Lupin outranges with his gun and is an extraordinary shot.
Gun is completely useless, Joseph can deflect bullets, Lupin gunning Joseph would be a waste of time and would likely lead to his defeat if anything.
Safe to say he can keep his distance from the hamon
I wouldn't be so sure, it isn't like Hamon doesn't have range itself, and in some cases, it can even be stored, completely nullifying range in the first place. And if Lupin isn't expecting Joseph to be capable of sending an electrical charge of hax through the ground or something tens of meters away from himself, it's well and capable Lupin easily just ***** up then and there.
and whittle Joseph down with bullets to win.
He can deflect them, he can also
regenerate and heal himself (Like let's not forget this dude can heal gashes, stabs, perforations, and even shattered bones by literally inhaling. Dude even healed his arm almost being blown off), guns won't let Lupin win here.
Gunfights are IC for lupin.
A gunfight against someone who can heal bullet wounds, ignoring he can deflect them, while ALSO having a gun himself, isn't exactly the best plan.
He's also more skilled (Experience, fighting with master martial artists like Goemon),
Experience means nothing here, Joseph has contended with those who eclipse Lupin in experience and Lupin has no experience against what Joseph is bringing, if Lupin fought dudes like Joseph with the same skillset before yeah that'd be experience but as it stands, not gonna matter much. Fighting with Martial arts is also something Joseph can readily do even pre-training, though Lupin probably is more skilled in HTH than Joseph Pre-Training, it means next to nothing when he can't safely touch Joseph and Joseph can incap on contact.
so if Joseph does get close, Lupin won't be totally out classed in close combat.
If Joseph gets close Lupin is dead, no questions asked, he's out haxed, Joseph literally only needs one hit to win, and he doesn't even need it to be direct due to Hamon.
Joseph also can't trick Lupin, seeing as they are on the same level of IQ.
Oh yes he can, ignoring that isn't how intelligence works, and having the same IQ has literally nothing to do with trickery, Lupin outsmarts Joseph in some categories, and Joseph does the same. Joseph excels in magic tricks, illusions, sleight of hand and traps, and has successfully pulled them off against extraordinary geniuses who have extreme analytical capabilities, and while in plain sight. He has even set up traps while knowing his opponent knows he's setting up traps, and managed to successfully pull it off despite his foe knowing 100% that Joseph was pulling some shit. Intel ratings don't actually work off ratings, it's why we're told to actually explain what they do and why Intel is being split up between academic, combat and the like as of late.
Your vote for Lupin ignores everything Joseph can do is based on things that absolutely wouldn't work. And several of your arguments for Lupin unironically apply to Joseph.
Guns? Joseph has a gun, and can deflect bullets and heal. This is an exchange that Joseph comes out of more often than not.
Lupin is a crackshot? So is Joseph,
he can bisect a bug from like ten meters away with a flick of a glass,
he can ricochet a crossbolt, while falling, at such an angle, it curves and bounces over half a kilometer to come back around and strike his foe from behind, and of course he can aim a gun.
Skill? Ignoring joseph isn't a slouch himself, Lupin can't risk contact with Joseph, because he'd lose if he did. The fact Lupin wouldn't even know this would probably spell defeat for him.
Intelligence? Lupin is 100% more book smart than Joseph among other things, but Joseph excels in various categories beyond Lupin, luckily, said categories are the things he uses the most and are the best for his ability. Intelligence isn't a simple rating where you just look at the rating and go "ah k they're even".
This isn't even getting into the fact that CQC Joseph wins, every time due to Hamon.
Lupin doesn't know what Hamon is, or what it can do, and he wouldn't be expecting it at all, Joseph can exploit this, easy.
Joseph can heal, and heal from some nasty shit at that, to kill Joseph, Lupin is gonna need to do some extreme shit, shit I'm not sure he can even feasibly do.
Joseph can also mind and body control any organisms around, even something like a bird can become an ally and deadly weapon once infused with Hamon, he also stat amps it them so they can actually be viable. He of course can do this to Lupin too to incap him or open him up for defeat if the chance arises.
Joseph can put Lupin to sleep on contact or with Hamon.
Joseph can mind control on contact or with Hamon.
Joseph can induce loss of conscious on contact or with Hamon.
Joseph has a bunch of versatility, can walk on water, channel Hamon through a variety of substances (liquids, rock, concrete, organisms, metals, plant matter, etc).
For organic material like plants, or liquids ig, it can also be stored and then released at a later time.
Any object can become a deadly weapon, even something like stray blades of grass can become deadly projectiles that skewer foes as well as defense that can block attacks. Everything and anything is deadly with Hamon and Joseph is among the best in his verse at utilizing environmental conditions and factors into his fight.
And traps are indeed still an option, something Joseph will readily use and set up, even laying them.
I could go on.
Joseph's AP is similar going off of
this and
this
Ap wise yes, but Joseph has a bit of a stone wall bit going for him in his first key. His durability is above Lupin's AP and his own.
Ignoring in the comments there seems to be some contention on those on if they scale fully due to inverse square law (How close was Lupin anyway? The calcs don't actually specify that?).
But yeah no, bullets will never work on Joseph. Not like Lupin has infinite ammo regardless, or the fact they can be dodged.
