The Evolution of Me

aaaugh - thank goodness for the online guides*, or i'd never have made it past this level! it feels like i've been staring at this loading screen for almost a year....

This tournament is not meant to cause any shipwars or spread hate. Please stay kind when sharing your opinions on the submitted ships.

Vote in the other polls here

Why people wished they stayed platonic:

Stiles Stilinski and Lydia Martin

They literally had a great storyline of Stiles getting over his crush on her, they both went on to date other people they had more chemistry with, and then in season 6 they shoehorned in a love story between and made it the focus of the season when it should’ve been focused on Scott and Stiles’ bond (one of the reasons season 6 sucked). Then Dylan O’Brien couldn’t be bothered with the show anymore so it was all for nothing anyways

Their relationship in the early seasons was so annoying with Stiles just pining after Lydia and being kind of mean and entitled. But then season 3-5 he seemed to move on from her and they become a fun duo, being the two who can't fight and are the detectives of the group (season 4 especially!!). Then season 6 came along and they finally became canon and it sucked.

Myka Bering and Pete Latimer

They had a very strong sibling-like relationship for the majority of the show, Myka’s actor wanted her character to be in a relationship with a different (female) character, the characters were literally so platonic they slept in the same bed naked when they knew they’d wake up without their memories to make their future selves investigate what had happened because they knew there was no way they’d ever sleep together and were, in fact, actively disgusted at the idea. It was only in the last season they became romantic and I’m fairly sure the entire cast rejects the entire season anyway.

For the first four seasons they were disgusted at the idea of being a sexual/romantic couple and I understand that the showrunner was trying to go for a "methinks she doth protest too much" vibe but that's not how the actors played it! They worked so well as having an annoying-siblinglike relationship and then the last half season spedrun a romance and it didn't work at all.

Plus Myka is clearly into girls (might be bi but isn't into Pete) and her relationship with Helena (canonically bi) at all times had SO much chemistry. Bering & Wells forever.

The final season suddenly shoved them together as a way of ending things and it was rushed and unnecessary. There was a bit of a will-they/won't-they early on but that had seemingly settled into them being great partners and friends. Also Bering & Wells forever!

1: There's an entire episode where the plot is that they leave proof something is wrong by making it look like they hooked up, which is completely out of character. 2: Myka had a nearly-canon girlfriend and the show was already canceled when they put her and Pete together for the finale.

They were such a fun duo, perfect platonic (work) partners who meant a lot to each other but it didn't have to get romantic. Many fans think Myka in particular had much more romantic chemistry with someone else, and to some people Pete and Myka getting together was a surprise and/or disappointment.

I just think that having a strong, meaningful friendship would have worked just as well for them.

A beautiful supportive platonic male female friendship that was built up over many seasons who were shoved into a relationship in the last few episodes to follow up on romantic tension that had been dropped after season 1

some of my favourite ttrpg rules

Me: I mean depends on your tolerance for this type of racism, but like I said it's my favourite show, it def has some great parts if you're up for it.

Them: Oh so it's not racist.

Me: It absolutely is.

Them: So you're saying racism is ok??

Propaganda

Bruce Wayne AKA Batman (Batman: Bump In The Night):

What if Batman was the last line of defense between Gotham and the supernatural unknown? What if he did less punching and more paranormal detecting (but still a generous amount of punching)? What if he could exorcize, comfort, or rehome antagonists instead of just throwing them in Arkham?

You should vote for Batman (Bruce Waye, est. May 1939 to win this bracket) to win this bracket and upset a D&D Actual Play

My argument: It would be really funny

the thing you have to understand about bump in the night batman is he is that guy. robert pattinson batman but he has to know dracula is real

Bump In The Night has one of the subtlest and strangest batmans I've seen depicted in maybe any media.

This is a batman who is constantly running off of five coffees and twelve packs of cigarettes who does in fact look like he is constantly running off of five coffees and twelve packs of cigarettes and is fully out of his depth but is still trying despite that.

This is a batman that was left out in the rain but needs to come in to do some detecting but is going to be at least a little bit awkward about being covered in rainwater the entire time.

I don't want to just, like, *assume* things about tumblr but I also think this is maybe the global capital of bedraggled guy appreciators and this is a bedraggled guy who is routinely beset by occult crime.

a guy who gets the shit kicked out of him by a ventiloquost dummy

This man is so socially inept that when he GRAPPLING HOOKS A CHILD and then learns the child Knows Things about a case he's working, he gives her GRANDMA CANDY

HE SHOWS UP AT PEOPLES HOUSES AT 3 AM WITH BONES

Did you want a batman who handles his rogue's gallery the way the flash does? With de-escalation tactics and words? Who doesnt just throw them all into Arkham without any thought to helping them?

he is such a wet cat

You wanna vote for batman so bad ooooooh when he's bruce wayne he turns into billionaire philanthropist gay playboy brucie wayne and its a really fun juxtaposition against his awkward and serious batman persona which is closer to his real personality

he talks his villains down and then HIRES THEM AS PART OF THE BAT TEAM

HE'S FRIENDS WITH VIKTOR FREEZE

HE'S EXES WITH SO MANY PEOPLE

Genuinely this podcast rips and this depiction of batman is fucking great

Mod Note: Please only vote for Bruce Wayne/Batman that appears in the podcast Batman: Bump In The Night.

Emmy Acero (Tidal Wave Games Podcast: SEE YOU SPACE COWBOY...):

Latino trans man, college student turned movie stunt double turned space bounty hunter. Father blew his entire college fund on a cryptocurrency scheme, now trying to raise enough money as a gig worker to pay off his debt before his school's tuition office's hitmen come after him. And that's before he finds out about the whole "secret destiny" thing…

Might be inexperienced (don't worry, he's a consenting adult) but he's a very quick learner. Just look how quickly he learned the saxophone!

Accidental rizz levels off the charts. Canonically has the most romantic/sexual success of any character in the podcast, almost entirely unintentionally on his part

You float the idea of knife play and he says "omg I thought you would never ask". Next thing you know you're sitting in a chair watching him perform actual knife tricks for two hours

Special skills: "True Strength is in the Core", "Can Fit in Spaces Most Can't", "Resting Innocent Face" (aka puppy dog eyes). I think you can fill in the blanks

Art of Bruce Wayne and Batman courtesy of @charaznablescanontoyota.

and like. do we have to keep gently phrasing things to protect naturally-thin people's feelings. in my life it has never been fashionable to be fat. "fat" is still a bad word. there has never been institutional power pushing people to gain weight; no trillion-dollar industry to "fix" skinny people. a larger body type has never been over-represented in models, influencers, celebrities. sure, people might say "i'm worried for your health," but they do it with respect and gentleness, like they're talking to a scared deer.

every single fucking time i talk about this, i have to be so careful with what i say, in case i offend even one skinny person. it is just true that skinny people have social capital across many cultures. there is a reason you almost never hear someone say "i wish i was fat," but you will constantly see people say "I wish i was thin." and yet inevitably some skinny person will tell me: i thought you wanted body positivity. it is the same fucking attitude as when a cis man says "when you say men have power, well, i've been bullied for being a man. i thought you believe in mental health awareness. don't you know men have a higher suicide rate?"

two things can be true at once: your experience being bullied for being thin was terrible. and people with larger bodies probably have it worse.

i have been big and small. i know many other people who have been big and small. trust what i'm about to tell you: being small is much easier. the world is kinder to you. people treat you better. honestly, this pattern occurs pretty much regardless of gender - my guy friends have confided that they'd rather be bullied for being thin than be bullied for being fat. if you're skinny, the pressure might be to gain weight, sure, but it's often to do so in a way that keeps you skinny - to gain muscle, specifically.

thinness is seen as innate and natural, genetic. whereas carrying any fat - that is a moral failing. it is assumed to be related to your character, your personality. i have seen people equate it to discipline, to hygiene. that bias is why we need to talk about this.

They had to write a letter to the NFL team they were assigned to, they had to do a research project to find out where the teams practiced, they had to write a letter to the mayor of the city the teams practiced in, they had to keep track of their team's statistics, they had to do research about the state history of the team they'd been assigned to, and they had to do a presentation.

It was a big project. She provided all the materials, she made sure there were copies of the newspaper sports section in her classroom so the kids could stay on top of stats. The students got this project in their first week at school and it wrapped up right around winter break, so it wasn't like it was an all-day "today we are doing statistics" thing or "today we do research, today we write a letter, today we make a presentation" one-week project, it was five to ten minutes a day in various subjects that got organized into a presentation at the end of the semester. The kids could work together, they could work independently, they could ask my mom or the librarian or their parents or their older siblings for help. They just had to end the semester with a report on the team's history, the stats for the season organized into a chart, copies of the letters they'd sent (and copies of any of the responses they'd gotten), a two-page social studies report on the state where the team played, and a presentation to the class about their favorite thing they had learned while doing the NFL project.

The kids fucking loved it. And for years I spent my winter break going to the classroom and organizing the bulletin board with a huge map of the US and materials from each student's report, showing the work that the students had done that semester. It was a way of getting kids engaged with classwork, because who cares about statistics at 10, probably nobody, but if you get a set of pencils from the Jets NOW you want to learn about the team. The Jaguars sent one kid a jersey one year. The city in Minnesota where the Vikings practice sent postcards for every student. Part of this was happening when Schwarzenegger was governor in California so one kid got the Terminator's autograph for part of his project.

I think maybe the thing that I admire the most about it in retrospect was the way that it taught actual project management to young students. I don't actually know of that many schools that have projects more than a month long for 10-year-olds, and I think it's a great concept. I didn't get something like that until I was a senior in college, and it would have been a great skill to learn younger.

Anyway, in 2006 my mom had to stop doing the NFL project because the district wanted to focus on raising their test scores. She was specifically told that if she kept doing the NFL project she would not be rehired at her school.

She even wrote up what standards each part of the project worked toward - the kids had to make graphs because "organizing information into a bar graph" was a specific standard for students that age. "Writing multiple paragraphs on the same subject" was a standard, which is why the letters to the cities and states were multi-paragraph. The project WAS standards based.

But the administrators wanted to make sure that the students had more practice with reading the kinds of questions that would be on the tests because most of the student body spoke Spanish at home.

My mom taught at that school for another ten years; the school's test scores never showed any marked improvement with test-based lesson plans.

My mom's project wasn't the only thing like that that got cancelled. There was another teacher who had a craft-based thing that was similar, and a 7th-grade teacher who did a kind of history/social studies Magic Schoolbus LARP thing who was told not to do that anymore. Eventually my mom was told to stop having her students write journals for ten minutes a day because it wasn't being taught from the textbook and wasn't being taught to the test.