Geekdom Madness 2017 - Quarter-Final: Strange Intelligence/Manic Pixies

After last week's upset, I'm hoping this week sees similar or greater turnout. In the meantime: Reptiles vs. Beauties







Welcome Back:





MATCH 1: Strange Intelligence

THE LIZARD

I picked The Lizard for this competition because he was my first favorite Spider-Man villain from the time I was introduced to the mythology through the not-aged-well-at-all mid-1990's animated series all the way until 2002 when a certain Goblin of Green complexion knocked him off the top spot. Lizard is still a solid second-favorite for me and I'm always excited to see him turn up in adaptations.

I mentioned this several years back, but many of my early favorite characters were based entirely of aesthetic, and aesthetic still holds a small but solid majority vote for what draws me into a character today. I have also always liked dinosaurs and dragons, so...

LUNA LOVEGOOD

I picked Luna Lovegood for this competition because she became one of my favorite Harry Potter characters from the moment I cracked open Order of the Phoenix. As a matter of fact, she has the somewhat dubious distinction of being the first and only Harry Potter character I had a crush on while reading the books.

She also holds another arguably dubious distinction of inspiring perhaps the first true editorial I ever wrote. It was back in high school, and it was about shipping. Please do not Google it, it embarrasses me to think about now (in spite of, or perhaps because, it was the point through which I met the vast majority of my internet "friends" as a teenager).




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MATCH 2: Manic Pixies

CHRONORMU

I picked Chromie for this competition because, after about 9 years and hundreds of hours logged in, and many different characters appearing, I finally realized that Chromie was my favorite Warcraft character. I realize I love her aesthetic more than others (I did mention the dragon thing, yes?), I like her concept, her personality, and I'm always happy to see her show up in the story.

She's also my best ranged assassin in Heroes of the Storm, and she remains one of only two Heroes I ever paid 15,000 gold for (the other being Greymane). And I will likely not pay that much for a Hero again.

LEELOMINAI LEKATARIBA LAMINA=CHAI, EKBAT DE SEBAT

I picked Leeloo for this competition because I needed a space to fill, wanted a strong female character, and went "Duh, I haven't picked a Fifth Element character yet! Oh, writing out the name should be fun...."

The Fifth Element remains one of my favorite movies of all time, and the fact that it just celebrated its 20th anniversary a week or two ago makes Leeloo's last-minute inclusion very fortunate indeed. And I remain pleasantly surprised by how far she's made it.



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Final Verdict
What I said last week about not being sure who I'd root for still stands. I'm happy with all of these quarter-finalists. I will say that if Luna wins, we will have our second-ever All-Female Elite Four, but that shouldn't sway anyone's votes - it's just an interesting notion.

As always, make sure you're viewing the WEB version of the site and vote in the polls on the right-hand side of the screen. Polls close Friday at 5:00 p.m., and results posted on Saturday. Feel free to discuss your picks in the comments below.