Krampus vs Sam Blog
“Holidays are a reminder that life is meant to be lived, experiences are meant to be cherished, and memories are meant to be made.”
Krampus, the Shadow of Saint Nicholas and punisher of those who lost their Christmas spirit.
Samhain, the Great Autumn Spirit and enforcer of the rules of Halloween.
Ah the Holidays. Whether it’s spending time with your family or hanging out with your friends, it’s that time of the year everyone is looking forward to. But what if some rules were involved? What if there were certain conditions you’d have to follow? Obviously there wouldn’t be any severe punishment involved however if you didn’t, right? Well not in this case. These demons will make sure you never disrespect their holidays ever again. Let’s see which Michael Dougherty creation will win a DEATH BATTLE!
Before We Start…
Covering these characters is fairly simple. They both have their one movie and a 4 issue comic series, Krampus: Shadow of Saint Nicholas and Trick 'r Treat: Days of the Dead, with Sam also having the cartoon short he originated from (Trick ‘r Treat: Season’s Greetings) and a few short YT videos about him on Michael Dougherty’s channel. Sam also has another comic, but it’s just a retelling of the film. I also wanted to look through Trick 'r Treat: Tales of Mayhem, Mystery & Mischief, a book that documented the making of the film just in case it had some info about Sam since you never know. However I couldn’t find it anywhere online and I have no intention of buying it, shit is expensive.
Also I want to point out that I’m no expert or know how to calc, so don’t expect anything professional like the G1 ,G1^2, etc. However when looking through these characters' feats, figuring out their difference in stats shouldn’t be hard even for a vs noob like me.
Background
Krampus
Christmas. The time of the year when schools are closed, where you play in the snow with your friends, spend time with your family and exchange gifts. And we all know about this holiday’s icon, Santa Claus. The jolly fat man in red that brings gifts to children from all around the world on Christmas Eve. But something you might not know is that there’s a darker side to his legend. Someone who doesn’t reward, but punishes. Someone who doesn’t give, but takes. A dark entity that takes all of Santa’s good qualities and flips them around. That would be no one else than Krampus, the ancient demon that exists as a reminder of what happens when you lose the spirit of Christmas.
Sam
“I would not say that. But the shaman told me he is very old, and very powerful.”
Halloween. That day of the year where you dress up as your favorite characters, go trick-or-treating with your friends, participate in costume parties and carve jack-o’-lanterns. However there are certain rules that should be followed on this day:
Always give candy to trick-or-treaters
Always wear a costume
Respect the dead
Never blow out the flame of a jack-o’-lantern before midnight
Now why are these important? Well because breaking even one of these means punishment at the hands of Sam, the childlike pumpkin patch demon that makes sure you respect his holiday.
Experience & Skill
Krampus
Krampus has been around for thousands of years, but aside from that there’s really nothing else to say.
Sam
Sam has been around from at least the origins of Halloween, but despite that there’s nothing noteworthy to say about him.
Equipment
Krampus
Hooks
Krampus has access to multiple hooks which he can use to drag his victims towards him, however it’s shown that he needs help from his helpers to properly use them.
Snow Globes
After being captured by Krampus, his victims get shrunk down in an unknown way and are kept inside his shit load of snowglobes, which there’s seemingly no way out of.
Toy Bag
I mean you got to keep your villainous toys somewhere.
Slay
Krampus has his own slay that instead of reindeers, is pulled by giant demonic looking rams.
Workshop
Krampus’s elves have their own workshop, seen in the third story of the comic. However these toys are made from the souls of the victims they capture. When one of the characters was thrown inside this big cauldron, he went through an Ebenezer Scrooge experience that showed him his past, present and future (whether this is a result of becoming a toy or an ability Krampus himself has is unknown). But with a strong enough will he was able to control the toy body he was in and self destruct?? What exactly happened isn’t really explained.
Sam
Lollipop
Normally a harmless piece of candy. But if Sam feels like it, he can take a bite out of it to use as a sharp weapon.
Sack
Aside from collecting candy, Sam can use his sack to stuff the corpses of his victims. Despite its small size, it has no problem magically growing to fit entire people.
Razor Blade
Being the sneaky little guy he is, Sam carries around a candy bar with a hidden razor blade inside of it.
Abilities
Krampus
Immortality
According to Omi (the grandma of the film’s main family), Krampus has been punishing those who have lost the Christmas spirit for thousands of years.
Storm Creation
A snowstorm always covers the town that Krampus is going to visit. I’m no expert, but based on similar examples that I’ve seen, this shouldn’t translate to his physical stats.
Agility
Despite his large size, Krampus has shown to be able to run on roofs with no problem and jump long distances.
Hell Pit
Krampus can conjure a hell pit to throw his victims in. Should be noted that it doesn’t actually lead to hell, it’s just another way to capture people. Hell pit just sounded cool.
Electronic Disruption
His presence causes Christmas lights to flicker and the radio to turn on.
Sinking(?)
At the end of the first and second story of the comic, a character gets sunk into the snow. Whether Krampus himself did this, I don’t know. The story never says anything about it or gives us anything to imply so. It’s most likely the result of the Snow Beast, but I figured I should mention it anyway.
Sam
Immortality
Sam has been around for a very long time. For how long exactly is unknown, but we know he was around at least during all the way to the Holiday’s roots in ancient Ireland (specifically 1640). He’s sturdy enough to get thrown around or beat up by adults and get shot by a shotgun with no problem at all.
Superhuman Strength
Sam seems to possess some degree of superhuman strength for his size, considering how easily he broke Mr Kreeg’s arm.
Fire Manipulation
Sam was able to light up a pumpkin without being anywhere near it.
Teleportation
In the comic version of the film, Laurie sees Sam waving at her across the street before he disappears.
Sam also immediately disappears when Mr Kreeg looks away for a split second before he shoots at him, so it’s safe to say he can teleport.
Telekinesis
Sam closes the door after leaving Mr Kreeg’s house without touching it.
Creation
Sam decorated Mr Kreeg’s lawn with a bunch of jack-o-lanterns. He also covered his stairs with broken glass pieces.
Regeneration
Sam is able to put himself back together if he ever has any of his limbs removed and even regenerate from his entire head getting blown off. He can even use them while they’re disconnected from his body.
Resurrection
While not directly confirmed in the film, it is believed that Sam is the one that brought the victims of the “Halloween School Bus Massacre” back to life. The kids these zombies killed had broken one of the Halloween rules: respecting the dead. So Sam being involved in their deaths makes sense.
Pumpkin Growing
The second story of the Days of the Dead comic (which I would suggest reading since context would help) talks about a spirit called the Corn Maiden. It guards and protects an Indian tribe and blesses them with fertile lands. The end of the story involves a bunch of people dying by having pumpkins grow inside of them. While it may seem obvious that the Corn Maiden was responsible for it, you can make an argument for Sam having done it too. But frankly it most likely doesn’t matter. The Corn Maiden was stated to be a servant of the Great Autumn Spirit, which is what Sam was called later in the story. So either way, Sam would have access to this ability.
Monster Summoning
The fourth story of Days of the Dead involves a bunch of different monsters wreaking havoc in a town. At some point we see all of them gather around Sam, who was throwing candy inside a pumpkin which summons a monster. Does this mean he summoned all these monsters? Well to be honest it’s up to speculation since the story doesn’t specify. It would make sense if he did considering well, where else could they have come from and it’s the only way we see one appear. Sam is the Great Autumn Spirit after all, we already know the Corn Maiden is his servant, and the start of the comic described the monsters as Sam’s menagerie.
Wall Climbing
Should have worn a Spiderman costume for Halloween then.
Electronic Disruption
Sam causes a light bulb to explode.
Support
Krampus
Elves
Just like Santa, Krampus has his own elves under his command. Just like the classic elves we all know and love, they have their own workshop to make Krampus’s toys. They have shown carrying around weapons like clubs, axes and sharp candy canes, but they most commonly are seen using knives.
Toys
(Original artist unknown)
Toys only a kid on the naughty list would receive. They assist in punishing Krampus’s victims and can come in large numbers. There have been times however where their size seems to be more akin to that of a child or adult. They consist of:
Der Klown: A large Jack-In-The-Box with a long snake-like body and a double-hinged jaw. Perfect for gobbling up children or adults whole. It can even spit them out with enough force to get thrown high in the air.
Teddy Klaue: Aggressive teddy bears with sharp teeth and claws. Can even come at XL size.
Perchta: Flying porcelain cherub ornaments with sharp claws.
Tik-Tok: Toy Robots with one hand as a claw and the other as a pair of scissors.
Nutcracker: Your typical Nutcrackers but with sharper teeth.
Gingerbread men
Small. Chaotic. Tasty.
Snow Beast
We never see what it looks like, only that it tunnels beneath the snow and captures its targets by consuming them. However there was one time where it ate one of the elves, so it's possible it can’t tell friend from foe.
Snowmen
These guys move very slow and don’t really do much aside from just being there, but at least they look cool.
Sam
Zombies Kids
Assuming you think Sam resurrected them, he should have access to them. They only really have shown to be strong enough to rip people apart but hey, more manpower doesn’t hurt either way.
Corn Maiden
The Corn Maiden can make crops grow and was probably the one that made the already mentioned pumpkins inside out of people.
A Bunch of Monsters
Assuming you believe Sam summoned all of them, then he can summon a shit ton of different monsters. They’re too many to list and honestly most of them don’t really do much other than just be there, but these would range from werewolves, vampires, zombies, witches, ghosts, zombies, the grim reaper himself etc.
Feats
Krampus
Overall
The Shadow of Saint Nicholas
Has been capturing people for thousands of years
Punishes anyone who loses their Christmas spirit
Trolled the Engel family
Great film
Power
Probably was the one responsible for the hole on a mall’s roof
Strong enough to pull Der Klown when it had eaten Jordan and Howard who was on top of him
Speed
Effortlessly runs and leaps around roofs
Durability
Nothing
Sam
Overall
The Great Autumn Spirit
Is stated as very old and very powerful
Punishes anyone who doesn’t follow the rules of Halloween
Trolled Mr Kreeg
Great film
Power
Breaks Mr Kreeg’s arm with ease
Overpowers adults
Should scale to a kid throwing a pumpkin hard enough to shatter a window
Speed
Dodges a shotgun blast, however it being in-tandem is unknown
Durability
Weaknesses
Krampus
Despite his menacing presence, Krampus almost never physically engages in capturing his victims and would rather let his helpers do the job for him. Most of said helpers ain’t perfect either. Almost all his toys are well, toy sized so they can be killed via overpowering them or with more simple weapons. His elves have shown that they are very much mortal, so a more skilled opponent can deal with them. We’ve never seen his snowmen in action and being made of snow makes them easy to deal with, just how the gingerbread men are too, at the end of the day, just gingerbread men. While the Snow Beast is useful, it possibly not being able to tell friend from foe can be a detriment.
Sam
While Sam has shown to have a good amount of abilities, a few can probably be argued against due to the vagueness of them and ultimately come down to a matter of opinion. Not having these few said abilities would mean that almost all of Sam’s support would be gone.
Verdict
(Art by CodyShibi)
Stats
Covering the stats for these too should be easy, considering they have a handful of feats.
Firstly, it’s obvious that Krampus takes strength. Sam’s best strength feat is breaking Mr Kreeg’s arm. Impressive for his size sure, but it doesn’t stack up to Krampus being able to dent chimneys when going from them. This should even surpass Sam surviving getting shot by a shotgun multiple times.
Speed is interesting because neither have much in that department. Sam’s shotgun shot dodging feat in the comic version of the film would be hard to argue in tandem movement for. On the other hand Krampus can run and leap from roofs with ease. While it would give him better movement speed, it doesn’t drastically change the speed difference to make it a blitz.
Ironically enough though, one of the gingerbread men’s own shotgun dodging feats should be fine, since there seems to be in tandem movement for that. However whether there is or isn’t doesn’t matter anyways, since they wouldn’t even be able to hurt Sam in the first place.
So yeah, Krampus should be stronger with better movement speed. So he should just ap stomp right? Well not quite. While he definitely should, rarely does he decide to deal with his victims himself, and if he does, he has never done so by physically attacking them. The closest to that was him just grabbing Max and throwing him in his hell pit. That being said, it’s not something he wouldn’t ever result in, but it’s definitely not the first thing he ever does and not something he would do any time soon.
Arsenal & Abilities
In terms of arsenal, neither have that much. Sam only has his lollipop, razor blade and sack. The former 2 aren’t really going to do much to hurt Krampus, and he would be too powerful for Sam to force in his sack. Krampus’s main thing would be his hooks, which while probably more useful, require help from his helpers.
And speaking of his helpers, this is probably a good time to talk about each other’s support.
Anyways, let’s talk about Krampus’s first since it’s more straightforward. His main helpers would be his elves. While in the movie we only see a few, it’s a different story in the comic. It’s clearly shown that Krampus has a lot of them at his disposal, taking into account the fact that every story has a bunch of them even if some of the characters have killed a good amount of them in a previous issue. And with this many elves, come many toys. Their workshop has shown to be able to produce many toys at the same time, with certain ones being able to reach heights that of kids, adults and even the height of the ceiling of a mansion’s living room. His snowmen on the other hand aren’t really useful, as they just stand there and are made of snow, so they’re easy to deal with. The Snow Beast, while can be really useful thanks to hiding under snow, possibly not being able to tell friend from foe ain’t going to be very useful.
Sam’s on the other hand is a little trickier, since a lot of it depends on what you believe he can and can’t do. If you think he can summon all those monsters and summon the dead, then his army would easily surpass that of Krampus. Not only would the numbers be in Sam’s favor, but I’d imagine a bunch of werewolves, vampires, zombies etc. would easily deal with a bunch of toys and elves. None have really any feats, so on paper I’d say it sounds about right.
If you don’t think he has these abilities however, Krampus has the numbers then.
However I haven’t talked about Sam’s most useful support: the Corn Maiden. Now while I did say that pumpkin growing is something that can be argued for either, I do think she is more likely to be the one who has it. This ability is something none of Krampus’s helpers have an answer to or even Krampus himself. It’s the one thing that can arguably put him down, and she’s the only one that Sam 100% has access to.
Putting that aside though, Sam’s abilities would let him deal with most of the helpers by himself. The gingerbread men, aside from the fact they can’t hurt Sam, can simply get lit on fire by him, the thing that damages them in the film. The toys wouldn’t either be strong enough to kill Sam thanks to his superior durability and regeneration, meaning Sam can just overpower them. The giant teddy bear could be troublesome, but it wouldn’t be able to kill Sam immediately so Sam can just light it on fire since it’s covered in fur. Moreover, Sam being able to disrupt electronics could help malfunction the toy robots, since when that happens they cause a small electric explosion that also kills anyone else in the vicinity. The snowmen are pretty much useless like I’ve already mentioned. The Snow Beast would be not so useless, but it only travels through snow and you can tell if it’s coming at you if you see a big lump in the snow moving, so Sam could just teleport out of the way. The elves, while also not strong enough to fully kill Sam, is something Sam would have a harder time dealing with by himself due to their numbers and size. He could capture a few of them in his sack, but we haven’t seen it be able to fit any more than that, so Sam would need his support in this case.
Krampus’s abilities on the other hand are a lot more limited and less useful. His agility would fall in line with the not physically confronting his victims reasoning, with the only other helpful one being his Hell Pit creation. While it could probably work if manages to throw Sam in, actually doing so would be harder. His small size, variety of abilities like teleportation and pumpkin growing and, if you believe so, way bigger monster army would make it difficult for Krampus to capture Sam.
Tertiary Factors
Not much to say about tertiary factors. Neither have any superior intellect, experience or skill over the other. While, from what we know so far, Krampus is probably way older, it really doesn’t mean much here. I guess you can say he’s spent more time punishing others, but it shouldn’t give him a crazy edge in experience when it has always been humans who he targets.
Conclusion
So, who do I think would win? Well to be honest, I was thinking of going inconclusive at first and let you decide for yourself, but after thinking about it, here’s what I think:
Krampus definitely outmatches Sam in physicality, no complaints there. However the nature of how he decides to deal with people means he wouldn’t try engaging Sam physically yet.
From there it’s just Sam having to deal with his helpers. His wide array of abilities will help him for the most part, but it will only get him so far. Now this is where I say that I probably buy Sam being able to summon all those monsters, so from then on Sam’s army would just outnumber and overwhelm Krampus’s.
Eventually Krampus will step in to capture Sam himself. However, this would be a difficult task due to Sam’s sheer power in numbers, smaller size and better abilities.
Lastly, Krampus has no answer to pumpkins growing from inside out of him, which is a sure way to kill him.
So ultimately, I’m giving the W to the pumpkin demon himself, Sam.
Krampus
Advantages:
Physically stronger
More agile
If he captures Sam in a snowglobe, would probably win
Has the power in numbers if Sam doesn’t get his army…
Much older (though it doesn’t mean much)
Is the GOAT
Disadvantages:
Fewer and less useful abilities
The nature he goes about capturing his victims can be a detriment
Has no way around pumpkins growing inside out of him
…but if he does, the Sam would have it
Hasn’t shown his face, but is probably ugly
Sam
Advantages:
More and better abilities
Krampus has no way around pumpkins growing inside out of him
If given his army, would have the power in numbers…
Has ways to deal with Kampus’s helpers
Silly little guy
Disadvantages:
Physically outmatched
The vagueness of some of his abilities can be a detriment
Would probably lose if captured in a Snowglobe
…but if he doesn't, the Krampus would have it
Still no Trick ‘r Treat 2
Winner
I want to point out that this isn’t like some start to a blog series. I mostly felt like doing this since I really like this mu and it felt like it would be an easy one to cover. If I ever do decide to make another blog, it would most likely be one that I’d also consider easy to do. But a blog series? Nah I don’t think I’ll ever do that.
Comments
Post a Comment