Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XLVI: A Tark of the Klones, Electric Boogaloo

[AgentofOdd]

From the looks of things, I think Mookie is trying to convey that Dominic is thinking to himself while looking through Ara's cloak of memories. But yea, it does come across as rather perplexing to say the least.

[Trazoi]

Oh wow, those last two panels, with Dave's little smile.

Edit: Make that the whole row. No the whole comic. This is gloriously stupid.

[YeahThatGuy]

Dave knew he stood no chance against Mustache's mental fortitude.

[Johnny Blade]

"They never knew they had been enchanted."

Nefarious!

Also, perfect crime in panel 8.

This is the best arc of all times. I'm seriously sitting here laughing at it.

He might still roleplay as him on WoW. Let that sink in.

I'm assuming the Melna storyline came out as a way to give his character a tragic, dark past, which is terrible. It's sad how common it is to use rape for drama.

But orcs are the noble savage race, so they must have savage people problems!

I just remembered that the King is apparently named after one of Mookie's friends.

This, and today's comic, can only mean that everything else we came up with is also true.

And more.

[Trazoi]

Also, perfect crime in panel 8.

I still can't get over those last two panels. They're amazing.

"I love Dominique" version:

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[Johnny Blade]

I still can't get over those last two panels. They're amazing.

I thought it was hilarious how Mookie spent about half the update establishing that enchanting people without them knowing about it is apparently a big deal already, and then he went and had DJ's plot to dispose of King and Queen, something he must have planned for years, be "Enchant them, let them kill each other."

This comic...

[Welf]

Your attempts to excuse Mookie's incompetence by comparing to other comics (that don't use whatever harebrained idea Mookie came up with because it makes no sense to do so, whereas in Mookie's comic there exists the rather good reason to do so: that Mookie came up with the idea), your point is not only laughable, it involves even less thought than your usual laughable points.

I think it's a bit too harsh to call Mookie incompetent for not going that road. It's more of a missed chance for him. It would have taken some talent to successfully do that, and it's not a bad thing to shy away from that risk.
But I'm not saying that he isn't incompetent.

On today's comic:
Apparently the timeline is:
-DJ realizes he needs access to the Sanctum, and the spells from royal archive
-DJ gets access to the Sanctum
-DJ becomes king and gets access to the royal archive
-DJ leaves the circle and loses access to the Sanctum
-DJ realizes he needs access to the Sanctum

I'm a *bit* confused.

[Cavelcade]

Jesus Christ today's update is honest to god one of the funniest things I've ever seen. It is legitimately hilarious.

Panel 1-4 are okay, until you realise that a magician who can enchant archmages obviously deserves to be an archmage anyway, while Mookie seems to be implying he's a fraud.

Panel 5 is fine. Great, even, because it sets up the punchline so well!

6 shows us he associates with evil people so he must be evil because only evil people ever deal with evil people and we don't negotiate with terrorists.

And then panels 7 and 8 have the payoff for panel 5 - 'never enchants humans' = 'enchants humans sometimes in a really transparent plot to kill people in a way that makes no sense and has to make him incredibly suspicious'.

Hilarious!

[Gez]

Panel 6 is hilarious. Mookie thinks that all he needs to do to get his audience to hate a character is to associate him with Warlord Moustache. It's so badly done.

Mookie just doesn't know his audience very well. I love King DJ even more now that I know he was a close friend of Warlord Mustache.

I think there should be a Warlord Mustache skin for Orcs Must Die. Do you think Mookie would accept to host such a mod as fanart?

[elros]

It is amazing how Mookie struggles showing that someone is evil. He thinks associating someone with Warlord Mustache is the greatest evil there is, and that by itself is enough. It just doesn't work.

[rocketpony]

The little smile, Dave, as you report the terrible death of your monarchs, is making me suspicious of exactly how sad you feel at this moment.
Also unclear why a ludicrously popular guy who did so much to improve the lot of the people needed the king and queen out of the way. He's the court magician. If he doesn't have the right clearances to access the royal archives, especially after becoming basically the Department of Wizard Fights, who does? What spell could possibly be contained in them that is so secret that it can't be used by the guy who casts spells in the name of the king?
Additionally, if you're going to mind control the king, but you respect him, why don't you just have him give you access, instead of, y'know, regicide.

[SaintRidley]

*snip*

"They knew, they had been fascinated."

"The respect for human dignity."


The machine knows not what it does, but what it does is beautiful.

[MReav]

Panel 1-4 are okay, until you realise that a magician who can enchant archmages obviously deserves to be an archmage anyway, while Mookie seems to be implying he's a fraud.

Yeah. I kind of wish the implication was that they wouldn't make him an archmage because he specializes in forbidden magic, so they wouldn't give him the position any more than an infernomancer who could defeat them in spell combat, but this is kind of like implying he doesn't deserve his position the same way an athlete who takes steroids doesn't deserve his medal.

[Trazoi]

Panel 5 is fine. Great, even, because it sets up the punchline so well!

Panel 5 is also great because it means Dave is going to be elected king because he is genuinely loved by the people of Callan.

Sorry, "elected" king because in the Deeganverse, voting is evil.

"The respect for human dignity."

Translation Party knows enough to appreciate that sixth panel.

[Oracle_Hunter]

Additionally, if you're going to mind control the king, but you respect him, why don't you just have him give you access, instead of, y'know, regicide.

Heh, another good point.

"I respect Humans too much to mind-control the King to give me access to the Royal Archives. Instead, I will make him and his wife kill each other so that I can become King and grant myself access to the Archives. This clearly shows a far greater respect for Humanity."

Oh Mookie, did anyone read this over before you posted it?

[MReav]

Oh Mookie, did anyone read this over before you posted it?

Possibly Mookie did. Which may have been the problem.

[Mr. McGician]

I love this because it makes the King into an unintentional Villain Sue. His ridiculous plans all work and he's loved by everyone. In trying to write a villain that all his readers would hate, Mookie somehow, amazingly, did almost the exact opposite thing and made it look like he's too much in love with his villain.

[MReav]

I love this because it makes the King into an unintentional Villain Sue. His ridiculous plans all work and he's loved by everyone. In trying to write a villain that all his readers would hate, Mookie somehow, amazingly, did almost the exact opposite thing and made it look like he's too much in love with his villain.

DJ Callan/Warlord Mustache for Elected Monarchy 1012!

[random11]

I'm not sure why Mookie is trying to show the King's becoming an archmage as illegitimate, since he showed himself to be completely beyond them all in terms of magical power. That's like saying Alexander the Great didn't really untie the Gordian knot, he just cut it in half.

That would have been true if the other magi rejected him because he lacked power.
However, the other magi never doubted he is powerful, they just questioned his motives and feared that he will misuse magic.

So that part is explained, and also covered a plot hole we had several weeks ago when we discovered he had to manipulate them to become an arch-magi.

On other news, he must have used a REALLY strong magic if he managed to convince everyone that the apathetic-duo murdered each other violently.
And that's even more impressive if he refused to use mind control magic on other humans.

Wouldn't "someone killed them" make a much better excuse?

[Cavelcade]

I love this because it makes the King into an unintentional Villain Sue. His ridiculous plans all work and he's loved by everyone. In trying to write a villain that all his readers would hate, Mookie somehow, amazingly, did almost the exact opposite thing and made it look like he's too much in love with his villain.

That's...that's beautiful.

[T-O-E]

Why did Dave have to be the one to announce it? Couldn't he have done it so that they would kill each other in front of witnesses while he was somewhere else preparing an alibi?

Is it because the people of Callan are so stupid that no-one would think it a little convenient that the monarchs of their country murdered each other at the same time?

Mookie just doesn't know his audience very well. I love King DJ even more now that I know he was a close friend of Warlord Mustache.

Imagine if Mookie were doing a comic set in the real world. All the villains would be pals with Hitler.

Oh Mookie, did anyone read this over before you posted it?

From what little we've seen of the king and queen, they probably weren't doing anything themselves anyway.

Wouldn't "someone killed them" make a much better excuse?

Mindcontrolling an assassin or an untraceable beamspam would have been better, but let's face it, the only people of any intelligence in DD are the villains.

[Mewtarthio]

It's really bizarre that he introduces the "King DJ never mind-controls humans" plot point one panel away from the "King DJ mind-controlled the previous monarchs" plot point. Seriously, what could he have been thinking? Is the message supposed to be "DJ is a big ol' hypocrite"? Because having him sacrifice an ideal he literally only had one panel ago doesn't get that across.

I can sort of track part of Mookie's thought process. The "no mind-controlling humans" is a half-baked justification for why Miranda was allowed to keep her free will and is a cheap way to ensure that we don't think Warlord Moustache was just a poor victim of an evil enchanter or something. Trouble is, the "mind-controlling the apathetic royals" twist undoes all that. If he can break the rules when it's important, then why would that be the only time he breaks the rules? Surely putting the whammy on Miranda is higher priority than killing the king and queen.

He could have had DJ mind-control an orc assassin into doing them in, or use any number of non-enchantment spells to take them out, or just launch a bloody coup (he's best buddies with the Warlord and leader of the Battlecasters, after all). But no. He goes with a plan that makes "They tripped and fell onto a bunch of 5.56 mm rounds" seem plausible.

I literally cannot imagine a worse way to plot this development. Just... How?!

[Johnny Blade]

Earlier this week: "All the other races have used the power of the Heart of Magic to slaughter and subjugate others. Only us humans have not; we are the only deserving ones. Time to kill some orcs."

Today: "I respect humans too much to enchant them. Except when I mind control them to kill each other."



I'd almost say I'm seeing a pattern, but we all know there is no method to this madness.

[Trazoi]

Earlier this week: "All the other races have used the power of the Heart of Magic to slaughter and subjugate others. Only us humans have not; we are the only deserving ones. Time to kill some orcs."

Today: "I respect humans too much to enchant them. Except when I mind control them to kill each other."

I'd almost say I'm seeing a pattern, but we all know there is no method to this madness.

Mookie is tying together the plot from the last several years in his usual typical way. Next is going to be how Dave learns that Maltak is going to be the next nation of super-wizards so he sends out Moustache to deal with the problem while he steals all their mojo.

If this comic ends with Dominic graciously handing all power to the orcs and Stonewater as the next Grand Archwizard or something, I'll... well let's face it all I'll do is mock it and then mock his new similarly written comic.

[rocketpony]

He could have had DJ mind-control an orc assassin into doing them in, or use any number of non-enchantment spells to take them out, or just launch a bloody coup (he's best buddies with the Warlord and leader of the Battlecasters, after all).

It's kind of regrettable that the Stupid War was canon, because hey, this'd be a perfect way to set it up. Why'd the Stupid War happen? Anti-orc sentiment. What inspired the anti-orc sentiment? A series of border incursions, general restlessness of the orcish population, and the assassination of the beloved reigning monarchs by visiting orcish dignitaries now that would have been a thing. Then DJ would have been able to just do everything real clean - after the assassins make their fatal strike (with poisoned blades, let's say, so it's something he can't stop in time), he can just obliterate the orcs in front of witnesses, to get rid of the thing linking his hands to the blood of royalty, and appear like he's real broken up that this whole thing happened. Now he's a reluctant sovereign, who's willing to take up the heavy mantle of leadership, and defend the nation of Callan against the barbarians who clamor at its gates. They'll love DJ more than ever, he'll be able to pursue his goal of killing all the orcs (for some reason) and wow why did he just have the king and queen kill each other on accident when there's so much political juice you can wring out of those lemons.

[Felius]

It could kinda work it himself being subtly mind controlled. If Mr. eye can put a hidden spell on the archmage circle, he can put one on king DJ.

[Trazoi]

Sneaky Gate - everyone called it.
Future Link

Unsurprisingly, "I love Dominique" writes a better revolutionary-slash-JRPG villain.

Spoiler

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[Oracle_Hunter]

Sneaky Gate - everyone called it.
Future Link

Unsurprisingly, "I love Dominique" writes a better revolutionary-slash-JRPG villain.

Spoiler

Show

...I need to do something with "Arch Demon King of Taoism." It is too good to leave alone!

[Rhapsh]

Well, this was the inevitable conclusion here. Just because I'm curious, did this get foreshadowed at all before this direct statement of the King's evil?

Also, maybe tomorrow the King could punch a baby, because I'm not thinking he's evil enough.

[Trazoi]

Well, this was the inevitable conclusion here. Just because I'm curious, did this get foreshadowed at all before this direct statement of the King's evil?

In a way, as in Callan torching Maltak to the ground and then literally desecrating said ground made no damn sense before.

It doesn't explain why all of this is such a big secret to Mister Know-It-All Seer Dominic Deegan.