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Law of Talos: WINNER

Journal Entry: Wed May 13, 2009, 11:07 PM
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AND THE WINNER OF LAW OF TALOS IS:

:iconblacklillian:

BlackLillian

Judges' Comments:

"This was seriously the hardest judging I've had to do. I kept going back and forth. There were so many things I like about both, and things that I thought maybe one did better than the other. But finally I came to a conclusion of BlackLillian. I thought long and hard as to why and it would have to be her talent for story telling. I was compelled the entire time. I even sided with the wrong intentions at one point, with the evil and inhuman desires. The story and characters drew me in that much, to the point where the story was steering me. I felt my gut wrenching and twisting as the story went on just from suspense. That's what a true OCer should do, make you not only read the story, but be completely involved in it, both finalists reached that level, but I thought she went above and beyond. I not only fell in love with the characters, but their story as well. I tip my hat to both finalists on a very excellent job well done, and the most enriching experience I’ve had in the field of art thus far. Thank you."


"BlackLillian's entry can be condensed into a single, potent word of resonant power: Finality.

It's been a long, hard road for our beloved contestants. And a long time coming. But I'm pleased to say that, in the end, neither contestant disappointed.

It's been a difficult round to select a winner for. Both entries were extravagant, providing us with heart-racing action and compelling storytelling. So many familiar faces made their appearances in the journey towards the final, epic struggle that culminates over the skies of Talos.

But in the end.... in the very end, there can only be one victor. My vote has been cast towards that weaver of the most magnificent tale I've ever read in a sequential piece, Blacklillian.

Do not be fooled by my choices. Unknown-Person's entry was captivating, incredibly vibrant, and an eye-opener into the man behind the ceramic mask of possibly one of the most intriguing hollow villains I've ever come across.

But in the end, we are not hollow at the core. We are men of flesh and blood and pulse with life. In the same fashion, Blacklillian's entry resonated the very pulse of Talos, so much so I could see how fate determined that the final wish must be a joint effort: a unanimous, albeit subconscious, choice that linked the Professor's final wish to that of the city was the only power mighty enough to bring the dead back to life.

In the end, all things must be brought to their Finality.

And for me, it is =BlackLillian who has realized this Finality in Talos."


"First off, I would like to make an announcement, in which I thank all the fans that have patiently waited for the results without much complaint. I have, after 20 days of struggling and oggling at mindbreakingly awesome entries, come to a decision, which will, most definitly be bawwww'd over at one point or another. To these people I say "CRY SOME MORE!" and challenge them to judge these two amazing entries without bias. And now for my actual judgement.

Though, as I said before, both entries were spectacular and amazing, I have seen both, flaws as well as strong points, that made it even more difficult for me to come to a conclusion. What one did, the other didn't, and vice versa. So, I went back, and judged the entries in their entirety. Meaning, I went and looked at all their entries they have submitted to the Law of Talos tourney, to see how their finale plays out, and fits into their scheme.

=BlackLillian always had a fluid style of storytelling, quick-witted humour, and amazing ideas.

*Unknown-person had smooth animations that were absolutely stunning, as well as an intriguing character.
But, in the end, I can only choose one.

I vote =BlackLillian as winner, because overall, her entries had a constant fluid story, that was punctuated with quotes that underlined that particular fight with so much more, and I had the feeling that her story kept one constant goal in mind: the wish. Which in the end was used for a different purpose than originally intended, giving it a whole new fresh turn. The use of other contestants also didn't seem out of the blue, and introduced a completely new storyline, which blended into the whole tournament, and became the main plot. Best of all to me, was the feeling of conclusion.

Though I praise =BlackLillian I also admit that there were a few flaws (in my opinion), that did not sit well with me. While Karl's character portrayal worked well with her entry, it didn't quite feel right to me.


But, to be brutally honest, *Unknown-person's animations are nothing to sneeze at either. I was, and still am, in total awe at what he conjured up every time for the whole tourney, and then squeezing in some more. But, unfortunately, this made his entries very erratic to me.
Though past occurrences were explained, or hinted at, and some things that were happening at the same time shown, it gave his story an inconsistent feeling. My next point may just be me being nit-picky, but I did not like the choice of voice for some of the characters, (this is not something I weighed in heavily)and the professor quoting the raven was horribly predictive, and was anti-climatic for me.

Overall, I went with =BlackLillian's entry, because to me, it fit better in the context, and the story-telling appealled more to me.
Both contestants did amazing jobs, and would have deserved the win equally. Thank you for entering you two, and thank you for following and watching this tourney."


"Both entries were completely and utterly spectacular and if I could flake out and call it a draw I would, but alas a tournament needs a winner, one winner so I have to take a step back and look at this as critically as possible. Still I don’t want to sound too harsh and I would like to emphasize how grand both contestants did, so I’ll to try start with the more negative and end with the more positive although it probably won’t work out exactly that way.

Unknown-person’s animation was epic as per usual, but some parts were maybe too epic? What I mean by that is there were certain scenes that were addressed so that they felt extremely important, but these same scenes felt only a split second long, not nearly long enough. It is hard for me to say something like that because I know he’s a great guy and I’m very much aware of how much time and effort Unknown puts into his animations. Telling him he should put even more time into it, time he probably doesn’t even have, feels like it’s wrong. However truth is he is very good at certain types of scenes, the sort of edge of your seat scenes (often with fighting) for example, and I felt he should have focused a tad bit more on them as they are one of his strengths. That’s not to say he should have focused only on them or less on the calmer dialogue scenes, but balancing it a little more would have been nice. There is also the fact that things did not feel quite as neatly tied up as they could have been. I was expecting a sort of epiphany moment where everything came together and I would be blown off my feet. That moment didn’t really come, at least not as powerfully as it should have. There were plenty of times in the tourney where I felt myself hoping Unknown would make it to the end so I could see how things tied in his grand finale and indeed things came together and made an excellent end, I was just expecting it to fit a little more in my mind.

However as I stated earlier Unknown’s animation was still epic and still had that charm all his works do, comic or animation regardless. It’s hard to even place what makes Unknown’s works so good. Contrary to popular (and unfortunate) belief it is NOT simply because it is animated. As a matter of fact I think his regular comics are every bit as wonderful and charming as his animations. Unknown’s works are almost like an addiction, something you love and keep coming back to but if asked why you’re not even sure what to answer. The characters are amazing, some are more archetypes than others but all have a distinct and unique quality to them. The writing is wonderful and although I give great respect to the voice actors who graciously give their talents to Unknown’s aid, I think even subtitled only his works would still retain their quality. All of his animations and comics seem to flow perfectly and this latest entry is no exception. A lot of amateur and aspiring artists seem to have these moments of “dead air” speckling their works, but Unknown has eliminated them. Every single second feels important and feels needed. From dialogue scenes to fight scenes to any other scenes they move seamlessly and keep you glued to your screen. Unknown continues to amaze and inspire awe with his works.

Blacklillian’s entry is incredible and her comic is an amazing read. Admittedly though, I had to convince myself to actually read it in the first place. Indeed I knew it would be amazing as always but the length did intimidate me at first. I don’t even know that it was the longest entry of Lillian’s or even of the tournament but none the less sometimes with these longer entries I find myself thinking perhaps some of it could be condensed in some places. Now I know I seem to be contradicting myself here. First I say Unknown should lengthen in parts and now I say Lillian should shorten in parts. Make up my mind, huh? Well I guess it’s all about the balance, its quality over quantity but that doesn’t mean quantity should be ignored. Before you flip out at me though, calm down and read on because the truth is although this still felt a bit lengthy it also felt like the length was better handled than some of her previous entries. Some of the inserted text between panels felt like it was getting a bit too tedious and maybe a few of them wasn’t needed but it didn’t so much detract as just feel unnecessary.

However everything felt much more needed and in place than before. The length wasn’t all that bad and other than perhaps some of the placed text, it mostly felt that the panels were all quite necessary. Everything just simply seemed to fit in place like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and there wasn’t a single panel where I was confused as to what was going on, which is nice in these types of tournaments. Not only that but one problem I had with a few of Lillian’s previous entries was the slight lack of focus on her opponent. I feel an original character battle should focus on the original characters, specifically your OC and your opponent’s OC, not so much your own OC and non contestant OCs or contestant OCs who you aren’t even facing. Lillian did a fantastic job this round of keeping to her own story and tying in all the other characters without loosing focus on her opponent. It felt like every panel of the entry was important but the focus was on The Professor and Annie and Karl and the rest of the cast was support, major support and very important, but still support. That is how I believe it should be. Finally the way every single part of every entry tied in at the end for a grand finale of epic proportions was simply amazing. Once again Lillian shows her mastery of writing and gives you intense moments of emotion and amazement you can’t quite get anywhere else. Reading the last few panels of her final entry actually gave me goose-bumps (the good kind). Right down to the last line it was a fantastic ending."


"Wow. For many days that’s all I could think to write. Wow, and golly and jeez and holycrapIcan’tbelievehejustdidthat. What a simply incredible journey all of this has been, for both the contestants and the characters. I’m still sitting back in my chair, rereading and rewatching and just thinking to myself “how the hell do they do that?” Because our two finalists are nothing short of magicians, crafting an illusion that has roped this judge in from round one and continues to surprise at every turn. Aside from both contestants’ obvious artistic skill (which is, as an understatement, over-frakkin-9000), both of them told a story of epic proportions, and I was captivated by each of them. They both took the concept of Law of Talos and the Law itself and applied it in very different ways, but it both simply worked, and it worked so well that, after finishing each entry, I went “I wish I could’ve thought of that.” Twice. In both cases. Put =BlackLillian and *Unknown-person on the list of people whose brains I aspire to devour in the unrealistic thought that it’d somehow make me think like them. You two have done a stupendofantastinredibawesometastic job, and you should both be incredibly proud of all your work.

Now for the actual judging part. It was incredibly, incredibly difficult to stack these two entries up against one another, and this decision took a long time of thinking and mental bouncing back and forth. Here’s what I liked: I liked Unknown’s use of the Law of Talos as an energy source that was going to get something out of Karl, and the way that Karl constantly pushes right up against telling us what happened, making it all very very clear, but never actually says it, or anything. It works so well for the character, and it builds a lot of intrigue that lasts for long after you read through it. I liked Lil’s mental overload that Karl had to go through, that part gave me chills while I was reading it and every time since I’ve read it. I liked that both contestants played with the idea of the loss of someone special as a motivator, and where it took the characters that were left. I liked, well, all of it. I loved all of it. Every twist and every turn, and I’ve been very close to just saying “there should be two official winners”, and leaving it at that. Because they both deserve it. However, the idea of a tournament is that one man (or woman) comes out on top and so I had to resort to being incredibly nitpicky to even decide who might have possibly had an edge. I loved Lil’s overarching story, her heart wrenching moments in the Professor’s fight against Karl, and her way of tying this entire tournament together. Unknown took his in a different direction which I was very surprised to see, and also made me entirely rethink my personal views on what the Law of Talos is. Karl is a very, very compelling character, one that is truly a character that people love to hate, but love all the same. The way Unknown handled us getting to know Karl, and the glimpses we got of him throughout the story, and then the final confrontation, the final "mistake"...it was just brilliant, in this humble judge's opinion. It kept me wanting more, every time, and left me with a lot to think about and to wonder over at the end of each entry. However, Lil's story...the whole thing, all I can think to say is simply "wow", and press the back button and reread it again and again. Blacklillian truly took the city of Talos and the law of Talos, and made it her own, but still shared it with everyone that was along for Annie and the Professor's incredible ride. And that is what stood out most for me, at the end of the day (or many, many days, as the case may be). =BlackLillian is a masterful storyteller, and I am lucky to have been part of something that has her touch in it in such a powerful way, and the whole experience was better off for it."



Congratulations, Lil. Thanks for the epic tale you shared <3







Thank you to everyone for your overwhelming patience, it has not been an easy decision in any way, shape or form. You'll notice a few boxes of the journal missing - that's because I felt it was important to have just the things directly related to Law of Talos, and stress those who deserve it, the contestants and, of course, our exceptionally talented winner. And I also want to take this opportunity to say that every contestant we've had in this tournament has really been stellar and has helped it end on such an incredibly awesome note. And every last one of them deserves a plug. So here they are, in their original, random order:

:iconendling::iconblacklillian::iconclairvoire::iconexileddelusion:
:iconrikyo::iconthejohnsondesign::iconunknown-person::iconcailencrow:
:iconconcentrationmoon::iconzeurel::iconizuma::iconzombiesmile:
:iconiris-zeible::iconrave8259::iconzen-dragon-pyro::iconzombiebunnypro:
:iconrocker-artist::iconkilojara16::iconcyrilthewizard::iconshikakusuika:
:iconlan-kun::iconlanhao::iconconartist18::iconhaveconquest:
:iconmarcks::iconmanic-pixie::iconcirihtt::iconauryn:
:iconlunacat-chan::iconprominenceflare::icongaragos::icongottschalk::icondevilchicka:




Also, while this should really go without saying, I understand if you disagree with a ruling, but express that discontent in a way that is disrespectful to ANY of the contestants in this entire tournament and I will hide your comment, because you wouldn't even be worth their time. All of them worked incredibly hard these past months, and they don't deserve any crap from anyone. You have been warned.







I will update these with the newest Spectator Entries as well as a few randomly chosen from the full list. See the full list here: [link]




OC contests still accepting auditions, for those who want to get in the game! (and some that have started but are worth a look regardless!)

:iconmonochromemarkets: :iconleft4dafangirls: :icondeviantdead: :iconmynameismad: :iconebon-spire-oct: :iconjoshing3the7kokiri: :iconganondorfthethird: :iconbonds-of-string: :iconplushiepowercomics: :iconember-aka-kit: :iconneverland-nevermore: :iconstripeymistress: :iconmonogatarioct: :iconwonder-works: :iconclockhat-productions: :iconintheworldoftheroyal: :iconmippins: :icontheradioshow:

And, of course, there are leagues you can get in on: :iconroninsultramix:'s SDL league, and a new up-and-coming league worth checking out: :iconea-lec:

An awesome, easy-to-follow guide to current and past OC Tournaments: :iconoctfollowers:

If you know of any others, feel free to suggest them so I can feature them!




:iconartistsforcharity: :icondropbydropproject:


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Journal CSS code is an adaptation of a code of ¢mynti's and `Lilyas's. Brushes by ~SummerAIR
  • Mood: Astonished

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Devious Info

  • Current Residence: Tennessee right now :)
  • Interests: Everything! No, really. Everything. Ever.
  • Favourite movie: Iron Giant
  • Favourite genre of music: A little bit of everything, really.
  • Favourite artist: Paul Kidby, Shaun Healey, Gunnerromantic, Jason Chan...and many more.
  • Favourite poet or writer: Terry Pratchett, Susanna Clarke
  • Wallpaper of choice: Space Art, how I love you <3
  • Favourite game: Duck Hunt! AND Portal!
  • Favourite gaming platform: anything and everything
  • Favourite cartoon character: ...Can I name Tex Avery as a cartoon character?
  • Tools of the Trade: paper, pencil, clipboard, music, and a left hand (occasionally Photoshop 7.0 or Painter X)

Comments


thank you for the fav!

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:shithitsthefan:
hello again i must say u r a genius for making law of talos its awasome

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Icon made by [link]
i love this song its so sad*crys* [link]
hi im natalie and i have a question did u make law of talos?

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Icon made by [link]
i love this song its so sad*crys* [link]
Yes, she organized the tournament.

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"I was destined to be a wanderer."
~Hayashi Fumiko
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SDL Gallery: [link]
SLI: [link]
Status: Busy. Not accepting duels
oh ok thanks ^^

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Icon made by [link]
i love this song its so sad*crys* [link]
omg, if you ever make another flash like Law of Talos, can my OC Amythest be in it? LoT is the reason i made Amythest in the first place, so yeah, it would be an honor if you did that :D
parallel OCT's coming this summer
~Quest4DevouringBlade ~QuestofSwordofShield

^_^

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a breeze from the south wraps you in a warm embrace as the scent of the sea fills the air.
:paranoid: whispers of upcoming Thear OCT [link]
I believe the decision was well made. Both contestants were great and did some really cool stories. Way to go Lillian! :)

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How about you cut the crap and start running!
i. dont. want. to. work. XDDDD therefore i'm on dA stalking you.

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got physics? <3
lolll so on that note, rich just came by and put my account to sleep. XD luckily i knew how to "wake it up" again. bastard XD

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got physics? <3
annnnd i signed up for 10 shifts in Utah with my chain-smoking grad student. Sounds greeeeaaaat. I'm so looking forward to it XD
:3

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got physics? <3
XD I didn't realize you added 2 more comments, haha. But yes. Sounds like a blast. XD I noticed that almost all of the postdocs smoke, even though you're not really supposed to on campus > 3> I don't think. Silly people.

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The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser - in case you thought optimism was dead. ~Robert Brault
of course they all smoke. XDD physics, it's stressful business. I'll be telling you the full story tonight if you're online XD we were actually playing D&D last night, and simon is such a good DM :D michelle and i got experience points for acting XD cus we were constantly speaking in dwarven.

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got physics? <3
Are you gonna another have another tournament.

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Death my gate way to hell
your gate way to heaven
Which to choose
I choose life
you choose death.
I'm not planning on hosting another one, no. But there are OCTs all over DA, a little bit of digging (or simply going to *OCTFollowers) will uncover a pot of OCT gold~

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The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser - in case you thought optimism was dead. ~Robert Brault
Hey, :iconthecrowchan: mentioned you in her journal, so I thought I should check out your page.

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"Prepare yourself. You'll get no sympathy from me."

~Ike (Super Smash Bros. Brawl)

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