Bantha Skull Battle Of The Brackets 2025

Before we dive into this heated contest of who has the best bracket, we need to remind you that the next round of voting for this year's SWTVC March Madness is open. CLICK HERE for the SWTVC Link Tree for the voting link. Also, here's the schedule for the remaining rounds in case you need it:


Now that we have that business out of the way, let's see how Nomad and Tuna filled out their brackets.

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Nomad has won the coin toss, and chooses to defer. Tuna takes the wind.

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It wouldn't be March madness if I didn't complete the first round with gnashed teeth. It's part of the fun of this type of polling. Of course it's a little known fact that in this context, "fun" translates to "torture" in German. For you see, two of my Top 25 square off in the very first round:


I think Tyler did this to me on purpose because of the joke I made about the Marine Corps on a recent live stream. It wasn't even my joke, Tyler! I want a new Amanaman more than 75% of the field of 64, but Arleil is my number one seed, so I am forced to chop down the palace dweller right out of the gate. What makes this even more bitter is this bracket:


The rules compel me to advance either KB or the Stranger further than Amanaman! If I could have a Hater's March Madness of figures I don't want to see made in TVC, these two would be in my Top 25. The Stranger would be on it out of spite, and KB, who I very much liked as a character, would be on it because I don't think she will sell well. WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE DOING TO ME?!? This is like forcing my to say I would rather have Peyton Manning as my quarterback over Tom Brady. Actually, in that case, I'd probably choose martyrdom.

As I have to increasingly point out, the above is meant to be some humor. Of course the Stranger should be in the line, and in the alternate universe where I get to approve which TVC figures get made, I would rubber stamp Qimir in a heartbeat. It will sell, and that which sells is good for TVC. I love the line first and foremost, and my personal collecting interests come second (or not at all in the case of Yerka Mig). But I am serious that the round of 32 has the most "error" as far as my personal wants each year. After that, it tends to settle in nicely, In fact, I'm thrilled that my Final Four is culled from my personal Top 25 this year. YES!

My list comes down to Arleil, the AT-AT Driver, C-3PO and Episode III Obi-Wan. I advance Arleil past the Driver because I had the cantina denizen as my number one seed, but I have to admit that that flame is starting to flicker out for me. Such is the case with many niche characters, and why Hasbro needs to strike while the iron is hot. We desperately need a new ROTS Obi-Wan to duel the upcoming ROTS Anakin, but I advanced 3PO to the Finals because I need more of that figure for my displays, and the tooling reuse is insane. Then following my initial seeding, my winner is:

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Chris's front page intro stated that we never agree on anything. I disagree with that. We can both agree that my teams are 3-0 against his teams in championship games. We can also agree that despite the KAT acquisition, the gap between the Knicks and Celtics is wider than the space between Michael Strahan's front teeth. Side note: it was a kick in the crotch to see Chris pick Garindan over Shasa Tiel. I'm a bit concerned for his well-being.

As for the task at hand, we fundamentally agree on what we want for TVC: Long term success. If that means I don't get exactly what I want now, it would at least give me hope that I can get it in the future. As I've stated before, If I was making the decisions selfishly, I'd get what I want within a year, but run TVC into the ground doing it. As such, I have to accept that there will be some things I don't want, because it should mean that hopefully some significant section of the community got what they wanted and the line lives to see another day. This includes such nonsense as Exegol Palpatine and Pong Krell. And if those clowns do ever get made, I certainly hope there's more than 17 really loud people that wanted them.

I had posted my top 25 a little while back, and it turns out that 12 of them made it into the bracket, which is pretty good, considering I assumed at least 90% of my picks were of low appeal. I made my choices somewhat selfishly, but still keeping an eye out for doing the type of thing Chris wrote about yesterday. To fill out my bracket, I stayed true to my top 25 whenever possible, even though, like Chris, I sometimes struggled when forced into a Sophie's Choice. While some of the matchups in Round One were difficult for me, I didn't have to choose between any of my personal 12 until Round 2, when Shasa Tiel went up against Baze Malbus. Baze had to go, but that's okay, because I adopted Bodhi Rook in his place, who made it to my Elite Eight. Also like Chris, I had to pause the KB vs. The Stranger matchup. I'd like KB, but not in a vacuum. The Stranger would barely have context, but just enough to beat out KB. Didn't matter, though, because I selected the Client over The Stranger in Round 2. Not only does The Client have plenty of context, it's almost as if we have everything from the Nevarro Cantina except The Client. That makes him more of a priority for me.

Having adopted Bodhi Rook to carry Baze's mantle, then 7 of my candidates made it to my Elite Eight. The exception was the Endor Rebel Commando. I hadn't selected this guy in my Top 25, but he became my dark horse pick, actually putting Crosshair and the Bad Batch out of their collective misery in my bracket. I should mention that I would like the Bad Batch in my collection, but I'm so definitely over the entire team plus Omega showing up in the 64-figure competition all the time. They take up too much bracket real estate, and then they compete against each other. I mean, Baze and Bodhi do the same, but there's only two of them. I would propose to the March Madness crew that they consider amending their submission rules to find a way to lump "crews" together, such as "Bad Batch" or "Rogue One Team" or "Everything from the ST." It's too tough, and possibly even self-defeating, to have to choose between group members when most collectors probably want them all, and not one over another. It would open up the field to more characters that need to be made. Like Bob Hudsol or Debnoli. I'm sure they were 65th and 66th respectively.

A quick note: We each wrote our parts to this article before we saw the results of the first round of voting. As such, I must sadly say that Fozec is a bracket-buster, getting bounced by the Jedi Temple Guard (who was hovering around the periphery of my Top 25), so immediately by Final Four is down a member. Fortunately, Arleil Schous performed a satisfactory beat down of Amanaman (I have no idea why this guy made the 64, given the cromulence of his existing figure). And my adopted son, Bodhi Rook, bit the dust as well. Sigh.

Anyway, my Final Four was fully loaded with my Top 25, with the champ, of course, being my #1. And my winner is:

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So who did it better? Let us know below, and don't worry about hurting Bret's feelings.

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