always use his Power Morpher to tap into the so called “Morphing Grid '' an energy field that gives Rangers their powers and abilities. Thus he can transform into THE Red Ranger. This is not only a way to get a nifty little spandex costume, this suit is equipped with a helmet that allows him to survive environments such as deep underwater and even places without an atmosphere like the moon (not like he needs it since he can just… breath in space apparently). The suit itself is also extremely durable, allowing him to survive explosions (even from his own blaster), missiles from the Dragonzord and sword slashes (like… way too many swords slashes). And it grants additional protection against acids and poisons as well due to being coated with a special substance courtesy of Alpha-5, although a substance acidic enough will still be able to penetrate the suit. 

Teleportation

Rangers can freely teleport and can forcefully take other people with them along for the ride.

     Power Punch

During a fight with the monster Soccadillo, Jason and Tommy performed a technique known as the Power Punch, where they created an explosion by punching the monster really hard.

Feats

Leonardo

Accomplishments

• Has more often than not been the one to personally kill off the Shredder (Most canons)
• Considered worthy enough by the Shredder to lead the Foot Clan, which he temporarily did (IDW)
• Defeated the Ultimate Ninja (2003)
• Once travelled into an alternate version of feudal Japan to assist Miyamoto Usagi in defeating Lord Hebi (2003)
• Is often depicted as an equal, if not superior, to Karai (Most canons)
• Fought and defeated several Foot-Bots, Rahzar, Tiger Claw and Fishface in quick succession, and managed to stand up to the Shredder for a spell right after (2012)
• Defeated some weird Lovecraftian monster (2003)
• Helped save the TMNT multiverse alongside his brothers as well as their classic and comic book counterparts (TMNT Forever)
• Has traveled the world more than any Turtle, having visited both Japan and South Africa for extended periods of time for the sake of solo training (2003, 2007)
• Powered through Fungus Humongous’ illusions and defeated it (2012)
• Practically embarrassed the Nightwatcher (2007)

Strength

• Scales to Raphael, who smashed a massive stone structure (480 kilotons of TNT)
• Scales to Michaelangelo, who pulled a cargo ship (472 tons of TNT; cargo ships also weigh around 200,000 tons)
• In multiple continuities, easily fodderized Baxter Stockman’s Mousers, which are capable of causing minor earthquakes by tunneling through the ground (likely approx. 476 tons of TNT)
• Could likely be comparable to Rise Shredder, who caused this cloud dispersion (463 megatons at an extreme highball)
• Moved his katanas at 79.5% the speed of light to block a laser, requiring relativistic kinetic energy equal to 38.962 megatons of TNT (though it is debatable whether such a calculation should be used)
• With help from his brothers, held up a large steel beam 
• Picks up manhole covers on the regular, which weigh around 250 lbs
• Pried open the jaws of a T-Rex, which has been theorized to have a bite of 128,000 pounds per square inch (Note: While it doesn’t look exactly like a T-Rex, it is referred to as one by Donatello. This particular T-Rex was a creation of Baxter Stockman, which would explain its larger appearance)
• Cuts through metal guns and robots on the regular
• Along with his brothers, held up mech armor and the futuristic tractor trailer it was carrying (dividing this weight evenly amongst all Turtles would mean Leo was likely helping to hold up roughly 10 tons)
• Cut through a large wooden pillar
• Cut off Bishop's cyborg arms
• Smacked a large mutant with a fish hard enough to send him spinning and flying into the sky
• Kicked a mutant, sending them into a wall
• Kicked this massive stone pillar onto an enemy (the stone pillar likely was thousands of pounds considering the size of the pillar. 
• Held a large stone pillar along with Rapheal
• Along with his brothers, he supported the weight of a large part of a collapsing building. (The weight broke an I-beam, the most common of which can support between 30,000 - 60,000 psi.)
• Restrained the giant Kraang Prime with a chain

Speed

• Blocked a reflective laser (79.5% the speed of light)
• Has consistently dodged other laser fire as well
• Capable of reacting to consecutive attacks from Fungus Humongous, which can move its tentacles in-tandem with natural sunlight (13.7% the speed of light)
• Dodged and deflected a barrage of lasers from different directions
• Dodged sniper rounds
• Outran an explosion
• Dodged a punch from a giant golem
• Scales to Michelangelo, who dodged machine gun fire
• Turned around and caught a kunai aimed for his head
• Broke three arrows that were fired at him
• Ducked under a crossbow bolt
• Scales to Karai, who has blocked bullets with her sword
• Scales to Raphael, who dodged point blank chain gun fire
• Scales to Bebop and Rocksteady, who are  capable of dodging missiles/rockets 
• Once jumped onto and ran on top of incoming missiles
• Scales to Michelangelo, who dodged electricity from evil alternate version of Splinter

Durability

• Survived getting blown up by a building busting rocket
• Survived blasts from the Sword of Tengu, which can destroy small buildings and blow up entire skyscraper floors
• Survived being thrown into a garbage dumpster from a rooftop
• Got sent flying into a brick wall by Slash
• Got punched into a wall by Krang hard enough to crack it
• The back of his shell is incredibly sturdy and can break weapons upon contact
• Survived this explosion, though was not at the epicenter
• Survived electrocution
• Scales to Michelangelo, who once took 3 rockets to the face without any injury
• Scales to Michelangelo, who got hit hard enough to smash through a wall
• Scales to Michelangelo, who has survived violent electric shocks
• Scales to Raphael, who got a futuristic car smashed right over his head.
• Scales to Michelangelo, who once got an entire pizza parlor thrown on his head and was completely fine
• Can get thrown hard enough to smash through thick stone walls and remain uninjured
• Survived being stabbed in the stomach
• Trained continuously for weeks with almost no sleep

Jason

Accomplishments

• First leader of the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers
• Constantly foiling Rita’s plans
• Defeated Goldar while unmorphed as well as morphed
• Held his own against Tommy in battle and would eventually defeat him
• Defeated numerous monsters as a Ranger
• Alongside many other Red Rangers, managed to stop General Venjix from using Serpentera to destroy earth
• Was chosen by the Blue Emissary to become the Omega Ranger alongside Zack and Trini
• Participated with most of the other Power Rangers in the Legendary Battle

Strength

• Should scale to characters like Tommy and Goldar (Jason has defeated both), who can fight on par with and/or damage Rito Revolto, who withstood an impact with the moon that created a massive explosion (3.445 gigatons of TNT)
• Could potentially scale to Rita (via Tommy and Lord Zedd), who has multiple high-tier feats such as destroying the Island of Illusion, summoning a storm, and cratering part of a city
• Comparable to Tommy, who spin-kicked a boulder weighing over 4000 kilograms
• Lifted a boulder weighing 116.3 tons 
• Performed 1,010 bench presses 3 times 
• Is constantly kicking and throwing around Putty Patrollers, humanoids made out of clay like its nothing (either Morphed or Unmorphed)
• When used by Tommy, his sword is strong enough to hurt Titanus
• His blaster is strong enough to hurt a monster badly enough to free himself from its grip
• Comparable to Tommy, who can jump from ground level to the Megazord’s head in one leap (that's a distance of 101 metres) 
• On his own he can jump from ground level to the Tyrannosaurus Zord’s head (a distance of roughly 90 metres) 
• Comparable to Lizardnator, who could lift a car and throw it around with ease
• Comparable to Bridge Carson, who lifted and threw a car several feet

Speed

• Should scale to monsters that can catch the grenades Lord Zedd throws from the moon (21% the speed of light)
• Should scale to Rito, who dodged Zedd’s lightning, which can be fired from the moon to the Earth in under a second (5.34 times FTL)
• Dodged stomping attacks from the Tyrannosaurus Zord and Dragonzord
• Intercepted an attack from Alternate Kimberly 
• Dodged a magic blast from Rita Repulsa
• Managed to dodge this goofy turtle’s beam..thing.
• Comparable to Billy, who once moved so fast a monster lost sight of what he was doing
• Comparable to the monster Goatan, who was able to swipe Kimberly’s arrows out of the air. 

Durability

• Survived part of the Command Center exploding 
• Survived a finger-missile attack from the Dragonzord
• Comparable to Tommy, who took a beating and a zap from Lord Zedd
• Got blasted by Rita Repulsa through a wall and slammed into another wall hard enough to be indented into it
• Tanked a gas container explosion
• Tanked this explosion
• Tanked an attack from this abomination 
• Took a punch from Trini and didn’t receive a bruise
• Took hits from Black Dragon’s sonic attacks and energy blasts
• Tanked an attack from the Brachiosaurus Zord (0:44)
• Survived a blast from a Power Blaster wielded by dopplegangers of the Rangers
• Survived being inside a monster while the Dragonzord drilled through it
• Comparable to Trini, who took attacks from a mantis capable of cutting down trees
• Survived cannon-fire from this turtle monster
• Survived his own team attack being reflected back towards him
• Survived getting blasted by an attack from a giant flower monster
• Can survive Tommy’s energy blasts (these same energy blasts are powerful enough to send a giant monster flying)
• Took a beating from Goldar while unmorphed
• Got punched by Peckster, a monster that was stated to have destroyed skyscrapers with its beak

Weaknesses

Leonardo

Leonardo, while at the peak of physicality (at least for an anthropomorphic mutant turtle) has one major issue: when things start going wrong, he begins to lose focus or panic. This can be taken advantage of very easily, especially when he’s on his own. On top of that, while he is a skilled solo fighter, he’s much better off when he is teamed up with his brothers to make up for areas in which he’s less qualified for, as he lacks Donnie’s raw intelligence, Raph’s brute strength and fighting technique or Mikey’s unpredictability.

Jason

Jason, much like other Power Rangers, has one weakness that should be noted: Enough damage can overload his connection to the Morphing Grid, and at that point, he will transform back into a normal human who is much squishier and more easily killable. On top of that, while he is a skilled solo fighter, he’s much better off when he is teamed up with his fellow Rangers since their weapons and strategies alone aren’t usually enough to beat the various monsters of the week that the Rangers fight. Also, while Ranger physiology means Jason can take a lot of punishment while morphed, he has no specific defenses against things like mind control

Summary

Leonardo

“I was taught that Bushido means everything to a true warrior. I was raised to live by that code. Can you do that? Can you fight with honor?”

Advantages:

• Greater training and skill
• More experienced
• Wider array of weaponry and tools
• Can use stealth to his advantage
• Arguably the more tactical fighter
• Teleportation is more versatile
• Can heal himself if damaged
• Has some pretty great theme songs 

Disadvantages:

• Hundreds to thousands of times weaker
• Likely slower
• Less durable
• Teleportation is less reliable and has more caveats, and if he’s disarmed he loses access to it completely
• Arsenal isn’t as powerful
• Next Mutation, TMNT 3, Coming Out of Their Shells, Michael Bay, you get the idea

Jason

“Isn’t the smallest chance of victory enough of a reason for us to keep on fighting? The world needs us, Rangers.”

Advantages:

• Hundreds to thousands of times stronger
• Likely faster
• More durable
• Teleportation is easier to use and more reliable
• Less reliant on weapons, and can disarm Leo to completely disable some of his abilities such as teleportation
• Though his arsenal is smaller and less versatile, it’s overall more powerful 
• Has mad hops
• Also has some pretty great theme songs 

Disadvantages:

• Outmatched in hand-to-hand skill
• Less experienced
• Basic arsenal outnumbered by Leo’s assortment
• Though a good leader, is inferior in battle strategy and quick thinking
• Teleportation isn’t quite as versatile
• Peace Conferences
• The Power Rangers’ win/loss ratio (well, more like just the Power Ranger’s loss ratio)

Verdicts

Brobuscus

What up everyone? Been a while since I’ve done one of these verdicts. This’ll be fun.

So, Canary winning isn’t surprising in the absolute slightest. You can celebrate and say “I called it” all you want, but in my opinion, it was too obvious to truly call it a victory, if that makes sense. Still, if you choose to call it one, go ahead. I won’t stop you.

So, Leonardo VS Jason the Red Ranger. I was initially confused, thinking that Tommy would be so much better. And while I still think that would be cool, I will set that aside because this is a very interesting case. I thought if Jason was gonna get his own episode, it would be a Red Ranger royale or something. But I wasn’t expecting him to get a 1v1 match, let alone against Leo. Not that I’m complaining though. So many interesting things going into this fight, from both an animation and analysis perspective. But since this is a prediction blog, we gotta talk about things from an analysis perspective. And all I gotta say is…

WOOOOOOOOOOO BOY!!

This one might be a doozy.

So, let’s get the stats out of the way real quick. As you can tell from the feats listed, Jason has a notable advantage in all of them, with the closest stat being speed. Sure, Leo can be compared to Shredder, who in Rise has a feat in the City Level range(or Mountain, depending on who you ask),  and can move at nearly 80% the speed of light, but Jason can be compared to Rito, who survived an Island Level explosion on the moon, and can move at more than 5 times faster than light speed. Pretty standard stuff all around. But it’s the secondary stuff that’s rather interesting.

For starters, in Leo’s defense, he should be the more experienced and trained fighter compared to Jason. And he’s got quite the larger arsenal, which allows for more tools to fight with. And while both are the leaders of their teams, Leo should arguably be more of a strategic fighter than Jason. Plus, his Healing Hands power should repair damage that Jason could inflict. However, the problem arises when you realize that all of these advantages have some sort of caveat, whether it’s because of his opponent or the abilities themselves. Leo is more experienced and arguably has better training, yes, but those are both kinda moot when Jason is that much stronger and tougher in comparison. Yes, Leo is the more versatile fighter, but there’s two problems I see here. For one, to bring stats back into things, Leo is not strong enough or fast enough to make that versatility advantage mean much in the grand scheme of things. Another thing is that Jason’s arsenal seems powerful enough to make up for the lesser variety. What about the fact that Leo is arguably more strategic than Jason? Well, that’s the thing, Leo is arguably more experienced. Jason is no slouch in this department either and could probably come up with a winning strategy before Leo could. And the Healing Hands? They offer regeneration, right? Well, yes, but not before Leo does a long and focused hand movement. The only way Leo would be able to use that is if he’s able to hide away for long enough, which is possible, but even if he pulled it off, he’s not strong enough to do any lasting damage on Jason anyway, so eventually it’ll just go right back to square one. 

Couple that with all the advantages Jason has, like his teleportation being easier and overall more reliable, the fact that he’s less reliant on weapons, and just his overall better stats, and you have a fight that, while not a massive stomp, is not the insanely close fight we believed it was from the start. In the end, I think Jason has what it takes to claim his victory.

What, you were expecting a pun? Oh please.

Swiftwind/Wolf/MLDKF

(A shame there will be a lack of Wasserman in this episode. But here’s some more awesome rock)

2 Episodes in a row that I get to work on a blog? WHAT IS THIS MADNESS!? Ahem. So, yeah, Canary won, as I figured that she should, and while I’d love to brag about being right to a certain someone from the last blog, I will do no such thing because we’ve got quite a doozy of a fight here. My brother would be super psyched about this match-up since he’s a fan of both the 80’s Ninja Turtles cartoon and the original MMPR seasons. Me personally? I’m more of a 2003 Ninja Turtles fan, but Power Rangers has always been something I love (SPD being my favorite). While Leonardo vs. Tommy has always been THE popular choice for the fight people would want (myself included), having Leo fight Jason isn’t a bad idea. As for who wins, well...that’s a tough one.

First off, in terms of arsenal and abilities, Leo dominates. Jason is a skilled fighter, but Leo’s got way more stuff that he can do. Not only does he have healing capabilities for himself, but he’s also experienced in way more weapons than Jason is. But speaking of experience, I’d argue that Jason has been doing this for longer. Sure, Leo’s been around since the 80’s while Jason’s only been around since the 90’s, but Jason’s not only been training as a kid for years, but we’ve also seen him multiple times after his Ranger career ended. Not to mention that it’s not uncommon for Rangers to keep being Rangers even after their runs end, and we’ve seen Jason take up the Red Ranger both in Forever Red and in the Legendary Battle, so he’s got at least 20 years of experience while Leo’s time usually stops much sooner, even if he has multiple different iterations and also went to the future that one time.

Statistically, however, is where things get REAL interesting, because Jason’s got some ridiculous feats. Speedwise, I’d say Leonardo has an advantage since he’s shown far better laser dodging feats (and even that’s apparently debatable), but Jason’s got almost every other stat in the bag. He’s definitely tougher and his strength is likely better as well. I’d say both are equally intelligent, especially in terms of strategy, but this may prove to be what gives Jason the win. Here’s how I see things: Jason really only needs to get one hit in, but Leonardo’s arsenal, stealth, and speed might make that easier said than done. Leo’s strategy would likely revolve around him having to distract Jason and using his stealth and using the environment to try and get enough hits in to take out Jason. However, at some point, Leo’s going to slip up or Jason’s going to catch on to what Leonardo’s doing, and so Jason will get that one hit he needs

So overall, I think Jason wins this thanks to having an arsenal that’s more quality over quantity, more experience, better durability, and greater strength (and also possibly being faster). Leo gets taken out of the Cool Kids Club and Power Rangers finally gets its first victory. Leonardo just doesn’t have the Turtle Power to take out this Ranger. My vote goes for Jason. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to rest up because I’ve been sick during the entire second half of writing this blog. Illness is not fun :(

Clockboxxer

(Sonic Movie was fun, had a good time) 

Hey, all. So Canary won. No surprise there. Though the animation here was pretty good, better than I expected. It was fast-paced, suspenseful, and the death was super cool. 

I gotta say I liked the fight here more than Miles vs Static, which absolutely tears me up to say. Based on OST, analyses, and match-up, I still prefer Miles vs Static as a whole, but only slightly. Season 7’s been off to a good start.

And on to episode 3. Was not expecting this. I know some people would have preferred Leonardo vs Tommy, but Jason’s a cooler Ranger anyway in my opinion, so I’m good. Leo getting better research and an in-depth analysis on what a Ranger themselves can do? Ah, yeah. First ninja turtle we’ve had since all the way back in season 1, too.

First off, I’m rooting for the Red Ranger even though I prefer TMNT as a franchise. Why? Power Rangers has literally the worst W-L record on the show, and that blows. But anyway, prediction time.

Yikes, I hope this isn’t a long one. These two had tons of media to dive into.

So who wins, the shellhead or the spandex crusader?

Okay, so...Leo obviously has the training and skill edge over Jason. He’s been training in more martial arts under better instructors for a larger portion of his life. In a purely CQC battle, Jason would have a hard time keeping up with Leo, who can adapt to way more fighting styles. Not to say he would be utterly helpless, but it’s easy to see who has the upper hand here. While mainstream media suggests that Jason’s a Ranger well into adulthood, Leo’s larger wealth of media overall would probably give him the experience advantage, too. 

Moving on to their abilities and arsenal is where it gets interesting. By sheer count, Leo has more tools at his disposal. He can traverse the air with grappling hooks and vanish with smoke bombs. His various blades and daggers are of help, too. Jason’s pretty basic in comparison with his sword and blasters. The Power Sword is probably stronger than any of Leonardo’s blades, however. And the blasters are certainly better than throwing shurikens. Quantity vs quality is the name of the game.

Leo does have two abilities of his own that stand out: Healing Hands and the odachi. The former allows Leo to repair various kinds of damage and the latter lets him travel up to thousands of miles in the blink of an eye. Though Jason has teleportation as well, with a few notable differences. Jason’s teleportation doesn’t rely on a sword, it’s just a natural ability. On top of that, it’s probably more spammable. However, Leo can go further and reflect and suck up objects. So really, it’s convenience vs utility. 

I’d say Jason’s is better, though, since he can just disarm Leo and then control his position on the battlefield with ease, since Rangers can take other people with them.

So Leo’s more seasoned and is better at hand to hand along with also possessing more weapons and abilities. Jason has more convenient mobility and more powerful weapons.

Looks like a close call, right?

Well, it is...until you get into the stats. Let’s start with speed, definitely the closest area. Due to various laser reaction feats, Leonardo is easily in the relativistic range, maxing out at 80% the speed of light. How does Jason compare to such speed? Pretty well, actually.

Relativistic Power Rangers has been debated back and forth, but it seems supported well enough. The Lord Zedd grenade feat is pretty blatant, and then there’s the supporting slower feat of Rita throwing her scepter around like every damn episode. There’s also reason to buy the Rangers reacting to EM waves from Magnet Brain, but that’s a bit less certain. I’m aware the Zedd grenade feat isn’t considered by some because the cut was kinda odd. It occured during a time-sensitive battle, so it’s only possible the grenade traveled to its destination in a relatively short time. Not like the Rangers stood around for 5 minutes. 

Considering only this, Leo would be around 4 times faster. Not insurmountable for Jason, but a tough hurdle. 

But another feat gives Jason the edge here. Scaling to Lord Zedd shooting magic lightning from space to Earth in less than a second goes a few steps beyond the ninja turtle. Now, this has been misunderstood as “It took 3 whole seconds, Zedd was blasting the entire time.” Well, not really. That’s charging up at the start there, not blasting. We can pick out a final distinct beam coming out after the lightning sparks and hitting Earth in less than a second. Check the link featured in Jason’s Speed section over and over if you must.

That. Taking this into account, Jason would be a little over 5 times faster. Depending on what you believe, either one is faster by a decent amount, but not enough for a blitz.

But even if Leo was ten times faster, it wouldn’t be the biggest help. Because Jason dominates in strength and durability. 

Leo’s best scaling gets into the kilotons. This absolutely pales in comparison to the consistent gigatons the Power Rangers have. With storm feats, the Island of Illusion, and Rito tanking that moon crash. Jason’s taken his own attacks and hits from people on par with him, so his durability should be similar. Even if you take the relativistic kinetic energy for Leo to get him to the megatons, Jason still oneshots. If you wanna get Leo as high as possible and use the inflated and highballed cloud calc of 463 megatons, he still is outmatched horribly. Not to mention the outlier-ish nature and the non-primary source it comes from.

Leo can’t use pressure points, as it’s unlikely to get past the suit. He can’t really do any lasting damage to Jason, and his weapons definitely won’t be piercing him. The Healing Hands are useless when Leo can’t even survive one hit. Leo’s still better at hand-to-hand, but Jason’s fast enough to get the one hit he needs. 

In the end, Jason’s strength, speed, durability and powerful arsenal are more than this mutant can handle. Not even the turtle’s battle strategy can save him this time around. Looks like Leo just didn’t have the right Range of Power. Was able to keep this one kinda concise.

In other news, the animation for this has been pretty hyped up. And the OST as well, which I’m certainly excited for. Episode 4 has been stated by Sam to be “so good” so high hopes for that as well.

That’s all I gotta say. Peace.

EDIT: Damn, that Peek. A visual nostalgia trip with a kickass retro OST. Didn’t see much combat, but we’ll see what happens Sunday.

Malcolm Belmont

(Counterstrike is freaking amazing and everyone should listen to it)

Oh hey look, it’s a DEATH BATTLE i never knew that i wanted but when it was announced i was extremely happy about it. In all seriousness, this fight was a complete shock to most, if not all people I knew; especially since most people were on that Bowser vs Eggman train (including me), but the more i thought about this DEATH BATTLE, the more i realised that: yeah, this actually makes a considerable amount of sense to be a DEATH BATTLE. Personally in terms of nostalgia I am much more of a Power Rangers guy then a TMNT Guy considering that when I was young I mostly watched VHS tapes of three different things - those were Pokémon the Original Series, Yu-Gi-Oh the Original Series, and you guessed it; Power Rangers. When it came to Power Rangers I remembered that I had several VHS of the original series as well as Power Rangers Lost Galaxy - including the season finale for some reason (which I remember loosely) as well as Power Rangers Wild Force (which I definitely remember watching a lot of). There were other series that I watched down the line (including Dino Thunder which i fondly remember) as well as RPM and In Space (the two objectively best Power Rangers Series...I said it).  When it comes to nostalgia, I remember - Wild Force, MMPR, and Lost Galaxy were the ones I remember the most vividly. Now after that nostalgia trip around memory lane - what about the fight itself. Who do I think should win this bout?

Well ultimately I am going to have to agree with a lot of the other verdicts on this one. I think Jason ultimately beats Leonardo in this bout and Power Rangers finally gets a win that it soooo very deserves. As for why I do think that Jason has this fight. I am going to try and not go into Stats too much because most of the other verdicts will likely do a way better job then me when it comes to the stats edge but ultimately I do think based on scaling to feats that Jason has the solid edge when it comes to destructive capability and durability but when it comes to speed - at most, Jason is likely only 5 times faster then Leo which is a minute gap when considering everything. For this fight, I would like to talk about how their arsenals and that despite Leo having more than Jason to work with - ultimately he gets outmatched. 

When it comes to Leo’s ranged weapons like his shuriken, smoke bombs, and archery. Ultimately, I really don’t think it’s going to matter that much when it comes to Jason - the reason why i think is that while his shuriken and Bow are deadly weapons that could take out a person in a simple hit - they are far less affected when fighting against someone like Jason. For the shuriken - if you have watched any of Gaijin Goomba’s videos on the topic - you would no that shuriken were not primary weapons and i am quoting him on this “you aren’t going to kill anything with a shuriken unless you hit them in the head, chest, or spine.” Leo is not going to be able to deal a finishing blow unless he does one of these three.  Another thing Gajin mentioned when it came to his views on the shuriken - they must be completed unarmoured for a shuriken to really have any sort of effect and Jason is definitely armoured in his MMPR Suit meaning even if Leo were to be able to hit with a shuriken - Jason would be able to easily able to dodge it or just blow it considering Jason is faster then Leo. As for Leo’s bow and arrows, here is what would happen if Leo pulled out a bow - “Leo fires arrow from bow - Jason instantly destroys arrow with his laser gun”. Not only is Jason quick enough to see a Arrow coming but he can very easily and shoot it with his gun and ultimately that is the case with a lot of Leo’s weapons: Kusrigama - easily can be sliced with the Power Sword, Climb Claws - can be destroyed with Jason’s blade, grappling hook - can be destroyed through a Laser Shot or a slice from the power sword, etc, etc. While Leo is definitely much more versatile than Jason - that isn’t really going to do much against someone like Jason who is strong enough to not only tank what Leo throws at him, but skilled enough to easily counter it. The only weapon that i could see in Leo’s arsenals that aren’t his different types of swords are the smoke bombs but that is only meant to cause temporary confusion and blindness at most.  Even if Leo could try and go in for the finishing blow after using a smoke bomb - it simply won’t be enough. 

Now let’s talk about their swords.  Despite the fact that Leo’s odachi is a deadly tool with it’s portal creation ability - it’s inconsistent at best and downright dementral at worst considering that it’s extremely inconsistent on where it could potentially send Leo, which does not help him in this fight. Plus, Jason has this little something called teleportation also - meaning even if Leo used his Odachi properly and teleported all around the place to catch him off guard - Jason could just counter with his own form of teleportation. As for Leo’s more used dual katanas - impressive weapons that they are - they simply don’t stack up against the Power Sword and it’s charged sliced.  Leo’s swords have also been broken on more than one occasion.

So while Leo definitely is the more versatile of the two - ultimately Leo doesn’t really have much that can be used to damage Jason while Jason could very easily slice through all of Leo’s weapons. 

As for Leo’s abilities - i am going to be honest here, i feel when it comes to the argument of Leo in DEATH BATTLE, i think the healing hands are way too overhyped and ultimately really wouldn’t be that effective in a straight 1 to 1 fight like how this DEATH BATTLE is doing it. For one thing - Leo is going to have to stand completely still and perform the chant which takes a fair amount of time, time he simply does not have against Jason who could simply teleport in and strike Leo when his guard is done and he is focusing on his healing hands technique. Secondly, is the context on how it is used - while it did heal some of Leo’s injuries - ultimately it was not used to heal himself, rather it was used in order to get rid of Karai’s poison in the 2012 series. While i have no doubt it could heal him a little, ultimately i don’t think it’s going to benefit him that much when it comes time to practice, leads him wide open and ultimately Jason is just going to hurt him again - leaving the healing hands to be completely pointless. 

In terms of Leo’s other abilities, while he is a skilled martial artist and nothing can keep that away from him, ultimately a lot of Leo’s techniques such as his pressure point combat and his ninjutsu skills - won’t matter against Jason. pressure point combat is not going to be extremely helpful against Jason considering he’s armoured or at least has protection in several different places that’s going to make actually hitting those pressure points to be rather difficult as well as the fact that a lot of his ninjutsu training focuses on stealth and getting a quick and easy kill which is a factor of the ninja that good old Gaijin Goomba discussed in his videos, ultimately ninjas were not long term fighters - they focused on getting the quick and easy kill above all else and were more information gathers. They were simply not strong enough to take down an armoured enemy or a whole squad of soldiers and that rings true for Leo. While Leo is a skilled fighter - he works best when he uses his Katanas to finish the fight early and end the fight quickly as shown in several series where he gets his butt handed to him when the fight continues on. Plus that also factors into Leo’s own personal weaknesses is that he can panic extremely easily when things don’t go his own way and if he is surprised (as shown through multiple series). Ultimately because Jason is an armoured target and is stronger and more durable - Leo’s ninjutsu training is ultimately not going to do very much against Jason and he won’t be able to get the quick and easy kill like he wants and as the fight continues - Jason will have the destructive capability needed to overwhelm Leonardo and put him down for good. 

I like both of these combatants but ultimately i have to choose a victor and i am going with Jason here due to having superior stats,having counters to post if not all of Leo’s abilities and weapons and ultimately being much more calm and level-headed when it comes to an extended fight then Leo. Sorry Leo, but you are hoping for a 3-0 win streak when it comes to DEATH BATTLE, third time will not be the charm.

And with that, that was my thoughts and opinions on this fight, hopefully i will be doing a verdict for the next fight sooo see ya. 

VampyreNVRmore

(R.I.P. Dragon Ball Z Abridged. Team Four Star has brought me so many laughs with the show. It will be missed. Good luck with all your future content, TFS.)

It was only a matter of time before we would get another representative from TMNT. Sure, we got Shredder (who’s match was my first appearance on the blog. Wow, I just realized that.) back in Season 4, but it’s been a long time since we’ve gotten a Ninja Turtle before. Figured it would be either Leonardo by himself or the four brothers in a group fight (I know many of the guys here in the blog wants them to fight Team RWBY, but I prefer the Turtles to fight Batman’s four known proteges).

Anyway, this match-up is a surprise for me since I always wanted Leonardo to fight Tommy Oliver. While CX’s Battle Royale did do that fight, DB could’ve done their own version by taking out Leo’s Dragon form and Tommy’s Zords while also adding equipement from Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Master Morpher. However, this fight is just as good since it’s still Leo fighting a well-known Power Ranger.

Anyway, let’s get started.

With all these restrictions (no dragon form, no zords, no temporary weapons or mechs), this match-up does look like it’s going to be a close one. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case thanks to how fucking strong a Power Ranger is without their Zord.

In terms of physical strength and durability, Jason has the clear advantage. He’s capable of lifting a 110 ton boulder and performing 1,010 bench presses 3 times in a single day. As for his weapons, they’re capable of harming zords and giant monsters. As for Leo, he can lift T-Rex jaws and stone pillars and even blocked a laser that required 39 megatons of TNT. Both survived massive explosions, but Jason also survived attacks from zords. It’s through scaling that we’ll be able to see their potential limits.

Leo obviously scales to his brothers Rahpael and Michelangelo, who each performed feats worth 480 kilotons and 472 tons of TNT respectively. As for Jason, he scales to Tommy Oliver and Goldar due to defeating them both in fights. Both characters are on par with Rito Revolto, who withstood an impact on the moon that’s worth 3.4 gigatons of TNT.

In terms of speed, both Leo and Jason have relativistic and lightspeed feats. Leonardo deflected reflective lasers, a feat that was calculated to be nearly 80% the speed of light. As for Jason, he scales to monsters and Rita. Some monsters of the week caught grenades thrown by Lord Zedd from the moon (which is 21% the speed of light) while Rita herself dodged lightning shot by Zedd from the moon (which was 5 times the speed of light). Therefore, Jason’s slightly faster than Leo.

While it seems like Jason has the edge in all physical stats, Leo will put up a tough fight thanks to his variety of weapons and abilities. Both trained from a young age in martial arts, but Leo learned more types of martial arts thanks to his ninjutsu training. And as mentioned before, the Ninja Turtle has a wider arsenal of deadly weapons than the Power Ranger. One of them is the Odachi from Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which is capable of teleporting Leo or incoming attacks to anywhere he wants and is much more convenient than Jason’s teleportation. It also doesn’t help that Leonardo can also heal himself, which will prolong the fight.

Despite the vast amount of abilities and weapons Leo has, it doesn’t help him overcome Jason’s higher stats. In the end, we’re finally going to have a Power Rangers win in Death Battle. Leonardo vs Jason is going to be one shell of a fight.

Kingsly

Preemptive apologies for the shorter verdict. A match-up between these two franchises felt rather overdue, so it’s nice to see it finally happen.

In terms of AP, Jason should get up to island-level fairly solidly. He’s fought Goldar, who scales to Rito, who tanked an impact which made a noticeable explosion on the moon. This isn’t just an outlier either, as Rita, who Jason arguably scales to, has numerous showing placing her at island-level as well, such as blowing up an island. Given that, Jason should be in the low-gigatons range consistently. Leonardo is slightly trickier, due to just how many incarnations of the character there have been. Despite that though, his best feat comes from Rise of the TMNT, where’s he comparable to Raphael, who was capable of smashing a massive stone structure. This ended up getting results high into the kilotons at large-town level. The only way for Leo to get any higher than this would be to use the kinetic energy from his laser blocking feats, which I understand many people have grievances with, or to use the cloud splitting feat from Shredder in Rise, the calc for which is inflated in numerous ways. No matter what though, ultimately Jason still holds a distinct advantage in strength over Leo, even if you’re being generous to the latter.

In terms of speed, both characters have fairly similar showings. Jason should scale to monsters who can react to items thrown from the moon in a short time-frame, which should be distinctly relativistic. Leo has numerous showings across several different continuities of light-timing, whether it be from blocking lasers or moving in-tandem with light, placing the two at roughly the same level of speed. Even still though, Jason could be argued as faster if you consider Zedd’s showing of his lightning moving from the moon to the Earth in only a few frames. Characters such as Rito have dodged Zedd’s lightning before, so Jason should scale to this. I’m personally fine with using this but I know many aren’t, so at worst these two are relatively even in speed.

Leo’s advantages come to light when moving away from stats and into other categories. He holds a distinct advantage in skill for example. Jason is a martial-arts instructor, sure, but Leo has been training his entire life and evidently knows more martial arts and specialised techniques than Jason. Leo is also a lot more versatile, having had numerous weapons and abilities across the series’s history that give him a distinct edge over Jason. Even then though, Jason can still more than keep up in these factors. While his arsenal is far smaller than Leo’s, it packs just as much if not more power, and Leo’s range of weapons aren’t too useful in a fight like this. Leo is a lot more versatile with his form of teleportation in the Odachi, being able to create portals and redirect attacks compared to Jason’s basic teleportation, but this ability being tied to his sword is a liability. Jason’s form of teleportation is quicker and more reliable despite not getting as much use out of it as Leo does, and there’s nothing stopping Jason from just disarming Leo and removing his access to this ability completely.

Leo’s skill and arsenal of weapons and abilities could allow him to hang in there, but Jason’s raw power is just too much for him. Leo can’t really do anything to seriously harm him, while Jason with his power and speed can easily close in and take Leo out as soon as the fight starts. Leo can only really use abilities such as healing to prolong the fight, but sooner or later, Jason is gonna land a fatal hit and take the victory.

Phantom Falcon

(Cowabunga!)

Hey there. Never thought I’d be in one of these, or at least not for a match-up- like this. Pretty cool. Huge thanks to the G1DBFB for letting me be a part of this, it means a lot.

So we have Leonardo vs Jason, a match I certainly wasn’t expecting. When I heard we were getting 2 returning combatants for this episode, I thought it would be something like Eggman vs Wily 2 or Chief vs Doomguy 2, and while I personally prefer those ideas, this is a welcome surprise. But I also don’t like it because I love both characters so no matter who wins, my inner childhood dies. Speaking of who wins, let’s dive into that.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first: In terms of pure skill and experience, Jason is outmatched. Don’t get me wrong, he’s certainly skilled in his own right, but Leo knows literally a dozen more fighting styles than Jason and has been trained virtually his whole life by a master ninja rat. Even with the comics and crossovers, Leo has overall appeared in more media than Jason, and therefore has been in more adventures than him. I’d also argue Leo is the more tactical fighter between the two. Jason’s smart, sure, but Leo can come up with great strategies in the middle of a fight even by himself, and has great adaptability when fighting.

Next is their weapons and abilities, and this is where the fight gets a bit tricky. Leo certainly has more weapons than Jason, such as smoke bombs, shurikens, climbing claws, grappling hooks, etc. But the most useful ones are definitely the Odachi blade and Healing Hands. The Healing Hands are a pretty good advantage, as they allow Leo to heal himself if he suffers damage, though most likely not ones that are fatal. The Odachi allows Leo to teleport thousands of miles away and reflect projectiles. The teleportation is really handy, as he could come up with surprise attacks, like a combination of a smoke bomb and teleportation to catch Jason off guard. Meanwhile, Jason only has basic things like the Power Sword and Blade Blaster. So clearly Leo should have the advantage here right? 

Well, yes and no. While Leo has more tools to work with, I don’t really see most of them having any use against somebody like Jason, given his impressive durability. Jason doesn’t have as many weapons, but the Power Sword alone is almost certainly stronger than any blade weapons Leo has. The Blade Blaster and Thunder Slinger are both obviously better than shurikens and knives. Leo’s teleportation is more versatile, but Jason’s own teleportation has less restrictions, and he can easily use his own to disarm Leo and gain better control over the battlefield. It’s pretty much quantity vs quality. Overall, I’d say this area is a tie between the two, as their arsenals match each other pretty well.

So now we go into stats, and this is where things go from being pretty close to relatively clear cut. Let’s start with the leader of the turtles.

Leo has consistently dodged laser fire multiple times, and he has one feat of reacting to one that was calculated to be around 80% light speed, or relativistic+. He and his brothers managed to dodge and react to a barrage of lasers as well. And yes, these should qualify as real lasers: they move in a straight line, don’t explode on impact, and hell, in an earlier panel, were described as light. So I think they should pass, which should make relativistic-FTL Leo consistent. Unfortunately, this feat in particular is very hard to calculate given how the best we can use is Mikey and Raphael dodging them by moving a good distance away. So the best I can do is really just eyeball it, and it seems to be around 1.5x light speed or somewhere around that, though again, it’s just eyeballing, so who knows really.

Next we have strength/destructive capability. Leo should logically scale to Raphael’s 480 kiloton feat, which is at large-town level. However, you can actually get Leonardo higher via relativistic kinetic energy. Remember that feat of him reacting to the laser that got 80% light speed? Well, if you apply the mass of those katanas together (1.4 kilograms for one katana, so 2.8 kilograms in total), and apply that to the good old relativistic kinetic energy calculator, and you get roughly 40 megatons of TNT, or city level DC, though I will admit this is a bit dubious to use. Durability should be roughly the same as well I’d say. There is also a cloud dispersing feat from Shredder in Rise, but you only get 463 megatons at the absolute highest, which is mountain level, but that’s hilariously highballed and I don’t think it should be used. So those are his stats

Now for the original Red Ranger, Jason.

Jason in speed should scale to your average villain of the week who can react to and catch Zedd throwing a grenade at super fast speeds from the moon (16:00). This has been calculated to be around 21% the speed of light, or relativistic. However, Jason should be even faster than that thanks to scaling to Rito Revolto, who dodged Zedd’s lightning point blank (16:27). Zedd’s lightning can reach the Earth in less than a second, and has been calculated at over 5x the speed of light. I’ve seen some arguments that the lightning didn't travel that fast because lol he fired it and it reached Earth in 3 seconds, but he’s simply charging up the blast, he fires it at the last second and it makes it to Earth in a relatively short amount of time. So I think it makes sense. Rito has been damaged by Tommy and is depicted as inferior to Goldar, and Jason can fight on par with both of them and even defeat them. So I say he should scale to Rito.

Now for DC. Jason doesn’t have that many impressive feats by himself, but as I mentioned above, he should logically scale to Rito, who survived an explosion on the moon. The original calculation had various flaws, but even just taking the diameter of the explosion, Rito still survived over 3 gigatons of tnt, which is at large mountain/small island level. Jason is capable of damaging Rito and scales to characters who can damage him. And this should apply to durability as well.

So where does this leave us? Well unless you weren’t paying attention, Jason takes the stat trinity pretty comfortably. He’s nearly 100 times stronger and more durable, even with the cloud dispersion feat, and around 3.5 times faster. While the speed difference wouldn’t necessarily be a blitz, and Leo’s superior hand to hand combat skills, teleportation, smoke bombs, and stealth would make it tricky to land a hit on him, Jason will eventually get one hit in, which is all he needs to win. Leo’s Healing Hands won’t really be that much of a help, and this is assuming he can even survive a blow so powerful. Even if he did, the Healing Hands don’t seem to work on fatal wounds, given how Leo didn’t use them when Splinter was literally dying and they take a decent amount of time to actually work, leaving him wide open. Even his teleportation can be easily dealt with thanks to Jason’s own, and there’s nothing really stopping him from disarming Leo, where he will lose arguably his most useful advantage in the fight . Once that’s done, all Leo can do is delay the inevitable.

Being perfectly honest, I can see Leo winning in certain situations thanks to his greater skill, somewhat comparable speed, stealth, superior tactics, and versatility, but overall, I think Jason’s overall superior stats, stronger arsenal, and more reliable options to take control of the battlefield will finally give Power Rangers their well deserved victory. I certainly won’t be shell-shocked when he wins.

...fuck that was a horrible pun.

Sgrigger(03)/Minininja

I could list a whole bunch of reasons as to why I know Leonardo cannot cinch this, but I will keep it more on the brief side.  I actually have zero bias, a ton of nostalgia, love, but zero hype for this match-up. It’s a fight that I agree was a long time in coming and needed to happen.  We are finally seeing a power ranger without their Zord at his/her best, and to top it all off, it’s two of the best team leaders that the 90’s had to offer.

Firstly, the major things Leo has going for him are his ninja training, superior martial arts training, stealth, and maybe smoke bombs.  Why did I not list his teleporting sword? Because Jason’s teleporting is WAY better. Why did I not list the healing hands you ask? Because it will be worthless.

The way the healing hands works, if you look up both the TMNT canon on it and the real life belief in how it works is that it focuses one’s chi to make the body in question heal itself more efficiently while your own chi relieves the pain.  This is something that needs and takes time to focus, time to work, and greatly fatigues the user and subject the more grave the wound is.  Thus, if Leonardo were to have said time to use it, which is a big IF in my opinion; it would cancel out his adrenaline and greatly fatigue him after he’s already been in the fight of his life.

Now, back to the real advantages our great turtle leader brings to the table.  He will completely outfight Jason, control the battlefield with his versatile weaponry, vanish when he is in a jam via stealth and smoke bombs, use hit-and-run tactics, and he may be a little faster than Jason to compliment his superior reflexes.  This, unfortunately, matters not at all since Leo cannot do actual lasting damage to Jason once Jason is morphed. I don’t think Jason even needs the Omega form!  When you factor the kind of damage and force that Jason and literally any of the rangers have tanked in those power suits, Leonardo just plain doesn’t have the power or weaponry to actually damage him!  If you asked my 7-year old self who would win between these two, I’d probably tell you the same thing I am now.  

While not everyone in the Death Battle fandom likes this show, I am going to make an analogy here.  This is Deadliest Warrior: Spartan vs Ninja all over again.  Just like “The Ninja,” Leo is going to have to use every bit of his talent and arsenal just to keep Jason on his toes, but like “The Ninja” struggled to get around the giant shield and could not do anything lasting to “The Spartan” with that armor, Leo is going to throw everything he can at that power suit, maybe watch sparks fly off it for good ol’ 90’s TV effect in confusion, and come up short until “The Spartan”...I mean the Red Ranger, walks over and deals the deadliest lethal blow that Leo just won’t be able to handle.

Now if there are those of you who don’t know what I am talking about, or are cringing because they do; I will revize my analogy.  This is Batman vs Black Panther again. Who was the better fighter with the better arsenal who has done way more impossible things?  Batman! Who won? Black Panther. Why? Power Suit vs mundane tools and weaponry. By the end of the full course of this Death Battle, victory will be served to Jason on a half-shell.

Speedy

Sup. It me. Gonna be brief cuz there are a literal fuck-ton of verdicts on this one.

As far as anyone has found so far, Leo is, at best, relativistic+ via laser timing and large town (scaling to Raph’s feat in Rise) to maybe city level, if you use relativistic kinetic energy for his laser block. I know there’s some contention about whether AP should be derived from moving objects at high speed when it gets results higher than the character’s other feats, so while it’s not an invalid or stacked calc, it’s possible to view it as a sort-of outlier. 

EDIT: Rough calc of the cloud dispersion thing in Rise got triple-digit megatons, but that number is highballed massively beyond reason and doesn’t change anything anyway.

It doesn’t really matter though. Via comparability to Tommy and Goldar, Jason scales to Rito Revolto’s impact with the moon, which yields low gigaton results even being conservative (calc-ing the damage it did to the surface would be higher than calc-ing it as an explosion). There are also quite a few instances of Jason’s weapons harming Zords, him being able to take hits from them, etc., as well as scaling to Tommy, who traded blows with Lord Zedd and tanked his lightning. Theoretically speaking, this could allow him to scale to Rita Repulsa’s magic feats, which are…pretty dang ridiculous. Remember the island thing? Yeah. Speed-wise, there’s some debate, but generally speaking, scaling him to Zedd’s grenade throw + Rito dodging Zedd’s lightning will put him on par with Leo’s laser feat if not several times higher.

There’s been some discussion of peripheral advantages, most notably comparing and contrasting their teleportation, and in many of these side areas, Leo actually does hold an advantage. However, at the end of the day the difference in strength is too big for me to call this one in his favor. It’s a shame, because I’ve been mostly focused on Leo here and have grown pretty fond of him as a result, but based on the information we have, unless Death Battle finds a feat for Leo that we aren’t aware of, Jason should have this relatively comfortably.

Something something turtle soup.

Animator3003

( ...BIG APPLE 3 A.M!... )

GG 

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