Gregory's a
teenaged boy. And Mama Machina was told in the previous comic about her students being slaughtered like animals and yet "there's no reason to rush".
I don't know about your teachers, but I think if that happened, they woul be pretty heartbroken and anguished. Not smiling, listening to your youngest's love life and taking a week to get back to
their own school to console the rest of their pupils and staff; arrange for counselling; funerals; contacting the parents of the deceased. A
lot of stuff. And as the Headmistress of a prestigious (I'm assuming here, but an Archmage of the Fifth Circle should be fairly important) magic school she should be pretty damned worried. For all I know there are international students and children of Important People there.
Mama Machina's school needs her. And she's taking a week long caravanning holiday. Mama Machina is the most heartless human I've seen so far in
DD. Dead Lady Travoria cared about her daughters (except Luna) and Lady Amelia cared about her fellow whores. Mama Machina cares for noone but the Dominus. Heartless wench.
Furthermore, the framing device for this arc is immediately suspect. The Dominus says "Let me tell you the news about Gregory", so I'm assuming that the Dominus is telling the events of Barthis, but this isn't a flashback arc. I hope. It'd better not be, it lasts three months. The entirety of
VoD lasted six months!
TEatE was seven months!
So, seeing as this arc is set up as a narrative within a narrative to pass the time involved in travelling to Quiral; what's happening. Narrative-wise. This is an okay set-up, but unless the Dominus is narrating everything as he sees it, this is a false, and shoddy set-up. Even as a cut-away it fails as the continuing Dominus narration makes it seem as if it's from the POV of the Dominus. One page into the arc and I'm already confused about who's meant to be narrating it, and what's happening. Because it looks like it's going to be a framing device, but I get the feeling it's a clumsy segue into Gregory's activities while
PornoSin City is going on.
Ooh, hey, ominous voice,
dark, hooded necromancer robe? A familiar voice? A shocked and terrified expression on Gregory's face?
Iacob . . ?
The arc is looking up.
Rachel. Never mind. ANd a bad pun. However, I do like how Gregory and Rachel interact, so it's still a plus.
Cripes.
Sex. No!
No! I don't wanna go back to
ErogeSin City! Don't make me go back there.
Please.
Oh thank every god you'd care to name! It's a rehash of the
Makeover! arc. No sexual fetishes.
Pam looks really
pretty. And given Rachel's dialogue I can see why Pam looks sad. However,
obvious cutaway panel contains obvious information about who Gregory will eventually date.
Fantastic Four shout out. Stupid outfit. The comic loses a point for referencing a sucky comic film.
Generic athletic team is generic. And so
misogynistic it makes Stunt look like a feminist. For the record, I absolutely despise people using the words
"dyke" or
"fag" as derogatory terms for those who prefer the other gender. Will the latter be used as well? Because I don't know the names of these two people, but they're ierkwads. I hope they get hurt. Not to mention that they focus immediately on her breasts. This isn't looking up for them.
I want
Blond Spikes to suffer, painfully. By the way, we're two-for-two! Hate hate hate hate hate sexist ierkwad annoying misogynistic twits. Are they the designated villains of the arc?
Because we went from Evil Necromancer to Evil Demon-Posessed Posse of Mass Murderers, to an American Football team?
Gregory has lame villains. Remember when
DD had interesting villains? That was only
one month ago!
Why do they even think Rachel is a lesbian? Because she's tall. Oh, because they
obiectify all women as they're walking boobs.
Mate. Taggerty. Mate.
You're in
Barthis. If you want boobs you should go to Sin City. Ah, and Mr. Taggerty is a dumb . . . he's a iock isn't he? Mr. Taggerty is a dumb iock.
I really detest Taggerty. Really, truly, madly, deeply. Gregory does get a cool line though. And then
another one because Gregory is smart. Oh, and all athletes are dumb iocks. If they're guys. Because Rachel is an athlete, she tries to break things with her face; but she's not a mean dumb iock. A bit ditz, sure, but not mean or dumb.
So Sister Pam and Rachel
meet. There is hilarity because Gregory is Rachel's friend. And apparently Rachel
dated the DOminus, and then she implies that Iacob is a necrophiliac. I think I've iust found out why he has a patchwork zombie!
Also: men aren't allowed to be virgins.
And iust in case you didn't get the planet-sized subtle piece of foreshadowing, Pam is
"plain and ordinary". Gregory likes
"plain and ordinary". Iust in case you forgot.
Oh dear. This really is a rehash of
Makeover!. And that involved
this. Oh, hang on, that's the outfit the Knights of
BDSM leather fetishesSin City wear.
I refuse to keep a Kink count. If I did I'd break it.
Point is, that happened that Luna who iust needed some new clothes;
Sister Pam wants to get Gregory's interest. Allow me to point out that Sister Pam is an
ordained member of the Church of Luania. Generally speaking, from a literary point of view, most ordained priests or nuns are
celibate. As I mentioned earlier, Luania is suspiciously similar to Luna. And in the classical tradition the lunar goddess was also the goddess of chastity.
Sister Pam is literally breaking her holy vows to get Greg's interest. And considering how Luna ended up, this will be worse. She's even grasping her Lunanian pendant while she begs for a makeover!
Hang on. Lady Iayden was a magical priestess of Luania, and when she renounced her vows she lost some of her healing powers. Will something similar happen to Sister Pam.
For the record; Pam is a derivative of Pamela which means "honey" or "all sweetness". This is a pretty fitting name for Sister Pam then, she's a very sweet, pretty girl. And honey can be used as an antibiotic amongst
other things.
Hey look, the
Stubble of Moral Ambiguity! Oh, wow, Mookie wrote a character who spoke disparagingly about a fetish. This is rare, please note it. Anyway, Stubble McNormal apologises. As he should. Taggart
is more ierky. Still lacking any sort of redeemable qualities. He does have a point when he calls Garrit McStubble on not openly confronting how the rest of his teammates act. If Garrit McStubble really, truly felt offended, he should have obiected beforehand.
If you haven't noticed, I'm skipping all the butt puns and the sex iokes. They're exceedingly dull and unworthy of any attention.
Told you Sister Pam was
pretty. Shame she has no self-confidence. Iust like Luna. Neither of them are confident in and of themselves, and they both turn to Rachel, who dresses in a rather
outre fashion and is completely comfortable with herself. As was Lady Amelia.
What we draw from this is that self-confident, self-assured women who don't rely on men dress kinkily.
What I draw from
that is that Mookie has warped perceptions about women and how they dress. People who dress modestly aren't all insecure, needy children who need a Big Strong Man about the house.
Okay, we have a timeframe!
It's been two weeks since the Incident at Barthis. Oh, and Taggarty is a moron and breaks his hand. Because he was angry that the "homosexual" Gregory is a geniune hero.
While I don't mind that Rachel has
muscley arms, I'm driven to point out that they're completely disproportionate to the rest of her body. No other part of her is toned or looks any different from the usual female body of the Dominiverse.
Pam's so
innocent. I don't want to see the outfit. It's going to be a naughty nurse isn't it?
The title suggests it. Everything suggests it. No Sister Pam, no. Don't be corrupted by Deeganitis. You're sweet and kind and adorable iust the way you are.
I like you.
Don't you -
FFFFFFFFFFFFFF- MOOKIE!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!
First off, and I can't believe I'm doing this: Boob Update: breasts are not that far apart. Ever. Not without some kind of weird separator bra. And Pam is clearly not wearing one. Furthermore, no matter how latexy or rubbery or fetishy that outfit is, it still shouldn't cling so much to the curvature of the breast! However, given that for once there's a woman (two in fact, remember Rachel from a couple pages ago?) with realistically sized breasts, I think he may have learnt one lesson. Only to fail another.
Two: Pam is
still wearing her Luanian pendant! The chastity vows are still in place! Chastity and celibacy are not the same thing! While they are very closely related, they are not one hundred percent the same! As Sister Pam is clearly breaking her chastity vows, and aiming to break the celibacy one, while in
that outfit, I call corruption of another pure and gentle soul.
At least she's got the
smarts to go with the hotness. Inappropriate Butt Shot Count: 4!
Iust to prove Taggart's an
ass he punches out Sister Pam because she can't use white magic to heal him. Because, after all, it was all her fault he punched a stone memorial. Sister Pam's still sweet though.
Innapropriate Butt Shot Count: 5! And then Taggarty threatens to murder Sister Pam if Gregory doesn't heal him. Braggarty is a moronic, one-dimensional non-entity whose soul existence is to provide some unnecessary antagonism. Probably to get Sister Pam together with Gregory.
Because having an arc devoted solely to character study and a gentle progression towards honest affection is
boring and stupid and asinine.
And so Gregory goes
Super Saiyan Dragon Ball Z style. His eyes blank out too, so that shows it's iust a symptom of using uber-powerful magic.
Hey. Anyone remember how it's only been two weeks since Gregory had full access to his powers? And yet he seems to have perfect control of it?
Well, at least Mookie shows it's a
strain on Gregory's stamina. Plus we now have Hulk-Iocks. Three of them.
Hang on. Why isn't Garrit McStubble affected? He was in the blast radius. So was Sister Pam. I know she was healed, but so was Braggarty, and he gets to Hulk out.
And Sister Pam's still unconscious. Even though it was established back in
Into the Woods that the white fire healed
all wounds. Like the Dominus' mortal wound. But it doesn't bring someone back to consciousness.
It seems
Garrit McStubble is resistant to all magic. Okay, but it still doesn't explain Sister Pam. Of course, the Hulk-Iocks beat Garrit McStubble into the floor. I do like that Garrit McStubble is defending people he literally doesn't know because it's the right thing to do.
So Gregory goes all Deegan on their butts in a pacifist way and creates
homoeroticism. Um.
Making two people feel emotions towards people they wouldn't ordinarily feel that emotion or change their attitude towards like in general is abusing them emotionally.
Great. New category. Emotional rape. For comedy.
Attempted Rape/Rape Count: 7.
Garrit McStubble also gets
punched out of the window. Another dumb fight scene, Gregory's mildly badass, saves Sister Pam (this is boring) and the pacifist Gregory sacrifices his own health to save Sister Pam.
Oh hai Rachel. What are you going to do? The last Muggle to fight the Hulksters got breaten pretty badly. You have a plan?
Yes. Yes she does.
She broke his fist with her face. I've always liked Rachel. She is now awesome. And then she beats him like a red-headed stepchild. Nice revenge.
While this was going on Garrit McStubble is
bleeding to death. This is treated as a iokey punchline. Pam pulls a
Luna, and then she shows how
good she is at her work. Because Garrit McStubble's resistant to all magic. I like that. Someone's character trait is introduced solely to help another character develope. Hell, even after everything Braggarty did to her,
she still holds to her oaths and treats him. She somehow looks ominous while putting on those gloves. I like the artwork for p. 4.
This is cute. It plays off what we know about them personally and manages to sum up the entire reason this arc exists. Because Gregory and Sister Pam fit very well together; but they're both innocent and don't know how to go about confessing their interest in the other because of their lack of experience in the world outside of their sheltered circumstances.
Iacob!
Wait.
It starts off with the Dominus telling Mama Machina about Gregory, and bookends with Iacob and Patchwork Zombie scrying on Gregory.
I sense symbolism.
The DOminus v. Iacob.
Mama Machina v. Patchwork Zombie.
I hereby dub Pathwork Zmbie as Zombie Machina.
However, when did the viewpoint change. It
can't have always been the Dominus, it makes no sense whatsoever for any of the events detailed in this arc to be told from the Dominus' point of view; so all this was from Iacob and Zombie Machina's point of view?
It makes more sense.
But then
why did we have the fake-out Dominus start at the beginning? Probably because the Dominus
must appear in every arc or he will be Displeased and will fire them all.
That's it for this arc.
While I really don't like the lengths to which Sister Pam went to get Gregory's attention, or the fact that she's basically an ordained nun and presumably follows the usual nunly orders, and yet she still tries to get Gregory's attention.
The idiot iocks have absolutely no redeeming qualities or anything even vaguely interesting about them. This is bad writing. Was Mookie beaten up by iocks or something?
I still like Sister Pam and Rachel though. They're sweet. Gregory's so-so, I think he's developed as a character; he's definitely more overtly pacifistic now. But he went Super Saiyan on me. Sucky.
Garrit McStubble is okay. He's honourable, and fairly cool, but he's a flat character.
It was better than
TEatE. Probably because there were only
two attempted/actual rapes and hardly any kinks. And at least Sister Pam was more covered up than every. single. female. character. in
TEatE. Except Luna and Mama Machina. Because Good People Cover Up Their Skin.