Happy July 15th ladies and gentlemen alike, on this particular day I wanted to shed some light on a fellow vs blogger and Personal friend of mine, Imperator100, otherwise known as Imp. I have been a huge fan of her blogs for years now, and she makes an enormous amount of them, so today we are going to be looking at some of her best work so I can fully explain why they are so amazing.
For this list I decided to do two top 10's for the two most prominent blog categories, Analysis and Predictions. So Please Enjoy my Top 10 Imp Analysis Blogs.
#1o. Frankenstein:
The Frankenstein Novel is actually a blog concept I suggested to Imp, for she loves reading classic literature and wanted suggestions after doing a blog on the Novel version of Dracula, and I am really glad she did it cause it gives me a lot of fun insight into the origins of a character I really love, without actually having to read stuff. What I like about this is how It adheres very strictly to the novel, she refuses to call the monster Frankenstein like the movies eventually do opting instead to refer to him as Adam, the closest thing to a name the novel gives him, and proceeds to circumvent a great deal of misconceptions some people have about him. Adam is somewhat more like a super elite human than the monster he'r now known for, just being really strong, fast and smart compared to a normal man and that was a very interesting contrast. I just hope the story wasn't too sad.
#9. Hikaru Shidou:
This was a fun blog to have, Imp eventually went on to use Hikaru in a Prediction blog, but because of specific outside help rules at the time, nixed the use Rayearth, her powerful living organic mecha due to it being outside help. This in my opinion makes this blog a must as Rayearth may be one of the most drastic game changers I know of, its the difference between fighting a DC street leveler swords-woman, to legitimately fighting a universe busting mecha that could make even Gurren Lagann fans impressed.
#8. Sailor Saturn:
This was actually the very first blog imp made that I read, and it certainly made a good impression! Prior knowledge wise I knew absolutely nothing about Hotaru, after reading this I was so impressed that Sailor Saturn VS Raven became and still to this day is one of my most wanted fights. I really like that even though she went through so much turmoil, the hero's still befriended her and made everything alright in the end, even the goddess of death can be befriended and loved! Speaking of which she is seriously the cutest the Grim Reaper looked, since Numbuh 3 from Kids Next Door temporality took over Grim's job.
#7. Dracula:
The Other classic monster novel blog, Dracula is one of the first times I was super excited to read one of Imp's blogs. As much as I love the classic monsters, I never read the books so this was going to be a learning experience for me and one I really really wanted to know. Dracula in the novels is significantly more powerful than I thought he'd be, and because of that It actually inspired me to make my own Dracula blog on all the various film versions. This was a really inspiring blog for me, and I couldn't be more excited to see this character make a comeback in the upcoming Prediction where he's gonna fight Sauron from LotR.
#6. Yugi Muto:
Yugi is a character I never thought was useable for VS cause he's literally just playing a card game with holograms, turns out that isn't at all the case! Due to the power of the Millennium Puzzle, the monsters are Real. So now...Holy crap Yugi is super freaking OP. This was also a just nostalgia trip, when I was younger I used to be a huge fan and still have tons of old cards laying around, overall this is a real treat to read.
#5. Kratos:
The Ghost of Sparta, he was in the 10th Death Battle, they nerfed him hard (Or possibly wanked him, they did say that no previous fighter could challenge him and Spawn, and Wondy was.. nevermind). Anyway this was a divisive blog, reminding me heavily of my own Stitch blog, In that it takes a popular character, puts a HUGE amount of effort into researching them, and then it turns out they are WAY more powerful than any conventional VS site says they are so now we gotta stick to our guns and defend them having the power we know they do.
#4. Samus Aran:
SAMUS! I remember I would literally always play her in Smash Bros 64 as a kid, It was so fun, and since then she's always been a really interesting badass bounty hunter with awesome weapons and lore. I like that this blog Upgraded her in all the stats I thought she had, but also the tons of different awesome suits and weapons she really has, this series just keeps getting cooler!
#3. Zatanna:
Zatanna was a character I didn't know much until I was around 14, I didn't grow up with her like I did a lot of DC, and what I learned about her since then suggested she was somewhat of a high end street leveler....that isn't the case. Zatanna is an insanely cool and Insanely powerful magician, yes magician cause in DC sorcerers are different things, I never would have guesses she can tank supernovas and easily fight high tiers. But I NEVER would have guessed that she legit survived an encounter with THE GREAT EVIL BEAST, a monster so powerful even the Presence itself is in danger of it.
#2. Bubbles:
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Now this blog was really near and dear to my heart, and my childhood, i seriously spend an enormous amount of time on the trailer for this only cause I wanted to do it just right! Bubbles is a great character that almost everyone remembers fondly from back in the day and its great to see her get all this love. This blog was specifically impressive as Imp actually got bubbles upgrades that I missed every time I watched the show, which is downright shocking to me. Also I can't read the section on Bubbles' personality without growing a hopeful grin, no matter how i was feeling.
#1. Wonder Woman:
This was by far the Most impressive Analysis of the lot! Imp read through all, literally all, the Wonder Woman comics, over 80 years or material and over 3,000 issues, in order to finally bring us a full complete and professional analysis or one of the most iconic superheros of all time and THE most iconic female superhero of all time! This blog has everything in it too, explaining all her powers all her gear all her coolest moments and even organizes feats by level so you can really see the consistency. No matter how big a wonder woman fan you are, you will likely learn some new things here, I for instance didn't know that the invisible jet is actually a shapeshifting telepathic piece of alien tech! This blog is a great tribute worthy of Wonder Woman's approval.
Alright now its time for the really amazing part, The Top 10 Prediction Blogs, Interestingly this list is going to include every single prediction Imp ever made due to her currently only having 10, although I am really psyched for her future fight of Dracula VS Sauron! Being honest, all of these prediction blogs are amazing, but some are more amazing than others, lets see how.
#10. Guardian Senshi Battle Royale:
So kicking off this list at number 10 is the first prediction blog Imp ever did, which makes sense at last place, as she certainly improves over time. This is a really popular matchup, evident by the fact its one of the few I DIDN'T have to make a thumbnail for, and it really made sense for her to do it as at the time she really only had analysis blogs on Sailor Moon characters. Now this is really really great for a first prediction, astounding compared to my early work (which you will never see cause I edited them for I don't have the guts to leave my early work the way it was when it first came out). Really the blog suffers from 2 main issues, the first one being the analysis. The analysis is made up of a series of comparisons judging how a match between each individual pair of 2 girls would play out. Is this a good thing to know for a Battle Royal, certainly, but its better served in the end results as an explanation, or at least after the conventional analysis when we gathered the info, NOT in place of a conventional analysis. The way it is now readers do not know the characters stories, feats, level of power, or anything about their abilities other than what small amount they can gather from the brief comparisons, as all of the girls use several different powers not mentioned in the analysis, and even using several different important locations from the series we don't know. This also results in a sort of detachment, as we are left wondering what else they can do that isn't featured in the blog, as well as having the stakes diminished as for all we know they have a power that solves this whole situation they are in, which turns out to be the case more than once. The only way someone could fully read this blog and not just a bit confused is if they too are a big Sailor Moon fan or have read all of Imps previous analysis on them individually, but when making a blog, one must always assume their readers know nothing on the subject. The 2nd issue is more minor but its really the opening and motivation for the fight, Its a very depressing story where the city is devastated chaos won and Usagi is dead, and for some reason, the Guardian Senshi put aside all their love and camaraderie, and all decide its the other threes fault and not their own and start killing each other. Not only is this extremely out of character, depressing, and illogical as even if they did all hate each other obviously Usagi wouldn't want this, but paired with the previous problem of the blog not being made for those new to this series, it might actually deter potential fans by having them think this is how they would actually act in the series. Apart from that, the fight was written MASTERFULLY, It is a fantastically written fight that takes us through all the strategies and thought processes of everyone. She juggles having us follow four characters at once flawlessly and each of them have plenty of awesome moments to really shine, you feel all the characters confidence, anger, fear and might and despite the fact that these attacks and powers are largely not covered in the analysis, its explained enough in the fight itself to get all the gravity of the situation. Its also great we get to see one on one interactions between every combination of them. Lastly, the result section ends up being very sensical as well and really convinced me to the character she chose, even though it wasn't who I initially thought. All In All i think this fight tells us something, when starting out Imp had major things to learn about making VS blogs, which she really did, but writing? Writing amazing masterful scenes? Thats something she's just naturally amazing at.
#9. Flowey VS Narrator:
This wacky little Meta-Masterpiece is Flowey VS The Narrator, a real milestone for Imp in my honest opinion as its the first time she did a prediction that didn't involve magical girls! What do you know? So an initial impressive thing about this blog is because these are both very meta characters they actually take over the analysis section, this is something I've seen done before and normally it does not go well, this is not one of those times. It doesn't drag, it fits the characters and it is actually legitimately funny without getting annoying. Was especially fun when they called each other out for bullshitting they don't have weaknesses. I like that Flowey is very openly sadistic, while Narrator is more reserved and internally sadistic. Speaking of him, who on earth puts The Narrator into a fight, we never even see him, but doing so is genius, Undertale is a very difficult series to find opponents for given its nature, and this matchup really is all around perfect. The fight itself is really inventive and funny at times with the Narrator literally taking Stanley to the Underground and narrating the opening of the game, but it gets so meta from there warping reality spanning into the cosmos, other save files and even different blog posts! It's astounding to say the least. It reminds me of when I worked on Axe Cop VS Bobobo with shade with how Meta it got, but she had a great deal of ideas we didn't with how to show it. The biggest flaw with this fight is the ending, I have to be honest but I do not think we are given enough information to know whats going on, we are only given the dialogue between the characters and not told of any action and it takes a few minutes to actually piece together exactly what occurred. But in the end, its a meta fight, one should feel just a bit confused in the end after all.
#8. Grimnir VS Abigail:
This is possibly the most unconventional matchup on this lis as well as the most recent one, even making the trailer for this fight I thought to myself how people are going to watch it to see what the next blog is and audibly say 'Who?' at the end. But obscure character matches are great for many reasons, most notably because you get to learn about two new character and debate it out as you read unbiased. I found Both these characters to actually be really really cool, I have actually worked With Imp on the Magicka series before, more on that later, and I have to say I really can't imagine that series having a more perfectly fitting villain than Grimnir! The Wizards are all beings as chaotic as nature itself, they are all goofballs that cast wide varieties of nature magic to preserve the natural order of things, but Grimnir, he's focused, he's determined and he's super serious to the point of hating all things silly, all he wants is to take all the fun away and make everything organized and serious. Abigail on the other hand is from Bastard!!, a series thats really big amongst the OBD community for how fun and powerful it is VS wise. Abigail works great opposite Grimnir as he too wishes to change the world to fit his vision and is super serious but like Grimnir also a lot about him Is adherently silly just from the world he exists in. I really love the Fight in this one, taking place where another celestial event allowed Abigail to enter into Midgard and freed Grimnir from his bindings, Both of them have very clear and in character reason to be fighting one another and the humor particularly in the opening is Great with Grimnir becoming angry at every single rather silly aspect of Abigail even down to his name. Also unlike most villain fights, these two are cold and serious, they don't act cocky or mock each other intentionally. Its all cold calculation and strategy with them and that makes it pretty intense! These two were really going all out with their magical abilities like Grimnir moving it to the mental plane or Abigail becoming his mechanical magic resistant Omega form. It's also made cool by the fact that both of them believe they are sort of being the hero in this situation, Grimnir more so as for all his distain for the silliness of Midgard, he doesn't wanna see it be destroyed, Abigail on the other hand just wants to sap power and Grimnir's plans directly hinder that. Also i think this fight has the most awesome 'final clash' of probably all of these. The Results are also really sensical, which is really cool in a fight with surprisingly a lot of factors. Overall this is a great use of two obscure characters to makes something awesome.
#7. Mami Tomoe VS Panty Anarchy:
A real Milestone being the first Prediction Imp released on blogger, but also the first blog she made after we met. Interesting thing about rereading this fight is seeing just how shockingly cautious Imp once was, she mentioned they could scale to Massively Hypersonic feats but was unwilling to declare them that fast even though they obviously both are. Also it seemed far more like this blogs goal was to sort of Pitch this fight to the actual Death Battle show and its fans rather than simply just be doing the fight and having fun with it. That said this blog functions great as an introduction to both characters and a great accurate fight. Even though I do not feel I would enjoy the Puella Magi Madoka Magica series, I found that I quite like Mami as a character. She reminds me very strongly of a heroic Musketeer character both aesthetically and visually (best outfit in show), not only does she wield their weapons and fight like one with carefully considered plans, but she's also elegant, honorable and wise. Panty at the time I didn't know her, but I actually thought her so cool sounding that since first reading this blog I have watched her whole series. So now rereading this with context, its a pretty different experience. At this point both her and I know not everything said on her is accurate, but good news is none of these tiny inaccuracies effect her vs info or how the fight goes. Panty as a character is just so dang cool, and I really like the contrast her and Mami end up having with Mami carefully planning stuff out while Panty Improvises everything. Even more awesome, the fight Imp wrote takes tons of opportunity to show that! Mami is thinking tactically with trying to disarm her and setting up multiple traps, Panty is throwing her off her game with her brashness, tenacity and loud mouth. Seriously, Panty throwing her off by teasingly accusing her of being a kinky dyke is the funniest freaking thing I have read in any of these blogs, probably helped by how Panty is cursing so much which Imp never does when talking normally. The conclusion was also sensical, what I really like about debating this match is it really comes down to Regeneration VS Probability Manipulation, two really cool and potentially game changing powers and I'm happy to say I called it right.
#6. Rorschach VS V:
Rorschach VS V is a fight I was really excited for! V for Vendetta is one of my favorite superhero films of all time, and Rorschach is quite literally the perfect opponent for him in every way, no matter who some it was gonna be a real treat. What makes this matchup really special is that these characters have radically different value systems, both being extremists rebelling against an extremist world. Rorschach believes unwaveringly in black and white justice, that things should be at peace, everyone who is innocent should be protected, and those who prey on the innocent should be killed, the world is cynical place that he will do everything in his power to protect, and not even god can tell him otherwise. V is the opposite, believing everything to be in a moral grey area, everything in culture to be important, he believes everyone and everything should be free to explore all possibilities, and the only true evil is that which tries to oppress this, he sees the world as a masterpiece with infinite potential to grow to new possibility, and wishes to free the world of oppression and inspire others to do the same. These two are super humans willing to die for their causes and will not go down easy. Their fight was sure to be an epic battle of skill and wit with a clashing conversation that provokes a lot of thought. When the fight actually happens, oh it does not disappoint! The dialogue was masterful for one, and I don't just mean the Dialogue they share with each other, their internal dialogue is SO cool, with how they are constantly analyzing their opponents fighting style, coming up with counters to each others capabilities, assessing their own conditions and more. It shows just how elite these two badass rebels really are in fighting, and tells jut how much thought was truly put into the choreography of the fight! The symbolism is also so freaking heavy with them literally fighting in the sewer, the societies underbelly, and then it ignites on fire and it truly is like they are battling in hell itself! And the ending scene is epic, like it could very well be in either of their actual stories good, and it was really cool how it was simultaneously a fantastic character moment for both of them. Truly it met all my expectations and more, this is my blog example on how to make a street leveler fight epic.
#5. Black Lady VS Mistress 9:
Now this is a blog I feel gets underrated even by its maker. Black Lady Vs Mistress 9 is a blog Imp created from scratch in just a little over one day, its short, contains very little pictures, features two characters from the same series and is even described by her as a 'mini blog' but I am a firm believer that big things can come in small packages. This blog is just such a fun read that creates a unique experience every time I read it. So much so I can recall exactly where I was when I first read it, I was on tour with my singing group on the outskirts of Washington DC, it was night time and I had just walked out of a movie theater after seeing Logan, when I checked my phone I saw this came out and Immediately started reading it and did so all through my night time walk back to the hotel, It was Awesome. I love the fact that this fight manages to be vary even but in a unique way, with Mistress 9 having a massive stats advantage, but Black Lady more than making up for it with a haxy and varied arsenal of magic powers. And the fight itself did a great job showing this off, Black Lady managing to avoid Mistress 9's far faster attacks with her passive spacetime warping made me drop my jaw a little as thats simply just really cool.
Its also hilarious that these two adorable magical girl besties who are normally shipped with each other, both happen to have alternate evil adult forms which aren't even connected. Villain fights are so freaking cool to see, partly because they're so much more brutal than hero's, but also because villains are always SO Sure of themselves, they are overconfident and generally its justified for them to be cause in their own verse they are a huge deal. So to see two villains both so immediately sure of their own victory, be constantly threatened and get desperate, be humbled by disadvantage, is a treat to see and one Imp did a masterful job convoying. The fight evidently takes place in an alternate timeline where Black Lady actually won in the 2nd arc, but because of that had to deal with the 3rd arc villain Mistress 9 herself. I really love that this fight wasn't afraid to get brutal, especially on Mistress 9, who has to shed her human form, rip her own body in half and barely avoid being warped across all of spacetime, but she still keeps her composure and never gives up. Black Lady on the other hand shows a lot of her character as well with how she's basically a bratty little kid, and because of that actually ends up getting legit terrified multiple times. Its amazing how well these two are written and how perfectly it encapsulates their differences. And in true Imp fashion, this being a villain fight was never gonna stop the ending from being a bit touching in a strange way. I had no real knowledge on either character before reading this, For imp to write them so well i got super invested in them as characters and interested in their stories on top of all the research, in just over a day doesn't make this a mini blog, more like one of the most impressive blogs I've seen!
#4. Hikaru Shidou VS Sayaka Miki:
Its the first fight I made a trailer for, oh goodie, honestly I still think that is the best trailer I ever made. Anyway here we see the 5th blog imp did, this time using another Madoka Magica character and another character from the CLAMP verse, but this is no ordinary magical girl match, this time it is a melee heavy sword fight! Going in to this fight, from what I had been told in discussions with Imp, I liked Hikaru a lot more as a character, but I logically thought Sayaka would win and that made it interesting throughout the entire process. I really like Hikaru, she's one of those characters that really is just the right mix of Badass and Adorable, and her series sounded really fun, I actually read AND watched the whole thing, and it was fantastic but my reasons for watching weren't purely for pleasure wink, wink. Sayaka also seems cool, similar to how Mami is modeled after a musketeer, Sayaka seems modeled after a Templar Knight having heroic goals, unwavering dedication, and concerning for others over herself, and we see this in her Greensleeves inspired theme, lightly armored cloth uniform, and that she has a cape like a classic superhero. The fight itself was surprisingly really intense, they were slashing stabbing and beating each other until they were both bleeding everywhere, melting buildings destroying forests, it was nuts, and all while Madoka floats in another dimension petting a bunny creature, how fitting. The really cool thing is Imp actually took the time to learn a lot of the basics of fencing to be as accurate as possible to how real swordsmen think and fight, making for some really tight well done choreography throughout. Also the logic for the result is really interesting, reminds me strongly enough of a quote from Agent Carolina "The greatest swordsman in the world, doesn't fear the second greatest, he fears the worst, because he can't predict what the idiot will do."
#3. Magicka Wizards VS Castle Crashers:
What?! the one blog I was directly a part of made the top 3? Wow I'm narcissistic! LOL. In actuality without Imp this wouldn't even be half as awesome as it is. This blog was such a treat to work on at every stage! It was really a treat to see her whole process and actually debate this really REALLY close fight with more characters than any blog we've ever done. The beauty about this fight is that both sides are simultaneously the underdog with one side having all the abilities and hax, the other side having all the stats and teamwork. I like that while I basically copied everything in the CC's analysis from my blog on them, Imp wrote practically everything on the Wizards from scratch, despite also having a blog on them. Of all the fight scenes, I am most familiar with this one, partly cause I wrote half of it, but also cause it's imp, doing a fantastic job writing some of my favorite game characters. Honestly the level of respect and careful accuracy she had for these characters was astounding to me. Its where I learned her philosophy that every character is Somebody's favorite, so every single one of them should be written with that care in mind. That is such a great code to live by when doing this kind of stuff, not only does it make the most people happy but it makes the fight itself all that cooler. I knew this fight was going to turn out amazing from that first beautifully written section she did with Red wizard and knight fighting one on one at the beginning. Honestly this fight is just so fun cause it has a lot of really humorous moments and a lot of really epic moments and not much in between, as to be expected from two groups of legendary warriors from 2 of the silliest games ever made. I remember my favorite part of the fight, It is that part where Green and Yellow Wizard are fighting Green and Orange Knight and the Wizards call down Meteorites only for the Knights to turn giant with there sandwiches and throw them back. That was amazing to me cause that was my concept, but Imp wrote it better than I think I could have and because of us working together it was better than the sum of it's parts.
#2. Jedah Dohma VS Lucemon:
Oh Boy, I LOVE this fight, It is amazing in every sense of the word, I was looking forward to it for months on end and even though it wasn't a collab it almost feels like one with how much effort I put into making the trailers, scoring the blog, making the thumbnail, and even laying out the Darkstalkers series, I really was that hyped. Lets be honest this is one of the best case scenario fights for me with having Jedah be involved, the dude it simultaneously a Fighting Game character (From one of my top 3 Fighting game series no less), a very dark Horror character, and a super powerful cosmic force, if you know me even the slightest than you know there was legitimately no way I wasn't going to love this on that alone. Lucemon is a great villain as well! Digimon has always been an insane verse so it makes sense that It can produce a villain cool, powerful and haxy enough to challenge Jedah in every way Imaginable. I am also thankful everyday this fight happened as I know research was really really difficult when Digimon is involved, especially in the higher tiers, like Jeez. The fight was by all accounts amazing, it took all my expectations and exceeded them multiple times over actually being a super unsettling dark cosmic horror clash between the two horrifying monsters that think themselves benevolent gods. I could not have asked for more cool stuff, the fight shows off nearly all of their abilities, their mindsets, and tons of fantastic dialogue. And Its got insane stuff we have never even seen come to fruition in the series, even going so far as to bring in Jedah's Shintai and Lucemon's Larval form. The Body count in this blog is enormous as these two monsters end up almost ripping apart creation itself in a truly titanic battle of Balance and Death. One of the biggest questions one might have is how on earth can these two unstoppable creatures even kill one another, Lucemon's immortality and Jedah's deathlessness making them some of the hardest characters to bring down known of, well If there is an answer, Imp was certainly going to find it, which brings to the ending, which is so dark and intelligent that I actually came back to it later and found additional meaning, it's just unsettling in all the right ways like a Lovecraft novel. Honestly this would easily be the number one fight blog on almost any list, if not for one more...
Organizing this blog, I had to make a lot of tough decisions for what made the lists and where they placed. The decision to make this blog number 1 was not one of them, it's the only one I can safely say I knew where it was going from the get go, as I would have to be insane to not praise the one blog that emanates pure Passion in every sentence. Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura, two of the 3 magical girl goddesses and easily the 2 most powerful characters in the magical girl genre, but which one of the is more powerful? Well one girl who loves both these series and characters to death, has asked and debated this question for well over a decade, and is here to bring us the answer, THIS is Sailor Moon VS Cardcaptor Sakura. The analysis is legitimately the most thorough and awesome analysis I believe I have ever read, I hadn't seen or read either series before reading this blog, by the time I got through the analysis I felt like i legit grew up with these series. Also these two have so many cool powers and impressive feats that you only continue to get more excited and hard pressed to pick a winner as it goes. Both these characters are amazing and thats only gotten stronger since I read the Cardcaptor Sakura manga due to her having similarities to characters I already love. The fight is, theres no way around it, it is a Breathtaking achievement, I cannot say I have ever read anything quite like it. She organized it into 3 sections like a Greek Epic series and It truly does deserve it. Its so well written from the whole intellectual hope and dreams vs love acceptance conversation the characters have throughout which is just fascinating, to the several fun cometic moments cause these characters in-spite of their power are still adorable sweet magical girl through and through. This fight is so amazing to include multiple perspectives from other characters in their series, battles in all four elements, traveling to other times, realities, dimensions and even dreams and not only doesn't drag but feels really fast paced. And the ending section, my god, the first time I read it I had an overwhelming emotional reaction, and to this day I still cry every time, writing wise the only thing I can compare it too is the highest tier of DC comics, like The Sandman or something, and I do mean that, you just read this Work of art of a fight scene, and suddenly you feel like everything in the universe is connected, and you feel a little closer to the world around you. My only regret is this is the last blog Imp made before I started making her trailers, this one deserved it more than any.
