Death Battle Analysis: Beowulf

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s time... It’s Time... IT”S BEOWULF TIME!!! 

That’s Right We are Finally Back to Skullgirls after a long hiatus, covering one of the most beloved characters in the franchise, it’s Wulfamania up in here as the Wulf himself graces my blogs with his presence! It’s High Time we broke down the Awesomeness that Is the one, The Only, Beowulf!

Background: 

During the early days of the Grand War between the Canopy Kingdom and the surrounding nations, Beowulf was the world champion wrestler of the New Meridian Onslaught, or NMO Wrestling division. In the middle of this war, The Canopy Kingdom and the Gigan Nation agreed to have an Exhibition match.

Beowulf, the Canopy Kingdom’s champion, would battle it out against the strongest warrior of the Gigan Nation, Grendel, in a no holds barred, anything goes, battle for the ages. While it sounded cool on paper, the battle was actually extremely one sided, With Grendel being about 30 feet tall and beyond human in every regard.

But to the shock of everyone watching, Beowulf against all odds managed to Defeat Grendel, tearing his left arm off, and killing him with a piledriver into the ground. Enraged by this, Grendel’s mother lashed out and attacked Beowulf to get revenge, but she too was no match for his might. 

That day history was made, not just for the NMO, but for the kingdom as a whole. Beowulf became a national icon, a hero and inspiration to the people of the Canopy Kingdom, known for his Wulfpack of fans and having actionfigures no one could live without.

But after the war, his fame petered out. Beowulf’s fame led to him taking up commercial deals that after his loss in popularity as war propaganda, ended up going nowhere, his last appearance in media being as the villain on the popular magical girl series, Annie: The Girl of the Stars, before he retired completely.

Hating inactivity and being forgotten, Beowulf was unsatisfied with his retired lifestyle, and dreamed of getting back into the ring to reclaim his former glory and beloved hobby of wrestling.

One day, Grendel’s Arm, which Beowulf had mounted on his wall as a trophy, suddenly came to life and attacked him. A New Skullgirl had risen in New Meridian and was on the attack. 

This inspired Beowulf to finally come outta retirement, to take down the Skullgirl and become the nation's Hero Again!

So Beowulf called up his sleazy old agent Zane, who got him back into the ring and had him go out and ‘protect the people from all the freaks that come outta the woodwork when the Skullgirl arrives’ saying that they would capture all the fights on camera’s.

Except, Zane was actually having Beowulf beat up ASG Agents and other warriors that would stop the Skullgirl, and clearly wasn’t filming any of it.

Eventually it led to some bizarre mirror match where he had to fight another Beowulf, who in-front of all his fans, Revealed a truth that even Beowulf didn’t know, his fight with Grendel was Rigged. It was the first and only joint effort between the Royal Family and the Medici Mob, Drugging Grendel before the fight. How else could Grendel’s elderly mother put up more of a fight than a warrior in his prime? But Beowulf refused to fall into shame because of this, he swore that day to fix this and make it up to everyone, even Grendel.

Beowulf marched right back to Zane to tell him off and that….Didn’t quite work out.

Zane was actually Double, a Shapeshifting Monster who works for the Skull Heart, who had used Beowulf to defeat and capture those who wish to do it harm. She sought to destroy Beowulf too, but he managed to hold her off until they could be rescued by Annie.

Now being aware of his mistakes, Beowulf finally decided to fight the Skullgirl and make amends for his mistakes even if it cost him his life. But the Skullgirl would not be his biggest challenge.

Marie used her powers to fully resurrect Grendel from the dead at his prime from his arm. Literally forcing the demons of Beowulf’s past back to bite him.

Beowulf and Grendel squared off as equals, ready to settle this for real the way all warriors do.

With the determination of an Epic Hero, Beowulf managed to repeat the very attack from the battle he was so famous for, totally legit this time, cementing him again as the hero he was always meant to be, and saving the world from the Skullgirl.

And as a fitting reward, Beowulf was brought back onto Annie: The Girl of the Stars, only this time, he got to play a hero again like he always wanted.

Personality:

Beowulf is an excitable, hot-blooded, and extremely genuine person who wears his heart on his sleeve. He craves action, excitement and being a hero that everyone of his fans can look up too. He loves his work, has a heart of gold, and always tries his hardest to keep his promises and do right by everyone. 

He’s a little bumbling, brash and sometimes reckless, but he legitimately cares a great deal for his fans, a good person who is quick to forgive. He likes Hunting, working, sweaters, tour buses, boots, ladders, fluorescent light tubes, contracts that guarantee money, microbrews, merchandise, chamomile tea and the sound of an excited crowd. His dislikes include Professional writing staffs, refined sugar, Allen keys, snakes, disqualifications, taking vacation time, spray on tans, indoor voices, being told what to do, being told what to wear and potatoes.

Intellect/Skill:

As far as raw intelligence goes, Beowulf is commonly described as being kinda an idiot. While he’s not dumb per-say, he is known to be a bit of a meathead who makes quick and brash decisions without thinking them through. He’s been shown to be quite gullible and easy to manipulate, both by Double and the organizers of his Grendel fight alike. He often overestimates his abilities and gets in way over his head. That said, he does always learn from his mistakes and comes back stronger from them.

Skill wise on the other hand, Beowulf is off the charts and very arguably the most skilled fighter in the entire Skullgirls series somehow. He uses a Rushdown-Grappler Combo fighting style, striking foes repeatedly with punches, kicks, knees and headbutts, and pulling in close for powerful grabs, throws and deadly piledrivers. Beowulf is the World Heavyweight Champion in the NMO division, with an undefeated record. A very interesting thing about this is that in the NMO, Beowulf is classified as a Cruiserweight Wrestler, the 2nd lightest weight class in professional wrestling. Beowulf stands 6’7 and weighs 287 pounds, in real life, that would easily classify him as a Super Heavyweight Wrestler, the 2nd heaviest weight class. The reason he's stuck in cruiser is because the NMO allows in giant races of other species to compete which massively eclipse Beowulf in size, but still, none of them could beat him.

But let's talk about Gigans, Gigans are the largest species in the Skullgirls world, a race of giant humanoid monsters more than double the size of an elephant. They are considered the most powerful creatures on the planet excluding the Skullgirl herself.

Even the genius Valentine, who fought in the Grand War and had a great deal of experience fighting Gigans, believed it absolutely impossible for any human (Beowulf included) to beat one one on one, and she said this to Beowulf immediately after he kicked her butt in a fight. Yet in Beowulf’s fair, even rematch with the world champion Gigan fighter Grendel, he was able to defeat him all over again through his own impressive combat skill. To give a bit of Skill Tiering, Parasoul, the elite warrior princess who trains black ops soldiers and mastered numerous different types of weapons combat styles, was only barely able to subdue a Gigan-Human Halfbreed lady, Beowulf fought likely the strongest Gigan in the world and killed him.

Powers:

• Wulf Blitzer:

One of Beowulf’s most signature martial arts techniques, probably learned at the same school that Jon Talbain went to, is the Wulf Blitzer. With this ability, Beowulf is able to straight up fly through the air for notable distances in any direction, and can use it up to 3 times in rapid succession. The ability also surrounds his body in a damaging aura that allows him to slam into opponents like a meteorite.

• Hype:

Like all Pro Wrestlers, Beowulf draws power from the pure Hype of the spectators watching his battles. By using his signature taunts or epic howl, he can rally up the crowd, and gain a temporary boost in speed, finesse and stamina to perform significantly more elaborate and damaging combo attacks. After Gathering enough Hype he can use the move Wulfamania, which stuns the opponent and allows him to absolutely whale on them for several seconds.

• Hammerspace:

Beowulf seems to store a large amount of gear he uses in combat in some unseen pocket dimension he can pull objects from. This includes a large metal garbage can, an unlimited supply of microphones to drop, jugs of milk, his wrestling championship belt which he can use as a shield, and Grendel’s Arm, which is significantly larger than his whole body.

• Energy Manipulation:

Beowulf also seems to be able to manipulate some form of orange energy that can be used to damage foes with heavier attacks, form energy constructs, and make some pretty cool effects on the screen to add a layer of flare to his wrestling style.

• Metafictional Manipulation:

Beowulf’s most dangerous power however, is his Metafictional Manipulation. Beowulf is able to physically grab and touch the Absolute Plane, which is where you can touch things that are more REAL than you, and supersedes all other layers of existence, including concepts. This basically means Beowulf can physically touch and harm characters, regardless of if they are intangible, a disembodied consciousness, a conceptual entity, or a cartoon character. Although Beowulf’s most common use of this ability is to rip metafictional holes into the background of environments, effectively creating a portal he can travel through. This would allow him to teleport literally anywhere in his series, and potentially BFR characters into the metafictional realm.

Weapons:

• The Hurting:

Beowulf’s primary weapon is an absolute staple of Professional Wrestling, a shiny metal folding chair, which Beowulf affectionately named ‘The Hurting’. Beowulf is incredibly skilled at using this chair as a weapon, able to beat people senseless with it in numerous awesome melee attacks, shield himself from strikes, and even kick or throw it across the screen as a highly damaging ranged attack.

When not in use, Beowulf will store the chair on his back using a special powerful magnet that is attached to the back of his Belt.

And Thanks to a recent Buff, Beowulf is now able to remotely summon The Hurting back to himself after it’s thrown, most likely by using this magnet. Which means now he can effectively throw a giant folding chair like a boomerang.

• Grendal’s Arm:

Beowulf’s other primary weapon is Grendel’s severed arm, which he took as a trophy from his fallen foe, this titanic arm is 120 inches (3.05 Meters) long, allowing Beowulf to pull it out from nowhere for wide sweeping hits that cover almost the whole screen.

When the Skullgirl awoke, her control over the dead Animated Grendel’s Arm back to life, symbolically making his old foe into his partner in combat.

With the arm alive again, it is now able to both move around like a regular arm of its own will and hit with the full awesome power of a mighty Gigan warrior. Beowulf move ‘Gigantic Arm’ where he lets the arm directly punch the opponent, is the most damaging single strike in his moveset.

• Tuscan Milk:

Beowulf also carries gallons of Tuscan Milk which he can somehow chug the entirety of in less than a single second. This seems to give him a short boost in power and energy manipulation abilities.

Feats:

DC/Durability:

• So one thing to quickly point out is Beowulf’s physical lifting strength. It is one of the highest of any of the verse! Beowulf fought against Grendel whose arm is 120 inches long. This is 5 times the length of the average man’s arm, which means Grendel himself would proportionally be 5 times as tall, 5 times as wide, and 5 times as thick as the average man, making him overall 125 times the size of a person. The Average weight for 125 men would be over 25,000 pounds (11340 kg), and Grendel, as a professional athlete of his kind, likely weighs well in excess of this. Yet Beowulf was able to lift him over his head, hold him upside down behind his back and jump high into the air with this to kill him.

• Backing this up, another character on the Skullgirls roster, Big Band, weighs 5000 pounds. Yet by game mechanics, Beowulf is able to casually lift him off the ground with one arm, and jump 8 feet backwards into the air and do a backflip while still holding him.

• Striking Strength however is a much more impressive story, Beowulf was able to battle and defeat the Skullgirl in his timeline, and furthermore he directly defeated Valentine, who canonically dealt damage to the Skullgirl in the prequel mobile story mode, which is canon to all the timelines. This Skullgirl is named Marie, and She once ripped the top half of Medici Tower off its structure and hurled it into the bay. Medici Tower is easily the largest building in New Meridian, 

which includes the The River King Casino, a building that despite reaching past the clouds, isn’t even visible on the city's skyline. In real life the shortest building that can potentially reach the clouds is the Q1 building in Australia, which is 1,058 feet tall, there are less than 100 buildings in real life that can top this, the tallest building in the world being under 3 times this. But Medici Tower is so much larger than the Casino that you cannot even see the latter in a picture of the former. Making it significantly larger than any real life building in the world. Speaking of New Meridian by the way, It's Big, like Enormous even. New Meridian is the largest city in the Canopy Kingdom, to the point where even the Official Canon Info Thread refers to it as a ‘Megacity’, it is stated that New Meridian is actually an entire former country that was known as the Meridian Empire, that was since conquered and annexed by the Canopy Kingdom. Since The Medici Tower rests at the center of this country-city, and Marie threw it all the way into the bay, traveling over the entire district of Little Innsmouth along the way, we can estimate the kinetic energy of this to be over 8 Megatons of TNT.

• Is able to cause violent earthquakes in the surrounding area just with the shockwaves of his physical blows.

Speed:

• Beowulf was fast enough to grab onto Annie of the Stars as she flew by him while rescuing all the captured characters from Doubles Gehenna Dimension.

Gehenna is a large dimension that contains the former capital city of an advanced Ancient Kingdom that Eliza hails from.

Yet Annie was able to fly through it and rescue everyone in only a couple seconds.

• Beowulf was also able to battle and defeat both Valentine and Painwheel in one on one combat, Valentine of which is able to effortlessly dodge point blank machine gun fire.

Painwheel on the other hand is able to jump up into the air and perform 5 different wide sweeping attacks before she begins to fall again, which would require speeds exceeding mach 11.

General:

• Has a fantastic Win-Loss record, having Defeated Cerebella, Painwheel, Big Band, Valentine and Double, while only ever Losing against Annie.

• In his Fight with Double, he defeated her inside of her own Gehenna Dimension, where literally the environment itself is made up of her.

• Defeated Double as an evil copy of himself.

• Became a Hero Again.

Summary: 

Advantages:

• City Level DC/Durability.

• Hypersonic Speed.

• Extremely High Fighting Skill.

• Flight.

• Energy Aura and Manipulation.

• Pocket Dimension.

• Sentient Weaponry.

• Gains Power from Hype.

• Metafictional Attacks and Manipulation.

• Metafictional Portal Creation.

• The Chair!

Disadvantages:

• Gullible.

• Brash.

• Lacks good ranged attacks.

• Extremely un-stealthy.

• Gets a lot of noise complaints.

Recommended Opponent:

Denmark:

I think a pretty good matchup for Beowulf is Denmark from the Hetalia series. They two are obviously very good on thematics with both being charismatic viking warriors known for their strength and power. Both characters are normally really hard to fight due to Beowulf’s metafictional attacks, and Denmark being a conceptual entity, but that actually works out really well because it means they have picture perfect ways to harm each other and it ends up being a very close fight as a result.

Next Time: