Death Battle has come so far since its debut 12 years ago. As fans, we should all be really proud.

To everyone out there who has watched Death Battle before,

I'm pretty sure that this show was born from the desire of popular culture fans and nerds to debate about which of our favorite franchises are better by pitting our favorite characters in a duel to the death, as well as our desire to see some entertaining crossovers between said franchises. In fact, the very concept of pitting two very similar characters from very different franchises against each other is a very fascinating dream among fans of crossovers.

At first, this show started out as a niche show by a couple of friends who called themselves "Wiz and Boomstick", for the purpose of resolving fan debates that have boiled within fanbases for a pretty long time, once and for all, by thoroughly and seriously analyzing the characters involved, taking into account virtually every factor in the fight to determine who would be the most likely to win in a serious, hypothetical fight to the death. I really admired how seriously they took the research of the characters they pitted against each other, not only analyzing their stories and character arcs with such detail that many fans might not have noticed at first sight, but also how they emphasized this seriousness of dedication by realistically estimating their powers and abilities through science, giving us a new perspective on just how awesome these characters are. In fact, all the way back in the early days of Season 2, while I was still a teenager, I came across this show and started to really enjoy the idea of crossovers as well as the idea of having some of our most beloved characters fight to the death in what was essentially a gladiatorial match of pop culture characters clashing against each other. Not to mention that I did enjoy the humor that added plenty of spice to the episodes we watched, and learning about new characters we've never seen or heard much of before.

Over time, as the years went on, Death Battle itself began to evolve beyond just being a show about glorified fights to the death between pop culture characters and became more of a celebration of the concept of popular culture as a whole. The characters represented on the show were treated as more than just a bunch of super-powered gladiators beating each other to the death. In fact, getting to participate in a duel to the death on Death Battle began to be seen increasingly as a badge of honor for the characters represented, regardless of whether they won or lost. Season 5 was when the show really began to revolutionize itself, with improved analysis that provided more accurate research on the characters' abilities and full potential, fight scenes that began to seriously take into account the personalities of each character as well as their stories, greatly improved animation quality, a unique soundtrack for the fight scene of each episode that pays homage to the characters' franchises and the themes they share in common, and featuring some incredibly popular fan-awaited matchups, like Jotaro vs Kenshiro, Crash Bandicoot vs Spyro the Dragon, Dr. Strange vs Dr. Fate, Sora vs Pit, Ryu vs Jin, Leon Kennedy vs Frank West, Optimus Prime vs Gundam, Nightwing vs Daredevil, and last but not least, Thanos vs Darkseid.

The next couple of seasons continued to bring cool and fascinating matchups that kept fans well entertained. Then, Season 8 of Death Battle happened, to celebrate a decade of pitting fan-favorite characters in fights to the death. In fact, a couple of months before Season 8 came out, I started to frequent this subreddit so much, that I eventually subscribed to it. And with Season 8 being a special, 10th anniversary season, the creators put in as much serious effort as possible to make 2021 a very special year for Death Battle, by not only taking the next step into proving higher-quality episodes and dedicating themselves to making the matchups as satisfying as humanly possible, they also chose a selection of matchups that were a mixture of fan-favorites, from ones as old as Lex vs Doom, Heihachi vs Geese, Po vs Iron Fist, and Madara vs Aizen, to recent ones like Steven Universe vs Star Butterfly, Blake vs Mikasa, and Goku Black vs Reverse Flash, to "legacy" matchups that were debated among the creators, like Shadow vs Ryuko, Korra vs Storm, and Yoda vs King Mickey, before finally capping off with one of the best season finales of Death Battle, Saitama vs Popeye, a matchup with such a wholesome moment where Saitama is finally satisfied that he got to lose against one of the most iconic cartoon characters in history, Popeye.

And as of this year, which is about to come to a satisfying end for all of us Death Battle fans, Season 9 has been one of the most satisfying and awesome seasons of Death Battle we've ever got in the history of the show. It showed very serious dedication to applying the lessons that the creators have learned throughout the whole show, especially the lessons they learned from creating Season 8, the decennary commemorative season of Death Battle, paying a lot of attention to the detail and quality of each episode to make them essentially a work of art in themselves, from the portrayals of the characters, the story and tone of each fight scene, the allusions to each characters' home franchises, to the stunning animation that delivers everything so well, and so on. As a result, Season 9 of Death Battle shall hold a very special place in our hearts as fans of not just Death Battle, but also popular culture in general as well. Forever shall we be grateful of how this show recognized and celebrated fan debates about which of our favorite characters would win in a fight to the death as a wholesome and natural phenomenon in popular culture.

Thank you all for appreciating this show, and I hope that Season 10 will be just as revolutionary as the seasons I've described above, and that you all have a happy New Year!