h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ladies and gentlemen, I wish to give a fond farewell to Skippy, Lord Of Darkness.

Skippy is my most recent character in the Fantasy Powers League (www.electricferret.com/fpl) and he is currently engaged in his final Undercards battle at http://www.electricferret.com/fpl/underfights/516-116.htm against Ninjayn, a cyber-ninja who is worthy of being his last adversary. If Skippy wins (very unlikely, as the current score is 11 to 9 and the voting ends late tomorrow night) then he'll move on to the Elimination Round battles. If he loses, then he will be removed from the FPL rosters, probably never to be heard from again. I've made a final pathetic plea for his life at http://forums.electricferret.com/phpBB2/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=5070#5070 but who knows if it'll be enough to sway the last minute voters (especially since I tried to be fair to Ninjayn who is, in my opinion, a nice character).

While you all keep Skippy's plight in your thoughts and prayers, I feel that Skippy's history should be told before it is lost.

Skippy, Lord Of Darkness is a pretty direct copy of Skip, The Overlord Of Darkness. Skip was a "villain" in a movie called "Nerd Brigade" that was written and filmed by myself and some friends (Skippy's current picture happens to be a picture of Skip from the movie during a scene when everyone's laughing at him). Realizing the potential for an FPL character, I received a surprising amount of support from the other people involved in the writing of Nerd Brigade when I suggested that I submit him as a character to the FPL (something that they knew very little about other than that it was one of those crazy things that I do in my spare time).

Skip, much like his spin-off character Skippy after him, came from a long line of super villains. Skip's father (Sauron, The Overlord Of Darkness) gave Skippy his last name, while his mother named him Skip, permanently ruining Skip's chances at great supervillainy. Living in his father's shadow, Skip tried his hardest to be evil. Alas, no one ever took him seriously with a name like that. And it certainly didn't help that the only heroes he could ever fight against were known as "The Nerd Brigade."

Despite the many setbacks, Skip has had an interesting career. He was once interviewed by the Coalition Of Evil (they were willing to look past the name), and he made it pretty far in his audition. Unfortunately, when they came over to his lair for a final inspection, Skip's mom brought them some fresh rice krispy treats and lemonade.

Later, Skip managed to actually become a senior member of the Coalition Of Terror. He stayed in the ranks for a good amount of time, but when they learned that his name was Skip, Overlord Of Darkness instead of Navitnoral, Overlord Of Darkness, he was thrown out (after being sprayed with one of Evil Weatherman's super soakers).

Similar claims to fame involve the one time that Skip managed to defeat the Nerd Brigade (Sauron paid the NB to let Skip win just to boost Skip's self esteem) and the fact that he owns an "evil attack cat".

At the moment, Skip is living a comfortable life and the actor who played Skip is enjoying Skippy's current successes in the FPL. We can only hope that Skippy miraculously finds the necessary extra votes to win, thus continuing his legacy.

Well....did he win?

We'll find out sometime tonight. At the moment, Skippy's just one vote shy of tying the score. If he ties, then it'll be like the fight never happened, and I'll have to go through the agony of his final Undercards battle for yet another week.