AFFR: Season 1 All-Stars

[Bob]

Okay, time to post up these poll questions now. As Season 4 nears the All-Star cut-off, let's look back at past seasons. Like with Fallen-Stars, you can vote for as many as you'd like, but if you pick 'em all, that doesn't really help me.

I will add that I'm close to finalizing the All-Stars (minus Season 4), but I'd like to see if my picks are similar to yours, plus I might reconsider picks based on this. Just for fun, comment if you'd like.

[Dale]

I picked Shinra & Rufus, Yuna & Rikku, Steiner & Beatrix, and, as a maybe, Fujin & Raijin.

Shinra & Rufus are just obvious. They're the original winners. You can't have an All-Stars without the original winners. I . . . can't see them winning a second time against other high-calibre teams, but I can see them at least making a decent run of things.

Yuna & Rikku probably had the original story of the team that starts out weak and possibly early cannon fodder, but getting stronger and getting their race legs to become a true threat. Their story was very compelling, and one that I'd certainly like to see continued, to see whether they regress to what they were at the start of season one, or actually try and keep themselves as the kick-ass girls they became late in the season. Also, their alliance with Shinra & Rufus must be continued if both teams come back.

Steiner & Beatrix I'm kind of biased towards since they were my favorite team of the race (at least once Strago & Relm got booted early). But I think that we need a quiet, inoffensive team to balance out the louder teams and the teams with bigger personalities. One fully cohesive team is definitely needed to counteract the ones with shakier dynamics. Steiner & Beatrix provided that for us throughout season one until their unfortunate F4 elimination. So I'd love to see them back.

Even though Bob's likely picking only three per season, I picked Fujin & Raijin, as well, as a maybe. They were actually running a damn good race before Fujin's injury. And I think they'd be a good choice if Bob ends up not having enough from the higher finishers of these four seasons.

I almost picked Amarant & Lani, but I realized that their fighting schtick would really only be good the first time. Good racers, yes, but compared to some of these others available, their entertainment factor wouldn't be as effective a second time. Plus, I doubt either would want to race with the other again. As for saying no to Auron & Jecht, while they were the original AFFR villains, they weren't very good racers. Their one really good finish was leg one, when they came in second. But after that, they were middle-of-the-pack racers, at best, and back-of-the-pack racers, at worst. In fact, they're probably the one AFFR team to actually start out strong, but get weaker as the legs went on. They were easily the weakest team in the race by the time the F7 rolled around. Add in the fact that they stupidly kept trying to keep competition in the race and opted to target the weaker teams instead of going the other way around, and I'd just rather see the return of a villain team who was actually . . . competent.

[Fleck]

Okay, finally got around to making my picks.

I went for Shinra/Rufus because it's hard to not justify bringing along the first winners of AFFR. Furthermore, a lot of the more interesting conniving/villainous teams didn't make it far enough to qualify for All-Stars, so I want to pad their numbers. Shinra/Rufus aren't straight up evil, but they are a bit morally ambiguous.

Yuna/Rikku were my second choice, because I think you should have another shot at writing them. Season 1 is far more silly and less serious than any subsequent season, and Y/R were mostly just a gag team for much of the race, until you started really getting into it and writing them seriously. I'd like to see these two return and receive a treatment that's more fitting with the modern AFFR style.

Fujin/Raijin were my third pick because they're good racers with very colorful personalities. I don't want All-Stars to be just "the best of the best," I'm also looking to see the best personalities. And these two are some of the most immediately recognizable characters in all of FF and I think they should come back.

I didn't pick Amarant/Lani because I think that joke has been pretty well played out. Granted, they're some of the most capable individual racers to run AFFR, but I don't think All-Stars is the place for incessant bickering and mutual enmity (even with their underlying sexual tension).

Steiner/Beatrix were a bit too... Lawful Good for my tastes. I suppose every comedy act needs a straight man to balance it all out, but I think there's something to be said for loading up on the most colorful characters and leaving the more normal ones alone.

And Auron/Jecht can't be allowed to race because they'll win by default.

[Dale]

Damn, Fleck. I was expecting you to pick Amarant & Lani. I'm shocked you actually went against expectations by not picking them.