GH carly nina fight screenshot
Credit: ABC screenshot

“Someone finally stood up to Carly!”

Let’s face it: Most of us assumed that when General Hospital‘s Nina and Carly squared off, Sonny’s wife would wind up metaphorically (and perhaps literally) kicking the crap out of Mike’s almost-lover. Even before the first verbal punch was thrown, some viewers had thrown in the towel, assuming that Carly would, as can be her way, simply drown out her rival’s attempts at a defense.

But what we actually got instead was a surprisingly balanced fight. Sure, Carly went in hot (“Give me one good reason I don’t kill you!” and only grew increasingly incensed as the scenes went on, but Nina — who immediately apologized and seemed ready to take a few tongue lashings — soon went from whipping girl to sparring partner.

Labeled a liar by Carly, Nina fired back, “And you feel qualified to judge because you know so much about the truth?”

Back and forth flew the anger-laden accusations. Carly rightly pointed out that Nina had “stolen” months of Sonny’s life, while Nina said that Sonny had ultimately come home to his family, unlike Nelle, whose death she still held Carly responsible for. Each woman felt the other’s sins were worse… and viewers found themselves fascinated by the exchange.

In the end, neither woman backed down. “I will gladly apologize to Sonny and his children and his family and all of his friends and his seventh grade math teacher while I’m at it,” said Nina. “But I’ll be damned if I ever apologize to you!”

GH nina carly jason fight screenshot

It was also clear that this was only the opening salvo in what promises to be an ongoing battle. Although Jason — having caught only the tail end of the fight — insisted Carly had won, she wasn’t about to simply accept the victory and call it a day. “I am going to burn Nina’s life down,” she said, her eyes blazing, “and spit on her ashes.”

Plus, as Bonnie Lee pointed out, Carly still doesn’t know the full story of what happened in Nixon Falls… including the fact that her husband spent more than a little time gazing lovingly in Nina’s direction!

But who, we wanted to know, did viewers thing really won the first round of the showdown? We threw the question out to the masses via Twitter and found that while both women had their supporters, many viewers thought that the real winner had been the audience!

Of course, just as the two blondes are definitely going to continue butting heads in the weeks to come, we’re sure many of you would like to weigh in on their battle… which is practically the entire reason comments sections like the one below exist! So share your take, then check out the gallery below in which we rank the top 25 female feuds to ever rock the daytime screen!