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Happy birthday to Lalli Hotakainen, 20 April

All hail Lalli Hotakainen!

As voted by you, the SSSS fandom, the final boss in the SSSS Character Smackdown is Lalli*! The vote count was 34 Lalli to 14 Sigrun, with 7 tumblr votes for "My blorbo didn't make the finals and I'm sad".

*most excellent flower crown Lalli by sol / @the-wanderer-returns

Not the biggest vote count this polling has seen (that honour went to Emil v Onni), but as always, your engagement was appreciated. Enjoy some more Lalli images.

Thanks everybody!

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All hail Lalli Hotakainen!

As voted by you, the SSSS fandom, the final boss in the SSSS Character Smackdown is Lalli*! The vote count was 34 Lalli to 14 Sigrun, with 7 tumblr votes for "My blorbo didn't make the finals and I'm sad".

*most excellent flower crown Lalli by sol / @the-wanderer-returns

Not the biggest vote count this polling has seen (that honour went to Emil v Onni), but as always, your engagement was appreciated. Enjoy some more Lalli images.

Thanks everybody!

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SSSS Character Smackdown Finals! Who is the fandom's ULTIMATE favourite?

Happy Anniversary, Stand Still Stay Silent! On 1 November 2013, page 1 of SSSS made its appearance.  Since then, thousands of people have been enthralled by its enticing mix of art, mythos, worldbuilding, and most of all its characters.

Siince the end of August, we've been running a series of polls narrowing down dozens of trolls, minor characters, members of the crew's extended family, and of course the crew itself, to find the fandom's favourite character. You, the combined fandom of the Forum and tumblr, narrowed it down to: Lalli Hotakainen v Sigrun Eide (cue thunderous shouts and applause) These two are opposites in nearly every way.

Lalli's character strikes a chord with so many of the fans.  He's just a little guy, does not make friends easily, gets overwhelmed by too much stimulation, does not really understand what is going on, and many fans tag him as neurodivergent to greater or lesser extent. But we get quite a bit of worldbuilding thanks to watching him discover this world.

He is however, perfectly suited for his job as a scout, and fulfills so many fans' deepest fantasies as a magic wielder to boot!

Sigrun Eide, on the other hand, is tall, loud, confident even where she doesn't know what's going on, ebullient, brash, is at ease socially and as a commander, and relishes the action-packed life of a troll hunter. 

Many catchphrases we use in the fandom originated with her.

One of the things this mod likes about them is the growth they experienced throughout Adventure 1. Sigrun grappled with the loss of her teammates (not knowing that two of them were still alive).

This scene was played for laughs, but this mod appreciates that she took her first opportunity to apologise to Tuuri.

Lalli's growth arc saw him repeatedly test and finally exceed the limits of his magical ability, but brought a strange and wonderful surprise - finding haven in the dream space of his friend Emil. (Boy, has the fandom had fun with the ramifications of that!)

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Semifinal voting results are in!

Mikkel Madsen v Lalli Hotakainen - 19 to 55 - a comprehensive win for everybody's favourite diminutive speedster, for sure!

Emil Västerström v Sigrun Eide - 29 to 32 - sooo close! Emil came from behind to a dead heat on tumblr for several days, with one last vote for Emil coming in near the end. But, the margin on the Forum decided this one.

Congratulations to Lalli and Sigrun - we'll see y'all back here on 1 November for the Finals!

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Voting is close!

Our semifinals are currently shaping up to a Lalli v Sigrun final, but Emil and Mikkel aren't far behind. Many of the bouts in this challenge have seen come-from-behind wins!

Do we want an Emil v Lalli final?

How about Emil v Mikkel?

Sigrun v Mikkel?

or Lalli v Sigrun?

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SSSS Character Smackdown Round S2 - The Final Four

This is it, the semi-finals, and the Most Best Captain and her Right-Hand Warrior are opponents this time!

Usually they make a pretty good team. Usually.

But now, we consider them on their own merits.

Emil started the journey with a rather inflated opinion of himself, but even then you could sometimes see the good heart beating beneath the spilled food.

And how can we forget his amazing hair sparkles?

We also know him for his kindness (?) to animals.

Sigrun is and always will be the most best captain, hands …uhhh, down

Ready to vote?

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SSSS Character Smackdown Round S1 - The Final Four

Check it out, we have our match-ups for the semifinals! First up we have Mikkel and Lalli.

Mikkel's made it this far, this man was built for endurance.

He comes through many a time for the crew, but this may be his finest hour:

But, Lalli gets the very best pages.

(Even if all that splashy mage stuff does backfire sometimes. Still, a massive page.)

'Nuff said? Time to vote!

What? Lalli that's not fair, surely we have to give them a little more time to make up their mind?

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Quarterfinals Results!

The quarterfinals have wrapped and we have the results of who will advance to the semi-final round.

Onni Hotakainen v Emil Västerström - 55 to 63 - sooo close!  We had early voting in for Onni with a strong lead, then rebound for Emil leading to a tie on the Forum (broken for Emil only in the last few days) and strong voting both ways on tumblr, to this exciting finish with the highest vote count yet in this tournament!  Onni now has allergies and cannot comment.

Mikkel Madsen v Tuuri Hotakainen - 47 to 32 - Mikkel established a strong lead in the early voting.  Tuuri had a late surge in support, but it wasn't enough to surpass Mikkel.  I will refrain from making crass comments about Tuuri's sorrows.

Kitty v Sigrun Eide - 27 to 53 - while Kitty had her supporters, our most best captain led from the start and finished with a tidy 2:1 margin. 

Lalli Hotakainen v Reynir Árnason - 82 to 27 - ouch!  To quote tumblr user @x-i-l-verify, #Reynir will absolutely lose because this is tumblr and tumblr does love their neurodivergent feral catboy rep #but I'm throwing my hat in the ring for him anyway dammit.  It isn't just tumblr, folks, Lalli took this one by a stunning 3:1 margin all around, and is the only Hotakainen advancing.

So stay tuned, good folks, this one is heading into the semi-finals shortly. 

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Windy did it first! Emil v Onni, always a tough race.

Emil’s words in the last picture is “I am free!” I wrote it too tiny so it’s hardly visible…

Emil and Onni fighting over who should be my favorite character from Stand Still Stay Silent

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SSSS Character Smackdown Round Q4 - Crew v Crew

Mage battle commenceth - which will you choose?

Lalli was one of the characters that has resonated most strongly with the portion of the fandom that feels easily overwhelmed and out of step with everyone around them.

Certainly he's a competent and occasionally powerful mage, who gets some of the best images in the whole comic.

Reynir: lovable helpful goof, or indomitable and stubborn? Both.

His powers emerge naturally, but he develops confidence in using them to aid the crew - in the process, becoming much more confident in general.

These two usually are in a push-me-pull-you relationship, which while fractious, proves effective sometimes.

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SSSS Character Smackdown Round Q3 - Crew v Crew

Hoo boy, the battle of the competent goofs!

We have Kitty of the many names, who has a job to do even before she knows what it is. She is in turn alarm system and combat helper…

…and comforting crewmate.

(Okay these are just here for cute value, is that so bad?)

And there is Sigrun, for whom an entire Sigrun God-Empress of the Universe fandom group was spawned. She was made for action, not sitting around.

(Seriously, you think Kitty is cute? Just try culling Sigrun's faces! These two are probably just battling it on based on sheer photogenic capability!)

So, vote for Kitty, or Sigrun?  So hard!

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SSSS Character Smackdown Round Q2 - Crew v Crew

So, Mikkel v Tuuri - are you ready to choose?

Not likely to be any sort of Direct confrontation, because both of these are more effective using other parts of their arsenal. For instance, Mikkel is more of a supportive player.

And for Mikkel, truth is... flexible.

Ever adaptable, he makes do with whatever's on hand, as long as it's not a gun.

Tuuri, on the other hand, left us much too soon, I think we all agree on that.

She started out as the ingenue, but soon settled into her role as more of a support person, as the expedition skald and cat-tank operator, and could sometimes mark a dent.

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SSSS Character Smackdown Round Q1 - Crew v Crew

No love lost here.

So, the first of four hard choices. Each has their moments in the comic, and they develop their skills. Emil is occasionally inspired to offensive capability by panic, but it's not his first reaction.

He develops confidence later.

Onni is supposedly a defensive mage, but most of what he demonstrates is offense.

Or just plain offensive.

So this bout is Emil v Onni. Only one can advance. The countdown starts now.

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Group of 16 - Results!

Tuuri Hotakainen v the Terrible Västerström Trio - 37 to 4 - don't ever call her fat, got it?

The Cat-Tank v Mikkel Madsen - 14 to 30 - Mikkel cleaned up this one, all right

Sigrun Eide v Väinö Väänänen - 51 to 9 - our widest margin on tumblr and overall, truly the most best captain

Swan of Tuonela v Reynir Árnason - 16 to 48 - our largest vote count, Reynir completely dunked the Swan - it's probably a very good thing that the Swan would not have to contend with collecting Reynir when the time comes

Emil Västerström v Chthulhund - 37 to 5 - the hound did valiantly acquiesce to Emil here as she did in the comic

Trond Andersen v Lalli Hotakainen - 6 to 48 - the widest margin on the Forum, with only one vote for poor old Trond

Kitty (etc) v Ensi Hotakainen - 27 to 22 - our closest margin, with only one vote difference on the Forum and not much wider on tumblr!  (Perhaps if I'd found a picture of Ensi with cat ears, she would have won?)

Signe Sørensen v Onni Hotakainen - 9 to 22 - quite close on the Forum (6 to 8) but Onni threw Signe overboard on tumblr

I kinda sorta expected this, but ... every single member of the Crew has advanced, and absolutely none of the characters we spent all of September picking over is going forward.  Am I disappointed by this? Naaaaah. 

Next come the Quarterfinals - you will have to choose between crew members, no help for it!  Who will face whom?

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Character Smackdown - First Clash with The Crew!

Warming up in this corner is the moggy of many names….KITTY!

This indomitable feline is as tough as she is adorable, but how will she fare against the First One, who has come this far against many fearsome opponents? Ensi Hotakainen!

Will sheer cuteness be enough to prevail?

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Character Smackdown - First Clash with The Crew!

He was a sleeper who emerged victorious in his last foray, let's hear it for… General Trond Andersen!

And facing off against the general is none other than Lalli Hotakainen!

This staring match could get tense, folks. Hey, Lalli, are you scared?

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Character Smackdown - First Clash with The Crew!

And now, iiiiit's Sparkle Time!

That's right, next we have Emil Västerström, everybody's favourite cleanser!

Emil comes up against a familiar face(?), none other than Chthulhund!

Will this end the way it did last time they met?