How they compare: Mandrake (High Guardian Spice)

 

Mandrake is an assassin in High Guardian Spice working under the shadowy group known as the Triumvirate and is the superior to Olive, the catgirl spy who was the primary antagonist for most of High Guardian Spice. He only shows up for a single episode, that being the last one, but he has some of the best feats in the series with a lot of the scaling revolving around him. While he doesn't have a lot of screentime, and most personal information about him is unknown, he has a large impact on the series, particularly from the powerscaling perspective.

In terms of power, Mandrake created a forcefield around High Guardian Academy without even using a Terrasphere, this level of power consistent with other feats Mages are purported to have done such as conjuring a castle out of sausages.  Mandrake takes a combination old/new magic blast from Caraway one of the strongest mages in the series and just gets up and runs off. He was only defeated after Olive betrayed and stabbed him his own knife, he got smashed by Parsley with her hammer and super strength, Thyme shot him with possibly magic arrows and then got hit by ANOTHER old/new magic combo blast from Sage. And he still escaped! This is genuinely one of the highest physical showings of any character in the series.

The same quote as above also says mages have flown around the world which would likely require supersonic speeds consistent with Sage making a magical sonic boom with her flight which should scale to Mandrake's flight speeds. Even without flying Mandrake has dodged close range arrows from Thyme. It's possible their reaction speeds are much higher as they conjure magical lightning type abilities and Sage was able to catch a ball of light, though whether these actually move at lightning or light speed is unclear. Mandrake should have some of the better speed scaling in the series as he was able to easily avoid the girls attack on the ground until taken off guard and while flying was able to dodge around Sage and Olive's attacks. 

(Mandrake in disguise)

Magic in High Guardian Spice is divided into two types: old magic and new magic. Old Magic is harder but while Mandrake can clearly use both almost all of his feats are done through old magic basically just to flex. Old Magic involves drawing magic from nature and channeling it through your body and typically requires motion or drawing circles or runes or things to that effect. It is more time consuming to use and much harder to learn though almost all Mandrake's feats are done with old magic it seems. 

With Old Mage Mandrake created a barrier around High Guardian Academy, with barriers in High Guardian Spice also having attack reflection. He attacked by creating numerous flaming sword type projectiles which he could fire a half dozen at a time or create a single one as large as a bookcase. He was also able to conjure a magical lightning like effect, was able to conjure fire and conjured a magic lock. However his most used ability by far is using his magic to disguise himself as other people. He does this for deception and manipulation purposes, such as when he transformed into Lavender during his fight with Rosemary, Lavender's daughter to mess with her. This effect can also transform his voice to match theirs if he wants. It's likely he knows more forms of Old Magic that simply were never seen. 

Mandrake also has two Terraspheres on his person which allow him to use New Magic. New Magic is far more powerful "multiplying" one's power, is easy to use, and allows the user to do "whatever you want" and "anything." It broadly should give Mandrake to almost every spell seen in the series as it really is basically implied to be a do anything kind of magic. The downsides are that you rely on your Terrasphere to use it which can be stolen or run out of power. 

Obviously as you might imagine, this lets Mandrake scale to a large number of abilities. Talking about some of the more potent abilities in the verse offensively Mandrake would have access to various forms of elemental manipulation and the ability to shoot lasers that causes explosions. He should be able to replicate Amaryllis feats of removing the memories from people or transmuting people into lizards, and should be able to replicate Sage's feat of putting people to sleep with her magic. Outside of these he would scale to telekinesis strong enough to move dozens of books or to levitate himself, summoning potent enough to conjure entire castles made of sausages, and illusions. He'd also have spatial manipulation capable of creating a portal or teleporting small objects remotely. 

Someone who is skillful in both old and new magic can actually combine them for an affect that's far more potent, with Carroway saying that a foundation in old magic can allow one to bring out the potential in new magic. As Mandrake is highly skilled in both he may be able to do this, though it's unclear. 

Outside his Terraspheres, Mandrake also carries his broomstick which he uses to fly along with his sword which he uses as a conduit to cast old magic with. He is also clearly an expert in using it as a blade using it for melee and to deflect blows. Mandrake is an expert assassin, mage, swordsman, and manipulator, deceiving the girls numerous times and chosen by the Triumvirate who are clearly very powerful on at least a regional scale to be their assassin. 

In terms of weaknesses, Mandrake is a very sadistic edgy type of villain who clearly enjoys playing around with his targets too much, his underestimating them being part of his defeat. Also and more wholesomely, he's weird trusting of his subordinates. All episode long Olive clearly doesn't want to actually kill people but when she tells him she changed her mind he lets her take his knife to do the killing blow before she stabs him instead.

Also like all Mages in the High Guardian Spice verse, the two forms of magic both have their own weaknesses, Old Magic taking mastery and usually a bit of time to use, New Magic relying on a Terrasphere though Mandrake has somewhat mitigated this being a triple master of melee combat, old magic, and new magic. 

Name: Mandrake

Origin: High Guardian Spice

Powers and Abilities: Expert Assassin and Swordsman, Flight (With His Broomstick), With Old Magic: Can disguise himself as whoever he wants, Barrier Creation/Attack Reflection, Flaming Sword Blasts, Magic Lightning Blasts, Fire Creation, Magical Lock, Flight, With New Magic: Likely Most Magic seen in the series including Elemental Manipulation (Light, Fire, Water, Wind, Plants), Energy Projection/Explosion Creation, Memory Manipulation, Sleep Manipulation, Transmutation, Summoning, Illusion Creation, Telekinesis, and Portal Creation along with others not massively important in combat

Weaknesses: Sadistic and Overconfident, Old Magic requires things like hand motions or rituals, New Magic relies on Terraspheres

Attack Potency: Large Building Level (Created a barrier around High Guardian Academy without even using his Terraspheres)

Range: At least hundreds of meters

Speed: Subsonic Movement Speed normally, Supersonic Flight/Reaction Speeds, possibly much higher Reaction Speeds

Durability: Large Building Level (Withstood numerous attacks on his own level and still escaped)

Stamina: Unknown but presumably High Human, was stabbed, shot through the knee, and hit by a hammer and numerous magic blasts and was still able to act without much hinderance

Intelligence: Expert Assassin, Swordsman, Mage, and Manipulator

So how would Mandrake do if he was to try to assassinate in other fictional universes

High Guardian Spice is a Medieval Fantasy type series so how would Mandrake do in the originator of the genre, the Arthurian Legends

In terms of stats he'd be roughly around the level of the Mid Tier Arthurian Knights scaling from Sir Kay's feat of growing as large as the tallest tree in the forest and producing enough energy passively to keep himself and the people near him warm and dry, which would be a feat in a similar league to Mandrake's and while Mandrake's was done without his Terrasphere, this was done by Kay just standing there. They also scale to the pig Twrch Trwyth who devastated a third of Ireland in one night which would be a higher speed feat then Mandrake's. That said Mandrake's stats are not far lower then theirs and he has a bunch of magical abilities that make him way more versatile then Most Mid Tier Knights. Even just Mandrake's Old Magic would make him quite versatile for an Arthurian Legend Mid Tier, let alone what his Terrasphere grants him. Especially his Disguise Magic of which is treated as very difficult to fight in the Arthurian Legends. That said multiple of them together could possibly beat, similar to High Guardian Spice, and a High Tier like Arthur, Lancelot, or Gawain would defeat him cleanly with much higher stats and similar levels of hax.

Against other Mages in the setting he would not have the power of the high tiers who can do things like set fire to all of Britain though he is much faster. Broadly it depends how much he messes around as if he can find a hax that can defeat them before they can react, he can defeat most Mages in the Arthurian Legends but if he lets them start casting, they can use abilities that would instantly win. He really would fit the role of a Mid Tier Warrior and Mid Tier Mage put together. 

Magic Knight Rayearth is another more feminine High Fantasy type series. Also there's a mech in HGS at one point so that fits. In MKR Mandrake would be roughly around the level of the Magic Knights for most of the First Arc/Season and Zagato's minions. Once again they have feats that are calced higher then Mandrake's but with more effort those being Ascot's high speed flight forming a mach cone, and Lafarga vaporizing a section of the ground with his sword swing. 

In terms of how Mandrake would do, he would do alright as basically another villain in the same vein as Zagato's minions. he has a much wider arsenal then most people in his tier, or the verse in general has, and he seems to have at least a decent amount of willpower given his endurance which is important since things in Cephiro are determined by one's will.  That said he has larger personality weaknesses then anyone in the tier. He would be closest to Caldina in role, another of Zagato's minions who had a very strong hax ability but didn't immediately end them as her will was weaker and her personality was less immediately lethal. As for how he'd do against the Magic Knights it depends how much information he had and how he plays it though I suspect Fuu at least would be able to figure him out just as she did Caldina. 

You could put Mandrake, a western styled magical assassin into the equivalent from Japan, a Ninja Series and easily one of the most famous is Naruto. So how would Mandrake do in Naruto? In terms of stats Mandrake does get eclipsed by Naruto's increasing Shonen powerscaling fairly quickly though with his Terrasphere he should be in the same general tier of Sasuke's fireball jutsu early in the series that vaporized a section of the ground, Sasuke being a particularly powerful Genin. Sasuke was also able to avoid sound waves from Dosu, outpacing them outright with his Curse Mark. Mandrake would have roughly mid tier power and upper tier speed for a Genin Tier Shinobi. 

In terms of just direct trickery Mandrake would actually probably struggle. While he's very intelligent in the context of his universe, Naruto is infamous for everyone using masterful many step plans they come up with mid battle and beings master of espionage and deception with things like disguising yourself as someone else via the Doppleganger technique being a very common and low level technique. On the other hand he would have a decent arsenal even just with his Old Magic and his hand motions are not inhibiting in a world where people use their abilities primarily through their own hand gestures. His Terraspheres and the versatility they give would be a huge asset fighting against someone in the Genin Tier, though a team of Genin similar to High Guardian Spice could still potentially pose a threat especially if they disguise themselves as teammates of him given how trusting he is towards teammates. 

High Guardian Spice is known for being mostly very G rated and wholesome but to suddenly veer into things like swearing or brutality, so what about putting it against a verse that has the same dichotomy and is also a Fantasy Verse popular with the same target demographic as HGS? Undertale's stats are fairly contested due to its more abstract nature but by most estimates Mandrake would be either on the level of a strong monster or an outright Boss Monsters based on various feats people suggest would put the cast in the small building to large building tier and in the supersonic to hypersonic range. However either way Mandrake would be an absolute menace in the verse. He has way more versatility with his magic then almost anyone in Undertale, his attack reflecting barrier would basically mean the verse's usual method of combat wouldn't work, and worst of all, monsters are weak to killing intent. Mandrake is an edgy sadistic psychopath who loves killing. He would genuinely be a pseudo-Genocide route player, just with less DETERMINATION and more overall versatility. Except most of the monsters are actually liable to fall for him disguising himself as their loved ones, as most of them are actual loveable goofs. 

That said fittingly enough there is one monster within the normal monster ranks that would be his bane, the final boss of Genocide, sans the skeleton. Regardless of if you think his speed is closer to the normal monsters or the Boss Monsters, sans can dodge attacks of that speed literally in his sleep. He uses spatial warping to hit opponents from angles and perspectives they weren't expecting negating the usefulness of Mandrake's shield and KR would poison Mandrake's soul down without him being able to hit sans. sans is also one of the smartest monsters and would absolutely be able to tell Mandrake isn't Papyrus for instance. 

On the other hand, what if reverse it, put him in a verse that is mostly dark with some characters being more comedic, another High Fantasy verse but on the complete tonal opposite side of the spectrum and put Mandrake in Bastard!!? Well Mandrake would fit in better then most HGS characters though that goes without saying. In terms of Stats Mandrake would fit in basically perfectly in the first major tier of powerful mundane warriors and spellcasters. These mostly scale from MacPain being launched through a skyscraper and numerous speed feats like Kai Harn dodging a supersonic attack at point blank range. They each both have light-timing high ends. 

In terms of how he'd do, his level of sadistic and killer desire wouldn't be that unusual in that dark fantasy world of Bastard!! but his powerset would be relatively wide for his tier. Outside of his Terrasphere he'd have roughly the stats of one of the Samurai opposing Kal Su, masters of magic and swordcraft. While he wouldn't have their levels of skill he would have the Terraspheres to bolster his power and versatility. There are a lot of broken haxes in the verses that without prior knowledge could kill him quickly such as Medusa whose gazes turn people to stone or Beholders who are immune to magic and would force him to rely on just his sword to try and kill it. However his stealth would be a good very good strategy similar to Borgir Bir as there's a lack of strong super senses on that tier and his illusions can also drain mages of this tier of their stamina fairly quickly. Overall he'd be a powerful but mostly fair combatant for the first major tier.

He'd be a little out of his depth trying to fight anyone higher, even as part of a team, most mages by the second tier have spell bound that would keep him from casting and most warriors just have too potent physical stats, though if he was part of a group he could use things like portal creation to provide support and transmutation or sleep manipulation to provide a threat to at least some of the next higher tier. 

Powerscaler Alignment Chart

 I wanted to share the alignment chart I think of when I think of different types of powerscalers

Open Scientific	Neutral Scientific	Skeptical Scientific
Open Neutral	True Neutral	Skeptical Neutral
Open Narrative	Neutral Narrative	Skeptical Narrative

There are two spectrums here to explain. It's not so much anyone in particular is at the extreme end, but a spectrum where some people tend more one way then other people.

Open vs. Skeptical: Open people are people who tend to have higher balled interpretations, and are more open to evidence. In general they are more open to considering unorthodox positions on characters and matchups. Their strengths are they are not prone to appeals to incredulity or tradition, they are relatively good at just removing all pre-existing assumptions about characters. Their downside is their positions can seem absurd to people with higher evidentiary standards. Skeptical people are people who tend to have lower balled interpretations, and generally higher standards of evidence. They are less likely to change their positions on how strong characters are in general. Their strengths are they are very discerning and good at dissecting bad evidence. They are very good at going over a list of evidence and finding leaps in logic or alternative explanations that don't require extraordinary conclusions. However on the other hand they are more likely to make unfalsifiable claims about how a character can't be x strong or fast, or be stubborn in the face of evidence that doesn't corroborate their current position. People who are neutral tend to be roughly in the middle. They can have very strong senses on how strong characters they know well are, but can be convinced to go higher or lower, especially if it's not by that large a margin by looking at the evidence. Most people on both spectrums will tend towards the middle, this is again more of which way you lean.

Scientific vs Narrative: Scientific Powerscalers are ones who probably either towards fictional realism (that is to say thinking that fiction has a kind of reality unto itself) or Death of the Author (where the meaning of a text is not determined by an author.) They tend to be most concerned with empirical data about a series, and tend to be the types that think there is a "right answer" as to for instance how fast a character is. Not that it's written down somewhere, but if you look at their showings you should be able to discern it. Their strength is they are more focused on evidence and proof rather then their intuition however their weakness is they can seem somewhat removed from the "spirit" of a story judging solely by empirical data. I think Scientific Powerscalers are more common at least on sites dedicated to such things, and I will give an example of the three kinds in my different alignment descriptions. Narrative Powerscalers are ones who care more about what they think the story is trying to say, and probably tend more towards fictional anti-realists (thinking of fiction as more a mental exercise then having a reality onto itself.) They don't tend to think of characters as having a specific level but instead numerous interpretations based on your understanding of the story. They are the ones who tend to care more about showing why their interpretation is more consistent with the lore or themes of the story, rather then just focusing on the feats themselves. People far on the Narrative side won't even debate a series they haven't experienced themselves. Their benefit is they tend to be more willing to understand why people disagree with them as they view it as another interpretation of the story, and they can be seen as more respectful to the source material, especially to non powerscalers. On the other hand, Narrative Scalers are not strictly focused on falsifiable empirical data and so can be rather floaty in their interpretation and not focused on evidence, which is arguably against the spirit of debate.

The Nine Alignments of Powerscalers as I see it:

Open Scientific: People who are Open Scientific Powerscalers are ones who are mostly just looking for do characters have feats of a certain level. They're not really concerned with if those feats have counter-examples or if they tie into a deeper narrative, they view powerscaling in probably the most direct way which is "these are the impressive things the character has done, so that's how they strong they have to be." They'd probably agree with the notion that if a character has done something, then you trying to say they can't do that thing is just silly regardless of your interpretation of the text, and tend to have more open scaling where they don't mind scaling characters much higher then most do if they think the feats are clearly there. I have found them to be very common on Youtube. 

Neutral Scientific: People who are Neutral Scientific are most concerned with what a characters's showings are but don't tend to have as out there interpretations and do tend to consider anti-feats a little bit. Their interpretations of a characters' strength might be a little higher then what most people think or it might be about where most people think but their primary mode of evidence is empirical showings and they are generally convinced by either just enough feats at a certain level or by a systemic explanation for why each feat is untenable. I have found them to be very common on most Battleboarding Sites.

Skeptical Scientific: People who are Skeptical Scientific put a great deal of stock into things like expressed limits or anti-feats, with some suggesting that they have equal importance to feats. They tend to interpret characters as being either roughly as strong as common consensus where they debate, or a bit weaker. They do prioritize feats but will either argue that a very high end feat is an outlier or try to discuss the internal logic of the feat and express why they don't think it applies. Because they are more on the Scientific Side they probably do still consider things like calcs, but because they are Skeptical they are very discerning on if any part of the calc it at all assumed, and are very conservative about what calcs can be applied, and if the number seems very high they may consider it an outlier. I have found them to be very common on Reddit WhoWouldWin.

Open Neutral: People who are Open Neutral can have very eclectic views on how strong a character is and be willing to consider any perspective that is meant to showcase their true strength whether it be in the form of direct feats or in the form of narrative implications. These are probably the most open minded scalers in one sense as they are eager to look at characters and series from new perspectives. I feel like a lot of the bigger Youtuber Powerscalers are here as mixing narrative elements into an Open Scientific Approach allows appealing to a wider audience and giving more interesting takes on series.  I am not on them much but I feel like r/powerscale and tik tok powerscaling do seem to trend in this direction.

True Neutral: The True Neutrals of the Powerscaling community are people who want to consider hypothetical matchups in all kinds of different ways. While Open Neutral is the most open minded in one sense, True Neutrals are probably the most open minded in another as while they may not consider a character radically different in power then most people they seem very open to people having different opinions without them being just wrong. These kind of scalers can be more casual and are seen pretty much anywhere powerscaling happens, from wikis to subreddits to video sites, especially more casual ones. I don't mean to suggest they're all casuals, just that if someone is casual they're likely here because they don't have very strong opinions on the matter.

Skeptical Neutral: Skeptical Neutrals are Powerscalers who are neutral on Scientific vs Narrative, they're willing to consider different types of evidence equally, but they are equally skeptical on both. To be totally honest, this seems to be the rarest type as I see them the least. There are certainly some bad actors who play Skeptical Neutral when it's only dealing with a series they don't like but people who truly are Skeptical Neutral on all series seems rare. With that said when I do see them, they like Skeptical Scientifics care on keeping consistent the limits of a character, however with a broader focus on what would "break the plot" as opposed to just what feats should not apply. 

Open Narrative: People who are more Narrative Focused are those that care more about how strong a character is meant to be portrayed but when they're more Open they're much more willing to considering different interpretations of the narrative, including more out there ones. They tend to be less impressed by quantifiable things like dimension count and more by things like characters representing or effecting concepts, religious ideas, or other more abstract types of scaling with some expressing that those are inherently above the quantifiable. As a Narrative Focused Scaler they are more interested in making sure the power is consistent with the lore but as an Open Scaler they are more willing to consider more esoteric views on the Lore as opposed to more grounded views. Broadly Narrative Scalers in general tend to more focused in fandom specific spaces rather then powerscaling specific spaces. 

Neutral Narrative: People who are Neutral Narrative are almost more fanfiction writers than they are traditional powerscalers, though they are still trying to be consistent with the series they're using. These type of scalers view the characters AS their narratives or what they represents or the persona and the appeal of powerscaling is the interaction of these narratives. They are the most concerned with sticking close to the lore and spirit of the series the characters come from and when discussing feats they have the most care to say "this is why this level of power is the most consistent with the lore of the series."

Skeptical Narrative: People who are Skeptical Narrative even more then Skeptical Neutral are the most likely to be concerned with whether or not a proposed level of power would "break the plot." They are very concerned with maintaining the internal consistency of a world's worldbuilding. While an Open Narrative Scaler might be more concerned with what a character represents and how strong that could be, and a Neutral Narrative Scaler might be more concerned with what they believe the spirit of a series is and if that is being expressed correctly, a Skeptical Narrative scaler is most concerned with the actual plot and if any scale breaks that plot. 

Now speaking for myself, I think I am pretty neutral on Open vs Skeptical. When I'm on more Skeptical Powerscaling Forums I am considered very Open, and when I'm on more Open Powerscaling Forums I'm considered very Skeptical. I feel like I am around the average scaler. I consider feats more then I do anti-feats but I don't totally ignore anti-feats and I consider a number of characters stronger then most people do, a few even much stronger but only because I believe I have a LOT of evidence for it, and hard to argue evidence at that. In terms of Scientific vs Narrative I feel like I tend towards Narrative. My background for this hobby is as a fanfiction writer, and while I do try to get really into feats to appeal to the broader powerscaling community, I do care a lot about trying to express the spirit of what a character is meant to represent if you can't tell by my blogs. That said I think all the alignments are valuable in what they can express in terms of critical thinking skills and debate skills.