#3rd Character Popularity Poll

[calware]

i don't really see much point in doing "favorite character" polls or "favorite ship" tournaments because i find that they rarely reflect the fandom's most popular thing and even if they did we all already know dave is the most popular character. so i propose we start making really oddly and uselessly specific popularity tournaments

for example, a tournament where you have to vote for your "5th favorite character." if one of the two characters in that poll is your 5th favorite, vote for them! if neither of them is your 5th favorite, check to see if any are your 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th favorite. in that case, don't vote for them, vote for the one that's 6th or lower. if they're both 4th or higher, vote for the one closest to 5th. if they're both 6th or lower, vote for the one closest to 5th

this way, nobody is rooting for an option that they think "should" win. the outcome of this tournament is pointless

[liyawritesss]

ᴊᴀꜱᴏɴ ᴛᴏᴅᴅ + ᴄʟᴀꜱꜱɪᴄ ʙʟᴀᴄᴋ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇʀꜱ

-> synopsis: there's no denying that Jason Todd Is the intellectual boyfriend we all crave - so let's take a peek into his repertoire and see what are some of his favorite black artists, authors, and philosophers!

         -> characters: Jason Todd | Red Hood

-> from: batman universe

         -> contains: can be read as either pre- or post lazarus pit, 3rd person

-> a/n: here's the first hc post from the batman poll i did! currently taking an intro to black writers class, and I wanted to make a spin on some classics I think Jason would like, specifically from black contemporaries from the like late 1800's to the 1990's. And yes, I know these authors and stories dont necessarily tie in to the canon timeline of things - I honestly just wanted to have fun with this, so please take it with a grain of salt, and if you don't like it or find yourself wanting to comment something mean, just scroll! Save us both the commotion.

         -> join my taglist!

-> tags: @mbakuetshurisprincess @shuriszn @writingintheshadowsforever @cafehyunji @niyahwrites @marsfunzon22 @briology @asensitivecookie @moon-bo-young @flo-milli-shit-hoe @romiantic @shuinami @badass-dora-milaje @uranometrias @insomniac-jay @punkeropercyjackson

      -> Paul Lawrence-Dunbar

             -> dunbar was a young novelist, writer, and poet during the 1880's and 1890's. His writing style is distinct with dialect, which earned him a lot of criticism despite his much popular portrayal of black life in southern America after the end of slavery. A lot of the tone in his pieces depict that of the African Americans struggle for survival post-slavery, as without adequate resources to gain their footing into society, the formerly enslaved were left to fend for themselves. What a lot of people at the time missed in his writings - and what Jason actually gravitates towards - is the fact that his particular style is actually intentional. It acts as a reclamation of what was mocked and dehumanized, reinstating power into it in a way that seems regressive, but is more powerfully progressive in retrospect. ‘Sympathy’ was a poem he didn’t know he needed until he read it, and now he either has the poem taped on his wall somewhere or it’s written/screenshotted in his notes on his phone. Similarly, he finds that the poem ‘We Wear The Mask’ is an allegory to the path he himself has taken.

      -> “Passing” by Nella Larsen

  -> this novel tells the story of two colored women - Irene and Clare - and how they navigate the world with the ability to pass as white women. There’s so much that goes into this novel, from the question of race as a moral ground, sexuality in the form of envy, the loss of community when one crosses the racial lines…. I feel like jason would love this book DOWN, the complexities and intricacies are right up his alley. While the book is not in production, Jason definitely finds some way, shape or form to get his hands on a copy….don’t ask a fanboy his methods okay!

       ->Toni Morrison

             -> Toni Morrison is one of my favorite black authors and by extension it is now Jason’s favorite. The way she writes is just so raw and passionate yet delicate and it really speaks to your soul. She’s one of those authors that’s in a completely different league of her own. I feel like Jason would really love Sula and A Mercy from her. He definitely cried while reading Beloved (everyone cries while reading Beloved). The Bluest Eye is his number one favorite book ever in life and I will die on this hill!!!

       -> “Sonny's Blues” by James Baldwin

             -> I honestly think anything by James Baldwin, Jason would like, but I choose Sonny’s Blues because of the struggle with brotherly love. There’s no secret that Jason has a tumultuous relationship with the rest of the Batfamily, and although for the most part the majority of it has been reconciled, tension lingers. Jason has his reservations, hes brash, and he’s the one that often clashes heads with people. This dynamic reflect that of the narrator and his brother, Sonny, who are constantly at war with one another because of Sonny’s desires and dreams, and the narrator being unable to see them. I feel like this is one of Jason’s comfort novels; it’s bittersweet, heartbreaking, and truly a testament to what people do when they think they’re doing what's best for those they care for.

       -> Other Books and Essays Include…

             -> “Letter to my Nephew” by James Baldwin, “Native Son” by Richard Wright, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” by Harriet Jacobs, “Sweat” by Zora Neal-Hurston, The Parable Duology and “Bloodchild” by Octavia E. Butler

If you enjoyed, please leave a like, comment, and reblog for others to see! And don't be shy to send in a request!

[moonlightequin1]

✨ TWISTED WONDERLAND YUME/OC/SELF-SHIP FAN SURVEY 2024 RESULTS ✨

HAPPY 4TH ANNIVERSARY, TWST JP! 🎉

In January, I made a survey to find out who is the most popular character to yume/oc/self-ship with! And there was 1,244 responses!

So I will share the results as promised! Who are the most popular characters to yume with?! Let's find out!

⚠️ THIS POLL CONTAINS CHARACTERS THAT ARE CURRENTLY LIMITED TO TWST JP!!! If you are a TWST EN player, be aware of spoilers ⚠️

RANKING:

🥇 Malleus Draconia 🐉

Malleus won 1st place with 50.6% of votes!

🥈 Idia Shroud 💀

Idia won 2nd place with 32.5% of votes!

🥉 Azul Ashengrotto 🐙

Azul won 3rd place with 32.3% of votes!

4. Leona Kingscholar 🦁

Leona got 4th place with 30.5% of votes!

5. Ace Trappola ♥️

Ace got 5th place with 27.9% of votes!

6. Vil Schoenheit 👑

Vil won 6th place with 24.8% of votes!

7. Floyd Leech 🦈

Floyd got 7th place with 24.7% of votes!

8. Jade Leech 🐬

Jade got 8th place with 24.6% of votes!

9. Deuce Spade ♠️

Deuce got 9th place with 24.1% of votes!

10. Lilia Vanrouge 🦇

Lilia got 10th place with 23.7% of votes!

11. Silver ⚔️

Silver got 11th place with 23.4% of votes!

12. Rook Hunt 🏹

Rook got 12th place with 22.3% of votes!

13. Riddle Rosehearts 🌹

Riddle got 13th place with 22.2% of votes!

14. Jamil Viper 🐍

Jamil got 14th place with 19.9% of votes!

15. Rollo Flamme 🔔

Rollo got 15th place with 19.5% of votes!

16. Sebek Zigvolt ⚡

Sebek got 16th place with 18.6% of votes!

17. Ruggie Bucchi 🍩

Ruggie got 17th place with 14.4% of votes!

18. Jack Howl 🐺

Jack got 18th place with 14.3% of votes!

19. Cater Diamond & Fellow Honest ♦️&🦊

Cater and Fellow are TIED for 19th place w/13.7% of votes!

20. Kalim Al-Asim ☀️

Kalim got 20th place w/13.6% of votes!

21. Divus Crewel ⚗️

Crewel got 21th place w/13.3% of votes!

22. Trey Clover ♣️

Trey got 22nd place w/12.8% of votes!

23. Epel Felmier 🍎

Epel got 23rd place w/12.5% of votes!

24. Chen'ya 🐈

Chen'ya got 24th place w/11% of votes!

25. Dire Crowley 🐦‍⬛🎭

Crowley got 25th place w/10.6% of votes!

26. Meleanor Draconia 🖤🐉👑

Meleanor got 26th place w/8.8% of votes!

27. Grim 🐱

Grim got 27th place w/7.7% of votes!

28. Ortho Shroud & Hirasaka Yuuka 🤖&🦐

Ortho and Yuuka are TIED w/7.2% of votes!

29. Neige LeBlanche ❄️

Neige got 29th place w/7.1% of votes!

30. Sam ☠️

Sam got 30th place w/6.4% of votes!

31. Baul Zigvolt 🐊

Baul got 31st place w/5.4% of votes!

32. Dilah Spade 💙

Dilah got 32nd place w/5.1% of votes!

33. Enma Yuuken 🦞

Yuuken got 33rd place w/4.8% of votes!

34. Mozus Trein & Najma Viper 📚&🐍

Trein and Najma TIED for this spot w/4% of votes!

35. Mito Yuuta 🦐

Yuuta got 35th place w/3.4% of votes!

36. Kuroki Yuuya 🦐

Yuuya got 36th place w/3.2% of votes!

37. Knight of Dawn 🌄🗡️

Knight of Dawn got 37th place w/2.5% of votes!

38. Gidel 🐱🔨

Gidel got 38th place w/2.1% of votes!

39. Mrs. Shroud 🩷

Mama Shroud got 39th place w/1.8% of votes!

40. Ashton Vargas & Cheka 💪🫎&🧶

Vargas and Cheka tied w/1.6% of votes!

41. Mr. Shroud 💙

Papa Shroud got 41st place w/1% of votes!

42. Marja Felmier 🍏

Meemaw got 42nd place w/0.9% of votes!

43. Ambrose the 63rd 🧙‍♂️

Ambrose got 43rd place w/0.6% of votes!

44. Kifaji 🪶

Kifaji got 44th place w/0.5% of votes!

45. The Seven Dwarfs 🪄

Dominic and Gran had 3 votes, but statistics state that they got 0.2% of votes along w/Hop, Shelpy, Toby, Timmy, and Snick!

And lastly...

46. King Henric/Henry 👑

Henric got last place w/0.1% of vote(s)

*he only got one vote but I wonder who the voter was...? 👀✨*

I was planning to share all the responses to the last question but....I got over 1,244 responses! I read many of your wonderful responses about your OC/Yume/Self-ships and how you ended up doing it for your OSHIS!

This was a fun project! Thank you all so much for joining this survey!

In less than THREE months, this got over 1,244 responses and it was great! I can see that TWST EN's fanbase is HUGE on Malleus and I'm honestly amazed by how different it is to the JP side!

I'll say this once again: Happy Anniversary everyone!! And I hope you all have a fantastic day/afternoon/evening/night!! 🎉🎊

I hope we all continue twisting and having great experiences with Twisted Wonderland! If you want to see the rest of the statistics, you can see it on my Twitter!

https://twitter.com/MoonlightEquin1/status/1769566912680431788?t=Q3BvhDRYLkR3kcL8yeShug&s=19

[kyuushi]

I present... the character relationship chart from the second official fanbook! Thanks again to the Kyuushi Discord server for the scans, Aroshi for help with cleaning, Shells for proofreading, and Crimson for Mebi's "fry" 😆❗

Like last time, there are some notes under the cut!

↓

Mippiki: As a reminder, this word is a combination of "three people + one small animal (armadillo)" and refers to Rona, Draluc, John, and Hinaichi.

Little-big Bro: Himari calls Rona "chii-nii" (小兄) to differentiate between him and their eldest brother, Hiyoshi. Ironic considering their heights…

God of Popularity Polls: In case you're wondering who that random old man is with arrows to Rona and Draluc, that's him, the God of Popularity Polls. Ura-Shinyoko stole his seiyuu in the anime…

Bio-employees: Autumn is capable of just growing living entities like Rokumon and Chinoike in their lab. Very normal publishing company.

Cement: Chinoike's gimmick is that he only speaks in wrestling terms. I don't know anything about wrestling myself but Google tells me that a "cement style" wrestling match is a serious match where both parties do their best to genuinely win, as compared to an exhibition type match which is more staged/for fun?

Niga, Sanga: Kuwabara and Sanzu are a ninja and kunoichi respectively. Their village names are parodies of the famed Iga ninja. Ni means 2, san means 3.

Useful mobs: Mob = background character. Bonnoki and the fandom's beloved bg boys Miki Kanae and Yoshida Terukazu-san❗❗ There's lore behind these 2 but I won't get into all that here, I just want to mention that Yoshida-san is based off a real person's art. Hopefully we'll get to see the 3rd useful mob in a relationship chart someday!

Piyo-chan: Ventrue accidentally made himself appear as this cute bird avatar on a Noom (Zoom parody) call with the other old bloods. They'll never let him live it down.

Black Silhouette: This is the three brothers' mother, Gabriella! Her face was hidden for quite some time before she finally made a fully drawn appearance in chapter 297.

As always please do take my translations with a grain of salt; I'm just a fan translator and while I did have someone help me with proofreading, the possibility of mistakes remains. If you have any questions or comments feel free to reach out to me here on tumblr or on Discord, @ ash in the Kyuushi server.

[projectsekai-sekaiundead]

Sekai Undead Introduction!

Hello, hello and welcome! To the Sekai Undead Tumblr Page!

[Originally Started June 17th, 2023; Rebooted July 17th, 2024]

Follow us on Twitter! @/sekai_undead

On July 17th, Sekai Undead will relaunch and post on Tumblr and Twitter! Every 2 days a new part will be released until the comic is caught up with the Instagram. From then on, parts will be released monthly. (Please note older parts have an extremely distinct style change, and aren't written as well as current ones)

- ABOUT SEKAI UNDEAD

Sekai Undead is a Project Sekai Zombie Apocalypse AU, that focuses on the 20 cast members of Project Sekai and their feeble attempts to survive a new zombie-ridden world.

The AU will be in comic and animatic form! All written, drawn, and animated by yours truly, @rinnyriin

Sekai Undead takes place before the 3rd Anni, right before the "Light Up the Fire" event. All characters retain their original ages and classes. The AU will attempt to stick to canon as BEST as possible, with the exception of the popular "Toya Tenma" as well as the not so popular "Minori Shinonome" headcanon. All other relationships are up to the reader's interpretation

This AU is also interactive! During certain times within the comic, polls will be set up to determine what happens next. Interactive Character QnAs will also take place!

That's all you need to know for now! Happy reading!

-> Character Sheets

-> Table of Contents

-> FAQ

-> Strawpage

(If you have any questions, feel free to ask! Question box is always open!)

[wihellib]

I wanted to talk a bit about the Comiket Popularity Vote. The full list can be found here.

Levi was voted as #1 with almost 1500 votes above the 2nd place Beel. He wouldn’t have been my pick, but this result doesn’t really surprise me. His character archetype is very popular in Japan.

Satan being third is interesting simply because he is usually so dominant whenever the polls are conducted here on tumblr. But it just goes to show you that different fandom spaces can have very different opinions on characters.

I am surprised that Belphie is behind Michael, seeing as he is a King and I really thought all the Kings would have top ranks, but Michael managed to sneak himself in there. Well, he is very pretty. Good for him.

Then, Zagan was 8th and had the top spot of all the lower ranks. This came of nowhere for me. I am very neutral on Zagan. I can see his appeal but not so much that it’s above literally every other lower rank as well as L characters like Gabriel and Raphael. I am very curious about what makes him so attractive to the fans at Comiket.

The results seem to mostly follow the pattern of: more screen time = a higher spot. Not totally though, there are some outliers. Astaroth being so high up is odd, since we haven’t seen him in the main story and only minimally in events.

Belial and Stolas’ positions are also odd for the inverse reason. We’ve seen them quite a lot, Belial is even in the main story and has an H scene, but they are in the bottom 3. I am curious about the reason for their dislike.

Now, the fact that you could vote multiple times for the same guy skewed the results a bunch I’m sure. I would have liked to see the breakdown of single votes only and how that would have changed the placements.

I really hope they’ll do more more polls like this, but open it up to everyone who plays the game. Other gacha games have an announcement in game that they’re having a survey, and you can click a link that takes you to a website where you can give your opinions to specific questions. There’s no reason WHB can’t do this.

Everyone who is a fan of the game should get a voice in which lower rank demon will get an L card, not just a specific group of people.

The most fair (and comprehensive) way to do this would be a ranked choice poll. You choose your top three S and/or A+ rank demons, where 1st gets 3 points, 2nd gets 2 Points, and 3rd gets 1 point. Adding up all the points, whoever has the most will be people’s overall most wanted.

[character-tournaments]

And the Winner Is.....

Aoi Asahina and Mondo Owada! Congratulations on being the 2nd and 3rd winners of Character Tournaments!

Thank you to everyone that sent me kind words after last night's ordeal. I sincerely apologize to everyone that got caught up in this or had the poll ruined for them. I knew the risks of having a DR popularity poll, so I guess it's on me for having hope. Junko is the real winner today frfr.

While I'm not bringing the finale poll back, I will say it was an unfair situation to the Hina fans like myself who weren't the anon users, statistically the majority of the Hina voters considering there were hundreds of votes when I killed it. And I can't have eyes everywhere, so it's not like I can say with 100% certainty that there weren't a few Mondo fans being shitty as well. So instead, they both get to win, because they deserve it! They can have the titles of Most Popular DR Boy and Most Popular DR Girl on this account

Now, we can try to put all this shit behind us and learn from the experience here- never have a Danganronpa poll ever again under any circumstance. But what poll should we do next? Well, cast your vote here, or leave another suggestion in the replies!

Bonus: Congrats to Taka for 3rd place!

[polls4you]

Avatar The Last Airbender: Choose your favorite character!

Avatar The Last Airbender is one of the most well-known modern cartoons, even today close to its 20th anniversary it remains popular and beloved to long time and new fans. Filled with amazing characters – both in the lead and secondary, a poll championship to choose our favorite one will certainly be interesting.

There is a long list of characters that show up for the three seasons, and it was impossible to cut out some of them so the championship will count with 64 participants! This will leave us with a first round with 64 options, second round with 32 and third one with 16, followed by the Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Finals.

Let’s vote!

1st Round ✅️

2nd Round ✅️

3rd Round ✅️

Quarterfinals ✅️

Semifinals ✅️

Finals ✅️

Winner 🏆

Progress:

[bullet-prooflove]

Why I Write Named Reader Characters...

I’ve had a lot of new folks popping onto my blog and that usually that means this question arises so I thought if I do a post on it and pop it on my pinned page, it saves me writing the whole thing about again every few months.

All of my work is named reader so if that's an issue I'm sorry that's not going to change anytime soon and you are going to run across it more often than not.

I did a poll on it a while back and truly it didn't bother the majority of my readers and honestly, I probably wouldn't change it anyway if it did.

Writing 'reader' content started as an experiment for me because I had always written in 3rd/1st person and I wanted to explore the challenge of writing 2nd person after my degree. I found I really loved writing in 2nd person because it's very immerse and you get the distance that 1st person can't give you and the intimacy that 3rd person can't give you. I think by saying I'm writing OC fic wouldn't really ring true because the first thing that springs to mind when anyone says that is 3rd person writing and that is a whole other kettle of fish. I don't view what I do as OC fic, it's just the reader is the character. They are stepping into the character's shoes.

People enjoy my writing because of the way I write characters and that includes reader characters. One of my most popular couples is Beau Simpson x Reader (Ally). - Ally's name is used a lot throughout the work and people love her and her personality because of the relationship it shapes with Beau. If she was written as Y/N it would be a very boring and different story because the choices she/they made shape the writing. Writing her as a 'reader' gives the people who enjoy my work that proximity to Beau whilst exploring concepts and issues they can feel and identify with but it also provides a certain level of distance so the content isn't too heavy or stifling.

I despise (and I know this is a strong word.) writing Y/N because I feel it makes the work bland. You can't make a character out of Y/N because you can't include details like their perfume (what if it's not the reader's preference) or hobbies (what if the reader doesn't sew) or personality (what if the reader is more extrovert then introvert or vice versa) or even songs (what if the reader isn't a Johnny Cash fan) You have to make it generic so it's one size fits all and I find that too lackluster and confining. If I was truly writing a 'Y/N' character it would suck for me and my readers because all the personality and little details that bring a character to life and their relationship with the person I'm writing about wouldn't be in there. If you don't have a character in mind how would you know how they respond in certain situations or to things their lover does or says. The work becomes very generic. You'll end up reading/writing the same thing over and over again.

For me it's those details that make the work sing and part of that detail is names. Sometimes you have to use a name for it to make the impact that you want and that's why I do it.

"Y/N don't go..." doesn't have the same weight and impact as "Ally, please just don't leave." < the name shapes the language and the sentence structure. (I honestly was trying to write 'Ally don't go' but this characterisation took over, which proves exactly what I'm saying.)

WOW this has been a long one, sorry guys and welcome to my TED Talk on the way and whys of how I write.

If you don't like it, that's cool don't read. If you do great, I'll see you on board the good ship 'HMS Fanfic' *salute

[demifiendrsa]

Undead Unluck chapter 203 color page

Top 6 3rd character popularity poll results:

Fuuko Izumo - 8,249 votes

Tatiana - 8,151 votes

Feng - 8,109 votes

Julia/Juiz - 6,640 votes

Andy - 6,589 votes

Nico - 6,325 votes

[aashi-heartfilia]

Everything you need to know about MHA's INTERNATIONAL POPULARITY POLL

(with link to vote)

So, as we all know, MHA has ended after 10 years of its serialisation and to celebrate it, an international popularity poll is being held in which everyone can vote!! No matter who you are, or where you live. Anyone in the whole world can vote for their favourite HERO/VILLAIN.

YES, YOU CAN VOTE TOO!!

This poll will take place in two stages: MAIN STAGE and PLUS ULTRA STAGE.

Main Stage:

The MAIN STAGE will go for about two months, starting from August 5, 2024 to September 30, 2024. Meaning each person, no matter who you are, gets around 56-57 votes in total that started voting from day 1, but that's okay even if you came to know about it right now.

It is 13th August today, so you should still have around 49 votes remaining to vote for your favourite HERO/VILLAIN (Depending upon your Time Zone)

RESULT ANNOUNCEMENT:

Mid-term result announcement: September 1, 2024

Final Results announcement: 2nd December, 2024

RULES:

The rules are pretty simple:

You can vote once per day.

The right to vote resets after each day at midnight according to JST(Japanese Standard Time).

REWARDS:

Summary: The 1st place will get an entire movie to celebrate its win (which will probably be Bakugo, until and unless a miracle happens). The characters in 1st, 2nd and 3rd position will move to PLUS ULTRA STAGE, which is a 24 hour poll (more on that later). And last but not least, a new illustration by our dear Horikoshi sensei to celebrate the 1st to 10th places, like how he does for every popularity poll.

.

Link to participate:

.

PLUS ULTRA STAGE:

Summary: It is a 24 hours limited edition championship 🏆 to decide the best HERO/VILLAIN. The TOP 3 characters from the MAIN STAGE will compete here. Here, your VOTE gets renewed PER HOUR. The winner of the Plus Ultra Stage will also get an amazing ILLUSTRATION by Horikoshi sensei and it will be used to create a BRONZE STATUE for the winner. RULES are as follows:

Voting Period: 2nd Dec, 2024 (8 pm) to 3rd Dec, 2024 (7:59pm) JST

Result Announcement:

Same day, 9:30 pm (i.e. Tuesday, 3rd Dec, 2024)

So, with all that being said, I hope this helps! Let's vote for our favourites and make them win! Also spread this news among as many anime fans as you can and enjoy!

~Thanks for reading~

Sunshine

[fairytale-poll]

WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT POST!!!!!!!

Before I get into the winners, I want to thank everyone who participated in Cinderpoll!!! Everyone who wrote propaganda, who sent asks and wrote comments in the reblogs, even if you just voted thank you for making Cinderpoll as fun as it was! It couldn't have happened without you <3

Now, onward to the winners!!!

The first congratulations will be to the winner of the Mod's Choice poll: Hatsune Miku from Various Songs!!! The Mod's Choice poll is less popular than the main tournament or the loser's bracket, but it's important to me, so it's on here. Here's to Miku Miku!!!

(Technically the Mod's Choice poll is still open at the time this announcement is made, but it looks like she's winning and it's almost done and if it changes I'll edit this post)

The next congratulations is a bigger one. It's the winner of the loser's bracket, Brandy as Cinderella in the 1997 adaptation of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella!!! Many thought she was done dirty when she lost in Round 1 of the main tournament, so I'm glad she was able to take this reward at least. You know what they always say, it's possible! :) Congratulations Brandy as Cinderella, you defined a generation!

Now we're onto the winners of the main tournament.

We have the two bronze place winners. In 3rd place, we have two popular characters-- one of which I feel as though very few expected to get here. That one was of course Mofurun as Mofurella from Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure! But that cute little teddy bear, who I have been told is transgender, did it! She made it to the podium through the power of being a cute teddy bear! The other 3rd place winner is Missy Piggy as Lady Holiday from The Great Muppet Caper. The beautiful and talented diva herself, is it no surprise that she made it this far? Honestly, if she was here, she'd probably karate chop me not for giving her the gold (and that's why we love her). Congrats bronze medalists :)

Here is the big one! The runner-up!

It is none other than Cinders from Once Upon a Time (in Space) by The Mechanisms. Cinders had a lot of energy going into the tournament, as she was the second-most submitted character and another Once Upon a Time (in Space) character got runner-up in the last tournament, and she defeated some other big names in the tournament including Cinderella from Into the Woods and Linh Cinder from The Lunar Chronicles (who was the most submitted character). Her fans were passionate and campaigned for her fiercely, and with that, she landed all the way up to the runner-up!!! A very high honor indeed, congratulations Cinders!!! Not bad for a character who doesn't have any official art of her.

There is one character, however, that managed to drum up even more support than Cinders from Once Upon a Time (in Space).

The gold medalist, the winner of Cinderpoll, Tumblr's certified favorite Cinderella, and the unofficial official best Cinderella--

CONGRATULATIONS TO ELLA OF FRELL FROM ELLA ENCHANTED!!!!

I am more than pleased, as Ella of Frell was one of my favorite (if not THE favorite Cinderella in the tournament), and I am so glad that so many other people loved this book. Honestly didn't expect her to make it this far, much less win! I encourage all of you to read it if you enjoy reading! :) Good job Ella, you deserved the gold!!!

Once again thank you everyone for a great poll! I'll start submissions for the next one sometime in the next week.

[tempenensis]

The third Jujutsu Kaisen character popularity poll has begun! The voting period is March 3rd to March 20th. You can see all the characters available to be voted in the link.

(Unfortunately, there's no way to vote for gaikokujin like us :"))

[wanderingnork]

Githyanki Deep Dive: Aberrations and Antiheroes in 4th Edition D&D

So according to the githyanki poll I ran a few weeks ago, this was the third most popular option for a deep dive. (After this we'll be hitting up the original Fiend Folio and Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone.) It's also one close to my heart, because it's the edition where I first fell in love with the gith--and especially the githyanki.

In 4th Edition, the githyanki that were virtually unchanged from the Fiend Folio through 2nd and 3rd Editions suddenly switched gears. They were still vicious pirates and terrifying opponents, but also developed another side that has lasted through to the githyanki we know and love in Baldur's Gate 3.

4th Edition Primer

Before we get into the githyanki, though, I have to give a crash course in 4th Edition D&D. Since so many people started playing in 5th Edition or came into the hobby through the gateway of Critical Role or Baldur's Gate 3, you may not know just how...strange...4th Edition was in the context of the game as a whole. I speak from a place of love, because full disclosure I prefer 4E to 5E as DM and as player, but I acknowledge that it was weird.

4th Edition was partially developed as a response to the goings-on of 3.5 D&D. (Don't worry about 3rd Edition, that is a whole other post.) In 3.5, there was a serious problem with system bloat. From the three core books (Dungeon Master's Guide, Player's Handbook, Monster Manual), the game exploded. Five Monster Manuals. Two Player's Handbooks. Two Dungeon Master's Guides. The eight "Complete..." books. Campaign settings. The list goes on and on and on.

It added up fast. Players had vast suites of rules and mechanics that could easily lead to a single character requiring three or four books to run. A single monster could be an entire page and a half of rules and require a DM to have access to three or four books just to understand what a monster's feats could do (because yes, monsters had feats, and they could take class levels). To put it mildly...it was a mess.

So along comes 4th Edition, a well-intentioned new mess.

4E set out to streamline the problem. While it would eventually introduce its own mess of system bloat thanks to the sheer volume of books, its origin maintained some control over mechanical chaos. Instead of vast lists of feats and abilities, players had "powers" that defined exactly what a given ability could do and how often. The sprawling skill list of 3.5 was drastically pared down. Monsters went from an entire page or more of abilities and feats to single "stat blocks" that covered, even for the highest-level monsters, half a page. Movement in feet became movement in squares. Non-combat abilities were stripped down to a bare minimum.

You can spot a few things that 5th Edition kept when it was released. We still have the tight skill list from 4E (minus the "endurance" skill which still makes me grumpy). The idea of the "monster stat block" is retained. The feat list has dramatically shrunk and while 5E has put out many more feats since, it's really, really not at the level of 3.5.

4E also introduced the idea of "tiers" of play: levels 1-10 were the "heroic tier," 11-20 were the "paragon tier," and 21-30 were the "epic tier." Generally speaking, the heroic tier was about fighting your typical mundane monsters. The paragon tier would introduce higher-level mundane monsters and low-level extraplanar monsters. The epic tier almost always required players to leave the Material Plane behind and head onto another plane to find level-appropriate challenges. (Yes, this will be relevant to the githyanki later!)

While the mechanical changes hit hard, the changes to the lore and default world of D&D were just as drastic. The default world of Greyhawk from 3.5 shifted to the "Points of Light" setting. This setting established a background--that two great empires clashed some centuries ago then fell, leaving the world mostly a monster-infested disaster, studded with small points of safe civilization--then set players loose. It also crushed older D&D cosmology. Gone was the Great Wheel of planes and demiplanes. In its place were the Feywild, Shadowfell, Astral Sea, Elemental Chaos, and Far Realm. What Forgotten Realms had to do to make this new cosmology make sense...I don't wanna go into it, but it's a lot to unpack.

This streamlining of the cosmology also changed a lot of monster lore. Many "typical" monsters of the heroic tier (goblins, magical animals, elementals, and the like) stayed largely the same. It's on the other planes and at higher levels that things got weird. The tarrasque was reskinned as an abomination, the spawn of the war between the primordials and the gods. The shadar-kai changed from messed-up shadow fey to eerie servants of the Raven Queen. And so on, and so forth.

On the surface, the githyanki didn't change very much in comparison to other monsters. They still lived on the Astral Sea. They were still piratical. They still hated illithids and githzerai. But, thanks in large part to the cosmology changes at the base of 4E, they were about to take on an entirely new dimension.

The githyanki were about to save the universe.

Githyanki, Old and New

The githyanki make their 4E debut in the first Monster Manual, on page 128. The first line of their writeup sets the stage:

Born out of slavery, the githyanki are fierce psychic warriors that ply the Astral Sea and fight with silver swords.

Hell of an opening line, that. It hands us the key characteristics that 4E wants us to associate with the githyanki. Compare it to the first introduction of the githyanki in the first Monster Manual for 3.5 (p.127):

Githyanki are an ancient line of humanlike beings residing on the Astral Plane, filling their armories for their next skirmish, raid, or war.

Right off the bat, we're dealing with two completely different perspectives. 3.5 tells us the githyanki are ancient, tells us where they live, and informs us that they spend all their time in preparing for war and plunder. 4E's language, on the other hand, frames them in a more...adventurous light. Ferocity, plying the Astral Sea, fighting with silver swords, not much different than any extraplanar adventurer.

Most importantly, the first WORDS of their write-up in 4E tells us their history: they are a lineage of freed slaves. Whose slaves, how they got free, all that is on the next page. (It's the same in 3.5, The Lore is on the next page.) But there it is: if you don't read the "alignment" tag in the stat block and see that little word "evil," what you'll see is freed slaves who adventure in the Astral Sea.

The next change is the art style. The githyanki illustration in the 3.5 Monster Manual makes the warrior look totally skeletal. She's wearing gloriously alien armor, many-colored gems, and has her hair in a strange style. Her knees have those weird bulbous knobs and her feet don't look remotely human. In 4E, our first look at the githyanki is completely different. No more shrinkwrapping here: these are just some weird humans. Their silver armor is elaborate and set with rubies, but it's very much armor a mundane warrior would wear. (Indeed, it's about identical to BG3 armor.) They look away from the viewer, presumably at the same foe, psionic powers and swords at the ready. The githyanki of 3.5 is a monster standing alone. The githyanki of 4E are an adventuring party fighting together.

Sailing the Astral Sea

Cut to The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea. This supplement focused on all things Astral Sea. Here, 4E finally gets into the deep parts of githyanki lore. The first illustration in the book is a githyanki knight riding a red dragon. From there, they appear frequently. Pirates, tenuous allies, the center of a dramatic campaign arc. The Astral Sea is their home, and as soon as player characters arrive they're trespassing.

(Side note: here we will be setting aside the Scales of War adventure path from Dragon magazine. Even though it's a huge part of githyanki lore, it's acknowledged in "The Plane Above" that the adventure path is an alternate history. It's not a core part of the githyanki story in 4E.)

The shifted characterization of the githyanki continues into this book. On page 12, in discussion of githyanki pirates, we get the following: "few of the githyanki of the Astral Sea bother with kidnapping. It might turn out to be profitable, but it's clearly a criminal act rather than a military operation, and thus beneath them."

So...according to this book, they're still thieves and killers, but within the D&D ethical framework these are often forgivable traits. There's no mention of slavery or other depravity in this or any other section of the book about the githyanki. Other Astral denizens are mentioned keeping and trading in slaves--not the githyanki. The Manual of the Planes mentions githyanki slavers precisely once, on page 110; in all other references, they're simply raiders and plunderers. Dragon magazine #377, "Tu'narath: City of Death," QUITE clearly and thoroughly establishes that the githyanki take and keep slaves. However, many D&D players didn't read Dragon magazine. If they only read The Plane Above, Manual of the Planes, or the Monster Manual, they'd come away with a rather nobler view of the githyanki than 3.5 ever left.

If you are, for some reason, following along with the book itself--skip what you see on page 13. We're gonna come back to that.

The githyanki get a mention on what feels like every other page. But the most focused discussion of the githyanki in this book appears from pages 94-97, in a deep dive on their culture, and from 142-149 with the new stat blocks--including one for Vlaakith herself. Here, we discover that in 4E the githyanki have been broken into factions. There's mainstream githyanki society, the group that lives in Tu'narath and generally behaves as we expect githyanki to behave. Then there are the Far Travelers, a group of githyanki who never settled in Tu'narath. With Gith's blessing, they became true nomads. They don't have silver swords or benefit from the red dragon pact, but they do enjoy immense freedom.

And then there are the gul'othran. While mainstream githyanki society enjoys superiority to other people, pillaging and then departing, the gul'othran take it a step further. They conquer other worlds and rule over them. It's repeatedly mentioned that githyanki players encounter on the Material Plane are probably gul'othran. Not typical githyanki, but extremists. Githyanki bent on conquest, perfectly acceptable opponents for any adventuring party.

Gith's Three Stratagems

The githyanki story in The Plane Above starts with the story of their liberation. Here, the war on mind flayers is defined: not just a perpetual hatred, but an Eternal Crusade decreed by Gith herself. Zerthimon, as usual, objects and the githzerai depart for the Elemental Chaos. The githyanki, left homeless, desperate, and fractured, sail into the Astral Sea. Here, Gith establishes a plan for the future of her people, founded on three stratagems.

First, she wanted a fortified capital. After a long time--anywhere from a few decades to centuries--the githyanki arrived at the One in the Void and founded the city of Tu'narath there. First stratagem, check. Second, Gith sought an alliance with another power. With the first Vlaakith's support, Gith reached out to Tiamat. She sold herself for a pact with the red dragons, who would be allies and friends of the githyanki so long as the pact lasted. (In the 4E Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons, we get to meet the "pact dragons," red dragons who've spent so long with the githyanki that they've taken on the magic of the Astral Sea.)

Finally, before leaving her people, Gith established the tradition of the silver swords. As has been true since the earliest githyanki lore, the silver swords are capable of cutting silver cords that hold Astral travelers to their material bodies. That makes them highly effective weapons against astral-projecting mind flayers and elder brains, which exist at once on the Astral Sea and the Material Plane. In a previous edition, there was even an incident in the mind flayer city of Ch'Chitl where a githyanki hunting party killed the Astral part of an elder brain.

But 4E takes this a step further. The greatest silver swords are forged to incorporate a tiny fragment of the Living Gate, a strange artifact that held back the Far Realm itself before it was destroyed. In the hands of a powerful githyanki, the swords are able to resonate with the Far Realm and aberrant beings. Fun fact: despite over a decade of separation from the publication of "The Plane Above," Baldur's Gate 3 retains this piece of lore. Talk to Lae'zel after she gets her silver sword. She'll tell you all about it.

What she doesn't tell you is just how important that really is.

4th Edition: It's All About the Far Realm

Throughout 4E, the setting steadily shifted gears and pointed toward the Far Realm as a sort of "ultimate evil." Why that happened is speculation for another post, but what matters here is that it did. The Monster Manual mostly presented your standard aberrant beings (mind flayers, aboleths, beholders, gibbering mouthers). They're mostly designed for paragon and epic tier heroes (levels 11-30), with the least powerful (carrion crawler, grick, and grell) being rated for level 7. Aberrations are high-level foes.

Then in comes the Monster Manual 2, with the fell taints (p. 102-105). These cute little blobs of tentacles and eyes, born from the contact of the Far Realm with reality, are rated for level 2. A low-level beholder, the gauth, is rated for level 5. Suddenly, aberrations and the Far Realm are acceptable foes for adventurers just starting out in their career. Ominously, this book also introduces the horrifying star spawn. They're the heralds of the aberrant stars, avatars in the mortal world. One of them, the Maw of Acamar, is literally A BLACK HOLE.

In the Underdark sourcebook, EXTENSIVE time is spent on mind flayers and their ancient destroyed empire of Nihilath. The gith only get a couple sidebar mentions, but for anyone who knows their lore they loom large. In that book, there's also a heavy focus on the aboleths and beholders, who have vast and bizarre realms in the Underdark. In the aboleth realm of Xarcorr, the stone itself flows like water and the laws of physics break down. A singularity somewhere in Xarcorr is even gradually devouring the substance of the Underdark. The Far Realm is tearing at the seams of reality.

And the Monster Manual 3 seals the deal. Cloakers, derro, more beholders, foulspawn, intellect devourers, krakens, PAGES of mind flayers with an elder brain. It all culminates in the star spawn, and what might be the ultimate creature to fight in all of 4E. You can take on Orcus, Tiamat, Lolth, Asmodeus, and that's cool...but this book offers the chance to fight Allabar, the Opener of the Way.

It's a star.

An entire fucking star covered in eyes and tentacles that wants to tear open reality and let the Far Realm devour everything.

Heroes and Villains

And this is what the githyanki are ultimately contending with. In 4E, their fight isn't just against the mind flayers. The Eternal Crusade the githyanki fight is against the Far Realm itself. The silver swords allow them to recognize the times when the Far Realm manages to seep into the Astral Sea. They marshal a "savage and decisive military response" that ends the threat immediately. Most people don't even realize how often this happens, because the githyanki are always ready.

The gul'othran, the faction that wants to conquer everyone? They do what they do because they want to deny the mind flayers a future empire by conquering everything first. It's horrifying extremism in the face of an apocalypse that could rip all of reality to shreds.

That "page 13" I said to ignore earlier is a description of a possible campaign arc where the githyanki finally go on a full offensive. They want to invade the Far Realm themselves and take the fight to their enemies. The players are tasked with stopping this invasion, because unzipping the Far Realm is a VERY bad idea in general, but in context of the rest of the 4E lore...well. Anyone who hears about Allabar, or experiences the trypophobia-inducing Hatchlands of the beholders, or bears witness to the ruins of the ancient mind flayer empire, might be tempted to let it happen. After all, even with all the horrible things they've done, the githyanki have the weapons, experience, and allies to hold the line. They've been holding the line for eons.

And everyone in the world of 4th Edition should pray to whatever god is listening that the githyanki keep doing that.

[webcomic-character-tournament]

are you tired of how many character tournaments just become a popularity contest?

how regardless of seeding, even high contenders can almost arbitrarily be knocked out early on, leaving you with nothing to root for?

if you're feeling that, and if you like any webcomics, you should participate in the webcomic character tournament!

the primary goals of this tournament are:

to celebrate the medium of webcomics as a whole

to find new webcomics to read, and to recommend your own favorites

to highlight indie creators and help them build a wider audience

to have fun rooting for and celebrating your favorite characters!

in order to accomplish these goals, instead of a single elimination bracket, i will be using a mcmahon system inspired tournament structure!

this means that no character will be eliminated, and you can participate in polls rooting for your favorite character throughout all the rounds. characters will also be roughly matched up based on a system that determines how well known their work is, so most rounds should be relatively evenly matched, allowing people to fight for their favorites on their own merits

more details about how the mcmahon tournament will work can be found under the cut!

submit as many characters as you would like to here! the deadline is tentatively next saturday, june 3rd, at 4pm EDT

tagging some other tournaments i like whose participants i think might be interested :) @wlw-webcomic-bracket @obscurewebcomictournament @gaywebcomicsshowdown @autisticgirliesbracket @yuribracket @secretthirdthingtournament @nonyanderepoll @funkylittlebaldcharapoll @divorced-tournament

no submission is specifically banned, but try to keep in mind the spirit of this tournament when deciding what to submit.

under the cut after my more detailed description of the tournament structure, i also ramble in a lot more detail about my philosophy regarding submission eligibility, but it's not necessary to read all that before submitting characters

mcmahon tournament details:

matchups will be decided based off of a survey sent out after submissions are over gauging participants' familiarity with all of the competing characters' source materials. each character will be assigned points based off of how known their source material is, and each character will go up against a character with a similar popularity score for the first round

characters will be awarded points based off of if they lose, win, or tie their match and have that added to their total score, and then they will again be paired against a character with a similar updated score

depending on how many characters are participating, this process can continue either until there is a definitive ranking of all characters, or until just a few top winners are clear

i haven't entirely decided on specifics such as whether points will be awarded by a simple 0 for a loss, 0.5 for a tie, 1 for a win or by percentage of the vote, and if initial popularity points will be counted in the final ranking, or if i will try to rank winners from within their initial popularity categories, but i hope that won't matter too much, because in my opinion the main fun of this isn't the final results, it's for people to have fun in the individual rounds seeing their favorite character's points go up!

submission guidelines:

if you are submitting characters from extremely popular webcomics, try to limit yourself to just characters that are among your top favorites of all time, and maybe try to submit stuff from lesser known works as well

similar goes for webcomics that are more widely known for adaptations into other media forms (one punch man, tower of god, heartstopper, etc.)

i'm not specifically banning any comic for having bigoted content or its creator being a bad person, there's a wide scale of stuff i could decide to include in that definition or not. in the goal of celebrating favorite characters, obviously a lot of people love characters despite flaws in the work they're from, but also keep in mind the goals of recommending works to other people, and helping uplift and promote creators you like, and try to find a reasonable balance from there

what counts as a webcomic:

physically published works that you can find pirated or scanlated online probably don't count

comics whose publication is centered around physical releases, who also have simultaneous online releases by their publishers (comics on manga plus or comixology, newspaper strips with online sites, etc.) probably don't count

comics published through traditional publishers that are exclusively online (such as shōnen jump+ comics) still probably don't count

comics published online through companies that exclusively publish online (such as lezhin) are still discouraged

stuff like line webtoon or tapas official comics are more acceptable, as there are a lot of free comics from independent creators around them and many of these comics started out that way themselves, so they exist within a culture of webcomics more so than the aforementioned comic categories

stuff that is paywalled beyond just having an early release system is discouraged

comics that are no longer online but accessible through archives are fine though, especially in the wake of sites like smackjeeves being deleted there's a lot of stuff in webcomic history that can only be found that way now!

webtoon style comics absolutely count as webcomics, they're an exciting way of fully making use of webcomics' digital format! simultaneously however, i feel like with the rise of mobile webtoon apps, there are many people who read webtoon style comics but who dont further engage with webcomics, so i'd definitely encourage submitting a variety of styles of webcomic!

none of these rules are set! feel free to submit whatever you want, i just list them so you can try to find a balance between the different goals of this tournament when submitting stuff.

anyone can submit as many characters as you want, but just maybe if you find that a lot of your submission ideas are from comics in some of the more discouraged categories, limit yourself in how many you submit from those categories and only submit characters if they're absolute favorites of yours you want the opportunity to celebrate, and maybe try to also submit a character from something that isn't in a discouraged category too!

theres no penalty for not going with this, but i think because choosing characters by number of nominees doesn't really align with my intentions for this, depending on how easy it is to sort submissions i might just go off of vibes, so you might just be less likely to have a character make it to the tournament if their comic is in more heavily discouraged categories is all