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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
What on earth is Szark wearing? It's like it's half-chainmail, half-cloth.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Glass Mouse
Am I the only one not bothered by this development? The "alternative scrying methods" were sufficiently useless (negating a lot of critisism here), and this looks like a pretty complex scry while keeping kinda in touch with already established rules.
For one, it completely fails the "why hasn't anyone thought of this before" test. This is a world with universities conducting research into magical techniques. There is no way in the millenia of research into scrying techniques no-one ever thought to see if you could scry undetected in a moving mirror.
The only way this makes sense is if that is an impossibly difficult scry to do and Dominic is the most amazing seer in the history of all Dominion - which has other obvious issues. :smallamused:
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Trazoi
For one, it completely fails the "why hasn't anyone thought of this before" test. This is a world with universities conducting research into magical techniques. There is no way in the millenia of research into scrying techniques no-one ever thought to see if you could scry undetected in a moving mirror.
Come now, I'm sure that Dominic will spend at least one panel saying how difficult this new method is to use before he is able to use it flawlessly :smalltongue:
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Welf
Also I just now noticed the aside glance in the last panel here, which annoys me even more. It's not Dom feeling dejected that his professor is shooting down his desire to study more, it's Dom looking at the viewer in a "wow look how stupid this guy is" manner.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Oracle_Hunter
Come now, I'm sure that Dominic will spend at least one panel saying how difficult this new method is to use before he is able to use it flawlessly :smalltongue:
Nah, might as well attempt to scry on the battlecasters first go. What's the worst that could happen? :smalltongue:
The other thing that's bugging me is that this technique of quickflash-scrying should actually draw more attention than normal. Assuming Dominion apes have similar vision to normal humans, most of our visual range is peripheral and is better at picking up movement than details. Flashing in and out should draw the attention of any battlecaster looking vaguely in that direction more than a slow fade in. Of course they might not react quick enough to identify the seer, but they'll know something is up and if Dom repeats himself at the same place he should be in hot water. But this is Dominic Deegan, I'm expecting it to follow biology and we all know how wrong that assumption is.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Trazoi
This is one of those maddening cases where there's half a decent plot point that will never get acted upon. Despite how awesome he thinks he is, Dominic is a one-trick pony...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Trazoi
Dominic is a one-trick pony...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Trazoi
Dominic is a one-trick pony...
http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/q...ax/flderpy.png
Geez, snarkers give the best set-up lines.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Trazoi
For one, it completely fails the "why hasn't anyone thought of this before" test. This is a world with universities conducting research into magical techniques. There is no way in the millenia of research into scrying techniques no-one ever thought to see if you could scry undetected in a moving mirror.
Alternately, they did, and discarded it almost immediately because there's a finite time you can ask a guy with a sword to just flail around like a maniac while some poindexters are all "Hmm, mm-hmm," while at the same time telling him that he can't stab anything because then blood tarnishes the surface and destroys the effect.
No, this technique has been discovered many times, down through the ages. But every time it is discovered, it is lost again, when the seers run up against that limit, the hard limit of jock tolerance, the point at which murder seems reasonable not only to a jock, but to a jury of his peers.
Worldbuilding, gentlemen.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Kizor
random11, the Sword of Truth series comes up now and then. And I suppose an attraction is to be expected: It hits all the same nerves that DD does. the SoT bashing threads on another forum are older, larger, and more accomplished than the snark threads here. We are their shadow; they are what we may become.
They're also a a warning about losing our way and turning from snark to hatred. Dominic Deegan is goofy, remarkably badly thought out fantasy fun, and the author seems like he'd be a nice guy to know. Sword of Truth seems vile, it's-not-torture-when-we-do-it vile, and the author - I have to quote.
Actually, I think that Mookie's general likability makes it a lot harder to slide into actual hatedom. In my mind, if the object of your criticism is a genuinely horrible person, hate is justified (or at least, more justified), while feeling hate toward a genuinely decent person is clearly overreacting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Welf
And Goodkind is quite bad at being an actual objectivist. He apparently dislikes social security and government regulation, but proposes a very strong government when it comes to national security. And his views on the necessity of violence are the total opposite of what Rand said.
That seems to be quite common in Randroids; I know that's something Goodkind has in common with another infamous Randroid, Jay Naylor.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rocketpony
Alternately, they did, and discarded it almost immediately because there's a finite time you can ask a guy with a sword to just flail around like a maniac while some poindexters are all "Hmm, mm-hmm," while at the same time telling him that he can't stab anything because then blood tarnishes the surface and destroys the effect.
No, this technique has been discovered many times, down through the ages. But every time it is discovered, it is lost again, when the seers run up against that limit, the hard limit of jock tolerance, the point at which murder seems reasonable not only to a jock, but to a jury of his peers.
Worldbuilding, gentlemen.
The main hold-up of a Dominion Industrial Revolution is their source of cheap jock labour.
Of course it's possible that no-one in the Dominion ever thought to consider scrying on moving objects before, like pendulums or flocks of birds or whatever. It might be a completely novel concept to scry using a focus that moves and changes unpredictably...
...oh.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
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Originally Posted by
Castel
I swear to god one of these days I'm going to have to watch that show if only to find out why it produces so many memes.
Ah, well. Maybe I'll do a let's watch sometime.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Quote:
Originally Posted by
BlackDragonKing
I swear to god one of these days I'm going to have to watch that show if only to find out why it produces so many memes.
Ah, well. Maybe I'll do a let's watch sometime.
You're unlikely to regret it unless you irrevocably decide beforehand that you're gonna hate it, in which case you have only yourself to blame. Just . . . start with the third episode. The first two don't give a good view of what it's really like.
Anyway, on-topic, maybe Dominic should use the unnecessary bolding of words as a scrying focus. It's certainly a lot harder to predict than anything else in this damned comic.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
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Originally Posted by
Zaq
You're unlikely to regret it unless you irrevocably decide beforehand that you're gonna hate it, in which case you have only yourself to blame. Just . . . start with the third episode. The first two don't give a good view of what it's really like.
Anyway, on-topic, maybe Dominic should use the unnecessary bolding of words as a scrying focus. It's certainly a lot harder to predict than anything else in this damned comic.
While yes, the first two are just pilot episodes, and the real tone is a bit different, they do give some important background info about the characters and setting, so don't skip them entirely.
That said, how long can Scarlatti swing the sword without getting tired? ... wait, don't answer that. Double Entendre sense tingling.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Quote:
Originally Posted by
PhantomFox
While yes, the first two are just pilot episodes, and the real tone is a bit different, they do give some important background info about the characters and setting, so don't skip them entirely.
That said, how long can Scarlatti swing the sword without getting tired? ... wait, don't answer that. Double Entendre sense tingling.
You'll notice I didn't say to skip them entirely. Just don't start with 'em. They really shouldn't be your first impression of the show. The third episode does a good job of showing off all the main characters anyway.
Nitpick: That's Szark, not Scarlatti. You can tell because Scarlatti isn't quite as manly and straight.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Hmm, other unconventional examples of scrying, how about blotting ink on a piece of paper? Peeling a fruit and using its skin to form a message? mix paint together and see what pretty pictures come up? These don't require reflective surfaces.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Humbug
Hmm, other unconventional examples of scrying, how about blotting ink on a piece of paper? Peeling a fruit and using its skin to form a message? mix paint together and see what pretty pictures come up? These don't require reflective surfaces.
I've been waiting for a scatomancy reference, and the following week of hilarious strips that'll follow. And by waiting I mean hoping.
God I'm classy.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Alternatively, pulling Scrabble letters out of a bag.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Sucrose
Alternatively, pulling Scrabble letters out of a bag.
I'm surprised Mookie hasn't thought of this scrying method, because it's already how he writes his plot and dialogue.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Next Week: Spark unwittingly agrees to help Dominic practice haruspicy.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Sucrose
Alternatively, pulling Scrabble letters out of a bag.
All you ever get from that is "what is six times nine?"
Useless.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
This is stupid.
That's . . . That's all I can really say. This is all incredibly stupid.
I don't care how nice he is in real life, someone needs to slap some sense into Mookie.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Glass Mouse
Am I the only one not bothered by this development?
I wouldn't say I'm 'bothered' as much as I 'have no idea what's going on;.
Seriously. Not a damn clue.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Fangly
All you ever get from that is "what is six times nine?"
Useless.
That's on this planet. In the Dominion, you'd end up with "Praise Dominus" and some kind of forced pun about butts.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
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Originally Posted by
Fawkes
I wouldn't say I'm 'bothered' as much as I 'have no idea what's going on;.
Seriously. Not a damn clue.
Join the club.
To recap: The Dominus spends nearly a week doing nothing and it is revealed that the King's one true weakness is shiny things. We are really reaching a point where the main antagonist could be defeated by a glass of water.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Glass Mouse
Am I the only one not bothered by this development? The "alternative scrying methods" were sufficiently useless (negating a lot of critisism here), and this looks like a pretty complex scry while keeping kinda in touch with already established rules.
The problem with using an idea with the same established rules, is that the entire idea was to avoid detection.
If it uses the same rules, and just harder to use, how is it safer? What makes it less detectable?
I didn't have a general problem with alternative scrying methods if the right reasons were added, and I also don't have any problem with using the current method in a new way if it is some original way.
But it has to make sense, some kind of internal logic rule that will tell us why this is really better.
In that perspective, even Quilt's bubbles made more sense than this.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Quote:
Originally Posted by
TheLaughingMan
We are really reaching a point where the main antagonist could be defeated by a glass of water.
:smallbiggrin:. I will forgive every fault of this comic if that's how Snuggly and DJ are finally beaten. Twice over if Dom and friends don't have anything to do with said glass.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Quote:
Originally Posted by
TheLaughingMan
We are really reaching a point where the main antagonist could be defeated by a glass of water.
Hey, don't go dissing on Wizard of Oz! :smallannoyed:
It will probably be the visage of Dominic's (or Luna's) greatness that causes them to instantly cry "This cannot be!" and self destruct. Except we've already seen that with Lobster Dom.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
random11
In that perspective, even Quilt's bubbles made more sense than this.
Quilt's bubbles could easily make sense. A chaotic zombie golem using a fragile scrying focus has enough exotic elements combined to allow a lot of acceptable handwaving. But in DD, I thought scrying was internal to someone's mind. I've never seen anyone use Tarot or tea leaves; it's all about trances and mindscapes. Quilt's mind is a scrambled mess, but Dominic is pure-grade seer. It shouldn't make a spot of difference if he uses a crystal ball, sword or meditate with nothing at all.
It's like if the king was monitoring tea leaves (which he apparently is doing, how does that work?) so Dominic decided to use leek soup instead. Why should it make a difference? :smallconfused:
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
One thing I'm wondering here, is that Dom isn't really doing anything himself but looking at the arc of the sword. So, does he actively do anything, or can he look in any shiny surface or reflection and see his scrying target instead. If that's the case, can he scry on another reflective surface he sees in the original scry? Could he look at the sword and see one of quilt's bubbles in the present, and scry from the scry to something else? Basically set up a chain. Dom looks into the sword to see a bubble which shows a lake which shows a mirror which shows Celesto? I think something like that even would be far more interesting as an alternate and difficult to trace scry than just finding a new reflective surface and assuming that looking at a bubble and looking at a sword are completely different in terms of being traced.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Im convinced Mookie is actually a 7 year old by the way he writes:
Hates Tension
Piles up powers on Protagonist
Does whats kewl
And about the sword:
Wouldn't you get a single image on the blade and swinging it around makes it blurry?
Edit:
Quote:
Basically set up a chain. Dom looks into the sword to see a bubble which shows a lake which shows a mirror which shows Celesto?
Sounds like a Fantasy version of Portal.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
Wow, a completely uninteresting arc.
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Re: Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables
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Originally Posted by
T-O-E
Wow, a completely uninteresting arc.
That is a very groan-worthy pun. You should be ashamed of yourself.