Character Popularity Poll

[Hamste]

That guy with a halberd was a character seen in the siege. He had a fan club in 2008 where people attempted to make him popular enough to become an important character.

Former hobgoblin supreme leader was the guy that gave up his title to Redcloak after he murdered a random hobgoblin.

Zhou Bo was from How the Paladin Got His Scar.

[JustinKase]

Ah - thank you both :)

I thought I recalled Halberd Guy, but I didn't see him in the counting thread :P

[alwaysbebatman]

Former hobgoblin supreme leader was the guy that gave up his title to Redcloak after he murdered a random hobgoblin.

That's what I thought at first, but at some point somebody clarified that they were referring to a previous Supreme Leader who was more than a one-page gag in the O-Chul book...

[Liquor Box]

A bit disappointed to see Xykon ranked only ninth. He is hilarious. In addition he is possibly the most powerful character in the entire comic, with numerous moments of awesome, including defeating V (despite V being powered by the three most powerful wizards who had ever lived(or some such)), and he is THE (moreso than Reddy even) comic's big bad and a credible one at that. He even had an in-comic groupee.

What reason is there not to like him?

[B. Dandelion]

That's what I thought at first, but at some point somebody clarified that they were referring to a previous Supreme Leader who was more than a one-page gag in the O-Chul book...

The character from #149 is in the prequel and is more than a one-page gag.

[Hamste]

That's what I thought at first, but at some point somebody clarified that they were referring to a previous Supreme Leader who was more than a one-page gag in the O-Chul book...

That leader is the fat one? Didn't seem that big to me, or were there 3 former supreme leaders?

[Potatomade]

A bit disappointed to see Xykon ranked only ninth. He is hilarious. In addition he is possibly the most powerful character in the entire comic, with numerous moments of awesome, including defeating V (despite V being powered by the three most powerful wizards who had ever lived(or some such)), and he is THE (moreso than Reddy even) comic's big bad and a credible one at that. He even had an in-comic groupee.

What reason is there not to like him?

Some people seem to prefer "emotional conflict" and "evil for the greater good" to genuine badassery.

Feh!

[alwaysbebatman]

Okay, I did a little searching and found the clarification made by the balloter who originally gave the Supreme Leader 9 points:

Which Hobgoblin Supreme Leader? Spoilers for "How the Paladin Got His Scar":

Spoiler

Show

The fat one or the cleric one?

I don't know if there's much to say. The Hobgoblin Supreme Leader* is the most interesting one of these, by far. Shame only Kickstarter people really know much about him.

*Assuming it's the one I'm thinking about.

As the person who originally gave the Supreme Leader his 9 points, I can confirm that I meant

Spoiler

Show

the cleric.

[ironkid]

10 Redcloak
9 Xykon
8 Roy
7 Elan
6 Haley
5 Belkar
4 Durkon
3 Vaarsuvius
2 Jirix
1 Nale

[Lastofthemany]

10pts.Belkar
9pts.Haley
8pts.Therkla
7.Tarquin
6.Redcloak
5.Thog
4.Elan
3.MitD
2.V
1.Ochul

[JustinKase]

Redcloak pulls into 2nd and Belkar gets the most 10pt votes!

(all respect to OP Present 2.0 - did another tally for myself and figured I'd share)

Vaarsuvius 358 10
Redcloak 355 8
O-Chul 344 10
Belkar Bitterleaf 307 11
Roy Greenhilt 286 5
Monster in the Darkness 240 7
Haley Starshine 222 2
Elan the Bard 217 3
Xykon 194 2
Durkon Allotrope Thundershield 178 2
General Tarquin 155 3
Lord Shojo 130 0
"Malack" the Lizardfolk Vampire 111 3
Therkla 78 1
Blackwing 75 0
Celia 66 3
Lien 65 0
Miko Miyazaki 63 0
Thog 62 0
Beatrix aka Bandana Secundus 52 1
Greyview 45 3
Mr. Scruffy 45 0
Right-Eye 42 0
Sabine 39 0
Tsukiko 39 2
Cedrik, Lee & Nero 32 0
Hinjo 30 0
Nale 30 1
Veldrina 28 0
Demon-Roaches 19 0
Kazumi Kato 18 0
Oracle of the Sunken Valley 18 0
Ho Thanh 17 0
"Durkon" * 17 0
Laurin Shattersmith 15 0
Gannji 14 0
Gontor Hammerfell 12 0
Inkyrius 12 0
Julio Scoundrél 12 0
Qarr 10 0
.... Zhou Bo 10 0
Chief Cop of CPPD 9 0
Daigo Da- 9 0
Flumphs 9 0
.... Former Hobgoblin Supreme Leader, Cleric 9 0
Leeky Windstaff 9 0
Niu 9 0
Wrecan 9 0
Zz'dtri 9 0
Banjo 8 0
Squid Thingy 8 0
.... High Priest of Loki 7 0
Gary Gygax 7 0
Oona 7 0
Dave Arneson 6 0
Enor 6 0
Bloodfeast the Extreme-inator 5 0
Jirix 5 0
Eric Greenhilt 4 0
Ian Starshine 4 0
Miron Shewdanker 4 0
Thor 4 0
Julia Greenhilt 3 0
.... Serini Toormuck 3 0
Vampiric Half-Dragon Half-Troll Lycanthropic Fiendish Phrenic Snail 3 0
Ancient Black Dragon 2 0
Jiminy 2 0
Odin 1 0
Soon Kim 1 0
That Guy with a Halberd 1 0

[Present 2.0]

(all respect to OP Present 2.0 - did another tally for myself and figured I'd share)

No Problem. Thanks.

[alwaysbebatman]

General announcement to anybody new. All of the favorite character polls are closed. Except this one. (Because those were one-week deals, and this is open-ended...) Feel free to still put in a ranked top-10 ballot here.

From there we did a single-elimination tournament of 16 and a round robin of six, but those are done and over. If you are curious about the results of those, look for "favorite character tournament general discussion" and "preferred character round robin general discussion." You will find a full break down there.

[LuisDantas]

10 P: Hinjo
9 P: Bandana
8 P: Vaarsuvius
7 P: Redcloak
6 P: Roy
5 P: Xykon
4 P: Tarquin
3 P: Laurin Shattersmith
2 P: Elan
1 P: Haley

[Book Wombat]

10: Vaarsivius
9: Blackwing
8: MiTD
7:Belkar
6: Girard
5: Mr. Scruffy
4:Haley
3:Elan
2: Jirix
1: Minral

[Rack]

+10p Thog
+9p Belkar Bitterleaf
+8p Xykon
+7p Roy
+6p Haley
+5p Blackwing
+4p Shojo
+3p Julio Scoundrél
+2p Nale
+1p Therkla

[Onyavar]

+10 Roy
+9 Vaarsuvius
+8 Haley
+7 Blackwing
+6 Lien
+5 Wrecan
+4 Laurin
+3 Redcloak
+2 Julio
+1 Belkar

[Jormengand]

So, my votes will go to...

10: Varsuuvius, for a level of genuine character conflict, character development, and the odd bit of awesome arcane power usage. Of course, all of that is backed up by...
9: The Inter-Fiend Co-operation Commission, whose scheming and conniving gives you pause to wonder what their agenda is, exactly. What can I say, wild cards are fun.
8: Roy Greenhilt for immense badassery and showing what a fighter should be able to do.
7: Julio Scoundrél for his use of narrative tropes, better one-liners than anyone else ("I think that was always part of your problem, T...") and general dashing swordsmanry.
6: General Tarquin for taking the implication of a world with no fourth wall up to eleven.
5: Wrecan, for doing (I hope) justice to his namesake.
4: Hinjo for down-to-earth sense and a level of wit too.
3: Celia for refreshing pacifism in a world of everyone trying to murder each other.
2: That Angel Who Points out that The Control Weather Spell Doesn't Actually Do That for pointing out that the control weather spell doesn't actually do that.
1: The Monster in the Darkness for keeping us guessing all this time.

[Present 2.0]

Happy Holidays.

I didn't really expect new Votes.

Vaarsuvius 395
Redcloak 365
O-Chul 344
Belkar Bitterleaf 324
Roy Greenhilt 317
MitD 249
Haley Starshine 241
Elan 222
Xykon 207
Durkon 178
Tarquin 165
Shojo 134
Malack 111
Blackwing 96
Therkla 79
Thog 72
Celia 69
Lien 69
Miko Miyazaki 65
Bandana 61
Mr. Scruffy 50
Right-Eye 48
Cedric, Lee and Nero 41
Hinjo 41
Greyview 39
Sabine 39
Tsukiko 39
Nale 32
Veldrina 31
Julio Scoundrel 24
Laurin Shattersmith 22
Demon-Roaches 19
Wrecan 19
Kazumi Kato 18
Oracle 18
Ho Thanh 17
HPoH 17
Gannji 14
Gontor 12
Inkyrius 12
Zhou Bo 10
Qarr 10
CPPD Chief 9
Flumphs 9
Former Hobgoblin Supreme Leader 9
Daigo 9
Niu 9
Zz'dtri 9
Leeky Windstaff 9
Banjo 8
Squid 8
Julia Greenhilt 8
Gary Gygax 7
Cleric of Loki 7
Jirix 7
Enor 6
Dave Arneson 6
Girard 6
Bloodfeast 5
Ian Starshine 4
Eric Greenhilt 4
Thor 4
Miron 4
Snail 3
Serini Toormuck 3
Oona 2
Jiminy 2
Ancient Black Dragon 2
That Angel Who Points out that The Control Weather Spell Doesn't Actually Do That 2
Soon Kim 1
Odin 1
Halberd 1
Minral 1

Could you show me a Link to the Comic with the Angel who points out that the Control Weather Spell doesn't actually do that?

Well, even if V lost in the Tournament, he is still leading in the Contest, that shows Popularity a bit more accurately.

[Peelee]

Hooray! Happy holidays!

[CircleOfTheRock]

10: O-Chul
9: Redcloak
8: MitD
7: Fiends
6: Shojo
5: Julio Soundrel
4: Lien
3: Demon Roaches
2: Xykon
1: Belkar

[Hotu]

10p elan
9p elan
8p elan
7p elan
6p elan
5p Thog
4p elan
3p elan
2p elan
1p elan
(Please don’t actually count this)

[JustinKase]

10p elan
9p elan
8p elan
7p elan
6p elan
5p Thog
4p elan
3p elan
2p elan
1p elan
(Please don’t actually count this)

What, no Banjo?

[B. Dandelion]

Could you show me a Link to the Comic with the Angel who points out that the Control Weather Spell doesn't actually do that?

353. . . . .

[Thaumic]

My votes:
10P: Roy (for having the perfect balance of humor and seriousness, as well as being the protagonist)
9P: Vaarsuvius (for being a wizard. Need I say more?)
8P: Durkon (almost solely because of this comic)
7P: Elan (for understanding plot as well as Tarquin, but not ruling an evil empire)
6P: Redcloak (for striving to save the goblin race, and making the definition of "evil" that much more complicated)
5P: Haley (for the story arc during which she only spoke in cryptograms)
4P: Belkar (for his line in panel three of this comic)
3P: Miko (for [and I sincerely hope this doesn't start a forum argument] being one of the only Lawful Good antagonists I've ever seen)
2P: Therkla (for having such emotion explained in so few comics)
1P: Kudzu (for being adorable, and adding another wrinkle into Durkon's storyline)

[alwaysbebatman]

So... how does everybody feel about trying a character poll based on range voting? Instead of being like limited to 10 characters, you'd be able to vote your approval level of every character you have feelings for. I've been thinking about this as a new project for a while, but figured everybody could use a break after the tournaments.

So, the idea grew out of how we did the wildcard blocks: everybody could give one or two votes to as many characters as they wanted in the block. I thought, why not expand the concept to all the characters at one time!

So there would be a blank ballot that's a full list of the comic's characters. And by each name you could put any integer between -1 and 3. -1 means you don't enjoy the character. 0 means you have no strong feelings. 1 means you enjoy them. 2 means you enjoy them a great deal, and 3 means that the character is genuinely one of your favorites in all literature.

I think it would be interesting to compare the results of a poll based on everyone each voter has an opinion about, and not just the top 10.

[Emanick]

So... how does everybody feel about trying a character poll based on range voting? Instead of being like limited to 10 characters, you'd be able to vote your approval level of every character you have feelings for. I've been thinking about this as a new project for a while, but figured everybody could use a break after the tournaments.

So, the idea grew out of how we did the wildcard blocks: everybody could give one or two votes to as many characters as they wanted in the block. I thought, why not expand the concept to all the characters at one time!

So there would be a blank ballot that's a full list of the comic's characters. And by each name you could put any integer between -1 and 3. -1 means you don't enjoy the character. 0 means you have no strong feelings. 1 means you enjoy them. 2 means you enjoy them a great deal, and 3 means that the character is genuinely one of your favorites in all literature.

I think it would be interesting to compare the results of a poll based on everyone each voter has an opinion about, and not just the top 10.

I like this idea quite a bit. I do think the range should be greater than -1 to 3, though.

[alwaysbebatman]

Hmmm, well I can see the advantages of both sides. More gradation means you can distinguish between how much you like more characters, but less gradation makes it easier to define what each score means for greater comparability.

Take a ten point scale for example: what exactly does it mean that one character got 7 points and another got 8?

Whereas I think the definition of each score is pretty clear w the -1 to 3 scale.

[Laurana]

I love both the idea and the -1 / 3 scale.

[alwaysbebatman]

Okay, so here's what the ballot would look like. Just testing the formatting and looking for feedback. It includes every character with over 10 appearances based on the appearance-counting thread, with a few exclusions, plus any character who was ever on a ballot in this poll.

(The exclusions are most of the steeds, the spiky summon, and the three soul grafts. Haerta was the most interesting of the three, but she didn't meet the cutoff for appearances because she was strongest and escaped first, so I decided to exclude all three.)

Character	Nods	Commentary
Ancient Black Dragon
Andi aka Andromeda
... Angel Who Points out that The Control Weather Spell Doesn't Actually Do That
Banjo
Beatrix aka Bandana Secundus
Belkar Bitterleaf
Blackwing
Bloodfeast the Extreme-inator
Boot Wight
Bozzok
Carol
Cedrik
Celia
CPPD Chief
Crystal
Daigo Da-
Daimyo Kubota
Dave Arneson
Demon-Roaches
Durkon Allotrope Thundershield
"Durkon" *
Elan the Bard
Empress of Blood
Enor
Eric Greenhilt
Eugene Greenhilt
Felix
Flumphs
... Former Hobgoblin Supreme Leader, Cleric
Frost Giantess with Axe and Tattoo
Gannji
Gary Gygax
General Tarquin
Geoff
Girard Draketooth
Gontor Hammerfell
... Greysky Cleric of Loki
Greyview
That Guy with a Halberd
Haley Starshine
Hank
Hel
High Priestess of Freya
High Priestess of Odin
High Priestess of Sif
High Priestess Rubyrock
Hilgya Firehelm
Hinjo
Ho Thanh
Ian Starshine
Inkyrius
Jiminy
Jirix
Jones
Julia Greenhilt
Julio Scoundrél
Kazumi Kato
Kilkil
... Kudzu
Kwesi
Laurin Shattersmith
Lee
Leeky Windstaff
Lien
Loki
Lord Shojo
Malack the Vampire
Mateo
Miko Miyazaki
Minrah
Miron Shewdanker
Monster in the Darkness
Mr. Scruffy
Nale
Nero
Niu
O-Chul
Odin
Oona
Oracle of the Sunken Valley
Phil Rodriguez
Pompey
Qarr
Redcloak
Right-Eye
Roy Greenhilt
Roy's Archon
Sabine
Samantha's Dad
.... Serini Toormuck
Shadowdancer
Snail, Vampiric Half-Dragon Half-Troll Lycanthropic Fiendish Phrenic
Soon Kim
Soul-Muncher
Squid Thingy
Therkla
Thog
Thor
Tsukiko
Vaarsuvius
Veldrina
Windstriker
Wrecan
Xykon
Yikyik
Yukyuk
.... Zhou Bo
Zombie Dragon
Zz'dtri