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FlocksOfMice posted:It's the DBZ style of combat, where you win because you yelled louder, were the good guy, and your laser beam was BIGGEST. Yeah, you can see that in Star Power too. Danica's way of doing things is presented as correct and a victory for love and compassion, even though its purely based on her superior strength, death threats, and military backup. And it doesn't help that the villains are incompetent because it's so important to Mookie that the guards be competent because he hates that stereotype.
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Oct 11, 2020 15:40
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 11:18 |
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Zereth posted:Wouldn't he have needed a time machine to do that? This is from like, early 2000s. The Emperor Joker storyline ran in 2000, with Storm of Souls starting in ‘04. The collection didn’t come out until ‘07 though.
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Oct 11, 2020 15:53
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Chapter 12 The Storm of Souls Part 12 Let's wrap this poo poo up!     This is one of Mookie's first experiments outside of the newspaper strip format. While I commend him for it, and it doesn't look too bad, it is hampered by having Dominic narrate the whole thing, and for being too drat long. This interlude affects absolutely nothing about the events that follow it.  They arrive in the Elemecca. As a visual, I don't hate this. What the implications of it, or who the residents of this "city" plane are, never is explained. But the idea of worlds floating in some grand multidimensional machine is cool, even if it doesn't really fit in the setting here.  Problem Solved! The threat is over, everything after this is just about saving Dominic  Mookie again tries to build an emotional resonance and pathos without ever establishing it. Why exactly are Acibek and the Sylvan Oracle in love? Aren't they made up of multiple souls anyway? A very shallow attempt at resolution that Mookie has again not done the legwork for. I also find it funny that he made the Sylvan Oracle into an adult woman shaped being, with a bare midriff and barely covered breasts. It just seems unnecessary, especially since neither of these beings has any need to be sexual.  Saviour of All Things! Unique heroes! Il ike Raf just popping up with his DBZ death beams though. He echoes my thoughts.  I love the visual in panel three, just look at that post as he swings down his suddenly-appearing magic sword. Why did he even bothered with the sword, since he has it fall out of Raf's grip 3 panels later? Dominic is about to be dumped into the garbage chute of the universe, though, so that's good. It's not well conveyed but that's what panel six is supposed to show.  Total power move by Celesto. Too bad it doesn't work. The fact that this was there establishes a bit of a problem, but I'm fine with it. Celesto certainly seems to have earned his hidden knowledge more than Dominic has.  and here's where Dominic suffers the only real consequence he will ever have. The loss of his leg is permanent, and even though for the most part he is not affected by it, it does come up once in a while, mostly as a way of garnering sympathy for him. But it is a consequence, so at least Dominic did have to sacrifice a little bit for this win.  Here's where we learn that Klo Tark is just as much of a douchebag as Dominic is, manipulating sadsack Luna's emotions to get her angry enough to kill the Infernomancer in one blow. Like with Gregory, it's important to that the powerful spell casters have to be manipulated using their magic, because that gives the designated Mookie something to do.  This is actually how Quilt becomes a main character. I sort of like it, I love the idea that a necromantic horror just turns good because it's creator inadvertently gave it a sense of humour. It's a terrible sense of humour, and Quilt is an awful character going forward, basically a monkey-cheese humour pirate, but in concept I like. Points deducted for explaining your joke from earlier though, Mookie. How stupid you think your audience is?  Jacob, like Celesto, echoes my thoughts on these characters. This is how the Jacob arc is resolved for now, he just disappears.     So Klo Tark has everyone make a friendship circle, and does a ritual to switch places with Dominic, dooming himself in the process.  I remember that this hit me really hard when I was reading this as a kid. But man does it ring hollow now. Reading all the strips together you realize how little Klo Tark and Dominic really shared, and how briefly they actually knew each other. Like Raf said, a matter of days. This sacrifice feels absurdly Mary Sue-ish because of that why would or should Plutarch sacrifice himself for Dominic? How is Dominic better place to help? Obviously there could've been a better set up this where it would work, but as it stands in again feels like unearned sentimentality.  Love the extremely graphic black eye on Luna, when everyone else is basically just scuffed. Here it is, the last part! Chapter 12 The Storm of Souls Part 13 All this is just basically wrap up, the stuff that happens has no tension but it is funny that Mookie decided to wrap things up in the way he does.  First we have Helixa, who cleverly kills herself so that you can resurrect and go and attack Miranda. If Mookie had been a better writer he might've considered saving her as a character, because that escape is pretty neat.  Instead, Miranda somehow turned the infernomancer's gauntlets into a weapon of divinity, because that's something she can do apparently. And so Helixa dies with enormous bloody tits straining to get out of her corset. Miranda never uses those gauntlets again  An undead Klo Tark opens up a hole in the ground and feeds Celesto into the the space between realities as punishment for betraying Dominic. Weird that Klo Tark and just let the repair magic take care of him, but then there wouldn't have been someone to tell off less than one final time which is what Mookie wanted. Obviously this will be the last of Celesto, but Mookie I don't think had planned that out yet.  Instead Celesto goes to the far realms with TIM, who still has hi gauntlets even though Miranda actually has them. Whatever. This was deafening meant to some sort of final punishment for Celesto. But he comes out of it really unaffected later.  And Jacob's arc here ends with a pun.   How exactly did Luna do that? Helixa was objectively winning until Klo Tark stepped in. Nothing that Miranda says here is accurate like we saw. But yeah Luna is going to be a magical researcher at Momeegan's magic University, proving 100% that Miranda is corrupt and is fine with nepotism.   I'm sure I would be fine with this if I like the characters. If this was a good story this wouldn't be badly placed as a tender moment.   Not much of a physics joke. But again I actually sort of like Quilt as a concept and he's not awful yet.  Ominous future foreshadowing, but nothing close to this ever happens again, except for maybe the final arc, but I don't think the Dominic having multiclassed really matters in a direct way from this point on. It's just more praise for Dominic that really means nothing.   And that's where it ends! Everything's wrapped up in a neat little bow. But Mookie did include several teaser images for future story arcs, which means that he was thinking about these already.    [Never comes up, as far as I can remember]  [Never comes up, as far as I can remember]   The battle for Barthis next and it is stupider than I remembered. Should be a good time. I don't have a lot more to say on the storm souls honestly, reading these last two sections it actually does feel pretty anticlimactic as an ending. Everything wraps up quickly and easily in the characters go right back to their normal lives. It is probably the best story Mookie ever wrote, but it's still pretty bad in a lot of ways. One thing that is apparent by the end of it there was Mookie needs total victories for the most part, he doesn't like bittersweet moments for the main characters. The only time after this that there really is anything like that is when Siegfried dies in the War in Hell. But given what Mookie wrote about Black Hole Bill, and what happens to Siegfried later on, I think Mookie was actually trying to punish Siegfried for being a bad person. And it was also encouraged extra sympathy for Dominic losing a friend he loved in spite of being a horrible monster. Beelzebufo fucked around with this message at 13:40 on Oct 13, 2020 |
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Oct 11, 2020 20:04
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Ball made of smaller balls! Looking at the early depictions of the chaos place makes what we got in the series finale even more insulting. It’s just so  later on and I can’t remember anything other than it basically being Storm of Souls 2 but way worse and needlessly complicated.
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Oct 11, 2020 20:39
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It's all downhill from here. Something that strikes me reading all of these at once is how many goddamn words Mookie crams into the panels. Comics are a visual medium, but 95% of this is talking heads spewing exposition.
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Oct 11, 2020 21:00
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This is as good as it gets, folks. What a pile of poo poo. I cannot get over how unclear this comic in particular is. Dominic looks at something and the problem spontaneously resolves itself. That's Dominic Deegan in a nutshell really. I thought it could've been clearer:
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Oct 11, 2020 21:47
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I honestly don't even get what he did. He teleported it to the Elemecca and it... had a machine that existed specifically to destroy it for him? Ok???? What really gets me is how you can tell he doesn't love his villains. A good creator should be in love with their work on some level, should have affection and understanding of all their characters since they, you know, are providing them with their consciousness. Even if you're making a real garbo jerk it's YOUR garbo jerk. You're responsible for it. You have to inhabit and be inhabited by them, have to give them their layers of identity, have to turn them from an obstacle into a person. Even if they're a lovely person, you are simultaneously them, their childhood friends, their hopes and dreams. You can't write someone and not feel SOMEthing for them. I think Cassavettes' Faces originally started as a bitter critique of aspects of modern life, but as he worked on it he grew sympathetic to the characters and it became more an honest, earnest expression of their humanity. A good creator should be able to see the humanity of all their creations, should be able to hold love, on some level, for anyone they bring into life. Mookie writes like someone who doesn't really love any of his characters other than himself and every other self-insert. Everyone else is a flat, empty, hollow thing with no identity other than to be defeated. Here we see the Mary Sue parasitism reach its ultimate form. All creatures are stripped of meaningful identities and complex personalities and reduced exclusively to the role they play in relation to the Mary Sue parasite. All goals are exchanged for ones that relate only to the Mary Sue. Any details of life that might make them sympathetic are not underplayed, they're rendered void. Sympathy, identification, cannot happen with anything but the Mary Sue. It cannot be tolerated, cannot be allowed. The authorial impulse of the Mary Sue parasite refuses to see the humanity of anything but itself, and so it erases it, as to not be bothered with it. The infestation is complete. This world is now dead. Dominic's victory is here.
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Oct 11, 2020 23:23
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The Little Death posted:and here's where Dominic suffers the only real consequence he will ever have. Giving Mookie an opportunity to indulge his martyr complex.
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Oct 11, 2020 23:45
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Lmao at Klo Tark's sacrifice. Beyond him and Dominic knowing eachother for like...ONE day, it puts all these restrictions on magic that we've never seen before. Dominic teleported instantaneously several times this arc with no issue, but now suddenly teleportation is off the table and the only option is this very convoluted spell to switch places with Klo Tark and have him get atomized by the Elemecca instead. And then it doesn't even matter! Somebody's gotta swoop in and give Celesto his punishment for being a bad boy and disrespecting Dominic (Not the exploding people!?) so Klo Tark is still around. The good guys totally and overwhelmingly triumphed and the bad guys got the karmic punishment they deserved. I wonder how he'd writing this ending now that he's denounced the idea of cosmic forces destroying your enemies. Edit: Oh a new page.  Thank god the corpse wife left and took her creepy subtext with her.
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Oct 11, 2020 23:59
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"Why does everyone I see naked leave me?!"
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Oct 12, 2020 00:25
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Now that he's found a way to justify his tracing, I think he's doing it more and more. Those are not Mookie poses. Most of those fabric folds make sense. Snout's face is just human-shaped in that second panel, with the nose extended as a sort of afterthought. Also the torsos aren't super long.
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Oct 12, 2020 00:35
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Libra posted:Snout's face is just human-shaped in that second panel, with the nose extended as a sort of afterthought. i hate it so much it’s horrible
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Oct 12, 2020 00:41
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Yeah you can tell when he traced, the faces look TOTALLY wrong. They kind of have an Alvin & the Chipmunks vibe, or like the animal people from that weird-rear end Rock & Rule movie.
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Oct 12, 2020 00:50
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TheHan posted:The Emperor Joker storyline ran in 2000, with Storm of Souls starting in ‘04. The collection didn’t come out until ‘07 though.  Should've investigated further, I guess.The Little Death posted:Momeegan's  TheHan posted:Lmao at Klo Tark's sacrifice. Beyond him and Dominic knowing eachother for like...ONE day, it puts all these restrictions on magic that we've never seen before. Dominic teleported instantaneously several times this arc with no issue, but now suddenly teleportation is off the table and the only option is this very convoluted spell to switch places with Klo Tark and have him get atomized by the Elemecca instead.
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Oct 12, 2020 00:51
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Speaking is a free action in D&D.
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Oct 12, 2020 00:56
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Rotten Red Rod posted:Yeah you can tell when he traced, the faces look TOTALLY wrong. They kind of have an Alvin & the Chipmunks vibe, or like the animal people from that weird-rear end Rock & Rule movie. Also notice that Snout's elbow blade is totally flat and tacked on at an impossible angle cause Mookie couldn't figure out how to add it to the pose he traced.
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Oct 12, 2020 01:58
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It should be buried in the flesh of Snout's knee.
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Oct 12, 2020 01:59
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Yeah there's no reason Klo Tark shouldn't have been able to just escape after the place swapping. Dominic couldn't get out because he was heavily injured already, but that doesn't apply to Klo Tark. Also I assume whatever "Knight Vision" would have been got scrapped whenever he started getting really butthurt about his fans liking Siggy more than Dominic.
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Oct 12, 2020 02:02
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I like how he apparently woke up, reached over to his bindle, got out his ink and book, wrote part of his journal entry, and only then had the thought to look around for his new companion (although the angle's such that he might be looking at some clouds instead?) Also, she apparently took all the leaves with her when she left, unless a mighty wind swept them all away in the night. Object permanence, what's that?
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Oct 12, 2020 03:26
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Mombie died on the way back to her home planet.
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Oct 12, 2020 03:32
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It's like a newspaper comic, where every Monday's a recap page and every Friday's a summary. Except for the rest of the week the newspaper decided to use the space to print obituaries.
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Oct 12, 2020 03:32
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We are effectively back to where we were a few months ago. No progress made, only thing different is a wild card character who may or may not reappear at some critical moment down the line.
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Oct 12, 2020 03:36
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Oh boy I hope Snout succeeds in his goal to... Uh. Hm.
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Oct 12, 2020 03:46
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He's searching for his place in the world, for his very reason to exist. And coming up empty.
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Oct 12, 2020 03:47
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VLADIMIR: Well? Shall we go? ESTRAGON: Yes, let's go. They do not move. Curtain.
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Oct 12, 2020 04:16
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Lol I guess Mookie got bored of the new girl too. It's a testament to the uniqueness of Mookie's plotting that it's equally possible that Snout will go looking for her and they have more awkard, wordless feral child interactions, or that Mookie is onto a new story now and we'll never see her again.
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Oct 12, 2020 04:32
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It’s like Snout’s a nega-harem protagonist.
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Oct 12, 2020 04:54
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I deeply hope we've seen the last of corpse mommy-girlfriend, but it's eminently possible she's standing 2 inches beyond the border of the panel.
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Oct 12, 2020 05:36
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I'm guessing she's in the tree and will fall out or surprise snout by hanging herself upside down in front of him.
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Oct 12, 2020 07:46
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Just bafflingly, bafflingly bad at all times.
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Oct 12, 2020 08:06
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She's gonna show up by the end of the week. If she doesn't and mookie really just introduced a new wifemum for Snout only to disappear her from the comic again I'm gonna loving lose it.
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Oct 12, 2020 10:20
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YF-23 posted:She's gonna show up by the end of the week. If she doesn't and mookie really just introduced a new wifemum for Snout only to disappear her from the comic again I'm gonna loving lose it. could you imagine? an element in this story that doesn't go anywhere, that doesn't go anywhere
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Oct 12, 2020 10:32
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Oct 12, 2020 10:45
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Joe Slowboat posted:Just bafflingly, bafflingly bad at all times. I could not put it better myself.
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Oct 12, 2020 10:52
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YF-23 posted:She's gonna show up by the end of the week. If she doesn't and mookie really just introduced a new wifemum for Snout only to disappear her from the comic again I'm gonna loving lose it.
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Oct 12, 2020 13:57
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That Oracle Hunter concept is distilled late 90s/early 00s anime
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Oct 12, 2020 18:34
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Also I want to thank the Deegan veterans sharing their expertise with us new onlookers. It’s good to have someone who’s witnessed this train wreck in agonizingly slow motion before and can point out where the real terrible stuff lurks, like how little any character ever interacts with any other character and thus how shallow every cathartic emotional moment is.
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Oct 13, 2020 03:13
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I used to say and until relatively recently stood by my assertion that Dominic Deegan was literally the nadir of Human creative endeavor, but Legacy has blown it out of the water so thoroughly it's amazing. Like it's literally whatever the opposite of storytelling is.
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Oct 13, 2020 03:25
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Dominic teaching college was probably about when it turned from bland with occasional bouts of  into the pure garbage it became at the end of the run, especially the leadup into the horrible vacation arc that gave us terrible world building, the setting of Legacy and the greatest panel in the comic.
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Oct 13, 2020 03:47
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 11:18 |
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Don't forget Dominic constantly slut-shaming one of his students, who also later on would proceed to resort to sex work to raise money for Dominic's vacation.
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Oct 13, 2020 03:55
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