#this is gonna be a coughing baby vs hydrogen bomb isn't it.

[makethosenarratorsfight]

UNRELIABLE NARRATORS; FINALS.

Eugenides Propaganda:

the entire plot hinges on a detail he lets the reader (and every other character) assume is true. I don't want to spoil it because it's a really fun reveal but he is lying from the first second he appears on the page and you can't trust him to tell the full truth about ANYTHING related to himself and his goals. he mostly does it to keep his advantage and not have other characters be suspicious of him but it's just so fun when you realise he's been lying the whole time

Lemony Snicket Propaganda:

(I would like to preface this by saying that Lemony Snicket is the author's pen name, not a real person, and he exists as a character in-universe as well as being the one in-universe who writes the books!) I'd say he's unreliable because he spent time collecting information about the Baudelaire kids and then... wrote books about it. He has no idea what any of their dialogue actually was, what they were thinking, or even the whole plot, he's just doing research into the incidents and then filling in the gaps to make it a story. What ACTUALLY happened to the Baudelaires? Nobody really knows for sure

While the Baudelaire siblings are in potentially life threatening danger, he will randomly start talking about his own life and just leave the siblings hanging. For example, once Count Olaf was threatening to kill Violet, and then Lemony randomly began talking about how he met the love of his life at a costume party. This man CANNOT stay on topic. Usually when a new character is introduced, Lemony tells us right at the start that they’re either going to die or that the Baudelaire siblings will never see them again. Foreshadowing is not subtle in these books. CONSTANTLY emphasizes how miserable he feels while writing these books. At one point he admits that he had to put his pencil down and go cry for a while because of how sad it made him. Once he filled an entire page with nothing but the word “ever” to emphasize how dangerous it is to put forks in electrical outlets. He also repeated a paragraph about deja vu later on in the book to give the reader deja vu.

[thepeanutbutterwizard]

Saw something on r/theowlhouse that kinda annoyed me, but reddit isn't letting me comment on it so I'm gonna ramble here

The post was asking who would win, the Gaang from A:TLA or the Hexsquad, and the resounding response was that it was the Gaang, no contest, (someone made a Hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby comparison) and that Toph especially would be able to sweep the Hexsquad 1 v 5 easily which...no?

That's a fight that seems pretty evenly matched to me?

Not a Toph v Hexsquad, Hexsquad would easily win that, seriously, but a Gaang v Hexsquad seems like a fair, matched fight.

And the thing that really annoyed me was so many people specifically saying Toph would solo Willow no question, which is also so mind boggling to me bc like...plants bust through earth? All the time? It's like their thing?

All Willow would have to do to beat Toph would be to grow a tree underneath her, and trap her 30 feet away from the earth. Toph would be completely powerless without any earth she could bend, and she can't see through wood, so she would be completely blind and would have a really difficult time getting down without help.

If anyone in the Gaang would be able to 1 v 1 Willow and win, it would probably be Katara, since her waterbending gives her the ability to hijack Willows vines through the water in them, or even just pull all the water out of them and kill them.

Although, hurting or killing Willows plants like that could send her into a glowy eyed curb stomping rage, which could be enough to overwhelm Katara regardless.

I'm not saying that that means the Hexsquad would stomp the Gaang, or that Willow could 1 v 5 the Gaang or anything, but Hexsquad v Gaang seems like it would be pretty even to me, and I'm not sure what everyone over on reddit is thinking.

Or am I the one not making sense?

[bean-n-shroob]

To celebrate Round 1 completion, here's some fun trivia on my thought process picking the match ups

Bubbles vs Fawful was due to two things, 1. both can be considered antagonistic businessmen, 2. I needed someone to be a sacrificial lamb to Fawful's Hydrogen Bomb and Bubbles was the one I was most okay with losing

Antasma vs Trunkle was due to my concern that I couldn't pick a good thematic pic that also wouldn't hydrogen bomb Antasma. I was legit worried the other more fitting choices would've won against Antasma round 1. Although now that I see the results, I am excited to see how he squares up against the other villains. Either that or people REALLY don't like Trunkle. I feel (from personal experience) Trunkle probably isn't a popular boss given where you fight them (ie. at the end of a rather frustrating escort mission) so I guess they were a guaranteed loss lol!

With all that said, I put Elder vs Dark Star on the next branch just to see which secondary baddie Antasma would square against just to see what happens >:3c

Popple originally was gonna face off against BFF alone but then I thought it should be a group vs group match so I added Rookie afterwards :3

All the other picks were based on loose themes and stretching the meaning of antagonist lol :p

I didn't put Bowser nor the Koopalings cause I felt it would be dropping a Hydrogen Bomb into a bracket full of coughing babies, Rookie is the compromise to that :p

Now on to Round 2!

[joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

Sonic vs Twitter Thread I Saw And Thought Would Be Fun To Do

The twitter thread in question is pretty old but I hadn't seen it until now and wanted to talk about it. Except on Tumblr because any excuse to talk about Sonic on Tumblr is blessed and important

And we start with Hydrogen Bomb vs Coughing Baby. Like I can't even think how many nerfs you'd need to give Sonic to give Espio a fighting chance, right? Fuckin the Sonic Labyrinth slowdown shoes would be required to even level the playing field, but we've seen so much more of Sonic in combat that he could probably still win anyway. Sonic clears so hard it's not even funny

I'm more tempted to lean Cream here - we've frankly not seen too much of Charmy or what he's really capable of so Cream having just more mainline appearances and having canonically helped bring down tougher foes than anything Charmy has dealt with just give her the edge.

This one's weird in-so-far as Silver's psychokinesis isn't really something we've seen the upper limits of at all, and Amy has enough experience and power to give quite a lot of the cast a run for their money. But I think the way I think about this is that Silver quite handily whooped Sonic's ass in his first appearance, and going off of that I can't imagine he wouldn't also beat Amy as well.

Oooh, fascinating. Both of these characters have proven themselves able to go toe-to-toe with Sonic whom I'm just treating as the de facto strongest up to this point. I think it's assumed that Shadow is the faster of the two which gives him an edge, and then you're comparing Shadow's Chaos Abilities to Blaze's pyrokinesis. Although at the same time I think it's implied that Sonic and Blaze's fights end in sort of a standstill, whereas Sonic usually does beat Shadow. Although Shadow Generations is on the horizon and seems to be giving Shadow quite a lot of tools he could use. I think I'm gonna say Shadow here.

These are two characters we don't have loads of reliable information on due to a lack of many major appearances. I think Big's probably done a bit more but the main "feat" he has over Vector is fishing Froggy out of Chaos 6 while Sonic took care of all the actual work. You know what I think there's a chance Big is stronger than Vector but going off of what Big's usually doing vs Vector I imagine the latter is the better actual fighter. Gonna give it to Vector.

If it's Chaos 0 here as the image implies then Emerl no contest. Honestly you could give him quite a couple of Emeralds and I still think Emerl sweeps. I've actually not played Sonic Battle regretably but I know what Emerl is capable of by the end. Chaos just gets washed.

Wow Mephiles is borderline invisible on my twitter theme lmao. My hate boner for Mephiles makes me want to say Gemerl clears and certainly Mephiles quite handily loses every fight he's in, even Omega fucks him up just with normal bullets. But also we don't really know Gemerl's abilities all that well and certainly he typically loses too. I'm also just treating Gemerl as being in that base form rather than being a face on an Eggman mech or anything. Hhhhhhhh I think Mephiles actual abilities probably aren't something Gemerl can deal with. Sorry Gemerl I'm giving it to Mephiles

This is a wash, Omega clears so hard it's not even funny. It's one of the first versus the final E-100 Series robots, you know? And like Omega's stuck around this long for a reason. Bro fucked up Mephiles. Omega and it's not even close.

Man this is disrespectful to Knuckles what the hell. Some guy on an airboard versus arguably the physically strongest character in the series. Knuckles hands Jet's ass to him on a silver platter.

Okay these are two noncombatants but suppose SA2's multiplayer at the very least gives Tikal some combat abilities and shit, I'll hand it to her.

This is like nothing! It literally just depends on the Chao! What if the Hero Chao is like a power/power type and fucks up the Dark Chao in Chao Karate? I'm gonna give it to Hero Chao because the Heroes generally win in these games.

Oh fuck me this is hard. There's a weirdness here wherein in his first actual appearance, Metal loses to Sonic in a race, so combat prowess doesn't matter. In the OVA, Sonic doesn't even really beat Metal, Metal's steadily on top and just has a change of heart. Heroes it takes the collective effort of 12 characters and the Chaos Emeralds to beat Metal. In Sonic 4 Episode II it's Sonic and Tails together that beat him. Forces although dubious if it counts requires Sonic and the Avatar. It's Generations where Classic actually does beat Metal solo and Mania where any one of 5 characters can beat Metal solo (although in Mania Adventures it takes literally all of them). So usually it leans towards it takes Sonic and someone else to beat Metal. But sometimes he can do it on his own. I don't know if Tails completely on his own really beats Metal, guy is too fierce. I'll give it to Metal I think.

See this one depends on what Eggman is doing, right. Mechless Eggman has physical strength but Rouge can definitely beat him on his own. But then can she beat all the same mechs as Sonic can? Does Rouge beat the Death Egg Robot? The Egg Dragoon? Nega Wisp Armour? I think she can probably beat most of Eggman's catalogue, but then your typical Eggman final boss that challenges Sonic enough is probably a bit much for her. Suppose I'll say Rouge wins more scenarios than she loses, so the point can go to her.

Two noncombatants again, neither has like a Tikal SA2 multiplayer moment, and I can't do a funny Hero Chao because Heroes always win moment. I guess Cubot seems physically like he does a bit more. I'll give it to him.

I haven't played far enough in Chronicles to really know what Shade does but even just on the assumption that she is a frequent combatant whereas Wave is mostly just a mechanic and an Extreme Gear racer, I'm gonna give it to Shade.

This is another weird one because we don't really see Sage do anything other than take control of some titans and stuff. But the titans aren't part of this match-up. So on abilities alone Surge should take it. But! I don't even think anyone physically interacts with Sage at any point? Like she's sort of incorporeal. Can Surge even do anything to her? Is this a stalemate? Tentatively giving Surge the point on having usable powers but this matchup might be scuffed.

Metal Overlord copied data from all the playable cast of Heroes and even Chaos by way of Froggy and Chocola, as well as absorbing the entire Egg Fleet. It took Super Sonic and a super-powered Tails and Knuckles to take him down. Dark Gaia is mainly just an ancient force of nature really - and in its main appearance we're familiar with Sonic and Light Gaia took it down. But previous cycles suggest just Light Gaia itself can do the trick. I think signs point to Overlord being the tougher foe, and to that end he's probably capable of taking down Dark Gaia. Gets my vote.

Werehog, easy, what the hell is this? Bro took down the Egg Dragoon. No way in hell Beta mkII stands a chance.

Gonna go Infinite. Sonic quite handily beats Zavok in their every encounter. Infinite giving Sonic a challenge at all would lend him the win here.

Oooh, odd one. There's that whole thing where The End's dialogue like implies they're behind every villain up to this point which suggests they're stronger, and it either took Super Sonic and Supreme to take The End out or it took an enhanced Super Sonic 2 and the help of his friends to win. Solaris took 3 Super Hedgehogs assaulting it from across multiple time periods to win. But we also know Super Sonic of today is way stronger than back in 06. So it could be a bit more even than I think. Although tbf The End, though a force of destruction, definitely destroys things in a very "I just have strong beams" type of fashion. Solaris is a "the fabric of existence" level threat. Yeah actually no probably Solaris methinks.

I think Whisper wins on arsenal alone, really - Fang is generally quite the jobber anyway and it's only his Trip's story final boss where he's ever posed a threat. If he has that mech then he potentially wins but I'm giving it to Whisper.

The SMBZ fan in me wants to give Mecha the point, I really do - and tbf if you give him his Master Emerald charged Super Form he... actually I don't even know. Base Knuckles in the classic era took him down in that form. Shadow is way stronger than Knuckles was at that point. The Biolizard and the Final Hazard also aren't really that far physically removed and the latter needed two Super hedgehogs to be beaten (admittedly the whole crashing Space Colony is a bigger part of the reason). Yeah no I think Biolizard wins here, Mecha's kind of just a jobber.

Miht, my favourite. I think if not for Mania and Mania Adventures this could be a bit more even, but in just establishing Mighty in canon and giving him actual canonical abilities and strength and shit, he has to win.

Ooooh fuck this one's interesting. We don't have many points of direct comparison here so I think we're leaning into more speculative territory. And from there the argument I wanna posit is that Excalibur Sonic is a complete form - he has the "greatest of the Sacred Swords, Excalibur" and uses that to handily beat Merlina. Darkspine is actually incomplete, having only absorbed 3 of 7 World Rings. And he still bodies Alf Layla wa-Layla. I think to that end a completed Darkspine Sonic, whatever it might look like, would win quite handily. But I think that incompleteness makes Excalibur Sonic edge him out. Yeah, giving Excalibur the point.

When I was scrolling to this thread to find how long it was before making the post this was one of the ones I saw and had to really think about. Sonic's increased strength per game is a real factor - base Sonic in Unleashed was able to hurt Dark Gaia, whereas he couldn't do anything against Giganto. But it took the combined efforts of Super Sonic and the Gaia Colossus to actually take Dark Gaia out, whereas Giganto was just covered by a way stronger Super Sonic. Truthfully the more I think about it the more I think Giganto kinda just clears. Yeah the Gaia Colossus can take on the primordial force of Dark Gaia and implied does it solo most of the time, but Giganto existed in opposition to the even more primordial force of The End. It lost yeah, but I think The End is a much tougher opponent. Certainly Dark Gaia couldn't do shit against The End blowing up the entire Earth in one fell swoop. I think when I started to fully lean towards Giganto was remembering how the two fight. The Gaia Colossus is this slow, hulking beast of a thing. Giganto, despite its size, can move fast as fuck. It's built for combat and it's built damn well for it. I have to give it to Giganto.

I want Motobug to win. And have you seen the Motobugs in like Generations and Colors and shit? Bro is massive. Chris isn't denting that. Bro tries to kick one and it just slices him open. Motobug got this in the bag.

Anyway that's it lol.

[sortanonymous]

Week 4 Review:

DAL-NYG (✅): Woah, who told me Flag Day would come three months late?

NO-ATL (❌): Guess this Carr is still barely more reliable than the Spire #7!

LAR-CHI (❌):

MIN-GB (✅): Minnesota's starting to look like a very pleasant surprise, but is that fourth quarter a preview to playoff pain or anything like that?

PIT-IND (✅): Wow I'm shocked, they fell back down to Earth!

DEN-NYJ (❌): The phrase "Ugly with a capital U" exists for a reason, folks!

PHI-TB (✅): As far as Super Bowl-losing coaches go, Nick Sirianni is well on his way to making Jeff Fisher look like Bud Grant!

CIN-CAR (✅): Hell yeah, we beat a team that was on 0-17 watch a couple weeks ago! Look out, New Orleans! Super Bowl, here we come! (King Henry's gonna slaughter that """defense""", isn't he?)

JAC-HOU (✅): At least the 2020 Jags had won a game by this point and weren't hyped by Khan as the best Jaguars team ever!

WAS-ARI (✅): I'm begging you, Washington! Even if you're in position to win the division, semi-tank so that Jayden doesn't have to worry about getting RGIII-ed at "home".

NE-SF (✅): This is like "coughing baby vs. hydrogen bomb" if the hydrogen bomb were also coughing.

CLE-LV (✅): Deshawn Washedson's Browns being a shitty team. A true national victory! (Also why is nobody talking about Stefanski's idiotic final timeout?)

KC-LAC (✅): What? The Chargers Charger'ed against KC? I'm so shocked, I forgot to gasp!

BUF-BAL (❌❌❌❌❌): Well, that certainly didn't go the way I expected!

TEN-MIA (❌): And you thought New York was Ugly!

SEA-DET (✅): Detroit went from way better defensively to way better offensively. Okay then!

2024 Week 4 Predictions: 11/16

2024 Predictions so far: 39/64 (.609)

DAL-NYG (TNF): Cowboys (I called it before the game, trust me bro!)

NO-ATL: Saints

LAR-CHI: Rams

MIN-GB: Vikings

PIT-IND: Colts (PLEASE)

DEN-NYJ: Jets

PHI-TB: Buccaneers

CIN-CAR: Bengals (but like... so narrowly it defies logic. It certainly won't be with help from our sorry-ass excuse for a """defense""", that's for damn sure!)

JAC-HOU: Texans

WAS-ARI: Commanders

NE-SF: 49ers

CLE-LV: Raiders

KC-LAC: Chiefs

BUF-BAL (SNF): Bills

TEN-MIA (MNF A): Dolphins

SEA-DET (MNF B): Lions