Ep 47 of The Letters Page discussion- Cosmic Contest & Contest winner

[Phantom5613]

My problem now with Fanatic is the fact that not only did she wipe out all of the toughest heroes(The Haka fight's result being total BS in my mind), but she was also able to take down a SUN POWERED Dawn. And we're not talking "she was out in the light for a long time", but power ripped straight from Progeny who got it FROM INSIDE A FREAKING STAR.

C and A have said it themselves in the Citizen Dawn episode, no hero on their own can take down Dawn. Even if they're at 100%, the best they can hope is to simply go toe-to-toe with her. It took all of the Freedom Five to simply put a stop to her the first time around.

Fanatic took down a Star-Powered Dawn all by herself.

I was rooting for Baron Blade.

[Powerhound_2000]

@Phantom5613

My problem now with Fanatic is the fact that not only did she wipe out all of the toughest heroes(The Haka fight's result being total BS in my mind), but she was also able to take down a SUN POWERED Dawn. And we're not talking "she was out in the light for a long time", but power ripped straight from Progeny who got it FROM INSIDE A FREAKING STAR.C and A have said it themselves in the Citizen Dawn episode, no hero on their own can take down Dawn. Even if they're at 100%, the best they can hope is to simply go toe-to-toe with her. It took all of the Freedom Five to simply put a stop to her the first time around.Fanatic took down a Star-Powered Dawn all by herself.I was rooting for Baron Blade.

I have more problems with the Haka fight than I do Dawn.   My problem with the Haka fight was that she kept magically being fully recovered multiple times.  With Dawn there was some build up already as to how strong Fanatic was and the fact Dawn already used up her most powerful move before this fight leaving her a bit exhausted.   I do agree rooting that somehow Baron Blade pulled off what would was a bit of an upset at that point.  

[PlatinumWarlock]

@Jeysie

Totally agree with Parse being concerning, though. Like, I tend to be more on the pragmatic side myself, but that woman is ruthless even by my standards. Sky-Scraper was at least a somewhat fair fight, but that part with Unity had me giving Parse a bit of side eye.

There's a big difference between being pragmatic and being ruthless. 

Taking advantage of your foes' weaknesses, such as knees and weak structural points, is pragmatic.

Emotionally extorting one of your friends and allies by holding her once-dead friend hostage and threatening to destroy him, just after the pair were reunited, is outright villain territory.

[Phantom5613]

@Powerhound_2000

I have more problems with the Haka fight than I do Dawn.  My problem with the Haka fight was that she kept magically being fully recovered multiple times. With Dawn there was some build up already as to how strong Fanatic was and the fact Dawn already used up her most powerful move before this fight leaving her a bit exhausted.   I do agree rooting that somehow Baron Blade pulled off what would was a bit of an upset at that point.  

If anyone could have done it, it was Blade.

Edit: Admitedly it was alot of info to go through, so I'm 100% sure I didn't retain all of the episode the first play-through.

 

[Jeysie]

@PlatinumWarlock

Jeysie wrote:

Totally agree with Parse being concerning, though. Like, I tend to be more on the pragmatic side myself, but that woman is ruthless even by my standards. Sky-Scraper was at least a somewhat fair fight, but that part with Unity had me giving Parse a bit of side eye.

There's a big difference between being pragmatic and being ruthless. Taking advantage of your foes' weaknesses, such as knees and weak structural points, is pragmatic. Emotionally extorting one of your friends and allies by holding her once-dead friend hostage and threatening to destroy him, just after the pair were reunited, is outright villain territory.

Yeah, I think this is a good way to put it, now that you put it this way. There's a difference between swiftly incapacitating someone and straight up breaking them.

@Powerhound_2000

My problem with the Haka fight was that she kept magically being fully recovered multiple times.

Yeah, this is part of what made me terrified of Fanatic. In addition to being ruthlessly driven she's apparently a freakin' juggernaut.

[PlatinumWarlock]

@Jeysie

Yeah, I think this is a good way to put it, now that you put it this way. There's a difference between swiftly incapacitating someone and straight up breaking them.

It's the sort of thing that lends credence to my theory that Parse, rather than Voss, may be the last Scion…

[starkenburg_alexander]

I figure anyone reading this far into the thread who hasn't listened to all of it is not worried about spoliers.

Got 33 points, which is pretty much the 50% you'd get if you picked randomly so yay me XD. Had Expattriette as the final in (many) upsets just due to her knowledge and training in taking down superhumans as just a regular person.

I'll just go over the ones I got wrong with my reason why I picked the way I did. Long post inc so ignore at your discretion

Champion:

Ra>Haka: I thought Haka would not care about the contest beyond a "Hey, sparring, thats fun!" and would bow out to Ra who would be much more intent

Legacy>Fanatic: (Apparently) Waaaay underestimated Fanatic's power level relative to Legacy. Thought Legacy could just tank and talk it out

2nd Round

Legacy>Ra: Figured if Legacy could power through Ra's fire long enough to get in melee, it'd be over

Tech:

Benchmark>AZ: New/more versitile suit vs old standby would give him enough of an edge. I did recognize that AZ was more experienced though so wasn't too sure on this one

2nd Round

Benchmark>Writhe: I dont know why I keep picturing Benchmark as an analog to Cyborg, but I saw his suit synthesising something to beat him

3rd Round

Parse>Benchmark: Parse would be the one to take his suit apart

Mystic:

Harpy>Idealist: Basically was one round too early. Thought Harpy would have more control over her powers than Idealist over her new powers

3rd Round

AA>Nightmist: I thought that AA would be able to convince NM to to fight after having to beat her protoge in the previous round. Also didnt realize this was where Dark Conductor happened

Martial:

Expatriette>CR: Temporal/Spacial shenanigans. Didnt realize his abilities could be fine enough to effectively teleport. I thought it would just be a shoot-out and Expatriette is to ranged weapons what Mr. Fixer is to melee.

KNYFE>Stuntman: Bare-knuckle brawl I just had KNYFE over Stuntman

2nd Round

Ex>Mr Fixer: Grudge match where Expatriette has learned Mr. Fixer's tricks after watching him for so long and just stays well away

KNYFE>Setback: Love the goofball, but in a smackdown fight he doesn't have the fighter's instincts KNYFE does

3rd Round

Ex>KNYFE: After two brawls KNYFE would be too tired/hurt to keep up with a ranged Ex

Conqueror:

2nd Round

Infinitor>Zhu Long: Limitless manifestations would have eventually made Zhu Long go "Bah. This isn't worth it" and poof away

Cunning:

Kismet>Chairman: Kismet? Getting suckered by essentially a peak-human who doesn't usually resort to fighting himself? Okay....
Ermine>Green Grosser: Just figured he was more of a joke than he was (And good on him for using that against Ermine)

Eldritch:

2nd Round

Lifeline>Blood Countess: Submitted my bracket before the Blood Magic episode....

Bruiser:

Plague Rat>Fright Train: I thought that the infection would do more than it did

Bugbear>Proletariat: I agree with others throughout this thread, Bugbear should have had a nice big meal out of clones

2nd Round

Plague Rat>Operative: More infection badness. Didn't realize "Skilled in poison use" -> "Immune to poison"

Bugbear>Spite: Thought Bugbear would be riding high on Proletariat clone energy

3rd Round

Bugbear>Plague Rat: Figured his blood stone would protect him from Plague Rat's infection and then he'd win

 

QuarterFinals: Tempest vs Citizen Dawn, Parse vs Baron Blade, AA vs Lifeline, Expatriette vs Bugbear

Tempest>Citizen Dawn: Figured she'd be worn out dealing with Infinitor's manifestations

Baron Blade>Parse: He's always got a trick up his sleve no one expects

AA>Lifeline: From everything ive heard, Void magic > Blood magic. AA would just wait him out

Ex>Bugbear: More ranged combat and maybe Relentless Pursuit right into a claymore?

SemiFinals:

Tempest>Baron Blade: Overload his devices with lightning mostly

Ex>AA: Expatriette is well versed in taking out powered humans and AA would be worn out

Finals:

Expatriette>Tempest: Same as above basically. If Ex could find a good sniping spot, Temest could be taken out before he even hears the shot

 

In conclusion: I was way off but had fun anyway. Listening to the episode, I agree with the logic for most of the ones I got wrong and had a great time overall. Good job C&A and G>G in general!

 

[Trumpet_of_Doom]

@Phantom5613

C and A have said it themselves in the Citizen Dawn episode, no hero on their own can take down Dawn. Even if they're at 100%, the best they can hope is to simply go toe-to-toe with her.

That's not quite what they said. No hero on their own can consistently, reliably take down Dawn one-on-one. The distinction is important.

[Raccoonoo]

Right. No one is so high above Dawn that they can just take her out without any chance of defeat, but there are people who could possibly beat her one on one.

Also, they later added that by the end of the Multiverse timeline, Expatriette could absolutely defeat her mother one on one.

[MindWanderer]

@Raccoonoo

Also, they later added that by the end of the Multiverse timeline, Expatriette could absolutely defeat her mother one on one.

Not exactly… They said Expatriette faces Dawn one-on-one, but she does it with words, not guns.

[PlatinumWarlock]

@Raccoonoo

Right. No one is so high above Dawn that they can just take her out without any chance of defeat, but there are people who could possibly beat her one on one.

Also, they later added that by the end of the Multiverse timeline, Expatriette could absolutely defeat her mother one on one.

Plus, by the end of OblivAeon, Expatriette is wielding the Infinity Cannon…

[rjc917]

@Trumpet of Doom

 

Phantom5613 wrote:

C and A have said it themselves in the Citizen Dawn episode, no hero on their own can take down Dawn. Even if they're at 100%, the best they can hope is to simply go toe-to-toe with her.  

That's not quite what they said. No hero on their own can consistently, reliably take down Dawn one-on-one. The distinction is important.

Plus, Fanatic didn't really take down Dawn on her own.  She essentially had help from Progeny and a freaking dragon.

[UXM266]

So, a couple of questions.

1) What uniforms were the Freedom Five in? Their OblivAeon suits, or their normal ones?

2) Was Anthony drake the Dark COnductor when facing against Nightmist?

 

[PlatinumWarlock]

@UXM266

2. Was Anthony drake the Dark COnductor when facing against Nightmist? 

I think they answered this pretty definitively in the episode:  he had destroyed his pipes in favor of using Vogel's baton in the effort to free Visionary's psyche, so he was under that dark influence during his battle with Nightmist.  During that battle, Nightmist managed to shunt his power–at least temporarily–back into his vocal cords, repressing Vogel's influence.

[Jeysie]

@PlatinumWarlock

UXM266 wrote:

2) Was Anthony drake the Dark COnductor when facing against Nightmist?   

I think they answered this pretty definitively in the episode:  he had destroyed his pipes in favor of using Vogel's baton in the effort to free Visionary's psyche, so he was under that dark influence during his battle with Nightmist.  During that battle, Nightmist managed to shunt his power--at least temporarily--back into his vocal cords, repressing Vogel's influence.

I got the feeling it was even weirder than that; Nightmist essentially attached Anthony back to himself, since he had intentionally done to himself what he accidentally did to Xu way back when, just after attaching himself into the baton first via blood magic so he didn't just outright die.

[FrivYeti]

So, I got a heck of a lot wrong.

My final score was exactly 32, giving me a perfect 50% accuracy rate. My big problem was that I voted for three of the finalists (Absolute Zero, Nightmist, and the Operative) to lose their first matches for various reasons, which caused all three of those tiers to upend on me pretty fast. I also totally messed up the Eldritch Tier because I was working backwards towards my belief that the story would give Lifeline a chance to throw a fight, and thus he couldn't face Gloomweaver because him trouncing Gloomweaver was a whole Thing later...

The only matches that I feel cheated on were the Bugbear/Proletariat and Lifeline/Blood Countess. The latter makes a lot of sense with information that we didn't have when we were voting - I expected Lifeline's mastery of blood magic plus his alien tech to overwhelm her, because I didn't know about the Court of Blood story he'd already done at that point. The former just feels like cheating on the part of the multiverse writers. (And in the end, it doesn't matter, because I had Spite beating Bugbear and then losing at the last round, so it didn't upset my numbers too badly). 

I got too clever with my figuring things out, and assumed that Benchmark would have a good showing, and ultimately lose to Writhe, that all of the Void Guard would reach the second round to show off the power of Oblivaeon shards, and that they would want Progeny in the final 8 as a big Oblivaeon thing. So all of those matches messed me up. 

 

But overall, that was a heck of a contest. Good job, everyone!

[UXM266]

@Jeysie

 

PlatinumWarlock wrote:

UXM266 wrote:

2) Was Anthony drake the Dark COnductor when facing against Nightmist?    

I think they answered this pretty definitively in the episode:  he had destroyed his pipes in favor of using Vogel's baton in the effort to free Visionary's psyche, so he was under that dark influence during his battle with Nightmist.  During that battle, Nightmist managed to shunt his power--at least temporarily--back into his vocal cords, repressing Vogel's influence.

I got the feeling it was even weirder than that; Nightmist essentially attached Anthony back to himself, since he had intentionally done to himself what he accidentally did to Xu way back when, just after attaching himself into the baton first via blood magic so he didn't just outright die.

So his costume changed too? Or was he still in his PW stume? 

[Powerhound_2000]

@UXM266

So, a couple of questions.1) What uniforms were the Freedom Five in? Their OblivAeon suits, or their normal ones?

Normal ones.  The F5 suits don’t appear until after OblivAeon destroys Freedom Tower and that hasn’t happened yet during Cosmic Contest. 

[PlatinumWarlock]

@UXM266

 

Jeysie wrote:

 PlatinumWarlock wrote:

UXM266 wrote:

2) Was Anthony drake the Dark COnductor when facing against Nightmist?     

I think they answered this pretty definitively in the episode:  he had destroyed his pipes in favor of using Vogel's baton in the effort to free Visionary's psyche, so he was under that dark influence during his battle with Nightmist.  During that battle, Nightmist managed to shunt his power--at least temporarily--back into his vocal cords, repressing Vogel's influence.

I got the feeling it was even weirder than that; Nightmist essentially attached Anthony back to himself, since he had intentionally done to himself what he accidentally did to Xu way back when, just after attaching himself into the baton first via blood magic so he didn't just outright die.

So his costume changed too? Or was he still in his PW stume? 

I don't think he'd have had enough time to change costumes in between fights–it seems like most of the fights run quickly between one another.  So, likely Dark Conductor powers while wearing the Prime Wardens costume.

[Phantom5613]

@UXM266

1. What uniforms were the Freedom Five in? Their OblivAeon suits, or their normal ones?

Pretty sure they were in their normal suits at this point, since when they went down the Brackets Adam and Christopher didn't say "Freedom Five Wraith" or such for them.