John Taylor vs Randall Flagg

[Detective_Inspectre]

John Taylor

vs

Randall Flagg


They are fighting on the Street of the Gods, John on one end of the road, and Randall on the other. Speed is equalized, and neither combatant gets prep time.


Which walking plot device wins? Discuss!

 

[MrKingOfNegativity]

1. Your name is a reference to Nightside. Why have you been nowhere to be found until today?

2. John absolutely destroys Flagg in every conceivable way.

 

[Jinsye]

Oof

 

[Detective_Inspectre]

1. Your name is a reference to Nightside. Why have you been nowhere to be found until today?
2. John absolutely destroys Flagg in every conceivable way.

1. Because I couldn't think of any good ideas for Nightside matchups. At least, I couldn't think of any that I haven't already done on another forum. Also, I'm lazy.

2. Really? I honestly thought Flagg could at least last a few minutes against John, considering how many nasty tricks he has up his sleeve. Although, granted, John's Private Eye is pretty much a swiss army knife of BS hax, on steroids. He basically specializes in countering/negating/redirecting the hax of other characters.

 

[MrKingOfNegativity]

Let me just explain.

Flagg's transmutation? John resists.

Mindhax? John resists, no effort.

"Stop breathing"? John either reverses the magic or stares him down and makes him drop the spell.

Body puppetry? Doesn't stop John from nuking him with one of his many powers.

Everything else that works in combat? Either John's resistances cover it, or it doesn't come out fast enough to stop John from opening his eye and killing Flagg with any number of his powers.

 

[Detective_Inspectre]

Let me just explain.
Flagg's transmutation? John resists.

Mindhax? John resists, no effort.

"Stop breathing"? John either reverses the magic or stares him down and makes him drop the spell.

Body puppetry? Doesn't stop John from nuking him with one of his many powers.

Everything else that works in combat? Either John's resistances cover it, or it doesn't come out fast enough to stop John from opening his eye and killing Flagg with any number of his powers.

Well, when you put it like that, I feel like I probably should have considered those details beforehand. Should have gone for a Dark Tower character who is higher up on the food chain, I guess.

In hindsight, I should have thought this one through a bit more. For the record, I'm very familiar with John's feats, having been a huge Nightside fan for years now. I can say from experience, that good matches are difficult to make, when in comes to John. Honestly, I would have made a battle involving Hadleigh Oblivion, but he has no battle page/article to reference, just yet.

 

[MrKingOfNegativity]

I'll be making Hadleigh in the future, if that's any consolidation.

And it's no problem. I realize how hard it is to make fair matches for him. (Trust me...)

 

[Detective_Inspectre]

I'll be making Hadleigh in the future, if that's any consolidation.
And it's no problem. I realize how hard it is to make fair matches for him. (Trust me...)

Oh, cool. I'll be sure to do a match involving him, once that pans out. What would you personally put Hadleigh at, relative to Lilith and a (non-P.I.S -induced-nerf) Lord of Thorns? Honestly, I think Hadleigh might be even more powerful than Lilith, if certain statements in Night Fall are to be believed (though, I wouldn't recommend reading it...).

 

[MrKingOfNegativity]

Hadleigh is already above Lilith from the moment he's introduced, seeing as Uncanny immediately states that his power was keeping all of the forces of Heaven and Hell from entering the Nightside during the Lilith War, and that even Lilith couldn't pull something like that off.

He's probably below the Lord of Thorns, though. That's the guy who needed a voice powered by the light of creation and the power of every being on the Street of the Gods in order for someone to counteract his power, and he also effortlessly resisted Walker's voice when Hadleigh couldn't.

Aside from God and the Devil themselves, the LoT should be second only to the Walking Man.

 

[Detective_Inspectre]

Hadleigh is already above Lilith from the moment he's introduced, seeing as Uncanny immediately states that his power was keeping all of the forces of Heaven and Hell from entering the Nightside during the Lilith War, and that even Lilith couldn't pull something like that off.
He's probably below the Lord of Thorns, though. That's the guy who needed a voice powered by the light of creation and the power of every being on the Street of the Gods in order for someone to counteract his power, and he also effortlessly resisted Walker's voice when Hadleigh couldn't.

Aside from God and the Devil themselves, the LoT should be second only to the Walking Man.

True, though the thing with Henry effecting Hadleigh with his Voice, is defiantly contradicted in Night Fall (the final Secret Histories book). I don't want to give any spoilers, but I'll just say that Hadleigh's nature and the extent of his abilities are explained towards the end of the novel, and the statements he gives should indicate that Henry should have had no effect on him whatsoever. Still, I hate to say it, but I DO NOT recommend reading Night Fall... Green is a great writer, but he should have let the main Nightside series end with the Bride Wore Black Leather.

 

[MrKingOfNegativity]

He honestly should have let it end with Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth imo, but that's just me. I think a lot of what's been introduced since book 6 could have easily been used in another story instead.

Although Walker affecting Hadleigh being PIS makes enough sense, seeing as every other account I've seen depicts the latter as being a deity among men, and John (who's explicitly weaker and has powers that come from another being who's weaker) being able to resist it when Hadleigh couldn't...never sat well with me.

 

[Detective_Inspectre]

He honestly should have let it end with Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth imo, but that's just me. I think a lot of what's been introduced since book 6 could have easily been used in another story instead.
Although Walker affecting Hadleigh being PIS makes enough sense, seeing as every other account I've seen depicts the latter as being a deity among men, and John (who's explicitly weaker and has powers that come from another being who's weaker) being able to resist it when Hadleigh couldn't...never sat well with me.

Well, I can't say that I enjoyed the second half of the series more than the first half, as I personally think the story quality peaked between books 3-6, and majorly dipped at around books 7-9. Real talk here, I would argue that (excluding Night Fall) Unnatural Inquirer was by and far the worst book in the series. Bettie Divine is probably in my top 3 most hated Greenverse characters.

Yeah, like I said, Hadleigh confirms essentially just that near the end of Night Fall, by proxy of his very nature. I theorize that Green hadn't quite decided on what he wanted Hadleigh's limits to be, at that point.

 

[MrKingOfNegativity]

Unnatural Inquirer is objectively the worst book in the series that I've read. I'd have probably excluded it from my scavenging entirely if it weren't necessary to draw feats from it.

And he probably hadn't tbh. We got a similar thing with Old Father Time, where he's first stated to have more power than all "Major Players" combined, only for him to end up being weaker than Lilith, who's in turn matched by Merlin in his prime and also dwarfed by the Lord of Thorns.

 

[Kaltias]

Somebody pick up that phone

 

[Schnee_One]

<John vs Rein and Randall

Come on guys...

 

[MrKingOfNegativity]

To be fair, this match is relatively harmless, and the guy who made it hasn't been on here for two years.


Meanwhile, John VS Rein is DMUA's fault. I did not cosign that, and I know he knows better.

 

[Schnee_One]

Anyway this is a stomp

 

[MrKingOfNegativity]

Yeah. I think we've got that now.

Closing.