I don’t think it comes as any surprise that Rand al’Thor defeated Ser Gregor Clegane in the 2010 Championship match.
What I do think is a bit surprising is how easily The Mountain That Rides was trounced.
Oh, sure–on a purely statistical basis, Gregor had no chance against the Dragon Reborn. I mean, how could he?
- Gregor is a very strong, very skilled knight.
- Rand is a blademaster, which goes well beyond “very skilled.”
- Gregor is brutal, shows no mercy, and can withstand a great deal of punishment.
- Rand is a demi-god with unstoppable magical powers.
So, on paper, Gregor really had no chance.
And yet…
Cage Match isn’t always just about objective observation. In fact, I’d go so far to say it’s rarely about such things. (How else do you explain Cthulhu not crushing our bodies and minds into jelly throughout these tournaments?).
So where was the support for Gregor? Of the almost 2500 votes, less than a quarter of those were for The Mountain. In contrast, when Jaime Lannister faced Rand in the finals of the Spring Cage Mage, the votes were almost evenly divided, with Jaime losing by just 185 votes (which is a very small amount compared to the over 30,000 votes cast in that match).
In the end, I think this was not so much a case of George R.R. Martin fans versus Robert Jordan fans–although I’m not going to dismiss such a thing, either. Rather, I think there was a lot more thought put behind the votes, possibly in this order:
1) Rand really is way too powerful, and it would have been virtually impossible for Gregor to defeat him in a fair (or even an unfair) fight.
2) Gregor is a far more distasteful character to A Song of Ice and Fire readers than Jaime was, and he didn’t have as strong a fan-base to garner the necessary votes.
3) On a more pragmatic standpoint: the word just didn’t get out to the GRRM fans, and there was no rallying the troops in support of The Mountain.
Regardless, the point isn’t How did Gregor lose?, but Rand won.
Because Rand al’Thor is your 2010 Cage Match Champion, and once again proves himself to be one of the most enduring and powerful fantasy characters of all time.
Thanks everyone for making this last year so much fun, and I look forward to Cage Match 2011 in March.
Thanks for the Cage Match – I agree, likely people just realized that the difference was too great between the characters. Also, it may be there weren’t as many total votes cast because GRRM and Sanderson didn’t get involved this time.
It would be awesome if the next Cage Match 2011 took place between people of similar power – possibly an all ‘Fighters’ Cage Match and an all ‘Sorcerers/Wizards/Channelers/Mentalists/Whatever’ Cage Match.
Anyway, thanks for an awesome site and an epic series of battles.
Yeah… NOBODY likes Gregor… Maybe you guys could expand your fantasy reading to include some characters that would throw a “Rock” in to the rock-paper-scissors aspect of the tournament… since right now you have a bunch of paper champions that have to face Rand ‘Al Scissors…
Thanks for putting this on again! its always fun and intresting to read these match-ups. Can’t wait or the next one. Lets go with comic book characters next time, it would be a nice change of pace from the standard SFF fare. Also I agree our dark god Cthulhu should have obliterated us all long ago, that or Arthur Dent, because, hey why not.
It’s more the first two than the third — at least, in the sense that the first two seems to have led the fan sites (or, at least, the one I run) quite unenthused and not seeing much point to pushing it unlike last year where it genuinely felt like an even contest.
Rand al’Thor was a ringer, in other words, and everyone kind of knew it. No surprise people weren’t beating down the Polldaddy doors.
Still, the run up to it was quite fun, and the write-ups from the fans were entertaining.
Looking forward to next year’s cage match. Will 2011 be the year of the sidekick?
Im thinking you should do another one with some different characters. Throw in some Malazan Characters too. Annomander Rake: Holy Piss.
Maybe there could be a Tag Team Cage Match in 2011. Imagine say, Rand al’ Thor and Hermoine Grainer, Patrick Rothfuss’ creation Kvothe teaming up with Drizzt…the list could go on. Have 16 good guy teams and 16 bad guy teams. The top goodie two shoes team takes on the top bad guy team These are just suggestions.
I think there would be fan excitement. and good contributions. What I liked most about the Cage Matches of 2010 was the discovery of unknown-to-myself writers such as Scott Lynch and Patrick Rothfuss.
As for Rand al’Thior the win couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. In a tag team with whomever, he would probably win the whole ball of wax.
@Alice Louis
I like Ur suggestion it would cool to have a tag team match as next cage match..
@ administrator
I think this cage match was not successful becoz u didn’t advertise it like u did it in cage match2010 …..and many of the ‘villains’ u piked sucked….the Tag team suggestion does seem a good one …perhaps u should consider it for the NextCage match.
When r u gonna keep Cage Match2011 ????
that was predictable.
….
IMHO the first round was more successful because it had more variety among the contenders. Some were good, some evil, some silly, some cool, some fantasy, some magical. Having unlikely opponents made it quite fun.
Will there be a place to submit nominations for the 2011 Cage Match?
I have a few luminaries I’d like to see…
He should have fought The Reaper! That would have been the more interesting fight but people “had” to pick the Mountain. Thanks fans for a boring finish!
How come there was not a Rand al’Thor vs Quick Ben Championship match?
Hi Curios,
The reason there wasn’t was because Rand was the 2010 champion, and Quick Ben was the 2011 champion. Also, since we decided not to do a Cage Match in the fall of 2011, there wasn’t a need for Quick Ben to fight someone else–he’s just the 2011 champ. Next year, we’ll crown a new champ. Hopefully, at some point, we’ll have enough “champs” to have a tournament of champions.
Rand’s POWER makes anyone else look third rate.
He is the #2 blademaster in the Wheel of Time.
Far far more importantly, he is the strongest/most skilled magic wielder in the Wheel of Time = instant death to characters in other books.
His magic is fast as thought…he can hold anyone with Air and balefire = instant kill.
With his magic he defeated an army of close to 1 million by himself. He nuked that army.
When his magic is amplified with a device (sa’angreal) he can destroy the world in 1 blow/ Death Star style.
… which is exactly what makes the Mountain the superior character, and, ironically, gives him the moral high ground. I just can’t enjoy reading about characters who just have everything laid out before them like that, what’s the point if the main character can just push the emergency button and blow up 1 million people when he’s breaking a sweat? I guess that is why I stopped reading the Wheel of Time after the 6th book or so, having enjoyed them less and less for each passing book for this reason. No disrespect to Robert Jordan, it just isn’t my thing. Such a shame the Kingslayer didn’t win back then, I’d have loved to see Martin writing a piece on him vs the Mountain.
Rand is an awful character. In fact he disgusts me. Any child can make a superhero with unlimited powers. He’s unstoppable in every way, he has three wives who doesn’t mind sharing him cause he’s the fucking epitome of awesome, right? Man, what an original and interesting idea! Must have been hard to come up with a character like that, and even harder to write about.
‘Oh what say you, mr villain? You have a million men? No problem, I’ll just kill you in one second. I’m that awesome.’
Seriously, get a brain.
Wow, you guys totally doesn’t get Rand’s character. It is true that characters that are too powerful are generally bad characters, but this was never the case with Rand for several reasons.
1. The whole mythology of WOT is based on balance. As strong as Rand is (the light sides champion), there’s always someone going to be an equaly strong champion for the dark side (Moridin).
2. Rand’s true problems aren’t (this far) about fighting the dark sides champions. It’s about the decisions he makes and the ever running question of his sanity. It’s about whether he is using his power for good or really just doing the dark ones bidding without even knowing it. It’s about whether gaining power is worth it if it comes to the cost of his humanity. It is also the fact that if he do mess up or are about to make a mistake, there’s absolutely no one who’s got the power to stop him.
Add to the fact that everybody is secretely either working against him or trying to find a way to use him for their own purpose – plus the fact that everybody in the world (himself included) fears him more than they fear the dark one, and pretty much blames him for every bad thing that ever happens – makes him into one of the greatest character in fantasy/sf.
Yes, he is powerful. But the way Jordan has written it, his strength, though necessary, has this far created more problems for him and the world than actually helped him.
In short: Rand is a character with more power and responsibility than any mortal human should have. And that’s what makes him into such an amazing character.