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oh no
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Jul 4, 2019 14:15
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 18:38 |
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There's one aspect of seers that Mookie introduced (and then promptly never visited again) later on in the original series, that I thought had potential. If I remember right, it boiled down to the idea that as most visions are random, there's a hell of a lot of work put into just identifying what you've actually seen, let alone interpreting it. The idea that you need to be widely read on things like architecture, fashion, zoology, etc. just to work out where your vision takes place could be an interesting piece of worldbuilding. It's a good hook for mysteries along the lines of "I saw the rare Blue Spotted Butterfly but that only lives in warmer climates and it was snowing outside, we're looking for a private collector in the mountains". Of course, Mookie being Mookie, it is completely irrelevant to how visions actually work in the plot, which is as a convenient dump of whatever Dominic wants to see right then and there 99% of the time. What it actually ends up being is an excuse for why Dominic is just so smart and the fetishization of
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Oct 24, 2020 09:01
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Oct 29, 2020 14:51
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What the gently caress is that torso?
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Nov 17, 2021 15:17
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Wow I am not looking forwards to tomorrow.
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Nov 23, 2021 20:21
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I was secretly hoping for "so bad it loops around to good" but that's just bad.
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Nov 24, 2021 08:23
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Rotten Red Rod posted:Oh god I looked at his Tiktok and he made this one about how being a straight guy in a queer space is like being a "good orc" and I want to loving die There is no force on heaven or earth that could make me watch that video. TheHan posted:I know it's a controversial take in this thread, and I hesitate to give Mookie the benefit of the doubt after that revolting tiktok, but I actually do think he wants to be better at art, just not comics specifically. Comics are just a vehicle to get his "genius ideas" out into the world, and he hates the actual grueling work it takes to put a comic together, especially by yourself. I bet he loves these open concept panel layouts so much because even just having to draw within the confines of a panel feels stifling. I don't think it's that hot of a take. I'd say he does enjoy making comics - I think there has to be at least some enjoyment there for him to have stuck with it for so many years - but doesn't or can't accept that at some point, even the things you love become work that you have to critically reflect on to improve at. I just keep coming back to the point, which has been discussed at length in this thread, that in the original Deegan only the villains really had to practice or try to get good; the heroes just were. How much of that reflects his own views, either consciously or subconsciously? Because unless I'm being very charitable, it seems like a lot. He wants to be a great artist but doesn't necessarily want to do the work to become a great artist. And hell, as someone who would like to be able to play the piano but in no way wants to learn to play the piano, it's probably the most relatable aspect of him at this point.
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Jan 29, 2022 18:53
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Yeah, I actually quite like the effect in the 2nd/3rd panels there - the 2nd panel void looks like bright streams of sunlight, which helps the "blinking and rubbing your eyes" effect. It's a good joke and good use of the medium. It wouldn't even matter that nothing happens - it's a nice breather - if it hadn't been preceded by a bunch of strips where nothing happened either.
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Feb 2, 2022 12:32
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I take back any positive things I may have said or implied with my last post.
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Feb 4, 2022 17:43
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The lack of a consistent light source - even for an individual figure, let alone the page as a whole - is driving me insane.
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Jul 4, 2022 07:17
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I don't know how you can see (let alone draw) a chart like that, agree with it, and not come away thinking "maybe I'm starting my story in the wrong place".
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Sep 15, 2022 20:34
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SubG posted:I mean the comic in that tweet is clearly intended to be self-deprecating. I'll grant you that but Hippocrass posted:Mookie don't seem to understand the concept.
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Sep 15, 2022 21:21
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To give the faintest of praises, another thing Mookie got right originally was that he actually told stories. You could point to original Deegan and say "this is the benefit concert arc; it will have a beginning, middle and end and probably tie into the larger, ongoing story. In a few months it will be done." He avoided the all-too-common pitfall of telling a single meandering tale, without any promise of a future resolution that breaks apart and stops updating because the author realised they couldn't actually manage a George RR Martin-length project. Combine that with the regular updates and sparsity of competition and I think you can see why he gained the audience he did. The competition has now passed him by, he's moved backwards in terms of storytelling and regular updates just aren't enough any more.
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Jan 6, 2023 14:58
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I recently found a journal article on my computer (which I have no memory of ever downloading, funnily enough) called "The Mundanity of Excellence". The author followed a bunch of competitive swimmers around for several years at various different levels of achievement (from casual youth teams to high school Nationals teams to the US Olympic team) and tried to figure out what determined how well people did - how fast they swam, the level of competitions they won, etc. They discounted "natural talent" as a thing and weren't interested in Phelps-level genetic advantages and instead looked at what people actually did, day-in and day-out. Their argument was that past a certain baseline, it wasn't down to time spent in the pool/gym. Everyone past a certain amateur level spent a roughly equivalent amount of time per week practising. Instead, it was what they did with that time - their competitive attitude in practice, their adherence to pre-race rituals, their attention to a perfect turn-around even in warmups, etc. A qualitative change in their practice was what made them "excellent" and it was largely down to a constant stream of low-level decisions that weren't individually difficult but nevertheless required focus and care. That was in contrast to the public perception of a quantitative cause where you just had to spend every waking minute practicing and that was what made you "excellent". That or it was just something you were born with. I've been thinking about that a lot and this tweet brought it right back up.
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Jul 17, 2023 15:42
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Tesseraction posted:Once again I'm in awe at how much Mookie loving disrespects his audience and our limited time on this boiling rock. Just contempt for the idea of entertaining us lowly peons because he wants to do his lovely dwarf comic and this is just getting in the way. I have a degree of respect for a creator who realises that they've run out of passion on their current project and wants to wrap it up, accelerating the ending so that there's a definitive ending (even if it's a bit rushed) rather than just abandoning it unfinished. But not like this.
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Jul 18, 2023 09:42
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Mx. posted:This motherfucker
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Sep 25, 2023 18:52
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On the one hand, I can't believe this. On the other hand, this was never going to end any other way, was it?
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Oct 4, 2023 12:10
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Samovar posted:Maybe this is me being a pedantic bitch (why else would I be on these forums?) but the guy's ear migrating up his head really stuck out to me. Oh if we're being pedantic (which I'm all for at this point) it bothers me that the last two panels don't share an eyeline (I forget the technical term). There's no clear zoom in so the same character just looks like they've grown several inches between panels. Hell, with the clouds lining up between panels it looks more like two distinct people; his older brother with a map, stood next to him. It just feels low effort, which isn't a good sign for page 1.
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Nov 6, 2023 11:47
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Something about this new character design in this art style reminded me of that one furry comic from several years ago.
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Nov 10, 2023 19:01
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Caphi posted:Anyway we already know it has nothing to do with taking a creature's life because Snout likes orc plantmeat. I mean, maybe, but on the other hand "eating plants = vegetarian = good" with no thoughts to the implications of sentient plantlife on that equation seems perfectly in line with "likes books = good person = anything they do is moral". Any of the various lenses you can view vegetarianism through, like the ones you mentioned, would be potentially interesting ways to explore a little bit more of the protagonist's character. I guarantee that's not going to happen.
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Nov 29, 2023 19:11
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My guess is within 2 strips at most, the backer character is going to pour a flask of goo over a tray of sausages and cartoon t-bones and turn it into broccoli. After that it's 50/50 whether snout 2.0 gets to tuck in and then wander off to spend the night at the first hotel he sees, or gets chased out of the meat palace by all the jocks, a sausage link hurled after him for "comic" effect.
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Nov 29, 2023 21:49
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"Remember, magic doesn't work here." "But maybe it will work for me. Oh look, it worked!" Thrilling 
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Dec 15, 2023 11:28
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Please do not let the resolution to this be "actually I'm 1/64th Mongrelfolk". On a more positive note, thanks for the jazz recommendations!
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Dec 19, 2023 12:00
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I am not looking forward to Mookie trying to unpack the intersection of "women who choose to present in a non-traditional way" and "women who are unable to present in a traditional way in the first place".
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Jan 8, 2024 16:24
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Yeah,quote:Is there a law against shaving? quote:There are laws like that in Kadaz. Women aren't allowed to do a lot of things there. Which makes the heavy implication that "Rebel" can't even grow a beard to begin with even stupider. You've automatically removed what seems like a pivotal choice from your protagonist, leaving them shorn (  ) of agency.Oh god, is this Mookie's weird views on heroes/villains and birth right/effort cropping up again? Rebel is the hero of the story so she doesn't have to try or do anything; the world just reacts to her. Would having her be capable of growing a beard but actively shaving it be villainously active? 
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Jan 8, 2024 23:06
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Even setting aside the content, this is such a bizarre choice in terms of focus/pacing. You start page 1 with an info dump in the protagonist's past but hey, at least it's a conversation between two characters. Then you end page 1 with the protagonist in the present, looking at what is presumably the key location. Great, fine - a bit clunky but we're getting right into the action. Then page 2 is immediately another exposition dump, only this time out of character and framed as a flashback to a previous conversation, yanking you out of the present action and killing what little momentum had started to grow. It's so jarring.
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Jan 10, 2024 11:53
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The pacing is so weird. The random flashback in panel 3 sure doesn't help but you've also got panel 1: the guards' unattributed speech bubbles while the camera and protagonist are nowhere near the guards or the gate. It's like he was purposefully rushing to get to the final panel so he can deflate any conflict or tension established so far. And I get that it's supposed to be the big pre-weekend cliffhanger: all of rebel's preconceptions are (tentatively) shattered! But it doesn't work because we still don't know what rebel actually wants to do beyond a vague, implied "freak out the squares".
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Jan 12, 2024 12:23
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Invisible Clergy posted:They can shapeshift anything except a beard. If only they had some way around this limitation.  In all seriousness, I'm glad other people picked up on the "why would women specifically want to shave/be forbidden from shaving if beards aren't gendered for dwarves" thing. It was rattling around my head for a while but I couldn't figure out a good way to express it. Obviously gendered beauty standards can be lopsided and hypocritical but I do not trust this comic to deal with that.
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Jan 18, 2024 21:35
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catlord posted:
To anyone thinking this: yes, you absolutely should. The only bad thing about Dungeon Meshi is the English name for the series. I started typing up a long post that got too into the weeds but boiled down to this: both DM and the original Oracle For Hire start with a pretty cliché fantasy world but DM actually takes the time and care to explore what that world would look like at a very practical level whereas OfH ends up with Dave the Elected Wizard King. It's world building done right versus "alliteration makes fireball go boom". It's heart versus "heh, I wonder how many puns I can cram into this".
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Jan 25, 2024 22:46
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quote:That she was exiled instead of executed was a miracle. So you've established that she should have been executed and just ... wasn't. Really undermines the severity of the state. Why not go with her escaping and being smuggled out? That could have been a great lead in to the halflings who smuggled Rebel in. Or have her fake her death, swap out for a body double, etc. ... any number of reasons why she then has to lay low on the outside, in case the discovery that she's still alive kicks up trouble for the resistance still inside the city. It just reeks of "Somehow, Palpatine has returned" energy. Also, to reiterate the longest running theme, Hero Mom of the Resistance isn't described as having done anything to escape the city. She was exiled. She didn't act, she was acted upon. I know we've covered Mookie's "I like to be surprised" approach to writing and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that sort of discovery writing but come on. The problem here isn't a lack of a plan, it's a lack of any editing after the fact. This would have been perfectly fine as a first draft.
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Jan 26, 2024 15:03
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Rotten Red Rod posted:aaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH "Deny me again and the price goes down" buddy you haven't set a price We need to send you in undercover! You'll want to draw as little attention as possible, just another faceless serving staff! No you can't wear that fake beard that would have prevented 2, possibly 3 of the 3 memorable interactions with you, I need you harassed! drat it, Mookie.
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Jan 31, 2024 11:09
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Oh good, the Nice Guy arrived. How is each new page such a fresh horror?
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Feb 2, 2024 13:18
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In theory, I have nothing against a softboi himbo being introduced. Hell, it could be a perfectly fine setup for looking at how "softer" misogyny can be just as damaging to women's rights and how being nice isn't the same as being good or fair. There could be worse outcomes than Rebel eventually realising "yeah your aunt's an rear end in a top hat but she put in the effort and achieved something tangible instead of just saying those jocks shouldn't use slurs". Lmao if you think we're going to see anything like that, though. Edit: I will say that so far this has evoked more emotional response in me than the entirety of Snout, it's just that the response has been one extended "uuuuggghhh". Staggy fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Feb 2, 2024 |
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Feb 2, 2024 18:55
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The thing that's throwing me off the most is the idea that she's been here for one week because that is so poorly conveyed. There's been nothing that I can remember to indicate any passage of time - it feels like everything bar the flashback has taken place on the same day. After that, the degree to which the world is warping itself around the main character just because she's the main character is incredibly jarring. Oh, you've been here a week and are now calling for more extreme action? That's nice, officer. Also I think the tuning fork sword looks dumb but whatever. Staggy fucked around with this message at 14:23 on Feb 12, 2024 |
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Feb 12, 2024 12:12
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How is this approaching the end? What's actually happened? What does Rebel(*) want? I don't want years of this story but nothing about any of the pacing so far suggests this was originally supposed to be so short. (*) I realised as I was writing this that I genuinely thought the lead dwarf's name was Rebel. I don't know how I came to this conclusion; I don't know what her name actually is; I don't want to know. In one ear, out the other. Cloacamazing! posted:If the live action movie duology didn't do it, nothing will. The copy of A Wizard Of Earthsea I had growing up had a cover where only one character (technically) escaped this.  Fister Roboto posted:What if the child in Omelas just had bad vibes? Reminds me of the recent short story Why Don't We Just Kill The Kid In The Omelas Hole.
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Feb 20, 2024 22:47
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 18:38 |
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Ague Proof posted:Dominic made it so that magic is egalitarian and not bloodline based. This is so frustrating because in the hands of someone actually interested in telling a story, this would be a great hook. Magic has been democratised! For centuries, it has only been available to powerful families who have used it to accrue power. It's a birthright; it's a literal power held over others; it's a mark of exclusivity and prestige. Now, anyone can do it. What happens then? What happens when ancient dynasties have their powerbase, the literal divine indicator of their superiority, taken from them? How do they try and hold onto power? What sort of political divisions appear? What sort of violence because how does that not lead to violence? And what does it even mean that everyone can "do" magic? In the real world, just about anyone can learn to play the piano but it's a hell of a lot easier when you have a supportive family, free time and resources at an early age. We've seen here that Rebel has literally been handed the means to her magic by her family, who appear to be a pre-change dynasty. How is that just glossed over? And then there are trogs. Either this was a random world building idea that Mookie wanted to cram in without regard to the story or he started with "not having a beard is taboo" and for some reason thought he needed to work backwards to justify this. Going by the most recent strip's random digression to dwarf-elf hybrids, I honestly couldn't say which. It's bizarre.
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Mar 1, 2024 15:50
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