Gala Regalis, Final Round

good job finalists! Radji: Strong balance of softness and grittiness, it had a good bittersweet ending and creative use of the relationship with ants and fungi Shen: This is one of your strongest scripts on the site, possibly my current favorite. I'm blown away by how you handled the candy kingdom ultimately being a symbol for childhood innocence as both siblings realize it's something they can't get back because of the dark realities of growing up (without spoiling or triggering in the comments: the issues being internal for sully, external for wendy). I think you really nailed this one, bravo Fluff: Great job getting this far, this has one of the more shocking and brutal deaths in the gala and it gets points for that. I also liked seeing you weave the royals of castle abatashe into the culmination

This was an amazing final round! Radji- That was an interesting twist! I wasn’t expecting that. Those spores are pretty powerful. Very enjoyable, entertaining read. Shen- This was some impressive storytelling! The characters were all well balanced in this, and it was an engaging read. Fluff- I like that energy that Royal Bastard has. How he killed the other characters was pretty creative. Great job, all of you! This battle is one of my favorite death matches, it was that good! :)

Wow! :O All of these were incredible! Brutal, bloody and beautiful! Radji: The beginning started so sweet (pun intended). I liked the friendship Kiski built with he candy twins. The transition to the darker rest of the comic was done well and so was Kiski's self sacrifice. The ending with her holding a funeral for the twins was gut wrenching. Really good job! Shen: I love your use of color. The red in the hallway scene on page 3 brought a sense of dread to me. Almost like foreshadowing to the gore that would soon come. Also I know I've said this in previous rounds but I love the twin's interactions with each other. You write siblings really well. And that conversation on page 3/4... Oof. That hit me. I hope they find a good therapist after this. Fluff: Roan's evolution has been incredible to see. I can tell you put a lot of thought into his character and he's made an excellent villain for this round. The deaths were absolutely brutal and disturbing. And I love Roan's sadistic smile. Good luck to all three of you! Each of these comics are equally amazing in my opinion

Awesome final round guys! Radji: Very good inks and being able to do 2 comics in a week is something I'm amazed by! Shen: Very cool final round, loved how you constructed the story beats and the plot! Fluff: Awesome character, RB is one my fav recent characters!!! Brutal deaths and action!

Super great comics everyone, I love death tournaments. Radji - You made Roan so sadistic and terrifying, in the best ways. Kiski being lonely at the end is such a sad ending, but very fitting for this tournament. The small details you put into your inkwork is always a delight to see, too! Shen- What a tragic ending, I love it! The limited color palette worked really well for this, and I liked the expressions you used in the comic. The cocoon looked so eerie at the beginning, lol! Fluff - Loved the deaths you did for this round, absolutely brutal! I think his killings being aimless and just a matter of course is completely in character for someone who's entire existence has been based on consuming others and gaining power, I really enjoyed his baby-to-villain arc. Always a big of your expressions and the body language you give characters!

Roan really was the star of the show here, huh. The hype was well placed. Radji- a strong showing as always. Your ability to get so much done in such little time will never not astonish me, doing both a beyond battle and tourney comic within the one week timeframe. I've been finding recently that a simple premise with excellent execution often leads to an excellent read, and that's definitely the case here. Just enough setup to get us to the main event with, in my opinion, the most twisted variation of the Royal Bastard, with no motivation beyond his own sick pleasure. You've been going strong this whole tournament and I definitely hope that gets reflected in the scores. Shen- I think this is definitely the strongest of your entries for this tournament, and imo the entry with the strongest writing out of the three comics for this round. The tension between Wendy and Sully in the begining and the sour resolution to that conflict at the end is just excellent to me. Even in the end, their story isn't a happy one. I recall you saying you started from the end and worked to the front with your sketching and inking and I think It definitely paid off. Having those detailed expressions at the end, where they were most needed, was the right move. Fluff- I'll say it, I think this was your weakest entry for this tournament. The writing fell kinda flat for me. Roans motivation here felt weaker than the other two entries, and a lot of it just seems to be roan being a bastard for the sake of showing he's a bastard. I get that that's the character, but in previous entries you were able to mix that bastard-ness with some idea of a goal being worked towards. Yes, he's despicable, but not in a way that comes off as all that interesting. At least not to me. The character potential is definitely there, I just think it could have been capitalized on more effectively.

These better be the grossest comics I will ever see or else I’ll be really disappointed.