Welcome to the finale of DEATH BATTLE! Spyro Edition. Last time, Cynder and Tommy Oliver duked it out in a fight to the death, which Cynder ended up winning. But that leads to the ultimate question. How did Cynder win? Today, we find out! So what was the secret behind Cynder's victory? Read on to discover...

Boomstick: Well that was... unexpected. How the heck did that happen?

Wiz: Believe it or not, this was honestly a closer matchup than you'd think. Cynder and Tommy have several factors that seemingly neutralize each other. For example, Tommy's martial arts skills were great, but Cynder's got natural combat skills of her own from her time leading the Ape armies.

Boomstick: Plus I would assume that Cynder's natural strength, speed, and agility countered any power boost given by the Dragon Power Coin.

Wiz: Theoretically yes. It's possible that in a few scenarios, the Dragon Shield might have held out against any of Cynder's other attacks. Plus the mental training Tommy underwent over years as a Power Ranger meant he likely wouldn't be affected by Cynder's Fear or Shadow abilities and their mental effects.

Boomstick: But what about the Sword of Darkness? Wasn't it so strong only the Megazord could block it?

Wiz: It's energy beams were only shown being blocked by the Megazord's shield, so that really doesn't say anything about the strength of the beam itself. It's an impressive feat regardless though. And besides, the Sword of Darkness otherwise functions like any other sword, it has been blocked by other blades in terms of raw swings. Ultimately, this really came down to whether the Dragon Shield could hold up against Aether, or in this case Dark Aether.

Boomstick: The short answer is, no, no it can't.

Wiz: Well, we really don't know how strong the Dragon Shield actually is. We've never seen it used against any enemy that would be strong enough to break it. Let's say as a hypothetical that Lord Zedd was strong enough to break the Dragon Shield. By the time the two first fought Tommy had already ditched the Green Ranger powers for the White Ranger powers. So in reality, judging the durability of the shield is a lot like judging the powers of Saitama from One Punch Man, it's hard to put an upper limit on something that has never shown it's true potential.

Boomstick: So what you're saying is Tommy actually stood a pretty good chance?

Wiz: For a while he did. If anything it really came down to how strong Aether is. And ultimately it came down to one note from Jared Pullen.

Boomstick: The guy who came up with this Aether business to begin with?

Wiz: Yes. In a comment from his Deviantart account, Jared confirmed that Dark Aether specifically does in fact have the power to overcome the Dragon Shield's defenses. To quote him directly: "It's like an 'atom smasher', for Dark Aether dismantles a target at the atomic level, literally 'unmaking' it."

Boomstick: You do realize that literally means nothing to me, right?

Wiz: Have you seen Watchmen?

Boomstick: The movie? Yeah, you made me watch it. What about it?

Wiz: Think of Dark Aether as like the Intrinsic Field Subtractor that created Doctor Manhattan. Dark Aether effectively acts the same way, literally ripping anything unfortunate enough to get stuck in there to subatomic particles.

Boomstick: Holy shit! So literally nothing Tommy could throw in the way would stop this once Cynder broke it out!

Wiz: Exactly. In essence, it doesn't matter how strong the shield actually is, because in all likelihood it can't survive being unmade. Combine this terrifying power with Cynder's military leadership and stronger durability, and the Greatest Ranger Ever really stood no chance.

Boomstick: At least Tommy's defeat didn't drag on for too long.

Wiz: Didn't you use that pun when Spyro won his first Death Battle?

Boomstick: I'm thinking you're just green with envy at my pun skills.

Wiz: The winner is Cynder.

And that's it. That concludes our two Death Battles. I was tempted to throw in a third battle for Malefor, but then another writer here on the site actually did just that, creating Death Battles for unused Brandon Yates tracks. It's actually pretty good, I highly recommend you check it out. It's a Spyro and Wings of Fire crossover. Anyways, that aside, this was a fun little series. Maybe I'll re-explore this idea at some point. Probably not for a while though. So with that, as the gates close on the Death Battle arena, this is Dragon of Mystery, signing out.