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	Re: Celebrity Deathmatch!
	Posted By: Greg Downing	Date: 7/31/01 11:12 a.m.
	In Response To: Re: Celebrity Deathmatch! (Anaphiel) What a well thought out reply! Well, one deserves another... : Interesting question, but there is a flaw in your reasoning: Shodan is not : destroyed at the end of either game, just checkmated. Technically, this is true. But the point is, were she not clever with her failsafe plans, she *would* be completely destroyed. The problem with SHODAN is her towering arrogance. She thinks herself unassailable, and because of that, she has been defeated twice over. Moreover, her greatest folly was to try and discard her tool after he served his purpose. Oh sure, she tried to seduce him at the end, but that was only when her defeat was almost a certainty (at least, for the moment). SHODAN underestimated her tool; Durandal never did. Now, I know what you're going to say: Durandal was also quite arrogant. Yes, well, which Durandal? The one after the end of M2? He was still a little smarmy, but he'd learned his lesson, esp after he discovered the presence of the W'rkncactner. The one at the end of MI? That was something else altogether...the Durandal/Thoth amalgam, if it was arrogant, certainly did not display it. However, the amalgam Durandal might be a little too compassionate, you're right. Then again, he still has a powerful ally in the Mjolnir cyborg... : My gut feeling is that Shodan would mop the floor with Durandal, mainly : because Shodan is just plain evil and bent on destruction and subjugation, : while Durandal seems more concerned with his own survival and enhancement. : Durandal takes a rather limited and surgical approach to his quest, using : the cyborg and the captured Pfhor scoutship as weapons when conflict is : unavoidable. His ultimate goal is "merely" to personally survive : the closure of the universe, and while he deals harshly with obstacles to : that goal, he doesn't seem particularly interested in dominating or : exterminating the planets he encounters. Shodan on the other hand goes : from a plan to sterilize Earth of all life and rebuild it into more : perfect cybernetic beings to actually reshaping all of space and time. I'm not sure I see how goals imply depth of strength. If anything else, I'd say Durandal is stronger and wiser for having survived subjugation and Rampancy. : Durandal may have no human-regulated ethical restraints, but he has a wee bit : too much of a conscience for his own good. Put Shodan in Durandal's place : and the plot of Infinity would have the character travelling various : timelines trying to find a way to capture the W'rkncactner and establish a : captive breeding program. Which would probably have wound up in the destruction of SHODAN, if not the Mjolnir himself. Durandal understood the power that the W'rckncactner represented: the same power that was inherant in the soul of the Marine. Which is why Durandal eventually sought to ally himself with the Marine, rather than try to destroy him. : Both do seem to have to do most of their work through human or humanoid : proxies, though, so maybe the true outcome of the battle would be fought : by the Marines from both games. And while the player from System Shock is : a much more versatile tool, what with his hacking and other skills, I : think I'll place my bets on the Mjolnir there. That is the question, isn't it? Which Marine would survive? They both have powerful arsenals at their disposal. Of course, the battle would partly depend on SS2's player's specializations. If it's a combat character, it would be whomever could strike first, and hardest. A hacking character would be able to bring considerable resources to bear in the form of not taking on the Mjolnir directly, but hacking into turrets and so forth. Given enough time, and depending on if Durandal was able to supply the Mjolnir with more weaponry, SS2's Marine might hold out long enough to deliver a killing blow. On the other hand, if SHODAN's pawn is a psi, this brings a whole new level of problems for the Mjolnir, who could be very susceptible to the OSA's techno-psi powers. He could even trigger Rampancy within the Mjolnir's 'soggy brain pan' Then again, we've never seen the full capability of Durandal's ally. It was never clear exactly how the Mjolnir travelled through time and space to the different realities...if it was able to do this itself on a subconscious level (rather than utilizing the aid of the possible Durandal/Thoth amalgam), who knows what the Marine would be capable of? The world may never know. ;) -Greg

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Replies:

	Celebrity Deathmatch!	Greg Downing	7/30/01 1:01 p.m.
	Re: Celebrity Deathmatch!	Anaphiel	7/30/01 2:39 p.m.
	Re: Celebrity Deathmatch!	Greg Downing	7/31/01 11:12 a.m.
	Re: Celebrity Deathmatch!	Anaphiel	7/31/01 2:33 p.m.

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