V7 BKA/BDA Voting: September 2019

[Emprexx Plush]

Welcome to voting for the second Best Kill and Best Death Awards for V7! As a refresher:

1. In this thread, you may post as an anonymous guest to select one student to receive the day's Best Kill Award, and one handler to receive the Best Death Award. Prizes will be given out in-character for BKA, consisting of a weapon and food, and out-of-character for BDA, consisting of a quote from their character to be displayed on the board index until the next BDA is awarded.
2. You may only vote while logged out. You can identify yourself in your vote if you want, but you may not claim to be another handler.
3. You may only vote once, and you may not vote for yourself in either category. Staff can see IP addresses, and we will check them if we have reason to suspect shenanigans.
4. You must provide reasoning with your vote for why you think your choices deserve the award. Votes with no reasoning will not be counted.
5. Don't be a jerk. You can explain why some scenes are your favorites without tearing others down.
6. Make sure that your answers are clear; please don't use any formatting that might cause votes to be miscounted or left out.
7. Please be sure to read every kill and death before voting, please vote for your genuine favorites rather than just voting for your friends, and please don't campaign for awards in the chat or otherwise try to influence the vote.

With that out of the way, here are your Best Kill and Best Death contestants:

BEST KILL AWARD:
Quinn Abert for killing Rhonda Lawson
Michael Froese for killing Camila Cañizares (Attack, Death Thread)
Teresa Rojas for killing Reuben Walters
Erika Stieglitz for killing Blake Davis
Quinn Abert for killing Ned Jackson
Blaise D'Aramitz for killing Dolores Upton
Blaise D'Aramitz for killing Alexander Brooke


BEST DEATH AWARD:
Espi for the death of Rhonda Lawson
Cicada for the death of Camila Cañizares
Blastinus for the death of Reuben Walters
Super Weegee for the death of Blake Davis
Ryuki for the death of Ned Jackson
Backslash for the death of Dolores Upton
dmboogie for the death of Alexander Brooke

Voting will run for five days. Votes will remain hidden until time is up, and the winners will be declared in the following announcement.

[Guest]

BKA - Michael Froese for killing Camila Cañizares
BDA - Cicada for Camila Cañizares

Michael has been a very compelling character to read and I think the work that Kermit has done in that thread is some of his best in the version so far. I'm interested to see how far his downward spiral can go.

I consistently enjoy Cicada's writing throughout this version and Camila's demise, and the thread leading up to it was excellent. The way she seemed to choose her demise was pretty unique, and heartbreaking.

[kir sirmit]

BKA - Erika Stieglitz
What put this death just a bit extra over the finish line was the good usage of the environment- the playing with the details of Blake's behavior and actions. Erika stalking him through the woods felt like a very evocative moment, like the action could really be felt, which frontloaded the 'oh shit' when one recalled her weapon draw all the better. It's also a very strong character establishing moment, building on the tropes already set up in the aftermath of her first kill.

BDA - Alexander Brooke
Huge shout out to Fenris here as well, carrying Nia's end of the death scene phenomenally. This death used Nia and Alexander's relationship, one of the strongest on all of V7 island, to its full potential. The downtime before the death was very scenic and evocative and set the intimate mood that would follow in the death very well. The death itself had good callbacks, used their respective sensory disabilities well, and also captured Alexander's helplessness and moment of rage in a very in-character way, like it seemed to fit what we knew about him so far very well, so on.

[Sin Rostro]

Best Kill Award: For this month's BKA, my vote goes to Erika Stiglitz for the murder of Blake Davis. I'm starting to really enjoy all these poisoning deaths this version, and I think Erika's is a cool improvement on it. Getting mugged would be a real death-sentence in a game like this, and the fact that she had cyanide-laced water for Blake to steal was really cool. It also is cool to see her slowly stalk him for hours just to wait for him to fall into her trap and to collect the spoils. It's the sort of ingenuity I think AT would love, so I think it's deserving on a (non-poisoned) meal for Erika.


Best Death Award: For this month's BDA, I'm voting for Blastinus for the death of Reuben Walters. This was a really good month for deaths, but I'm choosing Reuben because of how long and painful it is. There were a lot of quick deaths, but Reuben really had time to think about what was happening. Aside from being betrayed by Teresa, he had to think about how far he lasted and his family. It's kinda upsetting to read it and to see him realize how it's coming to an end. Blast has been really good this game so far, so I think Reuben should get the BDA.

[mmm]

Best Kill: Teresa Rojas for killing Reuben Walters. Teresa's a weird one, and while I expected her to betray Reuben from the beginning, I was surprised by how she reacted to it. She really does seem to be viewing the game as just that, and it's an interesting contrast to the other players that we have so far, even the ones who just seem to be enjoying themselves. The manner in which she turned on Reuben has sparked my curiosity in where she goes from here and how she handles it when her actions finally catch up with her.

Best Death: dmboogie for the death of Alexander Brooke. Alexander, despite his disadvantages, spent most of his time being cool and confident, and it was both sad and weirdly satisfying to see him suddenly have that shaken as he realizes he's dying in a random and pretty pointless manner. Given how he and Nia seemed to be leading up to another betrayal, I like how he was able to die still having some kind of faith in her instead, not being able to know her inner thoughts.

[Guest]

BKA: Erika for killing Blake

What I really enjoyed about this scene was the slow, progressive build towards the payoff. I'd actually forgotten Erika's assigned weapon, and so the thread managed to pack quite a lot of tension as to just how Blake would meet his end. And even when I remember, about half a post before the revelation hit, the ride was far from over. It was a fascinating look at a pretty different sort of kill psychology than much of what we've seen, someone who is trying to force herself to be what she thinks she has to even when it's not what comes naturally. It's a very human motivation for what can easily be viewed as a pretty inhuman action, and that's super cool to see.

BDA: Blastinus for Reuben

To start with, I really do appreciate that Blast took note of the timeline and used that to inform and inspire the structure of Reuben's death. For a whole load of reasons, that isn't always practical, but I do love to see it. It also lent quite the sad progression to Reuben's demise, as descended into confusion and delirium. Reuben's a fascinating character for a lot of reasons, and one of the biggest for me was that a lot of the steps in his character development from sweet, harmless guy in Pregame to attempted murderer in-game take place offscreen and are filled in through suggestion. His death brings further pieces to that puzzle, as some of his last thoughts are actually very grounded, focused back on home and his family, and just a wee bit self-deprecating. Despite his vast shift, Reuben felt like a consistent character all throughout, and while I'm sad to see him go so soon I can't call it anything other than a high note.

[Bad Boys Bad Boys]

Bestest Kill Award

Sorry I am late to the vote! But Erika Stieglitz for killing Blake Davis gets my vote because I was freaked out reading how distant she was. Like, I was watching a horror film but she was watching Animal Channel just chilling being a villain. There's been a lot of emotional with our killers so far, but Erika is trying her level best not to feel at all and... KANYE WEST SAYING SCARY FOR FIVE HOURS

Bestest Death Award

Backslash for the death of Dolores Upton... talk about passing the buck. Blaise or whatever they are going by these days might have murdered her, but... agency. She had all of it, and her basically sending them off to commit a murder that she could not, basically like IT'S ON YOU LOL I'M DYIN. She was a very soft character but gritty and ballsy inside which I appreciate.

[the concept of memes]

BKA: Michael Froese. I'm not gonna pretend that this decision isn't at least partially based on how badly I wanna see Michael's reaction to hearing what he won on the announcements, but the scene itself deserves it too. Michael has been such a mess this whole game emotionally, ever since The Beryl Thing, and this scene represents him both finding something to hang his identity on while also pulling out another thread for his slow unraveling. I look forward to watching him suffer more!

Honorable mentions go to Erika (I appreciate poison deaths a lot) and to both Blaise deaths (I've enjoyed watching how quickly their "I'll just disguise myself" scheme has disintegrated and left "I'm just gonna murder everyone" in its place).

BDA: Alexander Brooke. This one just broke my heart, especially with how desperate Alexander is in his last moments to cling to life. We've had a lot of cases of "going gently into that good night" on SotF so far, and a lot of pure panic, we haven't had a lot of anger, people who have the clarity of thought to be offended by the injustice of dying here and like this. Especially his indigence at his death not even being meaningful in terms of its helpfulness to his killer is fascinating. It's a shame that he had to die so soon, but Alexander was a great character from start to finish, and his death is a perfect punctuation on his journey.

Honorable mentions go to Dolly (for making me genuinely emotional) and Camila (for also making me genuinely emotional).

[jaj valjaj]

BKA: Michael Froese: michael's been a wild card emotional trainwreck since day 1 and it's been fascinating to see what the hell he's gonna do next - when i first saw camila enter this thread, i was like, uh oh, what's gonna happen, and i wasn't disappointed at all. it feels like we've gotten a lotta mercy kills thus far this version, and this stands out from the pack due to being requested from a not-fatally-injured person, and also just having insanely strong characters on both ends tbh

BDA: Dolores Upton: this scene is like, a wonderfully sold tense, desperate chase; but strongly tinged with fatalism and foreboding, such that even without knowing the rolls the conclusion still feels inevitable? and i dig the hell outta it. She knew her way through the dark well enough. is a killer last line btw

honorable mentions:

blaise for blazing it up all over the place, i probably woulda voted for them if they hadn't already won bka before; the dolly kill in particular was nice and terrifying

quinn for jumpscaring me when she killed ned, i didnt look at the killer list before reading the deaths so i legit thought justin was gonna get it lmao

[wind the frog]

BKA: Michael Froese for killing Camila Cañizares. This was a culmination of a lot of Michael's competing instincts throughout the game so far. He positions himself as a mediator in all of these big emotional confrontations while also having all these negative violent impulses he's biting back, and in Camila he finds a situation where he can let both moods out at once. I really want to see how Michael reacts to being announced as the Best Killer in that context.

BDA: dmboogie for the death of Alexander Brooke. Alexander blowing up in his final moments was a totally unexpected catharsis that Boogie handled really well, and his relationship with Nia was capped off great. On top of that Alexander is quotable as fuck and I'm dying to see what people might suggest for him.

[Krigsgaldr]

BKA: Quinn Abert for killing Rhonda Lawson

Quinn's been treading a fine line with what Elena has been trying to accomplish with her. The kill on Rhonda shows a very different side of her and gives us a big piece of the picture that is revealed not too much later. But that initial first fully open offering of what's going on in Quinn's head is presented here with a good economy of words. There's a lot of subtext in this scene and much of Quinn's meaning is inferred and never outright stated but upon reading it back it allows you to click everything that came before it and come after it together quite nicely. Quinn hasn't been a completely random force of evil in the game, she has been moving and acting with her own purpose. The murder of Rhonda here at this point wasn't a part of any of her plans and it shows nicely in the frustration she shows. It's smaller moments like this that for me make Quinn a more interesting and three dimensional killer than she would first appear if you just read a rundown of her actions during the game.

BDA: dmboogie for the death of Alexander Brooke

At this point I think it's safe to say that boogie is both a good writer and has a knack for writing a good, moving death. In that regard Alexander is no different. He was a good character who gets shot suddenly and randomly. The character work in the scene really makes it. Alexander and Nia have shared a close and slightly complex relationship throughout their time together and the way they care for each other as a result of that time shows through here. I especially like Alexanders anger that he's dying when he is and the way he is. The idea that he's not even far into the game and is just dying because he happened to be present really angering him. The interactions he's shared with Nia have been one of my highlights of reading V7 and while it's a shame to see that pairing come to an end it was nice to see it go out on a high with a well-written moving scene.

[yup]

BKA: Erika Stieglitz
Reason: I like the fact that it was very slow and uncomfortable, and while Erika killed someone for the second time, she was privy to it and wanted to make sure that she watched it to truly understand what she was doing. It was a very uncomfortable scene that I really enjoyed.

BDA: Cicada for the death of Camila
Reason: Another uncomfortable scene, I liked how two people's distress ended up in a situation where they both did things that I'm sure neither could have imagined themselves doing only a week before - Michael in shooting her, and Camila in asking for him to do it. CIcada is always good, so this is no real surprise.

[Guest]

Best Kill: Blaise for the kill on Dolly.

I've been a fan of Blaise most of the times they've popped up and they're getting my vote here. I really liked how creepy the set up is with Dolly, someone who is kindda friends with them, but also kind of not really. This familiarity is one of the things that ends up leading us to the murder road, but it's a couple things like also a weird self-justification that things were not truly Blaise's fault because of all the thousands of tiny decisions both of them made to get to this point.

I liked the horror movie chase and how frank both of them are and how brutal the final blow was.

GW, get an ice cream everyone.

Honorable mention: Michael doing an Airplane! kill by talking to someone until they agreed to just end it all.

Best Death: Dolly

I went back and forth on this one between Dolly and Camila. I ended up giving this one to Dolly because I found her prose compelling in her super weird confrontation with Blaise and the subsequent chase and death. She's surprisingly tough, and I liked the concept of her using her last minutes to plead for her killer to brutally murder someone else because she no longer can. That's rough, but it speaks to her character.

[DEATHTRAIN]

Hi hello before I start I'd love to give a shoutout for both of Blaise's scenes and everyone in those scenes. They're both really well done scenes where everyone held up their end, and I want to give Blaise, Dolly, and Alex honorable mentions. Alex's rage and Dolly's defiance were incredibly compelling to read, as is Blaise in general.

That being said, my nominees for BDA/BKA are Camila and Michael. The prose on both ends is beautiful, and the dynamic between the two is compelling and heartbreaking to read. Camila's prose, in particular, describes her apathy and numbness in painful, painful detail, and her end, curled up in some faraway corner, is incredibly sad. Michael, for his part, gives us this really fascinating scene of someone just trying to feel, someone who tries to bond over trauma but ultimately fails. It's overall a really good read.

[backslash]

That's time.