Who would win?

[xiphias]

In a fight, who would win: Mowgli, (the Kipling version, not the Disney version), or Tarzan?

I'm thinking Mowgli. Mowgli, at seventeen, was full-grown, and every bit as physically tough as Tarzan, but I think he was smarter. Tarzan was Lord of the Jungle, and so was Mowgli, but Tarzan really just had animals that obeyed him, while Mowgli had actual intelligent friends who loved him and cared about him, along with obeying him.

Also, well before he reached his full growth, Mowgli managed to kill the man-eating tiger Shere Kahn. As a full-grown man, Mowgli could have just killed Shere Kahn in hand-to-hand combat, but, at twelve, when he was too small to do so, he used a more effective weapon: a stampeding herd of cape buffalo. He lured the tiger into a steep canyon, then led a stampede through. The biggest problem with the plan was finding enough of the tiger at the end to skin him and wear his skin as a cloak, like he boasted he would.

I mean, what weapons does Tarzan have? He has a knife, and so does Mowgli. But Mowgli uses weapons like "diplomacy", "understanding of the rules of the Law of the Jungle". If Mowgli wants elephants to destroy a village, he calls a meeting, and explains to the elephants why they should do it, and why it is allowable by the Law of the Jungle.

Tarzan, however, doesn't really have the ability to call a board meeting of the most powerful beings in the jungle. So I think that, while they're both physically tough and can speak the language of the jungle beasts, Mowgli would win, because he actually has stuff to SAY to the jungle beasts, and Tarzan, mostly, doesn't.

Comments

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Is your Tarzan the Burroughs version or the Hollywood version? Because Hollywood!Tarzan could probably take book!Mowgli, but book!Mowgli could certainly take book!Tarzan.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I think that Hollywood!Tarzan is just not as bloodthirsty as either book!Tarzan or book!Mowgli, so I think that, actually, the movie versions of BOTH would be totally outclassed by the book versions. Not saying ANYTHING against Johnny Weissmuller, but still. . .

[phantom_wolfboy]

Well, when these questions used to come up on the usenet superhero groups, it would usually end with someone pointing out that it depends on who was writing the story. :)

That said, I think they would fight to a draw in their first encounter, and then team up and fight the real villain of the piece.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I want to read that story.

I wish I had time to write that story.

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

This is fascinating, but now it makes me think about what it would be like if Mowgli fought Aquaman.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Mowgli's animals are intelligent; Tarzan's are not. This is an imbalance not attributable to the character, but rather a part of his world.

Have you seen the FABLES Mowgli? He defeats a wolf chief in naked single combat. He suffers from relatively thin hide and no claws or sharp teeth, but he has HANDS and knows how to use them.

[ailbhe]

Aaaoooaaaeeaaaoowaaaaeeeeaaaaaoooaaaa!

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

No, I'ma give it to Tarzan, for many of the same reasons you mention. Tarzan gives orders, and they're followed; Mowgli has to persuade and cajole. The military structure is going to be far more effective in a battle.

Also: Tarzan has rope and a mean lassoing ability. No, really; he figured out how to weave rope from vines and grasses and throw a lasso in Book One. Distance attacks are an advantage!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on this - but then, I think the distinctions you draw are inherent. On the one hand we have Kipling, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature; on the other hand Burroughs, who, um, didn't.

Good books are better. It's a rule.

[felis-sidus.livejournal.com]

When you think of Tarzan, are you considering all the books or only the first one? It's been so long since I read them that I'm extremely foggy on the details, but I seem to recall that Tarzan's relationships with both animals and humans evolved over the course of the series. Based on the entire series of Burroughs stories, I think book Tarzan could take book Mowgli on the basis of experience alone.