Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXVII: God Has Nothing to do With This

[zvbxrpl]

Melodramatic, isn't it?

Yeah, dude, it really is. That isn't good.

[Glass Mouse]

Yeah, dude, it really is. That isn't good.

I think the very definition of "melodramatic" implies non-goodness. For the good kind, we're looking for "dramatic".

[Coidzor]

'Cuz I'm evil.

Sorry. Your story just reminded me of this.

Well, when you're evil...

Sorry, I'm just a fan of strings.

12 Gods I wish we used them more often.

[CurlyKitGirl]

Analysing Dominus Deegan

The Golden Age*

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A 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

Hell 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

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We start this episode with raunchy cat iokes. Because '*****' can be rude! Ahahahahaha. Not funny. OH hey, Venus de Seer looks pretty good. I think even the artwork is cleaner on him than on the Dominus. And the irony! Look who's hiding behind the walls iust next to them.
It's nice to see that Lady Amelia is racist, even though it's a birth defect. I'm guessing that being an Orc is bad right? Luna's reaction though to an insult she must have heard all her life is over-the-top. Especially as Venus de Seer is quoting what Luna's sister said.
Contrived Coincidence No. 5381002! Stunt's cousin works at Lord and Lady Sturtz's mansion! I hate this arc. I want VoD back.
I ioked way back in the beginning that Bumper was a long-lost relative of the Deegans. I hope this doesn't actually come true.
My first proper glimpse os Szark is oh-so-very flamboyant. Thigh-high leather boots, Lawrence Llewellyn Boweyn style cuffs with matching scarf. I'm suspecting Camp Shenanigans. Look at that smile, and the pose. Put him in a leotard and he'd be the perfect camp dance instructor!
Mookie has a piece of almost subtle exposition! Szark looks like a zombie unless he murders someone. The next strip continues this unsettling trend of almost competent storytelling. Killing is illegal (really? Given what I've you the Dominus' group do, not to mention Siggy & co's antics, I wouldn't have thought so) but duelling is legal. Szark has crimped hair. And is scarily Stunt-like.
Stupid explanation for vision is stupid. Wow. In p.3 Szark is clearly eyeing up Venus de Seer; look at the coquettish tilt of his head, and those eyebrows. That's flirty as all hell!
I'm certain that Szark is bisexual. Or at least doesn't mind manly sex with men.
NOOOOOO!!!! Chrstonabike! Bad! Bad! Bad! That's a horrible ioke to make. I need brain bleach. Stat! I regret that so much. And all it goes to set up that Szark is definitely camp bisexual and depraved. As is Celesto. Because morally ambiguous people have morally ambiguous sex.
Screw it. Szark is oh-so-very flirting with the Dominus. He thought the GD would be more "tolerant", the Dominus' dialogue implies it's happened before with his "old friend". And the Dominus' expression and dialogue in p.3 make him sound like a betrayed lover. All it needs is: 'I trusted you; you said you loved me. How could you betray me like this?!'
Boobs that big would cause lower back problems and need more support than that. Also: Lady Amelia is flaunting her stuff worse than a prostitute. She showing all her boobies. In addition, the art for the 'bra' thing is completely wrong. And the boobs would be sagging and less perky because there's no support whatsoever in that belt.
Magic runs in the Travoria line. But it's inconsistent. Dead Lady Travoria was a witch and cursed people; Luna's a Black Magician Girl and Lady Amelia's a hypnotist.
Is magic iust a vague trait that you're born. So if you're born with the Magic Gene you can learn any kind of magic you want? Because that seems to be true for the Deegans as well. And isn't hypnosis another power with perversion potential. Such as rape. By the way, murder runs in the Travoria bloodline. I guess Luna was right. Her family is Evil.
The implication in 05/01/2004 is that Bumper has dark skin because he's a Semashi - a different country? - but his skin is exactly the same colour as Callanian Lady Amelia. And his hair is the same as Callanian Dominus Deegan. Mookie, if you want to differentiate skin colours to denote different countries, it'd help to colour them. And Stunt's cousin is a loyal employee. Whodathunk?
Wait. The timing's screwy here. Two pages ago Lady Amelia pulling Hypnosis on BUmper and planning to murder Szark.
All this is assumed to be happening as Szark is scarring the minds of the readers and the Dominus. And yet in that page Szark clearly knows who BUmper is and why he's hanging around his wife looking stoned. So now Stunt has to duel a master swordsman.
Well, Stunt, you were a fun misogynist. But bye now. Ah. Lady Amelia's an enchantress. Nice to know the Dominus is immune to such spells. I bet that Lady AMelia's going to try to enspell the Dominus.
Uhoh. Someone's monologuing! Time to foil her plans! And again, Lady Amelia presents improbably size balloon boobies. Boobs are not perfect circles, and when they're not supported, like with a bra or similar piece of underclothing they do not look anything like that. There are so many things wrong with how Mookie draws breasts I have to wonder if he's ever seen a woman with her bra off. Even super-silicon bewbs would be hard pressed to look like that.
Don't forget readers! Evil people and morally ambiguous people have evil and morally ambiguous sex! In EroticaSin City!
Weee!Seizue Vision because Spark telling the Dominus almost exactly what was going on isn't enough for them. It must be the Word of the Dom or nothing. Furthermore, how can the Dominus induce a vision by touching the paw that touched a contract?! Sense. Make some.
Yeah Dom, remember the summary of TEatE part Two? You forgot TIM with his never healing wounds. Even though you drew a direct parallel with them to that of Szark's wound. Oh, and Second Sight and Visions aren't the same thing. Even though they're sort-of, usually the same thing. And neither is a Dream Vision. And again, p. 2 shows massive balloon boobies. Note too how the cloth mould itself perfectly to the entire curvature of the breast, even though Lady Amelia should be wearing a bra of sorts, which would automatically prevent breasts from looking like that.
If it seems that I keep harping on and on about this, it's because it in month (out-of-comic) that we've known Lady Amelia her breasts have more than doubled in size, and have become more and more perfect and prominent over time.
Oh. And boobs. do. not. work. that. way.
Also: Luna: idiot. Your mother murdered your father, and you don't bother to mention the minute you recognise Lady Amelia's action as those which resulted in the death of your father? Idiot Ball. It's yours to play with. And worst of all, Luna doesn't really seem to care until she finds out the money Lady Amelia inherits will be used to kill her. Okay, this may be hard to believe, but I'm now convinced that Luna is more Evil and self-centred than the Dominus. I say this because the Dominus at least tries to care about other people, iustice and once had a whole arc of character development in which he learned to tolerate, if not like, people! Admittedly, it was retconned almost immediately to make him anti-social and condescending again, but it was still development. Worryingly, the Dominus' expression when he reveals that to Luna makes him seem only marginally annoyed, as if the thought of losing his girlfriend is on a par with being out of bread.
One word: foursome. Because evil and morally ambiguous people have evil and morally ambiguous sex. And Venus de Seer and the Dominus face off.
Who is the most arrogant? The most condescending? The most puppet-master like? Let's find out!
So what? Seers in the same building have the same vision? That's detrimental to the whole 'gifted with presience' thing isn't it? I'm also having homoerotic vibes from Venus de Seer towards the Dominus. "I want to turn you away from all this" indeed, more like 'I want to save you' . . . do all Seer's spy on everyone or something?
Oh. The Dominus is better. No wait! Venus de Seer is!
Szark is wearing a midriff-baring tank top. So flamboyantly camp. It also seems he's immune to Luna's magic spells. Given that we know Luna's favourite spells are illusions or mind-altering spells, he's more like the Dominus than I thought.
Bumer slapping the DOminus upside the head is perfect though! I've been wanting to do that since the the beginning of TEatE, especially after Part Two. The Dominus is an exceptionally weak sauce mage if one clip 'round the back of the head can knock him out though.
Oh, and to show how Evil Szark is, he throws Spark out a window. To his death.
Magic portal? Eh? What? When did this turn into the Portal game?
Bad iokes, coming to save the heroes, these magicians coming completely out of the blue with absolutely no mention whatsoever?
I smell deus ex machina!

*Ages as defined by Trazoi here.

Coming up!
Wacky iail time romance!

[T-O-E]

I smell deus ex machina![/spoiler]

Amazing! And she hasn't even been introduced yet!

[averagejoe]

Amazing! And she hasn't even been introduced yet!

Yeah. You just have no idea.

[Welf]

There are so many things wrong with how Mookie draws breasts I have to wonder if he's ever seen a woman with her bra off.

We know that Mookie did; that will become an important plot point in one of the recent arcs.

And I don't think it's bad that nearly all of the characters in the early arcs were somehow related. There is actually a backstory that connects a lot of the characters, and made a little bit of sense. I like it that way, and you could feel that Mookie at that point had a certain idea where his story was going, and that he bothered to plan things out in advance (I only mean the general direction if the story, not details or such). Maybe those conncetions were leftovers from the "great american novel" he once wanted to write before he started the webcomic.

Huh, I probably should comment on today's strip, too. Hm, bad, or something. I don't really care.

[SaintRidley]

Indeed, it is amazing. Someday we will have to come up with an Encyclopaedia entry about how skin colour is always white unless a comic is specifically coloured (but sometimes not even then).

[Coidzor]

Heh, it's telling that I feel worse about falling behind with Koorly's analysis than I did for leaving off reading the comic for a year.

[Deme]

To be fair, I can see why Mookie doesn't color Bumper's skin. I mean, Mookie's art is black-and-white linework, without tones. That means that the only way to color Bumper's skin would, at best, clutter up any panel with him really fast. I've considered doing a comic with black-and-white-no-grey linework, with other colors represented by spot blacks or shading lines.... And I have yet to find a solution to the "Bumper Problem," hence why none of my characters have a skintone that would ask for shading. If anyone has a good solution, I'd like to see it.

[guttering flame]

To be fair, I can see why Mookie doesn't color Bumper's skin. I mean, Mookie's art is black-and-white linework, without tones. That means that the only way to color Bumper's skin would, at best, clutter up any panel with him really fast. I've considered doing a comic with black-and-white-no-grey linework, with other colors represented by spot blacks or shading lines.... And I have yet to find a solution to the "Bumper Problem," hence why none of my characters have a skintone that would ask for shading. If anyone has a good solution, I'd like to see it.

You can try for other characteristics that tend to be linked to darker skin color such as wider nose or curly hair

[Slayn82]

You can try for other characteristics that tend to be linked to darker skin color such as wider nose or curly hair

Well, to be fair, i am a white guy, green eyes, and i have both characteristics you mentioned above. Maybe his world is actually a little more miscigenated, so all the faces kinda look the same to us?

[Thufir]

And the boobs would be sagging and less perky because there's no support whatsoever in that belt.

That's the other thing Amelia uses her magic for, obviously.

The implication in 05/01/2004 is that Bumper has dark skin because he's a Semashi - a different country? - but his skin is exactly the same colour as Callanian Lady Amelia. And his hair is the same as Callanian Dominus Deegan. Mookie, if you want to differentiate skin colours to denote different countries, it'd help to colour them.

Later on, there are occasional strips with colour. They confused me so much.

Maybe his world is actually a little more miscigenated, so all the faces kinda look the same to us?

Maybe his art is just not very good.

[rocketpony]

Sneaky gate's up dogs and dogettes
Link for our children

Soooo we once again get hints at a backstory, but we're not going to explain any of it, just make nebulous statements (wounds that never close, demons, woooo)
And we're back to the real world! (i.e. Hell and not flashbacktown)

Also

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why is he even trying to kill NaktaOrc why is that a reasonable response.

[Fawkes]

I am a GOOD MAN and I will PROVE IT by BEATING the PULP out of MY OWN BROTHER

[Trazoi]

I am a GOOD MAN and I will PROVE IT by BEATING the PULP out of MY OWN BROTHER

Regarding today's sneaky-gate strip I can't think of anything else to add to this. This is a bizarro character moment.

[Castel]

"No, Adrak! NO, MY BROTHER!"

There's just something about that line that cracks me up. Especially 'cause the word "brother" instantly reminds me of The Hulkster.

[rocketpony]

Also, I mad just noticed this, but check out his fang in panels 5-7. Is it just me, or has it grown in correspondence to his (dare I say it) OUTRAGE?

For my mocking comments, I do like how the dialogue could work for either something that he's entirely hallucinating, or something that Loxo's saying and for some reason he's hallucinating that it's not her.
Except for the "You really think it's me you're beating up."

Also why are they speaking Callanian they're both Orcs Racist as it is of me to imagine it, I'd assume that orcs raised in Maltak would speak orcish casually among themselves.

[Joro]

"No, Adrak! No, my brother!" is some terrible dialogue. If you're going to clumsily shoehorn in who the character is, maybe you could've done that during the flashback.

[Coidzor]

Also

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why is he even trying to kill NaktaOrc why is that a reasonable response.

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Answer: Green is da best. Red wunz go fasta. Blue is lucky.

That is to say, ORKS! Well, Orcs anyway.

Also, HELL!

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So, now we know why what's his ugly was so face, at least.

Why do the ladies get to be Italian Nobility?

[Phase]

I'm also having homoerotic vibes from Venus de Seer towards the Dominus. "I want to turn you away from all this" indeed, more like 'I want to save you' . . .

YOU HAVE NO IDEA.

hurr hurr

[TheLaughingMan]

"Your point-making fills me with HOMICIDAL RAEG"

And then Adrak was a skank.

[spectralphoenix]

Does Loxo even have infernomancer powers? I mean, I know they're weakened, but fighting soul hunters has to be harder than fending off one hallucinating orc.

I'm not sure what to make of this comic. Maybe Mookie's going the "everyone's evil" route after all?

[Fishy Fishy]

Does Loxo even have infernomancer powers? I mean, I know they're weakened, but fighting soul hunters has to be harder than fending off one hallucinating orc.

I would guess that the strength of Loxo's infernomancy is inversely proportional to Mookie's desire to draw her getting throttled.

[averagejoe]

And then Adrak was a skank.

I was going to say something about terms that demean women, but then I realized that for a woman in the Dominon's hell this is probably entirely accurate.

[Turcano]

I am a GOOD MAN and I will PROVE IT by BEATING the PULP out of MY OWN BROTHER

Hey, it makes as much sense as anything else in this comic.

[Palmer]

So the flashback keeps going even though he's not in the flashback hole...okay.

[Coidzor]

It attempts to paralyze its victims with flashback venom!

[Ignition]

Ten bucks says Loxo either kills him for his insolence of laying a hand on her, or she totally trusts him for their cunning plan? to force Karnak into giving them powers so they can break out of Hell. Alternately, she tries to seduce Karnak, and dies from exhaustion

I really hope Bulgak remains this unstable and dumb, so that when he trips into another hole, he'll finally die and stay dead. Boring tool character is boring, as well as a tool. Seriously, when he's not being brainwashed into having tentacles, he's just... a complete waste of time and energy.

[CurlyKitGirl]

Amazing! And she hasn't even been introduced yet!

Yeah. You just have no idea.

This doesn't engender hope in me.
It's going to be bad isn't it?
Really bad.

We know that Mookie did; that will become an important plot point in one of the recent arcs.

Words almost fail me.
I'm not going to be looking forward to that. I don't even know how that would work!

And I don't think it's bad that nearly all of the characters in the early arcs were somehow related. There is actually a backstory that connects a lot of the characters, and made a little bit of sense. I like it that way, and you could feel that Mookie at that point had a certain idea where his story was going, and that he bothered to plan things out in advance (I only mean the general direction if the story, not details or such). Maybe those conncetions were leftovers from the "great american novel" he once wanted to write before he started the webcomic.

I don't obiect to interconnectivity. I've read Les Mis where practically every single person in the entire novel who has a name is known to almost every other person.
It's that it was all revealed in about ten pages. AKA forty panels.
Too much in too litte. And about half of those people weren't even mentioned until the Big Unravelling.

That's the other thing Amelia uses her magic for, obviously.

Good point.
That or she went to a creepy alterist.
Or both.

Later on, there are occasional strips with colour. They confused me so much.

Ive seen one. It was weird. His iacket was green.

YOU HAVE NO IDEA.

hurr hurr

I think everyone's Hot for Dominic.
If I find another person who flirts with the Dominus I'm calling it.