Dan (Dan Vs.)

Dan
Gender	Male
Series	Dan Vs.
Tournament Berths	2 (2018, 2020)
Highest Seed	31 (2020)
Best Result	Round 2 (2020)

Dan is the titular protagonist and anti-hero of the 2011 animated series Dan Vs. According to the show's co-creator Dan Mandel, the character is "based on his negative qualities". He is a short-tempered, misanthropic, and unemployed adult man who is constantly triggered by small problems, and believes that the world is out against him. The series' premise involves Dan wanting to exact revenge on practically everything that has wronged him; naturally this also includes the /co/ tournaments and the wiki that documents those events.

A common source of contention for Dan is his name. Officially, his full name is simply 'Dan', a mononym that the creator has implied he adopted to avoid the law. His full name was likely Dan Mandel or Daniel Mandel, after his creator, but this is only a theory. To make matters worse, in 2020 a typo led to his name being mistakenly written as "Dan Vs", causing a wave of imposters taking advantage of the confusion.

Tournament history

Dan is mainstay in Mr. /co/lympus ever since he has nominated in 2018. He has garnered a cult following throughout the contest's history due to his personality, which has resulted in several pieces of fan arts and a notable place in contest lore. But keeping in with the show's theme, Dan has a history of losing in the early rounds, and has even missed the tournament in 2019, causing much frustration for him.

After a weak showing in 2018 (losing to Danny Fenton without much fanfare), Dan fought a significantly more notable campaign in 2020. Confusion with his name lead to various memes about his real identity and who the REAL Dan was, including problems with his old nemesis [[Dan*]] and even Zoidberg (why not?).

Dan's most notable role, however, would be his feud with Mao Mao, which would grow into arguably the most famous rivalry of the year, and one of the most notable feuds in the tournament's history. The two dominated the round in an ugly back and forth spat, roasting each other on their weaknesses (with Dan prophetically predicting both Mao Mao's cancellation and his own revival that would occur in 2021) and trying to prove their own based status to the fans. Despite running into trouble when Mao Mao offered to release doujin images, Dan ended up winning a narrow victory, commonly attributed to him taking on the role as an Irish Nationalist and writing a parody ballad against the wicked feline, "Come Out Ye Mao Mao Fans". Dan did far less in Round 2, and primarily relied on his lack of fear of the IRS to win voters against the Joker (as Joker is notably terrified of the Internal Revenue Service). This failed, however, and Dan ended up sulking away a loser.

Outside of Mr. /co/lympus, Dan has found much success by becoming the champion of the inaugural Mr. /mlp/ held in 2019, perhaps due to both My Little Pony and Dan Vs. being broadcasted on the same channel (The Hub / Discovery Family). The tournament, which is similar in format to /co/'s, featured characters from other series outside of /mlp/ because its cast has significantly fewer males. Dan also showed a solid run in /co/'s Tag-Team Tournament 2020 together with his best friend Chris, making it to Round 3 and losing to eventual Elite 8 members Alastor and Bill Cipher, the Dapper Dealers.

Dan Vs. Mr. /co/lympus

Mr. /co/lympus 2018 - seed 80

• R1: (49) Danny Phantom @ Danny Phantom 97 - 128 _(43.1%)

Mr. /co/lympus 2020 - seed 31

• R1: (98) Mao Mao @ Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart 308 - 302 _(50.5%)
• R2: (95) Joker @ DC Comics 302 - 336 _(47.3%)

Dan Vs. Tag-Teams

Tag-Team Tournament 2020: The Avatars of Nemesis (Dan/Chris) - seed 41

• R1: (88) File:Rick s icon.png I Turned Myself Into a Pickle-inator (Rick/Doof) - 56.6%
• R2: (24) Ineptive Invaders (Zim/GIR) - 58.4%
• R3: (9) Dapper Dealers (Alastor/Bill) - 42.7%

Dan Vs. Ponies

Mr. /mlp/ 2019

• TBD

Tournament Lore

During the 2020 roleplaying season, which initially started in Ms. /co/ with HenchGwen and Monarch-Posting and rapidly escalated in Mr. /co/ following the Rameses incident, Dan became one of the most heavily, and yet consistently, arced characters. The following is a loose and somewhat patchy summary of the 'plot' of Dan's arc.

Pre-Tournament

Backstory

Dan lost to Danny Fenton in 2018 to little fanfare, and for a while laid low on /co/, not even qualifying in 2019 and instead going to /mlp/ to win their tournament. In celebration, he went on a drinking and questionably legal sex binge.

In late 2020, shortly before the tournament, a series of 'rumors' circulated that Dan Vs was being revived. These rumors (while revealed to have been correct in February 2021) were dismissed quickly and lead to significant spite against Dan. His history as having won on /mlp/ only made things worse. Hoping to shed his bad reputation, Dan decided to enter in Mr. /co/ again and prove once and for all he was not only based, but remembered, and thusly worthy of a revival.

Thanks to his Irish heritage, Dan had long been a member of the real Irish Republican Army, or r-IRA. He sought out funding for them prior to the tournament to help support his campaign in exchange for using it to pursue the cause. Dan most certainly agreed, both to help the Isle and further bury the 'rumors' that were hurting him.

The Name Game: Enter the Impostor(s)

During the filing process as Dan signs up to be nominated, stats mistakenly lists his name as "Dan Vs", instead of Dan or Dan Mandel. This led to several anons growing confused and mocking Dan, and Dan's old rival, Dan* (or The Imposter) showing up to take advantage of the situation and steal Dan's place in the tournament.

Dan declared vengeance on the one who made the typo, and immediately attempted to aggressively correct his error. Most anons, however, continued to insist he was 'Dan Vs', allowing the Imposter to further steal support as the 'real Dan'. The Imposter even went so far as to alter Dan's license to say 'Dan Vs', further worsening his stance and leading more people to side with the Imposter Dan*.

In the confusion, Karkat Vantas, having been passed over in nominations, attempted to take Dan's identity himself, declaring both Dan and Dan* to be imposters (Karkat baring an odd resemblance to Dan himself). Eridan quickly informed the public of this fraud, but Karkat continued to insist he was 'so the real Man Dandel', despite his horns.

The real Dan attempted to shoot Karkat down by pointing out their mismatched zodiac signs (Dan is a scorpio) as the Impostor continued to rally support, and the growing confusion lead to more and more anons questioning who the real Dan was. To make matters worse, Dan's actor from the early concept version of the show appeared as well, and armed with his trustworthy sleaves, only deepened confusion on the identity of the true Dan.

As the qualifiers continued, Dan and Dan* heated up their primary feud over who was the real Dan (with Karkat being widely dismissed by the public and Beta Dan having vanished). The situation escalated as accusations of /mlp/ collusion spread and arguments over who was the better pet owner to Mr.(Ms.) Mumbles.

Despite the Imposter's smooth charm and planning winning over the majority of anons support as the real Dan, logic prevailed, and stats managed to fix the typo and enter the REAL Dan into the tournament.

Mr. /co/

Rise of Mao Mao

Despite Dan securing his status in the polls as the 'true Dan', Dan* continued to claim to be the real Dan in the threads, as did Karkat. Dan made several attempts early in the Round to correct these errors, but eventually gave up, as there was a bigger problem on the horizon.

Dan had drawn Mao Mao, the hero warrior cat of Pure Heart Valley, as his first round matchup. After a rallying speech by Mao Mao calling upon his honor to justify support, it was, interestingly enough, Dan's pet cat Mr. Mumbles who would draw first blood, threatening Mao Mao in a language only cats could understand.

Gallery

For more images, visit the Mr. /co/ booru.

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  Dan vs Mao Mao (2020)

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