Two will enter, one will leave: The Thunderdome Thunderdome

Purple · Dec 13, 2023

Any tokusatsu hero, regardless of how bootleg, can beat any robeast of questionable design.

Not ever being able to weave through projectiles is kinda just Bebop's whole thing. He cannot defeat Airman.

... I don't go to this school. I dunno.

And this last one's kinda weird. Thinking about it though, I feel like Max tends to get his head handed to him the first time he has to deal with someone whose deal he doesn't see coming. If he gets a second shot later he does OK, especially with a cool woman to team up with, but we're not doing best of 3 here. So I kinda have to go with Egg hitting him with something from his bag he just doesn't see coming.

Johnny Unusual · Dec 13, 2023

Inframan is built to take out evil villains like Daleks.

I love ya Bebop but winning isn't really your thing. Airman.

I haven't played Elder Care but watching the video of the game... well, the lady with the sword follows video game law; a series of predictable patterns. Not saying it's easy for you or I but Joseph's whole thing is predicting the enemy. I think the only hard part is when Maneillia becomes a big fireball. That's going to sting. But Joseph's strengths are not just using Hamon to increase strength but to get tricky with how he uses it. I feel like a lateral problem solver can outwit the brute force of the swordswoman. Point to Joseph.

I feel like Max is more of a survivor than an asskicker. And I don't think he's ready for Egg Shen and his magic. Egg might be taken aback by how aggro he might be but in the end, he's going to win.

Torzelbaum · Dec 13, 2023

I also think Egg can win but I'm not sure exactly how the fight would shake out.

What I think could happen is that Egg might start lobbing magical bombs near Max and Max will take a lot of glancing hits because of Egg's imperfect aim. After that happens for a little bit Max will be thrown off his feet pretty hard by one of the bombs and be lying on the ground not moving. Egg will realize that Max is trying to trick him and bait him in (since Egg did the same thing against Julius). Egg won't fall for that and will call out Max on trying to do that. Egg might even threaten to throw a bomb on Max or just shoot Max with his revolver. Max will realize the jig is up and surrender. Egg will use his bus to tow Max's car and then give him a can of gas and wish him well on his travels. A victorious Egg Shen drives his bus off into the sunset .

Olli · Dec 13, 2023

Inframan and a Dalek seem to be a reasonable match power-level-wise, and Inframan wins due to being more versatile and heroic.

If it were any other Mega Man boss, I'd give it to them, but Airman is a chump, and even Bebop can trash that guy.

If Joseph can beat Kars the Ultimate Being, he can defeat an evil rot goddess - there doesn't seem to be anything Malenia can do that would be on another level of badness. JoJo.

The last one could go either way depending on who's writing the scene. Pass.

Mogri · Dec 18, 2023

Any last-minute votes? You've got about 12 hours.

RT-55J · Dec 18, 2023

Plot logic dictates that a tokusatsu hero will trounce an evil robot by the end of the episode. Even ignoring that, I think Inframan has enough power to beat a single Dalek in a fair fight.

Air Man will just cheat by sending out that undodgeable pattern several times in a row.

Max vs Egg? no clue

EDIT: oops i forgot the vs. Malenia matchup. gonna go with the JoJo for that

YangusKhan · Dec 18, 2023

Inframan
Air Man
Joseph

Egg will beat Max because Max hasn't fought anything magical in nature. Unless it's a vehicle fight with Egg's tour bus vs. Max's car, then... yeah, Egg would lose that...

Mogri · Dec 18, 2023

Inframan out-exterminates the Dalek.
Air Man blows away Bebop.
Joseph dodge-rolls Malenia.
Egg Shen works his magic on Max.

Round three, I think

vs

Avatar Korra (Avatar: The Legend of Korra)
Defeated: Air Man, Joseph

Master of earth, air, water, and fire.

Mega Man (Mega Man 2)
Defeated: Dracula

Master of Wood, Air, Bubble, Heat, Metal, Crash, Quick, and Flash.

vs

Godzilla
Defeated: Optimus, Gamera

A very big nuclear lizard.

Darth Vader (Star Wars)
Defeated: Wolverine, Haruhi

What was it Yoda said? "Size matters not" or something? Well, you be the judge of that...

vs

Kirby
Defeated: Julius Belmont, Homer

Sucks up enemies to copy their powers.

Rincewind (Discworld)
Defeated: O'Brien, Bernard

Sucks and has no real powers to copy.

Votes due end of day Monday, December 25.

Torzelbaum · Dec 18, 2023

King of the Monsters versus Dark Lord of the Sith:
Yoda might have said that size doesn't matter but I don't think he was talking about a 50 to 1 difference. I just don't see how Vader could really do anything to hurt Godzilla in a match-ending way. A lightsaber isn't going to cut deep enough to do anything. Vader could get in his Tie Fighter but Godzilla can easily repel firepower of that magnitude. Maybe Vader could use the Force to pick up Godzilla and toss him around (which I think is a bunch of ridiculous power creep BS that doesn't fit my head canon) but monsters in G's weight class have done that to him with very little effect. Without a bunch of Imperial ships to back him up this is just a complete mismatch for Vader. I think Vader will quickly come to the same conclusion and will follow his game plan from the end of the final battle in A New Hope : fly off so that he can survive to regroup and fight another day. King > Lord so Godzilla is the winner.

On a side note something that I would love to see is a beam battle of Godzilla versus the Death Star.

Kirin · Dec 18, 2023

Torzelbaum said:
On a side note something that I would love to see is a beam battle of Godzilla versus the Death Star.

I mean, pretty much every Godzilla has shot off their breath on Earth without destroying the planet, so I think the Death Star wins that one handily.

But the Death Start isn't in this fight, just Vader, and I agree with Torz that the Sith lord would have trouble bringing enough physical damage to bear for the big G to notice. I think in supplemental material powerful force users get up to things as ridiculous as pulling down a whole Star Destroyer but I'm not sure even that would do it, as I think a shot from the ol' Atomic Breath could either break it or put a hole through it on the way in. Vader's only chance would be to pull off a force-choke, but that's a precision maneuver and this is an unfamiliar and huge opponent. I think I agree with Torz that Vader makes a strategic withdrawal and the Big G gets the win.

Korra vs Mega Man seems like a really even match and a damn fun fight to watch. I'm having trouble coming up with any sound reason to significantly favor one over the other, I think the match could easily go either way based on specific happenstance or perhaps plot reasons. So in a display of naked favoritism I'm giving my vote to Korra. (Sorry, Megs, I love ya too.)

Kirby vs Rincewind is a weird one. Sure, Kirby could suck Rince in at some point, but he wouldn't get any good powers out of it and would probably just belch him out again. At which point I guess Rincewind would have quite enough of getting consumed for one day and leave. And in this case... I can't see random comedy disasters taking out Kirby the way they might have other contestants, so I think the pink puffball is left standing in one piece.

Torzelbaum · Dec 18, 2023

battle of characters who have a name or part of their name that ends with a:
Certainly an interesting match-up here. I think what this fight boils down to is a battle of endurance / attrition. Both fighters have a lot of options for attacks and so they can cover a lot of angles. I don't think either of them would necessarily be weak to any of the other one's attacks. I think Mega is more durable but Korra is more agile. I think they're both going to be trying different things throughout the battle and so each fighter will be getting repeatedly surprised and hit by attacks (or maybe just barely dodging them). If Korra can dodge attacks for long enough then Mega Man will run out of weapon energy and have to fall back on his P Shooter. But at that point will Korra be too fatigued to get the KO on Mega Man? I think Korra's greater ability to block or deflect attacks is maybe what will allow her to barely pull through. But I'm still not 100% sure about that so I'd love to hear what everyone else has to say.

Johnny Unusual · Dec 18, 2023

Korra can metalbend. KORRA CAN METALBEND. Megamam is made of metal. This'll be a great match until Korra decides to end it.

Jedi and Sith are powerful and can fight big monsters. Atomic fire, however, will be the last thing Vader experiences. Godzilla wins.

I've not read Rincewind (and have only read one Discworld book) but I get the impression his role is actively trying to avoid the narrative, being sucked into it and forced to resolve it, mostly by creating chaos. It involves a lot of accidental punching up. If anything, he might run away (which in Rincewind's mind is a win, I'm guessing) but I don't think his narrative arcs curve toward beating Kirby.

Kirin · Dec 18, 2023

Johnny Unusual said:
Korra can metalbend. KORRA CAN METALBEND. Megamam is made of metal. This'll be a great match until Korra decides to end it.

Oh, duh, good point. I don't think she'd use it to straight-up murder a sentient robot, and she might have to wear him out first to slow him down enough to get a bead on him for something more precision, but she could definitely do something to incapacitate him.

RT-55J · Dec 18, 2023

Korra vs Mega Man -- I've heard Korra can metalbend, but also that there are some esoteric limitations to that. If a more informed commenter can clarify the nature of her metalbending prowess (I saw the cliffhanger where she was chained up in a weird situation, but didn't see the resolution), that would make the difference regarding who gets decapitated by the metal blade. (I feel Korra would be too good of a sport to crumple Megaman directly, in either case.)

Size matters. Godzilla wins.

Tempted to vote just for Kirby, but I'd love to read a passionate defense of Rincewind in this situation.

Kirin · Dec 18, 2023

RT-55J said:
(I saw the cliffhanger where she was chained up in a weird situation, but didn't see the resolution)

If it's the situation I'm thinking of, she was poisoned and at way less than her normal power level at that time. The poison was so bad she was physically disabled and unable to bend for some time, and needed a lot of PT recovery later.

Also I don't remember the full timeline but she picked up metal-bending partway through the series and quickly got good at it (like she does with basically everything but Air).

Mogri · Dec 18, 2023

My (probably poor) recollection was that she was never as good at metalbending as the others. Then again, she only fights giant robots in season 1, before she's properly learned metal.

But don't metalbenders need to make contact to bend? Man, it's been too long.

Torzelbaum · Dec 18, 2023

Kirby vs character that was drawn by Kidby:
Kirby will enter the match being all friendly and that will terrify Rincewind to no end. Rincewind will use his ultimate technique of running away* but Kirby will think it's just a fun game they're playing and chase after him. Rincewind will continue his increasingly desperate logic and physics-defying attempts to escape but Kirby will keep right on Rincewind's heels. Eventually this will all be too much for Rincewind and he will faint. The oblivious Kirby is declared the winner and an unconscious Rincewind is dragged off to face the horrible fate of having to continue to be in this tournament in the loser's bracket.

*Does that mean that he's a Joestar?

Purple · Dec 18, 2023

These are all hard. I saw the original Avatar but never got around to the sequel show. I do know the key differences are she's pretty jacked and gay, but I don't see those being super relevant here. Also I'm vaguely aware of a big deal being made of metal-bending being off the table which probably makes the Metal Blade less of a broken option against her. That said I think I still have to give it to Mega Man just on the grounds of this being a fight between a master of 4 elements and a master of 8. And I mean, the spare 4 are stop, quick, crash, and leaf, so, yeah, not one's anyone's likely to see coming there.

I don't want to picture a fight between Godzilla and Darth Vader. I know there are nerds who try to hash that, specifically, out, and I want no part of it. I have to here though I guess and like, it does come down to how we count victory, and looking at symbolism. Darth Vader represents imperialism and excess. Big huge grandiose construction projects, which inevitably fall, and often to representations of nature fighting back against encroaching technology and WMDs. And like, we all know what Godzilla's deal is. If the Imperial base on Endor can be taken out by Ewoks, Vader has to lose to Godzilla. Otherwise none of the allegory works. Plus I don't think either is realistically going to hurt each other but Godzilla's going to wreck enough stuff it's clear who won.

And... eh. I also still haven't read any Discworld stuff, but I'm with everyone's take that they fundamentally have no cause for quarrel but Kirby's basic nature is going to cause problems for Rincewind while Kirby doesn't really even register his presence or considers it all a big game.

Olli · Dec 19, 2023

Is Mega Man canonically made out of metal? I could see him being based on some kind of polymers or whatever exotic material.

Daikaiju · Dec 19, 2023

Mogri said:
But don't metalbenders need to make contact to bend? Man, it's been too long.

They do not. no bender needs to be in physical contact with their element, though it's not like airbenders have much choice there.
Korra flexes a finger and Mega Man is a cube.

Olli said:
Is Mega Man canonically made out of metal? I could see him being based on some kind of polymers or whatever exotic material.

The Mega Man 3 issue of Nintendo Power stated he employed some sort of ceramic based armor, but then that's vulnerable to Earthbending. Even then, there's a good chance Dr. Light incorporated some hydraulic or pneumatic systems, and well... you get the idea.

I'll defer to Torzelbaum on Kirby Vs Rincewind.

As for Vader Vs Godzilla.
The Dark Side is fueled by rage and and anger. Godzilla IS rage and anger 99.9% of the time. I think Anakin could at best, hold his ground for a while but in the end, he would be a matchstick to Big G's sun.

Purple · Dec 20, 2023

I reject this metal bending argument because humans are like 90% water and nobody in the children's cartoon rips them open like meat balloons.

Johnny Unusual · Dec 20, 2023

Purple said:
I reject this metal bending argument because humans are like 90% water and nobody in the children's cartoon rips them open like meat balloons.

Bloodbending is a thing in both series.

RT-55J · Dec 20, 2023

But does Korra herself ever bloodbend to directly incapacitate an opponent? (If not, I'd doubt she'd metalbend Megaman directly.)

I just wanna know how likely is it for her to send a metal blade right back at our boy, really.

Johnny Unusual · Dec 20, 2023

RT-55J said:
But does Korra herself ever bloodbend to directly incapacitate an opponent? (If not, I'd doubt she'd metalbend Megaman directly.)

95% sure she doesn't but there is some bloodbending in the series. Don't remember who does it. Not Katara (she knows how but I'm pretty sure she never uses it after she aborts her vengeance).

Daikaiju · Dec 20, 2023

Tarlok and Amon both blood bend

Olli · Dec 20, 2023

Korra is very powerful, but I'm going to give this to Rock because a) he's able to output a lot of projectiles very fast, and can dodge all kinds of attacks, and b) he's close enough to a Real Human Boy to not warrant the use of deadly force from Korra.

Godzilla vs Vader is a puzzler. If it was any giant alien monster from the Star Wars universe, I'm fairly certain Anakin could deal with that. A Krayt Dragon or a Raththar is bad news to almost anyone, but Vader would be able to take them. But Godzilla is more than a monster, he's a symbol. He's an unstoppable force of nature. He's the King. Godzilla probably wouldn't kill Vader, but that's just because he doesn't need to; Vader would tap out.

Kirby might also be an unstoppable force of nature, but Rincewind has an uncanny ability to survive those. Also, if and when Kirby sucks in a creature as magically inert as Rincewind, you could argue that the only result would be the loss of all powers for the Kirbster.

Johnny Unusual · Jan 7, 2024

It's been a couple weeks since the 25th of December. Will we be seeing any more matchups soon?

Mogri · Jan 8, 2024

Sorry, sorry! It's been a whirlwind of a new year as I just started a new job and have been caught up in paperwork for a new house. I am hoping to get back to it this week.

Mogri · Jan 11, 2024

Korra rocks Mega Man.
Godzilla steps on Vader.
Kirby blows Rincewind away.

Dogstravaganza: Oops! All Dogs

vs

Great Gray Wolf Sif (Dark Souls)
Defeated: Y'shtola, Hammer Bros
Big sword dog.

Caesar (Wargroove)
Defeated: Max, Sherlock
Normal-sized war dog.

vs

Missile (Ghost Trick)
Defeated: Grover, Eggbert

The kind of dog who lampshades just how good a dog can be.

Droopy the Dog (Hanna-Barbera, et al.)
Defeated: Bugs, Miltank

Superhuman strength minus the motivation to bring it to bear.

Votes due end of day Thursday, January 18.

Kirin · Jan 11, 2024

They're all good dogs, Brant.

Two will enter, one will leave: The Thunderdome Thunderdome

(She/Her)

(He/Him)

????? LV 13 HP 292/ 292

(he, him, his)

(he/him)

Round and round I go

(he)

space hero for hire

(He/Him + RT/artee)

does the Underpants Dance

(He/Him/His)

Round and round I go

(he)

????? LV 13 HP 292/ 292

(he, him, his)

Summon for hire

(he/him)

????? LV 13 HP 292/ 292

(he, him, his)

(He/Him)

Summon for hire

(he/him)

space hero for hire

(He/Him + RT/artee)

Summon for hire

(he/him)

Round and round I go

(he)

????? LV 13 HP 292/ 292

(he, him, his)

(She/Her)

(he/him)

Rated Ages 6+

(He, Him)

(She/Her)

(He/Him)

space hero for hire

(He/Him + RT/artee)

(He/Him)

Rated Ages 6+

(He, Him)

(he/him)

(He/Him)

Round and round I go

(he)

Round and round I go

(he)

Summon for hire

(he/him)