Re: ONE PART, MANY CHARACTERS contest……

[Herr D]

This one takes a bit. If you’re in a hurry, scroll to the end.

Item use went Floor: K-pattern plus insignia ‘factor‘, M- tattoo plus energy ‘factor’-even. Legwear: K-hairbow halves (!!) , M-buckler and neck piece (!)-switching armor location was good, but less ingenious, goes to K. Insignia: K- insignia (striping it !), M- repeated striped energy (!!) -M. Tie.
Backgrounds: no backgrounds–tie.
Backstory: M has one–M.
Name: tie. The apostrophe thing is cool, but so is the name scrunch.
Posing: Both are out of doll stance, which is, like, the first hundred points. M’s got the look of a warrior who just cocked his sixteen-soul shooter and can’t help but look at it’s power, giving his opponents the chance for a fruitless head start. The custom armor was obviously a lot of work. K went for the simple look, and I only know from experience that it was more work than it looks like at first. She looks like she is ready for anything and will outrun me. Tie.
Mystique: M’s energy vs. K’s Insignia drape. Tie.
Asymmetrical Flair: M’s warrior only needs a buckler on one arm, hinting by exclusion that the energy wielded is primarily offensive. Interesting. K’s created a diagonal look that I personally love down to the artfully mismatched shoes. K wins for flair.
Simple cool points: supernatural alien shogun vs. feline femme fatale–tie.
Nat-picking: Excellent hair choices for both. K’s mismatching the eye color and ear placement goes a long way toward hinting that Tigirl has mutant powers. M did a lot of patterning and resizing work to get that armor on the shoulders to look like an upper-body twist. Tie. NICE TOUCHES, GUYS.
Nit-picking: –K? I don’t see how the knife stays on her belt. Is that a ‘hip bone’ at the right side of her belt along with some upper leotard or is her scabbard happy to see me? Maybe that belt should have been two pieces joining under the loincloth? –M? I have to ask–would his eyes have been white if the background wasn’t? It can be a good design choice, but here it’s just too ambiguous for me. How did you do all that wonderful work around the breastplate and leave it alone? Even ‘masking off’ its right edge and tipping it a few degrees counter-clockwise would have been such a major improvement. Seriously, go look at sheering off his breastplate’s lower right edge with the inner edge of a massive crescent like Insignia Tech at 185 degrees rotation. You’ll be glad you did. —Tie.

Guys? I think this is the longest comparison critique I’ve written for this contest. I want both of you competing here regularly. You bring enough apples and oranges to the table for a week-long fruit salad!
Looking back through it, I have to value backstory over minor flair, since the three items were used less toward the flair, and more toward the general awesomeness that the backstory made.

Maaz? Congratulations. Pick three!