#MakeThisBattle Feedback - 12th May 2022 (Patreon)

Good afternoon, ladies and germs - I'm Nice Peter! Welcome to another brain rattling edition of Make This Battle. “Ladies and germs…” somebody started that somewhere. It’s strange how some things take off and become a “thing that we’ve all heard”. Have you ever looked up the origins of “okay?” It’s wild. It’s like Victorian “lulz”.

Anyhoo (someone did that first too) as I understand it, today's selection of match-ups has a strong fictional flavor to it. That already has me very sceptical, but here we go….

Scott Pilgrim vs Jay Gatsby [submitted by Regal & MarblePipes]

Ugh…. scepticism endures. I don’t know why but I’ve always found every single thing about Scott Pilgrim to be one long cringe. I’ve never even seen the entire movie, only snippets, but I’ve never liked what I’ve seen. And Jay Gatsby… I’ve read the book, probably watched some of the movie, but never truly cared about the character. Bring me some Holden Caulfield, I’m maybe interested. All of that said, this is a creative matchup, both characters would probably be fun to bash around with. I give it a solid C-

Nostradamus vs Aleister Crowley [submitted by Cheske, Crabcakes125, & Oldendorf]

I’ve never fallen asleep while reading a matchup before, that’s a first! Who is Aleister Crowley? I’ve heard the name, but I'm coming up completely blank. I  shall have to head over to Google. Wow. This guy actually sounds fascinating. I am genuinely pleasantly surprised by how interesting this matchup just became. Super weird, but fun. Still not convinced it's ERB material, but I’d like to learn more about this Crowley fella. A flying B+

Patrick Bateman vs Norman Bates [submitted by Violet & Regal]

Oll Korrect, now we’re cooking with steam! This is an awesome matchup. I don’t know why, and don’t look too much into this, but YouTube algorithm thinks I want to watch deep dives on the psychology and filmmaking in American Psycho, and it’s right, I do! I think that shit is fascinating, I especially like it because it is a fictional story. What a twist, fiction really works better for me when it comes to serial killers in ERB. Back to the matchup, I still love it.  The visuals could just be so fun, so much to play with from both characters. Lyrically they are a nice even match, both intelligent, clever, lots to reference, lots to poke fun at. Losers who act powerful. I think this is really great, could fill a “dark” battle slot nicely.  A+

Boris Johnson vs Shrek [submitted by Abuck0310]

Haha! This list is well paced. The hits continue. This is so weird and dumb that it’s just kinda perfect. The thumbnail for the video alone might be worth it. I think most of England would enjoy this, or at least one Ed would, and a video that makes at least one person laugh really hard is always worth it! B+

Moon Knight vs Tyler Durden [submitted by Red Claw]

Hmmm… I haven’t seen the Moon Knight series yet but I hear it’s solid, or at least I hear people are making memes and videos about it, so I assume it’s at least fun. Tyler Durden is great, a little tricky to cast, and pretty hard to care too much about, but there’s something about the name that really makes me want to watch him do something. “Tyler Durden bakes cookies” I would watch that. It’s just fun to watch him talk about stuff. This gives me a great excuse to watch Moon Knight, and for a more thorough opinion. So far, I am surprised at how much I like it, just seems badass. B-

Nicholas Cage vs Johnny Cage [submitted by StarPower24]

Ha! Talk about badass. Yes! Yes to this. Yes to all of this. I don’t know why I love this so much but I do and I think other people would too. This has no consequence. It exists for no other reason than to be fun and funny and reference a lot of stuff. I think that taps into some inner longing for internet content that didn’t have to have so much weight to it. Just fun shit to watch on YouTube. A+ for making me nostalgic for something that hasn’t even happened yet. I love it.

Michael Scott vs Tony Soprano [submitted by Neo]

This would be popular, funny, easy to understand. Two well known TV characters with tons of material, from long lasting beloved franchises, with very well defined contrasting personas. The research process alone would be a lot of fun. What’s not to like? The actual YouTube algorithm already seems to think I want to watch Tony Soprano clips, so maybe we should just do it! Great idea. A+

That concludes this warm and fuzzy edition of Make This Battle. The whole danged list gets a well deserved A. Well done. On behalf of all of us here at ERB, gazpacho. 

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Our manager HeadMonk offers his own thoughts on a couple of the match-ups...

I'm not sure why this round of MTB features so many fictional characters but that's just the way it shaped up. So, apologies to anyone who strongly prefers real-life characters.

I actually bought the Scott Pilgrim six book collection recently and I read the first book in no time at all. It's light hearted fun, a little one note in it's concept & ideas; but I can see why its been a popular franchise and I'm looking forward to reading the rest. But, I am still struggling to see this as a matchup for 2022 or beyond. It just feels 10 years too late. Maybe the upcoming Netflix anime series will reignite Pilgrim's chances.

I watch any Nicholas Cage films I come across. There are loads of bad ones of late. He churns them out but they are a guilty pleasure that I enjoy. It seems Johnny will feature in the next "Mortal Kombat" movie so that is helpful. I guess finding someone to portray Cage, other than Nicholas himself, would be the tricky part. Maybe this is one matchup were I wouldn't mind a real life person performing as themselves. It'd suit the whole Cage aura.

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Another round of MTB begins! But, this time it will be the 50th round of MakeThisBattle since we began this whole process! To mark this special occasion we'll be selecting seven ideas as normal, but Peter will then choose his one favourite idea of the seven and the person(s) who suggested it will receive some ERB memorabilia. Yay!

So, for this particular round of MTB there will be no theme. Your challenge is to simply submit ideas that you think will impress Peter! Fictional. Historical. Anything goes. (Please note: we won't select match-ups that Peter has previously spoken about at any real length)

Same rules apply. Seven match-ups in total will be selected. Three suggestions per person. You can post them in the comments below, email them to erbpatreon@gmail.com or post them on the ERB Discord server in the dedicated '#make-this-battle' channel.

Deadline for submissions is... 5pm PT on Tuesday 24th May.