“In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” -Albert Camus

Simon the Digger, the man who pierced the Heavens with his mech, Gurren Lagann.

Kyle Rayner, the man who wielded the entire emotional spectrum by the mantle of White Lantern. 

We all look up at the stars in the sky, hoping for a better tomorrow and a life with meaning. For these two, one of those stars would come close to them, obtaining a powerful weapon with limitless potential at their fingertips. Yet, they would come to learn that with this power, their lives would also change; their loved ones would be lost, and the self-doubt and fear manifested, and when all hope seemed lost, they dared to defy. To find that lost hope in those that came before them, and those that were with them, and those that came after them; breaking past their limits, breaking through time and space and becoming the heroes that would dare to stand against the greatest cosmic tyrants to plague the universe. Will Simon the Digger defy the Lantern that stands in his path, or will Kyle Rayner hold the torch where no one else will? Let the spiral lanterns light the sky in this DEATH BATTLE!

For Simon, we of course will be using his anime series and films. Additionally we will also be factoring in his supplementary material, such as Gurren Lagann mangas, novelizations, audio dramas, spin-offs, guidebooks, artbooks, and the Nintendo DS game. Official statements from the website, press releases, and interviews will also be taken into account.

The reason why effectively every official piece of media is on the table for Gurren Lagann is because the story is intended to be a shared multiverse amongst each adaptation, with Kazuki Nakashima outright stating that ”the Gurren Lagann you believe is the truth!” when discrepancies in story details of certain adaptations were pointed out to him. This is backed up by official sources denoting that spin-offs, like Parallel Works and the Otoko series, are a part of the story’s multiverse, which are directly shown off in scenes where parallel universes are depicted in other pieces of media such as the movie, audio dramas, and manga.

Technically speaking, the multiverse of Gurren Lagann should also be interconnected with the other cosmologies of the “Triggerverse”, which we’ll touch upon later (it’s not as important of a topic anyways so don’t worry too much about it). But, the main focus will be to consider all the official media for Gurren Lagann as a whole given the in-universe canonical validity of each story.

Of course, a lot of our sources haven’t been officially translated or are hard to find online, so we want to give very special credits to the following:

• Stocking Anarchy / STTGL / Lucia Fex / Galo de Lion for the respect threads on Gurren Lagann and Otoko no Jouken! Translation
• csakuras for the other Audio Drama translations
• Hakanai Blue for the Otoko no Jouken! Translation
• AnimeCouncil^2 for the Gurren Lagann Manga Translation
• ProfectusInfinity for their DC Cosmology Blog

For Kyle Rayner, we’ll be examining his time as a Green and White Lantern primarily; the latter of which in recent comics, Kyle showed the ability to transform into at will due to his connection with the Emotional Spectrum. But you might be wondering: Are we using the Life Equation? 

The answer is yes, due to very specific reasons. Despite its controversial nature and extreme non-standardness, we can’t be sure if the official Death Battle episode will hand it to him. Regardless of that, the Life Equation is also both still very important to Kyle’s history and unlikely to appear in other DC episodes anyways. Therefore, not including it would be detrimental to the blog, and feel somewhat awkward considering its presence in this matchup’s discussion the last few years. It also helps us cover all bases and clear out a lot of the misconceptions over this topic that spanned for quite some years.

Additionally, given this is a monumental matchup in the community, we also want to talk a little bit on both characters/series conception as works of art, as well as the matchup itself.

Going first with Simon the Digger, the Gurren Lagann series began as a co-production between Gainax, Aniplex, and Konami, with Hiroyuki Imaishi being appointed (and debut) as the director early in development. A familiar name to most anime fans, Imaishi would go on to co-found the acclaimed Studio Trigger later on! Although there’s a lot of big names that we can’t mention or else this section would be gigantic, its writer, Kazuki Nakashima can’t be avoided. If we start digging through the core, we can see the light of the many inspirations from other works they loved, such as Captain Harlock, Mazinger Z, Ashita no Joe, Gunbuster and Evangelion.

The series isn’t a simple robot anime or a parody, but both Imaishi’s and Nakashima’s love letter to the mecha genre and anime as a whole, with Getter Robo standing as its most prominent influence, as it takes the poses, the drills, the willpower and relentless energy of its predecessors and amplifies them for a new generation. Embracing both the old and the new ideals is part of why Simon is such a beloved character, not just by longtime mecha fans, but also by newcomers to the genre, non-mecha fans, and the broader anime community. But why was this done, you may ask? Nakashima’s quote perfectly encapsulates the reason: “These days, many anime creators want to make parodies of 70s anime, don’t they? I didn’t want to do the same thing in Gurren-Lagann, my message in this work is that macho men who inherited the spirit of the 70s still exist!”  

As for our White Lantern, Kyle Rayner came onto the scene in May of 1994, created by writer Ron Marz and artist Daryl Banks, and named after Kyle Reese from The Terminator. He was the last Green Lantern made in a time where the name of the Lantern was painted in blood by the actions of Parallax Hal Jordan, and his time across the mid-90s and early 2000s reignited the love and light that comes from the Green Lantern. While there was initial resistance due to the loyalty of the fans of Hal Jordan, fans over time grew to love Kyle for who he was, carving out his own identity as a symbol for one of DC’s best mythos and even becoming a member of the Justice League of America.

In a reflection on Kyle Rayner’s conception over 30 years ago, Ron and Daryl discuss Kyle’s long-standing impact today, still remembering him as the torchbearer, the one who held the Green Lantern name together in a period of darkness and bringing it back when it was thought to be lost, both in the story and in the hearts of the readers. “You [Daryl] and Ron really reinvented the mythos in a way that not only was Kyle a success, but in so many ways reinvigorated Hal and John and Guy and really made Green Lantern fresh and hip again, and I don’t know where the mythos would be today if you guys hadn’t done that.”

From Left to Right:
1. Orana – SPIN ON, GREEN LANTERNS LIGHT

2. ZIX89 – The Power of WILL

3. Montreuil – The Lantern That Pierces the Heavens

4. Takumitsudao – Gurren Lantern

5. Asatira – Tengen Toppa Green Lantern: Shyir-rev

That leaves us to talk a bit about the matchup itself. When did the comparison’s truly arise? There’s a common misconception that the matchup originated somewhat recently, but its roots actually trace back much further, revealing a history that’s far more long standing than many realize. As far as we found, the first mentionings of a comparison between TTGL and Green Lantern trace back to 2008, mostly about the similarities of their power systems. There are also early fan-arts to be found, the older two being from February 2010, from Orana and ZIX89 respectively. One in particular, from late 2011, that was unfortunately deleted from the original artist Montreuil‘s account, is specifically comparing Kyle’s role to Simon the Digger (note: this was before Kyle even became White Lantern in comics).

There’s more art that can be found, but what about actual versus discussions? The earlier traces we found date to May of 2014 in the r/whowouldwin forum, in a hypothetical battle between Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann’s Crew against the Green Lantern Corps. Many similar posts were published around that era on both Reddit and other forums like ComicVine and SpaceBattles. All in all, comparisons between Green Lantern and Gurren Lagann, and even between Kyle and Simon specifically, have existed for well over a decade, reflecting how deep are the thematic parallels, being recognized by fans across multiple communities.

Hell, Nick Cramer in the old ScrewAttack days (prior to DEATH BATTLE!’s rebranding) compared Gurren Lagann to Green Lantern before they even used Hal Jordan. Not enough? John Mitchell, DEATH BATTLE!’s storyboard artist, said that he liked this MU since he was 12 years old, and even after those 17 years that passed, both Simon and Kyle are still the pillars of his whole life as an artist. To top it off, even DC Comics themselves brought things full circle with Far Sector Vol. 1 #7, featuring a striking reference to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in its cover, serving as a quiet acknowledgment of a long-standing connection. And now, we are here today; at last, the long-awaited battle of wills shall finally commence.

Background

Images by Ninjamonkey3904. 

Simon the Digger

“My bro is dead. He’s gone. But he’s right there on my back and here in my heart. He lives on as a part of me! If you’re gonna dig, dig to the heavens. No matter what’s in my way, I won’t stop. Once I’ve dug through, it means that I’ve won! Just who the hell do you think I am? I’m Simon. I’m not my bro. I’m ME! Simon The Digger!”

In a world overtaken by dangerous Beastmen, humanity had been forced to all live in underground villages. The surface blocked off, being left as nothing but a far away dream, they continued to live on, digging tunnels to expand their homes and living in utter fear of earthquakes causing rockfalls and taking their lives. Many were left orphaned by these earthquakes, including a young boy who was without a doubt the best at digging in his home, being known as Simon the Digger. Simon spent his days digging tunnels, eating steak and finding trinkets during his excavations. Perhaps, if left to his own devices, he would have spent his entire life like this.

But his soul-brother and best friend Kamina was different. He fully believed that the surface was true, and dreamed of one day escaping from the village and reaching for the heavens above. Always being there to help Simon raise his head up high whenever he was bullied for his love of digging and considering him to be a key member of his “Team Gurren” (really just a group of delinquent teenagers). Of course, no one would have been prepared for what would soon happen. In one of his excavations, Simon found a strange, small drill, and a small mech. Objects that perhaps would have meant nothing otherwise, but as they caught Simon’s interest and he attempted to show them off to Kamina, a monster broke through the village’s canopy, completely destroying it and revealing to everyone that the surface world was real.

Thanks to a girl named Yoko Littner, Simon and Kamina learned that the entire surface was overrun with monsters known as the Gunmen, mechas piloted by strange Beastmen that would kill all humans in sight. Kamina made a decision that day, to fight and liberate the surface from these creatures! Simon, of course, followed in his footsteps every step of the way. Simon was an expert at using his mech, the Lagann, and Kamina continued to motivate him and guide him in their path while piloting his own mech, the Gurren. Together, they were Gurren Lagann, the leaders of the rebel Team Dai-Gurren.

But fate had its own plans. In a battle against one of the Beastmen’s generals, Kamina, the shining beacon of Team Dai-Gurren, lost his life. Without Kamina, Simon was lost. He made it this far because he believed in Kamina, and his attempts to live up to his bro and continue in his place ended in failure, his fighting spirit beginning to falter. This would all change with the appearance of a girl named Nia. Despite being the daughter of the Spiral King that led Simon’s enemies, Nia was kind, a gentle soul. Unaware of most things related to humans, she saw Simon struggling with his attempts to be more like Kamina, and gave him some blunt, but extremely necessary advice:

You don’t have to force yourself to be like others or live constantly relying on someone who is no longer here. You can just be yourself.

It was through those words that Simon finally found his footing once more. His bro may not be here anymore, but Simon the Digger is still here, ready to fight for humanity in his own way, always moving forward like a drill. His spirit reignited, he led Team Dai-Gurren in battle, fighting with all of his might until he defeated the Spiral King with his bare hands. With the beastmen defeated, humanity could prosper, taking back the surface and evolving at a rapid pace, becoming incredibly advanced in just seven years.

But Simon’s battle was not yet over. Once the human population reached one million, a new enemy, the Anti-Spiral, revealed itself. Fearing the ability to evolve and grow that humanity possesses, the Anti-Spiral believed that this never-ending growth would eventually lead to complete universal destruction, and planned to wipe out the entire human race. Nia, the person Simon held the most dear and soon to be wife, was completely taken over and turned into a slave to the Anti-Spiral, revealed to have been created by them to serve as their messenger once the time to wipe out mankind had come. 

And yet, Simon did not give up. He pushed onwards and onwards, piercing through time and space, overcoming any obstacle in his path no matter what, and eventually even taking out the Anti-Spiral itself, swearing that he would continue to protect the universe and to never allow it to be destroyed no matter what. But with the death of the Anti-Spiral, its creations would soon fade away, including Nia herself.

But neither Nia or Simon allowed such a thing to bring down their spirit. Even if she passed away, Nia would always be there in Simon’s heart, just like his bro. Carrying their will while fighting for the future, Simon will continue to move forward, making a world where anyone can dream of one day reaching for those lights in the sky.

Kyle Rayner

“I remember a time when there weren’t any Green Lanterns left. Just me. I carried the torch. That was a dark time. We survived. I don’t know what threats are coming. All I know is they’re going to have their hands full. Because the Green Lantern Corps is back. And that’s not all. I’m back. Let’s get to work.”

Somewhere across the bay of California, a tragedy occured. Coast City was destroyed by Mongul, one of Superman’s greatest enemies, and its resident hero, the Green Lantern went down a dark path after losing his hometown and loved ones. The Green Lantern Corps and the Guardians of the Universe were all murdered in a quest to restore what Hal had lost, but there was one last act of will. As per tradition of the Green Lantern Corps, they needed to find a suitable ring bearer. With his dying breath, Ganthet entrusted the last Green Lantern ring with one man; a struggling graphic art student growing up in Los Angeles, named Kyle Rayner. It felt like mere happenstance, and Ganthet’s reasons for Kyle being chosen were never clear, other than Kyle was in the right place at the right time. 

Understandably so, Kyle had no idea what to do with this newfound power, and he immediately asked his girlfriend Alexandra Dewitt what to do. She supported him in every way, though they would soon realize people may think he is Hal Jordan, and so a costume change was in order. Kyle’s first week as a superhero was a whirlwind of chaos, fighting against Mongul alongside his favorite superhero Superman. Superman was a bit surprised to hear that Kyle was unaware of Hal Jordan or the Green Lantern Corps. Kyle seemed a bit unaware of the burden he would bear as the only Green Lantern alive. But it hit him far worse than he could imagine. Being the only Green Lantern meant many watched his career with great interest, including the government’s top metahuman, Major Force, in hopes of taking the power battery to be studied, and Alexandra was brutally caught in the crossfire and found murdered in a refrigerator. For a new hero, it seemed easy to kill Major Force then and there, and had the authorities not arrived, he may just have done that.

It was clear that Kyle needed help and guidance, and he found that in the form of Alan Scott, the first Green Lantern. It wasn’t long before Kyle knew the truth about his role as the Green Lantern, for he was their last hope. The only one left. Alan told Kyle that there would come a time when they would have to stand against the mighty Parallax himself, and that day came sooner than it should’ve. Parallax sought to reshape the universe with the villain Extant, but Earth’s heroes were able to put a stop to him, but Kyle was nowhere to be found. Turns out he was taken to the old Green Lantern planet Oa, a trap sprung by Hal to absorb more energy from the planet itself. In one final battle, Kyle detonated the last remnants of the Green Lantern Corps, putting a stop to Parallax Hal’s madness. 

Becoming a Green Lantern was not overnight for Kyle Rayner. He went through the death and subsequent return of Hal Jordan, a short-lived time on the Teen Titans and relationship with Donna Troy, and a bickering contest with the Wally West, until they squashed their differences and continued the legacy of the Green Lantern and Flash duo. Kyle’s efforts would make him become a full-time member of the Justice League of America, just as they made a new base on the surface of the moon known as the Watchtower. Kyle felt like the tests to his will and courage never stopped, seeing it as nothing more than a byproduct of his life of putting himself in danger that puts his loved ones in danger as well. He feels like everyone he has lost in his life was someone he loved; Alexandra, Jade, Donna Troy, and of course, his dear mother. 

And his enemies saw this as an exploit, not thinking Kyle was strong enough. Parallax itself visited Kyle in a fearful symmetry, taunting him for those he has lost, telling him he is the reason that they all died. Kyle did what he always did, angrily fighting back and stabbing Parallax with a pencil to the eye, but it makes the entity laugh. Kyle was still trapped in his own mind, blinded by his own rage. He lost his grip, smashing objects in his own mind until he came across an old painting that had a signature on the back of it; Maura Rayner. His mother. Her gift to him, for he was who he is because of her. Kyle realized that in struggles, whether it was as a man or a lantern, there was always someone with him, watching over him. His mother would always be with him, so he would never be lost; he would always have hope. Whatever life threw at him, there was always a light in the sky watching over him. 

Experience & Skill

Images by ishi_yuki.

Simon the Digger

Despite spending a good chunk of his childhood simply digging tunnels, Simon proved to be a natural prodigy when it came to mech combat. Even from the very first moment he piloted the Lagann, he could easily figure out its systems and use it against much greater Gunmen, only really needing some extra motivation from Kamina to finish the job. For a while, Simon merely followed Kamina’s lead, but proved to be much more level-headed and willing to retreat when things got truly dire. Simon was always better at coming up with battle strategies than his straight-forward bro, and after recovering from his funk after Kamina’s death, he proved himself to be an extremely competent leader as well, leading the charge and defeating all of the Spiral King’s Generals before taking the fight to the man himself. An incredibly impressive feat considering Lordgenome was once a Spiral Warrior who had reached heights far beyond anything Simon could possibly do at the time, and with his immortal body, had much greater battle in the millenia of experience under his belt. The fact that the Battle for Teppelin lasted seven days further speaks to Simon’s endurance and resilience. 

Even after a timeskip of seven years of peace, nothing dulled Simon’s combat instincts, as he was still able to face off against the Mugann, the troops of the Anti-Spiral that possessed shielding unlike anything in his world, and still figure out ways to battle and destroy them, though he struggled at first due to acting rashly. Given the Dai-Gurren has access to a recreated Lordgenome as its biocomputer, Simon’s best mechs and ships also benefit from his experience and intelligence. In the war against the Anti-Spiral, in spite of being up against 10^68 enemy ships and the Anti-Spirals having been fighting against Spiral Warriors for several eons, Simon and his allies still managed to come out on top.

Inherited from his Aniki, his mindset of “kicking out logic and doing the impossible” drives his instincts and unorthodox fighting style. Lordgenome himself even describes Spiral lifeforms like Simon as instinctually driven to reach the heavens, defying all logic, which directly reflects in Simon’s bold and irrational breakthroughs. His evolution also fits the Anti-Spiral’s fear of humanity: Dark Nia explicitly comments that the human race’s sudden jump from living in caves to building sci-fi cities within just seven years is a sign of their Spiral nature, advancing exponentially in defiance of natural order. Throughout these battles, Simon’s experience as a digger proved to be incredibly valuable to his battle tactics, as he frequently employs digging as a way to perform sneak attacks or stealthily avoid projectiles with massive range. He’s so skilled in drilling that he can identify the structure and fragility of bedrock at a glance, which lets him improvise terrain-based strategies mid-combat, or even notice where it’s best to drill an enemy. He also uses this knowledge creatively, such as when he burrowed underground during the Anti-Spiral War to bypass swarms of ships and absorb their beam attacks with his drill. 

Simon’s physical capability is also notable outside the cockpit, as he can swim for at least 10 kilometers, showing incredible endurance even without the aid of Spiral Power. He also displayed great hand-to-hand skills as an adult, having trained in martial arts for three years after becoming the Supreme Commander, allowing him to match Viral, an elite trained soldier from the Spiral King’s army, in a brawl. This is all more impressive considering Viral had “obtained a body that can fight without rest” and had spent the timeskip rebelling against the new government. Other Simons, who our Simon absorbed within the Multiversal Labyrinth, are also shown to be skilled in swordfighting. This is an understatement, as Simon absorbed the innumerable selves from the past, the present, and the future, every place, every time, that live in a world of infinite possibilities.

Kyle Rayner

While Kyle spent much of his early life an ordinary man with a talent for art, becoming a hero meant he had to become stronger in more ways than just the physical. By training with other experienced fighters like Batman, Martian Manhunter, and Donna Troy, Kyle’s picked up notable experience in H2H which has allowed him to hold his own even against an assassin without his ring. He’s supposedly wrestled with Guy Gardner in a training gym too. Without using any of his powers, Kyle was able to do gladiatorial combat with a 10 foot monster from the planet Alytt and beat up Sinestro in a straight fist fight with Hal.

He has other no-ring examples where he can fight very well, using the environment to his advantage, fighting armed thugs with no powers and only construct nun-chucks, or maybe no constructs at all, or no Ring in general at all, or even to the point of dueling Nero in an all out naked brawl. He launched a surprise attack on the much more powerful Major Force by stabbing him in the eye with a shard, and later used the same tactic against Parallax, stabbing him in his eye with a pencil. On that note, when he found that Major Force couldn’t die no matter how much Kyle tried, Kyle trapped his decapitated head into a bubble, launching it into space to prevent him from functioning altogether; showcasing his adaptive thinking.

His expertise with constructs is also worth mentioning. His constructs are much more elaborate than those of any other Green Lanterns, often fading into view like a sketch refined into an illustration. He’s able to fight skillfully with constructed weapons like swords and nunchucks, and he’s proven enough of a crack-shot with his aim that he’s even made Roy Harper, Green Arrow’s protege, jealous. This crack-shot aim has helped him use his energy attacks very precisely, like firing precise enough beams into someone’s eye or sniping the top of a building with an energy blast. He’s also maintained a construct for 27 hours straight, with no food or sleep.

Kyle is referred to as a very experienced and adept hero. He has years of experience battling an “infinite” variety of wrongdoers and master criminals, and has saved entire civilizations from the brink of extinction, and saved the universe a few dozen times. Kyle’s taken on a slew of threats, both on the street and cosmic level during his tenure as a hero, like defeating an army of robots, and helping take on Sinestro on multiple occasions, including the instance shown above. He’s fought side by side with the Justice League for over three hours straight against the onslaught of Alex Nero’s fear constructs, participated in a war between Green and Yellow Lanterns after broken truces and laws incited the attack, and army of Darkstars with other Lanterns and Zod.

When the occasion rises to it, Kyle has shown to be a leader as both a Lantern and a member of the Justice League, ordering a tactical plan to take down Oblivion with what heroes remained against the threat. Other tactics have risen like shattering a rocky ground with energy to attack aliens with weapons that can normally pierce constructs. Overall, he has proven himself as a Green Lantern and White Lantern, being able to surprise Guardians with uncountable eons of experience watching over all creation, with his might. 

Before becoming a Lantern, Kyle was considered to be an incredible artist. While he struggled at first, he was recognized for his talents, landing a job at Feast Magazine, a notable art company as one of their writers with his own full comic page strip, and his mind is very active and full of fun trivia and facts. He can even point out many constellations in the sky. This is notable because when you give the most powerful weapon in the universe, a weapon that just so happens to be maximized in efficiency by creativity, to an artist? You can imagine the results. Even Parallax has complimented Kyle’s imagination when he was in possession of his body, referring to it as unreal and endless with him implying even the imagination of Hal Jordan can’t compare.

Equipment

Simon the Digger

Core Drill

The Core Drill is the catalyst for Simon’s entire journey, being found deep underground by him during his digging work. Its primary function is to act as a sort of ignition key for the Lagann head, with it being inserted and spun in order to activate the mecha; a Spiral motion if you will. It notably responds to beings possessing a high aptitude for Spiral Power and can react to Spiral Power from a distance, thus making it the perfect tool to facilitate growth. It can also react to Spiral Power in that it can recall the Lagann back to Simon, with this being shown on more than one occasion.

Its ability to harness Spiral Energy can also make it a weapon itself, rather than just a facilitator of gunmen. Yoko was able to use it like a super charged bullet, and Simon notably could pour his Spiral Energy into it as he stabbed Lordgenome with the Core Drill, blasting a hole through him. In the drama CD, Otoko no-jōken! Gurren Lagann, “Otoko” Simon was even sucked into Simon Avant’s Core Drill after getting stabbed by it, which allowed him to be used as a power source while understanding Simon Avant’s memories from his universe. Another Simon used it to manifest a drill over his bare hand with Spiral Energy.

Lagann

This is where it all started. Simon’s signature mech and the very core of the Gurren Lagann, he discovered this little guy while digging through the mines of the Giha Village. It’s explained that all Gunmen were originally designed for lunar resource development, and later repurposed to combat unknown alien threats. Many Gunmen share a distinct, exaggerated facial form resembling a human homunculus, reflecting the distribution of functions in the human cerebral cortex to represent cognitive brain functions. Unlike the majority of them, Lagann is incredibly short, with humans like Kamina and Yoko being taller than it. It seems like there are other Gunmen similar to it scattered across the Earth, but they are clearly in the minority.

Regardless, its size does not prevent it from being an incredibly powerful weapon, as it is a core machine activated by Spiral Power that responds exclusively to Simon’s biosignature, drawing from his fighting spirit to perform feats that defy logic and push beyond physical limits. These machines are typically piloted through a specialized cockpit that transmits highly encoded information directly to the pilot’s brain via visual symbols, motion, and display. Their interface is believed to foster a mutually expanded awareness between human and machine.

As Simon describes it, piloting the Lagann feels like grabbing the handles and “somehow the movements just stream out of my (his) head”, suggesting the machine operates directly in sync with his will and desires. Even inexperienced pilots have shown the ability to operate powerful machines through sheer willpower and mimicry, showing that these systems are not only highly adaptable but also responsive to the Spiral energy of their users. Besides directly reacting to any shifts in Simon’s Spiral Power, it’s also linked to his emotional state, and even changing its face depending on what emotion Simon’s feeling. This psychic link acts as a double-edged sword: if Simon is depressed, Lagann will barf up spiral energy and be less responsive to his whims during combat, or even cease to function entirely, forcibly ejecting from its combination. The mech also displays a degree of sentience, and it can be summoned seemingly from anywhere, simply through thought.

By turning the ignition of the Core Drill, Simon can imbue it with his Spiral Power and form massive drills on Lagann’s head and arms, being able to pierce through gigantic Gunmen with ease, and it can also shift its entire lower body into a drill so that it can be tossed as a projectile by other mechs. Lagann’s drills are so powerful that they can easily pierce special anti-drilling floors that Simon seems to have trouble doing by himself. The Lagann’s legs can shift into springs, allowing it to jump across large distances and reach great heights or break falls, has boosters that allow it to soar and with an extra push from the Core Drill, its shoulders can sprout heating tentacles, has one-way, inherent shutters that can shield people inside Lagann, fight in space and has physical ammunition in case Spiral Power is depleted. Behind the scenes in Dai-Gurren, Leeron wirelessly monitors the systems and vitals of both the Gurren and the Lagann from his computer. He also keeps modifying the mechs, like giving them audio and video comms, and some undescribed upgrades in post-timeskip. Other Gunmen can use electrical, paralyzing bullets and bypass the energy field of the Anti-Spiral ships and contain its blast within the field, so it’s possible that Lagann has access to this type of technology.

That being said, all of these pale in comparison to the Lagann’s most powerful ability: the capacity to drill into and take control of other Gunmen systems. The Lagann operates at a higher level than standard units, enabling it to forcibly integrate parts, or even entire mechas, into itself. This allows it not only to commandeer and combine with other Gunmen, but also to imbue these fusion with Spiral Energy, consciously boosting the inherent potential within these machines, greatly enhancing their power. The control drill that extends from the Lagann reorganizes the diverse capabilities of the absorbed Gunmen, dynamically adapting their functions to suit unforeseen circumstances. This ability is used several times, but it’s primarily used to combine with…

Gurren

Originally an enemy machine known as Gunzar: a large, red-faced unit wielding twin blade-like weapons, typically reserved for captain-class enemies, it was ultimately hijacked by Kamina during an assault on Littner Village. Given the mech was severely damaged, it ended up being salvaged and radically overhauled by Leeron, who repurposed parts from three destroyed enemy Gunmen. Kamina named the restored machine “Gurren”, melting down the original weapons to forge massive detachable sunglasses styled after his own, which can be used and duplicated as blades. The mech also received later modifications such as audiovisual communication systems and unspecified upgrades in post-timeskip.

Despite lacking a Spiral-powered core of its own, Gurren proved a powerful standalone fighter and later served as the lower half of the combined Gurren Lagann (check Forms). Its cockpit saw several pilots: Kamina, Rossiu, Yoko, Kinon, and eventually Viral. The combined Gurren Lagann can also be further combined with…

Arc-Gurren

Hidden deep beneath the Earth’s surface by Lordgenome as a last resort from his days as a Spiral Warrior, it was found by Rossiu Adai and named as the Arc-Gurren. Originally part of the Spiral King’s arsenal, this 5 kilometer-long, Dai-Gun-class vessel rivaled even the largest Gunmen in size and was designed for long periods of interstellar travel. When catastrophe loomed with Anti-Spiral’s attack, the ship was repurposed as an arc (hence the name) for both animals and humans to flee from Earth.

Fueled by Spiral Power, the Arc-Gurren draws its energy through a unique interface: a cloned bio-computer crafted from Lordgenome’s cells, housing a data-based replica of his knowledge but stripped of his former identity. This synthetic brain, encased within a preserved head, functions as the core engine controller, channeling Spiral Energy to fuel the ship, but it comes with a catch: the ship only responds to Lordgenome’s bio-signature. It’s not also without its flaws: while the Arc-Gurren can take sustained voltage directed at it for a time, it’s possible for it to short out and knock out Lordgenome.

Disruptions to its energy flow can also temporarily disable the biocomputer, weakening when morale drops but surging when hope is reignited, as enough Spiral Power can reactivate Lordgenome. Biocomputer Lordgenome later sends himself out to hack the enemy system and decrypt the Cathedral Lazengann’s inner workings through his analysis to find a point where Simon can take it over. When Gurren Lagann and Arc-Gurren are combined, they merge into the powerful Arc-Gurren Lagann (check Forms), which can also be further combined with…

Super Galaxy Dai Gurren

Originally called Cathedral Terra, it was renamed by Simon as the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren. Many years earlier, during the First Anti-Spiral War, Lordgenome used it as the flagship of his army. After the Beastmen were defeated with Lordgenome going mad, the ship was transformed by the Anti-Spiral into the moon, as a form of space watchtower to report spiral activity on Earth, as means to prevent the theoretical apocalyptic event known as the Spiral-Nemesis.

As the Second Anti-Spiral War progressed, Simon and Viral managed to defeat and reclaim the moon-shaped watchtower for the Spiral people. This task was tricky, given that if they destroyed the ship’s control system by harming Nia, integration would have become impossible. After Simon integrates with it, the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren halts and returns to its position in the moon’s orbit, still carrying all the gravitational properties that come with being the moon itself. Once the real moon is restored, the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren could stop acting as the moon and leave without affecting Earth.

Linked to the same Lordgenome biocomputer from Arc-Gurren, it is one of the most important items in the Dai Gurren arsenal. The ship can traverse to other worlds and universes, something stupidly helpful to turn the tides at the war. Due to its enormous size, the Dai-Gurren members need to use teleportation to be able to go across the ship. It is also capable of launching Spiral drills tethered by energy lines, acting as dimensional anchors that penetrate the imaginary space created by the Anti-Spirals, allowing the Spiral forces to retrieve the real stolen moon from the pocket dimension where it had been hidden.

Additionally, it has a backup power source in case of emergencies if Spiral Power is unusable or runs out. The ship is also able to use the Spiral ability known as the Spiral Universe Recognition Transformation System (check Abilities). From the moon’s orbit, the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren’s spiral systems activate from Simon’s determination and search for Rossiu, in a bid to save his life back down on Earth. It was also used as a “Spiral scan” that can scan the multiverse, even finding objects that were observed once in a pocket universe between the 10th and 11th dimensions.

In its arsenal, it goes from beam weapons, shields, Super Spiral Missiles empowered by Simon’s Spiral Power that can breach energy fields and the ability to hold and deploy hundreds of mechas, including units the same size as Arc-Gurren Lagann (check Forms), all of which can be piloted independently. In battle, it can also sense and reveal invisible or camouflaged enemies using the ship’s advanced gravity-sensing capabilities. The combined previous mechs/ships and Cathedral Terra form the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann (check Forms).

Kyle Rayner

Green Lantern Power Ring

Kyle’s primary weapon and the symbol of the Green Lantern Corps, the Power Ring is said to be perhaps the most powerful weapon in the entire universe, worn by the most fearless fighters who have ever lived. Almost like taking natural laws to their fullest extent and reinforcing them with an active force of will, the user is able to translate their thoughts to power and create any light construct with the Power Ring; in general it is only limited by the user’s own imagination and willpower, allowing them to breathe, fly, and talk in space.

Protective aura and flight are introductory functions of the Rings. Each bearer’s individual willpower makes their use of the Ring unique, alongside their experiences, which define the hard-light constructs. What flows through the power ring isn’t just light, it collects raw emotional willpower from every living being in the universe and converts them to energy. Gifted to him by Ganthet, Kyle’s ring is inherently unique in that it’s linked to his genetic structure. This makes it so that it works only for his own artistic imagination. And boy does he have one! From wacky choices like giant pinball machines and pirate ships, strategic plays like electric chairs and Octopi to slow down foes, and sheer colossal figures of Thor himself and a certain kind of mecha, our resident Lantern has a massive variety with what he can create. 

Creation isn’t all it can do though. It can perform telekinesis, restore technological power sources, and boost signals for communication. Not to mention subconsciously expel his negative emotions, absorb plasma energy, and track down one’s location, even if they are at the edge of the universe. Even when yellow energy was considered a weakness for Green Lanterns, Kyle’s Ring was still able to counteract it. It also lacks a normal 24 hour limit and can burn itself into Kyle’s flesh. He can also make new Green Lantern rings and batteries, and has shown to do it on a whim. It has led one to wonder what exactly this thing can’t do. Well, it may not be the pinnacle of the Ring’s potential, as it has been noted by Kyle himself there are some things it can’t do in comparison to Hal Jordan’s Ring, like wipe memories. That being said, he was still able to “power boost” Hal’s own power ring to wipe him and Parallax’s memories. After coming into contact with the other seven emotions, Kyle’s ring was unable to be controlled by the Guardians of the Universe, leaving a distortion field not even Ganthet could break.

Green Lantern Rings can be revoked from its owner as punishment, likely willingly given up. As a request, the Corps allows this ring to receive a final command to be given up and be willed to fly to find a sentient replacement. Once, Kyle was unable to retrieve his stolen ring until Zod allowed him to have it back.

Misc Ring Functions

If you couldn’t tell already, the Power Ring is one of the most versatile weapons in the DC universe. As such the Power Ring has demonstrated numerous functions that are either extremely situational or sporadically throughout its history, which will be all factored here:

• Communication: Surprisingly, the Power Ring is capable of simple speech. Kyle’s ring can even communicate with other Green Lanterns from sectors away. By channeling other emotions, Kyle’s ring has shown the ability to communicate with the rings of other Corps. Specific energies can interfere with and sever the Ring’s comms line. The Ring can even give orders/warnings to Kyle. 
• Universal Translator: The ring can translate any alien language in the universe to help with diplomatic missions across the cosmos. It can translate languages not even the Watchtower has access to
• Galactic Encyclopedia: Gives Kyle information on Captain Comet such as his origins and occupations. Gives Kyle history on the planet Ancar and its surroundings, history, and dominant species. Also gives Kyle the entire history of Nth Metal. Ring can give Kyle information on a person’s real name, family relations, and occupations. Kyle’s ring presumably gives him all the known knowledge, records, and history of the planet Tendrax. Zod says that Kyle’s Green Ring data has a map of the universe, populations of worlds, and weapon specifications for every known military.
• Environmental Playback: Upon request, the ring can replay scenarios that have happened based on data it has collected, appearing in the full colors of how it occurred, though the user cannot alter the events in the playback. 
• Hologram Projection: He can project holograms of ongoing events, or even play out scenarios that have happened in the past as holograms to illustrate something. Kyle’s holograms can appear to people from light-years away, and appear as incredibly realistic in order to trick foes into thinking it is the real Kyle.
• Vital Readings: Kyle’s medical condition is stabilized via the ring. The ring can detect when somebody is lying based on fluctuations in the pulse. Detected Jade’s vital signs and confirmed her dead due to no pulse.
• Thought Relay: Can read an entire page of a book by having the ring feed the images of the text to his brain. The ring can even communicate visions of the future to Kyle. 
• Scanning: Kyle’s ring can scan people to determine their biology, which has allowed him to identify human and alien DNA. He can also scan for signs of life or survivors and x-rays. Hal’s ring in particular can identify a dead body that’s been reduced to a skeleton and forensically determine what killed him. The ring can even scan if there’s a distortion in the space-time continuum or if data exist or not for certain energy waveforms.  The ring can tell if electro-magnetic activity is decreasing and if the gravity wave is subsiding. Was able to analyze high technology like Scarabs and can provide information about them, even information about different races in the universe and what they’re currently up to. It can also scan how many enemies are within an area at once.
• Security Protocol: The ring is programmed to be unusable if stolen or taken from the wearer. Kyle, thanks to a technorganic virus, can remotely control the ring with his mind like a TV antenna, causing the ring to malfunction when the Manhunters try to use it, summoning it right back to him. After giving up the power of Ion, Kyle programmed the ring to never run out of power and to not work for anyone but himself.
• Emergency Beacon: Green Lanterns in distress can use an emergency beacon to make their location known to other Green Lanterns at a Corps-wide level. 
• Homing Beacon: A homing beacon is used to lead one Green Lantern to another and signal their location. When under the threat of Oblivion, Kyle, with no other Lanterns to rely on, used his ring to manifest sentient, living constructs based on his own original characters. It was a wild display of just how powerful his imagination really is, turning his ideas into real allies, even ones inspired by different time periods and worlds.
• Protection: The Ring has an aura that can protect survivors. 

Green Lantern Power Battery

Just like all members of the Green Lantern Corps, Kyle has his own personal Power Battery, with its purpose being to recharge one’s Green Lantern Power Ring back to 100% full capacity. Power Batteries serve as a channel into the energy of the central Power Battery on Oa. Just making physical contact with the power battery is more than enough to recharge his ring. And Kyle can fully recharge it to full capacity, no matter how much of its charge had been wasted beforehand, even healing any wounds dealt to him in battle. When he’s not carrying it around, he can store it within a spatial rift for safe keepings and take it out whenever he needs to. Batteries can be rendered invisible by the user, as well as tethered to a Power Ring, allowing Kyle to bring his battery to him anywhere in his sector as long as the power level is above 1. Its appearance is also malleable and can be altered at will. It does have one other use, being able to scan energy wavelengths and infrared.

Costume

Kyle has seen more than one look over his history as an interstellar peacekeeper, having donned multiple tight variations of the Green Lantern outfit, and of course his White Lantern suit. One small attribute of Kyle’s Green Lantern outfit is it still retains some power, even in the event of Kyle’s ring being destroyed. Though they tend to have different design choices, one thing they all share is a signature mask. Kyle’s mask can scan an area in a three mile radius to find a safe place to take Fatality and fight her; it can find clear trajectories and make sure there’s no obstructions. It can also pick up heat signatures and go infrared. While in hot pursuit, the Lantern badge will flash like a siren. He’s also an Indiana Jones fan.

Power Battery Fragment

While not super combat applicable, Kyle does have a fragment of his own Power Battery kept just in case, able to give a duplicate battery to others so they can charge their own ring’s battery with it like they would a normal one.

White Lantern Power Ring

After the Guardian of the Universe Sayd used her power to grant rings of every Corps to Kyle, his green power ring absorbed their emotional energy, allowing Kyle to tap into the emotions of every type of power ring there are. After training with the Corps leaders of every color of the emotional spectrum, Kyle’s ring was fully transformed into a White Power Ring. If the ring is removed from Kyle, it will automatically come back to him, whether it’s a conscious decision or not due to finding Kyle as the only suitable host, as other Lanterns such as Sinestro and Simon Baz were deemed unsuitable by the ring, all likely due to Kyle’s connection to the Emotional Spectrum. One of the unique powers of the White Lantern Power Ring is that of the white light. This white light is a combination that can not be replicated, even with the combination of all colors of the spectrum. 

Ring Polisher

Given to him by Superman for Christmas! Gotta have some ring maintenance.

Abilities

Simon the Digger

Spiral Power

Lifeforms carry a “helical” DNA configuration, alluding to the twisting, double-helix structure, much like the spiraling arms of galaxies. This, in essence, is the “the power of evolution” – Spiral Power [Fighting Spirit ; Spiral Energy]. Galaxies are amplified to “infinite levels” by Spiral Power, which magnifies everything. It is the very bedrock upon which this universe is built, “underpinning” everything. Drawn from these Spiral Galaxies, Spiral Power weaves the delicate thread that binds all living beings and the very fabric of the universe – within the heart of a single of these life-forms lies the potential to channel power of the infinite universe. 

To harness this power, one must attune themselves to the very heartbeat of existence – synchronizing with galaxies, intertwining with life itself through the delicate dance of electrical signals, born from the core of the Spiral Lifeform’s nervous center, flow outward, guided not by mere force, but by the sheer strength of willpower. Within this infinite power source, the universe expands infinitely through “ascending spiral energy”. It is the human form that most vividly embodies the raw and untamed force of the Spiral. Amplified even by the existence of mammary glands. Other races [Beastmen] – born of the Spiral King’s unnatural cloning machinations – are devoid of the very essence that fuels the Spiral, and are unable to bring new life into the world. Despite this, against all odds, one of their own – Viral – seemingly gained Spiral Power; manifesting his own Super Spiral Space in the form of Tengen Toppa Enki-Durga. The key to this is evolution. 

Born from the genetic diversity of gametogenesis, it reflects the natural world; where true progress unfolds not through static forms, but through the adaptability of life – those organisms that can bend and evolve in response to their surroundings are the ones who endure, passing their resilience to future generations. It is within this constant flux, this ever-ascending cycle of adaptation, that the “upwardly-mobile” Power of the Spiral finds its true expression. 

Spiral Power is the very force that propels life forward – the same energy that drives creatures with a double helix genetic code to evolve – awakening the hidden potential within every one of Simon’s mechas and vehicles. Evolving beyond the person they were a minute before  [Amidst integrating with an ever-expanding branching Multiverse], propelled by an unyielding human spirit – limitless, ever-reaching, and ever-growing. A fundamental law of the universe. A law that drives one’s soul to bridge the divide between the fictional and the real, urging them to transcend the very boundaries of dimensions themselves. 

Always instinctually striving to reach the heavens even in the face of reason; such is the way that humanity, and other Spiral life-forms, push forward. It is that hope a person holds within and their place in evolution that calls forth Spiral Power. Humanity’s transformation from cavern-dwelling enclaves to ultramodern, sky-piercing cities in the span of merely seven years is an evolution unnervingly abrupt – an anomaly born from the innate drive of Spiral lifeforms. Lordgenome theorized that Boota experienced a rare evolutionary aberration – an adaptive mutation catalyzed by prolonged exposure to Simon’s overwhelming Spiral Power – granting the creature the ability to emanate Spiral Energy himself. 

Over the course of seven years, Boota amassed a vast reservoir of Spiral Energy, a stockpile so potent it arrested the passage of time within his own cells, suspending aging entirely while priming him for an explosive surge of power. Being able to even convert his individual growth energy into species evolution energy thanks to Lordgenome’s Spiral Power, undergoing a humanoid metamorphosis. Near the finale, “infinite power flowed” from Team Gurren’s bodies, referring to Spiral Power, to form the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann; as such, Simon has massive amounts of Spiral Energy.

Yet, this unrelenting force, so raw and untamed, sparks the Spiral Nemesis – a violent surge of Spiral Power birthing a galaxy of unimaginable scale from the host’s body. This singular galaxy, like a fractal of creation, will spawn an uncountable multitude, each as unique as the lifeforms that birthed them. And as these mega-galaxy clusters collide and devour one another in an endless cycle, they will spiral toward a singular, crushing fate: the birth of a black hole that threatens to obliterate the universe, plunging the universe back into the primordial void from which it came – reducing all of time & space into a dimensionless point.

The untamed force of Spiral Energy can be repurposed for an array of diverse & dynamic applications: By harnessing it’s unrelenting surge of Fighting Spirit, Gurren Lagann can unleash explosive shockwaves of Spiral Power, radiating outward in powerful AOE [Area-Of-Effect] bursts. Gurren Lagann’s fists can morph into devastating drills – channeling Spiral Energy that erupts in piercing beams upon impact, or launching massive bursts of energy from them. These drills and beams can be unleashed, spiraling through the air in colossal, arching pillars of raw power. United with a coalition of mechas, Gurren Lagann can fire massive energy beams, amplified by Yoko’s mecha, and slice through vast distances with a razor-sharp whip-sword – tearing apart the very bonds that connect the mechas, de-integrating them. Imbue itself with crackling surges of electricity, empower Super Spiral Missiles through one’s own Spiral Power, be channeled into the ground and set off manually, or discharged through the hands – working as a Core Drill to activate a Spiral Gauge Activation System. 

It also has the capacity to infuse both individuals and mechas with its formidable energy: Certain users are able to freely manifest, morph, shape and dissipate Spiral Power, without the aid of a Core Drill or mecha – transcending physical limits, by fortifying their physical bodies with the the very Spiral Power that courses through their veins. When more power is demanded, they effortlessly summon the force necessary to overpower rival mechas and propel themselves with astonishing speed. Growing their strengths through Spiral Power. Adversity only makes them stronger. But sapping Spiral Power from a mecha directly takes away from the pilot’s strength, despite this, even absorption can be outpaced – drawing from the limitless, unbreakable, unyielding will of humanity to refill themselves. One’s fighting spirit can be so wide-reaching to completely bend an opposing mecha to their will – overriding it even if it rejects the idea of the new user at its helm. 

Associated Abilities

Among the miscellaneous & esoteric abilities interlaced within Spiral Power, one may unearth:

• The Spiral Universe Recognition Transformation System: By concentrating their thoughts on a singular individual, Team Dai-Gurren can transcend physical limits and materialize at the precise location of their chosen target – the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren’s spiral systems activated from Simon’s determination; searching for Rossiu to save his life back down on Earth. Team Dai-Gurren utilized this ability once more in the heart of the Multiverse Labyrinth to reunite their scattered allies and breach the stronghold of the Anti-Spiral’s motherland.
  • Spiral Radar: Making use of a “Spiral Scan”, the entire Multiverse can be examined. Probing objects in all dimensions and space-time; discovering even the most elusive objects – those glimpsed but a single time within a transient pocket universe suspended between the 10th and 11th dimensions.
• Hyper Galaxy Belt: Adjusting gravitational-fields to draw galaxies [maybe universes] into the vicinity of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann’s pull.
• Space-Time Shattering Burst Spinning Punch: A punch that tears open the delicate veil of reality – sending Mugann into the farthest reaches of the space-time continuum.
• Neutralization and Nullification: Passively annul certain attacks, negate them, and reflect them onto the opponent.
• Materialization: Within the Super Spiral Space, thought is given form – materializing Spiral Energy and anything the user imagines through it. In the Otoko no Jouken setting, Spiral Energy was used to give life to and create a whole universe from Otoko Simon’s manuscripts.
• Regeneration Negation: Simon was able to drill a hole into the Anti-Spiral – disrupting its regenerative cascade – even though it could effortlessly reconstitute its entire abstract thought-body from total obliteration.
• Non-Physical Interaction & Enhanced Senses: Grants Team Dai-Gurren the capacity to perceive and engage with the Anti-Spiral [an invisible-entity with no physical form], and control the emotion-forged Gunmen constructs.
• Existence Erasure [Hyperbole]: Simon proclaims in the prologue that he will ‘wring his foes from existence using the very fabric of spacetime,’ whereas the original Japanese version merely has him declare his intent to ‘twist them out of space-time’.

Fighting Spirit & Limits

This “Fighting Spirit” resides within nearly every human, even without conscious effort, waiting to be awakened. And when it does, it allows one to harness the Spiral Energy of others to affect their mechas from vast distances: With the strength drawn from his friends’ spirits, Gurren Lagann is able to wield their Spiral Power into its colossal Giga Drill Breaker. Lordgenome can create a mecha with an identical reading to Gurren Lagann by amplifying it with his own Spiral Power and that of six other women. Simon can summon the Lagann from the very core of his thoughts, and even in the confines of a prison cell. Guame’s warship unleashes a cataclysmic Spiral Power tornado, a relentless storm of swirling destruction that not only blocks their approach but shatters their communication lines. Only issue being that, as shown with the Arc-Gurren, Spiral output can falter as the collective morale of its crew dips – each soul aboard tethered to the ebb and flow of their shared will; with its energy beginning to waver. 

A persistent vulnerability, this: the human heart – when the user’s mental state is shaken, when doubt clouds their mind, distractions take root or they are hungry, their Spiral Power begins to unravel – Simon’s distraction over Kamina and Yoko’s kiss distracted him and made it difficult to focus, which directly affects his Lagann’s fighting spirit as he was attempting to have it take over the Dai-Gunzan. However, in the face of overwhelming grief, even the faintest spark of fighting spirit can ignite something monumental – Upon seeing Kamina fatally wounded, Simon’s sorrow bursted forth in an overwhelming surge of energy so intense that it triggers a nearby volcano to erupt in response. But even this power comes at a cost – as Simon’s Lagann powered down, the Dai-Gunzan fell under the influence of this raw, unchained force; going berserk, uncontrollable, and veering toward the erupting volcano. In a twisted reflection of Simon’s own anguish, the giant mecha seemed to lack the will to live.

For, deep within the Spiral Energy, it is not simply a force of will. It is born from the deepest recesses of the user’s emotions and mental state: the power of the Spiral is intimately linked to Simon’s state of mind.

When his will was strong; the Lagann would respond, the Core Drill activated through passion, Lagann has been fueled through rage; channeling Spiral Power through it, the hope & faith of others empowered him, grief caused such a surge in intense emotions within him that rapidly increased the rate of Spiral Power production, et cetera. His memories and newfound self-identity now boost his mental-state. Leeron, ever insightful, affirmed that it wasn’t just skill or strength that powered the mecha, but their “true bonds” – invoking more fighting spirit even through something as simple as a stylish combination. A power that comes from concentration. The morale of those aboard the Arc-Gurren, their belief in Simon, revitalized their Spiral lost Power, suggesting that the energy of the mechas could be amplified by the collective spirit of a united crew. Enough to imbue all of Team Dai-Gurren with the same power as Simon.

Nevertheless, everything has its limits, and Spiral Energy is no exception. Overtaxing on Spiral Energy can tire out the user; up to the point where damage inflicted onto their constructs will be reflected upon the pilot. Ships can have their Spiral Power sensed, and even weakened. Mechas can be tracked & identified through similar patterns or signatures, and their Spiral Energy can be directly siphoned into mass. Sealing their willpower within reverberating shockwaves – disrupting the synchronization of the Spiral lifeforms with Spiral Power can also dampen them, but they presumably deal with it somehow.

Force Fields

Spiral Energy can be converted into defensive barriers as seen above, which can be used to block all sorts of attacks. More notably though, Gurren Lagann has a secondary invisible energy shield coated around itself to boost its durability and survivability. We’ve seen this done with other mecha utilized by characters like Lordgenome or General Guame, as well as the Anti-Spiral’s ships using similar traditional forcefields that notably cover them from all angles. Similar shields to the Anti-Spiral are also seen with the Arc-Gurren, confirming that Gurren Lagann should be capable of similar defenses. The usage of invisible full body energy shields is still present in the final act of the series, with Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann being able to casually negate the force and knockback of literal planets being tossed at it. It should be noted however that Gurren Lagann’s force fields are not a flawless defense, as enemies can spawn attacks behind or into shields to circumvent them.

Energy Absorption

By coming into contact with different energy sources, Simon can absorb them to empower Gurren Lagann by converting the energy to Spiral Energy. To give examples, Simon can absorb energy beams to power up, directly grab energy attacks with its hands to both absorb and nullify them, and absorb energy attacks and redirect them with his drills (as well as continuously build up enemy attacks with his drill to gather more and more power), whether they be hand drills or drills on the rest of Gurren Lagann’s body. To clarify, the energy can be normal or Spiral Energy, Simon can absorb it regardless. We’ve also seen similar energy drawing methods from the Anti-Spiral.

Notably, Simon’s energy absorption can escalate to outright esoteric levels. He can absorb a literal cosmic ocean’s worth of Spiral Energy, and can even do absurdly incomprehensible things like absorb the power of all of his infinite alternative multiversal copies, which he could view as pillars of light, within the Anti-Spiral’s Multiversal Labyrinth, innumerable selves from the past, the present, and the future (and yes, even Otoko), integrating them as a drill to escape. Higher dimensional level attacks like the Big Bang Storm were even able to be absorbed. Simon Avant could use his Core Drill to absorb other Spiral Energy users whole and seal them within it to draw on their Spiral Energy and later transmuted Gurren Lagann into light and absorb it for more Spiral Energy

Regeneration

Driven by “Fighting Spirit”, Gurren Lagann can mend nearly any injury – Legs reformed, arms surged back to life, and its face restored with radiant intensity. Lagann serves as the vital conduit through which Spiral Power channels its restorative might; turning energy into physical matter to heal damage. When united with Gurren, it doesn’t merely repair – it reshapes. Mass is conjured from will itself, augmenting the mecha’s scale and structure, and making it watertight.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann manifests within itself the Super Spiral Space – forged from consciousness, where thought itself takes form and becomes reality. Here, they can reform their entire body with their thoughts; even when fully obliterated by the Infinity Big Bang Storm, undergoing quantum breakdown down to the last strand of DNA. All of the thoughts of the Super Galaxy Brigade in the Multiverse broke through the walls and appeared in the form of drills. The Anti-Spiral even reconstituted its abstract, non-corporeal form after Boota had utterly annihilated it, and Otoko Simon restored space itself. An act of regeneration of such magnitude, it boards on mythic bravado.

More impressively, the Anti-Spiral could decide the Visaka-Class’ existence by manipulating death and birth, conjuring them from the void and casting them back into nonbeing. An erasure extending to the very concept of mammary glands (lol). Through this profound manipulation of form and existential erasure, the Anti-Spiral was able to erase and assimilate the very informational essence of Nia’s being; causing her existence to begin to cease and be erased.

Information being defined as “what is conveyed or represented by a particular arrangement or sequence of things”, the meaning expressed by a being’s existence would already be inherently abstract beyond what any physical or spiritual substance could account for. Despite this, Nia kept reforming her body; creating “false information” to sustain her body – regenerating her limbs, her stomach, her breasts, her neck, and her face. Spontaneously remaking her corporeal form in an instant, an effortless reassembly of self.

Even when she was fated to vanish into oblivion, her existence meant to be expunged in the wake of the Anti-Spiral’s annihilation… her “Fighting Spirit” allowed her to hold on for an entire month – with Simon being capable of resurrecting her anytime he wants.

Weapon Creation

Spiral Energy can be used to manifest various weapons and tools out of thin air. Whether it be a drill wielded by Lagann, a pair of drills wielded by Gurren Lagann, a drill at the bottom of the head for a pointy reverse headbutt, a flurry of homing drill missiles, a set of drills left around to be activated at a distance for a pit trap, a large drill shield to block enemy attacks, form omnidirectional absorbing shields, a grappling hook like palm drill, an array of drills grown in different spots across the body for a surprise defense or for an AOE super attack, or maybe even a drill wielded by Simon himself MADE OF HIS OWN BLOOD; there is no limit to the incredible and unfathomable creativity of Simon’s vast weapon creation.

Oh, and I guess weapons like sniper rifles and swords can also be formed too, along with unorthodox tools like sunglasses projectiles, they’re cool too I guess. Additionally, Simon’s created weapons can be as big as he wants, as seen with super moves or cosmic fights later in the series. Perhaps his most distinct and powerful creation however would be the…

Giga Drill Break

Kamina’s move that was later adopted by Simon as his signature attack, the Dai-Gurren leader coalesces a large amount of Spiral Energy into an enormous drill which he then charges forward with to land a big hit. This is Simon’s iconic finishing move, materialized and maintained by Simon’s Spiral Energy, and is so strong that it can easily and instantly carve holes through foes previously comparable to Gurren Lagann.

Simon also developed a spin on the technique called Giga Drill Maximum, where he creates an enormous amount of drills around his current mech as an omnidirectional shield that can block and absorb attacks to create a huge explosion. In the drama CD, Otoko no-jōken! Gurren Lagann, the impact of a similar massive drill attack from Kamina, Otoko Simon’s dad, and Viral’s mecha ended up sealing Simon Avant back into his escaped, 2D manga universe.

Space-Time Warping

By spiraling through the limits of space and time itself, Spiral Energy can be used to warp space and time, would it be by Gurren Lagann or capable enough individuals. This ability was seen prior in the series as Lordgenome’s four generals seemingly teleported away from meetings (also in the manga), but its information and usability as an ability was expanded upon Simon’s discovery of the power. Portals can be opened up that reach from anywhere across the universe, to even alternate and higher spatial dimensions. Lordgenome notably explains how he developed a “Spiral Realm Perceptual Teleportation System”, which allows Gurren Lagann to teleport through a portal, travel through a dimension, and meet the person he was thinking about immediately despite only having a vague understanding of where he might be;  “with a fixed set of perceptual dimensional coordinates, instantaneous teleportation is possible”. That is how the “Spiral Realm Perceptual Teleportation System” works.

Leeron says that this is due to Spiral Power, where if you think of someone you’ve seen, you can warp to them instantaneously. Even in a pocket universe, an object that has been observed at one time can be picked up on a Spiral scan”. This is likely how Simon teleported to Rossiu, who says this may be related to “the quantum universe theory”. This is how Simon and co. were able to reach the Anti-Spiral’s hidden pocket universe, despite it being hidden between higher spatial dimensions, and is likely how Simon was able to travel across the multiversal labyrinth to find the members of Dai-Gurren. 

Obviously there’s a lot of complex terminology and logic here, but the simple idea is Gurren Lagann can warp to anywhere in existence by having Simon output a large amount of Spiral Energy as long as he has an idea of where he wants to go, or who he wants to go to. However, fake projections of characters he’s thinking about can interfere with the Perceptual Teleportation System and trick it into warping to the fake bodies. Additionally, it’s implied that Nia’s Anti-Spiral body at the time (which for a bonus fact, can also warp by twisting space and time) was unable to be detected, only her ring (notably there was a Fake Nia at one point that interfered with the system due to being made to misidentify her, after detection, via quantum fluctuations).

Even the boundaries of time aren’t safe from being drilled open, as Gurren Lagann can send attacks through every single point in time itself to attack enemies in both the past, present, and future to ensure damage in a time range with Probability Altering Missiles, regardless of probability or the nature of the enemy’s existence across time or probability space. They can even narrow down time ranges where enemies might be hiding down to planck time coefficients, determining probability changes to land bullseyes no matter what, which is how they countered the Random Schrödinger Warp by an Anti-Spiral ship and forced it back to the present. 

Sometimes space-time rifts happen accidentally, like in the series’ climax where Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and the Anti-Spiral accidentally activated a teleportation system, leading to a fold in spacetime leading to Earth. Or when Super Tengen Toppa’s final clash shook the universe while transcending time and space. Heck, one time, Gurren Lagann hit something so hard it got sent through a hole in space itself, launching the poor ship to the end of the space-time continuum… how the fuck? Or well when the fuck, but also how, and why, and… whatever don’t question it- OH AND OF COURSE THAT SPECIFIC PUNCH ALSO CAN PUNCH PEOPLE INTO OTHER DIMENSIONS WHAT THE FUCK.

Probability Altering Missiles

Given the chance that Gurren Lagann’s Spiral Energy runs into a wall it cannot break through, Spiral Energy can be used to twist said chance in its favor. By twisting probability itself, Simon can make what did not happen what actually happened. Specifically, Team Dai-Gurren used probability alteration to attack the Anti-Spiral with Probability Altering Missiles to damage the Anti-Spiral in spite of their attacks being unable to damage them normally due to the Anti-Spiral’s durability.

This is corroborated by the fact that an Ashtanga used those same missiles to harm the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann despite having been proven to be far weaker and outclassed through the mecha tanking shots from them and one-shotting other Ashtanga ships. To explain, Probability Altering Missiles will damage the target no matter what and guarantee bullseyes. Even if the attack is seemingly dodged, blocked, or negated completely, the damage the attack would’ve done is still transferred to the target.

Voice Power

Within the world of the Otoko no Jouken audio drama, a unique subset of Spiral Energy is introduced called “Voice Power” in the story. It exists in two variations: “Salivary Gland Power” as used by Simon Avant and Lordgenome, and “Convincing Power” as used by Team Dai-Gurren. This power stems from the fact that the characters within the drama had essentially realized they were living inside of a CD disk (see Before the Verdicts) and thus could manipulate the medium to their benefit. In a setting where words equal reality, speaking something will bring it into existence. Voices possess souls behind them and “the cry of the soul becomes material”, convincing the world by force “without giving it a chance to say yes or no”. With it, the cast of the audio drama are able to do some crazy things such as:

• Avant uses Salivary Gland Power to transcend the manuscript he comes from and cross dimensions, planning to eventually surpass the CD they are all contained in.
• Convincing power is used to detect or cause dimensional interference, warp time and space, create worlds, and grow rapidly in power, and even cut the very CD disc itself and then restore it.
• Convincing Power is used by Dai-Gurren to create their mechs and create countless drills for the “Eternal Drill Break”, shaking the very CD itself.
• Avant is sealed back into his dimension on impact.

Anti-Spiral Abilities

While displaying many abilities that Simon himself never utilized in combat, the Anti-Spiral was originally one of the Spiral Races, and Simon and his team were capable of replicating their Probability Altering Missiles after witnessing them once, meaning that they could, in theory, replicate any of the Anti-Spiral’s powers. Simon went so far as to take in the Anti-Spiral’s will – assimilating his power. Though, of course, it’s unlikely for him to use these in battle; we are still listing them as things he could be capable of doing hypothetically, and these abilities will not have as much consideration in the debate as Simon’s traditional powers.

• Mind Manipulation: The Anti-Spiral is capable of planting visions of the Spiral Nemesis in the mind of spiral beings. 
• Anti-Spiral Messenger: In order to keep the Spiral Races in check, the Anti-Spiral creates a messenger, a virtual existence spliced into the genes of a member of the Spiral Race that can manifest as a second personality that completely overtakes the original once the requirements for their awakening are met. Dark Nia showcased abilities such as the complete control of the electric current in her body, and is made out of energy blocks that generate gigantic explosions if she is fatally injured.
• Tech Manipulation: When Nia became the messenger of the Anti-Spiral, the technology used by the government was forcibly shut off and Dark Nia could broadcast her message explaining the Anti-Spiral’s plan across all tv stations in the world.
• Thought Body Creation: The Anti-Spiral manifests itself through a thought body holding the collective consciousness of their entire race, which lacks any sort of physical form and is invisible to regular humans.
• Death Spiral Field: The Anti-Spiral was capable of creating a special field where all spiral energy would be transformed into physical matter, specifically manifesting it as an ultra-dense sea that slowly crushes all Spiral Races to death, with any usage of Spiral Power simply speeding up their downfall as the sea becomes denser and denser. The Anti-Spiral also made ships capable of resisting such density in order to surround and destroy those trapped within. 
• Random Schrodinger Warp: The Anti-Spiral is capable of manipulating multidimensional probability in order to shift up and down the time axis in between attacks, making it impossible to strike them as long as only one point in time is being targeted.
• Multiverse Labyrinth: As his ultimate method to achieve victory against the Spiral, the Anti-Spiral can trap one’s consciousness in an extradimensional space, with a chain of alternate universes created the moment you recognize their existence. With infinite possibilities presented, infinite worlds to choose from, a human is unable to make a proper choice and becomes completely trapped, unable to return to the world they came from.
• Information Extraction: The Anti-Spiral attempts to analyze and forcibly extract information from Dark Nia in order to gain more knowledge and understanding of the capabilities of the Spiral Races.
• Sealing: The Anti-Spiral claims to have sealed away all of the bodies of their species in order to halt their evolution permanently.
• Spatial and Time Manipulation: Within their universe, the Anti-Spiral can transcend time and space and freely control all of the dimensions present. The Anti-Spiral can slice through space and time in their universe stays frozen and only begins to move once enemies arrive.
• Creation & Existence Erasure: The Anti-Spiral is said to have control over birth and death, being able to will beings into existence to add to their troops. In one of the manga spin-offs, he could even erase the concept of breasts from entire universes in order to weaken Spiral Power. Yes we’re not joking.
• Infinity Big Bang Storm: Granzeboma seizes two colossal galaxies, only to fuse them into an immense orb of pure energy. This cataclysmic creation births an entirely new universe; disintegrating his adversaries down to the quantum fragments of their DNA through hellfire.
• Passive Probability Manipulation: The Anti-Spiral’s domain is a sealed microcosm – a discrete, pliable spacetime domain wholly subject to its will. Here, the probability of opposing victory is recalibrated to absolute 0. Moreover, the Anti-Spiral effortlessly warps the probabilistic lattice of higher-dimensional space, subtly reconfiguring the odds to suppress enemy defenses and phase beyond the reach of incoming assaults.

Resistances

• Extreme Temperatures: The Gurren Lagann ignores being set ablaze by explosives to deliver a flaming kick to Viral’s mecha, endure the coldness of space, and walk through galaxies containing billions of stars.
• Poison: Rossiu and Yoko got sick or received food poisoning from Nia’s destructively bad cooking skills, but Simon can eat a lot of her cooking just fine. Simon’s resistance to food poisoning is so strong that Kinon sabotaged Simon’s coffee once and it had no effect due to him being so used to what Nia produces. The only other character (outside Simon and Boota) that showed to resist it was an alternate universe Kamina.
• Absorption (Outpacing): To be specific, Gurren Lagann is not immune to having its Spiral Power drained. Rather, it just can output so much thanks to Simon’s indomitable human spirit that he can quite easily outpace any sort of energy absorption. To elaborate, Spiral Energy can be absorbed and converted into mass in places like the Death Spiral Field. Despite this issue:
  • Simon was able to form a Spiral Energy shield to protect the ship from being rammed despite the absorption happening with enough effort
  • There are examples of regular Gunmen producing Spiral Energy and protecting the main ship from attacks that aren’t Simon despite being in the absorption, ultra-dense Death Spiral Field
  • Of all characters, the little pig-mole Boota produces and rapidly outpaces the absorption of the Death Spiral Field with his own Spiral Power. By storing up a massive amount of Spiral Energy over 7 years, Boota was able to not age and induce this rapid output of energy
  • Gunmen technology have a backup power source where they’re able to use electricity instead if Spiral Power is compromised
  • Kittan’s Spiral Power was able to both regenerate, empower, and grow Simon’s drill despite being at the deepest depths of the Spiral Power-absorbing Death Spiral Field
• Energy Manipulation: With the Death Spiral Machine gone, all the previously converted Spiral Power into mass began reverting back to regular energy, implying that without a maintained action to keep it as mass, Spiral Energy will revert on its own.
• Density Manipulation: By converting mass into Spiral Energy, the Death Spiral Machine (a machine obviously weaker than Gurren Lagann’s peaks) is able to survive against being crushed by the ultra dense space by outputting enough of that Spiral Energy via a field to protect against the density. Additionally, the ultra dense space of the Death Spiral Field makes the controls on Gunmen far weaker than Gurren Lagann heavy, but they’re still able to operate them in the ultra dense “ocean” for a time. Physical ammunition is also able to work perfectly fine in the Death Spiral Field.
• Spatial & Time Manipulation: Given the sheer hype Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann as a series prides itself with, there is a large plethora of statements throughout the franchise in different mediums holding special time space surpassing like statements:
  • The formation of Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann was described as “A power greater than dimension and time.“, though this could just be its power being overhyped.
  • With the Spiral Perceptual Teleportation System, Simon perceiving Nia’s engagement ring allows the SGDG to transport to the Anti-Spiral homeworld by punching through the fabric of spacetime, which is justified by Simon and Nia being connected by feelings that “transcend time and space”.
  • The Anti-Spiral “can lightly transcend space and time”.
  • In the drama CD, Otoko no-jōken! Gurren Lagann, Simon Avant claims his drill can break through the walls of dimensions.
  • Team Gurren claims that Spiral Power can allow them to break through dimensions.
  • STTGL’s final clash with Granzeboma shook the universe and transcends time and space.
  • Simon and Kamina claim they can break through time and space in the DS game.
    • Alt ending DS Kamina scales to everything btw, kneel before DS Kamina

To specifically counter defensive space-time manipulation, missile barrages from the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann can detect and attack enemies in the past, present, and future while they’re shifting along the time axis, forcing them back to the present upon striking them. As for some additional points about countering space-time manipulation in general, Spiral Power allowed people to control time and space, and the Anti-Spiral controls and freezes the flow of time in his universe, yet Simon beats him regardless. The Anti-Spiral is also unbound by space and time yet Simon defeats him, though this specific piece of evidence could go with the other list of big hype statements

• Gravity Manipulation: Leeron, discussing the gyroscopic effect as an analogy to Spiral Power, says that the faster we spin, the more we break free from the bonds of gravity. This could imply the same for Spiral Power usage. Messenger Nia was even able to float in the air, defying gravity. The Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is also able to adjust its own gravitational field.
• Causality Manipulation: Anti-Spiral claims that the Team cannot escape destined causality, meaning defeat at his hands. Obviously, they go on to defeat him later, even implying that they can break through causality and fate. This is even sometimes translated as “karma” and “destiny”. As well in certain sources, they go on to continue claiming they can break through cause and effect.
• Probability Manipulation: In spite of Lordgenome calculating the chance of defeating the Death Spiral Machine at near 0%, Simon’s plan worked anyways. Similarly, Dark Nia claims that their chances of saving her before her data on him can be analyzed are “infinitely close to zero”, but they do end up intercepting Anti-Spiral before he can finish that later. The Anti-Spiral even states that because the pocket universe is under their control that their chances of winning are zero, but Simon retorts that they decide what their chances are. Granted this could just be a case of that absurdly miniature percentage of success coming through, though notably Gurren Lagann should be able to counter defensive probability shenanigans. To elaborate, the Anti-Spirals can use a “Random Schrödinger Warp” to sneak up on the SGGL. They do this by manipulating multidimensional probability fluctuations. Thus, they will attack as they shift up and down the time axis, meaning they’re avoiding attacks this way too. Lordgenome then prepares a barrage against all possible points along the space and time axes to detect where enemy units might exist in the near past or future. The SGGL then fires at these past and future points all at once with an AOE attack to strike the Anti-Spirals anyway, changing probability to land bullseyes in probability space. The argument being that this is, in a sense, defensive probability manipulation being circumvented, which the Anti-Spirals can twist to assist themselves in battle and can do naturally.
• Age Manipulation: By storing up a massive amount of Spiral Energy over 7 years, Boota was able to not age. 
• Mental Manipulation: Nia’s ring is used as evidence for her to have been subconsciously aiding Simon and the others despite her new identity’s awakening as a Messenger for the Anti-Spirals. This helped Nia to act of her own, original identity’s accord thanks to her own desires and move out of the way for him to take over the moon. Following this, Dark Nia was recalled back to the Anti-Spiral homeworld so that her data will be analyzed, and here she’s shown to have broken out fromthe Dark Nia identity and is “hanging on” for humanity. This is despite the fact that this is a virtual identity hidden in her genetic code that made her an Anti-Spiral, not a human. Later on, Nia is shown “reintegrating her old information by recalling past memories”, which is shown as Nia resisting against the information probe by the Anti-Spiral. This seems to obfuscate the Anti-Spiral’s attempts to gather information on the resistance of Spiral races. As the final nail in the coffin, the Anti-Spiral attributes Nia’s mental restoration from her Dark Nia identity to exposure to a massive amount of Spiral Energy, confirming her mental resistances are something someone like Simon could replicate even though he’s been forcibly shown visions before. This is notable as the Anti-Spiral can perform mental attacks. There’s a more complex topic to additionally cover in regard to mental resistances however:
  • Multiversal Labyrinth: After Simon defies the Anti-Spiral, he traps the crew in an interdimensional labyrinth of infinite possibility that will have Simon wander until his last breath so long as he has “intelligence”. “A chain of universes are created instant to instant via their own recognition. So long as their awareness is able to perceive possibilities, they will never escape this endless labyrinth”. This is how the Anti-Spiral explains further what he means by “intelligence” being the reason humans are stuck in his interdimensional labyrinth. This leaves them unable to invoke or generate any Spiral Energy as this disrupts their concentration and leaves them without the will to fight or live while adrift in a sea of infinite possibilities, leaving their bodies stuck in their original locations and mentally paralyzed as they’re stuck in the Multiversal Labyrinth blissfully unaware of how they’re living entirely different lives. Kamina’s appearance in this trap is implying that Simon is breaking free of this trap of his own accord. The logic behind Simon being trapped there is revealed by Kamina, who says he’s allowing “what-if” scenarios to distract him, so he focuses on his one true goal and universe and his lost friends to break free, which calls back to the “perceived possibilities” portion of the trap. Showing that even without Spiral Energy, Simon is more than capable of defying mental manipulation.
    • Oh, and in a spinoff manga, Yoko escapes from the parallel world via getting mad over being humiliated for not having her chest-features anymore, and stomps on Anti-Spiral leading to him crying like a bitch. Yes, this is real.
• Existence Erasure: After the entire crew of the SGGL escapes the labyrinth, Anti-Spiral is shown attempting to erase Nia, seemingly trying to break her down into information to analyze, which might be what she was resisting long enough to wait for Gurren Lagann. In fact, when Simon teleports in, Nia’s body is seemingly restored from either the interruption or his arrival. Another point for characters like Simon being able to resist Existence Erasure is that after the Anti-Spiral was defeated, the Anti-Spiral’s universe between dimensions vanished since he was constantly maintaining its existence. This is important as, without the Anti-Spirals, Nia’s existence ceases as a result of their genetic meddling with the virtual existence she was intended as. It’s shown that Nia manually maintained her existence long enough to experience her wedding and go out on her own terms after saying goodbye. She was even shown physically, manually halting the process to give herself more time. The Anti-Spiral explains this and defines it as a causal relationship and “vanishing”, and this is corroborated in the novelization where he can will entities into existence, controlling “death” and “birth”. In fact, the Anti-Spiral claims that Team Gurren’s “last ember of hope will flicker and go out” when Nia “vanishes”. Lordgenome corroborates this by stating that if Nia “disappears”, it will no longer be possible to track their homeworld.
• Sealing: After being sealed off within Avant Simon’s Core Drill, Otoko Simon eventually managed to break free and escape within the same day.
• Power Nullification [Debatable]: The Anti-Spiral is impressed that Team Gurren were able to manifest Spiral Energy in his dimension, potentially implying that they should’ve been unable to, and says that he can see how they escaped the Multiversal Labyrinth, although the implications of why he was impressed by that manifestation is unclear in the manga, in the movie, and in the novelization. This could potentially all be a case of him being impressed at the Dai-Gurren team still having the will to fight, rather than Spiral Energy being countered in the Anti-Spiral’s realm. In the Multiversal Labyrinth, humans and sentient life should have been unable to ever generate Spiral Power again, although this could have been either power nullification or from their paralyzed concentration as their consciousnesses drifted the possibilities, yet Simon and his team generated some and broke out anyway. It’s worth noting that the Multiversal Labyrinth also apparently took away their “will to live”, which could explain the Spiral Power negation.

Kyle Rayner

Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum

From the depths of the Source Wall, each universe is architected upon a framework of dualism – the Emotional Spectrum, underpinning the very concepts of reality, and governing “everything” [all universes]. It is an energy field that is fueled by emotions and the main power source for the Lanterns and their power rings. Since the beginning of sentient life, the emotional spectrum has existed. Every intelligent being generates emotion. Each of the primary ones feeding into a powerful spectrum.

The different colors of the spectrum were given power unknowingly by sentient life. Thoughts and feelings coalesced into a unique emotional spectrum. Green is the condensation of willpower, and it is what fuels the green lantern corps. Fear is one of the seven living and breathing energies that form the spectrum. Violet is the color of love. Hate is red. Indigo is compassion. Orange is avarice. Blue is hope. These Emotional Spectrums take the form of superposed hyperobjects extended omnipresently across all realities and their [mathematical] dimensions, acting as one of the Seven Forces of the DC Universe; giving their universes feeling. 

The ultimate extent of how the seven powers of the emotional spectrum can be harnessed and manipulated is not yet known. What is known is that the farther away from the center of the spectrum, green, the more influence the power has over its bearer. The Guardians of the Universe chose to harness the emotion of willpower, since it is the centermost emotion and easiest to control, the most pure, and is intertwined with sentient life, as the greatest power in the universe is manifested from emotion. More of the spectrum’s mysteries would come to light with time, such as the knowledge of sentient embodiments that are correlated to each emotion existing. There are three other emotions; the Invisible Spectrum, which represents buried primal emotions, and the life (white) and death (black) emotions, representing an absence of the other colors and emotions. 

Green Lantern Abilities

Energy Manipulation

Traditional for any Green Lantern, Kyle can control energy directly from his ring. He can release bursts of energy in AoE attacks that cause explosions and destroy forests, being able to cover entire space fleets, atomize Black Lanterns, and capable of harming characters like Fatality and Superman. Kyle can use energy in other ways for combat. He can channel other energies such as heat, to amplify his strikes, and telekinetically restrain or throw around people (and do the dishes). Its energy reserves can recharge entire spaceships or even planets, as Kyle has so much energy that he was able to reignite Mogo the Living Planet, when he was assumed dead, bringing him back as a Green Lantern.

Kyle has shown he can supercharge himself with energy and willpower, so much so that it threatens to blow up the Corps HQ, though he did have assistance from Hal’s ring and had to redirect the willpower energy off of him with Hal’s ring. The energy can be projected in different ways then just beams however, such as energy tornadoes and trawling webs of energy to sever Black Lanterns from their rings. Kyle can even send back his lantern energy to a disastrous flow to disrupt it. Kyle is also capable of manipulating those made out of light. 

Construct Creation

(wait a minute is that the-)

We talked about this topic briefly in the Ring section, but let’s go more in depth here. A Green Lantern’s constructs are described to be light energy by Ganthet. The constructs will remain coherent as long as one concentrates upon them. Creating something of permanence is possible but considerably more difficult. In the case of Kyle Rayner, his creativity has made constructs his bread and butter, being able to make some from the moment he got his ring.

Since then, he has made far more than just hands and guns. With enhanced precision on his constructs, he can make an extremely realistic flirting bartender construct with real dialogue and details, down to every color and freckle on her. Even early in his career, he was able to create constructs for hours. He can create construct duplicates of himself capable of talking and functioning on their own and numerous constructs of Green Lanterns with their own sentience and abilities. He often does this for assistance and helping others, such as reconstructing Coast City. Constructs don’t breathe, feel pain, or bleed. They only succumb to force and even with that, he can make his constructs intangible. His constructs have been broken before though, like with Kalibak via godwaves contaminating Kyle’s energy. 

Kyle is also able to recreate anything with his ring, so long as he has access to the schematics or formula in his mind. He does not need to know what these creations are capable of, but they will function. This includes kryptonite, devices capable of amplifying the powers of other heroes, and spaceships larger than Earth. Perhaps most impressively, he can create Oblivion, a construct completely made from his negative emotions. Oblivion even has sentience. Oblivion was capable of creating cosmic events, summoning hundreds of self created minions, and destabilizing the universe via creating an unstable quasar that absorbed dark matter. He also subconsciously split other aspects of his personality into their own individual lanterns, creating GL from logic, Green Lightning from hope, Emerald Knight from bravery, Hunter and Forest from imagination, and Alex from his memories. Each of these constructs were advanced enough to become self-aware, not even knowing they were constructs and thinking and acting fully independently. 

Due to Kyle’s immense creativity, he has made…a lot of constructs. So much so that trying to list out all of them here would be impossible without bloating the blog, so we decided to make a separate document detailing all his constructs; from harming characters as strong as Parallax Hal, to making electric torture chairs, to giant Evangelion constructs.

Miscellaneous Energy Manipulation 

Due to the Green Lantern ring’s connection to the Electromagnetic Emotional Spectrum, Kyle can also manipulate other fundamental forces of the universe such as gravity, radiation, fire, sound, light or concussive force. In conjunction with his constructs, Kyle can make artificial energies or mimic certain properties of objects, such as when he made an artificial sun to ward off vampires. He was able to soundproof a jail cell and make a hologram of an inmate sleeping when in actuality he is pinned against a wall, and he can recreate Atlantean communication systems. 

Kyle has shown that with assistance from constructs, he can make functioning devices that use electricity and other features. He can make functioning jetpacks and create a device that turns kinetic energy into subsonic vibration energy that cancels angels out of existence, and one that amplifies Superman’s heat vision. He can also make EMPS capable of taking out Superman robots. More impressively, Kyle recreates a theoretical blood circulation engine adaptable to any lifeform after seeing it once in blueprint form, which acts as a temporary heart keeping Orion comatose but technically not alive. He’s done this on multiple occasions, making the right medical equipment to keep Alan Scott alive and even detoxification devices. And of course, what are constructs if they can’t help with construction?

Energy Absorption

Along with projecting energy, Kyle is able to absorb energy to empower himself, or to take away energy from those empowered by it. He absorbed enough residual energy to destroy an entire star into his ring, and along with Captain Atom and Darkstar, were able to absorb Parallax Hal Jordan’s plasma while he was fighting the Spectre. Kyle, along with his descendant who was using his ring, absorbed energy from a machine. 

Flight

In order to patrol the cosmos, Kyle’s ring allows him to fly across interstellar distances with ease. While he doesn’t need any additional constructs in order to accomplish this for himself, he has also made several constructs that let others fly along if they cannot do so naturally.

Willpower

There’s a reason why Kyle was chosen by Ganthet. To be specific, Kyle’s willpower in question here is being brought up as an ability, not a characteristic. In the DC universe, willpower is created by sentient beings throughout the universe and collected on Oa in the Guardian’s central power battery. Kyle’s willpower is unsettling and he frequently uses it to recharge his ring. He was able to remake his ring from dust through sheer willpower, can give his willpower to other people, and can take back his ring even when not physically occupying it.

Force Fields

One of Kyle’s favorite things to make with his ring are force fields, which can be used for a lot more than just defense. He can make shields of all shapes and sizes to hold and amplify powers, contain attacks to the degree of supernovas, cover terrain, entrap foes, deplete oxygen to put out fires, and help others endure the vacuum of space. And if he wants to put his creative take on things, he can trap you in a fishbowl…and drown you in it. He can also contain people in bubbles to arrest them or just contain them. Like Kyle’s constructs, listing out every instance of Kyle’s forcefields can take up a lot of space, so we listed out the strength and durability of the forcefields holding up against powerful forces in the same separate document; from blocking tidal waves, to planetary explosions, to the forces of Trigon.

Healing

The ring is able to perform healing of wounds both for others and Kyle himself. He can heal himself of smaller wounds, or much graver wounds like when Kyle was able to heal his entire body of third degree burns on his back despite nearly going into shock. With his fight with Sinestro, every time he struck at him, Kyle’s body was rotting from the inside, his blood turning into a poison, despite this he’s shown to be completely fine moments later. Became deaf and was bleeding from his ears but became better.

Kyle, via giving his willpower, can also technically “heal” others. Hal once ordered his ring to keep Kyle together and take him home when heavily injured, which healed Kyle’s injuries. Hal’s ring is sustaining Kyle in spite of his internal lacerations to his liver and his collapsed lung, but it’s suggested that this is not a permanent treatment to his issues. When becoming White Lantern and accepting love into his heart, Kyle was able to recover from a fatal wound to his chest.

Dimensional Travel

Using their rings, Green Lanterns can make travel easy by going through portals. They can open up wormholes to other universes and are able to enter Hyperspace, a transluminal space between the Orrery of Worlds and the Speed Force. He was able to charge Steel’s weapon with enough energy to portal from the Unearth universe back to Titans HQ. Lyssa Drak is shown to teleport to Sinestro’s home planet in the Antimatter Universe with a Yellow Ring, and Hal uses the Ring to hide Sinestro’s ring in a pocket universe. It is worth noting that when he boom tubed to New Genesis in the Godsphere, he required a Mother Box.

Teleportation

Green Lanterns are able to travel to other parts of the universe by teleporting. A notable example is when he teleported his ring to a friend by projecting himself into his ring and willing it to his friend.

Invisibility

Kyle is able to turn invisible, and turn others invisible as well, such as when he turned himself and Aquaman invisible and inaudible to spy on Dr. Doom during the events of JLA/Avengers.

Intangibility

Another common Green Lantern power, Kyle can phase right through walls with ease. The upper limits of what a Lantern can phase through are unknown, and highly dependent on the density of the object and the Green Lantern’s overall willpower.

Matter Manipulation/Life Manipulation

The ring can manipulate other forms of energy and even matter in a variety of ways, such as Kyle being able to extract oxygen from ash. Furthermore, Kyle says he can split atoms with his lantern ring, although containing an atomic blast may be a problem for him. Kyle’s ring can also restore objects to its original appearance and accelerate mutation of simple organisms into complex, atmosphere producing life forms.

Mind Alteration

For Green Lanterns, the ethics of altering the mind are somewhat debatable, mostly due to the effects it could leave on a person if not used right. But Kyle, early in his career, was able to use the ring to literally jog someone’s memory to help them remember something. He can use constructs to restore memories, and used this to help Superman restore his memories. Weirdly enough, he can also telepathically interface with technology.

Reality Warping

With the powers bestowed upon him by the Lantern Rings, Kyle is able to warp reality itself around him, like remaking entire planets with his ring. Most impressively (and frankly one of the most ridiculous feats ever lmao) Kyle was capable of altering the distance of the Planck Length, adjusting it from 10^33M to a Centimeter (0.10M). Doing this allowed him to escape the Aberration’s spacetime warping, bringing them to the future where they had failed to stop it from turning the universe into a maelstrom of eternal darkness. This ability was then used to wish the Aberration out of existence. 

Electromagnetic Scanning/Tracking

The ring can detect many electromagnetic phenomena, and use these to gather information or even track people or find places, even the most unknown of energy readings. He can use the ring to track teleportation via energy signatures from numerous major cities across the world. He can detect radiation from an external electromagnetic power source. He can detect nearby enemies, see x-rays, rising temperatures, gravitational anomalies throughout the universe, and radiation from an external electromagnetic power source.

Kyle can track a person’s location, through their energy signature from planets away, and has used this to track ships as far away as the Eagle Nebula. More cosmically, Kyle can detect temporal anomalies, time ripples, subatomic particles crashing into each other. 

Astral Projection

With just a little bit of charge left, Kyle was able to use energy from his ring to make a spirit form, and this energy was used to also preserve the timeless, indestructible souls of the Justice League.

Time Travel (Derogatory)

(Don’t. Say it.)

Like Hal, Kyle has experienced time travel and has traveled to both the past and future. He has been roped up in plenty of time travel related adventures. It’s worth noting he’s not fond of the hobby nor has he likely performed this on his own accord, so don’t expect him to quote his predecessor’s infamous line anytime soon.

White Lantern Abilities

Emotional Spectrum Manipulation

Kyle Rayner became the first and only person to master the seven emotions of the spectrum. Thanks to his White Ring, Kyle is able to tap into all of the lights of the Emotional Spectrum. Kyle can channel multiple of the emotions at once and deliver them into powerful blasts, and communicate with other Lantern Corps by channeling their emotion. This upgrade also makes it so Kyle’s ring is untraceable by the Guardians of the Universe. Kyle is able to use abilities that are unique to specific power rings from different Corps such as:

• Red: The Red Light embodies the emotion of Rage, mastered by Atrocitus and the Red Lanterns. Kyle trained with Atrocitus in order to master rage, and with its power, Kyle can use napalm-like blood and energy blasts that can easily destroy other constructs and burn through flesh like paper. Uniquely, Kyle can shine the red light on others to instill rage in them, something that Hal Jordan notes he had never seen a Red Lantern do before. He can also use rage to enhance his strikes.
• Orange: The light of Agent Orange is the light of Avarice. The unique abilities of the Orange Light include being able to completely consume one’s soul and transform their essence into a construct soldier, bound to the ring bearer completely, though Kyle has never done this. Theoretically though he could do this due to mastering all seven emotions. If you assume he can, Orange Lantern constructs are very deadly, being able to eat through constructs made of pure will. Kyle has shown the ability to make orange constructs after charging his ring with the Orange Power Battery. 
• Yellow: The light of the Sinestro Corps, the yellow light of Fear. Through this light, Kyle can feel whenever those around him feel any sort of fear, deliver fear energy blasts, and is capable of creating constructs based around the greatest fears of whoever he fights against. Kyle’s ring can take the direct fears out of somebody’s mind automatically and weaponize them against his target, even if Kyle has no info on them himself.
• Blue: Kyle’s personal favorite of the emotional lights is the blue light of Hope. Through this light, Kyle is capable of healing all manner of wounds, both physical and mental, and is also able to recharge power rings, beyond the normal limit of 100%, which can augment a Lantern’s strength. The percentage can typically be boosted to 200%
• Indigo: The light of Compassion from the Indigo Tribe is capable of mimicking other lights as well as teleporting across cosmic distances, which extends to him being able to warp several enemies located across several planets at once, something stated to be impossible by The Guardians. He can also make others feel compassion, though he needs to feel all of their emotions in the process.
• Violet: The light used by the Star Sapphires is the light of Love. Through its power, Kyle can trap others by crystallizing them, seemingly placing them in a state of suspended animation. He can also use the violet light to fill the hearts of others with love to control them, or heal them of grave wounds. He’s managed to do this to thousands of soldiers at once before.

Refined Energy Manipulation

With his newfound Emotional Spectrum, Kyle’s energy manipulation has become far more powerful, being able to unleash waves of light that destroy cities and cover the curvature of entire planets, and blasts that are more powerful than most Lanterns energies by far. His energy blasts can melt guns and disintegrate an entire race of invading alien bugs off a planet, one shot the heart of a living planet, eradicate the Third Army, and completely destroy the body of Oblivion. Kyle can also unleash a bioelectric field that unleashes Green Lantern rings.

Refined Construct Creation

Kyle’s constructs as a White Lantern have a lot more to them than just his Green Lantern constructs. For starters, he can make constructs of all seven colors, and these constructs are able to regenerate if taken sufficient damage. He can also make a shield shown to block lava from the living planet Raga, and a multicolored shield that holds against a large Star Sapphire energy blast.

Life Manipulation

Kyle Rayner is able to manipulate life itself, the main emotion of the White Lantern. The more Kyle Rayner embraces life, the stronger he gets. He can passively generate life around him, making crops grow with each step he takes on a planet. While this is an ability unique to the White Lantern, Kyle actually showed life manipulation as stated previously, but to reiterate, as a Green Lantern, can accelerate the evolution of indigenous plants and lifeforms on Thanagar and fusing together glass molecules with his energy for years to come in order to restore the planet’s life.

Life Creation

With the White Lantern Ring, Kyle has been shown to have the ability to create and remove new life from the world itself. With the power of Kyle’s Life Equation, Oblivion has shown the ability to bring his own drawings to life and erase them at will, and Kyle should be capable of using this power as well.

Healing/Resurrection

White Lantern rings are able to heal wounds and sickness completely, or in some instances resurrect the dead. By just donning the White Lantern ring, Kyle can restore all his wounds, and he can restore life to a planet, and resurrect those who have been killed, though it can’t work if the people themselves do not want to come back. Kyle was able to restore Hal back to life; even after his body was transformed into pure willpower and completely obliterated, with Hal being sent into The Emerald Space (e.g. the afterlife for Green Lanterns).

Kyle managed this from simply the remnants of Hal’s life-essence that remained in his ring, and with a scrap of willpower left brought Hal back to life. Though without Hal’s ring, Kyle could never have reconstituted him from dissipating into pure willpower, showing he needs an anchor for this resurrection process, like when he was going to resurrect the Blue Lantern Corps before Dr. Manhattan’s interference. Perhaps most impressively, after Kyle unmade himself from reality, he subconsciously returned with his body intact.

Enhanced Senses

Due to his connection to the Emotional Spectrum, Kyle’s senses are greatly enhanced to a near cosmic level. He’s able to sense life “everywhere and nowhere” at the same time, and can see the past lives of those who are in an area full of death. Kyle was able to sense a phenomena in the Anomaly, an area of space-time sealed away that contains a fragment of the old universe, where the new universe was reacting to the old universe like a cyst reality.

Clairvoyance

With help from his tracking abilities, Kyle is able to directly view information or events playing out from far away without being present there at all, and has used this to view the ongoings of other Lanterns such as Atrocitus, Larfleeze, and Indigo-1.

Emotion Tracking

Using the power of the White Lantern, Kyle is able to recognize the emotions of others. He can feel the exact emotions of anybody around him, down to the exact location of the person and just what combination they’re feeling. He also can be impacted by the emotions surrounding him, as being around someone who is enraged can cause him to focus on his Red Lantern abilities. His connection to hope in particular makes his ring’s tracking stronger than Hal’s ring, and helped them find Saint Walker.

The Life Equation

Hidden away on the other side of the Source Wall is the Life Equation, the codes that make up reality itself. In one of his missions to save the universe, Kyle Rayner went beyond the Source Wall, and the Life Equation bonded itself to him, becoming an inseparable part of who he is. Because of this link, Kyle is capable of altering the Equation and fundamentally altering the nature of all of reality, bending it to his will. 

However, it is important to note that no one man is capable of holding the power of the Life Equation for long without being obliterated by the amount of power. To handle this problem, Kyle split the equation up into several White Power Rings, creating his very own White Lantern Corps, but it is technically possible for him to put it together again.

Reality Warping

The most potent ability of the Life Equation is its abilities to warp reality. It was with the Life Equation, and by manipulating the Source code, that Kyle reshaped the entire universe to make it so travel beyond the Source Wall was possible. Multiple times has it been stated that with the Life Equation, Kyle is able to change reality and the universe itself, and it has some pretty gnarly side effects. Simply fighting Oblivion was threatening to destabilize an entire planet, and eventually reality itself to less then nothing.

Other side effects include changing people, like when he changed Carol Ferris into his first girlfriend Alex, causing her to actually become Alex; with all of her thoughts and memories. In one final gesture with the Life Equation, Kyle used it to create the White Lantern Corps, which consisted of seven members with built-in knowledge on how to defeat Oblivion, which of course they ended up doing. 

Source Wall Travel

The Source Wall is the boundary that encloses all of existence. Located beyond “THE WALL” which in and of itself lies within where the universe ends, it is the ultimate barrier separating known reality from the unknowable, the Source of all things. None may cross this beyond infinite barrier, as all those who touch the Wall are consumed by it, absorbed and transformed into nothing more but a part of the Wall. None except Kyle Rayner.

Doing the impossible, Kyle went into the Wall and made his way to what lies beyond it, seeing the Source and delivering the Emotional Entities so that they could refill the reservoir of emotional energy that was running dry and risking universal destruction. But once that was done, returning from the Source Wall should have been completely impossible. This is a trait completely unique to Kyle, as it has been stated that it was only because of the white light that he was able to achieve this, and attempts to recreate it by combining the colors and rings of other lanterns ended in failure.

And it was! But through the power of the Life Equation, Kyle could reshape reality and change the universe to his benefit, making it possible for him to travel back through the Source Wall. While in the Source Wall, Kyle described the experience. He said he saw “everything”, and “raw primordial infinite power”, more than any Justice League or Lantern Corps member. He says it needs to be held at bay to preserve the universe, as even the smallest cracks in it can have a dangerous effect on the planet. This knowledge was considered vital to Mother Blood in being able to show her the Bleedspace that connects to the entire multiverse. Though Kyle lost the mantle of the White Lantern and thus his connection to the Source Wall, he likely has gained it back with his recent transformation into White Lantern again.

Source Wall Creation

During his battle with Oblivion soon after obtaining the Life Equation, Kyle created a version of the Source Wall large enough to cover an entire city. It is not certain how many of the Wall’s properties this recreation shares, but it likely retains the ability to absorb and consume all who touch it.

Source Wall Banishment

At the end of the conflict with Highfather, Kyle regained control of the Life Equation and showed some degree of precision in using it in a very specific example, being able to banish the Promethean Titans back into the Source Wall when they were brought out of it previously. 

Mind & Empathetic Manipulation

Despite being the purported opposite of the Anti-Life Equation, it turns out that the Life Equation also possesses the ability to take away free will and agency from others. While we don’t get to see it in much action, Highfather was using the Life Equation, accessed from a backdoor he placed in Kyle’s mind, to convert the entire populace of New Genesis and various civilizations across the multiverse into willing soldiers and would have succeeded if it weren’t for Hal Jordan calling him out on becoming too much like Darkseid. In the brief time we saw it used in such a way, its only limit appeared to be that the Source Titans, who’d all spent up to eons trapped in the Source Wall, were incredibly resistant to the Life Equation as they had already been exposed to the Source for long periods of time. Using the Life Equation on them only enraged them further. Kyle took a page from Highfather’s book when he split up the Life Equation, accessing the telepathic mindscape of the Guardians of the Universe.

However, we see in a possible future in Future’s End, one that Oblivion teases Kyle in the main run, has a Keanu-looking version of Kyle mastering the Life Equation to forcefully control the minds of all beings across the universe. Nearly everyone is rendered passive under the control of the Life Equation and follow Kyle’s will, though it isn’t perfect as apparently billions are capable of resisting it through sheer will, rage and compassion but ultimately succumb when he shows them the truth of the horrors of the universe and life.

Cosmic Awareness/Omniscience (Debatable)

In Future’s End, in a possible future, after 5 years of mastery with the Life Equation, holding the ring and becoming one with The Source, Kyle seemed to have achieved some sort of Cosmic Awareness or Omniscience. It’s very important to mention that this is a bad future which Kyle never achieved, because he gave away the Life Equation.

Resistances

• High & Low Temperatures: Survived being submerged into lava. The Sun Eater absorbs all heat, to the point even oceans are becoming frozen. Despite this, Kyle is completely unbothered by such effects. 
• Fire Manipulation: Kyle endured fire being fired at his face. Could traverse through an atmosphere where every atom of oxygen was burnt out.
• Radiation: The Lantern rings protect them against radiation.
• Mental Manipulation: Martian Manhunter says Kyle’s mind is stronger than he imagines and commends him for his telepathic apparatus. Fought a samurai in his own personal hell and overcame him despite his abilities being attacked and compromised neurally. Fought back against Parallax within his own mind, even driving him off with his mental prowess (Kyle even notes later that due to being infected by Parallax, he has a greater resistance against him than before). Willed his way out of Black Lantern’s mental manipulation. Other Green Lanterns, like Hal, have broken out of and resisted memory wipes and illusions through pure willpower. Similarly, willpower can break out of the empathic manipulations of Darkstar mantles.
• Mind Control: Was able to resist Psimon’s mind control. Broke free of Kryb’s mind-controlling liquids. Broke free of the Misery Mound’s mental influence. Resisted the control of a Controller, and the Queen Bee’s control over him.
• Illusions: By proclaiming fearlessness, Kyle dispersed illusions of Major Force on the surface of Mogo. Broke free of Oblivion’s illusion.
• Matter Manipulation: Due to their rings, Lanterns are stated to be resistant to the Third Army’s conversion abilities, which completely rewrite a person’s organic matter, and extract the heart. Using a construct, Kyle made a device that turned apefied humans back into human.
• Possession: As a White Lantern, the Emotional Entities had attempted to possess Kyle, but Kyle had resisted it through sheer will. This was because the Emotional Circle was incomplete and lacked balance while Kyle had mastered all emotion and maintained balance.
• Corruption: Did not fall for the ill dangerous effects of becoming Ion, instead embraced in becoming Ion. 
• Battlefield Removal: Stellara of Ramnos beamed Kyle to the planet Rann, but Stellara implied he could easily come back.
• Neurotoxins: Kyle resisted a syringe that made him see hallucinations and mess up his concentration and thoughts.
• Poison Manipulation: His fight with Sinestro turned his blood into poison and was shown to be deeply affected by it. Although moments later appears to be fine. 
• Assimilation: Thanks to Kyle Rayner warping reality to make Source Wall travel possible, Lantern rings are able to pass through the Source Wall without being assimilated into the wall.
• Electricity Manipulation and Soul Manipulation: Can endure an electric charge shooting through his arm, through his heart, and eventually even his soul. 
• Limited Technological Virus Manipulation: His power ring was able to expunge a technological virus going through his body but not all of it. The ring has robust security programs, but are not impenetrable, and its gargantuan amount of data can be analyzed.
• Limited Absorption: The Sun Eater absorbs all light and all types of energies, including one’s lifeforce, with it even absorbing Parallax. Despite this, Kyle can still live while being psychically inside the Sun Eater, however if he had stayed any longer, he too would’ve been absorbed. As Ion, while he doesn’t exactly resist Nero siphoning his power, he generates his own power and had more than enough to deal with Nero. 
• Limited Empathic Manipulation: While Kyle can still feel negative emotions, his ring is capable of expelling said emotions; these emotions are likewise “potent” enough to “rip” him apart. In addition, Oblivion, who embodied these emotions, was incapacitated by Kyle’s psyche holding him back. 

Forms

Simon the Digger

Gurren Lagann

The fusion between Simon’s Lagann and Kamina’s mech, the Gurren! Though its second pilot changed multiple times over the course of Simon’s journey, it remained the most important mech in Team Dai-Gurren’s arsenal, the symbol of their rebellion. The combination is far more than just adding the mechs’ power together though, as the Gurren Lagann is much greater than the power the Gurren had on its own, with Lagann granting it power that it simply should not possess. In fact, the Lagann is said to take control of the Gurren’s systems during fusion! This mech is so strong that even barreling through an Anti-Spiral ship resulted in an explosion that de-integrated the other mechas from its force. Its system is described to fight off any unknown threats, because it is akin to the evolution of a living organism.

The Gurren Lagann comes equipped with Gurren’s sunglasses, which it can use as powerful blades and boomerangs, as well as several, several different types of drills, courtesy of Simon, using them as wrist-blades, missiles, grappling hooks, creating dozens of them at once, using them to latch onto other mechs and assimilating them, and a lot more. The Gurren Lagann also comes equipped with the Spiral Universe Recognition Transportation System, which allows for one to transport to the location of any other being, as long as you think about them hard enough, something Simon did to reach the location of his friend Rossiu. 

Of course, this wouldn’t be Gurren Lagann if it stopped here. Not only it has many, many variations, the mech is able to integrate with any other mechas, regardless if they originally had a Drill Core or not, imbuing them with a massive influx of Spiral Energy. One of these combinations was with the Arc-Gurren, resulting in the…

Arc-Gurren Lagann

A unique combination, transforming the Arc-Gurren into the form of a battle mech while the Gurren Lagann stays inside of it, a mech piloting another mech. Way more powerful than both Arc-Gurren and Gurren Lagann alone, the Arc-Gurren Lagann possesses a truly incredible amount of Spiral Energy, to the point of being able to focus it into a mighty Space-Time Shattering Burst Spinning Punch, which actually does as the name implies and tears a hole through the fabric of time and space, sending whoever gets struck by it straight to the ends of space-time. But of course, this is Gurren Lagann, and the Arc-Gurren Lagann can combine with the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren, to become the…

Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann

The result of Simon piloting the Gurren Lagann piloting the Arc-Gurren Lagann piloting the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren and transforming it into a humanoid battle mech, with it being even further amplified by the Spiral Energy of those who lost their lives in the Spiral Death Field. The Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann is extraordinarily powerful, with the power of its engine directly being compared with the birth of a galaxy.

In its fingertips, it possesses drills powerful enough to completely destroy massive Anti-Spiral battleships, and it can detach the sunglasses in its torso to unleash the Super Galaxy Mega Cutter, slicing through ships bigger than planets clean in half. It also possesses the deadly ability to fire missiles along the time axis, striking points in time in the near past and near future all at once to counter the probability warp of the Anti-Spiral’s forces. For its finishing move, it detaches the giant drills in its shoulders and joins them together for a super powered Giga Drill Break!

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Achieved after Simon assimilated the Multiversal Labyrinth into himself, materializing out of the multiversal possibilities merging with Simon’s Gurren Lagann, as well as combined with the rest of Team Dai-Gurren, the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann emerged to commence the final fight with the Anti-Spiral. The Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is less so a mech and more so pure Spiral Energy given massive form, being a body materialized from Team Dai-Gurren’s thoughts, hopes, regrets, wishes, pasts, and futures that can adjust its gravitational field on a multi-galactic level; radiating “infinite power”. A “virtual quantum body” created by the “multi-layered universe”. Piloted by Simon and the entirety of Team Dai-Gurren, it is capable of forming whatever weapon they need for battle. From Yoko’s sniper rifles, to super-dimensional anchors, to several cannons capable of firing probability altering missiles and of course, lots and lots of drills. Tis tradition.

What is most notable about Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann however is its size. After all, it literally stands on what seem to be galaxies. Its fight with Granzeboma would not be visible for tens of thousands of years since the light of the battle is so far away and the mechas are far too big. It gets even worse, because since its body is made of materialized thoughts, its size is technically impossible to calculate since it doesn’t exist in the physical world. The only reason it can exist in normal space is because TTGL creates a Super Spiral Space within itself (similar to the Anti-Spiral universe, and yes, this is confusing). Therefore, these scales aren’t actually indicative of proper size and are only meant to evoke its magnitude in scale, so the chart compares it to being 10^25 times larger than the Gurren Lagann. But if its size is impossible to measure, how do we analyze it exactly? More on this in the Verdict(s).

Tengen Toppa Lagann

After the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann was split up by the Anti-Spiral, all members of Team Dai-Gurren formed smaller mechs of their own, with Simon keeping a version of the Lagann under his command. The Tengen Toppa Lagann did not get to do much, but it managed to temporarily help withstand the Infinity Big Bang Storm, and the other enhanced Tengen Toppa gunmen were able to deal some damage to the Anti-Spiral. Additionally, said gunmen were able to grapple the Anti-Spiral with super-dimensional anchors. 

Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Thanks to some massive Infinity Big Bang Storm energy redirection from Lordgenome involving quantum breakdown, Tengen Toppa Lagann was able to absorb it and combine with the rest of Dai-Gurren’s Gunmen to form Super Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagann, a form composed of Super Spiral Space that’s “perception become reality” and also is the coolest thing ever.

Dwarfing cosmological structures such as galaxies or even universes, this form is the apex of Simon’s manipulation of Spiral Energy, finally displaying the necessary strength to match and reach the Anti-Spiral. According to series contributor Nakashima, the implied feeling is that Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is bigger than the universe itself, and that they couldn’t really convey this with anything other than making galaxies really small (other translations state its “large universe class” or “cosmic scale”). The form is capable of all previous abilities, and can turn its cape into Simon’s ultimate finishing move: the Super Tengen Toppa Giga Drill Break, a move as big to STTGL as STTGL is to TTGL, so you get the idea.

Overall it is, indeed, the coolest shit ever. 

Kyle Rayner

Standard Forms

Green Lantern

Kyle was made a Green Lantern when there was none left, being entrusted with a ring from Ganthet, to carry the torch of those that came before him. Kyle Rayner has been a Green Lantern the longest, acting alone for a long time until the Guardians were restored, and eventually the Green Lantern Corps would reform. Kyle’s skill, creativity, and career as a member of the Justice League would grant him the honor of two titles; the Torchbearer (during his time as Ion), but more importantly the Honor Guard, Green Lanterns that are only behind the Guardians in the chain of command and are not limited to one sector. 

White Lantern

Kyle Rayner tapped into the final emotion of the seven he controlled, accepting love into his heart and completing his journey into becoming the White Lantern. With this, Kyle not only became a conduit for the Emotional Spectrum, but a conduit of the white light of creation itself, being connected to the Life Entity, by extension being connected to all of life itself, being the key to the survival of the universe. Though Kyle Rayner lost the White Lantern ring due to Dr. Manhattan destroying it, he has since gained it back, transforming into it when Varron threatened the entire Emotional Spectrum, donning the mantle to do battle with him…before he lost it again two issues later? The current Green Lantern run is still ongoing so maybe he’ll show up again, but at the very least we know Kyle can transform into the White Lantern again due to his connection to the Emotional Spectrum.

Non-Standard Forms

These are some extra forms that are non-standard for Kyle, nor lack the heavy key attachment of a form like the White Lantern. We just wanted to bring them up for the sake of coolness, so they will not impact the debate.

Ion

After Parallax reignited the Sun, essentially sacrificing himself in the process, he still left some residue of his power around the cosmos; this power of course attracted Oblivion, an inadvertent construct of Kyle’s subconscious, representing some of his base fears such as anxiety, self-doubt, hatred, and self loathing. These two powerhouses then formed into an unimaginable power source which Kyle has been siphoning ever since he became unconsciously one with it. Thanks to this, Kyle Rayner now isn’t a Green Lantern anymore, he now strikes a flaming white golden appearance, and goes by the name Ion.

As Ion his primary ability is the manipulation of energy, whether it be from reading someone’s mind [since thoughts are just electrical impulses after all], to viewing one’s DNA then deciding to bring their power back out, to even taking away a small patch of energy; his mind reading is also incredibly potent, being seemingly capable of viewing someone’s past in such excruciating detail such as his father. Trying to even physically come in contact with Kyle is a demanding task as the energy will simply repel and give you the feeling of being electrocuted. He even is able to passively recharge rings and was capable of upgrading his own Green Lantern power ring. 

His constructs have become even better when he achieved Ion: being capable of creating tens of constructs simultaneously as well as several duplicates of himself. Some of these duplicates can be giants. And can even create constructs of syringes filled with psychotropic. Becoming Ion didn’t just benefit his hero life but his personal life as well,  now having  a greater access to a part of his brain that controls his creativity. Besides manipulating energy and other miscellaneous commodities, Ion has showcased a variety of abilities such as:

• Accelerated Development: Alan notes Kyle is getting stronger as Ion even when he was in an unresponsive state. Additionally even before unlocking Ion, anytime he was using and expelling that said energy it was never decreasing, rather it was growing and Kyle was simply creating a stronger portal for the power to flow through. In fact he has generated so much power, that he was capable of incapacitating Nero via simply bestowing upon him some of his power. Ion is stated to have unlimited energy.  
• Space Manipulation, Time Manipulation, & Retrocognition: Kyle has demonstrated numerous times of being capable of viewing the past, such as Alan Scott becoming Green Lantern, Hal Jordan becoming Green Lantern, John Stewart becoming Green Lantern, Guy Gardner becoming Green Lantern, and seeing Hal at his lowest becoming Parallax. Kyle has even expressed that time itself is not set in stone for him, it’s pliable. For him it’s not a fabric that will unravel if he pulls on the string, he can change what’s already happened without altering everything that will be. And can enter the time stream if he so wishes too. Kyle can even become “invisible”… sorta, rather he is able to mask his outer aura with a space of time when he’s not actually here… somehow. Also states that he isn’t bound by time or distance. 
• Creation & Earth Manipulation: Materialized tens of thousands of personal meal-packs. Made soil more fertile. 
• Sound Manipulation: Can block soundwaves from traveling to Terry. 
• Portal Creation & Physical BFR : Creates a portal to confront an alien fleet. Plus BFR’s the alien fleet soon after.  
• Enhanced Senses: Becoming Ion, Kyle has achieved greater senses. Can hear Superman heartbeat and respiratory systems. Knew his father was lying to him and can see his temperature being elevated. Felt all the hate humans had inside of them. 
• Multilocation: Kyle can exist in multiple segments of time. He states that he occupies the present laterally. He can be in multiple countries at once and even planets. 
• Teleportation, Size Manipulation, Mind BFR & Power Nullification: During his fight with Nero, he teleports away from his grip, increases his size, and BFR’s Nero to his (Kyle) subconscious. During this time Nero abilities are nullified and his equipment are taken away, with the only way out seemingly being a hand-to-hand fight. 
  • For the record we know this is his subconscious as dictated by the limbo-like background; the background first appears when Kyle became Ion for the first time and was in an unresponsive state. Alan Scott theorizes to break out of this “barrier” Kyle is in they must break it in the physical and mental state. Additionally, during this state Kyle is in, we even see Oblivion, whom we know is a construct of Kyle repressed emotions, and Parallax, who’s dead at the time. 
• Resurrection: As Kyle’s final act as Ion, he restored the Guardians of the Universe from the dead, reigniting the Green Lantern Corps once more. 

Later after the death of his ex-girlfriend Jade, Kyle would once again dawn the mantle of Ion, and was called the Torchbearer; the one who wields the energies of Oa combined with the magic of the Starheart given to Kyle by Jade, to ensure the future of the Green Lantern Corps is safe. Should they ever be eradicated again, Kyle will bring it back, acting as the next step in the evolution of Green Lanterns. However it is later revealed that Kyle is actually just a host for Ion, with it revealing that Ion is a symbiotic willpower entity born from the green of the emotional spectrum. This version retains much of the same powers as before, only with even greater enhanced power and implications, especially since he doesn’t even need his ring. Captain Atom theorized that with the power of Ion, Kyle acted as a gateway to access the Bleed, an ocean or river between places, and a place where the Monitors cannot find him. Once again Kyle resurrected someone from the dead, his mother; who unfortunately knew this wasn’t right, and Kyle undid the effects.

Parallax

After Sinestro formed his Sinestro Corps, one of the first steps he took in his war against the Green Lanterns was to remove the Ion entity from Kyle and use him as a host for the embodiment of Fear itself, Parallax. After mentally breaking down Kyle, toying about Alex’s death, telling him his mother’s death will always be on his consciousness, and that his loved ones will always perish and it will always be his fault; did Kyle truly feel fear, which was the perfect opportunity for Parallax to finally take control and become an enforcer for Sinestro. As an enforcer for Sinestro, Parallax is completely deadly; he’s compared to a parasite, he grips onto the victims soul, and controls how they think and feel. 

As Parallax, Kyle is capable of manifesting yellow energy spears that could kill anyone who succumbed to fear in his presence and consume other beings to fuse with his host body and further increase his own power, such as Hal Jordan. Kyle was able to overpower Hal Jordan and John Stewart in this form, but Kyle fought back relentlessly against Parallax’s domination, and eventually, with the help of the other Earth lanterns and the memories of his beloved mother, he managed to remove Parallax from his body. Thus the state is likely not something Kyle would like to revisit anytime soon. Still cool to mention though. Some powers Kyle gets as Parallax other than the ones mentioned above are:

• Fear Detection: Parallax can taste fear and detail the fears in his opponents.
• Shapeshifting and Size Manipulation: Can grow claws that hurt Guy Gardner. Can generate an innumerable amount of teeth and manipulate the insides of his mouth. Can open his stomach, have tendrils poking out of his stomach, and slightly increase his size. 

Blue Lantern

During the War of the Green Lanterns, when the renegade guardian Krona took complete control over the Green Power Rings, the four human lanterns of Sector 2814 required new rings to properly face off against this threat. Kyle chose to take a blue ring belonging to Saint Walker. Like all Blue Lanterns, however, Kyle cannot use his ring’s true power unless he is in the presence of other Green Lanterns, being limited to flight and slight physical enhancements when by himself. If he is at full power though, he can use the usual offensive powers such as constructs, which are still strong enough to shield attacks from Green Lanterns. Some more unique powers include:

• Hope Supplementation: The hope of others can amplify Kyle. 
• Ring Charging: Can passively double the charge of a Green Lantern ring. 
• Healing: Kyle was able to heal a Green Lantern from Parallax’s corruption.
• Hope Illusions: Able to show the target what they truly hope for. There’s no need for the Blue Lantern Corp member to have previous knowledge on the person, as the Light of Hope shows what the target needs the most. While constructs, these are consistently shown to be real and vivid illusions in the minds of the target.

Support

Simon the Digger

Boota

While Simon has had many allies pilot Gurren in battle, one key companion that always sticks directly in the cockpit of Lagann with him is his lovable pig-mole buddy, Boota! Along with being a fun little good boy who stays with Simon even in old age, Boota can actually be useful for Simon as an extra source of Spiral Energy. Giving up his tail to give Simon and Kamina some food once to boost their energy (it grew back later, don’t worry), but more notably Boota had been stockpiling Spiral Energy across the whole seven year time skip. Letting him boost Gurren Lagann when Simon was on the backfoot.

Additionally, Boota himself can fight with Spiral Power to an extent, and his acquisition of Spiral Energy overtime also led to him temporarily evolving into a human-like form that could take out the Anti-Spiral by himself. Though this form was a temporary one time boost we never saw elsewhere (nor do we want to see again).

Kyle Rayner

The Green Machine

The coolest ride in the galaxy. A cadillac with fuzzy dice hanging in the rearview mirror with a custom license plate. 

Feats

Simon the Digger

Overall

• Defeated Viral, the majority of the Beastmen army, the Four Generals, and the majority of the Anti-Spiral’s army
• Defeated the Spiral King Lordgenome and liberated humanity from the underground.
• Became the leader of the entire human race and Grand Commander of Kamina City for several years
• Defeated the Anti-Spiral and thus saved all lifeforms correlated to Spiral Energy across all of existence from the menace
• Paved the path for humanity and all spiral lifeforms to co-exist and thrive in spite of the Anti-Spiral’s fear of life’s self-destruction
• Married his hot wife
  • Got to be with her for 80 years in Super Robot Wars X’s timeline
• Directly inspired one of the best Kirby games
  • There’s TTGL nods even in a later released game

Power

(An attack so cool we’re using it for gifs twice)

• Simon himself has:
  • Been the focus of Lordgenome’s statement that no Beastman can ever hope to match the power of a human with Spiral Power
  • Used his Core Drill to blast a giant hole through Lordgenome.
  • Fought evenly with Viral in a prison brawl.
  • Integrated with and absorbed his infinite, multiversal alternate selves into himself
  • Used Spiral Energy to the point that the Anti-Spiral explained that a single life form can draw forth the power of the infinite universe
    • This overuse of Spiral Power will erupt out of their body and become a galaxy, which spawns as many galaxies as there are lifeforms that will devour each other, forming a black hole that will return the universe to the void, the Spiral Nemesis. This will destroy the universe in a single “instant”
  • When manifesting the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann from their Spiral Power, the shouts of Team Gurren seemingly shake the universe
  • Beat down Anti-Spiral with his bare hands and then drilled through him with Spiral Energy
• As Lagann:
  • Gunmen stomping around cause shockwaves deep into the ground
  • Tackled a Gunman’s hand out of the way of grabbing Kamina and Yoko
  • Drilled out of the underground and through its first Gunman all at once, leaving behind a massive dust cloud from the impact
  • Upon seeing Kamina fatally wounded, Simon’s overwhelming burst of fighting spirit causes a nearby volcano to erupt while plugged into the Dai-Gunzan.
  • Lagann can drill through the hull and plating of the Dai-Gunzan. 
  • Lagann’s drilling caused massive destruction when emerging from underground.
  • Integrating with Yoko’s hijacked gunmen empowers it enough to fire blasts of Spiral Energy that destroy Guame’s mecha.
  • All the mechas Lordgenome used were once weapons used to fight Anti-Spirals, including the Lagann, which is stated to be “one of their most powerful weapons”.
  • The famous scene of TTGL getting stripped down to lower, still approaching, forms of the mecha by Anti-Spiral before it’s just Simon’s Lagann drilling a hole in the Anti-Spiral.
• As Gurren Lagann:
  • Gurren Lagann’s transformation sequence is so cool it makes a volcano erupt.
  • Gurren Lagann’s final combination with Kamina forms a tornado of spiral energy.
  • Uses drills to push the Dai-Gunzan in its entirety above water from the depths of the sea.
  • Was able to destroy Thymilph’s mecha with a Giga Drill Breaker
  • Was able to destroy Cytomander’s mecha with several blades and a Giga Drill Breaker.
  • Can manifest countless drill missiles that aim, home in on an entire armada, and destroy all those enemy ships at once.
  • Destroyed the Dai-Gundo after forcibly reversing his spin and powering through, causing a massive explosion
  • Wielded and used the Spiral Power from his friends to empower its own Giga Drill Breaker, allowing it to blast through the combined mecha of the remaining generals and Viral
  • Simon’s Gurren Lagann intercepts a beam from the Anti-Spiral ships that was about to strike an ally, which he absorbs and barrels through with his drill to destroy it.
  • Simply exuding willpower in the Gurren Lagann can cause massive AOE energy shockwaves that take out numerous Anti-Spiral ships.
  • Able to catch and throw back a gargantuan amount of energy beams fired from the moon, causing so many explosions that a massive portion of the moon is covered in blasts.
• As Arc-Gurren Lagann:
  • The combination of the Gurren Lagann and Arc-Gurren into the Arc-Gurren Lagann creates a massive bright light between the Earth and moon.
  • Upon combining, Arc-Gurren Lagann caused a massive energy shockwave that destroyed two gargantuan Anti-Spiral ships.
  • Punched a massive Anti-Spiral ship causes another gargantuan flash of light.
  • Stopped and overpowered the moon-sized Cathedral Terra from punching Earth.
    • The Arc-Gurren Lagann was able to match and hold off the planet-busting punch of the Cathedral Terra for enough time for Simon to dive into the heart of the machine.
  • Punched an Anti-Spiral ship so hard that it shattered a hole in the fabric of space-time and sent the ship to the far endof the space-time continuum.
    • No like seriously what the fuck
  • Delivered a massive kick against the Cathedral Terra imbued with electricity.
• As Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann:
  • Is literally the moon.
  • The Cathedral Terra transformed and attempted to punch the Earth.
  • Cathedral Terra pulled the real moon out of a pocket dimension with dimensional anchors.
  • Cathedral Terra blows up a flees of Ashtangas.
  • With the real moon back, the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren can stop acting as the moon and leave without affecting Earth, confirming its size and properties perfectly match the moon.
  • In humanoid form, SGGL has power rivaling that of a “micro cosmos”.
  • Could block and absorb a massive energy beam fired at it by an Ashtanga ship capable of chucking planets at it.
    • The sunglasses blades on the SGGL can be flung like a massive boomerang to destroy that planet-chucking Ashtanga ship in one shot.
    • SGGL can easily destroy 12 Ashtanga ships where the SGDG struggled with one.
  • Leeron says that the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann ended up producing so much energy it was like a galaxy was about to be born.
    • The barrage of missiles across the past and future destroyed numerous ships and caused an explosion that spread across the universe.
  • Simon can form a Super Galaxy Giga Drill Breaker that causes a massive explosion that can be seen from a faraway point in space.
  • Physically powers its way through an Ashtanga’s energy fields and crushes it.
• As Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
  • Really, REALLY big.
  • Eclipses numerous celestial bodies.
  • Created a belt out of several galaxies after adjusting its gravity field to collect them.
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann radiates “infinite power”.
  • Clashed with the Anti-Spiral to make gigantic explosions of light and explosions.
  • Used an enhanced version of Yoko’s rifle to blast apart a portion of the Anti-Spiral mecha.
  • Grappled and swung around the Anti-Spiral with super-dimensional anchors.
  • Unable to put a dent in the “far superior” Granzeboma at first before growing in power later.
  • The Tengen Toppa versions of Lagann and other mechas from his friends manifest, which damage and intercept the Anti-Spiral, galaxies, and have the same power as Simon.
  • With Lordgenome’s assistance, it absorbed the Infinity Big Bang Storm (which, due to spatial dimensions in the universe, should be 11-D as it’s an attack on par with the birth of a new universe) and made it into a drill.
  • After absorbing the Infinity Big Bang Storm attack from the Anti-Spiral, the TTGL could now match and shatter the Anti-Spiral’s drills.
• As Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
  • BIGGER
  • After absorbing the Infinity Big Bang Storm, which equates to a birth of a new universe that includes its spatial dimensions, it formed after combining with the Tengen Toppa mechas.
  • The STTGL and the Anti-Spiral clash with a massive Giga Drill beam-struggle several times bigger than numerous cosmic structures.
  • The clash with the Anti-Spiral ends up absorbing countless galaxies and universes around them until only a void of black is left.
  • Simon is shown breaking down into lesser forms during the STTGL’s final clash but he still ends up matching Anti-Spiral’s power.
  • The final clash between STTGL and Granzeboma ended up making the universe tremble and triggered an infinite amount of energy, which apparently transcended time and space.

Speed

• Simon himself has:
  • Activated shutters quickly to shield him, Kamina, and Yoko all in time from a Gunmen strike. 
  • Simon himself avoids strikes from Cytomander’s Gunman.
  • The infinite alternate dimensional versions of Simon, viewed as pillars of light in different possibilities in the Multiversal Labyrinth, were absorbed and integrated into his Core Drill.
  • Kept up with the Anti-Spiral in a fistfight.
• As Lagann:
  • Early on, Simon manually dodges attacks from a Gunmen.
  • Simon piloted it to avoid missiles from Gunmen.
  • Avoids most of Viral’s Enki Sun Attack energy beam by burrowing underground.
  • Travels cosmic distances during its final charge against the Granzeboma.
• As Gurren Lagann:
  • Was able to trade a punch and keep up with Viral’s Enki mecha.
  • Dodges out of the way of a fired artillery shell from the Gunmen Dai-Gunzan.
  • Rossiu, while piloting the Gurren Lagann, is able to outmaneuver numerous homing missiles at once.
  • Gurren Lagann maneuvers around the beam attacks of the Anti-Spiral ships and can keep up with them when they boost their speed tremendously.
  • Caught a massive beam from the moon-disguised Cathedral Terra and flung it back in moments, causing an enormous set of explosions along its surface.
• As Arc-Gurren Lagann:
  • Quickly flew to and intercepted the Cathedral Terra as it was already in the process of trying to punch the Earth.
• As Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann:
  • Pulled the moon back into place from an imaginary dimension at 50% engine output.
  • Blocked and absorbed an enormous energy beam from the Ashtanga.
  • Bisected an Ashtanga with the Super Galaxy Mega Cutter in seconds.
  • Giga Drill Break causes an enormous explosion whose light is visible from interstellar distances away in seconds.
  • Able to fire Probability Altering Missiles at an infinite number of enemies at every point in space-time and dimensions within the near future and near past.
• As Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
  • Sprinted ludicrously cosmic distances while fighting the Anti-Spiral
  • Dodges energy beams from the Anti-Spiral by jumping between several galaxies and using them as cover
  • TTGL and the Anti-Spiral mecha are on par with each other as they rapidly trade blows and slices with their blades.
  • TTGL and Granzeboma fired a barrage of cosmic lasers at each other
  • The TTGL’s fight with the Granzeboma would technically not be visible for tens of thousands of years since the light of the battle is so far away and the mechas are too big
  • Its sheer size means its crossing immeasurable distances by virtue of existing (See Verdict) 
• As Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
  • Can cross universal distances by virtue of its enormous size alone.
  • Its transformation increases its size to gargantuan, galaxy-dwarving levels in seconds.
  • Simply setting down its foot crosses intergalactic distances.
  • Matches the Anti-Spiral’s drill after its attack crosses tons upon tons of galaxies.
  • After absorbing the cosmos with the Anti-Spiral, an infinity symbol flashes, as they had triggered and produced an infinite amount of energy and transcended time and space.

Durability

• Simon himself has:
  • Been decked in the face by Kamina.
  • Been decked in the face by Viral.
  • Materialized Spiral Energy constructs are constantly substantiated by Simon.
  • Endured the damage to himself from overtaxing his Spiral Power production and powering the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren in the Death Spiral Field.
  • Survived beatings from the Anti-Spiral and his dying, cosmic explosion.
• As Lagann:
  • Tanked an enemy Gunman attack striking so hard that it cracks its own head.
  • Withstood some of Viral’s Enki Sun Attack before burrowing underground.
  • Notably hit by a drill from Lordgenome, but the Lagann endures with Simon’s Spiral Power.
• As Gurren Lagann:
  • Got blasted by Enki’s barrage of missiles and kept standing.
  • The Gurren Lagann is blasted by Viral’s Enki Sun Attack.
  • The mecha survives a massive explosion after crashing down on the surface with the Enki.
  • Tanks intense barrage of massive explosions from the Dai-Gunzan and endures, ends up engulfed in flames, which is ignored, and uses it to deliver a dive kick.
  • Uses Giga Drill Maximum to destroy the swarm of Anti-Spiral ships, resulting in a gargantuan explosion that his mecha takes damage from, but shields his body.
  • Simon morphs his drill into a shield to block a massive energy blast from the moon.
• As Arc-Gurren Lagann:
  • Arc-Gurren endured a massive electrical shock from massive Anti-Spiral ships.
  • Withstood the planet-busting punch from the Cathedral Terra mecha.
• As Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann:
  • Survived within the ultra-dense Spiral Death Sea, which contained the Spiral Energy of an immeasurable amount of fallen Spiral warriors.
  • The energy field from Simon is able to neutralize the attacks from chucked planets as if they were nothing.
  • The SGDG’s shields can withstand a shockwave that shakes the Anti-Spiral universe.
• As Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
  • The Granzeboma punched the TTGL into a massive galaxy.
  • The Anti-Spiral smacked the TTGL through several galaxies.
  • Anti-Spiral pummeled the TTGL into a pulp and tore it into pieces.
  • Withstands and eventually absorbs Granzeboma’s Infinity Big Bang Storm, pushing back on it as it causes quantum breakdown, with some assistance from Lordgenome.
• As Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
  • Fought and matched the Anti-Spiral, who grew to the same size as it in seconds.

Kyle Rayner

Overall

• Discovered his purpose in life and embraced in becoming Green Lantern
• Helped Superman defeat Mongul and became a member of the Justice League of America 
• Carried the torch as the last Green Lantern alive
• Restored the Green Lantern Corps and Guardians of the Universe as Ion
• Defeated Parallax Hal Jordan, Ganthet, Dr. Polaris, Fatality, Major Force, Grayven, Alex Nero, Oblivion, and Sinestro
• Forgave himself for the loss of Alex and embraced self love, the final step to unlocking his power as the White Lantern
• Brought the end of creation to a halt by reaching the Source and aiding the Entities in refilling the Emotional Spectrum
• Created the White Lantern Corps and killed Oblivion
• Became one of the greatest artists of all time by the 31st century
• From the Green Lantern himself, Kyle Rayner is considered the greatest Lantern of all time
• Better gamer than the Flash

Power

• As a Green Lantern
  • The Green Lantern Ring is repeatedly called the most powerful weapon in the universe
  • Early in his career destroyed Oa
  • His constructs can harm the likes of Superman, Parallax Hal Jordan, and Major Force
  • Would’ve killed Major Force had his ring not run out of charge, later beat him again with Guy Gardner and also nearly killed him there
  • Easily defeats Dr. Polaris
  • Blocks lasers that are shown to create explosions visible from space on a planet
  • Ring is stated to be able to level a planet
  • Helped a group of Green Lanterns move a sun that was going supernova
  • Considered one of the most powerful members of the Titans side by side with Donna Troy and Supergirl
  • Trades hits with Superboy
  • Stopped a city from crashing into a planet
  • Together with Martian Manhunter, restrains a Superman who still needs his real memories restored, using a chain construct
  • While weakened, sent Ganthet flying with an emotional spectrum blast
  • Fought Dreadnaught, who had absorbed enough power to beat Superman
  • With a Future Superman, Kyle was able to contain a supernova in a construct.
  • Was mistaken for someone who destroyed many worlds via how powerful he was
  • Sends Alex Nero flying across the World Trade Center
  • Brings down Amphibitus by dropping Rann’s polar ice caps on him
    • Amphibitus is the size of a small country
  • Kyle battling Stellara of Ramnos would level a small city
  • Fought Devlos Ungol the Traitor, breaking his armor with constructs
  • Puts the dead planet Ramnos back together
  • Fought Superman (in the body of Bizarro) with Plastic Man and Flash
  • Contains the leaking energies of Imperiex, who already had numerous galaxies worth of energy stored inside of him
  • Destroyed several asteroids 
  • Went toe-to-toe with John Stewart, twice
  • Tackles Major Force through a solar system
  • With Kilowog, adjusted the orbit of Thanagar
  • Draws blood from Sinestro with a punch
  • Broke through Star Sapphire crystallization
  • Kyle forms mecha arms over his own and, with Hal, John, and Guy, all work together to individually pummel down some Controllers
    • Kyle forms a construct arm over his own arm to grab multiple Controllers and extend his melee range
  • Kyle is supercharged by both his own will and Hal’s through his ring, which allows him to restrain Zod with a machine construct and smash him to the ground after having previously been smacked around easily by him
  • Considered the “big guns” of the Titans alongside Miss Martian
  • Kyle forms a massive mecha with a sword to combat Darkstars.
  • Fought the Guardians of the Universe with all seven lights for a brief moment
  • Parallax Hal [Splinterverse] went to great lengths to acquire Kyle’s Power Ring. By drawing on its power and magnifying it a millionfold. The weakened Parallax aspect of Hal Jordan gained enough strength to seize control of the Oblivion Wave and redirect it. When Kyle regained his ring, Oblivion overtook the entire Splinterverse, and would have erased the entire Multiverse.
    • In the Zero Hour 30th Anniversary Special, it establishes that an aspect of Parallax Hal was created the moment he was defeated during Zero Hour. One that made & sustained a universe called the Splinterverse for decades; which is similar to the Post-Crisis universe, but with various notable alterations. Moreover, this aspect of Parallax Hal was functioning on a significantly smaller scale compared to the true version. As Parallax Hal’s power waned, the Splinterverse began to collapse, triggering an Oblivion Effect that surged through the boundaries of space and time, erasing all of existence – including the JSA, Legion of Super-Heroes, and Apokolips. Wally of the Splinterverse likened the Oblivion Wave to a crisis-level catastrophe, while both Kyle and Waverider emphasized that it would inevitably spread to the prime Multiverse, threatening to annihilate it as well.
• As a Blue Lantern
  • Harmed Parallax with an energy blast
  • Destroyed Guy Gardner’s Red Lantern ring
• As Ion
  • Ion can remake the universe
  • Nero with Ion’s power has the power of the universe
  • Has Infinite Power
  • Contained a 100 megaton bomb 
  • Even while he was in an unresponsive state, was capable of killing Jade and Alan Scott 
  • Has the power of a thousand Green Lanterns 
  • Shook the very core of Oa
  • Destroys a giant asteroid. 
  • Contained the Blind, which was comparable to the Big Bang and has zero volume and infinite density like a quantum singularity
• As a White Lantern
  • Can draw blood from Oblivion
  • Volthoom says that Kyle is a genuine threat to the Guardians of the Universe
    • Hal Jordan reiterates that Kyle as the White Lantern can stop the Guardians
  • Sends Ganthet flying away in fear due to his power
  • Destroys two feet of Inerton an indestructible metal from the 31st century, though it drains his ring doing so
    • Hal cutting through two feet of inerton nearly killed him
  • The power ring fueled a space-time shaking event
• With the Life Equation
  • Stated to be a power that Highfather could never achieve on his own

Speed

• Without a Lantern Ring
  • Dodges an explosion
• As a Green Lantern
  • Stops point-blank shots from a gun pointed at someone’s head
  • Can keep up with the Flash 
  • Flies into space within seconds
  • Dodges an energy blast from Mongul
  • Escaped an explosion with a jet construct
  • Along with the Flash breaks the sound barrier (wow!)
  • Starting at the Sun, traveled to the edge of the universe in a 40-50 hour time frame 
  • Escapes a Black Hole 
  • Flies through several continents within a short timeframe
  • Travels from Earth to Oa
  • Easily flies past numerous planets with Abin Sur
  • Flew to the Justice League Watchtower, but was 8 minutes late
  • Catches up to Supergirl and restrains her with a claw construct
  • Keeps up with Superman, Martian Manhunter, and Wonder Woman when flying in space
  • Flies from Earth to Tendrax in an unknown time frame, Jen says that taking a construct ship would actually make them go faster
    • Tendax is a planet in another galaxy
  • Redirects Terminus’ energy blast with a construct
  • Makes a soccer goal and mirrors to deflect lasers
  • Flies to planet Okaara
  • Dodges a swiping attack from Fatality
  • Escapes the pull of a black hole
  • Redirects Bleez’s napalm breath with a construct
  • Keeps up with Mach Turtle, a solid-light projection meant to match Kyle’s abilities, in a race
  • Intercepts a missile with a construct
  • Dodges attacks from Arkillo
  • Kyle can fly through Transluminal Space, a web of subspace pathways that allow him to travel faster than light
  • Flies across a distance described as “two worlds away” in the time it takes for a short fight to occur
  • Flies from Earth to Saint Walker’s world through hyperspace, which was multiple sectors away
  • Kyle flies to Earth pretty fast.
  • Kyle flew halfway across the universe 
• As a Blue Lantern
  • Intercepts numerous Green Lantern ring energy blasts
  • Formed a tornado with Hal, John, and Guy to hide their location
• As a White Lantern
  • Leaves behind sonic booms when he leaves orbit
  • Flew out of the mouth of a space shark
  • Shields himself from a thrown projectile moving at a portion of lightspeed
  • Flew to the planet Nok from “halfway across creation”
  • Can move through transluminal space at speeds beyond the laws of physics

Durability

• Without a Lantern Ring
  • Took hits from Hal Jordan 
  • Survived an explosion from Effigy before his ring could protect him
• As a Green Lantern
  • Early in his career also survived the destruction of Oa 
  • Regularly survives large explosions
  • Tanked hits from Ohm, who has the power of a city
  • His shields and forcefields can block against planet busting explosions, lasers, gunfire, supernovas, lava, etcetc
  • Took a beating from Mongul
  • Blasted by past Extant, though it does take him out
  • Took hits from Superboy-Prime (he held back I fear) and Monarch
  • Survived absorbing Oa’s Energies and the Power Cosmic for a brief time
    • The Power Cosmic and Oa’s Energies are considered equal to one another
    • Oa’s energies on its own threatened 2 universes
    • Thanos was going to use Oa’s Energies to destroy all realms except for Death’s
  • Tanked a beating from Parallax Hal Jordan
  • Can tank hits from other Lanterns such as Alan Scott
  • Took a punch from Devlos Ungol the Traitor, who could crush Kyle Rayner’s ring into dust
  • Takes a beating from Alan Scott constructs 
  • Punched by Starro-controlled Wally West
  • Survived the self-destruction of his Green Lantern ring
  • No-sells a subsonic attack from Asmodel
  • Takes a punch from Aquaman
  • Hit by a blast that would’ve cut the moon in half
  • Can take hits from Darkstars, enemies of Green Lanterns
  • Blasted by Larfleeze’s energy beam
  • Endures attacks from Sonar
  • Survived being stabbed by the Qwardian Blade
  • Hit across a body of water and kicked by Fatality
  • Tanks an energy blast from a laser gun
  • Blasted by Major Force’s energy blasts
  • Survived multiple Green Lantern construct missile explosions
  • Gets thrown into the street by Arkillo
  • Takes a blast from a monster draining the city of its power then destroys it
  • Gets up from a blast from Mach Turtle, his equal in abilities, even getting up from his energy rope later and continuing to match him
  • Took hits from energy cannons without his guard up
  • Gets blasted by Star Sapphire’s energy
  • Tanks a blast from Solaris that sends him into a random planet’s orbit
  • Survives a beat down by other Kryptonians loyal to Zod
  • Endures a massive blast from Ganthet
  • Can survive being in a ship that traveled to the center of the sun and then crashed into earth. 
• As a Blue Lantern
  • Blasted by a corrupted Mogo
  • Tanks Mogo’s Black Lantern energy, is hurt though conscious
  • Survives the destruction of Mogo
• As Ion
  • Is bulletproof  
• As a White Lantern
  • Survives lightning strikes
  • Unfazed by a geyser sprout of lava
  • Can take hits from Oblivion, which can slam down Kyle’s constructs
  • Survives planetary impact, making a massive crater and impact burst that covers the curvature of the planet
  • Decked in the face by Green Lantern Sinestro
  • Can fight Exeter, who can absorb Kyle’s energy and redirect it at him, which he can also tank
• With the Life Equation
  • Endures the Guardians trying to remove the Life Equation from him
  • Unmade himself and Oblivion from existence using the equation and still survived, despite fully expecting himself to die.

Scaling

Gurren Lagann images by Blue Igneous and ishi_yuki, White Lantern by Spirit, Title Card images by Flip.

Simon the Digger

Simon and the Dai-Gurren team have gone against several enemies without ever lacking confidence in their hearts. Would it be the army of the Spiral King across the wastes, or the Anti-Spiral in higher dimensions, they’ve gone against all manner of seemingly impossible hurdles only to jump over the roadblock regardless. Hell, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann was formed through Simon absorbing the power of infinite alternate versions of himself, all with their own stories and feats. Thus at its peaks, Gurren Lagann should scale to every feat in the whole franchise pretty clearly, and so practically no justification is needed for scaling Simon and Gurren Lagann to the allies and enemies (and others, you’ll understand in a bit) listed below.

Team Dai-Gurren

As a quick clarification, feats from alternative universe Team Dai-Gurrens will be listed here as the main cast Simon massively scales above should be at worst comparable to their alternate counterparts. This additionally applies when it comes to alternate Simons on other Team Dai-Gurrens, especially given he absorbed all of his alternate versions to fight Anti-Spiral.

• Kamina:
  • Spiral Boy‘s Kamina can block a bullet from Yoko’s rifle.
  • Otoko Kamina uses the Gurren to throw the Lagann so fast it creates afterimages.
  • Otoko Kamina and Lordgenome eat ramen faster than Simon’s eyes can see.
• Rossiu is able to lob one of the massive missiles from Cytomander’s battleship back at him with Gurren Lagann to collide with an identical one, which causes a massive explosion.
• Yoko:
  • Yoko’s rifle can consistently blast back regular Gunmen.
  • Yoko’s rifle shots can intercept a Gunmen’s missiles.
  • Yoko’s shot pierced the shoulder of Adiane’s mecha and pushed it back.
  • Yoko’s rifle caused two Gunmen to drop a lighthouse from their hands.
  • Yoko’s Gunman causes an absurdly interstellar AOE attack with missiles in seconds.
• Kittan:
  • Kittan amplified one of Simon’s drills to increase in size to blast the Death Spiral Machine.
    • Kittan’s final sacrifice in destroying the Death Spiral Machine shook the galaxy.
    • Kittan is able to frantically step his legs to avoid concentrated machine gun fire without his mecha.
• One of Team Dai-Gurren’s Gunmen gets slammed into a massive explosion from Adiane’s attack and survives.
• Mechas by the Earth’s government can also intercept beam attacks from the Anti-Spiral ships, absorb them, and redirect them back at them.
  • Gunmen were weapons specifically designed to fight the Anti-Spiral, which is why they’re so effective against their ships.
• The Dai-Gunzan:
  • The Dai-Gunzan delivers a kick to an enemy battleship. This enemy battleship crashing causes a massive explosion that can be seen from the horizon.
  • The Dai-Gunzan is the size of a mountain.
  • Dai-Gunzan’s cannons obliterate Adiane and cause a massive explosion in the sea.
  • The Dai-Gunzan survives a gargantuan explosion from a barrage from the remaining generals and Viral with a neutralizing energy shield.
  • The Dai-Gurren punched through the hammer arm of Lordgenome’s Teppelin to lead Simon to Lordgenome and self-destructed to obliterate the hammer arm.
• Other Simons:
  • Yoko no Obeso-hen’s Gurren Lagann breaks a hospital with a transformation.
  • Spiral Boy’s Laggan drilled through the two-faced Majin-Gan and the fake ceiling above it.
  • In Otoko no-jōken! Gurren Lagann, Simon Avant in Otoko Simon’s manuscript universe can throw galaxies at the end of his story.
  • Otoko Simon’s pen is used as a Core Drill and can create universes and join his universe with the “2D universe” Simon Avant hails from.
  • In Otoko no-jōken! Gurren Lagann, this version of Simon is a popular manga artist. This doesn’t mean much for VS but good for him!
  • Simon Avant claims his drill can break through the walls of dimensions.
  • Simon Avant’s goal is to pierce the heavens and dimensions to transcend his own 2D space and Otoko Simon’s “sound dimension”, which both he and Leeron corroborate to mean the literal drama CD disc that they’re existing in since they realize they exist in a reality of only words (aka the audio drama).
    • Simon Avant realizes he needs more power for this and uses his Giga Drill to stab into and absorb this universe’s Gurren Lagann as light to power himself up.
    • Simon Avant creates his own version of the Granzeboma and had Lordgenome, Dark Nia, and Rossiu get obedient and drunk off of his destructive power.
    • Kamina makes reference to how their universe can be found sealed on the drama CD disc in the real world and addresses the listener.

Beastmen Army

• Viral:
  • Viral’s mech shields him from Yoko’s rifle shot after she fires
  • On his own, Viral’s mecha is able to hold back the stomping foot of the Dai-Gunzan and fling it in its entirety himself
  • Directly endured a beating from Dark Nia
  • Otoko Viral cancels out a Giga Drill Break from the Gurren Lagann by rotating at the same speed that the drill is spinning
• Early Beastmen Gunmen caused tremors thought to be earthquakes and broke through the surfaceof Simon’s underground village.
  • A large bathhouse building is destroyed upon the gargantuan Gunmen waiting underneath standing up to spring a trap on the main cast
• Thymilph pierces and fatally wounds Kaminathrough the hull of the Gurren with his mecha.
  • Notably Kamina’s vitals are barely there, but he survived the fatal blow for just long enough to knock sense into Simon to re-boost the Lagann to take over the Dai-Gunzan properly
• Adiane:
  • Adiane’s mecha’s spine is broken from a kick by the Dai-Gunzan, but does survive
  • Adiane bats away continuous machine gun fire with her tail
  • Adiane’s mecha gets annihilated by the Dai-Gunzan’s firepower, exploding into a massive mushroom cloud over the sea
  • The Dai-Gunzan delivers a kick to an enemy battleship. This enemy battleship crashing causes a massive explosion that can be seen from the horizon
  • The Dai-Gunzan is the size of a mountain
  • Dai-Gunzan’s cannons obliterate Adiane and cause a massive explosion in the sea
• Guame:
  • Guame’s armor is the toughest out of the four generals
  • Dai-Gunzan uses its front hull to attack Cytomander and send the wreckage down onto Guame’s ship, causing a massive explosion. But, Guame’s ship comes out of it unscathed
  • Guame’s Dai-Gundo ship manifests a massive spiral of Spiral Energy and whirlwinds that destroy Gunmen on contact
• The Four Generals’ massive mechas and Viral’s new mecha fling and juggle the Dai-Gunzan through the air
• Lordgenome:
  • Lordgenome’s massive Teppelin mecha forms a forcefield out of Spiral Power from its finger that halts Simon’s drill from the Gurren Lagann and flicks him away
  • Lordgenome can power up his own Gurren Lagann-type mecha with just his own Spiral Power and that of 6 other women present
  • His mecha tanks a Giga Drill Attack and stabs the Gurren Lagann with drill tendrils
  • Lordgenome exits the Lazengann and just beats up the Lagann with his bare fists, matching it with his body alone, implying he’s physically superior
  • Super Galaxy Lazengann destroys his own fleet
  • The unexpected Spiral Power in Boota and Computer Lordgenome are able to block a killing energy shot from the Anti-Spiral, and Boota dissipates the Anti-Spiral with a punch
  • Computer Lordgenome pops his mecha out to withstand the Infinity Big Bang Storm from the Anti-Spiral on his own for some time. This attack had Lordgenome undergo quantum breakdown, which he absorbed to become one with the energy to lend to the TTGL
  • Otoko Lordgenome combines two energy systems of the drama CD’s universe for an Infinity Big Bang Storm like the Anti-Spiral. He says he twists this into a “twofold dimension” or “20 dimensions” (depends on the translation) for the attack, saying they’ll “burn amidst the hellfire of a universe’s creation”. Otoko Simon’s Dad’s Gurren Lagann struggled against it.
    • Lordgenome says “ni-ju” before mentioning “dimensions”, which can either mean “20” or “double/two-fold/two layers/duplex”, more on this in Cosmology

Anti-Spiral Army

(Anti-Monitor and Scopedog victim)

• Gunshots from Grapearl mechas and blade strikes are shown to be ineffective against the forcefields the Mugann use.
  • The debris of the destroyed Mugann can blow up and devastate a city.
  • The Anti-Spiral high pressure ship is able to fire asteroid-sized missiles.
  • Anti-Spiral ships are shown causing explosions on planets visible from space.
  • They attack the Earth. (oh no!)
• The Anti-Spirals programmed the moon to leave its orbit and impact Earth in 3 weeks time.
  • Dark Nia explains that when the moon crashes into the crust of the Earth, the planet will be cracked open and kill all life on it regardless of their shelters.
  • Leeron confirms that it’s been slowly moving towards Earth at the two week mark, and it’s said to make atmospheric entry in 10 days, 6 hours, and 23 minutes.
  • They initially stole and replaced the real moon.
• Anti-Spiral merges two large galaxies intoan Infinity Big Bang Stormthat can burn them down to their DNA, which Leeron states has energy comparable to the birth of a new universe, a Big Bang.
  • The Infinity Big Bang Storm from the Anti-Spiral causes its targets to undergo quantum breakdown, which Lordgenome used to become one with the energy to lend it to the TTGL.
  • Anti-Spiral says this attack will annihilate them down to their DNA.
• Anti-Spiral created an imaginary, oscillating time-space located between the membranes of the dimensional universes of the 10th and 11th dimensions.
  • Anti-Spiral reiterates their interdimensional location between the 10th and 11th dimensions.
  • The Anti-Spiral can project their voice from all directions simultaneously in their homeworld. This is because their homeworld is a “malleable” universe, and they can control it according to “their every whim”. Lordgenome says it’s no exaggeration to say their enemy is the Anti-Spiral universe itself.
  • The Anti-Spiral reiterates during its fight with TTGL that it controls the universe it’s in.
  • Has the capability to lightly transcend space and time, and it controls “multiple dimensions”.
  • After the Anti-Spiral was defeated, the Anti-Spiral’s universe between dimensions vanished since he was constantly maintaining its existence.
• Anti-Spiral easily matches the STTGL’s size in moments and they fight while their movements cross a ridiculous amount of galaxies/universes in mere moments.
  • The final collision between Granzeboma and STTGL transcended time and space while producing an “infinite amount of energy”.
  • The Anti-Spiral is unbound by space and time.
  • Threw galaxies at Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann like ninja stars.
  • Able to kick away galactic star clusters and galaxy clusters.
  • Fired its tendrils at the rapidly, cosmically approaching Lagann.
  • Anti-Spiral casually creates and plays with planets and stars.
  • The Anti-Spiral died via a gargantuan cosmic explosion upon his defeat.

The “Triggerverse” (Just For Funsies)

(no this did not have any impact on the debate this is just for fun)

That’s right, official crossover scaling! Kinda! Credit to this thread by STTGL as the source for most of this information!

The creative team behind Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Panty & Stocking w/ Garterbelt would go on to leave Gainax and found their own animation studio: Studio Trigger. A recurring part of damn near all of their works is their own self-referential nature, not only reusing similar imagery and motifs across different productions but outright having their characters appear in different works! In particular Space Patrol Luluco has several episodes that explicitly make clear it shares a universe with Kill la Kill, Little Witch Academia, Sex & Violence with Machspeed, and Inferno Cop. Chief Over Justice from SPL is even stated to be the same person as Alexis Kerib from the Gridman Universe. Lucia from Promare is shown texting with Luluco, Over Justice, and Midori. Inferno Cop exists within BNA. And in general multiple Trigger properties (TTGL included) are all stated to exist as part of a shared setting that dimension hoppers like Luluco/Trigger-chan and Inferno Cop can cross the walls and limitations separating them.

But isn’t TTGL a Gainax property? Well not anymore! Ten years after their founding in 2011, Trigger managed to acquire the rights to TTGL and Panty & Stocking, putting these works back in the hands of its original creators! And inadvertently scaling Simon and his crew, at their very best at least, to the entirety of this “Triggerverse” given the sheer scale of the series. Granted TTGL outscales everything else in Trigger’s catalog of works for… obvious reasons so this section will actually focus on abilities this time around. Mostly ones that seemingly are based on willpower and emotions just to see how consistent Studio Trigger is with giving their cast all these zany abilities because humanity is awesome.

• Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt
  • Stocking tanks being sneezed out of the moon (1.5 Yottatons of TNT)
  • Garterbelt survived the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs
  • Stocking flew to Earth from Heaven in a short timeframe (34,938,025,000,000,000c)
  • Ghosts are made from powerful spirits who cannot move beyond
• Inferno Cop
  • Inferno Cop becomes a “Real God”, transforming almost everyone in the world into a copy of himself. Is capable of completely reverting this in his Glitter form
  • Despite Claudia’s power surpassing that of “Gods”, Inferno Cop cites the human power of possibility as something she cannot understand and defeats her in a sacrificial attack that shakes Jack Knife Edge Town
• Kill la Kill
  • Life Fibers possess the ability to take over reality, with Junketsu creating a tangible, alternate reality
  • The Primordial Life Fiber could connect to and absorb Life Fibers from across the past and future of multiple alternate timelinesand would eventually reach critical mass and collapse reality
    • Ryuko and Senketsu could replicate this spontaneously, powering up to Kisaragi
  • Junketsu Shinzui Satsuki compressed the flow of time around herself
• Little Witch Academia
  • Humanity’s emotions and belief can be generated into magical energy and is what once sustained the Yggdrasil, the cosmic tree that holds all celestial bodies and is the source of infinite magic
• Space Patrol Luluco
  • A person’s “Will of Justice” can can act as an energy source for weapons, survive otherwise lethal injuries, and revive from death
  • Love, a manifestation of Justice, allowed Luluco to revive from the dead and create constructs, imbue emotions into empty husks like Nothinglings, travel across and distort dimensions, and generate energies comparable to the Big Bang as well as stop a sentient black hole that could swallow and recreate the universe.
• Gridman Universe
  • Drawing on the emotional power of Akane Shinjo, Alexis was able to create massive kaiju that could create not only the city the show is set in, but generate false memories and experiences. She is repeatedly called the “god” of this world
  • When kaiju kill living beings in Shinjo’s world, they are “deleted” and all memories and physical traces of their existence cease to exist
    • Despite being killed, Gridman manages to restore himself over a period of time and return to battle
  • Despite only possessing “finite” life and power, Gridman could draw upon Shinjo’s inherent human potential and surpassed Alexis’ “infinite” life and power
    • In the Gridman Universe film, it is reiterated Alexis’ infinite and unlimited life also translates to unlimited energy and power
    • In the same film Shinjo is shown to have grown to such a degree since the events of the show that Alexis claims inferiority to her
  • Shinjo’s world is a dream made from Alexis’ abilities, hence the dream disappearing if Shinjo were to leave. Gridman’s Fixer Beam makes her world real and items from her world could be brought into reality
    • Gridman’s ability to create things is described as “giving them substance”
    • We see in Gridman Universe that even as Yuta ascends his consciousness and leaves his universe to merge with the universal Gridman that Shinjo still looks down on him and the characters in the show from a tv screen, and her form within the multiverse is separate from her body in the “real world”
  • Kaiju and their powers grow from people’s hearts, wills, and emotions, defying common sense to make the impossible possible. They fundamentally exist outside time, space, and death, existing beyond logic reason. They are phenomenon produced by humanity embodying chaos against Gridman’s order
  • Gridman was originally a being with no substance who was given form and his creation powers by the collective belief of humanity
    • Gridman’s full potential would later be shown as being able to create multiple universes then merge them all with Akane Shinjo’s universe as the “Gridman Universe”, his creation ability even being compared to hers
    • Gridman’s full power is also described as infinite
  • Humanity has the inherent ability to bring to life fictitious things through belief
  • Yuta Hibiki’s willpower allowed him reconstruct Gridman and the universe as he breaks apart
• Promare
  • Burnish powers come from their psychic connection with the Promare akin to a gateway that responds to stimulation from the nerves, and more power relies on synchronization to a degree
  • Intense emotion from the Burnish can cause rapid bursts of power to where they can gain kaiju transformations
  • The Burnish can create constructs with their powers and even recreate limbs
  • Despite Burnish being harmed to near death and forcefully drained of energy, being sufficiently motivated allows them to safely channel ridiculously far more energy without harm
• BNA: Brand New Animal
  • Beastmen can absorb the blood and souls of their fallen comrades, all still living inside them, to gain immortality, as well as an enhanced transformation and energy blasts
  • Nirvasyl Syndrome causes Beastmen to transform into larger, more aggressive, and more powerful as a result of intense stress and heightened emotions

Kyle Rayner

Kyle Rayner as a Green Lantern was already immensely impressive, being stated to eventually surpass Hal Jordan as his career went on. With the White Lantern and even the Life Equation, Kyle should reasonably scale to far higher cosmic feats performed by some of DC’s most powerful heroes and villains, though more clarification will be given when needed to specify which forms of his scale to what. 

Green Lantern Corps

In brightest day and in blackest night, no evil shall escape their sight! The Green Lantern Corps has protected the universe across billions of years. While not being superior to Hal Jordan “in green”, he was called the greatest lantern by him when he became the White Lantern, and at one point Dream of the Endless said he would surpass Hal Jordan. This basically means that WL Kyle is outright superior to his legendary predecessor even if Hal’s willpower is stronger, and should scale to pretty much any feat standardly performed by his fellow Lanterns. 

• Hal Jordan
  • Blows up Warworld with full will, gravely wounding Parallax Sinestro in the process
  • His battle with Sinestro was able to bend reality
  • Was able to overload Dr Polaris’ control over the magnetic force of the universe
  • Survived blows from a Central Power Battery powered Sinestro
    • The Battery is able to siphon all of the Green Energy back into itself and create a black hole that threatens the universe
  • With only a few months of training, is able to create an entire universe, which is something all Lanterns can do with the same amount of training
  • Was able to reduce the explosion of the Golden Destroyer which threatened two universes 
  • Charges Cyborg with enough energy to shudder the universe
  • Sends tremors across the Emotional Spectrum
    • The Emotional Spectrum is called an Infinite web of interlinked Planes
    • Highfather also calls it one of the greatest powers in the multiverse
  • Sends probes across the universe in a heartbeat (37 duodecillion c)
  • Almost entered the Speed Force trying to keep up with Lightray
  • Ascended to being a New God after merging with a Mother Box and the Central Power Battery
    • Was stated to have control over all stars, exist “everywhere”, and was beyond space and time
  • Hal is absolutely blasted by an Old Genesis Golem that harms New Gods, but admits that he was getting tossed around like a ragdoll. 
  • Hal traverses the universe’s transluminal pathways at speeds incalculable
  • Hal dodges an Omega Beam in a jet construct
    • Hal’s jet is “rocketing through transluminal space at speeds greater than the gods” while outflying Omega Beams, ending up at the Source Wall. 
  • The narration says some would say Hal is the greatest Green Lantern of them all. 
  • Hal and Zod fight and Hal comes out on top. 
  • Tomar-Tu, after bonding with a Darkstars mantle, blasts and knocks out Hal.
    • Hal says that without his ring, Tomar-Tu would’ve blasted a hole through him. 
    • Tomar-Tu kills Goldface by incinerating him down to a skeleton. 
  • Single handedly drew power from all power batteries across the multiverse 
  • Volthoom considers Hal a nexus point of willpower far stronger than the Central Power Battery
• Lantern Rings regularly survive Black Holes and is unaffected by spaghettification 
  • A Green Lantern ring was willed to fly out from Mogo to Xudar, another far off planet, mid-conversation to find a sentient replacement. 
  • Green Rings are called the most formidable weapon in all of creation, due to how they form hard-light constructs only limited by the user’s imagination. 
  • Highfather called the Lantern Rings the greatest power in the multiverse
• John Stewart
  • Survived a supernova that illuminated thousands of light-years
  • Pushing his ring to the limit, John Stewart recreated the Xanshi Star System with constructs
  • Absorbed the Godstorm and “Ascended” to the level of a New God, touching The Source and gaining a separate ascended body capable of “everything” that can descend from the Godsphere without the need for a Boom Tube
  • Used his Godstorm powers to balance the entirety of the Emotional Spectrum and Magic and restored much of the depowered Lantern Corps
  • Has the energy to create a pantheon of New Gods
  • Survived being near the epicenter of an explosion from ramming into the Anti-Monitor so hard with the Flashmobile that it separated him from his brothers and left them all drained
    • Anti-Monitor here had the combined power of his brothers, a portion of the Totality, and the Anti-Life Equation
• Guy Gardner
  • Matched Lobo in arm-wrestling and tanked hits from him
  • Was able to fly from the Moon to Oa using a Green Lantern construct suit made by B’Dg in a few minutes.
  • Created constructs that could harm Superman and Hal, destroyed Hal’s constructs, and had a long, drawn-out fist fight with him
  • With Hal, flew across the universe in about 10 hours while their rings were on standby.
• Mogo
  • According to Hal, Mogo can peel back Oa’s crust
  • Stated to have limitless power and more power then any Green Lantern that came before him or since (at the time of the death of the Green Lantern Corps)
  • Illuminated an empty and dark universe 
• Guardians of The Universe
  • Stated to have Big Bang levels of power along with the Controllers
  • Ganthet’s shield could hold against the Big Bang
  • Fought the Anti-Monitor during the Sinestro Corps War
  • Young Maltusians, including those who would become the Guardians, warred with both New Genesis and Apokolips
  • According to Xena, the Guardians have the power to end all universes
  • Ganthet is consistently a member of the Quintessence and has been portrayed as existing on the level of the Sphere of The Gods. Each member, including himself, would be easily able to kill Darkseid after he was wounded and exhausted from his rampage across worlds
  • Guardian Koyos implies the Guardians themselves are similarly “Ascended” beings to Godstorm John Stewart, having touched The Source themselves
• Sodam Yat
  • Destroys a planet (Ranx) size mechanical object and also survives its destruction.
  • Powered by Ion, Sodam Yat is able to hold his ground against Superboy-Prime albeit ultimately loses against him
• Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz traveled to the edge of the known universe in three days
• Numerous green lanterns created a forcefield capable of containing a blast powerful enough to wipe out the entire milky way galaxy. 

Justice League

Arguably the most iconic superhero team in history and best defense for Earth, the Justice League has had Kyle Rayner among its ranks for a long time now. From the mortal yet brilliant heroes like Batman and Green Arrow, to the mighty and courageous likes of Superman and Wonder Woman, Kyle should certainly be comparable to a majority of his team members, as he’s been shown to be on par as a Lantern. 

• Superman:
  • Tore through a small moon in Saturn’s orbit
  • Sneezed away a Solar System
  • Survived the Big Bang and destroyed a structure that was withstanding it
  • Bursts through the bonds of Infinity while searching for Supergirl
  • Shattered endless dream realities
  • Shook the entire Phantom Zone, an infinite and endlessanti-universe
    • Can fight Doomsday, who can shatter the Phantom Zone
  • Alongside his Kingdom Come counterpart, fought and punched out Gog, a “Then-God” from Third World, who had a piece of the Anti-Life Equation
  • Golden Age and Post-Crisis Superman fighting to a standstill shattered the boundaries of space-time and changed entire timelines
• Wonder Woman:
  • Considered second to Superman in power by Darkseid
  • With her Lasso of Truth, pulls Martian Manhunter out of a black hole made by Oblivion
  • Survives an explosion that was stated to be multiplied to Infinite Power
  • Destroyed the Chronus Scepter, which contained the Godwave that caused multiversal destruction, even affecting the Source
  • Deflected trillions of particles coming from every corner of the universe from the Shattered God (315 quintillion c)
  • Took hits from Hunter Zolomon, who Diana herself says hits harder than Superman
  • Batman gets punched onto the Moon, says that it’s the strongest punch he’s ever taken considering Clark is a normal civilian. The punch came from Wonder Woman, and she came with Supergirl, Firestorm, Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Red Tornado, and Hawkgirl.
  • When drawing power from all of Olympus, Wonder Woman defeated Nemesis, who was powerful enough to dispose of all the Olympians, who also exist in the Godsphere
• Aquaman:
  • Stopped an attack that sunk Atlantis
  • Pushes a Tectonic Plate
  • Took on Despero, sending him flying and hurting him with his sharks
  • His tidal waves can overpower Kryptonians, which grew strong enough to be on par with Superman
  • Was capable of killing an Imperiex Probe on his own, which can take on multiple JLA members
  • Swam into the Secret Sea, where past, present, and future blend and swirl together
  • His forcefields can shield himself from the Flash’s Speed Force explosion
  • Using Poseidon’s magic, destroyed Thule, a parallel Earth in its own universe
• The Flash:
  • Wally can run a billion scenarios in a nanosecond
  • Both Flashes are consistently treated as faster than Superman
  • Barry Allen undoing Flashpoint merged the DC continuities into the New 52
  • The Flash simply running will send space-time into oblivion
  • Ran so fast that he outraced beings who can teleport
  • Powerful enough to knock the Anti-Monitor across realities with the Infinite Mass Punch
  • Barry says he’s fast enough to travel back in time.
  • Barry and Wally shattered a hard-light construct made by Hal Jordan by running, which took all his willpower to create and nearly destroyed his ring
  • The race between Barry Allen and Wally West was tearing the fabric of the multiverse apart, disrupting the winds of Earth, the Microverse, the Green, magic itself, and Highfather even mistook this power as something coming from the Source, destroying the Force Barrier as a result
• Captain Atom:
  • Considered one of the four most powerful heroes on Earth alongside Superman, Wonder Woman, and Shazam
  • Caught up to Takion in speed, a New God wielding the Speed Force who can have “an eternity” between moments
  • The Monitors stated that Monarch would’ve caused a chain reaction that reduced the multiverse back into one universe
  • Supplied Metron’s chair with enough power to collapse the entire space-time continuum.
  • With Metron, made a tear in the fabric of space and time that collapsed the timestream in order to make reality whole again.
  • Created entire universe with its own law and heroes, including the Spectre
• Hawkman:
  • Could trade hits with Black Adam
  • Knocked out Superman with the Claw of Horus, which has the magnetic core of the Earth, essentially hitting Clark with the entire planet
  • The Dragon of Barbatos, a Dark Multiverse variant of Hawkman, could send Barbatos flying 
  • Battled Mandrakk The Dark Monitor, being able to deflect and withstand blows from him
    • Mandrakk’s power was depicted as being capable of destroying the Monitor Sphere when clashing against the Bad Samaritan in the same fight
• Captain Marvel / Shazam:
  • Consistently considered Superman’s equal, and other Leaguers think he could give Clark a run for his money 
  • Cast a spell that merged the seven Magiclands together, which exist in the Sphere of Gods
  • Can fly to the Rock of Eternity, which exists outside of time and space
  • When the Wizard Shazam changed the pantheon empowering Billy to several Old Gods, he managed to beat Yuga Khan when he wielded the Staff of Living Lightning, which punched a hole through The Source into the multiverse
    • The Wizard later adds Yuga Khan to his pantheon, and the Wizard Shazam himself is among the gods empowering Billy

Misc. Villains

(Anti-Spiral victim right in the center)

As a Green Lantern and due to the unique positions of both the Life Entity and Life Equation, Kyle ends up scaling to a vast number of DC’s esoteric and cosmic villains. From those more closely tied to Lantern mythos such as Larfleeze and Crona, to mystical and magical villains like Neron or Trigon, and the walking Crisis-causing cataclysms like Superboy-Prime, the Anti-Monitor, and Barbatos, there are a myriad of villains Kyle should scale to as a result.

• Superboy-Prime:
  • Reality punch go brrr
  • Evenly matched against Sodam Yat Ion, ultimately coming out on top
  • Survived a blast from Monarch, whose power is compared to the Big Bang and ripped his armor open, surviving the destruction of the universe
  • Threatened to fly through Oa at Lightspeed and create a Big Bang
  • After absorbing all the energy of a Guardian of The Universe, managed to punch into the Fifth Dimension, pull out Mr. Mxyzptlk, and torture him (albeit Mxy himself was holding back)
• Neron
  • Fought the magic users of Earth with ease, including Alan Scott, Dr. Fate, Zatanna, and Doctor Occult
• Larfleeze
  • Repeatedly stated to wield the entire undiluted power of an entire Lantern Corps
  • The Orange Light shines brighter than a Star System, and the Controllers believed that with it they can control the universe.
  • The Guardians of the Universe compare Larfleeze’s power to that of Parallax 
  • By fighting Bloooch over the Orange Light, he causes the death of three Guardians of the Universe
  • Knocked out Atrocitus with a single energy blast
  • Stole all of the KFC in the entire universe before it reached hundreds of planets in the space of traveling to them (based) 
• Parallax:
  • In base form, defeated a team of Superman, The Flash, Kyle Rayner, Martian Manhunter, and Hawkman
  • While possessing Hal and having energies from Anti-Monitor, was going to start a crisis at the similar level of COIE
  • Held back the antimatter waves of the Anti-Monitor and assisted Pre-Crisis Supergirl and Flash in defeating the COIE Anti-Monitor
  • When absorbing the leftover chronal energy from COIE, he was threatening to destroy the timeline
• Volthoom:
  • Was responsible for the destruction of Korugar, Sinestro’s homeworld
  • Attempting to amass the light of the Emotional Spectrum would’ve unwound the fabric of history
  • Killing Volthoom would cause a chain reaction that would destroy the universe
  • Even after Sinestro gained Parallax, Volthoom was able to stomp on him, stating he was nothing to him
• Anti-Monitor:
  • Crisis on Infinite Earths (Pre-Crisis)
    • Created the multiversal Anti-Matter Wave
    • Absorbed enough energy from the Anti-Matter Universe and DC’s heroes to destroy the multiverse and was going to become the Hand that creates the next one
  • Darkseid War (New-52)
    • Battled an amped Darkseid when he was comparable to his COIE self, their battle being so fierce the Justice League couldn’t approach them
    • Killed Darkseid by channeling the Anti-Life Equation and calling the Black Racer
      • The Anti-Life Equation in the hands of Steve Trevor let him 1-shot Mobius
    • Stripped of the ALE, tanked a combined blast from a host of Green Lanterns and fired back at them, killing several at once
    • Tanked a Solar Flare from “God of Strength” Superman, who is stronger than normal
  • Metal Saga (Rebirth)
    • The Anti-Monitor’s astral brain can be used as a projectile to destroy the Dark Multiverse
    • Even with their powers diminished in lower planes of existence, the Monitor Brothers can shatter reality with their blows without safety precautions
    • After being given the Anti-Life Equation, overpowered his brothers and took control of the Ultra-Monitor fusion, which was described as the most powerful Mobius had ever felt
      • His brother Alpheus, The World Forger, forged the multiverse and Hypertime 
      • Denizens of the Sixth Dimension are more powerful than and unreachable to Imps like Mr. Mxyzptlk and were unaffected by his and Bat-Mite’s rampant destruction of the multiverse
    • Revealed retroactively to have cracked the Source Wall in COIE
  • Dark Crisis (Infinite Frontier)
    • Stated to view the likes of Wallace West & Barry Allen at the time as gnats, can react to and catch them, and survive being hit across universes repeatedly with Infinite Mass Punches described as “the mightiest punch in the multiverse”

New Gods

Across the vast worlds of New Genesis and Apokolips, the New Gods reign supreme. Closely connected to the Source, the New Gods are among the most powerful beings in the DC multiverse. As a consistent member of the Quintessence, Ganthet was able to kill an injured Godhead Darkseid. Even more solidly, the Guardians Of The Universe are “ascended”, which is a state comparable to the higher dimensional body of a New God. With the Life Equation, Kyle should reasonably be above the Guardians and thus the New Gods.

• Miscellaneous
  • Magnar can hit with the power of a hundred galaxies
  • Through meditation, New Gods can create entire universes
  • The Divine Guardsmen, the standard forces of the New Gods, could easily beat the Green Lantern Corps
  • Golems can annihilate a star system
    • Their cries echo throughout the Multiverse
    • Are made of Nth Metal, one of the most powerful substances in the multiverse
• Orion
  • A battle with Orion and Kalibak would destroy half of Apokolips
  • The Astro Force can shift Worlds into Orbit
  • Contained the Oblivion Bomb
    • The Oblivion Bomb threatened the entire universe
  • Absorbs the Anti-Life Equation and screams so loud it’s heard across the Universe, and goes to battle Ecruos
    • Ecruos threatened to destroy DC’s World Tree, which would end all things
  • Flies from New Genesis to Earth in less than a heartbeat
• Lightray
  • Can move at Lightspeed (duh, but he can actually move faster)
    • Stated to be the fastest New God
  • Can generate heat equal to multiple suns
  • Outflies Omega Beams at the farthest reaches of the known universe to keep Highfather safe
• Big Barda
  • Survives a blast from the Void Hound
    • The Void Hound destroyed 10 Star Systems in a test run
• Highfather
  • Stated to be the strongest of the New Gods due to his connection to the Source
  • Flies to the source wall
  • Will and Power travels across all corners of existence
  • Darkseid merely defeating Highfather threatened to end all of existence
• Darkseid
  • Survives a bomb that tears apart existence
  • With Highfather and Orion, they made up 3/5s of the Cinque, which allowed them to destroy a dimension and push back the Anti-Life Entity
  • A young Darkseid was equal to and bested his father, Yuga Khan
  • After gathering all aspects of himself back into his Godhead, Darkseid easily killed the entire Quintessence
    • This included the Spectre, who could later one-shot Godstorm John Stewart despite being in a weakened state under Pariah’s Dark Army. Spectre was unbound at the time, only much later being re-bonded to Jim Corrigan
  • In his quest to find the Spectre, Darkseid singlehandedly battled the forces of Hell including Neron, forces of Heaven led by Zauriel, and Eclipso. The Triumvirate of Hell composed of Trigon, Lady Blaze, and The First of The Fallen didn’t wish to fight him head on without reasoning with him first
    • Due to the multiverse being sealed during Absolute Power, all of Darkseid’s split power among his different aspects throughout the multiverse returned as one to his Godhead for this event
    • The First of The Fallen empowered Swamp Thing and Animal Woman to where they could slaughter weakened Parliaments of Green and Red. Though he is portrayed as inferior to Hecate and The Upside-Down Man and his Otherkind
  • Tanked a blast from the Miracle Machine made by Superman during Final Crisis, which had the energy to repair Darkseid’s damage to the Orrery of Worlds
    • It is implied in Death Metal that Darkseid’s fall rippled into the Monitor Sphere
  • The fall of Godhead Darkseid caused damage to the Orrery of Worlds
  • Darkseid took blows from and harmed the Empty Hand wielding a multiversal crack that fractured almost the entirety of DC Cosmology, being referred to as the “Left Hand” to the Empty Hand being the “Right Hand” of the Great Darkness
    • The Empty Hand is the hand used by the Great Darkness when it made a deal with the Light of the Overvoid

Nekron

While Nekron and White Lantern Kyle have never properly interacted, other White Lanterns such as White Lantern Sinestro are able to fight Nekron and trade hits with him, and due to the White Lantern’s overall connection to the Life Entity, Kyle should be comparable to the grim reaper of the Blackest Night.

• Before becoming a Black Lantern, could easily overpower the Guardians of the Universe and the Green Lantern Corps
• No-sold an antimatter beam from the Anti-Monitor
• The Spectre, when trying to judge him, could not strike Nekron down, and was simply banished from Nekron’s presence
• Beheaded a Guardian of the Universe
• Killed Volthoom, who was connected to the entire Emotional Spectrum
  • Volthoom became so much of a god by this point that he squashed Parallax Sinestro, stating he was nothing to him
• No-sold an entire legion of attacks from the combined might of all the Lantern Corps
• Dark Multiverse Nekron is the direct opposite of the Life Equation and his word is the Anti-Life Equation 

Cosmology

Simon the Digger

The Normal Universe

The story of the reality that encompasses the entirety of Gurren Lagann begins out of nothingness. Propped up by the foundations of the quantum cosmology theory, which deals with the immediate microcosmos of the universe and how it came to be born out of nothing, this interpretation and the quantum mechanics that come with it are the bedrock for the overall cosmology. Once the universe is recognized, an analysis that Nakashima heavily incorporated into the series at the time, it’s allowed to exist. As directly confirmed by Lordgenome and Rossiu regarding the quantum universe theory, “What we call the universe is constructed on ambiguity. It only becomes a fixed reality when observed. That is a fundamental law of the universe.” This aspect of the story’s universe would further assert itself during its grander setpieces, such as through Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann’s virtual quantum body and Lordgenome undergoing quantum breakdown from the Granzeboma’s Infinity Big Bang Storm.

With all of this in place, the baseline universe unfolds into a complex structure that not only expands infinitely through the power of ascending Spiral Energy, but is constantly and consistently referred to, in the many adaptations and official media of Gurren Lagann, as a closed, yet infinite universe again and again. This isn’t only limited to the main universe either, as Simon himself asserts, after his entrapment within the Multiversal Labyrinth, that there’s an infinite number of universes in general out there.

The Multiverse &
Multiversal Labyrinth

While the base universe itself is infinite, this isn’t only limited to the main universe either.  Anti-Spiral explains that there exists “island universes” that coexist in “gravitational equilibrium”, confirming the existence of multiple universes. But as Simon himself asserts, after his entrapment within the Multiversal Labyrinth, that there’s an infinite number of universes in general out there. Inherently presenting the existence of infinite infinitely sized universes.

It is through the Anti-Spiral’s Multiversal Labyrinth that the greater infinite multiverse is experienced by Team Dai-Gurren, which features several alternate realities. This includes realities such as the alternate world we see in the first episode of the anime (whose Simon we see again in one of the drama CDs as Simon Avant), the Okoto CD drama story, and all other Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann spin offs in the form of Parallel Works according to the official website (with Parallel Works being shown off in brief frames in the movie). To quote Nakashima himself, “Gurren” is the story of a multiverse, so the “Gurren” you believe in is the truth!”

As stated before, again, the greater multiversal was viewed through the Multiversal Labyrinth, a realm constructed by the Anti-Spiral where he traps Team Dai-Gurren in an interdimensional labyrinth of infinite possibilities that will have Simon wander until his last breath so long as he has “intelligence”. To clarify: “A chain of universes are created instant to instant via their own recognition. So long as their awareness is able to perceive possibilities, they will never escape this endless labyrinth”. (there is further discussion about this in the manga)

This is how the Anti-Spiral explains further what he means by “intelligence” being the reason humans are stuck in his interdimensional labyrinth. It additionally means the labyrinth is exponentially growing in size, infinitely perpetuating based on an interpretation of quantum cosmology, utilizing parallel universes to extend the purgatory (this also explains why parallel Simons like Okoto or Avant are connected to the labyrinth). Setting the target adrift amongst infinite possibilities with endless choices. Additionally, each member of Dai-Gurren has their own multiverse with its own possibilities, further expanding the endlessness that is the Multiversal Labyrinth.

For some additional side notes, the Anti-Spiral seems capable of recreating the Multiversal Labyrinth if it were to be destroyed, with him further confirming its infinite nature and also making sure to remove the concept of boobs from them… yeah maybe don’t read Gurren Lagann spinoffs. Additionally, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has a virtual quantum body created by the “multi-layered multiverse” (via the layering of the multiverse) due to the activation of Super Spiral force, potentially implying its own existence is comparable to the infinite multiverse itself.

Spatial Dimensions

Above the standard universe of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann exists multiple dimensions. According to Lordgenome, the Anti-Spiral had managed to evade cosmic scanners for so long by “creating an imaginary, oscillating time-space located between the membranes of the dimensional universes we call the 10th and 11th dimensions”. He explains that “what we call the universe is constructed on ambiguity. It only becomes a fixed reality when observed. That is a fundamental law of the universe.” (Note: This set of panels depicts this artistically in a way that provides corroborating evidence for these being brane universes.) Rossiu ends up theorizing that this may be related to the “quantum universe theory”. To be clear, the 10th and 11th dimensions mentioned here are referring to higher spatial dimensions, meaning they have more directions than our 3rd dimensional one. 

It is stated Anti-Spirals hid their stronghold somewhere in “a universe with a different set of dimensional axes”, and interviews with Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann staff like Nakashima serve to assure that the head writer for Gurren Lagann is overtly aware of 11 spatial dimensions as a concept, alongside the concept of timelines that exist for every possibility. He’d be aware of quantum cosmology for Gurren Lagann, where universes can only be confirmed if observed or recognized. Obviously this sounds confusing without prior knowledge of the subject (the main cast was just as confused, don’t worry), but the takeaway is that Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is a series that both understands higher spatial dimensions as a concept and a series that emphasizes them, with each higher spatial dimension meaning being infinitely higher in size than the previous one. 

It is further confirmed that the Assistant Director of the anime had trouble initially with trying to visualize how to portray the final battle in Spiral Space, and that the Assistant Director of the anime had trouble initially with trying to visualize how to portray the final battle in Spiral Space. Further showing how the topic of higher dimensions was complex both for the writers and animators of the series. As a final note, Otoko Lordgenome combines two energy systems of the drama CD’s universe for an Infinity Big Bang Storm like the Anti-Spiral. He says he twisted the two energy sources into a “twofold dimension” for the attack, saying they’ll “burn amidst the hellfire of a universe’s creation”. Some translations have confused twofold for “twenty” potentially implying that up to twenty dimensions that are more layered than one another exist, however the translation being “twofold” is generally more consistent.

With all this said, the cosmology of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann should contain up to 11 spatial dimensions, with that of course meaning there exists a 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th spatial dimension as well. That being said there is more to these higher dimensions than just the concepts behind them.

Anti-Spiral Universe

As stated before, the Anti-Spiral had hidden their stronghold between the 10th and 11 dimensions, but the notable detail about said stronghold is its impressive standing as a cosmological structure itself. Of course it’s interesting as it contains things like Anti-Spiral’s analysis room which is separated from time and space, has its own flow of time, and has walls that might not even be “matter”; but contrary to Yoda’s teachings, size matters most.  Naturally existing between higher dimensions would make it akin to them, and there are also statements implying the Anti-Spiral universe being at the edge of the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann cosmology itself. Notably, Kittan refers to the Anti-Spiral universe battle as taking place at the “ends of the universe”, although it’s fair to say he’s certainly no scientist and is just hyping things up. However there is corroborating evidence. 

When Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann withstands the Infinity Big Bang Storm for a time before Nia (who had been trapped in the Anti-Spiral universe for a while now and was tied to the Anti-Spiral) thanks Simon for coming to the “edge of the universe” for her, and the website corroborates the final battle with the Anti-Spiral taking place at the end of the “multiverse”. Considering its presence in between the 10th and 11th spatial dimensions rather than just within the ordinary universe itself, it would make sense to assume that the “universe” and “multiverse” in question here is the whole cosmology. Though regardless of interpretation the Anti-Spiral universe existing between higher spatial dimensions would prove the strength of its size regardless. 

For some additional notes, scaling to this universe is perfectly fine, as after the Anti-Spiral was defeated, the Anti-Spiral’s universe between dimensions vanished since he was constantly maintaining its existence. Additionally the Anti-Spiral battle is not the only time a version of the story took the climax to the edge of reality, as Simon Avant in the Otoko no-jōken! Gurren Lagann drama CD series was written by Otoko Simon as having had a final battle at the “fringes of the universe”.

Real Life?

To be blunt, this aspect of cosmology in particular is naturally very complicated, which should be obvious by the title of this section alone. To give a general idea, the main world of the CD Dramas is one that features constant fourth wall breaking gags from various characters involving some form of awareness of them living on a Drama CD or referencing other available Gurren Lagann media.

Notably, in Otoko no-jōken! Gurren Lagann, Otoko Simon (a manga writer version of Simon) wrote a Gurren Lagann manuscript featuring Simon Avant, the Simon from the prologue of Episode 1 in the anime. Simon Avant emerges from the manuscript after Otoko Simon’s pen connected his universe to the “2D universe” in the manuscript via opening a gate from overinterference with the 2D universe’s power with Spiral Power as it was acting as his Core Drill. In fact, after Simon Avant was sealed back into his 2D universe, Otoko Simon could “redraw” the manga he came from to rewrite Avant’s existing reality to give him the companionship he missed out on.

This could imply that Okoto’s life is “real life” to Avant’s fictional one, given Otoko Simon’s pen is described as being able to create universes. However, Simon Avant’s Black Gurren Lagann “transcends dimensions” to meet up with him in AU Simon’s world from his universe after the 2D universe was joined with this one, so it might also be simply crossing that gateway (Simon Avant’s Dai-Gurren Army members transcend into Otoko Simon’s universe from the 2D universe as well to meet up with him, possibly using the same gateway).

Where Avant becomes a threat however is when Simon Avant claims his drill can break through the walls of dimensions. His goal is to pierce the heavens and dimensions to transcend his own 2D space and Otoko Simon’s “sound dimension”, which both he and Leeron corroborate to mean the destruction of the literal drama CD disc that they’re existing in since they realize they exist in a reality of only words (aka audio drama). Additionally, Kamina makes reference to how their universe can be found sealed on the drama CD disc in the real world and directly addresses the listener. But if the idea is that their CD world is a sound dimension, then would transcending said sound dimension mean going to real life? Does real life exist in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann as something reachable and correlated?

There is a lot to go over, considering the natural controversy surrounding any and all arguments related to the idea of Simon and co. transcending the boundaries of fiction as a whole. Like cmon, doesn’t that sentence just sound crazy? Things are even weirder with how the “Real Life” in question here seems to exist above the entirety of the cosmology. Due to the complexity in question, we’ve deemed it best to save discussion regarding the potential ceiling of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann’s cosmology for Before The Verdicts.

Kyle Rayner

Note: While we do deviate in how we interpret the cosmology, we do agree with the writers of VSBW’s DC Cosmology Blog that DC’s differing interpretations of the cosmology should be separated. To put simply, they aren’t consistent with one another and if overlapped would create some wild scaling chains that make no sense. 

Additionally, the current “Crisis” Cosmology is what’s been most heavily featured and focused on these past few decades regarding the structure of DC’s multiverse. Most evident in that Grant Morrison’s Multiversity Map is still used frequently within modern comics despite several updates to the cosmology’s scale. So for the sake of congruence with DC and the fact that Green Lanterns often have very little to do with cosmological structures introduced in Vertigo for instance, we believe there is no reason to scale them to one another.

The Orrery of Worlds &
Continuum

Starting from the baseline universe, physical space exists as at least 100 Trillion light-years across, but we know has been expanding at a rate that would put it at 56.77 Nonillion light-years in diameter. However other statements have put the universe as infinite yet still expanding. While the number of universes have changed across the different Crisis events, ranging anywhere from just one to fifty-two, presently Post-Infinite Frontier and Dark Crisis the number of known universes have exploded well beyond the 52 and now encompass an infinite number of possibilities and the return of the infinite universes from the original Crisis.

This multiversal structure is all contained within the Orrery of Worlds. All universes fundamentally exist in the same space, but vibrate at different frequencies amongst each other; this is the Orrery. It is the scab of creation that appeared, forced onto the blank space that is the Overvoid. And not only does it contain the many Earths of the multiverse, but also many higher spatial dimensions with confirmed numbers going up from 6, 10, 12, 19, and more in-between, even N-Dimensional structures that make the limits of dimensionality within the Orrery uncertain (see Before The Verdicts). All based upon M-Theory and membranes.

Where things start to get temporal and metaphysical is when we move beyond the standard universe, starting with the Continuum introduced in Animal Man. It is the space behind reality from which continuous creation and destruction occurs. While it does not transcend time given it can be measured within it by its inhabitants and Crisis events can cause it damage, it does contain records of the history of the multiverse and can contain holdovers from previous continuities and could manifest the lost worlds onto the current one. Interacting with the Continuum is akin to stepping out and being able to manipulate comic book panels.

It’s also been associated with the Morphogenic/Life Field that powers some animal-based heroes like Animal Man, this realm containing the blueprint of the atomic formation of countless lifeforms, containing their ideal forms akin to the platonic. It is analogous to the “Implicate Order”, where our reality is unfolded from a higher one and implication earlier in the run that reality emanates infinitely down in complexity from the implicate. The M-Field stretches into infinity, across higher dimensions as the energy field from where all life forms appear.

Bulk Spaces

The M-Field itself is merely a part of a grander realm known as The Red, which is beyond the M-Field to where it is akin to just bubbles on the ocean and where masters of the M-Field believe they had reached Limbo itself. This leads us into the Elemental Realms and the various Parliaments that embody aspects of life, the most famous of which is The Green and the Parliament of Trees as we know it from Swamp Thing. Akin to the upcoming Fifth Dimension we’ll be talking about shortly, the Elemental Realms are a sort of connective bulk space that encompass a large chunk of the cosmology. It lies between ideas and reality, where the consciousnesses of all life exist outside time and space and reach all realms and spaces. Among the elder members of the Parliaments include the likes of Yggdrasil, of the Norse Pantheon within the Sphere of The Gods. From the boundaries between Elemental Realms, one feels as if they are nothing and everything at once, able to see the flow of all life to and from its source.

Now we move onto the Fifth Dimension. First note that this is not referring to the geometric 5th spatial dimension, but rather a spiritual realm or layer. And that there was a retcon of the Fifth Dimension’s nature given how DC treated it as inferior to higher spatial dimensions such as 10-D. Where the First Dimension is a point and the Second is a line, the Third is the Material while the Fourth is Time. The Fifth is Imagination, existing outside time encompassing everything, everywhere all at once. It is the very “Blood” of the multiverse, likely in reference to The Bleed itself. The Bleed is the lifeblood of the multiverse and the very substance of life itself, requiring at least 4-D vision to perceive. It is the space between, and allows travel, to all worlds as it was the “solution” from which the “crystals” that comprise the Orrery emerged from, holding together all reality as the “Greater Time Continuum”.

The Bleed allows for access to higher dimensions and can even reach the Sphere of The Gods. Travel through it stops right by the shores of Limbo. This is all consistent with the Fifth Dimension as it is shown the Imps are about on the same level as the denizens of the Sphere of The Gods. The most powerful of the Imps like Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite can unmake all creation up to this level to give way for the World Forger’s own copy of the multiverse.

Sphere of The Gods &
Collective Unconscious

And now we’ve gone far too long without discussing it properly, so let’s talk about the Sphere of The Gods. Separated from the rest of the multiverse by the Speed Force Wall, it is a world built on the belief of mortals. It exists outside corporeal reality as an “Ultra-Multiversal” realm where gods exist as living ideas from a kind of platonic, archetypal world. Gods are self-aware ideas who use concept-weapons and their emanations into lower reality were akin to merely being the idea of the god as opposed to the god incarnate. It is a higher, vibratory world where gods are ever-ruling, able to strike across millions of moments in Hypertime. Amongst its most powerful denizens are the Lords of Order and Chaos who, through the same power of belief that made the Godsphere in the first place, used that same power to ascend themselves above gods. The Sphere of The Gods is also the realm of Magic, acting as the very source of it. And while belief may have granted Magic its power, Magic is also interwoven across the multiverse at every level of existence and thus its destruction means the destruction of everything. 

Atop the Sphere of The Gods is the Collective Unconscious, made from the burgeoning light of possibility and the dreams of life that wished for the impossible. It is the personal realm of Hecate, and from her magic did humanity’s belief grow and pantheons of gods began to appear. But from the pinnacle of Imagination to its very border: Limbo. Or rather its full name: Comic Book Limbo. This realm is where old and forgotten characters end up, a realm of no stories. The Ultima Thule, a ship that rides across the Bleed through the wavelength of vibrations arrived in Limbo when the vibrations ceased and the “music was over, having run out of multiverse”. It is the last outpost of existence where nothing happens without intervention from outside.

And before we get any higher, it’s important we should mention a few other important concepts to the cosmology. First and foremost is the Emotional Spectrum. While its position is not hard set into the DC dimensional structure, we know that as a force it is implied to be comparable to all of Magic and the reservoir to the Spectrum exists right behind the Source Wall. The next is the Life Force, a force that pushes all life in the cosmos to flourish, though it is most closely connected to the sea. Its power inverted is pure destruction that kills even gods. 

Monitor Sphere

And now we can move onto the Monitor Sphere, a higher dimension beyond Limbo that looks down on it as a small flat disc and they repeatedly refer to the worlds of the multiverse as germ worlds. It exists as a form of void and is called the Blank, Gone, Nil and 5,555 other words for “Nothing”. Inhabitants of Nil are made of pure thought, primal forms in a fundamental world, and were once featureless until exposure to the Orrery caused narratives to form around them. Grant Morrison has referred to Limbo as an archetypal realm, though exposure to the Orrery has introduced time to the realm. It exists at the edge of creation itself.

Dark Multiverse

But from the highest points of the multiverse we delve down to the lowest: The Dark Multiverse. Among the three building blocks of creation, dark matter far outnumbers matter and antimatter; a fact reflected with the Dark Multiverse being so large it is compared to an ocean that the DC multiverse floats on top of. It is a realm of an infinite number of nightmare worlds, with each world containing copies of at least the Orrery of Worlds.

It has its own, dark version of the Sphere of The Gods and Collective Unconscious ruled by the Upside-Down Man, Hecate’s dark parallel when she saw her own reflection back at her in the dark. At the very depths of the Dark Multiverse is the World Forge, where all universes are made from and tossed into either the positive or dark matter multiverses. It also possesses a connection to The Dreaming, as ultimately the Dark Multiverse is a realm of the stories that shouldn’t exist.

Hypertime &
Divine Continuum

Encompassing everything up to this point is Hypertime, the temporal side of creation. Emotions are connected to Time huh?. On its original introduction, Hypertime was described as the interconnected web of parallel timelines, connecting an infinite realm of parallel worlds, as well as acting as a means of preserving past events written off by a split in the timeline. In more recent comics, it is depicted as the temporal opposite of the Omniverse as part of the Divine Continuum. Where the Omniverse is conceptual, Hypertime is emotional, reactive to change and preserves history when timelines are split by decisions, existing forever.

Where both intersect in physical abstraction is known as the Branefold Interior, the realm of the Fuginauts who monitor all creation as the successors of The Monitors. This ranges from the nightmares of the Dark Multiverse up to the abandoned Monitor Sphere.

Sixth Dimension &
Source Wall

One of the newest, yet most important additions to DC Cosmology is the Sixth Dimension. Existing beyond the Fifth Dimension, the Sixth is the “Control Room” of the multiverse. A realm of the impossible where the multiverse was designed and set in motion. It is totally unaffected by the destruction of the multiverse underneath it and can even contain an entirely new copy of the multiverse, including Hypertime. At the very edge of the cosmos (fr this time) is the Promethean Galaxy, which isn’t truly a galaxy but the farthest finite border to reality itself until we reach The Source Wall.

The wall has been described as “the limit to thought” and the “highest vibration before one enters the infinite”. It took the place of the Antimatter Universe as the barrier separating the multiverse from the Overvoid, stretching beyond the infinite as the soul of all planes of existence. Many who have tried to pass it end up trapped in the Source Wall, and those attempting to free others from the wall typically require power from the Source itself.

Most recently, the Source Wall has been revealed to double as a prison for Perpetua, *creator of the DC Multiverse (The Presence/some form of God is usually attributed this and the multiverse’s recreation after Perpetua’s sealing could be used to explain this). Perpetua belongs to a race known as The Hands. Akin to DC’s highest sphere, the Hands themselves are Sixth Dimensional and are emissaries of The Source/Presence that are several rungs higher than the likes of the New Gods whose powers create multiverses in the hope that these creations ascend to their level. Only through channeling the Seven Hidden Energies of the multiverse so that Perpetua could escape her prison.

The Greater Omniverse

And finally we’ve reached past the multiverse’s last outpost and entered the Greater Omniverse, the space of the Overvoid. Also acknowledged as the same entity as The Source and The Presence, it is the sublime, non-dual omni-awareness beyond the multiverse, existing at the very center of the Greater Omniverse. As mentioned at the very beginning of the cosmology discussion, all the multiverse exists as if it were a germ world spontaneously appearing on its surface, and beings from there who fall into it have the very idea of them lost. Existing as a void without form, its very conception in the mind of Jack “King” Kirby was a force beyond gods, division, and definition. 

There is more to cover in regards to the most primal force of DC, but that shall be saved in the “Before The Verdicts”.

Weaknesses

Simon the Digger

In spite of his cosmic heights and seemingly uncrushable spirit, Simon is by no means a perfect fighter. He’s not as versatile as the mecha he pilots (though ironically just as strong, given his fight with Anti-Spiral, funnily enough), and most notably Spiral Energy has its flaws. It can only be produced continuously as long as Simon still has the needed will to keep going, which can be reduced through extensive exhaustion, disrupted concentration, or a lack of willpower. 

Notably Simon has lost Spiral power due to negative emotions more than once as well, though by the end of the series his positivity and optimism makes these phases practically impossible to happen again.

Kyle Rayner

Kyle’s constructs require lots of precision and concentration to keep up and have function. Which of course, he has a lot of, but this means they can also be destroyed just as easily if he isn’t careful, like when Superman Blue disrupted the electromagnetic impulses in Kyle’s nervous system and messed up his construct precision. Similarly, the creation of hard light constructs can be interfered with by messing with the brain, such as through Controller’s vibrational waves that bypass durability. Teleportation during combat makes it tough for Lanterns to land punches, and Kyle struggles to hit constantly teleporting enemies. As a final couple notes, Kyle’s constructs can be countered with light manipulation, Lanterns require their rings to use their powers, and there is always a limit to how far he can push said rings’ functions like construct quantity and scanning.

As well, overuse of some of Kyle’s abilities have been shown to drain him of both his power and his life. Additionally using the Life Equation has led to Kyle almost passing out, and in several instances almost dying. 

Before the Verdicts

Images by Flip, Blue Igneous and The Cardinal King, GIFs by ishi_yuki and Flip

Important For Both Sides:
What does “Reality Over Fiction” mean? Why is it Outerversal?

A somewhat more recent topic in regards to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in the VS scene is the heavy presence of a “reality over fiction” argument being utilized by it, an idea used to argue Simon reaching “outerversal” levels of power. It is no secret that this argument is extremely controversial, in regards to both the idea of reality over fiction itself, as well as its utilization for Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann as a series. It would be impossible to cover Simon in VS at the moment without addressing the subject, so we might as well rip the band-aid off. Similar arguments are also being made for DC Comics currently, as many more modern interpretations of DC Cosmology simply rely on R>F arguments to explain many of the higher realms and integral concepts to the setting as a whole. All of which affects Kyle Rayner. So before addressing if their arguments even apply to R>F, we need first to explain what reality over fiction is as an argument in the first place, and if it’s even Outerversal™.

So first thing’s first, let’s define what we mean by “Outerversal” in the first place, as it’s very much a VS Debating exclusive term. As defined by VS Battles Wiki’s Tiering Page (All the credit to them for this description and pushing modern Outer standards in general):

“Characters or objects residing in higher states of existence surpassing material composition as a whole, and who are therefore completely unreachable and inaccessible to any and all extensions of the aforementioned structures. Their superiority over such realms, as such, is purely “qualitative”; based entirely on the ontological quality and nature of their existence, rather than any quantitative or numerical principle.”

Let’s break this definition down so we’re all on the same page. We won’t be super in-depth as if you want a deeper breakdown we recommend you just visit their tiering page and tiering FAQ. This is our “For Dummies” section so everyone can be on board.

Firstly and probably easiest to understand is the idea that an Outer character/power source must come from a higher state of existence, surpassing material composition. Basically, an “Outer” character must simply transcend and exist beyond stuff like matter, laws of physics, fundamental forces, etc… as that is simply part of the premise of this tier. Tiers preceding Outerversal such as “High Hyperversal” and “Low Outerversal”, which encompass infinite-dimensional spaces and a Von Neumann hierarchy of sets, cover the highest you could get with the Tiering System while sticking only to physics. Outerversal as a tier begins to cover things beyond the physical as we enter the metaphysical.

The next point covers Outerversal being unreachable/inaccessible, as well as what is meant by a qualitative superiority. Again going back to VSBW:

“To put it simply: It is superiority over lesser things that involves no element of quantity, or amount, in any manner whatsoever. It, instead, hinges entirely on the nature of the character’s existence and ontology. In general, all characters with such superiority over lesser things are 1-A.”

While this seems complicated at first, again this is very easy to understand. Essentially, no amount of summation will lead to the Outerversal tier. Think of how regardless of how infinite something is, it’s still a structure that can be made from summing up smaller quantities (ex: an infinite-D structure can be deconstructed down into individual 0-D points). So no matter how high you get in theoretical physics and mathematical structures, it’s still always a structure that can be composed of smaller elements (see: Tychonoff cube). This is what sets apart Outerversal as a qualitative tier, as it is inherently irreducible into a lower tier and thus totally surpasses these lower states of existence. Yes, you can have power differences between Outerversal characters, but there cannot be a case wherein an Outer character’s power divided x amount of times becomes something that is measured quantitatively, something that can be numerically measured or defined (or alternatively no addition from anything measured quantitatively would “add” to its state of being).

So now what does an “ontological quality” mean? First let’s define “Ontology” which, according to Merriam Webster, means either “a branch of metaphysics concerned with the nature and relations of being” or a “particular theory about the nature of being or the kinds of things that have existence”. So ontology in layman’s terms aims to define the nature, relationships, and states of being objects have with one another. And with all that settled, we can now discuss the real meat of the blog: Reality-Fiction Transcendence

Now this concept on the whole is quite easy to understand: Does ____ character in question see the world as fictional? If yes, congrats! Your character (probably) qualifies for R>F. It’s that simple. If you think about it, it’s not so hard to get why this qualifies for Outer following the standards we gave above. Seeing a world or setting as fictional akin to what we do whenever we read a comic book or watch an anime is a fundamental example of a qualitative difference. That piece of fiction quite literally does not exist from your perspective.

Mind you, this isn’t just 4th Wall Awareness where a character is part of the medium and is aware it’s fictional, but a character “outside” the medium and interacts with it as a work of fiction. Sure there exists ink on the paper or pixels on a screen, but that’s just a medium to transmit the story and not the story itself, which is immaterial and lacks physical substance from your perspective. No matter how big the multiverse is in the fiction you’re consuming, it is absolutely impossible for it to interact with you in the real world. That is the qualitative relationship being demonstrated here, one of a work of fiction to its authors and readers.

But of course there’s still a lot more nuance to this concept so let’s answer some common questions and misconceptions regarding R>F transcendence.

1. Isn’t R>F referring to just spatial dimensions?

This is somewhat of a holdover from the previous standards on dimensional tiering as a whole, and it isn’t entirely wrong. A common analogy given to describe higher dimensional beings in fiction is damn near identical to what we just described for R>F, typically a being who sees lower dimensions akin to how we would perceive pages in a book or something along those lines. See the Fate Series or DC’s Captain Adam for instance. So isn’t R>F just describing higher-D transcendence rather than some qualitative difference?

Well as with many things in vs debating, it depends on the context. Typically, in examples like the Fate series, it is already laid out that what is being talked about are spatial dimensions. The analogy will also typically focus on the perspective of a 3-D being looking down at a flat 2-D plane. Key word being perspective. The focus of these examples is how the lower reality is viewed as infinitely flat as opposed to the actual comparison of state of being, which is not R>F. Fundamentally, higher-D beings are composed of an infinite number of lower-D planes stacked onto each other. Meanwhile, genuine R>F comparisons focus on the idea that the lower reality is substantially less real, i.e. focusing on the fact that it is fiction. One could say higher-D analogies focus on the medium of viewing fiction, while R>F focuses on the idea of fiction. You can also think of it in terms of structure. Inherently there is a physical connection between lower and higher spatial dimensions, while no such thing exists in an R>F example.

So don’t get us wrong, it is a case-by-case thing, but the R>F we are specifically examining here today is the latter, observing a qualitative superiority rather than a quantitative one.

2. Can a finite-D character possess Outerversal power?

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: In most situations, it isn’t possible for any finite-D being to wield “Outer” power, as that’s simply contradictory. But there is a caveat that can allow this: energy systems. If say there exists an R>F energy or force that acts as the magic or power system of a setting, one that demonstrably affects and is tied to the metaphysical quality of things, then it can act as a means of lower characters to have Outerversal power without existing on that level themselves, or even acting as a means of transcending their lower realm into the “more real” one. 

Gag and metafictional characters also tend to jump across mediums and interact with the world outside their book/cartoon. Toon Force is a different topic entirely that doesn’t need to be covered here, but for a brief rundown generally, again, it depends on the context. Not all Toon Force is the same after all and not every toon can break through their medium. And higher-end examples like entering the real world or slapping the creator should probably still be subject to a case-by-case basis breakdown of whether or not it’s valid. Outer and R>F standards should apply uniformly regardless of how serious/unserious a work of fiction is.

3. Are infinite spatial dimensions needed for Outerversal?

No. While you still can get that high by transcending an infinite-dimensional structure and lacking spatial dimensions entirely (though note this conflicts with “Low-Outer” a lot, so be weary of context), R>F works even if the setting is just confined to a “standard” multiverse, a single universe, or heck just planet Earth. The size of the lower reality is irrelevant to R>F, just the fact that an example of qualitative transcendence occurs. After all, what difference does it make if you think up a planet over a 196,833-D structure if both are just equally thoughts in your head.

4. Doesn’t being beyond space & time or being a platonic concept make you Outer?

We are lumping these together as the same answer: Not inherently. Both can be great supporting feats for an Outerversal rating, but neither on their own make something Outer.

Transcending or existing beyond time and space (or the concept thereof) on its own would not imply, and say it with me now, a qualitative superiority. This would really just apply to how large the verse is, and even transcending the space and time of an infinite-D structure would just get you Low Outer.

Meanwhile, platonic concepts and many such arguments of being conceptual are more nuanced, but a brief summary is that the standards for actually qualifying as a platonic form are even more strict than R>F standards. This Comicvine thread goes in-depth on a lot of the general properties and examples disqualifiers, but a few big ones we would like to point out for like 90% of examples is whether or not the concept in question is related to or emanates down from perfection or absoluteness, changing their states of being, and being created or destroyed. A character simply declaring themselves a platonic concept without meeting the actual criteria to do so would probably just scale to the cosmology of the verse they’re in rather than just being magically granted Outerversal status.

5. These terms are just made up, why should I take them seriously?

First off, duh. It’s not like philosophers invented a term for power scaling metaphysical characters. Of course, the community ended up making its own terms when these sorts of things started appearing and gaining traction in fictional media. It’s not like metafictional characters and stories don’t exist in fiction.

Second, these kinds of comments tend to come off as not wanting to interact with an aspect of the battle boarding community as a whole. It’s one thing to choose not to understand or engage with it for lack of interest, but to ignore or deny arguments for “Outerversal”, specifically in a discussion or debate, attempting to index characters to their maximum potential or even just plain discussion of what a character or verse’s full scale entails just because you don’t like the term is borderlining on stubborn ignorance. Debates around Outer tend to get toxic, yes, but so do VS debates involving the latest popular anime, the Big Two comics publishers, and this year’s power fantasy light novel.

Outerversal Gurren Lagann

(Simon and Nia art by Mosako)

We explained what is R>F before, so now the big question to address now is if it is even applicable to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in the first place.

The argument stems from the Otoko no-jōken! Gurren Lagann CD drama where in Simon Avant/Garlock, a fictional Simon who was unknowingly brought to life alongside his universe as part of “Otoko” Simon’s (to differentiate him from his anime self) manuscript. This Simon crossed dimensions from his 2-D world into the “real” world and wreaked havoc before being stopped by Team Dai-Gurren and Otoko Simon. 

During their battle, Avant Simon reveals an interesting application of Spiral Power dubbed “Salivary Gland Power”. It’s through this power that Avant not only transcended his fictional world, but was going to surpass the current one and breach the “sound-dimension” and “gain true form”. Most of the cast are flabbergasted by what he means by “sound dimension” until it’s properly explained:

──　決まってる。天も次元も突破するんだ！俺の２次元宇宙も、貴様らの音次元宇宙も超えて、真の肉体を持つ！

──　音次元だと？

──　何…それ？

──　なんだ、貴様ら気づいてないのか？ここは音で成立する次元だ。音による認識が、世界を構成しているんだ。

…

──　そうだ。この音次元宇宙は、平たい銀盤がぐるぐる回ってるようなもんだ。この世界をぶち壊すために、ロージェノム、クロニア、お前たちの力もいただくぜ！

“That much is obvious. I’m going to pierce both the heavens and the dimensions! I’ll transcend my own 2D space as well as your sound-dimension space and gain true form!

Sound dimension?

W-What’s that mean…?

Oh? You haven’t noticed? This is a dimension made up of sound. The perception of sound is what composes this world.

That’s right. This sound-dimensional space is something like a flat, spinning, silver disc. And in order to destroy this world – Lordgenome, Black Nia! I’m going to help myself to your power!”

So in case it wasn’t obvious allow us to spell it out: Avant is referencing that the “sound dimension” they exist in is in a CD drama and wishes to gain enough Spiral Power to break out of it. They even outright state they’re in a spinning silver disc, i.e. the CD the audio drama is on. Mind you all the main cast were unaware they were in a “sound dimension” in the first place as they didn’t perceive it as such. To them they were living in the normal, “real” world, hence the need for Avant to clarify. And by the end of it Kamina invites us, the listeners, to listen to the events going on “in their space”, further solidifying that they see their own world as its own “real” physical space.

And this goes well past just generic 4th-wall awareness as later in the audio drama they manage to shake the CD disc and even outright cut it apart as well as restore it. And this is what Voice Power, in the form of Salivary Gland and Convincing Powers used by Avant and Dai-Gurren respectively, is: the literal sound and voices of the characters manipulating the medium they’re in.

To visualize, here is a diagram we made to represent the “cosmology” of the CD drama for better visualization:

So fictional characters interacting with the physical medium their world is contained in is pretty much one of the clearest R>F feats you can get. And as stated earlier, Outer/R>F energy systems can allow for lower characters to qualitatively transcend their current state. Remember, Spiral Power in this exact same audio drama is what Avant used to transcend his 2-D manga world into the world of his writer in the first place, and the main show has Spiral Power as the force that binds together all lifeforms and the universe, and all lifeforms can draw from this infinite pool of energy. Beyond the physical, Spiral Power is “the cry of the soul made material”, “convincing the world by force without giving it a chance to say yes or no”.

So to sum this all up, Spiral Power, a spiritual and metaphysical force, spanning and is capable of R>F transcendence and characters have actively utilized it to affect the higher medium their fictional world is within. And of course, this scales back to the main Simon who absorbed the Multiversal Labyrinth and all versions of himself from the past, the present, and the future, which explicitly includes Avant and Otoko. And just before you ask: Simon absorbing Otoko is not considered a R>F disqualifier because the act is carried out through Spiral Power, an energy system that had already demonstrated transcendence. Similarly, Avant engages in a comparable act by absorbing Dai-Gurren in order to break the CD, which aligns with the established capabilities of Spiral Power.

Outerversal DC

Now for DC’s side, surely this is a slam dunk case for Outer, right? After all it’s DC Comics, where we have cosmological structures like The Sphere of The Gods and its denizens that embody platonic concepts, or Nil which sees the realms beneath it as fictional. And this is of course without mentioning bulk realms like The Fifth Dimension which is the very concept of Imagination itself. So with that in mind this all places Kyle several layers in-

…Well it turns out there’s just a tad bit more nuance to this topic. So yes it is stated that for the higher realm that is the Sphere of The Gods beings like the Gods and New Gods are “Living Ideas” who stem from a kind of Platonic, archetypal realm and utilize “Concept-Weapons” and “Hunter-Killer Metaphors” for combat. For much of DC’s history until Final Crisis, we have only ever seen lesser emanations of deities across the multiverse, who are more akin to just the idea of that god compared to the god themselves. Similarly the land of Nil where the Monitors originate from is stated to be archetypal itself, and their consumption of The Bleed meant sucking the life out of the very story itself. So had this been just it, this would be pretty straight forward Outer as well. Even if the depictions of New Gods and Gods in DC didn’t exactly line-up with what platonic concepts are, the general idea that the multiverse and Orrery of Worlds is qualitatively inferior to these beings who see them as story is there. So the Godsphere and realms above it are Outer then, right? Well of course if they were we wouldn’t have been building up to something for this long, so it’s time to rip the bandaid off: No.

The big disqualifier for much of DC’s “Crisis” Cosmology being Outerversal is very simple: Physics. Fundamentally, realms like the Sphere of The Gods just don’t transcend physics and matter. And you don’t have to take our word from it either. In Final Crisis, when the Sphere of The Gods was introduced as this new higher realm for DC, Grant Morrison included a very important detail to the plot: Vibrations

“As with most weapons and artifacts

From the higher vibratory world of the New Gods,

We see only facets of the barely imaginable whole

That is the complete Anti-Life Equation”

Vibrations in this context refer to String Theory, where the properties of matter are determined by the vibrational state of 1-D strings. The fact that the Sphere of The Gods and its denizens adhere to String Theory isn’t just integral for background lore or statements, but important to the ending of Final Crisis itself where Superman kills Darkseid’s True Form by shouting a counter-vibration that cancels out Darkseid’s own. Superman even sums this up by saying:

“The worlds of the multiverse vibrate together, Darkseid, and make this… sound, like an orchestra. Everything’s just vibrations, really. And counter-vibrations that cancel them out.”

And Final Crisis is where the Sphere of The Gods concept is really introduced and fleshed out, so having the realm and its denizens possess a physical component tied to its very inception breaks the logic that it could be Outerversal or an example of R>F. This is also far from the only example within Final Crisis alone. There is of course Darkseid’s fall itself, where his true form begins to physically collapse down into the multiverse below him causing a singularity while casting a visible shadow on the multiverse which demonstrates that Darkseid’s Godhead possesses mass. The Multiversity Map also states outright that up until Limbo, which exists at the edges of the same plane as the Sphere of The Gods, matter itself still exists. In fact the Ultima Thule, a ship that rides on vibrational wavelengths within The Bleed only stopped when it reached Limbo, having only then “run out of multiverse”. The Monitor Sphere also isn’t safe from this as exposure to the Orrery of Worlds contaminated the Monitors and Nil, introducing time itself to the Monitor Sphere. Even in recent comics residents of the Sphere of The Gods possess a physical quality related to vibrations:

“Long ago, when life was consolidated, so were you. But as life expanded, aspects of you, your energy, were channeled to every world, to hold life back, to challenge it… 

…when the multiverse expanded into an omniverse, those aspects were scattered further, making you, your physical being, less. That is the diminishment you have felt. But it is natural.”

“And when the multiverse was sealed?”

“Right now, there is only you– all your power gathered into you, untapped, you vibrate with it. You can sense it, if not access it.”

This is from the DC All In Special that was the lead into the Absolute Universe last year at the time of writing (BTW read all the Absolute books rn, they’re peak). And in the build up to Dark Crisis, Darkseid spent his time re-gathering all his emanations to build up strength, which kinda violates the idea that a qualitatively superior being shouldn’t have their power be divisible into something quantitative or that adding up can lead you to some level of qualitative level. All this would subsequently affect other realms in DC Cosmology based on their positions around the Godsphere and Monitors Sphere. The Fifth Dimension for instance seems to peak at the same plane as the Sphere of The Gods, as Gods like Janus could terrorize it.

Mandrakk, The Dark Monitor, physically fell down into the Dark Multiverse where he was chained by Barbatos likely in the World Forge, which sits atop the rest of the Dark Multiverse. As the DM has its own counterparts to the Sphere of The Gods and Collective Unconscious and the World Forge standing atop it all, it would imply all these other realms are similarly still bound to matter and time. And heck the Promethean Galaxy, which exists at the very edge of the cosmology right along the Source Wall, is described as still encompassed by reality and is finite. Lastly, the Source Wall itself in the current Flash run is called “The Highest Vibration before one enters the Infinite”, which would imply that the Sixth Dimension, as well as Perpetua and the race of the Sixth Dimensional Hands, wouldn’t reach Outer either given they can be contained by the Source Wall.

So their tiering from our point of view would simply be multiple layers into Low Outerversal from transcending the infinitely complex hierarchies of The Continuum while not fully being separate from matter or the multiverse. However, fear not Kylebros as we still have another major aspect of the cosmology, or rather what exists outside the cosmology: The Greater Omniverse

As just mentioned, The Source Wall is the highest vibration before entering “the Infinite”, and everything below it from the magic and music that determines the course of everything are carefully managed vibrations. Beyond the Source Wall exists the Deep Change, the force that the Speed Force emanates down from, or rather all of DC’s multiverse emanates down from it, existing outside everything and impossible to imagine to the denizens of the multiverse. It is a place of no place, a time where time is born from the mere dreams of this realm and all universal forces within the multiverse are born of this time. Multiversal acts such as the death of Darkseid and the multiverse being cut off are mere reflections of events emanated down from this place. And the Deep Change itself is an aspect of The Source/Overvoid.

While beings like Speedsters channel its power in the form of the Speed Force, The Source and its dream are sustained by Love, which is the Anathema to Math, undetectable to Science, and unknowable to higher planes. This idea that The Source is sustained by feelings and emotions is actually referenced a few years back in Death Metal where Metron reveals that akin to how belief from mortals creates and sustains the Gods, it’s the Gods’ belief in The Source that brings its existence as if in an interconnected, metaphysical feedback loop.

The Source has been used as an energy source numerous times in DC history. We can look at The Hands who, despite being able to be contained under the “highest vibration” that is The Source Wall, their power still stems directly from The Presence/Source. Perpetua herself ripped a piece of the Overvoid to create her sons and the multiverse and the mere act of her freedom caused the forms of the New Gods to shift and change, briefly being called back “home” into The Source. The same would likely apply to The Monitors given that they are agents of The Source. We can even see this when looking down at the Gods and the Ascended. All of their powers and their very being stem from The Source, even certain relics and artifacts of theirs can channel it and perform feats like breaking the Source Wall.

In Death of The New Gods, an embodiment of The Source relied on gathering the collective power of all the souls of the New Gods to restore himself and re-merge with the Anti-Life Entity. When it came time for the last New God, Darkseid, to confront The Source, he was prepared with the Soul Fire Formula that elevated his very spirit and allowed him to channel the New Gods’ pool of souls to match up to The Source and is only beaten by Orion drawing from the same power source with the destined prophecy of his victory behind him. While this storyline and its tie-ins to Countdown to Final Crisis are considered to be apocryphal retellings of the indescribable event that killed all New Gods, it still supports the idea that New God souls’ ties to The Source grant immense power. And while they’re a few years off from each other, Highfather mistaking the Speed Force as the power of The Source makes sense when the core of the Speed Force is The Deep Change. 

To finally bring it all back, Kyle with the Life Equation would scale to the R>F power of The Source from upscaling “God of Gods” Shazam during Darkseid War, where Shazam beat Yuga Khan who punched through The Source itself when his power combined with the Staff of The Living Lightning, yet was still portrayed as weaker than Mobius, the Anti-Monitor without the Anti-Life Equation. Mobius is clearly much weaker without the Anti-Life Equation given how he’s disintegrated in 1-shot by Steve Trevor wielding it. Both equations are also just inherently part of The Source more so than something like the Godwave, which also caused The Source to tremble. 

And while our main focus was Crisis cosmology, it’s worth bringing up that Orion with the Anti-Life Equation beat Ecrous, who threatened the World Tree that’s most closely tied to the Vertigo side of the cosmology. The Tree is the Cosmic Axis that reality relies on for existence, and its destruction would affect realms beyond the main Creation such as Lucifer Morningstar’s. Creation within Vertigo contains realms like the City of Stars that are “above the real”, so that’s another avenue for that route of scaling.

Also just to clarify, we are not scaling Kyle or a crap ton of DC’s cosmic heavyweights full scale to The Source/Overmind/Presence/God. Just the immediate part outside the DC Multiverse in the Greater Omniverse, as obviously there is more we haven’t discussed regarding the fullscope of the divine. The language used was mostly in part that DC straight uses The Source or Overvoid or The Light when talking about the space immediately outside the cosmos.

Simon the Digger

Doesn’t Simon need help
to pilot some of the mechs? 

A pretty quick topic just to avoid confusion. A common misconception is that Simon requires assistance from Team Dai-Gurren to pilot some of his more complex mecha forms like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann or its Super variant. This is pretty easily debunked however. We explained all of this in the Gurren Lagann section (Forms), but we’ll go over it in more detail here. 

In an interview with Hiroyuki Imaishi, we get information that Simon is Gurren Lagann himself. The Spiral Power comes from him. It’s additionally noted that Gurren Lagann is more like an amplifier, similar to an armor. 

──　あのクライマックスを見ると、つまりシモン自身がグレンラガンなんだ、という事が分かりますよね。

今石　そうですね。

──　メカも合体もいらない、体ひとつでいいんだ、と。

今石　どうしてもそうなっちゃうんですよね。やっぱり、シモン自身に力があるという話になっちゃったから。螺旋力というのはロボットから出ているんじゃなくて、シモンから出ているんだという話になった時点で、そういう落とし方にしかならない。ロボット自体は増幅器でしかないから。

──　いわゆる鎧のような。

“When you see the climax, you can see that Simon himself is Gurren Lagann, isn’t he?

Imaishi: That’s right. You don’t need a mecha, you don’t need to combine, you just need one body.

Imaishi: I can’t help but feel that way. Because Simon himself has the power. The Spiral Power doesn’t come from the robot, but from Simon, and that’s the only way to drop it. The robot itself is just an amplifier. It’s like an armor.”

That’s something that even the series portrays. Before the timeskip, Simon has shown in some instances that he can pilot the mechs alone; post time skip, Simon and other Spiral Energy users like Lordgenome are capable of completely recreating their mechs, and in his final fight, he was able to fight equally and even kill the Anti-Spiral all by himself (AKA an opponent equal in power to Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann). With all of that in mind, it’s safe to say Simon can indeed pilot his mechs on his own.

Kyle Rayner

Scaling to the Anti-Life
Equation’s Abilities

Appearances of the Life Equation are quite scant, but its opposite however is an entirely different story. Indeed the Anti-Life Equation is one of the most notorious and feared powers in all of the DC Multiverse. And while its origins have changed slightly, the abilities Anti-Life grants someone are rather consistent, if only ever expanded upon, across continuities and different Earths. As the Life Equation is the equal and opposite to Anti-Life, even demonstrating identical abilities you wouldn’t think the two should share for being opposites, we’ll be analyzing both the scope and limits of the Anti-Life Equation’s power is to determine how potent Kyle’s usage of the Life Equation could be or likely is. Note that we will also cover iterations of both equations across the multiverse just to cover all our bases, even if it is unlikely Kyle would even think to use such abilities.

Note: We will be using showcases of the Anti-Life and Life Equation depictions across DC’s multiverse for cross scaling. Primarily because, barring any non-canon works, they all typically stem from The Source or are some fundamental truth to the universe. While certain depictions of the ALE/LE may differ significantly in their usage and even capabilities, we’ve seen in storylines like Cosmic Odyssey that the whole Anti-Life Entity and the equation itself is split into many different aspects with different abilities. Thus while Kyle may not be able to replicate everything here with the Life Equation, consider this section every extra ability you could possibly give Kyle with it.

Our main focus for this section however is Anti-Life’s most well-known application, the domination of the free will of others as it is the mathematical proof that all life is meaningless. Somehow the Life Equation can replicate this, so how potent is this control exactly? Well Anti-Life users essentially have full control over whoever they wish and victims of Anti-Life become mindless slaves, described as no longer being alive as one’s independent will is removed and are excised of all hope. Even mere aspects or fragments of the equation can cause this.

Those under Anti-Life also become extensions of the one controlling them, acting as the eyes and mouths of Anti-Life’s wielder. It’s such a potent power that even New Gods are susceptible to it, bringing Metron into a catatonic state, soldiers of New Genesis and Apokolips dying instantly a single command to “Stop”, and even the dreaded Black Racer can be commanded with a portion of the Equation and can be bound by it. (Potential Trigger Warning!) When Mister Miracle was affected by Anti-Life, it made him commit suicide and then created an entire reality for him in his head that trapped him in despair and self-hatred. It is akin to being put into a painting indistinguishable from nature and reality. Even after he overcame the despair within it, embodied in his vision of Darkseid, Scott Free still chose to stay in the world created by Anti-Life as it felt real enough for him to not want to leave.

However, there are limitations here. Most clearly is that one can be broken out of the Anti-Life Equation by coming into contact with some form of “the truth”. This is most clearly seen towards the end of Final Crisis where Wonder Woman frees the Earth’s population from Anti-Life using the Lasso of Truth. In Batman/Superman: World’s Finest, the Kingdom Come versions of Batman and Superman were freed of Gog’s control over them when they listened to Metron’s story of Gog’s history and plan, though Gog himself only held a portion of the Anti-Life Equation. And while it has presented a will of its own, the Lasso of Truth can still keep it and people possessed by it from lying to them.

Both Mister Miracles have also broken free of the Anti-Life Equation, Scott Free outright conquering the illusion while Shilo Norman appears to have discovered the Life Equation while affected by the ALE to counter it. And beings with absurd hope and willpower like Superman are just flat out immune to it. Final Crisis also introduces the idea that the mentally ill are immune to Anti-Life. And somehow Lex Luthor resisted the spread of Anti-Life through meditation and his sheer obsession with Superman. The world of DCeased, which has been acknowledged as a canon Earth in Infinite Frontier, takes that concept to the extreme where the modified Anti-Life merged with the concept of Death from the Black Racer spread through an image on the internet into a biological virus like a zombie plague. A plague that could not only be cured, but those with a healing factor on par with Deathstroke’s could break out of Anti-Life’s hold while beings already undead were straight up immune.

However, it should be noted that this instance is inconsistent within the story, as other characters such as Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, and the Flash, who also possess healing factors with even greater properties then Deathstroke’s, were unable to resist the effects of Anti-Life, meaning that it should be taken with that caveat. And while at times Mother Boxes or specific plugs have been shown needed to protect someone from Anti-Life, more simple barriers such as a metal plate from surgery can do the trick. There is also a very unique way of resisting it, and that is through prolonged exposure to the Source as seen with the Source Titans being highly resistant to Highfather’s attempts to control them with the LE.

This specific application of Anti-Life is also limited in how it’s transmitted. Consistently, Anti-Life has to be physically transmitted by its user in some limited form or another. Sonny Sumo and Billion Dollar Bates who were born with the ALE are able to spread it by voice alone. Darkseid also possesses the same ability to spread it vocally during Final Crisis, as well as via his Omega Beams in Tom King’s Miracle Man mini-series as shown above. In Cosmic Odyssey, an ancient race could only channel the ALE via a laser cannon. In Final Crisis, the Anti-Life Equation is spread digitally across the world. This ends up being consistent across other Earths as seen in Superman: The Dark Side, where Darkseid transmits Anti-Life via a massive transmitter and, as mentioned earlier, DCeased spread also through an image of the equation shared online. In fact these are specified as the only two ways the infection can spread in the DCeased universe when a Mother Box was used similarly to infect Mr. Mxyzptlk. This is actually a limitation we also see with the Life Equation in that in order to dominate the will of others, Highfather needed to concentrate and blast individuals with beams or a wave of energy to dominate their wills.

Lastly, we know both Equations can be contained or their usage limited. Darkseid once made a device that was capable of disrupting the energy signatures of Anti-Life which would then seal it. Meanwhile Highfather did something similar and sealed Kyle’s access to the Life Equation within himself while wielding a rod that could channel it from Kyle.

But that’s just the mind controlling, will dominating aspect of Anti-Life and some of its physical properties. It possesses other applications beyond the domination of others’ will, such as:

• Anti-Life can affect and manipulate digital devices
• Uncontrolled Anti-Life can spread across 200 square light-years and absorb everything within that space in a short time frame before exploding due to being made of antimatter
• An incomplete Anti-Life was used as an engine for Apokolips and its planet-sized conqueror mode mech form
• A Mother Box infused with Anti-Life can release powerful destructive beams
• A version of Darkseid lost control over the Anti-Life Equation, which went on a rampage and killed all life in his universe except him, so that it could torture him
• Anti-Life can cause heart attacks and can blow people’s heads up
• Anti-Life has healing properties
• Anti-Life has been used on a fewoccasions to inflict diseases
  • The Life Equation has been used to cure ALE-based illnesses
• Anti-Life is capable of resurrecting the dead, though they wouldn’t be their original selves
  • Anti-Life cannot restore souls, but it can reanimate the dead to speak on their last memories
• A portion of the Anti-Life Equation can be used to invade/induce bad dreams
• Alternate Versions – Debatable Application:
  • DCAU’s Amazo II used the DCAU’s Anti-Life Equation to wipe out the entire multiverse
    • DCAU”s Batman and Wonder Woman then utilized the DCAU’s Life Equation to remake the multiverse

Infinite-D DC: Fact or
(Reality Over) Fiction?

DC having higher infinite spatial dimensions has been a topic that has swept through the VS community for the last few years, and in that timespan, a lot has changed. 

The primary argument for this has always been the multiverse being stated on two instances to have infinite dimensions within it – however, both of these examples have holes that make them much less impressive then they’d inherently seem.

First of all is the Larfleeze statement that there are infinite dimensions. This one is fairly easy to debunk – the context is talking about the multiverse. A common trope within fiction is to use the terms “dimension” and “universe” interchangeably, as they seem to mean roughly the same thing. Many contexts talking about many dimensions do not actually mean spatial dimensions, they can mean pocket dimensions or universes, and as the scan does not actually say the dimensions are spatial in nature, the context pretty clearly means that they are talking about universes.

However, the other instance is a lot harder to explain and on the surface is a lot more solid. Within a Deadman issue, he is taken to another dimension “two above his own” that he “cannot understand” where time fundamentally acts differently then where it does in our universe, with their being stated to be “countless” dimensions. On its own, this statement seems fairly solid; higher dimension a lower dimensional being cannot comprehend and countless dimensions like it. However, context kills the argument: It refers to Nanda Parbat; the magical heart of the afterlife and the place from which Rama Kushna overlooks and guides spirits that overlaps with the physical world and is even referenced in guidebooks as still a part of Earth.

And making this even more complicated is the “Word of God” from Paul Jenkins regarding this issue. To put simply, they don’t hold much ground here as not only does Mr. Jenkins go out of his way to clarify that he is not DC editorial and his word doesn’t apply to the actual canon of DC outside what’s written (and says the same for his Marvel work and is a believer in “Death of the Author”), but he’s quite frankly just inconsistent on whether it’s higher spatial dimensions or universes and is often asked leading questions to get to those answers in the first place. He’s also said that the Sentry could beat the Beyonder, which is just whack yo.

In addition, a comic named Millennium Fever, under Vertigo, has statements also suggesting infinite spatial dimensions, making a direct comparison between three dimensions to infinite. There are some arguments for and against this being the case of higher infinite spatial dimensions. The arguments in favor is the comparison between the two dimensional values; how people only see things in a narrow, three-dimensional way when in actuality, the universe, as its perceived is just a small fraction of what is actually out there, hence the infinite dimension being the next thing brought up, and Jerome likens it to someone watching a scene on a TV, which does imply a form of superiority in viewing things that are perceived as lower dimensional, implying that there are higher dimensionals in which things can be perceived, which is consistent with DC having cosmological structures that perceive the multiverse as lower to them. 

The arguments not in favor of this however are as followed; ‘Dimensions’ in this case could be used as a synonym, talking about infinite universes since the context of these pages is about realigning with the multiverse, stating Jerome sees merely three dimensionally represents how limited his view is due to the fact he cannot comprehend the infinitely expanding multiverse, only seeing one universe; the one he lives in, even mentioning the notion of alternate Earth’s in the exact same speech bubble, meaning this is simply talking about how Jerome has a limited view in understanding how expansive the multiverse is.

The bigger problem here is canonicity. Vertigo is an imprint open for creator owned books and books canon to DC, and Millenium Fever falls into the former – there is nothing in it or outside of it to suggest it is canon to DC other than it having the same publisher. This was a small creator owned book of a story he wanted to tell, not one connected to the wider DC multiverse. There are no DC characters, no concepts in both that are the same beyond the vague idea of the Collective Unconscious and the multiverse, almost nothing in common. 

There is nothing saying this book is canon to DC in anything, and especially given when it was published in DC history, it having an infinite multiverse is a strike against it being canon – this was published during a time where the multiverse was not a thing, as it had not been restored yet. This book having this concept at all indicates that it’s not trying to be in line with DC canon at the time of its writing. Books such as V for Vendetta are not canon to the DC multiverse, as it’s a creator owned story seperate from the DC cosmology, and Millennium Fever should be the same situation. Using it to buff DC cosmology is inherently contradictory to the comic itself and the intentions of its creator, and as such it should not be used under any and all circumstances to buff DC cosmology. As a result, while there is credence to the statement being legitimate (it’s debatable, at least), the argument doesn’t check out sadly.

There are several other arguments for infinite dimensions for DC, but suffice it to say, many of them have the same problems they do. This post talks about it extensively, so we’ll link it here (thank you immensely once again ProfectusInfinity!), but to rapid fire some of the other big ones:

• Sena the Wanderer’s statement has the exact same issues as the Rama Kushna one, along with numerous uses of the word dimension to just refer to an alternate reality (seriously there are so many examples for this one)
• “Infinite dimensions” from one of the most recent DC guidebooks is used interchangeably with just alternate realm, plane, or universe
• While not an example of Infinite-D, there is the 196,833-D Snowflake that, as quite literally written, refers to a collection of universes/multiverses and not a higher-D space
• The recursive painting thing isn’t proof of R>F or necessarily transcendent nor reflect reality in such a way. Baseline reality being the highest makes this a case of inverse R>F if anything
• “Transgeometric” Fifth Dimension before the Snyder retcon doesn’t mean Outer. The term on its own does not lead to that and we see later geometric higher dimensions like 6-D and 8-D appear as larger than 5-D, and 5-D in general is depicted as a material spatial dimension
• “Pan-dimensional” in the context of the Orrery refers to spanning the multiverse rather than literally all spatial dimensions, which are never brought up in the scan and the gathering of heroes is a clear example of it just being a multiversal gathering of the heroes across the Earths. An appeal to definition essentially.

Overall, most arguments for DC having infinite higher dimensions are shaky at best, and outright wrong at worst – and in general, scrutiny for these sorts of statements should be applied more often. Granted this doesn’t affect certain other realms that would get “Low Outer” or plain “Outerversal” regardless as standards for those tiers don’t necessarily require infinite spatial dimensions, but at least for Crisis cosmology infinite-D by itself doesn’t hold much ground.

Fanart

(Adam天)

(BlackPenBP)

(Yung)

(SirusStuff)

(cadendamonkay)

(Taurock) 

(Glreadstoomuch and Tompuffs)

(Redrunner)

(Dekhead)

(Simon vs Kyle Tribute Video by Hyperstarman. Art by Dek)

Verdict

Stats

Attack Potency

When talking about the stats for both of these characters, things start to get…crazy. Real fast. These are two of Death Battle’s most impressive combatants by far, but fair warning, we’ll be talking a lengthy amount about these two and their scaling since there is a lot to uncover, as it was very hard to pin down exactly how powerful both of these characters are, especially on the White Lantern’s end. So strap in, this one is a lot. 

Simon the Digger

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Just how big is Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann? Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann emerged from the Super Spiral Universe as the final form of the Gurren Lagann mechas, and its scale has been subject to much discussion. Based on various Gurren Lagann guidebooks and the Final Drill databook, its size is rough to measure due to coming from a place of materialized thought and not existing in the physical world, but some attempts can and have been made. After all, we do know that it can exist within physical space due to creating the Super Spiral universe within itself. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann would be 10,000 times larger than the original Gurren Lagann, and 100,000 light-years tall, roughly the size of the Milky Way Galaxy.

As for Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, it’s been described as an absolute form of transcendence made from the Infinity Big Bang Storm, an attack on par with the universe, making its size a ‘universe class’ that far surpasses galaxies and globular clusters. The Giga Drill Break attack alone from STTGL has been calculated to be 1.96 trillion light-years in length, which is 21 times larger than our own observable universe. But that’s just the beginning. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann’s size goes beyond traditional spatial dimensions, its body is made of materialized thought, meaning it doesn’t exist in normal 3D space. Instead, it manifests within a Super Spiral Space, which pushes its form to be at least of an 11-dimensional size.

Now what does this mean for Gurren Lagann’s power? Going back to the Infinity Big Bang Storm, it’s important to stress that it was an attack that is on par with the birth of the universe. Universes in Gurren Lagann alone contain the 10th and 11th dimensions, which was revealed after the Anti-Spirals forces moved between the membrane of the dimensional universes, evading the cosmic scanners. Simon was able to match the very same Anti-Spiral after absorbing the Infinity Big Bang Storm, breaking apart his drills. The Anti-Spiral is a being who already transcends space and time, and his fight against Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann also transcended space and time, producing an infinite amount of energy with each and every clash.

You may be wondering, how can we go even further than that? Well…enter the Otoko no-jōken! Gurren Lagann CD drama. A fictitious version of our dear Simon the Digger known as Avant Simon was prepared to completely breach the entire CD, breaking into the “real world” to wreak havoc, until he was stopped by our real Simon, Otoko Simon, and Team Dai-Gurren. This is through a power known as “Salivary Gland Power”, a power deliberately meant to breach the “sound dimension”, which is described as the literal spinning CD disc that they are currently within. 

The first question you may ask is “But how can Simon himself do this if it was Avant Simon?” “Why would mainline Simon have this power” you may ask? Do recall the surpassing of the Multiversal Labyrinth, where Simon integrated with an infinite amount of Simons from the past, the present, and the future, which explicitly includes Avant and Otoko as well, giving Simon abilities that can affect an R>F transcendence relationship between the medium they are in, and all it is superior too. Adding onto that, the Salivary Gland Power is an extension of Spiral energy, which is what Avant Simon used to breach the 2-D manga world and cause all of this, directly referring to the infinite pool of energy that all lifeforms can draw from as the reason. So Simon would have the capacity to perform this himself if he wanted too due to the power falling under Spiral Power as the reason why. This would make Simon the Digger qualify for Outerversal levels of power, due to interacting with and affecting a structure that far exceeds anything within Gurren Lagann, being superior to it in every element via the Salivary Gland Power, an extension of the infinite energy of Spiral Power.

Kyle Rayner

White Lantern Kyle’s scaling is a bit interesting to discuss, to start: we know he’s above his GL Form which is comparable to the likes of Hal and other JL members, but due to the lack of overall direct feats, it’s hard to fully quantify his full potential. But that doesn’t mean we can’t try now can’t we? To start with the first chain of scaling, we need to know who exactly White Lantern scales to, and for that we have to discuss the Guardians. Kyle has been directly stated, while in White Lantern, to be a threat to the Guardians, and even made one fly away before. At the very least, Kyle would be on par with the Guardians of the Universe, their own direct feats, they would be equal to the big bang. However, we can do better than that.

The Guardian Ganthet is a member of the Quintessence, beings who exist on a higher plane of existence, the Sphere of the Gods. Another Guardian was able to fight Godstorm John, a form of John that he became and was able to interact with the Source. This is important as John was able to balance out the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum and Magic, even capable of acting as the powersource of a device that could create a new pantheon of New Gods. Godstorm John was able to trade blows with a Guardian before said Guardian was taken by surprise. Both Guardians and Godstorm John are said to be something called “Ascended”, essentially placing them on the same level as the New Gods to where they even have higher bodies in the Godsphere, touching The Source and gaining a separate ascended body capable of “everything” that can descend from the Godsphere without the need for a Boom Tube. This means that Kyle is at least equal to Godstorm John while in White Lantern, which means he’s on the level of the Godsphere. Supporting this are other recent examples of high-tier DC characters explicitly fighting Godheads from the Sphere of The Gods, such as Wonder Woman’s battle with Tezcatlipoca, main Earth Superman and his Earth-22/Kingdom Come counterpart punching out Gog, and the Justice League’s and JL Incarnate’s battles with Godhead Darkseid. 

In fact we can go further with Monitor Brother scaling. In The Unexpected series, the titular group of heroes travel to the Monitor’s Sphere and confront Mandrakk the Dark Monitor. Yes, the same one from Final Crisis that fought the Thought Robot. Despite being able to shake the entirety of Nil and his battle with the Bad Samaritan threatening to destroy the entire Monitor’s Sphere, heroes like Hawkman could take Mandrakk on directly, deflecting his attacks and surviving numerous blows from the vampiric anti-god. And retroactively, Death Metal had Darkseid’s fall in Final Crisis ripple into the Monitor Sphere. During the Perpetua saga preceding Death Metal, the Anti-Monitor dominating a fusion with both his brothers, amped by the Totality, and having repossessed the Anti-Life Equation at a state he describes as the most powerful he’d ever felt was defeated by… John Stewart ramming him with The Flash’s car. ‘Cause comics. While you could argue the car was juiced on Speedforce shenanigans, John himself is damn near the epicenter of the explosion so he’d likely scale to a portion of it anyways.

The third chain scaling would be Kyle being comparable to New 52 Anti-Monitor via the Life Equation, who’s able to directly fight an amped New-52 Darkseid, who Yuga Khan was comparable to when Darkseid was younger. Yuga Khan had the power of Shazam and with it, outright punched a hole through the Source. Shazam at this time was powered by several Old Gods, which allowed him to be able to beat Yuga Khan. Anti-Monitor was able to beat Darkseid with the Anti-Life Equation, and the Life Equation is equal to it. To tldr: Yuga Khan =< amped Darkseid < Anti-Monitor with ALE = White Lantern Kyle with LE. For further support, it’s heavily implied that Mobius, the Anti-Monitor’s original state before he found Anti-Life, is still stronger than “God of Gods” Shazam who beat and added Yuga Khan to his power, yet Steve Trevor of all people with the ALE just 1-shot Mobius shortly after he received it. So Kyle with more experience using the Life Equation should easily compare to and surpass Steve’s usage of it.

In conclusion, Kyle with the White Lantern Ring and Life Equation, has avenues to scale to characters from the Godsphere, Monitor Sphere, Sixth Dimension, and The Source respectively, which all depend on how high you have each in a cosmological scope. No matter what though, Kyle, with the Life Equation, can interact with and affect a part of the DC cosmology that shares an R>F transcendence with its lower denizens, as the Godsphere, Monitor Sphere, and Sixth Dimension are fiction; nothing, but a dream of the Source, granting Kyle also Outerversal levels of power, as the Life Equation makes up part of this Source alongside the Anti-Life Equation, both of which are two parts of a whole that they can consistently affect in its entirety, with various actions affecting everything up to the Source itself, such as the Crisis on Infinite Earths causing a crack in the Source; said examples are things Kyle should be comparable too.

Overall, attack potency should equal out between Simon and Kyle, as both at their peaks can affect the Otoko no-jōken! CD drama and the Source, both of which have an R>F transcendence over their respective cosmologies. Excluding that, sure you could make the argument that Kyle would be infinitely stronger if you put the cap on 11-D for Simon, since at worst Kyle with the Godsphere scaling would already be Hyperversal in power, but as it stands, their power sources have let them shoot through every space-time and dimension to transcend limitations undreamt of. 

Speed

Speed is much easier to talk about compared to attack potency (which is really saying something, Jesus Christ), and both should have similar enough speed rankings that we won’t be here long. Starting with Simon, as stated before, the sheer size and scope of TTGL and STTGL means that logically, it should be attacking REALLY fast, even if it looks like its moving very slow, but perception y’know? With every step and move, it can cross almost universal distances, and match attacks from Anti-Spiral that cross dozens of galaxies, reaching a point of transcending time and space, meaning that distance loses all meaning, especially when your biggest attacks span the entire universe nearly 21 times over, meaning Simon the Digger has immeasurable speed. Hell, if you really wanna push it, Gurren Lagann universes are infinite in size, and given STTGL is bigger than the universe, their movement would already be at infinite/immeasurable speeds by merely existing.

As for Kyle, Lanterns are no rookies when it comes to interstellar travel. Kyle as a White Lantern can move through transluminal space at speeds beyond the laws of physics, flying to planets like Nok from “halfway across creation”. He should scale to fellow Lanterns such as Hal Jordan, who flew from the edge of the universe in a construct to catch up with Lightray, the New God of Speed, nearly causing a Speed Force singularity that made him enter the Speed Force, eventually even catching up to Lightray and Highfahter. In this same jet construct, Hal dodged an Omega Beam, “rocketing through transluminal space at speeds greater than the gods” while outflying them, ending up at the Source Wall. Even as just a Green Lantern, Kyle is easily immeasurable in speed, due to Lanterns at their peaks being able to move so fast that distances in infinite universes mean nothing to them.

So overall, speed should also equal out between these two cosmic powerhouses, making stats relative across the board.

Abilities

We will need to break down this section in various small subsections due to the sheer quantity of stuff to talk about. We hope the format we used helps in the discussion being less heavy to read.

Can Kyle even interact with
Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann?

Green Lantern sprites by PSEUDOINGLES

Before we jump into the spreadsheets worth of abilities these two have, we should probably get an important key point out of the way, that being; can Kyle even interact with TTGL or STTGL? A mecha bigger than the entire universe seems very hard to comprehend, and someone the size of a human even trying to hurt this behemoth seems hard to imagine, as he’d be hitting but a speck of the bigger picture. So what does Kyle do here?

Well for starters, characters in DC can and have viewed beings that transcend time and space without going mad, almost to a point where DC breaks the rules of their own superhumans and cosmic deities. The Justice League have viewed the Quintessence face to face without melting at the sight of them, and many of their ranks have engaged them in combat before, even going to their domains to do so. Kyle himself has stared straight into hyperdimensional data within the Bleed, which is a natural insulator against Source energy itself, so he wouldn’t go mad at the sight.

But, he still needs to interact with him and do damage. While Kyle should logically be comparable to Lanterns like Mogo, who have enough energy AoE to light up a universe, and Kyle himself in the DC vs Marvel crossover has channeled two universes worth of energy, we’ll get into why this isn’t the most effective later, at least at human size. So how does Kyle close this gap? Let’s talk about the silliest feat in VS; the Planck Length alteration. 

Kyle and Anarky were able to alter the planck length, the shortest distance that separates the sub-molecular world from the physical world, into a single centimeter, which is increasing a distance over billions of times. With this in mind, imagine if that distance was applied onto Kyle or Simon. Kyle’s reality warping as a White Lantern is already potent, so it should make sense that he can shrink down the STTGL, especially given this reality warping power requires Kyle to directly act upon the universe itself to achieve success. However, this wouldn’t really matter. Even if Kyle shrunk Simon down, the Spiral Power would simply just…let Simon regrow on account of his evolutionary abilities, and if he has two forms that can transcend the boundaries of time and space, he isn’t exactly bottle-capped if he’s shrunk down a notch. 

Now, what if Kyle grew to the size of STTGL? Honestly, that’s by far the more likely scenario. He’s never used that kind of size manipulation on himself before, sure, but there’s no real reason he couldn’t. He just never had a reason to try it, since he’s never gone up against an opponent anywhere near Simon’s scale. And considering how powerful his reality warping already was as a Green Lantern, his Life Equation reality warping showings are even moreso. Kyle has warped reality on a universal scale to make travel into the Source Wall, which is an infinite barrier, possible. Being able to warp reality to grow to STTGL’s size and keeping his form stable that way should both be doable, due to the scale his reality warping operates at. So yes, Kyle will tear a hole in the sky and meet the heaven-piercer halfway.

Lantern’s Light VS Spiral Energy

Comparing the main power sources for both is interesting, and lots of potential interactions mostly cancel out, but let’s go over what they can do, since there is also a lot to talk about here. We can start by comparing the Emotional Spectrum and Spiral Power.

Spiral Power is incredibly potent, being able to infinitely power entire galaxies and propel life forward, awakening the hidden potential within humanity and in Simon’s case, giving him the power of evolution itself; Evolving beyond the person they were a minute before that transcends time, space, and dimensions themselves. It can be stocked and reserved for years on end, generate forcefields, creating a reserve of enough energy to evolve an entire species. It is also versatile, letting Simon create energy beams, be discharged through hands, make energy tornadoes, empower Super Spiral missiles, or be released in AoE bursts. It can also be morphed into weapons, most notable drills, giving us powerful attacks such as Giga Drill Break. Most importantly, Simon can also absorb energy, directly grabbing it and using it to power the mecha and all of his attacks, converting whatever is absorbed into Spiral Energy, even allowing Simon to absorb higher dimensional attacks like the Infinity Big Bang Storm.

Moving over to the Emotional Spectrum, Kyle harnesses all of the lights, but we primarily know him for his ability to use willpower and life the most. The Emotional Spectrum is one of the seven major forces of the DC universe alongside the Speed Force or Sphere of Gods, giving the universe feeling to it, so Kyle has a large power source he is coming from as well. He can use energy to ignite planets, supercharge himself, create energy tornadoes, and sever Black Lanterns from their main power sources. This energy can be used to mimic other forces such as gravity, light, and sound, like when he made a device that turned kinetic energy into subsonic vibration energy to cancel out an angel’s existence.

His hard-light constructs are his main bread and butter, being able to make anything limited by his imagination, basically anything from mechas to samurai swords to torture electric chairs. These constructs can be cloned, intangible, look super realistic, and go up for days on end. Kyle can also absorb energy from stars, make forcefields that block supernovas and put people in fish bubbles that suffocate them (damn ok). As for other powers, he can heal wounds, travel/teleport through dimensions, go invisible/intangible, manipulate matter, alter minds, and warp reality.

But it doesn’t stop there. Some of his White Lantern abilities include energy blasts that can disintegrate foes, life manipulation/acceleration, life creation/removal, heal people, bring them back to life, cosmic senses, emotion tracking, etcetc. There are a lot of abilities both of these two have, and condensing them in paragraph upon paragraph without much elaboration for the counterplay or interactions would be tough, so we’re going to divide the interactions up as much as possible, and this section will mostly focus on how their main powers interact, and as the verdict goes along we’ll talk more about the trickier or more esoteric abilities they have.

So who’s got the tools for the job? While both have some advantages, one overarching point in Simon’s favor in general is his options allow him to go up, while Kyle’s allow him to go up…and down. For example, Kyle’s constructs and energy, while very potent, are extremely vulnerable to just being absorbed by Simon. The constructs at their core are hard-light energy constructs, and the scope of Simon’s absorption has allowed him to absorb things like the Multiversal Labyrinth, an entire extradimensional space full of infinite possibilities, as well as the Infinity Big Bang Storm as mentioned earlier. Kyle’s main energy blasts or constructs would be free fuel for Simon, even if something like a disintegration blast hurt Simon, it wouldn’t matter if that power can simply be converted into Spiral Power. Kyle himself also has potent energy absorption, absorbing energy from beings as powerful as Parallax Hal Jordan, and given his abilities to mimic or use other energy sources like plasma or heat, he should be able to absorb Spiral Energy himself given its similarities to Green Lantern’s light, since both stem from willpower. 

However, Simon would still somewhat have an advantage in an energy absorption exchange. Simon has shown that even if he is being absorbed, he can outpace the absorption due to the infinite reserves of Spiral Power, while Kyle has shown in the past, even as a White Lantern, that he cannot outpace absorption himself, though lots of it was due to Relic’s technology trapping him so he couldn’t really attempt to fight back, because he certainly tried. As we see with absorbing the Infinity Big Bang Storm, each big attack that Simon absorbs makes him evolve further, which is how the jump from TGGL to STTGL occurred in the first place, was evolutionary power. Though it may seem like Simon is the only one with this, Kyle can also grow stronger even if power seems absent, as the more he embraces life, the stronger he gets. But, Simon’s absorption and power growths would still be better, as it ensures he will continuously go up in power, whereas Kyle’s is more of a means of keeping him in the fight if he’s on the backfoot, though he should also be able to get more powerful, just not at the rate Simon would.

In terms of other powers, let’s go over some quick things that would cancel out or not really work. Both have forcefields that can block powerful enough attacks that in general, would cancel out, as they’d both be able to block physically notable attacks from either. Simon redirecting attacks at people is pretty good, but Kyle’s shown that he can absorb or tank his power being thrown back at him. Though Kyle can go intangible or invisible to go undetected, Team Dai-Gurren’s senses are greatly enhanced, being able to detect and engage with the Anti-Spiral, who would classify as an invisible being without a real physical form, so he wouldn’t be able to get the drop on Simon any time soon.

Both are also able to teleport, though through different methods, and it wouldn’t really matter in the long run due to STGGL being big enough that…it probably doesn’t need to in all honesty. Matter manipulation could be somewhat useful for Kyle in helping convert spiral energy into regular energy, other applications in affecting it wouldn’t really cut it, as Gurren Lagann has operated in an ultra dense ocean known as the Death Spiral Field. In terms of mind alteration, if Kyle can grant memories, he should be able to take them away right? He’s never really shown this ability and even if he did, other Spiral Power users like Nia have overcome the effects of mind alteration, even being able to reintegrate her old form by recalling past memories.

Now let’s talk about more tide turning and important abilities.

Can Kyle’s ring track/detect
Spiral Energy?

One of the features of the Green Lantern ring is its tracking and scanning abilities across the electromagnetic spectrum. Does this mean Spiral Power could be detected and the ring could inform Kyle about it? Simply put, it should be possible too. Spiral Power is something that can be traced in both the mecha and Simon himself given it courses through the veins of the user, this means Kyle can trace it through Simon’s vitals, detecting a power source that is giving Simon aid, and the rings scanning allowed him to learn all the information about a Scarab, and any given information about them within moments. And of course, the rings general abilities to track alternative power sources and detect detect temporal anomalies, time ripples or subatomic particles means that even if Kyle can’t learn the name of the power source, he’ll know that there’s energies at play here that are fueling Simon’s powers and abilities, aiding in his own ability to interact with it and Simon. 

Levels of Regeneration

Comparing their regenerative abilities, and a clearer picture is painted for whos is better. Simon can reform his entire body with his thoughts; even when fully obliterated by the Infinity Big Bang Storm, undergoing quantum breakdown down to the last strand of DNA. Kyle heals any wound, restoring his strength and power to 100% and has shown he is able to heal his entire body of third degree burns despite being caught off-guard and his ring not protecting him. More impressively, Blue Lanterns can regenerate entire severed limbs, and Star Sapphire abilities let Kyle heal entire fatal holes in his chest. Kyle as a White Lantern has shown the ability to unmake himself, almost as if he was blinked out of existence, and come back on a whim, though this would classify more as resurrecting from such destruction but we mentioned Simon’s ability to come back with materialized thought regeneration; we’ll talk more about Kyle’s ability to unmake himself and come back in the next section.

When directly comparing their direct regeneration abilities that don’t have them dying however, Simon’s is clearly better. If Kyle somehow destroyed Simon’s body physically or obliterated him in any way, Simon can come back due to his regeneration being thought-based; as long as that part of him is there, he can rematerialize from any sort of firepower Kyle throws at him. Kyle isn’t too shabby himself, and if he did lose a limb or two, he can get them back, but it’s not as potent as Simons when it comes down to it.

Can Simon erase Kyle?

Assuming Simon is able to use Anti-Spiral powers, Simon should have the ability to will someone out of existence just as much as they can be created from nothing. In the past there has been lots of debate about Lanterns resisting existence erasure from the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths. How much of those hold up?  It has been extensively postulated that the Green Lanterns Corps have an inherent resilience against existence erasure on a Multiversal scale – an assertion rooted in their survival of the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Convincing, isn’t it? But before drawing conclusions, we must first delve into the complexities of the Crisis itself. The Anti-Matter Wave assailed all worlds within all times – with the ultimate aim of annihilating the infinite positive matter universes. It’s that term – positive matter – that warrants our undivided attention. Crisis on Infinite Earths establishes that the annihilative force of the Anti-Matter Wave stems from a fundamental cosmic incompatibility; positive matter and anti-matter cannot coexist together. 

This is echoed in The DC Book: A Vast and Vibrant Multiverse Simply Explained – “Anti-Matter: Matter composed of particles that are the counterparts of particles comprising positive matter. Carries opposite charges, e.g., antiprotons instead of protons and positrons instead of electrons. When positive matter meets antimatter, both are destroyed and converted to energy”. A crystal-clear explanation, indeed – especially as the Anti-Monitor was directly siphoning the energies of the universes obliterated by the Anti-Matter Wave, expanding his Anti-Matter Universe in the process. A description that persisted within DC long after the event itself. Phrases such as “Eliminated from all existence” simply encapsulates the notion that the Anti-Matter Wave pursued every reality across all times – annihilating them simultaneously across every epoch, rendering even beings like the Immortal Man incapable of survival.

Although DC takes great care in detailing the nature of Anti-Matter, it is crucial to emphasize the profound scientific distinction between it and the concept of Existence Erasure. Antimatter consists of particles that are counterparts to those of ordinary matter, possessing opposite electric charges. When a particle encounters its corresponding antiparticle, they annihilate each other, converting their mass entirely into energy. This process is governed by the laws of physics and results in the complete conversion of mass into energy, adhering to Einstein’s equation E=mc².

This annihilation is a reversible physical process: the energy released can, in principle, be harnessed or transformed into other forms of matter under the right conditions. Crucially, Anti-Matter does not negate existence; it orchestrates a transformation rather than an obliteration, abiding by conservation principles. In contrast, Existence Erasure refers to the complete and irreversible removal of an entity from reality. It is not bound by physical laws or conservation principles. It is a metaphysical concept that transcends the physical annihilation of matter, encompassing the elimination of an entity from existence. Making it a completely different ability from Anti-Matter Manipulation.

This differentiation is further supported by the feats themselves. Green Lantern Corps #218 depicts the ‘Anti-Matter Wave’ in a markedly distinct fashion from its portrayal in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Bolovax Vik [Kilowog’s Planet] is not wiped from existence in its entirety, nor is it expunged from the fabric of reality – it suffers only corporeal ruin. The planet’s remnants even drift amid unscathed cosmic surroundings. Impossible if it was truly erased from existence. The “Anti-Matter Wave” is also depicted as a distinct blast that only affected the planet, and not an omnidirectional wave that destroys all life within the universe. Intriguingly, Kilowog’s people were also not erased; their life-essences were siphoned into the Ring. And how did Kilowog survive this? Simple! It is established that Green Lantern Power Rings automatically & passively ward-off Anti-Matter Particles. Likely a function built by the Guardians due to their experience with the Anti-Matter Universe & Qward. 

With that settled, how does the Green Lantern Corps truly fare when confronted with authentic acts of Existence Erasure? There have been instances where the Corps stood on the brink of complete erasure, threatened by a distortion of the timeline. They’ve been forced to escape a perishing universe, one the cusp of being erased from reality. Even their rings are susceptible to this. John Stewart had to evolve into a God, wherein he is constantly growing stronger, in order to withstand a weapon capable of erasing anything it made contact with [Including; the Green Lantern Corps, the Guardians, and Hal Jordan (Cosmic Grail)]. More glaringly, the Oblivion Wave [a crisis-level event] erased not only all of existence but the Multiverse itself – taking with it beings like Parallax Hal, despite the Parallax Entity lingering even after its host had been eradicated from being. Kyle Rayner would have been erased as well had it not been for the timely intervention of Waverider. He has, on multiple occasions, stood at the threshold of erasure – once nearly unmade by Oblivion, and later fully erased by the Life Equation. Though Kyle was eventually restored – resurrected through the very Equation that annihilated him – he did not resist its effects.

TL;DR: Kyle Rayner possesses the capacity to wield Existence Erasure in both his Green Lantern and White Lantern incarnations, primarily through his attunement to the Life Equation. However, the Green Lantern Corps has repeatedly fallen prey to Existence Erasure, and it’s highly improbable they could resist any form of annihilation not intrinsically derived from Anti-Matter. 

But this isn’t the end of the conversation. Just because Kyle can’t necessarily resist existence erasure does not mean he can’t come back from it. After all as stated before, Kyle unmade himself and Oblivion in an attempt to get rid of his dark self, coming back from being blinked out of existence. So while Kyle cannot resist its effects necessarily, Kyle can come back from it with the Life Equation’s reality warping abilities, so it’s unlikely this would suffice as a way to take down Kyle for good.

Can Kyle erase Simon?

There are two main examples to talk about in regards to existence erasure for Kyle. The first is following the radicalist anti-hero Anarky gaining a Ring and fighting a being called the Aberration. The Aberration is described as the manifestation of the breakdown of the physical laws sustaining the universe, altering things in ways like covering Washington in a storm and changing the rain to snow. These are small scale effects, but the Aberration is stated to accelerate in power to a universal scale. After teaming up with Kyle Rayner and multiplying the altered planck length by over a billion fold to escape the Aberration’s warping, Anarky makes a move with the Lantern to “wish the Aberration out of existence”.

Now, what’s the deal with this? Well first off, this should be considered actual erasure, as the mention afterwards of the Aberration being destroyed rather than moved somewhere else or whatnot backs up Anarky’s previously mentioned goal. Now this is where things get a bit more debatable. It’s a bit vague as to whether Kyle himself helped with the erasure. While Anarky does specifically say “we should wish it out” and he and Kyle work together to beat the Aberration, it might be more likely Kyle was simply helping hold it back while Anarky does the deed.

He goes out of his way to encourage Anarky to concentrate and beat the mind bending foe, and the most damning piece of evidence is how Anarky’s Ring was destroyed alongside the Aberration while Kyle’s was unphased. One could say this implies Anarky having far less willpower means him using all of his willpower cost him more, but we believe it’s more likely supporting evidence of Anarky single handedly performing it. With all that being said however, we do think Kyle should be capable of replicating this. The story explicitly mentions Anarky being far less experienced and powerful as a Lantern than our combatant.

It would be frankly bizarre to say a user who briefly had a ring and didn’t fully grasp its power at all would be able to perform a feat of this magnitude over the premiere Green Lantern for years. You could argue Anarky is simply more creative than Kyle, but Kyle has become far more creative since then. Hell, a rookie Hal Jordan was able to create the entire universe of Willworld on his own. Lanterns are no stranger to these kinds of absurd feats early in their careers. Adding on the Emotional Spectrum and Life Equation, we ultimately believe this instance is reliable, though it’s not as definitive as our next instance.

Our second instance involves Kyle’s fight with Oblivion, a manifestation of all his negative emotions that he unknowingly created when looking at the Source. Oblivion progressively gets stronger as Kyle fights him within his field, with physically destroying his body only helping the entity. As Kyle fights him, he realizes how he created Oblivion and comes up with a solution. For the first time, he consciously uses the Life Equation to rewrite life itself and unmake himself and Oblivion. This instance is pretty blatant, as the wording is supported by Star Sapphire saying it’s as if Kyle was blinked out of existence. Not to mention Kyle consciously using this himself rather than subconsciously as with most uses of the Life Equation makes this a pretty solid ability for him to possess.

So with all that out of the way, back to the actual question: can Kyle erase Simon?

Based on other showings from Spiral users, Simon should be able to resist this process. The main evidence for this is when Anti-Spiral was trying to get rid of Nia, Simon’s beloved wife. He attempted to erase her and break down her information to analyze, but she resisted long enough for Gurren Lagann to come to her aid. Even after the Anti-Spiral was defeated, the Anti-Spiral’s universe between dimensions vanished since he was constantly maintaining its existence. Without the Anti-Spiral’s universe, Nia’s existence ceases as a result of their genetic meddling with the virtual existence she was intended as, but Nia held on long enough to experience her wedding and fade away on her own terms. She was even shown physically, manually halting the process to give herself more time. And through a fan QnA sometime later, we learn that Nia could do all of this through the Fighting Spirit. Simon himself aided in Nia’s body being restored on the brink of erasure when he intervened to save her, so Simon himself should be capable of resisting Kyle’s existence erasure abilities if attempted, enough to fight back with a fighting spirit.

Anti-Spiral Powers VS
Kyle Rayner

It should be reiterated that these are all hypothetically abilities Simon can use, but that it’s unlikely for him to use in battle, as that would be extremely out of character for him. But let’s give the benefit of the doubt and say Simon’d use these abilities on Kyle. Would the might of the White Lantern be able to counter them? Let’s go through the powers:

Mind Manipulation- Anti-Spiral can bombard a person with visions of the Spiral Nemesis, however Kyle has shown plenty of times that he can break free of illusions.

Technology Manipulation- Unlikely to work, as the Green Lantern ring is far more complex and advanced then the technology Anti-Spiral shut off when in its presence.

Death Spiral Field- This ones a bit trickier, since it seems to apply to only Spiral Energy, but as we’ve established, it shares similar properties and concepts as Green Lantern’s light, but Kyle’s ability to manipulate matter means that it wouldn’t really matter if it got transformed into physical matter, and Kyle can certainly play tug-of-war if his power is getting turned into physical matter. 

Random Schrodinger Warp- Being able to shift up and down the time axis to avoid oncoming attacks via manipulating probability is very tricky, and Kyle’s best shot would be warping reality to get to Simon’s size, or in a similar manner of manipulating the Source code to make his attacks probable in his own right, but Kyle’s never really shown he can warp reality to manipulate probability, meaning at best he can similarly teleport or use wormholes to be hard to hit. 

Multiverse Labyrinth- Perhaps one of the most detrimental possible attacks Simon could weaponize, the ability to trap one’s consciousness in an extradimensional space, with a chain of alternate universes created the moment you recognize their existence, trapping a target in indecision across infinite possibilities, and without a decision, they are unable to return to the world they came from. Kyle has traversed extradimensional spaces before such as the Bleed, and has made transdimensional portals to find his way out, and Kyle was able to break out of Parallax’s control despite being trapped within his own mind, by embracing the hope in his mother who came before him. With this in mind, Kyle could feasibly break out of this Multiverse Labyrinth in a similar manner, breaking free from hope being all lost and being beaten down by an entity as terrifying as Parallax.

Information Extraction- Could this ability help Simon extract information from Kyle or the Green Lantern ring? Very likely. The ring has robust security programs, but they are not impenetrable, and all of its data can be analyzed, though Kyle’s ring also provides information on the fly, though not necessarily by extraction, but with scanning. 

Sealing- Kyle’s abilities around teleportation, time travel, and dimensional travel means that Kyle being sealed away in a catatonic state wouldn’t really be likely, and he could easily break free. 

The Emotional Spectrum VS
Gurren Lagann

What about the other seven colors in the Emotional Spectrum? Can they provide any possible wincons for Kyle against Simon? Let’s go over all of them and see!

Rage- Napalm breath seems like a useful ability on paper, being able to incinerate space with its sheer rage. However, Anti-Spiral abilities mean that Simon can also cut through space, so that interaction would cancel out, though Kyle’s constructs have stopped napalm breath before so it’s doubtful that would affect Kyle all that much either. As for the corrupting effects of the Red Lantern’s light, it can provide some usefulness seemingly; it would classify as exploiting a weakness of Spiral Power possibly being shaken by a faulty mental state or a cloudy mind, both of which rage can achieve, and we saw when Simon has been in anguish that he could not get his Lagann to move, almost as if it lacked the will to live.

But Simon learned to overcome these emotions with time; finding strong will so the Lagann would respond, activating the Core Drill activated through passion, and being fueled rage, being able to channel Spiral Power through it, the hope & faith of others empowered him, and from grief caused such a surge in intense emotions within him that rapidly increased the rate of Spiral Power production. So rage is definitely an emotion that can be overcome by Simon if a corruption attempt was made. 

Greed- While Larfleeze’s constructs can eat through will, Kyle does not really have any ‘sentient’ constructs himself, though given he can make normal constructs, you could argue that this could be a helping hand in absorbing Spiral energy but as established before, this isn’t anything Simon can’t outpace. The more detrimental ability however is the process of making an Orange Light construct. If Kyle can absorb or kill someone, he can take their essence, DNA, and everything down to their very soul, and turn them into an undead construct of his own to control.

While Gurren Lagann has phrases such as ‘the fighting spirit’ all across the franchise, at no point is there any sort of spiritual hax or resistances shown, and trying to argue any of it means anything literal wouldn’t really make sense when it’s never shown. If Kyle attempted to absorb or kill Simon, this would be a detrimental thing to have happen to him, and would bypass needing precision to keep Spiral energy dormant in whatever state it’s in, as the constructs are up passively without needing any precise concentration. And though Otoko Simon showed that Simon would probably resist sealing, the transference process is pretty much instant, so there wouldn’t be much room to break out then and there if Simon was caught vulnerable.

However, would Kyle really do this? Not at first. The main argument for this would be that it’s not something he would do in character, which is somewhat true to an extent, and most of the time he uses one of the three ‘negative’ emotions, it’s typically against enemies such as Arkillo. The only time he’s really weaponized them against good guys was when he was defending himself against the Guardians of the Universe, though this was when he was less experienced with it.

This is still a Death Battle however, and if Kyle sees that his main power sources aren’t cutting it, it would make sense to see what else he can use, and it may just come to that, especially when Kyle has experience against enemies with adaptability and immortality, such as when Kyle, in an unorthodox way, sent Major Force’s floating head drifting into space so he couldn’t regenerate, so he’s not inexperienced against what Simon can do; but can he really pull this off before he himself is killed? We’ll come back to this one.

Fear- Kyle has shown he can feel the fears of those he comes across and make construct illusions based around his opponents fears. The Multiverse Labyrinth has shown us that Simon is more than capable of breaking out illusionary states, even if he was scared by whatever fear Kyle could show him, so this isn’t really an emotion that will be too useful for Kyle.

Hope- By far the second most directly useful emotion for Kyle, for the sole reason that it would pretty much keep Kyle in the game if he comes across energy absorption, of which Simon has…a lot of as we’ve covered, being able to recharge himself by 100%, going all the way up to 200%, on top of having automatic healing, so it’d be very useful in keeping Kyle in the fight due to Blue Lantern’s ability to passively charge Green Lantern’s light, and Kyle having both means it’s just a free recharge.  

Compassion- We aren’t gonna sugarcoat it, this doesn’t do anything for Kyle. Green Lanterns can already teleport between universes pretty casually and an untraceable ring doesn’t really matter considering Kyle is facing down an infinitely bigger space-time transcendent opponent, so he’s not going to really have any Mission Impossible openings here, along with the fact that Simon has similar teleportation abilities via the Spiral Universe Recognition Transformation System.

Love- Similarly to Sinestro Corps powers, the main draw from here is the crystallization ability, which Kyle has shown that he can do. The crystallization can trap someone in suspended animation, forcing them to see their greatest love before them. Again, the Multiverse Labyrinth suggests that Simon has broken out of far more deadly and with greater range, even more so given it paralyzed those trapped in it mentally, and while its not really outright said, Simon’s scenarios involved seeing Kamina again, which…who could blame Simon if that’s what he truly wants right? Overall, it’s definitely something Simon can also break out of. This does provide Kyle with good healing abilities however. 

Can Simon drill out of
the Source Wall?

This is by far one of the biggest discussions this debate has seen, and it’s time we answer the question once and for all. But before we do, we should probably go over what the Life Equation is once more and how the Source Wall is somehow involved in this. 

The Life Equation is what Kyle discovered when he breached the Source Wall in his final battle with Relic, who was trying to similarly breach it, and while Relic did not return from it, Kyle did. While he was in the Source Wall, he bonded with the Life Equation; the very source code of all life itself, becoming an inseparable part of who he is and giving Kyle reality warping abilities no Lantern has seen before. An extension of this is Kyle is able to travel into the Source Wall, and warp it from being impossible to being possible to travel to and fro beyond the wall. As shown with Relic and all gods and monsters who have tried and failed, trying to interact with the Source Wall means you will get assimilated into it, becoming a part of its graveyard of a trillion faces. If Kyle hypothetically plunged Simon into the Source Wall, what would happen? 

Oftentimes the Multiverse Labyrinth is brought up as the main source of evidence for Simon being able to break out of it, but you may be wondering why; after all, they aren’t really too similar. The Multiverse Labyrinth is a complex extradimensional space of infinite possibilities that holds your consciousness hostage, whereas the Source Wall is just…infinite primordial energy. Hardly a trap by comparison. But it’s the sealing aspect that gives Kyle points. Otoko Simon would’ve eventually busted out of Simon’s Core Drill, and the Multiverse Labyrinth at the end of the day still is an extradimensional space, and is considered a place beyond all known time, space, and dimensions, concepts that Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann just so happens to be able to surpass.

Various Spiral Power users could resist the Death Spiral Field, which can absorb and convert energy into mass, meaning Simon won’t be integrated into the Source Wall anytime soon, so long as he is producing Spiral Energy. And lastly, even assuming in spite of all of the above that the Source Wall can trap Simon, characters like Yuga Khan have broken out of the Source Wall before entirely by themselves. Granted such an act took eons, but with Simon’s space warp and probability missiles he could still return to the fight. Simply put, the confines of the Multiverse Labyrinth are what is similar to the Source Wall, and what allows Simon to break out of it if he was put in there to be trapped. 

Sealing VS
Kyle/The Life Equation

In the drama CD, Otoko no-jōken! Gurren Lagann, “Otoko” Simon was sent into Simon Avant’s Core Drill after getting stabbed by it, giving Simon an ability to seal enemies within his Core Drill. Could the very same thing work on Kyle? The ability, as shown by Otoko Simon, lets Simon absorb Spiral Power users and turn them into an energy source for him to use, which seems quite deadly.

Well, it’s nothing Kyle hasn’t seen before. Do recall that Lanterns in rookie stages have created large spaces within their own Green Lantern rings before, such as Hal Jordan creating the Willworld, an entire universe within his ring, an ocean full of realities and possibilities. There isn’t really a size or depth statement for the Core Drill, so it’s harder to answer the question of if it’d be too big for Kyle to escape, especially if he’s being used as an energy source; what happens if he’s just drifting energy? Kyle’s resurrection abilities as a White Lantern have shown he can bring people back from a non-corporeal and unstable state, like when Kyle was able to restore Hal back to life, even after his body was transformed into pure willpower and completely obliterated. We know Kyle can bring himself back to life after seemingly vanishing, so it should make sense for him to be able to come back from this, so long as his life essence at the very least remains. To support this, Kyle as a Green Lantern has survived being inside the Sun-Eater psychically and lived, though he was on a time crunch and any prolonged exposure would’ve made him permanently absorbed.

What about the Life Equation being sealed off? While Highfather did seal it off from Kyle using its abilities, lots of it was Kyle willingly giving it up to him on his part. And Kyle afterwards shows that he can still access the telepathic backdoor that Highfather created to commune with him once again. Kyle himself thought it was hopeless to access the power again, but the Guardians told Kyle that due to traveling to the Source Wall and bonding with the LE, he is intrinsically tied to it, and it cannot simply be taken away as if it was stealing a Lantern ring from a ringbearer, so it isn’t really inaccessible if attempted to be taken away, and Kyle should have access to his abilities with the Life Equation.

Can the Life Equation
control Simon?

The Life Equation gives Kyle a greater scope of telepathic abilities, like accessing telepathic mindscapes, and its implied to be able to enslave other people’s will on a scale of billions as shown in Future’s End. How can Simon defend against having his will enslaved? Well, has he not had his will enslaved before? Nia was able to “hang on for humanity” when trying to break out of her Dark Nia identity, and once again, the Multiverse Labyrinth sheds some light on what Simon was fighting against, as being in its infinite possibilities leaves Simon without the will to fight or live while adrift in a sea of infinite possibilities. If he can overcome his will being anchored down by his own infinite variations of lives, who the hell does Kyle think he is to enslave his will (and why would bro do this that’s kinda mean)? Simon should be able to overcome these effects due to similar instances of will being trapped and left to wander.

Resurrection VS
Regeneration Negation

In the final battle in Gurren Lagann, Simon won the fight by drilling a hole into the Anti-Spiral, causing it to explode despite the fact that previously, we’ve seen the Anti-Spiral come back from far worse, constantly showing it can reconstitute its abstract thought-body despite being obliterated. So if Simon were to hit Kyle with a Giga Drill Break, or any attack that overwhelms him, his regeneration could be in danger of not working. However, his resurrection abilities means that he has a second chance at coming back right?

…Kinda. There’s no doubt that Kyle’s regeneration abilities mid-fight could be in danger of not working, especially if Simon’s drill could kill a non-physical being. But, if Kyle was to die is really where this question matters. Resurrection and regeneration in this context would make sense to pair together, but there is a difference within both. While they both mean new life is restored in some capacity, resurrection means come back after truly dying, whereas regeneration is growing back parts that were lost, meaning there is something there to be rebuilt from near-death. So while Kyle’s regeneration may not work, his resurrection should work, and can come back from complete obliteration or being unmade from reality.

Probability Alteration VS
Reality Warping

This is where we get into the real deal. The probability missiles. Simon can twist probability to make attacks guaranteed to land, particularly probability-altering missiles that could harm the Anti-Spiral, taking guaranteed damage no matter what and hitting bullseyes that won’t fail to land. Due to the Anti-Spirals ability to shift along the time axis to be harder to hit, the missiles were adjusted to attack at all points in time; past, present, and future to ensure damage in a time range, regardless of the opponent’s nature across time and probability space.

Does Kyle have a defense for this? Unfortunately, there isn’t any resistance Kyle has shown to this attack. In fact, probability alteration has done more harm than good; a probability cancer was capable of altering history so Kyle never obtained the Green Lantern ring, only undone by the Atom going subatomic and restoring the seven photons tampered with by September, fixing reality. Sure, Kyle in the present would be fine being hit by the missiles, even if he has no way to avoid them, but being able to attack across the time axis, into the near past and future is something Kyle cannot defend against. You may be asking things like, “What about the Life Equation?” or “What about time travel?”

Let’s talk about this.

The Life Equation, oddly enough, does seem to be able to manipulate probability… to a degree. Kyle warping reality on a universal scale made it so traveling into the Source Wall was possible, despite the Guardians saying outright that it is impossible. So what’s stopping Kyle from warping reality constantly to make sure he himself isn’t hit by the probability altering missiles? A ticking clock perhaps. While Kyle is able to use the Life Equation effectively despite its limitations, we see at the height of the Oblivion fight that no one man should bear the burden of using the entire Life Equation, as reality warping can cause catastrophic side effects that Kyle cannot control at times, taking a toll on his body physically and making him weaker, leaving him with no other option but to split the Life Equation into a White Lantern Corps to defeat Oblivion.

Kyle extending his lifespan within the fight would cut him short of any options to defend against the probability altering missiles, so he is in a lose-lose situation; either stop using the Life Equation and risk getting hit at all points in space-time, or use it and wear himself out long enough for Simon’s continuously growing strength to make him too weak to defend against them. Time travel won’t work against these either. Probability alteration that makes attacks unavoidable cannot be dodged, no matter where Kyle tries to hide or what time era he evades the missiles in. Simple as that. 

One last final thing that should be addressed that we’re sure will come up; what about DC’s multiverse theory? How every single moment is but a possibility in an infinite sea of potential realities? Wouldn’t Kyle ensure to be a White Lantern still just as powerful within a few moments of the fight alone? No. DC’s multiverse is not exempt from causality, and despite these many casual chains, every Earth has its own timeline and logic, and he isn’t granted special immunity just by being a DC character under Morrison’s multiverse logic of characters existing at a “fictional” level. Every timeline has its own rules and logics, but they are still casual structures, meaning they do not reject causality, and we see from DC events such as the Flashpoint that universes change, and their inhabitants aren’t inherently immune to their effects (though some people have bypassed this via remembering past events), and Kyle is one of those residents; he experiences time, choices, and consequences, therefore he is not exempt from causality.

Summary

Kyle ultimately has far more quantity of powers at his disposal, but Simon has a plethora of resistances and willpower in order to resist a majority of Kyle’s deadlier attacks, especially the emotion-based ones, but he himself is left with few options of ending the fight due to Kyle’s energy reserves, resurrection, willpower, and defenses. But ultimately Simon will only continue to evolve minute by minute and grow stronger at a much faster rate then Kyle can.

So it’s down to just two wincons; the Orange Light and the missiles that alter probability. Bringing back our point on the soul hax, yes theoretically it would work on Simon. But similarly to Simon’s Anti-Spiral options, it’s unlikely Kyle would start with this attack frame 1, or anytime soon. While he would eventually think to use it if his main options aren’t working, Simon would beat him to the punch. The probability altering missiles would come to Simon sooner than soul yoinking would to Kyle simply due to Simon having less abilities and them being more of a go to in contrast, meaning he would reach that point sooner compared to Kyle.

And if Kyle truly is able to just absorb energy just as fine, grow stronger, come back to life and fight a war of attrition, Simon will use anything in Gurren Lagann’s arsenal to overwhelm Kyle, and we’ve seen him use the Super Spiral Missiles on many occasions to keep opponents at bay. It won’t be long before Kyle is overwhelmed, put on the backfoot, and will expend his usage of the Life Equation, die trying, or forgo it and leave himself even more vulnerable. Simon takes Abilities.

Tertiary Factors

Experience & Skill

This is a bit of a weird one. Logically, Kyle should be far more experienced; having fought eons of all types of enemies across his much longer career as a Green Lantern, fighting elite warriors like Sinestro in hand-to-hand combat, retrieving training from the goddamn Batman, and and going through multiple crisis events threatening all of existence. Simon by comparison has had a much shorter arc, though still impressive; rising from a humble miner in the caves to making evolutionary jumps in progress for humanity within seven years to piloting universe-sized mechs. Simon himself has also fought enemies with eons of experience such as Lordgenome, a once proud Spiral Warrior who has achieved far more battle experience then Simon, and the Anti-Spiral himself has been fighting the Spiral race for eons. Pretty comparable to the likes of Parallax or Anti-Monitor, but Kyle has been doing it for much longer.

Initially, it’d stop right about here, but… once again, the Multiverse Labyrinth proves that all of this is an understatement, as Simon after absorbing the ML integrated with all past, present, and future selves, in every time and place and every infinite possibility. This makes his experience quite quantum and multiversal in scale, and he now has the combined experience of countless Simons across existence, being a multiversal constant of boundless potential with Spiral Power. All those infinite lives are infinite battles that have been fought simultaneously, and its experience for Simon to draw upon. Even before this, Simon learned martial arts for three years after becoming the Supreme Commander, allowing him to match Viral, an elite trained soldier from the Spiral King’s army, in a brawl, and is skilled in swordfighting similarly to Kyle, who is also skilled in weapon usage. So Simon is more than able to match in raw hand-to-hand combat, and his experience now surpasses Kyles by entire infinite timelines worth of knowledge, so undoubtedly Simon takes Experience.

We will give Kyle his flowers however, as for what is shown in the battles both Kyle and Simon have fought, Kyle is easily the more creative and versatile of the two. Kyle’s construct making alone highlights this, as he’s not only made them extremely detailed, but applied them in ways that no other Lantern has, and his variety in how he uses his attacks is especially creative, especially when he’s up against the wall, showing strategic use of energy attacks to bypass enemies defenses or firing precise enough energy beams in ways that manipulate other types of energy. When he gained access to the Emotional Spectrum, not only did he show quick mastery of some of the emotions like compassion, but skill in applying all of the emotions at once, and skill in using them in creative ways most Lanterns haven’t even tried. Meanwhile, while Simon kicks logic to the curb and does the impossible, it’s mostly through one primary method; making big ass fucking drills. Granted, they are really effective almost all of the time, but Kyle’s moveset is far more expansive and varied by comparison. Even with Simon having a plethora of knowledge, we say Kyle still takes Skill.

Intelligence

In terms of intelligence and battle IQ, it’s a little more nuanced. While we just stated how Simon theoretically has access to an infinite amount of Simon’s worth of experience and intelligence, how it’s applied is a little different, and it’s arguable that in some areas it wouldn’t necessarily give him an edge in the moment. Theoretically, he would be drawing from an infinite amount of Simon’s in muscle memory, reflex, or even emotional intelligence, all of which would be maxed out pretty hard. But Simon is a lot more unorthodox and straightforward due to his mentality of “kicking out logic and doing the impossible”, and while he has shown some strategy within battle as Team Dai-Gurren’s leader, he excels far more in keeping morale high, rather than anything carefully thought out.

It isn’t a reckless approach per say, but one that is a lot more reactive and instinctive and on the fly, such as the final fight where Simon, without warning, decided to go bare-fisted one on one with the Anti-Spiral. And hey, it worked! But Kyle, as proven through elaborate constructs, is much more of a strategist and tactical thinker, especially since being a Lantern involves this kind of smarts, as their problems are not as easily solved by brute forcing or putting a construct over the problem. And for these reasons, Kyle takes Intelligence, because he should generally be smarter in battle, focusing more on strategic plans and gaining any advantage he can, while Simon isn’t as intricate with his planning.

Conclusion

“Mark my words! This drill will open a hole in the universe! And that hole will be a path for those behind us! The dreams of those who’ve fallen! The hopes of those who’ll follow! Those two sets of dreams weave together into a double helix! Drilling a path towards tomorrow! And that’s Tengen Toppa! That’s Gurren Lagann!! My drill is the drill… THAT CREATES THE HEAVENS!!!“

Advantages:

• Matches in the stat trinity, and can surpass Kyle in AP overtime with superior adaptation and energy absorption
• TTGL and STTGL’s sheer size make it harder for Kyle to fight Simon in the first place
• Superior survivability / immortality
• Likely fully immune to the Life Equation’s control
• Can resist numerous emotional-based abilities such as fear illusions, rage, and crystallization thanks to the absorption of the Multiverse Labyrinth
• Probability Missiles are guaranteed to land no matter what and are a more go-to win condition
• Regeneration negation would give Kyle some trouble
• Numerous abilities such as teleportation and force fields cancel out
• More experienced through his Multiversal copies 
• Comparable in pure hand-to-hand combat
• Was the poster boy of dimensional tiering in the VS community for years
• Has Yoko cheering him on
• Has a beautiful wife 🙂

Disadvantages:

• Less variety and creativity with how he uses his powers
• Susceptible to his soul being sealed by the Orange Spectrum
• Similarly speaking, Kyle resists important hax from Simon such as mind hax, and attack reflection
• Kyle’s immortality would still present a hurdle even if inferior
• Kyle can break out of being sealed within the Core Drill
• More straightforward and less tactical
• Was the poster boy of dimensional tiering in the VS community for years
• Dead wife 😦

“My mother painted this. All those years, and she didn’t tell me. She’s gone, but this is her gift to me. It always was, I just never knew it. I am who I am… I’m able to do what I do… because of her. She’s still with me. I’m not lost anymore. Now that I have hope.“

Advantages:

• Comparable in the stat trinity and heightened emotions can push him further…
• Immortality, while inferior, would still pose trouble for Simon
• Kyle’s connection to life means that he can similarly grow in power as the fight progresses…
• Wider power set with more creativity and versatility 
• The ring’s scanning abilities would clue in Kyle on being able to interact with Spiral Energy
• Alteration of reality would allow Kyle to hypothetically match STTGL in size
• Blue Lantern’s light would keep Kyle in the fight if energy absorption is a problem
• Soul stealing from the Orange Spectrum should work on Simon
• Much smarter and more of a tactical thinker/planner then Simon
• Numerous abilities such as teleportation and forcefields cancel out
• Unkillable by Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (Asian movies can’t kill him)
• Only likes the first two Terminators (based)
• Is getting a new run right after this episode

Disadvantages:

• …but Simon’s better overtime growth and energy absorption would eventually overwhelm him
• Size difference compared to Simon’s higher states present a difficult hurdle, and shrinking Simon wouldn’t matter due to Simon’s evolution
• …but not at all comparable to the rate in which Simon grows in power
• Life Equation abilities such as mind hax are ineffective
• Most of the Emotional Spectrum abilities such as rage and fear are useless against Simon
• Regeneration negation would give Kyle some trouble 
• Cannot defend from Probability Missiles at all
• Less experienced technically
• Worse survivability in a war of attrition
• Is a skinny white boy with a power ring
• The other Simon

This is a battle of the long-awaited wills that comes down to the wire, and both combatants are not without their advantages and options. Ultimately, it comes down to two wincons; the ability to take one’s soul, and probability missiles attacking across space and time. Both Kyle and Simon can regenerate, with Kyle being able to come back to life outright, both can warp across space-time, make forcefields, and manipulate many key aspects of the universe. But in the end, Simon’s bombardment of drills that pierce the heavens are a far more effective and straightforward ability than Kyle’s, and one he has little to no defense against. 

The Life Equation will only delay the inevitable, at the expense of Kyle’s mental state and ability to stay in the fight. Kyle’s power can also go up, but he’s put more on the backfoot with Simon’s superior versions of his own energy abilities such as absorption, and he’d be put on a roller coaster of trying to stay in the fight, all the while Simon grows stronger at a much faster rate then Kyle does. If all else fails then sure, maybe Kyle could edge out a win with the one ability that works, but it’s far less of a mainstay option then Simon using probability missiles, making his wincon easier to pull off, therefore securing a faster win. 

All and all, this is a ridiculously close fight, and we hope the vote’s tally doesn’t deceive that notion. Just who the hell do you think we are to even imply we don’t see Kyle Rayner as one of the most impressive fighters DEATH BATTLE! has ever had? He’s the torchbearer who carried an entire legacy through one impossible crisis, faced down Parallax and Oblivion, and mastered every emotion to become the White Lantern, rewriting reality with willpower alone. But even someone like him couldn’t crack this equation: that a wall is still a wall, and a drill breaks through walls. The winner is the Heaven-Piercing Gurren Lagann, piloted by Simon the Digger.

Final Tally

Simon the Digger (15) –  Bang, Blue Igneous, door-kun, Flip, greymerlion2, Guruguru_wa, ishi_yuki, KrisWarlock, Maddie Antiqua, PUNPUN, SpaceJellO, Spirit, Roughwaves, The Cardinal King, Yerm

Kyle Rayner (0) – We still love you more than DC does