DEATH BATTLE

That's not necessarily true. Rule #2.

The Predator would not be opposed to killing a given adversary he's put up against. Any other aspects of their honor code would still be abided. For instance, the creature's willingness to put down its gun and disrobe its armor for the sake of evening the playing field would still be a thing.

Yeah, it would be like the Cyborg Ninja battle from Metal Gear Solid, where said boss quickly puts aside his sword in favor of Good Old Fisticuffs if you punch him a few times without firing any of your guns, only to draw it out again if you make the ill-advised decision to start shooting at him after he willingly disarmed himself ^note I say "ill-advised" because he'll stick with his sword for the rest of the battle afterwards, and he can parry gunfire with it very easily. The Predator could pausibly start off with just melee weapons and gradually escalate in response to his opponents continuously proving themselves to be capable of toughing out the current level of weaponry being unleashed.

Edited by MarqFJA on Jul 12th 2018 at 6:02:32 PM

https://roosterteeth.com/post/51818887

Context?

It's a link to Ben's most recent blog post. It's about the making of Yoshi vs. Riptor and Felicia vs. Taokaka. Mostly the former.

Yes, because sniping at targets with a shoulder-mounted plasma cannon while using an Invisibility Cloak is totally honourable.

Sure it is when your target is in enemy territory and expecting possible ambush. What it does is conceptually no different than if they had encountered a guy who was using the jungle for cover and shooting at them with a suppressed weapon.

They are moving around, weapons at the ready, on the lookout for an attack. It's not like the Predator went to their hotel room and killed them in their sleep.

Edited by Ghilz on Jul 13th 2018 at 8:21:10 AM

It's as "fair" as any big game hunt.

Kraven doesn't use guns usually (in Kraven's Last Hunt Spidey is first alerted something is wrong with Kraven when he pulls out a rifle), but he does use fairly often things like spears◊, blowdarts◊ and nets on occasion◊ in addition to his elaborate traps.

Something that could tip things to his favor if they use it is that Kraven is often depicted as actually using a vast array of animals. Like a flock of killer birds◊, a lion◊ and Jaguars every now and then.◊

Didn't he have a dinosaur one time? I swear he had a dinosaur in one of the Squirrel Girl comics.

Yes, he decided he was the defender of all dinosaurs in the Savage Land and beat up Roland Tembo

Since his resurrection, he's become more liberal about his "no guns" rule, depending on what he's hunting.

Kraven also managed to take on Venom multiple times, though as soon as the symbiote stopped holding back he got his butt kicked and almost got his brains eaten.

"I have hunted all of the things on Earth. Now I must Kraven the Hunt IN SPAAAAAACE"
"Nice reverb."
"Thank you. I have trained to make dramatic pronouncements."

Yeah I was going over some of his more recent appearances and it seems like the goalposts moved from "never uses guns" to "never uses guns loaded with actual bullets (instead preferring tranquilizers and the like)". If they stick with that current take on Kraven and guns, then the Predator is quite probably very fucked because weaponry is the only area the Predator has Pre-KLH-era Kraven 100% beat. If he's actually using guns (even if they just have tranquilizers, hallucinogenics or poison in them), Predator is kind of fucked because Kraven has senses sharp enough to bypass or at least handle Predator's invisibility gizmo and reflexes/muscles strong enough to battle him in close quarters. If he gets a gun, then he's also approaching his level in long range.

He's also gotten more liberal about using bullets, the higher calibre the better.

If Kraven's using guns, Predator gets to up his game to all those sweet alien weapons he's got.

If Kraven's not using guns, Predator will try to fight him hand to hand.

Given his powerset, I feel like Kraven's better off not using guns than he is using guns. I have more faith in his ability to bear-wrestle the Predator than in him winning a sniper duel.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jul 13th 2018 at 4:12:16 AM

Does Kraven study his prey before hand?

He's been in 5 different animated series so far, but all of them have been very very different.

I don't know enough about his usual M.O either, as the only comic I have of him is the very last issue of Kraven's Last Hunt, where he was not quite in his right mind...and then his mind was not quite in his head.

Edited by HandsomeRob on Jul 13th 2018 at 4:19:54 AM

Kraven almost always studies his prey obssessesively. It's why we've mentioned "elaborate traps" here, because he tends to tailor his tactics to the foe he's expecting to fight. In that sense both him and the Predator are very similar because both tend to stalk their prey for a while before acting upon it.

The difference in their M.O is that the Predator is usually a lone wolf acting in hostile territory relying on his cloaking device and wit to prey upon his enemies. Kraven tends to do the opposite and lure his prey onto some form of trap to level the playing field (given he's always outclassed in some form by the people he's fighting in a straight fight). In another sense, Kraven is used to punching up (hunting bizarre superhumans), Predator is used to punching down (hunting technologically inferior species).

The more I think about this match up the more I become convinced Kraven has the edge. Assuming Predator isn't adhering to his code of honor, what are his full capacities technologically wise?

I'd say the no prior knowledge rule puts this in the Predator's win column.

Kraven probably needs some knowledge of such a foe to stand a chance (and that's not any insurance to be honest) while the predator has no need of such.

The Predator isn't more physically powerful than the enemies Kraven normally tangles with. Quite the opposite, actually.

Since Spike was possibly maaaaaaybe teased for Death Battle, I figured that'd be as good a cue as any to watch Cowboy Bebop before I get spoiled on it by this thread. I'm halfway through and I've been enjoying it so far!

But, back on topic- we never discussed who his opponent should be, did we? What would you guys say?

I'm personally thinking Han Solo from what I've seen so far, but one of my other friends suggested Vash the Stampede- can't speak for how balanced that one is, though.

Boba once used a means of disintegrating a target. We’re never told how he does this in the movie, because it’s a throwaway line to give a bit of split second context to his character.

A recent story had him make reference to a “weapon accelerator” as the origin of that tidbit, but what it does beyond blow a handful of targets up and how it functions beyond being something he can carry around is unstated. It could be a disintegrator, or it could turn weapons into bombs for all we know: we’re never told what it is.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Jul 13th 2018 at 6:39:43 AM

Well, Kraven sometimes fails a spot check in regards to his enemies. He picked fights with Venompool and Agent Venom, mistaking them for Spider-Man and almost winding up symbiote-chow as a result.

The only advantages the Predator (assuming we're operating on the M.O of the Predator on the first film) actually has is his invisibility and the fact the "no prior knowledge" rule means Kraven won't be able to use things to his full extent as he usually does, but I'm still putting this on Kraven.

The main thing is: The Predator does fire a lot of nifty projectiles but Kraven is a guy who's quite regularly (and with a lot of ease) dodging bullets and projectiles thrown his way and fighting people with superhuman speed and reflexes. He's more skilled, faster and stronger than the Predator, quite probably. He could likely dodge anything the Predator can fire at him before it even gets close. The only thing that's keeping the Predator even alive in a confrontation is the invisibility cloak.

The only element that leaves me with some doubt is whether Kraven's extraordinarily gifted senses can bypass Predator's invisibility enough to eliminate that.

Guess that comes down to how much they composite Kraven.