2012 Suvudu Literary Character Cage Match

Paaaaaaaaks!

Oy vey. At least there is some comfort in that the Cage-writers seem to be missing the predictions entirely for Zaphod Beeblebrox and Mr. Wednesday.

edited 13th Mar '12 1:12:22 AM by Lemurian

Currently close matches:

http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2012/03/cage-match-2012-round-2-havemercy-versus-jardir.html

A robot dragon versus a guy with a spear. It shouldn't really be close.

http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2012/03/cage-match-2012-round-2-tyrion-lannister-versus-ray-lilly.html

Ray seemed to be winning before, and he's still ahead, but he's currently ahead by just nine votes.

http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2012/03/cage-match-2012-round-2-revan-versus-tomas.html

Currently only a one-vote gap! They seem to actually be reasonably close in power as well.

Revan vs Tomas is tied at 684 votes now. :o

Zaphod vs Caine is close as well.

Jardir vs. Havemercy is currently tied. Tomas and Tyrion are currently winning their matches.

Zaphod and Revan are losing again...

I'm torn between voting for Granny and Gimli.

remember Grannys Dwarfish Name: "Go around the other side of the Mountain."

edited 15th Mar '12 5:25:48 AM by 3of4

http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2012/03/cage-match-2012-round-2-recap.html

Results are up. Not clear what happened with Jardir vs. Havemercy.

ATTICUS LOST??? WHAT THE BLARNEY GOT INTO THOSE *beep* *beep* *beep* *beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep*

Napoleon vs Saphia better happen to make my mood better.

And who the hell is Kyler? I thought HP was a a shoo-in for quaters! Those damn books sold in the friggin' billions!

edited 16th Mar '12 10:38:01 AM by ryzvonusef

The writeup convinced the Harry Potter fans that Harry losing would prove his moral superiority, I think.

Also, a lot of Harry Potter fans aren't really general fantasy fans.

Round 3 Predictions:

• Zaphod vs. Saphira: Saphira. Zaphod basically tied against Caine, who he had a legitimate chance of winning a fight against; his Popularity Power isn't that strong. Hatred for Eragon might help Zaphod here, but love of dragons might cancel that out.
• Rake vs. Bast: Rake. Bast only won the first round because of sheer hatred for Richard
• Moiraine vs. Jardir: Moiraine. No way is someone like her losing to a dude with a spear no one's ever heard of.
• Ray vs. Kelsier: Kelsier. I'm not sure how he'd get past the tattoo "in reality" (don't know enough about Ray), but Kelsier's Popularity Power might be stronger than Tyrion's (especially after A Dance With Dragons).
• Revan vs. Wednesday: Revan. I honestly don't really understand Wednesday's powers, so this is probably the most uncertain matchup.
• Napoleon vs. Granny: Granny. As I noted earlier, she has a good shot at winning the whole thing.
• Kylar vs. Julia: Julia. This is the only match where I can say with reasonable certainty that Popularity Power will be largely irrelevant.
• Erevis vs. Rachel: Erevis. He apparently has Anti-Magic hax, and NERD RAEG from the Strange fans will work against Rachel.

edited 16th Mar '12 3:55:17 PM by silver2195

Round 4 predictions (based on my Round 3 predictions):

• Saphira vs. Rake: Rake. The only potential obstacle here is the dragon fandom.
• Moiraine vs. Kelsier: Moiraine. I don't think Kelsier can get past her defenses, and since they're both Sanderson characters in a sense, franchise popularity shouldn't matter too much.
• Revan vs. Granny: Granny. This is a close one (I'm more confident in her ability to beat Wednesday), but after reading her entry on the OBD wiki (admittedly an unreliable source at times) she seems more powerful than Revan, and has counters to pretty much anything he can do.
• Julia vs. Erevis: Erevis. Popularity Power probably won't come into play here.

Saphira won? Huh, Atticus was at 70% last time I checked.

I like Granny a lot, but I'm still disappointed by the Fool losing so early. His first write-up didn't do him justice at all, and he didn't show up in the second.

Mr Wednesday's powers are somewhat nebulous beyond his eighteen charms (I'd list them, but I don't have the book with me). As a god, he becomes stronger with belief and sacrifices in his name. Being written by Neil Gaiman, I suspect he has Popularity Power.

edited 16th Mar '12 7:17:59 PM by Yuanchosaan

How mortal is he? I mean, what happens of someone just shoots him?

Depends how much belief is directed to him. If there's enough, he won't die, though all the Old Gods in the US are suffering from a lack of believers in the book. Wednesday gets shot in the book, and dies, but it's part of a bigger plan, and he comes back to life for a short period of time.

Note that he's Odin, a god of strife and battle, and that he has centuries of wisdom and experience. Also, I found the passage where he describes his charms:

He also tells Shadow the past of a random girl whom they talk to, so presumably he has some sort of mind-reading power.

edited 16th Mar '12 7:31:32 PM by Yuanchosaan

The tenth charm doesn't sound good for Granny Weatherwax. Then again, Revan is also pretty bad for her; some OBD posters assure me the the wiki profile is wrong, and he's actually much faster than I thought.

Also, #3, #5, and #6 mean that he's basically immune to everything except bullets.

How quickly can he use the charms, though? Are they automatic, does he have to say an incantation, or what?

edited 16th Mar '12 7:51:58 PM by silver2195

We never actually see him use the charms (aside from the ones for making people follow him and seducing women), so I have no idea.

He sounds like a really obnoxious Mary Sue.

Mr Wednesday a Mary Sue? Heck no! I'm sorry, but the image of Mr Wednesday juxtaposed with the stereotypical view of sparkly, perfect fanfic Sues who are loved by everyone is just hilarious.

Wednesday is a deeply flawed and not very pleasant character. When he names the charms he's gained, he isn't boasting, but saying it sorrowfully: he recognises the insignificance of his power in the context. He doesn't use them because he prefers trickery, and people call him out when he cons others - he's by no means a Loveable Rogue.

A lot of American Gods goes into exploring the gods as people. They have different ways of coping with living in a world that's made them irrelevant, and they're all - New and Old Gods - terrified by the reality of their deaths. Even Wednesday is truly afraid of his impending death, because when an idea dies, it's a far more final death. The gods have different ways of facing this, along with their general lack of useful powers. Sure, Wednesday's charms look strong on paper, but they're not a whole lot of use in the world they live in.

I hope you do read American Gods. It's a really fantastic book, with one of the best premises I've seen in modern fiction.

Round 3 fights:

http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2012/03/cage-match-2012-round-3-saphira-versus-zaphod-beeblebrox.html

http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2012/03/cage-match-2012-round-3-anomander-rake-versus-bast.html

http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2012/03/cage-match-2012-round-3-moiraine-damodred-versus-jardir.html

http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2012/03/cage-match-2012-round-3-kelsier-versus-ray-lilly.html

http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2012/03/cage-match-2012-round-3-revan-versus-mr-wednesday.html

http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2012/03/cage-match-2012-round-3-granny-weatherwax-versus-napoleon-on-a-dragon.html

http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2012/03/cage-match-2012-round-3-julia-wicker-versus-kylar-stern.html

http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2012/03/cage-match-2012-round-3-erevis-cale-versus-rachel-morgan.html

Sad to see fans of Saphira take what's obviously a purposefully silly match seriously (and sad to see they haven't read H 2 G 2!). I hope Zaphod wins, because his humorous write-ups are fun.

Yet another match with Wednesday merely boasting for a bit, then getting curbstomped. I understand the difficulty in portraying a guy who doesn't do any actual fighting in the original novels, but it's still disappointing. Let him con someone!

Vote for Kelsier and Moiraine guys, go go go.

So far my predictions seem correct with the exception of Julia vs. Kylar; I forgot about Kylar's Anti-Magic.

Some of the matches are pretty close, though. I expect Zaphod and Saphira will eventually result in an overwhelming win for Saphira, once the Inheritance fans are mobilised.

Are your predictions also whom you are voting for? I voted for:

• Zaphod
• Bast
• Moiraine
• Kelsier
• Mr Wednesday
• Granny Weatherwax
• Julia
• Erevis

Voted for:

• Moiraine
• Granny
• Zaphod
• Mr. Wednesday (although I don't actually mind if Revan wins either)

I either don't know or don't care enough about any of the others to vote for them.