Yeah, comments were crazy at points.

I am glad Jaime made it so far! He and you deserve it. :)

So close! We'll get him next time bucko.

Little Dorrit for the win!

As an avid fan of both you and RJ, I was torn as to whom I should vote for, but in the end I voted for Jaime.

Misses RJ and the fact that he left his world unfinished. Please don't ever do the same.

Oh, pity!

better luck next time!

Little Dorrit's bound to win
harming children is a sin.
Don Quixote, never shady,
No good knight would smite a lady!

Why thank you, *Bows*

They could save that for the championship comments, so that people had to earn their votes.

I like Sanderson's ending. Needed more tentacle-waving crazy, though.

My sister and I kept a page open of the voting and kept refreshing to see how it went down to the wire. Kept our fingers crossed, but we weren't surprised how it ended. I stopped reading the comments when people got snarky over the pictures and started calling Rand some rather rude things based on them. Not very classy, really.

Tell Jaime congrats for us. And, of course, Tyrion. Remind him we like Jaime and even if Tyrion's really, really mad at his brother, he's still useful.

Heh. My man Queequeg's about to fuck up Young Goodman Brown with yonder harpoon. Then it's on to Holden Caufield. :P

Class is always a very nice thing to see sir.
I've just popped over and "friended"Mr Sanderson.

Your cage match post the other day had me CRYING with laughter. It was wonderful!

I abstained from voting. A look at my name should explain why.

I absolutely loved the reference to Roger Zelazny's Amber books in your write-up. Bravo and well done all around.

At least Jamie got rid of Hermione,although i'd love to see him against Lizzy Bennet, maybe in the next Mainstream Cage Match you suggested

mainstream cage match!

lieutenant frederic henry vs captain john yossarian

Hey, since Jaime lost by less than 1% are you going to invoke your right to a hand recount? Who knows, there may be some hanging chads out there! Loved the way Brandon Sanderson explained the ending, too. I still say call it a draw!

Rand al'Thor really ought to watch his back now, what with the Lannisters and all their *debt-paying* and whatnot... :)

The thought of Mat, Tyrion and Harry having a drink together...sounds like the making for an excellent Cheers-like sitcom.

I absolutely loved Sanderson's take, especially a few things:
1) the end - of course all the ruckus woke Cthulhu!
2) Conan assisting in "wedging" Eragon nearly brings me to tears of laughter!
3) Gandalf and Aslan! Bahahaha! Priceless!

I suspect this will turn into an annual event. Perhaps Jaime (or another GRRM character) will win next time. Hmm... vampires only?

It matters not to me what the poll stated. Jaime won. You storytelling was the clear winner, as usual.

I was bitter about a lot of the comments going on at Suvudu, but that write-up for how things went down was kind of awesome. I feel better. :)

Little Dorrit could so take Don Q.

"A Song of Ice and Fire" books are far more readable and entertaining than the "Wheel of Time" books. By a huge leap I would say. I'd read ASOIAF any day. But if the match-up were to actually pit the skills of the two characters, rather than a popularity contest, I'm afraid Rand would actually win. :/ OP much? Haha.

I liked Eye of the World, but I didn't like the next three I read of Wheel of Time. I bet a bunch of Wheel of Time fans are curious about Jaime Lanaster and why he was so popular. I'd like to read about some of the characters that participated in the battle royal myself.

For what it's worth, I absolutely loved your take on the different worlds, especially regarding Gods and Creators. I chuckled heartily. I wish I had been more familiar with the "Wild Cards" characters beforehand, but now I'm going to have to add hunting down some of those books to my ever-growing list. A list that at least doubled in size since the beginning of the Cage Match!

Being able to read author commentary from both sides in the last few rounds gave me an idea for next year, though. Instead of just one prediction, Suvudu should post scenarios for BOTH characters. That way they could seriously acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses for both characters, instead of comments falling on the internet, with no one around to hear.

Thanks for all the amazing cage-match write-ups!

Even though Jaime lost, I'd rather have a close amazing race and lose than have the guy I'm rooting for win in a blow out. This was quite an amazing finale.

My only real question is... where was Tuf and his Seed Ship?

Having read the entirety (so far) of both series, I prefer ASoIaF by a fairly wide margin, but (and some of you may want to shoot me for this) I can't say I'm surprised by this outcome. Before I go on to explain, note that all the news I have read about these cage matches comes from this not-blog; I haven't actually gone to the suvudu site (it's blocked from, er, where I'm most often online). For what it's worth. So all I know about this match that's relevant is what's been said here: that Jaime lost, despite the help of a bunch of Wild Cards superheroes.

My take on the final outcome: Sure, there's the fact that al'Thor is a master swordsman AND has god-like powers, whereas Jaime's just an ordinary (if highly skilled... if a little crippled) master swordsman, but that's not the real reason I sort of expected this outcome. The real reason is, well, Jaime's one of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire characters, and let's face it: dying at the worst possible moment in the most shocking ways that make you want to tear your hair out just when you were finally convinced they're actually decent folk and that they've somehow made their way to safety is just what these people DO. Losing this one was therefore entirely in character, and certainly in keeping with the series in general. I wouldn't have it any other way; no more than I'd ask George to rewrite a happy ending for the Red Wedding. If Jaime had won this one and walked away from the whole thing unscathed, it'd probably keep me up nights, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Due to my deep and abiding love for many of the series represented, I chose my votes based on who did the best writeups... which means I didn't vote for Jamie against Temeraire, I admit, because Naomi Novik's American Idol contest had me screaming with laughter. But despite the way the voting went at the end, you win the Internet with that epic writeup of the final battle. Capturing others' characters so well shows your love for the genre (as though you hadn't shown it already) and that is the main reason I appreciate this Not A Blog so much.

An epic match most certainly.

I must admit that I had voted for Rand because of the facts that I have grown up with RJ's books and that I am from SC and must cheer for the hometown favorite.

However, being on my most recent read-through of A Storm of Swords which coincidentally coincided with the cage-match (and anticipation of future works), I never noticed the reference to the ninth lord of Dorne with his golden quill on green checks, Jordayne of Tor. I love the shout-out and thanks for the many late nights of marathon reading that I'm still enduring for lack of wanting to stop reading your works.

I was saddened that Jaime lost. I was actually a WoT fan years before I was an ASOIAF fan...but ASOIAF takes the cake, and Jaime has been one of my favorite characters since you gave him his own pov. He's the guy I hate to love, but do anyway!

Personally, I think the Forsaken sided with the Others to throw the vote in Rand's favor, to rid Westros of threat to their rule (the Others that is) and make sure that the D.O. can still keep trying to steal Rand's soul (because if it was lost in another world..he's kinda be sol when it came to trying to reclaim it I think).

I would like to say that your version of the Trial of Seven kept me entertained and laughing for multiple reads. I haven't picked up Wildcards yet (it's on my list though!), but I really felt that you captured the WoT characters perfectly. The only thing I'm surprised about is that the Maidens let Rand go anywhere without them being there en mass. Compared to Mr. Sanderson's take on the events..well his just doesn't compare. So thank you, for loving your readers (and characters, and other author's characters too) enough to give us that awesome write-up of your version of the battle.

I just wanted to let you know that i didnt vote on this. I voted for Cthulhu when that came up and after that i realised there was no point in voting. I dont even really like Lovecraft anywhere as much as i enjoy your stories. I just felt if Jaime knew he was against Cthulhu then Cthulhu knew it was against Jaime. You know what i mean. I'm truely sorry it ended the way it ended. Jaime is a far superior character to most if not all of what he faced. Maybe if i voted (a few times) it would have ended in another way.

They should do a tournament with just warriors. Yeah, it was fun and I voted, but it seemed a little ridiculous mixing warriors with wizards, dragons, and demi-gods. If such a tournament would arise then I would like to see various ASOIAF characters: Jamie, young Robert, Ser Arthur Dane, Mighty Belwas, Gregor and Sandor Clegane, The Red Viper, Duncan the Tall, etc. Heck, we could just have a ASOIAF tournament. My money would be on young Robert (notice my icon)...as far as fighting style and ability, he was pretty much the Conan of knighthood (if that's even possible). According to his buddy Ned, he was awesome in his day...but Ned IS biased.

"Kahlan exclaims that she was never part of a “fantasy” novel in the first place, and so disappears in a puff of hypocrisy."

Absolutely brilliant, Mr. Sanderson.