Death Battle Predictions: Saitama vs Popeye

  

(Djangor)

(Credit to Dekhead)

(Hyperstarman)

(GumballViking)

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

-Abraham Lincoln

Saitama, the Caped Baldy and legendary One-Punch Man.

Popeye, the spinach-eating cartoon Sailor Man.

Powerful heroes are absolutely everywhere, in all shapes and sizes. The greatest among them are truly inspiring, able to break barriers and push themselves beyond their limits. But what happens when a hero has no such limits to push?  

At first glance, these baldies don’t seem like anything special, aside from a mediocre man in a costume and a grumpy old sailor. But peel back the mundane layer and you will find two unbeatable powerhouses with the might to plow through any obstacle that comes their way. This 10-year anniversary season is capping off with a throwdown of unmatched strength, sure to shake existence to its core. When east meets west and new meets old, only one can win a DEATH BATTLE!

Note:

It should be noted that a fair chunk of Popeye’s material comes from the 1930s-1940s where what was considered to be appropriate is vastly different from what we consider appropriate today. As such, it should be noted that there will likely be insensitive portrayals of different ethnicities and cultures showcased in some of the gifs/feats that we use in the blog. We put this note here as a warning in case there is anyone reading the blog that would be potentially offended.

Also, credit goes to Jasonsith for some of the Popeye Calculations, as well as DoctorMooDB.

With that out of the way, please enjoy the season finale blog! :D

Background

Saitama

“Having overwhelming strength is… pretty boring actually.”

Living in Z-City, there is a man with the power to defeat any adversary that comes his way with merely a single punch. A hero whose efforts are completely unknown to the general public. A hero known as… Caped Baldy.

Saitama’s childhood isn’t what one would expect if they knew how he’d turn out. In school, he was always ridiculed and despised by teachers and targeted by typical bullies to the point where he never really fought back. With the growing threat of monsters slowly rising, it seemed like the entire world was ganging up on him, and for the most part, that was relatively unchanged until the day he failed an unimportant job interview and ran into the monster Crablante. After finding out he was after a child, Saitama decided to battle this monster and be a hero, which is something he wanted to be as a child. The rush of battle after winning made Saitama look into another lifestyle, and thus began his three years of long, unforgiving training to not just be a great hero, but the best one there ever was. Eventually, he lost his hair and gained incredible power. From then on, he became a hero for fun, but his great power came with a terrible cost; His limiter, the mechanism that could control his growth as a living being, was completely broken, allowing Saitama to reach unimaginable levels of power.

Now capable of defeating any enemy with only a single punch, Saitama began to live a life of extreme boredom, with no monster or threat proving to be fun at all. Then something unexpected happened one day. After saving a cyborg known as Genos from a Mosquito Queen, he decided to “mentor” him, which would lead to his discovery of the Hero Association. Despite setting new records in every physical exam, his written exam was so bad that he joined the association in the lowest ranking possible, C-class. Over time, he would slowly grow in ranking as more and more people took notice as to how powerful he truly is. He may not experience a fight on his level ever again (until today that is), but Saitama is slowly starting to find out that there’s more to a hero than the damage they can deal. Whether he’s saving the world from alien threats, or enjoying a casual trip to the supermarket, he always tends to be in the center of some kind of trouble, but he can rest easy (and disappointed), knowing that at the end of the day, all he needs is one punch.

Popeye

“I yam what I yam, and dats all what I yam!”

Near the seas of Santa Monica, a child was born which would change the ways of the seas and animation itself forever. Popeye was “born of the seas”, and was nearly caught in a massive typhoon shortly after his birth. Popeye had a very rough childhood growing up, given that his father, Poopdeck Pappy, and his mother left him at a very young age. Left with only Pappy’s pipe to remember him by, Popeye would live in an orphanage where his first fight made him a prized child in winning contests, even going into American football. But he left the orphanage because his heart was empty, and would live in the streets wearing flour sacks as his clothes. This thankfully changed his life when a sailor named Whaler Joe took him in and taught him the skills to become a sailor. 

With a new pipe and some determination, Popeye would train his body and manners until he was 12 and decided to become a man. He one day accidentally went out to sea and wandered upon his future ship, Josie Lee, where he would discover his love of fighting and the sailor’s way. In his first voyage, he would lose his eye when he suffered his first defeat against one of his crewmates, The Ape. In their rematch, although he took a heavy blow to the jaw, Popeye emerged victorious.

At 14, he would go to another crew of the Mary Ann and meet his best friend, Bill Barnacle. Having fought and survived their battle against The Sea Hag, they joined the navy, where Popeye would later meet his arch-nemesis, Bluto. In his mid-thirties, Popeye’s life changed during his trip to Dice Island. It was there, in doing service with Caster Oyl to discover the powers behind Bernice the Whiffle Hen, Popeye would meet his future wife, Caster’s sister Olive Oyl. While they hated each other at first, they became a couple, eventually marrying and having a son, Popeye Jr.

This is where the order of things gets a bit murky. Being a classic cartoon character, a lot of Popeye’s adventures took an episodic approach, taking place in different times and places. Throughout all of it, however, he has stayed consistent in many areas, especially in his love for his wife (or girlfriend, or whatever Olive decides to be), his rivalry with Bluto (or Brutus depending on the era), and his reliance on wet leaves. No matter if it is the seas, animals, or the world against him, he will stay strong to the finish because of eating his spinach. Because he is POPEYE THE SAILOR MAN!!

Equipment

Saitama

Hero Costume 

Saitama’s completely standard super hero costume. He has to clean the gloves every time he kills a monster. The fact the gloves (usually) survive punches like that must be a testament to their durability.

Grocery Bag

Man's gotta do his grocery shopping. Especially when there’s a bargain at the supermarket. It’s usually seen with leeks hanging out, which are incredibly nutritious. Leeks are rich in flavonoids, which help prevent awful things like diabetes and cancer.

Popeye

Spinach 

The iconic can of spinach that serves as Popeye’s power-up in all his Bluto-bashing glory. Fun fact: the power-up apparently comes from a typo in an explanation of spinach, that accidentally put the amount of iron in spinach as 10x of what it should be. Upon eating spinach, Popeye increases in strength, speed, and even intelligence and skill. Spinach does more than just elevate those dramatically, it also gives the user many other useful abilities, such as de-aging him back to his prime, increasing his size, transforming his clothing, creating magnets and ​​letting him come back to existence even after being completely erased. Yes, we said users. The benefits of spinach are not exclusive to Popeye, but instead anyone who happens to eat it. In fact, one of the few times Bluto has gotten the better of Popeye is when he ate spinach himself.

What is most impressive is how even if he is disarmed of his ace in the hole, Popeye can always summon it at will. He has shown many times to be very creative in summoning his spinach when he truly needs it at most. He has called upon The Goddess of Spinach with just a whistle, painted a can to life, materialized one out of thin air, and can ask for spinach from outside of his world. More on that later. 

Ye King’s Spinach

A special enchanted version of spinach Popeye found on a ghost ship. On top of his usual buffs, it allows him to go invisible and harm ghosts.

Quaker Oatmeal

This breakfast meal is one of Popeye’s favorite foods and like spinach, gives him a boost in strength to the point that he can send aliens all the way to Saturn with a punch (video version). Considering that Saturn is 1.5739 billion km away from the Earth, this is mighty impressive.

Dutch Milk

By drinking Dutch Milk, Popeye can give his punches explosive power, to the point of exploding Bluto into fireworks with a strike. 

Corn Cob Pipe

Popeye’s signature pipe. Though it may not seem like an offensive weapon, Popeye has used it to stop a boulder thrown at him, open a vault, or to suck spinach in when his hands aren’t free. The pipe also seems to function as a flamethrower at times, as Popeye has used it to start fires with a jet of flames. And on top of all that, if Popeye eats a bunch of spinach, his pipe can become a ray gun, shooting “spinach rays”. These spinach rays not only work like a regular ray gun, but also turn the target to the side of the user, regardless of past hostility. Sadly, this comes at the cost of causing him lung cancer. Don’t smoke, kids.

Pistol

Popeye carries a pistol with him. Despite relying on brute force a lot of the time (well okay, pretty much ALL the time), the Sailor Man is a rather skilled marksman, being able to accurately aim and shoot the gun so that it strikes an apple on his head.

Shotgun

Popeye has a shotgun when he wants to go for the kill. It's a good ranged weapon and was able to destroy an entire house in 17 shots.

Giant Tree Root

Yes, that’s Popeye using a giant tree root he just ripped clean from a tree as a bat. After somehow pulling an entire tree through the ground and snapping it apart, Popeye weaponized the root to bat numerous logs away. The force was so powerful that the logs continued moving up a slope, because gravity doesn’t get any say in anything in classic cartoons.

Lasso

You think we’re done with Popeye’s ridiculous arsenal? Not quite yet! The next weapon up on the Sailor Man’s list is his lasso, which he’s shown above pulling a mountain closer after Bluto cut the ropes connecting the bridge.

Whiffle

A magical bird that can grant wishes to anyone who rubs their hand on its head feathers. For instance, Popeye made it so Wimpy despised hamburgers, meaning he can basically manipulate the minds of others if he wished for it..

Anchor 

Used in Popeye: Ijiwaru Majo Seahag no Maki, this is Popeye’s main attacking weapon. Basically, it’s an anchor attached to a chair that allows Popeye to attack from all directions (like Simon in Super Castlevania 4).

Abilities

Saitama

Advanced Development/Limiter Removal

Every living being has a limiter, a mechanism that restricts growth of power within them. As Dr. Genus puts it:

“No matter how much effort one puts in, every living being has an intrinsic limit to its growth. Too much power becomes unbearable and overwhelms its host, turning it into a mindless, rampaging monster. To ensure that we do not enter the realm where we lose all purpose and reason, God has set limits to the growth of every being. The mechanism with which growth is controlled is called the limiter.”

Dr. Genus believes Saitama, through effort alone, evolved beyond his natural limits and achieved strength not measurable, breaking this limiter in the process. The cost for this power is believed to be permanent baldness for Saitama. There may be truth to this theory, as Psykos confirms the existence of the limiter existing within humans, having experimented herself to try and break them (thus creating Orochi).

Saitama also notes he gets stronger each day, to the point of being capable of defeating himself from the day prior. This makes sense, as he trains everyday.

Normal Punch

It’s as straightforward as it sounds. Saitama’s famous normal punch casually obliterates most foes he comes across in one shot and was strong enough to destroy a meteor that would’ve annihilated a whole city.

Consecutive Normal Punches

(Eat your heart out, Kenshiro)

A series of single-handed rapid fire punches from Saitama’s right arm that effortlessly tears foes apart in one go.

Two-Handed Consecutive Normal Punches

Why use one hand when you can use two? This is pretty much what you think it is: Saitama’s Consecutive Normal Punches, but using both of his hands. It’s strong and fast enough to contend with Garou’s God Slayer Instant Attack.

Serious Punch

On the rare occasions Saitama gets “serious”, he’ll throw out a punch with some actual force behind it with devastating results. The shockwaves from it alone were strong enough to part a massive amount of clouds on the earth while stopping a blast that would’ve wiped out the planet’s surface. Despite the name though, it’s implied not even this qualifies as Saitama going all out, at least if Boros is anyone to go by.

Serious Consecutive Side Hops

Saitama performs a series of side hops so quickly that he creates multiple afterimages of himself. He can move while in this state and create shockwaves that knock foes back. 

Serious Squirt Gun

(Not with water)

With the use of nearby lava, Saitama uses his hand to shoot out lava as a pressured stream of molten liquid. Despite the silly-sounding name, this attack was powerful enough to overcome Orochi's Gaia Cannon, which drew power from the core of the earth. 

Serious Headbutt

Saitama headbutts with a great amount of force. This was able to take out one of Garou's monster forms in one blow.

Serious Table Flip

Saitama flips the entire battlefield into the air, such as when he flipped the entire Monster Association Base. Note that if he tried this on an actual table, it would break.

Death Punch

Presumably Saitama’s most powerful attack. Saitama becomes dead serious and unleashes an all-eclipsing fist of utter devastation, that we never see him land properly in the series. However, the shockwave from the pull-back of the punch alone was strong enough to destroy a mountain. 

Mental/Spiritual Interaction

Saitama has shown the ability to enter mental/spiritual planes, allowing him to hear Phoenix Man and Child Emperor's mental conversation.

Resistances

Saitama has shown resistance to the following:

• Extreme Heat (Can submerge in lava with no trouble. Was unaffected by Boros' attacks, which could melt entire sections of his ship), 

• Ice Manipulation (Instantly broke free from being frozen by Withered Sprout)

• Absorption (Unaffected by Orochi’s assimilation)

• Telekinesis (Tatsumaki had difficulty lifting him) 

• Chi Manipulation (Tatsumaki was unable to bend his aura)

• Mosquitos (Had no blood sucked from him, even when the city was covered head to toe with them)

Popeye

Body Manipulation

Popeye’s body appears to be extremely malleable, able to twist and shape in ways that the normal human body wouldn't be able to replicate. This is due to the fact that Popeye cartoons were primarily made in the era of Rubber Hose Animation, where everyone was extremely stretchy and never really kept on-model.

Twisker Punch

Popeye’s ultimate move, the Twisker Punch, or the Twisker Sock. Popeye twists his arm in the counterclockwise direction, punches, and then his arm starts unwinding, making whoever’s unlucky to be in its path spin along with it. The Twisker Punch itself can end up being lethal, and as such Popeye opts to only use it when pushed over the edge.

Transmutation

An odd ability that Popeye strangely uses extremely often, he has the power to punch someone or something so hard it turns into something else. A simple graze from the sailor’s fist can turn just about anything into whatever Popeye feels is appropriate, though a lot of the time they revert to a previous state or have some of the components of what they were previously. In terms of the things he can transform, Popeye has:

• Turned Native Americans into coins (As seen above)

• Punched Bluto so hard he turned into a sausage. (And after months of therapy and losing his faith in God-)

• Turned an octopus into a Merry-Go-Round

• Turned a bull into a meat market (Remember that time he refused to harm a bull in a bullfight?)

• Turned one big fish into many smaller fish

• Punched chunks of gold into gold coins

• Punched 4-5 knights and turned them into a stove

• Punched an anchor into fish hooks

• Punched a wall clock into smaller clocks

• Turned some sea-life into jelly, suits, and oil containers

• Turned a crocodile inside out and into some luggage and boots

• Turned a bunch of animals into coats

• Hammered a large number of horseshoes and an anvil into a large anchor and chain.

• Turned a lion into a basketball and then threw it 

• Turned a giant dragon into a tiny lizard

• Punched a large log into several smaller logs that formed a high chair, complete with wheels

• Punched a boulder into a large fireplace

Shape-Shifting

Popeye’s ability to change stuff into other stuff isn't exclusive to just other people, he also changes aspects about himself. He can change his entire body into something like a rock or a tire. He also has the ability to change specific parts of his body, like turning his arms into air brakes. Also, given his cartoony nature, he is able to stretch his limbs to extraordinary lengths. In terms of the things he can shapeshift into:

• A rock (As seen above)

• A rocket

• A torpedo

• An airplane

• A tornado  

• Turned his arms into air beaks

• Changed his clothes from his normal sailor uniform into a tuxedo 

• Turned his legs into propellers 

Magnetism

Armed with the power of spinach and a steel beam he bent into shape, Popeye can form an enormous magnet and manipulate the movement of metal objects. This goes far beyond common magnetism, as shown here where Popeye constructs a massive steel bridge in a few seconds.

Elemental Manipulation

Throughout the years, Popeye has displayed the ability to manipulate the elements. Ranging from shooting them from his hands to grabbing and interacting with them. He has showcased:

• Electricity Manipulation: Somehow, Popeye has displayed the unique ability to interact with electricity, such as lightning. He has used this power to grab lightning bolts, resist their effects entirely, or thrash them into submission. He can also send an electric punch through wires, and channel electricity throughout his body. 

• Fire Manipulation: Popeye with spinach has the ability to manipulate fire. He can shoot it out of his hands to fly, shoot it at his enemies, and breathe it through his Corn Cob Pipe. He has even shown the ability to manually move fire with his bare hands after eating spinach.

• Wind Manipulation: Through the power of spinach, Popeye can transform into a tornado that gives him flight, allowing him to fly from a town to a house on a cliff in a matter of seconds. His breath is strong enough to be sent through telephone lines and blow up a building in seconds. 

• Water Manipulation: Popeye strangely has the ability to manipulate flowing water, bending it into many different shapes, such as when he tied flowing water together. He can also shake waterfalls like a carpet.

Gravity Control

With the power of spinach, Popeye is able to manipulate his own personal gravity to stop himself before getting impaled on a mountaintop.

Age Manipulation

With the power of spinach (as usual), Popeye is able to counter the effects of an enhanced aging device used to turn him older. This then proceeded to de-age him back to a much younger self. As a result, Popeye could potentially use spinach to manipulate his age and physical condition when needed.

Merging

Another power bestowed to him via spinach, Popeye has the ability to fuse objects together, often amplifying them in the process, as shown when he caught multiple mortar shells and fused them into a larger explosive.

Clairvoyance

As per usual with the absurdity of Popeye’s biceps, they can somehow turn into crystal balls that can see things that are occurring far away.

Healing

Even after taking heavy damage, Popeye still has the ability to recover from his wounds. Unsurprisingly, all that Popeye needs to do is eat a can of spinach. After doing so, the spinach can completely eliminate any wounds Popeye might have at the moment, restoring him to prime fighting condition. Popeye can even regenerate from complete erasure.

4th Wall Awareness

As shown in the spinach section, Popeye has the ability to interact with the real world. In other words, he can break the fourth wall. Popeye has shown to interact with the audience a lot, and can even go as far as to interact with his original creator. He and his dad once destroyed his world, requiring the animators to quickly fix it, and tried to escape to the real world to sleep peacefully. He failed.

Toon Force

The most powerful ability Popeye has is him being aware that he is a cartoon, or a Toon. For review: Toon Force is an extremely potent method of reality warping, often attributed to cartoon characters and the like. All of the other abilities Popeye has shown, like summoning spinach or attacking his creator, shown above, are all related around Popeye gagging the plot to his will. 

As a matter of fact, just about everyone in the world of Popeye is capable of toonforce in some way, shape or form. It’s possible that the spinach that gives Popeye his powers is one of, if not the main catalyst of toonforce he has at his disposal, but as you’ll see later, he has many noteworthy feats without it, so it’s hard to tell if there’s an explanation within Popeye lore (Can’t believe I said Popeye and lore in the same sentence, what am I DOING with my life?).

Resistances

Even without his heavy resistance to physical damage on account of his toon force, the Sailor Man is still one tough guy to put down. Throughout the years, Popeye has shown that many common abilities can’t crack his shell. Shown resistances are as follows:

• Fire: Popeye once effortlessly tanked flames straight from a dragon’s maw.

• Electricity: Popeye has been zapped by lightning numerous times, to no avail.

• Ice: Even when his entire body was completely encased in ice, Popeye remained conscious enough to observe events around him and eventually break free.

• Hypnosis: While not entirely immune to its effects, in a duel with a hypnotist, Popeye broke out of, resisted, and reversed mind control multiple times.

• Transmutation: Popeye was able to resist and reverse Bluto’s transmutation magic, turning Bluto into a bird as a result.

• Age Manipulation: Similar to hypnosis, Popeye is not entirely immune to this form of hax, however he’s easily capable of resisting and reversing it when necessary. Sometimes a little too well.

• Size Manipulation: Extremely similar to the counter Popeye has to age manipulation, though Popeye doesn’t have to worry about growing too large, as he can simply revert himself back to normal size.

• Existence Erasure: Was still able to chow down on spinach after reality had been turned off.

Feats

Saitama

Overall

• Became a hero for fun and saved the world on many occasions, unintentionally or not

• Caused the creation of the Hero Association

• Ranked A-Class in the Hero Association

• Took on Genos as his student (and his only student)

• Defeated Speed-o’-Sound Sonic, Genos, Garou, Boros, and Tatsumaki without breaking a sweat

• Helped stop an alien invasion 

• Made it to the finals of a martial arts tournament (despite not knowing any martial arts)

• Helped many heroes overcome their struggles without noticing

• Befriended numerous S-class heroes

Power

Note: Saitama implies he doesn't really have “super moves”, so even his normal attacks scale to all the feats below.

• Just the shockwave from one of his punches could obliterate a mountain (11.38 kilotons - 10.38 megatons of TNT)

• Created a large crater on the moon by jumping (6.45 Petatons - 4.85 Exatons of TNT)

• With Serious Punch, canceled out Boros’ Collapsing Star Roaring Cannon, which could destroy the planet’s surface (Stated in the guidebook and web comic as well) (183.24 petatons of TNT)

• Serious Punch also split the atmosphere (11.67 petatons of TNT)

• In the anime, Boros can fully destroy the earth, as explained here.

• In the One Punch Man Compass, Boros is stated to have enough energy to destroy entire planets.

• Boros being stated to destroys stars is most likely a mistranslation, as it uses “hoshi”, which can also translate to planet or heavenly body.

• Destroyed a giant meteor casually

• Casually destroyed a wall from Boros' ship

• One-punched the Deep Sea King, and the air pressure created by the casual punch cleared the water and raindrops in the area

• Being the strongest hero (and potentially character) in the series, obviously scales above:

• Genos, who destroyed the House of Evolution (205.17 megatons - 24.6 gigatons of TNT)

• Tatsumaki, who telekinetically halted and launched gigantic shells from Boros’ ship, pulled the entire Monster Association hideout out from underground and overpowered Psykorochi once she had complete focus 

• Psykorochi was able to telekinetically lift part of the Earth's oceanic crust (1.26 Exatons - 70.53 Exatons of TNT)

• Fubuki, who caused a 6+ earthquake on the shino scale

• Garou, who defeated nearly all of the S-class heroes, including Silver Fang and Tatsumaki

• Gouketsu, who split clouds with a punch (203 megatons - 6.93 gigatons of TNT)

• Orochi, who pulled apart a section of the Earth's inner core (172.91 Exatons of TNT)

• Shattered Speed-o’-Sound Sonic's sword using just his jaw 

• Murata has stated Saitama could probably blow up the Earth if he wanted

• In the web comic, Saitama implied he could destroy the Earth

• Murata has drawn Saitama punching through either a planet or moon in a chapter cover.

• Potentially massively upscales from everything above

Speed

• Can create afterimages so fast not even Speed-o’-Sound Sonic could comprehend it.

• As the name implies, can easily break the sound barrier  

• Speed-o'-Sound Sonic can move faster than Genos could react

• Kept up with Gale Wind and Hellfire Flame at the same time 

• Jumped all the way back to Earth after being launched to the Moon (0.0641c) 

• Easily dodged Flashy Flash and caught his Flashy Slash 

• Consistently dodges Genos’ attacks

• Genos once dodged and moved in-tandem with G4’s beams, which are explicitly stated to be lasers made of light (0.46c)

• Kept up with Flashy Flash and moved fast enough to catch up to him  

• Flashy Flash can keep up with and blitz Gale Wind and Hellfire Flame in less time than it takes for an explosion to go off  (1.76c)

• Flashy Flash has been stated to be faster than light

• Caught rocks thrown by Geryuganshoop, who can telekinetically throw objects at near lightspeed (1.36 - 4.35c).

• Murata has stated that in Saitama's eyes, Geryuganshoop's rocks thrown at sub-light speed are nothing to him, like a bad joke.  

• Faster than Awakened Cockroach, who claimed he could avoid attacks going at the speed of light.

• Faster than Boros, who kicked Saitama to the moon at near the speed of light while wrapped in energy (0.44 - 0.56c).

• Murata has stated that Boros kicked Saitama at the Speed of Light.

• Faster than Garou, who along with Flashy Flash and Platinum Sperm, crossed dozens to hundreds of kilometers in the sky, creating what appeared to be geometric structures of light (0.01c).

• Once again, potentially massively upscales from everything above

Durability

        

• Tanked several hits from Boros during their fight

• No-sold attacks from Fubuki

• Was unfazed by Garou’s attacks

• Garou has stomped the likes of a crushed Genos, Tatsumaki, Atomic Samurai, Child Emperor - all heavy hitters in the OPM verse

• Tougher than Tatsumaki, who survived a humongous beam that carved out a chunk of the Earth

• Tanked this explosion and was completely fine (just a bit dusty)

• Withstood claw swipes from Nyan without feeling anything

• Comparable to Genos who survived a shockwave which destroyed a large mountain-like rock formation

• Completely unfazed after being attacked by Geryuganshoop, who claimed to be the most powerful psychic in the universe

• Fought Seiryu, one of the most skilled martial artists on the planet, and withstood highly powerful kicks

• Once again, potentially massively upscales from everything above

Popeye

Overall

• Became the greatest sailor of all time and endured many adventures around the world

• Found his Pappy after long years of searching

• A Godfather of Cartoons alongside Mickey Mouse 

• Married Olive

• Became friends with Betty Boop 

• Fought in World War 2

• Beat up numerous spinach-amped beings

• Defeated Bluto, The Old Hag, Sinbad, Ali Baba, Ogbert, The Aliens from Mars Attacks, and Hercules

• Inspired children to consume more vegetables

• The reason why Mario exists

Power

• He and Swee’Pea generated power described as being comparable to 50 atomic bombs, shaking the Earth. (1 teraton - 20 petatons)

• Punched Bluto so hard that it causes Earth to tilt (524.64 Yottatons)

• Made a bow and arrow with two trees, and shot the Sun (geez this guy hates the sun) (11.29 Foe)

• Gave the Sun a black eye (261.63 - 923.18 exatons of TNT)

• Punched some aliens so hard they flew to Saturn

• Scales to Olive Oyl who threw someone so hard they escaped the Earth’s atmosphere and landed on a star

• Casually threw a few skyscrapers to stack them on top of each other

• Punched Bluto across the planet and did the same thing to a baseball

• Knocked a huge boulder to the moon

• Knocked out a giant who dwarfs mountains in a single punch

• Pushed apart a castle

• With his pipe, made a hole into a cave entrance, it somehow works underwater as well

• With his pipe, lifted a boulder and redirected back at the attacker

• With spinach, punched a bear so hard it destroyed a cloud

• Threw an elephant so hard he sank an island

• Pulled a landmass with and without spinach

• Accidentally destroyed a Japanese warship

• Blew up a lighthouse by blowing into a phone

• Punched a locomotive to smithereens

• Punched Bluto to the Moon

• Punched a gladiator hard enough that he flew around the Moon multiple times

• Bent the front end of a battleship towards him

• Lifted and used an industrial scoop like a fishing rod

• Punched Bluto so hard he went around the Earth three whole times

• Pulled a mountain with a lasso

• Defeated General Fang, who was amped by spinach, while having no spinach of his own

• Easily scales to Bluto, who:

• Tore apart and crushed cars

• Lifted and smashed a 1,000 lb weight

• Destroyed a large bridge with his bare hands

Speed

• Ran 1000 miles in the time it took him to say “better hold yer hat” (Mach 39.09 - Mach 4691.9)

• Comparable to Poopdeck Pappy, who dodged several lighting bolts

• Fast enough to shadow box himself

• Turned into a rocket, which was fast enough to fly from Earth to the Moon in less than two seconds (0.626919707c)

• He and Swee’Pea seemingly circled the Earth a few times

• When punched by Popeye's punches aliens can move 350 Times the speed opf light (350c)

• Turned himself into a tornado and arrived in a different location in a short time

• Catches a lighting bolt and punches it (Mach 267.2772)

• Can react to and punch several lightning bolts, and use one to open a can of spinach. (Mach 1398.78)

• A rocket powered by spinach was able to go faster than the speed of light AND BREAK TIME 

• Outran a racehorse while carrying a cow at the same time

• Punched a thief from the east to California, by swimming to each spot before the thief landed 

• Outran a falling wire

• Punched so fast his impact turned into electricity 

• Piloted a flying boat which travels this fast

• With spinach, turned into electricity before some TNT was triggered

Durability

• With spinach, survived this island exploding (4.3 Gigatons - 100 Gigatons)

• With his spinach, completely unaffected when reality turned off (If you classify this as a durability feat then the energy to destroy a universe is 2.825 TenaexaFoe)

• Had his electrons disintegrated, and came back after eating his spinach

• Shot sixteen times point-blank by a revolver and was completely okay

• Reflected a bullet with the back of his head without flinching

• Got shot by a ray gun for a long period of time and tanked it, even before eating spinach

• Bluto once fell on Popeye so hard that they actually fell into Hell itself, and both were fine

• Tanked punches from Bluto

• Survived getting thrown to the moon by Hercules Bluto

• Had molten steel poured on him

• Unharmed after crashing onto a Japanese scrap ship hard enough to fling all the scrap metal off of it

• Had gunfire from Martian ships bounce off his body

• Tanked a safe thrown at him

• Tanked a hit from a train

Weaknesses

Saitama

Spicy food, mosquitos, rock paper scissors, and video games. Yeah, as expected, it’s hard to really pinpoint a character like Saitama with any major weaknesses, as his character is meant to be as overpowered as possible. But as a fighter, it should be noted that he lacks a lot of martial arts training that even B-Class heroes are knowledgeable about. Also, since he never truly goes all out, Saitama usually holds back for the chance of an opponent surviving one of his punches, giving opponents that are on his level an opening to deal some serious damage against him.

Popeye

Popeye is nothing short of a powerhouse, but like every other classic cartoon of his era, mice tend to get the better of him. And despite his appearance, he’s a big softie at heart, usually willing to put himself in harm’s way if it means protecting friends like Olive Oyl and others. Also, his overreliance on spinach leaves him with a fairly big setback should it get disarmed, at least until he gets more. But most of all, the basic formula of his cartoons begins with him taking a lot of damage before he gets the spinach and saves the day. Should a fight to the death follow this pattern, there’s no guarantee he’ll survive the initial ass whooping.

Summary

Saitama

“Who, me? I’m just a guy who’s a hero for fun! I never lose… and the surface is guarded by me!”

Advantages:

• Is debatably faster in travel and combat speed

• Can match Popeye depending on where you place Popeye

• Is balder

Disadvantages:

• Lacking in non-physical attacks

• Less experienced

• Has no counter to Popeye’s Toon Force

Popeye

“I'm strong to the finich ‘cause I eats me spinach. I'm Popeye the Sailor Man!”

Advantages:

• Much more solid evidence of being more powerful

• Can attack non-physically 

• Far more experienced

• Toon Force is just too broken

• Can regenerate from any damage Saitama can deal

• Spinach increases his strength advantage and could potentially help close the gap in speed

• Follow him on Twitter

Disadvantages:

• Debatable speed gap 

• The Emoji Movie cucked Genndy’s Popeye movie

• Spinach is a hell of a drug

Before We Get to Verdicts

Since the season finale fighters are deciding the factor between two of fiction's strongest powerhouses, we would like to clear out some confusion to address in making the two main questions more clear. 

1. Popeye’s Broken Toon Force & “THE” Star Feat

As shown throughout the section for Popeye, many of Popeye’s showings are difficult to understand and quantify. A lot of us had concerns in trying to scale Popeye’s strongest feats because the sizing and physics are nearly impossible to calculate. The two Sun feats in particular seem impossible to calc, but thankfully there were some that we were able to do.

Speaking of the Sun, let’s go into the biggest problem we had to face: The “Bluto Constellation” feat. For those who are not aware, supposedly early in the comics, there was a moment where Popeye punches Bluto so hard, he bounces and destroys a whole star constellation. Unfortunately, we could not find it, so we couldn’t in good faith include it in the blog. There is also an infamous list of feats that Popeye has allegedly performed:

While some of these feats are real, a lot of the bigger feats like blowing the sun out like a candle and pulling the Sun close to the Earth haven’t been found and are exaggerated/false. There are definitely some impressive feats that Popeye has done in this list, but some feats just don’t exist and are still being used in discussion regarding this matchup, so we felt the need to mention why they aren’t being used. 

2. Popeye’s Universe Level Switch

When it comes to feats, this was one of the craziest feats we have seen come from Popeye. However, we think it is likely that this is more indicative of hax resistance on Popeye’s part, rather than a physical durability feat. As Popeye said, it was more than likely that it was his spinach that saved him rather than his durability, similar to how spinach brought him to life after being erased from his electrons being disintegrated. It also needs to be noted that Big Guy was stated to be “the principal of the 4th dimension”, but it’s not clear if he physically controls or just rules it. Still a WTF feat, though.

3. Saitama’s “Limitless” Scaling

Saitama is a character that has gained a massive reputation in the VS scene. Due to the nature of his series, he is typically said to be capable of one-shotting anyone, and is often said to be a “gag character.” However, these arguments don’t hold much ground outside of Saitama’s own series. Saitama can one-shot anything in One-Punch Man simply because his power is far greater than the rest of the cast, which is something that can’t be automatically extended to characters outside of his own universe. And while it is said that Saitama has “no limits” and grows stronger everyday, the best that can be done for something like this is to examine the most powerful feats done by lesser characters, and argue Saitama massively upscales from that.

As for the “gag character” argument, the One-Punch Man manga isn’t actually a gag manga at all, being more satirical in nature. Saitama cannot be compared to someone like Arale, for example, whose world and story are completely centered on comedy. He can have silly and funny moments and be portrayed as a less serious character when compared to others like Genos, but that does not make him a “gag character”.

Verdicts

Mal

Man, it’s strange that we are on the season finale of DEATH BATTLE Season 8, it has certainly been an interesting ride with some of my all time favorite episodes happening on this season..as well as some episodes that I am less than keen on. But all in all, I would definitely say this season has been one of my favorites with it probably being second or third on my personal DEATH BATTLE season Rankings though but i might make a list regarding that later down the line. 

Anyway, onto the big season finale. Saitama vs Popeye, which i ironically called as happening when on DEATH BATTLE Cast - Ben said “one character that you would expect as well as one character you weren’t expecting” and my mind immediately went to Saitama vs Popeye which I said in a discord chat - granted my mind moved away more to that a little but I am surprised that I still guessed it in the first place. Anyway, i will be honest, this fight is one I am extremely keen on - I have always thought that it would be the best matchup for Saitama as I personally feel that Saitama vs Goku or Saitama vs Superman wouldn’t really play to the strengths of Saitama which I felt that this was the best option. 

Enough preamble, you wanna know who wins this fight? Well I feel like it’s a little bit more complicated than people give credit for. I have seen people say that this is a one-sided stomp for Popeye and I don’t really agree. I will explain my cause as efficiently as possible. 

First let’s talk about Popeye whose stats and feats have been widely debated - as explained in the Before the Verdicts section. There are a fair few feats that have been spread by the internet that state that Popeye can move constellations or Popeye hit Bluto into Constellations and based on the research that we have conducted - those are false. Based on the research we have conducted we have seen no evidence that those feats have happened. It was likely things being incorrectly spread around or exaggerated to the point of absurdity. Granted - Popeye has done plenty of absurd shit on his own but not to the level that some people think. In terms of actually calcable feats there are the two instances of Popeye shooting the sun and the planet tilt feat. To Be honest, I am not so sure about the shooting the sun feats as well as used as a measure of destructive capability because in both of these cases Popeye is using another object to hit the sun - not using his own destructive force. If we hypothetically use them then they were put at 11 Foe or Large Star Level 61.63-923.18 exatons of TNT which ranged from Moon to Small Planet Level. Even if we ignore these feats there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Popeye is planet level - his attacks have been shown to be capable of shifting the planet as shown with his fight against his adopted son Swee’Pea. Their clash generated power described as being comparable to 50 atomic bombs. It also shook the Earth massively which at its lowest would be  1 teraton and at its highest would be 20 petatons. Popeye also was able to cause the Earth to Tilt which got to 524.64 Yottatons or Large Planet Level. It’s pretty safe to say that Popeye should be placed at Large Planet Level though you can buy Star with his highest feat. 

Saitama on the other hand is pretty easy to pin down even though we haven’t seen him go all out in a fight. With his serious punch Saitama cancelled out Boros’ Collapsing Star Roaring Cannon which could destroy the planets surface (183.24 petatons of TNT). In order to cancel out Planet Attacks - Saitama would need to be outputting an equal force in order to cancel it out. The anime further back this up as in the anime, Boros can fully destroy the earth, as explained here with the One Punch Man Compass also stating that Boros has enough energy to destroy entire planets. (while they are translations that hint that Boros can destroy stars - that is likely a mistranslation. Either way, at the moment the best that we can put Saitama at is Planet Level (which is further based up with characters Psykorochi having planet level feats). Saying that Saitama is Star level requires a lot of dubious assumptions and believing some mistranslations. Either way I feel like planet level makes the most sense based on what has been shown so far. 

So how close this is depends on which feats you use, if you buy that Popeye is Large Planet Level and Saitama is Planet level then the gap isn’t really that big - granted if you buy Star Level Popeye then the gap becomes much wider. The point is, both are fairly even in terms of destructive capability in my opinion with Popeye having the advantage though it isn’t too the point that it is a stomp.

Now here comes speed and now things get very interesting, Saitama actually has speed in the bag at first. Let’s talk about Spinach Power…

Spinach Power is what grants Popeye his power and allows him to perform all of these frankly absurd feats to the point that when a Rocket was fueled by the Power of Spinach - it moved faster than the Speed of Light and broke time to the point that Popeye literally traveled back through time and this power is all in the palm of Popeye’s hands. While you could argue that the Rocket Feat doesn’t count due to the fact that Popeye didn’t eat the spinach, we have seen him capable of relativistic speed as shown when Popeye transformed into a Rocket from the moon to earth which was called at 0.626919707c. In terms of Saitama’s speed, he is actually a fair bit faster than Popeye due to the fact that he can keep up with Flashy Flash who can move fast enough to keep up with and blitz Gale Wind and Hellfire Flame in less time than it takes for an explosion to go off  which was called at being faster than light - 1.76c). While the speed gap isn’t massive - realistic compared to faster than light, there is still the potential for a blitz. 

Now that’s where the interesting part comes in. Popeye is stronger while Saitama is faster. The question is, could Saitama land enough hits to keep Popeye down for good due to his greater speed. Saitama could win this fight if he can put down Popeye for good but ultimately the issue is…complicated.

An argument can be made that Popeye can’t be killed through unconventional means - not just through his Toon Force but also the fact that he can constantly revive himself through the use of Spinach and he can constantly call on spinach any time that he wants. This was shown in an episode where he had electrons disintegrated - literally the fundamentals of the human body and yet Popeye and came back and was completely fine after eating his spinach. His survivability is to the point that you can turn off the universe and Popeye would be completely fine. Though to counter argue - you could say - well if Saitama kills Popeye once then that’s fine by DEATH BATTLE rules but i don’t think that would work due to Spinach instantly bringing Popeye back to life. 

Saitama is straight up fighting a losing battle - while he is a great deal faster - he doesn’t have the means of putting Popeye down for good even if he tries to prevent Popeye from eating Spinach as he can literally create more Spinach and with Spinach he is basically immortal. Plus Saitama’s not really the type of person who would try and prevent his opponent from getting stronger. And that’s not even considering the fact that Milk and Oatmeal also makes him significantly stronger meaning he doesn’t necessarily even need Spinach to best Saitama. 

Ultimately even if Saitama was significantly stronger then Popeye - which he isn’t, this fight comes down to one simple fact - Saitama does not have the means to put Popeye down for good. Finally there’s the nail in Saitama’s coffin - Popeye’s transmutation. Popeye only really needs to land one punch in and he can transmute Saitama into something else - to the point with one hit he can just transform Saitama into a Sausage or turn him into coins and then the fight is literally over. 

Overall - Popeye can survive literally everything Saitama could throw at him, only needing to land one hit to transmute Saitama and end the fight right there. Ultimately I really wanted to go with Saitama, but I have to go with the Sailor Man here. Popeye just has so many advantages that make it nearly impossible for Saitama to get a win here. 

Anyway, thank you for reading my verdict - it’s been really fun and I am looking forward to this season finale as well as what the future holds for Season 9. Looks like Popeye is the winner in this bout. 

MKF4

(Credit to CTB-36 for the art)

(Strong to the finich for this finale!)

Greetings and salutations, friends! I’m MKF4, making my debut here on G1 for the season 8 finale. And it has been a simply fantastic season this year, if you ask me. While I will admit we’ve certainly had our fair share of massive stomps this year, the quality of the episodes has consistently been top-notch, and I’ve had a great time. And now, here we are at last for the season 8 finale!

Finales on Death Battle are frankly always an exciting time. We’ve had universe-shattering clashes such as Goku vs. Superman, Thanos vs. Darkseid, and Hulk vs. Broly. We’ve had some less obvious but still fantastic bouts between Pokèmon and Digimon, Sephiroth against Vergil, and All Might vs. Might Guy.

And of course that other finale, the biggest stomp and my personal favorite, Fourth Wall vs. Pinkie Pie guest-starring Deadpool. It was a load of laughs starring the Element of Laughter herself, but the stomp was huge. Fourth Wall never had a chance.

Anyway, the time has come to make a prediction for Galactus vs. Unicro-

Oh wait, that didn’t happen. Like a lot of people, I initially thought the fight was a sure lock, but then Ben said we wouldn’t expect half of it. And he was certainly right. While I initially didn’t like the fight, it has quickly grown on me and I’m extremely excited for the battle now.

With all that build-up out of the way, I’ll go ahead and look into the fight now.

I’ve noticed a lot of people seem to expect this fight to be an absolutely massive stomp, with one character completely pulverizing the other without any difficulty whatsoever. The question is, do I agree with that?

Personally, I don’t agree. Both sides certainly have great cases, and I don’t think the match is the biggest stomp we’ve seen. Certainly not on the same level as Goku Black vs. Reverse Flash or Shadow vs. Ryuko, where one fighter just can’t die and the other MU has a fighter who nulls all of his enemy’s hax, stat-stomps her with an invincible super form, and has hax that just can’t be answered. Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly some elements in this fight that make it decently clear cut in my opinion, but it isn’t the biggest slaughter we’ve gotten recently.

The stats for this fight are a bit difficult to get a grasp on, but I personally feel the speed edge should go to Saitama. Saitama has consistently pulled off some impressive speed feats that should get him FTL. Popeye does have some feats that could get him into the light-speed range, but I ultimately think Saitama’s feats are a bit more reliable and consistent to gain the speed edge.

That being said, I don’t think Popeye is all that far behind in the speed department. That absurd feat with spinach power making a rocket fly past light speed and make time turn backwards on earth takes care of that. While Popeye himself wasn’t powered by the spinach there, it does show what spinach power is capable of and I feel we could likely transfer such a feat to Popeye himself under Death Battle’s rules. Seeing as Shadow got earth reconstruction from the Chaos Emeralds, I don’t think it’s too big a stretch to imagine Popeye can scale to a spinach powered rocket.

This makes it where Saitama probably wouldn’t have too significant an edge in the speed department, especially when Popeye has other speed feats backing him like turning into a rocket ship and flying from the moon to earth in a second or two. Thus I feel the speed department is ultimately decently close, but I’m giving it to Saitama.

As a final note for the speed department, I should mention that if the Saturn Punch calculation is accurate, Popeye could actually take Saitama in the area of attack speed. Personally, I feel Saitama still wins in the area of travel speed, but Popeye’s superior attack speed does mean that he can still stand a chance in the area and hold his own against a faster opponent.

Durability is also a strange department to figure out. Saitama luckily doesn’t use guns or firearms, because those things are completely worthless against Popeye. Even without spinach Popeye consistently no-sells bullets and lasers all the time. Pretty much any long range attack you can throw out is just not going to work. For the moment I’m instead going to focus on Saitama’s durability, which is actually quite impressive. He’s tanked some devastating hits throughout his series, and he is armed with a solid scaling chain and the direct feats needed to get him to a comfortable multi-continent or maybe planet if you buy the max in durability. Both sides are going to have to bring their A-game if they want to cause serious damage to the other.

Saitama’s AP is also quite good. I’m not going to use my time to discuss the one-punch NLF because I just don’t buy it. Instead I’ll address Planet Level Saitama. Do I buy it?

Well, at the very least I don’t consider it entirely unreasonable. It’s certainly not some kind of bizarre wank that I’d instantly throw out the door and never consider again.

Saitama does have some good feats that at least imply he could get to that level. Of course there’s the fact that Saitama is leagues above anyone in his series, and the goons he’s thrashed have some good stuff going for them. The obvious case is Lord Boros and that beam Saitama blocked with a Serious Punch. That should get a high calculation, and on top of Psykorochi’s moon level feet plus a decent number of statements implying Saitama could destroy earth, a case is formed. Seeing as moon level OPM is pretty solid and Saitama clearly demolishes anybody else in the series, I don’t think it’s all that much of a stretch to scale him up to planet level, though I’m a bit more comfortable at small planet level.

With all that said and done I’m rather certain Saitama can get FTL speeds and a solid small planet level AP and durability, possibly planet level if you want to go a bit further. Honestly, that’s quite impressive, and it actually holds up really well under Death Battle’s ruleset. With all that covered, I’ll go ahead and tackle Popeye.

Before getting into it, I will address the fact that we are seemingly missing a few feats. As mentioned above, the team searched desperately for numerous feats, such as the constellation feat. However, we simply couldn’t find anything, no matter where or how we looked. As a result, I just don’t feel right using those feats, and will only be operating off of the feats that we were actually able to find. I’ve already covered speeds for both fighters, and established that I think Saitama has the edge. However, Saitama now comes across what is certainly the biggest hurdle and factor of this fight.

It is so OP. I personally doubt we’ve had a fighter on Death Battle wielding this much toon force ever before. Scrooge McDuck, Pinkie Pie, and the Mask are the only characters that come to mind who even come close, and I seriously doubt any of them are this bad. It honestly just feels like Popeye can grab a can of spinach and do whatever he feels like doing, which is thankfully never anything evil. But even without spinach Popeye has still done some incredibly wild feats. He literally took a ray gun blast to the face without spinach and was perfectly fine. But then with his spinach Popeye seems practically unstoppable with toon force. The problem is his feats are next to impossible to calculate a number for. I mean, how do you mathematically figure out the amount of TNT needed to give the sun a black eye?

Regardless, these feats do make it where I ultimately feel decently comfortable giving Popeye the edge in AP and durability. While I currently can’t buy solar system or galaxy level Popeye, star level seems pretty clear cut, given the number of times he’s brutalized the sun.

At the very least, if Popeye is armed with Spinach. Which brings me to another idea I’ve seen some bring up. Could Saitama potentially disarm Popeye of his spinach to win?

Absolutely not. No chance whatsoever. For one thing, Death Battle pretty much always allows characters to enter their most powerful states anyway, so it’s a moot point. But giving Saitama the benefit of the doubt, let’s say he knocks away a can of spinach before Popeye can eat the contents.

Popeye pretty much just gets another can somehow. Popeye has gained spinach cans via all sorts of crazy methods, there’s pretty much nothing stopping him from eating that spinach. No matter what, Saitama is going to have to fight Popeye enhanced by spinach.

There’s also the idea of Saitama blitzing Popeye. I will admit, this idea does hold some ground, Saitama likely is going to hold the speed advantage in this fight. However, I just don’t know if the speed is enough, or if he can deal enough meaningful damage. For one thing, Popeye’s durability advantage makes an issue, and it comes armed with a number of powers that make killing him a significant challenge.

Perhaps most importantly we have healing, a power Popeye gets whenever he eats spinach. Thanks to a classic taste of spinach, Popeye can heal his wounds completely. Now I will be honest, regeneration or healing alone does not win a Death Battle, ever. We got two examples of this happening this year alone, when Shadow overcame Ryuko’s regeneration, and more significantly when DIO defeated Alucard. DIO vs. Alucard pretty much destroyed any idea that regeneration is going to win a Death Battle. However, it does still present a challenge for Saitama, as he’s already going to have to deal with Popeye’s superior durability combined with what might be the most powerful toon force we’ve seen on the show. With the fact that Popeye can literally undo any damage he’s taken at will, it will be difficult for Saitama to land meaningful damage that Popeye won’t be able to eliminate instantly. I suppose it’s similar to Weiss vs. Mitsuru in that regard, a durability advantage combined with a reliable healing method. I suppose if Saitama’s speed advantage is somehow good enough combined with his AP he could overcome this threat, but I personally doubt these will be getting high enough to topple the defensive nightmare that Popeye is.

In contrast, Popeye is armed with a pretty decent list of ways to stop Saitama. The AP advantage is already pretty useful, and Popeye is able to call upon a load of hax he can use to defeat Saitama whenever he feels like it. In fairness, Saitama is going to be able to negate some of Popeye’s options. The fire attacks Popeye might use are going to be null and void, Saitama’s taken more than enough heat to be unfazed by any fire based attacks Popeye might throw out. The same can be said for ice attacks.

However, Popeye is still armed with two reliable ways to instantly beat Saitama, those being transmutation and moral manipulation. The number of times Popeye has transmuted stuff is honestly higher than I’d care to go through, Popeye could easily just slap Saitama and he’d likely turn into some sort of yellow suitcase or something. Moral manip is a bit more obscure, only one feat was found of Popeye using this, that being when he turned a hostile robot friendly with “spinach rays” fired from his pipe after winning a Kamehameha clash with a ray gun. However, these spinach rays could easily pacify Saitama if they connect, unless you feel the resistances Saitama’s gained against characters like Tatsumaki should let him nullify that. Personally I feel it’s a bit of a stretch, but not completely impossible. Transmutation alone should do the job regardless.

Besides these two options, Popeye is also armed with another tool for victory, Whiffle. This bird possesses one of the most broken hax available in VS. Debating, wish granting. How Whiffle works is admittedly a bit difficult to determine given the nature of the Popeye series, so I’ll try to visualize it by comparing Whiffle and the bird’s abilities to another prominent wish-character, Timmy Turner.

Timmy Turner is likely one of the most famous wish hax heavy characters on the VS. scene, even if he hasn’t been on Death Battle. Cosmo and Wanda are both very skilled in the range of wish granting, but there’s a few reasons why I feel Whiffle would get the one-up on a scenario like that. Timmy’s fairies can be blocked or nullified from granting wishes, either because Timmy has breached a set of rules for wish granting or the wish is blatantly beyond their power.

In short, Timmy’s wishes are locked beyond a certain level of power. It’s a flaw that costs him dearly in his popular MUs and a major reason why Grim and Twilight Sparkle both destroy him due to their more reliable win-cons and superior stats. Whiffle doesn’t have that weakness.

Popeye can pretty much get anything he wants from Whiffle, we’ve never gotten an instance to imply otherwise. In fairness, I’m not going to slap an NLF on Whiffle and say he could just shut off reality or anything like that. However, Popeye can manipulate his own stats or cripple Saitama. In the defense for my claim, both scenarios have been demonstrated by Whiffle. Popeye used the bird to buff his own durability once, meaning he can stack stat buffs on himself even beyond spinach. Furthermore, Whiffle can cause changes to people other than Popeye, such as when he made Wimpy hate hamburgers, one of the most incredible feats ever. Seriously, Wimpy has an obsession with burgers, I understand why he was used for Burger King advertisements. Jokes aside, it likely isn’t much to assume Whiffle could seriously weaken Saitama if Popeye wished so. I won’t go the full distance and say Whiffle could OHKO Saitama, because while I do feel it is possible, I want to stay away from NLF territory for this verdict. OHKO or not, Popeye can use Whiffle to make himself leagues more powerful or to make Saitama drastically weaker. Or of course he could just wish for both, I guess that’s also an option.

Also worth noting is that Popeye is going to have an enormous advantage in the range department and perhaps battlefield control. Battlefield control is admittedly debatable, thanks to Saitama’s speed edge. However, Popeye’s options for gravity manipulation and other tools like magnetism could allow him to make things more difficult for Saitama to navigate with the right sorts of arenas. Range isn’t a question though, Popeye just wins in that department. Saitama’s only major ranged option that comes to mind are shockwaves he forms, and I’m not certain they would do much to Popeye given all the projectiles he’s no-sold by this point.

Alternatively, Popeye is armed with a huge amount of elemental manipulation for starters. Fire and ice again aren’t going to do much, but water and electricity could still create trouble. Saitama doesn’t have many fighting options outside of hand-to-hand, so he’s not really going to be able to keep Popeye away if needed, while Popeye does have options to keep away if it so be required. That being said neither is the type to run away, so I admit this likely won’t be a major factor.

I’m also going to take a moment to address some of Popeye’s higher end feats real quick. Over the last few weeks, we’ve had some completely bizarre feats for Popeye get brought up for discussion and debate. Of course there’s those constellation and sun feats that we weren’t able to find, so I can’t really discuss those. However, there is the Big Guy shutting off reality.

Personally, I don’t feel this makes Popeye Universal+. While it is certainly impressive, it really doesn’t seem like Popeye is directly tanking any sort of force. I generally look at it as Popeye likely having resistance or immunity to existence erasure, which would make sense in the context of the feat. 

However, I will give it some credit. The feat shows just how immensely powerful spinach power really can be, allowing Popeye to resist such an overpowered hax as an example. Considering it also brought Popeye back from the dead after having his electrons eliminated, it really just feels like spinach can do anything Popeye needs it to do regardless of the situation.

Therefore, all that said and done, I still don’t think this fight is quite as massive a stomp as some are making sound, at least from a stats perspective. In the stats area the two are actually not too far apart. Saitama wins speed, and it’s planet level AP and durability against star level. I do think Popeye wins the stats at the end of the day, but not by quite the distance some have been thinking.

However, we all know that the real question of this fight was if Popeye’s overwhelming toon force would be enough to take the One-Punch Man down once and for all to claim victory. Is it enough?

 

Yeah, Popeye’s toon force and hax are definitely enough to stop Saitama. I think the One-Punch Man is going to give Popeye a very impressive battle, but Popeye’s able to one-shot him with some hax, will have a lot of ways to escape dangerous scenarios, potentially has a resurrection option, reliable healing, a solid wish-granting option, and a likely hold in stats.

To conclude, it has been a great year, and I think this fight will be a wonderful finale to the year and a good bridge into Season 9. I’m looking forward to next year of course, but for now, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to come and read our predictions and join us in getting ready for this finish to one of Death Battle’s best seasons thus far.

And of course, a final word of advice.

Keep good behavior, that’s your one lifesaver with Popeye the Sailor Man.

Happy holidays and Merry Christmas!

GumballViking

Before I begin, I just gotta say; what a year. I never expected to see half of the match ups that we got, and the animation quality has left me speechless in a lot of ways. Some good, some… well you get the idea. It’s been a blast and half to discuss and analyze them all, even if some are lopsided to the point where the loser is literally incapable of killing their opponent. Speaking of, Saitama VS Popeye. I can already see a lot of people typing angry comments over who we think wins, and trust me there are four other people ready to explain why Popeye decimates, so I’ll take this opportunity to advocate for Saitama to the best of my ability. Not that I think he wins, but people tend to overlook him in terms of actual stats and abilities and just gravitate to “he’s a gag character, he can’t lose!!!!” 

First of all:

A gag character is someone primarily known for their comedy aspect and is usually someone who shouldn’t be taken seriously or comes from a series that puts comedy as a primary focus. While his ability to one shot everything is funny and often played for laughs, this does not make Saitama a gag character. He is a parody of the superhero genre that questions what it’s like to be a hero that cannot be defeated no matter what. Saitama as a character has real struggles, real emotional moments and has a lot of conflicts throughout the series, just never ones involving a villain he has to overcome (traditionally at least). His issues are more about what to buy at the store, how does he get people to notice him, and what does it mean to be human? Saitama is easily one of my favorite characters of all time and to see him mislabeled so often is really irritating, and oftentimes he’s labeled as such to justify his NLF argument of one shotting everything, regardless of stats and whatnot. But let’s say that this is the case for some reason, that Saitama’s full power eclipses everything else in fiction. It’s not exactly off the table, to be honest, as he should massively upscale everything in his own universe, which we know has its own God and everything. Assuming this is God by traditional means, this would mean that he is responsible for creating the universe, or even the multiverse. Since God exists in One Punch Man, we can safely say Saitama should upscale. Popeye has no known way to scale to such a thing, unless we’d allow the reality erasing switch feat, which was already determined to fall under hax and not stats. So Saitama takes the stat trifecta and wins no problem, right? Well, that’s the funny thing: no.

While Saitama can very easily surpass Popeye one day in any and all stats, the hax at Popeye’s disposal is just too powerful for Saitama to overcome, no matter what stats are given for either side. To his credit, Saitama does possess a lot of resistances and potential immunities to a lot of things, including some abilities Popeye is capable of, but Popeye can transmute people with a punch, something Saitama just has no answer to. But how would Popeye land a hit like that before Saitama would kill him? Well, he wouldn’t, at least if we assume Saitama gets to multi+ stats down the line, but recall the multiple instances where Popeye has been removed from existence itself and came back instantly, or in the Reality Switch instance, was never affected to begin with. Popeye has come back to life from all sorts of things, even if they massively overpowered him. Sadly, the same cannot be said for Saitama, which is thanks to no one ever putting him into a position like that. And we can’t assume he’d just magically get the hax to deal damage on that scale anyway. He has no need to erase people from reality, manipulate molecules or whatever. His punches alone can take down anything, and he can resist a lot of shit anyway, but there has never been a single instance of returning hax like those to sender. Even if there were, Popeye has survived fights where his opponents had the same spinach as him, which means they should reliably scale in power and hax to Popeye in those situations. 

But I have to stress this: just because someone loses a match up, even if they’re designed to be the most powerful character ever, they’re not any less of the character you or I have loved after all these years. And I have to stress more that characters you don’t want to win that do end up winning their match ups are not characters you need to despise. The reason 99% of the people you see in Death Battle are here to begin with is because people love them, are inspired by them or maybe it’s something you and I don’t know about. But more often than not, it comes from a good place, and just because there can only be one winner, doesn’t mean the loser should be seen in a negative light as a result. It’s fine to disagree with the result, it’s fine to prefer one over the other, because at the end of the day, we’re all gonna think different things. But never assume for a second that it’s “bias” or “favoritism”. If it was, there’s a good chance we wouldn’t see characters like Saitama to begin with. Shows like these… no, COMMUNITIES like these are made because of the love and respect for these characters, regardless of who they are, and regardless of how often they win. And before I go, I want to say thanks to the people who let me on board this year, and to you reading this. The fact that you’re giving us the time of day to hear us out means a lot, and I hope we’ve been able to inform and entertain you guys after all this time. Here’s to the rest of this year, and whatever waits for us in the next. 

 

                                        Da Lunge Fish 

                                 

                                  I’m Da Lunge the vs fish

                                                                 Toot

                                                  I’m Da Lunge the vs fish

                                                                 Toot

                                                  I debate to the finich, cause I eats me spinach

                                                  I’m Da Lunge the vs fish.

                                                  I’m one vs top ranker who hates all the wankers-

Ok, ok, I’ll stop. The season finale. Season 8, the legacy season. DEATH BATTLE’s 10th anniversary, with all the most widely requested matchups. Aizen vs Madara is done, now for the battle announced year ago with two big space du-

                                                                     

………………..

………………..

What the fuck?...

I don’t think a single person on this sinful Earth ever has even considered this matchup happening as an S8 finale. But at the end of the day, it makes sense. Kinda. Saitama is one of the most iconic characters in the vs community. Even if said fame borders with being infamous.  And ofc Popeye, the first example of an absolutely broken cartoon character. And this was one of Saitama’s better ideas, I’d certainly take that other the freaking Squirrel Girl. Basically, I’m hyped now.

 And surprisingly, Saitama takes speed. Via the Flashy Flash scaling and reacting to objects being telekinetically thrown at lightspeed, he should get  about 2c. Popeye, meanwhile, should be about massively hypersonic+ in base via reacting to lightning, and baseline in FTL via spinach making a rocket go unquantifiably FTL and breaking time. Considering just how much Saitama upscales from everything in his series, he should have a strong advantage.

AP wise, it all flips. Saitama can get planet via upscaling from Tatsumaki and Boros. Cute. Popeye can flip the goddamn earth, reaching above 500 yottatons and large planet. He also gave the sun a black eye (small planet) and even cracked one by yeeting a tree at it (11 foe, large star). And guess what? The two latter feats don’t even have spinach. Popeye’s one tough gazookus.

 However, we have to address the elephink in the room, Saitama “not being supposed to lose”. Of course, well, I’ll have to answer that. Trust me, I will. First of, newsflash, this is the vs community. And we just don’t do things like that around here. No limits fallacy is a big no here, and most importantly, I just don’t remember ONE ever stating Saitama is actually not supposed to lose. I just don’t recall it. The supposed statement is literally a headcanon fans made up based on Saitama not losing fights in canon. Nothing implies he literally always one shots people either. He’s just massively stronger than everyone else in his anime, nothing else.  Also, he didn’t hold back against Boros, but it’s not like he punched him harder than anyone else in the series. And Boros did survive one normal punch. So if one can survive a normal punch (again, not Saitama specifically holding back just not going all out either), being able to survive a serious punch doesn’t seem so unlikely. But you know what, screw it. Saitama can one shot everyone. Well, this doesn’t save him. By eating spinach, Popeye regenerated from complete physical erasure. Yeah. He took a spinach can with hands he didn’t have and put it into his mouth he also didn’t have. Fucking cartoons. That means, to kill Popeye you’d need to destroy his soul, and I don’t think you can wank Saitama to having soulhax any possible way. But can Popeye kill Saitama if the latter apparently can’t be damaged? Um, yes. He can turn Saitama into a sausage, causing him to go through months of therapy and lose his fate in god, he can punch the frame so hard it breaks, and cause Saitama to fall in. He can shoot spinach rays at Saitama and pacify him. He can go intangible and invisible with the “Ye King’s Spinach”. He can turn into a freaking magnet. He can shoot fire. He can fly. What can’t he do?

  Well, what if Saitama just disarms Popeye off his spinach? Welp, it’s very unlikely, cause 

1. Saitama has no way to know about Spinach, and once Popeye eats it once, Saitama is a dead man.

2. Saitama wants a good fight, so he won’t purposefully weaken his opponent.

3.  Popeye can just summon another can, by drawing it into existence or just taking it out of nowhere.

 And finally. Popeye doesn’t even need spinach to win. I only included the NLF part for Saitama for the sake of a debate, realistically, it shouldn’t be a thing. And Popeye can do the large star sun cracking with no spinach, and he retains his transmutation in base. Saitama would be MUCH faster then, but it only gets him so far. 

However, I do need to mention that Saitama isn’t the only one who gets his feats overblown. Popeye has his fair share of wank too. Firstly, the Big Guy is likely not an AP/Dura feat. He does resist existence erasure, but the Big Guy turned the universe off with a switch, not his own power. He was stated to be the “principal of the 4th dimension”, but that could just as well simply mean he rules it. There’s another feat, specifically, Popeye beating up Ogbert the Jeep. The 7th dimensional guy. However, even if we did slap AP ratings on anyone with a dimensional statement, the jeeps are consistently portrayed as higher dimensional beings in lower dimensional shells. Popeye just doesn’t scale to their true forms, as far as I know.

 Anyway, despite that, Saitama holds a speed edge, but Popeye is consistently stronger, has more hax, and could regenerate from any (physical) damage even if Saitama was powerful enough to deal it.

“With is strength hax and tenacity, Popeye will finich this Saitama along with Death Battle Season 8”

                        

CEWinick

(IT'S TIME FOR A VERDICT!!!)

5W-4L-1T 

I am going to get straight to the point for the final blog because of this verdict being more to the point unlike the last two I went into underdog betting and focus more on how fun it was to have been in this year’s predictions. 

I had a blast and had been relaxing and enjoyed the final episodes of the season, with no one expecting Saitama to fight Popeye, which I am happy for since the fight itself was good and creative. The godfather of Cartoons against the One Punch Man, characters who KO their foes with their fists. However, this was a fight done too soon where I felt sorry for Saitama getting the S1 & 2 Goku Treatment. Having done a lot of research for one of my favorite old school series, I did a lot of research for Popeye including his background and his main toon force abilities. Even the previous verdicts and Saitama’s Overall since I love both characters, but this was a ballsy finale especially for adding Saitama into a Death Battle. 

Here are the two main outcomes I am predicting to on the winner: 

1. Popeye team up with Saitama and beat up Wiz and Boomstick

 The gag ending, similar to Deadpool Vs Pinkie Pie, where both mainly start fighting each other, but end up respecting each other and steal Wiz and Boomsticks' show. And would end in a way that is enjoyable while getting some camoes fighters from past seasons and see how both would interact. Or…

2. Popeye DESTROYS Saitama in the fight

The most honest and one sided outcome, but not as bad as Korra Vs Storm. Saitama was just not ready for this fight since his character is still being developed to find his purpose in life. Meanwhile, Popeye who has achieved his goals and spent on MANY adventures in being the best sailor. Even if Saitama did get immsearable in power and gets universal feats, as we said throughout the blog and verdicts Popeye’s Toon Force is very hard to get around. Unless Saitama gets abilities where he can negate or overpower Popeye’s reality toony physics, this will be a hard L for anime’s best Baldy hero. 

Overall

While the fight overall will be a stomp or a tie, I had a blast for being on Death Battle, and this year overall was a blast. I watched and helped in the G1 with some of the big matchups for the blogs, I finally graduated from college, and I even made my own first prediction blog that I hope to continue making more on in the future. The show that inspired my career helped a lot of people have fun in a show that decides our ideals to show would be the victor, and one day I hope to be a part of it as I dreamed of doing. 

It has been an honor to see how Ten Years of Death Battle would become, and I have to say it satisfies me. Hope to see Death Battle go for 20. And the season finale may end with the One Eyed Sailor standing, or both bro fisting. Either way, it will end with ONE PUNCH!!!

Ending Note:

Thanks again to everyone and the G1s for having me on here through the year. Can not wait to see what next year has in store. Until then, Happy Holidays to everyone, especially Death Battle!!! And Stay Awesome!!!!!!!!!!

 eXoRy

(Honestly, best way to describe my thoughts)

Hey y’all eXo here and whaddup whaddup, I don’t think anyone would’ve expected this to be the finale (to me at least and I’ll bet my 2 cents you as well, fellow reader) to a frankly awesome season with the sprite animation this season being the best I’ve seen to this date and hopefully it becomes even better in the next, and future seasons. 

With that out the way, let’s start my verdict on Galactus vs Un—

Wait, I read the episode wrong, my bad… let’s try again

Let’s start my verdict on Samus Aran vs Master Chie—

Wait… shoot… sorry I’ve been reading the wrong list, ‘matchups that will happen in the year 3021’ not ‘matchups that will happen in the year 2021’, my bad

Ah yes let’s see what we got here:

(my legit real-time reaction)

As I said, I don’t think anyone would’ve expected this to happen, I expected this to happen as part of those 3021 matchups but here we are I guess; the funniest, confusing-ist timeline, and dare I say, the best timeline. 

Anyways, let’s break down the first thing I’m sure all of you can predict by now:

Ze Stets

 

When comes to AP for Popeye there’s plenty of talk of what he can do, “he can punch Bluto so hard he blows up a constellation”, “he can blow out the sun like a candle”, he can punch someone so hard they turn into sausage”, “he can lasso the sun closer to Earth''. All in all, how much of what I just said was true? Only one, the others uhhhhhhhhhhhhh probably not. We went through a ridiculous amount of effort to find them but to no avail but y’know this whole situation gives me deja vu…. of something… something familiar… something like trying to find Palpatine’s galaxy chu— *hears a gun loading from behind*

Uh um well…

Maybe they do exist somewhere in some alternate timeline or are just lying in someone’s old, dusty basement to be discovered by people in the year 3021. So how powerful is Popeye really? Well, there’s still plenty of feats involving celestial bodies like him cracking the Sun, giving the Sun a black eye, and causing the Earth to tilt, so let’s put in the planet - star range because why not. 

Now moving on to THE ONE-PUNCH MAN, Saitama has been able to overpower Boros’ Collapsing Star Roaring Cannon with a casual punch with a bit more force put behind it. Now does Boros’ ultimate move actually collapse stars? No, but screw it, this is my verdict and I’m going to say it does. So doesn’t that mean both are relatively close in AP, to where no-one one-shots? Well since Boros’ move doesn’t specify what type of star can collapse let me uhhhh choose uhhhh this random star V4647 Sagittarii and well would you look at that, it’s 100 times bigger than the Sun, boom Saitama AP stomps now but why stop there when you have UY Scuti which is 1700 times larger than the Sun, surely now Saitama AP stomps into oblivion, well let’s go even further than the peak with Stephenson 2-18, 2150 times the Sun! And the largest, known star to date. So it looks like Saitama has 2150x AP lead now but hold up let me introduce you to Quasi -stars, hypothetically stars with a black hole as its core, even its average size would dwarf Stephenson 2-18 with it over being 7000 times the size of the Sun! And guess what, Saitama MASSIVELY upscales from this. Boom. 

Then what about speed huh? Well, Saitama easily takes that as well! Popeye’s best travel speed feats only clocks in about rela while the Caped Baldy sees those speeds as nothing but a bad joke! So now SAITAMA EASILY BLITZES AND ONE SHOTS! Before Popeye can even get a eeny weeny piece of spinach, this has to be one of the stompiest fights this season as the winner for this fight should be…

Drum roll, please.

…

Popeye.

Yup, you’ve heard me right. Popeye the Sailor Man. Even with the amount of BS I tried to argue in the last 3 paragraphs or so in favor of Saitama, the sheer amount of haxes that Saitama has no resistance to, the fact Saitama can’t kill him even if you give him the AP advantage via the fact he can just spinach himself AND his spinach back to existence even after being completely cellular vaporised, him also massively upscaling in terms of AP, his shown attack speed being much faster than Saitama best shown reaction speeds (at least currently) and various other factors that everyone above me has gone into much more detail about (so you better go read them).

So in the end, who wins this matchup? As much as I love Saitama, Popeye. Who will win the Death Battle? Probably Popeye again, although I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if it ends in a draw or like Chuck Norris vs Segata Sanshiro or something along those lines. Wholeheartedly, I really wouldn’t mind any of these options happening and with that being said:

I wish y’all the best,

Enjoy your holidays,

Enjoy your Chritsmas,

And here’s to another 10 years of Death Battle!

eXo out

We will be taking a break till DEATH BATTLE Season 9 starts up which will be in March. So from us at the G1 DEATH BATTLE Fan Blog - we hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays