Hercules VS Sun Wukong

Hercules VS Sun Wukong is the 162nd episode of Death Battle, featuring Heracles from Greek and Roman mythology and Sun Wukong from Chinese mythology and the Journey to the West series in a battle between legendary mythological heroes. Heracles was voiced by Blythe Melin and Sun Wukong was voiced by Alex Mai.
==Interlude==
Wiz: Hercules, the God of Strength.
Boomstick: Sun Wukong, the Monkey King.
Wiz: Myth has many heroes, but few overcome their past to become... legendary.
Boomstick: And maybe inspire some comics and anime to boot. 
We cut to Wiz and Boomstick.
Boomstick: He's Wiz and I'm Boomstick.
Wiz: And it's our job to analyze their weapons, armor, and skills to find out who would win... a Death Battle.
==Heracles==
Boomstick: He's the man, the myth, the legend, he's Hercules!
Wiz: Stories of Hercules exist in many iterations, but we'll examine the earliest known accounts: the legend of Heracles.
Boomstick: No Disney Zero to Hero, just the classic Greek myth. And like most Ancient Greek stories, it began with Zeus bein' a total creep.
Wiz: The God of Thunder did his... thing with a princess by disguising himself... as her husband-
Boomstick: (muffled) Aw, what the hell, man...
Wiz: And thus a demigod was born, who was named Alcaeus.
Boomstick: But Hera was pretty pissed Zeus had cheated on her, yet again, so Alcaeus' human parents renamed him in her honor. Yup, Heracles means "glory to Hera". Too bad she had already made up her mind though, and that kid was gonna pay.
Wiz: The child would need some way to survive Hera's wrath, so the Goddess of Heroes carried out a plan that was... frankly insane. Athena tricked Hera into nursing the baby Heracles, and her milk gave him supernatural strength unbound, even beyond many of the gods themselves.
Boomstick: So strong that he hurt her and caused her to spray milk all over the place like a boob sprinkler, which in turn created the galaxy. Yup, that's why we call it the Milky Way. Oh god, I'm never eating one of those candy bars again.
Wiz: With his godlike power, Heracles became a fierce warrior, trained by the finest instructors in all of Greece. Unfortunately, he wasn't without problems. While he was a natural at boxing, wrestling, fencing, and so much more, he struggled in... the arts.
Boomstick: He even had a fit and accidentally killed his music teacher.
Wiz: Little did Heracles know, this was a sign of the tragedy to come. Many years later, as his name began to be synonymous with the term "hero", he murdered his wife, Princess Megara, and their sons.
Boomstick: Yeah, Hera had magically driven him into a kill-frenzy rage. But, that didn't excuse it for Herc. His guilt was there.
Wiz: Desperate to atone, he sought guidance from the Oracle of Delphi, and learned his path to redemption. He would submit himself to King Eurystheus and perform for him 10 grueling labors.
Boomstick: The guy was a D-bag, but Herc did what he had to, and through his struggles built a killer arsenal.
Wiz: For his first labor, he was tasked with slaying a lion whose hide could not be pierced by any blade.
Boomstick: So Herc just beat the lion to death with his bare hands, and took the pelt as armor for himself.
Wiz: He defeated a flock of metal man-eating birds with krotalas so loud, no living thing can bear the noise. He battled a multi-headed Hydra, cauterizing its necks after each decapitation so the heads would not grow back.
Boomstick: A lotta sliced-off heads meant a lotta blood spilled, and Hydra blood is extra poisonous. Even gods fear it, so Herc dipped his arrows in the stuff for later use. Like when he used 'em to take out centaurs, titans, and even the Sun!
Wiz: Eh, sort of. The details of this myth differ, but in some versions, Heracles was so fed up with the desert heat, he fired an arrow at the Sun, the physical embodiment of the god Helios.
Boomstick: I guess that's one way to cool off. Take that, global warming!
Wiz: To reach the Sun, his arrow would have to fly 90 times faster than light. The maximum draw weight of a typical recurve bow is about 40 pounds, shooting an arrow 300 feet per second. Shooting one faster than light would require strength incomprehensible to mortals such as us.
Boomstick: Anyway, Herc completed his labors, but the king was a sore loser and axed two of 'em for "cheating", 'cause Herc was a lot more clever than he expected.
Wiz: Heracles received two more tasks, one of which required he retrieve the golden apples of Hesperides, which, ironically, originally belonged to Hera. As part of his plan, Heracles would temporarily take on the role of the titan Atlas, as bearer of the Heavens.
We cut to Wiz, Boomstick, and DUMMI.
DUMMI: That sounds exhausting.
Wiz: More than you think, DUMMI. While modern art often portrays Atlas carrying a globe, the Greeks perceived his burden as a celestial sphere. This would mean Heracles supported the weight of not just the Earth, but the whole universe.
As Wiz says this, Boomstick puts a clear, heavy orb on top of DUMMI that contains the Earth in it, before it changes into a universe and becomes even heavier.
DUMMI: Like... I'm holding up this entire show!—
Unable to hold up the weight of the universe any longer, DUMMI falls onto the ground before we cut back to the analysis.
Wiz: The common view of the time was that the universe was endless. Even Chaos, the primordial origin of everything, was boundless, meaning Heracles held up the weight of conceptual infinity.
Boomstick: Luckily, Herc's got one hell of a drive to persevere, and to make amends, like when he met King Admetus. He got to party it up and was too drunk to realize the king was in a really bad state 'cause his wife had just died.
Wiz: Reminds me of someone...
Boomstick: Can't imagine who. Well, Herc felt bad, so he decided to make it up to his bro. By literally beating up the God of Death until he returned Admetus' wife! And that's true best friend material... Wiz.
Wiz: Heracles frequently surprised others with his wit, particularly with finding solutions hidden in plain sight. For example, when he wrestled Antaeus, a giant who was invincible so long as his feet were on the ground, Heracles simply picked him up and strangled him in the air!
Boomstick: Even giants and the God of Death couldn't end his story. Instead, he was tricked into putting on a shirt covered in that Hydra blood and... it totally screwed him up. What a BS way to go.
Wiz: Yet, also a testament to how a contest of power could not defeat him. Racked with unbearable pain and burning at a pyre, Heracles called to the deities who had watched his story unfold. And so, as his mortal form returned to ash, Heracles ascended to Mount Olympus.
Boomstick: Where he was welcomed as the God of Strength. Even Hera lightened up.
Wiz: His life may have been one of strife and struggle, but on that day, all the world was left in awe of the legend of Heracles.
==Sun Wukong==
Wiz: There once was a mighty monkey warrior, born of a mystic stone from the energy of the Sun and Moon. Upon birth, he graciously bowed to the cardinal directions and—
Boomstick: Strap in folks, this one's a doozy.
Wiz: This monkey soon befriended a band of other primates and, rather narcissistically, named himself their handsome Monkey King.
Boomstick: But after a few centuries of monkeying about, he got a taste of the dreaded... midlife crisis!
Wiz: You see, the Monkey King was fierce and brave, yet he feared death, so he ventured to new lands in search of immortality.
Boomstick: Turns out, he'd find a lot of it.
Wiz: Training under the Taoist master Puti, he earned his first method of immortality, and a new name. He would be "The Monkey Awakened to the Void", spoken as... Sun Wukong.
Boomstick: He also learned a bunch of magic. He can ride clouds, make thousands of clones, heal from fatal wounds like decapitation, and transform into basically anything: a bird, some vapor, a pitchfork, even an incredible fighting temple!
Wiz: With his famous cloud somersault, he could traverse the world at incredibly high speed. At first, a single somersault could carry him 108,000 li, li being a traditional Chinese unit equal to about 500 meters, making one somersault move 54,000 kilometers per second, fast enough to circle the entire Earth in one leap.
Boomstick: And he'd only get faster from there. Monkey would do whatever it took to prove he was the best of the best.
Wiz: When fighting the mighty deity Prince Nezha, his foe transformed into a more powerful visage with three heads and six arms.
Boomstick: But Sun was like, "Hey, I can do that too!", and then did just that.
Wiz: Sun Wukong eventually returned to his simian subjects and, with his newfound power, amassed a veritable army. However, he felt no weapon in their arsenal suited him.
Boomstick: So he barged into the Dragon King's palace and demanded he hand over a weapon worthy of a king who could match the power of Heaven. Yeah, Sun was pretty full of himself, but he wound up taking a pillar, originally designed to measure the depths of the ocean.
Wiz: What seemed like a worthless rod to the Dragon King was actually the perfect weapon for Wukong. Weighing nearly eight tons, the Ruyi Jingu Bang can change size at his whim. It can shrink to the size of a needle or grow long enough to pierce the heavens.
Boomstick: The same heavens that got pretty mad with Sun after he crossed his name out of the Ledger of Death, making himself double immortal! Wait, how does that work?
Wiz: And even more mad when he demanded to be formally acknowledged as "The Great Sage Equal to Heaven".
Boomstick: Okay, we've got a headstrong goofball who quickly masters new powers and wants a fancy title. This is just shōnen anime!
Wiz: Now, the Monkey King may have lashed out, but it was because when he requested a place in Heaven, a place he truly believed he deserved, the Jade Emperor's court reduced him to a stable boy.
Boomstick: Beneath all his antics, what Sun wanted most was to prove himself.
Wiz: Even with all the... shenanigans, the Jade Emperor remained cautious and willing to placate Wukong.
Boomstick: By making him the watchdog of the Garden of Immortal Peaches. He totally ate that shit, didn't he, Wiz?
Wiz: Oh yeah, Wukong got hammered, ate most of the peaches, ran around the Jade Palace in a fit, and found five gourds of immortality pills... which he promptly swallowed. All of them.
Boomstick: Okay, so that makes... how many layers of immortality now?
Wiz: I'd say a few... hundred? Thousand? If you count each individual peach and pill. When he sobered up, he knew he was in serious trouble, so naturally... he prepared for war.
Boomstick: Wow, that escalated quickly! What are they gonna do? Kill him? So, the Monkey King proved too strong for Heaven. He battled all their best fighters, and even matched Erlang Shen blow-for-blow in an epic battle of transformations! He's that guy with the third eye.
Wiz: And Heaven's greatest holy warrior. Yet, no matter Erlang's form, Wukong always had a counter. Until Laozi threw in a convenient plot MacGuffin that captured the monkey. But even with Wukong in chains, Heaven had a problem.
We cut to Boomstick.
Boomstick: He just wouldn't die! Lightning, fire, even Laozi's de-immortalizing furnace just made the monkey stronger!
Wiz: Now, Wukong is not invincible. He has been hurt by the Scorpion Demoness' poison, which could even harm the Buddha, an awakened divine being liberated from the cycle of life and death entirely.
Wiz then sprays some of the scorpion poison from a bottle onto Boomstick's face and pulls out a writing board, taking notes as Boomstick talks. 
Wiz: Now tell me, how painful is that?
Boomstick: Pain is all in the mind, and I am absent of mind— 
However, the poison quickly takes effect, making him panic to Wiz's surprise. 
Boomstick: Oh god! Oh no! I was wrong! IT'S BAD, IT'S REALLY, REALLY, REALLY BAD!! OH GOD, MAKE IT STOOOP!!!
In his pain, Boomstick runs towards and shakes the camera before collapsing to the ground in pain. After that, we cut back to the analysis.
Boomstick: Ugh... But even after all that, Sun had one more challenger to contend with: the Buddha himself!
Wiz: Buddha approached Wukong with a contest: leap out of his hand, and he could have the Jade Emperor's throne for himself.
Boomstick: Having no impulse control, the monkey agreed, and in an instant, somersaulted to the very edge of Heaven.
Wiz: But he had already lost. Because Buddha achieved Nirvana, he transcended the world, literally holding all of existence. So even at the edge of the universe, Wukong technically never left his hand.
Boomstick: For his rebellion, Sun was put in time-out, sealed under a mountain for 500 years.
Wiz: But even Sun Wukong would find a chance at redemption. In his case, he was tasked with escorting and protecting a monk, Tang Sanzang, or Tripitaka, on a journey to the West.
Boomstick: With additional companions Pigsy and Sandy. The trip was a tough one, and Monkey abandoned it more than once. But through it all, he always returned to shine as the group's powerhouse, saving Tripitaka's life many, many times. Seriously, this guy could not stay out of trouble. It's like Wiz at a blind date.
Wiz: Ahem. Wukong has cracked apart mountains, slayed hundreds of monsters, and survived the Yellow Wind Demon's storm that could destroy the universe. As in Heaven, Earth, the 18 layers of Hell, and more!
Boomstick: That's cool and all, Wiz, but let's answer the real question. Can he beat Goku?
Wiz: Um... maybe! During his journey, Wukong performed possibly his most legendary feat: holding up Mount Sumeru, which, in traditional Mahayana Buddhism, is a mountain supporting the infinite cosmic sky.
Boomstick: And Sun just hauled it around on one shoulder. Just one! 'Cause on his other shoulder... was a whole other mountain!
Wiz: After 14 years of travel, the journey was complete, and Wukong had finally accomplished a truly great deed. For this, he was given his long-awaited place among the heavens.
Boomstick: As the "Victorious Fighting Buddha"! Now that's gotta be an anime.
Wiz: After so much time as a rebel, an outcast, and a truly unstoppable warrior, Sun Wukong had, at last, found his home.
==Prelude==
Wiz: Alright, the combatants are set. We've run the data through all possibilities.
Boomstick: IT'S TIME FOR A DEATH BATTLEEE!!!
==Death Battle==
An ancient scroll unfurls onscreen as a painted mountain manifests. An unseen narrator begins his story.
Narrator: Our tale begins atop a great mountain, where the mighty Heracles sought a gift from the Gods.
As narrated, Heracles finishes his trek up the mountain and calls out to the nearby Sun Wukong, who is sitting atop his Nimbus cloud and holding a divine fruit in his hand.
Heracles: Ho there! I'm in need of that apple. Relinquish it.
Wukong turns to face him and explains his own need for it.
Sun Wukong: Sorry, I'm supposed to find my master some vegetarian food.
However, the explanation is ignored. His short temper kicking in, Heracles draws his sword from its scabbard and threatens Wukong.
Heracles: You'll find it... elsewhere.
With a shrug and groan of annoyance, Wukong passes the apple to Heracles, who catches it.
Narrator: But Heracles was not so easily fooled.
His satisfaction turns to indignation as he crushes the illusory fruit in his hand, revealing it to be merely strands of Wukong's hair. With his scheme discovered, Sun Wukong pulls out a miniaturized Ruyi Jingu Bang from his ear and enlarges it to its standard size, laughing with glee as he does so.
With his signature staff in hand, he leaps from his cloud and clashes with Heracles' sword.
Narrator: The Monkey King's strike rang true, but he'd not so easily overwhelm the God of Strength.
Locked in a clash of weapons, Heracles slashes at Wukong, who dissipates into smoke. He flies behind Heracles on his Nimbus and jabs him in the gut with his staff, sending him flying into a cliff below. The mighty Heracles is hardly phased though and springs back with a powerful dropkick against the advancing Wukong, sending them down another level.
As they both land, Heracles attempts to slash him with his sword once again, but Sun Wukong disappears in a smoke cloud and strikes Heracles with his Ruyi Jingu Bang. As Heracles lies on the ground, Wukong extends the staff and brings it down on him, who raises his sword to block the strike, only for the blade to shatter. Quickly recovering, Heracles grabs the Ruyi Jingu Bang and pulls on it, bringing Sun Wukong down to him.
Heracles: I am Heracles!
With a single mighty punch to the jaw, Heracles sent Sun Wukong soaring through the sky, hitting the edge of the scroll and forcing it to go higher up before landing on a nearby cloud. Before he has time to even breathe, Heracles shoots an arrow at him, only narrowly missing.
Sun Wukong: Yikes!
As he continues his assault, Wukong begins to jump through the clouds in order to avoid all of his shots, and after beginning to fly with one of them, summons several clones with his hair to try and reach Heracles. However, Heracles manages to shoot down almost all of the clones. One of them climbs onto the cloud Wukong is riding and grabs his tail. Wukong spins him around and launches himself and the clone at Heracles. The Wukongs turn into birds to reach Heracles faster, before turning into snakes to restrict his arms. Tired of Wukong's shenanigans, Heracles breaks free and grabs his krotalas.
Heracles: Die, demon!
He clacks the clappers together, and the resulting loud noise echoes through the skies, destroying every single Wukong clone. Reeling in pain from the noise, Wukong's snake transformation comes undone as he tumbles down the mountain into the forest below.
Sun Wukong: Agony! Agony!
The scroll unfurls further, revealing the spot where Wukong landed, as he begins to laugh.
Narrator: The Monkey King fell into a strange forest, in awe at such a wondrous fight. But should he mistake his fear, he might lose his head.
Heracles comes crashing down, instantly crushing Wukong's head with his club. But to his shock, the beheaded body of the great Sun Wukong gets right back up.
Sun Wukong: Wooo! I haven't had such fun since I fought all of Heaven! Change!
Wukong transforms into a taller, three-headed and six-armed version of himself, with three separate Ruyi Jingu Bangs included.
Sun Wukong: Behold me, the Immortal Monkey King!
Heracles stares at his opponent's transformation and laments his misfortune.
Heracles: Huh... Multiple heads. Of course.
Both warriors begin to trade blows, Heracles managing to avoid a few of Wukong's strikes before being disarmed of his club and becoming a victim of a staff combo before being kicked away.
Sun Wukong: Bang! Zoom! Block This!
After he lands back on the ground, Heracles shoots out three more arrows at the giant Wukong, which seemingly manage to damage him, before his three-headed form dissipates into smoke.
Heracles: Huh?
The real Wukong jumps right back up to the clouds, before sending out his staff to hit Heracles once more. He merely watches before the staff suddenly grows into an enormous size mere inches away from his face. He is crushed underneath the Ruyi Jingu Bang as Wukong sits on top of it and laughs. But the staff suddenly begins to shake, as Heracles begins to lift it from underneath.
Heracles: You've had your fun, beast. But I've had ENOUGH!
Heracles throws the staff away, forcing Wukong to get off it before changing its size once more, and preparing to strike a finishing blow. Heracles sees this and charges towards him, clashing with the staff with only his fist. But as the blows make contact, two blue, divine versions of the two gods can be seen holding the scroll.
Narrator: In heavens above, the gods witnessed their earthbound selves, and so joined in battle. 
They prepare their weapons for a clash of their own. The club of Heracles' celestial body leaves a trail of constellations, while the celestial Ruyi Jingu Bang leaves a trail of the Four Symbols' names written in Chinese in its wake.
Narrator: The God of Strength mustered the hearts of Olympus, while the Great Sage harnessed power equal to Heaven! Thus...
The two celestial bodies swing at each other, with the force of the blows turning the screen a blinding white. Slowly, the light fades away to reveal that Heracles' celestial body has been bifurcated by the Ruyi Jingu Bang. The scroll floats back into view, covering the screen once more.
Narrator: ...the Monkey King emerged victorious!
Returning back inside the scroll, Wukong's attack manages to overpower Heracles and its might destroys him, leaving nothing behind.
Sun Wukong: Wow, would you look at that! I struck him so hard, he was reduced to nothingness!
Wukong pulls out his divine apple and laughs once more, finally leaving the forest to rejoin his master.
Narrator: With a formidable foe slain, stricken against the mountain's breast, so ends our great tale of East and West.
==Results==
Boomstick: Talk about a herculean matchup!
Wiz: Heracles was among the greatest heroes in myth, but the Great Sage Equal to Heaven held many more advantages.
Boomstick: You'd think Sun might not measure up to the God of Strength's... y'know, strength, but he totally could. Remember, he carried Sumeru on his back, the mountain holding up the infinite celestial sky, like how Heracles held up the infinite celestial sphere.
Wiz: As befitting heroes of myth, they were on par in that they were both incomprehensibly strong. However, Wukong's healing abilities meant he could bounce back from Heracles' deadliest blows, whereas Heracles did not have a similar option.
Boomstick: But Heracles did have one way of putting the Monkey King down: his arrows dipped in Hydra poison.
Wiz: The Hydra poison threatened even the gods of Olympus, similar to the scorpion sting. Whether or not it would be fatal is questionable, but it could have incapacitated Wukong similar to how it affected Heracles himself.
Boomstick: But that is one very specific win condition, and we're lookin' at this with every possible option in mind.
Wiz: With his variety of clones, transformations, and numerous other spells, Wukong's arsenal was far more versatile.
Boomstick: Like, there was nothing stopping him from making thousands of clones of himself and just sittin' back while they beat up Herc for him. Unsportsmanlike? Sure. In character? Absolutely!
Wiz: Even then, those arrows would have to actually strike Wukong, which would be extremely difficult. Yes, in some depictions Heracles could potentially shoot the Sun of Helios, his arrows flying 90 times the speed of light. However, in his contest with the Buddha, Wukong leapt to the edge of the universe in a single second. To do so, he had to be moving over 1.4 quintillion times faster than light.
Boomstick: Making him way faster than Herc could ever hope to be!
We cut to Wiz and Boomstick.
Wiz: Heracles held might of mythic proportions, but barring a lucky shot, Sun Wukong's versatile magic, similar strength, and absolutely absurd speed overcame this foe. Fitting for Heaven's equal.
Boomstick: When fighting Sun Wukong, Heracles myth-ed his chance.
We cut to the "Winner" card.
Wiz: The winner is the Monkey King, Sun Wukong.
==Original Track==
===Composition===
The track for this fight is "Hero's Journey" by Therewolf Media. It is a dramatic track that makes use of Greek and Chinese instruments, making it sound similar to songs heard within their respective cultures. The flute heard at the end signifies Sun's victory over Heracles.
===Title===
The title refers to the "hero's journey" story structure, which both combatants follow. It may also refer to both Heracles' alternate title as the "God of Heroes" and Sun Wukong's home series, Journey to the West.
===Cover Art===
The cover art done by John Mitchell depicts a scroll (representing the Buddhist scriptures the Monkey King seeks during his journey to the West) with art of Sun Wukong riding on a cloud over a wave, his Ruyi Jingu Bang lifted above his head and ready to strike. The scroll has unraveled and burst out of the water jar depicting Heracles' fight with the Lernaean Hydra, where the Greek demigod is seen raising his club in a similar manner. Numerous stars litter the background, possibly representing the celestial status both combatants eventually achieve at the end of their stories.
==Trivia==
===Production===
*The core connections between Heracles and Sun Wukong are that they are both mythological heroes with divine births (Heracles is a demigod and Sun Wukong was born from a magic stone nourished by Heaven and Earth) who became enemies with gods and committed bad deeds (Heracles killed his family thanks to Hera's influence and Sun Wukong constantly tricked the gods), leading to them redeeming themselves by going on great quests that involved facing off against various monsters (Heracles completed his twelve labors, while Sun Wukong went on a journey to the West to gather the Buddhist sutras, respectively) that ultimately let them ascend to the highest level of godhood when completed (Heracles ascended to Olympus and Sun Wukong attained Buddhahood). In addition:
**Both were inspired by other gods from different mythologies (Hercules is the Roman equivalent of the Greek Heracles, while Sun Wukong may have been inspired by Hanuman from Hinduism, according to scholars).
**Both have a preference for blunt weaponry.
**Both were key participants in wars waged against the gods, albeit on opposite sides (Heracles was Olympus' main defender against the Giants during the Gigantomachy, while Wukong waged a one-man war against the Jade Emperor and the rest of the Heavens).
**Both are infamous for their short tempers and anger (Heracles killed several people in fits of rage, while Wukong had a habit of attacking and/or killing those who angered him).
**Both have obtained mythical fruits of immortality as part of their deeds (One of Heracles' twelve labors was to retrieve the golden apples of the Hesperides, while Sun Wukong stole the peaches of immortality from the garden of the Queen Mother of the West and ginseng fruits from a tree belonging to the Great Immortal Zhenyuan).
**Both are known for wearing the pelts of big cats they killed at one point in their travels (Heracles wears the impenetrable hide of the Nemean Lion as armor, while Sun Wukong is often depicted as wearing the skin of a tiger he killed after being freed from his imprisonment under a mountain).
**Both are extremely influential and have inspired many notable fictional characters (notably Disney's Hercules, Marvel's Hercules, Fate/stay night's Berserker, and Record of Ragnarok's Heracles for Heracles and Dragon Ball's Son Goku, Lego Monkie Kid's Monkey King, RWBY's Sun Wukong, and Pokémon's Infernape for Sun Wukong), as well as appearing alongside one another in many other "Gods" related media such as SMITE.
*This is the second episode of Season 9 to not have a comparison panel between both combatants, after Thor VS Vegeta.
*The version of Hero's Journey released on YouTube and Spotify and the version within the fight itself are slightly different, with the fight version adding in a brief beginning section for the animation's story scroll opening and Heracles' confrontation with Wukong before they first clash weapons.
**The fight version of the track would later be uploaded to the Death Battle channel as part of their series of AMVs exclusive to Death Battle Champions.
*After the episode released on YouTube, Therewolf Media released an epilogue track for Hero's Journey.
**This makes it the first episode to receive an epilogue track, with the next two being Boba Fett VS Predator and Sauron VS Lich King.
===Easter Eggs===
*Heracles' preview title, "Hercules Goes the Distance in DEATH BATTLE!", is a reference to the song "Go The Distance" from Disney's Hercules.
*Boomstick saying "Hey, I can do that too!" while describing Sun Wukong's fight with Nezha may be a reference to Cable VS Booster Gold, where Booster Gold commented to Cable that he could time travel as well after the latter told Booster he used it to his advantage.
*Boomstick asking Wiz if Sun Wukong could beat Goku is a reference to the "But can he beat Goku?" meme.
*The two Sun Wukong clones sent flying towards Heracles as eagles turn into snakes to wrap around his arms before Heracles overpowers them. This is likely referencing the time Hera sent two venomous serpents to try and kill Heracles in his infancy, only for him to kill them instead.
*Heracles' reaction to Sun Wukong's multiple heads is a reference to him having fought several other multi-headed beasts in the past, such as the Lernaean Hydra and Cerberus.
*Sun Wukong extending his Ruyi Jingu Bang towards Heracles and then suddenly making it grow into an enormous size may be a reference to Monkie Kid: A Hero is Born, where Monkey King (and later MK) used the same tactic against the Demon Bull King.
**Heracles holding up the enlarged Ruyi Jingu Bang soon after is reminiscent of him holding up the celestial sphere in place of Atlas.
===Errors===
*When discussing the speed of the arrow Heracles shot at the Sun, Wiz states that its flight speed was 90 times the speed of light, whereas the on-screen text states that its actual flight speed was 100 times faster than light.
*Oddly enough, the clip of Sun Wukong laughing in joy after crash-landing into the forest played during the post-analysis is not desaturated like the other clips of the fight.
===Other===
*With Heracles and Sun Wukong making their respective debuts in ca. 600 BC and ca. 1000, this episode features, by far, the longest gap between the debut of an episode's combatants that are not in the same series, with several centuries worth of difference.
*This is the second episode to feature a character from a book series, after Luke Skywalker VS Harry Potter, and with the next two being James Bond VS John Wick and Sauron VS Lich King.
**This also marks the longest time between the first and second appearance of a piece of medium on the show, as a combatant who debuted in a book has not appeared in 146 episodes since Luke Skywalker VS Harry Potter.
*This is the first episode to feature characters originating in mythology.
*This is the first "East meets West" battle in which the Eastern character's source material does not originate from Japan.
*This episode reached #2 on YouTube's Trending page.
*On August 25th, 2024, the DEATH BATTLE! YouTube channel uploaded the full fight animation of this episode on its own, likely to commemorate the release of Black Myth: Wukong, which came out five days earlier.
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