[oats]

Timeles: As always, your rhyming was excellent, and the lines were crisply written the whole way through. This is definitely a strong spot of yours, which is nice because strong rhyming always makes a verse more enjoyable for me. In the past I've critiqued you for over-indulging in your multis, which ends up distracting from the verse, but this week I think you did a great job marrying the two; the rhymes helped carry the verse without getting in the way.

Conceptually, I thought you could have settled on a single crux better. What I mean is, the conflict is introduced as a problem with humanity not accepting their role in lieu of the powers of Earth and Nature (as you distinguished). But after that, people didn't really play much a part at all until the end, taking a backseat between the clash of Earth and Nature, a distinction that I'm not sure if I really quite understand. I do like the idea of the elements at war with each other, resulting in the peace of continental formation (or land in general) a lot though, and would have liked to see this be the driving point of the verse. As it is now, it's dope, but feels a bit unfocused in spots.


Adonis: Interesting. In both good ways and bad ways. I think the angle you took here was interesting, taking the peaceful aims of christian doctrine as the destination point for all the wars in the middle east. It's definitely a more unique approach than your competitor's. It gives us a lot to chew mentally, and hints at the notion of whether or not wars can be justified, or if history proves that good intentions are of little import to the greater evils of war itself. If anything, I would have liked to see a bit more of a philosophical edge to the verse.

There was something funky about the writing though, and I say that because it's hard to pinpoint exactly what it was. After this I'll read the other votes and see if one of them defined it better than I did, but this felt a little off. Whether it was god talking about the necessity of bling, fast-forwarding through christian history, or seeming to blame Aquinas personally for all wars in the middle east, there was something off-center about it. That's not very constructive, so I'll say it like this: I would have liked to see God speak in a more consistent tone, and lingering on the wars waged in the name of christianity, taking a firmer position on them in the end. Blaming Aquinas himself as the spark of conflict seemed a bit much, but I can see how it derived from this quote so I can suspend my hesitation.


Vote: Fuck I feel like it's been weeks since I've read a battle with an immediately obvious winner. This is another close one that's hard to call because both succeeded in some ways, and flopped in other ways. Timeless murked the rhyming, but the idea seemed a little hollow. Adonis had a more original take on the topic, but his writing faltered. Neither quite executed their ideas to their fullest degree in my humble opinion. On the strength of his concept, I have to give it to adonis. Wouldn't be surprised to see timeless win this one, though.