The Great Dominus is back on form, insulting his friend's
emotional attractions to other people, but it's funny as "madness and perversion" can be related so easily to the Great Dominus himself. The scarf also gets some nice closeups. I really like that scarf.
Hmmm, the
Fourth Doctor has imspired the artwork of
the Great Dominus. Except the Great Dominus has Five's specs. I know the turtleneck isn't exactly Four, but I still get the impression of Four. He has more of Seven's ruthlessness though.
And Lord Dan is a 'spellwolf'. What a silly name. He's a wizard shapeshifter. And for the record, Iacob's hair is now
white; and the puns are now starting to annoy me.
Okay so the ne - Oh. My. Bob.
*hysterical laughter*. Complete and
utter art FAIL! Seriously, that last panel's meant to be shocking, but look at that goofy stoner face on Iayden and the chibification of Lord Dan with those closed eyes!! That silliness and fail utterly ruins any drama and shock. *giggles*
Iayden: durrrr, guffaw.
Dan: *is too cute to be woken from his nap*
For the record, if those two had death by hanging their necks would be snapped, with the chin resting on the chest with a sizeable amount of rope and visible knot rising up from behind the back of the head. Here they look as if someone drew a thick line around the neck. Especially considering that Iayden's hair is still poofy and volume-y, not at all compressed, re-emphasising how loose the ropes are.
It's an okay twist though, not exactly unusual, but okay.
And
Iacob make a ret - oh wait. That's Siggy.
This is a half-shot of Iacob - his first appearance.
This is a similar half-shot of Siggy from his first appearance. Uncanny. And because I feel whimsical: the Deegan Mama had an affair. Iacob is actually the half-brother of Siggy, and as they look about the same age, Lord Damaske was boinking Deegan Mama and Damaske Mama at the same time. Iacob has always known he was different from his brothers, so he deliberately acted out, taking up the most powerful and dangerous of magical studies (I'm assuming) in an effort to find the rest of his family, and to prove himself worthy of being acknowledged as a true son of Damaske. Hence the plot. A bit of a gamble, true, but Iacob wants to be loved. And if he can prove his relationship to Sir Siggy everything will be worth it.
His mother didn't love him, she regretted ever having him, and the Deegan Daddy figured out early on that Iacob wasn't his, and treated him with contempt, forcing Iacob into such drastic actions as necromancy in the first place.
Yes, I know it's poor art, but come on.
It bugs me, I genuinely thought when the Great Dominus said
"they have one obstacle that we don't" I thought maybe he'd seen extra stuff in the vision and that they were going to face down Iacob, especially considering how Iacob-y Siggy looks in that last panel.
And
why hasn't the Great Dominus said "Wait, Iacob doesn't have white hair?"
And
why is Siggy telling his friends they're not going to go save a score or so of people from being murdered? He's a
Royal Knght of Callan whose duty is to protect his people from evil. Hell, he rode off to save Lynne's Brook from the Great Dominus and co., and has both Dan and a professional seer have seen a vision of Barthis in trouble, why is Siggy saying 'no'? Given what I've seen of Siggy so far this is quite well doorknobish. And unprofessional. Welcome to your first notably OOC moment Siggy. RUmour is you'll be drowing in them soon.
I like Deiah. He's cool. And correct, Luna is surprisingly spoiled - probably given her isolation from the world. However, he does present a
valid, if weak argument. The Great Dominus is very biased when it comes to Iacob, I think the Great Dominus knows that Iacob Is Not A Deegan (a great sin) and hates him accordingly. Not to mention Iacob has
proper people-hurting powers.
And now the Great Dominus is
The Chosen One off to fight The Chosen.Also:
I don't want to know where or how that slime got there. Iust stay away Luna. I don't want to know.
Wow, another
vision? That's what, five in one day now? In a few hours. Without a magnifying aid such as his cyrstal ball. Where'd the power boost come from? Not to mention it's a bit contrived. I'll let it slip though, perhaps there's only the one inn in the town. And well, The Chosen could be murdering visitors to their town rather than inhabitants. The next two pages push the coincidence, I think the only reason Mookie included the imp was to say THIS GUY IS TEH EVULZ. Otherwise the Great DOminus would be violating the privacy of an innocent civilian. Except so far the Dominiverse seems to run under the belief that one is "guilty until proven innocent". Case in point: Siggy's treatment of the Great Dominus.
Oh look, the Great Dominus
is capable of being
wrong. His world is officially shaken. And note the "white haired man" is a "white haired woman", proving that the only distinguishing features between gender are breasts, and possibly hips, but
only if the person in question is in form-fitting clothes. It doesn't help that it looks as if Siggy is talking to the Evil Priestess either.
And look at that
evil smirk in the last panel. The Great Dominus is only happy when manipulating people. granted, this time he's doing it for a nobler purpose, but look at that faeces eating grin. His reliance on his
seer abilities has landed him in some maior trouble too, patience and waiting for your Paranoia Trap to spring is overrated according to the Great Dominu. Why bother waiting when all he has to do is look into his ball.
Finding out who VIlrath is
is a surprise, Mookie's got a fairly good plot going on here. Cliched from time to time, but it's still good.
It brings up some good possibilities though: the setup under the great Oak could be a trap to frame Vilrath and his friends; Vilrath could be evil, but his companions not know it; the Royal Knights of Callan could be secretly evil, running an evil power-gaining cult behind everyone's backs; or there could be more than one man in the world whose name is Vilrath. Iust a thought.
No, it's a complete
coincidence and there's no super-awesome trick at all. Vilrath is evil. Nicely insinuated with a group of semi-antagonistic characters.
And the next page only proves it. Vilrath = teh EVULZ. Head, meet desk. And of course, Siggy hates the Great DOminus and so won't believe him. (I won't question why there's a Tibetan monk look-a-like in a generic medieval fantasy world) Vilrath is iust so blatantly Evil Evil. No motivation. Still, that's why The Ioker's so awesome. He's doing it for the lulz, maybe Vilrath is too.
Whoa,
logic and common sense! Siggy's group now knows about VIlrath. And while I applaud Siggy's determination to end the threat, I will say that his hair-trigger is a little too fine. This does show the potential corruption of Callan though. A completely unfounded accusation (based on one vision and a seer glyph - that last one sounds fairly reasonable given the great Dominus' casual reaction to people's privacy) is enough to get someone executed with no trial. And nobody follows him. Not Iayden, not Dan, not Gregory, not Luna, and not the Great Dominus. Wow.
No. Wait.
A locked door prevented a werewolf magician and three normal magicians from following him. And the Great Dominus's walking around slowly. And the blatant symbolism shows that Vilrath is unrepentantly evil. And that Siggy is Ieebus. And for the record, yes, that's a fairly accurate representation of a crucifixion apart from the fact that the sheer weight of a body resting on those two points would either bisect his hands (permanently crippling him) or rip his hands clean off. However, Siggy
is also slowly being suffocated to death while losing copious amount of blood, so gore is okay.
Of course,
now that Siggy's in trouble it's perfectly fine to break down the door. I do like the
realistic iniuries though, so I'll let another minor issue slip. Poor Siggy. I really like you too.
And now you're dying from Dead Blight because, you know, charging after a
necromancer or indeed, anyone, without backup is a bad idea. Plus this now doubles the vendetta the Great Dominus has against Vilrath.
And so our arcs end with my
still liking Spark as he takes out the first demonically evil person of the webcomic.
I still really like this arc. It's suffering a little from minor plot points and that
maior art gaff that completely ruins all drama in that surprise twist. Siggy, as mentioned, has hit his first OOC moment, and for that he has been crippled. Karma has bit him in the butt. I hope they get the RESISDENT WHITE MAGE GREGORY TO HEAL HIM. Because, as we know from the TIM-bomb back in
Into the Woods, Gregory can kick devil-butt, and has been holding back the blight in his body for nine or ten years.
And as Gregory has the hots for Iayden, and Iayden is Siggy's friend, perhaps Gregory should . . . oh I don't know,
heal her friend. If only to get into her skirt.
Luna is now 1D, and Spark has more awesome moments than her.
the Great Dominus is ierkier than yesterday's arcs, but I think the influence of real people is helping to temper his twerpiness.
Most importantly, Mookie is showing he can handle a sustained arc with some drama, and a good mix of development all round, with the exception of Luna and Gregory whose only maior development is from 'I like Iayden' to 'I want to get in her skirt'.