Board 8 > King of Fighters 2020 (NOT MERCS) R1D30: Aku vs Todd Ingram (High)

(+) 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.

Results/Discussion: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78797189

TODAY'S PARTICIPANTS:
Aku (Samurai Jack)

Evil incarnate and ruler of the Earth, Aku has too many powers to list, including eye beams, teleportation and resistance to non-holy attacks. We should probably try to stick with abilities he's used more than once...

vs

Todd Ingram (Scott Pilgrim)

Vegetals

@DeathChicken @Kamekguy

FIGHT

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I... don't see how Todd even hurts Aku.

For context, Aku a part of an entity of pure, universe-destroying malevolence, implied to be the inverse of the big bang as a force of pure destruction. The actual deities Odin, Ra, and Vishnu had to team up and wage war for "eons" in order to defeat it, but part of that malevolence survived, finding its way to Earth and festering and growing until it became Aku.

The only thing capable of harming Aku in the Jack universe was a blade forged by the aforementioned three deities, for the explicit purpose of "kill Aku", to the point where it's so fine-tuned as a Blade of Evil's Bane that it cannot harm those pure of heart at all.

... so instead let's talk about fun things Aku can do:

-Instantaneous teleportation to any point in the world.
-Tear open portals in time like a portal gun.
-Turn into a swordswoman with skills equivalent to Jack to make him feel really confused.
-Raise the dead with no limitations
-One time he got a cold and sneezed into Jack. The virus made Jack slowly mutate into a mini-Aku.
-Shapeshifting I guess idk
-He invented rave music so that the kids rebelling against authority would instead rebel for his authority.
-Clone himself repeatedly, to the point of making an army of himself.
-Get really big. Really, really big.

Like, at most I think he could probably stun Aku or be amusing enough that Aku thinks of an ironic way to kill him, maybe turn himself into meatloaf and mock Todd for a while.

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So, in order to standardize properties between works, I've argued that you need to consider the intents and purposes of things like magic systems in a work to see how it would compare to another universe. Aku can only be defeated by that sword because, at least according to the wiki, it's divine, and only something divine can hurt him. He's weak to holy powers... would Todd's veganism count? Does his vegan powers derive from it being healthy for him, does the moral nature of avoiding animal harm give it some effect? If it's the latter, I'd say that at least Todd can hurt Aku. Whether or not he could win is another question

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Oh no absolutely, it would be dumb to go "this character can only win if they can summon the sword from Samurai Jack". Even Samurai Jack itself has that not be the case due to the original malevolent entity being able to be harmed by Odin.

My major point is... the only thing that hurt the guy was the combined effort of Vishnu, Ra, and Odin focusing their power to kill him. I usually take "is at the level of a God" with absolutely no seriousness, gods die all the time, but Aku is on the level of the combined efforts of three specific gods with quantifiable Earth mythology that remains consistent with the SJ world. And Odin, Vishnu, and Ra... pretty damn strong, I'd respect them in this contest. I find the sword being less "the ONLY possible thing that could hurt him" and more a representation of how much effort and power has to be put forth to get past the guy's ridiculous level of durability.

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From my perspective

1. Todd's vegan powers are basically the Scott Pilgrim version of holy magic (it's literally the embodiment of his "righteousness") so yes I think Todd damages Aku
2. I still think Aku overpowers Todd pretty hard here

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Aku

Someone more familiar with Scott Pilgrim could chime in but I don't see how the guy can fully deal with Aku. You are able to annoy Aku with conventional stuff (comparable to getting an eyelash in your eye) but he is mainly vulnerable to things of sufficient divine and/or magical origin (I think Scotsman's sword hurt him but more as a painful annoyance compared to Jack's sword which was super threatening to him) or insane levels of force (Samurai Mecha smacking him around in the finale but he eventually got fed up with that shit and obliterated it.)

Far as I can tell from a quick search is that Todd is a weak super saiyan expy in the form of telekinesis powered by being a vegan? Does he pack enough power to deal with something like this dropping on him?

https://youtu.be/JoIGFtmI9mo?t=140

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I'm not really convinced that Todd's vegan powers should count as "holy" damage. (Todd is generally a terrible person and definitely lying about being a vegan; somehow it just feels wrong to assume his attacks are inherently "good".) But it doesn't really matter much, Aku is just on a different level either way.
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Aku

Todd isnt even close to a high tier character lol

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If Todd is actually a bad person then he basically has no shot of being Aku. I could consider an argument of "weaponized righteous human spirit / power" (since that is what The Emperor's Katana was actually forged from) but yeah doesn't sound like he's packing that either.

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Todd is a bad person but the power he's using is treated as "good" power, even if doesn't deserve to have it.

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I see we're using "Only the Master Sword can defeat Ganon" logic with Aku, I'm not touching that one. But off the top of my head, Todd is of a tier that he defaced the moon as a prank and casually punched a man into space

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Vegans are better than other people its just a fact. Ask any vegan and theyll confirm it.

Aku

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I'd expect Aku to have a direct line to the vegan police just to be a complete troll about this fight.

Aku.

Popeye/Aku should be a great match.

Aku

Aku

This is a mercy rule stomp if I ever saw one.

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Kanzaris, Aku doesn't believe in mercy, he's going to enjoy every moment of this.

Aku

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Aku
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ZeeksFire posted...

Kanzaris, Aku doesn't believe in mercy, he's going to enjoy every moment of this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2O_33NA2f0

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This is a "Ganon is only killable by the Master Sword" situation again.

aku

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I was actually thinking of the Master Sword. like, I'd take the Master Sword to be capable of killing Aku; it seems pretty equivalent story-wise.

but veganism lol no
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Yeah other stuff can hurt Aku, it is just he has mainly only ever been hurt from things of high magical or divine/righteous origin to varying degrees (and the giant mecha that one time). It is why he never personally got that water generating crystal from that temple guarded by three lower tier deities

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does spinach count as a holy item

rwlh posted...

does spinach count as a holy item

Depends on the source. I believe Popeye once got spinach directly from the Goddess of Spinach so that particular can might do the trick (unless it is just considered a buff and not actually hitting him with something divine directly). Still there are other potential complications in a fight between the two so who knows?

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