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Thursday, May 28, 2020

Boff Brawl Semi-Final Match 2

The Winner of the first championship semi-final match was: Tao with Samurai Jack!

Now here is the much anticipated match 2!


Player 1 - Saka. Character, Korra.
Strategy: 
"Alright, first up, I've prepared a run-down of Korra's seriously broken capabilities for the uninitiated. If you're familiar with ATLA/LoK canon you can skip the next two paragraphs, and to everyone else bringing the objectively most overpowered fighter on this roster to their fights: You're welcome.

Korra has precise and devastatingly powerful control of large and small quantities of metal, water, ice, steam, fire, rock, earth, mud, and air for a couple hundred feet or more in all directions. She can condense water from the air, and generate and dissipate blasts of fire at will, including from her breath when physically restrained. She's spent a decade and a half dedicated to nonstop martial arts training with the greatest practitioners in her world, including Aang's own waterbending teacher and wife, Katara and their airbender son Tenzin, until her masters judged that they had anything left to teach Korra. Also from Katara comes the useful ability to quickly heal traumatic injuries with waterbending. Mastery of acrobatics, able to propel herself through the air at will using any of the elements, and has the reflexes necessary to weave, deflect, and literally punch her way through barrages of projectiles. Korra's been simultaneously shocked by two cattle prods and come up swinging. She has sufficient strength to steadily lift and hold a average-sized grown man in front of her just with a single arm, and to throw a 200-300 pound man into a bank of metal pipes with enough force to break the pipes open (in both cases, this was unaided by her bending). Almost all of these strengths and skills are far above and beyond what her predecessor, Aang, is capable of. (That crucial detail will be relevant later on.)

So that's her physical prowess. Mentally, Korra fights with both unparalleled righteous passion and collected tactical instinct. Having trained since the age of 4 as the arbiter of peace and source of supreme spiritual and physical power of an entire magical world, she has become adept at processing information quickly and adapting to new situations on the fly. She has faced and overcome familial betrayal, the vitriol of modern politics and media attention, PTSD from countless traumatic experiences, and the consequences of plenty of mistakes. She has gone into fights against foes with unknown skills, weapons, and powers, and taken their abilities in stride as they are revealed. Examples of this including unarmed combat against the first use of electricity in a melee weapon in her world, resisting the control of a person who could psychically manipulate the blood in her body, projecting a 500-foot tall physical hologram of herself to fight, defeat, and purify the literal force of darkness and chaos in her world, and deflecting the energy of a nuclear warhead detonating a couple feet in in front of her to protect herself and another person. She and that person walked away unscathed, but the crater around them was half a mile wide. All but the last of those examples were accomplished without even using her Avatar State power boost.

This will, of course, still be a tough fight, because I'm assuming we're going for combat game/cartoon-style incapacitation here, not actual lethality. (Though this is the Realms, so if we're good with no-consequences lethality, then this fight can be summed up with 4 words: "You can't breathe rocks." None of the other three combatants are strong enough to resist Korra's earthbending, and burying them would only take 1-2 seconds. Aang might try to escape, but wouldn't be able to avoid Korra long enough to tire her out.) Even holding herself in check to avoid killing her opponents, Korra's immense power, dexterity, versatility, ferocity, and strength of will are unmatched. Conveniently, she has decades of experience defeating people and entities significantly weaker than she is without doing any permanent damage.

There are three ways this can go. Aang forfeits and Korra wins, she and Aang put off their inevitable concluding duel and face the other combatants first, or they duke it out from the start. Though Malaki with Aang may try to take advantage of the opening, I think it's most important that Korra immediately strips She-Ra and Lion-O of their metallic weapons, artifacts, and armor so they can't access any of the powers anchored within and try anything sneaky while Korra focuses on her real opponent. Neither target has anything in their skill sets or arsenals to avoid or defend against metalbending, so it's going to happen. Sorry Aeston, swords mean nothing here.

Take a second to shove the resulting hunk of metal a hundred feet underground, a couple more to imprison She-Ra and Lion-O inside 20 feet of solid rock, and less than 5 seconds into the fight it's already down to Korra and Aang.

Aang is a child. While he is capable of great wisdom and feats of bending prowess, has mastered the four elements, is light on his feet, and can also access the Avatar State, he is small, immature, and has only had a year or less of experience with 3 of his 4 elements. Korra's mastery of water-, earth-, and firebending all handily outstrip Aang's, and her airbending is comparable though admittedly less finessed. Hand to hand, she can match if not surpass his maneuverability and dramatically outclasses him physically. Even ignoring her greater skill, larger depth of experience, and raw bending power, Korra's competitive spirit and fiery passion gives her a huge advantage over Aang's aversion to conflict. When it comes down to combatants of comparable skill going toe-to-toe in a protracted fight, the one with the most grit wins out. This goes double for benders using the same element(s), since their bending is an extension of their personality and state of mind. It might actually take Korra a little while to wear Aang down, and she'll need to watch out for Aang's creativity mixed with Malaki's cunning. She'll fight with caution and dogged persistence, maintaining high ground and distance but prepared to dominate in close-quarters if necessary. This fight would be incredibly destructive and range over a wide area. But Korra is able to maintain a relentless barrage of attacks for minutes without letting up. All Aang will be able to do is deflect, run, and delay the inevitable. The best offense he'll be able to manage is blind backward pot-shots with whatever elements he has within immediate reach. Surrounding himself in rocks and catching his breath isn't an option: Korra is a better earthbender. Taking away Korra's bending isn't an option: Korra is a more experienced energybender and a larger, stronger, more resilient, and more competent hand-to-hand combatant. Aang will inevitably tire and fall to his reincarnation. She is a force of nature unlike any their world has ever seen.


This will get interesting once we have multiple Korras in a fight."


Player 2 - Malaki. Character, Aang.
Strategy: 
Hands down this is going to be a tough battle. I would use Aang's high speed and great defense to maintain distance at first. By keeping distance we can make the swords less effective.

While they both have special powers, swords are a tool that need to be wielded to be effective. We would try and disarm She-ra and Lion-o with various bending techniques and then incapacitate them in a stone prison with earth bending.

Korra is a dangerous opponent with many of the same skills... many but not all. Ultimately, she doesn't have the same hate driving her that Osai did, but she is often just as rash. After getting her to act recklessly, we would try to get close and do some energy bending to take away her bending.

Now, Avender has a pack mentality at times, and if he calls in the Thundercats for back up, Team Avatar would roll in, and we would fully utilize Zuko, Toph, Katara, and Sokka. Oh snap! Guess which team has a sword now??? Not to mention a boomerang ; )

Calling in Team Avatar would be a last resort, and only if other combatants did it.


"How one wins is just as important as winning." - Uncle Iroh said this from the sidelines.

Player 3 - Avendar. Character, Lion-o.
Strategy: 
My strategy against Malaki with Ang and Saka with Kora will be the same. They are each steady and rational thinkers, so my overall strategy is to hit them from many angles to keep them off balance while my bruisers move in to finish them. First I use the Sword of Omens to summon the Thundercats to the fight. I tell Cheetara, Wiley Kit and Kat to harry them while Panthro uses the thunder tanks a direct assault. Meanwhile I use the sword of omens to discover they're greatest fear and then have Tigra telepathically attack they're mind with that fear. Then I have Lion-o join the fray. While these are each strong opponents I believe that when attacked on all side as well as the mind they will fall.

Against Elizah and She-ra I would also begin by summoning the Thundercats with the Sword of Omens. Wiley Kit and Kat will use there explosive balls and bolo's to disorient swift wind while the rest of the team attacks She-ra. Lion-o and Panthro try wear her down and disarm her. Tigra uses his whip to lash her sword arm. If Lion-o gets in trouble Cheetara can whisk him to safety so he can recover and rejoin the fight. The main goal of the team is to disarm her from the Sword of Power,  once that happens it's Cheetara's job to scoop it up and run. Without the sword She-ra will soon fall.

Player 4 - Elizah. Character, She-ra.
Strategy: 
This is a tough one! While going up against those who have the ability to bend all elements seems merely impossible if anyone could handle the challenge it'd be She-ra. I'll reiterate "super-human strength, enhanced speed & reflexes, and near-invulnerability" along with healing, telepathy with animals, and her incredible chief weapon The Sword of Protection. Oh yeah, and her handy companion Swift-Wind.

There's a lot to consider here but I think my strategy for Korra and Lion-o would shift slightly because I believe that Korra and Lion-o share a similar weakness in which they both tend to make rash decisions and act in haste and anger. Knowing that I'd wait for the right moment to strike keeping a healthy distance away but wielding The Sword of Protection to transform into whatever would be needed should anyone attempt to sneak up on me. I'd also likely have Swift-Wind in seeing range to alert me if danger was near.

For Aang I think moving in strategically and closing distance as soon as possible would be the best option as I'm confident in She-Ra's ability to strike him down and also defend herself from any elements he tries to throw at her using her Sword of Protection. (Protection is literally in the name!)


Similarly to last time, if at any point she was overwhelmed she would call in Swift-Wind, fly off, heal and return to the battle.