Quarterfinals: 1. El Pancake vs. 5. Eŋg \\ Eŋg wins 6-(-3)

[kannon]

Eng. I think this is the first time I've gotten to vote on one of your battles. I'm used to seeing crazy inner rhyme schemes, but this one is a bit simpler. But still effective, as the story felt complete and not forced. After reading split vs yoda, this again seems to be told from the position of a soldier, who's just won a war and seems numb to the affects. Seems to say that the past victories haven't prevented the current wars and that this one won't prevent the next. All we can do is simply live in the now and be as we are. The imagery was strong and I feel like your word selection was borderline beautiful in places. Overall this was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Pancake. You opened a little slow this week. The first 8bars actually were a bit slow, and you picked up in the last chunk. I felt like the description in the first segment was a little plain. "auburn hair. Angry." and the cilantro line felt weird. I imaging you didn't mean the had cilantro on the piano, but that's immediately what I envisioned. The second chunk kind of rounded out your protagonist a bit. Gave her some dimension as far as her seemingly juxtaposed personality. The last section tied it all together for me. It feels like she was maybe a prodigy in her younger years, and at some point she missed what could have been her break. So now she plays with the memories of the passion she had, while feeling like the purpose behind it is gone. The ending was a great wrap up to an otherwise good lead up.

Shit, this is a close one. I feel like eng had a consistently dope piece, while pancake had a piece that crescendoed into an awesome close. while I felt both were well written, I've gotta err on the side of consistency and give it to Eng.