CaD: Travis Touchdown (GilgameshThePimp) vs RJ (Maestromage)

"It's Kill or be killed"

Travis Touchdown: The No More Hero

Introductions

Travis Touchdown is the main protagonist of the No More Heroes franchise. He's a low-life Otaku who spent all his days watching crappy anime & pro wrestling, until he was thrown into the world of assassin's when a con-woman named Sylvia Christel gave Travis the task of becoming the No. 1 ranked assassin in the U.A.A (United Assassin Association) in order to...enjoy the finer things in life, let's say. Travis is hot-headed, vulgar, perverse, and a total jackass at the end of the day, but his fighting prowess is certainly something to impressed by.

But before we truly begin, we need to establish 3 things regarding Travis' potential:

First things first, between the time when Travis killed Helter Skelter (the first Assassin he defeated on his journey, and brother to the man he's talking to, Skelter Helter), which took place before the events of No More Heroes 1, and this scene which takes place at the beginning of the sequel, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, Travis got notably stronger. This naturally means that anything Travis performed in the first game wouldn't be his limit come his current level (since Travis never got any sort of amp during NMH1, it's reasonable to assume to stayed roughly the same power level at the end of the game).

Next thing to consider is Travis' weaponry:

Travis has wielded many beam katanas over the course of the series, but the main 3 that are most relevant come from Desperate Struggle, those being the Peony (a behemoth which trades speed for range & raw power), the Tsubaki Mark 3 (reverse of Peony), and finally the twin Rose Nasty (a balance of the other 2 katanas). Naturally all of these beam katanas come with the obvious benefits that their brand of blade provide, namely the need for both heat & piercing durability in order to take minimal damage, and Travis has the capability to swap out any of these weapons at any point, giving him good options for just about any close range bout.

However, these blades don't change his capabilities so drastically that any feat he performs with 1 can't be replicated with another blade, though they are still worth considering all the same.

Finally, their's the factor of the Ecstasies, which are power ups Travis can achieve mid-combat. Now normally within the games, these effects happen randomly whenever he kills a mook, however due to the rules of this debate, in this instance Travis will have access to all of them at any point.

Having said that, I'll save most of them for if/when they are needed, and for now focus on the main Ecstasy which will help him in this bout, Strawberry on The Shortcake. This gives Travis a temporary, but incredible speed boost, which greatly helps his combat speed. Pretty self-explanatory, but deadly nonetheless.

Physicals

Let's start off with strength, as it's easily the least complicated part to discuss, whilst also being one of Travis's defining factors

For the feat I'll use to demonstrate Travis' strength is actually the final feat he performed in Desperate Struggle, where Travis jumps on to Jasper Batt Jr's mascot form & slices him clean in half in a single go, creating a giant explosion. And Jasper isn't some normal sized balloon, as in this form he's ginormous, easily building sized when compared to the skyscraper. Needless to say that this'll mean that Travis has solidly building+ level in terms of striking power, so any good hit will surely be quite damaging.

And in terms of speed, it's also quite simple, if requiring bit deeper of an explanation:

During his meeting with the No. 9 Assassin of NMH1, Dr. Peace (also known as Pastel Brankino), Travis was capable of being able to block his bullet. Simple bullet timing at first glance, but the fact that the bullet sent Travis flying into a stadium wall & denting it means quite a bit. most explosive pistol bullets fire at roughly around Mach 4 at their best, but none that I could find have the sheer destructive power that Pastel's bullet had, so it's pretty reasonably that it was quit a bit faster (given the way bullets work meaning stronger = faster), giving Travis a solid low-hypersonic feat. And remember, this was NMH1 Travis, a good step weaker than his current self, let alone when Ecstasies are a factor.

Their are other feats for both all of Travis' physicals, not to mention the scaling Travis gets from other characters, but this should be enough to show how powerful I consider Travis to be.

Initial considerations

Now whilst I wont be doing any direct counters in this opener, I do want to go over my initial thoughts regarding what my opponent has brought to the table & my initial impressions as to how this battle will go down.

In terms of strength & durability, it definitely seems like Travis has the advantage based on what my opponent has shown so far isn't up to snuff to Travis' feat against Jasper from my perspective, even with the scaling considered.

Speed is quite an interesting case, as whilst it seems like RJ is faster than Travis naturally (at least in terms of pure combat speed), his ecstasy boosts give him the speed needed to outpace RJ for long to where he can land a solid blow onto him. Although thanks to Travis' feat against Dr. Peace, RJ shouldn't be fast enough to blitz a ectasyless Travis.

Finally, in regards to Skill, I'll admit Travis doesn't have that many skill feats, so I'll concede right away that RJ has him beat in raw skill, however Travis' versatility in both his swappable nature of weaponry, other ecstasies which I have yet to go over, as well as already taking on Jeanne (the No. 1 Ranked Assassin of NMH1, and a purely H2H fighter), means that Travis does have his own factors that help him balance out this weakness, but this is certianly something that'll be explored more as the debate goes on.

That'll do it for my opener, the initial cards have been played, and let's see who comes out on top.