Scenario: The T-800 hunts Tarzan

[Jcogginsa]

Skynet dispatches a T-800 Terminator to hunt down Tarzan, specifically the version seen in the original novels.

The resistence sends back someone to warn Tarzan, however due to the nastyness of the Jungle he's only able to give out a single dying speech's worth of info before passing away fron illness. Tarzan will receive this warning a few hours prior to the Tarminator's arrival

The Terminator must source any weapons from the area and time period Tarzan hangs out in.

[The MunchKING]

I don't think poison arrows are going to do much to a Terminator.

That said if the T-800 starts in a major enough town that it can stock up on guns... Well it's still not got a GREAT chance. Arnie was all "Spray and Pray" whenever the target was moving, and with the accuracy of old school blunderbusses, you really don't want anything less than a perfectly aimed shot.

[Muadib]

RIP T-800.

Tarzan's feats in the novels are nuts. Breaking a croc's neck with a head lock. Killing a man with a single back hand. Tackling a charging elephant, Using stone statues in melee.

His aim dodging was batman level at least, with him dodging fire from what i must assume to be vickers machine guns.

Add his stealth skills, overall intelligence, and animal friends watching his back, i pity the t-800.

I would also like to point out that when the Yautja came to Africa, Tarzan hunted them....( A slight exaggeration)

[Captain Smith]

I don't think poison arrows are going to do much to a Terminator.

That said if the T-800 starts in a major enough town that it can stock up on guns... Well it's still not got a GREAT chance. Arnie was all "Spray and Pray" whenever the target was moving, and with the accuracy of old school blunderbusses, you really don't want anything less than a perfectly aimed shot.

T-800 was not in a situation (the police station) where precisely aimed fire was needed. Tarzan's time period had plenty of very accurate rifled arms. I'm sure (but without feats) that T-800 could aim a precise shot. A robot's calculation ability would probably lead to more accurate shooting than that of a human, esp. on calculation of movement corrections.

[BitVyper]

RIP T-800.

Tarzan's feats in the novels are nuts. Breaking a croc's neck with a head lock. Killing a man with a single back hand. Tackling a charging elephant, Using stone statues in melee.

His aim dodging was batman level at least, with him dodging fire from what i must assume to be vickers machine guns.

Add his stealth skills, overall intelligence, and animal friends watching his back, i pity the t-800.

I would also like to point out that when the Yautja came to Africa, Tarzan hunted them....( A slight exaggeration)

Goddamn. I was gonna come in here and say that a Terminator on foot in like, coastal African rainforest may actually have a bunch of problems, but maybe that's not actually necessary? Like how big stone statues are we talking about here?

Still gonna say that I think rainforest is probably a *terrible* environment for a Terminator to be in. Like not that he's not waterproof or anything, but you've got high canopies Tarzan gets around easily whereas while a T-800 can probably climb the larger trees just fine, he's probably not brachiating or swinging around on vines, and there's places where he might just sink right into the ground. The classic T-800 had trouble finding a Sarah Connor who was in the phone book, and the early 1900s African rainforest is both very large and not exactly mapped with any precision, so he's basically reduced to kind of just... looking around. For a Tarzan who knows he's looking. Any damage he *does* take is likely to be exacerbated by the environment just because he's going to spend so much time there. Again, not saying that the guy breaks down from a little water, but months of high humidity and dirt and bugs trying to nest inside him are going to make any damage to his skin a bigger liability. Hell, his skin *is* living skin, so various parasites may *actually* become a problem for maintenance of it. I'm pretty sure there's botflies there. I'm certain*something* is laying eggs in him before this ends. Also any weapons he *does* get are not going to last very long. Especially like, early 1900s guns.

But yeah, it sounds like this Tarzan might be able to just go guerilla/gorilla style on him.

[Muadib]

Goddamn. I was gonna come in here and say that a Terminator on foot in like, coastal African rainforest may actually have a bunch of problems, but maybe that's not actually necessary? Like how big stone statues are we talking about here?

Still gonna say that I think rainforest is probably a *terrible* environment for a Terminator to be in. Like not that he's not waterproof or anything, but you've got high canopies Tarzan gets around easily whereas while a T-800 can probably climb the larger trees just fine, he's probably not brachiating or swinging around on vines, and there's places where he might just sink right into the ground. The classic T-800 had trouble finding a Sarah Connor who was in the phone book, and the early 1900s African rainforest is both very large and not exactly mapped with any precision, so he's basically reduced to kind of just... looking around. For a Tarzan who knows he's looking. Any damage he *does* take is likely to be exacerbated by the environment just because he's going to spend so much time there. Again, not saying that the guy breaks down from a little water, but months of high humidity and dirt and bugs trying to nest inside him are going to make any damage to his skin a bigger liability. Hell, his skin *is* living skin, so various parasites may *actually* become a problem for maintenance of it. I'm pretty sure there's botflies there. I'm certain*something* is laying eggs in him before this ends. Also any weapons he *does* get are not going to last very long. Especially like, early 1900s guns.

But yeah, it sounds like this Tarzan might be able to just go guerilla/gorilla style on him.

I may be misremembering the stone statue thing a bit, he picks up a human sized statue and throws it tho. Lifts a 200 pd torso sized rock over his head one handed and keeps it there. Tackling an Elephant is the one that raised my eyebrows.

[BitVyper]

See, just knowing the environment and being able to move around a jungle about as effectively as Spider Man moves around downtown NYC, I figure he's probably conservatively able to move ten miles for every one that the Terminator can, as well as stay in places where it is functionally impossible for the Terminator to find him. It's not exactly an easy environment to get a big fire going in either, and we're early 1900s so it's not like it can steal a plane and start dropping large scale defoliants or something. It's still a relentless hunter and Tarzan probably doesn't want to live like that, but with that much advantage, if he's remotely smart (which like I don't know Tarzan, but given the nature, genre, and era of the story, I'm kind of assuming his intelligence is emphasized as a humanist thing), he should be able to pretty easily lead it around by the nose into pretty much anything he wants. Take it deeper into the jungle where it can't easily repair itself or replace guns that are in bad shape from being carried around the jungle, and can't easily find its way out, trap it in any number of ways. Yeah he probably can't put it somewhere that it can't get out of, but all this will wear it down. Though a decent enough pit trap might effectively disable it in a muddy enough spot, being as heavy as it is. If he's strong enough to one hand two hundred pound rocks, he could probably bury it in a way it couldn't escape.

Just looking at summaries of the books, this seems entirely in character for stuff he would actually do.

Edit: For the record, much as I'm increasingly convinced that this is just the worst possible situation for a T-800 to be in short of being sent to the bottom of the ocean or the sun, I actually really like this scenario.

[StupidMoniker]

if he's remotely smart (which like I don't know Tarzan, but given the nature, genre, and era of the story, I'm kind of assuming his intelligence is emphasized as a humanist thing)

One of the first things he does is learn to read and speak/understand spoken English from just studying a book, even though he doesn't speak any human language. Somehow, he is able to study the book and decipher its meaning. I think that would make him superhuman in intelligence.

[The MunchKING]

T-800 was not in a situation (the police station) where precisely aimed fire was needed.

I was thinking of the club, where a called shot to Sarah Conner would have actually been really useful rather than just spraying into the crowd.


And yeah, I only read the first Tarzan book and that was a long time ago, so I didn't remember any good feats for him, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't have good feats.

[Sharpandpointies]

Jewels of Opar, a bunch of highly athletic, strong warriors carry gold out of a treasure vault. Tarzan, however, gets there first and decides not to wait.

In the meantime he would carry as much of the precious metal to the summit of the kopje as he could.

Six trips he made in the five hours before Basuli reached the kopje, and at the end of that time he had transported forty-eight ingots to the edge of the great boulder, carrying upon each trip a load which might well have staggered two ordinary men, yet his giant frame showed no evidence of fatigue, as he helped to raise his ebon warriors to the hill top with the rope that had been brought for the purpose.

Six times he had returned to the treasure chamber, and six times Werper, the Belgian, had cowered in the black shadows at the far end of the long vault. Once again came the ape-man, and this time there came with him fifty fighting men, turning porters for love of the only creature in the world who might command of their fierce and haughty natures such menial service. Fifty-two more ingots passed out of the vaults, making the total of one hundred which Tarzan intended taking away with him.

So, he carries weight that would have 'staggered two strong men', for hours and hours, up stairs inside a mountain, and shows 'no evidence of fatigue'. And like, this is a looooong stair-climbing - he only does six trips in five hours. One would assume the majority of that would be 'up stairs, carrying ingots', because the return trip is going to be a heck of a lot faster.

It's pretty impressive.

Edit: Trying to flip through the book for other feats was painful, I'm not doing it.

[The MunchKING]

One of the first things he does is learn to read and speak/understand spoken English from just studying a book, even though he doesn't speak any human language. Somehow, he is able to study the book and decipher its meaning. I think that would make him superhuman in intelligence.

I mean Mrs. Tarzan knew she was pregnant when she started this journey. they might have had EZ reader type books to help the you baby learn to read if they planned on staying there for a long time.

EDIT: He didn't learn to SPEAK English though, he could just read it. He didn't learn spoken language until years later when a French soldier taught him French. Which if YouTube videos I've seen are any indication, IS a good indication of superhuman intelligence. French makes NO sense.

[Captain Smith]

If T-800 has time to gear up, it can carry maintenance and cleaning gear for 1900's firearms. Those guns are not trivial or primitive. Plenty of them were carried through Africa at the time and worked.

In the club, Ah-nuld used a primitive laser sight and luck saved Sarah. Today's are better but not as popular as Red Dot Sights.

However, given Tarzan's physical attributes, he can come up with something to take down the T-800. He might go with an Ewok two log trap.

[BitVyper]

Yeah but he needs to be able to maintain them over however long it takes him to pin down a guy who can massively outpace him in an enormous rain forest where the sum total of his navigational ability is probably going to be like, having a compass. The only way he can get more of anything is to leave. People carried guns there, but like they didn't just go solo into the darkness for months and months. They had groups and supplies and still had huge problems all the time, some of which are nothing for a Terminator, but others absolutely will be.

[Sharpandpointies]

I imagine getting trampled by a elephant might do some damage to the T800.

[Powerboy]

The implication is that the Terminator can only get it's hands on primitive weapons (the environment Tarzan tends to hang out in). Still, Tarzan most likely swings down from a tree and kicks it over a cliff with a really, really long fall. If one character has any chance of winning under any conditions, never underestimate having the advantage of knowing the environment versus not knowing anything about that environment.