The Gweniverse

for the gwens, the guineveres, the gwendolyns, and the gwyneths!

[gwen-bracket]

2023 Gwouses Tournament!

Welcome back to the Gwen bracket!

Now that we’ve crowned the ultimate Gwen, it is time to vote for the ultimate significant gwother/gwouse (Gwen spouse).

Before I announce the matchups, there will be a preliminary poll to determine which of Gwen (Total Drama)’s love interests will be entering the tournament. This poll will begin tomorrow, July 7th (PDT) and last for one week! While the poll is running, you may send asks with any propaganda for either character (Trent or Duncan) and it will be posted to the blog.

Remember to have fun, and I hope you’ll enjoy the 2023 Gwouses Tournament!

[the-great-british-blorbo-off]

Bracket 2: Round 1, Match 3

Gwen Cooper (Torchwood) Vs Arthur Lester (Malevolent)

Gwen Cooper

Arthur Lester

Voting ended onNov 13, 2023

Propaganda under the cut! Please be aware that some may contain spoilers.

Gwen Cooper:

She's the bisexual Welsh queen of my heart. Honestly though it is so rare to have a female character who's both the emotional centre of her story and who gets to be complicated, and dark, and make bad decisions, and yet keeps doing the right thing, no matter how hard it is and how much she loses, over and over and over again. More Gwen Cooper appreciation!

She lives in Wales. She left the police to join a secret alien hunting Institute. She is a bisexual disaster. She is fierce. She has the best good boy golden retriever like husband.

Arthur Lester:

This guy is continuously underground/falling off cliffs for no reason at all, it's just always happening. He has an eldritch entity in his head named John who stole his eyes and currently has control of said eyes, most of his left arm, and also his left toes. He's a piano composer. These two are constantly swearing and saying each other's names every five seconds. They're basically a package deal at this point. He's commonly headcanoned as aromantic. He's almost died several times. He was walking through a ruined city in another world with the intent to go through a gate to get back to Earth, and immediately abandoned the plan bc he heard someone playing the song he composed for his daughter on piano. They are regularly in situations where a possible solution is murder, and generally the eldritch horror is not the one advocating for them to kill someone, especially in the beginning of the story. While investigating the horrors, they came across a random baby, and both of them immediately decided they couldn't let anything bad happen to this baby and were just carrying her around for a bit. He bit off part of his own finger (technically it was John's finger). Early on, John says he has a cold, calculating demeanor and then when Arthur asks if he still has it way later he says Arthur looks like he'd be 80 pounds sopping wet. Also he's a private investigator in 1930s Massachusetts, how could I have forgotten. There's 2 eldritch gods relevant to the story, one of them wants him dead because John is a piece of him and he wants him back, and the other is watching what he does for entertainment.

Feel free to add your own in the tags!

[toshsato]

MERLIN Rewatch: 5x02 ARTHUR'S BANE - PART 2

sheee

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 2

Who's the Bigger Victim of Yaoi?

Gwen (Merlin)

Iris Hawthorne (Ace Attorney)

Voting ended onAug 9, 2023

Propaganda Under Cut

Gwen

She stands in the way of Merthur, by far the most popular ship in the fandom. I haven’t seen it as much in recent years, but back in the days of fanfiction.net she got slut shamed so badly for having been romantically interested in three of the male characters over the course of the show, which is just... normal straight woman behavior, meanwhile Merlin crushed on pretty much every woman who even looked at him in the early seasons of the show and got no hate for that whatsoever. I barely even read Merthur fics (not because it’s m/m, just because certain aspects of their relationship don’t appeal to me) but the “Gwen is a slut” attitude was so pervasive across the fandom, even fics that weren’t explicitly anti-Gwen would “jokingly” call her a slut. I even saw a few fics demonizing her for having an affair with Lancelot despite the fact that SHE WAS ENCHANTED when that happened, and surprise surprise, Lancelot (who was also under the influence of magic) got none of that hate, and neither did Arthur, who got enchanted to fall in love with multiple women over the course of the show.

Canonically Arthur Pendragon's love interest and an important and interesting character in the show who's completely shoved aside and ignored in favour of the medieval bbc yaoi ship. At best they put her and Morgana in Lesbian Timeout (ie make them get together and then reduce them to wingwomen at best because god forbid we focus on the medieval bbc yuri). Justice for Gwen right now!

She is prince Arthur's love interest (eventually wife). Arthur is MADLY in love with her. He tells his tyrannical father he would give up his crown to be with her (she's a servant in the series). He forgives her cheating on him with Lancelot (!), which in the show is caused by an evil enchantment, but the characters never find out about it. He chooses her time and time again. His love for Gwen is literally never put into question. Many fans insist to this day that there was no chemistry between Gwen and Arthur compared to Arthur and Merlin. Arthur isn’t even particularly nice to Merlin most of the time! The funny thing is that Merlin himself ships these two so hard and does everything he can to help them get together!! Gwen & Arthur are adorable and too many fans were drunk on the yaoi fumes to see it. ARTHUR WAS A SIMP FOR GWEN.

Iris Hawthorne

Ex gf of the MC i lover her ok she is sweet

Phoenix wright’s canon ex girlfriend. Extremely underappreciated because people ignore her to make narumitsu work better

poor girl gets slandered by the fandom so much for being the main character’s ex. i know she was used primarily for the plot but cmon everyone’s just so mean to her. she was manipulated into doing terrible things by her sister whom she loves so much and she didn’t know any better because all she wanted was to have a family. it’s not an excuse for her actions but it’s just so tragic that she did everything for her sister just for her to use her for her own personal gain

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 2

Who's the Bigger Victim of Yaoi?

Gwen Cooper (Torchwood)

Kairi (Kingdom Hearts)

Voting ended onAug 9, 2023

Propaganda Under Cut

Gwen Cooper

she literally did nothing worse than the rest of the team yet so many people hate her guts and there is a literal gwen bashing tag for her on ao3. just cause she's a complicated character and confident and assertive and oh yeah she had sexual tension with jack harkness who ended up w ianto in the end. god forbid.

fans think she "gets in the way" of the canon m/m pairing of the series just because she has straightbait scenes with one of the two guys. when in reality she literally has a husband and has been nothing but supportive of her friends and their relationship 😭 she tends to be written as like super insensitive and spoiled and its unbearable 

An amazing, badass woman who has a complicated relationship with Jack Harkness, 1/2 of “Janto,” the ship she “gets in the way of.” People use this slight complication to decide they HATE HER and turn her into this vile, evil, vindictive person. She often tries killing Ianto (other half of “Janto”) in many poorly-written fics, simply so that everyone can realise how badly they treat poor, poor Ianto. This makes Jack fall harder in love with Ianto xoxo Mwuah Mwuah and Gwen is hated and killed. This occurrence is so common that it has its own tag on AO3: “Gwen Bashing.” The writing, again, is always very bad, and solely created to make people hate Gwen. She’s chill in the actual show though. Very supportive of the two men and their relationship, and is literally happily married. She is not at all like what people make her out to be.

Kairi

kairi is the third protagonist of the kingdom hearts series and the third member of the destiny trio, alongside fan favorites sora and riku. sora/riku shippers HATE kairi, and will go out of their way to discount her at every turn. the hate for her ranges from typical "she's a boring bitch" to fans of soriku making five-hour long video essays reassuring their fellow shippers that the big bad kairi won't show up in the next installment – to quote one video, "she's in a box. she's on the shelf. four walls, no door." kairi is the greatest bogeyman the soriku fandom has ever known, to the point where most of said video essays and fanon meta posts focus not on why sora and riku should get together, but rather on why they don't like kairi.

Literally has a 100+ page Google doc fan theory writing her out of the narrative and putting all of her (few) canonical accomplishments onto half of the popular m/m ship (soriku). Don't even get me started on how her memory was completely written out of the canon plot of re:coded. KH is a nightmare to explain so dude trust me she is THE victim of yaoi

She is so fundamental to the plot and themes and narratives of game and yet it is near impossible to find anything about her thats not ship bashing pre-mlm with the other two characters. I dont even care if she ends up with one of the main characters i just want fans to see her as a cool character to love or like, anything other than “annoying comphet girl.” You can write your mlm but pleaae stop inventing comphet where it doesnt exist. She does not even get to spend time with sora ever?? Why does everyone see her as a threat and a thing to destroy?? Let her have friends so help me

[horselover107]

For this round of propaganda, I decided to screen shot some Gwen bash fics. Trigger warning for extreme misgony, memory alteration, and violence.

Here we have “Gwen’s canonical friends and teams mates wipe her memory and celebrate it.” The context here is in this fic she was mean to poor Ianto and accused to “emotionally manipulating Jack”.

Here’s an author’s note from a completely separate fic where Gwen has her memory wiped by friends. This time for *checks notes* making Jack think she was married to him, and stealing Ianto’s life and kids.

Canonically, Gwen and Ianto are friends. Jack and Gwen have a special bond that goes beyond something as easily definable as a romance (the closest equivalent is probably the Doctor-Companion relationship from Torchwood’s parent show). Yes there is sexual attraction there and she does love him, but I cannot stress this enough: Janto already wins in canon. They’re an official couple. Gwen has a whole husband she’s deeply in a normal type of love with.

Here’s Ianto “calling Gwen out”. This one is particularly funny because at this point in canon Gwen knew Jack was immortal but ianto did not yet.

Countless screeds against her have been written on live journal. Here’s one from The Anti-Gwen alliance. A whole community dedicated to…take a guess. Some of these reasons may sound like it has something to do with another part of her character…fhe subtext is they only think that because she “gets in the way” of Janto. Let’s be clear on that

Also these arguments are very funny because the person Tosh is supposed to be a happier individual with is a crazed murder that eats hearts. Gwen was also one of the people that goes to console her after. And in bashing Gwen were greatly overestimated Iantos abilities….bud hey at least we’re not turning him into a defense woobie.

Another “gem. “ Where the team discusses various ways in which to kill her. Including feeding her to the team pet dinosaur

There’s something kind of gross about the fact they’re obsessed with her…grammar? Here considering she’s Welsh.

Anyways there’s way worse out there this is just a sampling of the ones I was willing to stomach for this.

Works intentionally not cited

[gwen-bracket]

Gwouses Preliminary Poll:

Trent (Total Drama)

Duncan (Total Drama)

Voting ended onJul 15, 2023

Both characters dated Gwen (Total Drama). This poll is to determine which one will enter the tournament to compete for the title of the ultimate significant gwother/gwouse (a.k.a the best love interest of a character named Gwen).

[gwen-bracket]

Winner: Trent (Total Drama)

[companion-showdown]

Who is the Biggest Gay Icon?

GRAND FINAL: Bill Potts vs Jack Harkness

Bill Potts

Jack Harkness

Voting ended onJul 13, 2023

TOURNAMENT MASTERPOST

[horselover107]

JACK. Bill’s character could not exist if Jack hadn’t paved the way first. His influence extended to not only more gay rep in the whoinverse but in sci-fi and on tv in general as well. Like it cannot be overstated the impact Jack being out and proud queer in 2005 had on so much else. There’s a reason his Wikipedia page has a “critical reception and IMPACT” section. That is icon behavior.

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 1

Who's the Bigger Victim of Yaoi?

Zoe Murphy (Dear Evan Hansen)

Gwen Cooper (Torchwood)

Voting ended onJul 19, 2023

Propaganda Under Cut

Zoe Murphy

People who ship Evan and Connor want to demonize her SO BAD. Like it is NOT her fault she's upset at her brother and having a hard time mourning the guy who was a dick to her - and this is as a Connor Murphy apologist. All the best Connor/Evan fics are where she and Connor slowly repair their relationship and he puts in the work

hey remember when ppl shipped evan with connor even though the WHOLE POINT of the show is that evan never actually knew connor and their entire "friendship" is an elaborate lie

She's the main love interest but people ship Evan with her dead brother so they make her into a jerk or a wingman and ignore the fact that the brother was abusive towards her

Gwen Cooper

she literally did nothing worse than the rest of the team yet so many people hate her guts and there is a literal gwen bashing tag for her on ao3. just cause she's a complicated character and confident and assertive and oh yeah she had sexual tension with jack harkness who ended up w ianto in the end. god forbid.

fans think she "gets in the way" of the canon m/m pairing of the series just because she has straightbait scenes with one of the two guys. when in reality she literally has a husband and has been nothing but supportive of her friends and their relationship 😭 she tends to be written as like super insensitive and spoiled and its unbearable 

An amazing, badass woman who has a complicated relationship with Jack Harkness, 1/2 of “Janto,” the ship she “gets in the way of.” People use this slight complication to decide they HATE HER and turn her into this vile, evil, vindictive person. She often tries killing Ianto (other half of “Janto”) in many poorly-written fics, simply so that everyone can realise how badly they treat poor, poor Ianto. This makes Jack fall harder in love with Ianto xoxo Mwuah Mwuah and Gwen is hated and killed. This occurrence is so common that it has its own tag on AO3: “Gwen Bashing.” The writing, again, is always very bad, and solely created to make people hate Gwen. She’s chill in the actual show though. Very supportive of the two men and their relationship, and is literally happily married. She is not at all like what people make her out to be.

[gwen-bracket]

Gwouses Preliminary Poll:

Trent (Total Drama)

Duncan (Total Drama)

Voting ended onJul 15, 2023

Both characters dated Gwen (Total Drama). This poll is to determine which one will enter the tournament to compete for the title of the ultimate significant gwother/gwouse (a.k.a the best love interest of a character named Gwen).

[gwen-bracket]

announcement coming soon!

[john-bracket]

John Bracket 4: Significant Jothers

Alright, you voted, and have chosen a Love Interests Bracket for our next bracket! Rules below, and link at the bottom. I’ve made several of these already and I am tired, so less of a prelude this time.

1. No real people, fictional characters only. No voter fraud either, please only submit each love interest once. You may submit multiple love interests per John/Jack/Variant, but there will be prelims to decide who will compete in that case. Bracket will be 32 competitors as usual, number of submissions will count toward 

2. If your John, Jack, or Variant was valid for the first three tournaments, then their love interest is valid for this one. You will put both the name of the John/Jack/Variant and the name of the love interest in the form, and they will be listed in the poll as well (like a princess and their champion knight vibes)

3. Only canon romantic love interests please. As a general rule, I need the media of origin to have treated them as (at least potential) romantic interests. I will be using my best judgement for this, and there is a space in the form to make your case.

4. Send clarifying questions to my ask box, I’m finding it a little hard to conceptualize this tournament, I apologize

5. Submissions will be open until July 5th.

Submit here!

[john-bracket]

Tagging for circulation: @4thwallbreakersshowdown @mixedmediamelee @generic-man-in-suit-battle @gwen-bracket @longhairedboybracket @character-of-all-time @eviltransswag @best-transgender-character

[john-bracket]

Bout 1R (Round 3)

Ianto Jones (Torchwood)

Janet (The Good Place)

Voting ended onJun 15, 2023

[ultimate-poll-tournament]

R2: @john-bracket VS @divorced-swag-tournament

who is the ultimate-er poll tournament?

john-bracket

divorced-swag-tournament

Voting ended onJun 2, 2023

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Does your fave stand in the way of a popular m/m ship?

Is she constantly villainized by the fandom for it? Forced into the role of wingwoman for her canonical lover? Killed off in order for other characters to get together? Generally mistreated due to her love interest? If so, she might be a victim of yaoi!

Rules

Characters must be women (cis or trans)

Characters must be mistreated by the fandom (I won't be checking too hard)

Don't submit the same character multiple times, but you can submit as many characters as you want

No terfs or bigots of any other kind

No real people or minecraft rp characters

Link below!

Victims of Yaoi

Submit your ladies!

Tags under the cut

@blorbopoll2 @who-do-i-know-this-man @girlbosstourney @red-black-aesthetic-bout @blueboybracket @scrunkly-tournament @irlcats-bracket @ultimateredheadbracket @babygirl-beatdown @tournamentdirectory

[generic-man-in-suit-battle]

A tournament for all those characters who look like this:

Guidelines:

1) characters have to be wearing plain business attire.

2) They must be a white man or boy, either physically or through vibes.

3) You can only submit real people if it's funny.

4) You can submit as many characters as you like! Please do not submit the same character over and over and over again I promise I'll see your submission the first time.

5) that's pretty much it, have fun!!

submissions will be open until all slots are filled

Access Google Forms with a personal Google account or Google Workspace account (for business use).

Inspired by:

@yellowcharactershowdown @autismswagsummit @transmascswagbracket @trafficlighttriobracket @redandbluebracket @cringefaillosersummit and of course @white-boy-bracket

Tagging @tournamentdirectory as well :^)

[john-bracket]

Jacket 3: I Don’t Have A Funny Name For This One: John Variants Time Tho

Basic rules:

1. No real people, fictional John variants only please. Please only submit fictional characters, I won’t be accepting for example, concepts or place names.

2. The form will remain open until 1pm CST on June 2nd.

3. Please only submit each variant once and only one variant per form.

4. I’m gonna accept pretty much anyone. If you can make the argument to me that it is in fact a John variant, there will be a place for it in the form, but I’ll make the final call.

4A. If I get enough of certain variants, I will break the bracket down into more specific variants (ex. maybe a Jon bracket, maybe a Johnny bracket), this will depend on numbers of submissions.

5. The bracket will be 32 variants max, as last time. This time my One Mod Blorbo automatically in is Ianto Jones (Torchwood). Please do feel free to nominate him though as the number of nominations will determine the seeding.

6. It will still be mandatory to give a reason why you’re nominating your variant. This is both to make sure no one spams, and because I want to know your reason! You will also be required to give a reason why your variant is a variant (if yours is like Johnny or Jon, you can just like… put that, and I’ll get it).

7. Any follow up questions, please feel free to send an ask!

Submit your John variant here!

[john-bracket]

Tagging some other brackets!

@character-of-all-time @4thwallbreakersshowdown @autisticgirliesbracket @john-battle @johntest @gwen-bracket @jamesbracket @longhairedboybracket @best-magnus-archives-character @bestfictionaldivorce

[eviloldmanfight]

THE EVIL OLD MAN FIGHT!!!

well. i’m jumping on to the bracket bandwagon

step right up and present your evil old men to me! “what constitutes an evil old man,” you ask? allow me to outline my rules!

they’re evil! this character must be a villain or otherwise morally bankrupt in some way.

they’re old! this tourney is seniors only, folks! ideally 60+ but that’s more of a guideline than a rule. they must be visibly old, characters that are technically thousands of years old but appear youthful do not count.

they’re man! i LOVE evil old women as much as the next guy but that’s not what this particular tournament is about

i have a nifty submissions form right here!

evil old man submissions

show them to me

submissions are open from may 14 to may 21, but this window is subject to be stretched longer if submissions run dry.

SHOW ME THOSE EVIL OLD MEN!

hmm. now i suppose it is customary to tag other bracket blogs. @who-do-i-know-this-man @thesimpsonsultimateshowdown