After almost half a year of work, the Strider Zine is finally up for pre-order! From now until July 5th, get your hands on it for $20 USD!
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And yes, we now ship worldwide! There are two separate releases, one from the USA and one from Russia. The USA will ship to any country it is legal to ship to, which is most of them. If you are located in Russia or other postsoviet countries, you'll want to head to https://t.me/BefoZines instead, where you'll also be able to access tie-in merch exclusive to the Russian release!
Out of the 16 brackets we had a total of 1,103 votes, which is an average of 138 votes per bracket!
I won't be ranking the characters by win % this time since so many of them were up against ships with themselves and it just makes the whole thing convoluted lol
Bracket with the most votes:
Cronus x Cronus vs Aranea x Horuss with 227 total votes. Cronus selfcest got the higher number of votes this round with 168 total votes (74%).
The runner up with 134 votes is Porrim x Porrim vs Mituna x Porrim with Porrim Selfcest winning with 94 votes (70.1%)
Character Votes by Average per Ship:
Cronus: 168 from the only ship he was in this round.
Meulin: 66 avg from 4 ships; 264 total.
Damara: 65 avg from 2 ships; 130 total.
Aranea: 63 avg from 6 ships; 376 total.
Kankri: 60 votes from the only ship he was in this round.
Porrim: 60 avg from 3 ships; 180 total.
Latula: 60 avg from 5 ships; 299 total.
Meenah: 57 avg from 6 ships; 343 total.
Horuss: 57 avg from 6 ships; 342 total.
Mituna: 56 avg from 8 ships; 445 total.
Rufioh: 49 avg from 6 ships; 295 total.
Kurloz: 49 avg from 4 ships; 196 total.
The win/lose ratio doesn't seem very interesting for this first round, but I'll list how many ships each character has left.
Damara: 11
Rufioh: 8.
Mituna: 7
Kankri: 11
Meulin: 11
Porrim: 10
Latula: 10
Aranea: 9
Horuss: 9
Kurloz: 9
Cronus: 12
Meenah: 10
By Ship Gender Pairings:
MF ships: 16 — 6 (37.5%) moved on with a total of 855 votes and an average of 54.
MM ships: 2 — 1 (50%) moved on with a total of 106 votes and an average of 53.
FF ships: 2 — both moved on with a total of 150 votes and an average of 75.
MM Selfcest: 6 — 2 (33.3%) moved on with a total of 439 votes and an average of 73.
FF Selfcest: 6 — 5 (83.3%) moved on with a total of 437 votes and an average of 73.
More stats (and some behind the scenes discussion) below the cut! I'm sure there's plenty of angles I missed (if there are any statisticians in chat hmu lol) but I hope you enjoy what I have!
Ship Gender Pairings vs:
FM wins vs MM: it won its only bracket with 59 winning votes.
FM wins vs MM Selfcest: 2 out of 4 brackets with 141 winning votes.
MM wins vs MM Selfcest: it won its only bracket with 62 winning votes.
FF wins vs MM Selfcest: it won its only bracket with 70 winning votes.
FF wins vs FF Selfcest: it won its only bracket with 80 winning votes.
MM Selfcest vs FM: 2 out of 4 brackets (50%) with 234 winning votes.
FF Selfcest vs FM: it won all 5 brackets with 394 winning votes.
FM vs FM: 3 brackets with 180 winning votes.
Top Ships (According to # works on AO3):
(This is based on time of me getting the stats together.)
By Character:
These are ordered by the average between their #s. If you see two ships with the same # for a character, it's because I included ties as the same #.
Won:
Mituna x Meulin won vs Mituna x Mituna with 64.8% of the votes (83). Meulin is Mituna's #8 ship (give or take a few poly ships) and Mituna is Meulin's #10 ship.
Rufioh x Aranea won vs Rufioh x Mituna with 57.3% of the votes (59). Aranea is Rufioh's #7 ship though Rufioh doesn't break Aranea's top 10.
Latula x Meenah won vs Kankri x Kankri with 53.8% of the votes (70). If we take poly ships into account, Meenah is Latula's #10 ship while Latula doesn't break Meenah's top 10. Meenah doesn't break Latula's top 10 if we remove poly ships.
Lost:
Mituna x Porrim lost vs Porrim x Porrim with 29.9% of the votes (34). Porrim is Mituna's #8 ship and #6 if you include poly ships, though Mituna doesn't break Porrim's top 10.
Damara x Mituna lost vs Damara x Damara with 46.2% of the votes (60). Damara and Mituna are each other's #10 ships give or take a few poly ships.
Aranea x Horuss lost vs Cronus x Cronus with 26% of the votes (59). Aranea is Horuss's #8 ship while Horuss doesn't break Aranea's top 10.
Rufioh x Latula lost vs Latula x Latula with 43.9% of the votes (50). Latula is Rufioh's #9 ship though Rufioh doesn't break Latula's top 10.
Rufioh x Meenah lost vs Meenah x Meenah with 35.7% of the votes (40). Meenah is Rufioh's #9 ship though Rufioh doesn't break Meenah's top 10.
All Ships:
Listing in order of the placement of the winning ship. 78 ships in total. I will be going off # of ships without poly ships, though I will rely on the poly ships if there's a tie. If that's still a tie, they'll both get the same rank. If there are no works., they'll get rank #99.
#47 Cronus x Cronus won vs #52 Aranea x Horuss.
#49 Mituna x Meulin won vs #67 Mituna x Mituna.
#50 Rufioh x Aranea won vs #67 Rufioh x Mituna.
#53 Mituna x Meenah won vs #66 Mituna x Aranea.
#54 Latula x Meenah won vs #56 Kankri x Kankri.
#60 Meulin x Aranea won vs #99 Meulin x Meulin.
#61 Mituna x Horuss won vs #99 Horuss x Horuss.
#62 Rufioh x Meulin won vs #99 Rufioh x Rufioh.
#65 Latula x Horuss won vs #55 Latula x Kurloz.
#67 Porrim x Porrim won vs #48 Mituna x Porrim.
#67 Damara x Damara won vs #51 Damara x Mituna.
#67 Kurloz x Kurloz won vs #56 Kurloz x Meenah.
#67 Meenah x Meenah won vs #56 Rufioh x Meenah.
#67 Aranea x Aranea won vs #64 Aranea x Kurloz.
#99 Latula x Latula won vs #56 Rufioh x Latula.
#99 Horuss x Meenah won vs #62 Porrim x Horuss.
That's half of the winners being lower ranked (2 even with 0 works on AO3) than the losing ship! Of course, six of those were selfcest, with Cronus and (the losing) Kankri being the only selfcest ships with more than 1 work at time of tournament creation.
Now times for a little behind the scenes!
Okay so like there is only one dancestor ship that has more than 1k works on AO3, and once you go below the top 9, we're into double digits (or under top 12 if you include poly ships). We drop to single digits around #50, and, as you may have noticed, 5 ships have zero works on AO3. So like 5 new works could boost a ship up 10 ranks, depending.
This did make it hard for me to figure out how to pair things up on top of me not being in the relatively more niche dancestor spaces, but I think the first round went alright!
That said, I did have some predictions of which ones I thought would be more likely to win (in order to try to plan out future rounds) so let's see how I did!
I gave Kankri x Kankri and Latula x Meenah equal likelyhood of winning, so I'm happy with there being an only 10 vote difference.
I really thought Mituna x Mituna had a shoe in over Mituna x Meulin, but 35.2% vs 64.8% really showed me!
And the last one I predicted was Rufioh x Aranea being more likely to win over Rufioh x Mituna, and I was right on the money, though they didn't win by a whole lot.
took me wayyyy too long 😭 gamzee is here! 1) is just to show off the bodypaint, 2) is normal pre-murderstuck stuff. 3) is the priest(???) au thing of the candy timeline postcanon!
the version on the right is part of an AU of the candy timeline in the epilouges I would like to make... it doesn't deviate too heavily from the plot BUT there is a lot of changes I want to make because the way gamzee was written..leaves a lot to be desired to say the least! ummm under the cut are the details for it. (spoilers for candy TL obviously). also i havent caught up with HS:BC (at page 270-ish) so I MIGHT be missing crucial information lol
changes in this AU version: (some details r from memory and may be wrong + im still workshopping this!! open to questions n ideas <3 )
calliope asks john to bring back gamzee earlier on, before the timeline split. i have an idea for meat!gamzee that deviates wayyy more that im cooking... not exactly sure Where he would be pulled from, but it would be when he's around the same age as the rest of the cast. probably while he's floating in space in that fridge with his clown immortality and all.
during both timelines, he struggles getting used to life without the influence of lord english. in candy, he gets into kahoots with dirk, who he views as the closest connection to LE (because of lil hal being a part of LE + calliope isnt close enough in personality to feel Right to follow despite also being a cherub)
gamzee's original faith in his religion is reignited, realizing he is now on the paradise planet with his friends that he always dreamed of being on.
gamzee becomes a bit influential, especially with carapcians and some trolls. jane catches wind of this and starts to become close with him, believing he could be benefical for her political party.
she invests in a lot of resourses that allow gamzee's religon to spread, including a new outfit. look at me dead in the eyes and try to convince me how a presidential candidate like jane would let her partner be in public wearing that cod tier outfit 😭 not happening
before dying, dirk gives a final message to gamzee and plans to carry out on his behalf, the end goals being gamzee's death used as an influence for a thingy (HAVENT READ FUNERAL PART YET) and also he dies to be used to prototype the sprites of the new game of sburb
when tavvy is born, the relationship between him and gamzee is a mix between what him and his lusus is + what bro was for dave (BECAUSE I LIKE THE PARALLEL between dirk and gamzee...). not a very present parent. when he is around, [insert explanation because i am super duper tired sorry 😭 idk how to explain]. mentorship figure but like really bad and shouldnt be a mentor bro-style
jane forbids gamzee from publically contradicting her views and for awhile he complies. eventually, the rebellion convinces him to take an open stance against her policies.
growing tired of him and very suspicious of what gamzee was getting up to, she hires someone to kill him. not sure who kills him or how yet, but it ends with (vriska) and the kids getting framed for his murder. he doesnt get a chance to express his views before then.
again, i have yet to read the gamzee funeral part so this lacks details!!!! my theory is that jane uses his death for her own benefit.
after being with jane, his typing quirk changes to all lowercase to be more "presentable" or somethinfg. when hes with the rebellion, he uses his oRiGiNaL TyPiNg qUiRk, nice and whimsical.
it is 10 pm I NEED TO SLEEP ☠️ gn chat. if theres glaring mistakes im sorry
Everyone say thank you to trans femmes for showing us a version of femininity born from joy and desire instead of just through coercion
Everyone say thank you to trans mascs for showing us a version of masculinity born from joy and desire instead of just through coercion
Everyone say thank you to all people outside of the cis gender binary for showing us a version of gender born from joy and desire instead of just through a simple frame work in which our oppressor have used to kill, erase, and censor us.
Thank you for showing us the existence of a history before and a future ahead.
I like to collect evidence on my theories but they’re clogging up my camera roll lol, um anyways they are literally soulmates? They will find eachother in every lifetime even if they are torn apart by time and space itself?
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