Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXVIII: This Show Blew My Boogeyman

[Welf]

...So I'm in the minority that I thought that was way better than anything I was expecting Dominic to do today? I always feel so out of place in this thread.

Yes, it's more Dominic saving the day with psychic cosplay, but given that the typical form of active criticism for Dominic's problem-solving is always "Oh, look, he's going to beamspam ", followed by "Oh, he didn't beam spam, but I hate this anyway ", it wasn't going to be well-received no matter WHAT he did.

Compared to nearly every other solution Dominic's pulled off when doing fights in the psychoplanes, this one is much better than most of the things he could have done.

As for why Celesto isn't using psychic cosplay the way Dominic is, well, he's using it to mimic an eldritch abomination, and at the moment dealing with that thing and DJ Callan is higher on Celesto's list of priorities than world-burning, that's all.

Honestly, you guys would've preferred boring ol' beam spam that you would have hated anyway to this? Thematic transformations are at least 20% cooler than beam spam any day.

There's a very good reason why he should have used Beamspam fights. They are on my Bingo sheet.
But the problem to me is that is another case where Dominic is effortless better than everybody else in everything. He couldn't even let sword fighting to someone else.

But if they ARE visible characterstics of the forces that control their lives, then why do "some orcs say the same about our views of light and darkness"? For them that shouldn't be an odd thing to base a faith on.

And since the chief does truly believes that "Akta is good and Nakta is bad" (and he keeps going on and on and on about it, dammit!), then why he's not using their own dicotonomy about holy and unholy instead than just saying: "my magic sparkles, yours does not"?

He probably was aware that Callanians were present and didn't want to confuse them.

[Rappy]

I was going to reply to this earlier today, but I was too busy laughing my head off to manage to do so.

Glorious. So glorious.

[random11]

...So I'm in the minority that I thought that was way better than anything I was expecting Dominic to do today? I always feel so out of place in this thread.

Yes, it's more Dominic saving the day with psychic cosplay, but given that the typical form of active criticism for Dominic's problem-solving is always "Oh, look, he's going to beamspam ", followed by "Oh, he didn't beam spam, but I hate this anyway ", it wasn't going to be well-received no matter WHAT he did.

Compared to nearly every other solution Dominic's pulled off when doing fights in the psychoplanes, this one is much better than most of the things he could have done.

As for why Celesto isn't using psychic cosplay the way Dominic is, well, he's using it to mimic an eldritch abomination, and at the moment dealing with that thing and DJ Callan is higher on Celesto's list of priorities than world-burning, that's all.

Honestly, you guys would've preferred boring ol' beam spam that you would have hated anyway to this? Thematic transformations are at least 20% cooler than beam spam any day.

Yes, I agree it's better than the DBZ alternative, but not better as in "good" but just "not as bad".

It can never reach a higher rating than that as long as the magic system is completely broken and unknown at the same time, and as long as Mookie insists that all conflicts will be in a place where Dominic will have a home advantage.

The fact that we both agree that this is cooler than a beam spam only shows that we really lowered our expectations.

[Bobikus]

I wasn't joking when I said I'd rather have the beam spam honestly. This is like hitting another level of Mary Sue Wish Fulfillment nonsense.

[rocketpony]

And since the chief does truly believes that "Akta is good and Nakta is bad" (and he keeps going on and on and on about it, dammit!), then why he's not using their own dicotonomy about holy and unholy instead than just saying: "my magic sparkles, yours does not"?

Okay here's the thing you need to understand.

HUMANS -> Responsible for everything that's gone wrong with orcs. Everything. No exceptions.
HUMANS -> Make the light:good :: dark:bad distinction.
SPIRIT FATHER -> Makes the light:good :: dark:bad distinction.

Spirit Father is evil because he has a human way of thinking. If he'd kept to a true orcish faith, he'd be okay. But somewhere down the line, Callanian missionaries got to him, and he started preaching heresies like "magic that causes things to wither and die can be used by peaceful nomads just as beneficently as magic that heals wounds and causes delicious plants to grow."*

*Oracle Hunter and Domochevsky have some rather excellent fanfiction about how you can have white magic not be the best thing to be using at all times, but theirs is excellent Maltak fanfiction in general, and you end up with an orcish society that makes sense, and then we're getting pretty far off the rails from the adventures of Dominic Deegan.

[Palmer]

Eh, I feel like that's a stretch. the only thing that really comes close is just the glasses.

That, and Dominic must be stupid drunk at this point.



Edit: Oh, and Bingo update.

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I'm counting that ball kick as a humiliating defeat for Scarlatti, though it looks like the Masters have nothing to do with what was going on. They just exist to extend the plot longer.

[averagejoe]

Quick post on today's:

I'm usually pretty neutral with regard to all the psychoplane stuff. Usually even the weird stuff at least isn't complete nonsense. But I call shenanigans on today's.

Shenanigans.

[Trazoi]

I wasn't joking when I said I'd rather have the beam spam honestly. This is like hitting another level of Mary Sue Wish Fulfillment nonsense.

I admit I'd probably prefer the current update because it so hilarious, but if I were taking the story even remotely seriously I fully agree with you.

Beam spam would at least be in tune with the abilities of a powerful seer (I'd prefer the Dome of Destruction or trapping them in shards of psychoplane, but it's the same thing). And it also has the advantage of being quick rather than whatever dodgy display we're going to see for the rest of the week.

And there's the whole Mary Sue aspect of how, in an arc about swordsmen, Dominic has to be the best swordsman of all. I honestly did not see that coming.

[FoE]

I'll break my self-imposed exile for a moment to comment the ludicrous stupidity of this plot development.

Even if he was convinced for, like, a minute that he was a swordsman, wouldn't it make more sense for Dominic to turn the Destroyer or, God forbid, He-Dom?

[TheArsenal]

I never said I would have liked any beam spam. Nor did I say I would prefer anything else:


Its not the beam spam I hate. Its the stupid. And I HATE the stupid. This contains allot of stupid. So I hate it. ALLOT.

[Traab]

Yeah, honestly, the whole "Im a SWORDSMAN NOW!" was kinda silly. The ONLY way I could accept this happening is if it was due to the fact that he is basically surrounded by swords, and sword fighters, so he has swords on the brain. But they couldnt even do that! No, its, "I used to think I was a swordsman, even though I know I suck with a sword, in here, remembering that I used to think I was good MAKES me good!" (but only inside my mental battles) Using a sword himself is pointless drivel meant to make dom seem even better since he can do anything when it comes to mental combat, or whatever the hell this can be considered. Oh, and despite everything, I would SO buy an entire set of dom plushies. Lobster-Dom, He-Dom, Sword-Dom, Mage-Dom, Truth-Dom, id buy em all and think they are the coolest plushies ever.

[Bobikus]

By this logic Chance should still be better in the psychoplane anyway at swordsmanship, because he still thinks of himself as a dueling prodigy/master. Dom's delusions of sword skill were shattered long ago and he knows he has no actual ability for it.

[Traab]

By this logic Chance should still be better in the psychoplane anyway at swordsmanship, because he still thinks of himself as a dueling prodigy/master. Dom's delusions of sword skill were shattered long ago and he knows he has no actual ability for it.

Yeah but he has no training in USING that belief like dom does. Therefore.... asspull!

[Helanna]

Well, that was absolutely ridiculous.

Really, Mookie? You couldn't stand to let someone other than Dominic be the hero for one arc? There are a hundred swordsmen standing all around, but all of a sudden Dominic is the BEST SWORDFIGHTER EVAH! because he used to think that he was good? I mean, even with the very little we know of psychoplanes that's a huge asspull. But really, I'm a little concerned about how much wish fulfillment this is. I get it, Mookie. You want all the cool fantasy powers. But just giving them all to your main character is a little obvious.

Does Dominic even pretend to have weaknesses any more? I mean, this had the potential to be interesting (as always) - Dominic should be at a disadvantage. He's not good at physical fighting. Except for now he is, and he can beat anyone at swordfighting, even though it makes less than no sense. I'm a little angry at how awful this is, but mostly, I'm just really, really sad.

Although, didn't he think he was a good swordsman for all of like, thirty seconds? Szark disarmed him the moment they started fighting. So, thirty seconds of cocky, arrogant, teenage belief suddenly translates into being an awesome swordsman? In fact, how does that even work?! Using a sword well requires years of training. It's simply not a matter of "I believe I'm good, therefore it is so". Otherwise, what's to stop Dominic from just saying "I believe all those Snugglies just spontaneously combusted" and having them all die like that?

[Trazoi]

Yeah, honestly, the whole "Im a SWORDSMAN NOW!" was kinda silly. The ONLY way I could accept this happening is if it was due to the fact that he is basically surrounded by swords, and sword fighters, so he has swords on the brain. But they couldnt even do that! No, its, "I used to think I was a swordsman, even though I know I suck with a sword, in here, remembering that I used to think I was good MAKES me good!" (but only inside my mental battles)

At least with the older Dom transformations there was some handwaving explanation. Dom would usually get a frantic power boost from Greg or Luna which turns him into He-Dom or Dominic the Hedgehog. And SuperGreg got the whole arc building up to his transformation. But these days, Dominic toggles into Lobster Mode or Duellist Mode whenever he feels like it.

[Bobikus]

The fact that he's over 30 and doing this nonsense still, and getting WORSE, is just really depressing honestly.

[AgentofOdd]

Oh why couldn't Dominic stick with the Violent Ultimatum? At least that's a predictable asspull.

[Penquin47]

Now, now, folks, let's not jump to conclusions. Remember this? And how we were all sure that despite his fake leg, Dominic was going to out-dance the Semashi, and then he fell on his face? But it was okay because the Semashi decided that the Faceplant was the hot new dance and booed the Semashi off?

Let's give Mookie the chance to come up with new and entertaining ways to fail and disappoint us before we assume Dom is going to be the superest speshulest snowflakiest swordsman sever... er, ever.

[Traab]

Dominic will somehow accidentally kill someone. Maybe scarletti, maybe butler boy, maybe szark or even chance!

Oh, and here is the comic with one of the oddest non sequitors I have ever read, Tada!

[Garland]

I was wasting time thinking about this and... wouldn't Celesto's knowledge about Dominic negate this asspull powerup? I mean, let's assume the lobster mask worked on Snuggly because he just made it think he summoned a Lobster Cop. He just fooled Snuggly, maybe because it doesn't know a whole lot about Dominic or what he can do. But I'm pretty sure Celesto knows Dominic can't swing a sword to save his life. But no, apparently, Dominic's powers here go as far as his imagination allows (a fact he seems to have remembered just now) while Celesto, known to be roughly on par with Dominic in knowledge and power over the psychoplanes, doesn't get the same powers of imagination. It's like the comic is making up for all the blandness of Maltak by going full throttle into stupid self-insertion wish fulfillment awesome zone.

[Traab]

Celesto isnt THERE currently. He sorta went all obi wan and vanished, leaving his cloak behind. Thats actually what amused me the most.

Celestro vanishes.

Dom: "Is he... is he gone? Ok, um... YEAH! Im sick and tired of this, and im not going to take it anymore!"

He left behind a big old mess of minisnugs though.

[T-O-E]

Later, Dom awakens to find himself surrounded by the corpses of Heliner and a number of civilians. Because your body copies your psychoplane movements apparently.

Even if he was convinced for, like, a minute that he was a swordsman, wouldn't it make more sense for Dominic to turn the Destroyer or, God forbid, He-Dom?

No because swords
SWORDS

[Trazoi]

See the comic!

Dominikudigan:

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So... is this bingo?

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[Lillith]

So according to Mookie the 'See the Truth' spell (it's a real spell?) is very significant and thus rarely used due to it's power. Yeah, what do you call something like this again? A Deux a Machina? A Macguffin maybe?

On the comic itself: *facepalm* why does Dominic always have to be the hero? (also what dance moves? He jumped that's all)

[M84]

So in the end the swordsman change didn't mean a damn thing and Dominic just used a "SEE THE TRUTH" spirit bomb.

The DBZ style resolution doesn't really bother me. Like I said, it's better than Dominic suddenly fulfilling his teenage ambitions of being a master swordsman. What bothers me is that this means yesterday's strip was entirely pointless. Even more so than a typical DD strip.

Really, if he had just magicked up some clothes and did his SEE THE TRUTH bit yesterday w/o the sword shenanigans, I'd feel better about this week of strips.

When did Dominic last use SEE THE TRUTH anyway?

[Palmer]

The second is Dominic's old "see the truth" spell. This one hasn't shown up in quite a while, but it's significant when Dominic unleashes it. I think that's why it's been used so rarely. If it was just being thrown around all the time it'd lose its dramatic effectiveness. And it'd get old really fast.

Mookie, sweetie, it was never dramatic. Ever. And it has gotten old.

[colonelslime]

Mookie, sweetie, it was never dramatic. Ever. And it has gotten old.

As soon as I read the newspost I got a nosebleed. Not kidding.

The massive cognitive dissonance between what Mookie believes is the dramatic impact of "SEE THE TRUTH!!!" and its actual effectiveness as a foreshadowing device broke something.

I seriously wasn't kidding about the nosebleed.

[M84]

What's sad is that the "SEE THE TRUTH" spell really could be something awesome. A powerful psychic technique that completely shatters the target's lifetime's worth of self-justifications, prejudices, delusions, etc. and forces him/her to face reality, with the drawbacks being that it takes a lot of stamina out of the person using it and the possibility of breaking the rest of the target's mind as well. Basically a spell version of the Sword of Shannara from the Shannara books.

[Arakune]

As soon as I read the newspost I got a nosebleed. Not kidding.

The massive cognitive dissonance between what Mookie believes is the dramatic impact of "SEE THE TRUTH!!!" and its actual effectiveness as a foreshadowing device broke something.

I seriously wasn't kidding about the nosebleed.

We all know what you were looking on the other tab right next to DD

[Hours]

Did you know? All truth is subject to the viewer's perspective.

By the looks of it, see the truth is more like 'Agree with me: Dominic.'