Let's Talk About Donkey Kong's Moon Punch

Hello again, I’m here to talk a little about a misconception some people have about a feat and debunk some of the claims made about it. 

I’m sure you are all familiar with the best direct feat in the Donkey Kong series: DK (or Diddy) hitting the moon out of orbit. I’m also sure that you are aware that many places, both VS Battle Wiki and Death Battle included, have stated that the moon Donkey Kong punches isn’t actually moon-sized, and that it actually is much smaller and barely larger than an island. Going directly off of what the cutscene displays, this brings a potential Dwarf Star level feat down to Country level. 

This is, in my opinion, ridiculous. There are quite a few reasons why I say that, which I will get into, but keep in mind that there isn’t any one single reason why this claim falls, but rather quite a few reasons that come together to form a complete debunk, so keep that in mind where if you are still skeptical after reading a section, keep reading and go through the rest of it to gain a complete picture. Also since I know there are probably some preconceived notions you have about this feat, try to come into this with an open mind.

The Moon is Moon-sized

Part 1: It’s impossible to get a size for this “smaller moon”

First off, the only argument for the moon actually being smaller than our real life moon is the presentation of the moon in the cutscene. The way that Vs Battle wiki measures the moon is by comparing it to the tower that it crashes into. However, this method does not give an accurate size for the moon.

The first reason is the most damning, and it's that the moon in the cutscene appears at wildly different sizes. There are four shots where the moon appears next to something, either the island or the tower, and in all four of them the moon is a different size. Take a look at this Imgur gallery and you’ll see what I mean. When the moon first comes down, it is around the same size as the island, but when it crashes into the tower we can see the curvature of it, which would make it much smaller than the island. The next shot is a zoomed out shot that clearly shows the moon as larger than the island, and when the moon gets blasted back up into the sky it is again smaller than the island.

This level of inconsistency means that, no matter which shot you use for this scene, you’re going to be picking and choosing. If the moon is smaller based purely on this cutscene, then why doesn’t it stay a consistent size? Why should we choose a smaller size for the moon based on its presentation, when its presentation doesn’t stay the same. It is much more likely that the developers prioritized making a cool scene rather than making the moon accurate to real life in the cutscene, thus the moon appears at an inconsistent size. 

Using this cutscene to get the size of the moon is problematic in another way, as the model used for the island is the same one from the world map. This is an issue because things on the map are clearly not made to scale, such as the ship at the bottom, which you can even see in the cutscene. If we assume that everything in this cutscene is portrayed at an accurate size (which you would have to in order for the moon to be considered smaller), then the ship is at least 100 meters long, which is clearly not what they were going for. Additionally, the world map portrays DK’s house and Thugly’s Highrise as comparable in size, despite the fact that Thugly’s Highrise is clearly much larger than Donkey Kong’s house. In short, the cutscene portrays many other items at different sizes compared to how they are actually meant to be portrayed, so who’s to say that the moon is any different?

Finally, Donkey Kong Island doesn’t even have an official size to begin with. The currently accepted calc on VS Battle Wiki compares Donkey Kong’s height to the Tiki Tong Tower (I’m assuming from this super zoomed out shot where you can barely see DK), and then comparing the Tower to the moon. However, it is incredibly difficult to get a good shot of DK next to the tower, as it absolutely dwarfs Donkey Kong anytime it is on screen. Perspective is also a bitch here as the tower is tilted and it is difficult to gauge how far away Donkey Kong is from the tower, especially since he’s only three pixels on screen. Also, using the calc on Vs Battle wiki, the tower is 208 meters wide, which compared to the island in the very same cutscene would only make DK Island around half a kilometer wide at best, which is very clearly not the intention.

To summarize this part, nearly everything is going against the moon being small based on this one cutscene, and any attempt to try and scale the size of the moon is a fruitless endeavor.

Part 2: The Moon in other Mario games

When looking at the moon’s other appearances in the Mario franchise, we start to see a clear picture of how it’s presented. Ignoring moons that appear that are clearly not our moon (like in Mario Kart 7, which also portrays Saturn at this size), moons that are very clearly stylized to the point where it can’t be considered the same moon (like in Super Mario Land 2), and moons that are so small that they are even inconsistent with the size shown in Donkey Kong Country Returns (like Mario Party 8), there aren’t actually that many appearances of the moon in the series, at least not with a clear enough perspective where we are able to see its full size. 

However, there are two notable appearances that portray the moon as very clearly similar to our real life moon, and these are Super Mario Odyssey and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. These two clearly show the moon alongside the Earth at a comparable size to our real world moon. I am aware that these are only two appearances, but they are also the most consistent size for the moon to be portrayed as. Since the moon has been portrayed as moon-sized in other Mario games, it is likely that that is the intention in this cutscene as well, it was just shrunk to be seen easier.

Part 3: This can apply to other feats too (That Death Battle have used)

Now after everything I’ve said, you may still be having some doubts that this moon should be the actual moon. However, there are plenty of other feats that Death Battle have been fine with using despite having the same apparent problem as the DK feat. There are three that come to my mind immediately (though there may be more that I am forgetting). The first is, funnily enough, Mario in Mario vs Sonic 2018. His largest feat he was given in the episode was punting a castle, despite said castle being much smaller in the cutscene. They even mention this in the episode by calling it “its smaller avatar”, meaning they recognize that the developers would prioritize understanding what’s happening over representing accurate sizes in a cutscene.

The second example is from Thanos vs Darkseid, where Thanos is given the feat of lifting the Galactus Engine. Despite the smaller appearance the engine takes when Thanos is lifting it, they choose to examine the much larger size of it that appears much more consistently in comics. Finally, if you’re looking for an example from modern Death Battle, then Popeye was also given a similar feat. Popeye was given the feat of punching a puck to the sun, and while it is a speed feat, it is in a very similar scenario to Donkey Kong. Despite the puck not making the actual massive distance from Earth to the Sun in the cartoon, they still calculate it as if it was, because the intention of the feat was that it did travel to the sun, even if it was portrayed differently.

(If you want to argue Popeye’s example doesn’t count because he’s far more cartoony, keep in mind that we’re talking about a gorilla punching the moon onto an island, then a volcano shoots the moon back into space. This is just as ridiculous and nonsensical as that)

Death Battle is fine with using feats where the objects are portrayed smaller on screen than they are meant to be in canon, which as I’ve shown in my previous arguments is the case with this one as well.

Conclusion

I feel I’ve given enough evidence to pretty definitively say that the Moon is Moon-sized, and that Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong’s feat should scale to Dwarf Star level. I am aware that this is pretty inconsequential, as anyone who scales to this feat also scales to better feats in the Mario series via scaling to DK, but I wanted to make this post regardless.