#Poll 298

[polling-sonic-fans]

Do you consider LEGO Dimensions canon to Sonic?

-yes, the whole thing

-yes, but from Sonic and co.’s perspective it wasn’t as blocky

-the level pack’s story happened, but some of the specific crossovers didn’t

-just the Knight Rider/KITT short

-no it never happened even

Thanks for the poll anon!

Polls for the Sonic fandom on just about anything. Share polls you like to get more data. Asks and submissions always open.

[purpleplaid17]

Jess Watches // Mon 22 July // Day 298 & Tues 23 July // Day 299 Synopses & Favourite Scenes & Poll

Killjoys (rw) 2x01 Dutch and the Real Girl

Lucy helps Dutch, John and Pree to get into Eulogy to find tech to break D'avin out. This is an outlaw only barter mysterious high-tech shielded town.

They arrive at Eulogy. Dutch: [leather, on] Clara: [robotic arm, attached] D'avin: [tiddies, out] They are forcibly removed from the premises.

Call the Midwife (with mum) 8x07

A woman's pregnancy is affected by her husband's infidelity, Sister Frances faces her first solo delivery, Shelagh receives news about May, and Valerie's loyalty is tested.

Sister Frances was so brave and she did brilliantly. I'm so proud of her. Yet the complete opposite with Val's gran. She was reckless and is a danger to the women she was trying to help. That it was, and in some places still is, the only option for an abortion is unacceptable.

Abbott Elementary (with mum) 3x10 2 Ava 2 Fest

Ava Fest is back, and with the help of the teachers, Ava's set on outdoing last year by any means necessary; after Janine accepts the offer for a position at the district, she just has to check off one last thing to make it official.

♪ Junior Senior - Move Your Feet ♪

Sweet Tooth 3x08 This Is a Story (Series Finale)

After suffering an unimaginable loss, Gus must make a choice that will determine the fate of humans and hybrids. Who will be left to tell their story?

"All stories end. We may not be ready for it when it comes. In fact, we may never be. We say it's too soon. We ask ourselves if the journey was too difficult. If the cost was too high. All stories end. The only question that remains, who will be left alive to tell this one, humans or hybrids?"

Me: 😭😭😭

[bestanimal]

Round 1 Final Stats:

The top phyla have been ranked thusly, listed here from highest ranking to lowest:

🪲 Arthropoda ~ 2,002

🐠 Chordata ~ 1,780

🐌 Mollusca ~ 1,687

🪸 Cnidaria ~ 1,307

🫓 Platyhelminthes ~ 1,217

🔫 Onychophora ~ 1,180

🔬 Tardigrada ~ 1,101

🌈 Ctenophora ~ 1,013

⭐️ Echinodermata ~ 947

🪱 Annelida ~ 681

🧽 Porifera ~ 535

👥 Bryozoa ~ 331

⚪️ Placozoa ~ 328

⛱ Brachiopoda ~ 303

⚙️ Rotifera ~ 298

🍆 Priapulida ~ 216

🧲 Phoronida ~ 178

🌍 Nematoda ~ 169

🐉 Kinorhyncha ~ 169

🌰 Hemichordata ~ 169

🎉 Loricifera ~ 147

🎗 Nemertea ~ 138

❄️ Micrognathozoa ~ 124

🧪 Xenacoelomorpha ~ 123

🍴 Entoprocta ~ 111

👛 Cycliophora ~ 110

🦷 Gnathostomulida ~ 100

🏹 Chaetognatha ~ 83

🧶 Gastrotricha ~ 82

🐙🔍 Dicyemida ~ 19

🦪🔍 Orthonectida ~ 12

🐴✂️ Nematomorpha ~ -37

The top 3 phyla are Arthropoda, Chordata, and Mollusca!

This means Arthropoda, Chordata, and Mollusca will be moving on to Round 2, and broken up by Class (or some other phylogenetic equivalent).

But that’s not all!

After Round 2, we will have an extra Round 2.5, featuring every other phylum that received over 1,000 points! This will give some of the more highly ranked phyla a second chance to move on, and make Round 3 a little more interesting.

Round 2.5 will include Cnidaria, Platyhelminthes, Tardigrada, and Ctenophora.

(Unfortunately, I can’t include Onychophora as it only contains 2 families without class or order ranking, so I will have to preemptively move them forward to Round 4 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

To give myself enough time to queue up polls, Round 2 will begin November 1st.

See you then!

Extra Awards:

Phylum Porifera

~ had the highest percentage of likes at 50.8%

Phylum Placozoa

~ had the highest amount of neutral votes at 295

Phylum Xenacoelomorpha

~ had 0 hates

Phylum Platyhelminthes

~ had the most votes at 620

~ had the highest amount of loves at 245

~ had the highest amount of likes at 204

Phylum Gastrotricha

~ had the lowest amount of favorites at 2

~ had the lowest percentage of favorites at 0.7%

Phylum Mollusca

~ had 0 dislikes

~ had the third most reblogs at 86

Phylum Entoprocta

~ had 0 hates

Phylum Phoronida

~ had 0 hates

Phylum Orthonectida

~ had the lowest amount of likes at 20

~ had the least notes at 17

~ had the least reblogs at 6

Phylum Dicyemida

~ had the least votes at 158

~ had the lowest amount of loves at 4

~ had the lowest percentage of loves at 2.5%

~ had the highest percentage of neutral votes at 67.9%

Phylum Micrognathozoa

~ was our first single species to be ranked

~ had 0 hates

Phylum Rotifera

~ had 0 hates

Phylum Nematomorpha

~ had the highest amount of dislikes at 74

~ had the highest percentage of dislikes at 30.1%

~ had the highest percentage of hates at 11.4%

~ was the only phylum with a negative ranking

Phylum Onychophora

~ had the most notes at 310

~ had the most reblogs at 115 (though a lot of them happened after the poll closed)

Phylum Arthropoda

~ was the only phylum to get over 2,000 points

~ had the second most reblogs at 101

~ had 0 hates

Phylum Echinodermata

~ had the highest percentage of loves at 52.8%

~ was the only phylum to not receive any dislikes or hates

Phylum Chordata

~ had the highest amount of favorites at 334

~ had the highest percentage of favorites at 71.5%

~ had the lowest percentage of likes at 4.9%

~ had the lowest percentage of neutral votes at 0.6%

~ had the highest amount of hates at 37

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Because yay more polls :D

These are the songs I've chosen from each Showdown polls for this round of a hundred songs, that didn't get as much love as their tougher competition.

What song did you personally like the best? Did a song make an impact right away or did it require the full version? Did the artist reveal change your opinion of the song itself for better or for worse? Tell me in a reblog!

(note: this is not a popularity contest or to vote for a favourite artist out of loyalty 💖 it's still about the song.)

209 here 212 here 221 here 234 here 243 here 257 here 263 here 276 here 282 here 298 here

[enstarsrefs]

ENSEMBLE STARS!! YEAR 1 OUTFIT POLL RESULTS - TOP 10 OUTFITS

I apologize for the long wait, but I finally have some results I can share for the outfit poll I ran in June! I was going to make graphics for each result, but seeing as there's around 330 outfits...I did not do that. Instead, I have made graphics for the top 10 outfits, as well as ones for the TRIP outfits that I'll be posting separately. I will also be posting the full list of outfits and how many votes each one got in a separate post, probably under a read more since it's a very big list.

Without further ado, here are the top 10 Ensemble Stars!! year 1 outfits as voted by over 400 people!

#10 - Sora Harukawa, Magic Lantern Outfit (256 Votes) #9 - Tori Himemiya, Koikoi Love Café Outfit (260 Votes) #8 - Subaru Akehoshi, Spring Bed Outfit (261 Votes)

#7 - Arashi Narukami, Fragrance Outfit (274 Votes) #6 - Subaru Akehoshi, wishes in flowers Outfit (278 Votes) #5 - Kohaku Oukawa, Spider Outfit (280 Votes)

#4 - Hiyori Tomoe, City Rider Outfit (281 Votes) #3 - Izumi Sena, Evening Shower's Paddle Outfit (284 Votes) #2 - Souma Kanzaki, Elegant Scenery Outfit (298 Votes)

Last but not least, the number one outfit is...

#1 - Shu Itsuki, Raison d'être Outfit (305 Votes)

TRIP results and more will be posted shortly!

[agentchimendez]

Sorry for the delay! It's because y'all didn't just write down a single character's name for the written sections like I so desperately asked!

Introducing the results of the 2023 Bittersweet Candy Poll! This was polled back in November-December of 2023, and here are the results of people's favorites, least favorites, most controversial/mixed opinions, and the one with the least opinions!

Click here for 2022's results and here for 2021's. Click the read more to see the total results for this year's poll beyond the top 10s.

Now color coded so you know if they've ranked higher (green) lower (blue) or were a new addition (orange)! Characters who stayed in the same place are listed as normal.

BELOVED

Lucy - 560

Paulo - 559

Augustus - 486

Rachel - 452

Amaya - 442

Daisy - 435

David - 382

Sue - 355

Mike & James - 345

Matt - 342

Molly - 336

Janet - 330

Paulo's Dad - 306

Abbey - 298

Tess - 282

Lucy's Mom - 269

Jessica - 251

Jasmine - 239

Daisy's Dad - 237

Kevin - 224

Zachary - 218

Charlotte - 214

Chris & Catherine - 206

Jordan - 190

Haley - 189

Lily - 185

Daisy's Mom - 181

McCain - 180

Madison - 168

Stacy & Mr. Noodles - 160

Justin - 156

Mike's Mom - 154

Lucy's Dad - 153

Principal - 152

Felix - 150

Amaya's Dad - 147

Chirpy & Lucas - 141

Sam & Finn - 139

Flower Girl - 132

Yashy & Lani - 121

Mina - 119

Darwin - 114

Sandy - 113

Gym Teacher - 102

Blur - 97

Max - 93

Courtney & Melanie - 92

Katie - 88

Sex-Ed Teacher (SET) & Aaron (Rachel's brother) - 85

Cassidy - 60

Tiff - 47

Dylan - 30

Alejandro - 26

Toby & Sandy's Mom - 12

Craig & Abraham - 11

BELOATHED

Alejandro - 721

Abraham - 599

Sandy's Mom - 307

Sandy - 301

Toby - 256

Craig - 216

Yashy - 181

Mike - 175

Katie - 149

Tiff - 145

Paulo - 101

David - 99

Lily - 97

Melanie - 92

Lucy - 91

Dylan - 74

Sex-Ed Teacher (SET) - 66

Abbey - 64

Madison - 57

Sam - 47

Chirpy - 46

Stacy - 44

Gym Teacher - 43

McCain - 42

Daisy - 40

Blur - 38

James - 34

Zachary - 30

Jasmine - 24

Augustus - 22

Tess & Jessica - 21

Darwin & Justin - 19

Mina - 16

Mr. Noodles & Finn - 14

Jordan - 13

Matt, Chris, Principal & Lucy's Dad - 12

Haley, Cassidy & Daisy's Dad - 11

Lucy's Mom, Courtney & Charlotte - 9

Flower Girl - 8

Lani - 7

Rachel & Paulo's Dad - 6

Sue, Mike's Mom & Lucas - 5

Molly, Aaron (Rachel's brother), Max & Catherine - 4

Amaya, Janet, Felix & Daisy's Mom - 2

Amaya's Dad - 2

Kevin - 1

CONTROVERSIAL

Melanie - 18400 (the numbers canceled each other out at first so this is why her number is significantly larger)

Sex-Ed Teacher (SET) - 695

Yashy - 403

Katie - 289

Lily - 220

Mike - 206

Gym Teacher - 146

Dylan - 136

Blur - 129

Sandy - 120

Madison - 103

Sam - 102

Chirpy - 97

Tiff - 96

Stacy - 76

David - 70

McCain - 61

Abbey - 55

Cassidy - 45

Paulo - 44

Darwin - 40 (most of these numbers are rounded, but this was a true 40.00)

Lucy - 39

Zachary - 32

Mina - 31

Justin - 28

Finn - 22.4

Jasmine - 22.3

James - 21.8

Courtney - 21.6

Daisy - 20

Mr. Noodles - 19

Jessica - 18

Principal - 17.1

Lucy's Dad - 17.02

Tess - 16

Jordan - 15

Flower Girl - 13

Chris - 12.37

Haley - 12.35 (everyone after this point is ranked lower than before im lazy)

Lani - 12.28

Aaron (Rachel's brother) - 9.87

Toby - 9.83

Daisy's Dad - 9.73

Augustus - 9.48

Max - 8.9

Charlotte - 8.7

Sandy's Mom - 8.1

Alejandro - 7.4

Lucas - 7.3

Matt - 7.2

Lucy's Mom - 6.9

Mike's Mom - 6.7

Felix - 4.08

Paulo's Dad - Pure 4

Catherine - 3.9

Abraham - 3.7

Daisy's Mom - 3.3

Sue - 2.8

Amaya's Dad - 2.7

Rachel - 2.6

Molly - 2.4

Janet - 1.8

Amaya - 1.3

Kevin - 0.8

THE PEOPLE DON'T CARE.... (i dont feel like marking these either sorry)

Cassidy - 142

Aaron (Rachel's brother) - 135

Courtney Dylan & Max - 132 (i realize now the ranking i listed was wrong. sowwy)

Darwin - 118

Blur & Lani - 114

Flower Girl - 112

Mina - 109

Gym Teacher - 107

Amaya's Dad - 106

Finn - 103

Sex-Ed Teacher (SET) - 102

Felix - 99

Lucas - 98

Lucy's Dad - 94

Principal - 90

Mike's Mom - 89

Chirpy - 87

Mr. Noodles - 86

McCain - 85

Melanie - 82

Sam & Daisy's Mom - 80

Toby, Craig & Tiff - 79

Justin - 78

Chris - 75

Charlotte - 74

Catherine - 71

Kevin - 68

Stacy - 64

Daisy's Dad - 59

Katie - 58

Yashy & Zachary - 57

Lucy's Mom - 56

Haley - 55

Madison & Jordan - 50

Sandy's Mom - 44

Sandy, Tess, Jessica & Paulo's Dad - 39

Jasmine & Janet - 35

Sue - 34

David - 30

Amaya - 27

Mike - 23

James - 21

Matt, Alejandro & Abraham - 20

Abbey & Molly - 19

Rachel - 18

Augustus - 15

Daisy - 11

Lucy & Paulo - 9

[book--brackets]

Welcome to the now various book competitions I run!

Current Competition (Best Childhood Book #5) Masterpost

Hello! This initially started as Best Childhood Book, but I now also run Best Childhood World and Best Fantasy Book. Competitions run on a schedule of BCB > BCW > BFB with submissions opening occasionally to fill spots.

Since we need some clarification, the definition of childhood book in this competition is as follows: a book people read in childhood that must be for a YA age group or younger and has chapters. There is a difference between “children’s” book and “childhood” book. ANY book that met those requirements could be submitted, as I am striving to keep my personal opinion out of this competition for the most part. This definition will not change for the foreseeable future.

This masterpost will be updated with links to all the polls regularly, and each poll will last 7 days. If you vote, reblog if you can so more people can vote, and feel free to campaign for your personal favorite if you want!

SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED FOR CHILDHOOD BOOKS (320/320)

SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED FOR CHILDHOOD WORLDS (192/192)

SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN FOR FANTASY BOOKS (298/320)

Please submit with the name of the book and the author. Check the lists to see if anything has been submitted before trying yourself. If a book is part of a series, it will be listed under the series name (i.e. The Lightning Thief > Percy Jackson and the Olympians or The Golden Compass > His Dark Materials). You can find the current list of childhood books here. A world will be listed with its series, and you can find the current list of worlds here. You can find the current list of fantasy books here.

Poll links and rules under the cut

Help decide parameters for submissions with some fringe cases: recently published YA, adult books lots of children/teens read, retelling worlds

First Competition (here)

Second Competition (here)

Third Competition (here)

Fourth Competition (here)

BCW First Competition (here)

BFB First Competition (here)

Rules/Guidelines

3 books per submission!

Submissions for Childhood Books

Must be a middle grade or young adult book

Must have chapters

Must be able to be found on Goodreads

Submissions for Childhood Worlds

Must be the setting of a middle grade or young adult book.

Must be either a whole other world (i.e. Narnia, Panem), a setting largely separate from our own world (i.e. Hogwarts, Camp Half-Blood), or a specific setting within our own world that is invented for the purpose of that book (i.e. 221B Baker Street, Ferryport Landing)

Main characters have to have visited this place

Cannot be somewhere that already exists in our world outside that book

Submissions for Fantasy Books

Must be listed as 'fantasy' or some fantasy subgenre within the first three genres on Goodreads or Storygraph

Must be able to be found on Goodreads

Must have chapters but can otherwise be for any age range

Polls

Be respectful (no hate, no harassment, I will block you)

I'm totally okay with spam reblogs; if you want to subject your followers to seventeen copies of a poll, you do you

If you're trying to get my attention about something, @ me or submit an ask, there's no guarantee I'll see all the reblogs

In preliminary polls, if a title gets less than 2% of the vote it will be removed from the list

Propaganda

Submit it to me as an ask; I won't be reblogging personal posts or reblogs of the polls

Promote the book you're supporting; it's okay to poke fun at the other books, but please don't attack them or the authors

Only ONE (1) propaganda post per user per book. I really don't want to clog people's dashes with sixty posts about voting for a single book

Asks

Be respectful, not just to me but to all the people who will end up seeing that ask when I post it

If you're asking about a poll or a rule or anything else, please check and see if it's in this post or elsewhere

Try to keep things focused on the competition/books

Competition Hall of Fame

Childhood Books First Competition: Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

Childhood Books Second Competition: Animorphs by K. A. Applegate

Childhood Books Third Competition: Lockwood & Co. by Jonathan Stroud

Childhood Books Fourth Competition: The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

Childhood Worlds First Competition: 35 Portland Row from Lockwood & Co. by Jonathan Stroud

Fantasy Books First Competition: The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

[sabo-has-my-heart]

Hi everyone! So I thought I'd give you an update! I'm 298 followers away from 1500 followers! You know what that means? Potential followers event! There's a... sort of catch though. In 98 followers (1400) I will be putting up a poll on a couple of event options. The catch is this, I require 150 total votes to hold an event. That's only 10% of my event's total followers. The people who vote don't even necessarily have to follow me, the only requirement for the event is a total of 150 votes!

[mysterycharacterbracket]

Poll #100

Character 298: She's a snarky, morally questionable AI lady who hates her job and has little to no regard for human life in general. She often threatens to kill her employees, she killed her programmers, she adores the movie Cats(2019) to an upsetting degree, she likes to make up nicknames for people, she just wants a holiday and frequently takes simulated spa breaks. She's even bisexual!

Character 299: he’s first introduced as the man with a scar. he’s canonically gay but the worst at relationships. he accidentally slept with the prime suspect for the case he’s supposed to be working on. he’s a cop but it’s the cold case unit so it’s probably fine. he’s looking into his dad’s suicide because he thinks he was murdered. his brother used to take child him to drug dens because he wanted to get high and didn’t particularly care about his kid brother. he keeps adopting kids and they keep betraying him. he’s been helping one of the constables to rise through the police force and she calls him sarge and helps bring him back to the world of not being stupid. his godmother is high up in the police force and he aggressively refuses to be part of nepotism and then later on she gets kidnapped. his life is terrible and he gets attached to crime scenes. he received the scar on his face from another member of the police force. he’s insane. i love him

he keeps getting info from the guy in charge of the mob. his friends keep turning out to be serial killers. he & one other police guy keep attacking police corruption but nobody likes them so it’s pretty slow. he has the worst taste in men. he straight up asked one guy “did you kill my dad?” and he once managed to break through a wall in a house on fire by scraping the slightly wet cement out from between the bricks and then running at the wall really hard. he’s literally a lunatic. i love this guy so much

Character 300: A short boy who starts out as a typical nerd stereotype but one rock concert later he starts to unleash his sass, he can be kind of a jerk sometimes actually but most of the time he is a cinnamon roll. Literally sang a rock song about following the rules, yeah. Despite the rock concert he still is and probably always will be obsessed with grades (boy almost got a panic attack because he got an A instead of A+) Has a comfort show that he references to often and trusts more then his own logic when in stressful situation. He is super smart but can't read social cues sometimes. Is often carried like a luggage and ends up okay with that. He litterally cloned himself because he couldn't make any decisions and when he had enough of his clones he went 'oh. wait. I can get revange on my friend-bully now" and he almost did, got pied in the face in the aftermatch though. He's a sweetie pie, the boy ever, one of the best characters in the whole show. You can't hate him, it's impossible.

[hot-take-tournament]

HOT TAKE TOURNAMENT

PRE-PRELIMINARY: #21

Submission 298

"Room temperature water is the best drink"

Ice water is too cold and messes with your sense of taste. Soda pop and coffee and tea should be used sparingly (and coffee is the worst tasting drink submitter has ever had). Juices are on thin, thin ice.

Pre-preliminaries will be used to determine what qualifies as a hot take. Propaganda is encouraged!

Also, remember to reblog your favourite polls for exposure! (exposure like when your exposed to critical levels of radiation)

[bigahhhhhhhh]

Rereading Sleepy Princess and seeing some LeoSuya interactions... It looks like whenever Leo asks Suya why she is so interested in coming after him...she actually takes a moment to think as if she is thinking about it or hiding something... As if she had something stuck in her throat that she wants to say and is somewhat afraid you know

Like in chapter 79... And 143... She goes quiet... And if you guys have seen Suya she is always very loud and bocal about the things she wants, she might not talk at times, but she is VERY loud... But when she is with Leo she is somewhat quieter, tries to be more feminine, nicer, more thoughtful, and has quite the struggle to be herself honestly, it feels as if sometimes she is really struggling with herself... And honestly it's such a relatable feeling... I feel as if liking Leo is kind of a good but scary and horrible feeling for Suya to have, because she never understood what love was since her parents were always emotionally distant from her, and seem to have problems themselves in their marriage in a way, alongside with her fiance not being that great either...

It was probably the first time where she had to humiliate herself in a way or had to reevaluate herself, or even was insecure, because no matter how hard she tried she couldn't beat up his expectations... That's quite the case when you consider that Suya's feelings are always the complete opposite of Leo's narration and at times she seems as if she was quite struggle to put her feelings into words... Look at chapter 143... This panel is something truly interesting to me...

Like notice how she seems to have gone quite dark for a while... As if she wasn't being that honest to begin with.

And this...

In the whole chapter it looks as if she doesn't know how to approach the situation or is thinking about how to bring it up... It's the first time that she probably has to think very carefully about her decisions... Also notice how she equates death with seeing Leonard... Which also might be one of the reasons if not the main one of why she dies so much ...

Honestly I think that way due to some things Suya says around some chapters... Mainly one that caught my attention is 298 where she is truly happy to know that Leonard cares about her...

Which brings to the question... How does she actually views their relationship??? I don't think Suya is that dumb even because she could in fact tell that Odile liked Cursy in the chapter he was introduced, and now even quite understands and makes sex jokes herself... She is not stupid.

I feel as if she is just afraid of trying anything because she is cared of being rejected... She tested the waters in 310... And it didn't work out. As I stated before Leonard is under a lot of pressure to be perfect due to his position while people also don't get how Suya feels about him lol, many in the manga even... Also the taboo of human x demon being a thing, etc, alongside with all the problem Suya causes to him that ultimately kind of traumatized him... Let's be honest... He still has the idea that she is gonna be as crude and mean to him as she is to others due to all the things she did... But that's never the case...

I wonder if the way she feels is like some sort of Love Like You sort of feeling... Where she thinks he is this amazing person that can do almost no wrong, while she is not that great at all... Which is also something she brings up 281...

She views herself in a way as someone that has to be perfect, loved, and stuff to achieve her goals. Suya is the princess and this is ALL she always was and EVERYTHING she will always be in her mind. So she has to be perfect... You guys could say that's the case due to the fact he won the poll but like? Suya's actions are as if, if she isn't the best in everything she does, she is an absolute failure in a way... Lol.

So yep. I wish I could talk more about them... Rereading the manga honestly I feel that I can't get mad at any of them, especially Leonard considering everything Suya does, and the pressure he is put under... But still it is so sad how they seem to like each other but are so afraid of rejection that don't actually initiate shit...

Though I gotta say if a confirmation of them dating does happen this year it will probably be around Leonard's birthday... Like idk... I just feel like it is.

[benoits-neckerchieves]

Hey guys! Thank you to the 298 people who voted in my Daniel Craig poll, and an extra thank you to those who left comments / tags, it’s been really interesting for me! If you wanna know how it went, I’ve made a little graph :)

Note: commented / tagged answers that weren’t originally options have been added as their own category and deducted from the ‘other’ %. The remaining votes for ‘other’ were unspecified. You can see the poll here.

[windsroad]

Tumblr plays Ravenloft - update 15

result of the last poll: we take 5 damage.

So, here’s my shorthand explanation of how this works: we got level drained by two levels. Now, instead of being fifteenth level paladin, we are now a thirteenth level paladin. What this means is we lost access to our fourth level Cure Serious Wounds spell, one first level spell of our choice, and 6 hit points from our max HP.

So, we are now level 13 and our max HP is reduced by 6, from 79 to 73.

And we move on to 149:

You stand there bewildered—and alarmed! What kind of enemy have you taken on, anyway?

Seeing the expression on your face, Ireena says, “The count is a powerful magic-user, Jeren. He’s been practicing his evil arts longer than anyone knows. Those powers, along with the powers of a vampire—” She stops abruptly as a look of fear crosses her face. She clutches your arm.

“Oh please, Jeren! You must stop Strahd!”

If you are in the chapel, turn to 331; the throne room, 163; the dining room, 186; the belfry, 298; the crypt, 121.

[eccebitch]

hotd & the anarchy

I did a poll recently about how much people knew about the Anarchy, a period of civil war in early English history, and most people said they were not familiar with it, or not very familiar. I was originally going to do a really long post explaining all the historical context, but let's be real, you have access to wikipedia and nothing I'm going to say is going to be more researched than a wiki entry. what I can do for you is put it down quickly and easily, so! the anarchy, and what it has to do with asoiaf / hotd / the conflict known as the Dance of Dragons* in Fire & Blood.

*From here on, when I'm referring to the Dance of Dragons, I'm specifically referring to the events that take place in F&B, not the book with the similar name in the main ASOIAF series.

THESIS:

the Dance of Dragons is based on the Anarchy.

making Rhaenyra based on, or at least inspired by, Empress Matilda.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN:

The way the Anarchy ends historically is extremely similar to how the Dance of Dragons conflict ends in Fire & Blood, and will probably have some bearing on the ending of HOTD. So stop reading if you want to avoid spoilers.

WHAT ARE THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THESE CONFLICTS? The granddaughter of William the Conqueror (the obvious basis for Aegon the Conqueror), Empress Matilda was a really interesting historical figure who isn't well-remembered today, which is a shame because her life was batshit interesting.

Below is a very (very!) brief overview of her actions, and how they compare to the events in the Dance of Dragons:

While Matilda's father King Henry I had many children, he only had two in his legal marriage. One was the prince and heir, and one was Matilda.

The prince, and about 298 other people, fucking died in the White Ship Disaster. (The White Ship Disaster is really interesting in and of itself and I could go into more detail, but you ain't here for that, so I'll spare you. But at least give the Wikipedia page a look if you're interested in bizarre episodes in royal history. Anyway, moving on!)

Daddy needs an heir! He grabs his daughter - who had been married to the Holy Roman Emperor (thus the title Empress) - and made all the lords in England and Normandy swear to accept her as heir.

(exactly like Viserys does with Rhaenyra)

Matilda is extremely hesitant to marry - after an emperor (he's dead now), everyone's a kind of a letdown. Eventually, she marries a foppish French duke, Geoffrey V of Anjou. (This is where the Angevin dynasty started, for those keeping track.)

(could Geoffrey V be an inspiration for Laenor? Entirely possible! I do think one of Rhaenyra's kids being named Joffrey is a homage; Matilda's second son was named Geoffrey after his father.)

When King Henry I dies, Matilda is away in Normandy with her family.

(similar to how Rhaenyra is away at Dragonstone when Viserys dies)

Matilda's cousin Stephen of Blois takes this opportunity to crown himself king as the eldest male heir.

(could Stephen of Blois be an inspiration for Daemon? I think it's possible - at the very least, the Dance of Dragons feels partially like a what-if scenario: what if Matilda had been able to shore up her support by marrying another male heir? What if Henry I had more legal children? etc)

When Matilda finally comes back to England, she does so with full military force, and the conflict between her and Stephen's forces plunge England into a period of war so bad it's commonly known as 'the Anarchy', because no one was in charge.

(Similarly, the period of civil war between the Greens and the Blacks gets its own soubriquet, though, in the Fire & Blood book, it's noted that the 'Dance of Dragons' name is too poetic and hides the real bloodshed)

During this conflict, Stephen's wife - also named Matilda, but we'll call her Maud to differentiate - briefly commands some troops in London; Maud is held up by contemporary sources as an ideal woman for her daring and bravery... things that Matilda is castigated for in the same sources.

(This is, to me at least, similar to how Alicent is treated vs Rhaenyra, because Alicent tries to work more within the extant political systems - only claiming power for male heirs, not herself etc - while Rhaenyra does similar but is seen negatively for it. I do think that Maud is a partial inspiration for Alicent.)

Neither Matilda nor Stephen are ever able to completely claim victory over each other, and eventually, the war ends in a stalemate.

By this time, Matilda's son Henry II is grown. (This is the Henry II who married Eleanor of Aquitaine and is played by Peter O'Toole in The Lion in Winter, for those keeping track.)

Matilda stops trying to claim power for herself and begins putting her son forward as heir. Henry II is an excellent commander who becomes known to the people of England. When peace talks with Stephen finally begin, they're between Stephen and Henry; Matilda stays in France.

Eventually, Stephen agrees to declare Henry II as his heir, and it goes smoothly enough; Henry II is king of England.

(This is similar to how Rhaenyra never definitively 'wins' the dance of dragons, but her son is king.)

tl;dr the clear similarities between these two events, one historical and one fictional, point to GRRM's interest in medieval history and his continued use of it as a source of inspiration in building out Westeros. I think his tragic ending for Rhaenyra is extremely intentional because it reflects Matilda's real life.

[writesaboutdragons]

365 Promises of God

Day 298 – Vengeance is Mine. I Will Repay

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but [rather] give place to wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance [is] Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. (Rom 12:19 NKJV)

Read: Romans 12

In the movie, The Godfather II, Antonio Andolini refuses to pay tribute to Don Ciccio, and is murdered. His sons vow revenge, but one is murdered, and the other, Vito, barely gets away, because his mother holds Ciccio at knife point. They murder Vito’s mother and search the town for him, but the townspeople help Vito hide and escape. He changes his name to Cito Corleone to evade the mob. After 20 years, he returns to Sicily, where Don Ciccio is now an 80-year-old man. He has returned under the pretext of getting Don Ciccio’s ‘blessing’ for Vito to start up an olive oil company, but his real reason for being there is revenge.

The two bodyguards who murdered his family, Mosca and Strollo are first to go. When Vito comes to Ciccio and kisses his mafia ring, Don Ciccio asks him who his father is. Vito delivers the most memorable line in the movie. “My father's name is Antonio Andolini. And this is for you”, immediately slicing him open.

He and his partner barely escape with their lives, but the scene is extremely satisfying to the general public. The old mafia boss had it coming to him, slaughtering that family without mercy. In fact, many people asked why he waited twenty years to exact revenge?

“Revenge is a dish best served cold.” It’s a maxim quoted by Khan in Star Trek III, The Wrath of Khan. It’s origins are fuzzy, but the idiom is at least 200 years old. It means that it’s best to wait, bide your time, until your victim does not expect it. Till they believe they’ve gotten away with what they did.

Public opinion polls are mixed on this subject, but the vast majority believe that nobody wants to wait for cold revenge. They want it hot and ready, as soon as an offense is known. Even if there’s no time to plan and plot. Less right now is better than perfect revenge 20 years from now.

But the Bible has a different idiom to share, dear Christian. It’s our verse for today. While we might want to exact revenge, it’s not God’s way to let us do this. It allows sin in the camp. Instead, God suggests we pray for them. Serve them. Give them food and drink. Because God isn’t blind, and he’ll take revenge, in due time, and his justice will be perfect.

Prayer:

Lord, help me to wait on you, for I know that you love me and will repay. Help me trust you more, today. Amen

[kimskashmir]

Nearly 300 paramilitary companies deployed in Kashmir ahead of assembly polls

SRINAGAR — The Centre has so far deployed nearly 300 companies of paramilitary forces for election duties in the Kashmir valley, officials said on Tuesday. The companies have been deputed in Srinagar, Handwara, Ganderbal, Budgam, Kupwara, Baramulla, Bandipora, Anantnag, Shopian, Pulwama, Awantipora, and Kulgam, they said. As many as 298 companies of paramilitary forces, including Central Reserve…