The Legacy of Dominic Deegan: The Unending Snark

[random11]

I can think of three options here:

1) Mookie recognized his flaw and based this comic on it.
So Snout has a super-power based on coincidences that he just isn't aware of since he never had anyone to compare what normal life is.
Both the ink witch and orc dong recognized it and are using Snout for their own goals.

2) We keep forgetting, but for Mookie the main part is DD and not Snout.
Snout is not really a protagonist as much as he is a plot device leading to facts about DD.
Everything else is typical to previous comics, where he fully uses the excuse of "the wild zone"

3) Mookie actually thinks this is funny, and is basing the entire comic on the "Bort sending a letter" from WAY back.

No, I don't think any of these options is actually good.

Also, who builds a magic portal in the only place in the world where magic does not function normally?

[Kantaki]

Also, who builds a magic portal in the only place in the world where magic does not function normally?

That part almost makes sense, assuming it's supposed to be secret and/or hidden.
It's the last place anyone would look for it.

Edit:
New comic

You know, I wasn't even expecting the password to be a mayor problem, Snout not traveling alone and all.
But this? Really?
The "Gate"- And it's a massive stretch calling a random circle of pebbles a Gate* -might as well have been active already for all it mattered.
The relevant journal page randomly landing inside the circle when Snout fell would've been less dumb.
At least it could've saved some space.

*I'm actually impressed Snout knew this was what the Ink witch meant. I would've walked past the stupid thing.
Probably after kicking some stones away for making me stumble.

[random11]

I actually prefer it that way.
Even with a companion, there is no way to speak the password since he can't teach her how to pronounce the letters.

So it was either going to be a solution that falls from the sky, or a problem that never existed in the first place.
Might as well treat it like any other "one panel obstacle".


In any other circumstances I'd be 100% sure it's a trap.
Both the witch and the orc were just as clueless as he was regarding what to do next.
Then the get captured, contact him without letting him know where or how they are, managed to find the next clue in less than a week, and it just happened to be ~2 days walking from where Snout was?

The only thing that makes it normal is that it fits the bad writing of this being the normal human behavior.

[Vinyadan]

Looking at Snowsong in colour, she looks a lot like a proto-Danica, although it's a pretty common costume:

Spoiler

Show

Edit: I think it's interesting how whoever did the shading managed to carve a face for Greg. You can see that the shadows don't follow Mookie's lines.

[random11]

And so it continues

Whatever "it" is.

I'll give it a chance, but I'll just say it's very considerate of them to do a visual act instead of anything based on sound.

[Traab]

And so it continues

Whatever "it" is.

I'll give it a chance, but I'll just say it's very considerate of them to do a visual act instead of anything based on sound.

I still say it would have been so interesting had this comic been run in such a way that both snout and we would miss a lot of stuff due to not being able to hear, then after the story is over, we get the comic again, this time with speech bubbles that let us know how much harder his adventures were because he couldnt hear what was being said around him. As just one example, the plant lady here, if she is able to speak rather than incoherent screaming, a lot of the mystery might be resolved already with that. So in the followup comic series we actually get to learn the details of what was going on there while she was ranting at him, at the scary dude she fought against at the house, etc Maybe even why she was so angry when she punched snout awhile ago. Imagine being confused by the end of the comic because we missed so much detail due to deafness only to have it explained by the followup version where we go, "OOOOH! So THATS why xyz happened! Dangit, its too bad snout wasnt able to hear the warning of the automated guardians." Or whatever.

[Celestia]

Dangit, its too bad snout wasnt able to hear the warning of the automated guardians." Or whatever.

"Please put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply."

[Traab]

"Please put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply."

Or the mass effect 3 style ending choice. He cant hear what will happen so he presses a button at random. "OH MY GOOOOOOOOOD!"

[random11]

I think there was a computer game with a deaf character that tried to do this exact thing. A second playthrough or a DLC with words.
Don't remember much, just that it wasn't good.

[Celestia]

Did the portal somehow warp the landscape, or did Snout actually trip over a ring of stones located at the top of a hill? If only the comic had better art, we may not have had these questions.

[Vinyadan]

I think he reached that famous scene atop the hill in Nightmare before Christmas.

[Kornaki]

I don't understand the last panel. Did they teleport? Are they done with the gate and moving on?

[Traab]

It looks like the ground is changing around them and opening up the path to wherever they are going. Or its just an excuse for mookie to draw more strange landscape rather than just give us a stargate to walk through.

[random11]

I'm glad I'm not the only one having problems understanding wtf is going on.

I think the ground shifted, and the weird path was created to the actual portal.

That means nothing happened in the two updates.
We started with them having to pass through a portal, and ended with the same thing, only difference is they need to walk a couple of more steps.

Edit:

Update

Is this before or after the gate?
It looks the same, but they are facing backwards and the squids appeared out of nowhere.

[random11]

Update

All right, I officially give up understanding anything from the art.
The twirly 180 degree gate is just gone, and regardless of which direction they came from, you have to be blind not to see this in 1 second after reaching the place.

[Kantaki]

I'd guess that writing down the password triggered the summoning of... that thing.
Oh, and reshaped the landscape.

[random11]

I just don't know anymore.

First I thought they passed through the gate and already are in a different realm since they were walking away from the gate and the squids appeared out of nowhere so it looked like a different area.

Now the point of reference (the gate) is just gone, and it looks like it's still just a terrain change and all the recent updates are just them walking up the slope, but if that's the case, how the hell did this huge thing appear out of nowhere without Snout noticing?

[Celestia]

Clearly, this is some sort of mindscape formed from the minds of those who enter, hence the giant Snout. Either that, or Snout is some sort of prophesied chosen one that they made a statue of ages ago. I could really believe either.

[Traab]

Or its like grimmauld place in harry potter. Hidden until you have the key. Then boom, it expands into view. It was always there, just hidden by magic.

[Vinyadan]

I'm surprised at the obscured nudity.

[Traab]

And now we meet super celestial snout. Its alliteration without actually being the same letter! Thats EXTRA clever!

[random11]

It will be funny if after all the buildup the statue tries to speak to Snout, and all of this will result in no new information at all.

However, that is unlikely. If whatever it is predicted Snout will arrive, surely it also knew he is deaf.
Besides, speaking in written language is the norm of this world, isn't it?

[Silly Name]

You know, this whole sequence wouldn't be so bad, taken on its own. The pacing is pretty awful for a webcomic though, and it reeks of faux symbolism: I'll bet nothing of what we just saw means anything of substance, it's just trippy art for its own sake.

Which, again, in a vacuum it isn't necessarily bad.

[random11]

You know, this whole sequence wouldn't be so bad, taken on its own. The pacing is pretty awful for a webcomic though, and it reeks of faux symbolism: I'll bet nothing of what we just saw means anything of substance, it's just trippy art for its own sake.

Which, again, in a vacuum it isn't necessarily bad.

I think that every update on its own can be okay, but as a sequence it's bad and not just because of the pacing.
The minimal requirement of the art is to understand what's going on on.
I'm not expecting to know the significance of what I'm looking at, that can come later or even stay a mystery forever, I'm talking about the most basic stuff: Are they still in the wild zone or beyond the gate somewhere else? Which direction are they facing? Where is the gate? Where did the swirly black thing come from (Statue's pubes?)

[Celestia]

I have precisely zero understanding of the continuity between this page and the last. In fact, I know less for having read it. Not, like, less about the comic (but that's true, too). I'm pretty sure this page erased some of the knowledge inside my head.

[Kantaki]

I have precisely zero understanding of the continuity between this page and the last.

I'd extend that to the entire sequence actually.
The start with that weird ink-tentacle/root thingy appearing and this part, the weird thing flowing into Snout fit together pretty well, even if it tells me nothing.

Everything in-between? What is happening? How are things connected? Even the things that are recognizable from previous parts don't match.
Why is ground changing all the time?
Why did the giant Snout with the weird mask thing turn into a giant floating Snout head?
At this point I'm just gonna assume it's all hallucinations.

I mean, this kind of trippy sequence can be done well, Belkar's Mark of Justice induced fewer dream comes to mind, but this?
I still don't know how Snout knew that random circle was the gate. Much less what happened after he wrote down the password.
With most other comics I'd trust there's answers coming. Here? I expect that'll make it worse.

[Celestia]

I'd extend that to the entire sequence actually.
The start with that weird ink-tentacle/root thingy appearing and this part, the weird thing flowing into Snout fit together pretty well, even if it tells me nothing.

Everything in-between? What is happening? How are things connected? Even the things that are recognizable from previous parts don't match.
Why is ground changing all the time?
Why did the giant Snout with the weird mask thing turn into a giant floating Snout head?
At this point I'm just gonna assume it's all hallucinations.

I mean, this kind of trippy sequence can be done well, Belkar's Mark of Justice induced fewer dream comes to mind, but this?
I still don't know how Snout knew that random circle was the gate. Much less what happened after he wrote down the password.
With most other comics I'd trust there's answers coming. Here? I expect that'll make it worse.

Maybe when he tripped over the rock, he actually hit his head, and this is all just a coma dream? I know the coma theory is so infantile and overplayed that merely suggesting it is an insult to one's own intelligence, but I'm really scraping the bottom of the barrel here, and this is the best looking trash answer I can find.

[Vinyadan]

I think that the desire to draw something beautiful obliterated considerations for pacing and the amount of work needed to push the plot forward.

[Celestia]

I think that the desire to draw something beautiful* obliterated considerations for pacing and the amount of work needed to push the plot forward.

*Citation needed

[Vinyadan]

*Citation needed

That's what I think he desired. I don't really feel like judging what effectively came out.