Board 8 > King of Fighters 2020 (NOT MERCS) R1D8: Eva McDowell vs Prof Quirrell (Mid)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Welcome to the King of Fighters 2020 (NOT MERCS) Simulated Character Battle Tournament!

The game is simple. The two* listed characters are placed in an (imaginary) location with a variety of (imaginary) environments, kind of like a picture in a child's schoolbook that describes different types of geological features. Within a ten mile radius, there is an (imaginary) urban downtown, exurbs, plains, snow-clad mountains at the edge, dry plains, etc. Fighters start wherever is most appropriate for them, but feel increasingly compelled to seek out their opponent and fight. Strong-willed fighters can try to hold out in their chosen environment for longer... eventually, all will succumb and actively search for the other to battle.

To participate, just vote in bold for whichever character you believe will win. Giving reasoning is optional, but please be polite and read what others have said and carefully make your decision. I'll ping the nominators (they can opt out) to give arguments if they wish.

TODAY'S PARTICIPANTS:
Evangeline A.K. McDowell (Negima)

A 600-year-old vampire in an ageless young body, Evangeline McDowell is the worst of all modern anime tropes. Has magic powers too I guess

vs

Professor Quirrell (Harry Potter)
https://imgur.com/a/Tem7owO
A cowardly yet experienced wizard, Professor Quirrell also holds an aspect of Voldemort, presumably granting him further wisdom on top of his existing proficiency

@PrinceKaro @MasoamiHouzuki

FIGHT

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Of note: IIRC the version of Quirrell nominated was specifically from the fanfic Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. He's a...much different character in that.

Harry Potter fanfic

Oh, whew. For a second I thought this was going to be a normal match.

- It's 122 chapters long. Abridged version sounds pretty nice.

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The guy who nominated him is gone, but luckily his post was preserved:

Basically no ethics Batman as a potterverse wizard

"Those of you who have wasted time by reading your useless first-year Defence textbooks may have gotten the impression that although this subject is called Defence Against the Dark Arts, it is actually about how to defend against Nightmare Butterflies, which cause mildly bad dreams, or Acid Slugs, which can dissolve all the way through a two-inch wooden beam given most of a day.

"The Hungarian Horntail is taller than a dozen men! It breathes fire so quickly and so accurately that it can melt a Snitch in midflight! One Killing Curse will bring it down!"

"The Mountain Troll is more dangerous than the Hungarian Horntail! It is strong enough to bite through steel! Its hide is resistant enough to withstand Stunning Hexes and Cutting Charms! Its sense of smell is so acute that it can tell from afar whether its prey is part of a pack, or alone and vulnerable! Most fearsome of all, the troll is unique among magical creatures in continuously maintaining a form of Transfiguration on itself - it is always transforming into its own body. If you somehow succeed in ripping off its arm it will grow another within seconds! Fire and acid will produce scar tissue which can temporarily confuse a troll's regenerative powers - for an hour or two! They are smart enough to use clubs as tools! The mountain troll is the third most perfect killing machine in all Nature! One Killing Curse will bring it down."

Professor Quirrell was smiling rather grimly. "Your sad excuse for a third-year Defense textbook will suggest to you that you expose the mountain troll to sunlight, which will freeze it in place. This, my young apprentices, is the sort of useless knowledge you will never find in my lessons. You do not encounter mountain trolls in open daylight! The idea that you should use sunlight to stop them is the result of foolish textbook authors trying to show off their mastery of minutia at the expense of practicality. Just because there is a ridiculously obscure way of dealing with mountain trolls does not mean you should actually try to use it! The Killing Curse is unblockable, unstoppable, and works every single time on anything with a brain. If, as an adult wizard, you find yourself incapable of using the Killing Curse, then you can simply Apparate away! Likewise if you are facing the second most perfect killing machine, a Dementor. You just Apparate away!"

"Unless, of course, you are under the influence of an anti-Apparition jinx. No, there is exactly one monster which can threaten you once you are fully grown. The single most dangerous monster in all the world, so dangerous that nothing else comes close. The Dark Wizard. That is the only thing that will still be able to threaten you."

Professor Quirrell's lips were set in a thin line. "I will reluctantly teach you enough trivia for a passing mark on the Ministry-mandated portions of your first-year finals. Since your exact mark on these sections will make no difference to your future life, anyone who wants more than a passing mark is welcome to waste their own time studying our pathetic excuse for a textbook. The title of this subject is not Defence Against Minor Pests. You are here to learn how to defend yourselves against the Dark Arts. Which means, let us be very clear on this, defending yourselves against Dark Wizards. People with wands who want to hurt you and who will likely succeed in doing so unless you hurt them first! There is no defence without offence! There is no defence without fighting! This reality is deemed too harsh for eleven-year-olds by the fat, overpaid, Auror-guarded politicians who mandated your curriculum. To the abyss with those fools! You are here for the subject that has been taught at Hogwarts for eight hundred years! Welcome to your first year of Battle Magic!"

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I don't really think Quirrell's differing personality in the fanfic will affect the match much, the spells and such are still the same in Methods of Rationality

The thing to note off the bat is that Quirrel's biggest weapon (avada kedavra) simply won't work on Eva due to her undead status, and that is pretty much most of his DPS gone right out of the gate.

Eva is also a skilled sorceress, with much more experience than Quirrell even if you count Voldimort's memories, and she holds an immense advantage in all physical attributes.

The minutia of a magic battle between them could be debated, but it doesn't really matter because Eva is just so ridiculously fast that she could break Quirrel's frail body in a thousand places before he could even speak the first syllable of a spell.

Evangeline A.K. McDowell is the winner easily.


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Shonen_Bat posted...

Oh, whew. For a second I thought this was going to be a normal match.

- It's 122 chapters long. Abridged version sounds pretty nice.

Quirrell is essentially a completely different character in the fic. It's honestly best if you ignore canon Quirrell for the purposes of this fight.

Fic Quirrell is a brilliant wizard who can be assumed to know and have proficiency with virtually every spell in the Potterverse (with the notable exception of the Patronus charm, as that requires a happy thought to activate and Quirrell is a sociopath incapable of happiness). His preferred method while in a fight is the Killing Curse but he's proficient in all other manner of spells. At one part he literally takes apart a spell and plays with in real time while having a conversation with the other wizard. In addition to magical proficiency, he also has a feat where he casts a spell before a gun's bullets can reach him. He also knows martial arts, for what it's worth.

His biggest asset is his brain. The fanfic is all about rational thought, so Quirrell, even those he's not the nicest person, uses rationality to his advantage. He always has plans upon plans upon plans. Given enough time and enough knowledge of his opponent, if it's possible for him to win, there's a good chance he'll figure out how. I know that's super nebulous, but hey, that's how he's written!

@MasaomiHouzuki
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I don't know if this going to be counted or not, but Quirrell in HPMOR has thousands upon thousands of horcruxes, and so long as one of them exists, he can possess a person freely (since he enhanced all of them with the resurrection stone.

Anyway, not that I think this needs to be said, but he passively has a lot of shields on (because paranoia) and also has Wizarding durability (which is not precisely specified, but not exactly human in the fanfic)

As for his intelligence, when he needs to kidnap Harry near the end of the story he does the following:

1) Obviously remove Harry's wand, invisibility cloak and time turner
2) Ask him every 5 minutes in Parseltongue (in which you cannot lie) if Harry has betrayed him
3) Obviously has a gun on Harry the entire time
4) Has a dead man's switch to murder all of Hogwarts if he's ever incapacitated or killed
5) Explicitly set it up so that any time turner usage would result in a time paradox, so no time turner help could come

There's probably several more things that he did that I don't remember, but that's the gist of it.

Yeah, well Harry is someone he has known well for a long time.

Here he has to fight someone he never met, who has using spells he has never seen, all while trying not to die from blows dealt by someone with superhuman strength and crazy anime speed.

being a big brain mastermind does not necessarily translate to being able to think on your feet in active combat, and he will need time to come up with a plan, and this is time he does not have. Eva is someone with spells that can one-shot literal gods, I don't care what kind of shields you have up they are not gonna hold out for long.

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This is sounding more like a gross mismatch with every new post

would the imperius curse (pretty much mind control) work on her? Even if she was strong willed enough to not do whatever she was told to do she'd still be a sitting duck.

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He has time to come up with a plan. Maybe not a plan for this specific enemy, but they don't start in the exact same location, and may be pretty far apart. He can at least prepare himself

And being able to kill him before he can utter a syllable isn't a great phrase to use when he can cast at the speed of thought...

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Shonen_Bat posted...

would the imperius curse (pretty much mind control) work on her? Even if she was strong willed enough to not do whatever she was told to do she'd still be a sitting duck.

Considering Eva highly skilled in mind control magic as well, I would expect she also knows how to effectively defend against it.

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PrinceKaro posted...

Yeah, well Harry is someone he has known well for a long time.

Here he has to fight someone he never met, who has using spells he has never seen, all while trying not to die from blows dealt by someone with superhuman strength and crazy anime speed.

being a big brain mastermind does not necessarily translate to being able to think on your feet in active combat, and he will need time to come up with a plan, and this is time he does not have. Eva is someone with spells that can one-shot literal gods, I don't care what kind of shields you have up they are not gonna hold out for long.

I mean, he's pretty quick at coming up with new plans on the fly, considering that he, like, orchestrated the invasion of magical Britain and also was one of the best duelists in all of Britain.

<I>
Considering Eva highly skilled in mind control magic as well, I would expect she also knows how to effectively defend against it.</I>

This sentence is full of weasel words, not "Eva can and has defended against mind control magic in ways X Y and Z" or "Eva has mind controlled someone to do extremely precise things" . Like, maybe she, maybe she can't. But this sentence literally gives no information about the how or the way.

Would she be able to defend against it if she didn't know it was coming? Quirrell doesn't need to vocalize his spells, and even if she was able to cast something to defend herself while she was being controlled somehow, he only needs a short window to be able to blow her up, or disintegrate her, turn her into a bird, etc etc

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Shonen_Bat posted...

Would she be able to defend against it if she didn't know it was coming? Quirrell doesn't need to vocalize his spells, and even if she was able to cast something to defend herself while she was being controlled somehow, he only needs a short window to be able to blow her up, or disintegrate her, turn her into a bird, etc etc

I mean, even if he doesnt need to say the magic words he still needs to target Eva with bolt of energy and hit her with it and that is not a sure thing given her speed and reaction time. She is someone who entered a martial arts battle royal and instantaneously defeated every other participant at the starting bell while still appearing to bystanders to have never moved from her starting location. You can argue about whose spells will affect who endlessly but the gulf in physical abilities between these two characters is just way too much for it to really be relevant.

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They're almost a whole tier apart, you might say!

Even if we give her credit to say that she would be able to dodge the barely visible spell while on her guns-blazing warpath, Quirrell wouldn't go into battle without some kind of trap or ambush ready to give him the time he needs to cast spells. None of Eva's physical abilities matter if her attention is being directed somewhere else.

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<I>You can argue about whose spells will affect who endlessly but the gulf in physical abilities between these two characters is just way too much for it to really be relevant.</I>

This wasn't even argued. You made a bald assertion without evidence. Now, maybe Eva CAN resist mind control or whatever, but you need to like talk about it instead of merely asserting it.

For quirrell it's not a single spell, various spells have homing capabilities (for example, there's a modified stunning hex that can track a target once that quirrell doesn't know, patronus can track, the spinning drill hex can track to a certain amount). I believe he has done the "taken out an entire room of aurors without any perception on the part of others" feat (which NORMAL aurors are capable of doing to regular wizards in HPMOR btw) so you're going to have to be more specific on what level thos martial artists are.

In general I like this terrain setup for big brain masterminds, but I want something more than "Quirrell is master of all kinds of spells."

(1) Is Quirrell going to get the jump on her? Can he guarantee he gets the jump on her?
(2) Exactly what is he going to do? Obviously, this guy loves his Killing Curse, but it's a dodgeable bolt (in base HP anyway), he's not going to land it without some clever trick or combo.

(I'm not asking "What will Eva do" because that seems decently well answered, she's going to blitz with super strength and super speed)
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The ability of the martial artists is unimportant, that example was mainly meant to show Eva's insane speed. In a battle where everyone is slinging about spells that have the potential to end the fight instantly, speed is of utmost importance.

I'm heading to bed soon but I'll just leave a few of Eva's spells here for reference

Kosmike Katastrofe

An Ice-based spell that creates a 150-square foot area of absolute zero temperatures (273.15 C). At such extreme temperatures, events which do not normally occur in nature begin to happen, such as breakdowns on atomic level and super conductivity.

Ensis Exsequens

Ensis Exsequens causes damage by instantly converting matter from a solid (or liquid) into a gas, via a violent phase transition in order to attack its target; any living opponent caught within such an effect would thus be instantly vaporized and killed. As such a phase transition also absorbs an incredible amount of heat energy in the process, the surrounding area as the spell plummets in temperature as a direct result, causing this spell to actually be a two-stage attack if the target were to be able to avoid instant vaporization via instantaneous phase transition, they would still have to deal with the extreme low temperature left in the spell's wake to deal with.

both pretty much as deadly as avada kedavra and AOE to boot


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why did nobody tell me this chick wasn't mid tier

the wiki led me to believe she had only mediocre magic!

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Yeah, instant AoE death kind of changes the game a little bit

Eva McDowell

I'm just imagining someone like Squall or Pit being put up against this character

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So to point out some things:

Quirrell can't change someone else into a cat or anything, transfiguration isn't arbitrary and free transfiguration (changing anything into anything else) requires contact between the wand and the target..

Quirrell might be able to get the jump on her, he has various invisibility spells + stealth mechanics (it's not exactly specified what they are, just makes him hard to detect both physically and magically), I think if he knows he has an adversary, it would be extremely in character for him to not engage unless he has a gigantic unfair advantage.

Other than the killing curse, he also would hex people 50 ways in the space of a second (he knocked out basically all of slytherin house alone, including several auror grade students without anyone noticing except by inference). A duel between Quirrell and a super experienced auror was described as like a rainbow of curses, counter curses and barriers etc.

It's pretty hard to say what he'd use other than the killing curse, except maybe like, dunno guns or whatever's the most effective (most effective assuming that it doesn't depend on anyone else). He's very straightforward, and what's terrifying is basically he decides not to murder most of the cast at the start.

Does Eva have any kind of stealth or stealth-breaking?

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also important: https://i.imgur.com/JC1rtZi.png

The way I see it, here are the big unanswered questions:
- What is Evangeline's typical approach to combat? Would she be overly cautious, overly uncaring, or somewhere in between? Quirrell almost certainly doesn't reveal himself until he has to and, upon finding her, probably observes her for a time to figure out her weakness. Which brings me to the second question:
- Does Evangeline have any ability to detect invisible beings or magic? If she does, Quirrell loses a huge advantage.
- Finally - I'm guessing this is a no but I'm asking anyway - are we also taking into account Evangeline from UQ Holder, when she's restored to full power?

Questions are still unanswered!

Until said question goes unanswered, I'm with Quirrell. Much less raw power, but Eva seems to have no durability or defense, and, as of now, he's demonstrated he can get in a good first strike. Maybe she'll be able to persist via immortality, which requires blood over long periods which she's not gonna be able to get while Quirrell is figuratively sitting on her

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I'll be honest, I forgot invisibility was even a thing in HP and also I got tired of arguing against miss totally-mid-tier

Change to Quirrell barring an answer to his stealth

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Quirrell, I guess. If Evangeline hits me he's probably toast (although I don't have a good durability feat for Potter shields), but I think he can probably get the drop on her.

Yeah, I feel like it's probably a case of first hit wins (Quirrell because he's opening with AK, Eva because she can just ice the whole city block and overwhelm his shields?) but Quirrell with his stealth/invisibility is more likely to get that first hit in.
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NFUN posted...

Evangeline McDowell is the worst of all modern anime tropes

I like how naive NFUN is

trust me, there is definitely worse.

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I'm sorry, but this is putting a High tier against a mid tier. Evangeline

There's vast more experience and skill on one side versus the other, and invisibility is easily offset by magical darkness and illusions. That and there is an extreme experience gap to consider, several hundred years of actual combat experience and survival. I think there was a serious error in people thinking that Quirrell actually has the advantage in tactics here.

ZeeksFire posted...

I'm sorry, but this is putting a High tier against a mid tier. Evangeline

There's vast more experience and skill on one side versus the other, and invisibility is easily offset by magical darkness and illusions. That and there is an extreme experience gap to consider, several hundred years of actual combat experience and survival. I think there was a serious error in people thinking that Quirrell actually has the advantage in tactics here.

Well, if only you had posted and voted before the match ended this could've mattered

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