Conan the Barbarian vs Miyamoto Musashi

[Shai-Hulud]

Robert E. Howard's barbarian warrior (book version) vs the real-life, historical Japanese master.

Each have their two most favored type of blades, katana and wakizashi for Musashi, whatever for Conan (I think he prefers a longsword).

Standard arena match.

[The Arbiter]

I cant imagine any real world martial artist could possibly compete with a fictional monster like Conan.

I'm not super familiar with Conan, but people have said the dude would stomp all the top guys from GoT as a starting point.

A lot of "real" Musashi stuff has been heavily romanticized.

[Totoro Man]

it's not that Musashi wasn't a great martial artist... but you'd have to be comic book peak human to stand a good chance against Conan. and by 'peak human' I actually mean people who are capable of bench pressing grizzly bears and drop kicking mountain lions!

you could probably throw the historical Miyamoto Musashi, Hans Talhoeffer, and Jerónimo Sánchez de Carranza at Conan all at the same time and he'd win the majority. and these are three of the most famous, badass sword fighting martial artists of the last 1000 years. the biggest problem is that 'historical people' are still limited to what the human body can realistically do w/o performance enhancing drugs, etc. when you send them up against a blatantly superhuman character like Batman, Conan, or Daredevil they usually get rolled up like an old newspaper and trashed.

if you search through the dozens of manga versions of Musashi you could probably find a better match-up than by using the historical figure. somebody more knowledgeable of his manga treatments could help you out on that score.

[Shellhead]

I'm actually currently reading Go Rin no Sho for the first time right now. Musashi is impressive for our real world, but Conan stomps him with a wide range of preposterous feats. Musashi's best chance would be if he had two swords and Conan was unarmed, but Conan would probably still win.

[The Arbiter]

I did actually read some Vagabond back in the day.

In it, Musashi is portrayed as having freak strength. Like toss an 80lbs rock 30 feet with one hand kinda strength. Smash through katanas and the helmets behind them with one cut sorta strength.

He was also fast enough to out draw a dude capable of cutting a flower stem clean in half twice before it hit the ground from being dropped. Dont remember many other feats though.

[Sharpandpointies]

Real-world Musashi shouldn't be taking this; very much the underdog.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

Real-world Musashi shouldn't be taking this; very much the underdog.

Not with his Glorious Nippon Steel™. Knowing him, he'll take the Katana and knock Conan's nosebone into his brain.

[GenghisDon]

I like to give real the win over fictional, but if taken seriously, Conan.

Give Musashi a pair of Katana, Katana & Wakizahi or Katanna & Jitte...because THAT was his famous paired sword use. For Conan it doesn't matter too much which "medieval" weapons he is given, but a broadsword & dirk is the book versions most common. Musashi would have an armament/skill edge in those cases, although a basket hilt is pretty major vs nearly guard-less Japanese weapons. Still the greatest swordsman used the second sword for DEFENSE, was good at THROWING wakazashi, and the Jitte is a full on defense weapon...so Conan would no doubt learn to respect him. Musashi was bad ass with a pair of wooden practice Katana (Bokken), but he had best not go there vs Conan...

Again real>fiction, but mongoose quick reactions on a near giant (reach) with "peak human" strength & stamina, combined with vastly more combat experience (60 death duels is insane in real life, but it's Conan's 20th birthday; for Conan a death duel is called "another day" )...makes Conan victorious more often than not. Oh, and one more problem for Musashi...you specified BOOK Conan, and he, unlike comic book or movie Conan, wears the best armor he can get. If Musashi is also the first Japanese person to encounter full plate armor, well, this becomes so unfair I'd think/hope Conan would just subdue him if they are forced to fight for arena combat amusement.

I prefer to think they both survive, then team up & escape to slaughter you for placing them in this arena, dishonorable dog!

[jetengine]

Genghis is right. The duel ends with them both bloody and Conan with the advantage before the ******* Wizard/Noble who set this up drunkenly laughs and explains his subterfuge. The two look at each other, slowly nod and then slaughter their way out whilst killing the Wizard/Noble

[Güicho]

Conan the Barbarian vs Miyamoto Musashi

What about Conan the Comedian vs Steven Ho

[GenghisDon]

Genghis is right. The duel ends with them both bloody and Conan with the advantage before the ******* Wizard/Noble who set this up drunkenly laughs and explains his subterfuge. The two look at each other, slowly nod and then slaughter their way out whilst killing the Wizard/Noble

Glad you liked that!

[Sharpandpointies]

Well, it's a standard arena match, so as amusing as that might be, it's not happening. Basically, it's 'Bloodlust on, Arena, start 100' distant'. Conan retains ridiculous stats and feats compared to real world Musashi, and thus murders him.

Not with his Glorious Nippon Steel™. Knowing him, he'll take the Katana and knock Conan's nosebone into his brain.

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