astro: you are incredible... this is such a good and fulfilling and satisfying story!! i was like "hmm they're developing this plan to stop riley a LITTLE quickly" but it's entirely justified with everything else you need to do in the later half of the comic, this really felt like a climactic culimination, it was excellent!!! so many cool effects, like ULTIMATE INDEX DARKNESS RILEY, and the goo citizens propped up against the window, all really doing excellent work with an otherwise two-tone comic. please rest (and then after resting plz draw that character i want you to draw okay i love you)

pita: it's always a little unfair to compare someone doing a perfectly respectable and impressive number of pages against someone who is a total monster, but while i did very much like the way this was written, with her monologue and the very clever action, merry definitely puts riley in a corner way faster than feels reasonable of someone of her power, which makes the whole thing feel real inconsequential. still, gosh, all those different one-shot riley styles are excellent!! this is still a very good comic!

Astro: God damn, 30+ pages in two weeks is amazing. this story was well done elegantly connecting everything and having an amazing meta narrative, I do want to see what happens to Riley after this but this story is also a good way to end her story if you want. This is simply a fantastic piece of work.

Pita: good job with this comic, I love your inks and even the unfinished parts work for the moments of tension cause it feels like the struggle is breaking the comic apart as well and i enjoy that. I will agree with corn's crit that i feel like you sidelined your own characters story. In particular I feel like Hunter got extremely sidelined and doesn't feel like much of a villain here. The fact he is able to work with Merry's demands and make things all turn out nicely makes him seem like a decent person who was just really stressed, which from how you have talked about him isn't what you want him to be coming across as.  That being said this is still a very good coming and good job on it.

oops double post

Amazing job guys, I thoroughly enjoyed both of these comics.

Pita- your arts solid, I really enjoy the way you drew Riley and all the different styles. The story was rather straight forward but still entertaining. I loved watching Merry beat the shit out of Riley, it was pretty funny.

Astro- you pushed your art and story telling to an epic level, this is easily one of the most creative stories I've read on void. The previous comments say it all you should be really proud!

I have been thinking how to put how I feel about these comics into words because there is a lot to parse and a lot on my mind. When I pitched this tournament a long while ago I had no idea that it would end this strong!

Astro I personally think this Riley comic may be one of my favorite comics on the site, this comic I think is the perfect storm of a void comic and the reason I like it so much is because I've come to realize that this comic could only exist within void as a site. Many comics on Void could be printed and would be great as a stand alone comic on their own, but I think this comic here is special because it works within the confines of what void as a comunity is and interpretes that as being literal. It is a meta narrative but not for the sake of visuales but rather a meta plot that focuses on the writing as it pertains to everyone else's interpretations of a character all while still using ideas that have been previously set up inside void as a comunity that we all agreed on as canon, like the Codex, timelines, universes, toons, and the setting of void itself as a city. It all meshes so well because Riley is a toon which is a play on media and it being literal in context to the real world so her existing outside of space and time makes perfect sense and doesn't make her feel like an omniscient god of a character because she is a toon and isn't always serious. Overall I love this comic because it could only have been made in context to this site, and this tournament missing any of the ingredients it would have felt too heavy or not had us the comunity for context that every version of Riley is actually our ideas of her and the comics of her made on the site itself. there is great set up and pay off for future stories as well. my one critique is some of it feels vague and if you have no context for how the comunity works this comic will come off as very confusing but overall it is really great!

Pita I think you did a great job but I fear you may have fallen for a trap I have noticed in tournaments. You let your opponent dictate the pace of your story, I feel you had a good idea of who Riley is but put your own characters story on the sideline to play catch up to make your opponent feel much more like a threat but I think a problem arises when you consider you have to put an entire stop to the momentum of your own story to pay due diligence to the plot of Astro's story. Over all I feel your comic is very competent and well made, but comes off a bit suddenly violent spirited and doesn't give a resolution to the problems you set up in your own story thus far, it lacks a satisfying conclusion for the plot.

Okay, so that was an incredible fucking read.  Ho-ly-shit.  I just can't comprehend how unbelievably skilled and dedicated you guys are.  Astro, Goddamn 37 pages WOW.  AND they all have an incredible polish!  I love your textures and stylish tricks (especially that BANG, probably the best font i've ever seen!).  Pita, thank you so much for the Terry cameo!  Your gesture and expressions are also amazing, and color though inconsistent, was overall very nice. Anyways, take a break, you earned it!

Great show both of you! I really enjoyed how both endings played out and I really hope this isn't the end for these characters because I've grown very attached!

Ohhhh man these were amazing to read. Really cool to see two overarching plots collide in this final battle!! Congrats to both of you for making it to the end

Pita - Okay first off I’m LOVING the use of the shadow hands to literally throw text boxes at Merry and Conway. It’s really clever and helps sell Riley as a being outside of their realm. Honestly I love a lot about how you rendered Riley - the saint-like panel, the shadow tentacles, etc. Really enjoyed the extreme angles you used in this too, like when Merry kicks out on page 5 and is being dragged towards the TV on page 8. I don’t have any crit, it’s just a shame you couldn’t finish!

Astro - ASTRO. ASTROOO THIS WAS SO FUCKING GOOD? It was so so satisfying to have Riley fully revealed and the way you wove in Merry’s story is just so good. How the hell did you include that comic page? “Hunter” only got uploaded a few days ago I’m?? The whole “Index” portion of the story in general was very creative, and a little mindfucky. I love this concept of a being who sees the scripts of characters’ lives and operates on a higher level to them. That part of the comic had a great surreal and ominous feel - Riley’s realistic eyes on page 31 and then her gaping maw on page 32 thoroughly creeped me out. The “oh shit” moment with Merry on page 29 was great. The last two pages were something else, damn. Also like the use of the blue bows to indicate brainwashed victims, and goes without saying, amazing job doing almost 40 pages for this battle too!

On the flip side, while I love this stark black and white look it also causes some issues. I find my eyes darting around the page as the solid black of clothing or backgrounds, combined with mostly white faces and thin lines, draw the eye away from more important things like speech bubbles or focus characters. The minimalist look also made things less clear for me - on page 3 especially I couldn’t exactly see what was going on. I also thought the chimp(?) butler switched from menacing bodyguard to ally to straight up killing Riley kind of suddenly. To me it wasn’t developed  or explained enough, and felt like it happened only for convenience or for the comic to end on a dramatic note.

See you later, alligator.