Buffy vs. Harry Dresden.

[The Romulan Republic]

Mab orders Harry to kill Buffy. Harry has all his equipment and allies. Buffy has all her equipment and allies. However, she does not know that Harry is coming. This takes place after Cold Days and season seven of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I think Harry can win, but his conscience will hold him back if he's aware that Buffy's not evil. And if he succeeds, he'll probably be murdered by Willow.

[Ahriman238]

Harry all the way, except for the part where he kills someone purely on Mab's say-so without looking deeper into things.

[The Romulan Republic]

I agree that Harry would investigate, and he would try to avoid killing Buffy once he knows she's not a villain. But I don't think he can refuse an order from Mab without horrible things happening to him. The best he could do would be to try to talk Mab out of it.

[PKRudeBoy]

I think Harry would take this easy. A human with enhanced speed, strength and durability vs someone with all of the above plus being an incredibly powerful wizard? No contest. Harry's allies is also really vague term. I think we could assume Murphy, Thomas, the Za Lord's Guard, and the Alphas as a absolute minimum, but do we include Carlos, Luccio, Elaine, the Blackstaff, possibly Rashid or Listens to Wind? What about the Leanansidhe? Do Ivy and Kincaid come along? Marcone and his organization? Lara Raith? Spoiler

The Erlking? Odin? Winter Lady Molly?

Any of these could quite reasonably be considered allies, and many of them rival or surpass the power of any Buffy Big Bad on their own. Harry has lots of powerful friends, and even more powerful people who are willing to work with him as long as their needs run parallel to his. I think that the only ally of his that we can definitely count out is Sanya, because I doubt God would approve of smiting Buffy. Hell just send Thomas in to exploit Buffy's massive weakness for hot reformed vamps.

[The Romulan Republic]

Most members of the White Council probably wouldn't get involved because they'd be busy working for the White Council and the situation doesn't have much to do with the White Council. I doubt Lara and Marcone would help him unless it was in their interest. I also doubt Ivy would help him (isn't she supposed to be neutral?). Harry doesn't usually go to Elaine for help. Spoiler

And I think the Erlking and Odin probably wouldn't be interested in helping assassinate someone for Mab

, though I'm not sure.

Lea would probably help Harry (but she is not trustworthy) and Kincaid would probably help if Harry paid him. But Buffy probably has more money than him. Would Mab be willing to pay for Kincaid?

I don't know about Molly. She'd normally help Harry but I suspect she'll be occupied by other things now.

[PKRudeBoy]

IMHO, Carlos and Elaine would be two of the more likely people helping him because Buffy lives in their backyard, although they, like many of his other friends, might refuse to help on principle for the same reasons that Harry would dislike the job. I think that the main reason he doesn't normally go to Elaine for help is the fact that she lives across the country for him and has her own things to deal with. Lea would presumably be a lot more reliable when working on official Winter Court business, and we don't know the level of resources that he has access to as Winter Knight yet. It could be anywhere from reasonable expenditures to nigh-unlimited. I'm pretty sure that it would be in Lara's interest to off a vampire hunter, but I agree with you that Marcone probably wouldn't get involved unless he had an angle. Spoiler

Odin, the Erlking, and the Archive were more to illustrate the kind of beings that Harry is friendly with, and probably wouldn't help without a reason of their own, although Ivy might supply info if asked. Molly I think would help, because it seems that the Knights and the Ladies are generally together.

I think it would be really interesting to see how Buffy would deal with the White Court, who are quite different from any vamps that she's seen, what with the whole walking around in sunlight and not feeding on blood deal. And the Wardens very well may get involved, since I think Willow has quite possibly broken every single law of magic.

[The Romulan Republic]

Regarding where Buffy lives, Sunnydale is gone after season seven. Where do the comics say she lived after that?

You have a point about Lara. You might be right about Molly too, but if this is right after Cold Days then she's still Spoiler

learning about being the Winter Lady

, right?

And Willow would be a target of the White Council, although I think that if the Wardens bothered to investigate before decapitating her they'd be very puzzled that she hasn't ended up completely crazy (though it was a close call).

Edit: fixed the warning about spoilers.

[Majin Gojira]

You really chose a bad time for Buffy, as there's a summer time skip after the end of Season 7, and Season 8 starts in new territory. Like, with her in a castle leading an army of slayers numbering in the low hundreds IIRC.

Overall, the Buffyverse doesn't compare much to the supernatural power of the the Dresden-verse, so I lean towards Buffy getting stomped.

[The Romulan Republic]

Since I don't think I said exactly when this happens and you say right after the show is bad, let's say this happens at the start of the season eight comic. Is that better?

I'm kind of hoping Willow would be able to put up a good fight. Think she could take Dresden?

[Majin Gojira]

Willow is . . . well, the only thing Dresden has to fear. Aside from vast magical power, she has two things which frankly, negate the fight.

1) She can absorb magic on contact from magical objects or other magical beings (this hurts, is very dangerous and by 8, she does not do that anymore).
2) She knows magic to the point that anyone slain via magic . . . can instantly be revived by her. Death by magic is meaningless to her.

How far that extends is unknown, but she casually brushes off her girlfriend dying and coming back as 'just a thing'.

While not as actively destructive as Dresden, she's managed some insane feats. The most amazing of which is rewriting one of the 'laws of magic' with the Slayer-super-activation thing.

That has given Buffy an Army of around 500 Slayers at her command (out of 1800, mind you), along with associated mages and watcher-types.

Season 8 also has them living in a Castle in Scotland.

It's been a while since I took out my Buffy quantified things, but generally speaking, her forms of Supernatural power are not as impressive overall as Dresden's in terms of Raw Power, that's why I initially gave it to him.

[PKRudeBoy]

Dresden is also likely to just shoot her, which will come as a total surprise considering the fact that people in Buffy never seem to use guns, whereas Dresden and pals tend to go out loaded for bear. I'd like to see how the Scoobies deal with concepts like suppressing fire or hand grenades. A few bursts from Murphy's P90 or one of Carlos' hand grenades could end very poorly for them, although with the reflexes that some members of both sides have it might turn into a high stakes game of hot potato.

[The Romulan Republic]

Could Willow create a shield that blocks bullets like Dresden does?

I remember her using a pretty impressive force field-like spell to hold off some enemies in season five.

[PKRudeBoy]

The problem with blocking bullets with a shield is you have to have it up before you're getting shot at, which is why Dresden relies on his duster to protect him most of the time.

[Majin Gojira]

If Buffy is not caught off guard, by Season 8 for a full combat salutation, she actually would be wearing body armor (No helmet, mind you, because fiction).

And in the first issue was shown to be wielding a shotgun-like shield disrupting energy weapon.

[Majin Gojira]

Could Willow create a shield that blocks bullets like Dresden does?

I remember her using a pretty impressive force field-like spell to hold off some enemies in season five.

The problem with blocking bullets with a shield is you have to have it up before you're getting shot at, which is why Dresden relies on his duster to protect him most of the time.

Bullet Blocking Spells do exist in Buffy ("Boil the Air") and apparently don't even need to be fully enchanted to start blocking bullets (based on Season 4's "Primeval"). But it is in Sumerian and Willow doesn't really know Sumerian. Or, didn't at the time. By now? Yeah, she probably could, but I can't confirm it.

[The Romulan Republic]

Can Willow block bullets and duel Dresden at the same time? I don't recall her using more than one spell at once (although she can cast spells pretty quickly). But then, I've only seen parts of seasons one, two, five, six, and seven.

[Majin Gojira]

Willow is sort of in Doctor Strange Territory by the start of Season 8. Multi-wielding spells (one per hand) while working on a counter-spell to stop another, tech-enhanced mage's (Amy-who-was-once-a-rat-and-is-now-evil) zombie horde spell.

I forgot the levels of stuff going on in Season 8 so I re-read some stuff. We got the army of Slayers, a Buffy who has protection spells around her every time she sleeps and has a connection to Willow's magic that allows her to use some of it when things are really getting tough (a shield spell to deflect spells, a hammer fist to attack with and an illusion spell for a mind-fuck). Slayer's armed with Harpoon Guns and even using grenades, as well as flanking tactics.

And then there's the scene where Buffy and her best subordinate raid a corrupted military base after reflecting their omega-mega energy cannon back at them and taking out the room they were teleporting in. It involves them taking on a room of armed military soldiers. Two Slayers vs. modern soldiers in full armor, and automatic weapons.

Taken out by two Slayers armed with a katanna and the Scythe (a mystical uber-weapon capable of harming and killing True Demons).

If you think that's something, if you take from the wrong part of later Season 8, not only does everything become phenomenally stupid, Buffy ends up with Superman-level powers. I'm not joking.

Because . . . the villain of Season 8 is this dimension, and it's planning on using Buffy in a complex suicide/birth the new universe thing. It's really, really, quite dumb.

[PKRudeBoy]

In that case I think a satellite drop would be in everyone's best interest. It would be a mercy-kill, honestly.

[Majin Gojira]

It would have to be a big satellite. Or a lot of them. Mostly since Buffy in Season 8 lives in a refurbished Castle. And apparently sleeps in the deeper interior of it (no windows). Little bit harder to do that to compared to a summer home.

Still do-able, of course, just harder.

[The Romulan Republic]

In that case I think a satellite drop would be in everyone's best interest. It would be a mercy-kill, honestly.

Is that a reference to the work of one Blackstaff McCoy?

All this makes me glad I never bought the comics. I already knew some of it, but I'm surprised by how wanked things apparently are. Mr. Whedon and company seem to have gotten a bit carried away.

But then, its scarcely a proper Dresden Files story if Harry isn't seriously outclassed.

[Majin Gojira]

Very true. Honestly, of all the Buffy comics out there, there's only a few worth reading.

There's Fray, by Joss Whedon.

Season 8 is pretty okay until "Time of your Life" (a time travel story with Fray involved) Then it gets . . . bad.

What good stories their also include:
- The Establishment of the new big bad "The Twilight" (the payoff for which rather sucks at the end). I can't remember that it's called.
- "No Future For You", written by Brian K. Vaughn and focusing on Faith going undercover to stop a rogue aristocratic Slayer.
- "Wolves at the Gate", Japanese Vampires have copied Dracula's powers and work to undo the Slayer-Activation Spell. Featuring Dracula being horribly Racist and Noble, and a Mechani-Dawn (Dawn starts the series at 50ft tall because of a curse).
- "Time of Your Life" - the Fray arc.

Season 9 is okay so far, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Magic was destroyed at the end of Season 8 (yes, really), leading to a new world. Supernatural creatures were outed in the middle of Season 8 (in a manner so stupid it makes the citizens of the Marvel Universe look positively intelligent), but now the magic is mostly gone and vampires can't make new vampires, only Zombie Vampires called . . . Zompires. Yeah, it's not the best moment for them. The big bad is currently a Rogue Slayer (who likes Proper Guns!) and her ally, a "Syphon" who can suck away what magic remains for himself. Not the best, but not as bad as Season 8.

But that could change at any moment.

IDW's Angel: After the Fall and Season 9's Angel and Faith, however? Yeah, those are just plain great.

Also worth noting, Fallen Angel: Reborn, written by Peter David and featuring Illyria. It's the only official Crossover within the Buffy/Angel Universe.

There's a few pre-Season 8 Comics that are also pretty good written by Buffyverse alumni, but I don't have access to my books at the moment, so I can't say much on that. Of them I can only remember the "Tales" series: Tales of the Slayers, Tales of the Vampires.

[Vaporous]

How is this situation altered by the fact that Harry knows about the show and knows he's fighting who he thought was a fictional character?

[Gaidin]

How is this situation altered by the fact that Harry knows about the show and knows he's fighting who he thought was a fictional character?

Well, would he know anything about them? Like, for instance that they for some reason don't use guns? And even though he can't kill them with his magic(First Law), he could just do an Indiana Jones and just shoot her as she's approaching because he's one for shamelessly dodging the First Law by pulling his gun?

[The Romulan Republic]

I feel like I should say that in this scenario Dresden doesn't know about the show, because it gives him a vast advantage when it comes to intelligence. On the other hand, it creates some interesting issues.

[Majin Gojira]

On the other hand, if he knows it from a TV show, that presents two possibilities:

1) That he doesn't know about the comics and would be caught off guard by what happened there (Fans were to a high degree)
2) That the show is part of some Greater Plot (tm) much like other factions working within the publication industry. Who is behind it can change the purpose of it.