Oculama

This one was the real sinch choice. This was **The Hardest Decision Yet.** And good lord it wasn't easy. Wgnis composition and Narrative Momentum vs Bluegills Polish and Presentation. Bluegill had the fucking pure magic of the caves feel on LOCKDOWN and had some fantastic pages depicting the caves, one of if not the best visual depiction of actual traversal through the caves and descending deeper and deeper still. On the other hand, Wgni's momentum reaching its zenith with Freya finally making it to seemingly her final destination, with the help of Sandmouse having such a great dynamic and genius layouts for the pages of Freya traversing a deeper and darker, more claustrophobic part of the tunnels within the Leviathan. It's harsh, it's dismal, it sells itself so fucking WELL. I truly had to pick myself at the brain to even try and formulate a decision about this one. The Tragedy of Bluegills ending having Freyas story end with one Grim mistake, not having the flags be placed in an uncharted territory within the caves was realll compelling-- and it had to contend with Freya finally making her way through the caverns and discovering the deepest part of the Leviathan and some ancient city that Sandmouse had discovered prior ??!! (BTW shouts outs to Bluegill for having some of the ROUGHEST and most SWIFT, BRUTAL ENDS to characters that isn't even a death tourney, I certainly did not expect that and was floored when they chose to kill off both Slug Licker and Freya) good fucking god I had to actually pace around my room for this one. But I think that the intrigue of the city and the despair with Freyas death almost served as an indication that in my head, I wanted to see Freya's ending and what she was looking for. I was compelled, and I wanted to see it towards its end. This tourney could have really ended here and it would have been satisfying for me either way, there's just as much of a reason for Sandmouse to have won as Freya and GODDD that's why this one hurt. I just had to follow my heart on this one and my heart belongs to Freya

congratulations you two on making it to the semi finals both your stories were so exciting to read and im foaming at the mouth to see who wins!!

the encyclopedic moments of the round are such a nice blend between the two chracters and methods of storytelling yall have cultivated up to this point and a dash of horror i love to see in both your rounds!!

keep up the great work into the next round i eagarly await to see which of us makes it to the finals!!!

@Bluegill - Up front, my absolute favorite thing about this comic is how you fully explore the magic of the chasm, making it feel wondrous and fascinating, and absolutely worth exploring, without sacrificing the sense of danger that pervades it. That danger is present at the beginning, felt explicitly at the end, and the bookending in that way leaves the reader (and the OCs within the story) no excuse for forgetting how perilous a place this is.

This is easily one of the most polished-looking pieces of the round, and I'm adoring how well the pixel style fits the cavern, and helps deepen the sense of mystery and magic you're pursuing here. It puts on (obviously, I guess) in mind of an adventure video game, with all the deep exploration of the elements in the cave that that would entail.

And just how deep in the paint Freya and Sandmouse get examining the pieces of the chasm is another appeal - the map-making segments, both the construction process and the actual exploratory parts, take the action at a refreshingly sedate pace that we don't always get to enjoy in an OCT. And that very same pace makes the ending all the sharper.

An absolutely lovely look at the chasm overall, and a very charming combination of the characters therein. Great work!

PS - was this match supposed to be a deathmatch? I didn't get that impression from WGNI's comic, and Freya's demise in this felt completely out of left field.

@WGNI - This comic is quite the showcase in communicating the feelings and hardships of the characters like a bolt to the chest. Some of your best stuff so far in the tournament!

First up, I am impressed with how thoroughly your comic both shows and makes the reader feel the exhaustion and perilous boredom that Freya is undergoing in the chasm. The repetition, the vile diet, and the quiet hostility of her surroundings are so oppressive that I genuinely felt relief when she first found the flags.

Page 5 is doing SO MUCH, and I love every bit of it - the layout of panels as sections of a tunnel is great not just in concept, but in how you execute it, and show Freya navigating every section of it up to the legitimately discomforting tunnels at the end where I could feel goosebumps on my own neck from a sense of sympathetic claustrophobia.

You also do a REALLY good job of extending that sense of claustrophobia to the subsequent pages - the narrow, darkness-choked "panels" on sic pake excellent use of the head-on perspective to show the utter helplessness of Freya's position, and the extreme close-up on her face in 7 does double duty of emphasizing the constriction of the space, and showing of Freya's unraveling in that chokepoint in loving detail in the contortions of her face.

Sandmouse, quiet though he might be, gets a lot across through expression alone; his concern for Freya and determination to help are writ large in his actions, and I ADORED the confident look of assurance before scampering off to find help.

I really dig having salvation come in the form of a giant. A sly little (though little is relative, of course) visual gag on Freya's size relative to Sandmouse.

And that reveal at the end! A VERY exciting peek at what's yet to come for our entrepid explorers. Great stuff altogether - a genuinely hard-hitting ride that makes you feel all the joy and frustration of the characters right in your heart.