I saw my first episode the other day. not knowing any previous backstory, the show feels like an updated Hercules/Xena type of show.

Don’t get me wrong. I liked the Herc/Xena shows just fine. Was not meant as a barb or anything as I am sure it would take me a full 3 episodes less than you to get into it (yes, I am a TV whore). It just was not what I expected. I thought they would create a format more akin to the Eragon or Narnia movies that got so much popularity at the time.

i sincerely doubt Link can out-crafty Richard. Not only is Richard the Seeker of Truth, but he out-craftied Darken Rahl, one of the most cunning villians of all time, convinced an angry dragon to help him by figuring out her deepest desire, and manipulated half the Palace of the Prophets to the point where they abandoned their oaths to Jagang or independence as Sisters and swore fealty to him!

“Link managed to peg an inch thick wooden pole in TP with a bow at about a half mile distance. Richard Rahl managed to –…

SPOILER ALERT

managed to miss Jagang’s heart from the centre of a Ja la pitch to the edge where Jagang’s tent was.”

He only missed because Jagang moved at the wrong moment. The shot itself was perfect. If you read the earlier books, you’d find out that Richard’s archery skills are a lot more extreme than the evidence in Confessor suggests.

For example, in the second book, Richard:

1) Continuously got “shaft-shots”, splitting an arrow already in a target with another arrow. He racked up over a hundred of these.

2) Was able to hit a man at one hundred yards, and expressed with confidence he could have done the same at three times that distance.

3) Shot another person’s arrow out of midair with one of his own arrows.

4) Caught an arrow that was shot at him out of the air.

5) Split six arrows on top of each other in six shots.

6) Shaved the fletchings off of an arrow already in the target with perfect shots.

Richard actually can use his magic to increase the accuracy of his shots. His archery skills are extreme.

“I think Link could easily kill Richard before he got close enough to use magic, and if he did, deflect it, and kill Richard with his superior strength.”

Richard doesn’t need to be close to a target to use magic. He can fire magical projectiles such as wizard’s fire, lightning, Subtractive blasts, etc. from a distance.

Also, the Sword of Truth has shown the ability to block/deflect magic just as the Master Sword has, in similar fashion.

““Link managed to peg an inch thick wooden pole in TP with a bow at about a half mile distance. Richard Rahl managed to –…

SPOILER ALERT

managed to miss Jagang’s heart from the centre of a Ja la pitch to the edge where Jagang’s tent was.”

He only missed because Jagang moved at the wrong moment. The shot itself was perfect. If you read the earlier books, you’d find out that Richard’s archery skills are a lot more extreme than the evidence in Confessor suggests.

For example, in the second book, Richard:

1) Continuously got “shaft-shots”, splitting an arrow already in a target with another arrow. He racked up over a hundred of these.

2) Was able to hit a man at one hundred yards, and expressed with confidence he could have done the same at three times that distance.

3) Shot another person’s arrow out of midair with one of his own arrows.

4) Caught an arrow that was shot at him out of the air.

5) Split six arrows on top of each other in six shots.

6) Shaved the fletchings off of an arrow already in the target with perfect shots.

Richard actually can use his magic to increase the accuracy of his shots. His archery skills are extreme.

“I think Link could easily kill Richard before he got close enough to use magic, and if he did, deflect it, and kill Richard with his superior strength.”

Richard doesn’t need to be close to a target to use magic. He can fire magical projectiles such as wizard’s fire, lightning, Subtractive blasts, etc. from a distance.

Also, the Sword of Truth has shown the ability to block/deflect magic just as the Master Sword has, in similar fashion.”

Then they may be equals with a bow. In a ranged fire fight, my money is still on Link, however.

His arrows would be much faster due to his super-human strength. (and can be seen benefitting from this in WW, where they go through hurricane force winds, and in OoT when Link fires an arrow to the sun.), on top of this, the magical properties Link can bestow on these arrows are pretty spiffy. An ice arrow can freeze a volcano, and a fire arrow can end an eternal blizzard. Richard wouldn’t be able to catch or survive one of those. Link in TP slashes arrows out of the air, and in MM, he’s forced to deal with a flurry of super-sonic attacks. (Majora’s ridiculous super whips.)

Evne if Richard shot Link, I don’t think it would do much, as he has some pretty awesome durability showings.
-WW survives a point blank blast that laucnhes him miles away to the tower of the gods.
-OoT is unharmed by a strike from Ganon whihc disarms him. (sounds less impressive than it is. Consider how strong Link is with the golden gauntlet,s and how much force it would take to disarm him. It would liquify a regular human.)
-In TP, is fired at the ground from a cannon in the sky.
-MM, survives the destruction of the moon.
-WW, we get a cutscene showing Ganon beatign the crap out of Link, who is fine. (inhuman durability+1!)

As for Richards magic; Link can walk around in lava without much trouble, as well as having pretty good magical defenses.

Overall, my money remains on Link.

I can’t tell who would win. I’m more on the side of Richard because he has powerful magic and Link without his items is not going to do well against him. The sword of Truth bestows the power from all the past Seekers to Richard. All Link really has is the Master Sword but I think the Sword of truth is better. It can deflect magic and Richard, with his sword glowing white, is nearly unstoppable since I read that he killed more or about a dozen warriors coming at him at the same time. I am going with the one true Seeker, Richard.

“You make good points, but according to the rules, this is TP Link only, so the feats of the others wouldn’t come into play.”
One of the levels in TP is inside a dormant volcano, link is less than a foot away from lava at some times.

I am a huge fan of both Link and Richard Rahl, but here we have to face the facts.

WARNING: some evidence may be considered spoiler, so read at own risk of spoiling.

First off, in the fight, we must assume they are in the same universe. Yes, it is a fact that Link can walk through lava/damaging liquids and survive, however, that it merely do to the health systems required for a video to work without the player dying so often, so really, in a true fight, both would become equally harmed from “damage”. There are no hit points or hearts or other sorts of health bars… they don’t exist. We are battling Link v. Richard in the same place, so if lava doesn’t burn Link to ash by stepping through it, then it won’t do that to Richard either. Saying that Link is highly durable is problematic, primarily for my already stated fact that he had to be made that way cause it was a video game, so by leaving Link with a health bar system, we could also make his sword slash through flesh without cutting it, seeing as no limbs or anything ever get severed by the Master Sword. So we can either put Richard in Hyrule with Link or Link in D’Hara with Richard. Either way works, as long as environmental effects are equal to both players. I do realize that each has their own strengths in different scenery but we must make the assumption that if say, lava rains from the sky, it will burn both Link and Richard equally.

Second, I want to correct some false points made above… The Master Sword was not divinely crafted, it was made by ancient Hylians and bestowed with the power to banish evil, aiding Link to destroy evil attempting to harm innocents and denying evil access to the sword. Likewise, the Sword of Truth gives the true Seeker the power to deal justice, aiding Richard by giving him the experiences of the sword and the power of rage, which allows him to cut through anything, even the strongest steels. Both swords have shown the ability to counter magic, but keep in mind that the Master Sword has only countered projectile magic that was physically stopped by the sword, whereas the Sword of Truth has negated effects of very powerful spells entirely, such as the Chainfire spell, as well as warned Richard when he was in danger. Therefore, the Sword of Truth has a bit of a one up, since the Master Sword has not shown the ability to cut through anything beyond what regular steel can cut and the Sword of Truth provides more magical protection.

Third, the debate on archery skills…. Despite what fans may say, the only reason Link’s arrows fly so far is that for some strange reason, Hyrule’s gravity does not affect arrows. Richard has proven many times over that he is a true master of archery, shooting about a 100 arrows and 99 times consecutively splitting the arrow before it (the first one didn’t have an arrow to split). Link cannot out shoot Richard. Link may be able to shoot equally well, but I don’t think anyone could ever shoot better than Richard, based on facts from the books. Yes, Link has magic arrows in several of the games, but he still has to make contact with arrows, they aren’t seeker missiles. As for defenses against arrows, Link has a strong metal shield which could realistically block many arrows, but not infinitely many, and Richard has been able to thicken the air around an air and then catch it from midair. This has been accomplished several times in the books, and without any failures. Also, these defenses don’t even take into account the fact that both Link and Richard know how to move…aka dodge a flying object. Therefore, I don’t think the battle will be decided by marksmanship.

Magically, Richard far outmatches Link, who has few magical skills, most (if not all) of which are invoked only through the use of items. Richard happens to be the most powerful wizard in 3,000 years, and even though he is unable to utilize his ability to his full potential, his power is invoked by need and anger, which he could easily muster in a battle against Link. Link’s magical powers (depending on which game you take him from) include conjured fire, warping, protective shields, fire/ice rods, and some other various attack magic. Link does have the Triforce of Courage, but that has only served to give him just as the name implies… Courage. It does not bestow any power upon him; that is the function of the Triforce of Power. In any case, Richard’s need and anger would help him harness his magic in his defense, even if he doesn’t understand the very mechanism the magic is used through, for his magic finds the way to his intent, he doesn’t have to guide it specifically. Also, his gift guides him as a sixth sense, giving him insight to his surroundings and premonition-like-instincts. That said, Richard has the advantage magically.

Fourth, the intelligence/cleverness factors. It was mentioned above that it very well may come down to a battle of wits to turn the tide of the battle, so here I will state more facts about each person. Link has a lot of experience solving puzzles to get into the next room, or to make a chest fall from the sky, or finding out how a temple interacts with the other rooms in it in order to open up new passageways. His intelligence isn’t in strategy, it’s in riddles and puzzles. Richard, on the other hand, has proven to be one of the smartest and most clever people ever. He was practically raised by one of the most cunning wizards ever, and has outsmarted people who others never thought could be defeated. Richard knows how to play a trick, which “can be better than even the most powerful magic”. Richard hates riddles, but is still extremely adept at solving them. Richard’s nature is as a leader, and he can persuade people to join him, even if they had been working against him from the beginning of the struggle. That shows that he understands people and can read them, eventually being able to think his opponents’ thoughts before they even have them. Also, he grew up knowing absolutely nothing about magic, save memorizing the Book of Counted Shadows, and yet, he turns out to understand it better than anyone had in thousands of years. In my opinion, he is second to no one in finding and understanding the truth. Unquestionably, he is intelligent, even without more evidence. In this case, I find Richard to be more intelligent, but I do not see intelligence being quite the deciding factor in the situation mentioned to prompt this conversation.

Fourth, fighting skills. This is obviously a great deciding factor. Richard is a master of the blade. He killed 30 Baka Ban Mana blademasters who had trained their entire lives to be masters of the sword, and he did it alone. They may not have all been able to attack at once, but these blademasters were known to be able to take on six or more men on their own, and Richard took out 30 of them. Also, Richard has shown great battle prowess against many Mriswith, invisible creatures who fight skillfully with two three pronged blades, simultaneously. Against normal soldiers, Richard passes through their waves like a phantom, dealing death with every blow, while the soldiers strike at where he was, for he does not stay in place longer than he needs to. Take away his weapons and his magic, and let’s see how Richard fairs against normal men. In Confessor, Richard played in a game of Ja’La dh Jin in order to save Kahlan from Jagang. Ja’La is an extremely violent game. Against the emperor’s team, all of whom were much larger than Richard, Richard killed three of the emperor’s players, with nothing more than his bare hands for two ( the first he killed by crushing his skull with the Broc, the ball used in the game). Indisputably, Richard is a master of combat. Now for Link. Link has shown skill in swordsmanship, killing many enemies and often without getting hurt at all (depends on who is playing the game of course). However, there has yet to be a case where he faces odds that seem unbeatable (such as the 30 blademasters against just Richard). He does learn a lot of skills with his sword, but most of his fights were never more than 5 to 1 odds maximum (unless you count 30 keese, bats, flying around as 30 to 1 odds…). Link’s combat skill often depends on the use of many different kinds of weapons. Ignoring the fact that it would be nigh impossible to fight carrying so many items, Link does this quite efficiently. I do believe, however, that his large array of weapons would not give him the advantage, as he still needs to match Richard’s skill with the blade, so use of say… a ball and chain would prove more fatal than helpful. Fact does remain that Link is formidable with his sword.

In my opinion, Richard would defeat Link. Richard’s fighting style has no counter and he only gets better and more dangerous an opponent as time goes on. Even without using magic, his gift aides him by enhancing his already acute instincts. Richard has attributes that far outweigh the skills of Link, who does not have nearly the same experience as Richard. The fight would boil down to sword on sword, and even assuming that the Sword of Truth wouldn’t cut through the Master Sword, Richard has much more skill with fighting than Link. Therefore, Richard Rahl would be the victor.

Link is still awesome and has great skill and courage; Richard just outmatches him. After all, he is a war wizard, true Seeker of Truth, master of D’Hara, and champion of all those who value life.