2023 Event Thread of the Year Nominations

[RawkGod of Love]

EVENT THREAD OF THE YEAR

I. What's OTY?

In this event, we're looking through all of 2023 and picking out what we think was the best content of the year.

In this thread in particular you'll nominating what you believe is the event thread of the year! Nominate a thread which was specifically tied into one of this year's events (i.e. AfriCatastrophe or Fight Night) that you think deserves that extra degree of attention, be it for gripping narrative or electrifying action.

II. OTY Rules

1. Each member can only submit one nomination per category, so think hard on it.
2. Make sure you name the actual members relevant to your nomination.
3. DO NOT NOMINATE YOURSELF.

These nominations will close after 1 week!

2023 OF THE YEAR

[HenrexTor'uk]

https://www.platinumhearts.net/t24168-their-misery-our-gain-africatastrophe-act-ii

Out of all the AfriCatastrophe threads, I believe that this one was the most impactful of Part II. This thread and the ones that came after showed very well how this loss affected the two characters, and served as motivation for the current act (as of writing this). Furthermore, with the follow-up thread that came after this, the thread became the catalyst for months of prior history and in-character interaction boiling over. It's a similar thought process to the reason behind why I voted for this in a prior seasonal nomination, but I believe that this caused a lot of motion for Natasha and Liltotto as characters that warrants the nomination.

[RawkGod of Love]

Mizu vs. Ulquiorra

Fight Night, as a concept, was an event where I spent a good amount of time making matchups, creating specific fights that I felt would be fair or provide for meaningful narratives without an obvious mismatch of power. However, an obvious gulf can provide some of the best storytelling when it comes to a character in this setting, and I think that this thread displays an exceptional understanding of that dynamic on both sides.

Mizu is, of course, not someone who can simply measure up in raw power to Ulquiorra. That doesn't stop her from fighting at her best, though, and I think there are a few instances in this fight that almost come across as un-Mizu, a more desperate need to prove herself that's obviously intended given the final post of the thread. She's giving it her all to ensure she's strong enough to meet her own standards.

Ulquiorra, on the other hand, has no standards she cares to measure up to. She isn't here to prove anything to anyone. She's here to understand people, one more step on her path to try and understand the heart. She's the polar opposite of supportive, unwilling to provide any approval for Mizu's intentions, which would in most cases likely be seen as upstanding and respectable. To her, this is just a way of understanding someone, and the end of the fight, where she simply heals her own wounds and concedes defeat because it would be inconvenient to continue, creates what I consider to be a stellar ending to a fight like this.

This wasn't simply one of my favorite event threads of the year, this was one of my favorite threads of the year, period. It was the sort of emotionally brutal fight that you want to see in a shonen-adjacent environment like PH, and it's entirely because both writers convey their characters exceedingly well.

[LillianVeteran Member]

Castle of Lies

It'd be pure insanity for this to NOT be nominated. While this may not have any physical throws, there definitely is a push of ideals between Alastair and Claudia. I am keeping this brief; read the thread, it's another must read of the past year. Rawk and Locke did a really good job making a thread with solid writing.