Image courtesy of ~Romance-spice-life |
Image courtesy of Marvel Comics |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Advantages
|
Advantages
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Disadvantages
|
Disadvantages
|
Ender is sitting in front of his holographic simulator, leading his intersteller fleet closer to the hostile planet Krynn. The task at hand: destroy a fleet of dragons. To Ender, it’s all just another school simulation. But in truth, the dragons on the world of Krynn are preparing for battle against a strange sort of flying machine coming down from the heavens. Raistlin Majere, the most powerful wizard on Krynn, has forseen Ender’s coming and is already walking through his magic portal to meet him face-to-face. As Ender commands the first wave of attack, Raistlin materializes in the Command School where Ender sits watching the holographic images of his fleet in battle with the dragons of Krynn. Raistlin, with his cursed hour glass eyes, sees Ender aging and withering away. “An aging that will never come,” Raistlin thinks to himself, as he raises his staff to deliver the first spell. But then a coughing fit takes him and he briefly doubles over in pain. Ender turns to see the wizard standing behind him and quickly alerts his squad of pre-teens who race to the attack. Lasers are flying from all directions and the wizard Raistlin whirls the Staff of Magius in a wide arc, forming a protective shield around him. The laser beams deflect and shoot back at the Command School kids as they dive for cover. “I didn’t think any of this was real! I hate adults!” Ender screams. Raistlin snears back “And I hate children.” With that, a bright light shines from the orb atop the wizard’s staff, blinding Ender as Raistlin hurls a fireball blasting a hole in the wall of the Command School. Raistlin retreats through the portal as Ender is sucked out into the void of space.
Predicted Winner: Raistlin Majere
(Raistlin is a character from Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman’s (and Wizard of the Coast’s) Dragonlance series; Ender Wiggin is the main character from Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s series)
So who else would LOVE to see a Raistlin Majere vs Gandalf The White matchup in the finals??? I feel like the everything in the universe just might cease to exist.
So, I went with Ender more because I hate D&D novelizations than anything else, but also, frankly, Ender has the command of a massive fleet of instellar warships at his command. The power to send a ship traveling at the speed of light is similar to entire energy output of a star. A STAR! If the civilization Ender comes from has that kind of power, Type 2, I just don’t see where Raistlin meager magics from a pre-Type 1 civilization could ever hope to stack up.
But then you might not realize this:
Raistlin is known as a world-destroyer, too. His magical battle with the gods (gods!) turn Krynn into a wasteland. So I’m not worried about Raistlin being able to defeat an intergalactic armada.
Raistlin wins this one. I put them about level where intellect is concerned, and they’re both quite powerful, but the type of power each one wields is very different. Ender’s power is diffuse, spread across hundreds of spaceships and soldiers. Raistlin’s is intensely concentrated in Raistlin himself.
If you put them in command of armies and had them battle it out that way, Ender would very likely beat Raistlin. But in a cage match? Concentrated personal power trumps diffuse military power every time.
I agree with Evan. Ender alone could not defeat Raistlin. But nobody ever claimed that this cage match would be a fair fight. right? Even if Ender was able to call in his armies, I still think Raistlin would come out on top. He would find a way.
I have to admit that I voted for Ender simply because otherwise Raistlin would be incarcerated for killing a child. Law is law.
There is no law in Cage Match.
Of course there is…
TWO MEN ENTER…ONE MAN LEAVES!
Editors…
Touche, good sir (or madam).
Raistlin rolls for damage…. a 20, naturally.
It’s bugging me, though, how much they’re alike. I’ve never thought about it until now, but really! They both have a dark streak in them, and their families are very definitive of their characters. Not to say that Raistlin couldn’t level both Peter and Valentine with the wave of a hand, but as far as they influence Ender, it’s a strong match. Caramon, however, is a different story. Raistlin is stronger in this respect because he’s already “defeated” Caramon in the Tower. He knows how to push aside that emotion and embrace his task. I think that, eventually, I support Raistlin. But not without great deliberation.
I’m having a hard time understanding how anyone can rationalize picking Ender for this fight. Even facing an armada, as long as Raistlin has an instant’s worth of notice, I don’t see how he ever loses any fight. I mean, he defeated a GOD. I probably take him to win the whole thing because he’s already done it before in a way.
Raistlin has defeated SEVERAL Gods, rather handily! He defeated Fistandantilus… the greatest wizard of all time!
Ender can destroy a planet? Raistlin has destroyed entire constellations! I don’t get how this is even close, and I think Raistlin has enough power to potentially win the whole tournament!
As long as Ender can’t stop Raistlin from opening a portal onto his bridge and then blasting a hole through the hull of his ship, as the story showed, Ender loses. And since he’s not around to learn from that defeat, game over.
Ender would win this fight; As mentioned in the story above Raistlin would need to physically see the armada enter his planet’s atmosphere to be aware that he was even under attack. What the story doesn’t mention is that Ender’s fleet has the gravity weapon that was used to kill the Bugger planet. Ender can manipulate gravity. If he was really about winning this fight; “There is no law in Cage Match.” to quote above, Ender would use this weapon still in orbit before Raistlin could see him let alone teleport to him, and his planet would be ripped apart then swallowed up by the effect of the gravity weapon.
Sorry, until Ender comes up against some serious firepower later in the bracket, he should win almost all of his matches with ease as he’s done his entire life when faced with a fight. He’s the consumate win-at-all costs character. It’s the fundamental aspect of him; win.
Sorry I just have to add; obviously we don’t take the ENTIRE scenario they set up at total face value because then we should just vote for whoever they say wins… so a little supposition is in order.
That said, this story presupposes that Raistlin would have ANY IDEA where Ender was. He’s not with the fleet. The guys not all-knowing, he wouldn’t know where the head-of-the-snake was. Ender is literally lightyears away on another planet at the very least in another solar system. Raistlin would require A LOT of time for some pretty intensive detective work and scrying spells to even learn where Ender was. Assuming he was even able to figure out that Ender’s the problem, where he was, there’s simply no way he’d have the time to execute any kind of response before he was destroyed by a FREAKING GALACTIC SPACE ARMADA.
Come on now people, this one’s an easy notch on Ender’s belt.
“Sorry, until Ender comes up against some serious firepower later in the bracket, he should win almost all of his matches with ease as he’s done his entire life when faced with a fight. He’s the consumate win-at-all costs character. It’s the fundamental aspect of him; win.”
Except, Raistlin is ALSO the win-at-all-costs character. As Blackqueen points out, they’re really very similar. Both of them are consummate underdogs, facing vastly superior opposition and coming out on top through cunning, bravery, and sheer ruthlessness.
Obviously circumstances make a huge difference here, and it’s very easy to set up scenarios where either of them wins. (The question “How would Raistlin know where Ender was?” can be flipped on its head; how would Ender know where Raistlin was? They live in different universes, and Raistlin knows a lot more about traveling between planes of existence than Ender.)
But with the assumption that this is a “cage match,” and in the absence of a clear intellectual or overall power advantage on either side, I think we have to go with the guy who can shoot lightning from his hands.
I dunno I think based on all the set-ups they’ve done it’s been made pretty clear that these characters aren’t fighting each other with just their personal abilities, be them physical or fantastic, but with the multitude of resources they have in their respective literary universes.
None of these fights take place in an actual cage. Many of the fights mentioned here are with one character initiating the confrontation: That assassin guy going after Dumbledore, the vampire chick showing up to kill Polgara… In this case they have Ender coming up on the hostile planet Krynn… If we START with the scenario as they’ve set it up I think the speculation should be on how it plays out, and not change the circumstances under which suvudu chose for them to engage each other…
Thusly, I stand by my point that if Ender’s coming up on a hostile planet we all know how he deals with that… gravity-thingy the heck out of it. Raislin has time to get in maybe one cough then its over
You know what i think? Raistlin wins this one cause he gets more votes. Sorry Ender fans. =P
Has anyone given any thought as to who might beat Cthulhu though? I’m starting to think that Raistlin might be the only one with a chance, and it might have something to do with those hourglass eyes of his. I don’t really know much about Cthulhu I just know that if you look at him you go crazy. Anyone think there is a way Raistlin’s Hourglass eyes could counter this? Or maybe just a spell that keeps him from going insane?
Raistlin doesn’t care about the fate of others. He wants power, walks the planes, battles gods for his spot (and wins). Travels through time, etc. Ok enders armada shows up and uses a gravity weapon. Raistlin counters with a spell such as “Reverse Gravity”, Teleport, greater teleport, implosion on the space ships, summons any and all sorts of demons, devils, or other creatures, dimensional doors to another plane of existence. Pops back in on one of the ships, invisibly and reads the mind of anyone to learn the identity of his enemy. From there it is as simple as hiding on the ship back, which by the time it got there Ender would have died of extreme old age. Planar jaunting until he made it to Ender. Or if ender was dumb enough to be with the battle group instead of operating through ansible Raistlin was powerful enough to implode the ship, or suck out little Ender’s soul.
Raistlin wins, hands down. Ender may destroy his planet, but raistlin will kill him, then can time travel back and save what he wants for his spells.
I’ve never read the other book, but am absolutly in love with Card’s Ender-verse. And the “fight scene” they provided here was soooo lame… Ender isn’t that stupid. Anyway, I obviously went with Ender.
These things are always so lame. People just make it a popularity contest instead of actually paying attention. Too bad.
Ender wins.. On account of Ender has Bean, and that kid is unstoppable.
beyond how powerfull is anyone, Ender has the will to do whatever it takes, because he is the last stand, and theres nothing after him
sorry for you Raistlin
Raistlin could just impersonate Ender’s sister Val get within any required distance and obliterate Ender. Besides the point by the time the fleet actually gets to krynn Ender would be dead.
Hello? Ender doesn’t lose. EVER.
Honestly, reading the scenario, it seems as if the authors of the whole thing have never actually read Ender’s game. A lot of what they say is ridiculous and out of character.
“Ender turns to see the wizard standing behind him and quickly alerts his squad of pre-teens who race to the attack. ”
First of all, the main thing about Ender is that when he’s fighting against the odds, he works on his own. In fact, all the conditioning and situations the adults put him through had Ender depend on himself – they in fact molded him into being super self-reliant. Chances of him seeing an enemy and alerting his squad while doing nothing? O.
What he’d probably do? Make some sort of attempt to knock the immediate weapon out of Raistlin’s hand while he’s still coughing. This could include rolling and weaving and pretty much dodging and getting in a close enough distance to do some sort of attack, or using any items in the immediate vicinity. If he did manage to get the staff out of Raistlin’s hand, Raistlin wouldn’t stand a chance. Because when it comes to hand to hand combat, Ender is unbeatable – and Raistlin’s an old fart.
Now, I don’t know much about Raistlin, but I know that usually in the magical universe, due to the ability to use magic, most wizards lack physical strength and physical fighting ability.
“Lasers are flying from all directions and the wizard Raistlin whirls the Staff of Magius in a wide arc, forming a protective shield around him.”
The lasers in Ender’s Game don’t do diddly squat to anyone who isn’t wearing a battle suit and they don’t routinely carry any real lasers or weapons, so Raistlin would be shielding for no reason – and quite obviously the battleschoolers wouldn’t shoot at him with their lasers. The fact that the author doesn’t seem knowledgeable on Ender’s Game is what’s tipping this in Raistlin’s favor.
“I didn’t think any of this was real! I hate adults!” Ender screams.”
How likely is it that Ender would say something as unintelligent as this? 0%.
Seriously, Ender’s not going to just scream something retarded in the face of death and defeat. He’d probably try to reason Raistlin out of killing or attacking him, just to distract him so he can think up a plan. Ender thinks fast, and is very persuasive, so I assume this would work.
Point of my post: The scenario shows Ender totally out of character. If you’re gonna base your vote off of it, do a quick read up on Ender’s character, and you’ll realize that the situation definitely wouldn’t play out anything like that.
The only person who can defeat Raistlin Majere is Raistlin Majere. It’s canon!
No seriously, have the writers of these blurbs ever, and I do mean ever, read any of the source material? Canonically children are one of the few things Raistlin does not automatically hate. For that matter, no one in Ender’s school has live weapons. They react with the suits.
What the fuck.
Canon?? Seriously??
Fun. Flippant. Tongue-in-cheek. Goading.
Any of these terms ring a bell?
For the love of Pete, lighten up.
Personally, I feel like Ender would simply realize Raistlin’s true nature and hit him where it hurts. Recall: Wiggin eventually becomes the epic Speaker for the Dead and even “conquers” the piggies.
“Recall: Wiggin eventually becomes the epic Speaker for the Dead and even “conquers” the piggies.”
And Raistlin eventually becomes a god and conquers the universe. Your point being?
“Has anyone given any thought as to who might beat Cthulhu though?”
I’d say Raistlin, Ender, Polgara, the Shrike, and Arthur Dent would all have a pretty good shot. Ged, Gandalf, Dumbledore, Elric, Conan and Roland Deschain would be long shots but not impossible.
Sadly, Cthulhu’s next matchup is with Jaime Lannister, and much as I love Jaime, there’s just no way he’s winning. With or without his hand.
I figure the Wee Free Men would also have had a shot at him, mostly because of the crawstep. Step into the dreamer’s dreams and start messing with his psyche for a change.
Plus: about the only other one in this tournament who has any chance against cthulhu is Raistlin…
Raistlin has faced, and beaten many gods. He has been able to teleport through time and a variety of dimensions. Ender just can’t win. Hell, Raistlin has died, and then was brought back…Sorry…Ender has no shot.
I do think you are forgetting Dumbledore my good man. Also, his complete awesomeness.
And that’s the end of that chapter!
Make sure to check out (and comment) on Raistlin’s next match–this time versus Dumbledore:
http://wp.suvudu.com/2010/03/cage-match-2010-round-2-6-raistlin-majere-versus-11-albus-dumbledore.html