Well...I don't see any difference between the second picture and first one, besides the text and less overlaying with the fractals. I see that you left that awkward white space on the left side, that's kinda lazy IMO. When you said "The protruding character gave it a nice effect", I think it just made it look like something that's not part of the image, something that was pasted over the one underneath. As for the text meaning, I don't thinks that's part of something to be judged, I'm just here for the art and criticism of it.
Keep up,
Nagato.
Alpha Channel