Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XLI: No Morals! No Quarter! All Brutal!

[Oracle_Hunter]

Someone, I beg you, make a slay of this or something. I don't know how much of this I can take.

Behold this Cross-Post Reacharound brought to you by Schlega:

The past year's worth of Deegan has been amazingly uninspiring, but I'm starting to feel classy again.

Spoiler

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Like the Slays of old, it makes DD hurt less

[Humbug]

Oh man, I miss Schlega's slays. Where has he been?

[Oracle_Hunter]

Oh man, I miss Schlega's slays. Where has he been?

Uninspired for 2011, but who can blame him?

Heck, we had no more than 1-2 slays per month for most of 2011, compared to the Slay-Offs we had back in the day. I was worried that we'd lose the art of Slaying entirely at this rate

But this slay, man. It shows how Mookie's Art and Mookie's Words can be recombined to create horrors that seem to have flowed from the man's pen itself. Incredible.

[colonelslime]

On today's comic: ech.......
As others have said, lightly gag-inducing sappy dialogue. For me the big thing is panel four, where the flounderfaces, contorted into grimacing approximations of what I assume is supposed to be a romantic look. Makes Dominic look like some kind of doppelganger mirroring Luna. Seriously, why did his eyes shrink compared to his face? It looks like Mookie copy-pasted Luna's eyes.

You should also check out the video of the annoying kid he mentions once or twice. No ten seconds pass without someone doing or saying something almost painfully stupid.

Wow. That was cringe-inducing. Do you think that guy knows what the word maven means by the way? It feels like a misuse of the word. I wouldn't trust this guy to provide me any information, let alone on media.

[Glass Mouse]

Yeah. The "6-8 hours per comic" bit was what inspired our drawing diversion, by the way.
You should also check out the video of the annoying kid he mentions once or twice. No ten seconds pass without someone doing or saying something almost painfully stupid.

Wow... I didn't think I'd ever see someone who made Mookie look so professional.

[random11]

The thing that annoys me the most is the reason for the romantic moment.

It's not character development, not plot that is going somewhere, and not even natural reaction of the characters.
It's specifically meant to drag time until next year.

Mookie, if you need a break, just take it.
Fill it with fan arts, or even with just a page saying "taking a break".
BUT DON'T DRAG THE COMIC MORE THAN YOU USUALLY DO JUST TO MATCH IT TO OUR WORLD'S NEW YEAR!!!!

[Glass Mouse]

Hmmm. On one hand, Mookie uploaded a annoyingly filler-ish comic today. On the other hand, he just linked to this on his Twitter.

I like him today. or I just wanted an excuse to share. Cuteness overdose ftw!

[Trazoi]

The thing that annoys me the most is the reason for the romantic moment.

It's not character development, not plot that is going somewhere, and not even natural reaction of the characters.
It's specifically meant to drag time until next year.

And what annoys me about that is that this going-nowhere arc started in late November. Mookie chose to burn an entire month because the end of the year was looming. If Mookie had any sense of pacing or an idea of where he was going he could have spent this month setting up all the pieces to fly out of the gate in 2012. But instead he's going to have to spend January doing what he could be doing now. And that's the best case - the likely case is a replay of 2011 where we begin the year with another series of pointless mini-arcs because Mookie hasn't a clue where he's going with this Beast plot.

Did Mookie once say he was planning on wrapping up Dominic Deegan around the ten year mark? That would be May 21, 2012, which is unlikely. As well as the timeframe I'm not sure Mookie could bring himself to draw DD to a close and make the leap to something else. He's certainly not making any signs that he plans to wrap everything up next year.

[random11]

And what annoys me about that is that this going-nowhere arc started in late November. Mookie chose to burn an entire month because the end of the year was looming. If Mookie had any sense of pacing or an idea of where he was going he could have spent this month setting up all the pieces to fly out of the gate in 2012. But instead he's going to have to spend January doing what he could be doing now. And that's the best case - the likely case is a replay of 2011 where we begin the year with another series of pointless mini-arcs because Mookie hasn't a clue where he's going with this Beast plot.

Hmmm... There are all these stupid talks about the world ending in 2012, and DD was planned to end at 2012.
Coincidence? I don't think so!

Did Mookie once say he was planning on wrapping up Dominic Deegan around the ten year mark? That would be May 21, 2012, which is unlikely. As well as the timeframe I'm not sure Mookie could bring himself to draw DD to a close and make the leap to something else. He's certainly not making any signs that he plans to wrap everything up next year.

You forget Mookie's definition of "wrapping things up".
It can end with a wedding after closing all open events with in a single strip of talking faces, assuming the events don't get completely ignored.

[Trazoi]

You forget Mookie's definition of "wrapping things up".
It can end with a wedding after closing all open events with in a single strip of talking faces, assuming the events don't get completely ignored.

Mookie would have to wrap up the Beast storyline by February to have three months of wedding nonsense involving all his favourtine author insert characters. It's not impossible, but I doubt Mookie will figure out what to do by then.

Although I supoose Mookie could just do the wedding and do his usual trick of having the Beast fly at them in a rage going all arglearghargh only to get one-shotted by insert-mookie-insert-here. Then repeat for the king.

The other thing is that Mookie's just got married, and that often means a couple plans to start a family. Unless the infertility arc was based on real-life (and good grief I hope it wasn't) there might be a baby on the way in 2012. There's no way Mookie's current routine will survive that, so if he can't learn how to plan ahead and make a buffer then it's the end of Dominic Deegan.

[Mr. McGician]

Why does this arc have such gigantic walls of text? Has Mookie become so inept at writing that he needs so many words to tell so little story?

This is the most boring arc ever. It would be more entertaining if Mookie didn't update at all and I just looked at the same strip everyday.

[rocketpony]

It can end with a wedding after closing all open events with in a single strip of talking faces, assuming the events don't get completely ignored.

This is basically how the comic For Better or Worse ended, so, uh. Be careful what you say callously with the desperate hope that you won't be right, but a tiny voice whispers in your ear that it isn't impossible, it isn't even unprecedented.

[Rappy]

Wow... I didn't think I'd ever see someone who made Mookie look so professional.

I agree.

Though it's impressive that he's willing to wave the "my family is made of lawyers!" threat at a youngster. And by impressive, I mean somewhat depressing.

[Trazoi]

Stupid obnoxious kid, semi-professional interviewers only derail their videos for Deadpool.

[random11]

This is basically how the comic For Better or Worse ended, so, uh. Be careful what you say callously with the desperate hope that you won't be right, but a tiny voice whispers in your ear that it isn't impossible, it isn't even unprecedented.

No need to look far, this is how the last few arcs ended.
Unlike other weird guesses, this time I suspect that my estimation is more than likely.
In fact, I half WANT it to be true, because I fear that the alternatives will be worse...

[Feddlefew]

Oh gods those arn't tears-
The future.

[colonelslime]

Sneaky Gate

Future Link

Oh no, Luna's lactating from her eyes again. Also, I wish Melna would come in and punch Luna again.

Edit; AHH! NINJA! But yeah, those aren't tears. More like the consistency of mayonnaise. And I just made myself mildly ill.

[Trazoi]

Oh gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawd. I knew this was going to be Luna's turn for romantic twaddle, but I wasn't prepared for this level of "LOOUUHHUH".

I hope the king is slowly torching their house and/or Spark & Donovan while they waste time with this nonsense. If only they had the foresight to do something instead of absolutely nothing.

[M84]

Knowing this was coming didn't make it any easier to look at.

I'm actually curious about how Mookie can feasibly drag this out for another two weeks.

[random11]

Oh gods those arn't tears-
The future.

Oooh, manga style tears.
Or maybe it's tentacles?

Anyway, not much to say or snark about.
Don't think it will change soon.

[Zaq]

Goddammit, Luna, you're supposed to wet your SLEEVE with tears! God, you are so not miyabi! This isn't even aware! (No, not that kind of aware. The other kind. It's a Heian Era joke. DON'T JUDGE ME.)

[BlackDragonKing]

No, no, I understand the strategy perfectly. It's rather brilliant, actually.

Would you keep the Deegans under psychic surveillance if this was what you had to watch to do so?

[busterswd]

That is just...
so
...
Mentally I was thinking of that as a strip slay. The last 4 panels are just...
...
How do you write things like that and keep a straight face? He HAS to be snarking the readerhood.

[Bobikus]

Luna is such a pathetic character.

[colonelslime]

Goddammit, Luna, you're supposed to wet your SLEEVE with tears! God, you are so not miyabi! This isn't even aware! (No, not that kind of aware. The other kind. It's a Heian Era joke. DON'T JUDGE ME.)

I doubt Luna is capable of emotions as complex as mono no aware. I knew it was going to be something along these lines, but I thought it was going to be something a little bit deeper than "I just love him soooooooo muuuchhhhh *bawls*"

Luna is so two-dimensional she'd disappear if she ever turn sideways. Hey, maybe that's why they have flounder face. All the characters are shown from a static angle, they just morph and rearrange their features on their front plane.

[Trazoi]

Luna is such a pathetic character.

"I am now a strong independent woman now I have a strong, capable man."
(Cue Melna fist upside head.)

[Bobikus]

"I am now a strong independent woman now I have a strong, capable man."
(Cue Melna fist upside head.)

Wouldn't annoy me half as much if Mookie didn't actually think he's making a good female character. (Luna's even worse than a serious version of Kate Beaton's "Strong Female Characters")

[Humbug]

This is a terrible terrible page.

I'm wondering if any of Mookie's fans are actually enjoying this?

[Zaq]

This is a race to the bottom, isn't it?

Things that I'd rather read about than this utter dreck:

• Orc rape
• Dominic naked in a young lad's head
• Lobsters
• Werewolf Sue-boobs
• Cattleblaster facial hair
• Magical fertility clinics
• Sword-scrying
• Supergreg
• Callanian laws
• Elven tree-nobles
• Facebath

Yes, I said it. Facebath is less painful than this.

Congratulations, Mookie. You're making Facebath look good.

I want to believe that he can't keep this up for another week and a half, but I know the mantra. It always gets worse.

[T-O-E]

Panels 5-7 rival Moonface. 7 is just ridiculous. How can someone think that looks acceptable.