Forum:Featured Quote

The stories on this wiki have tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of memorable moments, be they dialogue or narrative. But now we're about to find a favorite! Nominate a quote that meets the guidelines below, and see if it comes out on top! Vote either Support or Oppose.

Previous Winners
See: Forum:List of Featured Quotes

Rules
'''PLEASE READ THE RULES CAREFULLY, BECAUSE THEY ARE DIFFERENT FROM THE RULES FOR OTHER FEATURES. RULES UNIQUE TO FEATURED QUOTE ARE HIGHLIGHTED IN RED '''

Nominating Rules

 * 1) Featured Quote has TWO voting cycles per month, instead of one.
 * 2) Don't take the word "Quote" literally. Narrative passages can be just as quoteworthy as dialogue.
 * 3) Please identify the story that the Quote comes from.
 * 4) If there is a stated Theme (see below), then nominees must fit that theme.
 * 5) You may nominate Quotes from other people's stories without permission, unless the Theme states otherwise. Of course, you can also nominate Quotes from your own stories unless the Theme states otherwise.
 * 6)  If you nominate a Quote from a story that you did not write or collaborate on, then you must identify yourself as the nominator. This is necessary because of Voting Rule #5.
 * 7) A story's author has veto power over Quotes from that story. If you object to a particular Quote that someone else has nominated from your story (e.g. because it gives away a spoiler), then you may delete that nominee for any reason or for none, with no questions asked.
 * 8) Only one Quote per story per nominator. In other words, two people could each nominate a Quote from Story X, but one person may not nominate two Quotes from it. One person could, however, nominate one Quote from Story X and one Quote from Story Y.
 * 9) Please limit nominations to 75 words or less. "Near-miss" Quotes that exceed this limit by only a few words may be allowed at the Ballot Administrator's discretion.
 * 10) Please be aware of spoiler potential when nominating a Quote from someone else's story.
 * 11) No in-jokes, please. Quotes must be understandable outside the context of the story, except as noted below.
 * 12) Quotes must appear on an actual story page. Ancillary materials from character pages, blog-based previews, etc. are ineligible.
 * 13) Quotes must be formatted exactly as they are in the story, except as noted below. The easiest way to comply with this rule is by copy-and-paste.
 * If you need to add tags to identify speakers or subjects, please italicize them.
 * If you need to add narrative text to make a line understandable out of context, enclose the added text in brackets [thusly]. This is standard journalistic practice for quoting things. Note that such added text should be only a few words, if that.
 * If a Quote is in past tense in the story, it must be in past tense on the ballot. Ditto for other tenses.
 * A Quote may be shortened to meet length limitations. If you do this, replace the removed portion with an ellipsis (...).

Voting Rules

 * 1) You must have an account and 100 total edits to vote. You must be logged in and your vote must be signed so the administrators can verify voter eligibility.
 * 2) Nominees receiving 5 or more Oppose votes may be removed from the ballot at the discretion of the administrators.
 * 3) Vote on as many Quotes as you wish, but only once on each. You may not vote for a Quote from your own story  except as noted below .
 * 4) If a Quote from your story was nominated by someone else who isn't a collaborating partner on the story, then you may vote for it.
 * 5) If you nominate a Quote from a story that you did not write or collaborate on, then you may also vote for it.
 * 6) The following rules must be followed when Opposing a quote:
 * You must provide a reason for your vote. "No" and "Sorry" are not reasons.
 * Oppose votes that appear to be needlessly harsh or that don't observe basic rules of civility will be deleted. If it's worth saying, it can be said politely.
 * Please try to provide constructive criticism. This is the whole point of the Oppose option, because Oppose votes aren't actually counted.
 * "I want another quote to win" votes will be deleted. If you want another Quote to win, then cast a Support vote for the other Quote and leave it at that.
 * "This isn't funny" is only a valid reason to Oppose if the Quote was meant to be funny. Votes opposing an obviously dramatic quote on the grounds that "it's not funny" will be deleted.
 * Your opinion of the character(s) associated with a quote is NOT relevant to the merits of the quote itself. Featured Character is a separate ballot, so don't shoot the message.
 * "There are better quotes from this story" votes will be deleted because that's irrelevant to the merits of the Quote that actually got nominated. Remember, you can nominate Quotes from other people's stories--so if you think there's a better Quote that's not on the ballot, then why not nominate it yourself?

Theme
For December 1-15, the theme is Holiday Giving. (Thank/blame Wifey for this one.) Two types of passages are eligible:


 * 1) Related in some way to giving or sharing (things like heroic sacrifices also qualify); or
 * 2) Related in some way to a holiday, either real or fictional

For giving/sharing passages, keep two things in mind:


 * 1) The giver's motives don't have to be pure (alliance-building scenes are good places to find this type of passage); and
 * 2) The thing given/shared doesn't necessarily have to be something that a reasonable person would want. (TMI scenes are a good example.)


 * Canon example: [Alejandro]: "[B]reaking up with Duncan has really thrown her off her game. Now, all I have to do is give her a cookie to gain her trust. And this is what I intend to do with that trust: *crushes cookie* (the giver's motives are not pure)

If you would like to suggest a theme for a future ballot, leave your suggestion on the ballot administrator's talk page. (Note: please don't suggest "competition stories only", "dialogue only" or "funny quotes only", because those types tend to dominate the no-theme ballots and so don't need their own themes.) Coming themes include:


 * December 16-31: Beginnings and Endings (for the changing of the year)
 * February 1-14: Love and Romance (for Valentine's Day)

Themes that will definitely be used at some point, but who knows when, include:


 * Hall of Fame (Featured Stories only)
 * Serious Business (no funny quotes)
 * Done Deals (finished stories only)
 * Unfinished Business (in-progress stories only)
 * Noncompetition Stories
 * Tearjerkers
 * Other people's stories (third-party nominations only)
 * Fighting words (e.g. people insulting/dissing each other)
 * Gross-out (suggested by Toad)

Theme ideas that may or may not be used one of these days include:


 * Heirs To the Throne (passages from stories on the current month's Featured Story ballot)
 * Fourth Wall Breakers
 * Narrative (i.e. no dialogue, although first-person narration might be allowed)
 * Whistling Past the Graveyard (funny quotes in unfunny situations)
 * First Person narration (if not included in the Narrative theme)
 * Sacrifice

Nominations
Enter nominations below.

The Gift That Never Stops Giving
Warning: There is an elimination spoiler in this quote.

"The first marshmallow goes to... Lynsey." Lynsey got her marshmallow.

"Ethan," Ethan catched his marshmallow. Then he passed it to Minerva.

Minerva: He's such a gentleman.

"Ethan." Ethan passed his marshmallow to Michael.

"Ethan," said Tara, who was getting annoyed. Ethan gave Laima his marshmallow.

"Ethan." Tobias got a marshmallow. "Ethan." Clara got a marshmallow.

"Campers, this is the last marshmallow. It goes to Ethan." Ethan got his marshmallow.

"And eat it this time, okay?" said Tara.

Ethan took his marshmallow, opened his mouth...

...and passed it to Zuri when Tara turned around.

Oppose
ADMINISTRATOR'S NOTE: This fits the theme nicely, but it's too long (93 words). I'm not going to take it down just yet, but see if you can find a way to shorten it. Gideoncrawle I have a song to sing, O!  Sing me your song, O!  A wandering minstrel, I--  17:27, December 1, 2011 (UTC)

Santa's Letter to Michael
Michael read the letter. “Dear Michael, although you switched your name to the nice list, injured me, and stole my sleigh; you are more worthy for the nice list then anyone. You may not be the most behaved kid, but anyone who sacrifices their life for others across the world is a friend of mine. Because I granted your wish, you were able everyone else’s. And that’s why people look to someone, and that’s why someday, people will look up to you. From, Santa.”

-Michael's Christmas Wish, nominated by the author