Some Sailor Moon Scaling Questions

Just noticed some general questions about who scales to what in Sailor Moon and wanted to give my opinion given my love for the series

1: Kunzite scaling

So one thing I have seen in a few places is that scaling to Kunzite's Shield briefly blocking Princess Serenity's power is an outlier for Kunzite. I can see why people think that, however I disagree and I'll explain why:

Kunzite is only the villain for 3 chapters and in only 2 was he around Princess Serenity or Fully Awoken Sailor Moon yet in that time he is consistently shown to be a threat to her. Even after seeing Princess Serenity's powers (and bear in mind Princess Serenity tanked the epicenter of her silver crystal energy) Kunzite was confident in his ability to kill them. Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus were under the impression AFTER Serenity awoke and they had gotten their full power that they couldn't defeat Kunzite and it wasn't till a chapter later when the 4 Guardian Senshi combined their powers in space that they were able too. You can also see Kunzite actually launched an attack on Jupiter and Venus there and it was effective and he do does so as well the page before that. Recall that without getting any more powerful the Guardian Senshi Barrier was strong enough to stop Dark Prince Endymion who could also threaten a Post-Serenity Moon.

It seems pretty consistent that Kunzite is a Serenity level threat and should scale pretty easily,

2: Danburite and Heavenly Kings Scaling

It's sort of an assumption that the Senshi got MUCH stronger after their memories were awoken, however it does seem slightly strange that Kunzite is THAT much stronger then the other Heavenly Kings. While we assume Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite and the Partially Awoken Senshi are much weaker then Kunzite, Serenity, and the Fully Awoken Senshi there isn't much evidence of the senshi getting much stronger after having their memories awoken and if anything there is slight evidence to the contrary. In the last chapter of Codename: Sailor V, Minako as Sailor V finally awakes as Sailor Venus, yelling in despair as the horrible memories stream in. Yet AFTER this Danburite, the leader of the Dark Agency seems strong enough that she at least needs to block his attack and take it seriously.

Danburite is a mere servant of Kunzite and almost certainly shouldn't be as strong as the actual Heavenly Kings.

At the end however I can't say this scaling definitely should be, there is a certain level of appeal to incredulity there ("I can't believe a mere servant of Kunzite would be stronger then the other Heavenly Kings so he can't be) but still it is an argument that I think is at least worth some consideration considering how little evidence there is the Senshi got THAT much more powerful, or even more powerful at all post-memory restoration.

3: Second Arc Scaling

It is REALLY hard to compare the high to top tiers of the first arc with the low to mid tiers of the second arc because there is just so little basis for comparison. Sailor Moon and the Guardian Senshi all get stronger to an unknown degree, and there is almost no neutral elements for comparisons (although everyone in the second should be strong as anything given that even basic droids can stand on Planet Nemesis with it's insane gravity and stuff).

The best argument I've heard for how to scale between them is also one of the most radical powerwise. At the end of the first arc Usagi is crowned moon queen and uses her powers in civilian form. 1 2 The argument then is that civilian form Usagi can access all her old powers and thus Black Moon Arc Civilian Usagi = End of Dark Kingdom Arc Sailor Moon transformed. Thus the brooch that the spirit of Queen Serenity makes for her daughter gives her power well beyond First Arc Sailor Moon and scaling to Second Arc Civilian Form Usagi puts one above...EVERYONE from the first arc save for Queen Serenity and Peak Metalia during the Silver Milennium.

Might sound like a stretch but in fairness Second Arc Civilian Usagi walked around on Nemesis' surface and just was tired so it's not like Civilian Usagi by that point wasn't crazy strong. Also it's the best evidence I can think off.

If it is true then everyone easily scales to her civilian state.

4: Super Sailor Moon vs Base Sailor Saturn

This is mostly academic as both scale to the same feats regardless, that of Pharaoh 90. Who has more power between Super Sailor Moon and Base Sailor Saturn is...tricky. I know the common argument for Saturn is Saturn harmed Pharaoh 90 while Super Moon couldn't even put down Mistress 9, however that was more the energy-absorption of Mistress 9 and Pharaoh 90. In terms of just raw energy Super Moon was clearly way stronger then Pharaoh 90. Saturn was harming Pharaoh 90 via her negative energy aura erasing Pharaoh 90's matter-energy.

Personally I think Super Moon has more raw energy then Base Saturn, because assuming their powerups are of similar potency I don't think Eternal Saturn was THAT much stronger then initial Eternal Moon.

5: How strong are the Gods?

Pretty academic as well considering how rarely they come up both in the series and in versus debating but just wanted to comment in case it comes up. Queen Serenity is said to be the goddess Selene from Greek Mythology who was a rather minor deity. Given that I view Queen Serenity and Sailor Galaxia to be pretty even in terms of power (Queen Serenity is a Master of the Silver Crystal, the ultimate defense, and Galaxia is a Master of the Saphir Crystal, the ultimate offense, they are said to be the strongest crystals and about equal) that would put the Gods in General significantly stronger then Galaxia which is consistent with her, despite her arrogance, saying she was chosen by the Gods as if they were above her. However given it's role in Greek Mythology Chaos (and this is very much the Greek Chaos of "Void" or "Nonexistence" rather then the English Chaos meaning "Disorder) would almost certainly rank higher then them. If you consider Chibiusa's Picture Diary 2 the Gods seem to have dominion over the stars, and given Chaos was altering the history of the stars by making dark stars it's clear Chaos would either have to be stronger then them or they would have to approve of it, the latter seeming very unlikely given their general benevolence from what has been seen. So in SM it seems the Gods are between Galaxia and Chaos in terms of power. This also fits with Guardian Cosmos, THE God supposedly being able to survive inside the Galaxy Cauldron with Chaos but unable to destroy it by all appearances.

Death Analysis: She is the Joy and the Laughter, the totally Hardcore Blue-Dress Wearing Kindergarten Superhero, Bubbles of the Powerpuff Girls!

Origin:

Sugar...
Spice...
And everything nice.

These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect little girls
But Professor Utonium accidentally added an extra ingredient to the concoction...Chemical X.


Thus, the Powerpuff Girls were born! Using her ultra-super powers, Bubbles, alongside her similarly powered sisters Blossom and Buttercup, has dedicated her life to fighting crime and the forces of evil!

The Powerpuff girls share many, but not all, of the same abilities and so most of what is written here will apply universally. Bubbles was given a host of powers from the Chemical X that aids in her battle against monsters and villains.



https://i.imgur.com/7kBx4IK.gifv

Strength:

The PPG are famous for manhandling kaiju sized monsters all the time. However this pales in comparison to their best feats.

They are also well-known from what I've heard, of space tosses, chucking enemies or other things into orbit or beyond. Bubbles very early on the series launched herself from a swing past the Moon. Her sister Blossom threw Mojo's large flying vehicle far outside the Earth and her sister Buttercup has knocked a monster past Saturn and kicked a bomb into the Sun.

Her sister Blossom more concretely has destroyed a meteor that could destroy the earth with one punch, with enough force that the fragments of the meteor perfectly wiped out every other meteor of it's meteor shower.

However even more impressively is that the PPG are famously the one to have humbled HIM, part of the Cartoon Network Devil with their great strength. The Three of them have beaten up HIM even in his own dimension and Buttercup was implied to have beaten some of his teeth out to offer to the tooth fairy. How strong is HIM? He was strong enough to with simply a gesture of his hand to stop the Earth from falling into the sun and returning to it's position at relativistic speeds, calced at low stellar level.  HIM was also able to imbue chalk with magical properties to cause what was drawn with them to come to life and maintained those drawings and a dimension large enough to include what was drawn, including a sun.

The PPG's might was high enough to even defeat Mascumax, whom the Justice Friends could not beat. The same Justice Friends roster included Major Glory and Valhallen. The same two were able to take a beating from the Rasslor, and the power of Valhallen's mighty axe was so strong that Rasslor actually dodged it uncharacteristically. The mighty axe was so strong that it's power even caused pain to Badaxtra. Why is this important? Well both Rasslor and Badaxtra were stronger then Monkey, who was able to carry the Solar System away from Barbequor. If the PPG even remotely scale to this feat that would put them well within the stellar strength range when serious.

Beyond just pure physical strength, the PPG also can perform several strength based techniques. For instance superleaping, the PPG squirrel Bullet supposedly had the ability to leap for miles. Other abilities shown are the Thunderclap and the Seismic Wave.

https://i.imgur.com/6eQcbWh.gifv

Durability:

The PPG are tough enough to tank a nuke going off while they are literally holding it, survive the heat at the center of the Earth only a few days after they were created and shield Earth from a dangerous sunflare. However this is only scratching the surface of their durability. All evidence suggests that compared that they don't just have proportionate durability to their strength compared to a human, but their durability actually significantly exceeds their strength.

The PPG can easily take attacks from each other being manipulated into trying to destroy each other. They multiple times in one episode survived a combined energy assault from the aforementioned HIM, as well as Mojo Jojo and Princess (and also a rock from Fuzzy Lumpkins). After Mojo Jojo stopped helping the combined assault from the other 3 wasn't enough to even stop them. They have survived the electrical attack from the war mech of an alien race so advanced their normal spaceships have lasers equal to the PPG's own powers. They took little damage from a blast by the Powered-Up Rowdy Ruff Boys, who in their base were equal to the PPG. And probably biggest of all they survived a maintained energy attack from Gnomey, who had absorbed the powers of all the metahumans in Townsville including the PPG themselves, before attacking him seemingly without damage.

They're also acid-proof.

Speed:

By far the area I have the most information on so strap-in.

Bubbles actually has one of the most famous speed feats of the PPG. In a race against E-Mail, the Justice Friends Speedster who can circle the world in 7 seconds, Bubbles beat him by completing the race in 4 seconds, a feat which requires speed in excess of 3.3% the speed of light. However what most people don't mention is that 3.3%c is the average speed Bubbles had in the race, including the fact that she started the race late by a second or two and wasn't trying for most of it. When she tries even a little bit you can see she massively outpaces E-Mail by what must be at least an order of magnitude which would put her at least at over 19%c. Of course this is just running speed....their flight speed is even faster.

Flight comes naturally to the PPG, as they started flying less then 3 minutes after their creation without trouble. One day later they were able to play tag while running and flying at superspeeds showing fine motor control the entire time. If they need more reaction time they actually have an ability called "The Matrix" sending everything into relative bullet time for them. Is their flight speed ftl? Yes, clearly. Blossom has outpaced a "liquid electron" blast. Electrons are a particle of electromagnetism and travel at lightspeed. Likewise a few days after their creation they heard the professor in danger and traveled from a distant asteroid to Earth almost instantly, a feat calced at 1.2 times the speed of light.

Their most common big speed feats is space travel, generally leaving and then entering Earth's orbit rapidly. Even Major Man, who was essentially a fraud superhero whose powers completely paled compared to the girls, could fly far outside the orbit of Earth and back rapidly. Their is so many feats of this nature that it would be totally redundant to list them all but a few examples 

1

2

3

4

5

The PPG are fast enough to fly to the Sun in 10 seconds, a feat requiring speeds nearly 50 times the speed of light and here they travel relatively close to the sun in a short period of time.

The PPG are fast enough to gain a limited omnipresence within the city of Townsville. They have rebuilt the city in 4 seconds and searched the entire city for a key in seconds. Bubbles herself when she became relatively merciless stopped all crime in the city down to pollution, and parking or stepping where you are not supposed to before each of those had even finished. Blossom took cockroachs covering the entire city and put them all in a giant jar in 4 seconds and in "Nano of the North" the PPG fought all the nanobots covering the city, though those nanobots were somewhat inconsistent in size since sometimes they were visible at 1,000x magnification, sometimes at 10,000x, sometimes they were the same size as the shrunken girls who were very small but still visible. If they are the actual size of nanobots that feat would constitute an MFTL feat, though there are too many unknown variables to get an actual value.

However this is all leading up to the PPG's most famous speed feat, namely flying so fast they traveled foward in time. It is outright stated to be faster then light but seems totally unquantifiable otherwise right? Well little known fact, PPG actually takes place inside the same universe as the Super-Friends DC Television show. They have actually interacted before. Likewise in the episode "Equal Fights" DC Superheroes are referenced as existing, from the transcript:

"Femme Fatale: Surely you’ve noticed. Female superheroes aren’t nearly as revered as male superheroes.

Bubbles: Sure they are! There’s Supergirl, Batgirl—

Femme Fatale: (snorting in contempt) They’re so lame! Merely extensions of their male counterparts. Who besides you is a heroine in her own right?

Blossom: Ha! There’s Wonder Woman, and…uh…um…um… (softly) Wonder Woman… (Back to Buttercup.)

...

Femme Fatale: (wearily) Listen to me, girls. (Pull back to show her dangling at the end of the rope.) You’re on the wrong side. You girls protect your city just as well as Batman and Superman protect theirs." 

This is consistent with how the PPG Comics are canon to the PPG cartoon and how DC considers all comics it publishes, including the Cartoon Network Comics canon under Convergence and DC Rebirth.

In the Super-Friends show, characters like Superman and The Flash can break the time barrier and fly through time but Lex Luthor must rely on a time machine to do so, even though he has spaceships capable of flying across the universe in at most a few hours, speeds trillions of times faster then light. Therefore to break the time barrier would theoretically require speeds exceeding that. This is somewhat consistent with how Mojo has claimed universal domination as his ultimate goal at times and yet the girls are clearly as fast or faster then his vehicles. 

Even within the context of the PPG Bubbles is a bit on the swifter side and arguablly faster then her sisters. While Mojo Jojo can generally keep up with the PPG, Bubbles when angry has blitzed him before and when Blossom was panicked and flew away Bubbles quickly caught up to her despite Blossom's head start. Also considering how Bubbles was the one who raced E-Mail, it would also suggest she is considered the fastest of her sisters.

Laser Vision:

The PPG are often compared to Kryptonians in terms of powerset, and this is a large reason why. They can shoot laser beams from their eyes as a weapon. This ability is not something that required training and is highly natural to them as the same day that they were created they demonstrated this ability and created perfect ovals in the walls with it in order to make windows.

These lasers are VERY powerful. Bubbles (also demonstrating the interesting ability to make the laser beam change in mid air) was able to destroy a giant disco ball being used to block out the sun with one burst of her laser vision. Given that they were closer to the Sun then the Earth at this point (by a good margin), this Disco Ball would need to be larger then any planet in the Solar System to block out the sun, making it and it's violent explosion all the more impressive.

Likewise on two separate occasions (1) (2) Bubbles Laser has shown to be effective against her sister's massive durability. She also demonstrated that she could use glasses (and theoretically any similar medium if she wanted) to make her eye beams even stronger and annihilated a giant ant monster that was tanking her sisters' eye beams.

Despite the Laser's power, it is also very accurate when wanted. On the PPG's first day of creation, the laser was able to cut off the crusts of their sandwhichs without doing any damage to the actual sandwhich. It has such fine control that it was even used to help change a baby without harming the actual baby and could perform laser eye surgery. Given the later fact it's possible the PPG could pull off the same "shoot laser through someone's pupil to give them a lobotomy" trick that Superman bluffed and threatened. 

Energy Projection:

Besides their Eye Beams, the PPG can also launch energy beams from their hands colored their signature color (Blue for Bubbles). And it's here we see that Bubbles really holds back, when she suffers a concussion and thinks she is Mojo Jojo, she completely without any outside aid, releases an energy burst capable of knocking out Blossom and Buttercup.

Electromagnetic Manipulation:

Bubbles can manipulate the electromagnetic force in a few ways. She can create an electromagnetic surge from her hands, essentially creating lightning. She can throw an electromagnetic ball as an attack. Both of these world be a form of hax attack against an opponent who is comprised of, or uses mostly technology that can be shorted out by an EMP like surge. 

Bubbles can also use her control of the electromagnetic spectrum to create a forcefield around her, though it's durability is unknown.

Fire Manipulation:

Buttercup has been able to create fire from the friction of her hands and it seems likely Bubbles could do the same. Bubbles has also been shown to be able to breath fire, enough to counter Blossom's Freeze Breath.

Blossom's Freeze Breath has frozen a planet level meteor suggesting Bubble's Fire Breath could be on a similar level. Also Blossoms' Freeze Breath froze Mojo's volcano lair until it had "Heat Level: 0%" which COULD be argued as meaning absolute 0. If that's the case too counter it Bubbles' Heat Breath would have to be absolute hot which would require some level of spatial warping hax within it.

Beyond this, Bubbles can use the technique "Inferno" to burst into a fiery combat aura and can eat fire.

Air Manipulation:

Buttercup has been able to form a massive, superfast cyclone by spinning, able to deposit a monster outside the Earth from wind force. Given Blossom and Bubbles can both form cyclones, it's likely they can do the same to a similar degree.  

Ultrasonic Screaming:

Bubbles, as well as her sisters, can create an ultra-energetic sound wave from their mouth carrying concussive force.

Bubbles sonic scream is at least strong enough to reverse the trajectory of a nuclear missile and send it flying past the horizon. It has also on two occasions seemed to be able to negatively affect Powerpuff level characters, once Blossom and once Princess

Omni-Lingual:

Bubbles unique ability as a Powerpuff girl is her ability to speak any language. She has shown the ability to speak Spanish, Japanese, and Squirrel. She has also communicated with dogs and all the cats of Townsville. She is also literate in the written forms of these languages.

Animal Mimicry:

A more general power, all the PPG have, called "Call of the Wild" imitates the roar of an animal.

Super-Senses:

The PPG have massively greater senses then normal humans. Blossom has shown the ability to see events as far away as the Sun, at least 146 million kilometers or 91 million miles away. Their sight is boosted in abilities beyond just as range, such as dark vision, x-ray vision, and microscopic vision.

Their hearing is similarly boosted. A few days old, they heard the professor's cry for help from a distant asteroid. On a separate occasion they have also heard the professor from space and very early in the series Bubbles is implied to have heard the amoeba boys from beyond the moon, at a distance of 384,000 kilometers or 238,900 miles away. They are also able to recognize sounds such as the professor's footsteps from large distances. 

Less used, their other senses do seem stronger then humans. Bubbles has been able to mentally break down a food into it's component ingrediants purely by smell and all 3 PPG were awoken from unconsciousness from a single tear each from the citizens of Townsville hitting their cheeks, suggesting their sense of touch is also improved.

Essence Restoration/Power of Music:

When the malevolent Mr. Mime starts draining everyone and everything of their essence, draining their color, sound and temperament from them, Bubbles's music was strong enough to restore the world to it's full vibrancy of colors, starting with her sisters, and ending with Mr. Mime himself.

This may be related to her purity, which was of such a level that not even HIM was able to find sin or evil in her (this also likely gives her resistance to corruption based hax).

Transmutation Resistance:

After drinking a mutating serum, Bubbles mutates a tentacle for an arm and somehow returns to normal off-camera, suggesting she has some form of transmutation resistance.

Power Regeneration:

If the PPG loses their powers the powers will eventually re-develop and return to them though the timeframe makes this unlikely to be helpful in combat.

Invisibility:

The PPG seem to be able to do that old DC Speedster trick of vibrating really fast (faster then photons) and thus becoming invisible. It is unknown if they can also do this to phase intangible and though solid objects.

Logia-Intangibility:

The PPG have a technique called "Aqua-Melting" allowing them to temporarily turn into pools of water. 

Duplication:

The "Copycat" technique allows the PPG to multiply and duplicate themselves. 

Size Manipulation:

The "Itsy-Bitsy" technique allows the PPG to shrink and presumably then return to normal size.

Atomic Snot Rocket:

A more gross ability, can shoot a snot rocket. Bubbles' is strong enough to ricochet across a town and knock around Rowdy Ruff Boys members.

Bulgy-Eyes:

Using the technique "Optomotron" Bubbles can get bulgy eyes.

Fourth Wall Awareness:

On a few occasions, the PPG including Bubbles have shown awareness of the fourth wall such as moving around and commenting on the ending sequence. And being able to see past the fourth wall Bubbles can conclude that she is definitely not on tv. ... Kappa. 

Magic?

So in one early episode the Girls fight Abra-cadaver the zombie magician who seemed to bring them to grisly ends only for it to be revealed that Blossom was him, Bubbles and Buttercup were just fine and he was the one who met his grisly end where Blossom was "supposed to be" and in answer to everyone's confusion they just said "It's magic, silly!"

This is heavily contentious to use as a feat, but if it's legit then it's a form of magical spatial warping that switches one's place with one's opponent which would be very helpful if say an opponent was to launch an attack at you and you made them take it instead.

Freeze Breath?

In the special Dance Pantsed, Bubbles nonchalantly uses Freeze Breath a couple of times despite that being established to be Blossom's unique power. Theoretically this would be a retcon, although I haven't seen any consensus come up about this yet. 

Mental Plane Fighting:

The PPG can fight on the mental plane in a few ways, they can defend against planetary-scale mental attacks like The Sandman's, they can share dreamspace with each other or anyone else and when infiltrating other's minds can attack their mind as a form of mental hax.

They can also summon mental beings like their own imaginary friend to defeat the malevolent one Patches.

Intelligence:

While the PPG aren't supergeniuses, they do have an ability to learn very quickly and it wouldn't surprise me if they were low level genius by the time they were adults. Less then a minute old, the PPG develop the capacity to speak English coherently, despite never hearing it.

Beyond that though Bubbles is known for her creativity skills able to turn bad crayon monsters into happy good ones with the power of her creativity. She is also like super skilled at math, being both a good counter and knowing what 1+1 is equal to.

She is also a good guesser and has a firm knowledge of military history. Also she once got a comically high SAT score by doodling a flower on the scan sheet saving the day on it soooo......totally a super-genius.

Weaknesses:

Bubbles is not good at rock paper scissors and can't curl her tongue.

More seriously Bubbles is a very sensitive little girl, and while she can certainly act brave and is very strong she is easily intimidated and prone to crying or fainting when exposed to excessive cruelty.

Personality:

Bubbles is a very sweet imaginative young girl. She's sensitive and doesn't like arguing, wishing we could all just get along. While Buttercup views monsters as enemies to let out aggression on, and Blossom views monsters as problems to be logically solved, Bubbles views everyone as potential friends, and once stopped a monster neither of her sisters could just by politely asking it to leave.

Over the course of the series she becomes braver and more willing to face the unknown for the sake of those she cares about, like when she faces her own worst fear to save her sister or lets an animal friend go against the wishes of her sisters because it's what was best for them.

While Bubbles has a lot of power and can easily match either of her sisters if she needs to, her gentleness is her strongest strength of all.

Summary:

Tier 9

Low Stellar Stength, Potentially Stellar Strength 

Likely Stellar+ Durability

Relativistic to FTL Speed Casually, FTL to MFTL Speed (Trillions) when serious

Time Travel

Laser Vision

Energy Projection

Electromagnetic Manipulation

Forcefield

Fire Manipulation

Air Manipulation

Sound Manipulation (Ultra-Sonic Scream)

Omnilingual

Animal Mimicry

Super-Senses

Essence Restoration

Resistance to Corruption, Transmutation, and Mind Manipulation (Planetary Scale)

Power Regeneration

Invisibility

Potential Intangibility

Logia Intangibility (Water)

Duplication

Size Manipulation

Can Shoot Atomic Snot Rockets

Can make Eyes bulge out of head

Fourth Wall Awareness

Potentially Spatial Manipulation

Potentially Freezing

Mental Plane Fighting

-Can be Immature and Overtly Emotional

Potential Opponent:

Bubbles vs Starfire:

Both of them are the emotional naive ditzy one of their group and yet both are also the emotional core that makes peace between their more argumentative team members. Plus it's also one of the few I could think of that was even.

Next Time:

God help me. 

The Perfect Score: Introduction

This is the introduction to a blog series I have been planning for a while explaining my 6 favorite franchises in fiction and why I like them so much. This blog will also be on the personal side.

I wish to explain what I prioritize in fiction. This is something I expect to be revealed over the series of the blog but there is one particular thing that leads to all others. It is something that is to me the very essence of enjoyability and goodness in fiction. It is something I expect on one hand you will probably relatable in some ways and on the other hand might find alien in other ways.

For as long as I remember, I have had the experience of something that it has to come knowledge others do not experience, an experience that I call “the unity” or the “continuity of being”.

What do I mean by that? I do not perceive the universe as being divided into a million tiny bits, into a series of unrelated events. To me the universe seems a singular whole, to which we are all tiny parts. Neither wholly physical nor wholly metaphysical, the universe is a beautiful ordered procession, with every event relating to each other at least distantly.

The Unity is comprised of all the many parallels and shared principles that run through the universe. The same law of gravity that governs the apple falling from the tree governs the motion of the celestial bodies. What a beautiful thing! The smaller reflects the greater, and the greater is a projection of the smaller. In the rising of the shining sun are all 4 fundamental forces unified. The fields of study of mankind need not be separated. Science, History, Religion, Philosophy, Psychology, and so forth….they are not separate realities, they are all part of one glorious reality. In versus debating I must confess to getting an odd glee at seeing a parallel or perfect counter between two characters developed in isolation, seeing the unity extend between two “realities”.

It is this, the Unity, that I want to see beyond all else. In trying to translate this to most people, this can be best understood to be “consistency”. And surely that is not so alien? It frustrates to see a character acting against what they are established to be like, to see a plot contradicted what has already happening? To me this principle extends beyond into the general realm of the atmosphere, that the atmosphere should remain constant. The themes should remain constant.  The fictional work is not a sequence of parts that should be divided, but a whole that should be united by a spirit that prevails throughout.

The things that I greatly dislike in fiction all stem from a lack of Unity. Things like filler that contributes nothing, aimlessness in spirit, randomness, and arbitrariness, they all cause disunity, a division of things, and a lack of parallels. That which is disunited, which sometimes is chosen specifically to not flow into all the rest creating the sense of disunity…it is legitimately annoying to me. Have you ever seen something that was mostly completed and just never was, and it left an empty hanging feeling? It’s like that…it’s a gap between two things that must mentally be closed or being left unsatisfactory.

It is that which I find all things I enjoy in fiction come from, the glorious unity that pervades our reality and which can pervade the reality of any writer should they write it as a unified whole and not a set of arbitrary parts without connection. All things taken together can build to a crescendo and not create a bunch of loud crashes and a chaotic cacophony.  

I must confess, when I found out that others don’t feel the Unity as I do, it drove me to tears. To me the Unity is such a beautiful thing, and it gives so much safety, so much hope, so much inspiration. Living in a world that seems to be a series of unrelated events must seem very scary and confusing. It drove me to try to always have sympathy and empathy of the people of this world, knowing that the world must seem far outside them, never feeling it beating in their heart. If you want you can dismiss all this as the overtly-romantic sentiments of the mind disposed towards poetry and hyperbole, but it is truly how I feel.

There seems to be a conception about me that I have very high standards for fiction, or indeed standards that are too high and I half agree. I am very good at finding both good things and bad things about something. Most people have a lot of works they find average, a good amount they find good or bad, and some they find amazing or terrible. For me it is the same, but the curve is just on a deeper slant then it is for most people both ways.

By this I mean to say that I have a very large amount of works I would give a 3/5, a much less amount I’d give a 4/5 and a 2/5 and very few I’d give a 1/5 and a 5/5. Most things to me are average neither rising above the general plain of fiction to prominence or falling to a valley of deserving criticism.

In my life there has been 6 franchises as a whole (as opposed to having an episode or chapter or whatever that hit 5/5) that have achieved the “perfect” score, a 5/5. It is an achievement that occurs maybe once per 100,000. Let me clarify that a “perfect” score does not indicate that I think the work is perfect. Everything has flaws. What a 5/5 means that it’s something I will happily view or talk about anytime I can, and that it has changed my life for the better. It’s something I view worthy of great praise and emulation. All 6 of these I think about regularly and they inform my decision making. I will also be listing the 5/5 moments (each of which is so good I could write a whole blog about that moment alone) and my favorite moment from each of them. That said I do care about average level of good over accumulated good over time, which I know in the art scene is a controversial question (whether it is more important to judge a work based on the quality parts it accumulates over its run, or it’s “average” level of quality”) If I convince just one person to try them, I will consider it well worth my time, even if I don’t, I will hope that the information about them and me may prove useful.

Death Prediction: Rorschach vs V

Some say everyone wears masks, that they show a face to others and another alone. The mask is a powerful image, and can come to symbolize more then the man can ever can. For the vigilante the mask is simultaneously defense and offense, the protection of anonymity under an identity greater then the self and a weapon to strike directly into the minds of the enemies. 

Rorschach, the Terror of the Underworld

V, the Bane of the Tyrannical Norsefire

I am Imperator100 and this is a Death Prediction

Rorschach:

Origin:

Walter Joseph Kovacs was born to an abusive prostitue to an unknown father. At age 11 he got into a fight with two older bullies and beat them so violently that his living conditions were finally looked into. He was removed and placed into a problem home where he quickly excelled at academics and gymnastics and was allowed to leave at 16, though he was clearly still mentally disturbed by his early life. At the age of 24, enraged by the apathy of his countrymen, Walter became a bloody vigilante prowling the streets.

At the age of 35, Walter was investigating the kidnapping of a little girl called Blair Roche only to find that the criminal Grice, after finding out her family was poor and no money for ransom, had butchered her and fed her to his dogs. Infuriated at the senseless brutality of man, Grice was handcuffed to a pipe and the building was set on fire. Walter entered the building. Rorschach left.

Rorschach was a far more brutal vigilante then Walter had been. He would enact his one-man war on the underworld. When the Government passed law banning vigilantes Rorschach killed a rapist and sent it to the authorities with the note "Never".

Physical Prowess:

Rorschach is trained in american-styled boxing and is a physical powerhouse for a human, having been fighting all his life.

Rorschach is strong enough to break down a door with ease or bust a prison toilet and can throw dog carcasses as weapons through windows. Even more notable then his strength is sheer toughness. Just as his will and mind are unbending and unshakable, so too is his body tough against all but superhuman forces. He has multiple times leapt from windows and been fine, including being fine once after being beaten by half a dozen policemen after leaping out the window. He was also able to take a beating from the metahuman Ozymandias. For the record Ozymandias is strong enough to shatter stone and support his weight on one finger while early in his training. Not even the arctic winds are enough to make Rorschach so much as shiver.

Rorschach can also be quite quick when he wants to be, having several times blitzed stronger then average people like setting police on fire and running upstairs in the time it takes for them to react and counter. He also was agile enough to sneak onto a military base.

Weaponry:

Rorschach's iconic weapon is his grappling gun. It fires a grappling hook with enough force to propel Rorschach to the top of large buildings. While Rorschach generally uses his fists in combat, if at long-range he can theoretically use his grappling gun both as a form of direct weapon and to maneuver himself into close range. 

Rorschach has used quite a few weapons, however none with enough regularity to call it his standard equipment outside his grappling gun. That said he also has a knack for improvising weapons on the spot.

Intelligence:

Rorschach is often stereotyped as a brute savage, but he is actually quite clever. As a boy he excelled in his studies and has not slowed down as an adult, often improvising solutions based on his surroundings such as creating a primitive fire weapon out of kitchen equipment in 30 seconds. He is particularly adept at detective work, having found the Comedian's secret compartment that the investigators didn't. 

He is also rather experienced having fought crime for decades including occasional criminal supervillains. He's also escaped detection by the government for years without fail.

Weaknesses:

Rorschach is a good fighter and a good detective but is highly unhinged, making it difficult to relate to others and allowing him to be manipulated by calmer heads like Ozymandias.

Personality:

Rorschach is a symbol of unbending order, of the purest of black and white morality that drives a psychologist trying to study him slowly insane. He is a servant of perfect justice, where innocent is always defended and evil always punished and even if a God tells him to do so, will never compromise his ideals.

V:

Origins:

In the remains of the great nuclear war, the United Kingdom was in shambles. The Fascist Norsefire Regime arose to power promising safety in exchange for the removal of a few liberties and the removal of certain....undesirable parts of society. As time grew the Norsefire regime became more and more oppressive on the citizens wiping out any and all dissent.

In one of their concentration camps where racial and religious minorities among others were sent, horrific medical experiments took place killing most of the prisoners save for....the man in room 5. Room...V. In him something else awakened, he escaped and destroyed the facility.

Donning a Guy Fawkes mask, he took on the identity of V and launched a campaign of anarchy against the Norsefire.

Physical Prowess:

V is far stronger then the normal person, able to throw around normal people without effort and his charge throwing an official across a room. He's similarly tough. He was the only one of the prison subjects to survive the experiments and when destroying the facility survived naked within a raging fire. He was also shot and managed to continue on for quite some time despite massive blood loss.

Even more then his strength or toughness V is known for his speed and finesse. He has blitzed two gunmen and is fast and stealthy enough to just appear behind some Norsefire officials. He has also gotten into an occupied train compartment without anyone noticing him.

Weaponry:

For weaponry V carries around 6 daggers and twin sais to use when he gets into combat. The sais are for melee while the daggers can be thrown for long-range. He also in his sleeves has tear gas compartments.

V sometimes wears body armor but this doesn't seem to be standard equipment. He also often uses explosives but this is clearly not standard equipment and would need to be set up in advance.

Intelligence:

Even more then his speed, V is known for his craftiness. He is trained in all the fine arts and sciences and built his base of operations, the Shadow Gallery, himself. He is smart enough to create mustard gas and napalm from normal compounds and evade the watchful eye of the Tyrannical Norsefire for years, even masterminding the revolt against them.

He's also quite skilled in combat having learned European styles of martial arts and fencing, and knowing a technique that allows him to make someone pass out by striking a nerve.

Weaknesses:

While V is an adept fighter, he spends much of his time avoiding direct confrontation with the Norsefire given their massive numbers and resources and setting up explosives or other longer-termed plans for collapsing them and has less in the way of actual direct fighting experience.

Personality:

V is not so much a man anymore but a force of chaos and anarchy, a symbol of freedom against repression and governmental domination. He is a servant of perfect freedom, refusing to accept any prison, even normal happiness viewing them all as prisons to be escaped.

Alright the combatants are set. It's time for a DEATH PREDICTION!

The Sewers underneath the American Embassy. Ambassadors from the New Nixon Government are speaking to top officials from the Norsefire Government about a ceasefire in the wake of the greater Eastern Threat.

Underneath the masked vigilante V works tirelessly to set up his explosives. This was the greatest concentration of Norsefire Officials in quite a long time and this could strike a decisive victory.

Meanwhile, Rorschach treated in the tight sewer way looking for the dangerous criminal that he guessed was planning on showing up. If peace negotiations aren't made the war will continue and innocent lives will be lost. He turned the corner and...

The two vigilantes saw each other at roughly the same time.

Rorschach spoke, his voice a guttural growl "I can't let you do this"

V, leaned slightly to the side, speaking with a more light tone "I assure you though this vision of my visage cast me as a villain who's vileness is directed towards the virtuous, instead verily it is the vanquishing of virulent vermin who's violence is a violation towards the vigilant and the vilified."

Rorschach cut V off there "I don't want to hear it! This government has put up the first touches of a corrupt broken down barely functional order against the chaos, and you wish to plunge it back, regress it the last step into savagery."

V responded empathically "Oh my dear, you have such little understanding or faith in people. Anarchy is not evil, it is the freedom and potential to grasp goodness."

Rorschach gazed at his opponent "protrusions in his outfit...hidden weapons, blades, throwing blades? Hurm... Should stay at close range..."

V saw the weight shift unto Rorschach's left leg signaling an attack "Pressure on his left foot.....right-brain dominant......left-handed. Prepare to counter"

Fight!

Rorschach lunged forwards, with a flurry of intense blows. V stepped back with each blow, deflecting each blow by connecting his sais metal to to the wrist. 

V quickly flipped his sai and went for a lunge towards Rorschach's center, but Rorschach moved his extended arm upwards, knocking V's arm up before charging into V's body, the force and momentum knocking V back.

Recovering quickly, V gave a quick toss of two daggers whose silvery glint shined particularly menacingly in the dark light of the sewer. Rorschach darted to one side bringing his left arm up to deflect the dagger to that side. He felt the sharpness piece his trenchcoat, scraping along his flesh, and getting lodged.

V hoped that the dagger wound be more serious as Rorschach's frame shook with anger. Rorschach pulled out his trusted grappling gun and aimed it squarely at V, firing. 

V quickly leapt to his own left. The grappling gun flew past him, embedding itself in the wall of the sewer, durt and rubble falling from it, bringing Rorschach directly next to V, grabbing him with his available hand and slamming him down into the sewer ground. However V easily broke from Rorschach's off-hand and as Rorschach quickly reached back to strike V with his left fist, V dodged left and then right, throwing Rorschach's flail off-balance. V still crouched to the ground gave a kick to Rorschach sending him back to the wall.

"His fighting style...characteristic of American Boxing, primarily swarmer with an element of brawler....a very brutal efficient style, impressively maintained. Keep him off-balance"

Rorschach tried to revitalize his assault, V nimbly dodging to the side of each blow, deflecting it with the blunt of his sai, getting little nicks in when possible.

"Modified British Knife-Fighting," Rorschach noted "Best I've seen. Trying to keep distant. Hurm. Solution: Obscure vision"

Rorschach suddenly dropped low and took the dagger embedded in his coat, slashing it across the edge of the walk way. From the metal blade came bright sparks which mixed with the gases to combust

The sewers broke out in an inferno, with flashing crimson lights and thick smoke covering the area, the two fighters visible to each other only as vague silhouettes.

Rorschach took advantage of the opportunity getting in a hard blow through the smoke, sending V back.

V felt the sudden shock of Rorschach's powerful blow stagger him and looked anxiously for him though the flames.

"What's wrong?" Rorschach's voice came from the flame. "From fire out kind comes, and to fire out kind goes."

V suddenly leapt forwards through the flame separating them knocking right into Rorschach's side sending them both down.

Rorschach gave a kick knocking V off. He felt his throat burning from the smoke. No, ignore it. Take him down.

V felt the heat searing of the flames, mirroring the passion of the fighters souls.

Rorschach launched another unrelenting assault, V began to parry each strike, holding up concentration however Rorschach did a quick sweep to the ground. 

Rorschach brought his hand down but V rolled backwards quickly and Rorschach's strike met the ground cracking it. V responded quickly and brought his sai to Rorschach's left arm. Rorschach growled in pain and threw his head forwards hitting V's head and dazing him.

V, felt the pain pulsating his head and looked around, seeing the scant light coming from the doorway to the sewer, heading for it hoping to gain more vision.

Rorschach his opponent trying to possible escape. He quickly brought his grappling gun out and fired. The shot missed and hit the wooden door guarding the exit of the sewer, cracking it and letting the sun's golden light beam down in a few precious shafts into the red and blacks of the inferno. He let the Grappling gun pull him foward putting his arm out and sweeping V alongside him crashing through the doorway out onto the busy city streets.

The city streets were busy, and the people were surprised and scared of the fight and the crashing of the two vigilantes onto the city streets. The light of day illuminated the two vigilantes as they glared into each other's masks, their real faces.

V quickly brought his sai down onto the arm holding him, and Rorschach at the same time gave a mighty blow to V's stomach.

The two yelled in pain and were separated their bodies crashing down separately unto the street as the momentum from the grappling gun laid their bodies down. 

V felt the gap down in his stomach "Ribs caved, breathing hard....Can't fight too much longer"

Rorschach felt the pain and emptiness towards his left...sai had his hit shoulder tendons, arm broken, unuseable, need to use right arm and finish enemy.

V stood shakily and took daggers from his coat, preparing for a bit charge. Rorschach quickly used his right arm to grab the remains of the sewer door and brought it in front of him charging V with his left arm limply dangling.

V felt their collision of the door before he was slammed back against the building, the wooden beam left of the door putting pressure on his caved stomach. Black Spots appeared before his eyes.

"Die, die" Rorschach said, knowing he couldn't keep this pressure with his off-arm on long.

V felt his counciousness fading, his strength diminishing but suddenly instead of black spots he saw something else...he saw people all around, the people of the city....wearing the Fawkes Mask...

"I won't die" V said back...."I am not a human, I am an idea...and you can't kill an idea".

And with a mighty surge V knocked Rorschach back the makeshift weapon flying.

Rorschach was surprised at this sudden burst of strength, when, looking around him he say that same mask...as if there was a thousand fold of this enemy.

"Human...Idea... no matter what you are" Rorschach said, gesturing weakly to his opponent "No matter how many you are...you will answer to justice. I will never surrender!"

V, felt his breath fading and he gripped his weapons with as much force as he could and charged with a mighty yell.

Rorschach saw his opponent's charge and met, yelling with the same intensity.

They met, and Rorschach's blow knocked V to the side where V deftly plunged his dagger into Rorschach's neck, killing him. V let out a sigh before feeling his legs collapse underneath him, and the ones he saw in his vision pick him up and carry him away.

K.O.

While neither completely outclassed the other, Rorschach had Strength and Durability while V had Speed and Intelligence. Both could exploit each other's weaknesses, Rorschach's decades of experience could allow him to take advantage of V's relative lack of direct fighting, while V's manipulation skills could allow him to take advantage of Rorschach's lack of clear-headedness just as Ozymandias did.

What really decided this for V was versatility.

Rorschach is very smart in a few particular ways, but V's intelligence was more comprehensive. Rorschach was very proficient at one fighting style, while V had trained and learned of far more. and while Rorschach's grappling gun could make for a useful long-range weapon, V's weapons were more consistent and provided more possibilities.

Initially I thought Rorschach would win on account of how hard it would be to put him down for V, that Rorschach's strategy was more direct and therefore more likely to win without prior knowledge. However there was a small detail that really changed my mind, namely that V could knock someone unconscious with a touch to their neck. A nerve strike would allow V to circumvent Rorschach's sheer durability and it wouldn't take V long to think of this at all.

 Also if their stealth skills become important in any way, while both were able to hide indefinitely from the government, Rorschach hid from a government that had rights and non-totalitarian control which viewed him as at best a second priority to defeating the Red and wasn't actively searching for him much, while V hid from a fascist regime that had cameras everywhere, took away all rights and viewed him as their number one threat, and still went undetected. 

V's greater range of options combined with his calm head means he would most likely be able to outmaneuver and out-think Rorschach.

The winner is....V

Next Time:

Thanks again to my friend Thor for scoring this blog and for the amazing next time trailer.