Death Battle Matchups: Trunks vs Luminary (Dragon Ball vs Dragon Quest) (WIP)

Hello, people, welcome back to another Death Battle Matchup piece. In today's blog, I'll be analysing the merits and strengths of Luminary vs Trunks. Before I begin, I have to preface this by stating the obvious and that having preferred matchups for either of these characters over the matchup I'm discussing is absolutely fine. You might completely disagree with me, and that's OK. I'm simply here to state my case, and, who knows, 

Speaking of which, you may also notice within this post, and other posts I do within this series, is that I try to not bring up other matchups in direct contention with the topic at hand (e.g. X is a better/worse opponent for Y for Z reasons). I believe that a good matchup should be able to stand on its own merits without having to be compared to other matchups.

PART 1: CONNECTIONS

Dragon Ball has been a pretty popular mainstay to Death Battle since Season 1, and Trunks is one of the most popular characters from the series that Death Battle has yet to use, so it stands to reason that his inclusion will moreso be a matter of if than when, something only solidified when Trunks returned to relevancy in Dragon Ball Super. Trunks is also a pretty decently requested character for Death Battle to use and they have no real reason to not use him.

Dragon Quest, by contrast, has never been used in ANYTHING Death Battle related (not even a Death Battle Cast), and to an extent, I understand why. Dragon Quest historically has been relatively niche in the west, never really able to replicate its popularity in Japan. However, I'd argue between Dragon Quest being added to Smash, Dragon Quest 11 being one of the best selling games in the series, and both a Dragon Quest 3 remake AND Dragon Quest 12 on the way, Dragon Quest has more of a western presence than it ever has. Now more than ever is the time to use Dragon Quest.

And the Luminary, being both the protagonist of Dragon Quest 11 and the default in Smash Bros Ultimate, is firmly at the forefront of this wave in popularity, at least from a casual perspective. That's not to say there aren't other Dragon Quest characters thrown around (Erdrick, Sylvando, Slime, etc.), but Luminary is a solid pick for introducing the series to Death Battle.

The connections are as follows:

• Both Trunks and Luminary are swordsman princes.
• Both were designed by Akira Toriyama. 
• Both use a variety of techniques that stem from a pool of limited life energy (ki for Trunks, mana for Luminary). 
• Both have an enhanced state where they glow blue (Super Saiyan Rage for Trunks, Pep state for Luminary).
• Both travelled back in time to prevent the destruction of the world/the death of a close loved one (basically everyone for Trunks, Veronica for Luminary), only to face an even worse threat than they could've possibly imagined (Cell/Calasmos), who went back in time to reclaim their lost power
• Both were indirectly responsible for bringing their main villain back in time with them (Cell killing Trunks to take his time machine, Calasmos following Luminary back into the past).

The connections are solid, easy to understand, aren't weirdly worded to stretch them to fit, and, perhaps most importantly, relate to core aspects of their character. There's a few addition things with things like their villains for flavour, but "Toriyama swordsman princes who go back in time to save the future" should be a solid enough baseline for most casual viewers. And the matchup 

PART 2: FIGHT POTENTIAL

I generally see this more as a 3D fight than a sprite fight. Fantastic 3D models exist for both (FighterZ/Xenoverse for Trunks, DQ11 model for Luminary), so there'd be less resources having to be spent on custom models. Going with sprites, you'd basically have to custom make most of Luminary's (Trunks COULD use his Extreme Butoden sprites, hypothetically) which, while Death Battle has done custom sprites plenty of times in the past, adds more cost than they may deem necessary, especially when the 3D models are so readily available. Both characters being in the same art style also means the models won't look weird next to each other, so there's that as well.

• You can have Luminary start with his more basic spells and skills, like the Frizz spells and Flame Slash, like how he gets those early on in his game, to compliment more basic ki blasts and sword swings from Trunks at the beginning.
• Luminary could weaponise Zoom to Trunk's location by combining it with an attack, only for Trunks to catch it and turn the advantage given his superior skill in aerial combat.
• You can have Trunks go into the air to blast Luminary from a distance, only to have Luminary use Kazap to strike Trunks out of the air like he does against the bird at the start of the game. 
• Have Trunks throw out a barrage of sword swings like he did to Goku, only for Luminary to keep up with swings until Trunks eventually just blasts him with ki like he did to Mecha Frieza (maybe a cool place to put the "splitter" type skills for Luminary?).
• Have Trunks cut Luminary so quick that it doesn't even register for a few seconds, similar to how he defeated Android 14.
• Have Trunks power through the Quadraslash by going Super Saiyan Rage so hard that the blade retracts back into the rift. It'd be a cool way to emphasise just how strong Trunks is (he'd be forcing back a blade that can cut 4 dimensions).  
• Have Luminary use Kaclang to endure one of the bigger energy attacks, only for Trunks to be utterly confused how his attack turned someone into metal (a little bit of levity isn't out of place for either series).
• You can have an epic final clash between Hero's Gigaslash and Trunks's Sword of Hope, only for Hero to slice through it to secure the win. Imagine the scene with dark clouds, driving rain, Luminary putting Erdwin's Shield on his back to put both hands into the slash, Super Saiyan Rage vs Pep Up state. 
• A nice bit of characterisation on Luminary's part would be to cast Kazing on Trunks's body to bring him back to life. Not only is this generally a pretty in-character for him to do (especially if this is one of those "fight begins because of a misunderstanding" situations), but it allows a fight between two pure heroes to end in death without having to end on a downer. Imagine it, Luminary wins, he brings Trunks back to life, and we end on a shot of Trunks taking Luminary's hand to help him back up to his feet. We've had a few of these "heroes who'd get along if they didn't have to kill each other" matchups before (All Might/Might Guy, Po/Iron Fist, Yoda/King Mickey, etc.), and this would be a way of allowing that without having to break the "must end in a kill" rule. 

Obviously, I don't expect all of this to be included in the fight animation, but having at least some of these (especially the last two) would be sufficient for me.

Oh, yeah, pretty confident that Luminary wins, by the way. While I'm not the most hardcore VS guy on the planet, endgame Luminary should reasonably win against Future Trunks in Super. While Trunks is MUCH faster, has better flight and likely has better training, Luminary has the better strength, durability, arsenal, hax, and probably better experience to hang on and take the win. This is way more VS heavy than I usually get into, but I'm pretty confident on this one.

I don't expect the two to go all out with their power with planets blowing up and everything, since that kind goes against the whole "save the world" MO they have. But you can still have impressive showcases of power without having to resort to cosmic-level destruction (the entire mountain sequence from He-Man vs Lion-O is still one of the most raw moments in the entire show).

PART 3: MUSIC POTENTIAL

Yes, I did commission this. 

This is probably going to wind up being one of the shorter parts of this blog, but it's a fun topic to talk about ... so I will. Obviously, any Trunks track is likely going to take cues from Hikari no Willpower, which gives us not only a solid base of electric guitar, synthesisers and drums, but also opens the door to the possibility of it getting a vocal track. Not to the extent that I think they'll actually make it a vocal track, but some food for thought. There's other minor themes you could also incorporate for Trunks (stuff like his FighterZ theme for example), but they're small potatoes by comparison.

Luminary, by contrast, doesn't have a set theme, but pulling generally from 11's soundtrack should be sufficient (stuff like the Dragon Quest Overture, The Hero Goes Forth with a Determination and Unflinchable Courage), since I don't really see anyone else from 11 specifically making it into Death Battle. Dragon Quest is quite famous for its orchestral tracks (albeit not always for the right reasons), so trumpets and horns are a must. And incorporating piano into the climactic finale fits for both characters, especially if it goes with the tone

In terms of tone, I can see it maintaining an optimistic, hopeful and determined tone until, say the last minute or so. At that point, the track becomes a bit heavier mood-wise, tapping into the more tragic elements of their characters and the tone switches from heroic determination to panicked desperation. And 

PART 3.1: SOUND DESIGN/VOICE ACTING

Death Battles as of late have had pretty consistently good sound design, and Goku Black's fight offered fantastic sound design for Dragon Ball characters, a fantastic return to form after the lacklustre offerings from Hulk vs Broly. Given how iconic a lot of Dragon Balls' sound design is, it's important to get that aspect right, and I'm confident that Dragon Ball fights going forward will generally have this down pat. Jonathan vs Tanjiro also gave us a more recent showcase for sound design for sword clashes (and even sword shattering), and it sounds amazing. 

This only really leaves us with the Dragon Quest side to speculate on. As mentioned before, there isn't anything Dragon Quest we can use to really go off of. That said, Dragon Quest has some fantastic sound design for spell casting and hit effects, and seeing that running alongside Dragon Ball would be wonderful if done properly. Hell, for Luminary's more meaty impactful hits, you could sneak in the Dragon Quest 11 critical hit sound effect to really emphasise the power of the hit. 

In terms of voice acting, I'm pretty confident in saying they'll get KaiserNeko to reprise his role from DBZA. Trunks's personality in Abridged isn't really much different from canon, and the voice fits, so no real issues there. That said, Broly didn't use his DBZA actor, so it's not a lock-in by any means. 

Luminary is a trickier case. Obviously, the guy's a mute JRPG protag, you kinda have to read between the lines in dialogue exchanges with other characters to get a semblance of personality. That said, treating the guy how Link was in his episode would be how I'd handle him. Not mute, he still screams and grunts and such, but his body language and facial expressions are making up for the lack of actual dialogue.

PART 4: WHAT I DON'T WANT

1. Don't have Trunks fight Luminary just because he looks like Android 17

Yeah, they look similar, and if you go the route of Luminary being called Eleven, he has the "numbers as names" thing going, but Trunks knows that Androids can't be sensed with ki. And since he would be able to sense Luminary's life force, he'd know that Luminary isn't an android. If Death Battle did this, not only would they be telling a joke that's already been made for years at this point, they'd be telling it in a way that doesn't even make sense.

2. Don't have Luminary destroy Trunks's sword (unless it's the final clash)

Yes, Trunks can fight just fine without a sword, his fight with Semi-Perfect Cell alone proves that, but in terms of combat, the sword is the defining difference between him and every other Saiyan in the series. This isn't a Jonathan Joestar situation where he uses sword semi-regularly but generally is a fist fighter, Trunks mainly uses a sword in combat .

Luminary knocks Trunks's sword away, so Trunks temporarily has to fist fight Luminary until he can get it back? Sure. Luminary destroying Trunks's sword and denying us a Sword of Hope vs Gigaslash moment? Unacceptable.

3. Don't give Luminary spells he gets in Smash but doesn't get in his game

Pretty obvious, don't really feel the need to explain this one much. Luminary already has plenty to work with without throwing Smash Bros spells into the mix, this isn't a Zelda or Captain Falcon situation. This includes:

• Hatchet Man
• Whack/Thwack
• Bounce
• Kamikazee
• Magic Burst
• Oomph
• Psyche Up
• Accelaratle
• Whoosh/Swoosh/Kaswoosh
• Kacrackle Slash
• Hocus Pocus

PART 5: COMEDY POTENTIAL

Given the nature of these characters (especially Trunks), most of the potential comedy for this episode is likely to come from the analysis itself, as incorporating most of it into the fight might feel a bit shoehorned and out of place. Which isn't to say there's nothing to work with, quite the contrary. Luminary in particular works well in this regard with his comedic spell names and the more absurd enemies he winds up fighting in his game. This all but tells me they may lean into more general Dragon Ball jokes, or jokes about characters that Trunks interacts with, rather than Trunks himself.

oh god they're absolutely going to make a time huh joke please no