Round Five- Finals Results

Saerif

Both of these entries were downright gorgeous and a pleasure to read. There was definitely a long time where I didn't have any idea who to vote for, but after a lot of thought and re-reading, I feel prepared to cast my vote.

SeseMiroh
Sesemiroh's entry was extremely well laid out. The paneling was beautiful and well-defined, and she used positive and negative space very well. The designs and effects in this entry were beautiful: I loved the Aztec theme for Quetzal, Angel's wings were shapely and very aesthetically appealing, and the textual effects added a lot of depth to the pages were there wasn't much dialogue.

While humor was more sparse in this round than previous ones, and understandably so, the humor that did appear was tasteful and enjoyable. Dark Sohrab dropping sexual innuendos was hilarious, and adding a panel of Devil doing a spit-take was priceless and definitely made it known that the joke was on purpose.
The overall tone of this round was very dark, but it wasn't as unsettling as past entries made me expect for the finale. Dark Sohrab was a great addition, but I felt the inclusion of Ombra this late into the tournament and her involvement with Sohrab instead of Patrick was confusing and underdeveloped. It was unclear whether she was bringing out Sohrab's inner darkness or if she was controlling his actions, I thought the former until the end of the comic where she reprimanded Sohrab before leaving him.

While I loved Dark Sohrab, I felt like it destroyed his characterization. He lost a lot of his snark and anger, becoming more snide and cold instead. He seemed like a different character entirely, instead of Sohrab's dark side. At the end, his wish went against Shainbow's characterization up to that point─ he had been saying how he was going to wish everyone alive and home… and then he just wishes himself home. There wasn't really any solid conclusion either. Was Ombra destroyed, why was she hurt when Patrick died if she left him, did Sohrab have a home to return to, how did Sohrab survive and still win when he ring was destroyed? There wasn't a strong finish to the overall story of Patrick in the tournament either, it just left us with more questions.
A very, very good round, but there were some issues with story.

Rainboopz

One of my favorite aspects of Shainbow's entry was all the color. It instantly grabs the audience's attention and contrasts of the brighter colors (red and gold, especially) against the predominately blue background is eye-catching and very appealing. The lighting effects, especially the gold around Angel and the other warmly lit scenes, were particularly beautiful. Aside from color, the posing and composition of images were dynamic and appealing. The paneling did get crowded, and some of the pages were ridiculously long, but overall the panels allowed the story to flow well and were easy to follow.
As always, the humor was quirky and dry. The Patrick's colloquial speech pattern made it easy and amusing to imagine his Irish accent, which I hadn't given much thought to previously. Little snippets of banter made me laugh aloud, as did Devil's pentagram security blanket. The location titles ("somewhere back here," "up here," "somewhere," etc.) were somewhat silly, but they were useful for transitioning from place to place without too much confusion.
The comic was very plot-driven and dialogue heavy. Though the story was very long, there was never a dull moment. Some places were confusing, namely page 6 with Devil and the ring of power, but even then there was plenty to look at and think about. The amount and degrees of madness in this entry was impressive and terrifying. Dark Patrick was legitimately scary, and his brutality against Sohrab was heart-wrenching. The scene where Patrick was bashing Sohrab against the ground made me actively cringe. Likewise, Angel's spiral into insanity and pride was fascinating and horrifying. I loved the continuity of her saying "don’t tell me what to do" throughout the round, it made her seem like a whiny child and an unstable murderess at the same time.
I have mixed feelings about the ending. Sohrab's win was cheap, but the follow-up and the conclusion was fantastic. The trick ending was frustrating to read, because the audience sympathizes with Sohrab and being tricked out of a victory is distinctly unpleasant. I think it was a blessing that his memories of the tournament were removed!

For a final round, I couldn't have asked for anything more. Both entries were very strong, but my vote goes to Rainboopz.


Parziivale

This was certainly a hard round to judge, without a doubt. Both competitors brought their absolute best game, played all their cards, and went all in for this competition.


SeseMiroh
Sesemiroh's round was a sight to behold, again balancing humor, drama, and action in the short span of 25 pages. An incredible feat, to be sure, and it matched the increasing darkness of the previous rounds to a tee.

There was certainly a risk here in concluding the round with Patrick's death and defeat, rather than Sohrab's. It could have been presented in a very skewed way with one contestant or another seemingly stronger than the other. However, the battle was played out in a very equal fashion, even with the factors of Angel and Ombra. The characters worked against each other as much as they worked together, and it was pulled off in an amazing way that showed both of the characters' strengths and weaknesses. As the final piece to a storyline, I feel like this is a very solid conclusion that tied up many of the lose ends in the story.

However, I think the biggest downside of this round is that I feel that several things were left unanswered that would have helped explain the end a bit more. How did Sohrab survive with his soul ring broken? What did Angel mean on page 24 when she said it was the only way to get back to where he came from? Did the ring of wishes override that rule and take him back to hell, or did it take him to a place he considers home? Why didn't Sohrab wish everyone back to health and where they were supposed to be like he was saying?

I feel like if these questions were a bit more clearly answered, it would have made for a tighter finale overall, but I can't deny that this is an absolutely fantastic round worthy of the heavens themselves.


Rainboopz
Shainbow, on the other hand, consistently amazes with expressions, body language, and color. The story was strong and the characters dynamic while also giving development to each of them. There were clear goals for everyone and actions like Sohrab's "And IIII doooon't caaaaare!" really cemented the personalties as solid and defined. The humor was a bit more imbalanced and at times feels a bit forced, but it evened itself out between hilarious cameos of deities and inappropriate moments of humor that are so non-sequitor they just made me laugh.

I feel, however, that while the story is strong, the structure of the comic itself is the biggest downfall. The panels at time seem cramped, and I think that the pages could have been separated into more cohesive sections, rather than the cutoff they were at. These two things combined made the story seem rushed at times, while simultaneously seeming drawn out and tedious, as too much time was spent on some scenes and not enough time on others.

Not only that, the quality drop in the art between the pages was a bit disconcerting to me, and it didn't really help the cohesiveness of the comic. While I understand life gets in the way of things, and there was certainly a huge time crunch for this comic, I think there should be some consistency within the round itself, not clean coloring on one page and messy coloring on another, and the sketchiness increased the rushed feeling of the story.

I did really enjoy your spin on the wish Sohrab's been working towards for the entire tournament, and it seemed very bittersweet at the end. A fantastic and fitting end to the tournament, I think, and an absolutely angelic conclusion of this character's current tournament storyline.



However, overall, the stronger story of Shainbow's comic could not outshine the structure, and Sesemiroh's clean overall round, although weaker, was better balanced, and thus my vote goes to SeseMiroh.


TournamentOfRings

First off, I need to say that I could not be happier with both of these rounds. I’ve spent many hours trying to figure out every inch of these comics, and even when I made a couple lists, it was a VERY close match. So congrats to both of you! But I bet you just want to know who won. So let us continue!

SeseMiroh
Soon as I started reading, I couldn’t help but start feeling the excitement. Right away you made Sohrab seem so in character so quickly was quite impressive. He even started one of his “Quick End” rants like he always does in his rounds, and then him cursing up quite a storm. As for the actual round, I can tell you were planning the end for quite some time! And your art style was perfect to show the power that Angel had, along with the horror of Ombra. Things just kept getting darker, and darker, and I could never see the end coming. In fact, the end caught me quite off guard. Patrick dying, along with Angel and her pet, was quite discomforting. I part of me wishs we allowed a couple extra weeks just to see how else you would have ended the tournament, but, it was an exciting ending nonetheless.

Rainboopz
The first page had me smiling like a child right away, and I loved how the details lowered when it got into the dark areas, adding to the effect (If you did that on purpose or not, it was lovely). And adding the inner fights that Patrick had with Shine and Elena was a wonderful touch and had me fangirling instantly. And using Devil the way you did gave me shivers down my spine, and fear what you were planning on using Patrick’s dark side for (Which by the way in your art style truly drove fear into me). The way you kept on beating up Sohrab made me think that you really did love him, and oh boy I could tell you were having too much fun with that. And showing Angels decent into madness was very exciting indeed. Needless to say, your ending was perfect, and I don’t have the slightest clue how else you would have ended your wonderful round.

This was an amazing round all around, and an incredibly hard one to judge!
But, my vote goes to Rainboopz. Congratulations!


First Place goes to Rainboopz with Sohrab! :thumb339510080:

Second Place winner is SeseMiroh with Patrick! :thumb339326241:

And of course, Third Place we know is Shes-t with Kaiden and Alastair!  :thumb340025331: :thumb340024417:

All the prize donators have been contacted, so the finalists should be hearing from them soon. If not, let me know and feel free to remind them with a note.

Congratulations to everyone, winners and competitors all! We hope you've had a great time with this competition!