Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, MK XX - Snark, the Herald Klo Tark Sings!

[The Linker]

Hey, how does Kiya know so much about male anatomy, being the completely sheltered virgin in a misogynistic society she is?

[M84]

Heyall,

Does anyone else feel really, really sorry for Hansi right now? He's stuck on a boring mountain for the rest of his life with no food, no water, and nothing to do except play bodyguard/babysitter to a random Orc girl with incredibly vague responsibilities (what exactly does the Crone actually do that's so vital for Maltak?). He can't go out to eat, watch a slaughterball game, or do any of the things he might have enjoyed in the past. If he still has family in Callan he can also never see them again either.

Jeez, even prisoners in most countries get visitation rights and access to some leisures like libraries.

At least the Crone gets some vaguely defined magical abilities to compensate for her lot in life.

[FoE]

He's stuck on a boring mountain for the rest of his life with no food, no water,

Well, there's presumably food and water on the Mountain or the Crone would never be able to live there.

nothing to do except play bodyguard/babysitter to a random Orc girl.

Depends on the Orc girl.

He can't go out to eat, watch a slaughterball game, or do any of the things he might have enjoyed in the past. If he still has family in Callan he can also never see them again either.

But he wouldn't get to do any of those things as a corpse.

Does anyone else feel really, really sorry for Hansi right now?

In truth: yes. It's essentially a life sentence. I couldn't stand being restricted to one place forever.

But what makes it worse is that it's in Maltak. While I can take solace that we, the readers, will one day be able to put this horrible place behind us, Hansi's entire life is now the March Across Maltak arc for the rest of his days.

An eternity dealing with orcs. Perhaps death is preferable.

[averagejoe]

Hey, how does Kiya know so much about male anatomy, being the completely sheltered virgin in a misogynistic society she is?

She doesn't. Uruk means "orc" and thok means "coin collection." It's one of those orcish birds/bees type idioms that doesn't translate very well, which is why it was left in its original orcish.

[Humbug]

Does Mookie not care about characterization anymore? Is getting the joke across so important that he's willing to completely butcher a character's personality (and the plot by extension)? Why write a semi epic adventure comic if all he's going to care about is teh funnies?

[spectralphoenix]

Heyall,

Does anyone else feel really, really sorry for Hansi right now? He's stuck on a boring mountain for the rest of his life with no food, no water, and nothing to do except play bodyguard/babysitter to a random Orc girl with incredibly vague responsibilities (what exactly does the Crone actually do that's so vital for Maltak?). He can't go out to eat, watch a slaughterball game, or do any of the things he might have enjoyed in the past. If he still has family in Callan he can also never see them again either.

Jeez, even prisoners in most countries get visitation rights and access to some leisures like libraries.

At least the Crone gets some vaguely defined magical abilities to compensate for her lot in life.

What really cheeses me off is that Dominic doesn't rule out the possibility that he might be able to help Hansi - he just doesn't give a damn. Hell, even Luna realizes that Hansi's new lot in life sucks, and suggests maybe trying to help the poor guy out.

[Trazoi]

Does Mookie not care about characterization anymore? Is getting the joke across so important that he's willing to completely butcher a character's personality (and the plot by extension)? Why write a semi epic adventure comic if all he's going to care about is teh funnies?

Unfortunately the entire depth of Kiya's personality can be summed up as "crazy obsessive girl" ,so this isn't that far off character. And also unfortunately this strip really does underline how nearly every female character in this strip is either nuts, sex-obsessed or both. The only exceptions I can think of is Nurse/Mayor Pam, probably Hirek and maybe Danika, and I'm not so sure on the latter mainly on the "not crazy" criteria, not that she was a stripper. Every other woman in this comic seems to be completely bonkers, in one or both senses of the word.

And I do feel sorry for Hansi, because he's destined to hook up with a girl so stupid she's going crazy because her desired beau is trapped on a mountain that's right beside her home village. So she has to hike a little uphill to see her boyfriend - oh noes!

[AgentPaper]

Huh, who cut down all the trees in that first panel? Well, I suppose that answers the question as to why they weren't in the background before, at least.

[shadowfey]

Mookie really needs to get the frag over having been stuffed into a locker by jocks or whatever other traumatic high school/middle school/college/YMCA event happened to him.

So far he's nearly killed Hansi, stuck him on a mountain with none of his own race, family or friends, and now he's basically going 'nooooo sex for yoooou!'

Seriously, man, let it go. Get some help. Or get some exercise and become a jock yourself and get over it that way. If the price for all that exercise is no more Dominic Deegan, I'm sure we'll all cope. Somehow.

[faerwain]

Is getting the joke across so important that he's willing to completely butcher a character's personality (and the plot by extension)? Why write a semi epic adventure comic if all he's going to care about is teh funnies?

Frankly? Because he can handle teh funnies much better. When the revelation about Donovan came, I couldn't help but feel that Mookie recognized how this planned epic fell totally short and bored almost everyone so he tried to wake us up bringing back the puns and intentionally eye-roll-inducing jokes.

Incidentally, I stopped DD for 2 months, and when I came back my PC had stored a page of the light-hearted cruise around the world, so I was recalled how much better that worked. I did actually like the early epic story lines of DD, but the last ones really failed.

How much more mileage might there be in sentient magic that's a total drama queen? Or, for that matter, vindictive, ironic, excitable, impulsive, artistic, inquisitive, obsessive, a comedian, a bad comedian, not very good at what it does, or dumb as a post?

One very good computer game features the player character communing with the collective sentience of an entire planet. Said collective is about as bright and mature as a three-year-old. Keeep smiling...

Are there other good examples of these things? Have I just been reading the wrong books?

The Perry Rhodan Series had an ancient entity called "ES" (IT) consiting of the billions of sentients of a former race who decided becoming one big thing and loosing those meatbags would be interesting. While IT could be thoughtful and melancholic, IT decided long ago eternity would not be so boring if you develop a sense of humour. IT loved being snarky and playing pranks, especially towards the hero's second hand man. Not a bad decision storywise, as it produced both epic plotlines and occasional chuckles.

[guttering flame]

Mookie really needs to get the frag over having been stuffed into a locker by jocks or whatever other traumatic high school/middle school/college/YMCA event happened to him.

So far he's nearly killed Hansi, stuck him on a mountain with none of his own race, family or friends, and now he's basically going 'nooooo sex for yoooou!'

Seriously, man, let it go. Get some help. Or get some exercise and become a jock yourself and get over it that way. If the price for all that exercise is no more Dominic Deegan, I'm sure we'll all cope. Somehow.

Or he could make a distinction between bullies and the well-fit.

Whatever...

Huh, who cut down all the trees in that first panel? Well, I suppose that answers the question as to why they weren't in the background before, at least.

those are tents? (which of course raises the question where did they get all this canvas and poles from? soylent-skins and green-bones for the win I suppose)

[Rappy]

You know, for all the comic's failings, I've always felt that Mookie was a good person that could be respected for following his dreams. I think a little bit of that respect was lost because of today's news post.

As for the comic itself....yeah. Hansi cannot have nice things.

[Humbug]

Unfortunately the entire depth of Kiya's personality can be summed up as "crazy obsessive girl" ,so this isn't that far off character.

Sure, she's crazy, what with the trying to kill self with a rock. But when she was first introduced, she came off as meek, saw herself as a lowly caste 5 female and was quick to obey her male superiors. To suddenly become sex-crazed and "I want to hump Hansi NAO!" seemed like a big leap.

[The Linker]

those are tents? (which of course raises the question where did they get all this canvas and poles from? soylent-skins and green-bones for the win I suppose)

I keep thinking Dominic and Luna are using Hukthak's hukthak for a tent pole.

And, hey, it seems like the kind of thing they'd do.

[M84]

Heyall,

Is anyone else here getting annoyed by Mookie's increasingly frequent newsposts?

That he spends most of them justifying and explaining what's going on in the strip indicates a severe lack of faith in his readers' intelligence and his own ability to tell the story in the strip alone.

And honestly, the more recent newsposts are revealing more of Mookie's mindset than I needed to know. As I've mentioned a while back, the recent ones have shades of growing frustration and defensiveness.

Then again, if Mookie really hates Maltak that much he wouldn't be dragging it out even now.

Edit: And yeah, I'm also getting weary of his jock abuse. We get it, Mookie. To you all jocks are violent, racist, stupid, misogynist, drug abusing, cuckolding, wife-beating jerks that deserve to die painfully and go to hell or get horribly maimed or be condemned to life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Let it go.

[Trazoi]

Sure, she's crazy, what with the trying to kill self with a rock. But when she was first introduced, she came off as meek, saw herself as a lowly caste 5 female and was quick to obey her male superiors. To suddenly become sex-crazed and "I want to hump Hansi NAO!" seemed like a big leap.

Since Hansi gave her the Heimlich manoeuvre to stop her suicide attempt by choking on a rock she seems to have switched obessions. She's done an outburst like this once before, although I can't remember when closely enough to trawl for the link. It's more the yelling at Dominic that's out of character than the content of her rant - her obsession has usually been mostly internal. She's shifted from Orc Jayden to a Melna/Rachel cross.

[Ganurath]

Hey, how does Kiya know so much about male anatomy, being the completely sheltered virgin in a misogynistic society she is?

Women are hidden in plain sight, and people talk while ignoring them. Thus, she overhears things like the 69th Possession and the Dirty Zanchek.

As for Kiya taking it out on Dominic... He's the one who revealed that Hansi was stuck to the mountain. Thus, at least in Kiya's mind, it's Dominic's fault.

[Gez]

Though I'm not entirely certain why she can't just go up the mountain

Because it's not up she wants to go.

[Phase]

Boooo.

[Gez]

That was my reaction too, when I read Mookie's "<for> fak <sake>". Lamest bowdlerization ever.

[Neoriceisgood]

Man, Mookie sure knows how a woman's mind works, once again I find myself filled with awe and inspiration after reading another ingenius page filled with his ingenius writing and sophisticated and unique hand drawing style.

Although female characters in fiction are often portrayed as the less sexually obessed "pure" characters, Mookie manages to surprise us once again by using his excellent and unique writing style to represent a female character as a rather perverse and sex-obsessed individual, eventhough she's a virgin from a very pious society where such behaviour would be considered unruly to the point where they'd probably off her, this doesn't only show his eagerness to go against the predictable "logical" outcome you'd expect in a cliché and bland story, but instead it gives us this hilarious scene of a woman berating Dominic out of pure sexual frustration.

Once again I salute Mookie for his amazing writing, I'm hyped for tomorrow's page, oh I am!

[averagejoe]

Mookie really needs to get the frag over having been stuffed into a locker by jocks or whatever other traumatic high school/middle school/college/YMCA event happened to him.

So far he's nearly killed Hansi, stuck him on a mountain with none of his own race, family or friends, and now he's basically going 'nooooo sex for yoooou!'

Seriously, man, let it go. Get some help. Or get some exercise and become a jock yourself and get over it that way. If the price for all that exercise is no more Dominic Deegan, I'm sure we'll all cope. Somehow.

Edit: And yeah, I'm also getting weary of his jock abuse. We get it, Mookie. To you all jocks are violent, racist, stupid, misogynist, drug abusing, cuckolding, wife-beating jerks that deserve to die painfully and go to hell or get horribly maimed or be condemned to life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Let it go.

I don't think this is part of that. Like I said before, Hansi taking up the hukthak and becoming the guardian of the crone is a pretty cool idea, even despite the fact that it requires me to say, "hukthak." All the characters are acting sympathetic, but this is, net, a positive thing to happen to Hansi, a sort of redemption for his past deeds while still doing jockish things like beating people up with a stick. I'm fairly sure this is reading too far into it, but this really doesn't seem like one of those, "Be mean to him 'cuz he's a jock," moments.

[Valencia]

I would just like to say I read "Thok" as "Thak" and finally realized why Huk Thak is called Huk Thak... and that made me laugh, lame as that is. 'Course once I came to the forums I realized my error, which means I got juuuuust enough sleep last night.

[Shadowtraveler]

Forget today's comic, more photography!

I can see why the Orcs are so misogynistic. Their women are even more insane than them.

[T-O-E]

Ways this strip could have been worse: Laughably awkward sex jokes.

Too soon.
Today's was downright painful.

[Morty]

Too soon.
Today's was downright painful.

Now look at what you did. You just had to tempt fate and Mookie, didn't you?
Ugh. Today's strip is just horrible on so many levels. I wonder how is Mookie going to pretend now that he's not sexist? Or a mysoginist, since he seems to be so proud that he knows this word.

[T-O-E]

Now look at what you did. You just had to tempt fate and Mookie, didn't you?
Ugh. Today's strip is just horrible on so many levels. I wonder how is Mookie going to pretend now that he's not sexist? Or a mysoginist, since he seems to be so proud that he knows this word.

It's like how Mookie prides himself on being a gay rights activist, yet the only homosexual character in his comic is a flamboyant, sex-obsessed stereotype whose only personality is his sexual orientation.

[Wraith]

Since Hansi gave her the Heimlich manoeuvre to stop her suicide attempt by choking on a rock she seems to have switched obessions.

Clearly, we misread that comic.

Hansi attempted the heimlich, but instead only succeeded at dislodging her brain. It rolled down her neck, hit the rock coming up the other way (whic then bounced into the now-vacant headspace) and fell out of her mouth.

Kiya actually has rocks for brains, which apparently is a massive step-up for the average Orc and has allowed her to see clearly that everything actually is Dominic's fault.

[PhantomFox]

Hmm, crazy idea. What would it be like if Mookie's mind was a Psychonauts level? We all know what the Freudian Excuse boss you'd fight at the end would be...

[Telonius]

Sure, she's crazy, what with the trying to kill self with a rock. But when she was first introduced, she came off as meek, saw herself as a lowly caste 5 female and was quick to obey her male superiors. To suddenly become sex-crazed and "I want to hump Hansi NAO!" seemed like a big leap.

This is actually something that didn't seem too much of a leap for me. Having seen about two dozen instances of "repressed religious kid goes to college" among the people I know (of both genders), it makes some amount of sense for the character. Doesn't make her any less crazy, of course.