Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire

[Friv]

Please Let There Be Death Please Let There Be Death Please Let There Be Death Please Let There Be Death Please Let There Be Death Please Let There Be Death Please Let There Be Death Please Let There Be Death Please Let There Be Death

KillNimmelKillNimmelKillNimmelKillNimmelKillNimmel KillNimmelKillNimmelKillNimmelKillNimmelKillNimmel KillNimmelKillNimmel

[Gez]

He didn't say "cleanse", though, he said "purge". Now, I'm not nearly as familiar with the subtleties of the English language as you native speakers are, but if I'm not mistaken that can also simply stand for "kick out", can't it?

Well, myself, it makes me think the cake may be spiced. Quilt would be so happy to be here!

[Green Bean]

He didn't say "cleanse", though, he said "purge". Now, I'm not nearly as familiar with the subtleties of the English language as you native speakers are, but if I'm not mistaken that can also simply stand for "kick out", can't it?

(for some reason, whenever I write "simply" I always miss the 'p' in the first attempt... weird )

Yep. Purge can mean both removing things or eliminating them, whereas cleanse implies destroying the problem.

[Jerthanis]

Wait... are you saying that, after all our complaints that Dominic was doing everything all alone, after mocking how the First Caste is everything and all others are nothing, we suddenly want the story to give more focus to the First Caste main characters?

EDIT:
Wooo! 2000th post!

I think the point is that while Dominic, Luna and the others are flawed without the author noticing, and possessive of Omniscient Morality Licenses... at least they HAVE character. Nimmel and Milov have such painfully one-note characteristics, and vague "fit whatever role the plot needs" personalities that we (perhaps just I) like them even less than Garyic Stugan... though maybe I shouldn't put words in Oracle_Hunter's digital mouth.

We shouldn't delude ourselves though. For all the extra time and effort put into developing Dominic and company, none of them are particularly interesting, and they are written to fill the plot more than anyone else. (Greg's initial much-suffering position on the whole "action healer" joke, and later it's revealed he's always wanted to fill Mookie's fantasies about being Supermage)

[Winterwind]

Yep. Purge can mean both removing things or eliminating them, whereas cleanse implies destroying the problem.

Thanks.

You want to hear the scary part? My first association was, "Why does he want to cast a spell on them to remove their buffs and make them move slower for a while?".
And I don't even play WarCraft 3 that much.

I think the point is that while Dominic, Luna and the others are flawed without the author noticing, and possessive of Omniscient Morality Licenses... at least they HAVE character. Nimmel and Milov have such painfully one-note characteristics, and vague "fit whatever role the plot needs" personalities that we (perhaps just I) like them even less than Garyic Stugan... though maybe I shouldn't put words in Oracle_Hunter's digital mouth.

I see.
Personally, I don't mind Nimmel and Milov that much, but I understand how one could arrive at that opinion.

We shouldn't delude ourselves though. For all the extra time and effort put into developing Dominic and company, none of them are particularly interesting, and they are written to fill the plot more than anyone else. (Greg's initial much-suffering position on the whole "action healer" joke, and later it's revealed he's always wanted to fill Mookie's fantasies about being Supermage)

Ugh. Indeed.
The characters are supposed to create the plot, Mookie, not be hammered into shape by it!

[Jerthanis]

Stupid accidental double posting

[slayerx]

Y'know i can't but think there's a problem with the strip in how excepting the younger generation is too Nimmel and how regecting the elders and alphas are... One thing that the world shows us is that when you have parents and a soiciety that have extreme feelings and thoughts for something, those feelings and thoughts will be forced on to the kids in some way or form; Unless there is some strong outside influence, children generally carry the same feelings since that is what parents teach them... if the parents hate callian and consider a Pack sacred, there chidlren will more than likely carry similar feelings, especially if thats how most of the parents in the society feel. You may have some exceptions, but most of the younger generation should probably have similar feelings as the Alphas (i say alphas since they are closer to the age of the younger generation)... The younger wolves should probably not be so excepting of Nimmel, They should either be like their folks or at the very least trying to avoid Nimmel (they have enough innocense left to give them some level of tolerance, but the teachings of their parents still linger)

I mean, if you look on some other counties and societies that tend to have extreme feelings and look at how their children are raised, it can be rather scary the feelings those kids have at such a young age.

I think the only way all of the younger wolves would be so easily excepting of Nimmel is if Callian culture and poeple had been allowed to mix more into their culture allowing the younger generation a chance to grow up having more interaction with Callian and thus developing a certain tolerance that the older generation lacks. Milov has been working on that, but it seems like his changes are only fairly recent, like probably started in like the last decade... considering such changes would be gradual it would maybe effect the next generation of wolves but not so much this one... Hell, the idea that Nimmel is like the only Callian in the local magic school makes it sound like the local cuture has not been mixing too much with Callian's

As for what Milov is upto with this ceremony... somehow, i'm guessing that he is gonna create somekind of big illusion to show the other wolves what their society would be like right not if there was no Callian presence... It will be bleak image of their society and he will point out that despite the **** that happened to him it's still a good idea to mix some Callian culture into their own. Being ignorant is wrong zomg!

[16bitperformanc]

Woah!!!!!! Did i misunderstand or is Milov planning on going on a mass killing spree to kill all Callians... Does that mean Nimmel is to be the first death. Those B*stards

[Tekraen]

Y'know i can't but think there's a problem with the strip in how excepting the younger generation is too Nimmel and how regecting the elders and alphas are... One thing that the world shows us is that when you have parents and a soiciety that have extreme feelings and thoughts for something, those feelings and thoughts will be forced on to the kids in some way or form; Unless there is some strong outside influence, children generally carry the same feelings since that is what parents teach them... if the parents hate callian and consider a Pack sacred, there chidlren will more than likely carry similar feelings, especially if thats how most of the parents in the society feel. You may have some exceptions, but most of the younger generation should probably have similar feelings as the Alphas (i say alphas since they are closer to the age of the younger generation)... The younger wolves should probably not be so excepting of Nimmel, They should either be like their folks or at the very least trying to avoid Nimmel (they have enough innocense left to give them some level of tolerance, but the teachings of their parents still linger)

I mean, if you look on some other counties and societies that tend to have extreme feelings and look at how their children are raised, it can be rather scary the feelings those kids have at such a young age.

I think the only way all of the younger wolves would be so easily excepting of Nimmel is if Callian culture and poeple had been allowed to mix more into their culture allowing the younger generation a chance to grow up having more interaction with Callian and thus developing a certain tolerance that the older generation lacks. Milov has been working on that, but it seems like his changes are only fairly recent, like probably started in like the last decade... considering such changes would be gradual it would maybe effect the next generation of wolves but not so much this one... Hell, the idea that Nimmel is like the only Callian in the local magic school makes it sound like the local cuture has not been mixing too much with Callian's

As for what Milov is upto with this ceremony... somehow, i'm guessing that he is gonna create somekind of big illusion to show the other wolves what their society would be like right not if there was no Callian presence... It will be bleak image of their society and he will point out that despite the **** that happened to him it's still a good idea to mix some Callian culture into their own. Being ignorant is wrong zomg!

Well, Reality is unrealistic.

[Ceska]

You want to hear the scary part? My first association was, "Why does he want to cast a spell on them to remove their buffs and make them move slower for a while?".
And I don't even play WarCraft 3 that much.

Mine was The Great Purge. But then, I'm a history geek.

I don't think I have much else to say about the strip. Well, I wouldn't mind Milov killing the Callanians, but I seriously doubt it.

...Right, the weather. It was nice and sunny, although a little bit chilly. Just cold enough to wear a sweater even in the afternoon.

[Khosan]

That is, until they hit adolescence/puberty. Then, whenever the kid is within earshot of their parents, they will try their damnedest to act contrary to their beliefs.

P.S. 50 posts until we hit page 100.

[averagejoe]

I smell racial cleansing around the corner!

Well, probably not. There's probably going to be some lameass thing (lame ass-thing!) where they all become honorary werewolves or something like that, as people before me have surmised. *sigh*

(Gen-o-cide! Gen-o-cide! Gen-o-cide!)

Also, Winter, to further answer your question, "cleanse" just means "to make clean" (both cleanse and clean come from the old english word clǣne.) For "purge" I get, "To rid of impurities; cleanse; clear; purify," and a lot more definitions that seem to just be variations on that. So, basically they mean almost exactly the same thing, it's just that purge comes from old french. (Interesting enough, purge also lists "To empty the bowls" and "to put to death or otherwise eliminate.") Most of the time, I think, you can use the two words precisely synonymously, although I believe purge tends to have more violent connotations, although even that has, perhaps, changed recently. Cleanse, I believe, could be thought of to stand for "kick out," however, or at least there's nothing that would contradict such a thing, and at the least it would be acceptable as a metaphor.

[Jack Mann]

P.S. 50 posts until we hit page 100.

Actually, we hit page 100 at post #2,971. #3000 will be the post at the end of page 100.

[Winterwind]

Thanks, averagejoe.

Now there's only one thing left to be said about all things connected with Cleansing:
"First shall come the Cleansing,
which will feed the Rebirth.
The Gigashadow is the End,
and it is the Beginning.
We worship His Divine Shadow!"

Also, countdown: 17

[Telonius]

Yep. Purge can mean both removing things or eliminating them, whereas cleanse implies destroying the problem.

It can also refer to vomiting, or other bodily functions.

...

... Yeah. Anyway, I don't think it's actually going to involve any bloodshed. Time for Milov to play puppet master!

[16bitperformanc]

i like it how the Moon doesn't move at all in the entire night. They must've been there for at least an hour or more and not once has it moved (from what i can tell it does seem to be in scene on nearly EVERY panel)
I am guessing that Milov is about to kill the Callians but then Siggy (yeah, we seemed to have forgotten about him) will pop in and start killing everyone. So then the Callians jump into action and beat Siggy up and stuff. Then the Wolves are grateful for having their rears saved and say they can stay. They then find out that Siggy is following Milov and they will then kick Milov out of the Winter Archipelo (sorry for spelling) so they can be safe from evil Siggy(!!!). So then Milov is upset and then he gets reminded about how many friends he has for he thinks he has nothing. Then he will get back with Jayden (perhaps). Then to stop the madness they will find a way to kill Siggy Once and for All. Resulting in the death of Milov/Nimmel. If it is Milov then Jayden will be very upset and go off to the Cathedral (?) if Nimmel then everyone will be unhappy and he will have somesort of Burial thing at the school and the one that he was going to go to.
But then Seeing as he is a Seer in training i think Dominic will force Nimmel to do battle with Siggy and say it will be a good test of his skills. Dominic will "know" that Nimmel will survive which is why he did it. But Nimmel Sacrifices himself in order to bring Siggy down. Dominic will get depressed but everyone will come to him and smile and say it wasn't his fault(even though it was)

And that is my theory

[Monnock]

Unless Milov takes back his words you can't "purge our lands of all its Callian presence" without physically removing them from the island. Making them naturalized citizens not only doesn't actually fulfill this statement, it is also beyond his power to do so.

It would be like a president saying "I'm going to solve our immigration problem by making them citizens!" Uh... no? They are still *there*. They are still present, and the only way to even remotely make this statement true is to force them to relinquish their Callian citizenship entirely, thus removing their 'Callianness,' but even then he would just be arguing semantics, which nobody would buy except Nimmel's fan-girls.

As for the aforementioned 'fan-girls,' it doesn't seem like the alphas are very intimidating when you can just casually break a sacred custom on a sacred night after a previous sacred trust had been broken without skipping a beat right in front of them. Seriously, shouldn't they be, you know, intimidated? Especially when it was previously stated that they are prone to fly into murderous frenzies if you insult their parents.

Seriously, the werewolf in panel 2 in the upper left looks like he is about to murder somebody, and I'm sure that of those at least one of them has to be a parent of the 'younger generation.' Have these children no shame?

Edit: And another thing, I agree that Nimmel's 180 in personality is just idiotic. I mean, it has precedence in the comic with Luna, but it doesn't change the fact that it never happens that way. If it did, as someone else pointed out earlier, then Mookie should seriously share the secret with the rest of the world and single-handedly eliminate shyness.

Edit again: And another thing, why is being decapitated (by that orc guy) in a vision less traumatizing to Dominic than having tentacles wrap around him?

[Khosan]

Edit again: And another thing, why is being decapitated (by that orc guy) in a vision less traumatizing to Dominic than having tentacles wrap around him?

It's reminiscent of the genre Mookie took all his art skills from.

Except Dominic isn't a schoolgirl. I'm not sure if that makes it worse or better for him.

[Mewtarthio]

I can think of three possibilities:

1. Milov simply asks the Callanians to leave, but he leaves with them, abandoning his family in shame. Sort of a non-lethal sepukku, if you will.
2. Milov kills the other werewolf lords and declares himself God-Emperor. When somebody asks him about purging the Callanians, he'll just say, "I said I'd purge them from 'our' lands. Now these are 'my' lands."
3. Milov spends the rest of his life denying the existence of Callanians. When Boris points out that there's a Callanian standing right over there, Milov will just stare blankly in that direction for a while, as though looking for something, before laughing it off.

[averagejoe]

As for the aforementioned 'fan-girls,' it doesn't seem like the alphas are very intimidating when you can just casually break a sacred custom on a sacred night after a previous sacred trust had been broken without skipping a beat right in front of them. Seriously, shouldn't they be, you know, intimidated? Especially when it was previously stated that they are prone to fly into murderous frenzies if you insult their parents.

They're just a buncha dogs. You just have to act like you're in charge.

@^ # 3 happening would be awsomesauce.

[RationalGoblin]

Milov kills the other werewolf lords and declares himself God-Emperor. When somebody asks him about purging the Callanians, he'll just say, "I said I'd purge them from 'our' lands. Now these are 'my' lands."

This would be awesome and Mookie should, but won't do it.

[Oracle_Hunter]

Wait... are you saying that, after all our complaints that Dominic was doing everything all alone, after mocking how the First Caste is everything and all others are nothing, we suddenly want the story to give more focus to the First Caste main characters?

Yeah, the thing is that the main cast, while insane bundles of characteristics, at least have characteristics. Even long-running Tier II characters lack these bundles (remember how "easily" Mookie bent Jayden and Milov?) and act more like hand-puppets.

The only Tier II character with "character" is Gregory - and he should rightly be Tier I, save for his inherent uselessness.

I got bored of puppet-shows when I was five* and I'd rather not read stories about them.

*notwithstanding muppet shows and other outliers.

*shifts*

In lighter news - when I saw "purge our lands of all its Callanian presence" I had a little thought about how long it's going to take Katja to cart away all of the accumulated waste-product the Callanians in the chapel left over the years.

What? all means all!

EDIT: Curses! Still not on Page 100!

[Arakune]

This would be awesome and Mookie should, but won't do it.

Too much cool to happen in this comic. If it was before (like, when the comic was good) it could happen with 35% of chance. Now it's -35% (35% of chance for mookie to actively bash our hopes inside the comic)

[TheOOB]

My obvious plot twist sense is telling me Nimmel will become a were-wolf in the very near future.

[Green Bean]

My obvious plot twist sense is telling me Nimmel will become a were-wolf in the very near future.

Is it even transmitted by bite in the Mookie-verse?

[Oracle_Hunter]

Is it even transmitted by bite in the Mookie-verse?

I doubt it - otherwise an island "race" of werewolves wouldn't make much sense. Unless, it was supposed to be some kind of leper colony...?

I'm not placing any bets (Mookie being what he is) but I'm fairly sure His Werewolves Are Different.

In related news - His Orcs Are Different too. No vampires yet (or in the future... I hope) but I bet they'd be different too.

Mmmm, yeah, I suppose all these links I've been posting are just Cool and Unusual Punishment for enticing me to join these very forums.

[Green Bean]

In related news - His Orcs Are Different too.

I've always loved how Mookie's orcs are based on refreshingly new concepts. He's a bastion of creativity.

[averagejoe]

Mmmm, yeah, I suppose all these links I've been posting are just Cool and Unusual Punishment for enticing me to join these very forums.

It isn't that we don't like it. We just want our lives back.

[Twin2]

They're just a buncha dogs. You just have to act like you're in charge.

Aha so all calihan needs to do is exploit their weakness to rolled up newspapers and they'll have another province!

[Green Bean]

Aha so all calihan needs to do is exploit their weakness to rolled up newspapers and they'll have another province!

Don't forget to rub their noses in it.