Serenity Rose Conjures DEATH BATTLE!

 

Serenity Rose, the Crestfallen Witch

Serenity Rose was created by Aaron Alexovitch, it can be read on his personal website

WARNING

This blog will discuss themes of anxiety, trauma, and nervous breakdowns. Viewer digression is advised

DISCLAIMER: The Imgur Purge of May 2023 deleted most of the linked scans. Until I am aided in reclaiming all missing images, this message will remain here.

Welcome back to the blog! This character from the first series I've ever covered that's considered completed! Thus, I won't have to worry about frequently searching for updates to see if Sera's got any buffs. Not to mention, this means the background section is gonna be meatier than usual and spoiler filled. Hopefully it's not too bad of a read xD If the early art style of this webcomic reminds you of Invader Zim, you wouldn't be too far off the mark. The author Aaron Alexovich was actually involved in the show's production and is the one who drew the Invader Zim comics. The dude's mad talented, he's even worked on Avatar: the Last Airbender as a character designer! If that at all intrigues you, I'd definitely recommend checking this series out, its visual style is pretty much perfect. But what about Serenity herself? How does she fair on the battlefield? Let's find out for ourselves!

Background

"She of a thousand sorrows."

Serenity Elizabeth "Sera" Rose is many things. Out of the world's 57 known witches, she is the 10th youngest 8th shortest, 6th gothiest, 22nd most powerful, 38th most respected, and 5th most reclusive. To the town of Crestfallen, she is a beloved icon adored by its citizens. To many outside the city, she's deemed an unstable and satanic monster that needs to be regulated before she causes any more controversy. While there is a lot of false and overdramatized information, I seek to relay to the masses who the witch named Serenity Rose truly is.

Sera is a misunderstood young woman who doesn't want to put anyone in danger. She's deeply shy, reclusive, and terrified of social situations. Unlike how the public thinks she eats babies and performs blood rituals, she has a passion for making cute and creepy doodles in her sketchbook. She's gentle, kind, grimly charming, has great gothic music tastes, and has a really weird voice. What's not to love? Serenity goes through a journey where she questions her identity, her sexuality, and her future. It all builds up to her facing her past head on.

Sera's life hasn't been easy. When her mother died when she was four, little Sera froze a big chunk of Lake Michigan out of grief. This turned her into an infamous controversial figure despite being so young. The mayor of the town of Crestfallen reached out to the Roses to coax them into moving there, which is supposedly far more accepting of witches. It's a town that celebrates all things supernatural and weird, so it would be the perfect home. However, Sera's dad knew that it would render Sera a tourist attraction, so he wanted her to live a normal life instead. And that she did, her dad refusing all of the mayor's offers as they reside in their new town. She didn't fit in at school, but she did manage to find some friends and the time to practice her interest in art.

Everything was going pretty decently until she reached 16. Her father was killed in a car accident. It was a deeply sorrowful event, but what really drove her off the edge was a traumatic event involving her close friend Madeline. Maddy was severely bullied during high school and Serenity was always too shy to defend her. When Sera gave her a note telling her how much she appreciated her, Maddie took the letter the opposite way, believing it was to make fun of her. She blew up at Sera for not being there for her to stop the harassment. After Maddy stormed out of the bus, that's when Serenity's most notorious moment occurred: The Bus Incident. She experienced a meltdown, hijacking the bus and flew it six miles through the sky. All the while her classmates onboard were subjected to horrific imagery conjured by her own mind.

This event gave her unwanted fame from all over the world. Newscasters called her an unstable monster, goths everywhere worshipped her and created their own messed up lore regarding her, and she became even more of a synonymous attraction at Crestfallen. It became so dire that she defended herself during an assassination attempt by the SSI (Supernatural Shield Initiative), in which they sent a group of troopers to her house. In the end, she was ultimately sentenced to nothing more than counseling.

Seven years go by without incident until she's brought back into the public eye when she stops a vampire from rampaging a nightclub. Her life starts to go in all sorts of directions: a mysterious witch is attacking and stalking her and she is asked by her idol Vicious Whisper to become her apprentice, giving her the opportunity to destroy the schoolbus that haunted her past.

Her issues with the peculiar witch increase when Sera is repeatedly jumped. Not only that, but she's experiencing strange dreams and the SSI is led to believe that she is conjuring Revenants in her sleep who go around killing people. She even discovered that there is a cave filled with fifteen years worth of ectoplasmic conjurings from her anxiety-ridden dreams.

Eventually, it is all revealed that it was caused by the mysterious and hateful witch who's been pursuing her named Stiletta. Born into obscurity and sealed away in a mine for most of her life by her unloving family, she never had the chance to have a good life. And here is Serenity, a woman with caring family and friends, a town that admires her and celebrates her for what she is, and thousands of sympathizers across the world even after she nearly killed a busload of children. She never had to work for it, yet constantly pushes them away. That's why she stole Sera's dreams to create Revenants in order to put the blame on her, making the world think she's a killer. And the only way to stop her from destroying everything she holds dear is to engage with her in a fight and put in the effort to live. And that she does, besting Stiletta in combat and stopping her from causing any further harm.

Since then she's began being Vicious Whisper's apprentice. After all the distraught caused by Stiletta, Sera finally appears optimistic. However, she comes face to face with Maddy again. Although it's nerve wracking, the two seem to regain their friendship, which all culminates in Maddy kissing her. However, their rekindled bond is short-lived when it's revealed Maddy arrived in Crestfallen to document Sera's ectoplasm creations, including the dream cave, to benefit a researcher. Although lied to, Sera decides that she owes Maddy and lets her take pictures. When she tries to explain to Vicious Whisper what happened, she learns that her mentor tried to set her up with her assistant Crawlsie to try and play matchmaker between them. She has another meltdown, but Crawlsie assures her that Vicious' actions aren't worth being angry over. On their own terms, they decide to date.

While she is still a figure deplored and worshipped by the world for wrong reasons, Serenity has finally figured out what she wants to do with her life. She pushed through all the negativity to get to this point, and she has a bright outlook on what's to come.

Equipment

N/A

Abilities

Y'know what? I'm feeling a little spicy today. I'm gonna let Sera's best friend/enemy Tess take over this section for a bit because she sums them up fairly concisely in her 'Witch Way to Hell Segment.'

Flight

Telekinesis

Elemental Manipulation

Hi, Vibe Check here. I'm gonna delve into this one a bit to show the sorts of powers she has demonstrated with her elemental manip.

Fire Manipulation

Weather Manipulation

Ice Manipulation

Electricity Manipulation

Heat Manipulation

She's able to adjust her own body temperature and create heat movable heat bubbles.

Metal Manipulation

Ectoplasm Manipulation

This is Sera's most prolific ability, so I'll go more into detail regarding this. Basically, Sera can break down molecules and reassemble them to create a substance called ectoplasm, which she can use to create or alter matter. Thus, she can use this for…

Ectoplasm Constructs

There's no limit to what she can create with ectoplasm. She has made 8 ft tall man-eating ponies, freaky floating goblin faces, gothic chairs, and plenty of other things. Hell, there's an entire cave full of ectoplasm beings conjured from her messed up dreams that she has full control over (which hardly move when she isn't around). Some of the ectoplasm summons can appear mobile and alive while others are simply tools for her to use in combat. When her conjurings are semi-sentient, they are known as Revenants.

Armor Generation

Her ecto-armor tends to come in different forms. Whether it be her face with limbs or a slimy ghoul, she's able to protect herself well with it. It's impervious to bullets, and due to being made of a substance she can manipulate, it can change forms at will.

Transmutation and Molecular Manipulation

She can alter anything from the molecular level and turn it into something new. For instance, she turned a douchebag's car into something silly-looking. Another witch named Stiletta was able to transform a crowd of people into miniature minions shaped like Serenity's head. As witches share all the same primary abilities, Serenity is likely capable of this too. Not to mention, she was able to later control them despite not being the one that mutated them. Her abilities extend to plants too, able to alter their appearance with her ectoplasm.

Projectiles and General Manipulation

Aside from forming it into intricate objects and beings, she can go the simple route and just manipulate pure ectoplasm. She can shoot slimy balls of it or wield it as if she's painting on a canvas. It's gooey, so she can submerge herself inside it or trap others within it.

Low-Mid Regeneration

Although she has not done this on her own, another witch named Valentine was able to regenerate a man's arm with ectoplasm after it was cut off. As the abilities are shared between witches, she's likely able to do this too.

Ecto Beams

It appears that she can shoot concentrated beams that are able to alter the properties of anything with ectoplasm. She uses this when she shoots a tree that forms various etched artwork on it.

Shapeshifting

Appreciated, Tess. Now shoo.

OH RIGHT, she forgot to mention one other ability.

Command Over Trolls

Unlike our Earth, this version is home to various creatures like goblins and ogres. Crestfallen's trolls were created long ago to take orders from any witch. Thus, she is able command these creatures at will, which are very aggressive towards anyone who isn't a witch.

Feats

Overall

• Is considered the 22nd strongest witch in the world.
• Saved a nightclub from a vampire.
• When she was sixteen, she stole a bus which she telekinetically rode through the skies full of her classmates during a nervous breakdown.
• That same year, she took on an entire platoon of SSI shock troops. Neither she or the soldiers received any injuries as she made her escape, nonviolently dispatching them with her ectoplasmic constructs.
• Her artistic skills got the attention of one of the most famous yet controversial witches Rivet Hed, who wanted her to design creatures for his performances. It was a job she turned down.
• A cave exists with fifteen years worth of her dreams manifested into ectoplasmic beings conjured from them.
• She defeated Stiletta, a witch who stirred chaos in Crestfallen by stealing Sera's dreams to make ectoplasmic killers. She was hellbent on mentally torturing Sera, whisking away her easy life she's taken for granted from her and make the world believe that she's a killer. Thankfully, she was able to best her in combat and stop her from killing everyone she loves.
• She was chosen by famous witch and singer Vicious Whisper to be her apprentice
• Telekinetically lifted the entire audience during a concert off the ground
• Sera was able to fully push through her negativity, confront her anxieties and trauma, and finally be sure of what she wants to do with her life

Strength

• Is stated to have the strength of an atomic bomb (town level).
• Is able to destroy ectoplasmic constructs with a single punch, like when she destroyed a replica of her pony, which was previously stated to be 8 ft tall.
• Witches are stated to be able to lift mountains with their brains
• Sera froze 8 cubic meters of Lake Michigan (This link contains calcs for large mountain-small island level. It also includes a link that was split up while pasting the information. To access it, copy the link but delete the spaces.)
• She turned the bus linked to her traumatic experiences into butterflies
• Scorched many mini conjurings in one fell swoop
• Punched Stiletta into the sky, likely combining her punch with her telikinesis powers, as Stiletta is surrounded by Sera's ecto energy

Speed

• As someone who is able to generate electricity and control the weather, she be able to attack as fast as lightning
• Scales to Stiletta, who flew from the Inconsolable Woods to Crestfallen in an indeterminable yet quick amount of time

Durability

• Her ectoplasmic shields can block bullets.
• Was punched into a statue by a Revenant
• Was punched through a wall
• Was punched over the Inconsolable Woods, being driven into the clocktower all the way in Crestfallen, fell down a building, crashed through a floor, and skid into the park.
• Was rampaged by tiny people transformed into tiny Sera heads
• Scales to Stiletta, who was hit by a car

Weaknesses

• Sera is emotionally vulnerable, freezing during times of serious anxiety.
• Her mind is exploitable, as the witch Stiletta stole her dreams to conjure ectoplasmic monstrosities to terrorize Crestfallen.

Matchup Potential

Unfortunately I have nothing to say on this front, as I haven't seen any characters that could contest well with Sera. The only suggestions I've received for her are Brightburn and Cameron/SCP-2241, both of which are different archetypes that really don't suit her. She looks vaguely similar to the protagonist of the webcomic Star Cross'd Destiny, but judging by the series description it doesn't sound similar to Sera.

I could see her having the sort of appeal that Omori has on getting on Death Battle… which is a double edged sword considering the heavy topics the characters experience and are ingrained in their combat style. The implications for Sera matchups certainly aren't as bad as what Omori detractors say regarding him, but wanting a character on Death Battle that can jump someone with a cave full of manifestations of her anxiety-ridden dreams could raise heads for better or worse. Let me know if you've got any opponent sections in the comments below. If any of them really vibe with me, I'll write up a blurb here like I did for the previous blogs!

NEXT TIME ON WCAB… whenever I feel like it