Comments on: Cage Match 2010, Round 1: 13) Roland Deschain, The Gunslinger versus 20) Elric

By: kheller

kheller — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:20:18 +0000

Thanks for commenting! Comments are now closed on this post, but you can follow this match’s winner in the next fight, open 3/15 at 10:30 EST!

By: Emanuele

Emanuele — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:07:01 +0000

Elric does sometimes need preparation to cast spells but many of his powers come just from the duties that elementals, demons and gods have toward the present Melnibonean Emperor.
Arioch, the Chaos God, has a personal relation with Elric, and voted himself to protect him so that he can fulfill his destiny after Elric summoned him in the reality. And, you know, Arioch lives out of time, it’s not that he needs preparation to annihilate a cowboy. If the Eternal Champion will be in danger, he will just solve the problem: he’s the patron of Melniboné, the Emperor just can’t die.
Honestly I see the fight more like:
Two year before, a beautiful boy comes to Elric and say “Roland”. One month after, the earth opens under Roland, and sucks him in the earth. “Brings my respects to Grome”, are the last words of the king of Melniboné to the earth Elemental bowing to him after fulfilling his duty. Nor Elric nor Roland will ever know why he had to die.
There isn’t any chance that a cowboy can kill a person with a God devoted to his personal protection. I liked the Dark Tower cycle a lot (even if in Italian is really badly translated), but let’s face it there wasn’t any chance.
With the preparation argument, a bowman could kill the Emperor with an arrow from behind. When Elric destroyed empires and armies of men, it’s not that they didn’t thought to the option: “Hey, it’s enough to be quicker: you arrive and you shoot an arrow in his back, he’s not seeing it coming”.

By: SigTauGImp

SigTauGImp — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:23:31 +0000

I understand what you’re talking about. My two favorite series, oddly enough, are The Dark Tower, and The Elric Saga.
And while it is disheartening to think about the later rounds, what with all these god-figures running amok(:P), I try to keep my mind focused on the current battle at hand.
The problems with this fight for me, like many others, are the questions of speed and preparation.
Given the circumstances lined out in the pseudo-fight above, I had to give it to Roland, begrudgingly. Elric really would have been a force to be reckoned with in the later rounds with some of those “deity-ish” folken.

By: MB

MB — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:54:53 +0000

Emanuele, thanks for the clarification. That’s the kind of info I was looking for to make an informed vote.

By: Emanuele

Emanuele — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:43:49 +0000

I wasn’t referring to you expecially, there are many other posts in the same trend. It seems pretty obvious from many post that people were considering Elric a Mage/Swordman a là D&D, with a “casting time” and not a Gods Killer speaking in an out-of-time dimension with Demons and Gods, both helping him in the same way bees help their queen if she’s in danger.
Nothing bad about it, I don’t know many character in the list. I was just noting that now the whole upper part of the tournament is useless, whoever wins will lose against the Big C.

By: MB

MB — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:03:58 +0000

Emanuele, I didn’t vote for anyone. I was gathering information.

By: Emanuele

Emanuele — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:31:36 +0000

Sigh, ok it’s a popularity contest… but this single biased* vote annihilate all the interest in the upper part of the tournament: who, but Elric, could even think to compete with some opponent from the lower part of the tournament? After a “Aslam vs Chtulu” semifinal, which character, now that Elric is gone, will try to kill a god?
*I’m sure that less then one out of ten voters for the gunslinger actually read Moorcock… just reading to the “How much time would he need to prepare a spell” part is enough to be quite sure of it.

By: MB

MB — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:51:01 +0000

Ah…just noticed the vote is closed. Guess my question doesn’t matter now.

By: MB

MB — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:48:32 +0000

Thanks for answering, Elricwins. Sorry I wasn’t clearer. I imagine Elric has sword sheathed; Roland, gun loaded and holstered.
This seems balanced to me because that is the nature of the characters. Roland always has a loaded gun (unless he just emptied it into someone) and Elric (I am guessing) has his gnarly sword and the potential to do some amazing magic. So, in my mind, it becomes a question of who is faster.

By: Elricwins

Elricwins — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:37:12 +0000

edit last post:
Or maybe Elric has his sword, but no spells prepared, and Roland has his gun, but no ammo. So while Roland loads, Elric perpares and unleashes a spell.