On two other threads the discussion of mojo came up…an ephemeral quality of of a character which trancends strength, speed, intelligence, resilience, etc.
Whaty is the generally accepted definition of mojo?
As a vs thread, which characters have more mojo?
Batman vs James Bond
John McClane vs Martin Riggs
Terminator vs Robocop
Worf vs Chewbacca
Luke Skywalker vs Paul Atreides
Mickey Mouse vs Bugs Bunny
Freddy Kruger vs Ash (army of darkness)
Batman vs James Bond - Batman
John McClane vs Martin Riggs - Don’t know who they are
Terminator vs Robocop - Terminator
Worf vs Chewbacca - Chewbacca
Luke Skywalker vs Paul Atreides - Tied at zero
Mickey Mouse vs Bugs Bunny - Bugs
Freddy Kruger vs Ash (army of darkness) - Ash
A witty, erudite poster always good for a laugh, a bon mot, or shameless self-promotion.
McClane. (psst, Otto- Die Hard vs. Lethal Weapon)
Batman vs James Bond - 007, hands down. His entire persona is mojo.
John McClane vs Martin Riggs - Riggs. McClane has panache, but Riggs is mojoed.
Terminator vs Robocop - Terminator.
Worf vs Chewbacca - Worf. Chewy may be cooler to the fans, but Worf gets the ladies and can do it in style at times.
Luke Skywalker vs Paul Atreides - Atreides. Luke is about as anti-mojo as you can get.
Mickey Mouse vs Bugs Bunny - Bugs. Tons of mojo.
Freddy Kruger vs Ash (army of darkness) - Ash.
Whaty is the generally accepted definition of mojo?
A quality composed partially (but not entirely) of toughness (working through pain and hardship, that is, rather than simply avoiding it or being invincible; for this reason, physically powerful characters characters often have low levels of mojo), charisma, coolness, popularity, and winning ability. Mojo can trump all other known powers and abilities. Have caution though, mojo is not easily measured and often decreases and increases without rhyme or reason.
Batman vs James Bond
A tricky one. Bond has extreme amounts of mojo. Indeed, it’s arguably his primary personality trait and ability. Batman however, Batman’s mojo approaches infinity. He has more mojo than anyone in the known universe.
This matchup also illustrates a fact of mojo. Mojo comes in flavors. Bond has mojo of the “sexy”, “suave”, and “competant” flavors. Batman is composed mostly of “dark” and “competent” flavors, with a touch of “crazy”.
John McClane vs Martin Riggs
McClane. Why? Better villains. Standing toe to toe with an opponent of high mojo raises one’s own mojo.
Terminator vs Robocop
Here is an example of the mysterious nature of mojo. The Terminator is physically powerful, and nearly without personality. Both of these factors should work against him, yet they only add to his mojo! Robocop, not so much.
Worf vs Chewbacca
Not even close. Chewie by a long shot. Vicarious Han mojo, antagonistic mojo from Vader (another all-time mojo champ), cool growl. Plus, he wasn’t beat up every other episode to prove how tough the alien of the week was.
Luke Skywalker vs Paul Atreides
I don’t know Dune too well, but IMHO, Paul has low mojo. As does Luke of course, but Skywalker gets it due to the all important antagonistic Vader mojo.
Mickey Mouse vs Bugs Bunny
Bugs is the Batman of funny animal cartoons. No one is higher.
Freddy Kruger vs Ash (army of darkness)
Freddy has more mojo than many villians of his genre, it is true. But Ash has Bond-level mojo, albeit of the “tough” and “crazy” flavors. Plus, in case of a draw (which this isn’t), heroic mojo trumpos villainious mojo, which is almost aalways fleeting in the end.
Picard vs. Xavier?
Xavier. Going mentally toe-to-toe with Magneto vastly increases his mojo.
Interesting theorum. So in, say, a fantasy literature context, Corwin of Amber would have a fairly large amount of mojo, while Rand Al’Thor would have virtually none?
My challenge is thus:
Roland Deschain of Gilead
vs.
Sir Samuel Vimes of Ankh-Morpork.
Sheeeee-IT…the concept of mojo is awesome, ain’t it!
In all fiction, which character has the MOST mojo of them all?
Cecil just has to be in the running for the person with the largest amount of mojo.
Virtually?
I’d say it’s because Zelazny knew how to tell a story and wasn’t afraid to make his protagonist dark. Jordan OTOH is an irredeemable hack.
The God of the Old Testament. Makes the God of the New Testament look like a total pussy.
Bugs Bunny may have the most old-school cartoon mojo, but I claim that Samurai Jack is the king of the new guard.
And while Batman has buckets of mojo, it’s split between Batman (the ‘crazy’ and ‘badass’ flavors) and Bruce Wayne (‘suave’ and ‘rich’). Bond’s mojo is is undiluted.
Jack was tons of Mojo, but he isn’t a funny animal, is he? (Except for that episode where he turned into a chicken, but that decreased his mojo) Bugs rules the roost of comedic characters.
The highest mojo of all animated characters is, of course, the Dini/Timm animated Batman.
Pah! “Bruce Wayne” is an act. He has very little (if any) real mojo of his own. That’s the point, as nobody would believe that that spoiled trust fund baby is capable of such high mojo. Besides, even if his mojo was split, he’d still beat Bond. Batman just has that much mojo.
He has more mojo than any charcter in recorded fiction. Yes, more than God. God, being omnipotent, has very, very little mojo.
I love this concept. I would add that mojo is inescapably tied to living beings. Or even the formerly living. Robots just ain’t got it! For that reason, I must go on record as the only one in this thread to pick Robocop over the Terminator. Termie’s just a robot; he may SIMULATE having tons of mojo, but it ain’t real mojo. Robo wins by default.
I would also add that generally mojo cannot be self-proclaimed. The louder one talks about ones own mojo, the more you don’t have it. And yet, somehow, Austin Powers does undeniably have a certain mojo …
Oh, and as to Roland Deschain of Gilead vs. Sir Samuel Vimes of Ankh-Morpork. Well, I must admit to being only vaguely aware of Roland, since I’m not really a big Stephen King fan so I can’t really do a fair comparison. But I find it hard to believe that in the fantasy world crime-fighting arena that anyone could possibly have more mojo than my man Sam Vimes.
And as to greatest mojo of all time, so far I’m with Otto on OT Yahweh. Beats Cthulhu by a mile. Remember, OT Yahweh isn’t the omnipotent invincible God of today; while very powerful he did have his weaknesses – look at the constant setbacks of his people.
Huh. How much mojo does it take to kill off a thread?
God isn’t omnimojent?
The Terminator is alive, well, parts of him, just like Robo. By the end of T2, he was most definitely “alive”.
I do not concede that non-living beings cannot have mojo. Besides the Terminator, other mojo’d artificial beings include Hal 9000, Data (albeit not very much), and the replicants from Blade Runner. Any conscious being can have mojo.
Addendum: Agent Smith is another high mojo artificial character.
Of course, all main characters have this, but IMHO you also get bonus mojo points for:
(I call it the “The Story Gods Love You” effect. Because a lot of times the character is bailed out by basically what amounts to some very thinly disguised Deus Ex Machina.)
I think mojo has two important components: sex appeal and being the winner in the particular contest under scrutiny.