#anti-villainous: nominations

[companion-showdown]

Nominations are now open: Which villain would make the best companion?

This tournament is intended to be smaller than usual, so I may be aa little stricter about who qualifies (at least when i'm familiar with the character, which means the EU nominees are going to end up with a lot more leeway)

as some starting rules

You can only nominate actual villains, they must actually be evil, not just dislike/be disliked by the Doctor

They must be an individual (or possibly a small group of individuals), eg you cannot nominate 'a dalek' it must be a specific dalek or daleks you can point to and say that/those ones

No companions, I don't care if they were evil when they met the Doctor or became evil later or were evil the entire time, they cannot already be or have ever been a companion

If there are multiple versions of the same villain (eg because they can regenerate), they will only be included once, either as generically as can be acheived, or a specific one will be chosen through a group stage

If they don't have a name (or you can't remember it) I will do my best to figure it out but try to give me as much context as you can and bare in mind im not psychic

Please bare in mind when you are nominating that I am hoping to keep the number of nominations under 64 to run this as a mini-tournament. This is not a hard rule so if nominations do exceed 64 its not a big deal, just something I'd like everyone to bare in mind (we have now broken 64 so full sized tournament it is

Nominees

The Master (this counts for any and all versions of the Master, a specific one will be chosen during the group stage, I'm preempting their nomination because duh)

Dalek Caan

Angel Bob

Morbius

Beep the Meep

Family of Blood

Meddling Monk

Salamander

Nobody No-One

Scaroth

Madeleine Issigri

JP Kettlewell

Sharaz Jek

Morgaine

Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen

Cassandra

Bonnie (Clara!Zygon)

Davros

The Rani

The Binary Apprentice

the Scream

Timewyrm

Sabbath Dei

Death

Time

Black Guardian

Braxiatel

Aphasia

Luke Rattigan

The UK government

Auton!Boris Johnson

The Statue of Liberty

President Arthur Winters

Dream Lord

The Axos

Sartia

Valeyard

Great Intelligence

House

Not Donna

Captain Wrack

Pirate Sea Devil

Tecteun

The Dalek that offered the doctor tea in Victory of the Daleks

Plastic!Mickey

John Lumic

Miss Foster

Prisoner Zero

Karabraxos

Cessair of Diplos

Andred

Miss Hartigan

Kro'ka

Mr Finch

The Headhunter

Swarm and Azure

Ashad

Lilith

Reverend Golightly

Mr Clever

Toymaker

Justine

Rassilon

Lolita

Eckersley

Soldeed

Pandora

nominations will be open for at least the next 24 hours, that is until 14:00 BST (GMT/UTC+1), 10/04

after that there is no guarantee

[mzannthropy]

When you're waiting for your own villain origin arc but it's taking so long you can't take it seriously anymore--and then you realise that all this time you have been the anti-hero.

[codenamesazanka]

While I could see how the ending of Touya going home to eat a meal with his family was expected, I always thought that was a touch too fantastical. Not because it wouldn't have been the perfect ending - it would have been a very fitting one, given the recurring motif of Todoroki meals - but because I felt it would've require an absolutely extreme restructuring of Hero Society - a complete change in attitude towards Villains, and, frankly, the destruction/reform of the current in-universe prison system. Which we saw none of in the 100+ chapters of the final arc post-Jaku.

Like. For Touya to be able to go home, means that the system is willing to change everything written here:

A detention facility constructed in the open waters about five kilometers from the mainland. Though nominally a prison, the facility effectively serves as a dumping ground for individuals who pose significant threats to public safety and security. Regardless of sentencing status, these individuals are incarcerated and heavily monitored. The prisoners have a wide range of quirks and are assigned to one of six cell blocks based on the danger their quirks represent and the severity of their cases. The more dangerous the individual, the deeper they're kept within the prison. Tartarus is the dark side of quirk society, and it is said that anyone imprisoned there will never again emerge alive.

That's how the story describes Tartarus, and absolutely no one in-story ever considers this bad (...except for the MLA's political party, who accuses it of human rights violations, but they're evil, so it canceled out to good/neutral again).

For Touya to go home, means that Tartarus is just not a thing, that he's not going to be in another similar prison straitjacketed 24/7 with guns pointed at him; he's not going to be locked in there because even if he can't use his fire anymore without hurting himself and that's good incentive to stop, he had/still has dangerous anti-hero views (Overhaul was armless and essentially 'quirkless', and thus of low threat to anyone, but he was still put into Tartarus for his 'dangerous ideology', as per the character book).

It would mean that Touya is receiving therapy in prison, so that when he steps outside, he's stepping out after having gone through a thorough checkup and made sure that he's not harboring harmful-to-self-and-others thoughts (see: Ending the Villain, whose first action when he was released from prison was to skip a meal to stalk Endeavor.) It would have to mean that the public will stop ostracizing people and be willing to give Villains second chances, at least enough to stomach the idea of Touya not receiving the death penalty and living in house arrest or something.

All of this is never hinted to happen.

It's the same for the idea of Toga joining UA, or Shigaraki becoming a hero, or even Spinner becoming an advocate that people listen to and take seriously. For that to happen, things would have to change. Someone - a hero, all the heroes, collectively - had to have declared and promised with all their hearts and might to make these changes, to be willing to go that far.

And these changes don't just apply to the League - gets applied to all Villains and all criminals and all people! If it was just the League who gets these benefits, it will be because of the high-level connections the League has to top-Heroes like All Might and Endeavor, and that would be audacious string-pulling, nepotism, and outright corruption of the highest degree. If you want to claim that Hero Society is doing better, you cannot have this either. Appropriate leniency and consideration of circumstances and rehabilitation and understanding and all that has to be shown equally to all Villains. This is what I mean when I say to save the League, you have to save all villains.

For the Villains to be saved and to be able to live happy socially-integrated lives meant that their society has been radically and irrevocably changed enough that they can and have a reason to participate - that that bright future truly included them - but it just didn't happen. it wasn't happening in 'we all became the greatest heroes' chapter 325, it wasn't happening in 'Tsukauchi grudging admitting they have to acknowledge villains are human' chapter 378, and it's probably not happening now.

[tarisilmarwen]

Right, while I'm on the subject, fandom please learn the difference between an anti-hero, an anti-villain, and a sympathetic villain.

Anti-hero: A protagonist who lacks traditional heroic qualities and nobility, but ultimately works towards good or better ends within the world of their narrative. Can be pretty reprehensible as an individual depending on the cynicism of the story and world they inhabit (i.e. The Punisher, The Bride from Kill Bill, Batman in certain incarnations), but often develops more into a hero classic in more idealistic works (see: Han Solo, Wolverine, also Batman again depending on writer/incarnation).

Anti-villain: An antagonist who, while nominally opposing the goals of the protagonist, has a core of nobility and traditional heroic qualities, or understandable sympathetic motivations. Is a "bad actions, good motives" character but approaches the issue from the opposite end of the spectrum as an anti-hero. Again depending on the cynicism/idealism of the work and the character's actions may complete a Heel Face Turn and ultimately become more like a protagonist or hero classic (Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender) or make a slide into full-on villany (Thrawn, several incarnations of Magneto). Many Well-Intentioned Extremists fall under this umbrella, along with a lot of Lawful Evil characters, but whether the label applies to them or not depends on how heinous the actions they take within the story are. Generally there is an in-narrative "line" these characters cannot cross before their evil actions outweigh their noble or sympathetic motives.

Sympathetic villain: A villain who has sad, tragic, affable, understandable or sympathetic qualities which makes them pitiable and/or likeable. While similar to an anti-villain, and they may start out as one, the major difference is that this character has already chosen, or repeatedly chooses, to cross the aforementioned narrative "line" within the story. They are a villain who "has a sad", basically. (Examples include Darth Vader, Mr. Freeze, and Megamind--who as a bonus is operating as a Villain Protagonist.)

There is obviously some gray area and as I've mentioned some characters slide up and down the whole range and gamut depending on how they're written but I promise they are in fact separate categories.

[web-novel-polls]

Best (Web Novel) Hater Tournament

Last Updated: July 27th, 2024 - Please check the original post for updates

Submissions Closed - Masterpost here

[Plain Text: Submissions Closed /end pt]

Rules:

Must be from a web novel or adaptation

Can be a hater of any kind or just have the hater soul

Please submit one character per response (no limit overall)

Tournament Tag: #best hater tournament

Arthur Galvhan from Unlucky Clover

Submission: Legitimately nominating him because he's such a hateful piece of shit that his irrational hatred causes the apocalypse. That is simply an impressive amount of being an absolute asshole. 

Han Sooyoung from Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint

Submission: She spent years hating on a web novel similar to her own through an anonymous account and hate reading the comments it's sole reader posted. Even after the novel came to life, she still kept criticizing its horrible writing and protagonist. 

Hua Cheng from Heaven Official’s Blessing 

Submission: Treats nearly everyone that isn't Xie Lian with derision

Wiki Link

Jiang Cheng from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

Submission 1: Hates Wangxian's relationship. 

Submission 2: Dude devoted more than a decade of his life to hating on his dead kind-of-brother (it's complicated) how has he not been submitted already? bonus points for his actor's many faces of utter disgust in The Untamed 

Mod Propaganda: Haterism so bad you can start fandom discourse just by name-dropping him. 

Wiki Link

Jun Wu from Heaven Official’s Blessing

Submission: 

(Spoilers) Tossing his old pals into lava and then destroying an entire generation of gods wasn't enough! He also ground the old generation of gods up and made them into the foundation of the new Heavenly Realm, so everyone steps all over them whenever they're walking around. Also an over simplified explanation of the entire plot is basically Jun Wu hears one phrase that sets him off and decides to be a giant hater because of it, destroying a whole kingdom within like three to four years in the process. This guy is the epitome of "...and I took that personally."

Wiki Link

Lan Jingyi from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation 

Submission: jingyi hates su she so much even though they've never interacted before and then absolutely obliterates him verbally in front of almost every sect leader, what a legend

Lan Wangji from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation / MDZS

Submission: Just because he's quiet doesn't mean he's not a hater. He gets his hate across economically. Jin Guangyao? Hated. Su She? Hated. Jiang Cheng? Don't even ask. Loathed entirely. Anyone else not in his immediate family (including problematic cancelled husband Wei Wuxian)? Not even worth his time. Bro even hates himself (sometimes) 

Mu Qing from Heaven Official’s Blessing

Submission: https://www.tumblr.com/bonesblubs/708661194148511744/inspiration 

Mod Propaganda: Mu Qing can split a tower bell in two yet can’t admit he wanted to be friends with someone he’s known for 800+ years without trying to immediately kill himself. Randomly started reciting a poem about his least favorite coworker’s dick just to fuck with him (Feng Xin). Said he’d kill a bride like Xie Lian if she was sent to him. 

Wiki Link

Shen Jiu / Original Shen Qingqiu from The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving 

"Even if all of this could be redone from the beginning, in the end, the conclusion would remain the same. My heart is full of malice, my insides hatred and resentment. Today, Luo Binghe wishes for me to die horribly, and I only have myself to blame." - Shen Jiu, The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, Volume 4: Chapter 24 (Reddit 1, 2)

Submission: Both the Shen Qingqius are haters just in very different ways 

Mod Propaganda: The Scum Villain that beefed with a 14-year-old out of jealousy & tried to kill him. 

Wiki Link

Shen Yuan/Qingqiu from The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System 

Submission 1: He was an anti fan that literally got so mad at a novel he was reading that he died and then was transmigrated into the novel he hated (besides the main character) as the villain. The author of said novel also transmigrated and they formed a love/hate broship.

Submission 2: 

My man is the hater-est hater to ever hate, except like Kendrick Lamar. He hate-read a webnovel with over 20 million words, and left scathing commentary on every single chapter. Even the author Shang Qinghua, of the webnovel PIDW, which by subtext was very very popular, knew Shen Yuan (Peerless Cucumber) as the legendary anti-fan.  He hated it (everything except the protagonist Luo Binghe) so much that after reading the last chapter, he choked and died (...slight exaggeration). Shen Yuan also proceeded to transmigrate into the novel, make everyone fall in love with him, use the power of headpats and 'a smile from the cold beauty' to overturn the genre from harem-esqe to danmei, bending the protagonist. Tldr, the power of Shen Yuan's haterism turned Cool Edgy Awesomely Powerful Protagonist Luo Binghe to soggy wet clingy white lotus bing-bong Bingmei, and it's honestly better off this way <3 

Submission 3: he's an internet hater screenname Peerless Cucumber who hates this webnovel so much he dies and transmigrates into it to fix the entire plot and also he's left so many hate comments the author (fellow transmigrator) knows and remembers who he is after being in the webnovel world for decades. Dedication.

Su She from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation / MDZS

“Stop thinking so highly of yourself. Who told you I cursed Jin Zixuan in order to frame you? Back then, I wasn’t working for Sect Leader at all. I cursed him simply because I wanted to!” ….Su She, “Those as arrogant as him--I’ll kill every single one who comes my way!” - Su She to Wei Wuxian, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, EXR, Chapter 104

No propaganda submitted

Mod Propaganda: Haterism so bad he straight up made a new sect. Cursed Jin Zixun. Has beef with a guy who barely knows he exists. 

Wiki Link

Yin Hanjiang from Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know 

Submission: Second half of the novel YHJ in particular, hater energy unmatched! Righteous sects? fuck them up. His own sect? on eggshells. His best effort at not murdering someone is to start wiping his weapon with their clothes. General vibe of 'if anything happened to Venerable i'd kill everyone in this room and then myself AND SOMETHING JUST HAPPENED TO VENERABLE'. Anyway get their asses babe <3

Yu Ziyuan from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

Submission: I would not blame anyone who went through the first half of the story believing that Yu Ziyuan hated every single person she ever met because she talks shit about her husband, her son, her adopted son, and her daughter whenever she gets the chance to. Sometimes all at the same time. She projects so much raw hater energy that she psychologically scarred her son for life. 

Dealer's Choice

Qi Rong from Heaven Official’s Blessing

“Obviously, those things weren't within the realm of consideration for Qi Rong. He swore like there wasn't a single person in the Three Realms he didn't want cursed to death. He called Pei Ming a rotten manwhore, Little Pei a kiss-ass, Jun Wu a faker, Ling Wen a damned bitch, Lang Qianqiu a moron, Quan Yizhen dog shit, the Water Master blackhearted, the Wind Master a tramp–he probably didn't know Shi Qingxuan was actually a man.” - Heaven Official’s Blessing (Tumblr)

[tamamita]

I'm sorry how did the creator of A Silent Voice fuck up showing empathy and compassion for marginalized voices? That's something she nominally excels at.

If we're talking about To You Eternity, the second season introduces a whole bunch of new characters that Fushi creates a bond with. One of them is Bon, a flamboyant king with autism. While nothing is wrong the character per se, there is the issue of another character who is introduced as his loyal subject. The character is introduced as being overweight and clumpsy, but despite all of that, they're presented as being brave and strong. Now this character is shown to harbor feelings for Bon, and Fushi becomes intrigued by the idea of same-sex relationships. However, things become a bit problematic further as we watch the second season as both Bon and his subject is captured by a bunch of anti-Fushi cultists and put in a holding cell. Anyways, both of them are starving until Bon's subject becomes thin enough that her "true" appearance is revealed, showing us that she was a girl this whole time. This revelation was extremely... anti-climactic, since it kind of kills off Fushi's curiosity about same-sex relationships. Bon's subject then becomes a maid and does nothing for the rest of the season other than emotionally support the cast. Furthermore, Hayase is a villain from the first season, and she had some form of obsession with Fushi and decided to deify him. Her legacy is spread through her descendants whose purpose is to fuck Fushi. Anyways, one of the descendants turned out to be a boy, and because this guy is head over heels for Fushi, regardless of which persona he assumes, he starts behaving like a sexual predator when Fushi rejects his moves. He is shown to redeem himself, but c'mon...

The modern arc focuses more on a peaceful world, where the knockers have been successfully eliminated, but Fushi still has to deal with the fact that people still aren't happy. The pacing is a bit all over the place; we're once again presented with another descendant of Hayase. While that's not an issue, Hayase's descendant has an actual deep story... until it goes back to square one of being Yandere bait again. And like every descendant of Hayase, they wanna fuck Fushi. Now the worst part is in the same arc, and we're introduced to this NEET who is a siscon and lolicon. Anyways, a 10 year old ADOPTED girl is introduced to his household and he becomes overly obsessed with her. This is the only part of the series where we get intentional fanservice, as we can see pantyshots of the little girl and the dude oogling at her body, which is extremely uncharacteristic of this series. The girl commits suicide and is possessed by a knocker (the main villains of this series) and starts treating the dude like her bdsm slave. The NEET is presented as a caring person who wishes to do his best for her, but he is shown to be a pedophile, and the author shrugs it off on the basis of his siscomplextiy.

Idk why the story just went off the rail, it's not even the same series anymore.

[silverloreley]

Although I don't think this is the direction Rise of Red 2 is going towards, let's imagine the spell on the Cookbook was permanent, aka Ulyana's crew never got rid of it.

This means that Hook never became the menace of the seas nor Pan's enemy, and not even a Villain on his own, but also Harriet, Harry and CJ were never born!

Which leads to another huge absence: Mal. Because if both her parents didn't get out of the spell, they couldn't have her.

And Maleficent wouldn't have become the Mistress of all Evil, so half the foundation of the lore as we rebuilt it (reminder that the guidebook speaks explicitly of "Maleficent's takeover"!) wouldn't have happened!

Now, two main consequences:

If the Villains didn't unite under Maleficent, the Heroes wouldn't have either, hence there would be no Auradon to begin with (and also Aurora wouldn't have been cursed and all...)

The Villains did unite, but under someone else (Ursula? Evil Queen? idk), so Auradon and the Isle of the Lost were made all the same.

Judging by the finale, Auradon does exist, so the second theory is more likely.

That said, Uma was the de-facto leader of the Isle (but without Harry by her side. Perhaps Jay filled the spot?), or Evie was, since she wasn't banned. It matters little.

We know (first book) that Ben had the idea to look into the matters of the Isle of the Lost because he had dreams about Mal, who is implied to be his soulmate. No soulmate, no dream, no inspiration. Ben never tried to free the Isle kids.

Or he did, but things may have happened very differently without Mal. Uma would have been invited and her methods (and goals) would have been different. I tend to think Uma, without the added anger about Mal turning her back to the Isle, would have been able to make Ben change a few things and bring out VKs quicker. She and Evie would have become the Crown's advisors regarding the Isle matters, hence the nomination of Uma as the new Headmistress of Auradon Prep.

Now, when Red and Chloe return from their time trip, they see nothing changed but the Queen of Hearts, but maybe Auradon itself was different. Ben has no queen so far (his relationship with Audrey wouldn't have worked anyway, it's very clear from the book) or the queen is Evie? (this would be a political marriage, tho)

Or, simply, Ben isn't the High King.

Now, follow me here, it's going to be fun (I hope).

Ben didn't try to change the situation about the Isle, his first decree is about sidekicks or something. Magic folks are unhappy, they hoped things could change with a new High King, that the anti-magic laws could be lifted. They call for elections instead of letting natural succession be.

Another is chosen as High King/Queen, a more liberal one, one who likes magic and allows its use. While in contact with magicians, they expose the truth behind the Barrier and Isle of the Lost, the new ruler is horrified, but instead of inviting four random kids, they go there to see for themselves.

In this, they end up negotiating with Uma about living conditions and, as Uma is her mother's daughter, they get a contract in which they specify all the changes to be expected: freedom for the kids, new trials for Villains, policies to make the Isle more liveable, and so forth. It takes a while, but the new ruler and Uma get close enough that, by the time things settle, Uma is trusted enough to become headmistress of Auradon Prep.

Unrelated to this all, Ulyana is still out there, frozen in time, unless Ursula led the takeover specifically for her (doubtful) so she planned revenge over Bridget and also Chloe and Red, for decades.

[toaarcan]

Bold New Moebius is one of my favourite arcs in Archie Sonic, despite me not actually liking its main villain. I guess that's the power of Flynn going "There's an evil version of Tails and he acts like Starscream" and my then-teenage brain going "Oh that's two of my favourite things mashed into one character, I will love him forever."

Yes this is a Miles Stan Account. I have imaginary AMVs in my head about him like you wouldn't believe.

But there's something that bothers me about it: The Suppression Squad's team composition.

In this arc, the Freedom Fighters consist of all six of the classic SatAM crew, plus Amy and Nicole, though Nicole doesn't really do a whole lot. This is the standard FF roster for most of Flynn's run in Archie, it's hard to go wrong with it.

The Suppression Squad, meanwhile, bring Scourge, Fiona, Miles, Alicia, Patch, and Boomer. They have six to the Freedom Fighters' eight.

They don't introduce an Evil Nicole, and while an antiverse version of Amy is introduced in the story, she's not a member of Suppression Squad, she's a random crazy person who wants to both kill and date Scourge and gets in the way a whole lot during the parts of the story that are set on Moebius.

Additionally, Buns is removed from the team as a whole, instead appearing as a morally-questionable ally of Kintobor, because she's sick and Scourge threw her out for being weak.

And I find this weird. Not to say that I dislike the idea of a member of Suppression Squad being basically forced to redeem themselves because they had an r/leopardsatemyface moment, because I don't, I love it. I just think it's weird for two reasons:

They don't need to "Make room" for Fiona on the Suppression Squad, because the FF also have additional members besides the originals. Buns can still be there without throwing the numbers off.

If they're going to remove one of the Suppression Squad's original roster from the board... why is it Buns that goes, and not Alicia?

Think about it: Besides Scourge himself, Alicia is the nominal leader of the team. She's the one that Scourge worked with when he originally plunged Moebius into chaos at the end of the Great Peace, by killing Anti-Jules and banishing Maxx to the Void. She's the one that kicked him out of the Squad with the aid of Jeff. Why the hell would he keep her around?

She's also pretty redundant as a Squad member in this arc, because Fiona is here.

I've said before that I think that Archie viewed Fiona more as a Sally Clone than as her own character, and this gets infinitely worse in Flynn's run, where most of her own (very undercooked) personality traits are largely abandoned in favour of having her shackled permanently to the evil version of Sally's boyfriend, and doing the same things that Sally does, but evilly.

And it's this arc where this becomes really obvious that Fiona is just Evil Sally now, because she's on a team with a character who literally used to be called Evil Sally. Alicia mostly stands around and does nothing because Fiona's the one beefing with her counterpart, right up until the point where the two sides team up, wherein Fiona is hurriedly ushered out of the plot and Alicia returns to her normal place as Sally's opposite number.

So... why not keep Buns and have Alicia be the one to get kicked out and forced to turn to Kintobor? She can still play the role that Alicia did in the final chapters of the arc by simply linking up with the two teams when they arrive on Moebius, after all.

Now, I can see the point being raised that it was Buns that got sick with NIDS. But that plot point is something they introduced in this arc. They can just have Alicia get sick instead. She was last seen before this arc falling into a pit full of poisonous robots, after all. Or they can just skip that aspect and have her get kicked out because Scourge is petty and vengeful and doesn't want her around.

This confusion doesn't ruin the story for me or anything, I still think it's a good one, but it does still somewhat baffle me.

[littjara-mirrorlake]

Really good chapter, love how you scrunglo-fied Urabrask and made him absolutely loathe Tezzeret’s guts. I look forward to more!

(Referring to this fic)

Sorry I don't go through my asks nearly often enough, but... yeah I have so many thoughts regarding my writing of this fic, and I was very conscious about the characterization of each person.

Scrunglo-fied is such a word, lol. I really did want to drive in how haggard and desperate Urabrask was, because the underlying theme of the entire story is that he is out of options and painfully aware of that fact. It's the reason he can't stand up for himself against people like Tezzeret, and why he holds his tongue at anti-Phyrexian sentiment from his allies instead of exploding in rage. He knows that he needs them, and that his temper would doom him--and his people--irrevocably.

We keep getting told in descriptions of Urabrask's character that he's temperamental and brash, and I'm sure he can be, but there is no way he would have made it to where he is if that was his only mode of operation. (And frankly, have we ever actually seen Urabrask be impulsive and hot-tempered in the text? Story-wise, every example I can remember of his behavior is measured, thoughtful, even indecisive.) He is forced to slow down and think about his actions (and I also try to show why Urabrask deliberately doesn't like doing that).

Now, Tezzeret... I don't want to make him look like a one-dimensional Mean Guy villain, because he very much isn't, but the slice of Tezzeret's personality that Urabrask sees is a cruel, double-crossing person who relishes the little power he can secure over others (since he is so often forced into subordination). Over Urabrask more so, because he is 1) a Phyrexian and 2) nominally a praetor. It is a humiliating, debasing experience for Urabrask, like so many others in this story.

Urabrask is so, so aware of Tezzeret's duplicitous nature, and has seen for himself the great setbacks he has created for Phyrexian freedom by enabling Tamiyo's compleation and the invasion of the multiverse. Unfortunately, Tezzeret is also his only real choice if he wants to pursue his quest across planes. If Urabrask's humiliation is the price of his people's freedom, so be it.

Even now that the main three chapters of the fic are done I am still very much boiling with thoughts about it and am excited to release the epilogue.

[lazaefair]

I am begging white fandom to DO SOMETHING. ANYTHING.

I’ve only experienced a tiny, tiny fraction of what Stitch has experienced, and I still think about it every few days that there are malicious people out there who are still actively stalking my blog, who know where I live, and have attempted to terrorize me with that information before. And you know who gives a shit about that? No one. I still have not had anybody stand up and openly defend me in TOG fandom. Ever.

(Hell, at this point I’ll take just people doing some basic fact-checking.)

Anyway, as bad as all this feels, it’s still nothing compared to what Stitch has gone through. I tend to default to the hope that things are getting better. But it’s hard to hold on to that hope when the violent racism just keeps showing up day after day after day.

From the podcast transcript:

There are white supremacists in fandom who get away with it, because they’re, like, pretending somehow that they’re better at anti-racism than me, that they’re calling me out on behalf of, like, whatever villain stans are currently upset with me for no reason. And they get away with overt white supremacy in fandom, because they’re pro-fandom, nominally, and it’s like, I don’t want to wait around until I start doing offline events and someone decides, you know, to defend fandom they have to, like, shank me in the line at Comic-Con. People are scarily violent about it. I’ve had people suicide-bait me—I guess, that’s a terrible word, I’ve had people say I should kill myself. You know, I’ve had people wish harm on me. And it’s like, well, if anything happened to me, it’s not like you’d care. It’s not like you would go, “Oh, that sucks. They should have left Reylos alone.” There’s no point at which people will go, “Shit, I really fucked up in supporting this. I’ve made fandom such a bad place.” 

Because to them, what matters is that I would no longer be around ruining fandom for them. Forget that fans of color deserve space to be fans of color, and that means positively and negatively talking about race. Forget that we have been in fandom as long as everybody else has. Talking about racism is the real problem in fandom, and anybody who ruins fandom by bringing that to attention deserves whatever they get, you know? People are not going to listen. They’re not going to learn. 

I think that if, when I started this, people had been more aggressive in—or aggressive at all in defending me and defending my work, instead of writing it off as somebody else’s problem, or complaining about my tone, maybe things would be different. But we’re seeing just really racist radicalization in all of the different social spaces and political spaces. Like, why would queer transformative fandom be any different? 

[artbyblastweave]

Some broad notes as I continue watching Superman: The Animated Series:

The show has a strong expectation of the audience’s attention to detail, in a way a lot of contemporary cartoons don’t. In The Way of All Flesh, there’s a scene where Clark and Lois, in an office setting without much of interest going on visually, casually question how John Corbin could have contracted the incredibly rare virus that forced him to become Metallo, given that it’s only found on an isolated island in South America; Lois speculates that he probably caught it while on the lam or participating in a regime change, and the question is put to bed. Later they’re investigating Corbin’s doctor’s office, and Clark wordlessly X-rays a sharps box, witnessing a suspect container, but making no commentary on it. At the climax he reveals that Lex Luthor (duh) was paying John’s doctor to slip him the virus in his food. In a contemporary cartoon, you would probably get a pointed dun-dun-dun-style sequence of the doctor actually poisoning the food to make sure nobody missed what was going on, and the sequence of noticing and retrieving the smoking-gun bottle-o-viral-agent would be given significantly more visual weight- a larger, shiner vial, a prolonged sequence where Clark retrieves it from the lockbox and scrutinizes it aloud. Another example- in the episode that introduces Kryptonite, Clark is investigating the museum that houses the kryptonite, and he passes by a tour guide who’s giving a muted, in-the-background lecture on how the ancient Babylonians were affected by lead poisoning from their dishware; this lecture isn’t centered and is mixed at a fairly low volume compared to the rest of the scene. Later he remembers that lecture and uses one of the lead dishes to contain the Kryptonite in the climactic fight. In a contemporary cartoon that lecture would be fuckin’ centered. They would walk in front of Superman before he was able to get to the Kryptonite display. He might say something like “interesting” aloud. In the parasite episode, Superman ultimately neutralizes Parasite by exposing him to the Kryptonite he stole from Lexcorp in the previous episode; absolutely no mention is made of why the kryptonite harms Parasite, it’s assumed that the audience will intuit that Parasite absorbed Superman’s weaknesses on top of his strengths. 

The show is grounded in terms of where it sits in the progression of the universe. In the Pilot, we learn that this is already a superhero universe, through Ma Kent’s derisive reference to “That Nut From Gotham;” other heroes exist, but they’re fringe and seen as significantly less legitimate than they one day will be. In “A little piece of Home,” One of the thugs says, “I don’t do Metropolis; not since the big blue guy;” Superman is fundamentally still a novelty people are adjusting to and not a background fact of life. During Metallo’s initial rampage, when he still looks human, the news media jumps to the conclusion that he might be another alien of some sort because that’s their frame of reference for “super-strong-outwardly human;” recurring supervillians aren’t quite a thing yet.

The show is surprisingly tightly-paced for something nominally episodic. The very episode after the introduction of Kryptonite opens with Superman and Pr. Hamilton building an anti-kryptonite containment suit (which helpfully also counters Parasite.) Corbin appears as a one-off villain in the pilot and gets brought back to become Metallo approx. Five episodes later. After his role in the pilot, Braniac returns to the main plot with only four episodes having elapsed; a short enough period of time that the weekly viewers won’t have forgotten him, but enough individual adventures have happened that they’ve established a sense of the post-Superman emerging status-quo. For example, Superman and Lex’s dynamic is sufficiently well established that you can have Superman walk into Lex’s command center to have a terse but outwardly respectful conversation about taking safeguards against Braniac, but the overall sense that Superman and company are kinda novelties hasn’t yet gone away.

[companion-showdown]

The Scream (The Scream)

A silent driven insane by the fact that not even other Silence could remember him, he attempted to fuse with a plant-based alien and cover entire planets so nobody could ever turn their face away from him.

I think having a Silent companion would be really funny.

yep

[forest-of-stories]

Throwback Thursday, Fandom Edition: Sidetrasked

This is a collection of Silver Age X-Men comics that I’ve now owned for over two decades, and brought to Fan Expo Boston (then Boston Comic Con) in August 2014, hoping that artist Neal Adams would sign it.  

And this is the reason why.

When I tell people about Larry Trask today, I sometimes refer to him as "Blorbo From My Comics."  He is one of my favorite villains in the X-Men universe, and, at least for a time, was one of my favorite characters overall.  He also, at least for a time, embodied the anti-mutant bigotry that has been part of that universe almost since its beginning.  I want to avoid going on a tangent about the morality of villain fandom, and I resent the social obligation to attach an "I Hereby Acknowledge That My Fave Is Problematic" disclaimer to an exploration of how and why I liked a fictional character, but I also want to give people who don’t want to engage with any kind of love for such characters a chance to stop reading.  If you’re not inclined toward sympathy for an antagonist who makes terrible, destructive choices based on a lack of information and for what he thinks are the right reasons, and later has a tragic and redemptive ending (which might not actually be an ending; more on that further on) once he realizes what is going on, then this is not the character or the post for you.  And that’s fine.

Otherwise, I hope you're interested in reading a pretty long post.

Bolivar Trask, who originally created the giant mutant-hunting Sentinel robots, appears in almost every media adaptation of the X-Men.  What none of those adaptations have shown thus far is that both of his children were mutants.  Tanya’s time-travel abilities eventually stranded her in the far future, where she became known as Madame Sanctity and entangled with the extremely convoluted Summers family tree.  Her brother Larry could see the future, but their father created a very ostentatious Silver Age medallion that suppressed Larry’s powers and scrambled his memories so that he didn’t even know he had them.  When Bolivar was killed in a battle between the X-Men and the Sentinels, Larry blamed mutants everywhere, not realizing that he was one at first, and made the extremely smart and good decision (she said sarcastically) to create a bunch of new giant robots.  

I first read those comics in the early 2000s, when I was already drawn to characters who couldn’t trust their own memories, and to stories in which parents or authority figures manipulated or outright mind-controlled the young people in their care.   So the Trask family backstory appealed to me immediately, especially when I read a flashback issue that explored it in more detail.  

I was fascinated by the dramatic irony of a villain who trusted, adored, and committed atrocities to avenge, a father who continuously deceived and gaslit him "for his own good" (and also for the good of their giant robot plans).  I knew that there was a lot of material for fanfic in there, one way or another.

At the time, a couple of other significant things were happening in my fannish life.  Firstly, I was working on the Wallglass series, aka the Writing Project That Ate My Adolescence, in which a lot of my creative choices amounted to "let’s throw in this ingredient and see what happens." My decision to include Larry, not as a villain but as an ordinary teenager and love interest for one of my original characters, was no exception.  Although I eventually incorporated his precognitive powers into the story, that wasn’t necessarily the plan at first.  (X-Men: Evolution, the canon in which my big project nominally took place, did introduce the Sentinels, albeit in a different context than the one I chose.  I was already writing an AU simply by virtue of my OCs’ presence, but past a certain point, I diverged from continuity completely. One of my biggest regrets, of the many regrets that I have about that project, was not making Larry an active antagonist in the final installment of my series.)

As in canon, Bolivar Trask plotted to block his son’s mutant powers and memories of same, but unlike in canon, he outsourced the actual mental meddling.

The second important thing that happened during this time was that I started communicating regularly with the author of one of my favorite XME fanfics, which featured our OTP of Lance and Kitty.  She was reading my fic as I was reading hers, and at some point, we moved on from leaving each other comments (or “reviews” as we called them on fanfiction.net) to exchanging emails about our writing projects, our feelings about the current season of XME, and other things that were close to our fannish hearts.  We subsequently friended each other on LiveJournal, and later Facebook, and have mailed each other gifts and attended a convention together and remained friends to this day.

Back then, as she got to know my version of Larry Trask, I encouraged her to seek out the comics in which he first appeared.  Although he wasn’t the catalyst for our friendship, he did become another one of our shared obsessions, fueled in part by my personal conviction that we were The Fans Who Understood And Cared About Him The Most.  We informed each other whenever we caught a glimpse of Larry in comics or in fic; we once stayed up past midnight, chatting online about the issues of Avengers in which he sacrificed his life to stop the Sentinels from destroying humanity; and we devoted many, many more email and IM exchanges to discussing his narrative potential (which we recognized even if the people writing and adapting the comics apparently didn’t) and how else we might explore it in our own writing. 

My attempts to do just that, post-Wallglass, mostly amounted to scribbled drafts or outlines in various notebooks.

Sometimes I tried to explore Larry’s upbringing or the period in his life after his Sentinel project fell apart and he was dealing with more amnesia and more lies from someone he trusted; sometimes I made overly ambitious plans to integrate him into the Ultimate universe or back into XME. 

Trying to write about Larry was often as frustrating as it was fun: as one of the Fans Who Understood Him The Most (which is how I wanted desperately to be known, even as I was thrilled every time another writer, including a BNF in the X-Men movie fandom, included him in their fic), I felt obligated to Do Him Justice somehow, and was unreasonably frustrated with myself when I didn't feel like I'd managed to do so.

The term “Blorbo” didn’t exist when I wrote those entries, and I kind of wish it had; the fact that I was throwing around phrases like “fictional preoccupations” shows how much we needed a word that meant, roughly, “character with whom I am obsessed even if I don't have a crush on them, or am not sure whether I do or not.” If nothing else, using a silly nonsense word might have helped me take my creative angst a little less seriously.

Although I haven’t followed the comic books in years, X-Men is one of my forever fandoms. And although my attachment to Larry Trask, Blorbo From My Comics, became less pronounced over time (which is probably a good thing), I don’t think I’ve ever detached from it completely.  I haven't wanted to write fic about him in a very long time, but when a podcast (like Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men or Graymalkin Lane) mentions him, or when blogs like @summerstrash post about him, I always sit up and take notice.  And when I met Neal Adams at that Fan Expo ten years ago, I made sure to tell him how much I loved the character he’d helped to create.  He signed my book, as well as one that I bought for my longtime fandom friend.  When I learned that Adams passed away in 2022, I was immeasurably grateful for that experience, and I still am.

And now, based upon recent comics news, it turns out that Larry’s story isn’t over after all.

[duhragonball]

All right, let me put this under a cut, because this doesn’t come up often, but I think I’d like a single post I can refer people to when this topic gets brought up.

Short version: I read all seven books and hated them, and now the author is an unapologetic transphobe, which is something I have no patience for.  In recent years, critics have begun to connect the author’s neoliberal politics with a lot of the flaws in the writing, and this video by Shaun is a pretty good exploration of what was so frustrating about the books and the characters.  

Long version: I “liveblogged” all seven Harry Potter novels between 2005 and 2012.  I use the quote marks because back in those days I’m not sure “liveblog” was a term, but I certainly hadn’t heard of it.  I called it a “review”, but I basically would read each chapter and recap the whole thing with my smartass commentary.  In hindsight, this was probably more like me trying to do Nostalgia Critic’s bit in prose format, but I wasn’t very familiar with him at the time either. 

Soon afterward, I moved my online presence to tumblr, which was sort of a fresh start for me.  It sounds like I’m implying there was some sort of bad experience that came out of the whole thing, but there wasn’t.  I was proud of the work I did at the time, and while I’m not sure if it holds up in the 2020′s, I got a lot of satisfaction out of finishing a multiyear project like that.  But by the end, I was ready to move on, and so I have moved on, which is why I don’t speak of it much in this space. 

The point I’m making here is that I read all the books and I examined them pretty thoroughly, and my conclusion was that they all sucked.  Yes, even your favorite one.  No, it didn’t start out good and jump the shark later on.  They all sucked.  That’s what I had against Harry Potter.

I say “had”, because even though I’ve moved on to other pursuits, J.K. Rowling continues to maintain a public presence, selling her video games and spin-off movies and so on.  She’s also gone full-on TERF, spouting transphobic rhetoric and using her platform as a billionaire best-seller to bully people who are much less fortunate than herself. 

I’ll embed that video I linked to up top.

I think Shaun does a really excellent job explaining just what bugged me so much about the Harry Potter books.  I found the main characters extremely unlikeable, and I could never quite put my finger on the reason.  And the villains were pretty weak too, despite all their terrible crimes and talk of conquest.  Superficially, the whole thing feels like a classic good vs. evil struggle, with good wizards fighting bad wizards, kind of like how the Transformers are about good alien robots fighting a war against bad alien robots.  But it never seemed to work in the Harry Potter books.

Shaun explains why: Despite the “good versus evil” premise, a lot of the good guys just act like thoughtless, selfish pricks sometimes, and it’s justified because they’re on the good guy team.  Sometimes a character will do something terrible to another character, and it’s deemed acceptable because they’re nominally a “good guy”, and the person they’re being a jerk to is a “bad guy”, so they’re fair game.  It’s less about “good vs. evil” and more about “us vs. them”.  

Shaun doesn’t spent a lot of time getting into Rowling’s transphobia, but he does talk about a lot of the other problematic stuff in the books, like the lack of thought she put into Cho Chang’s name.  He also points out the hypocrisy in having all the other characters act irritated with Hermione’s anti-slavery campaign.  The whole thing with the house elves was half-baked from the start, and Rowling kept stumbling through each book trying to correct course, ultimately settling on having one character stand up for the Right Thing, only to have all the other characters ignore or dismiss her concerns.  Harry himself seems to have no particular opinion on house-elf slavery, which sums up the character very succinctly.   He’s the protagonist and the viewpoint character, but he doesn’t stand for anything in particular.

Now that I think about it, I suppose this was why I kept working anime characters and Transformers and professional wrestlers into my liveblog of the books.  At the time, I would have told you I was just doing it to keep myself entertained as I trudged through the series, but in hindsight, I think I was just starved for characters who actually believed in something bigger than themselves.   Harry can barely be arsed to do his own homework, meanwhile, I’ve known what passions fuel Omega Supreme since I was nine years old. 

“Diction: Straighforward.  Personality: Complex. (*snif*)”

I don’t know what sort of person you are, @endmylife69​ . You strike me as a reply guy, contrarian for its own sake.  I see feminist and antifeminist posts in your likes, and one of the three posts on your blog is about how much you hate Chi-Chi, so I don’t know why you even show up to my blog, where I think Chi-Chi is awesome.  The point is if your agenda here is to sea-lion me into “proving” that Rowling is a TERF and that TERFs are bad, I’m not interested in playing that game.  There’s plenty of critics out there who will walk you through that discussion step by step.  You asked what my problem is with her, and I’m telling you.

There are fans of hers who have to struggle with the moral implications of liking her work while distancing themselves from her hateful beliefs.  I respect the fans who have to figure that out.  I don’t respect the fans who just pretend like the dilemma doesn’t exist, because they care more about playing that new Hogwarts vidya game than anything else. 

For my own part, I can’t relate to the fans’ dilemma, because I always thought Rowling’s book series sucked shit.  What’s frustrating for me is that I spent about seven years roasting her books on the internet, and the whole time I was going “Ha ha these books suck shit!”, and it all just feels so dated now, because she’s going to go down in history as this rich, hateful bigot.  Her lousy writing is going to be a footnote to her career.  It’s like writing an “epic takedown” of Mel Gibson movies without ever getting into all the antisemitic stuff he’s done.  In retrospect, I feel kind of disgusted for engaging with her work at all, even to insult it. 

I’m sick of talking about Harry Potter, so let me make this about Chi-Chi, since that seems to be the only thing I know you have strong opinions about.  Part of the reason I like Chi-Chi so much is because she’s basically right.  She objects to a lot of the things that happen in Dragon Ball, which makes her seem like a killjoy, but her motives are sensible and important.  She grounds the other characters, keeping them with one foot in the real world. 

This is because Chi-Chi understands that there’s more to life than fighting gonzo anime battles.  Yes, she lives in a world where laser karate is real and quite prevalent.  Yes, her sons are insanely powerful warriors who are sometimes the only thing standing in the way of world annihilation.  But at the same time? Gohan and Goten really do need to study and get good jobs.  Protecting the world is important, but so is family, and home life, and the work you do.  Also, maybe it’s important to stop breaking the furniture all the time.  Its expensive, dammit. 

These are messages that a lot of DB fans don’t care for, because they tuned in for gonzo anime battles, and this loud woman is scolding everyone for wanting that.  But the point of the character is that there’s a bigger world in the lore.  There’s places to live and people to meet and things to do besides fighting Frieza all the time, and she wants her loved ones to thrive in that world, which is why she keeps reminding them of it. 

And that’s a metaphor for our own world, where there’s more to our own lives than the shows we watch and the books we read, and the internet arguments we get into.  We each have to ask ourselves what we stand for, what we’re trying to be on this planet.  My problem with the Harry Potter franchise is that it doesn’t seem to stand for much of anything.  The characters only seem to care about stopping big league threats, but have no interest in reforming their broken society.  The protagonist spends much of his time just passively experiencing the story like he’s sitting in a theme park ride.  The author only seems to feel strongly about punching down, attacking trans people and surrounding herself with anyone willing to congratulate her for this despicable attitude.  Her supporters only seem to care about being on her side, no matter how morally bankrupt it is. 

Like, okay, that video game came out a few months ago, and I saw people on Twitter trying to angrily justify their decision to buy it, even though a lot of people have pointed out that it directly supports a woman who uses her wealth to justify her bigotry platform.  They’d go “It’s just a game!” and someone made a really snotty TikTok about it or something, and I’m like “Who are you trying to convince, me or yourself?”  If it was just a game, then they’d just play it and not say anything.  But they know it’s not just about the game, and that’s why they’re so defensive about it.  They want to be on both sides of this thing, and that doesn’t surprise me much, since their favorite book series taught them that they can be a real selfish dickbag and still be a good guy as long as you oppose the main villain. 

Chi-Chi would see right through that.  It’s not enough to just oppose the final boss.  It’s the life you live before and after those kinds of battles that defines you as a person. 

Anyway, Harry Potter sucks rotten eggs, and the author is a giant toolshed.  Also, that funeral they did for the giant spider was a fucking ordeal to read.  0/10 would not recommend. 

[pico-digital-studios]

Into, Across and Beyond!: Hypothetical Casting and Theme Songs

I was having a bit of a think about who might hypothetically voice the project's cast (yeah, I'm not truly hiring any VAs for the project), and with help from @becdoesthings and others, I've thought about these roles: (Any music themes picked out for the characters will be in brackets like this)

Blur Gang

William Corkery Jr. as OMT!Tails

Ryan Drummond/Jason Griffith as CR!Sonic

Linda Larkin (Jasmine; Aladdin) as OMT!Mina and EV!Sally

Jaleel White as Mini Sonic and Underground Sonic (alongside the other two cartoon Sonics)

MCStudioProductions / @mcgamejolter as Mr. Needlemouse

??? as EX!Alice

Pete Capella ('06 Silver) as D-Sides Mighty

Lisa Ortiz as Black Knight Amy

Drift & Miss (Sonic GT) as CU!Sonic

Natalia Wojcik (Annie, Little Einsteins) as CU!Sonia

Ashleigh Ball as Nine

Emma Watson (Hermione, Harry Potter) as CR!Sonia

Jake Lloyd (Anakin, Star Wars Episode I) as CR!Manik

Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) as Nitro/Chris Smith (Year 1 for every version of the character under 14, and Year 2+ for those aged 14 and over)

(Where Fire Lives from Natlan (Heosmin Remix); Nitro.DLL)

SFG1235 as Antho

??? as Ex-Prince Brian

Nominal Dingus as Hog

Sarah Grace Stiles (Spinel; Steven Universe) as Wacky

??? as Devy

??? as Smol Devy

Nicole Tompkins (Jack-O, Guilty Gear -Strive-) as Trip

Quill Society

Jason Griffith (Sonic (X to Unleashed)) as EV!Sonic and X!Sonic

Mae Whitman (Agent Xero; The Modifyers) as Tekno

??? as Amy Rouge

??? as Zonic

??? as CD Alt Ending Sonic

Lacey Chabert as E-21

Christopher Daniel Barnes (Miguel; Edge of Time) as Lost Memory Sonic

??? as Turbo

??? as Fiona

Alex Ness (Blaster-Tron; Skylanders) as Emperor Metallix

Roger Craig Smith as LEGO Sonic

@gemontumb as Tlels

Andi Lott as Carol Tea

??? as Sarah Henderson

??? as Barry

??? as Milly

Adam McArthur (Yuji Itadori; Jujutsu Kaiden) as Blitz!Tails

Martin Burke as Sonic.RAW

Lisa Ortiz as Superstars Amy

Bill Wise as OVA Knux

Martin Burke as OVA Sonic

??? as Rob O' the Hedge

??? as Water Sonic

??? as Fleetway Amy

??? as Stella the Cat

Ashleigh Ball (Applejack; My Little Pony FiM) as Bunnie Rabbot

??? as Nicky Parlouzer

Charles Martinet / Juno Songs as Somari

Abluemoon88 as Sara

Max "LandyRS" Henderson as Chaos Adventure Sonic

Mel Blanc as S1 Fang the Sniper

Kristin Fairlie (Bridgette; Total Dramarama) as Millie the Fox

Villains

One More Chance

Ike Amadi (The Darkness, Skylanders: Superchargers) as Sonic.OMT

One More Hero

@becdoesthings as Eggman Nega

??? as Shadow Emerl / Uma Arachnis

Stephanie Sheh as Zeena

Erica Mendez (Ryuko Matoi, Kill la Kill) as Surge

Christopher Pellegrini as Johnny

Prequel Points

Charlie Adler (both his Snively and Corroder roles) as Snively

Long John Baldry as Dr. Beeman and AOSTH Robotnik

More than One Universe

??? as Shalian

??? as Crossover Realm Corrupt

??? as Talrareth

??? as AVA!Corrupt

??? as Richard Ambersilve

@jordangaming101 as Sonath

??? as Curse

Into the Sonic-verse

??? as Dr. Finitevus

Phil Hayes as Scratch

Garry Chalk as Grounder

Ian James Corlett as Coconuts

Max "LandyRS" Henderson as Scourge

Suzy Finn as Rosy

Arion "MiiToons" Rashad as Walter Naugus

Maurice LaMarche as Sleet

Peter Wilds as Dingo

Matt Hoverman as Dark Oak

Kirk Thornton as Boom Shadow

Jacaris (Vs. Sonic.exe) as Fleetway Super Sonic

??? as Kit

Lee Majdoub as Agent Stone (who replaces Aaron Davis from Earth-199999)

??? as Superstars Fang

Many More Heroes / Cosmic Discoveries

??? as Gemerl / Anti-Miles

??? as Chaos Emerl / Speedy

??? as Crimtake

kkirby99 as most of the Hues of Metal

??? as Legends/Nexus Robotnik

Tails of Trials

??? as Dr. EggOmega

MaimyMayo as Original Sonic.exe

??? as Green Mountain Sonic/End

Into the SEGAVerse (and beyond)

??? as Kaiser Greedy

??? as Reala

Other stars

Roger Craig Smith as OMT!Sonic and Boom Sonic

Ryan Drummond as Superstars Sonic and SRB2 Sonic

Kate Higgins as EV!Tails

Corey Bringas as Superstars Tails

Connor Bringas as SRB2 Tails

Amy Palant as X!Tails

Travis Willingham as OMT!Knuckles and Boom Knuckles

Dave B. Mitchell as EV!Knuckles

Dan Green as Superstars Knuckles and X!Knuckles

Michael McGaharn as SRB2 Knuckles

Cindy Robinson as OMT!Amy, EV!Amy and Boom Amy

Jennifer Douillard as SRB2 Amy

Sarah Wulfeck as OMT!Cream

Michelle Ruff as EV!Cream

Kath Soucie (Sally's SatAM role) as OMT!Sally

Deem Bristow as OMT!Robotnik and SRB2 Robotnik

Arion "MiiToons" Rashad as most Eggmen in the multiverse, alongside Mr. Tinker

Max Mittleman (Arataki Itto, Genshin Impact) as several versions of Mighty

Issac Ryan Brown (Gus Porter, The Owl House) as several versions of Ray

Maurice Lamarche (Mortimer Mouse, House of Mouse) as most versions of Fang

Patrick Gilligan (Alex, Street Fighter 3) as all versions of Bark (who talk)

Lizzie Freeman (Yanfei, Genshin Impact) as all versions of Honey the Cat

Darkbox as Exeller and [REDACTED]

??? as XE!Sonic

Tom Hardy (Venom) as Xenomorphic

Clement von Franckenstein (Boss Cass, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger) as Grand Battle Kukku XV

ApocalypseTitan characters

Sarah Nicole Robles (Luz, The Owl House) as Kaede Titan/Detective Ghost

??? as Apocalypse Titan

??? as Max Cartwright

??? as Ms. Brenda Ciprianni

??? as Samuel Ciprianni

Mae Whitman (Amity, The Owl House) as Luna

??? as Olivia Kennedy

??? as Danny

Dee Bradley Baker (Fire Lord, Hero Factory) as Dr. Razereye

??? as Benny

??? as Abigail Razereye

My characters

??? as Lucia

??? as Karilvatch

??? as Amelia Walten

Benjamin L. Valic (Child Movie Sonic) as Evo Smith

Bella Ramsey (Hilda) as Rosie Smith

??? as Wade

Mobiverse

??? as Mobiverse Tails

??? as Mobiverse Sonic

??? as Mobiverse Cream

Freedom Planet

Dawn M. Bennett as any version of Lilac

Aimee Smith as any version of Milla

??? as Carrie Mei

??? as Jett Capriasa

??? as Chiasa Sun

??? as Marshmallow

Undertale / Deltarune

ShyrennVA (Saying a Lot of Things) as Frisk (Glitchtale - Prepare Yourself)

wintermelon (Inverted Fate) as Chara

Sean Marquette (Mac, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends) as Asriel

Retrovisity as Kris (Deltarune)

FNF characters

Brady Noon (Raphael, TMNT: Mutant Mayhem) as Benjamin Miku

??? as Grace Dearest

??? as Pico N. Grounds

??? as ErrorSky

??? as IAB!Benjamin Fairest / IAB!Soft Benjamin

Bradley Pierce (Tails; Sonic SatAM) as Evan

@yuriharu567 as Holly

??? as Bently Forceloyed (Mr. Kitty - Glycerin)

??? as Isabella Fondsmith

Tracey Moore (Usagi Tsukino/Serena, Sailor Moon) as BluBuni

Funkinverse (only any that have spoken in my posts)

Jerry Jewell (Kusuo Saiki) as Agent Cam "Blueballs" Malicious

Laura Bailey (Injustice 2 Supergirl) as Gracie/SNS Girlfriend

Alex Hirsch (Bill Cipher) as Grimbo / The X

Greg Cipes (Omniverse Kevin Levin) as Kenji Tensei (Virtual-On - Sweet Tragedy of Dreams)

Ellen Wong (Knives Chau from Scott Pilgrim) as Aloe Mano (Virtual-On - High Ground (SoniNeko Mix))

Miscellaneous

??? as Nova the Hedgehog

??? as Daisy (The Wrath Soul)

Ben Schwartz as Movie Sonic

Colleen O'Shaughnessey as Movie Tails and Boom Tails

Idris Elba as Movie Knuckles

MCStudio as Max Chaos

Prime universe and Shatterverse

Deven Mack as Sonic Prime

Ian Hanlin as Shadow Prime, Big Prime and the Shatterverse Bigs

Ashleigh Ball as Tails Prime and the Shatterverse Tails's

Shannon Chan-Kent as Amy Prime and the Shatterverse Amys

Kazumi Evans as Rouge Prime and the Shatterverse Rouges

Brian Drummond as Eggman Prime and Mr. Dr. Eggman

REJECTED

Tara Strong (considered for Tekno and BluBuni, but her irl behaviour leaves a lot to be desired)

Mike Pollock (considered for most Eggman variants, but his controversial opinions on the Israeli-Arab Conflict made me scrap that plan)

[horriblemanprotagonistshowdown]

Horrible Man Protagonist Showdown!

Oh boy, I can't seem to be stopped, can I?

Hey howdy, folks! Your favorite pollrunner is back again with a fresh new competition for you! Does your favorite piece of media just have the worst main character ever? Do you stand for their cause, whatever it may be, but just hate them with every fiber of your being? Maybe it's how they go about their mission, or maybe they're just not a very nice person to be around. Well, this is the competition for you!

Hi, I'm Hermann (pronouns are they/them, please!), the mod of @clash-of-the-wizards and @nichesexymanbloodbath (which, hopefully, should be getting some new life in the fall) and overall bad person in media liker, coming at you again with another fresh and hip competition! In the horrible man protagonist showdown, we pit some of these protags who you wouldn't ever want to meet in real life against each other and see who the most unpleasant one really is, or just who Tumblr likes the most. I don't know, I feel like I opened pandora's box with this one. The possibilities are endless!

GUIDELINES

This isn't really the place for anti-heroes or villain protagonists. It's basically the inverse of the Affably Evil trope-- Good is Not Nice, if you will, people with good morals or an honorable end goal who are just really mean, and overall absolute dickfaces.

NO REAL PEOPLE. Hopefully, this goes without saying!

Please don't come back and repeatedly nominate the same person. I know who you fuckers are. Save your voter fraud for the actual polls (/hj)

I won't BAR specific media, but, like, if I view it as problematic or feel I may get backlash for including it, I simply won't. So, uh, be careful, I guess.

This is specifically for horrible man PROTAGS. Those main characters you love to hate. I know every piece of media has its Good Is Not Nice character, but it's so much more fun when it's the main character

Horrible man is a gender-neutral term in this case.

Be civil and have fun!

DEADLINES

I don't feel like dealing with fucking INFINITE amounts of entries (Clash of the Wizards and Niche Sexyman Bloodbath both had 300+ entries I had to sort through), so I'm going to be cutting off either at the end of the month, aka, SEPTEMBER 30, or when I hit over 200 entries. Whichever happens first. These deadlines are flexible, though!

Got any questions about the polls or about me? My ask box is open, and I'll try and answer everything! Something about the comp inspires you to make art? I think you so should! I just ask you either drop it in my inbox or you tag me in the post!

Of course, as is customary, I shall tag my inspiration. This competition was inspired by @affablyevilshowdown , @germanboyjoust , and @bestadaptationtournament specifically, but it's mostly just because I wanted to run another poll

Think you got it? Good! Now.... SEND ME YOUR AWFUL MEN!!!!