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V5 BKA/BDA Voting: All-That-Time-Since-August Edition
Topic Started: Jan 11 2014, 01:45 AM (757 Views)
MurderWeasel
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Alrighty, guys! Here, as announced a few times, is the much-delayed BKA/BDA voting thread. We went ahead and left in any death/kill done between the last announcement and now because a lot of stuff got lost in the crash, including, among other things, some records of extensions/when stuff got done. Also, every death and kill from after was notably late to the point that there would be no contest if we didn't include them.

Do not get used to this. With the crash behind us, we're firing on all cylinders from here out.

BEST KILL AWARD:
Jaquilyn Locke, for killing Grace Faraday
Mara Montalvo, for killing Ray Gilbert
Sean Mulcahy, for killing Aria Samuels
Sunny Cho Lee, for killing Katy Warren
Hansel Williams, for killing Kyle Fitzpatrick
Katarina Konipaski, for killing Steven Salazar


BEST DEATH AWARD:
Randomness, for the death of Grace Faraday
Kalopsia, for the death of Ray Gilbert
jimmydalad, for the death of Aria Samuels
Outfoxd, for the death of Katy Warren
Skraal, for the death of Kyle Fitzpatrick
Slamexo, for the death of Alex King
MurderWeasel, for the death of Steven Salazar

We'll close the voting at the end of the 14th/whenever I get up on the 15th.

Also, on the off chance a death got missed, please let me know ASAP. This was compiled from the wiki and the announcement thread, but if anything got missed there, it won't be here.
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Best Kill Award
Amaranta Montalvo for killing Ray Gilbert
Mara’s kill of Ray was brutal and angry, and her mental state in the scenes leading up to Ray’s death were spot on; the kill didn’t feel contrived or forced on her end. It was an interesting change of motivations for her, and it’s really gripping to see Mara’s gradually escalating mental decay over her time on the island - I’d love to see what winning BKA would do to Mara, especially when she’s just met up with fellow BKA winner, Summer Simms.

Best Death Award
MurderWeasel for the death of Steven Salazar
This whole scene was masterfully written, in my opinion. The back-and-forth between Steven and Katarina was engaging and tense, in spite of (or perhaps due to) the foregone conclusion of Steven dying. His final post was emotional and sad without being overwrought, and I felt it made a really good conclusion to Steven’s on-island arc - and to his character as a whole.
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Mr. No
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Slim pickings here, but alas, it wasn't much that could be helped. At the very least we have some ripe looking scenes.

BKA: I think I'm going to go with Mara Montalvo, for killing Ray Gilbert because that freak-out she had was absolutely ugly. In a good way! Yes, as Mara keeps losing her way while trying to stay to her true old self, anything that disrupts her facade is going to be meet full force no hold-punch resistance, especially as something so special to her as her face, which earned her so much pride before the island. I surely hope this is a good stepping stone into her plunge into depravity so she can pretend everything is normal if she gets off the island.

BDA: MurderWeasel, for the death of Steven Salazar. Yep. Once Steven decided he knew what he was gonna do on the island, it was pretty easy to see how it would end. You knew what he was going to do, what he was going to say, and what he would have continued to do had he been rolled so early. And yet despite all that, I am giving this what it deserves simply because of the high level of execution. Even though going in, it's fair to say it was predictable, but that didn't make it any less interesting. It was just an easy to follow, unique set-up that had you entertained the whole way through.
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The Mysterious Stranger
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BKA: Sean Mulcahy. Sean's a great character, and this kill, while accidental, was really well done, and I like how the characters want to sort of brush past it and pretend it never happened, since it ties really well into their whole coping strategy. I enjoyed it a lot.

Honorable mention to Mara Montalvo and Paris Ardennes, who also had really good kills with really good scenes.

BDA: Ray Gilbert. The setup was excellent, and I enjoyed the tension and the whole of the moment. The climax was really well-done.

Honorable mention to Steven Salazar, who had a really strong pre-death scene, and Katy Warren, who had a really nice scene/
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Best Kill Award: My vote for this month's BKA is for Mara Montalvo's killing of Ray Gilbert. I don't know why V5 has so many awesome scenes of girls killing people, but I really liked how Mara killed Ray. Rugga's one of my favorite writers in V5, and she continues to do great stuff with Mara. I sort of like how it plays into Mara's character, with her vanity being one of her sensitive points. It reminded me of Takako's scene in the Battle Royale movie, and I really just enjoyed how it went down. Ray's death is vicious and insane, and I give kudos for Rugga and Dom for how that went. With that, I choose Mara to get some snacks and a gun.

Best Death Award: My vote for this month's BDA goes to MurderWeasel for the death of Steven Salazar. I really like Steven, he's presently my favorite of Toben's V5 kids. He had some really good interactions with people like Katarina in V5. I really liked how this scene went, with Steven and Katarina having a long talk before Katarina decided to shoot him. There's a lot of regret and even some pettiness in his death (he wishes Sharon went after Katarina. That's kind of an awful thing to think now that you know Katarina would kill the person she talked to). Still, I think this was solid, so it gets my vote.
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BDA goes to Ray Gilbert, written by Dom, for the panicked feel of the thread and the consequences that it'll have on Mara. While the deathpost wasn't excellent by itself, the entire situation had long-reaching effects and read very well, showcasing both Ruggahissy and Kalopsia's strengths.

BKA goes to Sunny, for her kill of Katy Warren. Once again, while the kill itself wasn't spectacular, I love what we saw in it - Sunny, having been deceived, still almost embraces the mentality of a killer and Paris shows his hand as a despicable human being. Further, I want to see the fallout when Sunny is awarded a BKA, and what that will mean for Paris, Sunny, and the island as a whole.
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Jinkx Monsoon
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BDA: There were so many strong contenders for best death this round. I found that I had the most difficulty coming up with a winner for this. MurderWeasel’s Steven Salazar's death was fantastically written, as was Outfoxd's Katy Warren, but my vote for BDA goes to Kalopsia's Ray Gilbert.

Ray was a noteworthy example of an adoption done right. Kalopsia did incredible research into a character that wasn’t organic to his creation. Perhaps not calling Ray organic to Kalopsia is an unfair statement to make, since at the time of Ray's death, Kalopsia was very much in full force with characterization for Ray. What I enjoyed most about this death was how it very much balanced the rage, anguish and snark of a character even in their last moments. Ray was an antagonist character who rebelled against the system he was placed in.

I loved the ideation of the possible deaths that he could have died from (bleeding out, tripping into a doorway). It ultimately strengthened the death that he did choose, the relatively quick and painless death of being shot by Mara Montalvo. I felt that Ray Gilbert maintained a sense of control and rage in his final moments that were so germane to the character's cognitive schema.

Very well done, Kalopsia. Ray's death is certainly one of my favorites of the version.

BKA: I liked a lot of the kills that went on this round. While I enjoyed Rattlesnake's Katarina Konipaski's shooting of Steven Salazar, and NotAnotherFlyingToy's Hansel Williams' shooting of Kyle Fitzpatrick, I ultimately give my vote to (and I know this user as Nuggets, because that upside-down malarkey is too hard for me to try to mirror) Nuggets' Jaquilyn Locke's throat cutting of Grace Faraday.

Jaquilyn and her partner in crime, Joachim, serve as a great revisionist Bonnie and Clyde type of murder. I was fascinated with how in control Jaquilyn could be when she had an ally to do all of the dirty work. However, once alone, the fragility of Jaquilyn is something that had been long alluded to, and had a substantial pay off.

Her mantra of "one kill a day, keeps the Danya away" kept her in a constant state of paranoia. She needed to guarantee that there was at least one kill, else she die herself. So when Joachim was out of the picture, Jaquilyn's stability deteriorated, and she became animalistic. Shouting at Grace was a nice touch, since it showed that underneath her visceral, bestial murder, she had logic behind it.

For expertly melding the cold, calculated logic, and the sheer paranoia-induced rage, I commend Nuggets for a very well written murder.
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BKA: Mara for killing Ray. There was a really vicious feeling to the kill that I feel like we haven't seen a lot yet in V5, and I liked the contrast between Mara's flashback and her actions in the present.

BDA: Outfoxd for Katy's death. It was really fitting that Katy went out just as angry as she'd always been, and I could sympathize with her; she 'd been tricked and both she and her killer were being manipulated without realizing it.
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Twiggy
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BKA: Mara Montalvo, for killing Ray Gilbert. Good lord this is an uncomfortable scene to read, in a very good way. I don't think Mara really intended to kill Ray until he lashed out at her, but when he did, she completely lost control. A character who, to this point, has been very calculating and careful just lets loose and descends into intense brutality. When she finally comes to her senses, she's sickened, but it's too late. She can't go back from that. The damage Ray has done, both physically and mentally, will be haunting Mara for the rest of her story.

BDA: Kalopsia, for the death of Ray Gilbert. A lot of what's said above cross-applies here, but from Ray's perspective. Ray ends up so desperate to not go out weakly that he lashed out at someone who probably would have otherwise left him alone, to ensure a quick, painless death. The brutal irony of Mara savagely beating him to death makes me cringe, but I can't keep from going back to read this death again and again. Really, really solid work from both handlers involved.
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BKA: Katarina

BDA: Steven

Holy hell, there was some stiff competition this contest. However, this killer/death pair struck me as the best. I was really impressed by the entire thread, and the extended debate that these two had. Both characters were really at their best, here.

The actual kill/death were fantastically executed. Katarina's last thoughts and reasoning before shooting Steven, and Steven's regretful musing about always having to get the last word in were especially great.

Honorable mention goes to the Ray/Mara killerdesth combo. Especially impressed by the amount of pure rage that Mara showed here. Another mention goes to everyone's favorite manipulative bastard, Paris, even if he wasn't actually in the running.
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Vyse
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My vote for BKA goes to Rattlesnake, for Katarina Konipaski, and BDA to MurderWeasel, for Steven Salazar.

I loved this scene so very much, from beginning to end. For Kat's part, it was a beautiful look into her thoughts and fears, that left me sympathetic even as she pulled the trigger. Meanwhile, Steven is genuinely cool here; he knows where he stands, what the risks are, and is genuinely likeable, articulate, and believable in the process of walking into the lion's den.

But it's how well the two play off each other that really sells it for me. Each character was excellent on their own, but the whole is something even greater than the sum of its parts. The interplay between Kat and Steven is amazing; each character is understandable, relatable, and best of all, unforced. It's hard not to sympathize with Kat, it's hard not to root for Steven, even knowing how things were necessarily going to turn out in advance.

That brings me to my favorite point, which was the kill itself. Until that point, I'd been at a loss for how things would end in bloodshed without seeming forced. The understanding between the two was palpable, even across the chasm of their very different choices, and it wasn't until the last two posts that I realized it was because of that understanding that Steven had to die. The death had to happen that way, not so much because of the rolls, but the characters themselves, because of who they were, and that's a pretty cool thing to realize.




I'd also like to give an honorable mention to Ruggahissy, Namira, and OutFoxd for "The Farmer and the Viper". While parts of the shooting felt a little contrived, it works beautifully because every character is firing on all cylinders throughout it all. Katy's death left me shaking my head in amazement, and I can't wait to see where Paris and Sunny go from here.
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Tired vote. In at the end


BKA: Hansel. He's so hot right now. Hansel. But really, I liked his cold efficiency with which he dispatches kids who should be paying more attention to who might be skulking around. He is focussed on the task at hand, killing and has come to the point where it's just a part of his daily life. I also enjoyed his hostage taking of Sophie after gunning down her partner Kyle.


BDA: Steven. I enjoyed his talk with Kat before his death. He had a good goal, he thought he could talk her out of the road she was going down and had good points to make. He was pretty brave to try and talk it out with Kat and when he dies he thinks of his friend he's sent off into danger. I really dug his approach and it's too bad it didnt take
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The Guestiest of Guests
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BKA: Hansel Williams

Hansel's been one of the killers I've been most interested in over the course of the game, and this kill was particularly interesting to me as a development of his methodology. Where before, Hansel's kills were largely spur of the moment or accidental, here he displayed much more intent, which is fascinating in its implications for his arc. Hansel is becoming more adapted to the island, more calculating and pragmatic, but also, as we see in the aftermath, less willing to use force as a first result. This month was absolutely packed with awesomely-written, deserving kills, but Hansel wins my vote today for a well-executed scene that greatly contributes to his character development.

BDA: Ray Gilbert

Ray wins this one on brutality and scene. His death is violent and horrific, yet at the same time it forms a nice conclusion to his burst of characterization. Ray was a solid character before, but really came into his own in this last thread, finally finding some form of purpose only to watch it draw him inexorably towards his death. Ray's death shows that it's never too late to give a character some greater depth, and, in fact, that late developments can become a character's defining moments. Well done to Dom.
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That's a wrap. Votes will be revealed with the announcement tomorrow.

EDIT: And, I logged into Help by mistake. Whoops. Whatever.
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