Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXXV: DJ Callan Turns the Tables

[Johnny Blade]

Uh, uh, what am I?

Uuhhh...they're more like ideal types. Like, nobody is 100% joke guy or depression guy.

I would probably be something like 70% jokes, 20% analysis, 10% rage.

Dunno what to call you...something like 50% analysis, 40% jokes, 10% depression maybe? That sound right to you?

It's more of a hierarchy really. Those who cannot analyse, joke. Those who can't joke either rage. Those who are also incapable of raging gripe. These aren't fixed tiers, folk move up and down according to skill, mood and current levels of inspiration (or vitriol), although some are more at home in certain areas.

Oh, and people who can't bring themselves to complain either usually wind up leaving. But most of those have already moved on... damn I envy them.

Arsenal is to rage as I am to depression.

You worry me, my friend.

[Oracle_Hunter]

I remember when I did literary analysis. It was around the time that Mookie still included plot in his comic

More accurately, he included plots that could not be run through in 5 updates - if properly paced. Say what you will about Maltak but at least it had plot

[Welf]

Uuhhh...they're more like ideal types. Like, nobody is 100% joke guy or depression guy.

I would probably be something like 70% jokes, 20% analysis, 10% rage.

Dunno what to call you...something like 50% analysis, 40% jokes, 10% depression maybe? That sound right to you?

Seems fitting, maybe a little more depression. Also goes straight into the signature. .

[Bobikus]

Nothing's even happened recently that's been worth analyzing.

[TheLaughingMan]

Nothing's even happened recently that's been worth analyzing.

We can analyze the reason we aren't analyzing.

[Bobikus]

We can analyze the reason we aren't analyzing.

Because Mookie has managed to slow his pacing to a grinding halt and has mastered the art of making every idea uninteresting and every plot devoid of tension?

[TheLaughingMan]

Because Mookie has managed to slow his pacing to a grinding halt and has mastered the art of making every idea uninteresting and every plot devoid of tension?

Yes, yes. And how does this make you feel?

EDIT:How are we supposed to analyze the analyzation of the analyzation if you don't work with me, man?

[Gadora]

Yes, yes. And how does this make you feel?

EDIT:How are we supposed to analyze the analyzation of the analyzation if you don't work with me, man?

Bored, mostly.

[TheLaughingMan]

Bored, mostly.

Analyzation complete. We are officially out of things to do.

Hooray.

[Darkmyst]

You worry me, my friend.

... not 100% sure what you're worrying about here :).

Analyzation complete. We are officially out of things to do.

Hooray.

All that's left is the vain hope that Mookie will accidentally create another amusing background character for us to run into the ground while he gets all of this boring twaddle out of his system.

[Johnny Blade]

I remember when I did literary analysis. It was around the time that Mookie still included plot in his comic

Yeah, I still see you as one of the main analysis guys - I remember walls of text, TV Tropes links their bricks, your insight their mortar.
But, as the comic's own Inappropriate Walls show, these things need the right substrate to grow.

And what fun is hunting an oracle that is already shooting himself in the foot all the time, especially when said foot is also always firmly lodged in his mouth?

Seems fitting, maybe a little more depression. Also goes straight into the signature. .

I think that's the first time I ever made it into a signature. I'm so proud!

... not 100% sure what you're worrying about here :).

"It's more of a hierarchy really."

"Those who are also incapable of raging gripe."

"Arsenal is to rage as I am to depression."

[SiuiS]

I don't get it. How is Dominic Deegan even known this well? DId it use to be any good? There are so many descent comics out there that have nowhere near the exposure I see for DD yet every thread I see about the webcomic is filled to the brim with Anti-Fans and collective groans. Is this what the interwebs calls Narm? Is DD a comedy? Is it unintentionally funny? Is it a webcomic Plan 9 from Outer Space?

I was introduced to Dominic Deegan by someone defending rape as something which could be done by heroes. They linked to the Melna thing. I thought it was dumb, but kinda cool that a webcomic would actually deal with such things. Mookie's style of "I will do this for myself and you Gus can watch if you want" appealed to me.

Over the years, the shiny wore off and I realized: mookie is ... I don't even know. I want to say he's an idiot but he's not. He's just... He's a teenager. He still finds satisfaction in snubbing authority, being edgy, and getting back at "jocks". I can't respect him or his opinions anymore, and seeing as he takes his comic seriously, I can't respect it anymore either. What makes t worse is mookie has admitted to these mistakes. Admitting them doesn't absolve you, though.

It's more of a hierarchy really. Those who cannot analyse, joke. Those who can't joke either rage. Those who are also incapable of raging gripe. These aren't fixed tiers, folk move up and down according to skill, mood and current levels of inspiration (or vitriol), although some are more at home in certain areas.

Oh, and people who can't bring themselves to complain either usually wind up leaving. But most of those have already moved on... damn I envy them.

And I'm hoping to be one of those last people. The thought of another week in order to get to where we should have been on Wednesday has finally broken the spell. Without more ponies to soothe my rage, I'm done. I'll drop into the thread here because you people are cool, but unless there's a magic "wow, DD has magically become good again!" string of posts, I will give mookie patronage no more.

[Humbug]

I think I've been raging more and more as of late, and considering I'm getting back into drawing comics again, it's irksome that Mookie puts zero effort into his work and there are people who love him for it.

[Johnny Blade]

Well, you are one of the most balanced among us in my eyes. Maybe not that much depression, but it's there.

And the comic's complete stagnancy can certainly induce a lot of rage, especially in someone actually working on one herself.

[Gadora]

And I'm hoping to be one of those last people. The thought of another week in order to get to where we should have been on Wednesday has finally broken the spell. Without more ponies to soothe my rage, I'm done. I'll drop into the thread here because you people are cool, but unless there's a magic "wow, DD has magically become good again!" string of posts, I will give mookie patronage no more.

Wow, Dominic Deegan has magically become good again!




I think you've got a good idea. It's time for me to move on as well.

And so, I leave you with this. It is something that, I admit, has fallen a bit out of fashion, but I'd always told myself that before I left, I'd get around to writing an entry for myself in the Snarker Index that used to be part of the opening posts:

Spoiler

Show

Name: Gadora
Started Reading: Late 2006
Joining GiTP Thread: I started lurking sometime near the start of Maltak. My first post was in #%@$ You, I'm a Bird! (Thread XXIII)
Starting Disposition: Yay! It's a webcomic! Webcomics are awesome!
Time to Convert: I was starting to get dissatisfied with the comic in the time before I started lurking.
Current Stance: The comic just is no longer worth my time, and there's not really enough happening even to snark.

So, thank you snark thread. You've taught me a lot over the years. You helped me actually start paying attention to what I read, instead of just reading for the joy brought on by the ebb and flow of words. You've brought me laughter; you've brought me many facepalms.

I have no more to say than simply this: Thank you Snark Thread, and goodbye.

[Darkmyst]

Without more ponies to soothe my rage, I'm done. I'll drop into the thread here because you people are cool, but unless there's a magic "wow, DD has magically become good again!" string of posts, I will give mookie patronage no more.

Good luck if you are leaving SiuiS, and thanks for making the shared misery of DD more tolerable with your presence . Although you should probably stay away if you start hearing that the comic's suddenly turned good; it'll just be (another) trap to rope curious viewers back in so their hope can be crushed once more.

Unrelated: How long would one estimate before the Pony thread collection catches up to this one in size?

Edit: A fond farewell to you too Gadora. Leave the door open on your way out... one imagines others will be following...

[Castel]

I think I've been raging more and more as of late, and considering I'm getting back into drawing comics again, it's irksome that Mookie puts zero effort into his work and there are people who love him for it.

I still say that what little non-ironic* audience Mookie has left is only there because of inertia; from back when he used to give a damn. It is no surprise that people are leaving now that the effort he applies to his comic reaches negative hit-points. His shortcomings as a writer do not help, either.

*If recent developments are any indication, this applies to the snarkers, as well.

[Gez]

I will see your 'Billy the Heretic', and raise you 'Hathor the Cow-Goddess'.

Eh, I can't really see a "breastfeeding is good" webcomic as worse as a "jews are bad" webcomic. Hathor is weird but harmless. If you make abstraction of the "message" they're pushing, they'd be about equally bad I think. Both have poor art, weak writing and illogical situations.

[TheArsenal]

Eh, I can't really see a "breastfeeding is good" webcomic as worse as a "jews are bad" webcomic.

Pretty much. I really don't get offended because its bat-**** insane anyway. Its so ludacristly wrong and bouncing off the walls krazy that I just think its riffing on antisemitic people and thier insane troll logic.

[Rappy]

To those snarkers who are about to die leave, we salute you.

[Neoriceisgood]

I enjoy analyzing Dominic Deegan in part due to the fact that at the start of it, it managed to get a lot of readers despite pretty darn inferior art and a few other flaws, it's interesting to see how a few particular traits (like playing around with tropes) can apparently make a comic a lot more interesting to readers. (albeit part of it's initial success came from a fairly unsaturated webcomic market)

The second reason I like analyzing it is because a lot of the mistakes Dominic Deegan makes are ... to be frank, complicated and unexpected in a way where a lot of good/better webcomics could probably get away with them with only a small fraction of the fanbase realising.

Let's be fair, arcs like Maltak could easily be made "awesome" in the eyes of a die-hard fan if it had an artist behind it competent enough to make any "worthwhile scene" seem awesome.

The fact that DD has such a huge readerbase yet no genuine redeeming quality means that a lot of points in terms of bad writing, bad plot progression, disturbing "heroes" who portray questionable morals ,etc etc become much more obvious, and there's barely anyone around willing to defend it as the respect for Mookie as an author is just ... well, not there.


I'm pretty sure barely half the people would sit around calling out the questionable morality on most characters if this comic was absolutely gorgeous, because people are much more prone to defend a work's weakest points if they have absolute respect for it's strongest points.

Either way, I've always seen myself as around 90% an analytical snarker, as I prefer to learn from Mookie's mistakes than to just laugh at them.

(I think I'm nearly 0% rage and/or depression for that matter)

[Traab]

Back to the bachelor party! Smug Greg will arrange it in true facebath style, pissing off dominic. We will then see THAT FACE on greg again as he says, "If you hated it so much, why were you one of the people who stayed?" At which point snarkers here shall work with the wonders of photo shop to turn the groin punch scene into a short dom nailing greg as he says, "Because you had me tied to the chair you gonk! Also, why am I short?!"

[T-O-E]

I don't see how you can rage or get depressed by DD. There are much worse webcomics out there that make a lot of money for their creators and are loved by all. Most acknowledge DD for what it is.

[Darkmyst]

We've been over this before, iirc. The tragedy of DD is that of wasted potential; on almost every degree one can measure and over any timeframe, the thing comes up as "worse than it should/could have been". This is as opposed to the likes of Hathor or Billy the Heretic, which are exactly as dreadful as you'd expect given a description of those comics.

That is one source of depression. The other, for me at least, is that I recall actually enjoying this thing way back in the day. It hurts to see how wrong things have gone since those times (and also to have that lurking reminder of how low my standards were back then, but that's a seperate issue). No other webcomic is going to have that effect, because I didn't read too many back then; the others have either died, concluded, or are continuing at a reasonably high degree of quality.

As for rage? Don't know. As far as I can tell, it's just depression in caps-lock with exclaimation marks added for flavour

[Traab]

I say the story was fine, when you could read it like a book, meaning click, next page, click, next page, click next page. The slow points were sped through and the new story arcs showed up and went by quickly. It wasnt until I got caught up and had to wait for each update that things started sliding into the snarker zone. Thats why the maltak arc wasnt so bad imo. I was able to read through the entire thing in one sitting, so I failed to see the horror and hate chucked about on this board for it.

[TheArsenal]

As for rage? Don't know. As far as I can tell, it's just depression in caps-lock with exclaimation marks added for flavour

Depression:

Just...Wow...I mean way to run a great idea into the ground.

Aggression:

WHAT? WHAT! HOW COULD YOU! THIS WAS THE DUMBEST MOVE YOU COULD HAVE POSSIBLY TAKEN! IT MESSES UP SO MANY POSSIBILITIES THAT YOU COULD HAVE DONE!

[Mr. McGician]

Someone needs to create a Myers Briggs test to determine what kind of snarker someone is.

1. An entire strip is devoted to how great Luna is. Your reaction is to:

a) Declare Luna as so derailed that she is now negative-dimensional.
b) Declare Luna the character you now hate most.
c) Write a spoiler box about how each flaw of Luna's could possibly be mistaken for a virtue.
d) Write down the lyrics to a Disney song and replace some of the words with praise for Luna.

[Darkmyst]

Potential activity sighted!

2. It is Thursday. An obvious filler strip has been posted. You respond by:

a) Announcing your loathing of filler in all its myriad forms.
b) Scouring the artwork for callbacks, flaws, or accidental hints at future developments, and musing upon the findings.
c) Finding an excuse to shop Punchy, Stunt's head, or other memes into the picture.
d) Comparing the strip to those of previous Thursdays, and commenting that there just might be a pattern there.

[Ghill]

As a thread lurker I feel the need to pitch in occasionally. Today I feel the need to explain the true nature of "Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire".

It is the Dream Killer. The Mind Smother. The Time Drain. The Hollow Void. All things are lost within. If one reach update to update, day to day, strip to strip as they trickle out like drop of tainted water into the dry mouth of a thirsty man, then they see the true horror. Mookie does not have an objective, a goal, a destination. The journey is the more interesting part of travel, but if a journey has no direction or significance then there is no meaning to it. If Dominic Deegan HAD A FAWKIN POINT it would be worth reading. But it DOESN'T.

Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire will not end until the day Mookie is stopped from writing it, and since Mookie has nothing he still wishes to do with it he had no incentive to make ANYTHING HAPPEN EVER.

Incidentally I intend to keep reading until the day I die. I suggest dropping the comic for months or years at a time then binging from start to finish. It dulls the pain quite nicely while still giving the story.

EDIT: @Traab, I thought you were going to change that Avatar to reduce the amount of hate and flame directed at you. Seriously, that is one smug ass troll face you are wearing...

P.S. EDIT EDIT: I just had to link this. No name is unique.

[rocketpony]

Someone needs to create a Myers Briggs test to determine what kind of snarker someone is.

The dimensions I see are

TVTropes / Fanfiction - Are your posts link-heavy? Or do you write fanfiction to paper over holes in the comic?
Analysis / Reaction - Do you see each update in the broader context of the comic and the world? Or do you evaluate each update independently?
Hope / Despair - When there's uncertainty, do you say "This could be cool"? Or do you say "It's just going to be resolved anticlimatically"?
Threaddict / Sober - Nothing's happening? Do you post pictures of ponies, Dominikudigan, in verse, or do you just wait for the next update?
Punchy / NoPunchy - What is your opinion of Punchy McStonefist?*

So for example:

1. All of a sudden, Greg is using white magic again. You
   
   1. Link to where TIM tore it out. And where Dominic confirmed it was gone forever. And where Miranda also confirmed it was gone forever. The Merriam-Webster definition of the words "gone" and "forever". A TVTropes article. And the Aardvark, because why not. (TVTropes-aligned)
   2. Hypothesize that Mookie's doing something about magic fluctuations. Or that Dominic's vision was blocked by something. Or something's happened to Snuggly. (Fanfiction aligned)
2. It's a comic about Luna. What bothers you more?
   
   1. Luna is a harbinger of doom. No comic with Luna can make sense, ever. (Analysis-aligned)
   2. The words coming out of Luna's mouth don't make a damn lick of sense, and she's drawn so badly you thought she was Quilt for a second. (Reaction-aligned)
3. Mookie has introduced a new character! A new VILLAIN character! And they've just punched Dominic right in the beanbag!
   
   1. Oh boy! This is just what this comic needs, a challenge! Remember Visions of Doom? (Hope-aligned)
   2. Oh boy, another cardboard cut-out for the main characters to effotlessly knock over. Remember Walk the Wild Edge? (Despair-aligned)
4. Friday ended on a cliffhanger. Now it's Saturday. You are
   
   1. Posting pictures of ponies, writing meta-posts, debating the title of the next thread. (Threaddict-aligned)
   2. I don't know, playing WoW or something? There's no update today. (Sober-aligned)

*There have been arguments made recently that this is not a classifiable dimension as the hypothesized NoPunchy types are not in natural evidence.