Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-14610890-20131216223649/@comment-11188061-20131217121008

My verdict is almost the same as everyone.

Ruby vs Pyrrha, Pyrrha would win due to:

1) Differences in experiences. She has actually competed in these tournaments and came out the undefeated champion. Ruby may be boss against Grimm, but that weapon of hers is actually a huge crutch against human or smaller-sized combatants. On the other hand she does train with Uncle Qrow, and her ingenuity in innovation is astounding, so we may be giving her too little credit in this regard. I doubt Pyrrha would give her a chance to pull out some crazy tricks though.

2) Her Semblance is practically cheat against any metal weapon user (though I think Weiss' rapier is special and immune in that regard, and Glynda's crop isn't metal). Just imagine her manipulating Crescent Rose and whacking Ruby at the back of the head repeatedly. It's like bullying a puppy.

3) Before I've theorized that Pyrrha has memories of her past selves, as a way to explain how she has such a perfect combat form and undefeated streak in tournaments. In that case Ruby really stands no chance unless she attempts a one-hit-kill with her strongest attack and her Semblance.

For Nora versus Yang, my verdict is that Yang would be victorious IF she doesn't intentionally tries to drag things out and be playful about things. The reasons are:

1) Tactics. In a straight up strength versus strength Nora would outlast and outmatch Yang hands down - not to mention Yang tires herself quickly with her Semblance (like when she fought the Ursi, she was actually in a pinch because she exhausted all of her Semblance at once due to a single moment of anger), which was why she always used it sparingly and carefully.

On the other hand, Yang was clearly the trickier out of the two, and in the Yellow Trailer she was shown capable of adapting almost instantly towards 1v many, 1v2, and 1v1 situations. That's some incredible combat capabilities. If Yang fights seriously Nora stands no real chance at all.

2) Speed. Yang is simply the faster out of the two, and Nora's weapon is at best clunky. She specializes against a huge-sized but slow moving combatant (or an extremely speedy but squishy as fuck foe), but Yang had both the endurance, the tactics and more importantly the speed to execute Nora in a heartbeat. No one can take a grenade launcher to the face, but Yang was probably the only one who can eat a direct blow, tough it out, and pull a risky-as-hell counter to come out kick ass victorious.

Lie Ren versus Blake Belladona. This is the part where I deduce differently from the others. In my opinion, Lie Ren is overall the better fighter and would come out victorious because:

1) Tactics and improvisation. Blake may be the bookish reader, but her fighting style and tactics are actually very simple. She relies heavily on her speed and reflexes to win a fight, but doesn't really plan things out well and was slow to improvise when placed in a desperate situation.

We clearly saw her problem during her fight against Torchwick. Granted, she was mad and hurt beforehand so she might not be doing her best, but she completely wasted her Semblance's greatest strength - faking and distractions - and did one straight dive after another directly towards Torchwick, allowing him to eventually figure out her timing and speed and deliver one of the most kickass counters out of all the RWBY fight scenes (better than Yang even). In terms of battle tactics and improvisation, Blake was even lousier than Yang, and she was perhaps only slightly better than Ruby was.

Like when she fought the Spider Droid, she just charged right up to the damn thing without any plan at all, and if it wasn't for Adam she would've been killed there and then. Her planning and improvisation sucked especially when faced against an unexpected situation, and that is always going to happen in a battle.

On the other hand, Lie Ren is the meticulous planner. During his fight against the King Tajitsu, his actions are calculated, planned, and if the snake doesn't have two heads he would've already instagibbed it with that dagger strike of his. Also, he never gets ahead of himself. Although he supposedly have delivered the killing blow, he did not let down his guard and managed to avoid an ambush from the snake's second head. His battle reflexes aren't weak either, as seen when the King Tajitsu tries to bite him and he managed to react with an Aura barrier despite losing his weapon. We can even argue that his reflexes are equal, if not better than Blake's.

2) Hesitation. There's a reason why Blake is, as one of the thread poster had put it, weak. She can fight well against an android or lifeless guardians, but when put against a living opponent she unconsciously held back and was not able to pull out her full strength. To Blake, peace is always the better option as compared to war, and it showed in her actions, her speech, and inadvertantly her fighting style. She was a girl who was forced to take up arms even though she didn't want to, and so even though she was talented her hesitation caused her to fight poorly.

Lie Ren had no such issues for now. He has an indifferent view towards almost everything except those that are personal. So if we say that he had to fight against his nemesis or hated enemy, yes, he mostly likely would screw up somewhere. But against Blake? Lie Ren has no such issues alright. His opinion towards Faunus in general was just plain indifference - it did not matter to him, and he has no emotional attachments in that regard. He will be able to pull out his full strength and defeat Blake.

3) Killer move. Lie Ren has a Qi Strike that absolutely has the capability to one-hit-kill any one of his opponents if he hits them. Blake's Semblance is more of an assassination/escape kind of technique that just fails if she couldn't land that first surprise attack in successfully (Roman read it and countered it in seconds) because even though she's fast, her movements are relatively straightforward and lacked some serious variation. Like, she didn't even bother varying her speed! Blake's absolutely not pulling out the full advantage of her Semblance, whereas Lie Ren most likely can.

Lie Ren is likely Blake's worst opponent out of all people simply because he's almost as fast as her, he has better planning and battle reflexes, and he has eyes just as keen. Blake on the other hand, has only one best shot. The moment her first and best surprise strike fails against Lie Ren, she's automatically put at a huge disadvantage. The longer the battle drags on, the worse it's going to get for Blake, and while she might be able to outlast him I doubt that would work due to this being a tournament setting. The time limit would probably be at most 2 or 3 minutes.

As for Weiss versus Jaune, well, Weiss is going to win. However!

Weiss is going to severely underestimate Jaune's strength. She would not expect his growth at all after his constant training with Pyrrha, so Jaune probably has one chance to pull off a complete surprise turnaround against the 'exceptional' Huntress trainee. I doubt that Weiss would lose, but Jaune would manage to get a hit in and perhaps even come this close to beating Weiss and shocking her to the core, thus officially triggering Weiss Schnee's main character development story. She would thrash him later on of course, but yes... that one hit she suffered against the absolute weakest warrior in Beacon.

Oh man. I can't wait already.