#mod's choice

Rin Kagamine:

This song was an iconic part of any adolescent gay vocaloid fan's upbringing. Even if you don't like it (and I mostly only like it out of nostalgia), you have to admit that it is ICONIC. Also shoutout to my good friend who loves this song but missed Round 1 and so didn't get to vote for it. This is your chance!

Lena:

We owned this DVD for this shitty movie and I loved it so much. I still love it so much. I love shitty ripoff movies. Not much to say other than iconic.

Lucia Nanami:

I never actually watched all this show, but I remember my mermaid obsessed sibling did, and so I watched some of it with her when I was a little kid. I thought it was so much fun and I couldn't help but be disappointed that Lucia lost in Round 1. Give a magical girl a chance...

Lacey the Little Mermaid Fairy:

I didn't read the fairy tale fairies specifically, but in general, I LOOOOVEEEEEEDDDDD these Rainbow Magic books as a kid. I read soooo many of them and yet there was still so many more, it impressed me so much. I still remember being a little kid staring at the shelf trying to figure out which ones to take out that day.

Sayaka Miki:

Vasilisa the Beautiful:

Okay I loved this story so much when I was in middle and high school. Like a lot of people I knew I had a "Russian" phase where I became briefly obsessed with Russian history and mythology between the ages of 13 and 16. Vasilisa the Beautiful was by far my favorite "Cinderella variant" (though it feels weird to have called a lot of these fairytales regional variants throughout the tournament, I didn't know what else to call them) and as a teenager I read a few YA books that functioned as Vasilisa retellings. But none of them are as good as the original tale. It's such a banger and you should read it if you haven't already!

Eun Ha Won:

I don't have much to say about this one. Someone I knew really liked it so I put it on here in honor of her. Seems cute tho.

Yasmin as Cinderella:

I said this for the Mod's poll for Red Riding Hood, but as a child when visiting Pakistan I watched this movie HUNDREDS OF TIMES on a bootleg DVD, so many times that I think I wrecked the DVD. A childhood favorite!

Cinderella / Prinzessin:

As some of you know due to the fact that I am the mod of @yugipoll, I am a Yu-Gi-Oh fan! Watched it as a kid, somehow still am rewatching it to this very day. And she was such a great card! I loved her so much and she's so cute and pretty!!! I also like the arc that she's in, the KC Grand Championship is easily the best filler arc and I really like Ziegfried and Leon. Where are my Yu-Gi-Oh fans?

Hatsune Miku as Cinderella:

It's Hatsune Miku. Do you need any propaganda? Miku Miku.

Mary Santiago:

Not only is this one of my favorite teen comedies, but it's still one of my favorite movies even now. I have no idea why! Like I cannot tell you why I am so fond of this movie! Maybe it's because of the childhood nostalgia! Maybe it's because of Selena Gomez (extension of childhood nostalgia)! Maybe it's the fact I am fond of the late 2000s. But it's so good! Tell Me Something I Don't Know is one of the bops of all time!!!!

Harper Finkle as "Harperella":

Sasha as Red Riding Hood:

During submissions, I became so absolutely excited when I saw this pop up. I don't know who decided to submit it, but they unlocked some childhood memories for me. Back when I was a child, my family visited Pakistan (my parent's country of origin) for the entire summer. One day I, bored, asked for some movies to watched and my parents and uncle brought back some clearly bootlegged DVDs dubbed in Hindi/Urdu, and Bratz Kids Fairy Tales was one of them. I watched it so many times, you have no idea- I think that I might have wrecked the whole DVD with how much I watched it. (A similar thing happened later on when I obtained a clearly bootlegged copy of Bratz Fashion Pixie too but that's another, non-Red Riding Hood related story.) I wasn't surprised that it was eliminated right off the bat, but my childhood nostalgia dictated I put it here, or else I would be betraying the 7-year-old in me.

Shang, Tao, and Paotze:

Another childhood favorite of mine. This picture book has such beautiful art and I remember being very surprised by the story as a child. I found a PDF of it online to reread when the contest started and honestly it still holds up. The three sisters that are the Red Riding Hood in the story I feel are genuinely very clever. And for nothing else, look this one up solely for it's beautiful art which is just breath-taking whether you're a child or an adult!

Lamb:

Not going to lie I never played this game. My good friend who I adore submitted this to the poll and it immediately got eliminated and I just felt bad lol. But it does look cool & I trust their taste so I do think that this game is great. I want to play it but I am really bad at getting myself to play games.

Aku:

Samurai Jack is a CLASSIC and I dare you to not watch this clip and crack up. Mako was a gift of voice acting and I miss him so much. Also this episode is just pretty amusing.

Amy Lee:

My sister was actually the one to submit this and I will use her own propaganda here: "Evanescence was a voice of a generation." Honestly this song is kind of just okay, there are better Evanescence songs, but got to respect the effort they put into the music video. Who can resist to choose Amy Lee anyway?

The Path sisters:

Like many people who know this game, I know it through Izzzyzzz's two video essays on it. I didn't play the game afterwards, but I did watch some play-throughs since I don't play many games + it seemed mostly like a walking simulator anyway so I felt like I got the same effect. It is AMAZING and has so much story and analysis and I love shit like that... In particular, Scarlet, Ruby, and Rose are my favorites whose stories really resonated with me, even if I haven't exactly gone through their life experiences. Ginger too. And there's some really horrific imagery in Robin's...I would recommend everyone find a way to experience this game-- whether that's playing it, watching Izzzyzzz's videos, or finding a walk-through/analysis of it, it's worth it!

Lisette:

So this manga is sort of obscure but it is also sort of nostalgic to me. Well, nostalgic by proxy. My sister read it when I was younger and told me some details about it and for some reason it stuck with me. Like??? For no reason. It's not even that good lmao. The first chapter right off the bat is pretty edgy & handles sensitive topics very badly. But goddamn if I do not think about random elements of the story for no reason. I don't really remember shit about Lisette but hey this picture of her looks really cool.

Red:

If you notice a theme among these being "nostalgia" you would be right, as this was another nostalgic offering from my childhood that I would watch semi-annually. I was also fond of the sequel, though I thought it felt like a different series than the first one. (Which isn't unusual with animated sequels to popular movies, but the fact that the sequel was set-up by the ending of the first one implies it was planned? Weird). But anyway Red is iconic and funny and voiced by Anne Hathaway and also her sad emo song "Red is Blue" sometimes still gets stuck in my head, so take that as you will.

Chacha: