The Legacy of Dominic Deegan: The Unending Snark

[Kantaki]

New comic

I don't think Sunflower appreciates being shown cut off plant naughty bits. Understandable.

[Vinyadan]

I found this lovely part of an old blogpost by the author of Goblins. It reminded of Snout's adventures.

- I once asked my Mom where babies come from. She told me "The man puts a seed inside the woman and that grows into a baby". That afternoon I stole a big box of sunflower seeds from our cupboard and went to the playground. I handed out sunflower seeds to all the girls to eat. I was excited about all the babies I was going to have.

[Silly Name]

One of the qualities of a good writer is to make the audience able to emphatise and identify with the characters.

In this sense, Mookie is doing a good job because, just like Snout, every time there's a new page I have no idea what the hell is going on.

[Celestia]

Sooo, Plant Man went through all that effort just to open the flower's petals?

[Traab]

Its hard to tell if there is more going on. We cant hear what anyone is saying. See? Brilliant usage of snouts infirmity to create tension! Mookie has done it again!

[Celestia]

Hooray! Another easy solution that no one had to work for!

[Gez]

Subject can be understood, unlike the comic

[Traab]

How I imagine the dialogue went here.

"Snout: /shows off flower he got from disintegrating dude

Flower boy "Omg its a translation tulip! Why didnt you TELL us you had one of these?! Ugh, Here, its getting old so I have to use my plant man powers to refresh it."

Snarky dude "Here crazy lady, eat this."

Crazy lady /nom "Omg, I can talk!"

Snarky dude "WOOT! We have language!"

Too bad snout is deaf so we didnt get to enjoy the dialogue directly, but at least its here now.

[Vinyadan]

That's a lot more forethought than I thought this comic had.

It also makes a worrisome amount of sense. "Listen, buddy, thanks for saving me, but I am done for. Give this to the woman. It will help her. As for me, it's time to die."

I'm not clear on what the Manflower did, however.

[Traab]

Its possible on a more serious note that this flower she ate was like, the last treatment for her body to bring it up to full specs including speech. A final genetic implant or whatever. We still dont know, and may soon find out, what the ever loving *&^%*&^% that entire arc was all about if her ability to talk means she can now tell us what was happening. And manflower may way have done what I jokingly said in my last post and boosted its effects, or refreshed them or whatever. Again, we might find out soon.

[Kantaki]

New comic

Wow. What a nice thing to say.
I mean, they're right, but still... rude.

[Celestia]

Damn! Plant Man is ruthless!

[Traab]

Dont worry, you have a great personality. /cringe I mean, I get that to catch snout up would involve a multi month at LEAST time skip as they teach him everything he needs to know, but still, ouch. I guess he is officially the good hearted tagalong who acts as the exposition catcher in the story as all the people in universe explain things to us him in a way that fits.

[Kantaki]

New comic

Scene change. Please.
I really don't need to see where is is going.

[Gez]

New comic

Scene change. Please.
I really don't need to see where is is going.

Wish granted! One finger curls up on the monkey's paw, and we're given another literal wall of text to tell about what we've already been shown.

[Neoriceisgood]

I'm morbidly curious as someone who read Dominic Deegan till the end (and also Star Power I guess);

How does this new Legacy of DD comic compare to the original one? I never made a habit out of reading it, am I missing much?

[Traab]

I'm morbidly curious as someone who read Dominic Deegan till the end (and also Star Power I guess);

How does this new Legacy of DD comic compare to the original one? I never made a habit out of reading it, am I missing much?

The original had more 4th wall breaking deadpan stares, terrible puns, mystery walls, and accidental/intentional body horror art. This one has more silent screaming matches. The original was way more fun to snark on.

[Celestia]

The original was way more fun to snark on.

Yep. This still isn't good, but it's usually not bad enough to really laugh at. It's typically just boring. The plot is dull. The characters are barely even one-dimensional. The art is just as bad as ever. (Seriously, how do you draw consistently for over ten years and not get any better? That just defies logic.) And there's just so little content that I can't even think of another complaint.

[Vinyadan]

This one also has quite a lot of nudity and naked people hugging and cuddling. Also accidental nudity and walking the streets naked.

[Traab]

Yep. This still isn't good, but it's usually not bad enough to really laugh at. It's typically just boring. The plot is dull. The characters are barely even one-dimensional. The art is just as bad as ever. (Seriously, how do you draw consistently for over ten years and not get any better? That just defies logic.) And there's just so little content that I can't even think of another complaint.

I dunno, I dont recall many impossible limbs appearing in this comic like used to happen constantly with DD. Maybe its just the style he likes to draw and the improvements is mainly the people being drawn like people instead of stretch armstrong gummi people. But yeah, primarily the story is boring. Lots of walking, being naked, and accomplishing very little, as an excuse to draw nude people and very random scenery. Just barely enough to get me reading the updates.

[Celestia]

I dunno, I dont recall many impossible limbs appearing in this comic like used to happen constantly with DD. Maybe its just the style he likes to draw and the improvements is mainly the people being drawn like people instead of stretch armstrong gummi people. But yeah, primarily the story is boring. Lots of walking, being naked, and accomplishing very little, as an excuse to draw nude people and very random scenery. Just barely enough to get me reading the updates.

I think the lack of weird limbs has more to do with the lack of action poses. People are just drawn standing, sitting, or walking.

[Silly Name]

Compared to the very earliest DD strips, Snout's Nudist Adventures does look better, to be honest.

The really weird thing is that if you compare Mookie's improvements with most other long-running webcomics*, his "improvement rate" is glacial. I strongly suspect he simply thinks his art is good enough and thus doesn't particularly strive towards making it better.

*there are also many stagnant webcomics that never got past crude/animesque art styles, to be fair

[Celestia]

Compared to the very earliest DD strips, Snout's Nudist Adventures does look better, to be honest.

The really weird thing is that if you compare Mookie's improvements with most other long-running webcomics*, his "improvement rate" is glacial.

*there are also many stagnant webcomics that never got past crude/animesque art styles, to be fair

He didn't really "improve" his style; he just gained more confidence with it. His lines are smoother, and his designs are more consistent, but that's about it. This does look better than the early strips, but it looks almost identical to the middle strips.

I strongly suspect he simply thinks his art is good enough and thus doesn't particularly strive towards making it better.

There's nothing to suspect. He outright stated as such. In one of his DD commentaries, he says that he tried to change his style but that Dominic and Luna looked too different, so he decided against it. And he hasn't attempted to improve his art ever since. This statement, by the way, is why I can never respect Mookie as an artist. If he was just bad, I could still appreciate the effort, but he actively chooses to be bad because he doesn't want to get better. That's inexcusable.

[Traab]

See the worst part about info dumps like this is, there really isnt a way to avoid them with this setup and I think thats actually a part of why mookie made the main POV character deaf. Because exposition dumps are easy ways to get all the info out you want in a couple updates rather than long drawn out more organic ways, and snout being deaf means this is the only option. "He" needs to read the info handed to him like a book.

[Celestia]

See the worst part about info dumps like this is, there really isnt a way to avoid them with this setup and I think thats actually a part of why mookie made the main POV character deaf. Because exposition dumps are easy ways to get all the info out you want in a couple updates rather than long drawn out more organic ways, and snout being deaf means this is the only option. "He" needs to read the info handed to him like a book.

The worst part is that I don't even understand half of it. He keeps throwing out made up words that were probably explained in the original DD, but that was so long ago I sure as hell can't remember them. It would be really nice if he redefined them for us. Wall'o'text exposition is bad enough, but wall'o'text exposition you can't understand is so much worse.

[Shogo]

I don't really understand the point of these vines making unstable clones.

I liked it better when it seemed like some malevolent intelligence approaching someone and falsely promising to restore a loved one in exchange for dubious services.

Instead that's just a thing this particular plant does. It creates physically and mentally unstable clones of dead people, and it has to kill other people to actually give life to said clones. And it gives off a special sound that lures in people to be used to jumpstart the clones . . . but also to function as caretakers of the vines.

Oh, and the vines hate Maltak's "essence".

Just seems you could have "creepy vines that can enslave people as caretakers/food" without any of the clone nonsense.

[Celestia]

I mean, **** Orc ain't wrong. There really is no good reason for Snout to be here, and there never has been. That's one of the biggest flaws of the entire story so far, and Mookie just unintentionally lampshaded it.

[halfeye]

I mean, **** Orc ain't wrong. There really is no good reason for Snout to be here, and there never has been. That's one of the biggest flaws of the entire story so far, and Mookie just unintentionally lampshaded it.

It doesn't seem to be unintentional, but I have no clue what it means either way.

[Silly Name]

It doesn't seem to be unintentional, but I have no clue what it means either way.

Obviously, since the guy delivering this harsh but logical proposal is a jerk, the "heroes" will prove him wrong by sheer force of will and decide that continuing to endanger Snout is the right thing to do.*

Also Snout will inevitably turn out to be the Chosen One or some bullcrap, vindicating his continued presence.

*although I suppose if Snout simply lived in Aragorn's tower with Vine Lady they shouldn't be in particular danger, but we all know that's not going to happen.

[Traab]

Obviously, since the guy delivering this harsh but logical proposal is a jerk, the "heroes" will prove him wrong by sheer force of will and decide that continuing to endanger Snout is the right thing to do.*

Also Snout will inevitably turn out to be the Chosen One or some bullcrap, vindicating his continued presence.

*although I suppose if Snout simply lived in Aragorn's tower with Vine Lady they shouldn't be in particular danger, but we all know that's not going to happen.

That second line, thats what its going to be. Snout is going to turn out to have some sort of vital importance. Perhaps his dream journeying, or his relation to Bort who in turn was a friend to DD means there is an exploitable link to tracking down the series of events they are researching. And I get the feeling jerk orc is actually trying to protect snout the best way he can, by being blunt and mean enough with reality to convince him to go home. Someone as stubborn as snout isnt going to hear, "Hey snout, I know you really want to be a part of this, but its pretty dangerous, so maybe you should go back home to where its safe." And actually do that. But say flat out, "You lack any ability to help on this mission, are a giant burden on resources and are going to die a horrible death, or even worse, cause someone ELSE to die a horrible death trying to protect you if we let you tag along. GO HOME!" And it might sink in.