Yay for the analysis! Remind me what arcs are next? I think is around the point where I stopped reading and poked my head in every now and against to see exactly what the thread was referring to.
Yay for the analysis! Remind me what arcs are next? I think is around the point where I stopped reading and poked my head in every now and against to see exactly what the thread was referring to.
Hello Curly! Just wanted to say how very, very happy I am that you're continuing your reviews here! And I also wanted to say thank you, because I've been looking for a more effective way to communicate the awfulness of having a period and this is going to help a lot.
Really? Well, in that case, it's a (relatively) hard sci-fi comedy made on and off from the mid-eighties. And if you can't tell, 'tis British.
Basic synopsis: er, the last man alive is a lazy slob of a Scouser, and his only companions are a hologram of his hated roommate and a humanoid who evolved from his pet cat. They're three million years away from Earth and are trying to get back.
Funnier than it sounds.
You exulted?
Huh.
I don't know how I feel about that revelation. On the one hand, it's a Brick Joke; on the other hand, the title didn't fit the situation as well as it could have.
Well you're back now for the denouement.
I'm happy to be back too! If let down by the mediocrity of the arcs covered so far.
I'm also vastly amused by what you decided to quote. I actually cut that description down just a little bit.
WARNING: spoiled for being very in-depth and quite disgusting. Read on at your own risk.
SpoilerFor those of you who are not biologically female, the average period lasts about five days. Not including PMT. PMT is when your hormones really start going mental and, as cliched as it sounds, you become a lot more prone to tears and other emotional outbursts. Frankly, it's appalling.
And then you get what a period actually is.
As I mentioned in the review, a womb prepares for babies by thickening the lining of the uterus, and after a failed fertile period it begins to decompose and rot very quickly. Yeah, that period that's so often mocked in media is caused when decomposing flesh begins to bleed and seep out of biological female's genitals.
And you can get clots and stringy bits in the 'normal' constant blood flow. These clots and stringy bits are, need I reiterate, the biological female's body flushing out rotting flesh. Typically, when that happens someone is seriously ill.
Then of course you have to change the way you dress for these times of constant oozing. You're not likely to want to wear skirts during these times, or light colours in case of leakage. Because even if you wear pads or tampons (or both at once) a particularly heavy flow or just sitting in a comfortable position or standing up to soon can create well, a red sea that overcomes the barriers so to speak. Or because you were simply caught unawares (which is very problematic if you're one of the lucky ones who just don't get period pains) and don't have any pads or tampons. And might not be in a position to get any either.
And menstrual blood is a bitch to get out of clothing. Not to mention humiliating if you happen to live with anyone, and especially if it's a mixed gender household. Or if it happens in public and you're forced to walk around for hours knowing that there's hours old blood and rotting flesh just pooling up down there and there's no way to clean it until you get home. Or somewhere with an accommodating female.
Of course, even if you have your pad/tampon/cup (although that's just disgusting and made me full-out shudder the first time I heard of them), you still have to remove them and dispose of them.
And that Toxic Shock Syndrome you might have heard about? When your tampon is forgotten about or it gets too far in and you can't pull it out? That's because there's a very absorbent piece of fabric stuffed up your vagina, full of rotting flesh and blood polluting your insides.
So the next time a biological female of your acquaintance is acting tetchy or out of sorts, remember: it's because she could leaking rotting flesh out of her genitals and this is not pleasant.
All for the biological imperative.
And you biological males think wet dreams or hard-ons can be awkward to work around.
Yeah, that's why I cut a lot out. This, by the way, is coming from someone who doesn't get period pains or half the 'usual' side effects of periods. Wait until you talk to someone who has been hospitalised because the pain was just. that. bad.
I just wanted to nitpick one small part of the nimmel arc. I actually understood why nimmel jumped into that fight. I mean, beyond the whole "showing these beast people what an ass kicking truly is" That was HIS puppy getting attacked by the rabid bitch. No true dog owner would stand back and let their puppy get mauled! Even if it was putting up a decent fight, you still bust out a shovel and cave in some rabid skull! :smallbiggrin: In a slightly more serious way, I dont know about you, but if my friend was being attacked for daring to side with me, I would jump in too.
But yeah, wow, that whole strip about emotion crazed beast people just basically shattered any decent meaning the arc could have been meant to have. I mean, it started out making a sort of sense, "Ok, I like seasonal magic, I will go to a cold magic school and learn seasonal magic, and learn about a new culture, badass win all the way around." Only to learn its apparently a standard school, as we NEVER see any wolves other than danny boy use magic, he apparently thinks they are one step above stupid pets, and he already is so awesome with seasonal magic the teachers want him to teach them.
About the only thing I can think of that he DIDNT totally screw up was, at least he didnt use excessive force. After all, the wolves were pretty much fine by the time he started to slip into his funk, he basically did the equivalent of pinning them in place till they calmed down. (them being emotion crazed beast people and all, it must happen alot)
I wasn't around the first time for these analyses, but I've just read them all and loved them! :-)
Yay, more Curly analyses! Always a ride on the Carousel of Awesome. :smallsmile:
I do feel I should point out, though, that Mookie uses "enchantment" in Dungeons & Dragons terms, that is: any spell that affects the mind. It's not an excuse (particularly since his mother did fool him with an illusion in the Ecstasy & Evil arc), just an explanation.
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay Curly wrote things!
My day is made.
Great to have you back Curly, I'm eagerly expecting your cover of the twin arcs.
Glad you managed to finish the... Well, "the arc that must not be named"
Ah, Curly. You make everything better. There's a lot of stupid ahead. A lot. You'll have plenty of rich material to tear into, at least.
Man, you guys could give AM a run for his money when it comes to Hatedom.
Now that the comic is over, can you just . . . let it die?
Did you really pop in just to say that? I don't see why you felt compelled to come down to a snark thread and ask us why we don't stop snarking.
But to answer your question- I imagine it has something to do with the fact that some people here have been reading since shortly after the comic began. Three thousand pages of DD and nearly as much snarking later, here we are, the comic is over, but that doesn't mean we're all going to stop instantly.
After all that time we've got some complaints to raise in as humorous a manner possible, perhaps even some residual fondness to express. Not to mention that Curly is doing reviews and analysis of all the comics since she stopped last time, which is always a good read.
In short, we snark because the badness that was and is DD cannot be erased in so short a time.
Hatedom? We would have quit years ago if we actually hated the comic. Besides, it's been a shambling corpse for years now. Just because the zombie stops moving toward you doesn't mean you treat it as if it's not there. Also, this thread gets to be a shambling corpse now, which is always fun.
I don't think it's hatedom, although many here hate Dom. The comic is so grotesquely badly made, that you cannot stop laughing at it just because it's done.
Also, critical analysis is better done on a complete work.
Yes, it's like the guy with the little chestbuster in him, begging to be killed; but it is the Raul Bova version here. When he died, the public performed a standing ovation.
Bad news, nobody. A-Kon's change of venue lead to me ragequitting and returning my tickets for a refund (20 dollars a day for parking? That dog won't hunt, monseigneur) so I won't get to say hi to Mookie and congratulate him on finishing this mess.
Guess I'll send him an email.
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, help yourself to some popcorn, and welcome to the next episode of
Analysing Dominus Deegan
The Golden Age*
SpoilerA Frail Hope of Adequate Enjoyment
21/05/2002 - 17/07/2002 Arcs covered: Oracle for Hire, The Curse
The First Signs of Serious Psychological Issues Appear
18/07/2002 - 4/12/2002 Arcs covered: The Curse, Luna, Into the Woods
In Which Teh Great Dominus Indulges in Torture and Terrifies Me
5/12/2002 - 21/02/2003 Arcs covered: Into the Woods, Couch Forts and Crying
Dominatrix Luna. Oh, and The Dominus is More Feared Than A Necromancer
22/01/2003 - 11/03/2003 Arcs covered: Makeover!, Mob Mentality
Thing Are Looking Up
12/03/2003 - 30/04/2003 Arcs covered: Visions of Doom Parts One and Two
Siggy Is Iesus. Make of That What You Will
01/05/2003 -23/06/2003 Arcs covered: Visions of Doom Parts Three and Four
The Great Dominus Is Officially A Marty Stue an It's THRILLER! THRILLER NIGHT!
24/06/2003 - 19/08/2003 Arcs covered: Visions of Doom Parts Five and Six
Character Development! And We Conclude an Arc
20/08/2003 - 10/09/2003 Arcs covered: Visions of Doom Parts Seven and Eight
Short Arc Is Short
11/09/2003 - 21/10/2003 Arcs covered: The Party
The Tarnished Age
SpoilerHell Is Meaningless Filler
23/10/2003 - 20/11/2003 Arcs covered: The Ecstasy and the Evil Part One
Kink + Dominus Deegan = Eye and Brain Bleach
11/11/2003 - 16/12/2003 Arcs covered: The Ecstasy and the Evil Parts Two and Three
Inflatable Boobs and Sex! Occasional Plotting Is Permitted
17/12/2003 - 30/01/2004 Arcs covered: The Ecstasy and the Evil Parts Four and Five
Enter: Deus Ex Machina! And Boobs.
31/01/2005 - 19/04/2004 Arcs covered: The Ecstasy and the Evil Parts Six and Seven
Mookie Reveals More of His Sexual Fantasies. And Noone Ever Suffers From Any Effects of A Near-Rape. Ever!
20/04/2004 -26/05/2004 Arcs covered: TEatE Parts Eight and Nine
The Silver Age
SpoilerThe Corruption of Sister Pam. Iocks Are Misogynistic Idiots.
27/05/2004 - 27/08/2004 Arcs covered: Hello Nurse
All Hands On Deck! Swirly Thing Alert!
06/09/2004 - 22/10/2004 Arcs covered: The Storm of Souls Parts One and Two
Darlings, Can't You Hear My SoS?
25/010/2004 - 28/11/2004 Arcs covered: The Storm of Souls Parts Three and Four
Attack of the Pointless Sub-Plots!
29/11/2004 - 06/01/2005 Arcs covered: The Storm of Souls Parts Five and Six
Is It A Bird? Is It A Plane? No! It's SuperGreg!
07/01/2005 - 24/02/2005 Arcs covered: TSoS Parts Seven and Eight
Analysing Dominus Deegan The Musical
25/02/2005 - 31/03/2005 Arcs covered: TSoS Parts Nine and Ten
Venus Gets Angry, and the Dominus Doesn't Have A Leg To Stand On
01/04/2005 - 05/06/2005 Arcs covered: TSoS Parts Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen
The Bronze Age
SpoilerCURSE YOU RUNCIBLE SPOON! :smallbiggrin: I Have Flashbacks to WoT
13/06/2005 - 09/07/2005 Arcs covered: My First Day and Interlude Versions One and Two
Contrived Coincidences and Rape Have Broken Me
11/07/2005 - 25/10/2005 Arcs covered: The Battle For Barthis Part One
A Hug Makes Me Furious
26/10/2005 - 09/01/2006 Arcs covered: The Battle For Barthis Parts Two and Three
A Melna Special: The Explanation
01/01/2006 - 27/01/2006 Arcs covered: The War In Hell Part One
This Episode Erupts With Kittens! Well, It Should
30/01/2006 - 06/03/2006 Arcs covered: The War In Hell Parts Two and Three
I Dwell on the Paradox That Is Mookie
07/03/2006 - 20/03/2006 Arcs covered: The War In Hell Parts Four and Five
Time To 'Save' Szark!
21/03/2006 - 28/05/2006 Arcs covered: The War In Hell Parts Six and Seven[
Assassination and Moustaches
30/05/2006 - 11/07/2006 Arcs covered: The War In Hell Parts Eight and Nine
R.I.P. Siggy
12/07/2006 - 01/09/2006 Arcs covered: The War In Hell Parts Ten and Eleven and Interlude: The Best of Dominic Deegan
The Iron Age
SpoilerThis Comic Is NOT Shakespeare
04/09/2006 - 16/09/2006 Arcs covered: Two Thief Or Not To Thief? Part One
If I Want Mafia, I'll Watch Bugsy Malone
17/09/2009 - 14/10/2009 Arcs covered: Two Thief Or Not Two Thief? Parts Two and Three
Time To Take the Offensive
15/10/2006 - 18/11/2006 Arcs covered: Two Thief Or Not Two Thief? Parts Four and Five
The Break Up
19/11/2006 - 10/12/2006 Arcs covered Two Thief Or Not Two Thief? Parts Six and Seven
The Ice Age
SpoilerBoobs. Nothing More. BOOBS!!
11/12/2006 - 15/01/2007 Arcs covered: Wrapped Up and Returned, Class Action Part One
Melna. Loves. Her. Rapist.
16/01/2007 - 18/03/2007 Arcs covered: Class Action Parts Two and Three
Oh. Geography.
19/03/2007 - 23/05/2007 Arcs covered: Class Action Parts Four, Five, Six, Seven and Eight
It's Worse Than I Imagined
24/05/2007 - 21/08/2007 Arcs covered: Snowsong
I Drank Too Much
22/08/2007 - 06/12/2007 Arcs covered: Shadow of Siegfried
Short, But Not Sweet
07/12/2007 - 23/122007 Arcs covered: Endings and Annoyances
My Counters Explode. So do I. Part One and Part Two
01/01/2008 - 24/04/2008 Arcs covered: The Oracle Hunter
The Dragon Age
Spoiler. . . Meh.
25/04/2008 - 25/05/2008 Arcs covered: Oh, Snap
Dull.
26/05/2008 - 29/06/2008 Arcs covered: Around the World Airship to Nagastrali
Best. Panel. Ever.
30/06/2008 - 20/10/2008 Arcs covered: Around the World Olde Tucklebruck Island to end.
The Unstoppable Airman - Sorry, Wrong Comic.
21/10/2008 - 21/12/2008 Arcs covered: Built to Resist
Orc (Outr)Age
SpoilerThe Maltak Marathon
05/01/2009 - 05/02/2010 Arcs covered: THE ENTIRE BLOODY THING IN ONE NIGHT!
This link goes to the collected archive for this particular arc.
The Lost Age
SpoilerBoobs, Wonderful Boobs, Marvellous Boobs, Glorious Boobs! Yeah.
08/02/2010 - 29/03/2010 Arcs covered: The Beast, Part One and A Nimmel House
Com On Feel The Noize Just Random Noize!
30/03/2010 - 11/06/2010 Arcs covered: The Beast, Part Two and B.Y.O.B.
A Lack of Information
14/06/2010 - 21/06/2010 Arcs covered: The Beast, Part Three
Crunch Crunch Stunt.
21/06/2010 - 27/08/2010 Arcs covered: Walk the Wild Edge
Flowers And A Minor Meltdown
30/08/2010 - 06/09/2010 Arcs covered: THE BEAST! Part Four
They Just Lit A Rocket. Rockets Explode!
09/06/2010 - 10/12/2010 Arcs covered: The Court of Karnak
It Is A Tale . . . Full of Repetitive Exposition and Non-Jokes, Signifying Nothing
13/12/2010 - 27/12/2010 Arcs covered: THE BEAST! Part Five
The Death of the Age of Innocence
The Aborted Recap
03/01/2011 - 04/02/2011 Arcs covered: Altered States
Curly's Beef Or, That's A Lot of Pictures
03/01/2011 - 11/01/2011 Arcs covered: Altered States ('part one').
Rage
12/01/2011 - 04/02/2011 Arcs covered: Altered States
Lovecraftian Horror: Surprisingly Dull
07/02/2011 - 24/02/2011 Arcs covered: Symphony of Destruction
Academic Elitism
28/02/2011 - 18/03/2011 Arcs covered: Face-to-Facebath
Let the experiment proceed!**
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...proceeding.png
Academic Elitism
28/02/2011 - 18/03/2011 Arcs covered: Face-to-Facebath
SpoilerSo remember that giant Lovecraftian monster out to destroy the world? The one that has the capacity to mind-control people and infiltrate Hell, break through DMC-Siggy's mind-control - the mind control placed by the KING OF HELL, the thing that has killed several of the most powerful archmages in the multiverse?
No?
Well, clearly Mookie's bored of . . . the Snarl . . . and impending Doom, because we have an arc about Z-list characters from Smug Greg's (now a D-list character) band. This isn't going to be even tangentially related to the actual plot of the story will it?
http://i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/...4/facepalm.jpg
Teenage wangst and so much cheeky mouth. And one or both of the z-listers want to talk to our Messianic couple. Also, note that "tusky" is still used as a perjorative, meaning that racism/ableism is still very much a-go in Callan. That said, I'm pretty sure Tusk has that tusk-tooth curse and isn't part-orc. You can tell because he's not depicted as a noble savage. And I think the other guy is an elf.
Yay, suspiciously PC metal band. And this guessing is after reading the entire comic, that's how little impact they made on me. Elf and Tusk it is then because there's nothing like condemning a country for racism/speciesism/ableism and then being hypocritical about it!
Anyone remember when there was so much to snark at in every strip? Now it seems like all I can say is 'blah blah blah, art's sucky as normal, and that was almost adequate'. Even the unjokes are less funny than normal.
Ah, never mind. The next page brings us back on form. Academic elitism. See, Tusk borrowed some of the Dominus' mythology books because he valued them as stories to provide inspiration, much in the same way that (if we stick just to music here) most bands even loosely classified as metal/symphonic metal/epic metal and so on have used myths and great works or literature.
Blind Guardian has numerous songs influenced by LotR, Alice in Wonderland, The Iliad and Odyssey, bardic tradition, the Arthurian cycles (because it's practically a requirement), Norse mythology to works as recent as ASoIaF and The Wheel of Time. They've even used the Bible, Nietszche and The Ring Cycle. This is me listing the influences of a band of which I am only a casual fan. The reason I chose this band above all other metal/metallish bands is because it seems to be the best fitting real-world analogue for 'Facebath' that I know of.
And let's be honest, if I were to drop the 'metal music' requirement from that we'd be drowning in examples.
So where in all the Hells does the Dominus get off in being annoyed that Tusk is reading the myths for inspiration to create his own story?! When, by doing so it could encourage others to seek out the original stories and, perhaps, develop a love of a mythology or culture they might not have otherwise heard of.
Because adapting a work for a wider audience is annoying, degrading and 'worthless'.
Because, Heavens forbid, writing your own interpretation of a myth or story is wrong.
Because mythologies only exist as the basis of theories about # and a hypothetical 'collective conciousness'. Because they only exist for academics to use in ways to further various psychological, cultural, religious etc. theories.
I have sat here for about half an hour thinking about whether to expound upon why the Dominus' attitude is stupid. I did this knowing that, really, the only reason it rankles me so much is his expression in the last panel. 'Oh you think reading widely about other culture's beliefs, histories and myths is so tolerant of you, you song-writing, plagiarising, ignorant human.' Way to insult Tusk's hobbies, researching skills and song-writing choices. And remember, this is Callan where multiculturalism is frowned upon. AS A TEACHER the Dominus should be pleased that a non-academic person in their twenties is researching other cultures in order to bring them to the attention of a wider audience. But no. Because Tusk's interest in myths isn't purely as an abstract, it's only in order to 'degrade' it for writing popular music; therefore Tusk's hobbies are bad.
What's more, it's quite literally insulting everything creative. From this point on you can read myths and stories as more or less the same thing.
As someone who loves to read, and at uni specialised in medieval languages and literature, let's discuss mythologies and their adaptations (because this comic has found a button and pushed it (and I think it's more interesting that the comic itself (quelle suprise))). But first, a detour; Mookie {{claims}} that Arturo Capella is a 'not so subtle' reference to well-know theorist Joseph Campbell whose work on mythologies is, frankly, enormous and influential. A. Capella is not an obvious reference to Joseph Campbell. A. Capella to me, suggests a (deeper) musical joke than the obvious. The only thing Campbell and Capella have in common are the letters. I also note that Baro has no real world counterpart when Wikipedia can give a very basic summary. Nothing like failing to take a reference to the next step.
After a quick read, I think I'm going to spoiler this little tangent, because it's somewhat of an author filibuster provoking beserk button, feel free to read/skim if you want.
SpoilerI have actually read (and/or discussed) some of Campbell's theories. They are indeed interesting, and one simple diagram can outline almost every fictional work, and a lot of biographies. And really, I do like the concept of the monomyth (which is what the Dominus fails to explain clearly), even though it has a lot of flaws. Nonetheless, it is one of the appeals of using literature (especially myths and fairy tales) to start learning about a different culture. You recognise the core of the story, and everything else is the cultural flavour text. And I think most people realise it on their own after a bit of reading. How can this Chinese story be Cinderella? They're separated by continents and centuries?!
That is how adaptations happen. And cultural appropriation/diffusion/assimilation. As a European I grew up on Greco-Roman, Norse and Egyptian mythologies, European fairy tales, and the home grown stuff. The first time I even heard of Anansi (by that name) was when I read Gaiman's American Gods for the first time. And from that I recognised that those Brer Rabbit cartoons in Song of the South were based on Anansi myths.
By contrast, I was absolutely astounded when an American acquaintance of mine had never heard of Frigga, Hoenir, Heimdall, Thrym, Demeter, Persephone/Proserpine, Bast, Seth and Atun, let alone the Morrigan, Cernunnos or the Tuatha de Danann or the lesser known Arthurian tales. But they knew all about the things I have to loosely class 'American mythology' as it incorporates all the myths native and 'imported' from elsewhere in the world.
I'm British and my myths are not always the myths of Americans, and vice versa. Many of Britain's myths have much more in common with Western European myths, simply because of association. To take p. 8 of this strip as the example: a brave hero fights a dragon and dies in the process; a heroic sacrifice. Literally, my very first thought was 'Beowulf' even though what's described isn't exactly how Beowulf died. And then Sigurd fighting Fafnir even though Sigurd lives. Or Thor fighting Jormungandr, slaying the serpent only to die himself. Note my Anglo-Saxon/Norse bias.
Reinventing and rereading myths is what humanity does. As a culture changes, so too do our opinions on the events and characters in the myths. To use the internet's favourite demi-God: Loki! (And yes, this will be very simple)
Pre-Christianity he seems to have been (given we have few written records reliably dated to a pre-Christian time for Scandinavian cultures) a fey, capricious trickster who did what he wanted primarily because he wanted to, or because someone forced him to.
Then post-Christianity, and maybe based on drawings of his horned helmet and influenced by his more evil/sadistic stories he became a Satan analogue, brought about Ragnarok and was severely punished for his various misdeeds. Because he was a pagan God with a bad reputation this carried on for a long time.
Then several things happened. One: cultures began to change, so that being a guile hero who uses trickery to outwit his opponents rather than brute force became admirable. Sometimes even moreso than using simple brute force.
Two: the Thor comics brought Loki to an even wider audience. Which happily tied in with LotR and mythology/romance becoming popular in both academic and popular cultures.
Three: sympathy for the Devil. People looked at the myths and material about Loki and thought 'I like this guy, why was he punished so much?' and so alternate character interpretation. Did he deserve these punishments? Why were the other gods so cruel to him when he did as they asked? Okay, maybe he did deserve the poison in the eyes thing, but to kill his children to chain him to the rock (in a Prometheus analogue to boot!), that's just wrong.
And then in 2011 there was a movie released all about Loki even though it was called Thor and the internet said 'All he needs is a hug'. Now I ask you to go to the Thor/Avenger/Iron Man/you get the idea subsections of ff.net and set these setting: Ratings: all; Language: English; Character A: Loki, leaving all the others as default.
On the first page, you will find at least five stories that either set out to redeem Loki; say he was mind-controlled in Avengers; lay a large part of the blame on his family and other shades of those themes. That and an absolutely enormous amount of OCs/Loki is redeemed by wuv.
Literature is as much a cycle as history, and all myths have been adapted. While these adaptations may not be as good as the original (or are better), they nonetheless demonstrate an interaction with the myths that encourage another look at the work itself, culture and humanity. To choose a controversial movie adaptation, Beowulf isn't a very good film, nor is it especially good if you know the source material. A lot of people hate the Angelina Jolie Is Grendel's Mother concept, as well as the idea that Beowulf has children with her. But both these ideas actually have a basis in the text (not the Angelina bit, but the 'Grendel's mother didn't appear a completely hideous monster' bit). In particular the children idea comes from the specific Old English vocabulary used to describe their fight. It is very physical, there is actual hairpulling (and the phrase 'fair flax(en hair) certainly suggest an element of attractiveness) and it has been said by critics that it is a very sexualised fight.
The film Beowulf is a reading on the poem that, while not necessarily worth looking it, or widely accepted, is nonetheless based on a person or group's interpretation of the myth. Not very good (although there are some humorous in-jokes if you know your Anglo-Saxon culture and Beowulf criticism), but if it gets people into reading the poem, and maybe even other Old English works, that's a good thing.
Sadly, the Dominus' attitude is one that is somewhat prevalent amongst the snobbier academics. I once got marked down in a university essay because one of the sources I mentioned was Good Omens even though I was discussing apocalypses/the Book of Revelation because, and I quote, 'this is hardly the sort of material you want to use in an essay'.
IF MONTY PYTHON SKETCHES ARE VALID DISCURSIVE MATERIAL ON ARTHURIAN LITERATURE THEN SO IS GOOD OMENS.
Fortunately, most academics aren't like that, so when they are it annoys everyone. Even my tutor agreed that I had a valid point, although it could have been expanded to discuss other topics relevant to my essay in order to clarify a point.
Sometimes I think I should read a whole arc before starting these, because the next page makes my rant semi-pointless. Tusk actually likes mythology theory as well as myths themselves. However, I think it still degrades people who read mythology for the sake of a good story. It is, in fact, very possible for people to read mythologies - even those drastically different from their 'natural' ones, and still enjoy them.
I also can't quite believe that Seers/Oracles are that rare/notorious that people can become star struck just meeting them. Many real world temples had oracles. The oracle of Delphi being by far the most famous, and then you have the Sibyline Oracles. Or the fact that some of the oldest writings in China stem from oracle bones.
But let's say that in this case a Seer/Oracle is simply someone skilled at Divination, which seems to be the case in the Deeganverse. If a Seer is worthy of so much respect, why in the Hell were the people of Lynne's Brook, and generally of Callan, so dismissive of his skills? Why, exactly, was the Dominus able to teach a specialised class in Seeing to about six people at his mother's university? Why do we practically trip over Seers every other arc? If being a Seer was so uncommon, why did a middle-of-nowhere Hellhole like Lynne's Brook have a resident Seer?
Perhaps if Tusk made it clear it was oracles, I'd still say Celesto 'Venus' Morgan was an Oracle (and more proactive than the Dominus). And we still run into the problem of 'if Oracles are virtually mythological why do people vacillate between treating him as a god and as a complete dick?' I mean, back when Siggy was still Siggy and the Dominus was 'just' a Seer Siggy still repeatedly beat the Dominus like a piñata. Hardly conveying the idea that Seers and Oracle are worthy of respect.
That said, I can understand being star struck, so I'll let his behaviour go. Even if not admitting to having read something is probably worse than admitting to having read something. After all, there aren't many people who'd have read an entire critics body of work on a subject; so even if you weren't 'as good' as someone else it's still better than normal. And honestly Tusk, if it weren't for the fact you were talking to the Dominus and not just an academic, I'd say it's better to admit to not understanding certain concepts and getting them explained.
But as we all know, the Dominus is a condescending git even to people who worship him or want to actively help him, so pretending not to know something you actually do know was probably a good idea.
Let's not talk about the awkward teenaged gaucheness of p. 8 though. Although Luna needs to put a bra on.
Hehe, Tusk's name is {{Randy Thrasher}}. Talk about separated by a common language. And I completely forgot how much Smug Greg looked like a girl back then. Also, p. 5 of the actual strip slays me. You saw that and admired her for keeping her tusks. I saw that and I thought STGF. That and 'this is so wrong of me, but she looks like she's got Down's Syndrome or something on the ASD'. And I really don't like the way this arc seems to be going. Guy with acoustic guitar singing about how this girl is a total inspiration to him, probably with lyrics implying he loves her, even though he knows she's engaged.
Awkward.
Yeah, writing sucks, we get it. Try to convey it in another fashion.
Oh God. Nothing touches me but your mouth. I'll just . . . let that sink in.
Okay. Accidental innuendo is a thing. And sometimes song lyrics are stupid. But even the universe's most naive four-year-old would think that means kissing, let along the more adult things we're thinking. I mean, it'd be something if it was deliberate. But this is like those people who think 'Every breath You Take' is a romantic song. Except worse, because this is sex.
And this whole tusk-mouth thing. It's been cured, but only for the future babies. Makes sense. And then Mookie {{spoils it that no one who has tusk-mouth will be able to lose the tusks without surgery/pain}}.
Tusk is the most naive person on Deeganland. When your prat of a bandmate says something that specific about your song you know that it's bad. Still, troll be trolling. /trollface.jpg
As for Luna, I don't know. She's not an idiot savante, we know that because she's been reasonable, logical and demonstrated social skills all within one year's worth of strips; so punchline?
Troll fail. Also word-play and innuendo in music is new? Or the Dominus' thing anyway. Although, with a bardic father he'd have heard enough music like that for his life very early on surely?
MAYOR PAM! The most sensible person in the entire comic! I don't think I've seen you since Built to Resist and that ended in 2008!
AND WHEN THE HELL DID MOOKIE DIVIDE THE MALTARC INTO SECTIONS?! Because I'm frowning at the divisions there, some of them look similar to my arbitrary splits. Coincidence. Ugh. Maltak annoys me so much. The one good thing about this comic is that it's taking me further and further away from it.
Also, drunken violent assault. Why am I not surprised? Why am I not surprised that, despite Mayor Pam and her usual efficiency and enjoyment of schooling Deegans, that the associates of a Deegan manage to escape prison in spite of having a well-known tendency towards brutal violence over even a small insult? Still, Mookie showed restraint in not recycling the whole Spark 'death from above' thing; it is a little more amusing done silently.
Le sigh. Just when you mention something somewhat admirable for this, Mookie proves you were wrong to expect things of him. At least with the Dominus saying it he has reason to use Spark's catchphrase.
That said, this page seriously makes me wonder why Ears isn't in prison.
That said, this page does have some sort of internal logic going on. An ex-nun-turned-mayor isn't going to be 'understanding' of some casual brutal violence, public nudity, indecent assault and sexual assault. Also, the Elf is very sensible as he's afraid of the Dominus.
Now if only he'd genuflected before the tyrant as he proclaimed that he would have been forgiven his sins and risen up to the Favoured rank. And in turn, our lovely Mayor Pam would have, I don't know, turned out to be a secret adulterer and racist, completely defying past character progression, got sent to Hell, mind-controlled and finally forced to assassinate her own character by acting in the most atrocious way possible.
Probably by caving in and admitting the Deegans are ineffable, infallible god-beings whose very footsteps we ought worship as they deign to walk on common ground like the rest of us unworthy, unholy, disgusting, weak-minded little plebeians.
Okay look, I love Good Omens, and I like reading fanfic. The problem is, is that there are so many Good Omens fanfics that are really well researched, and written and wonderful that coming back to this is like going from reading Tolkein to that really awful David Eddings series The Dreamers which is depressingly derivative of his previous works in a boring and uninspired way. Not to mention that (SPOILERS) the climax of the series quite literally pushes the reset button so everything that had happened over the course of four books never actually happened in the first place.
Yes, that's exactly how I feel.
And I don't know why the Dominus is so surprised that people fear him. He only attempts to fight off Eldritch Abominations when he has a spare moment, terrorises his own village for fun, says he'll kill them all for trespassing, brutally assault everyone in the village as a 'going away' present, openly and almost gleefully admit to manipulating people for no reason (and it's okay if they don't find out about it or love it!); invade Hell, nearly have a psychotic/nervous break because you needed sweeties; mind break is a thing that happens to Seers; you're a Champion of one or more of the metaphysical forces that comprise the universe; there was that whole 'floating mountain' thing; and the 'my fiancée is the orc Messiah' thing; and the 'cured Maltak' thing; and the whole 'my elder brother's a terrifying necromancer who routinely murders dozens of people, my younger brother had the whole 'SugerGreg/Smug Greg' thing, my mother is one of the most powerful Archmages in the universe and has a Death Glare that goes around corners and my father is Elanovan'. Or the whole 'my two best friends are a rapist orc and a (formerly) depraved bisexual swordsman/mass murderer (who is gay)'. And the whole Barnet fiasco.
Just the highlights.
And oh good God, while compiling the evidence I just realised that they've been planning this wedding for almost exactly three years. Ahahahahaha.
I'm beginning to think Ears is a stand-in for snarkers. See, the Dominus is doing the whole mind-reading/violating the innate sanctity of your thoughts thing and saying what Ears is thinking. But with one slight flaw: a Seer can see the future. That's one of the reasons a Seer is a Seer. And the Dominus does manipulate things to come out as close to how he wants them as possible. Snowsong, Visions of Doom and so on and so forth. And Mookie admits that {{the Dominus is selectively telling the truth here}} when it comes to what a Seer can do. While easing the worries of a troubled mind is all well and good, the thing is Ears knows this guy, Smug Greg, who "loves [his brother's] 'seer schemes'" and would talk about them. So you've just lied to someone already wary of you. Way to ease his worries.
Stupid pun, talk about the mutability of the future, yadda yadda yadda. Freudian excuse, gross out humour and someone who rejects the DOminus' advice to live how he wants. Maybe. Except choking on your own vomit isn't a nice way to go, so yay moderation?
Overall thoughts?
Well, that was worthless. The plot stuttered to a halt before it began, I neither know nor care who these people are - we're supposed to care because Smug Greg has smiled his favour down upon them, and I'm pretty sure I spent more time raging about academic elitism and why the Dominus' attitude was excruciatingly annoying.
This isn't even mediocre. I could have summed up this whole arc in a line:
Z-lister buddies of Smug Greg 'solve' life 'problems' with the Messianic couple.
It's three weeks of nothing. It's not even filler. I'd have preferred three weeks of [something]Con filler sketches to this! And who the Hell is Mosley!
Next up: Luna's wearing actual clothes! And the plot makes another appearance.
*Ages as defined by Trazoi here. Remember, all dates use the dd/mm/yyyy format!
**Avvie designed by ninja_penguin, many thanks for letting me use it.
It's Curly!
I don't think I've ever met Curly before. Out of courtesy, what gender pronoun do you prefer?
The constant talk of periods being horrible, scary things makes me facepalm. It's a biological function, and men do not look down on women for it. (Or at least none of the men I know do.)
If there's a wardrobe problem, you can actually ask for male assistance without having to worry about being mortified. (Unless you're in High School, in which case nobody is going to treat anything with a shred of maturity or dignity.)
In short, most of society doesn't actually care. The portion that do, are generally sympathetic.
You don't have to live in fear -_-
Curly, I offer you this hug after reading your rant, because I loved it.
General question to everybody: do we have an idea of the rough timespan of the events in the comic? I'd guess two years, maybe three, total as a maximum.
Oh, I've still not done the - yeah, there was someone being annoying about a year ago now, so I decided to screw with him and changed avvie and gender sign to male even though my name suggests female.
I am female, and prefer the pronouns associated with it. That said, it was amusing when I ended up talking about boobs with some people new to [whatever thread] who'd never met me before, and the conversation ended up being confused because how can a boy have boobs? My pleasures are infantile.
I take it you've read my analyses before then?
I don't. It's just an annoyance. A disgusting annoyance. And I have to admit, I was raised in a relatively conservative family/area regarding what is and is not appropriate for the respective sexes (albeit a skewed take on appropriateness); f'r'example boys can swear, girls cannot.
I am relatively shameless, but I'm hardly going to - oh wait, I just did. But, as you've rightly mentioned, the teenage years when you're still trying to figure everything out is when things are the most mortifying.
Now I'm just a mildly seething ball of irritation. Can't entering one's peak fertile time be done in a less disgusting way?
Wow, I really loved your academic elitism rant. More of that, less of smug-greg please. That arc really was just a drag.
Also I don't think it's true that most of society is either afraid or sympathetic about it - most of the guys I know are at best uncomfortable about it. I like to make jokes about it, but I suspect I might be compensating? That and people's reactions are hilarious.
The academic one or the period one? If the former, I'm pretty sure you've felt my annoyance.
Stupid stuck up prat. He was attached to . . . Jesus College I think, can't quite remember but he lived a damn sight away from the city centre. Oh sure, you can praise the guy who wrote Mists of Avalon when someone mentions it in their Arthur stuff, but no a humorous satire about the end times is right out.
Aside from the fact that well over fifty percent of the UK can quote Python sketches from memory there's nothing that means Gaiman/Pratchett isn't a valid source if you have a point.
Maybe he had a bias because the Pythons were nearly all Oxbridge.
Look, I'm holding this grudge because this implies there are works of fiction that aren't suitable for literary academic discussion when everyone knows that BEOWULF was only discussed in universities as a linguistic or historical source prior to Tolkein's "Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics" essay (1926) - which I highly recommend even to non-students of Old English - all but forced people to look at the Old English corpus of literature seriously as works of literature and not just as sources for Anglo-Saxon history and culture.
I remember actively trying to work out a timeline at some point in time. I might be in one of the analyses. Aside from that, I do remember there was a rough collaboration based on guesswork and reasonable assumption (and lamenting Mookie's temporal vagaries) a while back. Damned if I remember where though.
If you look back through my archive there are some fairly impressive rants and things in there. Plus I made a drinking game out of Maltak and did the entire thing in one sitting over New year's Eve.
I ran out of booze. Then the house ran out of booze.
I alternate between having no shame (see: the period rant) and alluding to it in conversation.
The female menstrual cycle has a pretty big taboo hovering around it. THis is from someone who mainly associated with females during uni.
I don't know about guys, do you openly discuss wet dreams and the like, or is it one of those things that is understood but never spoken of.
Oh what am I saying, your location suggests you're likely British (or understand the British mindset), and we talk about nothing but the weather, queueing and complaining about the previous two items in the list. Oh, and footie, but that's so closely tied to the weather it doesn't bear mentioning.
The academic one specifically, but the period one I'm well on board with as well.
I've recently been dealing with kind of the opposite of the academic elitism while on facebook recently - there's a group for Old English and currently there's a guy on there who's taking the "scholars can and have been wrong before, so I'm going to completely discount what scholars say because they use words like "tentative" and "reconstruction" to describe their theories, while my (completely made up by me) philosophy of language tells me completely differently, and since I know what I was thinking when I thought it, I trust it more than I trust the scholars.
It's about as dumb in the opposite direction as it gets.
You know, if you had the basic premise, Oracle for Hire who eventually gets pulled into world spanning adventures, how would you handle it?
What kind of comic would you make?
I'd probably show how terrifying it is to have future sight. and have the protagonist HATE the fact that he has it, hate how he has to judge whether to prevent or to fulfill a vision, hate that he is only shown bits and scraps of whats to come, and that most people don't even believe him when he warns them.
It would be gritty, full of mystery, intrigue, cataclysm and desperation. and I would constantly make the oracle wonder if he is making the right decisions...
I may or may not have said this before, but it takes a real man to be a woman. :smalleek:
Oh crap, you're British too? As in, "one train ride and you can hunt me down and take a brutal trophy of my skull"!? I.... Is it too late to add the prefix 'Meant with all due respect' or have I already blown that chance? :smallwink:
I'm actually slightly surprised that you didn't make more out of the fact that, as Facebath's original intent was to make make an Epic Fantasy-Metal song about Dominic meeting the Destroyer, Dominic isn't just denouncing them for making 'trivial' songs about myths but about something that actually happened.Quote:
I have sat here for about half an hour thinking about whether to expound upon why the Dominus' attitude is stupid. I did this knowing that, really, the only reason it rankles me so much is his expression in the last panel. 'Oh you think reading widely about other culture's beliefs, histories and myths is so tolerant of you, you song-writing, plagiarising, ignorant human.' Way to insult Tusk's hobbies, researching skills and song-writing choices. And remember, this is Callan where multiculturalism is frowned upon. AS A TEACHER the Dominus should be pleased that a non-academic person in their twenties is researching other cultures in order to bring them to the attention of a wider audience. But no. Because Tusk's interest in myths isn't purely as an abstract, it's only in order to 'degrade' it for writing popular music; therefore Tusk's hobbies are bad.
The Destroyer isn't a myth - it exists. It's an Eldritch Abomination living in a universe where other Eldritch Abominations sit down to tea with the protagonist's mother. But no - Lord Dominic says that rock music is for the plebeians and that they shouldn't be making stories aboutreal events that have occurred within days of his decreeother stories. :smallconfused: :smallsmile:
Oh god.
The horror. I'm going to enjoy reading that.
Yeah, an open and frank discussion about sexuality isn't really something that happens. Hence why you're link to this amused me so much, I know exactly what they're talking about.
On that note: Fine weather we're having lately.
Things like that make me happy to be a man. Fun fact: did you know that there's a sickness that makes the period even more uncomfortable for women?
Funny how the discussion in this DD thread turned to things that make women feel pain.
But now for something different.
Back then, I liked the two story arcs about the DoD and the Band. They were so wonderfully insane. And I like the term "Crab Cop" someone coined back then. I still do and regularly mention it, even if no one else thinks it's funny.
A few of thing you mentioned and criticized are funny in hindsight for me now; you will see why.
Mookie separated the chapters of Maltak earlier this week.
I wonder if all the "metal" in DD is actually rap music. In a world where demons, magic swords, and so forth are real things, "Sword of the Centuries" is basically a song where Donavan threatens to bust a cap in someone's <donkey>.