Favourite Character Tournament

[Cartographer7]

Hinjo

Shojo

Ancient Black Dragon

Blackwing

I'm surprised at how close ABD vs Greysky Priest is. I thought ABD would take this one easy.

[The Curt Jester]

Hinjo VS Hieronymus Grubwiggler

I'm a person who cannot stand the stupid evil or stupid good characters. Well, aside from a comic, that is. Still, I appreciate that Hinjo is a paladin who can still think.


Shojo VS Old Blind Pete

Old Blind Pete had his moments, but I never felt that he could stand on his own as a character. He fit in well with the characters around him, but Shojo, I think, could be put anywhere and still be... Shojo. Not sure if that makes sense, but it makes sense enough to vote for him.

Greysky Priest VS Ancient Black Dragon

For all the major plot relevance that ACB had, she still isn't nearly as memorable as the Greysky cleric of Loki. Give the guy credit for looking after himself.


Ganonron VS Blackwing

While Blackwing isn't exactly a favorite character of mine, he certainly beats out a character that I would never have recalled had others not mentioned who he was. Sorry, Ganonron, but your power is not that much.

[oppyu]

Spoiler

Show

11: Hinjo - 33 - 89.19%
VS
Hieronymus Grubwiggler - 4 - 10.81%

Go, go, go, Hinjo. Gogogogo Hinjo. (Anyone who's seen the old Milo ads will get that.)

Shojo - 35 - 94.59%
VS
Old Blind Pete - 2 - 5.41%

And introducing the non-seeded participant most likely to somehow knock off a PC, Shojo!

Greysky Priest - 16 - 45.71%
VS
Ancient Black Dragon - 19 - 54.29%

If only Greysky Priest (aka CoLe or whatever people were saying) had a little more plot relevance to go along with his surprising likability.

Ganonron - 4 - 11.11%
VS
14: Blackwing - 32 - 88.89%

Still surprised that Ganonron got any votes, but this match was appropriately one-sided.

Daimyo Kubota: "Now come along, bring me before your master so that we may begin the Trial of the Century."
Elan: "Yeah, well, we'll see who they believe. The Katos and I will all testify against you, and then-"
Vaarsuvius: "Disintegrate. Gust of Wind. Now can we PLEASE resume saving the world?"
5: Vaarsuvius
VS
Skullsy
"Yes, sir, Mr. Bitterleaf."

"You try again? Your feeble magics cannot penetrate the unholy radiance of my dark power! I will feast on your entrails this day, elf! Your skull shall serve as my- Oh."
*notices that his undead horse has been disintegrated. hits the ground in a humiliating fashion.*
Death Knight
VS
Soon Kim
"Arise, my children. Only the honor of a paladin is unbreakable, even by death itself. Ghost-martyrs of the Sapphire Guard - ATTACK!"

"Well TOO BAD! I am so sick of Good Guys and Bad Guys! I don't care who wins anymore! I don't care who rules Azure City - there isn't even a city left to rule! Everyone is just fighting for meaningless titles and nonexistant territories and...and...and their inflated egos!"
Therkla
VS
Yokyok
"Hello. My name is Yokyok. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

"I'm True Neutral. I go both ways."
Julia Greenhilt
VS
20: O-Chul
O-Chul: "Wait. You are insisting that I am holding out on you, based on what you consider the most likely scenario?"
Redcloak: "Naturally. Logic dictates that the simplest solution is the most probable."
O-Chul: "And you find the idea that I have some sort of secret knowledge implanted in my brain by the elders of the Sapphire Guard that has been so deeply suppressed that no magical effect can unearth it to be SIMPLER... than the idea that I just don't know anything?"

[Tannhaeuser]

Vaarsuvius vs. Skullsy
Protagonist against a joke-character. All too easy.

Death Knight vs. Soon Kim
The Death Knight's over the top grimness amused me, but Kim was just awesome.

Therkla vs. Yok-yok
Yes, I was moved by the Therkla story-line; so sue me. Yok-yok wasn't much more than a gag, that I could see.

Julia Greenhilt vs. O-Chul
I don't quite understand the O-Chul worship, but I do like him a squoche better than the rather bratty Julia.

[Draz74]

Vaarsuvius, since hir "repentant" story arc, has been threatening to take over for Roy as my favorite character in the whole story. "I should refrain from casting any spells for the rest of the day ... if only to give the laws of physics time to cry in the corner." Awesome.

Plot relevance (and one Crowning Moment of Awesome in an otherwise drab portrayal) win the day for Soon Kim. Right after Xykon's nastiest moment yet, Soon scared the crap out of him ... or would have, if he weren't a skeleton. Awesome.

The only vote I expect to not be on the winning side this round is Yokyok. My sympathy for Therkla was always tempered by my annoyance with her as a shallow-puppy-love-infatuated character. On the other hand, Princess Bride references = win.

O-chul, because duh.

[The Curt Jester]

Vaarsuvius VS Skullsy

Skullsy isn't really too much a character in my opinion. After all, almost all of his panels involve him having nothing but a head. Even then, all his actions are dictated purely by another character. He's a tool, not a character.

Death Knight VS Soon Kim

Undoubtedly this will be the only vote for the Death Knight, but I really never found Soon Kim to be as amazing as others have stated. One line does not a character make... with one exception. See below.

Therkla VS Yokyok

While Therkla was an okay character, that's not enough to beat a Princess Bride reference. Yes, in this case, one line does a character make.

Julia Greenhilt VS O-Chul

Egotistical, self-centered brat of a girl versus the indestructible paladin? No contest.

[Mike Havran]

Vaarsuvius. Skullsywhat? That's like the real bottom of the barrel.

Soon Kim. I still think #449 is the best single strip of the entire comic.

Yokyok. Even though he is a joke character, I like him more than Therkla.

O-Chul. Eh.

[ManuelSacha]

Vaarsuvius
Soon Kim
Therkla
O-Chul

All 4 are quite obvious, and almost obligatory choices.

[Sylian]

Vaarsuvius
Soon Kim
Therkla
O-Chul

[Kish]

The Eye of Fear and Flame, Soon Kim, Therkla, O-Chul.

[theNater]

Vaarsuvius for precision in use of language.

Soon Kim for his faith.

Yokyok for his righteous rage.

O-Chul for his bleeding but unbroken dignity.

[Priceguy]

Easy round, this one.

Vaarsuvius. Real character versus shortlived insert.

Soon Kim. Not quite as open-and-shut, but what little we have seen of Soon is still more than enough to beat a death knight with no particular qualities.

Therkla. Real character versus another of the Linear Guild's Kobolds of the day.

O-Chul. The hardest one but still easy. Got nothing against Julia but she's just a fringe character and a stereotypical teenager. O-Chul has turned into a full-fledged character with plot importance.

[CWater]

Vaarsuvius - With all hir faults and quirks, still my favourite character of the series

Soon Kim - Without Miko's interference, he would've trashed both Xykon and Redcloak. Pretty good for a guy who's incorporeal

Therkla - Not one of my favourites, but she's okay.

O-chul - I liked Julia, but she's not even in the same league as O-Chul.

[Torrasque]

Vaarsuvius
Soon Kim
Therkla
O-Chul

[rgrekejin]

Vaarsuvius because until you posted this question, I had honestly forgotten Skullsy existed.

Soon Kim because comic 449 still gives me chills every time I read it.

Yokyok because Therkla is my least favorite character in the entire comic. She's just dull, and doesn't have the good sense to get out of the spotlight so interesting things can happen instead. Also, and I'm sure I'm the only one who is bothered by this, on the Kickstarter workometer, her name is misspelled.

I'm not exactly a gung-ho O-Chul fan, but Julia Greenhilt was one of the least remarkable portions of the Cliffport excursion, let alone the entire comic.

[HedgehogRanger]

Vaarsuvius vs. Skullsy
V is a protagonist, no contest.

Death Knight vs. Soon Kim
#449 is one of my favorite strips in the whole comic, and the Death Knight had no real personality.

Therkla vs. Yok-yok
I liked the Princess Bride references, but I liked Therkla and her story more.

Julia Greenhilt vs. O-Chul
O-Chul is amazing, and Julia, while she had her moments, can't compete.

[ChristianSt]

Vaarsuvius vs. Skullsy
Death Knight vs. Soon Kim
Therkla vs. Yokyok
Julia Greenhilt vs. O-Chul

Easy Round, only choice that needed thinking was O-Chul vs. Julia - But O-Chul is a really tough guy (and his actions while prisonend are great).
Skullsy/Death Knight/Yokyok are not really valid options I think.

[Peelee]

Vaarsuvius. This was the toughest choice for me, but still an easy one. Rest easy, Skullsy. Someday may you get an entire arc as a weapon wielded by someone else. That was awesome.

Soon Kim. The ghost paladin army was a pretty nice touch, and I liked his final speech to Miko quite a bit.

Therkla. She had amazing characterization and helped shake Elan out of his safe little bubble to more fully realize that bad things happen in the world, and to be prepared. Yokyok chased after Belkar. No contest.

O-Chul. That's my boy, right there! Hell, I'd vote O-Chul for all four if I were allowed.

[Moriwen]

Vaarsuvius. Not even a contest, sorry. (Though I did like Skullsy--I wished he'd stuck around.)

Soon Kim, although I'm not particularly attached to either character. But you picked an awesome quote for him.

Yokyok was amusing, albeit briefly. Therkla, sadly, was kind of annoying. Not my thing.

O-Chul is amazingly amazing. And he played Go with the Monster in the Darkness. Go Mr. Stiffly!

[willpell]

All 4 are quite obvious, and almost obligatory choices.

This is pretty close to how I feel too, but I find that my feelings on one are sufficiently loose that I can switch my vote just for the sake of being unique.

Vaarsuvius
Skullsy might have beaten Durkon for me (maybe even Haley if I count her various personas as separate characters from herself), but otherwise, pretty much any PC versus anyone but Shojo or Tarquin is a no-contest. And V happens to be my second-favorite of the Order so it's really not close. Sorry Skullsky; your cowardice was well-deserved.

Death Knight
This is my intentionally contrary vote, although now that I think about it, it's really correct for my feelings. The Death Knight is a fairly cliche black hat, but danged if he doesn't make the cliche look good. "Choose your doom, then, chicken-mage: original recipie or extra crispy!" Meanwhile Soon is not only fairly boring compared to the living paladin characters, but ultimately his pigheaded self-certainty is the root of all the Sapphire Guard's failings; I find I really don't like him at all well, though of course he could have won many matchups just on the basis of plot importance. And this would have seemed to be one of them, but surprisingly no. Let the reaping begin!

Therkla
I'm surprised so many people are voting for a character as one-note as Yokyok, and will gladly leap to defend Therkla, who is very high on my list of favorite short-lived NPCs. I really liked her take on Neutrality and attempt to come up with a satisfactory solution to an unsolvable problem, and am sad that Drama demanded she die for it. But at least she has a totally awesome headstone.

O-Chul
No contest here. Julia's not a bad character by any means, she'd probably have beaten the Death Knight for instance. But O-Chul is my benchmark for everything a paladin, or a Good character in general, should be. It's gonna be really hard seeing him go up against the characters I actually care about (like Therkla for instance). Because he really is one of the strip's best characters in every conceivable sense.

[Bluepaw]

Surprise surprise:

Vaarsuvius
Soon
Therkla
O-Chul

[martianmister]

Skullsy (That's probably Vaarsuvius' worst line)
Soon Kim
Therkla
O-Chul

[Bird]

Aww, bummed about the cleric of Loki. The guy had personality.

Vaarsuvius. This was the toughest choice for me, but still an easy one. Rest easy, Skullsy. Someday may you get an entire arc as a weapon wielded by someone else. That was awesome.

That's funny -- Skullsy spent an arc being wielded as a weapon. Vaarsuvius is guaranteed to be doing the same thing before the strip is over.

Anyway,

Vaarsuvius. Probably my favorite character. Guess I'll ruminate more on this in future rounds. Hope V isn't up against O-Chul in round 3...it'd be criminal to lose one of them so soon.

Death Knight because "THEN LET THE REAPING BEGIN!" makes me chuckle every time. (Yes, I admit Soon was awesome.)

Therkla had character development. I love Inigo Montoya, but Yokyok was an easy and forgettable homage.

O-Chul, not so much because of his willpower and indestructibility, but because of the thoughtful, far-sighted, gentlemanly way he dealt with the Monster in the Darkness. The work he did there is going to end up saving the world. Can you think of any other characters in the comic who would have handled it as well?

Though I can't vote for her, I did enjoy Julia and her relationship with Roy.

[bguy]

Vaarsuvius. Easy choice.

Death Knight. I did like Soon quite a bit, but still I'm not really comfortable voting for him until we get more of the story of what happened between him and Girard. And besides the Death Knight was the most impressive of the three Xykon triplets, had an number of great lines, and would have easily defeated V if not for his/her protagonist character shields being inexplicably super-charged.

Therkla. Sorry, Yokyok, you're no Inigo Montoya.

Julia. I know it's hopeless, and I do like O-Chul, but as a fellow shall we say true neutral, I don't want to see Julia get completely blanked, so I'm going to to vote for her.

[Mr.Rictus]

Vaarsuvius Poor Skullsy never stood a chance

Death Knight
By far my favorite of the Xykon simulacrums, he had class (and a horse temporarily) and almost killed a major protagonist, if it wasn't for a deux ex machina. Soon had a few neat appearances, but it was partially his pigheadedness which estranged all the gates from each other. He may have been a great hero, but if he wasn't a bit of a jerk this comic would have ended hundreds of strips ago.

YokYok
Therkla was entertaining but not my cup of tea, while Yokyok still makes me chuckle. Go Lawful Good Kobold go! Also he was in my mind one of the best "Kobold of the day", as far ar Belkar opposite go, and the one that really forced the maniacal halfling to really use his low Wisdom score in an entertaining fashion.

Julia
I really like O-Chul better, but she is a fairly entertaining character (in a annoying kind of way) and deserves a few votes before getting the boot.

[dps]

Skullsy

Death Knight

Therkla

O-Chul

[What'sThatThing]

Vaarsuvius
Soon Kim
Therkla
O-Chul

[137beth]

V, of course,
Hmm, a match between two super powerful characters who nearly killed major characters but were unexpectedly defeated by someone who wasn't to beat them. I'm gonna go with Soon, since he still has a bit of plot left to develop.
Therkla
O-Chul

[Procyonpi]

V, although I did like Skullsy.
Death Knight. He was funny and Soon Kim was a glorified plot device.
Yokyok, for the princess bride reference and because I don't like Threkla.
O-Chul, because awesome.

[Gift Jeraff]

Death Knight
Yokyok
O-Chul

I love the Death Knight's casual "Burn" line and his response to General Chang's terms. I did like Therkla, but I agree that she was a pretty shallow character for the most part and I felt bad for poor Yokyok's death as well.