This is a post I'm writing for a friend on Discord who feels very strongly about it. I'm hoping by writing at length about this situation, it can clear up any misunderstandings between as, give an easy way for me and him to explain the situation to other people, and easily get input, opinions or even possibly advice.

It all started back in 2019. There's this artist you might have heard of named 53xy83457 who has a series called Project Pixkill, where two pixelized versions of popular cartoon/comic/video game characters fight and the winner is determined by viewer polls. The poll we'll be focusing on today was "Tankman vs Doom Guy."

My friend, who asked that I not use his username, really wanted Tankman to win, because he believed it would be a good tribute to Newgrounds, seeing as Tankman is the main mascot. A lot of people, myself included, thought it'd be cool for Doom Guy to win because he's a really cool character and in general, people really like the Doom games. This is where the trouble begins.

I was one of the people who wanted Doom Guy to win. Usually, I vote for the underdog in 53xy's polls, and I also tend to go for the Newgrounds character. But I play Doom a lot since its one of the only things my toaster of a computer can run, so I was drawn more to Doom Guy. Even still, it was a pretty tricky decision for me, since I like both, and I chose my vote on a whim.

This upset my friend, because he thought, and was hoping, that I'd vote for Tankman.

Usually, the "underdog" characters wins in 53xy's polls, especially if they're from Newgrounds. Combine that with the fact that I usually vote for obscure characters and Newgrounds characters, and you can see why my friend thought Tankman would win, and why he thought I'd vote for him. Finding out I didn't, and that Tankman lost, would naturally hurt a lot worse because of this expectation.

He repeatedly expressed displeasure and sadness over the fact that I didn't vote for Tankman, and that Doom Guy was winning. He felt like it was unfair and it seemed to really hurt his feelings. Eventually, I decided to change my vote to Tankman for several reasons, like the fact that I really do like obscure characters more, and that just my friend, I thought Tankman should win because he's a Newgrounds representative. but the strongest of which being that I realized how important it was to him. It might seem silly to some, but Newgrounds hold a special place in his heart, as it does in mine.

Even after changing my vote, Doom Guy still got far more votes than Tankman, and DG won the contest in a blowout victory. It took me a long time (weeks if I recall) to change my vote, and I wonder if I had changed my vote earlier if would've helped build up more momentum. A full year later, my friend is still very upset over it. He's still disappointed with the outcome and wishes it happened differently, and that I voted a different way. It didn't seem very important to me at the time, but now I realize with how much emotion he had invested in this fight, I regret not voting for Tankman sooner.

So, what do you guys think? What's your take on the situation? Is anybody in the right, or the wrong? Is anybody at fault? Your thoughts are deeply appreciated.