As a sequel to The many usernames of SFF.SE, this is the definitive collection of SFF.SE users' profile pictures (avatars) and their meaning or significance.
There are some of our most active users whose avatars I've always been curious about. So I thought I'd create this thread for everyone to post answers about their pics.
The chronicles of my avatars...
The first one worth mentioning was the Hufflepuff crest:
The Hufflepuff crest was chosen because, well, I'm a Hufflepuff. And at the beginning of my activity here, I was only active in the harry-potter tag, and so my avatar reflected that.
Around Winter Bash 2015, I changed it to an image of Mr. Spock:
I needed a head to put a hat on, and Spock seemed like a good idea on a site dedicated to Science Fiction and Fantasy. Also, something something smart something something answer questions.
After a while I then changed it to fit my username:
(My username being "Mithrandir", the name that the Elves call Gandalf.)
I then felt a pull to the Dark Side and updated to an image of Sauron:
I stuck with Sauron for a while. Then out of fear of becoming a Ringwraith...
...it was changed to a picture of Arwen Undómiel.
(This image is a screenshot from the poster for the The Return of the King movie, taken from a YouTube video playing the soundtrack.)
And to switch to a different universe...
Isabella Garcia-Shapiro from phineas-and-ferb.
Screenshot from a YouTube upload of the song "Whatcha Doin'?" from the episode "Roller Coaster - The Musical".
And to hop franchises again, now it's Violet Parr from The Incredibles. Sticking with the pattern, again it's a screenshot from a YouTube video.
Now, to depart from the previous theme...
This is a cropped and lightened version of a drawing made by avazula, that is a representation of me based on things I've said in Interpersonal Skills chat. This is the full version:
My avatar is GIR with his dog costume and a mustache and a sombrero because I'm mexican and Invader Zim is one of my favorite cartoons...and I don't mind stereotypes.
More minor story for this question. I was kind of on a fantasy figurine kick for a good long while, and kept trying to turn an image of one or another into an avatar. They usually sucked.
Eventually I pulled out an old Nintendo R.O.B. robot (anyone remember Gyromite? Anyone? Bueller?) and for lack of anything else useful to do with it added it to my display. It stuck out horribly among a bunch of pewter and sand castles and other kitsch, so I put a sword-in-the-stone letter opener thing in his hands, like it was pulling it out, and it just made me smile.
Took a photo, it seemed to fit, and I haven't found anything better in a while. Really ought to get a clearer/brighter picture, but its all back in storage now.
Mine is a picture of Thomas the Tank Engine with a really angry face with the text "All aboard the rage train" which was given to me by a friend when they saw me fly into a rage at Java and Oracle's SQL client having two objects with the same type and it causing me to go "WHAT DO YOU MEAN DATE ISN'T TYPE OF DATE. THEY'RE THE SAME DAMN THING!?!?!" and then fly into a further rant about why would they ever do that and not use the same class for both.
The HouseKholinar crest from The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, white-on-black to be less blinding:
One day in my job I just suddenly decided to draw something on the whiteboard. As I am unable to draw anything else, I draw a face.
Days passed.
I often need to take some photos in my job (we develop a mobile app) so I took a picture of this drawing that still was on the whiteboard (because nobody uses it at all).
Days passed.
I joined Worldbuilding and SF&F SE
Days passed.
I decided to upload some profile picture, So, I looked in my computer memory and there it was, the face. But it was during Winter Bash 2016 - All Hats so I needed both eyes. I changed it a little (copied eyes and ears, copied and rotated the half of mouth) and here it is (nicer than anything ;)):
My avatar is just a plain and boring depiction of myself from Face Your Manga
My avatar is me.
This was taken in 2010, during my form presentation of my testing for 4th degree.
While loitering in Mos Eisley, watching on - topic chat soaring above my head, I grew jelous of everyone's avatars and looked sadly at the defult pink pattern thing the site gave me when I joined. Plus I just got a hat and it looked poo on my avatar so (like two days before hats vanished :( ) I decided I needed something better.
Having just been writing an essay on The Metamorphosis I hurried to Deviantart.com and shamelessly stole a surreal - looking Gregor Samsa (we're allowed to do that right?)
What can I say? They look cute in hats.
“Hello, it me”, as they say on YouTube. Or Twitter. Or one of those newfangled places where people say such things. So yeah, it’s just a slightly annoyingly cropped picture of me.
(I actually just realised, due to this thread, that I hadn’t uploaded my avatar to this site at all—thought I had.)
‹ Sigh ›
I suppose you'll be wanting me to reveal my own right name too?
Well, I guess one answer here is as good as two.
My icon and my name both derive from the same thing. One of them is a bad quasi-pun, and the other I've made more obvious.
It's a kbot.
This is my avatar. I took this picture in early August in Jerusalem, I think in Yemin Moshe neighbourhood, one of the oldest neighbourhoods outside the walls of the Old City.
I like using as avatars pictures that are "mine" - I took them, or I'm in them, and they have enough meaning to me that they can represent something about me. My avatar is sort of my face, right?
A Pomegranate is a Jewish symbol, 1st Temple onwards. Now, being a Jew isn't the alpha and omega of my identity. But it's sort of the broth that lends a certain flavour to everything in it. (Identity is totally a soup.) So, having to choose one image to be my face across several different SEs, it seemed appropriate.
my user name used to be my real-name. When I eventually decided to go at least a LITTLE harder to track down, I changed my avatar...
Same story here. I originally had no idea what I should keep my avatar as, and like many other, t was the pre-generated one.
THEN, I had a moment of I-love-retro-games and changed it to - you guessed it - Mario! Sadly, the image that I downloaded vanished from the internet and my Hard Disk mysteriously..
Okay, maybe I deleted the copy of the image from the Hard Drive. :P
Then, I changed it to something more modern...
My real name is traceable only by my avatar. And only to those who have a good memory. You can try guessing!
There are some of our most active users whose avatars I've always been curious about.I'm curious to know who?