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VS Battle Toaru Forcesub: Johnny Garland

Johnny Garland from Shadow Hearts: From the New World replaces Touma Kamijou as the main character. The story plays out the same as in the Light Novels from chronological order from start to finish. Johnny doesn’t have Imagine Breaker, but Malice and Will empowers him. Johnny also has access to all of his Stellar Magic.

How does he fare?
 
Johnny doesn’t have Imagine Breaker, but Malice and Will empowers him. Johnny also has access to all of his Stellar Magic

I would say Johnny pretty much takes most of the series under his knee. Malice and Will is some sheer bullshit in the Shadow Hearts series.
Malice being the hatred itself and Will basically being Life itself.
Gonna be causing some people to go completely insane and losing their shit.
 

Irradiance

Slightly Above Average
What can this guy do? In stats and abilities.
Is this in character?
Does he have to resolve the problems or just survive?
In which sense does he replace Touma? Will others think he is Touma for this and stuff? What's his personality like?
 
What can this guy do? In stats and abilities.
Being empowered by Malice and Will lets Johnny manipulate those forms of energy to however he wants. He usually uses this to channel it into his knife, acting as a lightsaber. He can use this to transform into his Awaker form, further boosting his stats, and comes with a double-bladed lightsaber.

Malice has its own world/realm. When it influences people or creatures, it drives them insane and corrupt, eventually turning them into monsters. People with this power can use it as magic, like channeling it into weapons, firing energy blasts, opening dimensional portals, summoning monsters, healing and resurrecting people.

Will is the counterpart or antithesis of Malice that can be used to repel, negate and cleanse any power of Malice. Johnny needed this to get complete control over his Awaker form.

Johnny at his strongest is universe level and mftl+. The description of his Awaker form has the power to destroy the world, and his sister Lady almost succeeded in destroying the world.
Awaker’s description: Johnny who released the sleeping malice. It is a purely evil mass that has the power to destroy the world, Johnny has to decide whether or not he should use that power.

Awaker can do this shit.


The franchise does make a distinction between world and planet as Johnny’s ultimate weapon Cherry Bowie a short sword with enough strength to cut through the planet.
Cherry Bowie description: A short sword with the strength to cut through a planet. Nameless until now, as even the gods feared its power. On this occasion, Natan names it on impulse.

Johnny’s party member Shania's strongest Fusion form Tirawa, the sun spirit can call down solar flares from the sun.


His other party member is a Brazilian ninja Frank who gets a legendary sword Zondeek that was created at the same time as the world and can cut the Earth in half.


His vampire party member Hilda defeated her brother Joachim, a party member from Shadow Hearts 2, who created a pocket dimension containing countless stars inside his Sushi Restaurant.



Both of them can yeet people or monsters into space.



Joachim’s party fought against gods that can move quadrillion times the speed of light, and destroy worlds with a stray thought.

Is this in character?
Does he have to resolve the problems or just survive?
In which sense does he replace Touma? Will others think he is Touma for this and stuff?
This would all be in character, Johnny’s job is to resolve problems, survive, and hopefully get the best ending. He replaces Touma as in he takes his spot as a student, resident, etc.
 
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Stellar Magic uses the chart of the Zodiac constellations consists of elemental manipulation (fire, wind, lightning, water, ice, earth, plant, light, and darkness), imbuing with elemental attributes, immunity and resistances, gravity manipulation, time manipulation (more in slowing things down and speeding yourself up), healing injuries and curing ailments, resurrection, barrier creation, and status buffs/debuffs.
 

Irradiance

Slightly Above Average
Don't really get the "destroying the world is universe level, because the verse makes a difference between world and planet" argument.
However, if the guy is universe level and MFTL+ I see no point to this thread, as Touma obviously faced nobody in this weight class head-on.

Best one could debate is if he has the tools and smarts to fix the problems Touma solved. Like, can he negate the spells on Index? Can he prevent Gabriel from nuking Earth? Can he save Kretune? Would he save Carrier and Decomposer? Things like that.
 
Don't forget about the Ring of Judgement which truly is a canon thing in the universe which I believe governs Fate or something.
The Judgement Ring also has two personifications the Ring Soul and his daughter the Ring Spirit. Characters can also empower their Judgement Rings with a God of Creation, a Messenger of the God of Death, and Medusa.




Don't really get the "destroying the world is universe level, because the verse makes a difference between world and planet" argument.
It would be redundant if both meant the same thing. Especially when there are beings that can create a sun with planets gathering around and then makes the sun go supernova, manipulating and fucking around with the sun and stars, and nuke a galaxy. There are regular monsters in Shadow Hearts that are embodiments of stars, and others that survived an explosion of their homeworld that sent them rocketing towards Earth. The main antagonist Masaji Kato in Shadow Hearts 2 succeeded in destroying the universe through space-time by destroying the present and remaking the past by using the power of the God, Susanoo.

Best one could debate is if he has the tools and smarts to fix the problems Touma solved. Like, can he negate the spells on Index? Can he prevent Gabriel from nuking Earth? Can he save Kretune? Would he save Carrier and Decomposer? Things like that.
What sort of spells does Index have? How did Touma stop them himself? Can you give me the context of those scenes?
 
The main antagonist Masaji Kato in Shadow Hearts 2 succeeded in destroying the universe through space-time by destroying the present and remaking the past by using the power of the God, Susanoo.

I can actually back this up. Susann'O in the Shadow Hearts Universe can explicitly destroy and recreate the Universe entirely and to the point the heroes pretty much have to think of where they want to go most to "return home".
The game does not pussyfoot around it nor does it beat around the bush, it explicitly happens, it has that power... and the characters kick his ass and win.
And that's how Shadow Hearts 1 Bad Ending > Shadow Hearts 2 Good Ending > Shadow Hearts 1 Good Ending > From The New World happens canonically.
 
Here are multiple statements
Kato: ...Soul of the Ancient Gods. Soul of the Land of Nippon. Return beyond the Gates of Time!! Yoriwara, vessel of Yamato. I'll be there at its peak! 108 tolls of the bell. Space will be torn and time warped!
 

Irradiance

Slightly Above Average
What sort of spells does Index have? How did Touma stop them himself? Can you give me the context of those scenes?
Index has a spell on her that makes her unable to use magic and kills her should her memory not get erased once a year. To save index that spell needs to be lifted. Touma lifted it by figuring out that the spell is engraved somewhere inside her mouth and touched it with Imagine Breaker, negating the magic.

Gabriel is an angel summoned in WWIII with low godly regeneration. If not defeated in a manner that it doesn't regenerate, it will vaporize the north pole in an attempt to regain its power and wipe out a good chunk of Earth as a result. Touma defeated it by touching it with Imagine Breaker.

Fräulein Kretune is a weird immortal being. She has no real intelligence but instead has more something like artificial intelligence. She thinks just in terms of yes/no questions based on which she takes certain actions. By making that simple system more and more complex, as she continuously imitates and adapts to the world around her. She eats brains to gain knowledge, so she can be kinda murderous.
To save her, one must make her evolve herself into a form that is intelligent and non-lethal. Touma achieved this by enlisting the help of an enemy magician to create an artificial brain, have Kretune eat that and by absorbing the information making her adapt herself into a peaceful form.

Carrier and Decomposer are criminals. Mass-murderers to be specific. To "win" that scenario you have to inspire them to get back on the right path. That isn't easy, as Decomposer yearns to be corrupted as much as possible, while Carrier wants to proof that her direct and heartless way of doing things is the one that reaches the best result. She also is strongly influenced by her sister and competes with her in cruelty.
 
What sort of spell is it? Also, it depends on how potent it is. Johnny could probably attempt to purify with Will or remove it with Heal that cures status and Ring abnormalities like Seal (seals magic and special arts). Magic is very powerful in Shadow Hearts universe. Or if she does die, Johnny could possibly bring her back to life with Raise Up or Resurrection or using his Malice. His sister, Lady, could get the deceased back to life with her kiss. Johnny wouldn’t have to worry about corrupting Index if he could purify that corruption with Will.

Johnny should be able to kill it with his speed, and his Malice that corrupts the mind. Pretty much anyone in Shadow Hearts is able to harm souls. One of Johnny’s knives is able to cut spirit forms.
Oiloon Knife description: Made by Flagagh, half-man, half-elf. The blade is made from a special ‘Silver That Summons Death’ and can cut spirit forms as well as physical beings.
Or equip Instant Death onto his Ring Judgement.

How did Touma come across this enemy magician? Johnny could probably come across him with the same circumstances. Maybe Johnny could purify her with his Will. In Shadow Hearts, Malice is used to create a body with primal emotions, and Will is used to give the body a soul. If there is no other way to help her then Johnny would just kill her.

Johnny defeated a crazy professor and a serial killer, both empowered by Malice. He would have no qualms killing them both.
 

To get on this, An Archangel as Gabriel was at WWIII was nothing to the Meta-God at the end of Shadow Hearts and Yuri and party defeated that. A Seraphim is also a bonus boss in that game as well and is heavily implied to be very, very much up there in terms of power.
Then there's Astaroth, Amon and Asmodeus who themselves are some of the strongest beings in the series and the party in 2 canonically kicks Solomon's ass who subdued those 3 as well as every other known demon in Ars Goetia himself and created a whole new Magic from them. If anything, Gabriel would be mincemeat for Johnny as his power would be more than enough to rend Gabriel apart, especially with Malice useage.


Why exactly does Johnny NEED to win them over? Can they do something he can't? Or is it that Touma can't? Remember, Johnny can make sacrifices here and there if he's capable of doing the same thing they can with no loss.
And considering the Power of Will, he technically can just deal with Decomposer wanting to be corrupted and Carrier'd issue's as you can say that steps into the Realm of Malice, something Johnny can deal with without killing them and doing it without having to talk them out of it like Touma.
 
Here are some monsters that party members have faced in Shadow Hearts

Grail Gazer exists in another dimension and interacts with our world making it appear as if it exists in ours. They can destroy creatures that exist in other dimensions. So, their ability to hit intangibles extends to creatures that become so by existing in another dimension.

Graffias, the spirit, and embodiment of a star in the Scorpio constellation.

Aerolite survived the destruction of its homeworld, which sent it flying to Earth.

Pera-pera can grant bad luck or good luck, probability manipulation

Deep One lives in a world without time.
Deep One description: An apparition that lives in a world without time. A fearsome character whose only pleasure in life is to butcher and devour living creatures.