#medievalandfantasymelee

[graaaaceeliz]

Scene: London, sometime after the grudging resolution between Stephen and Maud re: the anarchy. After such a long bout of fear-riddles chaos, everyone is need of some indication of loyalty and unity. The solution? A tournament!

Many men have been invited, and now many of those have been eliminated. Some will go home, some will stay on, some will undoubtedly be quietly stabbed or loudly beaten behind the stables. One of those eliminated is Brother Cadfael; his friend Hugh Beringer is however still in the tourney.

@medievalandfantasymelee Dear Master of Revels, please reblog this so that it may reach its intended audience.

[fleurdufeu]

@medievalandfantasymelee

Propaganda for Mark Ryder's Cesare. He is hot. But more importantly he is a melodramatic ambitious disaster of a poor little meow meow.

in this scene he just chased a man into the room and killed him in front of his father the pope and all the other cardinals and mic drop quits being a cardinal after splashing murder blood on pope daddy.

Plus the requisite Vibes with Lucrezia

okay the last picture is just because I love the scenes with the bunny they cuddle whenever they go to be melodramatic at their mom's house

[thinkingonaname]

Near misses poll! @hotvintagepoll Toshiro Mifune is in it.

The Near Misses Tourney (1 of 2)

In 400+ submissions many worthy and noble (also some dastardly and evil) men (and orcs and elves and hobbits and the like) were admitted to our fair Tourney.

These are... not them.

No indeed, 20 men (and one... unit?) of those submitted failed to qualify for the tournament, for diverse reasons. They were therefore turned away and tossed on the Near Misses Pile. But the spirit of competition still burns within them and they have erected a makeshift tilt on the outskirts of the Tourney Grounds.

We wish them the Best of luck in their fruitless endeavour!

The four competitors with the most votes will advance to the next round, all others will be sent home in final disgrace

Row 1:

Artos [Aaron Burns], Pendragon: Sword of His Father (2008)

Bill S Preston, Esquire & Ted "Theodore" Logan [Alex Winter & Keanu Reeves], Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

Row 2:

The Darkling [Ben Barnes], Shadow & Bone (2021-2023)

Duncan MacLeod [Adrian Paul], Highlander (1992-1998)

Row 3:

Hob Gadling [Ferdinand Kingsley], The Sandman (2022-)

Panto Trost [Christopher Russell], Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (2016-2017)

Row 4:

Michael Kohlhaas [Mads Mikkelsen], Age of Uprising (2013)

Lancelot [Ioan Guffudd], King Arthur (2004)

Row 5:

Prince Septimus [Mark Strong], Stardust (2007)

Steerpike [Jonathan Rhys Meyers], Gormenghast (2000)

Kuwabatake Sanjuro [Mifune Toshiro], Yojimbo (1961)

[hotmusketeerspoll]

ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL

Welcome to the Most Magnificent Musketeer Tournament!

We’re assembling the ultimate Three Musketeers cast, with the best version of each character. The finest D’Artagnan, the most seductive Milady, the perfect Athos Aramis & Porthos, the craftiest Richelieu, the cutest Constance, etc etc etc.

Each character will be duelling their opponents until we find tumblr’s favourite for each role.

(We all know that fighting duels is against the law, but the Cardinals have allowed special permission for the duration of the tournament - they’re all convinced that they will win “Best Cardinal Richelieu”, so as long as we keep them distracted scheming against each other, we can run the rest of the competition in peace.)

So how do you define Best?

However you want! The hottest, the best fencer, the drunkest, the largest moustache, the one with the ugliest horse, the most book-accurate, whatever works for you. But let’s be honest, most of these will probably be decided on looks, unless you can make a good argument otherwise!

Who is eligible?

Anyone who’s starred in a live action adaptation of The Three Musketeers, or one of the sequels (eg The Man in the Iron mask), as long as it involves the four main characters (D’Artagnan, Athos, Aramis & Porthos). This includes movies and TV shows, in any language. 

Submissions are now closed, you can see the full list of entrants here

When the tournament starts, you can send in additional propaganda to support your favourite character’s case, in the form of text, pictures, gifs and short videos. You can tag @hotmusketeerspoll in reblogs, or send it in an ask.

Acceptable propaganda: Anything from the property in question, including promotional material, behind the scenes and interviews related to the movie or show. Please don’t submit anything with your chosen actor in other roles - only Musketeer-related propaganda is allowed.

This is a friendly competition, and I won’t be reblogging or promoting any negative propaganda for contestants. Be excellent to each other!

This blog was inspired by @hotvintagepoll’s Dracula Daily casting, and @medievalandfantasymelee’s abundance of King Arthurs and Robin Hoods.

Links to the current polls

King Louis XIII poll

Queen Anne poll

Constance poll

Madames poll

OC poll

Links to previous poll winners can be found here

Tournament Winners so far

Best Captain Treville - Hugo Speer (The Musketeers 2014-2016)

Best Planchet - Roy Kinnear (The Three Musketeers 1973, The Four Musketeers 1974, The Return of the Musketeers 1989)

[revivedrevengerumble]

Do you know a character that was killed? Did they come back to life to kill their murderer?

That's great! Now wouldn't it be fun to pit them against other characters who want to do the same thing?

Qualifications:

"Revived" can be used loosely; they can be brought entirely back to life, possess someone else, just be a ghost- or even a mix, as long as they were previously dead

Their main reason for coming back must be their revenge on the person/organization/etc that killed them; if their motivations later changed to something else, they give up on this goal, find out the person they thought killed them didn't/was an accident, or share the goal of revenge with something else (like protecting someone) that will not disqualify them

If the character was only dead for a short amount of time, or was brought back to life by another person immediately, you might need to convince me on why they should be let in

Rules:

Submitting more than one character is allowed, but repeat submissions of one are not (unless you can do it without me noticing)

Don't be rude to other people. I read all of my notes, I will see it and block you

As always, my askbox is open if you wish to submit additional propaganda (either during submissions or voting), or if you have any questions

@bestanimatedmovie @hotvintagepoll @medievalandfantasymelee @the-most-design-of-all-time

[firawren]

Sorry about all the Medieval Men posts lately (though this is far from the last one, I'm just getting started y'all) but I submitted my man Lan and all of my pics got lost apparently, so I need to rectify that!

This whole gifset of him training is sexy as hell

His cute little half smile:

His steely death stare:

And, you know, just general badassery and hotness:

This sexy times giftset is also hot as hell

VOTE LAN!

Still not convinced? Naked butt alert under the cut:

@medievalandfantasymelee

[forthegothicheroine]

The @medievalandfantasymelee "Queen of Love and Beauty" tournament is reminding me of the story, I think it was in Chretien de Troy, where Gawain asks "Can we please not do a fairest maiden award at this tournament, every knight is going to want his own girlfriend to win and get into fights when she doesn't?" and Arthur replies "True, but I'm bored and I don't care."

[orca-worca-woo]

Look, did they absolutely ruin Elrond’s character in the Lord of The Rings movies? Yes, absolutely. That is not Hugo Weaving’s fault. He put his whole elfussy into that performance with what he was given and he deserves to win the @medievalandfantasymelee poll

[orangistae]

Adorable silly man!

@medievalandfantasymelee

[vintagetvstars]

CLAUDE RAINS SINGING AHHH! Here's a clip of him singing the song "Prestige" in the 1957 TV movie "The Pied Piper of Hamelin"! LOOK AT HIM DANCING AHHHH HE'S SO SILLY

(Kudos to @medievalandfantasymelee for introducing this goofy goofball to the masses!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EqzR-ciV7g

Thanks!

- mod vintage

[gluecookie]

@medievalandfantasymelee

Some Cadfael propaganda showcasing his beautiful voice, kind eyes and kind words

[medievalandfantasymelee]

COME ONE, COME ALL to the MOSTE ILLUSTRIOUS TOURNAMENT of the FINEST, the MOSTE PUISSANT and HOTTEST MEN MEDIEVAL MEDIA HAS TO ITS CREDIT.

Our Noble and Worthy contenders have come from 128 Properties throughout the land and stand numbered at 296, out of some 400 submissions.

A complete list of our Noble and Worthy Contenders may be found here.

A summary of The Qualifying Round Matchups may be found here

THE TOURNEY IS UNDERWAY!!!!

Our contest began with a Qualifying Round, which consisted of 148 matchups. The Qualifying Round did not follow any kind of bracket or draw, however beginning with Round 1, every subsequent round will.

The First Round of Competition has commenced!

This round shall last seven days and consist of ten Tilts (polls) per day of competition posted at ten minute intervals beginning at 4:00 PM by the reckoning of Eastern Daylight Time.

A complete list of Matchups in this round may be found here, updating daily.

A masterpost with links to all rounds of the competition (current and previous) may be found HERE.

We have also completed voting for the first round of the Queen of Love and Beauty Mini Tournament. The Queen of Love and Beauty holds the honour of presenting unto the winner of the Tournament his Champion's coronet. It is a mini-bracket capped at 72 contenders. Polls for the Queen of Love and Beauty will be posted following the conclusion of each round of the Tournament proper until a Queen is chosen.

Oft Asked Questions

“Who is this ‘Master of Revels’?”: T’would be I, your servant. Humble host and facilitator of this fair contest.

“Isn’t this a medieval tournament? Why are there Tudors/Borgias here?”: The Medieval Period is generally agreed by historians to span the years AD. 500 to AD 1500. However, the Renaissance period is a little fuzzier. The Renaissance was not only a period of history, but a cultural movement that kicked in earlier in some places than in others. One looks at Cesare Borgia and can immediately identify him as belonging to the Italian Renaissance. However, you look at the span of his life and it does fall within the late 1400’s—so still what is commonly considered the Medieval period. The Renaissance was a period of transition, so clean cutoffs aren’t always easy to reconcile. Vestiges of Medieval sentiment persisted in England up to the reign of Henry VIII, and it’s for this reason I chose to stretch the definition of “Medieval” for the purposes of the tournament to include the period of Henry VIII’s reign (because English history is what I’m most familiar with.)

“Wait! My Medieval Hot Man isn’t here! Can I still submit him?”: First we advise you to check to make sure that your man isn’t here. It's linked above too, but here is a complete list of our 296 contenders. If he’s not there, then sadly he was not submitted and, as the Tourney is underway, he cannot be submitted now.

“Why is Blank here, he’s not medieval!/Why isn’t Blank here he is medieval!”: The definition of a “Medieval Man” for the purposes of our tournament is “Any male character in a piece of live action visual media in which the Primary Action takes place between the years of AD 500 and AD 1550 (or a Fantasy property that emulates that period).” We define Primary Action as “at least one half-hour of a film, or three episodes (or the equivalent time) of a TV series. (Unless it is an adventure-of-the-week style show in which one episode’s story is set in the medieval period, as in the case of Doctor Who: “The Robot of Sherwood”).

“I have propaganda I would like to submit – how should I do that?”: If you are submitting text propaganda or pictures, send us an Ask. If you have a YouTube video link, you can send that in Ask form also and we will embed the video in the answer. If you have gifsets, meta or other posts here on Tumblr that you think are good propaganda, tag us (@medievalandfantasymelee) and we will reblog it. If you send us links to the post in an ask, we will reblog the post you’ve linked and tag you (unless submitted anonymously), but the ask will be deleted, largely to keep the feed streamlined.

“What makes for good text propaganda?”: Simply tell us why you think your character is hot. You may praise his physical attributes, his chivalry (or villainy), personal qualities such as valour or intellect – anything that you feel exemplifies his hotness. Please do not submit fanfiction as text propaganda.

An addendum to the above: Please remember that we are voting for the characters not the actors, so propaganda about personality and personal qualities should be centred on the character, not on the actor (but you can praise the actor’s physical hotness in the role all you like). Accolades won by the actor for the role are welcome. Anecdotes about the actor’s portrayal are also welcome, but anecdotes about the actors’ lives that do not relate to their portrayal of the characters or work on the properties are not admissible propaganda. 

“What makes for good visual propaganda?”: Any picture/gif/video of the character that you think he looks especially hot in is good visual propaganda. Please do not copy and paste gifs off of tumblr unless you have the express permission of the original poster to do so. If there’s a gif or gifset here on tumblr that you want to send as propaganda, tag us in it (@medievalandfantasymelee) and we will reblog it. Please do not submit fan-art as propaganda (official paintings such as those done for vintage movie posters are acceptable, though).

“Can I submit counter-propaganda?”: We will not accept any propaganda that openly trashes a contestant or the actor that plays him. However, we do not discourage Comparative Propaganda – that is to say, propaganda weighing the qualities of a contender and his opponent against each other in a respectful manner.

“Why is HE here, he’s committed atrocities?!”: We are not here to judge the morality of a character, only his hotness. Whatever atrocities (and we mean “whatever” – side-glance at Ramsay Bolton) the character has committed do not prevent him from competing in the Tournament. If his crimes impact his hotness to you, then feel free to vote for his opponent (and if his opponent has committed atrocities as well, then, I guess feel free to skip that poll entirely.) If you think a contestant has committed atrocities but aren't absolutely certain, please don't talk about it in reblogs or in the comments on a poll, lest a hazy memory unfairly sway the voting public. (But atrocities you know for certain he's committed may be discussed freely - that's just an aspect of the character.)

“What is the Near Misses Pile/Tourney?”: The Near Misses Pile is what I’ve christened a small heap of characters who were submitted but who failed to qualify. The Near Misses Tourney was a mini-bracket held in the week leading up to the main tournament in which all 21 non-qualifiers were pitted against each other to determine who was the hottest reject. Kala Bhairava [Ram Charan] from Magadheera (2009) won that worthless honor.

“I have Hot Romans and Musketeers I’d like to see compete!”: Hold that thought. After the Hot Medieval and Fantasy Men Melee concludes, a new tournament will be held for another time period. Either we will host a Hot Men of Antiquity Tournament (which will accept male characters from any movie or TV show property set before AD 500), or a Hot Renaissance Men Tournament (which will accept men from any property set between AD 1480 and AD 1640. Which will be held first will be determined by popular vote. (In the meantime all ye Musketeer enthusiasts can get your fix over at @hotmusketeerspoll )

"Will there be a Hot Medieval Ladies Tournament?": It's unlikely in the foreseeable future, because we already have two full Men's tournaments planned following the conclusion of the Medieval Men Melee. (See above)

“My question isn’t here/I’m confused about something.”: Send me an ask!

All propaganda is submitted by the voters and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Master of Revels or The Hot Medieval & Fantasy Men Melee

ADDITIONAL NOTE: I do not choose the pictures featured in the propaganda sections, and I only use pictures submitted by voters. If you think that a contender you support is poorly represented, it is not my fault and it is up to you to change that. It is not my job to choose propaganda of any kind for the Contenders and I only work with what I have been given.

[hotvintagepoll]

He seems to be temporarily out of danger at @medievalandfantasymelee but still too close for comfort, so I must continue my ongoing & deranged defense of the hottest of all medieval men, Will "Fuck Me" Scarlett, which would not be complete without his introduction. Here he is, staring at nothing for several minutes and being the boytoy of Sherwood’s dreams. (Robin Hood is there too and also hot.) No thoughts, head empty, soul GORGEOUS.

Vote Will Scarlett, useless beautiful peacock!

[ub-sessed]

@medievalandfantasymelee Propaganda for Jaskier (and Gordon the Mouse)

[masterhallmark]

The problem with most "hot character polls" is most people vote based on what fandoms they're in rather than for who is objectively hotter

(Glares at Merlin 1998 losing to Gandalf @medievalandfantasymelee )

[firawren]

Do you like hot monsters?

For the ease of my fellow monster fuckers, here are links to all of the polls, so far, in the Medieval and Fantasy Men hotness tourney that include a non-human character:

60: Geralt z Rivii (The Witcher 2002) — witcher*

57: Bilbo Baggins (Hobbit) — hobbit

56: Vlad III Dracula (Dracula Untold) — vampire

50: Rilk (JourneyQuest) — orc

44: Thranduil (Hobbit) — elf

25. Thorin Oakenshield (Hobbit) — dwarf

22: Bofur (Hobbit) — dwarf

21. Frodo Baggins (LOTR) — hobbit

20: Lurtz (LOTR) — orc

17. Simon Aumar (DnD 2023) — half elf

15: Darkness (Legend) — demon

10: Mr. Tumnus (Narnia) — faun

9: Old Elrond vs Young Elrond (LOTR) — elf

8: Gimli (LOTR) — dwarf

3: Arman (I Am Dragon) — dragon shifter

* Debatable whether a witcher is human or not, but I'm including him just in case

Let's not debate which of these are "monsters." The point is, they're all not human.

I'm personally not voting for all of the non-humans, but likely you'll find a few who you find hot!

I'll make another master post like this after the remaining qualifying round polls are posted.

I highly recommend following @medievalandfantasymelee! It's a fun tournament!