Grimnir vs Lok

 

This is a basic analysis on Grimnir, the main villain of Magicka 1 vs Lok, the main villain of Magicka 2, probably the magicka fight I'd be most interested to see. This isn't gonna be saying so much who I think would win, so much as it is me just going over the points and advantages they have each other. For just a quick thing on who they are:

Grimnir is the main villain of Magicka 1. A magical prodigy who spent his time endless researching the depths of arcane lore, he came to hate the silly chaotic nature of being, the senselessness of all the violence and nonsense and so sought to wield powers beyond mortal comprehension.

Lok is the main villain of Magicka 2. After the devastating wizard wars, the excess chaotic destructive energy infused itself into the infant Lok granting her unparalleled magical potential. Raised by the Vanir and inspired by the Wizards, Lok sought to unite the war-torn Midgard under her prosperous rule.

A battle between these two to a casual might seem like a magicka battle of pure skill vs power although it's a bit more complex then that. 

So I'm going to go over some comparisons between them:

Power: This one Lok has the advantage in regardless of if you go by direct feats or by scaling. The feats of most wizards in are in the tens to hundreds of tons of tnt range while Lok has feats in the tens of kilotons range. Technically you could maybe get Grimnir into the single digit kiloton range going by scaling to Azimuth. Azimuth was an extremely powerful wizard who moved a hilltop in battle, and possibly a mountain while she was using the Staff of Imbalance which multiplied her power by 10. Grimnir would very likely scale to base Azimuth, being as skilled as she was even when he was a student which could be single digit kiloton. This is consistent with him empowering an unknown but presumably large number of Warlocks to having the level of power of a wizard though he certainly doesn't scale to Azimuth with the Staff of Imbalance and Lok's nuclear feat is 14 kilotons of tnt worth. Lok might also just outright scale to Staff of Imbalance Azimuth as Vlad was one of the 4 wizards who stopped Azimuth yet despite knowing how powerful his pupils were he thought the ONLY way for them to stop Lok was by getting the Deflector magic. This fits in with the lore where Grimnir is considered an extremely powerful wizard in a verse where a 10x power boost is considered a forbidden level of power, while Lok has the raw magical power of all the fighters in a wizard war consisting of thousands of wizards. 

Skill: Grimnir is arguably the most skilled wizard in the entire Magicka series. The novel is constantly hyping up how skilled Grimnir is and how he understand the elements greater then anyone else. He also does these superhuman feats that no one else demonstrates like casting magic without invocation, hand motions or a staff while tied up at World's End, leading his fellow students through a death course that was supposed to be impossible, and copying a spell invocation, the most powerful in the series after seeing it only once. He also equaled Azimuth when he was just a student, Azimuth stated to be before his generation be able to beat any wizard one on one, and probably beat any 4 by herself. Now in all fairness to Lok, she actually probably has better skill scaling then people might think. Not only did Ellin teach Lok the skill of the Vala she was able to at least hold her own in a magic duel against the Player Wizards, characters who did beat Grimnir twice, though he was bound at the time. That said Lok seems to mostly be just focusing her sheer magical potential compared to Grimnir the living skill meme of Magicka.

So overall yes, this is a fight where one side clearly has power, and the other has skill, although in both cases, the other shouldn't be discounted. Grimnir isn't just a nerd who wins solely by outthinking his way out of a problem, he's probably one of the most powerful normal wizards, able to empower an army of warlocks into becoming wizard level. Conversely, Lok isn't just a brute who wins by throwing her magic power around, she's probably one of the highest tier magical duelists using the skill of the Vanir and was able to fight the magical protectors of the world herself. 

Going over some of their other comparisons:

Telepathic Sensing: Grimnir has the ability to sense magic and would immediatly sense Lok's massive power level, and consequently her threat level. Conversely Lok can sense lifeforce, the threat level and to some degree the nature of a person. While she might underestimate him slightly if she senses his power is signifigantly lower, she will at least sense it's quite above most wizards, as well as his sinister nature. As a consquence, I don't think either would underestimate the other one, not that this is particular in their character, and manpulation is probably not a viable strategy.

Intelligence: This one depends on category. Grimnir without question has better understanding of magic from an academic sense. Not only does he have more extensive training but it's constantly hyped up in the novel how much he understands the elements, how he can seamlessly merge himself with them. Lok conversely has the advantage in scientific knowledge, able to create advanced machines by herself including her golem, and other robots and aI. 

Versatility: This is an interesting one. Obviously Lok has access to far more elements. While Grimnir is a master of the 8 elements, Lok commands dozens of elements. However Lok doesn't seem to know the magicka, which Grimnir has devoted himself to finding all of them, an amount equating to hundreds. Given Lok can actually replicate several magicka with her elements, I'm inclinded to think the two are probably comparably versatile.

Vortex: Grimnir most likely knows the infamous Vortex magicka, as he can use spells after seeing them once, and he saw vortex being used and controlled up close. However Lok can replicate the effects of vortex with Singularity Magic and it's implied Vortex wouldn't even work on Lok as Vlad thought it would have been impossible to beat her without the even stronger Disruptor magic.

Mind Duel/Prison Serenity Orb: Both characters have what is very likely a one-shot move. Grimnir can draw enemies into his mind to engage them in a mind duel, a test of mental strength. Lok can use the prison orb to trap an enemy inside a void where magic can't be used. This is tricky because both are potentially avoidable although highly difficult. Grimnir could if he sees the prison orb being used teleport out of range. Likewise it's possible Lok could break out of a mind duel, though it depends on whose mind you think is stronger which is a bit hard to tell because it depends on what you're judging on.

Grimnir Duplication: Grimnir can create intangible floating copies of himself. This would make it signifigantly more difficult to fight him.

Lok's hypothetical scaling: There's an argument Lok>Assatur>Grimnir. Lok>Assatur is an interesting proposition because it seems bizarre but the argument comes from how the Wizards can beat Assatur and learned Vortex but needed Deflector to beat Assatur. However it should be noted Assatur ONLY beat Grimnir while he was bound. It's possibly Grimnir who was able to give the wizards a good fight while bound could beat an enemy they also beat.

Overall I'm not really sure who wins this, I think you COULD make an argument for either, these are just the most important arguments for either as far as I know.