4/30/12 Ham-fisted, even for Mookie

[Ashitaka1110]

http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2012-04-30

I mean, are you kidding me? Literally within three panels, "OMG she's dead...cough cough...OH EM GEE NO SHE ISN'T HEAL....YAY I'M ALIVE AND COMPLETELY UNHARMED!"

Any other "author" and I'd say this was a joke or terrible parody, but...he's actually serious with this...

[detrius]

Also, frustrated screaming in magikspace revives tertiary characters even if a fully-fledged priestess with healing powers can't do shit to save them.

[Kian]

Oh man, this is hilarious. I was surprised that Mookie had chosen to kill her for all of three seconds. Then she turns out to be alive. Which makes me wonder, how did Jayden decide she was dead? Did she even try to use her magic before declaring her death?

This does open the door to an alternate interpretation where Jayden knew how Katya felt and didn't like the competition, so she planned on letting her die. Then Katya coughed, making it obvious that she was still alive, and Jayden had to back out of the plan. "Oh, she's alive. Apparently I'm just the worst healer ever. Guess I can save her. Yay."

[Arancaytar]

Which makes me wonder, how did Jayden decide she was dead? Did she even try to use her magic before declaring her death?

Is she moving? Alive. No? Dead.

I guess learning healing magic doesn't involve much medical training...

[Reaver225]

50 seconds paintwise

[TerminusEst13]

Mookie's newsbox physically pains me.

Would it have been more dramatic if Katya had died? There's no denying it would have been sad, but I think Katya being put in a similar situation to Nimmel... not knowing the fate of her best friend... is equally dramatic and sad.

Except that she's going to know the fate when you inevitably pull him out. You are going to reverse this and revert it and everything is going to be fine. Do not pretend that it won't be. Do not pretend that. That, and she can not know and THEN die.

Besides, I think dramatic tension can be built without a body count.

It can. You are not good at this, and telling us this further cheapens the experience. What reason do we have to fear any threat you show us when we know that you are against characters dying? What reason do we have to fear any possible danger when we know that the core component of danger, "I could be hurt/killed by this!", is rendered non-existent because you don't like building up body counts?

My wife recently said to me, "Things are moving pretty quickly here." I'm glad she noticed. The speed of Alduraithel's attack and the lack of a full explanation were deliberate choices. We spent the first few months of 2012 watching Stunt and Jayden walk around and talk to one another with many dramatic pauses. Now we're out of the wasteland and things are picking up speed. Two archmagi have made their moves and they're not going to bother explaining themselves too much. Here's hoping our heroes can keep up.

This makes me grind my teeth a little. Mookie is reaching around, grasping and grabbing at storytelling techniques and ALMOST had a hand on decent one, and I ALMOST want to just pinch my nose and say "Well, you tried, dude".
Pacing is very, very important in trying to tell a story, and length is a very, very important part in trying to tell a story, and different parts of the story are going to have different paces--but it's always important to see WHAT part of the story should have a slow pace and what part should have a fast pace. A gigantic beast that you've been building up and was supposed to have stomped the heroes? Not a good time to move at a lightning fast pace. When he gets killed in three strips, that's not "picking up speed", that's just an extreme letdown. You're fond of over-the-top crazy nonsensical fights, now was the best time to show it. Likewise, people wandering around in a desert looking for a metaphorical death? Not a good time to move at a snail's pace--while no character's backstory should just get glossed over, you an easily tell twice the content in half the time and still leave people hungry for more.
The current result is that you have very little focus on the bad guys being bad and furthering the plot, and a LOT of focus on your characters bitching and being bitchy bitches who bitch at other bitches, expecting us to feel sorry for them. Stop trying to make us like your characters.

Gah. I wrote too much that he'll never read, anyway.

[SLTE]

sigh

[LordGolbez]

Well, I thought the "cliffhanger" last week counted as the fake out that she could be dead. I didn't really expect another fake out in the middle of this strip. Was that just to annoy people who want to see him kill off a character or just to fill out some extra panels?

[PantherScott]

Both. Now Katya is going to search for Nimmel and in the process fall in love with him based off of past experiences and not anything that can be further done. Thus getting the only obstacle between Milov and Jayden. Therefore everyone get's a happy ending.

See Mookie, one can build dramatic tension without a body count, but when people are figuring out what you're doing before you do it, there is no dramatic tension. We all know you hate killing characters, we all know you like neat and clean endings and figure it out. When people know what you're going to do you can't build drama.

[bahamutkod]

"Where's my BEST FRIEND?!"

This is a pathology. The "nice guy", the "best friend"... stupid romantic comedy pap where someone "friend-zoned" is suddenly loved all to pieces by a girl. Mookie touts this idea like it's this chump's birthright to own this girl. That clunky line just makes me wretch, knowing full well that he emphasized it as though to say "See? SEE?! They're best friends and more can grow out of that!"

Let's not forget that Nimmel was reading a book on what Katya is that appears to have a title as condescending and insulting as "Understanding People With The Downs." Great best friend who's secretly in love, right there.

[daveshan]

Knock knock.

Who's there?

A character that Mookie made is dying.

*Sigh* Dude, you tell this one once almost every three weeks and it always-.

JUST KIDDING!

[Juhn]

Mookie's newsbox physically pains me.

You missed the bit where he acknowledges that he does this all the fucking time.

Katya joins the ranks of other characters who have come back from the brink of death. Luna, Szark, and Stunt have all skirted the edge of eternity. They've all returned with a bit of help from their friends.

He knows we expect nobody to ever die due to similar bullshit, so none of us give a shit.

But he thinks it's equally dramatic, and who are we to disagree?

Oh wait, his audience.

[LordGolbez]

I'd also like to disagree with another point in his news post. He says there's no denying it would be sad if Katya died. I think there's plenty denying it. I guess there's no denying it would be sad for Milov, Nimmel, and Mookie (and two of those are characters so they're only sad because Mookie says so, which I suppose is why practically Mookie's whole cast would be sad even though most have no reason to be). I think everyone else's response would basically be "who?"

[PantherScott]

We'd ask who, and then wait for her to rise from the grave perfectly well in 3 days. And after we got proof that it would stick we would celebrate. There would be no aww that's sad.