With the new Harry Potter movies showing up I'm really afraid that they'll try to do a Dumbledore vs. Grindelwald duel and it won't live up to the expectations.
So I wonder, in all media, from movies to books, what's your favorite wizards duel?
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With the new Harry Potter movies showing up I'm really afraid that they'll try to do a Dumbledore vs. Grindelwald duel and it won't live up to the expectations.
So I wonder, in all media, from movies to books, what's your favorite wizards duel?
doctor strange sanctum sanctorium fight is one of the best ones i see in recent times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cZqRzHnI8s
Avatar vs. Black Wolf
Now that's how you end a magical duel! :smallbiggrin::smallwink::smallamused:
Obligatory Merlin v. Madam Mim.
Either Kelsier vs. Bendal from Mistborn, or
Spoiler: The Wars of Light and ShadowArithon vs. Morriel when she attacks the Evenstar with an iyat swarm.
Harry Dresden versus lame-ass goth punks.
The Magicians of Caprona by Diana Wynne Jones. There's a wonderfully described scene where the two great spell-houses of Caprona end up in a full-on magical street brawl, where it's half-fight half-poetry/singing contest and deeply imaginative all-around.
Thirding this. There is something no end amusing about how that one played out. XD!
Also, given there involvement in how the following day went, I always kind of wondered if he didn't go and find the time after the fact to either run them down via magic and tip off the cops that they had thrown a bomb into his apartment (Which is illegal, even if it failed to work as intended.) after he'd told them to piss off (which is not illegal, even in Chicago, that I am aware of.), or if he went and found them and decided to give them a real magic scare since they could, technically, collectively, between them work up a stupidly weak curse at least 1 time, and that could, technically, be argued to get them counted as subject to the laws of magic. Which means Warden authority.
They knew who he was, more or less, so I rather doubt that he felt the need to track them down and explain that they just did the magical equivalent of threatening a cop. They didn't do anything remotely close to breaking one of the laws of magic, if only due to their utter inability to actually muster the level of power needed to do so in the first place, and Dresden doesn't like siccing the cops on kids.
Perhaps, but on the flip side, he might be willing to Sick Murphy on them to put a bit of fear in them going forward. They DID try to blow him and his apartment up after all. That at least merits a stern warning and a stern talking too and even HE would agree with that.
Also, as for the magical side of things, it wasn't for want of trying. And if they think they can threaten magical anything like that and hold there own, there going to die or suffer a fate worse than death at some point if they keep it up. Cause there are a lot of Sidhi, vampires and other magic users running around that just, flat, do, not, care, and will do it to them.
A little show and a little scare, and there far more likely to live long enough to maybe collect there social security one day.
And again, even if magic isn't a factor, throwing badly made Bombs into peoples windows is going to end badly for someone on one end or the other at some point if left alone, and he knows that too.
A Field in England. Black and white, no visual effects, and totally trippy.
SNL's "Duel of the Magi" featuring Harry Anderson vs Doug Henning.
Kelson's duel against Charissa in Deryni novel.
The Prestige.
It is actually exactly how I imagine a rivalry between casters would go, messing with each other constantly without going for the kill at any point.
First one, then the other.
Though as long as we're nominating Dresden, I'd like to submit the proper one in Skin Game near the end. As funny as the subversion was, he gets some really good proper duels in his adventures. And that one gets bonus points for doing the whole "turn your power against you" thing without any silly feedback loops that overwhelm someone making their head explode, or whatever.
Also, does the time when he redirected a curse attempt onto his enemy's minions count? Because I giggled off and on for a week straight after that one.:smallbiggrin:
The day Magneto got tired of Count Dooku and went to face him at his Tower of Doom was dope.
You can't trump cane-wielding geronto-wizards beating the Shire out of each other.
When two high level casters get caught in an Antimagic Field and then basically have a slap-fight for survival.
Standing here,
I realize...
!!!!!
:confused:
How do you know of this S@tanicoaldo?
but I saw it in the movie theatre when it was first run BECAUSE I'M OLD!
In other threads you cited Elric, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, et cetera, and now I'm frightened by how well you know my old cultural touchstones!
How much better than me you know Harry Potter and the Star Wars prequels seems to indicate a young mind, so just how do know the old stuff as well?
WHAT INFERNAL ELDRICH PACTS DID YOU MAKE TO GAIN SUCH A BREADTH OF KNOWLEDGE S@tanicoaldo?!
Anyway, I nominate Ged and his shadow self in A Wizard of Earthsea, and Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell not for the duels, but because those novels are AWESOME!
Strictly for the duels, Kel and Lila versus the White London twins in A Darker Shade of Magic.
That bit alone is worth the entire freaking series. It really is.
Hell, just as icing on top, they straight up call out that the entire freaking fight stops for a second to just look at what happened, because even in the lives of qusai-immortal hunters of the night, that just is NOT the sort of thing you see twice.
Spoiler: Dresden Files Book 6 Memory Refreshers. May contain spoilers.Ok, so, the plot of the book centers around Thomas Wraith calling him a favor from Dresden. This guy who runs a Porn studio that Thomas has some involvement with is having a problem. People are dyeing who work for him, in accidents, but accidents that are too spectacular to be natural.
Like, one person was Water Skiing, and a car had an accident on a bridge that caused it to jump the safety rails action movie style and hit her, directly, head on. Not the boat she was being pulled by, her. Stuff like that.
So, Harry figures out its some kind of noticeable ritual magic curse that causes spectacular and improbable and fatal bad luck.
There's a sub plot were Black Court Vampires are ambushing Harry here and there cause open state of war at this time.
So, middle of the book, there's a scene were Dresden catches Thomas up to what appears to be no good involving one of the women working on the set, and things this was a set up. This is compounded when Thomas's older sister shows up and has 2 guns drawn on Dresden form behind.
And then some Black Court Vampires show up with the plan of just killing all 4 of them. And that curse Dresden has been trying to peg down tries to rear up and hit the poor woman working on the set. So Dresden grabs her, and redirects the curse through her into him, and through him, he's able to throw it at one of the black court vampires.
The vampire stands there for a couple of seconds, get's a smug smirk, and goes to do one of those fifty foot Jedi Force Jumps at Dresden.
Mid Jump a 30lb Frozen Turkey falls out of nowhere out of the sky, decapitating the vampire and crushing it's entire torso, killing it instantly.
The Curse cause it to fall out of a cargo plain flying over head and land just perfectly to do that.
Everyone, all the remaining Black and White Court Vampires, Dresden and the civilian, all stop fighting for a second and just stair at this. And Dresden narrates that even in the lives of Quasi Immortal Hunters of the Night, This Just Is Not The Sort Of Thing You See Twice.
And then the fight goes back to happening.
SpoilerIt happens during Blood Rites. During the battle between Black Court vampires and Dresden plus Thomas and Lara Raith, a targeted entropy curse causes a frozen turkey to fall out of an airplane well above head, to crush Inari. Dresden redirect the curse to strike a vampire instead, resulting in a guided-frozen-turkey-missile raining righteous icy justice from above onto one of the poor vampires.
Oh lord, I forgot about that.
Laughing a lot right now.
Is the Dresden vs goths fight from one of the short stories? I'm fresh off a reread and don't recall anything like what is being described.