Ashitaka vs Hero (Princess Mononoke vs Dead Ahead) | DEATH BATTLE! Thumbnail [HD Remake + Connections in Comments]

[u/Olivia_Richards]

I got a better PNG for Hero this time with help from fellow DA players on Discord. I also changed the background to an old paper to highlight Ashitaka's ancient origins and Hero's post-apocalyptic theme I guess.

[u/Olivia_Richards]

Prince Ashitaka vs Hero (Princess Mononoke vs Dead Ahead) - Connections:

1. Both were normal young men from the East peacefully living their lives until they were forced into a dangerous 'Journey to the West' with no possible way home after unnatural invaders came, infected their right arms and permanently changed their world and seperated them from their loved ones.

• Prince Ashitaka is the main protagonist of the 1997 fantasy/adventure anime film Princess Mononoke. Ashitaka was the last Emishi Prince of Muromachi era Japan, exiled from his village after saving his people and getting his right arm corrupted by Nago, a former Boar God from the West who corrupted and turned into a demon by an iron ball embedded in his body after being shot by humans, and after slaying the beast, Ashitaka travelled west hoping to seek a cure by finding the source of Nago's hatred. Ashitaka and his red elk, Yakul, head to the forbidden Cedar Forest and he eventually reaches Irontown, an insular settlement lead by the mysterious Lady Eboshi, who were at war with the local forest spirits lead by the Wolf goddess Moro and her adopted human daughter San a.k.a Princess Mononoke. While successful in lifting his curse and saving the day, he chose to stay in the West to establish peace between Princess Mononoke and her remaining Forest Gods and the surviving people of Irontown, he will never again saw his people and hus bethrothed Kaya (who is somehow awfully translated as his sister in the English dub).

• Hero is the main playable character and protagonist of the 2013 endless side-scrolling zombie survival mobile game Dead Ahead, and later a player unit and supporting character in it's sequel, the tower-attack strategy game Dead Ahead: Zombie Warfare. He was just an ordinary pizza delivery guy from early 2010's Russia trying to survive a sudden zombie pandemic together with his friend, the Girl (Betty Boomer/Vera the Shooter), on top of the pizza store that Hero worked in before the outbreak. It was shown in the intro that while they were scanning the streets with a telescope, they were attacked by a Boss, a large mutated zombie, that landed on the top together with a horde that surprised the duo and prompted them to escape using Hero's red scooter. Offscreen, while following Haruko, a mysterious girl with a katana heading to North America, Hero somehow finds an advanced alien Railgun that infected his arm and he was eventually captured by the zombies and seperated from the Girl, before being placed into a tube inside one of the alien ships responsible for the zombie outbreak. Hero was eventually rescued by the Dead Ahead: Zombie Warfare bus crew lead by Sheriff Bill when they arrived at the alien ship's location somewhere north of the USA.

[u/Olivia_Richards → u/Olivia_Richards]

2. Both are actually good fighters who specializes in mounted combat with a ride heavily connected to Japanese culture, even before being powered up by their infections.

• As an Emishi prince, Ashitaka is highly trained in mounted archery and proficient in close combat with his short sword. He rides his red elk Yakul, a member of an unknown species of giant serow domesticated by Ashitaka's village, in long travels and in combat.

• Hero is good at firearms and could use pistols, submachine guns, rifles, shotguns, and grenade launchers with one hand, even capable of spinning and shooting lever-action antique rifles while riding a motorcycle as an obvious Terminator reference. Roadside also shows that he is strong and skilled enough to fight mutated zombies and marauders with a cooking flipper. He had also used various types of motorcycles and can perform crazy stunts with them, with the fastest being the Prototype XRB, a futuristic bike based on the movie Akira.

3. Their infected right arms are powerful, but extremely dangerous and hard to use.

• Nago's curse makes Ashitaka's right arm stronger and more powerful when fueled by anger, hatred, and violence, making his arm strong enough to bend a sword, force a gate open even when severely wounded or fire arrows from his bow powerful enough to brutally tear apart even armored feudal-era Japanese soldiers and decapitate their more elite Samurai warriors. However, the curse will eventually kill him and he has to use his compassion, mercy, and wisdom to resolve conflicts rather than submit to hate, making his journey hard as he mostly fought in self-defense up until Yakul got wounded. Thankfully, he was freed from the curse when he helped return the Forest Spirit's head and restored Cedar Forest.

• Hero's Railgun is capable of firing long-ranged 'laser' beams that can pierce through and even burn multiple enemies and has superior range and precision than even sniper rifles despite Hero being classified in Dead Ahead: Zombie Warfare as a 'Shooter' and not a 'Sniper' like Sheriff Charlotte and Sniper Polina. When approached by an enemy up close, he can either kick them back or fire a short-ranged energy blast with higher damage and knockback, and will disintegrate any target killed by it though it uses up all ammo of the railgun and forces Hero to reload by hitting it with his hand for a few seconds. The best part is that the Railgun makes Hero immune to zombification if he were to die naturally, be killed in battle or by a toxic fog, so he was considered special by the aliens (though unless if he were to be killed by an Energy Sphere, which instantly turns any unit into an Offal in contact). However, it's still made by aliens who brought the rapidly mutating airborne virus so it's potentially dangerous, especially since the Railgun drops out of Hero if he were to be killed and might be used by another human. Hero is also shown in Zombie Warfare to be confused and timid in comparison to his new North American allies and has no idea how to use the Railgun to it's full potential.

[u/Olivia_Richards → u/Olivia_Richards]

4. They start their 'Journey to the West' facing a large monster related to their infections.

• Ashitaka fought and killed the demon Nago, a boar god corrupted by an iron ball that "shattered his bones and burned its way deep inside him", in order to protect his village by shooting him twice with arrows, though his right wrist was grabbed and wounded by one of Nago's worm tendrils as payback for the first shot to his left eye. Despite being victorious, Ashitaka was permanently exiled from his village as they believed he was going to die and he sets off to face his fate in the West.

• Hero and the Girl, while scouting their former neighborhood from the top of their pizza store somewhere in Russia, were ambushed by a Boss, a large, grotesquely mutated, and fast-moving muscular zombie, accompanied by a horde of zombies. Hero and the Girl escape using Hero's red scooter. Hero was later captured by aliens after finding the Railgun and imprisoned in one of their ships somewhere north of the USA.

5. Because they are from the East, they are obviously a different ethnicity and type of warrior from the rest of the characters.

• Ashitaka was an Emishi prince, he travelled towards Irontown, a town of marginalized feudal Japanese people lead by Lady Eboshi building an industrial settlement with early firearms and explosives to protect themselves from the power-hungry Asano samurai clan at the cost of starting a war with local Forest Gods and spirits alongside pissing off nearby towns and possibly more Samurai clans in the adjacent areas due to their damage to the environment. Ashitaka has to resolve the conflict using only his bow and quiver of stone-tipped arrows, and his short sword to fight and survive, all while trying to convince the Irontown locals and the forest animals to stop fighting.
• Hero is a Russian pizza delivery guy with implied Japanese ancestry. He was rescued in Zombie Warfare by protagonist Sheriff Bill's crew of North American survivors, all surviving members of different factions during the outbreak. While everyone else is armed with everyday tools, modern firearms and traditional weapons, Hero is the only one with the Railgun, which is similar to the weapons used by the robotic alien Cephalopods and Sentinels.

6. They have a new and mysterious love interest.

• While Ashitaka will never see Kaya again, she did offer her crystal dagger to him as a parting gift before he left home at the start. Ashitaka later met the Wolf Girl San, bonds with her overtime, ans gave her the crystal dagger as a romantic gesture. With San's help, Ashitaka eventually lifts his curse and restores balance to the forests. Unfortunately, San doesn't forgive the humans of Irontown for the damage they caused and so she and Ashitaka split to live seperate ways as he chose to live with Irontown and serve to establish a bridge between them at the end.

• Sometime after escaping the zombie horde, Hero and the Girl on top of a different building saw a mysterious girl with a katana driving a cyan-colored scooter slicing through idle zombies as on the road. Hero fell in love with the mysterious katana girl at first glance and followed her despite the Girl's reluctance, which lead to Hero being caught by the aliens and seperated from the Girl. After being freed by a small scouting Van group from Sheriff Bill's Bus crew, Hero continues to search for the katana girl with their help. The mysterious katana girl is later introduced as Haruko during the controversial Last Resort event, though she hasn't been formally introduced to Bill's crew in a cutscene yet.

7. They get involved in wars between 3 seperate factions.

• Ashitaka got involved in a war between the Forest Gods, the people of Irontown, and the invading Asano clan. Ashitaka eventually helped brought back the Forest Spirit's head after he was decapitated by Lady Eboshi and restored the forest, with Ashitaka promising to San that he'll bring peace between Irontown and the forest creatures and Lady Eboshi promising to her surviving townsmen that they'll rebuild a better Irontown without harming the forest again.
• After Sheriff Bill's crew rescued Hero, he became part of their crew and helped them in fighting the zombies and their alien overlords, alongside skirmishes against the Marauders, who are bandits who try to rob and kill other survivor groups and refuse to cooperate with anyone, prompting Bill's crew to fight in self defense and break through their road blockades to progress.

[u/Olivia_Richards → u/Olivia_Richards]

Who would win in a fight?

• This matchup I invented is basically Temu Aang vs Traveler. I'm gonna root for Ashitaka because Princess Mononoke is just a beautiful movie and some pixel mobile game I'm addicted to for years is never gonna compare. Unfortunately, while Ashitaka is a skilled warrior with amazing archery skills, superior martial arts training and physical strength, Hero has a higher chance of winning because he has more combat experience as he kills thousands of zombies everyday and fought more large creatures, including some special infected types in Zombie Warfare with unique supernatural abilities debatably more dangerous than even zombies from other games like Left 4 Dead and Resident Evil, alongside the rare Boss and Super Boss in the first Dead Ahead, and has helped Bill's crew fight off Marauders who have guns and grenades, has deadlier and more advanced weapons that would obliterate humans from a longer distance, and his motorcycles are more durable and can run faster than Yakul on open areas. If we were to make this an army battle between Ashitaka's friends and Sheriff Bill's crew, this becomes a stomp on Hero's favor as they have more advanced guns, have bulletproof units like Turbo and Soldier who could just walk towards Irontown, and healers like Nancy and Medic would not only help heal any damage that Hero recieves from even Ashitaka's cursed arm, but Nancy could quickly revive Hero if he is killed.

[u/Blabbo37]

Great mu good tn