Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire

[averagejoe]

Fine, but what I said still applies. It isn't that Luna is realizing that Dominic has become unsympathetic, she just realizes that in this one instance Dominic has acted unreasonably. And, let's face it, the whole reason for Dominic acting in such a way, instead of acting like his usual, charitable self, is so they could have this little conflict. I mean, we were just saying yesterday how out of left field it was for Dominic to insult Scarface. I mean, I can appreciate what he's trying to do, but it's so contrived that I have trouble caring. Add that to the fact that everyone still has the need to say their emotions, and you have a strip that's pretty much exactly the sort of quality we have come to expect from the strip.

[Oracle_Hunter]

Fine, but what I said still applies. It isn't that Luna is realizing that Dominic has become unsympathetic, she just realizes that in this one instance Dominic has acted unreasonably. And, let's face it, the whole reason for Dominic acting in such a way, instead of acting like his usual, charitable self, is so they could have this little conflict. I mean, we were just saying yesterday how out of left field it was for Dominic to insult Scarface. I mean, I can appreciate what he's trying to do, but it's so contrived that I have trouble caring. Add that to the fact that everyone still has the need to say their emotions, and you have a strip that's pretty much exactly the sort of quality we have come to expect from the strip.

Your point is well taken - today's strip did not undo all those months of Mookie being a Marty Stu.

That said, today's strip did show a (now two day) period of the other characters in DD acting realistically to Dominic being a huge jerk. Yes, it is waaaay over the top, and yes Mookie's art does not convey appropriate emotions, but damnit, the man looks like he's coming around.

This is very much a "glimmer of hope for the doomed man" moment. Don't spoil it for us man!

[averagejoe]

Eh, even if DD does come around it still won't be good, but it will probably be just good enough that making fun of it won't be fun anymore. So, really, unless Mookie develops into a great writer overnight, this is the best possible situation.

...

Okay, I guess I am being pretty dour today. I guess Dominic isn't the only one turning into a grouch.

[kukn]

I wouldn't say Dominic's reactions were out of character, two strips back with the "I remember you Hansi Reinholdt" thing. Dom has acted a nasty jerk discriminating hugely between "friends" and "the lesser ones". I found his actions appropriate to his character. The good thing is that Luna notices and does not like it, as Winterwind remarked.

[Ganurath]

...So mad at Mookie right now.

[Winterwind]

Yeeees. Suuuure you did not believe in it, Hansi. That's why you insulted a non-orcish woman in a way which made the very commanding officer you were trying to suck up to impatient.

I have heard of unreliable narrators. Is there such a thing like unreliable authors? Because, Mookie, quite frankly, I do not believe you here.

[KreenWarrior]

Yeesh. Would "I WAS a racist, I admit it, but I've learned better now" really have been so hard? But no, he had to have been "just going along", so it's not really his fault, you see, it's all the fault of those damned knights. Gah.

[Jerthanis]

Also, most of the enjoyment involved in reading stories is centered around the delay of gratification. If page one of your novel establishes that Character X hates Character Y, page two had better not be them having a shootout where one kills the other. Similarly, if we are told two characters like each other, don't establish this fact three pages before they get together, or there's no climax to a climactic action, and it trains the reader to be unimpressed with actions which would be the climax of a story.

I mean, I really want to like Hansi... his story actually has/had some potential. Just being a normal dude, a background cardboard cutout until someone tells you that nothing but darkness lies down your current path, and the struggle to make something different of yourself and change who you are on the inside. The desperate hopelessness of looking back on your past deeds with horror, and the looming, crippling self-hatred of such a life change is a good story that needs telling...

...unfortunately, like his relationship plots, he skips 95% of the worthwhile path to get to the end. We see Hansi for the first time in forever, and we find he's already made drastic changes to himself, and become a whole different person... and all he needed was the wakeup call to do his Heel-Face turn and join the second caste. It seems the drama and conflict in this situation is going to be about getting cranky Dominic to accept that people can change... which is an entirely unnecessary story. Bonus points if Hansi thanks Dominic for giving him the wakeup call he needed with that oracular insult. Tomorrow we'll get to see the last 5% of the Cassafin/Hansi relationship plot arc and we'll get to see the next plot arc start again.

Also, reverting Dominic back to grumpy ol' seer may be a forward thinking move, but I have to wonder if it'll feel inorganic to have him back to his old, flawed self. He's been worlds of powerful, and blissfully happy for so long that anything short of a massive personal tragedy could realistically make him backslide. Have Jacob kill Gregory... over something Dominic did or didn't do.

[Mewtarthio]

Has anyone considered the possibility that Hansi is just lying to Cassafin? That makes a lot more sense. Granted, it makes no Mookisense, because Siegfried is clearly made out of pure evil and corrupts all he touches, but Mookisense is best left unexplored.

Also, apparently Cassie and Dominic have one thing in common: They're both aroused irrevocably by the weak-willed. I can just imagine what went through her head during the flashback: Ooh! And you just went along with the flow! And you did everything your superiors ordered you to do! And you wanted to please them and act exactly like them! I must take you right now, before you latch on to someone else!

This post brought to you by Bold Inflation, proud sponsor of Mewtarthio and decidedly-less-than-proud sponsor of Mookie. Bold Inflation: Because some words really are just that important!

[ElfLad]

Also, apparently Cassie and Dominic have one thing in common: They're both aroused irrevocably by the weak-willed. I can just imagine what went through her head during the flashback: Ooh! And you just went along with the flow! And you did everything your superiors ordered you to do! And you wanted to please them and act exactly like them! I must take you right now, before you latch on to someone else!

They are going to have spineless coward sex right on that table.

[Turcano]

Has anyone considered the possibility that Hansi is just lying to Cassafin? That makes a lot more sense. Granted, it makes no Mookisense, because Siegfried is clearly made out of pure evil and corrupts all he touches, but Mookisense is best left unexplored.

As you pointed out, it makes no "sense" in light of Mookie's writing style; characters wear their morality (as Mookie understands it) quite prominently on their sleeves. And since bigotry is both unpardonable and irrevocable, being cowed into institutional racism was the only option for this character's redemption.

Also, apparently Cassie and Dominic have one thing in common: They're both aroused irrevocably by the weak-willed.

That describes about half the cast; the other half are the weak-willed themselves. The dominant/submissive dichotomy runs very strong in this comic.

[Tom_Violence]

Also, apparently Cassie and Dominic have one thing in common: They're both aroused irrevocably by the weak-willed.

Mookie thinks women love guys that treat people like crap? That certainly does seem to be a theme, yes.

I must say that of all the shocking moments in this comic where my sense of disbelief has not so much been suspended as jetisoned entirely, this one ranks in the Top 5, probably. A guy gets as far saying "I used to be a small-minded racist idiot, but-" and chicks throw themselves at him? Nice! I think one of these days I'm going to have to try the Mookie Art Of Seduction techniques some time and just see how long it takes before I'm in some bird's bed. Or prison.

[AmberVael]

I'll forgive Mookie if it turns out Hansi is lying. That would be awesome. Unfortunately, it also won't happen.
And I personally like to think that Cassie just dazed out and stopped hearing him after the second panel, thought "wow he's so sexy" (keep in mind she's only ever meet Mookie drawn characters) and then just kissed him on that train of thought, thus making her little act have nothing to do with anything he said.
Unfortunately, that isn't right either.

[Green Bean]

That describes about half the cast; the other half are the weak-willed themselves. The dominant/submissive dichotomy runs very strong in this comic.

I see it more as everyone in this strip being different degrees of weak-willed, but half of them seeming dominant because "in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king".

[Tekraen]

Has anyone considered the possibility that Hansi is just lying to Cassafin? That makes a lot more sense. Granted, it makes no Mookisense, because Siegfried is clearly made out of pure evil and corrupts all he touches, but Mookisense is best left unexplored.

Also, apparently Cassie and Dominic have one thing in common: They're both aroused irrevocably by the weak-willed. I can just imagine what went through her head during the flashback: Ooh! And you just went along with the flow! And you did everything your superiors ordered you to do! And you wanted to please them and act exactly like them! I must take you right now, before you latch on to someone else!

This post brought to you by Bold Inflation, proud sponsor of Mewtarthio and decidedly-less-than-proud sponsor of Mookie. Bold Inflation: Because some words really are just that important!

The advantage to this is that they'll do things exactly how you tell them to.

[Winterwind]

There are basically two options now:

I) Cassafinn is, secretely, a racist with power fantasies, and is so turned on by Hansi's description of himself as someone who steps on other people's faces in order to suck up to superiors.

II) She thought this tale of Hansi's reflection and improvement was so vewy vewy touching, she just wuvs him now.

I know which option I would find more amusing, and likewise I'm pretty sure which option it is actually. Too bad they are not the same...

[Myrdhale]

Just jumping off the story for a sec, is anyone else alittle... ruffled by Mooki'e interpretation of the armed forces? I have friends who served, and that's not true at all. It isn't a brainwashing center.

This seems to be a revival of Mookie's hatred of Manly men. First the Jocks, now the soldiers. It's Revenge of the Nerds all over again...

[Winterwind]

Well... if you think Mookie meant this as a general statement about armed forces, and not just about this specific organisation, I agree.

However, in a corrupt government, with nobility around, I don't think it is so unrealistic for a military to actually be like that. Now, if it comes up again with a different military force, and Mookie indicates that they are like that as well...

Though I must admit - a thing that irritated me about that Boris Petrovich character back then was that he was quite obviously meant to be unlikeable (even though some posters here, myself included, actually liked him quite a bit), and he was - while in human form - a lot larger and with more masculine body and facial features than Milov. Likewise, Brett Taggerty. It is a continuation of prettyness weighing in on a character's caste. Wanna bet that if Snowsong had looked worse she would have ended up in Fourth, not Third Caste?

[Ganurath]

Mookie thinks women love guys that treat people like crap? That certainly does seem to be a theme, yes.

It would explain the reasoning behind his writing... but do the guys have to suffer for Mookie's deluded attempts at attracting women?

[sihnfahl]

Wanna bet that if Snowsong had looked worse she would have ended up in Fourth, not Third Caste?

No, she would have ended up a bit higher, maybe ending up as First Caste.

Conflicted woman, easily swayed, emotionally fragile and disliked due to her appearance? Luna 2.0, man...

[Ganurath]

No, she would have ended up a bit higher, maybe ending up as First Caste.

Conflicted woman, easily swayed, emotionally fragile and disliked due to her appearance? Luna 2.0, man...

I thought she was disliked because she was a homicidal cultist.

[sihnfahl]

I thought she was disliked because she was a homicidal cultist.

Aw, but everyone loves Szark, and he was a sexual deviant with a creepy attitude towards killing people!
What's a few murders between friends?

[Oracle_Hunter]

Also, most of the enjoyment involved in reading stories is centered around the delay of gratification. If page one of your novel establishes that Character X hates Character Y, page two had better not be them having a shootout where one kills the other. Similarly, if we are told two characters like each other, don't establish this fact three pages before they get together, or there's no climax to a climactic action, and it trains the reader to be unimpressed with actions which would be the climax of a story. (snip)

An excellent point! I guess I hadn't realized until now how dramatic tension was completely lacking in DD, but it all makes sense now.

Good times.

In other news:

1. Cassa goes from zero-to-bone-jumping in one panel. Damn!
2. Hansi is fulfilling his role as Nazi apologist (just following orders indeed!)

[13_CBS]

You know, I think TV tropes applies here.

Deus Sex Machina, anyone?

[Winterwind]

No, she would have ended up a bit higher, maybe ending up as First Caste.

Conflicted woman, easily swayed, emotionally fragile and disliked due to her appearance? Luna 2.0, man...

Good point.
Replace "looked worse" with "was male and looking masculine" in my previous post, then it should fit.

[Monnock]

Hansi is fulfilling his role as Nazi apologist (just following orders indeed!)

I wonder if Mookie is aware of this parallel at all.

Of course, Hansi is different.

[sihnfahl]

Good point.
Replace "looked worse" with "was male and looking masculine" in my previous post, then it should fit.

Yeah, she... err, he... would be completely fourth caste in that case.

Maybe suffer some Karmic Death.

[Ganurath]

I wonder if Mookie is aware of this parallel at all.

Of course, Hansi is different.

What is Mookie aware of?

[Mewtarthio]

You know, I think TV tropes applies here.

Deus Sex Machina, anyone?

That would make more sense, actually. "We have no time for backstories! I must recieve your seed now lest the prophecy go unfulfilled and the world be plunged into a second darkness!"

[Green Bean]

What is Mookie aware of?

-Jocks are dumb, except for the one that isn't
-Murder is okay, racism isn't
-Really powerful main characters make things more interesting
-The average person is either racist, an idiot, or a racist idiot
-Fictional countries are more realistic when based on stereotypes of real ones

Anyone else care to add to the list?