Tetsuo vs Dr Manhattan

[Guest skadoosh]

Tetsuo, as he is at the end of the film Akira

 

vs

 

Dr Manhattan, as he is in the comic book Watchmen

 

 

They are fighting to the death on a planet identical to Earth but devoid of sentient life. They start twenty feet apart, facing each other. They know nothing of each other prior to the fight. No universe-destroying, they only want to destroy their opponent.

 

 

Opinions?

[Guest skadoosh]

And before it's suggested, no BFR. This is a fight to the death, or the closest thing to it.

[Guest Ruinus]

Dr. Manhattan makes Tetsuo explode.

[Ivan]

Kanedaaaaaaa!

Tetsusooooooo!

Kanedaaaaaaaa!

Tetsuooooooooo!

A live body and a dead body contain the same number of particles.

....

Tetsuoooooooooo!

[Guest skadoosh]

Dr. Manhattan makes Tetsuo explode.

 

... Then Tetsuo heals..?

 

A live body and a dead body contain the same number of particles.

 

You think either can actually kill the other?

[Guest sirmethos]

Can Tetsuo heal from being dissolved on a sub-atomic level?

[Guest Pseudonym]

 

A live body and a dead body contain the same number of particles.

 

 

This was always a weird line to me. The idea that a live and dead body have no discernable physical differences. Dr Manhattan couldn't pick up the cessation of brain energy or the non-existant immune system. It was a really, extremely incorrect thing for an omniscient being to say. I guess you could chalk it up to loose metaphor about his lack of caring about the human condition.

 

Dr Manhattan was cool.

[Guest Djgambrell]

Can Tetsuo heal from being dissolved on a sub-atomic level?

Surprisingly yes. He seems to exist as an incorporeal mind. Actually making similar bodies for himself to use out of anything he so desires. Be it concrte, steel organic or inorganic matter. You can't kill him physically. You have to do it on his mental plane of existence.

[Guest Formicidae]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't Dr. Manhattan literally obliterate him?

[Guest MarvelFan15]

This was always a weird line to me. The idea that a live and dead body have no discernable physical differences. Dr Manhattan couldn't pick up the cessation of brain energy or the non-existant immune system. It was a really, extremely incorrect thing for an omniscient being to say. I guess you could chalk it up to loose metaphor about his lack of caring about the human condition.

 

Dr Manhattan was cool.

 

He was more or less saying that matter is matter. We're the same basic stuff that rocks are made of, we just have our components arranged differently.

 

And he's not omniscient, per say, only fully aware of what's happening in his own personal timeline, IIRC. If you met him on Tuesday, left, and then ran into him at Starbucks on Thursday, he wouldn't necessarily know what you had done in the interim, bar mind reading. If you told him, he would know, but it's entirely possible for him to be ignorant on some subjects.

 

EDIT: And yeah, he was. His origin story in Chapter 4 (I think) was one of the highlights of Watchmen, personally.

[Guest Pseudonym]

He was more or less saying that matter is matter. We're the same basic stuff that rocks are made of, we just have our components arranged differently.

 

Ah, I like this interpretation. It doesn't quite gel with the line, but I'll chalk that up to unclear writing.

[Ivan]

The writing is only unclear out of context, because it relies on the visual arrangement of the comic book panels to make sense. Manhattan says it to Rorschach after the masked vigilante breaks in to warn him, although Manhattan reveals he was already made aware of the situation by his handlers. His expression of apparent apathy is not- as the out of context quote would seem to suggest- a detached condemnation of the human race. Rather, it is specific to the topic at hand: Dr. Manhattan's pan-temporal awareness meant that Blake's deceased status is meaningless to a being who exists simultaneously with Blake alive in Vietnam in 1971, at Blake's funeral, and at the moment he's being told about about the Comedian's death. It's very Slaughterhouse Five.

[Guest skadoosh]

Interesting points...

 

Surprisingly yes. He seems to exist as an incorporeal mind. Actually making similar bodies for himself to use out of anything he so desires. Be it concrte, steel organic or inorganic matter. You can't kill him physically. You have to do it on his mental plane of existence.

 

Is Manhattan capable of destroying him on a mental plane?

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't Dr. Manhattan literally obliterate him?

 

Sure, and i believe Tetsuo could do the same to Manhattan, but they can both just reform afterwards.

[Guest force_echo]

Taking the quote out of context, it brings up an interesting debate. I think it's a inquiry on what exactly life is. If he's saying a person alive and dead has the same number of molecules, and if that's all we can comprehend life to be, then what makes him dead as opposed to alive? The problem with this is the obvious scientific answer is movement and interaction of molecules, which does not happen in the same way in someone who is dead as opposed to alive. But there's a problem with this too, this assumption, that consciousness is a interaction between molecules and such, when the same molecules stop this motion that constitutes consciousness, that means the consciousness is obliterated at death.

[Guest Djgambrell]

Is Manhattan capable of destroying him on a mental plane?

Not sure.

[Guest Emperor Joker]

Interesting fight but I'm pretty sure the good doctor has no resistance to telepathy.

[Guest skadoosh]

Not sure.

 

Then maybe it is a stalemate... Seeing as neither can truly destroy the other.

 

Interesting fight but I'm pretty sure the good doctor has no resistance to telepathy.

 

I don't remember Manhattan resisting any telepathy, because he never had to in Watchmen, but i doubt it could stop him. Could Tetsuo control his own abilities well enough to psychically control Manhattan, anyway?