Last Wednesday, I asked you what your favorite characters are. I wanted to celebrate this webcomic’s six year anniversary by making a top 10 list. I’m happy to say that I got a lot of feedback. However, a lot of characters were tied with one another, so this is going to be more of a tier list than a top 10 list. I put the characters’ names next to the number of votes they got and I alphabetized the list. It’s a good thing LibreOffice lets me do that automatically.
Before we begin, I need to add a few disclaimers. Some people mentioned the characters along with their genderswaps. I know some people won’t like my decision, but I didn’t count the latter. I’m not sure if genderswaps count as their own characters and, even if they did, they would’ve gotten very few votes anyway.
Two people tried to name as many characters as possible and two people said they like everyone. I’m willing to let the former slide, but the latter is just too vague. How do I score that? One fan said “your whole family”. Including myself, I only added five of my family members in my comic, so I figured, it’s specific enough to count. Again, some people won’t like my choices, but there was no ideal solution. Let’s start the results with the characters that got just one vote.
One vote
Adnan, Donald Trump, Holly, transgender guy, Ms Flicker
Unless you’re a die hard fan, these characters require an explanation. Holly and Adnan were the founders of Flicker City, the place where most of the characters live. They appeared in a backstory, but for obvious reasons, I can’t use them in present-day comics. Donald Trump appeared in a comic that I drew at the beginning of this year. I didn’t expect to see him in the comment section, but it was a funny surprise.
The transgender guy appeared in two of my comics; he’s the one that wears a blue and a pink jacket. I called him Maxi̶n̶e̶ as a joke, but that’s not his actual name. Since his hair reminds me of Sonic, I’ll call him Dashell. According to the comments, Ms. Flicker won a rock paper scissors content and got to name the city. I don’t even remember making that joke.
Two votes
Compalmate, Cooper Lite, Hypocrisy, Logic, Wanda’s microwave, Patriotism, Peace, Roadspike, Safety’s dogs, Zeal
You’d think the “one vote” group would be the biggest one, but no. Two, three and four are all more numerous. You can thank the two comments that tried to name as many characters as possible. I can’t talk about each one or we’ll be here all day, but I can choose the more interesting ones.
When I wanted to celebrate 400 comics, I let the readers decide what ideas I should turn into people. They didn’t end up sticking around, but it was still a fun experiment. A surprising amount of pets ended up in this category. Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not much of an animal guy. Only Roadspike actually showed up and even he’s not that prominent. Compalmate is from a video game that I’m still working on. He’s still waiting for his chance to shine, but he’s had enough of a presence to get some votes.
three votes
Bobby Fuzz, Brad Joke, Brett Botface, Chloe Flower, Despair, Kate Keep
We’re done with obscure characters, now it’s time for the ones that appear at least semi-regularly. To be honest, I expected Bobby Fuzz and Brad Joke to get more votes. They’ve been around since the beginning; wouldn’t the audience be more attached to them? Maybe the newer characters are just more interesting. Brett Botface and Kate Keep are both villains. If I didn’t say “judge them as characters and not as people”, they would’ve probably gotten zero votes.
As some of you might know. Chloe Flower is based on my real-life friend. I’m sure she will be happy that you voted for her. Despair had his own story ark. Again, I thought he would have more votes, but I suppose prominence and popularity are two different things.
four votes
The Commenter, Daydream, Grug, Hawa Harin, Hope, Night Light, Star Trip, Tamashii, TX2
This batch has a lot of choices that made me laugh. The Commenter is meant to represent my audience and they’re only in the middle of the list. I’m glad you’re being humble. The cartoon versions of my mom, dad and cousin also got four votes. In a vacuum, they’re not that interesting, but being related to Bright Side probably helped them.
The funniest one here is Grug the caveman. He only appeared in one comic and the only thing he did was draw a butt on the wall. When the first votes came in, I thought Grug would end up in the top 10. After this section, there are nine characters left. This is not a top 10 list, but if you want to, you can consider him number ten.
Five votes
Pi Brain
We’re in the final nine, I can start talking about characters seperately. Pi Brain’s main role in the comic is to be the straight man. He’s supposed to be the regular person who reacts to the craziness around him. He performs an important duty, but the comics he appears in tend to not focus on him. Despite this setback, he still managed to get a good number of votes. We all have to deal with stupid people in our lives. Depending on our jobs, some deal with them more than the others. Being a cashier in a large store wasn’t fun. I’m guessing people like Pi Brain because he reflects that frustration.
Six Votes
Anne Cap
Six votes is a five-way tie, so let’s begin with the first one alphabetically. As you might have guessed from the name, Anne Cap is a mockery of anarcho-capitalists; people who never grew out of their “I don’t want to share my toys” phase. Hell, I’ve made a few comics about Anne Cap’s childhood and she didn’t act much different.
I will give anarcho-capitalists one things, though. They give me a lot of material for comics. I try to give each character their time in the sun, but it’s a happy day when I get to use Anne Cap. I even made a video game where she was the protagonist. I don’t think anyone expected it to be a puzzle game, but I come up with the gameplay before I come up with the story.
Bright Side
I admit, when this poll was still in its planning stages, I was thinking, does my self-insert have an unfair advantage? Maybe I should disqualify him from the contest. In the end, I decided against it. The fewer rules you have, the more authentic the results will be. Even the disclamers in the end were me giving you more freedom. In the end, he got six votes. That’s pretty good, but I doubt it will make anyone cry foul.
In real life, I can be attention hungry. I constantly check my phone to see if my comics have new comments or my videos have more views. My self insert is a comedic exaggeration of that. Show-offs in media can be funny or annoying. According to the comments, I managed to achieve the former. Thank you for your attention.
Double Tap
Me and my brother are right next to each other on the list, how nice. On two occasions, I was asked what my favorite character is. Both times, I said Double Tap. I love my brother, but that doesn’t mean I won’t make fun of him. Fortunately, he’s pretty thick-skinned. His comic version can do whatever and he won’t get mad. He’s not too fond of the beard, though.
Funny story, when I started this webcomic, I was the art guy and he was the video game guy. Some things changed in six years. My brother has a Twitter account on which he posts his art. He currently has over 2000 followers. Meanwhile, I started focusing less on drawing comics and more on making video games and video game reviews. Our roles switched.
Purple Mane
Despite being a relatively recent addition, Anne Cap’s furry boyfriend made it into the top 8. This won’t be the last surprise on the list. Unlike Anne Cap, Purple Mane is kind of a challenge for me. Can I make furry jokes without resorting to the overdone “furries are horny” punchline? I’m not saying I can never do it, but I should keep it to a minimum. Sooner or later, I will have to give Purple Mane an actual personality. He can’t just be “Anne’s furry boyfriend” forever. Considering all the votes he got, people love him the way he is, but they might eventually get tired of him.
Wanda N. Zero
Wanda had two story arks and her own video game. While she won’t be the protagonist in Friendless Fire, she will still play a large role. Of course she’s going to get a lot of votes. Wanda is one of the more fleshed out characters. She has strengths, weaknesses, hobbies, friends, a robot that she takes care of and an archenemy. I wonder if she could be the protagonist of her own comic. On the other hand, you could argue that having no real protagonist is a part of my webcomic’s identity. It’s about everything.
Seven votes
Rafflesia
I’m genuinely confused. How did Rafflesia make it into the top three? I created her to make fun of toxic feminists; the ones who care more about spreading hatred and starting fights than actually helping women. It’s not the only joke I make with her, but a lot of them are. Of course, the anti-woke crowd is gonna find her funny. but, to my surprise, a lot of my leftist fans like her. Why is that?
I have two theories. First of all, she’s a florist who likes her job. It makes her more human and relatable, especially to readers who also like flowers. Second of all, I said in the comments that she had to deal with a lot of misogyny in the past. While it doesn’t justify her actions, it at least gives her some sympathy points. Just to be clear, I don’t think every feminist is like Rafflesia. The toxic ones are a vocal minority that make themselves look more numerous than they really are.
Safety
Despair and Hope couldn’t make it into the top nine, but Safety did it. Just like Pi Brain, Safety’s mostly here to be the straight man, but she doesn’t go about it in the same way. She’s less of a smartass and more of a concerned mom. She’s as old as the human civilization, I’d say she has the right to act like everyone’s mother. Judging by her position on the list, it comes off as endearing, not annoying. Hopefully, she can take care of many future generations.
eight votes
Freedom
I wasn’t surprised at all. Freedom gets more fanart than any other character, of course she was going to be the winner. She doesn’t even have to share the spot with anyone, she’s the only one who got eight votes. Then again, a lot of comments voted for Freedom and Safety at the same time. The girlfriends helped each other climb to the top of the list, how sweet. Despite everything she has witnessed, Freedom loves life and humanity. She believes people can be trusted to make their own choices. She would be happy to see you return the love.
And that’s it. This was a fun project. I don’t know what I’ll do when I make it to 700 comics, but I have time to think of something. I admit, I had no way to prevent people from voting for the same character multiple times, so take this list with a grain of salt. I want to give a big thank you to everyone who participated. I couldn’t have done this without you.
P. S. I played Super Mario 127 and made a video about it. You can watch it here.