Ruby Rose vs Maka Albarn: Infinite-Sun7000 Blog

 Ruby Rose vs Maka Albarn:

Infinite-Sun7000 Blog

TN by me

With the next Death Battle episode on the way, I thought it’d be fun to get ahead of the discussion and share my own take on the matchup while the hype is building. To be honest, this is only the second time I’ve felt so certain that the outcome leans heavily in one side’s favor where it's almost to the point of being a complete stomp. So, let’s cut to the chase and dive right into it!

Stats:

Where does Ruby caps at? Generally speaking.

As most can see, the girl in the red hood is clearly at a major disadvantage when it comes to raw power in this matchup. To put things into perspective, I’ll start by breaking down the scaling chain within RWBY’s verse, just to establish where her higher-end (though less consistent) interpretations tend to place her. So, where does Ruby generally caps at?

Well for starters RWBY’s power scaling is fairly consistent, showcasing a wide range of techniques, with those who possess magic typically standing at a much higher level and for most of the main cast, the standard is around City Block level, scaling from Ruby Rose’s feat of kicking a Griffon (18 Tons). Professional Huntsmen would naturally rank above this. Post-Beacon, the cast remains within the City Block range, this time scaling from Blake Belladonna and Sun Wukong’s feat of damaging and ultimately defeating a Sea Feilong, which managed to break through several massive rock formations (21 Tons). By the Post-Haven era, the cast reaches into Multi-City Block level, scaling from the durability of the Queen Lancer.

There isn’t much need to justify why RWBY scales to other groups like JNPR, Cinder’s faction, Salem’s Inner Circle, or the White Fang. They’ve clashed on multiple occasions, consistently showing comparability if not always in raw power, then certainly in speed. That said, there unfortunately isn’t a vast amount of concrete feats to draw from. Other than maybe Oscar blasting through the bottom of Atlas (61 tons), Ruby herself serves as the basis for much of the standard scaling chain such as knocking over mechs (16 tons) and the previously aforementioned scaling to Grims such as Sea Feilong, The Queen Lance and Sphinx.

What about the Maidens? Ruby unfortunately does not scale to them, as most of the high-tiers in RWBY draw their strength primarily from the exertion of magic rather than raw physical ability. This also applies to characters like Weiss, whose attack potency is almost entirely dependent on her Dust usage. Because of that, feats such as Ozpin’s shield, Weiss’ meteor summons, and a large portion of Maiden showings aren’t really fair benchmarks for Ruby to scale to. This is somewhat problematic, because even though the verse is fairly consistent in terms of calcs, many of those results stem from attack potency feats that the characters don’t physically scale to including Ruby herself.

However, where do I personally put her and are there higher justifications?

In my view, yes. It isn’t completely one-sided, as there are still several feats that can reasonably be used to scale Ruby higher. While her most consistent placement sits in the Multi-City Block range, I think it’s fair to consider the higher-end scaling for her (and the main cast as a whole). Personally, I rank her significantly higher than is often suggested, since I believe there are multiple pieces of evidence supporting that position.

Firstly, we've established relativity within RWBY's verse. Not only Ruby and the main cast would most likely scale higher if not towards a lot of the semi-high tier of the verse, their feats and scaling are also reasonably consistent. The team was able go up against the likes of Cinder who can fight Neo, Neo herself have fought Ruby directly. Ruby should also be comparable to Weiss and Jaune who can even tank magical attacks from Cinder, Weiss herself at one point got the better of her who at one point managed to harm Cinder and cut her arm. Winter is also an officer and a high-tier from Atlas who should scale to the Ace Ops in which they themselves can fight against Maiden Penny with Elm capable of physically restraining her. Yang being a physical match for her, with team RWBY have fought on equal footing. Blake and Yang can fight against Adam, Yang fought Mercury who competed against Phyrra. The same Phyrra who held her own against Cinder and so on so forth.

My point is that RWBY functions as an exceptionally strong team, with consistent feats that scale across nearly every major group in the verse and, to be fair, that’s really the show’s main appeal. It delivers a lot of flashy, well-choreographed fight scenes. Don’t get me wrong, RWBY can offer more than just that (though personally, I don’t always find it so), but the constant juggling of characters through repeated fight sequences does in fact makes it appealing.

With that in mind, Ruby should be able to draw from a wide range of scaling feats. These include Neo no-selling a hard crash that created a massive crater (90-360 kilotons) along with a resultant earthquake (130 kilotons), Neo also withstood being at the heart of the Monstra Whale’s explosion, the power of which should massively upscale its kinetic energy output (186 megatons), Yang shattering one of Weiss’s meteors (1.3 - 53 gigatons), Weiss and Jaune withstanding Cinder’s flames with relatively low aura, flames capable of melting Amity (15 - 126 kilotons), Penny catching Amity’s Tower prior to activating her Maiden powers (5.7 megatons), Winter harming Cinder's arm which upscale the Wyvern Grimm who once caused an earthquake (2.7 megatons) and finally, Ruby herself striking the Atlesian Colossus with enough force to trigger an earthquake (4.5 megatons) and tanked attacks from Cinder's blast which broke through Ozpin's force field. Which, a canonically weaker version used by Oscar can be scaled to the Long Memory Explosion (62 megatons).

In conclusion, placing Ruby within the Small City to Mountain level range is fairly reasonable. She has solid feats of her own, and the physical feats performed by others in her verse support this level of scaling as well. The real question, however, is how she measures up against Maka.

Maka Albarn

Frankly, even considering Ruby’s higher-end feats, she still comes up short. Soul Eater operates on a clearer and more straightforward scaling system, particularly in how the main cast relates to the high-tiers. Overall, their destructive and durability feats are very solid as the lower to mid-tiers fall within the Town to Mountain level range, while the higher tiers scale up to Large Country level.

Even if one accepts Ruby’s questionable scaling, Maka still comfortably outclasses her through clear scaling to the main cast. Black☆Star, for instance, blitzed through a collapsing mountain slide (1.27 megatons) and casually hurled one of the Moon’s teeth (34 teratons). Crona physically forced the Moon’s mouth open (664 teratons) while Ragnarok’s scream made the Moon itself bleed (125 megatons). These consistent showings demonstrate that Maka, by virtue of scaling to her peers, operates on a level that completely dwarfs anything Ruby can reliably bring to the table.

She does not scale to Crona!!

But she does though? For starters, Kid singles out Maka as someone worthy of staying on the moon while dismissing all other Death Scythes, meisters, and students, calling the confrontation with Crona a “battle of gods.” If Maka were truly beneath his and Black☆Star’s level, there would have been no reason for him to let her remain.

Her resistance to Crona’s wavelength further supports this. Kid describes Crona’s scream as crushing those with weaker souls, yet Maka is completely unaffected. Since a stronger wavelength automatically overwhelms a weaker one, Maka being unfazed demonstrates parity. She also proves this through direct combat. Maka damages Crona multiple times drawing blood, knocking them down, and shaking them with blunt strikes. This is notable because Crona’s hardened Black Blood shields them from most harm, and even powerful fighters like Black☆Star or the Tsar Pushka duo could not make Crona bleed under similar conditions.

While one could argue Black☆Star was somewhat weaker during his earlier clash with Crona, his only clearly defined buff afterward was the Madness of Power, which he didn’t activate until the fight against Asura. By contrast, Crona was unambiguously weaker in that earlier fight: they hadn’t yet incorporated Madness into their attacks and hadn’t “completed” the Black Blood by killing Medusa. Despite this, even Black☆Star couldn’t make them bleed yet Maka does so repeatedly on the moon.

Maka consistently demonstrates the ability to contend with Crona on the moon without being overwhelmed. She blocks their slashes with Soul, only being pushed back rather than harmed, and even withstands their Rose Thorn Storm. This is notable because Soul Eater treats named techniques as being substantially more powerful than unnamed ones, and Rose Thorn Storm in particular likely represents Crona’s strongest attack. It incorporates the Madness of the Black Blood and the thorns they gained after killing Medusa, effectively marking the “completion” of their Black Blood. Yet, Maka is only pushed back rather than injured, and when she does receive a slash to the shoulder later, it causes no serious harm.

From Maka’s second fight with Crona, as well as Soul’s earlier clash with Stein, we know that blocking an attack from someone significantly stronger than oneself still causes visible harm to both meister and weapon. Maka’s battle with Giriko also indicates that if the gap is extreme enough, the strike bypasses the weapon entirely. Neither of these occurs when she blocks Crona’s attacks and Soul himself remains unharmed.

Crona, moreover, has Soul restrained by their thorns for an extended period of time but does not simply destroy him, despite having shown in their very first battle that they were capable of damaging him in weapon form. The only moments where Crona gains the upper hand over Maka are circumstantial: when her scythe is trapped behind her, leaving her unable to block, when she is forced to use Soul to stop her fall off the moon, leaving her briefly open, and when Crona drops a tooth using their thorns. Otherwise, the exchange remains fairly balanced.

In fact, Maka keeps pace with Crona’s movements, and it is often Crona who has difficulty tracking her, whereas Maka herself struggled to match the more powerful Asura’s speed. This is reinforced by the moment where Black☆Star “saves” her from a third incoming blade ad rather than being blitzed, Maka had already dodged the previous two easily, Crona actually warns her about the third strike in advance, and she shows no concern for it as she's clearly aware that Black☆Star was about to intercept.

Strength and speed in Soul Eater are directly correlated (DB power level system fr), there are no examples of characters being vastly stronger while not also being significantly faster. If Crona were truly on a much higher level than Maka, they would have outpaced her just as Mosquito did to Kid and Free. Instead, the battle consistently shows her able to keep up, with her friends including Spirit voicing complete confidence in her ability to do so. Maka even explicitly states, “We have no reason to be afraid of Crona.”

Finally, it’s important to note that Maka is holding back throughout the encounter, as she does not want to kill Crona but rather save them. This makes it even less likely, narratively, that she was intended to be portrayed as outclassed.

Surely not on the same level as Black☆Star, Kid, or Asura… right?

Fortunately for Soul Eater fans (and perhaps a little unfortunate for RWBY), Maka does scale alongside them, and there’s plenty of evidence to back this up. Obviously, a big part of this comes from her role as the fucking protagonist and the fact that she consistently fights alongside her peers throughout the entire series. There isn’t too much more that really needs to be said, but if anyone still has doubts, I hope I can clear them out.

In base, the gap between them is certainly large, but Maka still remains relative. Asura’s wavelength doesn’t cause her any of the debilitating effects it should, she blocks a strike from Vajra alongside Black☆Star, reacts in step with Asura’s casual attacks, and even withstands a direct double-handed blow from him without sustaining lasting damage.

We’re also shown what is very likely a direct side-by-side comparison of their souls in chapter 112. This was clearly base Maka, as she only later reactivated both the Black Blood Dress and Soul Resonance. That moment essentially serves as a canon power comparison straight from the author. Alternatively, it could represent Maka, Soul, and Crona as the three stars. But whichever order they’re meant to be in, Maka and Soul together would still scale close to or even above Crona regardless.

The sizes of their souls

Admittedly stepping into some slightly speculative scaling, we can look at the relative soul sizes of the three main cast members. Maka, Black☆Star, and Kid. In this aforementioned comparison, Maka’s soul measures at 6 pixels in diameter, Kid’s at 20, and Black☆Star’s at 30.

The author’s intent here was almost certainly to compare either diameters or areas, but even if you try to scale based on volume, it ultimately makes little difference for the reasons I’ll outline.

Black☆Star being “only” five times stronger than Maka in base form actually lines up well with Soul Eater’s powerscaling. To illustrate, if someone’s bench press were ten times greater than a regular lifter’s max, they’d already rank as one of the strongest humans alive. Unlike real lifters, however, Black☆Star isn’t restricted by the square–cube law. In reality, more muscle mass means more weight and less relative speed, since strength scales with surface area while volume scales with mass. Black☆Star sidesteps this entirely and his growth in strength directly translates into greater speed as well.

When scaled by volume, Black☆Star’s soul suggests he’s roughly 125 times stronger than Maka, while Kid is about 37 times stronger. While those numbers may seem overwhelming, the key point isn’t that Maka matches them in raw base power, but that she’s close enough in scale that, in the context of this matchup, the fight becomes decisively one-sided in her favor.

Black Blood Dress Maka (Shit just got real)

Since I believe Maka’s Black Blood Dress form would almost certainly appear in the episode, I’ll wrap up her scaling section here. This is her strongest state, and once it’s factored in, the outlook for Ruby becomes infinitely worse. The scaling follows:

During the final battle, Maka’s performance against Asura is one of the clearest demonstrations of her power, with this being the same Asura who previously managed to massively harm Death and pierce through his barrier. Once she and Soul activate Black Blood Full Blast, Asura begins taking her seriously, as they now possess the means to harm him. Despite this, Maka consistently holds her own. She reacts to Asura’s blitzes, continuously endures his magic and wavelength attacks without being more damaged than Black☆Star or Kid, and even remains conscious under direct pressure that nearly incapacitates Kid. She then crushes Asura’s arm with her bare hands, wounds him with her own wavelength (confirmed to be hers by Soul), and ultimately succeeds in cutting into his body with Kishin-Hunt, something even Kid and Black☆Star could not replicate. Crona explicitly affirms that Maka is capable of making Asura bleed, and the group’s final strategy hinges on her ability to land a decisive blow.

Importantly, Asura had already shown killing intent toward Maka earlier in the fight, hitting and attempting to incinerate her multiple times, meaning her success wasn’t a result of him holding back. While she fought alongside Black☆Star and Kid, and her Chain Resonance with Kid and Black☆Star was a negligible boost that contributed almost nothing in the actual fight. Similarly, while Maka uses the Black Blood to enter Asura’s body and reach Crona, there’s no evidence that this somehow let her bypass his durability none of the characters say this, and no in-universe mechanism exists to suggest it. Her feats are entirely consistent with the established powerscaling in Soul Eater.

By the time of this fight, Maka had already made Soul into a Death Scythe and was herself a top-tier meister. The series makes it clear that a strong partner can’t simply carry a weak one, and Maka and Soul are never portrayed as deficient in this way. If Maka were truly a scrub riding on Soul’s coattails, there would’ve been no reason for Kid to teleport away Spartoi’s other meisters when Spirit, a Death Scythe who was right there and available. Kid recognized that only Maka, Black☆Star, and himself had the power to fight Asura on equal terms.

It’s also critical to recognize the context of the fight: all three heroes were heavily amped by Madness. Black☆Star gained the Madness of Power from the Great Old One, Kid awakened both the same Madness and his full Shinigami form, and Maka (alongside Soul) fully activated the Black Blood, awakening her own Madness wavelength in the process. This wasn’t a minor buff either as Madness is consistently portrayed in the series as the single greatest amplifier of combat power, raising already high-level characters into the very top-tiers of the verse.

The examples speak for themselves. Arachne’s full transformation into Madness let her one-shot Medusa in chapter 58, only stopped by Maka’s anti-demon wavelength. Justin, after fusing with a Clown, completely no-sold Medusa’s spells until she herself fused with Madness just to fight back. Noah, with the Madness of Knowledge, effortlessly folded Stein, Marie, Sid, and Nygus simultaneously. Black☆Star and Kid, once gaining Madness, could immediately fight Noah head-on. Stein himself, when unleashing his Madness, was able to kill Justin outright. Crona is the outlier here, but that’s only because they and Ragnarok weren’t already at Death Scythe-level before fusing with the Black Clown; Giriko nearly killed them in chapter 26, and there’s no indication of a massive growth spurt before that fusion.

Maka and Soul’s case fits perfectly into this pattern. Soul had already been noted by Spirit as having the potential to become a Kishin way back in chapter 6. When he partially awakened the Black Blood against Crona’s Mad Blood, he was on par with (if not outright stronger than) a non-Madness-amped Stein who himself knocked Asura around alongside Marie in the final battle without relying on Madness. By the time Maka and Soul fully awaken the Black Blood and Madness wavelength in the climax, their feats line up exactly with what the series establishes: Madness amplifies Death Scythe-tier fighters into the very top levels, and Maka’s performance against Asura is the natural result of that.

Where does this line of scaling get her to?

With her Black Blood Dress, Maka can be reasonably placed on par with every major quantifiable feat in the verse. This would put her at the level of Asura, who in turn upscales from Death, and by extension from Shinra Banshōman. Even in his weaker state, Shinra casually kicked the Moon which within the context of Ōkubo’s verse, is far more impressive than it might first appear (810 zettatons).

More importantly, scaling directly to Shinra Banshōman would elevate Maka to Low-Multiversal, as Shinra demonstrated the ability to erase Adolla itself, which embodies not only humanity’s ideas but also its entire history, with this accumulated consciousness forming an image of despair that merges with the present world as the black flames engulfing the planet. This reflects the conceptual nature of Adolla’s time creating a distinct image of the real world that differs fundamentally from the physical universe’s space-time continuum. While events in both planes may align, they remain spatio-temporally distinct due to the separation between the physical 4D framework of the real universe and the conceptual, perception-based structure of Adolla. Thus, qualifying as an entirely separate space-time.

Doubling Down on Shinra Banshōman and God Tier Scaling

Some of you may still have reservations about Death’s direct scaling to Shinra and that’s perfectly understandable. But don’t worry, it’s my responsibility here to lay out the evidence clearly and thoroughly, and to address any lingering doubts head-on.

In chapters 296–302 of Fire Force delve into the meaning of “God” as a title, tying it directly to strength and supremacy rather than divinity in a religious sense. In this narrative, God represents the strongest being one who stands above the collective unconscious itself. When Shinra achieves the first-ever soul resonance and becomes Shinrabanshoman, both Shō and Haumea who had already merged with the collective unconscious recognize him as possessing the power of God, a being beyond comparison. Haumea even equates the title of God directly with supreme strength, setting the stage for what comes next.

From this foundation, Death is created to take on Shinra banshoman’s role as “God,” serving as a real leader for humanity rather than a false image like the Evangelist. His portrayal across chapters 301–302 reinforces this status in several ways. Death exudes confidence, clearly positioning himself above all others. Shinra banshoman explicitly designed him to be an absolute entity, the pinnacle of existence. He then absorbs the power of nearly every Pillar, including Shinra banshoman himself, granting him the ability to manipulate the souls of all mankind in the same way that Shinrabanshoman and Haumea merged with the Evangelist once could.

The narrative makes it unmistakably clear that Death is to be seen as God. Shinra refers to him as “my lord,” mirroring the way Haumea addressed God, while Shō explicitly calls him a “supreme god.” Though Shinra observes that nothing in Fire Force is truly absolute, Death is presented as the sole exception: an absolute being above all. In this sense, Death fulfills the role of God as intended, embodying the genuine essence of the title rather than a hollow imitation.

Ultimately, Death is created not as an illusion or falsehood, but as the true God of humanity, one equal in stature to Shinrabanshoman and Haumea, both of whom were tied to the collective unconscious itself. His ability to absorb and redistribute power strengthens mankind as a whole, directly foreshadowing the state of the world seen in Soul Eater, more than 800 years later.

Conclusion for power?

Even if we grant Ruby her most generous interpretation and compare it to Maka’s lowest scaling (1 teraton / 53 gigatons), Ruby still ends up around 18 times weaker. However, this is already the most favorable case for her. Once we apply a more balanced and accurate take on Maka’s scaling, the gap widens dramatically as Maka ranges anywhere from roughly 12,500 times stronger (664 teratons) to over 15 trillion times stronger (810 zettatons), and potentially even into magnitudes approaching an infinite difference in power (affecting a distinct space-time continuum).

Speed

A two-part breakdown isn’t really necessary here. Speedrunning Ruby’s feats, she once reacted to lasers (0.42 c), scales to Adam Taurus who blocked a particle beam (0.47 c), Winter blocking lasers (4.71 c), and Cinder dodging the Silver Eyes (0.204-0.847 c). This would reasonably grant her a range from Sub-Relativistic+ up to FTL speeds.

Nevertheless, Maka, while not overwhelmingly faster, can still keep pace with Black☆Star, who casually deflected a beam of light (0.439 c). At her peak, however, she scales to the God Tiers of the Ohkuba Verse which by extension to base Shinra who can move faster than light through the Adolla Burst, and ultimately to Shinra Banshōman, who was able to react to Haumea’s Light of Despair.

Which, somewhat surprisingly, places them within a similar ballpark when it comes to speed.

Combat

Combat-wise, Maka is an exceptionally skilled fighter who has proven herself against a wide range of unconventional and dangerous opponents. She battled Free, a werewolf with bodily manipulation and ice magic, even while hindered by the Black Blood. She clashed with the Clown, a sapient embodiment of Asura’s wavelength that attacked from all directions while attempting to corrupt her with Madness. She faced Arachne, who had become a being of pure Madness and assaulted her with overwhelming tendrils, and fought Gopher, who combined flight, bladed wings, projectiles, and homing blasts all while Maka was still learning to fly. She also stood against Giriko, a living chainsaw capable of generating bladed whips, while enduring the psychological strain of the Book of Eibon. Against Crona, she held her ground against a relentless storm of blood-thorns, and ultimately, she confronted Asura himself, enduring his pyrokinesis, explosive blasts, and grotesque bodily transformations. Through each of these encounters, Maka consistently demonstrated adaptability, resilience, and refined combat skill.

While Ruby, on the other hand, is no less skilled. Throughout the entire series, she has fought countless Grimm and adversaries across a broad range of encounters, supported by a much larger cast of characters. By emphasizing the variety of foes she has faced, each with their own techniques, weapons, powers, and approaches, it’s really easy to make Ruby’s combat record sound just as, if not more, impressive. The Grimm themselves come in multiple shape and forms, ensuring that Ruby is constantly adapting in battle. Across Volumes 1–8, her track record clearly showcases her combat growth and versatility, leaving no doubt that her skills are highly credible. That pool of opponents naturally extends to characters Ruby herself hasn’t directly fought, creating a sense of relative scaling across the broader cast. And anyone familiar with RWBY would recognize that the sheer variety of adversaries and characters the series juggles far outweighs what Soul Eater presents in comparison and honestly? I’d recommend you guys stopping right here, grab some popcorn or your favorite snacks, and binge-watching all of RWBY's fight scenes ( Vol. 1 / Vol. 2 / Vol 3 / Vol. 4 / Vol. 5 / Vol. 6 / Vol. 7 / Vol. 8 ). You might as well just enjoy the fight scenes to pass the time, they’re genuinely entertaining and make for a great watch too while also giving you a great idea on how good their skills are.

Counters & Wincons

Maka's Soul Manipulation

Getting into the most compelling part of this matchup, it’s clear that the unique nature of Soul Physiologies in Soul Eater fundamentally changes the dynamic. The core understanding of this power system is built to bypass and counter abilities like Ruby’s, effectively denying her any meaningful win conditions that one can come up with.

Maka possesses a wide array of abilities and counters that make her extraordinarily difficult for Ruby to handle. Her Black Blood grants her regenerative capabilities, allowing her to heal from otherwise fatal injuries. While this may not be a direct counter to Ruby, it is an invaluable advantage in any fight. The only instances of lasting damage to her body come from weapons with intrinsic properties, such as Asura’s Vajra or Tezca Tlipoca’s flames, which bypass regeneration altogether. Both characters can fly, but Maka has notable advantages: she can attack with her scythe while airborne, reach far greater heights, and maintain flight without draining stamina, since it is derived from her soul rather than a taxing semblance. When used with the Black Blood, she can even hover effortlessly in place.

Ruby cannot hide or attempt long-range attacks, as Maka’s planetary-wide Soul Perception ensures she remains fully aware of Ruby’s movements. Furthermore, Maka’s resonance abilities grant her incredible range and versatility. Using Arachne’s web, she can transmit her wavelength across vast distances, giving her access to techniques such as Soul Adagio and Soul Hack. Soul Adagio shuts down opponents on a spiritual level, bypassing physical durability, with the only resistance seen being Giriko’s body producing sound to counteract it. Soul Hack allows Maka and Soul to manipulate constructs tied to another’s soul wavelength, as demonstrated when they controlled Moonlight’s Bits. Given that Clowns in Soul Eater are embodiments of Asura’s soul wavelength, a parallel to aura in RWBY can reasonably be drawn, Maka could likely manipulate or dispel Ruby’s aura using this technique, especially since aura and semblances (which are tied to one another) can be transferred, stolen, or removed within the RWBY universe.

With the Black Blood, Maka is also able to channel her Madness wavelength through Soul to directly affect Ruby. When amplified by the Black Blood, this ability demonstrated devastating effects even on Asura himself. In that encounter, Asura shifted from launching a massive blast to keep Maka at a distance to offering no resistance at all as she cut into him with Kishin-Hunt and even crawled inside his body. It is especially telling that Kid and Black☆Star left Asura’s wrappings, arms, and mouth completely free, yet he still did not strike, release further blasts, or use Vajra against her. This illustrates just how overwhelming Maka’s wavelength is once combined with the Black Blood. By contrast, aura in RWBY has explicitly been shown to offer no protection against emotional or spiritual manipulation, as seen in Volume 6, Episode 6, where the Apathy Grimm’s despair wave incapacitated Team RWBY despite their auras being intact.

Some might argue that verse equalization should not apply at all, and that Ruby lacking a soul wavelength would therefore be immune to abilities like Soul Adagio and Soul Hack. However, Madness in Soul Eater has never been portrayed as requiring interaction with another’s wavelength in order to affect them. It operates on a more fundamental level, influencing cognition and emotion directly. Thus, Ruby would not be shielded simply by virtue of existing outside Soul Eater’s framework.

The Black Blood Full Blast technique provides yet another overwhelming advantage. This technique covers Maka and Soul in the Black Blood itself, imbuing them with the same Madness-inducing, corrosive properties as Mad Blood. Ohkubo even employs identical sound effects to emphasize this connection. Ruby would have no logical means of resisting such an ability. Furthermore, the Full Blast is shown to envelop the users completely, even beneath their skin, since it shares the unique naming convention of  Full Force (全開) with the Anti-Demon Wavelength: Full Force, which itself covers the user entirely in protective energy.

Can Ruby's Silver Eyes Work?

Ruby’s Silver Eyes are likewise ineffective against Maka for several reasons. First, the Black Blood is not comparable to Grimm matter. While Grimm are soulless entities that cannot channel aura, the Black Blood actively enhances soul abilities. For example, it allowed Soul to transmit resonance through his piano and later bolstered Maka’s Hunt techniques. Silver Eyes have no precedent for interacting with such phenomena. Moreover, the connection between Grimm and Silver Eyes is not based on negative emotions but on cosmology. Grimm were created by the God of Darkness, while Silver Eyes derive from the God of Light, who embodies creation. This is supported by supplementary material such as The World of RWBY: The Official Companion and RWBY Ice Queendom references. The Silver Eyes’ effectiveness against Grimm is rooted in this divine dichotomy, not a universal property of “negative emotions.”

Madness in Soul Eater is fundamentally distinct as even the two divine opposites in Death and Asura, each embodying Madness in vastly different forms with one benevolent, the other malevolent. It is not a creature or external entity but an abstract force present within humanity itself. Some types of Madness enhance physical or spiritual abilities, such as Stein’s or Kid’s, and the Black Blood simply channels its own unique Madness into the user. While Ruby’s Silver Eyes did counter the Apathy Grimm’s despair wave, that ability originated from Grimm biology. Madness in Soul Eater has no such origin and is not even inherently negative. Maka’s own wavelength, for example, incited courage within Asura, eliminating his fear and making him reckless enough to let her strike directly. Maka herself explicitly states, “Let my courage become this attack!” reinforcing the idea that her Madness wavelength amplifies courage, not despair. This aligns with her and Soul’s reflections that Madness can also inspire bravery rather than fear.

Furthermore, Madness greatly amplifies resonance-based techniques. For instance, Tsubaki’s Masamune form became drastically more powerful under its influence. Since Grimm lack souls entirely, they cannot resonate in any comparable way, and semblances being rooted in aura are similarly inapplicable. This further demonstrates that Madness and Silver Eyes target entirely different metaphysical frameworks.

Even if one were to force verse equalization and argue that Silver Eyes could somehow affect Maka’s Black Blood, the reverse must also apply. Maka’s soul-based techniques, such as Soul Adagio or Soul Hack, would then directly affect Ruby’s aura and soul, which are essentially instant win conditions. Maka’s wavelength manipulation does not require the Black Blood to be effective, so even in this most generous equalization scenario, she retains the advantage.

One might even go further and equate Ruby’s Silver Eyes to Soul Eater’s Anti-Demon Wavelength, both of which manifest as bright, purifying light and counter corruptive forces. But even under this equivalence, Silver Eyes would still fail to affect Maka while under Black Blood Full Blast. This technique envelops her in Mad Blood’s influence, which proved so overwhelming that it immediately incapacitated the Death Scythe meister Feodor even when he had completely wrapped his body in the Anti-Demon Wavelength for protection.

Verdict?

With all things considered, I believe Maka Albarn is the clear victor. Her soul-based abilities directly counter Ruby’s aura, stripping away the foundation of her defenses, while her superior stats ensure Ruby has no meaningful way to inflict lasting damage. What might initially appear as a close contest in speed or combat skill ultimately fades in importance when faced with such decisive advantages. Maka’s Black Blood, her resilience against Madness, her proven experience against unconventional opponents, and the fundamental differences between Soul Eater’s and RWBY’s power systems all tip the scales heavily in her favor. Even when granting Ruby the most favorable assumptions, Maka consistently possesses answers that deny her win conditions. In the end, Maka doesn’t just win, she does so convincingly, leaving little room for doubt.

The Winner is Maka Albarn.

I truly want to take a moment to thank you for taking the time to read through this blog. I know it was a long and detailed breakdown, and I deeply appreciate your patience and interest in following my thoughts from start to finish. Writing this was both a passion project and a challenge, and I can only hope I managed to convey my perspective clearly while keeping it engaging for you. If at any point it came across as overly biased or harsh, I sincerely apologize as that was never my intention. My goal was simply to share an honest analysis of a matchup while your time and attention mean more to me than I can properly express, so thank you again for being here and giving this piece your consideration.

Stay safe guys, and hope you liked it