Prince Ashitaka vs Wander (Princess Mononoke vs Shadow of the Colossus) Feat. Kingsly, Arot, Tsubori.

 

Just a few things before we start...

 This is a bit different than other projects, this, rather than being a standalone character analysis or a top 10 of something, its a blog on something me and very good friends of mine have been working for years now. A small little project we all proposed ourselves to do, and that after years of preparation has finally come out. My thanks and regards will be at the end of the blog itself. For the time being, I wouldn't like to take away much space explaining things.

Enjoy the ride, and without much further do... Enjoy the blog! 

 

Intro

 

The value of nature. The strength of love. The curse of humanity. As we progress and move forward, we consume the world around us, draining it dry of resources and leaving behind a hush, a husk that once held beauty. As time marches ahead, the schism between humans and the earth grows ever deeper, irrevocably dividing us from where we came.

And with every schism, comes conflict.

Ashitaka, the stalwart drifter of Princess Mononoke. Wander, the pyrrhic hero of Shadow of the Colossus.

To be these cursed travellers is to know sacrifice, to know the death it must take to achieve a goal. Bearing the power of the demon eating away at them from within, they will face down the most titanic of the world’s adversaries if it means helping the ones they love. They may both unwittingly find themselves at the centre of the conflict of man’s identity against nature, but now, only one will be left behind to join the ghosts of the forest. It’s time to find out who would prevail in a DEATH BATTLE.

Background

Wander

Credit to Maeka on Pixiv

(The Lone Wanderer)

What type of risk would you be willing to take to bring back that which you hold dear? Would you sacrifice everything if it meant restoring that which mattered most? These are the questions that haunt the lone swordsman, Wander.


In a place far from our own, in a peninsula long forgotten by man lay the Forbidden Land. Hidden by mountains and lakes, it is where our story begins. A boy named Wander, carrying a beautiful young maiden upon his mare, disobeying the law he entered this cursed land in the hopes of resurrecting the one that lay on the horse’s back, a girl named Mono. In search of a strange item, or perhaps being, that could supposedly bring her back.


Passing a long stone bridge and through the everlasting desolate landscapes, Wander carried the maiden to an ancient temple, placing her lifeless body on a stone altar. At that moment, the wanderer heard a voice. Not that of a man or woman, but of a god.


The creature presented itself as Dormin, the one that controls the fates of the long gone, Wander begged the creature to revive the woman, but the being retorted that it was beyond its power now. Laying eyes upon the sword the young man held, the so-called Ancient Blade, however, Dormin claimed that it was not yet impossible. In order to bring her back though, the god would need Wander to fulfill a task.


For you see... In the Forbidden Lands lay sixteen idols, and for each idol, there existed a living incarnation, monsters taller than life itself, with strength and ferocity to lay waste to everything in their path. These were the Colossus, which could not be slain by mere mortal hand. Only with the seemingly stolen blade Wander possessed could he destroy them, and by doing so, Dormin could gather enough power to resurrect Mono.


Wander, willing to do anything to bring the woman back, gathered his courage, mounted his loyal steed Agro, and set off in his quest. He would slay the sixteen colossi, gather their power, and allow Dormin to muster the strength necessary to save Mono from her fate. But as things went on, who could say what awaited the poor cursed swordsman? What would be the price to pay for such a task? Can the gods even be trusted to keep their word? These are the questions that haunt the lone swordsman, Wander.

 

 

 

Ashitaka

Credit to Alicexz on Deviantart

(The Cursed Prince)

In a time where the mountains were still covered by the endless forests and the divine roamed the earth side by side with mortals, the story of Prince Ashitaka takes place.


In the far East of ancient Japan, exiled from the rest of the world, a solitary Emishi village was attacked by a ferocious boar demon, corrupted by rage and hatred. Seeing this, the prince of the village set himself between the monster and his home in an effort to stop its ferocious rampage. With no choice but to slay it, the battle was harsh and tiring, the monster even managed to tag the prince’s right arm, but Ashitaka ultimately came out victorious from the struggle. However, there was more to this fateful encounter than just a demon wreaking havoc.


Upon being slain, the demon revealed itself to be the giant boar god, Nago, who, provoked by humanity’s destructive nature and the bullet fired into its body, was consumed by its hatred and anger to become the foul beast seen by the village. And although Nago’s rampage was halted, the damage was already done.

The Prince’s right arm that had been grazed by the demon boar was now cursed, destined to slowly eat away at his body and life. Granting him immense pain, he would inevitably succumb to his vices, just like Nago. Ashitaka, willing to defy fate itself, abandoned his title as Prince, and set out for a journey to the lands far in the West, in the efforts to hopefully find a cure.


On his quest, led along by chance and advice from a passing monk, the cursed hero arrived at Irontown, a land of fire and gunpowder ruled by the pragmatic Eboshi, and encountered San, the titular Princess Mononoke. He would soon find himself in the midst of a conflict between humanity and the gods, in an eternal struggle to claim superiority. Determined to stop the cycle of sin, and knowing full well the consequences such a thing could bring, he set off on a new journey to try and put an end to the senseless slaughter, and perhaps find salvation from his fate.

 

Equipment

Wander

 

Swords

 

The Ancient Sword: Wander’s signature blade. Used to seal Dormin in the Forbidden Lands an eternity ago, Wander stole it to aid him in his journey. Its main ability is to guide Wander to the various colossi. When Wander raises the sword in sunlight, the blade gathers the light in the direction of the next colossus. If used in active combat against a colossus, it even directs Wander to the magic sigils on their body, serving as the weak points of the enemy. As shown in the intro of the game, it has the ability to instantly disperse shadow-like creatures when raised as well. 

The Life Sword: Similar to the Ancient Sword, but with the useful benefit of improving Wander’s natural health regeneration by 50%.
 

Sword of the Sun: Similar to the Ancient Sword, but with the ability to gather sunlight even in places the sun’s shine does not reach, such as caves.
 

The Queen’s Sword: Wander’s second most powerful sword. It can eliminate the weak-point of a colossus in only one or two blows-
 

The Sword of Dormin: The most powerful sword in Wander’s arsenal. Engulfed in the shadowy aura of Dormin, its immense power comes at the cost of slowing down Wander’s normal regeneration. When raised to gather light, it instead emits a focused dark essence. 

Bows & Arrows

 

 

Wander’s Bow: Wander’s bread and butter. Needless to say, despite his lacking swordsmanship, Wander makes up for it tenfold in his archery. He’s extremely precise, able to hit targets over dozens of meters away even while they scurry around, such as salamanders. This bow in particular deals low damage, but is useful for uncovering the vulnerable areas of the colossi, although it can not be used to kill one.
 

The Ancient Bow: It functions exactly like the aforementioned bow, but this one can actually directly reveal the sigils and weak points of those it is pointed.
 

Flash Arrow: Basically explosive rounds that detonate upon impact, and can be used to hurt colossi for some pretty hefty damage. Wander has to be careful, however, as these shots run the risk of damaging himself, and can even knock him unconscious if not handled correctly.

 

Whistling Arrow: Whistling arrows, as the name implies, make a high-pitched sound when in flight. They are mainly used to attract or distract a colossus.

 

 

Harpoon

 

Harpoon of Thunder: A ranged weapon that Wander can hurl towards a colossi’s sigils to deliver devastating damage. When fully charged, it is as strong as a complete stab from the Ancient Sword. In some occasions, it's even almost capable of depleting a colossi’s entire health 

 

 

 

Mask

Mask of Power: It further increases the damage done to colossi. When combined with the Cloak of Force, Wander can become even more powerful.

 

Mask of Strength: It increases the damage done to Colossi to an even greater extent. It can also be stacked with the Cloak of Force.

 

Shaman’s Mask: It reduces the damage done to Wander by colossi attacks

 

 

Cloaks

Cloak of Force: A cloak that increases the amount of damage dealt by the Ancient Sword. As mentioned before, the effect can be stacked with both the Mask of Power and the Mask of Strength individually
 

Shaman’s Cloak: It reduces the damage received by Colossi. It can be worn alongside the Shaman’s Mask.
 

Cloak of Fate: A cloak that increases the rate of Wander’s health regeneration after he takes damage.
 

Cloak of Deception: This cloak allows Wander to become completely invisible (although his shadow is still visible, for some reason) to the eyes of onlookers, allowing him to sneak around undetected.
 

Cloth of Desperation: Essentially a parachute that allows Wander to survive falling from great heights, as it slows down his falling speed while nullifying fall damage. It is difficult to control, however.

 

 

 

 

Ashitaka

 

Swords

 

A medium-sized blade Ashitaka carries with him wherever he goes. As his primary close-range weapon, he is quite skilled with it. It’s based on the ancient swords the Emishi tribes used, akin to a japanese machete or a ninjato. Whatever the case, the prince uses it to great effect. It is sharp enough to cut limbs clean off even with armor, and can be thrown around like some sort of boomerang. Notably, the handle has a hoop which Ashitaka uses to fire arrows while still holding his sword, as seen below.

 

Bow

 

Even though his swordplay is pretty impressive, Ashitaka’s real strength lies in his archery. He carries around a bow with “stone-tipped” arrows that honestly are much stronger than normal arrows could ever be. Ashitaka can shoot arrows with sufficient power to rip limbs off or decapitate a person in a single shot (as shown above) needless to say you don’t wanna be on the receiving end of one. 

 

 

 

Abilities

 

Wander

Dormin

 

Dormin is the mysterious, powerful entity that resides in the Forbidden lands and is the apparent ruler of those who have perished. Its motives are unclear and even antagonistic in the central plot of the story, for it used Wander to kill the Colossi and recover its power once again. Long story short, Dormin was sealed long ago, and his power was divided among the 16 Colossus to keep him from coming back. Once Wander was no longer capable of fighting on his own, Dormin took over his body using the collected essence within him, and made it its vessel so it could roam the earth once more.

Dormin is usually an ally of Wander’s though, and usually provides assistance, such as telepathically communicating with him to provide vital info or giving hints. Once Wander has defeated a colossus, Dormin will teleport him back to the temple (though whether he can teleport anywhere else or Dormin itself can teleport is not shown). It’s implied that Dormin might have some slight control over the souls of the living and dead, but this seems to be pretty limited and it’s really just not very well explained.

However, after killing all 16 Colossi, if Wander is ever to fall in battle or become too frail to fight on his own, Dormin will arise to protect itself. Taking over the young man’s body and using it at its leisure, Wander’s grey, dying form will take the appearance of a colossus with horns that are as tall as entire temple rooms. While in this monstrous form, Dormin reveals its true tremendous power: its punches are strong enough to shake the Shrine of Worship, it gains 4 extra limbs in the form of strange bug-arms, and it becomes basically nearly-impervious to human weapons. It can even breathe fire from its mouth if given enough time. At its full power, it may be just as powerful, fast and durable as the Colossi themselves. With all that strength, it makes sense the only way Dormin was ever stopped in battle was by making use of a special seal to split its essence apart, though regular human weaponry does seem to have some effect on it.

 

 

Ashitaka

Demon's Curse

 

While battling the demonic boar Nago, Ashitaka received a curse from the pig’s hatred of the bullet it was shot with. This manifested in the form of a purple scar on his right arm. The curse greatly enhances Ashitaka’s already impressive strength (allegedly 10 times stronger than the average man), making him capable of superhuman showings of power. It also enhances his pain tolerance as he was able to keep walking after getting shot through the chest. It came at a cost though, as the curse also ate away at Ashitaka’s lifespan and caused him immense pain as it kept spreading through his body. He was forced to set out on a journey to the West, where the monstrous creature came from, and find the Forest Spirit in hopes of it being able to cure him of this pain. 

Partners

 

Agro

 

A loyal mare and trusted traveling companion of Wander’s. This steed will follow Wander whatever he goes, either after he has defeated a colossus back at the temple or upon being called by Wander himself. She just not your run-of-the-mill horse, as you can see it is MUCH larger than the average mare, and this allows her to keep running for ridiculous periods of time without showing any signs of fatigue, she will usually help Wander by keeping him out of harm’s way, or allowing him to keep up with opponents that are much faster than Wander himself, like Phalanx. She is pretty sturdy too, as she once fell into a river from several stories high and only got a broken leg. While Wander is on her back, he is actually quite the rider, he can make her do sharp 180° turns with no issue, stand up while riding or hang from one of her sides to get a better shot. Needless to say they make quite the combo. 

 

Yakul

 

It is said that the old people of the East tamed animals unknown to the world, these were Red Elk unique to the area, and Prince Ashitaka is no stranger to them. This is Yakul, Ashitaka’s loyal friend, officially described as a red elk (a species that doesn’t exist sadly). Yakul seems to be a mix of a stag, elk, and red lechwe, all animals known for their strength, speed, nimbleness and elegant strides, all of which seem to describe Yakul very well. This fella can run incredibly fast, outspeeding even the demon boar Nago and moving out of harm's way to protect its friend, it can sprint for long periods of time without issue and it's incredibly nimble, being able to jump incredible distances, swim whole lakes without tiring and run down mountains with ease, it’s also very determined, not even getting shot on the leg will stop it from following his friend. Paired with Ashitaka’s keen eye and excellent archery skills they make a pretty good duo.

 

 

Feats

 

Wander  

Note: For our calculations of the Colossi’s destruction feats, we calculated the average # of joules required for the fragmentation of various stones (marble, granite, limestone, and several others) and used that value (12J/cc). The reason behind this decision is that it’s not very clear what material(s) the various objects and buildings in the Forbidden Lands are made of.

 

Overall

 

• Defeated the Colossi single handedly.
• Although at the cost of his own life, he ultimately succeeded in reviving Mono
• Somehow, successfully stole the Ancient Sword
• Ended the local lizard population

 

Strength

 

• Possesses the hand-grip of the gods, capable of holding on to dear life even when Colossus attempt to shake him off.
• Capable of consistently harming the colossi either with his sword or other equipment.
• With some equipment he can outright one-shot them or deplete most of their health with one strike.
• Constantly climbs extremely huge colossi and structures without getting tired.
• This includes climbing more than halfway up the Shrine of Worship, which is this tall
• Flash Arrows can deal significant damage to the colossi
• Can stab through the colossi, meaning that he’s at the very least strong enough to pierce solid stone (as that's what the colossi are made of)
• When Dormin takes over, he should likely be as strong as the other colossi by default
• Dormin itself is strong enough to cause the Shrine of Worship to shake with his punches

 

 

Speed

 

• Agro, by virtue of being a horse (an abnormally large one too), can probably run around top speeds of 88 km/h.
• Can dodge energy based attacks from Colossi like Pelagia, Basaran and Kuromori (it is very unlikely these are lightning speed, so take it with a grain of salt).
• Can throw harpoons at high speeds
• Can react to colossi attacking him (sometimes he even run circles around them)

 

 

Durability

 

• Can take hits from Quadratus
• Quadratus can casually destroy a giant stone wall just by walking through it (~10.4 tons of TNT)
• Pelagia, a giant swamp monster who can break apart these platforms with one headbutt.
• Size of the small cylinder in the platform’s center
• Size of the platform and its pillars (of which there are 4)
• Breaking it all comes out to around 0.08 tons of tnt
• Avion, a giant stone bird who rammed at him at full speed after a dive.
• Through these calcs, Avion’s attack would amount to around 0.04 tons of tnt (small building level)
• Barba, who can consistently bring down walls of stone like nothing.
• Gaius, who can make the earth beneath it tremble with a swing of his club.
• Argus, who is strong enough to destroy these bridges with just a swing of its sword.
• Argus’ size
• Based on the size of the bridge, the energy required to destroy it should be around 0.56 tons of tnt (Building level)
• Survives energy based attacks from Colossi such as Pelagia, Kuromori and Basaran.
• Even when struck by a crossbow bolt and stabbed through the chest he still managed to stand.
• Wander can even survive his flash arrows exploding on him (sometimes).
• Agro survived a fall from a bridge and only got a sprung ankle
• Survives falls from extremely high-distances himself.
• Dormin should be comparable to the other colossus, and by himself was minimally affected by conventional weapons.

Ashitaka

Overall

• Saved his village from the attack of a demonic boar Nago.
• Alongside San (the titular Mononoke) managed to give back the forst spirit his head (long story) and prevent a mayor catastrophe.
• Managed to somewhat mend relationships between the forest spirits and Irontown.
• Managed to escape from the worst evil of all, thots.

Strength

 

• Bent a steel sword (as shown above) 
• Pushed open a gate that required the strength of ten men to open, all while gravely injured
• Shot an arrow through the handle of a katana. (and those things have steel inside)
• Knocked out both San and Eboshi with one punch.
• San was among the first waves of Boar Spirits during the final attacks, and seems to have survived near close proximity to Jigo’s landmines, which created massive explosions.
• Can shoot arrows with enough strength to decapitate people and even rip-off their limbs.
• Once tore off a piece of ceiling and threw it a fair amount of distance.
• Lifted a giant dead boar on his own
• Killed the demonic boar leader Nago.
• Fellow boar leader Okkoto once smashed through a giant rock while injured, and less boars can easily bring down trees and in mass can overrun villages in seconds.

Speed

 

• Can react to people on horseback.
• Caught an arrow in mid-flight and shot it back.
• Can cut arrows in mid-air.
• Dodges arrows from just a few inches away.
• Dodges blowgun fire from up close. This would give Ashitaka supersonic reaction speeds.
• Comparable to San who maybe, probably, not-really, has bullet timing feats of her own.
• Comparable to the Wolf Spirits, who have reacted to bullets
• Calculation.
• Can decently keep up with the wolf-spirits on foot.
• Yakul, by closely resembling a Red Lechwe or Impala could potentially run at a top speed of 80km/h, maybe even higher.
• Ashitaka avoided getting a single touch by the erratic moving Nightwalker Form of the forest spirit after it lost its head. Any contact with any part of this form would immediately kill him.

 

Durability

 

• Took a bullet to the stomach and kept on walking.
• These bullets are strong enough to harm the Gods, put large holes in rooftops, and shatter parts of the ground where they hit.
• Survived having his head bit by a wolf spirit.
• Should be comparable to fodder, two of which fell down a huge cliff once and survived, and another several survived Jigo’s mines being under them as they went off.
• Comparable to spirits like Okkoto, who took several explosions from Eboshi’s firearms.
• Yakul took an arrow to the leg and could keep on moving (though he was left limping afterwards).

 

 

 

 

Weaknesses

 

Wander

(Simp)

Despite being far above the average human in terms of physicality and stamina, Wander is, at the end of the day, still just a person, and as such will fall given enough damage. Also, despite the fact that he wields a sword, he really isn’t a trained swordsman, being much more adept in archery. His items and weapons have to be manually swapped and he can only wear one mask and cloak at a time. Even the huge boost in power and size that Dormin gives him does not guarantee victory, as Dormin can and has been sealed before and it's reasonable to believe that it will simply die if enough damage is placed upon it, meaning that Wander can’t rely too much on it. 

Ashitaka

(A simp as well)

 As specified above, Ashitaka has one major weakness: the curse. Even if it grants him immense strength and incredible pain resistance, it also, well, kills him. Occasionally it causes him tremendous pain in his arm, and if he gives into his anger for too long, it will ultimately end up being his undoing. Even with the curse’s benefits, Ashitaka it's still just a human, so a bullet will put him down as easily as any other. In fact, after getting shot through the stomach, he needed the help of the forest spirit to fully recover from his injuries.

 

 

 

Summary

 

Wander

 

Advantages:

• Arguably stronger and more durable
• Much larger arsenal.
• The Ancient Sword and Ancient Bow, alongside Wander’s own cleverness, might be able to expose Ashitaka’s weak points.
• Things like invisibility give him a stealth advantage.
• Trickier weaponry like whistle arrows could give him a bit of control over the battlefield.
• Can buff his own stamina, strength, durability and healing with equipment.
• Via scaling to Quadratus, Dormin's strength and durability could be way too high for Ashitaka to overcome, even with his demonic curse.
• Dormin can communicate with and assist Wander mid-battle.
• Flash Arrows might themselves be packing 10.42 tons of tnt equivalent if scaled to Quadratus as well.
• Stamina of a champ.
• Great handgrip and throwing arm.
• Youtube countdown videos.

Disadvantages:

• Significantly slower overall.
• As useful as his cloaks and masks are, he can only equip one of each at a time.
• Far less skilled.
• The Last Guardian’s release cycle.
• Couldn’t even get with his girl.

 

Ashitaka

Advantages:

• Significantly faster than Wander, even with Dormin and Agro considered.
• Yakul is much more agile and nimble than Agro.
• Far more skilled in H2H combat.
• Much more experienced fighter overall.
• Could probably catch an arrow or harpoon and shoot it right back at Wander.
• Extremely high pain tolerance, only enhanced by his demonic curse.
• Comparable (if not superior) archery skills.
• Also has one hell of a throwing arm.
• Can actually control his horse.

Disadvantages:

• Likely not as strong or durable as Dormin, even with his demonic curse.
• Very basic arsenal.
• 10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki.
• Couldn’t even get with his girl (least he ain’t dead though).

Veredicts

Kingsly

Boy, this sure took a long time to get to lol. Ah well, such is life. Happy to work on a blog for a really good match-up like this though, with two series which, ah, probably shouldn’t be in vs but hey they have feats don’t stop us now! Thanks so much to the other dudes who contributed to this, it was a lot of fun.

Off the bat it’s clear Ashitaka is bringing a lot more to the table in terms of skill. Throughout the film we see him outmatch people like San and Eboshi in combat, who should both have years of combat experience, as well as single handedly taking on squads of samurai and bandits. Wander is a fair bit trickier to assess in that regard, given he’s player controlled and the general mystery surrounding his past. He’s probably got some combat experience under his belt, but it’s hard to prove it could match what we’ve seen Mr. “Grab an arrow in mid-air and fire it back” do. That also raises the point that Ashitaka has much shown history against other human sized combatants. Wander may have a wider arsenal, but stuff like his harpoons are gonna work much more effectively against Colossi than someone as nimble as Ashitaka, who’s bullet and arrow timing feats are clearly above Wander’s agility by a good margin. Man is unfortunately near featless speed wise beyond throwing harpoons real fast (no the electricity attacks aren’t lightning speed shh).


All that isn’t to discount Wander’s arsenal though; items like the invisibility cloak help a ton to counter the speed gap. For all Ashitaka’s prowess, he’s never been shown having to deal with something like that. Of course though, being able to land hits wouldn’t matter without a degree of strength here. The best I feel Ashitaka can get would be scaling to the demon-possessed boar gods via killing one, who have feats like smashing large boulders and stone walls, reaching up to 0.6 tons of TNT oh no numbers. I’ve seen some arguments for scaling human soldiers to the explosions used in their confrontation with the boars, but I can’t say I can get down with that. We don’t see exactly how far they are from the explosions, but it’s enough that they have some degree of clearance. Even assuming they were on the outskirts, their small surface area compared to the explosion at that range would greatly reduce the yield. Speaking of, the Colossi Wander fights have a fair few impressive feats of destruction, like the second Colossi destroying a stone wall at 10 tons of TNT, but it’s worth considering the way Wander kills them. The Colossi’s feats involve large portions of their surface area, while Wander damages them with much smaller weaponry, often doing the most damage by striking specific vital points. Think of it like being pricked with a needle; it’s much smaller than you, but it still hurts and makes you bleed because of the amount of pressure it has. With a good stab to the vitals, even a small weapon can kill you without being as strong as you, and against a much smaller foe like Ashitaka, it won’t be as effective. With how much smaller an arrow tip or sword is compared to most of the Colossi, the actual impact Wander is putting behind his weaponry would be greatly reduced, enough that Ashitaka could feasibly keep up in raw strength. The harpoons would follow a similar principle, and would be pretty easily dodgeable against a quick human sized opponent like Ashitaka regardless.


That said, durability wise, there’s only so far surface area can go. Wander can survive direct hits in-game from: the 6th Colossi, who can shatter stone walls with its swings; the 8th Colossi, who’s projectiles can destroy parts of a stone pathway; the 12th Colossi, who can destroy an entire plateau with its headbutt; and the 14th Colossi, who can topple pillars with a charge. Surface area still affects all of these given Wander’s smaller body size, but the difference in surface area between the parts of their body they’re using and Wander’s body isn’t that big all things considered. Even still, it would make Wander quite a bit tougher than Ashitaka, to the point where the latter would struggle to hurt him. Just scaling to the 15th Colossi’s bridge smashing, which he can take a mostly direct hit from, would place Wander at likely 8x stronger than Ashitaka, accounting for surface area. Also note that the explosions from Wander’s flash arrows, which he himself can survive point blank, cover an area of about 12 m^2, and can do significant harm to the Colossi. When you consider that the speed gap between Wander’s harpoons and Ashitaka’s bullet timing would be about 6x, it becomes a question of if the prince’s speed and skill can compensate for the strength gap. It’s possible, but I’d have to lean towards the more likely answer being no. That’s a really notable strength gap, possibly an insurmountable one if you take flash arrow scaling to the second Colossi at face value. Ashitaka may be more skilled and a lot faster, but Wander’s invisibility cloak helps counter that to an extent and allow for some possible lucky hits in. Both have been shown to keep fighting even after grievous wounds, but Ashitaka’s curse actively harms him mid-fight, and the flash arrows cover a wide enough area that it’s likely Ashitaka would get hit and seriously hurt eventually. I don’t think it’s entirely clear cut, Ashitaka could score some wins by wearing Wander’s arsenal out with his speed if you go with lower ends for the latter’s scaling, or could redirect Wander’s own flash arrows back at him as he’s done before, which could knock Wander out completely. That being said, I think it’s more likely for Wander’s strength and invisibility to eventually take Ashitaka out then vice versa. He can only keep dodging forever, especially when both have limited arrow supplies, and at that point Wander holds more options in a sword fight to compensate for the skill gap.

Now, I haven’t brought up the big guy Dormin yet. One could interpret his power being split and sealed across the Colossi to mean that he’s stronger than any of them, which could be supported by the guidebook calling his strength unimaginable to humanity. That being said I don’t think it’s entirely clear how the mechanics of his power being split up works, and even in-game he can be harmed by the weaponry of the human soldiers. You could justify by saying that Wander’s lingering will was suppressing part of Dormin’s power, which is arguably implied in the guidebook, but in that case such a weakness would also play into this battle. Regardless, I don’t think he’s too relevant for this fight, there’s a lot of unknowns to say how he would fare against someone like Ashitaka. It’s possible he could be too strong, or it’s possible Ashitaka could exploit his large size to dodge his blows and eventually deal some lethal damage with his sword. Either way you slice it, I think Wander is ultimately the more likely victor.


I’m sorry for using your work like this Miyazaki!

Arot 

  

Y’know, I didn’t care much for this matchup at first… okay, I still don’t. I’d much rather see Wander fight the Heroine from Praey for the Gods, but that’s not what this blog is about. Despite all that negativity, I did still have a ton of fun researching both characters and doing all kinds of crazy calculations. This has been the most fun I’ve had working on a blog since Ganondorf vs Dracula on the G1 Death Battle Fan Blog. Anyway, it’s time to go into who I think would win this fight and why.

First, I wanna go over their respective skills and arsenals and how they’d interact. Ashitaka is infinitely better at H2H combat and is just as good as - if not, better than - Wander at archery. Ashitaka has actually fought people and things that aren’t giant stone monsters and just has more experience in general. Yakul is definitely a more capable partner than Agro, but the latter is still no pushover and is 8km/hr faster, so they don’t play into the verdict too much. As skilled, agile and badass as Ashitaka may be, I don’t think that this category is entirely one-sided. First, Wander can turn invisible, which is something Ashitaka has never dealt with. Second, he has the Sword of Dormin and his various cloaks/masks to bump up his stats and potentially make up for his H2H combat incompetence. Third, he and Dormin could theoretically come up with a plan together, making the fight a little unfair from a tactical standpoint. In conclusion, I think Wander’s arsenal and unique abilities make this category relatively close, but Ashitaka probably (though not definitively) takes the win here.

In regards to speed, Ashitaka has this in the bag. He has mach speed reactions and it’s backed up even further by other characters with similar speed feats. Sure, Wander can fire arrows at the speed of… arrows… and do the same with his harpoons, but that’s NOTHING compared to bullet-timing. You might be wondering, “What about the balls of electricity that a bunch of colossi shoot at Wander? VS Battles Wiki says that it’s a lightning-speed attack, so why do you disagree?” Well, it’s actually really easy to explain. Just by watching any video of the boss fights, you can see that these energy blasts travel only a little faster than Wander’s arrows. Hell, even if you wanted to compare it to natural lightning, the only kind it resembles is Ball Lightning, which - according to this article - travels at a whopping 3 METERS PER SECOND! Yeah, there’s no contest; Ashitaka is faster by a freakin’ mile and a half.

Now, what about durability? Well, just like speed, this category is a stomp… maybe. Wander can survive being stomped on by Quadratus - the colossus with the 10.42 ton feat - and tossed around by it like a ragdoll. Scaling him to that feat alone is enough to put his durability insurmountably higher than Ashitaka’s. At the very least, Wander can survive being crushed by Gaius’ club, sliced by Argus’ sword, rammed by Avion, munched on by Dirge, and plenty of other things that range from small building level to large building level. The fact that Wander’s Flash Arrows can hurt a colossus without hitting their weak point and Wander can survive those things exploding in his face only cements my point even further. One of Ashitaka’s best durability feats is potentially being able to survive the explosion of a land mine via scaling to the villagers who survived this one mentioned in Ashitaka’s strength and durability sections. Now, you might be aware of this calculation which resulted in a yield of almost 5 tons of TNT. Here's the issue with that calculation: the calculation assumed it was one giant explosion, which is simply not true. In reality, we're looking at the explosions of 5 different mines, each with its own individual blast radius. Thanks to this other calculation by Kingsly, we now know that each explosion is actually worth 0.03 tons of TNT (pretty much equal to Avion). Even if you multiply the value by 10, based on Ashitaka's "strength of 10 men," it's still 0.2 tons weaker than the force of Argus' sword strikes. This category becomes even more problematic for Ashitaka if Wander decides to wear his defensive gear like the Shaman’s Cloak or Life Sword. If you scale Wander to Quadratus, then durability is a stomp in Wander’s favor. If you don’t, then Wander still wins, albeit not by much.

Next, we’re going to talk about strength. Ashitaka has a lot more feats to go off of. He’s bent swords, literally has the strength of 10 men, lifted a giant boar and threw a piece of a ceiling. Wander almost exclusively relies on scaling to the Colossi, which I would say is pretty reasonable. Not only can Wander harm a colossus without hitting their weak points (at least partially scaling his strength to at their durability), he’s also strong enough to hold onto any colossus as they try to shake him off, somehow without sustaining any injuries. For example, if Wander stabs the weak point on Quadratus’ or Malus’ head, they’ll start flailing it around like crazy. So long as Wander has stamina remaining, he won’t fall off. With the Sword of Dormin, he can 1-shot several of the colossi if he hits their main weak point. His throwing arm is strong enough that he can deplete the entire health meter of a colossus with a single Harpoon of Thunder (albeit with strength-augmenting equipment). To top it all off, his flash arrows easily pack enough of a punch to vaporize Ashitaka in one kaboom… assuming Ashi doesn’t dodge all of them. It’s not incredibly one-sided, but again, Wander wins this one. Note that this category WOULD be a stomp if Wander’s strength could be scaled 100% to Quadratus, but that’s pretty unrealistic.

The very last bit I’m gonna touch on is Dormin’s strength and scaling. Each colossus contains 1/16 of his being. There’s realistically no reason for him not to be scaled to each individual one, mainly due to them all containing 1/16th of his full being. All of the best feats of strength shown by every colossus - aside from maybe Quadratus - should be possible for Dormin to execute on his own, and then some. With or without the strength boost from his demonic curse, there is absolutely nothing Ashitaka can do to take Dormin down. The only stat Ashitaka has over Dormin is speed, but avoiding Dormin’s attacks won’t work forever. Eventually, either Dormin will get in a lucky hit or Ashitaka’s own demonic curse will kill him.
I don’t have any fancy puns, so… yeah, Wander wins.

 

 

Animator3003

 

Hello, I hope that you, the reader, are doing well, this was a long time coming, and its one of those matchups I really do enjoy, but, I don't wanna be sappy about it and just move to what I think about the match.

In the end, I can't really say much form what my friends Arot and Kingsly have said themselves, the fight just really comes down to Dormin, in a normal fistcufs Ashi would take it 9/10, his demonic curse makes him way stronger and overall its a more capable and stat-wielding warrior, but once Dormin comes out its just a huge GG for the man, he can't really contend much with the power at the colossus dispossal, even if he did somehow figure out a plan of attack, the gap is so wide its difficult to say if he would be capable of landing a finishing blow before he just gets hit by a stray hit that OHKO's him.

In the end the deciding factor here are their own demonic bearings, and Wander's wider array of weapons and firepower with Dormin get him the W.

This matchup still goated tho.

Before we go...

I have no words to describe how much of an endeavor was to bring this blog together, from Kingsly, Arot and Tsubori being huge and amazing friends of mine, they put their backs into this blog, with lots of passion, care and love. They are good buds of mine, and I respect them deeply for lending me their help and their trust with this proyect.

In reality, this blog as you see it, was started in 2019 (probably even earlier, believe it or not) but circumstances involving our separate lives, this whole thing with the Corona and my inability to get my shit together pushed back this project a fair bit, however none of us really gave up on it, we did what we could, we calced what we could, we debated, we had fun, we discussed and experienced the wonders of friendship to the largest and biggest of their capabilities.

I would like to take this small chance to thank them all, Arot, Kingsly and Tsubori for being way smarter, way more funny, and way more math-savvy than I could ever hope to be, they carried the bulk of calculating most of the feats you see in here, they are kind, smart and dedicated, and amazing people overall that decided to help me on this small project.

I would like to thank many other friends, that even if they weren't directly involved they have always held me from the worst parts of myself, and that have encouraged my possitive traits to become the better version of myself, Munchlax, KingConch, Austerisk, Josh, BlackShulk, RJ, Phantom, Meddiadus and many others I cannot possibly writte here, but you know who you are, and for that, I extend my deepest and most sincere gratitudes, and thanks.

And finally, I thank you, the reader, for always being there, to help and support whats just the mad ramblings of a crazy hobbist in this community that is VS. With your effort, I can always get the motivation to keep going, and making new stuff, regardless of how long it takes.

I hope to have things in the near future, but nothing is ever assured, I hope you, the reader, had such a great time reading this as we did in doing it. And regardless of where you are, stay safe, and be good. 

Hope you have a wonderful day and we will see on another ocation! 

-Yours truly Animator3003