Board 8 > King of Fighters 2020 (NOT MERCS) R2D8: Prof Quirrell vs Spinel (Mid)

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Welcome to the King of Fighters 2020 (NOT MERCS) Simulated Character Battle Tournament!

The game is simple. The two* listed characters are placed in an (imaginary) location with a variety of (imaginary) environments, kind of like a picture in a child's schoolbook that describes different types of geological features. Within a ten mile radius, there is an (imaginary) urban downtown, exurbs, plains, snow-clad mountains at the edge, dry plains, etc. Fighters start wherever is most appropriate for them, but feel increasingly compelled to seek out their opponent and fight. Strong-willed fighters can try to hold out in their chosen environment for longer... eventually, all will succumb and actively search for the other to battle.

To participate, just vote in bold for whichever character you believe will win. Giving reasoning is optional, but please be polite and read what others have said and carefully make your decision. I'll ping the nominators (they can opt out) to give arguments if they wish.

Results/Discussion: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78797189

TODAY'S PARTICIPANTS:
Professor Quirrell (Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality)


vs

Spinel (Steven Universe)
https://i.imgur.com/zUprtmo.png
Mr. Fantastic, Mrs. Incredible, Luffy.

@MasoamiHouzuki @Pirateking2000

FIGHT

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the killing curse probably won't work on her since she's not really "alive" and... I don't know, that's all I've got for this one

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Spinel is too fast, evasive, and tanky with her toony shenanigans. If she hits him he is going down since he appears to be a regular guy in terms of durability and I don't think killing curse is going to affect her due to her being a hardlight being if he can even hit her with it

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"Anyway, not that I think this needs to be said, but he passively has a lot of shields on (because paranoia) and also has Wizarding durability (which is not precisely specified, but not exactly human in the fanfic)"

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NFUN posted...

"Anyway, not that I think this needs to be said, but he passively has a lot of shields on (because paranoia) and also has Wizarding durability (which is not precisely specified, but not exactly human in the fanfic)"

Pretty sure he isn't packing Steven tier shielding and durability
https://i.makeagif.com/media/12-09-2019/pkK4Dd.mp4

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AK is confirmed to not work on animated constructs, and that is essentially what Spinel is (her kind are gem based aliens who construct their bodies around them).

Her crazy, unpredictable nature is a bad matchup for a chessmaster like Quirrell, you can't really get into her head (and who would want to).

Not to say none of Quirrell's spells would affect her, but most of the nasty ones he would start with would likely not work properly due to her alien physiology. Harry Potter wizards are somewhat lacking in spells that just straight up damage things.

Spinel is superhuman in all physical attributes, and is strong enough to fell a powerful fusion gem warrior with a single blow.

Quirrell is faced with a foe he cannot predict who is a creature unlike anything he has encountered before. He does not have enough time when faced with her powerful and relentless assault to really formulate a plan of action.

Spinel is the winner.

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convincing argument. i'll wait for rwlh's before voting

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Quirrell

People are thinking this is OG Harry Potter's Voldemort. It's not. This is, in a nutshell, 'what if GameFAQS Voldemort was canon and made optimal decisions in every possible way'. Meisnewbie can probably explain better as I haven't read Methods of Rationality in a long-ass time, but there's no reason Quirrell couldn't just turn her body into a lawn chair, for example. He has every reason to control the terms of engagement, what with having the ability to turn invisible, scry, etc. etc. etc.

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"super exaggerated Harry Potter wizard" sounds way too vague to base much on by itself, it could be argued that he just turns Spinel into a lawn ornament and wins that way, but it could just as easily be said that she wouldn't be affected by the spell, or could use her own shapeshifting to cancel it out.

It's the same for his shielding and durability, unless there's something showing it to be effective against someone as strong as Spinel, saying he'll be protected from all her attacks because of "wizard durability" feels like too much of a stretch

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Gems can shapeshift so it is kind of moot anyway

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Yeah I'm definitely thinking Spinel takes regular Quirrel pretty easy, and I haven't read the fanfiction and there doesn't seem to be an easy way to determine what his specific abilities were that makes him different from regular Quirrel/Voldermort other than "he's smarter"

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Spinel

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Johnbobb posted...

Yeah I'm definitely thinking Spinel takes regular Quirrel pretty easy, and I haven't read the fanfiction and there doesn't seem to be an easy way to determine what his specific abilities were that makes him different from regular Quirrel/Voldermort other than "he's smarter"

roughly quoting from last topic, he has mastery over nearly every spell in the HP universe and has cast fast enough to stop bullets.

This seems kind of like Rand/Yujiro, where he definitely has the capability to win, but he has to survive long enough to realize his normal strategy won't work and readjust. Unless he has some reason to already believe the killing curse won't work on Spinel, I think he goes for it, gets punched, teleports away and comes back with something that *will* get the job done. Whether or not he could survive the first attack I suppose is the question.

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Spinel

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Quirrel does have fiendfyre, which ruins artifacts. He punches holes clear through the walls at Hogwarts and the castle can't recover from it. I don't remember enough to give details though.

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bump

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JeffreyRaze posted...

Quirrel does have fiendfyre, which ruins artifacts. He punches holes clear through the walls at Hogwarts and the castle can't recover from it. I don't remember enough to give details though.

This is basically accurate. Quirrell tears through floors and ceilings on a broomstick at Hogwarts and worries he's permanently damaged the castle. Hogwarts was constructed by the four most powerful wizards of their day, who all know more spells than any other wizard alive in the story.

This is a tricky topic for me because I'm trying to avoid big Steven Universe spoilers.

The Killing Curse doesn't work on dementors (I forget if it works on Inferi) but it can kill anything with a pulse instantly, even non-humans like Fluffy (aka Cerberus) and centaurs. I don't know if "gem-based aliens" are considered alive in the show or not.

That said, Quirrell likely turns invisible, hangs out in the shadows, and observes her for a bit to get a read on her abilities and thought patterns. How "unstable" is she? Is she, like, the kind to act totally irrationally and unpredictably, or is she more like a Joker-esque character who still operates under a kind of twisted internal logic? I feel like Quirrell can comprehend the latter, and if it's the former, he can try and disable her before she does something unpredictable.

Quirrell's biggest weakness is that he thinks he can fundamentally predict and outwit everyone, when in actuality he struggles with human emotions. For example, he was shocked when Harry was forced to absolutely speak the truth and spoke of self-sacrifice, and it never occurred to him in ten years of being stuck in a Horcrux that maybe he should have confided his plan with one of his followers. All that to say: Quirrell can try and contain unpredictability, but if Spinel is pure of heart or something, that he might actually have trouble with.

There's also a chance, of course, that Spinel is too fast/strong for him.

To point out, Fiendfyre works on boggarts, Quirrel has an (unnamed) spell that squirts out magical acid that is heavily damaging and painful and worst comes to worst, Imperiusing Spinel into coming contact into his wand and being transfigured would probably work (unless she has some sort of latent magic resistance, but any shields which can be dispelled would probably be dispelled).

As for speed:

Harry could hardly see it, could hardly make out anything amid the lights and flashes, [from his position a few meters away] but the scene was still too small, and Harry had the feeling he wouldn't be able to understand even if he was watching from a meter away, it was all happening too fast, red blasts deflecting from blue shields, green bars of light clashing together, shadowy forms appearing and vanishing, he couldn't even tell who was casting what, except that the Auror was shouting incantation after incantation and frantically dodging while Professor Quirrell's Polyjuiced form stood in one place and flicked his wand, mostly silently, but now and then pronouncing words in unrecognizable languages that would white out the whole mirror and show half the Auror's shielding torn away as he staggered back.

Harry had seen exhibition duels between the strongest seventh-year students, and this was so far above it that Harry's mind felt numbed, looking at how far he had left to go. There wasn't a single seventh-year student who could have lasted half a minute against the Auror, all three seventh-year armies put together might not be able to scratch the Defense Professor...

And also Quirrell essentially singlehandedly hexes and stuns an entire corridor full of 44 Hogwarts students, with several of them competent enough to become Aurors on graduation with numerous dueling accolades and, of course, Quirrell has obviously never lost a duel against a Wizard with two obvious exceptions which do not apply here.

Maybe Spinel is strong and fast, but actual reasons need to be provided.

Quirrell
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpUD3kNKhBc

so while I do think Quirrel could outsmart her, especially with how she seems to enjoy taunting her opponents, I also think it's hard to imagine the magic of the Harry Potter universe being able to really hit her given the speed and the fluidity of her movements (in addition to the fact I agree Killing Curse probably doesn't work on her). Maybe Quirrel can trap her, but that's likely going to require some studying given that there's nothing in the Harry Potter universe similar to this that I can think of. I think Quirrel could win this, but I think Spinel wins more often than not

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Spinel

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