I really had to pace myself so that I didn't fly through the whole thing in one go! I've enjoyed all of the graphic novels, but I really liked this one! It was pretty accurate to the story. Again, there's some missing details I would have liked to have seen, but there's only so much you can put in. I definitely suggest reading this graphic novel!

Another fantastic edition to the series. Such beautiful artwork by Cary. I’m stoked for the next!
adventurous dark emotional lighthearted mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Great revisiting the podcast.
adventurous funny reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
adventurous dark emotional funny fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Loveable characters: Yes

Rating: 4.5

I'm super biased so no one who's not already a fan of the podcast (and this arc in particular, as it's objectively the best arc of balance AND the entire podcast) should take my review into consideration when deciding to read it, but it was SO GOOD! Love the changes they made getting rid of some superfluous NPCs,
Spoilerthough I will miss Griffin doing a papyrus and sans impression of the two brother clerics of Istus (one of which happens to be a skeleton). I especially loved how they integrated the interlude scenes between chapters and how they handled everyone's chalice flashbacks, especially changing Merle's to be abandoning his family.
I'll also never get over how perfect the facial expressions of everyone are, and how cool the coloring is. Knocking it down half a point from a perfect rating because despite everything some aspects of it still felt rushed in a way that most likely could've been done better, though I'm sure it was incredibly hard deciding what to keep from this chonker of an arc. They also left out some of my favorite podcast bits, though not as many as crystal kingdom so it's got an edge on that. Wish I could tell people who haven't listened to the podcast to read it because I'm far too close to judge that sort of thing fairly lol, sorry but I gotta be honest.