We have some big hitters coming through into this round and they are being joined by Epics that I think folks will find interesting and I can see a scenario were none of the new thrill progress now? Will it happen, I'm not sure, could it happen, definately. Let's find out.
Look at the list of 8 Dredd stories below and tell me your top three:
1 (your favourite of the 8) will get 3 points
2 (your 2nd fav) will get 2 points
3 (your 3rd fav) will get 1 point
Advanced from the previous rounds:
City of the Damned (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-50-47-dont-bother.html) - Progs 393-406
Mechanismo (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/07/epics-43-41-these-stories-are-real.html) - Megs 2.12-2.17; 2.22-2.26; 2.37-2.43
Trifecta (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-31-29-reaching-for-heights.html) - Progs 1804-1812
Tour of Duty (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-28-26-sublime-and-ridiculous.html) - Progs 1649-1693
Next four from Dredd Epics Ranked:
Krong Islands (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-22-20-have-you-forgotten-about.html) - Megs 376-377, 386, 392-395
Fetish (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-22-20-have-you-forgotten-about.html) - Megs 3.25-3.29
Dark Justice (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-25-23-noble-failures.html) - Progs 1912-1921
Beyond the Call of Duty (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-25-23-noble-failures.html) - Progs 1101-1110
Voting will close on the morning of Wednesday 17th March and the 4 Epics with the most votes will progress to the next round.
All links go through to AlexF's simply brilliant Dredd Epics Ranked (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/) blog. You may need to scroll to find his write up of a particular story - but I'd suggest just reading the whole thing anyway - it's fantastic stuff.
Baffled by what's going on here - well we have a a thread for that (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47367.0) - though that might leave you more confused than anything.
Rules (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47367.msg1053448#msg1053448) for what they are worth.
Not sure about anything just ask and I'll blag it.
Based on what I have read...
1. Mechanismo
2. City of the Damned
3. Fetish
Beyond the Call of Duty was good but not too memorable. End of Days was good too for a recent epic, but I'll need to read it again collected to enjoy it more. Looking forward to seeing these other epics collected in the case files one day.
1. Dark Justice
2. Trifecta
3. Tour of Duty
Nothing changes
1 -city of the dammed
2 - tour of duty
3 - trifecta
Ooh this is getting interesting. After some thought....
1. Fetish. Although I'm not entirely sure what's going on, it's John Smith weirdness, Siku's unique take on Dredd and Devlin, and some spectacular imagery.
2. Tour of Duty
3. Mechanismo
The first time I haven't voted for City of the Damned. My nostalgia for it is now outweighed by the quality of the stories above.
A clear top two for me
1 Tour of Duty
2 Trifecta
Third place is harder. It's between 3 stories, none of which I consider to be epics: Beyond the Call of Duty, Mechanismo and Dark Justice.
So on a coin toss I'm going for
Beyond the Call of Duty.
1. Tour of Duty
2. Mechanismo
3. Fetish
SBT
No change for me:
1. Tour of Duty
2. Trifecta
3. Mechanismo
Only Beyond the Call of Duty comes close to getting into the top three here but I wouldn't have said it was an epic, personally.
My trio remains:
1) Trifecta
2) Mechanismo
3) Tour of Duty
Well I missed the chance to waffle about it last time; my top spot is Tour of Duty , which I can see dominating most of the rest of the tournament. And why not? I love Dredd isolated, frustrated, trying to make the best of his exile; I love his merry band of screw-ups (perenially unlucky Heck in particular); I love Sinfield as a villain - Dredd could face ranting madmen in his sleep at this point, but a career beaurocrat was a different matter; I love PJ as Mayor, and I love PJ vs Sinfield. It's all good!
Mechanismo clings on in there.
And I think I have to go for Trifecta again, even though objectively it's got real issues.
Would have loved to buck the prevailing trend and vote for the new crowd, but BtCoD is soild but not too remarkable; Dark Justice hits all the story beats we've seen before; I don't love Fetish too much, and I haven't read the Krong stories.
1. Tour of Duty
2. Mechanismo
3. Trifecta
No change!
1) Tour of Duty
2) Fetish
3) Krong Island (I'm aware this is a real reach to define as an epic but I love me some Lynch Dredd vs Ape action)
Is City of the Damned finally going to fall by the wayside?? Strong as some of the imagery and ideas are, I dare anyone to actually read it all through right now and tell me they find it satisfying all the way to the end.
(Mind you, we're still not quite at the stage of 'this epic is exciting and beautiful and 100% satisfying all the way through')
I am surprised that City of Damned lasted so long.
1Trifecta
2 Tour of Duty
Quote from: broodblik on 15 March, 2021, 11:38:38 AM
I am surprised that City of Damned lasted so long.
I quite agree there is such affection for it but having re-read it relatively recently (it was at the other end of my Prog Slog) some lovely art aside its really poor.
Still this is the beauty of a tourney like this - it doesn't matter what we think as individuals the voice of the people will stand!
1. Beyond the Call of Duty
2. City of the Damned
3. Mechanismo
What is also nice about this tourney it give me a focus point on certain stories that I need to revisit especially something like Tour of Duty
Quote from: AlexF on 15 March, 2021, 11:30:05 AM
1) Tour of Duty
2) Fetish
3) Krong Island (I'm aware this is a real reach to define as an epic but I love me some Lynch Dredd vs Ape action)
Is City of the Damned finally going to fall by the wayside?? Strong as some of the imagery and ideas are, I dare anyone to actually read it all through right now and tell me they find it satisfying all the way to the end.
(Mind you, we're still not quite at the stage of 'this epic is exciting and beautiful and 100% satisfying all the way through')
City of The Dammed is about 100 times better than the very poor barely-drawn Krong Island. Jake lynch can turn out a stunning one off Dredd image pushing all our McMahon / Cam buttons but both Krong Island (a decent joke character stretched too far) and The Red Queen (intermibly dull) suffer from very under-drawn art with a near total absence of backgrounds and locations. Neither of these are Epics, they're just overlong minor Meg stories.
Tour of Duty
Trifecta
Beyond the Call of Duty
*Chef's kiss to Judge Roffman
1st: City of the Damned - this still feels the most epic and long-lasting. Dredd's bionic eyes became part of the lore, it tied up the Owen Krysler loose end and it had a really memorable scene where Dredd uses his command presence to get them through a tight spot. The others just aren't as memorable or as epic for me. (Mechanismo, I love - but it was a series of shorter tales - it never had the epic scope. And Dark Justice is amaze-balls to look at, but ultimately doesn't add anything to anything.)
2nd: Trifecta - mostly for the grand reveal, and for Sensitive Klegg. The plot was silly. All that effort of flying a bit of the moon to Earth could have been spent just taking over the city with conventional weapons.
3rd: Tour of Duty - a grand sequence, but it probably does more for PJ Maybe's arc than anything else.
Sticking with my previous 3 - Beyond the Call of Duty is tempting, But Tour of Duty sticks - love all those Post-Pit DeMarco tales though
1: Mechanismo
2: City of the Damned
3: Tour of Duty
1. Tour Of Duty
2. Trifecta
3. Mechanismo
1. city of the damned
1. City of the Damned
2. Mechanismo
3. Tour of Duty
These come round quickly don't they!
Same as last time for me, as predicted in an almost Judge Child way in the opening post... SPOOKY!
1. Tour of Duty
2. City of the Damned
3. Mechanismo
No change here either!
City of the Damned
Tour of Duty
Mechanismo.
1 Tour of Duty
2 Mechanismo
3 Beyond the Call of Duty
Votes coming in thick and fast for this one. Don't forget only two days so we'll be closing this one up in the morning and announcing the result. At this point not sure which way this will go at all so those late votes could really change things.
- Tour Of Duty
- Trifecta
- Dark Justice
1st - Tour Of Duty
2nd - Trifecta
3rd - Mechanismo
1 - Tour of Duty
2 - Mechanismo
3 - Beyond the Call of Duty
1. Tour of Duty
2. Machanismo
3. Beyond the call of duty
VOTING CLOSED
Well I said at the kick off of this one the four that progressed into this round could march through and low and behold that's what happened, but it the extend to which they sweep the new Epics aside that astonished me:
Tour of Duty - 55 points
Mechanismo - 29 points
Trifecta - 25 points
City of the Damned - 23 points
Going into the 28 - 21 position play off:
Beyond the Call of Duty - 8 points
Fetish - 7 points
Dark Justice - 4
Krong Island - 1
There's barely been a change in the voting, Trifecta popped ahead of City of the Damned, but that was always neck and neck and its the gap between those thrill and the new following pack that surprised me. I did wonder how popular Beyond the Call of Duty and Dark Justice would be? And while they drew votes it wasn't even close.
Looking at the Epics coming into Round 8 I do wonder if we'll get a similar situation next time in Round 8. Join me tomorrow and we'll start to find out...
Because none of the 4 disappeared are epics.
Quote from: BPP on 17 March, 2021, 11:28:38 AM
Because none of the 4 disappeared are epics.
Personally I'm just voting for my three favourites in each round; nothing to do with what I do or do no consider an epic.
Aye, there's a whole other thread about what makes a Dredd story an 'epic'. I've just gone with my three favourites too, and it's a snappier name for the tournament than Long Dredd Stories Ranked.
Yeah and we had that whole thread of aghast comments - a lot from me I'll hold my hand up - over X-Mas about AlexF's magnificent list and it seemed fun to tie it all back to where the idea stemmed. As I always say rather than moan do something about it - which is what this is.
AlexF's list and definiations can't be saluted enough, while being pulled down - as he had the gumption to do the work. was brave enough to try to get to a definition - and stick to it (mainly) and also create a way to score things which he also stuck to. That's why I love seeing AlexF's votes here, often different when unrestrained by this system... hmmm ... there's a link back to Dredd there somewhere isn't there...
One of the reasons I started that other thread was just to find out what people thought about definitions - and I learned a lot from it.
I vote entirely inconsistently between rounds, I've noticed. It's very much "how do I feel right now" and "I have a better memory of what happened in the 80s than at any other time in my life".
I've definitely not voted for some stuff because it didn't feel epic enough - and having looked back at Alex's list there's some good stories coming up but (assuming they stay in the running) I'm not sure I can see my votes changing until we get to The Pit.
It's an interesting exercise nonetheless!
It's not a complaint, it's just a fairly obvious statement of why these 4 very different stories failed to make a dent. I mean I can't even remember Beyond even tho I'll know what happened character development wise in/from it. They're all very different things story ' art ' character wise but what they all share is that basically they aren't epics while 3 of the 4 that survive most definitely are.
Quote from: Barrington Boots on 17 March, 2021, 03:37:31 PM
...I'm not sure I can see my votes changing until we get to The Pit.
It's an interesting exercise nonetheless!
Arh but by the time we get to The Pit the whole tourney will be about to change up as we head to the knockouts!
Fascinating to watch it all unfold!
The bunching is interesting, Tour of Duty way out ahead, Mechanismo/Trifecta/City of the Damned all fairly close and then the rest. I think that's broadly fair to be honest. The top four are all strong.
Dark Justice does have gorgeous art though.