I was nearing the end of my recent “Avatar: The Last Airbender” rewatch this evening, when a moment of what I’ll not-so-humbly call “brilliance” came over me. Minor-spoilers ahead, so… if you don’t want “Avatar” spoiled for you, go no further!
In the final episodes of “Avatar” as Fire Lord Ozai sheds the mantle of Fire Lord in favor of The Phoenix King—a truly impressive moment of pure evil—all I could think was, “Hot damn! It’d be awesome to see the Phoenix King face off against Sauron from ‘Lord of the Rings!'” This thought unleashed the floodgates and versus/team-up images of characters from both “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and “Lord of the Rings” started popping into my head one after another. Ideally, at some point I’ll have the cash to convert all these ideas into commissioned pieces of art, but till then, please enjoy the mental image of these awesome match-ups!
- Phoenix King Ozai versus Sauron
- Uncle Iroh “versus” Uncle Bilbo
- Aang “versus” Gandalf The White
- Sokka “versus” Merry and Pippin
- Samwise Gamgee and Bill the Pony “versus” Appa and Momo
- Sam’s old gaffer versus The Cabbage Vendor
- King Bumi versus Saruman
- Suki “versus” Legolas
- Toph “versus” Gimli
- Azula versus Galadriel
- Katara “versus” Éowyn
- Haru “versus” Éomir
- Zuko versus Aragorn
And that’s just off the top of my head!
For the record, any time the word “versus” is in quotation marks, it signifies either some hilarious and fun comedic action or a friendly sparring match. For example, Uncle Iroh “versus” Uncle Bilbo is the two of them sipping tea and sharing some pipeweed.
Yeah, I’m a big nerd. What can I say?
If memory serves, my buddy Steve Sunu has already commissioned a few awesome “Avatar” team-up pieces. I wonder if those are online anywhere…
Now, here’s where it goes from real nerdy to hugely and obscenely nerdy. In the immortal words of Sticky Fingaz from Onyx,” Buh-buh-buh-but wait, it gets worse!” (Or, if you think like I think, better!)
As I was thrilling to the thought of what the above team-ups might look like, I started thinking, “Why do these two franchises seem to fit together so well in my mind?” I came to the conclusion that the fact they’re both epic sagas of good versus evil with ensemble casts is what made them seem ripe for crossover in my mind. From there, I began tossing around other franchises I liked that had obvious similarities and—of course—came to something I’ve joked about (and secretly—or not-so-secretly—wanted to see) for a long time…
(Spoilers ahead here too!)
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” versus “Supernatural!”
Oh man, you don’t even have to say it. I already know. At this point, my only saving grace is that I’m not writing the fan-fiction… But seriously, you could put together some fun, bad ass and pretty hilarious pieces of art with this one too! All these are equal parts action and comedy in my head.
- Buffy Summers versus Sam Winchester
- Faith versus Dean Winchester
- Spike versus Castiel
- Rupert Giles versus Bobby Singer
- Xander and Dawn versus Ellen and Jo Harvelle
- Andrew versus Chuck Shurley
- Wesley Wyndham-Pryce versus John Winchester (Ghost fight!)
- Angel versus Crowley (Or should Angel face off against an angel?! Gabriel maybe?)
- Willow Rosenberg versus Meg Masters
Man, oh man… ok, I should cut myself off here. I think I’ve filled my über-nerd quotient for the next year—at least—with this post.
Anywho… One day, an amazing sketchbook will contain all these tremendous ideas. Till then, let them live on in your imagination—that’s where the best times are had anyway, right?!
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How about Ginger versus Maryann in a desert island hottie choice battle? Or more appropriately Castle versus Columbo in a battle of top notch sleuths? Or randomly Mr Baker versus Mr Brenner in a battle of the LHS strongman coaches?