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quote:From romantic partners of my past to social circles weaving deceptions to exclude or be rid of me Uh huh.
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May 15, 2024 11:05
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| # ? Jun 11, 2024 00:05 |
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Trapezium Dave posted:Cresca used false papers to gain access to Kadaz and then pretended to be a waitress so she could spike the council meeting drinks so I'm sure the "no deception" rule isn't going to apply once Mookie has got this venting out of his system. Either that or it's going to turn out to have been the Wrong Approach, and loudly yelling publicly about things was the Right Way All Along and definitely wouldn't have gotten her and a bunch of the rebel organization members killed.
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May 15, 2024 11:05
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Using magic to cause people to hallucinate and freak out due to false pretenses is not deceit, you see, because
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May 15, 2024 11:16
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I get the idea he does not like writing about deception and such, because good writing is hard and he would have to keep track of motivations, who knows or thinks what in relation to who and have all that in service of a comprehensible narrative instead of, say, drawing really big tits.
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May 15, 2024 11:22
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Trapezium Dave posted:Cresca used false papers to gain access to Kadaz and then pretended to be a waitress so she could spike the council meeting drinks so I'm sure the "no deception" rule isn't going to apply once Mookie has got this venting out of his system. To be fair, her false papers had the actual address of the Revolution Safehouse where she's staying, so she was at least partially telling the truth there.
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May 15, 2024 11:24
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I don’t think he considers all of that deception because he’s not thinking that hard.
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May 15, 2024 11:54
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Mx. posted:oh yeah yesterday's blog page was rather telling So did he also watch this OSP video over the weekend like I did while haunting the crapper? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEnJ9E8zxCc
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May 15, 2024 12:48
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Invisible Clergy posted:Long odds, while in the cave, Gordi somehow learned one or all of the crew were secretly women disguised as men[...] This No-Prize will look so good on my mantel. In this fascist society, even members of the council of nine's immediately family, the nominal rulers, are subject to indefinite detention by secret police who apparently outrank them. While being interrogated, they are exposed to some kind of infallible method of divining whether they are troglodytes. Not only this, but they have lie detectors and telepaths. Why are these methods not used more broadly on members of society with fewer rights? How is there a troglodyte problem at all? If the people in power were this worried about it, wouldn't every citizen have a regular standing appointment every week or month to report to the inquisitors for their regular blood test or whatever as a kind of loyalty oath? They'd presumably be issued temporary passes showing they'd been tested to avoid harassment in the meantime like say work/travel passes in apartheid South Africa. How was the rebellion ever able to get off the ground at all if the establishment has access to these kinds of tools? I'm sure in the near future, we'll get a throwaway by the rebel leader about how they have a perfect shield against these spells to go "kapwing," effectively making it so they do not really exist in the first place. Fordi thought all the crew made it back, but they were one dwarf short. Did a woman replace a man while they were underground, or can Fordi not count? Tesseraction posted:So did he also watch this OSP video over the weekend like I did while haunting the crapper? Of course he did. Beyond his inherent contrarianism against the latest thing to pass in front of his computer screen, I too suspect he claims to dislike characters who lie because it's two things he has to keep track of instead of one, which this comic is showing is already beyond his grasp.
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May 15, 2024 13:15
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blog post more like bleargh post
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May 15, 2024 13:18
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Invisible Clergy posted:Why are these methods not used more broadly on members of society with fewer rights? How is there a troglodyte problem at all? If the people in power were this worried about it, wouldn't every citizen have a regular standing appointment every week or month to report to the inquisitors for their regular blood test or whatever as a kind of loyalty oath? They'd presumably be issued temporary passes showing they'd been tested to avoid harassment in the meantime like say work/travel passes in apartheid South Africa. In a good story, the threat of a troglodyte incursion would be used by those in power to justify whatever current polices they're trying to push, or to keep the population in a state of constant readiness and fear. The people in power don't want to catch the troglodytes, assuming any even exist within society currently. If Mookie was doing decent worldbuilding, maybe the tests are prohibitively expensive, or require rare components, so they need to be saved for dire situations, like a trial of an important head of state. Hell, in a better story, the twist could be that they don't work at all, and the troglodytes have either been letting the inquisitors catch a handful of scattered agents over the years for the 'cause', or any actual successes in the past were just false positives and there's no reliable way of detecting a troglodyte. ...anyways, lol, we don't get any of that and the things a mess. Props to whoever called the 'Gordi only became a feminist because he saw a woman being heroic, not because he thinks women deserve rights' plot point.
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May 15, 2024 13:29
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I can’t understand the tonal shift in the last two panels. “YOU’RE A LUNATIC AND YOU’RE CRAZY AND I’M THINKING OF HAVING YOU EXECUTED!” A few seconds later. “Good work on your mission! I’m proud of you. Oh you’ve lost someone? That’s never easy, I’m sorry.” He writes these guys like they’re NPCs from Oblivion.
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May 15, 2024 13:34
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Cemetry Gator posted:He writes these guys like they’re NPCs from Oblivion. I used to write coherent, until I took an arrow to the story. Shut up I know that's Skyrim.
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May 15, 2024 13:44
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Mors Rattus posted:I don’t think he considers all of that deception because he’s not thinking that hard. Yeah, those are all different lying for the greater good, that's completely fine, but other lies are bad of course.
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May 15, 2024 13:45
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would've been interesting if he wrote about how he feels about his most well-known and popular character being an archetypal trickster, instead of vague platitudes
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May 15, 2024 14:09
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Mookie, declaring himself above the universal folkloric archetype of the Trickster: "Lying is always bad, I am very smart." Trickster figures aren't always unilaterally good or bad. They are ambiguous. There are often stories about Tricksters both winning and losing. Sometimes you cheer for them and sometimes you cheer against them. No wonder he can't figure this out.
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May 15, 2024 14:51
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RoboRodent posted:Mookie, declaring himself above the universal folkloric archetype of the Trickster: "Lying is always bad, I am very smart." Take Q for example. Q is often the antagonist in Star Trek, but you would be hard pressed to describe him as a villain or a good guy. He helps Picard, but only after taunting him and getting under his skin. I feel like his blog post is a great example of how bad his writing can be. There are no details. I get sharing your darkest stories can be uncomfortable and something you don’t want to do, but then, why talk about something if you don’t want to talk about it. He just ends up with something childish. Lying makes people feel bad and you shouldn’t do it. If that’s all you had to say, why say it?
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May 15, 2024 15:03
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'Lying is bad' says the guy who also wrote that Dominic's first personal encounter with the final villain of his series should end with Dominic successfully tricking it into fleeing using a mask. Anyway I'm glad to see that this story about feminism now includes a woman whose most important act in the story was to die to motivate Gordi. Pyrotoad fucked around with this message at 15:20 on May 15, 2024 |
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May 15, 2024 15:18
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GreenMetalSun posted:In a good story, the threat of a troglodyte incursion would be used by those in power to justify whatever current polices they're trying to push, or to keep the population in a state of constant readiness and fear. The people in power don't want to catch the troglodytes, assuming any even exist within society currently. If Mookie was doing decent worldbuilding, maybe the tests are prohibitively expensive, or require rare components, so they need to be saved for dire situations, like a trial of an important head of state. Hell, in a better story, the twist could be that they don't work at all, and the troglodytes have either been letting the inquisitors catch a handful of scattered agents over the years for the 'cause', or any actual successes in the past were just false positives and there's no reliable way of detecting a troglodyte. All of those are totally reasonable points that I didn't really entertain given who's writing. I know this won't happen, but is there any actual evidence troglodytes even exist? They're set up pretty ideally as an unfalsifiable McCarthyist witch hunt target for the establishment to invoke when disappearing their political enemies. Thanks. I always have mixed feeling when I guess something right because it means I'm figuring out how Mookie "plots."
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May 15, 2024 15:21
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Pyrotoad posted:Anyway I'm glad to see that this story about feminism now includes a woman whose most important act in the story was to die to motivate Gordi. Are we certain there wasn't a fridge there in the netherdeep that she got shoved into?
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May 15, 2024 15:28
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Pyrotoad posted:'Lying is bad' says the guy who also wrote that Dominic's first personal encounter with the final villain of his series should end with Dominic successfully tricking it into fleeing using a mask. There hasn't been a single woman with a speaking role in this story about Good Boy Feminist Gordi yet lmao
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May 15, 2024 16:05
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I can't wait for Gordi to meet the rebels and explain to them that actually rebelling is bad and all they needed to do was be the best ever at everything and wait for good men like him to realize that they're people too. Just go to the council and say "Hey, I'm a woman and I want to prove that I can do council stuff just as good as men." and they'll say "Oh yeah? Do this paperwork!" and then you do the paperwork really good and even add footnotes and then the council will say "Wow! Women are actually super great! Have a seat on the council!" and then the patriarchy will be over.
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May 15, 2024 16:48
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We already have a woman on the council, and she runs circles around Gordi's dumb rear end, but her own brother is still a sexist rear end in a top hat.
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May 15, 2024 16:55
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Well she's clearly not doing it right. They can probably tell she's evil, that's why.
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May 15, 2024 16:56
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I find it distasteful and refuse to write morally ambiguous characters or people who lie! Yes we've noticed your characters and writing are done like a children's cartoon from the 80s but instead of trying to sell toys sometimes the characters sexually harass one another. It's a great combo. God.
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May 15, 2024 17:13
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Hey remember when Dominic manipulated Gregory into becoming a superhero or something for the greater good and that was a good thing?
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May 15, 2024 17:15
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"Lying is bad" says the guy who gets paid to make up false stories for the enjoyment of others..
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May 15, 2024 17:19
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Robot Style posted:"Lying is bad" says the guy who gets paid to make up false stories for the enjoyment of others.. I think both ‘gets paid’ and ‘tell stories’ can fairly be challenged here.
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May 15, 2024 17:44
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Tesseraction posted:Are we certain there wasn't a fridge there in the netherdeep that she got shoved into? Netherdeep freeze, lol.
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May 15, 2024 17:45
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Robot Style posted:"Lying is bad" says the guy who gets paid to make up false stories for the enjoyment of others.. That’s not lying, since he doesn’t mean for these stories to be taken as verifiably true. He has no intention to deceive people. Granted, I don’t really understand his point. It’s not as if Mookie is writing a farce where deception is the name of the game.
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May 15, 2024 19:01
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I don't wanna think too much about his post because there was a lot of personal venting in there, but lol that he's taken such a hardline stance on deceitful =/= heroic when the first part of this arc was resolved by someone using false paperwork to get close to the Bad Guys (and the Misunderstood Ally) and sow chaos using magic illusions. Or is it actually an honest act because she made them see "the ugliness in their hearts" or whatever?Cloacamazing! posted:Hey remember when Dominic manipulated Gregory into becoming a superhero or something for the greater good and that was a good thing? I remember Dominic gloating about making puppets dance and while I can't remember if it was from this arc or a different one that's definitely the kind of thing you'd hear a trickster say. Also I'm very late to the spirit shepherd conclusion so all I'll say is, shepherds deserve to have some kind of hazard pay. Obviously as the heroine Saritha was never in any real danger, but what if the dad was physically violent and tried to use her body to lash out? What if Merrill throwing rocks wasn't just slapstick and she cracked someone's head open? What if Saritha has to go into dangerous terrain to locate the next lost soul? I agree that clients shouldn't be charged money (it's like preying on the sick and the bereaved, but with the added complication of holding someone's eternal soul hostage for money) but it's ridiculous to act like wanting compensation is inherently greedy. Surely Dominic could've set up some way for his very late edit because I misremembered Jacob's nephew as Greg's son MiracleFlare fucked around with this message at 01:33 on May 16, 2024 |
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May 15, 2024 19:23
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I feel like he draws some insane line between Lying and Manipulation where manipulation is fine when it helps people SEE THE TRUTH. But it's not LYING really it's helping them see truth! By that moon logic, the illusions are also not lies. The people illusioned are ugly inside, it's just showing a truth.
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May 15, 2024 22:16
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If you do something to me, it’s wrong. If I do the same thing, it’s a-okay and morally correct.
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May 15, 2024 22:26
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An act is good if a good person does it and bad if a bad person does it, and being a good or bad person is not determined by what acts they commit but by which team they are on. You solve societal problems by replacing the person from the opposite team with a person from your team.
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May 15, 2024 23:03
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Women in the story about sexism, in which honesty is a bedrock virtue:
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May 15, 2024 23:44
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like I figured the rebellion would have to actually cross a material line to be outed as Going Too Far, I didn't think just the fact of being under the radar in a dystopia would get recast as Their Wrong Methods
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May 15, 2024 23:48
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You forgot the new nameless one who died to save men.
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May 15, 2024 23:49
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anyway I can't wait for the half-dwarf who's just reentered their society after a lifetime apart to make the suffragette ninjas See The Truth
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May 15, 2024 23:50
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If one of the rebel leaders does turn out to be a trog after all this
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May 15, 2024 23:57
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The second panel is the one that has stuck most in my mind, with the inquisitor explaining his and Fordi's job right back to the member of Council of Nine. If this was anyone else then it would be a sign of showing how genuinely worried Fordi was about his son combined with how the inquisitors are the real power in dwarf society. But because Mookie does this poo poo all the time it's clearly the very first thoughts he had about this story that he can't be arsed to redraft. I still can't get over he doesn't seem to plan anything at all even when it's obviously impacting the flow of the work. We're quite possibly getting a flashback sandwiched between the previous two other flashbacks to show what this mystery woman meant to Gordi when he could have, you know, shown the relationship build up organically if he just shown it all in the first place. And we're only two pages in! 
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May 16, 2024 00:57
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I wasn't going to talk about the blog post. I read it and put it aside as personal venting and not my business. Since it was mentioned a few times, I took another look and it's pretty revealing about Mookie's stunted morality and ego-centrism: He hates dishonesty, not due to the result of drastic and unforeseen consequences or the pain it inflicts, but "because it is so very easy to lie to me." He goes on to say, "when dishonesty is employed it is rarely for benevolence," which tells me he's never had to lie to protect someone, or lie out of fear of a negative outcome, something other posters pointed out. Then he discusses his feelings about being lied to, and y'know what? I get it. I vibe with everything he says, including anger at yourself for getting fooled, and it still hurts when it happens. But, bro, why does the past still bother you? I'm not saying "get over it", but you're a forty-something father, happily married for, what, 13 years? There's also his use of "blatant and malicious", which implies lies are okay if they're subtle and/or beneficial (hilariously ironic given Dominic's history), and implies he believes the people who deceived him did it for entirely harmful reasons. Then he ends it with this weird-rear end paragraph of how he's become more suspicious of people around him and I'm like, "Dude, you need therapy. This isn't a healthy mindset." Maybe something serious happened recently -- I can't say bc he won't give the deets (I get why you'd keep personal poo poo private, but he's frustratingly vague about what prompted this), but I'm inclined to think he's blowing it out of proportion. We all know about Mookie's black and white morality and teenager-adjacent emotional maturity. What takes the irony to toxic levels is this is coming from a guy who deceived people to get first trumpet in the county band until he got called out for his lack of skill. And ordinarily I wouldn't be this cynical, I wouldn't do this keyboard psych poo poo bc 99% of the time it's nasty, parasocial trash, but I can't help it! Mookie has no theory of mind so thoughts are poured from his brain onto the monitor, unfiltered. Just going by his comics and public blogs, Mookie is someone perpetually frozen in high school, so I'm disinclined to give the benefit of the doubt. Get therapy and gtfo yourself i'll admit i'm bored and high af
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May 16, 2024 01:22
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