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

[Johnny Blade]

He keeps check on all the foreigners in his land. Because he's evil/racist. TIM was only allowed to kill non-Callanians because the King has a rule about not killing them (except for nuns which don't count, or if he has some kind of ulterior motive.)

Is the King pro-human or pro-Callan? Are the people of Stereotypia considered human or are they a "lesser race"?

Well, the Semashi instantly fall in love with almost everything new they see and absolutely have to try it, so I'm sure they aren't entirely human.

The mongrel-people from the Wild Edge are quite possibly just the offspring of Semashi that get off to some really weird stuff.

It is pretty much zero effort to do it and wouldn't cost him anything. Most free comic hosts offer feeds as default so even Sonic sprite comics that update three times have one. If he's worried about it taking ad revenue from him, he doesn't have to put the comic on the actual feed, just a link.

Typing that newspost probably took more time than just getting off his ass and making a feed would have.
At least he's dedicated to being lazy, I guess.

The last few days without the forums proved to me what I already suspected for a long time: Without the snark thread, DD is just BORING.

I always check the forum before the comic, and since they were down for those last few days, I got to read the last three comics in one go.

I don't even know what I was expecting from Mookie, but it was kind of a letdown. I guess yesterday's was sort of funny, but...eh.

[Welf]

The last few days without the forums proved to me what I already suspected for a long time: Without the snark thread, DD is just BORING.

Put it that way: Dominic Deegan is a multi-media experience. A movie without sound would be boring, too.

[Mr. McGician]

Wednesday: The art is atrocious!

Panel 1: Why does Luna look abysmally depressed?

Panel 4: Why does what's-his-name look so creepy? (I can't remember his name)

Panel 7: What's even going on here? I just see a bubble with slime coming out of it. Apparently this is teleportation somehow?

Thursday:

Ah, yes, Mookie's classic "everything turns out better than expected, thus destroying all tension" punchlines. Two even bigger problems:

1) This makes Dominic's "brave sacrifice" of giving himself up to the King completely pointless. We know that he can defeat the King at any moment using any one of his vast arsenal of I Win spells. So basically all he's doing is raiding the King's pantry and then "cleverly" stabbing him in the back.

2) When the King needed Celesto, he locked him away in the dungeon. When the King needed Dominic, he treated him to a fancy five-course dinner. If you're a Deegan, even the villains will bow down and lick your feet.

And more bad art in panel 8. Look at the angles of the glass and bowl, compared to the angel of the table.

Friday:

Okay, Masutel destroyed the temple, but the Beast destroyed the Masters' house. And the two attacks happened at the same time, I think, meaning anyone would be able to connect the two. And since people have already started to connect the King with the Beast, they should connect the King with both of the attacks, unless the King is planning on pretending to fight against the Beast as well as Masutel.

Oh, and if Masutel is under suspicion, then all of the archmages will be. Including Miranda. How many people want to bet that Miranda will face any difficulty getting people to trust her?

And since the King used to be an archmage, you'd think people would suspect him too.

[rocketpony]

Man, I barely remember the naga, she only appeared for a few pages as part of Miranda's faculty right?

The naga, whose name is Fierla is a practitioner of time magic, which was mentioned once, for a punchline, and never mentioned again.
This bugs me to this day, because I'm petty like that.

[T-O-E]

The naga, whose name is Fierla is a practitioner of time magic, which was mentioned once, for a punchline, and never mentioned again.
This bugs me to this day, because I'm petty like that.

I can't tell if that's better or worse than Harry Potter time travel.

[guttering flame]

The naga, whose name is Fierla is a practitioner of time magic, which was mentioned once, for a punchline, and never mentioned again.
This bugs me to this day, because I'm petty like that.

So this means everything that's happened so far is all her fault? The more you know

[Trazoi]

Sneaky
Future

The big problem with the idea behind this plot point is that the only way it could be interesting is if Dominic really has given in to his own temptation and ego and wants to experience the Heart of Magic for himself. And I don't believe Mookie can ever going to go down that path for more than about two strips before Dom snaps out of it and See The Truths to victory.

The other also big problem is the massive cluster of plot holes big enough to throw a planet through.

Edit: I Love Dominique

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[Mewtarthio]

Uh, Dominic? You already knew the King killed the Luanians. You should have been expecting this. Good double-agents do not react with horror when they find out about the people they're betraying are opposed to them. Nor do they actively attempt to convince the people they're infiltrating that they are on different sides.

[Humbug]

Meh, Dom is so untouchable that he can flat out tell DJ he's gonna betray him and DJ will just say "But you will not, for you have glimpsed the Heart of Magic." And then he'll act really surprised when Dom finally betrays him. Mookie's villains are that dumb.

[Trazoi]

His planning and inability to read people might be dumb, but you've got to admit Dave's got some sweet wizard skills:

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[Squark]

Uh, Dominic? You already knew the King killed the Luanians. You should have been expecting this. Good double-agents do not react with horror when they find out about the people they're betraying are opposed to them. Nor do they actively attempt to convince the people they're infiltrating that they are on different sides.

Technically, Dominic is more of a hostage than a double agent, iirc.

[Mr. McGician]

It looks like even the King is getting into the Masters Thumb craze, based on panel 6. It doesn't even make sense here; why is he pointing at himself? He's not even talking about himself in that panel.

[Voice of Reason]

Uh, Dominic? You already knew the King killed the Luanians. You should have been expecting this. Good double-agents do not react with horror when they find out about the people they're betraying are opposed to them. Nor do they actively attempt to convince the people they're infiltrating that they are on different sides.

I'm sure he was expecting this, he just happens to be mildly disgruntled about it. As far double agents go, I think he's actually doing pretty well for himself. He's been opposing the King for a good while now (I think? Maybe? Has he really opposed much of anything at all? I digress), so it wouldn't make sense for a sudden and complete turnaround of Dominic's entire moral character. TraitorDom would still be outraged (sorry, mildly disgruntled) at the massacre, but ultimately he's going to shut up, sit down, and take his medicine from the King because he *needs* to find the Heart of Magic, and that's goal number one in his book. At this point of the game, there's really no plausible scenario where Dominic can even convincingly fake that he's on the King's side, but he can still try to outplay the King on the endgame, where there will be inevitable betrayal by both sides, and they both know it.

That being said, ya, there's still planet-sized plotholes, but I'm alright with the patchwork on that one.

[Trazoi]

At this point of the game, there's really no plausible scenario where Dominic can even convincingly fake that he's on the King's side, but he can still try to outplay the King on the endgame, where there will be inevitable betrayal by both sides, and they both know it.

That being said, ya, there's still planet-sized plotholes, but I'm alright with the patchwork on that one.

The problem is one of those planet-sized plotholes is the king isn't acting even remotely intelligently. There's no reason for him to rely purely on blind trust. If he were even a remotely competent villain, the first thing he would do is secure some leverage to use against Dominic to stop him backstabbing first. i.e., suspend Luna over a piranha pool.

Then if there's time to fill in, start using Dominic as the fall guy. Get him to take responsibility for the mutated cattleblasters and the attack on the Masters in Prontus. Then move on to attacks increasing in scale against the Luanians and his friends in Barthis. After all, if he really wants to experience the Heart, then it's worth it, right? Start small but steadily push Dom down the slippery slope where he trashes all his reputation and leaves him alone and friendless with no-one to turn to but his desire for the Heart of the Magic.

But I doubt the king is going to try anything like that, and the first true test of Dom's loyalty to the plan is the one where he gets See the Truth-ed.

[slayerx]

The problem is one of those planet-sized plotholes is the king isn't acting even remotely intelligently. There's no reason for him to rely purely on blind trust. If he were even a remotely competent villain, the first thing he would do is secure some leverage to use against Dominic to stop him backstabbing first. i.e., suspend Luna over a piranha pool.

Then if there's time to fill in, start using Dominic as the fall guy. Get him to take responsibility for the mutated cattleblasters and the attack on the Masters in Prontus. Then move on to attacks increasing in scale against the Luanians and his friends in Barthis. After all, if he really wants to experience the Heart, then it's worth it, right? Start small but steadily push Dom down the slippery slope where he trashes all his reputation and leaves him alone and friendless with no-one to turn to but his desire for the Heart of the Magic.

But I doubt the king is going to try anything like that, and the first true test of Dom's loyalty to the plan is the one where he gets See the Truth-ed.

Indeed, he should be testing Dom's loyalty by having him do something horrible or unspeakable things... y'know like LEAD a massacre. Hell if the king didn't kill the rich folks he could have sent Dominic to lead the attack on them.

in fact the king is being especially stupid in his assessment of Dominic; namely he's ignoring the simple fact that Dom didn't REALLY show up willing but under coercion since King DJ was in the middle of killing people. Sure Dom could have handed over celesto, but the king should factor in that Dom would not sacrifice someone else. That alone should make him far less trustworthy. Frankly, the King's "logic" would only really hold up is if Dom came at his own free will.

[Zaq]

Panel 3 is one of the most horrifying panels that doesn't include Luna ever.

His planning and inability to read people might be dumb, but you've got to admit Dave's got some sweet wizard skills:

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The first couple times I read that, I parsed "glow" as an imperative, rather than as part of "glow-in-the-dark." The king is commanding Dominic to glow, specifically, in his dark beard. The dark beard. It made it weird and unnatural but totally awesome.

Then I read it and parsed it normally, and it all snapped back to reality. Which was also awesome, because I got to laugh at myself.

[SaintRidley]

Would you look at that. Dominic Deegan having the subtlety of a brick to the face. It's like it's meta or something.

[Johnny Blade]

The problem is one of those planet-sized plotholes is the king isn't acting even remotely intelligently. There's no reason for him to rely purely on blind trust.

I really don't have anything to say about the comic, it's just so impossibly stupid.
It's like the king doesn't understand that he's not the only person capable of such things as betrayal. He even acknowledges that not everyone reacts to the Heart of Magic the same way, yet he still seems to trust Dominic completely. Maybe he's just really lonely?

[Rhapsh]

It's like the king doesn't understand that he's not the only person capable of such things as betrayal. He even acknowledges that not everyone reacts to the Heart of Magic the same way, yet he still seems to trust Dominic completely. Maybe he's just really lonely?

It's even worse than that. When he was talking to the Beast he even admitted that Dominic was like him and wanted the heart. Then the very next sentence is he plans to betray and kill Dominic.

If Dominic is like you and wants the heart, then he'll do the exact same thing you plan to do to him you idiot.

But seriously, the worst part about this strip is panel 3. Snout-faces were not meant to be shoved into proportion defying wine glasses.

[rocketpony]

Bam! Luanian worldbuilding, right there! Luanians teach that you should refuse godhood and godlike powers, based on Luana's example. Except that everyone is god, inside the religion? Hold on a second.

I wasn't aware they were pacifists or philosophers either. More worldbuilding! HUZZAH.

[T-O-E]

Brace yourself.

Endless possibilities... October 8, 2012 Posted by Mookie
As Halloween comes ever closer I'm asking myself the most important question in all of October.

What's going to be my Halloween costume this year?

Last year it was relatively easy. My wife and I held a Halloween costume wedding and I had to look (somewhat) fancy. That basic guideline helped shape my "monster getting married" outfit. But this year I don't have any restrictions! I can be whatever I want! The number of choices is becoming daunting as I find myself flooded with possibilities.

What I'm considering:
- Headless Horseman (with a pumpkin for a head)
- Scarecrow
- The Devil (old school, like with a red cape and pitchfork)
- Superhero
- Robot

What I'm not even considering:
- Zombie
- Werewolf
- T-shirt that says "this is my costume"
- Gangster

Is it obvious that I love Halloween?

That's all from me for now.
Rock on.

[Trazoi]

Is Halloween that big of a deal in the US?

[Squark]

*shrug* Depends on what you mean by a big deal. Most kids trick or treat, yest, and teens and young adults often attend parties in costume, and then of course there's the one house on the block that always goes the extra mile on decorations...

Well, it's not Christmas. But I'd say it is one of the four "big" holidays in the US (Along with Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving)

[Nerd-o-rama]

Is Halloween that big of a deal in the US?

Short answer: yes.

[Trazoi]

*shrug* Depends on what you mean by a big deal.

"Big deal" as in how I'm going to spend the whole month reading how Mookie is considering spending his wedding anniversary with a pumpkin on his head.

It's weirding me out.

[Mr. McGician]

Is Halloween that big of a deal in the US?

It is for little kids. I don't know anyone else Mookie's age who cares about it, though.

[Mewtarthio]

Is Halloween that big of a deal in the US?

Everyone celebrates it and sets out decorations to varying degrees. Dressing up in costume is not unheard of for adults, though it's usually confined to costume parties. It's a really big deal for the kids, who get to run around the neighborhood in costume getting candy from people.

[random11]

Bam! Luanian worldbuilding, right there! Luanians teach that you should refuse godhood and godlike powers, based on Luana's example. Except that everyone is god, inside the religion? Hold on a second.

I wasn't aware they were pacifists or philosophers either. More worldbuilding! HUZZAH.

Kind of weird that they have a traditional pilgrimage dedicated to find the item which is a key to the supreme power they need to avoid.

[AgentofOdd]

I wasn't aware they were pacifists or philosophers either. More worldbuilding! HUZZAH.

Meh, some pacifists. Their most sacred ritual involves walking around with a hired goon.

[Friv]

It is for little kids. I don't know anyone else Mookie's age who cares about it, though.

Everyone I know dresses up and has a huge costume party on Halloween. We're Canadian, though, so I suppose it could be a bigger thing here.