Cool Versus Awesome

Both are cool, and their battle is awesome!

Samurai and zombies!? You don't have to say any more. I'm in!

—Spoony reviewing Samurai Zombie Nation

Pirates are cool; so are ninjas. So pirates fighting ninjas must be frickin' awesome! And why not make them all beat up some robots while we're at it? Oh and don't forget the zombies!

Related to the Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot and Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs, this trope is a case when two types of cool things battle it out. Unlike an Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny, this is not a case when two specific characters Duel to the Death. Though a battle can qualify as both, if the two characters are two different character types (like a wizard mounted on a T-Rex fighting a horde of zombies).

Bonus points if the two don't exist in the same time-period, place, or universe.

Fur Against Fang is a subtrope. Elves vs. Dwarves, despite how it sounds, is not; though it can be applied to whichever two sides are fighting. A Massive Multiplayer Crossover often invokes this. A Versus Title is a sure sign of the trope at work.

Examples of Cool Versus Awesome include:

Anime and Manga


Art and Images


Comic Books

Batgirl: (While being strangled by Dracula) "Hopefully you won't hold this against me."
Supergirl: That's What She Said.
Batgirl: You're funny.
Supergirl: I try.


Fan Works

  • Dungeon Keeper Ami features a sizable undead fleet in the opening stages of the battle of Dreadfog Island. Flying undead galleons and frigates, supported by twelve ancient death priests, pitted against airships. And then a giant flying zombie Octopus...


Film


Literature

  • The Dresden Files: a hundred points to wizard Harry Dresden for riding out on the back of a zombie T-Rex to face off against necromancers and their zombie armies at the climax of Dead Beat.
    • Plus several million for riding out on said T-Rex to the jaunty tune of polka.
    • Plus additional points for using a loophole in the series' rules against using necromancy. The Fifth Law of Magic prohibits raising the dead, but as Harry points out (to two people who could legally cut off his head for breaking said Law): "That only applies to raising HUMAN dead."
      • Further points because the specific skeleton is, in fact, Sue, aka the most complete T-rex skeleton so far found.
      • And sixty-five million bonus points for exploiting how necromantic zombies' power increases in proportion to how long they've been dead.
    • Along with a zombie T-Rex, Dead Beat also features ninja ghoul versus valkyrie security consultant.

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but Chinese throwing stars get you a dozen stitches.


Live-Action TV


Pro Wrestling

Tabletop Games


Video Games

  • As a general rule, Fighting Games exist to allow all sorts of martial arts around the world to duke it out virtually.
  • Ditto with Real Time Strategy games which features real world military / civilizations, such as Age of Empires or (duh) Civilization.
    • Samurai versus Vikings!
  • The Command & Conquer series have lots and lots of this, particularly when you get tier 3 you can start to pump out really awesome stuff like dual barreled tanks with rocket launchers, alien tripods with EMP and triple lasers and stealth robots armed with dual lasers and flamethrowers.
    • The spin-off Red Alert series takes the Rule of Cool and turns it Up to Eleven. Actual battlefield scenario: mortar-equipped hovercraft are launching parachute-equipped cyber-bears while getting shot at by dolphins whose sonar has been weaponized; the bears' mission is to take out a giant mecha factory before they get gunned down by a immensely-psychically-powerful Japanese schoolgirl who is being backed up by fellow young ladies in rocket packs. While on the other side of the map, amphibious destroyers are getting nailed by tesla coils and tanks the size of city blocks. Yes.
  • Plants vs. Zombies is about defending your house from zombies by planting cute plants. The awesomeness of the zombies rises as you progress through the game.
    • And for ultra awesomeness, the final boss battle is a freakin' huge robot piloted by a zombie scientist that only half of fits on the screen. On your ROOFTOP.
  • Darkstalkers mixes this with Monster Mash to be Fur Against Fang against Mummy against Frankenstein against Zombie against...
  • Assassin's Creed plot line revolves around the rivalry between the Knights Templar and The Hashshashin
  • The King of Fighters XI has B. Jenet, a Pirate girl vs. Mai Shuranui, a Ninja girl, which is quite possibly the hottest Cat Fight in gaming.
  • Scribblenauts allows you to pit nearly everything that's cool against nearly everything that's awesome.
  • Guilty Gear and BlazBlue. The former has pirates (in a raincoat or sailor-fuku), police (that're dressed in something like priest clothes), assassins, an American Ninja and a whole lot more. The latter has what is essentially the Joker as a Smooth Criminal, cat-people, cyborgs, vampires, a Mad Scientist and more.
  • Kongai, a superbly balanced online card game about battles involving Samurai, Ninja, Hot Amazons, Vampires, a Barbarian Tribe, Pirates, Knights, Robots and Witches.
  • Skyrim plot basically boils down to Vikings vs. Romans vs. dragons. There's also a bit of Ancient Egypt in there in the form of the draugr. What's not to like?
    • The player can become a vampire or a werewolf too!
    • The draugr are actually Nordic zombies that were said to retain some intelligence and were almost invicible. Thanks history channel and specials about zombies.
  • Saints Row 2 has a minigame where you're a Cop on a reality TV show, and you have to stop randomly generated crimes. One of them is to "Stop the Fight of the Century," which when you arrive at the checkpoint, you find out is a gang of pirates fighting a gang of ninjas.

"Attention all cars, this is dispatch, we have Pirates vs Ninjas, repeat, Pirates vs Ninjas."


Webcomics

  • The Adventures of Dr. McNinja has had, in no particular order, ninjas and a doctor ninja versus... robots, clowns, a flying bodybuilder, a giant Paul Bunyan who was really a child, evil ninjas, pirates, ghosts, Mexican banditos on dinosaurs, vampires, zombies, a unicorn motorcycle, a ghost wizard, someone pretending to be a robot, ninja zombies, more robots, zombie Benjamin Franklin, Dracula (Dracula also had a robot Dracula), a Danish 80s action movie hero and his ninjas, clone ninjas, ghost wizards, Mayincatec robot temple guards, future dinosaurs from space, a vengeful space ghost that explodes people, a samurai demon, sky pirates, a luchador doctor, and a king on a dirtbike. At any given point, those enemies may have fought each other as well.
  • The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob has had The Men in Black vs. prehistoric dragons from space and their friend the old lady in the flying Powered Armor, fighting over a bomb that can destroy the world.
  • Axe Cop has had the title character and his allies (including dinosaurs, people with unicorn horns, a vampire wizard ninja and his brother who's also a werewolf) vs. aliens, vampire half-babies, Humongous Mecha, flying books, Bad Santa...
  • The Dragon Doctors is about magical doctors of many different disciplines who have banded together, and they've fought against various equally unusual opponents. The docs themselves are a wizard (with healing and shapeshifting magic), a soldier/surgeon, a shaman/therapist, and a Magitek specialist. They've faced off against a horde of assassins, a serial killer who kills dreaming shamans, and Goro (the soldier/surgeon) is currently fending off an all-female Quirky Miniboss Squad consisting of a pistol-wielding shapeshifter, a mage in a ballcap, a female ogre and a lamia with a petrifying ray gun.
  • The "Ninjas vs. Pirates" wallpaper from the Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures download page is a uniquely Amberish take on the subject. There's actually a funny story behind it...
  • Saudia Arabia and Somalia's fight in Scandinavia and The World, considering that Somalia is a pirate, and Saudi Arabia is a 'ninja'.
  • Fontes' Rants: What if Chuck Norris and Captain Falcon had a Pokémon battle?
  • The Order of the Stick here joins the Pirates Vs. Ninjas issue.

Haley: Ah, Ninja vs. Pirate, the age-old debate.
Belkar: And by "age-old" ahe means "showed up on the internet like two years ago, at most."


Web Original


Western Animation

  • There are some storylines in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in which they fight alien dinosaurs. Robots and other mutants are also common foes.
  • An episode of Justice League Unlimited pitted Aquaman against Wonder Twins expies. This resulted in a battle in a Downpour-flooded office building, between the Prince of the Sea and Shifter as a swimming tyrannosaurus.
  • A recent LEGO line called Ninjago pits heroic ninjas (with cool tornado powers in tv spots) against armored skeletons that ride motorcycle-like vehicles.
  • There's one episode of Samurai Jack that's titled "Samurai vs. Ninja". And it's Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
    • Many of Samurai Jack's adventures invoke this trope: Samurai vs Viking Rock Monster, Samurai vs Blind Archers, Samurai vs Scotsman Barbarian, etc.


Real Life

  • Older Than Feudalism: The Battle of Zama. A climactic battle between two of the mightiest empires in history commanded by the two greatest generals of the Sword and Sandal era. On the Carthaginian side is the Magnetic Hero, Hannibal Barca. On the Roman side is the Cincinnatus type Scipio Africanus. Who will win? Rome. To put the Battle of Zama into perspective, you have Roman legions being led by an eccentric general who really should not have this position under normal circumstances versus the aforementioned Magnetic Hero leading a diverse mercenary army and War Elephants. By all accounts it was epic.
  • Waterloo, with the real-life (And significantly more Badass) Redcoat Army under the Iron Duke Arthur Wellesley up against the Grande Armee under Bona Fide Magnificent Bastard Napoleon Bonaparte (Who also happened to be l'Empereur) in the final battle of the 26-year long French Revolutionary wars.
  • Spiders vs. wasps. It can turn either way - both have species that prey on the other class, and can be very nasty for their size in general.
  • Octopus vs. shark. Toothy menace of the deep? Not so much.
  • Giant squids vs. sperm whales. Whales think large cephalopods make tasty lunch, but sometimes try to bit more than they can chew and a round of deep sea wrestling ensues. Survivors are marked with huge chains of scars.
  • USN vs IJN on the vast "un-Pacific" Ocean in World War II. They were by far the two most powerful navies in the world at the time, fighting the largest naval war in history.
  • The Coat of arms of Mexico Eagle vs. Snake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Mexico
  • The Battle Of Leuctra: The Theban Sacred Band versus The Spartans. The Thebans won.
  • Tennis rivalries - and sports rivalries in general - pretty much run on this trope. Federer vs. Nadal in the present and Sampras vs. Agassi in the past are examples. The 2007 and 2008 Wimbledon Men Singles Championship matches were noted for featuring two players in their prime fighting tooth and nail for every point.
  • The Battle of Stanford Bridge. Harold Godwinson of England and Harald Hardrada of Norway in the climactic battle of the Viking Age. And yes the English won.
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