1. Medusa (Fate)
I don't care what any of you Fate fans say. Medusa is a great character that's highly underrepresented and a character I've really grown to like a lot.
For starters, let's just get the obvious thing out; she's ****ing gorgeous. Like, seriously. Nice body proportions that manages to be big without going beyond reason and everything seems to be balanced with each other. Also, those square-spahed pupils when she uses her eyes to turn people to stone are honestly really cute. Threathening, but cute. Her overall design is also extremely tame compared to some other Fate females while still usually complimenting her looks. And even for the outfits that are pure fanservice (like Extella's bunny outfit), it manages to not be distasteful because it's still tame by Fate standards. Just look at Wu, Scheherazade, Orion, Yorimistu or Kuro, the latter one being an actual child, and you'll see what I mean.
But what truly seels her beauty is how she doesn't even see herself as beautiful. She's extremely insecure about her appearance because her sisters constantly bullied her for it since, unlike them, she wasn't a loli (not even joking, Fate's Euryale and Stheno are lolis). That goes to my next point; her backstory. Oooooh boy, it's pretty messed up. Not the most messed up backstory (Sakura and others exist, after all), but still messed up. Aside from being bullied by her sisters for pretty much her whole life, cursed to become a hideous monster with an insatiable lust for blood by Artemis because she was jealous of her beauty, exiled to a secluded island and ***** by Poseidon, making her pregnant of a pegasus. And let's not forget being beheaded by Perseus too, which gave birth to said Pegasus. There's a bit more to it, like how Euryale and Stheno ultimately truly care for their sister and followed her, but that's the overall basic of her backstory, and it's pretty sad.
Aside from that, her abilities. Sure, they make her seem like she's really edgy, but when you take the time to look at that "edgy" stuff, you can find a good amount of references to her myth. For example, to summon the pegasus she got from Poseidon as a Servant, she has to cut her neck. That's actually a reference to her myth, as she was beheaded by Perseus, which led to the pegasus' birth. The fact that they went ahead and gave this little detail when she could've just made him appear out of nowhere like any other Rider and their mount just really stands out to me. Blood Fort Andromeda can also be some sort of reference to how her monster self basically ate people. Really, there's some good details that I love.
Also, her personality. Whenever she's with Sakura, she's like the best person ever. Zeb would probably instantly like her from that alone (shame the UBW route never has any of that, so he can't see it from the anime lol). Like a protective big sister, willing to do anything for the safety of those she deeply cares about and make them happy. Even when both had a crush on the same guy, she just did everything so Sakura could have him. That's some really good dedication right there. And again, it's really cute how in her earlier appearances, she was a bit insecure about her looks despite being freaking gorgeous. Nowadays, she seems more flirthy, so she probably gained more confidence. Actual character development right there lol
All and all, I just really like Medusa. There's a lot of other characters in Fate that I like, such as Cu, Gilgamesh, Iskandar, Heracles and so on... But Dusa's just so great to me and it's a crime that she doesn't get as much representation as some other characters.
2. Wade "Deadpool" Wilson (Mahvel, baybee)
What can I say? I realy enjoy the Merc with a Mouth. He's just so entertaining. Now, point taken, that's the whole point of him since he's basically a parody, but still, that shows it works lol
His fourth wall breaks are through the roof (or should I say wall?
), his sense of humor, his unpredictability, his insanity, his red spandex... There's just so much to love. I already liked him before the movie, but Ryan Reynolds just made me love him even more. He really has way too much fun with the role and it shows. And it makes it even better.
Now, I can already hear you. "Why are you bringing a guy who can't die in this? Didn't you say you wanted to avoid OP characters?"
Point taken, but really, the only edge Wade really has is that pseudo-immortality from his healing factor. He can heal and regenerate from virtually everything. But against an invulnerable Jason Voorhees, all that does is delay his loss. Besides, he could always be tied in a way that makes it impossible for him to escape. Not every loss is supposed to be death.
3. Link (Breath of the Wild)
This iteration of Link really grew on me because all the diaries, both the base game's and the ones in the DLCs, really fleshed him out. Not to mention all his animations and voice effects. Especially the cooking one. So adorable~
But really, we get a lot from him; how good he was before Calamity Ganon struck, how much he liked food, why he was silent. Actually, the mere fact that there's an in-game reason for his stoic facade is great. And I can relate so much to that reason. Stress is a horrible thing, after all...
But despite everything that happened, despite having already failed, he came back, prepared himself and fought Ganon again, and he won. He's a pure symbol of never giving up. And if you fail, rise back up and try again. It's actually very inspiring.
Oh, and as a side note, if you people can find translations of the Japanese Adventure Log, read them. They're utterly fantastic.
4. Specter Knight (Shovel Knight)
This is a character I actually didn't think much of early on, but once Specter of Torment showed up, oh boy. He actually became my favorite SK character because of that campaign. We got to see how life was from his perspective, and that perspective is far from optimistic. And it gave some new meanings from some of the things he said in other campaigns.
We also saw a completely different Specter Knight, the real Specter Knight. The one who regrets everything that led to him being undead, the one who wants to keep a promise he made to an old friend, the one who joined the Order of No Quarter not because he wanted to, but because he had literally no other choice, the one who... I'd rather not spoil that last one because it's endgame stuff, but... Yeah, I really liked him because of Specter of Torment.
"Oh, but Uni, now you bring someone who's already dead?" I mean... didn't still Shovel Knight nor Plague Knight, did it?
5. The Joker
Any iteration of the Joker works here, honestly. Except Leto. Leto sucks.
Joker's been a favorite villain of mine for quite some time. He's utterly insane, knows it and rolls with it, doing whatever he wants, whenever he wants. And it's usually bery horrible things.
Despite this, he's quite brilliant and he knows that no matter what happens to him, he wins. Either he stays alive and is sent to an asylum which he'll eventually escape from to do more crimes or he dies, which can make his killer cross a line they shouldn't have crossed (Injustice is the best example of this).
And he's surprisingly smart, capable of planning mass killings, designing his own killer gas, managing to get an upper hand against freaking
Batman every now and then...
However, he'd probably end up being another killer in the horror movie scenario, but whatever. Would just be more fun to watch.
As for who would win? I honestly have no clue. Probably Deadpool because healing factor (and being able to annoy the evil machete man :troll), but Link can be resourceful and is good at surviving and Specter Knight has a few tricks up his sleeve. I'd say one of those two for sure. Medusa would be the kind to sacrifice herself to give some time to everyone else. And Joker would try to kill everyone
