The Legacy of Dominic Deegan II: Don't Be Clothed-Minded!

[Neoriceisgood]

ATTACK OF THE ARCHMAGI

King David & The Beast have somehow corrupted and brainwashed all the archmagi except for Miranda (not sure how she avoided it?) and are now planning a counter attack to our heroes, as it’s now public knowledge they’re trying to turn against the king.

Various people are brutally murdered including the masters family (the parents at least), the two battlecasters at the Lunarian church die as the church gets demolished and, as the zombified archmages attack alongside the infernomancer, Bumper gets killed in an absolutely brutal way, first losing his hands and then having his heart pierced.

Hey there’s also a Snowsong cameo … that’s … something! Hi Snowsong!

We also get the whole “THE FACE OF GOD IS THE HEART OF MAGIC” … thing, I know it’s meant to be cryptic but it sounds just totally silly to me, haha.
While all this happens Miranda gets in a weird fake-fight with King David that ends in a stalemate.
This arc is weird, there’s not a whole lot of to describe as it’s a lot of action but … man. King David & The Beast almost but not entirely succeeding in converting all the arch-mages into their minions actually makes them feel really frightening, but then the archmages are kinda weakened, trying to resist & basically all killed in this conflict.
I know the loss of Bumper is kind of a big deal, he was a nice & friendly character but if we really look at it …
Losses on DD’s side: An ex-thief without any major skills + the masters parents who we’ve only known shortly and … two heavily injured battlecasters.

David-kun’s losses: literally all of his powerful archmage slaves.

Although this is clearly meant to be an Empire Strikes Back style “low point” for the heroes, including a major character death, it also feels a bit odd when at the end of it the bad guy’s side suffered significantly larger tactical losses.

The biggest “loss” on the side of the heroes is probably the sacred treasure, though … I don’t know enough about what it does to really feel emotionally bad about that.

I wouldn’t necessarily call this arc bad, and it’s weird to say this considering one of the oldest recurring characters got brutalized but … I totally get the complaints people have about the Beast & King David? This feels like it’s meant to be their victory, the moment the chips are down and I’m still not … that impressed.

The biggest reason they did the damage we saw was due to the infernomancer doing stuff he could’ve theoretically done all the way back in the Errosus arc (glove people to death violently) & some of the archmage zombies & battle casters doing a lot of damage, with the zombies now being out of the picture.
I don’t remember exactly what happens at this point in the story, but if this is as bad/low as it gets for the heroes … it’s not *that* bad.

I feel a bit ambivalent about Bumper’s death, like … his character arc sort of “completed” a while ago and his death here was extremely graphic and didn’t seem particularly poetic or meaningful, heck the infernomancer even managed to get the treasure Bumper was protecting.
I know that “sometimes people just die awful meaningless deaths” is a way to deal with character deaths in a story, (-tips fedora at Goblins-) but it does feel kinda odd that a character like Bumper is just randomly … dead now. I guess I’m supposed to feel somewhat emotional about him dying in Stunt’s arms but … I don’t.

Maybe if Stunt and Bumper had a little moment to reconnect before everything went to absolute hell it would’ve landed better, but now it kinda feels like Mookie moved his narrative chess pieces in such a way that Bumper would die exactly in the right spot to fall in Stunt’s arms. Eh, it’s not criminally bad writing but it almost felt a bit random and rushed?


THROUGH THE TEMPEST

More Nimmel fun, I kinda forgot he kinda became a bit of a protagonist in his own right for this comic. Anyway we run into The Klo-Thark-race guys … or THE ELD. Hm… Actually that’s a good name, I like it! I never liked Klo Tark much but the name sounds right & kinda cool, good job Mookie.
We find out Katya is an oracle of sorts as she can still hear Nimmel despite him being trapped in the plane of air, we have some more exposition on THE FACEBATH OF MAGIC and so on.
All in all a fine chapter, nothing amazing happened but I always did sort of wonder what exactly Klo Tark was.
THE MAD KING
We finally learn David’s full villain backstory, I actually find David himself a more interesting villain than the beast, who is just this Lovecraftian creature with a kinda generic angry and vengeful personality? The backstory’s … fine, it explains a few things like, if I understood it correctly, the beast being David’s eyes? That’s actually kind of a metal origin, I dig it.
Otherwise there’s not much to say about this chapter, a lot of the reveals are more “logistics” of how things we already knew came together, the only real twists we get here are more flavor-based ones in my mind. It does kinda explain -why- the beast has been so weak & why previously the beast wasn’t even on the radar of team DD.

I don’t mind this chapter existing but I can’t say it had any like “OH WOW THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING” twists.

ALLIES FALL, POWERS GAINED, WANDERERS FOUND

I … I really hate the name of this chapter! LOL, It feels like a bad summary of what happens instead of an actual name.
The team decides to take a final stand against David as he uses Rillian’s necromantic powers to level a terrible attack on the Lunian church, heavily injuring Milov & Jayden in the process. During this process we discover the dragon has been nearly killed, that THE CONDUCTOR has been corrupted/enchanted somehow (it’s a bit unclear to me what the deal with him is) and that David has been picking off potential allies left and right without the main cast noticing.

Dominic surrenders himself to David to stop the attack and tells him he could lead him to the heart of magic now that Celesto is once again missing, saving Jacon, Jayden and Milov from dying, but in doing so he does surrender himself to David’s torment.

Everyone who is battle-ready and willing decides to join up to try and rescue Dom, splitting into basically three parties:
1. Dom’s students and Nimmel who try to help the eld get out of the plane they’re stuck in.
2. Team Miranda/Luna/Co who launch a full-frontal attack on David
3. Team Donovan/Stunt/Quilt who use a secret entrance to try and rescue Dominic.


So here’s a rare moment I’ll give Mookie art credit! The corrupted sanctum that Dom’s kept prison in actually looks sufficiently creepy and honestly …not badly drawn?
I can’t think of many moments in DD where I actually -liked- the art, but the disgusting oozing and fleshy walls of the sanctum being visible in the corners and behind characters really give the vibe of them being in a disgusting corrupted place.
Back in the day one issue I’ve often had with DD beyond snout-face and some other art issues, is that the backgrounds were often barely ever drawn & in many cases really plain and uninteresting (see: how Maltak & Hell, two of the prime locations in the story, are just big wastelands). And even if they were interesting in concept, they weren’t that well drawn (around the world).

I’m not talking about high arts still but the relative sense of location is made pretty apparent despite Mookie juggling several conflicts in various places at the same time here & in following chapters. Not bad.

We are definitely reaching a point where I can’t quite argue the chapters are entirely disconnected again though, each chapter is now fully part of this big final arc & only designed as set up for the next storyline. I would say that starting with “Attack of the Archmagi” we’re fully in an age of DD where all the chapters fairly seamlessly connect into a clear multifaceted story arc that leads into the “epic conclusion” of the comic.

Interlude: CELESTO RECOVERS

.. this one’s … fine? It’s just 5 panels showing Celesto and Bort, it does make it clear he’ll somehow feature in the final conflict, which isn’t surprising.
RETALIATION
As David’s attack continues and he uses Rillian’s magic to shoot these massive necromantic blasts to try and destroy Maltak & other parts of the world, our heroes fight desperately to stop it.
On the outside Jacob does his best to apply his knowledge from Maltak to disarm the bombs & in helping disarm one Luna gets uh … flung all the way to Maltak? Again, I wish Mookie provided us with a map cause I have no idea how far that is.

The biggest thing here is that in their fight with the Infernomancer, as Stunt escapes we see Quilt sacrificing himself to kill the infernomancer by killing Rillian & letting his necromantic corruption overtake them both. It makes sense that someone as hard to kill as the Infernomancer goes down through Rillian’s influence.
Quilt dies with a smile having avenged his friend & we see the infernomancer back in hell with … I was gonna say Karnak but that kinda looks like a generic demon, the horns feel wrong (okay after quickly checking Court of Karnak, he ended up with a single horn in the middle at the end of that! Uhm okay.)

I kinda feel the Bumper death was literally designed to have this “you killed my Bumper, prepare to die” encounter, which is … fine? But I’ve always felt the Infernomancer a pretty bland villain so I can’t say that “finally” seeing him die is that impactful when he felt like a pretty typical griever character.

MINDBREAK
As everyone is desperately fighting David & the Beast who seem incredibly difficult to kill by convential means, we discover Dom is stuck in his own mindscape trying to fight his own mind-self who is teetering on the verge of a mind break, simultaneously we learn that the Eld’s society was once destroyed by a mind break, which is where the obscure knowledge came from that Prento discovered back in the day. That’s kinda neat, that’s the type of world building that makes total sense and feels decently foreshadowed, I like the way Mookie went full circle with that.

As Dom is struggling to figure out where to draw the line between protecting himself & not exploding the world around him, we get some exposition with Rillian (now in his chubby human ghost form), the prophet Luana etc.
The eld & dom’s students can contact him through the various psychoplanes and help Dom snap out of his mindbreak for long enough that he can organize a plan, which is to effectively ensnare the beast in the Elemecca and have his mindbreak take both of them down together while they’re there.
Although it initially seems Dom’s plan fails, it turns out this is where Bort took Celesto & at just the right time Celesto comes to even the odds.
With their help and a bit of scrying help from Luna they managed to subdue the beast long enough for Dom to try and destroy it, Rillian/Luana try to shield Dom from the blast, but the Beast hid inside Dom to survive. The beast steals his vision/powers and becomes a strange evil copy of Dominic in the process.





THE FINAL VISION

At this point Celesto uses his corrupting/explodey powers on him, clearly considering taking down Dom too, but he reconsiders and actually properly saves the day without collateral damage for a change! Yay Celesto, took you long enough to do the right thing.

Naturally Celesto immediately gets punished for his good dead as the beast manages to grab a hold of him and pull him down into the Elemecca, at this point Celesto EXPLODES IN PURE CHAOTIC ENERGY to kill the beast together with himself proper. I don’t know … knowing Celesto I can imagine he somehow cheated death once again, dude’s built differently.

Either way as far as we know this is the last we’ll ever see of Celesto Morgan, the comic’s true protagonist.

After this Dom gets to actually “see” his final vision, the future King David feared. As Maltak rises in magic, Callan industrializes and discovers that technology is the way forward, we get a lot of flashes into the future of Dom’s surviving friends and family doing well and living the good live in the future.
Nimmel and Kayta, Luna, Jayden and Milov, Jacob, Pam, Greg & FACEBATH, Stunt & Szark + Husband. Also Dom’s parents of course.

We also see some multiverse shenanigans showing that all these planes of existence and the so-called face of god are just one of many, many magic constellations/galaxies out there. We conclude with Dom realizing that his second sight is gone forever. (I wonder, is Mookie a known fan of Fullmetal Alchemist? I’m seeing a lot of similarities in the conclusion?)


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So with that I’m almost at the very end, the only chapter I still have to review is the epilogue. I think when I’ll write down my review for that chapter I’ll also go into more concluding thoughts.

In rating these final chapters I’ll combine them all into one because they’re so intertwined I don’t think there’s much point in trying to rate them entirely separately.

If I have to say where I’d rank this final arc, I’d actually put it up relatively high. I know people really, really dislike how strong Miranda is, but considering King David, the Beast, an entire army of magic Battlecasters & the infernomancer were all enemies, I feel a character like Miranda (and her allies) worked well in keeping the King’s forces at bay whilst most of the mainstay characters focused on the stuff that resonates more with readers, e.g., trying to save Dominic.

Whilst I don’t think DD has improved in shocking ways over the years, I can definitely tell with these latter arcs that everything feels significantly more deliberate, and foreshadowing compared to story arcs like Storm of Souls. When I was reading day-by-day I looked at many early arcs with very rose-tinted glasses & I had a hard time enjoying/appreciating arcs post all-time-lows like the weird Melna rape stuff & whatever the hell Mookie did with Siegfried’s entire storyline, but if I don’t let those ruin future content for me I’ll have to admit that most of my fav arcs, or at least the ones I found best constructed, are found further on in DD’s lifespan.

I still much prefer the smaller more emotionally resonant arcs over the conclusion, I definitely don’t think it was super bad & the beast + king David did feel threatening to some degree, I do feel where this final arc kinda suffers for me is that it falls more in that “everyone gets to show up for one final hurrah”-type of climax writing rather than giving characters a very strong emotional resolution that naturally fits the characters (Jacob might be the exception).

This is e.g. a thing that feels weird with Quilt. On paper his death scene was “fine”, but it didn’t necessarily feel to me like it tied into any existing arc beyond “he liked Bumper”.

Anyway rating arcs by number can be pretty difficult & I feel if I read it all -again- I might push some around, but on a whim I’d say this is my final view of each major arc:

Anyway arc ranking:
1. To Thief or not to Thief
2. The Search for Celesto
3. Visions of Doom
4. Walk the Wild Edge
5. March Across Maltak
6. Battle for Barthis
7. King David & The Beast/Conclusion
8. Altered States
9. Just Deserts
10. Hello Nurse!
11. Storm of Souls
12. Ecstasy and Evil
13. Around the World
14. Class Action
15. The Court of Karnak
16. The Oracle Hunter
17. War in Hell
18. Be your own Bard
19. Shadow of Siegfried
20. Opening chapters
21. Face to Facebath
22. Snowsong


I'll have to think a little bit about how I'll structure my final thoughts after the re-read, beyond giving my overal thoughts I also wanted to think a bit about what I like most about Mookie's comic & writing and what parts I dislike the most.
I think I'll also try to think a little bit about how I'd rewrite or restructure this comic if I were tasked to basically make largely the same comic with the same cast myself. Just cause it's a fun exercise to not just complain, but also to really think about how to fix the things I dislike & turn them into something good.

In a way I am glad to read that a lot of the arcs I skipped were actually pretty good. Mookie wrote regular updates for years, and he never had an editor to improve his work. Good for him for making something better than I remember.
I am curious what you write about the final arcs because I remember not enjoying them, but I may let the comic’s flaws overshadow the actual work.

Yeah, I will say I am intentionally turning off cynicism for this & giving Mookie the benefit of the doubt in a few places.
I'm reading this comic to try and enjoy it, not to ridicule or hate it. This means that the only things I'll actively complain about are those that
are annoying me so much I really can't enjoy it.

I think a big issue DD has is that it did a few things so fundamentally WEIRD or BAD, that it made people resent the work as a whole, even if the content that came after wasn't that offensive by a long mile.