User blog comment:Cfp3157/The Muses Sing of the Gods' Champion: Jason vs. Odysseus/@comment-4661256-20141222214446

Am I the only one who feels like Cfp is horribly misrepresenting Odysseus in this battle? Sure, he did tend to put his own interests ahead of those of everyone else, but it wasn't like he was a greedy tyrant or anything like that - he just wanted to stay home with his family. Like when the Acheans first came to recruit Odysseus before the start of the Trojan War, he feigned madness to try to stay in Ithaca - but was forced to relent when his infant son Telemachus was placed in the way of the plough he was using to sow salt into the soil.

Also, you clearly know nothing about Jason's myth, Cfp. Hera never canonically gave Jason a giant-ass brooch to use as a javelin. In the film Jason and the Argonauts, they raid an Olympian storage warehouse guarded by Talos, where Heracles finds a giant brooch and decides to use it as a javelin. Anyway...

El Alamein's Edges:

 Close Range: Xiphos vs. Gladius:  Well, I will admit, I did not know that iron was a "bad metal," but I guess that's the case (at least per Leo). And though the Gladius is a wee bit longer, that length could work against Jason the closer in the fight moves - and I guarantee that Odysseus will work hard to make the battle work as much in his favor as possible.

Edge: Odysseus

 Mid Range: Axe vs. Brooch:  Yeah, so canonical inaccuracies aside, the Brooch still sucks as a weapon. I mean, freaking Heracles had to use it. It's not like it's some random javelin - it's an improvised weapon, and one that's usable by like, the strongest man in all of Greek mythology (or one of the strongest, anyway). The axe is more reliable, more accurate, and was actually designed to be a weapon.

Edge: Odysseus

 Long Range: Odysseus' Bow vs. Random-Ass Bow:  Odysseus' Bow is better. Why? Because it's so effin' OP'd that only Odysseus can string it. And he's so prolific with this weapon that he can shoot one arrow through those tiny rings in the handles of 12 axes lined up next to one another. Although technically, this bow spent the entire of Odysseus' journeys at home in Ithaca, since Penelope (his wife) just brought it out in the palace for her suitors to string when they were trying to marry her... but whatever.

Edge: Odysseus

 Armor: Regular Armor vs. Regular Armor:  Okay... what? If you're gonna use Jason, you pretty much have to give him the Golden Fleece right off the bat. It's like putting Perseus in a fight without the head of Medusa. I mean, sure he can still fight without the Fleece, but it's his iconic armor. Anyway... they both do more or less the same thing.

Edge: Even

 Gods: Athena/Circe vs. Hera/Poseidon:  Screw Poseidon. He won't do jack squat in this fight. I mean, he spent the entirety of the Odyssey trying to kill Odysseus. That was 20 years of the god of the sea doing nothing but trying to kill one guy... while he was sailing in the sea. Major fail, Poseidon. Athena wins this for Odysseus, though. I mean Odysseus is already a tactical genius, but tack Athena's guidance on top of this and he's gonna curbstomp anybody he faces with no problem. Oh yeah, and Hera and Circe are insignificant afterthoughts.

Edge: Odysseus

WINNER: ODYSSEUS

When it comes to Greek heroes, Jason is like the bland Wal-Mart knockoff version of everyone else. He didn't do anything all that remarkable, and even what he did do was basically accomplished only by Hera holding his hand the whole way - and once Jason fell out of Hera's favor his glory days were over and he was killed by a falling beam from his ship, the Argo. And without the Golden Fleece he is royally screwed (I mean even with the Fleece he stood no chance but at least he'd last longer). Odysseus is too experienced, too smart, and is boosted by better weapons and a better tag-team of goddesses, making this battle one easy win for the King of Ithaca.