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Post by Charles X. on Aug 3, 2021 17:22:12 GMT
Captain Bloodaxe, because he's a gentleman who throws you overboard (with provisions) instead of ordering your death, plus he has a cooler name.
Abstein because although Reiner Heidriych is a brilliant foe, I can't bring myself to vote against the big bad from one of the best FF books.
Balthus Dire because he doesn't have to resort to cheap things like a Skill 11 Moon Dog and a random combination for your victory.
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Aug 3, 2021 17:41:37 GMT
For me, Unthank is the better villain than the pirate captain. Daredevil put it well.
Heydrich to beat Globus. I thought Carl Sargent did a good job with presenting that vampire as the main antagonist across two books.
And I vote for Balthus Dire over Zanbar Bone. Again, what daredevil said.
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Post by philsadler on Aug 3, 2021 17:43:36 GMT
Balthus Dire might be the most memorable of all FF villians, even if he can be beaten by a curtain. Cool name too.
Reiner Heydrich is a bit more cliche but nevertheless, he does prove difficult to kill on two separate occasions.
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Post by tyrion on Aug 3, 2021 17:54:03 GMT
Unthank is more detailed as a character than captain blood axe. He would probably have been played by Peter Cushing.
Balthus dire, for all the reasons already given.
Heydrich, because, although he might be a cliche, he does it so well.
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kieran
Baron
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Post by kieran on Aug 3, 2021 18:43:13 GMT
I like Captain Bloodaxe's macabre joke (even if by an astonishing coincidence, it ends up being pretty helpful) but Unthank has much more substance to him.
Zanbar Bone is cool but compared to Balthus Dire, he is nothing but an impudent peasant.
The problem with Reiner Heydrich is he feels more like a henchman for his big sister in Vault and it just makes him unconvincing as some ultimate evil in Revenge. Globus on the other hand is pretty cool, you get the impression he has accumulated more knowledge and power than perhaps any other FF villain.
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Post by The Count on Aug 3, 2021 23:54:44 GMT
Captain Bloodaxe has the least ridiculous name out of the two
Reiner Heydrich has exquisite taste in wine and gourmet biscuits
Zanbar Bone can't be defeated by his wife buying shoddy homeware from the bargain bin at TK Max
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sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,679
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
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Post by sylas on Aug 4, 2021 16:19:09 GMT
Bloodaxe Reiner Zanbar Bone
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Aug 5, 2021 4:22:19 GMT
I'm much less familiar with Unthank, but have to back my boy Captain Bloodaxe. Despite only having two brief appearances in the book he clearly demonstrates he has a sense of humour (and enjoys having a laugh with his crew) at the start, and he is also ridiculously brave. At the end, if you conjure up 4 or 5 skeletons, the crew is desperate to surrender but he just charges at all 4 or 5 of you on his own, forcing his crew to cut him down. Brave and funny – what's not to like? Reiner over Globus – the latter I think is a quite limited in depiction and the way you win makes him seem like a bit of a dimwit. Reiner is at least smart enough to put some counter-magic on a book so that his sister can't betray him (perhaps she read his diary once...?) and has a number of quirky habits such as annotating books, eating special gory jaffa cakes and, endearingly, talking aloud to himself about the crucial spell-riddle sealing his brother's armour safely away. Plus you have to admire the playground fighting aspect of someone realising they can't win a punch-up and resorting to biting.
I'll abstain on the other one.
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Post by petch on Aug 5, 2021 15:46:57 GMT
An epic battle between Unthank and Captain Bloodaxe saw the pirate captain swashbuckle his way back from 4-1 down to end up tying 4-4. For that reason alone I'm tempted to give my casting vote to Bloodaxe, but I do agree with the posters who have observed that Unthank was a more detailed, sinister and hateful enemy and as a result it was enormously satisfying when he got what was coming to him, so I'm going for Unthank.
Count Reiner dishes out a 6-1 monstering to Globus, and Balthus Dire's 6-2 victory over Zanbar Bone maintains the 100% win record so far for the creations of Steve Jackson.
Winners: Unthank, Reiner Heydrich & Balthus Dire
An intriguing set of contests coming up next, as some very disparate combatants come face to face: a renegade geneticist and a two headed night demon, an other-dimensional giant and a shadow-wielding greater demon, and a tyrannical scientist and a vagabond Guildmaster.
L'Bastin vs Relem
Bythos vs Ikiru
Cyrus vs Rannik
And the next deadline is 4pm Sat 7th.
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Aug 5, 2021 16:56:44 GMT
Count Reiner dishes out a 6-1 monstering to Globus Did you spot that by chance both these FF villains had names close to or exactly the same as a couple of historical figures of similar outlook to each other and were members of the same organisation? Both of them died violent deaths, one assassinated the other committed suicide before surely being hanged. Anyway... The Night Demons are great villains in FF in general. They can be subtle as well as violent. So Relem to beat L'Bastin. Though it is amusing to see what happened to L'Bastin in FF33. Bythos better than Ikiru. Again quite a subtle villain. We don't for sure know what's motivating him, he's a manipulator working through others, and he's got such a powerful sense of humour it had to be bottled up and put it somewhere far away. As a character I prefer Rannik to Cyrus. Neither of them appears much in the actual books and Cyrus is quite evil what with his experiments and all. But I go for the dashing Master of thieves from FF29 and who also played a part in the AFF adventure in Blacksand which we played all those years ago.
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Post by The Count on Aug 5, 2021 17:02:34 GMT
L'Bastin pioneered hideous plastic surgeries which is far more disturbing than a floating tower
Bythos as the Abyss has scary floating cages
Rannik for sending his new recruits into a deadly dungeon
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Post by Charles X. on Aug 5, 2021 17:04:53 GMT
Relem, because demons are terrifying and L'Bastin came from a crap book, also his name sounds like a family-friendly ice cream.
I want to vote for Bythos but I love all things Eastern so absteining.
Rannik is more larger-than-life than the prosaic & anodyne Cyrus so Rannik.
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Post by petch on Aug 5, 2021 17:16:27 GMT
Count Reiner dishes out a 6-1 monstering to Globus Did you spot that by chance both these FF villains had names close to or exactly the same as a couple of historical figures of similar outlook to each other and were members of the same organisation? Both of them died violent deaths, one assassinated the other committed suicide before surely being hanged. I didn't, but that is a very interesting coincidence. Thank you for adding colour!
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Post by tyrion on Aug 5, 2021 18:02:59 GMT
L'bastin, because it took me a while to remember who relem was. As crap as sky lord is, the villain is memorable.
Bythos, what is he actually up to? Nothing so obvious as nicking a sword.
Cyrus, because he employs actual space wombles, hides planets in his ship and has a schizophrenic android in charge.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,462
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Post by kieran on Aug 5, 2021 18:03:51 GMT
L'Bastin grafted a pineapple on someone's head so he definitely beats a villain whose only interesting aspect is an extra head.
Ikiru and Bythos are both mysterious figures but the latter is much more intriguing.
Cyrus travels through space experimenting on whole planets in a ship driven by a philosophical robot. Rannik runs a thieves guild where the entrance exam would doubtless cost a year's takings and almost certainly kill off any promising candidates. I think Cyrus wins this one.
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sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,679
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
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Post by sylas on Aug 5, 2021 19:30:50 GMT
Relem - of all the Demon Princes to make an appearance on Titan, he's the most awesome. Bythos - better because he's not the typical bad guy template. Rannik - seems like a cool guy from what I've seen.
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kieran
Baron
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Post by kieran on Aug 5, 2021 21:42:25 GMT
Relem - of all the Demon Princes to make an appearance on Titan, he's the most awesome. Is he a Demon Prince? I thought he was more a henchdemon.
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Aug 5, 2021 21:48:32 GMT
Relem - of all the Demon Princes to make an appearance on Titan, he's the most awesome. Is he a Demon Prince? I thought he was more a henchdemon. Looks pretty hench 2 me 4 sure.
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sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,679
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
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Post by sylas on Aug 5, 2021 22:31:39 GMT
Relem is one of the Night Demon Princes of the Abyss. He and Vradna serve Sith, a Snake Demon Prince of higher rank and one of the three ruling members. There are seven Demon Princes in all (not including the recent Zanbar Bone who does not follow established lore).
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Post by philsadler on Aug 6, 2021 7:51:28 GMT
Relem because he's the only one I know and he's got two heads.
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Post by petch on Aug 7, 2021 15:26:37 GMT
Relem narrowly wins a close-fought duel with L'Bastin 4-3. Presumably L'Bastin's pineapple-grafting skills were unable to help him, which is something of a shame for him as he would have had two heads to work on with Relem, perhaps experimenting with a variety of tropical fruit for the full Carmen Miranda effect.
Bythos joins Orghuz and Shareella as just the third competitor to keep a clean sheet with a 5-0 win. Solid defence from the big extraplanar lad, there. And Rannik's guile wins out against Cyrus's mad science as he wins 4-2.
Winners: Relem, Bythos & Rannik
Another battle between a pair of big-hitters coming up, as the antagonists from two titles voted in the top 10 in Wilf's poll square off - Varcolac and Marr.
Krazic vs Horfak
Count Varcolac vs Zharradan Marr
Myurr vs Minos
Voting deadline is 4pm Mon 9th.
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Aug 7, 2021 17:11:13 GMT
Horfak over Krazic. He found the portal by accident and has been taken over by it but hadn't realised the toll it was taking on him.
Hard to choose between Marr and Varcolac. Marr is running his part of Allansia sometimes via his characterful lieutenants, carrying out terrible experiments, training an army, spending most of his time in another dimension accessed by a magic mirror located on a stolen skyship. Varcolac's a great character too, one of a band of villains - the cadre infernal. I'll go for Zharradan Marr.
Myurr is another cunning demon, setting traps and laying plans. Like the other big demons in FF he's a great baddie. So vote for Myurr.
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sylas
Baron
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Post by sylas on Aug 7, 2021 17:18:57 GMT
Horfak - The Portal was a better villain. Change my mind. Zharradan Marr Myurr
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Post by Charles X. on Aug 7, 2021 17:27:05 GMT
I'm not a fan of Crystal Of Storms but I like Rhianna Pratchett. I haven't read Robot Commando. So I'm abstaining from those.
But Z. Marr, with his magic and empire, can give a good kicking to Count V.
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Post by philsadler on Aug 7, 2021 17:52:10 GMT
Myurr. Don't know the others.
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Post by The Count on Aug 7, 2021 19:56:43 GMT
Horfak likes Dinosaurs
Count Varcolac is also a Count and looks suave and sophisticated.
Myurr looks like he should be a He-Man villain
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Aug 7, 2021 20:02:28 GMT
Horfak - because there's something quite tragicomic about him: a normal man made the plaything of forces beyond him.
Poor old Count Varcolac is quite a cool villain but he just can't compete with Zharradan Marr.
Minos is pretty forgettable so Myurr wins that match pretty handily.
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Post by tyrion on Aug 7, 2021 21:05:08 GMT
Horfac, because he is not actually the big bad, just a poor deluded soul.
Marr, not so much for his appearance in trolltooth wars, but his ingenuity in stealing a flying ship.
Myurr, the best of the demon princes. Plus his minions make a building that you can enter through its arse, and get poisoned by it farting.
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sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,679
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
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Post by sylas on Aug 7, 2021 22:13:09 GMT
Myurr. Don't know the others. Never read Creature of havoc or the Trolltooth Wars?
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Post by philsadler on Aug 8, 2021 8:31:20 GMT
Myurr. Don't know the others. Never read Creature of havoc or the Trolltooth Wars?
I had the bugged version of COH so I never got far. I've never read the TTW.
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