Okay, so, death battle fanfiction... I’ve spent way too many nights scrolling through those. The reactions are a total mixed bag, honestly.
Some readers get super into the hyper-technical power scaling arguments. They’ll leave paragraphs in the comments dissecting whether character A’s feats from chapter 42 of the manga actually counter character B’s hax abilities, and the debates can get really heated. It’s like watching a sports match for them—the fun is in the analysis and the hypothetical.
Then there’s the crowd that’s just there for the spectacle and the catharsis. They don’t care if the physics are perfect; they want that emotional gut-punch when a favorite falls, or that hype moment when an underdog pulls off a clever win. The comment sections on those fics are pure, unfiltered adrenaline, all caps and keyboard smashes.
But you also see a lot of frustration. If the author clearly favors one character and makes the fight ridiculously one-sided, readers will call it out fast. They want a fair fight, or at least a cleverly unfair one. The worst reactions I’ve seen are when a beloved character gets jobbed purely for shock value without narrative respect. That’s when the pitchforks come out.