I know we’ve been waiting forever for this. Click through to see the top eight ladies.
Tomorrow we’ll run four polls, and on Friday we’ll be all caught up when I announce the Final Four. Next Monday, we’ll vote on both of those races and run the final on Tuesday. That means we’ll know who the winner is one week from today.
But enough of that. Here are your Elite Eight.
Young Adult Literary Fiction
Ramona Quimby
Scout Finch
Young Adult Sci-fi/Fantasy/Dystopia
Katniss Everdeen
Minerva McGonnagal
Adult Literary Fiction
Elizabeth Bennett
Beatrice
Adult Sci-fi/Fantasy/Dystopia
June/Offred
Arya Stark
And here’s the updated bracket with all the scores: Middlemarch Madness II
42 replies on “Middlemarch Madness II: Meet the Elite Eight”
I’m still doing a happy dance.
I’m still doing a…. harrumph dance?
This will be fairly easy. I wonder when along the Madness I lost my ..madness.
That’s kinda how I feel too. All the characters I was really passionate about are out of the running now.
Katniss vs. McGonagal – hard one. But I’m Team Arya all the way.
Beatrice FTW!!
Oh MY GLOB! Did anyone else know there was a David Tennant & Catherine Tate production of Much Ado About Nothing????
I must find this…
I saw it in the last week of its run. It was the best evening out I’ve ever had.
@nicocoer posted a scene from it in a previous MM thread, I think.
Yes!
Katniss vs. McGonagal?? How can you do this to me??
Your collective despair and the gamma ray I’m looking for are all I need to achieve full super-villain status.
Okay, I know we went through this last year, but I still don’t get it. Anybody want to take a stab at explaining this to me again – WHAT DO YOU ALL SEE IN OFFRED? I seriously CANNOT take her seriously as any sort of badass. She struck me as wishy-washy, unwilling to actually take risks or action, and pretty much just going with the flow without taking any active agency (yes, I realize there was not much opportunity for agency, but there was SOME) and basically putting all her hopes of happiness and being saved in a man. I’ve never liked her, and beating Dany just makes her so much worse.
Other than that though…I’m pretty okay with these results. I voted for Pippi, but Scout is pretty awesome, so I’m okay with that. Other than that, everyone I voted for this round won. Although if it comes down to a vote between Lizzy and Katniss, I will cry bitter bitter tears no matter what decision I make.
I haven’t even read these Offred books, but the fact that she beat Dany makes me hate her with the passion of DRAGONS.
She’s the main character of The Handmaid’s Tale. Not my most favorite book ever, but I’m not bashing the book – I can recognize that it’s good even if it didn’t strike a chord with me like it does with some people, and it was very provocative and in today’s world of people trying to police women’s uteruses, very relevant.
None of this changes the fact that I don’t find Offred, as a character, to be in any way shape or form a badass, or even a very appealing character. I think if I had to describe her in one word it would be “passive.” Bah.
I find her compelling because she’s obviously not a woman of action – like Moira is – yet she finds a way to step up and extricate herself, even though it’s not really in her nature to make that stand.
But she DOESN’T take any action to extricate herself. It’s all stuff that’s pushed on her by other people, never action she takes herself. At least that’s how I read her.
And any which way, I’ll ALWAYS vote for the woman of action over someone like Offred.
I would throw a tantrum, but I’ve been around my two year old tantrum-throwing nephew far too much the past couple days.
So instead, I’m just going to sob quietly in this corner here with all the Team Lyra folks.
…Team Arya?
Here, have a cookie and come sulk with Team Lyra. We take refugees.
I can’t believe she didn’t get through. Hmph.
Arya/McGonnagal all the way!
If Elizabeth Bennett wins, I will lead a bloody, screaming revolution. ANTI-AUSTEN BRIGADE, REPORT.
Reporting for duty! Â (And I brought cookies.)
HERE FOR DUTY!!!
I’m not entirely anti-Austen, but I will vote against El Bennet because she doesn’t deserve to win!
Be warned!
:-D
Valar morghulis!
Valar dohaeris.
NOOOOOOO. MEG. COME BACK. Look Katniss, I have nothing against you, but we’re fighting now. We are in a fight. I would probably vote for Minerva against Katniss anyway, but especially now that Meg’s gone.
hahaha just what I’m thinking.
Katniss makes ONE good decision. Â ONE. Â At the end of the LAST book. Â Otherwise, she just kind of muddles through and is petulant and whiny. Â She is badass SOLELY for her ability to kill things. Â She doesn’t seem particularly intelligent and doesn’t want any part of her adventure. Â (I’m not a Katniss fan. Â I actually think the most appealing thing about the books is that you DON’T have to like Katniss to like the story.)
Meg Murray saved her father and her brother by being tough and smart and loving and not changing a thing about herself ever for anyone. Â Meg 2013!!!!
I think Katniss is kind of a badass in The Hunger Games, but I start to get annoyed with her in the sequels (I was not a fan of like 85% of Mockingjay). Overall I’m kind of neutral on her. Meg, however, is unquestionably amazing.
Pft. Katniss’s final life decisions at the end of Mockingjay are so freaking awful and disempowering…Â There are enough young women characters that can be physically badass, but then make terrible life choices.
Meg is sooo much better at everything (except maybe archery…). Also, there need to be more badass math nerds, because really, we’re out there. We just need better representation.
I’m so sad that Meg’s gone, too :(.
Oh my. Am going to bed happy tonight. TEAM KATNISS!!!!
This is turning into a literary bloodbath. I don’t think I can take the pressure of voting anymore!
No. No no no no no.
There will be a lot of Spite Voting in this round.
I’m not wearing my Nice Face.
I am too invested in this. I keep telling people about it and they don’t care. All I hear though, is voices telling me to END Ramona Quimby and push Beatrice to the finals!!!
WHAT THE EVERLASTING…. WHAT NO. NO NO NO. NO.
*stomps off to hang with pileofmonkeys*
Come to the bitter side. We have Nutella.
I’ll bring a spoon!
……. not that I, uh, eat Nutella straight out of the jar or anything. Way too classy for that. Mmhmm.
I know all the contenders! Wheeeeeeeeeee!
Oh wow, me too. How fun! Of course, it mostly just makes the choices harder, but still – neat!